Ginger-Lime Shrimp Stir-Fry

So, I seem to be on a citrus kick at the moment. First orange juice chicken, then chutney curried chicken, and now this? Crazy, I know! At least I changed to lime and shrimp instead of orange and chicken. After this, we'll be going to some different flavor. :)

Hooray for stir-fries! It's ready in minutes and is really flexible in terms of which ingredients you can use. :) I chose shrimp this time because I was craving seafood and my veggies this time around were mushrooms, onions and asparagus and broccoli. I might omit the mushrooms next time because they didn't quite pair with lime well, but the dish was tasty over all! 

Quick note: if you use a rice cooker like me, be sure to start your rice before doing any prep work for the stir-fry! Rice takes 35-40 minutes to cook and you want it to be done when your stir-fry is done.

Another note: try to cook your veggies and meat in a logical order. Things like chicken and onions take a lot longer to cook than shrimp or broccoli - I've included my cooking order here. Just keep an eye on your veggies so none are too undercooked or too mushy!

Ginger-Lime Shrimp Stir-Fry

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 7-9 shrimp, peeled and with tails removed
• Canola oil
• 1-1.5 c. uncooked vegetables (onions, broccoli, asparagus, and mushrooms used here)
• 1 c. cooked rice
• One lime
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/2 T. soy sauce
• 3 T. brown sugar
• 1 t. grated fresh ginger
• Garlic salt and pepper, to taste.

Before you start:Juice and zest your lime. Cook your rice! Chop up your veggies into bite-sized pieces.

Recipe
Combine lime juice and zest, water, soy sauce, brown sugar, and ginger in a small bowl. Set aside.

Heat a tablespoon or two of canola oil in a large pan or wok to high.
Add onions and mushrooms, and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add broccoli and asparagus, then cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.
Add shrimp, and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add garlic salt and pepper to taste.
Add the sauce and bring to a boil. Simmer for a few minutes until the sauce is thickened. Serve immediately over hot cooked rice.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Curried Chutney Chicken

What a quiet weekend it has been! And what better way to cure the boredom of a quiet weekend than to cook?

I inherited a slow-cooker from my great-aunt when she moved into an assisted living facility. She was a phenomenal cook, especially when it came to baking. So, when we went through her kitchen, we were amazed by how much she had in terms of baking supplies! Bundt pans, muffin tins, casserole dishes, and all sorts of cool gadgets. I ended up taking her slow-cooker home with me, thinking that it would be really handy to have while I'm taking classes. I could let it cook all day and then I would have fresh and hot dinner waiting for me at home. Sounds lovely, right?

Of course, I ironically had never found enough time before to make dinner. But I figured I should put my slow-cooker to good use! I was a little worried that it wouldn't turn out right because I have a slow cooker with non-standard heat settings, and because I halved the recipe. Plus, slow cookers apparently have a reputation for making mushy food. But this turned out great! It had flavor without being tremendously spicy, and even my sister's notoriously picky boyfriend enjoyed it! I topped mine with some toasted coconut for an extra crunch...you can make it yourself by toasting unsweetened shredded coconut in a dry pan for a few minutes until brown.

A quick note here: I'm going to provide the recipe with all of my changes, so you might want to keep an eye on the cook time if you're using a normal slow-cooker like a crock pot.  

 

Curried Chutney Chicken

Adapted from:Best-Loved Slow Cooker Recipes

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

• Low-fat yogurt (optional)
• 1 t. curry powder
• 1/2 t. garlic salt
• dash of cayenne
• 2 medium-large chicken breasts
• 1 small onion
• 6 T. mango chutney
• 1/2 T. lime juice
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 T. cornstarch
• 1 t. water
• 2 c. hot cooked linguini noodles
• 1/2 c. orange juice

Before you start:Dice your onion

Recipe

Place yogurt in paper towel-lined strainer over a bowl, and drain until serving time.
Combine curry powder, garlic salt, and cayenne, and sprinkle them over the chicken breasts.
Put the diced onion into the crock pot and top with chicken breasts. 
Combine chutney, lime juice, and minced garlic, and spoon over chicken.
Cover, and cook on heat level 2 (medium-low heat) for 3-3 1/2 hours or until chicken is tender and cooked through.
Transfer chicken to a serving platter and cover with foil to keep warm. 
Transfer liquid and onions into a small pot. Dissolve cornstarch in water, then add to the mixture along with orange juice. Simmer over medium heat until sauce has thickened.
Add linguine to the sauce and stir for about a minute until combined, then serve with chicken on top.
If desired, add yogurt or top with peanuts, toasted coconut, or cilantro.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Orange Juice Chicken

So, this was a recipe for "Orange Chicken". I know that whenever I think of orange chicken, I start longing for that Chinese restaurant special, especially Panda Express's. Mmmm. So, I was hoping for something along those lines.

