Pantry, Pizza and Ice Cream

Chai Ice Cream

I'm going to a dinner party tomorrow with family; as the dessert is something loaded with dairy and wheat, I volunteered to make something both my brother and I could have.  With the warmer weather, I thought ice cream was in order.

I decided to google "ginger ice cream."  This gave me a lot of recipes that called for crumbling ginger snaps in pre-made vanilla ice cream.  I added "coconut" to the search field and kept looking.  After some sifting, I found an amazing recipe for Chai Ice
Cream here.  I haven't read this particular blog before, but I will be perusing the recipes after this one!   I took her recipe and modified it slightly; I used Chai tea instead of the black tea.  The spices just enhance the flavor.

I picked up some gluten/dairy free ginger snaps too to go with it.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Update:  I tasted this before it went into the freezer and I was skeptical.  The flavor was incredible the next day; I highly recommend letting this set in the freezer overnight to allow the flavors to develop.  I was also worried about ice crystals, as I did not use arrow root; I was pleasantly surprised there was a lack of ice crystals.  The texture was perfect after a few minutes warming on the counter.  Everyone raved about it, and the ginger snaps (gluten free, corn free, soy free and dairy free) made a great accompaniment!! This recipe is definitely a keeper!!  ~Nia 4/29/13

Portobello Mini Pizzas

I had an impulse at Costco this morning while grabbing spinach and baby bellas for my lunches.  They had these beautiful portobello "steaks" that were the size of my hand.  My adventurous side won, and I grabbed a four pack.  I've never cooked the big ones before, but I decided I wanted to live on the edge and try them.  I searched "portobello" in an app on my phone called Cornucopia (formerly Yummlite).  I found a recipe for appetizers using spinach and tomatoes and cheese; they looked pretty good.  Being a huge pizza fan, despite the cheese issue, my brain moved to pizza with how they looked.

I'll post my improv recipe when it's ready; it needs a lot of tweaking.  Needless to say though, it was super tasty!!  If you want the "baby" recipe before I post it, drop me a line.

Pantry In Progress

Tuesday night I emptied, purged, organized and inventoried my scary pantry.  I neglected to take before pictures...but I have some post-purge-in-progress shots.  Take my word for it, the pantry looks a lot better!!   I wrote down everything by category, and entered it into a spread sheet.  It let me filter by what needed a storage container, and that's where the money is!  I need 11 containers, seven of which are quart jars; a 12 pack of quart jars are $10-12 dollars.  They're cheap, they look nice, and they seal wonderfully.

 

Once everything has a nice air tight home I can move to the next phase: clear organization.  I've got some ideas, but I'll have to play around with the spaces before I'm ready to commit.  I'll post any progress as it happens!

 

That's it for tonight.

Eat Happy!

Pad Thai and My Pantry Project

Pad Thai

Dinner was Pad Thai tonight.  This is a staple dinner for me.  It's super easy, super quick, and filling.  Normally I use soba noodles, but I didn't have any in the pantry.  Instead, I used spiral pasta.  It was quite tasty!  If you're looking for something easy, this is it.  The base recipe I started with all those months ago was simple...and bland.  I've zinged it up a bit...which also added calories, because I upped the peanut butter too.  Even as a staple, I try to only make it once a month.  It makes a better backup than spaghetti with marinara; nothing against it, but variety in backups means we're less likely to eat out.

For the recipe, scroll to the bottom!

Pantry Projects

I love my kitchen in this house.  The only catch is I miss the plethora of pantry space in my old kitchen.  I have enough space, but the layout is more awkward.  As I have a little OCD, and my kitchen is a sore spot with me.  I've been itching to redo the cupboards.  I can't redo the kitchen in a permanent fashion (rental, you see) but I can change my food storage to match the new pantry.  I've gone from lots of shallow cupboards to one really deep one, and that takes a completely different approach.

I've searched images and scoured the web for inspiration.  I think I've finally figured out an approach...or at least, the first steps.  The biggest issue I'm having is I have no idea what's in there anymore, and not knowing what is there is a huge hurdle to organizing it.  I've made some simple spread sheets (think: graph paper lists) to document what I have, what needs a storage container, what needs just a simple container (like this can sorting idea), that kind of thing.  The hope is to have a newly organized pantry in the next couple weeks.

I'll post my progress!

That's it for tonight.

Eat Happy!

