Baking the Night Away…

So last night after watching my sister’s ballet recital DVD (I already went but my sister wanted to relive it AGAIN) I made some cupcakes and cookies as a start to what I would be selling for my catering business. I decided to go real simple and did triple chocolate fudge and vanilla cake. I also did basic vanilla and fudge icing.

Baking is something that I honestly love soo much. Whether its for family, friends, or even profit there is something about making either a cake or pastry that I love. I cannot wait to go deeper into the world of pastries and desserts and I would like to try a different recipe at least 1-2 times a week. My schedule is crazy but I would hope that I can fit it all in. The cupcakes were light and delish and I will later on play around with different types of cakes and frostings. Meantime enjoy the pics 🙂

Cupcakes before they were baked

Vanilla cupcake before icing

Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Frosting (yummm)

Cookies before baked

Double Chocolate (Melt in you mouth) Cookies

Graduation Weekend and the Start of Summer :-)

(Humming the theme song that they play at graduation lol) This week was craziness with graduation. Not only did my little sister graduate from 6th grade but also my little brother graduated from high school. I am sooo proud of them. This totally got me thinking life and where life takes you. Watching my brother graduate got me thinking of my very own high school graduation and thinking how I was a completely different person. Life has taken me to soo many different places, from a pre-med student to now a culinary student, I would never know that working long hrs in a kitchen would be a dream of mine. Its an amazing feeling knowing and doing what you love and I have a chance to do it every day. I started a nutrition program at a local summer program in my area and its starting out to be an amazing thing. I’m learning soo much about myself and the kids I cook for and I cannot wait to see what it will bring me. Look out for the countless recipes posts and also post about future food projects I will be doing for the kids, I cannot wait. In the meantime here are a couple of pics of yummy breakfast skillets that me and my mother had last sunday. Also a pic of my two graduates 😀

Yummy bacon and sausage skillet

my mom’s yummy southwestern skillet (I know looks more appetizing!)

Beating the Workday Blues…

So today I drive into work in the pouring rain (it poured so hard I could barely see where I was going!!) and I thought to myself how today was not going to be a busy day…boy I was wrong. I currently work part-time as a cook at a local country club and on fridays its usually a relax day in terms of the morning shift. Believe it or not I love the morning shift. As much as I hate waking up early in the morning I love being the first one in the kitchen and setting up. And on friday’s I usually get the kitchen to myself which means playing my music (occasionally singing along), prepping, and cooking orders. So you would think friday yay, easy chill work day but I was exhausted. Maybe cause of the running up and down or the fact I fell asleep late but I just was not as energetic and peppy as I usually am. So to pep myself up I just focus on what I’m making (aka make my food nice and pretty lol). One item I made which was for our take out box is a Italiano wrap. The wrap contains prociutto ham, ham, roasted peppers, lettuce, tomato, provolone cheese, and is served with basalmic vinaigrette. Its a yummy wrap and also a popular menu item. I also made myself passion fruit tea with splenda which I turned it into an ice tea. It was yummy and so refreshing that it put a smile to my face. It has become a work must have now a days…well anyway before I ramble on stay tune for the next couple blogs I have yummy recipes in store which I know you guys will like 🙂

Passion Fruit Ice Tea

Italiano wrap

Caribbean Chicken with a Twist ;-)

As a surprise to my sister I decided to make this Caribbean Chicken recipe that she’s been DYING for me to make but I never had the time to. So as the sneaky sister I am, I ran to the grocery store and got the rest of the ingredients needed for the recipe. What I like about this recipe is that the marinade has a nice combination of sweet and tart…the recipe calls for a lot more spice but I’m not a huge fan of spice honestly lol…so here is part one of my meal…

Caribbean Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

• 1 habanero, seeded and chopped (did not add this item)
  

  Liquid Ingredients

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup lime juice
  1/4 cup orange juice

Dry Ingredients

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoons fennel seed
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (did not use item)
• 2 teaspoons allspice
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 4 green onions, chopped
  

  Raw Chicken Wings!

