dinner and dash: couscous with veggies!

Simple. Fast. Delicious.


Did I mention it only took five minutes to make?

I actually feel dumb posting the recipe, but here you are...

1/2 cup dry whole wheat couscous

(Boil water. Take pot off hot eye. Pour in dry couscous. Stir and fluff for a few minutes till it's all soaked up.)

3/4 cup veggies (little corn cobs, carrots, peppers, onions, whatever)

Sautee. Add couscous. Stir until all moisture's gone.

Oh, and add salt or your choice of seasoning. 

Eat.

Pat yourself on the back for eating healthy food like a good girl instead of going with your friends to have fried chicken and the best fries in Nashville at McDougal's. 

You just saved $8 and a guilty meal.

darkest chocolate crepe cake... oh my martha.

Oh my Martha! She's done it again.
And what better to showcase a culinary piece of excellence than a CREPE CAKE on Sweetstacks Crepery?!?!

Martha's Darkest Chocolate Crepe Cake

Tell me you aren't freaking out right now.

I sense a possible V day experiment... ;)

new substitution on the crepe front!

Everyone who reads this or ever has should know I have a healthy addiction to crepes. I fill them with nutella, raspberries, Cool Whip, peach butter, and beyond. I mix them with oats, drizzle them with chocolate syrup, stick a scoop of ice cream atop of them... I don't think there is a way I DON'T like to serve them! 


I took a hiatus from making crepes for a couple months (you CAN get burned out, believe it or not), but they have come back with a vengeance and a new variation!


Wait for it.... wait for it...

OAT BRAN CREPES! I think you can pretty much substitute it for anything that calls for any type of flour. I want to make oat bran cakes, oat bran cookies... you get the point. I don't know how everything else will turn out, but the oat bran crepes? Phenom.

Here's the newfangled recipe I used:

1/4 c natural toasted oat bran

1/4 c almond milk (unsweetened)

1 tbsp egg whites

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp honey

Mix. Spread on skillet. Cook until combined and slightly browned. Flip and repeat.

Serve with natural almond butter, peanut butter, nutella, or whatever you fancy!

Yes, even ice cream. :)

avocado toast

Yum yummm. I just had the most delicious, satisfying lunch of my life.


Avocado + Wheat bread + Sprinkling of Garlic Salt = Heaven on a Plate.

I got my massive avocado and a petite wheat loaf at Harris Teeter. So so so good.

"hot mess" cupcakes

So, Father notoriously despises cupcakes. He likes cake, but not cupcakes. I figure it's the ratio of frosting to cake (and the placement). Well, turns out, there is a cupcake that can win over his heart!

Franklin bakery Iveycake makes a chocolate ganache cupcake called "Hot Mess." It's a moist cake with cream cheese frosting (piped into a huge mound) and then dipped in chocolate ganache.

Mom and I brought him back one (after we enjoyed one ourselves!) Thursday after our annual Franklin holiday outing.  And sure enough, he loved it!

It was my duty today to recreate the "Hot Mess." While it's not the same, I think it's pretty awesome!

For the Cupcakes:


6 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp of Dutch cocoa powder
3/4 cup water
1 1/3 cups self-rising flour


Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line 20 cups in a muffin tin. Cream butter and sugar, until well mixed (about 2-3 mins). Add eggs one by one until incorporated. Add vanilla extract and then add cocoa powder one tablespoon at a time. Add water and flour; mix to smooth consistency. Bake 15 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Let cool.

For the cream cheese frosting:


8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Place cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl. Using a rubber spatula, soften cream cheese. Gradually add butter, and continue beating until smooth and well blended. Sift in confectioners' sugar, and continue beating until smooth. Add vanilla, and stir to combine.

For the ganache:


8 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate
¾ cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp butter, at room temperature


Melt chocolate and cream in a heavy saucepan. Add butter, stir until smooth.


Frost cupcakes, then spoon ganache over them. Enjoy!

raspberry hybrid crepes

While there isn't actual any chemical cross-breeding going on in my kitchen, I have taken two of my favorite breakfast recipes and made something pretty wonderful.

Oatcakes + Crepes = Oatcrepes? Oat-Crepes? Oat Crepes? Something like that.

Raspberry Oat-Crepes

scant 1/4 c whole wheat flour

1/8 c oats

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp sugar

1/4 c skim milk

1/4 c egg whites

12-14 raspberries (frozen or fresh)

Mix dry ingredients. Add wet, whisk until well-combined. Pour half of batter into a lightly greased skillet, spread thin (pick up the pan and let the mixture roll around until it covers the majority of space). Add 6-7 raspberries sporadically to the batter. Flip when slightly bubbly. Repeat with remaining batter and berries.

Best served with a dollop of whipped cream or chocolate creme chantilly or lemon-zested whipped cream. I just had mine with some lemonade, and it was delicious. :)

crepes 'n' cream!

So... my napping mind devised up this amazing concoction, and I HAD to make it.

Make 1 crepe {1 tablespoon egg whites, 1/8 cup skim milk, 1/8 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp sugar}, let cool for a couple minutes, and serve a la mode. I used Edy's frozen yogurt cookies 'n' cream. HEAVEN. Heaven. I am not kidding.

this one didn't even last long enough to take a picture. that good. maybe next time?

what can you do with a grilled chicken?

I decided after last week's debaucle of eating things like microwaved veggie burgers (and one unfortunate "quesadilla" made of a tortilla and a slice of swiss cheese... super gross) for every meal that I would start cooking and eating real food. I grilled up a batch of chicken breasts on Tuesday night and have been getting creative ever since.

Here's are two lovely lunch and dinner meals with chicken!

"That Pesty Chicken!"

Pesto Chicken Pasta. Probably the best meal I've ever made. Thanks to Father and Dani for inspiring it... Take one grilled chicken breast (seasoned with lemon pepper and garlic salt and Italian spices), add it to some cooked pasta (I used this DELICIOUS grape-shaped vineyard pasta my Granny gave me this summer), spritz with olive oil, stir in some stir-fried broccoli/carrots/peapods/whatever-veggies-you-like, and add a couple spoonfuls of store-bought (or homemade! But I prefer Trader Joe's) pesto.

"That's A Wrap!"

A chicken avocado spinach swiss wrap. Delicious. And self-explanatory.

Best pressed by a Griddler or panini press!

bonjour again, toast

it's fall. time to open the windows, breathe the crisp air, hike a trail, grill a burger in the bed of a truck, take in the blue skies, and admire the trees.

time for some cinnamon-laced french toast.

emphasis on the cinnamon.

i'm sensing a pumpkin spice french toast in the near future...

banana streusel coffee cake

I always buy too many bananas. I'll get the prettiest bunch at the grocery store (always tinged green... I like mine considerably unripe), but inevitably end up with more than necessary.

This past week was no exception. So what is the only acceptable thing to do with brown bananas? (I'm obviously not going to eat them, and throwing them away is wasteful.) Make banana bread. Or you know, something similar.

My search for the perfect banana bread (specifications being that they are low fat, only include ingredients that I actually own,  and have a high taste ranking) led me not to a bread recipe, but one for a banana coffee cake.

Recipe as follows:

Banana Streusel Coffee Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup oats

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 c butter, chilled and cut

1/2 + 1/2 tsp cinnamon, divided

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp soda

1 cup mashed bananas, ripe

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup Kahlua (optional)

Combine flours and oats. Measure out 3/4 cup into separate bowl. Add sugar. Cut in the butter and mix.  Set aside 1/2 cup of this crumb mixture to use for topping.  Add remaining crumbs to flour mix, powder, soda, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

Beat togther eggs, bananas, and Kahlua.  Combine wet mixture to flour.  Beat well. Pour into greased 8x8 baking dish (or 12-count muffin pan).  Sprinkle reserved butter crumbs and remaining 1/2 tsp cinnamon on top of cake.  Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes (20 for muffins).

Best enjoyed with a tall glass of cold milk or some piping hot coffee. Hence the name "coffee cake."