roasted veggies!

Let me start this off by saying that I just love to cook for people. It's one of the top things in my life that I truly truly love to do. Generally, it's extremely therapeutic to cook. Something about the chopping, dicing, mixing, sauteeing that really puts me in a good mood. On top of all of that, it's an extremely creative process! You are making something from scratch (most of the time) and creating a dish that you and your loved ones can enjoy together. In my opinion, the colors and presentation of the food is just as important as the taste. Everything has to flow together and come straight from your heart.

Two of my favorite vegetables are sweet potatoes and string beans. They have their own little flavors going on but on the whole, they are like little sponges, completely vulnerable to every flavor you want to add to it. That's when food is fun. The challenge of taking a plain ol' string bean and turning it into something delicious.

For this meal, I needed a side dish for my chicken dish (I wish i took pictures! it was just chicken breasts baked in a homemade lemon-scallion-herb sauce. I will make it again, I promise.) and while carbs are always (ALWAYS) fun, vegetables needed to be dealt with. This is where my little orange & green friends enter the situation. For both, I prepared them with the every-day kind of herbs & spices that can be found easily in almost everyone's kitchens :

Not So Boring String Beans:

What You Will Need:

-A bunch of fresh string beans (prepare the right amount for the size of the crowd you're cooking for)

-2 tbsp of Olive oil

-1/2 cup of Chicken broth

-Juice of one lemon

-Salt & Pepper

-1 tsp Onion flakes

- 1 tsp Cumin

-1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

-1 1/2 tsp Garlic powder

-1 tsp Sesame seeds

-1 tsp Parsley flakes

-1 tsp of Oregano

1. Wash the string beans & cut off both ends on each one.

2. Put the string beans into a medium sized mixing bowl

3. Combine all of the ingredients into a small bowl (note: I used a measuring cup) and mix together til a sauce is made

4. Pour the sauce over the string beans so everything is evenly coated.

5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and let the beans sit while you take care of the sweet potatoes. (If you're skipping the sweet potatoes, just put the beans on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet & bake them for about 20-30 mins)

Somewhat Spicy Sweet Potatoes

What You Will Need:

-Sweet potatoes (I chopped up three)

-2 tbsp cup of olive oil

-1/2 cup of chicken broth

-Juice of one lemon

-1 tsp of chilli powder

-1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper

-2 tsp of garlic powder

-1 tsp of paprika

-Salt & Pepper

1. Make sure the oven is preheated to 375 degrees

2. Cut up the sweet potatoes, coat them a bit in olive oil and put into a mixing bowl

3. Once they are in the mixing bowl, put them into the microwave for 5 minutes to soften them up

4. While they are softening up in the microwave, combine all of the other ingredients into a small bowl. Wisk together til a sauce is formed

5. Once the 5 minutes are up, remove from microwave and pour sauce over the potatoes

6. Mix together so everything is evenly coated.

7. Transfer potatoes to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Leave room for string beans (if you are making them as well) and bake together for 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

spanish potatoes

This is a quick & easy way to jazz up potatoes. Now, I named this Spanish Potatoes but in reality, I am just an Irish-American girl attempting to spice up a very Irish item. Let's just say that this experimentation in the kitchen turned out delicious with just the right amount of spice and flavor. It's simple and tastes even better the next day.

What You Will Need:-Yukon Gold Potatoes (I used four)-One yellow onion chopped-A mixture of olive oil & canola oil- 1 tsp of paprika-2 tsp of garlic powder-1 tsp of cumin-1/2 tsp of chilli powder-1/3 tsp red pepper flakes-Salt & Pepper (sprinkle on evenly. Use your best judgement)

1- Slice and dice your potatoes, put them in a mixing bowl and then put in the microwave for 5 minutes to soften them up.2. Once the potatoes are softened up, let them cool a bit.3-Slice the yellow onion and then throw them into the mixing bowl with the potatoes. 4- add 3 tbsp of olive oil and 2 tbsp of canola oil. Throw in all of your spices. Mix it all together with your hands (wash your hands first, obvs!) so each and every potato and onion slice is covered with all of your ingredients. 5- Heat up a decent sized sautee pan on the stove (on medium) and coat it with a bit of olive oil.6- Once the stove is heated up, throw in everything. Stir it occasionally so everything is evenly cooked. 7-Cook for about 45 minutes until everything is crispy and delicious looking!
Enjoy!

Strawberry, Mint & Coconut Icing

When it comes to sweets, I'm not obsessed or anything. I mean, obviously I'm not anti-cupcake or anti-cookies. Who the hell is? But when it comes to sweet vs. savory, I will almost always want savory. However, I want to expand my culinary horizons (oy, that sentence is making me want to slap myself in the face) and bake more. Cupcakes are clearly the most obscure baked good ever. Isn't anyone going to discover how cute and delicious these things are? Come on. It's like a foodie secret just waiting to be uncovered.

