Power bowls of yumminess

I am so sure I didn't invent this "recipe" but love it and could eat one of these every day. Lately, to save time, money and make my meal prep quicker- I cook a batch of quinoa every Sunday, then on Tuesday or Wednesday make either a batch of pasta or a batch of brown rice. This was dinner on the night that I had just enough of the quinoa left and plenty of rice- it's been a massive help in my meal planning and getting dinner ready fast so we can eat all together more often

Here is what you will need (serves 4)

 1 cup dry quinoa (prep according to package)
1 cup dry Brown rice (prep according to package)
1 avocado, chopped
1 mango, chopped
1 cup shelled steamed edamame (you can buy this frozen, hullo easy fabulousness!)
1/4 cup pickled ginger chopped
a handful of kale "microchips" (from THIS POST)
Dried seaweed sheets (one package, you'll have leftovers- or skip this if you are not down with the dried sea weed!)
sesame seeds
Soy/ wasabi or ginger miso dressing  (you can buy ginger miso salad dressing, it's yummy....or, what we did, was mix a bit of wasabi in some low sodium soy sauce and drizzle it over everything!)

For each bowl, mix 1/2 cup cooked, cooled quinoa, 1/2 cup cooked, cooled brown rice- 1/4 avocado, 1/4 mango, 1/4 cup edamame, some ginger, sprinkle w sesame seeds & kale chips serve w seaweed sheets as an option.

Peach & Ginger Vanilla Ice Cream

Ok, I get it. Summer is OVER. Ya, I know...it is dipping into what I like to call the "dangerously low 60s" here in SoCal, and I'm not kidding. BRrrrrrrrRRRRrrrr. So in trying to keep the dance that is my life moving I have become a little behind (again) in my blog updates and have one last summer-rewind here for ya. I know many of you do this juggle with jobs, relationships, kids (or weenie dogs in our case), trying to jam in some exercise and relaxation here and there...you know, "The Drill".

Well, Summer of 2009 proved to be UBER-drilly for us, in the best way ever...we managed to maintain our Clark-Kent-esque day job-lives as program writer/operations manager (for Nate) and managing the beautiful business of bling in Drop Dead Gorgeous® jewelry (for me), while still spending gobs of sunny days at dog beach, AND eating/drinking our way through 5 food/drink festivals, enjoying wild night at Medieval Times, tackling a drive up and down California's beautiful coast, and nearly finishing (we'll make it to the breakers next time) our first Bay2Breakers, to mention a few of the highlights.



To me the timing of this peachy, summery ice cream post is just right- it rained today. Yup, here. In L.A., totally misted. As the clouds get darker, the sun sets earlier and we are apparently in for some "weather" over the next few days, so I am going to post this and leave it to look at and long for next summer, at least until the weekend comes!

The fall twist to ice cream making is that is takes a few hours and you do need to be all up on it every 30 minutes, this is a GREAT dessert to make while watching football games on Sundays, then enjoying a sundae after dinner with super creamy home made 'scream!!



Peach & Ginger Vanilla Ice Cream
(no ice cream maker involved, 'cuz I don't have one!)

1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 egg yolks
5-6 T sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 handfuls frozen peach slices, chopped into little pieces
1 tsp fresh grated ginger

In a medium sauce pot bring the milk & cream to a rolling boil. While that heats up, in a medium bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until thick and well combined. When the milk/cream is boiling, remove it from the heat, and while slowly stirring, gently and slowly pour about 1/3 of the milk/cream into the egg/sugar mix & stir until incorporated...then slowly, while constantly stirring add the rest of the cream to the yolk/sugar mix and stir until all ingredients are well mixed. (this will "temper" the eggs so they don't get cooked by the milk/cream) Pour it all back into the sauce pot and heat on medium heat, stirring constantly for about 5-7 minutes. You want the custard to get thicker and not heat over 180 degrees.
Pour the thickened custard into a glass bowl and add vanilla, peaches and ginger, stir well and refrigerate until chilled through. Pour chilled custard mix into a glass/pyrex baking dish and place in freezer for 45 minutes.
After 45 minutes, stir well with a whisk. Place back in freezer for 30 minutes....continue to take it out and whisk every 30 minutes for about 3 hours and transfer to an airtight container to keep in the freezer.



I think this makes a faboo dinner party dessert, my favorite kind- dresses up easy!!
Toast a frozen waffle, thinly slice a peach and arrange peach slices on top of toasted waffle then add a scoop of this yummy ice cream and drizzle with honey! YUM & EASY!!

