Hello fellow foodies and food lovers!
I’m sorry I haven’t posted any new recipes lately. I actually have a back log of recipes to post up. I’m actually working on moving over to a self hosted site – www.marianthefoodie.com – (It’s not ready yet) and revamping my blog. It will be even better so stay tuned!
I’ll try to find some time to post up new recipes. Thanks for your patience and have a great Easter weekend! =)
I love scones. It’s not quite a cookie and it’s not quite a muffin. It’s in between and freshly baked scones are the yummiest! I thought of this recipe because I had leftover white chocolate chips from when I made my White Chocolate Chip Nutella Cookies and I also had a coffee liqueur left over. I didn’t want to waste it and I thought, why not put it together? So this is how this recipe was born. This was my first time making it and I actually liked how it came out. Maybe next time, I’ll add the coffee liqueur to the scones mixture as well, not just for the glaze. But that’s for another future recipe. ;-p
White Chocolate Chip Scones
What you need:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar (brown sugar works too)
1 tbs pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 stick of unsalted butter – melted (Save about 2 tbs for the glaze and use the rest for the scones)
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1. Pre-heat oven to 400F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients: flour, pinch of salt, baking powder, sugar and white chocolate chips.
3. In another bowl, mix wet ingredients: egg, butter, vanilla extract, milk
4. Combine both mixtures together and create your dough gently. Once the dough is mixed, don’t over knead it. Over kneading makes the dough hard.
5. Place dough on a baking or cookie sheet. You don’t have to make perfect looking round balls for the scones. I made my scones in an oval shape.
6. Bake for about 16-18 minutes or until you see golden edges. Makes about 12-14 scones.
Coffee Liqueur Glaze
What you need:
1/3 cup coffee liqueur (Try Kahlua)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbs pure vanilla extract
2 tbs butter
1. Heat and combine all the ingredients together in a sauce pan. Mix thoroughly so that the sugar completely melts and thickens.
2. Drizzle all over your warm white chocolate scones.
These taste so good while warm so eat them right away. Try it with a cup of coffee or tea. =)
One of the things I love about this recipe is that it’s quick, cheap and super easy. It’s amazing how simple this is to make yet tastes so good! Perfect if you think you’re the very best cook or don’t have a lot of time. It takes about 10-15 minutes to makes and you have a flavorful dish all ready.
Beef Japanese Curry
Japanese curry mix cubes – 3-4 cubes (You can buy this at almost any Asian supermarket)
beef chunks – small pieces
1 large carrot – cut into 1/2 in. slices
3-4 white mushrooms – sliced
1. Boil water then add beef chunks. When that’s done, drain the water and add about 2 cups of new water. I do this because I don’t like the beef residue when it first cooks.
2. Mix in the 3-4 cubes of curry to your beef and water. Bring to a boil and make sure the cubes have been completely melted.
3. In a separate sauce pan, boil water and cook the carrots and mushrooms. This step is optional because you can cook your vegetables in the same pot, however I kept them separated this time for the picture. I mixed them in after.
See 3 steps and you’re done! Pair it with either brown or white rice and you’re good to go!
I made this omelet the same morning I made my Very Berry Blueberry Pancakes so that I would have something sweet and something salty too. I had some turkey spam leftovers, I wanted eggs and cheese so why not put it all together? =) Add some veggies and it’s perfect. The way I cooked this isn’t the usual fold over omelet though. I used a bowl to create the final shape.
Cheesy Turkey Spam Omelet
What you need:
4 eggs
1 medium tomato (diced)
2-3 slices of Turkey Spam – cut into squares (I don’t like the regular Spam because it’s too salty and contains pork, which I try not to eat. But you can use whatever Spam you like)
3-4 white mushrooms (diced)
shredded cheese (I used Mexican 4 cheeses blend)
cooking oil
seasoning for the eggs (black pepper, garlic salt)
1/4 cup milk (makes the eggs fluffier)
1. Beat eggs with milk and seasoning
2. Heat frying pan and add oil
3. Cook the Turkey Spam first. When that’s done, cook the mushrooms and tomatoes.
4. Add in the eggs last. Scramble the mixture all together.
5. Add shredded cheese at the bottom of the bowl. Put the cooked egg scramble in the bowl and press down to compact the mixture. Add more shredded cheese on top.
