Just Jodi Style

Hump Day Treat – Cauliflower Mash

 Happy Wednesday from chilly New York City! One of my favorite things during the fall / winter is finding new recipes that keep me feeling all warm and fuzzy without having to make soup. I have recently in the past year fallen in love with cauliflower. If you ask my Mom she will tell you that I would not even take a bite of cauliflower as a child. I only started to have interest in cauliflower after one night at home in Miami my brother roasted some cauliflower in the oven with some olive oil and paprika and it smelled so good that I had to taste it. Needless to say I am now on the hunt to find recipes that incorporate cauliflower.
Personally I love mashed potatoes and have always loved them since I was a little kid. What I didn’t know was there was a way to make this same delicious tasty side dish with cauliflower. I overheard someone talking about this at Whole Foods one day and I immediately started googling recipes on my phone in the store. I am all about the easy recipes as I like to come home from work at the end of the day to my puppy Stella and an easy to cook meal. Thanks to steamy kitchen I have found the perfect recipe for cauliflower mash.
Ingredients:
  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 tablespoons light sour cream
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • snipped chives
Directions
1. First separate the cauliflower into florets and get rid of the core.
2. In a pot bring 2 cups of water to a simmer. Once you have done this then add the cauliflower. Cover and turn the heat down on the stove. Cook the cauliflower for 12 – 15 minutes or until very tender. I checked it with a fork just like I would with asparagus.
3. Drain and discard all of the water. The drier the cauliflower is the better. The reason for this is when adding the rest of the ingredients there won’t be any excess water in the mix. Add the milk, butter, sour cream, salt and pepper.
4. Mash all the ingredients until it looks like “mashed potatoes” and if you like top the dish with chives.
I cooked this last night with some pesto shrimp and I have to say I wish I got a little more of the water out from the cauliflower, but it still tasted very good to me! If there is a recipe you all are looking for or want t me to try and do on Just Jodi Style comment below on this post and let me know!

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Hump Day Treat – Green Chef

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope that we are all recovering from the long holiday weekend. I know that I am especially since my sweet puppy Stella was really afraid of yesterday’s fireworks. We al have heard of these meal prep programs where they send you everything you need already portioned out for the perfect meal. I have tried blue apron before and I just never loved it. I personally never liked their menu options that they had. There was always something I didn’t like in the recipe or when I actually made the recipe of that day it just didn’t turn out right. My good friend Lauren texted me one day if I have ever heard of this company called Green Chef and I said no. She then sent me a coupon for a free box of meals! First off so sweet of her to do that and second off Green Chef is AMAZING! Everything that they offered on their site was just so well explained and well done that I couldn’t say no. Everything that they send you in the box comes with the recipe with step by step instructions. Since they send you three different meals in one box sometimes it can be confusing if you use the same ingredients for the same recipes. Green Chef fixed that problem by color coordinating the recipe with the labels of the ingredients you will need for that specific dish. Unlike other meal prep programs you can cancel and re activate your account at any time. You also can skip weeks if you are going out of town and even add more to your order if you are having people over. If you are looking for a healthy meal prep program that is not only filling, but different than all the other companies out there go and try Green Chef. I have attached images of their Buddha’s Delight recipe that I made for lunch today. Hope you all have a great day! <3

 

Click Here to be connected to the Green Chef website 


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Hump Day Treat – 4th of July Themed

Happy Wednesday! With the holiday weekend coming up I thought I would make today’s treat themed for this upcoming 4th of July. One of my favorite treats of all time are funfetti cupcakes. In middle school I used to make these for all of my friends birthdays. You can easily make them your own by just a few drops of food coloring into the cupcake mix. I have in the past used the red food coloring for cupcakes, but it always seemed to turn out more pink than red. This time I added about half a dozen drops of red food coloring and it seemed to have done the trick. Now I know that everyone thinks that vanilla frosting is all the same, but the funfetti frosting is something way different. I don’t what it is about it that makes it taste so good. If you can’t find it in your grocery store check your local CVS. Thats where I found it when Fairway didn’t have it. To make my treat fully patriotic I added some blue sprinkles on top to give it that final touch.  If you are looking for some other fun July 4th treat ideas here are some fun ideas for you to try out.

  • Red white and blue cookies – take sugar cookie dough and add food coloring and roll it all together then back
  • Red and blue jello cups with whip cream on top – make red jello in a cup and put in fridge then make the blue jello and pour on top of the red jello then put it in fridge until firm
  • patriotic pretzels – pretzels sticks drizzled with white chocolate and red and blue sprinkles

Hope everyone who is going out of town for the 4th has a safe and fun holiday! For those of staying in Manhattan make sure to find a rooftop or a balcony to see the fireworks this year. I saw them practicing them last night on my way home from Brooklyn. I just hope my sweet puppy Stella doesn’t get scared by them this year <3


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Hump Day Treat – Oreo Cheeseake

Happy Wednesday Everyone! Sorry that I have been MIA here on Just Jodi Style. I have been in Miami up until this past Sunday and then my sweet Stella got sick. Did you all know that sugar free gum is just as dangerous as a dog eating chocolate? Stella somehow found gum in a Taxi cab after our flight thankfully she is okay and doing well! While I was home my brother Ira decided he was going to finally make his famous Oreo cheesecake for the entire family! His first stop was going to Whole Foods. Obviously Whole Foods is the place to go when you are looking for healthier alternatives to the not so healthy ones. He found there the “healthy” Oreo alternative and all I have to say is WOW! These faux Oreos were unbelievable so creamy and delicious that I hate to say it gives the original Oreo’s a run for their money.

