Barre3 Chicken Tikka Masala

We are now halfway through week 2 of the Barre3 challenge. I'm feeling so good so far. Good food flowing inside my body and good vibes outside of it. Easily the best part of the Barre3 challenge is the "nourishment" component. The Barre3 website is full of amazing healthy recipes. I've always coveted this tikka masala recipe, so I knew I would be making it during the challenge. 

I have a soft spot for any kind of food outside American. Thai, Ethiopian, Latin, India etc. Tikka Masala is a traditional indian dish made with chunks of chicken in a creamy spicy sauce with tomatoes and indian spices. The original recipe was developed by Andrea of Dishing up the Dirt. No cream just coconut milk, brown rice instead of basmati and skipping the naan help to keep this version of masala a little more health friendly. 

There is no skimp on flavor and it's incredibly satisfying. The tikka masala was last week's B3 recipe, Kathleen made their pistachio crusted tilapia this week, and next week it's my turn again!  

Barre3 Chicken Tikka Masala
yields 4 servings

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1-inch piece of whole ginger, peeled and minced
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 1/2 Tbs. garam masala
2 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. salt
2 (14-oz.) cans diced tomatoes
1 cup coconut milk (from the can)
1 Tbsp. corn starch (optional)
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
2 cups brown rice, cooked (1 cup dry)

Directions:
In a medium-size deep saute pan or heavy bottom pan, heat coconut oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until the it is tender and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and ginger. Cook for about 3 more minutes. Add the chicken and cook until the it begins to brown on all sides, about 5-8 minutes.

Stir in the tomato paste, garam masala, paprika, salt, tomatoes, and coconut milk. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook, checking often to make sure the curry doesn't dry out (add water if necessary). Cook until chicken is cooked through and tender and the masala is thickened, about 25 to 30 minutes. I struggled with my masala being really brothy and not thickening up properly so I added a corn starch slurry. Combine 1 Tbsp. corn starch and a 3 Tbsp. water then pour into your sauce. This thickened my dish perfectly!

Serve with cooked brown rice and garnish with cilantro.

Annie

Cranberry Orange Holiday Detox Smoothie

If you don't have the Timehop app on your phone, please download it. It's the first thing and my favorite thing I check in the morning. It pulls your photos, Instagrams, Facebook posts, tweets and more from that exact day over the past few years. Downside is it can be extremely embarrassing when it shows you tragic Facebook statuses from freshman year of high school. Annie Tucker is...so pumped for winter formal with my girls!!

According to Timehop, a year ago today I had just gotten home from skiing, two years ago I was posting about my favorite things, three years ago I made parmesan baked eggs for breakfast and ate at The Mule for the first time, and 8 years ago I tweeted "has no hair." No idea what that meant. 

The real point of this whole Timehop rant is that it brought this holiday detox smoothie back to my attention. I screenshot recipes all the time, and since Timehop pulls your iPhotos too I'm also reminded of recipes that sometimes get forgotten. My recipe was adapted by an original post from Free People. 

Cranberry Orange Holiday Detox Smoothie
yields 1 smoothie

Ingredients:
1 cup almond milk
1 Tbsp. almond butter
1/2 cup frozen cranberries (I buy fresh then freeze them)
1 clementine, segmented
1/2 frozen banana
cinnamon

Directions:
Smoothies are always better if you use frozen fruit! You then avoid having to add ice which waters down your smoothie. That being said, keep all of your fruit in the freezer. Add everything to your blender and blend blend blend! It will be a pretty shade of pink with little bright redish pink specs from the cranberries. I only use half of a banana because I'm not a banana girl, but you can add more if you choose. 

This smoothie still has a few tastes of the holidays from the cranberries and orange, but it's refreshing and bright to get you through dreary January mornings. 

Who says copper mugs are only for Moscow Mules?

Annie

Popping into 2016

One of my most fun and thoughtful Christmas gifts was a popover pan. Kind of random, but it has meaning. Back in August when we went to Newport Beach we had back to back breakfasts at the most amazing little market called Zinc. One morning my dad ordered a popover. Popovers; not something you make or see in too many places but they are fantastic. They are kind of like an airy and eggy muffin. We both couldn't stop talking about how much we loved popovers and needed to make our own, only catch is you have to have a popover pan to make them properly. 

Ding ding ding I think this is the moment a lightbulb must have gone off in my dad's head. *Buy Annie a popover pan for Christmas so she can make me popovers* Whatever you want dad! Popovers can come in all different flavors and served in different ways. With jam, or butter for breakfast or just plain served with savory dishes for dinner.

After being iced in the other night, I made us some comfort food lasagne paired with popovers instead of rolls. Such a hit. Goodbye rolls, popovers just overruled you. 

I used this recipe as my guide and I love the way they turned out. It makes 6 perfectly puffed up popovers. They mention how you can make them in a muffin pan, but I haven't tried yet. I had to put my present to good use of course! You can't beat the height you get from the popover pan!

Perfect Popovers
yields 6 popovers

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. butter

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. 

Whisk together the flour, milk, eggs and salt. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes. Place about 1 tsp. of butter into the bottom of each popover pan cavity. Place in the oven and let the butter get hot and melted. About 1 to 2 minutes. 

Divide the batter amongst the pan. Fill each cavity halfway up with batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the popovers are brown and puffed up! Serve immediately. 

They are best served warm, but can be reheated the next day. Serve plain, with butter or with jam. 

Now lets pop on over to 2016!

Annie

Snowball Cookies

So you know that scene in Elf when Buddy gets into the snowball fight and within seconds has a whole pile of perfectly rolled snowballs? Ya so I don't really know where I was going with this except that he makes snowballs, and this post is about snowball cookies. 

Some people call them Mexican Wedding Cookies, but if you are making them around the holidays they must be called snowball cookies. Last week Oklahoma got a tiny amount of flurries but besides that we have been sitting pretty in the 60s...not okay. Let it snow, let is snow, let it snow!

Snowball Cookies (Mexican Wedding Cookies) adapted from The Domestic Rebel
yields 40 cookies

Ingredients:
2 sticks butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of cinnamon
2 cups ground pecans (I bought chopped and grounded them finer in a food processer) 
2 cups flour
powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In an electric mixer, beat together the butter, white and brown sugars until fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the vanilla and cinnamon to combine. Lastly, add in the ground pecans and the flour until the dough comes together. The dough may be crumbly, but using a spatula or your hands work to bring it together. 

Using a cookie dough scoop, roll Tablespoon-sized balls of dough and place them about 1 inch apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 10-13 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking time to ensure an even cook. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheets for about 10 minutes or until cooler to the touch. Immediately roll the cookies into powdered sugar to coat.

Once cookies are cooled, send them through another light roll in the powdered sugar for a second coat. Then serve! Cookies can be stored airtight at room temperature for up to a week.

Annie

Peppermint Bark

Chocolate and peppermint are the pumpkin spice of Christmas. I am a huge mint and chocolate fan, so when peppermint bark makes it's appearance around Christmas, its gimme gimme gimme. 

I was so excited to make a fun treat for my co-workers. I know it's cheesy, but I've been thinking about what I could make for a while.  Perks of the working world is always having people to pawn my treats off on. I wasn't just pawning it off on this time, I made it special for them! Hint** if you are still needing a co-worker gift, go straight home and whip up a batch, you still have a day or two!

My first batch was a disaster. Chocolate chips do not qualify as "good quality" chocolate. My first attempt I used chips and the white and chocolate layer completely broke apart when I tried to break it up. I also didn't let it set up long enough. 

After doing some research, I found 3 tips that are imperative for peppermint bark. 1. Use good quality chocolate (I used Ghiradelli) 2. Don't rush the process, let it firm up in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours. 3. Break into pieces face down. This keeps the mess to a minimum and doesn't crush the candy cane pieces. 

Peppermint Bark

Ingredients:
8 oz *good quality semi-sweet chocolate (I used Gihradelli)
12 oz *good quality white chocolate (More white chocolate, cause I love it)
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
5 candy canes or a handful of peppermints

Directions:
Line a 9x9 pan with foil. 

Place a heat proof bowl over a small sauce pan filled with about an 1-2 inches of water. You don't want the water to touch the bottom of the bowl. Bring the water to a simmer and keep simmering. Place about 6 oz of the chocolate in the bowl and stir often until melted. Add in the rest of the chocolate. Once it is all melted together, stir in 1/4 tsp. of the peppermint extract. Pour into the prepared pan and spread evenly along the bottom. Refrigerate until firm. About 2 hours. 

While the chocolate layer is firming, place your candy canes in a Ziploc bag and crush into small pieces. Don't crush too small otherwise you will end up with powder.

Once the chocolate layer is firm and set up, repeat the melting process with the white chocolate. melting about 8 oz, then adding the rest at the end as well as then the remaining 1/4 tsp. of peppermint extract. pour over the chocolate layer and spread evenly. Sprinkle the crushed candy canes over the top and lightly press into the chocolate. Back to the fridge it goes for 2 hours or overnight. 

*Good quality chocolate is imperative, so you don't get separation between the layers. Chocolate chips will not work.

Once the bark is set up. Take it out of the pan and place face down on a kitchen towel. This will help from all of the peppermint pieces breaking. Using your hands break into random shaped pieces. Store in the fridge before gifting or in between eating!

Annie