Changing the World One Recipe at a Time

Almond Joy Cake

2012-02-05T19:27:00.003-07:00

Every once in a while, I take requests at work...especially if they are willing to contribute to my baking fund. Sometimes I wonder how much more money I would have if I wasn't so obsessed with making food. Well, one of the managers at work wanted an almond dessert...so I told him to find something that looked good, and this is the recipe he picked out. AND he paid me...SUCKER. Sometimes I think I should have a little business on the side....NO, not doing THAT (what kind of girl do you think I am)...I would be BAKING :)

Almond Joy Cake (not exactly sure WHERE this recipe came from)

1 (18.5 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
2-1/2 cups white sugar
25 large marshmallows
14 ounces flaked coconut
1/2 cup butter
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 ounces toasted almonds

1. Mix cake mix and bake as directed for one 9x13 inch cake.

2. In a saucepan combine 1/2 of the evaporated milk, and 1-1/2 cups of the sugar. Bring mixture to a rapid boil.

3. Quickly remove from the heat and add marshmallows. Stir until melted. Stir in coconut. Pour mixture over the top of the baked cake.

4. In a saucepan combine the remaining sugar and the remaining evaporated milk. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add butter and chocolate chips. Stir until melted. Mix in toasted almonds. Pour mixture over the top of the coconut topped cake. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving. Cake tastes best if baked the day before.

(Sorry, no picture)

Taste ***** The only thing I wasn't completely sold on was the fact that the cake was pretty crumbly. It was moist, but it kind of ended up being all over the plate. Anyways, the cake was pretty amazing. It was HUGE with all of the layers and everything was just amazing together. I could tell it really was a hit because all but one piece was gone by the end of the day. That doesn't happen every day when I take goodies into work for a bunch of dietitians.

What I learned: I almost think that putting this on a brownie might work out as well. Just to add a little more stability to the base. I also might have overbaked the cake a little, so maybe making sure it isn't left in the oven too long might help as well. It really is pretty easy...just a little time consuming with the different layers, but I PROMISE that it will be a huge hit.

Chocolate Nutella and Sea Salt Fudge

2012-02-05T19:10:00.004-07:00

Hi My name is Megan and I am a Nutella addict. It has been one week since my last spoonful of nutella. But I don't think I can hold on much longer...in fact I can feel myself slipping....I am pretty sure that this fudge made me relapse. Just saying.

Chocolate Nutella and Sea Salt Fudge

1 Tablespoon Butter, For Greasing Pan
1 can (14 Oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
8 ounces, weight High-quality Bittersweet (60%) Chocolate Chips
1 cup Nutella (chocolate-hazelnut Spread), Room Temperature
3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature, Cut Into 1/2-inch Pieces
½ teaspoons (approximately) Sea Salt

Grease the bottom and sides of an 8- by 8-inch baking pan with butter. Line the pan with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overlap on the sides.

In a medium glass or stainless steel bowl, stir together sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, bittersweet chocolate chips, Nutella, and butter.

Form a double-boiler by setting the bowl over a medium pot of gently simmering water. The water level should be low enough that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir until the chocolate chips are melted and the mixture is smooth, 5 to 7 minutes.

Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan, spread the top smooth with a spatula, and sprinkle with sea salt. Refrigerate until the fudge is firm, at least 2 hours.

Once the fudge is chilled, run a knife under hot water, dry it off, and run it around the edges of the pan to loosen the fudge. Using the overhanging parchment paper, lift the fudge out. Peel off the parchment paper. Cut the fudge into 3/4-inch squares. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container or wrapped well in plastic wrap and foil.

Taste ****1/2 The texture on these were REALLY good (and I think I had even burned the chocolate a little bit). The salt was a great addition as well to add a little salty and mix up the flavors. Everyone really liked them. The only thing that made me sad was the fact that the nutella flavor really didn't pop that much. If I hadn't known it was in there, I wouldn't have realized that there was nutella.

What I learned: If I was to make this again, I think I would actually use MILK chocolate chips and maybe the nutella flavor would stand out more.

Brie, Apple and Arugula Quesadillas

2012-02-05T18:43:00.003-07:00

So, my apartment lease is up and I have been exploring other apartments or even looking at pictures of houses. Well, do you want to know the MOST important thing to me in a place? The KITCHEN. I have been in heaven looking at all of these different kitchens. I have decided to stay in my itty-bitty apartment for now so I don't have to deal with the stress of moving at the moment. However, now I have dreams and aspiration for what I am going to be looking for next time I move. And it is giving me something to look forward to. Don't get me wrong, I have spent many a hour in my kitchen and I love it, but I can't wait to have a little more elbow room.

So, this recipe I wanted to try because I was intrigued about the idea of a quesadilla made with brie cheese!!! I got the recipe from Cooking Light.

Brie, Apple and Arugula Quesadillas

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons apple cider
3 (10-inch) flour tortillas
6 ounces Brie cheese, rind removed and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices, divided
1 Fuji apple, cored and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (about 1/2 pound), divided
3 cups arugula, divided
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

1. Combine mustard and cider in a small bowl; stir well.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spread each tortilla with about 1 1/2 teaspoons mustard mixture. Place 1 tortilla, mustard side up, in pan. Arrange one-third of cheese slices over half of tortilla; cook 1 minute or until cheese begins to melt. Arrange one-third of apple slices over cheese; top with 1 cup arugula. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Fold tortilla in half; press gently with a spatula. Cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove from pan. Repeat procedure twice with remaining 2 tortillas, cheese, apple slices, 2 cups arugula, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Cut each quesadilla into 4 wedges.

Taste **** The flavor was pretty unique and I loved the creamy cheese and crunky apples. Then the sharp flavor of the mustard. I found it rather enjoyable. It tasted even better when I thought about the fact that it only took ~15 minutes to come together.

Health ****1/2 The cheese obviously is pretty high if fat, but since there isn't a ton of cheese in these puppies, there isn't too much concern. The recipe says that there is 364 calories per quesadilla. That is pretty legit.

What I learned: I almost think that finding a way to incorporate balsamic vinegar instead of the apple cider and mustard, it might taste even better...but maybe that's just becuase I happen to love balsamic vinegar. Oh, and I also used a grill pan to cook the quesadilla so it would have those stylish little lines.

Salsa Orange Chicken Skillet

2012-01-31T18:17:00.005-07:00

Ok, this is yet another recipe my mom and I made. And then two more from Alaska. And then 3 (soon to be four, since I am making another recipe tonight) more from since I've gotten back. Phew. I need to stop making food until I can actually get caught up on this fanciness. Whose idea was it to start this blog (...oh yeah)? It used to be that I could make a recipe, show it off to people and impress them...and that was the end of it. None of this fancy typing it up and coming up with something cool to say....so much pressure :) Anyways, this is a pretty amazing recipe. Super easy and worth your time. For sure.

Salsa Orange Chicken Skillet

2 cups uncooked instant brown rice
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 cup chunky salsa
1/4 cup orange marmalade
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

•Cook rice according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large
nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook chicken in oil over
medium heat for 5 minutes or until no longer pink.

•Stir in the salsa, marmalade, lime juice, brown sugar and allspice.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes.
Sprinkle with cilantro. Serve with rice. Yield: 4 servings.

Taste ***** Another five-star!!! This was amazing. I don't particularly care for Mexican food and I figured since this had salsa, that it would be very Mexicaneque. However, with the other flavors mixed in there, the flI avor was very unique and....amazing. I would definitely recommend this as an easy and yummy

Health ***** Obviously there are a few things that probably aren't the best...the sugar in the marmalade, and the brown sugar, but it is pretty balanced and I would say considering how easy it is, the recipe is really easy and yummy.

What I learned: Nothing, this recipe went well and I wouldn't change anything!

Bacon and Tomato Spaghetti

2012-01-31T18:04:00.005-07:00

I have been feeling a little...unmotivated to blog lately. Don't get me wrong, I love blogging. It's just that every once in a while, I hit a writer's block where I can't think of anything clever to say and I just can't get around to getting my recipes on here to share with everyone. Well, I was trying how best to be productive this evening, and I realized it was
A: Running, Meh
B: Reading, Meh
C: Cleaning, Meh
D: Blogging "writer's block"
E: Doing these dang logic puzzles that I have been addicted to lately that I fail at constantly.

CHOICE D IT IS!!!

This is another recipe that my mom chose and that she and I made while I was in Alaska.

Bacon and Tomato Spaghetti

8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
1/2 pound thick-sliced bacon strips, chopped
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
3 cups fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese

Cook spaghetti according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels with a slotted spoon; drain, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings. Sauté tomatoes in drippings until tender. Drain spaghetti; stir into skillet. Add the spinach, bacon, vinaigrette, salt and pepper; heat through. Sprinkle with cheese.
Yield: 4 servings.

(sorry, I must not have gotten a picture)

Taste **** The recipe was good. It wasn't anything necessarily new, it was just a good recipe. I enjoyed all the different elements and it was really easy to throw together. If you are looking for an easy recipe on a regular weeknight for the family or roomates, this would be perfect.

Health**** The bacon is probably the worst part of the recipe. Everything else is pretty harmless. There isn't enough parmesan to be a problem. I wouldn't eat it to be healthy, but it really isn't terrible.

What I learned: Apparently bacon is easier to cut when it is frozen or just barely thawed from being frozen.

Risotto with Shrimp and Peas and Chive Popovers

2012-01-28T14:25:00.003-07:00

Here is another recipe that my mom found us to try while I was home. I have a phobia of risotto now after several sad, sorry attempts that fell short. However, I decided to give it another go, and I think that this time I was closer to what the final product should really be.

My mom also found a recipe for chive popovers. Let me just tell you that they were CUTE. I didn't know that it was possible for a food to be cute, but I guess you learn something new everyday.

We ate both these recipes at the same meal, so I am multitasking by including both reipces on the same post...that and because I am getting more and more ridiculously behind in posting my recipes.

Risotto with Shrimp and Peas

1 can (14.5 oz.) chicken broth
3 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup arborio rice
Salt and pepper
8 oz. peeled, cooked small shrimp
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
1 lemon, zested

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken broth and 1 3/4 cups water over high heat until steaming; cover and keep warm. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt 1 tbsp. butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and 1/2 tsp. salt and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. 2. Stir in 1 cup of the broth mixture, bring to a simmer and cook, stirring, until the liquid is absorbed, 2 to 3 minutes. Maintaining a low simmer, continue to add the broth mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring frequently and allowing the rice to absorb the liquid. Cook until the rice is tender and creamy, 20 to 25 minutes. Add the remaining 2 tbsp. butter, the shrimp, peas, and 1/2 cup cheese and cook, stirring, until the cheese has melted. Stir in the lemon zest; season with salt and pepper. Top with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese.

Taste **** Pretty good. It didn't change my life, but I would definitely eat it again.

Health ***1/2 The recipe has butter, chicken broth (which is high sodium) but most of the other ingredients are pretty healthy.

What I learned: Just the same old lesson from my last risotto run-in. Make sure all of the broth is absorbed in the rice before adding more broth.

Chive Popovers (not sure where my mom found this recipe...sorry) :(

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
6 tsp vegatable oil

1. Heave oven to 375 degrees. In blender or food processor, puree flour, salt, eggs and milk 30 seconds or until smooth. Let sit 1 hour. Stir in chives.

2. Lightly coat 12-well muffin pan with cooking spray. Pour 1/2 tsp oil into each well. Place pan in oven; cook 5 minutes. Divide batter among wells.

3. Bake 20 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Immediately remove from pan and serve warm.

Taste ***1/2 These were good, but I think that I prefer sweet popovers than savory. Just a personal preference.

What I learned: My mom made these while I was working on the risotto and she said that she probably would use butter in the muffin wells instead of oil to add just a little more flavor.

Southwestern Chicken Scaloppine

2012-01-25T21:27:00.004-07:00

I am pretty sure that I have mentioned this, but I went to Alaska for a couple of weeks :) Well, I think I have also mentioned at one point on my blog that my mom has these mad skills when it comes to finding good entree recipes...something that is definitely not my forte. So, this is one of the many entree recipes we made while I was visiting. It was amazing. Like, I am love. This was definitely one of my two favorites that we made. If I am raving about something that doesn't have sugar in it, you know it has to be fabulous.

Southwestern Chicken Scaloppine

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lb)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon red pepper sauce, if desired
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1.Between pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper, place chicken breast half with smooth side down; gently pound with flat side of meat mallet or rolling pin until about 1/4 inch thick. Repeat with remaining chicken. Cut chicken into smaller pieces if desired.

2.In shallow dish, mix flour, cumin and salt. Coat chicken with flour mixture. Reserve 1 teaspoon flour mixture.

3.In 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add chicken; cook 3 to 5 minutes on each side or until golden brown and no longer pink in center. Remove chicken from skillet; cover to keep warm.

4.In small bowl, stir reserved 1 teaspoon flour mixture into broth. Gradually stir broth mixture and red pepper sauce into skillet. Heat to boiling; stir in lime juice and cilantro. Serve sauce over chicken.

Taste ***** I am giving this a solid 5 stars. AMAZING. The flavors were so strong but went so well together. You could taste the cumin, lime and cilantro and somehow it just really worked. I would like to hug whoever came up with this recipe.

Health ****1/2 This recipe calls for lean meat and using canola or olive oil would be a healthy choice. The only thing really questionable is the broth and just because of the sodium. Definitely a good healthy choice for a meal.

What I learned: My mom and I just followed the recipe. It was pretty straightforward. We just didn't add the red pepper sauce. One thing to keep in mind is that this recipe is REALLY quick to make. So...if you are going to make some wild rice as a side, start it early so you don't end up having to wait to eat your chicken until your rice is done. Just sharing my learning experience with you!

Reeses Cheesecake Brownies

2012-01-24T22:02:00.004-07:00

So much for the blogging post marathon I promised in my last post. My night got away from me. So now, I still have six recipes to blog...a little behind. Yikes.

So, these bad boys were my birthday goodies. Forget cake, I am too highly evolved to merely have CAKE on my birthday. I found this recipe on pinterest (along with over 100 other recipes that I am dying to try....as if I needed MORE recipes...yikes). Here is the pdf version
However, let me just tell you that these are THE butt-ugliest brownies I think I have ever seen in my life. It was actually a huge joke because my grandpa didn't like the color of the filling. He thought I was trying to sneak some salmon into his food. Silly grandpa.

Reese Cheesecake Brownies

One 19.5-oz. box chocolate fudge brownie mix
One 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
One 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup creamy peanut butter
12 oz. Reese’s Pieces candy
One 12-oz. bag milk chocolate chips
3 Tbsp whipping cream
12 large Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, chopped

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.

2. Prepare the brownie mix according to package directions. Spread the batter in pan and set aside. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with hand-held mixer until fluffy. Add condensed milk and peanut butter and beat until smooth. Stir in the Reese’s Pieces candies. Spoon the mixture over the batter. Spread evenly.

3. Bake for 40 minutes or until cheesecake layer is set and edges are golden brown. Cool for 30 minutes and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

4. In a small microwaveable bowl, microwave the chocolate chips and whipping cream for 1 minute, or until chips are melted. Stir until smooth. Spread over cheesecake layer. Sprinkle Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup pieces over top. Store covered in the refrigerator.

Taste *** I actually wasn't that impressed. I am kind of over the whole cream cheese, peanut butter, chocolate thing. Especially since I don't like the baked cream cheese. They just weren't anything particularly life-changing. I hate to be a downer, but it just wasn't enough of a unique recipe for me. But then again, if you don't try, you never know.

What I learned: I didn't really appreciate the filling. I was thinking maybe if I had not baked the middle layer, maybe it would have tasted better...I don't know if it would have set enough, but I really just don't enjoy baked cream cheese anymore. Also, it probably wouldn't hurt the final product too much if you skipped the reeses pieces in the filling as well.

My Alaska Trip

2012-01-24T17:36:00.006-07:00

So I went home....to Alaska...for TWO WEEKS. It was the best vacation EVER. Most normal people would not choose to take a "vacation" to a place with three feet of snow and below zero weather, but it is home... :) and I loved every minute. It was gorgeous and white. The Alaska that I love. This is the view from our front window in our house.

The only thing missing is a moose *sigh*

I also celebrated my birthday there. I have to show you the cookbook my sister Paige made me...since this is a food blog, after all. She HANDWROTE every single one of the recipes and there are some amazing ideas in there. She is (and all of my sisters are) CREATIVE. They also all have WONDERFUL handwriting. I prefer to spend my time eating and saving lives...but mostly cuz I lack the skills that they have.

I know, seriously, right?

For my birthday dinner, my grandparents took me and my mom out to dinner at Dennys...their treat. So, I got a grand slam breakfast and um...apparently those are free on your birthday. So my grandparents bought me free birthday dinner!!! I love them. Then we went to their place and played rummikub which gets pretty intense. We also had my birthday dessert, made by yours truly of course. Don't be fooled by their innocent faces....they are brutal at cards and rummikub.

My mom and I also spent TONS of time cooking. I have at least 5 recipes that i need to blog from my trip, so be ready for a blogging marathon from me tonight. It was a GREAT trip. Let's just say I was ready to build myself an igloo and stay in Alaska.

Apple Caramel Sundae Tart

2011-12-31T15:58:00.003-07:00

Happy New Year's Eve. I hope everyone is thinking about what their New Year's resolution is going to be. Mine, of course, is going to revolve around food. Because, in case you didn't know, I happen to like food. A lot. So, I figure that even though I like food, I also need to make sure that I am eating some healthy foods as well. So, I am trying to decide between eating at least one fruit or vegetable with EVERY meal or to just go with two vegetables a day, since vegetables seem to be what I really struggle with. Other than that, I don't feel the need to make many changes in my life. Hahaha. Just kidding. I still have 8 hours to come up with other goals I want to set for myself this year. I am sure more will come up. And I, of course, always keep all my New Year's resolutions. Another thing that I like to do is to write in my journal on New Year's Eve and try to predict any big events I feel like are going to happen in the next year in mine or my family's lives. It's kind of a fun game.

Well, this recipe is another one that my mom chose from my pile of recipes. Now, I didn't actually make this. We were going to my Aunt and Uncle's house for Christmas Eve and we told them we would bring dessert. So, I had to work Christmas Eve and my mom ended up making this recipe all by herself. So, technically I shouldn't blog it, but it was a pretty amazing recipe, so I am sharing it anyways.

Apple Caramel Sundae Tart
(From Food and Family)

15 Kraft caramels, unwrapped
3 Tbsp milk
1 graham cracker pie crust
1/4 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup milk
1 pkg (4-serving size) instant vanilla pudding
1/2 8 oz tub of cool whip, thawed
1 can (21-oz) pie filling

Place caramels and 3 Tbsp milk in medium microwaveable bowl. Microwave on high 1 minute or until caramels are melted; stir until smooth. Reserve 1/3 cup caramel mixture. Pour remaining caramel mixture into pie crust; top with pecans

Pour 1 cup milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes. Gently stir in whipped topping. Spoon onto crust. Freeze for 4 hours or overnight.

Spoon pie filling over pudding mixture. Warm remaining caramel mixture in small microwaveable bowl on high 30 seconds or until caramel is smooth. Drizzle over apple pie filling. Serve immediately.

Taste ****1/2 This was amazing. I love how easy it was (hahaha...actually, I didn't make it so I don't know how EASY it was) and how it still tastes amazing. The caramel on the crust adds chewy texture that is just so fun to eat. It was just delicious.

What my mom learned :) The only changes that she made was to substitute slivered almonds for the pecans. I preferred it that way...but maybe because I don't care for pecans :) Happy New Year!!!

Beef and Lemongrass Soup and My Mad Crafy Skills

2011-12-30T12:17:00.006-07:00

I have had this recipe for probably over a year now and I think it was the lemongrass that peaked my interest. I managed to find some lemongrass at Fred Meyer and my mom and I got the rest of the ingredients while she was visiting me in Boise. Well, I finally got around to making it the other night and let me just tell you that I am in LOVE with lemongrass. It might be the best invention ever. It seriously smells like lemon. Who invented that, huh? And a shoutout to my friend Jaclyn who helped me make this recipe...and helped me enjoy it as well.

Another thing is that my sister, April, that I am visiting is pretty handy with a sewing machine. Come to mention it, all of my sisters and my mom are pretty amazing when it comes to sewing. And then there's me. The black sheep of my sewing family. I am pretty sure that even my dad was more crafty than me. Well, my sister was making me a dress last night, but she also needed to make a onesie with a strawberry on it...which she decided it was a good idea for me to make the strawberry while she was working on my dress.. Silly April. Actually, it turned out pretty dang cute and so I decided to brag about it on my food blog...What, last time I checked a strawberry is a fruit...which definitely makes it a food. Legit??? I think so. Here is the picture

Beef and Lemongrass Soup
(I got this recipe from the magazine Everyday from Rachael Ray)

1/3 lb angel hair pasta
4 cups beef broth
1 stalk lemongrass, sliced into thin rings
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large carrot, grated
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp chili paste
1/2 lb beef tenderloin, sliced into 1/4 inch strips
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 limes, quartered

1. In a medium pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta until al dente, about 2 minutes; drain and divide among 4 bowels..

2. In the same pot, combine the beef broth, lemongrass and garlic and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the carrot, onion, fish sauce and chili paste. Return the soup to a boil, add the beef, then divide the soup among the 4 bowls. Garnish with the cilantro and lime wedges.

Taste ***** I really liked the different flavors. It was very unique and I loved the pasta in the dish. It added some substance and the comfort that pasta always brings. Jacyln really enjoyed it, too, so there is your second opinion.

What I learned: When I made this, I substituted oyster sauce (my mom's idea) for the fish sauce, and I used chili garlic sauce instead of chili paste. It still turned out well with both of those changes, though.

Soft Gingersnap Cookies with White Chocolate Chunks

2011-12-29T11:47:00.004-07:00

Whoa, here is another ginger recipe. I am not perseverating on ginger. At all. I can totally focus on other things. It's just that ginger does make my life a little bit better. The link to the original blog where the recipe is right here

So, side note. I am in Utah. I know, right...you know you love your sister when you are willing to drive 6 whole hours to come see her and her family. It helps that they had steak and cake waiting for me when I got there. So, on to my story. I was in the middle of nowhere during my drive and had been drinking too much mountain dew (if you catch my drift) and figured my car could use a little gas. So, I found this gas station in the middle of nowhere. It was literally the ONLY building in sight. So, I pull up to the gas station parking lot and standing right in front of me staring at me like I was crazy was an ALPACA....Um...if I had an alpaca and a gas station, I wuuld definitely kill two birds with one stone and keep the alpaca at my gas station. So, needless to say with that logic, what I saw wasn't really that surprising to me.

Soft Gingersnap Cookies with White Chocolate Chunks

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for coating cookie dough balls
1/2 cup molasses
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 large eggs
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until creamy. Add in the molasses, canola oil, vanilla extract, baking soda, salt, and spices, and beat until well combined. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low, gradually add in the flour. Do not overmix. Stir in the white chocolate chips.

Using a cookie scoop, form the dough into balls and coat in the extra granulated sugar. Place on the prepared cookie sheet, two inches apart. Bake for 7-9 minutes. Remove from the oven, and allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Taste ****1/2 These actually weren't really that different than any regular gingerbread cookie (see the reason below) but since I like gingersnaps, they were pretty good.

What I learned: I made a batch of cookies and baked them for 9 minutes like the recipe called, but the cookies were way too doughy. So I just ended up baking them for 11-12 minutes, I think. So, I didn't have soft cookies. I am not sure how they were SUPPOSED to taste (as far as being soft) but I was happy with how these turned out regardless.

Frosted Nutmeg Logs

2011-12-15T23:15:00.002-07:00

Here was another recipe for the Holidays that I really wanted to try. I had absolutely no idea how they would turn out. The recipe just seemed so unique, and you can never have too many Christmas recipes. I also loved that most of the ingredients are things that I already had on hand. How often does that happen during the holidays?

And not to brag, but guess who gets to go to Alaska in 3 weeks? Actually, I guess most people wouldn't be that jealous of going to Alaska in January. Um...I guess you could just be excited for me. You don't have to be jealous. I get it.

One more thing...so, I have problems typing bowl instead of bowel when I am typing up these recipes. I guess that's what I get for being a clinical dietitian.

Frosted Nutmeg Logs

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tsp rum extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Dash salt

Frosting

1/4 cup butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tsp rum extract
2-3 Tbsp 2% milk
Ground nutmeg

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extract. Combine the flour, nutmeg and salt; gradually add the creamed mixture and mix well.

Divide dough into three portions. Roll each portion into 3/4-inch-thick logs; cut into 2 inch pieces. Place on ungreased baking sheets; flatten slightly.

Bake at 350 degress for 12-16 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

For frosting, in a large bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Beat in the confectioners' sguar, extract and enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Frost cookies. Press down with tines of a fork; make lines down frosting to simulate tree bark. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

Taste ***** I would put this at a pretty solid 5. The recipe really isn't very difficult and it tastes like shortbread with nutmeg flavoring...which is...basically...what it is. It also tasted a little bit like egg nog...it would be AMAZING dipped in this and luscious egg nog. I feel a little dirty saying luscious in my blog, but it is a very good descriptive word when referring to egg nog. My coworkers all really enjoyed these, too. And we all know what harsh food critics they are....

What I learned: Nothing. Pretty easy.

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

2011-12-15T22:22:00.005-07:00

Can I just say how much I loved this week? I loved it so much that I made an executive decision today (Thursday) that I was taking tomorrow (Friday) off. I also might have eaten French fries dipped in frozen yogurt for lunch today. The end. So, basically my weekend is here and it is already looking significantly better than this week...which was torture enough to make me consider alternative career choices (and I am not talking hair school... :) tee hee).

