Ridiculously Easy Peach Crumble

This incredibly, addictively delicious dessert was SO easy in so many ways, it almost doesn’t seem fair. The recipe itself almost doesn’t require a bowl, a mixer or even a spoon. The lovely picture above was definitely the easiest one I’ve ever posted (more on that later). And here’s how scrumptious it is: the Southern husband, who is usually not a big dessert person and pretty much the only one I know who can eat ONE fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie at time took a bite of this as it was cooling on the counter. And another. And another. By the time it actually came time to serve the thing as an official dessert, I would say about a third of it had been nibbled away.

Yep, it’s that good. No exaggeration. Now get ready for how easy it is.

You take one of those big 28 ounce jars of sliced peaches in light syrup. Dump the whole thing in a 13×9 inch pan, syrup and all. Now take a box of yellow cake mix. Pour the mix evenly over the peaches. Yes, the dry mix, you don’t make it into cake batter first…dry mix only. Trust me.

Now take a stick of butter. (I said this was easy, I didn’t say it was slenderizing.). Slice it up into about 16 pats and arranged them evenly on the top of the cake mix. Next, pour a cup of brown sugar on top, and a half cup of walnuts on top of that.

Bake it for 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Let it cool just long enough to not burn your tongue when you take that first spoonful, and then enjoy it plain or with vanilla ice cream…that is, if you can keep the hungry masses at bay long enough to have a reasonable amount left in the pan to actually HAVE it for dessert. I know, you are thinking where is the liquid, and why won’t I just have hot dry cake mix at the end of the baking time, but I guess there is something about the butter and the peach syrup that somehow magically blends with the cake mix to produce peach heaven. I’m not going to think too hard about it so I don’t jinx it.

Now about that picture. Two things happened to produce that delicious shot up there. First of all, I actually split this dessert into two 8×8 pans, since I knew my friend and Zen Master photography teacher was coming to visit on the day I made it, and so I sent the other half home with him. I fully intended to photograph a piece of MY portion of the cake after dinner, but see above regarding the cake nibbling that went on before dessert…I didn’t have any left.

Then inspiration hit, and I sent an urgent message to the Zen Master, who had the restraint not to eat all of his portion in one sitting. Voila! The easiest picture I have ever created for this blog – it only took one quick email! It all seems too good to be true…but I’ll take it!

So there you have it, the easiest dessert you will ever make!  Just don’t tell anyone how crazily easy it is…let’s keep it our secret.

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Ridiculously Easy Peach Crumble

INGREDIENTS

One 25 ounce jar of peaches in light syrup

1 package yellow cake mix

1 stick butter, cut into 16 pieces

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Layer ingredients in 13/9 inch pan in the order listed above.

3. Bake for 40 minutes

4. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Or eat it with a spoon right out of the baking dish.

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Grilled Paprika Chicken Dinner Packs Recipe

Author: RecipeAttack

Recipe type: Dinner

Serves: 4

Prep time:  30 mins

Cook time:  30 mins

Total time:  1 hour

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 1¼ lb)
• 2 cups quartered small red potatoes (4 or 5 potatoes)
• 1½ cups baby-cut carrots, cut lengthwise in half
• 1 cup Green Giant® Valley Fresh Steamers® frozen cut green beans (from 12 oz bag)
• 1 cup chicken gravy (from 12-oz jar)
• 2 tablespoons Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

1. Heat coals or gas grill for direct heat. Cut four 18×12-inch pieces of heavy-duty foil. Place chicken breast half on each piece of foil. Top with potatoes, carrots and frozen green beans. In small bowl, mix gravy and flour until well blended. Drizzle over chicken mixture. Sprinkle with paprika and thyme.
2. Fold foil over chicken and vegetables so edges meet. Seal edges, making tight ½-inch fold; fold again. Allow space on sides for circulation and expansion.
3. Cover and grill packets over medium heat 30 to 40 minutes, rotating packets ½ turn after 15 minutes, until juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut and vegetables are tender. Place packets on plates. Cut large X across top of each packet; fold back foil. Sprinkle with parsley.

Notes

If your family likes dark meat, substitute 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs for each chicken breast half.

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BERRY HARD LEMONADE RECIPE

         Need a party drink? Take just 5 minutes and whip up two easy ingredients for a spirited creamy drink!

Author: RecipeAttack

Recipe type: Drinks, Alcoholic

Serves: 2

Prep time:  5 mins

Total time:  5 mins

Ingredients

• 1 bottle (11.2 oz) hard lemonade
• 1 bag (7.2 oz) Yoplait Frozen Smoothie triple berry

Instructions

1. In blender, place hard lemonade and contents of Yoplait® Frozen Smoothie bag. Cover; blend on high speed 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds, stopping blender to scrape down sides as necessary, until smooth. Pour into glasses.

