Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

June 23, 2014coldfishie 1 Comment

One of my worst habits has to be over paying for coffee, and some type of pastry before work. Yes, Starbucks takes so much of my money that I actually contemplated getting a job there so I can get free stuff. I decided to challenge myself this week by not going into a Starbucks this week. For this to happen I would actually have to make my own coffee and my own breakfast treat. And before anyone tells me that I shouldn’t eat a carb for breakfast, and how bad it is – ME AND MY BIG BUTT ALREADY KNOW THIS. I’m Mexican, we love our pan con cafe. LOL. I’m taking small steps to change my habits.

We are not really big banana eaters in this house, but for some reason we always seem to have bananas lying around getting brown. Some weeks we’re like monkeys, the next we’re over them and they just sit there getting all brown and soggy. Most of the time they get thrown into the freezer and saved for a smoothie later. And it just so happens we have a bunch of brown, soggy bananas sitting in a fruit bowl. I decided to make banana muffins because they are so easy to throw together… and it seemed like a healthy option.

Banana bread is good on its own, but add chocolate chips to the mix….. wooooooo! This will not disappoint your taste buds, especially when you bite into a warm muffin. Sweet enough for your tooth, healthy enough for your guilt.

Ingredients
2 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 c. old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick cooking)
2/3 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
12 tbsp. melted butter
6 tbsp. sour cream (or buttermilk)
1 c. mashed ripe bananas, about 2 bananas
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chocolate chips ( I really didn’t measure)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together melted butter and sugar. Add sour cream and mashed bananas, mix on low for 30 seconds. Add egg and vanilla, mix until just combined.
3. In a small mixing bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together then with mixing speed on low, gradually add dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Remove bowl from stand and fold in chocolate chips. Scoop into muffin tin.
4. Place in oven and bake for 18-22 minutes. The tops should be lightly golden brown and they should be nice and firm. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pans for 2-3 minutes before removing and stuffing your face.

MOH – LAY!

May 5, 2014coldfishie Leave a comment

Mole sauce with grilled chicken, and rice.

While I was talking to my dad the other day he told me that he was cooking – the man can throw down in the kitchen! So when he said that he was making mole, of course my inner fat girl wanted some! Mole is probably on my top ten list of favorite things to eat. I was so happy that he knew how to make it, and started asking for his recipe. Then he said those four words that I hate “it’s from a jar.” WOMP, WOMP. If you have ever had mole from a jar, you know it has a weird sugary taste… so not authentic. Like really, who buys that stuff??? My dad, poor guy. Needless to say he hated it, and had to add ingredients to make it edible. It’s so hard to find good mole these days.

Part of it is because mole gets a bad rap. People tell all kinds of stories about how complicated, or how many hours it takes to make. I was fooled into thinking that I could never master the secrets to mole, just like you probably are. Fool no more! Yes I’m sure the traditional way of roasting and grinding of all the ingredients does take hours upon hours to do, but I ain’t got time for all of that! After researching mole recipes, I figured out a way to make mole in less than an hour. It has the entire flavor you expect – creamy, with a smokey chile kick, and hint of nutty sweetness. Ugh, its damn near PERFECT! Or as my Husband would say “it taste like, a little more.”

Ingredients:

10 dried guajillo chiles
7 dried mulato negro chiles
7 dried pasilla chiles
4 table spoons of olive oil
2 oz. pumpkin seeds
3 table spoons sesame seeds
1 hand full whole almonds
2 oz. raisins (small box)
3 whole star anise
1 small white onion, diced
5 whole garlic cloves, peeled
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons ground pepper
2 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 chicken boullion cube
2 table spoons peanut butter
1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
2 cups of water or chicken broth

Directions:

1. Stem, seed, and de-vein chiles, reserving seeds.

2. Place chiles in a small pot with water, bring to a boil or until peppers are soft.

3. In a large sauté pan add 2 table spoons of olive oil, pepper seeds (I used about 3 table spoons, the more you use the hotter it will be) add in the whole garlic cloves, star anise, almonds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, and sesame seeds, stir around until toasted.

4. When chiles are soft place them into a blender with some of the water from pot.

5. Blend then add in all of the toasted ingredients, salt, ground pepper, cumin, cloves, cinnimon, chicken bouillon cube (or chicken stock) and blend adding more water if needed. The consistency should be like a thick smoothie.

6. When that is well combined, pour into the pan used to toast ingredients with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil on low heat.

7. Stir in chocolate, and peanut butter it should just melt right in.

8. If the mole seems to be too thick you can add water or chicken broth as needed.

9. Serve over chicken, turkey, and steak -really any kind of meat you want and top with left over sesame seeds. I served this over grilled chicken and rice. Yummy!