All sarcasm aside, I decided I wanted to test out a recipe that I've seen over and over again but I wanted to add my own twist. Cream cheese frosting is something that rules. Hello, red velvet cake! I wanted to take matters into my own hands and experiment with my frosting daydreams (skinny!) and see what would happen. I was very pleased with the outcome so it's time to share:

*note: I used store bought chocolate cake mix. A total loser move, huh? This is me taking baby steps with the baking, alright. Let's concentrate on the icing :)

What You Will Need:

- Naked chocolate cupcakes baked & cooled ready to be iced

-About 2 cups of fresh strawberries (or thaw out some frozen ones if that's what you've got)

-About four fresh mint leaves (I used about two too many.)

- One package of non-fat cream cheese

-4 teaspoons of Splenda

-3 teaspoons of butter

1/2 cup of coconut milk

note: All of these measurements created enough icing to cover 15 cupcakes, and I still had more leftover.

1- Pour your strawberries into the food processor/blender (whichever you find is easier) until they are silky & smooth.

2- Once the strawberries are blended, add your coconut milk & sugar and blend all of that together as well. Once that is blended, then add the cream cheese & butter.

3- Mix everything together until it is resembling some type of whipped goodness. At this point, it's good to taste test it a bit to see what else you can add before the mint goes in. I realized I needed to put a couple more strawberries in with the mint leaves. Then hit that blender button!

4- Once everything is taste-tested and looking good, remove from food processor and pour into a bowl. You're going to want to let the icing sit for about 45 minutes before you ice your cooled off cupcakes.

5- And this is the outcome once everything is said and done! I decided that the cupcakes needed some accessorizing once they were iced. They were looking sad, so I crumbled up two Oreo cookies (put the cookies into a plastic bag & go over it with a rolling pin) and sprinkled them on top.

Overall, I think the taste is different and refreshing! The mint could be left out if you're not into the idea but I think it really gives it a little something extra and is the perfect compliment to the subtle taste of the coconut, chocolate and the refreshing strawberry.

four green pesto

Sometimes I don't get the right amount of greens that I should every day. While I'm not a fan of light colored lettuce like iceburg (to me, it's worthless.) i'm a huge fan of dark leafy greens like arugula & spinach. Lucky for me, those are the best types of greens to eat. While I'm working on making sure that every meal I eat includes an array of colors (i'm a recovering 'white food kid'), eating greens is (most of the time) boring. So this is where pesto comes in handy.

Pesto is delicious, garlicky & nutty magic. I've found that store bought pesto is almost always barf-worthy. No matter what the brand, it always seems to have a mysterious taste with an even more mysterious ingredients list. Pesto is quite possibly one of the easiest things to make, so why should it's ingredients label list be outrageously long with chemicals & other crap I can't even pronounce? It's kind of silly.

The best store bought pesto that I've ever had is Le Grand Garden Pesto

The packaging is so beautiful and striking, but what's really striking is the aroma that hits you as soon as you open it. It literally smells like you are walking through a basil garden. The ingredients are simple but the price tag is not. It's around $8 for a package of this and if you're like me, on a 20 something budget, that's not cutting it. If you don't have time to make the pesto from scratch, it's a good investment to get this kind. The unique packaging makes it easier for the pesto to last a bit longer in the fridge also. So if you're going to go with store bought, go with the best. Don't go with the crap.

But let's get back to the D.I.Y approach.

To make Four Green Pesto this is what you'll need:

-A bunch* of:

Basil

Spinach

Arugula

Green Onions (5 stalks cut up)

-Juice of one lemon

-Extra virgin olive oil

-3 chopped garlic cloves

-1/2 cup of almonds

-1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

-Dried herbs & spices

Salt & Pepper

Red Pepper Flakes (one dash/pinch)

Oregano flakes (three dashes/pinches)

*when I say a 'bunch', i mean to just eyeball how much you think is necessary.

Once all of the ingredients are washed & chopped, add them gradually into the food processor. First blend two of the greens (ex: basil & spinach) with some garlic and olive oil to get it into a smooth consistency. Once it's somewhat of a sauce/paste, add the next two greens until that is smooth as well. Throw in the rest of the ingredients & squeeze the lemon juice at the end. Give it one last blend and then let sit for about 10 minutes. Chill it immediately until it's ready for use.

