And this is what happens with the leftovers...

Last night's dinner was truly simple and really good. Yes, I do say so myself. A parmesan breaded chicken breast on top of fresh basil leaves and beautiful tomatoes drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Done.

Eight total ingredients - chicken, parmesan, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, pepper, basil, and tomatoes plus twenty minutes in the kitchen, and dinner is ready!

I cooked two chicken breast which give me plenty to use for breakfast and lunch. There were about three big bites left over from dinner so this morning I took those bites, sliced up less than half of the remaining breast, added nine more ingredients - eggs, garlic, onions, spinach, olive oil, tomatoes, avocado, sea salt, pepper, and twelve minutes later... breakfast! 

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No, I didn't feel like I was eating the same thing. My common denominators were the chicken and tomatoes. But the garlic and onions for sure made it a totally new eating experience. And even if it did feel the same, who cares. The dish tasted phenomenal! Yes, that's me patting myself on the back right now. And I'll be having the last of the chicken on a BIG salad for lunch.

Who has trouble cooking for one?

I will never buy pasta sauce again!

I’m hungry and my cupboard is bare except for some pasta and tomatoes. Ummm… I wonder how my own sauce would taste?


I just started growing basil and Cuban oregano in my kitchen window and I’ve never cooked with them so I’m excited to see how this turns out. I find a simple recipe for tomato sauce and begin to improvise. I believe that recipes are merely guides anyway, unless of course you’re baking, which calls for precision. But tonight, it’s a simple pasta sauce so why not play around.

I only have 4 small tomatoes which I assume won’t yield that much sauce but still plenty for me. Since the recipe I find will yield 7 pints of sauce, I eyeball what looks like enough of each ingredient, taking into account the way I like to eat.

What I used:
Onions, chopped big
Basil, I used about 6 leaves of varying sizes, coarsely chopped
Oregano, 3 large leaves, coarsely chopped
Salt
Pepper
Sugar, truly just a sprinkle
Sundried tomatoes, which I tossed on top of the finished dish

After sautéing the onions until they’re soft, peeling the tomatoes and squeezing out all the water & seeds, toss all of the ingredients in a sauce pan and simmer down until the consistency is perfect for you. There’s no way I can describe the smells coming from my kitchen other than incredibly beautiful!

Prego®, Ragu®, Barilla®… I really don’t mean to sound boastful but, I’ve never bought a sauce that tasted as good as what I made tonight. The next time I’ll try different tomatoes.

Mom you’d be proud. I’ll make it for you and daddy the next time I’m home.

Perfect Summer Dinner..

I bought some black lava sea salt last week and I've been dying to try it. So I headed to the fish market to see what they had. Red snapper. Perfect.

A stop at a local farm yielded purple tipped butter lettuce and yellow cucumbers for my salad, green beans for my side dish (I have broccolini already so I'm tossing a couple spears in with the green beans), and leeks for flavor. I also bought beets and used a few of the greens in my salad. I'm cooking the beets for later.

As much as I love great food, simplicity is key for me. Fish is always easy. Sautéing green beans takes minutes. And what could be easier than tossing a great dressing over some bright greens and voila, salad! The longest preparation is the rice which takes 45 minutes to cook. I used a long grain, black wild rice because I love the smoky flavor.

Here's all it takes:

Fish

• olive oil
• red snapper (I bought 1lb, 2 fillets, which equal 4 meals for me!)
• leeks (I used the whole bulb of 1 leek)
• 4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
• 2 lemons, halved crosswise

Salad

• purple tipped butter lettuce (choose any you like. I like the added color which is why I threw in some of the beet leaves)
• 2 yellow cucumbers (much smaller than the typical green cucumber and sweeter too!)
• lemon vinaigrette (recipe below)
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

Sides

• olive oil
• 3 - 4 cups of chicken stock (according to rice you choose, the package will say how much)
• 1/4 - 1/2 of a medium sized onion, chopped (I love onions so I tend to use more)
• green beans (depends on how many your cooking for. 1 handful is plenty for me)
• broccolini (I simply threw in 2 spears for an added layer)
• 1 cup of long grain rice

Let's Cook..
Start the rice first since it takes the longest. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes or until soft. Add the chicken stock and the rice. Cook for about 45 minutes and most of the stock has been absorbed.

While the rice is cooking, heat the oven to 400⁰F. In a large roasting pan, toss the leeks, lemons, garlic, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and salt & pepper. Roast until the leeks begin to soften, about 6-8 minutes. Some of mine always char just a bit and I like that. We'll use some of this as topping for our veggies.


