I’m sure this won’t come as a surprise, but we’re not big fans of Mexican food in the OCF house. The Mister can’t eat anything spicy, and I just don’t really like it much. Too many weird ingredients that I don’t like. I’ll eat a soft taco or a taco salad, but you can keep the salsas, refried beans, black beans, pinto beans, cilantro and guac to yourselves. But sometimes you just want to make something different and just do it your own way so that you do like it. So that’s what I did with Enchiladas. I’d see recipes for them but I didn’t like anything in it. That green sauce? Ewww, what’s up with that? So I decided to make up my own. Do it the way we’d like it. And I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!
Shredded Pork & Pineapple Tacos
May 14, 2012 by 2 Comments
One Saturday afternoon I actually had a free moment to watch a non-sports related program on TV. Whenever I watch TV these days it seems to be for some sporting event (which I LOVE!) so this was a nice little change. I miss the days of sitting around on the sofa and watching cooking show after cooking show on TV. I really enjoy Kelsey Nixon’s Cooking Essentials show on the Cooking Channel. She’s always making something that looks so good, yet so easy to make. This particular day she was making a Slow Cooker Shredded Pork that she was using for Shredded Pork & Pineapple Tacos. I’ve been getting tired of eating the same things for dinner so it was nice to welcome something different to the table.
Cake Batter Doughnuts
April 16, 2012 by 1 Comment
Who doesn’t love a good doughnut? I know I’m a fan. Cake Batter Doughnuts? Yes, please. I’m totally there. And they are super simple to make. Baked, not fried, so they are fine for your waist line!
I felt like making some doughnuts in my doughnut pan and I had a box of funfetti cake mix open from when I made the awesome Cake Batter Pudding. And I knew that I couldn’t possibly have been the first person to come up with this idea, so I did a little bit of Googling! Stephanie Cooks had a pretty good recipe that look super simple. So I figured I’d give it a try.
[Adapted from Stephanie Cooks ~ I made a few changes]
INGREDIENTS
-
1 cup all purpose flour
-
2/3 cup yellow cake mix
-
1/4 cup sugar
-
2 teaspoons baking powder
-
1/2 teaspoon salt
-
3/4 cup milk
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2 eggs, beaten
-
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-
2 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles
- non-stick cooking spray
INSTRUCTIONS
First things first. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Spray your doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray. Combine the flour, cake mix, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well. In a measuring cup, beat the milk, egg, and vanilla together. Add the milk and egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until well combined making sure not to overwork it. Stir in the sprinkles.
If you have a wonderful Pancake Pen like I do, pour the batter in that. If you don’t have one, go to Williams-Sonoma and get one! Or you can just pour the batter in a large Ziploc bag and cut the tip off. That also works.
Fill the doughnut pan about 2/3 of the way full. It should look something like this:
Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for a minute or two.
Then transfer the doughnuts to wire rack so that they can cool completely.
Now in the original recipe they used some frosting in a can to put on top of the doughnuts. I would’ve done this, but I don’t really keep frosting in a can in the house. I usually prefer to make my own buttercream. But for these doughnuts I wanted to go with just a glaze-like topping.
For the the vanilla glaze I just used 1/2 cup powdered sugar + 1 teaspoon vanilla + 2 tablespoons milk.
For the chocolate glaze I used 1/2 cup powdered sugar + 1 tablespoon of cocoa + dash of vanilla + 2 tablespoons milk.
Doesn’t that look amazing?
And you can eat them plain if you want. But make sure you eat them before they fall over!
Enjoy!
Maple Brined Pork Cutlets with Honeyed Mission Figs
April 9, 2012 by 2 Comments
Have you ever gone to a restaurant and had a dish that you absolutely love and want to re-create yourself? Well this happened to me after we went to a restaurant here in Philadelphia called Twenty Manning. I had this Wild Berkshire Pork Chop and it was to.die.for. Now I’m not usually one to order a Pork Chop dish in a restaurant, but when I read the description I knew I had to order this. I mean seriously – does it get any better than this?
Wild Berkshire Pork Chop ~ maple brined, honeyed-mission figs, melted gorgonzola, seared brussel sprouts
Skinnytaste’s Garlic Dijon Herb Salmon
April 6, 2012 by 1 Comment
Since we live in apartment in the city, we don’t have a grill. This kind of makes me sad because I loved grilling when we owned a house in the suburbs. I had this awesome grill and I used it all of the time. Now I have to rely on my Cuisinart 5-in-1 Griddler when I want to “grill” something. And I gotta tell ya; as much as I love that thing, it’s just not the same. But I got that sucker out when I wanted to make Skinnytaste’s Grilled Garlic Dijon Herb Salmon. Now I’m not much of a Salmon person, but I gotta tell you that when I saw her post on it she made me want to try it.
Cake Batter Pudding
April 2, 2012 by 3 Comments
So I was sitting on my sofa one afternoon trying to think of something to make for dessert for that evening. I wanted to make something easy; I didn’t want to spend all afternoon in the kitchen. I thought about making cupcakes, but I like to set my butter out hours in advance and I hadn’t done that. So my mind immediately went to thinking about cake batter flavored things. So then I thought about Cake Batter Pudding. I hadn’t seen anyone post anything about that before, but I knew it had to be done by someone. So I googled it and came across a post from Mrs. Happy Homemaker. We must’ve been on the same wavelength since she posted this at the beginning of March.
Baked Pretzel Coated Chicken Strips with Honey Dijon Sauce
March 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I came across a recipe on Pinterest for Fried Pretzel Coated Chicken with Honey Dijon Sauce. Now I’m from Philly and we have an unhealthy love for soft pretzels in this city. But we also have a love Hard Pretzels as well. And I love Chicken. So it just seemed like a no-brainer for me to try this. However, I opted to bake the chicken instead of fry it. Trust me, I wanted to fry the chicken. But I’m trying to cut down on calories and make some healthier choices (a girl has to save her calories for cupcakes!) so I decided to bake them and see how they turned out.
I made these Baked Pretzel Coated Chicken Strips before going to Orlando, FL for Food Blog Forum Orlando. There were so many other fabulous food bloggers there and I had the opportunity to meet Angie of Eclectic Recipes! It was a pleasant surprise since I didn’t even realize she’d be in attendance. It was so nice to meet her and I look forward to trying out many more of her recipes in the future!
So back to the Pretzel Chicken…let’s do it!
(I used this recipe and made a few changes to it)
INGREDIENTS
Chicken
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
- 2 eggs, whisked
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- salt and pepper
Breading
- 2 cups pretzels, ground in the food processor (until they are the consistency of bread crumbs)
Sauce
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
INSTRUCTIONS
Combine mustard and honey for sauce. Mix well and set aside.
Preheat the oven to about 400 degrees. Combine eggs with spices in a large bowl. Whisk together until everything is incorporated and it looks like scrambled eggs (before you would cook it!).
Using a food processor or Vitamix, turn the Pretzels into crumbs. I think next time I’d probably make them a bit finer, but it still worked well the way mine turned out,.
Dip the chicken into the egg mixture, and then place them into the pretzel crumbs. Make sure that you coat all sides of the chicken in the pretzel crumbs. I like the press down on all sides to make sure it sticks.
Place the pretzel breaded chicken on a greased baking sheet leaving a little room between each strip. I like to cover my baking sheet with foil to make for an easier clean-up!
Bake in a preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the internal temperature is at 165 degrees.
Remove from the oven and enjoy!
I thought these were pretty good! I would also like to try them fried (how Eleclectic Recipes made them) to see how the baked strips compare, but I thought they were quite tasty for being a lower fat option. I think they’d be a little crunchier if they were fried, but we still enjoyed them. The Honey Dijon Sauce was a lovely addition! I want to try some of these in a wrap with some cheddar cheese, lettuce and ranch!
Mongolian Beef
March 21, 2012 by 1 Comment
I always love a good Asian inspired recipe that I can make at home. Sure, I love ordering out as much as the next person, but we all know that’s not possible all of the time. So when I saw this recipe I figured I’d give it a shot. The pictures that were shown in the original recipe looked amazing, and I was set out to try it myself. There’s usually always something that I change up, but I really didn’t change much this time. We don’t like anything spicy so I didn’t add in the red pepper flakes. The only other change I made was subbing beef broth for the water and I added in a tablespoon of dry sherry.
[original recipe from Pink Bites]
INGREDIENTS
- 1 lb of flank steak, thinly sliced crosswise
- 1/4 cup of cornstarch
- 3 teaspoons of canola oil
- 1/2 teaspoon of grated ginger (about 1/2 inch piece)
- 1 tablespoon of chopped garlic (about 2 -3 large cloves)
- 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup of beef broth
- 1/2 cup of soy sauce (I use low sodium)
- 1 tablespoon dry sherry
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 large green onions, sliced
INSTRUCTIONS
Make sure the steak slices are dry and mix them with the corn starch. Using your hands or a spoon, move them around to make sure all pieces are coated. Place beef slices in a strainer and shake off excess corn starch.
Turn the heat up and add half of the oil to the wok. Add the beef and cook, stirring until it is all browned (this is a quick thing). It won’t be cooked all of the way through. It will finish cooking in the sauce. I ended up browning half at a time because I didn’t want to crowd the wok. Remove the beef from the pan and place in a bowl.
