My local Sprouts Grocery had these fancy carrots on sale for 98cents a bag so I bought 3 bags of them. They were just roasted up with orange slices, orange zest, oil, a tiny bit of honey, and salt, pepper, and near the end I added pistachios. Serving size depends on the size serving that you desire……If you eat 4 carrots a serving then this will make around 8 servings.

Ingredient for around 8 servings

2+1/4 lb carrots (I had 3 – 12 ounce bags of fancy carrots that were washed and peeled)

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 oranges and zest

1/4 cup pistachios – slightly crushed

sea salt – to taste

black pepper – to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Grate the zest off of the cleaned oranges. Then remove the peel with a knife so you are removing the skin that is around the orange. Then slice it up. Repeat with the second orange.

Line the carrots on sheet pan(s).

Spray the carrots generously with olive oil. Add some sea salt and black pepper. Add the orange slices and zest. Spray again with oil.

Place on middle rack of preheated oven till soft….(about one hour and 15 minutes – one hour and a half).

Add pistachios and spray again with oil. The carrots will need 15-30 minutes more. You want them a little wrinkly and just slightly browned.

ENJOY!!!!!

My local Sprouts Grocery had great big bags of Green Beans and bags of kale for only 98cents so I picked up a bag of each. After I trimmed the green beans I put them in salted boiling water for three minutes. Then the green beans went in an ice bath. I tried one. It came out so perfect and so sweet that I didn’t feel the need to sauté them. SO…..I fried some capers and the kale. Serving size can differ. I don’t know if you want a small side or a bowl full. I’ll guesstimate around 8 servings.

Ingredients for around 8 servings

2 lbs. green beans – trimmed and boiled in salted water for three minutes and then optional ice bath (you do the ice bath if you want the vegetable to stay green but it gets cold.

12 oz. kale – chopped

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1-small bottle capers (mine was 3 oz.) – drained and pat dry

1/2 lemon – just the fresh juice

sea salt to taste

ground black pepper – to taste

Directions

On medium high heat add the oil to a medium sauce pan. fry the capers till some of them open (3-4 minutes) Remove the capers and add them to the green beans. Fry up the kale. Add some salt and pepper. Fry the kale till it’s wilted and add it to the green beans. Finish with lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!!!

This recipe is based on my original recipe that appeared on the front page of the food section of the Phoenix Arizona local paper picked by the food critic.

Today I had extra mini corn tortillas and ground turkey to use and that is how I came up with this recipe. For me this made 18 appetizer portions and I also made 9 extra plain meatballs for I had enough leftover for a dinner for two.

Ingredients for 18 appetizers

18 street sized corn tortillas

around 1/2 cup canola oil to soften the corn tortillas (you can save the un-used oil)

1 lb ground turkey (today I used 99% lean)

1 cup cooked rice (I used leftover take out rice)

2 eggs – beaten

1 teaspoon chipotle in adobo and a little of the sauce) – fine chopped

5 roasted garlic cloves – chopped (or you can use around three cloves ground to paste…The roasted garlic has a nice smokey taste and is much sweeter….I just roasted some yesterday and happened to have them)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground annatto

1/2 cup peppers & onions – diced and cooked

1 Tablespoon ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon sea salt flakes (preferably smoked …I used my homemade smoked sea salt)

1/2 cup of preferably home made salsa

Non stick spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray muffin tins with non stick spray.

Get a medium sized microwavable bowl. Brush each tortilla well with oil. Sick them up in a bowl and microwave about two minutes. The tortillas will be hot so be careful and use a spoon and lower each tortilla in a muffin section of the pan.

In a large mixing bowl mix together the turkey, rice, eggs, chipotle, garlic, cumin, annatto, peppers, onions, pepper, salt. *****at this point I pinched off 1/2 a teaspoon and microwaved it to taste and bumped it up slightly with a half a cup of my home made salsa that is very good.

Then I used my meatball scoop and filled each cup.

They went on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree F oven till cooked. (In my oven this took 20 minutes)

Feel free to top them as you like.

I’m doing scallions, cilantro, and my home made pickled onions……Some people would love sour cream, salsas and cheese…… Or you can put all those things on the side.

ENJOY!!!

Today I just roasted a cauliflower. I came up with a great spice paste and just mixed up the florets into it. Then I spread the cauliflower out on sheet pans and in only a half hour they were done and then I gave them some optional toppings. Serving size WILL DIFFER….We all like different sizes for servings and also the size of your cauliflower will differ…..Lately I usually find very small cauliflowers but got lucky and found an extra large one. Mine will make a good 6 servings but it is rare that you find the extra large cauliflowers so I will say 4 servings. I do also note that you will have some extra roasting sauce from the cauliflower that is delicious that you should use for either a protein or couscous or rice with the cauliflower.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

1 cauliflower – break down to florets

2 shallots thinly sliced

4 garlic cloves – peeled and thinly sliced

1 1/2 Tablespoons sea salt

1 Tablespoon dried dill

1 Tablespoon ground cumin

1 Tablespoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

6 oz. tomato paste

2 Tablespoons pomegranate molasses

1 Tablespoon urfa pepper

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Optional – fresh pomegranate to taste for finishing

Optional – Feta cheese to taste for finishing

Optional – roasted pistachios (or hazelnuts, or pine nuts) to taste for finishing

Optional – cilantro to taste for finishing

Optional – tahini to taste for finishing

Directions

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F

In a large mixing bowl mix everything except the cauliflower and mix well. Then mix in the cauliflower till it’s coated well. Spread the cauliflower in a single layer on sheet pan(s). This goes in the middle rack of the preheated oven till lightly browned and the cauliflower is cooked. (in my oven this took 30 minutes but oven do differ and your timing could be more or less.)

