Better Oatmeal

I have been slacking in the kitchen soooo bad!!! Thought I would give a few tips for adding some punches of flavor and texture to your morning oatmeal.

First off I love the large flake oatmeal not instant or minute. Why? Texture and health reasons. You can go for steel-cut oatmeal too but it takes sooooo long to cook and I am damn hungry 😉 The hardier the grain the healthier it is.  The more natural foods are, the longer it will take for your body to break it down; this is also known as low glycemic index foods. Great for diabetics!! The longer it takes to digest the longer we feel full and satisfied and won’t snack in-between meals. Also if our guts have to work so much to break down all this hardy goodness then our metabolism increases and burns more calories!! Yay! Ok I know boring science food nutrition garbage! Lets get on to the good stuff!!

Here I have 1 serving of milk I heated up with a bit of orange zest till it started to boil then plop in your serving of oatmeal and let it simmer till it is cooked.

Off heat I added a few drops of vanilla, few sprinkles of cinnamon and mixed that up.

Put that in a bowl, now comes the not so healthy part but hey you counteracted that with the whole grains right??? Drizzle a bit of maple syrup on it and because I am french a dollop of butter!! Ahhhhh.

Ok what am I missing?? Lets get a bit of crunch going on in this bowl…. slivered almond, pecan bits, walnuts or this:

Take a spoon and dig in!!

And I took some pics of some latte art me and my hubby enjoyed the day before 🙂

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies with a Twist

As promised here is the recipe from my knitting class.  I was inspired by Egos and Buffaloes and her love of Orange/Chocolate combinations.

She has some wonderful baking recipes.

Ok so the twist is I put Orange zest and a squeeze of fresh juice in the batter.  It is wonderful! Hope you enjoy!

• Servings: 8
• Time: 1hr
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter
• 3/4 cups of sugar
• 3/4 cups of brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp of fresh orange zest and 1 tbsp of fresh orange juice ( I zested 2 oranges)
• 1 1/4 cups of flour
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• 2 cups of bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup of pecans chopped small

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream the sugars and butter together untill fluffy, add the eggs, vanilla, orange zest and orange juice. Cream well untill light and fluffy.  Take all the dry ingredients and mix well, then add to your creamy mixture. Mix just until the flour is incorporated. Add your nuts and chocolate chips and give it a few more stirs to incorporate them in the dough. Drop by heaping tbsp onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or till the edges start to turn golden brown. Let cool and enjoy 🙂

Orange Zested Macaroons with Dark Chocolate

Orange and Chocolate are a perfect marriage! Try these over the weekend for the holiday season!

Ingredients:

• 14 oz of sweetened shredded coconut
• 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
• pinch of salt
• 3 large egg whites room temperature
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• zest from one orange and 1 tbsp of fresh juice from the orange
• 1 bag of bittersweet dark chocolate chips (Ghirardelli baby it is the best!!!)

Directions:

Preheat your oven on to 350 degrees. Mix the coconut, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, Orange zest and orange juice together in a large bowl.

In a mixer add your egg whites and pinch of salt. Beat until stiff peaks form:

Don’t over mix the egg whites, they will get dry and gritty 😦

Ok so here is my trick to lighten up this batter and start folding the mixture together. I add 1/4 of the egg whites and stir them into the coconut mixture to “lighten it up somewhat” this will make the folding part blend better. Fold the rest of the egg whites in till distributed evenly.

 

Ok so you MUST, MUST USE PARCHMENT PAPER OR SILPAT! 🙂 🙂 Don’t say I didn’t warn ya! 😉 You will have to take a chisel and hammer to your cookie sheets if you don’t. And no…. greasing the cookie sheet is not going to work! Trust me I know and it is not a pretty site.

Truthfully it even sticks to the parchment a bit but I use a thin spatula to lift them gently off.

So drop them by heaping spoonfuls on to your prepared cookie sheet AKA on-to-the-parchment-paper. Cook for aproximately 15 min till they get a bit golden on the underside and bits of coconut will turn golden on the top as well.

Let your cookies cool for about 5 minutes before you move them off the cookie sheet and onto a wire rack to continue to cool completely.

