Two For One {Recipe Redux}

by Emily

And one for all!

From the Redux team: We’re all about cooking once and eating twice. In short, double dinners are better. Show us how you take a favorite recipe already on your blog – and ReDux the leftovers into a new dish. Or, whip up a new healthy recipe and give suggestions on how to make it a second meal. For example, slow cooker pot roast could become shredded beef tacos; or grilled chicken breasts might morph into chicken salad.

Rather than stretching a dinner, I set my sights on dessert. Who’s surprised there?!

I am a big rice pudding fan, so my Chia “Rice” Pudding is one of my favorite treats. This chia pudding is a quicker (tastier!) spin on rice pudding. Chia seeds replace rice for a pudding that is still chewy, creamy, and sweet. And since chia seeds are a great source of fiber and omega-3 fatty acids, this is pretty darn healthy for a yummy dessert.

Sadly, my husband is brave enough for chia seeds, but can’t stand good, old rice pudding, so I usually am enjoying the dish by myself. For this challenge, I morphed the unwanted 2nd serving of the pudding into a quick and yummy cookie flavored smoothie that is packed with fiber. The smoothie got rave reviews; ironically, my husband said it’s the best smoothie I’ve ever made! It really does taste just like a liquefied oatmeal cookie.

Chia “Rice” Pudding

Servings: 2; Prep Time: 5 minutes; Cook Time: 10 minutes

1.5 cups skim milk
3 Tbsp chia seeds
3 Tbsp light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Bring milk to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Whisk chia seeds into milk and continue to simmer for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
Meanwhile, beat the egg in medium bowl.
Whisk brown sugar into milk mixture.
Slowly stream half of the milk mixture into the egg, whisking constantly so the egg doesn’t begin to cook.
Whisk the egg mixture back into the pan and continue to simmer, whisking constantly, for another 2 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in cinnamon, vanilla, and raisins.

The pudding does not need to thicken or set so it can be served immediately.

And the next day – – –

Oatmeal Cookie Smoothie

Servings: 1; Prep Time: 5 minutes; Hands-On Time: 3 minutes

1/3 cup rolled oats
1 cup milk of choice
heaping 1/2 cup leftover chia rice pudding
small frozen banana
(optional) 2 Tbsp maple syrup or 2 pitted medjool dates

Place oats and milk in your blender and let sit until softened, 3 – 5 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

I recommend trying it without the optional sweetener first and blending that in later at the end if you decide it’s needed.

How do you feel about leftovers? Love the convenience or hate the thought of a dinner repeat?

2Mar2015

Veggie Lovers Pizza Mac & Cheese + Browned Butterscotch Peanut Butter Recipes

by Emily

It was a low-key weekend – we never left Long Island – but I do have two legitimate recipes to share. They’re very good! Next weekend we have multiple city trips planned so I wanted to make the most of my free time in the kitchen.

This weekend I…

…Had a yummy breakfast at work.

An opal apple and chocolate biscotti dipped in coffee. I threw out the coffee as soon as my treat was gone, I just can’t do the hot stuff. I made up for it with several iced coffees enjoyed during errands-running on the weekend.

One of many.

…Enjoyed an even better work lunch. 1/3 cup rolled oats + 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries + 1 Tbsp chia seeds + 2 Tbsp malted milk powder + 1 Tbsp cocoa nibs.

Just shake it together and cover with hot water when it’s time for lunch. The crunchy chocolate bites were amazing; nibs are so much better in oatmeal than chocolate chips.

…Discovered my new favorite hard candy – Ice Chips.

