Cooking for One

Hi all! I haven't been posting very much on here, and I don't have a specific plan to change that, but I thought I'd start a new little series, posting recipes and ideas for meals to make if you're just cooking for yourself. With Kyle recently deployed, I have to find motivation to prepare actual meals for myself, or I will just eat a bowl of cucumber and call it dinner. I am usually pleased when I spend a little time preparing something, and I try to cook things that are easy and healthy (or at least easy!). So, I will be sharing some of my creations, meals and snacks, as good ones come along! Some examples include a delicious egg and veggie breakfast/brunch, baked garbanzo beans, baked cauliflower, and baked foil-wrapped fish. I find a lot of recipes and ideas on Pinterest, and make changes as I see fit. Oh, and I have discovered that the combination of chili powder, cumin, and curry (plus salt and pepper) is really the best, so my first suggestion would be that you make sure you have all those in your cupboard. :)

- From the desk of Mrs. M

Chocolate Chip Puff Pancake

Do you remember months ago, when I posted about making apple and lemon puff pancakes? Well the other day I decided to make a chocolate chip one! I used mini chocolate chips, as I thought regular size would be too big and not melt the right amount. This was really, really tasty. I added some chocolate chips to the batter when I put it in the oven, and some on top after cooking. You can sprinkle with powdered sugar or use maple syrup. I've included Naomi's recipe, which I alter a little, below!

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup flour

dash of salt

dash of cinnamon

     + dash of nutmeg

     + splash of vanilla

1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla in a bowl until smooth.

While the oven is preheating, melt the butter in a pie pan or 9 inch square pan.

Pour the batter into the hot melted buttered pan.

Bake 10-12 minutes (or until the pancake is firm and has puffed around the edges).

- From the desk of Mrs. M

Lime Cookies with Glaze

I found this simple recipe the other week, and I thought lime cookies would be fitting with Cinco de Mayo approaching. Whether that makes sense or not (tequila shots, right...maybe?), I made these today, and they are awesome. I made them without macadamia nuts as I didn't have any or really want any. They are nice and refreshing, and I love the little specks of lime you can see. The glaze adds a lot of the sweetness and lime flavor, while the cookie is more of a buttery base. Hopefully husband will like them too; they don't contain chocolate so I suppose he should (though he likes brownies and reeses and almond joys and york patties which all have chocolate. But, sprinkle a few chocolate chips in a whole loaf of banana bread and he won't touch it. I do not understand it). Update: he likes them.

S. 

Hunger Games and Blueberry Muffins

During our grocery shopping trip on Sunday I picked up The Hunger Games. I'm definitely late to the party; I don't think I had even heard of it before I first saw a trailer for the movie a month ago. But the premise is very interesting to me, and I enjoy a good, quick read (especially good for passing time at the laundromat). By the end of the day Sunday I was over 3/4 of the way finished, and read the rest this morning. I don't yet know if I think it's especially good or if the story is just so far from an imaginable reality that it is captivating everyone (myself included).  Either way I might have to go out and get the next two tonight after Kyle gets home (and wait a long while before seeing the movie). I did pause from reading for dinner yesterday, and to make some blueberry muffins. A worthwhile break!

PS- I've recently entered into the blogger button swap world, so if you'd like to swap buttons, and maybe have a little introduction post later in April, please let me know! :)

Saint Paddy's

Ours was pretty chill. For brunch I tried this recipe for Baileys pancakes, and they were not that great. They were thick and weird. Oh well. Kyle ate all of his, at least. I ate my eggs and a pancake and a half, and fed some bacon to the kittens. We did laundry, and made an awesome Shepherd's pie for dinner. We cooked the meat/vegetable mixture in Guinness, and it was delicious. Oh, and I tried my first Irish Car Bomb, failed miserably, and learned I am terrible at chugging. For shame.

 We stocked up on (Irish) alcohol a few days ago. Really stocked up.

Our attire. Though it was super hot (Texas!!!) and I didn't wear this for long. I changed maybe 3 times through the day. But my nails were green the whole time! 

Pancake Day

Aside from it being the kittens' birthday, today is National Pancake Day, so I discovered thanks to facebook. They are giving away free pancakes at our favorite place, IHOP, but we're due to go for our anniversary next week. I decided though, to attempt another puffed pancake, this time with lemon! This sounds like a good idea, and generally was, but I was the only one home at the time, and those things are big, too big to be completed by one person alone. And you can imagine they don't save well. So, some of it went to waste. But it was delicious! All you do is sprinkle a lemon all about, then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Better than the apple one I made the other day (though I believe that with some experimentation, the apple recipe can be perfected). The lemon, however...definitely a winner. Just make sure you have someone to share it with. :)

In Which I Cook Chicken Thighs

Today was a very productive day. I did a bunch of cleaning around the house, like, on hands and knees scrubbing the bathroom floor with Clorox wet wipes cleaning. I worked out, paid a bunch of bills, got mad at my former school (AU) again and dealt with that, played outside with the kittens, organized things, cleaned some more, figured out a rough menu for the week, and cooked a pretty great meal. I'm now working on wedding invitations (I need to stop playing with them and just get them done) and watching The Voice while husband naps. Oh, and I wore a dress today, a rare, rare thing for me to do.

On to the chicken thighs. Peach whiskey barbecue chicken.

Before making this dish I had never cooked chicken thighs before. Turns out, they are the most unappealing looking part of a chicken to cook with. I am a little...cautious and slightly picky when it comes to meat. I don't like it looking like the fleshy animal that it once was, basically, and I don't like tasting gristly or extra chewy bits. Oh, I love dissecting things and looking at fleshy parts in a scientific sense (so much), but in a sense of- I'm going to put this in my mouth and chew- not so much. I usually meticulously cut away any skin, tendons, fat or any extras that remind me of my forensic anthropology class, until I have just a hunk of meat. I want to see muscle, and nothing else. With this recipe, and chicken thighs, the whole thigh looks like a hot mess, and were I to cut it down I imagine I would be working with very little Sarah-approved meat. So, I just went for it, trusting the end result would taste too amazing for me to even remember what it looked like going into the pot. I was making this meal mainly for Kyle, anyway, who is not a picky meat eater. Here goes. 

smashed taters

My smaller plate. Still unsure about the chicken.

leftovers

You see how my piece of chicken ended up there in the second to last picture? Luckily Kyle loved it and finished it up for me ("what?! The skin is the best part!"). It was really good; the sauce was amazing and tasted wonderful on the potatoes as well. However, it was still chicken thigh, and I still picked at it. I'm really happy with how it turned out, even if I didn't eat much of it myself. Yum yum.

The recipe for the chicken:

Peach Whiskey Barbecue Chicken

and I roughly followed this recipe for potatoes. I didn't add bacon, used chives instead of green onion,  yellow potatoes, and no french fried onions. Roughly, I said. :)

Smashed Potatoes