Homemade Garlic Cream Sauce

Makes about 1 cup of sauce

Cooking time: 30-40 minutes

This sauce is so good on everything, and also great for dipping things in. I've used this sauce to put on pasta, to spread on sandwiches of all kinds, dipping for chicken or steak, dipping for french fries, and even as a ranch substitute for chicken wings.  It's so good you can even just dip pretzels or chips in it. 

I've always been a fan of alfredo sauce and someone told me one day that it's made from boiling down heavy whipping cream + parm cheese until it thickens. I've been making alfredo that way for a couple of years now but I've realized overtime you can make any type of white sauce really with heavy whipping cream as the base. I started adding garlic without the parmesan cheese, and I've also added dill weed to make it have a sort of ranch dressing taste to it.  Also, you can add sriracha, hot sauce, buffalo sauce, mustard, or any other of your favorite sauces. If you want the best and most potent type of garlic flavor you can sauté garlic cloves in a little bit of butter and substitute the garlic butter in for the granulated that I suggested in the recipe below.  

The only downside of this recipe is that it does take a while for the heavy cream to thicken, and you can only cook it on low heat settings or else it will burn at the bottom of the pan.  Also, if the heat is too high the cream will bubble up and overflow, trust me it can get messy.  You have to be patient with it, and stir it pretty frequently so that it doesn't get clumpy or burnt.  If you become too impatient you can add pinches of flour into the mixture to speed up the thickening process.  

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated garlic

1 tablespoons onion powder

1 tablespoon parsley

1 tablespoon dill weed (optional for ranch taste)

1 pinch of salt

2 or 3 pinches of black crushed pepper

* Parm cheese can be sprinkled in to make it more of an alfredo garlic sauce, I would say about 1/4 cup cheese.

Directions:

1. Pour heavy cream into a small pan and turn the flame to medium-low.

2. Mix in the rest of the ingredients.

3. Once it starts to bubble you can turn the heat down to simmer or low.  Make sure you stir the sauce at least every 30 seconds- 1 minute.  It takes about 20 minutes for the sauce to thicken up, as soon as it reaches a thick texture (like ranch dressing) it should be done! You can use it while it's warm or you can chill it.  

5 Step Soy/Sriracha-Mayo Stir Fry

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Serving Size: About 3 people

This is my favorite stir fry of all time. I've made this for a lot of people and every single person raves over it, it's sooo good, and also, it's pretty easy to make. 

One of the best parts about this recipe is that you can switch up the ingredients every time you make it.  I started off by just guesstimating the ingredients and never really kept track of how much I used of what, so if for some reason you want more flavor of a certain ingredient, go ahead and add more, it shouldn't mess up the final product at all because this is a flexible recipe.  

You can also use whatever combination of vegetables you like.  I've used different combinations of broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, snow peas, onion, peas, and many more in each stir fry. 

You can also use other noodles besides Korean glass noodles.  The glass noodles are my favorite because I love the smooth and chewy texture.  FYI, they don't sell glass noodles at the grocery store, you will have to go to a Korean or Chinese Market.  I literally googled "Chinese market + my location", and called the first store that popped up and they had them in stock!  Sometimes people refer to them as 'sweet potato noodles', because they are made from sweet potato starch, don't get confused! Sweet potato noodles, glass noodles, clear translucent glass noodles, are all the same thing.  Also, don't get the glass noodles confused with rice noodles.. rice noodles are less translucent than glass noodles and they are easier to accidentally overcook. 

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. Korean glass noodles
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 stick of butter chopped into slices
1/4 cup Sriarcha Mayo
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of teriyaki 
3 tablespoons of stir fry sauce
1/2 cup matchstick carrots
1 cup meat (shrimp, chicken, steak)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 cup scallions
1/4 cup onions
1/4 cup mushrooms 
1/2 cup of broccoli 

Directions:
1. Prepare glass noodles according to package.
2. In a Wok or large skillet combine vegetable oil, butter, onions, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, and scallions. Medium heat. 
3. Lets the flavors seep out of your veggies and into the oil for about 10 minutes then add in your meat.  After the meat is about half way cooked, start adding in your sauces; soy, sriracha mayo, teriyaki, stir fry sauce.
4. Once all mixed together you can add in the noodles and garlic powder. 
5. Let cook for about 10-15 minutes, stir/mix frequently, then you're all done! 

Cornflake Crusted Buffalo Chicken Garlic Bread Sandwich.  

