Cumulonimbus

Click here for the special EnviTote GroupShop!

**This is the THIRD time I’m typing out this post after stupid Ecto ate it twice before. Anyone know how to fix this?**

Why am I referring to clouds again? Well, there are a multitude of reasons…but before I get to that, a definition:

In ordinary, normal, everyday English though, cumulonimbus clouds are those tall pouffy clouds that look like they’re sitting on something in the sky.

[source]

So much of today, I felt like I was above the clouds for, as I said, a multitude of reasons.

Reason #1: All of your kind and genuine comments on my post from last night truly uplifted my spirits! I checked my comments a few times today, and each and every time, my mood would get better with your amazing comments! Thank you SO much, and as my mom used to say, “poop on you!” to the negative commenters!

Reason #2: I made a fan-freaking-tastic dinner! I started out with something I’ve been thinking about since I made it last: Gina’s raw sushi rolls with cauliflower “rice”. They were just as good as last time, and I filled them with cucumber, avocado, and some shredded crabmeat.

I continued with a delicious spinach salad with a pan-roasted Ahi tuna filet. I bought the most amazing-looking tuna filets at Trader Joe’s yesterday, and I’d been thinking about them all day, so I knew they had to be on the menu. I whipped up a quick salad dressing with:

1 Tbsp. dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. oregano

I shook them together and then set the dressing aside while I pan-roasted the tuna filet in a super-hot skillet with some olive and sesame oil. I over-cooked it slightly, but it was still delicious! While it cooked, I cut up my cucumbers, dressed the salad, and then sliced the tuna. The whole darn thing got sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Reason #3: Lemon Vanilla Cloud Cookies

After last night’s coconut clouds, I knew I had to perfect the recipe. I hesitate to call these meringues because they’re lacking the sugar that standard meringues have, but I’m good with calling them clouds. They sound so happy!

Lemon Vanilla Clouds

Ingredients

5 egg whites, brought to room temperature

2 packets Splenda (or 1/4 c. sugar)

2 tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 vanilla bean, halved and scraped

Directions

Heat the oven to 200*. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the lemon juice, zest, Splenda, and vanilla, and whip until stiff peaks form. Pipe or spoon onto a clean and dry cookie sheet, then place in the oven until lightly browned and dry (about 2 hours).

Reason #4: There’s a great thing happening on my OpenSky shop tomorrow! OpenSky has been hosting cooperative shopping deals called GroupShops and I’m going to be apart of one from 9 a.m. tomorrow until midnight on Friday. All the details will be revealed tomorrow morning, but what I can tell you is that it involves EnviTotes and will be under $25!

Click here for the special EnviTote GroupShop!

So after a day of feeling above the clouds, and then eating some clouds, it’s time for me to land and go to bed shortly…

Technorati Tags: Baking, dessert, dinner, EnviTote, OpenSky, seafood, simple, simple recipe, sushi, tuna

8 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, March 9th 2010 | Tags: Baking, dessert, dinner, EnviTote, OpenSky, seafood, simple, simple recipe, sushi, tuna
Posted in fish or seafood, simple recipe

Veggies and Clouds

Have I told you all lately how much I love Trader Joe’s? I’ve discovered that on certain days, the fastest route home from work passes right by the Trader Joe’s, so I stop. I stocked up today on raw almond snack packs (the extra plastic for the wrappers is worth it for the portion control!), crunchy almond butter, some frozen veggies, chicken sausages, and some other various random food items to fill in the holes from yesterday’s shopping trip.

I came home all excited to make a recent favorite recipe even better! Ok, better isn’t the right word because well, the tomato sauce with butter and onions is hard to bead, but I felt the need to doctor it up and make it a bit heartier.

The basic recipe, in case you forgot:

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions
Adapted from Marcela Hazan’s Essentials of Italian Cooking

28 ounces (800 grams) whole peeled tomatoes from a can
5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan (it fit just right in a 3-quart) over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste and keep warm while you prepare your pasta.

I added to the pot one bag of TJ’s “Melange a Trois” tri-colored peppers, and let it simmer all together, stirring occasionally until the peppers started to fall apart and the onion was just about mush. In a separate pan, I sauteed 2 links of TJ’s Sweet Pesto Chicken Sausage with a chopped up zucchini and about 6 sliced mushrooms. Then, I served the sauce and sausage mixture atop a twice-roasted spaghetti squash half. I roasted a spaghetti squash yesterday, and only used half, so today, I threw the remaining half back in the oven and let it kind of caramelize while the sauce cooked. It added a depth of flavor that was really delicious… I’ll have to start double-roasting it all the time now!

