Monthly Archives: April 2012

Soy-Ginger-Lime Chicken with Cilantro-Lime-Ginger Rice

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Quick Post: The title is a mouthful! The combination of these two recipes was a hit at my house and it’s healthy, fresh and easy to make. Thanks for reading, enjoy!
Soy-Ginger-Lime Marinade – adapted from Simply Scratch
  •  2 – 3 cloves of Garlic, smashed and peeled
  • 1 large Shallot, peeled and quartered
  • 1 Lime, juiced
  • 3/4 inch of Ginger, peeled, and roughly chopped
  • 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup grapeseed oil
  • 1 tablespoon Honey
  • salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Combine all ingredients (using a stick blender makes quick work of this). Pour the mixture over the chicken and marinade for at least 4 hours. Preheat grill to medium heat and cook for 6 to 8 minutes per side or until done.
Cilantro, Lime and Ginger Rice –
  • 1 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
  • 1 inch of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
  • the zest and juice of one lime
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • kosher salt to taste
  • 4 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

Directions:

In a a saucepan combine rice, ginger slices, salt and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook on low 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat. Stir in cilantro and lime zest. Serve warm.

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Lemon Thyme Chicken

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Quick Post: I made this awhile back and forgot to post! It’s from Annie’s Eats, so if you’re a fan of hers, you know that she wont steer you wrong. This dinner is cheap, quick and flavorful and tasted great with this garlic rice pilaf – which is also one of Annie’s recipes. Pair it with a nice green salad and you’ve got a complete meal that is good enough to share with company. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Lemon Thyme Chicken – adapted from Annie’s Eats

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, butterflied into halves (4 pieces total)
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1½ tbsp. olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, minced
  • ½ cup dry white wine
  • ¾ cup low-sodium chicken broth
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 3 tbsp. butter

Directions

  • Season both sides of the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.  Place the flour in a shallow bowl, and dredge the chicken pieces in the flour, shaking off the excess.  In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the chicken pieces to the pan and saute until lightly golden, about 2-3 minutes per side, and an instant-read thermometer reads 160˚ F in the thickest part of the chicken.  (Keep in mind that pieces of different sizes will finish cooking at different times to avoid overcooking.)  Remove the chicken pieces to a plate, tent with foil, and set aside.
  • Add the garlic and thyme leaves to the pan and sauté  just until fragrant, about 1 minute.  (If necessary, add an additional small drizzle of olive oil if most of the oil was absorbed by the chicken.)  Off the heat, add the wine to the pan, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits.  Return the pan to the heat and bring the liquid to a simmer.  Stir in the chicken broth.  Reduce until the sauce has thickened, about 4-5 minutes.  Add the lemon juice to the pan.  Add in the butter and whisk until completely melted.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve immediately, spooning the sauce over the chicken.

Honey Oat Bread

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Another day, another bread recipe! This one has lot of honey in it, but it’s not too sweet. I ate the small slice of heel (I affectionately call “butt bread”, we fight over that piece around here), and it was so yummy. I have made other “honey-oat” breads before, but the honey really shines through in this loaf. I like that warm honey is applied over top the risen loaf and sprinkled with oats. It leaves the top sweet and nutty tasting, but this bread didn’t over power the sandwiches I made. As you can imagine, when toasted the flavors are turned up more. Overall, I’m pleased with this new recipe and I’m sure I’ll make it again and again. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Honey Oat Bread – adapted from Bakingdom

**notes for doubling**

    • 2 cups bread flour  (**508 grams **)
    • 1 cup white whole wheat flour  (** 240 grams**)
    • 3/4 cups old fashioned oats  (**135 grams**)
    • 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast (**two packages worth**)
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt  (**1 TBSP**)
    • 1 cup milk  (**2 cups**)
    • 1/4 cup lukewarm water  (**1/2 cup**)
    • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter  (**4 TBSP**)
    • 1/4 cup honey  (**1/2 cup**)

For Topping

  • 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons honey, warmed
  • 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons oats
Directions –

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, oats, yeast, and salt.

