Easy Peasy Steak Marinade

Despite its obnoxious color, Rick Bayless is onto something with this marinade. I have a slight obsession with Chef Bayless and he has never failed me! This green yumminess takes seconds to whip up and flavors the steak (or any other meat!) quickly. I left it on our steaks for about an hour and it was delectable!

Easy Steak Marinade (modified from the great Rick Bayless)
1/2 cup sliced, pickled jalapeños
2 tablespoons garlic
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
Salt and pepper

1. Char the garlic and jalapenos over medium heat for 10 minutes.

 



2. In a food processor (or in our case, the Magic Bullet (R)), combine the juices, peppers, and garlic. Mix until smooth.

 

3. Prepare the steaks with salt and pepper. What I have been told is to overdo it with the salt to impart more flavor. I tend to overdo it with the pepper as well :)

 

4. Add the marinade to a Ziploc bag, then cover the steaks with the marinade. I kept our steak/marinade bag in the refrigerator for about an hour. I then let the combo come to a warmer temperature for about a half hour before grilling by leaving it out on the counter. Make sure your grill is nice and hot before you place your steaks on it to get those gorgeous grill marks! I was too hungry to take a picture of the finished product, but trust me - delish!

 

 

Ta-Da!! New Kitchen!!

Backsplash 101

We are trying to slowly upgrade our home on a budget. We started in the kitchen with a backsplash. When we bought the house, the kitchen was fine, but compared to the beautiful and open spaces in the rest of the house, it just seem OK. Wow, what a difference the backsplash has made. It has taken this barebones kitchen to fantastic. Check it out!

We started the transformation by clearing off all the countertops and scrubbing down the wall where we would be tiling.

 Then we added SimpleMat tile adhesive. This saved us quite a bit of money and time. We were able to do the mat over 2 days and not need to worry about it drying out overnight. Since we had a party to go to Saturday afternoon, we started in the morning and got about halfway through the mats before heading out. When we started the next morning, we were able to keep going with the mat and start the tiles.

 

 

According to the packaging, we could grout immediately. So, we grouted and let it sit for a few hours before cleaning off. We love the results! Not bad for our first major DIY project!  

 

 

 

 

Eggless Chocolate Cake

I am obsessed with sweets and desserts... I could have them all day, every day. It hit me hard yesterday. I found some chocolate cake mix, opened the fridge and low and behold, no eggs. After a quick search through a book I have with cooking substitutions, I found a flax-egg substitute. I'll be honest, I was very skeptical at how it would turn out - it didn't get as airy as normal, but we are also at 7000 feet elevation, so it could be that. I also didn't have chocolate frosting, only cream cheese flavored so I had to improvise on that as well.



Eggless Chocolate Cake

1 box of cake mix - I used devil's food. I think this would work fine with anything with some color to it.

3 tablespoons flax meal

9 tablespoons water

1 and 1/2 cup water (per package)

1/2 cup vegetable oil (per package)

Chocolate Frosting

1 container cream cheese frosting

1 package chocolate pudding

1/2 cup soy milk



I love that we can get Kroger brand out here in AZ!

For the cake:

1. In a separate bowl, combine flax meal and 9 tablespoons of water to substitute for 3 eggs. (1 egg = 1 tablespoon flax to 3 tablespoons water). Stir to combine and pop in the fridge for 5-10 minutes.

2. Prepare cake according to package, substituting flax for egg after it has chilled and thickened. Bake as directed.

3. Frost when cooled.

For the frosting:

1. Mix soy milk and package of pudding.

2. Warm the frosting for 20 seconds in the microwave to soften and make it easier to mix.

3. Combine frosting with pudding mixture. Stir for several minutes then let it sit for a few minutes to thicken.

4. Frost cake, add chocolate chips to top if desired.

Eggless Chocolate Cake

Homemade Spiced Garlic Bread

My inspiration for starting up this "blog"... aka recipe book... was Joy the Baker and she's also the source of this recipe. I made this a few months ago and we both loved it. I ended up giving half of it to our friends who had recently had a baby. It is a very dense bread that does so great with a soup, chili, or pasta. We had it with homemade potato and cheese pierogi.


Amazing Dinner!

