Taking Food & Honey Mustard Chicken Salad

Ever since I had a child, I see the importance of taking food to a family with a new baby.  Before I thought it was optional.  I do not think that anymore - especially, oh so especially, if the new mom (or, new mom, again) had a C-section.

I am always on the lookout for recipes that are easy to take to people. I tend to not be the most graceful meal planner.  More like, think up a hair brain plan that sounds good but is hard to execute or requires last minute trips to the store while my husband looks at me like, "really?"  And since I work a full work week, this isn't always the easiest thing to pull off.  Ideally, I'd like to make a meal for the family with the new baby AND for my family . . . saving time, being cost effective and consolidating ingredients. 

My newest idea, that I'm quite proud of, is a dinner we have at our house fairly often. We consider it delicious, healthy and easy, but if you add a few special touches, it kicks it up a notch, making it a special dinner to bring to someone.

Grilled chicken salad with homemade honey mustard dressing & bread

We grill the chicken with a mix of Cavender's and Creole seasoning - it makes it a bit spicy and we like it that way.  We do a simple skillet grill of the chicken, cutting it in strips as we go.

Buy a nice pre-packaged box of lettuce . . . also buy salad toppings:
mushrooms
purple onion
bell pepper (red, green, yellow)
cucumbers
carrots
avocado
cheese
. . . the list can go on.  Chop all of these veggies up for your friend and bag them separately in ziplocks.

Okay, my sister introduced me to this bread and it is ah-mazing.  Seriously.  If you have time, by all means, make your own homemade bread.  But if you are short on time or short on wits, buy this at Target and call it done.  It is delicious, calls for 2 extra ingredients (either beer or sparkling water & butter), and takes 50 minutes. {And a bonus, the mix itself does not have a list of 2 billion ingredients. So, I believe it to be a relatively good thing to eat and make for people}.

Homemade Honey Mustard Dressing
I have my husband to thank for this.  I believe he is okay if I share the secret.  If you are mayonaise averse, I am sorry to break it to you: honey mustard dressing is made with a large proportion of mayo.  Forget I told you, okay?

3 parts mayo
1 part mustard
1 part honey
a few shakes of paprika on top

Pack all of this up nicely for your friend - I got a large foil lasagna pan and packed it full.  Bring bread and salad mix & they have the makings of a great, simple dinner.

Best Morning Smoothie

I have been making this smoothie (in spurts) for a good long while, but it has never been this good.  Recently, some magic happened.  First magical event: we replaced our broken Magic Bullet with a new one.  Second magical event: frozen bananas.  Third magical event: Hershey's cocoa powder (unsweet).

When I like something, I become an Ambassador for it. I start telling everyone I know why they need one. So I am the Ambassador for the Magic Bullet.  At first I thought they were hokey, counter space junk.  And then I had a baby.  And that baby needed bottles.  And there was no better way to mix that bottle than through the magical Magic Bullet.  We wore that one out, truly.  The reason the Magic Bullet is {magic!} is it enables you to make a healthy smoothie without all the hassle of getting the blender out.  Or cleaning that big ol' thing when you only used the bottom cup of it. And then there is the perk of drinking that sweet little smoothie straight from the cup it was mixed in - no extra dishes.

Frozen Bananas.  Do not ever throw away another soft banana again.  I confess, I've thrown out a LOT of bad bananas, and I'm not sure where my logical head has been.  When they start getting soft, slice them and place on wax paper on a cookie tray.  Let them freeze for 30 min. to 1 hour and then you can bag them up and use them in your recipes.  I find that one banana is about 10 slices, so that is how many I put in smoothies.  Or if a banana bread recipe calls for 3 bananas, I'd throw in 30 thawed slices and get to mashin'.  Slice a few and you'll get a feel for how many equals one banana.  It is the frozen banana and the ice that give the smoothie the "smoothie" feel.  Without the frozen fruit component, your smoothie will be foamy and a big ooey-gooey.

Cocoa Powder.  What a genius idea - I saw an almost exact replica of my smoothie through the Make and Takes website, and I was giddy to see the use of unsweetened cocoa powder.  This is a great way to change the taste of your smoothie without adding a bazillion unnecessary calories.  Add a little bit or up to 2 tablespoonsful, depending on your taste. 

Another good thing to do is add honey instead of cocoa powder.  It just changes the flavor and keeps you happy in the mornings.

Best morning smoothie:

1 heaping spoon of crunchy PB

1 spoon of Hershey's unsweet cocoa powder, or, to taste

handful of ice (about 3 large cubes)

1 frozen banana, sliced (10 frozen banana slices)

approx 1 cup to 1.5 cups milk (thinner vs. thicker smoothie)

optional: 1 spoonful of wheat germ, if you like adding wheat germ to things

Put in your adorable, handy Magic Bullet and let her rip!



Say good morning to a new breakfast routine that you'll enjoy during the long, hot summer to come.  And be sure and let your kids have a sip - could be a new breakfast option for ALL!

Attempting cheesecake

A good friend's birthday brought me to attempting cheesecake.  I've never been opposed, believe me, but they seem a bit fussy.  I don't typically have time for fussy.  But the moon and stars aligned and I had a Sunday with not too much to do and so, the attempt began. 

