BBQ Glazed Halibut

We bought halibut the other night, and I found this recipe. I was unsure of what to expect, but it tasted really light and flavorful. The sauce is sort of a Teriyaki flavor.

BBQ Glazed Halibut

Ingredients:

2 halibut steaks

2 green onions, chopped

In a saucepan, combine following ingredients:

2 T. butter

2 T. brown sugar

2 cloves garlic

1 T. lemon juice

2 tsp. soy sauce

1/2 tsp. pepper

Stir ingredients and cook on med-high heat just until it comes to a boil, and sugar is dissolved.

Cool to room temperature.

Keep about 4 T. sauce in the pan to use for glaze later.

In a shallow pan, marinate halibut in the sauce in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes, flip halibut over and place back in fridge for another 15 minutes.

Remove from fridge and place on grill prepped with olive oil. Carefully place halibut on the grill, and use the extra saute sauce left in the saute pan to keep it moist while cooking. I cooked mine about 4 minutes on each side, but it varies depending on how you like it prepared.

Remove from grill and glaze with the extra sauce, and top with chopped green onions. Enjoy!

What? They're Whole Wheat?

So I have the day off work, and I really wanted to bake something new to put on the blog. (and to eat...of course!!!) Justin said I should try to make something "healthy". So I decided to make whole wheat cookies. In reality, they aren't really "healthy", but they are better for you than white flour cookies, they also have oatmeal and eggs.... so they are a GREAT balanced breakfast food. :) Okay, fine, I tried! Anyway, they are really yummy, and I really don't think people would be able to tell they are whole wheat, unless you told them. So try them and let me know what you think! :) Mine came out perfect and chewy with a slight crunch on the outside. Yum!

They say this recipe is similar to the Great Harvest Bread company cookies, which are one of my fav! I added vanilla to the recipe, I can't make chocolate chip cookies without it! I also accidentally forgot salt, but thankfully we didn't miss it! :)

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups brown sugar, packed

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups rolled oats

2 eggs

2 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 package milk chocolate chips (I love the ghiradelli ones!)

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Beat together brown sugar and butter until well combined. Add oats, eggs, molasses, vanilla and milk; beat well. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture; mix until blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop dough and drop about 3 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 13 minutes, until just starting to brown around the outside. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheets. Remove and cool on racks. Enjoy! :)

Macaroni Grill's Chicken Marsala

Chicken Marsala:

1 lb Chicken breast, cut into 8 pieces

Salt and Pepper

Flour, for coating

8 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups mushrooms, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 shallot, minced

2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1 Cup + 2 T. Marsala cooking wine, dry not sweet

6 tablespoons chicken stock

Directions:

1. Place chicken pieces between waxed paper and flatten. Dust each piece with salt, pepper and flour. Shake off surplus.

2.
Melt 3 tablespoons butter and the oil in skillet and fry chicken in batches on medium heat for about 5 minutes each side.

3.
Remove chicken from pan and arrange in a single layer in shallow ovenproof pan. Put in low oven (275-300 degrees) to stay warm.

4.
In clean skillet, add 4 tablespoons butter and garlic and saute (do not brown) for a few minutes until soft. Add mushrooms and saute about 5 minutes. Use slotted spoon to lift mushrooms out of skillet and arrange on top of chicken breasts. Sprinkle with cheese and put back in oven until you finish next step.

5. Pour Marsala wine into skillet along with chicken broth and remaining 1 tablespoons butter and boil rapidly until reduced by half. Remove chicken from oven, plate it and pour wine mixture over the chicken breasts.

6.
I served the breasts along with a small portion of angel hair pasta and homemade rosemary focaccia bread.

*Tip: Drizzle the sauce on just before serving so you don't make the outside of the chicken soggy.

**This sauce is soooo good! In this recipe I tripled it from the original. Drizzle some over your pasta for some extra flavor.

Chewy granola bars!

I was watching Martha Stewart yesterday and she had this lady on that made granola bars. I love granola bars, and have always wanted to make them, but haven't had the courage to. But they made it look so easy, like every TV show does! So, I decided to attempt them.... and good thing I did, because they are so much better than the ones in the grocery store, and they WERE so EASY! And QUICK!

Chewy Granola Bars:

1-3/4 c. oatmeal

1-1/4 c. Rice Cereal (Rice Krispies)

1/2 c. mini chocolate chips (or dried fruit, nuts, etc*)

1/3 c. brown sugar

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1/3 c. honey

In large bowl, mix cereal and oatmeal, set aside.

In saucepan on medium-high heat, stir together honey, vegetable oil, and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, and then cook an additional minute. It should become very bubbly, almost foamy looking.

