Orange Chicken

This is a crockpot recipe that I ended up just making in the skillet, and it tasted amazing! My new roommates loved it too, so I'd say it was a definite success.

I did a terrible job of taking pictures during the process of making the chicken, but I did have enough patience to take a picture of the finished product before wolfing it down!


First, I cut the chicken into cubes and lightly breaded it with flour. Then I put the chicken in a warm skillet with a bit of olive oil and let it cook. I then started mixing the orange sauce in a bowl. Once the chicken appeared golden brown, I dumped the sauce into the skillet and let it simmer while the rice cooked.

Thanks to http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-orange-chicken-295686 for the inspiration!

This recipe yielded enough for 3 generous servings of chicken, served over white rice.


Ingredients

-8 small chicken breasts
-1/3 cup all-purpose flour
-2 tablespoons olive oil
-2/3 cup orange marmalade
-1/2 cup mustard
-1/2 cup ketchup
-2 tablespoons soy sauce
-2 tablespoons brown sugar
-3 chopped scallions

Directions

1. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Toss the chicken in flour until each piece is lightly coated.

2. Heat a skillet with the olive oil. Place the chicken into the warmed skillet and allow to brown.

3. Mix the marmalade, mustard, ketchup, soy sauce, and brown sugar in a bowl.

4. Once the chicken appears almost completely cooked, add the marmalade mixture to the skillet and allow to simmer for approximately 10 minutes.

5. Serve over rice. Add the chopped scallions on top of the chicken.

Note: To make in the crockpot, bread the chicken same as step 1, then toss all of the ingredients except for the scallions into a crockpot and allow to cook on low for 4-6 hours.

Bailey's Brownies

Final exams are over, and what better way to celebrate than baking?  On top of that, a dear friend of mine just graduated AND got engaged, so I have plenty of excuses to bake!  One of my favorite recipes that I've come across, courtesy of my amazing neighbor who is an incredibly talented baker herself, are these Bailey's brownies.  They are super easy to make and taste absolutely amazing.  No one would believe they come out of a box!  Yep, that's right, this recipe uses boxed brownie mix.  Super easy :)

All you need is 1 box of brownie mix (I like Duncan Hines or Ghirardelli, but any brand will work), 1/2 a cup of Bailey's, 1 egg, and 1/3 cup vegetable oil.

Mix the ingredients together until the mixture is homogeneous and has the consistency of thick batter.

Pour the batter into an 8x8 baking pan and bake for 20 minutes at 350 F.

After the brownies have fully baked, let them cool in the pan until they can be flipped out in one solid piece.

While they are cooling, start mixing the frosting.  You will need 1/2 a cup of softened butter, 2 cups confectioner's sugar, and 2-3 tablespoons of Bailey's.

Beat the ingredients until the frosting has the desired thickness, then spread liberally across brownies.

Take 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of chocolate chips and melt them in the microwave by putting them in a microwave-safe bowl and heating them for no more than 20 seconds at a time.  Stir the chocolate chips in between heating sessions until they are completely liquid.  It only took me two 20 second microwave sessions to reach the desired consistency.

Using a spoon, drizzle the chocolate across the top of the icing.  Allow the icing to set, then cut and serve.

Thank you to my lovely neighbor for this amazing recipe!!

Ingredients

-1 box brownie mix

-1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

-1 egg

-1/3 cup vegetable oil

-1/2 cup softened butter

-2 cups confectioner's sugar

-2-3 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream

-1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Mix the brownie mix, 1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream, egg, and vegetable oil in a large bowl. Pour the mixture into a brownie pan.

3. Bake for 20 minutes at 350.

4. Beat the softened butter, confectioner's sugar, and 2-3 tablespoons Bailey's (depending on how strong you want the taste of Bailey's in your icing) in a small mixing bowl until the frosting has the desired thickness.

5. Spread the frosting over the cooled brownies.

6. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave (do not heat for more than 20 seconds at a time, and stir in between heating intervals) and drizzle over the top of the icing.

Italian Stir-Fry

It's been a while since I've posted, mainly due to school! It's a lot harder than I thought it would be to make time to actually cook new meals, take pictures of the process, and type up a new entry while working a full-time job and going to school as a full-time student. I've finally taken the time to write up a quick post. This recipe is very similar to some of my previous recipes. I'm basically trying to eat up all the food in my kitchen before I go on Christmas break, so inventive recipes may be few and far between for a little while longer. However, Christmas baking is about to begin, which means new dessert posts!

Anyway, here is my recipe for Italian Stir-Fry.  First, you will need a couple small chicken breasts, a large handful of spinach, a Roma tomato, 2 mushrooms, about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 2 servings of rice, and garlic and Italian seasoning to taste.