Please note – Ice Chips Candy reached out to me about doing a review and provided the above product samples free of charge. I was not given any further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Ice Chips, which come in small chips shaped like shards of ice, are made of xylitol which is an anticariogenic sugar alcohol (i.e. eating gum or candy made with xylitol before acidogenic foods can help to reduce the formation of dental carries or cavities). Xylitol is as sweet as table sugar but contains fewer calories so two Ice Chip candies only contain about 5 calories and if you ate an entire tin – as I was tempted to! – it would be about 125 calories. <– don’t do that though, sugar alcohols give many people diarrhea when consumed in excess

The texture of the chips is freaking amazing, hard enough to suck on but they break apart in a really pleasing way when you crunch them. And their flavor game is on point – my favorite so far are Coffee ‘n Cream and Lemon, but I am really looking forward to Eggnog.

I also really liked this egg.

I don’t even care that I’m a month early, birthday cake is a stupid Easter flavor! It was really yummy though.

…Processed up some tasty (browned butterscotch)peanut butter.

All you need is a food processor, 4 Tbsp browned butter, 1 cup light brown sugar, and 1 lb roasted, salted peanuts.

I’m planning on packing the peanut butter with Greek yogurts for lunches this week.

…Drank a smoothie in the snow. Not the best weather for it, but smoothies are always good.

This one had (frozen:) blackberries, dates, and soursop puree, and Hint of Honey almond milk.

…Cooked green eggs and ~~ham~~ toast.

The eggs were scrambled with spinach and leftover mushrooms and asparagus from Thursday’s dinner.

The best buttered toast.

Inspired by The Pioneer Woman’s “The Bread” we butter our toast first and then bake it.

…Drank a killer strawberry mojito.

The dream team was Cruzan Key Lime Rum and Strawberry Minta soda. With frozen strawberries instead of ice to keep things cool without watering it down.

…Checked out The Little Beet at the newly revamped mall food court.

The new options were all awesome, there is a potato place that looks very unhealthy but very delicious. Adam had a cheesy meal at Melt Shop.

And I got a trio of charred string beans, charred kale, and buckwheat soba noodle salad.

The kale was soooo good, a little bit spicy and much more flavorful than the kale chips we make at home.

…Made gooey macaroni and cheese that tasted like a pizza!

Veggie Lovers Pizza Macaroni and Cheese; serves 4 – 6

6 oz short-cut pasta
4 cups chopped, cooked broccoli
1 cup sliced, canned mushrooms
1/2 cup sliced black olives
25 slices turkey pepperoni, sliced in half
2 Tbsp salted butter, chopped into smaller pieces
2 heaping Tbsp flour
1 3/4 cups skim milk
5 oz reduced-fat mozzarella, shredded
5 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
1 cup marinara sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Prepare an 8×8 inch casserole dish with baking spray. Mix the mozzarella and cheddar together and put aside 1 large handful (2 oz).
Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
Melt butter in a medium-sized saucepan (large enough for all of your ingredients) over medium-high heat. Whisk flour into melted butter to form a roux. Cook 60 – 90 seconds, whisking constantly, until roux has darkened to a sandy tan color. Whisk milk into roux and cook 1 – 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it has thickened. You shouldn’t have any lumps, but if you do now is the time to whisk them out.
Reduce heat to low and add 8 oz of cheese to the sauce, working in 3 small batches and stirring until the cheese has fully melted.
Remove pan from heat and stir in cooked pasta, vegetables, and pepperoni. Pour mixture into your prepared casserole dish.
Top the casserole with an even mixture of marinara sauce, followed by the remaining 2 oz of cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes, until the cheese has browned.

17Feb2015

Valentine’s Weekend

by Emily

Did everyone have a good Valentine’s Day? I hope you got a kiss from your sweetheart, or even better – ate some chocolate kisses and conversation hearts!

Adam and I had a fabulous weekend. Thank goodness for Presidents’ Day off, even though he worked a 30-hour shift on Sunday – and I spent the day sans pants, in bed, eating Thai take-out – we still had two days to have fun in the city. The best part of the weekend was probably Monday night though, we cuddled on the couch eating Chipotle and watching the SNL 40th anniversary show. I’m typing this post up while we watch but so far I am in absolute nostalgia heaven! Here are some of the weekend highlights…

We were not grumpy about getting coffee.

