Sharing Plate – Your Cooking Coach |

This an easy recipe that is a crowd pleaser. Now that school has started again- it is time to get organized and get back to the same old routine. I kind of like getting back to my old routine- I like the familiar. Anyway, my point was to have your pantry and fridge filled with things that will help you through the week to make quick and easy meals.

One of those things is fresh tomato sauce. It doesn’t take very long to cook but it makes a huge difference in the recipe.

This particular dish was easy to make as I had the sauce ready. All I did was saute the sausage (which I had in the fridge as well), onion and garlic. It was simple and best of all- everyone loved it! This is a great week day meal and also yummy as a school lunch…
Click here for the recipe… »

I made this couscous dish with grilled chicken. I added some roasted cauliflower and tomatoes to the quick cooking starch. I drizzled some olive oil on the cauliflower and tomatoes and I cooked them in oven until the florets were golden brown and the tomatoes soft.

Making the couscous is super simple. I make mine with chicken broth and buy the whole wheat variety from Trader Joes.

The rest was simple, I added the veggies to the cooked couscous. I made extra for the next day… I served the delicious side dish with the fish with romesco sauce. It was a delicious combination…
Click here for the recipe… »

I would make this dish if you want to impress someone. It looks beautiful with lots of vivid summer colors. It is an overall winner of a recipe. It is super easy to make and best of all it is very healthy, low in carbs.. but the important thing is that you don’t feel that it is low in carbs. My main goal as the cook in the house is to incorporate as many healthy and varied ingredients as I can in any meal I serve.

Tomatoes are in abundance right now and I love buying the grape variety. They are very sweet and burst in the mouth and best of all, delicious! I cut them up and added some salt, garlic, olive oil and basil. I let the juicy tomatoes sit for a while so they can get even juicier. I marinated chicken breasts that I pounded super thin with balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. You can buy thin breast cutlets in the store but they are more expensive than the regular breast. I quickly grilled the chicken.. it literally took two minutes on one side on a very hot grill. I also put together an arugula salad with a delicious homemade apricot dressing.

The meal was simply delicious… perfect for a summer barbecue…
Click here for the recipe… »

There was a recent article with some latest research about how it is not the hamburgers that are making Americans fat… it is the potatoes. Hmm, really??? I was very disappointed to read the article. I guess I knew that fried potatoes are not the greatest things to eat but some how a burger seems incomplete with fries. As most of you know, I am all about healthy eating but I can’t refuse fries or potato chips.. so my solution is not to have the bag of chips in the house. Once in a while I buy the low-fat ones which are just as good. A few here or there is okay but it is a problem if you have half a bag!

I love fries as well… but I have been making oven or grilled potatoes at home instead. They give me the same satisfaction as the fried variety without all the calories. Obviously even the grilled potatoes need to be consumed in moderation… oh, well..

Anyway, this version is delicious with some olive oil, salt and lots of minced garlic. I placed them on a grill pan as the burgers were cooking. Try them this weekend with your main entree…
Click here for the recipe… »

As I mentioned yesterday, Sundays are our official grilling day… it is a must. As I marinated and assembled the delicious basil and garlic burgers, I started to think of the accompaniments. I wanted to keep the whole fare relatively healthy. I initially decided to eliminate potatoes out of the meal but then… after thinking about it, I decided to make some. I need to have some potatoes with my burgers. For a veggie, I decided to take out the baby zucchinis I had bought from Trader Joes. They were bright green and tender and best of all, they were tiny… I simply tossed them in some olive oil, garlic and balsamic vinegar. They sat around for a couple of hours until they looked really happy and ready to be grilled. It took less than five minutes to cook them.. since they were so tender, they only needed to be browned on both sides on a hot grill. They were delicious and beautiful with the burgers…
Click here for the recipe… »