WE ARE BACK! 10 year reunion

Life recap over the last 10 years:

Ten years ago we started this blog as a way to practice our cooking skills to better feed our family and friends.  A lot has happened since our first post and (dare I say) we have made some improvement! Our lives over the last 10 years have included major changes such as:

• Kristen and Shawn got married
• We lost our mom to Scleroderma
• Megan adopted 2 dogs, Auggie and Lilly
• We both bought houses
• Kristen and Shawn opened a coffee shop/cafe with their business partners (where Kristen leads the kitchen team. See cooking improvements at work! :))
• Megan married Steven (and with him came a 3rd dog, Zeus)
• Kristen and Shawn welcomed their son, Parker!

We thought this was the perfect time to bring the blog back! We will continue to try out new recipes on each other (and our additional critics: Shawn, Steven, and Parker) on a monthly basis. We will of course post our failures along with our successes.

For this first dinner, we did a whole30 approved meal (Megan and Steven were on day 27 of their whole30 and Kristen and Shawn are supportive siblings).  Megan made a Roasted Butternut squash soup and Kristen made a Chinese Chicken salad.

Roasted Butternut squash soup by Megan:

After we decided to do our first sister supper in ten years, I looked around my kitchen for inspiration. I had a large butternut squash on my counter and decided to google whole30 approved butternut squash soups. I came across this recipe by Tastes Lovely and had to try it out! (https://www.tasteslovely.com/paleo-roasted-butternut-squash-soup/)

It was incredibly easy to make as all of the vegetables take minimal prep (no chopping and peeling and possibly injuring myself). I asked Alexa to “play soup music” as I worked and she put on a “Mellow Folk” playlist on Amazon Music (very inspiring). I did have Steven help me cut the butternut squash in half because that took a little bit of muscle but I promise I did the rest by myself. All of the other fruits and vegetables were simply cut in half and put on a baking sheet then drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.

I threw the whole baking sheet of veggies in the oven at 425. The veggies all had different cook times so I set 20 minute timers and took them out as indicated in the recipe. As they came out they were put right into the blender. Now, I am not sure how other blenders would do but I was fortunate to be gifted a used VitaMix from our cousin and it has been awesome! I added some chicken broth to the vegetables and they blended up nice and silky smooth. Highly recommend it! 

I did have to blend the soup in two batches because it would not fit into the blender all at once but it worked out well. After blending I transferred to a soup pot and added more chicken broth to get to my desired soup thickness. The soup then warmed on the stove until we were ready to eat it!

One other reason I chose the recipe that I did was because of the garnish! Bacon and roasted butternut squash seeds (think pumpkin seeds).  I roasted both with some cinnamon and they came out great. It added a nice crunchy bite to the smooth soup texture. 

The feedback from the group was all positive and even Parker enjoyed the soup! All in all I would recommend this soup recipe for a cold day (add mellow folk music for ambiance).

Chinese Chicken salad by Kristen:

Soup and salad - match made in Heaven, right? ;) For this recipe I did a quick Pinterest search for Whole30 salads. If you know me, you know I like salads like I like my ice cream: with LOTS of toppings. So I wanted to find something that would be filling + satisfying while also being Whole30 compliant. This was a WIN! https://whatgreatgrandmaate.com/whole30-chinese-chicken-salad/

Thanks to Trader Joe’s, compiling the salad was a super easy task! I just bought their pre-chopped romaine, cabbage and carrot  mix, and slivered almonds. I also picked up some dates and green onions (which I needed to chop, but that took all of 60 seconds haha). 

The “hardest” part of the recipe was making the dressing. But even that was super easy! I just put  all  ingredients in a Vitamix and blended until creamy. (Note: I forgot to soak the dates before blending, but that would make it easier to blend until  smooth, especially if you don’t have a high speed blender. There are chopped dates in the salad, so some little chunks in the dressing are not noticeable however. ;))

The recipe called  for “cooked chicken” without any instructions on seasoning or how it should be cooked, so I just chopped 4 chicken breats into 1” cubes then tossed in my go-to marinade  (½ cup olive oil, 1 tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp salt, juice from  ½ lemon) and let it sit for 1 hr. Then I cooked it in a saute pan.  This made more chicken than needed, you probably only need 2  chicken breasts and half the amount of  marinade.

Once the chicken is cooked,  just toss everything with the dressing and top with sesame  seeds. (Note: I did add some extra chopped dates because two didn’t feel like enough for such a big salad.)  Like I said, all around a win and I would definitely make this again. Honestly we will probably have it again this week because I have some leftover ingredients!

 

 

Let us rap

Sorry for the delay in posts! 2 weeks ago I decided to make Lettuce Wraps! I googled a recipe of the PF Changs chicken lettuce wraps and used it as a template. I didn't end up following it directly but my wraps still turned out great! My only issue was with the grocery stores! I went to 3 different places and nobody had iceberg lettuce! Is there a shortage I'm unaware of?? So I was forced to us green leaf lettuce which was kind of flimsy and fell apart when eating. The wraps kind of turned into a salad that you had to eat with a fork. For a side I made Brown rice noodles. I had never made these before and I think I cooked them a bit too long but they were still pretty good. I also made vegetable pot stickers. (And by made I mean got them from the Fresh Market and pan fried them) they were Delish! Overall I was pretty pleased with this meal! It turned out well for my first stab at Asian cooking!

Chocolate? Peanut butter? No cooking? DONE!

