Shrimp Tacos with Raw Brussels Sprout, Honey Crisp & Pomegranate Salad

Light meals are few and far between in the holiday season. Tomorrow morning we’re prepping a pork roast for an all day, slow cooked, glorious stew…light it is not. So, to balance the scale, we made shrimp tacos with a fruity salad. I’ve been wanting to try a raw Brussels sprout salad, so this was my chance.

How nifty that you can eat Brussels sprouts without cooking them? The tricks are to thinly slice the sprouts, cutting out the tough center, and dressing them at least 20 minutes before serving.

Brussels Sprouts, Honey Crisp & Pomegranate Salad

15 Brussels sprouts, bottoms removed and thinly sliced
1 Honey Crisp (or other sweet apple) thinly sliced
1/2 cup pomegranate arils

1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Combine sprouts with fruit in a large bowl. Stir all of the vinaigrette ingredients together in a small bowl, then drizzle over salad. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Shrimp Tacos with Spicy Yogurt Sauce

1/2 pound medium size shrimp, shells removed and deveined
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lime, juiced (divided)
dash cayenne
1 avocado, sliced
1 tomato, diced
6 small corn tortillas

2/3 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1/2 jalapeno, minced
1/4 cup cilantro, diced – plus extra as topping
1/2 lime, juiced
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
salt and pepper

In a medium bowl, combine ingredients for the yogurt sauce and chill until ready to top your tacos.

In a skillet, heat olive oil and add shrimp. Sprinkle shrimp with cayenne and lime juice while they cook. Once the shrimp turn pink, remove from heat (about 2-3 minutes).

In another skillet, brush tortillas with olive oil and heat until lightly brown. Top tortillas with shrimp, avocado, tomato, yogurt sauce and cilantro.

SK Popcorn Cookies

Home, sweet home in Portland for the holidays! Surprising to no one, I’ve eaten really well today. I’m not sure what other people do when they go home, but we like to spend our quality time in the kitchen. I bought the Smitten Kitchen cookbook for my mom’s birthday this year and it is the gift that keeps giving. Deb has some winners in this book, including these popcorn cookies.

A marriage of salty and sweet. Soft and crunchy. Not too rich and incredibly addictive. Make these for your family, friends, imaginary friends…just make them.

SK Popcorn Cookies

1 package microwave popcorn (or two snack size bags)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350. Pop popcorn, and set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugars, egg and vanilla until fluffy. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking soda. Incorporate flour mixture into sugar mixture, then fold in popcorn. Spoon tablespoon sized balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly brown. Remove and let cool on rack.

Homemade Ravioli (2 Versions)

I spent 90% of my Sunday battling a ball of dough (pasta and cookie) with my rolling pin. The other 10% I spent in the salon getting highlights - first time!! loving it! It was a day of firsts, in fact. This was technically my first attempt at making pasta (excluding gnocchi). If you have never attempted making pasta because you don’t have a pasta roller/machine, you should not let that hold you back. I had kissed my pasta making dreams goodbye when my Kitchen Aid showed up on my doorstep shattered into pieces after the cross-country trek. But the other morning I was reading on this blog how you can do it with your own bare hands – and highly developed triceps. (For ease and speed, you can always go the wonton wrapper route!)

Per the instructions, I created a well of flour, cracked the eggs into the center with oil and salt, and kneaded the dough for 5 minutes. Kneading alone will make you break a sweat. The texture of the dough reminded me of over-chewed Double Bubble gum – it was fighting back. Let it rest for 15 minutes, then cut in half and roll out. Each sheet should measure about 16” x 9” and be 1/8” thick. I’ll be honest and tell you that it isn’t easy to get the pasta dough rolled out, but it can be done!

Meanwhile, I prepared the sweet potato, ginger and sage filling. I scooped tablespoon sized portions of the filling onto the dough, then covered with other sheet and pressed firmly around each mound.