Fancy Mac

April 21, 2014April 21, 2014coldfishie 1 Comment

mac n’ cheese with goat cheese, bacon, and cranberries

Sometimes I like to get a little fancy in the kitchen, and when I say fancy – I mean I make easy things look complicated. Wait, let me take that back… now that I think about it mac n’cheese is complicated! Everyone thinks its sooo easy but it’s not, unless your making it from a box. Anyone can make it from a box, but not everyone can make it from scratch.

First of all I love any kind of cheese, but goat cheese is just plain delicious! Most people don’t like goat cheese because of its tangy flavor, the best way I can describe it is tangy cream cheese. When paired with something sweet like cranberries, it taste like a little piece of heaven… yummmm…. and throw bacon in the mix even better!! The best way to describe this fancy pants mac n’cheese is Thanksgiving on a plate.

Ingredients

Kosher salt
1 pound elbow macaroni or shells
1 1/2 cup milk
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
8 ounces goat cheese
8 ounces mozzarella, grated (2 cups)
3 cups chopped bacon
1/4 cup of dried cranberries chopped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1 cup Panko bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling salted water add the macaroni and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don’t boil it. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a large (4-quart) pot and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the goat cheese, mozzarella, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and rosemary. In a 3-quart baking dish combine the cooked pasta, bacon, and cranberries. Pour cheese sauce over pasta.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

Sticky Sweet & Spicy Chicken Wings

April 9, 2014April 9, 2014coldfishie 1 Comment

Sticky Sweet & Spicy Wings

Finally some sign that Spring is on its way – 50° weather! Some of you may be thinking I’m crazy for thinking that 50° is great, but if you live here in Chicago your loving it! It’s so beautiful right now, the sun is out, birds are chirping, the color is coming back into our city! And you know what that means – Grilling Season has officially started!!!! WOOOOOOO-WOOOO!!!!! I love cooking outside on the grill it’s so easy and for some reason I feel like I make less of a mess. One of regulars on the grill is chicken wings, they seriously grill up so fast lunch or dinner is ready in no time.

Everyone loves wings – if you don’t we must not get along. I love getting together with my friends sharing some wings, and drinking beer. We go to different places based on the special “wing night” you know what I’m talking about 50¢ boneless Mondays, or 40¢ Wednesdays. My favorite to order is mango Habanero wings. I love how spicy they are with just a hint of sweetness – soooo good. But I’m kind of afraid of the Habanero pepper and all its hype as being one of the hottest peppers on earth! Knowing me, I’ll chop it up, then directly touch my eye or lips and end up running around screaming! So I’ll leave that recipe to the restaurants. I have made wings with all kinds of sauces; hot sauce, bbq sauce, sweet jam sauce, and dry rub seasonings. This is probably the closest I can get in comparison to those spicy Habanero wings, that is until I face my fear of the Habanero pepper. One day.

You can make these with a sweet/hot glaze or a hot/sweet glaze, really up to you and what you can handle. I went with more a sweet/hot glaze adding more honey than Sriracha. Only because Ididn’t feel like having to pop some tums or rolaids later on this night. But they were so good, nice and sticky just like you get at restaurants and you didn’t even need a dipping sauce.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of chicken – spilt at the joints, wing tips removed
6 tablespoons of soy sauce
3 tablespoons Sriracha
2 limes juiced
1 tablespoon grated ginger – if you don’t have fresh ginger use ginger powder
1/4 cup coconut oil melted – if you don’t have coconut oil, use oliveor vegetable oil, the coconut oil just helps with the sweetness

For the Sticky Glaze

1/4 stick of unsalted butter
2-4 tablespoons of honey – the more honey you use the sweeter the glaze
2 tablespoons of brown sugar – this makes the glaze sticky
4-8 tablespoons of Sriracha – depending on how spicy you want

Directions:

wpid-2014-04-09-16.26.09.jpg.jpeg

In a bowl or zip lock bag add the chicken wings, soy sauce, Sriracha, lime juice, ginger, and coconut oil. Let marinade for an hour in fridge or overnight. When you take the wings out they will look like they have a thick creamy coating on them – do not worry it’s just the coconut oil. Coconut oil can easily be solidified at low temperatures, which works great with the wings. You’ll know that they are evenly coated plus they won’t stick to your grill or baking sheet.

After you let them marinade throw them on the grill for about 7-10 minutes on each side – these go fast on the grill. If your baking them, they will take 25-35 minutes in the oven at 350.

After the wings have been flipped and are almost done you will start coating the wings with the glaze using a cooking brush, or lightly spoon over each wing. Each time you flip a wing over, glaze other side – the heat from the grill/oven will caramelize the glaze making it sticky. When your satisfied with the glaze coating take off of grill/oven. If you have any extra glaze left, and you like your wings extra saucy feel free to pour over the wings and toss.

