Spicy Asian Noodle Salad

Mondays are the one day in my week I make an actual conscious decision to eat healthy. Usually it's because my weekend was an eating spree and we've just gotten groceries.  A fully stocked fridge with delicious goodies always makes my day and gets me motivated to make good home cooked meals!  This sometimes tapers off around fajita Wednesdays at Pappasitos...

Hubby and I both love our vegetables, so we end up buying quite a bit every time we hit up the grocery store. We aren't ones to normally eat a salad as our dinner, and I guess I'm only calling this a salad because it's a bunch of cold vegetables and noodles thrown together with a dressing. We both loved this salad so much.  I used a variety of veggies, coated wheat noodles with a spicy dressing, and then tossed everything together.  We topped it off with a bit of baked tilapia and roasted broccoli. Such a simple weeknight dinner you can feel good about.  I adapted this recipe from one of my favorite bloggers Budget Bytes.  She has some pretty awesome recipes, along with costs, so you can make great dinners on the cheap!

It's up to you what veggies you want to use and how little or a lot of them you want in your salad, so take away the method of this recipe and cater to your own likes and dislikes when it comes to the salad ingredients.

And yes, we eat with chopsticks.

Spicy Asian Noodle Salad

8 oz. thin wheat spaghetti
1/4 cup shelled edamame, cold
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
2 green onions, sliced thinly
1/2 cucumber, peeled, diced
3-4 large leaves napa cabbage, sliced thinly
2 carrots, shredded
handful cilantro, chopped roughly
pickled red onions (I already had these, optional)
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon Sriracha
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
Sesame oil, drizzle

Boil noodles until al dente.  Drain and rinse with cold water.  The noodles must be completely dry in order for the sauce to stick, so give them a shake every so often as you get your vegetables ready.  I ended up sticking the noodles in the fridge to help along the process, and it worked very well.  You want the noodles to be a little sticky, not wet.

As the noodles are drying, chop, dice, karate chop your veggies and combine them in a bowl.  In a separate small bowl, combine hoisin sauce, Sriracha, and rice wine vinegar.

Once your noodles are ready, throw them in a large bowl, pour in dressing and keep tossing until all the noodles are coated.

Add your veggies and toss to combine. Drizzle with a tiny bit of sesame oil.  Eat with chopsticks for optimal experience.

Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie Butter Ice Cream

I think I may have found something that I love more than Nutella...I can't believe I just said that. But I did.

I discovered COOKIE BUTTER! I've seen it come across food blogs and the occasional food article, and it perked up my ears when someone mentioned it.  Cookie butter is a spread made up of crushed cinnamon and caramel sweet gingerbread cookies with a consistency similar to peanut butter.

I finally made it to Trader Joe's and bought myself a jar. I also bought the cookies. Stop shaking your head! You would have done the same.  All I could think was, I bet these would be great with an evening cup of chai...and they were.

Once I brought the cookie butter home safely, I tasted a small bit from the jar, realized I was in love, and decided I made the right decision that day. First thing to pop into my food-filled mind, was ice cream. So I ran with it. Well actually, I ran towards it. With a spoon.

This is an ice cream without an egg custard base, so as long as you have cookie butter, a few dairy ingredients, and a frozen ice cream bowl (granted, you have an ice cream maker), you can whip this up in no time.  I happen to keep my ice cream bowl in the freezer at all times so it's ready to go when I need it.  I made the base late afternoon and had a bowl of ice cream in time for bed.

To up the awesome-ness, I threw in crushed dark chocolate chips.  I mean, wow. You get the taste of cinnamon and ginger from the cookies, creaminess from the heavy cream, and a slight crunch from the crushed cookies and chocolate chips. I would scream for this ice cream.

 Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie Butter Ice Cream

1 cup creamy cookie butter (I used Speculoos from Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup half n' half
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup roughly chopped dark chocolate chips

With a mixer, cream together cookie butter and sugar until combined.  Turn off mixer, scrape down bowl, add vanilla, half n' half, and heavy cream.  Mix on low until combined.

