Favorite Recipes

Thanks from Camellia Beans!!!!!

So...this happened!  Camellia Beans loved my recipe and shared it on Facebook!

Camellia Beans 

SUPER.DOOPER.COOL!  For someone who grew up eating Camellia beans...it was truly an honor.  Well...yesterday they made the experience even cooler by sending me a box of goodies!  GO ME!!!!!

I can't even tell yall how awesome sauce that is to me!!!!!!!!!  I'm still all grin-t up!

 

12 Minute Gluten Free Chicken and Broccoli!

I love Chinese take out.  Or, should I say...LOVED it.  Since pretty much every sauce has a base which includes soy sauce I can't eat it in restaurants and the few recipes I've tried before tonight simply didn't do it any justice.

I ran across this recipe and it made tonight:  12-MINUTE CHICKEN AND BROCCOLI

The only thing I changed was that I added red pepper flakes.  I had two substitutions because well...I'm crazy but instead of cornstarch I had to use flour because I was out and instead of rice wine vinegar I used a Serrano Honey Balsamic vinegar because, again...that's what I had.  Since one of the ingredients was honey...I felt like this wouldn't be a big deal.  

I also did something that has changed my life as of tonight.  Instead of grating up fresh ginger...I cut a piece about the size of my garlic press and peeled it.  Then...I pressed it.

LIFE.CHANGING!

This was soooooooooooooooooooooo good!

YIELD: ABOUT 2-4 SERVINGS

12-MINUTE CHICKEN AND BROCCOLI

This classic chicken and broccoli recipe is full of fresh and delicious flavor, and it's ready to go in just 12 minutes!

PREP: 3 MINS COOK: 9 MINS TOTAL: 12 MINS

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 Tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce

  • 2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar

  • 2 Tbsp. honey

  • 1 Tbsp. cornstarch

  • 1 garlic clove, minced

  • 1/2 tsp. ground ginger

  • 1 tsp. sesame oil

  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces

  • salt and pepper

  • 1 bunch broccoli, chopped into small florets

  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions

  • 1 tsp. toasted sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS:

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts, and season with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is browned and mostly cooked through.

While the chicken is cooking, make your sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, cornstarch, garlic, ginger and sesame oil until combined. Set aside.

Once the chicken is browned, add the broccoli and stir to combine. Continue cooking for an additional 3 minutes, until the broccoli is bright green. Stir in the soy sauce mixture, and cook for an additional 1 minute until the sauce has thickened.

Remove from heat and serve immediately, garnished with green onions and toasted sesame seeds.

 

 

Super Moist Lemon Pound Cake - Gluten Free!!!!!

I hadn't decided on the cake I was going to make today yet and then my boy, Tali 2, helped me out.  See...his mother bought a lemon pound cake for Easter and set the poor, sweet dear child up by putting it where he could see it a full two days before he'd be able to have a slice.  Straight up entrapment.  The cake got the best of him and well...he started nibbling around the edges.  It was SO good...the poor sweetheart ate all the edges off the cake.  

I imagined that poor child's pain at having such a delicious looking cake so near...and yet so far and decided right then and there that my Easter dessert was going to be lemon pound cake.

I haven't made it in a while and started searching for gluten free recipes.  I didn't see one that made sense to me so I just made the recipe of one that did sound right and simply substituted the all purpose flour with Bob's Red Mill all purpose gluten-free flour.

When looking for a pound cake recipe, don't be fooled by any of the recipes you see that use words like, 'quick' and 'easy' or any recipe that doesn't have one ingredient on the list with the word 'cream' in it.  GOOD pound cake cooks slow and low and includes sour cream or cream cheese.  If the recipe doesn't have one of those in it...keep it moving.

Swiftly.

Oh...and a glaze is a must.

