Ten on Tuesday

I am combining my two lists this week. Ten things I'm making this week, posted on a (almost) Tuesday haha. It is actually because I'm not sure if I'll finish this tonight- Monday- or tomorrow...so I can't decide what to call it. Anyway, here are my 10 things to make:

1. The roasted cabbage recipe I had listed for last week. I never made it because on that night I hadn't read ahead to know it takes awhile to cook. It was a getting off work, cooking, hungering, timing issue. So I'm making it tonight with roasted turkey (no not a whole one).

2. Roasted spaghetti squash on Tuesday. Inspired by my mama and the delicious dinner I took on the plane with me. It will go with...

3. Garlicky scallops and shrimp from the previously mentioned seafood market. It was a great success! Cheap but quality stuff all brought in from the NC coast. The men working there were so nice and helpful.

4. I am repeating the socca bread/chickpea crepes on Wednesday because they were the best thing I've eaten in weeks. This time instead of pizza style I'm going to have them as a scooper/side with...

5. Indian spinach. One of the best things that's ever happened to my kitchen repertoire was finally venturing into the world of Indian food at home. I highly recommend it. The spice names can be daunting but the flavors are so worth the 10 extra minutes hunting them down.

6. Sweet potato and carrot soup on Thursday.

7. This bread for Kevin to dunk in the soup and have throughout the week. I'm on the hunt for the perfect bread recipe that is a little bit healthy, a little bit sandwichy, but good enough to eat on its own. The Eat Live Run recipe was a success but the loaf wasn't that big. The second recipe I made last week was a loaf shaped hockey puck. It could be on one of those "pinterest fail" blogs!

8. Homemade chicken stock to use in the soup and have on hand. I froze the bones and such from that chicken I made not too long ago. I have finally made time to turn it into stock!

9. I am going to attempt to make my own coconut milk. Remember my $2 project from a few weeks ago? Well I still have the meat from half the coconut. Supposedly it's easy, we shall see.

10. These muffins because we have some comedians staying with us tonight and tomorrow night (no really) and I wanted to offer a breakfast treat. I googled "oatmeal muffins" because I have oatmeal. I may add some blueberries or strawberries, we'll see. The comedians are these guys and some good friends of John's. We will be going to their Carrboro show tomorrow night, featuring special guest John Thornton! How did it come to this, that I'm making muffins for a bunch of stand up comedians? I have no idea.

And since posts without pictures are ugly, here's what I did this weekend:

The beautiful birthday girl blowing out her candle

Love to snuggle this guy! (Even when he really wants down)

So that's my list and meal plan for this week! Are you trying any new recipes? Is there a food genre that you shy away from, like I used to Indian?

Meal Planning Mondays

I am going to loosely say that I may try to blog about my meal plans. I make them every week but I hate to over commit myself by promising to blog them. Realistically I'll probably do a meal plan OR Ten on Tuesday blog each week. And someday I will find my camera and do another yoga post. Also, if posting my weekly meal plans starts to make me look really boring and uncreative, I'll quit immediately.

So here's what we're having:

Monday: This recipe for roasted chicken and veggies is so simple and sounds bland but somehow the oven works magic and it is delicious! I made it a few weeks ago and this time I'm adapting it for a whole chicken because I want to make broth from the bones.

Tuesday: I am going to make this crepe recipe and attempt to crisp it up in the oven and turn it into pizza crust. If it fails then we're having savory crepes filled with tomato sauce, mushrooms and artichoke hearts (cheese for Kev). Oh oh, or maybe crepe-adillas. I just made up that word when the idea hit me. Like a quesadilla but with crepes instead of tortillas? That would make a fun food truck. DIBS on the idea.

Wednesday: Our 1.5 year anniversary! Our new friend Russ told us about an awesome fish market he found so I am going to go scout it out and determine if we are having lobster/crab made at home (something fancy) or going out to this oyster bar we've been wanting to try. Either way it will be followed by a drink at this whiskey bar that Kevin has been drooling over since we got here!