Transfer this into your frozen ice cream bowl for your ice cream mixer and churn according to your mixer's directions.  Once you see it come up to almost a soft serve stage, add in your dark chocolate and churn until you get a soft serve consistency.  At this point, you are welcome to dig in, but I like the consistency of ice cream. So read on if you haven't already gotten brain freeze.

Transfer this into a freezer safe bowl, add a layer of plastic wrap on top of the ice cream to prevent ice crystals before closing with a cap.  Freeze the ice cream 3-4 hours before serving.  You should add a Speculoos cookie to round it off  when serving :)   Enjoy!!

Flan de Queso "Cheese Flan"

National cheesecake day was celebrated yesterday, but we didn't have cheesecake at home nor did I have time to make one, so we had leftover cream cheese flan I made earlier this week.  I think that counts?

I'm a firm believer in celebrating as many food holidays as possible!

My husband and I were never huge fans of flan, but my gosh, this one churrascaria we frequent makes THE richest, smoothest, and best flan ever. It's not a thin egg custard that feel water-y to the tongue, which is what I feel is what you get out of those boxed flan mixes.

Those of you new to flan, it's essentially a latin egg custard with a caramel topping that can be jazzed up any number of ways.

We were craving our favorite restaurant's flan, which is a little more dense, and to mimic it, I used cream cheese to give it the smoothness and thickness we wanted. Basically a flan cheesecake sans the crust.

This recipe has a handful of ingredients including a super easy caramel sauce.  I think the hardest part of this recipe is the water bath because I didn't have a baking dish wide enough to fit my baking pan so I winged it and hoped for the best.  Other than that, this is one easy schmeasy dessert that is sure to impress.  The satisfaction you get when you flip that flan out of it's baking dish and into a plate without it breaking deserves a high five.  Luckily husband was around to give me one.

Flan de Queso

1 cup sugar
1 8 oz. block cream cheese, softened
1 14 oz. can condensed milk
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
5 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Have a 9" circle baking dish ready to go.

In a small saucepan, melt sugar over medium heat until it's a beautiful caramel color, stirring constantly.  Don't worry, the sugar crystallizes into large chunks, but then slowly, but surely, the sugar melts and begins to brown. Voila! You have caramel sauce.  Did you know it is THAT easy to make caramel?

Pour the caramel sauce into the baking dish and spread/swirl around as much as possible before it hardens.  Don't worry if you don't get too far with the caramel.  It all comes together at the end.

In a blender, blend cream cheese until smooth. Add the condensed milk and evaporated milk and combine.  Blend in one egg at a time, scraping down the sides after each egg.  Add in the vanilla and give it one last swirl.

Pour the smooth milk/egg mixture over the caramel.

Now for the water bath...find a large enough baking pan to house the baking dish that contains the flan. I just used a large cookie sheet I had with raised edges.  Soak a dish towel and lay it in your empty baking dish.  Place your flan on top of the towel and then fill your empty baking dish with HOT water until it comes up halfway up the sides of the flan dish. My dish didn't allow it to come up halfway, but I just filled my cookie sheet up with water as much as I could.  It was just fine.

Bake for 45-55 minutes.  The flan should have some jiggle, but if you stick a knife in the middle, it should come out clean.  This is when you know it's ready!

Take the flan out and let it cool to room temperature and then stick in the fridge overnight.

The fun part...post refrigeration! Grab a large plate, place it over the flan dish, and flip the flan dish over. Gently tap the dish until the flan falls out onto the plate (hopefully in one piece). The caramel sauce will come out with it.  Feel free to scrape out every last bit of that sauce, or better yet, just lick the dish. No one is watching you. And then give yourself a high five! Garnish with berries, or sprinkle with cinnamon, or eat just as!

Enjoy!

