Posts Tagged ‘fast and easy’

Some may call this lazy, others (like myself) call it genius.

I saw this on The Kitchn a few days ago, and could not wait to try it. 2-ingredient ice cream you could make and eat within a few hours? Sign me up! All you have to do is chop, freeze, and blend a banana. The natural texture and fat within the fruit lets it blend into a thick, smooth consistency instead of getting crumbly. Stir in some honey roasted peanut butter (ohh, my dearest friend) and you’ve got 2-ingredient ‘ice cream.’

The consistency straight from the blending is like thick soft serve, but you can also freeze it and eat it like normal ice cream too. You can really go nuts with accompaniments (Nutella, chocolate chips, walnuts, etc, spring to mind) so just have fun with it. Plus it can be allergy/lactose/vegan friendly!

Icy bananas.

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Fennel is one of those odd, underused vegetables in an everyday kitchen. It looks like celery, tastes like black licorice, and changes like a chameleon depending on how it’s cooked. But it’s a wonderfully versatile and healthy thing to work with – you just have to give it some time and love.

Incredibly high in vitamin C and fiber, fennel can be served crunchy raw, boiled, braised, baked, and everything in between. The cool thing is, once you bake it, the flavor can change dramatically from pungent and bitter, to sweet and aromatic. If you’re one of the many out there who dislikes its natural black licorice flavor, blanching and baking it is your road to fennel happiness, which you can follow below.

I saw this side dish of baked fennel with parmesan in the latest issue of Everyday Food, and immediately decided to make it. As I wandered around my grocery store trying to come up with something to serve it with, the idea of fennel = fennel seeds = sausage popped into my head. Since Italian sausage traditionally has fennel seeds in it, why not take a plain or non-Italian chicken sausage and bake it with this yummy fennel side dish to get that flavor profile, but in a much more elegant, muted way? Tender and velvety fennel with the rich and robust sausage, the dish is all-season friendly. Plus, the whole thing comes together in under 45 minutes, using only 2 pans, and could easily be served for a hearty lunch or light dinner.

Words cannot describe how much I love this stuff.

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There’s nothing quite like being home and indulging in all those favorites you only eat once a year. (Well, for one week a year…)

We have quite a few culinary traditions in my family for the holidays, and this is probably the most indulgent of them, next to the insane amount of Usinger’s sausage and cheese we eat in the next 2 weeks. I affectionately call this dip “fat and fat and fat and fat with artichokes and spinach” because that’s honestly what it is. In theory, you could make this healthier by using low fat cream cheese, sour cream, mayo, etc, but really… what’s the point? Just embrace the fat here and dip carrots in it if you want to fool yourself into feeling okay about eating it.

The other great (lazy) thing about this recipe is it’s made in the microwave and comes together in about 15 minutes using things you can keep in your fridge and pantry all the time. We like to have this around to dip tortilla chips and Ritz crackers in, and since it makes so much, you can just keep setting it out whenever someone stops by, reheat it, and then put it back in the fridge until next time.

Fat and fat and fat and fat with artichokes and spinach…

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Cooking for one can be tricky.  Most people I know who live by themselves end up snacking for dinner simply because the idea of making a recipe that serves four is either too expensive, time-consuming, or they worry about having leftovers.

I’m not afraid to have a week’s worth of a certain dish around or spend hours making something, but more than often I like to whip things together for dinner 3 out of 5 weeknights, usually fitting the breakfast taco or wedge salad bill. But then you can find recipes like this which gives us singular cooks all hope.

I’ve had this recipe sitting around a bit because not only was it sold as a 15-minute soup, it was designated a “Cooking for One” recipe in Everyday Food, which naturally caught my eye. Throw in the fact I’ve eaten conference food, Lunchables, and far too much Diet Coke in the past few days… well, let’s just say I was craving something vegetable-packed, healthy, and satisfying.

One last thing – I’m in the running at Bon Appetit’s Blog Envy Bake Off for my chocolate pumpkin cheesecake squares and would send thousands of hugs and kisses out if you could take a few seconds to go vote for me and all the other fantastic blogs and recipes listed. It’s a really fun contest with so many great entries, I’m just excited to see my blog amongst them. You do have to register to vote, but trust me – it’s worth it!

Vote Vote Vote!

Time to take a little break from fall/squash/cinnamon flavors and do something a little different. This post is a miniature tribute to two things: one of my best friends Rachel and Gourmet magazine.  I didn’t intend for this to happen but it was just one of those realizations as you begin to work with something. Rach teaches in Bahrain but is from Minnesota, so we’re both Midwestern fall-loving girls at heart. Since she doesn’t really get to experience autumn, this was a way for me to give her something fun and easy to cook, and give me a break from typical autumnal flavor profiles.

As for Gourmet, this is a web-exclusive recipe of theirs, which is my sad little homage to a fantastic magazine that will be missed. Word is the website will be gone come the new year, and after looking at my bookmarked recipes and seeing row after row of entries with little black and white “G”s marking them, I was disheartened. I get inspired by food photography and food print almost more than anything, so the idea that Gourmet, one of the best (if not the best) will no longer be there to give me ideas is heartbreaking. So I salute you, Rach in Bahrain with no fall leaves, and Gourmet magazine for inspiring me all these years.

Now for the recipe – this is a super quick and yummy noodle dish, perfect for substitutions and open to putting your own spin on it. I’m a huge fan of spicy eggplant dishes from Asian take-out, so I threw that in, with some more spices and soy to layer the flavors. The flavor is rich and spicy, but also refreshing from the cilantro and basil. And like any good wok dish, it’s all about super high heat with short cooking time, which makes this a perfect fast weeknight dinner.