goat cheese

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Buying food is one of my favorite things to do, right up there with tasting wine and visiting places where wine is made (or where food is made!). Saving money on day-to-day things so that I can do the above is also a favorite of mine, so I am always on the lookup for bargains and often compare prices from store-to-store.

Back in October, the Target in the South Bay Shopping Center in Dorchester got all fancy and became part-grocery store. South Bay is not one of my favorite places; it can be downright chaotic, but it’s close, and as much as I love me a small, local store, I do love Target.

And their grocery section is good! They have a lot of great deals, especially for their Archer’s Farms brand. A favorite this time around? Strawberry Cheesecake yogurt. It really tasted like cheesecake and made for a nice little Monday breakfast with some walnuts.

Target had some of my favorite things, including these addictive sweet peppers.

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While I was making dinner, I kept washing and eating them raw. I had to make myself save some for the chicken, which turned out to be skillet chicken with sweet peppers, tomatoes, and goat cheese.

I was happy to see that Target offers some humanely-raised chicken. It was a little more expensive, but this is one of the places I am willing to spend more.

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Here you see the chaos of my cooking station. I try to get lunches and dinner done at the same time. And eat olives while I cook.

The chicken was a really simple preparation. I threw it and a lot of olive oil into a pan and got it cooking. I wanted to make sure the outside got golden brown.

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When both sides were cooked, I added in grape tomatoes that were getting to that wrinkly point and the chopped sweet peppers. I topped it with a little more olive oil and some garlic powder and let it cook away while I made some spinach with lemon and garlic to go underneath.

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It always amazes me how spinach cooks down. An entire bag of fresh baby spinach made two teeny servings. It was good, but I want more spinach!

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Once the chicken and vegetables were cooked I put them on top of the spinach and then topped the whole thing with goat cheese which started getting nice and melty with the heat. After feeling icky for days, this bright meal was just the thing to help boost my energy. I am having daily freak-outs about my inability to run, with the marathon coming up more quickly than I would like. I am hoping some good eating and a little more rest will have me back to normal soon!

Do you have a particular grocery store you always shop at? Have you ever shopped for groceries at Target?

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Tags: chicken, Food, goat cheese, grocery shopping, recipe

Clean Up Time

The holiday season probably isn’t the best time to start cleaning up one’s diet, but I am certainly in need of it. It’s not just because we just spent 10 days traveling and celebrating, the past year of craziness has truly caught up with me. Travel, blogger events, the desire to always cook and bake new things, a bunch of illnesses, my nana’s death, topped with truly poor eating habits during my work day have made me pack on the pounds and feel pretty tired. Where cheese and crackers were once snacks or treats, and bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches were for weekends (Who am I kidding, I NEVER used to eat bacon!), they have replaced the veggie-filled meals of my past. Instead of eating normal meals, I have been going much of the day without eating, then chowing down on snack foods like chips, then end up too full to eat dinner, then eat more snacks later in the evening. It’s not a good scene, not at all.

On the plane back from Ireland and our first night home, I spent a ton of time planning meals to get back on track. I’m not cutting treats out (just got eight bottles of wine to sample!), I am just adding in more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and fish into my diet.

I had a major craving for grilled zucchini when we were doing a huge Market Basket haul on Sunday, and a dish Cara made for Elina’s party a few months ago had been on my mind ever since. The zucchini roll-ups, filled with goat cheese, raisins, and pine nuts, were one of my favorite dishes of the night, and for Sunday lunch, I decided to turn the flavors into a warm salad.

zucchini

I started with two large zucchinis, cutting them into thick strips and coating them with olive oil. A hot grill pan did the trick; I just cooked until they were softened, with nice grill marks on both sides.

grilled zucchini

While the zucchini cooked, I rinsed some salted almonds (an accidental purchase) and roughly chopped them, breaking each almond into about three pieces.

almonds

I mixed the almonds with some golden raisins, and topped my cooked zucchini with the mix.

raisins

The finishing touch? A handful of crumbled goat cheese that nicely softened with the heat of the zucchini. All of the flavors in this dish worked together perfectly, and it was delicious, satisfying, and filled that salad void without leaving me cold! One of my problems in the colder weather is finding interesting ways to eat veggies in the winter, and I think using the grill pan will definitely come in handy this year.

zucchini salad

I have a ton more Ireland posts to come, but there will also be lots of home-cooking so that I can be sure to fit in the nutrition I need. After all, I start Boston Marathon training this week!

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Tags: Food, goat cheese, recipe, salad, Vegetarian, zucchini

I don’t really care much about dessert. I am the type of eater who fills up pretty quickly to the point where people question if I eat enough, but gets hungry an hour after a meal. It’s just the way my body works, and I have learned to roll with it throughout the years. So, by the time dessert at a restaurant arrives, I usually don’t even want it; stuffing it in just doesn’t feel good.

There are of course always those exceptions, and I do like a snack an hour or two after dinner at home, especially when it involves incredible, seasonal local fruit.

I am trying to completely take advantage of local peaches until they are all gone, so last night I whipped up a sweet and creamy treat using a few peaches, goat cheese, and honey.

It couldn’t be any easier, I cut the peaches in half and pitted them, then placed them in a pie plate in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Once the 10 minutes were over, I turned the oven to broil for another 2 minutes.

I removed the peach halves from the oven and plated them on a simple white salad plate, then stuffed each half with crumbled goat cheese.

roasted peaches

The final step was to drizzle honey over the peaches and a little on the plate for decoration. . . and dipping :)

roasted peaches

I absolutely loved this dessert with its gentle, natural sweetness from the peaches and the creaminess of the goat cheese. My husband thought it was “weird” but he also liked it. Boys. . .

Are you a dessert person or would you rather a good appetizer?

Have you buzzed my Foodbuzz/Alaska Seafood post yet? You can do so by logging in to Foodbuzz and buzzing this post:

http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/2594074-foodbuzz-alaska-seafood-dinner

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Tags: dessert, fruit, goat cheese, peaches, recipe

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