Fancy chicken and beans

Courtesy of my sister Christina Pendleton who gave me the ideas/recipes, I made this delicious meal for dinner tonight!

Strawberry Balsamic Chicken and Caramelized Green Beans! 

Here is a close up. 

My mom said that "the green beans are heavenly!" 

The recipe is from "Our Best Bites". Here is the recipe, altered a little by moi :) 

Caramelized Green Beans

1 lb. (actually, just a little bit more…maybe 1 1/8 lb.) fresh green beans
A large handful of crumbled bacon bits
1/2 red onion, sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed (I just used 4 teaspoons minced garlic)
olive oil
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
Lots of freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

Start boiling a large pot of water. Place beans in a colander and rinse them well. Then snap the ends off and snap them in half.

Prepare the sauce by mixing sugar, soy sauce, and salt in a small bowl.

Make sure your onions are sliced, garlic is pressed  and everything is ready to go.

 Just use some olive oil and heat pan to medium-high heat. When the pan is hot…

Add onions and garlic. Give them a quick stir and then…

Add beans to boiling water. Place colander in a clean sink. Boil for one minute; you’re not cooking them until they’re done, just blanching them to take the edge off. Meanwhile, stir the onions and garlic so they don’t scorch. After one minute, drain beans in the colander in the sink.

Once beans have been drained, add them to the onions and garlic. Stir fry 2-3 more minutes.

Give your sauce a quick stir and then pour on top of the beans. Keep stir-frying until the beans get kind of glazy. Stir fry for another 2 minutes.

Add crumbled bacon and lots of freshly-ground pepper to the beans. Keep stir frying until the sauce sticks to the beans and the bacon. Transfer to a serving dish and allow to stand a few minutes so the beans cool down a bit and the glaze thickens up a little.

Serve immediately.

Check out the recipe for the chicken at Christina's blog, http://christinascookinupcrafts.blogspot.com/ 

No White Diet

I'm baaaack! I thought I had given up on this blog. But I love food too much to not tell people about it. It's hilarious to look back at my 10 posts from 2012. That was only 2 years ago and yet it was 2 years ago! If you know what I mean. Time flew by and yet I don't feel any older in some ways. C'est la vie.

Also, funny that I stopped my "2012 Cupcake Craze" challenge that I gave myself after about 3 recipes in. Woops.

So. I am home for the summer from BYU and my mom is supposed to try a "No White Diet"that should be an anti-inflammatory diet to help arthritis. My dad is instructed by his doctors to have a very low carb diet for health reasons in general. SO.... I'm trying new foods and recipes that have no white sugar, no white flour, and are low in carbs. 

And here's what I got so far!

Veggie egg scramble

Basically just eggs, tomatoes, bell peppers, white onion, and celery. Topped with feta cheese and garnished with a dollop of sour cream and cilantro, served with avocado and watermelon :) YUM! 

On another note, vegan chocolate chip cookies from Trader Joe's are THE BOMB! As well as European style chocolate yogurt (best with no mix-ins though). 

1,000 Journals Project

So I am in National Art Honor Society at school (it's like a club) and basically we do a few projects a year that will change the world through art (PLUS we get a rainbow cord when we graduate high school [NEXT YEAR AHHH] ).

Our current project is called the 1,000 Journals Project. So if you ever receive one of these journals (which hopefully, you will) get excited and get creative because you are about to make history. Here are the instructions for each journal:

If you are reading this, then you have been chosen (by the person who

gave this to you) to participate in a project that will unify the world a little

more through art. This journal is the first of many that are being sent out

into the world. Each of you that get it can create whatever you want on a page

or two or three in the journal: a collage, stickers, photographs, poetry, graffiti,

whatever you want to do to express yourself and your thoughts on the world. Please include the city, state, or country in which you live and your age.

After you are finished adding a little bit of yourself to the journal,

pass it along to a friend, a neighbor, a sister, a grandparent, a child,

a cousin in another state or country-to anyone you can think of.  