The options are endless for pesto. Throw it on basically anything you want. It's the savory version of nutella, if you ask me. It makes any meal a bit more interesting. Here's how I used it the past couple of days:

-chopped yellow onion, organic quinoa, pesto, corn, arugula & diced apple.

-Pesto, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese folded into a pastry puff with black pepper on top. baked at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown. (the "before" picture is at the top of the post)

strawberries

As you all know, it's been pretty damn hot lately. The thought of even getting dressed the past couple of days is enough to make me want to yell (let's face it: nothing is comfortable or cute in 100 degree weather. A.C please). But food? That's where it gets tricky. Most food is hot..and when your skin is already boiling from the hellish temperatures outside, what's your palate to do? Eat some strawberries!

While grocery shopping, I decided to pick up some strawberries. Now i'm not one to really snack on these but recently i've been enjoying the taste of them much more than usual. Maybe it's a texture thing, but I never really cared about just biting into one. Strawberries, however, are the type of fruit that can be used in so many ways and the flavor can be savored (oy, that rhymes) endlessly. Not to mention they're a great source of vitamin C, fiber and potassium. Here are two extremely simple ways I used them this week:

Sweeten up some boring iced water:

- slice up some fresh strawberries (or frozen! just let them thaw out a bit) in any way you please. I like to cut off the green part, and slice them up a bit on the thinner side so the 'flesh' of the berry really gets soaked up in the water.

-add your fruit slices & a decent amount of ice cubes into a pitcher
-fill up with water & put in the fridge for about 30 mins to let it all soak together! Keep chilled. THE END!

Oh and if you're in the mood to completely cancel out most of the nutritional value (well, kinda) then dip them in some melted chocolate (i used 1/2 cup of milk and a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips melted on the stove til it was smooth and saucey) & chill for one hour in the fridge on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Nothin' like corrupting a sweet innocent berry.

chicken curry puffs

today was a wonderful (but HOT) day. I was able to attend a potluck picnic in washington square park with the Big Girls Small Kitchen / Small Kitchen College girls. Everyone was so lovely and the food was absolutely delicious. I have a bunch of new dishes that I cannot wait to test out on my own. How did I go 22 years without trying gazpacho? Oh, and I got to try this dirty chai ice cream. Insanity. So delicious and refreshing on a scorching hot day.

I thought up this recipe for chicken curry puffs & tried it out this afternoon. Luckily I really loved it and decided to bring it to the potluck. I chronicled the process of it for the blog and also for reference. Hey maybe you'll like it too! CURRY RULES.

What you'll need:

-chicken breasts

-one large yellow onion

-2 tbsp of butter

-lots of olive oil

-salt & pepper

-3 garlic cloves chopped

(or a decent amount of garlic powder if that's how you roll)

-curry powder

- One pack of pastry puff sheets (from the frozen food aisle)

-1 cup of coconut milk

- 1/2 tbsp red pepper flakes

1- First you're going to want to pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Spread the chicken breasts out on a well greased/oiled baking sheet evenly and put a sprinkling of salt, pepper & curry powder (just a bit.) on each breast. Eyeball the spices according to how much flavor you want. (Remember: Curry powder is very strong but the coconut milk will dilute the strength a bit.)

2- As the chicken breasts are cooking (this usually takes about 45 minutes.), chop up your yellow onion. Make sure the onion is being chopped up somewhat small since they will need to fit in a tiny pastry puff!

3- Add the 2 tbsp of butter in a heated decent sized saucepan and a bit of olive oil. Once the two are hot and bubbling a bit, add the onion to the pan. Add salt, pepper & red pepper flakes and stir until the onions are translucent

4. Once the onions are getting somewhat caramelized, add 1 1/2 tbsp of curry powder. Immediately after, stir in the coconut milk.

5. Stir all of the ingredients together and let the sauce simmer on low.

6. By this time, your chicken should be ready. Leave the oven on 400 degrees still. Let the meat cool off a bit and then put the pieces onto a cutting board. Take a fork and knife and shred the chicken. Baking the chicken makes the meat very tender, so shredding should be easy. Throw the meat into the simmering sauce & stir together so everything is evenly coated.

7. While the curry/chicken filling is simmering, get your pastry puff sheets ready. Cut the dough from the sheets into small squares (enough to fold over once the filling is placed onto the dough) and place onto a well greased (but not TOO greasy! i just drizzled olive oil onto some parchment paper and it worked just fine) baking sheet. Make as many squares as you feel is necessary for the amount of puffs you want.

8- Place the curry filling onto the pastry squares. Fold accordingly however you'd like the puffs to look.

9-Place into the oven (set at 400 degrees) for 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on it because you just want to cook it until it is golden brown!

10- Let it cool & ENJOY!