Crepes!

Last weekend I went to Grand Lake to meet my family for a few days. Per the usual with the Moore family vacations, we take turns making meals. I was designated to the Sunday morning breakfast (slash I claimed it...) because breakfast making, and eating, is my favorite. I decided this would be a particularly good opportunity to learn how to make crepes!

A couple months ago, my sister and her family took me to a tasty crepe restaurant in downtown Kansas City. The breakfast crepe (eggs, bacon, butter, butter, and butter) was life changing for me. We also topped off breakfast with dessert, nutella and banana crepe. So, this weekend I re-created the magical meal. (Plus, when you're going out on a limb...it's always a good bet to try it on your family)

I didn't take a picture, so the one above is incredibly more impressive. But sure, they looked just like that (dodging eye contact).

The process was much easier than I thought, the biggest trick is getting comfortable with the pan. I set the crepes up like a breakfast taco bar and let everyone build their own. It was a hit! (Recipe below...stolen from smittenkitchen.com)


2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Two pinches of salt
Few gratings fresh nutmeg
2 tablespoons honey

Combine in a blender. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour (I did overnight). Heat skillet to medium high heat. Once heated, brush pan lightly with melted butter or oil. Pour 1/4 cup batter into skillet, swirling it until it evenly coats the bottom and cook, undisturbed, until the bottom is golden and the top is set, about 2 minutes. Carefully flip and cook on other side for 5 to 10 seconds. Transfer wrapper to paper towel covered plate. Continue with remaining batter.

**We also had some with chocolate flavored cool whip and fresh fruit. Yes, please.

Salad and Sangria!

A couple weeks ago several of us ladies found ourselves having a little Tuesday night get-together featuring salads and sangria. (Ahem, according to Julie sangria in itself IS a fruit salad. Marinated in a booze dressing)

If Annie would ever blog, I would request that she share her homemade ricotta. Mmmmmmm.

I put together a gianormous cobb salad. Because when it's salad, you can eat an obscene amount and not feel judged. Also, when you're drinking, you eat more. I guess it was a double whammy kind of night. We may have walked around the neighborhood afterward....

What's great about cobb salad, is that you can do whatever you want. Here is what I did:

1. Fill a bowl with several of my favorite lettuce choices. Chopped.
2. Protein, protein, protein. I had roasted chicken, hard-boiled egg, blue cheese, cheddar cheese, and bacon. I didn't even use the turkey kind. Everyone was SHOCKED.
3. Diced tomatoes and cucumbers. Sliced avocado.
4. A bottle of ranch on the side. I let everyone put their dressing on according to their liking.


Display it all pretty and you get to hear Marie gasp and say your name loudly. It's my favorite.

What's on the menu next ladies?!

sea food? yesssss please.

I recently went on a trip to Northern Cali with my bff Cassidy. When I say trip...what I really mean...is that I ate my way through Northern Cali. Starting with San Fran, continuing down Highway 1 (fresh strawberry stands, the capital of the artichoke, etc), and not slowing down in Monterey and Carmel. Hey, we hiked in Big Sur...so that's something??? What can I say..when a dietitian goes on vacation, she goes on vacation.

To blog on all the amazing food that entered my mouth would be equally embarrassing and time consuming. Instead, I will feature the seafood....this shall just be a "picture book" so to speak. Enjoy.



Oysters in Carmel. Cassidy hated. I ate the rest.



Scallops with Steamed Spinach and Pollented- Clint Eastwood (former Mayor of Carmel) owns this restaurant - thuuuuuumbs up.



And for my personal favorite...Clam Chowder in a Sourdough Bread Bowl. I ate this twice :)

Tonight I'm having a girlfriend over for dinner. I'm making a salad (to be determined) and Pizza Potpie. She's bringing the wine. Happy Saturday!

Shrimp and Avocado Ceviche

My group of friends recently went to Kansas City, where Micah and I force fed ourselves one amazing meal after the next. Delicious though the trip was, it forced me to see how different my eating habits have become. My pants have been fitting a little too tightly and I'm also worried that the people around me are going to begin think I'm hiding a pregnancy or something... How embarassing.



That having been said, I put Micah and I on a diet. We get one cheat night a week (which is why we are having friends over tonight for grilled pizza), but otherwise, we are no-carb, lots of lean protein, lots of fruits and veggie kind of eaters. Which has been good because I've lost weight and I've been forced to branch out of my cooking comfort zone.

I had never made ceviche before, because it always freaked me out that you prepare the seafood with nothing but the acidity of some limes, but it actually worked. And we didn't get food poisoning.

