I’ve wanted to get into kale for a while. It’s one of those vegetables I hear a lot about, but don’t really know how to use.
Then I heard about kale chips. Crunchy, salty vegetable chips. What’s not to love there? All the crunch you want with zero guilt because if you eat them all, you basically just ate an entire head of kale. And no one can say that’s a bad thing. Continue reading
You’re going to notice a Nutella trend on this blog. I bought a jar to make some chocolate baklava and over estimated how much I would actually use.
To avoid sitting around and eating it with a spoon, I decided to come up with more creative ways to use up the rest of that jar. This cupcake was inspired by a crepe I love to get when in Paris – banana and Nutella. Seriously, best crepe flavor ever.
This is cake is denser than your average cupcake and holds up well to the richness of the frosting.
It was a cold and rainy April weekend in Minnesota. The type of weekend that just begs for ooey-gooey mac and cheese.
But instead of pulling out that blue box we all know and love, I decided to step things up. So without the fresh breezes and warm sunshine to distract me, and the theory that homemade, really truly homemade, is more satisfying and delicious than anything out of a box, I attempted my first mac and cheese.
And it was indeed satisfying.
This recipe makes me think of my friends overseas for many reasons. But the main reason is this guy right here. Nutella.
I first had nutella on a crepe with sliced banana in Paris. It was truly the city of love that afternoon. Me and nutella. Soul mates.
March and April are tricky times of the year. The spring produce isn’t really in season yet, but neither are the root vegetables of Winter. So if you’ve got a few less than fresh sweet potatoes lying around, like I did, here’s a way to use them up that’s both tasty and healthy!
This is a recipe adapted from Cooking Light, they called it sweet potato mac n’ cheese, but based on the sweet-potato-to-cheese ratio, and maybe the fact that I’m Minnesotan, I really thought this qualified as more of a hot dish*.
My sister named these bars. You may think the name strange, but for her it’s tame. And it really is accurate. These bars come with a warning: if you make them, you will eat them all and your butt will get big.
Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything…
Anyway, this recipe is very special to me because it is my first originally developed recipe! Inspired by feed back from my previously blogged Monster Cookies, I entered it in Kowalski’s snack foods contest, all entries had to be unpublished originals, but sadly did not make the final cut.
However their loss is your (weight) gain, because I can now publish the recipe I’ve been sitting on (literally) for weeks now.
Now, I put the puns behind me (ha!) and reveal to you the Big Butt Bars!
I’ve been on a goat cheese roll lately. Since I discovered I love this stuff, I’ve been using it in every way I can possibly think of. So when two good friends of mine threw a Super Bowl party, I knew this was a perfect excuse to once again whip out some goat cheese.
Goat cheese is delicious on its own, but when you pair it with something sweet and fruity it takes on a whole new dimension and makes it that much more tempting.
I work for a nonprofit called YouthLink. We provide a wide range of resources to homeless youth ages 16-23, one of which is an on-site food shelf to help them stretch a pay check, or use as a commodity to help get them a safe place to sleep for the night.
Now, our food shelf is an amazing resource for our youth, but if you’ve never had a kitchen of your own, you may look at a can of diced tomatoes, a bag of beans, and some chicken stock and wonder what the heck you can make with it all.
To promote our food shelf and all the wonderful dishes you can create with the goodies inside, one member of our amazingly creative staff decided to have a staff food shelf cook-off. The rules? All the ingredients had to either come from the food shelf, or cost less than $5. Continue reading
I’ve always been a fan of Super Bowl parties. Not because I care too much about football, I’m really not a huge fan although live games are fun to go to.
No, I like the Super Bowl because it’s an excuse to get together with a bunch of friends in the middle of winter, get cozy on the couch and eat a few snacks. The Super Bowl is sort of like the New Years Eve of February, and I am always for a good party.
This year, I went overboard (really this shouldn’t surprise anyone) on the snacks. I just had too many recipes I wanted to try, and creating a cupcake that tasted like an Oreo was one of them.
Today, I discovered my blog has topped 1,000 views since I first brought you Roasted Veggie Pizza. What better way to celebrate the milestone than with breakfast for dinner?
When I was little, breakfast for dinner was one of my favorite treats. Breakfast is my all time favorite meal of the day (probably because you can get away with eating things that usually qualify as dessert first thing in the morning), so getting it twice in once day was always super awesome.
I would usually beg for pancakes over waffles because my mom, great mom that she is, would pour the batter into any shape my little heart desired. And we’re talking anything from a dog, to an octopus, to people…specific people. You have not lived until your form has been immortalized in pancake batter.
The Culinary Capers 