Grilled Maple Peaches

It's that wonderful time of the year when peaches are in season, which is depressing in a way because I know it won't be long until perfectly soft, juicy, fragrant peaches will be a distant memory. Unfortunately, this line of thinking also tends to make me impulsively buy more peaches than I can possibly eat. But on a happy note, it resulted in the perfect dessert for a hot summer night - grilled peaches. I made these on my charcoal grill after I made dinner, but you can also throw them under the broiler.

Grilled Maple Peaches

Cut peaches in half and remove the pit. Lightly brush the peaches with canola oil, sprinkle with brown sugar and drizzle with pure maple syrup. Let them sit for a few minutes so that the flavors seep in. Put peaches on the grill, cut side down. Leave them on for three to five minutes, until sugars have caramelized and there are faint grill marks. Eat alone, top with ice cream (I only had chocolate, vanilla would be preferable), or sweetened sour cream.

Sour Cream Blueberry Pancakes

Sour cream is kind of my secret weapon - it adds creaminess, it's actually very versatile and it's decently cheap. Some of the unexpected places I put sour cream: boxed macaroni and cheese (in lieu of butter); over fruit (mixed with a little sugar or sweetener); on top of cheesecake (though that's fairly traditional) and, perhaps my favorite - pancakes. I also don't really notice much of a difference between regular sour cream and light or fat free varieties. I always buy fat free, which has about a third less calories than the regular. These are adapted from a recipe by the fabulous Ina Garten. I haven't actually made her version with the bananas, but I probably ought to. The couple of times I have made these I have omitted the fruit, but the tanginess of the sour cream still makes them special and unusual.

I made these to kick off a fairly busy and un-fun day of going to Comcast for a new cable box, picking up text books for this semester along with the other 40,000+ students at my university and various other errands. The Comcast situation was horrible, we had to go back like three times over the course of a couple days because they kept on giving us broken cable boxes. The book situation was not so bad, I was able to rent a couple of them and I found one used for the low low price of $130. I was actually pretty relieved to spend under $400, which is pretty sad. But yes, a day that includes three broken cable boxes and $400 on books that I won't have fun reading necessitates a nice breakfast.

Sour Cream Banana Pancakes

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup white flour

4 tbsps sugar

2 tsps baking powder

1.5 tsps salt

1/2 cup fat free sour cream

3/4 cup plus one tbsp. fat free milk

2 eggs

2 tsps. vanilla extract

splash of lemon juice

1 cup blueberries

Method:

Sift together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Stir dry ingredients into the wet, when incorporated gently fold in the blueberries.

Heat some butter or non-stick spray onto a skillet until melted. Spoon batter onto the skillet and stir batter as needed to keep blueberries distributed. The blueberries may make it more difficult to tell when the pancakes are ready to be flipped, so keep an eye on them. Enjoy with maple syrup or even plain.

The Burrito Bowl: Now with whole grains

I live in a city with no Chipotle, which is quite depressing for any native Coloradan like myself. Perhaps it's not such a bad thing considering that it's so high calorie, but I still have major Mexican cravings. That's not to say that this is really any sort of Chipotle copy-cat recipe, but it hits the spot and I didn't feel too guilty about eating the leftovers for lunch twice this week. This re-heats really well and it's definitely tasty enough that you probably won't get bored with it.

Burrito Bowl:

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced thin

1 can black beans

1 bell pepper (I used green), sliced

1/2 of a red onion, diced

1/2 cup diced tomato

3-4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 can of beans (I used black, pinto would be good too), drained and rinsed

1 package of fajita seasoning

Fresh cilantro, to taste

1.5 cups instant brown rice

olive oil, as needed

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Method:

Drizzle some olive oil in a deep or large pan on medium-high heat (you'll need a lid). Saute half of the garlic for a minute or so until fragrant. Add chicken and saute until it's no longer pink. Remove the chicken and add the onion, pepper and the rest of the garlic plus more olive oil. Saute the vegetables until they are close to your desired level of doneness. Return the chicken to the pan, add the fajita seasoning and stir. Add the beans, tomato, rice and a cup of water. Stir ingredients until incorporated. Cover until rice is tender and excess liquid is absorbed.

Top with fat free sour cream, avocado slices, mexican cheese and some of my homemade salsa.

Chicken Tenders for Grown-Ups

I had the internal "grown-ups versus adults" dialogue while titling this post - the one where if you are one, your word choice is "adult" and if you aren't it's "grown-up." But then I decided that I don't really care, and on most days I only feel like I'm about 70 percent "adult" anyway. Regardless, these baked chicken tenders appeal to my adult desire to avoid high-fat, fried junk and my child-like desire to eat things with my hands. Score! In seriousness, these are easy, tasty, low-calorie and fairly cheap to make. I paired mine with baked Alexia brand sweet potato fries, which I also highly recommend.

