This Greek Pasta Salad is light and fresh, loaded with garden tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers tossed in a homemade Greek dressing with Kalamata olives and Feta cheese. Perfect for summer parties or potlucks!

Greek Pasta Salad

I love pasta salad, but taking my Greek Salad recipe and adding it to pasta is my favorite when I want a light pasta salad with no mayo. It’s easy to make and even tastes great the next day or two.

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The post Greek Pasta Salad appeared first on Skinnytaste.

Here is a complete list of all of the most insane food ideas that Eggboy has ever had, in order of best to worst.

First place (tie): cookie salad ice cream and shakshuka couscous 

Here by default: chicken pot babka

He is officially 2 for 3 on hard wins versus horrible nightmares. Although I do feel like chicken pot pie babka could ultimately work with some heavy tweaking, but that’s not for today. Today is for cookie salad ice cream, which I knew was brilliant from the moment Eggboy blurted it out, completely unprompted. We love cookie salad, we love ice cream, there’s no reason the two shouldn’t combine into one magical cone of quirky Midwestern glee. And it’s not that complicated to make either! Time consuming, yes, but the concept of a tangy buttermilk ice cream with crushed fudge stripe cookies and mandarin oranges is straightforward and exactly what you’d expect the most summery version of the best vegetableless salad to taste like. Sweet, sour, creamy, citrusy, and filled with buttery cookies!!

Developing this recipe did have some bumps in the road because I learned the hard way that dumping a bunch of room temperature cookies and mandarins into freshly churned ice cream will melt it and ruin it. But it has an easy fix, just freeze em! So don’t skip this step, take your time, and get started now so that it will be ready for fourth of July!

I’ve used Our Family mandarins here, perfect for our first family fourth of July :)! 

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Cookie Salad Ice Cream

Makes 3 pints

Buttermilk ice cream:

6 large egg yolks

2 c (480g) heavy whipping cream

3/4 c (150g) sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tb vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

3/4 c (180g) buttermilk

Assembly:

18 fudge stripe cookies (1/2 batch of the recipe for homemade cookies below (preferred!), or store-bought)

1 (15 oz) can Our Family mandarins, drained

sprinkles, optional

Directions

Day 1 (or early in the day if making this all in one day):

Whisk together the egg yolks in a medium heat-safe bowl or measuring cup and set aside. In a large pot, whisk together the heavy cream, sugar, salt, vanilla, and almond extract and heat over medium high heat until steaming, whisking often (don’t let it boil, reduce the heat if it starts to). Reduce the heat to medium and gradually ladle 4-5 ladlefuls of the hot cream into the egg yolks while whisking vigorously and constantly and then gradually pour the egg mixture into the pot while whisking constantly. Continue to whisk until the mixture has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. Transfer to a container and whisk in the buttermilk. Cover and refrigerate for about 4 hours or overnight, until cold. 

Make the cookies if using homemade. Finely chop 15 of the cookies, leaving a few nice larger pieces, and reserve the remaining 3 whole cookies for the topping. Scatter all over a plate or sheet pan and stick in the freezer for about an hour or overnight.

Scatter the mandarin oranges all over a plate or sheet pan and stick in the freezer for about an hour or overnight.

Day 2 (or once the buttermilk custard is cold):

Coarsely chop the mandarins, reserving a few whole pieces for the top, and stick them back in the freezer. 

Churn the ice cream according to manufacturer’s directions. When it’s almost done churning, add about half of the frozen cookies and frozen mandarins (or as many that will fit in your ice cream maker). When finished churning, transfer to a large freezer safe container or 3 pint containers, sprinkling in the remaining cookies and mandarins as you go. Top with reserved cookies, mandarins, and sprinkles, if using, and freeze for 2 more hours before serving. 

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Homemade Fudge Stripe Cookies

Makes 36

Ingredients

1 c (130g) all-purpose flour, more for dusting

1/2 c (60g) powdered sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1/2 tsp almond extract 

1/2 c (113g) Our Family unsalted butter, cold and cubed 

5 oz (about 3/4 c) chopped semisweet chocolate

Directions

Combine the flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. With the mixer running on low, add the vanilla and almond extracts and then gradually add the butter. Mix until the mixture comes together into a dough, slowly increasing the speed once you're confident that doing so won't result in flour flying everywhere. Divide the dough in half, press into discs, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight. (If you're impatient, fine, skip this step.)

Preheat the oven to 350ºf. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/8”-1/4” thick. Cut out 2” circles with a biscuit cutter and then use a big piping tip to cut out 1/2” holes from the center. Re-roll scraps as needed. Place the cookies on baking sheets 1” apart. Bake until they're just starting to brown around the edges; start checking for doneness at 12 minutes. Let cool on the pans.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each. Let it cool slightly and then pour into a piping bag. Snip off the tip and then pipe 4 thick chocolate stripes on each cookie. Let the chocolate harden at room temp or in the fridge. 

