Oatmeal Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

I always have oatmeal around for breakfast or for cookie baking. Luckily I also have organic "Nana Honey Peanut Butter" and leftover chocolate chips. This recipe is similar to the oatmeal banana cookies that I made before after I stumbled a two ingredient recipes webpage. I should always create new recipes when I'm hungry. This recipe is the product of random cravings. Enjoy! (These cookies = breakfast)

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Banana Cookies
Ingredient

• 1 1/2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
• 4 ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Procedure

1. Mash the bananas in a small bowl. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Measure out the other ingredients into a large bowl then add in the mashed bananas. Mix all the ingredients together.
3. Bake for 10 minutes (no more than 12 min) and let cool before serving. 

Strawberry Pie

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes

It's strawberry season! I think it's berry season in general. That means it's time for me to bake more pies. I got some strawberries on sale at the store and wanted to make a fresh strawberry pie. Fresh strawberries, sugar, and flour. Simple. No gelatin. No cream cheese.  So much for preparing lunch for the work week. Pie counts as lunch, right? This pie tasted delicious, but it essentially turned into cobbler when I tried to cut a piece. Also, I really wish I had whipped cream.

Strawberry Pie
Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs fresh strawberries, sliced
• 2 unbaked 9-inch pie crusts
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 2 tbsp butter

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Arrange crust on the bottom of a glass pie pan.
3. Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
4. Pour filling into pie pan.
5. Cut holes into top pie crust and then cover the pie. Crimp in the edges of the pie crust with a fork.
6. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes then turn heat down to 350 and bake for 20 minutes.
7. Let cool. Then serve.                                                                                                                    

Very Experimental Hummus

I had a craving for hummus and an itching to buy a food processor to make some fun foods. I love kitchen gadgets! Originally I was going to use plain Greek yogurt instead of Tahini (because Tahini is expensive and I didn't have any around), but then I saw that my avocado had ripened quicker than I had anticipated so I decided to throw that in to see how it would turn out. You be the judge.

This is how I cut my mangoes too.

Look at that beautiful plating!

Serving suggestion. My dinner.

Very Experimental Hummus
Ingredients

• 15.5oz can of chick peas
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Procedure

1. Drain the can of chick peas and then rinse them in a colander.
2. Cut the avocado in half, remove pit, and cut each half into small squares. See picture above.
3. Measure out all ingredients and place into food processor.
4. Pulse, blend, processor, etc. until hummus is the consistency you want.
5. Serve over pita, bread, or crackers.

Tuna Pasta Salad with Yogurt Dressing

Short entry today. I am rushing to post something before getting ready for work tomorrow. Just wanted to note that for most of my experiments I guess the proportions and if I use the same quantity for most of the ingredients, it's because I didn't feel like using and washing another measuring spoon. The garbage disposal has a tendency to eat the measuring spoons so I'd prefer to use as few at a time as I can. I wonder if other cooks/chefs do that.

Om nom nom dressing. Looks legit!

Delicious!

Tuna Pasta Salad
Ingredients

• ~1.5 cup frozen broccoli florets, defrosted
• 4 oz of mushrooms cut into small pieces
• 1/4 medium onion finely diced
• 1 can tuna in water
• ~8 oz cooked pasta (I used rotini)
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

The dressing
Ingredients

• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp basil
• 4 tbsp non-fat Greek yogurt
• 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes 
• pepper to taste

Procedure

1. Cook the mushrooms and onion in a pan with the olive oil on medium heat until mushrooms are cooked.
2. Mix the dressing ingredients in a small bowl.
3. Drain the water from the canned tuna. 
4. In a large bowl, mix the dressing, tuna, mushrooms, onion, and broccoli.
5. Serve chilled.

Spinach and Mushroom with Yogurt Alfredo

Last week I went to the store and bought a giant tub of Greek yogurt. I figured it's a healthy breakfast item and I am trying to eat more healthy. However, the tub advertised that it's "great for cooking" so I decided to try and make an Alfredo sauce with it. Note to self: next time make sure you buy plain Greek yogurt instead of vanilla flavored. It turned out sweeter than expected, but definitely edible. This is the result.

The smell of mushrooms, onions, and spinach cooking together  made me really hungry.

Looks like regular alfredo to me

Finished product in the pan.

