Citrus Powder–How to make Citrus Powder

Posted on October 29, 2014 by lazygirldinners

Lemon and Lime Citrus Powder

Several month’s ago I read an article in Bon Appetite Magazine about how the chef at State Bird Provisions was using sour salts to brighten up dishes, and make use of an ingredients that would otherwise not get used. His approach was simple, dehydrate something as simple as a preserved lemon, grind it into a powder, and boom you’ve created a flavorful salt without even trying. After reading that article, I knew that I wanted to try making a preserved lemon salt. I put it on my list of things to blog about, but never got around to it–it has been almost a year since I read that article! I had almost forgotten about wanting to do a preserved lemon salt until last week, my husband and I went out to eat. I ordered a Caesar salad, and when they brought it out, it looked completely under dressed, almost like they had forgotten to put the salad dressing on it. I took a bite thinking it was going to be a bland salad, but instead got this bright burst of flavor. The chef had dusted the salad with lemon zest. The salad was fantastic! Even better than my Caesar Salad. I knew then that I had to try this at home. It wasn’t until I read a review for the soon to be released cookbook Bar Tartine: Techniques and Recipes that I got the idea about exactly how I could do it, but even better. Lemon zest is great but it’s not exactly shelf stable. If you’re going to use it, you definitely have to use it right away. But if you take the peels of a lemon, lime, or even an orange, dry them in the dehydrator, and then blend them into a powder, what you get is something extremely flavorful, and shelf stable. You also have a way to use leftover peels! I don’t know about you, but I hate to waste, so anything that allows me to preserve, rather than waste, I love. So you’re probably wondering, besides a salad, what you use these powders on. The answer is almost anything! You can sprinkle the lemon, or lime powder on chicken, fish, pork or steak to give it a fresh and vibrant twist. You can add these citrus powders to baked goods, rim your tequila glasses with them, add them with some other dry spices to make a citrus rub, (stay tuned for that post), make citrus salts, the list goes on and on. If you make enough of these powders, you can even give them as gifts for Christmas. I for one am doing a lemon pepper for my friends. Bar Tartine: Techniques and Recipes hasn’t been release yet, but I’ve already pre-ordered a copy through Amazon. It’s full of recipes for dehydrating and powdering everything from herbs, to yogurt. Yes you can even dehydrate yogurt! I suppose it’s not such a leap to know that you can dry yogurt, especially given the fact that powdered milk and cheese are products that you can buy in most grocery stores. However, the thought of being able to use my dehydrator to make my own powdered yogurt and herbs excites me!

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Prep time: 10 minutes

Drying time: 1.5 hours-2 hours

Ingredients:

The peels from 2 lbs of organic citrus –I used lemon, lime

Directions: Pre-heat oven to 150F if using an oven. If using a dehydrator set it to 135F. Using a vegetable peeler peel the skin off of the citrus.

Add the citrus to a pot, add enough cold water to cover all of the citrus and bring to a boil—let boil for 1 minute. Drain peels into a sieve and rinse under cold water. Return back to the pot and repeat: boil ,drain, and rinse twice more.

Spread the peels out evenly onto your dehydrator sheets. If using a stove, spread the peels over a wire rack set inside of a bake sheet.

Bake or dehydrate until peels are hard and brittle, it took about 1.5 hours in my dehydrator. Once peels are hard and crisp, transfer to a spice mill

Grind until powdery, transfer the powder to an air tight container.

OMG! The smell of these powders while you are grinding –AMAZING!!!! If you like this recipe you will love my recipe for DIY Ground Ginger–How to make Powdered Ginger

D.I.Y. Ground Ginger-How to Make Powdered Ginger

Posted on October 28, 2014 by lazygirldinners

How to make Powdered Ginger

If you’ve been on the fence about whether or not to purchase a dehydrator, my blogs this week may just get you off of the fence. This week you may find yourself ordering a dehydrator, or at the least adding one to your Christmas wish list. My dehydrator has been in constant use, and I can’t wait to share what I’ve been doing. So let’s get started! I’ve purchased fresh ginger so many times, and only used a fraction of it, the rest goes bad and then in the trash–a total waste! I was reading about drying in one of the books in my Modernist Cuisine set, and then I read a blurb in “Bon Appetite Magazine”about powdering herbs and boom–light bulb–I thought to myself, why not powder your own ginger? So I did. You’re probably asking yourself, “do I really need a dehydrator to do this?” The answer is no! You can do this in the oven set to 150F but you have to stay home to watch it! If you had a dehydrator you could set it and forget it–well not completely, but you wouldn’t have to worry about it burning.

