I’m gearing up for the holidays once again. It seems like the reasons to bake are never ending- fundraisers, brunch and cookie swaps at work and just-for-the-hell-of-it treats for friends and family. I’m going to send as many holiday baked goods your way in the next few weeks. You won’t want to miss any updates, so make sure you’re signed up for my email updates or follow me on Facebook (check it out on the right).
I’m kicking things off with these Chocolate Caramel Coconut Bars. You guys, this dessert it to die for. I got a bar similar to this at the farmers’ market a few weeks back. It was good, but not great. The bars were so insanely sweet that it took me four days to eat the tiny square. These bars? They’re definitely decadent and sweet, but not overly sweet. That said, I’m a big fan of sweet + salty, so I have a feeling that salted caramel will be making an appearance in the next batch I make!
Chocolate Caramel Coconut Bars
38 caramels (about 1 ¼ cup), unwrapped
6 tablespoons heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 ½ cups shredded sweetened coconut
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a 7×11-inch (or 9×9-inch) baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
In a small pan over medium heat, heat the caramels and heavy cream until caramels are melted. Remove pan from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together sugar, flour, oats, salt, baking powder and butter until mixture is crumbly. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of crust in an even layer. Pour the caramel sauce over the chocolate chips and sprinkle the coconut on top. Bake for an additional 20 – 25 minutes or until coconut is toasted and the edges of the bars are golden brown.
Let cool completely and lift the bars out of the pan with the parchment paper. Set on cutting board and cut bars into squares.
I’m spending more time than ever just cooking for one. The weekdays Mike and I spend together are rare, and when we do get the chance to enjoy each other’s company during the week, the last thing I want to do is spend hours cooking. My cooking style has evolved. I’m focusing more on super quick and easy dishes now more often than not. I don’t see this changing in the near future, either. I’ll be going back to school for my master’s in January (!!!) which means even less time in the kitchen.
For this recipe swap I was assigned Angie’s blog, My Chicago Kitchen. I looked through a bunch of her recipes before settling on this pepper steak dish. Quick and easy? Check. Delicious? Check!
1 pound flank steak, cut against the grain into thin strips
3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce, divided
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/3 cup beef broth
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
salt & pepper, to taste
cooked brown rice, for serving
In a shallow bowl, marinate the flank steak in 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce for 15 minutes. Season with a touch of ground white pepper.
While the beef is marinating, make the sauce. Mix the remaining tablespoon of soy sauce with cornstarch. Add beef broth and whisk until corn starch is dissolved. Mix in red pepper flakes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until onions are tender-crisp. Increase heat and add beef and cook until no longer pink in the center. Add peppers and mushrooms to the pan and cook until peppers are tender-crisp.
Pour in the sauce and stir to combine. Bring sauce to a simmer; it will thicken as it warms. Serve hot over brown rice.
I’ve realized that some dishes are just better when my mom makes it. My mission this time was to replicate the delicious beef noodle dish I ate growing up – niu rou mien. I asked her for a recipe, and she told me to just come over and watch her make it and take notes. She ended up sending me an email with a rough draft of a recipe; I’ve done my best to assign amounts to the various ingredients.
This recipe is long. It has many, many ingredients. I thought about finding shortcuts, but I honestly don’t think there are any. This recipe is truly a labor of love and it’s not something you can cheat and simplify without sacrificing taste.
One thing I noticed from pouring over niu rou mien recipes is that most of them instructed you to boil the beef to get rid of the impurities. If you have bone-in meat, you’ll want to make sure you boil it or you will end up with a film of gunk on your finished product. And that would be a major bummer after you spent all that time prepping and cooking, right?
This dish is my childhood in a bowl. And I’m so happy that I have been able to recreate it in my kitchen.
3 pounds beef shank and/or chuck roast (I used 1 1/2 pounds each)
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 medium onions, chopped
10 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2-inch piece ginger, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fermented black beans 2 teaspoons five spice powder
2 tablespoons Sichuan bean sauce 1 tablespoon hot chili sauce 1/2 cup Shaoxing wine (vodka, vermouth, or sherry will also work)
1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon rock sugar 2 cups beef broth
2 tomatoes, quartered
5 green onions, cut into thirds
3 dried chili peppers, optional
8 hard boiled eggs, peeled
1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
5 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
2 bay leaves
5 large carrots, sliced
for serving: baby bok choy, blanched
noodles of choice, cooked (I prefer medium-width Chinese noodles)
green onions, thinly sliced
rice wine vinegar
pickled mustard greens, recipe below
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add beef and reduce to a simmer. Cook until beef is cooked all the way through. Skim off the impurities floating on top of the water. Remove beef and reserve the cooking water.
Heat a large pot over medium-high heat and add the oil. Brown the beef on all sides. Remove beef from pot and place into the bottom of a slow cooker.
Add the onion, garlic, and ginger into the pot and cook, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes. Add the black beans, five spice powder, Sichuan bean sauce, and hot chili sauce and stir to combine. Stir in the Shaoxing wine, both types of soy sauce, and rock sugar and cook until the sugar has dissolved. Pour mixture on top of the beef.
Add in the beef stock, tomatoes, green onions, chili peppers, and hardboiled eggs. Add the Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon sticks, and bay leaves (optional: combine these ingredients in a cheesecloth and tie it up to make removing all the little pieces a bit easier at the end.) Top everything off with stock and six cups of the reserved cooking water (or use 8 cups of beef stock). Cover and cook on low for 5 – 6 hours or until the meat is tender. Add carrots and cook for an additional 30 minutes or until carrots are tender. Taste and add more soy sauce if necessary.
To serve, place noodles in a bowl and top with bok choy. Ladle scoops of the beef stew on top. Garnish with green onions and the pickled mustard greens relish. Top with a splash of rice wine vinegar, if desired.
Pickled Mustard Greens Relish
10.5 ounce package mustard greens
2 hot chili peppers
2 tablespoons sugar
Rinse the pickled mustard greens and soak in water for 30 minutes. Change the water twice during this time period to get rid of excess salt.
Dice the mustard greens into pea-sized pieces.
Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat and add the mustard greens. Cook for 2 minutes. Add in chili peppers and sugar and stir until sugar is evenly distributed. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until water has evaporated.
Allow to cool and store in the refrigerator in an air-tight jar.
The last outdoor farmers’ market is this Saturday in Madison. The last Wednesday market was yesterday and my heart broke a little. What am I going to do on my Wednesday lunches now? I can’t believe it’s November. I can’t believe it’s already snowed. I’m looking forward to visiting the indoor market for the first time this winter. I can’t believe I’ve lived in Madison for 5+ years and have never been to the indoor farmers’ market.
I have one thing that I’m looking forward to buying – kale. Lots and lots of kale. Sometimes I forget that good food doesn’t need to be time-consuming. It doesn’t need to be complicated. This kale & apple salad is the perfect example of that.
Kale & Apple Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 red onion, cut into a small dice
2 bunches kale (about 1 pound)
2 medium honey crisp apples
In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, honey, mustard, poppy seeds, salt, and pepper until well combined. Drizzle in oil while whisking continuously. Stir in onion and set dressing aside.
Remove fibrous stem from kale discard. Slice leaves crosswise into 1/4-inch thick ribbons and place in bowl with dressing.
Slice apples into matchstick pieces and add to bowl. Toss to combine. Allow salad to sit for 15 minutes before serving. Salad can be prepared up to one day ahead of time; toss again before serving.
This pumpkin pie granola is a million times better than actual pumpkin pie. It packs all the delicious flavors of pumpkin pie without that baby food texture. Carrie over at Carrie’s Sweet Life hosted this month’s What’s Baking challenge and the theme was pumpkin or squash.
This granola recipe is crazy easy and since the pumpkin craze is in full swing, you probably have all the ingredients you need to make this in your kitchen already. I skipped out on using added fats in this recipe and instead used pumpkin to bind everything together to make a delicious, crunchy, slightly healthier granola.