Thursday: Two first time recipes; Chickpea Sweet Potato Burgers and Roasted Cabbage. I love cabbage and I get on kicks with it. I am currently in the throws of one of those kicks. It's intense.

Friday: Roasted Beet and Kale Salad from a magazine Hayley gets. Thankfully she knows I am a big fan of beets and sent me a pic of the page. It took some digging to find that recipe online. Apparently gluten free does not equal google-able. I will probably add roasted chickpeas to bulk up the salad and because roasted chickpeas are the BOMB. Seriously. Make them today.

Saturday/Sunday: I only plan one meal for the weekend to allow for leftovers, decisions to go out with friends, etc. This weekend it is Collard Greens and White Bean soup that I have in the freezer from when I made a huge batch a few weeks ago. I can't find the recipe anymore, what the heck interwebs, why you removing all my favorite things?

So that's our week of dinners. For breakfast we are so boring. I have a smoothie ev.ery.day. and Kevin has oatmeal, eggs, or the bagel I brought home for him from work the night before. For lunch we have leftovers.

What are you having this week? Is this interesting to anyone?

The Trendiest Birthday Cake Around

Smores are so trendy right now. Don't you think? Well since I am THE go to girl for all things trend this is what I landed on when brainstorming for a friend's birthday who said he is "a big fan of cake" (jackpot, otherwise we probably would've had a friend break-up on our hands).

Smores Cake

What you need: 

• two layers of chocolate cake, any recipe or box mix
• 3-4 graham crackers, crushed
• half a bag of marshmallows, any size (i tore big ones in half so a smarter person could've just used the little ones)
• bag of chocolate chips
• a pint of heavy whipping cream
• a kitchen torch (or use the broiler if you're not a pyro)

You may know that I love any excuse to use my kitchen blow torch, but one of the most fun ways is to burn marshmallows. It is science right in front of your eyes! My idea was really the filling/frosting combination. I'm not going to pretend I made up a chocolate cake recipe. I turned to my dear friend Ree for that part. So I started by making this recipe, which I halved b/c I did not want it four layers (whoa). I baked the cakes the night before so they would be really cool and ready to fill. 

Step 1: Position the mallows

This picture is early in the process. I ended up tearing the big size mallows in half and laying one layer across the whole cake. 

Step 2: Torch the mallows

Totally gratuitous picture of fire, you're welcome. Burn them until they are melty and charred to your liking. You could do this under the broiler but you won't get to witness as much science happening. Sprinkle crushed up graham crackers on top of the melty mallows. Gently press them down so they'll become one with the gooeyness. 

Step 3: The Ganache Glue

I thought the top layer of cake might need something a little bit stickier to be convinced to stay in place. On medium heat bring some heavy whipping cream to a boil (about a cup to a cup and a half, I eyeballed it and had too much). The medium heat is crucial, take it from someone who has scrubbed scorched cream out of the bottom of a pan more than once in her life. Once the cream is very hot, pour it over a bowl of chocolate chips. I had half a bag in a small mixing bowl. Pour until the cream is just covering the chips. Whisk until the chips are completely melted and you have a beautiful ganache. Drizzle it on top of the graham crackers and gently spread it as best you can without messing up your mallow masterpiece. Plop the second layer on top and press it into the filling. At this point I put the cake in the fridge for a few hours. That's optional. 

Step 4: The Final Touch

Drizzle more ganache over the top and put just enough so it runs down the sides looking oh so professional (HA). I made more ganache for this step because I did it later in the day. If you don't think you have enough, make more using the other half of the bag of chocolate chips.  

At serving time I put one big marshmallow on top and lit it on fire instead of a candle! It was one of those small things that made me so happy I did a jig in the kitchen.

So there you have it. My latest kitchen project. What have you made lately? What makes you so happy you can't resist doing a jig? 

