Cooking can be a good time to bond with family.
Spend less time in the kitchen and more time socializing with family by incorporating easy recipes into your day. Multitask by making the salad while the main dish cooks, or create a make-your-own station for family members to add their own ingredients. Experiment with new flavors on old classics to please every palate at your holiday gathering.
Filet Mignon and Ginger Salad
Make a zesty marinade for your filet mignon.
Don't let the name scare you. You can make filet mignon with surprisingly few ingredients and steps. Make a marinade with soy sauce, peanut oil, lime juice and chile paste. Coat the meat with the mixture. Marinate it for an hour (the longer the better). Grill the steaks to perfection. Accompany the steak with a crisp ginger salad. Toss spinach, lettuce, sprouts, baby tomatoes, cucumbers and cashews together. Top it off with a store-bought ginger dressing, or make your own using ginger, peanut oil, soy sauce and lime juice.
Italian Flair With Chicken Parmesan
Make cheesy chicken Parmesan in under an hour. Use onions, basil, garlic and bay leaves for the seasoning of your sauce. Cook them on the stove top. Add in crushed tomatoes and olives. Bake the chicken after coating it in layers of flour, egg and bread crumbs. Pour the sauce onto the chicken and serve it with whole wheat pasta. Bake garlic bread to go along with the Italian meal. Add some green with an easy asparagus side dish. Just coat the asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast it in the oven.
Apricot Ham and Roasted Broccoli Salad
Spice up the traditional ham with apricots and a citrus marinade. Before you bake the ham, attach apricots to the ham using cloves. When the ham is over halfway baked, spread a glaze of orange marmalade and Dijon mustard on the ham. Repeat the glazing every 15 or 20 minutes until the ham is done. Serve with roasted broccoli salad. Toss broccoli florets, almonds, soybeans and cranberries with olive oil. Broil the mixture on a baking sheet in the oven. After you remove the broccoli salad, add mandarin oranges to complement the apricot ham.
Breakfast Spread
Incorporate fresh fruit with a yogurt parfait for breakfast.
You may want to serve breakfast for more than one meal with the correct recipes. Make an egg casserole with ham, bread crusts, spinach and roasted red peppers. Bake the casserole. Add cheese when you pull it out of the oven to create a melted crust. Whip up some cinnamon-blueberry pancakes to serve with the casserole. Make pancake mix as normal, but add a teaspoon or two of cinnamon and a pinch of ginger. Lightly mix in blueberries. Pour the mixture on a hot griddle. Flip when the mixture bubbles. Make a yogurt parfait for your guests by layering fresh fruit, yogurt and granola.
Tags: broccoli salad, filet mignon, fresh fruit, lime juice, salad Toss