The other day someone asked me if I was more of a baker or a cook. My first reaction was that I’m a cook – but I’m also a baker (kind of). I’m not a patient person, so waiting for something to bake drives me batty. I can’t open the oven and stir or baste or season. With baking, you’ve got to wait, wait, wait a bit more, and then wait. You can’t frost cake until it’s cool. Let the cookies rest before removing from the pan…

But, I do love making quick breads.

And I love yogurt.

Today the tot and I whipped up a simple yogurt quick bread. It’s nice and moist, lovely drizzled with glaze, and perfect for taking to any picnic or gathering. Use a good, thick plain yogurt for a delicious, tangy bread.

Ingredients

1 egg

1 cup plain yogurt

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 packed tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/4 cup flour

1 tablespoon pain yogurt

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Preheat your oven to 375 F and get out a mixing bowl. Whip together the yogurt, egg, oil, salt, sugars, and melted butter. Sprinkle in the baking soda and baking powder and then slowly add the flour. Once the batter comes together, pour into your greased loaf pan and pop in the hot oven for 45-minutes.

Yes.

It’s that easy.

Now the hard part. While the bread is baking your house is going to smell really good. Really, really, really good – and you have to relax and wait. You can whisk together the glaze by smoothing together the yogurt, powdered sugar and vanilla so it’s ready when the yogurt quick bread is. After 45-minutes, take out the bread and let cool for at least 20-minutes before drizzling with the glaze.

Enjoy!

With Mother’s Day right around the corner I have been finding myself thinking about food. Honestly? I think about food pretty much all the time. Lately I’ve been thinking about the things my mom made when I was young that have stuck with me over the years. With my own tot at home, I want to start great cooking memories with her – just like my mom did with me. The theme for this month’s Shine Supper Club also fits right in – making your mom’s best recipe!

I absolutely love my mom’s homemade Sticky Monkey Bread. Sure, you can follow the recipe found on the side of the biscuit can, but this is the original version straight from the 1970′s church cookbook of my midwestern town. This is the stickiest, gooiest version of goodness out there. While growing up, my mom would hand my sister and I our own plastic baggies filled with cinnamon and sugar to shake-shake the bits of cut canned biscuits and then toss into our well-used bundt pan. After a serious coating of butter, more sugar and cinnamon, and a bit of love, that seriously sticky bread was devoured on Sunday mornings.

She still makes it for us every time we visit.

This isn’t the healthy breakfast dish. And, after talking with my mom, I was planning on adjusting the recipe to make it a bit less sugary and buttery but just couldn’t. Why mess with something so good?  I admit to updating the recipe with brown sugar and vanilla to give it a bit more kick, but other than that, this is the best Sticky Monkey Bread  you’ll ever make.

Ever.

This is a great recipe to make with the kids to surprise mom with on Mother’s Day. It’s super easy and you can’t mess it up. And, along the way, your kids hone fine-motor skills as well as learn more about cooking in the kitchen. Older kids can make this pretty much all on their own – just remember to offer a helping hand when melting the butter and using the oven.

Ingredients

3 tubes buttermilk biscuits

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Open the biscuit tubes (trying not to flinch when they pop) and then quarter. Your kids can use butter knives to cut the biscuits into bits or, if you’ve got young ones, they can tear the pieces into smaller pieces. Go ahead and preheat the oven to 350 F.

Fill a plastic zip-top bag with the plain sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Enlist the kids to shake-a-shake the bits in the cinnamon sugar, remove, and then drop into the bundt pan.

While things are shaking away, melt the butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon together until things are bubbly. You can also sprinkle in any leftover cinnamon sugar from the zip-top bag.

Pour the melted butter mixture over the sugar-cinnamon covered biscuit bits and then pop into the hot oven for 30-minutes.

Remove the bundt pan from the oven and let cool for 10-minutes. Place a large plate over the top of the bundt pan and carefully flip over. Let the big oeey-goooooey Sticky Monkey Bread rest for a few minutes before digging in.

Enjoy!

I have a toddler that loves pasta. She could eat the stuff all day everyday and be happy. I’ve played around with different kinds of pasta with great success (homemade spaghetti-ohs, white bean mac-n-cheese) but she was ready for something different. After the fifth round in a row of homemade spaghetti-ohs, she was moping around and even asking for peeup-and-belly-witches.

So the other day, while she was chomping down her sandwich, I experimented with a new pasta dish for dinner. I had fresh carrot juice in the fridge along with a bit of Greek-style yogurt. Yes, they don’t sound like a good pairing, but along with the help of some cheddar cheese, anything is possible.

