Molasses Cranberry Cookies

December 12, 2013December 12, 20139 Comments

Christmas season is in full swing! Normally, I’m not that into holidays. But I’m not sure what’s wrong with me this year, all I want is a living room with a Christmas tree. If you remember back when I told you about where Foodologie happens, you’ll remember that I live in a studio that is teeny-tiny. That means I have zero room for a Christmas tree. So because I can’t be festive in my living space, I have to find other ways to make the most of the holiday season.

First, I bought a Christmas dress. A new dress for Christmas is a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. Anyone else do that?

I’m thoroughly excited about it. I also bought myself another dress, because… well…

Christmas present to myself? (P.S. When will I get over sending my friends pics of outfits I’m thinking of buying?)

In addition to my Christmas dress, I’ve also been thoroughly excited about cookies. So cookie making has been happening, starting with these:

I don’t know about you, but I love chewy molasses cookies with lots of ginger. They’re pretty much the best, as are these cookies.

Molasses Cranberry Cookies

adapted from Blue Ribbon Cookies

1 stick of butter + 2 tbsp (10 tbsp total)1 cup sugar (plus extra for rolling)
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp mace
1 cup dried cranberries

Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in molasses and egg until fluffy. In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Just before ingredients are combine, fold in cranberries.

Chill dough for a few hours.

Once you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350F.

Form dough into 1 inch balls and roll in granulated sugar. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool and serve! Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

I took these to work, shared with friends and a boyfriend. They were gone pretty quickly. I’ll definitely be including these in my Christmas Cookie Gift Tins. I have a few other awesome cookie recipes coming up, because seriously… I’m obsessed with cookies right now.

What about you? How are you preparing for Christmas? Do you have a Christmas dress yet?

The Time We Went to a Monastery Where Nuns Never Leave, and Then Saw Some Condors and Vicuñas…

December 9, 2013December 9, 20138 Comments

After our guinea pig lunch, we got our stuff ready and headed to Arequipa (our final destination on our trip). We went to Arequipa, not knowing too much about it. Because we’re geniuses, we forgot our guidebook at home in California. So we got to Arequipa, which is the second largest city in Peru (population-wise) after Lima. We stayed almost entirely in the colonial center which was beautiful. Our hotel, La Hosteria, was adorable. We decided to splurge on this hotel (a whole $70 per night! haha) since we “roughed it” on the Inca Trail…

and located right across from the Santa Catalina Monastery, a monastery of nuns of the Dominican Second Order. Once the nuns entered the monastery, they NEVER left. It’s hard to fathom, but today there are about 20 nuns still living in the monastery.

The monastery was beautiful.

And seeing the aspects of daily life over the centuries was interesting. After hanging around the monastery for a few hours…

We made our way to a market for some food. The good thing about traveling with Jesse is that he loves street food as much as I do. Peru didn’t have a whole lot of street food, but what they did have was a lot of markets that served awesome prepared meals. It was all super tasty and cheap, double win!

Jesse was dying to try ceviche the whole trip, but I was worried about sickness so I requested we wait to have it til the end of the trip just in case… raw fish after all… But now it was time to give it a whirl.

That day we tried ceviche and had some Chicha de Jora (a homemade corn beer). We spent the rest of the day wandering and asking about how to make our way to the Colca Canyon, which we heard was great. We booked a last minute day trip to the Colca Canyon to see Condors and Volcanos.

We were picked up at 3am for the 4 hour drive to the Colca Canyon. The Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon! After driving we stopped at a small town to see a church…

Outside the church there was a woman hanging out with her llama and falcon for people to take pictures with…

Just another day in Peru…

After that, we made it to the lookout point to see condors. We waited a LONG time to see Condors.

We saw a few from far away. It was less exciting than I would have hoped. On our way back, we stopped at various lookout points

There were some amazing views! Also on our way back, we saw lots of wild life…

Err not wild… But we did see wild Vicuñas! They were too far to photograph (the pics I have are of them looking tiny). Vicuñas are like smaller, less furry llamas.

