Juicy, earthy, and tasty! These stuffed mushrooms are simple and delicious! Perfect for an appetizer or a side dish. Fully vegetarian!
I LOVE stuffed mushrooms. They’re earthy, soft, crispy (with the right topping), and creamy. These garlic and cheese stuffed mushrooms check all the boxes! They’re also even easy to make!
Stuffed mushrooms come with all kinds of mushroom bases. Many recipes use white mushrooms or cremini mushrooms, but I love cooking with portabella mushrooms and I think they have the most flavor out of all the mushrooms that are easy to find at grocery stores. Feel free to use any other kind of mushroom but be sure to use baby mushrooms! Just keep in mind that this recipe was created with baby portabella mushrooms in mind.
When it comes to mushroom, please make sure you thoroughly clean them. They’re a LOT dirtier than they look. Usually when I’m cleaning mushrooms I’m trying to keep the stems and caps attached but for this recipe they need to be separated anyways. Which is great because it makes cleaning thoroughly a LOT easier!
You want to try to chop the mushroom stems as finely as possible and keep them uniform with the size of the chopped bell pepper pieces. Both vegetables shrink as the water in them cooks off, which is good. We want that so that they mushroom caps don’t get soggy as we cook them
This is what the cooked mushroom stem and bell pepper mixture will look like. Let the mixture cool a bit before you mix it with the cheese and cream cheese so the cream cheese doesn’t soften too much.
Evenly distribute the stuffing among the mushroom caps and then top it with the seasoned panko bread crumbs. It will help to spoon the panko on and then press it on with your fingers or the back of a spoon. This will make sure that the panko cooks on the stuffing so that it won’t fall off as you eat it. I wouldn’t use regular bread crumbs, like the kind you would use for chicken parmesan. It’s too finely ground and the panko will get more crispy.
I hope you enjoy these Garlic and Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms!
Juicy, earthy, and tasty! These stuffed mushrooms are simple and delicious! Perfect for an appetizer or a side dish. Fully vegetarian!
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time25 minutesmins
Course: Appetizer, Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Servings: 12Mushrooms
Calories: 65kcal
Ingredients
16OuncesBaby Portabella Mushrooms
.5tspButter
2ClovesGarlic, Finely Minced
1Orange or Red Bell Pepper, finely choppedcan use ¾ if you want
1tspItalian Seasoning or Herbs de Provence
⅓CupShredded Colby Jack or Mexican Cheese(heaping scoop)
3ouncesCream Cheese
1½tspCayenne Pepper, divided
½CupPanko Crumbs
1tspGarlic Powder
Salt
Black Pepper
½TbspOlive Oil
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°.
Thoroughly wash and clean the mushrooms, remove stems whole.
Finely chop the garlic, mushroom stems. and bell pepper
Saute garlic, mushroom stems, and bell pepper in the butter until all liquid has cooked off.
Mix together 1 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp herb seasoning, cream cheese, shredded cheese, and the cooked mushroom stems and bell peppers. Season with a pinch of salt and some black pepper.
In a separate bowl, season panko crumbs with 1 tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp cayenne, and a pinch of salt.
Lightly toss the mushrooms caps in the olive oil and place top down on a foil lined baking sheet.
Evenly distribute the stuffing among the mushroom caps.
Top mushroom caps with the seasoned panko. (The best way is to spoon the panko on and pat it in to make sure it sticks)
Bake for 25 minutes (or until the panko is golden brown). Time may vary by your oven heat.
Spicy, tangy, a little sweet, and full of flavor! Honey Soy Chili Shrimp is an easy Asian inspired dish created with ingredients that most home cooks have.
I have two preferred ways of eating shrimp. One is in tacos and another is in an Asian or Asian inspired dish like this Honey Soy Chili Shrimp.
You can enjoy this over a bowl of your favorite rice, such as jasmine, or in lettuce cups with some fried rice noodles. Top with a sprinkling of lime juice and you’re good to go!
The recipe takes about twenty minutes from start to finish. And maybe a little longer if you have to shell and devein them by yourself. I forgot to check if mine were shelled and deveined before I bought them (they were not!). So it took me about thirty minutes total. Not too shabby!
The shrimp can be any size you want, as long as you have about 1 pound of shrimp you’ll have just the right amount of sauce to go along with it. The shrimp can also be fully shelled with tails off but you can also leave the tails on if you prefer!
Almost all the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe
You want to make sure that you don’t cook the shrimp all the way before you put the sauce in, or you’ll end up with tough, rubbery, overcooked shrimp.
I cooked my shrimp on a high flame in some oil for just under 2 minutes on each side, or until the shrimp began developing an orange hue.
Once the shrimp has cooked most of the way through, add the ingredients for the sauce. That is the honey, sriracha, soy sauce (I highly recommend low sodium), grated garlic, grated ginger, and oil of your choice. Let the sauce cook in the shrimp for a few minutes for it to thicken and to cook the shrimp all the way.
Finish your honey soy chili shrimp with scallions and lime juice and it’s ready to serve!
Spicy, tangy, a little sweet, and full of flavor! This Honey Soy Chili Shrimp is an easy Asian inspired dish created with ingredients that most home cooks already have.
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time10 minutesmins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Asian
Servings: 4servings
Calories: 260kcal
Ingredients
1½TbspOlive Oil
1lbsShrimp, shelled and deveined
3TbspHoney
1TbspSriracha
⅓CupLow Sodium Soy Sauce(if you are using regular soy sauce I would use 1/4 cup soy sauce and 1/8 cup water)
2ClovesGarlic, grated
½inchGinger, grated
1½tspSesame Oil (or olive oil if you want)
1tspLime Juice
2stalksGreen Onion/Scallions finely chopped
1½tspCrushed Red Pepper Flakes (optional, this will make the dish quite spicy)
Instructions
Heat 1½ Tbsp of olive oil in a pan over a medium high heat.
Add the shrimp and cook for 2 minutes on each side.
After shrimp has cooked almost all the way through, turn the heat down to medium and add the honey, sriracha, low sodium soy sauce, grated garlic, grated ginger, and sesame oil (or olive oil) and le
Once the sauce has cooked for a minute, taste and add crushed red pepper flakes to taste.
All the flavor of a pie without all the effort, in a single serving package! Serve baked cinnamon apple cups with ice cream, whipped cream, or caramel!
I love apple pie, but pies are a time-consuming process. This baked cinnamon apple cups recipe is a great alternative to an apple pie, it is simple but has all the same flavor.
It can also be eaten the same way, plain, warm, topped with ice cream, and more!
I am a strong supporter of granny smith apples, truthfully I don’t actually like apples unless it is a granny smith.
As far as baking goes, I think granny smith apples are the best option. They are crunchy, sweet, tart, and hold their shape and form even after being baked!
When you’re cutting the apples (after peeling them) make sure you cut them into cubes rather than slices.
Brown sugar is best for the filling as it gives you a sweet, sticky caramel taste that compliments that tart apples and cinnamon.
Apples tend to weep liquid once you cut them and mix them with sugar. This is why you want to let the apples soak in the sugar to let it weep liquid before you put it in the cups. Phyllo dough can get soggy quickly if you don’t weep the apples. This is also why you want to parbake the Phyllo dough (partially bake it so it cooks all the way through) before you add the filling to it. Once you parbake and add the filling, sprinkling some raw cane sugar onto the cups before you place them back into the oven will help the cups have a nice crispy top.
If you choose to make a caramel sauce to enjoy with your baked cinnamon apple cups, you should reserve the sugar, cinnamon liquid that weeped out of the apples when they were resting.
Combine the leftover liquid and more light brown sugar in a small saucepan over a medium low flame. Bring the sugar mixture to a slow simmer and allow it to bubble a bit to thicken. Turn the flame off before it bubble for more than a minute and let cool for a minute before immediately drizzling it over the cups.
Enjoy the cups alone or with caramel, ice cream, or whipped cream!
If you want to reheat these, lightly bake them in a toaster oven or your regular oven until the dough is crispy again.
All the flavor of an apple pie without all the effort! Ready in a single serving package. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or a caramel sauce!
Prep Time25 minutesmins
Cook Time25 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 6Cups
Calories: 205kcal
Equipment
Standard Cupcake Tin
Ingredients
1PackagePhyllo Dough
2TbspMelted Butter, unsalted
1lbsGranny Smith Apples, peeled and diced
¼CupLight Brown Sugar
1TbspCinnamon
3TbspRaw Cane Sugar
Optional Caramel Sauce
¼CupLight Brown Sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°
Let phyllo sheets thaw enough that they can be rolled out but not so soft that they stick together.
