Chicken with 40 cloves...

Or 25, whatever you have on hand. I did this in the crock pot and it was easy and phenomenal! Couldn't be easier (or tastier).

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts or 3-4 lbs chicken drumsticks or thighs (bone in)
• 2 white onions, sliced
• 25-40 cloves peeled garlic, left whole
  
• 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons chicken broth
  
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley

In the crock pot put onions on bottom of pot. Then place chicken, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then sprinkle in paprika, and add garlic cloves and chicken broth. Top with parsley. Cook for 6-7 hours on low. This gets super brothy and delicious. The garlic and onion give a light nutty flavor, this was SO good. Will make again.

Bruchetta Tilapia

I made this dish for my moms 42nd birthday tonight, it was a hit! My inspiration was the bruchetta I normally make for parties and my moms love of seafood. Thus the bruchetta tilapia was born

• 2 pints grape tomatoes



• 2 Tablespoons chopped garlic



• 1/4 cup olive oil



• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar



• salt, pepper, oregano and basil



• 2 lbs tilapia



• lemon juice
  
  

Preheat oven to 375. In a bowl mix together tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and salt, pepper, oregano and basil to taste. Mix well and dump on the bottom of a baking dish. Lay the tialpia on top of the tomatoes and squirt with lemon juice, drizzle with a little more balsamic vinegar and season top of fish with more salt and pepper and spices. Bake for about 10 minutes or until fish is cooked. This dish turned out so yummy, make sure you scoop up a lot of the tomatoes with the fish, they are delicious!

Orange Cumin Chicken

I know I do a lot of chicken recipes. This is basically because I love chicken. I know many post ops have a hard time with it. I couldn't eat chicken for a whole year. The chicken recipes I put up are super moist and easy going down, so give the chicken another try. This one is very different and delicious! It was so moist, it broke apart like fish. This would also be a perfect glaze for fish. We just got home from Florida and brought home a ton of oranges, thus my inspiration!

• 1-2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (depending on how many people you are serving)




• 1 cup Tropicana 50 (or any other low sugar OJ)




• 2 Tablespoons tomato paste




• 2 Tablespoons olive oil




• 2 Tablespoons crushed garlic




• 2 Tablespoons dried parsley




• 1 Tablespoon honey




• 1 teaspoon cumin powder




• a pinch of salt and pepper




• 1 whole orange, sliced
  

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Layer chicken in a baking dish. Add all the additional ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Pour glaze over chicken and cover with plastic wrap. You can marinade over night or just for an hour, it really doesn't matter because the glaze is so good. Leave the chicken in the baking dish with the glaze. Slice up whole orange and lay a slice on top of each piece of chicken. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Enjoy!

Golden Lentil Soup- Crock Pot Edition

Soup's on! It's getting chilly here in New Jersey, actually at night it's down right cold! There is a restaurant near me called Atlanta Bread Company, and they have the most amazing Golden Lentil Soup. I've been all over every website looking for a copycat recipe. In fact, Atlanta Bread website doesn't even have the ingredients on their website. So I tried to replicate it. It is a vegetarian dish, but lentils are loaded with protein.

• 4 cups chicken broth (or veggie broth for the vegetarian)
• 2 cups hot water
• 1lb dry lentils
• 1 regular sized yellow onion chopped fine
• 2 cups chopped and peeled carrots, chopped fine
• 3 whole cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 cup canned, diced tomatoes
• 1 Tablespoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon saffron (or saffron powder)
• 1 teaspoon cayenne powder
• salt and black pepper to taste

This really couldn't be any easier. Rinse and pick through lentils. Add lentils, chicken broth and hot water to the crock pot. Chop onion and carrots small and add. Peel garlic, keep them whole, but smash them with the flat side of a knife. Add the garlic, they will melt right into the soup. Add in diced tomatoes. Add cumin, saffron, cayenne and salt and pepper. Stir. Cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4-5 hours. About an hour before you want to eat, take about 1/4 of the soup, add to a blender or magic bullet and liquify. Add back into the soup. This makes it thicker and yummier lol. You can also use an immersion blender for the last part. This is sooo delicious, and good for all stages of post op!

Garlic Pork Loin with Garlic Asparagus

The easiest things in the supermarket to cook are those pre seasoned pork roasts. I buy mine at Aldi food store for 3.99 a lb. Cooked properly they are sooo moist and good for us.

• 1lb pork loin, preseasoned (I used peppercorn flavored)





• 10 cloves peeled garlic

Remove pork from package and place on a foil lined baking sheet. Peel the garlic, and make 8-10 cuts in the pork, and add a clove in each cut. Bake on 350 for 20-25 minutes a lb. Just a hint, it is OK now to cook pork a little pink. I eat mine a tiny bit pink, it's so much moister that way. Just make sure the internal temp is 160.

I made this with roasted garlic asparagus. Get a whole bundle of asparagus. Wash. Trim the ends, and place on a foil lined baking dish. drizzle with olive oil, salt and cracked black pepper. Cut up 3 cloves of garlic and place on top of asparagus. Mix until all the asparagus is well coated. Bake on 350 for 15-20 minutes.