Black Cherry Yogurt Crepes

March 13, 2013 by Nancy Piran 9 Comments

As you have seen already, I do a lot of pancakes. I think I am declaring Wednesdays as Pancake Wednesdays. That seems to be the day I end up making pancakes for dinner.

Well this week I decided to change it up just a bit and I made crepes instead. The kids swear I have made them before but I just can’t remember, it must be my age catching up with me.

I set out on the Internet to find a good recipe. Well how can you go wrong with Julia Child? I love sitting down and watching her old cooking shows on our Hulu Plus.

I found her crepe recipe to be very easy to make. It is a bit time consuming when cooking them because you do one at a time but it is really worth the extra effort.

The black cherry yogurt I used is Chobani’s Black Cherry Greek Yogurt. I am a super nut about using Chobani. For a while I have been telling you how I am trying to go eggless in my baking. Well I am getting close and Chobani yogurts are helping me!

I can’t rave enough about them. They are so flavorful and they really kick up the moisture in my baked goods to a whole new level!

We really enjoyed these crepes, though next time I think I will double the recipe. We could of eaten twice as many as we did but what we did have was so delicious!

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BLACK CHERRY YOGURT CREPES

recipe from Julia Child’s All-Purpose Crepe

YIELDS: 4 servings (about 20 crepes)

PREP TIME: 35 minutes

COOK TIME: 30

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour and 5 minutes

Ingredients:

FOR THE CREPE:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cold milk

2/3 cup cold water

3 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons melted butter

FOR THE FILLING:

2- 6oz containers of Chobani Black Cherry Yogurt

Directions:

1. Combine all crepe ingredients into a food processor and pulse together until you have mixed it well.

2. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Take your smallest frying pan, spray with cooking spray and heat over medium heat.

4. Take 2 tablespoons of the batter and pour into the center of your frying pan. Using handle pick up pan and swirl the mixture around till it has coated the bottom of the pan.

5. Cook for 1 minute, then flip and cook another 1 minute. Set aside your crepes on a plate as you cook them.

6. When all crepes are done. Lay one out on your plate. Spoon 1 tablespoon of yogurt down the center and roll up the crepe.

7. Add any toppings you like, serve and ENJOY!

***notes***

as I cooked and my pan got hotter, the crepes cooked up faster, so in the end the process was moving along quicker then in the beginning when I was getting my bearings on how to make them.

Also here after I rolled my crepes, I sprinkles with powdered sugar, drizzles with chocolate and diced up some bananas. It was a great combination!

Check out these great blogs where this recipe is linked at!

Easter Chicken

March 11, 2013 by Nancy Piran 4 Comments

Every few months I receive this little magazine called La Cucina Italiana. It is the only food magazine that I get throughout the year. I adore the recipes and stories that they have in their magazine. It makes me feel to be back in Italy. I love it because there is so much about the Italian culture in the magazine as well. Things that may not come up on a day to day basis with my husband, but it helps me to learn new stuff all the time about customs with food. Such as certain ways dishes are prepared or why they have certain celebrations in Italy or which is the best wine that is compatible with a certain meal. Informative things like that.

What I love even more is that this magazine also gives culture history about certain regions in Italy. In Italy, it is divided up into regions not states. There is an article about Easter Monday or Pasquetta (little Easter) and what the custom is in the Puglia Region. The picture for this dish called l’agnello di pasquetta or Little Easter Lamb was so intriguing to me that I was immediately sucked in. I knew I had to replicate this dish in some way. I have never cooked with Lamb so I decided to just use the ingredients I had on hand and go for it. It was so great to make and so easy, I feel like I barely did any work to pull this dinner out of the oven and serve.

You won’t find the original recipe online unless you have a log in for the magazine but this issue and the magazine are totally worth going out and picking up a copy. You will find this recipe on page 29.

Reading this issue makes me curious as to what kinds of traditions you all have for Easter? Do you celebrate it? Do you do anything special for the day after? Do you have any specific food you absolutely have to have? So let me know, lets chat! I would love to hear what you will be doing as well!

EASTER CHICKEN

recipe adapted from La Cucina Italiana magazine page 29.

