Toaster Pastries

This recipe is one of my few "semi-homemade" recipes that I will share with you...pop tarts, or toaster pastries! I used ready made pie crust (I know, preservatives) for this recipe because making a pie crust or pastry crust intimidates the crap out of me.  I just recently made garlic cheddar biscuits, a copy cat of Red Lobster's, after years of using Bisquick because the thought of cutting cold butter into flour always seems complicated.  Is that weird?  I just don't think I can make a decent pie crust.  But one day, like the biscuits, I will try.  And if you were wondering, my biscuits turned out amazing...not so great the next day, but fresh out of the oven I could eat them as my meal.  I'll have to post the recipe for that in a later post.

I grew up, like probably most of you, with mornings at the toaster waiting for the pop tart to heat up and pop out before running off to school.  My favorite were the apple cinnamon without the glaze.  The glaze always seemed hard and weird and would burn in the toaster.  Just wasn't my thing. 

I think I quit eating pop tarts at some point in college and haven't had one since.  Now, sometimes I'll get a whiff of someone toasting one up in the break room and will have a fleeting moment of weakness for one of those fruit-like jam filled pastries that taste like cardboard.  Then I thought, why can't I just make these at home?  And that is what I did.  It's a simple recipe of just combining ingredients you probably already have in your fridge or pantry.  Like most all of my recipes, it's flexible and forgiving.  You can use any jam, your own pie crust or ready made, or maybe even try different fillings like bean and cheese or egg, cheese, and bacon ones for a more savory pastry.  I made strawberry pop tarts, and when I ran out of strawberry on my last two, I made one with the tiny bit of jam left and Nutella, and the last one was just plain Nutella...mmm.  

My husband and mother in law absolutely loved these the first time I made them to experiment and now they will be a weekday breakfast staple in my house.  If you have kids, I guarantee you will not go back to boxed pastries and your kids will love them!  You control what goes into them and can feel better knowing that your kid isn't eating some fake flavored/colored jam and flavor-less pastry.  And they're a cinch to make!

Please excuse my pictures because I don't have an awesome camera, cook/bake at night, so no beautiful natural light, and my pastries were in different shapes, on purpose and not....

Toaster Pastries:

1 box ready made pie crust (or your own...kudos to you)

1 jar organic jam (I used strawberry)

egg wash (1 egg beaten w/ a splash of water)

additional flour for dusting

Preheat oven to 350.  Line a baking pan with foil and spray with oil/butter.

Sprinkle a little flour on your working surface and roll out the pie crust.  I used a rolling pin to roll out the dough a bit to make it a little thinner.  Use a sharp, not serrated knife, to cut out a large rectangle.  A pizza cutter works awesomely for this.  Now cut small rectangles, or other shapes, making sure you have a partner for each one...don't want to combine a heart with a rectangle...

Add a tsp of jam to each cut out, spread out slightly, being careful not to go all the way to the edges.  On one of the partners, brush on the egg wash all around the edges so the partner piece will stick.  Combine the partners, patting down the edges to stick.  Take a fork and make indentions all around the toaster pastry and and a few pokes on top to let the steam through.

Place pastries on baking sheet and brush the tops with egg wash and pop in the oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Once they've cooled you can place them in a container and they are good for about 4-5 days and they reheat nicely in the toaster on a low setting.  

Note:  Feel free to add a drizzle of your favorite glaze...a usual glaze is powder sugar with a couple teaspoons of milk whisked together until you get desired consistency.  You can add vanilla, orange juice instead of milk, orange or lemon zest, cocoa powder mixed with powder sugar, etc. etc.

Enjoy!

Browned Butter Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am a total cookie monster!  Especially when it comes to chocolate chip, they are my favorite.  I adapted this recipe from the ambitious kitchen and combined it with my go to, always wonderful, chocolate chip recipe.  I have run across this recipe many times on Pinterest, but the craving just hit me in such a hard way that I knew I just needed to go home and make these.  I did a quick mental check of what I have at home on my drive home and was pulling out ingredients out of the pantry before even putting my purse down.

These cookies are just sinful and beautiful. Just how chocolate chip cookies are meant to be. They're hazelnut and chocolate goodness, with a rich caramel taste because of the browned butter and brown sugar.  I mean these are over the top good!  Sea salt is ALWAYS a good idea, especially over chocolate.

