Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

I absolutely love Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins, they're probably one of my favourite things to eat, which is why I'm so glad I found this recipe. They came out absolutely delicious.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar (you can add more if you want them to be really sweet)
1 cup oats
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F and place liners in muffin tray.

2. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and mix well.

3. In a slightly smaller bowl, combine milk, oil and eggs and whisk until blended well.

4. Add in your chocolate chips, place batter in muffin tray and let bake for 15 minutes or until you can
    insert a toothpick and have it come out clean

 

Awol

Hi guys!

Sorry I've been so awol lately, the past few weeks have been absolutely insane. We've been travelling a lot visiting family and in the process of a big move. My husband recently got a job in Kansas City so we're relocating! This means apartment searches, packing and taking the little bit of time off before starting work to go see not only my family but his as well. At the moment, we're in Alabama soaking in the sun (lol jk, it's way too hot and I refuse to stop being a hermit and go outside). We'll be here for about a week and a half, maybe two weeks since he doesn't start until after Fourth of July. I hope you guys are having a wonderful June and enjoying life as much as I am. As stressful as it is, now is the time to embrace life to the fullest and really look at every new opportunity as an adventure!

I did, however, recently make oatmeal chocolate chip muffins and will be posting the recipe soon so look out for that!

xoxo

Brownie Mix Cupcakes

My husband was craving cupcakes today and I didn't have the ingredients to make them and both of us were way too exhausted to go out and get what we needed. I did, however, have brownie mix and decided brownie cupcakes were the way to go and let me tell you, they were delicious.

Ingredients:

1 Pouch/Box Brownie mix
vegetable oil, water and egg according to instructions on the back
extra egg if you want a more cake like consistency

Icing:

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar (if you don't have powdered sugar, don't worry - you can use regular sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. In bowl mix together all ingredients

3. Pour into muffin pan and bake for approximately 20 minutes

4. Meanwhile, in bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese. Slowly add sugar and beat until smooth and creamy, adding the vanilla extract last.

Crockpot Beef Stew

I feel like all my days are lazy days but really guys, today is a lazy day for cooking. It's a busy day otherwise so I don't have much time for dinner and that's when I love having a crock pot, it is a live saver. I usually like to marinate my meat the night before

Ingredients:

1-2 pound cubed steak
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 can beef broth
1/2 cup water
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1-2 large potatoes
baby carrots

Directions:

1. Marinate steak in a bit of lemon juice, 1/4 cup of beef broth, 1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

2. Place your steak in crock pot, in separate bowl, mix together flour, salt and pepper. Cover steak with mixture.

3. Add beef broth, water, worcestershire sauce, chill powder, potatoes, carrots and garlic.

4. Cover and cook on low for minimum 10 hours or on high for 6.

Thai Red Curry

My husband and I love Thai food and one of his favourite dishes is actually Red Curry, when eating out I figured it couldn't be that hard to make yourself so I decided to give it a go and I was right, it was so easy and my husband loved it. Definitely tasted like restaurant quality.

Ingredients: 

2 tbsp. red curry paste
1 can coconut milk
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp. fish sauce
1 1/2 tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 cup bamboo shoots
1 mini red pepper
1 mini orange pepper
1 mini yellow pepper
1/4 onion
2 chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces

Directions:

1. Heat oil in skillet and cook chicken, add a little bit of pepper and about a cap full of lemon juice on top. When cooked, set aside.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a sauce pan (you don't need a lot, tbsp is fine). Add the red curry paste and stir-fry for 1 1/2 minutes or until aromatic. Add coconut milk and chicken stock, bring to simmer on medium-high heat, let it simmer for 5 minutes.

3. While that simmers, take your red peppers and onion and stir fry in a little bit of olive oil in the same skillet you cooked the chicken.

4. Add brown sugar, fish sauce and bamboo shoots to the curry. Blend well.

5. Stir in the peppers, onion (any other veggies you want) and the chicken. Let it simmer for 5-10 minutes and serve it either over rice or with rice on the side.

Note: A lot of recipes say to add basil at the end but it didn't make much of a difference for me and I didn't have any so I forwent it.

Enjoy!

xoxo

Chicken Alfredo

Yesterday was a super busy day, I was running around trying to get my tires replaces and then had to spend two hours walking around Sam's Club. I then had a lunch date with a friend so no time for cooking. I decided on chicken alfredo, super easy and quick.

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast
1/2 can alfredo sauce
1 teaspoon parmesan
1/2 tbsp. butter
whole grain spaghetti noodles
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic paste

Directions:

1. Cut your chicken breast into strips or small cubes. Marinate in lemon juice, salt, pepper and garlic paste. Heat oil in skillet and fry your chicken until cooked. Set aside.

2. In a small sauce pan, melt butter and add your alfredo sauce and parmesan cheese, and the chicken you set aside, cover and let simmer on low

3. Meanwhile, boil water and add your spaghetti, I like to throw broccoli in when there are 5 minutes left until the noodles are done to have on the side.

4. Drain noodles when done and pour sauce on top.

Fun Tip

You can use coca-cola to tenderize your steaks. Let them soak in some coca-cola with all your other marinating ingredients and you're good to go.

