Sunday Soups: Quinoa Grilled Chicken

I get a lot of inspiration for the food I make at home from the food I order when I'm out. At my part time retail job, I often order a soup-salad-sandwhich combo from the newly opened Orange Tree. The soup is always different and last week, they had a quinoa soup. Call me a dummy, but I never thought to put quinoa in soup. I whipped up this simple recipe, and the result is hearty, satisfying, and so totally delicious.

- 2 chicken breasts, grilled and shredded
- coconut oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
- 4 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 4 celery stocks, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 parsnips, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 boxes of chicken stock
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- salt and pepper

1. In a quart-sized soup pot, cook the onion and garlic in the coconut oil until they start to soften. Add carrots, celery, and parsnips and stir to combine. Cover with chicken stock and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 20 minutes or until the veggies are nice a soft.

2. If you haven't done so already, grill your chicken, and cook your quinoa.

3. Add chicken and quinoa to boiling soup, and stir until combined. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with crusty bread and enjoy.

Thirsty Thursday: Reese's Green Wake-Up Smoothie

 Thanks to influenster, I was treated to this jar of Reese's chocolate peanut butter this week. It's no secret that I am obsessed with spreads -- I love jams, jellies, marmalades, nutella, nut butters, cookie butters, and everything in between! Besides eating it with a spoon, one of my favorite uses for spreads is putting them in drinks. Jams sweeten cocktails, and nut butters bulk up smoothies very nicely.

This spread is soooo yummy! It's like a Reese's peanut butter cup in a jar. I could -- and did -- eat it stright from the jar with a spoon.

Since I'm not the best breakfast-eater (or salad-eater, for that matter), my new go-to drink puts breakfast, greens and caffeine into one sweet cup. Top full of Reese;s peanut butter-chocolate spread, banana, spinach (I swear you don't taste it!) and coffee, this nutritionally rich drink bursts with flavor, perks you up, and keeps you full until lunch.

Ingredients:
- 2 heaping tablespoons of Reese's peanut butter chocolate spread
-1/2 frozen banana
- 1 cup brewed and chilled coffee
- Handful of spinach
- 1/2 cup almond milk

In and blender, puree the almond milk and spinach until smooth. This will prevent you from having chunks of spinach throughout your smoothie. Next, add in Reese's peanut butter, bananas, and iced coffee. Blend until smooth. Pour into a glass, sip and enjoy.

This blog post was made possible by influenster, who provided this complimentary jar of Reese's peanut butter to test and review.

Sunday Soups: Simple Potato Leek

There is this place next to my part time job that has a rotating list of soups and when they bring out the potato leek, I'm in heaven. This week, I wasn't willing to play Russian Roulette waiting for them to list the best soup ever, so I took matters into my own hands. I also wasn't willing to slave over stove for hours, or use any fancy equipment, so I devised this simple and quick recipe that is done start-to-finish in twenty minutes.

Ingredients:
- 3 strips of bacon, diced
- 1 leek, cut into 1/2 rings
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced
- 1 clove of garlic, shaved
- 4-5 russet or yukon potatoes
- 1 box chicken broth
- 3 Tablespoons creme fraiche
- 3 Tablespoons whipping cream
- Salt and Pepper

Fry the bacon in a dutch oven or large pot until crispy. Drop the leeks, onion, and garlic into the pot and saute until soft. Cover with chicken broth and bring to a boil. Once boiling, drop potatoes in and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Add in the creme fraiche and whipping cream, stir to combine. Finish with salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve with a dollop of more creme fraiche, and crusty bread. YUM!

Sunday Soups: Chicken and Homemade Noodle

I love making soups on Sunday nights for dinner. It is a nice homey way to kick off (or finish up) the week, plus it provides plenty of leftovers for lunches, which is always the hardest meal for me to think about making for some reason. I love this hearty and healthy simple soup. The homemade noodles are easy to throw together and really make the whole dish feel much more special.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 chicken
- 8-10 cups water
- Whole onion
- 1 head of celery
- 3-4 carrots

- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 table spoons chicken fat

This soup starts with homemade chicken broth which is much easier to make than it sounds. Start the night before by boiling half of a whole chicken and a whole onion with the ends cut off in about 8-10 cups of water. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove the pot from the heat and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, pull the chicken out of the fridge and skim the fat from the top. Reserve this yellowy goodness to use in your noodles. Then, pull the chicken from the broth and separate the skin and bones from the meat. Toss the bones and skin and hold the meat on the side for a second.