~This recipe was created by adapting the Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Baking; From My Home to Yours by; Dorie Greenspan~

Grilled Shrimp w/ Nate's Cocktail Sauce

A few weeks back we made some pretty spectacular OYSTERS and while he was picking those up at Santa Monica Seafood, Nate grabbed some shrimp to go with them! This is just a very simple way to grill shell-on shrimp for peel-n-eat goodness. I love these because the completely scream SUMMER!! Nate whipped up a little homemade cocktail sauce to really take these to the next level.

Grilled Shrimp

12 raw, shell-on shrimpies
2 T butter, room temp
1 t olive oil
2 tsp crushed garlic
2 T minced shallot
sea salt & fresh black pepper

Start by deveining the scrimps, this is pretty mellow once you've done it before...it sounds harder than it is, I promise!




Lay the little gray bastid on it's side and use a super sharp knife to cut a slit (about 1/2a centimeter deep, just piercing through the shell and cutting a bit into the shrimp)
Use your thumbs and first fingers to peek inside the cut and while gently running cold water over the shrimp and your hands, remove the dark digestive tract of the shrimp.
There. Done! YAY!! I got better with practice and by the last one I was an ace- this is not as intense as it may sound all typed out~
Here is a video from YouTube courtesy of epicurious- it does show peeling the shrimp before deveining, but notes that the peeling is not necessary and in fact helps the shrimp retain yummy flavor if left in the shell during cooking...

CLICK HERE TO WATCH


Heat the grill to medium low heat.
Anyhow, now that your shrimp are deveined, mix the butter, olive oil, garlic, shallot salt & pepper in a small bowl until well combined. Rub butter mix all over each shrimp.I skewered them onto kabob sticks to make them easier to flip.
Cook 3-5 minutes on each side until cooked through.


Nate's Cocktail sauce
Catchup, a few dashes Frank's Red Hot hot sauce,black pepper, a dash olive oil, stir all together!

Squeeze a bit of lemon over the shrimp and serve! This is great with tabouli, grilled veggies and of course the GRILLED NAPA OYSTERS we ate with them!!

Dry-Rub Grilled Ribs & Homemade BBQ Sauce

I've been DYING to BBQ. We use our grill all the time, but I wanted to make something that would be messy, delicious and super-bbq-y! Nate and I were in Huntington Beach so we decided to stop at Plowboy's. Seriously, if you live with in a reasonable distance to Plowboy's- get over there ASAP!! Amazing produce at great prices and the best butcher ever. We did not go in with a plan, other than my plan to get a sky-high samich at the deli. As we walked along the long meat cases we tossed some ideas around, but in the end the ribs looked too good to resist.
When we got home I gathered up the dry ingredients to make a yummy rub and learned all about preppin the pork. (read below). This was not too difficult and was WAY BEYOND delicious.



Sweet Life Dry-Rub Grilled Ribs & Homemade BBQ Sauce
serves 2-4 (depends on your hunger level, Nate is a whole rack man on this one)

2 full racks of pork baby back ribs

Dry Rub~
6 T brown sugar
2 T paprika
5 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp salish (smoke) salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne
5-6 twists of cracked black pepper


Homemade BBQ Sauce
2 T butter
2 slice (just under an inch thick) of sweet white onion, finely chopped
1 12oz can tomato paste
3 tsp mustard
6 T white vinegar
2 T Worcestershire sauce
4 T molasses
2 T DRY RUB mixture
6 T water
2 T brown sugar




Removing the membrane~ ok, don't freak out. I know you may be reading that thinking W T F? Well it's really no big deal, and if you remember while @ the butcher, I reckon you can just directly ask to have it pulled right off, right there. In any event if you buy the ribs, get home, whip up a dry rub and then read about said membrane that you never realized existed, then here's what you do....I watched this video on YouTube courtesy of BarbequeWeb.com, and it was pretty easy to do! CLICK HERE TO WATCH

There...that wasn't so bad, was it? OK, now I just set the ribs aside on the paper that the butcher wrapped them up in bony side down. In a medium bowl mix the rub ingredients with a fork and set aside 2 tablespoons to use in the sauce.
Using your hands work the rub over every inch of ribage.
Wrap them back up in the paper and refrigerate 2 hours to all day.

