Make This Now: New Summer Favorites

Hi, hi!  I’m currently in a stage where I only want to try new recipes and that’s okay.  Old favorites can wait till I feel inspired to make them again — lookin at you, Summer Squash and Basil Pasta! — and in the meantime, I’ll be delighting in burrito bowls, grilled chicken, punchy salad dressings, creamy desserts and elevated BLTs.  I really hope you find something new to try here and feel as inspired by it as I did!

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Spicy Black Bean Burrito Bowls with Cashew + Hemp Seed Chipotle Sauce

If you have black beans already cooked and waiting in the freezer (or heck, just a can of beans in the pantry), this recipe is such a breeze to make!  We took it up a notch by making Cilantro-Lime Rice and assembled with the beans, corn, salsa, cabbage slaw, cilantro, avocado and most importantly, THAT CHIPOTLE SAUCE, this was damn delicious.  I worship at the shrine of Illegal Pete’s but at first bite, I was like “Illegal Pete’s who?”  It was that good!

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Peruvian-Style Spatchcock Chicken with Creamy Cilantro Sauce

I pledge allegiance to the recipes of Jeff Mauro!  The directions for this chicken tell you how to do it in the oven but look, the last thing I need in my air conditioner-less home, is to have the oven on for an hour so we made this on the grill — just put the cast-iron straight on there — and it worked perfectly!  Also, it tasted incredible.  Super juicy, super flavorful and really extra good dipped in that cilantro sauce.

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Corn & Chickpea Bowl with Miso-Jalapeño Tahini

Not to dismiss this salad, because it is very good, but the shining star here is the miso-jalapeño tahini dressing.  It’s flavor-packed, creamy, and very ginger-forward.  So if you’re not that person just straight eating the pile of fresh ginger that comes with your sushi, maybe this isn’t for you.  But I AM that person, so I found this dressing to be just incredible.  It’s such a bold and bright note to contrast with the rich goat cheese and avocado in this salad and Joey and I both really really loved it, so we hope you do too!

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No-Churn Ice Cream

Raise your hand if your house is tiny and you just do not have room for yet another kitchen appliance.  I am raising my hand high.  Even though an ice cream maker sounds fun, it’s really a question of where I’m going to store it.  So, when I saw a recipe for no-churn ice cream, I was VERY VERY EXCITED.  I didn’t even know this was an option.  Turns out, you just have to make some whipped cream, fold it into some sweetened condensed milk, toss in some mix-in and let the whole thing chill for a few hours and you are rewarded with thee absolute creamiest ice cream I’ve EVER tasted.  The recipe post includes lots of flavor combination suggestions but I’m here to tell you mini chocolate chips and peppermint extract is DELIGHTFUL.

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Egg-in-a-Nest BLT Sandwich

I’m hesitant to share this recipe because, well, it’s a BLT.  But it’s better than a BLT because there’s also an egg cooked into the bread!  What a perfect mashup!  Also, you basically make a mayo-bacon guacamole to spread on the bread and it tastes pretty incredible.  Joey and I were very impressed by what seemed like a quick and easy dinner but ended up tasting like something special.  Also, I was thisclose to buying regular white bread instead of sourdough but am so glad I didn’t because it tasted extra good!

Happy Friday!

Make This Now: Recipes for Spring

I actually don’t know what makes these spring recipes, except maybe that I made them in spring?  And there’s fresh herbs?  And they’re neither full on winter comfort food nor grill-friendly summer food?  Who knows!  I just know these were all insanely delicious and I feel very eager to pass them along to you so you can enjoy them too ♥

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Ejjeh Quiche

Cilantro, parsley, mint, green onion!  I’d had this recipe saved for soooo long and finally bit the bullet, then had no idea why I’d waited so long because it was truly flavor-packed and amazing.  I was filled with such happiness every time I cut myself a slice.  Oh and I sent the above picture to Joey one night when, due to extracurricular activities, we spent dinnertime separately and challenged him to replicate it.  He sent me back my own picture (expressionless face emoji).

Full disclosure: I used my mom’s crust recipe because it’s unequivocally the best and I need no other crust recipe in my life.

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Sweet Potato Grain Bowls with Turmeric Honey Mustard

I’ve been very into this blog — Dishing Out Health — lately.  Unsurprisingly, since the author is a recipe developer for Cooking Light and as you know, I’ve been a CL reader for many many years.  Joey and I were immediately in love with this grain bowl because A) it tasted so so good (that honey mustard sauce is killer!) and B) it was so dang simple and easy to put together.  How dare simplicity taste this good!

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Wild Salmon with Horseradish-Mustard Sauce + All the Green Things Salad

This dinner was a team effort (Joey made the salmon, I made the salad) and I was so blown away by the final product!  We were skeptical of the salmon cooking method because cooking it on the stove-top AND flipping it aren’t things we usually do with fish but it was so incredible and had the best crispy skin, plus you should just know I love anything involving horseradish.  The salad was chock-full of, you guessed it, green things and they all tasted so fresh and bright tossed in that lemony vinaigrette.  I may or may not have been doing a little happy dance the entire time I ate this plate of food 🙂

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Spring Pea Veggie Burgers

It’s pretty clear what makes this a spring recipe… it’s right in the title!  But also because it includes every green spring produce to ever exist.  Every veggie burger is a game of Will They or Won’t They Hold Together but these held together SO WELL and tasted even better.  I know I already blabbed about how good these were in my Weekend Things post so I’ll stop now but… just… MAKE THESE, okay?

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In other news:

More of our tulips have popped open this week and I’m mesmerized by their vibrant colors, 

We decided to stop letting our dog sleep in bed with us and though he’s mostly been okay with it, we sometimes can’t look him in the eyes at night,

I ate a taco comprised of one single Brussels sprout, cut in half and topped with a spicy crema and I’m never doing that again,

It’s Friday!  Have a good weekend!