Comunidad Health Foods

More and more, I have been driven to take ingredients and throw them together to see what happens - and not just in cooking, where that kind of method is generally embraced. No, lately, I have been inspired to apply this same experimental approach to baking, despite being all-too-aware of the chemistry I would need to combat head-on. I just feel as though, as great as recipes are, I need to do this on my own, and flop and maybe even flounder until I figure out the ratios and proportions that work. Don't get me wrong, I don't just plunge into a cookie recipe blindly - I do my research, but it's still very hit or miss.

This tart is, in my opinion, both a hit and a miss, in fact. My qualms come mostly from what I've discovered is a distaste for such a large mouthful of virtually pure ricotta at one time, and some kinks in the preparation process: with just ricotta as the filling, it was thinner and flatter than I had imagined it would be; the crust was a little too chewy and not quite crunchy enough; and the orange overpowered the cranberry (though, in my research's defense, I strayed spontaneously from the ratios I had originally decided on, and undoubtedly should not have). It was a valiant attempt and not bad for a first attempt sans-recipe, and you can't beat the simplicity of the ingredients list, but I will definitely be taking the basic flavors and ideas behind this recipe and revamping the tart the next time I come back to it.

As it stands, it is a sweet, simple tart with a very prominent ricotta texture (though not flavor) and citrus flavor, with a not-quite-thick-enough cranberry swirl running throughout, perched atop a pecan crust. See what I mean, hit and miss? Even as I'm writing this I'm thinking that all of those flavors sound like they'd be pretty darn awesome together, but I (or perhaps one of you wonderful, more experienced foodies!) have some tinkering left with the actual logistics and, as I should have known all along, chemistry of it all. For now, I leave you with the base recipe that I created - feel free to try it if you're a ricotta fan, or play with it if you see the same potential in it that I do.

From the time my baby teeth came in to about my thirteenth birthday, my diet consisted of 3 food groups: Apple juice, chicken fingers, and ketchup. Sometimes I would branch out and have some french fries (the closest thing to a vegetable I ate post-preschool years, pre-nutrition), a slice of pizza, mozzarella sticks - but really, it was all about the chicken nuggets dipped in ketchup, downed with a glass (or 5) of apple juice.

There are only two directions to go from such a childhood obsession with one type of food: lifelong appreciation, or never wanting to see that particular food item again, much less eat it. Two guesses as to which category chicken fingers fall into for me, and the first one doesn't count. Yes, it's true, though I hide it well, I have a soft spot for those little breaded and deep fried comminutions of, well...some part of the chicken, anyway - especially if they're shaped like dinosaurs, as Perdue so endearingly offers the American public. Unfortunately, breaded, deep fried mystery meat is no longer one of Floptimism's Main Food Groups, and the opportunities for my taste buds and these American Delicacies are few and far between.

I only have one response when I encounter a food that I love, but either cannot eat or just don't eat very often: "Well, I'll just have to learn to make it myself, my way." So back in 2010, I tried my hand at Chicken Fingers, and was wholly disappointed. The chicken didn't taste bad - in fact, they were pretty darn good - but it wasn't a recipe for chicken fingers. I thought, in that moment, that maybe I couldn't make them myself, my way.

And then I found these. No, they're not called chicken fingers, but if you use sliced breasts or tenders, that is exactly what you get - delicious, complex, savory-with-a-hint-of-sweetness, moist. In a word, amazing. Okay, two words - they're perfect, too. I have, without a doubt, found my chicken finger recipe, one that I can feel good about eating. Just a few tips: (1) use good breadcrumbs, because the flavor of the whole wheat bread I used absolutely came through and without question contributed to what I loved so much about the flavors; (2) don't be shy with the yogurt coating, because I had a lot left over; (3) if you're looking for super crispy, consider skipping the butter added to the top. I think that kind of inhibited the full effect of crispiness that I was hoping for.

So, in my search for My Chicken Finger Recipe, I also lucked out and found a very satisfying, flavorful baked chicken recipe - and now you've lucked out, because I'm going to share them both with you! They're both fairly versatile recipes; I can see them topping a salad, as a stand-alone on a plate with some veggies, skewered with a dip of some kind...just maybe not with pasta, unless we're carbing up for a marathon, which I certainly have no plans of doing in the near future.

Baked-n-Breaded Herb Chicken

Serve with any number of things - I chose Turnip Fries, which could not have been easier. Because this post is already ginormous and full of 2 recipes, I'll just send you to the printable recipe to check out how I made them. Just know that when I made them, I measured nothing and brilliantly thought they would cook at the same temperature as the chicken (turns out that's a big, fat, False). But I still loved them.