This one is not that, I'm sorry to say. It's not breaded or fried, so it's healthy for you...therefore, it tastes nothing like the Chinese food version. I was disappointed too! A little. I feel that this is more like "Orange Juice Chicken". Therefore, the recipe has been renamed.

Be not dismayed, though! (Hello, William Shakespeare...) This is tasty! The chicken is moist and the orange sauce is nice. Plus, it's super-easy to make! So, let's get started.

 

Orange Juice Chicken

Adapted from: The Healthy College Cookbook

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 t. dijon mustard
• 2 T. brown sugar
• 1 small onion
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 c. orange juice
• 1 t. butter
• 2 c. cooked rice

Before you start: Dice your onion into small pieces mince your garlic. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

Recipe

Season each chicken breast with salt and pepper, spread one teaspoon mustard over each, and put them in a baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
Cover the chicken with the onions and garlic, then pour the orange juice over the top. Place 1/2 t. butter by each chicken breast.
Bake the chicken for 25 minutes.
Remove the chicken from the oven, flip the breasts over, and sprinkle brown sugar evenly over each piece. Bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Serve each chicken breast with 1/2 of the onions over 1 cup cooked rice.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Baked Coconut Shrimp with Peach Pineapple Salsa

I so wish I could claim credit for this recipe, as it was delicious! Alas, I cannot. This is from the great mind behind How Sweet It Is, an incredibly amusing and delicious-looking blog. Her name is Jessica, and she's incredibly entertaining! This is my favorite blog of the moment. She has a great sense of humor and a love for sugar, chocolate, and bacon. Sounds familiar, right? :) Anyway, I love her stuff and really wanted to try a recipe of hers. This was recently posted so I felt I had to give it a try.

I am a coconut shrimp fanatic. I LOVE it! Especially at Red Lobster, with the pina colada dipping sauce? Perfection. I was ordering that puppy before it was even offered as an entree. Appetizers for dinner are perfectly acceptable, especially if they are a) loaded baked potato skins or b) coconut shrimp. I like sweetness in every meal if I can manage it, so the coconut paired with some sort of fruity dipping sauce always has a place in my heart.

The problem with coconut shrimp? It's so fried! I will pan-fry things in a little bit of oil at home, but deep-frying at home is just a little too decadent for my taste. So, I prefer to just order it out, when I let someone else do the guilt-inducing part for me.

But this is great! It's baked and served with fresh fruit instead of french fries, so I had no excuse. So I made it. And it was yummy. Go try it now!

Pineapple: A Dissection

Happy Father's Day! I wish I could be home and celebrating with my dad, but I'll be back soon enough. My dad is an excellent cook - he tends to stick to grilling while my mom does the baking and side preparation, but everything he makes is delicious. :) He's also a really adventurous eater like me, so we usually go and try ethnic food places together. We have similar tastes in a lot of things, and food is one of them!

My dad has taught me some very valuable skills over the years, like how to sautee mushrooms and how to make lemon icebox pie. One of the most oft-used skills I have to thank him for, though, is slicing a pineapple. I LOVE pineapple - it's my favorite fruit. I like it because it's sweet without being really tart, and it's packed with flavor (unlike melons, which I take issue with. I know, my family doesn't understand, either). Pineapples usually look really intimidating and spiky, so it seems easier to just buy pre-sliced containers to enjoy. Really, though, it's much better to slice your own. Buying a pineapple whole will give you twice the pineapple for half the price, and then you can ensure it's really really ripe. Delicious!

So, what do you need for this project? Just a pineapple, a large knife (the one you'd normally use to chop vegetables), a cutting board, and some tupperware to store it in. As far as the pineapple is concerned, you want to make sure it's really fresh. Look for pineapples that are mostly yellow! Green ones are underripe, and even if you give it a few days to ripen at home it will usually skip yellow and just turn brown. If you're not sure if you have a ripe pineapple, smell it. It should smell really fruity and sweet when ripe.

