Tag Archives: homemade

Open-Faced French Onion Soup Sandwiches

Leave a reply

If there was one food dish I missed the most from my LA days, it would be the French Onion Soup from Little Next Door.  That soup was always cooked to perfection, the onions were nicely caramelized and I loved the thick sourdough baguette on top with melted Gruyere cheese.  Even if it was 80 degrees out, I would always order the French Onion Soup at Little Next Door.

I have yet to find a french onion soup as good as that one in Orange County (although Vie de France has a quality version), and somehow never got around to making the soup myself.  I was scouring the internet for a good french onion soup recipe when I stumbled upon a french onion soup sandwich recipe on Joy the Baker.  It had all the classic elements of french onion soup, only in sandwich form.  Color me intrigued.

The Englishman and I made this recipe and put a few of our own touches on it, and it came out delicious.  I think it’s safe to say that this recipe will now be in our current dinner rotation.

Open-Faced French Onion Soup Sandwiches (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

2 yellow onions, peeled and cut into semi-circles

3 shallots, chopped

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon sage

1 teaspoon cracked pepper

2/3 cup red wine

1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice (we did an Italian blend of provolone and mozzarella)

4 slices bread or baguette of your choice

Directions:

Place a stock pot on the stove over medium heat.  Add your butter and olive oil and stir until butter is completely melted.  Add in your chopped onion and shallots and stir gently.

Cover your pot and cook the onions for about 5 minutes, then add the salt, pepper, and sage.  Cover your pot again and let the onions caramelize.  Be sure to open the lid on your pot ever so often and stir the onions to prevent them from burning.  The onions should turn brown and soft and look like some onion jam.

While your onions are cooking, place a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil.  Add your chopped carrots (this will help soften them before being added to the onion mixture.  Once carrots are softened add to the onion mixture and stir gently.

Once carrots and onions are mixed, add in your mushrooms and wine and stir together.  Be sure to scrape any burned parts off the bottom of the pot.  Remove the pot from heat after about 30 seconds and set aside to rest.

Butter your bread (or omit butter if you so choose) and add a sprinkling of cheese on top.

Place bread under a broiler with the cheese for a couple of minutes while the cheese melts.  Top with the onion soup mixture, and enjoy!

It may not be the most photogenic dish I have ever made, but it sure is tasty!

 

Morning Glory Muffins

Leave a reply

Back when I lived in LA I used to treat myself to a Morning Glory muffin and a latte from Mani’s Bakery nearly every weekend.  The Morning Glory muffin was always my favorite, and I would be disappointed if I didn’t get there in time and Mani’s was sold out.  Mani’s Bakery has unfortunately closed since then, but I always told myself one of these days I would attempt to recreate those delicious muffins.

After browsing a few blogs and cooking websites, I decided to come up with a Morning Glory combining elements from a few different recipes.  These muffins are hearty, delicious, and full of good things (carrot! almond flour! applesauce!) and make your house smell amazing.  Seriously, my mouth was watering so much as these baked that I had to distract myself by watching old episodes of The Hills and painting my nails.  But once I bit into one of these muffins, I knew it was worth the wait.

Morning Glory Muffins (inspired from this recipe and this recipe)

*makes approx. 12 muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oats
1 cup almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup shredded carrot
3/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup chopped dates

Directions:

Mix almond flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt and vanilla together in a large bowl.

Shred your carrot and put in a separate bowl and add applesauce and egg.  Mix well and fold wet ingredients into larger bowl with dry ingredients.  Stir in coconut and dates.

Pour mixture into either paper muffin cups or a muffin tin sprayed with cooking oil.  Place in oven and bake 25-30 minutes, depending on how fast your oven cooks.

Once muffins are done baking, leave them in their tins for an additional 20 minutes while they cool, then dig in and enjoy!

A couple notes:

- These muffins don’t have any added sugar so if you want something a little more sweet, I recommend adding in some honey, maple syrup or brown sugar.

- Definitely watch your baking time – these bad boys cook up quickly!

