Monthly Archives: July 2014

Peaches and Cream

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One of my favorite memories growing up is the dessert my sister and I used to get just before bed. Most of the time I would choose vanilla ice cream…and not much has changed since then. I may not eat dessert right before bed anymore, but I still looove vanilla ice cream. I wanted to put a fresh twist on my fav dessert by adding some hot cooked peaches. It makes this cool dish, cozy. Who knew a summer dish could actually be cozy?!

  • 3-4 fresh peaches, pitted and thinly sliced
  • 1 tsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp of water
  • 2 tbsp of brown sugar
  • A dash of salt
  • 1 sprig of mint leaves
  • 1 pint of vanilla bean ice cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and cover a cookie sheet in foil with enough slack on the sides to form a packet. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, cinnamon, vanilla extract, water, sugar, and salt. Slowly add in the sliced peaches and mix until fully coated. Lay the peaches flat on the cookie sheet and close the foil over top. Bake for 20 minutes or until slightly soft and they have a glaze on them.

Place two scoops of ice cream in a small bowl for serving, and top with the hot peaches, garnishing with a mint leaf.

Peaches and cream.JPG

 

Happy Eating, XO

 

Muffin Mania Part II

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My ex bf used to call me the “muffin man”, I know, how sexy! LOL but seriously, I just love making muffins. I think they are so easy and filling. They can be used as breakfast, a snack, or dessert (dollop anything with whipped cream child and its a dessert!) Anyway, to impress him early on when we were dating I made my scrumptious pumpkin muffins, and you know I just tossed my leftover veggies in some muffins just last week. So clearly, there is no stopping me on my muffin mania rampage. I realized I needed to do something more traditional and since its still summer and the berries are in abundance, I wanted to do a mixed berry muffin. Watch out Dunkin Donuts low fat blueberry, you may now be my 2nd favorite. Hope you love these as much as I did!

  • 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar (honey works as well)
  • 1 cup milk, at room temperature (original recipe calls for buttermilk, but I don’t have that stuff on hand so I just used the 1% I had in my fridge for cereal).
  • ½ cup canola oil (don’t skip the oil, this will make the muffins moist, you could use melted butter, but this muffin is better w the oil)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups (340g) mixed berries**
  • coarse sugar for sprinkling on top if you wanna really be like Dunkin Donuts.

In a large bowl, gently toss together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until all dry ingredients are combined – a 20 second toss to disburse everything together. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until combined. Whisk in milk, oil, and vanilla extract. Mixture will be pale and yellow. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix everything together by hand. Avoid over-mixing which will make for tough, dense muffins. Gently mix until all the flour is off the bottom of the bowl and no big pockets of flour remain. The batter will be extremely thick and somewhat lumpy. Very gently to avoid them from leaking their color, fold in 1 and 3/4 cups mixed berries. ** For a little culinary twist I like to add some citrus zest or peel to the muffins. Lemon tends to be a good tart compliment to blueberries and orange works well with the raspberries and strawberries. You pick which one or both you want and throw in a tsp. if you feel so bold.** Then, spoon batter into prepared muffin tins, filling all the way to the top. Using 1/4 cup of the berries you have leftover, press a few into the tops of each muffin. Sprinkle with coarse sugar if you fancy. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes and let cool before serving.

Happy Eating, XO.

Too busy to go food shopping? No problem.

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It’s summer time, who wants to waste it inside of a grocery store walking down freezing aisles trying to buy enough food so you don’t starve for the week, yet dreaming of how you could be on the beach? Well, we have the perfect solution(s)! There are tons of new sites popping up that will deliver food right to your door. And I’m not just talking about PeaPod or FreshDirect. I’m talking some good quality shh. We ran a post a little while back on some of our faves. Here comes round two…

instacart Fill up your online cart and a personal shopper will deliver it to you in about an hour. Um, yes please?! (Although they’re not available everywhere (yet), they are available in the big cities: NYC, Philly, Chicago, LA.)

FreshNationLogo You know the rage this summer is all about farmers markets. Can’t seem to get to one, but don’t want to miss out on the trend? Fresh Nation will have the food delivered to you! No more carting heavy bags up five flights of stairs.

You can also check out your local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Some require pick up, but at least you’ll be outside!

 

Happy Delivery! Er, Eating!

Muffin Mania Part I

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OK so sometimes I buy way too many veggies in attempt to eat healthier. Now we are at that moment in which they will go bad if not consumed soon and I just cant finish all of this myself. So, juicing is usually a good fallback option however I sold my juicer in attempt to buy a new pair of shoes, so there’s that. Good old Pinterest to the rescue. I searched for a recipe that would use ingredients I already had in my pantry/kitchen. What a yummy way to eat my veggies and a resolution to my overabundance problem!

  • 1 cup white whole wheat flour (I used all purpose because that’s all I had lying around)
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled (I forgot this, that’s what rushing to take photos does, don’t forget it, seems to be the element that adds a certain richness)
  • ½ cup pure maple syrup (I would also add a tbsp. of sugar because I don’t think they were sweet enough)
  • 1 large egg, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup grated zucchini
  • 1 cup grated carrot (original calls for 1/2 cup but I think it needs 1, came out too doughy)
  • Original recipe had raisins and nuts (walnuts or pecans would work best), I left out but its a good idea to add some more oompf to the muffins.
Preheat oven to 350°F and place rack in the center of the oven, and coat a mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. Combine the flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the butter, maple syrup (& sugar), egg, and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir together until just barely combined. Add the zucchini, carrot, and stir gently until just distributed. Fill each cup in the mini muffin pan approximately ¾ full (my tins were only half full) Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
photo
Happy Eating, XO

A Hearty Breakfast of Kale, Quinoa & Egg

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I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but it’s not that easy to eat a healthy (yet delicious) breakfast! Sure, our fruit parfait is really good, but for those of us who like savory dishes, what are we to do? I know it’s super late in the game, but I’ve been on a real kale kick lately (could be the pressures of bathing suit season!) so I did some testing for a really good kale breakfast. My mouth is salivating just writing this post…

Makes 1 serving

  • 2 big leaves of kale, cut in long strips (be sure to remove the leaves from the stem)
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa
  • 1 minced garlic shallot
  • 1 tsp butter
  • 1 egg

Cook the quinoa according to the package instructions. While that’s cooking, heat the olive oil and garlic together, then add in the kale. Cook the kale until it’s wilted.  By then the quinoa should be ready, so add it in to the pan with the kale and blend together. In a separate pan, add the teensiest bit of butter and fry your egg sunny side up. If you want it to look fancy, scoop the quinoa mix on to a plate and top with the egg.

 

Kale, Quinoa, Egg breakfast

Happy Eating, XO.