Spicy Garlic Bread (from Joy the Baker)
1 cup water
2 and 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
Pinch of sugar
4 ounces butter, melted
1 tablespoon thyme (I used dried)
1 tablespoon chives, chopped (I used fresh)
1 teaspoon chili flakes
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
~4 cups flour
Black pepper
Sea salt

1. Sprinkle yeast over warm water and add sugar, stir.
2. Melt butter, add herbs, chili, and garlic. Stir.
3. Using bread hook, mix flour, salt, and pepper. Add yeast mixture, stir on low until ball forms.
4. Place in greased bowl and allow to rise for 1 hour until doubled in size.
5. Heat oven to 450.
6. Knead dough on slightly floured surface for about 2 minutes.
7. Coat a dutch oven with olive oil and place dough in the pot. You want to use a pot that is large enough for the cover to be placed over the dough. Slice an X in the top of the dough and coat with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil, fresh cracked pepper, and salt.
8. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 400 and bake for another 15-20 minutes uncovered.

Homemade Oatmeal Cups

I've gotten sick of eating pre-packaged granola bars at work for breakfast. They always seem to upset my stomach and never fill me up. I did a search on Pinterest for oatmeal breakfast bars and couldn't find ones with enough "umph" in them. I've added quite a bit of extra healthy parts to sub out some of the not so healthy parts.



Oatmeal Breakfast Cups (24 cupcakes)

2 eggs

1 and 1/2 banana, the riper the better!

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups applesauce

~4 cups old fashioned oats

3/4 cups flax meal

1/4 cup chia seeds

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 cup flour

~2 and 1/2 cups soymilk

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Combine eggs, vanilla, banana, applesauce, and sugar until smooth.

3. Add oats, chia, cinnamon, baking powder, and flour.

4. Add enough soymilk to make the batter a slightly liquidy consistency; it took me about 2 and 1/2 cups.

5. Add by 1/4 cup to lined cupcake tin.

6. Before baking, top as desired. Suggestions: frozen berries; chocolate chips; butterscotch chips; coconut; dried cranberries; any combination of them. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Blackened Chicken and Veggie Bake

I was in the mood for something a little different for dinner the other day. I checked out the pantry and found a bunch of spices and some potatoes. I decided to make blackened chicken with blackened potatoes and green beans. Holy, it turned out delicious and was so easy!

The green beans got a little dark, but still very tasty!

Blackening Spices (I used all dried spices)
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon fresh black pepper
1/2 tablespoon garlic
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme

Blackened Chicken and Veggie Bake
Blackening spices
4 boneless chicken breasts
3-4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 cups fresh or frozen green beans
Olive oil
Cooking spray

1. Combine all of the spices and stir well. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spray a 13x9 baking pan with cooking spray.
3. Add chicken, potatoes and green beans to pan.
4. Drizzle olive oil over contents of pan.
5. Add spices to top of chicken, potatoes, and green beans. Stir potatoes to ensure the bottom layers get some spice on them.



All ready for the oven!

 6. Bake at 350 until chicken is thoroughly cooked. I used frozen chicken breasts and it took about an hour.

Chicken Wing Sliders

I failed miserably at frying up some chicken wings at our Super Bowl party and we've both been craving that taste of home. So I came up with these delicious sliders the other day while staring at our pantry with 2 bottles of Anchor Bar wing sauce, a Franks hot sauce, and some bleu cheese dressing. We had some sliders on St. Patty's Day so one, two, six we have chicken wing sliders!


Buffalo Chicken Sliders with Bleu Cheese Spread and Cheese



Chicken Wing Sliders (Makes at least 12 sliders)

5 chicken breasts, frozen

1 bottle of Franks hot sauce

3 celery stalks

1 cup bleu cheese dressing

12 Hawaiian rolls

Shredded cheddar, if desired

1. As per my usual, stick the chicken and almost all the hot sauce in the crockpot. Cook on low for 8 hours.

2. When its all done, shred the chicken in the hot sauce juices.

3. Let that sit with the top off while you chop up the celery into tiny pieces.

4. Mix the chopped celery with the bleu cheese and the tablespoon+ of hot sauce you saved.

5. Cut open your rolls and toast.
6. Assemble your slider with a pinch of cheese, a spoonful of bleu cheese mix, and a scoop of chicken.