After dinner, for some strange reason, I had the desire to bake. I’m NOT a great baker, as I’ve said many times before, but sometimes I like doing it. It also gives me an excuse to use my stand mixer! Today I felt like meringues. Well, to be honest, I wanted lemon meringue pie, but since I didn’t have the stuff to make lemon curd, I settled for making some coconut meringue cookies.

I looked up a few recipes, and got the general idea of how it’s done, and then decided to just wing it. I needed sugar free, I wanted coconut, I had eggs… so I went for it.

Coconut Cloud Cookies

Makes about 16

Ingredients

5 egg whites, brought to room temperature

4 packets Splenda (feel free to substitute with 1/4 c. sugar)

1/2 c. unsweetened coconut flakes

Directions

Make sure your bowl, beaters, and any surfaces are completely oil free. Pre-heat the oven to 200*. Add the egg whites to a mixer bowl and beat on medium heat until soft peaks form. Add the Splenda (or sugar) slowly, and beat until whites hold firm peaks. Fold in the coconut, and then either pipe or spoon onto a parchment lined (or not) baking pan, and bake until lightly browned, dry and move easily off the pan.

These hit that spot… you know, the “I want something sweet but not that sweet” spot. And they’re crunchy. And not terrible for me!

I got another anonymous question today after tweeting about how yesterday’s post must’ve been boring. It wasn’t so much a question as yet another rude statement about how my blog “used to be great” and now is “boring” and all I do is sell stuff you could get at “bed bath and beyond.” So please, lovely readers, be honest with me… have I gotten boring? Am I stale in my “old age”? What do you want to see more of? Less of?

In a non Bed Bath & Beyond area, there’s an incredibly great deal coming on Wednesday morning from the EnviTote people… they want to hook you up, so if you’ve been wanting an EnviTote but holding off? Wednesday is your day! Trust me… the rest of the info will come tomorrow!

Technorati Tags: Baking, cookies, OpenSky, pasta, simple recipe, twitter, vegetables, vegetarian

19 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, March 8th 2010 | Tags: Baking, cookies, OpenSky, pasta, simple recipe, twitter, vegetables, vegetarian
Posted in Baking, chicken/turkey, simple recipe, vegetarian

Do You Fondue?

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you all had a wonderful day, whether attached or not… After being surprised with a mani/pedi from one of my favorite spas, Adam and I spent a relaxing day at the public library and doing our taxes, and then got going on tonight’s special romantic meal.

It’s such a stereotype: the newlywed couple spends their first Valentine’s Day as husband and wife over a lovely slow meal of fondue… and it’s a stereotype Adam and I were thrilled to indulge in!

When we were first together (Winter 2004-2005), I used to make us pots of cheese fondue for dinner. We’d go through a good 2 loaves of French bread, and probably 2 lbs. of cheese over the course of a night. Things have certainly changed, though my fondue recipe hasn’t! We so rarely indulge in food such as cheese fondue, so we figured Valentine’s Day was the perfect opportunity.

Adam cut up some fluffy French bread:

and a crisp Fuji apple:

as I stood at the stove and made my favorite cheddar-beer fondue. I asked around about what I should make, Cheddar or Swiss fondue, and while the response was overwhelming towards Swiss cheese, I just couldn’t do it. The intent of staying in on V-Day was to save money… and spending $30 on enough cheese and liquor for white cheese fondue defeated that purpose! Instead, I went with Cheddar. For those of you without a fondue pot, never fear! A small sauce pot and hot plate work just fine. In fact, this is the first fondue set I’ve ever had!

The process and recipe is easy, as taught to me by my mom:

Ingredients

14 oz. extra sharp cheddar cheese

1 12 oz. bottle dark beer (I used Negro Modelo)

1 Tbsp. dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 Tbsp. olive oil

flour for dusting

Directions

Grate 14 oz. extra sharp cheddar cheese. Dust lightly with flour. Set aside. Heat the olive oil and garlic in your fondue pot (or other pot). Add mustard and stir well until lightly browned. Add the bottle of beer and cook until reduced by about 1/4. Whisk in handfuls of the floured cheese, stirring until fully melted. Add handful by handful until all the cheese is added and the fondue is thick. Simmer on low heat a few minutes. Transfer to your fondue burner (or hot plate) and enjoy!

