Blueberry cornmeal waffles

Wanted some vaguely healthy waffles and some cornmeal...and then decided blueberries would be good too. So i made up a recipe in my head which was crunchy but still light and yummy.

In a big bowl I mixed 1 3/4 c 1% milk + 3 T lemon juice + juice from a small lemon

Once that sat a few minutes to thicken I added:
2 t oil
2 eggs, beaten
3 T agave syrup
~1/4 t salt
Then I stirred in
~2/3 c wild blueberries
(what I had left. Didn't measure, just guestimating)

In a small bowl I mixed:
1 1/2 c flour
1 c cornmeal
2 T baking powder
3/4 t baking soda

I stirred in the dry to the wet until just mixed and then cooked this up in my belgian waffle maker, taking almost 1 c batter per waffle. It made 6 waffles. It was a thinner batter than "normal" from the cornmeal but cooked up nicely with a crunch but not too heavy. I was hoping for more lemony flavour, but it was still yummy with some blueberry yogurt and maple syrup...
Managed to remember a quick blurry (sorry) photo before I devoured my (heh heh) second one...

Red velvet chocolate chip cookies

I finally have the urge to make cookies again after my holiday cookie overdose...and being love day, it's a good excuse to make some cookies for our coworkers so we nibble a few, but not the whole batch.
I hunted valentine and red cookies and got happy when I found these:
Red Velvet chocolate ship cookies from Cooking Classy. Giggedy.

They are amazing...lightly chocolatey and soft and chewy. They aren't as red as the ones in the cooking blog, but they're a reddy brown like good red velvety things should be. I added less chocolate chips simply because I didn't have enough and I like them the way they are...remind me a lot of my mum's chocolate chip cookies...it took all I had to not eat the batter on it's own.
Try them...yum.

Mediterranean sweet potato and carrot soup

It's hothlike outside. So I made soup for my lunches all week. It is amazing. The recipe makes 5 servings of delicious, healthy soup. Wanted to log it so I can make it again.

2 t olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 t garlic crushed
I t ginger, crushed
1 t ground coriander
2 t cumin
1/4 teaspoon chilli/ cayenne powder
2 medium sweet potato, peeled, diced
4 large carrots, peeled, sliced
6 cups vegetable/chicken stock
300g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed
2-3T lemon juice (to taste)

In a dutch oven pot, I sauteed the onions, garlic and ginger in the oil for 5 minutes, then added the spices and cooked another minute. Then I added the stock, scraping all the good stuff off the bottom of the pot, and adding the veg. I simmered the soup 20 minutes and added the chic peas to cook for another 10 min. When all the veg and chic peas are cooked, add the lemon juice and then puree up. Enjoy!

Healthy banana waffles

I got a good belgian wafflemaker for christmas. I rocks. I have been hunting for healthier waffle recipes and found a few and modified a recipe up a bit for my taste. Here's my first attempt. Made some up today...


1 c multigrain flour
1 c flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 3/4 c almond milk
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (1 snack cup worth)
1 T + 1t baking powder
1 ripe banana, mashed
1 T sugar
1/4 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t vanilla extract
Optional: 1/4 c chopped pecans (I had some around so I threw them in)

Cook in hot wafflemaker and serve with a smidge of syrup and sliced bananas. Yum.

Made ~ 5 belgian waffles. They were healthy, but not heavy and didn't stick to my waffleizer. Still fluffy and flavourful!

Mexican style pulled chicken

My house smells amazing right now. A while back Magnus moved and I inherited parts of his pantry, and since he was a foodie who regularly got care packages of ingredients from his home on the coast, there was some cool and unusual stuff in it you cannot get here. One cool item was a 7 oz can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I finally found a can of fire roasted tomatoes when I went shopping last and so I was determined to make something new with them. I settled on some kind of mexican pulled chicken...since I love pulled chicken but have never actually made it before ever for some reason...
I modified a few ideas i found on the interwebs, and you could use a slow cooker but I just used my dutch oven since I was home. It's hothlike out (with the wind it is -34C. Meh) and sunday so I am not going anywhere today! Turned out so tasty I want to write it down before I forget.

