Zucchini and Feta Orzo Salad

This recipe was inspired by an orzo salad on the menu at Positano in Wayne, NJ. While their version is delicious and has quickly become one of my favorites, my version is super easy to make and I don't have to wear pants leave my house to enjoy it!

Ingredients are as follows:

• 1 cup dry Orzo (cooked then drained)
• 2.5-3 cups chopped and grilled zucchini and yellow squash
• Added deli salad of your choice (I used Feta and olive salad)
• Olive Oil to dress

  

I used 2 cups of diced zucchini and yellow squash but would recommend using 2.5-3 cups to get a bit more into the salad. I also used feta and olive salad from Whole Foods-this was already marinated and seasoned and made execution that much easier-just mix and go!

I used this panini pan (on sale) to grill the vegetables, which is perfect for when you want that grill look and feel without having to go outside (holy humidity). 

 

All that's left for you to do is to mix your orzo, deli salad, and grilled vegetables together and enjoy! I fully intend to whip this recipe up the next time I'm asked to a BBQ.

A 1 cup serving will run you about 320 calories. 

French Toast [donut] Bites

The other night we were both craving Italian and had no energy to actually make dinner so we ordered take out from a restaurant in town and brought home stuffed shells (for him) and baked manicotti (for me). If you're anything like us, you can't possibly bring yourself to enjoy pasta without garlic, cheesy bread, so it goes without saying that we ordered a loaf of that to share. Unbeknownst to me, each of our dinners came with a quarter loaf of Italian bread which we were left with after gorging ourselves on their cheesier sister.

I took one look at the leftover loaves and said to my husband, "French toast bites tomorrow", and he was in. He swears that I stole this recipe from Pinterest, but for once I did not (and you know I always cop to using Pinterest). All I did was tweak my usual french toast recipe and switch it up a bit!

Slice and cube bread, soak in egg mixture (recipe below), then fry in loads of butter!

Once cooked, remove cubes directly from the pan and into cinnamon sugar mix for coating.

Plate and enjoy! It was a happy realization that I had a fresh new bottle of Canadian maple syrup that was begging for french toast. 

French Toast (Donut) Bites

Ingredients:

Bread

Eggs

Cinnamon

Sugar

Vanilla Extract

Milk

Egg mixture: whisk eggs, 1/2 TSP of vanilla, and a splash of milk.

Cinnamon sugar: mix 1 cup sugar with 3 TBSP of cinnamon

• Heat skillet on medium with 1 TBSP of butter, let melt. 
• Soak cubed bread pieces in egg mixture then move into the pan to fry. 
• Once pieces have cooked, move them directly into the cinnamon sugar mix. 
• Cover with cinnamon sugar, shake off excess and place in a bowl until ready to eat. 
• Enjoy! 

The Incredible, Edible

Since changing my diet, I've found that I'm craving foods that I NEVER before craved. Eggs, goat/Gorgonzola cheese, spinach, avocados, apples, bananas, and coconut are never far from my mind or my stomach. At this point, eggs have pushed coconuts out of the top position on my crave list and I cannot get enough of them. We recently decided to move from 12 to 18 egg cartons. You should also know that my husband hardly eats eggs anymore, so those little sunnies are all for me! I've written this post in the hopes that it will inspire others to eat more eggs and share recipes with me.

I'll go first, here are some recipes that I need to make ASAP. Now it's your turn to tell me your favorite ways to enjoy eggs! ( I strongly suggest frying yours in some bacon fat-makes a world of difference)!

Avocado Toast with Eggs and Sriracha via Alaska from Scratch

Eggs Florentine with Baby Spinach and Goat Cheese via Martha Stewart (hail the trifecta!)

