Suprised myself: Easy, fantastic weeknight din din

Tonight, Aaryn came over, we went for a run and cooked up this little plate of heaven. It was so delicious and took hardly any time (always goes quick when your bff is a fabulous chopper!) We enjoyed it with a glass of white wine on the back deck under the lights. These late summer dinners are seriously the best!

We made it with Tilipia but the fish that they suggest would be amazing as well. This will rock your world. Try it!

 

Smitten Kitchen’s Yogurt Pancakes

Last week, I found this recipe while at my desk at work and declared them to be my new recipe that I would try over the weekend. Of course I only had half of the items from my previous shopping trip challenge and I am pretty sure this recipe was the demise of my challenge. I did not succeed, despise my effort to plan ahead, in surviving off of a single grocery run for 2 weeks. Cravings, pretty blogs and life got to me. I realized that I don’t like to plan too far in advance so smaller shopping trips make better sense for us, I mean how do I know what I am going to feel like for breakfast in 5 days?

Onto the pancakes. These things are AMAZING! I had to modify the recipe a bit below to incorporate these wishes:

A – I do not like having 6 types of flour, especially “Rye Flour” (seriously, what is that?) in my house. Sometimes I will buy wheat but for now I had 2 whole things of regular, unhealthy, white flour and so decided to use that up first!

B – The recipe called for blueberries and the Farmer’s Market that I went to on Saturday did not have blueberries and instead had tons of blackberries. With a little persuasion from the beautiful Aaryn Leineke, I bought a pint of blackberries and pressed on.

C – If I made my husband something with the word, multigrain, in the title on a Sunday morning, he may have a heart attack. I removed that from the title of the recipe below, just in case he’s reading ; )

These pancakes may look dense in my photo but they are delicious and light and so satisfying. I topped them off with some fresh strawberries too. The only thing missing I hate to admit was some bacon. That would have taken this Sunday to the next level. If you are in the mood for something sweet for breakfast, I highly recommend that you try these, they are really easy and relatively quick to whip up.

Blackberry Yogurt Pancakes

*This is the full recipe, but for 2 people, I suggest you cut it in half or make it on a Saturday so you have something left over for Sunday.

Makes 12 to 14 4-inch pancakes

2 large eggs
1 cup plain, full-fat yogurt (I used Greek 2% Fat)
2 to 4 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons butter, plus extra for buttering skillet
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup blackberries, rinsed and dried

Melt half of butter. Remove from heat and stir in second tablespoon of butter until melted. This keeps your butter from being too hot when you next want to add it to the wet ingredients.

Whisk egg and yogurt together in the bottom of a medium/large bowl. If you’re using a thin yogurt, no need to add any milk. If you’re using regular yogurt, stir in 2 tablespoons milk. If you’re using a thick/strained or Greek-style yogurt, add 3 to 4 tablespoons milk. Whisk in melted butter, zest and vanilla extract. In a separate, small bowl, combine flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir dry ingredients into wet only until dry ingredients are moistened. A few remaining lumps is fine.

Preheat your oven to 200°F and have a baking sheet ready (to keep pancakes warm). Heat your skillet or saute pan to medium. If you’ve got a cast-iron skillet, this is my favorite for pancakes. Melt a pat of butter in the bottom and ladle a scant 1/4 cup (about 3 tablespoons) batter at a time, leaving at space between each pancake. Press a few berries into the top of each pancake. The batter is on the thick side, so you will want to use your spoon or spatula to gently nudge it flat, or you may find that pressing down on the berries does enough to spread the batter. When the pancakes are dry around the edges and you can see bubbles forming on the top, about 3 to 4 minutes, flip them and cook for another 3 minutes, until golden underneath. (If you listen closely, after a minute you’ll hear you blueberries pop and sizzle deliciously against the pan.) If pancakes begin cooking too quickly, lower the heat. Transfer pancakes to warm oven as they are done cooking, where you can leave them there until you’re ready to serve them.

Serve in a big stack, with fixings of your choice. Do not anticipate leftovers.

1 Grocery Run & a 2 week challenge

Do you ever spend a lot at the grocery store, then realize 4 days later your fridge is empty?

This happens to me all the time so I am taking on a new challenge. This weekend I went to the store and re-stocked my sad, empty fridge and decided to challenge myself to survive for 2 weeks off of that single run for Ty and I. If we get past Thursday, I’ll be stoked.

I’ll spare you my entire shopping list but it boils down to a lot of fruits/veggies/snacks and 3 things of meat; beef tenderloin, chicken breasts and ground turkey. We really only eat dinner at home, we commute so breakfast has to be something we can eat in the car and I pack my lunch, Ty has his provided for him at work. In theory, this should be a very simple challenge.

I hope to stretch out these items to A. Save some $ and B. Be more creative as far as throwing meals together without recipes and C. Make meals that stretch out and can be used for lunch the next day and possibly multiple dinners. I’ll keep you all posted and update with recipes, I am sure by this weekend things will start to get interesting. Yesterday I spent a lot of time in the kitchen prepping salads for lunch and cutting up veggies so they won’t go to waste in hopes that it will force us to eat what we have and not pull over to a divey taqueria on our way home out of hunger and desperation. Although that was an amazing discovery last week!

Here is a salad that I made today for lunch today. Try it, it was surprisingly satisfying for a brown bag!

Summer Salad

(Use whichever portions you would like of the following)

Mixed Greens
Plain Quinoa
Cucumber
Sliced thin watermelon radishes
Goat Cheese
Basil
Olive Oil/Balsamic

Fish Taco Salad – a work from home special

Well, it appears that summer has finally arrived and to celebrate, last night we had a fish taco cook off! That is one of my all time favorite meals, especially when the weather is warm! Today, I was able to whip up a great lunch using the leftovers and I discovered another new favorite. Taco salad, is hands down one of the best meals I think. It’s really easy, hearty, delicious and pretty healthy! Ty always loves it too which is awesome. I have never tried it with fish though and I have to say, its even better! I loved making it because I already had all of the leftover chopped sides from last night so it was a matter of washing/drying some lettuce and chopping some tomatoes and 3 minutes later it was done! Here is the recipe and you can vary the ingredients to your liking!

Fish Taco Salad

• Cold leftover grilled fish (we used Tilapia) – You can also sub grilled chicken, steak or ground beef/turkey
• Handful of chopped lettuce
• Cooked black beans with garlic and cilantro stems
• Chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 chopped avocado
• Chopped cilantro (how ever much you like!)
• Chopped up purple cabbage tossed with a tiny bit of olive oil, lemon and salt and pepper (handful)
• Toss with equal parts salsa and sour cream
• Top with broken tortilla chips and hot sauce if you like spicy (which I DO!)
• Squeeze of lime

Now, this isn’t the most appetizing photo but I was trying to eat quick to get back to work (or writing a blog post before I got back to work) so styling my lunch wasn’t top on the list. You can make this really pretty if you have time to spare, trust me!

I enjoyed mine with a tall glass of sun tea on my deck that I made yesterday while working from home. I have to keep this up – awesome things are happening around lunch time in the kitchen. Here’s to starting summer off with a bang!

Highly Addictive – Kale Chips

This is a great summer snack! I made 2 batches of this to take to work today and with co-worker’s help it was gone in under 5 minutes!!!

Recipe

• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set the oven to 325
• Strip the kale leaves from their spines
• Wash and dry the leaves thoroughly
• Line on cookie sheet in one layer
• Top with a little bit of salt and pepper
• Brush with Olive Oil using a bbq brush – lightly
• Cook for 20-25 minutes or until crispy
• Try desperately not to eat the whole sheet right when they come out of the oven

Thank you Tyler Florence, for this recipe.

These things will blow your mind!

A Snapshot View of My Weekend – Mostly Through My Stomach

This weekend was a mellow one, I wasn’t feeling so hot so I stayed in, watched movies and cooked the weekend away. Yesterday, we started off with out of the box waffles, bacon, tea, grapefruit and fresh squeezed OJ.

Last night I made a lemon pie, I have a rediculous amount of lemons right now and had to find the best use for them. There has been a lot of hot lemon water going on so it was time for something practical. Ty made some fresh whipped cream. I think it is going to be my summer go to pie for special occasions or random Saturday nights in. Fantastic!
However, I recommend chilling it first because when I served mine still warm, it came out like this.

Not exactly pretty, but it tasted great, so who cares? How could it not, it’s Paula Deen!

Servings: 8 servings
Prep Time: 12 min
Cook Time: 35 min
Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients:

1   prepared 9-inch graham cracker crust (I made my own crust, see below for details)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1   (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
3   large egg yolks

Crust Ingredients:

CRUST
3/4 cup granola (with no raisins or other dried fruit)
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (from about 6 whole graham crackers) – (I used Trader Joe’s cinnamon graham crackers and skipped the sugar below)
1/3 cup melted unsalted butter (approx. 3/4 stick)
3 Tablespoons Sugar

FOR CRUST: Preheat over to 350° F. Using on/off pulses, blend granola in processor until coarslet ground. Transfer granola to medium bowl. Mix in graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and sugar. Press crumb mixture over bottom and sides of a 9-inch deep dish dish. Bake until crust is golden brown (about 8 minutes). Reduce oven to 300°. Remove crust from oven and cool completely.

Directions for filling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and condensed milk. Stir in the lime zest, lime juice, and cream. Pour the filling into the crust and bake about 30 minutes or until firm. Remove pie from oven.

Serve with a whipped cream topping and lemon zest for a garnish.

Today I hit the Farmer’s market to pick up some greens and fruit for the week. We saw some people walking around with these Falafel sandwiches that looked to die for. At only $5 a pop, we were sold. This thing was ROCKIN!

I picked up some hydrangeas and am just finishing up this post before I dive into an afternoon of roasted kale and Rom Com’s!

Oh. When I cook a lot, Tyler usually ends up waking up and doing this in the mornings, which Gustave thinks is just amazing.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Do it yourself Mario Batali and Rock Somebody’s World

My fingers are still a little buttery from this meal I just cooked because I couldn’t wait to tell you all about it. I have been reading about this pasta and Jess Seinfeld, author of the blog, Do it Delicious, said its her household favorite. That almost made me make it but I figured she has kids so she has to make simple things to please everyone. When I read about it for about the 3rd time, I figured, okay, time to step it up and get in the kitchen. I have to admit I read different versions of this recipe and thought, why is everyone raving about pasta with pepper and butter? Seriously.

Well, Ty and I just found out why. He described it as “birthday dinner good”. 10 minutes after we ate, he said, “Really, are you going out of town or something, do you have some bad news, why did you make that?”

Tonight, we found a winner. This recipe will be made in our household often and maybe next time I’ll actually use the correct ingredients. I didn’t have the cheeses for this recipe and used Grana Padana. Didn’t matter, it was still silky, decadent and delightful. Best part is that you more than likely have all of these ingredients in your cupboard and start to finish takes in 10 minutes. Tastes like you shopped at a deli in Italy and slaved in the kitchen all day. No wonder everyone is raving about it.

Ty and I often talk about how much we miss the restaurants in New York and Mario’s in particular, they are the best. So when you can’t go to Mario, at least cook your own version.

Try this recipe, which I read about on Goop and you can too if you need more convincing.

Seriously, like tomorrow, and make someone you love VERY HAPPY!

Linguine Cacio e Pepe

Serves: 4-6

• 1 pound bavette or linguini fine

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 stick butter

• 3 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

• 1 1/2 cup freshly grated Cacio di Roma

• 1 1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano, plus extra for serving

• 2 tablespoons Kosher salt

1) Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add 2 tablespoons salt. Drop in pasta.

2) In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil and butter over low heat until just melted. Turn off the heat.

3) When pasta is about one minute short of package directions for al dente, turn the heat back on under the saute pan. Take 2 ladles of pasta cooking water and add to the oil and butter in the saute pan and bring it to a boil. Add a small handful of the cheeses and allow to melt into the butter.

4) Drain the noodles, reserving a few cups of the cooking liquid. Drop the noodles into the saute pan and toss with black pepper, using tongs. Add in 2 more ladles of pasta water.

5) Add rest of the cheeses, turn off the heat, allow them to melt into the top of the pasta, then toss well. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Keep tossing, adding another ladleful of pasta cooking water, until pasta is well coated and a sauce has formed.

6) Serve with additional grated Pecorino and freshly ground black pepper.

Back in Action

Hi Everyone,

I’m back from a hiatus of blogging but I want to bring this bad boy back.

I’m kicking it off with a great new smoothie recipe that I read about from Kimberly Snyder, nutritionist to the stars, and have been drinking it for the past 3 days for breakfast. It looks like a lot of work but only takes 10 minutes from start to finish!

I love this girl, her book just came out and I have been reading up on the Beauty Detox Solution, I highly recommend it!

For lunch today I made this awesome bowl of goodness, I got this recipe from the lovely Aaryn Leineke and added a tiny twist. It took me only 5 minutes to throw together as I already had some cooked quinoa in the fridge:

Recipe:

Start with your base of 1/2 Quinoa – Heat that in the microwave

Toss it with 1/2 mixed greens or any lettuce and dressing (Mine had a miso dressing)

Top with:

Grated Carrot

1/2 avocado

Pickled Ginger

1/2 chopped bell pepper

Few chopped kale  leaves

Dried seaweed (I bought this at TJ’s, its salty and delicious and only $.99!)

1 chopped persian cucumber

Enjoy!!!

2 Thumbs Down

I went to this new restaurant with the girls the other night and instead of being a yelper, I thought I’d post my short review here.

Brick and Bottle, Corte Madera, CA

Food – Mediocre and small portions

Service – Below average

Ambience – Olive Garden like

I think after a few more months of this place working out the kinks, it might be worth checking out again but for now, I’ll stick to cooking at home and never veering from the Buckeye if I’m going to dine out in Marin!

Farmer’s Market Dinner

Ty and I make this almost weekly. I love making a dinner that we split duties, its way more fun and goes all that much faster.

This is a really easy and fool proof meal that tastes great too, how can you beat that?

We marinade the salmon in Soy Vay Teriyaki sauce, bbq it and while that’s happening saute up some kale and bake some TJ’s sweet potato fries – we are addicted to these. They come out really crispy because are battered with tempura.

Loving salmon these days, gotta get your omega 3’s! Bon Appetit!