Eggs Baked Over Sautéed Mushrooms, Leeks and Spinach

There is nothing better than eggs. They are almost a complete food, meaning they have just about all the essential nutrients that the body needs.

I have long day-dreamed of owning our own chickens and walking out to the coop to collect farm fresh eggs. I'm also pretty sure that I'm making it into some glamorous, simple job that is really hard work and very dirty. Maybe one day I'll find out for myself. For now, we purchase our delicious eggs from a local farm about 30 minutes up the road.

We cooked this recipe up for a delicious lunch/brunch but it could be used for any meal. It's vegetarian and gluten-free and it's truly delicious! I love that they call for leeks. Leeks are one of my favorite veggies this time of year. We put them in soups and meat pies all winter. When cooked properly, leeks are a beautiful thing.

Everything in this dish is savory and rich, from the butter to the egg yolks to the wine/sherry you really can't go wrong with this combination in my book.

Buttery Smashed Tiny Potatoes

Don't these potatoes look delicious?

They are so simple to make and are so yummy! You should make them tonight. Go ahead, write in on your to do list, I'll wait....

Easy Homemade Focaccia Bread

Focaccia bread is a flat, oven-baked Italian bread that’s topped with herbs, cheese and other ingredients. It’s kind of like pizza crust on steroids and about 100 times better. I’ve posted many-a-bread recipes here on Williams Kitchen but none compare to this one.

Many don’t make their own bread because its time consuming. This bread is a quickie though (in bread-making terms) and most of it is waiting around for the dough to rise. It is also little to no kneading. The Other Williams just loved this bread and could not stay out of it.

This is amazing served hot from the oven with pasta but it can also be frozen, which is what we did. If frozen, take it out of the freezer and let it thaw overnight in the fridge, then bake at a low temp to re-heat it.

You can add just about anything to this bread. We topped ours with tomatoes and olives but you’re only limited by your imagination!

Butternut Squash Caprese

Fall is right around the corner and the weather here in SC has just been so amazing this week! What I love most about this salad is that it's kind of a "farewell to summer, hello fall" salad. The avocados and tomatoes from the summer garden and the sweet-warmness of the butternut squash is just the perfect expression of this time of year.
 

For such a simple salad, it sure does not disappoint on taste. Everything goes so well together and small mozzarella balls are just the perfect size. There isn't a fancy dressing for this because, simply, it doesn't need one. Just some good olive oil, salt and pepper allows the veggies to shine bright.

As we say goodbye to another summer, I'm looking forward to welcoming my favorite season. This salad was a perfect way to celebrate this in between time of the year!

Haricot Verts & Edamame with Shallot-Soy Vinaigrette

This tasty little side dish really could not be any easier. A while back I blogged about some of our favorite homemade dressings. One of our favorites of the favorites was this Shallot-Soy Vinaigrette. For this dish we just took some frozen hericot verts (or green beans) and some frozen edamame, tossed them with the dressing and tah-dah!

The vinaigrette is delicious as a sauce over chicken or fish also. It's thick and creamy and coats very well. You could add a protein of your choice (like chicken or tofu) to this meal and call it lunch or dinner also. Give it a shot and let us know how it turned out!

Summer Vegetable Crêpes

Did you know you could make your own crepes? What about that you can find them already made in the freezer section of most stores? Lastly, did you know that crepes are not just for dessert?

This delicious recipe uses summer veggies; which if you have a garden you might still be up to your eyeballs with, and a tangy sour cream sauce.  If you purchase the crepes, this is a super quick summer time vegetarian dinner.

We loved the flavors and fell in love with savory crepes! Try it and see why!

Tangy Tomato Garlic Soup

We're fortunate in that our neighbors rock! The people who live on either side of us are just awesome people and we all help each other out. One couple has two very fun dogs and we get to dog sit them when our neighbors go out of town.

Normally our neighbors will bring us a gift home from their trip as a thank you for watching the dogs, like playing with two awesome puppies isn't thanks enough! Recently they went to Athens, GA for a weekend and ate at a really cool restaurant called The Grit Restaurant! Like most of our friends, the neighbors knew a food related gift is always a safe bet with us so they purchased the restaurants cookbook and raved about the food there.

What's special about the cookbook and the restaurant is that it's vegetarian! All the food served and recipes in the cookbook are created for vegetarians by cooks Jessica Greene & Ted Hafer.

We did this tomato soup from the book recently and it was amazing. The apple cider vinegar really gives it a zing! Top with cheese, sour cream, or a buttery crouton and this recipe is golden!

Give this a try and if you're ever in Athens (we'll be taking a trip soon!), stop by The Grit and try their delicious vegetarian cuisine.

Kale Chickpea Pesto on Soba with Asparagus and Peas

We've been trying to incorporate a lot more vegetarian dishes into our diet and this one caught my eye while perusing the TasteSpotting website. At first I was like, "eww, kale..." Then as I looked at the recipe I realized the kale is in a pesto. So then I was all like, "Hmmm, maybe.."

