Garden Quicheletts

January 27, 2016January 27, 2016 | Megan

This recipe is the epitome of easy and delicious. I’ve used several different quiche recipes in my cooking history. I love the addition The Scramble makes of the Greek Yogurt in this particular recipe.

Especially for those trying out new diet ideas for themselves and their families this year this recipe is fantastic for breakfast or dinner, either one!

As always, it’s easy to sub in your favorite or on-hand ingredients if you don’t like or have the ones listed. I chose to add in cherry tomatoes instead of red peppers in this case because I wanted to use them before they went south.

What are some of your favorite breakfast dishes that serve as dinner rock stars?

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

XX, Megan

Ingredients

6 oz. baby spinach
6 eggs
1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt, or use any plain yogurt or sour cream
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning, or use a combination of dried basil and oregano
1/8 red onion, finely chopped (1/4 cup)
1/4 bell pepper, any color, finely diced (1/4 cup)
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick spray.

In a microwave-safe bowl, cover and steam the spinach in the microwave for 2 minutes or until it wilts. (Alternatively, wilt the spinach on the stovetop for 5 minutes in a skillet.) Transfer it to a cutting board and chop it coarsely.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and whisk in the yogurt. Stir in the remaining ingredients, including the spinach. Using a small ladle or cup, pour the egg mixture into the muffin cups, filling them about 2/3 of the way full.

Transfer the pan to the oven and bake it for 20 – 25 minutes or until the eggs are set. (Meanwhile, cook the bacon.) Let them cool for 5 – 10 minutes if time allows, and serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze them for up to 3 months.

*The Scramble is a meal planning service to which you can subscribe here. For a fantastic price you will receive 8 weekly meals which means 8 recipes (main course plus a side dish), complete grocery list, the ability to tweak the number of people you are making for, and full nutrition facts.

PLUS tips as to how best to PREP your meal beforehand, add a punch of FLAVOR, and how to SLOW COOK almost every recipe if you’re especially slammed that night. This wonderful service really does live up to it’s name. You can come home at 6 p.m. and be sitting down to a DELICIOUS, HEALTHY, HOME COOKED meal by 6:30 p.m. most nights.

Herbed Pork Loin Roll-ups

January 20, 2016January 17, 2016 | Megan

My husband requested that I inform all of you, my faithful readership that “THIS is the BEST meal” we have ever eaten. I have to say, I agree!

Thank you The Scramble, thank you Aviva Goldfarb, and thank you to my sister and brother-in-law who introduced us to this indispensable meal planning service!!!

I’ve mentioned it before, and want to say again here that you can tweak this meal to YOUR OWN healthiness level as you prep. For example, the next time I make this recipe I am going to use half of the breading, and simple add more herbs to the tops of my roll-ups.

Maybe you need to go gluten free and choose brown rice or quinoa. Maybe you dislike dijon mustard or mustard in general. You could easily sub another dressing or flavor. Maybe you don’t eat pork and opt for chicken.

The Scramble helps you to honor all of these personal mealtime mantras, commitments, and needs. Plus, no matter what you do, if you follow the grocery list, and get your buns in gear you will come out the other side with a delicious home-cooked dinner for your family.

Hooray!!

So here you have, THE BEST MEAL my husband has ever eaten. I’d love to hear how you like it!

XX, Megan

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs (use wheat/gluten-free if needed), or mix plain bread crumbs with 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning and a little salt and pepper
1 – 1 1/2 lb. pork, turkey or chicken cutlets (thinly sliced meat)
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard (use wheat/gluten-free if needed)
1 tsp. Italian seasoning blend, or use a mixture of oregano, thyme, dried basil and dried parsley
1/4 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp. black pepper, or to taste
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, or use Swiss, Jarlsburg, or your favorite cheese
4 – 8 toothpicks

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a wide microwave-safe bowl, combine the butter and the oil and heat it in the microwave until the butter is melted. Put the bread crumbs on a small shallow plate.