And, I was right.

This is a really easy recipe, you just need the ingredients. Most markets carry carrot juice, but make sure you don’t pick up a blend with orange or cucumber. If you’ve got your own juicer, you’re totally good to go.

Ingredients

8 ounces dry fusilli pasta cooked (which makes about 4-cups)

1/2 cup carrot juice

1/2 cup Greek-style plain yogurt

1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt (you know, that Lawry’s stuff)

1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

Bring a big pot of water to a boil, toss in a bit of salt, and then your pasta. Any shape works, but the fusilli really is perfect. While things are bubbling away, mix together the carrot juice, yogurt, oil, seasoned salt, and salt in a bowl. Give things a whisk to make sure it’s all creamy. Go ahead and shred your cheddar, too.

Once your pasta is cooked and happy, give it a strain. While it’s hanging out, toss the carrot-yogurt mixture into your hot pot and turn the heat down to medium-low. Give things a stir while the sauce starts heating up.

As soon as the sauce starts bubbling, add the pasta back to the pot. Stir to coat the pasta and then add the shredded cheese. Keep stirring and simmering until the cheese is all melty.

Now is the time for taste testing – this is a kid-friendly recipe, so it’s low in salt and also not too strong in flavor. If you know your kid loves garlic, add some in with the mix. Got a child that loves the spice? Kick things up with a few shots of hot sauce. Mine can’t get enough of that tangy yogurt flavor, so I added an extra dollop at the end, along with a dash of pepper (and another sprinkling of salt).

The finished faux mac-n-cheese has an almost neon-orange color and is good hot or cold. My tot scarfed down 2-bowls for dinner, and happily ate a big serving cold the next day at preschool.

*The first time I made this recipe, I included shredded, slow-roasted turkey breast, which was out of this world. For an adult version, finish the pasta with a couple of good handfuls of spinach, top with extra shredded cheddar and pop under the broiler for a fabulous side dish.

I’ve spent a lot of time daydreaming about pizza lately. Crisp, thin crust topped with zesty tomato sauce and coated with amazing cheese… Yeah. I just can’t stop. I make lots and lots of pizzas with the tot, but I’m really trying to find ways to cut the calories. With Easover behind us, we still have a few boxes of matzo hanging around, and they’re going to be there for next year’s Easover unless something is done with them.

Pizza.

Pizza sauce is a seriously tasty thing. It can be chunky or smooth, salty or sweet, tangy or spicy-hot. All I know is that I didn’t have any in the fridge when I had the brilliant idea of using a piece of matzo as a base for my super-low calorie pizza. I did have an old can of tomatoes in the pantry, which wasn’t very appealing. But, with a bit of love, that can of tomatoes turned into something seriously flavorful, and I had total matzo pizza success.

 Ingredients

1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, strained

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Dash of red pepper

Couple of drops of Worcestershire sauce (optional)

What you do

This sauce is a snap to make. Simply open the can of tomatoes and strain away any liquid. You want to use un-seasoned canned tomatoes (I also used organic). Put those tomatoes in the blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend. If you like your sauce chunky, blend for just a few pulses. But, if you prefer things nice and smooth, blend for as long as you like. If you’ve got Worcestershire sauce hanging out in your pantry, don’t shy away from adding a few drops. This adds a lovely smoky flavor and just a bit of an earthy saltiness, which makes the tomato sauce even better.

To make your own mini-matzo pizzas, preheat your oven to 450 F. Place a single piece of matzo on a sheet pan and then coat with a few big spoonfuls of that fresh pizza sauce. Add your favorite pizza toppings, a sprinkling of cheese, and then pop in the oven until the top is bubbling.

Yum.

Even though it’s spring, I still love making soup. There’s nothing like a bowl of nourishing goodness to make a day better. And sometimes I don’t even heat the soup, but enjoy it room temperature or just barely warm. This spring soup is also very filling, which is great for slimming down those winter pounds. Roasting the celery and leeks makes this soup a snap to prepare and really elevates the fresh flavors. Serve with a slice of toasted bread or pita chips for a perfect spring lunch.

Ingredients

8 stalks celery

1 leek

3 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

dashes pepper

32 ounces good chicken stock (homemade if you have it)

1 cup French green lentils

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dry vermouth

1 cup water

What you do…

Start by cleaning and slicing the stalks of celery into thin strips on the bias. Nice big thick slices, around 1/2-inch thick,  is perfect. And don’t toss those celery leaves – you’ll need them later. Slice the leek in half, then into thin 1/4-inch half rings, and then rinse in a strainer to remove any icky grit.

