Best Bites Thai Peanut Noodle Salad

For meals I usually get my inspiration and instructions from blogs, pinterest, or my favorite cookbook "Our Best Bites"*. This cookbook was given to me at my bridal shower and has been so amazing! Absolutely everything I have made has been simply amazing even at the beginning of our marriage when my cooking skills were a little lacking. And tonights Thai Peanut Noodle Salad was pretty much the best of the best! They Best Bites bloggers just came out with a second cookbook and I cannot wait to get it! All of their recipes are on their blog but there is just something nice about cooking from a cookbook and there are awesome tips in the cookbook. Like peeling ginger with a spoon (crazy right?) I would have never thought of it on my own.

Thai Peanut Noodle Salad

Another awesome part about this salad is that it was way simple. Just mix up the dressing, boil the noodles, cut the veggies (I made it even simpler by buying bagged salad with cabbage and carrots already in it), and prepare the chicken (I used pre-grilled frozen chicken). The tutorial is awesome on the Best Bites Blog.

So so so Good!!!

*I am not being paid or asked to advertise this cookbook or blog*

Stepped up Cupcakes

Making cupcakes is one of my favorite activities. There are just so many different things you can do with them from ingredients to decoration. Plus they are so fun to give away to friends and neighbors. So when the urge struck last week I went to my trusty "For My Sweet Tooth" board on pinterest and scoured the cupcake recipes. After much debate I settled on a simpler version of this snickers cupcake recipe. I was not feeling in the make-everything-from-scratch mood and then I remembered the bottle of Hershey's caramel that has been sitting in my fridge, begging for some use. And the idea for these beauties was formed.

Tutorial

What you Need

• Boxed Chocolate Cake mix and necessary ingredients (I used Betty Crocker's Chocolate Fudge)
• Cream Cheese Frosting
• Caramel
• Sprinkles
• Cupcake liners 

What you Do

This process is so simple but they create cupcakes that are "Stepped" up and delicious. First you want to mix up and bake the cupcakes according to the package instructions then let them cool. Now comes the stepping up part, take a normal spoon and carve out a round hole in the center of your cupcakes.

Then fill the hole with a spoonful or two of caramel.

Then frost with the cream cheese frosting.

And add sprinkles because sprinkles make everything better!!

And there you go! You have stepped up cupcakes with a surprise in the 

center that will have your family and friends smiling.

Smoothie Addict

One of my goals for this summer has been to eat healthy along with running regularly. One of my favorite aids towards this goal is making my own smoothies; for both run recovery and for meals. I have tried a variety of combinations that have all been delicious.

They all start with the same basic four ingredients: Vanilla Yogurt ~a cup (I use Yoplait or Tilimack) , Milk a splash or two (1%), almonds a hand full (for protein and healthy oils), and honey a good squeeze or three (add some sweetness). I do not do measured amounts just what looks and feels right depending on if I am making it for one or two. The smoothie pictured here is my favorite remixed.

My Favorite

The Basic Four

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Ripe Bananas 

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Frozen Peaches

My Favorite Remixed

My Favorite

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Fresh Mango

Berry Fun

Basic Four

+

Strawberries

+

Blueberries

Tropical Blue

Basic Four

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Pineapple

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Blueberries

A Fancy Free Tradition

Every Sunday for almost a year we have got together with an awesome couple (shout out to the Pinards) to play games. It started simply enough but it turned into something that I looked forward too and helped me get through my senior year of the fore a mentioned time/fun sucking degree.

The Games 

Settlers of Catan

Mexican Train

These games often get quite competitive. We have been thinking about investing in a trophy to pass around to the winner of Catan for quite sometime, and may actually venture out and find one tomorrow. I will keep you posted.

The Fancy Part

Crepes

My husband Troy is a pretty superbe crepe chef. This is one of our first successful crepe making attempts. The batter was always too thin and attempts to use our nifty crepe maker never seemed that nifty. But I bought a crepe mix from the Prepared Pantry and Troy has perfected using a pan to make them. I am so glad we finally figured it out because crepes are one of my favorite things and they remind me of Europe. 

