Hi All Happy Monday!  Funny story as to why I picked this post.  I am a little tight on time as a last minute trip to Vancouver sprung on me Friday evening with a sudden retrun trip from Vancouver came right after on Saturday morning.  I arrive home Saturday night to pack for my conference in Philadelphia starting on Sunday.  We are at Blue Bell PA staying at Normandy Farm.  Ever been?  It is quite nice so far.

There are about 9 of us who traveled together and as I was sitting on the plane I could hear one of my colleagues behind me asking his seat buddy this… Hey ever spend any time in Philadelphia?  My other buddy says ” No but I hear they make one heck of a cream cheese”

I turned around with a smile and said…. this is going on Zesty!  So as I am a little pressed on time – I wanted to share this post with you to get your taste buds grooving for the week.

Hey Zesty Cook readers, it’s Jenny over at Picky Palate.  I am thrilled to be guest posting here at Zesty’s!  At Picky Palate, I create simple family friendly meals and desserts for even those picky little eaters, come on over for a visit sometime

I am sharing one of my all time favorite sinful desserts today that I think you will love!  Caramel Apple Cream Cheese Cookie Bars.  I was even lucky enough to be featured on Bettycrocker.com with these bad boys!

The best part of this recipe is that it’s a breeze to whip up, the kids can help and you can find all of the ingredients at any grocery store.  Hope you all enjoy!!

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoons melted butter
• 3 Cups Golden Graham Cereal, ground in food processor
• 1 Roll Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough
• 8 oz softened cream cheese
• 1/4 Cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 21 oz can apple pie filling
• 1 -  5 oz package Nature Valley Oats N’ Honey Crunchy Granola Bars (2 count), crushed (I use a rolling pin to crush them right in the bag before opening)
• 9 -  5 oz Kraft Caramels
• 1/2 Cup half and half

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine melted butter and ground cereal into a large bowl; press into an 8×8 inch baking dish lined with foil that’s been sprayed with cooking spray.
3. Bake for 10 minutes then remove from oven.  Crumble half of the cookie dough over partially baked crust.
4. Place cream cheese, sugar and vanilla into a mixer; beat until smooth.  Pour over crumbled cookie dough layer.
5. Bake for 25 minutes then remove from over.  Top with 3/4 of the apple pie filling (I chose to just add part, but you can add the whole can if desired).
6. Next top with remaining cookie dough, breaking off into little pieces evenly over top.
7. Sprinkle with crushed granola bars and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes clean from center.
8. Let cool completely then cut into squares.
9. Melt caramels and half and half according to package directions.
10. Drizzle over each bar.
11. ENJOY!

Take care

zesty

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I am still in a conference… last day!!  I wanted to re share one of my favorite pork chop recipes I have ever created.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  ENJOY!

Yesterday was the first time I was unsure about what to post on zesty for todays recipe.  I always have a few options saved from both the weekend and earlier in the week.  However, this time, I wasn’t sure what to do to continue the trend of unique dishes.  That is, the sauteed spinach from Monday, the slow cooked beef on Tuesday and yesterdays little sweet treat in the caramel drizzle ice cream tart.  So with that being said, I thought I would tell you about a pork chop I made.

This really is just a plain old pork chop but the flavor was incredible.  I have not had a pork chop in a long time especially with the bone in but when I saw these little morsels of goodness on sale at the supermarket – I knew they were coming home with zesty.

Pork chops have to be one of the fastest meals to prepare and lately I am all about speed and flavor.  This meal was ready in about 35 minutes.  Have a look and tell me what you think?

Ingredients

• 4 Pork Chops
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• 1 Tsp. Rosemary (Dried)
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard (Or Prepared Mustard)
• 2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
• 1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
• 1/4 Cup Apple Juice
• 3 Dashes of Hot Sauce
• Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400 Degrees.



2. Warm saute pan to medium high heat.
3. Add olive oil.
4. Season pork chops with salt and pepper.



5. Add them to pan and cook on one side until they begin to brown and caramelize, then flip.



6. Cooking on the other side the same as step 5, once complete about 5 minutes remove from the pan and set on a plate.
7. De glaze the pan with the apple juice while still on high heat.



8. Combine all the remaining ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.
9. Once the apple juice comes to a boil, add remaining ingredients.
10. Cook for about 2 minutes and then add the pork chops back in the pan.