Lobster Mac N' Cheese

I would like to wish my Muslim readers a very joyous and blessed Eid Mubarak!  I hope that these last 30 days of Ramadan brought peace, granted prayers, community, and perspective to your lives.

Now as we go back to our eating throughout the day lives, I bring for you as an Eid gift, lobster macaroni and cheese. You're welcome.

Disclaimer: It's not healthy.  It's an indulgent, rich, little ginormous bowl of happiness with three kinds of cheese, butter, and lobster.

I was feeling kind of fancy, and I was also fasting, so naturally, I was like, lobster mac n' cheese. Ha, just kidding. I don't even really like lobster! So to say this craving was random, is an understatement.  Lobster is amazing with cheese by the way, even if mixing seafood with cheese is a foodie faux pas.

I figured since I haven't eaten even a quarter of my daily calorie intake since 5am, we could have this for dinner.  This is my logic when I am not eating all day.

To make dinner even more extravagant for a Thursday night, we had it with steak. Sometimes we just have to celebrate a regular ho-hum day with a special meal.

This dish takes some love and good (aka slightly expensive) ingredients.  Please don't use the blue box and add lobster.  It would be blasphemous. Also, if you can find it, use the mini bow tie. Just makes it even FANCIER.  To help with cost, try to grab lobster tails when they are on sale and get the cheese from the deli if they have it available.  You can just ask for a nice chunk that you can take home and shred instead of buying a whole block of cheese for $8-$10 in the refrigerated section of the store.  I even had quite a bit of cheese left from all 3 after I used what I needed. So cheesy omelettes are coming my way for breakfast!

You can have still have champagne tastes on a  beer water budget!

Lobster Mac N' Cheese

serves 2-4
3/4 pound noodle of choice (mini bow tie was mine)
2 cooked lobster tails, chopped into pieces
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups 2% milk
1/2 cup Gruyere, shredded (I used smoked)
1/2 cup Wisconsin Medium Cheddar, shredded
1/2 cup Fontina, shredded
Cayenne
Red Pepper Flakes
Garlic Powder
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook noodles in boiling water until al-dente and drain.

Meanwhile, in a small pot, heat up milk.  DO NOT BOIL! Just get it really hot.

To make the cheese sauce, heat butter in a medium sauce pan on medium heat. Once melted, add flour and whisk until the flour smells nutty and is light brown in color.

Slowly whisk in the hot milk until it's thick and smooth. Now this is important! Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for 30 seconds.  Add ALL the amazing cheese in small batches, stirring in between to make a smooth sauce.  Add the seasonings to your liking and taste. I would drink this with a straw if I could...

Pour the sauce over the cooked and drained noodles and combine.  Stir in lobster pieces.  Throw this beautiful sight into a baking dish, sprinkle the panko crumbs all over the top and stick in the oven until you see the cheese bubbling. Mmmmmm bubbly cheese...should take about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Creamy Dreamy Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

This post is dedicated to my husband, who will always be a lover of chicken alfredo from Olive Garden.

Before trendy, farm-to-table, let me milk this cow in our backyard farm for your cream sauce, hipster restaurants were the norm, chain restaurants reigned king.  The Olive Gardens and Outback Steakhouses of our childhood have a special place in our hearts, and sometimes you just want the comfort of hot garlic breadsticks and the brown bread, or creamy alfredo sauce that can only be found in these family friendly restaurants.

Although, I no longer frequent the chains as often as I did growing up, sometimes I just want a fresh basket of cheddar bay biscuits.  Who can't eat a whole basket of these gems?

Every year, husband picks a couple dinners for me to make during his birthday week, and every year, it is the same two things, pot roast and chicken alfredo.  So instead of taking him to Luby's or Olive Garden, I make these things for him from scratch. I am realizing that as I type this, I have a spoiled husband with no fault but my own...I love to cook, and he loves to eat. In my eyes, it's a win-win.