Notes

For a drink without alcohol, omit hard lemonade and substitute with regular lemonade. Garnish each glass with a twist of fresh lemon.

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P90x Before & After Pics, WOW!

#15 Kenna S.

This is Kenna S., She's one of P90x's biggest success stories. Kenna started the program after she had her son. Not only wasn't she losing her pregnancy weight, she was gaining more.

She turned to P90x in desperation. And her dedication to the program paid off. She lost an impressive 80lbs. by the end of her journey.

She says that the 90 day program gave her a long-lasting metabolic boost: "I have a metabolism that burns like crazy from eating every 2.5-3 hours and going by the nutrition guide sent with the programs. I’m just proud that I stuck with it and got those 80 lbs. off.”

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EASY MEXICAN CHICKEN AND BEANS RECIPE

Cuisine: Mexican

Recipe type: Dinner

Serves: 4

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  10 mins

Total time:  30 mins

Ingredients

• 1 lb uncooked chicken breast strips for stir-fry
• 1 package (1 oz) Old El Paso® taco seasoning mix
• 1 can (15 oz) Progresso® black beans, drained, rinsed
• 1 can (11 oz) Green Giant® SteamCrisp® Mexicorn® whole kernel corn with red and green peppers, undrained
• ¼ cup water
• Flour tortillas, if desired

Instructions

1. Spray 10-inch skillet with cooking spray. Add chicken to skillet; cook over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink in center.
2. Stir in seasoning mix, beans, corn and water. Cook over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until sauce is slightly thickened. Serve with tortillas.

Notes

Boost your fiber with beans. Filled with many other important nutrients, beans are an excellent source of fiber that’s so important for good blood glucose management and to keep your digestive tract moving. Stir-fry chicken strips not available? Buy the same weight of boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, and cut up the meat yourself. If you’d prefer, pinto beans can be substituted for the black beans.

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100% Whole Grain Chocolate Peanut Butter Macaroons

Lauren is the queen of macaroons. The only other macaroon recipe I’ve posted was also adapted from her recipe. Why go elsewhere when she’s got in down?!

She recently posted some double chocolate macaroons and I just had to get some peanut butter involved in there. So I replaced half of the coconut butter with peanut butter. And they were awesome. I just had to make them the next day to see if using all peanut butter would work, and it did. So there you go. No need to buy expensive coconut butter or make it yourself. Just please, use natural peanut butter. These willnot come out well if you use the regular stuff!

Don’t like peanut butter or have allergies? Go check out the original. It’s peanut butter free! And I’m not so sure about using other nut butters here but now that I think about it, I’m so trying these with hazelnut butter.

I used 1/2 cup of maple syrup and it was enough for me, but I imagine these would be even tastier with the 3/4 cup called for in Lauren’s recipe. And because I recently found a few bags of peanut butter chips in my cupboard, I threw some of those in, too. So I guess I basically added the sugar back in peanut butter chip form, but that’s so much more exciting than in maple syrup form, right? I suppose you could leave them out, but that’d just be plain silly. And plus the peanut butter flavor isn’t strong enough without them.

I just realized that these are 100% whole grain, gluten-free and vegan if you leave out the peanut butter chips. But don’t let these labels deter you from making these. They just taste like little balls of happiness.

Oh, and another thing. I promise to stop posting chocolate + peanut butter + coconut recipes for a while. I didn’t want to post this today, but everything else I’ve tried lately hasn’t been blog-worthy. Or it just totally failed. So bear with me I try to come up with something a little different!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Macaroons

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• Prep Time: 5 min
• Cook Time: 12 min
• Ready in: 17 min
• Yield: 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 8 ounces (225 grams) natural peanut butter
• ½ cup - ¾ cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup dark cocoa powder
• 1 cup shredded or desiccated coconut
• 1 cup old-fashioned / rolled oats, non-contaminated for gluten-free
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ¼ cup peanut butter chips, optional

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and prepare a baking sheet with a Silpat or a piece of parchment paper.
2. Using a hand mixer, mix all the ingredients through salt together in a large bowl. Add in the chocolate and peanut butter chips.
3. Using a 1 tbsp measuring spoon, scoop out tablespoons of dough and place about 1 centimeter apart on the prepared baking sheet. They will not spread very much.
4. Bake for 12 minutes and let cool until set. Store in an airtight container for up to one week.