Originally, this was going to be a two-course fondue meal with a meat/seafood cooked in broth course… but we got too full! (Don’t forget to SpringPad the fondue recipe!)

We finished off the carbo-loading meal with decadent chocolate lava cakes from Jenn! She was kind enough to get us a kit with ramekins and the mix as a wedding gift, and we’ve been saving it since! I had every intent of doing the double dessert thing I spoke of yesterday in Cute Food Saturday, but we both wanted chocolate… so chocolate we had!

These were supposed to be inverted onto a plate and served out of the ramekin… but this is what happened when I did one of them:

Big gooey chocolatey mess… with a curved divot in it from where the ramekin fell. It was still amazingly decadent and delicious, and I now feel like I have a brick in my stomach. I think I’m going to have some tea while we watch a movie… there’s cool stuff coming to our house this week that I’m SUPER excited for, but I’ll save the surprises. You may have noticed the OpenSky picture in my sidebar…that picture will bring you RIGHT to my shop, where you can buy all sorts of amazing kitchen goodies. Check them out!

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Technorati Tags: Baking, cheese, dessert, family recipe, fondue, holiday, simple, simple recipe, vegetarian

17 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, February 14th 2010 | Tags: Baking, cheese, dessert, family recipe, fondue, holiday, simple, simple recipe, vegetarian
Posted in Baking, family recipe, simple recipe, vegetarian

Spring it and Win It (Giveaway Post)

There are just good things happening like crazy over here at the What’s For Dinner “headquarters”! First, we had the iHerb.com $50 shopping spree contest (which you can still enter), and then the announcement of the opening of my OpenSky shop, and today even MORE cool stuff!

I’ll get to the cool stuff after I show you my quite boring dinner. It tasted fantastic, but really, it wasn’t anything exciting. At all.

That would be steamed brown rice, steamed broccoli, and pan “fried” cube steak. The cool part: I steamed the broccoli in the steaming basket of my rice cooker while the rice cooked! Very convenient! The cube steak was floured, egged, then bread-crumbed, and cooked in a couple teaspoons of olive oil. Delicious? Yes. Pretty? Not really…

Now comes the good part. While I was waiting for the State of the Union to come on, it became increasingly obvious that there was NOTHING on TV. Some of you would’ve taken the opportunity to get an extra workout in. Some of you would’ve found SOMETHING to watch. Some of you may have done what I ended up doing: cleaning the kitchen and then baking brownies.

If you know me at all, you’ll know that me cleaning ANYTHING is a huge feat. I’m a very very very messy person. I was always that kid in school who had the locker that exploded whenever it was opened. My roommates in my favorite college house (kindly known as “the Blue House” because well, it was blue) had to get me a separate Rubbermaid tub for my dirty dishes because if it wasn’t there, they couldn’t get to the sink! Adam and I are slowly working on getting our house looking like grown ups live here, and just the fact that I cleaned is miraculous.

You’re probably wondering now “WHERE ARE THE BROWNIES?!” Ok, ok, here we go. After the brownies I posted on Sunday, I have been bound and determined to make a relatively healthy yet still fudgy brownie. I believe I have succeeded. This started as a vegan recipe in my head, and realized that not only did I not have any non-butter fat besides olive oil, nor did I have enough applesauce to completely sub it out, I used the butter. So they’re vegetarian, but can easily be made vegan with a couple small substitutions (and not the ones you’re thinking!)

Fun Flax Brownies

Ingredients

1 stick of butter, softened

2/3 c. sugar

4 oz. unsweetened natural applesauce

1/4 c. whole flaxseeds (I used Tropical Traditions Golden Flaxseed)

1 1/2 c. water

1 c. whole wheat flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill)

3/4 c. cocoa powder (I used Now Foods organic)

1/4 c. milk (I used skim, but was out of Almond milk)

1/2 c. white chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350*. Add softened butter and sugar to mixing bowl and cream until light yellow and no longer grainy. While that mixes, place flaxseeds in your blender. Grind thoroughly. Add the water, and blend for 2 minutes until the mixture is foamy and is of egg-white consistency. (This is a vegan egg replacement for 2 large eggs. Feel free to use real eggs) Allow to sit a few minutes while the butter and sugar finish creaming. Add the applesauce to the butter/sugar mixture and mix well. Add flax “eggs” and mix well. Slowly add in the cocoa, and mix well. Add flour, mix until incorporated then add the milk. Gently mix in the chocolate chips and spread into a pan. I used my brownie pan, but an 8×8 would’ve been perfect. Bake about 25-30 minutes.

Remember that fudgy brownie texture I was looking for? Oh yeah, these have it… the flax and whole wheat flour along with the applesauce makes these a higher-fiber and healthier recipe than your typical egg/white flour/lotsa fat recipe, and honestly, the flax makes a great little crunch in there!

Do you notice that cool little button up under the recipe title? That button will soon become your new best friend! See, that button is from SpringPad, a very useful website which, once you have an account, can save recipes for you with just a click of a button! A few of my recipes (the most recent ones) have already been entered and will soon have buttons too. SpringPad is FREE, and the best way I’ve found to catalog all those recipes I come across that I want to try, but don’t want to print out. Or those ones that I go “OOH! I want to try that” and then forget where I saw it. Now, I can add a Web Clip button to my browser toolbar, and click it when I see a recipe I like. A window pops up, I hit save, and then all the recipes are in one place.

Now for the giveaway part (I know you love these!) MONTHS ago, I got a bag of Tropical Traditions golden flaxseeds sent to me to try. I hadn’t been able to think of anything to make with them until now, so now’s your chance: You can win one 16 oz. bag of whole organic golden flaxseeds from Tropical Traditions!

Again, I’m going to go with the multiple entries thing! You MUST choose ONE of the options to be entered. Each additional method will earn you one additional entry. You must comment for each method. 4 methods = 4 comments = 4 entries. Get it?

Method 1: Leave a comment on this post about what you’d do with the flaxseed

Method 2: Tweet about the giveaway “I want to win flaxseed from @imadedinner and @troptraditions http://bit.ly/a9jk7f”

Method 3: Join SpringPad and Spring! my brownie recipe. I’m notified when you “Spring” but a comment is needed anyway

Method 4: Subscribe to the Tropical Traditions newsletter

Happy Springing and good luck! Winner will be announced Friday evening, January 29.

*Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to review or sponsor a giveaway in return for the free product.

Technorati Tags: Baking, beef, dessert, food, giveaway, product review, recipe, simple recipe, Tropical Traditions

45 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, January 27th 2010 | Tags: Baking, beef, dessert, food, giveaway, product review, recipe, simple recipe, Tropical Traditions
Posted in Baking, beef, contest/giveaway, giveaway, simple recipe

Holy Moly Stromboli! (Giveaway Post)

Last week, I decided that it was a great time to start exploring all the fun gadgets and small appliances that Adam and I were lucky enough to receive for our wedding. I coined it “gadget week” and started with the mandoline, then the rice cooker, the fancy schmancy blender, the immersion blender, and tonight…the piece de recistance: The Kitchen Aid stand mixer. We registered for the standard enamel 5 qt. stand mixer with the top that lifts up to allow access to the bowl and paddle. Much to my surprise, my mom was generous enough to get us the KitchenAid Professional 5 qt. deluxe super duper mixer with the lever that raises the bowl to the paddle. Just look how pretty it is:

I never in a million years thought we’d get the smaller mixer we’d registered for, let alone this one… so mom, again, THANK YOU!

I went a little mixer-crazy yesterday and today in preparation for this post, and you’ll see partially why when you get to the dessert at the bottom of this post, but trust me, you’ll want to see dinner too. One of the cool things about KitchenAid mixers is their ability to make dough. Now, I’ll probably still use the old school method for making challah, but the dough hook made tonight’s dinner that much easier.

Stromboli are kind of like calzones, but also kind of like a thin-crust pizza rolled up into an Italian-style burrito. I made this wonderful whole wheat pizza dough from AllRecipes.com, except I did the kneading in the KitchenAid. It was so much easier!

Ingredients

1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.
Stir the olive oil and salt into the yeast mixture, then mix in the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour until dough starts to come together. Tip dough out onto a surface floured with the remaining all-purpose flour, and knead until all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough becomes smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover loosely with a towel, and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
When the dough is doubled, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 2 pieces for 2 thin crust, or leave whole to make one thick crust. Form into a tight ball. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll a ball of dough with a rolling pin until it will not stretch any further. Then, drape it over both of your fists, and gently pull the edges outward, while rotating the crust. When the circle has reached the desired size, place on a well oiled pizza pan. Top pizza with your favorite toppings, such as sauce, cheese, meats, or vegetables.
Bake for 16 to 20 minutes (depending on thickness) in the preheated oven, until the crust is crisp and golden at the edges, and cheese is melted on the top.

