Over the last few months, I’ve made homemade bread, a strawberry spread, and many other recipes. This time, I decided to go with something simple:homemade peanut butter
This recipe will require only three simple things: peanuts, a little salt ( if your peanuts aren’t already salted), and a food processor. You will want to take your food processor and fill it with 3 to 4 cups of peanuts and a little bit of salt. Once in the processor, mix on and off scooping down the sides of the processor container as you give the processor a rest during off periods. You will want to process the peanuts in the processor at intervals of 45 seconds on 15 to 20 seconds off to clean. Rinse and repeat for roughly 10 minutes until smooth and creamy. This is enough to make one mason jar full of peanut butter.
A labor of love
This is a great homemade treat that can be enjoyed in a sandwich with my sugar free spread and my low carb bread for a homemade pb&j, a base for homemade peanut butter cookies and the list goes on. For optional additives, you can add a little peanut butter for a honey peanut butter blend as well. Until the next time, dear readers, excelsior!
I’ve been bitten by the cooking from scratch bug in recent weeks. There have seen many recipes i have had a want to create over the years and have tried recipes from various regions of the country and a few overseas. I have decided to take on a challenge in the kitchen of which I’ve never undertaken: making bread. This was a beginner friendly bread that I created using a few simple ingredients: bread flour, rapid rise yeast, and pink hymilayan sea salt.
To start, you will want to heat 1 and a half cups of water on the stove. Next, you will need 3 and a half cups of bread flower to go into a large bowl. Once this has been placed in the bowl, you will need to add a table spoon of rapid rise yeast and half of a tablespoon of pink Himalayan sea salt
Dry ingredients ready to rock and roll
Once the dry ingredients are done the water should be nice and hot. Pour the water into the bowl and mix around until the flour is fully incorporated into the mix and form it into a ball.
I’m having a great time. A ball if you will
Once this is shaped into a ball, cover it and place it somewhere warm and let it sit for an hour to build up in size. Once that is done put it into a bread pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray and form it into the pan and let it sit for another hour.
Two hours later
Once the hour has passed, put your oven on 450. Once the oven is heated bake the bread for 20 minutes to completion and remove to cool.
Bonus tip: I forgot that scoring the bread helps the bread expand more.
Once the bread has cooled, you will have a nice loaf of low calorie bread. I let a piece of this sit, but this bread lasted me about 5 days before it started to turn. I would recommend eating this right away while it is fresh.
Even without scoring the first time the bread looked great.
This was a wonderful first take on making a new dish. I realized this was rather small but I am looking to make it into larger loafs for the next time. This makes a very good peanut butter sandwich and with no preservatives, it was the most guilt free pb&j that I have had in a while. Until the next time, dear readers, excelsior!
With spring around the corner, I figured it would be a good time to get a wonderful spring recipe together that anyone can make and enjoy. This will combine two of my favorite things: salads and Mason jars. This tasty dressing will male a fine addition for any salad or wrap.
To start you will need a few crucial ingredients: 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 garlic clove (crushed), 1 table spoon of parsley, 1 teaspoon of honey, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, a dash of salt and pepper to add to taste.
Once you round up your ingredients, you’ll need to get one mason jar to put in all dry and wet ingredients. Once all ingredients are in the jar, vigorously shake the jar to mix your ingredients, and you are ready to serve. This makes roughly 1/4 of a mason jar full of dressing. You can add more as you see fit.
The finished product
This dressing is very flavorful and adds a wonderful zing to any dish you pair with it. As the weather warms up I look forward to sharing more recipe ideas to share with you. Until the next time dear readers, excelsior!
Happy New Year, one and all. I hope this post finds you well and working towards your goals for this new year. One of my goals for this year is to create more unique recipes for my (and your) enjoyment. Approaching 10 years ago, I went to France. It was there that I tried various different dishes from exotic cheese, nutella crepes, duck, escargot, and orangina soda. One of my favorite dishes I discovered there was creme brulee. In recent months, I decided to get around to creating this delicate French dessert.
For this recipe you will need the following: 4 ramekins, 4 egg yolks, 2 cups heavy whipping cream, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1/4 cup of sugar for the caramelized topping.
First step heat the cups of of heavy cream in a small pot on medium heat until it is hot but not boiling.
No bubbles, no troubles
Next, whisk your egg yolks and mix with your sugar and vanilla
This is the desired consistency
Your next step will be to add the egg mixture to your heated cream while being careful to stir it at a steady pace. Once all the mixture is together, pour it all evenly into your ramekins about 3/4 of the way to the top. Afterward, fill your baking container with hot water until it covers 3/4 of the ramekins from the outside.
Pardon the mess, delicious recipe in progress
Next, in an oven set to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, place the baking dish into the oven for 45 minutes or until the substance is set with some jiggle to it.
