Serves 2-4
 
4 corn tortillas, cut into strips
1 tablespoon olive oil or avocado oil
½ cup chopped cilantro
3 scallions, chopped
8 eggs, beaten
Salt and pepper to taste
salsa for serving
 
 

• Heat a cast-iron skillet or other large sauté pan. Add the oil and the tortilla strips with a little salt. Stir to coat the strips. The tortilla strips will wilt, then crisp. 
• Add the chopped cilantro, scallions and combine.
• Add the eggs. Mix and stir the eggs with the tortillas until the eggs are set. Season with salt and pepper and serve with salsa.

 
 
Variations:

• Tortilla chips instead of tortilla strips. Halfway through cooking the eggs, add crumbled chips, cilantro, and scallion. 
• Top with shredded cheese, salsa, and siracha sauce.

​4 ounces butter, unsalted, grass fed
1 ½ lbs (about 1/2 a head) head Savoy cabbage or green cabbage-shredded 
1 teaspoon dried thyme or 2 teaspoons fresh
8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced                 
1 pound ground beef
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup assorted greens-baby spinach, flat-leafed parsley, baby arugula-chopped
1 lemon, zested and juiced
½ cup heavy cream
Kosher salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt 4 ounces of butter in a large sauté pan over a medium- high heat.  Add the slice garlic, ground beef, and pepper flakes. You can put the ground beef into the pan a break it apart as it cooks or place it in the pan in large pieces and cook without breaking up. Cook the meat until it is browned and the garlic is fragrant, about 5 minutes. 
   
   
2. Add the shredded cabbage and thyme. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover and cook until the cabbage is wilted but still bright green, 3-5 minutes. 
   
   
3. Add the chopped herbs, lemon zest and juice, and the heavy cream. Toss the ingredients gently to coat. Simmer for 3 minutes to heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

 
Additions:
10oz frozen spinach, thawed and pressed to remove excess water
Shrimp. Add raw shrimp with the cabbage to cook.
Replace ground beef with 1 lb sausage meat. 

Makes 1 sandwich
 
2 slices hearty peasant bread
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon fig jam (any jam or chutney will work)
2-3 ounces mozzarella, cheddar, or both, cut into thin slices 
1 tablespoon shredded or grated parmesan cheese
 

1. Heat a skillet over medium heat.
2. While the skillet is heating, spread each slice of bread with a thin layer of mayonnaise-this will be the outside of the sandwich. 
3. On the other side, spread the Dijon mustard and then the fig jam.
4. Place the cheeses on the fig side of the bread. Place the top slice on (fig side down) and put the sandwich into the heated skillet. Cook for 3 to 6 minutes, until cheese starts to melt. Flip and let cook 1 to 2 more minutes on the other side, until golden brown. If the cheese is not melted to your liking, lower the heat and cover the sandwich, flipping it over a few times.
5. Remove the cooked sandwich from the pan. Cut and serve hot.

Servings 4-6
2 Tbs olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder-Madras-Optional. If you prefer an herb: 2 tsp rosemary
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
1 28-oz.can Italian plum tomatoes
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
4-5 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock (homemade, or store-bought is fine. I use Better Than Bouillion Base)
2 Tbs sun-dried tomatoes-packed in oil, chopped (if using sun-dried tomatoes not packed in oil, pour 1/2 cup hot water over the tomatoes to soften)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
 
Croutons:
2 slices or Artisan Bread, cut into ½ inch cubes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Drain the plum tomatoes, reserving the juice to add to the soup. Cut the drained plum tomatoes in half and place on a lined baking sheet. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until browned. Remove and add to the soup with the diced tomatoes.
3. Heat a heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium-low heat with the olive oil, onion, celery, and cook covered, until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
4. Add the garlic, curry powder, and crushed red pepper. Cook an additional 1 minute.
5. Add the canned diced tomatoes, roasted plum tomatoes their reserved juice, and the stock. Bring the soup to a boil and then reduce heat to low, partially cover, and cook at a simmer for 40 minutes.
6. To prepare the croutons: Heat a large saute pan over medium high heat with the olive oil. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, add the bread cubes and gently toss to coat the cubes in the oil. Cook, moving the cubes occasionally until browned and crisp. Sprinkle with a little salt, cool in the pan until ready to serve the soup.
7. To finish the soup: Puree the soup with the sun-dried tomatoes using an immersion blender, standing blender or food processor. If using a regular blender or food processor, remove the solids and process the solids until smooth.  Add the pureed solids back into the broth.
8. Season the soup with salt and pepper as needed. Serve hot or cold with croutons on top for garnish.

 
Variations:

• Chunky Tomato Soup: Don’t puree the soup. 
• Tomato Sauce: Reduce the stock to 2 cups, puree as directed and serve over pasta. 
• Cream of Tomato Soup: Decrease the chicken stock by 1 cup add 1 cup heavy cream just prior to serving.
• Tomato Spinach Soup: Add chopped fresh baby spinach or arugula to the soup after it has been pureed and cook with the sliced cherry tomatoes for 10 minutes. 
• Shrimp Tomato Soup: Add 1-pound U26 raw shrimp (peeled and deveined) to the pureed soup and cook for an additional 8 minutes or until the shrimp is opaque. For added shrimp flavor, cook the shrimp shells in 3cups of water for 10 minutes. Strain, and replace 3 cups of whichever stock you are using with the shrimp broth. 
• Butternut squash croutons: Roast 2 cups butternut squash that have been cut into 1-inch cubes and tossed and 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Roast in a 450-degree oven for 10 minutes or until browned around the edges and fork tender. Serve on top of the soup as garnish. 
• Add any of the following to the soup recipe: Canned beans, shredded chicken, cooked sausage, cooked ground beef, sauteed mushrooms.​

15 Minute Meal Tips

• Keep recipes simple for quick preparation 
• Cut ingredients into smaller pieces 
• Cook with fresh herbs and spice mixes for quick flavor 
• Double and triple recipes for freezing and leftovers
• Buy pre-cut vegetables from freezer section or salad bar
• Keep your knives sharp
• Buy multiple cutting boards
• Cook with wide, shallow pans
• Use cast iron pans for quick thawing frozen ingredients
• Consider owning a crockpot, electric pressure cooker, and an air fryer
• Stock up on quality frozen vegetables
• Keep thin cuts of meat and seafood in the freezer for quick thawing and cooking
• Buy pre-chopped vegetables from the grocery store salad bar
• Collect spice mixes to use for flavorful seasoning 

15 Minute Meal Pantry

The Flavor Builders
Vinegars: red wine, cider, rice, balsamic
Oils:  extra-virgin olive oil, olive oil, coconut, avocado oil, dark sesame oil
soy sauce, Bragg’s aminos
Dijon mustard
avocado mayonaise
dried herbs (thyme, dill, oregano, basil, bay leaf)
curry paste and powder, Fajita and Taco Seasoning
Better Than Bullion- chicken, beef, and vegetable stock
whole and diced canned tomatoes, tomato paste in tube

Vegetables
fresh garlic, onions, red peppers , cherry tomatoes 
baby arugula, baby spinach, red cabbage, kale, sprouts
fresh herbs: basil, cilantro, flat leafed parsley, rosemary
red potatoes, sweet potatoes

Dairy
feta cheese
parmesan cheese
fresh mozzarella
cheddar
butter
full fat plain yogurt
heavy cream

Meats/Poultry
eggs
ground meat-beef, pork, turkey, chicken
thin chicken breast or thighs
thin pork chops, pork tenderloin
sirloin tips
salmon, haddock, scrod
raw shrimp
​
Freezer-quick thaw
frozen shrimp-raw, salmon
sirloin tips, chicken tenders, boneless chicken thighs, pork tenderloin, sausages, ground beef 
berries
petite peas, broccoli

Grains-Starches
quinoa, bulgur, farro
canned beans- cannellini, chick pea, butter beans
pasta- thin cuts or fresh
potatoes-small or cut small

I enjoy creating delicious recipes to share with my students, but when I discover a recipe by another chef I never hesitate to share it. And, when that chef has cookbook that I love, you know I'm going to share that too. Joshua McFadden's book Six Seasons-A New Way with Vegetables has become a favorite, seasonal cookbook for me. You MUST get this book! McFadden has opened my mind and my pallet to so many new flavor combinations and wonderful ways to prepare vegetables seasonally. This recipe is a wonderful example of an easy, beautiful, and delicious recipe I use often. Enjoy!

Makes 4 cups
Kosher salt, to taste
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
2 cloves garlic, smashed flat and peeled
1 pound kale, thick ribs removed (dark green, curly kale)
 Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
½ pound pasta, like pappardelle or rigatoni
¾ cup coarsely grated Parmigiano- Reggiano

1. Put a large pot of generously salted water over high heat, and bring to a boil. 
2. In a small skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and garlic, and cook until the garlic begins to sizzle. Reduce heat to low, and cook very gently until garlic is soft and begins to turn light gold, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. When water is boiling, add kale leaves, and cook until tender, but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Pull out the hot, dripping kale leaves with tongs, and put directly into a blender. (Don’t drain the pot; you’ll use that same boiling water to cook the pasta.) 
4. Add garlic and its oil to the blender, along with a splash of hot water from the pot if you need some more liquid to get the blender going. Blend into a fine, thick green purée. Taste, and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, then blend again.
5. Add the pasta to the still-boiling water, and cook according to directions on the package. Ladle out about a cup of the water to save for finishing the dish, then drain the pasta and return it to the dry pot. Add the half of the kale purée, about 3/4 of the grated cheese and a splash of the reserved pasta water. Toss until all the pasta is well coated and bright green, adding another splash of pasta water and more kale sauce if needed so that the sauce is loose and almost creamy in texture. Serve in bowls right away, and top with an extra drizzle of olive oil and the rest of the grated cheese. Any leftover kale sauce can be frozen.

​Additions:
1-pound U26-30 shrimp, peeled and deveined-5 minutes before the pasta is done cooking, add the shrimp to the pasta and continue cooking for 5 minutes. Continue with recipe as written.