Shrimp and Avocado Ceviche

1lb frozen shrimp, thawed, peeled, deveined
1/2- 3/4 cup of lime juice- enough to cover shrimp
1 roma tomato, diced
1/2 of a purple onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, diced with or without seeds
1 avocado, diced
1 tbsp of worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp of hot sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

Place shrimp in a medium bowl and cover completely with lime juice. Let shrimp set for at least one hour in the refrigerator, stirring occasionally. Be sure that the acid has fully prepared the shrimp before eating. Cut into a few bigger piece to be completely sure. Combine the remaining ingredients. Enjoy immediately.

Kebobs!

Sidebar: these kebobs were Inspired by Mrs. Toni Metheny!!

All you need is:
Kebob skewers
Allegro original marinade
Sirloin steak, cubed
Red bell Peppers, cut into pieces
Red onion, cubed


Marinate kebobs for about 1 hour, then place on a foil lined baking sheet and broil in the oven. Cook 2 minutes, and then rotate and repeat.

Enjoy!

Thai Chicken Pizza

Holy moly people, this is a good one.

Perhaps it was Toni's recent pizza blog. YUM.

OR it could be this amazing breakfast pizza I had at "Eggct" while we were in Kansas City (which should be named "food with friends...kc edition") See below...and prepare for a future blog on my attempt to re-create.




Nonetheless, I have had pizza making on the brain. And Alecia coming over for dinner on Monday night was just the occasion. Not to mention it went well with Julie's homemade key lime pie...I smell a guest blogger...

So Thai Chicken Pizza it was. A super simple recipe with some extreme flavors going on. I think you could even kick up the heat if you wanted to. As Julie put it, this pizza is a "Thai party in my mouth"

1 (14 inch)pre-baked pizza crust
1 (7 oz) jar peanut sauce
1/4 cup peanut butter
8 oz cooked skinless, bonless chicken breast halves- cut into strips
1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend
1 blunch green onions, chopped
1/2 cup fresh bean sprouts
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1 tbsp chopped roasted peanuts

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees
2. In a small bowl, stir together the peanut sauce and peanut butter. Spread over the pizza crust. Arrange strips of chicken on top. Sprinkle on the green onions and cheese.
3. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes. Top with bean sprouts, carrots shreds and peanuts.
4. Eat it.

Homemade Kettle Corn

You know when it's 10:00 pm and you just need a lil something to munch on? This is your solution ! All you need is:

Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt

*Special Equipment – A large pot with lid

Directions:
Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Place a few kernels in the pot, and once those pop, Add popcorn and sugar giving it a quick stir and then put the lid back on. Make sure to continually move the pot so the popcorn doesn't burn. Once all the kernels seem to be popped, take off the heat, and place in a large bowl, and sprinkle with salt.

Adapted from
Savorysweetlife.com

BBQ Chicken Pizza

If you ask Micah what his favorite meals are he will begin to recite a "Top 5" list. He will say, "My number one favorite meal is either butternut squash risotto or BBQ chicken pizza." And then he will not recite any more of his list, because there is nothing else on the list. Nothing else I make really compares to my butternut squash risotto or my BBQ chicken pizza.

I've already posted the risotto and last night I made the pizza.

Let's cut to the chase: The dough is the most important part of any homemade pizza. I like thin and crispy pizza crust. I also like to make my dough first before starting anything else, so that it has a little time to relax. I also like to bake my pizzas on parchment paper so that no matter what all of you pizza is consumed and not stuck to your baking sheet. My dough recipe is simple and super easy and it's adapted from Smitten Kitchen:

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of yeast

1 teaspoon of salt

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 cups of water- You may need a bit more.

Combine. Stretch, roll, level out your dough to your desired thickness.

Smear some Head Country BBQ sauce on your dough. Sprinkle cooked chicken, thinly sliced purple onions, cooked chicken, and mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce. Bake at the highest heat your oven will go to, until the cheese is browned, bubbly, delicious. Sprinkle fresh cilantro on top of the hot pizza and ENJOY!

Chicken! Taco! Crockpot! Salad!

Here's a super easy delicious meal that I prepared for my beloved BFF that is visiting OKC for the weekend. Since she was going to be at my house by the time I got off of work, I had this little gem of a dinner waiting in my crockpot. Talk about food with friends!

Put the following in a crockpot:
4 frozen chicken breast
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 jar salsa
cumin
taco seasoning

*put on low for 6-8 hours

Heat up some fat-free refried black beans (or whatever bean you prefer), and mix with chicken mixture, shredded cheese, guacamole and serve on a bed of lettuce. Delicious!