If you do not wish to pass it on, send it to the P.O. box address

at the back of this journal. If you have just completed the final page

in the journal, PLEASE return it to the P.O. box address. Whether it is

one year in the future, or twenty years, please RETURN IT. As members of the

National Art Honor Society in California (based at Dos Pueblos High School), we want to exhibit these journals to show our peers how people of all ages around the world are expressing themselves through art when given the opportunity. Hopefully, throughout this process, you will learn a little something about yourself and your fellow men that share your world.

Thank you, and enjoy.

Journal #1 Started March 23rd, 2012

in Santa Barbara, California.

Look out world, one of these bad boys might be coming your way!

Expressing yourself comes in so many different ways!

My friend Denise showed me this video today and I was like WOW. This girl plays violin and dances at the same time. She's a "hip hop violinist" ! Not to mention the AMAZING Utah scenery and videography job. It's awesome to see the unique ways people find to express themselves through ART! Check it out!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRPOztxXWlQ&feature=relmfu

Some great songs.

I am starting to realize that I need to add more variation to my blog if its going to be an "everything art" blog, and so far I've done mostly recipes! So here's a thought. Look up these songs. They're great.

"I Won't Give Up" By Jason Maraz.
"Lovely" by Sara Haze.

Recipe Number 4: SUPER EASY PB cookie cupcakes for V-day

So basically this is a little sum'n sum'n I made up that is SO EASY and SO CUTE and tastes really great!! 


Ingredients:
- One peanut butter cookie mix and all the ingredients it calls for (Betty Crocker is my personal fave, and it's usually a good price)
-One small bowl of sugar to roll dough in
-Unwrapped Hershey's kisses, Valentine's M&M's, or medium sized Reeses peanut butter cups, or a combination of all three!
-mini cupcake liners and pan or heart-shaped silicone baking cups (easily found at Michaels, cute and much easier to clean than cupcake pans!) 


Directions:
1) Mix peanut butter cookie dough as directed on package.
2) Roll dough into balls, then roll in sugar so a light coat of sugar covers the whole ball.
3) Put dough balls in mini cupcake holders or silicone baking cups and press down slightly with thumb to flatten top. 
4) Bake in oven at time indicated on package or when cracks begin to form on the cookies.
5)Immediately after taking cookies out of the oven, press unwrapped candy into cookie and allow for chocolate to melt and cookies to set before transferring to a cooling rack(If using silicone baking cups, wait until cookies are completely set and chocolate isn't too melty before popping them out of their conatiners).

 Silicone cups are THE BEST.

 The minis are great with Hershey's, a few M&M's, and Reeses :)

THIS A PERFECT WAY TO SAY "I LOVE YOU" TO ALL OF THE VALENTINES IN YOUR LIFE. Enjoy!

#3: Banana Pecan Cupcakes with Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting.

I have it on good authority that on scale from 1 to 10 these cupcakes are a TEN. And, my mom said it was THE BEST frosting she's EVER HAD. EVER. That means it's a keeper folks.

Ingredients

• 3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 4 very ripe large bananas, mashed (about 2 cups), plus sliced bananas for garnish
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted in the oven for eight minutes at 350

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.
2. Reduce speed to low. Mix in any remaining wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. Scrape sides of bowl. Stir in toasted pecans. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.
3. Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks. Cupcakes will keep, covered, for up to 3 days, unless otherwise noted.

Frosting:

Ingredients

• 1 pound (4 cups) confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 18 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled*
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream

Directions

1. Sift together confectioners' sugar, cocoa, and salt. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese and butter until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add sugar mixture; mix until combined. Mix in melted and cooled chocolate and then sour cream; scrape down sides of bowl and continue beating until smooth. Use immediately, or frosting can be stored in the refrigerator up to 5 days, or frozen up to 1 month, in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat on low speed until smooth.

*I put in about half the amount of semisweet chocolate it called for and it still tasted delicious*

22 to go!