 
Chop a head of celery and about 3-4 carrots. I used the multicolored kind that came in my Farm Fresh to You box. Throw the meat, celery, and carrots into the broth and set the heat to medium-low. While the soup simmers, prepare the noodles.

In a bowl, combine 2 and 1/2 cups of flour, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, and 2 Tablespoons of chicken fat. Use fingers to mix. Once the dough has come together, move it to a floured cutting board and knead for about five minutes. 

Put the kneaded dough in a bowl and cover with a towel for about 10 minutes.

Roll our the dough into as thin of pieces as possible, then roll up and slice into thin strips. Unfurl the spirals of noodles and drop into the boiling hot soup. Let cook for about 2-3 minutes.

Serve and enjoy the fresh, chicken-y, chewy, yummy goodness.

Veggie Ramen Stir-Fry

This stir-fry is super easy to make, not to mention... cheap! Made with vegetables from my Farm Fresh to You box, and a couple of packets of ramen noodles, this dish is really satisfying, but still full of good, green nutrients.

Ingredients:
-1 Tablespoon oil (olive, sesame, or peanut)
-1 head of broccoli
-2 heads of boy choy
-1/2 of a red onion
-1 bunch of kale

-2 packs of 3-minute ramen (throw away the flavor pack)

-3 Tablespoons soy sauce
-2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
-Pinch of white pepper
-Splash of oil

1. In a wok, heat up the tablespoon of oil, add vegetables and cook until softened.

2. While the vegetables are cooking, boil the ramen in a separate pot according to the package instructions. Remember not to add the flavor pack!

3. Combine last four ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

4. When noodles and vegetables are both cooked, strain the noodles and add to wok. Cover with the sauce from step 3 and stir to combine.

BONUS: Scramble an egg and pour it over the top of the noodles and cook through. Adds a little protein!

This post is sponsored* by Farm Fresh to You. To get $10 off your first box, click the image below, and enter code ANNI9875 at checkout.

Alex's Favorite "Roasted" Potatoes

I'm not really sure why we call these potatoes roasted, because they never go in an oven. Rest assured, whatever the name is, they are really good! Alex is a roasted potato fanatic -- I'm more of a mashed kind of girl, but whatever -- and this recipe is always met with rave reviews from my picky eater husband. When I got these fingerling potatoes and red onion in my Farm Fresh to You box, I know exactly what I would make.

Ingredients:
- 1 lb fingerling potatoes

- 1 small red onion, thinly sliced

- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil

- Salt

- Pepper

- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

- 2 teaspoons paprika

- 1 teaspoon garlic salt

- 1 teaspoon white pepper

1. Boil fingerling potatoes whole until cooked through. Strain and set aside to cool.

2. In a frying pan, caramelize red onions in oil and a pinch of salt and pepper until soft. Remove onions and place in casserole dish, retaining oil.

3. Slice cooked potatoes in half long ways, and place cut side down on the hot cooking oil. Fry on medium-high heat until crisp and brown, about 5-10 minutes.

4. Add onions back to pan with the potatoes, and all seasonings. With burner on medium heat, mix together until potatoes are coated in seasoning.

5. Serve in the same casserole dish that previously held the onions. Enjoy!

This post is sponsored* by Farm Fresh to You. To get $10 off your first box, click the image below, and enter code ANNI9875 at checkout.

Red Pepper Basil Julep

There's this great bar that is right around the corner from where we live. At the Local Peasant, they serve this amazing basil-pepper martini. It's one of those menu items that sounded so weird and unusual that I just had to try it. It's so crave-ably delicious that it's the only drink I'll ever order there.

