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Caramel Brownies

Lori Lange — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:00:53 +0000

There are times when you need a dessert, you need it now, you need it QUICK and you don’t want to fuss with a bunch of ingredients. Those are the times when I pull out a good boxed mix and mess with it a little. I grabbed a box of Ghirardelli brownie mix and some chocolate covered Dove candies recently, and combined them to make super simple, no-brainer, almost-embarrassed-to-call-this-a-recipe: Caramel Brownies

I know that there are folks out there who don’t like to bake and who are intimidated by baking and all of the ingredients and terms involved. I love to show people that baking can be fun and that you can be successful no matter what level of kitchen knowledge you possess. But THIS little brownie project– no one can mess this one up. I promise.

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10 New Recipes to Try for Dinner

Lori Lange — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:00:54 +0000

So, here’s the deal: I make dinner for my family most nights, and I secretly sneak most of those dinner recipes onto RecipeGirl.com without sharing them on the blog. So you may be browsing through the recipe index once in a while and think, “Hmmmm, I don’t remember seeing that one on the blog!” That’s right. Some recipes are delicious and worthy enough to make for dinner, but I don’t necessarily share them all on the blog. I’ve decided to share 10 dinners that we’ve enjoyed in the last couple of weeks that have not been a feature on the blog. Maybe there’s something in here that will inspire you to cook something new for your family. Just click the recipe title to reach the actual recipe. Here ya go:

Orange Chinese Chicken: This is a simple sautéed chicken with a mandarin-orange sauce. Very quick to make. We served it over rice.
*gluten-free adaptable
*nutritional info & WW Points included.

Udon Noodles with Asian Vegetables and Peanut Sauce- I didn’t expect my family to love this as much as they did. It’s a simple vegetable stir fry with a light peanut sauce and mixed with udon noodles. Very good.
*gluten-free adaptable
*nutritional info & WW Points included

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Cucumber Salad

Lori Lange — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:00:06 +0000

I’m knee deep in sugar. Literally! I’ve been testing and re-testing and dreaming about and sampling many, many DESSERT recipes for the “Sweet Treats” chapter of The Recipe Girl Cookbook. The past few weeks have been delicious and full of some pretty major gym workouts to manage all of those “tasting” calories. This Cucumber Salad recipe was a welcome, healthy reprieve, for sure.

The recipe comes from a new cookbook by Bee Yin Low, the writer behind the popular food blog: Rasa Malaysia. The cookbook is called, “Easy Chinese Recipes: Family Favorites from Dim Sum to Kung Pao.” It’s a collection of Low’s all-time favorite dishes that are simple and easy to cook and eat at home. Low says there is a general misconception that Chinese food is unhealthy, greasy, and mostly deep-fried. In reality, Low says, there are many fresh and healthy Chinese recipes, such as this Cucumber Salad. I’m giving away a copy of Easy Chinese Recipes today- see the end of this post for details!

Here’s how you make it:

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Crab Guacamole

Lori Lange — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:00:09 +0000

Avocado lovers are very happy to live in Southern California, where avocados are plentiful and fairly inexpensive all year long. We have just the right weather to nurture them along, and we can enjoy them in January just as much as we enjoy them in July. If you can’t find them around where you live this time of year, you can always order them online. Or you can enter the giveaway I’m hosting today for California Avocados Direct- maybe you’ll get lucky! Their family farm is just 20 minutes from my house! See the end of this post for details.

Let’s talk about what I like to do most with avocados: make guacamole! In this recipe, I combined crab with avocados to create Crab Guacamole.

Oh yeah… those are some big chunks of crab you see in that guacamole. Let me show you how I made it…

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Cauliflower Crust Hawaiian Pizza

Lori Lange — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:00:36 +0000

This is the best invention ever: Cauliflower Crust Pizza. Yes, you heard that right… pizza crust made out of cauliflower. I saw it on Beth’s blog, and she got the idea from a friend who got the idea from a low-carb bulletin board. It’s apparently been an idea that has been floating around for a while, but I’ve just gotten wind of it and I’m sure glad I did. This stuff is (shockingly) good!

I topped mine Hawaiian style. This entire thing is incredibly simple to make!

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Girl Hunter Book Review and Giveaway

Lori Lange — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:00:09 +0000

I’m not a hunter, and the closest I’ve come to cooking anything out in the wild is some little brown trout that my (then 9 yr old) son caught in Montana a couple of summers ago. My husband gutted them with the aide of my chef nephew, and I fried up those trout right there in our little cabin for us to eat.

I shot a gun once when I was about 10. My uncle took me down to the river near his house and put a pistol in my hand. “Shoot!” he said. I shot. And I remember that gun kicking back like you wouldn’t believe, and it hurt my ears too. I wasn’t interested in shooting any more after that. I had the chance to shoot again about a month ago- a shotgun. This time I had an instructor and ear plugs. It was much better, and a whole lot of fun too. (photo by Georgia Pellegrini)

Here’s Georgia Pellegrini, the one who introduced me to shooting that gun. She was a classically trained chef in New York City and she decided to leave the city and seek out the origins of the food she was preparing by learning how to hunt. Georgia traveled with veteran hunters who showed her the ropes and taught her to hunt things like quail, venison, javelina, squirrel, turkey, pheasant and elk. (photo by Georgia Pellegrini)

Georgia Pellegrini’s experiences with learning to hunt and traveling with a cast of characters are now compiled into a book: Girl Hunter. As I mentioned before, I’m not a hunter… but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It really makes you think about where your food comes from. I admire Georgia for being brave enough to get in there with the guys, shoot the animals, gut/skin the animals, sip brandy by the campfires with a bunch of men, cook it all up, and take the time to learn all about the art of hunting. She shows us that hunting is not just for boys. And in her book, it becomes evident that she gained the respect of those who taught her. In conversations with her recently, I learned that she has truly developed a passion for hunting. Her passion comes through in her writing. It reads like a great novel that I found hard to put down. Hunters and non-hunters alike will enjoy this book.

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Snickerdoodles

Lori Lange — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:00:12 +0000

I’m sharing with you today my very favorite cookie in the entire universe… the cookie I’ve loved the most since I was just a little girl: Snickerdoodles.

My mother made this recipe often when I was growing up, so I suppose I became enamored with them at a very early age. The draw most certainly must have been the sugar and cinnamon exterior, or the crunch of the cookie, or maybe it was the intrigue of the craggy cracks formed within the cookie…

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