When we got back to Arequipa, we cleaned up and went to dinner. For our one fancy dinner, we went to a restaurant called ZigZag, that everyone told us was amazing.

I’ll be honest. After the awesome food we ate at our cooking class, ZigZag was an overpriced let down. Oh well…

For our last day in Peru, we wandered, went to the Cathedral (no photos allowed), visited some museums (and saw a mummy!) and ate in the market again (because that was our favorite). I tried a Peruvian empanada, a Peruvian tamale (Arequipa style) and Jesse drank two enormous glasses of Chicha.

Finally, to kill a few hours before our flight we had some drinks and potatoes!

Then we took a flight back to Lima in time to catch our next flight back to Los Angeles.

Overall our trip to Peru was awesome! I was sad to leave. I wish I could have stayed longer to explore more areas, try more food and meet more people. I definitely recommend it as a vacation spot for anyone!

Just for a quick recap… I’ll tell you about my favorites…

Highlight of the Trip: Machu Picchu

Low Point of the Trip: Day two of the Inca Trail where I got altitude sickness

Lesson Learned: Peruvian sun WILL burn you. I got massively sun burnt throughout the trip. By the last day, my face and head was peeling like woah. Gross.

Best Meal: This is pretty much impossible for me to answer. I loved Aji de Gallina

But pretty much every meal I ate (except guinea pig) was awesome!

That’s it for the Peru trip recap! Next I’ll tell you about cookies but before that…

Where should we go on vacation next? What’s the best vacation you’ve taken? Tell me about it!

Previous Peru Posts:

The Time We Cooked Alpaca and Ate Guinea Pig in Peru

The Time We Hiked Through the Andes to Machu Picchu

Back from Peru

Hello from Peru

Pumpkin Protein Pancakes

November 6, 201310 Comments

Let me just tell you… these pancakes made my day magical.

I started the day by running with Ms. Allison from Sweet Potato Bites. That lady is faster than me (check out her running page!), so it’s awesome to keep up with her!

After the run, I wanted a good breakfast. For the past few months, I’ve had a smoothie for breakfast pretty much everyday, but today I wanted something warm and Fall-like. And we all know… Fall = Pumpkin.

All season, I’ve been avoiding pumpkin flavored foods, because honestly most of it just tastes fake. I’m probably the only person in the world that doesn’t love the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks.

So this morning, in my quest for a warm Fall breakfast, I had a bright idea. Pumpkin pancakes with REAL pumpkin inside and on top.

Pumpkinpalooza in a pancake.

So I started with an amazing stack of pancakes and then topped them with a mixture of pumpkin puree, maple syrup, ginger, cinnamon and mace (with some water to thin it out). Seriously delicious. Please try it. But first to make the pancakes…

Pumpkin Protein Pancakes

2 tbsp buckwheat flour (spelt or all purpose works too)
2 tbsp almond meal
3 tbsp protein powder (I used Spiru-tein Vanilla Protein)
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of ginger
pinch of mace
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 egg
4 tbsp pumpkin puree (plus extra for topping)
2-3 tbsp almond milk**

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl, stir to combine. Add dry ingredients and mix together.

Heat a large skillet and grease (with butter or non-stick spray). Scoop 2 tbsp of batter to form each pancake. Cook until it starts to bubble, then flip and cook an additional minute.

Serve with a mixture of pumpkin, maple syrup and spices or your favorite pancake topping. This recipe makes 4 pancakes.

**The amount of almond milk might vary. Spiru-tein protein powder has some sort of thickening agent in it that makes it thicken up, so if you use a different protein powder you might need less liquid. Try adding a tbsp of liquid first and if you need more to thin out the batter, add more. If your batter is too thin/runny, you’ll get flat pancakes so you want the batter to be a little thick.

