Grilled Buffalo Chicken

So overall, this is the best chicken I have ever had... that I cooked or eaten out.  It is literally the most flavorful chicken in the world!!!!  It's pretty healthy, and especially if paired with veggies or fruits, it is an awesome meal that really doesn't take much time.  Also leftovers are BOMB!

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic (minced)
10 tsp ancho powder (8 in recipe 2ish for seasoning chicken)
1/2 cup hot sauce

2 tbsp honey

salt and pepper to taste

4 chicken breasts

2 tbsp cumin (for recipe)

2 tsp cumin (for seasoning chicken)

canola oil

Directions:

Melt butter in saucepan.  Add butter and let cook for around a minute to capture the flavor.  Add 8 tsp ancho powder and stir until mostly dissolved. Stir in hot sauce and honey and then the salt and pepper.  Remove about 1/4 cup of this in order to save to add on top after the rest has been cooked onto the chicken.

Season each side of the chicken breast with ancho powder and cumin.  Our chicken breasts were a tad bit thick and we had a time crunch, so we butterflied them. 

Drizzle canola oil over both sides, put about half of the buffalo sauce on the top, and place on medium heat straight on the rack of the grill to make char marks. When it's time to flip the chicken, move it to aluminum foil on the grill to make sure the chicken stays nice and juicy!  Then brush on more buffalo sauce. 

As soon as the chicken is no longer pink in the middle, take off the grill immediately to avoid making it dry.  Serve with the 1/4 cup reserved buffalo sauce and ranch! 

* this is somewhat of a spicy dish, but it has great flavor! Spicy-haters shouldn't have to miss out. In order to tone down the spice, add a little less hot sauce and a little more honey! :) deeelish!

Stuffed Mushrooms

BEST SIDE DISH EVER!. Literally my mouth was drooling almost more for these than the rest of the meal.  Ben and I decided to make a lovely dinner for his dad's family after his amazing father decided to take his own time out to give us some training in the pharmacy :). Great guy. So we made tilapia, stuffed mushrooms, a simple salad, and cottage cheese with some fresh pineapple. Healthy, filling dinner! The tilapia was nothing difficult... just a little bit of EVOO, with dill, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, and lemon juice put in the oven till it was done! SO EASY!  If you'll notice, we even made cottage cheese and pineapple a fancy little addition to spice up the table in martini glasses!  THEN the mushrooms went faster than freakin' bday cake. They were such a hit; next time we'll HAVE to double or even triple the recipe. Enjoy making them!

Ingredients:
button mushrooms (1 pack from the grocery store should suffice)
pepper, just a few strong shakes from the shaker
garlic (either 4ish cloves or garlic already minced)
1/4 c. parmesean cheese (the BEST is the kind that is actually shreaded, not the cheap kind in a powder)
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
8 oz cream cheese (fat free would be a good way to save a few calories)
~2 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:

Begin by removing mushroom stems.  This is actually a lot easier than it sounds.  I thought it would involve carving the bottom of the mushroom like a pumpkin. NOT at all. Just take and twist and they just pop right out.  Don't throw the stems away.  Mince the garlic really fine (if using cloves).  Mince stems. Add the stems and garlic to a little bit of oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Watch carefully as to not burn the garlic.  Keep on until the liquid has disappeared and therefore getting all of those delicious flavors flowing! Stir in cream cheese, spices, and parmesean. The liquid should end up pretty thick and at that time you can begin spooning it into the mushroom tops (ALREADY on the baking sheet cuz they're a PAIN to move).  Then top with a tiny bit of parmesean for garnish.  Also it serves as a little bit of a guard after the parmesean melts a little bit, so that all of the fillings don't fall out.  Serve warm.  I'm warning you ... you may need to double this because they're soo good! ENJOY!

Ben's dad also cooked burgers, and they weren't going to get eaten... so Ben had one on the side.  Also weirdo here liked the sauteed onions that we made, on top of his tilipia.  Other than that... DELISH

Taco Dip

Now here’s a perfect little dish for summer.  You know how it is, come and go, in and out: summer is just CRAZY.  For this kind of lifestyle, this taco dip is freaking the BEST.  SO simple and you can just whip it out of the fridge, have a few chip-fulls, and be on your merry way.  Also this dish is perfect for get-togethers, pitch-ins, and bbqs!

Taco Dip

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese (I use fat free because you really can’t tell the difference :D)

1 cup sour cream (again, fat free)

1 lb hamburger

Frito Lay jalapeño dip (confusing, but it’s actually usually just Frito Lay bean dip and in the ingredients it says jalapeño somewere: if you want it extra spicy just put some hot sauce in. I prefer TapaTío)

1 pkg taco seasoning

Lettuce, tomato, cheese, jalapenos, black olives… etc. The options are endless!

