Blueberry Pancakes

Unfortunately, Chris is not a big fan of breakfast or pancakes.. but I definitely am! So during some of my free time during my last week of summer vacation (sniff, sniff) I decided to make blueberry pancakes for the first time from scratch.

This is a small batch, since I was just cooking for me, and didn't want a ton of leftovers.

1 cup flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/2 cup blueberries

1/ Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2/ Beat in the egg and milk until smooth.

3/ Add blueberries.

4/ Heat oil on skillet, then lower heat to medium-high.

5/ Cook pancakes! And, if you're a bored first grade teacher.... make them into a bear face :)

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Chris and I have made this dip for multiple occasions now and everyone always loves it, so I figured I would go ahead and post it! It's nothing fancy - super easy. We most recently made it to eat before going to the Ravens vs. Redskins preseason game (and guess who won?? :))


10 oz can chunk chicken, drained
8 oz package light cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup light ranch dressing
1/2 cup Frank's hot sauce
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese




Mix all ingredients together and heat either in the oven or microwave!  It usually takes about 10-15 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees - whenever the edges start to bubble, it's ready!

Baked Ziti (No cans allowed!)

You could make ziti with a box of pasta and a can of pasta sauce.... or you could start off a grocery trip by saying "Chris, don't kill me when I tell you how many tomatoes we need.." 

We bought 8, to be exact. And they all got diced.

To make 4-ish servings, you're gonna need...

1/2 pound ziti

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella+ (ok, I love cheese)

1/4 cup grated parmesan

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion (about 3/4 cup)

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp pepper 

...and keep all those spices out, to add more as you'd like :)

2 bay leaves

1/8 cup red wine

6-8 medium tomatoes, chopped

1/2 tbsp honey

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 pound lean ground beef

Follow these steps...

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Cook pasta according to box.

3. Mix cheeses together in a bowl and set aside.

4. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute onion until translucent. Add garlic and brown slightly. Add spices listed above, bay leaves, and red wine.

5. Add chopped tomatoes and reduce heat to low. Simmer for one hour or until thickened.

6. While sauce is simmering, saute ground beef over medium-high heat. Drain. Add to sauce with honey and sea salt. Simmer and additional 15 minutes.

7. Layer cooked pasta, sauce, and cheese in a baking dish. Bake until the cheese melts and sauce is bubbling.

Mojito Marinated Fajitas

Oops - forgot to take a picture of the "finished product" for this one!


Marinade Ingredients
1/2 cup lime juice
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup chopped mint leaves
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp sea salt
1 tsp sugar


"Filling" Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1/2 sliced red bell pepper
1/2 sliced yellow bell pepper
1/2 sliced onion
1 diced jalepeno
4 whole wheat flour tortillas
Other toppings as desired (ie: salsa, sour cream..)

1. Combine the lime juice, rum, mint, olive oil, salt, and sugar in a bowl and mix well.


2. Place marinade and chicken in a sealed container or ziplock to marinate.


Note: The recipe only says you need to marinate the chicken for an hour, but I prepared the chicken the night before so dinner wouldn't be ready super late, so mine marinated for a whole day in the fridge and it was great that way! :)


3. Preheat the oven to either bake or broil the chicken (we chose to bake at 350, since it had been marinating for so long, the chicken came out very tender).


4. While the chicken is cooking, saute the bell peppers, onion, and jalepeno over medium heat until just tender.

5. Cut the cooked chicken into strips and then build your fajitas! :)

Apple - Cranberry Salad

This recipe from my Canyon Ranch cookbook actually includes salmon and a homemade Mongolian BBQ sauce, but I simplified it to make it a side-salad, rather than a full meal.

Ingredients

1/8 cup lemon juice

1 tbsp honey

pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

arugula

1 Gala apple

1/2 Granny Smith apple

1/4 cup cranberries

Directions

Combine the lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.

Toss the arugula with the lemon juice mixture.

Core and thinly slice the apples.

Add the apples and cranberries to the arugula.

Honey Balsamic-Glazed Chicken

A new recipe from my new favorite cookbook, Nourish: Indulgently Healthy Cuisine. It is one of the Canyon Ranch cookbooks and everything we have tried from it so far has been wonderful! Now if only I could spend a week or so AT Canyon Ranch.... :)

Honey Balsamic-Glazed Chicken

2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup chicken stock

2-3 boneless chicken breasts

Sea salt, black pepper, and chili powder to taste

About a cup of all purpose flour

Nonstick spray

1. Mix together the vinegar, honey, and chicken stock. Set aside.

2. Pound or roll each chicken breast until 1/4 inch thick. Season both sides with salt, pepper, and chili powder.

3. Cover each chicken breast in flour either on a plate or in a ziplock baggie.

4. Spray a saute pan with nonstick spray. Sear the chicken on each side over medium heat for just a few minutes.

5. Deglaze the pan with the honey glaze and reduce heat to medium-low. Continue to cook the chicken for about 5 more minutes, flipping once more, until cooked all the way through.

Homemade pizza (the crust, too!)

Another exciting August project: homemade pizza! Pizza crust from scratch and all! We were very excited to share this meal with Chris's sister in law, Melissa (and the hungry baby boy in her tummy :)) at the last minute!


I got the pizza dough going after work one Friday afternoon (and made a MESS of my kitchen, I will admit) but it was a fun project! Very similar to my past bread-making endeavors, just bigger... and... messier... oh well! Maybe that's a good sign??


Anyways, after I got the dough formed, I gathered up the rest of the ingredients/ toppings and headed over to Chris's house so that we could design and bake the pies together.


We decided on, a little frantically,  two pizzas semi- divided in half. Due to Melissa's arrival, we weren't sure what she would be in the mood for or wouldn't be able to eat since she's preggo :) So we ended up with:
Pizza 1 - Half mozz & tomato, half pepperoni & jalepeno
Pizza 2 - Buffalo chicken pizza (half with chicken, half without)


So.... here's how I did the dough:


2 tsp pizza yeast (which apparently requires no rise-time, helpful when you're in a rush!)

2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
3/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
3-4 cups flour
oregano, basil, etc.


Mix yeast, sugar, salt, and water about 1 minute until blended.
Add oil, stir.
Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time until a ball is formed that is slightly sticky but stays formed. Continue to add flour as necessary. Add in Italian seasonings as desired.
Knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic. Form back into a ball and place in an oiled bowl until ready to make pizza.


I baked both pizzas at 400 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. The buffalo chicken pizza took a couple minutes longer.


We made fresh tomato sauce for pizza #1 and used a variety of Italian spices and topped with slices of tomato, pepperoni, jalepeno, mozzarella cheese, and grated romano cheese. To make the sauce for the buffalo chicken pizza (rather than using tomato sauce), we mixed bleu cheese dressing with Frank's Red Hot hot sauce, then topped with mozzarella cheese and shredded chicken.

Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings

Bring on Football Season!

Wings are great, and baking them in the oven rather than frying them made me love them even more for being a little bit of a healthier version of a football season favorite (let's go Ravens!) The outside was a little crispy and the inside was perfectly cooked in much less time than I expected!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 lb chicken wings

1/4 cup melted butter

1/3 cup Frank's Red Hot hot sauce

Directions:

In a ziplock bag, put in the flour, cayenne, chili powder, garlic, and salt. Shake to mix. Add the chicken wings to the bag and shake around until all wings are coated with the mixture. Let the wings sit in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick spray.

Mix together melted butter and hot sauce. Dip each wing in the mixture and place on the baking sheet.

Now, about the actual cook time: all of the recipes I looked at said the wings would take 40 minutes to an hour to bake. Chris's oven typically cooks faster than I'm used to but this one really surprised me - the wings were totally done in about 20 minutes! So, I guess it's just something you have to watch and make your best judgement on in your own oven. I flipped the wings over after after 15 minutes and then let them cook for an additional 5 on the other side. But after that we could tell they were done so went ahead and took them out!

