Greek tzatziki sauce over chicken and rice
My favorite Nelson (my husband) makes an amazing tzatziki sauce. He has made this for me three times already this month and every time we eat it, I can't stop telling him how delicious it is. We simply call it his "white sauce" because we are both notoriously terrible spellers and the word tzatziki is just a cruel spelling joke. Anyway, if your looking for a creamy savory way to elevate almost any protein you cook, this is the recipe for you. 


Tzatziki Ingredients: 
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayo or Greek yogurt 
1/3 cup cucumber (peeled and diced) 
2 Tbs tahini sauce
1 Tbs lemon juice 
2 Tbs fresh chopped dill
5 fresh mint leaves chopped (optional)
1 small clove garlic minced 
Salt and pepper to taste 

You simply mix all the ingredients together and then there are a variety of ways you can serve it. It's best if you can make this a few hours in advance and let the flavors marry in the fridge for a bit. I love anything that's make ahead (nap time productivity baby)! 


Tonight we pounded out a few chicken breasts, seasoned them with Salt, Pepper, and our  Lavender Apple Herbs De Provence. See HERE. Simply serve your chicken over rice and the white sauce will do all the heavy lifting for you! It adds such a delicious flavor to any protein you can cook. 

Last week we covered toasted bread in hummus, roasted chicken, and then topped it with the white sauce. The options of how you can use this Tzatziki is pretty limitless. I love to mix leftover Tzatziki into some rice for a lovely Greek tasting pilaf. You could also use your remaining cucumber, add tomatoes, and make a wonderful little salad. You could put this over any type of grilled meat inside of a pita or flatbread, and add tomatoes. So good!

This would be wonderful over falafel, kabobs, fish, couscous, etc. Really any type of neutral food that would marry well with Greek flavors, this should be your go to sauce. So so good. 

Bon appetite! 

Insta Friday April 3
Phew! What a week. What does it take to run a farm? We get up early and feed the chickens. We hand make our products, clean our lavender cottage, fill and label bottles, mail orders, dream up and cook delicious recipes, & pet our adorable albeit huge dogs. Work here is never done, but lots of it is a lot of fun. Here's a few snapshots from our instagram account for your viewing pleasure. Do you follow along with us yet?





A photo posted by Lavender Apple (@the.lavender.apple) on






A photo posted by Lavender Apple (@the.lavender.apple) on




Buttery Lemon Salmon with Dill
As a mother, when its suddenly dinner time, and you've spent your day chasing a toddler, making dinner can sneak up on you. Easy, simple, go to healthy recipes are a must. This meal makes it to our dinner table regularly. It's simple, satisfying, and good for you. Butter, lemon, and dill go better together than peanut butter and jelly in my opinion. You really can't mess this up. 


Ingredients: 
2 fresh salmon filets
1 lemon
2 springs of dill 
1 tablespoon butter
Salt & Pepper 


What you will do is thaw your fish if it's frozen according to the package instructions. Take your raw fish and place it on some tin foil. You want enough foil around the fish that you can tent it while it cooks. Salt and Pepper your fish. Then take your butter and slice it into thin little squares. Slice your lemon, place the lemon on top of the fish, place your butter on top of the lemon, place your dill on top of that. Tent your fish and then cook it in your oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. So simple! 


The fish will be fall apart tender, with a lovely sweet butterly flavor. It won't taste fishy at all, just wonderful savory omega 3 goodness. My husband says he can just feel his brain getting smarter when we eat this. Hopefully you can too. 

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
I recently made these chocolate chip pumpkin cookies for some friends and they ranted and raved. Then my husband said they were the best pumpkin cookies he's ever eaten. Even my toddler wouldn't leave them alone. (Ok, and I'll admit, when I was home alone I may or may not have eaten an entire pan of them myself... Anyway, just trust me when I tell you that these are good cookies. 


Mix together in bowl:
-1/2 cup MELTED butter (melted es muy importante for the texture) 
-1/4 cup packed brown sugar
-1/2 cup white sugar
-1 generous tsp vanilla
-7 tablespoons pumpkin purée 

Mix until smooth.

Then in the same bowl, add the ingredients below on top of the pumpkin mixture without stiring yet:
-1.5 cups of flour 
-1/4 tsp baking soda
-1/4 tsp baking powder 
-1/2 tsp salt 
-1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg 
-1/4 tsp cloves 
-1 tsp cinnamon 
-1 cup chocolate chips 
Once everything is sitting in a big pile on top of your pumpkin mixture, fluff all the dry ingredients to disperse them. Then mix them into the pumpkin mixture. Do not over mix or it will negatively effect the cookie texture. Once everything is combined, chill. No, that doesn't mean sit back and relax and picture yourself on a beach, chill the dough silly! Because of the melted butter you MUST chill the dough for 30 minutes before baking. 

Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen cookies. 
Enjoy!