s5 restaurant

it's restaurant week right now in my county (if you're in the hoco area check out all the participating restaurants at the tourist website here). everything looks amazing, but on a college budget, those prices are far out of my range, so instead, i get to play w/ M&D's money and cook us all a meal worthy of a restaurant :)

i've had kale hanging around in my freezer since i don't know when. i try to grab a handful and throw it into my smoothies in the morning, but sometimes i don't want to be green with envy. it's still hot (but thankfully the storms last night brought some relief, the mid-80s feel downright comfortable!) so actually cooking was not something i was interested in. so that brings us to kale pesto!

i grabbed the recipe from sprouted kitchen and also nabbed her idea for the salad. i didn't even blanch the kale. i just let it defrost in my fridge and then zapped it in the microwave for about 15 seconds. i'm just getting that lazy! i toasted my walnuts in the mini convection we have and toss and serve. yum! i may prefer kale pesto over basil pesto, but i'd have to try them side by side (maybe it's the toasted walnut thing).

i wasn't sure how D would like the kale pesto. in his own words, "i don't like sauces" so i needed to find something else for the meal. grabbed some smoked salmon from costco and toasted some sliced ciabatta to have little salmon bites. welcome to the family restaurant. happy eating!

summer is for salads

i don't know if anyone else noticed, but we seem to be experiencing a heatwave. i drive to and from work and i can feel my shirt sticking to me and i know once i get out of the car i'll have that very embarrassing back sweat spot going on. 

it's too hot to bake let alone turn on the stove, so that's where salads come in. the one above was super quick and easy and required no stove or oven, just a knife and cutting board. you can jazz it up w/ your own favorite toppings

Tomato, Avocado and Bean Salad

Throw together grape tomatoes sliced in half, avocado, your favorite beans (or grilled chicken chopped up), onions, and lemon juice with salt and pepper. Toss together. I put it all on a bed of arugula and enjoyed it immensely at work!

some other recipes i'm eyeing if this heatwave continues:

• Santa Fe Tuna Salad
• Pesto Pasta Salad
• Arugula Salad with Lemon Parmesan Dressing
• Summer Bean Salads
• Tricolor Salad with Fresh Cheese and Honey-Lime Vinaigrette

Happy melting! (stay hydrated, hang out in my favorite place- the library for some a/c)

Guac me up!

feeling very cooking inspired these days. maybe b/c it's in the mid 90s and feels like the 100s so turning on the oven sounds like the last thing i want to do. 

anyway, it's a mexican kind of layout w/ variations on the taco and i think one of my all-time favorite breakfasts-huevos rancheros. these dishes are super quick and easy once you have all your ingredients. and you can make it more homemade or less time consuming based on your preference.

yes i know, i got too lazy to crop out all the background stuff, but really, i was too focused on getting the food ideas to you! this was the spread for make-your-own fish tacos (homemade guacamole, coleslaw, baked cod, corn tortillas and store bought salsa...this i wish i had made myself, but it was cheaper and easier, so i'll take some short cuts).

on the left is the fish taco, on the right is the tofu taco

guacamole (i just sliced the avocado and placed it on top of the taco)
2 ripe avocado (chopped, but not pureed, i like mine chunky)
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 steamed corn (slice down the side of the cob to get the corn kernels)
1/2 jalapeno pepper, diced
salt and pepper to taste
i forgot to buy a lime and my parents don't like cilantro, both of which i would have loved

coleslaw for the fish tacos
3 c shredded green and purple cabbage
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 bell pepper, diced
~1/2 tsp salt
~1/2 T sugar
~ 2 T white vinegar
Toss everything together and let it marinate for as many hours as possible

coleslaw for the tofu tacos (which everyone agreed they liked better) was from pioneer woman cooks (of course)

other ingredients to top with: raw onions, black beans, salsa, etc. the great thing about tacos is that they are so versatile and whatever ingredients you like

btw, i baked the cod for about 15 minutes after lightly coating in cumin. tofu was pan "fried" with cumin and chili powder

so now that you have all these wonderful ingredients prepped and leftover, what to do with all the yummy ingredients- make huevos rancheros. slight detour with this one. it is a corn tortilla topped w/ a runny egg (a must!), black beans and salsa, i also added hash browns, leftover guacamole and raw onions. enjoy!