Banana Bread

Since I had some banana's left over and my husband isn't a huge fan of them, I decided to use them up the best way I know how, Banana Bread. Mother nature has also come a knocking so I really needed to treat myself. This hit the spot, most definitely.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
3 banana's mashed
2 cup self-rising flour (you can use all-purpose and add baking soda and baking powder)
2 eggs
1 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. instant coffee

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after one another.

3. Mash bananas in separate bowl, add milk and vanilla then add to creamed mixture. Beat until smooth

4. Stir in flour, salt, cinnamon and coffee (you can add more coffee if you want a stronger flavour of it in your cake). Stir until moistened.

5. Pour batter into your choice of pan and bake for approx. 1 hour or until you can insert a toothpick in the centre and have it come out clean.

Note: I sometimes like to add chocolate chips and walnuts as well but unfortunately had neither on hand today.

xoxo

Mattar Paneer

Hello lovelies, so today I decided to go ahead and try something new. I love this dish and decided I'd give it a go. Matter Paneer is an Indian/Pakistani dish which consists of peas and cheese. If you want to go for a healthier option, you can substitute the cheese for tofu, they have about the same consistency so you really can't even tell the difference.

Ingredients:

200 grams of Paneer (or about half a block of the paneer cheese if you get the small size)
1 cup frozen peas (you can use fresh)
1 1/4 cup water
1 tsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. garam masala
1/2 tbsp. coriander powder
2 tsp. cumin powder
salt to taste
2 tbsp. ginger/garlic paste
1/2 - 1 can canned diced tomatoes (you can use fresh tomatoes)
1/2 - 1 onion
1/4 tsp. fenugreen powder
2 tbsp. half&half

note: many recipes call for coriander leaves for garnishing and whole garam masala, cumin seeds etc. but I didn't have it so I didn't add them. You can and I'm sure you'll get a richer flavour but this worked fine for me. you can also add green chills.

Directions:

1. Heat a bit of oil in frying pan, when hot, put in your paneer and fry for approx. 5 minutes or until slightly brown. Take it out and put on paper towel and set aside for later.

2. In the frying pan, on medium heat, toss in your chopped onion along with turmeric powder. Fry until the onions are slightly brown. When brown, stir in ginger/garlic paste and tomatoes. Cover and let cook for approx. 15 minutes.

3. After 15 minutes, take the contents of your frying pan and put it into a food processor or blender and blend until it becomes a smooth paste.

4. Once smooth, heat oil in frying pan and add cumin powder, garam masala and the paste. Also add chili powder, coriander powder and salt to taste. Now add your peas and stir in 1cup of water. . Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 5 minutes.

5. Finally, add the paneer you set aside and let simmer for another 10 minutes. If need be add a 1/4 cup more water.To finish it off, add your half and half or cream and garnish as you please. Serve with roti, paratha or naan.

xoxo

Garlic & Cheddar Biscuits

Alright, so here is the Biscuits recipe as promised. Sorry no pictures are included for these or the Shepherd's pie. I couldn't control myself long enough to take pics, I dug in asap.


Ingredients:

2 cups self-rising flour
3 tbsp. cold butter
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 - 1 cup cheddar cheese
1/2-1 cup milk
3 tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried parsley flakes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 F

1. In a food processor, combine flour, salt, and garlic powder. Pulse to combine and add the butter (make sure you cut the butter into chunks). Pulse again until dough looks coarse and there are pea-sized butter pieces. You can either add the cheddar cheese now or do as I did and when it's done, sprinkle it on top or you can do both.

2. Take the mixture out of the food processor and put it into a large bowl, add milk. Start out by adding 1/2 a cup of milk and mix until dough is moistened - if dough is still dry, add another 1/2 cup.

3. Take a spoon or your hand and drop approx. 1/4 cup portions of the dough onto your baking sheet. Bake for about 15-17 minutes.

4. While it's baking, melt 3 tbsp. butter, then add the garlic powder and dried parsley flakes and a pinch of salt- mix well. Once the biscuits are done, brush or spoon on the garlic butter and serve warm.

xoxo

Shepherd's Pie

Honestly, I never know what to do with ground beef. I feel the pressure of constantly conjuring up new dishes that incorporate ground beef. Maybe it's just because I'm crazy but after taking my dilemma to the internet, I found a great recipe for Shepherd's pie. I made it along with biscuits and voila, it made a great dinner and lunch for my husband the next day.

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 onion, finely chopped (I don't like a lot of onions so you can do 1 whole onion, finely chopped)
1/2 teaspoon salt or seasoned salt
1 dash pepper
1 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

1 Bag/Box of pre-made mashed potatoes (I had a ton of extras sitting around but you can make them from scratch too)

Directions

1. Add the chopped onions to the fry pan and fry until transparent, then add the ground beef and cook until  brown. Add salt and pepper while it browns. Stir in the beef broth and worcestershire sauce and let cook for 5 minutes. Add the butter to the pan and let it melt. Stir it all together. Add the flour and stir it in to thicken. Finally, finish it off by adding frozen vegetables and letting it cook for another 5 minutes. When done, move to baking dish.

2. Meanwhile, make your mashed potatoes on the side and when finished, layer it on top of the meat mixture.

3. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and bake the pie for approx. half an hour. I also had to put it on broil for a couple of minutes just so I could get the top of my mashed potatoes nice and brown. 

(I made home made biscuits but I'll post the recipe tomorrow because it's bed time and hubby here is getting anxious).

xoxo.