Category Archives: Etcetera

Quick Recipe: Easy Chicken Tikka

Chicken Tikka kicks ass. It’s the chicken fingers of Indian food. You can find it everywhere, it tastes amazing, and everybody loves it. Originally stemming from Indian Punjabi cuisine, the U.K. miraculously likes to take credit for it somehow, since one account states a Pakistani man created it in a restaurant in Glasgow. Despite that, it’s undoubtedly rooted in Indian heritage using curry spices and being cooked in manners consistent with Eastern food. If you want to get technical, Chicken Tikka is plain old boneless chicken pieces marinated in a spiced yogurt. Chicken Tikka Masala is that same thing, only served in a curry sauce, aka a masala. Though it seems fairly intimidating to cook at first, the effort is sooooo worth it in the end since it tastes amazing and looks super fancy. Serve it with some rice or homemade pilaf!

 

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Smoothie Sunday: Ginger Pear Smoothie

I originally thought of using this flavor combo for the oatmeal smoothie, but the pears I bought weren’t ripe the morning my overnight oatmeal was ready.  So I decided to wait and have it be its own smoothie.  I’m glad I did wait, because the pear flavor, while yummy, is rather delicate, and would have been way overpowered by the oatmeal.  This way is better because you can actually taste the flavors being featured.

Here's what you'll need.

Here’s what you’ll need.

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Quick Recipe: Easy Rice Pilaf

Rice pilaf is a pretty wide open dish with lots of variations, so pinpointing it as one recipe can be tricky. Personally I like to keep it simple and forgo the numerous vegetables, meats, nuts, and other foodstuffs that more complex recipes usually call for. This recipe produces a light but tasty rice dish that’s great alongside meats and veggies, but tastes so good, you can just eat it on its own and still enjoy it. Personally, I always make it alongside Chicken Tikka and other chicken dishes with lots of spices involved.

 

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Smoothie Sunday: Blueberry Oatmeal Smoothie

I like eating oatmeal for breakfast, and usually have it at least once a week during the colder months.  Unfortunately during the summer it’s usually too hot for me to want to eat something hot for breakfast.  But this year instead of giving up on oatmeal for the next 3ish months I decided to try working it into some of my smoothies.  In my research I noticed that most people just toss oatmeal into the smoothie and let it absorb the liquid for a few minutes before blending.  But I didn’t want this to be a smoothie that just happened to have oats in it…I wanted it to be an oatmeal smoothie.  So I decided to mix things up and use overnight oatmeal in my smoothie.  Overnight refrigerator oatmeal is made by mixing oats, milk, yogurt and other flavorings in a container and letting it sit in the fridge overnight.  By morning the oatmeal is nice and soft and ready to eat.  So this smoothie involves a bit of advanced planning, but I think it’s worth it.

Ingredients photo.

Ingredients photo.

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Quick Recipe: Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes

These pancakes are a delicious way to add fresh strawberries into your breakfast. Shortcake is one of my favorite desserts of all time, so I made this recipe to change up the basic pancake formula to make them a bit sweeter and more buttery, since shortcake tends to have a higher fat content than other cakes. The strawberries themselves form a natural syrup with sugar added onto them, so this gets poured onto the tops, making everything delicious and berry-flavored.

 

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