When I got my Farm Fresh to You box, there was a single red bell pepper inside. I'm not the biggest fan of bell peppers -- maybe it's just the texture -- but I love the flavor. I decided to try my hand at infusing the pepper flavor into a cocktail... Turns out, it couldn't be more simple. For the first steps, all you'll need is a bell pepper, a jar, and your favorite liquor. This could work well with rum or vodka, but I had a bottle so SoCo whiskey on hand.

Slice your pepper into rounds and remove the seeds. Place inside a jar and cover with whiskey. Store in a cool, dry place for between 12-24 hours.

Once your pepper has had the time to infuse properly into the liquor, gather your next ingredients.

To make two red bell pepper basil juleps you'll need:
- 4 ounces of pepper infused whiskey
- 6-8 basil leaves
- juice from half a lemon
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- ice

In a martini shaker, muddle together half the basil leaves, the lemon juice, and honey. Pour the whiskey over the top and stir to combine. Strain into a lowball glass filled with ice, and garnish with the remaining basil and a couple of the pepper rounds.

Sip the sweet, spicy comfort and enjoy!
 

I served our juleps with Alex's favorite "roasted" potatoes from Farm Fresh to You, asparagus, and steaks.  Recipe for the potatoes is up next...

This post is sponsored* by Farm Fresh to You. To get $10 off your first box, click the image below, and enter code ANNI9875 at checkout.

Farm Fresh to You

When Alex and I lived in Boston we had a farmshare that we picked up in Copley Square once a week. While it was great getting a surprise mix of local produce and trying out ingredients I had never seen before, some weeks we'd miss out because I couldn't make it into town to pick up my share. Since moving to LA, I've been contemplating subscribing to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or farmshare again, but since our schedule is so random, I was worried that I'd never get around to picking up my box on the right day. Enter Farm Fresh to You.

Signing up for the service was pretty painless, but the best part is that they deliver right to your door. I went the website, picked what kind of produce box I wanted, and how often I wanted to get it. I chose the Regular Sized Mixed Fruit and Veggie which costs $33. The description said it would feed 2-4 people and they were right! We got two pomegranates, 3 Bartlett pears, 5 gala apples, a pound of Ruby Crescent potatoes, a bunch of kale, two heads of broccoli, three red onions, a pound of baby bok choy, and a red bell pepper (phew!) It was more than enough for just Alex and me. I will probably move down to the smaller box for my next delivery.

The delivery day is based on the zip code. Mine is Friday, which works perfectly because usually our work schedule gets busier over the weekend, so it was great to skip the trip to the grocery store around that time.

Once I signed up, waiting for my package was like waiting for Christmas morning. I was really excited to see what I would get! Luckily, at noon on Thursday, I was able to log into my account and see what was heading my way. I instantly started brainstorming what I could make with my box.

When it arrived, I drafted up a little menu of recipes I could make with these ingredients... And I fully intend on scarfing down each bite so that nothing goes to waste before we leave for our honeymoon next week. Stay tuned for Go Check out photos and recipes for a red pepper-basil julep, apple-pear mini crisps , a kale smoothie, stir fried veggies and ramen, and Alex's favorite roasted potatoes!

This post is sponsored* by Farm Fresh to You. To sign up for your own box, click the link below and don't forget to enter code ANNI9875 for $10 off your first box!

Extra Spicy Pumpkin Chai

By popular demand, I'm sharing my recipe for my homemade pumpkin spice chai. This recipe is two-part. The first thing you'll need to make is the spicy chai syrup. It's super easy and doesn't require any cooking! You'll then combine that into your drink later down the line... Let's go...

Spicy Chai Syrup

-1 can of sweetened condensed milk
-4 teaspoons pumpkin spice
-2 teaspoons ground ginger
-1 teaspoon white pepper
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together and store in a jar for up to six months.

Iced Pumpkin Spice Chai

-1 tablespoon Spicy Chai Syrup
-1 cup brewed and chilled black tea
-2 tablespoons canned pumpkin
-1/2 cup milk (I used almond)
-sweetener to taste (I used about a tablespoon of honey)

Combine all ingredients in a festive mason jar and stir to combine. Serve over ice.