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.