What's On the Side: Parmesan-Roasted Cauliflower

Cauliflower, roasted with fresh thyme, onions, and garlic, and covered with a generous blanket of freshly-grated Parmesan, will be your new favorite side dish.

Confession time: I'm not particularly a fan of raw cauliflower. Stick it on a platter with veggie dip, and I will steer clear.

But put that cauliflower in the oven and roast it until it is caramelized, but still has a tender bite? I am in it to win it.

And when you roast it with onion wedges, fresh thyme, whole garlic cloves, and cover it with a generous blanket of freshly-grated Parmesan? It's quite likely I'll eat the whole platter myself. #nojudgment

Think you don't like cauliflower? Give this recipe a try. I'm pretty sure you'll be a cauliflower convert in no time, too.

Parmesan-Roasted Cauliflower (printer-friendly version)
makes 2-4 servings

1 medium head cauliflower
1 medium onion, sliced into thick wedges
4 fresh thyme sprigs
4 unpeeled garlic cloves
3 tablespoons olive oil
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 426 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Cut the head of cauliflower into florets; cut each floret in half. Place the florets in a large bowl. Add the sliced onion, thyme, garlic cloves, and olive oil. Gently toss to combine.
3. Spread the mixture onto the prepped baking sheet. Season liberally with salt and pepper.
4. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, carefully flipping the cauliflower with a spatula about halfway through the cooking time.
5. Sprinkle with the Parmesan, and continue roasting for 10 minutes more. Serve warm.

(adapted from this Bon Appétit recipe)

What's For Lunch: Brussels Sprouts Salad with Toasted Pine Nuts and a Creamy Parmesan Dressing

I like a green salad just as much as any other person, but let's face it, lettuce can get a little boring. And as I've been cleaning up my post-holiday diet (how prosaic, I know), I've been leaning heavily on main entree salads.

One of my favorite ways to mix up that bowl of greens is to switch the snooze-worthy lettuce for something else. And lately, I've been reaching for Brussels sprouts. Now, I've proclaimed my love for Brussels sprouts before. I am particularly a fan of roasted Brussels sprouts. (Um, especially when cooked up in lots of butter.)

But for this recipe, all you've got to do is slice up those Brussels sprouts nice and thin. If you have a mandoline or food processor, this can be done quite quickly. Or you can be like me and (very!) carefully slice 'em up one by one with a sharp knife.

This salad keeps it simple with toasted pine nuts and a creamy Parmesan dressing. But feel free to fancy it up as much as you want!

Brussels Sprouts Salad with Toasted Pine Nuts and a Creamy Parmesan Dressing
makes 2-4 servings

2 tablespoons creamy Parmesan dressing
3 cups thinly-sliced Brussels sprouts
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted

1. Place the creamy Parmesan dressing in the bottom of a medium bowl. Add the thinly-sliced Brussels sprouts and toss to combine.
2. Stir in the toasted pine nuts and serve.

Made From Scratch: Creamy Parmesan Dressing

So, yeah, clearly I am slowly easing my way back into blogging after the New Year. Our holiday break culminated in attending the wedding of one of my dear friends in Chicago, which was an excellent way to ring in 2016. And then we returned home, and what had been the sniffles turned into a dreadful cold. Happy New Year to me, indeed.

Long story short, aside from plenty of roasted chicken (and the subsequent chicken noodle soup), not much was happening culinarily in our kitchen last week. But I am finally feeling better, and after a couple weeks of holiday eating (read: lots and lots of cookies and countless away-from-our-home meals), I am actually looking forward to returning piles of vegetables to my diet.

But, any good pile of vegetables could use a delicious dressing to bring all the flavors together. This simple creamy Parmesan dressing does just that, and it works just as well as a dip for carrots and celery sticks as it does as a dressing for greens or shredded vegetables. And, with just a simple direction to whisk all the ingredients together, it doesn't get much easier than that.

Creamy Parmesan Dressing
makes 1 1/4 cups

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Whisk together all of the ingredients. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper if desired.
2. Store any leftover dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

What's On the Side: Roasted Broccoli with Lemon and Parmesan

More often than not, my default method of cooking broccoli is to steam it. Typically I steam it on the stovetop, but if I'm feeling particularly lazy, I'll steam it in the microwave. When broccoli is steamed correctly, it is delicious. But when it's not, it can be undercooked and tough or, worse, overcooked and mushy -- no one likes that.

I thought I'd try something new this time around and give roasting broccoli a whirl. Roasting takes the question out of the cooking time -- once it starts to brown, it's ready to eat. Thinly-sliced garlic, lemon juice, salt, and a bit of olive oil give the broccoli plenty of flavor without overpowering it. Freshly ground black pepper and a generous topping of Parmesan are the finishing touches.