These will keep for several days in an airtight container at room temp or in the fridge.

Print this recipe

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-yeh!

photos by chantell and brett quernemoen

this recipe was created in partnership with our family!

Peach Cobbler French Toast Casserole is the very best of both worlds- dessert and breakfast- all wrapped up in one dish!

If you’ve ever had peach cobbler, then you’ll know just how fabulous it is to make and serve as a summer dessert.  Peaches are supremely juicy when they’re in season.  They’re practically irresistible.  And it’s a big bonus when you get to include them in recipes.  

French toast casserole is another favorite.  It’s one of those kinds of recipes that you pull out and make when you have guests visiting or when you just want to make something special for your family on a weekend morning.  

In this recipe, Peach Cobbler merges with French Toast Casserole to create Peach Cobbler French Toast Casserole.  Oh yeah!

French Toast Cookbook:

This recipe comes from a new cookbook by Donna Kelly:  French Toast: Stacked, Stuffed, Baked.  I like to have little specialty cookbooks like this one on my cookbook shelves.  And I especially love this one because making something special for breakfast on the weekends is so much fun to do.  This book has chapters for family favorites, brunch, celebrations, casseroles, desserts, syrups/sauces and savory entrees.

Here are a few recipes in the book that have caught my eye: Chocolate- Hazelnut Banana French Toast, Eggs Benedict Stacks, Brie and Apple Stuffed French Toast, French Twist Casserole, Sticky Buns French Toast, Tomato-Basil Monte Cristos, Lemon-Blueberry Cobbler French Toast and Old Fashioned Buttermilk Syrup.  There is so much more though!

How to make Peach Cobbler French Toast Casserole:

Day old French bread cubes are tossed with a typical french toast custard mixture (eggs, milk and sweetened condensed milk). Peach chunks are tossed with cornstarch, lemon juice and sugar.  The peaches are placed into a casserole dish (9×13-inch is perfect).  The soaked bread cubes are spooned on top.  The whole thing is covered with a sweet crumb topping (flour, cinnamon, sugar and butter).

This French toast casserole is baked for about 40 minutes, until it’s nice and golden and hot and bubbly.

About Peaches:

Use fresh or frozen (thawed) peaches for this recipe.  If using fresh, there is a simple method for peeling them that assures you’re going to get the skins off and be able to use maximum fruit. Place fresh peaches in a pot of boiling water for 10 to 20 seconds.  Remove to a cool water bath, then to paper towels to dry.  Use a paring knife and the peels should slip right off!

And you can see that it pretty much looks like dessert.  Think about it though… when you go out to breakfast and they serve all of those fancy pancakes and French toast concoctions, they’re not any different than something like this, right?  So I believe that it’s perfectly okay to make this decadent, wonderful, summery breakfast treat and enjoy it to the fullest!  Have a salad for lunch, and call it even!

Serve individual servings with freshly whipped cream or even ICE CREAM, if you’d like.  Garnish with fresh mint to make it pretty!

Here are a few more French Toast Casserole recipes you might enjoy:

• French Toast Casserole
• Baked French Toast with Maple Praline
• Pumpkin French Toast Casserole
• Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake
• Overnight Blueberry French Toast
• Eggnog French Toast Casserole
• Overnight Bananas Foster French Toast Casserole
• Creme Brulee French Toast

The post Peach Cobbler French Toast Casserole appeared first on Recipe Girl®.

The perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and crunchy all in one bowl, this fennel and arugula salad won’t disappoint.

Just in case your salad game is getting a little bit stale, here’s another unique salad recipe to spice up your repertoire, complete with raw fennel, baby arugula, and ribbons of candied orange peel.

You might be thinking, two salads in a row? Did Lindsay bump her head or something?

What can I say, I must be in a salad kind of mood lately.

Of course, the fact that the farmers’ markets are booming doesn’t hurt – all that fresh produce is just too tempting.

This one is obviously completely different (but no less impressive) than the lettuce-less Cumin-spiced Beet Salad I posted two weeks ago (another recipe inspired by my farmers’ market finds).

While this one might be more of a conventional salad (seeing that it starts with a pile of greens and all) it’s by no means boring. Spicy arugula, crunchy raw fennel, and sweet candied orange peel create a trifecta of awesome (and awesome is not a word I often use in the same sentence as salad, so take note).

(And don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of sweet recipes coming soon to break up all this healthy stuff. I’m not dumb, I know why y’all are really here.)

The dressing is fresh and light, made with champagne vinegar, shallot and a bit of honey. After I photographed this I added in some orange zest for a bit of extra orange oomph and to tie the flavors together with the orange peel (I tried using orange juice, but it just doesn’t have the same bright tang as the lemon in this case). Totally optional though, the dressing is stellar without it.

This recipe makes enough dressing for a double batch; any left over can be easily refrigerated in a jar or airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

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