An Evening With Chobani

Do you ever sit around thinking, "I wonder what kind of recipes I could make using Greek yogurt?"  If so, this is the post for you.  Last week I was invited to a dinner at Chobani.  The mission?  Make a full dinner using all recipes that include Greek yogurt.  I loved the concept!

My family loves Chobani yogurt.  I've gotten my husband addicted to it, and even my dog, Clyde, seems to know the difference and prefers licking the remnants of the Chobani cups over any other type of yogurt.  My personal favorite flavors are the pineapple and mango, but I'll pretty much eat any Chobani flavor :)  I do sometimes sub yogurt for butter or oil, but if you really think about it, there's a ton you can do with it in almost every recipe.  I feel like that's what the the point of this event was- to show us all the possibilities!

Chobani has a swanky high rise office in uptown Charlotte, complete with an awesome test kitchen, where we all assembled for the event.

photo credit Chobani photographer

Of course before we got into cooking, there was plenty of socializing, drinking, and nibbling on an appetizer spread that included dips made with Greek yogurt.

I was especially addicted to the guacamole, and enjoyed dipping my veggies and pita chips in that :)  Chobani yogurt gives it a nice yummy tangy taste.

I may have been slightly jealous of Brittany's glass of red wine, but my ginger ale was good too.

Introductions were made and our Chobani contact Amy filled us in on what we'd be doing.

photo credit to Chobani photographer

Then we all partnered up and got to cooking a recipe for dinner.  I ended up with Kelly and we found ourselves at the smashed potatoes with broccoli station.

Each station had all the necessary ingredients laid out for us, along with a recipe to follow.

Oh, and a cute apron and pot holder, which they let us keep.  Excellent, maybe now that I have two glove pot holders I will not burn my wrists pulling things out of the oven anymore ;)

Kelly and I got to work on our recipe.  She chopped and sauteed onions and I peeled and chopped the potatoes and broccoli and got them boiling.

Looking around the room, everyone was engrossed in cooking and chatting.  It was really fun :)

Partners!

photo credit Chobani photographer

Our recipe came together fairly easily.  I think one of the great things about the Chobani recipes is that they are not that complicated.  

photo credit Chobani photographer

I finished up our smashed potatoes by baking them with a generous layer of cheddar cheese spread over the top.  Yum!

The other dishes prepared included:  Gorgonzola crostini,

salad with honey walnut dressing, 

pumpkin risotto, holiday stuffing,

asparagus with hollandaise, 

and roasted butternut squash soup.

I gathered some of each on my plate, and it kind of reminded me of Thanksgiving!

The show stopper of the night came out in the middle of chowing down on everything else- the iced gingerbread cake.

If you make one recipe from this post, make THIS CAKE.  It's absolutely incredible.  It's moist and flavorful, and there is actually no butter in it, which is crazy!  I'm planning on making it for Christmas.

I was honored to be invited to the event since I'm not known strictly for my food blogging like many of my fellow bloggers that attended are.  I do love to cook though and am always on the look out for smart ideas in the kitchen.  Using Greek yogurt in recipes is a great idea and all of the recipes we made are on the easy side and took less than an hour to make, which are my kind of recipes.  Check out more ideas at the Chobani Kitchen.  Also look for the Twitter hashtag #justaddgood

I really had an excellent time socializing, cooking, and eating at this event.  Thank you so much for having me Chobani!

photo credit Chobani photographer

Peach, Cherry, and Blueberry Crisp

Another thing I did last weekend was whip up an awesome summer crisp for Greg and I on Sunday.  I actually was going to make just cherry almond crisp, but didn't have enough cherries, and had just stalked up on peaches and blueberries, so I decided to wing it with those added and see how it went.  The flavor combination was so good.  I definitely think these summer fruits belong together!

Peach, Cherry, and Blueberry Crisp (adapted from Cooking Light).

• 2 cups cherries, pitted and halved
• Four peaches, pitted and chopped into small pieces (skin on)
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Cooking spray
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

1. Combine fruit with granulated sugar, flour, vanilla, and cinnamon.
2. Pour the cherry mixture into a baking dish coated with cooking spray. 
3. Bake at 375° for 40 minutes or until thick and bubbly.
4. While fruit bakes, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, almonds, and salt in a medium bowl. Combine butter and almond extract in a small bowl, and drizzle over oat mixture, stirring until moist clumps form.
5. Remove fruit mixture from oven, and sprinkle evenly with the streusel topping. 
6. Bake an additional 20 minutes or until streusel is golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes; serve warm, with yogurt, whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream.

The almond flavor also really stands out in this, so if you love almonds like I do, you will love this.

Enjoy!

Tomato Basil Pasta Salad

Saturday I attended my friend Sara's baby shower.  Yes, I survived, for those of you wondering.  It actually wasn't as bad as I was thinking it might be, but there were four pregnant women, three with babies, and the only other none pregnant/none mom was about 25 and not married, so this is kind of my life right now- pregnancy and babies everywhere.  It is seriously hard to avoid it.  These are my friends, so I want to see them, despite it being hard sometimes.  I do what I have to do.  I did go for beers with a bunch of the guys after work on Friday and that may become a more regular thing because that was seriously a breath of fresh air for me to be around them, even if crude jokes were told.  Hanging out with guy friends might actually be the key to escaping babyville when I need it.

Anyhoo, the shower was very cute, and Sara was all smiles opening one cute baby gift after another.

We were asked to bring an appetizer or dessert to the shower, which, in typical Brittney fashion, I forgot til the morning of the shower and was tweeting Jen to ask if we were supposed to bring something.  Also in typical- I decided to try and make something out of stuff I already had in the house, so I wouldn't have to go to the grocery store.  I remembered I have a fresh basil plant from my mom outside and noticed the large container of tomatoes I had sitting on the counter, and started brainstorming recipes around those items.  I basically came up with a tomato/basil pasta salad.

