Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pour yourself a big glass of milk because just looking at these cookies and reading about them will make you crave some seriously cold milk.  In fact…excuse me while I run to the kitchen to get a glass while I type this….

You think I’m kidding?  I just took 2 huge gulps!

I was itchin’ to bake something sweet; I like chocolate and the sous chef likes his peanut butter.  I thought I had recently seen a Nestie (someone who posts on TheNest.com) post something about Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies, but I couldn’t remember who it was.  Nonetheless, after a quick blog search, I found these on Brown Eyed Baker.  Can you say YUM?!

These cookies definitely stayed moist and chewy and were likely the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made.  The sous chef and I HIGHLY recommend them!

Makes about 16 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup creamy peanut butter (Krista Kooks used Natural Jif Creamy Peanut Butter)
½ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
½ cup rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. On medium speed, cream together the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat to combine. On low speed, gradually add the flour until just combined. Stir in the oats, and then the chocolate chips.
4. Use a large cookie scoop (3 tablespoons) and drop dough onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden. Cool completely on the baking sheet and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Roasted Broccoli

“Krista Kooks, this is the best broccoli I’ve ever had.”

Those are the words of my sous chef.  Need I say more?

Well, this is a blog, so yes, I do :)  Haha!  It’s all thanks to Aggie’s Kitchen that this is the best broccoli we’ve ever had.  We’ve actually already had it once again after these pictures were taken!  That’s because I ate all the broccoli the first time.  What?  I needed my daily servings of vegetables!

Ingredients:

1 head broccoli, cut in florets
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt or kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
1-2 garlic cloves, minced (optional)
red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:

Toss broccoli florets with a little olive oil, salt and pepper (and some chopped garlic or red pepper flakes if you like). Roast in 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until slightly crisped and browned.
Krista Kooks’s highly suggests using the garlic and red pepper flakes.  Be sparing with the flakes as it can get spicy with just a 1/4 teaspoon.  Keep it at about 1/8 of a teaspoon for the flakes.

Enjoy eating your veggies!

Fish Oreganata

Ok, I’ve probably said it several times before, but I LOVE me some tilapia.  Aggie’s Kitchen posted this fabulous fish recipe recently, and I immediately bookmared it.  It looked mouthwatering delicious and very in line with me wanting to shed some pounds!!  This recipe was indeed mouthwatering delicious as I expected.  I don’t think the sous chef got any of this recipe :)  I saved the leftovers and ate them later.  Yes, I do feel slightly bad, but…it tastes SO GOOD!  Can you blame me?!

Source: Weight Watchers Make It in Minutes: Easy Recipes in 15, 20, and 30 Minutes via Family, Friends and Food via Aggie’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 lb mild white fish (I used tilapia, but flounder, haddock or other white fish can be used)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
zest from one large lemon
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3-4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with foil and then spray with non-stick spray.

Place the fillets on the baking sheet. Combine remaining ingredients (EVOO through oregano) in a bowl. Press the bread crumb mixture into the fish fillets making sure they are covered. Bake until the fish is just opaque in the center, about 10 minutes.

Delicious meal for lunch or dinner.  Fortunately it’s quick and easy making lunch come quick!

Salsa Verde Sour Cream Enchiladas in the CrockPot

Check out the remake of this dish at the bottom of this post! A couple of Food Blogs that I see every now and then posted these delicious enchiladas recently, and, as I’m sure yours will, too, my mouth began to water.  These enchiladas looked so delicious!  Check out Jessica’s of The Novice Chef; her post is the one that I followed to make our enchiladas.  Also, Confections of a Foodie Bride made hers while thinking about preparing for her baby’s birth. The chain started, however, with Homesick Texan’s.  I highly suggest checking out each of their links as their photos do much better justice to this absolutely delicious meal :)  I did half The Novice Chef’s recipe, but we ate every bit of it; probably not a good idea healthwise, but they were oh so delectable!  Also, check their posts for freezing instructions to be able to cook these enchiladas for later!

Also, as each of these ladies posts will show, they did their enchiladas a la stovetop and oven.  I chose to go the crockpot route partially to show you all that there are many recipes out there that can be made easier for you. 

