Breakfast Dinner: Portobello Mushrooms & Eggs

2017 is going to be a huge goal of trying to get back to a healthier lifestyle. With that said, cooking is going to be a bigger part of our life. At least we’re really trying to do more homecooked meals.

In the last few months of 2016, I started having a huge love for Portobello mushrooms. Add into our love for breakfast food and eggs in general, I thought about doing something like this for a while and decided this past weekend that with the remaining two Portobello mushrooms left in the pack, I could try this one out. I took some inspiration from the site below for cooking times but I didn’t really season with anything fancy.

Portobello Mushrooms & Eggs

Recipe inspired by: http://healthyrecipesblogs.com/2013/11/04/eggs-baked-in-portobello-mushrooms/

Ingredients
Makes 2 servings

2 Portobello mushrooms
2 eggs
Salt & pepper to season
a dash of Herbes des Provences
olive oil, to spray

How to make it

1. Preheat broiler, setting temperature to high. Set oven rack in the middle and line the baking sheet with foil.
2. Spray the mushroom caps with olive oil cooking spray on both sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Broil 5 minutes on each side.
3. Remove mushrooms from oven. Switch oven from broil to bake, setting temperature at 400F.
4. Break an egg in each mushroom. Sprinkle with Herbes des Provences.  Bake 15 minutes, until egg whites are cooked.
5. Sprinkle the egg with a dash of salt and pepper. Serve.

If you follow the link above, you can see the variation is to sprinkle with cheese. Which would be our first choice except we ran out of lactose-free cheese (for myself) so I used herbs instead. And that worked out quite well. A note to remember would be to avoid sogginess to wipe clean instead of washing the mushroom. I only remembered that as I turned on the faucet and tried to soak up the water as much as I could. It wasn’t too soggy luckily.

Overall, simple and easy. I really loved the taste of this one and to be honest, I’ve been thinking about heading out to get some more portobello mushrooms and adding cheese to the mixture and it should taste even better.

How do you like to make mushrooms? What variety do you use?

Dinner: The Best Effin’ Chicken Recipe Ever!

I know recipes are far and sparse this last while.  Summer is around the corner and I’m determined to step up  my cooking gear right now and eat healthier.  There’s still the Baking Through Disney project that I’m conceptualizing right now. I just can’t seem to find an idea that I’m happy with. Regardless, let’s talk about dinner and more specifically chicken.

I love chicken. I mean, chicken meals are about the best food in the world. Its the simple things that shine and this recipe that I found on PopSugar Food is proof of it. Its supposed to from some cooking show or whatnot.  This is about the most simple chicken ever except that you need to ask your grocery store to debone your chicken.  Surprisingly, one of the grocery stores near where I live sells it already packaged boneless.

I’m getting carried away! How can a chicken lover refuse this recipe?

The Best Effin’ Chicken Recipe Ever!

A little burnt, I know but its a good first attempt!

The recipe is right here.  And if you like fun recipes, I find Popsugar Food has a lot of them!

Its hard to imagine that this has two ingredients: chicken and salt. Its rare we spend the time to marinate the chicken but seeing as this recipe had one ingredient to season the chicken, we went ahead and sprinkled salt over it in the morning and popped it in the fridge to cook when I got home from work.  Actually I forgot and my  husband did it so he misunderstood that I said 1 tablespoon instead of one teaspoon. Goes to show that sometimes its better to write out your words and not do abbreviations.

With that said, our chicken was definitely moist but a little on the salty side. However, there is no doubt that the chicken had a wonderfully delicious texture.

The only issue I encountered was because I was broiling something in a “new” oven. If I was using my mom’s before I moved, it wouldn’t be an issue but with this oven, it had a different temperament somehow and I learned that I couldn’t heat it on the top rack but one lower was a little better.  It was actually a little scary because it started smoking up and humidity was seeping out. When I did the first rotating the pan, I saw this and remedied it and that helped. The parchment paper still got rather charred.  Also, it took a little bit longer cooking time but maybe its because it was on a lower rack.  Just a few notes if you attempt this.

I don’t broil much in my oven so its pretty much a new experience.  However, this chicken

 

Double Baking: Cherry Coffee Cake & Cinnamon Rolls

This weekend was absolutely awesome.  Yesterday, I had promised to post up the recipe for the dessert I made for the BBQ with friends.  You can read that post HERE.  However, I felt like baking again and I ended up making something I’ve been planning all month, Cinnamon Rolls.