In a small bowl, or two cup measuring cup, warm the milk so that it’s hot enough to melt the butter, but not boiling. Add the butter, stirring until melted, then stir in the water and honey.

Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture, mixing until it just comes together to form a dough. Knead for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. If the dough is still very wet and sticky after 5 minutes of kneading, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough is barely tacky. If the dough is too dry, add water, 1 teaspoon at a time, to soften it up.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rise until doubled, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Once doubled, place the dough on a clean, dry work surface. If the dough is too sticky, lightly flour the surface before continuing. With your fingers, flatten the dough into a 9 by 12-inch rectangle. Tightly roll the dough, tucking the ends as needed, into a loaf. Place the shaped dough into a 9×5-inch loaf pan, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise until doubled, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place an empty loaf pan on the bottom rack of the oven and bring 2 cups of water to a boil.

When the loaf is doubled again, brush the top with the warmed honey and sprinkle with the oats.

Place the bread in the oven and pour the boiling water into the empty loaf pan on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the bread is deep golden brown and the internal temperature is about 190 degrees.

Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before serving.

Wookies!! (Waffle Cookies)

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Ha! Get it? 😉 To be honest, I was more excited to try this waffle cookie recipe out than the waffle recipe.   These are fast, easy and tasty. My husband prefers underdone cookies (ick!) but he didn’t mind the crispness of these (I know because he had no problem eating lots). The next day they were even better, kind of caramel-y, chewy and not hard as a rock like some crispy oven-baked cookies.  The next day, I took this cookie up a notch by shamelessly adding some to vanilla ice cream with a splash of milk. It’s a lazy-girl wookie milkshake!  If you have a waffle iron try these, and if you don’t – hurry up and buy one! Thanks for reading, enjoy!
Chocolate Chip Waffle Cookies – adapted from How To Simplify
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
  • Confectioner’s sugar (optional)
Directions:
  1. Preheat the waffle iron to medium heat and grease the iron.
  2. Combine the sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl. Gradually add the flour, salt, and baking soda to the mixture.
  3. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  4. Drop batter onto the waffle iron in tablespoonfuls (I like to use an ice cream scooper).
  5. Bake for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown.
  6. Remove cookies from the iron using tongs and place on a wire rack to cool. Dust with confectioner’s sugar (optional).

Basic Waffle

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I recently purchased a waffle maker, and before it arrived I started searching for recipes to try. This recipe is just that – basic, but these aren’t bland or boring in flavor. I used an Alton Brown recipe from his episode “The Waffle Truth”, where he shared this and a chocolate waffle recipe. I also found an oat flour version online that I would love to try.

This is the second recipe I have made (the first recipe was very thin, but the flavor was good), so I was really pleased with this thicker batter that baked into “taller” waffles. I was able to make seven waffles, which left extras for the kids to enjoy during the week. Maybe if I’m feeling extra nice, I will make more waffles soon. After sampling one for myself, I’ll  let them cool and store them in the freezer. No more Eggo’s for this family!

My sister mentioned that her favorite recipe is a brown sugar waffle with bits of candied bacon! Her silly husband prefers his bacon on the side! Can you believe that? (I’m only kidding, T !) My family loves bacon, but the kids are a little grossed out by sweets with bacon – they don’t know what their missing 😉 So, reader beware! I plan on posting that one lots more waffles in the future! Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Basic Waffle – adapted from Food Network

  • 1 cup AP flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 3 whole eggs, beaten
  • 2 ounces butter, melted
  • 16 ounces buttermilk, room temperature
Directions –

Preheat waffle iron according to manufacturer’s directions.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flours, soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. In another bowl beat together eggs and melted butter, and then add the buttermilk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined. Allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Ladle the recommended amount of waffle batter onto the iron according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. Close iron top and cook until the waffle is golden on both sides and is easily removed from iron. Serve immediately or keep warm in a 200 degree F oven until ready to serve.

Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo

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Quick Post: Yet another new recipe find thanks to Pinterest! I love meals that are restaurant quality at a fraction of the cost, especially when there are no fancy ingredients required. My family loves shrimp as you can see from past posts, and this is another dinner to go in the rotation. It’s definitely not something I would make all that often, though! Butter, heavy cream and lots of cheese, plus carbs? Yes, please! I had a partial stick of butter with 5 tablespoons left and I used a combination of half and half and heavy cream. I know I probably didn’t save many calories and fat, but it was the thought that counts, right? 😉 Thanks for reading, enjoy!
Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo – adapted from The Candid Appetite
    • 1 pound dried or fresh Fettuccine
    • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
    • 1 shallot, minced
    • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
    • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper
    • 1 1/2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined
    • 1 cup heavy cream
    • 1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
    • kosher salt, to taste
    • freshly ground black pepper, to taste
    • Fresh Basil, sliced

Directions –

Cook the fettuccine in a pot of rapidly boiling salted water until al dente. Drain in a colander, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking liquid.

While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a medium pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots, garlic and pepper flakes and saute until tender. Add the shrimp, in a single layer and allow to cook on the first side for 3-4 minutes. Or until the edges turn pink. Give them a flip and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes. Once cooked transfer to a platter or plate, and allow to rest while you finish the sauce. Add heavy cream to the pan and bring to a boil. Cook until sauce has reduced slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Return the pasta to the pot it was cooked in, set over medium-high heat along with some of the reserved cooking liquid. Add the butter-cream mixture, half of the Parmesan, the cooked shrimp and toss to combine thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle with remaining parmesan, and basil. Serve immediately. Enjoy.

Strawberry Bread…Revisited

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I love this bread! The last time I posted about this, I destroyed the loaf while trying to take it out of my pan. I now have two 9×5 inch loaf pans from USA Pans, and I love them and I want more of them. They’re so worth the price and I never have to grease these. Another good thing about them is that they aren’t coated in Teflon, so they’re never look ugly and scratched up and since cooking spray isn’t required, they wont get that sticky, brown gunk allover either. See how evenly the crust baked up? I’m going to chalk it up to the quality of the pans, which also have a nice weight to them and are really easy to clean.

Anyway, enough of my little infomercial! 😉 This bread is a welcome treat for any occasion!  I like the cut up strawberries that freckle the loaf, and it’s moist and not too dense. It’s also perfect with coffee or tea, eaten as a treat for breakfast or a nice snack during the day…good during any time really. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Fresh Strawberry Bread – My Baking Addiction

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 1/2 cups strawberries, rinse, dried and chopped

Directions

1. Grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
2. With electric mixer cream butter, sugar and cream cheese until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla.
3. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Blend flour mixture with butter mixture just until blended. Add buttermilk and only stir until just combined; do not over mix.
4. Carefully fold in strawberries. Dough mixture will be thick.
5. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 to 60 minutes.

Rainbow Cupcakes

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I have seen this recipe all over the place! It’s so fun and easy, especially if you’re using a mix. Well, I did use a mix, but a homemade one, but it’s worth making for the piece of mind it brings knowing what is in it. In order to make sure I had an equal amount of each color for these, I weighed out the amount in cups (8 ounces) and used my smallest disher to make sure I put roughly the same amount of each color batter in the cups. These were a lot of fun to make, and the kids enjoyed helping add the color to the batter. I liked the flavor of these and the almond extract tastes kind of like cherry to me for some reason. Next time I will try the same recipe, but with cake flour because I think all the stirring made the cupcakes more dense than I expected. I’m sure if I left the batter white, that wouldn’t have been a problem.
The buttercream was so fluffy, light and not too sweet. I found a recipe that I knew I needed to cut in half and it worked out perfectly. I’m not a “frosting” lover, but this buttercream was spoon licking good!

