Korean Chicken Skewers

These Korean Chicken Skewers make for an easy and tasty meal. Delicious marinated chicken is grilled to perfection with a refreshing flavor.

 I loved grilled recipes regardless of the temperature, but summer is definitely my favorite time to bust it out. I don’t have to heat up my house and they make for easy, quick and delicious meals on busy summer nights.

I found this recipe over at Closet Cooking and couldn’t wait to try it out. I changed up some of the quantities to my personal preference and my whole family loved it! If you are looking for a fun new flavor to bring to the grill, give these Korean Chicken Skewers a try! It has such a light and fresh flavor to it and it is sure to be a huge hit!

Korean Chicken Skewers

These Korean Chicken Skewers make for an easy and tasty meal. Delicious marinated chicken is grilled to perfection with a refreshing flavor.

Ingredients

• 12 wooden skewers, soaked in water for 1 hour


• 2 pounds of chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch bites


• 5 garlic cloves, minced


• 3 Tablespoons grated ginger


• ¾ cup onion, finely minced


• ½ cup soy sauce


• 2 Tablespoons sesame oil


• 3 Tablespoons brown sugar


• ¼ cup green onion, chopped


• ¾ teaspoon salt


• ¼ teaspoon pepper

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Slice-and-Bake Pistachio Butter Cookies

These slice-and-bake pistachio cookies are buttery, but not too sweet, and have a firm texture like shortbread. The chopped pistachios around the edges also give them a bright spot of color.

The cookies are about the size of quarters, making them the perfect one-bite treat – though they’re also fun to eat by the handful!

The dough for these cookies is made in a food processor with flour, powdered sugar, butter, and a single yolk. Pulse everything together until it starts to clump together, then tip it out on your counter and gather into a ball. From there, just roll it into logs!

Let the logs firm up overnight in the fridge before slicing. They’ll also keep just fine for several days, or for a couple of months in the freezer. Whenever you’re ready for cookies, just slice and bake! (Thaw frozen logs overnight in the fridge.)

My instructions here make almost 100 of miniature, quarter-sized cookies. You can also roll the logs slightly larger to yield about five dozen cookies.
These little cookies make a fine gift packaged in cellophane bags, or save them for a party. Serve the cookies nestled on plates or a cake stand and don’t be surprised if guests grab them by the fistful.

Slice-and-Bake Pistachio Butter Cookies Recipe

This recipe needs to be made in a food processor in order to fully combine the ingredients for the dough. Do not attempt to make it by hand.
You'll have leftover chopped nuts after making this recipe. Save them for your next batch of cookies, or sprinkle them over your oatmeal!
Almond Butter Cookie Variation: Replace the pistachios with almonds. Reduce the vanilla extract to 1/2 teaspoon and add 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (90 g) shelled raw pistachio nuts
• 2 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup (85 g) powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks, 198 g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Creamy Tomato and White Bean Soup

You just couldn’t resist that last crate of tomatoes at the farm stand, could you? They called to you, pick me, pick me, pick me! Well, now what?
I love the simplicity of this late-summer soup. Tomatoes, onions, white beans, a little cheese, and basil. That’s all, folks.
This is a soup that spans the seasons from late summer to early fall. Add a grilled cheese sandwich and everyone will be full and happy.
You will also want to freeze a few portions for the cool, rainy and snowy days to come, when you don’t feel like cooking and fresh tomatoes are long gone.
You can use plum (Roma) tomatoes or any ripe tomatoes that you have on hand. Beans add body and flavor to the finished soup, so no cream is required.
If you don’t have cherry tomatoes for the garnish, just set aside one of the smaller tomatoes intended for your soup and use that instead. The garnish brightens the soup with a flash of fresh sweetness and an herby spike of basil.

Creamy Tomato and White Bean Soup Recipe

Ingredients

For the soup:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil


• 1 large onion, chopped


• 2 medium cloves garlic, thinly sliced


• 3 pounds plum (Roma) tomatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces


• 1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained


• 1 sprig fresh rosemary


• 4 cups water


• 6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan

For the garnish:

• 12 cherry tomatoes, sliced or quartered


• 1 tablespoon olive oil


• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar


• Salt and pepper, to taste


• 12 basil leaves, thinly sliced

Special Equipment:

• Blender or immersion blender

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No-Bake Cannoli Cream Pie

Looking for a easy and delicious dessert that doesn’t take long to make? Then you’ll want to try this luscious No-Bake Cannoli Cream Pie filled with cream cheese, ricotta cheese and mini chocolate chips.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and love is in the air! Sure it’s fun to go out to eat but I actually have more fun celebrating it at home with my husband and kids. Unlike usual weeknight dinners at home for Valentine’s Day I like to create a mood and make it festive and fun. The kids love it! Instead of eating in the kitchen I’ll make it special and we’ll eat in the dining room. I’ll set the mood and decorate it pretty with lots candles, hearts and rose petals. It’s so much fun and sure beats going out dealing with crowded restaurants!

What’s Valentine’s Day without dessert, right? It’s my favorite part of the meal! Chocolate covered strawberries, red velvet, candy, you name it! I’ll have it all! Valentine’s Day just wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without a few sweet treats so I have a few of my favorite Valentine’s Day desserts that I’ll be featuring the next few days that are not only delicious but ridiculously easy to make!

I’m such a fan of no-bake pies. They’re super easy to make and perfect for any occasion. Plus they’re always a hit so why not! This No-Bake Cannoli Cream Pie is one of my absolute favorites and I think a great dessert for Valentine’s Day or just about any day for! I have a weakness for a good cannoli! I love them! The best part of the cannoli is of course the rich and creamy filling! Give me a bowl of that and a spoon and I’m a happy mama! I took all that goodness from that irresistible filling and created this easy No-Bake Cannoli Cream Pie. I use a store bought pie crust but you could totally make your own with graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar if you prefer. I even included that recipe for that too. Whether you make your own crust or use a store bought one this dessert will take you minutes, that’s right just a few minutes to whip up! Easy peasy my friends! It can’t get any simpler and the end result is total creamy cannoli cream pie perfection!

If you’re Valentine is a cannoli lover then you need to make this No-Bake Cannoli Cream Pie deliciousness! Dig in my friends! It doesn’t get better than this!

More no-bake favorites!

No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie
No-Bake Pineapple Pie
No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake

No-Bake Cannoli Cream Pie

Prep time : 10 mins
Total time : 10 mins
Serves: 8

Ingredients

•     1 (8 ounce) pacakge cream cheese, softened


•     1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


•     1½ cups heavy cream


•     1 cup whole milk ricotta


•     ¾ cup confectioners sugar


•     Dash of ground cinnamon


•     ½ teaspoon orange zest, optional


•     ¾ cup mini chocolate chips


•     1 9-inch store bought graham cracker crust

Topping

•     ½ cup heavy cream


•     2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

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Oatmeal Lace Cookies

Thin and crispy oatmeal lace cookies can seem magical if you have never made them before, but they are actually very simple.
Just melt sugar and butter, and then add the oats and flour to make a thin batter. Don’t be scared of how thin it seems!
The cookies spread and caramelize in the oven, creating a thin and crispy network of sugar that’s just substantial enough to hold the oats together.

I use thick-cut rolled oats because I think they give more “bite” and substance to the cookies. Look for thick-cut oats in both the cereal section and the baking section – I like Bob’s Red Mill oats, personally. It’s fine to substitute regular rolled oats if you have trouble finding the thick-cut, though instant or quick-cooking oats might make the cookies too fragile. (But let me know if you try them and what you think!)
When you’re melting the butter and sugar together, you don’t need to worry about cooking it, checking the sugar temperature, or anything so fussy. You only need to heat them long enough to melt the butter and dissolve the sugar.
Stir a few times as this is happening to make sure the butter and sugar are melting evenly. It’s ready when you have a thick brown paste. Also, it’s fine if you see some streaks or puddles of separated butter; the butter and sugar don’t need to fully combine for this recipe to work.
The other secret to making this cookies is to spread the batter into a thin layer on the baking sheet so the cookies bake evenly.
If you just pile the cookie batter in heaping spoonfuls, the center of the cookie will be thicker than the edges and the cookies won’t become fully crispy. You want an even distribution of oats and a thin layer of batter to create the crispy, lacy magic.

