Spinach with Crispy Garlic Chips

I was looking for a side dish recently for dinner and stumbled across this recipe on The Pioneer Woman. My sister and I both like spinach well enough, and we love garlic so it seemed like a quick, simple option. Spinach isn't really my favorite lettuce, but it's so good for you.

Ingredients
one bag of spinach per two people
four or five cloves of sliced garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper

Slice your garlic cloves thinly. Throw the sliced garlic into a skillet with a few tablespoons of olive oil, then turn the stove on. PW teaches that if you let the oil and the garlic heat up together, your garlic is less likely to burn. Stir lightly and let the garlic brown. After garlic browns, remove it from the pan and let it rest on a paper towel-lined plate. With your stove on medium-low, add the spinach and let it wilt in the oil and heat. Stir gently and season with salt and pepper. Remove to plate and top with garlic chips.

Carrie: ICBC Garlic

For Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Garlic, I settled on this Garlicky Baked Shrimp recipe I found on Gimme Some Oven. The recipe is originally from Real Simple. It was delicious. Outstandingly delicious. I couldn't sing the praises of this recipe enough. And it was so easy.

Ingredients
shrimp, peeled and deveined
white wine
panko bread crumbs
melted butter
minced garlic

Peel and devein the shrimp. Toss with minced garlic and a couple tablespoons of white wine. Melt butter in a small bowl and then mix in panko bread crumbs. Put shrimp in single layer on a baked dish and spread panko bread crumbs on top. Bake in a 425 degree oven until shrimp is cooked through, roughly 12-15 minutes. If desired, broil the last couple minutes to crisp the bread crumbs on top a little more.

Tuesday Night Dinner: Seafood Feasting

Because I am the nicest friend ever and because I figured these would be easy meals, I basically made two dinners last night. I made this Real Simple recipe for Garlicky Broiled Salmon and Tomatoes as well as a pasta tossed with shrimp and diced tomatoes. And because one of the girls is allergic to shrimp and two of the girls don't even eat shrimp, I separated out some pasta and tossed them a separate vegetarian pasta with diced tomatoes, a little bit of eggplant, and some asparagus. I also roasted asparagus. The salmon was delicious, and the tomatoes were okay, probably better if you like tomatoes. And the best part of the recipe was that it all happens together in the oven. See upcoming future post for my pasta, which I combined with Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Alcohol.

Wednesday Night Dinner: Angelhair with Garlic and Tomato and Shrimp

Maybe eventually I'll remember to work on my presentation, but for now, just be glad I remembered to take a picture. I wasn't supposed to make dinner this week so I had to come up with something in a day, instead of normally spending days mulling over what I want to make. I also didn't want to have to go grocery shopping and spend loads of money so I had to come up with something using ingredients in my house. So I prepared basically a Caesar salad (hearts of romaine and spinach with Parmesan and Caesar dressing), garlic bread and angelhair tossed with olive oil, minced garlic, and a can of diced tomatoes with grilled chicken and shrimp. It was a really delicious meal and easy preparation.

I kind of made this up as I went along (as I generally do a lot of my homemade recipes), but the general idea is mince up some garlic cloves, prepare the pasta, heat a skillet or saute pan with a few tablespoons of olive oil, throw in your minced garlic and let it cook for a couple minutes, then throw in your pasta, toss it around, add a couple more tablespoons of olive oil if necessary, and then add in some diced tomatoes and let it cook for a couple more minutes to warm the tomatoes. I prepared the chicken and shrimp on the side so that each person could add which protein they wanted, but you could probably just as easy also toss in already cooked chicken or shrimp in order to serve it all together in one dish. And then throw some Parmesan on top because everything's better with a little bit of cheese.

Wednesday Night Dinner: Salad and Rosemary-Garlic Chicken Sandwiches

This week I decided I really wanted to make salad for dinner, but also needed something to go along with the salad. So I spent most of my Tuesday thinking about what kind of entree would go along with the salad. I finally settled on making this rosemary-garlic chicken, but in sandwich form. This chicken is pretty much the tastiest chicken ever. We put it on rolls with fresh spinach and havarti cheese and it was delightful. I served a field greens with pomegranates salad on the side that was also pretty outstanding.

Field Greens with Pomegranate Salad
field greens
pomegranates
artichoke quarters
tomatoes
carrots
red onion
cucumber
goat cheese
sliced almonds (sunflower seeds would be a good sub)

Toss and serve with balsamic dressing.

Soy Sauce & Garlic Green Beans

Fresh green beans are the best. I love my mom's green beans and here's my own spin on them. It's pretty delicious and I had them for dinner tonight with some steamed rice and leftover chicken.

Ingredients
fresh green beans
soy sauce
minced garlic
olive oil
water

Wash and prep the green beans. Heat a skillet or wok on medium-high heat. Add a little bit of water and the green beans and cover. Let the water help steam them and cook until tender. Add a splash of olive oil and garlic to saute them in. Then add soy sauce and flavor to taste.

Pizza Night

I threw a cocktail party as a belated birthday party for my sister last weekend, and for dinner I made an assortment of pizzas. I love buying pizza dough from Trader Joe's; it's just so cheap and makes the perfect-sized pizza. And, it comes in plain, whole wheat, and garlic-herb. I made a regular cheese pizza; Rachael Ray's sundried tomato, chicken and broccoli; and a tomato, garlic, and feta from For the love cooking. As you can see, I adapted the last recipe a little bit and omitted the basil. All were pretty delicious and the party was a big success.

Wednesday Night Dinner: Rosemary-Garlic Chicken

Yesterday for the weekly Wednesday dinner, it was just Chris, Brad, and me. I made this easy rosemary-garlic chicken dish I found from Real Simple and prepared some instant mashed potatoes and some wilted spinach to go along with it. It made a great lunch today too. After dinner, the three of us went for a ride in my new car. I think we had a pretty pleasant dinner.

This is a nice recipe to prepare because it feel likes you're being fancy, but it actually cooks very quickly. The sherry vinegar's got a nice tang to it.

Recipe for Rosemary-Garlic Chicken from realsimple.com
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half, lengthwise (I just mince the garlic)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup sherry vinegar
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Pound the chicken breasts until they are of uniform thickness.
Heat oil and garlic in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts and cook until golden, 3-5 minutes on each side.
Add salt, pepper, vinegar, chicken broth, and rosemary. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and cook 3 minutes longer or until chicken is fork tender. Remove chicken to a platter and keep warm.
Increase heat to high and boil the sauce until thickened or syrupy, 3-5 minutes. Whisk in the butter and pour the sauce over the chicken.