I always thought my brothers famous cheesecake was super complicated to make, but its really super simple! Here is what you will need:

Ingredients:

-36 Oreo cookies, divided

-1/4 cup butter, melted

-4 pkg. (8 ox. each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened

-1 cup sugar

-1 tsp. vanilla

-1 cup breakstone’s or knudsen sour cream

-4 eggs

-springform pan for cheesecakes (very important otherwise it will be difficult to get it out of the pan

Directions:

1. Heat Oven to 325 F

2. Take 28 cookies in a plastic bag. Flatten bag to get rid of the excess air then seal the bag. Finely crush cookies by rolling a rolling pin across the bag. Place crumbs in bowl. Add butter and mix well. Press onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan.

3. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl with a mixer. Add sour cream and mix well. Add eggs 1 at a time and beating after each until it is fully blended.

4. Chop or crush remaining cookies and gently stir the chopped cookies in the batter. The chopped cookies should be 1 – 1/2 cups.

5. Pour the batter over crust and sprinkle the remaining chopped cookies.

6. Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes or until center is almost set. Run knife around the rim of the pan to loosen the cake and make it easier to remove. Let the cake cool before removing from the springform pan.

7. Refrigerate for 4 hours.

8. Take out of the refrigerator and enjoy!

 

Hope everyone is enjoying the first official day of SUMMER!!!

Recipe was taken from Kraft Recipes Online Click here for the full recipe 


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Hump Day Treat: Bar Pitti – Rigatoni Pitti

Happy Wednesday everyone! Since moving to New York City there are a few restaurants that I have come to love more than most. Ask any of my friends and if I could I would eat at Bar Pitti every week. The only flaw is that it is cash only and like most people I know no one rarely has cash on them. One of my best friends Rachael was determined to find a recipe for my go to dish the rigatoni pitti and I am here to tell you that she found it! I have personally made this recipe a handful of times and it is almost spot on to the classic rigatoni pitti at Bar Pitti. Here is what you will need:

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. rigatoni pasta
  • 4 ounces fresh peas
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 8 ounces fresh turkey sausage, cut into 1/2″ pieces
  • 1 14.5 ounce can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. In a large pot cook the rigatoni pasta ( al dente) while you are cooking the sauce so they are ready at the same time

2. In a pan that is large enough to fit the cooked pasta in it to heat up the 2 tablespoons of olive oil on a medium heat

3. Add the turkey sausage and fry until lightly browned on both sides

4. Remove the sausage from the pan and put aside (I usually put it on a a small plate). Remember do not remove any of the oil or anything from the pan after removing the sausage. You will want these juices for the next step.

5. In the pan with the olive oil and removed turkey sausage add the crushed tomatoes and salt. Simer for a few minutes then lower the heat to low.

6. Add cream and stir allowing sauce to heat up for a few minutes. Make sure the sauce does not boil.

7. Add the sausage back to the pan and then add the peas. Mix it all around

8. Then add the cooked rigatoni and toss and mix everything around so that the sauce covers all the pasta.

9. Top each plate with parmesan cheese and serve immediately!

 

Hope you all enjoy today’s Hump Day Treat recipe <3


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Mother’s Day Week – Hump Day Treat Serving Dishes

Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone has had a great day today and is ready for the weekend. For today’s hump day treat I wanted to include something that is great for serving your treats.I think a great gift for your Mom this Mother’s day are glass serving dishes to serve there treats all year. Funny enough this gift was given to me by my Mom. When looking for serving dishes glass I believe just looks more fun and are easier to clean than most dishes. These glass heart shaped dishes are great for serving vegetables, nuts and other treats. Sometimes the simplest foods can be made to look more appealing to your guests just by how you serve them. My Mom has a similar set at home and she uses it almost every holiday. She mainly uses it to serve her famous spinach dip with assorted vegetables, but there are so many options. I personally used mine the other day to serve chocolate covered raisins from Costco. They are my absolute favorite easy sweet to eat on a daily basis. I have seen similar glass dishes to this one at Bloomingdales and Saks Fifth Avenue, but you don’t need to necessarily get these dishes in a heart shape. Think about your Mom and what she loves to serve when guests come over and then go from there. Bed Bath & Beyond also has a great selection of glass dishes for serving and if you go online you can use their 20% coupon from your phone. We all know those are a gold mine because they never expire :-). I hope this helps all of you who are still looking for a gift for Mother’s Day which reminder is on Sunday! Crazy that I ran into people today at the store who didn’t realize it was this weekend.