I seriously loved these pancakes. The topping reminded me of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin butter. Amazing. But what I really love is that you get all the awesome health benefits of pumpkin, that you definitely don’t get from a Pumpkin Spice Latte (p.s. totally not trying to hate on the PSL! It’s just not for me).

I’m seriously considering making a few batches of these and having them the next few mornings, reheated. If they taste great reheated, I’ll let you know.

So tell me, what’s your favorite way to eat pumpkin this season?

Aside from this healthy version, I love love love this Creamy Pumpkin Pie, but also Pumpkin Pecan Bundt Cake and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. One day I won’t want to eat sugary things every.single.day…

P.S. 1 week til Peru!!!!

Mushrooms in Red Wine over Polenta (with a poached egg)

October 22, 2013October 22, 201310 Comments

Today was the first day I cooked in about 2 weeks.

For me, that’s unheard of. Literally the last thing I made was these Mocha Protein Cupcakes. No a single thing has been made other than microwaving soup from a box and veggie patties.

I’ve been busy, but let’s not concentrate on that. Today, I knew I needed to cook. I needed comfort food. Usually for me, comfort food is a cookie, but lately, all I’ve wanted is lamb stew. Umm… random? Yes.

Lamb is a little out of my price range right now, so I went to the store and bought some beef. I started making beef stew with a bottle of cabernet a friend gave me not too long ago.

With half a bottle of wine and my stew on the first of many hours of stewing, I had a bright idea.

I enjoyed this with a glass of wine while listening to Boleros. Boleros is a genre of Spanish music, popular with people my grandmother’s age. I have the musical taste of an 80 year old hispanic woman. If we’re being honest, it’s probably my most listened to Pandora station. It makes me think of my grandmother, who loves to wake up and put on music to listen to with breakfast.

So tonight, with my boyfriend across the country, I listened to sad music, think of my grandma, drank wine and ate a tasty comfort meal.

I’ll stop sounding so melodramatic, because despite the obvious missing of the boyfriend, it was a pretty relaxing meal for me (which was much needed because I’ve felt like I’ve been on the go for the past three weeks).

In terms of benefits to you: This is a super easy meal. It’ll be ready in roughly 15 minutes and it’s pretty healthy and the egg is totally optional, meaning this can be totally vegan.

Mushrooms in Red Wine over Polenta

1/2 cup corn meal
2 cups chicken/vegetable broth
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 an onion, sliced
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1-2 tbsp fresh herbs (I used Rosemary and Sage)
1 garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs (optional)

In a saucepan, mix together cornmeal and broth. Put on medium heat. While it comes to a boil, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat and add onions cook a few minutes. Add mushrooms and cook another few minutes (about 5), stirring occasionally.

If you’re not good at multi-tasking, you can do each one at a time, but I’m a fan of multi-tasking so while the mushrooms and onions cooked, I stirred the cornmeal/polenta. Once the polenta is thick and starts to come off the side of the pan when you stir, divide onto two plates, like so:

By now the mushrooms should be about ready. Add garlic, herbs, salt and pepper and cook for a minute. Add wine and stir. It’ll bubble, steam and reduce. Once the majority of the liquid is gone, turn the heat off. Try a mushroom to make sure you added enough salt, adjust accordingly. Then divide the mushroom mixture over the polenta. You can serve it just as it…

Or you can be a rockstar and add a poached egg, for extra protein and deliciousness. If you don’t know how to poach an egg… google it?

Just kidding. Check out this blog post from Smitten Kitchen.

Place your poached eggs on top of your mushroom-polenta creation. Sprinkle with paprika, cheese, pepper, whatever else you like and enjoy!

This recipe is perfect for two people, but it’s easy to make for one (which is what I did and just had leftover mushrooms for tomorrow).

This might be my new comfort dish of choice, because 1. easy, 2. delicious, 3. warm and 4. wine.

