Cake Batter Blondies

So..this happened.

They were on sale! Seriously, I need a chaperone to come shopping with me at all times. It's a real problem.

But then something else happened...and before I knew it, I had all the ingredients I needed to make Cake Batter Blondies sitting on my counter.

Seriously...I need help.

But anywho...something absolutely wonderful came out of my oven yesterday! One of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. The only thing I might find wrong with it is the fact that it is reallyyyyyy reallyyyyyy sweet! Like almost too sweet.

Almost.

I got this recipe from HERE and it is so simple to make!

Just combine all your dry ingredients, and then throw in the wet ones and pop it in the oven! And then try to wait before shoveling into your mouth. It's not as easy as it sounds.

This is what it looks like when it first comes out...although this picture doesn't nearly do it justice! And the smell!! Why have they not invented smellivision yet?? Seriously scientists, it can't be that hard!

So this is where the hard part comes in. You have to wait at least 20-30 minutes for the gooey, amazing center to set before you cut into it. (Or  you could just dig in with a spoon...I won't judge you.)

But after you cut into it, here is the amazingness that awaits you. I'll let these pictures speak their thousands of words.

Look how gooey and amazing! It tasted like pure cake batter!

And it may look like the edges would be the parts that you want to avoid because the center is pure gooey goodness, but the edges are just as amazing! It's just delicious throughout!

You need these in your life. And please mail me some!

Cake Batter Blondies

Ingredients

• 1 box of yellow cake mix
• 1/4 cup of sprinkles
• 1/4 cup of canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup of milk (may need a little more if the batter doesn't come together with 1/4 cup)
• 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips (optional: I put them in mine, but I think it would taste equally delicious without. So your call.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Stir cake mix and sprinkles together.
3. Add in oil and egg and stir until combined.
4. Add in milk and stir until batter comes together.
5. Add in white chocolate chips, if using.
6. Place into a greased 8x8 pan and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. The outer edges will be golden brown, but it will still look a little undercooked in the middle. It's supposed to!!
7. Enjoy by the fistful or spoonful.

Banana Pancakes for One

Let's get one thing out in the open. I love breakfast. Love love LOVE breakfast!

Pancakes.

French Toast.

Oatmeal.

ANYTHING combining bananas and peanut butter and/or Nutella.

I go crazy.

Now let's get another thing out in the open. I'm a very routine kind of gal. Which often leads to me having the same exact thing every single morning for breakfast. 2 slices of toast (or bagel thins if I accidentally pass them in the grocery store and they fly into my cart), one slice gets covered in peanut butter (Peter Pan Honey Roast Crunch to be exact) and one slice gets covered in Nutella and then I slice up a banana and layer 9 slices on top of each slice.

I then proceed to eat half the peanut butter slice, then half the Nutella, then peanut butter, then finish with Nutella. Everysinglemorning!

But lately, I've been craving delicious breakfast foods. I just don't have time. (Waking up earlier is not an option).

I did make THESE peanut butter banana oatmeal squares one night last week and then heated one up in the morning, topped it with even MORE peanut butter and caramelized bananas. Heaven.

I apologize that that is such a bad picture, but it was early and the smell of caramelized bananas and peanut butter was intoxicating my brain.

So once I spoiled myself once, I was hooked and was craving delicious breakfasts all week. And I've been craving pancakes forEVER! I make THE most delicious whole wheat blueberry pancakes, but I think I'm the only one who would eat them and there is no room in our tiny refrigerator for pancake leftovers.

My prayers were answered when I stumbled across the pancake section of Katie's blog. And if you've never checked out her blog, you need to do it RIGHT NOW! It's a healthy dessert blog made with real foods and vegan-friendly foods. It's great.

And the best part? Pancakes for one!

I, of course, made the banana pancakes (with a few variations of my own) and it was super simple! I even had time to do it on my 7 am day! So if I can squeeze this into my morning routine, so can you!

Ingredients:
1/3 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
half a banana (mashed)
1/4 cup fat free milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Mix up your dry ingredients.

2. Then mix up your wet ingredients.

3. Then combine them all together and throw them down on a hot skillet!

Easy.

I added more sliced bananas and blueberries to mine for good measure.

This made 3 pancakes for me, but my third was pretty big so you could probably get away with 4. And it's all for under 300 calories!

The lack of eggs did make them a little hard to flip and they weren't quite as fluffy as regular pancakes, but they still tasted GREAT!

Who doesn't want a pancake breakfast on a regular workday morning? And all in under 15 minutes.

I know I do!

Quinoa "Mac" n' Cheese

So funny thing...I was home for three weeks, doing absolutely nothing but watching every Grey's Anatomy episode known to man and cooking. Literally. So one would think that a person with a food blog would be posting everyday in this situation. This clearly was not the case.

Apparently my body decided to switch into full-blown summer vacation mode for those 3 weeks and did not want to do ANYTHING. Even talk about food! Blasphemy! I suppose it just knew that that was the only bit of summer vacation I was going to get since I'm now basically working three different jobs for the rest of the summer, so it went into super vacation mode.

Or maybe I'm just really lazy. And I was too busy consuming unreasonable amounts of calories to actually post about it. I didn't even take that many pictures!

So anywho, I will share the few recipes I actually really liked and took pictures of with you now. And then maybe we can talk about the giant bowl of seafood mac n' cheese I treated myself to today in Quincy Market today as a "First Week At My Internship" present to myself at a later time. (Preferably after I am out of this cheese coma. But seriously.)

So onto the healthiest mac and cheese you will ever eat! While still being very very delicious. I found this on Pinterest awhile back and finally got the chance to try it after 4 months straight of being at school and not having a kitchen.

Quinoa "Mac" n' Cheese
adapted from AroundTheTableRI.blogspot.com
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa (dry + 2 cups of water to cook)
1 head of broccoli
1 head of cauliflower
1 clove of garlic
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup of breadcrumbs/Panko
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook the quinoa according to package instructions.

2. Meanwhile, chop up the broccoli and cauliflower. Saute in a saucepan with cooking spray, the diced garlic and a few tablespoons of water so it steams them a little.

3. When quinoa is done cooking (all water is absorbed) and broccoli and cauliflower are tender, remove from heat.

4. Whisk milk and egg together in a separate bowl and then add to the quinoa. Fold in Cheddar cheese and veggies until cheese starts to melt.

5. Pour into a small, greased casserole dish.

6. Top with breadcrumbs or Panko and Parmesan cheese.

7. Bake for 30-35 minutes until breadcrumbs are golden brown. (You may need to broil for 30 seconds to a minute at the end of the baking process to ensure a nice golden crust).

Yum! It looks (and tastes) just like mac and cheese, only with an awesome(in my opinion) texture!

Serve it up with some whole wheat garlic bread and you've got classic, HEALTHY comfort food.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

I just handed in my final assignment of my sophomore year (a review of the Blue Valentine screenplay for my film class...have you seen that movie? It is depressing! I'm sure it would be a lot better to actually watch the movie because then I could stare at Ryan Gosling and everything would be alright).

But anywho, I am officially halfway through college! What?? When did this happen? I'm so old.

I get to stay home and relax for a few weeks before returning to Boston for the summer. So hello Grey's Anatomy reruns and bag after bag of banana chips! And I get to cook again! I missed my kitchen probably more than anything (except for my mother of course!).

My first night home I decided to try something that I've been wanting to try for forever now: gnocchi! It is a little time consuming, but actually a lot simpler than I thought it would be. All we had were sweet potatoes, so I used those and used whole wheat flour to bind it all together. Delicious, healthy, and fancy! Your family will be so impressed!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Serves 4

Gnocchi

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 (approx.) cups of whole wheat flour

Sauce

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cups of fresh spinach
• 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Directions

1. Cook your potatoes however you'd like. I baked mine in a 375 degree oven for an hour, but you could also boil them. (Side note: remember to poke holes in your potatoes with a fork before you bake them. I may have accidentally forgot and came very close to having exploded bake potato all over my oven.)

2. Remove the skins and mash potatoes in a bowl and let cool.  Add salt, pepper, cinnamon and egg and mix together.

3. Add the flour. I would start with about 1 1/4 cups and then add more as needed. You don't want it to be so sticky that you can't handle it, but don't add too much flour.  I think I added too much and it made the gnocchi a little tough and took away from the sweet potato flavor.

4. Roll the dough into a ball and then cut into 4 sections. Each section will be a serving. Roll out each section onto a floured surface into a skinny snake and cut dough into one inch nuggets. (If you aren't making 4 servings, this is when you can freeze any extras for later.)

5. Bring a big pot of water to a boil. Reduce the water so that it is just on the edge of boiling, but not a roiling boil.  Add the gnocchi, one serving at a time, and cook until they float to the top. Wait another thirty seconds and then scoop them out with a slotted spoon. Continue cooking the rest of the gnocchi. And set aside.

6. Empty water from pot and add 1 Tbsp of butter. Sautee the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.

7. Add gnocchi and cook until golden on the outside.

8. Add spinach and cook until just wilted.

7. Serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese over top. And enjoy!

We ate it with some garlic bread and my mom's delicious, garlicky broccoli. Yum! It is going to be a delicious few weeks! 

Healthy Apple Crisp

Happy Leap Day!!!

In honor of the rareness that is this day, I'm going to do something a little rare...post a recipe that I, myself, have not made. But I do have my reasons.

A.) This is by far the most delicious thing I have ever eaten (at least in the past month) and I do not want to make you all wait until I am home with my own kitchen and can finally try it for myself before gracing you with this amazing recipe!

B.) I trust that the recipe is accurate and will turn out just as delicious as the one (or three) servings that I had!

So as you can probably imagine I (mostly my mother) pay a pretty steep price to come to BU, but I have encountered several things over the past 2 years that completely justify this to myself (and I'm working on my mom). And one of these things is BU's Dining Services. They are incredible!! I look forward to eating college food! For serious...they have something for everyone! And another thing I love is their Sargent Choice program.

At every dining hall and at every meal there are always a few "Sargent Choice options" which is keyword for amazing, delicious food THAT IS ALSO GOOD FOR YOU! They cook with whole grains, add more veggies, and eliminate really bad foods from their dishes. And you know what...IT STILL TASTES GOOD! It is rare that I won't get a Sargent Choice option because I personally think they are better than regular options.

Some of my favorites are their Sweet and Sour Chicken, their whole wheat pizzas, their Mustard Maple Pork Tenderloin, and THEIR APPLE CRISP!

It may not look like much, but trust me...it is. My camera phone is just really bad!

Now, I usually avoid the dessert table because I'm a good little girl, but this caught my eye when I was going to get a bowl of fruit. And the sign said it was Sargent Choice Apple Crisp..so I thought "Hey...I like apple crisp...I just got back from the gym...I know Sargent Choice is healthy...So therefore, I can guiltlessly eat a bowl of this apple crisp." (And then I guiltily ate 2 more bowls..but that's besides the point).

I fell in love at first bite! It's everything you need in an Apple Crisp without all the unnecessary fat and calories. So I immediately found the recipe and now I will share it with you so you can all enjoy this (almost) guilt-free dessert AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

Sargent Choice Apple Crisp Recipe:

Ingredients:

            3 lbs apples (approx. 9 medium apples), sliced

            1 TB Lemon Juice

            1/4 cup white sugar

            1 TB cornstarch

            1/4 cup whole wheat flour

            2/3 cup rolled oats

            1/2 cup brown sugar

            1 tsp cinnamon

            1/8 tsp salt

            1/4 cup canola oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1. For the topping: Combine flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and canola oil in a medium bowl and work them together with a fork or your fingertips until uniformly moistened.

2. To make the filling:  Combine the apples peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch slices), lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch.

3. To assemble:  Coat a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray. Transfer the apple mixture to the dish. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the apples.  Bake until the apples are fork-tender and the topping is golden brown, about 35-45 minutes.

Serves 12

Enjoy!!

French Onion Soup

Three day weekend! Three day weekend!

I never quite understood President's Day. What are we celebrating? George Washington's Birthday? Abe Lincoln's? Barack Obama in general? I don't get it.

Well I just typed "President's Day" into Wikipedia and "Washington's Birthday" popped up so I guess that settles that. But new question...why are we still celebrating his birthday hundreds of years later? Was he even that good of a president? No. Not good enough for everyone to get his birthday off! What is this world coming to? There are a few people I could see deserving a holiday. Abraham Lincoln's birthday?...okay. FDR's...sure. Hillary Clinton's...most definitely! Okay, I digress.

Since it was a three day weekend I got to go hang out with some family last night where I got to use a KITCHEN again!!! Yay! I think they really enjoyed it too because I made French Onion Soup!

Jealous? Thought so.

But don't fear because this is a very easy recipe and it tastes just as good as any soup you'll get in a restaurant and it's probably even healthier!

I adopted this recipe from Real Simple magazine and you probably have most, if not all, of these ingredients already in your kitchen. Super easy! Give it a shot!

French Onion Soup
Serves 4

Ingredients

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3 large onions (any kind will do)
• 1/2-1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2-3/4 cups of Sherry
• 14 oz (1 3/4 cup) chicken stock
• 2 1/4 cup water
• 3 tsp soy sauce
• 4 slices of baguette (I like to use multigrain for extra healthiness)
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella (optional)
• 4 slices Swiss cheese

Directions

1.  Slice up all three onions into thick ribbons. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan and add the onions. Stir to coat in olive oil and add your thyme and a little salt. Stir it all together and partially cover the pot, stirring occasionally, and let them caramelize for about 15 minutes until they have a golden brown color.

