Posts Tagged baking
August 30, 2011 at 9:11 pm · Filed under appetizer, bake, main course, prep time: 1 hour, review, salad, side dish, skill: easy, spicy, taste: @@@, vegetable, vegetarian ·Tagged bake, baking, cayenne, food, main dish, main dishes, onion, red pepper, salad, side dish, spicy, sweet potato, vegetable, vegetarian, vidalia onion, vinegar, weight watchers, yam
155/365
This recipe was posted by a user on weightwatchers.com. I altered it *a little* bit, but mostly stuck to the original. It is really good. I served it over romaine lettuce tossed with a tablespoon of olive oil. Really, they were delicious on their own, but I was trying to work in an extra vegetable for the day. This is good alone as a side dish or paired with lettuce for a main dish.
Yield: 3-4 servings
1 large sweet potato, remove skin, chunk into bite size pieces
1/2 Vidallia onion, chopped
cooking spray
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tbsp apple juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 – 1 tsp black pepper
1/4 – 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Pre-heat oven to 400°. Line baking dish with foil and coat with non-stick spray. Add all ingredients to a medium bowl and toss until coated evenly. Spread potatoes and onions in a single layer on baking dish. Bake at 400° for 40 minutes, or until center of potatoes are soft. Remove from baking dish and chill the salad for 10 minutes before serving.
Score: @@@ Very good! I would make this again using these ingredients and method.
Permalink
August 16, 2011 at 9:39 pm · Filed under bake, grill, kids, main course, poultry, prep time: 15 min, sauce, skill: easy, spicy, taste: @@@, vegetable ·Tagged bake, baked, baking, bbq, bell pepper, blue cheese, burger, cayenne, dinner, food, garlic, ground turkey, hot sauce, kids, lunch, onion, sandwich, summer squash, turkey, vegetable
149/365
These could be made with out the hot sauce and cayenne pepper if you do not like spicy or want to serve this to children. It is a great way to work in extra vegetables, which I will be honest: I need to eat them more often.
Yield: 8 burgers
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 vidalia onion
1 small yellow summer squash
1 1/2 – 2 pounds ground turkey
1/2 cup mashed potato flakes
salt & pepper to taste
Pre-heat oven to 450° and line baking sheet with foil. (You could try these on the grill, but everytime I do turkey burgers on the grill they fall apart.) Use a food processor to finely chop vegetables. Add vegetables, meat, and potato to a medium bowl. Mix well.
Option: Divide meat evenly and store remaining portion for a second meal. Reduce remaining ingredients by half. This is what I did.
2 eggs
8 tbsp hot vinegar based hot sauce
4 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Add remaining ingredients to meat mixture. Use hands to form 8 patties. Place patties on foil and bake at 450 for 10 minutes, or until cooked through. Serve warm on a bun with blue cheese dressing.
Score: @@@ Not bad for a mildly spiced burger!
Permalink
August 4, 2011 at 7:38 pm · Filed under bake, cookie, dessert, prep time: 30 min, review, skill: easy, taste: @@ ·Tagged bake, baking, chocolate, coconut, cookie, dessert, eggs, food, review, vanilla
144/365
I should really be making dinner, not cookies. I should also not have “Weight Watchers” open in the other tab of my browser while making these. I don’t use Weight Watchers, but was review their services after browsing my meal:dessert posts…
Yield: 3 dozen cookies
- “3 egg whites
- 1 pinch salt
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 1/4 cups shredded coconut
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
- Melt chocolate over low heat and let cool.
- In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy. Slowly add salt and sugar a little at a time, until mixture stands in peaks. Stir in vanilla. Fold in chocolate and coconut. Drop by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.
- Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Cookies should be soft in the center.”
Hoe. Lee. Cow. These are WAY too sweet. Plus, they had to completely cool before I could remove them from the baking sheet. With no flour, these things fell apart almost instantly – except for a few of the 3 dozen I made. They *might* have stayed together better if I had done smaller cookies, but I portioned out the dough as directed.
How to make it better next time:
- Reduce sugar to 1/4 cup
- Add 1/2 cup white flour before folding in the coconut
- Make the cookies smaller
Score: @@ These weren’t a total waste of chocolate and coconut, but I will not be making these cookies this way again.
Permalink
August 3, 2011 at 9:14 pm · Filed under baby, bake, bread, breakfast, fruit, kids, muffins, prep time: 30 min, skill: easy, taste: @@@@, toddler, vegetable, vegetarian ·Tagged applesauce, baby, bake, baking, bread, breakfast, fruit, kids, muffin, picky eaters, strawberries, summer squash, toddler, vegetable, vegetarian, zucchini
143/365
Did I mention that strawberries were on sale? Little Boy LOVES strawberries. It is one of the few raw foods I can get him to eat (the other is apple slices). To help combat his “eat only 2 fruits and crackers all day” diet, I decided to make some vegetable muffins.
