the brussels sprouts that will make you like brussels sprouts

See that one that's missing? I couldn't even wait to take the picture to try one.

If you hate brussels sprouts or think there just "meh" then you clearly haven't had them cooked like this. I stumbled upon Mark Bittman's recipe a while back after making some lackluster sprouts, and it turns out I was cooking them all wrong. This way is not only easy, but they turn out so amazingly good I was eating them like candy before they even hit the plate. Mark said it best himself: "the crisp outside leaves and tender, almost artichoke-like interior cannot be beat."

Ingredients:

• 1 pint brussels sprouts (about a pound)
• 4 to 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, to coat bottom of pan
• 5 cloves garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Trim bottom of brussels sprouts, and slice each in half top to bottom. Heat oil in cast-iron pan over medium-high heat until it shimmers; put sprouts cut side down in one layer in pan. Put in garlic, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Cook, undisturbed, until sprouts begin to brown on bottom, and transfer to oven. Cook, shaking pan occasionally, until sprouts are quite brown and tender, about 1/2 hour.
3. Taste, and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Stir in balsamic vinegar, and serve hot or warm.

Recipe from The New York Times.

{made for dinner} broccoli and pesto pasta

We have a ton of cookbooks, but because of our handy binder system, we rarely ever look at them. But every now and then we get into a dinner rut and end up combing our cookbooks in desperation. One of our favorites is Jamie's Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver. It's full of simple recipes with fresh ingredients, and we have yet to find a dud. We discovered this one last week, and everyone loved it. The original calls for tagliatelle but we used gemelli to make it more toddler friendly. We also added garlic, because - well - pasta without garlic should be a crime.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium potato
• 1 head of broccoli
• a large bunch of fresh basil
• sea salt
• 1 lb of gemelli pasta
• 1/4 cup green pesto
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 tbsp of olive oil
• 3 ounces Parmesan cheese

Directions:

To prepare your pasta:

1. Wash and peel the potato and cut it into very thin shavings using a speed peeler
2. Slice the end off the broccoli stalk
3. Cut little broccoli florets off the head and put them to one side
4. Halve the thick stalk lengthways, then slice thinly
5. Pick the basil leaves and discard the stalks
6. Grate the Parmesan
7. Mince the garlic

To cook your pasta

1. Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil
2. Add the pasta and broccoli stalks and cook according to the instructions on the box
3. Meanwhile, saute the garlic in the olive oil
4. 2 minutes before the pasta is cooked, add the broccoli florets and potato slices
5. Drain everything in a colander over a large bowl, reserving some of the cooking water, and return to the pan
6. Roughly chop half of your basil leaves and add to the pan with the pesto, garlic, and half the Parmesan
7. Give it all a good stir and if the sauce is too thick for your, add a splash of the cooking water to thin it out a bit

To serve your pasta:

1. Divide the pasta between your serving bowls
2. Sprinkle over the rest of the Parmesan and the remaining basil leaves
3. Serve with a lovely big bowl of salad, and enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver's cookbook, Jamie's Food Revolution

{made for dinner} black bean + butternut soup

I'd been excited to try this soup ever since I saw it on Sprouted Kitchen, and it definitely didn't disappoint. I loooove butternut squash (Jared less so, but he still liked the soup) and anything with homemade tortilla strips. Plus I've been trying to incorporate more veggies into our dinners and this is chock full of healthy stuff - but not so much that it tastes like tree bark. It's sort of a healthy version of winter comfort food, and a perfect rainy weeknight dinner.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. coconut or extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 a small head of cabbage, chopped (heaping 2 cups)
• 3 cups cubed butternut squash (sweet potato would be good too)
• 3 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. cocoa powder
• pinch of chipotle powder or cayenne pepper
• 2 cups cooked, black beans (about one can, rinsed and drained)
• salt to taste
• avocado, for garnish (optional)
• cilantro, for garnish (optional)

// tortilla crispies //

• 3 corn tortillas
• scant 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

In a heavy bottomed pot, warm the oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and saute until just beginning to brown, about 6-8 minutes. Add the garlic, cabbage, squash and broth. Turn the heat down to a gentle simmer, cover the pot and cook for about 15-20 minutes for the vegetables to cook. Add the spices and the beans and stir. Let everything continue to cook another ten minutes for the flavors to blend. Salt to taste. At this point, I did a few pulses with my immersion blender through the soup, because I wanted to thicken up the broth a bit. This is optional, but makes it seem a bit thicker. You could alternatively, run just a bit of the soup through a blender or food processor, and add it back in to the pot. OR a sprinkle of cornmeal will help thicken it as well.