The Day Hayley Did Me a Solid

Does that even make sense? Who cares. I am working on a post about our first anniversary but it is taking forever because thinking about it makes me too emotional for spring break. It feels like yesterday and feels like a million years ago, all at the same time. In the meantime, I have scored some major loot in the process of celiac dominating 40% of the women in my family (sorry girls :/ ). The greatest thing so far is this:

Protein powder! It may not look like much, but it is something I never buy for us but frequently wish I would/could. Bringing this home motivated me to 1) work out really hard this morning and 2) try something new in the Magic Bullet. I have it in my head that I need/want to eat more beets. I think it is mostly because of how pretty they are and how they make the kitchen look like a murder scene. I have tried the Berry UpBeet smoothie from Jamba Juice and it is good but the "beets" come from "red veggie juice." I think Jamba Juice is pretty conscious of the stuff they put in there but that is just a little too vague for me. So I whipped up this post-workout smoothie today:

See what I mean about pretty?! All I did was peel a beet, cut it up into chunks, and put about a third of the chunks into the Magic Bullet cup (I saved the other chunks for future smoothies). I added half of a frozen banana, a handful of frozen berries (strawbs, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries I think), a scoop of the protein powder and then filled it up with milk. Blend and voila! I think next time I'll add more frozen fruit so it will be a little thicker. For a first try it was really delicious! I could smell the beets but not taste them. The vanilla in the protein masked any bitterness. I will definitely make this again! I would like to find a way to include probiotics in this smoothie but prefer the smoothie texture with milk over yogurt. Any suggestions? Do they make probiotic powder? 

Thanks Hayley for making my week! 

Two Things

That I never thought would work.

Number 1: When Kevin is sick (as he is this week) he wants nothing more than a big bowl of pho. Pho is that Vietnamese soup that supposedly has noodles and veggies and what not. The thing is, the only place in Waco to get pho makes me so angry. He pays $8 for a bowl of pho and it has like 3 noodles in it. Unacceptable. I have always been under the impression that I don't like pho but this may have been because it was just pissing me off. Broth is not soup. Broth is broth.

Cut to Sunday afternoon, I'm trying to make a grocery list. "Kevin, what do you want for dinner tomorrow night?" Kevin with his hood pulled up, wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by kleenex, "Pho." Well, ok. So I did some research and decided I could probably create something close enough to pho to make him happy. Plus I could stock it full of veggies and noodles and all the good stuff. The great news? HEB had all the unusual spices in the bulk section so I got the ingredients for a full, huge pot of soup for about the same amount it would cost for one serving at the under-noodled hole in the wall.

Pho is basically a heavily spiced broth with onions, bean sprouts, beef, cilantro, fish sauce and rice noodles mixed in.  I improvised by using regular chicken broth I already had frozen and simmering it with the spices for awhile. I could provide the recipe but I'm not going to fool myself in thinking that anyone reading will actually want to make it :) As we sat down to eat I felt the need to say, "I hope you realize just how much this proves I love you." Pictures to prove it:

Number 2: I saw a recipe for "mashed" cheesy cauliflower on Pinterest that is supposedly a mashed potato look-alike. I doubted it instantly but decided to try it anyway. Kevin grilled steak for Valentine's dinner and I made the cauliflower to go beside. I was fully expecting it to be gross and for us to have to toast up some bread or something for a last minute replacement. Man was I surprised when it was delicious! Its not as creamy as potatoes obviously, but it doesn't taste like cauliflower. Of course, if you put enough milk, butter and cheese in anything I'm sure it would be good. Plus, it was so easy. Just microwave cauliflower with milk (cream, half and half, whatever) until it is mushy then throw it in the food processor or blender with the cheese and other stuff. Bam. Delicious creaminess without the leaden, carb stomach after effect. I know, I know, Hayley has long since passed out or disowned me for talking like this. I'm not claiming it to be something that could fool you for mashed potatoes. I am claiming it to be the most delicious cauliflower I've ever had. (Flashback to Allison gagging on cauliflower and getting in trouble for spitting it down the sink in the red bathroom.) Once again, picture proof:

I Instagramed this picture b/c it was horrible :)

So what have you made that impressed even yourself? Any fun Valentine's meals to discuss?

Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms

Let's be honest, that essay ain't happenin. I don't have time for that, there's too much Friday Night Lights to be watched. 

I love stuffed mushrooms. I love the way you can put whatever you want in them, I love how they are a well rounded meal with very little effort and I love that portabello mushrooms almost taste and feel like meat. However, I do not know how to spell portobello. Spell check is underlining both options so I'll just mix it up. For this round, I used wheat orzo as the grain because that's what I had. Any small grain works though; couscous or quinoa would both be delicious. 

Start by cooking the orzo and draining it. I was stuffing four big but weirdly shaped mushrooms so I made a cup and a half of wheat orzo.

Set that aside. In a large skillet saute a diced onion and garlic in some olive oil. 

Add in any other chopped veggies you like. I used tomatoes and watercress. I originally planned to use spinach but it looked gross at the store and watercress was surprisingly the same price. 

Once all the veggies look tender and wilted, plop on a big hunk of creamy goat cheese. I suppose this is optional if you are vegan or crazy, but it adds a nice creaminess. If you leave out the goat cheese, you could stir in some broth if you'd like. 

Once the goat cheese is stirred in, add the grain to the skillet and mix it all together. Season to taste with salt, pepper and basil. 

And the final step, stuffing the mushrooms to the brim. Pile it on there! I told you my mushrooms were weirdly shaped. They were the only pieces left in the bin at the store. I promise I didn't take bites out of them before photographing. 

Bake these puppies in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes and enjoy! To really put them over the top, crumble more goat cheese on top right before serving. I had leftover stuffing that could've filled another mushroom if I'd had it. 

The Recipe

• 1.5 cups of cooked grain- orzo, couscous or quinoa
• 1/2 of a large onion diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 small tomatoes diced
• 1 bunch of spinach or watercress, tough stems removed
• 2oz. goat cheese
• 1 tsp dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5 portobello mushrooms, stems removed and gross black stuff scooped out

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray the roasting pan with non-stick spray. Cook the grain according to package instructions and set aside. In a separate skillet, saute the diced onion and garlic in a drizzle of olive oil until translucent. Add in the tomatoes and watercress. Once the watercress has wilted, stir in the goat cheese. When desired creaminess is achieved, mix in the grain. Add basil, salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the mixture into the mushroom caps and roast face up for 25-30 minutes. Crumble more goat cheese on top before serving.

Twice as Many Tuesday

Tuesday is family dinner night with Kaitlyn and David so I have twice as many people to feed (catchy title too). Today I whipped out an oldie but a goodie that I originally learned from Liz about 3 years ago, who I think learned it from her mom. I can never remember all the things that Liz actually put in these enchiladas so I have adapted them over the years, likely switching them up every time I make them. My memory is that bad. But here's what I did today and I'm actually documenting it:

Creamy Chicken and Green Chili Enchiladas

What you'll need:

• About 2lbs of chicken (boneless breasts, rotisserie pulled off the bones, whatever you like)- I used tenders this time
• 8oz can of diced green chiles
• 16oz tub of sour cream (I used light because I'm so healthy)
• 16oz block of pepper jack cheese or any cheese you want (or be like me and use the last half of two different bags of shredded cheese that have collected in the fridge) 
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 20 tortillas

To start out, boil the chicken if it is not already cooked. Then, using two forks, shred the chicken.

In a large bowl, combine green chiles, sour cream, half of the cheese, cumin, paprika and black pepper. Stir to combine. 

Remove about 1.5 cups of this mixture to a separate bowl. This will be the sauce on top of the enchiladas. Stir the shredded chicken into the sour cream mixture. Taste the mixture (in a sanitary way if your people care about such things...or are watching) to check the spiciness. It is not that spicy because of all the sour cream so if you'd like more of a kick, add in some jalapenos (pickled or fresh), hot sauce, or more green chiles. 

Now set up your assembly line. Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray. This recipe makes 20 enchiladas so it will need 2 pans. Fill each tortilla with sauce mixture and roll it up. Place in the pan seam side down.