Next, lay the pineapple on its side and use your knife to cut off the top and bottom of the pineapple. Looks can be deceiving, but the pineapple is really not too hard to cut through - the skin is not tough at all. 

Set your pineapple back on its bottom (or top if the cut is straighter that way), and start slicing off the rest of the skin. You can cut off 2-inch sections at a time, and just cut about 1/4 inch into the pineapple and it should take off the outer layer. Do this all the way around the pineapple. If it's a really close shave, you may end up with brown "pores" left. Those are really tough, so be sure to shave all of those off!

So, now the hardest part is done! All that's left is to cut out the core - it's really kind of woody and chewy and has very little flavor so you want to remove it. There are such things as pineapple corers, but you don't need anything so fancy. Just slice all the way through your pineapple and work with a half at a time to make it easier on yourself.

Slice each half into wedges - I like mine to be about 1" in thickness at the widest, and I usually get 5-6 wedges out of each half. Stand the wedge up on its side, and then slice out the bit of core at the tip. It's generally lighter in color than the rest of the fruit, and if you just take 1/2" off of the tip you should get it all! This will slice really easily because the fruit is very soft.

Now, just slice the remaining wedge into bite-sized pieces and store! Fresh pineapple will keep in the fridge for about a week, maybe a little longer depending on how ripe your fruit is. And you're done! It only takes about 10 minutes and you get a ton of pineapple out of it!

What can you do with it, you ask? Lots! You can bake them into desserts or mix them into fruit salads or cook/grill them with a little bit of brown sugar for a piece of heaven. Or, you could do what I do and just eat it all fresh! 

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

Ah, carbonara. Probably one of my favorite Italian dishes! And carbonara and I have had a long and lovely relationship - we've run into one another all over the world!

My first introduction to carbonara was probably in the US somewhere, and I loved the dish for its simplicity. Pasta, bacon, cream sauce. How can you go wrong? Quiznos has a carbonara sub with mushrooms that is to die for, proof that carbonara is good in any form. Mmmm.

In Italy, I actually went to the restaurant credited with inventing carbonara. Of course, considering the fact that every gelato place in Rome seems to claim it is responsible for that tasty treat, I'm not sure how authentic that is. However, the main point to this is that carbonara in Italy is delicious. It's simpler, in that it has no bacon and a really light, barely-there sauce. But still, tasty.

Surprisingly, even when I was abroad, studying in Japan, carbonara made an appearance. The Japanese are masters of making instant meals that are actually really tasty. Forget the instant ramen we have here. Japanese instant food is fantastic, and has never steered me wrong. When I was at the grocery store for the first time, I saw an instant carbonara bowl. How could I not try it? It was an excellent decision, by the way! It rivaled the flavor of pasta I've ordered in restaurants (no, really). I had that for lunch roughly once a week for the whole time I was abroad. 

So, now that I have the power to make my own carbonara, I had to give it a try! I added a little extra to the recipe, since I felt that minced garlic is sort of a requirement when cooking Italian food. Without further ado, here you go! 

Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

Source: Everyday Italian

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb. dry spaghetti (about 1 large handful)
• 1 T. olive oil
• 4 slices bacon
• 2 eggs
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2.5 T. half and half
• 2 T. grated parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

Before you start:Chop your bacon slices into small pieces and peel and mince your garlic cloves. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add a lot of salt.

Recipe

Add pasta to boiling water and cook until tender.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet, and add bacon. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, then add garlic. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until crisp, then remove from heat.
In a small bowl, beat eggs, half and half, and salt and pepper until combined.
When pasta is done, drain and put back into pot. Add bacon and garlic and olive oil along with the egg mixture and 1 T. parmesan cheese. Whisk well for a few minutes to cook the egg.
Serve immediately with parmesan cheese on top.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

With love comes sacrifices. Everyone knows that, right? When you're in a relationship, sometimes you have to do things like pass up a night with your friends to help your sweetie through a tough time, or put up with an afternoon of watching something that you're really not into to make your significant other happy. But that's not so bad, right? Every now and then you have to give, not just take - fair's fair.

This is worse. I promise. 

I had to make my boyfriend oatmeal raisin cookies. :(

Because we live so far apart, I've gotten into the habit of sending him baked goods roughly once a month. Not only is it a way to show I care, but it also gives me an excuse to bake more. :D So, we were talking one night and I asked him what his favorite type of cookie was, so I could make them for him and send them. And, of course, he had to pick the one type of cookie I don't like. *sigh*

I have nothing against dried fruit, really. Cranberries, blueberries, mangoes? Yum. And grapes are tasty, too. But there's something about raisins I really don't like. Especially in cookies. I avoided oatmeal cookies for a long time because I was always afraid I would pick up one, thinking it was chocolate chip, and be sorely disappointed.