What’s your comfort food of choice?

For me, Ice cream is probably my ultimate comfort food, but if we’re talking about meals: thick fatty soups (think creamy tomato) with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Farm Fresh to You: Get Produced Delivered, Eat More Vegetables

October 2, 20135 Comments

I’m going to be honest. This is not what I had in mind for dinner tonight.

I had a salad for lunch and because I’m all about balance, I’m generally of the belief that if I had a salad for lunch, I’m certainly not having one for dinner. But here I am. Having a salad for dinner after I had one for lunch. I don’t want to be one of those girls. I’m not one of those girls.

Let me tell you the story of this salad, because really it started a few weeks ago.

Several weeks ago, Living Social was running a deal for Farm Fresh to You. It’s like a CSA delivered to your house, but instead of buying in at the beginning of the season, you can just order whenever you want it and pay weekly. So I saw the deal: $15 for a delivery box of vegetables.

If you used to read my blog when I was in grad school, you’ll know that I had a CSA share in Ithaca, NY from the Early Morning Farm and I absolutely loved it. Every week I was so excited to pick up my share at the farmer’s market. I got to try new and exciting vegetables like rhubarb and kohlrabi. For a foodie writing her thesis on Sustainable Food Systems, you can probably imagine how amazing that was for me.

When I left Ithaca, I was sad that I wouldn’t have a CSA share to pick up weekly anymore. CSA shares in Southern California are basically twice as expensive as my share was in Ithaca (I paid about $20 per week back then). So I was bummed. I couldn’t afford to get one. Let’s be honest, healthy living can be expensive. (Remember how I got a second job to pay for Crossfit… omm yeah).

So when I saw this Living Social deal for Farm Fresh to You, I was all over it. Last week, I placed my order and my box arrived today. I had it delivered to my office because I was worried I wouldn’t be home when they delivered it and the heat wave here has been rough. Now let me tell you, during my drive home, I was thinking about all the possible things to have for dinner, completely forgetting the box was in the backseat.

By the time I got home I had pretty much decided I wanted polenta with a poached egg. But then I remembered the box full of vegetables. I unpacked them and saw everything that was inside:

1 head of lettuce
1 honeydew melon
2 delicata squash
1lb potatoes
3 apples
2 oranges
2 pears
1 pack of Berry Kiwi
1/2 lb green beans
1 bunch of carrots

That’s when I remembered: Oh yeah, I used to eat salads all the time because that shit goes bad real fast AND I hate to waste food. There’s no two ways around it, you have to be a voracious vegetable eater if the box is just for you (and that’s the case for me, since I live alone).

And you know what goes bad first? Lettuce. You can wrap it in a paper towel to keep it crisper longer, but let’s be honest, it’s not making it past 4 days. I wish the box included kale instead of lettuce… but alas not reality. So that’s when I knew salad was for dinner.

Instead of that polenta and poached egg dinner I had in mind, I threw together a salad of lettuce, carrot, edamame and a Moringstar Farms Veggie Patty. For dressing, I mixed together some natural peanut butter, hoisin sauce, sriracha and vegetable broth, for a little Asian inspiration (Note: that’s basically how you make the dipping sauce for Vietnamese Spring Rolls).

So you’re probably thinking… good for you! Pat on the back for having a salad! Who gives a crap!?!

Well really the whole point of all this was to tell you one of the top benefits of having one of these produce delivery services (or a CSA share) and why I’m considering getting it again: it forces you to eat more vegetables. And not just that… organic vegetables, even better!

Farm Fresh to You brought my count of vegetables for the day from 4 to 6 (plus 3 servings of fruit). While I probably would have added spinach to my polenta with poached eggs, the box diversified my vegetable intake, because I already had spinach in my smoothie this morning. Even better, different nutrients!

