Couscous Salad with Chickpeas

This easy recipe for Couscous Salad with Chickpeas is one of my absolute favorites. I discovered it a few years ago and have made it many times for office pitch-in lunches and parties with friends. It's best made the day ahead so that the flavors can marry, and it gets better and better as a leftover. I recently pulled it out when my mom was looking for something to make for a weekend getaway with her friends, and as I was digging into the leftovers, I thought, "This is so good. I should share it on the blog." So here you go.

Source: Cooking Light, http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/couscous-salad-with-chickpeas

Couscous Salad with Chickpeas

Yield: 4 servings (serving size 1 1/3 cups)
Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked whole-wheat couscous
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (typically 1 large lemon)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
Dash of sugar
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint (I consider this optional)
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika
One 15-ounce can chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1 large ripe tomato, chopped (can substitute chopped grape or cherry tomatoes)
2/3 cup (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese

Instructions

1. Place couscous, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir in boiling water, cover, and let stand 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
2. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and sugar. Add to couscous and stir to combine.
3. Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, mint, onions, paprika, chickpeas, tomato, and feta.

Tip: Make a day ahead for best flavor.

Best Wonton Soup

If you are sitting through a rainy spring day and just want something to warm your bones, try this great Wonton Soup recipe for dinner.  I made it this weekend and it just hit the spot. Don't be intimidated, the wontons are easy to assemble and yummy.

Filling
1/2 lb ground pork
1 green onion, diced
2 Tb. soy sauce
2 tsp. corn starch
Dash of pepper

Broth
2 boxes of chicken stock (approx 4 cups)
Sliced mushrooms (as much or as little as you like)
3 green onions, diced
3 Tb. soy sauce or to taste
1 Tb. seasame oil
1/2-1 tsp. ground ginger, depending on preference

Wontons
1 package store-bought wonton wrappers
1 egg, beaten

Steps

1. Mix all the filling ingredients together in a bowl and set aside
2. Mix all the broth ingredients together in a saucepan and keep warm on medium-low
3. In a second saucepan, start 4-5 cups boiling while you assemble the wontons.
4. To assemble the wontons, put about a 1/2 tsp filling in each wonton and seal with egg wash. I would recommend you watch this how-to video on wonton assembly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsDOWCyf3tc.
5. Drop the wontons in the boiling water and cook until they float. With a slotted spoon, make sure the wonton wrappers are not sticking to the bottom of your pan. Then, add 1/2 cup of water, and let reboil. Once the water is boiling again, scoop the wontons out of the water and add them to the broth.

I personally like more wonton and less broth (see picture) but this recipe should provide you broth lovers with enough out there if you want more.

Yummmm.... Nutella 3 Ways

While my sister was visiting, I decided to try a recipe off our Inspire Me Grey "Food I Should Make" Pinterest board. Yes, shocking I know -- to actually set out and accomplish something "pinned" is amazing indeed! The recipe was a hit (not too sweet) and I highly recommend it with a nice cup of tea. However, it did leave me with a dilemma: What do you do with the rest of the Nutella? I've come up with three great ways to use up a jar of Nutella so that you don't fall victim to it's delicious goodness that calls to you in the middle of the night.

1. Nutella Crescent Pockets

Found on Pinterest (no link available) so I'll attribute to the pinner Kitschy Cupcakes, whom we follow. The recipe from Kitschy Cupcakes: Unroll crescent rolls and close up the seams, use a pizza cutter to slice the crescent dough into smaller rectangles, and put a scoop of Nutella in each one -- I recommend a good-sized scoop, as our filling didn't melt and spread as much as we expected. Fold the dough over the Nutella and crimp the edges with the tines of a fork.  Toss the pocket in cinnamon and sugar and then bake according to the package directions.

2.  Nutella S'mores

This is easy and you will quickly become addicted to the sugary goodness. Slather your nutella on a graham cracker. Add mini marshmallows, then spread Nutella on the "top" cracker as well (this is optional but I highly recommend it). Microwave for 9 seconds (depends on your microwave strength but this was enough to melt them, but not enough to dry them out). Kids will love this since the marshmallows expand in the microwave. I warn you, have plenty of grahams and marshmallows on hand!