Despite my dislike of raisins, I decided I had to overcome it so I could make these cookies. After all, they weren't staying with me, so I figured it would be fine. They turned out really well! I ended up trying one (for quality control, of course), and actually liked it! Shocking, I know. Don't tell anyone, ok?

Long story short, this cookie recipe is so great it can make oatmeal raisin cookies yummy! So try it!  

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Source:The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

Makes about 20 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 sticks + 2 T. butter
• 3/4 c. white sugar
• 3/4 c. packed dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 t. vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 c. flour
• 1 t. salt
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
• 1 c. rolled oats
• 1 1/3 c. raisins

Before you start:Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and make sure your butter is at room temperature.

Recipe

Cream the butter and sugars with a hand mixer until fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl and beating after each addition.
Add the vanilla and mix in slowly.
In a separate bowl, sift together the cinnamon, baking soda, flour, and salt. Add the oats and mix well. 
Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat until well-mixed.
Fold in raisins.
Drop equal amounts of dough onto your baking sheets, and bake for 12 minutes - they should be firm and barely golden.
Cool completely.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Cinnamon Blondies

Hi! I hope you all are well. :)

So, desserts are most definitely my biggest weakness - I have an enormous sweet tooth! And I had a craving for blond brownies. Don't get me wrong, I love the normal variety of brownies (especially the Ghirardelli boxed variety - there is no shame in making boxed brownies when they turn out so well! I'll get around to learning to make from scratch eventually), but sometimes I'm not too keen on a chocolate overload. I tend to like my chocolate pure, as in chocolate bars or kisses (or brownies) - things like chocolate-covered donuts and chocolate ice cream really don't do it for me. 

One flavor I will never get tired of, though, is cinnamon. It's in some of my favorite things! Mexican hot chocolate, apple cider, apple pie, spice cake, pumpkin bread, and the list goes on. It has that lovely flavor of fall (which is such a good season!), and when you combine it with sugar, it's heavenly - especially on things like cinnamon toast! 

In my wanderings on Stumble, I found a recipe for Cinnamon Blondies by The Kitchenarian, and I was immediately hooked. They sounded wonderful, and right up my alley! And the blogger had to include this phrase: "dense and buttery with a hint of cinnamon". Oh. My. Goodness. I almost went and made them as soon as I found the link (which would have been unfortunate for my parents, since it was at 11:30 at night...), but I certainly didn't waste much time in getting around to them! And they were dreamy and delicious. My sister and I devoured the entire pan in an embarrassingly small number of days.

Mine are a little thin because I didn't have an 8x8 pan, but still wonderful. If you want the recipe, check it out here! Also note the beautiful, drool-worthy pictures (that are way better than mine). :D 

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Chicken Pecan Casserole

Hi! I hope your weekend is going well! Mine has been nice and relaxing, just as weekends at home should be. :)

This recipe comes from the Texas Pecan Cookbook. In case you were wondering, Texans love their pecans! The Pecan Tree is the state tree, probably because it's one of the few that can stand the constant heat. My great aunts had huge pecan trees in their backyard, and we would always go out to harvest them around Thanksgiving and Christmas. My dad is especially fanatical about them - he wants them included in every dessert that is made for him, and even then he always says "Not enough pecans!". Needless to say, pecans were a staple of my childhood and I still love them!

The one thing I didn't like about the recipe here is that it was really vague. Literally, it says you use "as much leftover chicken as you have" and "as much wild rice as you want". This doesn't help me! So, I actually added some measurements for consistency. The result is an easy side (or dinner) that is ready in no time at all. Plus, if you have leftovers they will be really easy to warm up. Casseroles are no longer just for Thanksgiving! 

 

Recipe Name

Source:Texas Pecan Cookbook

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 large chicken breast, cubed
• 4 oz mushrooms (roughly 6)
• 1 c. dry wild rice (or wild and brown rice mix), cooked as directed.
• 2 cloves garlic
• Canola oil
• 1 can cream of asparagus/chicken/mushroom soup
• 1/2 c. water
• 2/3 c. chopped pecans
• 1 c. garlic breadcrumbs
• Parmesan cheese (optional)

Before you start:Preheat your oven to 325 and mince your garlic cloves and slice up your mushrooms thinly.