Now, make the sauce!
In a medium sauce pan over low heat combine all ingredients and stir until everything is mixed in. Pour into a jar or other sealed container and refrigerate until it's time for ribs (this will really get the flavors well-combined)

Heat the grill to medium-low (about 300-325 degrees). Place the ribs, bony side down on the pre-heated grill, close the lid and let the magic happen. That's all you need to do to those. Grill them at about 300-325 degrees for 2-2 1/2 hours.

Take those smokin' delicious ribs off the grill and let them rest on a cutting board for about 7 minutes.
Mop them with sauce, cut them if you would like to and get a big pile of napkins, because you're gonna need em.

Angel Food Cupcakes

With all the heavy eating we had planned for the 4th of July weekend, I struggled to think of something that would be sweet and desserty at the end of the day with out being too heavy...so I thought angel food cake would be light and still substantial enough for our sweet tooth after a long day of bike riding in the sunshine...

I came across The Cupcakery Blog , where Wendy had highlighted the Angel Food Cake recipe from the Buttercup Bake Shop Cookbook, which was, as promised, easy to prepare.

We are talking MAJOR egg whites here...2 cups, which is about 14 eggs worth...Wendy suggests just purchasing the carton of egg whites (which I didn't do this time, but that would make it even easier, so I will do this next time...)



This made 24 mini cupcakes and 12 regular size…

1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
14 egg whites (2 cups)
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 375° degrees and line the muffin tins with paper wrappers.
In a medium bowl, combine flour with one cup of the sugar. Sift these together three separate times. ( I am pretty sure this is essential, so you will need a sifter for this recipe…) Set the sifted whatnot aside and put remaining sugar in a separate cup for later use.
Pour the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer and use the whisk attachment, mix on lowest setting for about 1 minute. Then add cream of tartar, vanilla and salt.
After another minute of beating, turn the mixer to medium speed and gradually add the 1/2 cup of remaining sugar. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula after all the sugar is added. Resume beating until the whites are stiff but moist. (This should take about 5 minutes.)Transfer the egg whites to a large bowl. Sift the flour-sugar mixture over the whites and gently fold until all the dry ingredients are mixed in. Using a ladle, fill the cupcake liners about ½ full, or a little less than ½ full.
Bake about 8-10 minutes, but not any longer to prevent the bottoms from burning.
Cupcakes will be done when a toothpick comes out of the center clean. Remove cupcakes from the pan and place on a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.
I made these and took them (un-frosted) with a big bowl of fresh strawberries and a container of Cool Whip to our HB 4th of July gathering at Jeff & Lia’s and they made a great late night (meaning 9pm) sweet treat!

BBQ Bison Meatballs

Bison Balls. YUM. These are deeeelicious. Bison is a lower-fat, super awesome alternative to ground beef for burgers, meatloaf and in this case, meatballs. Another of my Hollywood Bowl tote-along-menu...these were easy to carry in a pyrex and make a terrific picnic-tailgating-bonfire summer treat!
Nate used this recipe recently and gave it his own twist to prepare a Bison Grilled Meatloaf, which we'll get posted soon!!

BBQ Bison Meatballs
(makes about 12-15 balls)

1 lb ground bison
1 T bbq sauce
1 T spicy brown deli mustard
Heaping 1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
a few tsp parsley
1/4 of a sweet white onion finely chopped
few good shakes of each:onion powder & garlic powder
Kosher salt & fresh ground pepper
bit o chili flakes- just a pinch...

Preheat the oven to 400 and cover a baking sheet with foil (spray it with non-stick spray)
In a large bowl combine all ingredients and mix well using your hands.
Roll the mixture into balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and place the balls on the baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
Cook 7 minutes, then turn the meatballs over~ cook 7 more minutes, flip them again to a different side and cook 5 minutes... turn off oven and let the balls sit in there about 3-5 more minutes.
Let the balls cool and place them in a lidded container...squeeze some more bbq sauce into the container, put the lid on- shake it up- and refrigerate, serve em cold.

Cold Wild Rice Salad w/ Grapes

Ok, where has this been all my life!? It was H...O...T, HOT!! so I wanted to make us some cold yummy side dishes to accompany the bison meatballs that I made to tote to the Hollywood Bowl. I pretty much used items I had on-hand and made this "salad"...

Serves 6

1 box of long grain wild rice, prepared- but with low sodium chicken broth instead of water, olive oil (not butter), you can toss the "packet o' seasonings" it comes with, you won't need that- set cooked rice aside to cool.

