Lemon Infused Oil-How to Make Infused Cooking oil with a Slow cooker or Sous Vide circulator

Posted on March 3, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Sous Vide/Slow cooker Lemon Infused Oil

I’ve always wanted to try my hand at making infused oils. I buy them all the time, but they are a little on the expensive side, so making my own seems like the better value. Infused oils are a great way to layer flavor in almost anything, be it a salad, warm or cold, or as a highlight to fish, potatoes or a finish to a hummus. The process is super simple–especially if you use a slow cooker or a immersion circulator. I had originally planned to make this with my immersion circulator, but I didn’t want to exclude a lot of you from making it. So I borrowed my mom’s crock pot, so that I could adapt this recipe to fit the needs of a slow cooker. Sous vide and slower cookers have a lot in common, both cook food at low temperatures. Immersion circulators offer the option of cooking at even lower temperatures than slow cookers. If you have a slow cooker that has the option of allowing you to set exact temperatures then you’re ahead of the game. If your slow cooker only has a low, medium, high, or warming settings, don’t fret, you can make this. My mom’s slow cooker has a high, low and warm setting. I went online and did some research on what exactly those setting are and found out that the low temperature setting on slow cookers is 200F, the high is 300F and warm is 145-165F. I planned to set my circulator to 131F for 3 hours for this recipe, so the warm setting on my mom’s slow cooker was more than sufficient to match that. In fact it was sufficient enough to allow me to shave off a few minutes from the 3 hour cook time. I did not, because I was busy doing other things while the oil was in the slow cooker, but if you’re anxious, you could take 15 minutes off of the cook time. I made this lemon infused oil in both my immersion circulator and my moms slow cooker–set a timer for 3 hours for both. The results were identical. The lemon was nicely infused in both oils. I used avocado oil, but this can be done with olive oil, grape seed oil, or any oil that you choose.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 3 hours

Ingredients:

1 cup of avocado oil–or oil of your choice

peel of 2 medium sized lemons

Directions for slow cooker: fill slow cooker with water and set to 131F,–if your slow cooker has an exact temperature setting– or set it on the warm setting–low if your pot doesn’t have a keep warm setting. Place oil in a bag, then add lemon peels–making sure to bend and twist them to release oils.

If you’re using a ziploc bag place the bag in the slow cooker and seal using the water displacement method, then cook for 3 hours. If you have a vacuum chamber sealer that allows you to seal liquids like I do, then seal the oil and lemon mixture in a bag for 10 seconds with a 1.5 second seal.

Directions for Sous vide: Fill a pot or container with water, then set the circulator to 131F and wait for the water to come to temperature. Meanwhile add the oil and lemon peels to a bag–making sure to bend and twist them to release oils.

If you’re using a ziploc bag place the bag in the water bath and seal using the water displacement method, then cook for 3 hours. If you have a vacuum chamber sealer that allows you to seal liquids like I do, then seal the oil and lemon mixture in a bag for 10 seconds with a 1.5 second seal.

At the 3 hour mark, carefully remove the oil from the water–remembering that even at 131F-165F water is very hot.

Transfer the oil to a clean container–removing all of the peels–you can leave one or two for decoration if you’d like.

The lemon oil is ready to use. There are so many uses for this oil. Drizzle a little on avocado toast, or on roast chicken–the uses are endless and always delicious!

Rosemary, Garlic, & Lemon Pototoes

Posted on February 18, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Rosemary, Garlic, and Lemon Potatoes

One of my husbands favorite side dishes. He is a lover of all things potato, so I’m constantly trying to switch up the way that I cook them. The easiest way for me to do that is to switch up the herbs. In this case fresh is best! The fresh rosemary really makes these potatoes sing! The pungent and earthy flavor of fresh rosemary paired with the lemon and garlic, make for a delicious potato dish!