Recipe

Heat canola oil in a pan over medium heat, then add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add chicken and mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until chicken is cooked through and mushrooms are softened.
Combine cooked chicken, cooked wild rice, pecans, soup, and water. Stir to combine, then pour into a greased 2-qt casserole dish. 
Top casserole with breadcrumbs and bake for 25 minutes, or until the top starts to brown. Let cool for a few minutes, then serve with parmesan cheese if desired. 

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Veggie Couscous

Hello! Sorry about the large posting gap. I'm in a student organization that recruits high-achieving high school students to Texas A&M, and we had our first summer invitational this week. It was a lot of fun, and I loved my group, but I was short on time and behind on sleep so I'm a bit behind on posting. This weekend, though, I'm home so I'll have plenty of time to catch up on both!

 Couscous is a recently-discovered love of mine. It is a grain made of semolina that's popular in Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Southern Europe (why do you need to know this? Because I was curious, looked it up, and found it interesting. :)). I'm a fan because it's quick-cooking - just boil some water and then you'll have couscous in 5 minutes. Another great thing about it is that the grains really soak up whatever flavor you put into the boiling water. I generally use butter and salt (and sometimes garlic), but you can add lemon juice, Italian herbs, or really any sort of spice or flavor (or boil broth instead of water!). Therefore, it can complement anything. :D It's yummy.

I would completely replace my rice usage with couscous except for the fact that rice stands up much better to sauces. So, if you're serving it with something with a lot of liquid at the end and you don't want soup, stick with rice. Otherwise, couscous is an awesome choice!

Most containers of couscous come with cooking instructions, but just in case they aren't included I'll provide a quick guide. As a rule of thumb, 1/4-1/3 c. dry couscous is enough for 1 person...the grains expand like those little bath toys that can "grow" to ten times their size, so don't add too much! Use a 2:1 ratio of liquid to couscous. So, bring your water to a boil, add seasonings as desired (I use 1 t. salt and 1 T. butter, usually), then add your couscous. Take the pot immediately off the heat, stir everything together, then cover your pot and let it sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, use a fork to "fluff" (ie stir around) the couscous. It should be nice and soft, and ready to serve!

This recipe is great for using up extra veggies you have. Pretty much any vegetable that you can sautee in garlic and olive oil (ie, just about anything) can be used here! I chose bell peppers, mushrooms, and asparagus, but you could use onions, broccoli, zucchini, or really whatever you have. 

Veggie Couscous

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 1/3 c. couscous
• 1 t. salt
• 1 T. butter
• Mixed vegetables
• Olive oil
• 1 clove garlic (or 2 t. minced garlic)

Before you start:Chop up your mixed vegetables - you want roughly a cup of bite-sized pieces. Mince your garlic clove.

Recipe

Prepare couscous as directed. Add butter and salt to boiling water before adding couscous.
Heat olive oil in a pan, and add garlic. Cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes until fragrant.
Add mixed vegetables to garlic and cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring periodically until vegetables are cooked through.
Fluff couscous with a fork, then add vegetables. Stir to combine. Serve immediately.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Zucchini Squash Cakes

So, there are days I do really, really well at eating well.

And then, there are days when I crave Paula Deen recipes.

For those of you unaware of Paula (how could you not be?), she is the Southern queen of Food Network. Her specialty is Southern comfort food at its most comforting, and therefore its most fattening. She is known best for her use of ridiculous amounts of butter. I rarely ever make one of her recipes because of this fact (and who slathers their corn in mayo before they grill it? She does.), but I do enjoy her show because she has such a warm and welcoming personality.

As far as Paula Deen recipes go, this one is pretty tame! There is actually no butter usage at all, and if it weren't for the fact that you pan-fry these, they'd be pretty good for you too. But the pan-frying is the best part! They become nice and crisp on the outside. You can mix and match any kind of squash for this recipe (ie, use 2 zucchini or 2 yellow squash) - just be sure to pat down the shredded squash with paper towels to soak up the excess moisture. If water stays in the cakes when you put them in the pan, they will make the oil pop and make a huge mess.

This recipe makes enough cakes for a large side or perhaps even a meal, if you want it to be. :) 

Zucchini Squash Cakes

Modified from:Paula Deen

Serves 2 (makes about 10 cakes)

Ingredients

• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 1/3 c. panko breadcrumbs (normal breadcrumbs work here too)
• 1 egg
• garlic salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/3 c. parmesan cheese
• 2 T. onion flakes
• Canola oil

Before you start:Soak your onion flakes in water to reconstitute them, and beat your egg.

