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.  

Deep Fried Mac & Cheese Bars

Prep Time: Overnight
Cooking time: 10 Minutes

I've experimented with deep frying things before but nothing like this has ever been created in my kitchen.  I was thinking hard about deep fried macaroni and cheese balls (normal) and was trying to think how they get the noodles to hold together in the shape of a circle before dipping in batter to deep fry.  The only thing I could think of was chilling the macaroni because whenever I have done so in the past with leftovers it seems to stick together when it's refrigerated. So I decided to give it a shot.

The mac and cheese is made from scratch, I made the sauce with heavy whipping cream, salty seasonings, tons of cheese, and butter.  After mixing the cheese sauce and noodles, I poured the mac and cheese into a large rectangle Pyrex dish and evened it all out so that the top of the mac and cheese was flat.  

Like most hungry gals, I made the mistake of being impatient. I only waited two hours for the macaroni and cheese to chill in the fridge.  Fail...the key to this recipe is to make sure that your mac has completely hardened up and is thoroughly chilled.  If the mac and cheese is still warm, or even room temp it will fall apart when you try to dip it in the thick/heavy batter, and you will have a big mess on your hands (not to mention a waste of perfectly delicious macaroni and cheese!)  I suggest leaving the macaroni and cheese in the fridge overnight just to be certain it wont fall apart. That being said, you should plan ahead when you want to make this so that you don't have to sit around worry about guessing/checking to see how chilled your mac is.  

The batter was the easy part.  I used basic pancake batter mix, and added in some seasonings to make it less sugary and more salty.  It's better to use a batter than bread crumbs to cover your mac because the batter surrounds the mac and gets every part of it covered unlike bread crumbs.  The batter also forms and hardens faster around the shape of the mac and cheese once you place it in the hot oil.  Because the pancake batter is so doughy it makes this whole thing taste like a very very gooey grilled cheese, it's unreal. 

Ingredients:

MAC & CHEESE 
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 stick of butter
American cheese (cant really go wrong with how much you use, I used about 10 slices of Kraft singles)
1 lb of elbow noodles

BATTER
1 batch of boxed pancake mix (You most likely will need veg oil, eggs, and milk to prepare mix)
1 tablespoon of granulated garlic
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of crushed cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of black pepper

*You will need to fill up a pot with vegetable oil, the amount of oil will vary depending on how big of a pot you use.

Cooking Instructions:

Day 1:  Mac prep. 
1. Prepare the noodles by boiling with salt then rinsing.
2. While waiting for the noodles to boil, make the cheese sauce by melting the butter on low heat, adding in the whipping cream and cheese, then let it simmer (be careful not to let it burn).  It should be done after about 10 minutes but you're going to want to keep it warm so either reduce the heat or put a lid on it.  
3.  Once the pasta and cheese sauce are done, pour cheese sauce on noodles and mix together.
4.  Spray the Pyrex dish with non stick pam.
5. Place macaroni and cheese in pyrex dish, make sure it is spread evenly and as flat as possible. Cover with a sheet of wax paper, once the wax paper is on, you can place other dishes on top of the mac to ensure that it will chill very flat.  
6. Refrigerate over night! Be patient. The longer it chills, the more the mac will stick together.  

Day 2:  The fun part.
1. Prepare the batter by making the pancake batter according to directions on box and then add in your spices and mix.  
2.  Remove mac from fridge and cut into bar-shaped slices.  Be careful because if you cut it too thin it will fall apart easy, if you cut it too thick it might get too heavy and collapse.  
3.  Fill a pot with vegetable oil, about an inch away from the top of the pot, and turn the heat on. (Make sure your pot is big enough to fit your entire bar in the oil.) When it's hot the oil will sizzle, you can get your hand wet and flick a little water into the oil to double check. If the oil sizzles when water touches it, it is ready.
4."Stab" your mac bar with a knife that can support the whole thing longways.
5. Completely cover your bar with batter so that you cannot see any of the mac. The trick is to move quickly from the batter station into the oil.
6. Submerse the covered mac and cheese bar into the hot oil and let it fry for about 2-3 minutes until crispy brown on the outside. 
7. After removing the bar let the oil drip off onto a paper towel while it cools then you are ready to eat!  

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

I went out to eat with my friends in Columbus last weekend at a restaurant on campus called "Hangover Easy".  After I already ordered biscuits and gravy I saw a sign on the wall that said "Try our new seasonal pumpkin spiced pancakes".  WHAT.  I was dying, and actually so mad at the incompetent waitress for not letting me know about this?  Anyways, I had to have some.  

When in doubt, google it.  I found a recipe from allrecipes.com.  At first I was weirded out because the recipe called for ginger, and vinegar... which sounded bitter and not very sweet or sugary.  I ended up using apple cider vinegar, and I added probably about 1/4 cup of sugar to the ingredients list.  Also, the pumpkin I used was 100% organic from Trader Joe's.  My whole house smelled of warm pumpkin spice within minutes, and one by one family  members started to appear in the kitchen to investigate what was going on.

One thing I did notice is that it took longer to cook these pancakes.  Usually you turn the heat up and flip each pancake after a minute or two and your golden, but the inside of these took longer to solidify and I think it's because of the mushy texture of the all natural pumpkin puree.  After they were done I sprinkled powdered sugar on the top and stacked em' high.  I put syrup in a little sauce container on my plate so that I could dip then rather than have them doused in syrup.  

After all of my pancakes were assembled and accounted for I dug in.  They were absolutely delicious, they tasted more like soft warm pumpkin cookies than pancakes.  Incredible pancakes, and perfect for the season.  

Here is the link for the recipe where I got my idea from :  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-pancakes/