Oatmeal Lace Cookies Recipe

I like thick-cut oats in this recipe since they make a more substantial cookie, but it's fine to substitute regular rolled oats if you have trouble finding thick-cut.
Make sure to spread the batter into a thin layer on the cookie sheet so the oats are in a single flat layer before you bake them.
The cookies will continue to spread during baking, so make sure to place the cookie batter at least two inches apart.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (115 g or 1 stick) unsalted butter


• 1 cup (220 g) packed dark brown sugar


• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour


• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract


• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt


• 1 large egg


• 1 1/2 cups (170 g) thick-cut rolled oats (or substitute regular rolled oats)

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Napa Valley Quinoa Salad

I’m in love with this quinoa salad because it brings back so many amazing memories. Brandon and I went to the beautiful west coast on our honeymoon. We spent most of the time in San Francisco but we also made our way up to Sonoma and Napa Valley for a wine tour. It was beautiful, it really was. About halfway through we stopped at William Hill Winery and had lunch with the most breathtaking wine country view of rolling vines. The tour company we were using had set up a little lunch which featured an amazing quinoa salad just like this one. If we’re being honest, it was the first time I had ever even heard of quinoa and we were like, “what is this amazing stuff?” 

So What is Quinoa?

What you eat is a seed from a grain crop. 1 serving of quinoa is approximately 120 calories and a great vegan, gluten-free source of protein, fiber, B vitamins, folate, iron, manganese, zinc, magnesium and phosphorus. 

 

Napa Valley Quinoa Salad

2016-05-10 20:50:37

Serves 6

Delicious quinoa salad full of veggies perfect for a party, picnic or lunches!

267 calories

26 g

0 g

16 g

6 g

2 g

249 g

323 g

3 g

0 g

13 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 267

Calories from Fat 139

Trans Fat 0g

Polyunsaturated Fat 3g

Monounsaturated Fat 10g

Total Carbohydrates 26g

9%

Sugars 3g

Protein 6g

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

1. 1 cup regular quinoa
2. 1 medium onion, chopped
3. 2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
4. 1 zucchini, cubed
5. 1 yellow squash, cubed
6. 1 red pepper, chopped
7. 1 avocado, cubed
8. 3-4 scallions, chopped
9. 1/4 cup cilantro, destemmed and chopped
10. 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
11. 1/4 cup olive oil
12. white pepper
13. kosher salt

1. Wash quinoa in several changes of water and drain in a sieve. Bring broth to a boil. Add quinoa and chopped onions, reduce heat, cover and boil for 20 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and place in the fridge to cool (about 20 minutes).
2. Once quinoa has cooled add remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper. Toss together to mix and serve!

1. This is a great recipe for cookouts or picnics but it can also serve as a full meal on it's own!

By Marshie Boswell

Motion Mom http://www.motionmom.com/

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Cream Of Celeriac Soup with Brussels Sprouts Chips

This month we’re sharing a few recipes from our friend Tess Masters, The Blender Girl! Tess is our go-to gal for fantastic vegan and gluten-free blender recipes. Check out her newest book The Perfect Blend, available now on Amazon.

This sensational soup will make you look like a gourmet chef, and it only takes 30 minutes to make! It works as an elegant starter or even the main course.
It’s also so rich and creamy, no one will ever guess that we’ve actually ditched the dairy.
Rather than using heavy cream, the velvety texture of this soup is achieved by blending cooked cauliflower and blanched almonds. Together, these elements deliver a silky smooth consistency that will seduce you with every spoonful.
Resist the urge to add more celeriac, lest you blast your bliss with bitterness. This righteous root sings when she’s subtle.
The addition of lightly roasted Brussels sprouts “chips” scattered over top not only perfects the presentation, but brings in a delightful crunchy texture and a sublime salty flavor as well.
This creamy creation is a stunner, a winner, and not to be missed.

Cream Of Celeriac Soup with Brussels Sprouts Chips Recipe

Editor's Note: Celeriac, or celery root, is the large, bulbous root of a particular type of celery plant. It has a flavor similar to celery, but more intense and earthy. Look for it near the other root vegetables in the produce section at the grocery store.

Ingredients

For the Brussels sprouts chips:

• 10 brussels sprouts


• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil


• 1/8 teaspoon natural salt, plus more to taste

For the soup:

• 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil or extra-virgin olive oil


• 2 cups diced yellow onion


• 2 teaspoons minced garlic (from 2 whole cloves)


• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste


• 1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets (See How to Cut and Core Cauliflower)


• 3 cups peeled and diced celeriac (from 1 large root)


• 8 cups vegetable broth, plus more as needed


• 1/4 cup blanched slivered almonds


• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

Special equipment:

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