Baking is always the way to go...

I love baking, it's no joke. I am hesitant to enter a kitchen when there's cooking, but when it comes to baking, I'm bonkers for it. And this weekend I did a lot of baking.

It all started when I saw that blueberries were on sale. And I'm a sucker for berries, fruit is good, but there is just something so refreshing about living in California and being able to get berries all the time. So I was going through my favorite baking blogs, trying to decide what to make when I saw this recipe for raspberry crumb bars, and I thought that's it. I want to make this, especially since I had people coming over to get ready for a ball and I knew a little snack would be awesome. So I went to the store, without fully looking at the recipe, bought my berries, then discovered, that I didn't get enough raspberries. But I did have a lot of blueberries. So I adapted the recipe and made a mixed berry crumb bar, and it's addictive and delicious, my friends almost didn't get any.

Mixed Berry Crumb Bar
Ingredients:
1½ cups sugar, divided
1 tsp. baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. salt
Zest of 1 lemon
16 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg
4 cups fresh berries
4 tsp. cornstarch
Juice of 1 lemon
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375° F.  Grease a 9 x 13″ pan; set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup of the sugar, the baking powder and flour.  Mix in the salt and the lemon zest, and stir together with a fork.  Cut in the butter and egg with a pastry blender until the largest chunks are about pea-sized.  The mixture should be crumbly without much loose flour.  Spread about half of the dough mixture in an even layer over the bottom of the prepared pan and press down firmly to form the bottom crust.
In another bowl, stir together the remaining sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice.  Gently mix in the raspberries with a rubber spatula until combined.  Sprinkle the berry mixture evenly over the crust.  Crumble the remaining dough over the top of the berries.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until the top is slightly golden brown.  Cool completely before cutting into squares and serving

 So after that success I got to work on some blueberry cinnamon rolls also from www.annies-eats.com

Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls
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Yield: 8-12 large cinnamon rolls or 12-16 smaller rolls
Ingredients:
For the cinnamon rolls:
6½ tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
5½ tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp. lemon zest
3½ cups bread flour
2 tsp. instant (rapid rise) yeast
1 cup plus 2-4 tbsp. whole milk or buttermilk, at room temperature
For the filling:
3 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. sugar
¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
1½ cups fresh blueberries
For the glaze:
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
6-7 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. lemon zest
Directions:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the sugar, salt and butter on medium-high speed until smooth.  Mix in the egg and lemon zest until incorporated.  Mix in the flour, yeast and milk until a dough forms.  Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed, about 8 minutes until the dough is silky and supple, tacky but not sticky.  (You may need to add a little extra flour or liquid to achieve this texture.)  Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, turning once to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Mist a work surface with spray oil.  Roll it out into a rectangle with a rolling pin, lightly dusting the dough with flour if needed to keep it from sticking (about 12 x 14 inches for larger rolls or 9 x 18 inches for smaller rolls).  Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix to blend.  Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the surface of the dough.  Sprinkle the berries over the top evenly of the dough.  Starting with the wide edge, roll up the dough into a cigar-shaped log, creating a cinnamon sugar spiral as you roll.  Pinch the seam shut, and with the seam side down, slice the log into your desired number of rolls.  Transfer them to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, placing the rolls about ½-1 inch apart.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature 75-90 minutes, until the rolls have grown into each other and have nearly doubled in size.  At this point, the rolls can also be covered and retarded in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.  Pull the pan out of the refrigerator 3-4 hours before baking to let the dough proof.
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown.  Let cool in the baking about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.  Whisk together the glaze ingredients in a medium bowl until smooth and then swirl over the top of the cinnamon rolls.  Let cool at least 15-20 minutes before serving.

 And then finally for my dad's birthday some Black Forest Cupcakes.

Zucchini Turkey Burgers with Morrocan Carrot Salad and Sweet Potato Fries

So this past week I did a lot of cooking, and all the meals came out good, but I only managed a picture of one, I know, lacking in forethought and all that, but I was so hungry I ate up the food before it had time to be photographed. So for lunch last Monday, I actually touched raw meat (a weird thing of mine) and made some zucchini turkey burgers from a recipe I got off of http://www.skinnytaste.com/.

Turkey Burgers with Zucchini
1.25 lbs 93% lean ground turkey
1 small zucchini, processed in food processor
1/4 cup seasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs
1 clove garlic, processed in food processor
1 tbsp red onion, processed in food processor
salt and fresh pepper
oil 
In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, zucchini, breadcrumbs, garlic, onion, salt and pepper. Make 5 equal patties.

Heat a large skillet on high heat. When hot, lightly oi panl. Add burgers to the pan and reduce the heat to low. Cook on one side until browned, then flip. Flip over a few times to prevent burning and to make sure the burgers are cooked all the way through

Then I made the Morrocan Carrot Salad, which is just shredded carrots, orange and lemon juice, and a bit of sugar mixed together.

And finally I used my favorite recipe blog, http://www.annies-eats.com/ to bake some sweet potato fries.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Ingredients:
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil greased with cooking spray.
Halve the sweet potatoes lengthwise and cut each half into long spears.  (Soak in cold water for 20-30 minutes before continuing for crispy texture outside.  Drain well and pat dry.)  Place the potato spears on the sheet pan and toss with olive oil.  Spread them in a single layer.  Combine the brown sugar, salt, and pepper and sprinkle on the potatoes.  Bake for 15 minutes, then turn with a spatula or tongs.  Bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned.  Sprinkle lightly with kosher salt and serve hot.

Where did the chicken go?