The Cherry Coffee Cake was actually a slight modification of a dessert I posted a few weeks ago called the Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake.

Cherry Coffee Cake fresh out of the oven!

Check it out HERE to get the original recipe.

The modifications I made were the following:

• 1 cup of Bisquick mix (ran out)
• no yogurt or grated lemon-zest
• replace milk with unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• replace fresh blueberries with fresh cherries. Remember to remove pits
• No streusel topping but sprinkled with brown sugar before putting in the oven

Its straight forward and delicious! The change in fruits made for a refreshing taste.  Some  of my friends ate it with ice cream and found it was a good match. Still a very worthy recipe!

Next up, my first attempt at making CINNAMON ROLLS! There were super successful! 🙂

Cinnamon Rolls! Fresh out of the oven!

This is a long and time consuming recipe.  Its two times of waiting 30 minutes to wait for the dough and the rolls to rise, but then the actual baking time is only 25 minutes.  However, if you want your house to smell sweet and delicious with cinnamon aromas, this is the perfect choice 🙂

I found the recipe in my Looneyspoons cookbook called Rolls Royce!

Makes 12

Ingredients:

Dough

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

2 1/4 tsp quick-rising yeast

1 tsp salt

1 cup 1% milk

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg, lightly beaten

Filling

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp butter, at room temperature

Glaze

2 tbsp light cream cheese, at room temperature

1 tbsp butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Goes great with Maple Soy Ice Cream 🙂

How to make it:

1. To make dough, combine both flours, flaxseed, yeast, and salt in a medium bowl.  Mix well and set aside.

2. Add milk, sugar, butter and vanilla to a small pot.  Heat over medium heat, stirring often, just until milk is warmed, butter is melted and sugar is dissolved.  Do not simmer or boil.  Remove from heat and carefully pour into a large mixing bowl.  Add half of the flour mixture and egg.  Stir using a wooden spoon until well blended.  Add remaining flour mixture and stir until soft ball forms.  Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface.  Add a bit more flour if dough is too sticky.  Knead dough until smooth and elastic, about 1 minute.  Place dough in a clean bowl that has been lightly oiled.  Cover with a tea towel and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes or until double in size.

3. Meanwhile, make the filling.  Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

4. Line a 9×13 inch baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.

5. When dough has risen, turn out onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll out dough to a 12×14 inch rectangle. Using a butter knife, spread 2 tbsp butter evenly over dough.  Sprinkle with brown sugar-cinnamon mixture and spread evenly to edges.  Roll up dough jelly-roll style.  This should be 12 inch long.  Using a very sharp knife, slice roll into 12 equal pieces.  Arrange rolls in a single layer in prepared pan.  Cover with a tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 350F.  Bake rolls for 25 minutes, puffed and light golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool slightly while you prepare the glaze.  Using an electric mixer, beat together all glaze ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.  Spread evenly over warm rolls.

Close up texture

Of course, I made some modifications and here they are:

• Omit flaxseed (didn’t have any)
• Replace 1% milk with unsweetened almond vanilla milk
• No glaze

Not so many changes but that dough is extra hard to roll into a rectangle.  Mine was slightly lopsided.  That made for two of the rolls to be a bit funky looking. However, I’d say that it was a successful first time trial and I’d definitely try it again.  This recipe was delicious.  I removed the glaze because even without, it was sweet enough.  Plus, the glaze has cream cheese and I can’t eat that.

If you want to make your house into a delicious smelling place (if you like the smell of cinnamon), then this one is a sure fire.  It may be time consuming but its a really fun experience (even when I was cursing the dough for not turning into a rectangle 😉

Happy Monday Morning! Cinnamon rolls anyone?

Cinnamon-Raisin Bread Pudding with Apples!

Good morning and happy Monday to all you awesome people! Yesterday I went on a bit of cooking spree, but as you all know, I make dessert before dinner. And this will last for 2-3 days hopefully.  Thought I’d open up to welcome everyone on a beautiful Monday here (before the last snowstorm of the year hits tonight)…That last one of the year is purely my hopes though..

I’ve never done bread pudding in my life! Never tasted in my life but it does look like all kinds of delicious.  So I went out and bought some cheap whole wheat Weight Watchers cinnamon-raison bread that was on special at the grocery store.  I never usually buy that but if I messed up at least I’d know it was with unexpensive bread, right? Plus, it has to be healthy at the very least.