Mix diced apples, ¼ cup light brown sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Set aside for at least 30 minutes.
Cut the sheets into four quadrants.
Each square should be brushed lightly with butter before placed into the tin. Each cup should have ten layers of dough that are individually brushed.
Bake the dough for ten minutes. Remove from oven but leave the dough in the cupcake pan.
Now that the dough has baked, evenly fill the cups with the apple mixture. Be sure not to use any of the liquid that has seeped out of the apples. This will make the cups soggy.
Sprinkle some raw cane sugar on the filled cups.
Bake the cups for another 15 minutes.
Remove cups from oven and use a butter knife or offset spatula to help you remove them from the tin.
Optional Caramel Sauce
Mix the leftover sugary, cinnamon liquid from the bowl holding the apples with another ¼ cup of light brown sugar in a small sauce pan and reduce over medium to low heat.
Allow the sugar syrup to simmer lightly until it thickens, about 5 minutes.
Perfect as an entree or a side dish, on a chilly day or when it’s warm! Simple and easy but customizable with your preferred toppings.
Chicken Tortilla Soup is a staple in my house any time of the year. It’s simple, healthy, and tasty! When I’m sick, I like to make it a little extra spicy to soothe my throat, or when it’s cold I love to hunker down with a big steaming bowl.
It’s a pretty customizable soup, you can add less corn, or more black beans, so on and so forth. For the chicken, I have always preferred using chicken tenders over breasts because they’re, well, more tender, but also easier to shred and tastier.
You can even make this soup vegetarian as well just by not adding the chicken. Since the chicken is added in at the end, you can split the batch into 2 parts if you’re feeding any vegetarians.
The soup goes great as an accompaniment to other dishes or as a main meal.
I don’t particularly like black beans in my soup so I choose not to add them more often than not. It’s included in the recipe ingredients but the soup is still super tasty without them.
Once you get to the stage where you dump all the canned goods in and it is time to add water to the pot, you can choose to add more or less water than the suggester 2.5 cups. Some people like a thicker soup and some like it more liquidy. If it’s being eaten as a side, I would suggest leaning towards using more water.
My favorite way to eat chicken tortilla soup is with some cheese, crushed tortilla chips, and avocado. Feel free to add some of those or none of those or even sour cream!
I hope you enjoy!
Click here to enjoy some of my other Mexican or Mexican inspired recipes! This soup is great paired with some quesadillas!
These Easy Lasagna Rolls are a unique yet simple twist to a classic lasagna. They are flavor packed into perfect serving size pieces!
This is by no means a classic lasagna recipe. There’s no bechamel, there aren’t the classic layers. But give these lasagna rolls a try!
But these lasagna rolls still bring in the same flavors of meat, cheese, pasta, and marinara sauce. It also includes spinach.
Which, I know, is very odd. BUT spinach is one of the simplest veggies to add into a recipe and have it not drastically alter the flavor of said recipe.
My fiance does not like eating vegetables and he was skeptical as first when I told him about this recipe. But now he loves them, so I count these as a success!
Don’t let the idea of the assembly of these rolls scare you out of making them. It’s definitely not as daunting as it looks!
These rolls are easier to serve and won’t fall apart the way that regular lasagna will. The shape makes it easy to reheat as leftovers and pack away for meals for work or school.
Above is how the filling should look. You don’t have to add shredded mozzarella in the filling if you don’t want to. The filling is plenty tasty and moist without it. Sometimes I add it and sometimes I don’t.
Above shows an example of how flexible the lasagna sheets need to be, how much you should fill them, and how they should look when they are rolled. It’s super simple, I promise!
Spreading some marinara sauce on the bottom of the tray will prevent the rolls from sticking to the bottom. I find that adding cheese in the last five minutes will ensure that the cheese doesn’t get dehydrated and that it maintains that stretchy stringy pull.
I hope you can give these lasagna rolls a try and that you enjoy them!
A unique twist to a simple lasagna. Flavor packed into perfect serving size pieces.