When I am unsure of something {and I really, really need it to turn out!}, I consult the Barefoot Contessa.  As I have mentioned before, she is a reliable and trustworthy kitchen friend of mine, and I do hold her dear.  Her recipe is here, and it is the one I used.

When I was investigating cheesecake tips, I kept hearing of springform pans (check) and water baths (what?).  A water bath, as I found out, is the method of placing your springform pan with cheesecake inside of a larger pan that you then fill with hot water, while all of this bakes in the oven.  It assists in even cooking.  Not too scary afterall.  The Contessa does not suggest a water bath; hmmm.  I do not typically break recipes, but I did decide to implement this technique, because so many sites online suggested it.

I was mixed over what topping to use and, in the end, decided on this one, which is just fruit with an apricot preserve on it.  The recipe over on My Baking Addiction looks great, too, and I may try hers sometime.

As it turns out, cheesecakes are fussy.  If you have to make a dessert under pressure, I would not recommend a cheesecake from scratch.  There are lots of steps, lots of time, lots of oven adjusting, lots of cooling.  If you have a calm day right before the day in which you need a fantastic dessert, then a cheescake could be the dessert for you - as they keep very well and pretty much require being made 1 day in advance. {I started mine at 2 p.m. and it wasn't fridge ready until 8 p.m. . . . and it still had to chill for a minimum of 5 hours, or preferably overnight.}  But one bite will redeem all of your hard work, trust me.  You might even have co-workers making marriage proposals for your baking skills.

Go-to Pancakes

Pancake Mix

(sift dry ingredients together)
1.4 cups of AP flour
3.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs sugar

(wet ingredients - mix and add to dry)
1.25 cups milk
1 eg
3 Tbs melted butter
1 tsp vanilla (or, to taste)

Incorporate but don't overmix.  This makes enough pancakes for 2 adults, 1 child, and 2 dogs (who each get one, unless we are very hungry).  If your family is big, you need to double it (or more).

Freezing pancakes: everyone does this, right?  Because it is crazy easy?  I frequently double this recipe and, once cool, freeze the pancakes between layers of wax paper in tupperware.  When you are out of options for breakfast and cereal just isn't going to do it (and it is a work day), pop these in the microwave for less than 1 minute and you are done...yay-hooray.  [Don't spend your hard earned grocery money on the frozen version, okay? There is just no need!]

Blueberry Coffee Cake

This recipe is from Cooking Light, a 5-Star recipe in a best of 10 years cookbook.  That should tell ya - it's a keeper.  And, it is.  Great for breakfast, brunch, dessert - whatever you want it to be for.  It can also be easily doubled, especially since you only use one-half of the cream cheese package. The most satisfying part about this recipe is the coffee cake itself comes off amazingly delicious, moist, and blueberry-tastic, but it is not heavy.  You won't feel the need to run 3 miles after eating a slice, plus maybe another teensy bite or two.

¼ cup stick margarine, softened ( I used real butter)

one-half of an 8 oz. package of lower fat cream cheese

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen. (I used frozen, unthawed)

* * *

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy; gradually 1 cup sugar, beating well. Add egg, and beat well.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into butter mixture. Stir in vanilla, then fold in berries.

Pour batter into a 9-inch round cake pan coated with cooking spray

Combine 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over batter.

Bake at 350F for 1 hour; cool on a wire rack.

Happy Birthday, lil' Monkey!

Over the holidays, my youngest nephew turned two. It was my pleasure to volunteer to make his cupcakes.  Here's why: I experience baking anxiety on a regular basis.  What? Not so much anxiety, but there's a MAJOR correlation between the expectations of the event and things going wrong on my end. Seriously. I've forgotten eggs in cakes, dropped entire brownie pans on the floor, fallen asleep while something was in the oven - you name it.

So when the expectations on me are not high (when it isn't my child or husband or event), I view that as "practice."  And that has actually been helping me. I don't have my husband's gift of being effortless in the kitchen.  Oh noooo. I'm frequently a train wreck in the most dramatic sense and I've broken down over co-workers cakes countless times.

These monkey cakes were so fun to make. They are from scratch.  The chocolate cake was amazing, Barefoot Contessa. And the chocolate icing was easy to work with and delicious. In true form, these were made shortly after Christmas (tired, overscheduled, late at night)...and after adding the hot coffee called for in the cake recipe, I turned on the blender by accident and sent the coffee splattering over every surface available, not to mention me.  Since I'm experienced at mishaps, I took a deep breath, remembered the end result, and cleaned up the mess. Whew. I'm sure Mr. Kitchen Savvy is so glad he didn't come upon me that night crying my eyes out on the kitchen floor.

Oh & monkey cupcake designs are all over the web, of course. My variety was simply large and mini vanilla wafers and tubed red and black icing for details.

Happy Birthday, Aiden!

Garlic cheese toast

This is my favorite (favorite!) way to eat garlic bread, a.k.a. cheese toast.  It is quite possible that I'm the only person that would like this, delicious though it may be.  Something seems kid-like about it (minus the garlic).

Butter your bread with real butter.  Slice a garlic clove thinly and lay the slices on top of the butter. Cover with mozzerella cheese or a mix of italian type cheeses. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes - keep an eye on it.  Then broil for two shakes to make your cheese brown on top.

It is just a very satisfying way to eat bread, I say - also a way to consume some good ol' healthy garlic.  The type of bread you use can really kick it up, too, but I'm not above doing it with sandwich bread when needed.