Ingredients

• 1/8 medium onion thinly sliced
• 4 oz baby bella/cremini mushroom thinly sliced
• fresh spinach (as much or as little as you like)
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsp shredded parmesean cheese
• 3 tbsp fat free Greek yogurt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

1. Cook the onion in a large non stick pan with the olive oil.
2. Add the mushrooms to the pan when the onion has begin to turn clear/see through. Cook until mushrooms have started to shrink and loose some water. Stir occasionally.
3. Wilt the spinach in the pan. Add the garlic powder, basil, oregano, salt and pepper to the pan. Mix /stir occasionally.
4. Add the cheese and yogurt when the spinach has completely wilted. Mix well
5. Serve mixed with pasta or over pasta.

Asian Chicken Wraps

I recently bought a head of napa cabbage and then I stopped to think about what I could make other than delicious noodle soup or stir fry. Then it hit me--wraps! I used the left over chicken filling for fried rice.

Chopped up veggies

ghetto-tastic way of steaming napa leaves

Stir fry!

All mixed up

Wrap complete! +20 XP

Asian Chicken Wraps
Ingredients

• Whole Napa leaves
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1/4 medium onion finely chopped
• 3 green onion sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken thigh with excess fat trimmed off
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp five spice powder
• 1/4 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp corn starch
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce

Procedure

1. Once you have minced, chopped, sliced, or diced the vegetables you can prepare the chicken. I used a large meat clever to cut the chicken into teeny-tiny pieces. Essentially, use the meat cleaver to chop up the chicken to an almost ground up consistency.
2. In a wok, stir fry the garlic and the onion with 1 tsp sesame oil. 
3. Then add the chicken, salt, pepper, five spice powder, sesame oil, corn starch, sugar, and soy sauce to a large bowl and mix well.
4. Boil a pot of water and steam the napa leaves in a steamer basket or balance the leaves over the pot of boiling water so that the lid holds the leaves in place over the pot and the napa is not touching the boiling water. Cook leaves until they become slightly translucent.
5. Once the onion has caramelized, add the chicken mixture to the wok. Cook in the wok until chicken is no longer pink. Then add the green onion and the red bell pepper to the wok. Mix well for about 2 minutes.
6. Lay the steamed napa leaves flat on a large plate and then spoon 1-2 tbsp of the chicken filling on to the end of the leaf (not the hard base/stem). Roll up the chicken filling in the leaf. Optionally, you can use a tooth pick to keep the wrap rolled up.
7. Eat the wrap as is or dip in sriracha or hoisin sauce. 

Variation on Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Bell Peppers

Recently I was stumbling on the internet and found this awesome recipe for philly cheesesteak stuffed bell peppers. It looked simple and delicious or simply delicious--however or whichever way you prefer. Anyhoo, I decided to try it myself and but changed it up a bit. Instead of provolone cheese I used pepper jack and instead of green bell peppers I got red and orange sweet bell peppers just because they were on sale. I felt really proud of myself because I cooked this dish at the same time I cooked some beef stroganoff. Both recipes called for garlic, onions, and mushrooms. So much food after 2 hours of cooking. I will be fed for the rest of the week. This experience inspired me to cook more dishes with similar ingredients at the same time to save myself the hassle of cooking them separately and doing the dishes. I will see how well that goes in the coming days.

Left: beef stroganoff. Right: philly cheesesteak stuffing.

Cutting out the ribs and the stem of the pepper was trickier than I thought it'd be.

Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Bell Peppers
Ingredients

• 8 oz baby bella mushroom, sliced
• 8 oz thin sliced roast beef sandwich meat
• 1/4 medium onion thinly sliced
• 2 bell peppers
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 8 slices pepper jack cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Procedure

1. Slice the mushrooms if you didn't buy sliced mushrooms. Slice the onions and mince the garlic. Cook the onions and the garlic with butter and oil in a large non-stick pan on medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the mushrooms, salt and pepper. Stir the pan frequently. Let the onions and mushrooms caramelize.
2. Cut the peppers lengthwise. Remove the stem, seeds, and ribs from the inside of the peppers.
3. Place peppers in a baking dish and line the inside of each pepper with pepper jack cheese.
4. While the onions and mushrooms are cooking, take your slices of roast beef sandwich meat and stack them on top of each other and cut into thin strips.
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  
6. Add the beef strips to the pan when the onions and mushrooms have caramelized. Mix well until beef is warm.
7. Stuff the peppers with the filling and then cover each pepper with a slice of cheese. 
8. Cook in oven for 15 minutes.