Adam is obsessed with their flat whites.

We made pink Valentine’s Day smoothies.

Frozen raspberries, plain Greek yogurt, fresh dates, and Hint of Honey Almond Breeze. Perfect blend (get it?? blend) of sweet and sour.

We checked out the Cupcake ATM from Sprinkles.

So cool, Adam loooved it. We tried the Cuban Coffee, “Belgian light chocolate cake topped with powerful dark roast coffee frosting and subtle notes of cinnamon and cocoa.”

I didn’t care for the cake but the frosting was wonderful.

We went out for a very romantic Valentine’s dinner of beer and Thai food. First Left Hand Milk Stout on draft.

Then we checked out the highly recommended Pure Thai Cookhouse. My Pad See Ew was tasty,

but for “Thai spicy” it could have packed a lot more heat. I did not even need this Thai iced tea.

We did try to get ice cream afterwards though.

Try being the operative word. I had such high expectations for Ben & Jerry’s new Speculoos (aka Biscoff!) flavor but it ended up being inedible; terribly ginger-spicy. Instead we made amazing sundaes at home.

Talenti cookie dough gelato, Girl & the Fig salted fig caramel, and chocolate-covered cocoa nibs.

We went to Serendipity.

I’ve never strayed, I always order the Summer Bries sandwich which comes with turkey, apple, sprouts, brie, and Russian dressing on raisin pumpernickel.

We tried something new for dessert, the Insanity Sundae.

Pecan pie, butter pecan ice cream, wet walnuts, whipped cream, and hot fudge. It was insane, we could barely make a dent in it.

Speaking of sweets and love – check back in this afternoon, I’ve got a giveaway coming!

23Jan2015

Weekly Wrap-Up; On The Mend

by Emily

I am still a teensy bit sick, but thankfully I am feeling much, much better than last weekend. Hopefully by the end of this weekend I’ll be back to 100%!

breakfast

My first day back, when I came in feeling just terrible, my coworker surprised me with a bagel with lox and cream cheese.

So sweet of her, and very serendipitous since I hadn’t managed to get coffee, let alone breakfast.

Adam drove me into work on Wednesday since he had errands to do in Brooklyn, so we went in early and made a date of it.

Doughnut Plant!

I got a coconut cream filled and a Valrhona hot chocolate. Plus we stopped for an iced coffee along the walk.

This was so much fun, I cannot even tell you; morning date for the win.

Yesterday I randomly woke up feeling sooo hungry so I pieced together a big breakfast in the cafeteria.

Coffee with chocolate milk,

and scrambled eggs, veggie sausage, and a croissant.

lunch

Veggie pizza from the cafeteria.

This was good, but it had corn on it which I found to be an incredibly strange topping choice. Not that I don’t love corn, but on a pizza??!

Wednesday I brought an apple and a Jarlsberg Cheese Mini (more on that in a minute…) from home.

Plus a salad from the cafeteria that I apparently don’t have a picture of.

Yesterday was another apple, plus an Apricot Ancient Grains Chobani with TJ’s Pumpkin O’s and KIND Banana Nut Clusters.

I liked the Chobani much more than the one with oats I tried previously. The pieces of apricot were quite nice.

snack

I don’t usually drink coffee after 4 pm but I ended up getting iced decafs twice this week because I was so obsessed with the idea of coffee flavor in the evening.

With skim milk and a splash of cream.

Another night we had smoothies for our creamy drink fix.

Chocolate peppermint soymilk with frozen strawberries and plain Greek yogurt.

Back to that cheese…

Jarlsberg recently started making minis and they sent me some to try.

For full disclosure I will tell you that Adam didn’t like the flavor (“too mild”) but I did, and I thought the texture was great (firm bite – you could squeeze it between your fingers and the wheel held its shape – but very creamy). 70 calories per mini wheel, for a nicely portable snack.

Caramel apple plate,

Caramel pecan popcorn and apple slices sprinkled with caramel cinnamon sugar.

