Feta Walnut Dip

Dips are one of those things that I think pretty much everyone likes.  Sure, you may not love them all, but I’m betting you have a favorite.  Spinach artichoke?  Sour cream and onion?  Black bean?  There are just so many good choices – which would explain why I have about 20 different dip recipes waiting to be tried.  And to tell you the truth, there should be several more dip posts on this site.  I’ve made some delicious recipes that I couldn’t wait to tell you about – only I didn’t take the pictures fast enough, and the dips disappeared before I could get the final shots.  I’m going to have to work on that.  It’s all in the planning… and in the hiding of the dip until the pictures have been taken.

When we lived in Cleveland a few years back, this Feta Walnut Dip was my favorite.  It was kind of my signature dip, if you can have such a thing.  I made it when people came over, and I was often asked to bring it to other people’s houses for parties and dinners.  It was my thing.  I made it so often I kind of got tired of it, and I haven’t made it for a few years.  However, I decided it was time to bring it back for New Year’s.  And I’m glad I did, because it went over big.

This dip is big on flavor and small on effort.  All you have to do is toast some walnuts and then toss all of the ingredients into a blender or food processor.  A minute or two later, and you are ready to dig in.  The feta is the star of the show, giving the dip a creamy texture, while the toasted walnuts add richness and a subtle nutty flavor.  A few crushed red pepper flakes help make the dip as spicy (or not) as you want, and a few sprigs of fresh parsley keep things light and fresh.  Blended together, the ingredients in this recipe combine to form the perfect dip for pita bread, crackers or veggies.  It would make a great sandwich spread too.  Give it a try.  It might just become your new “signature” dip.

Easy No-Peel Apple Cake

Happy holidays!  Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, or just the fact that you have a long weekend away from the office, I hope you are enjoying your time off and spending it with family and friends.  Stan and I are in Nashville this weekend, hanging out with my parents, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather and having a little Hanukkah celebration. 

One of the many ways we’ve been celebrating is with cake – sweet, delicious, ridiculously moist, crunchy-topped cake.  Cake filled with so many apples there seems to be more apples than batter.  Cake my family cannot stop eating – despite the fact that 50 percent of us are on a diet and 25 percent of us are not supposed to eat gluten.  Oops… but hey, that must mean it’s good, right?

In addition to being good, this apple cake is easy to make.  I had 10 minutes to spare yesterday before my parents got back from an errand, and I wanted to make something sweet.  In terms of the prep work, I’m not sure what I liked better – the fact that you add all of the ingredient to the mixing bowl at one time (no need to measure your dry and wet ingredients separately) or the fact that you do not have to peel the apples.  Ok, that’s a lie. I don’t like peeling apples.  I love that this recipe specifically calls for unpeeled apples. 

Most of all I love this cake because my family loved it – and that’s the most important thing of all.

Shaved Summer Squash Salad

Last night I tried a new salad recipe.  It rocked my world.  It was so good I’m making it again tonight.  In fact, I might make it every night for the rest of the summer.  Ok, perhaps not every night, but definitely often.  Because this salad is summer in a bowl (or on a plate).  It combines some of my absolute favorite flavors and tosses them all together in one glorious heap.  It’s fast, fresh, and seasonal.  And man, oh man, it is so delicious.

This Shaved Summer Squash Salad combines thin ribbons of fresh, raw zucchini and yellow squash with a bright, lemony dressing.  Bitter arugula, sharp Pecorino cheese, and crunchy toasted almonds add flavor and texture.  The recipe makes four servings, but Stan and I polished off the entire bowl.  In fact, I had to fight him for seconds – he liked this salad so much he wanted three servings.  Considering he’s a serious meat and potatoes kind of guy, I think that’s just about the highest praise there is.

Mango Ginger Chicken with Almonds

I was really torn about which recipe I wanted to share with you today. I have quite a backlog of recipes waiting to be posted, and they are all vying for my attention. My first inclination was to tell you about some awesome ground beef enchiladas. Then I checked the list of my most recent posts and realized I have been leaning strongly towards Mexican-inspired flavors as of late. Oops, so much for variety. (But don’t worry, I won’t hold off on telling you about the enchiladas for too long.) Then it was on to the chicken debate. I have five good recipes to tell you about. But I wasn’t feeling decisive enough to pick one. A great spring pasta? I wasn’t thrilled with the pictures. Baked goods? Healthy or sinful? You can see the conundrum.

All things considered, I decided to select a recipe whose flavors share the summery feeling Nashville’s current 80-degree weather is bringing out in me. This Mango Ginger Chicken with Almonds fit the bill perfectly – a little bit fruity, a little bit spicy, and filling without being heavy. In other words, this quick chicken stir-fry is perfect warm weather dinner fare. While I can’t say the same for this amazing weather, I’m certain this recipe is here to stay… at least until next winter.

Steel-Cut Oatmeal with Apples and Pecans

For the past year (or longer), I’ve eaten variations of the same thing for breakfast every weekday morning. Greek yogurt, sweetened with honey, and topped with some combination of fruit, nuts, and/or cereal.  Sure, I mix it up on the weekends, but Monday through Friday, it’s all about the yogurt.  

But times, they are a-changing.  There’s been a new breakfast item gracing my bowl every morning for the past week, and there’s not a drop of yogurt in sight.  I’ve turned from cold and creamy to warm and dreamy with Steel-Cut Oatmeal with Apples and Pecans.  And I don’t plan on going back… at least not anytime soon.

This isn’t your average bowl of oatmeal.  Nutty, wholesome, steel-cut oats are cooked in a mixture of almond milk and water until thick and creamy.  Cubes of tender-crisp, cinnamon-spiced apples and crunchy, toasted pecans add sweetness and textural contrast to the creamy oatmeal.  A drizzle of maple syrup finishes everything off.  What more could you ask for on chilly winter/spring mornings?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

When I first came across this recipe, it kind of blew my mind. I like cookies, and I like pie, but I have to say it had never occurred to me to make a cookie pie. Since I don’t think you can (almost) ever have too much of a good thing, the prospect of taking a pie crust and filling it with cookie dough seemed to be a special kind of genius.

I made this Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie for our Valentine’s Day dessert, and let me tell you, it lived up to my expectations. Plus it got me thinking – what else would be tasty baked up in a pie shell? Frosted cake pie? Brownie pie? The fattening, delicious possibilities are endless.

But I digress. This pie is a dream for several reasons. First, it comes together in a snap and requires no fancy equipment. Since my burnt hand isn’t quite healed yet, I used my stand mixer to help me out. The cookie dough itself is made a little differently than traditional cookie dough, which results in a softer, fluffier dough that is easy to scoop into a pie crust. (You can go all out and make a homemade crust or go the quick and easy version and pick one up at the store.)

Another reason this pie rocks is that it is equally good served warm (not hot) or at room temperature. When it is warm, the chocolate chips are all melty and the filling is enticingly gooey.

When the pie cools to room temperature, the filling sets up a bit more and the chocolate solidifies. Served this way I think you get a little bit more of the cookie essence. No matter the temp, this pie is rich, so small slices are a must – especially if you decide to top them off with scoops of vanilla ice cream or dollops of whipped cream.

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken

It isn’t very often that I post a recipe the day after I try it. It’s not because I’m indecisive about whether I liked it or not. Rather, it’s because I have a whole list of recipes backlogged and waiting to be shared. It takes a standout recipe to jump the line. That being said, today’s recipe is a line jumper. I knew it would be the second Stan said, and I quote, “This chicken sauce is amazing”. Even more compelling, he didn’t even bother to swallow his mouthful before heaping on the praise. (He dug in before I got to the table so I didn’t have to witness the whole talking-with-his-mouth-full thing. Thank goodness.) Rich, savory, and complexly flavored, this “chicken sauce” really is amazing. With relatively few ingredients and very little active prep time, you end up with a quick and healthy weeknight dinner that tastes special enough to serve to anyone lucky enough to be invited for dinner.

Healthy Recipes to Kick Off the New Year

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year’s Eve with friends and family and have kicked off 2011 with a bang. We stayed in to ring in the New Year this year, and celebrated with friends, an enormous meal, and a whole lot of celebratory libations. After all of that revelry, Stan and I are feeling the need for some healthier meals and a little more exercise in our lives. While neither of us are big on New Year’s resolutions, eating better and moving more are certainly tops on many people’s lists for this time of year. So, in honor of those, like us, who need some holiday detox, or are trying to make good on healthy resolutions, today’s post features recipes that can help you cook your way to a healthier new year.

Soups and stews are always good in January, heating you up without filling you out. Here are some delicious, belly-warming options... (Just click on the recipe titles to link to the original posts!)

Coconut Curry Noodle Soup

Island Kale and Sweet Potato Soup

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

 Moroccan Spiced Chickpea Soup

Tortellini Soup

Shrimp and Corn Chowder

Chickpea and Kale Stew

Chicken Posole

Easy Chocolate Fudge

I have a question for you. It’s super important, so please, stop whatever else you are doing and think long and hard. Here goes: do you know how easy it is to make homemade fudge? If you do, why didn’t you tell me?! I could have been making fudge way too often, eating way too much of it, and gaining way too much weight. Okay, on second thought maybe it’s not such a bad thing that you didn’t let me in on your fudge-making secret. For those of you, like me, who didn’t know how easy it is to make homemade fudge, prepare yourself to get excited… and maybe let out your waistlines just a little bit.

This chocolate fudge recipe is easy from start to finish. The ingredients are basic, easy to find, and inexpensive to buy. We’re talking chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, salt, and nuts if you want them. Even better, the process is simple, quick, and dirties very few dishes. Oh how I wish I had known all of this sooner. I’d have been making fudge for parties, to take to work, to eat in front of the television… In other words, if you’re looking for a quick and easy dessert this holiday season, look no further than this easy chocolate fudge.

Baked Oatmeal

I’m sure by now you’ve figured out that we like oatmeal a lot at our house. We’ve put it in muffins (here and here), banana breads (here and here), and desserts. We’ve served it up breakfast-style and made it taste like cookies. One thing we’ve never done before now though, is bake it. And what a mistake that was.

Baked oatmeal is a perfect breakfast food. It’s warm, hearty, nutritious, and incredibly filling. You can jazz it up with whatever fruits and nuts you like. Same goes with the spices. No matter what you add to it, you’ll end up with a breakfast treat that tastes and looks like cross between a traditional bowl of oatmeal and an oatmeal cake. Even better is the fact that you can make a big pan and enjoy a warm bowl of baked oatmeal all week long.

Basically, if you’ve never baked your oatmeal before, now is the time to try!

Nutty Pumpkin Granola

Granola is one of those things we pretty much always have in our kitchen. We love it over our morning yogurt. Stan stirs it into cottage cheese. More than once we’ve been known to eat it by the handful. I’m kind of embarassed to say that until now, pretty much all of our granola has been store-bought. I’ve made other granola-related snacks, but for just plain old granola, I’ve always defaulted to the kind that comes in a box. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but now that I know how easy it is to make homemade granola, I don’t see myself going back to store-bought anytime soon.

Today’s recipe helped me see the error of my ways. It combines oats with two kinds of nuts, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), dried cranberries, and every spice that makes you think of fall. Pumpkin purée and maple syrup coat the granola and make everything stick together in delectable clumps. The end result is crunchy, a little (but not too) sweet, and a whole lot delicious. It’s also much healthier than pretty much any granola you can buy at the store because there are no added fats (besides those naturally occurring in the nuts), no artificial sweeteners, and no preservatives. With a few changes for seasonal variety, I think this just might be our new go-to granola.

** Also, on an administrative note, I wanted to let you know that I will be adding a new feature to my posts. At the end of each “story”, right above the new recipe, I will list the recipe(s) (and their corresponding links) that I posted approximately one year earlier. I think it’ll be a great way to remember some old favorites and introduce you to some recipes you might have missed. Just please do me a favor and try not to judge me on the less than lovely photographs from the early days! (I have gone back and added these links to my last three posts as well. Check them out to see what was cooking this time last year!)

Pumpkin Ginger Nut Muffins

If you follow (“Like”) The Well-Fed Newlyweds on Facebook, then you know we’ve ushered in pumpkin season in a major way. I’ve already made a few things, and I’ve got a long list of pumpkin recipes waiting to be tried, running the gamut from sweet to savory, soups to snacks. When it comes to pumpkins, I just can’t resist. The little ones are cute. The big ones are just begging to be carved into jack-o-lanterns (like my accidentally one-fanged bat). And the stuff in the can? It’s too convenient, and too seasonal, to resist.

It’s the canned stuff (or homemade purée) that you’re going to need to make these pumpkin ginger nut muffins. If you don’t already have some hanging out in your pantry, head to the store asap, because these muffins are the perfect fall treat. Pumpkin flavored with just the right amount of spice, these muffins are great for breakfast, make excellent, portable snacks, and are perfect for dessert with a cup of tea. We found these little babies to be pretty irresistible, and I had to keep reminding Stan not to eat them all before I had a chance to take some pictures. I’m pretty certain we’ll be eating these muffins until the end of pumpkin season... and if we freeze them, maybe longer.

Sauteed Spinach with Peanuts

Sometimes I spend days planning out the perfect meal. Sometimes I have 15 minutes to get some form of dinner on the table and extra points if it is healthy. For rushed nights – or even those rare leisurely ones – it’s good to have a couple of exceptionally speedy, healthy, and tasty recipes on hand. And folks, today’s recipe couldn’t be faster. Being chock-full of dark leafy greens, it’s also a nutritional powerhouse. And the taste? Cooked spinach never had it so good.

