Liz McCarthy

I like to experiment with new recipes. I can’t create my own recipes, I just like to try what others have already mastered.

So here are some of our recent recipes that I recommend trying.

Cholay (Curried chickpeas) & Basmati rice (seriously, make this rice. SOOOO good)
Panko crusted chicken stuffed with ricotta, spinach, tomatoes, and basil
Orzo with parmesan and basil
Baked skinny chicken parm
Pan fried barbecue pork chops   (probably the best pork chop recipe I’ve found)
Asparagus with lemon-mustard vinaigrette 

I’m a little in love with quinoa lately and we’ve found some interesting ways to use it.

Quinoa mac and cheese
Quinoa stuffed peppers
Greek-style quinoa burgers
Thai fried quinoa  (with Egg drop soup)

We have done a little altering of recipes.

Take this shrimp and grits recipe. We found it was too creamy and therefore too heavy but really love the creamy flavor of these grits. So we cut down on the cream and added milk in its place.

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup non-fat milk

We also found that the seasoning overpowered the shrimp, so we only used about half of the total seasoning on the shrimp (the rest is saved for the next time we mix it up) and added half of a can of tomato sauce (about 7 oz.). This made a great shrimp sauce, which is how I like my shrimp and grits.  I highly recommend making these grits. Ah-mazing.

And then there’s lasagna. I really love this recipe (it’s the one I always use and have had no complaints so far). Until the hubs wanted to go vegetarian. So we altered it to remove the meat.

To replace the meat we used a couple of carrots, celery and onions. We also added in chopped red pepper and chopped spinach. Everything else was the same. Just saute the carrots, onion and celery in replace of the browning meat, add in the red pepper and spinach a couple of minutes before adding in the tomato sauces.

OK, now that’s what we’ve been cooking. Get in the kitchen!