Dark Choco Chips Muffins

375deg for 20mins.

Dry Ingredients
1 3/4 flour
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup choco chips dark morsels
2/3 cup cocoa powder unsweetened

Wet Ingredients

Room temp okay!
2 eggs whisk til frothy
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk

Grilled Pork chops

The first time I ever used our new grill pan was for the Korean flanken-style beef short ribs. Now, it's time to grill pork! I used a simple marinade of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and s/p. I removed the soy sauce marinade an hour later because it might make the meat tough? Salt n pepper were sprinkled right before cooking.

I also did a beef broth gravy afterwards. Make a roux (1tbsp butter 2tbsp flour) and pour in the beef broth and add water or more broth if the sauce becomes too thick. Whisk away!!

Twice baked potato

Clean potatoes and bake for 1 hr 20 mins at 375 deg.

Scoop out potatoes leaving some on the skin to maintain the shape of the shell.

Make mashed potatoes whichever way you please....sour cream, butter, milk, salt, pepper, bacon.....etc. spoon back the mixture, sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for another 20 mins.

Carrot Cake Muffins ko!

This is my carrrrrooot cake muffins cuz I made my own measurement with the help of 3 youtube videos! They turned out perfect! Theyre moist and very tasty.

Julidays carrot cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup crushed pineapple
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk if mixture is dry
2 cups grated carrots
2 large eggs
1/2 cup butter or canola oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp vanilla extract

All dry ingredients mixed in a big bowl.
In another bowl whisk/beat eggs till frothy and add butter, milk and vanilla.
My carrots are finely grated (labor of love!)
Strain crushed pj to remove juice.
Combine everything in the bowl. Dont overmix!! Just enough mixing only make sure no dry flour is seen.
Bake 350deg for 20mins or til toothpick test is ok.

Cornbread Muffin

Fresh from the oven cornbread muffins!

I got this recipe from panlasangpinoy.com. I altered a little bit of the ingredients though and the way it was done. It's just so bad I had to redo the wet ingredients because I messed up with the butter getting all clumpy even with the use of an electric mixer. Shortly I will write about how I made my life simpler with the use of a melted butter (like almost liquid) and mixed with the eggs, milk and honey. Thanks to my husband cuz when he saw I was so down about messing up at first. he comforted me by simply asking me to do it again differently. I initially didn't want to waste my previous mixture and thought of just screwing it and who knows maybe the butter will just melt on its own. Eventually I figured out how to do it 'my' way.

If you watch the panlasang pinoy video, you'll see....mine was done differently but waaaay easier. I wouldnt have known that I will still come up with the same muffins anyway.

On my list I highlighted the ingredients that I didn't follow. I read that when it comes to baking, ALWAYS follow the recipe, but for me, baking or not...I never followed the whole thing, or maybe somehow I would but to make it a little unique ...I change it a lil bit. I just worry about the result later on. This is not the right way to do things,I know.

I watched 4 videos of cornbread muffins on youtube and I couldn't stick with one recipe. At the end, I decided to use mostly the one from the pinoy website because somebody said it tastes similar to Kenny Rogers Muffins. I would rather have the Famous Dave's recipe, but I couldn't find them.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1.5 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
2 pcs eggs
1 tsp salt
1/8 cup honey

Mix all the dry ingredients well with the use of a whisk. Set aside.
On a separate bowl, mix the melted (almost liquid butter) with a ROOM TEMPERATURE milk or warm milk, 2 eggs and honey.
Pour the dry ingredients onto the wet mixture and mix until you don't see any dry stuff. Don't OVERMIX....they said doing so will make the bread tough or gummy.

BAKE 400deg for 18-22 mins. I did mine for 20 and do the toothpick test!

ENJOY!

Baked Manicotti (Chicken, Spinach and Mushroom)

Another pasta experiment that turned out beautiful and delicious.
I didn't follow the exact recipe from anywhere so this is totally MINE.
Pasta for me is the easiest to cook because you can always play around with the ingredients esp the cheese. ;-)

Ingredients:

FILLING:

10oz spinach leaves (blanched and dried on a paper towel)
1.5 cup ricotta cheese
small can mushroom
1 chicken breast (baked and sliced into tiny cubes)
2cloves garlic
olive oil
grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
mozzarella cheese

(i sauteed garlic, chicken breast and mushroom in olive oil. The rest of the ingredients just mixed em all in a separate bowl together with the sauteed stuff)

spinach can be replaced with pumpkin and parsley (Saw this on a cannelloni video).

TOPPINGS:

Cheddar cheese and Parmigiano-Regiano cheese
Mozzarella cheese is better
Ragu Tomato Basil Sauce or the 6cheese tomato sauce (I actually mixed both!) or you can also do your own tomato sauce. I know how to make one but it's easier to just get the bottled one.

Pasta:

Barilla Pasta Manicotti (whole pack about 400+ gms)
Cooked in Package instructions

Use a ziploc bag and tear a hole in the corner. The spinach mixture can be squeezed out from there...

Pour marinara sauce in the bottom of the tray and on top of the shells. Sprinkle with cheese on top.

BAKE 350deg for about 25minutes covered in foil. and maybe another 1mins uncovered. it depends. go by the instinct. ;-)