Prep Time30 minutesmins
Cook Time1 hourhr
Marinate1 hourhr
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 12Rolls
Calories: 290kcal
Ingredients
Meat
1.25lbsGround meat of your choicewe use chicken because we have someone that doesn't eat red meat in the house
3ClovesGrated garlic
½Yellow Onion, diced
2TbspOlive Oil
1tspKosher Salt
1tspBlack Pepper
1tspCrushed Red Pepper
1tspItalian Seasoning
Filling
10ounceFrozen Spinach, thawed
2Eggs
1CupFull Fat Ricotta
1½CupMarinara Saucedivided between 1 and ½
1½CupShredded Mozzarelladivided between ¾ and ¾
12StripsLasagna Sheets
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°
Chicken
In a medium pan, heat 2 Tbs of Olive Oil and sautee onions until translucent.
Add grated garlic and ground meat. Add salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper, and italian seasoning.
Cook meat until cooked and all liquid has evaporated.
Once cooked, put aside to cool.
Make sure meat is crumbled into small bits.
Lasagna
Cook lasagna sheets in heavily salted water.Usually you should cook till al dente, but the sheets need to be cooked more so they are flexible enough to roll without breaking.
Filling and Assembly
Fully thaw the spinach and squeeze all liquid out.
Mix the spinach, eggs, ricotta, ground meat, ½ cup marinara, and ¾ mozzarella in a bowl.
Lay a lasagna sheet out and spoon ⅓ of a cup of the filling onto the sheet.
Spread the filling out leaving about ¾ – 1 inch of space on each sode.
Roll the lasagna sheets making sure none of the filling squeezes out.
Spread some marinara sauce onto a baking tray and place the rolls in the tray. You should get 12 rolls.
Spoon some marinara sauce onto all the rolls and cover and bake for 35 minutes.
After 35 minutes, sprinkle some mozzarella onto the rolls. Leave uncovered and bake for 5 more minutes.
Check out some of my other posts!
Feel free to send me a message if you have any recipe requests!
The softest, gooiest chocolate chunk cookies you’ll ever make. Enjoy with warm or cold milk (or even ice cream!) and bake to your preference!
I like chocolate chip cookies, but I LOVE chocolate chunk cookies.
You may be asking “what’s the difference?”. Well, the difference is the size and shape of the chocolate bits in the cookie.
Chunks give you a varied and more unique chocolate burst for ever bite of cookie you take. I don’t prefer the shape or uniformity of morsels or chips.
Overall, chocolate chunk (or chip) cookies have the same ingredients, but the quantity of those ingredients and the technique of how they are incorporated into the dough is what makes one recipe different from another.
This recipe calls for brown AND white sugar. I wouldn’t recommend using all white or all brown sugar for these reasons: an all white sugar cookie will result in a flat, spread out, snappy cookie and an all brown sugar cookie will result in a soggy cookie with an overpowering flavor.
Of course, there are times where a cookie will require all white or all brown sugar but a chocolate chunk cookie is best made from a combination of the two.
I prefer a 2 : 1 ratio of brown sugar to white sugar. (I used light brown sugar but dark brown is fine too).
Butter, White Sugar, and Brown Sugar
Previous Mix w/ Eggs and Vanilla Extract
THIS NEXT STEP IS CRUCIAL!
When you add the eggs and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar mixture, you should definitely whip / mix / beat the batter For. A. Long. Time.
And when I say a long time, I really mean it. You will see the color of the batter become lighter the more you mix. This is because you are incorporating air into the mixture which will allow your cookies to not be so dense but still retain their thicker shape. This is also what causes cookies to get those beautiful crackles in them.
When you think you’ve mixed enough, mix for a little more time! You’ve made it when the batter turns into a pale brown color as opposed to a light brown color. (Refer to the images below)
(Note at no point is a hand mixer – or a stand mixer – required, but it takes longer to get from ‘light brown’ to ‘pale brown’ when you’re doing it with a hand whisk)
Light Brown Batter
Pale Brown Batter (Ideal)
Next, you’re going to add in the flour, salt, and baking soda.
It’s at this stage that I would recommend you put the hand mixer aside (or stand mixer if you’re using one) and swap to a spatula.
I say this for two reasons. Reason number one: it’s much harder to get the dough out from inside the whisk. The second (and More Important) reason is that it’s incredibly easy to overwork the dough. Which you definitely do not want to do.