Now for the fun part. Buy this:

 

Put some in a glass bowl and melt in the microwave on half power. Start with 2 min and then stir it:

 

Keep putting it back in at half power for 30 seconds till it is silky and glossy:

Then bombs away 🙂

Just teasing I place them gently on the surface of the chocolate and wipe the bottom of the cookie against the side of the bowl so I don’t have too much chocolate on the cookie. I try to keep a good coconut/chocolate ratio lol ha ha

Then you need to place them on a clean parchment paper to set the chocolate. Also I will mention that you do not need to dip the bottoms in chocolate if you don’t want too much chocolate. I would be happy with a hint of chocolate from the drizzle we are going to do in the next step but my husband is a chocolaholic!! A billion times over I must add 😉

Ok so I take a sturdy ziplock bag and fold down the top and get good access to one corner, so that I can put the remaining chocolate in the bag to drizzle over the macaroons. Take a mug and place the bag in the mug this helps hold the bag steady so you can use two hands. Make sure your chocolate is not starting to set in the bowl. Nuke it a bit more if you have too.

Ok take some scissors and make a TINY snip in the corner of your homemade, tricked-out piping bag. Pass the bag with a gentle pressure over the cookies to make messy lines. The more fluid you are with the motion the prettier it looks! Comme ça:

Store in an air tight container. Enjoy they are sooooo delicious!

Orange Zested Chocolate Macaroons

• Servings: 8
• Time: 2hrs
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 14 oz of sweetened shredded coconut
• 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
• pinch of salt
• 3 large egg whites room temperature
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• zest from one orange and 1 tbsp of fresh juice from the orange
• 1 bag of bittersweet dark chocolate chips (Ghirardelli baby it is the best!!!)

Directions:

Preheat your oven on to 350 degrees. Mix the coconut, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, Orange zest and orange juice together in a large bowl.

In a mixer add your egg whites and pinch of salt. Beat until stiff peaks form.

Don’t over mix the egg whites, they will get dry and gritty 😦

Ok so here is my trick to lighten up this batter and start folding the mixture together. I add 1/4 of the egg whites and stir them into the coconut mixture to “lighten it up somewhat” this will make the folding part blend better. Fold the rest of the egg whites in till distributed evenly.

Ok so you MUST, MUST USE PARCHMENT PAPER OR SILPAT!

So drop them by heaping spoonfuls on to your prepared cookie sheet AKA on-to-the-parchment-paper. Cook for aproximately 15 min till they get a bit golden on the underside and bits of coconut will turn golden on the top as well.

Let your cookies cool for about 5 minutes before you move them off the cookie sheet and onto a wire rack to continue to cool completely.

Drizzle and dip in melted chocolate. Allow to dry and serve. Store in airtight container to keep fresh 🙂

Easy Chinese Dinner at Home

My kids love Orange Chicken from Chinese restaurants and a lot of the time this chicken is deep-fried and overly saccharin missing the clean taste of its prized title “ORANGE” !  With an improved orange chicken I also make a very super easy, fool-proof yummy oven fried rice, and stir fryed veggies. The stir fry veggies is “the cheater method” because I buy the veggies in bulk at Costco. Nonetheless these veggies are delicious and I don’t have to spend an hour Julienning them!

Orange Chicken

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken
• 3/4 cup of orange juice
• zest of one orange
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3/4  cup of chicken stock
• flour for dredging the chicken pieces in (I add salt and pepper to the flour)
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 1 tbsp of corn starch
• 2 tbsp of sesame seeds

 

Directions:

First off I put a few pieces of the chicken breasts in a gallon size zip lock bag so I can pound the heck out of these bad boys! DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!! There is a reason behind my violence. The chicken breasts here in the USA are ginormous compared to the breasts I used to buy in Canada. This does not mean that Canadians are allowed to skip this step either! The pounding of the chicken thins it out and makes it uniformly thick for pan frying.  So grab what ever you have to abuse your meat. Grab a hammer from the garage if you have too.  Get your work out on! It relieves stress and it’s liberating to some degree lol.

This is your workout phase! Slam on those suckers!!

Ok I guess I got carried away!! lol 😉

Next we are going to make the orange concoction for our chicken so it has some time to develop all the flavors.

Mix together your orange juice, zest, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes,  and sesame seeds in a bowl.

