Five and Dime FRIDAY!!!! 5 ingredients + 10 Minutes = Lotsa Yum

Lazy Quesadillas

I just had one of these for lunch --- actually for the last two days lunches!

1. Tortillas -- whatever kind you like. My favorite is Ezekiel Sprouted Wheat.
2. Cheese -- Jack, Cheddar, Mexican Cheese Mix
3. Salsa
4. Sliced avocado (or mushed up with salt and lemon)
5. Chopped cilantro and/or flat parsley
6. OPTIONAL: chopped olives, chopped onion, pre-cooked meat

I use my George Foreman grill, which I cannot recommend more highly because there is no fat added when cooking. Other non-fat cooking alternative is pop it in the oven to warm/crisp/melt. But, the Foreman grill is the very best for quesadillas (and for anything you would want to melt or grill, i.e.,grilled cheese and veggie/hot dogs).

If you want extra super deliciousness. Just brush both sides with olive oil and throw on the backyard grill for a couple minutes! And, if you want super-super deliciousness, brush some scallions (with only the very tip cut off) with olive oil and pre-grill those for a couple minutes...then throw the grilled onion inside the quesadilla before you grill it!

No matter how you cook it, it's under 10 minutes and lotsa yum factor.

Bon Appetit!

LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY NOTE: Going on vacation (Vancouver/Whistler) until July 6th so no blog entries during vacation....I'll be back first week in July! Happy INDEPENDENCE to you all!

Trader Joe's Tuesday -- Jasmine Rice!

If you haven't yet experienced the frozen pre-cooked rice at Trader Joe's you are missing out. It is literally just as tasty as fresh made, light, fluffy, and delicious. I was addicted for a long time to the brown rice, but I have been stuck on the Jasmine White Rice for quite a long while now, and there are so many wonderfully delicious things to do with it....here's one of my favorites.

Mexican Rice Bowl

....In order of appearance, i.e., in order you put in the bowl:

1. JASMINE WHITE RICE -- pop it in microwave for two minutes.
2. Add 1/2 can of PINTO BEANS
3. Sprinkle with a little grated CHEDDAR CHEESE-- and pop back in the microwave for about 40 seconds.
4. Add a couple tablespoons of SALSA (any kind you love in the refrigerator section)
5. Slice up 1/4 of an AVOCADO and add on top
6. Throw on some chopped up CILANTRO
7. For extra indulgence, you can crush up a few TORTILLA CHIPS...if you want to add a little crunch to your bowl

Five & Dime Friday (on Monday for the Lazy Woman in you!)

I had a little bitsy surgery on Thursday that threw off my Friday so I'm a wee bit late on our New Lazy Woman feature....

FIVE and DIME

five... ingredients
ten... minutes
one.... delicious meal

So, today's recipe is for LAZY CHILI

This chili can be made for vegetarians or meat-lovers....

1. Chorizo OR Soyrizo
2. Can of stewed tomatoes
3. Can of beans
4. Container of Salsa Fresca
5. Chopped fresh cilantro and/or flat parsley
6. OPTIONAL: Cheese, chopped olives, chopped onion, chopped jalapenos


Sautee up the Chorizo or Soyrizo to get it nice and brown. Then just throw the stewed tomatoes, beans and salsa fresca in and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Throw in a bowl and add some chopped fresh cilantro (or flat parsley).

If you want to branch out past the FIVE ingredients, feel free to throw in optional ingredients.

Yummalicious!

Trader Joe's Tuesday - Wonderful Watermelon

My Lazy Woman friends...it's late Tuesday night (technically Wednesday morning) but I just got home from New Orleans and wanted to share what I learned on the airplane from one of the magazines that Aaron bought. It was either Real Simple or Cooking Light....I learned that one cup of watermelon has more lycopene than its red fruit relative the tomato. Lycopene is our friend and scientists hav found that a high dietary intake of lycopene reduces the incidence of certain types of cancer and reduces risk of heart attack. Dr. Oz is often extolling the virtues of lycopene. Also, watermelon is hugely rich in beta-carotene, another powerful anti-oxidant. Sweet, delicious, refreshing AND oh so good for you!

It's very rare that TJs doesn't have at least one kind of watermelon. If you have a juicer and you haven't juiced a watermelon ever, please please please try this yummy refreshing treat in the heat of the Summer. Watermelon is my favorite healthy summer dessert. It's also how I start most of my mornings. Watermelon -- or any melon -- is what your digestion wants when it "breaks" its "fast" in the morning. Watermelon is easy to digest, goes right through you, like little scrubbing bubbles for your colon!

If you don't know how to pick a watermelon, have one of the TJ crew members help you. But if you tap on it or slap it, you'll hear a hollow sound. Tap or slap a few and you'll start hearing the nuances in the sounds they make. The more hollow sounding the better.

