Soba Noodle Salad

So last week I went on a cooking frenzy and I decided to make Ellie Krieger's Soba Noodle Salad. It looked so bright and fresh in the photos and I already had soba noodles on hand so I thought... why not, right? It was great - the perfect thing to pack for lunch. It's also a recipe that would be great to bring to a potluck. It has soba noodles, lime juice, carrots, red bell peppers, red pepper flakes, garlic, shallots, and cilantro. If I can remember right.. this recipe rolls in around 134 calories per 3/4 cup - even better.





I'm off to Anthony's Homeport for a crab feed with my husband to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary coming up on August 25th - mmmmmmm. crab. love. it.

CEiMB: Grilled Thai Beef Salad

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly pick is from Jen at Jen B's Cooking Carveout.

I'm interested to see how many people forgot to read the recipe before attempting to make it. I definitely did and it says to marinate the steak 4 hours or overnight. I briefly saw a comment from Sara reminding everyone to marinate so I at least put the marinade together last night instead of the day of.. which probably would have been last second on Thursday. I have a way of doing that.

I did get to marinate it, but didn't have any ginger around. I actually did have some a couple of days before, but used it on the Chicken Sate with Peanut Sauce recipe (my husband eats this for lunch every week). I completely spaced on needing more ginger for this recipe and ended up using it all.

I also failed to read in the directions that I was supposed to use 1 tbsp. of the lime juice in the dressing and 2 tbsp. later in the marinade (which consisted of half the dressing). I totally squeezed both halves of the lime directly into the dressing without thinking. I was probably distracted by the fact that I needed to swap out trays of Triple Chocolate Cookies that I was making for a Fantasy Football drafting party later in the week. I was quite the cooking diva on Tuesday night.

So I marinated the steak overnight.. for almost 20 hours. I don't recommend this. I think I'm going to just marinate it for 4 hours like it also recommends in the recipe. I think marinating my steak that long caused it to start turning grey-ish. When I grilled it the color wasn't as bright pink on the inside as I would have liked and I'm assuming it's from the marinade.

Other than all that... it was great. The flavor of the steak was amazing! (I love thai flavors so I'm easy to please). I also really liked the dressing. I think the brown sugar did a great job sweetening it up.

Thanks for the great pick Jen!! To view what other CEimB-er's thought.. visit the blogroll on the CEiMB site. You can also view the recipe here on the Food Network site.

Cheers!

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Ellie Krieger has a recipe for triple chocolate cookies and let me tell you they are fantastic. I made a trip to World Market yesterday to buy some dark chocolate for the recipe. Yes I could have hit up the local grocery store, but I wanted some table placemats too. I even found this cute little Nutella packet!

These cookies are super chocolatey with three chocolates: cocoa powder, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate.

They also come in at just over 100 calories per cookie - score!

For the complete recipe, visit the Food Network site.



Mmmmm... so good.

Nutella Find

How cool is this individual Nutella pack I found today at World Market?! It's so cute!! I've never tried Nutella before, but I'm going to definitely try it tomorrow on some toast - yum!!

For those of you who don't know about Nutella.. it's a creamy chocolate hazelnut spread.

I also bought these place mats for our new table - aren't they cute?

It's shaped like a little bottle of Nutella, but it's only a couple of inches tall.

Why is it that mini things are so cute?

Tuesday Blog Hop: Another Favorite Recipe

Kyle and I have been loving my Coconut & Butterscotch Biscotti w/Pecans recipe. It's absolutely delicious with a cup of coffee and also works great as a gift! I usually give mine away in a new coffee cup.

Visit this post to view the complete recipe with photos.

Enjoy!

CEiMB: Stuffed Turkey Burgers

The Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe this week was chosen by Pantry Revisited. What a wonderful pick!

Mental Note: take photos of all Ellie Krieger recipes made

Ok.. just had to get that out there. I love Ellie's cookbook so much that I cook constantly out of it (in addition to the recipes for CEiMB). I made these turkey burgers a few months back when I had a coworker over for dinner. They were great. I really like the roasted red pepper as I felt they added a great kick. My only change would be to add a smidge more of cheese. It was good, but there could have been more cheese.

All in all, it was a wonderful pick. Check out Pantry Revisited's blog for the compete recipe or visit this link.

And sadly.. no fabulous photos to share.. apologies!!

Ok.. this is sad. I'm posting this right now.. Thursday night.. thinking it's Wednesday night and that I'm ahead of the game. I was even going to set the post options to post tomorrow a.m. Ha!! I'm a nerd.. extremely tired and going to bed.... now.

Night everyone.

Coconut & Butterscotch Biscotti with Pecans

Do you like biscotti?? Until recently I've hated it. What a poor pathetic excuse of an overly cooked cookie. Like duh Alyssa..! Biscotti means twice baked! It wasn't until I saw Ellie Krieger dip her Honey Pistachio biscotti in her coffee that I realized its purpose in life. Until then I thought it was a crunch cookie that people liked with their coffee. Once I found out it was a cookie you dipped in your coffee I was hooked!

I tweaked another biscotti recipe I had and made this one my own by adding pecans, coconut, and butterscotch - this threesome rocks.. I definitely recommend giving this one a try!

Coconut & Butterscotch Biscotti with Pecans

(Recipe By Me)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups white flour

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup canola oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup coconut flakes

1/2 cup chopped pecan pieces

1/4 cup butterscotch chips

Directions:

*Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit

1.) Combine both flours, the baking powder and the salt in a medium bowl. Whisk the mixture to combine and set aside.

2.) Beat the sugar, eggs, canola oil, and vanilla in a mixer. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat on low until the dough forms a ball.

3.) Knead the dough a few times on a floured surface. Shape into a log that measures 10 inches long and 3 inches wide.

4.) Bake the log on parchment paper in the oven for 25 minutes.

5.) Remove from oven and cool on a rack for 15 minutes.

6.) Cut the log with a serrated knife on a diagonal. You should have 12 pieces and they should be ~ 1/2 inch wide.

7.) Place the pieces cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake for another 10 minutes on 350 degrees. Turn over and bake an additional 7-10 minutes or until the biscotti is toasted / golden brown.

8.) Remove and let cool. Store in an air tight container (should hold for up to two weeks).

Enjoy!