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Peanut Butter Cream Pie

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This Peanut Butter Cream Pie is the easiest pie we’ve ever made!  We wanted to bring a dessert to Matt’s parents’ house for the Fourth of July and, as luck would have it, Cooking Light sent me an email featuring easy no-bake summer desserts just as we were deciding what to make.  This pie took about 15 minutes to prepare and it was creamy, rich, and delicious.  Oh, and it’s somewhat healthy, too!  Cooking Light says that each piece has only 302 calories which is pretty good considering how decadent this pie tastes!  The original recipe can be found here.

Peanut Butter Cream Pie  (from Cooking Light)

You will need…
1 cup Confectioner’s Sugar
1 cup Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter
1 – 8 oz. block Reduced Fat Cream Cheese, softened
1 – 14 oz. can Fat Free Sweetened Condensed Milk
12 oz. Low Fat Cool Whip, thawed
2 – 6 oz. pre-made Graham Cracker Pie Crusts
Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup

Directions:
Put the confectioner’s sugar, peanut butter, and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixture and mix on low speed until combined.  Add the condensed milk and beat on medium speed until well combined and creamy.  Fold in the cool whip and then divide the mixture between the two pie crusts.  Chill the pies in the freezer for at least 8 hours.  For the best pie texture, leave the pie in the freezer until serving (it won’t be completely frozen solid).  After cutting the pie, drizzle chocolate syrup on each slice.

Hot Pepper Beef

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Who knew flank steak could be so delicious?!   I had heard of flank steak before but I’m embarrassed to say that I hadn’t actually ever cooked with it until a few months ago when we first tried this recipe.  Now we’re hooked!  In this stir fry, the flank steak takes center stage amidst a variety of green veggies in a sweet and spicy hoisin sauce.  The steak is juicy, tender, and flavorful and is light years beyond the rubbery, tasteless “steak strips” that you see pre-packaged in the supermarket.

This recipe comes from our awesome Stir Frying to the Sky’s Edge cookbook by Grace Young.  We tweaked the original recipe to add the fresh green beans and garlic scapes that I picked in our garden earlier this week.  Enjoy!

Hot Pepper Beef Stir Fry with Green Beans and Scapes (serves 2)

You will need…
12 ounces Flank Steak, cut with the grain into 1/4″ thick x 2″ long slices
3 cloves Garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Cornstarch
3/4 teaspoons Salt, divided
1/8 teaspoons Ground Black Pepper
2 teaspoons Soy Sauce
1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon Dry Sherry
1 tablespoon Ketchup
2 tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
1/2 cup Red Onion, thinly sliced
3 quarter-sized slices of Ginger, smashed
1/4 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper
1 Handful Green Beans, trimmed
3 Garlic Scapes, cut into 3-4 inch pieces
Peanut Oil
1 Green Bell Pepper, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 10 ounce package Jasmine Rice from Trader Joe’s, cooked

Directions:
Combine the steak, garlic, cornstarch, 1/4 teaspoon of the salt, black pepper, soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of the sherry, and 2 teaspoons cold water.  Stir well to coat the meat.  In a separate bowl or measuring cup, combine the ketchup, hoisin sauce, and the remaining 1 tablespoon of sherry.  In yet another bowl, combine the red onion, ginger, and crushed red pepper.  Place the green beans and garlic scapes in (yes, another) bowl.

Green beans and garlic scapes from my garden made a nice addition to this recipe.

Heat a wok over high heat until a drop of water vaporizes within 1 to 2 seconds.  Add a tablespoon of the peanut oil, swirl around the wok, and add the steak to the wok.  Spread the steak evenly over the bottom of the wok and let it sear undisturbed for 1 minute.  Then stir fry the steak for 1 minute and transfer it to a plate.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of peanut oil to the wok, swirl, and add the onion mixture.  Stir fry for 30 seconds, then add the green bean/scape mixture and continue to stir fry for 1 minute.  Add the green pepper, stir fry for 30 seconds, then add the steak and any accumulated juices back to the wok.  Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and the ketchup mixture and stir fry for 30 seconds until the steak is just cooked through.  Remove from heat and serve over rice.

Garlic Scape Pesto

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After months of growth my garlic plants finally have scapes that are ready for harvesting.  Scapes are the “shoots” that garlic plants send up to flower as the bulb is still developing.  Because the bulb is not yet fully formed you are supposed to cut off the scapes so that plant can refocus its energy on the bulb.  The scapes themselves are packed with garlicky flavor and can be used in all sorts of recipes.  I’ll be posting more scape concoctions as the week goes on but for now I’d like to share this delicious recipe for Scape Pesto.

Oh, and before I post the recipe I have to brag about the rest of today’s garden harvest.  In addition to the scapes I also picked a handful of beautiful green beans, a large bunch of basil leaves, and three (yes, three!) strawberries.  🙂

Garlic Scape Pesto  (serves 2)

You will need…
2 Garlic Scapes
15-20 Large Basil Leaves
3-4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and chop until well blended.  Taste the pesto and add olive oil, salt, pepper, or Parmesan as needed to reach your desired flavor.

What can you do with your fresh Scape Pesto?

  • Serve it with Caprese Salad – that’s what we did!
  • Serve it over pasta
  • Enjoy it with a loaf of crusty rustic bread
  • Add it to a homemade pizza

I’m a Chicken Cutlet Convert!

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For some reason I’ve never been a big fan of chicken.  Maybe I’ll eat a chicken tender here or there, but usually I’ll always pick a vegetarian option over a chicken sandwich or chicken cutlet.  All of that changed last Friday night when I tasted Matt’s version of these perfect, amazing, tender, and flavorful chicken cutlets.  These cutlets were melt-in-your-mouth delicious and I could have eaten every one of them except that I was going out of town the next day and Matt insisted on saving some for his lunch and dinner while I was gone.  🙂

I think what I liked most about these cutlets was that they were extremely tender, moist, and thin.  We ate our cutlets sandwich-style with melted Havarti cheese and roasted red peppers and to me the chicken seemed as delicate and delectable as the soft bun and juicy peppers.  These cutlets are DEFINITELY going into our standard dinner rotation!

Breaded Chicken Cutlets

You will need…
1 1/4 pounds Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast (approx. 3 half breasts)
5 egg whites, whisked together in a large bowl (discard the yolks)
1 1/2 cups Breadcrumbs with Italian Seasoning
Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Powder to Taste
Olive Oil
1/2 Lemon

Directions:
Cut the chicken breasts into thirds so that you have 8-9 square-ish pieces of chicken.  One at a time, cover each piece of chicken with plastic wrap and flatten by hammering it with the smooth side of a meat tenderizer.  Repeat for all chicken cutlets and set aside.

Combine the breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and garlic in a large bowl and mix together.  Dip one chicken cutlet in the egg white mixture and make sure it gets completely coated (this is a messy, hands-on job!).  Allow the excess egg white to drip off then dredge the cutlet in your breadcrumb mixture, again making sure to coat all sides and edges.  Repeat the egg white dip and breadcrumb dredge a second time and then set that cutlet aside.  Repeat the entire double-dipping process with the rest of your chicken cutlets.

Heat a large flat-sided pan over medium high heat and add 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of your pan).  The oil is hot enough when a drop of water sizzles and pops.  Carefully place four of your cutlets into the pan and allow them to cook undisturbed until the bottom is golden brown.  Flip the cutlets over and allow the other side to cook until golden brown.  Remove the cutlets from the pan and set aside on a clean plate.  (For peace of mind, you might want to cut open the fattest of the cutlets at this point to make sure it is cooked through!)  Repeat the cooking process with your remaining cutlets.

Once you are done cooking all of the cutlets, spread them out on a plate or (clean) cutting board and squeeze the lemon juice over them evenly.  This will give that garlicky breading a nice fresh “pop” of flavor.

How can you serve your cutlets?

  • The easy way – simply eat them plain with a knife and a fork (you probably won’t even need the knife because they are super tender!)
  • The sandwiched way – melt cheese on your cutlets in the oven and serve on a toasted bun with roasted red peppers (this is how we ate ours for dinner!)
  • The salad way – slice the cutlets into strips or cubes and serve warm over a mixed salad with baby greens, cucumber, red onion, roasted red peppers, and Caesar dressing (this is how Matt ate some of the leftovers)
  • The chicken parm way – we didn’t make these, but you could melt some mozzarella on the cutlets and serve with sauce, yum!