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Prep time:5 minutes

drying time: 1.5-2 hours

Ingredients:

1 large bulb of fresh ginger

tools: spice grinder

Directions: remove the skin from the ginger, then slice the ginger thinly.

Place the sliced ginger pieces on a piece of parchment paper, or on the sheets of your dehydrator and place in the dehydrator or oven, then set the temperature to 135 on the dehydrator, or 150F in the oven.

Allow the ginger to dry until it become crisp. Transfer to the spice/coffee grinder

and blend until nice and powdery.

Store in an airtight container, it will be good for 8-12wks. Use this in any recipe that calls for ginger. Add this to your favorite gingersnap recipe, and you will have some of the best gingersnaps that you’ve ever eaten!

Chicken in Milk

Posted on October 22, 2014 by lazygirldinners

Chicken in milk

A few weeks a go I came across a recipe for Chicken and Milk by Jaime Oliver. The recipe used one of my favorite ingredients–a whole chicken. It seemed simple (code:Lazy) enough for me to try. It didn’t require much more than adding the ingredients to a pot and letting it braise for an hour or so. It also featured another one of my favorite ingredients-lemon with the addition of the milk– my taste buds were anticipating chicken stewed in a creamy lemon sauce. The sauce was not as creamy as I had anticipated and hoped for, but it was still a great sauce none the less. While Jaime Oliver’s recipe looked amazing, I did add a few of my own touches to the recipe. I have been reading about the use of lemon leaves, (from a lemon tree), in cooking. The leaves are usually used in the same way that bay leaves are used. You use them to impart flavor, but you never eat them. If you have a lemon tree, pick two of the most beautiful leaves that you can find, wash them, and add them to this dish. Also be grateful that the next time you trim your lemon tree, you will have an alternative way to use the leaves–you can dry them just like bay leaves! If you don’t have a lemon tree call a friend or neighbor who does and ask for a few! Just make sure to ask if they use any pesticides on their tree. If that attempt fails, just cook this without the lemon leaves. I also added poultry seasoning, I didn’t have any fresh sage, which Jaimie’s recipe calls for. The poultry seasoning has sage, so I used it.

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 1.5 hours mostly non active

Ingredients:

5 pound Whole Organic Chicken

10 cloves of garlic (whole no need to remove the skin)

Zest of two lemons (1 Tablespoon of lemon zest)

2 Leaves from a Lemon Tree

3-4 Tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of poultry seasoning

1/2 stick of cinnamon

Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 375F Rub the chicken generously with the olive oil, and season with a good amount of sea salt and black pepper.

Then Brown both sides of the chicken over medium high heat. Once brown add in the Lemon zest, garlic, poultry seasoning, cinnamon, and milk.

Cover the pot with a secure lid, then transfer the pot to the oven and cook for 1.5 hours Remove from oven. serve and enjoy!

Lazy Girl Stove-top Lasagna

Posted on October 21, 2014 by lazygirldinners

Lazy Girl Stove Top Lasagna

These last few weeks have been a whirlwind, I have been burning both ends of the candle wick for some time now, and it finally caught up with me. But even when mom is sick, our kiddies still need to eat! I normally use all of these ingredients to make my lasagna, but I make the meat sauce on the stove, then transfer the sauce to a bake pan and layer it over the noodles, top with cheese and finish this in the oven. However, because I was sick, I thought why not just try this on the stove top. Surprisingly it worked! This lasagna is the ultimate in lazy cooking, but it yielded the best lasagna that I’ve ever made, and the easiest!