6. Place a plate on top of the bowl, flip over then remove the bowl.
7. You then have yummy, gooey, melted cheese underneath and on top of your omelet.
There’s something about pancakes that just puts me in a cheerful mood. When I think of pancakes, I think of brunch. When I think of brunch, I think of a relaxing summer day. I don’t know what it is, but pancakes make me happy. I’ve been craving pancakes for a while so I finally decided to make some yesterday morning. I made a few substitutions to this recipe as well such as using honey instead of sugar. I used fresh blueberries in this recipe too. None of that frozen stuff. =)
Very Berry Blueberry Pancakes
What you need:
pancake/baking mix (I thought about getting the ingredients separately for this but sometimes, it’s just cheaper and less time consuming to get the mix)
2 eggs
honey
Pam butter spray (You can use real butter but I wanted to try to reduce the calories for this recipe so I used the canned spray)
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup fresh strawberries – cut into small pieces (this goes on top of everything once it’s done)
1 cup milk (I use 2% milk)
1 cup powdered sugar (This is to top the pancakes so you can use more or less than 1 cup. Entirely up to you)
1. Mix the pancake mix, eggs, milk and honey until the mixture smooth and has texture. Make sure there are no clumps in the mixture.
2. Once the initial mixture is complete, add in the blueberries. The reason you don’t add this initially is because you want to keep the berries intact. Do not overly mix this.
3. Heat your pan and spray the Pam butter.
4. Use a measuring cup (or something similar) to scoop out the pancake mix and pour in the middle of the pan. The mixture should fan out.
5. Flip pancake and spray the butter on the other side. This prevents it from getting too brown.
6. Stack blueberry pancakes and use a strainer to add powdered sugar on top.
7. Garnish with fresh strawberries and more blueberries. You can add maple syrup or honey on the pancakes if you want it sweeter. Otherwise, the powdered sugar and fruits should be enough. Happy breakfasting! =)
I try to find ways to change up recipes to make slightly healthier. This is hard to do with lasagna because it’s usually really heavy and loaded with cheese. I decided to make a few substitutions with the ingredients, lessen the cheese, add veggies, and hope for the best that it won’t drastically affect my waistline. So here it is… my semi-healthy lasagna recipe. =)
Whole Wheat Turkey Lasagna
What you need:
whole wheat lasagna pasta
ground turkey
tomato sauce
spinach
mushrooms (sliced)
shredded mozzarella cheese
minced garlic
olive oil (You can substitute for another cooking oil if you want)
seasoning (black pepper, garlic salt, poultry seasoning mix)
1. Boil water. Cook lasagna pasta for about 10 minutes. Set aside.
2. Pre-heat oven to 350.
3. Heat oil, slightly brown your garlic, then cook the ground turkey. Season with your spices. Set aside.
4. Time to assemble the lasagna. First layer on your casserole dish is the pasta. Then ground turkey and tomato sauce. Add cheese. Place the next layer of pasta. Add your spinach and mushrooms (and more cheese if you want). Place last layer of pasta. Top with either just cheese or mushroom and cheese. It’s up to you. You can add as much cheese and veggies as you want to this. Limit the ground meat to one layer though.
5. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, enough for your cheese to melt.
Sometimes I think of dishes because my resources are limited and I have to get creative. Sometimes good things come out of it and sometimes…umm… not so great. This was one of the good times. =) I had some chicken breast and spinach leftover. I had thought about just mixing it together, throw some seasoning and be done with it. However, I was in a somewhat creative mood so I looked around my cupboard to see what I had. Some of the staples I have in my cupboard are chicken broth, canned clam chowder, quick-and-easy ramen noodles, cream of mushroom, Turkey Spam (the regular Spam is too salty for me, plus I try not to eat pork), etc. I ended up picking out the cream of mushroom (low fat and low sodium). This is actually a pretty simple and easy recipe that doesn’t need a lot of ingredients. Hope you like it!
Black Pepper Chicken with Cream of Mushroom and Spinach
What you need:
chicken breast (cut into large, thin pieces)
onions
black pepper
spinach
cream of mushroom
seasoning (used a poultry seasoning mix or you can just add a little salt)
olive oil (You can use whatever cooking oil you want. I always just use olive oil)
1. Heat oil then caramelize onions.
2. Cook chicken breast pieces. Season with black pepper and a dash of salt or poultry seasoning mix. Set aside when done.
3. Boil water and drop in spinach. Remove from the hot water after a few short minutes and strain. This cooks the spinach very quickly and helps to remove the bitter taste of spinach. Set aside.
4. In a sauce pan, heat up the canned cream of mushroom. Mixed in cooked spinach. There is no need to add any salt or seasoning to this sauce because it should be flavorful on its own.