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients:

4 medium organic potatoes (cubed skin on)

1 Tablespoon of fresh organic rosemary finely chopped

1 teaspoon of garlic finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon of lemon powder (can sub the zest of one small lemon)

4-5 Tablespoons of grape seed oil

Sea salt to taste

Directions: Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Place cubed potatoes in,

Cook potatoes until they start to brown, tip, cook for 5 minutes on one side, brown and then flip to the other side to brown. Once potatoes are brown and fork tender, add the rosemary, lemon powder, and garlic, toss for ten to twenty seconds, just until you can smell the garlic, turn the fire off.

Transfer to a plate season with sea salt toss and enjoy!

If you like these potatoes then you’ll love my recipe for Lemon and Garlic Potatoes! You might also like these Ranch Potatoes!

DIY Yogurt–How to Make Yogurt

Posted on January 28, 2015 by lazygirldinners

I have been wanting to make my own yogurt for a long while now. I have put off making it because I rarely buy milk, unless I want to make ice cream. The truth is that we don’t drink milk, so there is rarely a need for it in our home. I was in Whole Food’s the other day and went to pick up a jar of my favorite Bulgarian yogurt, when I thought–now is the time to make my own. The process is super simple. I did it with my Sous-vide machine, but you could do this in your slow cooker on low, in a dehydrator set to 110F, or with just the light of your oven door.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes Plus 6 hours of non cook time

Ingredients:

4 cups of full fat organic milk

4 tablespoons of full fat organic yogurt–make sure the yogurt that you choose has active live cultures.

Directions: Heat the milk in a stainless steel sauce pan,

When the temperature reaches 110F turn off the fire and whisk in the yogurt.

Transfer the mixture to a glass jar,

Lightly cap it,

If you aren’t using a slow cooker or a immersion circulator, place the jar in the oven and turn on the oven light and allow to culture over night. If using a slow cooker, fill the cooker with water, place the jar inside and set the cooker to low–or 110F.

If using a circulator, fill a pan with enough water to cover the sides of the jar, set the circulator to 110F and add the jar–let sit for 4-6 hour’s or until the yogurt thickens to the consistency of store bought yogurt–the longer you let the yogurt sit the more tart and thick it becomes–so if you find that you like the consistency and taste at 4 hours then remove it from the heat then–if you like it more tart then let it go for longer–even over night–it’s really up to you, and your preference.

Remove from circulator and refrigerate. Once refrigerated, the yogurt will thicken a bit more, and the whey will separate from the yogurt, you can pour it off or mix it back into the yogurt.

The yogurt will keep for up to 2 weeks. If you plan on making another batch you can use this yogurt as a starter.

How easy was that?! I can’t believe I didn’t try this sooner! The yogurt is delicious!

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Curry Spiced Crab Cakes with Raita

Posted on January 20, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Curry Crab Cakes

We have been chugging along here, still trying to help Page adjust to being in school and away from me. Friday was hard, as soon as we pulled up to her school she began to cry. It was so hard to leave her, she was crying and begging me not to–this parenting gig is hard! Despite the hard drop off, she did much better through out the day, than she had the day before…baby steps. In other more happy news, we got a new refrigerator! We settled on a Kenmore Elite LG Grab-N-Go and we could not be more happy. Our old refrigerator was 20 years old, so we could have gotten away with getting something much less expensive and it still would have been an upgrade for us. The Grab-n-go feature is great, but what really sold me on this refrigerator was the airtight compartment it has. I’ve had a bundle of kale in the airtight compartment for 2 weeks, it is still as fresh, and crisp as the day I bought it. It would have been trashed in my old refrigerator. Now on to the crab cakes. I love crab cakes, and I love crab curry. so why not combine the two? I topped these with raita, but these are equally as delicious all on their own alone.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

8 ounces lump crab meat

1 egg

2-3 tablespoons coconut flour

1/4 teaspoon lime powder (or zest)