Cook the rice according to the directions. Chop the tomato, mushroom, and chicken into bite-sized pieces. Heat the olive oil, garlic, and Italian seasoning in a large skillet. When the oil is hot, add the chopped chicken and saute until the chicken appears almost fully cooked. Then add the chopped tomato, chopped mushroom, and spinach. Let saute while the rice finishes to cook. It should saute for approximately 10 minutes. Longer will make the vegetables soggy, shorter will make them firmer but could result in the chicken not being fully cooked, so if you like firm vegetables wait until the chicken is fully cooked before adding the veggies.

When the rice is finished cooking, pour it into the skillet with the chicken and vegetables so that it can soak up any remaining olive oil and spices. Mix it thoroughly with the chicken and vegetables to get an even distribution.

Divide into individual bowls and serve! This should make 2-3 servings.

It tastes delicious! The rice can always be substituted for pasta, I just chose rice because I am out of pasta :)

Italian Stir-Fry

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup uncooked rice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 small chicken breasts
• 2 mushrooms
• 1 Roma tomato
• 1-2 cups spinach
• Garlic, to taste
• Italian seasoning, to taste

Directions

• Cook the rice according to the package directions.
• Heat the olive oil, garlic, and Italian seasoning in a large skillet.
• Chop the chicken, tomato, and mushrooms. Add the chicken to the heated skillet.
• After the chicken is almost fully cooked, add the tomato, mushrooms, and spinach. Let simmer for approximately 10 minutes.
• When the rice is finished cooking, add it to the skillet. Mix thoroughly.
• Serve while hot.

Italian Chicken Pasta

Another fancy pasta recipe!  I've been hooked on this whole grain pasta I bought a couple of weeks ago at Sam's Club, so I've been trying out quite a few new pasta recipes.  This one involves tomatoes, chicken, garlic, and Italian seasoning.

First, heat the olive oil in a skillet and start boiling some water for the pasta.  You're going to use what seems like a lot of olive oil - 2 tablespoons - but remember, this also is the base for your pasta sauce!  While the oil is heating up, chop your tomato and chicken into bite sized pieces.

Add some Italian seasoning and garlic to the olive oil in the skillet, and season your chicken as well with the garlic, Italian seasoning, and a little salt. Then add the chicken to the skillet.  It should sizzle when you add it - if it doesn't, you didn't let the olive oil heat up enough!

Meanwhile, your water should be boiling by now so add the pasta and let it cook according to package directions.  Once the chicken appears to be almost fully cooked, add the chopped tomatoes.  I also added about 1/2 a tablespoon of butter to thicken the sauce a little, but I think next time I may skip the butter to keep this on the healthier side.  I'll put it in parentheses in the recipe below, but I think it would taste just as good without the butter.

Let this all simmer for about 5 minutes as the pasta finishes cooking, then drain the pasta, mix everything together and serve immediately!

Italian Chicken Pasta

(Serves 2)

• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 servings spaghetti noodles
• 1 large tomato
• (1 tbsp butter)
• Garlic
• Italian seasoning (I use 5 Seasons Italian Seasoning - you can get it at Walmart!)
• Salt

Directions

• Cook the pasta according to package instructions.
• Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a small skillet.  Add garlic and Italian seasoning as desired to the olive oil.
• Chop the chicken and tomato.  Season the chicken with salt, garlic, and Italian seasoning as desired.
• Add the chicken to the hot olive oil.
• When the chicken appears to be almost fully cooked (approximately 3-5 minutes after placing in the skillet), add the tomatoes.  (Add 1 tbsp butter to the sauce to thicken.)  Let simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the pasta finishes cooking.
• Drain the pasta, and mix it in with the chicken and tomato mixture.  Serve immediately.

This was my own creation, no inspiration from someone else's blog!

Brownie Pudding

Oh my gosh.  This is basically a recipe for a baked brownie batter.  It's just like licking the bowl after making a box of brownies, except you can't feel guilty about eating raw eggs because it was in the oven for an hour! This is a must-have for every choco-holics' recipe box.  A few of my sorority sisters and I demolished the vast majority of this little slice of heaven in around 15 minutes, it's that good.

I apologize in advance - I sort of forgot to take pictures as I went along.  I'm still new to this whole blogging while cooking thing, I'll work on improving that!

It takes a little while to bake (1 hour), and is just a little tricky compared to the other recipes on this blog so far, so be warned!  It's not that difficult though, I was able to do it in my tiny kitchen with limited cooking supplies and it came out absolutely delicious.  I baked it for my friends and I to eat on girls' night and it was a huge hit.

It's pretty simple as far as ingredients go, you only need butter, sugar, cocoa powder, flour, eggs, and vanilla extract.

Preheat the oven to 325 F, then melt the butter and let it cool down.  Mix the eggs and sugar until they are thick and fluffy, then mix the cocoa and flour in a separate bowl.  Add the vanilla to the eggs and sugar mixture, then slowly add the dry ingredients, and mix just until it's all mixed in.  Lastly, add the melted butter, pour into a baking dish.  This is the tricky part, at least for me.  To bake, set the baking dish into a larger dish filled with hot tap water that comes to about half way up the baking dish.  I struggled to find a second, larger dish in my small kitchen and wound up filling it to the brim with hot water, which meant getting everything in and out of the oven was quite the challenge without making a huge mess.  After 65 minutes, it looked like one huge souffle, so I took it out and let it cool for a little while.

Breaking the "souffle" showed that the middle was basically brownie batter.  Fully cooked of course - it was in the oven for over an hour! - but the consistency of very thick brownie batter.  It tasted absolutely delicious.  I think next time I'll top it with a scoop of ice cream to make it even more fantastic!

Brownie Pudding
(Serves 8)

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 325 F.
• Melt the 2 sticks of butter and set aside to cool.
• Combine the eggs and sugar and beat on medium-high until thick and light yellow.  If you have a stand alone mixer, you should use it here.  Once the eggs and sugar are mixed, add the vanilla extract.
• Mix the cocoa powder and flour in a separate, small mixing bowl.
• Slowly add the cocoa and flour mixture to the eggs and sugar mixture, beating on low speed until just combined.
• Keeping the mixer on low, slowly pour in the melted butter and again mix until just combined.
• Pour the mixture into a circular baking dish.  Place the dish inside a larger dish, and fill the larger dish with hot tap water to create a water bath that comes about halfway up the side of the baking dish.
• Bake for 60-70 minutes.  The middle will look undercooked - that's the way it's supposed to look.
• Let cool for a few minutes, then serve.  Ice cream goes well with this dish :)

Inspiration from: http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/02/16/brownie-pudding/

Creamy Avocado Pasta

This recipe is extremely quick and easy - it took me under 15 minutes, including the amount of time it took for the water to boil!  It's like a mild pesto sauce with the creamy texture of alfredo, and it's definitely going on my go-to list of meals for when school starts and I'm pressed for time.

All you need is one avocado, olive oil, garlic cloves or garlic powder, basil, and pasta.

While the pasta is cooking, you can stick the garlic, olive oil, and avocado into a food processor or, in my case, a blender since I don't own a food processor, and get to work on the sauce.  I wasn't sure if the blender would be able to chop the garlic clove fine enough, so I started with one to test it out.  It did an okay job, but if you don't want the occasional bite that's overloaded with garlic and you don't have a food processor, I recommend garlic powder.

The sauce should look something like this when you're done:

In order to make it less creamy, simply add either a little more olive oil or some of the water that the pasta is cooking in.  Also, the garlic and basil amounts can be adjusted to taste.

Ingredients:

(2 servings)

• 2 servings of whole wheat pasta
• 1 medium avocado (pitted)
• 1-3 cloves garlic (or 1 1/2 tbs garlic powder)
• 1 1/2 tbs basil
• 1 tbs olive oil

Directions:

• Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
• Combine the olive oil and garlic in a blender/food processor until smooth.
• Add the pitted avocado and basil to the blender/food processor and mix until creamy. Taste the sauce to see if you want more garlic, basil, or olive oil/water.
• Drain the pasta when it's done cooking and mix in with the sauce. Serve immediately.

The original recipe says that the recipe doesn't reheat well due to the avocado in the sauce, so I ate it cold for lunch the next day as if it were a type of pasta salad, and it was pretty good.  However I recommend eating it while warm!

Inspiration from: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/01/31/15-minute-creamy-avocado-pasta/

Pina Colada Smoothie

I'm addicted to pina coladas.  I drink one for breakfast pretty much every morning.  Well, I drink a virgin one every morning :)  It's a great way to get a couple servings of fruit and a serving of calcium in as you start the day, and it's very refreshing and energizing after a morning workout!

I only use 4 ingredients, and if you want to make it vegan, you can skip out on the honey and it still tastes amazing.

I've found that frozen pineapple works better than fresh pineapple simply because it makes it colder.  You could always add some ice, however in my case, I have one of those personal blenders that makes 1 serving at a time, and the cup isn't big enough to add ice with the other ingredients.

Here's a tip I found on a random website - if I can find the link again I'll post it on here!  If you load your blender with solid foods first, starting with the softest and working up to the hardest/frozen foods, then add your liquid last, it supposedly makes for a better smoothie.  So layer the ingredients bananas, pineapples, honey, then coconut milk!

Ingredients:
(Serves 1)

• 1 whole banana, broken into pieces
• 1 c frozen pineapple
• 1 c coconut milk
• 1 tbsp honey

Directions:

• Combine all ingredients into a blender and mix.  

Also you can add 1 shot of rum if you prefer the non-virgin kind of pina coladas, however I highly recommend against adding rum if this is going to be your breakfast!  Please drink responsibly!

Finally, you can add a handful of spinach, kale, or a mix of the two to get a serving of vegetables - you can add these two vegetables to any smoothie and you won't taste it at all!  I've tried this Pinterest myth out myself and it's true!