Season the snapper with salt & pepper and nestle in the leeks. Roast until the snapper is opaque, 10-12 minutes. (Roasting the fish is almost your last step since it only takes about 12 minutes. Time it close with the rice). Be careful with salting the fish. We will sprinkle on a bit of the black salt once it's done for a bit of drama!

To sauté the veggies, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the green beans, broccolini, salt & pepper, and cook for 5 minutes. It should be bright and crunchy.

The salad is just torn greens and yellow cucumbers, sliced.

To make the dressing:
Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of the skin into a bowl and mash into a paste. Squeeze the
roasted lemon pulp and juice into the bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, chopped rosemary, and salt. Toss with the greens.

That's it. A perfect summer plate. Light, healthy, and healing. 

Only The Strong Survive..

Part of my job as Health Editor of Mwari Magazine is to find women who are doing amazing things, in spite of it all. In spite of having careers, in spite of being born into a family with hereditary health issues, in spite of having children, in spite of every other responsibility, simply because they believe they can.

Most everyone around me knows I was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 11 and that for the past, ahem, 30 years I’ve lived with a 10” titanium rod screwed to my spine. This is my ‘in spite of’. Scoliosis is not allowed to infringe upon my life. It’s there, I can’t change that. It bugs me. I can’t change that. But what I can do is keep my body strong & healthy, remain focused on my dreams & desires, and basically, keep it moving.

With this being the inaugural issue, what better person to chat with than the Founder & Editor of Mwari Magazine, Maci Peterson. You can well imagine that her life is hectic. Early mornings, days filled with meetings, emails, phone calls, decisions, events, and people wanting her to go in a million different directions. I asked her, how, with everything that’s required of her, is she able to maintain her sense of Maci.

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How old are you Maci? I’m 23 years old.

What’s a typical day for you? I’m up at 6:30, 7:30 if I sleep in, and I begin quietly. I read my Bible & I pray. Then, I’m on the train which is a perfect time to read & answer emails. Once I’m in the office there are countless meetings with writers and editors and advertisers which take me into the evening when I have to attend different events for networking. Most people think parties, martinis, glamour. It’s not all glitz. These are long days and you won’t get much accomplished with too many parties & martinis. I’m home by 11pm.

When did you know your outlet would be a magazine for young women? When I was a sophomore in college, I’d thought about publishing a magazine but pretty much dismissed it. I was studying Film, and working in PR & Advertising and realized that I could not imagine living that life for the next 30 years. I prayed and asked, ‘what am I here to do?’ The magazine idea came rushing back.

Why do you feel it’s so important to reach this particular culture of young women? No magazine speaks to us, this age of woman coming into HERself. This is when we are looking for help, preparing for the rest of our lives. In your early 20’s is when powerful seeds are planted and no one was touching that.

How important is it that you spend time with just Maci? Personal time is important that’s why I live alone. I’m able to take personal inventory, clear my head & form a game plan because everything I do is to perpetuate Mwari.

With a schedule like yours, how do you find personal time? Saturday mornings are dedicated to sweats and Lifetime movies.

What do you do just for you? In addition to my Saturday morning ‘Lifetime Movies’, I enjoy hiking which allows me to clear my head and gives me a banging body. I also enjoy reading and aim for three novels every summer. I went to college in California and got into sailing. LOVE IT! Now that I’m in DC, I have the good fortune of having friends with boats so I get out there as often as possible. Because I don’t have the opportunity to enjoy these outings every day, I make sure to fully immerse myself when I can.

What about Maci are you most proud of? In college during ‘Senior Surprise’, my mother wrote me a letter and used the word “assurance” to describe me. She stated that I do things knowing I’m serving a higher purpose, that I am diligent in fulfilling my calling. It’s always good to know how your actions are being received and for my mother to describe me in such a way was, and continues to be, a very proud moment in my life.

Give me one thing that you believe is the utmost importance for young women to know. Girls, I know we hear this all the time but you really do have to ask yourself the question, ‘why am I here’. Then do it… execute it! Creating this magazine isn’t easy by any means but I love it. It fills me with joy and I know I was created for this. Even if you’re already walking a certain path, you need to take a personal inventory and ask yourself if you truly love what you do. You may very well lose an excellent Wall Street income but do you love waking up in the mornings? I do.

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I'd love to hear your 'in spite of'? What have you had to push through? And what strengths did you discover on the other side of that?

You can read the current issue of Mwari at http://issuu.com/mwarimagazine/docs/mwari_issueone_1209?viewMode=magazine&mode=embed

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