I suggest you make this chicken alfredo on a night where you just want to stay at home in your pajamas and make something special for yourself, instead of going out. Do not attempt to make this a healthy recipe by using the cauliflower recipe. I repeat, don't use the cauliflower alfredo recipe. Pinterest may make it look pretty, but the picture is deceiving.  Unless of course, you like a gritty texture cream sauce, then by all means...

Creamy Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

serves 4
2 large cooked and seasoned chicken breasts, butterflied and sliced
1 cup raw broccoli florets, chopped
4 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
black pepper
sea salt
chopped parsley
16 oz fettuccine noodles

Cook your fettuccine according to package instructions until al-dente.  Once drained, toss with a little olive oil.

As fettuccine is cooking, heat a saucepan over medium heat and melt butter. Add minced garlic and red pepper flakes.  Cook until the garlic is fragrant and not burning.  Slowly add heavy cream and milk.  Heat through.  Add parmesan cheese and whisk until cheese has melted and sauce is smooth. Add lots of black pepper and just a dash of salt to taste.

Add sliced chicken, broccoli and parsley to the sauce. Let all of this heat through and come in harmony, and then toss with your cooked fettuccine!

Enjoy!

Baked Vanilla Bean Donuts with Chocolate Glaze

What had happened was...I ordered a donut pan on Amazon.  So, I made these baked donuts, dipped them in chocolate, and sprinkled them with goodness. And a Sunday morning was made.

Donuts were always a weekend treat growing up, and they still are. I am partial to the chocolate glazed with walnuts, and as you can see in the picture, I made sure to make my favorite.  I especially love vanilla bean anything because of the tiny flecks of vanilla beans that show up through anything it is used in, like vanilla bean ice cream, vanilla bean frosting, vanilla bean cupcakes, and these vanilla bean donuts!  Vanilla bean just adds a gourmet sweetness and touch to everything.  

Obviously baked donuts are not the same as their fried, yeasty counterparts, so I can't even compare. These baked donuts are great on their own merit.  They were pretty much tiny vanilla bean cakes with holes in the middle with chocolate drizzled on top.  Maybe we can call these a little healthy.  Maybe.  I mean, are they still considered healthy when you eat 3 (aka 4)?

I see myself making these pretty often, maybe taking turns with Sunday morning pancakes.  I really want to try some lemon poppyseed donuts with a lemon zest glaze. Or maybe lemon poppyseed pancakes with a lemon zest syrup! Or, dare I, both!

Definitely make these if you own a nifty donut pan!

Vanilla Bean Baked Donuts

1 cup all purpose flour, unbleached
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup milk (any)
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1 large egg
2 tbs unsalted butter, melted
1 vanilla bean pod, scraped (use a sharp knife to cut down the middle of the pod and scrape seeds out with a spoon or butter knife)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze:

1/4 cup milk (any)
1 1/2 cups powdered/confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
Assorted donut toppings, optional

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Spray a donut pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.

For the donuts: whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Whisk the milk, yogurt, and egg together until smooth. Add the melted butter, vanilla beans, and vanilla, whisking until fully combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Do not overmix. The batter will be very thick. 

Spoon the batter into the donut pan.  Or you can do what I did, take a ziplock bag, pour the batter into the bag, and cut a corner off the bottom of the bag and pipe the batter into each donut cup, filling 2 ∕ 3 –3 ∕ 4 of the way full.  This way was much easier!

Bake for 9–10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Allow the donuts to slightly cool before glazing on a cooling rack. Once the donuts are cooled a bit, they're easier to dunk in the glaze. Mmmmmm, glaze.

For the glaze: combine the glaze ingredients in a medium saucepan over  low heat. Whisk until the glaze is smooth. Remove from heat, and begin dunking the donuts, one by one, into the glaze.  Transfer each donut to a wire rack over a baking sheet to catch the glaze drippings.  If you have extra glaze, you can dunk each donut again to make it EXTRA glaze-y...

Sprinkle with any toppings you wish, or devour them plain jane!  Either way, they are fantastic little donuts to be relished on a Sunday morning with your coffee.  

