Trader Joe’s

Harvest Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Published on October 16, 2014October 15, 2014 by T.W.O.Leave a comment

Harvest Salads are officially in season and you know what that means? Turn on those ovens and start to roast your vegetables! Exchange your strawberries for dried cranberries or pomegranate seeds and add some candied pumpkin seeds. It’s like a party salad – so much fun! Since everyone has their favorite harvest salad ingredients, T.W.O. decided to focus on how to perfectly roast your vegetable – specifically sweet potatoes. It’s an easy recipe that will add so much flavor to your salad without a ton of work. Grab your apron and let’s start roasting!

Ingredients:
– 2 sweet potatoes, washed and cubed
– Olive oil
– Sea Salt
– Pepper
– Cinnamon
– Nutmeg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 415⁰F.
2. Wash and cut the sweet potatoes into small cubes. Place in a bowl.
3. Season the potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well.
4. Place sweet potatoes on a cookie sheet that is lined with parchment paper.
5. Put into heated oven for 25-30 minutes, flipping the sweet potatoes at 15 minutes.
6. Remove from oven. The sweet potatoes should be a little brown and slightly crispy.

T.W.O. included the following in their salad:
– Baby Romaine
– Pomegranate seeds
– sugar coated pumpkin seeds (from Trader Joes)
– BBQ Honey Glazed Chicken Breasts*
– Granny Smith Apples
– baby heirloom tomatoes

*BBQ Honey Glazed Chicken recipe is coming soon to the blog. Stay tuned!

Peanut Butter Coconut Popcorn

Published on February 10, 2014February 9, 2014 by twinswithoriginality2 Comments

This past Saturday evening, T.W.O. spent their night in with a delicious home cooked meal, the Olympics and POPCORN! Peanut Butter Popcorn to be exact! And we cooked it the old fashion way- the stove! Instead of using olive oil for the bottom of the pan, we used coconut oil- and WOW, was that an excellent choice. The popcorn had a subtle taste of coconut and was complimented by the peanut butter we decided to add in. Sweet and Savory! We are excited to try what other “mix-ins” we can add next time we make the coconut popcorn. Until then- you have to try this recipe out!

Ingredients

-1 to 1 ½ cup Popcorn kernels
-1 Tablespoon coconut oil
-1/3 cup peanut butter
-Sea Salt

Begin by placing the coconut oil into a medium to high heated sauté pan that has a lid. When the coconut oil is melted, make sure that the entire pan is seasoned with the oil. You don’t want the popcorn to stick or burn. Next, add the kernels to the pan and cover.

The popcorn will begin to pop. Turn off the heat when you start hearing the popcorn to stop popping. We have a rule that if there is more than 5 seconds between the pops, then the popcorn is done- so turn off the heat! Place the popcorn in a large bowl and season with salt.

In a small dish, melt the peanut butter for 20-30 seconds in the microwave. Once melted, pour over the popcorn and mix.

Now it’s time to sit on the couch and watch the Olympics!

Enjoy!

Stuffed Piquillo Peppers

Published on November 1, 2013October 29, 2013 by twinswithoriginality2 Comments

Four months ago, T.W.O. traveled to Spain and enjoyed pintxos daily. We felt nostalgic this past week and decided to re-create one of our favorite pintxos we had in Madrid- stuffed piquillo peppers! We ordered them at Lateral the first night in Madrid and loved them so much, we ordered them again on our last night of the trip! This pintxos dish is a great appetizer to serve at your next dinner party and can be prepared ahead of time so you can enjoy socializing with guests. Ole!

Ingredients

-1 can of piquillo peppers
-0.5 lb ground beef or turkey
-1/2 cup of goat cheese*
-1 cup of Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper Soup**
-1/4 cup of Greek yogurt
–Crazy Salt
-Garlic Powder
-Pepper
-Chili Powder

*T.W.O. has also used cream cheese, which makes for a creamier mixture
**T.W.O. would suggest Trader Joe’s Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper Soup

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a sauté pan, begin cooking the meat over medium heat. Season with salt, garlic powder, pepper and chili powder.

While meat is cooking, take the peppers out of the jar and separate. Pour the soup into a sauce pan and heat up. Add the Greek yogurt and reduce heat to low.

Once the meat is cooked, drain some of the grease. Don’t drain all of it for you don’t want the meat to be dry.

While the meat is still hot, add in your goat cheese or cream cheese and mix. Stuff the peppers individually with the meat and place into a Pyrex.

