Recipe for Buffalo Style Salmon with Blue Cheese Arugula Salad

Buffalo Style Salmon with Blue Cheese Arugula Salad

My oldest son is obsessed with seafood. From the time he turned 2 and had his first bite of fish he has loved any type of seafood. He is always begging me to buy him salmon or shrimp to eat. My youngest son shares his older brothers love of seafood and it is one of the few foods that he will eat without complaints. Since quality seafood is expensive we only eat it about twice a month. Also my children can eat 2 servings of salmon a piece, so it can cost a small fortune to feed them. I do believe that seafood is an important part of a healthy diet and we eat salmon and shrimp the most frequently. Yesterday I tried a new recipe for Buffalo Style Salmon from the May 2013 issue of the Food Network Magazine.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes a total time of 35 minutes, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I made a few changes to the original recipe. First the easiest type of salmon to find in my area (that isn't farm raised) has skin, finding skinless can be a challenge. Therefore I used skin-on salmon and a slightly thicker fillet than the recipe called for. This increased my grill time by 3-4 minutes. I always use Frank's for my hot sauce and this recipe was no exception. The recipe calls for low-fat yogurt, but I already had full fat yogurt for another recipe so that is what I used. As I have described before I use an indoor electric grill for most of my grilling and it always works well.

I was worried that the buffalo sauce would be too spicy for my kids, but they loved it. They ate their entire servings and tried to eat some of mine. My husband and I really liked the whole dish. The salad made a great side to the salmon and the grill created a nice flavor for the fish. This would definitely be a recipe I would make again.

For the recipe go to Buffalo Style Salmon.

Spinach-Herb Pesto

This is the time of the year that there never seems to be enough time. Between end of the year school madness, t-ball, birthdays, holidays etc. I always seem to be behind. I would love to say that I have hours everyday to prepare complex great tasting meals, but the reality is that I don't. There are nights that I can spare a couple of hours to prepare dinner, those are the nights that my three-year-old actually decides to take his afternoon nap. I love those naps when they happen, I am able to get so many things done! However, the majority of the time my youngest refuses to nap and my days are hectic at best. So to the rescue comes my trusted menu plan. Each week I have at least two very easy recipes that takes less than a half an hour to make start to finish. One such recipe from the March issue of Southern Living magazine is for Spinach-Herb Pesto and takes a total of 15 minutes and is full of fresh vegetables.

This recipe 10 ingredients. It takes 15 minutes, all of which is active and makes 3/4 of a cup of pesto. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. There is no need to overly chop the herbs and veggies before placing them in the food processor, the machine does a great job on its own. I would recommend using a food scale and measuring 2 ounces for the cheese, 2 ounces was a lot more than a 1/2 cup according to my measuring cups. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

Pesto is one of my favorite dishes and this recipe turned out very well. The lemon flavor compliments the herbs and spinach nicely and the overall taste was delicious Both of my children ate their servings happily and had no idea that they were eating spinach instead of regular pasta. An easy way to add more spinach and herbs to your dinner table.

For the recipe go to Spinach-Herb Pesto.

Buffalo Sloppy Joes

As I sit here trying to write this post my two boys are running around making as much noise as humanly possible. That by itself would be mildly irritating, but it doesn't help that they are hyper from eating a healthy dinner. They haven't always eaten so healthy. About two months ago I decided to stop baking sweets and snack multiple times a week and instead provide more fruits, vegetables, and dairy for snacks. So far it has been working very well. It took about a month before the complaints and demands for fast food ceased (for the most part). Along with stopping snacks I have also been changing the types of meat that my family consumes. Instead of ground red meat I now substitute with turkey and chicken. I have been surprised by how much my two boys love ground turkey and I use it frequently. The October 2011 issue of Taste of Home magazine had a recipe for Buffalo Sloppy Joes using ground turkey and promising only 30 minutes of total time.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time and makes 8 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. I did use homemade chicken stock, I prefer the flavor to store bought and it is much lower in price. For the hamburger buns I used Sunny Buns, a family favorite. I let the mixture cook down slightly after adding all the ingredients, approximately 5 minutes. If you don't allow the mixture to cook down more it will be a little too watery. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was very surprised by how much my two kids loved the blue cheese in this recipe. I had assumed that they would hate the blue cheese and completely turn up their noses at the whole idea. However, they ate all the leftover cheese out of the fridge after dinner. As for the recipe, it had a great blend of sweet from the hot sauce and brown sugar and is low in fat from the ground turkey. Overall a very quick and child friendly recipe.

For the recipe go to Buffalo Sloppy Joes. (you must be a subscriber to view)

Martha Stewart Living Three-Cheese Gougeres

If you've followed this blog for any amount of time you know that I love cheese. When my husband and I traveled when we were younger I was the one interested in the various local cheeses and food, not the shopping and tourist attractions. My two kids have followed in my foot steps and are often caught in front of the fridge eating large amounts of goat cheese. Since I eat cheese so frequently I am always experimenting with new recipes and cooking methods. In the past year I have tried more than a few gougeres recipes, but none have turned out as well as I hoped. Recently, Martha Stewart Living magazine had a recipe for Three-Cheese Gougeres, which looked promising and full of one of my favorite foods, cheese.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes approximately 55 minutes of prep and cooking time and makes 26 puffs. I actually had to buy new white wine since the bottle in my fridge had been in there so long that it had brown sediment when I poured it. I was able to find all the ingredients easily at my local grocery store and I didn't have to make any ingredient modifications. I weighed out my cheese on my food scale to insure proper amounts in the recipe. If you don't already utilize a food scale I highly recommend buying one, having exact amounts of an ingredient can really make or break a recipe. Watch the gougeres the last 10 minutes of cooking time. I actually rotated my pans and switched them halfway through the cooking time to prevent burning and ensure even browning. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was impressed by how well these gougeres turned out. In many of the previous recipes that I have tried the puffs never actually puffed up and stayed flat. These gougeres turned out beautifully. I like that they use three different cheeses and would be perfect for a party or brunch. I served my gougeres as a side with red meat and the combination was perfect. They would also work well with a variety of other meats or soups. Overall, a better recipe for gougeres than the previous ones that I have tried and great for a party.

For the recipe go to Three-Cheese Gougeres.

Taste of Home Apple, Blue Cheese, and Bibb Salad

My family isn't a salad family. For whatever reason I rarely remember to buy or make salad. Growing up my mom made salad with almost every dinner and I always ran to the salad bar at restaurants. Somewhere between moving out of the house and having kids I stopped eating salads. I will still occasionally order a cobb salad at restaurants, but for the most part my love of salad has diminished. The main culprit seems to be the lack of taste of most homemade salads. I find salads to be either overly sweet or just ho-hum. Recently, the October issue of Taste of Home magazine had a recipe for Apple, Blue Cheese, and Bibb Salad, which looked delicious and different from ordinary salad recipes.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 20 minutes of prep and makes 9 servings. I had to make a few modifications to the ingredients due to their lack of availability at my local grocery store. I was unable to find bibb or Boston lettuce, so I substituted baby greens. I had no problems finding any of the remaining ingredients. For the vinegar I used white whine vinegar and golden delicious for the apples. I toasted the mustard seeds on a pan on the stove, watch out they burn easily. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The taste of this recipe was delicious. My husband really loved this salad, he even ate the leftovers for lunch the next day. I served the salad alongside a chicken dish and the combination worked well. The salad would also work well with beef. The combination of apples and blue cheese was perfect and very popular with everyone in my household. The one change I would make to the recipe is to cut down on the amount of olive oil, maybe to 1/3 cup instead of a 1/2. Overall, a great salad recipe, that even this normally non-salad eating blogger enjoyed.

For the recipe go to Apple, Blue Cheese, and Bibb Salad.

Food and Wine Meat Loaf with Creamy Onion Gravy

My husband absolutely loves meatloaf. When we first got married I only knew how to make the oatmeal, ketchup and ground beef variety of meatloaf that I grew up with. My dad was the same way as my husband and frequently requested my mom make his favorite dish, meatloaf. Over the years I have expanded my collection of meatloaf recipes, but have always come back to the dutch meatloaf recipe that I found about five years back. I'm lucky that my husband is easy to please and enjoys meatloaf slathered in ketchup. As I've stated to many times to count now we are a big pork family. My family loves pork! I have tried a few meatloaf recipes utilizing ground pork in the past and have been less than pleased with the experience. As I was glancing in a recent issue of Food and Wine magazine I came across a recipe for Meat Loaf with Creamy Onion Gravy, which combined pork and beef and looked like a great new recipe for meatloaf.