• Chicken wings

Directions:
In a food processor, blend together all the ingredients but the chicken! (You should already know better than to blend chicken! Lmaoo) until  smooth.

Before

After its blended

Once your marinade is made you can set a side 1/3 of your marinade to make into a sauce. (To make into a sauce all you have to do is add your marinade into a saucepan and bring to a boil or until it thickens).

After your marinade is completed, I than clean my raw chicken with either lemon, lemon juice, or salt under running warm water. Once it is cleaned add chicken into zip lock bags and pour in your marinade. I like to seperate the chicken into 2 bags so the chicken can really soak in the juices.

Marinaded chicken in bags

• Refigerate the chicken for either 4-6 hrs or even up to 24 hrs if you want the chicken to really soak in the flavor.
• Once marinaded load your chicken onto a pan and put into the oven at 400 degrees for 45-to an 1hr or until it is nice and brown
  

  Chicken before roasted

 

• As the chicken is roasting I like to made my sides so it is nice a fresh. Usually I would make rice to go along with the chicken (I will make a rice blog later on) but I decided to mix it up and add roasted potatoes and steamed broccoli that I later sauteed in olive oil and fresh garlic.
  

  Red Potatoes, Garlic, and a White Onion (My fave!)

How I usually roast my potatoes is I cut up my red potatoes into small quaters, drizzle about two tablespoons of olive oil, than add in some fresh minced or finely chopped garlic and onion. I also like to add in some pepper, and any assorted herbs and spices I am feeling at the time. The fun thing about potatoes is you can usually add whatever spices you want and you come out with a great end product.

Before Roasted

 

Once you add your herbs and spices to the potatoes, put them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 25-30 minutes or until brown and crisp.

 

Crispy and Yummy ❤

Once my potatoes were done I made some steamed broccoli than sauteed them in olive oil and fresh chopped garlic. I also added a little bit of salt and pepper, and onion powder. My sister loves broccoli and absolutely devoured this.

yummy broccoli 🙂

 Once I was with all these sides my chicken was crispy to perfection.

All done and roasted 🙂

 Now everything is completed and I have to say it all came out delish. I happen to like dark roasted chicken but if you do not like it so dark make it however way you want. My sister enjoyed it and I hope you guys make it and enjoy it.

Bon Appetit!

 

 

 

Green Smoothie Anyone?!

When you think of green smoothies you are probably thinking yuck gross! Who would want to drink something like that. Well I used to be one of those anti veggie anything good types of people until a couple of months ago. One thing I have noticed is I love to drink my calories from time to time. With my busy schedule I tend to forget or do not have time to prepare a proper meal so when I researched what I could make quickly and still have all the nutrients and still lose weight, I was all over it! Smoothies are not only a great alternative to a meal (done well) but also taste great and mask out any of the “nasty” veggie taste that people stay away from. One smoothie that I love and have every morningis my “Green Smoothie” . It might not be soo appealing but trust me it taste GREAT! This is what I put into my green smoothie but you can put whatever fruit and veggie mix you prefer.

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• Handful of fresh spinach (I prefer a head of spinach but a bag of spinach works just fine)
• 1/2 cup of frozen tropical fruit blend (Shoprite brand)
• 1/2 cup of frozen peaches
• Couple ice cubes (optional)
• Water (enough to help blend the banana and spinach which equals 1/3 cup)

The way I position it is I cut the bananas first, add the spinach, my ice, frozen fruits, than water…

 

Blend and you pretty much get this, I know it does not look so great but trust me, taste like a yummy sherbet that you would never know contains spinach.

I usually like to put my green smoothie in my fave insulated cup that you can keep ice drinks in. It keeps it nice and cool for a couple of hours actually and I usually take it with me either to work or in the morning while running errands. This smoothie is definitely for the ones who are looking to add fruits and veggies in their diet. It taste great and gives you great energy in the morning. Hope you enjoy this if you do make it and of course…Happy Blending!