What’s wrong with overworking the dough? Well, when you add flour to the dough, you’re introducing gluten. The more that you mix the flour, the more the gluten bonds develop and the tougher your cookie turns out.
And nobody wants a tough cookie.
Mix the dry ingredients until the flour is just incorporated!
As far as the ‘chocolate chunk’ portion of the cookie goes, I prefer to get baker’s chocolate in bar form rather than morsel or chip form.
The reason I like to do this is that I love having different shapes of chocolate in my cookies. The chocolate flavor is more pronounced in the sense that chunks tend to blend into the cookie better than chips do.
When using bar chocolate, even though the chocolate is perforated into the rectangular pieces, cut the bar on both diagonals to ensure that each piece of chocolate is a unique shape but around the same size.
I prefer using semi-sweet chocolate, but any dark chocolate over 60% cacao will do!
Dough right after dry ingredients are incorporated
Chocolate Chunks
Refrigerate the dough for At Least 30 minutes after mixing the chocolate in. Why? This allows the butter to harden before you bake it which helps the dough not spread too flat while cooking. This also makes it easier to measure and roll the dough into balls before you bake them.
I am a huge advocate of measuring my dough by weight before baking. I do this because I want every cookie to be identical and to ensure that the baking time is perfect every time.
For this dough, 1.6 ounce balls will get you 24 cookies. (If you’re doing it by hand it’s no smaller than a ping-pong ball and no larger than a golf ball.) You can bake all of them the day you make the batter or you can store them pre-rolled in a zip-lock bag for whenever you crave cookies.
Storage life is about 1 week in the fridge and 6 months in the freezer! (If you don’t eat them by then!) If you freeze them, I suggest adding another minute to the baking time.
For the ideal bakery-style cookie I would recommend 10 minutes. But for those slightly underdone ooey-gooey cookies I would go for 8 minutes.
You can enjoy those chocolate chunk cookies with warm or cold milk or even with a dollop of ice cream on top!
The softest, gooiest chocolate chunk cookies you'll ever make. Enjoy with warm or cold milk and bake to your preference!
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time10 minutesmins
Resting Time30 minutesmins
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American
Servings: 24Cookies
Calories: 180kcal
Equipment
Weighing scale (optional)
Parchment Paper
Baking Sheet
Ingredients
¾CupMelted Unsalted Butter
1CupBrown Sugarlight or dark is fine
½CupWhite Sugar
2Eggs
1tspVanilla Extract
2¼CupAll Purpose Flour
1½tspKosher Salt
1tspBaking Soda
8ouncesSemi Sweet Chocolatebakers chocolate in bar form
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350° and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Mix together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.
Thoroughly mix the eggs and vanilla extract into the butter and sugar mixture.
Beat the mixture until it turns into a pale brown color. (Refer to photos above.)
Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda into the liquid mixture. Do Not over mix, just stir until the dry ingredients are incorporated.
Roughly chop the chocolate on both diagonals. Make sure none of the pieces are too large, but they don't need to be uniform sizes.
Mix the chocolate into the dough.
Store the dough in the refrigerator for a MINIMUM of 30 minutes. The longer you store it, the better the flavor develops.
For those of you that like to weigh your dough, you will get about 24 1.6 ounce dough balls. If not, you should roll your dough between a ping pong and golf ball size .
To get the perfect cookie, with a set edge and soft middle, you should bake your cookies for exactly 10 minutes. If you prefer your cookies under then shoot for 8-9 minutes, and if you like your cookies more done then shoot for 11-12 minutes.
This dough can be prerolled and stored in the freezer. You can take the balls out and pop them straight into a preheated oven for whenever you get a cookie craving!
A simple, easy chicken quesadilla recipe that’s packed with hidden veggies and lots of flavor!
This loaded chicken quesadilla recipe is a staple from my childhood. My mom made all the time for my brother and I when we were younger. Apparently, is an easy way for kids to eat delicious food that’s packed with some nutritious veggies.
It’s perfect for dinner or for lunch. You can even make and assemble the quesadillas the night before and pack it for lunch for school or work. (This was a go to for me when I was in school!)
Store the made filling in the fridge until you are ready to make the quesadillas. The stuffing can sit in the fridge for about a week before it starts to go bad. (it starts seeping water and gets weird).
Once you cook the chicken, please make sure it has cooled down thoroughly before you cut it. It will shred instead of cut into chunks if it is still warm.
Seasonings for Chicken Marinade
Chicken
Size of Diced Chicken
When you are dicing the vegetables (the onion, tomatoes, and bell pepper), make sure to chop them to be the same size. This ensures that every bite of quesadilla has an even bite of vegetables. Finely chop the Serrano pepper so nobody is blasted with a wave of spice as they eat. Also, make sure to squeeze every last bit of water out of the thawed spinach before you mix it into the filling otherwise you’ll get soggy quesadillas. You can even add some black beans to the filling if you desire!
Veggies
Final Stuffing Mix
To make the quesadilla more manageable to cook and eat, I have always preferred to use “Fajita Size” tortillas, or 6 inch tortillas.
As you cook to quesadillas, make sure to get a nice toast on your tortillas so the quesadilla can hold its structure.
Enjoy the quesadillas with your favorite salsa or guacamole! (For those of you that know of the Maggi sauces that Indians eat, I love eating these quesadillas with the “Hot & Sweet” sauce!)
A moist banana bread perfect as a morning meal or a late night snack. Enjoy with milk, tea, or coffee. Can even be topped with butter, honey, or maple!
Here’s the deal, banana breads are overall a relatively simple recipe. But not all banana bread recipes are created equal. Some are butter based, some have white sugar, some have nuts, and some have chocolate! Here’s how you get my best, soft banana bread!
Personally, I have always been drawn to banana breads that are oil based, I feel like the crumb of the bread is much softer and more moist than those made from butter.
Oil Based Crumb
My recipe calls for brown sugar, I feel that the moisture and the molasses in brown sugar lends to the softness of the bread. Also, I feel that the flavor of the brown sugar compliments the banana more than white sugar would.
Feel free to use mini loaf tins for this recipe, just as I did for the photos. The recipe works for 1 standard loaf tin or for 3 mini loaf tins (about 3 x 5 1/2 inches). Bake time for standard loaves is 50 – 55 minutes. Mini is about 30 minutes.
Line the tin with parchment paper to make it easier to remove the bread after baking.
It helps to whisk the liquids (eggs, vanilla extract, oil, and yogurt) in a separate bowl before stirring into the dry ingredients because it prevents yogurty lumps from forming. (if you don’t have yogurt, you can use milk but I would recommend using the yogurt)
Dry Ingredient
Thoroughly Whisked Liquid
Create a well in the dry ingredients to make mixing easier
For the bananas, they need to be ripe but they can range from pretty ripe to super over ripe. Just depends on what you have on hand.
My bananas “pretty ripe”
Mashed Bananas
Final Batter w/ Bananas
It’s at this stage that you can choose to add any other mix ins that you prefer. I suggest walnuts, chocolate chunks, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, or even a dash of maple syrup!
Pre Bake (it is better to fill three tins to a minimum of 2/3 full, unlike what I did)
Final Product
Enjoy!
Enjoy your soft banana bread with milk, tea or coffee any time of the day!
A moist banana bread perfect as a morning meal or a late night snack. Enjoy with milk, tea, or coffee. Can even be topped with butter, honey, or maple!
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time55 minutesmins
Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American
Servings: 14slices standard loaf tin
Calories: 230kcal
Equipment
Standard Loaf Tin
Mini Loaf Tin
Parchment Paper
Ingredients
1½CupAll Purpose Flour
1CupLight Brown Sugar
1½tspBaking Soda
1tspKosher Salt
½CupYogurtunsweetened, unflavored (if you don't have yogurt you can use whole milk)
¾CupVegetable Oil
2Eggs
1¼tspVanilla Extract
3Large Ripe Bananas
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°. If you are using mini loaf pans bake for about 30-35 mins. If you are using standard loaf pans bake for 50 – 55 mins.
Measure and stir together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl whisk together the yogurt, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.
Create a well in the center of the bowl with the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients. Stir properly.
Mash the bananas with a fork or spoon in an empty bowl and then mix that into the batter.
Feel free to add 1½ teaspoon of cinnamon as a flavor booster. Or walnuts or chocolate chunks.
Fill a lined and greased loaf tin to at least ⅔ full.
If you are using mini loaf pans bake for about 30 – 35 mins. If you are using standard loaf pans bake for 50 – 55 mins.
Guacamole is one of those things that people have very specific preferences about. Two people can make it almost the same way but still swear that theirs is better! I hope you can give this quick and easy guacamole a shot!
Some like it chunky and some like it smooth. It’s like peanut butter!
This recipe is pretty relaxed, it’s more about the ingredients and flavor rather than consistency. So feel free to chop everything as large or as small as you want and mash everything to your preference!
It’s truly the easiest guacamole!
Here are some photos of how I make the guacamole and how I prefer my ingredients!
(Note: These photos were taken for a 2 serving guacamole, but the recipe serves 4)
Prepped Ingredients
Mashed Peppers
Mashed Onions
Mashed Tomatoes and Cilantro
With Avocados
Enjoy this quick and easy guacamole with chips, pretzels, or even on your favorite salad. The options are endless!
A No Yeast solution to a homemade Cinnamon Roll. With the same ooey gooey goodness as the real deal but the simplicity that many crave!
Hi, friends! I wanted my first recipe on the blog to be something that is special to me. I had my heart set on my very special, moist chocolate cake. This cake is synonymous with Lotus in my family. I’ve made it for numerous birthdays, holidays, and graduations. However, in light of all the chaos happening around the world, I figured it would be a bit gratuitous to make a recipe that required a substantial amount of eggs and butter when we are all trying to minimize our trips to the grocery store. So, I present to you: No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls!
In that case, I played around with testing some no yeast cinnamon roll recipes. It requires some basic ingredients that most of you will already have at home, and it doesn’t require any special kitchen equipment (however, a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment can be used if you have one). In the quarantine stir crazy I’ve got going on, I’ve done a lot more baking and cooking than I would do in a normal week. I’m always trying to see what recipes I can make with basic household ingredients.
These rolls are fun to make and are simple enough that any of you with little ones around can have them help. They’re great to have with milk or coffee (or tea – that’s how I like it)!
Recipe Tips:
For the Dough:
When working on the dough, don’t be surprised how soft and hydrated it is. Even though this is a no yeast cinnamon rolls recipe, some kneading is required (by hand or by dough hook). So, be sure not to overwork the dough as all-purpose flour can still produce some gluten. You don’t want to have dense and doughy rolls.
When recipe testing I attempted to add more and more flour until the dough reached a consistency that seemed more manageable to touch, but in turn was less hydrated. These rolls were less than satisfactory when they came out of the oven. Don’t be alarmed at how wet the dough is! It’ll all come together in the end.
When mixing the wet and dry ingredients together, you want to ensure that the egg and milk mixture is pale yellow and frothy. Create a well in the dry ingredients that you can pour the wet mixture into.
Egg and Milk Mixture
Dough Prior to Kneading
Dough After Kneading
Can you replace the white sugar in the dough for another type of sugar? My answer is no. While I am sure it would be OK, other types of sugar (read: light or dark brown sugar) have molasses in them. This increases the water content which can lead to a more wet dough that might not hold its shape as well in the oven. Feel free to use way more cinnamon than is called for!
The recipe calls for kneading in softened butter, which is a sticky process. I don’t prefer to mix in melted butter as I feel like softened butter contributes to the structure of the rolls better than melted does.
For the Filling:
Can you replace the brown sugar in the filling for another type of sugar? Again, my answer is no. But this time it is for the inverse reasons as above. We want the hydration from the water in the brown sugar to create a really rich and moist center for our rolls.
I like a kind of crisp to my sugar center so I spread the butter on to the dough first and then pat the dry filling mixture in. You still get a gooey center (crispy and gooey seem to contradict, I know, but it still somehow turns out like that) but if you want to maximize that gooeyness, then feel free to mix the melted butter into the filling before spreading the whole mixture on.
Filling Mixture
Butter Spread on Dough
Filling
For the Icing:
Depending on the consistency you want for your icing, you can choose to add more milk and more sugar as you go on.
If you’re using kosher salt, I would recommend grinding it down a bit. The granules don’t blend into the icing and it ends up being kind of gritty.
Make sure the rolls are warm enough that the icing spreads, but not so hot that it drips off.
