Chicken Korma II

Here's another Chicken Korma recipe that I made up as I went along.

1 pkg chicken
1 small tomato
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 can coconut milk
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 small container of plain yogurt (Stop and Shop's store brand Greek Yogurt worked well)
assorted spices (I used cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger, coriander, cayenne pepper, turmeric and cumin)

1. in a small sauce pan, simmer coconut milk and spices
2. In a skillet or wok, heat oil (i used coconut oil)
3. Chop onion and tomato and toss in wok with garlic
4. Chop chicken and add to skillet
5.  Heat Chicken thoroughly.
6.  Add almonds and coconut to skillet
7.  Add coconut milk mixture to chicken mixture
8.  Add yogurt to mixture.

No pictures on this post.  Mobile photos aren't syncing for some reason.  Also, I'm lazy.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Hey there, loyal readers!

No new recipes to post today; they're on their way, though!

I just wanted to let you all know about another project that I'm working on.  Did you grow up in the 80s/90s?  Do you love pop culture from that era as much as I do?  Head on over to http://savedbythefeeny.blogspot.com and check it out!

Buffalo Chicken Egg Rolls

Using the recipe for shredded buffalo chicken found here, I made buffalo chicken egg rolls.

I bought egg roll wrappers at the grocery store (I found them in the produce section).  Spoon some of the chicken mixture onto the egg roll wrapper, and wrap it tightly, so that there are no openings.

While you're preparing the rolls, heat about an inch of oil in a frying pan.  Place each roll in the pan and fry until golden.  Drain on paper towels and serve with your favorite dipping sauce.  (I like blue cheese dressing)

Kale Chips

I've heard of this recipe before, and found several versions of it online.  I decided to try it tonight as a side dish.

I took small pieces of kale out of a big bag of kale, and spread them on a cookie sheet.  I drizzled olive oil over them, and topped with sea salt.

Bake at 300 for 15-20 or until crispy.

Buffalo Chicken Rollups

I've posted about this recipe for buffalo chicken in the past.  I used it again today, and threw it all in the crock before work.  When I got home, it just needed to be shredded a bit, and it was good to go!

I spooned some of the mixture onto a tortilla, and rolled it up.  Then I baked it at 300 for about 15 minutes.  Serve with your favorite dipping sauce, and enjoy!

Jalepeno Popper Dip

Here's another recipe I found after googling "easy appetizers."  I tweaked it a bit as I went along.  I used a 9x9 pan, and spread 1 8oz pkg of cream cheese across the bottom of the pan.

I bought 2 cans of chiles (instead of 1 can chilies, 1 can jalepenos) and poured them over the cream cheese. Then I spread a handful of Mexican blend cheese on top, and topped with panko bread crumbs and a little bit of Parmesan cheese.  I baked it at 375 for about 25 minutes (just until top is golden brown)

Pepperoni Pull-Apart Bread

The other day, I googled "easy appetizers" to find something to bring to a party I went to recently.  I came across this and decided to try it.  It was delicious, but I think next time I might add more cheese and pepperoni to each biscuit.

You could also try other fillings, like veggies or other meats.

Homemade Mac and Cheese!

Here's another cooking adventure with friends.

We bought a 1 lb. block of cheese from my local cheese shop.  (We got Quebec Cheddar, aged 7 years)  We cut it into cubes, and added it to the pot with simmering half and half.  A little bit of flour helped thicken up the sauce a bit.  It was still very thin, but tasted great in the end.

Pour the sauce over cooked pasta, and pour everything into a casserole dish.  Top with panko breadcrumbs and a little bit of shaved cheese. (we used BelGioioso Salad Blend)

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Chicken Marsala

1 pkg. thinly sliced chicken breasts
flour for dredging
salt and pepper for seasoning
Marsala wine
Sherry
butter
olive oil
capers (I like to use capers instead of mushrooms)

Heat a 2 tbsp of of butter in 2 tbsp olive oil

season chicken with salt and pepper

dredge each piece of chicken in flour and add to pan.  Brown on each side and cook thouroughly

While chicken is cooking, add a glug or so of the sherry and continue to cook over medium heat

Add 2 cups of Marsala and extra flour if needed.  Cook until sauce begins to thicken

Add 2 tbsp. capers with juice

Remove chicken and place on serving dish.  Cover with remaining sauce.

dredge each piece in flour and add to pan

Baked Potato Soup

This is another recipe that I got from Pinterest.  The original pinner pinned it from Pearls, Handcuffs & Happy Hour.

I threw it in the crock pot this morning, and it made a great lunch.