3 tablespoons of finely chopped cilantro

2 teaspoons of curry powder

1/4 cup of onion, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove minced

1 tablespoon of lime juice

2 tablespoons of oil, I used olive

2-3 Tablespoons of butter or ghee for frying crab cakes

Sea salt to taste

Recipe for Raita

1/2 cup of full fat organic yogurt

1/4 cup of chopped tomatoes

1/4 cup of chopped cucumber

3 tablespoons of finely chopped red onion

3 tablespoons of cilantro, finely chopped

sea salt to taste

Directions for raita : Combine all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

Directions for crab cakes: Heat oil in a saute pan, add in onion garlic and curry seasoning, cook for 2-5 minutes or onions turn translucent.

Transfer onion curry mixture to a bowl to cool ( 5 minutes).

Add in crab meat, cilantro, egg, lime zest and coconut flour and combine well.

Once crab mixture has come together form patties for frying. Heat the butter or ghee in a skillet, add crab patties and fry until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes on each side.

Remove from heat and enjoy!

If you like this recipe you may like my other crab recipes: crab cakes, crab fried rice, steamed crab recipe or crab taco’s.

Green Bean Chicken

Posted on January 14, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Green beans with Chicken

We are having a rough week here. Page is finding adjusting to school harder than any of us had hoped. She was fine initially, but has had a delayed reaction to being separated from me. Yesterday was an especially hard day for us all. She cried all day at school, and when I picked her up from school my heart just broke. She looked like she had been crying all day, and the way she fell into my arms…let’s just say that I was reduced to one giant puddle! Needless to say, I never got around to posting my blog yesterday.

A few weeks ago we were out running the last of our Christmas errands, and stopped to eat a Chinese restaurant. As we browsed the menu, I asked Page what she wanted to eat. She quickly removed the menu from my hands, took a few seconds and said “I want the green beans mom!” With her tiny finger she pointed to a picture of a plate of glimmering green beans and said ” I want this one!” Under normal circumstances I would ignore her, and get her what I think she might eat, but she was so confident in her choice that I ordered the green bean chicken for us to share. I’m so glad I did! I don’t know who enjoyed the dish more, me or Page. The beans were crisp and fresh, and Page devoured almost all of them! The moment I tasted this dish, I knew that I had to try to recreate it at home.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound of fresh organic green beans, ends trimmed

1 tablespoon of garlic paste

1 teaspoon of ginger paste

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

3 tablespoons of rice vinegar

1 chicken breast. cubed

sea salt to taste

Directions: Heat the oil, garlic and ginger paste in a saute pan just until the garlic and ginger become fragrant (about 30 seconds).

Season the chicken with sea salt and add it to the hot pan. Toss well, and allow the chicken to cook through about (5-7 minutes).

Once chicken has cooked through, add in the soy sauce, rice vinegar and green beans.

Cook for an additional 5-7 minutes–the green beans should still be crisp, remove from heat, serve and enjoy!

Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary

Posted on January 7, 2015 by lazygirldinners

Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Rosemary

Do you like sweet potatoes? I love them! My husband–not so much! Enter this recipe and he is a convert! I just love a recipe that can convert someone, don’t you? The best part of this recipe? Three ingredients AND it’s super easy!

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

3 cups of cubed organic sweet potato

1 tablespoon of fresh or dried rosemary

2 tablespoons of coconut or olive oil

sea salt to taste

Directions: Pre-heat your oven to 425F. In a large bowl toss together the sweet potato cubes, rosemary, sea salt, and oil–making sure that all of the potatoes get coated in oil.

Add the potatoes to a foil lined bake sheet and cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes take on some color. Remove from the oven, serve and enjoy!

Pan Seared Sous Vide Rib-eye Steak

Posted on December 17, 2014 by lazygirldinners

Sous Vide Rib-eye Steak

I have really been enjoying my Anova Precision Cooker‘s. I expected my cooking to improve, but I never expected how much sous vide would change the way I cook. This past Sunday I went to my local farmer’s market and Whole Foods and as I was plotting out what I would cook for the week, it struck me: I could cook everything that I needed to make for the week with my sous vide cooker in one day–that day–Sunday–in less than 2 hours–1.5 hours to be exact, of non active cook time! Que the bells people, this thing is LIFE CHANGING!!!!! I don’t think I can cook any other way now. Cooking sous vide is a lazy girls best friend! I’m 4 meals in and there is no turning back for me! Every meal is fresh, restaurant quality and quick to make. If you’re in the market for a Christmas gift you might want to put an immersion circulator on your wish list–two words–LIFE CHANGING!!! Now to this steak. It was delish, the best steak I’ve eaten in some time! It’s actually the first time that I’ve cooked a rib-eye inside on a stove top. I always have my husband grill them. As great as the steak was I would have liked it a bit more rare than it was. But my husband likes them medium well, so if you happen to like it the way I do, then set the temperature on your circulator lower than 140F, 138F would probably work better.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 1 and 22 minutes hours

Ingredients:

1 pound rib-eye steak

4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 teaspoon butter

1 clove of garlic smashed

sea salt and black pepper

For pan searing

2 Tablespoons of butter

3 tablespoons of a high temperature oil like grape seed or safflower.

3-4 sprigs of thyme

Directions: Fill a pot with enough water to come to cover the minimum level line on your circulator. Set your circulator to 140F and wait for it to bring the water to temperature. Meanwhile season both sides of your steak with sea salt and black pepper. Add the steak to a vacuum bag, top with butter, thyme and garlic. Seal bag shut using your vacuum sealer or water displacement method.

Once the water has come to temperature add the sealed steak to the pot and cook for 1 hour and 22 minutes.

Once the steak has cooked for 1 and 22 minutes remove it from the water if you are ready to cook it right away, remove it from the bag and pat it dry and let it rest while you heat the oil in a skillet. If you plan on cooking it later even if it’s only a few hours later place into an ice bath (1 cup of salt dissolved in 4 cups of warm water, then add 2lbs of ice). Let the steak sit for 1 hour in the ice bath before refrigerating.

When you’re ready to cook the steak. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a cast iron skillet. Remove it from the bag, discard the thyme leaves and garlic. Season the steak with a little more sea salt.

Once the oil is hot add the steak, brown it on both sides making sure to flip it constantly. Add the 2 tablespoons of butter and allow it to melt. Add in 3 sprigs of thyme and baste the steak with the oil in the pan. Making sure to focus on the areas of steak that have fat–you want to brown those parts.

Once the steak is nice and golden brown–about 5-6 minutes remove it from the pan, serve and enjoy–no need to rest a sous vide steak.

Five DIY Food Gifts For Under $5

Posted on December 16, 2014 by lazygirldinners

‘Tis the season for giving! I am one of those people who loves to give. It makes my heart happy to give. One of my favorite gifts to give as well as receive is food. Unlike most gifts food is useful, so you don’t have to worry that your money will be wasted on a gift that will not get used. If you make these you can avoid the chaos that is the mall, and spend a lovely stress free 20-30 minutes in an uncrowded grocery store. Did I mention that you could skip going to the mall? Best of all, these gifts are delicious, but inexpensive, at about $5 per person or family they won’t break the bank.

Caramel Popcorn with Almonds and Coconut Flakes

This popcorn is AMAZING!!! Every time that I make it, the people lucky enough to taste receive it, tell me that I should quit my day job, and package this for mass production asap! They’re probably right too. But I just could never do it. Lucky for you;-)

Coconut Kettle corn

This stuff is like inhaling air, it’s light, salty, and sweet in all the right places!

Citrus powder

This can be sprinkled on fish, chicken, steak, veggies and rice, it will be the gift that keeps on giving months down the line.

Sour salts

Sour salts are in the pantries of some of the best chef’s in the world, why not add one to your favorite chefs arsenal?