Prep Time: 10
Cooking time: 20

On my Instagram caption I hash-tagged "amazeballs," because literally this was one of the best things ever. I love garlic bread, and I love buffalo chicken... so why not?  Anything cornflake crusted with butter drizzled over it is always going to be so "amazeballs".  [If you are going to make home made garlic bread I would suggest spreading butter on two pieces of bread and sprinkling some garlic salt on top, very easy!!]

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast, fully thawed
1 teaspoon of water
1 egg
1 1/2 cup cornflakes
1/4 cup of shredded cheese
2 or 3 slices of muenster cheese
1 or 2 pieces of lettuce
1 tablespoon Sriracha mayo
2 tablespoons of melted butter
2 pieces of garlic bread


Cooking Instructions:
1. Marinate chicken in buffalo sauce for 2 + hours.
2. Preheat the oven to 400. Place a piece of tinfoil on an oven safe cookie sheet, and spray it with PAM.
3. Crush up cornflakes in a zip lock bag, then pour them out onto a plate.
4. Crack the egg and add a teaspoon of water in a bowl, mix it all together until well blended.
5. After the chicken is done marinating, dip it in the bowl and cover it with the egg mixture, move quickly so that you don't lose all the buffalo.

6. Place the chicken on the cornflake plate and make sure the entire chicken breast is covered with flakes. Once it's covered, drizzle the melted butter on top in a swirling pattern. Place the breast on the tinfoil and put in the oven for 20 minutes.
7. During the last 5-10 minutes of the chicken's baking time, add in two pieces of either store bought or home made garlic bread. 
8. The garlic bread should be toasted when the chicken is done.
9. Assemble the sandwich:  Garlic bread, sriracha mayo, lettuce, chicken, sriracha mayo, cheese, garlic bread. 
10. Shove yo face. 

Pumpkin Gnocchi 

Serving Size: 4-5 people

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Today it was extremely cold, gloomy, and rainy in Cleveland.  Naturally, I was craving carbs and something fall-ish. I really enjoyed making this gnocchi because it was so simple.  Just flour, egg, and pumpkin!  The fact that this recipe was so simple made me feel so much less guilty about the carb consumption; because usually store bough gnocchi contains various ingredients (half of which are unrecognizable or impossible to pronounce) as well as preservatives.  

It was a bit tricky because the dough is very sticky (that rhymes haha) so make sure you have plenty of flour to help keep it from clinging to your fingers because once you start to touch it, it loses its firm dough texture and will stick to anything. I used the same organic pumpkin that I used in my pumpkin pancake recipe (from Trader Joe's). I'm sure you could substitute whole wheat flour in the recipe if you wanted to make it a bit healthier, but all I had was white flour.  

Ingredients:

1 cup of mashed pumpkin or pumpkin puree 

1 egg

1 1/2 cups of flour

Cooking instructions:

1. Mix the flour, egg, and pumpkin in a bowl and start to kneed the dough.

2. Once you have a doughy texture, roll the dough into a few 1" thick rows.

3. Slice the rows into little squares, should be about 1" x 1". I used a pizza cutter, but you could use any type of knife for cutting.

4. Boil the desired amount of gnocchi until they float to the top of the boiling water.

5. You can put the leftover Gnocchi in the freezer on a sheet of wax paper, once the gnocchi is frozen you can place them all in a zip lock back for more convenient storing. 

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Peas, Creamy Garlic Sauce, Balsamic, and Feta.
Ingredients for garlic cream sauce:
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 stick of butter
3 teaspoons of flour
2 or 3 garlic cloves
Balsamic glaze
3 tablespoons of crumbled feta cheese

Instructions:
1. Pour milk, minced garlic cloves, and butter in a small pot on low heat.
2. Once the butter melts, reduce the heat to simmer.
3. Add pinches of flour to the mix in order to thicken it up, it should be done after about 15 minutes of simmering. You should see it bubbling a little bit, be sure to keep your eye on the sauce while it simmers because milk tends to burn easily.
4. Prepare the peas while the sauce is simmering.
5. Glaze a plate with balsamic glaze.
6. Place the gnocchi on the plate.
7. Pour the peas and garlic sauce onto the gnocchi.
8. Top with feta and you are all done!

Cheesy Pretzel Bread

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 25-35 mintues

Serving Size: 4-5 people

This is a loaf of bread stuffed and packed with a pound of two different cheeses.  I got the idea from a random Tumblr account, I saw something called "Cheesy Pull Apart Bread".  I made my own version of it based off what the picture on Tumblr looked like.. so this is an original recipe! What's better than a pound of soft gooey melted cheese and warm bread? 

