Orange Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs

This was a fun recipe that we tried several weeks ago.  We had everything but the orange marmalade and I couldn't justify buying an entire container of marmalade that we don't even like for this recipe.  So I just added more orange juice and zest and whatever, it was fine.  Zak did an excellent job grilling these and it was a recipe that we will probably experiment with again in the future.

2 Tbl. olive oil
1 Tbl. fresh ginger, finely grated
1 Tbl. orange zest (I used a bit more)
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 c. rice vinegar
3 Tbl. soy sauce
2 Tbl. sugar
2 Tbl. orange marmalade
1 Tbl. freshly squeezed orange juice (probably used about 3 Tbl.)
1 Tbl. honey
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 1/4 lb. boneless, skinless chicken, trimmed & cut into 1 inch cubes

1.  Over medium heat, add olive oil to small sauce pan.  Add ginger, orange zest and garlic.  Cook, stirring frequently for 1 - 2 minutes, or until fragant.
2.  Stir in the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, marmalade, orange juice, honey and red pepper.  Bring to a simmer and continue cooking for 3 - 5 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened slightly.
3.  Make sure wooden skewers have soaked in cold water for about 20 minutes before threading chicken onto them.  Turn on grill.
4.  Thread chicken and grill, turning a quarter turn every few minutes.  Once they are mostly cooked, brush sauce on and cook until it caramelizes.  Zak used most of the sauce by the time they were done, so I guess just use your judgment and brush on sauce accordingly.

Fail-Proof Pizza Dough

We love making homemade pizza; we used to make it almost every week when we were engaged/dating/in Rexburg.  We don't make it as often now, but it's always fun.  We have almost always used Zak's mom's recipe (they have a Pizza Friday tradition since forever), which is awesome and we love.  But I saw this recipe online and thought I'd like to give it a try.  The gal talked about how the crust was chewier, thinner and like restaurant pizza, and the only major difference was using bread flour vs. regular flour.  Zak was in charge of the dough and when I came home for work, we made two pizzas: one just cheese, and one with pineapple, tomatoes and basil.  It was delicious.  I really liked this recipe, the crust was awesome!  Zak liked it too, but he naturally loves his mom's recipe.  So I think we'll use this one from time to time, depending on our stock of bread or regular flour.  

Crust
1 c. warm water
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1 Tbl. honey (or sugar)
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbl. olive or canola oil
3 c. bread flour

Sauce
6 oz. tomato sauce
6 oz. tomato paste
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic
1/2 tsp. minced onion


~4 c. cheese
toppings

1.  In a large mixing bowl, stir together yeast and honey (or sugar) into warm water.  Let sit for 5 - 10 minutes or until bubbles form and mixture starts to foam.
2.  Pour in salt, oil and half the flour and mix on low.
3.  Once that flour is incorporated, start adding rest of flour slowly until dough is slightly tacky, but doesn't stick to hands when you touch it.
4.  Turn the mixer to medium - high to high speed, set a timer for 6 minutes and walk away.
5.  Lightly grease bowl and dough, cover with plastic wrap and let rise 1 - 2 hours.
6.  Once dough has doubled in size, punch down, separate into two pieces and roll into circle.  Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
7.  Mix sauce ingredients, adding other spices to taste.
8.  Add sauce, cheese and toppings to pizza.
9.  Cook pizza about 8 - 10 minutes, until crust has turned a beautiful golden brown color.

at first, I was skeptic of pineapple w/basil & tomatoes, but it was so yummy!

beautiful and delicious

Old-Fashioned Cornbread

I really love cornbread, it's so delicious and textually appealing.  So when I found this recipe, I was pretty excited.  I haven't made cornbread for awhile, and this was calling my name.  But, truth be told, it wasn't everything I had hoped for; it was still pretty tasty, but it didn't exactly hit the spot for me.  But I figure I'd post it for anyone interested.

