Roasted loaded potatoes

One of Isaac's all time favorite foods is potatoes.  He is very partial to mashed potatoes but I wanted to try something different for the rest of us that were getting a little tired of the same potato side dish.  I peeled and sliced the potatoes and roasted them with a little bit of olive oil.  They got a little crunch to the outside, and of course Isaac informed me that he liked the old potatoes much better.  He ate them but he wasn't thrilled about it.  After roasting the potatoes I decided they needed some dressing up.  I melted cheese, and sprinkled with green onions and turkey bacon.  Super super delicious, we all thought so minus Isaac.

Oh and I also decided to try it with one sweet potato and it was equally delicious!!

lightly seasoned with olive oil

toppings

ready to eat

sweet potatoes 

Baked Fried Chicken

I am not big on fried chicken, in fact I could go as far as to say I don't really like it.  Baked, breaded chicken now that is a different story.  A recipe that claims to taste like fried chicken but is baked, yep that I needed to try.  It of course was one of those messy dip in buttermilk then in flour mixture so it was very very messy to coat the chicken.  The family ate it up like it was candy!!!  EVERYONE LOVED it, fairly simple to make and for sure makes it on the family favorite list.

Looks just like flour but trust me it is much more

out of the oven

http://bakerette.com/baked-fried-chicken/

Kale on Pizza?

Let me answer that question for you, yes it is delicious.  Can you even taste the kale? Nope!!!  Seth and I went to quick fire pizza in stillwater about a week ago and we had a delicious pizza there made with only oilve oil for the sauce.  I tried to recreate at home....wasn't nearly as good but I loved it because it was PIZZA!

pepperoni, sausage,peppers,onions,spinach,kale and olive oil and garlic for the sauce

yummy

ruhbarb sauce

It doesn't get much eaiser than this recipe to enjoy the season of ruhbarb in a delicious way.  boil 1/2 cup of both sugar and water.  Add 4 cups of chopped ruhbarb and cook until ruhbarb is sauce/tender.

I love to eat this with honey toast.  Ieither dip it directly in the sauce or spread it on like jam.  So good, give it a try!!

sugar and water

add the ruhbarb

cook until it looks like this

My honey toast and sauce

Let me introduce you to okra

How many of you eat okra and have it in your families vegetable rotation?  Okra is a vegetable that I throw into stews and turkey/chicken noodle soup.  It is delicious in all of these and this time I decided to branch out  and stirfry it with some aspargaus.  We had some AMAZING aspargaus in the fridge from my parents garden, HUGE difference in freshness than store bought but there wasn't a lot so I paired it with some okra and it was a great combination.

The okra was frozen when I added it to the pan and it took both vegetables the same amount of time to cook.  I used olive oil in the pan with some Mrs. Dash seasoning and cooked until veggies were tender.  One thing you should now about okra is that it produces a little slime as it cooks.  You will see what I mean once you try this recipe.

ENJOY!!

ruhbarb pie

You know it is the beginning of summer when you can start eating out off the gardens slowly.  Right now ruhbarb is at its prime and thanks to Isaac for picking one of our entire plants we have been eating lots of ruhbarb.  This pie is super fast and very good.  I did a little bit of cheating and bought a store bought crust for the bottom, where all I had to do was roll it out.
The filling is about three cups of ruhbarb, 2 cups of sliced strawberries, sugar and cornstarch
The top  is 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup flour and 1 stick of butter
I baked at 375 until the crust was a nice golden brown.  That's it.  It was so good.

without the top

top

after it was baked

croutons

I was looking for a way to spruce up our grilled chicken salads the other night and  then it dawned on me croutons would be great.  Checked the cupboard and nope we didn't have any.  It is not usually something I keep on hand.  Then the real light bulb went off...I could make some out of the old sourdough bread that was drying out anyways.  So glad that light bulb went on.

This is what I did: cut the bread into cube pieces and placed on some foil.  Drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper, basil,oregano, and parsley.  Bake at 425 degrees until golden brown and crunchy about 10 minutes.

If you are looking to dress up your summer salads this is a fast, easy way!

bread cubed with olive oil

spices

crunchy and baked

on top of my grilled chicken salad