This is delicious as is…….I added some extras fresh pomegranate, feta cheese, roasted pistachios, and some cilantro. I held back on adding tahini because my husband hates tahini.

ENJOY!!!!

Don’t laugh….OK you can laugh……I tried to make ground turkey balls taste like corned beef and I thought that would be great for a party in meatball sized cabbage balls. I used the spices that I guessed would be good for corned beef but my fatal errors were not using Prague powder (stuff that turns beef pink) and also maybe not using beef. ANYWAYS they came out fragrant and tasty but didn’t taste like corned beef. I made a spice blend and used 1/2 in the meatballs and 1/2 all over the cabbage to flavor it. This recipe takes two days to prepare so the cabbage can stay wrapped on the meatballs.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

1 cabbage

1 quart stock or soup base (vegetable, chicken, or beef)

1 lb ground turkey (I used 99% lean)

2 eggs – beaten

1/2 cup panko

1 Tablespoon (heaping) Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Soup Base reduced salt

1/2 cup already cooked peppers and onions chopped

4 garlic cloves – ground to paste

1/4 cup dark brown sugar – SPICE BLEND

1 + 1/2 teaspoons sea salt – SPICE BLEND

1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper – SPICE BLEND

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon – SPICE BLEND

1/2 teaspoon ground mustard – SPICE BLEND

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves – SPICE BLEND

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice – SPICE BLEND

6 juniper berries – ground to powder – SPICE BLEND

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger – SPICE BLEND

1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning – SPICE BLEND

Directions

Day One – Either boil or roast the cabbage till soft. Let cool on a counter.

Mix up spice blend. (brown sugar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, mustard, cloves, allspice, juniper berries, ginger, and Old Bay Seasoning. Split this in half. Half of the spice blend goes in a large that you will mix the meatball mix in.

In a large mixing bowl with 1/2 the spice mix add the ground turkey, eggs, panko, garlic, pepper & onions, and mix well.

Assemble

When the cabbage is cool remove one leaf at a time from the core and remove only the very thick veins of the cabbage. Scoop a meatball into the cabbage leaf.

Place this on plastic wrap and twist it into a ball shape.

Repeat till done.

These NEED to sit on the refrigerator over night.

Next day

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove plastic wrap from meatballs.

Spread out the meatballs for cooking.

Sprinkle remaining spice blend all over.

Cook till well done about 20 minutes give or take.

ENJOY!!!

Cheese Blintzes are crepes that are usually filled with fruit, farmer’s cheese, or potato and then fried in butter. Some people like them sweet and other people like them slightly savory. Some people serve them like dessert with powdered sugar and whipped cream. Other people like them topped with sour cream.

I was shopping at Sprouts and farmer’s cheese was at an incredible price that I could not pass up so I decided to make cheese blintzes today. Latter I went back to Sprouts and purchased fruit to make a fruit sauce for the blintzes.

It’s best to make the cheese filling the day before so you can drain some liquid out of it.

Anyways my recipe made me 11 crepes so I will say 11 servings. I did have maybe enough cheese left over for one more crepe.

Ingredients for around 11 servings

4 eggs

1 cup water

6 Tablespoons sweet butter – melted

2 Tablespoons Greek Yogurt

couple drops vanilla extract

1 cup flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 Tablespoons butter – to fry blintzes with

2 cups farmer’s cheese – for filling

1 cup whipped cream cheese – for filling

1/4 cup sugar – for filling

1 egg – for filling

1/2 lemon – just the fresh juice – or more to taste – for filling

1 teaspoon vanilla – or less to taste – for filling

pinch sea salt – for filling

Directions

Make the filling first.

In a medium bowl combine the cheeses, sugar, egg, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt. This goes in a paper towel lined colander over night. The top you can loosely plastic wrap. In the morning I changed the towel so it could drain some more. Keep refrigerated till ready to fill blintzes.

Make the crepes. In a large bowl combine the eggs, water, melted butter, yogurt, vanilla, flour, sugar, and salt.

Melt 1/2 the butter on medium heat in a non stick pan.

Use a serving spoon to measure the batter. One serving spoon seemed to be the perfect amount of batter for my pan. You don’t just pour the batter in you have to turn the pan on its side to shape the crepe around the pan………..Once you get a nice round crepe you wait till it looked cooked and flip it and leave it on heat maybe 1/2 a minute more.

I had a pan lined with plastic wrap to collect the crepes. Between each crepe I used more plastic wrap so they wouldn’t stick together.

Repeat till done and add butter as needed.

When you are ready to make the blintzes.

Either pipe or spoon out the cheese.

You roll it up like a burrito.

Bottom and top of crepe over the cheese.

Now you roll till rolled up.

Repeat till done.

Fry the crepes in butter on medium heat on both sides till slightly browned.

You can enjoy now or add sour cream or preserves. Some people like them sweet with powdered sugar……

I made a mixed fruit sauce. It was a pint of blueberries, a pound of strawberries, and 10 ounces of pitted cherries. I added 2 ounces of butter and about 1/2 a cup of sugar. I mixed it together and this went in a 350 oven in two pans for around an hour.

Enjoy!!!!