A few adjustments I made/ideas for next time:

- I used a 32 oz. carton of  stock instead of 3 cans.  (could use veggie instead, to make it vegetarian-friendly)

- Next time, I might try cream of celery or cream of broccoli soup instead of cream of chicken.  (thinking of my vegetarian friends)

I didn't have time to cook some bacon to put on top, but I did add some cheese and scallions.

Delicious!

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Baked Chicken

I got this recipe from Pinterest.  The original pinner pinned it from This wonderful blog.  After discovering this recipe and reading more of her posts, I'm hooked.

I used Onion powder instead of garlic powder (since I didn't have any garlic powder on hand)  I also didn't have any seasoning salt, so I used Trader Joe's "Everyday Seasoning"  (which happened to have garlic in it as well as most of the ingredients in Seasoning Salt).  I also used Monterey Jack cheese in place of the parmesan.  (I forgot a lot of the ingredients that her recipe called for, so I used what I had on hand.  It worked out well. 

Curried Quinoa

Prepare Quinoa according to package directions.
Coat bottom of wok or pan with sesame oil.
Add frozen peas & carrots and prepared quinoa.
Stir in 1tbsp peanut butter and a few shakes of soy sauce.
Stir to combine.

Prepare sauce:
heat 1 can of coconut milk with your choice of spices.  (I used ground ginger, turmeric, curry powder and cardamom)
Add sauce mixture to quinoa mixture one ladleful at a time.  (Similar to the preparation of risotto)

Oven Roasted Broccolini with Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

I've never used broccolini before and I was eager to try it out.  Here's my first attempt at using it as a side dish:

1 pkg broccolini
1/2 cup Sun Dried tomato pesto.  (I pulsed mine in the food processor with about a tsp of olive oil for about a minute to smooth the sauce a bit)
Pour sauce over broccolini and put in fridge until ready to use

Preheat oven to 375.

Put broccolini and sauce on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and seasonings of your choice. I used Dean & Jacobs Spicy Garlic
Bake for 15-20 minutes

Mint Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats

A few weeks ago, I posted about Cake Batter Rice Krispies Treats.  Here's another RKT recipe.

I bought a bag of Mint Chocolate Marshmallows, and used those in place of the plain.  (Stop and Shop had a ridiculous amount of marshmallow varieties)  The bag was 8oz instead of the usual 10, so I added a 1/4 cup of plain.

Melt 3 tbsp of butter and add 10 oz of marshmallows.  Stir until blended.  I added a couple drops of green food coloring.  Add 4-5 cups Rice Krispies and stir.

Press into a pan and top with crushed Andes Mints.

Enjoy!

Chicken Korma

Yesterday afternoon, a few of the girls from high school and I decided to get together and make a delicious curry for lunch.

 We used this recipe for Chicken Korma as a guide, and tweaked it as we went along.

We started by heating coconut milk in a saucepan with 3 cinnamon sticks, 3 pieces of Star Anise, a few shakes of Cardamom, and a few shakes of curry powder.  Really, you can use whatever spices you want.  Cayenne, Coriander, Turmeric, Cumin.... the possibilities are endless!  Also, most Korma recipes tell you to cook it in the oven, but we found that cooking it on the stove was easier.  After that mixture thoroughly heated, we added almonds and golden raisins.

While that was heating, we heated coconut oil and added cut up onions, peppers and eggplant.

 When it was heated, we put the veggies aside and cooked the in the pan.  When everything was heated, we mixed it all together.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

I love all things buffalo chicken.  I've tried several buffalo chicken dip recipes over the years and none really spoke to me.  This time around, I thought I'd do it my own way.

I started by using this recipe for crock pot shredded buffalo chicken.  After I took it out of the crock pot, I refrigerated it overnight, then added the last little bit of buffalo sauce left in the jar.  I built the dip in the same way that I make Baked Mexican Dip, but used the buffalo chicken instead of the salsa.

Cupcakes!

I love to make my own frosting.  Sometimes, I like to take shortcuts.  Tonight, I bought Duncan Hines Frosting Creations in Cotton Candy and Chocolate Mint.  It's plain frosting with a wide variety of flavor packets.

I made chocolate cupcakes, and frosted them with the chocolate mint frosting.  I made strawberry cupcakes and frosted those with the cotton candy frosting.

In closing, cupcakes are awesome.

Pull-Apart Bread (looks like a Bloomin' Onion)

I got this recipe from Pinterest.  It was originally from this blog.