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Broccoli Cole Slaw

Ingredients

2 bags (3-ounce) Ramen Noodle Soup in Oriental (other flavors will work, too)

3/4 stick butter

1/4 cup slivered almonds

2 bags (12-ounce) bags broccoli cole slaw (in the bagged salad section of the grocery store)

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Chopped green onions, for garnish

Dressing Mix:

3/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup brown or white sugar

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 ramen noodle seasoning packet

Directions

Put the ramen noodles in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin while melting butter in a large skillet over low/medium heat. Add the crushed noodles and slivered almonds to the skillet and saute, stirring occasionally (keep temperature at low/medium heat). Meanwhile, whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Place the shredded broccoli into bowl and toss with the noodles, almonds, and sunflower seeds. Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat. Garnish with chopped green onions.

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Barbecue Chicken with Mustard Glaze

         

            A five-ingredient barbecue rub and a three-ingredient basting sauce are all you need to take chicken from routine to off-the-charts good. An assortment of spices mixed with common condiments makes a thick, tangy-sweet mustard glaze with a hint of smokiness. Grilled summer squash makes a light, fresh side.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup ketchup 
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon sherry or red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 8 (6-ounce) skinless, bone-in chicken thighs
• Cooking spray

Preparation

1. 1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. Combine ketchup and next 3 ingredients (through mustard) in a small bowl; stir with a whisk.
2. 2. Heat a large grill pan over medium-high heat. Rub spice mixture evenly over chicken thighs. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook 12 minutes. Turn chicken over. Brush with half of ketchup mixture; cook 12 minutes. Turn chicken over. Brush with remaining ketchup mixture; cook 2 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165°.
3. Grilled summer squash: Cut 2 zucchini and 1 yellow squash lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Brush with 2 teaspoons olive oil; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Grill 3 minutes on each side or until tender.

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Ten-Minute Chickpea Salad

             You walk in the door at 5:30 p.m. Your highly lovable but also highly energetic kids are happy to see you and ready to be entertained. Your spouse (who is surely happy to see you even though forgetting to tell you) stares at your hands, which are holding nothing but your briefcase and now-empty lunch sack. “Did you remember to stop at the grocery store and pick up the salad for the neighborhood block party?”

Depending on your day, a blank stare or expletive-laced outburst could follow. Which will it be? How about a different option altogether in the form of whipping up this chickpea salad as did Michael Natkin, who wrote about a very similar scenario which inspired a very similar recipe. He shared both in his lovely cookbook Herbivoracious.(He writes a blog by the same name.) “Born out of desperation” is how he put it.

                  The desperation (so to speak) I typically face when wanting to create a quick meal is having something I can prepare relatively quickly that is also relatively healthy. I think this fits the bill. And because it is a salad, you can do pretty much anything you want with it. Add a can of black beans in place of one can of chickpeas. Not a fan of peppers or sundried tomatoes? Add olives or artichoke hearts or sunflower seeds.

Nakin suggests using fresh tarragon, dill or mint in place of a handful of basil. I did not use basil at all because I wanted the leftovers to keep for lunch. Like the overall idea of this salad but loathe chickpeas? Toss in cooked quinoa or couscous instead. No matter how you toss it, I am sure you can’t go wrong. Enjoy!

Ten-Minute Chickpea Salad

Author: adapted from Herbivoracious by Michael Natkin

Recipe type: side dish

Serves: 8

 

Ingredients

• For the Salad
• 2, 15-ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup red onion, diced (about ½ onion)
• 1 cup English cucumber, chopped
• 1 pepper or 1 jar of roasted peppers
• 1 cup crumbled Feta cheese
• ½ cup sundried tomatoes
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• For the Dressing
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Stir together all of the salad ingredients, from the chickpeas to the garlic.
2. Immediately before serving, stir together the lemon juice and the olive oil and pour over the salad.
3. Stir to coat and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

If desired, roast the pepper over dry heat before adding it to the salad. Do this by heating a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and then adding the whole pepper. Roll the pepper from side to side every few minutes or so until nicely charred. Once cool enough to handle, chop, seed and add it to the salad.

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I was in Sweden for a long weekend and I returned last night. I love everything about that place, but most of all – the people and the culture. I have an extremely soft spot in my heart for Sweden and Swedes and if I could live anywhere I wanted, I’d live in a small Swedish village in a cute red house overlooking a lake. But alas – there are hightaxes to pay, jobs to be had, etc. But I have hope for the future. :)

I love Sweden so much that I chose to be an exchange student there in both high school and college. The first time, I was 16 and lived with a crazy family who happened to be vegetarian. It wasn’t a happy situation food-wise. When I knew they’d be gone, I’d go and buy a bag of frozen meatballs, prepare them really quickly and run away to my room and just devour them. It was great fun.