5. Drizzle cream of mushroom and spinach on chicken breast.
6. (Optional) As you can see in the picture, I served this with brown rice. The first layer is the brown rice encircled by the spinach, then onions, chicken, drizzled with the cream of mushroom and topped with onions.
Or you can just skip the fancy schmancy presentation and just chow down. Up to you! =)
Pancit is Filipino style noodles. There are different types of pancit using different types of noodles (rice noodles, egg noodles, glass noodles, etc.) as well as different meats used with it, vegetables, sauces, etc. I love pancit but I’m Filipino so I grew up eating it, therefore sort of biased towards it =). My mom would cook the best pancit (in my humble opinion) and I have to give credit to her for teaching me how to cook when I was young. This recipe is what my mom used to make and mixes two different types of noodles together. Enjoy!
Pancit with Chicken and Shrimp
What you need:
vermicelli noodles (aka glass noodles)
egg noodles (yellow crispy looking ones)
chicken broth (I use low sodium broth)
1 large carrot (cut into thin strips)
string beans (about a handful; ends cut off and cut into shorter pieces)
2 limes (1 to squeeze on the pancit and 1 to use as garnish)
chicken breast (cut into smaller, thin pieces — You can actually shred the chicken if you want but for this one I just cut them into small cube size pieces)
0.5lb shrimp (I removed the head and shell)
sweet onion (used half and cut into small strips)
garlic (about 1 clove and diced into small pieces)
oil (I always use olive oil in my dishes but feel free to use whatever oil you want)
seasoning (I use Lawry’s meat seasoning, black pepper and garlic salt)
1. Soak vermicelli noodles in water first so it softens and then set aside. This takes about 10-15 minutes so you can let it sit in the water while you cook your meats and veggies. Cut up vermicelli noodles after to avoid clumping.
2. Heat oil, saute your onions and garlic.
3. Cook the chicken first and season to taste. (I don’t have a large wok so I had to cook everything separately in my largest pan then mixed it after.)
4. Cook shrimp and season. Set aside.
5. Cook carrots and string beans.
6. Add the egg noodles with the chicken broth. Add in broth little by little, not all at once. Wait until the noodles cook and soften.
7. Add the vermicelli noodles.
8. Add cooked chicken and shrimp. (Or you can do what I did and saved the shrimp to place on top of the noodles after along with the lime slices.)
9. Mix thoroughly. Season to taste and squeeze in lime.
10. Garnish with shrimp (optional) and lime slices.
I have always preferred thin crust pizzas over pizzas with a lot of dough. You can taste more flavors and toppings in a thin crust pizza than the other pizzas. I decided to make this pizza with veggies and sweet chicken sausage. This is a fun recipe and is also really easy to make.
Supreme Thin Crust Pizza
What you need:
pre-made thin crust pizza dough (available at almost any grocery store)
tomato sauce
shredded mozzarella cheese
bell pepper (sliced in thin strips)
tomatoes (cut into thin slices)
mushrooms (cut into thin slices)
chicken sausage (you can put any time of meat you want or not put any meat at all)
seasoning: black pepper, garlic salt
1. Pre-heat oven at 350F
2. Place pre-made thin crust pizza dough on a baking sheet
3. Coat the pizza dough with tomato sauce
4. Add a layer of shredded cheese
5. Top with tomatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms and chicken sausage.
6. Season the pizza with black pepper and garlic salt
7. Add more shredded cheese on top
8. Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until you see the pizza crust start to brown and the cheese melting nicely
There’s this place in Garden Grove, CA that has a 3 hour wait to get seated and serves finger lickin good shrimp, king crab legs, crawfish, etc. It’s called The Boiling Crab and it’s AMAZING! However, I didn’t want to wait for 3 hours to eat delicious food so I decided to make a similar shrimp dish. This recipe is really fast and easy to make. You can prepare it in 10 minutes tops.
Garlic Lemon Pepper Shrimp
What you need:
1lb headless shrimp (you can use whole shrimp in this recipe if you want as well. Up to you)
garlic (about 2-3 cloves, diced; Be very generous with the garlic in this dish)
black pepper (freshly ground black pepper is best)
2 lemons
garlic salt
olive oil (You can use any oil you want, but I always cook with olive oil)
1. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan then add garlic
2. Add in shrimp
3. Season with black pepper, lemon and garlic salt according to your taste
*** Optional: You can add Chinese red chili sauce for a spicy kick to this dish
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