Once all the peppers are stuffed, pour the soup mixture over the peppers.

Place into oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Allow the peppers to sit for about 3-5 minutes before serving. Then it is time to enjoy some pintxos!!

Harvest Quinoa Salad

Published on October 18, 2013October 13, 2013 by twinswithoriginalityLeave a comment

Fall is just not in the air, but also in quinoa! T.W.O. loves making this harvest quinoa salad during the autumn months. It makes a great side dish, lunch meal, or snack! Serve it hot or cold! It’s just not perfect sweater weather, but perfect quinoa weather.

Ingredients

-2 cups water
-1 cup red quinoa, rinsed
-1 green apple
-1 cup spinach
-1/2 cup of dried cranberries
-1 lemon, juiced
-3-4 tablespoons olive oil
-1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
-3 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
-Garlic powder
-Cinnamon
-Salt & Pepper
-Goat cheese, crumbled

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add a dash of cinnamon and garlic power. If you want a little kick, add a dash of cayenne pepper. Once the water is boiling, add quinoa and reduce to low-medium heat. Cook for about 12-15 minutes. While the quinoa is cooking, cut the apple (unpeeled) and spinach.

When the quinoa is done, fluff with fork and cool for 10-15 minutes.

Once cool, add olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, apple cider, garlic powder, salt and pepper and mix. Next add in apple, spinach and cranberries and mix well.

Allow salad to chill for about 20 minutes. When you are ready to serve, crumble goat cheese over salad. (If you plan to serve, only let quinoa cool for about 2 minutes before adding in the ingredients. Top salad with goat cheese when you are ready to serve.)

Bon appetite!

*T.W.O. also likes to add grilled chicken breast to the salad or even chunks of roasted sweet potatoes.

Sriracha Glazed Chicken Mango Salad

Published on September 11, 2013September 10, 2013 by twinswithoriginalityLeave a comment

Remember that Sriracha Glazed Chicken Kebab recipe posted by T.W.O on Monday? Have you had the chance to try the recipe out? If you haven’t- you better get on it! And if you have, there are most likely leftovers! Hooray! T.W.O. decided to mix it up with the sriracha glazed chicken and add it to a salad! This dish is so refreshing, light, and has a nice balance of a sweet, but spicy kick to it!

Ingredients

–Sriracha Glazed Chicken, diced (link the post here)
-Lettuce*
-Mango, cubed
-Tomatoes
-Cucumbers
-Crimini mushrooms
-Cilantro Dressing**

*T.W.O. used romaine lettuce
**If you don’t feel like making your own dressing recipe, T.W.O. has discovered a great Cilantro dressing from Trader Joe’s.

First, wash and chop up the lettuce, mango, tomatoes, cucumbers, and mushrooms. Next dice your chicken into cubes. T.W.O. heated up their chicken just a bit before tossing into salad, but it can also be served at room temperature. After all the ingredients are platted, drizzle the dressing on the salad. Easy as that!

Bon Appetite!

Going Green with Gift Bags

Published on August 19, 2013August 19, 2013 by twinswithoriginalityLeave a comment

How many times have you paid $5+ dollars for a gift bag? Or paid more for the wrapping than the cost of the actual gift? And how many times have you thought to yourself- wait, I can reuse this gift bag, but I don’t remember who gave it to me, so I probably shouldn’t use it. Well, T.W.O. has a solution for you! Reusable shopping bags! They are cute, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly! Plus, it just adds another gift to your gift!

What you will need:
-Reusable shopping bag
-Tissue paper
-Raffia

T.W.O. bought these bags from Whole Foods. Many other stores like Trader Joe’s or Sprouts sell these bags. So next time you see one that you like, buy it because it will come in handy for the next gift you need to wrap!

T.W.O. signature

Fig Goat Cheese Appetizer

Published on August 15, 2013August 15, 2013 by twinswithoriginality1 Comment

Hosting a last minute dinner party on Friday night? Need an easy appetizer to impress your guests? Well T.W.O has the perfect one for you! It’s gastronomical, quick and the best part is that it is only 4 ingredients! That’s T.W.O. times T.W.O! Wow!! There is no doubt your guests will enjoy this tasteful bite. Take a deep breath, relax- T.W.O has planned your first menu item for this Friday night!

Ingredients:
-Goat cheese
-Fresh Fig, sliced in wedges
-Rosemary Raisin Crackers*
-Honey