We’re loving Martha Stewart’s breakfast section! We love cottage cheese, we love pancakes… put them together for a yummy reason to wake up in the morning!
Ingredients:
3 large eggs, separated
1 cups small-curd cottage cheese
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar (or a dash of lemon juice)
Butter, for cooking
We’ve been super obsessed with lemons recently, so Tami made up this fresh dessert! Top with strawberries and chocolate sauce for an uber-decedant treat! Cut back on the amount of lemon juice for a more subtle flavor!
Crust Ingredients:
2 (generous) cups graham cracker crumbs
1 stick melted butter
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Cheesecake Ingredients:
16 ounces cream cheese
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons lemon zest
6 tablespoons lemon juice
Straight from the Esalen Cookbook. Healthy, moist, sweet (but not too sweet) and yummy! Perfect straight out of the oven, just cool enough to handle with butter melted over it!
Ingredients:
5 tablespoons butter, softened
1.25 cups sucanat
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe banana
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
chopped walnuts for topping (or any other type of nut, if desired)
All right. Here they are. The world famous (infamous?) cookies… they’ve been called snickerdoodles, sugar cookies and even the “crack” cookies. These are the cookies that people eat so many of they literally make themselves sick. We take no responsibility for stomach aches. If you can’t control yourself, don’t make them!
These cookies have literally been passed down from generation to generation… with no actual instructions, just the ingredient list, the temperature and cooking time. We’ve included some helpful tips to get the softest, most addicting cookies possible!
Ingredients:
Originally drooled over these on foodporndaily.com and then every so slightly adapted the recipe from kitchenrunway.com to our needs. Which simply means a little more lemon zest & juice!
Crust Ingredients:
1 C of unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ C sugar
2 C flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon Meyer lemon zest
Filling Ingredients:
6 extra large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
2 tablespoons grated Meyer lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
powder sugar for dusting
Surprise your sweetie this Valentines day weekend with the only way you can possibly make waffles better… with bacon! And brown sugar!
Adapted from joythebaker.com
Ingredients:
10 slices of bacon
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 grapeseed oil
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
(we made our own butter milk with 2 cups of milk and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar)
From our guest baker/blogger Laurie. Adapted from a recipe she found on epicurious.com, we totally love her version–just the perfect amount of sweet. We were all talking about second helpings before we even finished our first slice! Yum!
Cake Ingredients
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)
Apple Ingredients
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
2 8-ounce Golden Delicious apples, peeled, halved, cored, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
Find full instructions on epicurious.com
These intense brownies came from our desire to fuse two love affairs: chocolate and mint!
The first iteration of these brownies started with a single bar of Lindt Dark Chocolate Mint chopped up super fine and mixed into the batter. While that version was pretty good, it just wasn’t minty enough. This time we not only found normal Andes, we found a conveniently pre-chopped up bag of Andes, which saved some prep time. So with mint mixed in and turned into a frosting, we’re finally satisfied with these brownies!
It’s probably the only time you’ll see a box mix on our blog; but Ghirardelli’s are so phenomenal there’s really no reason to waste time making brownies from scratch!
Ingredients:
Box mix of Ghirardelli brownies
1 egg
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil, butter, coconut oil or your prefered oil
1 bag chopped Andes Mints (can generally be found in baking aisle with chocolate chips)
1 box of whole Andes Mints
These are the kind of cookies that you eat and then you can’t stop talking about how good they are. They’re SO good. Really. It’s hard to explain how a cookie can be so good. Like, seriously. The only reason you’d regret trying them is because you can’t stop eating them. Because they’re SO good.
Originally seen on foodporndaily.com and then adapted from hotpolkadot.com.
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup demerara sugar
2 eggs
2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups 60% chocolate chips
1 cup finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate
These muffins can be made as healthy as you want… use all sprouted whole wheat flour instead of a mixture of wheat and white, don’t add the topping to cut out more sugar (in the form of honey), use whole milk or lowfat milk… there are lots of ways to customize this recipe!
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 cubed fresh bananas
Topping Ingredients:
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons oats
1 tablespoon raw honey
1 tablespoon coconut oil
The most time consuming part of these cookies is unwrapping all the Andes Mints. SO worth the effort though!
Ingredients:
1 cups butter
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cups granulated sugar
1 cups brown sugar
2.5 cups blended oatmeal
.5 tsp. salt
8 oz. Andes Mints, unwrapped and chopped into chuncks
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
An Esalen favorite, in our book! The word “basic” doesn’t give this meatloaf enough credit, but that’s what it is, a nice basic meatloaf. Honestly, when we want meatloaf we don’t want something that’s trying to be more than it is. Meatloaf is comfort food. This is the ultimate recipe.
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 stalk diced celery
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork (the original recipe called for 2 pounds ground beef, we like the depth the mixture gives)
2 eggs
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon ground pepper
1 can tomato sauce
Sometimes the best discoveries come out of the silliest mistakes! It turns out that if you leave the white flour out entirely and then bake as directed you get a really AMAZING ice cream topping. Like really good. Just scrape it off the tray and right on to your ice cream!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cube margarine
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
dash of salt
rasins, if desired
Another Esalen success! This recipe turned out so well we literally sat around the table talking about how good it was, while we were eating it. Yeah. It’s that good! (Thanks for taking pictures Laurie!)
Ingredients:
1 medium onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds fresh spinach (or 2 frozen packages) stemmed and chopped
1 1/2 cups crumbled feta
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 eggs
1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
1/4 cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
1/2 pound filo dough
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 pound smoked salmon
There are a couple options when making these cookies… you can make them the healthy way or the good way! We’re all for healthy desserts, but this time the healthy option just doesn’t measure up to the white flour and sugar version! We made them with sucanat & whole wheat flour and then sugar & white flour. There was no contest. The sugar & white flour version has a much smoother consistency, though if you were only presented with the sucanat and whole wheat flour version you probably wouldn’t complain… they just can’t hold their own in a comparison.
Two warnings:
#1 These cookies are super addicting!
#2 We’ve made these cookies without the chocolate chips and had friends ask why we wasted our time not putting chocolate chips in!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar OR sucanat
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup flour OR whole wheat pastry flour OR a mixture of the two
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup+ Ghiradelli chocolate chips (optional)
We found this recipe here, but made just a couple substitutions and upped the amount of spices.
Muffins Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup sugar OR sucanat
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 cup buttermilk (or make your own with 1 cup whole milk with 1 tablespoon vinegar)
1/2 cup mashed, roasted butternut squash (or pumpkin puree, if you prefer)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup yogurt
Topping Ingredients:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup oats
1/4 cup brown sugar OR sucanat
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
1/4 cup melted butter
Another yummy Epicurious find!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3 cups chopped onions (about 1 pound)
2 cups chopped celery (4 to 5 stalks)
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
2 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram
12 cups (generous) 1-inch cubes day-old pain rustique or ciabatta bread with crust (about 1 1/4 pounds)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 cup (or more) low-salt chicken broth
Ingredients:
4 large sweet potatoes (or the equivalent)
zest of two lemons
juice of two lemons
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon salt
We were so excited to make this cheesecake that we forgot to take pictures when we started! Whoops! The original recipe came from Epicurious–we left some things out, tried the pecan topping but couldn’t get it right, so what follows is our version! The cheesecake also got ravaged at the party we took it to before we could snap any respectable pictures. So you’re going to have to take our word for it that it turned out beautifully!
Crust Ingredients
2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
(we only had one cup of crispy store bought cookies, so we used our soft molasses cookies for the second cup)
1+ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted
Filling Ingredients
4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1.5 cups sugar or sucanat
3+ tablespoons all purpose flour
1.5+ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1+ teaspoon ground ginger
4 large eggs
1 15-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Ingredients
1 lb of organic ground chicken thigh meat
½ lb of fresh organic spinach
2 slices of organic, whole wheat, sprouted bread
1 egg
2 TBSP of butter
½ cup of bone or chicken stock
Crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour (we did 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 white flour)
1 tablespoon sugar or succanat
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
20 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
4 to 5 tablespoons ice-cold water
Filling:
3 pounds ripe peaches (approximately)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup blueberries
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup (packed) light-brown sugar OR succanat
1/4 cup granulated sugar OR succanat OR honey
1 packet Stevia
1/4 cup all-purpose flour OR whole wheat pastry flour
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Ingredients:
2 lemons, zested and juiced
1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup Dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 pounds skin-on fresh salmon fillets
3 pounds small Yukon gold potatoes
3/4 pounds haricots verts, stems removed
1.5 pounds ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges (6 small tomatoes)
6 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and cut in 1/2
1 small bunch watercress or arugula
1/4 pound large green olives, pitted
1 can anchovies, optional
Vinaigrette Ingredients:
1/4 cup champagne vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup good olive oil
We’re determined to make desserts that taste good and are good for you (well okay… desserts that at least aren’t horrible for you and don’t have processed sugar!). The original recipe came from Epicurious, but we made a decent amount of changes to get it sugar-free and we also substituted coconut oil for canola oil, since coconut oil is more beneficial.
Carrot Cake Ingredients:
1/3 cup dried shredded organic unsweetened coconut
3 cups (a little less than a 1 pound) organic farm-fresh carrots, shredded
1 cup agave nectar
1 1/2 cups organic all-purpose flour
1/2 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons organic ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated organic nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sucanat
3/4 cup organic coconut oil
1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
3 organic eggs
We found the original recipe on Epicurious and liked everything except the prunes and bacon, so we left those ingredients out! Serve with Mashed Potatoes & Green Beans!
Ingredients:
1 cup fine bread crumbs
1/3 cup whole milk
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium celery rib, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 1/2 pounds ground beef chuck
1/2 pound ground pork
2 large eggs
1/3 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
The base is the same regardless, but you have some options when it comes to the sweetener that goes with the flavor. If you don’t want to use sugar (we try not to!) we suggest agave nectar or succanat, depending on the flavor you choose. Succanat has more of a molasses taste to it, so we wouldn’t recommend it for the lemon ice cream, but it would be great if you wanted to make cinnamon ice cream or something more substantial like chocolate.
For our first try we decided to do lemon and strawberry & banana. The lemon came out very lemony (which we like!) and the strawberry banana was a perfectly smooth end of summer flavor.
Ice Cream Base
4 egg yolks
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon zantham gum
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup half and half
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
Lemon Flavor
finely grated zest of 3 lemons
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup agave nectar or 3/4 cup succanat or 3/4 cup sugar
Strawberry/Banana Flavor
1 pint of strawberries
1 banana
1/3 cup agave or 1/2 cup succanat or 1/2 cup sugar
