The Cheeks are back! We've missed you:)

Confession time - in the chaos of the last few weeks, I've been a bit lackadaisical with my diet. There's been some pizza, some cookies, some pasta, oh yes and wine...ummm....lots of wine. But I've settled back down again and am ready to get back on track! Unfortunately my taste buds don't completely agree with me. So I'm going to ease them into it, or maybe trick them into it, but shhhhhhh... don't let my taste buds know!

Chocolate Chicken

1 pound chicken breasts
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon oregano
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 ounce dark chocolate
Fresh chives, chopped

Pour vegetable broth in a medium sized skillet and bring to a simmer. As the broth simmers, rub the salt, pepper and oregano into the chicken breasts. Add the chicken to the skillet, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the chicken is done, 8-15 minutes depending upon the thickness of your chicken.

As the chicken simmers, pour the balsamic vinegar in a small pan and cook over medium high heat. Stir constantly. You want to cook the balsamic until it is bubbly and just very slightly thickened. This takes about 5-7 minutes. Then turn off the heat and add the chocolate, stirring everything together until the chocolate is melted.

Once the chicken has finished cooking, remove from the skillet and set aside. Add the balsamic chocolate to the skillet. Turn up the heat to high, mix everything together and continue cooking until the sauce bubbles, about 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over chicken.

Enjoy!

Sweet Cheeks Headquarters is relocating! We've been packing boxes, signing leases, cleaning house and trying not to get too stressed out with all the action. Things should settle down by next week and we'll be pumping out our usual array of delightful recipes once again. In the meantime, don't forget the cardinal unwritten rule of moving ... you must attempt to eat every last item in the refrigerator! I opened mine today to find some eggs, a package of spinach and red onions. Voila! A delicious salad was born.

Scraps Salad

3 tablespoons rice vinegar
5 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
4 eggs
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
2 red onions, sliced
5 ounces of spinach

First hard boil the eggs. For those of you that don't know, put the eggs in a pot, cover with water and then place over high heat. Once the water begins to boil set a clock for ten minutes. When the time is up, dump out the hot water and rinse the eggs under cold water. When cool enough, de-shell the eggs, cut into quarters and set aside.

Heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet. Add the onions, salt and pepper to taste and saute until the onions begin to soften.

In the meantime, whisk together 4 tablespoons of olive oil, rice vinegar, garlic and salt and pepper to taste.

In a large bowl, toss together spinach, onions and dressing. Serve with 1 to 2 eggs, garnished on top.

Enjoy!

Gizmo's favorite food.


Don't be alarmed! The picture is in focus and yes, it's food! Looks a little wacky I know. Kind of like a mini alien. Or Gremlin cocoon! These little guys are tasty though, I promise. Shirley gobbled some up and told me to let you all know she'll definitely vouch for them ... mmmm mmm good!

Cabbage Rolls
1 bunch of large cabbage leaves
2 lbs ground beef
2 onions, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1 - 14 ounce can sauerkraut, drained
1 - 6 ounce can tomato paste
3 cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil cabbage leaves for 3-5 minutes, just until soft enough to roll without ripping. Place 3-4 leaves in the bottom of a 9" X 13" baking pan. I used the smaller ones for this and left the bigger ones for rolling.

Brown the ground beef, onion, salt and pepper. Then roll a small amount of beef mixture into each cabbage leaf. You roll this the same way you roll a wrap sandwich or kinda like how you wrap up a present. I put a spoonful-ish of the beef mixture on one end of the leaf, fold over each side and then rolllllll it up!

Place the rolls on top of the cabbage leaves in the pan. Then sprinkle garlic over the top, cover with sauerkraut and cover everything with any remaining cabbage leaves. Mix the tomato paste with water and pour over the entire dish.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours, or until tender when pricked with a fork.

Enjoy!

Life has been keeping me busy, thus my cooking has changed a bit. No more chile rellano making for me these days. Honestly, I've been throwing together whatever I can and eating as it. Mind you, most of these meals are not "blog worthy" thus, lack of blog posts.

While I could use that as my main excuse, I shall also share the other major change in my life. My computer has died. I knew she was on her death bed when I would see the blue screen of death more and more frequently and then, before you know it, it's over. Its amazing how much I rely on my computer. There was work to do, recipes to search, facebook to check, pictures to post, and homes to find. But as you see now, I get on a computer when I can. (the search is on though)



This last week I did have a successful trip to the farmers market, I got myself a new purple bell pepper and these amazing little peppers, some asian spinach, more beautiful melons, purple artichokes and the freshest berries ever!

For you readers this week, I hare an easy and quick to prep recipe for some asian slaw. Try it at home and adjust seasonings as you like! It's a fresh clean tasting salad perfect for summer bbq's and picnics.

What you'll need:

1 package trader Joe's Organic broccoli slaw
3 carrots - halved length wise and sliced on an angle
1/2 bell pepper (red or purple)
5 small (pictured below) don't remember what they are
2-3 green onions-sliced on an angle

dressing
2 T sesame oil
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp minced ginger
ground black pepper
1 large splash of rice wine vinegar
1 small handful of fresh cilantro
black sesame seeds

chop it all up and mix it up. The longer you let it sit, the more the flavors absorb and combine.

Simma down nah!


Little kids function at constant hyper speed, especially during these hot summer months! Call those crazy lill' buggers inside for lunch and cool them off with a big bowl of chilled watermelon soup.


Watermelon Soup

1 cup strawberries, hulled and cut in half
4 cups chopped watermelon, seed removed
The juice of 2 fresh limes
1 teaspoon chopped fresh mint
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup coconut milk

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
Put soup in a covered container and chill in refrigerator for one hour.
Enjoy!