2 c. corn meal
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbl. canola oil
1 Tbl. honey
1 3/4 c. low-fat buttermilk
1 egg, slightly beaten

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Add oil to an 8" cast iron skillet or cake pan.  Make sure oil is rubbed on sides as well as bottom of pan.  While preparing cornbread, place in oven for 5 - 7 minutes.
2.  Combined dry ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl.  In a small bowl, whisk together egg, honey, buttermilk and egg; add to dry ingredients and stir just to combine.
3.  Remove skillet or pan from oven and pour hot oil into cornbread mixture, stir.  Sprinkle the bottom of the pan with 1 tsp. cornmeal.
4.  Pour cornmeal mixture into pan, place in the oven on the middle rack and bake 20 - 25 minutes or until golden in color.

perfectly golden browned

Nutritional Facts

serving per recipe: 12

amount per serving

Calories: 123.3
Total Fat: 4.0 g
Saturated Fat: 0.8 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.1 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 1.7 g
Cholesterol: 18.3 mg
Sodium: 241.4 mg
Potassium: 65.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 19.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.5 g
Sugar: 3.5 g
Protein: 3.5 g
Vitamin A: 1.7 %
Vitamin C: 0.6 %
Calcium: 9.9 %
Iron: 4.7 % 

100th post: Slow-Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

Whoo hoo, 100 posts!

This recipe is a simple and tasty recipe I tried Friday night.  I changed the amount of honey to about 3/4 of a cup but added some brown sugar instead.  Overall, it was a pretty good meal, the sauce was good.  Our only major note was that the chicken ended up a little dry inside and that it was more shredded than we'd like.  So maybe next time I'll cut up the chicken breasts a bit before adding them into the crock pot.  But, it's a keeper and was so easy and went well with rice and broccoli!

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
salt & pepper
1 c. honey (I used 3/4 c. + about 4 Tbl. brown sugar instead)
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. diced onion (I used 2 Tbl. minced, dried onion instead)
1/4 c. ketchup
2 Tbl. vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used 1 tsp. dried, minced onion)
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
4 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 6 Tbl. water
sesame seeds

1.  Season both sides of chicken lightly with salt & pepper (I just did one side), put into crock pot.
2.  In small bowl, combine honey (& brown sugar), soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic & pepper flakes.  Pour over chicken.
3.  Cook on low for 3 - 4 hours or on high 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through.  I had Zak turned the chicken over about halfway through.
4.  Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce.  Dissolve cornstarch in water and pour in; stir to combine with sauce.
5.  Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes, or until slightly thickened.  Meanwhile, cut chicken into bite sized pieces.
6.  Return chicken to pot once sauce has thickened, and toss before serving.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

delicious!

Nutritional Facts
servings per recipe: 6
amount per serving

Calories: 375.3
Total Fat: 6.3 g
Saturated Fat: 0.8 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.8 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 3.1 g
Cholesterol: 76.7 mg
Sodium: 1,443.9 mg
Potassium: 407.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 48.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g
Sugar: 45.5 g
Protein: 33.6 g
Vitamin A: 0.6 %
Vitamin C: 5.2 %
Calcium: 2.9 %
Iron: 7.2 %

Garlic Cheese Bread

The other day I saw this recipe and not only did I immediately salivate, but decided I had to try it.  Yesterday we had our friends over and I made it with spaghetti; it was a hit!  I was surprised at how simple the recipe was, and how good.  I used half of the amount of cheese (about 2.5 oz.) and made my own garlic butter, but only used about 3/4 of the stick, not the whole thing.  But anyways, it was delicious and I'm sure I'll make it again.  Yum!

Bread
1 c. warm water
1 Tbl. honey
1 envelope active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)
1 tsp. salt
3 c. bread flour
1/3 lbs. any cheese (I used 2.5 oz. of just regular block cheese)
1/2 c. garlic butter (I used 3/4 of a stick of butter)

Garlic Butter (I made this up, so add garlic and salt to taste)
1/2 c. (1 stick) butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. garlic salt