Sometimes, the degree to which I have fallen behind in my recipe posting shames me. Even with updating nearly every day, I have so many recipes that I want to share with you - this is what happens when I am on my own for the first time, and I suddenly have the resources to experiment with cooking - real cooking, not how to turn microwavable mac-n-cheese into a gourmet dorm indulgence. The problem with this is that I am sitting here at the tail-end of March with all of these Fall-inspired dishes in my backlog; and although the weather could convince even the sharpest meteorologist it's still a cooler season, the wannabe-locavore within me is cringing at the thought of dedicating a post to anything with cranberries, apples, or pumpkin in the ingredient list. I still haven't decided what to do about this dilemma - the idea of waiting until Fall 2011 rolls around seems unbearable, but there's no way I can realistically encourage you to run out and make my "Autumn-Spiced Beef Skillet" or "Butternut Squash and Parmesan Pasta." (However, that being said, both of those meals were excellent and if I could bring myself to write about them, I would absolutely insist that you run out and make them both immediately.)

I can bring myself to tell you about this chicken and quinoa salad. Fall flavors unquestionably permeate this dish, but it doesn't call for fresh cranberries or fall squashes in a way that would make me feel absolutely ridiculous for writing about it on the cusp of Spring. Instead, it uses dried cranberries, apples (out of season, yes, but I'm not yet strict enough with this local eating thing to vow off my beloved apples), and a maple vinaigrette to deliver its punch of autumn, and I can handle that. This is a recipe that is perfectly acceptable to make when you're missing the enticement of Fall. That happens to me around this time of year. When Fall turns colder, I don't mind. I enjoy the crisp breeze and the fact that I need to start wearing a sweater outside. But I loathe cold weather in the Springtime, and I find myself right about now thinking wistfully back to the good ole' days of September and October. If you're at all like me, or if you just like the sound of these ingredients jam-packed together, consider making this. Maybe you can even forget about the dreary cold front that has seized...well, if not the country, at least the poor East Coast.

If you do choose to make this, you will be greeted with the play of sweet and tangy, chewy and crunchy. It's easy as pie to make (speaking of which, wouldn't a nice, fresh-out-of-the-oven pie be perfect right about now?), and my only change for next time - and there will be a next time - is to decrease the apples just a bit. I love me some apples, but they shouldn't be the focus of the dish.

Quinoa-Chicken Waldorf Salad, adapted from $5 Dinners

Sit down, pull up a chair, and grab one of these deceptively healthy Banana Fudge Brownies. Take a bite and join me for a little Thursday evening edition of Floptimism: The Soapbox Edition. The topic of tonight's conversation? Google's new Recipe Search Tool, and the implications it has for the everyday, small-time blogger.

The early days of Floptimism consisted of a lot of lonely ramblings, a chronicle of my cooking adventures for little more than posterity's (and my own finicky memory's) sake. I had lofty dreams of becoming as revered as Smitten Kitchen or Annie's Eats, with my little blog's renown and my own skills in the kitchen maturing together. Over time, though, I settled into a more modest complacency. I knew that I was the only person who read my entries, and it was in that moment of that realization, that coming-to-terms-with-the-facts, that I resolved to keep on keeping on. I enjoyed this blog, and it sure beat loose-leaf papers all over the kitchen full of scattered notes and marked-up recipes. I began this with the hope of gaining readers, but that wasn't my sole aim. A failure to garner a swift audience was not going to collapse my project altogether.

Then, over time, something happened - people started to pay attention. My pictures improved, I started updating more frequently than once every 3 months, and I learned a few of the more easily adapted ins and outs of the blogosphere. One day, I even got my first follower, and cannot tell you how ecstatic I was over that. I still get a little giddy when I spot a new follower has flattered me by hopping on this small and cozy Floptimism bandwagon. I'm certainly no Deb or Annie, and I have my doubts that I will ever reach their level of success, but I now have a fairly steady flow of traffic and a handful of readers who make my day every time I see they've stopped by.

Today I read an article on a new addition to the World Wide Web of which I was previously unaware. Google is, apparently, revamping their search prowess by adding a recipe feature. Any time you go to google and type in something that it perceives to be a recipe search, it will provide you with a fancy side tab of refinement options. With this tool, you can search for recipes by ingredients, cooking time, calorie information, reviews - you name it. That sounds great, right? Maybe not for bloggers. Basically, in Google's Plan to Take Over the World, you need to encode all of your entries as a food blogger to be compatible with Google's new system. The coding, like most HTML/web jargon, is daunting to say the least, and for any non-programmer attempting to manually bring their recipes up to snuff, requires an immense amount of work just for the input of several ingredients, much less a full recipe or all of those archived ones we have from posts past.

