Tag Archives: easy

Mac & Cheese

This recipe came from the Macaroni & Cheese cookbook, which is pretty hilarious because the only requirements are literally that the recipe contain macaroni AND cheese. So recipes like Truffled Timbales with Zucchini Pesto, Lemon-Scented Pasta Pudding and Tuna Noodle Casserole are in this book because they have… you guessed it… both cheese and macaroni! We’ll be trying out a couple more recipes, especially a couple of the baked versions.

This recipe is SUPER easy and SUPER quick. You can literally prep everything in the time it take for your pot was water to come to a boil.

Ingredients:

12 ounces smallish macaroni (elbows or pennette)
2 cloves chopped garlic (we minced 4 cloves)
1 shallot, chopped (we clearly used a red onion)
10-12 ounces shredded Gruyere, Emmenthal or Appenzeller (we used about 16 ounces total of all three!)
4 ounces of creme fraiche (we used heavy whipping cream)
A grating of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
2 – 3 tablespoons butter


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Peaches & Coconut Muffins

These healthy (sugar-free!!!) muffins passed the ultimate test: I was thinking about them the next day and couldn’t wait to have another one with my morning coffee! We got the recipe from the Food for my Family blog (great resource!), which has some great food planning tips and more yummy recipes we can’t wait to try!

As usual, we made some modifications of the original recipe based on what we had on-hand and also didn’t add the icing.

Muffin Ingredients:

1 egg
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup raw honey
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups fresh peaches

Topping Ingredients:

1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons oats
1 tablespoon raw honey
1 tablespoon coconut oil

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Chocolate Covered Granola

Ingredients:

3 oz dark chocolate
2 cups of your favorite granola

Instructions:

Melt the chocolate (either over a double boiler pot set up or in 20 second increments in the microwave)
Pour over the granola
Scoop out into individual servings while still hot- we put ours in cupcake liners!
Let cool until chocolate is set
Enjoy this super easy dessert!

Whole Wheat Waffles & Blueberry Yogurt Syrup

Perfect for Sunday morning. This recipe was ad-libbed enough from Epicurious that we’re not even going to reference you to the original recipe… it was really more a guideline.

As far as we know, the Blueberry Yogurt Syrup was totally made up! And totally good!

Waffle Ingredients:

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup oat flour
2 tablespoons ground flax
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2 egg whites

Blueberry Syrup Ingredients:

1 container blueberries
Agave maple syrup
Greek yogurt
dash of vanilla

Preparation:

Mix all the waffle ingredients until smooth
Cook waffles as usual

Dump blueberries in Quisinart
Add chosen ratio of syrup and yogurt to produce desired consistency
Pulse until just mixed (over mixing will make it thinner)

Serve with eggs and coffee! Enjoy with your favorite person on a relaxing weekend morning!

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Taken straight from the Martha Stewart website! Changes made from original recipe: we took out the fresh ginger, used 1/8 cup unsulfured molasses and 1/8 cup bootstrap molasses to get the full 1/4 cup of molasses and we used a mixture of all-purpose flour and whole wheat pastry flour.

with sugar and without

Ingredients:

7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar

 

 

 

 

 

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Pound Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature for 30 minutes
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup whole milk, at room temperature

Equipment:

9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pan

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Molasses-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

done!

We found this recipe in a book compiled by Gwen Steege titled The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. We both love molasses and all the spices traditionally associated with that flavor and the oatmeal seemed to at least add the idea of health to the cookie. We got off to a rough start, resulting in a recipe that has been (accidentally) modified from the original version, though mostly just in the ratios, not the ingredients themselves.

For the flour we used a mixture of whole wheat  flour, whole wheat pastry flour and unbleached flour (it was one of those bottom of the bags day!). Flavor- and texture-wise we both really like these cookies, but think the oatmeal isn’t really necessary. Though we both also agree that we like the Soft Molasses Cookies better!

And yes, you can expect more variations on chocolate chip cookies as we pursue the perfect chocolate chip cookie!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1 cup quick oats
1 cup chocolate chips

 

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Orange Earl Gray Cookies

baked

Modified from the Martha Stewart Cookie Cookbook (link to original recipe here)

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour (we used whole wheat)
2 tablespoons finely ground Earl Gray Tea (4-7 bags depending on how finely you grind it)
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon orange extract

 

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Mango Pineapple Surprise

We found this recipe here, because we had a lot of leftover phyllo dough and some fruit that needed to be used up. We didn’t have all the ingredients and so modified it heavily to get to the recipe you see below. We think it worked out quite well and was much simpler and faster than the original recipe .


Ingredients:

1/2 pineapple
1 mango
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup water
phyllo sheets (we just used leftover scraps)
1 stick butter

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