I used this recipe from about.com as my guide. I reduced the amount of oil and sugar suggested and replaced it with applesauce – partly for sweetness, partly for moisture.
Yield: 24 muffins
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup finely chopped strawberries
1 cinnamon applesauce single serving cup
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Pre-heat oven to 400° and line muffin cups or grease the tin (I prefer greasing the tin). Add baking powder and baking soda to zucchini and let sit while mixing other ingredients.
In a medium bowl, mix together the remaining dry ingredients. In a small bowl, mix together eggs, vanilla, applesauce, and oil. Add wet ingredients to dry, fold mixture until just mixed. Add zucchini, fold mixture until just mixed. Add strawberries, fold as few times as possible until evenly dispersed in batter. Spoon 2 tablespoons of batter into 24 muffin cups.
Cook at 400° for 5 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350° for an additional 12-18 minutes. Cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn onto rack to completely cool.
Well… They do have a little bit of a green tint to them, but that has never scared me before… They smell delicious. There are no crumbs when pulled apart, they are spongy and moist, and… are pretty darn tasty if I do say so myself. Love it!
Score: @@@@ Soooooo Good!
Permalink
August 3, 2011 at 8:49 pm · Filed under bake, contest, fruit, main course, poultry, prep time: 45 min, rice, skill: medium, taste: @ ·Tagged baked, baking, chicken, lemon, lemon juice, parsley, rice, strawberries
142/365
OH NO! I bought fresh parsley on a whim, now what do I do? Oh Good! Strawberries are two-for-one. Oh… No… Wait… Now I have a ton of parsley and strawberries. What to do, what to do, what to do…
Pretend I am a contestant on CHOPPED. Hell. Yes.
In my basket: fresh parsley, strawberries, lemon juice, white vinegar
Here’s hoping that sweet, tart, and sour all work together.
Yield: 2 servings
2 tbsp distilled white vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp light brown sugar
Pre-heat oven to 350°. Mix together vinegar, lemon juice, and brown sugar. Reserve for later.
1/2 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup diced fresh parsley
2 chicken breast
Line the bottom of your baking dish with foil, then add strawberries topped with half of the parsley. Lay chicken over strawberries. Spoon all of the lemon mixture over the top of chicken and top with remaining parsley. Bake for 35 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink. Serve warm over rice.
This… may or may not have gotten me CHOPPED. It has an interesting flavor, but strong, so paired nicely with plain brown rice. I think it was too tangy, too tart, possibly even bitter at times. I blame it on the fresh parsley and lemon juice. If I were to make this again, I would reduce the lemon juice and use something else for the green, maybe spinach. The dish was similar in feeling to my sweet and sour meatballs.
Score: @ This wasn’t terrible, but needs some adjusting before I would serve it again. Usually, “It isn’t terrible” equals take out.
*EDIT* I originally scored this as a 2 apple dish… I am revoking it’s mediocre score to give it only one apple. I had my hopes too high and my emotions got in the way of scoring it correctly. This would need some major work to taste better.
Permalink
August 1, 2011 at 8:17 pm · Filed under bake, dessert, prep time: 30 min, review, skill: medium, taste: @@@@ ·Tagged bake, baking, brownies, butter, chocolate, cocoa powder, dessert, double boiler, eggs, vanilla
140/365
I needed chocolate. Every recipe I’ve used from Smitten Kitchen has been fantastic, so I tried this one: “best cocoa brownies.”
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/01/best-cocoa-brownies/
Yield: 8″x8″ pan of brownies
I didn’t have a “medium heat proof bowl” to melt the butter and sugar, so I used a double boiler on the stove. It took a bit of time, but worked well. I marked this as a “medium” dish, solely for that reason. Other than that one little step, I followed everything exactly as she wrote it.
The results?
Amazing, as always. These are gooey fudge-like brownies. Delicious!! Thank you, Smitten Kitchen.
Score: @@@@ Fantastic
Permalink
June 26, 2011 at 8:31 pm · Filed under bake, main course, pasta, poultry, prep time: 30 min, rice, sauce, skill: easy, taste: @@@@ ·Tagged bake, baking, broccoli, butter, dry mustard, egg, main course, main dish, main dishes, mashed potato, meatballs, nutmeg, onion, peas, potato, sauce, Swedish, turkey
Swedish Meatballs
Don’t forget! Original quilts and paintings available in our etsy store!
136/365
So, it is probably safe to assume at this point that everything I make is served over pasta or rice. This was served over spaghetti, but think egg noodles or rice would have been just as good.
This is still a crappy phone photo, but at least it was in natural light. I think it helped… very little…
Yield: 5-6 servings
Meatballs:
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup whole milk
1 egg
1/2 cup mashed potato flakes
salt
pepper
1/2 onion (or 1 small onion)
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/3 tsp ground nutmeg
Pre-heat oven to 450° and grease large baking dish (one with sides). Mix together ingredients until well blended. Use hands to mold 1-2 tablespoon size meatballs and spread evenly on baking sheet. Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Remove and add to sauce.
