all things food
Picture this: It’s the end of a long week, and you want nothing more than to curl up on the couch with a big bowl of takeout (a.k.a. us right now). But wait! Just a few simple steps and you can do it yourself with this Thai-inspired Salmon Green Curry …
Picture this: It’s the end of a long week, and you want nothing more than to curl up on the couch with a big bowl of takeout (a.k.a. us right now). But wait! Just a few simple steps and you can do it yourself with this Thai-inspired Salmon Green Curry (fresh, sweet, spicy, and packed with nutrients)! Bonus…plenty of leftovers for the whole weekend!
Take your grilled cheese sandwich to the next level with this gourmet Spinach Feta Grilled Cheese! An easy and flavorful lunch idea.
The post Spinach and Feta Grilled Cheese appeared first on Budget Bytes.
Because I add spinach to everything. I keep frozen spinach on hand so I can toss a handful into whatever I’m cooking and spinach felt like such a natural addition to my usual grilled cheese. I also added a little feta cheese for a tangy punch, a few spicy flakes of red pepper, and toasted it up on some good bread. The result was something truly spectacular. This Spinach Feta Grilled Cheese only takes a few minutes more than regular grilled cheese, and it’s SO worth the extra effort. No joke, you’ll pay about $8 for something like this at your local cafe, but not at home!
Originally posted 8/31/13, updated 1/19/2022.
Okay, so technically this type of sandwich is called a “melt.” A melt is a grilled cheese that has other ingredients added, like vegetables or meat, whereas a grilled cheese is a cheese-only grilled sandwich. While the difference between a melt and a grilled cheese often sparks heated debates, I want people to be able to find this recipe on the internet and the data shows that people are searching for “spinach and feta grilled cheese,” not “spinach and feta melt”. The English language is fluid, and the use of the term “melt” is declining. So here we are!
I originally used ciabatta bread for this recipe, but it wasn’t available this time around so I chose a nice sourdough bread instead. Homemade focaccia would also be nice. Because the ingredients in this recipe are a little more hearty than your everyday grilled cheese sandwich, I would suggest using any sturdy bread that can hold up to the filling ingredients. Skip the soft white bread for this one. ;)
I used frozen spinach for this recipe because it’s easy to keep on hand without worrying about it spoiling, but you could absolutely use fresh spinach if you have it. Just sauté it down until most of the moisture is gone, just as I did below with the frozen spinach.
As far as frozen spinach goes, you’ll want to buy the kind that comes loose in a bag rather than the type that is frozen into a block. That will allow you to thaw just enough for this recipe while leaving the rest in the freezer for your next cooking adventure.
As with any grilled cheese sandwich, this spinach and feta version goes great with a cup of tomato soup. But you could also serve it with a little dish of pasta sauce or pizza sauce for dipping!
Oh, there are so many delicious possibilities for add-ins here: olives, artichokes, red onion, parmesan cheese… I’d not be against putting an egg on there, too. ;)
Add a 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and one minced clove of garlic to a small skillet. Cook the garlic for about a minute, then add ¼ lb. froen spinach (you can just estimate ¼ of a one pound bag, or ⅓ of a 12oz. bag). Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and continue to sauté over medium until most of the moisture has evaporated.
Spread about ½ Tbsp butter over one side of each slice of bread (four slices).
Flip the bread over so the unbuttered sides are facing up. Add about ¼ cup shredded mozzarella to two of the slices. Top each with a little crumbled feta.
Add the cooked spinach on top of the mozzarella and feta.
Add another ¼ cup shredded mozzarella to each along with a pinch of crushedred pepper. Top with the second piece of bread, butter side facing out.
Heat a large skillet over medium-low. Once hot, add the sandwiches. Cook for about five minutes on each side, or until golden brown and crispy on the outside and melty and hot on the inside.
Slice the sandwiches in half and serve!
Ooohhhh yesssssss.
The post Spinach and Feta Grilled Cheese appeared first on Budget Bytes.
If you are craving comfort food, you’ve come to the right place. This Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie is the ultimate comfort food. Traditionally, shepherd’s pie is a rustic casserole made with a mixture of ground meat and vegetables topped…
If you are craving comfort food, you’ve come to the right place. This Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie is the ultimate comfort food. Traditionally, shepherd’s pie is a rustic casserole made with a mixture of ground meat and vegetables topped with pillowy mashed potatoes and baked in the oven. Well, this vegetarian version has all of the…
The post Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie appeared first on Two Peas & Their Pod.
Friends, today we have an easy, delicious, plant-based soup to share with you! Adapted from our fan-favorite Curried Potato & Lentil Soup, it keeps all the bold curry flavor but has a creamy twist and is made in the Instant Pot, making it even quic…
Friends, today we have an easy, delicious, plant-based soup to share with you! Adapted from our fan-favorite Curried Potato & Lentil Soup, it keeps all the bold curry flavor but has a creamy twist and is made in the Instant Pot, making it even quicker and easier!