For the tortilla crispies, preheat the oven to 375'. Stack them and slice into thin matchsticks. Spread on a baking sheet, dirzzle with the oil, sprinkle the salt and toss gently to coat. Spread them in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake for about 10-15 minutes until they are light brown and crispy, giving the pan a shake halfway through.

Garnish each both with some diced avocado, a handful of chopped cilantro and some of the tortilla crispies! (We only added the tortilla crispies, mostly out of laziness. I'm sure it's even more delicious with the extra garnishes.)

Recipe from the Sprouted Kitchen

{made for dinner} tortellini soup with spinach & tomatoes

This first recipe in my {made for dinner} series is as easy as it is tasty, and perfect for a time-crunched weeknight. It's one of the first recipes we made from The Scramble and has been one of our go-to dinners for the past 3 years. Here's what you'll need:

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil (not pictured)
• 1 tsp. minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
• 32 oz. chicken or vegetable broth
• 9 oz. regular or whole wheat cheese tortellini
• 15 oz. diced tomatoes with their liquid
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 3 cups baby spinach
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, or to taste

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute the garlic for one minute, then stir in the broth. Bring it to a boil, then add the tortellini, tomatoes, pepper, basil, and oregano.

Reduce the heat to keep it at a low boil for 7 minutes, then add the spinach. Simmer it for 2 more minutes, then remove it from the heat and serve it immediately, topped with Parmesan cheese.

Prep + cook time = 20 minutes

Servings = 4 (approximately 254 calories per serving)

the binder

This is the binder. It's not pretty, it's not fancy, but it's where we store all our recipes... and over the years it's become a sort of litmus test for whether or not a recipe gets our nod of approval. If we know we won't make it again, it doesn't go in the binder. Simple, efficient, the binder represents one of the more blissfully organized aspects of my life. (Trust me, there aren't many.) It's organized into 10 different tabs: Chicken, Pork, Beef, Fish, Vegetarian, Pasta, Soup / Chili, Side Dishes, Breakfast, and Dessert, and clear sheet protectors help to keep the recipes splatter free while we're cooking.

Jared and I started collecting recipes early on in our relationship when we found ourselves cooking dinner together most nights. To help us get started we signed up for The Six O'Clock Scramble, an online seasonal weekly menu planner. Every week they sent us 5 new meals and a grocery list, and we could swap out any meals we didn't like. It was really helpful and I highly recommend it if you want to cook dinner at home more often but aren't sure how to get organized. We started supplementing The Scramble recipes with ones we got from Food Network and Martha Stewart, and it didn't take long before we had amassed enough recipes that we needed a way to keep them all straight... hence, the binder was born.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, it seems to me like the tradition of home-cooked weeknight family dinners has become a bit of a lost art. In the age of processed and prepared foods, I think a lot of people choose not having to think about it over flavor and nutrition. But what those people don't realize is how easy and quick dinner can be if you just take a little time to plan our your meals. So that's why I'm sharing our process with you. It works really well for us and maybe it'll work well for you, too.

Here's how we tackle meal planning... every Sunday morning we sit down with the binder, a notepad, and pen. We take a quick inventory of what we have in our fridge and pantry from last week's meals that we didn't use up (usually things like tortillas, heavy cream, chicken stock, and veggies) and use that as our starting point for meal selection. Meals that feature ingredients we need to use up or already have get chosen first. Then we look for stuff that we haven't made in a while or that will be quick if we have something going on a particular night that week. We also try to pick meals that feature seasonal ingredients (Epicurious has a great tool for finding out what's in season where you live.) The final list of meals for that week goes on a magnetic pad that we keep on our fridge. As for which meals get cooked on which nights, we usually decide that day based on how we're feeling.

So there you have it... the binder, our system, and my two cents about the benefits of cooking weeknight dinners. I'll be posting recipes and tips for some of our favorite dinners in a new regular feature called {made for dinner} (I know, real original) so stay tuned.