I used some substitutions.  I couldn't find thinly sliced Monterey Jack cheese, and the line at the deli was insane,  so I opted for Sargento's thinly sliced Provolone cheese.  The recipe called for 12-16 oz, so I bought 2 7 oz packs.  I didn't even use the whole first pack, because I couldn't fit anymore cheese in the slits.  Stop and Shop was out of scallions, so I used the chopped (dried) chives from the spice cabinet.  I also used sesame seeds instead of poppy seeds.

I was thinking about it and there are so many options for fillings.  You could do a pizza bread, a cinnamon apple bread, or any kind of cheese.  The possibilities are endless!

Cake Batter Rice Krispies Treats

I love cake batter flavored things and I love Rice Krispies Treats.  When I came across this recipe on Pinterest, I knew it was a must-try!  The website that this originally came from (before someone pinned it to Pinterest) has quite a few recipes on my must-try list.  This will be an ongoing kitchen experiment!

Cookie Dough Dip

Here's a recipe that I got from my boss.  We had this at a work function not too long ago.  It was a tasty treat! (So tasty, in fact, that my co-worker and I had more of it today!)

1 Stick of butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
2 tbsp. vanilla extract
mini chocolate chips

mix everything together and serve with graham crackers, teddy grahams, or any other sweet treat of your choice.

I was thinking about it, and this might work as a truffle filling too!

Irish Cream Buttercream frosting

The other day, I was talking to my co-workers about baking, and offered to make pre-St Paddy's day treats.  I bought a box of cake mix, made some cupcakes, and made a tasty frosting to go with.

1 stick of butter, softened
2 2/3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup Irish Cream flavored coffee creamer
green food coloring

1.Mix the butter and sugar with an electric mixer
2. Slowly add the cream
3. add a few drops green food coloring

I also put some green sugar crystals on top.  I saw them in the cake aisle at stop and shop and couldn't resist.

Chicken Piccata

1 pkg thinly sliced chicken breast (or you could use regular chicken breasts, cut them in half and use half of the package)
1 tbsp butter
salt & pepper
olive oil
1 cup white wine (I like to use lemon flavored white cooking wine)
juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp capers
flour, for dredging
onion
3-4 garlic cloves

1. Heat the butter in a pan with a little bit of olive oil.
2. While the butter is melting, drizzle the chicken with a bit more olive oil and season with salt and pepper
3. Chop the onion and add to pan with the peeled garlic cloves
3.  Dredge the chicken breasts in the flour and place in pan.
4. Cook until both sides are golden brown
5. While chicken is cooking, add the lemon juice and wine
6. add the capers with some of the caper juice (I didn't measure it.  whatever comes out with each tbsp of capers should be fine)
7. When the sauce starts bubbling, remove from heat.

I served these with homemade mashed potatoes and Roasted Asparagus

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Thai Curry Chicken Stir Fry

I got this one by googling thai recipes and combining different ideas.  As usual, I tweaked it as I went along.

1 pkg. chicken breasts
1 can coconut milk
1 tsp. thai curry paste
veggies (I used zucchini and green beans)
1 tsp. peanut butter
zest and juice of 1 lemon

Heat oil in a large skillet
add curry paste, cook for a minute or so.
add cut up chicken and heat for 3-5 minutes.
add cut up veggies, coconut milk, juice & zest.  Boil
When everything comes to a boil, reduce heat and continue to cook on low-medium
add peanut butter and stir.  Continue to cook until sauce begins to thicken.

I served this with thai peanut noodles by A Taste of Thai.

Crock Pot Cilantro Lime Chicken

I made another crock pot meal tonight!

I started by using this recipe and adding some of my own flair.  Instead of regular salsa, I used salsa verde.  In place of a packet of taco seasoning, I made my own seasoning blend: cumin, chili powder, turmeric, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and a southwest seasoning blend.  I like the one by Pampered Chef.  It has red pepper flakes, onion powder and garlic salt.

cook on high for 4 hours.

It makes a great fajita filling or you could just have it as is.  I served it with spanish rice (I like the one by Knorr's), roasted broccoli.  (Prepared the same way as the Roasted Asparagus) and Lime flavored tortilla chips.

Crock Pot Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)

I love Indian food.  I order it a couple times a month, but for a long time was unable to replicate it at home.  I found several recipes that were plenty tasty, but just didn't taste like the Indian food that I was used to ordering.

Chicken Tikka Masala is one of my favorites.  Turns out, it's not an authentic Indan dish, but one that Curry Houses in the UK have made to replicate the Indian Butter Chicken that one might find in India.  (Pretty sure my college English professor would kill me for that sentence.  He always hated when we said things like "One might find".  He was vehemently against using the word "one" in such a context.  I'm getting off topic.

