Lox and Cucumber Bagel Sandwiches

When we were on our honeymoon in Maui, we stayed at the Outrigger Resort and they had an awesome breakfast buffet that was included with our room each morning. They had all kinds of food! This is what I got almost every single day. Its also great with thinly sliced red onions, or tomato. This is a breakfast dish that Carl and I really like. I also like it for lunch or a snack...anytime really.

2 Bagels, toasted
4 Tbsp cream cheese
2 tsp capers
4 ounces lox, or smoked salmon
1/4-1/2 of a cucumber sliced (I like about 6 slices per sandwich)

Toast the bagels. Spread 1 Tbsp cream cheese on each half. Sprinkle capers on each half and press into the cream cheese so they stay. Chop up the salmon and divide it among the halves. Top each half with 3 slices of cucumber. Enjoy.

Ciabatta Breakfast Pizzas

I saw this recipe posted last week to The Way The Cookie Crumbles and I knew I had to try it right away. Especially when I listed off the ingredients to Carl and he said that it really sounds good. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I love all types of breakfast foods! Im always looking for something new to throw into my rotation. Well, this is a good one. Definitely rich and a heavier breakfast. Its probably best saved for the weekends. I did brown the sausage last night so it would be easy to throw these babies in the oven today, so it made for a quick weekday breakfast.

Adapted from this recipe.

Ciabatta Breakfast Pizzas

2 pieces of ciabatta bread, longways in half
1 cup browned breakfast sausage
1/2 cup or more of grated cheddar cheese
4 eggs fried over medium

Place the bread slices on a baking sheet and crisp in the oven under the broiler. Once crisp, take out and top with sausage then cheese. Return to the oven until the cheese is melted. While the bread is in the oven, fry the eggs. Serve each pizza with an egg on top. YUM.

Fish baked in Foil Packets and Asparagus with Balsamic Butter

This is a nice healthy flavorful dinner. Ive been making fish like this for years, it was something my mom always made and one of the first recipes I asked for after moving out on my own. You can use whatever veggies you like, just make sure they are julienned or chopped up small because the fish doesn't cook for long and you don't want the veggies to be too crispy.

The Asparagus is sooo good. The original recipe is from Allrecipes.com and I tweak it just a little bit by switching the amounts of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. I think this dish is already salty enough, I cant imagine having an entire Tablespoon for soy sauce.

Fish Baked in Foil Packets

3-4 white fish fillets (I like mahi mahi or halibut)

2 celery stalks, cut in 3 or 4 pieces, then julienned

2 carrot sticks, cut up and julienned

1/2 of a red bell pepper, julienned

1 lemon

a couple pats of butter

salt, pepper and dill to taste

For each piece of fish, use a large piece of tin foil. Place the fish in the middle of the foil. Season it really good with salt, pepper and dill. Then squeeze lemon juice over it (I used 1/2 lemon for 3 pieces of fish) Slice up the other half of the lemon and set aside. Now arrange equal amounts of veggies onto each piece of fish. Season with more salt and pepper. Throw on a pat of butter and a slice of lemon. Wrap the fish up really good, sealing the top and sides. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Asparagus with Balsamic Butter

1 bunch of asparagus

salt and pepper

a drizzle of olive oil

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce

Lay asparagus into a shallow baking dish. Drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Bake 375 for 15 minutes. While asparagus is baking, microwave butter in a small dish to melt, then add balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, mix well, pour over asparagus and toss right before serving.

Grilled Polenta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

This was such a great snack. Actually it was my lunch. Carl went out with Sam and Charlie is taking a nap so I decided to whip something up for myself that was really yummy and enjoy my lunch alone.

I sliced polenta 1/2 inch thick and brushed olive oil on both sides and grilled it for 5-7 minutes per side. Then I topped it with salt and pepper and cheese and fresh tomato sauce. The fresh tomato sauce is common in Spain. You just take a couple whole tomatoes and grate them on a cheese grater. All of the pulp and seeds and juices come out and you are left with the entire peel in your hands, which you toss. Season with salt and pepper and a splash of olive oil and you are ready to eat!

Grilled Polenta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

6 big slices of polenta, 1/2 inch thick.

olive oil

2 small tomatoes, grated to make a fresh sauce

Parmesan or feta cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Snickerdoodles

When cooking with small children, its always best to have all the ingredients ready ahead of time. When Sam knows that we are going to bake together, he gets excited and hounds me to help the entire time Im trying to get stuff set up for him! Today we were bored, so I let him pick out some cookies in a cookbook for us to bake together. After about 3 picks, we finally found one that I happened to have all the ingredients on hand.

So we are going through this process, getting everything mixed up and I get the dough chilled down and the oven heated up. Then I realized I only had maybe 1/2 tsp of cinnamon at the bottom of the jar. I couldnt just pick up and leave to go to the store because Charlie was still napping, so I decided to use pumpkin pie spice instead. They turned out great! Didnt miss the cinnamon at all! I think the pumpkin pie spice has a great combo of spices.

From Baking by Carol Clements

Snickerdoodles

1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
5 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp cinnamon (I used pumpkin pie spice)

With an electric mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue until fluffy. Beat in eggs, then the milk.

Sift the flour and baking soda over the butter mixture and stir to blend. Stir in the nuts. Refridgerate for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease 2 baking sheets (I used parchment paper).

For the coating, mix the cinnamon with the sugar. Roll tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls, then roll into the cinnamon sugar, coating all sides.

Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets and flatten slightly. Bake until golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Makes 30 cookies.

Hoisin Mahi Mahi with polenta fries and green beans

Tonight's meal was really good. I made up a sauce with hoisin and soy sauce and I was planning on grilling these babies, but then I didnt feel like standing outside in the 110 degree heat, so I heated up my kitchen with the oven instead! Anyways, the mahi mahi turned out so good. Just the right amout of sweet and salty and spicy! The sauce was yummy, but could probably be scaled way down. I wrote out the measurements I used, but I had least half of the sauce left over.

I made the polenta fries from some polenta that I made earlier today from scratch that I let set up, then sliced into 1/2 inch slices. I plan on doing a whole entry just on polenta, so I will have the entire recipe there. These polenta fries were just fried in olive oil until crisp, then seasoned with plenty of salt and pepper and topped with parmesan cheese. Yummy! And the green beans were just steamed and tossed in butter, salt and pepper. What a great meal. Even Sam at every single bite, so that means it was a good one.

Hoisin Mahi Mahi

4 mahi mahi fillets, 1/2 inch thick
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1 T sugar

Season both sides of the fish with salt and pepper.

Whisk together the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, water, sesame oil and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Lightly brush the sauce onto both sides of the fish. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Chocolate Milk Pops

I make these for my kids all the time because they are sooo easy to throw together and because they love them. All they are is chocolate milk, frozen. I got these cute little Popsicle molds as a gift years ago. I think they came from Williams Sonoma. Anyways, these are a great easy snack for kids. They are like chocolate flavored ice pops, because they aren't that creamy like ice cream pops would be. Make sure you make the milk sweeter than you would want to drink it, because for some reason, it seems to lose that sweetness when it freezes.


2 cups milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup Hershey's chocolate syrup

Mix together and pour into Popsicle molds. Let freeze overnight.