TASTE: Roasted Cauliflower & Chickpeas

Roasted Cauliflower & Chickpeas

I've got another surprisingly delicious and healthy recipe for you! This is straight out of Gwyneth Paltrow's book, It's All Good, and you guys - this is SO good. There was practically no need for any adjustments to this recipe, because it's just so tasty. I never eat cauliflower, but I've been trying to find fun ways to sneak more vegetables into my daily eats. This doesn't even taste vegetable-y, it's just yummy and warm and nutty. It makes a great side dish but it's also a hearty lunch option!

Ingredients:

- 1 head cauliflower, outer leaves & stems removed, chopped into bite-sized pieces

- 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

-  1/4 cup Olive Oil + a bit more

- Salt and Pepper, to taste

- 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

- 1 tbsp. Whole-grain Mustard

- 1 tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar

- 1/4 cup Parsley, chopped

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Toss the chickpeas and cauliflower together, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper. Place on roasting pan.

3. Roast until soft, 30-40 minutes.

4. Whisk together the mustards, vinegar 1/4 cup olive oil and a little more pepper for the dressing.

5. Once removed from the oven, toss the chickpeas and cauliflower with the mustard dressing and sprinkle the parsley on top. Serve warm or at room temperature.

6. EAT IT UP. Because yum. Enjoy!

TASTE: Lemon & Olive Chicken.

TASTE: Lemon & Olive Chicken.

Happy Tuesday to you! I hope your Valentine weekend was full of love and hugs and kisses and tasty treats. Ours was hilarious and wonderful. With all this incredible cold weather up in our business, I've got a warm yummy dinner recipe for you today!

This meal has quickly become a staple in our household. When I got this amaaaaaazing dutch oven for Christmas last year, I started experimenting with all the delicious ways I could cook easy meals and make them taste like Heaven. This dutch oven has made my success rate increase tenfold. Seriously. This particular recipe is a favorite because it's super duper easy to make (no, seriously) and it's mega healthy. There's nothing crazy bad in it, which makes it the perfect midweek pick-me-up that tastes like comfort food without hindering my waistline. (I've got other temptations to hinder my waistline) :)

I got this recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow's book, It's All Good, a publication that garners a lot of hate but I confidently stand by. Just because Gwyneth gets misquoted (okay, a lot) saying sometimes outland-ish, borderline pretentious things, her food life is the center of my envy. Everything I've cooked from that book has been GOLD. I've made a few changes (for the lazy crowd, you're welcome), so this recipe is officially easier than ever. Add a side of quinoa and a side of something green and this meal is going to become your new go-to. What's for dinner at our house tonight? I'll give you one, deeeeeelicious guess :)

Ingredients:

- 6 boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

- 1 Lemon, sliced

- 3 Shallots, sliced thinly into rings

- 1.5 cups Chicken Stock

- 1/2 jar Green Olives

- 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled

- 2 tbsp. Olive Oil

- Salt and Pepper, to taste

- 1 sprig Thyme

Method:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle olive oil in a cast iron dutch on the stove and heat on medium.

2. Generously salt and pepper chicken on both sides and place in dutch oven. Cook until lightly browned, about 4-5 minutes, then flip and cook on the other side. Cook for another 4-5 minutes (chicken should still be pink inside), then remove chicken from heat and transfer to a plate. DON'T WORRY. We aren't done cooking the chicken.

3. Add shallots and garlic to the dutch oven, cooking until softened, about 2-3 minutes.

4. Place chicken back into the dutch oven, along with any juices that collected on the plate. That's flavor town, by the way.

5. Add the chicken stock, olives, thyme and scatter on top of the chicken. Squeeze individual slices of lemon over the chicken and discard the skins.

Note:

I like to keep the lemons in the mixture so they cook together, but you don't have to since you won't eat them. Totally up to you.

6. Bring the mixture to a boil on the stove top, then cover and place in the oven. Cook for 30-40 minutes on 400 degrees.

Woop, there it is.

Tada! I personally like to serve this dish with an herbed quinoa situation (quinoa on the stove, cooked in chicken stock, and fancied up with any fresh herbs you've got on hand - THE BEST.) This meal tastes gourmet and looks like something Ina Garten whipped up, but the hands-on time is minimal. Enjoy! And let me know how it goes!

TASTE: Banana-Oat & Date Muffins

Banana-Oat & Date Muffins 

Always in a hurry to grab something for breakfast and GO? This is a great morning muffin you can prep and bake ahead of time, freeze, and then pull out and take along with you in the car or on the subway. It's happy fuel for the morning commute. And for how delicious and comforting it tastes... it's pretty darn healthy. I mean, it's sweetened by bananas and dates. And just a bit of maple syrup. Please. Can we be any more granola?

Being back in the South has brought to mind some recipes that I had honestly forgotten about. You know how that happens? You go home and all the familiarity, the scent of home, the pattern in your steps... your past life just comes soaring back to you. That's what happened this week. I found myself fumbling around the kitchen for some half-spoiled bananas, pulled down my glass jar of oats, and voila, this recipe pretty much made itself. It's reminiscent of banana bread and therefore, highly heavenly and appealing. And homey-ish. This recipe is based largely on Gwyneth Paltrow's version, but I tweaked a few things here and there. You can rag on her all you want, but I really do love her recipes. I mean, the semi-normal ones that I've actually attempted to try. Now she's actually queen of the granola. We don't need to be queen of that. We just need to enjoy our muffins and get on with it. So lets.

Ingredients:

- 2 cups flour

- 1 cup old-fashioned oats

- 2 tsp. baking powder

- 2 tsp. baking soda

- a pinch of sea salt (Maldon!)

- 2 overripe bananas, mashed

- 1/2 cup olive oil

- 2/3 cup maple syrup

- 2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk

- 2 tsp. vanilla extract

- 1/2 cup dried dates, pitted and chopped (about 6 dates)

- 1/4 pumpkin seeds, roughly chopped, plus more for topping each muffin

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line your muffin tin with liners.

2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In another bowl, mix the mashed bananas, olive oil, maple syrup, almond milk and vanilla.

4. Combine the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing together.

5. Toss the chopped dates with the 1/4 cup chopped pumpkin seeds and fold them into the batter. Mix well. Make sure that the dates and pumpkin seeds don't fall straight to the bottom of the batter.

6. Fill each muffin tin about 2/3 of the way full with the batter. Sprinkle each muffin with a pinch of the extra pumpkin seeds.

7. Bake until the muffins are browned and a toothpick comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.

Worth the Muffin Top.

I promise, you will love these deceivingly decadent muffins. The pumpkin seeds add a bit of salty crunch and the dates add a hit of soppy, southern mapley-ness. The hardest part is only eating one at a time!