New Orleans is really hot and humid right now, and we started our mornings with fresh fruit, including mostly great watermelon. This morning, I had the best surprise of all. I had put it in the hotel refrigerator last night and when I pulled it out it was partially frozen (my preference over fully frozen). What a delight on a hot humid morn!

Stay cool everyone....let watermelon help you stay cool and healthy, the Lazy Way!

It's New! It's Lazy! It's FIVE & DIME FRIDAY!!!!!

OK Lazy Woman Folk out there….There’s something new on the Lazy Woman Blog. I’m calling it “Five and Dime.” I sent a slew of pitches to a TV show for my bijillion ideas of things you can do with 5 ingredients in 10 minutes to make something delicious for dinner and I called it FIVE & DIME, and they didn’t hire me, so I’m going to share them with all of you instead! So, every Friday that I’m in town and able to post, we’ll be having Five and Dime Fridays on the Lazy Woman Blog, and you’ll get a new recipe every week.

To start us off we’re going to talk salad. I’ve posted my salad recipe before, and it’s featured in our book “The Lazy Woman’s Guide to Just About Everything” but here it is spelled out a little more in depth.

Here’s to celebrating LAZY recipes for dinner with FIVE ingredients, in less than TEN minutes….

FIVE & DIME

5 Ingredients + 10 Minutes = Infinite Deliciousness

Lazy Woman Salad

The salad that goes with every meal that everyone loves – even people who hate vegetables – and it’s full of protein!

1. Lettuce
2. Nuts
3. Cheese
4. Dressing: Lemon + Olive Oil
5. OPTIONAL: Dried Fruit or Fresh Fruit (dried cranberries, fresh pears, fresh pomegranate seeds)

The super-cool thing about this salad is that you can do a million variations by changing up the nuts and cheeses (with fruit option):

-Parmigiano Reggiano and Toasted Almonds (OPTIONAL: Dried Cranberries)
-Cheddar and Toasted Sunflower Seeds (OPTIONAL: Fresh Apple)
-Shredded Mozzarella and Toasted Pine Nuts (OPTIONAL: Dried Currants or Cranberries)
-Goat Cheese and Toasted Cashews (OPTIONAL: Fresh Apple or Pear)
-Feta and Toasted Pepitas (OPTIONAL: Fresh Pomegranate Seeds)

Trader Joe's Tuesday -- COMFORT PIE

I've been away in body, mind and spirit. My dad's memorial was a few weeks ago and although it went beautifully, I got hit with a wall of grief, which then lead to a lowered immunity which lead to a wall of flu! This is my first day feeling back to my normal self! Woohooo!

Death sucks. I didn't deal with this whole few weeks lazily. Thank god I had friends reminding me to just BE, to just be sad, to be mad, to be SICK even... because my tendency is to not let myself be sad or sick. Whenever I let myself be fully sad and stopped resisting, there would always be a sense of relief.

How many times have we heard the phrase "what you resist persists?" or "let go, let God..." but man oh man practicing those is harder than it looks....four sweet words in both cases that are so hard for me to fully imbibe. But, I swear I clung to them like vines in the jungle as I swung through the forests of grief and flu.

When I was yielding to the grief, I actually found comfort in pie. We were talking at the memorial about my dad's famous mincemeat pie, made with reindeer sausage among other things, and therefore inedible to his vegetarian daughter. It reminded me of the rhubarb pies he and I would make and could share.... I love pie. Nothing like pie to comfort a soul.

With no energy to bake (and I looooove to bake pies!) I was visiting the fresh baked and frozen sections of Trader Joe's. One delightful find is the blueberry tart in the frozen section. I, of course, dolloped it with the Vanilla Mango Soy Ice Cream because I was afraid it would be too sweet and need a tart edge, but it was delightfully NOT overly sweet, and surprisingly delicious.

It really takes so little to bake a delicious summer pie from scratch. I insist on making my own pie crusts, but the frozen crusts at TJ's really are quite good. Just go over to the fresh berry section (you can do it with frozen too, just make sure you let them drain in a collander as they thaw) and get a couple packages of blueberries, a couple blackberries, a rasberry, and a lemon. Rinse the berries, grate up about 1/2 lemon zest, squeeze juice of lemon, toss with a couple tablespoons of sugar and a couple tablespoons of flour. If you have some fresh nutmeg, grate in a little of that too. Throw it all in the bottom shell. Dot with some butter.

Then take the top crust and cut into 1/2 inch strips and create a lattice on top. (Tip -- start in the middle of the pie with the diameter and weave from there.) Crimp the edges and make it puuuurdy! Be sure to place the pie on a cookie sheet because these pies can bubble up and over....yummmmmm!

Bake at 425 degrees for about 50 minutes on the lower rack. Wait for it to BUBBLE in the center of the pie.

Pie oh pie, my oh my comfort food.