Chicken breasts (I used 3)
Chicken broth (~ 2 ish cups)
1 15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
1/2 of a 7 oz can of roasted chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (4 peppers plus half the juice)
One large yellow onion sliced up
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t italian seasoning (was going to use oregano but was out of it)
1/4 t chili powder
Few shakes salt

In the dutch oven I put 3 full, skinned chicken breasts and added just enough chicken broth to cover them, and then added the rest and stirred it all to mix and then recover the chicken. I brought the pot to boil and turned it down to simmer for 1 hour with the lid on. The house smelled heavenly! The broth cooked down about half into a yummy thicker sauce.

At that point I turned the heat off and removed the chicken and shredded it with 2 forks on a plate. I took 3/4 c (about half) of the remaining juice and used it as half the water in my rice maker to make 1 cup of long grain white rice. Then I put the chicken back in the pot and stirred it all together into one yummy mess to let the remaining sauce soak into the chicken. I plan to have the chicken and rice in a wrap with some beans, grated cheese and perhaps some sour cream once J gets home. I will definitely be making this again...and I need to find a place to get more of those chipotles...I may be begging Magnus (please sir can I have some more?) to mail me some now that he's back home again!

Chocolate mint swirl candycane cookies

It all started with a bunch of leftover candycanes. I crushed them up thinking I'd bake with them. It has been a while and I have only used a bit.
Then for a potluck I thought I'd make red velvet cupcakes...but thought it would be too easy...so I used my new pinterest account (I know I know I am behind a decade or so) to hunt up red velvet...and then red...and then came across a recipe for mint chocolate swirl cookies by Alton Brown (I love Good Eats).
But...I only had white baking chocolate. And I sill wanted redness and candycane involvement so I just tweaked it to get the following delicious minty cookie. It is a nice moist sugar cookie with strong mint flavour and faint chocolate flavour. Delicious.

Basically the recipe is altered and ended up as follows:

The basic sugar cookie recipe was made as listed, but not chilled the same way at all:
Sift together 3 c flour, 3/4 t baking powder and 1/4 t salt.
In mixer blend 1 c soft butter and 1 c sugar until fluffy. Beat in 1 egg and 1 T milk. Add in dry slowly on low speed and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl.

Immediately after making the dough I divided it in half and made the 2 halves as follows:
-Mint half had 1 t peppermint extract and 1/2 c crushed candycane mixed in using the mixer.
-Chocolate half had 3 oz white chocolate melted and added along with 1 t cocoa (sifted) and about 1 t red colouring to make it nice and red.

I rolled the dough halves out to 1/4 inch think between wax paper to ~the same long rectangle shape (~6" high and 18" long) and then put the two layers on top of each other and gently pressed them together. Then I carefully rolled it up into a log, which I wrapped in wax paper and then saran and put in the freezer for about an hour until nice and firm. Then I rolled the log in a few sprinkles and cut cookies about 1/2 inch thick ( and about 2 inches around) onto cookie sheets lined with baking paper. Baked at 375 for 12 minutes. After 1 minute on the tray, they cooled on a wire rack.
So. Good. :)

Christmas baking 2012

Long time no post.
Seems life is a rather bit exciting and I'm enjoying the eating and the cooking. There are so many really awesome recipe blogs out there, that I just can't do justice to what I'm making in the kitchen...well not in the time I'm willing to offer it at the moment. Being done grad school has given me all this free time, and documenting it seems so much like work it'll be a while before I feel like more elaborate postings again...

But, I did have to post today.
I just finished a long day of happy christmas baking, making the vanillekipfl (Byrun's mum's recipe) and the peanut butter surprise cookies that I've posted before. There are two new ones this year: Gingerbread lemon sandwich cookies and....dum dum dum...
Jammy Dodgers.
I used this recipe and they are absolutely delicious. I've never had a jammy dodger before.
I'm hooked.

After all that cookie dough I think I need bigger pants...