cooking ala mel

Baked Chicken Egg Rolls

July 6, 2013

This week has finally felt like summer. It’s been a bit too sticky hot for my tastes, but the relaxation I’ve been enjoying has been pretty outstanding. I finished up a summer class I was taking, and I’ve just been living. Lots of reading, lots of berries, lots of playtime with the kitties. Some intense workouts here and there. What I’m really enjoying is not feeling pressured to work out. Before, I used to keep a very set schedule with what workout I would do on each day. Now, I just sort of take it as it goes and do a workout that I’m feeling at that moment in time. The workouts on my Pinterest board have been heavy in my rotation – lots of jumping rope and kettlebells, all about 20-30 minutes in length. Interval circuits with those kinds of things about 3 times a week. Some yoga or dancing one day when I’m feeling something lighter. Nothing with really high impact that hurts my foot (that still gets sore every once in a while after breaking it in the fall). All super fun, and I really feel in control of my health for once. So I ate a huge ice cream cone last night? Okay, kettlebell and jump rope circuit today. It’s all just working. And it feels great.

I made these egg rolls this week, and I’ve been really enjoying them after a hard (but super quick) workout. It just makes things taste that much better, you know? 😉 But really, these are great anytime. And they’re pretty easy to make, especially once you get the egg roll wrapping down. [Read more…]

Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Cream Cheese Glaze (Whole Wheat)

July 3, 2013

As I mentioned before, I had some visitors this weekend. They were originally supposed to come on Friday evening, but it ended up getting a bit too late to make the 3 1/2 hour trip, so they came early Saturday morning instead (which was no surprise to me, knowing my sisters..). I had been planning on making these blueberry cinnamon rolls for breakfast, so I made them for a treat as they arrived instead.

I had made some blueberry cinnamon rolls for my parents one weekend they came up to visit, but I put the dough in the fridge overnight, and they didn’t end up rising as much as they should’ve the morning after, resulting in tasty but more rock like cinnamon rolls. To avoid that from happening this time around, I mixed the dough together the night before and left it to do its rising overnight out of the fridge, since I often do that with bread anyway. It worked wonderfully! The dough recipe is based off of the Pioneer Woman’s, so you just know it’s going to be fantastic. [Read more…]

DIY Chai Concentrate

July 1, 2013

This weekend, my sisters, brother-in-law, and my gram came to visit. Yummy food was involved (as always) as well as a good bit of shopping (we found some fantastic deals – always a win). Being a hostess for the weekend, I can now really appreciate the amount of effort my gram and mom must put in when family comes to visit. It was pretty easy, keeping the kitchen clean by washing dishes/loading the dishwasher in little spurts when there was a lull in activity so I could sneak away, unnoticed. The one thing, though, that must be really hard to keep up with when our whole family together, is having a full pitcher of iced tea. We’re big tea drinkers in my family. I had a full gallon pitcher filled when they got here, and I made two more batches before they left, and there’s only enough for one glass left. That was only with 5 tea drinkers.. we usually have at least double that! My poor gram and mom.. haha! And they even do separate pitchers of sweetened and unsweetened. I just made it unsweetened and had a simple syrup at the ready for whoever wanted to sweeten it up!

Now, my family loves regular black tea hot or iced, but my sister, Jenny, and I are the only ones who love a spicy chai every now and then. We got hooked on Bigelow’s Vanilla Chai when my sister first started college, and now it’s the chai I base every chai off of, the flavors are that good. When I make that tea, I brew it right into hot milk so that it’s not watered down at all – that ruins it for me. I finally decided to make my own chai concentrate so I could easily make an iced chai anytime I wanted. [Read more…]