Don't be shy, shove those enchis in there. I used the two smaller pans instead of another 9x13 because I want to freeze one small pan for a rainy day. 

I used wheat tortillas because the ones they make in the grocery store are just so good. Plus, if I wrap the creamy, cheesy goodness in a wheat tortilla then it's breaking even. Right? 

Once all the tortillas are filled and in the pan, smear on the un-chickened sauce that you saved. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes until bubbly. 

This is pre-baking but after looked pretty much the same

These are perfect for making ahead of time and just popping in the oven when you get home. Leftovers are great AND they freeze well. What more could a girl want?!

What's your favorite make ahead meal? Do you have a go-to enchilada recipe?

Meal Planning for the Week

I'm working on our meal plan today so thought I'd share. It's a good week because I just got Eating Well and Southern Living in the mail plus there are some special events happening so that means baking!

Breakfasts: Ever the same, kefir and eggs for Kevin. Yogurt with fruit or eggs for Caitlin. 

Lunches: Leftovers, salads, peanut butter sandwiches (major pb kick lately!)

Dinners: 

Lentil Burgers from Eating Well on Monday

French Onion Soup and Caesar Salad w/ Chicken (both homemade) on Tuesday

Beef and Broccoli- a loose interpretation of Eating Well's recipe on Wednesday (Loose interpretation because I'll use some steak we have in our freezer that's not flank. Plus I don't have all the special Asian sauces it calls for nor the desire to buy them.) 

Roasted veggies, whatever's cheap to take to life group on Thursday

Friday is the big opening reception for Kate's show! So we'll eat there. 

Baking:

Champagne Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream for Kate's show

Frosting the Applesauce Spice Cupcakes for Kate's show with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese

And last but not least, next weekend is Kevin's BIRTHDAY! Kevin's not a huge dessert fan but in my house, it's not a birthday if there's no cake. So he requested a german chocolate cake. Well fancy that, there's a recipe in my new Southern Living! Plus, I'm going to make the pumpkin, cinnamony, sugary bread that he somehow stumbled upon and emailed me a link to (with the subject, "just a suggestion"). Subtlety has always been his strong suit. If there's one kind of sweet Kevin will go nuts over it is breakfast sweets. If it has cinnamon, sugar and a glaze, he's there. Cinnamon rolls in lieu of grooms' cake anyone? So after I recovered from the shock that Kevin apparently reads food blogs, I decided to oblige and whip this up for his birthday breakfast. I'll do my best to document the process when it happens!

So what are you making this week? Do you meal plan? Or are you feeling good if it's not cereal for dinner? :) 

Brownie Coconut Bars

These bars originally made an appearance on the Georgas table for one of our "family dinners" in which my favorite sister-in-law, Kaitlyn, and long time family friend slash awesome guy, David, join us for dinner on Tuesday nights. I chose the recipe based on my very scientific method of pairing dinner and dessert: what sweet treat can I make with the ingredients I already have. They were delicious so I decided to whip them up again thinking some girlfriends were coming over tonight to hang out. I changed up the recipe just a little bit this time, again for empirically proven reasons: I was lacking some of the called-for coconut.

I think I figured it out. The thing that makes these so delicious. Brownies with some coconut mixed in? I mean I'd eat 'em. Coconutty blob things with a little chocolate mixed in? While they don't sound great, I hate to see food wasted. But the perfectly sized layer of brownie supporting the floofy, delicious cloud of coconut? Heavenly.

Start by getting out a 9x9 pan, or 8x8, whatever you have. I'm pretty sure mine is 8x8. Line it with foil, leaving a little extra foil hanging over the edges so you can pull it out in one piece later. Spray the foil with nonstick spray or butter it if you're less lazy than I.

Mixing up the brownie layer is really as easy as melting butter in the microwave and then stirring in sugar, salt, an egg, cocoa and flour. Pour this layer into the foiled and sprayed pan. Bake it in a 375 degree oven for 10-15 minutes, until the sides start to pull away from the foil. 

