Lulu's Recipe Box

Quinoa Chickpea Salad

While we were in Iowa a few weeks ago, my sister Sarah brought this delicious quinoa chickpea salad to a BBQ at my mother-in-law's house and I immediately asked her for the recipe. It was my first time eating quinoa.  I learned that it is delicious, healthy, and pronounced keen-wa NOT key-no-ah. Since tasting and learning about quinoa, I've found several recipes I want to try, but first let's tell you about this one! The tangy dressing amazingly has NO oil. I was very skeptical of this at first but you couldn't tell at all. It was delicious! This recipe also has a lot of crisp veggies and creamy chickpeas, making it the perfect healthy summer salad! If you haven't tried quinoa yet, or if you are looking for a new recipe with quinoa, try this one! You will love it! Even my husband gobbled it up!

 

Quinoa = Keen-wa

 

The colorful veggies and chickpeas!

Don't worry, the dressing is much more tasty than it looks!

 

The finished product! Mmm...so good and guilt-free!

 

Print this recipe!

 Ingredients:

For the salad:

2 cups cooked quinoa

1 small red onion, diced

4 cups baby spinach

1-15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 English cucumber, diced

1/2 red pepper, diced

1/2 yellow pepper, diced

For the dressing:

1/4 cup cashew pieces

2 T. chopped shallot

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 tsp. agave nectar

3/4 tsp. salt

a few pinches freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Cook the quinoa according to package directions. One cup dry quinoa will make two cups cooked. Cool the quinoa. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Add the dressing before serving. Keep chilled in a tightly sealed container for up to 3 days.

For the dressing, place the cashew pieces and shallot in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and blend for at least 5 minutes. Be sure to scrape the sides with a rubber spatula. Blend until completely smooth.

Note: Feel free to use different veggies. You could also use Israeli couscous instead of quinoa.

***slightly adapted from Shutterbean

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

One of my favorite muffins is lemon poppy seed but I've never made them from scratch, let alone a box mix. I came across this simple recipe from Annie's Eats and was very happy with the results. I had all of the ingredients on hand which made them simple to throw together, and the muffins were moist and the perfect amount of lemon flavor! I ate one for dessert last night and another for breakfast this morning. They are really the perfect snack any time of the day. I can't wait to make these again!

 Print this recipe!

Yield: about 12-15 muffins

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 T. poppy seeds

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

8 T. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

Zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup yogurt (plain or vanilla)

For the glaze (optional):

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1-2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Combine the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and stir to combine. In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Mix in the lemon zest and vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients in two additions alternating with the yogurt, beating each addition just until incorporated.

Divide the batter between the prepared liners, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the muffins are still warm, whisk together the confectioners sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl to make the glaze. The glaze is optional. Drizzle a small amount of the glaze over each muffin. Let the glaze set before storing or serving.

***Recipe from Annie's Eats

 

Italian Grilled Chicken with Cucumber Bruschetta

Greetings everyone! I am back from a wonderful two week Midwest trip with my husband to visit our family and friends. Our annual summer trip back home can get a little crazy busy and exhausting but it's one of our favorite vacations to take! Even after living on the East coast now for four years, we still miss the simplicity of the Midwest and our family and friends who are scattered throughout Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. This year, we split our time between Cedar Rapids, IA and Des Moines, IA where our parents are located and ended our trip in Milwaukee to visit TC's aunt, grandma and his beloved Brewers. I had never been to Milwaukee so it was fun to explore the city including trips to Miller Park for Brewers Baseball, Miller Brewery and the lakefront. Is anyone else's husband/boyfriend obsessed with baseball?? I don't mind going to games but watching it on tv is like watching paint dry sometimes. Haha. At least when I go to the games, I can people watch and eat the yummy stadium food, and that's exactly what I did at Miller Park! : ) It seriously was a beautiful ballpark and my husband was in baseball heaven seeing his favorite team play so that made me happy!