When I bake chocolate chip cookies, I don't skimp on my chocolate, and you shouldn't either.  Use a good quality semi-sweet and use the bark that you must crush into chunks yourself instead of the chips.  The different size chunks and crumbs of the chocolate add to the decadence of the cookie. It just makes it so not "cookie cutter" (haha pun intended).

I hope you enjoy these as much as my hubby and I did.  They just make your day extra special and so much better.  I ate so many that I literally got a stomach ache.  Sometimes I act like my baby sister, or a child in general...but who cares.  It was worth it.

Heads up, the cookie dough needs to chill for 2 hours.  Sorry, but it's a must to get a rich, chewy cookie.

Browned Butter Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies:  makes about 20 or so cookies

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 1/3 cup + 1 tbs all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1-4 oz semi-sweet chocolate bar (I used Ghirardelli), chunked...I go at it with a heavy serving spoon
Nutella

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add butter, let it melt and foam up.  Begin whisking continuously until the butter takes on a dark yellow tinge and smells nutty.  Take it off of the heat and put into a bowl so that the cooking process ends.  Let it cool down (I put mine in the fridge).  It should take on a pretty brown color at the bottom of the bowl where the delicious brown flecks are.  It smells like caramel...oh my god, yum.  I would drink it if I could.

Moving on...

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and whisk.

Combine the sugars and add the cooled down butter in your mixing bowl.  Mix the butter with the sugars at a medium speed for about 3 minutes.  Reduce speed to low, add the egg and vanilla, and beat on medium speed until fully combined.

Reduce speed to low and add the flour mix slowly. Stop mixer as soon as the flour has combined in with the sugar/butter mixture.  Fold in the chocolate chunks.

Stick the cookie dough into the fridge for 2 hours minimum (you need patience for this part...sorry) and also just stick in your container of Nutella into the fridge as well.

Once you've endured the 2 hours, preheat oven to 350.  Get your cookie sheet ready with parchment paper or silpat.

So, this may be a little hard to explain, but I am going to try!  Take about a tablespoon of cookie dough and flatten out into a disk in the palm of your hand.  Add a dollop of nutella and fold the disk around the nutella back into a ball and slightly flatten.  There! You have a cookie ready to bake!  It's a little messy.

Bake for 8-10 min.  Check after 8 min and see if the edges have slightly browned.  If so, take them out!

Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt once they are fresh out of the oven.  Now take a big bite out of a hot, ooey gooey, chocolate-y, hazelnut-y, butter-y cookie.

You're welcome.

Walnut-Basil Pesto and Mango Lemonade

I have had a long hiatus from the kitchen and it's been bothering me, so I strapped on my apron (not really, they hang on my pantry door because they're too pretty to dirty), and have been cooking since Sunday night at home.  The reasons for this being 1.) my husband and I have been craving home cooked food since we have been on vacation/vacation mode the last two weeks, and 2.) we need to budget and cut down our going out spending.

It's insane how much we spend on food and drinks. If you could see the pie chart Wells Fargo so helpfully provides you on their budgeting tool, you would see mine is split down the middle with concerts and entertainment and the rest eating out.  Husband has the more "adult" pie chart with bills and such.  You know, the things I refuse to dabble in.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be posting more recipes since I am on a cooking spree.  Today's pesto post is handy and quick, and is a great accompaniment to anything! 

The usual, more traditional pesto, is made with pine nuts, but because they are expensive and hard to find, walnuts are a wonderful substitution!  We had this pesto on top of sea salt and black pepper seasoned salmon and it was awesome.  You could definitely serve something like this at a dinner party.  I also have plans to mix in with fresh pasta or on top of a pizza as the base.  You could also use this pesto as marinade for grilled chicken, or use it on sandwiches or burgers as a spread instead of boring mayo or mustard.  There are many possibilities! Get creative

Walnut-Basil Pesto:

1 cup packed basil leaves
1 handful cilantro leaves
1/2 cup walnuts
2 tbs minced garlic
1/4 cup grated parmesan
dash of sea salt
dash of fresh cracked black pepper
dash of red pepper flakes (optional)
extra-virgin olive oil

In a food processor, throw in the basil, cilantro, and walnuts and pulse a few times until the walnuts have somewhat broken apart.

Add the garlic, parmesan, and seasoning.  Pulse until it is about combined.

Slowly pour in olive oil from the top of the processor while pulsing until a thick and creamy consistency is reached.  Store in a container in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Our dinner last night.  Grilled salmon, pesto, broccoli, and roasted green beans with toasted walnuts and balsamic.  YUM.

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Also featured on this post is mango lemonade.  At the Coachella Music Festival, which by the way was super incredibly awesome, I literally lived off of the fresh strawberry lemonade sold there during the hot desert day.  It was seriously a life saver.  And ever since we have been back I have just been craving it!  Especially since spring has kind of arrived in Houston and summer is around the corner.  The two seasons just sort of meld into each other.  My initial thought was to make strawberry lemonade, but unfortunately the strawberries at HEB looked sketch and Kroger ran out.  So instead, when life can't hand you strawberries, make mango lemonade!

I love using mason jars as drink glasses, it just makes it so summer....

Mango (or any fruit) Lemonade:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 mango, pureed
3 large lemons
2 cups water
Ice
Garnish (sliced lemons, cubed fruit, mint, up to you)

First you need to make a simple syrup by boiling the water and sugar.  Once the sugar has dissolved, turn off the heat and let cool (or be like me and stick in the freezer until it's cooled down)

In your lemonade container, squeeze in the 3 lemons, discarding or straining the seeds, add the mango puree, the cooled simple syrup, and the 2 cups water.  You can add ice to the container or add individually to the glasses.  Garnish as you wish and enjoy!!

Next time, I'll try making a batch of strawberry and a batch of watermelon...both would be so great for the summer heat

Asian Meatballs

Happy Easter to those celebrating on this beautiful day :)

All the house windows, blinds, and doors are open letting the breeze and sunshine in.  These are the best Sundays!

*UPDATE:  It's crazy pouring down rain and hail now.  Welcome to Houston, where you can experience every type of weather in the course of one day.

Hubby's Sundays are spent sleeping in as much as possible in different parts of the house.  So while he was doing his thing, I was doing my thing in the kitchen. Normally we grab whatever from whatever restaurant for lunch, but today I actually made lunch!

I wanted something simple and tasty...so I decided to mimic this recipe that came across my email from Budget Bytes.  These meatballs are gingery and mildly sweetened with a glaze (not in the Budget Bytes recipe) that were eaten on top of basmati rice with a side of pickled carrots, onions, and radish.  You could also eat these meatballs in a warm toasty french or vietnamese baguette and make yourself a banh mi.  It's just good, easy food.

Pickled Veggies:

1/4 onion thinly sliced
2 large radishes thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced or grated
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
3 tbs sugar
1 tsp sea salt

Place the thinly sliced veggies into a small canister (I had to use a bowl b/c I was out of mason jars).  Bring the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt to a quick boil and pour over the veggies.   Make sure everything is fully submerged.  Cover and let sit in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes.

Asian Meatballs:

1/2 lb ground beef (ground anything is fine here)
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 tbs finely chopped cilantro
1-in knob ginger, minced
1 tsp minced garlic
1 egg
1/2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs sriracha
sea salt
freshly cracked black pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp honey
couple splashes of soy sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with oil.

Combine the ground meat, breadcrumbs, onion, cilantro, minced ginger and garlic, egg, soy sauce, sriracha, a sprinkle of salt, and lots of pepper!  Mix thoroughly using a light hand.

Take about 1 tbs of meat mixture and shape into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet.  I made about 17 meatballs.

Bake for 20 minutes.  As they bake, combine the brown sugar, honey, and soy sauce.  Mix well.  After 20 minutes of baking, brush the meatballs with some of the glaze and let bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Turn off oven, brush the meatballs with the remaining glaze and place under the broiler for about 5 minutes so they're sticky.

That's all!

We ate the meatballs on top of some plain rice, with a dollop of sriracha mayo (literally sriracha and mayo mixed together), splash of soy sauce, pickled veggies, and some more sriracha.  Absolutely yum.

Quickie Stuffed Bell Peppers & Orzo Salad

Just celebrated my big 3-0! Happy birthday to me!! I LOVE birthdays, mine, as well as everyone else's...there's happiness, there's celebrating, there's cake, and there's that special feeling you get on a day that is specially just for you.

My family and friends went above and beyond to make me feel lucky and blessed...there's nothing like being loved by so many good hearted people.  I'm in a very happy place right now!

Whenever there's a birthday, there is a lot of eating, so I really wanted to make a home cooked meal today.  I am still tired from my crazy awesome weekend, so wanted to put together something fairly quick and healthy.  Hubby and I need to get our festival bods ready for Cali!

Stuffed bell peppers are generally quick boiled and stuffed with a raw mixture of meat and some rice and take some time to cook.

Mine still took a bit of time, but were a little quicker since I halved the bell peppers, did not use rice, and browned the meat before stuffing.

The peppers were served with a side of orzo salad to create a well-balanced healthy meal.  Healthy can ALWAYS be delicious!

Stuffed Bell Peppers:

olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1/2 onion, diced
1 tbs minced garlic
sea salt
black pepper
cumin
red chili powder
1 tbs garlic chili sauce (Sambal is the brand I use)
1/2 small can corn
handful of cilantro, chopped
3 bell peppers (whatever color is your fancy...I used one green, one yellow, and one red)
shredded cheese (whatever you like)
1 14 oz can of tomato sauce
worcestershire sauce
hot sauce
sea salt
pepper
garlic powder


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  De-seed the peppers and place in a lightly greased casserole dish.

Heat 1 tbs olive oil over medium heat.  Add diced onion and minced garlic.  Cook until onions are transclucent and begin to brown around edges.  Add the ground beef and season with salt, pepper, cumin, red chili powder, and garlic chili sauce.  Brown the beef and then add the corn and cilantro, heat through.

As the meat is cooking, combine tomato sauce with a few dashes of worcestershire and hot sauce, season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a separate bowl.

Stuff each bell pepper with the meat mixture, sprinkle just a bit of cheese on each pepper.  Pour tomato mixture over the peppers.  Pop the stuffed peppers in the oven and bake for 35 minutes.

Take the peppers out and top with a sprinkling of cheese and pop under the broiler on high heat until the cheese is melty (I overcooked mine, so mine was browned, but still so good).  Keep an eye on them!  The broiler works fast...

Orzo Salad:

1 cup cooked orzo
1 small avocado
handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 small can corn
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt
pepper
red chili flakes
garlic powder

Combine orzo, avocado, cherry tomatoes, and corn.  Drizzle with olive and a few dashes of the red wine vingar.  Season with salt, pepper, red chili flakes, and garlic powder.  Place in fridge to cool.

Nutella-Pretzel Browned Butter Brownies

Hubby was watching an episode of The Office while we were on our walk on this beautiful day and Dwight was having brownies...next thing I know, "babe, can you make me some brownies?"


Normally I would say no, BUT, since I am not taking him as my guest to the rodeo concert, I promised him brownies and dinner.  Welcome to married life my friends!

I immediately thought of the pretzel nutella milkshake from Hopdoddy's in Austin.  It's an amazing milkshake full of nutella goodness and crunchy bits of salty pretzels! I'd make a trip to Austin for this milkshake.  Actually, I'd just make a trip to Austin in general.  I have so much love for that city...

So this milkshake was the inspiration behind these brownies

and...

OH MY GOODNESS...

Best. Brownies. In. Life.

All I heard were sounds of happiness coming from Shazad after he took his first bite :)

Sweet chocolate-y goodness from the nutella, saltiness and crunch from the pretzels, and the nuttiness from the browned butter make these amazing-ly amazing!  Make them right now.  Like right this second.

Nutella-Pretzel Browned Butter Brownies:

1 1/2 sticks butter, 12 tbs.
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tbs vanilla
2/3 cup cocoa
3 large eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp sea salt
6 tsp nutella
crushed pretzels

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper.  Set aside.

Melt butter over medium-high heat until the butter begins to brown (about 5 or so min, and you'll see flecks of brown and smell a nutty aroma).  Keep an eye on the butter, it can go from brown to burned in seconds!

Add the sugar and vanilla, stir well. Turn off heat and whisk in the cocoa powder and stir well.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs.  Add the cocoa mixture and stir well.  Sprinkle in the flour and salt and lightly fold the flour into the cocoa/egg mixture.  Do not beat or over mix.  Use a light hand!

Pour brownie batter into the baking pan and even out with a spatula.  Add the nutella by teaspoons into the batter and swirl into the batter.

At this point, you can sprinkle the crushed pretzels on top of the batter, do half of the batter, or none at all! It's up to you!

Bake the brownies for about 35 min., check with a toothpick.  If it comes out wet, well obviously you must bake them for a few more min.!  Keep checking every 5 min, and insert a toothpick.  If there are just little bits sticking to the toothpick or seems fudge-y, they are ready!

Let cool a bit because WARM brownies are the only way to eat brownies :)

Enjoy, enjoy!

A little over a month until THIS happens:

Breakfast For Dinner

I LOVE me some breakfast for dinner sometimes.  I'll just get cravings for a stack of pancakes and some turkey bacon.  My family was a big fan too. Growing up, sometimes we would have pancakes, or eggs, or indian style eggs with leftover keema (mince) and handmade rotis.  Those were some good breakfast for dinner nights!

Unfortunately the hubby is not a fan :(.  He believes in breakfast for breakfast, lunch for lunch, and dinner for dinner.  Nothing irritates him more than going to brunch...while the rest of us are ordering omelets and french toast at 1pm, he orders the grilled chicken sandwich or the hamburger. But this is why I love him, he doesn't give in to peer pressure, unless it involves karaoke. Then he'll sing!

He does have to give in when he's forced to have breakfast for dinner at home though! Otherwise he will have had to scrounge up something on his own.  He was a trooper and gave my dinner a go.

Nothing says breakfast for dinner like the classic southern dish, chicken and waffles.  It is such a popular dish in the south that there is a line, long as can be, at the Breakfast Klub here in Houston and there's a food truck that sells chicken and waffle sandwiches!  Every city has their take on this classic.

So I took the classic and gave it a twist.  Instead of the normal, beautifully sweet cake-y waffle, I made a crispy jalapeno cheddar waffle and accompanied it with cajun fried tenders and a fried egg on top!  A few dashes of hot sauce and we were chowing down on dinner!

In the end we both felt it needed some sort of sauce...so we finished off the meal with a drizzle of maple syrup on our waffle :), yummy indeed.

Please note, I will no longer post spice measurements.  I don't think spices really need them because everyone likes their food different, from bland to bursting.  Spice at your own risk and level :)

Chicken and Jalapeno Cheddar Waffles: serves 4

Chicken:

2 chicken breasts cut into tenders
1 1/2 cup buttermilk (I made my own, whole milk + 1 cap of vinegar, stir and let sit for 5 min.)
chili powder
garlic powder
sea salt
black pepper
red chili flakes
2 cups flour
your favorite cajun seasoning
vegetable oil for frying

Throw everything up through the red chili flakes into a ziploc bag and let marinate from an hour to overnight.  I marinated mine a little over an hour and it was great!

When you're ready to fry the tenders, set a deep pot with enough oil to to deep fry and set on medium high.

As the oil heats, toss in some cajun seasoning into the flour, and start coating your chicken tenders with the seasoned flour. Dip a covered tender into the oil and if it begins to sizzle and bubble, your oil is ready for frying!

Don't overcrowd your pot with tenders, fry them in small batches so that they cook evenly throughout.  I fried mine for about 5 minutes on each side.  Drain on paper towels as you take them out.

To keep everything warm, I stuck the tenders in a warm oven (200-250 degrees).

Waffles: you will need a waffle iron to make these, there is no way around it.

1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup yellow or white cornmeal
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 jalapeno, seeded to your liking and diced finely
1 cup cheese, I used cheddar and jack and probably more than a cup ;)
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat your waffle iron to your desired setting.  I put mine a little over the middle setting to give it that pretty golden color.

Stir dry ingredients (up until salt) and set aside.  Stir wet ingredients until eggs are fully incorporated.  Add the wet ingredient to the dry ingredients, stir a little and add the jalapenos and cheese.  Stir until just incorporated.  DO NOT OVERBEAT. 

About 3/4 of batter was used for each waffle.  I kept these warm in the oven as well.

Fry up a few eggs and top each waffle with an egg, served with a side of tenders and some hot sauce and maple syrup!  This dinner is a little outside the box, but that's how I roll...

Side note, San Fran and Coachella is 39 days away.  BEYOND EXCITED!

Theophilus London