Imagine, if you will, fresh spinach stir-fried in a wok with salty soy sauce, spicy red pepper flakes, and rich, crunchy peanuts. Did I mention this whole process take 2 minutes or less? Perhaps you can see why I enjoy this dish so much. Not only is it delicious, but the entire recipe can be on the table in under 10 minutes – and that’s including the time it takes to wash the spinach. While I love me some slow cooking, I also really love something that only takes 2 minutes to cook – and only leaves one dish to wash!

Oatmeal Cookie Oatmeal

Clearly, no one likes being sick. For me, it’s especially hard to be sick because I often lose my desire to eat, and sometimes even my sense of taste. For someone who loves to cook and eat as much as I do, those are hard days. And let me tell you, it’s been a hard week. Yup, I’ve been sick for over a week now – with mono. That’d be why you haven’t heard a peep out of me for several days. I was not in a good way. How someone my age gets mono is beyond me, but ooh boy, I’ve got it, and I’ve been sick as a dog.

Today I woke up without a fever (hooray for small victories!) and felt up to making breakfast. This oatmeal recipe is one I’ve wanted to try for a while now, and its simplicity made it a good choice. Quick-cooking steel cut oats are cooked with applesauce, golden raisins, toasted almonds, brown sugar and cinnamon for a delicious, healthy breakfast treat. I was skeptical, at first, whether the ingredients would really come together to taste like an oatmeal cookie. However, after tweaking the original recipe a bit, I can honestly say this oatmeal taste like a warm cookie… just mushed up a bit.

If you haven’t tried quick-cooking steel cut oats before, you’re in for a treat. Unlike regular steel cut oats, which take upwards of 40 minutes to cook, quick-cooking steel cut oats are ready in under 10 minutes. Despite their reduced cooking time, the oats still have all of the chewy, nutty flavors and textures you associate with regular steel cut oats. Since discovering this type of oatmeal, it is the only kind we make for breakfast. (I still keep regular old fashioned and quick oats on hand for baking.) We buy our quick-cooking steel cut oats at Trader Joe’s, where they come in a large, inexpensive container. If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s near you, check your local grocery store for the oats. They’ll be a nice change from your regular oatmeal.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Normally I like to give you guys a little story before I post a recipe. Today I just can’t. The cookies I made this weekend were so freakin’ amazing I have to tell you about them. Now. No time for an introduction or any hint of anticipation. Just this: make these cookies immediately – if not sooner. They are that good.

These are thick and chewy cookies. Rich and chocolaty cookies. Cookies filled with chocolate chips and (optional) walnuts. And the secret ingredient? Instant coffee. You’d never know it was there, but the coffee boosts the chocolate flavor to another level. We cannot stop eating these cookies. Seriously, I had to ask Stan to leave me a couple to photograph. Instead, he asked me to take a picture of a plate with nothing on it but crumbs. (He thought this would show how good the cookies were… and allow him to eat the few that remained.)

In short, these are going to be my new go-to cookies… maybe forever.

Soft Oatmeal Cookies

I’m not really a cookie girl. Given the option, I’ll always reach for a brownie or some ice cream over a cookie. It’s actually kind of surprising considering being a cookie monster runs on my mom’s side of the family. Not surprisingly, despite many happy childhood cookie-baking memories, I seldom bake cookies at home. When I visit my Grammy, however, it’s a whole different story.

It was during my last visit that I came across this recipe. Pasted into a priceless collection of recipes written and accrued over many decades, was a recipe for soft oatmeal cookies. The name of the recipe captured my attention because, when I do eat cookies, I like them soft and chewy rather than hard and crispy. I decided to write down the recipe when I noticed one hugely significant detail: you only need one bowl to make these cookies. You can literally put all of the ingredients in the bowl, stir them together, and plop the cookie dough on a baking sheet. Because I can never do things the easy way, I, of course, had to use more than one bowl when I tried the recipe. It was absolutely unnecessary.

These cookies live up to their name. They are indeed soft and chewy. They are also hugely flavorful with notes of orange, cinnamon, and vanilla. For cookies in a hurry, you couldn’t ask for a better recipe. The dough comes together in a flash, and the cookies bake up in no time at all. If your Valentines include little ones, these would make great lunchtime or after-school treats. And if your Valentine is a kid at heart, take a trip down memory lane with some fresh baked cookies and a glass of milk.