Korean-Style Beef Bowl from Pampered Chef

I'm a big fan of stir fry style foods, mostly because they tend to be healthy, quick, and relatively easy to put together.  Cook up some meat, add some veggies, throw on a tasty sauce, put it all over some steamed rice, and often in less than 45 minutes (less if you plan ahead and cut everything up the day before). I usually end up doing some type of stir fry dinner once a week on average, and it usually tends to be chicken. But sometimes I mix it up.

Last year, I acquired a copy of the Pampered Chef 29 Minutes to Dinner recipe book, and have since bought the second and third volumes, and there's a pretty excellent recipe for a Korean-style beef bowl.  I gave it a whirl a while back.

I deviated a little bit from the recipe to accommodate the available ingredients, but that's one of the nice things about a stir fry dish - you can adjust to your likes and whatever happens to be in the fridge at the time.

Chocolate Stout Cake from Smitten Kitchen

I'd had my eye on a couple recipes for a chocolate stout cake for a while.  I wanted to make something like this for St. Patrick's Day, but the timing has never been right.  But this year, we ended up celebrating my cousin's birthday on St. Patrick's Day, so I whipped up this decadent treat for the occasion.

After perusing the different recipes I'd uncovered over the past couple years, I settled on the version from Smitten Kitchen.  From the reactions of everyone involved in tasting this cake, I think it's a keeper.

My husband particularly liked the ganache.

Almond Joyfuls

I had wanted to play around with a coconut and almond flavored recipe for a while, since I still had a lot of toasted coconut saved up from the Coconut Chick Cupcakes I made last April (don't worry, it was stored in an airtight container!).  And they really do taste like Almond Joy candy bars!

Basically all I did was take the Coconut Macaroons recipe from The Cookie & Biscuit Bible and change up a few minor things, like using toasted coconut instead of unsweetened coconut flakes, and substituting almond extract for vanilla.

Oh, and adding the chocolate, of course.

Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Bake

There are many variations of cheesy chicken and broccoli casseroles out there, and I admit to researching said recipes in developing my own.  What I came up with is incredibly easy and very filling, especially on a cold, late winter day.  What my husband particularly liked was that the broccoli retained some of its crunchy texture, since I used raw broccoli rather than steamed.

While I specifically cooked some chicken to use when I made this recipe, it's a great way to use up leftover chicken (or even turkey!), since you only need about two cups at most.  Obviously, the more chicken and broccoli you use, the more people you can serve.  This recipe was enough for two people for dinner.

Fresh Lemon & Rosemary Tilapia (Meat-Free for Lenten Fridays)

This recipe started off as an experiment in making lemon pepper tilapia after discovering that *gasp* I had no lemon pepper seasoning mix in the house.  So I started playing around and came up with something even better!

Aside from being meat-free and super simple, there's no salt at all in this recipe, so it's even healthier for you.

Honey & Yogurt Blueberry Muffins

As we hunkered down last night during the worst of Winter Storm Nemo (the storm dropped about 6 inches on us, which honestly isn't that big of a deal considering that we got almost three times that during Monday's lake effect storm), I decided I should start our Saturday with muffins.

I read somewhere that muffins are just an excuse to have cupcakes for breakfast.  But these are pretty healthy.

The original recipe from The Cookie and Biscuit Bible didn't call for the blueberries, but I have a couple quarts still frozen from this summer and decided they'd be a welcome addition.  I also upped the amount of nutmeg in the recipe and used all lemon juice instead of juice and zest.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes (Cupcake of the Month #13)

Cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies are both wonderful things.  They become truly excellent when combined.

Yes, that's a little itty bitty cookie on top of that frosting.  And there's a surprise inside, too.

This was a truly multi-step cupcake, as you have to not only make the cake batter, but also the cookie dough and the vanilla frosting.  And I have to tell you something up front about the cookies: the recipe lies.  10 minutes is way too long to bake the little 1 and 1/2 inch cookies.  Mine were close to burned and nearly inedible.  I'd say 5-6 minutes is more on the mark.

Anyway...