Sometimes I miss the enjoying Sesame Street and macaroni and cheese EVERY DAY...So, this soup was definitely a good and appropriate comfort food for this week.

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

1 1/2 lbs, boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-in cubes
1 Tbsp sesame oil
3 medium carrots, sliced
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
6 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup teriyaki sauce
1/4 cup chili garlic sauce
1 pkg (12 ounce) wonton wrappers, cut into 1/4 in strips
2 cups sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms
1/3 cup chopped celery leaves
1/4 cup minced fresh basil
2 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro
2 green onions, sliced

In a Dutch oven, cook chicken in oil over medium heat until no longer pink. Remove and keep warm. In the same pan, saute the carrots, celery and onion until tender. Stir in the broth, teriyaki sauce, garlic sauce and chicken. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Add the wonton strips, mushrooms, celery leaves, basil and cilantro. Cook and stir for 4-5 minutes or until wonton strips and mushrooms are tender. Sprinkle with green onion.

Taste ****1/2 This soup was pretty good. I loved the flavors and the different textures. Most of the times I feel like when I try and make Asian food, it turns out bland and like it is missing something. However, this soup had a lot going for it and I really enjoyed eating it. I loved the almost slimy texture of the wonton wrappers and the shiitake mushrooms (how appetizing do I make this dish sound by saying that it is slimy...but I enjoyed it.)

Health ****1/2 The only down side that I could think of really is the sodium, of course. And also the fact that the wontons are a simple carbohydrate. I definitely didn't feel guilty eating this dish, though.

What I learned: I made quite a few changes to this recipe. I ended up cutting it in third since I didn't want 10 whole servings of this. However, I definitely didn't have enough liquid in my soup, so I would have added even more much broth than I actually did. I also used dried basil instead of fresh and skipped out on the both the celery leaves and the green onion. I didn't even feel like the soup was missing anything, though. If I made this again, I would not even think about additing in those ingredients. It's just extra things I have to buy that this soup is fine without.

Truffle Cake with Candy Cane Cream

2011-12-09T17:37:00.005-07:00

Here is another Christmas dessert. I am pretty sure that I earned about 5 new best friends with this baby. Pretty much my favorite part of this whole recipe experience was taking the picture. I had a little mini crowd around my cake before it was even cut. I told them I had to take a picture before we cut it. So, I have it sitting on the table and I snap a shot and all of the sudden like 5 other people crowd around and tell me I have to decorate the picture so it looked Christmasy. So, they took over and that is why my picture looks significantly better than my usual. Decorating is just not a forte of mine (hey, you can't be amazing at EVERYTHING...I have to have SOME weaknesses). This recipe is from Taste of Home.

Truffle Cake with Candy Cane Cream

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted and coarsely ground
2 Tbsp, plus 3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/4 cup butter, melted
16 oz semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
6 eggs
1/3 cup flour

Cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp sugar
4 candy canes, finely ground
1/4-1/2 tsp peppermint extract, optional

Combine the cracker crumbs, pecans, 2 Tbsp sugar and butter; press onto the bottom and 1-1/2 inches up the sides of a greased 9-inch springformpan. Place pan on a baking sheet.

In a large saucepan, cook chocolate and cream over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool. In a large bowl, beat eggs, flour and remaining sugar on high speed until thick and lemon-colored, about 5 minutes. Gradually beat in chocolate mixture.

Pour batter into prepared crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of the pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Beat cream and sugar until stiff peaks form; fold in ground candy and extract. Serve with cake.

Taste ***** How can this not be amazing? Everyone was raving about it. I had people coming in that I didn't even KNOW asking for some.

What I learned: My sister once gave me a magnet that said "good cooks never lack friends" Amen, sister! Also, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips and it turned out fine. You could also probably switch it up and use a different kind of chocolate chips and mix up the flavors. Might be yummy.

Chicken Enchilada Pasta

2011-12-09T16:27:00.006-07:00

I've done it again. I've gone and forgotten that I don't really care for Mexican food. I will eat just about anything and get excited about just any cuisine, but for some reason, Mexican food just doesn't do it for me. I feel like it all tastes basically the same. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that it isn't my FAVORITE. It doesn't get my heart racing like some other food choices. I found this recipe on pinterest, though (check it out online, it's a great website) and decided that I wanted to see how this pasta Mexican dish was.

Chicken Enchilada Pasta

2-3 chicken breasts, cooked & shredded {or shredded rotisserie chicken…I used the breasts}
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 {4 oz.} can diced green chiles
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
2 {10 oz.} cans green chili enchilada sauce
2/3 cups red enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded cheese {I used colby & monterrey jack}
1 cup sour cream
Penne pasta

Optional toppings

Avocado
Green Onions
Black Olives
Tomatoes
Sour Cream

Cook chicken, drain, and shred {or shred your rotisserie}. Meanwhile boil pasta according to package and chop the veggies.

Heat the olive oil in a deep skillet and cook onions for about 3-5 minutes. Add garlic & red pepper and cook for another 3-5 minutes.

Add cooked chicken, green chiles, cumin, chili powder, salt, & enchilada sauces. Let sauce simmer for about 8-10 minutes.

Add cheese and stir until the cheese is melted and heated through. Now toss in the sour cream, but whatever you do, DO NOT bring to a boil! Cook on low heat or the sour cream will curdle. Gross. Stir until sour cream is well mixed and heated through.

Drain pasta; return to pot. Pour sauce over pasta and mix well. Serve and garnish with avocado, tomato, green onion, and a dollop of sour cream.

Taste ****1/2 It was actually pretty good. It was interesting to have the flavor of enchiladas and then the texture of the pasta. I liked it! I shared it with one of my friends and she really enjoyed it...even asked for the recipe.

Health ***1/2 This definitely has some potential. Especially if you use light sour cream and lean chicken. Other than that, the cheese isn't great for you, but it could be a lot worse. I didn't think to look at the enchilada sauces, but there is probably quite a bit of sodium in those. I didn't feel particularly guilty about eating this dish, though.

What I learned: If you wanted to make this healthier, I bet you could even cut the cheese amount if half and still have it turn out pretty good (just a thought, I don't know if that will actually work but it might be worth a try). Um...other than that, the recipe really is pretty easy :) Gotta love that!

Pinto Bean Bread

2011-12-09T13:32:00.003-07:00

I found this recipe at work where they were giving out free samples of this bread and also giving out the recipe. I was very skeptical before I tried it out. I figured it would be dry and have a crumbly texture and taste healthy (heaven forbid). But I figured it was free so what was I out even if it was gross. How traumatic could that be, really? Well, much to my amazement, the bread was AMAZING. The texture was amazing and it didn't even taste like anything but a normal piece of bread. I definitely found myself wanting more.

It is actually really funny that I even tried this bread. I think it shows what a long way I have come when it comes to food. When I was younger, I was a very picky eater, but food was always important to me. I remember in kindergarten, we were asked to draw a picture of one thing that we liked and one thing that we hated. I drew a bowl of macaroni and cheese for the thing that I liked (of course it wasn't the best likeness ever, but I was able to explain what I was trying to convey) and I drew a bowl of beans for what I didn't like (again, that took some explaining). I didn't realize that was a preview of how important food would be to me later on in my life. I have obviously matured a ton, though :)

Pinto Bean Bread

2 cups lukewarm milk
2 packages yeast
2 cups pinto beans, mashed
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp shortening, melted
5-6 cups flour

Combine the milk, beans, sugar, salt shortening and 1 Tbsp flour

Stir in the yeast and wait for it to bubble

If it has not bubbled in 5 minutes, get new yeast

Stir in 5-6 cups flour, to make a kneadable dough

Knead 5-10 minutes, until satiny

Place in a greased bowl, turning to grease dough

Cover loosely with a clean damp cloth and let rise until double

Punch down; let rise again

Punch down; shape into 2 loaves

Place in greased loaf pans

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until thumps hollow on bottom

Taste ****1/2 This bread is tasty and moist and delicious. The end.

Health **** This bread is healthy for you in that bread is generally pretty healthy. I have a few issues with it, though. You use refined flour...which obviously is not as healthy as whole wehat flour. Duh. Not a HUGE deal, but it would give this recipe an extra boost. "but?" you say "beans may be nasty, but they are SUPER good for you." This is true, especially the beans being nasty part. BUT, when you think about the fact that the WHOLE loaf of bread only has 1 cup of beans in it, and that 1/2 cup of beans is a serving...how much of a nutrition boost are you really getting? Not that I am knocking this recipe. Obviously I like it or I wouldn't blog about it and make it at home myself.

What I learned: Absolutely NOTHING, but it is pretty amazing bread.

Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls

2011-12-05T21:08:00.002-07:00

Here's another Christmas recipe I have been dying to try. I am basically in love with ginger and gingerbread. I have nothing too deep and insightful to say about gingerbread, but I have other redeeming qualities.

Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls

2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/3 cup molasses
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1 recipe Glaze (recipe below)
Sugared cranberries*

1. In a bowl combine yeast and 1/4 cup warm water (about 115 degrees F). Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in milk, molasses, 1/4 cup brown sugar, the egg, oil, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Stir in as much flour as you can. Turn dough out onto floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour for moderately soft, smooth, elastic dough (5 minutes). Shape in ball. Place in greased bowl; turn once. Cover; let rise until double (1 hour). Punch down. Turn onto lightly floured surface. Cover; let rest 10 minutes.

2. Grease a 13x9x2-inch pan. For filling, in bowl combine 1/4 cup brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Roll dough to 12x8-inch rectangle. Spread butter on dough. Sprinkle filling to within 1 inch along one long side. Roll up, beginning at long side of filling. Pinch to seal. Cut 12 slices. Place in pan. Cover; let rise until nearly double (45 minutes).

3. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and set. Let stand 5 minutes; invert onto platter. Drizzle with Glaze. To serve, top with sugared cranberries. Makes 12 rolls.

Glaze

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 - 5 teaspoons milk

In a small bowl combine powdered sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Stir in enough of the milk to make a glaze of drizzling consistency.

Taste **** This was pretty dang good in concept. The taste was a really good gingerbread flavor. In fact, it probably would have been a 5, but I have issues with my breads being consistently good. These didn't rise very well and so they turned out pretty dense and as a result:

What I learned: Next time I am going to add just a little less flour so the dough is not as tough and hopefully that will let it rise more and not be as stiff and dense. It was still pretty tasty, though.

Spicy Lentil Soup

2011-12-05T20:32:00.004-07:00

I didn't realize that I was TWO recipes behind in blogging. And guess what? This one's HEALTHY...and SOUP. I have been freezing lately...so soup sounded wonderful. I am not exactly sure how this pure-bred Alaska turned into such a wuss that Boise winters (and not even full-blown winter) are so traumatic for me. I kid you not that after I got home from taking Molly on a walk in the foothills yesterday, I could NOT get warm. I was wearing TWO pairs of sweatpants, socks, a t-shirt, long sleeved shirt,and sweatshirt. Plus I had my hot water bottle tucked in there somewhere. What a futile effort to no avail. Hopefully the winter is over soon :)

Oh, another story. I was chopping the chile for this recipe and happened to itch my nose at one point and my poor little nose was suffering for like an hour after that. I really should just get gloves to use when I am chopping such things.

Spicy Lentil Soup

2 cups red lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 serrano chile pepper, chopped (remove seeds for less heat)
1 large tomato, roughly chopped
1 1-1/4 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
Kosher salt
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for topping
1/4 cup greek yogurt

1. Combine the lentils and 7 cups warm water in a pot, cover and bring to a boil. Add the chile pepper, tomato, ginger, garlic, turmeric and 2 tsp salt. Partially cover and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until thickened, 18-20 minutes. Stir in the cilantro. Thin the soup with water, if desired, and seasoned with salt.

2. Mix the yogurt with 2 teaspoons water and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with the yogurt and more cilantro. Serve with bread/naan.

Taste ****1/2 I really enjoyed this soup. I am not going to lie, though. I really don't think it would be exciting at all without the cilatro or greek yogurt. So...um, if you don't like cilantro, I probably wouldn't bother. I loved that there was so much flavor and the cool yogurt went well with the warm soup. Yummers.

Health ***** This has a lot of salt added, which is a down side, but other than that, there is very little negative to say about the ingredients in this dish. The lentils are a great source of protein and fiber, so what is there not to love!

What I learned: Fingers with chile juice on them should be kept away from the general regiong of the face.

Avocado Pie

2011-11-27T19:27:00.004-07:00

Yes, you did read my title right. Quite a while ago (probably around 9 months) I was watching the Food Network and they were highlighting a pastry shop somewhere-I can't remember where- and in this shop they had an avocado tart. It looked amazing. Honestly, if I could have remembered WHERE this shop was located, I would have bought a plane ticket to go and get me some of that tart. Thus, I was pretty excited when I found this recipe and decided that I wanted to try it.

Switching gears. One of my good friends at work invited me to compete in her family's traditional pie baking contest. I had originally tried to make a vinegar pie...another story all together. That one turned out slightly less than optimal. So, I was browsing the food network website and I found this little beauty. It didn't call for a lot of ingredients and I couldn't face making another shortening pie crust, so I chose this one to try out. Granted, it is not even close to a holiday pie, but it sure made me merry and bright :)

Avocado Pie

For the Crust:
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
Pinch of salt

For the Filling:
2 medium hass avocados
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 1/2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Whipped cream or confectioners' sugar, for garnish (optional)

Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brush an 8-inch springform pan with some of the melted butter. Mix the remaining butter with the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and salt in a bowl. Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake until golden brown, about 6-8 minutes (the original recipe said 15 minutes. Mine got charred when I baked it that long). Cool completely on a rack.

Make the filling: Halve and pit the avocados, then scoop out the flesh and chop. Transfer to a bowl, add the cream cheese and beat with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the condensed milk, lime and lemon juices, and the salt and beat until fluffy, scraping the bowl as needed. (I actually poured my mixture in a blender to make it completely smooth and I highly recommend doing that). Pour the filling into the crust, press a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface and chill at least 4 hours.

Remove the springform ring and slice the pie. Garnish with whipped cream or confectioners' sugar, if desired, and serve immediately (the top will start to brown as the pie sits).

Taste ***** This may or may not have won the competition. It was in a completely different category, so it may not have been a fair comparison. But everyone really seemed to enjoy it. I thought that they lime and lemon flavor were going to overpower the avocado, but that wasn't the case at all. You could still really taste the avocado. The texture was also amazing.

What I learned: I baked the crust for 6-8 minutes instead because the first time I baked it at 15 minutes, it got COMPLETELY burned. Don't know where that came from. I also blended all of the filling ingredients together in the blender, which I highly recommend to make it a smooth texture. Before I blended everything, there were little chunks of avocado which was not so pleasant. So, I used my genius and fixed it :)

ENJOY

Peppermint Cream Pound Cake

2011-11-22T19:29:00.005-07:00

So, I often give new recipes 1 chance and that is it. If it doesn't work out, then forget you, recipe. I will just move on. However, I gave this recipe a go the first round and it was amazing...except for the fact that I burned it. Sad day. It tasted so good, though, that I decided to give it another chance. Burned again, but I was so irritated at that point that I still brought it into work.

Peppermint Cream Pound Cake

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
2 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup finely crushed peppermint candies

GLAZE:
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
4 to 5 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
Additional crushed peppermint candies

In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extracts. Combine flour and baking powder; add to creamed mixture alternately with whipping cream. Fold in candies.

Transfer to a well-greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 325° for 1 to 1-1/4 hours or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

In a small bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, butter, vanilla and salt. Stir in enough cream to achieve a drizzling consistency. Drizzle over cake. Sprinkle with additional candies. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 12 servings.

Taste ****1/2 The flavor is AMAZING. I am sure that if you cook it correctly that the texture is amazing as well. I am pretty much in love with this cake. In fact, the first cake that failed....I might have eaten half of it by myself...before throwing it away so I would stop eating it.

What I learned: The big thing with this cake is to be careful not to overcook it. Both times I made the cake, I checked it after an hour and it was almost completely doughy in the middle. Both times I kept baking the cake until a knife came out clean. HOWEVER, I would almost recommend pulling it out before you feel comfortable. I would have loved to take it out 5 minutes earlier once I realized how done it was to prevent the dry and overcooked texture. Flavor was still great, though.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

2011-11-22T19:04:00.005-07:00

The other day I was dinking around on the internet and one of my friends had posted a quote that said "Money can't buy you happiness....but it can buy you ice cream and that's basically the same thing." It made my day, let me tell you.

These cookies are from LDS living (and we all know how those crazy Mormons can cook....) and they won some kind of cookie award of some sort...which makes them a big deal.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen

Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Taste ***** These were a huge hit at work. I finally have people trained (at least it is getting there) where they will be honest about what they really think about my recipe. It's still a work in progress...but anyways, everyone really liked these cookies. The flavor is amazing. They taste like FRESH lemon and there is just a great balance of flavor and the soft texture. The dough was pretty good, too :)

What I learned: The dough is definitely different than most cookie doughs. It feels dry and kind of crumbly, but be not afraid. They will turn out soft and delicious. Also, I didn't have any vanilla because I really don't bake all that much and don't have such things on hand (ha). So, I used maple syrup as a substitution, which worked surprisingly well. (I had found the idea online)

Pear-Quinoa Salad

2011-11-20T19:32:00.002-07:00

I am trying so hard to like healthy food....ok, maybe not trying SO hard...but I am making an attempt. I saw this recipe for quinoa and I figured between the vinegar and walnuts, maybe the flavors would be enough to make the quinoa not actually taste like quinoa. I found this recipe from Eating Well magazine.

Pear-Quinoa Salad

1 14-oz can reduced-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 cup quinoa
2 Tbsp walnut oil or canola oil
1 Tbsp fruity vinegar, such as pear, raspberry or pomegranite
1/4 cup snipped fresh chives
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 ripebut firm pears, diced
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted

1. Bring broth to a boil in a large saucepan. Stir in quinoa, reduce heat to maintain a simmer, cover and cook until the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa has popped, about 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, whisk oil, vinegar, chives, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add peas and toss to coat.

3. Drain any excess liquid from the cooked quinoa, if necessary. Add the quinoa to the pear mixture; toss to combine. Transfer to the refrigerator to cool for about 15 minutes or sere warm. S erve topped with nuts.

Taste ****1/2 This was GOOD. I was pleasantly surprised with how yummy this was. The vinegar isn't overpowering, but it definitely does take the edge of the nasty quinoa flavor. The pears and walnuts add different flavors and textures as well.

Health *****If you use low sodium broth, there really aren't any ingredients that are unhealthy in this dish. Not to mention that quinoa is pretty much a nutrition powerhouse.

What I learned: The only thing to mention with this recipe is that I used apple cider vinegar since I had it on hand and I was too cheap to buy a whole new vinegar for one recipe.

Eggnog Cheesecake

2011-11-12T20:32:00.004-07:00

I have had this recipe for OVER A YEAR. It's been torture. I wasn't looking forward to the HOLIDAYS....I was looking forward to EGG NOG season. Phew. It's here and my year or waiting is over. I am pretty sure that I got this recipe from Woman's Day, but I can't really remember. Who can think straight when egg nog is involved?

Eggnog Cheesecake

Crust

20 shortbread cookies
3/4 cup toasted hazelnuts
1/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cold butter, cut in small pieces

Filling

3 bricks (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp ground nutmeg
3 large eggs
1 cup canned or refrigerated eggnog
1/4 cup dark rum

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees, coat an 8-inch springform pan with nonstick spray

2. Crust: In a fod processor, process cookies, hazelnuts and sugar until cookes and nuts are finely chopped. Add butter; pulse until blende. Press over bottom and1 1/2 inch up sides of prepared pan. Freeze until ready to use.

3. Filling: Beat cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch and nutmet in a large bowl with mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in eggs until blended, scraping sides of bowl twice. Beat in eggnog and rum. Pour into prepared pan.

4. bake 45 minutes or until light brown around edges and center still jiggles. Turn oven off; leave cake in oven 1 hour.

5. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack. Run a long, thin knife between cake and pan sides. Refrigerate in pan at least 4 hours.

(SORRY NO PICTURE)

Taste ****1/2 I really enjoyed this cheesecake. There was a lot of flavor, and surprisingly, I could taste the eggnog flavor in the cheesecake. I enjoyed it quite a bit and had trouble only eating 1 piece. It went really fast in the dietitian office...which MUST say something about how good it was.

What I learned: When I made the crust, I used Biscoff cookies instead of regular shortbreads. I had read about biscoffs on a fellow-bloggers blog and she raved about them, so I decided to give them a whirl. I found them at WINCO in the cookie aisle. If they are available at WINCO, I am pretty sure they are available in most grocery stores. I also used rum extract instead of real rum because I was too cheap to buy the real thing JUST to make a cheesecake. So I put 3 tsp of the rum extract in the cheesecake (as well as ~1 Tbsp of molasses since dark rum has a molasses flavor-according to the internet). The rum extract was a little too much, so I would cut back on the amount of that I add to the cheesecake next time. But I really do recommend this cheesecake for the holiday season. I was a huge fan.

Major Soap Box

2011-11-12T19:22:00.003-07:00

Ok, I have to get on a newly-discovered soap box. I need to give a little background. There is a new website called "pinterest" and it is kind of hard to explain, but the premise is that you have this page where you can post bulletin boards with different subjects on your wall and you add pictures/websites to your various boards. Well, my boards are foods, crafts, hairdos, etc. So, I was looking through some of my friend's pages and I kinda had a rough time with something that I saw. One of my friends (bless her heart and I am not trying to call her out) had to boards entitled "motivation" and "inspiration" and under these boards she had pictures of these stick-thin models in lingerie and swimsuits. While I was looking at these pictures, it kind of struck a chord with me and got me upset. It made me want to share my thoughts and where better to do that than my blog?

The first thing I realized was that it would, in fact, be nice to have a smoking-hot body that others wanted to post on their pinterest bulletin boards to inspire them to lose weight. Then I thought about how it was their JOB to look good. They spent how many hours a day working out and watching what they eat so they can look like that? Sure, I could probably cut out sweets, work out for 2-3 hours a day and look pretty decent in lingerie...but WHY? You would have to continue keeping up with that kind of lifestyle FOREVER. You can't just get to that size 0 or 2 and call it good. It would be a constant battle to maintain that. That just doesn't sound like fun to me. Does it make you a better person? Does it make you happy? Does it make others like you more? Not only does it really probably not make THAT much of a difference to your happiness. And then you miss out on time that you wasted on working out as well as all of this amazing food because you are scared to eat it. That doesn't make having an amazing body sound really all that fun.

I also thought more about my body image. Yes, I would love to have rock-hard abs, toned arms and a nice caboose, but considering the work and effort it would take, it just isn't worth it to me. And no, I am not saying that I don't believe in working out and being healthy. I think you should work out for the sake of being healthy, not necessarily to lose weight. I enjoy running and I walk my dog several times a day. I also like to do my "The Firm" workout videos every once in a while, but I try to not let all these things become a chore. I want to enjoy them to encourage/motivate me to keep doing them. When I do find time to exercise, I feel better, I sleep better, and I am more excited about life and I can eat more :) I don't want to get stuck thinking "Oh, I have to go run and make sure I do some weights so I can work off that snickers bar I just ate." My mindset is "Oh, I can indulge in a little unhealthy treat or two today because I can since I am taking care of my body." Hopefully I am making sense. I think there is a fine line between being a health nut and enjoying life in a healthy way (I know, boy am I in the wrong profession???). Basically, I would encouraged everyone to find SOME sort of physical activity that they enjoy and spend time doing that.

One other thought that I had was in regards to this friend's husband. I remember thinking. "You know, {insert friend's name here} is a gorgeous girl and is motivated and a great mom, I bet her husband is fine with and loves her just the way she is." I bet it is WAY more important to her what she looks like than it is to him. Maybe I am wrong. I haven't been married, so maybe I don't know the dynamics. I am sure that if I get married, I will try to make sure that I am attractive to my husband but he has another think coming if he assumes I am gonna look like a Victoria Secret model just for him. I've got a life to live.

I know, this is pretty deep stuff and I am not trying to offend anyone, it just makes me sad how society views the body and it struck me just how much it bothered me when I saw those pictures my friend posted.

Basically, we all have bodies. No matter how hard we try, we probably are not going to be able to get our bodies to look EXACTLY the way we want them to. So, I see only two options (well, three if you include plastic surgery). You can either spend time and energy TRYING to make your body something it isn't...or you can change your mindset about your body.

I know which option I would like to choose.

And one more thought. Yes, I am sure that I will still be insecure about certain aspects of my physical appearance, but I am definitely going to try harder to not let those affect how I feel about myself.

Easy Molasses Sticky Buns

2011-11-06T17:50:00.005-07:00

I had a crazy weekend. I started off the weekend by going to Target, dinner and ice cream with a friend, then early to bed because on Saturday I had my first half marathon. Yeah, and that took me 10 hours...hahaha...j/k. It was below freezing at the start of the race and there were TONS of hills. But I had a blast. So, I was basically exhausted that day. Then I had to go to 2 hours of church meetings on Saturday night. I slept my brains out that night and woke up on Sunday early enough to get up and get ready and give a talk in church. Yay. I had three hours of church meetings and lunch somewhere in there. Now I am crashed at home on my couch DETERMINED not to move for the rest of the night. Just try me and see what happens.

