Tonight we were inspired by a cook book called Eat Fresh Food: Awesome Recipes for Teen Chefs (by Rozanne Gold and her team).   We decided to make the cook book’s versions of some of our favorites, including Chicken Parm with roasted tomatoes, Eggless Caesar salad with walnuts and green apple croutons, and Roasted Pears with maple syrup (for dessert).  We of course changed the recipes a little bit and we also cooked fresh fettucine and green peas we had picked and frozen from our garden.  Mom said it was the best Chicken Parm she had ever had, and we especially liked making it because it wasn’t that complicated (and didn’t take hours and hours).  Here are some photos.  (By the way the roasted pears are SO easy…anyone could make them.)

Parmesan crusted chicken and grape tomatoes about to go in the oven.

Roasted grape tomatoes (about to be served)

Chicken parm (fresh mozarella added at the last minute…yum!)

Caesar salad with walnuts, fresh parmesan and granny smith croutons

The full meal.

The steps of making roasted pears: peel and half just-ripe pears; remove core and seeds, place in baking dish and squeeze lime over them. Break cinnamon sticks in half and place between each pear half and then pour 1/3-1/2 cup real maple syrup over them. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees (or until tender when poked with a fork), turning once or twice and basting with maple syrup.   Remove pears from baking pan, discard cinnamon sticks and pour maple syrup juices from the pan over the pears. Serve with yogurt, whipped cream or vanilla ice cream…or just eat plain. Note: even if your pears aren’t ripe this works.  You just may have to cook them a little longer. Full list of ingredients is 3 pears, 1 lime, 6 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 cup maple syrup.