Pork wellington dinner

Alrighty so I have 3 different things for you today, and thinking about it is making me hungry! Fair warning, the picture isn't pretty because I was clumsy with my knife and cut it up.

Ingredients:
 Pork Wellington-
-Pork loin
-pack of puff pastry
-1 Gala apple
-1/2 spanish or vidalia onion
-1 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp pepper
-1/4 tsp garlic powder
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp nutmeg
-1 tbsp canola oil
-1 egg

Almond green beans-
-a few big handfuls of green beans
-butter/margarine
-roasted almond slivers/slices
-salt
-pepper

Roasted garlic mashed potatoes
-3 yukon gold potatoes
-4-5 garlic cloves
-1/2 tbsp canola oil
-sour cream
-garlic powder
-milk
-butter/margarine
-salt
-pepper
-parsley flakes

 Pork wellington
1. Allow the puff pastry to defrost, this usually takes two hours.
2. Peel and dice the apple and half onion, put to the side.
3. Heat oil in a large frying pan. Sear all sides of the pork loin, this will take about 5-10 minutes.
4. Put pork on a plate in the fridge to cool. Set oven to 400F
5. With the left-over oil in the pan fry the onions and apple with the nutmeg, garlic powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Once the onions and apples are soft put in a bowl and place to the side.
6. Roll out the puff pastry to about 1 cm
7. put a generous layer (hell, use all of it) of the apple+onion mix on the pastry. Place the pork in the middle. Fold one side over and the top/bottom in and last side. pinch it closed if it's not staying.
8. Brush pastry with beaten egg.
9. Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes.

 Almond green beans
1. tip and tail the beans
2. steam the beans until they're just done
3. remove from steamer
4. melt butter in pan
5. sear beans with salt, pepper and almonds in hot pan for 30 seconds-1 minute

Roasted garlic mashed potatoes
1. peel garlic and heat oil in a pan. Once oil is hot, place whole garlic cloves onto pan. Cook on each side so the cloves are soft in the middle.
2. Peel and cut up potatoes. Place in salted water in a pot. Boil water.
3. Chop up garlic so it's almost mush.
4. Once potatoes are soft enough to mash, strain and place the potatoes back in the pot (not on the hot stove element. Add in about a tablespoon of butter/margarine, a few "splashes" of milk, sour cream, garlic, salt, pepper, garlic powder and parsley flakes.
5. Mash until smooth.

Mexican Bean Salad

I made this months ago in my cooking SHSM program and just had to write it down, because I loved it sooooo much :) Unfortunately, I was rushed and didn't take exact measurements, but I'll give it my best shot. Also, I think it is my first-ever successful vegan dish, so my stepsister will be pretty happy!

Apologies for the ugly picture, the lighting was crap and I only had my phone's camera.

-1 can white kidney beans or butter (aka baby Lima, I think) beans
-1 clove garlic
-1 small firm tomato
-1/2 medium red onion
-3/4 still-firm avocado
-1 cup baby arugula, cut into strips
-l tbsp lemon juice
-1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
-salt and pepper to taste

Here's the hard part
1. Dice your tomato, red onion and avocado into small cubes. Cut your arugula into thin strips. Chop the living crap out of your garlic.
2. Throw everything into your bowl and give it a taste, need more lemon/lime/salt/pepper? Add more. It's yummy?...
3. Chill and eat!

Blueberry Green Tea

I saw a recipe for "raspberry sun tea" and thought that would be yummy, except that I don't have raspberries, I don't have the tea it calls for and I most DEFINITELY do not have the patience to wait for it to sit in the sun for 5 hours, so I came up with blueberry green tea for my day at the beach!

The awesome tea, on our day at the beach! Was delicious and didn't even last an hour!

You'll need:
1 1/2 cup blueberries
2 tbsp splenda or other sweetener (stevia is great, I just don't have it at the moment)

1/2 tbsp honey

2 bags Tetly Green tea

5 cups water

1. Pour more water than required into your kettle and turn it on.
2. Measure out your berries and put them into a big bowl of some sort, something that can handle the heat of boiling water.