I saw this recipe and I think the molasses is what hooked me and made me want to try them. I got it from a Taste of Home cookbook. Whenever I think about molasses, I always think about when we were younger and if we were taking a long time to get something done, my dad would tell us that we were slower than molasses. It took me a while to figure that one out.

Easy Molasses Sticky Buns

2 loaves (16 ounces each) frozen bread dough, thawed
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Molasses Sauce:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup molasses

Roll out each loaf of bread dough into a 10-inch square. Spread with butter to 1/2 inch of edges. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over butter. Roll up jelly-roll style; pinch seams to seal. Cut each loaf into six slices.

For sauce, in a small saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter, water and molasses to a boil. Pour into a greased 13x9 inch baking dish. Place rolls, cut side down, in molasses sauce.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in dish for 5 minutes; invert onto a serving platter. Serve warm.

Taste **** I didn't think they were anything particularly special. My coworkers liked them pretty well. I guess I should actually just go with what my manager says since I know that she is always honest and will tell me if she doesn't like something. She said that she really enjoyed these and liked the molasses in them.

What I learned: Just a tip as far as cutting cinnamon rolls. When I have them all rolled up, I use floss to slice them. I run the floss perpendicular to the lenth of the cinnamon roll log and cross ends of the floss over the cinnamon roll and pull to let the floss slice through the cinnamon rolls. Hopefully that makes sense, but it works every time.

Sausage-and-Lentil Stew

2011-11-02T17:11:00.004-06:00

Another reason I love Fall: I actually WANT to eat soup. I have all these soup recipes that I want to try, but who wants to eat those during the summer? So, I found this one that looked relatively healthy (minus the sausage) and I like lentils in my soup. I just want to say how in trouble I am with the upcoming holiday season. I was looking through a BUNCH of cooking/baking magazines last week and probably about...um...90% of the recipes that I cut out to try were baked goods. It's sad, really.

Sausage-and-Lentil Stew

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lb sweet Italian sausage, casing removed, crumbled
1 onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
8 oz brown lentils, rinsed
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 head escarole, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper

1. In a large dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook until browned, transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon.

2. Add the onion and carrot to the pot and cook until slightly softened, 3-4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and rosemary and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the lentils, broth and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until the lentils are tender, 25-30 minutes.

3. Stir in the escarole and sausage, cover the pot and cook until the escarole is wilted and the sausage is heated through, 3-4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Taste ****1/2 This was pretty good. It had a lot of flavor...probably cuz of the super-fatty sausage meat. Yum. I loved the flavor, though and it was a comforting soup.

Health ***1/2 The sausage obviously isn't the best. The lentils are great for the fiber and protein. It has a few veggies in the soup as well, so that ups the healthiness. Um...that's about it. I wouldn't eat this if you were worried about your cholesterol, but there are definitely way less healthy meals out there.

What I learned: I used red lentils instead of brown and I also used kale instead of escarole. I think it turned out just fine. Great, in fact.

Happy Fall :) and November!

Bloodshot Peanut Butter Eyeballs

2011-10-31T21:55:00.006-06:00

Happy Halloween. I wasn't going to post today, but then I realized that I wanted to be festive and share my recipe that I made this Halloween. I know, now you can put this recipe on your calendar so you can make it NEXT year. You're welcome.

Also, funny story. I have learned food safety up the wazoo, taking food safety in my undergrad and then I was a TA for a food safety and sanitation class in Grad School. Fun times...moving on. So, I know about how to keep foods safe. One of the cardinal rules is that cold foods need to be kept cold and refrigerated to minimize the chances of bacteria multiplying and killing you when you eat them. Meats, eggs dairy, produce...those are the ones that come to mind right away.

Well, I baked these cupcakes last night and then filled them with the pudding filling (made of course, with milk). So, I got them all dolled up and ready to serve at dinner tonight. Well, last night I was laying in bed all cuddled up with my dog, thinking how comfortable and warm I was. I thought "Hmm...those cupcakes have uncooked milk in the center with the pudding. I should stick those in the fridge. I will take care of it in a few minutes." Then I fell asleep...apparently. So, this morning I am at work and my manager says something about how she was going to bring cupcakes into work, but the cupcakes had milk in the frosting and she hadn't refrigerated them overnight. Um...oops? She got me all paranoid so I ran home and stuck them in the fridge. Now, I wouldn't have been worried if only I was going to be eating the cupcakes. I feel like eating germs and bugs builds your immune system and makes you invincible. HOWEVER, I was taking these to a dinner for tonight and I didn't want to put others at risk. Well, whatever. Things worked out fine...or I guess we will find out if they did in the next 24 hours :)

Bloodshot Peanut Butter Eyeballs

For Cupcakes:
1 (18.25-ounce) box dark chocolate cake mix
1 1/3 cups chocolate milk
1/2 cup canola oil
3 eggs

For Filling:
1 (3.4-ounce) box instant butterscotch pudding
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 (12-ounce) container ready-to-spread dark chocolate frosting (recommended: Betty Crocker Creamy Deluxe)-Actually, I am pretty sure that this is supposed to be white since it is needed to frost the cupcakes and there is no reason at all that you need chocolate frosting for anything in this recipe.

Red gel frosting (I used red writing frosting-the gel stuff is really hard to get off of things)

Plastic eyeballs (I used gummy lifesavers and a chocolate chip in the center)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-capacity) muffin pans with cupcake papers; set aside.

In a large bowl, use a hand held electric mixer to beat together cake mix, chocolate milk, oil, and eggs on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape sides of bowl with a rubber spatula and beat for 1 minute more on medium speed.

Use a ladle to fill each lined cupcake cup 2/3 full. Use oven mitts to place cupcakes in preheated oven and bake for 21 to 26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean with no wet batter.

Use oven mitts to remove from oven and let cool completely before filling and frosting, about 30 minutes.

For filling combine pudding mix, milk, and peanut butter in a bowl. Whisk for 2 minutes until smooth and thickened. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Spoon filling into a pastry bag fitted with a medium plain tip. Fill cupcakes by inserting tip into tops of cupcakes and squeezing a couple of tablespoons of filling into each. Spread 2 tablespoons frosting on each cupcake top.

Using red gel frosting, draw squiggly lines on the frosted cupcakes so that they look like veins. Place a plastic eyeball in the center of each cupcake.

Taste ****1/2 The cupcakes themselves were obviously nothing special. BUT, the filling was really pretty amazing. It basically took them to the next level...the AMAZING level.

What I learned: I used milk chocolate cake mix instead of dark. I also don't understand the recipe as far as the chocolate frosting. There is no part of the recipe that calls for that. Just get vanilla or white frosting to use for the white of the eyes. Other than that, I just make the changes that I noted in bold in the recipe up above.

Pumpkin Chiffon Cake

2011-10-18T17:00:00.008-06:00

My favorite time of year is Fall. By far. I don't know what it is. I think it's a combination of the cooler weather, upcoming holidays, falling leaves and the darker, comforting nights and mornings. (Yeah, I am twisted and for some reason I like the dark).

So even though I am not a fan of pumpkin, I decided to celebrate fall by baking a pumpkin dessert for my coworkers. I know, I am so festive.

Oh, and you know what else I love about the Fall? Around Halloween they always show those crazy creepy r-rated horror movies on TV that are edited but still scare the crap out of me and just put a bounce in my step. It makes me enjoy life so much. I may or may not be watching one right now. Loving every minute.

Pumpkin Chiffon Cake

1 cup flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (separated)
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs, separated, plus 5 egg whites, at room temperature
1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

1.Preheat the oven to 325°. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, the pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl, combine the egg yolks and pumpkin puree. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture until smooth.

2.Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, whip the remaining 9 egg whites at medium speed until foamy, about 2 minutes. With the machine on, gradually whisk in the remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar; increase the speed to high and beat until stiff but still moist, 1 to 2 minutes.

3.Add one-quarter of the egg white mixture to the pumpkin batter, folding with a rubber spatula just until no streaks remain. Fold in the remaining egg white mixture in the same manner. Pour the batter into a 10-inch tube pan with a removable bottom and bake until springy to the touch and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 55 minutes.

4.Let cool in the cake pan for 5 minutes, then invert the pan onto a narrow-necked bottle and let hang upside down until completely cool, about 1 1/2 hours. Place the cake right side up and remove the pan. To serve, dust the cake with the confectioners’ sugar.

Taste ***** I am not gonna lie. This was pretty dang amazing. I don't even like pumpkin and I found myself having a hard time not eating the WHOLE thing. I didn't even put anything on the cake (no frosting, glaze, etc) and it was yummy yummy. In case you can't tell, I am pretty smitten with this recipe.

What I learned: Next time I would probably add a glaze just to make it pretty. Obviously it is not the best-looking cake when it is plain, but I was too lazy and tired to do anything else. Other than that, this recipe is pretty self-explanatory.

:)

No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake

2011-10-15T16:57:00.005-06:00

So, I am officially converted to no-bake cheesecake. I have recently fallen out of love with cheesecake because of the texture of baked cheesecake. It is grainy and not creamy like I feel like it should be. Then, I tried that no-bake nutella cheesecake from a few weeks ago...and this no-bake one and now I am in lust with no-bake cheesecakes.

Ok, and then funny story about last night. I went to an LDS institute choir concert. AMAZING. It was so much fun. Anyways, on my way back home, I was just driving and "in the Zone" and I saw cop lights behind me. I immediately thought about how getting a ticket would put a definite kink in my chances of winning my budgeting/money-spending contest I am having with my friend. So, the cop comes up and asks me for my license, insurance and registration. Of course I initially give him the EXPIRED proof of insurance and then I don't even have my registration in my car. The rest of the conversation goes like this

Him: Where are you coming from?
Me: A church choir concert
Him: Have you been drinking....(ha, if he only knew)
Me: I sure have not
Him: Well, do you know why I pulled you over?
Me: I am pretty sure it has to do with one of the stop signs back there?
Him: Yeah, we've been sitting there all night and you ran it far worse than anyone else has.
Me: Oops
THEN HE GOES TO HIS CAR AND I SIT THERE WONDERING HOW HARD HE IS LAUGHING AS HE IS TELLING THE OTHER COP IN THE CAR THE STUPID THINGS THAT I SAID
Him: Do you have any idea how bad you ran that stopsign?
Me: Pretty damn bad?
Him: You just talked yourself out of an $85 ticket. You have a clean record and you just came back from a church choir concernt.
Me: ???

Can I just say that is the THIRD time I have been pulled over and not gotten a ticket (and I have only been pulled over 3 times). It must be my charming personality...or innocent-looking face :)

On with the show.

No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake (A Martha Stewart Recipe)

FOR THE CRUST
Vegetable oil cooking spray, for pan
1 1/3 cups vanilla wafer or shortbread cookies, finely ground (6 ounces)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
Salt

FOR THE FILLING
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
4 ounces mascarpone cheese (1/2 cup), room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 cup), room temperature
2 ounces soft fresh goat cheese (1/4 cup), room temperature
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, pod reserved for another use (or 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract)
1/4 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 cup heavy cream

FOR THE TOPPING
1 pound sweet cherries, halved and pitted (3 cups)
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp water
Directions

1.Make the crust: Coat a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray; line bottom with a round of parchment. Stir together cookies, butter, sugar, ground cinnamon, and a pinch of salt; press evenly into bottom of pan. Refrigerate while making filling.

2.Make the filling: Beat sour cream, 1/3 cup sugar, the cheeses, vanilla seeds or extract, and lemon zest with a mixer on medium speed until very smooth, about 4 minutes. Pass mixture through a fine sieve into a large bowl. Whisk heavy cream and remaining 1/3 cup sugar until medium peaks form; fold into filling mixture, and spread evenly onto crust. Smooth top, and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours. Refrigerate for 45 minutes before serving.

3.Make the topping: Bring half the cherries, and the sugar, vinegar, and cinnamon stick to a simmer in a small saucepan. Cook, covered, for 5 minutes. Uncover, and simmer until cherries are soft, about 3 minutes. Whisk together cornstarch and water; add to cherry mixture. Simmer for 1 minute. Remove from heat, and stir in remaining cherries. Refrigerate until ready to use.

4.Run a knife around edge of cake; release sides to remove from pan, and transfer cake to a serving platter. Remove cinnamon stick from topping; spoon over cake.

Taste ***** What the What? This is cheesecake for adults. ADULT cheesecake. Like, x-rated cheesecake. It is pretty dang yummy. The texture is smooth and the cherry topping is amazing and unique with the balsamic vinegar in it. The dietitians at work really enjoyed it (or so they said...again).

What I learned: Not too much. This recipe wasn't really that difficult. I used frozen cherries and they worked fine. I also cut out the lemon zest because I thought it would be good enough without it...and it was.

Vegged-Up Oatmeal Cookies

2011-10-05T18:05:00.007-06:00

I am pretty sure that I originally picked out this recipe because it had zucchini in it and I figured that meant these were healthy, right? Well, as soon as I pulled out the stick-and-a-half of butter that went into this recipe, I realized that this probably was not the case. But I was still super curious and obviously unhindered.

Vegged-Up Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 oz room temperature butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
3 cups rolled oats
1 packed cup shredded zucchini
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup whipped cream cheese

In bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars at high speed until fluffy, 5 minutes. Beat in egg at medium speed, then flour mixture. Stir in oats, zucchini and raisins; let sit for 30 minutes. Bake 1/4 cupfuls on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets at 350 degrees, switching pans halfway through until golden, 15-17 minutes. Co; sandwich each with scant Tbsp cream cheese. Makes 10 cookies.

Taste ****1/2 These suckers were GOOD. And not just because of the copious amounts of butter. The texture was good. They were nice and soft and gooey, the flavor was good, and the oatmeal was a nice hearty addition. These things went like hotcakes at work. All of the dietitians were big fans. Even my honest and sometimes brutal boss said that she really liked them and that she ate two of them before 10:00 this morning.

What I learned. I actually followed the recipe exactly this time and they really did turn out. It was nice to have a little success. I did add some powdered sugar (~1/2 cup) to the cream cheese before spreading that on the cookies. I just couldn't bring myself to put plain cream cheese in there. That just goes against nature.

French Fry Deluxe Salad

2011-10-04T20:39:00.005-06:00

What? It's a SALAD. Don't judge me.

Funny story, though. My friend and I are doing a competition this month. We both realized that we need to work on our budgeting/money saving skills so, we decided to have to see who could spend less "miscellaneous" money during the month of October. This includes everything that isn't part of our housing bills. Obviously, one of my biggest money-burners is my grocery costs BUT, I am NOT giving up my cooking so I had to get creative with ways to get ingredients. I may or may not have ended up using condiments (mustard, ketchup) packets from McDonalds; and bacon, pickles, tomatoes and onion from a salad bar. I obviously had to pay for the items from the salad bar, but I was able to get just the right amount of what I needed without wasting a bunch of leftovers and money. Thus, I am thrifty...and charming. AND smart...well, book smart.

French Fry Deluxe Salad

3 cups frozen curly french fries (~9 ounces)
4 strips bacon
1 Tbsp yellow mustard (or 2 McDonalds packets :)
3 Tbsp chopped dill pickle, plus a splash of pickle juice from the jar
1 1/2 Tbsp ketchup
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 1/2 Tbsp malt vinegar
1/4 tsp sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 romaine hearts, torn
1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Toasted sesame seeds, for topping (optional)

1. Bake the french fries as the label directs until crisp. Let cool.

2. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Cook slightly, then break the bacon into pieces.

3. Make the dressing. Whisk the mustard, pickle, pickle juice, ketchup, mayo, vinegar, sugar and 2 Tbsp water in a large bowl. Add 1/4 tsp salt and pepper to taste

4. Add the french fries, bacon, tomatoes, red onion, romaine and cheddar cheese to the bowl with the dressing and toss to combine; Season with salt and pepper. Divide the salad among bowls. Spinkle with sesame seeds, if desire.

Taste **** What the what? I don't even know what to say....still...and I ate this a couple hours ago. It really did taste like a burger meal (minus the meat) which is what the recipe says it is going for. That's all I can say about it. It was good, but I also don't really know what situation this would be a good idea to serve to others. It might go well with a picnic...I am at a loss.

Health Factor********: Seriously, it's a salad :) Hahahaha.

What I learned: As another money-saving endeavor, I used left over pepper jack cheese instead of cheddar cheese since that is what I had on hand. I also used cherry tomatoes because that was what was available at the salad bar. I also used rice vinegar instead of malt because that is something else that I had on hand. All of the substitutions worked out very well.

Chocolate Nutella Cheesecake

2011-09-29T17:13:00.003-06:00

I work in the Food and Nutrition Department in a hospital. Yes, sure I am a Clinical Dietitian so I spend most of my times upstairs with the patients. However, one of my favorite parts of my job is my friends that work in the kitchen. One of my favorites, Becky (she calls me her "adopted daughter") is an amazing cook. She tells me about her recipes and I start to drool. A few months ago, she brought in this nutella cheesecake and I thought I was gonna die it tasted so good. So, I got the recipe from her and I made it for one of our interns to celebrate her finishing a body-building contest.

Chocolate Nutella Cheesecake

3/4 cup sliced almonds, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups teddy grahams chocolate graham snacks, crushed
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla, divided
1 jar (13 oz.) Nutella
1 tub (8 oz.) cool whip, thawed

Mix nuts, graham crumbs, butter and 1/2 tsp vanilla; press onto bottom and up side of 9-inch pie plate. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add hazelnut spread and remaining vanilla; mix well. Gently stir in cool whip. Spoon into crust.

Refrigerate 4 hours.

Taste ***** AMAZING. I can't get over it. My favorite part about it is that it isn't baked so the texture is super smooth. One of the bones I have to pick with regular cheesecake is the fact that it always becomes a little grainy when you bake it. This recipe is super smooth and creamy. WONDERFUL texture. The flavor is amazing as well...because it is NUTELLA. Enough said.

What I learned: When I made the crust I used graham crackers crumbs to replace the chocolate teddy grahams to help prevent the cheesecake from being overwhelmingly chocolatey.

Pepper Jack, Chicken and Peach Quesadillas

2011-09-24T21:18:00.006-06:00

Um, I finally found a home run recipe. This is a big day...I definitely wrote about it in my journal :)

So, funny story. This will give you an idea about how I usually eat. The other morning, I ate a BUNCH of sweets. I had a cookie and pumpkin bread after breakfast and then had chocolate soy milk and a small package of peanut butter M&Ms for lunch. I was feeling a little bit of a sugar rush and I grabbed some celery and my peanut butter and I was sitting at my desk. I mentioned off-handedly to the other dietitians "I am sugared-out. I need something to bring me down." One of my coworkers offered me some of her almonds. I said "Oh, no thanks, I have my celery." Then there was about five seconds of deafening silence. Then there was the sound of soft snickering. I looked around and everyone was laughing. I didn't realize that it was AT ME until our diet tech said, "Megan, that just doesn't sound like you." I think I need to reconsider my career choice.

Ingredients
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp fresh lime juice
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
4 (8-inch) flour tortillas
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeño peppers
1 cup chopped skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast
1 cup thinly sliced peeled firm ripe peaches
4 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro Cooking spray Preparation

1. Combine honey and lime juice in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Stir sour cream into honey mixture; cover and chill until ready to serve.

2. Place tortillas flat on a work surface. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons cheese over half of each tortilla; top each tortilla with 1/4 cup chicken, 1/4 cup peaches, and 1 teaspoon cilantro. Fold tortillas in half.

3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Place 2 quesadillas in the pan, and top quesadillas with a cast-iron or other heavy skillet. Cook 1 1/2 minutes on each side or until tortillas are crisp and lightly browned (leave cast-iron skillet on quesadillas as they cook). Remove quesadillas from pan; set aside, and keep warm. Repeat procedure with the remaining quesadillas. Cut each quesadilla into wedges. Serve with sauce.

Taste ***** AMAZING. Just fabulous. The flavors were a like a party. I loved the combination of flavors. I am still drooling over it.

Health Factor ****1/2 The only real concerns is probably the cheese. Using whole wheat tortillas even kicks up the health factor a notch.

What I learned: I am not entirely hopeless at eventually choosing an amazing entree :) I have faith in my abilities once more. I also loved how easy this recipe was. It comes together very quickly.

Fig, Applesauce and Almond Breakfast Loaf

2011-09-24T21:14:00.004-06:00

I try really hard to make something for each of the Dietitians at work for their birthdays. Recently one of my coworkers had a birthday and I asked her what she wanted. She told me that she wanted me to bake her something healthy. With healthy substitutions. Yeah, that's my specialty. Making healthy baked good....so, I did some searching and found this recipe. I am pretty sure I heard the hallelujah chorus when I finally found something that would work.

Fig, Applesauce and Almond Breakfast Loaf

Streusel:
2 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Tbsp coarsely chopped almonds
1 Tbsp chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

Bread:
1 cup dried figs
1/2 cup boiling water
Cooking spray
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
3/4 cup applesauce
1/3 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
6 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 1/2 ounces whole-wheat flour (about 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup chopped almonds, toasted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. To prepare streusel, combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl, stirring with a fork until crumbly; set aside.

3. To prepare bread, combine figs and 1/2 cup boiling water in a small bowl; let stand 30 minutes. Coat 2 (8-inch) loaf pans with cooking spray; dust with 1 tablespoon flour.

4. Place egg whites and egg in a medium bowl; stir well with a whisk. Add applesauce, yogurt, oil, and almond extract; stir well. Add sugar; stir well.

5. Weigh or lightly spoon 6.75 ounces all-purpose flour and 2.5 ounces whole-wheat flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours and remaining ingredients in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Drain figs, and coarsely chop. Add figs and applesauce mixture to flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Divide batter between prepared pans. Sprinkle streusel over batter. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 15 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Taste ****1/2 I was worried that this bread would be boring and dry. There isn't a whole lot of fat in it and it is "healthy" after all. However, I loved the streusel topping, which made it taste a little more novelty-esque. It was also moist and had a good texture and flavor. I took in two loaves and it was gone by the end of the day.

What I learned: This would be a fun recipe to play around with and try different types of dried fruits and nuts. Have fun with it.

Texas-Size Toffee Scotchie Cookies

2011-09-17T21:47:00.005-06:00

I found this recipe in a cookie book that I have called Cookie Dough Delights. It is basically a way of cheating and making cookies using premade cookie dough and adding other ingredients to make these wonderful "homemade" goodies. Hey, some days that is just how I roll.

Texas-Size Toffee Scotchie Cookies

1 18-ounce roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup old-fashioned or quick oats
1 cup butterscotch chips
2 1.4-ounce milk chocolate covered toffee candy bars, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

Break up cookie dough into large bowl; let stand 10-15 minutes to soften. Add brown sugar, vanilla, oats, butterscotch chips, and chopped candy bars; mix well with your fingers, the paddle attachment of an electric stand mixer, or a wooden spoon.

Drop dough by rounded 1/4 cup-fuls, two inches apart, onto prepared cookie sheets.

Bake 15-18 minutes or until cookies are slightly puffed and edges are golden brown. Cool for 1 minute. Transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

*Bakers note: To make regular-size cookies, prepare cookies as directed above, but drop cookies by tablespoons onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 10-13 minutes or until just set and golden at edges. Transfer cookies to wire racks. Makes about 30 cookies.

Taste ****1/2 I took these babies into work and they went FAST. I was a little nervous because the last cookies that I made from this cookbook were total flops. So, I was taking a chance, but these turned out a LOT better. I wasn't expecting much from them, but they were actually pretty dang good. Must be because I am so amazing.

What I learned: I was worried about these cookies flattening out and spreading enough for some weird reason, so I flattened them a little bit before putting them in the oven. DON'T DO THAT. It's a bad idea. They turned out way cuter and more cookie-like (as opposed to crepe-like) and tasted better that way.

Chocolate Marshmallow Mile-High Squares

2011-09-17T17:43:00.005-06:00

So, had all of the best intentions to make cookies today as a gift for someone. I got back from running a bunch of errands and I was gathering what ingredients I needed to make some oatmeal scotcheroos. AND...I didn't have any brown sugar. I LOVE grocery shopping but I absolutely HATE running out to grocery shop for just one object. So, I frantically looked around to see what I could throw together that didn't require a trip outside my apartment. I had a bag of butterscotch chips, so I decided to see what suggestions were on the package and I found these little beauties. I had to use some creativity to find all the ingredients, but they came together nicely.

Chocolate Marshmallow Mile-High Squares

2 cup (12-oz pkg) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 2/3 cups (11-oz pkg) butterscotch-flavored morsels
1/2 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter
9 cups (16-oz pkg) miniature marshmallows
1 cup dry-roasted peanuts

Line 13x9 inch baking pan with foil

Microwave semi-sweet morsels, butterscotch chips, and peanut buter in large, uncovered microwave-safe bowl on medium high (70%) power for 2 minutes, stir. Morsels may retain some of the original shape. If necessary, microwave at additional 10-15 second intervals, stirring until melted. Cool for 1 minute. Stir in marshmallows and peanuts.

Pour into prepared pan and refrigerate until firm.

Taste ****1/2 These have peanut butter, chocolate, and butterscotch. I don't feel like much more explanation is needed. The texture is really fun, too.

What I learned: When I made these, I was getting a little creative with the ingredients. I ended up using a combination of semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips so I had enough to make the recipe. I also had to pick the nuts out of my trail mix to have the peanuts to add. I ended up halving the recipe as well since I was short on most of the ingredients. I put them in an 8x8 pan and everything still turned out wonderful. Oh, and I also melted the chips and peanut butter over a low heat on the stovetop. It isn't really that much harder and I trust that better than using a microwave. I highly recommend these if you are going somewhere and want to take a quick and easy dessert.