Pad Thai

• 2 bundles soba noodles or 3/4 cup cooked pasta

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1-2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1-3 tbs minced ginger

• 1/4 cup oil (olive, canola, vegetable)
• 2-4 eggs (do not pre-scramble)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bell pepper
• 1/2 cup mushrooms (Broccoli, sprouts, etc)

Sauce:

• 1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• Hot sauce of your choice to taste
• Red pepper flakes for garnish

Let's get cooking:

1. Cook your pasta of choice per the package directions.  Drain and set aside.
2. Melt butter in a wok or deep skillet
3. Cook the chicken in the butter; when it is almost cooked through, add the ginger.
4. When the chicken is cooked, remove from the wok
5. Add the oil to the pan and heat
6. When the oil is hot, add the eggs and scramble in the oil (seriously, it makes a difference to scramble in the hot pan versus in a bowl)
7. As the eggs start to set, add the garlic and bell peppers and any other firm veggies.
8. Add the mushrooms and any other soft veggies before the eggs are completely set
9. Add the chicken to the mix, and add the sauce; stir to completely coat and incorporate sauce (the peanut butter will melt in the warm wok, just give it a little time and stir often
10. Toss with your pasta of choice; serve hot with red pepper flakes for more heat

Spontaneity

Baking on a Tuesday?

No joke, I decided to make cookies on a Tuesday.  I don't keep sweets in the house...mostly because I eat them.  When I'm craving sweets, it means I have to make them from scratch.  It makes me second guess if I actually want them too.

After seeing cookie posts from a friend yesterday on Facebook, and after craving sugar for a few days...I took the plunge and made peanut butter cookies.  With chunky peanut butter.  And shaved baking chocolate.  They are amazing!  I've never made these with chunky peanut butter....and while they're amazing with kisses squooshed into the top, the kisses are now off limits for me.  I improvised by grating some baking chocolate (big bricks of baking chocolate are safe from me...I'll munch on the chocolate/carob chips) into the batter and a little on top.

I had three, saved some for the hubby, and packaged the rest to take to work tomorrow.  I hope they appreciate them as much as I did.  They were worth the time!

Trial and Error

I'm trying to eat more veggies without drowning them in extra calories.  This meant that when I saw a "crunchy" cauliflower recipe, I wanted to give it a try.  It was a reminder that while all the ingredients sound delicious, the combination there-of might not be...it wasn't so bad I couldn't eat it, it just wasn't good enough for me to make it again.  I did find some alternatives for next time though!

Yesterday was a new chicken recipe that was a TOTAL winner!  Raspberry Chipotle chicken from Cooking Light.  Two words: 'amazing' and 'hot'!  And super easy.  I'm sure it would go really well with the cucumber salad in the recipe, but I'm not a cucumber person...I made Israeli Couscous pilaf instead.

Tonight was a new recipe too:  Blackened Shrimp Tacos (also from Cooking Light).  I can't decide on this one yet.  I misread the recipe for the garnish/sauce...which means I didn't have a dairy free alternative to substitute.  That being said, the coating on the shrimp was incredible!  I also roasted the cherry tomatoes, which gave a very nice flavor too.  I'll have to try it again with a closer following before I'll give a verdict...or take pictures, apparently.

That's it for tonight.

Eat Happy!  

Where's that Recipe?

Where's that Recipe?

If you search the web for recipe storage you'll get all sorts of results; boxes, websites, binders, bound books...the list goes on and on.  I thought about the card box: traditional, tried and true.  I had a binder (3" binder...yeah...) that I spent time printing oodles of recipes for when I moved out....that I never used... then a couple years back my mother-in-law got me some software called Living Cookbook.  Not only is this software super easy to use,  you can import recipes from the web (woot!), it gives the nutritional information (sometimes it's better not to know...haha!), and as if this isn't all awesome, it will let you print your own cookbook.  It will have a table of contents, index, and cover page...like so:

This is what the pages look like.  The ingredients and instructions are clear, the nutritional facts are easy to read, and print like this:

You can customize the colors (mine are purple and orange), and pretty much anything else you can think of, including sections and tags.  My personal favorite is the fact it will back up your files...which, in this day and age, is necessary.  I also like the fact that I can re-print any pages as needed.  Let's face it, cooking isn't clean, and we all know the recipes we use the most end up the most smeared and crunchy!

Having the search function in the software is nice too...especially when you've compiled.....ehm....over 160 pages of recipes and counting!

Check it out, it's well worth the money.  It makes sharing recipes easier too!!

That's it for this week.

Eat Happy!