Chile Rellenos

March 18, 2014March 20, 2014coldfishie 2 Comments

wpid-storageemulated0DCIMCamera2014-03-18-19.04.32.jpg.jpg

If you ever made Chile Reyenos you know how much labor goes into making them, its almost like your going to war with a Poblano Pepper! First of all, I don’t have the patience or arm strength to beat egg whites to death. I want to eat, not workout. Then, when you finally get your peppers covered in egg and placed in the pan it falls right off! Not to mention, I HATE the aftermath of frying them. I’m left with tiny burn marks on my arms from oil popping all over the place, (I always forget to use the pan lid as a shield) and your clothes, hair, towels, pillows, curtains I mean EVERYTHING in your house smells like cooking oil. I’m not about that life. That smell is my biggest pet peeve. Just because I’m Mexican doesn’t mean I have to smell like a greasy tortilla chip!!!!! And the smell last for days. All that work for five cheesy, glorious bites of a stuffed pepper.

So to avoid injury and a workout, I decided to wrap my chiles with dough. Yes I know I’m a genius. I’ve made them this way with three different types of dough, Puff Pastry, Phyllo dough, and Crescent rolls which is what I used today. Each gives the pepper a different texture and flavor. The puff pastry gives a sweeter flavor and crispness, Phyllo dough turns into a delicate flakey crust, and the crescent roll is soft and buttery. My favorite of the three is the Puff Pastry it’s all three rolled into one! There still are some technical steps to make Chile Reyenos, but it’s so worth it. Trust me this is so much easier, and you wont even miss the egg coating. You’ll never want to eat it any other way again.

wpid-storageemulated0DCIMCamera2014-03-18-18.08.20.jpg.jpg

Ingredients:

Poblano Pepper’s as many as you need, or can eat
Queso Fresco- Mexican crumbling cheese
Queso Chiuaua- Mexican melting cheese
Crescent rolls- I used 2 triangle pieces for each pepper

If using any of the next of items you will need extra ingredients.

Puff Pastry- if your going this route you’ll need one beaten egg to seal pastry.
Phyillo dough- you will need to use olive oil or butter in between each sheet
Directions: pre-heat: oven 350˙

My Flan Comeback!

March 16, 2014March 17, 2014coldfishie 1 Comment

Yup… yesterday was Friday and I should have been all TGIF corny like the rest of the world but for several reasons I was having a rough emotional day. Came home crying and reaching for the tequila. While I was venting to my Aunt about my day at work, Ike calls and tells me not to cook, and get dressed to go out for dinner. Very unexpected. Well lets just say because of my emotions we didn’t go anywhere, and I ate a bag of Garett’s Chicago mix popcorn for dinner and fell asleep. My poor husband ended up getting fast food.

So to make it up to him I decided to make him a desert. TEQUILA FLAN. The last time I tried making this flan it was a complete FAIL! But that didn’t stop my Aunt and I from eating around the uncooked flan and slurping away at the tequila and sugary carmel. When I decided to make flan a couple of weeks ago I looked at several recipes on Pinterest, and just picked the one that looked easiest- or so I thought. The recipe was all types of complicated, and I kinda missed some steps along the way which made it a bust. WOMP, WOMP. I couldn’t let some custard kick my ass in the kitchen so here I am trying it again, except with a different recipe and my own little twist.

I got this recipe from Nestle. and just tweaked it so I could add the Don Julio. I suggest if you’re like me and hate to wait, to make this flan early so that you can eat it later in the day since it takes several hours to set in the refrigerator. There’s no way I could wait overnight!!!! This was SOOOOOO GOOD!!! So creamy with a hint of orange, and Tequila not over powering at all. And to top it off the slice of orange turned into the sweetest candy. Definitely making this again!

Heres what you need:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 can (12 fluid ounces) Evaporated Milk
1 can (14 ounces) NESTLÉ LA LECHERA Sweetened Condensed Milk
6 large eggs
1/2 cup fresh orange juice (about two oranges)
1 tablespoon fresh grated orange peel
1/3 cup of Tequila
PREHEAT oven to 350° F.
HEAT sugar in small, heavy-duty saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes or until dissolved and caramel-colored. Pour onto bottom of 9-inch-round cake pan; quickly swirl around bottom to coat. Because I wanted to be fancy I cut very thin slices of oranges and placed them in the sugar.
PLACE evaporated milk, condensed milk, eggs, orange juice, tequila and grated orange peel into a bowl and mix. Pour into ramekins. Place pan in large roasting pan; fill roasting pan with warm water to about 1-inch depth.
BAKE for 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Remove flan from water. Cool on wire rack. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
TO SERVE, run small spatula around edge of pan. Invert serving plate over pan. Turn over; shake gently to release.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: