Minestrone and Blackforest Ham Panini

Since the weather is starting to cool down some, I was in the mood for some soup. I love the Minestrone at Olive Garden, so I thought I'd give it a try....I found several "copycat" recipes of the Olive Garden version....funny thing, they were ALL different. So I just took a little from them all and came up with my own. Soup didn't seem like enough, so I decided to make some paninis. The soup makes A LOT!

Ingredients for the Minestrone:

• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 small yellow onion - chopped
• 1 small zucchini - chopped
• 2 garlic cloves - minced
• 1/2 cup frozen cut Italian green beans
• 1 stalk celery - chopped
• 4 cups Vegetable Broth
• 1 can kidney beans - drained
• 1 can Great Northern Beans - drained
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 2 tbsp. minced parsley
• 1 tsp. Oregano
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. basil
• 1/4 tsp. thyme
• 1.5 cups hot water
• 3 cups fresh baby spinach
• 1/2 cup pasta (I used rotini) but most recipes call for the shell pasta

Ingredients for Panini's

• Black Forest Ham
• Fontina Cheese - shredded
• Italian Bread
• Dijon Mustard

Steps for Minestrone:

• Heat Olive oil in stock pot on Medium High heat

• Add in onion, garlic, celery, zucchini, and green beans....saute for about 5 min

• Add in broth, tomatoes, beans, and hot water

• Next add in the carrots and spices

• Stir, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes

• Add in pasta and spinach, and let simmer for another 20 minutes (or longer)

Steps for Paninis:

• Turn on panini grill or in my case - the George Foreman
• Spread mustard onto 1 side of the bread for each sandwich you are making

• Top with Black Forest Ham (1-2 pieces or more if you like)

• Top with some of the fontina cheese

• Then top with your bread
• I sprayed each side of the sandwich with a small amount of olive oil
• Spray the foreman with a small amount of oil on each place
• Place sandwiches on the grill, and shut the lid, but do not push it down on the sandwich.

• Cook for about 5 minutes, once cheese is melted and bread is toasted to your liking

• Slice in half and serve alongside the soup....Enjoy!

Crab Cakes

I have been wanting to make crab cakes for awhile, but since crab meat is SO expensive and I hear a lot of people say the recipes are always hit or miss, I didn't want to try until someone recommended a recipe - so I got this recipe from my brother-in-law's brother.....He gave me a few tips, and I tweaked the recipe slightly on my own, it ended up really good, but I made mine really big (the whole recipe made 6 crab cakes...) so they took a little longer than I expected to cook, so you can make yours as large as you like or depending on how many people are eating with you. Jeremy ate 2 crab cakes and I ate 1 and maybe 2 bites of a second, they were very filling. So if you like crab cakes - try these! (I think if i make them again I might add some red peppers or onion?!)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. lump crabmeat
• 1-2 cups bread crumbs (I ended up using 1.5 cups, but you just have to eye it)
• 2 cups mayonaise (I used Vegenaise - mayo with no eggs and NO cholesterol)
• 2 tbsp. dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp. Old Bay seasoning
• 1 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp. horseradish (I used very hot horseradish - the less creamy version)
• 1 egg
• Juice of 1 lemon

Steps:

• Check the crabmeat for shells (mine had none - I used Chicken of the Sea)

• Place crab meat in bowl, add bread crumbs until evenly distributed with crab (I started with 1 cup and ended up adding an additional 1/2 cup once I started adding the sauce)

• In a 2nd bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients until well incorporated

• Slowly mix the sauce into the bowl with the crab meat, add until the mixture is moist but NOT soupy (this is where I decided to use some more bread crumbs in order to use the entire sauce mixture - but you don't necessarily have to use all of the sauce - just eyeball it to the consistency of your liking)

• Preheat oven to 375
• Cover a baking sheet with foil, lightly spray with cooking oil.
• Form the crab mixture into patties to your liking (the original recipe stated to put them in 4-6oz patties - I have NO idea how to gauge that - I made mine pretty big since it was our meal, but if you wanted to make like an "appetizer" version, you could make lots of small cakes)
• Place cakes on baking sheet and put in the oven

• The original recipe said to cook for 10-15 min - but b/c of the size of mine it took 25 min until I was happy with the color and consistency. You can also put them under the broiler for a minute to brown the tops....

• I served mine with some white shoepeg corn on the cob and an arugula salad.

