No hey, how are you honey

I'm sorry it's been so long. Research and Development hasn't been able to eat with me at all for the last 3ish weeks. That cut down ALOT on how much I have cooked. I'm SOOOO glad that we can eat together again, I sure missed him and cooking!
When Research and Development walks in the door, some days he doesn't get a "Hey, how are you honey?" He gets a "Come here, come here! I need you to eat this!" He doesn't even get to put his bag down.
He asks, "What is it?" But usually I don't tell him until AFTER he has a mouthful :)
On Pinterest I have all these insane things that I feel the need to make, but usually it never actually happens. So in a effort to change all that, yesterday I made Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting!
Instead of, HMMMM, I wonder how that is, I went straight to Wal-Mart and bought those zucchini's!

The last week or so has been pretty stressful week or so and as a result, I've looked at about 102394710597 baking recipes. Finally I just sucked it up, picked one and BAKED!

Right on!

So! Let's get started!

Preheat to 350

2 cups of sugar. (I should warn you that this recipe makes a TON of cupcakes. I made 15 and am freezing the rest of the batter. Freeze it in a gallon ziploc bag. When you defrost it you can just cut a corner and squirt it right into the cupcake pan!)

3/4 cup of applesauce

I hate to admit it, but this is the first time I've used applesauce to bake with. I know that it's pretty common, I've just never done it before.

Add your 3/4 cup of oil and blend on a low speed.

Slowly, one at a time add your eggs. Make sure each one is blended well before adding the next.

Then add your vanilla.

This is the only kind of vanilla flavoring that my grandma has ever used. Watkins is a Pampered Chef kind of company where you use a catalog and order through a consultant. I can always count on getting some sort of Watkins on every occasion. I found out a little while back that Cracker Barrel now sells it!

In a seperate bowl add your 2 1/3 cups flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

Add 2 tsps baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Do a little whisking action here to incorporate everything and make sure you don't have any lumps!

Now, every chef you see on tv has a different way to do this. Some say add the wet to the dry and some say add the dry to the wet. It depends on who you're watching. I am a fan of adding the dry (slowly) to the wet. So, turn your mixer on and slowly add your dry to your wet.

Now, for the fun part!!

ZUCCHINI! IN.MY.CUPCAKE!

Peel the Zucchini and grate!

Aren't they pretty?!?!

It took me about 2 and a half good sized zucchini's to get 3 cups of grated zucchini.

The grated zucchini had wayyy more water than what I figured them to have.

Slowly add this to your batter! Make sure it gets mixed in really well!

Look! The batter looks so funny with the zucchini in it. I must confess that I tasted the batter. It.was.delicious!

Ice Cream Scoop. SOOOO easy with an ice cream scoop.

I spray my liners with a little Pam just to make sure they will let go!

Bake for 20-25 minutes!

While they are baking, let's make the buttercream. This is my first buttercream experiment. I've always made icing with the crisco and powdered sugar way.

While you're making the batter, go ahead and get the butter and cream cheese out. They both need to be softened.

Combine well!

Add 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3 1/2ish cups of powdered sugar

1/3 tbsp milk

Get your desired consitancy. If it's too thick add a little milk. Only about a teaspoon at a time. If it's not thick enough add more powdered sugar, tablespoon at a time.

Powdered sugar will explode in your mixer if you add it ALL at one time or if you turn the mixer up. Add slowly and on low!!

Look! I LOVE the colors of this buttercream. It's soo good too! It's super sweet!

This cupcake is outrageous!
It is so moist!

I was scared that the consistency of the zucchini would remind me of that disqusting shaved coconut, but it cooked down and vanished!

There is absolutely NO WAY that anyone will be able to tell the zucchini is in there!

Cupcake success!!

I'll stir fry you in my wok

Ok, so I used to have a wok but no longer.
I did however make a delicious stir fry tonight!

I modified this from Real Simple.

This Ginger, Beef and Veggies Stir-Fry was just what the doctor ordered!
Here's what you'll need:

3 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

4 teaspoons all purpose flour

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tsp chili garlic sauce

14 ounces of low sodium vegetable broth

2 tsp sesame oil

1 cup scallions

2 tbsp peeled, minced fresh ginger

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 lb boneless sirloin steak cut in strips (1/4 inch-ish)

1 cup bell pepper strips

Taste your hot sauce, see how much you think you can take. I went with a tsp and a half. I could have gone with 2 tsp's I think. I could taste the heat a little in and around but I think I could have taken a little more heat.

Combine your first 5 items (soy sauce, flour, oyster sauce, chili, garlic sauce and broth) and whisk together well.