Overall: I was pleased with what was in the box. It had a little too much fruit for my liking, but I love the idea. I think in the future I’ll just choose the vegetable-only box. I’m all for eating more organic vegetables, because with a sweet tooth like mine, I can always use extra vegetables to balance it out (I’ll be completely honest, after the salad I had a spoonful of peanut butter mixed with sweetened condensed milk for dessert… I know… we won’t talk about it anymore).

Oh and just so you know, I was not compensated by Farm Fresh to You. I bought the Living Social deal on my own and these are just my opinions.

Have you tried a produce delivery service? Did you like it?

Vanilla Coconut Protein Pancakes

September 12, 2013July 26, 201528 Comments

Brunch is totally mainstream these days, but I don’t think that was always true. In the past ten years, we’ve become very familiar with brunch, sort of akin to how “googling” something or someone is totally normal.

I love brunch, the wonderful marriage of breakfast and lunch that often involves a tasty libation. I’m totally on-board. What I wish would gain great popularity is Brinner. I have no idea if that’s actually a term, but let’s go with it.

Brinner, the happy marriage of breakfast and dinner. AKA Breakfast for Dinner. It should most definitely be a thing.

But you should probably know I have this thing where I think breakfast should be healthy. It’s the first meal of the day and you should probably start it off on the right foot. For me, it’s usually a smoothie with banana, mango, spinach, kale and protein powder. I drink it on my way to work, and it keeps me full for a long time without feeling sluggish.

So if we’re having breakfast for dinner, that doesn’t mean we have to go crazy and eat tons of bacon, pancakes and eggs drenched in maple syrup. That’s ok sometimes, but for days like today, let’s keep it light and full of protein.

Now, all that aside, what is more beautiful than a stack of pancakes?

Well… a stack of these pancakes…

Vanilla Coconut Protein Pancakes

2 tbsp spelt flour
2 tbsp almond meal
3 tbsp protein powder (I used Garden of Life Raw Vanilla Protein)
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp chia seeds
1 tbsp shredded unsweetened coconut
1 egg
2-4 tbsp almond milk

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Then add wet ingredients (start with 2 tbsp of almond milk and add more accordingly. Every protein powder is different so to avoid getting batter that’s too thin, adjust accordingly) and stir together.

Heat a pan and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Pour 2 tbsp of batter to form each pancake. Cook a few minutes. Once it starts to bubble on top, flip and cook an additional minute or two.

You’ll get exactly 4 pancakes if you measure (and use a spatula to scrape the bowl). Serve with you toppings of choice.

I served it with some extra coconut and a maple syrup/yogurt combo (2-3 tbsp greek yogurt + 1 tbsp maple syrup + water to thin it out). Deeeelish.

Nutrition-wise, they’re not too bad either.

There’s almost 30 grams of protein in there! Note: these stats are only for the pancakes, not any of the toppings. The fat comes mostly from the almond meal and coconut. But don’t be scared of fat! It does a body good.

Ok so please tell me you’re going to help me make Brinner a thing and tell everyone about these protein pancakes. Yes!

Do you ever do breakfast for dinner? What’s your favorite Brinner item?

Peanut Butter Bacon Rice Crispies

September 10, 2013September 9, 201311 Comments

I’m going to go ahead and let you know that after this post, all you’re going to want in life is a rice crispy treat. If there’s bacon in it, that’s going to be an added bonus. But rice crispies are going to be on your brain and I’m not even sorry.

The past few weeks have been the most insufferably hot weeks ever. It’s like I forgot that I grew up in a desert-like region where 100F+ is normal during the summer. 100F in Costa Mesa is hell (without AC). As a result, I refused to turn on the oven.

Frying bacon on the other hand, no heat could stop that.

When I was trying to think of what to make for dessert for a potluck, I could only think of making something that did not involve turning on the oven. So of course I had a brilliant idea, and I made it a reality

The world can pretty much thank me for this.