Veggie Wraps with Feta, Hummus and Basil

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Matt and I live about five minutes from work which means that we are able to drive home in the middle of the day to visit Bailey and eat lunch together.  Usually we eat leftovers, lean cuisine pizzas, or lean pockets (my fav is the grilled chicken jalapeno cheddar!) but this week we decided to plan ahead and actually prep food on Monday that we could enjoy all week.  The minimal amount of prep work at the beginning of the week was well worth it and we happily assembled and ate our fresh veggie wraps with feta, hummus, and basil on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

These wraps were inspired by Cosi‘s Hummus and Veggie Sandwich and Panera‘s Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich.  We made a few changes including using soft, pliable flatbread from The Fresh Market and adding our favorite types of hummus.  (I prefer Trader Joe’s Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus and Matt likes TJ’s Mediterranean Hummus.)  The resulting sandwiches are flavorful, colorful, and just messy enough to give you an excuse to lick the excess hummus and melted feta off of your fingers when you’re done eating.  🙂

Veggie Wraps with Feta, Hummus and Basil (makes 6 sandwiches)

You will need…
6 pieces Flatbread or flexible, fresh pita bread
Approx. 1 cup reduced fat Feta Cheese, crumbled
Approx. 1 cup of your favorite hummus
1 Red Onion, thinly sliced into rounds and cut in half
1 Cucumber, thinly sliced on a diagonal and then cut into strips
1 Red Pepper, thinly sliced into long pieces
Handful of Basil Leaves, thinly sliced

Directions:
Place one flatbread on a microwave-safe plate and sprinkle with feta cheese.  Microwave on high for 30 seconds to warm up the bread and slightly melt the cheese.  Top the cheese with 2-3 spoonfuls of hummus and gently spread the hummus over the cheese with the back of the spoon.  Top with sliced onion, cucumber, pepper, basil and a spoonful of feta.  To eat your veggie wrap, fold up the edges of the flatbread taco-style and enjoy!

What do you eat for lunch during the work week?  Please share!  🙂

Herbed Pizza with Spinach and Feta

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We made these delicious pizzas for dinner a few weeks ago just when the spinach in our garden was at its peak.  I picked about 3 cups of baby spinach leaves (almost wiping out the whole crop but that’s ok… I was making room for pepper plants and basil!) and rinsed and dried them well before using them in this recipe.  Fresh spinach leaves from the garden are juicy and bright green – very different from the bagged stuff you buy in the store!  I’ll definitely be planting more spinach when the weather cools off in the Fall so we can continue to enjoy this delicious leafy green.

Herbed Pizza with Spinach and Feta

View the recipe

Smoky Pork Tinga Tacos

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I know that it’s already ocho de Mayo but I’ve been busy at work (and in the garden!) so I’m finally just getting around to posting about our yummy dinner from Saturday night.  Ever since we made BBQ Chicken Quesadillas back in March we’ve been obsessed with La Tortilla Factory’s Green Chile Corn Tortillas and, as a result, we decided to make a meal that utilized these delicious little disks for Cinco de Mayo.  We pulled out our trusty Mexican Everyday cookbook by Rick Bayless and Matt quickly declared that the Pork Tinga Taco recipe sounded like a winner.

After a quick mid-day trip to the grocery store we had the taco filling prepped and in the Crockpot.  Most of the work for this recipe is done during the initial prep stage (6 hours before you eat) which is nice because this means that your dinner is basically sitting their waiting for you once dinnertime rolls around.  In our case we were able to use our “free time” in the evening to enjoy homemade Salsa and Margaritas.  🙂

Smoky Pork Tinga Tacos with Avocado and Queso Fresco (from Mexican Everyday)
(serves an army in one sitting or serves two for dinner and provides 4-5 leftover lunches throughout the week)

You will need…
1 lb. Yukon Gold Potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 lbs. Boneless Pork Shoulder, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 – 15 oz. cans Fire-Roasted Diced Tomatoes, undrained
3 canned Chipotle Chiles en Adobo, sliced into 1/4 inch strips
1 tablespoon Adobo canning sauce from Chipotles
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
3 cloves Garlic, pressed through a garlic press
1 1/4 teaspoons Salt
1 Medium White Onion, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 Mexican Chorizo Sausage, casing removed
16 Corn Tortillas, warmed
1 cup Crumbled Queso Fresco Cheese (substitute feta if you can’t find QF)
2 large Avocados, pitted and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces

Directions:
Approximately 6 hours before you plan to eat dinner, line the bottom of your slow cooker with the potatoes and top with an even layer of the pork.  Combine the next seven ingredients (tomatoes thru salt) in a bowl and mix together.  Pour the tomato mixture over the pork and top with the sliced white onion.  Cook on “high” for 6 hours.

Pork Tinga mixture after slow-cooking for 6 hours. After this photo was taken we poured out the excess liquid, reduced it, and stirred it back into the pork to retain the intense flavor.

When your pork is done, brown and crumble the chorizo, drain the excess fat, and stir it into your pork mixture.  Break up the pork into smaller shredded pieces as you stir.  At this point check to see how much liquid is in your slow cooker.  If yours is anything like ours was, it will be way too watery to spoon onto a tortilla.  Rather than throwing away this excess liquid, pour it into a sauce pan and boil rapidly to reduce.  Stir the syrupy reduced liquid back into the meat for maximum flavor.

Warm your tortillas.  An easy shortcut is to sandwich a tortilla between two damp paper towels and microwave it on high for 30-45 seconds.  This makes the tortillas warm, moist and pliable without dirtying a frying pan.  🙂  To build your Smoky Pork Tinga Tacos, place a few spoonfuls of the pork mixture on the warm tortilla and top with queso fresco and avocado.  Enjoy!

Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa

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Although Matt and I certainly don’t need an excuse to make a Mexican-themed meal, the fact that yesterday was Cinco de Mayo inspired us to choose two new recipes from our Mexican Everyday cookbook.  Mexican Everyday was written by Rick Bayless (the chef behind Frontera Foods) and I love that Rick included a whole intro section that describes the use and preparation of various Mexican ingredients including chipotles en adobo, jicama, tomatillos, and queso fresco (all ingredients that I had never worked with before buying this book!).

For our Cinco de Mayo feast we snacked on chips and Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa as we prepared dinner and then enjoyed Smoky Pork Tinga Tacos with Avocado and Quesco Fresco as our main dish.  We also shook up a batch of delicious Margaritas on the Rocks using lime juice, tequila, triple sec, and simple syrup.  This post will cover our  salsa… more on the tacos coming up next!  🙂

Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa (from Mexican Everyday)

You will need…
2 Jalapeño Peppers
3 cloves Garlic, unpeeled
1 – 15oz. can Fire-Roasted Diced Tomatoes, undrained
1/3 cup While Onion, finely chopped, rinsed, and drained
1/3 cup loosely packed Cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon Fresh Lime Juice
Salt, to taste

Directions:
Place the jalapeño peppers on a grill over direct medium-high heat.  Allow the peppers to roast for approximately 10 minutes, turning occasionally, until the skin becomes dark and splotchy in spots.  At the same time, heat a small skillet over medium heat and lay the unpeeled garlic cloves in the skillet.  Allow the garlic to roast for approximately 15 minutes until dark and splotchy in spots.

Dry-roast the Jalapeños until the skin becomes blotchy and blackened.

Pull the stems out of the roasted peppers and remove the garlic cloves from their skin.  Place the roasted ingredients in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.  Add the tomatoes with their juice and pulse a few more times until the mixture reaches your desired consistency.  Pour the tomato mixture into a medium bowl.  Add the onion and cilantro and mix well.  Taste and season with lime juice and salt.  Enjoy with corn tortilla chips and a nice cold margarita.  🙂

Chicken Fried Rice

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Fried Rice is one of the many dishes that Matt and I have wanted to master (or at least become proficient at making) since we got our wok back in November.  We tried a fried rice recipe a few months ago but it was over-seasoned with white pepper (the smell of white pepper still makes me cringe!) and definitely not what we were hoping for.  We were just talking about how we should try making fried rice again when, coincidentally, Danny from Danny’s Kitchen posted a tasty-looking recipe for chicken fried rice.  I immediately decided that we’d try Danny’s recipe and I’m happy to report that it was delicious!

Making fried rice takes some forethought because the rice should be made a few days in advance and then refrigerated.  I don’t have a rice cooker (though it’s sounding more and more like a gadget that I should get… maybe for our wedding?) so I cheated by microwaving some Trader Joe’s frozen jasmine rice on Tuesday and storing it until today.  For the veggies, I used raw carrots instead of frozen ones since that’s all I had.  I cooked the raw carrot with the frozen vegetables which left the carrots fairly crunchy and hard.  If I were to use raw carrots again I would steam them slightly before adding them to the wok to ensure that they ended up with a softer texture.

Chicken Fried Rice (also check out the original recipe on Danny’s Kitchen!)