1.  In a large bowl, stir water, honey & yeast together.  Let yeast proof 5 - 10 minutes, until bubbly and active.
2.  If using a stand mixer, do not set speed higher than a 2 or 'stir'; stir in salt and flour in 1/4 c. increments.
3.  Once dough starts pulling away from the sides of the bowl, set a timer for 5 minutes and let machine knead the dough.  Dough should be smooth and tacky, but when touched, shouldn't leave any dough on fingers.
4.  Grease the bowl and dough.  Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let rise 1 hour in a warm area or until doubled in size.
5.  Punch down dough and cut into two equal portions.  Form into two long baguettes the length of the cookie sheet.  I twisted them so they looked neat, but I guess it also helps it keep the length and not shrink.  Cover with plastic wrap and rise 30 minutes.
6.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Once bread has risen and oven is heated, bake
for 15 - 20 minutes, until lightly golden.
7.  While bread is baking, slice the cheese into thin slices and melt the garlic butter.  Pull loaves out of the oven and brush with melted garlic butter (I put some foil under the bread so it wouldn't get all over the pan.
8.  Bake another 5 - 7 minutes, or until bread is a nice golden brown.  Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes.)
9.  Cut 1-inch slices three-quarters of the way through the loaves.  Brush garlic butter in between each slice and fill each with a slice of cheese.  Bake another 3 - 5 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.  Serve immediately!

with garlic butter and cheese

look how yummy

so delicious!

Nutritional Facts
servings per recipe: 24
amount per serving

Calories: 96.9
Total Fat: 4 g
Saturated Fat: 2.5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 10.7 mg
Sodium: 136.2 mg
Potassium: 20.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 12.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g
Sugar: 0.8 g
Protein: 2.4 g
Vitamin A: 2.4 %
Vitamin C: --
Calcium: 2.5 %
Iron: 4.2 %

Granola Bar - take 2

Here is the recipe for the second granola bar recipe I tried. I'm not sure if I like this one more, or the first recipe. They are both pretty tasty. This one smelled sooo yummy while it was cooking, but I think next time I'll cook it at a lower temperature and/or less time, because the edges got a little burned.

2 c. granola cereal (I just used the granola I used in the first recipe, I don't know if it matters if it's 'cereal' or not)
4 egg whites
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. walnuts
1/4 c. cranberries
1/4 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. ground flax seeds
1 Tbl. cinnamon

1. Mix all ingredients together and press into 8"x8" baking pan.
2. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees (or until golden brown, don't over-brown).

Granola Bites

The other week I got the urge to look up recipes for granola bars. We love them, but unfortunately, a lot of the ones on the market have a lot of palm/coconut oil and other unhealthy (but delicious) things. I looked for a long time and came across two recipes that sounded good.

I made this recipe last week and to a good degree of success. The few notes I have for next time include thinking of something to get the bars to stick together better (they tended to be very crumbly) and cooking it perhaps on a lower heat and/or less time. Other than that, they are very good and I will most likely make them again! I'll post the other recipe once we've tried them and determined their taste validity.

Oh, and since we have Winco nearby, this whole things cost something like $5 total to make because of their plethora of bulk food items. I probably wouldn't have made it if I had to buy individual boxes, bags of the items.

1 1/2 c. granola (I used a combination of three that we picked out-french vanilla, honey almond, apple cinnamon)
1 c. old fashioned oats
1/2 c. dried cranberries (we thought cran-raspberries would be most tasty)
1/2 c. raisins
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. slivered almonds
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 egg whites
1/2 c. honey
1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tbl. vegetable oil

1. Spray 8"x8" baking pan, preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine granola, oatmeal, cranberries, raisins, flour, almonds, and cinnamon in large mixing bowl.
3. In smaller bowl, lightly beat egg whites. Stir in honey, brown sugar, and oil.
4. Stir in honey mixture into dry ingredients until all is coated.
5. Press evenly into pan.
6. Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown (less is more, in my opinion).
7. Let cool fully, then cut into bars and wrap up in plastic wrap or foil.

yum!

another close-up

Nutritional Facts

servings per recipe: 16

amount per serving

Calories: 185.5

Total Fat: 4.8 g

Saturated Fat: 0.5 g

Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.1 g

Monounsaturated Fat: 2.7 g

Cholesterol: --

Sodium: 79 mg

Potassium: 127.3 mg

Total Carbohydrate: 37.4 g

Dietary Fiber: 2.3 g

Sugar: 25.2 g

Protein: 3.5 g

Vitamin A: 5.4 %

Vitamin C: 0.4 %

Calcium: 5.1 %

Iron: 9.9 %

Honey Peach Frozen Yogurt

This week we made honey peach frozen yogurt because we had a bunch of peaches and we love peach ice cream. However, we decided to use vanilla yogurt instead of heavy cream so it would be a less fattening. This recipe was really simple and we added a few extra ingredients until it tasted how we wanted it to. Delicious!

