Category: Make This Now

Make This Now

Lauren2 Comments

It’s summer and all I want to do is grill and eat every meal al fresco.

This maybe has something to do with living in a house without air conditioning (though we did finally get a window unit for our living room and it’s been life-changing), but even if turning on the oven/stove didn’t cause the temperature in our house to skyrocket to 90°, I’d still want to eat every meal outside.  Something about eating without the distraction of the TV, under a perfectly blue summer sky, AT AN ACTUAL TABLE (I’m so sad to say we are normally couch eaters) is just perfection to me.

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Spinach Goat Cheese Turkey Burgers

I’ve made these twice now, but the first time, I grilled them up all by myself and um can we just talk about the confidence boost you get from successfully manning womanning the grill?  Aside from that, these burgers are just phenomenal.  Moist (sorry), juicy, flavorful and is there anything better than biting into a goat cheese pocket?  Answer: NO.  I straight up declared this the best burger I’d ever made, so there you go.

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Roasted Carrots and Red Leaf Lettuce Salad with Buttermilk-Herb Dressing

Butter…milk makes everything better!  And I wish I had a picture that did this salad justice but it was 8 PM and Joey was on the couch, waiting to press play on Zoolander (so much better but also way way worse than I remembered it being…) so I was short on natural lighting and time.  Just know the carrots were perfectly caramelized, the mix-ins were on point and the buttermilk-herb dressing was straight up drinkable.

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Not a picture of the recipe I’m talking about but let me distract you with this avocado.

California Turkey and Bacon Lettuce Wraps with Basil-Mayo

A lettuce wrap?  Ugh, I know, but just hear me out.  I was mesmerized by this recipe less because it was low-carb (so not into that) and more because: BACON!  And BASIL-MAYO!  And also that part where making it didn’t require turning the oven OR the stove on.  WIN!  I thought it was just gonna be okay, but I was shocked by how good it was and how much we loved the flavors.  New summertime staple!

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Grilled Lamb

Not going to pretend this is the cheapest cut of meat but also not going to pretend it’s not 110% worth it because this recipe was SO EASY (I was kind of terrified I’d ruin a $40 piece of lamb!) and SO DELICIOUS.  Beyond impressed/excited with how well this turned out.  Definitely a showstopper meal, even if it was just for Joey and I.

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Sweet Corn and Zucchini Pie

I still remember making this for the first time because it was August 2014 and we were soclose to our wedding day and it felt like the sweetest summer to ever exist.  Now, every time we remake this zucchini pie, I’m brought back to that time and it just makes me feel so happy.  Even if you don’t have a wedding-memory connection with it, this pie is the best.  Fresh and summery but also delightfully cheesy.

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Tequila-Glazed Grilled Chicken Thighs

Apparently we made these last summer.  I don’t remember it, yet there it is in my “Repeat Recipe” folder and there’s my review on the recipe page.  After tasting it for a… second?? time, I have NO IDEA how I could forget something so good!  The sauce is tropically sweet but surprisingly well balanced and you guys know how much I love chicken thighs.  Also, Joey grilled these in the rain.  My hero ♥

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Banana Cream with Raw Chocolate Fudge

Guys…blended frozen bananas is NOT ice cream.  But…it’s still really good.  And I hadn’t made any in what I’m pretty sure was years, but I felt inspired this week and also I just really wanted to make that fudge sauce to drizzle over.  It went all Magic Shell on us when it hit the cold banana cream, except thicker and fudgier.  So so good and so so easy!  Totally gonna make more next week!

In other news, it’s Friday, it’s summer, we’re going to the Rockies game tonight, I’m having a pre-Shakespeare Festival picnic with my mom and sister tomorrow and right this very minute I’m off to read this week’s Grub Street Diet.  Happiness abound!

Have a good weekend!

Make This Now

Lauren6 Comments

I’m back!  If anything, this series is making me really aware of how many good things we cook.  When you’re doing the post-work marathon of going to the gym, cooking dinner, eating dinner, cleaning up dinner and fitting in Season 5 of GoT before Season 6 starts (we made it, phew!), you don’t exactly have time to breathe to really appreciate how good what you cooked for dinner (hopefully) is.  Even if it’s just the same vegan mac and cheese you’ve made like 100x, take a minute to appreciate how glorious it is!

Garlic Mac n Cheese

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I forgot how good this recipe was until Joey suggested we make it this week, but it is really really good.  And if you like saucy mac and cheese, this one is for you!

I was admittedly and wholeheartedly obsessed with this recipe last summer.  Like made it once a week and was embarrassed to admit to Joey that I had put it on our meal plan AGAIN obsessed.  Good thing he was totally okay with it because it’s LOADED with his favorite ingredient: nutritional yeast.  Yeah, we’ve been over this.  If you roast the garlic ahead of time, this meal takes all of 20 minutes to make.  And look, I know VEGAN mac and CHEESE is an oxymoron, but vegan or not, I would (and maybe have…) spoon this sauce directly into my mouth because it is so flavorful and cheese-like.  I mean Grandma’s mac and cheese is still #1, but this comes right after.

Simple Flaky Crab Cakes

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Colorado isn’t exactly known for its seafood, but turns out, if you get good crab from Slidell, Louisiana (I got it at Whole Foods, but my aunt lives there!), you can make the most incredible crab cakes.

Okay, even though we ate these during Game of Thrones and I should have been completely distracted and not even realized I was eating, these were too good to ever ignore.  There was very little “filler” ingredients so these mostly tasted like crab, which IMHO, is EXACTLY what crab cakes should taste like! That herby sauce on top was the perfect compliment, but let’s be real, the actual crab cakes were the star of the show.  I can’t take any cooking credit on these, but Joey made it seem effortless and food cooked by other people always tastes the best.

One-Bowl Banana Nut Bread

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Joey asked me to make banana bread a few months back and look, there’s like a million different banana bread recipes on the internet but this vegan version was the PERFECT combo of sweet banana, bold vanilla flavor and occasional bites of walnut.

I am so bad at freezer food.  So so bad.  I know the freezer is a great place to store food for when you just don’t feel like cooking and can pull out a container of red beans and rice and that sounds so great, IN THEORY, but in reality, defrosting something for dinner never sounds exciting to me.  Because my dinner life is either A) cooking something fresh or B) going out to eat.  Ain’t nothing in between (except the occasional pizza delivery).  But, the exception to this rule is frozen baked goods.  This is where chocolate chips cookies, the best sandwich rolls and banana bread muffins live.  They love it in there!  This particular banana bread freezes BEAUTIFULLY and I’ve been pulling out a few at a time to defrost in the fridge and be devoured as snacks.

Pro Tip: smother in peanut butter and reach a new level of snack nirvana.

Happy Eating and Weekend-ing to you all!  I’m super excited because I’m headed to New Orleans!!!  My mom is already there and Joey and I haven’t been there together since October 2013, so my heart is probably going to explode from happiness.  New Orleans is a place to say yes to everything and I plan on doing just that!