Teriyaki Salmon

Don't be scared of the fish, it's super easy and quick and lets be honest, how could you go wrong with some teriyaki salmon? Not possible. So get yourself a serving of the oh so important omega 3's

I like the frozen salmon you get at Walmart (it comes in an orange package, it's like 4-5 fillets for like $5 I think, and they are individually wrapped so you can make one at a time if you want to.) Just put them in the fridge in the morning and they should be thawed by dinner time.

Get out a cookie sheet and line with aluminum foil pour teriyaki sauce over fillets, flip 'em over and pour more on the other side. But if you want them to be really good have the fillets soak in the teriyaki sauce for at least 30 minutes.
Bake at 350' F. for 11 minutes. (A good rule of thumb for fish is 10minutes per inch of thickness)

And if you are feeling extra ambitious try this teriyaki recipe:
In a sauce pan on medium high heat mix together 1 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
3Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp garlic
1/8 tsp ginger
Slowly add:
2 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup COLD water. This is what thickens the sauce so stir constantly for about 1 minute to determine how thick the sauce is and adjust to your tastes. (never put cornstarch straight into anything warm it will just clump up instead of thickening the whole sauce.)

Vegetable Tian

Saute (cook in a skillet on the stove) 1/2 an onion with 2 Tbsp olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic for about 1-2 mins (I never have cloves so I just use like 2 tsp garlic powder)

then put them on the bottom of a 8"x8" baking pan.

Slice up 1-2 potatoes (the yellow ones are my fave cuz they have a little bit of a buttery taste but russet are good too)
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash and
3 roma tomatoes (you may want to cut 2 each of the zucchini and squash depending on the size)

Put them on their sides in alternating order in the baking pan and drizzle a little olive oil on top and sprinkle on a little salt black pepper and 1 tsp thyme.

Bake at 375' for 30 mins then put cheese on top, parmesan or mozzerella, and bake for 20 mins or until potatoes are tender.

It's simple, loaded with veggies and very tasty.


Roasted Broccolli



I don't think broccoli is roasted often enough. At 24 years old I'd actually never had roasted broccoli.
Ridiculous!
That's exactly how this tasted, ridiculously good.

Thaw a bag of those frozen broccoli florets I know you have in your freezer. Yes do the whole bag.

Line a cookie sheet with foil (for easy clean up of course) and put all the broccoli on it. Then drizzle on some olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic and basil.

Bake it for 20 minutes at 450' F

When they come out put a touch on lemon juice and 1/3 cup of mozzarella cheese on top. (Parmesan cheese is what  most people would use because it melts better but I like the taste of mozzarella way better  so that's what I use. You can even put it back in the oven for a minute or two to help the cheese melt but I ate mine to fast for that)

Roasted chicken breast

Who doesn't love that crispy skin on a good roasted chicken? I always have chicken breast in my freezer so this is a really easy meal.

First thaw the chicken. They say its best to thaw meat in the fridge but that takes way too long for me. When I decide to use something it's gonna happen that night so I 'defrost' it in the microwave.

Line a cookie sheet with alumunum foil (for easy clean up) and set your oven to broil. Coat the chicken with a little extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper, tarragon, and nutmeg. Bake for about 25 minutes. This is where I love my meat thermometer. No one likes over cooked chewy chicken and everyone is too worried about undercooking it. You can either poke/cut it and make sure the juices are clear and there is no pink in the chicken. Or (and I just saw this little trick but haven't tried it) take the chicken out of the oven and poke a fork into it, keep it there for 30 seconds and then pull it out and if the prongs on the fork are hot when you touch it to your wrist it's done. OORRR you could get yourself a meat thermometer for like $10 at Walmart. Your call :)

Another option for cooking if you want the outside to be a little more crispy. Bake it for 35 minutes at 450' F

Ingredients
4 chicken breast
2 Tbsp tarragon (or another seasoning you like such as thyme or basil)
Salt and Pepper
EVOO (I like the Star brand)

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Don't you just hate getting used to a new oven. When we moved into our new house I went from a wonderful gas oven to an electric one. My husband clearly suffered the most in this ordeal because the once perfectly wonderful chocolate chip cookies of mine were different. Well after half a dozen batches and some fumblig around with the temperature nob these cookies are back with a vengance.

There are a couple tricks of the trade that, though aren't nessesary, just make them even better.

Mix together
1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup regular sugar
 2 eggs and
1 tsp vanilla

Tip numero uno: You can just melt the butter in the microwave BUT if you put it in a pan and melt it on medium heat wait for it to get a sort of golden brown color then pour it into a bowl and continue with the recipe it will give it just a hint of a nutty flavor that makes you say "wow I don't know what it is exactly but these are the best chocolate chip cookies ever"

Tip numero deux: Try using dark brown sugar instead of the regular medium color. This also changes the flavor just so to make people wonder how you did it. Also the brown sugar is what keeps these cookies super soft.

Monving on.

After you have your initial mixture all combined you then want to add:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Then stir in half a bag of the Hersheys semi sweet (because they are definetly the best)

Bake for 10 minutes at 350' F Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 5-10 minutes before taking them off.