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A Nutty Partnership

Written on February 21, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

I’m really excited to finally be able to share my latest blogging partnership. A couple months ago I was invited to be an All-Star recipe blogger with Peanut Butter & Co. I absolutely love their company and their products; peanut butter is something I don’t go a day without eating, and if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve probably gotten that sense.

The All-Star Recipe Blog is where terrific bloggers post recipes with some of the unique and flavorful Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butters. It’s been running for a couple years now so there are already a treasure trove of recipes to look through and be inspired by.

portabella-sandwiches-finished-serving

My first of five recipes is up today for Portabella Sandwiches with Roasted Garlic Red Pepper Peanut Butter Spread. Do check it out and subscribe to the All-Star Recipe Blog for weekly doses of delicious recipes from terrific bloggers. To see my contributions, you can look at my blogger page; I’ll also be posting about it here whenever one of my recipes is up.

And if you really love peanut butter, you’re in luck because there’ll be a peanut buttery recipe coming up later this week on this blog.

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Firecracker Guacamole

Written on January 23, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

The Superbowl is coming up; I only know that because The Voice premiers right after it and that’s what I really want to watch. Maybe I’ll sit through 3 hours of football or maybe I’ll just eat chips and dip the whole time and not look up at the TV; the latter sounds more fun.

I never really made guacamole before and my first time got off to a rough start: I confused jalapeno and habanero peppers. I’m pretty sure traditional guacamole has jalapenos. This one has habaneros which are a little spicier. I didn’t wear gloves or anything while I was dicing it and ended up sniffling for the rest of the afternoon; those little buggers are hot!

What makes this guacamole unique is that the onions are gently cooked. No one wants raw onion breath, especially at a party. Sautéing them in a pan in some water takes away that bitterness, and since it’s cooked in water and not oil it saves the guacamole from getting too oily. You can include or exclude the cilantro based on your preference; I can’t stand the flavor so I left it out.

Firecracker Guacamole

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients:

3 ripe medium-sized avocadoes
1 small tomato
1/2 yellow onion
1 habanero pepper
1/2 Tablespoon lemon or lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro(optional)

Method:

Peel and mash your avocadoes together in a large bowl.
Carefully dice the onion, tomato, and pepper. Add the tomato and pepper in with the avocado reserving the onion.
Heat a large pan over medium with a little water in the bottom. Quickly sauté the onion in the water for a couple minutes until the diced onions are semi-translucent. Remove from the heat and add in with the avocado.
Add in your citrus and salt and cilantro if using and mix all of the ingredients together.
Serve at room temperature. Store in the refrigerator for up to a day.

This wasn’t the spiciest thing I’ve ever tasted but it certainly wasn’t mild, either; it was right around my heat level. Just be careful to wash your hands after handling the pepper. Nobody wants to rub that into their eyes or worse.

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Nutty About Yogurt Contest

Written on January 15, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

Last month Stonyfield and Peanut Butter & Co. asked me if I’d like to participate in their Nutty About Yogurt recipe contest. I jumped at the opportunity since I love both companies and all that they do with their brands. The contest was to create a healthy breakfast option with Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butter and Stonyfield yogurt. My submission was Gluten-Free Pumpkin Peanut Butter Muffins with yogurt filling.

I chose to make muffins because they’re one of those breakfasts you can just grab and go. Sure, you can buy muffins at any Starbucks, but why do that when it’s cheaper to make your own? Plus, you probably can’t get something as delicious as pumpkin peanut butter or gluten-free.

The yogurt filling was inspired by those pastries with cream cheese filling except made lighter and healthier with Stonyfield yogurt. Because the muffins substitute fat-free yogurt, too, most of the fat in the muffins are the healthy fats found in peanut butter.

Please check out the Nutty About Yogurt Sweepstakes contest page and look through all six entries. As an incentive to vote, Stonyfield and Peanut Butter & Co. are offering $1.00 coupons to the first 20,000 voters and 5 random voters will win a prize pack. The contest is open from now until February 13th. Every vote is highly appreciated; thanks for reading and hopefully I’ve convinced you to vote for me!

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DIY Nutella

Written on January 9, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

As sacrilegious as it sounds, I’ve never really understood the fuss over Nutella. It just tastes syrupy sweet to me and I’d rather have a bar of milk chocolate than that.

I have had a few good chocolate hazelnut spreads, like Justin’s which is one of the best. I could sit down and eat a jar of it with a spoon. It actually tastes like hazelnuts since they’re the first ingredient and that’s what makes it so irresistible. But it’s also way out of my price range. Why pay for it when making your own is so much cheaper?

This tastes very similar to the Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter since the number one ingredient is hazelnuts. It’s very loose at room temperature; keep it refrigerated for something closer to the texture of a no-stir peanut butter.

DIY Nutella

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 1 1/4 cups):

2 cups(8oz) hazelnuts*
1/2 Tablespoon oil
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

*You can use raw or roasted, skin on or off. Ones that have been roasted with the skin off will probably blend into a butter the fastest.

Method:

Combine the hazelnuts and oil in a food processor and process until it forms a smooth hazelnut butter.
Add in the cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and salt and keep mixing until it’s uniform in texture.
Scoop into a container and keep refrigerated when not eating.

Next time I make this I plan on doubling the recipe; this just wasn’t enough to last very long around here.

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Chocolate Mint Almond Butter

Written on December 21, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

Have you tried Justin’s chocolate almond butter? Don’t because you might never want to eat anything else. It’s really terrific. I just love the combination of chocolate and almonds; I figured this could only be made better with mint, and I think I was right.

This is another super easy do-it-yourself gift for foodies(vegan and gluten-free!) or a treat for yourself. I can’t believe how good this is in the morning in a bowl of oatmeal. I used Trader Joe’s creamy unsalted almond butter to get things going a little quicker, but you can also make it from raw or roasted almonds for a fully homemade treat.

Mint Chocolate Almond Butter

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 16oz):

12oz(3 cups) almonds OR 12oz(1 1/2 cups) natural almond butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon mint extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Method:

Put the almonds into a food processor and blend until smooth and runny. If you’re starting with almond butter, skip this step and just scrape the almond butter into the food processor.
Add in the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and mint extract and blend until completely emulsified.
Scrape the almond butter into a seal-tight jar. Store at room temperature for up to a month.

If you want to eat this off of a spoon, I wouldn’t judge; there’s been plenty of that this week.

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Honey Vanilla Peanut Butter

Written on December 19, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

I really like fancy flavored peanut butter and almond butter and all those butters. The problem is they’re usually double or triple the price. Thankfully they’re so easy to make at home. This is a great DIY recipe if you want to make breakfast a little more special, or even a great homemade gift to give a peanut butter lover in your life.

Honey and vanilla go so well together, even better with peanut butter. I got tired of making this in single servings and decided to make a big batch so I could eat it again and again. You can start with peanuts or peanut butter that’s already ground—the recipe’s pretty much the same either way.

Honey Vanilla Peanut Butter

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 16oz):

12oz(3 cups) peanuts OR 12oz(1 1/2 cups) peanut butter
1/2 Tablespoon good quality vanilla extract
3 heaping Tablespoons honey

Method:

Put the peanuts into the food processor and blend until it forms a smooth, runny butter(if using peanut butter, omit this step).
Combine the rest of the ingredients with the peanut butter in the food processor and blend until emulsified.
Scrape into a seal-tight jar. Store at room temperature for up to a month.

I somewhat wanted to add more honey to this because it wasn’t quite sweet enough for my taste; then again, I have a huge sweet tooth and would turn everything into dessert if I could, so I’m guessing 3 tablespoons is enough for most people, although judge by taste always.

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6 Weeks

Written on December 18, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

Wednesday marked the start of 6 weeks of vacation. Relieved isn’t a strong enough word for how I felt. But I also know that I’ll get stir-crazy after 6 weeks of sitting around, especially if I don’t have a plan. So I wrote up a list of everything I want to achieve in the time.

Cooking

Obviously I’m looking forward to being home and having a full kitchen at my disposal every day. I have a laundry list of recipes I want to try out including pizzelles, mint chocolate almond butter, fruit cake, raw desserts and many more. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about what to post until at least February.

Photography

Photography’s become a new hobby of mine. Recently I picked up this lens on Amazon, which is supposed to be good for outdoor shots. I also hear I might be getting a lens from under the tree that’s good for food photography. Since I’m taking a class on photography next semester, I plan to play around with these a lot to get used to shooting with them and seeing how different lenses work(right now I just use the one that came with my camera).

Reading List

Let’s be real: I’ll probably spend most of my time watching all of Roswell on Netflix. But hopefully I’ll do some reading, too, so that my brain doesn’t turn completely to mush. These are the books I picked out that I wanted to read at times during the semester but never found the time to.

Fitness

This semester wasn’t great diet-wise. When I get stressed or depressed I eat chocolate and sugary foods to cope and there was way too much of that over the past few months. I’m definitely carrying around some extra weight I don’t feel comfortable with. Being without a gym for 6 weeks doesn’t make the situation much easier, either. My plan is to eat 4 balanced meals a day, minimize snacks, sugar and desserts, and try to be active twice a day. Some people might say, “Isn’t dieting for after the holidays?” I had more than enough candy corn at Halloween and pie at Thanksgiving that I’m ready to give up the sweets and get back to healthy.

That should keep me busy if I don’t get distracted by any Bravo Top Chef marathons. That’s a pretty big “if,” though.

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Cinnamon Honey Butter

Written on November 28, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

This week is all about Thanksgiving recipes. In some respects that was poor planning on my part, since Thanksgiving won’t come around again for another 51 weeks; but I hope some of these recipes you’ll be able to work in and enjoy for Christmas or other times during the year, like this one.

This was so simple to make it almost didn’t feel like a recipe at all. And yet despite how easy it is, the flavor is rich and complex. You could easily make this to keep around for breakfast on toast or dinner on squash. It’s kind of addicting; before you know it you’ll be slathering this on anything.

