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Maple Vanilla Oatmeal

Written on December 3, 2014 by Wannabe Chef in Breakfast

Some meals are too simple to ever justify paying for them; oats should be at the top of that category. In the corner restaurant near my apartment, cinnamon is considered a premium topping right next to blueberries and strawberries. Would you really pay extra for a finger-tip worth of cinnamon? Put that wallet away.

If you don’t have a go-to oatmeal recipe, Winter’s a good time to pick one up. It’s warm, hearty, and filling but quick and easy to put together for 1 or a crowd. You can dress this recipe up with walnuts, raisins, sliced apples, or any number of different mix-ins, but on its own it’s good, too.

The vanilla in this recipe adds a slightly savory and complex flavor to cut the sweetness of the maple, but if you’re making this for a picky palate you might want to leave it out.

Maple Vanilla Oatmeal

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 2 Servings):

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 Tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

Combine the oats, salt, and 2 3/4 cup water in a medium pot on the stove.
Bring the pot up to a boil over medium-high heat stirring occasionally. Leave uncovered.
As the water boils stir more constantly with a wooden spoon.
When the oats have cooked and stick together, turn off the heat. Add in the vanilla, syrup, salt, and cinnamon and continue stirring for 20 seconds.
Remove from the heat and let cool slightly before scooping into 2 bowls.
Serve warm with brown sugar and cinnamon on top.

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Black & White Chex Mix

Written on March 7, 2014 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert, Snack

Did you know today’s national cereal day? I probably wouldn’t have if the people at Chex cereal didn’t tell me and invite me to celebrate.

I really need a calendar with these fun food holidays like national cereal day, national peanut butter day, and—of course—national margarita day(which was thoroughly celebrated). I even forgot the Oscars were last weekend until that day, but thankfully I already had this classy snack to watch it with.

Black tie events are not my style but white and dark chocolate most certainly are. This Chex mix has a good balance of flavors; it’s a perfect class act for an award show party or just a football party. And it’s fairly easy to put together, too.

When you’re making this recipe, just like any other recipe that involves melting chocolate, make sure to pick a brand you trust and know melts well. Some chocolate chips have too many preservatives added to them and seize up instead of melting. Anything that markets itself as baking chocolate is a good bet for melting.

Black & White Chex Mix

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 8 servings):

2 cups chocolate Chex cereal, divided
2 cups vanilla Chex cereal, divided
2/3 chocolate chips, divided
2/3 white chocolate chips, divided

Method:

In a large bowl mix together 1 cup chocolate Chex cereal, 1 cup vanilla Chex cereal, 1/3 cup white chocolate chips, and 1/3 cup chocolate chips.
Melt the remaining chocolate chips over the stove or in a microwave.
While the chocolate is melted, mix in the remainder of the chocolate Chex cereal until it’s well-coated.
Pour the chocolate covered Chex onto a non-stick surface and gently flatten into a single layer.
Repeat the same process with the white chocolate chips and vanilla Chex.
Let the Chex sit until the chocolate has rehardened.
Break up the chocolate covered Chex into bite-sized chunks.
Mix the chocolate covered Chex in with the rest of the ingredients well.
Serve at room temperature or store in a cool, dry place.

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Blueberry Pancake Syrup

Written on July 22, 2013 by Wannabe Chef in Sauce

Fresh fruit in the Summer is great. It really is. But turning that fruit into a maple pancake syrup is just a little bit better.

After I made homemade strawberry syrup, I couldn’t eat it fast enough. It’s a great sweetener for pancakes, ice cream, yogurt, oatmeal—just about anything. After giving it a try I can say that making the recipe with blueberries is just as good.

You can use fresh or frozen blueberries for this recipe—it doesn’t make a difference. Unlike the strawberry version, you need to strain the syrup once it’s cooked to get the skins out. Don’t waste the solids though! They’re full of sugar and make a great jam-like spread for toast or mixing into yogurt.

Blueberry Pancake Syrup

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 1 1/2 cups):

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2/3 cup blueberries
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

In a small pot over a burner, combine the sugar and water and heat until the sugar has dissolved.
Boil the water until the simple syrup reduces to about half of its original volume.
While the water is boiling, puree the blueberries and maple syrup in a blender or food processor until they make a smooth sauce.
Off of the heat, combine the blueberry puree and simple syrup and whisk together. Whisk in the vanilla and cinnamon as well.
Put the pot back onto the stove and continue boiling until the syrup reduces to about half of its volume again. Don’t over-reduce the syrup to be quite as thick as maple syrup because once it cools off of the heat it will thicken.
Strain the sauce through a sieve to remove the blueberry skins.
Store any extra sauce in a sealed container in the refrigerator when not enjoying.

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Iced Vanilla-Almond Butter Cookies

Written on December 27, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

I never understood why Christmas cookies are a thing, why cookies take priority over cake or mousse or any other number of desserts. But in reality who ever has time to sit down for desserts around Christmastime? Between cooking, opening presents, and talking everyone is usually standing or in the other room, and cookies are the perfect grab-and-go dessert for that.

