Apricot and Brie Stuffed Sweet Potato with an Egg

Every day, I take the train to school, then I take the train home, then I work out.  After all of this, the last thing I want to do is spend a ton of time cooking.  In fact, I'm usually so hungry that I just want to eat the first edible thing in sight.  I decided to buy some sweet potatoes after seeing some examples of stuffed potatoes on other blogs and making up some easy dinner recipe!  Here it is!

This stuffed sweet potato was absolute delish!  It has brie, apricot preserves, an over-easy egg, and a bit of hot sauce drizzled on top.  It was so freakin amazing that I couldn't wait to share!

Apricot and Brie Stuffed Sweet Potato with an Egg

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato

1 egg

2 tbsp apricot preserves

2 tbsp sliced brie cheese

2 tsp Frank's Hot Sauce

pepper

Directions:

1. Microwave your sweet potato for 5 minutes or until it can easily be pierced with a fork.  Cut the sweet potato down the middle.

2. Spread the apricot preserves on the inside of the sweet potato and place the cheese along the middle.  This will allow it to melt a little while you cook the egg.

3. In a pan, cook your egg to perfection and then place in the middle of the sweet potato.  

4. Top everything with a few drizzles of hot sauce and some fresh black pepper.

Enjoy :)

Plated! Apricot Chicken with Almond Green Beans

I had a great opportunity recently.  I was able to try Plated for free! It is a fantastic organization where you can order meals online, they send you all the ingredients, and then you cook the dinner.  All the menus are created by different chefs and the menu options change weekly.  It is so fun to look through the yummy recipes! Plus, this was a great way for me to make a non-vegetarian meal.

Bri is a vegetarian and I love coming up with yummy dinner options, but sometimes I just really want a good piece of chicken or salmon.  Whenever we go out for dinner, I order something with meat because I know that it isn't something I get at home a lot. This has also helped me always have a variety of foods and I love that.  I ordered a great salmon dish and chicken dish from Plated.  Both were amazing, but my favorite was the chicken.  It was Apricot Chicken with Almond Green Beans.  This light and healthy meal came with enough food for two meals and so I was able to make myself dinner on a night where Bri was out with his mom and I had a ton of work to do and then I had another meal for lunch one day at school! It was such a great deal and I think you should all check out this fun site!

Shabbat Dinner: Whole Wheat Pasta with White Wine Vegetable Sauce and Apricot Chicken

I made a couple lovely recipes for dinner last night.  We had a typical Shabbat dinner and it was nice to share my food with my family.  The chicken recipe came out amazing and the pasta recipe was really tasty as well.  Next time, I wouldn't make my own pasta as it was a little too chewy for my taste.  If you try this out let me know what you think!

Apricot Chicken (adapted from All Recipes)

Ingredients:
6 chicken breasts
1 1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup apricot preserves
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp water

Directions:
1. In a small saucepan, heat the chicken broth over medium heat and add in the rest of the ingredients. Allow to simmer until sauce thickens slightly.
2. Place chicken in a 9 by 13 inch dish and pour sauce over the chicken.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Enjoy :)

Homemade Whole Wheat Pasta with a White Wine Mushroom and Broccoli Sauce (adapted from The Realistic Nutritionist)

Ingredients:
For the pasta:
3 cups whole wheat flour
6 large eggs
For the sauce:
4 tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
2 medium onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups broccoli chopped
1 tbsp flour
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Make the pasta: In a large bowl, place the flour and create a whole in the middle.  Place the eggs in the whole and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.  Knead dough for about 6-8 minutes or until it is soft and flexible.  Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil and sprinkle in salt.  Roll out the dough as thin as possible and cut thin strips with a pizza cutter. Cook the pasta in the boiling water for about 2-3 minutes (it will cook really fast!). Drain and set aside in a large bowl.
2. Make the sauce: saute the mushrooms, onions, and broccoli in a large saucepan with the butter until the onions start to become translucent and the mushrooms start to brown.  Pour in the wine and cook until evaporated.  Pour in the broth and cook until it reduces by about 1/3.  Add in the flour and salt and pepper to taste.  Continue to cook until the sauce thickens slightly. Pour the sauce over the cooked pasta.
Enjoy :)

The Hungry Hungarian Part 1

Today I am bringing to you the first of two installments in what I am calling the Hungry Hungarian tales.

This morning, I went for a 5 mile run, but it ended up being 6.25 since I was in a good mood and had a Forrest Gump moment around 4.5 miles.  Along the way, I was thinking about the final presentation hat I was going to give in the afternoon for two of my School of Education classes. This productive thought process turned into a very unproductive process as I started to think about this lovely blog and what I would talk about today.  I must say, I think I have a slightly unhealthy obsession.  However, this blog makes me happy and final presentations do not, so I think I made a good decision by focusing on this instead as I was able to come up with the adorable title of Hungry Hungarian!

Mario is the boy who lives across the hall from me in the fraternity house.  Over the year we have become really great friends.  He is pretty awesome and he is Hungarian.

The Little Sisters had an auction to raise money for our Spring Formal and a charity of our choice.  I auctioned off a fantastic Brownie Pie, an assortment of baked goods, and a coupon for a dessert of your choice.  Mario was the one who bought the dessert coupon and then he proceeded to send me two recipes for his favorite Hungarian pastries which I had never heard of an sounded pretty intense.

I was totally up for the challenge and pretty excited to try out some foods that I was completely unaware of.  The first, which I bring to you today, is called Meringue and Lady Finger Slices.  Mario sent me the recipe which was photocopied from his mom's cookbook.  Along with the recipe came a picture of how it was supposed to turn out:

Mine was not as pretty...

Just out of the oven

...but Mario claimed that it tasted just like he remember and it was delicious.  Such a sweetie :)

Meringue and Lady Finger Slices

Mario...assessing my work...

Ingredients:
Meringue:
8 large egg whites, at room temperature
3/4 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
Ladyfingers:
3 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour
a pinch of salt
Topping:
a dash of powdered sugar
Filling:
1 12 oz jar of apricot preserves
2 tbsp water

The finished product!

Directions:
1. Place two racks in the upper third and center of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (or one large one)
3. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites for the meringue until soft peaks form.  Beat in the sugar and beat until peaks are stiff and shiny.
4. In another large bowl, beat the eggs, yolks, and sugar for the ladyfingers until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla.  Next, fold in the flour.
5. Prepare two pastry bags with wide pastry tips.  Fill each bag with half of each batter.
6. Starting with the meringue batter, pipe a 16 inch long strip of meringue along one of the baking sheets.  Pipe 4 of these strips leaving about 1 inch in between each one.
7. Next, take the ladyfingers batter and pipe 16 inch strips in between the meringue strips (3 of them).  Now, you should have 4 meringue and 3 ladyfinger strips alternating.  This will be 16 inches long and about 7 inches wide.  Repeat this process with the other half of the batter on the other baking sheet.
8. Dust powdered sugar over the pans and bake until golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool completely.
9. Dust powdered sugar over the cooled layers.
10. In a medium saucepan, heat the apricot preserves with the water.  Let cool.
11.  Assemble the pastry: carefully peel away the parchment paper from one of the meringue and ladyfingers layers.  Place this layer upside down on a pan.  Spread apricot preserves on top.  Next, peel away the parchment paper from the other layer and place right-side-up on top of the apricot filling.  Cut into slices and serve chilled!
Enjoy :)

A Happy Hungarian!

Oh, and my final presentation went really well and that is why I feel so good about my decision not to focus/stress out on in it :)