Pumpkin Pie Granola
5 cups old fashioned oats
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup pumpkin puree
¼ cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
⅔ cup pepitas
⅔ cup pecans
⅔ cup dried cranberries
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together oats, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
In another large bowl, mix together brown sugar, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, and vanilla until well combined. Pour the wet mixture into the oat mixture and stir until everything is evenly coated. Stir in pepitas and pecans.
Place granola onto prepared baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown, stirring halfway through. Remove and sprinkle cranberries on top and stir in. Let granola cool complete; it will crisp as it cools.
It’s done. Mike and I have finished the SNAP Challenge. We both agreed that this year was harder than last. We couldn’t figure out why at first – we had plenty of food (leftovers, even), but everything just seemed more difficult. We think it was partially due to the fact that we had to complete most of the SNAP Challenge apart. I also didn’t plan for enough snack foods throughout the week.
There are definitely things I’m looking forward to now that the Challenge is over – farmers’ market produce, sparkling water, breakfast sandwiches, ice cream… I actually even miss rice. Mike told me he’s craving chocolate and plans to eat chocolate everything for a day. I can’t control what he eats from 2 hours away, so we’ll see what happens 🙂
Doing this Challenge will never equate to what those who live on SNAP experience day-to-day, but this Challenge is always a great reminder of how much I have to be thankful for in life, and why I am never ever “too busy” to take time to volunteer. It reminds me to not judge people and the food choices they make. As a dietitian, my heart crumbles a little every time patrons at the food pantry choose 6 Slim Jim sticks over 4 cans of tuna. As a human, I now understand why they would make that choice.
Today we ate:
Breakfast: oatmeal with egg (me), oatmeal with agave (Mike)
Snack: apples
Lunch: pasta with zucchini and tomatoes in lemon-yogurt sauce
Snack: celery and carrots with Greek yogurt dip
Dinner: pasta with zucchini and tomatoes in lemon-yogurt sauce (me); chicken taco soup, corn on the cob (Mike)
Snack: peanut butter toast with banana (Mike)
Drinks: peppermint tea, water with lemon
Pasta with Zucchini and Tomatoes in a Lemon-Yogurt Sauce
13.25 ounce package whole wheat spaghetti
1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
olive oil spray
4 zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced into half moons
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water and set aside. Drain pasta and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together yogurt, Parmesan, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Spray with olive oil. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add zucchini and cook, stirring occasionally, until just wilted. Stir in tomatoes and cook until softened, about 2 minutes.
Transfer zucchini mixture into large bowl of yogurt mixture and stir to combine. Add the drained pasta and gently toss until well combined. Add the reserved pasta water 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed, to thin the sauce. Serve immediately.
I’ve been reading all about other bloggers’ 2013 recap posts and that piqued my interest. I’ve never really looked at this before. I just post what I make and don’t really look back much. But I’m jumping on the bandwagon this time to give you DSD’s most-viewed blog posts of 2013.
It kind of pained me to look back – I can’t eat a lot of these dishes now (pizza!! gnocchi in browned butter!) and dairy-free versions of my most loved dishes aren’t always an option. The good news is that 2014 will be filled with lots of dairy-free foods 🙂
As always, thank you for all your love and support throughout the year!
“Wake up in the morning feelin’ like P. Diddy. Grab my glasses, I’m out the door, I’m gonna hit this city.”
I always play this song as I’m walking out the door for my early morning runs. I had this song on full blast when I realized that it was downpouring. Noooooo!!! Then I panicked a bit because I realized that our office windows our open and we’re in the basement. Then I stopped caring because I kind of hate that office and there was nothing I could do about it at this point since I was 20 minutes away.
So, here I sit. I finally have time to blog. You know how they say time flies when you’re having fun? Time is definitely flying in my world, but I wouldn’t call it fun. Don’t get me wrong – I love my job and I am so grateful that this opportunity basically fell into my lap, but I’m exhausted at this point and I can’t wait for life to slow down a bit. I’ve been told that October will be the magic month. So, until then I will be working 12 hour days and doing nothing outside of work except for sleeping and running.
