Chinese Chicken and Broccoli

I'm going to do my best to guess-timate my measuring for this recipe, since you might know that I rarely measure my ingredients when cooking. (Baking is another story).

I made this for dinner again the other night, and it comes out a little better each time I make it. (Practice makes perfect?)

It's definitely cheaper and healthier than getting take-out, but has a similar flavor. I obviously like it way more than take-out now too.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
-1lb. organic chicken breast or tenders, cut into bite-sized pieces
-1 bag of frozen organic broccoli 
-1 1/2 cups cooked rice

-Secret Sauce: (here's where the measurement guessing comes in)
  - about 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
  - 1/4 cup warm water mixed with a 1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch
  - about a tablespoon of ginger (I buy a jar to keep in the fridge)
  - a teaspoon of sugar
  - a teaspoon of ketchup
  - 1/2 tsp. mustard
  - 1 large clove of garlic (minced)
  - a dash of cayenne pepper

Directions:
Cook the chicken in sesame or coconut oil. Add the broccoli to the pan once the chicken is browned. 
Combine all sauce ingredients in a small bowl. 
When chicken and broccoli is done cooking, turn heat to low and add the sauce. Let it mingle for a few minutes before removing from heat and serving with rice. 
Top with sesame seeds if you're feeling fancy, and definitely use chopsticks. 

Enjoy!

Balsamic Veggie Wraps

With (optional) chicken and rice! 

Sometimes, the simplest meals can be the most satisfying. This weekend, I had a craving for a grilled veggie wrap, mostly because I'm longing for summer hardcore. There was another snowstorm here today (which I had to drive to work in) and I was beyond angry about it. For me, cooking and baking have become more and more of a de-stresser. I like that I'm able to do something I like, while also feeding my family (aka my lovely boyfriend), and of course it's nice that he's always so appreciative (even when I mess up..oops!).

Ready to wrap! 

Finished veggie/chicken mixture

ANYHOO! Here's the recipe! It's perfect for a quick weeknight meal or even a weekend lunch. Enjoy! :)
Ingredients:
*Note* - This will cook faster if you use frozen veggies (ironically enough), but fresh are of course good too. And you can use basically any mix, these are just the veggies that I had on hand. And the measurements are approximate, depending on how many people you are cooking for (and how big their appetites are....). I also "eye-ball" measurements a lot when cooking, so use your own judgement for this.
~1/2 cup bell peppers, thin sliced
~1/2 cup thin cut carrots sticks (see photos)
~ 1/4 cup leeks, sliced
~1/4 chopped spinach
~ 4-5 button mushrooms, sliced
lettuce (for garnish)
~1 tomato (for garnish)
~1 tablespoon olive oil
~ 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
a few shakes of salt, pepper, and garlic powder
1 chicken breast (if you want - still really good without it!), cut into thin strips
brown (or any other kind) rice, to eat on the side
tortillas


Directions:
1. First I start making the rice, since it takes the longest to cook. I made brown rice on the stove top.
2. I cut up any veggies that need to be cut (some were frozen and pre-cut), into small, longish pieces.
3. I cut up the chicken into small, longish slices. Then I cooked the chicken in olive oil, a large skillet on the stove.
4. When the chicken is cooked, I take it out ( or move to the sides of the pan), add a little more oil, and cook the veggies. Add the salt, pepper and garlic now too. It took about 15 minutes total.
5. I add the chicken back and the balsamic vinegar when the veggies are almost done. Cook until the veggies are as crisp or not-so-crisp, as you'd like them.
6. Scoop mixture onto a tortilla. Add tomato and lettuce if you want. Attempt to wrap it up. (This part never works out for me). Serve rice on the side.
7. EAT! :)

I hope you try and like this recipe! Please sign up for email updates if you like what you see! You can also follow my blog on Google+ if you have a Gmail account!

All wrapped up with a side of rice! 