Marshmallows

‘Tis the season for gifts and marshmallows. These are way better than the high fructose laden, store bought version. They’re made with maple syrup, and lots of love!

D.I.Y. Poultry Seasoning

Posted on November 11, 2014 by lazygirldinners

Poultry Seasoning–D.I.Y. Poultry Seasoning

So we are just a few weeks away from Thanksgiving. I don’t know about you, but I have been thinking about and planning what I am going to make since September. We are visiting family out of town, so I doubt that I’ll blog anything once we leave. I always try, but the kitchen gets pretty busy as we cook our Thanksgiving meal, and since this is the one time a year that we see my husbands family, I prefer to be focused on them. My daughter’s birthday is also on Thanksgiving so, we try to make it a special day for her. Poultry seasoning is one of those things that most people pull out just once or twice a year to season their turkey and stuffing/dressing. I used it a few weeks ago for Chicken in Milk Most people buy it only once a year for just that purpose. My mom is one of those people. I remember shopping for Thanksgiving dinner with her when I was little, she always made her way down the dry seasoning aisle to pick up poultry seasoning. If by some chance we got home and she had she forgotten it, she would stop what she was doing in the kitchen, and drive to the store to get it. Besides sage–which I’m blogging about tomorrow–it’s one of the must have’s for most thanksgiving meals. I LOVE making my own dry seasonings so of course I had to give this a try. I must say that this poultry seasoning is spot on to the one my mom loves to use. If you find yourself in a bind on Thanksgiving and desperately need poultry seasoning, pull out these spices and make your own poultry seasoning. If you have these spices but they’re fresh, even better, just chop them up and give your turkey a good rub down with them and some butter.

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Prep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of ground sage

2 teaspoons of dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon of dried rosemary

1 teaspoon of dried marjoram

1/4 teaspoon of black pepper

Directions: Place all of the spices into a spice grinder and grind into a powder. Store in an airtight container until ready to use.

When do you start planning your Thanksgiving meal? Do you make the same thing every year?

Coconut Flour–How to Make Coconut Flour

Posted on November 5, 2014 by lazygirldinners

Coconut Flour- How to Make Coconut Flour

I love the taste and smell of coconut flour, but anyone who has ever cooked or baked with coconut flour knows that it can be a real pita to work with. Mainly because coconut flour is super absorbent. It soaks up every ounce of moisture that you put into it. It’s so absorbent that when I cook with it, I add it to mixtures one tablespoon at a time, and I wait in between tablespoons to see if I need to add more moisture back in. I don’t know of any other alternative flour that requires that much attention. But I’m not really a baker. The issue is not necessarily the coconut flour, it’s the processing of coconut flour, which makes it so absorbent. During processing, the coconut looses much of its fat and oil. Making coconut flour in this way retains most of the oil, which makes it easier to bake and cook with. If you make coconut flour this way, you will not have to add extra moisture, the moisture will already be there in the form of coconut oil. which makes it less drying.

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Ingredients:

The meat from 2 large coconuts (about 1cup)

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 150F. Spread the coconut meat evenly out on bake sheet or a dehydrator sheet.

Place the sheet in the oven and allow to dehydrate for 6 hours or until the coconut is dry and crisp. Transfer dehydrated coconut flakes to a spice grinder or blender and blend until it reaches the consistency that you like.

Transfer the flour to an airtight container until ready to use.

Lazy Girl Dinners

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

Tag Archives: recipe

Lemon Infused Oil-How to Make Infused Cooking oil with a Slow cooker or Sous Vide circulator

Rosemary, Garlic, & Lemon Pototoes

DIY Yogurt–How to Make Yogurt

Curry Spiced Crab Cakes with Raita

Green Bean Chicken

Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary

Pan Seared Sous Vide Rib-eye Steak

Five DIY Food Gifts For Under $5

D.I.Y. Poultry Seasoning

Coconut Flour–How to Make Coconut Flour