 

I got this recipe out of Looneyspoons cookbook.  Its by Janet and Greta Podleski and you know what funky name she gave this recipe? Puddin’ on the Ritz! Cute, right?

Here’s the recipe! Also I have put stars next to ingredients from the recipe that I changed and the alternatives will be after the recipe:

Serves 6 (if you cut it in bigger pieces than I did)

Ingredients:

4 cups cubed cinnamon-raisin bread

1 cup peeled and chopped Granny Smith apple*

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup 2% evaporated milk*

1/2 cup skim or 1% milk*

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

 

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven at 350F.  Spray an 8×8 inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside

2) Toss bread crumbs and apples together in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together brown sugar and eggs.  Add evaporated milk, skim milk, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Whisk again.

3) Pour milk mixture over bread cubes and apples.  Mix well.  Let stand for 15 minutes for bread to absorb liquid.

4) Transfer mixture to baking pan.  Make sure apples are evenly distributed throughout pan.  Bake for 50 minutes, until bread is a deep golden brown and puffed up.  A knife inserted in the center should come out clean.  Slice into 6 squares and serve warm.

 

It was relatively easy to make.  For the modifications, first of all, I did not have Granny Smith apples so I used Royal Gala.  As for milk, I replaced it with almond milk and as for the evaporated milk, it was melted vanilla coconut milk ice cream that I used.  I think it actually didn’t do it much harm.

I thought the taste was pretty good.  Not too sweet and the texture was pretty interesting.  I’m not exactly sure if its really that but I will try the banana bread pudding next.

Is this what bread pudding should look like? If you know, please tell me! It was a pretty good first experience.  Do you know any other substitutes for evaporated milk?

Shortbread!

I’m finally back with more baked goods! I’ve been taking a break after the whole holiday baking frenzy.  Now I’m ready to get back to business with that…

First up we have SHORTBREAD.  I had wanted to do them for Christmas but decided to do Gingerbread Cookies instead.  So here we are with these wonderful cookies.

SHORTBREAD (from the Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook)

Makes about 2 dozen cookies (I got about 18 cookies!)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp almond extract

1. Heat oven to 350F.  In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed.  Stir in flour and almond extract.

2. On lightly floured surface, roll dough into 9×6 inch rectangle, 1/2 inch thick.  Cut into 1 1/2 inch squares with knife or cut with 1 1/2 inch cookie cutters.  On ungreased cookie sheet, place squares or shapes about 1 inch apart.

3. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until set.  Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely about 30 minutes.

First batch out of the oven!

The dough will turn out to be on the crumbly side.  I wonder if thats normal because I had that same situation with another recipe, the Peppermint Swirls,  with the same type of texture. You can click HERE for that recipe if you’re interested. I didn’t want to use food coloring to decorate it since it was just for fun.  If I do a batch with it in a more decorative way, I’ll post it up in an update!

The texture was crumbly and delicious.  The taste was perfect.  Both my mom and my boyfriend enjoyed them a lot.  These may not have turned out super pretty and colourful but it still was quite tasty.  Definitely something fun to try out!

Do you like shortbread? Are there any ways to make it less crumbly for the dough, maybe with more butter? Any ideas? Do you have another recipe that differs from this one? Feel free to share the link or suggest it! My mom seems to like shortbread a lot so I’m searching for the perfect recipe.

Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

I’m still wondering if I posted something similar before, nonetheless this is a new recipe so it deserves it own posts.

The past weekend, I decided to make Oatmeal Cookies and since it was for my boyfriend’s parents, I added in some Chocolate Chunk on the top of them.  If you’ve been following me for a bit, you know that I can’t eat chocolate.  I can tell you one thing: They were a hit.  The moment my boyfriend’s dad had the plate in this hands, he started munching on the cookies..one after another.  As someone who likes baking, I enjoy seeing the happiness others get from what I make.

Makes 20 cookies

2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats

1 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup lightly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Chocolate chunks for topping

1) Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray and set aside.

2) Combine oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.  Mix well.

3) In a large bowl, beat brown sugar and butter on low speed of electric mixer until mixture resembles wet sand.  Add applesauce, egg and vanilla and beat again until well blended.  Add oat mixture to sugar mixture.  Using a wooden spoon, stir until dry ingredients are moistened.

