Our night: Nachos. Eating them straight off the pan. Lost finale.

Farm Fresh to You Friday!

Here is what we got in our Farm Fresh To You Delivery this week: Oranges, Peaches, Corn, Avocados, Romaine Lettuce, Carrots, Lemons, Strawberries, Apricots, Broccoli, Zucchini, Bok Choy, Cabbage, Baby Lettuce, Beets, Celery, Onion.

Tonight for dinner, I made some fresh herb chicken, spicy sugar snap peas, and fingerling potatoes (recipes will be posted soon). The sugar snap peas, and the the fingerling potatoes were the last two items I had to use from our deliver two weeks ago. Now I am ready to use my new fruits and vegetables that arrived today!

I was so excited to see apricots and peaches in our box this week. I had already eaten two apricots before I even got all of the fruits and vegetables unpacked from the box. I think I will make some whole wheat pancakes with fresh strawberries on top for dinner one night this week. Who doesn't like breakfast for dinner!? I also have some ribs that I am going to BBQ, and then grill the corn to go on the side. (AW)

Ham & Asparagus Wraps with Pasta

My husband has to work almost every night this week. So I thought I would share with you what a typical dinner looks like when I cook for myself. First off, when cooking for myself, I don't generally worry about if the food works together. I cook what I feel like eating and what needs to be used up in our refrigerator. A typical dinner could be broccoli, tater tots, and a fried egg. But if thats what I feel like eating, that is what I cook!

Tonight I knew I needed to use some asparagus and mushrooms that were getting close to spoiling, and I felt like eating pasta. This is what I created.

First I made some Ham & Asparagus wraps that we usually serve as appetizers in our family.

First you boil some asparagus until tender. Once cooked, drain the asparagus and immediately run cold water over it to stop the cooking process. After the asparagus is cool, take a piece of deli ham, spread some cream cheese on the ham, and then wrap it around the asparagus. Its that easy. And trust me, these are yummy and addicting to eat.

Next, I made some buttered pasta with mushrooms. First you boil your pasta until cooked. Drain the pasta. Add butter and garlic powder to the hot pasta and mix until butter is melted. Add sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, and parmesan cheese.

This was a great, easy dinner for one! (AW)

Caramelita Bars

The reaction this dessert gets is what I love about this one.

You see, I love when Amy bakes. She has an innate gift, or some sort of crazy killer instinct when it comes to baking treats. I am convinced that the job I have now was less earned by my general merit and more earned by the baking Amy would do for the people who would ultimately hire me. That's what good baking/cooking does, in essence: it tips the scales.

We had a Gigantic Worship Rock Concert at the church I work at last weekend, and Amy baked several treats for the army of volunteers helping load in amps and stage lifts. I think one of my boss's kids said it best: "It's like Turkish Delight."

Think about that reaction for a second; Turkish Delight. A reference to a sinful addiction that leads to the corruption and eventual downfall of a young child in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

I can live with that. (DW)

I always see these cookie bars in Starbucks or other coffee shops. When I ran saw this recipe on the Sister's Cafe blog, I decided to try to make them. I made 1.5 times the recipe and baked it in a 13x9" pan, instead of the 11x7" pan they say in the directions. I tell you what, these bars where a huge hit with everyone that ate them. They all raved about how good these were!

1 cup flour
1 cup oats
¾ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter, melted
1 cup chocolate chips
½ pecans
¾ cup caramel topping
3 tablespoons flour

Mix all flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and butter until well combined. Press ½ the mixture into an 11x7 pan, and set the other ½ of the mixture aside. Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Sprinkle chocolate chips and pecans on top of the crust. Blend the ¾ cup caramel topping with 3 tablespoons flour. Drizzle on top of chocolate chips and pecans. Sprinkle the rest of the oat/flour mixture on top of the caramel. Bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes or until light brown. Allow to cool before slicing.

Quinoa Salad with Raisins

I can already here you on this one. "Walkers, we're cool with fajita salads and magical hamburgers, but we're not on board with you guys on quinoa, whatever that is."

And to that, I say this: Beep-beep, everyone. All-aboard the QUINOA EXPRESS, suckers.

Because, and this is strictly Real Talk here, this recipe is extremely light and delicious, and is the kind of thing that crackers and spring days were made for.

I'll admit, I wasn't ready to roll on this, but sometimes a meal is far, far greater than the sum of its parts. You're telling me that some weird grain crap, mixed with raisins (nature's candy, if you're a hippie), garlic, pine nuts, and other weird random stuff, produces something as glorious as this?

But it did. And I tore through this salad with The Quickness. I mean, seriously, it was gone in no time. As I alluded to before, serve it cold on crackers and it becomes The Perfect Snack. (DW)

1 cup quinoa (this is a grain, which kind of reminds me of couscous)
¼ cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced or sliced
1/3 cup fresh chopped parsley
¼ cup raisins
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Salt & pepper, to taste

Place quinoa in dry saucepan and cook over medium heat until toasted, about 2 minutes. Add 1 ¾ cup water (or chicken stock) to pan and bring to a boil. Cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until most of the water has been absorbed. Remove from heat, and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast pine nuts in skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned. Remove the toasted pine nuts from the pan and set aside. In the same pan that you just used for the pine nuts, and the olive oil and garlic. Sautee for about 1 minute, or just long enough to bring out the garlic flavor, but not to burn it. Set aside the garlic, reserving the oil as well.

Add cooked quinoa, toasted pine nuts, remaining olive oil, garlic, parsley, raisins, lemon juice in a bowl and mix with a fork to fluff the quinoa. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can serve this salad warm or cold. (AW)

*This recipe is courtesy of The Food Network Magazine- April 2010

Turkey Pesto Burgers

You guys, turkey is the best meat there is.

I know, it's kind of a weird argument to make, and I'm not 100% sure I'm really willing to back this up, but I'll be danged if turkey, this magical, lean, somewhat-crumbly, always-tasty meat hasn't become a favorite substitute in the Walker household.

Seriously, we're becoming one of those weird, cult-like families who cooks everything with venison or ostrich meat or something. Except it's turkey, and it's freaking excellent, yo.

I can't wait until you guys try this leaner, healthier version of a hamburger and tell me how awesome it is, and I'll be all, "yeah, I know, jerk. I eat turkey burgers all the time."

OK, that might be a harsh reaction, but that's what good food does to us, right? (DW)

I will admit, I generally don't like turkey burgers. I don't know why, but I like regular hamburgers so much better. That was, until I found this recipe. The pesto, garlic, onion, and cheese make this recipe. I serve these burgers with sautéed mushrooms and garlic fries on the side.

3 lbs ground turkey
3 slices of bread, crumbled
1 yellow onion (use can use shallots as well), minced
3 eggs
3/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
6 tablespoons pesto
3 cloves of garlic, minced

Mix all ingredients together until well combined. Form into patties. Grill or pan fry until juices run clear, and turkey burgers are cooked thoroughly.

*The recipe originally came from a freezer meal website, therefore it makes a lot of turkey burgers. I make the full recipe, and then freeze them to use later. If you don't want to make this many burgers, just reduce ingredients proportionately. (AW)

Homemade Chicken Stock

Over the last few months, I have begun to make my own chicken stock. All I keep thinking is “Why didn’t I try this sooner?” Homemade chicken stock taste amazing, is easy to make and freeze, and so much cheaper than buying it. Every time that I buy a rotisserie chicken from Costco, I make one or two dinners with the meat, and then I make about 18 cups of chicken stock to freeze. And the best part, the chicken only cost me $5.00!

15-20 cups of water
1 rotisserie chicken, with most of the meat removed
Handful of baby carrots or regular carrots, chopped
3-5 celery stocks (you can include the leaves)
1 large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons of Paula Deen’s House Seasoning (recipe below)

In a large stock pot, add your chicken (just throw the whole chicken in there, no need to remove the skin), carrots, celery and onion. Fill the pot with water until it is almost full. Add the house seasoning, and mix. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 3-4 hours. The longer you let it cook, the more flavor you will have. Once cooked, remove from heat, and strain chicken stock through a colander to remove the chicken and vegetables. Cool the broth for a for a few hours before freezing. Store in freezer safe containers (I usually freeze with 4 cups of broth per container). (AW)

Paula Deen’s House Seasoning
1 cup salt
¼ cup black pepper
¼ cup garlic powder

Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Grilled Chicken Fajita Salad

Happy Cinco de Mayo, Fellow Food Nerds! To paraphrase my favorite Salt-n-Pepa song, Let's Talk About Salad.

Salads are always exciting for me, because I feel like if I'm ever going to be healthy, salad is the Magical Gateway thru which it will happen. Then I eat too much of it and feel sick.

Amy thought this up with her amazing Food Brain. She seriously blows my mind with her imagination. This is a nice diversion from the typical taco salad one would serve when in the mood for something mexican and light. (DW)

2 chicken breasts
Fajita seasoning (I use Wildtree Fajita Seasoning)
Green bell pepper
Onion
Mushrooms
Lettuce, torn into pieces
Carrots, chopped or shredded
Cucumber, chopped
Avocado (We didn't put avocado on our salad, instead we made guacamole out of it, but I think avocado would be good on the salad)
Ranch Dressing (I mixed in a teaspoon of fajita mix with the ranch, to give it a little extra flavor)

Marinate chicken breast with the fajita seasoning for at least 1 hour. Grill chicken breast, bell pepper, onion, and mushrooms until cooked. Cut cooked chicken, bell pepper, and onion into slices. Serve chicken and vegetables over a bed of lettuce, carrots, cucumber, and avocado. Top with ranch dressing before serving. (AW)