The recipe I settled on was this one:  Lemon Pound Cake Recipe

INGREDIENTS

For the Lemon Pound Cake
3 sticks butter (1½ cups)
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
6 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon juice
zest of one lemon
3 cups sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla

For the Lemon Buttermilk Glaze
1½ cups confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon buttermilk

INSTRUCTIONS

For the Lemon Pound Cake
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare bundt or tube pan by coating with shortening or butter and flouring light. Set aside.
Let butter, cream cheese, and eggs come to room temperature.
Cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar til fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add lemon juice and zest and combine well. Add flour and salt and vanilla.
Mix until just well-combined but do not over mix.
Pour into prepared bundt or tube pan.
Bake until golden brown and skewer inserted into middle of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 - 30 minutes.

For the Lemon Buttermilk Glaze
As the cake is cooling, whisk together ingredients confectioner’s sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and buttermilk to make the glaze. Allow to sit until cake has fully cooled, then drizzle over top of lemon pound cake.

Now...please read the recipe first.  Note that this cake should not be on your list of things you bake regularly.  Why?  It's probably a gamillion calories per slice.  LOL!  The most difficult part of this cake is making the lemon zest.  As always.  I'd seriously pay for lemon zest.  Can you buy it?  I've never thought about buying it but sheesh...I would.  There have probably only been two times in my life when I was getting the zest off a lemon and didn't scrape my dang knuckles. 

UGH!

Hate that!  I must be getting better though because I didn't do it this time.  LOL!  Don't try and skip steps like add all the eggs at once.  Do it the way the recipe tells you to do it and your cake will be guaranteed to be super moist.  Soooooooooooo good!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!!  What cake did you end up baking?


Heart Healthy Lunch Salads from Home!

On Sundays I generally make three salads for The Robinator's lunch.  He usually goes to lunch with his team one day and I make another salad before he'll need another one for lunch.  Inside his lunch bag I also put two pieces of fruit and some kinda nuts, either almonds or a KIND bar.  I send two water bottles full of water too and a small container of a healthy dressing.  Sometimes I'll add a yogurt or peeled orange slices.  All because I want him to be HEALTHY.

I try and switch up the ingredients to include lots of different things so he doesn't get bored eating them.  

The older you get, it seems the more in tune you are to the illnesses that could take you out and well, we try our best to do what we need to do in order to combat the possibilities.  I guess you can say we use food in a preventative health maintenance mode.

This week's salads included the following in each:

A salad green mix of kale, arugula and spinach.

1/2 avocado, diced

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Red onions

Carrots

Artichoke hearts

Tomatoes

Black beans

Sunflower seeds

Olives

Feta cheese

The dressing was a lemon and olive oil mix.  I like to make my own dressing sometimes and use a bottle similar to this one with recipes printed on it:  Salad Dressing Bottle

Much better for you when the ingredient list is, lemon juice and olive oil.  LOL!

He loved this combination (except for the red onions but they are really good for him so he's eating them) and since I have enough to make one more, this is what he will have for lunch tomorrow too.  LOL!  Next week I'm thinking he needs some purple cabbage so I'll go looking for that.  Maybe some red bell peppers and asparagus too.  Maybe some salmon too.

Everything was organic except for the artichoke hearts as I can't seem to find organic ones so yeah...I feel really good about him eating these.

How many ingredients do you normally put in your salads?  Do you use a good variety or do you only like to have a few things in yours? Do you make your dressing or do you prefer to buy one?  

 

How to Freeze Green Onions!

I love getting fresh produce from Robby's parents so when he walked in here recently with a lot of kale and a lot of green onions I was happy and then...um...erra...wait...what am I going to do with that much green onion?????  SHEESH!

Well...I hate wasting anything so I rinsed the dirt off them and then soaked them in water and vinegar for about 15 minutes, rinsing again.

Next?  I removed all the ends and dead bits.

Now?  Chop 'em up.

Next?  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, add the green onions and put in the freezer for a few hours. (Same as you do for individual meatballs.)

Then...remove from freezer grabbing bottle of Russian Standard vodka while you're in there and make a 3 olive dirty martini as reward for all that chopping.

Add onions to Ziploc bag and return to freezer!  Now when I need green onions to toss in a pot, I have some already frozen and they're not all clumpy so I can get a good measure of what I need when I need it.

GO ME!

Do you freeze excess veggies and herbs?  Don't you HATE when they go bad and you can't use them?  UGH!  Do you throw out a lot of veggies and fruit?