Heat the other half of the oil in a large wok at medium-high and add the garlic and ginger. Immediately add the soy sauce, water, brown sugar and pepper flakes (if you’re adding them). Cook the sauce for about 2 minutes. I mixed a little bit more corn starch with some beef broth and added it into the sauce. This thickened it up a bit. The original recipe does everything a bit differently – you can do whatever you want.
Add the meat into the sauce and let it cook on low while your rice cooks.
Add the green onions at the last minute so the green parts will stay green and the white parts crunchy. Serve it hot with rice.
This is one of our favorite dishes. It’s very good. It’s a bit on the sweet side, so if you don’t really like sweet things this may not be your kind of dish. Although if you really wanted you could probably cut down the brown sugar a bit. This also reheats well. I love to take this for lunch a couple of days after we have it for dinner.
Mom’s Lightened Beef Stroganoff from Skinnytaste
March 19, 2012 by 2 Comments
I always love a good Beef Stroganoff, but I always make my Beef Stroganoff in the crock pot. When I came across this recipe for Mom’s Beef Stroganoff that was made on the stove top, I decided I needed to try it. All of the other Skinnytaste recipes I’ve tried have turned out really good, so I knew this one would probably be good.
[Adapted recipe from Skinnytaste]
INGREDIENTS
- 1-1/2 lbs lean tri-tip sirlion steak, cut in thin 1/4″ x 2″ strips
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 10 oz of sliced mushrooms
- 1 can of Campbell’s tomato soup
- 1 cup of beef broth
- 1 small fresh bay leaf
- 2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
- 2/3 cup of light sour cream
INSTRUCTIONS
In a heavy saucepan (I used a Dutch Oven), heat pan over high heat. When pan is hot, add the oil and let it heat up for about a minute or so. Add steak and let it brown on all sides. Remove meat from pan.
Lower heat, melt butter, then add onions. Cook about 2-3 minutes until translucent, add garlic and mushrooms and sauté about 2-3 more minutes until cooked.
Add a can of tomato soup, steak, beef broth, bay leaf, and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and cook on low about 40 minutes. Remove bay leaf and mix in sour cream.
Serve over noodles or rice.
I served Sunny Anderson’s Easy String Beans & Onions with this meal as well. They are my favorite! So…I thought this was a really good dish! As you can see we had ours over Noodles. I think the next time I might cook the meat in the liquid for a little longer – maybe an hour or so. I thought it could’ve been a bit more tender, but I still enjoyed it. I LOVED the addition of the sour cream, and I think the bay leaf is a key ingredient. This meal is a keeper and leftovers the next day for lunch were delicious as well!
Oreo Pudding Poke Cake
March 12, 2012 by 1 Comment
Jell-o Poke Cake has always been a New Year’s Day tradition for my family. My Mom would always make one for dessert that day. And the jell-o that my Mom used was almost always either raspberry or cherry jell-o in it. I normally like buttercream icing on my cake, but this is the one exception that I make. Because the cool whip on top of the poke cake is delicious! It just goes with it. So I don’t mess with it.
Now…I love cake. I love oreo pudding. Put the two together and I’m a happy camper! My sister actually emailed me a recipe that she came across that was for an Oreo Pudding Poke Cake. So when I saw it I knew that I had everything on hand so I made it.
Now the original recipe calls for a regular sized box of cake mix and two boxes of instant oreo pudding, but I wanted to half the recipe since I hadn’t made it before. And because having an entire Oreo Jell-o Poke Cake in my fridge wasn’t really the best idea.
[Adapted from this recipe]
INGREDIENTS
- one 9 oz box Chocolate Cake Mix (this is the box that makes 12 cupcakes or an 8 inch cake)
- Ingredients needed to make cake (usually eggs, oil and water)
- one (4 oz.) package of Instant Oreo pudding
- 2 cups milk (2% or higher)
- Crushed Oreo Cookies (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
Prepare the cake mix according to the directions on package. Bake in a well-greased 9×9 pan.
Start to make the pudding. In a medium bowl, add milk to the pudding mix and whisk until it’s a smooth consistency and the milk and mix are combined. Please note that it will be lumpy since there are oreo pieces in there.
Let pudding mixture sit for about 2 minutes. You want it to thicken slightly so it isn’t overly runny but not fully thickened into pudding.
When cake is finished, while still warm, poke holes all over cake (about 1-inch) intervals using a wooden spoon handle or a straw (as seen above). Pour the pudding mixture over warm cake.
Allow the cake to cool for several minutes on the counter then put into the fridge to set up. About an hour.
I like to wait until the piece of cake is on the plate to top with Oreos, otherwise they’ll get really soft.
Top with Crushed Oreos and enjoy!
I thought that this recipe was pretty good! I think maybe the next time I may try mixing in some cool whip with the pudding mixture to “fluff” it up a bit, but it was good the way it was!
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