• It was yummy! BUT very filling!!

Buffalo Chicken Tacos

Every time I ask Jeremy what he wants for dinner, it always seems to end up being something involving "Buffalo Chicken"..... I think it's his favorite. So tonight, I asked him what he wanted when he got home from this business trip to Mississippi, and of course he said "Buffalo Chicken Tacos"....we both LOVE the Buffalo Chicken Taco's at Taco Mac (substituting the bleu cheese for pepper jack....yum!).....BUT I don't fry chicken, so I made up my own version.

Ingredients:

(I left the onion out of the picture -- oops)

• 1 lb chicken tenderloins
• 1 box of chicken broth
• 1/4 cup of wing sauce (or  how much you prefer)
• 1 tomato - diced
• 1 onion - diced
• 1 avocado - diced
• shredded lettuce
• pepper jack cheese
• 1 jalapeno - diced
• fresh cilantro - chopped
• soft taco shells
• salsa - if you want - we didn't use any
• I served mine with black beans and corn.

Steps:

• I boiled my chicken in 1 box of chicken broth and water for about 45 minutes
• remove boiled chicken from pot, shred with a fork, place in skillet

• Add wing sauce to your liking, and heat on low to medium heat for about 5-10 minutes

• Make your taco as you like! Very EASY and DELICIOUS!

• Serve along side black beans and corn, or just put the beans and corn in your taco like Jeremy did!

(Jeremy's Plate)

My Plate!

ENJOY!

Easy Dinner: Chicken Sausage with Tomato, basil and mozzarella ravioli

I didn't really put much thought into this, everything was pre-packaged, but sometimes that's easier! Jeremy loves sausage, and I am not really a huge fan, but when I saw Chicken Sausage, I figured I'd give it a try.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of Al Fresco Chicken Sausage
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 package Monterrey Ravioli (Tomato, Basil, Mozarella)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 Jar Tomato Sauce
• Caesar Salad
• Garlic bread

Steps:

• Follow the directions on the packages!
• I put the sausage on a skillet, medium heat, with a tbsp olive oil for about 8-10 minutes until the sides were golden brown

• For the ravioli, I boiled water in a large pot, but barely boiling the water, I added in the ravioli for 5 minutes, drained, and topped with tomato sauce.

The food was delicious, I definitely recommend trying the chicken sausage. And dinner took me about 15 minutes to prepare and cook.

Ceviche Tacos

My sister recommended this recipe to me....it came from Epicurious, I adapted it to fit my own needs....but didn't need to change that much! You have to enjoy tuna....and be okay w/ eating semi-raw fish!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 lbs sushi-grade fish ( I used sashimi Tuna)
• 1 tbsp. sea salt
• 1 tbsp. fresh crushed black pepper
• 3 tbsp. lime juice
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 cup chopped, seeded tomatoes
• 3/4 cup chopped red onion (about 1/2 an onion)
• 2 tbsp. fresh jalapenos ( recipe calls for jarred....no thanks) you will need a little over half a jalapeno, chopped and seeded.
• 1 tbsp. jarred jalapeno juice ( yes, you still need to buy the jarred jalapeno's....but the freshness of using the new jalapeno's will make you want to use them over the jarred)
• 1 large avocado, peeled, pitted and chopped
• 1/2 head romaine lettuce, chopped (3-4 cups)
• 3 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• Hard taco shells (we bought soft shells too)
• Salsa

Steps:

• Cut tuna into 1/2 inch pieces (or smaller)
• Place tuna in a glass bowl, add in lemon juice, lime juice, salt, pepper, and sugar, mix until incorporated, cover dish and chill for 4-6 hours, tossing occasionally.

• Mix tomato, onions, jalapenos, jalapeno juice, and olive oil in a medium bowl, cover and chill for up to 2 hours.

• When tuna is finished, strain all the juices out and  toss together with tomato mixture.

• Heat taco shells
• Make the taco's as you wish (recipe calls to mix lettuce, avocado's, and salsa with the tuna mixture, but I chose just to add what you wished to your taco.

• ENJOY....they taste SO fresh....Delicious!
• I served mine with white corn (and I cut a small corner of my tuna off before making the ceviche and saved it to make a small appetizer of ahi tuna to eat before dinner....just marinated it in soy sauce and seared it in a skillet for 2 minutes on each side)