What this means is that once this "improvement" to Google is implemented, small-time food bloggers will have to choose between taking the time to change their posts to fit Google's cookie-cutter frame work, or losing otherwise-prime spots on I would say The Premier Search. Now, if people just Google Search, our entries will still show up, but as soon as they opt to switch into the new refined system, we will be trumped by the big, professional recipe sites and the more successful blogs who can hire people to translate their entries for them.

When I read this, I wasn't sure what to do. Clearly, I do not have time to efficiently transfer all of my archives, and it already takes me a good half-hour to write and format the simple entries I produce now. It wasn't realistic to say I would take the plunge with Google, at least at this point when Blogger doesn't have a way of supporting the new search; but at the same time, I struggled with the thought that Floptimism would, once again, disappear into the vastness of the internet. A lot of my site hits come from google - not all, but a lot.

I will not be making the switch. I started this blog with just one reader - myself - and I firmly believe that the benefits I receive and enjoy as a result of this creative, semi-documentary outlet will not be diminished, even if I never attract a single new reader. I will not stop growing as a cook; I will not stop loving sharing my stories with you and reading the stories that you put out, either via your own entries or your wonderful comments. The glamor of becoming respected and well-known in the world of Food Blogging is, of course, tempting, but I don't even know if I could handle - or would want to handle - the responsibility of such a title, even if I were to ever achieve it. It's a fantasy, a day dream - but this, right here, is a reality. I have a small group of fairly loyal readers, and I have family members who make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when they have nice words to say about my entries. And I still have myself - this was created as a space for me to document my journey through learning to cook and bake better, and no fluctuation in site traffic can change that. (How's that for a sappy, borderline-Halmark statement, huh?)

I'm only disappointed that the world seems to be moving toward one-dimensionality, where codes and formats are the air we breathe. As a life-long perfectionist, even I have come to believe that just because an improvement can be made, does not mean that it should be made. I'm sure that this new recipe search will take a lot of the guess work out of desperate Google searches for a last minute recipe, and will be the saving grace to the person who just found out that their In-Laws will be arriving in 10 minutes, and the soup thawing in the fridge is no longer a viable dinner option. But cooking doesn't fit into an HTML code, and I have a very strong feeling that the general public is about to lose touch with some of the truly beautiful recipes out there.

What was that? Brownies? I mentioned something about brownies, and after reading this entire novel of my thoughts you want some kind of reward? Well, alright, if you insist...

You bite into these and taste banana, so don't be caught off-guard. It was an attempt at healthifying a regular brownie recipe for a Brownie Bake-Off on campus, but when the banana flavor came through so strongly, I threw in the towel and added Banana to the name, feigning intention from the start. They are whole wheat, reduced-fat brownies, but don't get hung up on that - more than that, they are fudgy with a light banana flavor, and if you somehow managed to stick a peanut butter swirl into them you may even be able to woo the titans at Google to give your blog entries number one status on all of their searches. You'd certainly be able to woo me.

p.s. during this particular brownie-bake off, I encountered The Ultimate Brownie - it was thick, chocolatey, decadent, and so fudgy you had to wonder if it's even been cooked all the way through...even if you get a corner piece. I found what I have been searching for, for so long. Imagine my euphoria, considering one of my good friends on campus was the one who baked them! I immediately sent her a text message: "I just died and went to heaven eating one of your brownies." I asked her for the recipe. Flattered though she was, this was her response: "I don't know! I just did a random search online and chose one." Really? Really? I spend time combing through the endless brownie recipes online, only trying the ones that claim to be The Best of the Best, and she picks some recipe at random and hits the jack pot? And then doesn't save the recipe? Alas, my search for the Holy Grail of Brownies continues...

Pizza might just be my favorite food. I don't discriminate, either - thick, doughy crusts or thin, crispy crust that's just a little bit brown; red sauce or no; fresh mozzarella slices or gobs of a miscellaneous blend all melted together; sicilian or triangular; plain or veggies or (and this makes me sad, as I have not been able to eat it since vowing off non-grassfed beef) thin slices of steak in an all-too Philadelphian cheesesteak flavor set - really, it's all fantastic to me. I may have a finicky mood where I prefer a certain topping or crust:cheese/sauce ratio, but it's rare that I find a pizza I can't enjoy.