Lay the cutlets on a cutting board. Put the mustard in a small bowl, and using a pastry brush or the back of a spoon, spread the mustard evenly on the top side of each piece of meat. Sprinkle the herbs, salt and pepper evenly over the mustard, and sprinkle about 1 Tbsp. cheese on top of each cutlet. Roll up each cutlet and secure it with 1 or 2 toothpicks.

Dip each roll into the butter-oil mixture, then into the bread crumbs to coat it. Set the rolls on a baking sheet or dish, drizzle them with any remaining butter and oil, and spray the tops with nonstick cooking spray (use butter flavor, if you have it). Bake them for about 30 minutes until they are cooked through and lightly browned on the outsides. (Meanwhile, prepare the buckwheat and the kale, if you are serving them.) Serve it immediately.

Letters: To Marilyn Sandpearl

January 18, 2016January 18, 2016 | Megan

Dear Mrs. Sandpearl, (to my fifth grade self Ms. Finder),

You are the Miss Honey to my Matilda, the Annie Sullivan to my Hellen Keller, the Caroline Duggan to my Keltic Dreams Bronx-school-kid dancing fifth grade self. I don’t pretend to be the exceptional powerhouses some of these students were, but I was a little girl growing up in a small town with big hopes and dreams.

That self, that ten-year-old girl, that geeky stretch pant wearing, terrible perm-frizzed hair and buck teeth sporting girl still exists. She is me. I am her. We are all our small selves. Grown and learning– we hope– but somehow still the same. Your impact is carried in me, with me to this very day.

I am not alone in this, Mrs. Sandpearl. You have touched hundreds, probably THOUSANDS of kids with your love of learning, your vigor and lust for life, with your energy and care for your students. With your commitment to perfect cursive handwriting, and mad tap-dance skills atop desks from West to East, you awakened an entire generation to the joy of learning.

You taught us to thirst after knowledge and to look for learning opportunities in every aspect of our lives–inside and outside the classroom. You read to us from wonderful books and required us to apply our learning through projects and papers that cemented this link between learning and living for all of our lives.

Your attitude toward mastery, education, and learning was and is contagious. I would guess that your positive teaching mantras not only uplift and enlighten your students, but your fellow faculty members and the other staff at the schools you’ve worked with, as well.

I have come to believe that I, WE, you– the whole world really– ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS OUR TEACHERS. We are only as STRONG, INTELLIGENT, ENLIGHTENED, and INSPIRED as the ones whose job it is to pass that torch on every day in classrooms around the world.

I had an interesting exchange with a nurse-friend of mine, recently. This friend is STRONG, she is TOUGH. She is a marathoner, a kidney cancer survivor, a mom of three boys (like you), a compassionate and caring caregiver to those who she has ministered to in her chosen career of nursing.

I’ve always known that I didn’t have the STONES for the medical profession. I didn’t have it for the blood, the other bodily fluids, the stress of caring for someone’s needs in the most critical times of their life, the LONG hours and the low(er) pay (at least for many nurses I find this to be the case).

I was telling my friend how much I admired the work that she did, day in and day out. Taking the utmost care of the human race must be hard. I told her that I could never be a nurse. I didn’t have the courage, or the presence of mind, or the physical will.

I told her that someday, if life allowed, I wanted to be a teacher. She said to me, “I could never be a teacher. That is the hardest, most important job that anyone can have.” I was shocked. To put it lightly.

I was surprised because this woman in a profession that I know I could never sustain, never succeed in, a profession I admire and respect very much, was telling me that TEACHERS had all of her admiration and respect. TEACHING was a job she knew that she didn’t have the moxie for, and she honored everyone who chose that career.

I’m not a teacher, yet. So I can’t speak to the long hours, low pay, and skewed curriculum that teachers face day in and day out. But I can speak to YOU, Mrs. Sandpearl. I can say that I’ve watched you– up close as your student, and from far away as you’ve continued in teaching– and I know that YOU MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

You don’t simply have the opportunity to change and shape lives every day as every teacher does who steps into a classroom five or six days a week. YOU DO change and shape lives every day (let alone the lives of your incredible sons). You shaped those lives in a rural cow town in the middle-of-nowhere Utah then, and you shape those lives in a metropolitan contiguity of Boston now.

I honor you. I honor what you do. I pray that you won’t ever stop doing it. I pray that others will follow after you. I hope that Teachers will continue to recognize and embrace the power and opportunity they are given every. single. day.

Thank you.

Love, Megan

Baked Artichoke Pasta

January 13, 2016January 14, 2016 | Megan

Sometimes it’s fun to have some time between when I prepare these recipes, and when I post them. Sometimes it can be dangerous, i.e. it makes me VERY, VERY hungry!!!

This pasta was warm and filling. As always, The Scramble* sails in with a healthy option even in the pasta realm. One of the reasons I love subscribing to The Scramble is that every meal has Nutrition Facts already calculated and posted on the recipe. I also love that Aviva offers a host of healthy options and alternatives in every meal for me to choose.

For example, this meal boasts 13g of Protein, but only 1g, that’s right 1g of Sugar. WIN! You can also choose to substitute whole grain or whole wheat pasta if you want to up the healthy quotient for your meal. The Scramble also recommends using low-fat or non-fat options if you choose.

So again, you can use reduced-fat mayonnaise like the recipe calls for, or also sub in low-fat ricotta cheese (I used the mayo because I had it on hand). For this and so many more reasons, we LOVE The Scramble.

You can subscribe HERE. Have a beautiful Wednesday, and a delicious family dinner!

XX, Megan

Ingredients

8 oz. penne noodles (use wheat, whole grain/gluten-free if needed)
14 oz. artichoke hearts, drained
6 oz. marinated artichokes, with their liquid
2 tsp. chopped or minced garlic, (about 4 cloves)
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise, or use ricotta cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 Tbsp. bread crumbs or panko (use wheat/gluten-free if needed)

Directions

Cook the noodles according to the package directions until they are al dente and drain them.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a large (2-quart) casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a food processor or blender, coarsely blend the artichoke hearts, marinated artichokes with their liquid, garlic, cheese (reserving 1 Tbsp.), mayonnaise and pine nuts.

In a large bowl, mix the pasta with the artichoke mixture. Transfer it to the casserole dish and smooth the top.

In a small bowl, mix together the reserved Parmesan cheese and the bread crumbs. Sprinkle this topping on the casserole.

Bake the casserole, uncovered, for 30 minutes until the top is browned. (While the casserole is baking, prepare the salad, if you are serving it.) Serve it hot, or refrigerate it for up to 3 days, or freeze it for up to 3 months.

Manhattan Clam (or Clam-less) Chowder

December 30, 2015December 20, 2015 | Megan

One New Year’s Tradition in my family is to make a hot, steamy, creamy, delicious pot of clam chowder for the evening meal. We’ve done this several times together as a family of four.

This year, when I saw this recipe on The Scramble, I knew I wanted to test out this Manhattan Clam Chowder and sub it in for our regular creamy soup. The results did not disappoint!

Between the fresh Thyme and the garnish of Parmesan cheese, I was sold. We will definitely be making this for our NYE dinner moving forward. Do you have family food traditions for New Year’s Eve?

Have a glorious Wednesday, friends! I’d love to hear how your chowder turns out!

XX, Megan

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. butter
2 large yellow or white onions, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
3 carrots, diced
10 3/4 oz. condensed tomato soup
8 oz. tomato sauce
2 1/2 cups water
1 large russet (baking) potato, peeled and diced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2 – 3 tsp. dried thyme, to taste
1 cup frozen corn kernels
10 oz. canned whole clams, with their juice (optional)
1/4 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp. black pepper, or to taste

Directions

In a large stockpot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté them until they are slightly softened, 5-8 minutes. Add the celery and carrots and sauté them for about 5 minutes.

Add the tomato soup, tomato sauce, and water. Raise the heat and bring it to a boil. Add the potatoes, parsley, and thyme. Reduce the heat and simmer the soup gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Meanwhile, prepare the salad, if you are serving it.)

Turn off the heat and stir in the corn and clams (optional). Season it with salt and pepper to taste. Serve it immediately, or refrigerate it for up to 3 days.