Chunky Greek Hummus Plate-Secret Recipe Club

My first recipe post in a while (see yesterday's post for why) and it's for Secret Recipe Club reveal day!  This month I was assigned Linday's blog, The Lean Green Bean.  Not only does her website have fun recipes, healthy ones at that (she studying to be a Registered Dietitian) but also inspirational workouts and fitness information.


I chose Lindsay's recipe for Chunky Greek Hummus Plate, a recipe from one of Lindsay and her husband's favorite restaurants.  I love hummus and I love Greek salad so this was an easy recipe to get excited about.  It was also easy to throw together on the road, using prepared ingredients.  I will definitely do it again making my own hummus and Greek salad!  


Time: 5 minutes (using prepared ingredients)
Serves: 4 for an appetizer


Ingredients:

• 1 cup prepared hummus
• 1 cup finely chopped Greek salad ingredients
• Sprinkles of feta cheese, or (as I used) a tzatziki/feta dip)
• Chips or veggies for serving (I used pretzel chips)

Method:

• Spread hummus on plate.
• Top with chopped Greek salad and feta (or sauce).
• Serve with chips of your choice.

Thanks Lindsay for a fun appetizer!

To see all the Secret Recipe Club recipes for July, see below.

Recipe for Quick and Easy Chicken Piccata-Secret Recipe Club

I was a little nervous when I got Barbara Bakes for my assignment for this month's Secret Recipe Club.  We'd just finished off the amazing Armenian Coffee Cake I made and really didn't want or need to have anything else tempting in the house for a while.  


I needn't have feared though.  Barbara has, in addition to all her mouth watering baked goods, a great selection of savory dishes.  Her chicken piccata recipe got my attention right away since it is a "quick and easy" recipe and one of our favorite chicken dishes to order at a restaurant. However, I'd never made it at home, which won't be an issue now I have her recipe in my files!


Barbara, like many of us, started her blog to share her favorite family recipes and her adventures in the kitchen. She also enjoys the Daring Bakers recipes as I do (where the Coffee Cake came from!).


The only significant change I made to the original recipe was throwing in some mushrooms which I know isn't traditional but they made a nice addition to the sauce and we eat them any time we can.


Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 2 servings


Ingredients:

• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• AP flour
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup dry white wine 
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon drained capers
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
• Fresh lemon slices
• Fresh parsley, chopped
• Plastic wrap or waxed paper

Method:

• Heat olive oil over med-high heat in a non-stick frying pan.
• Slice each chicken breast in half horizontally to make thinner pieces.
• Place the thin pieces between waxed paper or plastic wrap and pound to very thin (about 1/4 inch).
• Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour on both sides, shaking off any excess flour.
• Brown and cook the chicken in the oil, about 2-3 minutes per side (depending on how thin you got them).
• Remove from pan and keep warm.
• Pour off any remaining oil and deglaze pan with wine, gently stirring for a minute to release the "brown bits" from the pan.
• Add garlic, broth and mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes.
• Add lemon juice and capers and cook an additional minute to warm through.
• Return chicken and any juices to pan and heat for 1-2 minutes.
• Plate chicken and then stir butter in to sauce.
• Top chicken with sauce, chopped parsley and lemon slices.

If you like a lot of sauce, I would double the liquids but otherwise this recipe is perfect!

Printable recipe

Some of the other Secret Recipe Club recipes I've made (Search for "Secret Recipe Club" in the search box on the right):


Moussaka

Stuffed Portabellas

Recipe for Scallops with Creamy Pesto Pasta-Secret Recipe Club

The blog I got to snoop around on this month for the Secret Recipe Club was Lisa's Cook Lisa Cook.  Lisa and her family (husband and daughter) live in the Atlanta area, near where I used to live and where I still have family.  She's a transplant from New England, her hubby from across the Atlantic, and their daughter all the way from China.  Lisa also writes another blog about their life as an adoptive family.  But on to this recipe-it comes together pretty quickly so best to be organized.  I used a commercial pesto sauce and it was fine but I do think this would be amazing with the fresh taste of homemade pesto-next time!  Lisa also used lemon pepper pasta which I could not find so I used my favorite multi-grain and added a generous squirt of lemon to the sauce.

Yield: 2 servings

Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 8 large scallops. dried very well
• 2 servings of your favorite pasta (I used whole grain linguine)
• Peanut oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup minced shallot
• 1/2 cup minced sweet red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup basil pesto
• 1 1/2 cups fat free half and half
• Juice from 1 large lemon

Method:

• Cook pasta according to package directions.
• Generously season the scallops with salt and pepper.
• Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat, and add just enough oil to coat the bottom.  Heat until very hot.
• Heat enough oil over medium high heat to coat the bottom of another pan and add the shallots, cooking for a minute or two until softened.  Then add the red pepper and cook an additional 1-2 minutes.
• While the veggies are cooking, sear the scallops 2 minutes per side (don't overcook, they should be slightly translucent in the center).
• Stir the pesto and half and half in to the veggies and cook over medium until warmed through and gently bubbling.  Stir in the lemon juice.
• Combine the sauce and cooked pasta. 
• Serve the pasta topped with the scallops.

I think this would also be good with shrimp.  Thanks to Lisa for a creative recipe idea!


Check out all the recipes from this month's Secret Recipe Club reveal through the links below.

Printable recipe

Original recipe on Lisa's blog

Recipe for Moussaka-Secret Recipe Club

Moussaka-something I love ordering in restaurants but have failed miserably the few times I've tried to make it. Not this time!  Thanks to Evelyne at Cheap Ethnic Eatz, I now have a great recipe.  Evelyne's blog was my March Secret Recipe Club assignment.  It is a nice experience each month to really spend some dedicated time on a fellow bloggers site.  You can read more and see all of this months recipes on the Secret Recipe Club site.

Evelyne has a nice mixture of ethnic recipes on her site so I'd encourage you to go over and check it out.  It was hard to pick just one recipe but I'm really happy I chose her moussaka.  The only real changes I made were using bison instead of lamb or beef (wanted to use lamb but couldn't find any the day I was cooking) and I used a fair bit more cinnamon than called for, only because I love it so much!


Yield: 8 servings
Time: 2 hours


Ingredients:

• 2 large eggplants
• salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 lbs ground bison, lean
• 2 large onions, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
• 1/2 cup good red wine (I used a pinot noir)
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 3/4 TBSP ground cinnamon
• salt and pepper
• 1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1 cup grated aged Parmesan
• Cooking spray

For the bechamel sauce:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/3 cup AP flour
• 4 cups 2% milk
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups 2% cottage cheese
• 1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Method:

• Slice the eggplants into 1/2 inch slices; lay on paper towels and sprinkle with salt; allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Heat a few TBSP of oil over med-high heat.
• Wipe salt off and dry eggplant slices then fry until browned and softening; do in batches adding more oil as needed. Drain on paper towels after each batch.
• Hold cooked eggplant for assembly of casserole and meanwhile heat remaining oil over medium heat.
• Add onions and cook until translucent.
• Add ground bison and cook until no longer pink.
• Add garlic and cook 1 minute.
• Add wine, tomato paste, cinnamon, salt and pepper.
• Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Add parsley.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Spray 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
• Sprinkle half the breadcrumbs over the bottom of dish.
• Layer half the eggplant, then half the meat, then half the Parmesan.
• Repeat layering, breadcrumbs, eggplant, meat, Parmesan.
• Make sauce by melting butter over medium heat.
• Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute.
• Pour in milk, whisking continuously until very thick.
• Remove from heat.
• Slowly whisk in eggs, cottage cheese and nutmeg.
• Pour sauce over casserole, smooth top if needed.
• Bake for 1 hour or until browned.
• Cool for 10 minutes and serve.