You would think that this Ode to Pizza would correlate to my eating lots and lots of it but, sadly, this is not the case. Partially because the grease can sometimes turn me off and, more often than not, because I just don't eat out all that much, I probably only treat myself several times a year. I've often considered making my own pizza more often, giving me the added bonus of ingredient control: whole wheat flour, homemade sauce (did I hear someone say, sneaky pureed veggies?), and whatever cheese I prefer, in any amount I prefer. Interestingly enough, it's actually one, single, sole, lonely ingredient that keeps me from making my own pizza, at least in my current apartment: yeast.

I've made yeasted things before; I've even made yeasted pizza doughs. I'm not afraid of them or intimidated by them; I don't even use the excuse of being too busy for them. No, the reason I avoid yeast in this apartment like a non-grassfed burger rolled in shortening and topped with, I don't know...you get the picture! The reason I don't make pizza dough in this apartment is because it's so incredibly cold. The poor yeast organisms would never come out and play with the sugar I would so lovingly feed it, and all I can imagine when I picture homemade pizza in this apartment is, well, a crust only slightly more palatable than matzah (which, by the way, will be making its annual appearance on this blog in the all-too-near future).

But then I discovered this! The pita pizza! The cheater's pizza! The walk-in-at-6pm-and-have-pizza-on-your-plate-by-6:15 pizza - without having to worry about a delivery guy to tip! When I made this, I cheated so severely, I didn't even make my own sauce (though I intended to, really, I did). And you know what? It was amazing. Because, as I said before, the love I have for pizza has no boundaries. So until I move out of this icebox (or until Mother Nature decides to bestow Spring upon us, for real, and not this rainy, dreary, high-of-35-degrees-Fahrenheit weather), this pita pizza (or naan pizza, or pizza bagels, or...) will surely suffice.

So whip up a round of crisp, hearty, warm pita pizza, with whatever toppings suit your tastes. Or else...you will be seriously missing out!

(By the way, this is so not a recipe - get creative with your toppings and sauces! The possibilities are endless.)

Today was an oatmeal morning - it was rainy, the temperatures have started to fall, my stress levels are through the roof, and I was all about the sweatpants today. Oatmeal, I have found, goes well with sweatpants - not in the way of a messy eater like me, who winds up with oatmeal quite literally in my lap if I'm not careful or fully conscious, but in the way that they are both comforting and good remedies for crummy, rainy, not-warm-enough days.

I did not eat this dish this morning - I did a simple strawberry-almond oatmeal - but I sure wouldn't have minded this one, either. This warm parfait is the child of a sexy parfait and a secure, reliable oatmeal. You don't get the contrasting creamy-crunchy textures that you get with a traditional parfait, but you do get a smoothness that I've found traditional oatmeal to be lacking in. At the same time, all of the flavors come through without the dish as a whole being overly sweet. Plus, the color of this parfait screams Springtime, but the warmth is so inviting for those in-between days. Enjoy it for breakfast or dessert, or even a sweeter but wholesome lunch or dinner.

I have so many delicious chicken entrees to share with you, but I just cannot bring myself to write another entry devoted to the phenomenal-ness (phenomenality?) of a spruced up chicken breast. I just need a break. There is a certain pallor that has descended upon Floptimism from all of the photographs of chicken breasts under the guises of various seasonings and sauces, and I just need to pretend, for a moment, that I eat a slightly less monotonous diet.

Enter in this curried chickpea salad: sensationally vibrant in both flavor and aesthetics, rounding out the savory notes of spices with the sweetness of raisins, carrots and bell peppers, this dish is both creamy and light - and yes, you can abandon all guilt and all guttural instincts of hypocrisy when you use those two words together in describing this chickpea salad. My brain knows that the weather is going to take a plunge into chillier temperatures soon, but for right now, my heart is so elated by the sunshine and my arms are so grateful for being momentarily released from the hibernation of winter sweaters, that I just have to tell you how perfect this meal would be in this moment, right now, in this wave of warmer weather before the full approach of Spring. So, carpe diem! And make this salad before the sun is replaced again by clouds and wind, and soup and casseroles and 400 degree ovens are the only thing you want (or maybe that's just me because I've been too stubborn to turn the heat back on ever since the first warm spell of the calendar year proved to be impermanent).

I did very little to change the recipe, aside from to double the dressing because it just didn't look like very much. Retrospectively, I think a 50% increase would have been more appropriate - it definitely needed a little bit more than the original, but in doubling it I lost some of the nuances and fantastic flavors of the ingredients beneath it. What's listed below is the 50% increase, but feel free to double it or follow the original (as always, linked) if you think your tastes are better suited at either extreme.