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Prep time: 2 minutes

Cook time: 25-30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 lb of grass fed ground beef

1 small brown onion (chopped)

3 cloves of garlic (chopped)

1 teaspoon of dried basil

15 ounces of organic tomato sauce

1 cup of organic mozzarella cheese

5 tablespoons of organic whole fat cottage cheese

2 lasagna noodles I used brown rice lasagna noodles

1 tablespoon of olive oil

sea salt to taste

Directions: Heat olive oil in a saute pan, add in onion and garlic and cook until onion turns translucent.

Add in ground meat, season generously with sea salt and cook until brown. Drain any excess fat.

Add basil, cottage cheese and half of the tomato sauce,. stir until all ingredients are combined,

Top with the lasagna noodles–I broke them and spread them out over the the entire pan–

Top with the remaining sauce, making sure that all the noodles are completely covered and submerged in the sauce. Cook on medium low heat until the noodles are cooked through.

Once noodle are done, top with cheese, cover and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, and the cheese has melted.

Serve and enjoy!

D.I.Y. Taco Seasoning

Posted on October 15, 2014 by lazygirldinners

Taco Seasoning

I used to be the queen of packaged seasoning, if they made it I tried it. It never really occurred to me that I could just as easily make most of these seasoning with spices that I already had in my pantry. It wasn’t until I was in the middle of browning some ground meat to make tacos that I realized I was missing one key ingredient–the taco seasoning–and I was forced to make due with what I had. That was a fateful day indeed. Enlightening and freeing! I no longer buy pre-made seasonings. I just make my own. This taco seasoning is equally as good as the prepackaged mix that I used to buy, except it doesn’t have any cornstarch or any of the other fillers that packaged seasonings tend to have.

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Servings: 1/4 cup or one package of taco seasoning

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Cumin

1 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika

1 teaspoon of onion powder

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon of chili powder (optional)

Directions: Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl until well combined. Add the entire contents to browned ground meat, or try it out in my recipe for Makeover Chicken Taco’s

Like this seasoning? Then you make like my Dry Ranch Seasoning or my Spicy Dry rub seasoning

Pear Fruit Roll-Ups-How to make fruit roll-ups at home

Posted on October 14, 2014 by lazygirldinners

Pear Fruit Roll-Ups

One of my favorite ways to use ripe fruit is by making fruit roll-ups. In my opinion it’s the best way to use fully ripe fruit, because the fruit is ripe, it’s very sweet, and that means that you don’t have to add sugar to make these fruit roll-ups great. Additionally fruit roll-ups are so super easy to make and a great way to reinvent a fruit that you have an abundance of. I have dehydrator, but these can be done in an oven. Just set your oven to 150 or the lowest possible setting. If you don’t own a dehydrator yet, I suggest that you get one, they are really inexpensive around $40-$50 on the lower end–these work fine, and $299 on the higher end. But they are so useful! At the least you’ll be able to make some of my favorite fruit roll-up recipes like: Tropical punch fruit roll-ups, pineapple fruit roll-up, Strawberry-apple fruit roll-ups or strawberry fruit roll-ups.

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 4-6 hours

Ingredients:

5 ripe pears

Directions: Quarter the pairs and remove the core. Add cored pears to a blender,

Blend until smooth.

Pour the pear puree out onto a piece of parchment paper or a silpat, and smooth out into a thin layer.

Place in a dehydrator on 134F for 4-6 hours.

Alternatively you can place the parchment paper or silpat on a cookie sheet and place in the oven on the lowest setting for 4-6 hours.

Sauteed Zucchini and Mushrooms

Posted on September 24, 2014 by lazygirldinners

Sauteed Zucchini and Mushrooms

My garden is overflowing with zucchini right now, zucchini and tomatoes! The great thing about planting zucchini is that it yields a large bounty. The not so great thing about planting zucchini is that it yields a large bounty. This is particularly troublesome when you’re neighbors also plant zucchini in their own gardens, then giving the zucchini away becomes burdensome. The only solutions in such cases is to come up with new zucchini recipes nightly, or to freeze them. At the moment, I’m trying to use my zucchini in any way that I can that doesn’t include freezing them–at least not yet. This dish is so delicious and simple to make, it makes a great addition as a side to any meal. If you’re Vegan Paleo, or on the Whole 30 diet, you can do this without the butter, it’s stilla delicious side.

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time:20 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

10 ounces of Crimini mushrooms sliced

2.5 cups of zucchini cubed

2 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of butter

1 tablespoon of olive oil

sea salt to taste

Directions: Heat the oil and 1 tablespoon of butter in a saute pan. Add in the mushrooms and garlic. Season the mushrooms with sea salt, they will begin to release water.

Season the mushrooms with sea salt, they will begin to release water. Cook the mushrooms until the water completely evaporates (about 10 minutes) add in the rest of the butter, and cook the mushrooms until they begin to brown (about 5 minutes).

Once the mushrooms begin to brown, add in the zucchini and saute until the zucchini becomes fork tender (about 5 minutes)

Remove from heat, serve and enjoy!

Indian and Herb Spiced Grilled Lamb Chops

Posted on September 23, 2014 by lazygirldinners

Indian and Herb Spiced Grilled Lamb Chops

Lamb is one of my favorite meats. Personally I like it more than beef, if given the choice between lamb and steak, I’d choose the lamb every time. My husband on the other hand prefers steak. He is 100% a meat and potato’s kind of guy. After having these lamb chops he said that he’s a convert..Lol..I doubt it! However, I’m glad that he thought that these lamb chops were delicious. I came up with the idea of marinating these with the fillings that I use for my Lamb Patties. I added a little bit of curry powder and cumin to give the chops a little punch of flavor. I’m so glad I did these are super flavorful, and grilling them made them more amazing than they already were. If you only try one of my lamb recipes try this one! You will not be disappointed!!!

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15-20 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound of lamb chops

1/4 cup fresh cilantro

1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley

1/4 cup fresh mint

1 large shallot (can sub with onion, use half of a small onion)

1/4 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon of cumin powder

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

3 tablespoons of olive oil

Sea salt to taste

Directions: To a blender add cilantro, parsley, mint, curry powder, cumin powder, shallot and olive oil, blend into a paste. Season the lamb chops with sea salt, then rub with the marinade.

Once your grill is nice and hot, place the lamb chops on the grill and cook for 7-8 minutes on each side or until the chops reach you’re desired level of doneness. Remove from heat, serve, and enjoy!

How to make Ketchup–D.I.Y. Ketchup

Posted on September 17, 2014 by lazygirldinners

How To Make Ketchup–DIY Ketchup

We were out for breakfast with some close friends of ours when I discovered that my daughter loved ketchup. Not in a normal kind of, oh this tastes great on potatoes, sort of way, but a, let me dip anything I can find on my plate and eat it, sort of way. Up to that point she had never even tried ketchup. We had been to plenty of restaurant’s and I always shied away from allowing her to have any ketchup. Not because I don’t like it, but because the ingredient list is terrible–full of stuff I can’t pronounce, let alone identify–other than high fructose corn syrup. The only reason I even allowed her to have it that day was because, we were out, she was getting antsy, and one of the little girls in our breakfast party was eating it and Page wanted to eat it too. The moment she tasted it, she went from being antsy, to calm and focused on what she could find on her plate to dip into it! She ate her entire plate of food! All because she was introduced to this condiment called ketchup! So what’s a mom to do? Well if you’re me you make the condiment yourself. As with most things that I make myself, this ketchup was very easy to make–easier than I thought it would be. You will need a few lazy hours at home in order to make this, but that’s just so you don’t burn down the house, you cook it on a low simmer for a few hours, you could even do this in a crock pot, and the result is deliciously homemade ketchup, with no refined sugars!

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Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 2 hours mostly non active

Makes 2 cups of delicious ketchup!

Ingredients:

28 ounce can of Whole peeled tomatoes (I prefer San Marzano tomatoes)

5 tablespoons of tomato paste

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

1 small onion chopped

1/4 cup of maple sugar (can sub brown)

1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons of olive oil (can substitute grape seed or safflower oil)

20 whole cloves

1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

Ingredients for the spice packet

1/2 teaspoon rainbow pepper corns (can use just black)

1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds

1/2 of one cinnamon stick broken into two pieces

1/4 teaspoon of all spice berries

1 bay leaf

cheese cloth

kitchen twine

Directions: Wrap all of the ingredients for the spice packet in the cheese cloth, and tie tightly with kitchen twine–make sure to leave at least 4 inches of extra twine on the end and set aside.

Add the oil and the cloves to a pot and heat just until the oil begins to bubble. Turn off the heat, and let the cloves steep in the oil for 10 minutes.

Strain the oil through a sieve and discard the cloves. Add the clove oil to a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat, add onions, garlic and saute until onion is translucent. Add in the tomato paste and cayenne and cook for 2-3 minutes. Pour the onion/tomato paste mixture into a blender/processor along with the canned tomatoes-juice and all–and blend until smooth. Pour this mixture back into your sauce pan, submerge the spice packet into the pot, wrap the excess twine around the handle of the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, simmer until the mixture is dark red and has thickened about 1.5-2 hours. Mixture should be reduced by half.

Remove the spice packet,

Strain the ketchup through a sieve, pushing solids through with a spoon:

The ketchup should be nice and smooth:

Let the ketchup cool to room temperature before transferring to an air tight container.

Refrigerated, this will keep for 1 month. As a base ketchup this is pretty amazing! It taste just like the bottled stuff. For a twist you could add 1/2 teaspoon of curry powder to half a cup of this ketchup for some pretty amazing curry ketchup!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan, Lemon and Red Pepper Flakes

Posted on September 16, 2014 by lazygirldinners

Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Parmesan, Lemon, and Red Pepper Flakes

I was at the farmers market this past Sunday, doing my usual weekly shopping. One of my favorite vendor’s had these beautiful stalks of brussels sprouts. I got so excited about them that a woman, who was also shopping, pulled me aside and whispered : “How do you cook those?” This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, believe it or not, people stop me all the time, either at the farmers market, or at Whole Foods, to ask how to cook a variety of vegetables. The funny thing about people asking me cooking questions is that they almost always whisper the question? I don’t understand why they whisper the question! I want to tell them, “you know you’re not the only person on the planet who has no idea what to do with ((insert name of vegetable here)).” I shared this recipe for roasted brussels sprouts with the the lady at the farmer’s market. It’s simple, easy and so delicious. It’s one of my absolute favorite ways to cook and eat brussels sprouts.

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Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10-15 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound of brussels sprouts halved

2 Tablespoons of lemon juice

3 tablespoons of olive oil ( or ghee or coconut oil)

Sea salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 425F. Add the lemon juice and red pepper flakes to a medium sized bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl add the brussels sprouts, oil and sea salt, toss well making sure that all the brussels sprouts are evenly covered with oil.

Place on a foil lined baking sheet and put in the oven.

Cook for 10-15 minute, or until the brussels sprouts take on a significant amount of color and they become crisp and tender. Sprinkle the sprouts with half the cheese and cook for another minute or two, just until cheese melts and becomes crisp, remove the sprouts from the oven, transfer them to the bowl with the lemon juice and the red pepper flakes, toss well to coat the brussels sprouts with the lemon juice, sprinkle with the remaining cheese, serve immediately and enjoy! These are crispy, tangy with a little kick! They are the perfect side dish for almost any meal!

Lazy Girl Dinners

A Lazy Girls guide to quick, healthy, and easy recipes!

Category Archives: dinner

Citrus Powder–How to make Citrus Powder

D.I.Y. Ground Ginger-How to Make Powdered Ginger

Chicken in Milk

Lazy Girl Stove-top Lasagna

D.I.Y. Taco Seasoning

Pear Fruit Roll-Ups-How to make fruit roll-ups at home

Sauteed Zucchini and Mushrooms

Indian and Herb Spiced Grilled Lamb Chops

How to make Ketchup–D.I.Y. Ketchup

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan, Lemon and Red Pepper Flakes