I've been blogging a lot about my crock pot and how I want to use it for more than just soups and stews.  I figured, why not look for an Indian recipe that I can make in the crock pot.  I found this one and made it today.

The recipe calls for cardamom pods.  I didn't want to go through the trouble of sewing cardamom pods together, so I googled to find out what the equivalent would be for ground cardamom (1 pod = 1/6 tsp ground cardamom)  That's much easier!

It also calls for tomato paste.  I used the one that has basil in it.  Yum!  For the yogurt, I used Greek Yogurt.  I actually prefer Icelandic yogurt, but I haven't been able to find an unflavored one.  There are plenty of brands of Greek Yogurt that make a plain version so I used that.

all the ingredients ready to go!

To juice the lemon, I used this handy gadget.  It makes squeezing and measuring much easier, and a lot less messy:

I wish blogger would let me rotate images.

After letting everything cook in the crock pot all day, I returned to this:

yum!

For side dishes, I made Roasted Asparagus, of course!  And I cooked up a box of Rice Pilaf with Lentils.  I added some cumin and cilantro (in a squeezable tube!)

I thought everything came out really well.  Here's a look at the finished, plated project.  (I'm really trying to work on my food photography skills):

a delicious and flavorful dinner!

Reese's Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is a variation on the Rolo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies.  This time I used mini reese's cups cut in half.  I couldn't find the REALLY mini ones, so I just used the traditional minis.

Wrap the Reese's with the cookie dough, and cook according to package directions (I added a couple minutes to the cooking time.)

Pretzel Buttons

I've seen this recipe floating around Pinterest for a few weeks now.  I didn't know what to call them until I saw someone post them saying that she likes the name "Pretzel Buttons"  I thought it was cute!  I have a family party to attend this weekend, so I figured I'd make them!

You'll need:
-square checkered pretzels (Snyder's calls them "Snaps"  (I didn't use the whole bag)
-Hershey's Hugs
-M&Ms

Preheat oven to 250.
Arrange the pretzels in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Place a Hug on each pretzel

Bake for 5 minutes
Drop an M&M on top of each hug (the hug will collapse on its own)

Refrigerate for an hour or so to let the hug harden.

Roasted Beets

Wrap beets (skin on) in tinfoil with some olive oil and sea salt
Roast at 375 for 1 hour

When they come out of the oven, peel off the skin.  Cut into pieces or serve as is.

I didn't think I liked beets, but cooking them this way makes them taste pretty yummy!

Super Bowl Sunday Queso Dip

This is yet another recipe that I got from Pinterest.  I tweaked it a bit, based on other recipes that I've seen.  Here's the recipe that I started with.  Instead of fresh tomatoes and peppers, I used a can of Rotel.  I typically like to use fresh stuff, but so many recipes call for Rotel, that I figured I'd give it a try.

Instead of "Mexican Melting Cheese" I shredded up a combo of Pepper Jack cheese and Colby Jack cheese (about a block and a half total)

add the oil and tequila and continue to stir.  Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

Here's the thing about this recipe.  The taste was right on.  I had some trouble with the texture.  It was either too watery or too thick, no mater what I did to it.  It was the first time trying this recipe though, so I'll keep experimenting!

Rolo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is another recipe inspired by Pinterest.  That recipe outlines how to make the cookies from scratch.  I love doing that, but I was feeling particularly lazy tonight, so I bought a roll of Toll House.  I cut the dough into pieces

and rolled a Rolo candy into each one. 

 

Then I placed each ball of dough approximately an inch apart on a cookie sheet.  (Toll House says not to grease the cookie sheet, but all recipes are different.

(wow, my oven needs cleaning.)

The Toll House wrapper says to bake at 350 for 12-13 minutes.  Whenever I add any candy to my cookies and brownies, I always add a couple of minutes to the suggested time on the package.

Yum!

Breakfast Quinoa

1. Prepare Quinoa according to package directions
2. add a splash of milk and continue to simmer until thickened
3. stir in some cinnamon (I didn't measure it.  I just poured in a couple shakes)
3. add your choice of toppings.  (I like the craisins snack mix with cashews and dried fruits)

Crock Pot Sesame Chicken

Lately, I've been addicted to Pinterest.  In addition to planning my imaginary wedding, and furnishing my imaginary house, I've been collecting recipe ideas.  Tonight, I made honey sesame chicken in the crock pot.

I found the recipe on pinterest. It was originally from this blog.  Instead of ketchup, I used an orange ginger marinade that I found in the international foods section of Stop and Shop.

sixsistersstuff.com

It came out really well!  I used to only make soups in the crock pot.  This recipe inspired me to do more with it!