4) Drop dough by spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.   Use about 2 tbsp dough per cookie and space 2 inches apart.) Flatten cookies to 1/4 inch thickness using fork.  Dip the fork in water to prevent it from sticking to cookies.  Place a few chocolate chunks into the top of the cookie dough.  Bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then carefully remove from cooling rack.

This should turn out to be soft and chewy.  It was originally a recipe for oatmeal raison cookies inspired by Looneyspoons Collection.  If you’d like to do those instead, then instead of chocolate chunks as topping the cookies, you mix it in after the dry ingredients are moistened in Step 3 for 1/3 cup raisins.

What do you think? Are you going to try this one out?

Saturday Dinner: Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Fries!

We don’t usually eat a lot of pork at my place.  Its not as healthy and its more fattening than the normal.  Another thing is that I’ve never actually made any pork chops but my boyfriend has mastered them pretty well.  So there I was on Friday night and trying to figure out what to make for Saturday and my grocery list.  Pork chops are on special so coincidentally there is also the “#1 Readers Fave” being Marla’s Maple Pork in my Looneyspoons cookbook. So voila, the menu for Saturday night was set.  Its nice to eat in on Saturday night and watch a movie (you know its horror because I haven’t gotten around to posting up the Horror Marathon).  For once, there was no parties, no ordering in, no take out, just cooking, eating and relaxing.

Here are Marla’s  Maple Chops:

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1/2 lbs (680g) pork tenderloin

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 tbsp each reduced sodium soy sauce and ketchup

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp grated orange zest

1 1/2 tsp each curry powder and ground coriander

2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

1. Trim pork of all visible fat.  Place pork in a large, heavy duty bag, resealable plastic bag.  Whisk together all remaining ingredients in a medium bowl.  Pour marinade over pork and seal bag. Turn bag several times to coat pork evenly.  Marinate in refrigerator for 1 hour.

2. Transfer pork and marinade to a small roasting pan or baking dish.  Roast, uncovered, at 350F for 40 minutes.  Pork should be slightly pink in middle.

3. Let pork stand for 5 minutes before slicing.  Slice thinly.  Drizzle extra sauce over pork and serve immediately.

I changed it a bit.  I bought loin chops instead of a gigantic slab of meat so no slicing afterwards required.  I had all the ingredients pretty much.  I used normal mustard though because Dijon mustard is on the spicy side and my stomach is too sensitive for it.  Also, I marinaded it in the fridge for 1/2 hour.  I never read that before I do it so I don’t budget enough time. One more thing, 45 minutes in the oven for me because we don’t get pink meat, only well done.  Still, it turned out smelling delicious and tasting so good.

So with the pork chops, I made some sweet potato fries.  They were agreed upon last weekend that I’d do something with sweet potatoes.

This was incredibly easy to make.  First, wash the sweet potatoes (you’ll need about 3 medium ones).  Pat them dry before cutting them into wedges about 1/2 inch thick.  Don’t count on my cutting.  its not too sophisticated, but do follow the general idea of it.  Don’t cut into wedges that are too big.  After that, toss about  1 tbsp of olive oil and some seasoning (I use vegetable seasoning) and if your seasoning doesn’t include salt and pepper already then put that in also.  Make sure it evenly coats all the wedges.

Arrange them into a single layer on a baking sheet or tray. I didn’t oil it up because I used aluminum foil under it.  Bake at 450F for 20-25 minutes, turning them over halfway through cooking time.

These turned out pretty good also.  Saturday night meal was a great turnout.  It was really delicious.

Do you like pork chops? How about sweet potatoes? Are you going to give these a shot? Have you ever done another recipe similar to it?

Sunday Baking: “Cookies for Rookies”

Wait wait, you thought Sunday was just dinner? No way, I went all out.  While the Minestrone Soup was simmering and after the chicken strips were out of the oven, I went on a crazy turbo mode and whipped up some cookies to put in the oven while we were eating.  Any guesses on what “Cookies for Rookies” is? Seriously, isn’t the name just so fun? I love these recipe titles in my new cookbook.  It makes cooking and baking even more fun. I made these ones not only for my boyfriend but also we were dropping by my boyfriend’s parents place so it was a little something to bring over.

Cookies for Rookies everyone? Any ideas up to now? Okay okay, I’ll tell you.  Its a mix of three ingredients: Chocolate chip, Oatmeal and…Peanut butter! Doesn’t that sound amazing?

