Quinoa Cakes

Serve on a bed of sauted spinach

1/2 cup quinoa

1 large zucchini

1 large carrot

1 large egg

Cook quinoa with 1 cup water

While quinoa is cooking shred the zucchini and carrot with a cheese grater

When quinoa is done let cool then mix with shredded veggies and egg. Add a little salt and pepper then form into palm-sized cakes.

Fry in a pan with olive oil latke style.

Hot Cocoa Cookies

So delicious that Professor Kropp ate the left-overs for breakfast!

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
12 ounces (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips,
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (about 2 packets) hot cocoa mix
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
18 large marshmallows, cut in half

In a small saucepan, melt together butter and chocolate chips over low heat. Stir until smooth and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together brown sugar and eggs. Add vanilla extract. Slowly incorporate flour, hot cocoa mix, baking powder, and salt. Mix in melted chocolate. Refrigerate cookie dough for 1 hour to solidify.

Bake for 12 minutes at 325

Pull cookies out from oven and press one marshmallow half down on top of each cookie. Bake cookies for an additional 4-5 minutes, or until marshmallows are softened.

Famous Hallah

A staple at college potlucks and Fringe exec meetings, this hallah is delicious, chewy, and a great stress relief. Next time instead of beating away at a kickboxing class when you're stressed just knead some dough.

makes 3 medium sized loafs:

3 tbsp yeast (4 packets)

4 cups warm water

1 cup oil

6 eggs

14 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tbsp salt

In a small bowl combine yeast, water, 1 tbsp sugar, set aside until it has risen and bubbled (yeast will start to smell, well, gross and yeasty)

Combine all ingredients except flour in a really big bowl, mix well

Add yeast mixture and mix again

Slowly add in flour until dough is no longer sticky

Cover with a damp cloth/paper towel and let rise for 1 1/2 hours

Braid (I'll post pictures of the braiding eventually)

Bake at 350 for 30-40 min

Sumi Salad

1 package green cabbage

1 package red cabbage

2 packages ramen noodles, discard flavor packets

1 cup peanuts and slivered almonds

Dressing:

1/3 cup sugar

6 tbsp rice vinegar

3/4 cup olive oil

1 bunch chopped scallions

3 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp salt and pepper

Mix dressing and pour on cabbage/nut mixture, top with broken ramen noodles

Peanut Chicken Curry

2 chicken breasts cut into bite-size chunks

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 heaped tbsp peanut butter

2.5 tbsp soy sauce

1.5 tsp crushed ginger (I buy the toothpaste tube looking pre-crushed ginger)

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tbsp thai red curry paste

1 tin coconut milk

1 tin chicken stock or water (measured in the empty coconut milk tin)

few handfuls of snap peas, rinsed and cut in half

Saute chicken with a bit of olive oil in a large pan until brown, remove from pan and set aside

Fry the ginger and garlic for a minute or two alone before adding back the chicken

Fry together for a minute or two before adding the peanut butter, brown sugar, and curry paste (If you're not on a food network show and don't have those tiny bowls to pre-measure all your junk in this might take more than 1 minute, that's OK)

Add coconut milk and water/stock and stir to combine

Lower heat slightly and let simmer and thicken for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally

Layer jasmine rice, then raw snap peas, then curry on top - the hot curry with cook the peas a little bit, but I like them to still be mostly raw and crunchy

Lemon Thyme Chicken

After weeks of seasoning my chicken dinners with pre-packaged seasoning mixes, the fresh squeezed lemon and thyme in this recipe was like a breath of fresh and delicious air.

2 chicken breasts cut into bite-size chunks

2 glugs olive oil

1 onion diced (if it's a big onion I'll do 3/4 of it, depends on your onion preference)

1-2 small zucchinis cut in half length-wise then slice

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 lemon, cut 3 slices out of the middle and juice the two end pieces

6-8 branches of time OR a bunch of shakes of thyme from the shaker

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

bit of salt and pepper

Warm olive oil in a high-sided pan over medium heat

Brown chicken, cook most of the way through, place chicken on a clean plate on the side

Saute the onion, garlic, zucchini, thyme and lemon slices for about 5 min until the veggies start to soften

Add in the chicken, stock, and lemon juice

Turn down the heat, cover, summer for 20-ish minutes

Serve over your grain of choice, I usually go for it over wild rice.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

Made these for the first time for Valentine's Day 2012. More involved and time consuming then a simpler or un-stuffed cookie recipe so save these for someone special.

Cookies:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 extra large egg
1 Tablespoon liquid red food color
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cheesecake filling:

4 oz cream cheese at room temp (take out of fridge 10-15 minutes ahead of time)

2 cups powdered sugar

a few shakes of vanilla extract

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set on the side.

Combine the oil, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until no brown sugar lumps remain

Add the egg and mix until creamy

Mix in the food color and vanilla

Add the flour mixture and mix until completely combined

Put the bowl of the dough in the fridge so it can harden a bit

Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth (if you use granulated sugar instead the cookies will still be delicious, but the inside will be grainy-er)

Place teaspoon size balls of cheesecake on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer for 2 hours

Take a chunk of dough and wrap it around each cheesecake ball - this takes some finagling, but try to cover the cheesecake completely with no cracks.

These cookies are pretty big, I baked 3 or 4 at a time on a medium size cookie sheet

Bake each batch at 350 for 11-16 minutes

Tuna White Bean Salad

Quick and easy lunch if you don't mind your breath smelling like tuna.

1 can tuna

1 can white beans, drained

1 package arugula

handful of sliced almonds

1 tomato, chopped (optional because my personal view of tomatoes fluctuates a lot)

balsamic vinaigrette

Drain tuna, put in bowl, smash with fork

Throw everything else into bowl

Eat

Sweet Potato Kale Pizza

OK, maybe I'm more serious about kale then I let on. But seriously the combination of the sweet creamy potato with the crunchy, tart kale is swoon worthy.