Fried Eggs and Asparagus with Parmesan via Epicurious

Roasted Asparagus Caprese Melts with Balsamic Reduction and Fried Egg via Half Baked Harvest

Sweet Potato and Mozzarella Egg Skillet via Averie Cooks

Vegetarian Bibimbap with Crispy Brown Rice via Williams Sonoma

Black Tie Popcorn

I live for popcorn, when I'm buying it (microwavable, obviously), I always reach for the one with the highest fat/salt content. I've been trying to make healthier food choices since gaining 10lbs after giving up meat-apparently one should not eat grilled cheese sandwiches twice a day. I grabbed some popcorn kernels and thought about ways to make bland ass popcorn taste better and coconut came to me. Oddly enough, I've been craving coconut in every single form since introducing more fruits and veggies into my diet-I want to smother everything in coconut and eat it for days.

Also, I've always been a fan of rosemary in theory. I love the look and smell of rosemary but every time one of those little sticks lands itself on my tongue, I sit there like a toddler trying to blow it off. WELL NOT TODAY, ROSEY!! This recipe is a great way for me to slowly fall in love, it's chopped so finely and mixed with popcorn, which is a textural playground, so I didn't even notice it. While I was prepping my ingredients to make this popcorn, I thought to myself that for the first time since starting Novelty, I'd be making something solely for the blog. I always eat whatever it is that I make on here, I try really hard not to waste food. Well, I wasn't paying attention while styling my popcorn and mindlessly popped some in my mouth and almost died-this popcorn is SO good! Without further rambling, my dressed up popcorn  . . .

Rosemary Popcorn
2 Cups popped popcorn
1/2 TSP Salt
1/2 TSP Pepper
1/2 TBSP Chopped Rosemary
2 TBSP Butter

• Melt butter in small sauce pan until it begins to bubble, add rosemary- be sure to coat your rosemary thoroughly.
• Cook for another 30 seconds or so-just enough to warm the rosemary and release its aroma.
• Have popcorn in a large bowl, pour butter mixture over popcorn, season with salt and pepper.
• Enjoy!

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Toasted Coconut Popcorn

2 Cups popped popcorn

3 TBSP shredded coconut

2 TBSP coconut oil

• Begin toasting shredded coconut in small saucepan on low-med heat. 
• Just as coconut begins to brown, add coconut oil and cook until melted. 
• Once coconut oil is melted, remove from heat and pour over popcorn (in a large mixing bowl).
• Add a pinch of salt to enhance the sweetness of the coconut and enjoy!

Peachy Keen

A couple weeks ago while food shopping, I spotted "donut peaches" (aka Saturn Peaches) and knew that I had to buy a few. I don't particularly care for peaches, which is attributed to the fact that I can count on 1 hand how many times I've eaten them. That's just how I live my life though-buy the peaches now, form a plan later! I found myself with some extra time last week and decided to make use of said donut peaches. Of course, I turned to my best friend, Pinterest (sorry Alyssa!) and found an easy recipe for peach crostata. I'll tell you this, the recipe is just as easy as it claims to be- this one can be added to the low impact/high value recipe box that I don't actually keep.

Ingredients
Peaches (2-3 small)
1/2 TSP Cinnamon
Pinch of Nutmeg
Pie Crust (I used store bought)
1 TBSP butter
2 TBSP sugar
1 egg

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees, cut peaches to preference.
2. Mix peaches, 1 TBSP sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
3. Roll out pie crust until it is 12-15 inches and pile peach mix in the center.
4. Cube butter and place throughout peach mixture and fold crust inward.
5. Beat egg and apply as wash on pie crust, then dust with remaining TBSP of sugar. 
6. Bake for 13-17 minutes-checking throughout. 

Original recipe found here. 

Vanilla Bean Donuts

I know that the whole world has been dying for donuts recently (hello, Kate Spade x Darcel) but I saw the picture above and had been thinking about them all last week. I grabbed this donut pan from Sur La Table and also picked up a Wilton Sprinkle Medley (yes, that's a real thing) and went to town over the weekend. Admittedly, I wish my glaze looked more like the ones above, but that will just require a little time and patience to finagle the recipe. I found the whole process to be no harder than baking cupcakes, with a whole lot more wow factor!