Peanut Butter Bacon Rice Crispies

3 slices of thick cut bacon
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (I used Peanut Butter & Company Crunch Time)
4 cups mini marshmallows
6 cups puffed rice cereal

In a large pot, fry bacon. Once cripsy, remove from pan and pour off the majority of the grease (it’s ok if some stays on there). Allow bacon to cool completely, then chop. Add peanut butter and marshmallows to pot and melt on low heat. Once melted together, add rice cereal and bacon. Stir to combine. Press into a 9×13 baking dish lined with parchment paper. Allow to cool completely, slice and serve!

These were tasty. Next time, I’ll drizzle some chocolate on them, because I’m intense like that. Also because peanut butter, bacon and chocolate are an awesome combination. Did you forget about the Chocolate Pudding with Peanut Butter Mousse and Maple Candied Bacon? In case you did, here’s a reminder…

Peanut Butter and Bacon is absolutely a thing. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. And seriously, this couldn’t be an easier way to do so. No baking, just a bit of stirring, pressing and slicing.

Get on it.

What’s your favorite sweet bacon combo??

Technical Difficulties and My Baking Wish List

August 18, 2013August 18, 20136 Comments

Hi All. I have so many things to tell you about… OC Restaurant Week (that’s happening now!), my first attempt at mac and cheese, gnocchi making. So many things!

But sadly, I’m having technical difficulties with some photos and my internet just plain sucking most days. So while I get that sorted out, let’s talk about things I’ve been dying to make lately, but haven’t had a chance to…

(Image from Martha Stewart)

Crepe Cake. I don’t even really like crepes. I just want to make tons of crepes, and layer them with some amazingly delicious fillings. I have so many ideas for a wonderful crepe cake. I hope it happens soon. If you’ve made one tell me if it’s amazing or not.

Bake Bread. I haven’t made bread in a really long time. In fact, I think the last bread I made was the Challah in the photo above. I’d love to make a good, hearty wheat bread, or maybe some pretzel rolls.

Along those lines… bread pudding. I made some not too long ago, but I didn’t try it and I hated my photos. That probably means I need to remake it. Sometimes I still reminisce about this Bourbon Bread Pudding I made a long time ago…

Memories.

I’m also really curious to experiment with new flours and healthier baking options. I remember I made that Bourbon Bread Pudding because I made some wheat berry bread that didn’t taste very good. Back then I used to experiment. What happened to that?

Well I’m off to take my Dad to the airport. Hope you’re having a fantastic weekend and making (and eating) lots of tasty things!

What’s on your list of things to make?

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

July 2, 20135 Comments

What’s your go-to blog for recipes? We all have them, because these days… it’s so much easier to Google than to search through an array of cookbooks.

Me and half of America have Smitten Kitchen as our go-to blog for recipes. I haven’t made too many things, because most of the time I like inventing things but I’ve made a few and every one is great.

This past week I was dogsitting…

and had a massive zucchini from the garden to use. First I made an zucchini mozzarella bake, which I will tell you about soon, but there I still had about 1/3 of the zucchini left. I’m telling you this thing was the size of a small animal (probably roughly the size of the two pugs above). I wish I had taken a picture of it.

So with 1/3 of an enormous zucchini sitting on the counter as two pugs stared at me, naturally, I turned to Smitten Kitchen for direction. Now, I have to tell you… I’m a terrible person. I never actually read her blog posts. I only ever look at the pictures and recipes. Does anyone else do that?

We all have different motivations for following blogs, right? For me, Smitten Kitchen is all about pictures and recipes.

So back to Zucchini. I made zucchini bread, because I was feeling traditional.

I usually never do this, but I actually followed this recipe pretty much to the T (but omited the nuts and added chocolate chips). I chose to add chocolate chips because for some reason chocolate and zucchini sounds like a natural combination.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

from Smitten Kitchen

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini*
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

*Note: I didn’t measure the zucchini so I actually think I added more like 3 cups

Line two loaf pans with parchment paper. Pre-heat oven to 350F.

