Cauliflower Macaroni and Cheese

After eating a bit too much of the Mediterranean White Bean Dip the main dish was just about ready and it came out of the oven looking beautifully cheesy and golden. Perfect little dish for a group of 4-6 people (we had 4 and I was more than happy to have some leftovers!). An extra plus was getting to use my new red baking dish, with these pretty swirly edges.

Cauliflower Macaroni and Cheese with Roasted Asparagus and Tomatoes

Pasta (a little less than 1/2 a box)*
1/2 Head of Cauliflower
1/2 cup chicken stock**
2 TB butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves roasted garlic
1 1/2 TB flour
1 1/4 cups milk
Freshly ground black pepper
Dash of nutmeg
Fresh sage leaves (3 sprigs/leaves)
1/2 TB dijon mustard
3/4 cup white cheddar cheese
3/4 cup gruyere cheese
1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano cheese

Ladies Dinner Night - Cauliflower, White Beans and Berries, Oh My!

As you saw last week I bought a head of cauliflower and used 1/2 for the Curried Cauliflower Soup, which meant that I still had 1/2 left. With my ACIS ladies coming over for dinner Sunday night I knew I wanted to incorporate this cauliflower into something, but I didn't know what. Then I remembered I saw Rachel Ray use cauliflower in a mac and cheese recipe, and I thought - that's perfect! I'll note that the ladies have very different food preferences - 1 vegetarian, 1 vegan-to-be and 2 we'll eat anything kind of girls (yes, one of those is me), so I knew I wanted to make something vegetarian, but still filling!


This was the first dish I decided on for a little something to nibble on while my friends arrived, I was still cooking and for catching up over wine!

Mediterranean White Bean Dip
1 15 oz. can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
Head of Garlic, roasted*
2 TB fresh lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
1/3 cup olive oil plus 1 TB
1/3 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves
1 stalk scallion, chopped
1/4 tsp salt and 2 grinds of fresh pepper
Veggies, Pita Chips, Marinated Artichokes

April Showers Bring May . . . Herbs?

Another plus of my new apartment - I have a little porch outside! So with beautiful weather and almost 70 degrees outside today I took advantage of it. I cleaned off the porch, moved my little wooden ikea cart out there and did a little spring planting! I've never really planted anything on my own before, from seeds, so I really hope that in a few weeks I'll start actually seeing the beginning of some herb plants. Having fresh herbs to cook with makes such a big difference. I'll be sure to let you all know if they start growing anytime soon and then I'll have some recipes to share with my fresh herbs: two types of basil - a citrus lime basil and a sweet basil, cilantro, rosemary and dill.


Fingers crossed I find that I have a green thumb in addition to my cooking skills!

Curried Cauliflower Soup

I wish that I could buy just a couple pieces of celery at a time, but instead it tends to come in giant packages with so much celery I don't know what to do with it. You can only eat so much celery and peanut butter, and you don't usually use more than a couple stalks for a soup dish. Cream of celery soup doesn't really excite me either, so I had to be a bit more creative than that. I also noticed a fresh looking head of cauliflower on sale at the grocery store this weekend, so I had that to play with last night for dinner too. Despite getting home from work late I still had enough motivation to try out this new soup, which I threw together on a whim around 7:45. I was sitting down to dinner by about 8:45! I was also motivated to finally open and setup my new blender, which was an extra incentive to try this dish.

                                                                      Curried Cauliflower Soup

1/2 onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups celery, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 cup carrots, chopped
1/2 head of cauliflower, roughly chopped
1 TB lemon juice
2 TB butter
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 TB Patak's mild curry paste
2 TB sour cream
                                                                                       1 cup skim milk

Coconut Almond Oatmeal

I know that oatmeal is good for me - a healthy, filling breakfast to get me through to lunch, but I can't seem to get into it enough to eat it every morning. I like trying different kinds - adding cinnamon and cut up apple, or frozen blueberries. I'm trying to be better about eating plain oatmeal and not the oatmeal packets, so when I had some leftover coconut milk I needed to use I thought it would be a good addition to my oatmeal!

Coconut Almond Oatmeal all finished!

Coconut Almond Oatmeal
1/3 cup light coconut milk
1/4 cup skim milk
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup old fashioned quaker oats
1/2 TB. ground flaxseed meal
1 TB shredded coconut
1/2 TB chopped almonds
1/4 tsp.  ground cinnamon