Then, after I allowed it to do all its rising, Adam and I rolled them out and put our choice of toppings inside. I chose Canadian bacon, mozzarella, red peppers, mushrooms, and spinach. Adam chose the same but left out the “fungus and peppers” as he called it. They got rolled up, sealed, and scored on the top and baked at 425* until they were done on the outside. They looked fairly boring at first (Adam’s on the left, mine on the right):

DSCN5532 DSCN5538

But upon slicing into them, we found some spiraled treasure:

We topped them with some pizza sauce and dug in. They were delicious! It was like eating pizza with significantly more toppings and less cheese, and the dough was nutty and delicious!

Now, on to the dessert I made yesterday. There was something special about it… it had ingredients in it that I wouldn’t have normally bought: almond flour, organic cocoa, and sunflower seed butter. Why did I have these ingredients? Well, the lovely people at iHerb.com offered me a $50 shopping spree to test out their website and sample some of their products and I happily obliged! I got an opportunity to sample some things that I haven’t tried before due to cost or availability, and their website is fantastic. Some things I knew I wanted to try, so I just typed them into the search interface. Some things though, I found through a category search, or an alphabetical search. They have over 18,000 natural products, so it was a bit overwhelming! I ended up with:

1 case PB&J Larabars
agave nectar
organic cocoa powder
Bob’s Red Mill almond flour
Bob’s Red Mill high fiber oat bran
SunButter

I had something in mind when I picked these items, besides the fact that I wanted to taste them. I wanted to use this (from Adam’s mom):

to make some brownies! I found a recipe to adapt, and ended up with this result:

The recipe for SunButter Cocoa Brownies:

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2/3 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. almond flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 c. milk
2 heaping Tbsp. SunButter
1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Beat eggs until slightly frothy, then add oil and mix well. Add sugar and cocoa and mix well, then add flours. Once the batter has come together, add milk and SunButter and mix well. Pour into pan and bake 22-26 minutes. Enjoy!

These were great, and it was so much fun trying out new ingredients! Do you want to try new ingredients from iHerb.com? This is your chance! For the low low cost of a comment below, you can be entered to win your very own $50 shopping spree from iHerb.com! To get extra entries, you can:

Post about the contest on your blog and link back to this post. (http://www.imadedinner.net/2010/01/24/holy-moly-stromboli-giveaway-post) Then, leave another comment telling me you’ve done so.
Tweet about this contest by saying “I want to go shopping @iherb with @imadedinner! http://tinyurl.com/iherb” then leave me another comment telling me you’ve done so.
Visit iHerb.com and tell me the ONE item you’re dying to try! Then (you guessed it) leave another comment to let me know you’ve done so.

Only comments will be counted as entries, so if you just comment, that’s one entry. You will need to comment that you’ve posted, tweeted, or visited as well. Good luck! Winner will be announced next Sunday, January 31! You may have noticed that it looks a little different around here… what do you think? Can you read the posts ok? Let me know if you’re having trouble…

Have a great Sunday night, and a pleasant Monday!

Technorati Tags: Baking, cheese, dinner, gadgets, giveaway, Italian, pizza, simple recipe

184 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, January 24th 2010 | Tags: Baking, cheese, dinner, gadgets, giveaway, Italian, pizza, simple recipe
Posted in Baking, Italian, contest/giveaway, giveaway, simple recipe

Guest Post: Marianne at From French Fries to Flax Seeds

Hello What’s For Dinner? readers! My name is Marianne, and my blog is from french fries to flax seeds. I am delighted to have the opportunity to do a little guest post here for Mara while she’s off getting married. I thought I’d bring you a couple of my favourite, easy desserts for those evening when you want a little something after dinner, but want to keep it healthy.

The first dessert I’d like to share is a great alternative to ice cream, and a favourite of mine that my mother used to make for me as a kid – Frozen Blueberries in Milk.

I don’t know if I can even call this a recipe:

· Frozen blueberries

· Milk of choice (dairy or other)

· Splash of vanilla (optional)

· Sprinkle of sugar (optional)

The best part is how the milk forms a slush around the berries as you let it sit for a few minutes.