Nice and spongy looking
Once the custard has reached room temperature. Refrigerate for about 2 hours. Once chilled, remove the custard from the fridge and apply an even layer of sugar to all the ramekins on top of the custard. Once coated with the sugar, torch the tops of the custard with a butane torch/cooking torch until the sugar has been rendered carmalized
It looked a little cold so I had the turn the heat up
Once caramelized, it is ready to serve. Amy leftovers can be stored for up to 3 days maximum. And there you have it, a lovely french dessert you can enjoy anytime! Until the next time, dear readers, excelsior!
The year has flown by at a breakneck speed. With days seeming to fly by at light speed, it can be hard to keep track of things, let alone take the time out to cook. In response to this it’s easy to get a fast food meal out, but of course if you’re looking to eat something healthy and quick there is a fun quick recipe I’d like to share for your viewing pleasure: quick and easy shrimp and veggie wrap with chimchurri sauce. I used a simple assortment of veggies, but you’re free to add more as your heart desires.
Ingredients needed
1-2 lb frozen shrimp (tail off peeled and deveined preferred)
1 of each: green bell pepper and yellow pepper
2 cups fresh spinach
1 pack of 8 count high fiber Wraps
Assorted seasonings: for this batch, I used Mrs. Dash table blend seasoning, pepper, paprika, Tony’s creole seasoning, turmeric, and garlic powder.
For chimchurri sauce
1-2 lb of fresh parsley
1/4 cup oregano
2/4 red wine vinegar
6 cloves of garlic
A pinch of salt
2 dashes of red pepper flakes
2/3 cup olive oil
Step 1 – Be sure to thaw out the shrimp if you haven’t already done so. Be sure to double-check your shrimp for any impurities that may need to be removed.
Step 2 – After the shrimp have been thawed and cleaned, place the shrimp into a bowl and apply the assorted seasonings listed above. Set the shrimp to the side
Step 3- Chop peppers into strips and set aside in a bowl or container.
Step 3- In a food processor (or by hand), finely chop the garlic cloves and parsley and, upon completion, place into a bowl. Once in the bowl, apply the oregano, salt, red pepper flakes, olive oil and vinegar, and mix. Once all mixing has been complete, set this aside
Step 4- Heat up your desired cooking oil n a large saucepan and add the shrimp. Cook until the shimp is opaque in color and remove from heat. This should take roughly 5 minutes
Step 5- Once the shrimp has been removed, proceed to cook the pepper strips to your desired tenderness and remove from heat.
Step 6- Take one fiber wrap tortilla and apply a layer of spinach, followed by the pepper strips, and add a layer of shrimp and finally a helping of the chimchurri sauce.
Step 7- Enjoy!
The finished product!
And there you have it. A quick and easy, nutrient dense, and savory meal that can be enjoyed any day of the week. Feel free to add and subtract your favorite vegetables as you see fit for even more nutrients. Bon appetite dear readers, until next time!
With back to school season approaching (or in some cases already starting), time is winding up for summer activities. With such limited time, back to school shopping, work, last-minute family vacations, and the like, it’s hard to take a seat and get some things done. In honor of the end of summer, I would like to present a quick, tasty, flavorful, and healthy: quick and easy chicken fajitas!
First, we’ll need chicken breasts (size will vary depending on how many you have to feed, but for this recipe, I used 6 Oz chicken breasts). The chicken breasts must ve sliced butterfly style, after which each half must be cut into strips. Once cut provide a generous seasoning of your choice (for this recipe, I used garlic powder, pepper, Mrs dash seasoning, onion powder, paprika, a little cumin and cayenne pepper) and set aside.
Next, we will want to get our veggies. I used yellow and orange peppers and half of a white onion for this batch. Cut all of the vegetables into strips and sit the vegetables to the side once sliced. After chopping up the vegetables, pour a light coating of vegetable oil into a skillet and cook the vegetables to your desired tenserness and set aside.
After the veggies are done, nexr we cook the chicken strips that were placed aside to soak in their seasoning. Cook the chicken until completely cooked through. Once cooked throughly, add in the veggies and mix well for several seconds and remove from heat. Additionally, you can warm up your tortillas to make them easier to roll up as well.
Once the tortillas are warm, take the veggies and chicken mix and apply a generous portion to the tortilla. Once the tortilla is filled use and topping to add to the mix to complete it (I ueed spinach and tomatoes as well as salsa and sour cream to top it off). Once everything is together you are ready to eat in no time!
This quick and easy recipe is easy for anyone of any skill to cook. This is a fun recipe to get the whole family in and is always a crowd pleasing dish that is also super filling depending on the size of the fajitas! Until the next time dear readers, stay healthy and safe. Excelsior!
Holidays are a pretty busy time of year for everyone. It is easy to get lost in the shuffle and neglect things. One thing one should never neglect is one’s diet and nutrition. Last month I gave you a nice dessert so let’s balance that out with a nice simple savory dish: bell peppers and beef. While this was anime inspired from one of my favorite animes (cowboy bebop) I assure you that it the style will be a little different.
For this recipe we will require the following: 1 bell pepper of each color ( for this I only used red/green peppers to start), 1/2 of a small onion, 1 lb of beef chuck (you can substitute for 1 lb of mushroom and tofu for a vegetarian option), assorted spices and seasonings of your choice (Mrs. Dash, old bay, paprika, garlic powder, and pepper were used here) and honey sesame sauce (homemade or store bought)
First, clean your peppers and peel your onions. Once complete, mince your onions and place to side in a bowl. Proceed to slice your bell beppers into strips and add to the bowl with the onions. Lightly season your veggies with your seasoning mix and set aside.
Ready for the fire
Nexr, chop up your beef into bite-sized chunks and remove any gristle or fat as you go. Be sure to season your beef (or mushroom/tofu substitute) and place to the side.
I found the beef
Next, lightly oil your skillet and apply your seasoned beef, and cook thoroughly. Once cooked, set aside in a bowl.
Ok maybe I went a little toooo light on that oil.
Next you will place your veggies into the skillet and cook until tender. Once complete set aside in your bowl with the beef
Cook until the veggies comply
Lastly you can either caramelize the honey sesame sauce in the skillet or add the sauce after depending on your preferences. Once complete, you’re ready to go! Serve with your favorite beverage, and you’re ready to eat.
The whiskey is optional
And there you have it. A simple and quick meal you can enjoy any day of the week. This makes about four servings with my list of ingredients, and it is very filling for the small serving size. Going into the new year, I wish you nothing but the best and success in all your endeavors. Excelsior!
The holidays are a wonderful time to spend with family and friends. This is a good time to eat all kinds of delicious dishes and for those who are fitness fanatics a cheat day or three for one’s diet. I have a simple holiday recipe that will be sure to leave a smile on your family’s faces: oreo cheesecake.
I made this once with just normal chocolate oreos but you can substitute with any oreo you want. This time I elected to use chocolate and golden oreos. I will list the ingredients I used: (for filling) 3 large eggs, 2 8 ounce blocks of plain cream cheese, 1 1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt, 2/3 cup of sugar, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, 1 table spoon of vanilla extract. (For crust) 1 3/4 cups of Oreos (any kind will do), 5 table spoons of melted butter, 1 tablespoon of sugar.
To start things off you want to make sure that the ingredients are all at room temperature to avoid a lumpy mess. Next, remove the frosting from the oreos and crush them and add the sugar and melted butter and mix. Once mixed bake this in the oven at 350 degrees for 9 minutes.
This was more tedious than it looked
While the crust is baking mix cream cheese, Greek yogurt, vanilla extract and lemon juice, sugar together in a large bowl. Add one egg at a time until the mixture is smooth, be careful to not over mix. (I will also add that I took an extra step and crushed up more oreos to mix into my filling for this so this was a bit of an experiment). By this time the crust should be done so remove from heat and reduce the oven temperature to 325.
It looks gross but it will taste good trust me.
There is an extra optional step depending on if there is topping or not (or depending on how much you care) of adding a one inch layer of water to a roasting pan. This gives your cheesecake a “water bath” to create a steamy environment to bake in to avoid cracking. (This is a step I normally skip because I never had cracking in my cheesecakes but I believe I should have done one this time)
Should have had a water bath
Once the crust is out of the oven, pour the filling into the pan and place into the oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until the filling is set and juggles in the middle like jello. Cut off the oven and Crack the oven door open slightly and let sit for an hour. Take any remaining oreos and break them into crumbles or halves and place over top before chilling for at least 8 hours.
The finished product, should have had a water bath but was delicious nonetheless.
The finished product was pretty good. I suspected I had a hint too much of lemon juice but it was different from my previous cheesecakes and a water bath could have been useful but it was a different take than last time I made cheesecake. It was still devoured by everyone for Thanksgiving so I will take that as a win. Until the next time dear readers, stay safe and healthy this holiday season. Excelsior!
This month I want to take a brief detour into another personal development skill: cooking. I enjoy it thoroughly and i find it therapeutic to be able to create new dishes in the kitchen. My latest culinary adventure has led me to a nutritious and flavorful low calorie meal: creole shrimp.
For this recipe you will need the following: 1/2 cup of chopped onion, 1/2 cup of chopped green pepper, 4 chopped mushrooms (I had chopped a good two handfuls of pre sliced mushrooms), 1 cup of canned tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon of oregano, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/8 teaspoon of pepper, 1 pound of shrimp peeled and deveined. Outside of this original combination for the recipe I also added 1 teaspoon of old bay seasoning, 1 teaspoon of Mrs. Dash original blend seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika. 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes and 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder to spice things up. I also forgot to get bell pepper so I substituted this for asparagus.
To get things started, combine all of the vegetables and spices in a large saucepan. Cook the veggies and spices for 10 minites over medium heat. In the meantime, cook the shrimp over medium heat for the same time with the seasoning blend from above. Once the shrimp has been cooked and the vegetables are nice and tender combine all ingredients in the saucepan and stir. After 5 minites remove the saucepan from the heat and serve!
Soups on!
Cooking is a vital skill all need to keep in their repertoire. This meal is a quick, healthy and nutrient dense meal that is low calorie and it absolutely delicious. Until the next time dear readers, excelsior!
Level up your life 