Use a 9x12 dish and layer as follows:

Layer 1:  Mix together cream cheese and sour cream and put into the bottom of dish

Layer 2: Bean dip

Layer 3: 1 lb. browned hamburger prepared as directed on taco seasoning packet

Layer 4: TOPPINGS! Whatever you like on your tacos!

Keep refrigerated and serve with taco chips!

Bon appétit!

Overnight Blueberry French Toast

So over the weekend I was fortunate enough to try this AMAZING recipe by my fellow blogger at www.chef-n-training.blogspot.com!!! Amazing cook, recipes for all occasions... (DEF past "n-training" in my book). 

So I decided to try the mouth-watering recipe for Overnight Blueberry French Toast.  The key word here for me was "overnight."  My family was all going to Brookville Lake to go boating for the weekend, but my boyfriend and I were only coming for Monday.  We decided to make a productive day of it, and take breakfast early Monday morning (already prepared, just needed to be popped in the oven for an hour).  We made it and it came out of the oven RIGHT when the majority of everyone was getting out of bed! SUCCESS! Seriously, try it.

Overnight Blueberry French Toast

French Toast:

12 slices bread cut into cubes (I used French bread, used the whole loaf and made 1 ½ of this recipe)

8 oz package cream cheese (cubes)

1 cup blueberries (honestly CAN’T even taste the difference if they’re frozen)

12 large eggs

1/3 cup maple syrup

2 cups milk (I used skim)

Syrup (for on top AFTER you bake):

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

2 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 cup blueberries (again, can’t taste the dif if they’re frozen)

1 Tbsp butter

 Layer 1: Arrange ½ bread cubes in a greased 9x13 pan. (Make sure the bread slices are generously thick before cubing them).  Sprinkle small cream cheese cubes and (1/2 of the) blueberries all over the bread cubes.  Mix together eggs, milk, and syrup and pour over Layer 1.   Layer 2: Add the rest of the bread cubes on top of Layer 1 and add remaining blueberries.  Cover pan in foil and refrigerate overnight.  Bake covered with foil for 30 min at 350 degrees and then uncovered for 30 min.  The top should be golden brown.  Top with syrup, LET COOL and then dig in!

Syrup: Cook water, sugar, and cornstarch until thickened.  Stir in blueberries and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add butter and stir until melted.  Serve topped with syrup.

*note: in the original recipe, only the cream cheese and blueberries are put between layer 1 and layer 2; the eggs were added on top of both layers.  I prefer putting it between because there’s a slightly crunchy top (but not TOO crunchy because some of the top layer gets soggy overnight anyways!).  For the original recipe click here.

Pineapple Salsa Chicken

So first off, I'd just like to say this dinner is SOOO freakin easy! If you can't already tell, I love easy.  I mean, after working a 9 hr day and then going to the gym I'm READY to eat.  So if you put the chicken breasts out in the morning to thaw from their popsicle state, it's PERFECT for a quick dinner.

To begin:

   Take one can of pineapple chunks plus the juice and dump it into a bowl. 

Then take about 1/2 cup -3/4 cup salsa and mix those two killer ingredients together (i usually choose a milder salsa, because it goes with the taste of the pineapple better in my opinion).  You can play with the balance of the two depending on your personal preference. 

    Then add about 1 1/2 tsp of curry. Yes curry.  Sounds like a strange mixture, but just trust me here.  Now, curry can go HORRIBLY wrong if there's too much, so start out light on the curry.

 Mix this combo all together and then just pour over chicken breasts in some sort of baking dish.  The smaller the better (as small as will fit all of the chicken breasts flat) because then the juices reach more of the chicken.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until center is no longer pink. Serve the pineapple that you cooked the chicken in as a side and it's COMPLETE :)

Taco Bowls

Taco Bowls

Everyone knows the thrill of TACO night right?!?! Well just to put a bit of a spin on this simple--QUICK--EASY, dinner, I thought I'd let you in on a little restaurant favorite--the taco bowl!  It's great not only because it's easy and popular, but also you can make this dinner as healthy as you want (or don't want :-P).

To Begin:

   Start by browning the taco meat with a taco seasoning packet as directed.  (these are really cheap!).  Then you can set that aside and begin making the taco bowls. 

We didn't have any bowls that happened to be round AND oven proof, so ours were slightly square, haha but just as delicious!  In order to make the bowls, start with medium to large soft tortilla shells (ours were only medium, and you can see how much we fit in them). 

Set a bowl (rim down) and spray the bottom of it with cooking oil.  Then spray both sides of the tortilla and place it on top.  Then spray the inside of a slightly larger bowl in order to force the tortilla to make a bowl shape. Now that you have your taco bowl... GET ALL OF THE TOPPINGS READY!!!! We chose to have lettuce, refried beans, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes (none for me eww), black olives, salsa, and hot sauce :)

Now that all of the pieces of this puzzle of deliciousness are ready, build your mountain of food!





Here's Ben's

AND HERE'S MINE



NoM nOm NoM nOmMmM

Cooking Goals :)

16-Minute shrimp scampi
Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork
Thai Tea
Tiramisu
Perfect Iced Coffee
Homemade power bars
Create own steak marinade/rub
Peach Cobbler Muffins
Salmon in a Crockpot (this is for you mom)
Oat bran Pancakes
cinnamon toast pear cheesecake bars
create perfect apple crumble with cracklin' oat bran cereal
PB& J bars
Triple Rich Chocolate Cake in the Crockpot
Curry Chicken Soup
cheddar cheese muffins
Healthy (easy) vegan ice cream 
Bread Pudding
If there are any other ideas that you would like me to test out first, PLEASE let me know, I'm be very open to suggestions

Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes

YEAH… so I was a little bad over the weekend… I had a craving for CHOCLATE, so what better than the chocolatey-est of the chocolatey—LAVA CAKES.  Like I said, I try to be healthy, but there’s no point in killing yourself with a completely healthy diet all the time—REWARD yourself once in a while!

Choclate Molten Lava Cakes

Ingredients:

4 Squares Baker’s semi-sweet baking chocolate

½ cup (one stick) butter

1 cup powdered sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

6 tbsp. flour

½ cup thawed cool whip topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Butter  4 (oven proof) custard cups or soufflé dishes. Place on baking sheet.  Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwavable bowl on HIGH for 1 min or until butter is melted.

Stir with wire whisk or until chocolate is melted.  Stir in sugar until blended.

Blend in eggs and egg yolks with wire whisk.

Make sure when separating the yolks, that you DON'T break them! Its SUPER hard to fish all of the yolk out of the whites.  Also a good trick... USE the leftover egg parts (whites in this example) for breakfast the next morning!! YUMM

Stir in flour. Divide batter between prepared custard cups.

Bake 13-14 min or until sides are firm but centers are soft and gooey. Let stand one minute and then run a knife around the outside of the cakes to loosen them from the custard cups.  Invert the cakes into a bowl or plate and serve immediately while the centers are still hot and oozy with ice cream & chocolate syrup or cool whip topping. 

Enjoy your FOOD COMA :)

 

**The great thing about this dessert is that it definitely satisfies that chocolate fix! They’re so easy that you can just whip them up in no time, and you can even prepare them a day ahead: just prepare the batter, put in custard cups, saran wrap, and place in refrigerator.  Then just bake as directed. This recipe originally came from a Food & Family Kraft magazine... They really have some great stuff in them! I've found many of my favorites there!  

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Funny story about this dessert: I actually made this as a “How to” speech during high school.  I really felt like a Food Network Star up there!  And to prove how fast I whipped this baby up… the speech had to be no longer than 5-6 minutes J Yep, needless to say I was the favorite in my speech class for a couple of days.

Chocolate Éclair Cake

Ingredients:

3 small boxes of instant vanilla pudding

3 cups milk**

One 8 oz container Cool Whip **

1 Box graham crackers

1 can of chocolate frosting

Directions:

Mix pudding and milk until creamy.  Blend in Cool Whip.  In an 11x13 pan, place a layer of graham crackers then a layer of the Cool Whip pudding mixture.  Repeat another layer  and then finish by placing one last layer of graham crackers (3 layers graham crackers, 2 layers pudding mixture), and ice with frosting.  Cover and Refrigerate. 

**Because I figure that I might as well avoid extra calories when possible, I use skim milk and fat free Cool Whip.  Overall, this dish is relatively low calorie, and it’s very rich so a huge piece isn’t even necessary to fill that chocolate craving.  It’s kind of a cool twist on a smore kind of taste, so kids and adults will all rave over this dessert.  This dessert is best when chilled overnight because the pudding-y goodness has time to soak into the graham crackers.  SO EASY, SO DELICIOUS!!! Great for a summer pitch-in or last minute company!

Spaghetti Pie

The awesome thing about this recipe is that it's basically two big steps: the crush, and the meaty filling.  It's a really good balanced meal and it keeps me full for a long time especially after a really good workout. I introduced this one to Ben one night when we were trying to find something to make before studying, and he even had all of the ingredients; it's always nice when there's nothing ridiculous to find at the grocery.  Needless to say, he fell in love with this recipe that I grew up on :) thanks MOM for introducing me to this awesome college staple.

Spaghetti Pie

8 oz spaghetti

3 tbsp. butter

3 c. parmesan cheese

2 small beaten eggs

1 lb. hamburger

1 tsp dried oregano

12 oz. mozerella cheese (shredded)

1 small chopped onion

½ c. chopped green pepper

18 oz can tomatoes & juice (Italian style or basil adds a nice taste)

6 oz can tomato paste

1 tbsp sugar

½ tsp garlic salt

~1/2 cup cottage cheese

Instructions:

Cook spaghetti according to directions—drain.  Stir butter into spaghetti.  Stir in parmesan cheese and eggs.  From spaghetti into crust in a 10” pie plate or pyrex dish*.  In a skillet cook ground beef, diced onion, and diced green pepper till vegetables are tender and the meat is brown. Drain off fat, stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, oregano, and garlic salt while mixing over heat.

Spread cottage cheese over spaghetti crust and fill pie with tomato/beef mixture.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 20 min.  Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and bake for 5 more minutes or until the cheese melts.

*In my experience with college kitchen resources and no need for a whole pound of beef for a dinner for 2, it was really cheap to purchase 8” metal baking pans.  Sometimes the 10” pie plate can become too full and overflow a bit (messy!).  Also spaghetti pie leftovers are awesome up to even a week later J.  One thing I like to do sometimes is add ½ lb Italian sausage and ½ ground beef for a little kick.   

First Post :) and Delicious and Healthy Homemade Granola

     Seeing as this is my first post, I figured I should explain this blog a little bit more.  Not only am I a food connoisseur for the finest cuisine while dining in, out, and in a rush; i've also become quite health conscious.  After going to college for my freshman year, I was a bit concerned about the dreaded FRESHMAN 15.  Needless to say, I avoided this terrible fate only to become much more conscious of what keeps my body feeling healthy and full for the longest amount of time (between hw, social activities, bf Ben (**who will post from time to time!**), and working out, I was practically the energizer bunny).  Now, lets get real here though, I DO enjoy a lot of food that still happens to be horrible for me :-P, I just have less of it. I hope you enjoy my recipes, tips, and stories!

Lauren :)   *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***


For my first recipe I decided to start simple and include the recipe for my homemade healthy granola.  My inspiration came from the fact that I hate the texture of yogurt. In order to add a boost of texture, flavor, and fiber to a snack or meal, just sprinkle in about  1/4-1/2 cup granola!  A few of my favorite ways to eat it are: in a parfait, on ice cream, in oatmeal, in cereal...etc.  This granola is so great because there can be so many substitutions depending on your preference.  You may also choose to add many different types of nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and this last time I made it I even sprinkled in a little bit of coconut that I had left over from making my German Chocolate cake (recipe still to come)  for my dad for Fathers' day.  Just try to either choose dry roasted nuts or unsalted nuts/seeds.  A few more bonuses for taking the time to make this are: SOO much less $; many granolas at grocery stores can be $4-$6, and you know exactly what goes into your creation (NO preservatives).  It provides a great source of proteins, carbs, and healthy fats, so enjoy & happy granola-making!


Delicious and Healthy Homemade Granola

Ingredients:

One single serve portion of sugar-free applesauce

3ish teaspoons of cinnamon

~1 tbsp.-2 tbsp. of honey

4 cups of old fashioned (NOT INSTANT) oats

1 cup puffed rice (no sugar added)

3ish tablespoons of flax seeds

1/4- 1/2 cup of raisons (or choice dried fruit)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup slivered almonds

Mix together oats, puffed rice, sugar-free applesauce, and water thoroughly until all liquid is distributed evenly. Mixture should be moist.  Then add cinnamon, flax seeds, raisons, and nuts.  Add about half of the honey and mix together.  Then place on a cooking sheet and spread out as flat as possible. Drizzle remaining honey on top of the mixture after it has been spread out.  Put in oven for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees F and then take out and flip (as much as possible) with spatula.  Leave in for another 15 minutes and then check it.  It should be crispy (NOT still moist) and a light-med brown color.  Add dried fruit and mix together.  Cool and then store in an airtight container for maximum freshness.