And don’t feel limited to just frozen blueberries – it’s also great with raspberries, or any other small frozen fruit you can think of. Switch up the extracts, sweeteners, or even add toppings if you like.

The second dessert I have for you today is great for those chilly autumn evenings, when you wished you’d made an apple pie or crumble, but sadly, you haven’t. You can satisfy that craving with my simple Faux Apple Crumble.

Again, this is a pretty basic recipe:

· 1 apple, cored and chopped (no need to peel)

· Cinnamon

· Brown sugar

· Granola

Mix your chopped apple in a small, microwave safe bowl with the cinnamon and brown sugar. Heat until the apple is warm and soft. Top with granola and enjoy.

This recipe works great with pears as well, and can be jazzed up with some dried cranberries or raisins, and a sprinkle of nuts (pecans or walnuts are my favourites).

I hope you’ve enjoyed my quick, healthy dessert “recipes”, and try them out the next time you are in the need of something a little sweet after dinner. And thanks again to Mara! Hope you had an amazing wedding.

Technorati Tags: Baking, dessert, guest post, simple recipe, vegetarian

4 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 29th 2009 | Tags: Baking, dessert, guest post, simple recipe, vegetarian
Posted in guest post, simple recipe, vegetarian

Guest Post: Jessica from How Sweet It Is

Hi everyone! I am so excited to be guest posting for Mara during her wedding week. If you are like me, I’m sure you can’t wait to see her incredible pictures and hear all about the day.
I happen to be a newlywed myself. The first year of marriage has been a whirlwind, and I must say that I am most proud of saving my husband from his daily dinners of plain egg whites, plain whole wheat pasta, and plain turkey burgers. I find nothing wrong with these foods, except that he would mix them all together. He ate this every single night, with the exception of a pizza or occasional grilled chicken salad from a restaurant close by.
Not to mention, he smells a heck of a lot better now that he is no longer eating egg whites every day. Not much better, though.
I am a firm believer in moderation, and have a pretty big sweet tooth. My husband and I both enjoy being active and exercising, but we also love to eat. We prepare most of our food ahead of time, but I do love to cook dinner every night. Cooking is relaxing for me, and my husband thoroughly enjoys eating flavorful dishes. And I enjoy him not smelling like eggs. It is a win-win situation.
Recently, I made Onion and Apple Smothered Chicken. The crisp apples and soft onions created an incredible texture with the chicken, and the sauce I prepared them in created a sweet and tart ‘gravy.’ We ate it with a side of my favorite, perfect smashed potatoes.

Onion and Apple Smothered Chicken4 chicken breasts 1 medium apple, chopped1/2 sweet onion, sliced3 tablespoons olive oil2 eggs, lightly beaten1 cup flour + 2 tablespoons1/2 cup apple cider vinegar1 1/2 cups chicken stock 2 tablespoons brown sugar
Preheat oven to 400.
Heat a skillet on medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Crack eggs and lightly beat in a bowl. Place 1 cup of flour on a plate, and season with salt, pepper, or spices if you’d like. Dip chicken into egg mixture, then dredge through flour to coat. Place in skillet and let brown on each side, about 3 minutes. Repeat with remaining chicken breasts. Once chicken is brown, place in a baking dish and bake for 15 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink.
In the same skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Add apples and onions, and saute for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add apple cider vinegar, and let bubble and boil to thicken, about 3-5 minutes. Use a wire whisk to scrape any bits of flavor from the bottom. Add chicken stock. Whisk in flour and brown sugar. Taste, and add any salt and pepper if needed.
Remove chicken from oven and pour onion and apple sauce over chicken.

The Best Smashed PotatoesServes 6-8 3 lbs baby yukon gold potatoes1 stick unsalted butter1/2 cup heavy cream1 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Cut baby potatoes in half, and add to a pot of cold water. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 20 minutes, or until fork tender. Drain potatoes, then add back to the pot on low heat. Add butter and heavy cream, and mash for 1-2 minutes. Taste, and add salt and pepper if needed.
Serve warm.

We always like to have a bit of dessert, so these Sin City cookies are the perfect, light treat.

Sin City Cookies2 egg whites3/4 cup sugar1 tablespoon cocoa powderpinch of salt1 cup dark chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375.
Beat all ingredients together, except chocolate chips, until stiff peaks form – about 6 minutes. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop in spoonfuls on a baking sheet.
Place in oven, turn off oven, and let cookies sit inside for 8-10 hours.
This is perfect to do while you’re sleeping!