oh, and i almost forgot, this blog/show/recipe person i stumbled upon today, everything looks absolutely delicious and easy (my two requirements of any recipe), check out pati's mexican table. the great thing is she breaks down all her Mexican foods and the ingredients along with a dash of history and culture. i think the first thing i'll try to make is an adaptation her empanadas.

easy cooking: mac 'n cheese

i'll tell you a secret, I absolutely love the boxed macaroni and cheese mix. the day before I flew out for india I made myself a box. it'd been years since I had it as a child and it still tasted as good as I remember. maybe it's a childhood thing, but I much prefer the box mix over homemade. the inner processed child in me :)

this recipe is as easy as it gets and as great way to throw in vegetable produce in the fridge or freezer that's been hanging around too long. plus, if you make extras, perfect for lunch the next day at work! this can be modified to your taste so if you love sausage or ham or peas and squash feel free to cook it up and toss it in. if you want cheesey goodness throw in shredded cheese while the macaroni is still hot and melt it in all nice and oozy.

Everything in the kitchen mac 'n cheese

Serves 4

1 box macaroni and cheese mix

2 c broccoli, chopped

2 handfuls kale, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

handful grape tomatoes (throw these in last to sauté briefly)

1/4 c fat free milk
1/2 c ricotta cheese
1 can tuna, drained
some cannellini beans
1 tsp red pepper flakes
olive oil
garlic
salt and pepper to taste
any other spices you might like (I added sriracha to my bowl)

This is very much an add what you have/what you like recipe. Bring a pot of water to boil and toss in macaroni noodles and cook as directed on the box (usually around 7-10 minutes). While the noodles cook, sauté the veggies with garlic and olive oil. When the noodles are cooked, drain, toss back into the pot you boiled them in, pour in milk, cheese powder pouch (if processed powdered cheese makes you squeamish feel free to make a rue and cheese sauce) and at this point I threw in the ricotta. If you put in any other shredded cheeses you can also keep the pot on low heat to get it all to melty goodness. Mix in red chili pepper flakes, the tuna and the veggies. Spice as you wish and serve!

 

other great add ins: onions, frozen peas, zucchini, ham, more beans, pureed cauliflower, spinach, etc.

 

 

eummm

i have a huge sweet tooth. sometimes i have control of it and sometimes i just let it run wild :)
both of these recipes are very different from one another but they are both relatively straight forward. for mother's day i wanted to use up the rest of the key lime juice i have (no luck) but also wanted to make something healthier than the strawberry coffee cake i had made last week (i'm behind on post, but it was pretty good, but i needed to add more sugar)

this key lime mousse pie is completely raw. the crust is unbelievable and would make a great energy bar. the filling is really creamy and rich and it's nice and tart w/ the key lime. i adapted the recipe from here w/ some tweaks. 

Raw Key Lime Mousse Pie 
(makes one 9" pie)
Crust
1 c quick oats
1 cup shredded coconut*
1/2 c almonds
1/2 c pitted dates
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 T key lime juice
Dash of salt
*The recipe calls for unsweetened but I can never find unsweetened so I just omitted the sugar they call for

Mousse
4 large ripe avocados
3/4 c key lime juice
1/3 c honey
2 tsp vanilla extract

Pulse the crust ingredients in a food processor and blend until dough like. Spray or grease a 9" pie pan and press the dough evenly into and up the sides of the pan. Food process all the mousse ingredients and pour over the crust. Chill in the fridge or freezer depending on your texture preference for at least 3 hours (we chilled in the fridge and it took longer than 3 hours for it to hold.)

these cookies on the other hand are not raw but the recipe is very straight forward and took all of one hour to whip up start to finish and only has 4 ingredients. how easy is that? the coconut macaroons i've ever had have to be the ones at presti's in little italy, cleveland (not completely random, s4 is studying there). but these little suckers are so quick and easy and kind of taste like a denser coconut goodness of angel food cake. i had to take a picture really fast before the family descended onto them.