Recipe

Shred your zucchini and squash into a large bowl. Press the shredded squash with a paper towel to remove moisture - try to remove as much as possible.
Add the bread crumbs, egg, spices, cheese, and onion flakes and mix well. The mixture should hold its shape if formed into a ball.
Pour canola oil into a pan to about 1/4" depth, and heat it to medium. 
Form the zucchini mixture into small discs (press them together well), and stick them in the pan. Cook until golden brown (about 4 minutes), then flip and brown the other side for each cake.
Serve immediately.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Honey Mustard Chicken

Hi! Life has been pretty calm this weekend - I'm starting to think I will need to find a new hobby to keep myself entertained for the summer. :)

This recipe is another fantastically easy, delicious and healthy dinner. It's out of the Healthy College Cookbook...I would love on this book more if I wouldn't sound like a broken record! It also uses one of my favorite condiments (in fact, the only one I like. Yes, that includes ketchup. Don't judge.) - honey mustard! Just prep the chicken breasts, pop them in the oven, check them once or twice, and you're ready to go! Just add salad or some other veggies and you have a full meal in just half an hour. Yum.

In case you were wondering, frozen chicken breasts are your friend here! I keep a bag in my freezer, set one or two out for dinner before I leave for the day, and then they're defrosted by the time I need them. So convenient! 

 

Honey Mustard Chicken

Source: The Healthy College Cookbook

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 c. dijon mustard
• 1/3 c. honey
• 1 clove garlic
• Salt and pepper

Before you start:Peel your garlic clove, then slice into slivers(try for 8). Preheat your oven to 325 degrees, and spray a small baking dish with cooking spray.

Recipe

Combine the honey and mustard in a small bowl. Set aside.
Lightly salt and pepper both sides of each chicken breast, then place in your baking dish.
Make four small cuts in the top of each chicken breast, a tuck a small sliver of garlic into each cut. 
Spoon the honey mustard over the breasts, reserving roughly 1/4 of the mixture. Put the breasts in the oven.
Every ten minutes, take the chicken out of the oven, spoon the sauce in the pan back over the chicken, and return to the oven.
After 30 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven. Spoon the rest of the honey mustard over the chicken and serve.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Strawberry Orange French Toast

I always feel like breakfast that isn't cereal or toast is such an indulgence! Because I usually have to get up early and rush around, I don't have time to do much more than make toast or pour a bowl of cereal. And yet, I love breakfast foods, so occasionally I spoil myself when I have time, because I'm a big fan of baked goods for breakfast.

When I go out for breakfast, I usually end up getting french toast because I love how rich the bread gets once it's been soaked in cream and egg and sugar, pan-fried, and covered with maple syrup and powdered sugar. Yum! This recipe is definitely not your traditional french toast, but it's yummy! The main flavor is a healthy dose of orange juice, both in the dipping of the bread and the syrup it goes on! And putting jam into a syrup/sauce is always a good idea - it helps your reduced orange juice get a thicker consistency. 

A word of caution! If you're not using the thick-cut bread that is designed for french toast (which is fine!), be careful to not let the slices of bread soak for too long. Once the slices soak up too much moisture, they don't crisp up very well and are really soggy on the inside. Just dip them quickly on each side! Yes, I did learn this the hard way. 

 

Strawberry Orange French Toast

Source:The Healthy College Cookbook

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. orange juice (divided use)
• 1 egg
• 2 T. skim milk
• 1 T. cinnamon sugar
• 2 T. strawberry jam
• 1 T. butter
• 4 slices whole-wheat bread

Before you start:Beat your egg well, and melt your butter in a pan at medium-low heat.

Recipe

Combine 1/4 c. of the orange juice and egg, milk, and cinnamon sugar in a shallow bowl. Set aside.
In a small pot, combine the rest of the orange juice and the strawberry jam and simmer over medium heat until the jam starts to melt into the orange juice. 
Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the jam mixture reaches a thick, syrupy consistency.
Dip a slice of bread into the egg mixture, turning quickly to coat both sides. Cook the slice in the pan with melted butter until the toast is golden brown on each side, about 3 minutes per side.
Serve 2 slices of toast per person and top with strawberry-orange syrup.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!