Sauce:
4 tbsp flour
1 cup water
salt
pepper
6 tbsp butter
Melt butter in sauce pan. Add salt, pepper, and flour. Mix well. Add water and stir until creamy. Add meatballs to mixture and serve warm.
This was really really really good. I used LOTS of black pepper. The pepper paired with the butter was just killer. It was just as good leftover the next day. If I had to add a vegetable to this, it would be peas or broccoli.
Score: @@@@ YAY! This was good!
Permalink
June 26, 2011 at 8:11 pm · Filed under bake, dessert, kids, prep time: 45 min, taste: @@@, tree nuts ·Tagged bake, baking, brownie, desert, deserts, kids, peanut butter, peanut flour
Peanut Butter Brownies
135/365
That is Big Boy in desperate need of a haircut… and enjoying our creation. He was also extremely jealous of Little Boys photo shoot for banana pancakes the other day.
These turned out ok. Good enough to eat the entire pan in one day(confession: yes, we really did), but not as good as the mint brownies I made a few weeks ago.
Yield: 9×9″ pan of deliciousness
3 tbsp melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup coco powder
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup peanut butter flour
Grease 9×9″ baking dish and pre-heat oven to 350°. In a small bowl, mix together wet ingredients. In a medium bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and fold until well mixed. Pour mixture into baking dish. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
These were good as is as a light peanut butter brownie. I like something with a little more peanut flavor though, so next time I will likely use peanut butter in place of the vegetable oil.
Score: @@@ I’d make these again with the same ingredients and method.
Permalink
June 21, 2011 at 9:22 pm · Filed under bake, cookie, fruit, kids, muffins, prep time: 45 min, review, skill: easy, taste: @@, tree nuts ·Tagged almonds, bake, baking, banana, chocolate chips, cookies, easy, fruit, kids, muffins, review, tree nuts, walnuts
Banana Cookies
130/365
Big Boy* wanted to make cookies and I had bananas to use up, so I looked up this little number. They are good, but more like muffins than cookies. I would have liked them to turn out a little crispier than light and fluffy. Please comment if you have any suggestions on how to do that. I was considering adding the baking soda to the dry mixture instead of adding it to the bananas.
I followed the same proportions and ingredients as simplyrecipes.com. Ours had almonds instead of walnuts or chocolate chips, but I think they were just as good. This was a recipe that was easy for Big Boy to help with because the bananas had to be smashed and the sugar had to be creamed into the butter.
* “Baby Boy” has now graduated to “Little Boy” following his first birthday. Yay! Happy Birthday Little Boy!
Yield: 3-4 dozen
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup of mashed bananas (about 2 ½ large bananas)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 cups of flour
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground mace or nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 cup of chips or nuts
“1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
2 In a bowl, mix the mashed bananas and baking soda. Let sit for 2 minutes. The baking soda will react with the acid in the bananas which in turn will give the cookies their lift and rise.
3 Mix the banana mixture into the butter mixture. Mix together the flour, salt, and spices and sift into the butter and banana mixture and mix until just combined.
4 Fold into the batter the pecans or chocolate chips if using. Drop in dollops onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.”
– Directions listed are exactly as simplyrecipes.com describes.
The only change in method was to use foil on my baking sheets instead of parchment paper. I hadn’t done this for cookies before (although I do it for almost everything else I make). Let me tell you – it was worth it. The cookies peeled off so easily and I had ZERO scrubbing of pans to do afterward.
Score: @@ I would make this again, but would like to find a method/ingredients that results in a more cookie like cookie.
Permalink
June 21, 2011 at 8:51 pm · Filed under bake, bread, main course, poultry, prep time: 45 min, sauce, skill: easy, spicy, taste: @@@@ ·Tagged bake, baking, breaded chicken, chicken, fried chicken, main dish, main dishes, milk, mustard, poultry, sea salt
Breaded Mustard Chicken
129/365
This is an easy recipe to adjust serving sizes. I’ve made this with just one chicken breast and as many as four. It is also tasty with red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper, but this particular version was not spicy. Put the chicken and milk in a zip-lock bag the night before to make the chicken juicier.
I prefer using this method over frying for breaded chicken. I also prefer photos that do not suck, but the camera is still sitting next to the laptop and is not charged.
Yield: 1 serving
1 chicken breast
2-3 tbsp milk
2-3 tbsp bread crumbs
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp powdered mustard
Pre-heat oven to 375° and line baking dish with foil. Add chicken and milk to baking dish. Disperse breading over top of chicken, followed by salt, pepper, and mustard. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until center is no longer pink (frozen chicken may take up to 60 minutes to cook fully). Serve warm.
This was delicious. I served it with the Zucchini Almond Pasta posted earlier today. I began with this chicken intending to pair it with Honey Mustard, but the children demanded my attention and I didn’t have time. I think it would go together well, though.
Score: @@@@ I would be comfortable serving this to guests.
Permalink
applesauceme 