tasty new dinner ideas

April 19, 2011 Leave a comment

I really enjoy cooking after work.  Something about the chopping, dicing, measuring everything out really helps me unwind and de-stress after a long day.  During the week, most dinner’s are usually some sort of chicken (or ground turkey variation) and it can be a struggle to keep the basic chicken/ rice/ pasta/ veggie combination interesting.  I’m always looking for new sauce ideas and recipes to mix things up and I recently came across several that my boyfriend and I really loved.  They were simple and extremely delicious and instantly transformed a seemingly basic dinner to something unexpected and refreshing.  Here are a few new recipes I highly recommend.

1.  After preparing one of my favorite recipes for crunchy baked chicken tenders here, I served the chicken over basmati rice, and finished by drizzling the chicken with the easiest cream cheese pesto sauce I recently came across, consisting of only 3 ingredients:

1/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 tbs pesto

Melt the cream cheese in a sauce pan, add vegetable stock and whisk together before adding the pesto.

~~~~~~~~

2.  My absolute favorite new recipe is something I came across and had to improvise on because I didn’t have all the ingredients required but the end result was amazing.  This pasta dish includes chicken and zucchini but I also included some diced mushrooms and cherry tomatoes to give the sauce a little more substance.  Instead of chicken stock, I used beef consomme and it added such a rich delicious flavor I’m going to have to keep this stuff in mind next time I use a recipe asking for chicken stock.  Also, instead of diced roasted red peppers, I just used a few heaping tablespoons of a red pepper spread I had picked up from Trader Joes as an appetizer.  I find appetizer spreads tend to work very well for cooking when you need to add just a little extra flavor.  A little bruschetta or tapenade, for example, can be the perfect addition to a simple dish and they tend to last a long time in the fridge.

This recipe for zucchini chicken pasta is available here.

Enjoy!
Lauren

Filed under artLOVEfashion, Love Tagged with , , , , , ,

All-Crunch Cookie: breakfast for dessert

February 9, 2011 1 Comment

I love my sweet treats and living in a neighborhood filled with bakeries tempting me at every turn, I’m never deprived of a sweet-fix.  But even with limitless options of cakes, cupcakes, cookies and brownies of endless varieties, I’ve never seen anything like the treats concocted by pastry chef Christina Tosi of the Momofuku Bakery and Milk Bar in NYC.  Her offerings include the sweet and salty bits of her favorite treats like chips, marshmallow fluff, pretzels and brands of cereal I haven’t eaten in over a decade.  One of my favorite Momofuku recipe is the All-Crunch Cookie; a cookie so unique and colorful I couldn’t wait to get in the kitchen and make a batch of my own.  They’re so fun to make and share, they’ll become an instant favorite for anyone that enjoys baking.

All-Crunch Cookie

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 cups plus 1 1/2 tsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 baking soda
1 tsp salt
6 cups any variety of cereal ‘crunches’ loosely packed (see below*)

1 With a mixer, cream butter and sugars at medium-high speed until fluffy. 2 Incorporate vanilla and egg. 3 Add all dry ingredients except for crunch. Mix on low-speed, just until the dough comes together and all ingredients are combined. 4 Add crunches and mis on low-speed until evenly dispersed throughout. 5 Using a large spoon, shape dough into 12 balls of equal size, place 2 inches apart on baking sheet. 6 Refrigerate for 1 hour. 7 Heat oven to 350, bake for 15 minutes.  In oven, cookies will puff, crackle and spread. 8 Let cookies cool completely on cookie sheet before serving.

* Crunches mix’s:

Cap’N Crunch:
4 1/2 tbsp butter, 4 3/4 cups cap’n crunch’s crunchberries cereal, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 4 tbsp nonfat milk powder

Fruity Pebbles Crunch:
1 1/2 cups butter, 13 cups fruity pebbles cereal, lightly crushed with hands to half the volume, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tbsp salt, 10 tbsp nonfat milk powder.

1 Heat oven to 275. 2 In microwave, melt butter in a large bowl. 3 Toss dry ingredients to distribute evenly. 4 Add melted butter and toss again so ingredients adhere to one another. 5 Spread 1/2 inch layer of mixture on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 6 Bake for 20 minutes until it begins to brown. 7 Remove from oven, cool completely and break into dime-size clusters before using.

Enjoy!
xo,

Lauren

for more information on momofuku or for online order, please visit here

Filed under Love Tagged with , , , , , ,

what’s for dinner? Vol 2

February 3, 2011 2 Comments

It’s becoming harder and harder for me to go out to dinner when it’s just so easy and rewarding to make a simple but delicious meal at home.  I like cooking my own meals because not only do I control what goes into them (the amount of butter & oils, the seasoning ratio, etc) but I know exactly what I’m going to be eating looks and tastes like, whereas restaurant menus can sometimes have your mind imagining something better than what is actually going to be served.

Here’s one of my favorite recipes for Chicken Picatta that’s not at all time-consuming and requires very few extra ingredients to be picked up if you have a moderately well stocked kitchen.  (I always have a full supply of what I consider kitchen ‘necessities’ so making most recipes isn’t much of a stretch and I can usually substitute one spice, vegetable or fat for another.)  Some of my basic ‘necessities’ include: lemon juice, chicken & beef stock, capers, jars of tomato sauce, paste & diced tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, an array of dried pastas, orzo, rice and cous cous, frozen spinach, a good olive oil & balsamic vinegar, pesto, bread crumbs, cooking wine, hard and soft cheeses, and fresh produce like mushrooms, tomatoes, bell peppers and lettuce. 

Bon Appetit!

xo,
Lauren

Filed under Love Tagged with , , , ,

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 77 other followers