I found my stemless wine glass to be the perfect size ravioli cutter. I was able to get 15 ravioli from one batch of dough.

Once I tucked all of the sweet potato ravioli into Tupperware in the fridge, I turned around and made the second batch of pasta dough with shiitake, arugula and cheese filling.

To delineate between the two kinds, I made them square.

The leftover pasta became lunch. A little olive oil in a pan with garlic and fresh sage – YUM.

These two ravioli will be served for Monday night dinner, my new favorite day of the week.

Gingery Sweet Potato with Sage Ravioli Filling

2 sweet potatoes, baked or microwaved until soft
1 tablespoon fresh ground ginger
3 sage leaves, minced
1/2 – 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
dash cayenne
dash nutmeg

Mash sweet potato in a large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients and spoon 1 tablespoon-size balls onto pasta sheet or into wonton wrappers.

Shiitake, Arugula & Cheese Ravioli Filling

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup shallot, minced
1/4 pound shiitake mushrooms, diced
3 cups arugula
1/2 cup ricotta
4 ounces goat cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Add shallot and garlic, cook for 1 minute then add shiitake mushrooms. Once mushrooms soften, add arugula and cook until wilted. In a large bowl, combine cheeses and add arugula and mushroom mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon 1 tablespoon-size balls onto pasta sheet or into wonton wrappers. *Warning* You will want to eat this by the spoonful.

Salmon, Dill & Avocado Potato Salad

Another reason to move to CA. Exhibit A: Amazing avocados, only $0.89/ea.

Put that ‘ish in anything and everything. It was the shining star in this potato salad. I picked up the missing ingredients from a couple grocery stores on my walk home from work. Yep, walk home from work. It’s my new approach to working out. You kill multiple birds with one stone: grocery shopping, exercise, commuting. A 1.3 mile walk home is hardly a workout, you say? It is when you’re essentially rock climbing up the streets of San Francisco with a gym bag and groceries.

But enough patting myself on the back. This recipe is great. Easy, delicious and healthy. The cooking trifecta.

Salmon, Dill & Avocado Potato Salad

4 red potatoes
4 ounces smoked salmon, flaked
1/2 English cucumber, diced
1 avocado, diced
1 green onion, diced
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 cup cooked red quinoa
salt and pepper
dash cayenne

Arugula and additional lemon juice *optional

In a medium pot, boil red potatoes for 15-17 minutes or until tender. Dice potatoes into 1” chunks. In a large bowl, combine salmon, cucumber, avocado, potatoes and quinoa. In a small bowl, combine yogurt with lemon juice, green onion and dill. Add yogurt mixture to bowl with potato mixture and toss to coat. Salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with cayenne and extra dill. Serve over a bed of arugula or by itself.

Christmas Party Cookies

This might be the third time I’m posting on these cookies. These 4-ingredient wonders are worth it. They’re not the kind of thing you make just to “have around” unless you’re asking for 10 pounds and a muffin top for Christmas. But bring them to a holiday party, and you’ll leave with some new bffs.

Oreo Truffles

1 package Oreos
1 package cream cheese, softened
1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips
2-3 candy canes, shattered (a hammer works nicely)

In a food processor, blend Oreos until the consistency of sand. Dump mixture into a large bowl and add cream cheese. With your hands, blend Oreo mixture with cream cheese until a cohesive ball of dough is formed. Roll mixture into 1” balls and lay on cookie sheet. Stick balls into the freezer while you melt the chocolate in large bowl set over a pot of boiling water. When balls are chilled, remove from the freezer and one by one dip balls into the melted chocolate and place back on cookie sheet covered in wax paper, and sprinkle with crumbled candy cane. Repeat with remaining balls and store in the refrigerator.