That said, I have some adjustments on how I did this recipe as to how you should do this recipe in order to help you with time AND flavor!  First off, Homesick Texan’s recipe will instruct you on cooking the chicken via stovetop.  Anytime I know a recipe is going to need shredded cooked chicken to continue, I use the CrockPot/Slow-Cooker.  Thus, my frozen chicken went into the crockpot over about 1 Tbsp of olive oil.  I then sprinkled all of the chicken liberally with my Mexican spice blend.  Set your chicken to cook, off to work you go :)  Make sure to set it on low low low if you are going to be gone for 6 or more hours.  If you will be home during the chicken process and put the chicken in the crockpot in the afternoon, go ahead and set it it high for the 4 hour or 6 hour setting.  The chicken should cook within about 2 hours.

I also decided to cook these enchiladas in the crockpot once assembled.  I laid foil to line the crockpot, poured some of the sauce on bottom, and preceded to stack my assembled enchiladas.  Once all ingredients were in per the recipe’s instructions, I set the crockpot to high to cook.  As you can see from my pictures above, the crockpot’s cooing process does not crisp up enchiladas much the way an oven would.  We kind of had enchilada casserole, haha!  It didn’t matter to us though.  This recipe was fabulous.  Thus, my recommendation to you would be to proceed with the oven process in cooking the assembled enchiladas.  Just know that, if you want to prolong the cooking process because you have to go somewhere or whatever, you definitely can use the CrockPot/Slow-Cooker to cook the assembled enchiladas.

Here are the ingredients/instructions as used from The Novice Chef and adapted to the Krista Kooks’ Kitchen.

Ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (See above comments on cooking this chicken.  In one bowl, shred the chicken with 2 forks)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Serrano pepper, diced (seeds-in if you like the heat)
1 Jalapeno, seeded, minced
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour (Use gluten-free all purpose flour to make this recipe gluten free)
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup Low-Fat or Fat-Free sour cream (make sure to use a gluten free sour cream to keep this recipe gluten free, such as Daisy)
8 oz jar of  Salsa Verde (Krista Kooks used San Antonio Farms Medium Roasted Salsa Verde; highly recommend!)
3/4 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 cup cilantro, chopped
8 white corn tortillas, small fajita size
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack
1/4 medium onion, diced

Preheat the oven to 350.  Melt butter over medium-high heat. Saute Serrano and Jalapeno until soft  and then add the garlic, cooking for 1 minute. Stir in the flour and let cook 1-2 minutes.  Whisk in the chicken broth until smooth and let cook until bubbly.  Stir in the sour cream, salsa, cumin, cayenne, salt, pepper, garlic powder and cilantro until the sauce is smooth. Remove from heat.

Spray/grease a 9×13 baking dish.  Add 1/2 cup of sauce to the bottom of the pan. Add chicken, cheese, and chopped onion to the center of each tortilla and roll, placing seam-side down in the dish. Pour the sauce over the enchiladas, top with leftover cheese, and bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until top is brown and bubbling.

Yields: 6-7 enchiladas

This recipe ranks up there with the Cajun Chicken Pasta.  Both of these recipes should be on a restaurant menu!

June 20, 2011
As promised above, here is a remake of this dish!  After finding out that I have Celiac Disease and need to live gluten-free, I challenged myself to go back and make some of my favorite recipes on Krista Kooks that were gluten-ful yet make them gluten-free.  This was an easy choice!  Also, as you can read above, I wasn't all that impressed with making these in the crockpot last time.  Thus, these enchiladas went in the oven this time.

Luckily, this is an easy recipe to make gluten free by using gluten free all purpose flour and ensuring that the chicken broth, tortillas and sour cream are gluten free.  This is all generally very easily done; it's just wise to double check.


If you didn't jump to make this recipe when I originally posted it, you should definitely do so now!

CrockPot Chicken Mole

Let me start by saying that the sous chef LOVED this recipe.  He had 2 servings.  His recommendation was to make it again.  I on the other hand hated this recipe.  So why post it?  Just because I dislike it doesn’t mean everyone else will hate it also.  After all, the sous chef liked it!  For that reason, I decided to share it.