Healthy Eating just Makes me Love Life

As I mentioned before we got a Bountiful Basket this week so I have been making a ton of awesome dishes full of fruit and veggies. The first dish I made was a hatch chilies stew. I had never really seen or used hatch chilies before. Hatch chilies are just large chillies with a flavor similar to a green pepper. The recipe I used can be found here. The recipe did not specify state how long to cook the stew. I cooked the stew for three and a half hours on high and it seemed to work great.

Hatch Chilies

The Delicious Stew

My New Dining Table with the Stew 

We also got delicious grapefruit I had forgotten how much I love grapefruit.

I also made an Olive Oil cake with red grapes. It was surprisingly delicious and I am not even a huge grape fan. The recipe is found here. I did not have just plain corn meal so I just used some of a corn bread mix I had on hand and it worked fine.

I also made a smoothie with the grapes. I did not get a picture though. It had a different texture because there were pieces of the skin in it. But still tasty and great for an after run boost. 

Here is the recipe:

2 Cups Grapes

1 Cup Milk

Sugar or Sweetener (I used honey) 

Later in the week I cooked up the brussel sprouts we got using a Rachel Ray recipe. They were surprisingly good. If I make these again I will cut all of them in half, as they get more of the flavor that way.

And here is the favorite thing I made this week an apple pear salad with a balsamic honey dressing with feta cheese.  It was so amazing, it felt like I was eating at a gourmet restaurant!

And I still have more fruit and veggies left so I will keep you posted on what I do with them!

Mesmerized with Macaroons

I have been mesmerized with macaroons since my first and hopefully not my last trip to Laduree in Paris. They are the ultimate decadent, Parisian dessert. There is something so wonderful about the crunchy yet fluffy texture of these little cookies that is just indescribable. They are hard to find in most places in the US, so I was quite delighted when I saw a DIY button on Miss at la Playa's blog that had a recipe for Macaroons. It has been three years since I saw that recipe and decided it was about time I tired my hand at making macaroons. 

First Trip to Laduree

Due to the fact that macaroon making is infamous for its technical nature I did quite a bit of research on various blogs and found quite a few interesting tips (List of Blogs is found at the end of the post). I ended up applying the tips (highlighted) I found to the recipe found on Miss at la Playa's blog. I may go with a different recipe next time or just try it again with better technique (more on this later), as my macaroons were far from perfect. But I will not give up until I perfect them!

INGREDIENTS:
Macaroon Batter:1 cup (100 gr) powdered sugar
½ cup powdered almonds (about 2 ounces , 50 gr, sliced almonds, pulverized)
3 tablespoons (25 gr) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 egg whites (Many blogs suggest use eggs that are a couple of days old and separating the eggs anywhere from 12-24 hours before and letting them age at room temp)
5 tablespoons (65 gr) granulated sugar

I suggest getting all the ingredients ready before hand, like this:

Chocolate Filling½ cup (125 ml) heavy cream
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
4 ounces (120 gr) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon (15 gr) butter, cut into small pieces

INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (180 degrees C) (The Givers Log blog suggested preheating to 375 and then turning down to 325 just before placing each sheet in. I feel that part of my problem was that this was too hot for my macroons each oven is different so see what works for you.)

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about 1/2-inch, 2 cm) ready.

Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond powder and cocoa so there are no lumps; use a blender or food

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes. (Had trouble getting my meringue (whipped egg whites and sugar) right, likely due to a not clean enough bowl and having some yoke in my egg whites)

Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag (standing the bag in a tall glass helps if you’re alone). (Folding is a crucial step and must be done right. This video from HowToCookThat.net was most useful to me)

Pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch (3 cm) circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.

Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the countertop to flatten the macaroons, then bake them for 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet. (Many bloggers suggest letting the pipped batter rest for 30 to an hour allowing a film to form and as Givers Log says no film no foot. I let mine sit for 40 minutes)

To make the chocolate filling:
Heat the cream in a small saucepan with the corn syrup. When the cream just begins to boil at the edges, remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate. Let sit one minute, then stir until smooth. Stir in the pieces of butter. Let cool completely before using. (I ended up cooling mine in the freezer)

Assembly
Spread a bit of batter on the inside of the macaroons then sandwich them together. (You can pipe the filling it, but I prefer to spread it by hand; it’s more fun, I think.)
I also tend to overfill them so you may or may not use all the filling.
Let them stand at least one day before serving, to meld the flavors.
Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or freeze. If you freeze them, defrost them in the unopened container, to avoid condensation which will make the macaroons soggy.

Not so beautiful foots :(

The above picture shows how my foots did not turn out, though the cookies were quite delicious. I believe this is most likely due too a bad meringue and cooking them at too hot of a temperature for too long. Hope you learned from some of my mistakes. I am going to keep trying! I will keep you posted on how my next attempts go! I also just got another bountiful basket so I will be sharing recipes inspired by my basket!

Blogs With Great tips:

Miss at la Playa - The recipe

Annie Eats - A very good cook with a more technical description of Macaroon baking, great pictures.

Givers Log - As you can see from my highlighted tips I really liked this blog, she had very clear tips and lots of them.

Tartelle - The queen of Macaroons according to Annie and others, lots of different types of Mararoon recipes on this blog including lots of other fun desserts.

Bellalimento - This blogger details a Macaroon class with Tartelle

Wedding Chicks - This site had some interesting Macaroon flavors such as pumpkin

How to Cook That - This is were I found the awesome video mentioned above

Not So Humble Pie - Has a wonderfully detailed trouble shooting list

Adventures in Healthy Eating

So I have been trying to live a healthier life style. I ran a 5K on the Forth of July and have been trying to run 8-11 miles a week. One of the best things about running is that it makes me want to eat healthier junk food just does not sound good after running a few miles. Though that does not mean all time, their are defiantly still  unhealthy food cravings. So in this post I am going to share some healthy recipes. I will share some of my guilty pleasure recipes in another post.

Here is a photo from my 5K

Turkey and Qunioa Stuffed Bell Peppers

These were super good and filling. Easy to make too. You can find the recipe on the He and She Eat Clean blog.

Here are some photos from a Mushroom Asparagus Quiche I made

Crest made from pressed out crescent rolls

Did you know that you can just simply bend
asparagus and snap off the ends it is so much fun!!

Before Baking

After Baking

I found the recipe on taste of home.com

We got spaghetti squash in our Bountiful Basket a few weeks ago. I had no idea what to do with this squash, and was thrilled to learn it can literally replace spaghetti with less than a quarter of the calories. It was a wonderful opportunity to use and learn about an ingredient I would never choose on my own.

Here is what squash looks up cut open and gutted just link a pumpkin.

You just simply heat up the squash for a few minutes in
microwave until soft  and then scrap the
insides and  it just comes of in strings!

We made a meat sauce with natural veggie sauce with turkey

My sweet husband cooking up the turkey

Finished product so good!

Really simple delicious stuffed pesto chicken shells

So good and made from all stuff that is easily found around the house. I found the recipe on pinterest here is the link.

And this is my favorite summer salad!

I received this recipe as a wedding gift along with red wine vinegar, olive oil, pecans, and poppy seeds. Such a fun idea.

Here are the ingredients:

1-12 oz. bag baby spinach leaves

13 large strawberries sliced

1-6 oz. Container of feta cheese

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 Cup candied pecans (recipe below)

2 Strawberries

1/4 C. White Sugar

1 1/4 tsp. Salt

1/3 Cup + 1 tbsp. red wine vinegar

1/2 Cup olive oil

1 tbsp. + 3/4 tsp. poppy seeds

Prepare Candied Pecans:

1 Cup Pecans

2 tbsp. Water

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss pecans with water, then brown sugar. Place nuts on 2 parchment-lined baking sheet; bake 5-8 minutes, until sugar is caramelized. Slide parchment with nuts off pan to cool; set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the spinach, onion, and strawberries. Place feta Cheese and candied pecans of top of salad.

Place the sugar, salt, vinegar, oil, and 2 whole strawberries in a food processor and blend until smooth. Stir in poppy seeds. Just before serving, pour desired amount of dressing over salad, and toss.

And last but not least my favorite snack Tillamock vanilla yogurt and granola.

Hope these recipes are useful in your healthy eating endeavor!