More uses for this Kale Sauce

• add to any soup 
• add to any pasta sauce
  
• add cream to the kale sauce and drizzle over pasta, chicken, steak, pork, seafood
• spread on sandwiches or wraps
• stir into eggs to make kale scrambled eggs
• combine with homemade stock to make a soup
• add to Asian noodle bowl

Note: I prefer to use less pasta for a lower-carb meal. 4 ounces for this recipe is fine if you choose. If you cook 8 ounces of pasta, you can set aside half for another meal. The pasta you refrigerate becomes a resistant starch and is healthier for you!

4-8 ounces linguini-dried.
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
¼ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons capers, drained and chopped
10 ounces frozen spinach, pressed to drain well 
2 (5 ounce) cans Yellowfin Tuna in Olive Oil
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
½ cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 lemon, quartered lengthwise 
Parmesan cheese for grating

1. Bring a large sauté pan filled halfway with water to a boil with 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Add the pasta to the boiling water, stirring occasionally, and cook until the pasta is al dente. You will see that the pasta will absorb most of the water and the water will become cloudy with the starch from the pasta. Plan to use some of the left over water to help create a sauce for your dish.
2. While the pasta is cooking, heat a large sauté pan with the olive oil, sliced garlic, and red pepper flakes. Sauté, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes or until the garlic is fragrant and lightly golden. Add the capers and spinach with 1/2 cup of the pasta water.  Cook, stirring gently for 1 minute. 
3. Add the tuna, with the olive oil from the cans to the pan. Combine the ingredients gently, breaking up large pieces of tuna. Reduce the heat to low and season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Using tongs, transfer the pasta into the skillet. Add the chopped parsley and ½-1 cup more of the remaining pasta cooking water (add hot tap water if you don't have enough pasta water). With the pan over low heat, gently toss the pasta with tongs to coat the pasta evenly. Add additional pasta water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with Parmesan cheese on the side.

Additions:
Use fresh pasta. Pasta cooking time will be less.
Heavy cream-add 1/2 to 1 cup with the spinach. Let cook 3-5 minutes to reduce.
Substitute broccoli (frozen and thawed) for the spinach
Canned artichokes can be added with spinach. Cut reach into halves or quarters
1 can diced tomatoes, drained. 
Substitute 1 can cannelloni beans for the pasta.

Traditionally prepared polenta is amazing, but it takes lots of stirring and time. If you are looking for a quicker, less labor intensive method for making polenta, baking it in the oven is a nice alternative. Please, never, ever, ever, ever buy pre-made polenta in a package. It is an awful substitute for homemade. I won't say anything more about that. 

1 cup polenta
4 cups hot water
1 teaspoon salt
4 Tbs unsalted butter (or more if you like)         
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
kosher salt and ground pepper 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the polenta, hot water, and salt in a 8X8 pan or other 2 quart baking dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the liquid is almost absorbed and the polenta is creamy when stirred. Remove from the oven. 
2. Stir in the butter and the parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
   Serve hot or refrigerate for later use.

Polenta Serving Notes:

• If you’d like a firm polenta for grilling, frying, or as an hors d’oeurves leave the polenta in the serving dish until the polenta is firm and cool, about 2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.  When firm, turn polenta out onto a cutting board and cut into squares, triangles, or use a cookie cutter and cut into shapes.  
• To Grill: Brush polenta pieces with olive oil.  Grill as desired.
• To Fry: Heat butter in a sauté pan and fry pieces until light brown on both sides.  Serve hot.

Nigella Lawson is still the queen of food television for me. Her recipes are wonderful and her style is sexy as hell! I've discovered her website and so should you. www.nigellalawson.com 
This ice cream recipe is amazingly easy and so delicious! No more store bought ice cream for me. You may feel the same way too.

1 1/4     cups heavy cream, well-chilled
2/3       cup sweetened condensed milk (1/2 of a 14 ounce can)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste or 1 teaspoon rose water

1. Whisk all the ingredients together just until the whisk leaves trails of soft peaks in the bowl. 
2. Fill two 1-pint airtight containers, and freeze for 6 hours or overnight. Serve straight from the freezer.

To add a fruit swirl, gently swirl 1/3 cup of a fruit puree into the soft peaks then fill your containers and freeze. I use my Blueberry Sauce or 1/3 cup of raspberry puree made from fresh or frozen raspberries that I have thawed and crushed. Instead of pureed fruit, you can add 2-3 tablespoons of freeze dried fruit powder.

1 1/4     cups heavy cream, well-chilled
2/3       cup sweetened condensed milk
2          tablespoons instant espresso powder
2          tablespoons espresso liqueur

1. Whisk all the ingredients together just until the whisk leaves trails of soft peaks in the bowl, and you have a gorgeous, caffe-latte-colored airy mixture. 
2. Fill two 1-pint airtight containers, and freeze for 6 hours or overnight. Serve straight from the freezer.

 
Variations: 
Go to Nigella Lawson’s website for 6 variations for her One-Step, No-Churn Ice Cream
 https://www.nigella.com/recipes/no-churn-ice-creams