Ribbon Pasta with Tomato, Dill and Ricotta

2011-09-17T14:57:00.004-06:00

I was reading through some of my initial posts from my blog and it made me laugh because even then I was frustrated and struggling to find a good entree recipe. The saga continues. I still feel like I struggle finding good entrees. I don't know if that is because I am critical of the things that I make or if it because I have such a bad sweet tooth that I enjoy my baked goods more than my actual substantial recipes. Plus, I do a lot of substitutions in entree recipes to save money and maybe that effects the taste. That's ok, no fear. I will keep plugging away. I figure if nothing else, I am at least getting more experience cooking...which should help me improve my abilities...eventually...right?

Ribbon Pasta with Tomato, Dill and Ricotta

Salt and pepper
1 lb egg tagliatelle, fettuccine or pappardelle pasta
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh dill
4 cups loosely packed baby arugula leaves
3/4 cup ricotta cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and return to the pot, reserving 3/4 cup of the pasta water.

While the pasta is working, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil, 3 turns of the pan, and the garlic over medium heat, swirling the garlic in the oil, for 2 minutes; discard the garlic. Add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper; cook for 4 minutes, then add the dill and reserved pasta cooking water.

Add the tomatoes and arugula to the pasta; season with salt and pepper. Serve the pasta in large, shallow bowls and dollop with the ricotta for mixing in while you eat.

Taste ***1/2 This wasn't necessarily amazing. The flavors were pretty good, but nothing to write home about. And arugula is apparently pretty gross. I did save the recipe to eat for leftovers, though, so I have definitely tolerated it pretty well. I also used grape tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes since the grape ones were way cheaper. That might have impacted the flavor a little bit, too. I am not sure, though. I am by no means a tomato connoisseur.

Health ***** The only thing that would really impact the healthy much more with this recipe is if you used a whole grain pasta and a lower-fat ricotta cheese. Other than that, it really is a pretty healthy dish. Olive oil and canola oil are the healthiest of the fats to use, so the oil does not impact the nutritional value of this dish.

What I learned: If I made this again, I would use cherry tomatoes...just to be on the safe side. I also couldn't find tagliatelle or pappardelle pasta so I bought some of the refrigerated fresh linguine pasta. I always like how that tastes in dishes.

Mushroom and Pancetta Omelet

2011-09-14T17:37:00.004-06:00

Oh my GOSH!!! A NON-dessert recipe. I am not quite sure how that happened. I must not have been thinking straight.

Oh, and I just want to put out there that Molly (my dog) and I went camping last weekend. It was amazing. We got there and staked our claim and set up our stuff and went on a nice long hike and we were having a grand old time. Until I realized that I forgot marshmallows. I almost traded in my friend's tent for a bag of marshmallows from the campsite "neighbors."

Mushroom and Pancetta Omelet

1 Tbsp olive oil
6 oz mixed wild or cup mushrooms, sliced
4 oz pancetta or Canadian bacon, diced
3 Tbsp sour cream
4 tsp chopped thyme
4 eggs, separated
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp butter
salt and black pepper

Heat the oil in a large skillet, add the mushrooms, pancetta and fry for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden. Stir in the sour cream and thyme, then remove the mixture from the pan and keep hot.

Wash and dry the pan. Beat the egg whites until stiff, moist-looking peaks.

Mix together the egg yolks and mustard and season to taste with salt and pepper. Fold the mixture into the egg whites.

Heat the butter in the skillet, add the egg mixture and cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes until the underside is golden. Quickly transfer the pan to a preheated hot broiler, making sure that the handle is away from the heat, and cook for 2-3 minutes until the top is brown and center still slightly soft.

Spoon the mushroom and pancetta mixture overthe omelet and fold in half. Serve immediately with a mixed salad.

Taste ****1/2 This is a pretty good omelet. If you like omelets. Which I don't. I know, but actually considering the fact that I am not a huge omelet fan, I actually did enjoy this recipe pretty well. It had good flavor and I ate my full serving (so half of the recipe). I still have the leftovers in the fridge, though. Because as we all know, leftovers are poisonous. I am just trying to be on the safe side.

Health ***1/2 I don't believe that eggs are unhealthy. I think that they are a great source of protein. Yes, they do have cholesterol in them, but research has shown that dietary cholesterol actually doesn't impact your blood cholesterol all that much. I think 3-5 eggs per week is recommend or acceptable. There is sour cream (which isn't too bad except I used full fat) and pancetta which had quite a bit of fat on it as well. Could be worse and could be better. It is low carb, though...for those of you out there that go for that.

What I learned: This was actually my first time ever making an omelet. Surprisingly, it wasn't that complicated and I actually don't feel like I learned anything new other than the fact that I can actually make a decent omelet. Good to know.

Hershey's Special Dark Truffle Brownie

2011-09-04T18:38:00.003-06:00

I had a patient at the hospital recently that I got to know pretty well. I found out a few weeks before her discharge that she had a passionate love for food. She had a program on her mac called YummySoup! that allowed her to save and file recipes. I glanced through some of them and I saw this recipe and it was love at first sight. So, I got the recipe from her and tried it out ASAP. My ward had a party last night to watch the football game. Now, I am not passionate about BSU football (I know, I am pretty sure that the deepest, darkest corners of hell are reserved for those who are not BSU fans) but I figured it would be a great way to make my recipe to take and share it so I didn't eat the WHOLE thing by myself.

Hershey's Special Dark Truffle Brownie

Brownie Layer (Recipe Follows)
3 Packages (8 Oz. Each) Cream Cheese, softened
¾ cup Sugar
4 Eggs
¼ cup Heavy Cream
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
¼ tsp Salt
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips, divided
½ tsp Shortening (Do Not Use Butter, margarine, spread or oil)

1 Heat oven to 350° F. Grease 9-inch springform pan.

2 Prepare BROWNIE LAYER. Stir together 6 tablespoons melted butter or margarine, 1-¼ cups sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Add 2 eggs; stirring until blended. Stir in 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, ⅓ cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa, ½ teaspoon baking powder and ½ teaspoon salt; blend well. Spread in prepared pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until brownie begins to pull away from side of pan. Meanwhile make cheesecake batter.

3 Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Gradually beat in eggs, heavy cream, vanilla and salt, beating until well blended.

4 Set aside 2 tablespoons chocolate chips. Place remaining chips in large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at MEDIUM (50%) 1-½ minutes; stir. If necessary, microwave at MEDIUM an additional 15 seconds at a time, stirring after each heating, until chocolate
is melted when stirred. Gradually blend melted chocolate into cheesecake batter.

5 Immediately after removing brownie from oven, spoon cheesecake mixture over brownie. Return to oven; continue baking 45 to 50 minutes or until center is almost set. Remove
from oven to wire rack. With knife, loosen cake from side of pan. Cool to room temperature. Remove side of pan.

6 Place remaining 2 tablespoons chocolate chips and shortening in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at MEDIUM 30 seconds; stir. If necessary, microwave at MEDIUM an additional 10 seconds at a time, stirring after each heating, until chocolate is melted and smooth when stirred. Drizzle over top of cheesecake. Cover; refrigerate several hours until cold. Garnish as desired. Cover and refrigerate leftover cheesecake. 10 to 12 servings.

Taste ***** Um, it was amazing. At least I thought so. It was REALLY rich, so I recommend serving SMALL pieces. It is rich and chocolatey and I am not even a huge fan of dark chocolate...but it was good. I would maybe recommend adding some raspberries sauce of some kind to it. What goes better together than dark chocolate and raspberries??? Ok, peanut butter and jelly, but raspberries and chocolate are definitely a close second.

What I learned: This recipe wasn't all that difficult. If I made this reipe again, I would undercook the brownie layer a little bit more before topping it with the cheesecake stuff. The brownie crust was a little hard to cut. BUT, I guess you need a pretty firm crust base so maybe it was supposed to be like that. I also used the chocolate chips and whipping cream to make the topping instead of shortening. I just boiled some heavy cream and added it to chocolate chips until melted and used that on top.

Six Week Bran Muffins

2011-09-04T18:18:00.003-06:00

So, I might have accidently typed "sex week" instead of six week when I was first typing the title. Awkward. I am glad that I caught that before I posted this. So, I have been on a healthy muffin kick lately and for those of you that know me, that is a little unusual. This is a recipe that my mom used to make when I was little. I figured it would be a great way to make some muffins in bulk so I could use them as a snack when I am starving to death at work between meals. And no I am NOT being dramatic. You try talking to patients about food all day long and see what that does to your appetite. The handy thing about them is the fact that you can mix up a ridiculous amount of batter and it lasts for up to 6 weeks in the fridge so you can cook batches without having to eat dozens of muffins at a time.

Six Week Bran Muffins

5 tsp baking soda
2 cups boiling water
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 quart buttermilk
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
4 cups all-bran cereal
4 cups bran flakes cereal
2-3 cups chopped dates or raisins

Add baking soda to boiling water and cool. Cream shortening and sugar, then add eggs and baking soda mixture. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins and bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

The remaining batter may be kept for six weeks in the refrigerator. Use a container with a tight-fitting lid. Do not stir the batter after refrigerating.

Taste ****1/2 I really like the flavor of these. They taste healthy but a good kind of healthy. I really like raisins in there because it adds an element of sweetness without ruining the nutritional value. They make a great between-meal snack. The hardest part is only eating one.

Health ***1/2 Even though these have bran in them, there is still a significant amount of sugar and refined flour. Also, shortening is kind of the devil in my mind. Oh well, while I was reading over this recipe while blogging it, I realized that this recipe isn't really quite as healthy as I thought it was. Still tastes good, though, so I am not too torn up about that.

What I learned: Do not use paper muffin cups. They stick to the muffins pretty bad. Also, the batter when you first mix it is very thin. I almost thought I had made the recipe wrong, but I called my mom and she explained to me that was normal. After a while, the batter thickens up beautifully, but the muffins still turn out if you bake the runny batter.

Almond Coffee Cake

2011-09-03T21:42:00.005-06:00

So, I am trying to get into running. I am training for a half marathon in November (wish me luck that I don't die). I wanted to do a couple of races before my half. So, I ran a race last week called the Dirty Dash. The whole idea of the race is to get as muddy as possible during the 6 mile course. There are all sorts of crazy obstacles and hills and mud. Everyone was dressed up in costumes and the vibe was SO much fun. My friend Beth ran it with me and we made tutus and wore crowns and crazy ugly tights. I wanted to show a picture from after the race. We ruined our tutus so they are tossed. This was right after we had washed off. You should have seen how muddy we were right after the race before cleaning up (just FYI. My tank top was originally white).

SO FUN.

So...on to the recipe. I figured this looked like a good time and like it was pretty easy so I made it this week to take in to my coworkers. (and let me just tell you that any recipe with cream cheese is A-OK with me...and apparently all my coworkers).

Almond Coffee Cake

1 loaf (1 pound) frozen bread dough, thawed
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup vanilla or white chips
1 Tbsp 2% milk

Glaze:

1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
1-2 Tbsp 2% milk
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted

1. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 15 x 9 inch rectangle. Transfer to a lightly greased baking sheet.

2. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and extract (filling will be soft). Spread down the center of the rectangle; sprinkle with chips. On each long side, cut 1-inch-wide strips, about 1/2 in from filling.

3. Starting at one end, fold alternating strips at an angle across filling. Seal ends. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

4. Brush with milk. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

5. For glaze, in a small bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and extract. Stir in enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Drizzle over warm coffee cake. Sprinkle with almonds.

Taste ***** I would give these a pretty solid at least 4 1/2 stars, but I rounded up to five. My coworkesr REALLY enjoyed this recipe. They were even more enthusiastic than usual. The bread was nice and soft and the filling was just right.

What I learned: I ended up having quite a mess while I was making this recipe and I got discouraged a few times thinking that it wouldn't turn out. It ended up that I just had to be patient and do some cleaning up when the filling was leaking out of the loaf, but all-in-all, the recipe turned out great!!!

The Daring Baker August 2011-Candylicious

2011-09-03T20:54:00.005-06:00

The Daring Baker challenge for this month was candies and they gave a plethora of different ideas for both chocolate and non-chocolate goodies. The whole idea of this challenge was, though, that you had to make at least one chocolate candy and use tempered chocolate. I failed this. I made chocolate candies all right, but I made an executive decision based on my lack of patience, equipment and money that I should not have to use/make tempered chocolate (which has a glossier finish and distinctive snap to it). I still feel like I accomplished something, because I got to pick flavors and ingredients to make my own special candies. This is such a proud moment for me. HERE is the link for the generic recipes and more information about the challenge.

TRUFFLE #1

Anyways, the first truffle I made was using semisweet chocolate. I added some cardamom powder and then chopped toasted almonds and rolled the truffles in the almonds. I used the 2/3 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream to the semisweet chocolate, but that ended up not setting so I had to melt more chocolate and add that to thicken it up. I am not sure how much cardamom I put in there, but I would definitely add more next time just so the flavor stood out better.

TRUFFLE #2

The second truffle I did was white chocolate. I added lime rind to the white chocolate, rolled them into balls and froze them. Then I melted bittersweet chocolate on a double boiler and rolled the white chocolate in the melted bittersweet chocolate. Then I topped that with toasted coconut.

I know, I am pretty proud of myself.

Carrot Cake

2011-08-27T19:10:00.003-06:00

I have never made carrot cake before that I can think of. First of all, I don't really LIKE carrot cake. Wait, let me take that back. I like CARROT CAKE, but I don't like the crap they put IN carrot cake. Why ruin a perfectly good moist cake with nuts and raisins. Ugh. Well, my cousin Justin and his wife Jessica are so sweet about inviting me to dinner for holidays. A regular dessert at their house is carrot cake because it is my cousin's favorite. And now I understand why. Jessica makes carrot cake that is so amazing I...actually enjoy eating it. It is moist and has no extra crap in it. Just yummy flavor...with amazing cream cheese frosting, of course.

Well, one of the case managers at work told me last week that her birthday was coming up. Now, first of all, I have a soft spot for most case managers. Their job is HARD. So I decided this particular case manager should get a birthday cake at work....and guess what her favorite kind of cake is? So, I emailed Jessica and asked her for the recipe that she uses. I was pretty stoked about this one because I already knew how good the cake was. It was just a matter of me not screwing it up.

The Greenery Carrot Cake

2 cups Sugar
2 1/4 cups Flour
1 cup veggie oil (I usually use 1/2 applesauce and 1/2 oil)
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
4 C shredded carrots
1 C walnuts (or not)
Optional: 1 C crushed pineapple with juice and increase flour to 2 1/2 C (I didn't do this because I was too cheap to get pineapple)

Directions:
1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine sugar, oil, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix at low speed until smooth. Add eggs and mix again until smooth.

2. Gradually add flour and stir into mixture by hand. Then stir in carrots and walnuts.

3. Pour mixture into a greased and floured 14" x 10" x 2" pan (I just used a 9x13) and allow to settle. Do not spread mixture into pan.

4. Bake at 375 for approx. 50 min. or until center springs back when touched lightly.

And just so you have a cream cheese frosting recipe to go with this amazing cake (because, let's face it, at least 65% of why we eat carrot cake is because of that amazing cream cheese frosting).

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy

Ta da (no picture again this time).

Taste ****1/2 This cake was very moist and delicious. Most of my coworkers said that they really enjoyed it. Except for one of the charge nurses. She said it was fair...but she is also the same one that likes to make fun of the fact that I am a dietitian and I eat junk food. And she also made fun of someone's hair once. I didn't take her opinion too personally.

What I learned: I used the 1/2 applesauce and 1/2 oil and I feel like it didn't do anything to the quality of the cake. I am not sure how it would have tasted different with all oil, though. I just used the applesauce because Jessica said that she did and I wanted to follow her usual way of doing things for this recipe.

Corn-Mushroom Risotto

2011-08-20T14:04:00.005-06:00

So, funny story about the white wine thing. Is it super pathetic that I had no idea what a dry white wine is. I went to the store and got some random white wine at Fred Meyer. THEN, I realized that it was a dessert wine. So, I went to Fred Meyer again and asked a lady in the booze aisle and she was absolutely worthless. So, my friend took her smart phone and googled what we could use as our white wine. Finally, I got some Sauvignon Blanc (yes I did have to google that to know how to spell it) and used that in my risotto. I have never cooked with wine before and wanted to have that experience. However, I have to admit that I REALLY don't like the smell of wine. I had some spilled on me at a party once, and it made me a little sick to my stomach to smell it the rest of the night. It was fun to expand my horizons and cook with it, though. However, I had a rough day the next day...and was seriously contemplating drowning my sorrows in a....well, nevermind :).

Corn-Mushroom Risotto

5 ounces bacon, diced
3 ears corn, husked
6 ounces shitake mushrooms
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 medium shallots, chopped
1 1/4 cups arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
1/2-3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives

1. Cook the bacon in large saucepan until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Meanwhile, cut the corn from the cobs and set aside. Snap the cobs in half and put in a pot with 7 cups water; bring a low simmer. Step and slice the mushrooms.

2. Cook the mushrooms in the pan with the bacon drippings over medium-high heat until slightly crisp, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a plate. Add the butter and shallots to the pan, season with salt and pepper and cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in the wine until absorbed, then add 1 tsp salt and the corn kernels.

3. Ladle in 1/2-cup of the hot corn broth, stirring until absorbed. Continue adding broth in 1/2-cup increments, allowing it to be absorbed before adding more, until the rice is just tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in the cheese, chives and some of the mushrooms and bacon. Season with salt and pepper. Serve topped with the remaining bacon and mushrooms and more cheese.

Taste **** The flavors were pretty good. I enjoy all of the foods that go into this recipe. It has quite a few calories, and it shows with how good it tastes. However, it was a bit sticky and not quite the right texture (see the "what I learned" section).

Health ** Eh, it has corn...and mushrooms. That is redeeming, right?

What I learned: So, I don't really know what risotto is supposed to be like, but I am pretty sure that it is not supposed to resemble thick, overcooked oatmeal. Like I said, the flavor was good, but I obviously was a little flawed in my technique at risotto-making. One of my coworkers who does a lot of cooking explained to me that I REALLY had to let the liquid absorb each time before I add more. I THOUGHT I was doing that, but apparently I have to try even harder next time!

Morning Glory Muffins

2011-08-20T14:03:00.003-06:00

So, usually I don't really like healthy crap in my muffins. I also don't like bananas. BUT, at work one week, they had a similar hearty muffin from Great Harvest Bread Company on one of my floors. I took half of it and just LOVED it. You know how sometimes you just crave things that surprise you? Well, that whole week I had those muffins in the back of my mind and I decided that I needed to take a whirl. So, I googled muffin recipes online and I found this little beauty on http://www.myrecipes.com/ I also was curious about this recipe because I had never tried dates before, so I was excited to try them out in my super healthy muffins.

Morning Glory Muffins

Cooking spray
1 cup whole wheat flour (about 4 3/4 ounces)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (about 2 1/4 ounces)
1 cup regular oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp wheat bran
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2)
1 large egg
1 cup chopped pitted dates
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped dried pineapple
3 tablespoons ground flaxseed (about 2 tablespoons whole)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place 18 muffin cups liners in muffin cups; coat liners with cooking spray.
Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flours and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine yogurt, banana, and egg; add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in dates, walnuts, and pineapple. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle evenly with flaxseed. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pans immediately; cool on a wire rack.

Taste ****1/2 I really enjoyed these, even though I don't like banana all that much. I think more a carrot-based muffin would have tasted a little bit better, but I am not complaining too much. I really enjoyed eating these and they felt very hearty and satisfying. Most of my coworkers that tried them really enjoyed them.

Heath Factor ****1/2 This recipe was originally pulled from a Cooking Light magazine. Thus, you have to assume that it is at least relatively healthy. There is quite a bit of whole grain. The only thing that isn't super thrilling is the sugar...but I don't think that you can make a muffin without at least SOME sugar.

What I learned: On the website, they offered the following substitutions: Substitute apricots or raisins for chopped pitted dates in this recipe if you like.

I decided to switch things up. I used pomegranate-flavored craisins instead of raisins and then I used slivered almonds as the nut because walnuts taste like the devil.

The Breslin's Ricotta Pancakes with Orange Syrup

2011-08-08T19:57:00.013-06:00

Um...I am not sure who the Breslin's are, but they sure know how to make a pancake. Ok, I am sure that I have mentioned this before, but I don't like pancakes. I have never been particularly excited about eating a soggy pancake drenched in maple syrup (which I also happen to not like). I am pretty sure, in fact, that pancakes are the only cake that I am not a fan of. Who knows, though. Maybe if I stick birthday candles in them and top them with ice cream, they might have some potential. I am also not a huge fan of ricotta. So, don't ask me what made me try this recipe because I really couldn't tell you.

My friend Anneli was here this past weekend. Well, if there is one thing Anneli do when we are together it is cook...or eat. We decided to do both on Saturday morning. I gave Anneli a few recipes to chose from and that wonderful genius chose this one.

The Breslin's Ricotta Pancakes with Orange Syrup

ORANGE SYRUP
1 orange
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

RICOTTA TOPPING
1 1/2 cups fresh ricotta
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp finely grated lemon zest
Seeds scraped from 1/2 vanilla bean

PANCAKES
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fine white cornmeal
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup fresh ricotta
Vegetable oil, for frying
Toasted almond slices, for serving

1. Prepare the syrup: peel the zest from the orange in long strips and julienne. In a saucepan of boiling water, blanch the zest for 30 seconds. Drain and repeat. In the saucepan, simmer the orange juice, sugar, water and blanched zest until syrupy, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

2. Prepare the ricotta topping: in a bowl, mix together all the ingredients.

3. Prepare the pancakes: In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda. In another large bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg yolks and ricotta. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. In a large, clean stainless steel bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry; fold them into the batter.

4. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat a thin film of vegetable oil. Crop in 1/4 cup dollops of batter and cook over moderately high heat, 2 minutes per side, until golden and fluffy. Serve about 3 pancakes per person. Cover with orange syrup, ricotta topping and toasted almonds.

Oh, and one more thing from this experience. Since I don't like pancakes, I have never really made them before so I might have struggled with the first few. Like, maybe burned them almost beyond recognition. So, I had to show off my first legitimate pancake (see picture below). It was a glorious moment in my life! Here is my first pancake in all of it's glory. I also included a picture of Anneli with her pancake as well as Anneli's Mickey Mouse pancake. What a morning!!! I would also like to apologize for how beautiful we look. Anneli and I had seriously worked out before we made our pancakes so that is where our glowing skin and casual attire came from. Who needs makeup and a shower to look beautiful? Not us, that's for sure.

*This is the FINAL product. Isn't it a beauty*

Taste ***** When Anneli and I ate these on Saturday, we both agreed that they were a solid 4 1/2 stars. That is really saying something considering my previously-mentioned feelings about pancakes. Well, they were amazing. What bumped them up to 5 stars for me was the fact that even leftover over the past 2-3 days, these still taste AMAZING. So they basically changed my life.

Health ***1/2 The pancakes themselves aren't that bad for you. The syrup obviously has a lot of sugar. Could be a lot worse.

What I learned. So, Anneli and I made a few adjustments. Neither one of us really wanted to go with the orange syrup, so Anneli decided to get pomegranate juice and just use that instead of orange juice and skip the orange zest. The only other thing that we changed was that we topped the pancakes with raspberries because they are fruit from the gods. We also skipped the almonds. All in all, pretty darn amazing.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip-Bacon Cookies

2011-08-07T15:45:00.005-06:00

Sweet and salty are one of my favorite combinations. I also have heard that chocolate-covered bacon is really good. This was another recipe that I was really curious to see how it tasted. I found it in the Food Network Magazine and their recipes are usually very promising. It's funny because I don't even really like bacon all the much...so I had never made it before. Let's just say that it took me quite a few batches to get that bacon right...and even then it was questionable. Kind of embarrassing. I need to work on my meat-preparing skills.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip-Bacon Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of chipotle or ancho chile powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
5 strips bacon
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup roughly chopped honey-roasted peanuts
1/2 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, chile powder and salt in a large bowl.

2. Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 4-6 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate, reserve 2 Tbsp of the drippings and set aside to cool. Crumble the bacon, discarding any chewy bits.

3. Beat the butter and reserved bacon drippings in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Beat in the granulated sugar and light brown sugar until creamy, about 4 minutes, then add the egg and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 more minutes.

4. Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the flour mixture in 2 additions, scraping down the bowl as needed, until just combined. Stir in the peanuts and all but 2 Tbsp each of the chocolate chips and bacon.

5. Form the dough into 12 balls and arrange 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten with your fingers a (the cookies will not spread in the oven); press the reserved bacon and chocolate chips on top. Bake until golden, 12-14 minutes. Let the cookies cool 12 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Taste ****1/2 I would give them a solid 4 1/2 stars. I don't know if part of that was because I was STARVING and emotional eating when I had one. They weren't a soft and chewy cookie. I liked the flavor, though, and they were very satisfying. I did get mixed reviews at work. I would say that most people thought that they were "interesting." However, I really enjoyed them and would make them again to have around the house to snack on.

What I learned: That I really need a bacon-making lesson.

Grilled Vegetables with Couscous and Yogurt Sauce

2011-08-06T14:34:00.009-06:00

So, here is another attempt to make a healthy recipe to saves all those lives out there. Funny story about couscous, though. When I was young, my mom decided that she wanted to try a new recipe. It was called Moroccan couscous. I don't remember exactly what was in the recipe except that it was made up of couscous and raisins and a plethora of other ingredients. It was...well, interesting. We knew growing up, though that we ate dinner without complaining and that we were supposed to clear out plates. Well, about two minutes into the meal, my dad broke the awkward silence...or maybe it was my mom...and mentioned that the recipe was less than tolerable. So, much to everyone's relief, we busted out the ice cream for dessert and we all lived happily ever after....except for a residual fear of couscous that I have only recently gotten over.