Soba noodles are a staple in our house now. They are buckwheat noodles which means they are also Gluten-Free! Without even trying we scarfed down a vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free dinner!

 
And you know what?

It was awesome!! The textures and flavor were so awesome! We bulked up the veg a little and used a little of the pasta water to get the right consistency in the pesto.

The pesto is so creamy you might think there is cheese in it, but nope, it's the chickpeas and oil! We cut the recipe in half and still had leftover pesto. We're planning to use it in a sandwich for a picnic but it could be used in a variety of ways.

If you're looking for a superfood recipe that tastes amazing, this is it!

Creamy Garlic Pasta Salad

After spending the afternoon baking the Hummingbird cake with my good friend, RC. I then had to make dinner because The Other Williams was out of town for the weekend. I'm not normally the cook but this recipe was really so easy that even I could pull it off.

This pasta salad would be great for a picnic or camping trip also. It's good warm, room temp, or cold. I added what I had on hand so the veggies are totally interchangeable with whatever you prefer. We use the Creamy Garlic Dressing that I posted about previously and it gives the pasta great flavor and a light creamy sauce.

Salad Nicoise & Rainy Day Cooking

We had planned a bike ride but woke up to a cool southern rainy morning. So instead of hitting the road on our bikes we decided to go ahead and pre-prep some of our meals for the week. This saves us time during the week and makes getting dinner on the table a little faster.

So PJ’s and cooking it was. Whenever both of us are in the kitchen together I like to think that it’s like a well-directed and blocked play. We move as one, gracefully through our kitchen from one activity to the next. However, it’s not quite so graceful and it’s messy, very messy. We’re normally preparing 3-6 dishes or some aspect of those dishes. Cleaning up is my job and there is always a lot of clean up.

Had to share my hydrangeas! Aren't they gorgeous? These are in my dinning room and I love walking in and seeing them. Such a beautiful shade of blue.

For lunch we stopped the madness for a delicious salad that was supposed to be a picnic salad on the bike ride. Even without the ride this salad was amazing!

Last month I talked about Nice, France and it's close proximity to Italy in our Pan Bagnat Post. If you haven't read that one you should! I also talked about exploring this region a little more and this recipe happened to fit the bill very nicely!

Basically this is the French version of the chopped salad. Salad Nicoise (pronounced niˈswaz) has lots of yummy ingredients and is a lot of fun to eat because each bite is a little different. It's also very forgiving, we substituted and added things we had on hand. It was really delicious and worked even on the back porch while listening to rain.

After the cooking and cleaning madness, which really isn’t so bad, we relaxed on the back porch for the rest of the day. The Other Williams playing guitar and me editing photos and surfing pinterest. It never got above 70 degrees, which in the south in June, is pretty much unheard of. Even though a little work was involved overall it was a really relaxing day.

Pan Bagnat

Here in G-Vegas, our downtown offers a free outdoor movie once a week throughout the month of May & Sept. It's a great excuse for a picnic in my opinion. We loaded up this amazing little sammie and a bottle of wine and met a friend out there for a moonlight movie.

This sandwich was a huge hit and one we'll definitely be repeating soon. The flavors are so good! We added some yummy sardines to ours but you could also add good quality can tuna. The dressing seeps into the bread and the affect is pretty delicious!

Pan Bagnat is a classic french tuna sandwich that means "wet bread". Very popular lunch time sandwich that is sold in Nice, France in the markets and cafe's. What's interesting about the town of Nice is that it is around 18 miles from Italy's border, which means there is some Italian mingling going on in their cuisine!

I'm hoping to try a few more recipes from Nice very soon. I really like the Italian/French fusion that this town is known for!

Greek Tortellini Picnic Salad

Picnic season is finally in full swing so you'll be seeing a lot of our picnic menu's and recipes.This one is a twist on an old classic. Ever since our cleanse we've been adding more veg to everything. So we took our classic Tortellini Salad and put it over a bed of lovely crunchy spring lettuce mix.

We love a good picnic. Again, it combines our two favorite things: food and the great outdoors. Most of the time we prefer to picnic on the ground with our trusty picnic blanket. Eating on the ground, for me, helps make a picnic feel more special, however we're no strangers to camp chairs when the situation calls for it, such as a wet ground. A blanket invites you to lean back and relax while you eat. It also invites you to take a nap or read a book afterward!

Here in Greenville, SC we're very fortunate to have so many excuses to picnic. We have the beautiful Fall's Park right in downtown but we also have several events that encourage you to bring a blanket or chair and picnic. There is Moonlight Movies, Outdoor Concerts, and Shakespeare in the park!