After my latest admonition that I love incorporating festivities into my menu planning, it should come as no surprise to you that I'm just beside myself this week, with two whole "holidays" that I get to celebrate in true Floptimism style (with food)! After my delicious Pi Day recipe, I turned my focus to St. Patrick's Day. It took me a while to figure this one out, to be perfectly honest. It's tough to find grass fed beef around here, since this town is missing out on the greatness that is Whole Foods, and with the warmer weather tentatively creeping in, I really wasn't feeling the whole cabbage, ground beef, shepherd's pie-type approach. I also didn't really want to buy an ingredient like Guinness without L around to help me finish it off.

Irish soda bread popped into my mind, and I thought how perfect it would be if I could use that as a side dish. Still, my hunt for The Main Dish went on. Finally, somewhere in the vastness of this thing we call the internet, I stumbled upon these gems: brilliantly green, reasonably/comparatively low-carb (so I could feel totally justified sandwiching it between two pieces of bread), definitely new and exciting edamame burgers. I almost didn't change a thing about this recipe, but at the very last minute I just couldn't help but squirt some hot sauce on the patties and sear in that extra little flavor.

I pulled up the recipe I had saved for Irish Soda Bread, halved it, and shaped the dough into 3 bun-sized rounds before baking. The only change I made to this recipe was to use all white whole wheat flour instead of a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat. The rolls baked up into this gorgeously golden color, complete with domed tops, and I can't wait to break into them and taste them tomorrow night. You see, I pre-made the rolls and patties, since I was out today until about 7pm, but still wanted to enjoy this homemade St. Patty's Day meal, well, on St. Patty's Day. All I needed to do was warm up a roll, saute the patties, and go to town! That being said, it was seriously difficult to resist sticking my thawing chili back into the freezer and have an early Irish celebration last night.

This meal is satisfying and simple, with just a slight edge to it (from the hot sauce, thank you very much!). I can imagine that the extra breadcrumbs I accidentally added didn't do much to help the sort of one-dimensionality of the patties, but regardless I would definitely double the spices next time, at the very least. The rolls, I think, are the kind of food you really should eat fresh from the oven - reheated they were solid, hearty, and subtle, but not as moist as I was expecting. I don't know if this is common of soda breads, but I have a feeling that spending 24 hours in tupperware didn't exactly enhance their quality.

Notes:
*I absolutely forgot to halve the breadcrumbs! So much for a reasonably low-carb veggie burger, ha! Regardless, my mixture seemed to come together just fine regardless, which is really just a testament to how flexible and forgiving this recipe is. No wonder it didn't look as green as the original poster's did...

One Year Ago (belated, because I forgot last time!): Crepes

Happy Pi Day, everyone! Ever since I started cooking for myself, I've loved the idea of coordinating meals with holidays and fun events/occasions. It just makes eating more enjoyable, especially for me, right now, as I've been feeling a little bored by the meals I've been making (have you noticed the monopoly chicken breasts have on this blog??). Even though this pie does, indeed, contain chicken breasts, it's a fun (and phenomenal!) meal to serve on March 14th in honor of that wonderful, never ending number, Pi (3.14.....and so on).

I thought of the filling myself, using what I envisioned would be a light, refreshing blend of ingredients in a still heart-warming pie form, perhaps making the food bridge between winter and the ever-slowly approaching spring. I used lemon-baked chicken, a handful of vegetables, a light vinaigrette dressing and a touch of parmesan to create a refreshingly savory alternative to the usual pie fillings. For the crust, I used this opportunity to try out a recipe I have been dying to test out - an oil crust, without the fuss or saturated fat of butter or (dare I say it?) shortening. No cutting, no chilling - and, as I realized too late, no rolling. Originally, I had intended these to be hand pies, but when I realized that the dough was meant to be pressed into the pie plate and not rolled, I just made them into regular pies.

My only complaint is that I really should have let it be a one-crust pie, or maybe open-faced is the better term. Basically, I should have made it into two servings - I certainly had enough filling - when I only made one. My pie is a little crust-heavy, which makes it borderline dry when you get a bite of the edges without much filling. However, when you get to that filling and mix it with the warm, hearty-yet-crumbly crust? Heaven. Absolute heaven. The recipe below reflects the changes that I would make.