Sunday was another successful day of cooking, thanks to Annie's Eats. I love her recipes. Until recently I had just been using her wonderful recipes for baked goods, but now I'm expanding into some actual cooking.

Sunday morning I started off baking some Blueberry Lemon muffins.

Ingredients 
1 3/4 cups whole wheat white flour
 
1/3 cup sugar
 
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
 
3/4 teaspoon salt
 
1 egg, beaten
 
3/4 cup Lemon nonfat Yogurt
 
1/2 cup applesauce

3 tablespoons nonfat milk
 
1/2 to 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Juice from the lemon.
 
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
How to make Blueberry Lemon Muffins Preheat oven to 400°F.
Grease muffin cups or line with paper baking cups.
In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
In a medium bowl combine egg, yogurt, oil, milk and lemon peel; stir well.
Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture.
Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened (batter should be lumpy).
Gently fold blueberries into batter.
Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean

They came out really good, but the stuck to the papers, so next time I will just grease the pan instead of putting the muffins in papers. But they are a great healthy breakfast, which is easy and awesome in the mornings.

For dinner my goal was to make chicken gyros, sauteed veggies, and garlic rice pilaf. I started on the rice pilaf cause it takes forever to cook, and when it was almost done, I was going to put in the chicken, but alas, my apartment made the chicken disappear. I had put it on to marinade the night before, and it was gone when I went to look for it. As was my leftover tzaziki sauce. So dinner became the gyros with the left over chicken from Saturday.

The veggies were delish. I coated a skillet with extra virgin olive oil, threw in about 4-5 garlic cloves minced, then chopped a red pepper into slivers, threw them in, then added some zucchini, and finally some broccoli. The veggies were good left over too.

The rice was a recipe from Annie's Eats

Baked Garlic Rice Pilaf
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. butter
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 cup long-grain white rice
2½ cups chicken broth, divided
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
Squeeze of lemon juice
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375° F.  Have ready a covered casserole dish.  In a saucepan or skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat.  Add the garlic and rice to the pan and cook until both are golden brown, about 3-4 minutes.  Stir in 1 cup of the chicken broth, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.  Pour the mixture into the casserole dish, cover, and bake for 25 minutes.  Stir in the remaining 1½ cups chicken broth and bake, covered, for another 45 minutes.  About 15 minutes before it is finished baking, stir in a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
Note: This recipe can be doubled without increasing the baking time.

It is amazing. In fact I want to make it again, just so I can add it to my leftovers throughout the week. A very tasty rice.

Monday was leftovers, but today I'm off on a food adventure with some zucchini turkey burgers for lunch, and cilantro lime shrimp fajitas for dinner. Bring on the goodness.

Chicken Yogurt Salad

Today is one of the first days of actual cooking, and it turned out great. So after a day at work, I went to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for the next couple of meals, all of which are Mediterranean themed. On the way to the store I called my parents and invited them over, because cooking for one is a little tough, and if I'm going to spend hours in the kitchen, I do want it to be for more then just me. So here is how the cooking started with an approximation of the recipes below.

Kabob Marinade Chicken

1lb chicken breast strips
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves minced
1 tsp dried crushed thyme
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
dash of pepper to taste

Start by mixing all the ingredients except for the chicken in a medium bowl. Add the chicken, and evenly coat the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours. Then cook chicken (it's excellent grilled, although I baked it at 350 in my oven) Cool chicken.

Tzaziki Sauce
16 oz nonfat Greek yogurt, or plain yogurt strained
half a cucumber skinned, seeded, and diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or mashed
dash of salt
1 tsp white whine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil

mince and then crush garlic in serving bowl with salt. Mix ingredients together, then serve chilled or add to other food.


half a roma tomato, diced and seeded
1/3 of a red onion, diced

Or pulverize in a food processor if you have individuals that are eating it that don't like textures of these items.

Mix about one cup of the Tzaziki, the tomatoes, extra cucumber, red onion, and chicken together. You can also add minced black olives and feta cheese to make it even more sublime. Serve on top of whole wheat pita bread.

It's a very light, very refreshing meal, with a little but of a kick because of the red onions.

I had my dad buy pita bread since the bread I was making didn't finish rising in time to be baked before the meal. I also made hummus, but the recipe seemed off. It was almost peanut butter hummus instead of the yummy lemony garlic hummus it was intended to be.

The dinner though was a succes (and now I have homemade pita/flatbread for tomorrow). There are not any leftovers. And I have chicken marinading already for tomorrows meal of chicken gyros. How exciting to have such yummy food to look forward to.

Not to mention the blueberry lemon muffins I'm making for breakfast tomorrow. Woohoo, healthy yummy food abounds!!!

A New Year A New Adventure

I've never been much of a cook, in fact I tend to think that the kitchen is evil, and should be used only by those that actually know what they are doing, and potentially enjoy being there. But last year I learned that I really do enjoy baking, many a cupcake was made and consumed last year. So this year I'm going to try to cook more, which is to say at least some at home.

This comes from a desire to eat healthier, fast food eventual gets old and tiring, and is just so very bad for you. So I've made a goal to cook at home. I was going to try not to eat out at all for the month of January. That only lasted a week, but that was one full week of eating at home. And now that the second week of the month is coming to an end, I need to go back to the grocery store and start eating at home again.

On the menu for the next couple of days includes tonight, Greek Chicken Salad on homemade pitas, tomorrow Chicken Gyros with sauteed vegetables and garlic rice pilaf, Monday leftovers and maybe some spinach salad. Tuesday some Asian Chicken and Broccoli, and probably a trip to the grocery store to figure out more choices.

I can't wait to see how these meals turn out, as I experiment with new and exciting foods.