Oh My!  This was probably in my top 5 desserts we have made so far!  One thing that brings Kristen and I together is our love of Oreo desserts!  Yes, we are sisters, we love each other, we like to have fun, play games, and hang out with friends, but really...we love Oreos! haha So I was feeling like a dirt pudding type dessert. I googled pudding desserts or no bake desserts and came across this masterpiece. It is an Oreo crust, a peanut butter and cream cheese layer, a chopped Reese's peanut butter cups layer, a chocolate pudding layer and Oreo crumbs to top it off.  I mean really?  If this is what they serve in heaven, I'm in! :)  I will probably make it again sometime in the summer!  It is a nice cool dessert that doesn't require turning on the stove or oven!

 Here is the recipe link: http://www.letsdishrecipes.com/2012/03/chocolate-peanut-butter-no-bake-dessert.html#.UP2SSKVeNBI

PS. I used reduced fat oreos, light whipped cream, and light cream cheese and it was fabulous!  I haven't tried it with the full fat versions but I'm guessing you cannot really tell the difference.

When all else fails...Pasta!

Last week, I'd like to refer to it as "Hell" week?  Or "chicken with it's head cut off" week?  It was one of my busiest weeks for sure!  I felt like I was running around like crazy and did not even think to plan the meal I'd be making.  I was uninspired by anything I saw on Pinterest (which is absurd, I know!), so on my way home from volunteering at 5pm the night I was to make dinner, I stopped in the grocery store and made something up.  

I decided to get some chicken breast tenderloins and saute them with some green bell peppers.  Meanwhile, I boiled some veggie pasta, which I highly suggest because it is delicious AND nutritious! :)  I then added the chicken and peppers to the pasta and tossed it all with a fabulous invention of the Philadelphia Cream Cheese company...cooking creme! Here is a link:

http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/products/Pages/philadelphia-italian-cheese-and-herb.aspx

So all I did was put this creme in with the pasta and chicken and voila!  Easy dinner!

Cobbler, but better!

Sorry I am so behind, faithful followers! (if there are any ;))  So 2 weeks ago, when Kristen made the pot roast I made the Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Cobbler!  For those of you who don't know, the Pioneer woman is awesome! And all of her recipes look delish! (And the ones I've tried, are!) Her blog is http://thepioneerwoman.com.
So the chocolate cobbler turned out great!  How could it not, right? Warm chocolate goo and vanilla ice cream.  Fail proof in my opinion!  Kristen thought so too!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/05/a-tasty-recipe-grannys-chocolate-cobbler/

B for D (essert)!

Who doesn't love Breakfast?  This week I took a favorite breakfast item and turned it into a cake.  And I am so glad I did!  Cinnamon Roll Cake is now one of my favorite desserts!  Just like the caption written by the person who posted it to Pinterest, "It literally melts in your mouth."  This cake was so easy and soooo good.

Again, I took this recipe from a Pinterest post.  This cake is really quick and easy to prepare, and only takes about 30 minutes or so to cook.  There are not too many ingredients to it, and they are all probably ingredients you would already have at home.  One warning, it requires a LOT of butter!  This is probably what makes it so good and moist.  I followed the recipe exactly, but as I was eating and enjoying it I thought of a few variations.  If you like nuts, this would be tasty with some chopped walnuts or pecans in it.  Also, if it is served warm it would be even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  The hot and cold combo is one of my favorites so I will definitely have ice cream handy next time I prepare this dish.

YOU SHOULD MAKE THIS CAKE!  YOU WON'T REGRET IT!  :)

 http://cookinupnorth.blogspot.com/2011/07/cinnamon-roll-cake.html

CrockPOT Roast

Happy New Year!  Megan and I are back at it in 2013!  Hoping for a good, educational year in the world of cooking.  I got a crockpot for Christmas from my wonderful parents, so naturally I had to try in out our first week back.

This week I made the ever famous "stringy meat" as we used to call it (aka pot roast).  Deliciousness!  I prepared everything ahead of time, and what a relief it was to come home from school and everything be ready.  I combined a bunch of different recipes and things I saw all over the internet, and it turned out to be a success!

Tuesday night, as I was preparing my dinner for that evening, I started chopping veggies to put in the crockpot in the morning for our sister supper on Wednesday.  I definitely recommend doing this the night before because it took me a little while with all of the peeling and dicing.  Traditionally I have seen carrots and potatoes accompany pot roast, but I decided to add a few more things.  I did the regular white potato and three carrots, but added two diced sweet potatoes.  I also diced up a red onion and one celery stalk.

Pulling from a few different sites (mostly from the Pioneer Woman blog) I put together my own marinade for the pot roast.  I used a sprig of fresh rosemary, some dry thyme, kosher salt, 1/2cup of water, and 1/2 cup of red wine (malbec).  To prepare the meat, I rubbed it in kosher salt, then browned in a pan on the stovetop- 4 minutes on each side.  I threw all of the veggies and meat in the crockpot with the extra seasonings and liquid (and a little bit of extra salt) and cooked it on low for 8 hours.  When I got home, I turned it back on warm as I pulled the meat apart and waited for Megan.  I found out this type of meat is pretty fatty, so that was the only gripe I had.  Other than that, I was pleased with the turnout!  Megan isn't a big "stringy meat" fan, so I didn't get a rave review from her.  But Shawn and mom tried leftovers and gave me the thumbs up.  Here are a couple of pictures of the meal: