{All the way back to 3.8.16. One of the very first warm evenings, from our back porch. The best ever happy hour.}

Hi everyone! I’m excited to be sharing a new Nourishment Lately with you today. I have been doing a lot of cooking, but I haven’t been trying a ton of new recipes, like I was regularly in winter. I wanted to pop in today though to talk about food and share a little of what has been nourishing us over the last few weeks.

This shrimp chowder with veggies + vodka sauce. Soup season is not yet over, and I am determined to make soup as much as possible until it officially warms up. This recipe is an old favorite and both Greg and I were craving it several weeks ago. So on a chilly Saturday, after running some errands, we went to a local brewery, got a growler fill, then came home and made a double batch of this soup. Perfect evening. The large batch of soup was delicious and gave us lots and lots of leftovers. We changed it up a bit from the published recipe – for a double batch, we used two yellow onions, a ton of carrots and celery (didn’t count, but we wanted to it be really hearty), one green pepper, two garlic cloves, 3/4 pound shrimp, 1.5 pounds cod, two jars of vodka sauce, a ton of veggie broth (probably 6-7 cups), salt, pepper, dried oregano and smoked paprika. It was the best. The smoked paprika was a good addition. It made it a bit more spicy, but we loved it!

This kale salad. Something else I have been craving lately – salad like crazy. Kale salad has made an appearance on our dinner plates several times over the last few weeks. The kale salad I make is based off of the recipe linked, but I use the lemon Dijon vinaigrette recipe from this post. 

These broccoli Parmesan fritters. This recipe is an oldie for us, one that we have been making for years. And one that we have been loving for years. Let me tell you, I have tried many times playing around with the recipe, but I’ve determined that it is just too good as written to mess around with. I don’t recommend making any changes. Few, simple ingredients are the best!

This pizza margherita. I was so hungry for pizza last week so I thought it would be nice to do homemade pizza Friday night. When Greg and I make homemade pizza, we usually go wild with toppings. We put on more toppings than the pizza can hold and we try to be super creative with topping combinations. I told him that I hoped he didn’t mind, but for last Friday, I was craving something extremely simple. This pizza is seriously the best. Just sauce (made out of canned tomatoes, salt and olive oil), fresh mozzarella cheese, a little bit of fresh basil and a little drizzle of olive oil. Greg said that was the best homemade pizza we’ve ever made and I definitely agree. I already can’t wait to make this recipe again. It really is the dishes with the fewest, simplest ingredients that are the best.

This quick pizza dough. This is the crust that I used for our pizza last Friday night. I was so happy with how it turned out. I didn’t have a lot of time, and this recipe is perfect for that. I did change it up just a little from the recipe. I mixed the dough in my food processor (so easy!), then placed the dough in a greased bowl and let it rise for an hour while we did some stuff around the house. After the hour, I punched down the dough (it hadn’t risen that significantly), divided in two and let it rest for another 20 minutes, while we prepped the rest of the ingredients. I started the dough at 5:30 p.m. and we were eating homemade pizza by 8 p.m. To me, that is awesome and I will most certainly be making this recipe again!

{Slippers and french press coffee, made for me, by Greg, for my birthday. 2.9.16}

Here’s what has been nourishing us lately.

These spiced lentil, sweet potato and kale whole wheat pockets. We tried this recipe a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it. We have been trying to make and freeze as much food as possible lately, to take advantage of all the freezer space that we have and to stock up for our busy spring, summer and fall. We made a double batch of these, ate half for dinner/lunch and froze the other half. These pockets were not only incredibly delicious, but so fun to make, too! We tried to stay as organized as possible when making them and it really helped the process go smoothly, as these do take some time + work. We did a little assembly line. I rolled out each piece of dough and passed it off to Greg’s station, where he had the lentil filling in one bowl and the mashed sweet potatoes in another (we didn’t add the extra caramelized onions, for simplicity). He filled, folded and pinched. Only changes we made were leaving out the caramelized onions and adding more spices – just about double what the recipe called for. We also added some feta cheese to a couple of the pockets – they were good both with and without cheese. Also, the dough for this recipe is my new favorite pizza-like dough. It was so soft, fluffy and delicious. We will for sure be making these again, as is, but also using the dough recipe with other fillings.

These homemade chicken cheesesteaks. Or in our case, mushroom cheesesteaks. This is a recipe that we have been making + loving for years and for the last few months, Greg has been requesting it. Finally on the day of the Super Bowl, I made these and we both agreed that it was the best we’ve ever made them. It may have been due to the fact that we made homemade rolls for the first time ever (see below), but now I truly can’t wait to make them again. What I do: I leave out the chicken completely. This time around, I made eight sandwiches and for that I used 2 large green peppers, 2 large yellow onions and 8 portabello mushrooms. I cooked the onions and peppers together first and then I cooked the mushrooms, just because I didn’t want the pan to be too full at once. I made one and a half recipes of the cheese sauce (didn’t want to skimp, because it is the good stuff). For the cheese sauce, try to use a realllly good, realllly sharp white cheddar. Good cheese is worth it here. For the assembly, I went cheese sauce first into the roll, then pepper/onion/mushroom mixture and then topped each sandwich with a little bit of shredded cheddar. This hasn’t always been the case with these, but this time around, with the homemade rolls, these were great leftover warmed in the microwave. Wish we still had some leftover, but they went quickly! 🙂

These easy hoagie rolls. So I’ve already mentioned these above, but I can’t sing enough praises about these rolls, really! I have been intimidated by sub (or hoagie) rolls for the entire time that I’ve been making bread. Greg has really wanted to try them and for some reason, I have been just afraid to do it. Last Sunday, I picked this recipe (after much consideration) and just went for it. They turned out fantastic! I followed the recipe except I used 2 cups all purpose flour and 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour and I used 2 tablespoons of honey and no sugar. It was not hard to do, and it seems that the part that I was most afraid of, the shaping of the rolls, is actually pretty forgiving. My “shaping” of the rolls was a total guess and way less than perfect, but when it came down to it, they all made great sandwiches. These rolls are soft and hearty and will be made again and again in our house!

These one-pot creamy spinach lentils. I made this for dinner last week for the first time and it was definitely nourishing. There were so many reasons we loved this. It was quick and easy to make, it was warm and comforting to eat, it was healthy and it made a lot which was great for leftovers. Greg said that it kind of reminded him of chicken pot pie, but a vegetarian version and without crust. Changes I made – doubled up on the onion, carrot and celery, used veggie broth instead of chicken broth, used dried herbs instead of fresh and added a splash of lemon juice. We will be making this again and again. 

I’d love to know what has been nourishing you. Leave links to your favorite recipes in the comments!