| Page 222

Raw Avo-Fredo Sauce

Posted on February 7, 2012 by kissmybroccoli

Hey guys!

Thank you all so much for the super sweet comments on the return of Pancake Sunday. I can’t wait to whip up my next batch…the gears are still turning!

Speaking of gears turning, I am beyond excited to share a recipe that took tonight’s dinner from:

“Oh yay…I’m eating healthy…”

“HECK YEAH, I’M EATING HEALTHY!!!”

It all started with a 3 pound bag of broccoli…

Now, I know I eat a lot of vegetables, but would someone PLEASE tell me that I cannot go to Sam’s Club and buy 3-5 packages in BULK??

I mean, it’s just not possible within a week for one girl to consume a 3 pound bag of broccoli, 2 pound bag of carrots, 1 pound bag of brussel sprouts, AND a huge carton of portobello mushrooms…wait, not a veggie, but whatever, you get my drift!

So anywho! I knew I had broccoli to eat…and while I was ~~casing out~~ shopping at the new Publix this past weekend, I picked up some all-natural antibiotic free chicken breast (read: not the size of my face) that were on sale.

Chicken and broccoli…yeah, doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the first thing that came to mind!

Sorry to disappoint Janetha, but I did NOT make pancakes!

First, I got out my chicken breasts* and pounded them into oblivion…I mean, purposefully and not with any pent up rage from the workday, flattened them to about 1 1/2 inch thickness to shorten the time on the grill. I totally recommend doing this with chicken as it can easily cut your cooking time in HALF!

*This would also be fantastic over grilled tofu/tempeh for all my non-meat-eaters out there!

Two flattened chicken breasts went in the grill pan and 10 minutes later, two perfectly golden brown chicken breasts came out!

Now we’re getting to the good part! While the chicken was doing it’s thing, my Magic Bullet and I whipped up a delicious sauce in only FIVE MINUTES!

Raw Avo-Fredo Sauce

by Heather Powers

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: N/A

Ingredients (Serves 2)

1/2 medium-sized ripe avocado
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 1/2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
S&P to taste

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a blender or small food processor and process until smooth and creamy.

In less time than it takes a chicken breast to cook…or in the SAME amount of time it takes a handful of broccoli to steam, you could have yourself the perfect creamy, garlicky, hint of cheesy sauce to ~~slather~~ drizzle all over your plate!

I layered my plate with spinach (hey, why not), warm quinoa, diced up grilled chicken, steamed broccoli, and a few spoonfuls of the avo-fredo sauce…then I added a little more sauce for good measure!

Don’t you just want to bathe in it?

No? Just me?

Hmm, I bet it WOULD make a good moisturizer! 😉

What is your favorite meal to “healthify”? Feel free to drop a link!

Posted in Entree, Raw | Tagged avocado, broccoli, chicken, cooking tips, raw, recipe, veggies | 16 Comments

Brown Sugar Bacon Pancakes

Posted on February 5, 2012 by kissmybroccoli

Happy Pancake Sunday!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know…it’s ABOUT TIME, huh?

Now that we’re a whole month into 2012, I figured it would be a good time to bring back the weekly celebration I love so much. I’d like to say that I’ve still been pancake flippin’ each and every Sunday, but sadly, pancakes have fallen to the wayside lately.

Since I’ve succumbed to weekend laziness over the last several weeks, I’ve been happy to sit back and let BB take charge of the kitchen and even some days, just enjoying a simple bowl of cereal…

*gasp*

But I have to tell you, the pancake-loving runs deep within me and I knew it wouldn’t be long before I got that itch to get back to flippin’.

Just the other day, I started envisioning warm fluffy SAVORY pancakes. My mind went in several different directions with this, so lucky for you I’ve already got some ideas for future Pancake Sundays, but I finally settled on the last one I thought of before drifting off to sleep last night…

A sweet AND savory pancake:

With brown sugar and bacon!

It’s ok…you can do a little happy dance…I know I did! 😉

Brown Sugar Bacon Pancakes

by Heather Powers

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

4 slices thick cut bacon
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (optional)
2 tablespoons buttermilk powder*
1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon water
1 egg
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons bacon grease

Instructions:

1. Preheat skillet to medium-high heat and fry bacon until crispy on both sides. Remove from pan and blot with paper towels to remove excess grease. Crumble into bite-sized pieces. Drain grease from skillet and set aside.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour, leavening agents, buttermilk powder, and pepper (if using).
3. In a separate bowl, add egg, brown sugar, water, and bacon grease and whisk well.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
5.Fold in the crumbled bacon.
6. Pour batter into skillet over medium heat (be sure to coat pan with cooking spray if you don’t have residual bacon grease left in it) and cook pancakes approximately 4-5 minutes per side or until golden brown.
7.Serve with pure maple syrup or go restaurant style like me and cook up some sunny eggs for dipping!

*I used the equivalent to 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp of buttermilk, but since I rarely ever cook with buttermilk and don’t want it to spoil, I typically buy the dry version from the baking section at that grocery store…makes things a little easier!

Can I also get a little happy dance for my very first RECIpage recipe? Big thanks to Christin for letting me know about the now FREE service that will eventually house AND organize all of my proudest recipes!

I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how heavenly the kitchen smelled while these babies were frying up. My mouth was watering from the moment the bacon hit the hot surface of the griddle!

And just a hunch…not like I would REALLY know…but I bet the batter taste like cake batter with bacon sprinkles…

But like I said…that’s just a hunch! 😉

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but from the very first bite, I knew these were going straight to the top of all my pancake recipes…right next to the Pumpkin Bread Pudding and Banana S’mores pancakes!

Oh yeah, they are THAT good!

So what are you waiting for? All you carnivores out there need to quit reading and go make some pancakes!

What did YOU have for breakfast this morning?

Posted in Breakfast, Pancake Sunday, Photography | Tagged bacon, eggs, pancakes, RECIpage, recipe, whole wheat pastry flour | 18 Comments

I May Be Bad at Math But I Know My Pizza & Pottery…

Posted on February 3, 2012 by kissmybroccoli

Guess what guys?

We finally made it to FRIDAY!!

I swear this week goes down in history as one of the craziest weeks ever…definitely a TGIF kind of day for me!

So a couple of week’s ago, I told you guys that BB and I were heading to Nashville to meet up with my pottery painting buddies Christine and Donny. Well, we finally got to pick up our finished products last weekend and I’m so excited to show you…but let’s not get out of order here, because before the pottery came…

The Pizza!

Just like last time, we met at our favorite pizza parlor, Mellow Mushroom and ordered three pies altogether.

Mine was the Philosopher’s Pie: Olive oil/garlic base with steak, portobellos, kalamata olives and cheesy goodness.

Donny & Christine ordered the Mighty Meaty: Red sauce base with lots-o-meat!

And BB decided on the Caesar: Olive oil/garlic base with pesto chicken and topped with Caesar salad

It was…interesting to see him eat it! Lol

I could NOT get over the little advertisement on our table for the “Holy Shiitake Pie”…it STILL cracks me up!

And yeah, remember my last tip calculating fail? Well, seems like nothing’s changed there…I still can’t add or subtract!

After we had our fill of pizza, we packed up some to-go boxes, loaded ourselves in the car, and headed to Brushfire Pottery Studio for some painting!

As you can see, we had a lot of fun…and you can also see that I tend to get a little snap happy while waiting for coats of paint to dry! 😉

With some meticulous brush strokes, BB’s amphibian friend went from ~~rags~~ lilly pads to riches!

I fashioned a KMB bowl to match my mug that I made last time and Christine used some tracing paper and made a pretty stellar recreation of Sonic the Hedgehog for her husband Donny while he painted her a travel coffee mug (which I failed to get a picture of) to celebrate her recent award:

Associate Doctor (Veterinarian) of the Year…in ALL of Tennessee!

So so proud of her!

Posing with Pottery!

We left our pieces there that day to get fired up in the kiln and went back last Sunday to pick them up…one of our many stops in our fun-filled trucker hat weekend!

Ta-daaaaaaaa!

Look how shiny! I only wish I had remembered to put the polka dots on the bowl so that it would match my mug better…ugh, 27 years old and my memory fails me more and more each day!

What I DO remember is how much fun it was getting together with my friends AND getting to introduce them to BB for the first time…we already have plans to go again in a couple of months.

I mean, c’mon…I HAVE to finish my collection of KMB dishes! 🙂

And with that, I’m out! BB will be here in a bit and with rain in the forecast, our plans are the exact opposite from last weekend…there is nothing more I’d like to do than stay in my sweats for the next 2 days and do absolutely nothing!

What are you up to this weekend?

If you could have ANYTHING on a pizza right now, what would it be?