Fpu graduation and baked beans

First off, I am so glad that we are back up and blogging! Since that time some of my friends and I have been taking the Financial Peace University class from
Dave Ramsey. While going through this, not only have we learned a lot about being responsible with our money, but we have shared some delicious meals. For the finale I made baked beans- here is that recipe!
It is somewhat inspired by a family recipe, but this is what I used when I made them on Monday.

Ingredients:

2 large cans of Bush's Baked Beans
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 whole package of bacon, cooked and crumbled
*that's right- whole package*
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 cap-full of maple extract
1 teaspoon jalepeno powder
5 cloves of garlic, crushed

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

1. Fully cook the bacon and set aside. Once cool,crumble it up.

2. In the same pan, drain the fat, and cook the red peppers and onions until tender

3. Add the garlic and spices and cook for about 3 minutes

4. Add the beans (do not drain out the liquid)

5. Add the remaining ingredients, including the crumbled bacon.

6. Stir until everything is incorporated

7. Pour beans into a 9x13 pan and bake uncovered for an hour and a half.

8. Eat up! Yum yum!!

Gobble Patties.

Which is to say: Turkey Burgers!!

I love summer for reasons we don't have to get into. What's that? We can? There's summer camp!! Travelling!! Drinking on Tuesday afternoons!! I don't mind sweating, even though I do so excessively. Also, as a teacher, during the summer it is possible to remember my own name and think cohesive thoughts with or without copious amounts of terrible workroom coffee that will inevitably be spilled all over my fake grown-up clothes during wild gesticulations in response to dumbass eighth grade comments and/or my own enthusiastic interpretation of under-appreciated poetry.

These are all good things, people.

Summer is also for eating outdoors. Preferably in the company of people you love, or at least sorta like. Which brings us back to the issue at hand. 'Da burgs: I threw these together for one of our* first meals on the little patio furniture not long ago, and now I never need to eat turkey burgers any other way.

*"Our" meaning Marie, my domestic partner's. But they're iron, and I do the heavy lifting around here.

Turkey Burgers!

1 lb-ish ground turkey (I used 97/3)

little handful of chopped basil

little handful of chopped cilantro

1/3 medium red onion, chopped

1/4 c water (Sounds weird, but keeps it from being dry. Mix it right in.)

a dash or two of Mrs. Dash

Salt and Pepper to taste

A melt-able white cheese like provolone or swiss

Mix it all up with your hands, and make four patties. Grill until done outdoors or inside; a cast iron skillet with raised grill thingies worked well for me. When finished, move to a plate, put cheese on top, and cover to melt while you grab everything else.

I highly recommend topping with avocado, spinach, and wants-to-be-fancy-flavored-but-is-really-just-Kraft mayo.

And toasting the buns helps, too.

Woo-hoo!!

Lemon Cream Tart aka Heart Disease

Oh, how I've missed chronicling my kitchen adventures.

Check this link out, because it's how I feel:

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/01/19/parks-and-recreation-clip-were-back

We're back!

I've been craving lemon cream tart, even though I've never had it. It just sounds like it's something that belongs in my belly (i.e belongs in my arteries? There are over 2 1/2 sticks of butter in this 9-inch tart recipe! Not including the shell! If you include the shell, then there are over 3 1/2 sticks of butter in this recipe! Sick! Delicious! My mind says "No!" but my stomach says, "Hells yeah!")

This is Dorie Greenspan's recipe and I only did it because Abi Lessing encouraged me and made me feel like I could do anything when I talked to her today. She has that power over people. Adam and I know you are having fun in St. Louis, but we also miss you and wish we felt empowered all the time.

It was good, but I will never make this tart ever again. Mostly, because I had a major level 6 meltdown in the kitchen while tempering the custard and yelled at my husband. Also, because I think I was really craving coconut cream pie, which is what I am always craving.

high protein banana pancakes

even though we don't so much as "blog" all time time...ehhh...i do know that my dear friends and i still cook/bake/create all the same. from time to time, i might just think to share on here.

hey marie..you should probably post our ice cream sandwich creation.....

hey anna...we MISS YOU!! you should make us something delicious and share it with us virtually :)

moving on...i just wanted to share my sunday morning creation:

High Protein Banana Oatmeal Pancakes (i made up the recipe, and therefore i am making up the measurements...)

2 eggs
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
1/2 cup oats
1/2 ripe banana
1/4 tsp baking powder
splenda
cinnamon

comibine ingredients, heat griddle, spray non-stick spray and i'm guessing you can figure out the rest. they cook super quickly (bonus!) so don't get distracted (Annie) or they will burn. i topped with crunchy peanut butter, more banana slices, and REAL maple syrup (thanks to roommate Julie!) see picture below.