Yup, just work, sleep, run. You may have noticed that I’ve left one kind of important (to me) thing – cooking. I’ve chosen running over cooking. I’m not sure how we’ve lived on so little food so far, but we’ve managed. Mike has cooked a few times, but our meals have mostly been CSA or garden veggies tossed together in some strange stir fry.
At first our CSA boxes have been mostly green veggies. Now, they’re getting a little more color! So check out what we’ve been getting!
CSA Week 9
Yellow squash
Yellow wax beans
Basil
Tomatoes
Corn
Cucumbers
Green bell peppers
Mushrooms (I think Mike accidentally took these from my parents’ share – oops)
This was last week’s CSA. I guess I’m a little late posting it, but I wanted to share anyway! Like I said before, most of this food was used up in stir fries. I think we’re going to boil corn and freeze it. We have corn coming out of our ears at this point!
CSA Week 10
Green bell peppers
Yellow wax beans
Yellow squash
Cucumbers
Baby cantaloupe
Yellow grape tomatoes
I’m loving the yellow in our baskets! I’m a little bummed that we got a cute little cantaloupe because I can’t eat it!!! I don’t know what’s going on with my body, but the last two times I’ve had it in the past few months it’s made my throat/mouth/ears unbearably itchy.
I’m sure the grape tomatoes will be gone in an instant – I love snacking on them. The beans, squash and peppers will probably get tossed in a stir fry, and I will definitely be making some more spinach dip to go with all the cucumbers we have!
It’s funny how much my life has changed in the last week. I went from having all sorts of free time to read, watch tv, cook, bake, and lounge around to working 10+ hours a day. I’m looking forward to October when things (hopefully) slow down.
I can’t even explain the exhaustion that this job has brought on. Partially my fault: I choose to wake up at 4:00 so I can run before work 🙂 I have to fit in marathon training regardless of my work schedule! I’ve already paid the entry fee and I’ve already spent countless hours training. Part of me is really worried I won’t be ready, but I’m going to try! And don’t get me wrong – I’m so incredibly thankful for not only having a job, but for having a job that I enjoy. I just wish that the enjoyment wasn’t so tiring!
Now, onto a late CSA post. I can’t believe it’s been 8 weeks since we received our first bag!
CSA Week 8
Corn
Baby watermelon
Cucumbers
Beets
Odd-shaped bell peppers
As for my plan for them… well, I would like to think I will be cooking all sorts of nice dishes, but reality is right now I throw together whatever food I have into a dish that is edible but not always aesthetically pleasing.
Corn: I think I might make the corn salad again! This time with a jalapeno or two (or three) thrown in there.
Watermelon: this sucker is so small I think I can inhale it in one bite.
Cucumbers: our fridge is overflowing with cucumbers. I need to make some pickles. I have no idea what else I’m going to do with them all!
Beets: I had planned on making a beet salad with the beets we got last week, but they ended up in a beet cake instead. So, I think I’ll be making the beet salad this week!
Bell peppers: these babies were used up the night we got ’em!
It’s that time again! This post will be short and sweet. I’ve worked 11 hours today and have a couple more to squeeze in before I head to bed and work another 12+ hours. Working my new job + my old job is kind of exhausting. I’m looking forward to being on a normal-ish schedule again.
CSA Week 7
Cucumbers
Yellow squash
Pattypan squash
Beets
Banana peppers
Bell peppers
I don’t have a menu planned out quite yet – I’m guessing Mike and I will be eating a lot of stir fry type meals for a while as I get settled in and work calms down. I’ll gladly accept any suggestions for quick and easy meals that use one of the CSA items!
I do have some bonus pictures to share, though! Mike and I went through our garden last night to pick the ripe cherry tomatoes before the storms hit. We discovered some huge summer squash lurking in our garden. We planted the squash and completely forgot about them. Mike had walked over to that side of the garden and saw one huge squash . We discovered 3 more fairly large ones and then two smaller ones. We left the little ones on the vine to grow a bit more.
I’m so excited that we finally have stuff to harvest from our garden!!
DoughSeeDough 