Dressing~ (you'll have leftovers, so plan on a salad later in the week when you make this :o)
About 3 Large spoon fulls of Hosin Sauce
A small (like tip of a butter knife) spoon full of Chinese Hot Mustard
Rice Vinegar, Sesame Oil and Low Sodium Soy Sauce (just kept adding bits of each until the taste & texture were right)
A dash of sesame seeds
Whisk with fork until all ingredients are well combined

Green grapes- washed & cut in half (I just kept adding till I knew I'd get a grape half in almost every bite!)

A few handfuls of slivered almonds

Toss the cool rice, grapes and almonds together in a large bowl and slowly drizzle about 1/2 (maybe a bit more if needed) of the dressing over the rice and continue lightly tossing (and tasting) until all ingredients are incorporated.

Summer Broccoli Salad

Cool, easy-peasy summer salad. I made this for the Hollywood Bowl excursion we recently took and LOVE this at picnics. It's no Mama-Corrado Pasta Salad (coming soon to rock your world..) but this is an AWESOME salad for big fun stuff where people come to eat (you know, everything that happens in the summer...bon fires, concerts, picnics, etc.) I certainly did not invent this, it is an old school staple that I love. After buying some at Whole Foods recently I made it from my memory of how that tasted.

This is a somewhat "wingin-it" type of recipe, so taste and adjust and taste and adjust and you will be just fine...

Serves 6-10 people
4-6 cups broccoli crowns chopped into bite sized pieces
6-8 pieces of bacon, cooked- cooled- crumbled
1 c mayonnaise
3-4 T white vinegar
2-4 T sugar
a few handfuls of sunflower seeds
1/2-2/3 cups chopped sweet white onion
a few handfuls of crazins (or raisins, or golden raisins- I mucho prefer crazins)
Sprinkle of ground sea salt and some fresh black pepper to taste

In small bowl whisk together the mayo, sugar and vinegar~ set aside. In a BIG bowl toss the broccoli, bacon, crazins, onions & sunflower seeds. Pour the mayo/vinegar/sugar over the broccoli and add salt & pepper to taste. Toss it up and refrigerate at least a few hours, or overnight is even better!

Summer nights at the Hollywood Bowl

If I move away from Los Angeles there is a top 20 of things I am really going to miss...I am not sure what order that list runs down in, but spending evenings in the summer at the Hollywood Bowl is on there. I know I can always drive to LA & enjoy the goodness of the Bowl, but it just won't be the same. We are seeing a few shows there this summer & one reason the reason the Bowl rocks so hard is because you can bring in your own food & bev...including BOTTLES OF WINE (Hello, that is beyond awesome, seriously.)

So here is what I made for our bowl dinner & concert snacks~ recipes comin' soon...

BBQ BISON MEATBALLS
Broccoli Salad
Cold Wild Rice Salad w/ Grapes
FRUIT!! (I brought one lil container with watermelon and another with a mix of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries...see below)
Wine, Cheese, crackers (yay Lexie!), salami
Beer (yay Joe, you are a champ, hiking up from the church lot with a Heineken Mini-Keg!!!)
Oreo Cookies (yay Lexie!)



Whilst you read this Nate and I are setting off on a journey!! SUMMER ROAD TRIP!! We left this morning for a looooonnnnggg slow drive up PCH all the way to the bay baby~
I hope you enjoy these picnic-y summer photos while we eat, visit friends, surf, camp and relax our way up the state of Cali.



HAPPY YUMMY SUMMER!!! "See" you all next week when we get back to reality (aka, Los Angeles...lolz)

Mango Flank Steak Tacos

This was an improv dinner that turned out better than I could have imagined. The steak was amazing, this marinade rocks the heezie.
We made this after work and work-out and still ate before 8pm, it was fabulous. This will be a go-to recipe for us from now on, easy to make in large scale for get togethers too!!

Mango Flank Steak Tacos
By Beth & Nate
Serves 4

1 lb flank steak
1 mango
1 lime
1 tomato
1/4 red onion
Fresh cilantro
Kosher salt
Soy sauce
1-2 T fresh grated ginger
garlic powder
crushed red pepper


Chop the mango into little cubes, toss them in a medium sized bowl...put the flank steak in a freezer bag and throw the mango core and a a few of the mango cubes. Add soy sauce, a lil less than 1/4 cup, ginger a few dashes of garlic powder, the juice of 1/2 a lime and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Seal the bag and massage it all together- let marinate 30min-1hour.
Dice up the tomato, onion and cilantro and toss with the mango. Add a pinch of salt and juice of 1/2 a lime. Toss together, cover & refrigerate 1 hour or more.
Grill marinated flank steak on medium heat for about 3 minutes each side...longer if you prefer medium to well meat. Take the meat off, add tortillias and grill for about 1-2 minutes. Add steak to tortilla, top with salsa and additional onion or cilantro if you'd like~ YUM!! Amazing taco heaven.

Tuesdays With Dorie~ Double Crusted Bluberry (Bluecherry) Pie (s)..

It will still be Tuesday for about an hour here in LA, so I made it! YAY!!
I couldn't resist this weeks TUESDAYS WITH DORIE pick, brought to all of us by Amy of SOUTH IN YOUR MOUTH! Amy chose Dorie's Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie, from "Baking; From My Home to Yours" By: Dorie Greenspan, a fabulous baking group that is baking and eating our way through this SENSATIONAL book. My copy is now pretty evenly coated in a very thin layer of sugar, flour and a few vanilla extract stains here and there. Hop on over to Amy's blog if you are still waiting for your book to be delivered or if you're at work and need the ingredients for your grocery list before heading home. She has the whole breakdown, a beautiful pie and a great story!



Back to the pie....or in this case pieS. I decided to make mini-pies instead of one whole pie. This makes it a little easier for Nate and I to stay on our health kick and share the pie love with our co-workers. While we were grocery shopping this past weekend I came across disposable "pot-pie" pie tins and figured that would be perfecto!

I picked up a whole mess of fresh, giant blueberries, and got to pie makin'!
First I made the double crust (a double batch of Dorie's go-to pie crust that is the BIZOMB.) The only change I made is using the plastic "dough" blade on the food processor....



While the dough was chillin I cleaned up my flour mess and gathered up the filling ingredients. I could find one of the containers of blueberries, but where the heck was the second container?? I tore the fridge apart, checked my grocery receipt (rang up for TWO containers of blueberries) and had no luck turning them up. I was not giving up on the pie making (and was not going back to the store) so took some filling liberty on this recipe.
I used 1 pt of fresh, delicious blueberries and about 1 to 1 1/2 cups fresh cherries, pitted (we drove to Tahoe last weekend and scooped the cherries up on our long Sunday drive home through the farm lands of Cali).
I kept everything else about Dorie's filling recipe the same (and crossed my fingers!)



I rolled out the first disc of dough and it made enough crusts to fill 5 of the lil pot-pie tins (which I buttered BIG TIME!).
Then I tried to be as even as possible with the filling.
I rolled out the second disc, used one of the un-used pot-pie tins as a stencil and cut out my top layer of crust, sealing each little pie up~




I baked the 5 pies 25 minutes before lowering the oven temp a bit, but then for about 35 minutes- so in the end the same cooking time.



These were a HUGE hit!! The flavor combination was absolutely beautiful, and the pies were adorable! Nate and I cut one in half and shared it (perfect amount of decadence)then he had a little more...




These were fun to just dig into with a fork like we did at work today! I loved it as Blucherry Pie, but think it would be brilliant with just the blueberries~

This recipe was DELICIOUS and a most definite keeper!

PS the other container of Blueberries was in my freakin trunk! (I'll check there SOONER next time!)...

Tuesdays Wtih Dorie~ La Palette's Strawberry Tart

This should be called BEST, EASIEST TART EVER!!! What a perfect recipe to kick of summer with some fresh strawberries and a sweet crumbly crust!!
This weeks selection for TUESDAYS WITH DORIE comes to us from Marie of A YEAR FROM OAK COTTAGE, thanks for a fabulous selection Marie!!

If you have not visited Marie's blog, click the link above and go check it out! Visit often, you'll get totally addicted!! :)

I've been "away" for a bit, so before I get knee deep in tartiness, let me give a little blurb of catch up!
While I do have a slightly "consuming" job, that as I have mentioned, has nothing to do with baking, frying, glazing or whipping anything, I only have to travel for said job twice a year. Both of those trips, however, are a whole week long, and take almost two weeks of long hours and big tasks to prepare for. The good news is I have returned from the second of these two annual trips, just in time for summer, and ready to get back in the kitchen!!
On top of that fun time consumption, we are proud to announce the newest member of our family! This past Saturday we adopted AURTHUR an 18-20 month old red/tan weenie pup!! WELCOME TO OUR SWEET LIFE AURTHUR!! (I will do a separate, non-food-related, weenie post soon!)



AND, last but certainly not least, this post marks the first photos taken with my NEW CAMERA!! WOO HOO!!! Not that there was anything wrong with my old one, it was just time for a little upgrade and a few more mega pixels! Click HERE. to see the camera if you are interested...

WHEW- Now, onto the TART!



As I mentioned many words ago, this was super simple and VERY delicious!
For the recipe, you can visit Marie's blog or, as I always say, GO GET THIS BOOK.
CLICK HERE for a link to purchase Baking; From My Home to Yours by; Dorie Greenspan.

I actually recommended this book to several people I met on my business trip, because I have found it so much fun to bake from and know it will be a true "keeper" in our family for many years to come. AND the recipes are written out in a way that I've been able to follow them pretty well, which means so would most people :)

This tart consists of just a few very simple components;
1. A sweet tart crust (easy-peasy)
2. The best strawberry jam you can find (although I used preserves)
3. Fresh delicious strawberries

The rest is up to you! My husband said that he wanted to try it with pudding, so we made some mini-tarts. Also, I do not own an actual tart pan- so I used my 4 porcelain creme brulee dishes and made 4 little tarts! We did two as per the recipe (except for the preserves substitution) and the other two had a layer of banana pudding between the jamminess and the strawberries.



This is a "endless possibilities" recipe, no doubt!...Here's and update, this is a pick of Nate's tart with the pudding~

Cool as a...

Lately I've been LOVING cucumber!! Such a great summer veggie~
I also received a mandolin as a gift and love using it.




It comes in handy for salads like this cucumber salad, and all kinds of other wonderful slicing and dicing!

Cucumber Salad
1 Large Cucumber thinly sliced
1 small white or red onion thinly sliced
3/4 c white or rice vinegar
1/2 c water
3/4 cup sugar
1 T dried dill
2 tsp red chili flakes

Combine cucumber and onion in large bowl, mix in other ingredients
Cover and refrigerate at least one hour (Even better the nest day) & serve!

Teacher Shower~

I love summer parties! This weekend we gathered at my mom's place to celebrate my sis landing her first teaching job! It's a year-round school so only one more week of summer for her. Since the schools have such tight budgets these days we threw her a little shower to help her start her career off right (and with plenty of fun supplies!) It was a day-time event with buffet-style appetizers.
I made Goat Cheese Stuffed Grape Tomatoes and Shrimp & Veggie Couscous (both easy to make here at my house and traveled well on the hour trip to my moms)

~Cherry Tomatoes Filled With Goat Cheese~
This is the Original Recipe from Williams Sonoma Recipes Online (my mod's below)

24 Cherry Tomatoes (a mix of red & yellow
1/4 Lb fresh goat cheese (chevre)
1/4 C. Fresh minced basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Cut the top off each tomato & scoop out pulp to make a hollow yet sturdy shell, drain any juice that accumulates in the shells.
Combine all other ingredients in a bowl, mix well with a fork.
Fill each tomato with cheese mix, plate & serve
(original recipe makes 24 cherry tomatoes, serves 6)

I used grape tomatoes, and doubled this recipe.
Also I used 1 14oz package fresh chevre (plain) and one 8oz package fine herb coated chevre, then added a little less than 1/4 c. finley minced basil, pinches of Kosher salt & pepper to taste....
I used the tip of my potato peeler to hollow the tomatoes out & fill them.
I had about 1/4 c cheese mix leftover that we're spreading on crackers today!





Shrimp Couscous Salad
From All Recipes Online






2 C couscous
2 C water

3/4 C. olive oil
1/4 C apple cider vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp ground cumin
1 clove crushed garlic
salt & pepper to taste
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 1/2 lbs cooked shrimp, peeled & deveined
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 cup crumbled feta cheese

My mods~
I winged it with the dressing mix, added more mustard & more cumin and added 2 cloves of finely minced garlic until I liked how it tasted..I may add a bit of lemon zest next time.
I also did one only one tomato and added some chopped orange bell pepper.
The shrimp seemed a bit large since this was an appetizer-type salad to be served in smaller portions I choped them in half. I used 1/2 reg feta and 1/2 fat free.
I refrigerated overnight & I am using the extra dressing as a marinade for chicken.

Pour water into saucepan, bring to a boil. Stir in couscous, cover & remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes and immediately fluff with a fork (otherwise it will clump) set aside to cool.

In a small bowl wish together olive oil, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic, Salt & pepper~ set aside.

In a large bowl, toss together shrimp, cooled couscous, bell peppers, tomato, parsley & feta. Whisk vinaigrette blend, the drizzle about half over couscous & toss to coat. Add more dressing to coat with out drenching. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.