Roasted Broccoli (printer-friendly version)

makes two servings

4 cups broccoli, cut into florets

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt

2 garlic cloves, cut into thin slices

freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Place the broccoli florets in a baking pan. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and sliced garlic cloves. Toss to combine, coating the broccoli evenly in the oil. 

3. Roast the broccoli in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the broccoli is just beginning to brown. Season generously with freshly ground black pepper and Parmesan cheese and serve.

 (adapted from this Simply Recipes recipe)

What's For Dinner: Parmesan-Almond Crusted Tilapia

Up until Sunday afternoon, all I knew was that I wanted to make a tilapia dish for Easter dinner; I just didn't know exactly what kind of tilapia dish I wanted to make. Luckily, D's mom came to the rescue and emailed a recipe for Parmesan-Almond Crusted Tilapia. I tweaked the recipe slightly by cooking the fish in the oven rather than on the stove and nixing the extra Parmesan cheese; but I think the fish dish turned out rather well considering it was the first time I'd tried the recipe. Given that everyone was a member of the Clean Plate Club that evening, I'm going to have to assume that my guests would agree!

Parmesan-Almond Crusted Tilapia (printer-friendly version)

makes four servings

2 organic eggs

1 teaspoon lemon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic pepper

1 cup ground almonds

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

4 6-oz tilapia fillets

1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

4 sprigs curly parsley

4 lemon wedges

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and set aside.

3. Beat the eggs in a shallow bowl and set aside.

4. Mix together the lemon pepper, garlic pepper, and flour in a shallow baking dish and set aside. (Sense a theme?!)

5. Process the almonds in a food processor until finely ground. Place the ground almonds into a third(!) shallow baking dish. Stir in the grated Parmesan cheese.

6. Place a tilapia fillet in the flour mixture and dust both sides of the fish with the seasoned flour.

7. Dip the fillet in the egg mixture and allow any excess to drip off.

8. Dredge the eggy fillet in the almond-Parm mixture and coat evenly on both sides.

9. Place the seasoned fillet on the prepared baking sheet.

10. Repeat steps 6-9 for the remaining fillets.

11. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until the meat is opaque and flaky and the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees.

12. Place each fillet on a plate and garnish with a sprig of parsley and lemon wedge. Serve with sides of your choice -- we served our tilapia fillets with a side of string beans, red and white quinoa, and a mini caprese salad.

What's For Dinner: Pasta with Mushrooms, Grape Tomatoes, and Ricotta Cheese

I always tend to cook up too much pasta, so I end up with some leftover plain pasta in the fridge. I had about a cup of cooked bow-tie pasta on hand and decided, rather than just cover it with some tomato and basil sauce as I normally do, I'd whip together a light cheesy dish instead. For just throwing together some random ingredients, the results were actually quite tasty!

Pasta with Mushrooms, Grape Tomatoes, and Ricotta Cheese (printer-friendly version)

makes one serving

1 cup cooked pasta

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 pkg sliced mushrooms

6 grape tomatoes, halved

3 tablespoons organic part-skim ricotta cheese

1 tablespoon freshly-grated Parmesan cheese

fine sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

2. Add the mushrooms and saute until browned and softened, about 2-3 minutes.

3. Add in the halved grape tomatoes and cook for about 2-3 minutes more.

4. Add in the cooked pasta. If cold from the fridge, cook until warmed.

5. Stir in the ricotta cheese and Parmesan cheese.

6. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Serve it up!

What's For Dinner: Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia

Another trip to Whole Foods, another pre-prepared tilapia filet. Since Dustin and I weren't that hungry once dinner time rolled around, we decided to share one filet. I baked the filet in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes (cooking time should average between 12 and 15 minutes). I served haricots verts aside the tilapia. To make the haricots verts, I blanched fresh green beans in boiling water for 2 minutes, then removed them from the water and placed them in a bowl. I topped the green beans with a few dots of butter and seasoned them with several hefty sprinkles of a parmesan pesto seasoning from Boulder's Savory Spice Shop.

One aspect I like about trying pre-seasoned fish filets is that doing so gives me the chance to figure out what combinations of seasonings I like. Then, later on I can make my own seasoned filets using the pre-seasoned filets I've eaten as inspiration. The parmesan-crusted tilapia was definitely a winner, and I will have to try to make my own version someday soon -- there are already a few tilapia filets in the freezer just waiting to be a part of a creative recipe!