While it's baking, mix up the coconut floofiness. Again, it's as easy as stirring 5 things together in one bowl with one fork or whisk. No mixer required! Combine eggs, sugar, vanilla and flour then when it's smooth mix in the coconut. Also, the coconut weight does not have to be exact. I realize maybe not everyone is as in love with the food scale as I am. 

When the brownie layer comes out, plop the coconut mixture over the top a little bit at a time. With the hot brownies and the thick coconut, spreading is no easy task so resist the temptation to dump all of the coconut on at once. I find that spreading with the fingers works best. Now it looks like this:

I forgot to take a picture after sprinkling the last little bit of coconut on top, my bad. Put the whole thing back in the oven for 25-30 minutes until it's browned on top and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out with moist crumbs. 

Once it is cool enough to touch simply grab the foil and lift the whole square out of the pan. 

The verdict is in. Kevin and I liked this batch better. Having less coconut made the whole bar more moist without sacrificing coconut flavor or floofiness. It really is up to you how much coconut you want to add! 

The Recipe

Brownie Layer:   

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 375. Foil and spray a 9x9 pan (or 8x8). Melt butter in the microwave then stir in sugar and salt. Stir in egg then cocoa and flour. Mix until smooth. Spread evenly in pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Coconut Layer:

• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 4 ounces sweetened, shredded coconut plus a little extra for the top

Stir together the first four ingredients until smooth then fold in coconut. Spoon little plops onto the brownie layer and spread gently with fingers. Sprinkle coconut on top, about 1/4 cup. Bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool before removing from the pan by lifting the foil edges.

Recipe adapted from here

Applesauced on a Sunday

The painter extraordinaire and our dear friend Kate is having a solo show at the Croft Art Gallery in October (for us art-ignorant folk, that means the gallery will be displaying her work and her work only for a whole month with the hopes that people will buy it). On opening night there is a reception and I have been tasked with making cupcakes. I have some ideas for the different kinds I want to make but I am going to test the recipes ahead of time to avoid a day of catastrophe.

The first recipe to try is Applesauce Spice cupcakes. Allison and Mom raved about these cupcakes last fall and I thought it'd be nice to have a seasonal flavor. Now, you may or may not know that sometimes I like to think of myself as a pioneer/pilgrim/Laura Ingalls Wilder type. Yesterday was one of those days. So I decided to make the applesauce from scratch. Apples are super cheap right now and I had the time. I just realized the opening paragraph of this post may have been misleading because its actually going to be all about applesauce. The cupcakes will be a different story for a different day because they are not frosted yet.

Some quick googling told me that a pound of apples will make a cup of sauce. I cored and sliced 2 pounds of apples. Peeling them is optional but since this sauce was destined for cupcakes I wanted a smoother texture.

Throw the apples in a pot and put just enough water to cover the bottom so they don't scorch, about 1/4 cup should do it. Put the lid on and let them cook over medium heat until they are soft and falling apart, about 30 minutes. You really can't overcook the apples so make sure they are good and mushy. You should be able to mash them with a fork or potato masher. Mash the apples in the pot and if there's too much liquid for your liking, take the lid off and keep cooking for about 5 minutes.

Voila! You have homemade applesauce. If you feel so inclined you can add sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, honey...whatever you like to sweeten the sauce. I kept it plain because, once again, going in cupcakes.

As the applesauce simmered I was faced with a dilemma: can I really throw this big pile of apple peel away? Such a waste! I munched on a few pieces while brainstorming, texting Allison for ideas and eventually googling (of course).

Bam. Vinegar. I just put the peel in a jar, covered it with water and topped it with cheesecloth (held in place by a neon hair tie, classy). After sitting in a cool, dark-ish place for 3-4 days this will supposedly be apple vinegar. On a different note, let's pretend you didn't see the dirty window sill.

There was some applesauce leftover after making the cupcakes so this morning I enjoyed it blooped on top of some homemade yogurt with agave nectar (jury is still out on this stuff) and cinnamon. Delish!