Rich in fiber, protein, iron (and more!), it’s a nourishing, plant-based meal to fuel you all winter and beyond!
Let the slow cooker do all the work for you when you make this big batch of freezer-friendly homemade spaghetti sauce.
The post Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce appeared first on Budget Bytes.
I’ve made a few variations of pasta sauce over the years, but this Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce is definitely one of my favorites. The long slow simmer caramelizes the sugars in the tomatoes and creates a depth of flavor that can’t be matched. Plus, what more could you ask for than to just throw some ingredients in a pot, forget about it for 8 hours, and then come back to a rich, delicious homemade sauce? Then you can divide the sauce into portions, freeze, and you’ll have delicious homemade pasta sauce on hand for quick busy weeknight dinners.
Originally posted on 11/4/2011, updated 1/12/2022.
Pasta sauce can be bought premade really cheaply, so I think in a lot of cases it does make sense to just buy a jar and go with it. But if you want to have a little more control over the quality and ingredients of your pasta sauce while still keeping costs low, this Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce is a great option.
This recipe makes about 2 quarts of sauce, so I would suggest using a 3 quart or larger slow cooker. You don’t need anything fancy, just a very basic slow cooker with basic functions like warm, low, and high. I do find that slow cookers made with a thick ceramic insert (or “crock”) cook much more evenly than metal inserts, like you’d have when using the slow cooker function on an Instant Pot.
The balsamic vinegar in this recipe adds a subtle depth and brightness to the sauce. It can seem strong at first, but it mellows out as the sauce is cooked. If you’re not a fan of balsamic vinegar or just don’t have any on hand, this recipe will still make a really amazing sauce even if you leave it out.
I’ve tried this sauce before with ground beef and I found the cook time to be far too long for the ground beef, so if you do want to add meat I suggest browning it separately and then just stirring it into the sauce after cooking. You can also check out my quick Weeknight Pasta Sauce for an easy and flavorful meat sauce option.
This recipe makes about 7 cups. I suggest dividing the sauce into two or three cup portions before freezing so you can take out just enough for one recipe at a time to thaw. Let the spaghetti sauce cool completely in the fridge, then transfer to freezer-safe containers to freeze. The sauce will stay good in the freezer for about three months, but this can vary depending on the conditions in your freezer. If you use quart-sized freezer bags and freeze them laying flat they stack nicely in the freezer without taking up much space.
You can thaw the sauce in the refrigerator overnight or just cut the bag away from the frozen sauce, place it in a saucepot, and heat over medium-low until it’s heated through (stir occasionally).
This sauce goes great with Homemade Meatballs (also freezer-friendly)!
Dice one yellow onion and mince four cloves of garlic. Add both to a 3 quart or larger slow cooker.
Add 2 28oz. cans of crushed tomatoes and one 6oz. can of tomato paste to the slow cooker.
Also add 1 Tbsp dried basil, 1.5 tsp dried oregano, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, and 4 Tbsp butter to the slow cooker.
Give the ingredients a good stir until they’re evenly incorporated.
Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for four hours or low for eight hours. After cooking, it will look a little like the photo above (the white is just the milk fats from the butter). Give it a good stir.
Add salt to the sauce to taste. Start with ½ teaspoon and add more until the flavors pop. I ended up using one teaspoon total.
Use the slow cooker spaghetti sauce immediately or refrigerate then freeze for long-term storage.
The post Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce appeared first on Budget Bytes.
If you are looking for an easy soup recipe that everyone will love, make Chicken Tortilla Soup. It is a forever favorite, a classic, a soup that always gets rave reviews! It only takes 30 minutes to make! You can’t go wrong with this one! Chicken…
If you are looking for an easy soup recipe that everyone will love, make Chicken Tortilla Soup. It is a forever favorite, a classic, a soup that always gets rave reviews! It only takes 30 minutes to make! You can’t go wrong with this one! Chicken tortilla soup is a Mexican-inspired soup that has a…
The post Chicken Tortilla Soup appeared first on Two Peas & Their Pod.
Garlic bread lovers, we have a surprise for you: The BEST Vegan Garlic Bread is here! We took all our knowledge of garlic bread and gave it the vegan twist. It has all the addictive deliciousness you know and love but without the dairy!
It’s…
Garlic bread lovers, we have a surprise for you: The BEST Vegan Garlic Bread is here! We took all our knowledge of garlic bread and gave it the vegan twist. It has all the addictive deliciousness you know and love but without the dairy!
It’s buttery, savory, brimming with garlicky goodness, and can be made gluten-free, too! With just 7 ingredients and 25 minutes required, all your garlic bread dreams are about to come true.
Forget the cabbage soup diet, you’ll want to eat this super healthy vegetable-filled cabbage soup just because it tastes incredible!
The post Cabbage Soup appeared first on Budget Bytes.
Do you remember the cabbage soup diet? It was one of those crazy fad diets where you were supposed to eat as much as you want of just one thing (in this case cabbage soup) and you’d supposedly lose weight without trying. While I’m not a fan of that type of diet, I am a big fan of the cabbage soup that the diet was centered around. Why? For one simple reason—it’s absolutely DELICIOUS. Yeah, I was surprised too. The first time I had the famed diet cabbage soup I expected it to be boring and bland, but I was pleasantly surprised by how extremely flavorful and comforting the soup was. I actually ended up eating it over and over again just because I wanted to. And it became a winter comfort food staple for me ever since. 😅
Originally published 1/15/2018, updated 1/8/2022.
I’m not going to tell you this cabbage soup will “detox” you or make you lose weight, but this soup is chock-full of a lot of the one thing that almost all of us are guilty of not getting enough of—vegetables.
I’m nicknamed this soup All You Can Eat Cabbage Soup as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the old fad diet, but seriously, eat as much as you want. The more the better, really. You’ll just be getting more of the good stuff. And guess what? This cabbage soup is insanely inexpensive, too! So even more reason to feel free to eat as much as you want!
The classic “cabbage soup diet” cabbage soup has taken many forms over the years, but they all have one thing in common—they’re stuffed full of non-starchy vegetables swimming in a flavorful herb-filled broth. I like my broth a bit more tomatoey, so I added some tomato sauce to thicken it up. Some people use V8 instead, but tomato sauce is much less expensive, especially when only a small amount is needed. I also added a bit of smoked paprika (because that’s my fav), and a splash of lemon juice at the end to brighten it up.
This recipe does make a really large batch, so it’s a good idea to freeze about half of it, just in case you can’t eat all of it within about five days. To freeze this soup, divide it into single-serving portions, chill it completely in the refrigerator first, then transfer to the freezer for longer storage. Keep in the freezer for up to three months.
Soup recipes in general are very flexible, so you could always add a little extra protein to this soup to make it more filling. Here are some other great ingredients you can add:
Shown with Homemade Garlic Bread.
Start by mincing four cloves of garlic and dicing one large onion. Add them both to a large soup pot with one tablespoon olive oil. Sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent.
While the onion and garlic are sautéing, peel and slice 4 carrots, slice 4 stalks of celery, and dice one green bell pepper. Add the carrots, celery, and bell pepper to the pot. Continue to sauté over medium.
Add one 28oz. can diced tomatoes (I used petite diced), one 8oz. can tomato sauce, ½ lb. frozen green beans, ¼ cup chopped parsley, ½ Tbsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp oregano, ½ tsp thyme, and ¼ tsp pepper. Stir to combine.
Chop 1/2 head of cabbage into one-inch pieces (about 5-6 cups once chopped). Add the chopped cabbage to the pot along with 6 cups of vegetable broth.
Stir everything together, place a lid on the pot, and turn the heat up to medium-high. Allow the soup to come to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Let the soup simmer over medium-low, stirring occasionally, for about 40 minutes, or until the cabbage is to your desired tenderness.
Once the cabbage is tender, season the soup with salt, starting with 1/2 teaspoon, then adding more to taste (I used 1 tsp total). Next, add one tablespoon of lemon juice, which really helps brighten the flavors.
And then slurp down all that vegetable-y goodness! I garnished with a little more fresh parsley, but it’s not needed for extra flavor.
This soup goes great with some crusty bread (garlic or not) to soak up that delicious broth!
The post Cabbage Soup appeared first on Budget Bytes.
I shared my favorite Vegetarian Dinner Recipes and now I have one more! This Skillet Chickpeas with Whipped Ricotta recipe is a perfect 10! You should probably add it to your dinner menu right now! It takes less than 30 minutes to make; it’s the …
I shared my favorite Vegetarian Dinner Recipes and now I have one more! This Skillet Chickpeas with Whipped Ricotta recipe is a perfect 10! You should probably add it to your dinner menu right now! It takes less than 30 minutes to make; it’s the perfect weeknight meal. The recipe is made with mostly pantry…
The post Skillet Chickpeas with Whipped Ricotta appeared first on Two Peas & Their Pod.
It’s broccoli time, friends! And we think we may have found the best way to prepare it! This cheesy, savory roasted broccoli is crispy on the edges but tender on the inside, making it easier to chew and digest. It’s so good we were eating it right off …
It’s broccoli time, friends! And we think we may have found the best way to prepare it! This cheesy, savory roasted broccoli is crispy on the edges but tender on the inside, making it easier to chew and digest. It’s so good we were eating it right off the pan!
It’s quick & easy to prepare and the perfect salty side to enjoy with all your favorite savory and creamy mains (salmon, stew, and beyond!).
Perfect Roasted Broccoli with Vegan Parmesan from Minimalist Baker →