3. Squish your blueberries by hand or using a potato masher. They don't need to be mush, but every skin should be broken.

4. Throw in your honey, sweetener and tea bags. Mine isn't all that sweet, so if you like it sweeter I'd say add a tablespoon more sweetener.

5. Measure out 5 cups of boiling water (don't burn yourself!) and pour it over your mushed berries and other stuff.

6. Let it sit there and brew for 20 minutes, then put it in the fridge

7. I took mine out of the fridge after 2 hours and 40 minutes, so mine was pretty strong. I'd say shortest you'd want to leave it in is an hour.
8. Sieve out all the chunks and seeds and voila!

9. Serve cold, maybe even with ice cubes! I actually ended up watering it down a little with about half a cup of water, I wanted more than I had and could spare the intensity of the flavor by a little.

Enjoy! :)

Boyfriend dearest explaining why he'd have to kill me if I never made it again.
"I'm British so I'm picky about my tea, and that's awesome."
Teehee, I don't think he knows I have this picture! Don't tell him!

Easiest pb+chocolate pudding ever!

I was craving peanut butter cups, so I came up with something to substitute it. Alright so, you ready? it's yummy, and super easy.

-1 of those lunch "snack pack" milk chocolate pudding cups (I really like kozy shack but anything works)
-1 heaping tsp of smooth peanut butter
-1/4 cup milk.

whip it all together and yum!

Cheesy steak sandwich

You're going to need:
-left over steak
-diana honey garlic barbecue sauce
-shredded cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, monterey jack were the cheeses I used)
-Sourdough bun or bread
-1/2 medium onion
-margarine or butter
1. Pop your bread into the toaster or broiler to give it a light toasting
2. While that's doing it's thing, cut the onion half into long strips
3. Melt some of your butter in a frying pan, throw the onions in and let them simmer away.
4. Slice your steak into 1/4 inch strips, as many as you want, I guess. I had about 6 strips that were 1.5 inches long. Put in the microwave for abbooouutt 1 and a half minutes.
5. Spread some bbq sauce on the toast, layer half of the steak on the toast, your shredded cheese, and then the other half of your steak. The steak should be hot, so it can melt the cheese.
6. Your onions should be floppy by now, yes, floppy. Throw them on top of the steak, put the other piece of toast or bun on top annnndd..
7. EAT IT!

Raspberry chocolate Creme Brulee

3 cups whipping cream
8 egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
11/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
a handfull of raspberries
a handfull of dark chocolate chips

1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl
2. Warm milk in a small pot or sauce pan until little whisps of steam rise from the pot. While it's heating, crush your raspberries and, if you want, crush your chocolate chips.
3. SLOWLY, oh so slowly, add the warm milk to the eggs while whisking vigorously. I usually get a friend to hold the bowl or veerryyy sslloowwwlllyyy add the milk for me.
4. Pour equal amounts into 8 ramekin dishes. Place all 8 dishes into a shallow pan. Fill the pan, with hot water, to halfway up the ramekin dishes.
5. Heat the oven to 350°F
6. "Sprinkle" the crushed raspberries and chocolate into the dishes. They will sink, that's ok.
7. Put the pan into the oven for 30-35 minutes.
8. Once they've cooked, take the dishes out of the pan and put them into the fridge for min 2 hours.
9. After those two hours, sprinkle the brown sugar on top of all of them, making it as evenly spread across as possible.
10. Heat the oven to 400°F and put the ramekins back into the oven, in the shallow pan half filled with COLD water to melt the sugar. OR you can use a blow torch to melt it, it's your choice. I didn't time the oven so just watch it. I'm guessing it took around 10 minutes.
11. Top with a raspberry and enjoy!

In the picture, mine don't look very raspberrychocolate-y. I put all of it in the middle, at the bottom, but then realized, once it was cooked, that it would have been better if I had put it in AFTER I poured the mix in.

Hot Chili tacos

So I didn't actually get to try this, since I can't have chili (especially not the amount of chili sauce that he likes), but my boyfriend said it was yummy, so I'll take his word for it. If you have crohn's or colitis, I seriously wouldn't suggest eating this recipe... making it for your starving, skyrim playing boyfriend is a different story though ;P


 -Two tortillas or taco shells, depending what you have
- some kind of meat. I used half a seasoned chicken breast and a 1/4 cup of left over crock-pot pot roast from the night before.
- grated cheese
- hot chili sauce (I would have used mild taco sauce, if I had eaten it)
- salsa

1. Tear up your meat so that it's in small pieces. Grate your cheese, if it isn't already.
2. Put your meat in the microwave until it's hot, this took me about 1 minute. I left the "juice" from the roast meat in the mix, it gave it some pretty good flavor, I assume.
3. While your meat is in the microwave lay down your two tortillas and inside layer the hot chili sauce (as much as you can stand), a tablespoon or two of salsa, and a handful of cheese. I have pretty small hands, so I did one and a half. Do this for both tortillas or shells.
4. Once your meat is done, put equal amounts of it onto your tortillas or into the shells. If you're using shells, you're done! Enjoy! If you're using tortillas, wrap them like this:

enjoy! :)

Breakfast strawberry smoothie

So I finally found a way to have strawberries! Gotta be honest, I enjoyed drinking every last drop. I didn't measure exactly, since I didn't expect it to be that good. To me, it was like a healthy, ice-cream free milkshake!

4-5 strawberries, stems cut out
375 ml milk
3 tbsp vanilla yogurt
1/2 tbsp sugar
(and a little strawberry or vanilla protein powder if you want)

Process (this is the easiest thing ever):
1. put everything in a blender (I use my magic bullet)
2. strain it if you don't like or can't have seeds.

I was feeling red this morning, so I ate a tomato sandwich with it.

3. drink!!

Sweet and sour sauce

So I made this last night with some chicken, rice, pineapple chunks and onion but I ate it before I got a picture.. sorry! (I found this safe for me to eat even in the middle of a flare-up so I consider it crohn's/uc friendly)

-Juice from a 14 oz. can of pineapple chunks (save the pineapple to go with whatever you're putting the sauce on :D )
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup ketchup
-1/4 cup + 1 tbsp white vinegar
-1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
-1/2 tsp granulated garlic (or garlic powder, I find both work well)
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp mustard powder

Steps
1. Mix all ingredients together in a sauce pan over medium heat until it's warm and slightly thickened.
2. Serve over rice, chicken, pineapple chunks, bell peppers, pork, beef, noodles, or whatever else tickles your tastes buds :)

Cheese puffs

 These cheddar cheese puffs were delicious and super easy to make for me and a few friends on a saturday morning after a long night :) even my cat enjoyed helping!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup flour
4 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheddar (for the mix)
1 tbsp (aprox) for putting it on top of the puffs




1. heat up water and melt butter in a pot, add salt.
2. quickly add flour and mix it in. it should sort of form a ball.
3. spread it out on the sides of the bowl until warm, instead of hot. once cooled to warm, mix in 1 of the eggs, pepper and thyme. I used an electric mixer for this step.
4. once the first egg is mixed in, add the second egg, the 1/2 cup of cheese and mix it in.
5. heat your oven to 425 degrees F
6. make 1 tbsp sized balls of the dough and put them on a baking tray. it should make about 12. sprinkle the cheese on top of the dough balls.
7. put tray in oven and cook the cheese puffs in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
8. remove the tray from the oven and put the puffs on a cooling rack.

9. they should be cool enough to eat within a few minutes :) enjoy!

They puff to be empty in the center, so don't be surprised when they've poofed out to be hollow :)

Cookie dough truffles

So as everyone knows, valentines day is coming up and, sweet jesus, what is a student to do after blowing all her money on christmas presents, but she has a boyfriend she wants to impress? Well I know both he and I love cookie dough and I remembered seeing this a little while ago and decided to make some! I found a safe-to-eat chocolate chip cookie dough recipe on Cupcake Project (I'll link it at the bottom). There should be quite a bit of leftover cookie dough, you can do with it what you will. I'm going to mix little bits of it with vanilla ice cream :)

you'll need:
(for the cookie dough)
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 tbsp milk

as many mini chocolate chips as you want

(for the chocolate)

I chose milk and white chocolates to melt in different bowls, milk chocolate for covering it, and white chocolate for decorating

whatever decorations you want :)

1. mix all the cookie dough ingredients together in a bowl, that's it!

2. cover it and put it in the fridge for half an hour

3. cover a baking sheet with wax paper

4. pull the bowl out of the fridge and roll it into 3/4 inch (in diameter) balls, put them on the wax paper and then back in the fridge for another 45 minutes

  -all this waiting time would be great to make lunch, watch your favourite show, get some studying done, do laundry, etc...-

5. melt your chocolate(s) in a double boiler and pull your cookie pan out of the fridge

6. dip each ball in, make sure it's covered with chocolate and then take them out with a fork and put them back on the cookie sheet. before they cool down you should put any sprinkles/candies you want on them. if you want to decorate them with the white chocolate let it cool down first, do the white chocolate and then if you want put the candies on.

7. stick it in the fridge overnight just to be safe and voila!

http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2009/03/raw-cookie-dough-thats-safe-to-eat.html

Guacamole, how I make it

Ok so I would have taken a picture but I kind of ate all of it..

1 avocado
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder (plus another itty bitty sprinkle)
3/4 tsp lime juice
1/2 a plum tomato, diced
1 1/2 red onion, diced into little bits

1. cut your avocado in half, scoop it out of it's shell and throw the pit out. Mush it up in a bowl with a fork.
2. add your salt, lime juice and garlic powder in, mixing it enough to make sure that all the avocado has an equal amount
3. add your diced tomato and red pepper, gently mix it up
4. serve with nachos (maybe with melted cheese overtop?)! yum!

Cinnamon roll pancakes

Ok, so I don't know who the original is but I saw these on The Baker Chick, and they just looked so delicious I thought I should get the word even MORE out there!

Ingredients:

pancakes: (makes about 4/5 pancakes)

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg beaten gentle

1 cup of buttermilk

1 tbsp canola oil

cinnimon filling (to swirl into the pancakes): *makes enough for much more than 4 pancakes

1/2 cup melted butter

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)

cream cheese glaze: (this just makes the pancakes):


4 tbsp butter

2 oz cream cheese

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then stir in the wet ingredients until it's, well, batter. A few lumps are ok (actually, a few lumps are good. over worked flour is tough)

2. In another medium sized bowl mix your cinnamon filling ingredients together. Put the mixture in a squeeze bottle or pastry bag, either one should have a small tip

3. In the microwave heat up your butter and cream cheese. Mix them together until they're smooth and melted. (Mine worked, but Baker Chick's didn't, she just put it through a food processor and it was fine) Whisk in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Set it aside for later.

4. Warm up a frying pan on medium-low heat and spray on some cooking spray (or a little bit of butter, I like butter, personally). Scoop about 3/4 of pancake batter and pour it onto the pan (you know, like normal pancakes). Once it's cooked a little bit swirl your cinnamon mix into it. Wait until it starts to bubble on top and then flip it. Let this side cook for a little (1-2 minutes), put on an oven-safe plate and keep it warm in the oven until they're all done.

5. To serve, place a few on a plate and drizzle the cream cheese glaze over top. I enjoyed it with a few sliced strawberries, but that's just me :)

*I doubled the pancake recipe but NOT the cinnamon mixture recipe, since there's way more mixture than just enough for 4-5 pancakes.