11. Place pan in the oven for 15 minutes.  The sauce will reduce and thicken with both texture and flavor.
12. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes.



13. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: The key to big flavor with meat is to let it brown/sear well.  Do not move it in the pan and do not turn it multiple times.  Let the meat caramelize and brown on its own, you will know when to flip the meat.  Use your sense of smell, it will never let you down.

For this dish I prepared some sweet potato fries as a side dish and cooked them off at the same time the pork was in.

I just started them a little earlier in the process.  Sweet potato fries were a great addition to the pork.

Take care

zesty

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Happy Monday to you!

I am aboard a plane to sunny (or maybe not) California this morning.  There are lots of things going on right now but I did manage to have a nice family weekend.  We had a fun Friday evening visiting our Grandmother, a visit to the house build on Saturday along with a visit to the Vet College Open House. Yesterday, we had a birthday party to attend. I hope to get a lot accomplished throughout the week regarding zesty and all the blog makeovers that are on my list.  I also have another pretty big announcement to make in the very near future.

I was out at the house talking to a few contractors on Saturday and trying to get everything organized for the week I am gone.  I added some updated pictures at the bottom of the post to keep you up to date on the progress.

Back to the food… or juice!  We bought a  juicer back when I was on a big juice kick .  It faded away the last little while but I wanted to share with you a fun juice to have when you are craving something a little different.

Carrots are a great way to get into juicing…. they are a great staple for any juice recipe. They provide a good base to mix in and experiment with other vegetables. They are not too sweet and not too bitter.

Ingredients

• 1/4 inch piece of ginger
• 1 apple
• 4 carrots

Method

1. Cut the ginger leave the skin on.
2. Core the apples.
3. Slice off the tips of the carrots.



4. Put through juice extractor.

Zesty Tip: A lot of people tell me that the juice that comes out of the juicer is too warm – I totally agree.  I like to add the juice to an ice bath after I make it for about 15 -20 minutes to reduce the temperature of the juice.  Try it!

House Update

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you have a great day. I will be on the road all week but I have a couple of guest posts lined up for the next couple of days.

Take care

zesty

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Last weekend I was playing around in the kitchen and created something unique with some root vegetables and fresh grape tomatoes.

Ever get tired of tasting the same old vegetables with your dinner? I do sometimes so I wanted to kick it up a notch with a funky glaze for some plain ole vegetables. The title pretty much sums it up but I did add a few more ingredients than just apple and molasses.

Have you guys noticed how few ingredients I have been using as of late? I have not even been trying to keep it to a minimum  – I guess I am just lazy!

Below is the low-down on the recipe that hopefully you will try. I realized as I was shooting this that a green vegetable would have been a nice addition. I will mention that in the zesty tip down below.

Ingredients

• Carrots
• Squash
• Grape Tomatoes
• Turnip
• 1/4 Cup Molasses
• 1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
• 1/4 Cup Apple Juice
• 2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
• Black Pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400 Degrees
2. Prepare all vegetables ( clean, peel and chop )



3. Combine soy sauce, molasses and brown sugar into a bowl and mix well.



4. Add apple juice and black pepper and pour over vegetables



5. Cover and bake until fork tender – About 45 minutes.
6. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Roasting Vegetables intensify the natural flavors.  Different from boiling, roasting actually will enhance the flavors you choose to match with the vegetables. Try to combine root vegetables with this dish as opposed to leafy vegetables due to the cooking time.  Green vegetables would work well in this dish as well.

I hope you have a great day and stay tuned for another house update in the near future as well as a super fun product review.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Take care

zesty

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Happy Wednesday!  No new design yet… what a story that is.  We have run into some trouble moving the plug-ins over to the new theme so it looks like we have to wait a couple of more days until we figure out what is going on.  I am sorry for all the hype and no delivery but it is out of my control.

As for some good news…. yesterday was pretty exciting.  I was contacted by the folks at FoodDoneRight.com. They have been working really hard on an online cooking school  and they are looking to add more value to the customers who join.  With that said, they asked me to do an on air interview and chat a bit on how I got started cooking, some of the challenges I faced, and some tips that helped me realize my recipe independence.  I was very willing to help as I love cooking and love helping other people do the same.  I will be sure to let you know when the interview gets published as well.