Pour sauce over the oatmeal mixture and stir until all cereal is coated. Pour into greased 8x8 pan lined with parchment paper. Spread the mixture to form in pan, but do not flatten entirely. Sprinkle with chocolate chips or desired topping, then create a flat even surface. Cool to room temperature and cut into bars. Yum! :)

*I think it would be good with craisins and white chocolate chips.

Or, here are some other ideas:

Mini M&M's

Peanut butter chips

Almonds

Raisins (ewww)

Dried apples, apricots, or mangoes

Checkerboard Cake!

Okay, It's finally done, and I had to wait all day and after dinner to cut into it and see if it worked....and... It looked really cool inside, I just wished the cake part would have tasted better. :( It was kinda dry. The batter needed to be really thick to hold it shape in the circles and not blend together, so maybe a pound cake would work?? If anyone has a good cake recipe that has thick batter....please let me know. :)

Oh the other hand, I made homemade Chocolate mousse for the filling, which was AMAZING!!! So amazing that I ate so much of it while frosting it, that I can't even look at it anymore...

Well, here are some pictures of the Cake:

Ta, Da! The Inside:

It may not be perfect, but I am sure that the pictures on the box are totally fake. I don't think that it is possible to get it Absolutely Perfect... at least that's what I have to tell myself so I don't go crazy!

My hubby's birthday cake!

Okay, so I was trying to think of a really yummy cake to make my hubby for his birthday, which is Wednesday...Today! I was at Michael's looking for a cake frosting spreader, and I saw Checkerboard Cake pans.

I thought, that looks hard, but how difficult could it be, plus it looks really cool! Anyway, I bought the thing, brought it home and saw that there is a recipe on the box that you are supposed to use. I looked online and everyone who said they used that recipe said it was dry. So I went looking for another. I found one which was made for the William Sonoma Cake pan, which I decided to attempt.

After two full pages of recipe and 2 1/2 hours later, they are finally out of the oven! Holy Moly! That was the biggest pain in the rear...let me tell you! I am OCD, when it comes to baking. I want everything to be perfect. So it took me FOREVER to get the batter into the pans evenly. Now it is one in the morning, and I am waiting for the cupcakes to be ready with the extra batter I had left. I am so exhausted!

Well, I think I hear them beeping, so here are a few pics to show what I have gotten myself into!

Finally in the pans:

Yay! Oven time! The circles look even to me!

Now they are out of the oven, and they definitely aren't perfect circles, so hopefully they still turn out and will be a checkerboard when it is all done! Cross your fingers!!!

This is what it should look like tomorrow:

Please, Please, inside of cake.. look like that tomorrow!!!!

PF Chang's (cont.)

Like I said before, we love PF Chang's, and I found the Orange Peel Chicken recipe and decided to make it. I was a little worried, because we are so in love with this chicken, we didn't wanna make it and be disappointed. And the only reason I AM sharing this with you is because the sauce really tastes just like it!

So, here is the recipe. I'm sure you could make it without breading the chicken. It would make it a lot healthier and would probably taste just as good. :)

Orange Peel Chicken

Sauce:

1 T. vegetable oil

2 T. minced garlic

4 green onions, sliced

1 c. tomato sauce

1/2 c. water

1/4 c. sugar

2 T. oriental chili-garlic sauce (less if you don't want it too spicy)

1 T. soy sauce

Chicken:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 chicken breasts

1 egg, beaten

1 c. milk

1 c. flour

1 orange (peel from 1/4 orange, julienned into 1/8-inch thick strips)

1 c. sugar snap peas, snow peas or green beans

1/4 c. Peanuts, unsalted

Directions:

1. Prepare sauce by heating 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add minced garlic and sliced green onions. Add tomato sauce and water quickly before the garlic burns. Add sugar, chili garlic sauce and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Simmer 5 to 6 minutes or until sauce thickens, then turn off the heat.

2. Prepare the chicken by heating 1/2 cup oil in a wok over medium heat. Slice chicken breast fillets into bite-size pieces. Combine beaten egg with milk in a medium bowl. Pour the flour into another medium bowl.

3. Coat chicken pieces by dropping them into the flour a few at a time, then into the egg/milk mixture and back into the flour. Arrange coated chicken on a plate until all chicken is coated.

4. When oil in the wok is hot, add about half of the chicken to the oil and cook for a couple minutes or until brown on one side, then flip the chicken over. When chicken is golden brown, remove the pieces to a rack or paper towels to drain. Repeat with the remaining chicken. When all of the chicken is cooked rinse the oil out of the wok with water and place it back on the stove to heat up.

5. When wok is hot again add julienned orange peel, chicken and peanuts. Heat for 20 to 30 seconds or so, stirring gently. Add sugar peas and sauce to the pan and cook for about 2 minutes. Stir dish a couple times but do it gently so you don't knock the coating off the chicken. Cook until the sauce thickens then serve up the dish with white or brown rice on the side.