So I want to tell you about this chihuahua cheese, because until recently I had no idea what it was. It is mexican, it can be used to make white queso, or queso blanco.  I always get chihuahua cheese on my pork tacos at Barrio in Lakewood, so when I saw it in the cheese section at Heinen's the other day I knew I wanted to try it with this recipe.  You've all dipped chips in white queso before right? Well that is the same kind of cheese thats melted into this bread! SO GOOD. 

Ingredients:
1 lb of cheese. Whatever kind is your favorite.  (I used one medium sized block of gouda cheese and another medium block of chihuahua queso cheese). 
1/2 cup of chopped green onions.
1 round loaf of any bread really but I used pretzel bread.

Cooking Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Slice the bread up like a checker board, first longways, then sideways.  Make sure you cut all the way down to the bottom because when you want the melted cheese to melt all the way down to the base of the loaf. It helps to hold the pieces together while cutting through because you don't want to accidentally rip one of the sections off.  Slice slowly with a firm grip.
3. Fill the cracks with pieces of cheese, or if you are using sprinkle cheese then fill up all the crevices with that.  Once again, make sure the cheese gets in every crack all the way to the bottom of the loaf. 
4. Once filled with cheese, sprinkle some fresh scallions on top and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. (You can also sprinkle garlic salt, or any type of seasoning on the top to add more flavor).  
5. After the bread has been in the oven for the 25 minutes, check to see if the cheese is melted all the way through. You do this by sticking a knife in the middle all the way down to to see if the cheese at the bottom is melted.  If it's not, leave it in the oven for 5-10 more minutes and check again.  You can cover the top of the bread with tinfoil if it starts to burn. 
6. When it's finally done you can pull out the squares of bread and dip them in whatever kind of sauce you want.  Definitely one of my favorite snacks I have ever made!

Sweet Chili Chicken Spring Rolls

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes
Serving Size 2-3 people

Ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts
1/2 cup of sweet chili sauce
3/4 cup of matchstick carrots
1 package of spring roll wrappers
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 bushels of mini bibb lettuce

Cooking Instructions:
1. Put the carrots in olive oil on low heat and let simmer.
2. While the carrots are simmering put the chicken breasts in a skillet on medium heat and cook for 6 minutes on each side.
3. Prepare a small amount of the glass noodles according to the directions on the box they were packaged in. Drain the noodles and cut them into pieces about an inch or two long. 
4.  When the chicken is white on the outsides pour the sweet chili sauce ontop and keep adding it as you continue to flip the chicken.  (The chicken will be done as soon as the inside isn't pink.)
5. Remove the carrots from heat, and chop the chicken into small cubes. Set out all of your materials in order to assemble the spring rolls.
6. Wet a rice wrap in warm water, it will then be easier to roll without cracking or breaking. 7. Place the lettuce leaf sideways and fill it up with the glass noodles, chicken, and carrots. 

8. Start to wrap the lettuce leaf starting at the bottom, just like a burrito.  (Tip: Be gentle, because the wrap is extremely thin and can rip very easily when it's moistened.) It will stick together and will be ready to eat once rolled! 

FYI:  Glass noodles are really hard to find, and are usually sold at foreign or exotic supermarkets.  They are made from only sweet potato starch and water!  Much healthier than regular pasta, and also, they are gluten free.  The texture is very smooth, slippery, and stretchy. You can use them in soup, in a stir fry, or even just plain with sauce. Here is a link where you can buy them from if you don't happen to live near a Chinese supermarket. http://www.amazon.com/Dragonfly-Sweet-Potato-Vermicelli-ounce/dp/B005S9U0A8

Tortellini & Mushroom Curry Soup

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time:  15 minutes

Ingredients:

3 cups water

1 cup coconut milk

3 tablespoons of Sriracha hot sauce

3 tablespoons of red curry paste

1 tablespoon of salt

2 chicken bullion cubes

1 cup of sliced mushrooms

3 cups of tortellini 
1/2 cup of chopped scallions

Cooking Instructions:

1.  Bring salt, bullion cubes, water, and coconut milk to a boil.

2.  Add in the red curry paste and Sriracha, then mix, you should notice the broth turning a 'macaroni orange' color.

3.  Add in the mushrooms, scallions, and tortellini and let boil on low heat for about 10-15 minutes. 

4.  Eat it while it's still hot! If you want it to be spicier you can always add in any type of hot sauce or red pepper flakes.