- These muffins are delicious with some jam.  Raspberry jam to be exact.

Chicken-Less Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Leave a reply

I’ve been feeling under the weather the past few days and nothing says comfort food more to me than a warm bowl of chicken noodle soup.  I actually prefer Chicken Matzo Ball soup, but since Canter’s Deli is over an hour away, I decided to go the homemade soup route.

Somewhere in between watching the Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations Marathon and taking a nap, this soup was born (due to the ingredients in my house).

And yes, this is two recipes in a row!  That’s gotta be some kind of record for Sweet Potato Bites.

Chicken-Less Chicken Soup (for 4 servings)

Ingredients:

1 carton organic chicken broth

4 cups water

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 russet potatoes

1 cup chickpeas

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped carrots

1 yellow onion

1/2 cup yellow squash

3 sprigs of fresh dill

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Chop your onion and place in a large stock pot with the tablespoon of olive oil.  Place pot on the stove and turn on low heat so the onions can begin to cook.

While the onions are cooking, cut up your potatoes, carrots, celery, and squash into small pieces.

Add chicken broth and water to the stock pot, stir slowly.  Add in the potatoes, carrots, celery and squash and continue to stir.

Add in the chickpeas (if from a can, dump right in, if the beans are dry, you want to soak an cook them first.)

Reduce heat to a slow simmer.  Add sprigs of dill (if from a garden, even better!)

Let soup simmer on the stove for an hour.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Ladle into bowls and enjoy!

The Curious Case of the Granola “Bars”

3 Replies

Around 3-4pm every day I find myself rummaging through my desk looking for a delicious and nutritious snack to help me get through the mid-afternoon slump and power through the rest of the workday.  Of course there are always the standard staples:  fruit, nut butter, cheese, yogurt, cereal, etc, but sometimes I just want a quick snack that doesn’t require a lot of fuss.  Enter the granola bar.

I try to steer clear of store brand granola bars for a variety of reasons.  1.  Many of them contain high-fructose corn syrup and other artificial ingredients that my body doesn’t agree with and/or is allergic to, and 2. These bars are LOADED with sugar, which none of us really need.  With the exception of LARABARS, I never purchase snack bars from the market.  But every now and again I do get the urge for a chewy, delicious granola bar.

So when I stumbled upon these delicious looking granola bars on Eat, Live, Run, I knew I had to make them and get a little granola bar action back in my life.  After reading the recipe I decided to make a few modifications based on the ingredients I had in my kitchen.  I noticed many of the comments had said make sure to use honey or brown rice syrup instead of agave nectar for a thickener, but since I only had agave on hand I decided to wing it.  I mixed the ingredients together, threw it in the fridge like the recipe called for and waited for the bars to set.  And waited some more.

Needless to say, this is one of those classic examples where making too many modifications to the recipe will not yield the greatest results.  The flavor was spot on, but it was clear to me that these were not granola “bars,” just granola.  But it is delicious granola at that!  And instead of having my afternoon snack in bar form, I enjoyed my granola “bar” over some greek yogurt.

Granola "Bars" in their delicious glory

Homemade Granola “Bars” (adapted from this recipe)

1 cup agave nectar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4th tsp salt

1/4 sunflower seed butter (any other nut butter will work too, but I’d use a creamy one as opposed to a crunchy one)

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup oat bran

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (with no shell)

3/4 cup dried cranberries

Combine agave nectar, sunflower seed butter, salt and vanilla in a medium sized saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for about four minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a large bowl, combine all other ingredients. Pour the boiling agave mixture over the oat mixture and toss well.

**Press mixture into a greased nine inch pan and pat down with wet hands. Chill in fridge for an hour, or until firm.  (this is the part where you are supposed to cut them into bars, or in my case, turn it into granola).

Store granola “bars” in a tupperware container to ensure freshness.

**The mixture came out pretty thick (but not thick enough for granola bars), so it created more of a museli-type mix.  For crunchier granola I recommend roasting in the oven at 350F for 15 minutes.