Baked Dijon Chicken Tenders

Brush chicken tenderloin pieces (or breast pieces cut into strips) with dijon mustard, (I like Grey Poupon). Roll the chicken in breadcrumbs or shake and bake mixed with dried rosemary, herbes de provence or other seasoning of your choice. Bake at 325 degrees for around 15 minutes, until tenders are browned and chicken is cooked through.

Blueberry Scones

I don't bake that often, but when I do it's very soothing. I have just sadly returned from a trip home to Colorado, which was also soothing. Baking scones, with my mother, while in Colorado made for the ultimate baking experience. Eating fresh scones the next morning wasn't bad either. I created this after checking out a few different scone recipes. The whole wheat flour made me feel a little less bad about the butter and sugar in these, but they're certainly not a health food. A little extra fiber here and there is always positive though, right? These really were quite simple, held up well for a couple of days and made for a nice gift to send home with my grandparents.

Blueberry Scones

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup unbleached flour (plus more for rolling blueberries)

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/3 cup plus two tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup unsalted butter, mashed

3/4 cup cream

1 egg

1 cup fresh blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients. Mash the butter with a fork or pastry blender. Mix the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles crumbs. In a separate bowl, mix the cream and the egg, then incorporate into the dry ingredients. Roll the blueberries into the flour to coat to prevent them from discoloring the batter or sinking to the bottom. Carefully fold the blueberries in. You may drop the batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet, or if you would like triangular scones you can press the batter into a round pan and cut the dough like a pizza. Bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown.

Frozen Nutella Banana Bites

These are a great snack - the frozen banana takes on the consistency of ice cream, you don't have to use a ton of nutella to get great taste and they are super fast. I like to grab a couple of these for a quick snack that doesn't make me feel too guilty.

Frozen Nutella Banana Bites

Method:

Slice banana and add about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of nutella between banana slices. You may add toothpicks before putting the bites in the freezer, but it's whatever your preference is.

Faco Frenzy

My boyfriend is very cute in that he likes to make up funny words, like "faco." Less creative individuals probably tend to refer to the "faco" as the "fish taco." My boyfriend also likes to sneak off to the meat area of the supermarket while I'm shopping for produce so that when we get home I find out that we have weird cuts of beef, a ton of shrimp or some fish that I haven't ever prepared before. I suppose it's a good thing because I have to be creative and it makes me feel a little like I'm on Iron Chef, though I suppose my secret ingredients are not quite as exciting as theirs.

This particular faco was inspired by the boyfriend's purchase of a large amount of Flounder. We were having an especially hot Florida day, so light and tasty fish tacos sounded like the way to go. Tilapia or any other mild, flakey white fish would work well in this, but the Flounder was actually quite good. I was making some salsa and other stuff from scratch, so Leon took care of the fish - which came out great. I am generally the only one who cooks, which is probably good for those around me because I can be a bit of a 'backseat cook," but I do love when Leon and I work together to make a meal. It's a romantic thing to do and a lot more fun than cleaning than most other in-home collaborations.

There were several components to this meal, so I'm going to break up the different components as best I can. I wouldn't suggest the canned tostitos salsa for this because of the flavor of the fish and everything else, pico de gallo or plain shopped tomatoes would be a good substitute. Corona or other Mexican beer is, of course, an excellent addition to this meal.

Flounder Fish Tacos

Ingredients:

1 lb. flounder or other fish

10 corn tortillas

1 cup shredded cabbage

kosher salt, to taste

old bay seasoning, to taste

Method:

Coat a pan with a bit of olive oil and bring it to medium-high heat. While pan is heating, coat fish filets with salt, old bay and any other desired seasonings. Put the fish in the pan and try not to move it around much to keep it from falling apart. Cook for a minute or so on each side until brown and crispy and flip. Heat tortillas in the microwave and add warm fish, cabbage and other desired accompaniments.

Spicy Mayo

Ingredients:

2 tbsps. light sour cream

1 tbsp. light miracle whip

sriracha, to taste

Method:

Mix ingredients together and slowly add sriracha until it is to desired spiciness. You could use mayo, but the light sour cream and light miracle whip makes this fairly low calorie.

Spicy Tomato Salsa

Ingredients:

2 medium tomatoes, quartered

1/2 red onion, roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, chopped and deseeded

1 lime, juiced

2 tablespoons cilantro

Method:

Put all ingredients in a food processor and pulse a couple times until homogenous. Use less jalapeno or none at all if you don't like spicy food. Likewise, use more if you like it super spicy. The salsa will become less spicy over time in the fridge.

Rice with Black Beans

Ingredients:

1 cup white rice

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

1 tbsp. sugar

Method:

Cook rice according to package directions. When rice is done, mix beans, salt, pepper and sugar. Allow rice and beans to sit covered for a few minutes to allow flavors to marry.