3.  Just Nutella

Eat it with a spoon (or your fingers)! Sometimes keeping it simple is the way to go. Nutella can be the perfect solution to that chocolate craving...just watch out: In my house it never lasts long once found!

Cookie Nests: Last Minute Easter Dessert Idea

A co-worker's wife made these Cookie Nests and I have been craving another all week. If you would like a bite-sized bit of cookie deliciousness, give them a try.

1. Make basic chocolate chip cookie dough, without the chocolate chips.
2. Scoop and shape into a small muffin tin.
3. Bake as directed or until they are done in the middle. Finished cookie should be about 1 inch or so in height.
4. While the cookies are baking, combine vanilla icing with shredded coconut and a few drops of yellow food coloring and mix until the color is consistent.
5. Once the cookies are out of the tins and cooled, top them with the coconut frosting.
6. Nestle in a chocolate egg on top

You can also make smaller batches of the icing and coconut in other colors, but I'm partial to the yellow!

Fall Recipe Idea: Swedish Meatballs

Every once in awhile I see a recipe and think "Wow, that would be good," but it never seems to happen before a trip to the grocery store. Today it did for once, so the hubby and I had an excellent afternoon of college football followed by delicious "Almost Famous Swedish Meatballs" from Food Network magazine. Now, the magazine described these delicious balls of yummyness as a copycat recipe from the IKEA store. I honestly can't remember the last time I had IKEA Swedish meatballs, so I'll have to take their word that they are similar. What I do know is that they are delicious.

Since they passed my test, I leave you with the following comments
1. If you have people coming over and you don't want to spend a ton of money on meat  (it adds up!), give the Swedish meatballs a try.
2. If you enjoy meatballs in general...make them. We tossed extras in spaghetti sauce the next day and they were great.
3. If you want to snack on food, say, during a football game, try the meatballs as they are very appetizer-y.
4. If you don't want to spend all day in the kitchen for "comfort food," these were quick and easy (I skipped the refrigeration step in the recipe).
5. I'm not sure if it helped, but I will divulge that I ate the aforementioned meatballs with my "Dragon" silverware from IKEA.

Time for Mini Tarts

My friend Susannah and I spent a recent Sunday afternoon amusing ourselves with a set of mini tart pans (a Christmas gift from my lovely sister), a recipe for lemon-blackberry mini tarts, and one of my favorite movies, Amelie. The tarts were delicious, the movie was as fun and quirky as I remember, and I'm working on a list of more tasty tarts we can make in miniature.

Cold, Grey Day = Ginger Creams

What do you do when you're stuck inside due to weather? I always go with cookies and when this last wave of cold weather hit, I decided it was time to pull a childhood favorite, Ginger Creams. I love that this vintage recipe from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book can still be a treat 100 years later. My modified version below uses pumpkin pie spice which contained all of the required spices (and saved me a trip to the market).

Ginger Creams
1/3 c. shortening
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. molasses
1/2 c. water
2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tbsp. half and half
water to thin as needed

Mix the wet ingredients with the sugar in a mixer or with a hand blender, sift the dry ingredients and add them in. Chill the dough for at least an hour. Scoop into 1Tbs balls on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes and ice when slightly warm.

Snow Creme Recipe

I'm not from the south but really love living where the winters are nice and mild. However, once is awhile a winter snow hits and everyone goes bananas. To celebrate our snowfall, my husband (who is southern) introduced me to a sweet little treat called snow creme. A great project for kids on a snowday, I would recommend setting a bowl outside before the weather hits otherwise you'll find yourself scraping the top layer off.   Recipe below.



Snow Creme Recipe
5 cups of snow
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of skim milk or half and half if you want it creamier
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (i used Penzeys Bourbon Vanilla which was incredible)

Mix all the ingredients together until it reaches the consistency of ice cream.