crunchy peanut-curry broccoli salad

I eat the broccoli salad from Whole Foods in mass quantities.
It's gross really how much of it I eat and never tire of it.
I should make more of my own, and I do, but I get horribly lazy sometimes.
On a whim, while eating said Whole Foods broccoli salad, I decided to add a nice heaping
tablespoon (or 2) of curry powder.
Oh man was that good.
Then realized it needed peanut butter, then it needed coconut milk....ok you get the idea.
If you are like me, who craves and loves that thai peanut sauce on a daily basis,
then this peanut-curry broccoli salad is for you.
I promise you this will be your new go-to broccoli salad.
The curry flavors, the crunch of the broccoli, the sweetness of the raisins.....

I used cashews for an extra crunch and depth of flavor, use whatever you wish.
But I do recommend using the raisins and carrots as a base, then add in: peanuts, nuts, sesame
sticks, onions, other veggies...endless possibilities really.

Does it get soggy overnight?  A little. I used raw broccoli so it wasn't that soggy.
Read the cook notes for more info stuff.

Baker hindsight is 20/20: so I would also add in a touch of red pepper flakes.
No golden syrup? Use honey.



crunchy peanut-curry broccoli salad
print recipe

I used a 12-14 ounce bag of broccoli heads, raw
1/4 cup grated carrots
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup of cashews (or other nuts)

sauce
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1-2 ts apple cider vinegar
1-2 TB golden syrup (or pure/raw honey)
2 TB curry powder or Madras curry
1/4 cup (might need more) coconut milk
a couple dashes of hot sauce
salt & pepper to taste

cook notes:
I used raw broccoli, it just has a better crunch, and can hold up to the sauce much better.
If you prefer to cook your broccoli first, then go ahead, but please make sure to drain
the broccoli really well.
This salad will taste awful with extra water in it.
I made my sauce very thick, if you want it thinner just add in more coconut milk.
I highly suggest adding a pinch or three of red pepper flakes to this.
I love the taste of curry so I added in 2 TB, you can easily use just 1 TB.

for the sauce:
Mix all ingredients in sauce in a bowl, stir well, give it a taste-test and see what it needs.
Cover and let it chill/set up in fridge at least an hour or two.
When ready to assemble, in a large bowl mix the broccoli, shredded carrots, and raisins, add in the sauce a little bit at a time.  You might not need all the sauce, so use a little at a time.
A little goes a long way!

Makes about 4 cups; enough for 4 people as a side dish.

jam filled mini butter tarts

In my other job, I am blessed to have such sweet clients, that not only tip me well, but also leave little food gifts.  It's nice to have foodies as clients.
I know that making jam and jellies is work, a food art I have yet to delve into.
With all the summer produce around making my own spicy bread & butter pickles is something
I would love to try my hand at.
Recently one of my clients gave me some homemade peach jam.
Is there anything better than fresh peach or apricot jam?  Sure, it's raspberry or blueberry.  Ha.
Wanting to use this peach jam on a fresh croissant or toasted english muffin, I opted for using it in cookie form.
A nice slightly salty buttery cookie base filled with a dollop of peach jam.
Mmm. Heavenly.
So this is a "take" on the butter tart on a tad more salty--the yearning for sweet & salty never goes far away from my creativity.
These are good, easy to make too since there is no rolling of the cookie dough, cutting out shapes, etc..
Be warned though, they are very addictive because they are so small and bite-size.

I think homemade apricot jam would be so good in these!
Oh and maybe beach plum jelly?


If the dough gets too soft after placing in tins, put it back in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up
before baking.

jam filled mini butter tarts

print recipe

2 cups all purpose flour

1 ts baking powder

½ TB sea salt

2/3 cup white sugar

16 TB butter, room temp

8 oz. cream cheese, room temp

1 and ¼ ts pure vanilla extract

fruit filling:

use jam of your choice (peach, raspberry, apricot, etc…)

Cook Notes:  I used mini muffin tins and got about 42-48 cookies.  If you don’t want to do muffin tins then you could do them as flat cookies making sure to make indentations in the middle of the raw cookie to place the jam.

Keep in mind you want to keep the dough fairly cold. So if after placing dough into tins, you might want to pop it back in the fridge to firm up again; We want these to bake up fairly crisp around the edges.

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. 

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla together until well mixed. Add in half the dry mixture to the wet and mix, then add in the other half and mix again until all combined.  Put dough in plastic wrap, cover up well and let sit in fridge at least 6 hours or overnight.  I kept mine in for 3 days and it was fine.

Using a mini muffin tin, spray with non-stick cooking spray.  Then scoop out a dough ball about 2 inches thick/round, press into muffin tin, making sure to get the edges good.  Then using your thumb, gently make a well in the middle to place a dollup of jam.  Make sure you don’t leave any open spaces at the bottom or jam will leak out.

Using a small spoon, fill the centers with about a teaspoon or of jam.

Try not to overfill with jam.

If y our kitchen runs hot or it’s the middle of summer, pop these back in the fridge for a few minutes to chill up.  We want these to bake up fairly crisp around the edges.

Bake 18-23 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.

I let these cool (about 2 hours) in the muffin tins until they set up enough to be removed.

They will be very soft when they come out of the oven, so don’t try and remove them.

Using the mini muffin tins I got about 42-48 tarts.

friday links

Happy Friday!


How is your summer going?
Mine is going great.  LOL
Above: cake batter ice cream with chocolate cake chunk swirls. Yeah, it was life-moving tasty.

Next time your in Whole Foods, do me a favor?
Try this almond milk  iced coffee from Califia Farms.
Heavenly.  So so good.  Make sure to put it on ice!

And move over Blue Print Cleanse, we have a cheaper version on board.
Thank goodness!
And it's good!
Suja Organic Juices.  I've tried the green supreme and purify.
The purify has beets in it which I love because of the iron (I'm always low in iron).

I was completely blown away at how tasty these Oh Nuts were.
You know why?
Because when they said it was "raw" I said no way. And gave it a go anyways.
I always assume raw means yuck and iffy.
Or as Mirada from Sex & The City says "I'm going to need a pizza after this".
These have really unique, tasty, all natural flavorings.
I was literally licking the bottom of the bag.  Can't wait to get more.
Flavors include: thai & curry cashews, sesame & teriyaki almonds/cashews, mesquite pod maple
walnuts, white chocolate cashews, rosemary-garlic pistachios, and many more!

Summer tomatoes.  Isn't it great? What are you doing with your summer tomatoes?

Aren't grilled hot dogs the bomb?
I love summer.

Our local Dairy Queen has the best signs this summer.

from around the web:
how about peanut butter & jelly parfaits?
take ordinary caprese stacks and turn them into fried ravioli stacks
the city of boston has the best mayor: tom menino letter to rolling stone
hot fudge sundae now in cake form
schoep, the arthritic dog, made famous by his owner taking him swimming has passed. rip buddy.
study: turmeric more effective than prozac
5 creative writing tips from carl hiaasen
raw recipe find: chocolate-hazelnut cheesecake
the secret language of birthdays now has a website! you MUST go there...now.  GO! Click!
10 ways to use kale in less sucky ways
whole wheat puff pastry! yes, it can be done!
another coffee study?! Sure why not. Coffee drinking tied to lower risk of suicide.
how to deal with people who drain the life force out of you
cinnamon crunch ice cream!
strengthen your back with these 5 easy tips (AND these make sense, no gimmicks)
all this hoopla around the latest news that fish oil might cause prostate cancer in men.
Dr. Weil, breaks it down for us.
kate middleton unabashed baby belly busts the latest taboo of pregnancy. Good for her!
16 ways to detox everyday
how about a margarita pie? perfect for summer parties.
I demand MOREOS be made!
summertime strawberry & candied bacon pizza.
cancer breakthrough: probiotics may save patients from deadly chemotherapy (excellent news)
oddity of the week: white chocolate baby heads (it's a sculpture)
moroccan grilled chicken kabobs (make extra as the leftovers are perfect in rollups!)
ann wigmore: creator/founder of the positive benefits of wheatgrass juice
how to make bunting! who knew?  I didn't.
how kathleen king aka Tate's Cookies, built her cookie empire.
chipotle gazpacho
hash brown wrapped eggs!
as if crumb bars couldn't get any better? I find these strawberry-vanilla jam crumb bars.
cookies & cream snack cake. don't you love that term "snack cake"?  I do.
10 veggies high in protein? Ok.
weight loss fact & fiction, written by mark hyman, MD-- so it isn't all BS.
does practicing yoga really help get you in shape? (it does--shocker)
5 foods that can helps reduce those nasty stress hormones
"fat shaming" don't do it, don't even think about doing it!
benefits of talking about ourselves?