2. Once caramelized, add the sherry and allow it to cook down for about 2 minutes.

3. Add chicken stock, water, and soy sauce. Stir everything together and bring it up to a boil. Then reduce to low to simmer for about 20 minutes partially covered.

4. Meanwhile, slice your baguette and toast the slices (either in a toaster or under the broiler in the oven). Once toasted, cut the toast into bite-sized pieces.

(You can use one slice of bread or however much you want, I just used up the whole loaf. And for the cheese, I would buy pre-sliced swiss just to make your life easier, but we got a block of it because it was on sale and it worked just fine. I'm just not a very good cheese-cutter)

5. After 20 minutes, taste test the soup. Add some more thyme, salt and pepper to taste. In a separate bowl, combine the cornstarch with a ladle full of soup and stir until the cornstarch is dissolved then stir mixture back into the soup. Let it cook a few more minutes.

6. Preheat broiler to high. Place soup bowls on a sturdy cookie sheet or any oven-safe pan. Divide the soup evenly among the 4 bowls. Add the cubed bread into each bowl and top with the shredded mozzarella (if using) then layer the swiss cheese on top.

7. Place bowls under the broil and broil until the cheese is melted and bubbly and French Onion Soupy.

Make sure you use oven mitts to touch the bowls because they will obviously be hot. And I would put them on plates. You could also make the soup part ahead of time and put it in the fridge and then just bring it back up to a boil and start with Step 6 when you're ready to eat. It's a little time consuming but so worth it! Classic comfort food!

CLICK HERE for the printable version.

Everyone enjoy! And have a Happy Washington's Birthday? ...I still don't get it.

Mushroom and Spinach Risotto

Well it has certainly been awhile since I've last posted. It's funny how I can do nothing but sit on the couch watching television and reading books for the past two weeks and still rarely find time to write a new post. I have brought new meaning to the term laziness. And now I am staring at our Christmas tree, still sitting in the living room, reminding me that one of these days I need to take off all the ornaments and candy canes and garland and Christmas lights and put it away. But the problem is, that means Christmas is officially over, and I don't think I am quite ready for THAT yet. I'm in my own little world, so if I want to pretend it's still Christmas, I will!

Luckily, despite my excessive laziness, I have still found time to cook and bake nearly every day. Of course! And I finally was brave enough to tackle one of my favorite dishes...risotto! And yes...it did take a ridiculously long time, but it was so creamy and amazing that it was definitely worth all the patience. (And trust me..you will need a lot of patience once you start to see how creamy and delicious it begins to look!) So if you have time to make a gourmet meal for your family (or even just for yourself..no shame. and it actually reheated quite well the next day) it's actually really simple! And feel free to tinker with it and add whatever veggies, wine or cheese that floats your boat!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2-3 cups sliced mushrooms
• 3 cups baby spinach
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced or diced very small
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1/2-1 cup Sherry (or any wine of choice)
• 4 cup container of chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (or cheese of choice)

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add sliced mushrooms and sautee until tender. Add spinach and stir until spinach has wilted. Remove from heat and set veggie mixture aside in a bowl.

2. Add 4 cups of chicken stock to that saucepan and bring up to a boil. Once it is boiling reduce heat to very low and cover just to keep warm while you cook the rice.

3. In another saucepan heat up 1 Tbsp of olive oil and melt 1 Tbsp of butter over medium heat. Add diced garlic and saute for about 30 seconds. Add in arborio rice, coat with butter/oil mixture and let toast for about 2 minutes. Add wine and reduce heat to medium-low. Let simmer while occasionally stirring until the rice has absorbed the wine.

4. After rice has absorbed most of the wine, begin adding the hot chicken stock to the rice 1/2 cup at a time. Stir occasionally and allow rice to absorb must of the stock before adding another 1/2 cup. (This takes time..about 20-30 minutes..so you have to be patient. It will be about 3-5 minutes between each addition. This slow cooking process it was gives risotto its amazing creaminess. You may not need to use all the stock, just keep going with this process until the rice is tender enough to your liking. You can also add a little more than 1/2 cup at a time if you want to speed things up, but I would recommend 1/2 cup)

5. Once rice has reached desired tenderness, stir the mushroom/spinach mixture into the rice. Add a Tbsp of butter and stir until it has melted. Stir in basil and parmesan cheese until cheese is melted and veggie mixture has heated through. After plating, sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top and serve.

Now doesn't that look delicious! Trust me..it is. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE for the printable version of the recipe.