Pea and Lemon Risotto

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 1/2 cup peas
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup Parmesan
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 2 Tablespoons butter

Directions:

1. Warm stock in a small sauce pan.
2. Heat a large sauce pan on high. Add butter and rice. Cook till the rice starts to brown and smells nutty.
3. Add a couple ladles of stock into rice, stir around a few times. Let sit until liquid is mostly absorbed. Add another ladle of stock and stir to combine, let sit until liquid is mostly absorbed. Continue this until you use all the stock and the rice is cooked. (If you find the rice to not be completely done, go ahead and add water until using the same process until rice is cooked through). Note: do not stir contentiously or you'll end up with a starchy mess.
4. When rice is cooked through, add peas (they can be frozen), lemon juice and Parmesan. Stir to combine and serve!

~Recipe adapted from sayrecipes.com

Basil Shrimp

Serves: 9
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Ready in: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 3 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup minced fresh basil leaves
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• salt, to taste
• white pepper, to taste
• 3 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
• skewers

Directions:

1. In a shallow, non-porous dish or bowl, mix together olive oil and melted butter. Stir in lemon juice, mustard, basil, and garlic, and season with salt and white pepper. Add shrimp, and toss to coat. Cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Preheat grill to high heat. Remove shrimp from marinade, and thread onto skewers. Discard marinade.
3. Lightly oil grill grate, and arrange skewers on preheated grill. Cook for 4 minutes, turn once, or until opaque.

*I had cut the recipe in half when I made it (as shown in picture).

~Recipe from allrecipe.com

Vegetable Foil Grill Pack

Ingredients:

• Foil
• Italian dressing
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped

Directions:

1. Place cut vegetables in a bowl. Drizzle Italian dressing over them and stir to insure all the vegetables are coated.
2. Make a large pocket using foil.
3. Place all cut vegetables inside foil .
4. Seal edges of foil packet and place on heated BBQ or in oven (on a sheet pan) at 400 degrees.
5. Cook for about 20 minutes. Carefully remove foil packet (take care to not puncture foil). Place packet on large plate and open packet carefully as the steam will be very hot. 
6. Serve and enjoy!

~Recipe from Mikaila

Auntie Annes' Pretzels Copycat

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups milk
2. 1 1/2 Tablespoons active dry yeast (2 packets)
3. 6 Tablespoons packed light-brown sugar
4. 4 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature
5. 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus an up to an additional 1/2 cup as needed
6. 2 teaspoons fine salt
7. 1/3 cup baking soda
8. 3 cups warm water
9. coarse salt, to taste
10. 6 Tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

• Warm milk in a microwave safe bowl in microwave (or alternately over stove top in a small saucepan) until temperature of milk reaches 110 degrees, about 1 1/2-2 minutes on HIGH power. Pour milk along with yeast into the bowl of an electric stand mixer and whisk together until yeast has dissolved, let rest 5 minutes. Add brown sugar, 4 teaspoons softened butter, 1 cup flour and 2 teaspoons fine salt to milk mixture and using the whisk attachment, stir until blended. Switch attachment to a dough hook, add remaining 3 1/2 cups flour and knead mixture on medium low speed until elastic. Mix in up to an additional 1/2 cup flour, as needed, until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow dough to rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line two baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper (alternatley you could grease them). Punch dough down several times to release any air pockets. Divide dough 12 equal pieces (the easiest way to do this is to divide the dough in half, then divide the halves into halves then those into thirds). Cover divided dough loosely with plastic wrap (just to prevent a dry crust from forming on the outside) and roll each piece out into long, thin rope about 32-36 inches long (I found working on a non-floured to very very lightly floured surface worked best, I began with a lightly floured surface and realized it was much harder to get more stretch, plus it was much faster to roll them out when working on a less-no flour surface). Form dough rope into a pretzel shape.
• In a shallow bowl, whisk together baking soda and warm water then fully immerse pretzel into water mixture and allow excess water to drip off. Place on prepared baking sheet, reshape as needed and sprinkle to taste with coarse salt. Repeat this process with remaining dough. Bake pretzels in preheated oven 7-11 minutes until golden brown (note that you will likely only be able to cook 6 at a time among the two baking sheets) remove from oven and brush top and bottom of pretzel with melted butter. Serve warm. Reheat in microwave or in a warm oven once they've cooled, if desired.

~Recipe from cookingclassy.com

Black Bean Brownies

Total Time: 50 min
Prep: 15 min
Inactive: 15 min
Cook: 20 min

Ingredients:

• Butter, for greasing pan
• 3/4 cooked black beans
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil, or olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, divided
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 by 9-inch square baking pan.
2. In a blender, puree the beans with the oil. 
3. Add the eggs, cocoa sugar, coffee, and vanilla.
4. Melt half the chocolate chips and add to the blender. Blend on medium-high until smooth.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the blender and pulse until just incorporated.
6. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared pan.
7. Bake until the surface looks somewhat matte around the edges and still a bit shiny in the middle, about 20 minutes.
8. Let cool at least 15 minutes before cutting and removing from the pan.
9. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve.

~Recipe by Melissa d'Arabian from foodnetwork.com