I’m not going to lie to you - because that would be wrong - so I will tell you: these cookies are made from a boxed mix… which is also wrong. I frown upon that behavior (unless they’re Ghiradelli brownies!) but I was only trying to spend half of my Saturday in the kitchen, not all of it. The Trader Joe’s boxed sugar cookie mix is great in a pinch, and it comes with colored sanding sugar. I opted out of the reindeer and awkward Santa-shaped cookie cutters, and rolled my dough into a log. I rolled this Americanized Buche de Noel in the sanding sugar and sliced into cookies.

TJ also provides icing, however it is a runny mess. I mixed in a few tablespoons of powdered sugar and a drop of lemon juice (for flavor) to thicken the glaze. Once all of the cookies were glazed, I dropped food coloring onto the glaze and used a tooth pick to make Christmassy designs.

These cookies were very Sandra Lee of me, but the holidays are busy times! And people will like them – I swear.

Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Tomatoes & Goat Cheese

What to do on Friday night? Shopping spree at Trader Joes, cooking a delicious dinner, and plopping into bed to watch episodes of Breaking Bad at 7:45 - that’s what. When immersed in the season of holiday parties, white elephant gift exchanges, dinner parties and end-of-year installations (in my case at least), I am thrilled to have a night to decompress.

I, like the majority of the working world, like to unwind with a glass of wine a few minutes after walking in the door from work. It flips the switch from work-mode to chillin’ in a similar way that coffee turns me from zombie to human. A simple, grain-free appetizer I snacked on while waiting for my various vegetables to roast was a few plantain chips topped with Greek yogurt, smoked salmon and a dash of lemon pepper.

The rainbow of vegetables that came out of the oven were worth the wait. The secret to not waiting a million years for the spaghetti squash to cook is to microwave it for 5-6 minutes before popping it into the oven to finish off. I served this pasta-less pasta-like dish with a seasonal side of brussels sprouts and cranberries.

Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Tomatoes & Goat Cheese

1 medium spaghetti squash
2 tablespoons basil pesto
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1-2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Poke holes in the spaghetti squash, wrap in paper towel and microwave for 5-6 minutes. Meanwhile, toss tomatoes in olive oil and garlic and spread out on sheet pan lined with tin foil. Stick tomatoes and spaghetti squash in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until spaghetti squash is very soft. Remove from the oven and slice the squash in half and scrape flesh into a bowl. Stir in pesto and toss in tomatoes and goat cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Cranberries

1/2 pound brussels sprouts, quartered
1/2 cup fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Grease a baking sheet lined with tin foil. Toss brussels sprouts and cranberries in olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread on baking sheet and roast for 15-17 minutes, until brussels sprouts are starting to brown. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and serve.

And for dessert, a juicy pomegranate. I’ll advise against eating this while sitting on your white duvet cover. It’s bound to end in tragedy. Learn from my mistakes.

Butternut Squash, Apple & Bacon Mac & Cheese

This weekend has forced me to get out and see things. And do things. And stay up late. That’s the beauty of having friends visit you!

I think we covered the highlights: crossed the bridge, shopped in the marina, toured UC Berkeley and topped it off with a cheap manicure.

Of course I had to take the opportunity to cook something interesting, and this recipe definitely sounded interesting. A healthy meal at the end of an overall unhealthy weekend. Recipe from Pinch of Yum!

Butternut Squash, Apple & Bacon Mac & Cheese

½ box whole grain pasta
1 cup canned butternut squash puree
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons evaporated milk
¼ cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 oz low fat cream cheese or plain yogurt
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup onions, sliced thinly
1 large crispy apple, chopped
6 strips of bacon, crumbled

Heat butter in a skillet over low heat. When melted, add onions and let caramelize for at least 30 minutes for the best flavor. Keep heat on low/low-medium. Cook the pasta according to directions. Drain and return to pan over low heat. Add butternut squash, chicken broth, evaporated milk, and cream cheese. When combined, add in salt. Add onions and apples to the pasta. Stir to combine and add a tablespoon more broth or milk if needed. Just before serving, mix in cheese and stir until melted. Top each serving with 1 tablespoon bacon.