chef Archives - Life's Tidbits

22Jul 2015

Meal Planning – Week 2

I’m happy to report meal planning is going pretty well! I enjoy sitting down with my list of recipes, thinking about the week ahead and writing out what to cook each night. The recipes chosen are then translated into a shopping list to which I add breakfast, lunch and snack items. Luckily lunch usually consists of leftover dinners, which makes it easier. The project manager in me loves the process of making a plan and executing sed plan.

Week two was a success though I still seem to slightly over buy somethings and under buy others. I’m starting to think meal planning for Jellybean needs to go beyond dinner, as many of the foods we don’t have enough of are for her. Raspberries/blackberries/blueberries, in particular, are consumed at a remarkable rate.

Here’s what we’ve been munching on lately …

Dinners for Week 2:

Grilled Lemon Dijon Chicken, Roasted Cauliflower and Baked Oven Fries … the oven fries are AMAZING. You must try them, Mkay?! I seriously want to eat them everyday all day long.
Brisket with carrots and potatoes … one of my favorite holiday recipes that I occasionally make on non-holiday weekends. One of these days I hope to share the recipe with you!
Saucy Chicken with Rice … super easy and perfect for a week night.
Homemade Pizza … I’ve been dying to make homemade pizza crust for a while now. The last time I tried to make it the yeast had expired – FAIL – this time I was properly equipped with non-expired yeast!
Lemon Almond Chicken Salad with Biscuits … I may or may not have been out of bread and way too lazy to venture to the store so I decided to just throw some frozen biscuits in the oven. They were delish and it was kind of like having a deconstructed sandwich :)
Out to Dinner x2 … While the goal is to only order in or go out once a week, however this particular week was special. My parents were in town over the weekend visiting & my girlfriends and I did a little girls night out. So my once a week only is more like a guideline, not a rule {wink, wink}.

I made two new recipes this week! I am glad they were both a hit so they can be added to the queue of dinner options. It is always disappointing when a recipe looks delicious and then is just so-so or worse not yummy at all.

Goals for next week: try another new recipe (or two!) and try to use more of what’s already in the house.

What have you been making for dinner lately {please add links in the comments!}? Any tips for meal planning?

19Sep 2013

{Recipe} Chocolate Crumb Cake

by Nicole ⋅ 2 Comments

Admission – I am a sweetaholic! Always have been and probably always will be. I’m starting to believe Jellybean, like her mommy-to-be, has a wicked sweet tooth as well. Yes, wicked … I am from Massachusetts and wicked is an adjective, promise! I’ve been tried out a lot of new baked good recipes over the last couple of months. Two of my favorites are classic brownies from Smitten Kitchen and white chocolate brownies from Bake or Break.

Recently I’ve been looking for new bloggers to follow when I stumbled upon Tin’a Chic Corner. The chocolate crumb cake recipe immediately grabbed my attention. Last weekend the husbands were away for a boys “football” weekend so the girls and I decided to do a dinner/game night! I figured it was the perfect time to give this new recipe a whirl.

Ingredients Needed:

white sugar
dark brown sugar (I used light brown sugar since that’s what I had in the cabinet)
ground cinnamon
salt
butter
all-purpose
unsweetened cocoa powder
baking powder
baking soda
egg
skim milk (I substituted 2%)
oil (I think vegetable … at least that’s what I used)
vanilla extract
boiling water
miniature chocolate chips (totally forgot to put these on the cake and it was still delicious!)

Get the recipe and directions from Tina’s Chic Corner here.

Although my crumb topping didn’t come our nearly as pretty as Tina’s the cake was absolutely DELISH! The girls all loved it. We even had seconds. The husband, who isn’t a big chocolate fan (seriously, what’s wrong with him?!), really liked the piece he had when he returned from his trip. I will definitely be making this chocolate crumb cake again … and soon!

Any recipes you’ve tried lately that you’d recommend?

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24Apr 2013

{Recipe} Super Cheesy Homemade Mac & Cheese

by Nicole ⋅ Leave a Comment

Last week I was totally craving homemade mac & cheese. I am not really sure what triggered the need for this dish given I haven’t had it in ages. In any event mac & cheese was going to happen in my belly! This super cheese homemade mac & cheese is a serious comfort food dish. According to the husband and a friend who joined us for dinner they said this mac & cheese recipe is a winner! Just looking at the picture makes me want to eat some. YUMMY!!

Recipe inspired from A Cup of Jo and The Pioneer Woman.

Ingredients:

1 box pasta
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground/dry mustard
12 oz Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons grated parmesan
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350*

Cook pasta until al dente and drain. Remember to salt the water before adding the pasta!

In a sauce pan, melt butter and add in the flour. Whisk together over medium-low heat. Cook mixture for five minutes, whisking constantly.

Slowly add the milk and continuing whisking. Add mustard and reduce the heat to low. Add in cheddar cheese a handful at a time and only add more once the cheese is completely melted. Add the grated parmesan last. Pour cheese/milk mixture over the pasta and stir to combine. Pour pasta into a baking pan.