While I was mixing it all together, the smell of peanut butter was surrounding me.  As it was baking, man, it was a fantastic smell that filled up the kitchen and dining room of chocolate and oatmeal and peanuts..yummy stuff right there!

So lets get straight to it..the recipe.

COOKIES FOR ROOKIES (from The Looneyspoons Collection by Janet and Greta Podleski)

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)

1/2 teaspoon each baking soda and salt

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup light peanut butter

1 egg

1/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1) Preheat over at 350F.  Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray and set aside.

2) In a medium bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

3) In another medium bowl, beat together brown sugar, butter, peanut butter and egg on low speed of electric mixer until well blended.  Add dry ingredients and chocolate chips and mix well using a wooden spoon.  Dough will be stiff.

4) Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.  Using a fork dipped in flour, flatten cookies to 1/4 inch thickness.  Bake for 10 minutes.

5) Remove cookies from tray immediately and cool on wire rack.  Store covered in plastic wrap or in an airtight container.

 

And thats it! Easy stuff, right? Look at the texture of it.  It was amazing!

So back to what I did different.  There really wasn’t much.  As usual, I changed the butter to margarine and the mini chocolate chips to chocolate chunks.  Other than that, all the ingredients stayed the same.  The only other thing I did was that I had beated the peanut butter blend by hand then mixed in the dry mixture by hand as well.  It wasn’t a complex recipe so it didn’t cause any big issues with the dough consistency.  It still turned out pretty stiff.

Definitely a winner for people who like peanut butter.  It smelled wonderful and tasted wonderful. Nice easy batch of cookies.  It took me less then 30 minutes to get it in the oven and only 10 minutes to bake.  Less than an hour and its ready to be served.  Efficient stuff, I like it!

Banana Gingerbread Slices

This weekend, my friend had a monthly girls’ lunch at her new place.  I decided to make her a little something.  After some thought, I had decided to make my Traditional Sugar Cookies.  Unfortunately, they decided to not work according to plan and the dough needed to be in the fridge to harden a while longer.  In a hurry, I flipped through my cookbook quickly and looked for something else and I landed on Banana Gingerbread Slices.  I’ve never made slices and had no idea what texture they are supposed to be but if its anything I always have sitting around at my place (thanks to doing intense sports aka dragonboat), its bananas.  Being really into baked goods with ginger, I had a lot of that sitting in my tin of spices, this was the perfect recipe.

They were incredibly easy to make and the ingredient portions were right on (unlike the various times with making cookies).  It didn’t particularly take long to make and while it was in the oven, the only reason it felt eternities was about 10-15 minutes later, it started smelling so delicious.

Banana Gingerbread Slices (Recipe from Cookies, Biscuits and Bakes 500 by Catherine Atkinson)

Makes 20

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

4 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp mixed spice (apple pie spice)

2/3 cup soft light brown sugar

4 tbsp sunflower oil

2 tbsp molasses

2 tbsp malt extract

2 eggs

4 tbsp orange juice

3 ripe bananas

2/3 cup raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.  Lightly grease and line a 28x18cm/11x7in. shallow baking tin (pan).

2. Sift the flour, baking soda, and spices into mixing bowl.  Place the sugar in the sieve (strainer) over the bowl, add some of the flour mixture and rub through with a spoon

3. Make a well in the centre in the dry ingredients.  Add the oil, molasses, malt extract, eggs and juice.  Mix thoroughly.

4. Mash the bananas on a plate.  Add the raisins to the gingerbread mixture, then mix in the mashed bananas.

5. Scrape the mixture into the prepared baking tin.  Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until the centre of the gingerbread springs back when lightly pressed.

6. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.  Cut into 20 slices to serve.

As usual, I made some changes to this recipe.  I replaced mixed spice to cinnamon; sunflower oil to vegetable oil; malt extract to vanilla extract; orange juice to water and raisins to dried cranberries.  That didn’t make much of a difference as it still tasted really delicious.  It wasn’t too dry and the fruits was very apparent in the taste in each slice.  Definitely pleased with the results.  I usually worry about any with bananas because it could mean that the bananas cover up a lot of the other taste.  This one has a really nice balance between gingerbread and banana.  The dried cranberries gave it a little chewy sensation which made it a better texture.

Here’s what it looked like after cut into pieces to get an idea of the texture.

Pretty good looking, eh? Tempted? Go ahead and give it a shot!