Similar Heart Shaped Glass Dish Bloomingdales

Heart Shaped Glass Dish Amazon


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Hump Day Treat: Sweet Potato Fries

Happy Wednesday! One of my favorite things to get when I go to Bareburger in New York City is there sweet potato fries. I have never made them for myself, but I thought this week I would give it a try. I gave it my own little twist to make them a little bit sweeter than they normally are. Here is what you will need

Ingredients:

– sweet potato ( if you are making for more than just yourself then add more)

-olive oil

-salt

– pepper

-cinnamon sugar

Directions

1.Preheat the oven to 450 degrees

2.Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil ( you can use parchment paper as well).

3.Coat the cookie sheet with cooking spray.

4.On a cutting board peel the sweet potato then cut it into slices.

5.In a bowl place the sweet potato slices and pour enough olive oil to coat all the slices. Sprinkle some salt and pepper and mix it all around.

6.Lay the slices on the cookie sheet in a single layer.

7.Sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on top of the slices.

8.Place in the oven and cook for about 15 minutes.

9.Take out of the oven and flip each slice over. If you want sprinkle a bit more cinnamon sugar on the other side. Then cook for another 10 – 15 minutes.

10.Take out of the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes before eating.
ENJOY!


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Hump Day Treat : Updated Grilled Cheese

Happy Wednesday! One of my favorite lunch meal at sleep away camp was the day we would have grilled cheese with tomato soup. I was never a big grilled cheese eater as a little kid until sleep away camp. There are so many different ways to reinvent a simple grilled cheese sandwich. For today’s hump day treat I want you all to try either of these combos: sharp white cheddar with avocado ( you add the avocado on top after you obviously melted the cheese)  or brie with raspberry jelly. If you are eating it with tomato soup my favorite thing to do is add shaved cheese on the soup while it’s still warm so it melts inside. I know exactly what I am having for dinner tonight :-). Hope everyone had a great day and for those of us in New York City I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather we are having right now. <3


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Hump Day Treat: Whole Wheat Lasagna

Hi Everyone! Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday so far and for all of us in New York City is getting back into the swing of things after Stella rolled through yesterday with all of her snow and in some places hail. EEK! One of my favorite things to do on these snow days is to cook a hearty meal that will keep me warm and is something that I can easily heat up the next few days without too much hassle. I love lasagna just like Garfield it is easy to make and something that you can easily reheat in the oven if you want to make sure each layer is fully warm. If you don’t have the time to do that you can simply re heat it in the microwave or simply eat it cold. There is no right or wrong way to re eat lasagna leftovers. Fun fact for everyone I used to think you had to cook the noodles prior to making the lasagna because no one had told me otherwise. However, when I picked up the box of whole wheat lasagna noodles at the store on Monday I discovered that you can simply put the noodles in the pyrex not cooked and it will cook itself while in the oven! An extra step gone from this process. Here is what you need

 

Ingredients:

-ingredients to make bolognese sauce ( I have previously posted my recipe, but any recipe you may have will work perfectly 🙂 )

-3 cups of ricotta cheese

-12 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese

-¾ cup of grated parmesan cheese

-2 eggs

-box of lasagna noodles

 

Directions

1.Cook the bolognese sauce that I previously posted on my blog 🙂

2.Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

3.In a bowl mix the ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, ½ cup of parmesan cheese and the 2 eggs. Set aside once it’s fully mixed

4.In a pyrex dish first grease the pan with pam cooking spray

5.Take a large scoop of the bolognese and layer the bottom of the pyrex

6.Top it with lasagna noodles normally its two full noodles

7.After the noodles put thin layer of the cheese mixture normally about 1 ¼ cups

8.Repeat the layers until you are the top of the pan. Once at the top top with the 2 remaining lasagna noodles. If you wish cover the top of the noodles with parmesan cheese

9.Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until hot and bubbling. After taking it out of the oven let it cool for 10 – 15 minutes.

10.Cut into squares and if you wish make some garlic bread and enjoy!
Hope everyone had a fun snow day yesterday and for most of us a great day working from home. Enjoy today’s hump day treat!


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Hump Day Treat – Colored Cake

Happy first day of March everyone! I can not believe that it is March 1st today. This year has truly gone by so fast. When I was in middle school I decided to do a science fair project to see if color really affected how food tasted to someone. Fun fact for all of you… IT DOES! I did this by adding food coloring to vanilla cake mix and having my friends taste two different cupcakes. One with food coloring in it and one without. I had them taste each of the same cupcakes blindfolded then not. Pretty crazy right? Anyways I always thought before this project that if a cake had color in it that it meant it was flavored with whatever color was added. All it takes is a little food coloring to add something special to your dessert. For example this cake pictured in today’s post was simply colored with red food coloring. Now most people assume that if you add red food coloring it will be red, but if you only add a few drops to a white cake mix it will turn your cake pink and not red. If you have seen all those amazing ombre colored cakes on Pintrest this is what they all do. Make one cake with one drop of food coloring of you choice then the second one with 3 – 4 and then depending on how many layers you want continue up. This way each layer gradually is a darker shade of whatever color that you use. I hope you all are having a great week so far and for those of us in NYC enjoying this crazy weather we are having. Anyone else ready for some snow? I am most definitely not! Enjoy today’s hump day treat of fun facts<3


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