I enjoy a lot of variety with dinners, so we rarely make things twice. I hope you enjoy this recipe, and I must say that the potatoes are incredible. Do you have any favorite dinners or side dishes? Let me know.

Technorati Tags: Baking, chicken, guest post, vegetables

3 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 25th 2009 | Tags: Baking, chicken, guest post, vegetables
Posted in Baking, chicken/turkey, guest post

Guest Post: Andrea from Off Her Cork

*Hey Readers! I’m taking the week off of blogging (except maybe Thanksgiving) to prep for our wedding on Saturday, but I have some stellar guest posts lined up! Enjoy!

Hi guys! My name is Andrea and I live over at Off Her Cork (http://offhercork.com). Mara is off getting married! Whee! And she needed some guests posts to keep you all entertained while she’s doing her thang. I post recipes every now and then, this is one of my latest creations and I’m in love with it. So much that I think I need to make it again soon! If you love chocolate you are gonna dig on this for sure.

*Andrea’s Chocolate Zucchini Bread*

*Wet Ingredients:*

* 2C shredded zucchini
* 1/3C light olive oil
* 1 egg white (or 3 TBSP of egg whites from a carton)
* 1C soymilk (plus a few extra splashes at the end)

*Dry Ingredients:*

* 2C Whole Wheat Pastry flour (or regular WW flour is fine)
* 1C Unbleached all purpose flour
* 1/2tsp Baking soda
* 2tsp Baking powder
* 1/4C Cane sugar
* 4TBSP Unsweetened Dark Chocolate Powder
* 2TBSP Ground flax
* 2tsp Ground cinnamon
* Freshly grated nutmeg (about 1/2tsp)
* Pinch cayenne pepper (just a small, very wee pinch)
* Pinch kosher salt (very small amount)
* 1.5C Dark chocolate chips (can use milk if prefer)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine
the wet ingredients. In a large mixing bowl combine the dry
ingredients, making sure everything is incorporated. Then slowly
add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring gently to
combine everything. You want to fold everything together, easily as
possible. This is a very thick and dense mixture. You may need to
add a few splashes of soymilk in to help the ingredients combine and
move along. However do not add more than an extra 1/3C. Add in the
extra amount a tablespoon at a time. This will help keep the
mixture thick and dense.

Once everything is combined, place mixture in a loaf pan (I used a
9×5x3 loaf glass pan) that was sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake at
350 for about 30-40 minutes. Or until a toothpick inserted in the
center (highest peak) comes out clean.

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes or so, then slice and enjoy!

There’s not a lot of sugar in this recipe because I’m not a huge
sweets fan. I like just a hint of sweetness to my desserts. If you
like things sweeter, feel free to add in more sugar to suit your
tastes. You can easily plop the batter into some muffin tins and
make muffins as well. Up to you!

Thanks Andrea! Please go check out Off Her Cork if you haven’t yet. It’s really stellar!

Technorati Tags: Baking, dessert, guest post

1 Comment

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 23rd 2009 | Tags: Baking, dessert, guest post
Posted in guest post

Would You Care for a Hot Pocket?

An Eggo?

Sorry… Austin Powers moment…

Sunday was a day full of just what I needed: relaxation, shopping, sun, swimming, and baking!

The relaxation came after the other 4, and I gotta say, after the insane amount of cleaning we did Friday, then the unbelievable amount of cooking I did on Saturday, relaxation was what I needed. BUT, first things first! I met my friend Kristin for coffee and some minor shopping, and then we headed out to our townhome complex’s pool. It was so nice to just lay in the sun and float in the pool without 4-year-olds screaming and splashing me! Apparently, my sunscreen didn’t quite do its job and I’m now somewhere in the color range of a red radish… hopefully it’ll fade.

The baking was quite fun. I rarely bake, as I have a hard time controlling myself around fresh baked goods, but after reading the amazing nutritionals on the coconut flour I got from Tropical Traditions, I decided to break out the mixing bowl and whisk and bake up some cookies. I searched the net for various recipes, combined them, tweaked them, and came up with these…

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 c. Virgin Coconut Oil, melted

4 eggs

1 c. coconut flour

1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. chocolate chips

1/2 c. shredded coconut

Instructions

Mix together coconut oil, sugar, vanilla, eggs, and salt together. Blend thoroughly. Add flour, coconut, chocolate chips, mix thoroughly. Form into small cookies on a parchment lined pan. Bake at 375* about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

These small cookies were a) delicious and b) super satisfying! Coconut flour has, in a mere 3.5 ounces, over 38 g. of dietary fiber in it, thus increasing satisfaction. They’ll be a nice treat, while they last!

Dinner was simple. I chopped up some of our leftover BBQ chicken from the 4th, mixed it with a bit of BBQ sauce and made myself a “hot pocket”.

Wonder what else was inside?

I know, that looks super boring. BUT, I assure you it is not! Inside, in addition to the chicken was some smushed avocado, a little bit of cheddar cheese, and a whole lotta careful rolling. After lightly toasting the wrap and cutting it to make it look pretty, I ended up with this:

See? Not boring!

It was quite delicious, and the fiber-rich flat out wrap made it very satisfying as well!

*Serious question here* I’ve noticed a major down turn in my readership lately. I’m not just talking the usual “I’m busy over the weekend/holiday so I’m not reading blogs” down turn, but a loss of 200+ subscribers. So, for those of you that are still reading (thank you!) what can I do to improve this site? I’m trying to not take it personally, but I’m starting to wonder really, WHY?!

So, for those of you still reading… what do you like? What do you miss? Should I change anything?

Thanks for your feedback, and for still reading this little blog of mine.

Technorati Tags: Baking, friends, leftovers, simple recipe

32 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, July 6th 2009 | Tags: Baking, friends, leftovers, simple recipe
Posted in chicken/turkey, friends, simple recipe

He’s My Cherry Pie

Before I get to the fabulous dinner we had at Wildfire tonight, I want to take a minute to say a very public happy birthday to the love of my life. Adam and I met in December of 2004, and have been pretty much inseperable ever since. I’ll never forget how my heart jumped when he called me the day after our first date to ask me for a second… and how my stomach flipped with joy when he introduced me to his friend as his girlfriend. He’s seen me through fat thick and thin, through losing my first job, the death of my grandmother, and the stress of starting a new job. He’s always been my shoulder to lean on, arms to fall into, and ears to listen. He’s my rock and my best friend, and I’m grateful beyond words that he was born on this day 31 years ago. Adam, I love you, and can’t wait to be your wife in less than 8 months!

I love you forever!

And now onto the evening of food! When I got home, there was a HUGE package waiting for me on the counter from Tastespotting! I’d been contacted about trying some new cream cheese flavors, and this was my sample package! Just look at this:

2 boxes of crackers and new cream cheese flavors!

Kudos to Adam for the killer shot set-up!

There were 2 flavors in the box:

Spinach and Artichoke

Sundried Tomato & Basil

Immediately, we broke out the crackers and fancy spreader and tried the 2 flavors, but I’m going to hold off on my official review until Friday. From what I tried though, these flavors rock!

I set out to bake Adam’s birthday pie, but more on that later, and then we headed out to dinner at Wildfire. We met up with Adam’s mom and stepdad, and we didn’t even need to look at the menu to know what we were getting to start out with:

THE BEST chopped salad ever, with mango viniagrette

The rest of the dinner will be solely pictures:

My entree: herb marinated salmon with roasted grape tomatoes

My entree came with a barbecue rubbed sweet potato with brown sugar and butter

Adam's entree: oven roast scallops with sauteed spinach

When I went to eat my sweet potato, it was smiling at me! I totally thought of you, VeggieGirl, when I took this pic!

We came home, and I gave adam his cherry pie!

Adam made a wish!

And we dug in!

Adam said he had a great birthday, and I had quite an experience baking my very first, all from scratch pie! My sister really helped me out with the recipe, which, once I get it put together from the 3 different places I have it written down, I’ll post it for you. I’m proud of myself for not over-stuffing myself at dinner… since tomorrow is our family Passover seder!

Make sure to check out my post at MizFitOnline today!! It’s a story many of you have read before, but hey, can’t hurt to read it again, right?? Thanks for the opportunity Miz!

So, for the last time tonight,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM! I LOVE YOU!

Have a great night all!

Technorati Tags: Baking, birthday, dinner out

32 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, April 8th 2009 | Tags: Baking, birthday, dinner out
Posted in Baking, dinner out

What's For Dinner?

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Would You Care for a Hot Pocket?

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

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He’s My Cherry Pie

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