Sorbet Pie

Chris and I are really NOT dessert people. Chris is a fan of ice cream cake, while I love cheesecake, and other than that, we don't really ever crave sweets. But I saw this recipe in June's Cooking Light awhile ago and since it was sooo easy I thought, why not?

All you need is:

sorbet (we chose rainbow)

a cookie-crumb or graham cracker pie crust (we chose graham cracker)

whipped topping

fresh fruit (obviously, we chose strawberries)

Directions:

Spread slightly softened sorbet into pie crust. Freeze until firm. Top with thin layer of whipped topping and fresh fruit... and you are ready to serve!

Even I can become this kind of baker! :)

Lemon & Sage Chicken with Green Beans

Lots of citrus in this meal - a perfect pairing for this super hot weather we've been having!

Lemon and Sage Chicken

1 cup orange juice

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/2 lemon, sliced (save rest for green beans)

1/2 lime, sliced (save rest for green beans)

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup ground sage leaves (Well... the recipe I was looking at called for this much.. I don't think I used quite this much, though.)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Approx. 1 lb. chicken breasts

Combine all ingredients and mix well in a tupperware or ziplock bag. Add chicken breasts and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour+.

After marinating, add chicken, lemon and lime slices, and some of the juice to a pan to cook, turning halfway through.

Citrus-Almond Green Beans

1/2 lb green beans

1/2 cup orange juice

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 lemon, sliced

1/2 lime, sliced

black pepper

1 cup almond slices

olive oil (for toasting almonds)

Steam green beans for about 5 minutes or until tender.

Toast almonds over medium heat about 2-3 minutes until lightly browned, stirring constantly so that they do not burn.

Whisk together orange juice and olive oil. Squeeze juices from the sliced lemons and limes into the mix and drop the rinds into the mix as well. Add a pinch of black pepper to taste. Add additional OJ or lime juice to taste if necessary. I found that I liked the taste of mine when it reminded me of fresh lemonade :)

Toss the green beans, almonds, and citrus vinaigrette together to serve.

Spicy Asian Marinated Flank Steak

Slightly modified from Cooking Light magazine's "The Enlightened Cook: Reader Recipes" section

2 tbsps soy sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp curry powder
2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp ground ginger
1.5 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp dark sesame oil
8 oz. can pineapple juice
4 garlic gloves, minced
1 pound flank steak, sliced into strips




1. Combine soy sauce, lime juice, curry powder, red pepper, ginger, vinegar, olive oil, pineapple juice, and garlic in a ziplock bag. Add steak, marinate 1 hour+, turning occasionally.


2. While the meat is marinating, prepare the sides:


-Rice, following directions on box - we went easy this time with Minute white rice. Hey, we had it in the pantry.. it needed to be used!! :)
-Broccoli
-Sugar snap peas
-Chopped red bell pepper
-Sliced red onion



3. After sautéing the vegetables, add in the meat and serve over top of the rice.

Fresh fruit, salads, and lots of chicken!

First I have to say, I had NO idea until last night that I was so behind on posting recipes until I uploaded pictures from my phone last night and organized them and realized I had ELEVEN un-posted meals.... oops, can I mention here that summer school started the first week in August? I promise I will be better! Anyways, we got to choose one day during summer school to leave 3 hours early and today is my day so I guess I know what I'll be doing this afternoon :)


To sum up the month of August so far, I would say it has been the month of lots of fresh fruits and veggies (thanks in large part to my parents, their garden, and Farmer's Markets) and using up the large amount of frozen chicken we had in our freezers from Costco! Below is a sneak peak at some of the things we've been working on this month!

Yumm.. Fresh veggies!

Chicken, cheddar biscuits & gravy

Cutting up fresh cantaloupe

Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad