Boston, Wisdom, and Smoothies

So I haven't gotten around to cooking or baking lately since:
 1. Nick got his wisdom teeth out and making delicious food that he can't eat would be cruel and
 2. I've had a brand new puppy to chase around and make sure he knows to not eat my computer cords, go to the bathroom outside, and stay off the furniture. 
 It's two wonderful full-time jobs. 

But, I have to write and post how adorable our newest family member is!

Yes, we fell in love with him immediately and named him Boston. The day we picked him up Nick was wearing a shirt that I had given him the week I went to Maine and Massachusetts. I fell in love with the city and got him a "Boston" shirt. It also happened to be his birthday and I was missing it... and we thought it was unbearable to be apart for a week (haha, he joined the Navy a year later. We got used to it...) so it was one of his birthday gifts. Anyway, we were stopped for a pit stop on the way home from picking our pup up and throwing name ideas back and forth. While we walked, a guy shouted after Nick, "Boston, Yeah!" and pointed to his hat which had the Red Sox logo. Nick looked at me and we both knew it was the perfect name for our puppy. For some strange reason, it just had a ring to it and let me tell you now I can't imagine any other name on this dog! It suites him. He's so adorable, watching him fetch is honestly the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Anyway, enough of my rambling on... Nick's assigned to plenty of bed rest and aspirin so we need to make some nutritiously-filling soft food!

What I have been doing is making some protein smoothies, which is probably the best thing you can do for someone who can't chew... The oats balance out all the sugars from the fruit and powder. It's packed full of vitamins as well!

Our all-time favorite smoothie: Strawberry Mango Oat Smoothie

Ingredients:
5 ice cubes
1/4 cup milk
1 scoop oats
1 mango
1 cup fresh strawberries
1 scoop vanilla protein powder

Directions:
In your blender, add ingredients in order. Quickly increase speed and make sure all ingredients are blending. Blend for a minute and serve.
Makes two servings.

Veggie Pesto Pizza

Ingredients:
12" pizza dough (I used this pizza dough recipe)
1/4 cup pesto
1/2 cucumber, slices
1/2 diced green bell pepper
1/2 roasted red pepper from jar, diced
1/2 cup baby arugula
1 tomato, slices
3/4 cup mozzarella
1/2 cup parmesan


Directions:
Preheat oven to 450. 
Roll out your pizza dough, 12 inches across. Move dough over to your pizza pan. Spread out the pesto evenly, leave 1 inch space from the edge. Lay out cucumber slices across, then diced bell pepper, and roasted red pepper. Cover the veggies with the cheeses. Sprinkle the arugula out. Lay tomato slices on top. Roll your dough in to where the pesto starts to form the crust around the edges. Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes or until the crust and cheese is nicely browned.

Macadamia Nut Pesto

Pesto is delicious! Nick will eat the entire batch when we make Naan. This is perfectly paired as pizza sauce or in a wrap. Mmm. Mm. Mm.
Ingredients:
1 cup basil
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan
2 tablespoons chopped macadamia nuts
1-2 garlic cloves
Directions:
In a food processor or blender, add all ingredients and mix for about a minute. In the Vitamix, I turned it up to 7.

Greek Chickpea Salad

Vegetables and chickpeas? How can this not be good?? Nick found this recipe on Peas and Crayons, pointed to it, smiled, and said, "Thursday". So I guessed he wanted it for dinner and I clearly wasn't going to say no. It looked delicious! So I've created it tonight, although slightly altered, but we were both very very happy with how it turned out!

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/2 a cucumber
1/4 onion

2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 tsp lemon juice
1-2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp parsley
1/4 tsp dill
salt and pepper

Directions:
Dice the bell peppers, cucumber, and onion. Toss them in a bowl.


Combine the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl, whisk the dressing until smooth and toss into the bowl with the vegetables. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours before serving.

Aunt Molly's Granola

My favorite food in the world: Granola. 
I eat mine with yogurt, cinnamon, and blueberries... every morning. 
I'm attached what can I say.

A lot of people know this so when I received this recipe from Molly, I was ever so grateful! I'm happy to relay that this is the best. I usually half this recipe just because I only have one large pan, which is very easy to do.

Ingredients:
5 pounds rolled oats
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 1/3 cups coconut
3 1/3 cups sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, macadamia nuts, or pecans (or all!)
4 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup honey
3 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 pound raisins, dried blueberries, or craisins


Directions:
Mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Add liquids and mix in until just incorporated. Place in 2 2" parchment paper-lined pans and bake at 275 degree oven until dry and crisp. Stir granola every 15-20 minutes for even browning. This takes about two hours. Let set at room temperature until completely cooled. Mix in raisins and store in airtight container.

Cinnamon and Cocoa Coated Pecans

I really really like pecans. So does my husband. Almonds and cashews are okay, but pecans are just so much better. It's the only nut we use except maybe when we can get out hands on some macadamia nuts.

Anyway, I went to Maine two years ago to visit my aunt and she shops at a Whole Foods store that carried cocoa covered almonds. They were so good! She and I would sit there eating handful after handful while watching movies at night for dessert. I developed a sweet and tasteful addiction to those things and when I went home I couldn't find them anywhere. I still search for them in any store that carries ingredients in bulk but have yet to come across them. Sure there's chocolate coated ones but that's so far from the same. 

Finally I attempted to recreate them with pecans and this is what I did... (go ahead and use almonds or walnuts if you'd like)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup pecans

1/2 cup chocolate chips

2 Tablespoons peanut butter

1/2 Tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 Tablespoon Hershey's unsweetened Cocoa powder

Directions:
Toast pecans in a 350 degree oven for about ten minutes on a baking sheet. You can usually tell when they're done when the kitchen has a nutty aroma in the air. Melt the chocolate chips and peanut butter on low in a small saucepan, stir when the chips start to look glossy and remove from heat. Don't overcook. Gently mix the toasted pecans into the chocolate mixture just until the nuts are coated. On a wax paper lined sheet, spread the pecans out evenly and set in freezer until the chocolate is hardened, about 15 minutes. Put cinnamon and cocoa powder into the bag, followed by the hardened, chocolate-covered pecans and seal the bag. Shake and enjoy!

Adapted from Green Kitchen Stories, I really do love their site.

Peanut Butter-Only & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sooo.. I had just moved into our new place and I desperately needed to bake. We had made about two store runs, one to Costco and one to the base's Commissary... Needless to say I hadn't bought any butter yet. I don't particularly put butter in or on anything unless it calls for it in a cookie so I was postponing the inevitable. Or did I have to?

Our home was fairly bare, All of our brand new appliances and pans and really, everything, was packed up in boxes. Stuck in a truck somewhere up the coast. I moved with a small frying pan, a pot, a baking sheet, a spatula, two towels, and an oven mitt. I guess it was all I needed because these cookies were absolutely delicious and they did not require butter. Peanut butter, yes.

At Costco I picked up two Skippy's jars of peanut butter because I had somewhat of a craving for the stuff for about a month. I had some chocolate chips and basic baking necessities. Minus the butter... I searched online and found this recipe, exactly what I needed! Except that I had to mix it all by hand and I really wanted to make that go as smoothly as possible. So I melted the peanut butter and oh! How easier that made mixing! These cookies were so incredibly soft and flavorful. Peanut butter and chocolate, could a girl ever ask for more? And to top it off, the next day they were even better. Believe me, I do not say that very often. I have a belief that a cookie is best right out of the oven, slightly underdone and gooey. But these, oh these cookies...

So here's the ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter (or any other nut butter)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325.

Melt the peanut butter in a saucepan (or in my case a frying pan). In a bowl combine the sugars and baking soda, stir in the melted peanut butter until creamy. Add eggs one at a time. Then add vanilla, followed by flour. When ingredients are well combined, stir in the chocolate.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and slightly flatten. Bake 8-10 minutes or until slightly brown around the edges. Cool on a wire rack.

Adapted from Joanne Bruno's Recipe

Naan, Flatbread

If there's one thing that I love, it's bread. The soft, yummy carbohydrate will happily fill me up before I spend time eating an actual meal. If anyone is like me, it can be dangerous, but I'm not about to let carbs go. Instead, I make as much as I can of it in my very own kitchen.

Hello, naan.

I've made this recipe seven time in the past two weeks and I'm not about to stop. This bread is perfect to eat plain, dipped in a vinaigrette, or as a wrap. Mmm.

 

I found this recipe on Mel's Kitchen Cafe and oh how pleased I am with it.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup milk

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1 tsp salt

3-4 cups flour 

olive oil (optional)

Directions:
Measure out the milk and heat until warm to the touch (about 110 degrees F). Mix the sugar and yeast into the milk and let it sit for 4-5 minutes until the mixture is foamy, this means the yeast is activated. Once the yeast, milk, and sugar mixture is foamy, pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer and add the salt and 2 1/2 cups of the flour. 

Mix well to combine. Continue adding flour gradually in small amounts, until a soft dough is formed that cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough by mixer or hand until it is smooth and elastic, about 3-5 minutes in the mixer

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and let it rest at room temperature, covered lightly with greased plastic wrap, for about 2 hours.

Divide the dough into 12 equal sized balls on a floured surface and let them rise, covered with a towel, for 30 minutes. 

As the dough rests, either preheat an oven to 50o degrees to use a pizza stone, heat a grill, or heat your griddle to it's highest setting (I used a griddle).

Roll each piece of dough into a 6-8 inch circle and bake 2-4 minutes or until brown spots appear on top. I like to sprinkle olive oil over my griddle before laying the dough down. Serve warm or cooled.