If all of that talk the other day of honey-flavored treats for your pooch got you feeling a little jealous, here is an even more enticing (and infinitely more human-oriented) recipe to cheer you up! It's a little surprising that it has taken me so long to share this recipe for Honey-Lemon-Ginger Chicken with you, since I more or less thought that I was in heaven the moment I took my first bite. It really is sweet and tangy at its best, with flavor out the wa-zoo to make every drop of simple, refined sugars it dumps into your blood stream well worth it. I even like to think the mouthful of a title is appropriately reminiscent of how jam-packed it is with flavor - one succinct title could never adequately encompass the full taste experience that is this dish.

Of course, I had to add some veggies to it, because in my mind, every savory meal could benefit from a healthy serving of extra vegetables. The original also calls for skin-on thighs, and I used my tried-and-true boneless, skinless (flavorless? ergh) breast meat. If you like to rationalize your food decisions (which the budding counselor in me vehemently discourages, but the human being in me does oh, I don't know, a half dozen times a day...), just say these additional vegetables, switch to white meat, and, perhaps, a side of whole grain pasta or brown rice in place of their refined counterparts completely counteract the downsides of the sugary marinade.

Or, you know, just eat it and enjoy it, because it's ridiculously good.

Also, feel free to make this with precooked chicken - I'm almost positive that's what I did all those months ago, in which case you would just skip the initial step meant to sear the chicken. All of my changes that I made led to a less photogenic dish - as in, the "sauce" wasn't as glistening and "sticky" looking as the original - but the flavors are all still spot-on.

Puppy Floptimism, more commonly known as Yogi (or Yogi Bear, Yogurt, The Yogster - really anything), turned 2 years old today! Last year, for his first birthday, we threw a party. It was more an excuse for me to cook dinner and make a cake and invite people over to eat all of the wonderful food, but it was fun and festive nonetheless. This year, I chose to avoid the people-pleasing food and make Yogi some treats of his own, that he could have all to himself. The inspiration for making him his own treats came when Pet Foodie, a blogger on Foodbuzz, "friended" me, or whatever the Foodbuzz-equivalent of that is called. Although I haven't actually interacted with her much, I do eye the dog treats she shares on her blog pretty often. They're always so creative and interesting, and if I were a dog offered one of her treats, I would never want those generic milkbones again.

I chose a simple recipe to start out with, one whose ingredients I knew I would have on hand: peanut butter & honey biscuits. They came together in a flash, just a bowl and spoon required, and baked up pretty well, too. I even tried one, despite having used the Forbidden Jar of Jiff that my family keeps in stock, and I can't complain too much. They taste pretty much exactly how you would imagine a homemade peanut butter and honey dog biscuit would taste: sturdy, a little dry, and not very sweet - but not at all offensive, either. The real taste test came when The Birthday Boy tried one this afternoon: he took it whole in his mouth and held it for a minute, clearly taking time to appreciate the complexity of flavors as his salivary enzymes got to work and making me wonder if he had actually just swallowed it whole, then chewed it up and spent the next minute scavaging the floor for any remnant crumbs. Needless to say, these are Yogi Approved (although, using the taste preferences of a dog who used to eat rocks may not be the best point of reference in these matters).

I wanted to do a cost analysis comparing these treats to store bought ones, but I couldn't find an actual biscuit count on the boxes of treats - just the net weight. However, if you're interested, a full batch of these (yielding 3-4 dozen, I made a half batch of about 1 3/4 dozen) would cost a whopping $3.18. 24oz. of Milkbone biscuits are listed online for anywhere between $4.50 and $6.50, depending on stores and sale prices. Maybe someone reading this would know more about how many bones come in one of those boxes (if so, please share!), but it makes sense to me that there would be about 4 dozen biscuits in that size box, making the homemade much cheaper. Plus, I took a look at the ingredients in the store bought ones, and let's just say it's not as simple as the list I'm about to show you. Check it out:

Peanut Butter & Honey Dog Treats, courtesy of Doggy Dessert Chef

Notes:
*Like I said, I used non-natural peanut butter, but the original blogger seems to be pretty health-conscious in terms of ingredients chosen, so I would imagine natural is fine. I would definitely have tried it if we had any on hand, but I recently finished up my container and haven't gotten to the store to replace it yet. **I rerolled my dough about 3 times, and took the scraps from the third time (when it started to get difficult to roll out) and just baked them as scraps instead of shapes. I'm thinking that baking for dogs is the way to go - it doesn't matter if you increase the gluten strands or don't make each cookie a fun shape. Trust me, they will be eaten just as quickly either way!

I will be the first one to admit that this morning, I celebrated National Breakfast Day in pomp and prestige with a, drumroll please, carton of greek yogurt and an apple. However, as soon as I found out that today was, indeed, National Breakfast Day, I knew I needed to sneak in an extra little post in honor of it, even if my own breakfast was fairly lackluster. We can pretend that this omelet is what I ate this morning, right? Excellent.