Couscous and Yogurt Sauce

2 bell peppers (any color), stemmed, seeded and quartered
1 yellow squash, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed
2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2-3 sprigs thyme, rosemary or oregano
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large red onion, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
1 10-ounce package couscous
1/2 cup 2% Greek yogurt
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

1. Heat a grill pan over high heat. Toss the bell peppers, squash, mushrooms, garlic, herbs, olive oil, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a large bowl. Brush the onion rounds with olive oil and season with salt. Brush the grill pan with olive oil, then grill the bell pepper mixture and onion rounds (in batches if needed), turning until tender and marked, about 10 minutes. Peel the garlic.

2. Meanwhile, cook the couscous as the label directs.

3. Pulse the garlic, 2 pieces grilled bell pepper and the yogurt in a mini food processor or blender until smooth. Add 1/4 tsp salt, and pepper to taste. Cut the remaining grilled bell peppers into chunks and toss with the squash, mushrooms, herbs and onion in a large bowl; season with salt.

4. Fluff the couscous with a fork and divide among bowls. Top with the vegetables and almonds and serve with the yogurt sauce.

Taste **** The taste would probably have been better if I actually enjoyed vegetables. However, I do like roasted vegetables better than raw. The yogurt sauce flavor was really good, and the almonds were a good texture and it was a pretty entertaining eat. It was really pretty good.

Health ***** The only thing I could have done to really make this more nutritious is to use whole grain couscous, but I couldn't find any at either of my usual grocery stores, so I just settled with regular couscous.

What I learned: I learned a new way to make a dish with vegetables that I enjoy.

Dreamy S'mores Pie

2011-08-05T20:40:00.007-06:00

I love s'mores...a LOT. Like, I used to eat s'mores for breakfast. I would just zap them in the microwave and eat away. Talk about bliss. And I like nutella. Who doesn't? So, I went to visit my sister in Utah a couple of weeks ago and she had this beauty of a recipe ready for us to try. I love how easy it is to throw together.

Dreamy S'Mores Pie

8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1 1/4 cup chilled whipping cream
13 oz jar Nutella/chocolate hazelnut cream
Ready made graham cracker crust
3-4 cups mini marshmallows

1) In a medium bowl, with electric mixer, beat cream cheese till creamy.

2) Add whipping cream to the cream cheese and beat on high till mixture is thick, then reduce speed to low and beat in Nutella, just until the mixture is incorporated together.

3) Pour the mixture into the graham cracker crust.

4) Place the mini marshmallows over the top of the pie, making sure they are close together and all the chocolate mixture is covered up.

5) Pre-heat broiler with the oven rack on the second slot from the top. Place the pie under the broiler and broil till the marshmallows are golden brown. DO NOT TAKE YOUR EYES OFF THE PIE AS IT BROWNS, BECAUSE THE MARSHMALLOWS WILL BROWN IN LESS THAN 2 MINUTES. Turn the pie around in order to brown it evenly, if necessary.

6) Refrigerate pie for 3 hours, before serving. Enjoy! Yield: serves 8

Taste ***** It was pretty amazing. It would be hard to ruin a recipe with ingredients like these. It would be a great dessert idea for a dinner if you wanted to impress everyone. We had a few family members present and we all just basically grabbed a fork and dug in. It was gone pretty fast (but of course since I am a dietitian, I only ate one piece :)

What I learned: Make sure to beat the filling well until it is pretty stiff. I think I underbeat mine and it wasn't quite as thick as it was supposed to be (at least that's what my sister said). However, she still managed to choke some down :)

Baked French Toast Casserole

2011-07-31T17:26:00.003-06:00

Melissa Starr, one of my good friends from Nebraska sent me a couple of recipes to look at in case there was one that tickled my fancy for my blog. Well, this one is from Paula Dean and when I saw that out of 114 reviews, people rated it at five stars, I figured it had to be pretty amazing. So, just a side note. Melissa was my ice cream shoppe buddy when I lived in Nebraska. What is the ice cream shop you ask? Well, there is this brand of ice cream named "ashbys" that they sell at two different sites in Nebraska-one of them is called The Ice Cream Shoppe. This ice cream is to die for. To DIE for. I am an ice cream freak and I have never had better than this stuff. They have the best flavors and big chunks of goodies. I am pining after it now even just thinking about it. Well, there was one night where Melissa and I decided to tackle an 8 scoop sunday where you can choose eight different ice cream flavors and like 8 different toppings. My favorite part of the experience was when both of us said that we weren't that hungry and OOPS, we still managed to finish the whole thing. *sigh* (Miss you Melissa)

Baked French Toast Casserole

dash salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp sugar
1 cup milk
8 large eggs
2 cup half-and-half
Butter,for pan
1 loaf French bread (13 to 16 ounces)
Praline Topping, recipe follows
Raspberry Syrup, recipe follows

Praline Topping:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp ground nutmeg

Raspberry Syrup:
1 cup raspberry preserves
3 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp raspberry liqueur (recommended: Framboise)

Directions

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch thick each. (Use any extra bread for garlic toast or bread crumbs). Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9X13 casserole dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 45 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with Raspberry Syrup.

Praline Topping:
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Spread over bread as directed above.

Raspberry Syrup:
Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Stir until warm and thinned out like syrup.

Taste ****1/2 Um, yes, this was pretty yummy. It was like a custardy bread pudding with a delicious crusty caramel yumminess on top. My boss did mention that she felt like there was too much butter in the dish. It was very tasty, though. It was comforting and tasted like Christmas. This would be a perfect Christmas morning dish. Especially since you leave it in the fridge overnight and just have to toss it in the oven in the morning.

What I learned: I agree with my boss that there was a little too much butter. I would almost cut it in half just to see if that would work. I also didn't use the raspberry sauce, but it tasted great even without it.

Scallops in Sage Cream

2011-07-31T17:02:00.004-06:00

So, I have taken a brief baking/cooking hiatus...for several reasons. This last week was CRAZY. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off....and maybe one of my feet, too. It was fun stuff as well, but it didn't leave much time for food creations (or grocery shopping for that matter). The other reason is that it is running around 100 degrees outside. Nothing sounds better to eat when I get home from work as a nice simple bowl of cereal (mostly because it doesn't require any heating) and piece of fruit.

However, don't be too sad, because I still have four recipes to blog since I am running so far behind.

Scallops in Sage Cream

1 1/2lb sea scallops
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
3 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1/2 cup chopped shallots
3/4cup heaving whipping cream
6 fresh sage leaves, thinly sliced
Hot cooked pasta, optional

Sprinkle scallops with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, saute scallops in 2 Tbsp oil for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes on each side or until firm and opaque. Remove and keep warm.

In the same skillet, saute shallots in remaining oil until tender. Add cream, bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 30 secondsor until slightly thickened.

Return scallops to the pan; heat through. Stir in sage. Serve with Pasta, if desired.

Taste **** The sage was a little strong and almost dirty-tasting. I would probably add less next time or try another herb. Not sure which one...but I think it would be hard to go wrong with this recipe. Plus, it has heavy whipping cream...how can you go wrong?

What I learned: I used smaller scallops in this recipe. Next time I would definitely get larger scallops...they are just really pricey so I will have to wait until I get a sugar daddy.

I Am Cool Now

2011-07-27T20:32:00.005-06:00

So, I joined an online blogging club. It's a pretty big deal. I am not in the "in" crowd. Everybody who is anybody is part of this "cool" group. It's called The Daring Kitchen and you can find the website at: http://thedaringkitchen.com/. The basic premise is that they post a recipe at the first of every month on their private forum. Then, during the month I recreate their recipe myself, not revealing to ANYBODY what the secret recipe is (the fact that it is secret makes it even more elite and cool apparently). So, then on the 27th, everyone signed up on this site posts their recipe. This month is was Fraisiers. I would type out the recipe, but it is ridiculously long, so the link to the recipe is http://thedaringkitchen.com/sites/default/files/u11/57_Fresh_Fraisiers-DB_July_2011.pdf There are billions of different parts to the recipe. This is a picture of my final product.

Not the prettiest of the fraisiers I have beheld in my life. I wish I had taken more time to make it LOOK nice. The taste was pretty dang good. The Chiffon cake part turned out AMAZING if I do say so myself. I am pretty darn proud of it. The pastry cream filling was a little sloppily executed. I will definitely take more time trying to make my recipe next month more technically saavy. I was in a hurry to try and make this cake before I went to bed. I didn't realize when I started this cake at 6:30 at night on a Sunday that it would take me until past 11:00 to finish up. I was a little burned out by the end, but it was a really fun experience to stretch my baking wings a little and get outside of my comfort zone. Overall, I feel like the dessert tasted pretty good and it is definitely something that I would give another go and make again.

Steak-spinach Salad with Sour Cream Potatoes

2011-07-26T20:08:00.003-06:00

Ok, so I don't know what is going on, but recently I have been on this steak craze. When I was growing up, I would choose pasta or rice over meat any day. However, sometime in recent months I discovered that I am a SUCKER for steak. There is something so fulfilling about eating red meat. In fact, last Sunday me and steak had a hot date. Me and 8 ounces of steak with a fork and a knife. Yes I did and no I probably won't. *sigh* I think I justify it by the fact that the most common nutrient deficiency in the US is Iron....especially for women. So, I eat steak to help me not be deficient. Legit. Totally. So, what did I do to even FURTHER justify eating steak? Making a recipe where you turn steak into a SALAD!!! Really? Who knew? I liked this because it was a version of steak and potatoes that was more "summerized."

Steak-spinach Salad with Sour Cream Potatoes

2 medium russet potatoes
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp buttermilk
1/4 cup fresh chives, chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3/4 lb boneless sirloin steak
1 large red onion, sliced into thick rings
6 ounces baby spinach or chopped regular spinach
2-3 Tbsp steak sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pierce the potatoes with a fork and brush with olive oil. Bake directly on the oven rack until tender, about 1 hour. Cool slightly, then cut into chunks. Mix the sour cream, buttermilk, chives and lemon juice in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the potatoes.

2. Meanwhile, preheat grill to high, brush the steak and onion rings with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the steak until marked on the bottom, about 7 minutes, then turn and cook 4-5 more minutes for medium-rare. Grill the onion rings until charred, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer the steak and onion rings to a cutting board and let rest 5 minutes.

3. Roughly chop that onion rings and toss with the spinach, steak sauce, 3 Tbsps olive oil and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Thinly slice the steak. Divide the salad among plates, top with the steak and serve with the potatoes.

I have no picture yet. My friend Loree took pictures for me because my camera was...a little under the weather from my Hawaii trip and a little water incident. So, Loree is going to email me the picture so I will post is as soon as I get it.

Taste ***1/2 The salad could have been more exciting with cheese or something, I think. I felt like the salad was basically steak, spinach and onion. Maybe I felt like that because that was, in fact, what the salad was made out of. To me, there should be a few more elements to make a legitimate salad. It was good, just not amazing. The potatoes just kind of reminded me of baked potatoes with sour cream. Didn't knock my socks off again. I wouldn't make it again, but I would eat it again.

Health Factor ***1/2 the salad does have spinach which (in case you guys didn't know) is one of those green leafys that is good for you. Onion is healthy as well. The steak isn't too bad since you aren't even having a quarter pound of it (the salad makes 4 servings). As long as you are careful with portions sizes of meat, I think it is safe to splurge on occasion. Or you could just gorge on 8 ounces on occasion...like some dietitians that I know. The potatoes are a starchier vegetables and not necessarily a nutrition power-house, but they are baked, which is a healthy way to prepare it.

What I learned: I did the steak probably somewhere around medium to medium well and that was enjoyable. Of course, that part of the cooking you can judge for yourself how done you want your meat. With cuts of meat you don't have to be quite as worried about contamination/food poisoning as you do with ground meats (ground meats have greater surface area to provide areas of bacteria growth) but still use caution. I think the salad could have used a few more elements (like I mentioned above). I would recommend some blue cheese for a zing and then whatever veggies tickle your fancy. Maybe some avocado. I don't know. There is a lot of room for creativity.

Enjoy :)

Organic Foods to Save Your Life

2011-07-24T09:34:00.006-06:00

Ok, I know that I usually focus on my recipes and try to avoid a lot of the nitty gritty nutrition stuff that comes with being an RD. HOWEVEVER, I got to give a presentation to some of my cancer patients during this past week and they were interested in learning about organic foods. Well, normally I am very con organic stuff. I get irritated with all of the crazy nutrition hype out there. People get these insane ideas about nutrition in their head and it is a little frustrating to me. It's common sense, people. Eat a balanced diet, watch your portions sizes and exercise more and tah dah...THAT is your magic pill to stay healthy. Crazy, huh? I just summed up my WHOLE college and graduate school education in one sentence.

So, basically, I was of the opinion that all of this organic crap was bogus. Just a way for people to "cleanse their bodies." I mean, come on...you can't tell me that eating organic gummy bears as opposed to regular is better for you or is going to make you lose more weight. However, when I was doing research for my presentation, I found some pretty interesting information about organic produce. I figured it would be beneficial to share on my blog since I get there are a lot of people out there interested in getting down and dirty with organic foods.

So, in a nutshell, what I found as far as organic produce:

There is a lot of contradicting research out there about whether or not organic is more nutritious for you than conventionally-grown produce. The only thing that I found was that it might have more phytochemicals (non-nutritional substances in foods that are believed to provide health benefits) and vitamin C. I figure that considering the research appears to be inconclusive, that is not necessarily a legitimate claim. Although, buying local produce might be beneficial, as the shorter time from picking to your plate is decreased, there is likely more nutrients (vitamins and minerals) still intact.

*basically, organic foods are not GUARANTEED safer, healthier, more nutritious or more flavorful...

Organic produce is NOT less likely to have microbial contamination. The big e coli outbreak in the spinach that occurred recently was actually a result of produce that was in the transition phase from being conventionally grown to organically grown....awkward.

It is also hard to find produce that is truly 100% organic. Most of the organic fields are obviously going to have some conventional produce fields somewhere nearby. This causes drift between these fields, allowing for some contamination of organic produce with pesticides. Also, most soil has at least some traces of pesticides, even those that were banned decades ago. Comforting thought, eh? About 1/4 of organic foods still contain traces of pesticides, while 3/4 of conventionally-grown produce contained pesticide residue. I did find a few references that said if it was financially feasible and if the organic produce was available, it is a good idea to go organic to minimize exposure to pesticides. However, for some people, it is not an option for them for various different reasons.

Just a side note that no good research showing that trace amounts of pesticides found in fruits and vegetables is linked with cancer or any other diseases. An individual would have to consume a RIDICULOUS amount of conventional produce on a regular basis to even come close to reaching a level of pesticide consumption to cause them harm. However, that does not mean that pesticides are harmless. So, again...going organic when possible is a good idea.

This is where the "dirty dozen" list comes in handy. There is a list of the produce that contain the highest level of pesticide contamination (the higher on the list, the greater the amount of contamination). If you DO get SOME organic produce, these are the fruits and vegetables that you should splurge on.

DIRTY DOZEN
1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet bell peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Pears
9. Grapes (imported)
10. Spinach
11. Lettuce
12. Potatoes

Then, on the other hand, here is a list of SAFER foods that contain LOWER pesticide residues. If you can't afford to do all organic, these are the items that are safer to buy conventionally grown.

1. Papaya
2. Broccoli
3. Cabbage
4. Bananas
5. Kiwi
6. Frozen sweet peas
7. Asparagus
8. Mango
9. Pineapple
10. Sweet corn (frozen)
11. Avocado
12. Onions

There you go. I thought this list was super helpful. Bottom line for all of this information is to go organic if possible to help minimize your consumption of pesticide residue. However, if this is not an option for you, do not avoid produce altogether. It is better to eat fruits and veggies, whether conventionally grown or not, to help improve your overall health. So, prioritize which fruits and vegetables you should buy organic, and cheers to your health :)

Oh, and this article did change my point of view about a lot of things. I no longer think that organic produce is a bunch of crock. However...that does NOT mean that I am going to be going out and buying organic GUMMY BEARS anytime soon. That's taking it a little too far.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Tart

2011-07-23T16:57:00.004-06:00

Do I really need to explain why I chose this recipe? I have to admit that I was sold at the "Nutella" part of the ingredients list. I actually bought one of the big jars knowing that a smaller one would have been adequate, but then....can you ever really be sure??? I just wanted to be on the safe side. There was just the right amount in the larger jar...since I basically was eating away at the nutella in the couple days before I made this recipe. SOooo, done with confession time, on to the recipe.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Tart

CRUST

1/2 cup blanched hazelnuts
1 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

FILLING

2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup chocolate -hazelnut spread
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

1. Make the crust: Toast the hazelnuts in a skillet over medium heat until golden, about 8 minutes. Let cool. Transfer 1/3 cup nuts to a food processor. Add the flour, sugar and salt; pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Drizzle in the egg and vanilla; pulse until the dough starts to come together.

2. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and pat into a disk. Wrap and refrigerate until firm; at least 1 hour. Coarsely chop the remaining hazelnuts and reserve.

3. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch round. Press into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, then trim the excess dough. Prick the bottom all over with a fork. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the crust with foil, then fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake until the edges are golden, about 20 minutes. Remove the foil and weights and continue baking until golden brown all over 15-20 minutes. Cool completely on a rack.

5. Meanwhile, make the filling: Whisk the cornstarch into 1/4 cup cream in a bowl. Combine the reamining 1 3/4 cups cream, the chocolate-hazelnut spread, vanilla and salt in a small saucepan. Whisk in the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring and scraping the sides of the pan with a rubber spatula. Once the mixture starts to boil, stir constantly until thickened, about 2 minutes. Pour into the crust and swirl the top. Refrigerate until set, about 1 hour. Top with the reserved hazelnuts.

Taste **** I got a lot of positive feedback on this from coworkers. In fact, one of the big wigs in the department asked for the recipe. Kind of exciting. Most of my peers and fellow food-fans said that it reminded them of a thick and rich pudding. Sadly, I would have to agree with them. This filling was slightly reminiscent of a simple, thick chocolate pudding. Not too much of the nutella flavor shone through. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but I think there should be something more in this recipe to take it to the next level.

What I learned: When I was making this, I actually spent a little more time on the heat with the filling than it called for. I wanted to make sure that it set and wasn't runny. I think they extra time really helped it be more firm and held its shape better. Just a thought. Oh, and I didn't have a pie weight or dried beans in my apartment, so I placed a pie pan on top of the crust before baking and weighed that down with a glass bowl. Hopefully that was acceptable. It didn't RUIN the tart, that's for sure.

I'm Back and Hungrier Than Ever!

2011-07-23T15:57:00.008-06:00

Sorry about the long absence. I have had quite the past month. I got to go on a vacation!!! Not to rub it in or anything, but I might have gone to a little place called Maui, Hawaii. No big deal. Ha.

No, I am NOT trying to rub it in at all. I mean, all we did was lay on the beach, go on dolphin hunting cruises, eat dinner at a luau, watch gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, go to dinner magic show theaters, and eat amazing foods. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

This is me and my friend Loree just sitting at an amazing French Pastry/Crepe cafe. Nothing too exciting :). Sorry I don't have more pictures to share. I actually dropped my camera in some water on the second day we were there. Yeah, I actually wasn't all that surprised. Luckily, I aired my camera out and by the last day there, it was working again!!! Yay. Just another day in the unpredictable life of a clumsy dietitian.

Ok, so my friend Loree has been to Maui several times and she introduced me to a little thing called coconut syrup. It pretty much changed my life. We found bottles of it at all the tourist stores. However, we couldn't buy it because we only had carry-ons that we brought and that dang liquid/gel rule at the airport. BUT, we found a POWDERED version of it that you just mix with water. I couldn't resist. So, I used the recipe that Loree taught me and we made in Hawaii. It isn't really anything to fancy, but I love French Toast and I wanted to share this. Honestly, I don't know how available coconut syrup is here, but there is some recipes online if you wanna give this combination a whirl.

So, to make this french toast, I just used eggs, milk and sugar for the dipping mixture, used bread and whipped up some French Toast just like usual. Then you chop macadamia nuts, slice bananas and get you some coconut syrup. Then you just top the French Toast with the other ingredients and eat your heart out. They look a little something like this:

Yummy :)

Pineapple Upside-Down Corn Cake

2011-06-18T19:19:00.004-06:00

So, I wasn't going to blog this recipe because I didn't feel like my blog would be missing anything without it, but then I realized that I had a funny story to share. So, I made this and brought it into work. I tried it in the morning before heading upstairs to see my patient and I was sadly disappointed in it. I kinda wanted to cry. Of course, all of my sweet coworkers told me how much they liked it. So I moved on. Well, after lunch, my manager walks into the office and says. "So, I tried your cake and you must be disappointed. Not your best work ever." Now, some people might think that this is heartless, but I love that my boss is brutally honest. It made me laugh. The really frosting on the cake was when I asked my manager what she wanted me to bake her for her birthday and she said "Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, just not that one that you brought in last time."

I do want to add a disclaimer that a few healthier of the dietitians actually wanted the recipe because they liked it. SO CONFUSED.

Pineapple Upside-Down Corn Cake

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 fresh pineapple—peeled, quartered lengthwise, cored and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup stone-ground whole grain cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. In a 9-inch cast-iron skillet, heat 1 Tbsp butter and 3 Tbsp brown sugar over medium heat, stirring, until melted. Add the pineapple and cook until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Arrange the pineapple decoratively in the pan.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar. In a small bowl, combine the applesauce and remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Beat in the eggs. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, add the applesauce mixture and stir just until incorporated. Spread the batter gently and evenly on top of the pineapple in the skillet. Bake until springy to the touch, about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly, loosen the cake from the pan and invert onto a platter.

Taste ** I didn't like it. Was too dense and tasted undercooked. I might have undercooked it, but I don't know. I don't actually know what it is supposed to taste like. Maybe it is SUPPOSED to be nasty.

What I learned: I guess everyone has different taste...

Cherry-Almond Vanilla Cupcakes

2011-06-18T19:02:00.003-06:00

So, not to mock my fellow dietitians OPENLY on my blog or anything, but what is the first thing you think of when you seen the picture of these cupcakes (see below)??? Well, one of the dietitians walked into the office yesterday, took one look at the cupcakes and said "What kind of cupcakes are they?" I mean, I guess it's a legitimate question...if you weren't a food expert :). I might have ridiculed her for at least 10 minutes about that. Then, every time someone walked into the office, I had them "guess" what kind of cupcakes they were. I would say that more people guess correctly than not.

Cherry-Almond Vanilla Cupcakes

1/2 cup butter
4 egg whites
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup maraschino cherry juice
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
12 maraschino cherries, halved
1 recipe Cherry-almond Butter Frosting
Maraschino cherries with stems (optional)

1. Allow butter and egg whites to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, line twenty-four 2 1/2 inch muffin cups with paper bake cups. In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In a 2-cup glass measuring cup combine buttermilk and cherry juice; set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with a electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, vanilla and almond extract; beat until combined. Add egg whites, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to beaten mixture, beating on low speed after each just until combined.

3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Use the back of a spoon to smooth out batter in cups. Press a cherry half into batter in each cup.

4. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touches. Cool cupcakes in muffin cups on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from muffin cups. Cool completely on wire racks.

5. Using a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip, pipe Cherry-Almond Butter Frosting over cupcakes. If desired, top with cherries with stems.

Cherry-Almond Butter Frosting

Allow 1/2 cup butter to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add 1 cup powdered sugar, beating well. Beat in 3 Tbsp maraschino cherry juice or milk and 1/2 tsp almond extract. Gradually beat in 3 cups additional powdered sugar. If necessary, beat in additional juice or milk, 1 tsp at a time, until frosting reaches piping consistency. Makes 2 cups.

Taste ****1/2 These were pretty yummy, and they looked pretty fancy for how easy they were to make. I overbaked mine a little bit (of course, I mess up at least one thing in each recipe I make...but that is what learning is about, isn't it?).

What I learned: Cherries with stems have more purpose in life than giving us an opportunity to show off for the opposite sex by tying the stems in a knot with our tongue. :)

Grilled Tomatillo Chicken

2011-06-18T18:59:00.004-06:00

Ok, I guess it is time for me to blog another legitimate entrée. I have cooked with tomatillos I think once or twice. My first experience EVER with tomatillos was at a restaurant, though. I don’t know if you have been to Café Rio. If not, your life is awful. They have burritos, salads and amazing tres leches cake. I am NOT a salad eater, but they have amazing barbeque pork salad. I have actually blogged a copy cat salad about a year ago. So, the salad dressing is about 75% of the reason that I love this salad. It is a creamy tomatillo dressing that just takes this salad to the next level. Unfortunately, straight up raw tomatillos aren’t particularly delicious in and of themselves. They are sour and pretty hard. They are pretty cute though. They are little green tomatoes covered with green husks. I guess the kind of remind me a little of cabbage patch kids dolls. Um…moving on.

Grilled Tomatillo Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
4 slices provolone cheese
1 medium onion, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
6 tomatillos, husks removed, chopped
¼ cup lime juice
6 pickled jalapeno slices, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ cup minced fresh cilantro
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Hot cooked rice
Sour cream, optional

If grilling the chicken, coat grill rack with cooking spray before starting the grill. Grill chicken, covered over medium heat or broil 4 inches from the heat for 4-7 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 170 degrees. Top with cheese; cook 1 minute longer or until cheese is melted.