1 tube of pizza dough (one day I will take the time to make my own pizza dough and really take this to the next level, but for now I'm a grad student and providing myself 3 nutritious meals a day is challenge enough without going crazy)

1 large sweet potato

1 bunch kale

1 square of fairly hard mozzarella cheese (i.e. not the kind that comes in liquid)

olive oil

salt and pepper

Punch a few holes in the sweet potato with a fork and microwave for 5-7 min to soften up the insides. Let it sit until it's cool enough to hold and in the meantime...

Rip the kale into bite-size pieces avoiding the thick center stem

Saute kale with a splash of olive oil and a few shakes of salt and pepper until it's wilted but not all the way crunchy

Spread pizza dough out on cookie sheet and fold edges to form crust

Scoop out the soft insides of the sweet potato and spread on top of crust with a small rubber spatula (like how the marinara sauce usually is)

Grate a bunch of mozzarella over the sweet potato base

Top with cooked kale

Grate even more mozzarella on top

Bake according to instructions on dough, until edges of crust are brown and cheese is melty

Kale Chips

Kale is having a super trendy kick right now, which I would usually steer clear off (see OMG cupcakes are so chic followed closely by OMG donuts are so chic), but these are seriously addicting.

Salty, crunchy, healthy, yummy? SOLD

1 bunch kale

seasoning of choice - I usually go with sea salt and a bit of pepper, but garlic powder or lemon juice or cayenne pepper also work

sprinkle of olive oil

Rip kale into bite size pieces avoiding the center stem which is too bitter for me

Sprinkle with olive oil and spice choice

Lay in one layer on cookie sheet

Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes or until crisp (watch it when it gets close to 10 or they will taste burnt)

Even Better "Hot Pockets"

1 tube refrigerated crescent roll dough

1 granny smith apple, sliced

2 chicken breasts sliced thin

1 wedge of brie, sliced

Take the crescent roll out of the tube and roll-up one slice of each ingredient inside each roll. Arrange on cookie sheet and cook according to instructions on dough - make sure chicken is fully cooked.

Other ingredient combinations to try:

turkey, pesto, arugula

chicken, sun-dried tomato, spinach

hummus, red bell pepper, feta

Garbanzo Snack Attack

I realized that when I'm craving potato chips I'm really just craving something crunchy and salty so that crunchy, salty thing might as well be nutritious! See also: kale chips

1 can garbanzo beans

2 glugs olive oil

a few shakes each of salt, pepper, and paprika (or a bit of cayenne pepper, rosemary, thyme, whatever the garbanzos feel like they want to be dressed up in today)

Drain garbanzo beans

Mix with seasonings and olive oil

Lay in a single layer on a cookie sheet

Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes, stirring the beans half-way through

Rustic Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Did you know?

"brussel sprouts" is not a word, it's "brussels sprout"

Why would you have to pluralize brussels but not sprouts? This must be a French vegetable, I still haven't fully accepted that the plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac. Eh bien...c'est la vie.

This recipe is delicious and simple - only about 30-35 minutes including prep:

A few handfuls of brussels sprout/or 1 big stalk of it depending on the grocery store

1 package turkey kielbasa

1 handful-ish of golden raisins

1 glug olive oil

1 splash vegetable broth

a few shakes of salt and pepper

Put all ingredients in a cast iron pan or deep sided dish.

Roast in oven at 400 for 20 minutes or until the edges of brussels sprout get brown.

Amahh-zing Pumpkin Pie with Streusel Topping

The pie crust

1 1/3 cups of unbleached flour

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 tablespoon of fresh finely grated gingerroot

¼ teaspoon of allspice

½ cup of cold butter

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons of ice water, or a little more

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and spices till nicely blended. Next, cut in the butter till you have a coarse crumbly dough. In a small bowl, whip the egg yolk and the water together then slowly pour it into the butter mix, while tossing with a fork, till the mixture forms into moist clumps. Add a little more water here, if the dough seems too dry. Form into a ball with your hands and put in a plastic bag in the fridge for 20 minutes to overnight. It is good to microwave it for a few seconds before you work with it or it is hard as a rock!

The filling

1 15 oz can of pumpkin

Or 15 oz of homemade pumpkin puree

1 cup heavy cream or half and half or coconut milk (I left the cream out the last time I made it and it was still delicious)

½ cup of sugar

3 large eggs

3 tablespoons of honey

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

½ teaspoon of ground ginger

¼ teaspoons of cloves

½ teaspoon of allspice

½ teaspoon of nutmeg

¼ teaspoon of salt

Make your lovely ginger pie crust mix. Roll out the dough to the size of a 9 inch pie plate between to pieces of wax paper. Place the crust in your pie pan and trim and flute the crust to your pleasure. Stick in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and tuck the pie crust in the oven, filled with dried beans or pie weights and edges covered, to cook for about 10 minutes. Pour out the beans and cook for another 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool while you whip up the filling.

In a large mixing bowl, blend together all the ingredients for the filling till frothy. Pour into pie crust and bake 50 minutes or until the middle of the pie is still wiggly and the edges have set. (While the pie is baking mix up the streusel.) Sprinkle the streusel topping on it and bake for another 10 or 15 minutes till the streusel is golden brown.

The streusel

½ cup of unbleached flour

¼ cup of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of ground ginger

¼ cup of butter

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

½ cup chopped pecans

¼ cup crystallized ginger, chopped fine (optional)

Whisk together the flour and spices. Cut the butter into small pieces and work into the flour till it is crumbly. Stir in the pecans and ginger, then sprinkle on the pie and bake as directed. You can never have enough streusel!