Normally, I wouldn't post about a recipe like this one. Don't get me wrong, it was fantastic, but it's just so simple that I feel a little silly talking about it, especially when I have such an enormous list of backlogged recipes waiting for their turn in the Floptimism Blog Spotlight. But alas, I posted quite a lengthy account of sugar cookies yesterday and would otherwise have given you a day's break from little ole me, so I think an understated post about an understated recipe is just the kind of simplicity called for in this situation.

I didn't do much to change the recipe, aside from use the Kraft "Parmesan" Cheese over fresh, infinitely tastier Parmigiano Reggiano, and I served mine over a bed of spinach as opposed to a piece of toast (yay low carb meals!). The recipe below is how I made it, so feel free to head over to the original post if you're curious how it looks with the bread and fancier cheese (or just sub those things in on your own).

Even though I just wrote about my first sugar cookie decorating experience, the truth is that occurred just shy of a month and a half ago. Last week, I felt a sudden twinge of Resolution Guilt for not having tried my hand at the whole fiasco a second time yet, and Mardi Gras paired with a trip to visit L (and his 4 male roommates) seemed like a perfect excuse. So, I dove into the vast pool of sugar cookie recipes I have saved, pulled out one from the ever-impressive Annie over at Annie's Eats, and resolved to make L and his roommates a batch of Fat Tuesday worthy treats.

I ran into a few obstacles, namely a set of beautiful yet tragically dark-colored Wilton cookie sheets that inevitably turned the bottoms of my cookies a matching dark color. I also burned a good many of the cookies in the beginning before learning that this recipe needs to be rolled out fairly thickly, not like the paper thin Christmas cookies my Grandmother used to make (which would be what I'm used to). I also, perhaps, sent my handmixer into early retirement while beating the royal icing for 7 minutes straight (as per the recipe's instructions, I swear!), but that didn't effect the cookies themselves, so we won't go too much into that disappointment.

Speaking of disappointment, I think that's the most accurate description of these cookies. They come together easily, roll out without much fuss, bake without an inch of spreading - and then shatter your high hopes by being fairly dry, confusingly bland and overly sweet at the same time, and not as sturdy as I was led to believe initially. Once I slathered royal icing on them, they were thoroughly enjoyable, and I think it goes without saying that the boys in L's room devoured them promptly (and between appreciative compliments). But these will not, alas, be my Ultimate Decorated Sugar Cookie recipe, at least not without some tweaking. I don't mean to bash them, either; as I said, everyone really liked them. However, I do ask people to be brutally honest with my recipes as I'm on a hunt for perfection on a plate, and these did not go without nit-picky, critical comments.

The only changes I made were to scale up the vanilla extract to 1 1/2 teaspoons and swap in the 1 1/2 teaspoons of almond extract for 1 teaspoon of rum extract, as I realized too late that among the many half-used extracts I have lying around, almond is not one of them. I thought the rum would either go unnoticed or add a nice Bourbon-Street Flair to the cookies, as they were meant to be styled a la Mardi Gras, anyway. It turns out the former was the case, but if you like the latter idea, go ahead and try some real rum for flavoring or change the rum:vanilla ratio. I don't know what will happen, but I'm one to throw caution to the wind in the kitchen. Just go for it!

As for decorating, well, the fact that I included pictures of the finished product means that I am infinitely happier with the result than my first attempt. The icing came together better, I think I'm getting a better idea of how thin it needs to be to flood and how thick to pipe, and I even attempted to color a bit of it this time around. My back didn't turn into knots and my shoulder wasn't burning from being held in a weird position. Some of my crowns looked like blobs and my designs lack a finesse that I hope to develop over the next year, but this was certainly a step in the right direction! Two lessons learned, though: I need to invest in some squeeze bottles for easier flooding, and if you get too anal about the colors of your icings and add too much gel, the final icing will not harden as well as it should.

Decorated Sugar Cookies, courtesy of Annie's Eats

For the royal icing recipe and tutorial I used for this recipe, you can visit Annie's Eats post on decorating with Royal Icing.

A while ago, I found myself with a jar of apricot preserves and a jar of sunbutter in place of my usual berry jam and peanut butter. I didn't even hesitate in reaching for them when I needed a quick, transportable lunchtime meal for one of my busier days. I was expecting a pretty innocuous sandwich, with maybe a tangier note from the apricot and more sunflower-y note from the sunbutter - but what I got was a combination of flavors that melded in my mouth and left a vague sense of deja vu, in the best kind of way. I had tasted these two flavors together before, and I found myself making this sandwich on a regular basis to try to place it.