Enjoy!!

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps & Sesame Veggie Noodles

Oh Monday, the beginning of me working towards another weekend!  I put together a pretty great dinner plan through Thursday and I'm super excited for it.  It's pretty heavily Asian inspired.  Maybe I'll go with this and have a weekly theme...maybe. I always have a million ideas, much like my dad, but not equal amounts of follow through.  The flaw of a creative mind. We're dreamers and mind wanderers.  I'm the girl who wants to be a geneticist, a cook, a food truck owner, music festival vendor, bakery owner, event planner, a travelling foodie couple, and the list goes on, all in my lifetime.  Possible?  Perhaps.  But right now, as I sit in my bed, I'll be a blogger for half an hour and entertain you with my tangents.

Today I made a relatively quick and healthy meal, using pantry staples, and lots of veggies that I'll mix and match through the week.

Most of you probably hear lettuce wraps and think appetizer.  At least that is what the hubby thought we were having.  But I think lettuce wraps can be made into a complete meal just by adding a side dish!  I threw together some sesame noodles with veggies in a wok and served alongside these tasty ground chicken lettuce wraps.  I didn't make a dipping sauce because I was lazy.  Sorry! These were great without a sauce though!  Saved calories, so you're welcome. I'm sure a dollop of plain greek yogurt would be great on these if you need a little saucy-ness!

Just like the majority of my other recipes, feel free to use whatever ingredients you have on hand for veggies, meats, and toppings!  I hope I can provide you a somewhat basic "template" of doing things and you can use your creativity to make it your own!

Since we are on the subject, if you make any of my recipes, please take a picture and tag me on instagram with #liveloveatrepeat.  It would make my day to see my recipes being prepared by all of you!  You can also follow me @liveloveatrepeat on Instagram and "like" my page on FB.  Okay done with the promoting, but thank you, seriously.

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

1 tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large portobello mushroom cap, diced
1 lb ground chicken
1 tbs minced ginger
3 tbs reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tbs chili garlic sauce
fresh crack black pepper
minced cilantro
romaine lettuce leaves
shredded carrots
thin sliced cucumber
thin sliced radish

Heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add minced garlic and brown. Be careful not to burn the garlic! It happens pretty quickly, so keep an eye on it.

Add diced mushrooms and saute until softened.  Add chicken, ginger, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, and a lot of black pepper.  Keep breaking up the chicken and brown.  Once chicken is almost cooked through, turn up the heat to evaporate the liquid. Top with cilantro.  Taste and add any additional seasoning you feel it needs.

Assemble the wraps by using the "cupped" side of the lettuce leaf, spooning on chicken, and topping with carrots, cucumber, and radish.  Chomp away!

Enjoy!
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Sesame Veggie Noodles

Ramen noodles (I just used some packets my mom in law keeps in the pantry and only used the noodles)
Sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 serrano pepper, thinly sliced (discard seeds and/or ribs depending on spice level)
1/2 zucchini, diced
1/2 yellow squash, diced
1 roasted potato, quartered and diced (leftover potatoes from night before)
2 stalks green onions, large slices
2 tbs reduced sodium soy sauce
fresh cracked black pepper
1 tbs sesame seeds

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the noodles and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and drizzle with just a little bit of sesame oil to avoid sticky noodles.  Let sit in the colander to dry thoroughly.

Heat a wok over medium heat, add 1 tbs of sesame oil.  Add garlic, onion, and the sliced serrano peppers, and saute until the veggies have softened. Add zucchini and squash and cook until softened. Add potatoes and heat through for a minute.  Add dried noodles, green onion, soy sauce, black pepper, and sesame seeds. Toss and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Some of the noodles may stick to the bottom.  Feel free to add more oil, but I figured a few lost noodles were worth not risking "greasy" noodles.

Season with more soy sauce if needed.  I kept the seeds and ribs in my peppers, so the noodles were quite spicy, but in a good way :)

Enjoy!!