When I think of iced cookies, I usually think of the stale ones from the grocery store with neon pink frosting that taste like pure sugar. I would always eat the frosting(because who doesn’t love pure sugar?) but the cookie usually got left behind. These are far from those iced cookies. There’s nothing quite like a fresh cookie with a smooth and soft icing on top to step up the game for the rest of the desserts.

The almond extract is the special ingredient that makes these cookies irresistible. If you don’t have any it’s worth running out to the store to find. Making an icing that’s part butter adds a touch of richness to the balance out the sweet.

Iced Vanilla-Almond Butter Cookies

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 18 cookies):

1 cup almond butter
3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the icing:

1/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 Tablespoons milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix together the almond butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, baking powder, and salt.
Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and put them on a non-stick baking tray. Press down on the balls lightly to flatten them to about 1/2-inch.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges of the cookies begin to brown.
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool.
Combine the butter and milk in a medium-sized bowl.
Sift the powdered sugar into the bowl.
Beat together the sugar, butter, and milk until smooth. Add in the vanilla and almond extract and continue mixing until smooth.
Spread a Tablespoon of frosting on top of each cookie. Let the cookies sit at room temperature uncovered until the frosting sets.

You can decorate these with green and red or white sprinkles to make them a little more festive.

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Vanilla Rosemary Carrots

Written on November 12, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Side Dish

A lot of my meals lately have revolved around roasted vegetables. Some of my meals have been just roasted vegetables on the days I didn’t feel like cooking anything else; that’s healthy, right?

A while ago I saw this recipe for vanilla carrots. The photos on that blog make everything look delicious. I finally got around to making them last week and they did not disappoint at all. These aren’t sweeter than regular roasted carrots, but the vanilla and rosemary add an interesting savory flavor to them.

Don’t use an oil that has a lot of flavor like coconut or peanut oil. Instead use something like vegetable oil or refined olive oil that will let the flavor of the vanilla come through.

Vanilla Rosemary Carrots

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 50-60 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 4-6 servings):

1lb carrots
3 Tablespoons oil
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Peel, trim, and wash the carrots.
In a large tray, toss the carrots together with the olive oil, vanilla extract, salt and rosemary until they’re covered.
Lay the carrots out in a single layer on a baking tray.
Roast for 50-60 minutes until the carrots are fork-tender and serve hot.

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Vanilla Rosemary Potatoes

Written on August 15, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Side Dish

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine asked me to teach her how to cook. I can’t think of any other time I’ve ever taught someone to cook; I don’t think I’m very good at it. When I write a blog post I just say what I did. But when I’m in the kitchen, I don’t usually follow a recipe; I just feel my way around and do what I think I should do and if it doesn’t work out—well, that’s what the garbage can is for.

The hardest part was picking what to make. We ended up settling on Mediterranean chicken, a pretty basic salad, sautéed broccoli, and this potato recipe. I’d seen vanilla used with savory roasted vegetables on blogs before and had been wanting to try it. The idea isn’t to have the potatoes become sweet like candy but rather gain a subtle flavor that’s familiar but hard to pin down.

We learned three things that night:

1. A little sugar in any recipe is a good thing. I love to add just a tablespoon of sugar to marinades or dressings, sauces and vegetables to help bring out the natural sugars.

2. I make really good chicken for a vegetarian(or so I’m told).

3. Vanilla rosemary potatoes are shockingly delicious. There were some skeptics who thought vanilla on vegetables couldn’t be good, but by the end of the night everyone was converted.

Vanilla Rosemary Potatoes

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 60 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 4-6 servings):

5-6 medium Russet potatoes, cut and cubed
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Methods:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, toss all of the ingredients together until the potatoes are covered in oil.
Lay the potatoes out in a single layer on a baking tray.
Bake for 60 minutes shaking the pan halfway through.
Remove from the oven and serve hot.

This is definitely more of a Fall and Winter dish than it is Summery, so you might want to bookmark it and hold onto it until October. Then again, potatoes are always plentiful and cheap so what’s not to love even in the Summer time?

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Coconut Flour Cupcake Recipes

Written on August 3, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert, Recipe Round-Up

Back in January I finally found a use for the coconut flour that had just been sitting around in my pantry for months; it made the perfect cupcakes. Before then, I’d used some gluten-free baking blends with varying success, but they were never quite as good as “regular” cupcakes. Coconut flour, on the other hand, creates cupcakes that are light and fluffy without any odd starchy flavor. You’d never know they’re gluten-free if you didn’t bake them yourself.

Last month we celebrated several birthdays in my family so I figured it was a chance to revisit these cupcake recipes and taking fresher pictures. I ended up modifying the chocolate cupcake recipe slightly to make them richer and was definitely happy with how they turned out.

These paleo chocolate cupcakes get their depth not from coconut flour but coconut milk. Even without oil or melted chocolate, they stay moist and rich. You can easily perk up the flavor with half a tablespoon of instant coffee granules.

The vanilla paleo cupcakes are simple and sweet. Surprisingly, the coconut ingredients don’t overwhelm the vanilla flavor at all. They’re a perfect canvas for any flavor frosting you can dream up.

The frosting I use with these cupcakes are just your basic buttercreams. Nothing fancy or paleo; just sugar, butter, melted chocolate, and vanilla. I love the frosting tip set I bought myself a few months ago but I still feel like I need a lot more practice to make them look decent. Does anyone have an August birthday? I’ll bring the cupcakes.

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Coconut Flour Breakfast Bake

Written on January 31, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Breakfast

I’ve really come around to loving coconut flour over the past few months. At first I made vanilla cupcakes, then chocolate ones; then at some point I realized I needed to learn to make something else with coconut flour besides cupcakes or else I’m going to be having a lot of dessert. Since coconut flour is so healthy, I thought why not make a breakfast with it?

2 Tablespoons of coconut flour have 6g of fiber and 3g of protein. That’s already more than most breakfast cereals. Combined with some eggs for extra protein, banana for sweetness(because the thought of starting my day with something savory makes me shudder), and nut butter for healthy fats it’s a really filling way to start the day. Besides, coconut and banana just belong together. And rum. But I’m not quite sure for breakfast.

I don’t actually bake these because I have a microwave that I love and use but if you were to bake these set the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 15 minutes or until the center has set.

Coconut Flour Breakfast Bake

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 3 minutes

Ingredients(For one serving):

2 Tablespoons coconut flour
2 or 3 eggs
1 ripe banana, mashed
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract(optional)
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest(optional)

Method:

In a small bowl, mix together all of the ingredients you’re using into a smooth and even batter. If the batter is too thick, slowly add water until it’s mixable.
Pour the batter into a 6oz or 8oz ramekin depending on the number of eggs you used.
Microwave at high for 3 minutes.
Remove from the microwave. Top with dried fruits, nuts, or nut butter. Enjoy hot or at room temperature.

With 3 eggs and 2 Tablespoons of peanut butter, this has about 30g of protein, 11g of fiber, and plenty of healthy fats to fill up and let you focus on other things throughout your morning.

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Paleo Vanilla Cupcakes

Written on January 16, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

Last week was my parents’ anniversary. To celebrate I got them a cheesy present and made dessert; it’s what I do. I figured a cake would be a bit much for 3 people so I went with cupcakes using a secret ingredient I picked up last month at the store.

I’ve had coconut flour before but didn’t bake much with it. It’s really high in fiber so it makes a great cake batter. In most paleo recipes I’ve seen using it, the main structure comes from coconut flour and eggs so that’s what I copied.

The texture of these was perfect—very similar to angel food cake. Surprisingly there wasn’t much coconut flavor to them at all. You could swap any extract for vanilla and have a tasty cupcake I would bet. If you wanted to make these strictly paleo, substitute a low-glycemic sweetener like palm sugar in for the cane sugar.

Paleo Vanilla Cupcakes

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients(Makes a dozen cupcakes):

1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons coconut flour
4 eggs
2 egg whites
1/2 cup cane sugar
1 cup coconut milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a dozen cupcake holders.
Combine all of the ingredients together in a large bowl and mix until it forms an even batter.
Scoop equal amounts of the batter into each cupcake well.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are firm to the touch.
Remove from the oven. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting them.

I cut the recipe in half when I made these and got 6 cupcakes, which was perfect because we’re only 3 people. It’s a really easy recipe that anyone starting out gluten-free baking could do without problem.

If you like this recipe, you might also like paleo chocolate cupcakes.

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Honey Vanilla Peanut Butter

Written on December 19, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Miscellaneous

I really like fancy flavored peanut butter and almond butter and all those butters. The problem is they’re usually double or triple the price. Thankfully they’re so easy to make at home. This is a great DIY recipe if you want to make breakfast a little more special, or even a great homemade gift to give a peanut butter lover in your life.

Honey and vanilla go so well together, even better with peanut butter. I got tired of making this in single servings and decided to make a big batch so I could eat it again and again. You can start with peanuts or peanut butter that’s already ground—the recipe’s pretty much the same either way.

Honey Vanilla Peanut Butter

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 16oz):

12oz(3 cups) peanuts OR 12oz(1 1/2 cups) peanut butter
1/2 Tablespoon good quality vanilla extract
3 heaping Tablespoons honey

Method:

Put the peanuts into the food processor and blend until it forms a smooth, runny butter(if using peanut butter, omit this step).
Combine the rest of the ingredients with the peanut butter in the food processor and blend until emulsified.
Scrape into a seal-tight jar. Store at room temperature for up to a month.

I somewhat wanted to add more honey to this because it wasn’t quite sweet enough for my taste; then again, I have a huge sweet tooth and would turn everything into dessert if I could, so I’m guessing 3 tablespoons is enough for most people, although judge by taste always.

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