~Mallory~

Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Granola Bars

I have been wanting to try to make my own granola bars for a while now, but haven't been able to find a recipe I liked. This one is a mix of a few I found on the interwebs.

Forgot to take a "before" picture, but here they are in the oven! 

Ingredients: 
2 tablespoons (softened) unsalted butter
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)
2-1/4 cups rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup raisins (or other dried fruit of your choosing)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 13x9 (or similar size) pan with olive oil or cooking spray.
Combine the butter, applesauce, brown sugar, honey, vanilla and flour by hand or with a hand mixer (I have a lovely purple hand mixer I use every chance I get).
Add the baking soda, rolled oats and cinnamon. Mix again.
Stir in the raisin with a wooden spoon.
Pour mixture into the pan and spread evenly with the  wooden spoon.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until edges are brown and top is golden. (see photos).

How freaking delicious do these look!? This is right out of the oven, pre-cutting. 

I'm glad I finally got around to making these! They came out so good and we're ridiculously easy to make. The whole thing probably took about 10 minutes, including clean up (but not baking time). I let them cool for about 30 minutes before I cut them into bars, and wrapped them up for easy breakfast grabbing.

Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Mallory :)

Easy Pull-Apart Rolls!

I'm eating a fresh baked dinner roll right now and it's so good, I cannot form words. You'll just have to look at the photos.

The one roll I couldn't wait until dinner to eat.

It snowed here today and I stayed home from work, (I hate the snow by the way, but that's a story for another day), so of course I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to bake! I am so happy these rolls came out so good!

I got the original recipe from http://www.halfbakedharvest.com/easy-fluffy-pull-apart-whole-wheat-buttery-dinner-rolls/ but tweaked it a little since I have a bread machine.

Here's my version:
Ingredients:
1 cup very warm water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2-3/4 cup white whole wheat flour (I use the Trader Joe's brand)
2 tablespoons honey
1 egg
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions:

Place all ingredients (in the order listed) in your bread machine. I think some bread machines could be different, so if your machine says to put the ingredients in a different order, then by all means, do that! 

Set it to the "dough" setting.

When it's done (mine takes about 90 minutes), pour the dough out onto a floured surface (it will still be a little sticky) and form into a ball. 

Cut it into 9 sections and form a small ball from each one.

Spray an 8x8 inch pan with olive oil spray (we have a Misto!) 

Place the dough balls in the pan.

Cover with a dish towel and let rise for 20-25 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

When the dough is done rising, spray (or brush) with olive oil, and sprinkle with spice of your choice (I used rosemary).

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. 

ENJOY! :)

The dough right after I took it out of the bread machine.

Dough balls in the pan, ready for the towel and some rising.

Dough balls after they rose, sprayed with olive oil and sprinkled with rosemary! 

Finished rolls! Right after I took them out of the oven! Mmm! 

Chocolate Coconut Crinkle Cookies

Hello again!
I know I said I'd be posting mostly "healthy" recipes and DIY things, but turns out most of my recipes are dessert related...
I like to think these cookies are fairly healthy as far as cookies go, since they are made with coconut oil instead of butter, and cocoa powder which I keep telling myself is in the health-food category. They also happen to be vegan! I didn't intend for them to be, there just happens to be no dairy in them. Don't get me wrong, I like dairy as much as the next 'Merican (most notably cheese), but it really is not good for you, like at all, so it's nice to unintentionally eat vegan once in a while.
So here's the recipe!

Ingredients: 

1 3/4 cups sugar (I used organic)

1 cup cocoa powder

1 cup applesauce

1/2 cup coconut oil (I used organic)

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cup flour (whole wheat or all-purpose)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

powdered sugar for rolling

Directions:

Mix sugar, cocoa, applesauce, oil and vanilla in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and blend with a hand mixer. Put the mixture in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight. (This allows the coconut oil to harden enough to make dough balls).

Preheat oven to 350℉. Pour powdered sugar in a bowl. Take dough out of fridge. Roll dough into small meatball-sized balls. Roll balls in sugar. Place on cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool on cooling rack. 

On the cookie sheet ready to be put in the oven!

I brought some of these to work around Christmas time and everyone loved them! The coconut flavor is subtle to me, but if you absolutely hate coconut, then use another kind of oil. Also, you probably won't like this blog because I'm kind of obsessed with coconut things. My boyfriend is still undecided about the whole coconuts taking over the grocery story thing, but he really loved these cookies. Like I said, the coconut flavor is subtle. 

I hope you try them! :) 

Fresh out of the oven! They smell amazing!

Apple Cranberry Pie

This is a recipe for an apple cranberry pie I made a little before Thanksgiving. I didn't make it for Thanksgiving, but because it was November and I wanted a damn pie. I wanted it to have cranberries (fresh ones because I had never cooked with them before), and I wanted to make it from scratch.
I found a recipe similar to this one (which I tweaked slightly), and let me tell you - pies might be my new thing because this one was amazing. My boyfriend and I each ate a slice every night for a little over a week. And hey, there's fruit in it, this is a healthy pie!
I hope you try the recipe. It was really fairly easy and as I mentioned, a-freaking-mazing.
And look! There's a picture this time! :)

Apple Cranberry Pie 

Ingredients: {Filling}
1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour

1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. orange zest
1 TBS. salted butter

1 unbaked pie shell
1-1/2 cups fresh cranberries
3 cups peeled and sliced granny smith apples

{Topping}
1 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup rolled oats

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter cut into pieces

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. In a large pot, stir together the syrup, sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, orange zest and butter over low heat for about 2 minutes, then add the cranberries and bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the apples. Pour the mixture into your pie shell. Prepare the topping: In a medium bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats and cinnamon. Add the butter with  your fingers to incorporate. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit filling.

Place the pie on the middle rack of the oven. Place a cookie sheet lined with foil on the rack underneath to catch any escape juices. Bake 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the pie to a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.

*Note: I made the pie crust from scratch for this pie (whole wheat too...). If you have time/want to try it, I will post that recipe too, however, since then I've been buying pie crust because it just takes too damn long. Maybe in the future when I'm not working full-time I'll be able to handle the pie crust challenge again. 

Here's the recipe I used:

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

Ingredients: 

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/3 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

4 to 5 tablespoons ice cold water

Directions:In a food processor, combine the flour and salt. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture had turned into crumbs the size of peas. Drizzle in the water (4 tablespoons) and continue to pulse until the dough comes together. Add the 5th tablespoon of water, if needed. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and form into a ball, then flatten slightly. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

And here's the pie! 

I guess it is easy to start a blog...

I was hoping it would be slightly more challenging to start a blog, because that's a fairly good excuse for not starting one. Turns out, it's really easy. Drat.
We'll see if this lasts though. I've been thinking about starting a blog for the last few years (because hey! I know about some stuff! And I took that creative writing class!...10 years ago...)
Who knows, maybe I'll be an internet sensation!
It's probably more likely I'll forgot to post/make excuses. However! IF I do post regularly, I suppose these are the things I will write about (even if it's only for myself):

1. DIY beauty products - I started making my own deodorant about a year and a half ago. I guess it's a weird place to start DIYing when you think about. Anyway, when I told a colleague of mine about it, she said, and I quote, "Oh my God, really?! Are you like, granola!?" I told her I didn't think so, but maybe you will disagree if this blog thing actually gets going.

2. FOOD! (aka Recipes) - If anyone ever actually reads this, they will come to find that I really really (like really) enjoy food (and cooking!). Pretty much of any sort, though I've been trying more and more to eat clean. (Except during the holidays - that's a free for all).

3. Things I Try - I once tried to make my own toothpaste. It was terrible. But I could have blogged about it! I also just got my first ever "gel" manicure. Also very terrible, but perhaps I'll write up a review/my opinion if anyone is ever interested.

I think that's a fair introduction for now.

Mallory :-)