Now I prepare a plate of flour for dredging and I add a bit salt and pepper. Oh ya looking at these photos it seems like I also added some onion powder and garlic powder.  Adding these to the flour starts the process of adding flavor to the chicken right away. Just mix the flour mixture up a bit with your hands or a spoon.

I cut these giants in thirds to prepare for cooking 🙂

Now dredge them in the flour mixture and heat a skillet on med-high heat with a bit of vegetable oil in the pan. You will cook them till you get some nice color on both sides. I cook them probably 3 minutes per side. You will have to do this in batches.

Tip: Once you drop the chickens in your pan leave them alone for the few minutes they are cooking! If you move them around and peek they will not get the great color on them and less color = less flavor.  So step away from the stove! (For 3-4 minutes anyway;)

Once all your chicken is cooked use the drippings to your advantage to add more flavor to your dish. I took a shallot and minced it finely, then added it to my hot pan and scraped the fond off the bottom of my skillet! That is great flavor right there 🙂

You will then add all your chicken back to the skillet and pour in your orange concoction we made earlier. Let this simmer for 10 minutes and at the very end mix your cornstarch with a bit of water to make a sleury and add to the gently boiling mixture. This will thicken your sauce up quite nicely.

 

Oven Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of white rice
• 1/2 cups of water
• 4 tbsp of soy sauce
• 4 tbsp of vegetable oil
• 1 package of dried onion soup mix

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish and cover. Place in a 325 degree F oven for 1 hour

 

To make this more like chinese fried rice you can add 1/4 bag of frozen corn and peas to the mixture and even add 2 eggs whisked  half way through cooking. Just add the eggs and stir it will start to scramble amongst the hot liquids and rice.  My kids are über picky so I can’t get to fancy 😉

Done! Bob’s your uncle! Let’s move on to the stir fry shall we?

I add a bit of vegetable oil to a deep skillet and turn on high heat. Add the amount you would like to make and sauté till warmed through. I also add a bit of Teriyaki sauce to the pan.

One Chinese inspired dinner done!

 

WTH!!

Absolute disastrous kitchen AKA my sous chef (my dad) is gone back to Canada!  🙂 I miss them already!

Orange Chicken

• Servings: 6
• Time: 1 hr
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken
• 3/4 cup of orange juice
• zest of one orange
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3/4  cup of chicken stock
• flour for dredging the chicken pieces in (I add salt and pepper to the flour)
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 1 tbsp of corn starch
• 2 tbsp of sesame seeds

 

Pound out your chicken breasts flat 5/8 of an inch or so would work.

Next make the orange concoction for the chicken so it has some time to develop all the flavors.

Mix together your orange juice, zest, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes,  and sesame seeds in a bowl.

Pour some flour out on a plate add salt and pepper to taste. Cut your chicken into large pieces.

Now dredge them in the flour mixture and heat a skillet on med-high heat with a bit of vegetable oil in the pan. You will cook them till you get some nice color on both sides. I cook them probably 3 minutes per side. You will have to do this in batches.

Tip: Once you drop the chickens in your pan leave them alone for the few minutes they are cooking! If you move them around and peek they will not get the great color on them and less color = less flavor.  So step away from the stove! (For 3-4 minutes anyway;)

Once all your chicken is cooked use the drippings to your advantage to add more flavor to your dish. I took a shallot and minced it finely, then added it to my hot pan and scraped the fond off the bottom of my skillet! That is great flavor right there 🙂

You will then add all your chicken back to the skillet and pour in your orange concoction. Let this simmer for 10 minutes and at the very end mix your cornstarch with a bit of water to make a sleury and add to the gently boiling mixture. This will thicken your sauce up quite nicely.

Serve over rice and enjoy!

Fried Rice

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 1h 10 min
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of white rice
• 1/2 cups of water
• 4 tbsp of soy sauce
• 4 tbsp of vegetable oil
• 1 package of dried onion soup mix

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish and cover. Place in a 325 degree F oven for 1 hour.

To make this more like chinese fried rice you can add 1/4 bag of frozen corn and peas to the mixture and even add 2 eggs whisked  half way through cooking. Just add the eggs and stir it will start to scramble amongst the hot liquids and rice.

Enjoy