We enjoy and participate in these event's regularly but we're also a little more creative than that. We picnic on the sides of roads, off the Blue Ridge Parkway, trail-side while hiking, lakeside while kayaking, even in the back of our hatchback. There is no where that a picnic can not be pulled off, well...except for private property (although certain times of the year they will invite you out!)

This is our go-to picnic salad and we love the addition of the greens. Always bring a long a little extra dressing because the pasta will absorb a lot of it. We hope you'll be inspired by our picnic recipes and experiences this year to get out into the great outdoors and still eat good!

Chicken Chow Mein

There's nothing better than a quick stir-fry on a weekday night. This one is right up there with some of the best we've done. We used Ramen Noodles, yes they kind you used to eat in college, as the base in this dish. You don't need the seasoning packet so just toss it.

Stir-fry's are quick and easy to prepare. They might sound a little complicated but they really couldn't be any easier. Most can be prepared in 20 min or less and the stuff you throw in it is limitless!

This one is topped off with some chicken, crunchy and fresh veggies, and some sweet yet savory sauce. It's a beautiful creation. The lime wedges are important here. We like to serve some citrus with heavy stir-fry's or sauces. It really lightens up the dish and gives it a little something special! Give this quick recipe a try next time take-out is looking like a good idea!

Salmon Tacos with Tomatillo-Avocado Broccoli Slaw

Cinco de Mayo is coming up soon so I thought it would be a great time to showcase this healthy fiesta favorite! It's so delicious, extremely healthy, and a great way to celebrate!

The Other Williams makes homemade corn tortillas which is on my "need to make so I can blog it" list. They are so easy and cheap to make, plus they taste so much better. However, no worries because store-bought will work just fine for this.

We found some prepackaged broccoli slaw at Trader Joe's so that is what we used for the topping. If you can't find the prepackaged kind just julienne some broccoli stalks and carrots. Serve this with a healthy side like tomato, corn, & cucumber salad!

This is a fresh healthy way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo but it's also great any day of the week!

Kale, White Bean, & Potato Stew

Normally we reserve soups for fall and winter but recently we've been eating soups in the spring. Spring veggies are prefect for soups and they make for a light lunch.

Another thing that I love about soup is that you can make one big pot of it and portion it out into smaller containers for a week's worth of grab-and-go lunches. We do this often in the winter but it's great for Spring too!

This kale, white bean, and potato stew is a recipe from our cleanse and we've decided to keep it around because its also delicious! It's packed with nutritious kale and the beans and potatoes lend some great texture!

It's a broth based soup but when you mash or blend half the soup it creates this creaminess that's very lovely. This is one of those comforting soups and would be great for a cool fall or winter day!

Portabello Mushrooms with Creamy Spinach-Artichoke Filling

Do you like spinach artichoke dip? Well then you've GOT to try this delicious recipe. It's a great vegetarian option that makes you forget it's vegetarian!

You might be thinking that it's probably a 1000 calories too, right? Nope! Only 370 per 'shroom!

We served this beauty with a yummy side salad and the whole meal was delicious. We felt like we were getting a treat or being naughty but this is actually a very healthy meal.

The spinach is loaded with goodness and the artichokes are packed with vitamin C, folate and potassium! This is also a pretty quick meal.

We halved the recipe and baked it in our toaster oven. Try this healthier version of spinach and artichoke!

Quinoa with Poached Egg, Spinach, and Cucumber

This was a super yummy recipe from our Whole Living 21-day cleanse. We've been trying to use more eggs and less meat in our dinners because it's both healthier and less expensive. This recipe fit the bill very nicely.

Now there are vegetarian meals that make you feel like you just had a vegetarian meal and then there are vegetarian meals that make you forget it's vegetarian because it's so awesome. This is one of the awesome kind!

Quinoa is a grain that is gluten-free and delicious! It's quick to cook and very easy to incorporate into meals. You can even make it ahead of time and throw it in the fridge.

The eggs are the star and you want to make sure it's just lightly poached. The yoke makes a delicious sauce that really make it all come together. The freshness of the cucumber brightens it all up and gives a great crunch!

Broccoli, Apple, Fennel Slaw

Before I begin this post I will admit that I am a southerner who does not really like coleslaw. I know, I know, where did my parent's go wrong? However I LOVE this slaw! I think because it's not made with raw cabbage, it's really so much better and on a completely different level than most coleslaw's.

While on our cleanse in March we whipped up this little number to serve along with some fish. If you eat a lot of fish you know you're always looking for ways to add some flavor or change it up a little. This recipe does just that without missing a beat.

If you've never tried fennel, I highly recommend you try it. It's a root vegetable that a lot of people say tastes like licorice . I'm not a big licorice fan either and I still love fennel, especially raw! The textures in this slaw really adds the fun to any fish dish. You can top the fish with the slaw or just use it as a side.

This is definitely one of the cleanse recipes that we'll be using a lot!