Coconut Macaroons (from Alton Brown)
4 egg whites
Dash of salt
1/2 c sugar
8 oz sweetened shredded coconut (could probably decrease the sugar amount b/c of the coconut. I also forgot to toast before tossing them into the oven, but that probably would have made these suckers amazing)

Preheat oven to 350F. Whip the eggs and salt until white and begin to stiffen. Add sugar in 3 parts. Continue to whip until the whites are very stiff. Using a rubber spatula fold in the coconut. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto silpat, parchment paper or a greased surface about 1 inch distance from one another. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on the outside (they will be deliciously soft on the inside).

the bright side of insomnia

there's always a positive spin to anything right. well, here it is, finally updating this baby :D

my mom bought these pre-peeled roasted chestnuts at Costco and since they have no preservatives realized we had to eat them in 7 days and since we're off on a 24 hour road trip we figured chestnut bread. which i couldn't find (anyone have a recipe?) but found this instead- Korean chestnut dessert. or what i'm just calling chestnut rolls. the whole blog is pretty cool.

i did a half recipe and fiddled a bit b/c of the insanity that was trying to get honey out of the bottle. i love that these aren't that sweet and remind me of my cakebites, but your teeth don't cry from the sugar shock (don't get me wrong, cakebites in a flavor i like are no match for my sweet tooth!). 

Korean Chestnut Rolls (adapted from the korean american mommy)
8 oz Galil roasted chestnuts
~3/4 T honey (i had clover)
1 T sesame seeds (i bet these would add a great flavor if toasted!)
dash salt
dash cinnamon
1/4 c pine nuts, toasted and ground coarsely.

Food process the chestnuts. Add the sesame seeds, honey, salt and cinnamon until a meal forms. Shape into balls. Food process the pine nuts (make sure your nuts are cooled before processing) and then roll the balls in the pine nuts. I got about 15 rolls/balls. (balls just sounds awkward...haha).

after seeing this post, all i want is to go out and buy a mini cheesecake pan! sounds and looks adorable! now if only there was a bakery store that was open 24/7. but seriously, peanut butter AND cheesecake. i'm thinking a biscoff version also needs to be tested!

happy baking! and happy weekend! we're off to cleveland to visit s4, which hopefully means some yummy italian food, if not, certainly delicious korean california rolls on the way over!

banana brownies

more banana fun, although i think this might be the last one (someone decided to save me and blend the rest of the bananas into a smoothie). i'm getting my fix of baking before i leave for the summer!

this was one of the "100 ways to use banana" list i mentioned in the first banana post. i used the prep work of the banana from the original recipe (the recipe used a bit more sugar and butter but i'll get to that in a bit) but the brownie part i cheated. i had never thought of baking brownies with banana, and now i wish i had always baked my brownies w/ bananas. i used maybe about 1/2 Tblsp of butter and a couple small handfuls of brown sugar (i obviously do not treat baking as chemistry...but it usually turns out okay). i also wish i had used more bananas (i think i had 4 bananas but in a bigger pan) to overlap them b/c my bananas did not show up on the bottom as well.

there was a box of hershey syrup brownie mix in the pantry and i used that for the brownie (and i even put in some oil, haha, if you know me, you know how lazy i get about oil, so this is a big step)

the pan needed more butter b/c all the bananas didn't come out (but it left a pretty cool design!). eumm. chocolately goodness, i think the hershey syrup that came w/ the box was an added bonus to the richness of the dessert (this stuff disappeared real quick).

pillsbury speed dinner

it's the last day of spring break and i realized i didn't cook once this entire week. for being "off" i never took the time to bake or cook! but i'm remedying that right this instant by doing some pseudo cooking that fills my tummy with tastiness.

these are the pillsbury refrigerated buttermilk biscuits. i sort of stretched them out a bit, topped them w/ tomato sauce, yellow peppers, onions and some oregano and baked at 350 for about 15 minutes (check the bottoms of the biscuits to make sure they are pretty cooked). then i topped it with a mozzarella/provolone shredded cheese and baked for another 5 minutes (or until melted goodness).

 i used the refrigerated butter tastin ones for the cinnamon rolls. i placed two of the biscuits side by side and rolled them out so they connected. with just a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon i spread that over and then rolled the bad boy up. it worked the best with cutting the "sushi" roll into 4 pieces and then putting them in the buttered dish, baking at 350 until golden brown.

mix some powdered sugar and some milk until you get a good icing consistency and gobble away! happy quick cooking:)