I was tasting Kung Pao Chicken.

Well, sort of.

Clearly, Kung Pao Chicken is not made with sunbutter and apricot preserves. Therefore, I will warn you right now that this recipe I am about to share with you is not actually, really, traditionally Kung Pao Chicken. But, if I'm not absolutely bananas, it has a flavor very reminiscent of the Chinese dish, and what it lacks in conventionality, it makes up for in downright awesomeness. You see, I took the flavors from the sandwich and turned them into a chicken and rice dish, and am very happy with the result. I have in my notes that it may be more akin to "Kung Pad Chicken," or some Chinese-Thai food hybrid of creamy, nutty marinades, sweet citrus glazes, and the chicken, vegetables and rice to serve as a delectable vehicle for it all.

I include this as part of National Nutrition Month with a disclaimer. There is nothing really unhealthy about this dish, aside from, perhaps, the sugar in the preserves. However, despite its healthy ingredients, I would imagine that this is fairly high calorie - I mean, anytime you take chicken, rice, and vegetables and saute them in a nut butter, you're going to get calories. Good calories, good fat, but calories and fat nonetheless. When I eat a high-fat meal like something containing a nut butter, I generally just keep an eye on the oil and fat eaten the rest of the day (ie I don't munch on almonds in the afternoon if I already ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, and I certainly wouldn't eat this chicken dish in the same day as said peanut butter and jelly sandwich). You could also just go easy on the marinade or portion sizes if it works out to be higher calorie than you'd like to consume in one sitting. Just don't let the unsaturated fat scare you away from trying this, because modest amounts of the stuff are fantastic for the body, and generous amounts of this dish are fantastic for your taste buds.*

Notes:
*Because I was a little hesitant about the nutrition information about this dish, I ran it through a program I have and came out with this set of data, assuming that you get an average of 5 servings out of this and used the high end of each ingredient range I gave. These facts do not include rice, as portion sizes and types of rice used can change the analysis considerably. I was surprised by how modest it really turned out to be; up the fiber even more and counterbalance the higher glycemic sugar from the preserves by choosing brown rice instead of white:

**I actually added some water to help this process along, so feel free to try that.

It's March, and you know what that means! No, not winter coming to an end, the other thing! Okay, no, not Mardi Gras AND St. Patty's Day fast approaching, the other other thing! No? You mean you haven't heard? Why, it's National Nutrition Month!

It seems as though it's always some National Month, but I think you can understand my going all gung-ho with excitement about this one. It even has an annual theme, and this year's is eating lots of colors or having a colorful plate. So, although I don't know that I can promise a 100% nutritious blogging month (I have some dessert recipes that I'm so tempted to share with you immediately), I did want to start it off well and, more specifically, with a dish that embodies the theme specifically.

I wasn't originally going to tell you about this gorgeous skillet meal because it was, to be perfectly honest, something I threw together on a whim a couple of weeks ago. I didn't even write down measurements or instructions, so I can tell you right now when we get to the recipe part of this post, it'll be interesting. But the pictures I took of it are so darn colorful, and it was so delicious that I wound up making it two days in a row for lunch, so I'm going to try my absolute best to tell you what magical ingredients went into making such a healthy and flavor packed meal. Did I mention it's low carb?

Notes: *Feel free to let the marinade soak into the chicken if you have the patience. However, I did call this a quick chicken and vegetable skillet, and I certainly didn't wait around for any sparks to fly between my chicken and sauce, so go ahead and dump it into the pan. **I like to grab a handful of spinach, rinse it in the sink, squeeze it out juuussttt a bit, and add it to the skillet still damp. I like to think the water aids in the wilting process as well as some non-fat anti-stick action in the last few minutes of cooking - I could be way off, but it never does my food any harm, either.

And there you have it! A very quick, very colorful, and very delicious meal. of course you can serve this with rice, but I found it perfectly satisfying on its own. It's light, it's got tons of veggies, and I think you'll be happy with the results if you give it a shot.

What I really encourage you to do, though, is get involved with National Nutrition Month! I'm not saying give up sweets for the whole month or kill yourself at the gym - but choose that apple over that cookie for a mid-day snack, walk to the post office around the corner instead of driving there (what's left of the o-zone layer will thank you for that one too, so double bonus!), try a meatless meal, anything! It could be your chance to try out something new. You never know when you'll discover something absolutely unforgettable when you step out of your comfort zone, even for a day.