Coat a sheet pan with the vegetable oil and crank your oven to 425 F. While you’re waiting for things to heat up, chop the garlic and add to the sheet pan along with the celery and leeks. Sprinkle with the salt, dried oregano, and good dash of pepper.

Place the veggies into the oven and set your timer for 15-minutes.

While the celery, leeks and garlic are roasting, bring the chicken stock to a simmer and add the French green lentils and dry vermouth. Cover and let bubble while waiting for the veggies to roast.

After about 10-minutes, turn the celery, leeks and garlic to prevent any burning. Allow them to continue roasting while the lentils simmer. You can do a taste test of the broth to check seasonings and adjust as desired with more salt, pepper, or oregano.

Remove the roasted celery, leeks, and garlic from the oven and add to the bubbling French green lentils. Chop up those celery leaves and add them, along with the 1-cup water, and simmer the soup uncovered for up to 20-minutes, or until the lentils are to your liking.

Serve with toasted and buttered slices of good French bread.

Happy Spring!

I love sweet, savory and spicy Asian food. Every once in a while we order from this awesome local place, but lately we’ve saved the cash for other things. Delivery can run upwards of $30 for an appetizer (got to have cream cheese wontons), two entrées, and don’t forget tip. Now that it’s spring, I’m also trying to lighten-up our dishes. The Shine Supper Club Challenge this month is all about spring cleaning your dinner so light recipes have really been on my mind. Last night I needed a sticky rice fix something fierce and happened to have all ingredients needed for one of our all time favorites.

Orange chicken.

This is a nice and light version with lots of bright orange flavor that happily serves two – with leftovers for lunch the next day. If you love lots of sauce, you might want to double the ingredients. I like a nice, thick coating of sauce on my chicken, not a big pool of it leftover on our plates. Adding a touch of grated orange peel really kicks the orange flavor to a whole new level. But, if you’re not into that, just leave the grated orange peel out – it’s still tasty. So steam up some broccoli and fluff (or sticky-up) your rice – this orange chicken recipe is low in calories, easy on your wallet, and takes minutes to toss together.

What you need

(for the sauce)

3/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon ketchup

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Big dash of dried ginger

Pinch of grated orange zest (optional)

Dash of salt and fresh pepper

(for the chicken)

1 lb boneless chicken breast cut into chunks

2 tablespoons flour

Dash of salt and fresh pepper

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 scallion chopped

What you do

Oranges are in season right now so are super cheap and super sweet. Using fresh squeezed really gives this recipe that spring-fresh flavor. Squeeze the orange juice making sure to strain for seeds (no one wants to chomp down on a crunchy bit while enjoying tasty orange chicken!). Chop and add the garlic to the orange juice along with the rice wine vinegar, ketchup, sugar, soy sauce, dried ginger, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and orange zest (if you want). Give things a whisk and let sit while preparing the chicken.

Chunk up the chicken and then add to a zip-top plastic bag. Sprinkle the flour, salt, and pepper over the chicken, seal the top, and shake-a-shake.

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and add the canola oil. Here’s the deal – you really need a non-stick pan or a wok to make this happen. I’ve tried using a regular skillet (and a really good one) and the chicken sears to the bottom, making a big mess.

Toss the chicken until it’s browned and happy all over, which takes about 5 to 7-minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and let rest on a few folded paper towels.

Now add that orange sauce to the hot pan and let bubble. After the sauce has simmered for about 2-minutes, add the chicken, stir to coat and continue to reduce for another minute.

Serve over a nice big pile of hot rice, a side of whatever veggies you love, and a sprinkling of chopped scallion.

Enjoy!

*Here’s my guestimate calorie breakdown. I’m no expert, and not really great with math. This is just an idea of calorie count per serving based on my three-serving recipe:

• 1 lb cooked chicken breast – 499 calories
• 3/4 cup orange juice – 84 calories
• Garlic – 4 calories
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar – 1 calorie
• 1 tbsp ketchup – 15 calories
• 1/2 t sugar – 8 calories
• 2 t soy sauce – 5 calories
• 2 tablespoons flour – 56
• 2 tablespoons canola oil – 240

Comes in right around 300 calories per serving – add steamed white rice and you’ve got a 500 calorie dinner.

For the last couple of days the tot and I have enjoyed some time off from the preschool. It’s spring break, which means doing lots of messy projects at home, cuddling with an afternoon movie, and making tasty stuff.

Honestly?

I’m kind of in love with spring break right now.

Today I decided we would have a lunch date. Instead of feeding the tot her regular side of apple sauce with a plain cheese sandwich – and making something for myself later while she napped, I mixed it up a bit by making a sandwich both of us would love.

Grilled cheese and apple sandwiches.

Yeah, this is a kid-friendly sandwich, but it’s also a wonderfully tasty and fulfilling adult light-lunch option. Enjoy with a small cup of soup or side salad and you’ve got an awesome lunch. Just go a bit lighter on the mustard for the kiddies.

What you need to make one sandwich…

2 slices of whole-wheat bread

Room temperature butter

Dijon mustard

2 thick slices of Jarlsburg (Swiss) cheese

1/4 a Gala apple thinly sliced (you can leave the skin on)

What you do…

Start by giving one side of a piece of whole-wheat bread a light coating of butter. Place that slice, butter side down, in a pan over medium-to-low heat.

Cover that slice of bread with one of the slices of Jarlsburg. Good Jarlsburg cheese is nutty and ooey-gooey, which blends wonderfully with the sweet Gala apples, and tang of the mustard.

Thinly slice one-forth of the apple, avoiding the core, and layer six to eight slices on top of the cheese.

Top the apples with the second slice of cheese.

Give the second piece of whole-wheat bread a nice coating of good Dijon mustard, place on top of the sandwich, and lightly coat the outside of the slice of bread with butter.

By now the sandwich is probably ready for a flip – do so gently with a spatula to ensure the whole pile of goodness doesn’t fall apart.

Let the grilled cheese and apple sandwich toast until the cheese is gooey – about 3 to 4-minutes on each side.

You know that melty-cheesy-oh-so-good thing?

Yeah.

Enjoy!

With Easter right around the corner, I wanted to make something special with the tot to celebrate. When I think of Easter memories of candy, cookies, candy, a few Easter egg hunts, candy, and more cookies come to mind. Vanilla, lemon, sugar, whipped cream, and chocolate top my list of Easter goodie must-haves. We had some lovely fresh lemons, which were perfect for tossing together these wonderfully tangy cookies. And we topped them in a really special way – by hand-painting them with vanilla frosting.

Adorable.

This is just about the easiest cookie recipe to put together and inviting the kiddies to slather tangy egg-shaped cookies with edible paint is a perfect way to spend Easter together. Not up  for the baking part?  Simply pick up a roll of store-bought refrigerated cookie dough and you’re good to go.

Ingredients

1/2 c room temperature butter, cut into small cubes

1/4 c powdered sugar

1/4 c sugar

Zest of one lemon

Dash of salt

Juice of that zested lemon

1 egg

1 c flour

For one color of edible paint:

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Drop of vanilla

1-3 drops of food coloring

Water

Directions

Simply toss all the ingredients (sans the flour) for the cookies in a medium-sized mixing bowl and give things a whir with a hand mixer. Once things have come together, slowly add the flour until it’s all incorporated.

Tear off a length of plastic wrap and smooth out flat. Spoon the tangy cookie batter onto the plastic wrap in a line. Now roll up the plastic wrap while rolling the dough, (just like you’re making a play-dough snake) and twist the ends, creating a happy log o-cookie dough, just like you pick up at the store.

Place the wrapped cookie dough on a plate and place in the fridge for at least 2-hours. Or, pop in the freezer for an hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 F and lightly grease a sheet pan – or cover with a silpat or parchment paper. Unwrap your cookies and slice on a slight bias (or diagonal) about 1/4 inch thick, and place on the sheet pan allowing about 1-inch space between cookies.

Pop in the hot oven for 10-12 minutes or until the edges start to brown.

Remove from the pan and let cool before painting.

While the cookies chill, make the edible paints. It’s as easy as mixing together the powdered sugar, vanilla, food coloring, and water for each cool you’d like to make. The finished paint should be the consistency of tempera paint. We kept things simple and made red, yellow, and blue paint. And, so things were really nice and clean, I ran our paintbrushes through the dishwasher before painting.

Once the cookies are cool, invite your child to use the edible paints to decorate the lemony Easter egg cookies. Let the frosting set and then enjoy! We piled ours up in a bowl full of green raffia alongside some plain unpainted cookies for a sunny centerpiece.

Happy Easter!

I’m tired of the rain. I really can’t complain – for the majority of our “winter” it was in the mid 60′s and sunny, so this late rainy winter season is lame (but really good for all the plants and stuff). I’ve been busy making soups and stews and casseroles, but not much just for the tot. She’s pretty obsessed with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the moment. We’re restricted from taking anything nutty to preschool, making her indulgences strictly limited to around the house.

I’d love to teach her how to open the fridge, get out the bread, peanut butter, jelly, a knife, and slather the stuff all over the bread because I’m tired of making piles and piles of the sticky sandwiches. Her face gets covered, jelly ends up on the furniture, ants start gathering…

Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m being a bit of a peanut-butter-and-jelly-Debbie-downer.

Oh well.

So, while the rain was doing this outside for the third day in a row,

I came up with a fun way of making that laborious task of tossing together those countless sandwiches into a quick and easy concoction.

Peanut butter and jelly quick bread.

This is a super easy bread to whip up, and if you aren’t feeling like dealing with cleaning the loaf pan, fill your muffin tin with liners and make mini-breads. I know you have all the ingredients (nothing crazy here) and the kids can even offer a helping hand – or make this easy recipe themselves. Just make sure to wash hands after handling raw eggs, not to lick the spoon (or bowl) clean, and offer assistance around that hot oven!

Ingredients

1 egg

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/4 c plain yogurt (vanilla would be yummy, too)

1/2 c water

1/4 c sugar

Dash salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 c flour

1/4 c peanut butter

1/4 c jelly (any kind is tasty)

Simply whip together the egg, yogurt, water, sugar, and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Go ahead and crank your oven to 350 F while you’re happily mixing away.

Slowly add the flour along with the baking soda and baking powder. Once the batter comes together, take a moment to prepare your loaf pan by giving it a nice slathering of vegetable oil, or a spray of no-stick whatever, or line your muffin tin.

Now measure and add the peanut butter as well as the jelly. Carefully stir (or fold) the peanut butter and jelly into the batter. You want big swirls of the stuff not for the peanut butter and jelly to become completely incorporated.

Gently pour the peanut butter and jelly quick bread batter into your prepared pan and toss into your hot oven for 50 to 60-minutes. Let your bread rest for at least 20-minutes before slicing (if you can wait that long). If you slice into it too soon, you will tempt the happy Quick Bread Gods of Fate and things may crumble to pieces (which is still tasty, but very messy).

Enjoy!

There’s really no way to make split pea soup sexy. It’s green, a bit gloppy, and totally doesn’t top the “decadent eats” list. But, savoring a nice bowl of the healthy stuff could help you be a bit sexier. Split peas are packed with fiber and other good stuff, which makes the body feel nice and full after a big bowl – resulting in a bit less jiggle in the middle.

So the other day, when we were in the middle of a bit of rainy NorCal winter weather, I got the hankering for some split pea soup. I didn’t have much stuff in the house (and had no plans for going out) so used what I had to create something really tasty – and super easy to toss together.

This recipe makes a nice big pot – perfect for a week’s full of lunches with enough to share (if your family or friends are interested). Not only is this a hearty soup, but also it’s also low in calories and vegetarian – and vegan. I was utterly amazed when at lunch my tot wanted a taste of mine, and then gobbled up the rest. Serve with toasted pita wedges or whole-wheat crackers and you’re on your way to being one hot mama!

And, you might just find that this split pea soup is pretty damn sexy with it’s wonderfully smooth texture, full flavor, and resulting oh-so-good feeling in your tummy after you enjoy a nice, big bowl.

Yum.

Ingredients

1 small onion chopped

2 carrots chopped

2 stalks celery chopped

1 clove garlic chopped

½ teaspoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon orange juice

½ teaspoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 lb split peas

¼ teaspoon each of salt, pepper, celery salt, thyme

4 cups vegetable stock

2 cups water

Directions

Chop up all the veggies – and the garlic – and toss into a big soup pot and drizzle with the vegetable oil. Turn the heat to medium and give everything a stir.

Sprinkle the veggies with the salt, pepper, celery salt, and thyme and let simmer for about five minutes over medium-high heat. Once the edges of the onions start to caramelize (or brown), pour in the orange juice. This deglazes the pan and gives the veggies – and split peas – and really lovely flavor.

Keep stirring the veggies until most of the orange juice has bubbled away, and then add the soy sauce and apple cider to the mix. Go ahead and add the split peas and stir until things are nicely coated and simmering away.

Now you can add the vegetable stock and water, cover, and let bubble for about 40-minutes or so. Don’t forget to give things a stir along the way so the soup doesn’t clump up and stick to the bottom of your pot.

After about 30-minutes check in and see how things are going. This is a good time to enjoy a taste test. If you want it saltier, add more salt. Like pepper? Sprinkle on some more. Or, if you want things tangier, dribble in more apple cider vinegar.

Depending on how you like your split peas, at around the 40-minute mark they should be nice and tender – but not mushy. But, if you want things more on the smooth side, add an additional ½ cup of water, cover, and let simmer for another 15-minutes.

Enjoy!