3 c. peaches (peeled, pitted - - about 3 peaches)
1 (32 oz.) vanilla yogurt
1/4 c. honey
2 Tbl. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Place all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.
2. Add mixture to ice cream maker and freeze according to directions.

Very simple! It did freeze rather hard, so it'd be a good idea to let it stand at room temperature for 5 - 10 minutes before serving. Also, we decided to blend all the peaches up because we hate having frozen chunks of peaches in the middle of the ice cream/yogurt, so if you want to blend half and have the other half cut up small, that would work too.

Oh, and I was a little exuberant with the food dye.

NEW & improved sesame chicken!

Ok, for the last few months I have been tweaking the recipe for sesame chicken, and I think I finally got it down! I made this last week and it was super yummy. The big change to this recipe and the one before is not mixing the chicken, sauce & rice together in the wok [we found it would get too clumpy and sticky]. So here we go:

4 - 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
vegetable oil, for frying
1 - 2 Tbl. sesame seeds

Sauce
about 2 Tbl. soy sauce
1/4 c. water
1/2 c. chicken broth
3 Tbl. brown sugar
1/2 c. honey (it helps to microwave before and/or after)
1 Tbl. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. ground ginger

Batter
1/2 Tbl. onion salt [if you don't have this, use 1 Tbl. of the garlic salt]
1/2 Tbl. garlic salt
1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1. Whisk together sauce ingredients in a bowl, set aside.
2. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces.
3. Combine batter ingredients in a small bowl; coat chicken with batter.
4. Heat oil in large skillet or wok.
5. Add coated chicken and fry until golden brown and cooked all the way through. You may need to add oil once or twice.
6. Meanwhile, thicken sauce over a small saucepan on medium high until it thickens & bubbles.
7. Pour sauce over chicken and rice in serving plate or bowl
8. Sprinkle sesame seeds over and enjoy.

Mmmmmm!

Sesame Chicken

Zak and I love Chinese take-out and sesame chicken is one of our favorite dishes. When I found this recipe, we didn't have enough money to go out for Chinese, so I was trying to find a recipe that would be similar to what we've had before. This recipe is delicious, but we keep making small adjustments to it. The next time we make it, I'm sure we'll find something to change. In that case, I'll edit this post with *asterisks* with what we've changed to it. Enjoy this recipe, it is sooo yummy!

4 - 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (again, I guesstimate each time)
vegetable oil, for frying
1 - 2 Tbl. sesame seeds

Sauce
a little less than 1/4 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. water or chicken broth (we mostly use water)
2 Tbl. brown sugar
1/4 c. honey (it helps to microwave before and/or after, for about 30 seconds)
1 Tbl. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (depending on how much chicken and rice you use, it can be pretty hot)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp. ground ginger

Batter
1/2 Tbl. onion salt (Zak's favorite new spice)
1/2 Tbl. garlic salt
1/2 c. flour (if you use more chicken, up to 1 c. flour)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1. Whisk together sauce ingredients in a bowl, set aside (I usually put it in the fridge).
2. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces.
3. Combine batter ingredients in a small bowl; coat chicken with batter.
4. Heat oil in large skillet or wok.
5. Add coated chicken and fry until golden brown and cooked all the way through. You may need to add oil once or twice.
6. Pour sauce over chicken and simmer until thickens and bubbles a bit.
7. Sprinkle sesame seeds over--we usually just eyeball it, until it looks perfect.
8. Serve over rice, or add a few scoops of rice into wok and toss altogether.