YIELDS: 4 servings

PREP TIME: 10 minutes

COOK TIME: 1 hour and 30 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour and 40 minutes

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

3 green onions, chopped (using all of the green and white on the onion)

8 chicken thighs

salt

pepper

1 1/3 cup white wine

3 large brown eggs

1 cup mild sharp cheese, shredded

3 cups frozen mixed vegetables, unthawed

2 teaspoons dried parsley

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375° degrees, placing rack in the middle.

2. Using a dutch oven or an oven resistant pot, heat oil on medium heat. Then add onion and cook till softened.

3. Season chicken with salt and pepper.

4. Pull out the onion from the oil and reserve it in a dish and add the chicken. Brown on both sides for about 5 minutes on each side.

5. Pull out the chicken and add it to the onions. Remove oil from pan and discard it.

6. Add 1/3 of white wine to pot. Stir to release the bits from the bottom of pan. Return chicken and onion to pan. Add remaining wine.

7. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

8. Place lid on pot or foil and put into oven for 30 minutes.

9. In the meantime whisk together egg and cheese. Remove pot from oven Add mixed vegetables first, then add egg mixture.

10. Place lid or foil back on and return for 15 minutes to oven. After 15 minutes is done, uncover and let the top brown for 10 minutes.

11. Remove from oven, sprinkle with parsley, cool and ENJOY!

Cool Mint Oreo Granola Bars

March 6, 2013 by Nancy Piran 5 Comments

Staying on the theme of mint I picked up some Cool Mint Oreos when I was at Target last week. I have been holding them in my baking cabinet, eyeing them every time I open the door. I kept wandering what I was going to make with them.

My daughter needs a snack at school everyday so i knew i needed to make some granola bars for her to take.

When I started to think about the granola bars I also started to think about how I could incorporate these Oreos as well. I definitely knew I would do something really different with these. There are a lot of cookies and cream bars out there on the internet but not a whole lot of granola bars with Oreos. So I said to myself “lets give it a try”

What I love about this recipe is that I decided this time to make my usually mixture but put it in a larger pan. I used my 9 x 13 glass baking dish instead of my 8 x 8. This was helpful because I took half the pan and just made Cool Mint Granola. The rest of the pan I made into these bars.

This serves two purposes for me. One I am not eating too many of these Cool Mint Oreo Granola Bars (like now as I am snacking on them and writing this post) and two I have some granola hanging out in my freezer now, that I can just pull out whenever I want.

In case you are wondering I will do a single post later just for the granola!

COOL MINT OREO GRANOLA BARS

recipe adapted from my Honey Granola Bars

YIELDS: 8 bars

PREP TIME: 30 minutes

COOK TIME: 5 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

2 cups quick oats

1 cup crushed rice Chex Mix

10 Cool Mint Oreo, crushed

6 Cool Mint Oreo, roughly chopped

3/4 cup white chocolate chip

Directions:

1. Melt butter, sugar and honey.

2. Boil till all sugar has dissolved.

3. Take off heat.

4. In large bowl and add oats, Chex Mix and 10 Oreos crushed. Then pour butter mixer over and stir.

5. Spread out in 9×13 baking dish and rest for 15 minutes in refrigerator.

6. In the meantime, melt white chocolate chips.

7. Pull baking dish out of refrigerator, cut granola in half.

8. On one half of the granola, spread out the white chocolate to make an even coat on top.

9. Sprinkle with 6 Oreos roughly chopped and press down into white chocolate.

10. Rest another 15 minutes in refrigerator till harden.

11. Cut into bars and ENJOY!

***notes***

to make the entire pan into bars melt 1 1/2 cups white chocolate and roughly chop 12 Cool Mint Oreos. this will make about 16 bars.

This is linked over at tidymom!

Mint Chocolate Chip Pancakes

March 4, 2013 by Nancy Piran 16 Comments

We are a little crazy with pancakes around here. I am always trying to think of ways we can jazz them up a little. With St. Patrick’s Day being this month there is a lot of green going on around the internet and the food world. I immediately knew I wanted to do something to join in.

So when the kids had Friday off of school last week I decided it would be a good morning for us do to some pancakes. We definitely knew we wanted to try something new. Then the wheels started turning. My daughter and I had just been discussing last week ice cream flavors. I know her favorite is Mint Chocolate Chip.

So then the wheels started moving faster and I said what about Mint Chocolate Chip Pancakes. The kids were instantly sold!

It worked out great for this morning to make them. I had all of the ingredients right in my cabinets (surprise, surprise) so I was able to pull them out and whip these up in no time at all. The kids had a great time watching as we cooked the pancakes. It was fun to see if we were really going to have a green pancake or not.

I was so happy with how these came out. They tasted great and the color was fun to look at. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to achieve the green minty pancake when I finished them up.

Hope you will find sometime to make your own Mint Chocolate Chip Pancakes and add a little green into your day!

MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES

this recipe is adapted from my Butterscotch Pancakes

YIELDS: 15 pancakes

PREP TIME: 5 minutes

COOK TIME: 20 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

1/2 cup chocolate chip

chocolate sprinkles

green food coloring

Directions:

1. In mixer combine flour, baking powder and sugar.

2. Whisk together milk, water, eggs, oil and peppermint extract in small bowl.

3. Add milk mixture to flour and on low speed mix well.

4. Mix in green food coloring, adding drops till you have reached your desired shade of green.

5. Stir in chocolate chips and sprinkles.

6. Cook on griddle or in non stick pan till bubbles form and break.

7. Then flip and cook for 2 minutes more or until brown.

7. ENJOY with your favorite maple syrup!

Peperonata

February 27, 2013 by Nancy Piran Leave a Comment

I bought a huge bag of mini sweet peppers at our local discount market. I wanted to try and use them up before they stayed in the refrigerator and went bad so my husband suggested peperonata.

So what exactly is peperonata? Basically it is italian for stewed peppers. You will see lots of recipes online making this side dish different ways. Certain informational websites that are rumored to not be so accurate (I won’t name names) but it says this is made with peppers, onions, and garlic. Well because there does not seem to be a standard recipe for this I would not call that 100% accurate.

After the hubby suggested this I asked him specifically how he would make this? Then he gave me the recipe. I kind of knew how to make it already because I had already seen him make it once before but for the purpose of blogging and wanting to get you guys a recipe other then, throw in a little of this or throw in a little of that, I figured it would be better to write down amounts. See I do think of you on my days off!

So from our little italian cucina to yours, happy cooking!

PEPERONATA

YIELDS: 4 servings
PREP TIME: 20 minutes
COOK TIME: 1 hour
TOTAL TIME: 1 hour and 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 white onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound mini sweet Multi-colored peppers
splash of water

Directions:

1. Combine onion, carrot and celery into a pot with olive oil

2. Cook on medium heat till vegetables are translucent. About 5 minutes.

3. Add peppers cover and cook on low heat for an hour. Stir often so peppers don’t stick.
I also added a splash of water to give them a little moisture after about 30 minutes.

4. After an hour, take off heat, stir, cool and ENJOY!

***notes***

these can definitely be cooked in less amount of time but they are much better when they are cooked at an hour or longer.

We eat this alone, over rice, meat or pasta.

BLACK CHERRY YOGURT CREPES

YIELDS: 4 servings (about 20 crepes)

PREP TIME: 35 minutes

COOK TIME: 30

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour and 5 minutes

Ingredients:

Directions:

EASTER CHICKEN

YIELDS: 4 servings

PREP TIME: 10 minutes

COOK TIME: 1 hour and 30 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour and 40 minutes

Ingredients:

Directions:

COOL MINT OREO GRANOLA BARS

YIELDS: 8 bars

PREP TIME: 30 minutes

COOK TIME: 5 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

Directions:

MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES

YIELDS: 15 pancakes

PREP TIME: 5 minutes

COOK TIME: 20 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

Directions:

PEPERONATA

YIELDS: 4 servings PREP TIME: 20 minutes COOK TIME: 1 hour TOTAL TIME: 1 hour and 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Directions:

Privacy Policy

YIELDS: 4 servings
PREP TIME: 20 minutes
COOK TIME: 1 hour
TOTAL TIME: 1 hour and 20 minutes