Overall, I’m really pleased with how these turned out. It was my first white cake I have ever made. I had never used almond extract before either, but I liked the flavor that it gave to these cupcakes. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Rainbow Cupcakes – 

  • One batch of white cake mix
  • 3/4 cup of unsalted butter, at room temp
  • 5 egg whites (or 1 cup of Egg Beaters pure egg whites)
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • *equipment – five cups, five spoons, gel food coloring, #60 disher, and muffin papers
Directions –
1. Cream butter. Add egg whites, one at a time until mixed, (mine never became a cohesive batter, but don’t worry). Add milk, vanilla and almond extract then slowly add the dry mixture in batches. Be sure to scrape down the sides of your bowl and do not overmix.
2. Divide the batter into five cups, then add a one color into each cup, (*I used pink, yellow, green, blue and purple gel colors. Liquid tends to thin out batters or icing, and you’ll use less of the gel vs. liquid) until your desired shade is achieved.
3. Prep your muffin tin by adding white muffin papers (you can see the colors through the white) Using a small disher (size 60) or a tablespoon measure, add your colored batter to each muffin cup in your desired pattern.
4. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 17-20 minutes or until done. Cool in the pan for about five minutes, then remove the cupcakes and place them on a wire rack to cool.

Vanilla Buttercream – adapted from Apron Days

  • 4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
  • 2 cups butter, room temp
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 4 tablespoons whipping cream
  • a good pinch of salt
 Directions –
1. Cream butter and sugar on low-speed until combined, then beat on medium speed for several minutes (the time here is crucial in order to obtain a lighter frosting, so don’t skimp.)
2. Add vanilla, cream, and salt and beat on medium speed for another couple of minutes, adding more cream if you want an even lighter consistency (here’s where you would add food coloring, too, if you’d like).

White Cake Mix

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My daughter’s birthday is this week! Why can’t she stop aging? 😉 I know that is impossible, but looking back at pictures makes me sad – she was so little! Now she’s a giant-almost-6-year-old. Anyway, I decided I would bring her class some cupcakes, and what’s more fun than those rainbow cupcakes that are all over Pinterest?? At first I thought I would take the easy way out and use a white cake box mix, but after reading the ingredient list I couldn’t justify it! Hydrogenated this and high fructose that…garbage! Ignorance is bliss sometimes, but now that I know better I have to choose better – even if it is for a group of kindergarteners that could care less! 😉 Of course it’s easier to throw a box cake together, but this is loads cheaper – easily pennies on the dollar for these pantry staples. I made my own superfine sugar – if you have a food processor you should if you don’t have it on hand. I put a piece of plastic wrap over the work bowl so the sugar dust didn’t fly all over the place. Once the sugar was finished and measured, I added all the other ingredients to the bowl and pulsed it a few times. That was it – couldn’t be easier! The next post will be on the super fun and festive rainbow cupcakes!! Thanks for reading, enjoy!
White Cake Mix – adapted from I Am Baker
  • 2 3/4 cup flour (343 grams)
  • 1 3/4 cups SUPER fine sugar (you can buy this or make it)
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt

Directions – 

Sift all the ingredients together and store in an air tight container.

To Use: 

  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 5 egg whites ( I used Egg Beaters, pure egg whites, about 1 cup)
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp. almond extract
Directions –

1. Cream butter and add egg whites one at a time until mixed. (*The batter separated terribly and never emulsified, but it still worked out once the dry ingredients were added*). Add milk, vanilla and almond extract. Add the dry ingredients in about three additions, making sure to scrape down in between and being careful not to overmix.

2. Fills two 8-inch rounds, or 16-18 cupcakes. Bake 325-350 degrees for 20-30 minutes; and cupcakes 17-22 minutes or until done.

Creamy Garlic Pasta

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Quick Post: This was so yummy! I served it along side roast chicken and roasted potatoes. My picky five-year old liked it, so that was an added bonus; and my neighbor and her one year old son really liked it too. I will make this again and again because I’m a sucker for carbs, but also because it’s so quick, easy and flavorful. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Creamy Garlic Pasta – adapted from The Cheese Pusher

  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • ¼  tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • 3 cups chicken stock or broth
  • ½ lb angel hair pasta
  • 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • ¾ cup heavy cream (*I used half and half)
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Directions:

In a pot, bring the olive oil to medium-low heat. Add the garlic and stir, allowing it to cook for 1-2 minutes. Mix in the butter until melted. Add the salt, pepper and chicken stock. Raise the heat to high and let it come to a boil.

Once it is at a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook for as long as the box’s directions indicate. Reduce the stove to medium heat and mix in the parmesan until completely melted. Turn off the heat and stir in the cream and parsley. Serve immediately.