June Plum Juice

Juicy & Icy!

I can’t begin to tell you the amount of June plums we have wasted in this household. We have several trees, but for some reason, no one eats them, they drop off the tree and rot, or when we pick the ripe ones and take them inside, they sit on the counter until they get thrown out. One Sunday My father came into the kitchen and was complaining of the lack of juice options in the refrigerator meanwhile the 12 June plums he picked the day before were staring at us on the countertop. I said enough is enough.

Grilled Pineapple Icecream

"We be Grillin"

This month is all about grilling, every recipe will include a grilled food, and the first on the chopping block is pineapple. Grilled pineapples are a summer staple, in salsa, burgers, on pizzas. Its usually the opening act to someone else’s show never really the headliner. So here we are, grilled pineapples first official gig as the star.

Maple BBQ cauliflower nuggets

M...eat...less

I guess I’m the last one to truly get on the cauliflower train. This is the first time I have purchased cauliflower since 2015 when I made a gratin and some fried cauliflower and broccoli bites. I absolutely adore this recipe. It is one that many meat eaters would approve of, most probably wouldn’t even know they were eating cauliflower. My mother made a food network version last month and could not stop talking about how good it was. So, I decided to add it to the list.

Jamaican Green banana porridge

                                      

M...eat...less

Jamaicans consume a lot of porridge. Peanut, hominy, cornmeal, plantain, rice, oatmeal, cream of wheat, green banana, bulgur, you name it. If a porridge can be made from it, we make it. My favorite ones are hominy, plantain and oatmeal. Today I try my hand at green banana.

BBQ Chicken and green onion loaded potato skins

Rotisserie revamp!

Store bought rotisserie revamp 5 Loaded potato skins

At this point you would imagine everyone in my household is sick and tired of rotisserie chicken. Now is the time when the recipes will masque the chicken instead of putting it front and center. Sometimes you will want to serve the chicken in all its glory. But let’s say you have had a rotisserie chicken in the refrigerator for longer than 5 days and a few breasts are left in the back of the refrigerator in a bit of foil, you might not necessarily want to celebrate that. This is where these amazingly delicious potato skins come in handy.

Mango melon fruit cocktail

Mango is in season!

I think skinless grapes have a special place in fruit heaven, because they are just too epic, especially in this recipe. Who doesn’t love chilled fruit cocktail from the can? A whole lot of people do, so imagine those same fruits instead of being soggy and overly sweet, being fresh, vibrant, and crunchy. Not to mention dripping in a mango melon sauce instead of corn syrup? That’s what’s happening in this post, homemade fruit cocktail.

Vegetable Lo mein

Time for Takeout!

Time for the Noodles, and it’s my favorite Lo Mein. Give me chicken, shrimp, pork veggie, I don’t mind. It’s my go to noodle dish from any take-out spot next to pad Thai. Most time I will have it all by itself. This version is quite delicious and very very easy to make.

General Tso's Chicken

Time for Takeout!

This month it’s all about takeout. Chinese food is one of my absolute favorites.  It’s actually a pretty good idea to have a few takeout recipes under your belt. Not only is it cheaper to make at home, its also healthier, because you can control your ingredients. Use organic, omit msg if you choose, the works, because you have all the control.  I will be challenging myself this entire month to make recipes that rival my favorite takeout spots. And first up is the General!

Creamy sausage pasta

I love Pasta

In all fairness its pasta month and last Friday I didn’t give you a pasta recipe. I gave you half of the equation, which was that delicious and most perfect marinara sauce; perfect in every way, especially for the vegetarians. Today we are going to turn that sauce into a meaty sausage sauce and toss it with some penne. It probably the simplest pasta recipe I have done thus far, especially since I already had the marinara set aside since last Friday. If you want to use a pre-made marinara sauce, be my guest. But I do implore you to make the mushroom marinara sauce, and if you don’t like mushrooms this sauce will make you like them.

Roasted Redpepepr and Ricotta Omelette

The best way to eat an egg!

Ricotta is my new favorite thing; it’s so versatile and subtly delicious. Here on greedy girl cooks we are no strangers to roasted red pepper either. The flavors of the pepper are truly enhanced by roasting them. And paired with ricotta, they make this omelette extra delicious.

Fried Broccoli & Cauliflower bites

M...eat...less

Fresh out of the fryer and slightly cooled, crispy, flavorful, aromatic and delicious. That is how these fried broccoli and cauliflower bites can be described. The idea to dip broccoli in a batter and fry it just never occurred to me. Yes I know what a tempura is and I’ve had shrimp and asparagus tempura several times, I’ve even deep fried okra. However the thought to batter fry broccoli had never etched a place in my brain until now.  This all occurred a few weeks ago while I was being thoroughly entertained by watching Auntie Fee. When she did her fried broccoli recipe, a light bulb definitely went off.

Apple Apple-pie

Easy Bake!

One thing I can appreciate about this recipe is its perceived level of difficulty. Once you serve this people will be wondering how on earth did you make it. Little would they know that the dough is store bought and there are only 6 other ingredients needed in addition to the dough. I will admit it’s not a simple as the pear oatmeal crumble,  but it’s still pretty easy. Anyone can make this.

Quicky-berry Cobbler

Easy Bake!

I have gotten so comfortable with the easy drink recipes of last month that I had to ease my way back into the normal routine. Not to mention the fact that for half of this month I will be away from my kitchen and utensils, so I’m dubbing August easy bake month. I will be whipping up some super easy dessert pastries using store bought and homemade items to create easy and delicious items everyone will think took hours to make. First up a blueberry cobbler that will be ready in less than 30 minutes!

Grilled Pesto Shrimp

Appetizing...

And then there was shrimp. The ultimate appetizer and finger food, I can’t think of a restaurant I’ve ever been to that did not have some form of shrimp as an appetizer. Hence a shrimp appetizer had to be shared.  I was inspired to make pesto last week at Valentine’s Day dinner. My sister had grilled lobster with a choice of miso, pesto or lemon butter. (We went to Rojo at Spanish court hotel in New Kingston. Food is amazzzzzzingnggggg…but I digress) I told her to try the pesto and she loved it. The lobster got me thinking that a shrimp pesto could be just as delicious as the spicy shrimp shooter I had planned. So that’s exactly what I did.