Have a wonderful weekend kids!

peanut butter cheesecake with chocolate chip cookie crust

Have you heard of my obsession with cheesecakes?
I should re-phrase that: my obsession with kicked up cheesecakes.
Cheesecake is my comfort food.
Why do I create so many cheesecakes?
It stems from having one really bad cheesecake.
Baby Watson Cheesecakes.
Remember those?
I hated that cheesecake.  I was like "where's the crust?"
That was all cake, no crust, no add in's, nada.
Like, what's the point of having all those calories?
If I'm going to ingest all that fat, calories, and flavor there should be crust, a little bit of texture, maybe some fruit, or other add in.
It's like my argument on soft serve ice cream: too plain, too boring for me; I need something with all that plainness to jazz it up, unless I have the flu or stomach bug and have to eat soft foods.  LOL.
Get to the cheesecake already!
OK, so the latest cheesecake invention involves peanut butter, but I didn't just want another graham or chocolate crust, I wanted to see if crushed chocolate chip cookies would "crust".
And they did.  Perfectly actually.
You must give this crust a go.



The perfect bite: cheesecake, peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies.



Do you like crust on your cheesecake?
Thick or thin crust?

peanut butter swirl cheesecake with chocolate chip cookie crust

print recipe

crust:

2 cups of crushed (fine) chocolate chip cookies (choose a hard/crisp cookie—I used Trader Joe’s mini crispy chocolate chip cookies)

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Generous pinch of sea salt

cheesecake filling:

4 - 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, room temp

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup heavy cream

3 large eggs AND 2 large egg yolks

peanut butter swirl:

½ - ¾ cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky)

cook notes: This makes a nice thick crust.  If you don’t like a thick crust then use less. To make peanut butter swirl easily, just warm it up in the microwave a bit.

It really helps to have a chopstick or other narrow stick to make the peanut butter swirls in the cheesecake.

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

In a measuring cup, crack open the eggs and egg yolks, set aside until ready to use.

Spray a 9 or 10-inch springform pan with non stick spray.

In a food processor grind up the cookies into a fine crumb. In a bowl, combine the cookies, a pinch of salt, and the melted butter. Mix, then press into the bottom and partially up the sides of the springform pan. (I use a flat bottomed glass to press it in evenly). Recipe by vanillasugarblog.com

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until crust is just lightly brown around the edges, set aside and let cool. Reduce the oven heat to 300°F.

In a food processor or mixer, mix the cream cheese, with the eggs, eggs yolks, sugar and heavy cream.  Mix until you have a nice custard-like consistency and no lumps are visible.

Pour cheesecake batter into cooled crust pan.  Take your peanut butter, and GENTLY place down three or four glops/piles, spaced evenly, around the batter. 

Using a chopstick (or other small, pointed stick) gently swirl the cookie butter around until you have a nice array of swirls.

baking:

Most people like to do a water bath for their cheesecake. I never do, I find all too annoying. But if you want to do this feel free; it’s best to bake your cheesecake how ever you feel most comfortable.

I baked this cheesecake at 300°F for 50-55 minutes; turned off oven and left it alone for a couple hours.  You know the cheesecake is done when there is no jiggle in the middle and the middle batter has set up.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely, and then you need to cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, slice with a wet knife and serve with fresh whipped cream.

chocolate-cherry protein smoothie

In an effort to NOT turn the stove on AND to try and get more creative with smoothies---my latest experiment gone successful is the chocolate-cherry smoothie.
Healthy too.
Loving the abundance of fresh cherries at whole foods this year, and wanting to use them in a ice cold drink during the heatwave--I came up with cherry smoothie, but then thought why not add cocoa powder to it?
Dark cocoa powder is actually good for you.
I kept this healthy by not adding any sugar, using protein powder, banana, and lowfat milk (or almond milk).

You could easily swap out protein powder and use greek yogurt.
Adding toasted coconut sounds good too.
Endless combinations really.
Just make sure to add ice.

chocolate-cherry protein smoothie
print recipe

1/2 - 3/4 cup of chopped fresh cherries (minus the pits)
1 scoop of your favorite protein powder (I used plain or vanilla flavored)
1 TB dark chocolate unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 banana (or whole)
1/2 cup (or more) of cold milk (or almond milk)
about 1/2 cup of crushed ice

Blend all in a blender until smooth.
This make one smoothie.
Just double up ingredients for 2 or more servings.