I got a deal on some scallions a while back so I chopped them all and froze them. It works great!

Heat a tsp of sesame oil along with the scallions, ginger and garlic. Just until they have sizzled for a few seconds!

I liked the thicker cuts the best because I only cooked long enough for them to be about medium. The thinner one cooked super fast.

This took no time at all, 5 minutes or less then remove from pan.

I almost drained the liquid, please don't! You're going to want all that goodness later!

Into your pan add a tsp of sesame oil, your bell pepper, the last 3/4 cup of scallions and 5 cups (about 1 1/4 lb) of veggies. I have sweet peas and green beans. (It would be equally delicious with water chestnuts or snow peas or broccoli.)

On medium-high heat cover and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add your broth mixture and beef back to the pan. Bring to a boil.

Cook another minute or so and remove from heat.

Serve over rice. (I used brown rice)

This was ohhhh so delicious! Like I said before, I could have added a little more hot, but it was really great. This took about 30 minutes total, prep and all. This was so good and it made a ton of food, it will easily make two meals for the Brantley's. I will freeze the leftovers  to enjoy later when I don't feel like cooking. It's so much better for you than take out, and so very delicious. The sauce was just the right amount of ginger and garlic and saltiness. That complimented the sweet of the peas quite nicely.

My only complaint about this dish was that it took too long to cool so I could eat it!

The little things

Today, over at the other blog I shared one of the little things abour Army wife life that I love.

Another one is that I can cook whenever I want. If I want to drag out all my pots and pans for a lunch, I just do it! I don't have to wait until dinner time to get all cookish and have fun! I love that!

Today I had a great side for lunch that I'll be adding to the make again stack.

I adapted this recipe from Real Simple.

Here's what you need for your Three Bean Salad:

3 cans of assorted beans (I used Kidney, Black and Garbanzo)

2 small celery stalks finely chopped

1/4 finely chopped onion

1 cup of finely chopped herbs (really whatever you like I used half cilantro and half parsley)

3 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 (or less) EVOO

I love beans, I always have plenty in the pantry. I try very hard to have the reduced sodium versions.

Be sure and rinse the beans really well. You don't want all the gunk in the bottom of the can.

Oh how lovely! I love all beans, but garbanzo beans are my favorite!

Chop all your veggies and herbs pretty small, it makes for a well rounded easy bite!

Here we have our chopped veggies and beans!

Add in your herbs and drizzle in your EVOO and add your lemon juice.

I love to add lemon juice to things where you would normally add an italian dressing or even heavy mayo (like pasta salad or tuna salad) it adds such a great flavor and give you a totally different feel to the recipe.

Oh boy! This is so good. That lemon juice totally makes it, not to mention the cilantro!

I paired this with a fantastic Roast Beef sandwich for lunch.

It would also be great if you added some corn!

I can eat this all week, it has plenty of protein, iron and tons of flavor!

AND, it's so easy, you don't even need to turn on the stove. It's a one pot wonder!



What's not to love?

Spinach Dip Cups. You've got your spinach dip, you've got your bread...all in one bite. What's not to love?

I L.O.V.E. spinach, I also love spinach dip. It's creamy, the spinach gives it such a great flavor. mmm, mmm good!

So here's what you need:

French Bread Dough

Frozen bag of spinach

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 oz. of Neufchatel  cheese (cream cheese with less fat)

1/2 sour cream

2 tbsp grated parmesean cheese

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/3 cup shredded cheese

Preheat to 350 degrees

I would love to say that I made the dough for this recipe, but I cannot. This dough did really great. I would definately use this again.

My muffin pan has 12 muffin spaces so I had to make 12 cups

I tried to roll it out with the rolling pin, that doesn't work. I think it's the heat from your hands that makes the dough pliable. Just work the dough until it's big enough to  fit in the bottom of the cup.

It doesn't have to come up over the sides too much because the dough will rise a bit during the cooking.

Sautee up your spinach with the garlic and a little evoo.

*One day I'll learn about the white bowl*

Here we have the sour cream, Neufchatel, Parmesean and spices. Make sure your Neufchatel or cream cheese is soft enough to mix well. Add your spinach to the mixture

Spoon mixture into your bread cups.

Add the shredded cheese of your choice.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

These are sooooooo good! The creaminess is so delicious. The bread is just the right consistency. I was so pleased with these Spinach Dip Cups. It takes almost no time to make, and it comes out so home-made good!

I would love to try these as mini cups. Little one bite spinach cups would be fantastic. I also wouldn't mind trying this with half the spinach and add chopped artichoke hearts!