This recipe calls for unsalted butter; I think it’s always best to keep that in stock since you can always add salt later on. If all you have is salted butter, just omit the added salt in the recipe and it will still taste great.

Cinnamon Honey Butter

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
6 Tablespoons honey
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

In a small bowl, work all of the ingredients together until completely mixed together.
Scoop the butter onto a piece of Saran wrap. Roll the butter into a log and place it in the refrigerator to solidify.
Unwrap the butter and put it on a butter dish to serve.

When I made this, I licked the bowl I mixed it in. It was simultaneously the grossest and best part of my day. The end.

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My Marathon(Or Anytime) Playlist

Written on November 27, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

I listen to music whenever I’m running or working out. I usually listen to music and ~~try to~~ sing along when I’m cooking and think I’m alone until somebody comes by and wonders who’s killing a cat. And now I’m listening to music as I write this.

You’re not really supposed to wear headphones when you’re running a race, but I couldn’t stand listening to my own thoughts for 4 hours. That would drive me nuts. My strategy for long runs is always to distract myself with music that’ll get my heart racing. A good playlist is invaluable for a marathon to take the focus off the pain.

This is the playlist I used for my most recent marathon. It’s pretty evenly mixed between 3 different genres for variety. I put the whole thing on random so I never really knew what was coming up.

Top 40:

These types of songs are great because they’re usually up-tempo and kind of catchy. Plus you’ll probably already know them because they’re played on the radio every day.

Country:

I’m a big country fan. For the skeptics, I promise it isn’t all songs about dogs dying, wives leaving, and drinking too many beers on a Friday night. There are definitely those songs but they aren’t all the songs. I usually look for the songs with a good, strong rhythm that you could picture people in a bar in Texas line dancing to(not that I’ve done that… yet).

Alternative Pop/Rock:

These types of songs are really good for running in particular since the beat is so strong and they get your heart racing. I’m not a fan of the crazy, screaming metal rock like Metallica, though that works for some people, but alternative rock I find fun and invigorating.

Some albums to check out:

Here are a few of my favorite band and albums. If you’re looking to buy new music, I suggest listening to a few of these and seeing what catches your ear. Most of them are available to preview on Spotify.

Masterpiece Theater—Marianas Trench

Ever After—Marianas Trench(not on my playlist since it came out the day after my marathon, but I’ve been listening to it ever since)

Shallow Bay: The Best Of Breaking Benjamin—Breaking Benjamin

Incredible Machine—Sugarland

Various Songs—Miranda Lambert

The Singles Collection—Britney Spears

What are you favorite workout songs lately?

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Mixfest 2011

Written on September 18, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

I’m interrupting the regular foodiness of this blog to bring you something way cooler. Yesterday I went to my first Mixfest hosted on the Esplanade.

Growing up around Boston and a regular listener of Mix 98.5/104.1, I had always been aware of Mixfest as an awesome star-studded concert but never gone since tickets were usually pricy and hard to come by. This year, however, the concert was free. And since my friends wanted to see the concert just as bad as I did, we planned out a day trip to Boston and made it happen.

We got to the hatchshell wicked early(can you spy the Bostonism?) and had a couple hours to kill before the performances started.

Cotton candy was an obvious snack choice. I’d like to say I don’t eat it much but this was my second time this week. I just love sugar so much.

There was also a stand that sold just about everything imaginable on a stick and covered and chocolate which a lot of my friends got. I was really in the mood for cotton candy, so I stuck with that. But if they set up shop in Providence, there’d be trouble.

Finally Javier Colon took the stage, winner of last season’s The Voice. I admittedly was a Dia Frampton fan but he did an amazing job singing songs like Time After Time and Stitch By Stitch and hit some incredible notes.

Next up was Michelle Branch, which would have been the highlight of my 2000’s childhood. It was a blast singing along to her older songs; I was surprised just how many hits she had and that I could remember all the words.

After Michelle was perhaps the highlight and main reason we decided to come to Mixfest: Sara Bareilles. I saw Sara a few weeks ago also in Boston so I knew to expect a spot-on performance. She sings JUST like she sounds on her album and always gets the crowd up and dancing. An easy favorite.

After Sara was Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. Admittedly I had never heard of them before. By the end of their set though, I was a fan. She brought the most energy out of any performer and rocked the house. Her fans were equally as amusing to watch; for a second it looked more like Woodstock than Mixfest.

During her first few songs I helped myself to a dinner of pink cotton candy. I think I prefer the blue flavor, described on the bag as “Boo Blue.” Yum, how do I make that at home?

The last performance of the night was Lifehouse. This could have gone either way but they ended up being really good and closing the night strong. Another band that I forgot had a huge number of hits. I think I lost my voice somewhere during Hanging By A Moment.

Start to end, the whole trip was 11 hours long. And then we ended up back in Providence dancing to some very different music with a very different crowd for a few hours. Today’s going to have to be pretty low key to recover from it all.

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