Then the second time I was in Sweden (which is where I met Mr. T, by the way) I decided I didn’t like Swedish meatballs and didn’t eat any of them. I’m weird like that. At least with food. Only recently was my passion for Swedish meatballs reignited and luckily, I no longer have to hide my meat eating.

These are super easy to make and relatively quick, too. Just mix everything together, bake the meatballs in the oven, and then pan fry a little so that they’re nice and crunchy. If you want, you can just bake them, but they won’t have that crust which I think is totally necessary for Swedish meatballs. Or you can just fry them in the pan without baking them first, but this will take a long time and you’ll need to stand over the meatballs to turn them every so often. The meatballs are spiced with both allspice and nutmeg so that they actually taste like something, which is something I’ve missed in other recipes.

This recipe was born out of a need to get rid of some ricotta. And it worked! The ricotta took the place of breadcrumbs and they unintentionally became gluten-free.

Another bonus with these meatballs – they’re not made from horsemeat! Yeah! :D

I know that Swedish meatball recipes usually have gravy recipes included, but I have never seen sauce served with meatballs in Sweden. It could just be who I’m hanging around with or have lived with, but I’ve always been served meatballs alongside mashed potatoes or buttered macaroni. And not only that, but I don’t like sauce and therefore can’t judge what’s good. ;) So here you are – just the meatballs!

Gluten-free Swedish Meatballs

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• Prep Time: 5 min
• Cook Time: 20 min
• Ready in: 25 min
• Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• ½ cup (1.2dl) onion, minced
• 1 egg, room temperature
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 pound (455 grams) ground pork and beef mix (mine was about 60% pork and 40% beef)
• ⅔ cup (160 grams) Ricotta
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C). Get out a 9" x 13" baking dish or another pan large enough for the meatballs.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the first seven ingredients (onion through Worcestershire sauce). Then add in the meat and mix together, just until combined. Add in the Ricotta. You can add more or less if you like.
3. Form into tablespoon sized balls, place in the baking dish, and bake for 10 minutes.
4. The last two minutes of baking, melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Then fry the meatballs in the butter until nicely browned, about 5 - 10 minutes, and serve.

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Mexican Shrimp Cocktail

          Hello weekend! Sacramento can’t decide if it wants to be hot or cool right now. But the weather has been cooperating gloriously recently, with lots of sun, perfect for relaxing on the patio with tortilla chips or saltines and some coctel de camarones, or Mexican shrimp cocktail. I love this version of shrimp cocktail, it’s sort of like a virgin bloody mary with cucumber, celery, red onions, avocados and lots of shrimp. Perfect for dipping, or eating with a spoon. Or picking out the shrimp pieces with a fork, then the avocado pieces, and then eating the rest with a spoon as if it were gazpacho. Enjoy!

 Recipe :

• Prep time: 20 minutes
• Cook time: 15 minutes

If it's tomato season, use freshly chopped tomatoes with their juices, instead of the canned tomatoes.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound medium shrimp, raw or cooked
• Salt
• 1 cup chopped red onion
• 1 cup peeled, diced cucumber
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 1 15-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped OR 1 1/2 cups of freshly chopped tomatoes with their juices
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• Juice of a lime, about 2 Tbsp
• Hot sauce (like Crystal or Tabasco) to taste (about 1 Tbsp to 1/4 cup of Crystal)
• 1 avocado, cut into chunks

METHOD

1 If you have pre-cooked, peeled and deveined shrimp you can skip to the next step. If you are working with raw shrimp, peel and devein them. If you have a little extra time and want your shrimp to be extra good, put the shells in 1 1/2 quarts of cool salted water, bring to a boil, then strain the shell stock into a separate pot and cook the shrimp in that liquid. If you want to skip that step, just bring a medium pot salted water to a boil (a tbsp salt for 2 quarts of water), add the shrimp, and cook for 2-3 minutes, until just cooked through. Reserve a cup of the cooking water and chill it.

2 Cut half of the shrimp into large chunks, leaving the other half whole (for a more attractive presentation). Put the chopped shrimp in a bowl with the chopped onions, cucumber, celery, jalapeno, tomatoes, ketchup, cilantro, lime juice and hot sauce. Gently stir to combine, and chill. Once the cooking water has cooled at least to room temperature, add a little at a time to the shrimp cocktail, until the shrimp cocktail is the consistency you want (we like ours a little on the soupy side).

3 To serve, add salt and more hot sauce to taste and gently mix in the chopped avocados. Dip the whole shrimp in the cocktail and arrange them on top. Serve in parfait glasses or in small bowls with tortilla chips on the side.

Yield: Serves 4-6.

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