In a large skillet, sauté onion in oil until tender. Add the tomatillos, lime juice, jalapenos and garlic. Cook 3 minutes longer. Stir in the cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper. Serve tomatillo mixture and chicken with rice, dollop with sour cream if desired.

Taste **** The sauce is INSANE with flavor. The sour of the lime and tomatillos and then the spice of the jalapenos. AHHH. It was pretty dang intense. I think it would have been a little bit better with sour cream, but I didn’t have any :( Next time. I liked that it had the cheese, though. It added another food group and helped “cool off” some of the other flavors.

Health ****1/2 Basically the only concerns are the salt and the cheese. Everything else is pretty fresh and the chicken is a low fat chicken.

What I learned: Well, I always miss part of the recipes I make because I don’t read all of the instructions. I missed the memo to cut the chicken and mix the sauce, rice and chicken. Instead, I just left the chicken whole and placed it on top of the rice and then covered it with the sauce. I think it would have tasted a lot more balanced and the flavors would have meshed better if they had been combined than by leaving the different elements separate.

Citrus Goat Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce

2011-06-18T18:54:00.003-06:00

I actually made this recipe probably over a month ago. One of my friends at work gave it to me to try…and this was before he even realized that I had a mad, insatiable love of goat cheese. So, I was just besides myself with excitement to try this puppy. I have actually decided that I love goat cheese so much that I am thinking about trading in my dog for a goat…I mean she’s cute…but.

Citrus Goat Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce

3 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
1 ½ pounds cream cheese
2 cups sour cream
10 ½ ounces fresh goat cheese (plus more for putting on crackers)
1 ½ cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp orange zest
1 Tbsp Grand Marnier
1 cup strawberry jam

Bring the cheeses to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9 or 10 inch springform cake pan with butter or cooking spray. In a small bowl, blend crackers crumbs and butter and press into the cake pan. Bake for 7-8 minutes to lightly brown crust.

In a mixer or with an electric handheld mixer, blend cream cheese only for 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of sour cream, goat cheese and sugar, and continue beating for 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, lemon juice, vanilla and orange zest, and continue beating for 1 minute.

Pour cheesecake batter into cake batter into cake pan and bake for 45 minutes, reduce heat to 300 degrees and continue baking 30 minutes or until the cake is set. Remove and allow to totally cool before the next step.

Mix the Grand Marnier with 1 cup of sour cream and spread evenly on top of the cake. Mix the strawberry jam with some water to the desired consistency for the sauce.

Cut cake into 14-16 slices and pour sauce over each slice.

Taste **** The flavor of this cheesecake was AMAZING. It was very sweet and not your average cheesecake. HOWEVER, I had some issues when it came to texture. When I tried slicing, the cheesecake ended up crumbling apart and turned into a HUGE mess. I think I would have had better luck with just grabbing a fork and going at it.

What I learned: I also had trouble with the recipe making TOO much filling for the pan. I made the crust (and pushed it part way up the sides since the recipe didn’t specify. So, when I finished the filling cheesecake part, I ended up only being able to fit about ¾ of the mixture in the pan. Then, I am not sure how that would affect the cooking time with the cheesecake and if that was part of the issue with the texture. One of the cooks at work did mention that maybe if the cheesecake had been cold when we cut it, things would have gone a lot smoother. Oh, and I also didn't use the alcohol in this recipe. The mixture of sour cream and strawberry jam was AMAZING. It could very easily be used as a topping for a cake or french toast.

Chocolate Chip-Cranberry Cookies

2011-06-18T18:48:00.003-06:00

So, I have FIVE recipes to blog. Lucky you. I am hoping to get them all done tonight. Like a blogging marathon. It’s a good thing that I carb loaded before I started :) This recipe I got from a cookbook that our souz chef at the hospital let me borrow. He was telling me that he would bring me in a recipe and I kept constantly hounding him so bad that he finally brought in this amazing cookbook. Then, I had our Diet Tech look through the book and choose what recipe I should make to bring into work. And this is the little beauty that she chose.

Chocolate Chip-Cranberry Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup wheat flake cereal
1 cup white whole-wheat flour or whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup sliced almonds
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup dried cranberries, chopped
Chocolate kisses, unwrapped

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, then the milk, beating until combined. (The milk will not quite combine with the butter or the mixture will look a little separated, but this is fine.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the oats, wheat germ, cereal, pastry flour, almonds, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the chocolate chips and cranberries.

4. Add oat mixture to the milk mixture, and mix on the lowest speed until thoroughly combined. Use a Tbsp measure or small ice cream scoop to scoop the dough onto lightly oiled baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between each scoop. Press a chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie. Bake for 14 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Taste ***1/2 These cookies were pretty good. Nothing outstanding. One of the employees that ate a cookie and she said it was really good. Then I told her that it was relatively healthy and she was really impressed that they tasted so good.... They weren’t exactly moist and chewy cookies, but they were good considering all of the healthy substitutions there were. Some of the other healthy nut :) dietitians really liked these, so I guess maybe you have to be a health nut to be super impressed with these. Just saying.

Health **** These are actually not that bad. Usually I don’t really do health ratings on desserts, but these are pretty dang healthy. There is so good whole grain in there. Almonds are pretty stellar as well. There are, of course, calories in these, though, so be careful to use moderation.

What I learned: Stick with real cookies if you want to REALLY kill your sugar jones.

Quinoa with Spice-Roasted Shrimp and Pistou

2011-06-11T21:37:00.006-06:00

So, I don't often tell random stories about my life, but I think this is an interesting glimpse into my life. I lose things A LOT. Like, everyday I call my mom telling her that I lost such and such and I needed this or that In fact, both of my parents have said at one time or another "Megan, if I could change one thing about you, it would be the fact that you ALWAYS lose things." Now, I would be a lot more troubled about this, except for the fact that I have wicked strong prayers and amazing good luck. I think it comes from all of those years of looking for things. I am getting pretty good at it. In fact, one time I was running late because I couldn't find my keys and I found them in...the laundry basket??? Really, who does that. Anyways, I went to the movie with a friend last night and about 2 minutes into the movie I realize that I don't know where my phone is. So I walk out of the theater and spend the first 15 minutes of the movie looking for my phone. Then, I finally gave up and went back into the theater. I couldn't look in there on the floor because it was so dark..and nasty. So, I basically stressed the WHOLE movie because I didn't know where my phone was. Traumatic, I tell you. Not to mention that the movie didn't make a ton of sense since I missed the first 15 minutes. Well, needless to say I found it...because I am me and amazing. So, on the way home I was explaining to my friend my issue of losing things. You wanna know what she said to me? She said "It's ok, your life is basically one big treasure hunt." Brilliant, I tell you. So, now when I lose things, I will tell my mother "No, nothing is lost, I am just searching for treasure."

On a more focused and related-to-food topic, I figured that as an RD, I really needed to check out this quinoa. It has fiber, it's high in protein, gluten free...it is basically a SUPER FOOD. As in, I am wonder woman so I eat Quinoa so i can fight evil. So, this recipe is pretty much going to make me live forever.

Quinoa with Spice-Roasted Shrimp and Pistou

1/2 pound medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crumbled
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, chopped
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 cup canola oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup (packed) basil leaves
2 Tbsp flat-leaf parsley
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary leaves
1 1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 garlic clove, smashed
2 Tbsp freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed
2 1/4 cups water

1.In a resealable plastic bag, toss the shrimp with the garlic and onion powders, paprika, oregano, fennel seeds, dried thyme, 1 tablespoon of the oil and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper until coated. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2.Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425°. In a food processor, pulse the basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme leaves, garlic and cheese. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil; puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

3.In a saucepan, combine the quinoa, water and the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Season lightly with salt and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat until the quinoa is tender, about 15 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl; keep warm.

4.On a baking sheet, roast the shrimp for about 8 minutes, until curled and pink. Cut the shrimp into thirds and add to the quinoa with the pistou. Toss well, season with salt and pepper and serve.

Taste ***1/2 Not my finest work ever. I have never had quinoa before, so I had no idea what it tasted like. I couldn't figure out why this recipe had SO MANY herbs in it. I thought they were going a bit overboard. UNTIL I tried the quinoa. Now it all makes sense. The trick to eating quinoa is to make sure that it does not, in fact, TASTE like quinoa. I don't know how effectively this recipe did that. Our diet tech at work did say it was the best quinoa recipe that she had ever tried. Also, I am about 90% sure that I forgot to add the cheese at the end, so maybe that would have helped.

Health ***** Pretty healthy. There is just some salt but overall very healthy.

What I learned: Quinoa is...interesting.

Swedish Almond Cardamom Stars

2011-06-09T21:36:00.005-06:00

I was pretty excited to try this recipe. I don't know that I have ever had anything with cardamom in it...at least not a cookie. Seriously? How can you not want to try these puppies? I guess the fact that a container of ground cardamom costs anywhere from 10-15 dollars might be a deterrent. HOWEVER, for some reason that I cannot for the life of me recall, I had some cardamom POWDER on hand? Really? What is that? These just sounded like a very sophisticated cookie. I don't like rolling out cookies very much, but these were pretty much worth it. Almost in a life-changing way. Ok, so maybe I am being overly-dramatic. Just trying to add some extra excitement to my blog. I like to captivate my readers :)

Swedish Almond Cardamom Stars

9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup almond paste, crumbled
1 Tbsp butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
3 Tbsp canola oil

Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp 2% reduced-fat milk
Preparation

1. To prepare cookies, weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, 1 cup sugar, baking soda, cardamom, and salt in a food processor; process until blended. Add almond paste and butter; process until blended. Combine juice and oil. With processor on, slowly pour juice mixture through food chute; process until dough forms a ball.

2. Divide dough in half. Working with 1 portion at a time, gently press dough into a 4-inch square on heavy-duty plastic wrap. Cover with additional plastic wrap. Roll each half of dough, still covered, to a 1/4-inch thickness. Chill 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 375°.

4. Working with 1 portion of dough at a time, remove top sheet of plastic wrap; turn dough over. Remove remaining plastic wrap. Cut with a 2 1/2-inch star-shaped cookie cutter into 24 stars; place stars 2 inches apart on 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375° for 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool on wire racks. Repeat procedure with remaining half of dough.

5. To prepare icing, combine 2 cups sugar and milk, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Spread about 1 teaspoon icing over each warm cookie; chill 1 hour.

(and yes, I am fully aware that there are not, in fact, stars. I know me some shapes. I didn't have star cookie cutters. It was either hearts or Halloween or Christmas. I think I chose well).

Taste **** These were really fun. I liked the texture. I rolled them out a little on the thicker side, and I really liked them. The flavor was a little more subtle than I would have liked, but the flavor that was there was very good. And I am pretty sure that I ate at least a quarter of the dough before I baked them. The dough was amazing!

What I learned: When I used the cardamom powder, I started off using just a little less than it called for since I figured that it would be more concentrated in powder form. I ended up adding more when the dough was mixed, though, because I couldn't really taste the cardamom powder. I would probably have added even more just to be a little more obvious. I also didn't really like the glaze. I would add some cardamom and maybe a little butter or something to give it more flavor and depth. I felt like the glaze almost sucked some of the flavor out of the cookie :( So sad for the cookies.

Balsamic Pork Cutlets

2011-06-09T21:14:00.002-06:00

This is another one of the recipes that my mom got me. We didn't have time to make it together, though, so I had to make it after she had headed home. It was sure lonely cooking without my little adorable soux chef. Or maybe she is the executive chef. She is the one that finds all the good recipes. I decided that I need to eat more meat (a constant battle for me...I am too lazy to make dishes with meat in them) so I decided this might be a good one to give a whirl. I bet you can guess what else about this dish made me excited to try it??? It begins with a "b" and ends with a "alsamic."

Oh oh oh..and funny story. So, I am really used to typing the word health. When you are a dietitian, you get pretty used to that word. Well, I was entering snacks for one of my patients last week and wrote that they wanted a "health" shake. I got all kinds of grief from the room service call center over that one. What? Just trying to be "heathy" hahaha. Get it??? Crack myself up.

Balsamic Pork Cutlets

4 boneless pork chops, about 5 ounces each, pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
1/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small red sweet pepper, seeds removed and chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can beef broth
1 can (6.5 ounces) mushroom pieces, drained
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup orzo, cooked following package directions

1. Coat pork chops in flour. Reserve unused flour. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook 2 minutes per side. Remove to a plate.

2. Add onion to skillet and cook 1 minute, stirring so onion doesn't burn. Add red pepper and garlic and cook 1 minute. Stir 1 Tbsp of the reserved flour into broth and add to skillet; stir in mushrooms, vinegar, parsley, basil, black pepper and salt. Bring to simmer.

3. Add pork; cover and simmer on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, turning after 5 minutes.

Taste *** Not my favorite dish ever. I think the red pepper was a little too over-powering. It was the only flavor that I could really taste. Which is an issue since I don't like red peppers. Not very much, anyways. I like eating them by themselves, but I feel like anytime fresh pepper is in a dish, it cancels out any other flavors that are there. This dish might be better without the pepper.

Health ****1/2 Again, just the issue of Sodium. It's hard to find good recipes and yummy food that don't have at least some sodium in them. I should work on that, huh?

What I learned: Again, I would make this without red peppers. Just a personal preference. I also used fresh mushrooms and just added them right after the onion and waited until they were cooked pretty well through. They finished cooking throughout the rest of the process. Gotta love mushrooms. Nothing like a fungus to make you feel happy.

Brie-and-Apple Spinach Salad

2011-05-30T21:47:00.003-06:00

So, my mom and I ALWAYS end up cooking when she comes and visits. So, even though we only had 2 free evenings during her entire visit, we found time to make this beauty. My mom found this recipe and brought it to try out. She has this amazing talent of finding the yummiest recipes. They are ones that I probably wouldn’t look twice at, but they always end up tasting good. I was pretty stoked to try this one…even though it WAS a salad :)

Brie-and-Apple Spinach Salad

¼ cup olive oil
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon
¼ cup dried cranberries
1 bag (10 oz) spinach leaves
1 Gala or Granny Smith apple, cored and thinly sliced
¼ lb wedge Brie cheese, sliced
¼ cup smoked whole almonds

1. In microwave-safe bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar and mustard. Stir in cranberries

2. Microwave 15 seconds, or until cranberries plump. Wish slotted spoon, remove cranberries

3. Place spinach on serving platter. Arrange apples and Brie slices in a fan-shaped pattern. Top with cranberries and smoked almonds. Drizzle with warm dressing

Taste **** This recipe had a lot of fun flavors combined. I found myself loving the Brie…but mostly because I like Brie cheese. I feel like a stronger flavor of cheese might have upped the taste factor of this dish (although I can’t put a finger on what would have worked well). I loved the variety of textures, though. The nuts were crunchy as well as the apple, then the cranberries were chewy and the cheese creamy. So, um…try it out!

Health Factor ****1/2 This is pretty dang amazing for you. There is some fat obviously, but the only unhealthy fat in it was from the cheese.

What I learned: Cutting and putting together salads isn’t really difficult and you don’t learn too much. The only thing I want to put out there is that we replaced the white wine vinegar with rice vinegar and it still turned out pretty darn good. Oh, and we also took slivered almonds and toasted those instead of using smoked. Where the heck do you find whole smoked almonds? So confused.

Goat Cheese Pudding

2011-05-30T21:46:00.003-06:00

Um…goat cheese? If you know me at all, you know that I love me some goat cheese. I can’t describe what it is that I like about it so much. Oh, and I guess I should apologize for my hiatus over the past couple of weeks. It’s just been crazy and my mom came to visit this last weekend and we went to Spokane and visited my sister and her family. Um…other than that, I am not exactly sure why I have neglected you all so bad. I have like five different…nope, make that six…recipes to blog about. So hold onto your hats. This is gonna be intense.

OH, and this is the first time I have ever used real vanilla bean. I had never actually even SEEN one in person. So, I was at Fred Meyer feeling lucky, and I asked one of the employees if they had vanilla beans. She said no, but then I turned around and while I was looking at some spices…found A JAR OF VANILLA BEANS!!! Like 10 feet away from the employee that told me they didn’t have any. I am not judging…I am just calling her out on my blog. That’s all. I hope that she has a back-up plan other than working at Fred Meyer.

Goat Cheese Puddings

2 cups milk
¾ cup heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
¼ cup honey
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
½ cup sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 – 10 oz log fresh goat cheese, softened (~1 ¼ cups)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ tsp salt
Fresh raspberries for serving

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk with the cream, vanilla bean and seeds. Bring to a simmer. Remove the saucepan from the heat, cover and let stand for 30 minutes. Strain the milk, discarding the vanilla bean.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk the whole eggs with the yolks, sugar and cornstarch until smooth. Gradually whisk in the warm milk mixture. Pour the contents of the bowl into the saucepan. Bring to a boil over moderately high heat, whisking constantly until thickened, 1 minute.

3. Transfer the custard to a blender. Add the goat cheese, butter, lemon juice and salt and blend until smooth. Pour the custard into eight 3/4-cup ramekins and refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour. Top with raspberries and a light drizzle of honey and serve.

Taste ****1/2 I LOVED this recipe. It was rich and smooth and creamy and had amazing flavor. It was goat cheesey, but not extreme. It was still a sweet dessert, it just had a fun tang. I loved the comfort of eating it. Highly recommend it. It would be a great ending to a fancy dinner.

What I learned: Vanilla beans make a HUGE difference in flavor…And goat cheese is still amazing.

Portobello Mushrooms Stuffed with Spinach and Goat Cheese

2011-05-14T15:17:00.003-06:00

There are SO many reasons I chose to make this recipe. I love mushrooms...and goat cheese...and balsamic vinegar...and stuffed mushrooms that contain those ingredients. Nothing else exciting to share at the moment. On to the main event.

Portobello Mushrooms Stuffed with Spinach and Goat Cheese

1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup Marsala (optional)
4 large fresh thyme sprigs
6 large portobello mushrooms

Filling:
1 10-ounce package frozen spinach
1 pound button mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped sweet onion (such as Maui or Vidalia)
3 garlic cloves, pressed
1/4 cup plus 6 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup unseasoned dry breadcrumbs
1 5-ounce package soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled

For marinated mushrooms:
Whisk first 6 ingredients and Marsala, if desired, in medium bowl for marinade. Stir in thyme sprigs. Cut stems from mushrooms and place stems in processor. Arrange mushrooms, gill side up, in 15x10x2-inch glass baking dish. Pour marinade over mushrooms and marinate 4 hours, turning to coat occasionally.

For filling:
Cook spinach according to package directions. Drain; cool. Using hands, squeeze excess water from spinach. Place in small bowl.

Add half of button mushrooms to processor with portobello mushroom stems. Using on/off turns, process until coarsely chopped. Transfer to medium bowl and repeat with remaining mushrooms. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Add onion; sauté until beginning to brown, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and stir 30 seconds. Add chopped mushrooms, sprinkle with salt, and increase heat to high. Cook until almost all liquid evaporates, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Season mushroom mixture with salt and pepper. Transfer to large bowl; cool to room temperature.

Add spinach, 1/4 cup Parmesan, and breadcrumbs to mushroom mixture; toss to distribute evenly. Add goat cheese and toss gently to distribute evenly. Season filling to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 hours ahead. Cover filling and let stand at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Transfer marinated mushrooms, with some marinade still clinging, to rimmed baking sheet, gill side down. Roast until beginning to soften, about 15 minutes. Turn mushrooms over. Divide filling among mushrooms. Sprinkle remaining 6 tablespoons Parmesan cheese over and bake until heated through and cheese begins to brown, about 15 minutes.

Taste ***1/2 This had a ton of potential, but I think a few little tweaks would take it to the next level.

Health **** Not too bad. Obviously there is a good amount of sodium in there with the soy sauce. There are lots of veggies, though.

What I learned: I thougth this recipe turned out a little too salty. Next time I would actually use reduced-sodium soy sauce (I used regular) and not add any additional salt. Also, there was WAY too much filling. I would cut the amount of button mushrooms in half. I also could have used more of the cheese flavor. I would have added a little extra goat cheese or even add some cream cheese. Obviously, it was good enough to finish it all off as leftovers.

Caramel Brownies on Steroids

2011-05-07T18:58:00.002-06:00

So, growing up, my mom would frequently make her famous caramel brownies...for other people. Our family very rarely had caramel brownies of our very own. My mom would always make them for neighbors or people at church. SOOO...I basically could sometimes scrounge up a corner of the brownies which was deemed worthy to give to other people outside of our family. Even the corners were amazing, though.

I make this recipe a lot of friends and they are always a HUGE hit. Well, we had an intern leaving this week, so I asked her what she liked and she said chocolate and caramel. BING. I knew right away what I wanted to make. However, I wanted to try a different twist on them. I had leftover pretzels from a recipe I did months ago (I am not a fan of pretzels unless they are combined with chocolate or peanut butter...hhmmm...wheels turning). So, I decided to layer in pretzels and do half chocolate chips and half peanut butter chips. So, I am going to give you the original recipe and then explain my alterations below in the "what I learned" section.

Caramel Brownies

2/3 cup evaporated milk
50 caramels (or one bag in the candy aisle)
1 pkg German chocolate cake mix
3/4 cup melted margarine or butter
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (oops, I....forgot.....to add those)
2 cups milk chocolate chips

Melt caramels on low heat with 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Mix together cake mix, 1/3 cup evaporated milk, margarine and walnuts.

Place half the cake mix batter in greased 9x13 inch pan. Bake 15-18 minutes at 350 degrees.

Pour melted caramels/milk mixture onto nearly baked brownies. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Spoon remaining batter on top. Bake an additional 15-18 minutes. Cool and cut.

Taste ***** Even just the original caramel brownies are a five star recipe...these tweaked browines are even more amazing. I am not sure that it would be legal for me to give them 6 stars though....

What I learned: I followed the original recipe up until you pour the caramel on top of the nearly baked brownies. Then, I put ~1 cup of crushed pretzels on top of that. Then, I combined 1 cup peanut butter chips and 1 cup milk chocolate chips and sprinkled those on top of pretzels. Then, I sprinkled another layer of ~1 cup of crushed pretzels. Then, put the remaining batter on top and finish baking for 15-18 minutes. See, super easy, but it takes these to a whole other level.

Avocado and Apple Salad

2011-05-04T15:06:00.005-06:00

Yes, that is right!!! You read that correctly. I made a SALAD...with vegetables and everything. I don't know what got into me. Actually, I do. I am going to Hawaii in less than two months!!! I got this adorable new swimsuit...and I want to feel good while wearing it (I know, I am such a girl :). Also, I decided that being a dietitian, I should ATTEMPT to consume vegetables on a more regular basis. It's great (insert sarcasm here). But I realize that I should get more vegetables in than just 3 a week. The other part of my "resolution" with nutrition is that I can only have 1 sweet a day. REALLY? Most people might not think that is a big deal, but for someone who has at LEAST 3 goodies a day it's a pretty big deal. Today is day 3 of this crap and it has been the 3 longest days of my life. Tell me it's going to get easier...at least this salad was yummy.

Avocado and Apple Salad

2/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp finely shredded lime peel
2 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp snipped fresh mint
1/2 tsp salt
2 5-ounce packages (about 12 cups) baby romaine lettuce
2 medium green apples, cored and thinly sliced
2 medium avocados, seeded, peeled and sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings
4 ounces queso fresco, ricotta salata, or farmer cheese, crumbled
Fresh ground black pepper

For dressing, in a screw-top jar, combine oil, lime peel, lime juice, honey, mint and salt. Cover and shake well. Set aside.

Arrange romaine on a large platter. Top with apples, avocados and onion. Shake dressing, drizzle over salad. Sprinkle with cheese and pepper.

Taste ****1/2 This salad has a TON of flavor. The best part by far is the dressing. The flavor that stuck out the most and really made the salad worthwhile is the mint. It totally took the salad to the next level (ok, maybe I am being over-dramatic, but it's pretty good). I think all the flavors of the salad really combine well and it is very unique.

Health ***** The cheese obviously is probably not the best for you, but there isn't that much in the recipe. You need something with a little substance in this recipe. Other than that and the salt, you are good to go.

What I learned: I would almost double the amount of dressing. I don't usually drown my salads in dressing, but I still ended up a little short. I also would have added just a little less red onion. It was just a little overpowering.

Go ahead, lose those inches ;)

Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies

2011-05-01T19:58:00.005-06:00

So, while my effort for oatmeal cookies were good last week, I wanted to try a more traditional version of these goodies. I actually found a recipe on my leftover cinnamon chips, so I decided to give that one a whirl. If I have learned nothing else in life...any recipe that you find on food packages are AMAZING. SO, although cinnamon chips made these not quite "traditional" they were definitely more of a comfort food than the ones I made last week.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2-1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1-2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY'S Cinnamon Chips
3/4 cup raisins

1 Heat oven to 350°F.

2 Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in bowl until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Combine flour and baking soda; add to butter mixture, beating well. Stir in oats, cinnamon chips and raisins (batter will be stiff). Drop by heaping teaspoons unto ungreased cookie sheet.

3 Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. About 4 dozen.

BAR VARIATION: Spread batter into lightly greased 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Bake at 350°F. for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool; cut into bars. About 3 dozen bars.

Taste ****1/2 These were definitely more of the comforting oatmeal cookie that I needed. They have a great soft texture and the flavor with the cinnamon chips is amazing.

What I learned: The biggest thing was that I took these out of the oven when they were still really soft, but they ended up turning out perfectly when they cooled off. They also looked burned when I took them out just because of the coloring on them. However, they were most definitely not overcooked. They were just plain amazing.

Lemon Tart

2011-05-01T19:57:00.004-06:00

Tarts scare me. Something about having to make a crust and have it be an even thickness and formed to a tart pan. THEN, you have to worry about the FILLING. Just makes me shake in my boots. However, one of my coworker's birthdays was last this weekend, so I told her I would bake her something and bring it in on Friday. I asked her what she wanted and she just said she wanted something with lemon. Well, this was the most lemony recipe that I could find and I decided that I should give tarts a whirl. I even went out and bought a tart pan so I could be all official and legitimate. Let's just say that I am dang proud of myself.

Lemon Tart

3 lemons
2/3 cup blanched almonds, toasted
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup plus 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 pinches salt
10 Tbsp unsalted butter, 4 Tbsp and 6 Tbsp cut separately into small pieces and chilled
4 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 tsp almond extract
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Finely grate enough lemon peel to yield 1 Tbsp. Halve the lemons. Using an electric citrus juicer, ream the lemons to yield 1/2 cup juice.

Grease the removable bottom of a 9-inch tart pan; place the pan in the freezer. Using a food processor, coarsely chop the almonds. Add the flour, 3 Tbsp granulated sugar and 1 pinch salt and process until the nuts are finely ground. Add 4 Tbsp butter, 1 whole egg and the almond extract and pulse until a soft dough forms.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Transfer the dough to the chilled tart pan and press into the bottom and up the sides. Freeze for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, whisk together the remaining 2/3 cup granulated sugar, 3 whole eggs and the egg yolks. Whisk in the lemon juice, lemon peel and remaining 1 pinch salt and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 6 Tbsp butter until melted.

Transfer the tart shell to a baking sheet and bake until the edges are golden, about 25 minutes. Pour in the lemon filling and bake for 10 minutes. Let cool, then dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving.

Taste*****No joke, just call me Bobby Flay. I am now a tart master. This recipe was AMAZING. The lemon flavor was strong, but not overwhelming. I don't remember exactly how fabulous it was, but my coworkers LOVED it...shocker. It was a really good recipe, though. I highly recommend it. It's a great dessert for summer...which if I am not mistaken is just around the corner.

What I learned: Not much. I followed the recipe and it turned out pretty dang amazing. Don't be jealous of my skills, just be happy for me.

Lemon-Artichoke Risotto

2011-04-28T19:34:00.003-06:00

So, I don't know that I can technically say that I made THIS recipe. I thought that I had all the ingredients, but ended up having to substitute what feels like half of the ingredients with other alternatives. However, I am super proud of myself because this still turned out pretty amazing. But really, what else would I possibly expect from my level of skills? (obviously I am recovering my confidence with food again...thank goodness).

Lemon-Artichoke Risotto

2 cups chicken broth
4 Tbsp butter
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cups arborio rice
1 1/4 cups drained chopped canned artichoke hearts
Grated peel of 1 lemon plus 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Salt and pepper
2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Directions:In a saucepan, bring the broth and 4 cups water to a boil, cover and keep at a simmer.

In a large saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and stir until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes.

Stir in 1 cup of the broth mixture, bring to a simmer and cook, stirring, until the liquid is absorbed, 2 to 3 minutes. Maintaining a low simmer, continue to add the broth mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring frequently and allowing the rice to absorb the liquid. Cook until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.

In the last 3 minutes of cooking, add the artichoke hearts, lemon peel, lemon juice and the remaining 2 Tbsp butter; season with salt and pepper. Stir in the cheese, parsley and walnuts.

Sorry, I don't have a picture. I left my camera at work the night I made this. It didn't really look that pretty, though since I cut out some of the color elements (basically the parsley since it is the devil).

Taste ***** Loved it!!! Had a great flavor and it was such a comfort food with the warmth and texture and yumminess. I wanted to eat it all gone.

Health Factor ***1/2 Not too bad. There is sodium in the broth, the rice is refined grain and the cheese and butter. However, I don't feel like any one of these elements makes this dish unhealthy.

What I learned: So, when I made this, the yellow onion I had bought went bad by the time I could get around to making this recipe. So, I had to use a red onion that I had on hand. I also used orzo instead of arborio, but the whole cooking process was the same. I also noticed that my Parmesan cheese that I had was actually moldy...ew. So, I ended up grating Parmigiano-Reggiano instead (which wikipedia tells me that Parmesan is just a wanna-be version of Parmigiano-Reggiano...and wikipedia is TOTALLY legit). So, I also cut out the parsley and I ran short on walnuts so I did half walnuts and half toasted almonds. I thought both were a REALLY good addition to the recipe.

Oatmeal Cookies

2011-04-28T17:15:00.003-06:00

So, for my bread pudding recipe that I made for my last post, I also bought cinnamon chips to add, but ended up chickening out at the last second. So, I had these cinnamon chips just sitting on my counter, arousing my curiousity constantly. What to do with them? Well, I decided that what could be better in oatmeal cookies than cinnamon chips? Genius. You might as well just give me my own cooking show now. So, I perused the internet to find the oatmeal cookie recipe of my dreams. I found these online and I am a nerd and have wheat germ on hand, so I decided to give it a try.

Oatmeal Cookies

Whisk 1 1/4 cups brown sugar, 1 egg and 2 egg whites in a bowl. Whisk in 1/4 cup vegetable oil, stir in 1 1/2 cups rolled oats, 1 cup whole-wheat flour, 1/2 cup wheat germ and 1 tsp each baking soda and salt. Add 1/2 cup chocolate chunks and 1/4 cup each raisins and walnuts. Drop large spoonfuls onto lined baking sheets and gently flatten, bake at 350 degrees 12-15 minutes.

Final Product

Taste **** These have some major potential. See the "what I learned" section for tips and what I did to modify the recipe. The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of is the fact that on day 2 of these cookie's lives, they turned pretty dry. I would recommend a glass of milk if they get to that point.

Health Factor **** Usually I don't bother with health on desserts and cookies, but these are actually supposed to be healthy...at least that what it seems like by looking at the recipe. It has whole wheat flour instead of refined white, which is a bonus. I also used old fashioned oats, which are more substantial than quick oats. I am not sure about the point of wheat germ, but I will eventually google it. There, eat your heart out.

What I learned: I added a pinch or two of ground cloves in the dough when I was mixing it. I also added probably 1/2 cup or so of cinnamon chips...and a scant amount of raisins. Unfortunately, I was scared to death of this dough. I just couldn't see it working out well, which scared me a little after my bread pudding experience. So, if I made these again, I would pile on the cinnamon chips and raisins. I think they would have been way more interesting. I actually ended up melting some semi-sweet chocolate chips and drizzling it on top (shout out to my friend Loree who showed me how to make a piping bag out of parchment paper) just to add another element to make them more exciting. The cinnamon chips were also hard to distinguish in the cookies, so I don't know that I would even bother next time.

Panettone Bread Pudding with Cinnamon Syrup

2011-04-27T15:31:00.004-06:00

So, I had a traumatic experience last week. I had this amazing-sounding bread pudding recipe with french bread, blueberries, cream, sugar, white chocolate chips....the WORKS! I mean, how could I possibly go wrong with that? Well, I got all excited, prepped my bread pudding (which looked something akin to perfection) and then stuck it in the oven. I did my thing for the 50 minutes the pudding was supposed to bake. THEN...when I took it out....it was bread and blueberry soup. So disappointing. So, long story short, I ended up cooking it a whole extra half an hour and no luck. I might have actually had to hold back some tears...and maybe said a few choice words that would probably not be wise to share on my blog.

I felt like I needed to redeem myself, so I decided to try and find another bread pudding recipe that might actually TURN OUT. So, I checked out the food network and found this bad boy. Well, I remember thinking it was odd that this recipe called for EIGHT eggs...but, who I am to question Giada, really? Well, I wouldn't call it a complete failure, but I think I am going to take a brief hiatus from bread pudding until I can build my ego back to the point where I won't have a nervous breakdown if my bread pudding fails again.

Ingredients
Cinnamon Syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp whipping cream
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Bread Pudding:
Butter
1 (1-pound) loaf panettone bread, crusts trimmed, bread cut into 1-inch cubes
8 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/4 cups sugar

To make the syrup:
Directions
Combine 1 cup of water and brown sugar in a heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil until the syrup reduces to 1 cup, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cream and cinnamon. Keep the syrup warm. (The syrup can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, then cover and refrigerate. Re-warm before serving.)

To make the bread pudding:
Lightly butter a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish. Arrange the bread cubes in prepared dish.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, cream, milk, and sugar to blend. Pour the custard over the bread cubes, and press the bread cubes gently to submerge. Let stand for 30 minutes, occasionally pressing the bread cubes into the custard mixture. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Bake until the pudding puffs and is set in the center, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly.

Spoon the bread pudding into bowls, drizzle with the warm Cinnamon Syrup, and serve.

Taste ***1/2 Ok, this might have actually tasted better than a 3 1/2 star recipe, but as far as a legitimate bread pudding, I felt like it fell a little short. It didn't have the texture of the bread. Instead, it just kind of reminded me of a custard (not surprising with all those eggs). The taste was good, but not particularly amazing. HOWEVER, the cinnamon sauce was pretty dang amazing. I might use that in the future as a syrup for french bread or waffles (but not pancakes because they are the devil).

What I learned: When I made this, I used Italian bread because I couldn't find the appropriate bread because all of the grocery stores in Boise are apparently lame. Where do you even find panettone bread? I also took some dried apples and soaked them in hot water for 10 minutes and put them on top of the bread pudding before I baked it...just to add another element to go with the cinnamon syrup. I will have to try another bread pudding recipe next time. I'll get around to it in the next few months, hopefully. Right now I can't even look at a loaf of bread without breaking into a cold sweat.

Shrimp and Tomato Pasta

2011-04-24T10:06:00.005-06:00

Here is another fish recipe from my friend's fish cookbook that she let me borrow. So, the reason that I chose this recipe was because it had one of several ingredients that-in my mind-makes a recipe good automatically. For me, anything that has balsamic vinegar in it can do no wrong. Other ingredients that make me want to make a recipe include: goat cheese, peanut butter, artichokes, cream cheese, lime and cilantro. If I am going through a cookbook or recipe magazine, pretty much any recipe that has any of those ingredients means that I MUST try it. I am sure there are more ingredients, I just can't think of anything off the top of my head. This recipe was no exception to my rule that anything with balsamic vinegar (and cilantro and lime) is amazing.

Shrimp and Tomato Pasta

1 lb large cooked shrimp. peeled and deveined
1/2 lb dried pasta
4 roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Juice of 1 lime
1 shallot, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt

1. Cook pasta according to package directions and drain. Set aside. Keep warm.

2. Combine remaining ingredients in saucepan. Mix. Heat 2-3 minutes

3. Add shrimp to sauce and heat through. Tos quickly with pasta. Serve immediately.

Final Product

Taste ***** The flavors are amazing. There isn't even a ton of salt, but the flavor really pops and it is definitely not a boring dish. There is a sweetness and tartness that I really enjoyed while eating this. My friend Loree came over for dinner when I made this and she really enjoyed it as well!!! I HIGHLY recommend this recipe.

Health Factor ***** Wait, did I actually give five stars for both taste AND health? It's like an alternate universe. BUT, it's true. There isn't much in this recipe that isn't good for you. There is only a little salt, and shrimp is pretty good for you. The only issue is the fact that the shrimp has quite a bit of cholesterol in it. However, as a Dietitian with strong beliefs about nutrition, I am going to share with you my theory about cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol really isn't that harmful for your heart. The biggest things to look out for are saturated fat and trans fat, neither of which is found in abundance in this recipe. Oh, and one other thing is that I used whole wheat linguine for this recipe which also ups the health factor.

What I learned: This recipe was pretty straight forward. The only thing I would throw out there is to make sure and use whole wheat pasta (and any style of pasta should work) to help increase your health factor.

For this recipe, Healthy = Yummy

Nutty Orange Coffee Cake

2011-04-18T18:27:00.005-06:00

So, I am a big fan of Paula Dean. She is someone I want to grow up to be like. She is who she is and doesn't apologize (I mean, how many women feel comfortable telling you to be five sticks of butter in a dish with no trace of shame on their face). So, I figured I couldn't go wrong with this recipe. I mean, it's Paula Dean, it's baked goods and it has cream cheese in it. Have to say that it's not my favorite ever, but I definitely think that some adjustments could make this pretty delicious.

Nutty Orange Coffee Cake

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tsp orange zest
2 (12 0unce) cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (10 count)
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter (c'mon Paula...only one???)
1 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
2 Tbsp fresh orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar, pecans and zest. Set aside. Separate the biscuits. Place about 3/4 tsp cream cheese in the center of each biscuit. Fold each biscuit in half over the cheese, pressing the edges to seal Dip the biscuits in melted butter, then dredge in the granulated sugar mixture. Place the biscuits, curved-side down, in a single layer in the hollows of a lightly greased 12-cup bundt pan, spacing them evenly (do not stack). Place any remaining biscuits around the tube, filling any gaps. Drizzle any remaining butter over the biscuits, and sprinkle with any remaining sugar mixture. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown. Immediately invert the cake onto a serving platter. Combine the confectioners' sugar and orange juice, stirring well; drizzle the glaze over the warm cake.

Final Product

Taste **1/2 Ok, I feel sheepish. So, I am sitting there typing the recipe and oh my goodness...I was supposed to use TWO cans of biscuits in this recipe. WHAT??? I only used one and for some reason I only ended up with eight biscuits (instead of the 10 the can promised). I am beginning to seriously doubt my sanity at this point. So, I don't know that I can completely justify not being a huge fan of this recipe. HOWEVER, I struggled with the lack of sweetness. The biscuits may be covered with sugar, but somehow they aren't quite sweet. Pair that with the fact that the cream cheese is plopped right in the middle without any sweetness added, this could be a problem.

What I learned: IF I was to make this again...I would make sure to get the two full cans of biscuits. I would also add some sweetness to the cream cheese, whether just powdered sugar or syrup or some kind of extract. The cream cheese filling wasn't nearly as exciting as it should be. If I was feeling particularly adventurous, I would have put frosting in the middle...like a milk chocolate, creamy, delicious frosting. Or mixed the frosting and cream cheese. Gosh, I am almost inspired to give this another go round. Oh, I also didn't put pecans in this recipe because they are the devil...but you decide for yourself if you are willing to put up with them :)

Salmon Melt Supreme

2011-04-14T16:57:00.007-06:00

Here is another fish recipe from my friend's cookbook that she loaned me. I really like salmon and I like the concept of tuna melts (but lack the interest in tuna)so I figured this might be good recipe. Plus, I liked how it was simple but sounded interesting.

Salmon Melt Supreme
1- 15 1/2 ounce can salmon, drained, skin removed
1/4 cup lite mayonnaise
1 Tbsp red onion, minced
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp black pepper
4 English muffins, split and toasted
2 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese, grated
1/4 cup carrot, grated

1. Combine first six ingredients

2. Spread salmon mixture on toasted english muffin halves. Top with cheese

3. Place muffins on microwave-proof plate. Microwave on HIGH until cheese is melted, about 35-45 seconds. Top with grated carrot. Serve hot.

Final Product

Taste ****1/2 It was pretty amazing. It was really flavorful and was nice and warm and comforting. Seriously, for how easy it was to make, I loved this recipe.

Health Factor ***** I used a whole wheat English Muffin to add a little whole grains. Other than that, this puppy is nothing to feel guilty about eating. I don't know if it is EXACTLY five stars, but pretty close.

What I learned: When I made this recipe, I got mozzaella cheese in a block since I like sliced cheese better than shredded. So, I put slices of mozzarella on the melts. Nothing else changed in the recipe and I think it was a big hit.

Avocado Red Velvet Cupcakes with Honey Avocado Frosting‏

2011-04-12T18:43:00.004-06:00

Sorry about the long absence. I took a much-needed week-long vacation to Lincoln, NE...my old stomping grounds from grad school and my internship years. AMAZING trip. Can't even tell you how much fun I had...because this is a food blog and I really need to stay focused. Well, I stayed with my very good friend, Amber who I went to grad school with. Well, she had this recipe just beckoning my name. And knowing how much I loved baking, she helped buy the goods and set me loose in her kitchen.

Just a quick side note. I have, in fact, noticed that these cupcakes are not RED velvet, but a greenish-turquoise velvet. Amber didn't have any red food coloring and I didn't feel like we were justified in buying some just for one dessert. Not to mention that food coloring does not really impact the taste of the recipe WHATSOEVER. So, I used a beautiful turquoise blue color. Whoo baby, look out. I actually thought the color accented the light green frosting rather well.

Avocado Red Velvet Cupcakes with Honey Avocado Frosting

1 1/2 cups sugar, granulated
4 oz peeled and seeded fresh avocado, pureed
2 eggs
1 1/2 Tbsp red food color
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cup cake flour
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together avocado and sugar. Add the eggs, red food coloring, vanilla and vinegar; beat to incorporate. Mix together the dry ingredients flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add half the buttermilk and half the dry ingredients to the avocado mixture, mix. Add the balance of the buttermilk and the dry ingredients and mix.

Spoon into mini muffin tins lined with paper. Spoon 1 Tbsp batter for each muffin. Bake for about 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature before frosting.

Honey Avocado Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 oz peeled and seeded fresh avocado, pureed
3 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat together cream cheese, butter, avocado puree until fluffy Beat in the powdered sugar, honey and vanilla. Refrigerate.

Final Product

Taste ***** These were delicious. I did have some issues with overcooking them, but if they were made correctly, they would be heavenly. There was also just a little bit of a different flavor to them that I wasn't expecting. Also, the frosting was amazing. It was not overwhelmingly cream cheese-flavored. It was just right. Highly recommend trying these puppies out.

What I learned: I actually did the first batch for 20 minutes like it said in the recipe, but they were pretty dry and overdone when I took them out. I would recommend closer to 15-17 minutes. I feel like cupcakes are always just a little bit better when they are still soft and moist. Yeah baby!!!

French Toast Ice Cream Sandwiches

2011-03-27T19:12:00.004-06:00

I would like you to know two things about me. I like French Toast. AND I like ice cream. Now, this recipe seemed a little odd to me, but it LOOKS like a grilled cheese sandwich...which I love, and it also has two of my favorite foods combined into one recipe. It was a recipe that I knew would be...interesting, but I wanted to see what it tasted like.

I found this in a Rachael Ray magazine. It was supposed to be a Halloween recipe. I guess I am just running behind schedule...or way ahead of schedule :)

French Toast Ice Cream Sandwiches

One 1.5-quart container orange sherbet, softened
One 12-ounce can evaporated milk
5 large eggs
1/2 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
4 Tbsp butter
16 slices white sandwich bread

1.Line a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with an 18-inch sheet of plastic wrap. Spread the sherbet into the prepared pan; freeze until firm, about 1 hour.

2.Line a large baking sheet with paper towels. In a large bowl, whisk together the evaporated milk, eggs and vanilla. In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Dip 4 bread slices in the egg mixture and cook until golden, 2 to 3 minutes per side; repeat with the remaining 3 tablespoons butter, bread and egg mixture. Drain on the prepared baking sheet; let cool. Discard the paper towels and line the pan with parchment paper, arranging the french toast on top. Freeze for 30 minutes.

3.Cut the sherbet into 8 equal slices. Top each of 8 chilled french toast slices with a slice of sherbet. Set the remaining french toast on top to form 8 sandwiches; freeze for 1 hour. Cut each sandwich diagonally before serving.

Final Product

Taste **** This was good, but it was interesting that it basically tasted like cold french toast and orange sherbet. It didn't necessarily jive together that much. It was definitely fun to try.

What I learned: If I made this again, I would have put the softened orange sherbet on a cookie sheet instead. It was pretty thick putting it in a 9x13 inch baking pan. Other than that, not really all that complicated. It would be interesting to try different combinations of fillings (ice cream, caramel, marshmallow creme, etc) It has a lot of potential to be an exciting and diverse recipe.

Cripsy Cod

2011-03-27T19:11:00.005-06:00

My friend at work was telling me about a fish cookbook that she had. I am not a huge fish eater...at least not in the lower 48 (which is the term we Alaskans use for the other states down south-minus Hawaii, of course!). I was spoiled growing up around amazing fish-and having an amazing fish chef with my dad. So, I never get super jazzed about making meals with fish in Boise. However, being a dietitian, I feel like I should walk the walk. We recommend about 2 servings of fish a week to promote cardiovascular health. So, I figured I would give some of these recipes a whirl...and hone my fish-preparing skills as well.

Crispy Cod

1 pound cod fillets
Vegetable cooking spray
1 Tbsp lite mayonnaise
1 Tbsp lite soy sauce
1/8 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup crushed corn flakes

1. Coat cod with vegetable spray. Place fish in baking dish.
2. Mix mayonnaise, soy sauce, paprika and pepper.
3. Bake at 400 degrees 10-15 minutes until fish flakes when tested with a fork.

Final Product

Taste **** So, cooking is not really my forte. I am definitely more talented and comfortable with baking. BUT, I figure the more experience I get with cooking, the better I will get. This recipe was actually really good. It added flavor to this fish, but still allowed the dish to taste like fish. I think this might have been the first time that I had cod. Pretty yummy.

Health Factor ****1/2 This is fish...healthy, right? The only down side is pretty much the sodium in the soy sauce. Mayonnaise isn't great for you, but there really isn't very much mayonnaise in this recipe at all.

What I learned: I don't like buying WHOLE boxes of cereal that I don't really like just to make one recipe. I am not a fan of corn flakes, so I didn't want to buy them. However, quite a few months ago, I made a cookie recipe with wheaties. Well, I obviously still had those leftover, so I used crushed wheaties instead of corn flakes. I actually really liked them on the fish. They added almost a sweet flavor to the fish. I also had never actually TRIED wheaties. I tried a couple of bites and now I am HOOKED on wheaties. I have been eating them EVERY morning since then! (and no, I am not being paid to endorse the breakfast of champions!) :)

Mountain Dew Cake

2011-03-27T19:10:00.005-06:00

I have SO many new recipes to try. I would say I probably have hundreds and hundreds of recipes that I want to make. Thus, I don't very often ask other people to share their recipes with me. I am already overwhelmed enough with the recipes on MY list...Well, I made an exception for this recipe. I was talking to my friend Mitch the other day. I had called to wish him a happy birthday and (me being the food-obsessed individual that I am) asked him what cake he had for his birthday (what that's how I relate to people), and he told me about this amazing beauty. I had to try me some of this.

Mountain Dew Cake

1 box lemon cake mix
1 small box instant lemon pudding
1 can/12 ounces Mountain Dew soda (NOT diet)
3/4 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs

In a large bowl, combine pudding and cake mix. Add soda, oil and eggs. Pour batter into a 9x13 greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes

Topping

1 8-oz container cool whip
1 small package instant lemon pudding (prepared according to package directions)
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1-2 drops yellow food coloring
Combine and spread on top of cooled cake.

Final Product

Taste ***** This cake was super moist and sweet, but not overwhelming. It was definitely a dessert, but didn't feel too heavy. I REALLY loved it and of course people at work raved about it. I think we have already established the validity of my co-worker's input on my recipes :)

What I learned: The only thing that I learned was the initial time I tried this recipe, the directions didn't specify to prepare the pudding before mixing it with the other topping ingredients. So, it turned out pretty...interesting. After consulting with one of the chefs at work, I realized my mistake and my second attempt turned out FABULOUS!!!

Raspberry French Silk Pie Bars

2011-03-20T20:52:00.005-06:00

This recipe had me at the word raspberry..and again at the french silk....and again at the pie. I figured it was a win-win situation to try this recipe. I love the combination of raspberry and chocolate this definitely lived up to the amazing ingredients in it.

Raspberry French Silk Pie Bars

Chocolate Crumb Crust
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup chopped semisweet chocolate (3 ounces)
1/2 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate (3 ounces)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 egg yolks, beaten
3 Tbsp crème de cacao or whipping cream
1/2 cup raspberry preserves or seedless raspberry jam
Raspberry Ganache
Fresh raspberries (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Press Chocolate Crumb Crust onto the bottom and slightly up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven about 10 minutes or until crust is set. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Set aside.

2. Meanwhile, for filling, in a heavy medium saucepan, combine whipping cream, chocolates, sugar, and butter. Cook and stir over low heat about 10 minutes or until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Gradually stir half of the hot mixture into beaten egg yolks. Add egg yolk mixture to chocolate mixture in saucepan. Cook and stir over medium-low heat about 5 minutes or until mixture is slightly thickened and bubbly.

3. Remove from heat. (Mixture may appear slightly curdled.) Stir in the crème de cacao. Place the saucepan in a bowl of ice water. Stir occasionally about 20 minutes or until the mixture stiffens and becomes hard to stir. Transfer the filling to a medium bowl.

4. Spread raspberry preserves over bottom of cooled Chocolate Crumb Crust. Beat filling with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 2 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Spread filling over preserves. Cover and chill for 1 to 2 hours or until firm.

5. Remove bars from refrigerator. Spoon Raspberry Ganache over top of bars, gently spreading evenly across the top. Cover and chill for 1 to 2 hours more or until firm. Using the edges of the foil, lift the uncut bars out of the pan. Cut into bars. If desired, garnish with fresh raspberries. Makes 32 bars.

To Store: Place bars in a single layer in an airtight container; cover. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Chocolate Crumb Crust: In a medium bowl, combine 2 cups finely crushed chocolate wafers, chocolate graham crackers, or other crisp chocolate cookies (about 38 cookies), 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Add 1/2 cup melted butter and stir until well combined.

Raspberry Ganache: In a large glass measuring cup, combine 1 cup chopped semisweet chocolate or chocolate pieces, 1/3 cup whipping cream, and 1 tablespoon seedless raspberry jam. Microwave on 100 percent power (high) about 1 minute or until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Let stand about 1 hour or until slightly thickened.

No Picture...It looks a little like Heaven

Taste ***** The only thing that wasn't my absolute favorite was that these got pretty soft when they were left at room temperature. They were pretty amazing, though. I have to admit that I was a fan.

What I learned: These sound pretty difficult, but if you just take it one step at a time, they will turn out without too much trouble. You definitely have to be patient, then. Oh, and I also used boxed animal-shaped graham crackers because that was all I could find. However, I made the mistake of eating too many of them before making the crust so I was just a little short on what I needed. Lesson learned :)

No-Bake Cookies

2011-03-20T20:16:00.003-06:00

So, these aren't exactly a new recipe. I used to make no-bake (or what we called chocolate boiled cookies) when I was young. They always remind me of my sister, April, because they were one of her favorites. She would always ask me to make them and I am such a sucker (and of course I like making sweets) so I would always agree. However, this is not the original recipe that I used to use since one of my coworkers wanted these for her birthday, but she wanted ones with peanut butter and my old recipe doesn't have peanut butter. I know this isn't a fancy and exciting recipe, but they turned out great so I wanted to post these for future reference to use as a good no-bake cookie recipe. I also wanted to give a shout-out to my sister April :)

No-Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 cube butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
4 Tbsp cocoa
3 cups oatmeal (quick or old fashioned)
1 tsp vanilla

Bring sugar, milk, butter and cocoa to a boil. Bake for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add peanut butter and stir until peanut butter melted. Stir in oats and vanilla. Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheets covered with wax paper to set and cool.

Final Product

Taste ***** This is an excellent version of no-bake cookies. I have made them before when they are dry and crumbly and when they are soft and don't set right. This recipe had a great texture and flavor. I will probably stick with this one in the future.

What I learned: No much. Pretty easy and I could make these with three hands tied behind my back. I used old-fashioned oats in my cookies and I really liked that they added better texture to the cookies. Either kind I am sure works great!

Uber-Doober Peanut Butter Brownies

2011-03-12T18:45:00.004-07:00

So, another one of our interns was leaving us this Friday :( I asked her what going-away goody she wanted and she said anything with peanut butter and chocolate....how foolproof can you get? Who doesn't like peanut butter and chocolate? I am convinced that the makers of reeses peanut butter cups are going to take over the world one of these days. And I will willingly agree to submit to their will. That is how much I love those things.

Uber-Doober Peanut Butter Brownies

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup chopped chocolate-covered peanut butter cups (Gosh, I wonder what I should use???)
Nutty Frosting (see recipe below)

1. In a medium saucepan, combine bittersweet chocolate, butter and peanut butter. Cook and stir over low heat until melted. Cool. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of pan. Grease foil; set pan aside.

2. Stir brown sugar into cooled chocolate mixture. Add eggs, one at a time, beating with a wooden spoon after each addition. Stir in vanilla. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture; stir just until combined. Stir in 1 cup chopped peanut butter cups. Spread batter evenly in the prepared baking pan.

3. Bake in the preheated oven about 30 minutes or until set. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Spread Nutty Frosting over the brownies. Using the edges of the foil, life brownies out of pan. Cut into bars. If desired, sprinkle with additional chopped peanut butter cups.

Nutty Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 Tbsp milk, and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Gradually beat in 2 cups powdered sugar.

Oops, no picture again...don't judge me.

Taste ***** Of course. I think I have made mine (and everyone else's) feelings about peanut butter and chocolate clear. The frosting is amazing. A nice twist and the same old boring frosting.

What I learned: Um...you really can't go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter. I didn't really LEARN that. It was more just reinforced.

S'mores Cupcakes

2011-03-12T16:49:00.004-07:00

So, I know that I say that a lot of foods are my favorite. Well, all of the other foods that I have claimed are my favorites are LIES. My truly favorite food is s'mores. Really, you can't compete with the amazing flavor and gooeyness of s'mores. First of all, graham crackers are pretty much my favorite ever. Then, chocolate is pretty much my favorite ever. Well, marshmallows are ok, but when you add melted chocolate and graham crackers, they are significantly improved. Also, melted or toasted marshmallows are pretty stellar. What's not to love??? My mom and I used to make a balanced breakfast of s'mores made in the microwave. Just nuke the chocolate on graham crackers topped with a marshmallow for about 13 seconds. AMAZING. So, my friend Karen who basically helped me survive the last two years of my undergrad sent me this recipe and I had to try it.

S'mores Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 15 whole crackers ground in processor)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole milk
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
1/2 cup (scant) heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup plus one 7-ounce jar marshmallow creme
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
12 1-inch pieces broken graham crackers (for garnish)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12 standard muffin cups with paper liners. Whisk graham crumbs, flour, baking powder, and pinch of salt in medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating to blend between additions. Beat in vanilla. Add graham-cracker mixture in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with graham-cracker mixture. Divide batter among muffin cups.

Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center come out clean, about 22 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to rack; cool completely.

Place chocolate in medium bowl. Bring cream just to boil in small saucepan; pour over chocolate. Let stand 1 minute; stir until smooth. Cool ganache until lukewarm.
Push apple corer about 1 inch into top of each cupcake; remove cake, forming hole. Spoon 3/4 cup marshmallow creme into resealable plastic bag, pushing into 1 bottom corner. Cut 1/2 inch off corner. Pipe into holes in cupcakes. Spread 2 teaspoons ganache over each cupcake. DO AHEAD Can be made 8 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

Preheat broiler. Coar rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Spoon dollops of marshmallow creme on sheet. Broil until slightly charred, 1 to 2 minutes. Spoon dollop of charred creme over each cupcake; garnish with piece of graham cracker.

Final Product

Taste ***1/4 These were pretty dang good. How could they not be? I enjoyed the graham cracker flavor of the cupcakes and the filling in the center was a nice touch. I highly recommend trying this out if you like s'mores.

What I learned: As you can probably tell be looking at the picutre, I made a few changes to the recipe to simplify it a little bit. I didn't want to mess with working with the marshmallow creme. That stuff is harder to work with then a bunch of PMSing women. So, I put mini marshmallows on the ganache while it was still wet and then used my creme brulee blow torch to toast them. It migth not have had quite the campfire-toasted taste that other methods might have provided, but it sure saved me a lot of stress. I also tried toasting mini marshmallows on parchment paper under the broiler. They stuck to the parchment paper really bad, though...at least until they cooled. Then they peeled off pretty well. So, that is another method to try if you decided to try these bad boys out! One last thing is that the semi-sweet chocolate was a little much. Next time I would probably use milk chocolate instead.

Double Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pudding Pie

2011-03-06T19:23:00.007-07:00

So, just an interesting tidbit about this recipe. It is gluten free. So, if you know someone with Celiac Disease/Gluten Intolernace this would be a great treat for them. Which leads me into my next nutrition soap box. People have some pretty crazy ideas about nutrition. One of my least favorite claims by celebrities lately is that they lose weight because they eat gluten free. Ok, in some ways that is a legitimate claim. If you cut out flour/wheat you are basically left with fruits, vegetables, meats (which I am assuming celebrities are choosing lean), a few limited carbohydrates (potato, oats, rice, etc) and dairy. Eating gluten-free in this way is beneficial to your health. It cuts out a lot of the refined flour. It also cuts out a HUGE percentage of foods that they can eat.

However, here are is where my soapbox comes in. There are all of these new gluten-free products coming out in the market. Things like gluten-free bread and brownie mixes, gluten-free power bars, gluten-free cookies...do you see where I am going with this? People hear that gluten free eating is a great way to lose weight, so they buy these new, processed gluten-free food items instead of focusing on fruits, veggies, lean meats and dairy. However, you can't tell me that a gluten-free cookie is good for you. Please just be smart about what you want to eat if you are looking to lose weight! Phew. Sorry. On to this amazing recipe.

Double Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pudding Pie

3 cups Chocolate Chex® cereal, finely crushed
5 Tbsp butter, melted
12 oz semisweet baking chocolate, chopped, plus more for chocolate shavings
1 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened baking cocoa, sifted
2 cups half-and-half
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg plus 2 egg yolks
6 Tbsp whipping cream, plus 1 cup whipping cream, whipped
1/2 cup white vanilla baking chips
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1. In small bowl, stir together cereal and melted butter. Press in bottom and up side of ungreased 9-inch pie pan. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350°F. Bake crust 15 minutes. Sprinkle with one-third of the chopped chocolate.

2. Meanwhile, in large heatproof bowl, mix cocoa and remaining chopped chocolate; reserve. In 1-quart heavy saucepan, heat half-and-half over medium-high heat until almost boiling. In medium heatproof bowl, beat sugar, egg and egg yolks with whisk until pale yellow. Slowly beat in half of the hot half-and-half, then pour egg mixture into saucepan. Reduce heat to medium. Heat mixture just to boiling. Cook, beating with whisk, about 1 minute or until thickened. Pour through sieve into reserved cocoa mixture; beat with whisk until smooth. Pour into crust; refrigerate 30minutes.

3. Wipe out saucepan. Add 6 tablespoons cream. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat. Place vanilla baking chips and peanut butter in medium heatproof bowl. Pour hot cream on top and let stand until chocolate is melted, about 2 minutes; beat with whisk until smooth. Spread evenly over chilled pie. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 1/2 hours.

4. To serve, top servings of pie with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Final Product (ok fine, I stole the picture from online)

Taste ***** Um, yes? Can you say rich and delicious. Want to know what makes it so good? An eight of the pie (1 serving) has over 900 calories!!! I almost hate to write that because I would hate to discourage anyone from trying this recipe since it is so amazing, but I think it is hilarious that there is that many calories. I actually cut the pie into 12 pieces...so that means there is what? 150 calories now? Hahaha. It is amazing, but very rich.

What I learned: This recipe really wasn't all that difficult. I was intimidated before I started, but it ended up being pretty simple. There were a lot of steps, but none of them were particularly difficult.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2011-03-04T19:39:00.008-07:00

So, one of my friends at work just got a promotion...he's a pretty big deal now. Anyways, to celebrate I offered to make him whatever goody he wanted. I know, I am generous and amazing. It just comes naturally. I was actually a little surprised when he said that he wanted pineapple upside down cake??? It was one of my dad's favorites, and my dad and I used to make it all the time when I was younger...meaning that I placed the pineapple in the baking dish and measured out the ingredients. My dad did all the grunt work. So, to me it was kind of like making a new dish. I know that this recipe isn't that fancy, but I had some cake flour on hand so I found a simple recipe that had cake flour and the results were pretty satisfying.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 can pineapple in syrup
Maraschino cherries

Use an 8" square or round pan. Drain can of pineapple, saving the syrup.

Place butter in 8" pan, melt in the oven while preheating to 375°F. Sprinkle brown sugar over melted butter. Arrange whole pineapple slices and cherries (with cherries in centers of pineapple slices) over the brown sugar in pan.

In a bowl, combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, softened butter, milk, egg, vanilla and 2 tablespoons of the pineapple syrup.

Pour batter into the pan being careful not to disturb the pineapples and cherries.
Bake at 375°F for 30 to 35 minutes or until cake is golden and has pulled away from the edges slightly.

Remove from oven and allow to stand for a few minutes to set and then turn it upside down onto a serving dish. Serve while still warm.

Final Product

Taste ****1/2 It was pineapple upside down cake!!! How can it not be good? I know there are some recipes out there that call for fresh pineapple, but I have never tried them before, so I don't know if using canned instead makes a difference. I would be interested to try with fresh pineapple sometime, but it seems like an awful lot of work to me. Plus, I was pretty satisfied with this recipe.

What I learned: The only thing that made me sad about this recipe was the fact that it didn't get completely cooked in the middle. It was pretty simple and straight-forward, though. I loved the recipe. Normally I would like to find a souped-up pineapple upside down cake recipe, but this was a really good basic recipe.

Peanut Butter Cream Sandwich Cookies

2011-03-02T19:17:00.005-07:00

Ok...CUMIN??? In a peanut butter cookie recipe? REALLY? How could I NOT try this dish??? Let me just tell you, that it really paid off, too!!!

Peanut Butter Cream Sandwich Cookies

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Granulated sugar
1 recipe Peanut Cream Filling (see below)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In bowl beat peanut butter and shortening with electric mixer on medium speed 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, egg and vanilla. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl. Beat in baking soda, salt and as much flour as you can. Using a spoon, stir in any remaining flour.

2. Using a level teaspoon, form dough into balls. Place 1 1/2 inches apart on ungreased or parchment-lined cookie sheets. Flatten by making crisscross marks with tines of fork dipped in granulated sugar.

3. Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheet 1 minute. Trasnfer to wire rack; cool.

4. Spread 1 tsp of Peanut Cream Filling on flat sides of half of cookies. Top with remaining cookies.

Peanut Cream Filling
In Medium bowl whisk together 3/4 cup chunky peanut butter, 3/4 cup marshmallow creme, 3 Tbsp milk, 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ground cumin.Gradually whisk in 3 Tbsp powdered sugar.

Final Product

Taste Factor ****1/2 Yes, these cookies were amazing. I really enjoyed the different flavors. I also enjoyed the fact that it called for chunky peanut butter. Usually I avoid chunks in my peanut butter like the plague, but I decided that since this was such a different recipe, I needed to go all out and try something new with my peanut butter as well. I REALLY liked the result.

What I learned: I ended up making these cookies WAY too big. I was supposed to get four times as many cookies out of this recipe than I actually did. I also ended up over cooking my cookies. Just watch them closely. I waited until mine were browned on the edges and I would take it out just before when the cookies still seem really soft when you poke them. So, I would portion the cookies smaller next time and take them out just before I really want to.

Cajun Shrimp Lasagna Roll-ups

2011-02-28T18:46:00.006-07:00

I don't even know what caught my eye with this recipe. I am not a particularly huge cajun fan. And, shrimp is good, but it doesn't rock my world like some other foods. However, I am glad that something in this recipe made me take a second look, because it was definitely worth trying out.

Cajun Shrimp Lasagna Roll-ups

1 1/4 pounds uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 medium onion, chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2 Tbsp Cajun seasoning
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup diced fully cooked andouille sausage
12 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
4 ounces pepper Jack cheese, shredded
1 tsp paprika

In a large skillet, saute shrimp and onion in oil until shrimp turn pink. Stir in tomatoes and Cajun seasoning; set aside.

In a large saucepan, saute garlic in butter for 1 minute. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in cheddar cheese until smooth. Add sausage; set aside.

Spread 1/3 cup shrimp mixture over each noodle. Carefully roll up; place seam side down in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Top with cheese sauce. Sprinkle with pepper Jack cheese and paprika.

Cover and bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Uncover; bake 10-15 minutes longer or until bubbly. Let stand 15 minutes before serving. Yield: 6 servings.

Final Product

Taste Factor ****1/2. Um..yummy? I was super surprised at how much flavor these had and the texture was pretty good, too. I liked the cream sauce because it wasn't too rich, but it added a little fat to this dish which always makes pasta dishes more exciting.

Health Factor *** Not the healthiest recipe ever. Between the sausage and the cheese and then butter...um. Why else do you think this tastes so good?

What I learned: This recipe was VERY labor intensive. With all the chopping and food PREP, it took me an hour and a half just to get the recipe ready to cook. I loved this recipe taste-wise, but I don't know that I would put that effort into this dish again....unless I had a kitchen slave.

Peaches-and-Cream Barley

2011-02-26T20:38:00.005-07:00

I found this recipe in one of my cooking magazines where there was a section on recipes with five ingredients or less. I was interested in trying it since there was barley in it. I have never really had barley except in a soup that my mom used to make when I was younger, and I was interested to see what it would taste like in a sweet recipe. I also liked to delude myself into believing that this was a "healthy" recipe since it had barley. That's legit, right?

Peaches-and-Cream Barley

In a medium saucepan, bring 1 cup pearled barley and 3 1/4 cups water to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until al dente, about 30 minutes; drain and return to the pot. Add 15 ounces canned peaches, thinly sliced, 1/4 cup half-n-half, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp butter and a couple pinches of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Ladle into 4 bowls and drizzle each portion with about 1/2 Tbsp more half-n-half.

Final Product

Taste **** This wasn't necessarily AMAZING. It was a very comforting dish. I liked that it wasn't overly-sweet but that it was a treat to eat.

Health Factor ** This recipe has barley, which is amazing for you. It is a great source of fiber. So, this is healthy..except for the half-n-half...and the brown sugar...and the butter. So, have a hayday.

What I learned: The half-n-half that I was going to use expired before I could use it, so I used evaporated milk instead of cream. Obviously, it ended up tasting different with that little substitution, but I enjoyed the flavor...part of that might be the fact that I really like evaporated milk...but I am pretty sure that makes me weird.

Grape and Rosemary Focaccia

2011-02-23T20:39:00.005-07:00

I love carbs...no, I mean I LOVE carbs. I am pretty sure that I need a twelve step program. Even when I was little, I never thought you could make a meal out of meat and potatoes. There had to be some rice or pasta somewhere on the plate or it just didn't count as filling. Don't even get me started on the sugar category (yes, sugar is a carb...and we are supposed to get 6-8 ounces of carbs per day...I would really like them to convert that into cups of sugar). Anyways, so I saw this recipe and I was like "oh...bread :)" and then it has some interesting stuff on it. Plus, it called for grapes so I had a bunch of extra grapes to snack on all week. I made this recipe last Friday after an extremely long day of work where I hunkered down in my apartment with my dog, two rented movies and an amazing dinner. It is listed as an appetizer in my cookbook, but I definitely used it as a meal.

Grape and Rosemary Focaccia

1 lb refrigerated or thawed frozen pizza dough
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed
2 cups seedless red grapes, whole or halved
1 Tbsp snipped fresh rosemary
1 Tbsp grated Romano cheese

1. Let pizza dough stand at room temperature 15 minutes. On lightly floured surface, roll dough to 12x8 inch rectangle. If dough begins to pull back while rolling, let rest 5 minutes. Transfer dough to lightly greased baking sheet. Using fork, prick dough. Cover; let rise in warm place ~30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush dough with 1 Tbsp of oil; sprinkle with salt and basil. Arrange grapes on dough; sprinkle with rosemary and cheese. Bake 20-22 minutes or until puffed and lightly browned. Drizzle with remaining 1 Tbsp oil.

3. To serve, cut in strips with pizza cutter. Serve warm or room temperature.

Final Product...don't judge, just admire

Taste ****1/2 This was great because it had the comfy homemade comfort-food quality but then a little bit more refined of a taste. I loved the rosemary and the grapes together. I felt pretty dang sophisticated while I ate it (don't let the picture fool you :)...it's pretty amazing.

Health Factor **** I actually made my pizza crust and put whole wheat flour in it, so I revved up the health factor a bit with that. Other than a little refined grains, there really isn't much that will do much harm in this recipe.

What I learned: I used my bread machine to make my crust at home. I used a recipe that called for about half of the flour to be whole wheat. It made me feel thrifty and healthy which also added to the pleasure of eating this recipe. I just let the bread machine do all the work then rolled out the dough and followed the instructions from there. I also used black/purple grapes instead of red. The red grapes looked a little under the weather. Plus, the rule of thumb with nutrition and produce is that the deeper the color of a food, the more nutritional punch it has. I figured that would be true of the darker grapes as well. Look at me being all healthy..what a good dietitian.

Turtle Cheesecake

2011-02-19T18:41:00.004-07:00

So, every time a coworker has a birthday, I try to make their birthday as special as possible...and the best way I know how to do that? Goodies!!! So, one of the other dietitians at work had a birthday this past week and get this...she actually REQUESTED what she wanted!!! It was so nice. I love knowing exactly what someone wants me to bake them. I get so nervous when I pick out a recipe for other people because I don't know if it will be something that they like or not. An added bonus to this situation??? This particular dietitian made my day even BETTER when she requested...turtle cheesecake!!! Da da da DAAHHH!!! Score.

I just wanted to give a shout out to our executive chef at the hospital who is actually the person that found this recipe for me. I still take credit for MAKING it though!

Turtle Cheesecake

2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
14 ounces individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 cup chopped pecans
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter one 9 inch springform pan. Toast the pecans at 350 degrees F for 6 minutes. Remove pecans and set aside. Leave oven at 350 degrees F.

In a small saucepan, melt the unsalted butter. Combine vanilla wafer crumbs with the melted butter then press into the bottom of the prepared springform pan. Place the pan onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F. Remove and allow to cool.

In a double boiler, or a bowl set over barely simmering water, melt the caramels in the evaporated milk. Stir until smooth. Pour this over the cooled crust. Sprinkle the nuts over the top.

In a bowl, combine the cheese, sugar, and vanilla and beat until smooth, scraping down the bowl several times. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until smooth. Melt the chocolate chips in the double boiler and mix into the cheese mixture. Pour the batter over the caramel layer.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes or until barely set. Chill over night in the refrigerator before serving.

Oops, no picture AGAIN...it didn't last long enough!

Taste ***** Yes, you counted correctly. There are, in fact, five stars. Not to mention that fact that I don't even LIKE pecans. And this cheesecake changed my life. I will never be the same. I think it is the melted caramel. DO NOT substitute ice cream topping caramel. I can guarantee that it will not turn out nearly as amazing. My coworkers LOVED this recipe. They were RAVING about it. I know, you are probably thinking "You sucker, Megan. You know that your coworkers always tell you how much they like your baked goodies so that you will keep brining more in." However, they were FOR REAL this time. All of them asked me for the recipe and I am pretty sure that they all have a new level of respect, admiration and love for me. :) What can I say? It was the amazing recipe and I was just the slave that put together the ingredients for this amazing goody!!!

What I learned: I actually decided that I wanted to use oreos as the crust in this cheesecake. So, I used 4 Tbsp butter and 2 cups of oreo crumbs (PS do not use double stuff for oreo crust...it creates problems...not that I would ever be dumb enough to do that. What? Double stuff is SO much better!) I just mixed the melted butter and oreo crumbs and zapped them in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes or so. I don't know if that is required, but I wanted to play it safe. I would definitely recommend the oreo crust, too!!! AMAZING.

Campbells Nacho Chicken and Rice Wraps

2011-02-18T19:41:00.003-07:00

So, I love me some cooking. HOWEVER, sometimes I get home and I don't have any motivation to make much more than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That is why I like the concept of a slow cooker. Unfortunately, I have a really hard time finding crockpot recipes that I like and that have enough flavor. So, I saw this recipe which seemed pretty simple and it had potential as a tasty dish. The reason? It has canned cheddar cheese soup. Let me tell you, cheddar cheese soup ranks right up there is quality and taste wtih velveeta. Meaning, basically that even though it is 92% plastic, the flavor is amazing and somehow comforting.

Campbells Nacho Chicken and Rice Wraps

2 cans campbells cheddar cheese soup
1 cup water
2 cups salsa
1 1/4 cups uncooked regular long-grain white rice
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
10 10-inch flour tortillas

Mix soup. water, salt, rice and chcken in Crock Pot. Cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours or on HIGH 4-5 hours or until done.

Soon about 1 cup rice mixture down center of each tortillas. Fold tortilla around filling.

Taste **** WIth canned cheese soup, how could these not turn out pretty tasty? It wasn't "blow me out of the water" amazing but it definitely was good for the lack of effort that it took.

Health Factor *** The chicken and salsa aren't so bad. The cheddar cheese soup wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. If you wanted to ramp up the nutrition factor, you could use whole grain tortillas.

What I learned: This would be a good recipe if you are having a small, casual dinner with friends. Easy and pretty yummy!!!

Easy Pain Au Chocolate

2011-02-12T23:06:00.004-07:00

So, in case you haven't noticed, I am obsessed with making food. Yeah, it's pretty much my identity. I am surprised that my coworkers still consider me a clinical dietitian with all of the cooking that I do. So, I was reading a book...about baking. It's called How to Bake a Perfect life. Verdict...the book wasn't so good. Didn't really like it. BUT it did have some random recipes in there. This recipe caught my attention because I actually had all of the ingredients on hand. Crazy, right? I had some leftover puff pastry from several recipes ago...and I figured I wouldn't have to spend any extra money and I could use that up and get a "free" goody out of it as well. Plus, it's easy. Yes? I think so.

Easy Pain Au Chocolate

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tsp water
12 oz bittersweet chocolate (chips work fine)
Sugar for dusting

Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment or oiling it lightly. Cut each sheet of pastry into 12 squares and brush each with egg glaze. Then sprinkle 1/2 oz of chocolate on each square and roll up tightly around the chocolate. Place on the baking sheet, seam down. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Refrigerate remaining egg glaze.

Remove pastries from fridge; preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush the tops of the pastries with remaining egg glaze, and then dust lightly with sugar and bake for about 15 minutes.

Final Product (I know, not pretty, I missed a few steps that screwed over the looks)

Taste ****1/2 It is pretty dang good. I love that the chocolate isn't overwhelming and the pastry itself isn't overly sweet. The only bad side is it's hard to stop once you get started. They look so small and harmless...right.

What I learned: Ok, I don't know if this is a good idea, but part of me is tempted to try adding some raspberry jam with the chocolate in the center before baking and see how that turns out. I don't know..scary. I'll have to try it sometime. Also, make sure that you read all the directions and grease or put parchment paper on your baking sheet or your pastries will end up looking like mine...yikes.