In a bowl, beat together eggs, oil and sugar. Once combined, add zucchini and vanilla extract. Stir to combine. Add dry ingredients and chocolate chips. Stir until just combined. Pour batter into two loaf pans.

Bake about an hour (mine took about an hour and 10 minutes, remember all ovens are different).

Allow to cool completely. Then remove from pan (parchment paper makes it super easy to pull out of the pan). Slice and serve.

I took these two loaves to work and they were gone in a day. That’s probably because I ate half of it on my own. It was pretty delicious. The loaves are sort of dense, but super moist, which is always appreciated.

Normally I hate chocolate chips in quick breads, but this was fantastic. If you ever put chocolate chips in my banana bread or pancakes, we won’t be friends anymore, but in zucchini bread… bring it on!

So there you have it. Sometimes you need a go-to blog for a recipe.

What’s your go-to blog for recipes? Are there any blogs you read solely for pictures and recipes?

Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash

June 5, 2013June 17, 201348 Comments

My initial effort at making dinner more often, started with a bang. After I wrote the last blog post, I started meal planning and of course, I turned to Pinterest for ideas. I found a recipe I thought looked tasty for Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Salad. It looked great, but I decided I wanted it to be a bit lighter. I don’t want to be eating a pound of quinoa for dinner (not that there’s anything wrong with that, just not my taste).

So instead of quinoa, I went with spaghetti squash, because I’m a huge fan and it’s lower in calories than quinoa. The result…

Delicious, and ready in less than 30 minutes! Not to mention it’s super easy clean up, since you only use one pot/skillet. To make life easier, I bought pre-cut and pre-washed shredded carrots and cabbage. So the only chopping I had to do was the green onions and chicken.

Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash

1 spaghetti squash
3-4 green onions
1-2 lbs chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup shredded cabbage (I bought cole slaw mix)
1 cup Frank’s Buffalo Sauce (or more if you’d like)
1-2 oz Blue Cheese (or more if you’d like)

Poke your spaghetti squash a few times with a fork or knife. Microwave 10-15 minutes or until tender.

In the meantime, cut up your chicken and toss in onion and garlic powder. Next slice the green onions. Slice the white part of the green onions and reserve the green tips for garnish.

Heat olive oil in a skillet or pot (I used a 12″ cast iron skillet). Add chicken and green onions, cook until chicken is cooked through (about 5 or 6 minutes).

Remove spaghetti squash from the microwave. Once it’s cool enough to handle, slice in half, remove the seed and discard, the fluff the spaghetti squash with a fork to get the strands loose. Add spaghetti squash to the skillet and mix. Add Buffalo sauce, cabbage and carrots. Toss to combine. Serve and sprinkle with blue cheese and chopped green onion tips. This recipe will serve 4-6.

I was really pleased with this meal. I liked how quick and easy it was, but also tasty. If you wanted to make this spicier, I would definitely add some sriracha for a little added kick. You can also just get the spicy buffalo sauce instead of the traditional buffalo sauce.

Now I have a ton of left overs for lunch, but I’m excited for my next dinner creation!

What are you having for dinner tonight?

Foodologie

A Blog about Balancing Health with a Constant Desire to Eat Cake

Tag: Delicious

The Time We Went to a Monastery Where Nuns Never Leave, and Then Saw Some Condors and Vicuñas…

Pumpkin Protein Pancakes

Pumpkin Protein Pancakes

Mushrooms in Red Wine over Polenta (with a poached egg)

Mushrooms in Red Wine over Polenta

Farm Fresh to You: Get Produced Delivered, Eat More Vegetables

Vanilla Coconut Protein Pancakes

Vanilla Coconut Protein Pancakes

Peanut Butter Bacon Rice Crispies

Peanut Butter Bacon Rice Crispies

Technical Difficulties and My Baking Wish List

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash

Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash