Spicy Parmesan and Paprika Kale Chips

I don't know about you, but I am a snacky person. In years past, and especially in times of stress, I had a strange affinity for the combination of salt and vinegar chips and chocolate ovaltine...yeah, I'm weird. So in my epic quest to find a snack that was satisfying, sufficiently salty and with the necessary crunch, I have investigated many options. Baked chips, reduced fat, all of the stuff you can buy pre-packaged at the store. I have a new favorite though, and it's homemade, delicious, slightly salty, slightly spicy, a tid bit cheesy, and crunchy crunchy. Oh, and it's made from kale and completely preservative and junk free, so I can eat them as often as I wish! That's my kind of snack. I know, you're thinking, "kale? ew!" Kale is so good. I love it in anything, but as a chip, it has a slightly earthy flavor and an amazing crispy-crunchy property that makes it irresistible. Even my picky hubby likes them! Make some, and revel in the beauty of healthy snacking.

Fire Roasted Tomato Cream Pasta

Imagine eating a rich, velvety sauce, coating al dente whole wheat pasta, your tongue savoring every bite, wishing you could eat this everyday without looking like you ate something as naughty as Fire Roasted Tomato Cream Pasta everyday...man, that's the dream, isn't it? The Fire Roasted Tomatoes lend a smoky sweetness to this sauce that is perfectly complemented by the robust flavor of Parmesan and ricotta. That sounds straight out of Cook's Illustrated, doesn't it?

Apologies for the lack of posts over the past week and a half. I sort of went into a bit of a tailspin and needed a break, but I am back and onto new and more delicious things!

I have been fighting this internal battle over healthy eating and body image lately. I have a lot of thoughts that I will share over the next few weeks in snippets here and there, but my thought for today is this: As long as I try to define who I am and my self-worth by the way I look, I will never truly know and understand my intrinsic value and nature. That doesn't mean I ignore my health or appearance, but that I realize that the only way I can define myself and my worth is by learning to love myself the way my Father in Heaven loves me. So that's where I am focusing now, and in the meantime, on some days, when I feel like indulging, I will eat this heavenly pasta.

Rustic Spinach and Marinara Lasagna

Before you read this, I want you to know that I believe this is the best dish I have ever made. Like, this lasagna knocked it out of the park and I want to eat the entire pan of lasagna but can't because the fire department would have to cut out a wall of my house and remove me with a crane. This dish is worth every second that it takes to make. I am holding myself back from eating a second piece right now. Oh my heck. It was a lasagna-gasm. Yeah, yeah. I know it's inappropriate. But it's the only way I can do this seductive dinner justice. It is a combination of a few of my favorite family recipes. The flavors are simple and classic, well-balanced and without excess. That is Italian cooking at its finest. It is not about gobs of cheese. It is not about buckets of sauce. Simple balance and classic flavors. This lasagna boasts all of these qualities.

The reason for the creation and consumption of this dish is that there is this other person that lives inside of me. On the outside, I am your typical 28-year-old. I am happily married, pining for a baby, obsessed with my outward appearance, constantly cursing my ever-widening hips. On the inside, there is this tiny but fiesty Italian "cuoca" (cook) that understands that inheriting her grandmother's ancestral thighs doesn't mean she is socially unacceptable and will never be a model, but rather that she is destined to stomp grapes in the Sicilian countryside, and traverse the hills of Tuscany searching for perfect balls of mozzarella. Today, La Cuoca decided to take over and stuff Utah-living Lauren away for a while. And thus, dinner happened. Don't be scared by the fact that I whipped up and rolled my lasagna noodles, or that my sauce slow-simmered for two hours. You can make this too, using as many shortcuts or long-cuts (yes, that's a word), as you choose. And either way,  La Cuoca will be proud of you, and will invite you to stomp some grapes with her and Lucille Ball and all of the other fabulous, fuller-figured ladies throughout history.

In all seriousness, one of the reasons that I love cooking so much is that it makes me feel connected to my ancestors. I know my great-grandmother, Lucia grew up in the hills of Pietraperzia, Sicily, cooking, barefooted and dusted in semolina flour, as did her mother, Calogera, and so many before them. When I am making food, I feel tied to them in a way I cannot describe in words. It is a spiritual thing. And that is beautiful, and is no respecter of calories. And I am sitting here thinking about these amazing women in my family history and their rich culture and heritage, and I feel their influence with me. And that is why I cook.

And now, we best get to discussing the method before La Cuoca devours this delicious lasagna all by herself.

Quinoa Stuffed Italian Zucchini Boats

The past four days of my life have been crayyyyyzaaaayyyyy. Yes. I must use that specific amount of hyperbole. We had a cute four-year-old niece sleep over, a filthy dog that rolled in all sorts of outdoor nastiness, a fun dinner party with friends, and family dinner and all sorts of little in-between things that came up. Most inconvenient of all was the terrible weather that rendered it impossible to take decent pictures inside, and the loss of water in our house on Saturday morning. Suffice it to say that I did not document any of my cooking exploits Friday-Sunday. I will put those recipes up in the near future when I take another swing at them.

Today, though, I am making a yummy, simple supper-these quick and easy Quinoa Stuffed Italian Zucchini Boats, and a post to come in the near future, a fast and good for your belly and your soul summery Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad with Apples on Whole Wheat. Look for that one soon!