Why was this recipe a keeper?  I think it was a combination of having the eggplant sliced to the right thickness, cooking until browned and softening and then the wonderful bechamel with cottage cheese in it.  The sauce was rich without being too overwhelming.  I think this would be amazing made with ground lamb (and hope I can find some next time!).


This keeps and reheats very nicely.  Thanks Evelyne for sharing this recipe!
Printable recipe

Recipe for Stuffed Portabellas-Secret Recipe Club

It is that time again!  I look forward each month to my assignment for the Secret Recipe Club.  This is a large group of bloggers who cook from one another's blogs each month.  We don't know who is cooking from our blog or what they are cooking until the big reveal day.  That would be today!


This month my assignment was the blog "cravings of a lunatic" authored by the very irreverent and funny Kim Bee.  I chose one of Kim's non-dessert dishes to cook since Mr. ELEB and I are supposed to be limiting our treats right now (although I enjoyed browsing through all the decadent sweets on her site!).


I've made portabella pizzas before and we love them so I was naturally drawn to Kim Bee's recipe for stuffed portabella mushrooms.


Yield: 4 servings
Time: 30 minutes


Ingredients:

• 4 portabella mushrooms, stems and gills removed (see my video if you need to learn this technique)
• 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
• 4 TBSP mushroom sauce
• 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
• 3/4 cup cooked, diced sausage, I used a mix of grilled chicken apple sausages
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Crushed red pepper to taste (I omitted this)
• 1/2 cup grated asiago cheese, plus more for tops

Method:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Line baking sheet with parchment and place mushrooms on parchment.
• Mix rice, sauce, onion, sausage, most of cheese and seasonings together.
• Spoon mixture into mushrooms and top with remaining cheese.
• Cook for 15 minutes or until filling is warmed and cheese is melted.
• Serve hot.

Big mahalo (thanks) to Kim Bee for this tasty recipe.  I can envision all sorts of yummy stuffing combinations for portabellas going forward.

Printable recipe

Recipe for Simply Baked Pasta-Secret Recipe Club

Mmmm.  Little pillows of ricotta cheese (no not mashed potatoes!) on top of whole grain pasta, sauce, pepper jack cheese, beef - what's not to like?  That's what I thought when I was browsing through Stacy's blog Every Little Thing and saw her "wing it" recipe for baked pasta.  She was in the midst of an exercise to eat on $60/week and threw this together based on what she had on hand.  Perfect-I do that a lot too, probably why I was drawn to this recipe.  It's Secret Recipe Club time!  

Stacy is a Social Worker who lives in Missouri and specializes in the areas of autism and developmental disabilities.   She has adapted a local, natural lifestyle and hopes to help others become closer to their community and our Earth.  Here's Stacy's recipe, with a few adaptations:


Yield: 6 servings
Time: 30 minutes


Ingredients: 

• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 tsp ancho pepper powder
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 8 oz. multi grain rotini pasta, cooked al dente
• 2 oz. pepper jack cheese, grated
• 12 oz. part skim ricotta cheese
• 12 oz. marinara sauce
• Salt and pepper
• Cooking spray

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Brown the beef and onions together.
• Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray.
• Combine the beef/onion mixture with the other ingredients except ricotta in the casserole dish.
• Drop 6 dollops of ricotta on the top of the mixture.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly.  Serve with sprinkle of salt and pepper.

So simple and just the right level of heat for me.  If you like things really spicy, add more ancho pepper powder. This keeps well and reheats like a dream.  Check out Stacy's blog when you have a chance!  To see the other Secret Recipe Club participants, check out all the links below.

Original recipe

Printable recipe

Recipe for Cheesy Chicken Penne Pasta. Secret Recipe Club!

It's that time again!  I'm really enjoying the opportunity to participate in the Secret Recipe Club.  It is a collection of bloggers who secretly pick a recipe from another's blog and cook and post about it.  Not only is it fun to spook around on someone else's blog but it is also a treat to see who had your blog for the month and what they picked to cook.