On to the food!  I had a lot of people asking about the apple bacon chutney recipe and ” What they would eat with it”.  So last night I put together what I call a “HELLABALOO“.  It is a total mish-mash of ingredients in the fridge such as left over rice, left over apple bacon chutney and some spinach that was close to expiry.  The flavors blended flawlessly and everything turned out great!

Here is a quick snapshot of what I did …

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Apple Bacon Chutney
• 2 Cups Baby Spinach
• 2 Cups cooked Jasmine Rice
• Splash of Lemon Juice
• Parmesan Cheese Shavings

Method

1. Preheat pan to medium high heat.
2. Add Chutney and warm through.
3. Add spinach and lemon juice stirring until spinach begins to wilt.
4. Add rice, stir together until hot.
5. Plate and top with fresh Parmesan cheese
6. ENJOY!

On to some exciting news…. I was asked to be a judge at the Latest Peanut Butter Exhibition.  Here is the low-down on the contest.  It can also be found at PeanutButterboy.com

THE GREAT PEANUT BUTTER EXHIBITION

Congratulations! You are cordially invited to participate in the next Great Peanut Butter Exhibition! In conjunction with Peanut Butter Boy, Fake Food Free, For The Love of Peanut Butter we are proud to bring this roundup/competition right to your doorstep. This time the theme is “Sandwich”, chosen because of my surprise at not receiving one sandwich recipe for the previous “no-bake” peanut butter exhibition. The real prizes here are the wonderful recipes we gather but we also have a prize for the winner!

What classifies a peanut butter sandwich? Traditionally it’s a slab of peanut butter between two slices of bread, but let’s see some creativity here. How about some peanut butter lettuce wraps or Peanut Butter Sushi? Any method of eating peanut butter that is all-inclusive and portable as to make for a nutritious lunch should do. To enter, submit your best peanut butter sandwich recipe below, following the guidelines. The deadline is March 15th @ Noon (PST) which gives you a full 3 weeks to brainstorm, develop and create the ultimate peanut butter sandwich! Stock up on peanut butter and get ready, read on for details.

Judging Criteria:

Peanut Butter Weight, Creativity, Portability and Preparation Time.

Rules:

One entry per person so choose wisely! Pictures are highly recommended but not required. Due to peanut allergies, you may use any nut butter in your recipe since nut butters are easily interchangeable. Also, please link back to this page to indicate that you are entering the recipe into this contest and to spread the word. Feel free to use any of the logos, including the following, to do so:

Blogless? Don’t worry if you don’t have a blog, you can still submit your winning recipe. Fill out the same form but provide the “Recipe” instead of a “Recipe Permalink” and feel free to email a picture to “pbe@peanutbutterboy.com” to go along with the recipe!
Submission:

Click hereto submit your recipe online. Alternatively, email “pbe@peanutbutterboy.com” with “PBE #5? as the subject and the following information:

Name
Email
Recipe Title
Recipe or Recipe Permalink
Prize:

All recipes will be listed but the judges will vote for the Top 3. All 3 winners will receive a winning badge to place on their site but the first place winner will receive the Peanut Butter & Co. Cookbook. Good luck to all!

Wow that was a super long post… sorry to make you read so much.  But if you made it all the way down here, I would like to thank you and also look forward to hearing your comments about just one way to use up that chutney. Have a great Wednesday.

Take care

zesty

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Welcome to the first installment of the Valentines treat week at ZestyCook.com.  Before I get started please do not forget to sign up for the great giveaway of Grill Charms.  The contest will run through the day tomorrow and then I will announce the winners on Thursday’s post.

I have been craving homemade muffins without a huge amount of oil.  I recently picked up a new box of granola (fiber and flax) so I thought I would incorporate that into a basic muffin mixture with some apples.  This is what I came up with.  A delicious muffin, moist on the inside with a little crunch on the outside from the granola.

I was really impressed with the texture of the muffin, although I did find that maybe the apple was a little “BLAH“.  Next time, maybe I will add some flavor to the apple before hand.

Ingredients

• 1 Large Apple (Peeled and Cored)
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 2/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 2/3 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 2 Tsp. Baking Powder
• 1 Tbsp. Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 3/4 Cup Granola
• 4 Tbsp. Canola Oil
• 1 Large Egg (beaten)
• 1 Cup Skim Milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Lightly grease a 12- hole muffin pan.









2. Place the apple and half the sugar in a bowl and set aside for 5 minutes.



3. Sift together remaining sugar, flour(s), baking powder, cinnamon and salt.



4. Stir in granola (reserving some for top of muffins).



5. In a small bowl, beat together remaining ingredients.  Stir this liquid into the dry ingredients and lightly stir together.



6. Divide the mixture among the holes in the muffin pan, filling each about 2/3 full.



7. Top with remaining granola.
8. Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly brown.
9. Remove the muffins from the oven and turn out immediately onto a cooling rack to cool.
10. Serve warm or at room temperature.



11. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: When mixing the dry ingredients with the wet – be sure not to over mix, lumps and some flour still showing is OK.  If you over-beat the batter, the muffins will be flat.

This was a really fun recipe to play around with.  What do you think of the pictures? I think I may have finally figured out how to focus in the front and blur in the back with my camera.  I am pretty excited.  Have an awesome Tuesday!

I think tomorrow’s special treat may make you smile.  I can’t wait to share it with you.

Take care

zesty

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For the most part I have always tried to watch my carb intake after 5:00 pm. Now I am not always behaving as you may have noticed last week when I hit up my favorite take out spot for a double cheeseburger.

I have been getting alot of great snack and healthy meal ideas especially since reading some of my favorite blogs out there like Katheats and Michelle at Taste As You Go as well as Megan’s Munchies and Krista’s Kravings not too mention Peanut Butter Boy , Skinny Chef and The Hungry Mouse.

So with that all being said I tried to be a little creative with dinner since it was around 8:00pm by the time we sat down after the kiddies went to bed. I was craving chicken curry in some form so I decided to whip it into a little salad and sit it on some romaine lettuce and wrap it up and call it a meal.

Ingredients

• Boneless Skinless Chicken (2 Cups)
• 2 Large Romaine Lettuce Leaf
• 1 Tbsp Curry Powder
• 2 Tbsp Light Mayonaisse
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Pecans
• 1/2 Cup Diced Apple
• Cracked Black Pepper

Method

1. Add the first three ingredients together in a bowl and gently mix together. 
2. Once the curry and mayonaisse are mixed well add pecans and apple and mix again. 
3. Top with a generous amount of fresh cracked pepper
4. Wash Lettuce leaf and ensure it is dry
5. Spoon chicken mixture on top of lettuce – wrap – and enjoy!

The wrap had a great flavor and texture with the crunch of the apples and the pecans as well as the freshness of the lettuce. Next time I may add some cheese for another layer of both flavor and texture.

In additon to the wrap we had a little treat of Doritos ( Blue Cheese and Hot Wings ) – yeah i know two distinct flavors all in one bag. Pretty crazy but I loved them. So much for this post going all healthy. Well that’s all for now… but not without a question to all of you… what are your favorite kind of chips?

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Yes you read the headline correct!

Ever since I was a little guy I have been making triple decker peanut butter sandwiches. Then I thought… well why don’t i share this love with all of you? So here I am… writing about my triple decker classic. Now I have adjusted the toppings over the years, flipping from jam, jelly, sliced fruit etc but then I came up with this combination that I just had to share.

Just like any good sandwich – it starts with the quality of the bread. I chose a homemade loaf of 100% whole wheat bread (thick sliced) from my favorite local bakery. I took out three slices of this floury goodness and proceeded to lay them in a row. Below is a list of what you will need to make this happen.

Ingredients

• Peanut Butter (I prefer smooth)
• Nutella
• 1 Granny Smith Apple
• 1 Banana

Method

Now as for the method… it is pretty straight forward.  The only thing i like to do is thinly slice the apple as well as the banana.  I also like to group the nutella and apple as well as the peanut butter and banana.  But I also add peanut butter to the middle piece as well.  An optional ingredient that I sometimes add as well is a drizzle of honey over the banana (for the extra sweet tooths out there).

Peanut Butter is a very versatile and popular ingredient in our house but I also have to let everyone know that if you want to know more about peanut butter and some excellent, creative and wild recipes you have to check the work out of Peanut Butter Boy.  This blog is amazing and is all about peanut butter.  He would be more than happy to see you.

I hope you enjoy the sandwich and I can’t wait to hear everyone’s feedback on other combinations that they have tried in the past.

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