Mini Lemon Tarts

Oh, my, these are GOOD.  And EASY.

Mini Tart Shells before the filling is added

After filling with Lemon Curd, Cool Whip, and blueberries

Grandma is DISPLAYING (like Vanna White) the Lemon Curd

They would make a great sweet treat for a party, and can be done with any flavor of pudding or other similar type filling (mousse, etc.) that you prefer.

They can ALSO be made as a savory appetizer, when filled with something like chicken salad, or taco meat, or quiche fixings, etc.

Grandma looked in both Safeways and Whole Foods for the pre-made mini tart shells that she can buy at ANY TIME at Costco's.  I've seen them at Giant Eagle as well.  We have always been able to buy these tart shells when we don't need them.  Now that Grandma wanted to find them, she couldn't see them ANYWHERE.  I guess she may have purchased them at World Market (Cost Plus) in the past, and we went there yesterday ... but she didn't see them there either.

So, we made our own.  You cream together 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter, softened, with 3 oz. of cream cheese (I may use 4 oz. next time... just because 3 oz. is such an arbitrary number, when 4 oz. would be exactly half of the package).  After they are creamed together, add in 1 cup of flour, a little at a time, until just blended.  Then roll that into a ball and put saran wrap around it, and put the dough into the refrigerator for as little as an hour, and for as much as 24 hours.

After you wait an hour,  you can bring the dough out of the fridge, and divide it into half.  One half will make 12 mini muffin-sized tart shells.  Take one half, and divide IT into half.  Then divide each of those halves into quarters.  Then divide each of those quarters into three balls of equal size, and press each ball into and up the edges of a mini muffin tin.  If you have two mini-muffin tins, you can use the other half to make 12 more tart shells ... for a total of 24 shells.

Bake the shells for 20 minutes at 325 degrees, until slightly brown at the edges.  Let the shells cool before putting any kind of filling into it.  We put Lemon Curd (Downton Abbey, found at World Market) in ours, then topped that with Cool Whip, then put two blueberries on top.  I read that other people put a chocolate flavored mousse filling in, with whipped cream and then a strawberry on top, or raspberries.

These are a great little party-type dessert to make that looks wonderful, but doesn't take a lot of time.  You could even make the little shells way ahead of time and freeze them -- then thaw them when you want to fill them.  I read about other people who doubled this tart recipe and used the dough to make pumpkin, blueberry, or any other kind of full-size pie.  The crust is THAT GOOD!

Spring Vegetable Soup with Orzo

SPRING VEGETABLE SOUP with ORZO

No joke, this took MAYBE 30 minutes to make.  I got the recipe from the weekly handout we get at Weight Watchers.  Yes, the very same Weight Watchers meeting I have been attending for a decade, and yet I never lose any weight.  Go figure.

6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

2/3 cup uncooked orzo

1 large carrot, diced (but I'm a rebel -- I "sliced," not "diced" my carrot)

1-1/2 cups diagonally sliced asparagus (bite-size pieces)

1 cup frozen green peas (I omitted the peas because Will doesn't like them…)

4 medium scallions, sliced

1/3 cup fresh, chopped dill (I used a sprinkle of dill weed instead, and it was GREAT)

2 T fresh lemon juice (I just used the concentrated lemon juice in the plastic lemon container)

1/4 tsp table salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper (seriously - WHO DOES THIS???)

Bring broth to a boil in a large saucepan over high heat.

Add orzo and carrot; boil 7 minutes.

Add asparagus and frozen peas; boil until orzo and vegetables are tender, about 3 minutes.

Remove from heat; stir in scallions, dill, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.  Yields about 1 cup per serving.

NOTES:  A few handfuls of fresh baby spinach stirred in at the end of cooking would be a nice addition to this soup.  Change up the flavor by substituting fresh parsley for the dill and serving sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese.