I brought that adorable shaker back from San Francisco’s Japantown.

Related note – this salted caramel hand sanitizer smells beyond amazing.

Another souvenir from our SF trip, Ruby Grand dried nectarines from Frog Hollow.

Served on with vanilla shortbreads for a very fancy, only slightly Georgia O’Keefe-y snack plate.

dinner

An easy dinner for the first night I cooked after take-out for every meal all weekend.

Salad with honey mustard dressing, parmesan, dried blueberries, and sweet and salty pecans.

Eggs with sautéed onion and TJ’s canned mackerel scrambled in. Plus turkey bacon.

I cooked the bacon first so everything in my eggs was infused with that flavor.

Date night at Pequeña in Brooklyn.

We started with an order of the fried sweet plantains.

Pretty good, but I think I would have to go back home to really get my plantain craving satisfied.

I ordered veggie quesadillas for my entrée – Pan Fried Tortillas Stuffed with Oaxacan String Cheese And Zucchini, Peppers, Mushroom, Onion, and Squash. Topped with Salsa Roja, Queso Fresco and Cilantro.

I always cook my quesadillas in a pan, but apparently “pan fried” here meant legit deep fried quesadillas. They were tasty but also a bit ridiculous; I ate one plus the filling out of the other.

I’m writing this post before dinner on Thursday, but it’s gotten pretty late and I’m leaning towards a big salad and an old-school pb&j. 🙂

9Jan2015

Two By Two…

by Emily

…hands of blue <– name that show!

A short weekly wrap-up since my pictures were terrible, the two best from each category…

breakfast

I made wonderful coffee this week with the help of Grady’s Cold Brew Bean Bags. Paired with 1) A coconut berry smoothie.

Hint of honey almond milk, frozen strawberries and blueberries, and coconut butter. I love the way the coconut doesn’t totally blend in and you end up with little pockets.

2) A surprisingly good omlette from the cafeteria.

Eggs with onions and peppers.

lunch

1) A mix of seafood items from the caf made me feel fancy.

Tuna salad sandwich, lobster bisque, and a honey tangerine from home.

2) A snack plate that was actually the first half of lunch; I had Vietnamesse food at a party later.

Pretzels, turkey jerky, and cinnamon apples.

snack

1) The party was a goodbye party for my boss. I brought in cookies. Lavender chocolate caramel chip and my Smore’s Monster Cookies.

I ate way too much dough then stayed up half the night with a stomach ache/sugar high finishing the latest Kathy Reichs’ book.

2) More sugar?

I enjoyed these crispy m&m’s much more than I was expecting to.

dinner

1) Chipotle is always good.

White rice, pinto beans, veggies, corn and mild salsas, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce.

2) This salad, sans chips, was good too.

My take on a copycat of TGIFriday’s pecan-crusted chicken salad.

Copycat TGIF Pecan-Crusted Chicken Salad

chicken tenders
honey mustard – I used cranberry honey mustard which I highly recommend
chopped toasted pecans
baby spinach
dried cranberries
crumbled blue cheese
canned mandarin oranges
balsamic vinegarette

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Pour mustard and pecans into wide, shallow bowls.
Dip chicken into mustard, then into pecans, pushing gently to help set the nuts (I only coated one side of my tenders).
Place chicken on prepared baking sheet, naked side down. Bake for 27 – 30 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Allow to cool before slicing.
Assemble salads with toppings.

instagram share

1) I bought these cards to brighten up my office for only 99 cents at Trader Joe’s.

2) I made up a joke! Adam hates me.

Could you identify the tv show from the quote?

5Jan2015

Hello, 2015! Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

It’s 2015!!!

My new year is off to a good start; I rearranged a few areas in the apartment that have been driving me crazy and have even been to the gym a few times. I opened the year with a trip to the movies to see “Wild” with friends. We all enjoyed it, even those who hadn’t read the book.

I’ve done plenty of good eating this year too…