It was a really great trip, but now it's back to the reality of working out and eating healthy. I always go into detox mode when I return from vacation. We attended countless BBQ's and ate at some delicious restaurants so I was ready to get back into a healthy routine when we returned home. We grilled this healthy chicken with a delicious bruschetta topping tonight. The chicken is marinated in Italian dressing/marinade and topped with a fresh cucumber and tomato bruschetta. It was light and refreshing, but still managed to fill us up. If you are looking for a healthy and flavorful chicken dish that is easy to prepare for the summer, this is it!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer so far! It's hard to believe that it is the middle of July already! I promise many more recipes this summer!

 

Print this recipe!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the chicken:

4 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup store bought Italian flavored marinade/dressing (I used Kraft Zesty Italian dressing/marinade and be sure to get one without high fructose corn syrup)

For the bruschetta:

1/2 cup peeled, diced English cucumber (could probably use regular cucumber as well)

2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

8 basil leaves, torn or chopped

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese shavings

1/8 tsp. minced garlic (optional)

1 tsp. good quality balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Place chicken breasts in a plastic container or leak-proof food storage bag with Italian marinade. Stir to coat and refrigerate until ready to grill. I marinated the chicken for 2-3 hours which was sufficient but for even stronger flavor, marinate for longer.

Preheat outdoor grill to high. Place chicken breasts on hot grill and reduce heat to medium. Cook about 5 minutes per side or until chicken is cooked through. The time per side may need to be increased depending on the size and thickness of your chicken. Use a thermometer or cut it open to be sure you have it cooked through.

While the chicken is cooking (or you can make this ahead of time), chop up and stir together all of the ingredients for the bruschetta topping in a medium sized bowl.

Remove chicken from the grill and top with the bruschetta when you are ready to serve.

Note: I cut the bruschetta recipe in half for two large chicken breasts to serve two people.

 

***Recipe from Tasty Kitchen

 

 

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone has their favorite, classic chocolate chip cookie recipe. Once you find a cookie recipe you love, it's hard to stray from that one and try new recipes. This has been my all-time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe since my sister introduced the recipe to me years ago. I remember baking them with her in her tiny kitchen in Los Angeles back when I was in college. She was giving me baking pointers along the way. I still remember those tips today, like, don't overmix the dough, be precise with your measurements when you are baking. She was and still is a wonderful baker so I take her advice to heart.

I made these today and realized that I had blogged about the recipe a long time ago but I wasn't happy with the picture. Much happier with the pictures I took today in the natural light. And how cute are the plates that I got from Target?! I love the blue pattern for summer!

If you are still searching for the "ONE" chocolate chip recipe, bake these immediately. You as well as the people you are baking them for won't be disappointed. We are having friends over tonight and I'm thinking it's the perfect summer night to make ice cream cookie sandwiches for dessert! Vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two chocolate chip cookies! Sounds delish to me! Have a great weekend everyone!

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm

1 cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°.  Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat (which I use).

Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl; set aside.  With electric mixer, or by hand, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly combined.  Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low-speed just until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Roll a scant half-cup of dough into a ball.  Holding dough ball in fingertips of both hands, pull apart into two equal halves.  Rotate halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, place formed dough onto cookie sheet, leaving ample room between each ball.  Bake, reversing position of cookie sheet halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy (approximately 11-14 minutes).  Do not overbake. (the cookies will look slightly underbaked when you take them out)

Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

This dough freezes very well. I wrap the dough in siran wrap and put the dough in a zip-loc freezer bag.

***Recipe from Baking Illustrated

 

PW's Chocolate Sheet Cake

Yesterday, we celebrated my husband's 28th birthday! It was an absolute perfect day outside, sunny and low 70's, and we had fun perusing Ikea, Best Buy and Lowe's together. We bought some herbs and flowers to plant outside on our patio. We had dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant on Friday night, so TC wanted to grill brats for dinner, and I made our favorite pasta salad and this chocolate sheet cake for dessert, while TC watched the Milwaukee Brewers win their game. After dinner TC opened his presents which included baseball cards, a Brewers jersey, an Iowa Hawkeye polo and Mad Men seasons on Blu-ray. He was a very spoiled boy this year, but he deserved it all. : ) It was onto the chocolate cake next, which was rich, but very delicious. I cut the recipe in half because there was no way I wanted a huge sheet cake pan of this around all week for us to eat!  I made it ahead of time, so we ended up zapping our pieces in the microwave, but I would definitely recommend serving it right out of the oven. It tastes even better warm if that's possible!

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/4 tsp salt

4 T. (heaping) cocoa

2 sticks butter

1 cup boiling water

1/2 buttermilk (If you don't have buttermilk, pour just under 1/2 cup regular milk into a measuring cup and add enough regular vinegar to bring the quantity to 1/2 cup, let it sit a minute)

2 whole beaten eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

For the frosting:

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

1 3/4 sticks butter

4 T. (heaping) cocoa

6 T. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pound (minus 1/2 cup powdered sugar)

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter (for the cake). Add the cocoa and stir together. Add the boiling water and allow the mixture to boil for 30 seconds before removing from the heat. Pour the mixture over the flour, and stir lightly to cool the chocolate.

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add the beaten eggs, baking soda and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into the flour/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan (approximately an 18 x 13 pan) and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

While the cake is baking, make the frosting/icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa and stir to combine. Turn off the heat. Add the milk, vanilla and powdered sugar. Stir until smooth. Add the pecans and stir together. Pour the frosting over the warm cake. It's best when warm so serve right away or if you are making this ahead of time, warm it up in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.

***recipe from The Pioneer Woman

Dutch Baby Pancake

A Dutch Baby Pancake, sometimes called a German pancake, is an oven baked pancake that is delicious and so simple to make. It's made with ingredients that you always have on hand in your pantry and refrigerator. You put the thin batter into a skillet and bake in the oven until it browns and puffs up. You can serve it with your usual pancake topping, syrup, or make it a little more fancy with powdered sugar, berries, or better yet, all three of them like we did this morning. Try this for your next weekend brunch!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour

3 eggs, beaten

1/2 milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 T. melted butter

1/4 tsp. salt

Berries, Syrup, Powdered sugar, for serving

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch (I used a 10 inch which worked fine) oven safe skillet with butter or a baking spray and set aside.

2. Gradually add the flour to the beaten eggs with a whisk. Whisk in milk, vanilla extract, melted butter, and salt. Pour batter into the prepared skillet.

3. Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes or until golden brown. It will puff up while baking, but become flat again when you remove it from the oven. Cut into wedges and serve warm with berries, syrup, and/or powdered sugar.

***recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod

Healthy Cashew Chicken

I'm on a roll with finding wonderful recipes on Tasty Kitchen. This healthy cashew chicken was a little sweet, crunchy from the cashews and vegetables and just delicious! I loved all the vegetables and chicken for a well-rounded and quick dinner. I will definitely be adding this to my dinner rotation! I can't wait to eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!
 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 T. olive oil (Divided)

1 cup sliced mushrooms

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

2 T. cornstarch

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 red pepper, sliced thin

3 whole green onions, chopped

1/2 cup unsalted cashews

3 T. honey

3 T. low-sodium soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

jasmine rice for serving

Directions:

Heat a large nonstick skillet on medium heat and add 1 T. olive oil. Add the mushrooms and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from skillet into a small bowl.

Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper, then sprinkle cornstarch on chicken pieces and make sure each piece is somewhat coated. Add extra cornstarch if needed. Add the remaining olive oil to the skillet and brown the chicken until cooked through.

Add garlic, red pepper, edamame, half of the green onions, and cashews and stir for 30 seconds. Turn heat to medium-low.

In small bowl, mix soy sauce and honey. Pour into the skillet, coating the chicken and vegetables. Let it simmer a minute if you like the sauce a little thicker.

Serve over jasmine rice. Top with extra green onions.

*Slightly adapted from HowSweetEats on Tasty Kitchen

Recipe Update & Girl Scout Cookies

My sweet niece Julia mailed us our Girl Scout cookie order last week and they finally arrived today. For me, the always delicious thin mints and for TC, shortbread. I'm sure we will share though. ; ) With our major sweet tooths, I can guarantee you these will not last us the whole week. Thank you to our favorite Girl Scout for sending us the cookies and this adorable picture! She worked very hard to sell and sort all of her cookie orders

If anyone is looking for a new delicious meal to make this week,  I recently updated one of our favorite meals, Baked Chicken Taquitos. I think you will be impressed with how easy and delicious they are!

 

Fish Tacos

I've been making shrimp tacos ever since we had wonderful shrimp tacos on our vacation to the Cayman Islands a few summers ago. Those of you that have been to the Cayman Islands may know the place I'm talking about. It's the little restaurant at the Sunshine Suites. You wouldn't really think to go there to eat, but let me tell you, the shrimp tacos (pictured below) are amazing as well as the other food!

I tried out a new fish taco recipe tonight with grilled mahi mahi and a tangy, fresh sauce to go on top. The sauce is wonderful with the warm, flaky fish and the crunchy cabbage slaw. All I needed was to be sitting on the white sand beach in Cayman again with a Corona in hand. You have to try these with whatever fish you like. I'm going to make them again this week with shrimp since I have a lot of sauce leftover. Delicious and so simple to make!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 pound fish of your choice (I used Mahi Mahi)

1/2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. garlic salt

For the sauce:

1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. dill

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1 whole lemon, juiced

1 package flour tortillas

1 package cabbage slaw

Shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Directions:

Brush some olive oil on each side of the fish. Season fish with cumin, chili powder, and garlic salt to taste. For the mahi mahi, we grilled it for about 5 minutes per side, flipping the fish only one time. If you don't have a grill, you could broil the fish or pan fry it.

For the sauce, combine sour cream/yogurt, mayonnaise, cumin, dill, and garlic salt. Add lemon juice until sauce is a nice consistency, not too thick, slightly runny.

To assemble, put some fish in the tortilla and top with cheese, cabbage slaw and sauce.

***Recipe from Tasty Kitchen

 

 

Beef-Broccoli Stir-Fry

If you haven't picked up the March 2011 issue of Cooking Light yet, I suggest doing so. I have already bookmarked 10 recipes and this stir-fry was my first to try. I've been trying to eat more healthy and get back into my workout routine to get in shape for the summer. Swimsuit season is only 3 months away! Eek! This was a delicious and lighter take on Chinese takeout beef-broccoli. One serving (1 1/3 cups beef mixture and 1/2 cup rice) has about 476 calories and 12.9 grams fat. Not too bad, especially for how filling it is. You really don't need any additional side dishes either. This dish took about 20 minutes, making it a speedy weeknight dinner. Even the healthy version was a hit with TC, so I'll definitely be making this again!

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

2 (3 1/2 ounce) bags boil-in-bag long-grain white rice (I cooked 3 cups Jasmine rice instead)

2 T. dry sherry, divided

2 T. lower-sodium soy sauce, divided

1 tsp. sugar

1 pound boneless sirloin steak, cut diagonally across grain into thin slices

1/2 cup lower-sodium beef broth

1 T. cornstarch

1 T. hoisin sauce

1 tsp. Sriracha (hot chile sauce) or 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

2 T. canola oil, divided

1 T. bottled ground fresh ginger

2 tsp. minced garlic

4 cups prechopped broccoli florets (frozen or fresh)

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup sliced green onions

Directions:

Cook rice according to directions. The original recipe calls for the bagged rice, but I prefer cooking Jasmine rice for stir-fry.

While rice cooks, combine 1 T. sherry, 1 T. soy sauce, sugar, and sliced beef in a medium sized bowl. In another small bowl, combine 1 T. sherry, 1 T. soy sauce, the beef broth, cornstarch, hoisin sauce, and Sriracha/red pepper flakes.

Heat 1 T. oil in a large skillet or stir-fry pan over medium-high heat. Add beef mixture; saute 3 minutes or until browned. Remove beef from pan. Add remaining 1 T. oil to pan. Add ginger and garlic; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add broccoli and 1/4 cup water; cook 1 minute or longer if you are using frozen broccoli. Add green onions; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the broth mixture and the beef mixture; cook 2 minutes or until beef is thoroughly heated through and sauce is slightly thick.

Serve beef mixture over rice.

***slightly adapted from Cooking Light March 2011