This month my assigned blog was The Life & Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch authored by Shelby, a wife and a mom to two grown boys, Justin and Christopher. Now, coincidence or what?  I'm a wife and a mom to two grown boys, Justin and Christopher.  Okay, Shelby lives in NY and I live in Maui, so not everything is spookily the same but, I'm just sayin'! 


Shelby has some awesome recipes on her site.  Like I've been into an Indian kick lately, she's been into an Asian one.  I definitely have plans to try her honey and sesame chicken some time soon but for today I chose her cheesy chicken penne pasta.

Time: 55 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

·         8 oz. whole wheat penne pasta

·         1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces

·         1 TBSP olive oil

·         Salt and pepper

·         1 shallot, chopped

·         1 clove garlic, chopped

·         1 cup organic vegetable broth

·         ¾ cup fat free half and half

·         6 oz. gruyere cheese, shredded, divided

·         1 cup frozen English peas

·         1/3 cup homemade breadcrumbs

·         Cooking spray

Method:

·         Cook pasta according to package directions for al dente.

·         Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

·         Heat olive oil over medium-high heat and when hot, add chicken that has been seasoned with salt and pepper.

·         Cook chicken for about 4-5 minutes, until browned.

·         Add in shallot and garlic and lower heat to medium and cook 5 additional minutes.

·         Add broth and bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

·         Add half and half and simmer an additional 5 minutes.

·         Stir in 5 oz. of the cheese and cook until melted.

·         Stir in peas and drained pasta.

·         Spray casserole dish with cooking spray and add pasta/chicken mixture.

·         Top with breadcrumbs and then remaining cheese.

·         Bake for 25 minutes or until top has browned and casserole is bubbly.

I made very few changes to the original recipe, which Shelby adapted from another blogger (isn't recipe blogging great!), the main one being using fat free half and half instead of heavy cream.  We really enjoyed this casserole!  I used 365 Organic Whole Wheat Penne which we find to be very tasty and with none of that cardboard taste some whole wheat pasta has (unsponsored). 


If you wanted to make this a bit more decadent, I think adding in some bacon would be amazing and make it reminiscent of a carbonara.  Enjoy!


Printable recipe

Recipe for Indian Spiced Beans

A few months ago I saw a couple of mentions of the Secret Recipe Club but didn’t really have time to look into exactly what it was all about.  Until now.  How it works in a nutshell is you sign up to join and are assigned a different blog each month (from another participating blogger).  Once you receive your assignment, you choose any recipe to make from that blog.  The secret part is that participating bloggers don’t know who is cooking from their blog or what is being made until the assigned day. 

Today is the day, and I am featuring a recipe from the blog Beantown Baker.  Jen is the author and lives in Boston with her hubby and two cats.  She loves to bake as you could probably guess but also features other recipes on her blog.  Since Mr. ELEB and I are still trying to recover (ie lose the weight we gained) from our (not so) recent SF/NY/Atlanta trip, and because I’m trying to cook more Indian food, I chose this interesting bean recipe rather than one of her delicious sounding desserts.  However, I’d encourage you to check out Jen’s blog for some decadent cupcakes!

Yield: 3 servings

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 inch fresh ginger, grated
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup light coconut milk
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves

Method:

• Heat oil in a medium skillet over med-high heat.
• Add onion and sauté until translucent.
• Stir in the minced garlic and garam masala.
• Cook for one minute. 
• Stir in the beans, tomatoes, ginger, and salt.
• Simmer for fifteen minutes. 
• Pour in coconut milk.
• Heat until warmed.
• Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

This is a great, quick recipe for when you want something flavorful but easy to put together, especially if you are on an Indian food kick like I am!  I stayed pretty true to the original recipe.  I used cannellini rather than pinto beans but as Jen noted, any bean will work.  I also omitted the small amount of sugar in the original recipe, used fresh instead of ground ginger, and used light instead of regular coconut milk. 

Check out all the other recipes that were made as part of the Secret Recipe Club.  I can’t wait to see what someone picked to make from Eat Little, Eat Big!  

Printable Recipe