There is some slight prep in getting this recipe into the slow-cooker, but, as with other recipes from this cookbook, it’s not too bad at all.  The hardest part for me was cutting up an ear of corn!

Ingredients:

1 medium sized yellow or white onion, sliced

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (Krista Kooks just bought organic thighs, cut off the skin, but left the bones in )
1 teaspoon Mexican seasoning blend (Check here for more info on that)
Pinch of salt
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large ear of corn on the cob (optional), shucked and cut into 4 pieces
1/2 cup chicken broth, canned or homemade
2 tablespoons prepared mole sauce (such as Rogelio Bueno Autentico Mole or Dona Maria brands)
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon chocolate syrup (such as Hershey’s)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted in a dry skillet over medium heat until golden, for garnish

Directions:

1. Spray the inside of the crock with nonstick cooking spray and lay the onion in the bottom (it will be the bed for the chicken). Sprinkle the chicken with the Mexican seasoning and the salt.

2. In a medium-size skillet over medium-high heat, warm the oil and add the chicken pieces in a single layer, with the smooth side down.  Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, to form a nice browned surface; turn the chicken and brown the second side.  Transfer the chicken to the slow cooker, smooth side up.  Add the corn sections around the chicken, if using.

3. In a small bowl, combine the chicken broth, mole sauce, peanut butter, brown sugar, chocolate syrup, and red pepper flakes; stir with a fork.  Place in the microwave to warm the sauce and melt the peanut butter a little, but don’t worry; the sauce will melt together during the slow cooking.  Pour the mole sauce over the chicken in the crock.  Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 hours (or on LOW for 6 hours). 4. Remove the chicken and corn with a large spoon.  Serve 2 thighs and 2 pieces of corn per person, sprinkled with the sesame seeds.

Blueberry Delight

Many many months ago, the sous chef and I were staying with our sweet friends Mike and Cynthia.Being the perfect hostess that she is, Cynthia made a fabulous breakfast.  I’ve been wanting to make that thing for months!  Cynthia was kind enough to share the recipe with me and allow me to share it with you :) This Blueberry Delight is absolutely heavenly, and it’s even easier than making blueberry muffins.  That said, I’m confident that these can easily be made in blueberry form much the same way a cake can be make as a cake or cupcakes.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Cream butter, egg, sugar and salt until fluffy. Combine flour & baking powder; add to creamed mixture slowly.  Slowly add milk,  mixing well. Add blueberries & pour into greased/floured square pan.

Krista Kooks used a 9x9 square pan and lined it with parchement paper, no greasing required.  Being able to lift the cake out of the pan shortly after removing it from the oven was nice, thanks to the parchment paper.  I could eat it faster! :)

Topping

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup softened butter

Combine all 4 ingredients & place on top of batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes.
 

Brazilian Chicken Cutlets with Raw Tropical Sauce

OMG, delicious!  No side needed at all!  This one is a dish all by its self, and a tasty one at that.  There’s also not much major cooking involved in this dish either; most of the time is spent on dicing the tropical sauce.  If you are someone that utilizes help from the grocery store in buying already diced onions, etc., this could be a pretty quick meal for you!

Also, as I mentioned on Wednesday, using Panko bread crumbs is a great way to change the texture of a recipe requiring bread crumbs.  For this dish, I think it made it feel so much lighter/healthier.  Additionally, I mentioned that I began using organic chicken; I did the same here and once again felt the same after this meal.

The sous chef was very impressed with this Rachel Ray recipe!  We ate all the leftovers :)

Click for source:

Ingredients:

1 large, ripe mango, pitted and chopped
4 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
1/4 cup (about a palmful) cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1 Lime
A few dashes hot sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 lemon, zested and cut into wedges
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), plus more as needed
Preheat oven to 250ºF.

Directions:

Prepare the raw sauce by combining the mango, plum tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, hot sauce, salt and freshly ground black pepper in a medium mixing bowl.  Stir gently to combine.

Flatten the chicken breasts into cutlets by butterflying each piece open then pounding it out 1/4 inch thick.

Set up three shallow dishes on the counter.  To one dish add the flour, to the second add the eggs and beat with a splash of water, and to the third add the bred crumbs, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, granulated garlic, and lemon zest. 

Bread the cutlets by first tossing them in the flour, then dipping them in the beaten egg, then coating them in the breadcrumb mixture

Heat 2 tablespoons of EVOO in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, cook the cutlets in batches until golden brown on each side and cooked through, 4-5 minutes per side, adding more oil to the pan as needed between batches. As each cutlet finishes cooking, transfer it to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while the others cook.

Serve the cutlets with the raw sauce over top and lemon wedges to squeeze over the cutlets if desired.

Chicken Parm Bites

With just 2 people in the house, there tends not to be a lot of snacks around as I don’t typically buy anything at the grocery store that I’m not using in recipes.  Anything else that I could buy would likely be bad before even half of whatever it is has the chance to be eaten.  Thus, I decided to make a homemade snack.  Silly me thought it might last throughout the week; not with my sous chef around.  Once he learned of this delicious snack, I never got another bite.  Literally. 

All that said, these little bites are DELICIOUS and the tomato pesto sauce that goes with with is very refreshing!  I had some leftovers bread crumbs that I used, however, if I could have, I would have used Panko bread crumbs.  If you can, you definitely should use them!
This recipe is another fabulous one from Rachael Ray’s Big Orange Book recipe!  Click the photo to order from Krista Kook’s Amazon store.

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 pounds chicken tenders, each cut into thirds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper 
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup homemade basil pesto or store-bought

Directions

Arrange three shallow bowls on the counter and fill one with the flour, one with the eggs and one with a mixture of the bread crumbs, cheese, garlic, lemon zest and parsley.

Season the chicken pieces with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and coat each piece first in the flour, then the egg and finally in the breadcrumb-cheese mixture.  Set the coated chicken pieces on a baking sheet.

Place a large pan over medium-high heat with 3 tablespoons EVOO. Cook the chicken pieces in 2 batches, turning once, until golden brown and cooked through, 5-6 minutes.

While the pieces are cooking, place a small pot over medium-high heat with the crushed tomatoes and bring up to a bubble. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the pesto.

Serve the chicken bites with the tomato-pesto sauce alongside.

I also used Organic chicken for the first time when I made this recipe, and I really like it!I absolutely believe that hardly anyone would ever taste the difference.  I completely get that.  However, it’s the way I feel after I eat this chicken.  I don’t feel tired like I do with regular chicken.  We’ve had it for several meals now (still to come), and they all have the same effect.  I think I’m changed :)

Tilapia with Balsamic Brown Butter

I can absolutely promise you that this tastes amazing, and the pictures do not do this fish justice at all.  We are so used to having tilapia with a lemon or lime flavored seasoning/taste that it was a drastic difference to have this sauce on top of the fish.  That said, it’s a welcomed difference.

This is part 2 of the dinner I mentioned on Friday in this post.  You can find this recipe with the Creamy Farfalle in the Big Orange Book by Rachael Ray.Ingredients:

4 (6 to 8-ounce) tilapia fillets
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp EVOO
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Season the fish with salt and pepper. Dust fish with flour and shake off excess.

Heat 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook fish 4 minutes on each side, until cooked through.
Remove fish from skillet to a platter and cover loosely with foil to keep warm. Reduce heat to medium and add butter to pan. Brown butter, 2 to 3 minutes, stir in balsamic vinegar and simmer 1 to 2 minutes to reduce by half. Pour the brown butter and vinegar over fish. As promised, here’s a picture of the whole meal! If you want to know if this is good, let me help you…

Of the 4 fish filets….I ate 3 of them.

Creamy Farfalle with Bacon, Tomato and Peas

This is Part 1 of a fabulous dinner that the sous chef and I shared recently.  I separate them, however, because they can be individual players in any meal.  I will share pictures of them paired together for the meal though.

This recipe introduced me to a new ingredient: mascarpone cheese.  I’ve never ever used it before, and I don’t think I’ve ever eaten it before.  I’m not quite sure.

I would like you to take note that I did not slice my mushrooms; I took help from the grocery store and bought them pre-sliced.  Some were a little thick, so I sliced them smaller, but this otherwise made preparation a little quicker.  I’m always a fan of finding ways to make things a little easier if I think I can get basically the same taste out of the shortcut.  It’s kind of a Sandra Lee way, but not to that extent.  Also, this recipe makes a lot of pasta, so I would recommend halving this recipe, even for four people.

Nonetheless, here’s another fabulous Rachael Ray Big Orange Book recipe!
Ingredients

1 pound farfalle, bow ties
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
5 slices center cut bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
12 white mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 (28 oz.) can San Marzano tomatoes
1 (10-ounce) box frozen peas
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup basil leaves, shredded or torn

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the EVOO in a deep large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the bacon and cook for 3 to 4 minutes to crisp.  Add the onions and mushrooms to the skillet, season with salt and pepper, and cook until tender but not browned, 5 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, crushing them up with a wooden spoon, and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes.  Salt the boiling water and add the pasta.  Cook to al dente.

Stir peas into sauce, return to bubble and stir in mascarpone cheese.  Adjust seasoning.
Drain pasta, toss with sauce and wilt basil into pasta.

Re-visit Your Cookbooks

I’m sitting here browsing recipes in my cookbooks and realizing that I was crazy not to have wanted to make some of these recipes in the past!

You see, as I browse through them each time, I bookmark the recipes I’d like to make sometime.  When I’m ready for recipes again, I open said cookbook to the bookmarked pages.  However, every once in a while, I browse through the cookbook again to remind myself of the other recipes in the book.

Almost every time I do this, I ask myself, “Why didn’t you bookmark this one, or this one, or THIS one?!”  I end up bookmarking even more pages.

As I make a recipe, the book mark goes away as I don’t tend to repeat recipes.

That said, I just wanted to encourage my dedicated readers to really go back and look at the cookbooks you have!  You might find something this time through that you didn’t see before.  It’s like rereading a book or watching a movie over again; you notice something that you didn’t notice before!

Just for grins, here’s a look at some of my favorite cookbooks.  Click on each picture to buy it from the Krista Kook’s Store!

 

Lighter Eggplant Parmesan

I promised on Friday in the Filetto Di Pomodoro post that I would have something for you today!  This sort of goes in line with a previous Eggplant recipe I’ve posted before.  This recipe below is another from the fabulous Gina.    The sous chef and I thought this was a great recipe, and it doesn’t make you feel overwhelmingly full at the end of the meal either.  That’s usually the case with eggplant, and this one is no different.

This is also a fairly sizeable recipe, so I would definitely cut this recipe in two if you are making this for just 2 people.  If you cut this in half, perhaps use a 9x9 pan or something smaller than a 9x13.  I think you’d have enough for leftovers even with 4 people if you made the full version below.

Ingredients
1 large eggplant (2 lbs)
1 tbsp olive oil
12 oz fat free ricotta
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Pecorino Romano
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 egg
2 cups reduced fat mozzarella
3 cups homemade tomato sauce
salt

Directions
Start by making the sauce if you don't have any already made. While the sauce simmers, slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch thick slices. Lightly salt the slices and put in a colander to release excess moisture for about 1/2 hour. Lay on paper towels to soak up any extra moisture.

Preheat oven to 450°. Brush eggplant lightly with olive oil on both sides and place on cookie sheets. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning half way through until eggplant is golden brown.
In a medium bowl combine ricotta, egg, parsley and 1/4 cup of grated cheese.

In a 9x12 baking dish, put a little sauce on the bottom of the dish and put a layer of eggplant to cover the bottom of the dish. Top with 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese and sauce. Add another layer of eggplant and repeat the ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and sauce until everything is used up. Top with sauce and the mozzarella cheese and the remaining grated cheese.

Cover with foil and bake until cheese is melted and everything is bubbling, about 30 minutes at 400°. Remove foil and bake an additional 8-10 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it sit about 10 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!