Vegetarian Chicken Wraps

Ingredients:
- 1 package of Morning Star Buffalo Wings (I have tried the Morning Star Chicken Nuggets, but they don't have as much flavor as the Buffalo Wings. They're a little spicy and they actually taste like chicken.)
- 1-2 diced avocados
- 1-2 diced Roma tomatoes
- 2-3 cups of shredded or chopped lettuce (I think iceberg or romaine works best.)
- Ranch Dressing (depending on the amount of avocado, tomato, and cheese, you may not even need any dressing)

You may want to add:
- Shredded cheese
- Whole wheat tortillas (I toast mine on the stove-top)

Directions:
- Place the Morning Star Buffalo Wings in the microwave for approximately 3 minutes.
- Add lettuce, tomato, and avocado in large mixing bowl.
- Once the Buffalo Wings are cooked, use a fork and a knife to shred them up into small pieces and then add them to the lettuce mixture.
- Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy!
- Add salad to a toasted tortilla with a little bit of ranch dressing for a wrap, or leave as is!

If you're not a vegetarian, you could easily substitute the Morning Star Buffalo Wings for actual shredded chicken. If you have leftover roasted chicken, just tear it up into small pieces and saute it for a minute or two in a skillet to warm it up.

Potato Wedges!!

A little information about me...I love potatoes. Never met a potato I didn't like (except for this weird Mediterranean recipe my mom made once...yuck!). Every so often, I crave French Fries but don't want to deal with the mess. This is an easy, quick, tasty, and probably much healthier alternative.

Ingredients:
- 3 Russet potatoes (Make more, make less, doesn't matter to me! I also leave the skin on.)
- Seasonings: Salt, pepper, garlic salt, chili powder, Essence (Yes, like Emeril....it's delicious and you'll start putting it on everything!)

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 420 degrees.
- Cut the potatoes in half the long way, then cut four wedges out of each half. (8 wedges per potato)
- Put potato wedges into large mixing bowl or large Zip-Loc bag.
- Add enough olive oil to evenly coat the potatoes (about 1/4 cup)
- Sprinkle in a lot of seasoning (definitely needs a bit of salt, but use chili powder and Essence to taste) then use your hands to toss the wedges in the bowl until they're evenly coated with oil and seasoning.
- Lay potatoes onto a baking sheet flesh side down. It is important that all of the wedges by flat on the baking sheet. If they're not, they may not get as crispy and delicious.
- Place baking sheet in oven for approximately 30 minutes.
- Remove baking sheet and use tongs or a spatula to flip the wedges over so the other flesh side is face down on the tray, then place tray back in the oven for another 30 minutes.

 

*I'm a firm believer that the darker brown the potato is, the crispier it is, the better it is! Simply check on the potatoes often to make sure they're the consistency you want.

 

*You can also use this same recipe to make potatoes on the grill!! Just place the wedges flesh side down on the grill over medium heat and cover for about 15 minutes, then flip to the other side for another 15 minutes to get nice char marks. Then, move potatoes to a top rack so they are off of direct heat, and cook for another 20 minutes or so. Yum!

Pasta a la Tyagi

My friend and I have an understanding, if we make something yummy, we bring some of it to work in a Tupperware for the other to eat. Then, when we return the Tupperware, we fill it with something delicious as a "Thank You." This is a recipe for a dish that I received as a "Thank You."

Ingredients:
- 1/2 package of Egg noodles (either the short skinny ones typically found in chicken noodle soup or the whole wheat egg noodles)
- 1 package of grape tomatoes quartered
- 1 diced medium yellow or red onion
- 1/2 package of frozen peas
- 2 tablespoons of mustard seeds
- Seasonings: salt, pepper, chili flakes, chili powder, cayenne pepper to taste

Directions:
- In a medium sauce pan, bring water to a boil to cook the pasta until al dente. The thin pasta cooks very quickly so keep on eye on it. Strain the pasta before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.
- In a large skillet, pour about 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat and add mustard seeds. PUT THE COVER OVER IT!! The seeds will start popping and will get all over the place if you don't.
- Once the popping starts to slow down, add the diced onion into the skillet and stir with a wooden spoon until onion starts to become translucent and/or brown. Add chili flakes.

- Add tomato pieces and cook down until most of the liquid is gone (approximately 5 minutes).
- Add desired seasoning (Tomatoes and pasta absorb a lot of the flavor so don't be frugal with your seasoning).
- Add in frozen peas and stir until they are bright green.
- Add in cooked pasta and stir for approximately five minutes. Taste and add seasoning as needed.

Kosher for Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies?!?

Yep, that's right, Kosher for Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies. And you know what, they taste pretty good! Who knew?!? (Psst....they're also dairy free. Of course, you can make them dairy, but what's the challenge in that?)

Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup of margarine (or butter)
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of cake meal
- 1/2 cup of potato starch
- 1 package of chocolate chips (check the label to see if they're dairy or Kosher for Passover)

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small bowl (I use a paper plate), combine cake meal and potato starch and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together eggs, sugar, and margarine until well combined.
- While beating the egg/sugar/margarine mixture, slowly incorporate the cake meal and potato starch. Add a little at a time and beat until well combined.
- Pour in chocolate chips and stir with a spoon until the chips are evenly distributed in mixture.
- Drop spoonfuls (or use a chocolate chip cookie scoop) evenly spaced out on a cookie sheet.

- Bake in the oven between 13-15 minutes.
- When you remove the cookies from the oven, take them off the tray and place them on a sheet of foil or a cooling rack to cool.

*If you want them to be Kosher for Passover and/or non-dairy, be sure to check the labels on all of your ingredients.

Cheryl's Chicken Soup

My mom is a pretty amazing cook, and not too long ago, she was kind enough to share her chicken soup recipe with me. It's simple, it's delicious, it creates enough soup to last me a week, and, did I mention it's delicious?

Ingredients:
- 2 to 4 chicken hind quarters bone-in (You can use any part of the chicken with bones, but I like dark meat and I like a lot of pieces of chicken in my soup, so I use 3-4 hind quarters of thighs and legs. Chicken can be frozen or defrosted.)
- 1 medium onion cut in half
- 8 whole cloves of garlic
- 2-3 carrots peeled and cut into large chunks
- 2-3 stalks of celery cut into large chunks
- fresh dill
- 4 bay leaves
- Seasonings: Bouillon powder, salt, pepper, and garlic salt taste

Directions:
- In a large soup pot, put in chicken. I have a large pasta pot with the strainer insert that I use to easily separate the chicken and veggies from the broth.

 - Add carrots and celery.

- Add onion, garlic, dill, and bay leaves.

- Add seasoning. You'll need to add a lot of salt and I think freshly ground pepper adds a lot of good flavor. But don't add too too much, you can always taste it when it's ready and add more salt later.
- Fill pot with water to cover all the ingredients.
- Place on stove over high heat and bring to a boil.
- Lower heat to medium/low and then leave on the stove for 2 hours.
- Now, here's where you can choose your own soup adventure:
                 - I don't like carrots or cooked celery, so I strain all ingredients out of the broth, then peel the chicken off of the bones and add that back into the soup. I throw away everything else.
                 - I will sometimes buy the "No Yolk" whole wheat egg noodles to add to the broth that cooks while I'm getting all the chicken off the bones for yummy Chicken Noodle Soup.
                 - Sometimes I use some of the broth in my rice cooker to make some rice, and then add a couple spoonfuls of rice to my bowl of soup.
                 - Try shredding zucchini and/or sweet potato in a food processor, and then adding that to the soup for a hearty vegetable soup. Just be sure to cook it for a little bit until the sweet potatoes are soft.
                 - This is also the recipe my mom uses to cook Matzah Balls in.....YUM!!
                 - Or....do all of the above! Keep the veggies, add the noodles, add some rice (noodles AND rice might be overkill), add the zucchini, sweet potato, and Matzah Balls, and enjoy some super delicious soup!

*TIP: If you leave the soup in the fridge overnight, you will notice a bunch of fat coagulated on the top. Use a ladle to skim it off.....it's pretty gross.

Kickin' Quinoa

So, Quinoa...what is it? When it's cooked, it kind of has the texture of couscous/rice but it's actually a seed, high in protein, gluten free, and pretty good for you. I guess people are kind of turned off by it because they're not quite sure what to do with it. Well, this is what I do with it....

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups of quinoa
- 1 or 2 jalapenos diced pretty small (depends on how spicy you like it)
- 1 medium sized onion diced
- 5 roma tomatoes (4-5 depends on size, seeded [take out the juicy insides] and diced)
- 3 cups of water or stock (if you make less quinoa, the rule is 2 to 1 water to quinoa)
- Seasonings: Bouillon powder, salt, pepper, chili powder, and garlic salt taste

You may consider:
- Broccoli florets or asparagus spears (cut into 1 inch pieces after roasting) drizzled with olive oil and salt, roasted in the oven at about 425 degrees until they start to caramelize (about 10-15 minutes). Add them to the finished quinoa....it's delicious!

Directions:
- In a medium sized sauce pan over medium/high heat, drizzle in about 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and then add diced onion. Cook onion until it starts to brown and caramelize (approximately five-six minutes) stirring often with a wooden spoon.

- Add in jalapenos, and cook for another 2-3 minutes stirring often.

- Add in 3 of the diced tomatoes and cook for yet another 2-3 minutes.

- Add in dry quinoa and stir ingredients together. Cook ingredients together for 2-3 minutes. Quinoa is going to stick to all the jalapenos, onion, and tomatoes....that's totally fine.

- Pour in water/stock and add seasoning and give a stir. Just so you know, you don't want to be frugal with the seasoning, quinoa doesn't have a whole lot of flavor on it's own.
- Bring the water to a boil and then cover and reduce heat for approximately 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on the quinoa!

- Once all of the water has been absorbed, add in the rest of the diced tomatoes and the roasted vegetables (I highly recommend the roasted veggies! They add a lot of good flavor.)

If you're not quite ready for quinoa, you can do the same recipe with Israeli couscous (the large couscous...the basically tiny balls of pasta). The only difference you'd make is that the water needs to be boiling before you add it to the couscous and it doesn't need to cook quite as long.

Whoa, Edamame!!

Here is a recipe for a healthy edamame, spinach, tomato, and garlic pasta.

Ingredients:
- 1 package of small sugar plum tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes)
- 1 package of shelled edamame (available at Trader Joe's)
- 1 bag of baby spinach
- approximately 6-7 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- about 2 cups of dry whole wheat pasta (here I used whole wheat rotini, but I've also used whole wheat egg noodles which have the lowest calories/fat and it comes out just as tasty)
- Seasoning (to taste): salt, pepper, chili flakes, garlic salt

Directions:
- Prepare pot with water to boil pasta. In the amount of time it takes the water to boil and for the pasta to cook, the rest of the dish should be ready to go.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, put about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and then pour in all of the sugar plum tomatoes whole and sprinkle with a little bit of salt.
- Cover skillet, occasionally moving tomatoes around the skillet for approximately 5-8 minutes until the tomatoes start to char a bit and become easy to squish.
- Lower the heat just a tad, and use a fork to squish all the tomatoes.

- Once all the tomatoes are squished, add in the finely chopped garlic and add a little more salt, pepper, and chili flakes.
- Let some of the liquid cook out, then add in shelled edamame.
- Stir everything together with a wooden spoon, and let everything cook together for about 2-3 minutes on low heat.

- Add baby spinach a pinch more salt, chili flakes, and garlic salt, then cover and let cook for another 2-3 minutes until spinach begins to wilt.
- Stir spinach into edamame, tomato, garlic mixture, then, use a slotted spoon to drain and scoop pasta out of the water and directly into the skillet.
- Stir everything together for a minute or two until everything is evenly distributed.

Serve it up, and enjoy!