Indian Made Easy

How many of you love Indian food but when it comes to cooking it at home you have no clue where to start? I LOVE Indian food, the powerful flavors, punchy spices and health benefits keep me coming back for more. Recently I've been trying to incorporate more turkey into our diets, it is low in fat and high in protein. Plus like chicken it is very versatile.

This night in particular I had a package of turkey cutlets, I also had jasmine rice, Greek yogurt and plenty of spices. I combined them altogether for an easy, healthy, delicious Indian meal.

Easy Curry Turkey & Rice

4 turkey cutlets
1 cup Greek plain yogurt
2 cups jasmine/basmati rice
1 1/2 Tbsp curry powder
1 tsp salt + 1 tsp salt
pinch pepper
2 Tbsp butter
3 cups water

First you want to combine your Greek yogurt, salt and curry together into a thick paste. Then chop up your turkey into one inch chunks, add the turkey to the curry paste and use your hands to make sure every piece of turkey is covered. Then cover and let marinate for one hour in the refridgerator.

When the turkey is done marinating, add to an oven-safe pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. While the turkey is baking, boil three cups water, add salt and rice. When the rice absorbs most of the water, add in the butter.

When the turkey is done, plate a big spoonful of the rice in a bowl and smother with the turkey and curry sauce. This plate will have your mouth saying "Dhanyawaad!"(Thank you in Hindu).

Enjoy! xo Lo

Heart Shaped Love on a Plate

Happy Valentines Day! I know I already blogged about my heart-shaped fried eggs for my fabulous breakfast tacos. But I couldn't resist posting what I lovingly made for my hubby this morning.

Heart-Shaped Pancakes 'n Eggs
1 cup flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl, in a different bowl mix the wet ingredients together then fold the wet into the dry ingredients. Mix til there are little to no clumps in the batter. If the batter is too thick add more milk, if it is too wet add a bit more flour. Grease your pan and put it on medium-high heat. Put your heart-shaped cookie cutter onto the pan and pour the mixture in the cookie cutter just so the batter fills the bottom.  You don't want to fill the cookie cutter up too high or the pancake takes too long to cook. Once the pancake starts to bubble, flip over and lightly push the pancake down, releasing the cookie cutter. Continue until all of your batter is used.

Then use the same pan and cookie cutter for your eggs, re-grease the pan and crack your egg into the cookie cutter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover with a lid. Once the egg is starting to whiten on top the egg is done.

Plate your yummy breakfast together and your honey or sweet kiddos will be pleasantly surprised!

Happy Valentines day everyone! xoxo Lo

Good ole steak & potatoes

This year I decided to give something up every month...since food is one of the things I love the most, I chose certain food items. In January, I gave up carbs...bread, pasta, rice, etc... now that January is over I have to admit that I wasn't completely turning my head to those scrumptious, fluffy, hit-the-spot pieces of bread, but most of the time I stayed focused.

This month I am giving up meat...so I will only eat fish. Rightly so, in the last days of January I picked up some New York strip steaks to cook. Every now and then a homemade dish of classic steak and potataoes is all one needs to get through the day.

Smashed Fingerling Potatoes
1/2 package of fingerling potatoes
salt
pepper
3 green onions
1/3 cup milk
2 Tbsp butter

First you want to, dice up your potatoes then boil them until a fork can slide through them. Then you drain the water out, add in the butter, salt, pepper, milk and green onion...before you start to smash them let them sit for a few minutes. This gives the butter time to melt. Then smash away, your potatoes should be left between chunky and creamy. We love to keep the skins on our potatoes (they are packed with nutrients!) and we like some chunks. If you prefer smooth mashed potatoes use a hand mixer to blend them together. Cover and keep warm until ready to serve.

Sauteed Kale
1 bunch of fresh kale
salt
pepper
olive oil

You always need greens on your plate, right?! Kale is a great alternative to spinach or broccoli, they are super healthy and delicious. Wash your kale, cut off the stems and roughly chop them up. Heat up your skillet with olive oil, drop in the kale and cook for 10-15 minutes. Cover for the first five minutes to help circulate the heat and soften the kale. I don't want my kale to get mushy so I remove the cover to let them saute and get slightly crispy before serving. (You could always add mushrooms, onions, or other spices to jazz up this green!)

Classic New York Strip
2 steaks (or however many you need)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

This is the classic way of cooking up a steak. Steaks have a lot of flavor and you don't want to overcrowd that natural flavor with too many spices. I let my steaks rest in olive oil for about 10 minutes at room temperature, I get my pan nice and hot, sprinkle on the salt and pepper then place the steaks down on the grill pan.

My amazing, culinary friend, Amanda, taught me how to tell if your steak is done as you'd like. If you feel the palm of your hand regularly that is rare, if you move your thumb to your forefinger that is medium-rare, the middle finger is medium, ring finger that is medium-well and the pinky is well-done. So if you press on your steak as it cooks you should be able to gauge when it is done to your liking. We prefer our steaks to be medium to medium-rare which is about 4-5 minutes per side.

Once everything is done, plate up and eat up! Enjoy! xoxo Lo

Bakin' it up!