We got a ton of pretty little Italian squashes in our Bountiful Basket produce haul this week. I had to come up with a few dishes that used them this week, and this is the first. I have never really cared for zucchini unless it was baked and covered in cheese, marinated and grilled, or grated up into bread or heavenly Chocolate Zucchini Cake. These little boats are a great new addition to my limited list of methods of zucchini consumption. They are roasted to bring out their natural flavor, stuffed with deliciously seasoned quinoa and baked to meld all of the flavors together. You will love these. I think kids will enjoy them a lot, and they are really, really easy to whip up. If you have 10 minutes of prep time, you can make these babies and then you can eat them and feel satisfied that you made an amazing, whole-food meal that is nutritious and absolutely mouth-watering. This could easily be made vegan if you omit the cheese.

Balsamic Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad

Last night was a punchy night. You know when you just feel all weird and twisty inside and out, and the only thing that makes it better is watching mindless television and eating a really delicious dinner? The dinner definitely helped. So did snuggling with my husband and watching The Voice and rejoicing over the fact that I could see ZERO cleavage on the talented but sometimes scarily dressed Ms. Christina Aguilera. Seriously girl. I could focus on your gorgeous eyes and wise counsel and not your cleavage for once. It was a refreshing change.

We savored two very savory dishes last night while we were spending some quality couch time together. The first was this amazing Balsamic Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad. The second were these amazing Balsamic Braised Brussels Sprouts with Maple Bacon. Both were to die for. The salad is a snap to throw together. The Brussels are a little more work, but well worth it. More on the Brussels in their own post.

Let's focus on the salad. A bed of crisp romaine (spinach would work beautifully here too), topped with a succulent, juicy sliced chicken breast that has been marinated and grilled in sweet and acidic Balsamic Vinegar, sprinkled with salty Kalamata Olives and hearty bits of Sun-Dried Tomato. Top that with some creamy, garlic-y homemade Caesar Dressing and freshly grated Parmesan, and you have died and gone to heaven. This is a lighter take on a Caesar Salad, and is made from whole, fresh ingredients. Nothing better than that. It's also a quick dinner. If you marinate the chicken early, you can have this baby on the table in under 20 minutes. Heck yeah and fo' shizzle and all that jazz. This recipe is designed to serve four and can easily be increased to serve more.

Sliders, Two Ways: Cheddar Adobo Bacon and Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto with Parmesan and Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges

Today was gorgeous. The sun was warm, the flowers were in bloom, and we took the puppy on a nice walk before dinner. Then, we came home and stuffed our faces with this delicious meal. I am not that much of a red-meat girl. I have a new-found appreciation for short ribs and a well-cooked steak, but I mostly stick to poultry, pork and the occasional fish dish. My husband adores burgers. We don't eat out often, but when we do, it is usually a trip to Five Guys. So I throw him a bone every so often and whip up some burgers at home. Tonight, I was totally on board with these sliders, and I think they have several awesome characteristics. They are fast and easy to make. They are made from healthy, whole foods. They are small, so you don't feel like you ate half of a cow. Because they are small, you can eat a few different kinds of burgers and experience an awesome variety of flavors. If you have kids that are small eaters, these would be a great option for them. They also make a killer appetizer if you had company. These came out great, and I will definitely be making them again. Hubby liked the Cheddar Adobo Bacon best, and I was more a fan of the Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and Parmesan. We ate them with some oven-baked Spicy Sweet Potato wedges and licked our fingers and plates clean. Well, we licked our fingers. The dog licked the plates! Sweet Potato, by the way, is packed with vitamins, and is such an easy and healthy substitute for your usual french fries.

The recipe does have a few prep steps, but you could totally do them earlier in the day and then just slap these on the grill and have dinner on the table in less than 15 minutes. That's my kind of weeknight meal! I spent a lot of Easter weekend baking (Homemade Oreo Cookies, Carrot Cake, Eclair Pie), and I was sick of kitchen work, so this was  a welcome change. I did make some homemade slider buns today, and while I liked the flavor and texture, they need some tweaking before I share that recipe. You can use some store-bought buns, but I would recommend buying some high-quality artisan buns or a nice whole-wheat bun. The super-enriched, white bun stuff that you grew up with is not the type of thing you want to eat if you are committed to whole food eating, and they honestly taste terrible. It's also worth it to use the highest quality ground beef you can (alternately, turkey or chicken would be tasty too!). We used a nice Angus that I got on sale and froze last month, and it was perfect, flavorful and tender. Skip the generic ground beef. With the enlightenment of the masses on the "pink slime" that makes up a ton of mass-marketed beef, it's worth it to go with a higher-quality chuck or Angus, or to buy grass-fed organic or regular ground beef from a store that does not sell the pink slime. Shudder.

Garlic Parmigiana Butter Breadsticks

I love bread. I don't care who knows. There are few things I love more than warm, soft bread. Bread is sexy. Bread is delicious. The ancient Egyptians used the same word for bread as they used for life-"aish." Yeah, I get that. Dang, those Egyptians were smart. You never know when a career as a history teacher will have some practical application! Normally, I am a whole-grain bread girl. I love the nutty complexities of whole wheat, barley, spelt, rye. But every so often, you just want a tender, white bread. Not Wonder Bread, but homemade, tender, melt-in-your-mouth, make your husband hug you from behind while you are kneading, kind of bread. So today, to go with my Fire Roasted Tomato Kale and Spicy Italian Sausage soup, I made these beautiful, seductive Garlic Parmigiana Butter Breadsticks. I adapted this recipe from Brooke over at Cheeky Kitchen. You can check out her original post, but I have my tweaks incorporated in this post.

This is NOT a healthy post. Turn around if you are looking for one. But I do encourage you to adopt the following philosophy-if you are going to eat something like this, make it yourself. You will know exactly what you are eating, and you won't be consuming nasty preservatives (I have always wondered how something as simple as bread ends up with 15 ingredients in it on the packaging!). Ok, 'nuff said. I love these breadsticks.