In a separate bowl combine the bread crumbs and 2 tablespoons of parmesan and then pour over the pasta as evenly as possible. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly and the top is golden.

Serve and most important enjoy! This dish is a great main meal, side dish and makes wonderful lunches.

Happy Cooking!

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18Apr 2013

Ten Tidbits Thursdays

by Nicole ⋅ 2 Comments

1 – Sorry to start on a somber note, but I feel like I must touch on this. I haven’t posted anything online about the tragedy that occurred Monday at the Boston marathon. My thoughts and prayers have been with those impacted by this all week, but I find at times when people do horrible thing I am at a loss for words. Even just saying thoughts and prayers doesn’t seem to do justice to how I feel or what I really would want to convey. I grew up and Massachusetts and feel lucky to have so many wonderful friend/family who reached out to ensure my loved ones were okay. Like I said I have no words …. I mean really what is wrong with people?

2 – A friend of mine shared this article with me … 22 Things Happy People Do Differently. Although I can see the value in a lot of the items there’s just no way I can get up at the same time every day. I like to sleep in on the weekends =)

3 – Sometimes cooking an “old” recipes that I haven’t had in a long time makes me rediscover my love for it all over again. This week I made spicy meatballs for the hubby. We both were laughing about how much we enjoyed them and why we hadn’t thought to make them in a while. Welcome back to the rotation spicy meatballs!

4 – I played Bocce for the first time ever this week! Our team is a lot of fun and even though I thought I might be terrible at it … it turns out I was able to score the winning point for my team. Not bad if I do say so myself!! Have you ever played Bocce do you like it?

5 – Have any of your been watching The Americans on FX? The hubby and I are loving the first season and let’s be honest it is always a HUGE win when we can agree on a TV show. We are also hooked on Scandal! Any good shows you and your man agree upon that you would recommend?

6 – I know it’s a really old and over played song at this point, but I still get excited when “Call me Maybe” comes on the radio or on my ipod. Can’t really pin point what about this song I like so much … it must be the beat … yeah let’s go with that. =)

7 – Planning a bachelorette party? Check out these two super cute (and affordable) ideas from The McBaileys … party boxes and party tanks. I love both ideas!

8 – Sophi, our dog, met my friend’s 7+ week old baby yesterday! Sophi was very curious and wanted to sniff/see the baby, however once we started pay attention to only the baby she was less than thrilled. The poor dog was JEALOUS, but luckily by the end of the visit I had my friend’s baby in my lap and Sophi laying next to us.

9 – After killing my herb garden after one of the early snows last year, I have begun my quest to conquer the black thumb … again. I am hopeful I will have better luck this time. So far we have basil, chives, mint and thyme.

10 – I’ve been toying with the idea of becoming a brunette. I have always been a blonde and I’m not really sure where this idea is coming from. Random right?

What tidbit do you have to add this week?

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17Apr 2013

{Recipe} Raspberry-Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles

by Nicole ⋅ 2 Comments

I’ve recently become somewhat obsessed with making truffles. Right before Easter my friend came over to hang out and was interested in learning how to make truffles. I had been dying to try out this new truffle recipe and decided it was the perfect time. I told her we had to document the process as this was a recipe I had been planning to blog about. So …. we collected all the ingredients, got the camera ready and the truffle making began!

Although I do really enjoy cooking by myself, having someone to chit chat with and lend that extra hand makes the process that much more fun! I’ve been trying to think of a clever/fun name for these truffles, but haven’t come up with anything good yet. I was considering PB&R, but that reminded me too much of the beer PBR … pout. Any good name suggestions out there?

If you decide to go for the larger portion of peanut butter these truffles kind of become a fancier and more decedent version of Reese’s Peanut Butter cups with a hint of Raspberry. Either way the feedback on this little dessert was very positive so it will definitely be staying in the make again (and again hahaha) pile of recipes.

Here we go … it’s truffle yummilious time!!

Ingredients
10 oz semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract
1/4 cup peanut butter (if you are peanut butter LOVER do 1/2 a cup)
10 oz of chocolate for coating like melting chocolate

Directions
Chop the chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl.

Bring the heavy cream and butter to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat.

Pour cream/butter mixture over the chocolate and let sit until melted, about 10 minutes. Stir with a rubber spatula or whisk until smooth. (If necessary, microwave in 20-second intervals until the chocolate melts.)

Stir in the vanilla and raspberry extracts.

Then stir in the peanut butter. Stir until the ganache is smooth and shiny.

Pour into a shallow baking dish (or leave in the glass bowl as I did) and refrigerate until firm, 1-2 hours or overnight.

Roll tablespoonfuls of the ganache into 24 balls, then return to the refrigerator for at least an hour. Heat your melting chocolate in a double broiler or in a chocolate melting pot. Drop each truffle into the melted chocolate and cover completely. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place in the refrigerate until firm. Store is airtight container until ready to serve. I like to let them sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving to ensure the center is nice and gooey!!