Some days are just great days to spend in the kitchen, hands deep in flour with an apron on. I love baking! For my wedding I created welcome bags for all my out of town guests...and all of my family were out of town guests. So with 30 welcome bags to be made, there needed to be a sweet, homemade element. I had once seen a Texas sugar cookie with a mini red heart on it in a bakery, every since then I knew I wanted to make this for my wedding. Since all of my family came from all over the United States, this Texas cookie would work perfect.

You of course do not have to make Texas cookies, they could be in any shape. What I really want to show you is the wonderful sugar cookie recipe. I also added the blue heart because my favorite color is blue, you could dye your dough any color to your lovely cookie confection.


Texas Sugar Cookies

1 large egg
2 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour

Whisk egg and vanilla into a small bowl and set aside. In a standing mixer, cream butter until fluffy, scrape sides of bowl and add sugar. Beat until light, add egg mixture and beat for about one minute. Add the salt to the flour in a separate bowl, reduce speed and slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients. Just mix til blended, do not over mix.

Remove dough from the bowl and place on a floured surface. Roll out dough to about a 1/4 inch thick surface. Use your cookie cutters to make whichever patterns you'd like. If you want to create a colored cookie part to place on your sugar cookie, take part of your dough, add whichever color you'd like and mix thoroughly. Bake cookies for 8 minutes at 350 degrees.


Cherry Brownies

1 cup softened butter
4 squares of semi-sweet chocolate (4 oz)
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp ground coffee
3 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped candied cherries (you can use fresh or dried as well)

My husband and I were invited to a pool party a few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to make brownies with my new standing mixer. I didn't have any nuts but we had ground coffee and candied cherries. First I put a double boiler onto the stove to melt my chocolate squares. If you don't have a double boiler, simply put a metal bowl over a sauce pan which has about a cup of water in it. You don't want the water to touch the bottom of the bowl.

Place butter, sugar and vanilla into the mixer, mix for about 30 seconds. Turn the speed up and beat for about two minutes. Turn the speed down slightly, add eggs, one at a time. Stop and scrape the bowl. Add melted chocolate mixture, turn down speed. Add all remaining ingredients and mix til blended, do not over mix (30 seconds). Pour into a greased and floured baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

These delectable desserts will have your mouth jumping for joy! Simple sugar cookies with a little flair and chocolatey brownies with soothing hints of coffee and gooey pieces of candied cherry. YUM!

Enjoy! xo Lo

Refreshing Picnic Lunch

Summer days are perfect for lazy, picnic lunches under an Oak tree. Too bad in Texas that would only be possible @ 7 am or 9 pm...but luckily the Northern states have gorgeous summers which are perfect for picnics.

If I was living in say Connecticut, upstate New York, Northern California or Washington state... I would make these lovely, refreshing, healthy items; tropical fruit salad, field green salad with strawberries and soft-boiled eggs as well as homemade, freshly baked sesame seed French bread.

Tropical Fruit Salad

3 kiwis sliced
2 mangos sliced
2 bananas
3 Gala apples
3 nectarines
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp lemon zest

After slicing up all the fruit, place in a bowl and toss with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest to keep the fruit fresh and tasty. Super easy and healthy.

Field Green Salad with Fresh Lemon Vinaigrette

2 cups field greens
1 English cucumber
handful of strawberries, sliced
2 Roma tomatoes
3 soft-boiled eggs (bring eggs to boil then turn off heat & let sit for 15 minutes)

Agave-Lemon Vinaigrette

1 lemon
1/2 cup olive oil
pinch salt
pinch pepper
1 tsp parsley
1 Tbsp agave nectar

Squeeze lemon juice into a bowl, whisk in olive oil, agave nectar and seasoning.

Once you assemble the salad, drizzle the fresh dressing over the top. The lemon will bring out the flavors in the strawberries, tomatoes and cucumber.

Sesame Seed French Bread

5 1/4 cups organic unbleached flour
1/2 cup organic low-fat milk
1 cup warm water
2 packages of active dry yeast
3 Tbsp of butter
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sesame seeds
pinch salt
pinch pepper

Add milk, sugar, salt and butter into a saucepan over low heat. Let butter melt and sugar dissolve, add active dry yeast packages to lukewarm milk mixture. Once the yeast has dissolved, pour into mixer. Add in 4 1/2 cups of flour and warm water- mix on level two for one minute. Slowly add in the rest of flour 1/4 cup at a time. Keep mixing at level two until the flour begins to stick together and pulls off all extra dough off the bottom and sides of bowl. Knead dough on level two for one minute then place dough into a greased (with butter or Pam) bowl. Cover bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm, room temperature area to rise. Let dough rise for one hour. Once dough has doubled in size place on floured surface and punch out dough. Split dough into two halves. For one half I cut three long strips and braided them for a pretty bread design. I drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper and sesame seeds then placed on a greased baking sheet into the oven at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

For the other half I rolled the dough out, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled on salt, pepper, oregano and basil then rolled the dough up almost like a jelly roll. This would fold in all the spices. Then I placed in a greased bread pan, drizzled the very top with olive oil and sprinkled with stone-ground oats for a nice finish.

Pack all these homemade items up in a picnic basket, grab a blanket, ice tea and spend a lazy day outside snacking on these refreshing, healthy foods!

Enjoy xoxo Lo