New Platform

G convinced me to move my blog over to Wordpress (still not totally sure why, but okily dokily). Sooo...my food blog is now housed at Glowskitchen.com

Hope to see you there.

Cheers!!

Semi Homemade Pizza

When in doubt and you have no idea what to make and/or ingredients are limited, I make pizza. Seriously, it's so easy and quick. It's just a Pillsbury pizza crust with sauce of any variety (I used Bertolli sun-dried tomato Alfredo), throw on some shredded cheese, veggies (I used frozen spinach and summer squash), some spices and voila! Looks fancy, doesn't it? Just pop it in the oven for 13 - 17 minutes depending on which ingredients you used.

Chicken with herbed Zucchini and Orzo

G was given a choice tonight of Chicken and Orzo, Homemade pizza or Make Your Own Pasta. Again, I was indifferent to what we ate tonight, none of the above mentioned items are that particularly complicated, or so I think. I was surprised that he picked the chicken considered we had chicken last night, but whatevs...

So, I have a guilty confession for you. I love Fryin' Magic. I think that it is absolutely delicious and makes chicken far better than what it is on it's own. Overall, I thought the flavors worked really well together in this dish. I'm not a particular fan of dill, but Orzo is my most favorited shaped pasta. The red wine vinegar gave a really nice tang in contrast to the saltiness of the Fryin Magic (keep laughing)


Chicken with Herbed Orzo
Ingredients
Fryin Magic
2 chicken breasts
Dried Basil
2 medium zucchinis (sliced)
3 tbs Olive Oil
1 cup dried Orzo
2 tbs red wine vinegar
1 tbs fresh dill (Target just came out with an awesome line of freeze dried herbs. Check it out)

Preheat oven to 375. Coat chicken in Fryin Magic mixed with 1 tsp dried basil. Put in oven for 12 minutes on tinfoil covered baking pan covered in 1 tbs oil. Slice zucchinis, coat in remaining Fryin Magic. Boil water for Orzo and then cook according to package. Flip chicken in oven, put zucchini slices in same pan. Cook another 12 minutes. In a bowl, whisk together 2 tbs oil, 2 tbs red wine vinegar, 1 tbs dill and salt and pepper to taste. Drain pasta and mix into bowl. Take chicken and zucchini out and serve with pasta.

Soba Noodle Bowl

I've been kind of uninspired for dinner lately. I just can never pinpoint exactly what it is that I want to eat (besides cake). As previously mentioned, I'm not a big "meat and potatoes" type girl and frankly, I'm kind of getting tired of making pasta dishes (say what???!). I was flipping though my new Better Homes and Gardens magazine and came across the recipe for Soba Noodle Bowl, and low and behold I actually already had all of the ingredients on hand. It was a sign from above, I'm sure.

So, overall the tastes were very good. I thought the noodles came out a bit soggy, perhaps the organic noodles I used were to blame, I'm not sure. The dish also calls for Jalapenos, which I didn't have on hand, but I had some dried Thai Chile hots from my Dad's garden. I made the dish spicier than it called for, because I LOVE SPICY FOOD. Sometime in the near future I'll show you my recipe for my Burn Your Gut Chicken Curry.



Soba Noodle Bowl
28 oz reduced sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (thinly sliced)
2 carrots (thinly sliced)
6 oz. Soba Noodles
1 sliced Jalapeno pepper
2 tbs reduced-sodium soy sauce
8 oz. sugar snap peas
Crushed red pepper
fresh parsley

Heat chicken broth and water to boiling. Add chicken, carrots, noodles, pepper and soy sauce. Cover and cook over medium head for 7 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and noodles are soft. Add sugar snap peas, cover and cook 2 minutes more. Sprinkle with crushed red pepper and parsley.

(From Better Homes and Gardens July 2010)

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Earlier this month, I made a Giant Donut Cake (there will be many more donut cakes in the future) with a banana filling and a Nutella topping. It was spectacularly awesome, but wasn't so great for transporting. I thought a banana cookie would be phenomenal instead. I meant to find a banana cookie recipe that I could kind of replicate that donut cake recipe with, but came across this recipe instead. This is a nice, sturdy drop cookie recipe.

These came out yummy! I did think that they'd be a bit more banana-ey, so I think if I remake this recipe, I'm going to add more banana and perhaps a dash of Cinnamon. I liked the oatmeal cookie aspect of it, and that it didn't turn out like a banana bread type cookie.


Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup mashed banana (from 1 sm/med)
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together sugars and butter. Beat in egg until smooth, then mix in the peanut butter and mashed banana. Working by hand or with a mixer on low speed, blend dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture. Stir in the oats.
Shape dough into tablespoons and place on baking sheet, flattening each slightly with your fingers.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies just begin to turn golden around the edges.
Cool on a wire rack.

Makes approx 2 dozen.
(from http://bakingbites.com/2009/05/peanut-butter-banana-oatmeal-cookies/)

Guinness Beef Stew

It was a lazy Sunday around here, so I thought, "what better way to kill some time than play in the kitchen??"


After watching Man Vs. Food all morning, G and I had a horrendous craving for meat. Not like the 72 oz. steaks Adam was consuming on the show, but something meaty. I'm not a huge fan of making a steak and potatoes dinner, so I decided on the Guinness Beef Stew I made once before. This is a total Sunday meal because it takes over 3 hours to cook, but it is well worth it. The beef is super tender and veggies are very yummy.



Guinness Beef Stew (From Cooking Light 3/2010)

Ingredients
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1 tablespoon butter, divided
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 pounds boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 teaspoon salt, divided
5 cups chopped onion (about 3 onions)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
4 cups fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
1 (11.2-ounce) bottle Guinness Draught
1 tablespoon raisins
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 cups (1/2-inch-thick) diagonal slices carrot (about 8 ounces)
1 1/2 cups (1/2-inch-thick) diagonal slices parsnip (about 8 ounces)
1 cup (1/2-inch) cubed peeled turnip (about 8 ounces)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Preparation
1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons butter to pan. Place flour in a shallow dish. Sprinkle beef with 1/2 teaspoon salt; dredge beef in flour. Add half of beef to pan; cook 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove beef from pan with a slotted spoon. Repeat procedure with remaining 1 tablespoon oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, and beef.

2. Add onion to pan; cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomato paste; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in broth and beer, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Return meat to pan. Stir in remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, raisins, caraway seeds, and pepper; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Uncover and bring to a boil. Cook 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add carrot, parsnip, and turnip. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and bring to a boil; cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Sprinkle with parsley

Hello!

Hello and Welcome!

My name is Glow (for all intents and purposes of this blog) and I LOVE to cook and bake. I'm a late 20's-something lady from the greater Chicagoland area. I've been toying around with the idea for YEARS to write a book or blog or something about being a 20-something who cooks. My major in college was Legal Studies, and no, I'm not a lawyer or anything of the sorts, but cooking and baking have always been a passion of mine. I think perhaps I should have gone to cooking school, but I didn't. G, my fantastic husband, is my willing test subject to my kitchen creations. Sometimes my creations come out awesome, some of them, sometimes not so awesome. Regardless, I think I have more fun in the kitchen than anywhere else.

So, today is a new day! A new day and a new blog. I'll bring you my completed dishes with recipes. I hope that you like them.

<3,
Glow