I ADDED TWO CHICKEN BREASTS, THAT I QUICKLY PAN-FRIED BEFORE ADDING TO THE SOUP.  OF COURSE, I ACTUALLY CHOPPED THE CHICKEN BREASTS INTO BITE SIZE PIECES BEFORE I ADDED THEM TO THE SOUP.  TWO WHOLE CHICKEN BREASTS IN THE SOUP WOULD HAVE BEEN WEIRD.

The recipe says that it takes 13 minutes prep time, 15 minutes cooking time, and it serves 8.  They lie.  It most certainly does not serve 8, unless they are eight dwarves.  It serves 4.

Ahi Tuna Lettuce Bowls

Ahi Tuna Lettuce Bowls

Butter lettuce leaves

1/2 lb. fresh tuna -- previously baked, bathed in olive oil, on each side 10 min. in 350 oven 

   [make sure to season your tuna with garlic and whatever else you like]

avocado

red pepper

Cube the cooked tuna in tiny squares, cube the avocado in tiny squares, and dice the pepper.

Combine and put into the butter lettuce leaves, and your done!

You could put some soy sauce on top if you feel this needs more flavor, but we liked it on it's own.  This fed three of us, but I think it might work better for feeding two.  You could also do this for an appetizer!

SUPER good, and obviously it's pretty healthy.  Now I'm off to make big fat chocolate chip cookies to balance out the overly healthy meal...

Zucchini Spaghetti

Zucchini Spaghetti

Am I spelling zucchini correctly?  I'm not at all sure.  But what I am sure of is that zucchini spaghetti is easy, healthy, crunchy, and just as good as regular spaghetti.  I bought this new-fangled spiral cutter for cutting vegetables into spaghetti or ribbon (it's SO COOL), and as you can see, the zucchini looks beautiful.  I then put the zucchini in the microwave for two minutes.  It was a lot of zucchini, and you don't want to overcook the zucchini or it gets mushy.  Some people wouldn't even cook it at all -- they would just put the warm spaghetti sauce on top and eat it right away.

Anyways, this spiral cutter for veggies could be a lot of fun.  I think you can cut most anything with it, and I'm thinking salads cut this way could be a lot of fun.  The ribbon cutter blade could really make things pretty, too.

So, since it's super VEEEEEEGGGAAAANNN, I figured you would like this.

Quinoa White Chicken Chili

Quinoa White Chicken Chili

MAKE THIS RIGHT NOW.  SERIOUSLY.  IT'S THAT GOOD!!!

I found this on Pinterest, and it originally came from a website called closetcooking.com.  

I made a few changes… I didn't have enough of a yellow onion, so I used both yellow and red onion.  I also didn't have chicken broth or stock, so I used 3 cups of chicken bouillon (and it still tasted GREAT).  I used my own pinto beans that I canned years ago, and I didn't have any cilantro.  That's fine, because I personally hate cilantro.  This is my first time using a jalapeño pepper in a recipe like this, and I was nervous about cutting it up [there's all sorts of warnings about not touching your eyes or skin after cutting super-hot peppers like jalapeño].  I just held the pepper down with a fork and used a knife to slice it and cut out the white parts inside… and most of the seeds were attached to that, so they were easy to de-seed.

I was shocked at how good this was.  I put a little dollop of sour cream on top -- and before I did that, I used the oddest ingredient that REALLY kind of made the chili.  I crumbled up Nabisco Gluten Free Brown Rice Sea Salt and Pepper flavored Rice Thins on top of the chili.  Dad LOVED this.

ingredients

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 jalapeno peppers, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin, toasted and ground
• 3 cups chicken broth or chicken stock
• 1 cup salsa verde
• 1 pound boneless and skinless chicken breasts or thighs
• 1 (15 ounce) can white beans
• 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon lime juice (~1/2 lime)
• 2 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

directions

1. Heat the oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat, add the onion and jalapeno peppers and cook until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
3. Add the broth, salsa verde, chicken, beans, quinoa and oregano, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked and the quinoa is tender, about 10-15 minutes.
4. Remove the chicken, shred or dice, return to soup along with the lime juice and cilantro, season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.