You will need…
2 – 10 oz. packages frozen Trader Joe’s Jasmine Rice (cooked 2 days prior and stored in a sealed container in the fridge)
Peanut Oil
2 cloves Garlic, smashed and roughly chopped
1/2 medium Yellow Onion, finely diced
1 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast, cut into 3/4″ cubes
2 Eggs, whisked together in a small bowl
Approx. 3/4 cup frozen vegetables (I used about 1/4 cup frozen peas, 1/4 cup frozen corn, and 3 chopped carrots since I didn’t have frozen carrots)
1 teaspoon Soy Sauce

Directions:
Heat up your wok over medium-high heat and add about a tablespoon of peanut oil.  When the oil is hot, add the garlic and onions and saute for 2-3 minutes.  Push the garlic and onions to the perimeter of the wok and add the chicken in one layer in the bottom of the wok.  Allow the chicken to cook, undisturbed, for 1 minute, then stir fry the chicken until it is cooked through.  Remove the chicken, garlic and onions from the wok and set aside.

Add more oil to the wok if needed, then add the whisked eggs and cook until they are scrambled.  Remove and set aside.  Add more oil again if needed, then add the rice and stir constantly for 5 minutes.  Add the frozen vegetables and the soy sauce, then stir fry for 8 minutes.  Add the egg and chicken back into the wok and stir fry for an additional 3-5 minutes until heated through.  Season with extra soy sauce to taste and enjoy!

Eggplant Parmesan – Trader Joe’s Style!

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Matt has lacrosse practice one evening a week which means that Bailey and I are left to our own devices.  I usually make some kind of simple, vegetarian meal for myself and then Bailey and I snuggle on the couch and watch TV.  My latest guilty pleasure is the NBC show “Smash” which is about the drama and excitement of Broadway.  I’m sure that Matt is very happy that I watch that when he’s at practice rather than subjecting him to it every week!

For tonight’s meal, I wanted to use up some of the Trader Joe’s Ciliegine Mozzarella and fresh basil that we had left over from our Sausage TBM Pizzas.  After rummaging around in the freezer, I discovered half a box of Trader Joe’s Eggplant Cutlets and some frozen tomato sauce that we made back in February.  So… what do you do with eggplant, mozzarella, basil and tomato sauce?  Make Eggplant Parm, of course!  Granted, I’ve never made Eggplant Parm and I never looked up a recipe (or actually used Parmesan cheese…), but those ingredients came together as a very tasty Eggplant Parmesan “Tower” for one.

Quick and Easy Eggplant Parmesan  (serves one)

You will need…
8 Trader Joe’s Breaded Eggplant Cutlets (or make your own!)
3 Small Mozzarella Balls (I used and recommend TJ’s ciliegine mozzarella balls)
1/4 cup Tomato Sauce (I used some smooth tomato sauce that we froze several weeks ago)
2 cloves Garlic, thinly sliced into “chips”
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
Handful Fresh Baby Spinach (Mine was straight out of my garden, woohoo!)
Sprig of Basil for garnish

Directions:
Cook the Eggplant according to the package instructions.  For Trader Joe’s Eggplant Cutlets, this involves baking the eggplant slices in a 425° oven for 12-14 minutes.  As soon as the eggplants are done, remove them from the oven and carefully begin to stack them on the baking sheet with the biggest slices at the bottom.  When you get halfway, place one mozzarella ball between the 4th and 5th eggplant, then continue stacking upwards.  Drizzle the stack with a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce then top with a mozzarella ball.  Insert your eggplant tower into the over under the broiler.

Meanwhile, saute the garlic slices in olive oil over medium-high heat until they start to turn golden.  At that point, add the spinach and stir constantly until the spinach wilts.  Remove from heat.

Check on your broiling mozzarella tower.  Once top cheese ball is melted, carefully add another mozzarella ball to the top of the tower and continue to broil until that ball is about 3/4 melted.  Remove the eggplant tower from the oven.

To plate your dish, spoon about 3/4 of your remaining sauce into the center of a plate.  The diameter of your sauce should be slightly larger than your largest “base” eggplant cutlet.  Place your bright green, wilted spinach and garlic chips around the edges of the tomato sauce, then carefully transfer your eggplant tower to the center of your plate.  Spoon the remaining tomato sauce around the top of your eggplant tower so that it drips down the side.  Top with a spring of basil and enjoy!