This recipe has 16 ingredients in the meatloaf and eight in the gravy. The meatloaf takes an hour and a half of cooking and prep time, 45 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. The creamy onion gravy takes approximately 45 minutes and makes 5 cups. All the ingredients were basic and easy to find at my local grocery store. I made my chicken stock from scratch, which took me about 6 hours the day before I prepared this dish. Additionally, I ground my own beef and pork, which added approximately 45 minutes to my overall time. I found that the gravy took longer than the 5 minutes suggested by the recipe to fully reduce, I would say it took me about another 10 minutes. The one major criticism I had with this recipe is that the recipe calls for a tablespoon and a half of salt. To me that is way more than needs to be added, especially since the cheese is already salty. The meatloaf ended up way too salty for my tastes. I would recommend cutting the salt significantly. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys loved this entire recipe and my husband ate it happy, as he would with any type of meatloaf. The creamy onion gravy turned out delicious and would work well over egg noodles. The meatloaf had a nice taste from the cheese, but needs the salt reduced for my family's needs. Other people might not have as much of a problem, I am very salt sensitive. I will definitely use the gravy recipe again and try it with egg noodles or steak.

For the recipe go to Meat Loaf with Creamy Onion Gravy.

Everday Food Buffalo Chicken Thighs with Celery and Blue Cheese Salad

When my oldest son was around two years old, he decided to eat an entire habanero pepper out of the fridge. He absolutely loved anything spicy, and the spicier the better. Eventually he outgrew his love for spiciness and his younger brother took over. My two-year-old is now the one eating hot sauce like chocolate. I think that they must get this particular habit from my husband who seems to put Franks RedHot sauce on everything he eats. Given my family's love of spicy food, I was intrigued when a recent issue of Everyday Food magazine had a recipe for Buffalo Chicken Thighs with Celery and Blue Cheese Salad.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It makes 4 servings and takes approximately 40 minutes, 20 minutes of which is active. All the ingredients are basic and I had no problems finding any of them at my local grocery store. My chicken thighs were on the large side and in order to temp correctly with a thermometer it took 5 minutes longer of cooking time than the recipe suggested. I used the extra butter mixture both over the chicken and on the salad. The mixture gave the salad a nice spicy undertone, which was delicious. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

The celery and blue cheese salad is the best part of this recipe, it was delicious and simple. It was even better the second day with the leftover melted butter mixture. The buffalo chicken thighs were good, but like all baked chicken a little mundane. My husband found the chicken skin to not be crispy enough and would have preferred if the chicken was first pan fried skin side down and then cooked the rest of the way in the oven. The combination of the salad and the chicken worked well together and the tastes complimented one another nicely.

For the recipe go to Buffalo Chicken Thighs and Celery and Blue Cheese Salad.

Bon Appetit Blue Cheese-Bacon Focaccia

The males in my house love bacon. Not just a little bit, but they would literally add bacon to everything they ate if they could. My dad was the same way growing up. He couldn't even boil a pot of water, but every Sunday there would be bacon and fried potatoes waiting at the breakfast table that he had prepared. Don't get me wrong I like bacon, but I'm more of  a breakfast sausage fan than the rest of the family. However, I do appreciate the taste of bacon in recipes and was intrigued when the October issue of Bon Appetit had a recipe for Blue Cheese-Bacon Focaccia.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It serves 12 people and takes a total time of approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, with 25 being active. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. The only problem I encountered with the recipe was that the dough was a little too sticky to handle. I had to add additional flour and the texture was still a little soft. However, the taste was delicious. I would recommend using even more cheese and bacon than the recipe states, probably approximately double the total amount. The total cooking time in the recipe was a little short, I left my focaccia in for 5 minutes longer. I followed the recipe as stated with no major ingredients modifications.

As expected the most popular part of this recipe in my household was the bacon. The bread turned out delicious and re-heated very well in the oven the next day. My husband ate part of the leftovers cold for breakfast the next day and thought that it still tasted delicious. I would recommend adding additional bacon and cheese, especially if your family love either of the ingredients. A great, easy focaccia recipe.

For the recipe go to Blue Cheese-Bacon Focaccia.