Tomato Basil Pasta Salad

1 lb your choice of pasta (I used Barilla Plus Penne)
1/3- 1/2 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic or red wine vinegar
2 cups of diced fresh tomatoes
1/2 cup diced marinated artichoke hearts
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 of a lemon
salt and pepper to taste
fresh mozzarella cheese/fresh parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

Chop your tomatoes and try to soak up some of the extra juice with paper towels.  Add to a bowl with the olive oil, vinegar, Italian seasoning and garlic.  Cover and place in the fridge for about two hours.  Also- you can use infused olive oil if you prefer.  I used half regular, half lemon infused olive oil.

Cook your pasta to al dente.  Drain and rinse in cold water.  Mix pasta with the tomato mixture, diced artichoke hearts, then add the fresh basil, squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper.  You can add the cheeses if you wish, I served mine with the cheeses on the side so they were optional.

At the baby shower, I served myself a healthy portion of pasta salad and followed that with a mouth watering chocolate cupcake.

Another bright side to baby showers- cake :)

Creme Brulee French Toast

I've been slacking on the recipe front lately, I know.  Not that I'm a full time food blogger, but I usually contribute some recipes here and there, and more frequently than I have been.  Really, I haven't been that inspired to come up with anything new lately.  This french toast is one my mom introduced me to when I was visiting a few weeks ago.  I also made it for my friend Jen when she was visiting.  It's a great recipe to make for guests.  You can also halve it, which I did when Jen came.  Try it!

FYI, you make this the night before, so just be aware of that!

Creme Brulee French Toast

1 loaf of Challah bread

5 tablespoons butter or margarine or Earth Balance

5 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk (I used half 2%, half almond milk.  You can also use some heavy cream if you like it richer)

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons of corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 kosher salt

2 teaspoons of orange extract (or Grand Marnier or OJ)

powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

-Butter a 9x13 pan. 
-In a small pot, combine butter with brown sugar and corn syrup.  Stir til melted together.  Pour into the buttered pan.
-Cut the bread into 1/2 inch thick slices and then place the slices in the pan on top of the butter/sugar.  You can cut the bread in half, like puzzle pieces to fill the pan, if necessary.
-Mix eggs, milk, vanilla, salt, and extract with a whisk and pour over the bread slices.  Cover and refrigerate over night.
-In the morning, remove the dish and let it come to room temperature.
-Preheat oven to 350.
-Bake til golden, about 30-40 minutes.
-top with powdered sugar, maple syrup, fresh fruit.

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

Do you guys watch the show Best Thing I Ever Ate?  I do!  I love that show.  Every time I watch it I find my mouth watering in a want-to-plan-a-vacation-around-eating-at-the-place-they-are-describing kind of way.  So many things look so good and the way the chefs describe everything, I just WANT it!

Recently, I watched an episode on breakfast or brunch food, and I can't even remember which chef or which restaurant it was, but they had blueberry ricotta pancakes somewhere and they looked AWESOME.  I knew I had to make some.

I basically used my go to pancake recipe, but changed a few things.

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

1 egg, separated
3/4 cup flour
1 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter (but not hot)
1/2 cup blueberries
1//2 cup ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Seperate egg, and beat egg white til stiff.  Set aside.
In a seperate bowl sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
Beat egg yolks with milk and melted butter.
Stir yolk mixture with flour mixture.  Add ricotta cheese and lemon zest. 
Fold in the egg whites and add the blueberries.
Drop by 1/4 cup on to hot greased griddle.
Serve with warm REAL maple syrup (Hey, I'm from New England!)
Makes about 6-8 pancakes.

The ricotta and egg white make these pancakes really light and fluffy.  I thought they were delicious!

Eggplant Bharta

I haven't been blogging about food quite as frequently as I once did, but one thing I've become pretty addicted to over the last year is Indian food.  There's a place near my office that has a lunch buffet, and I find myself craving it about once a week or so.  Since I don't always go every week, I've taken to making my own versions at home.  Chana masala is probably my favorite dish, but the other night I had an eggplant ready to be used.  I don't know about you, but pretty much the only two things I can ever think of to do with an eggplant is make eggplant parmesan or grill it with other veggies.  That's kind of limiting.  I remembered that there was an indian dish with eggplant (that's the good thing about going to a buffet where you can try different things), and started googling recipes.

I basically made this one, adapted for a smaller portion and minus/plus a few ingredients.

Eggplant Bharta

1 eggplant
1 small/medium onion sliced or diced (whatever you prefer, I sliced mine thinly)
2 tbsps olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp garlic chopped very fine
1" piece of ginger grated fine
1 gentle shake of cayenne pepper (about 1/8 teaspoon) - optional for heat
1/2 can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsps finely chopped fresh cilantro

Plain yogurt (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450.  Cut eggplant in half and place cut-side up on a baking sheet.  Bake for about 25 minutes until flesh is soft.

About halfway through eggplant cooking, heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and cook onions til softened.  Add cumin, garlic, and ginger and continue cooking a few more minutes.  Then add the rest of the spices and the tomatoes and continue cooking.

When you eggplant is finished, scrape the inner flesh from the purple shell (carefully, it'll be hot) and place on a cutting board.  Using a kinfe and fork, kind of chop it up and then add it into the pan with the onion mixture.  Cook about another 10 minutes to blend the flavors all together.  Add cilantro and yogurt if desired.

Serve with nice or nan.

It's a great vegetarian dish and something to mix up your normal rotation of dinner options at home.  Enjoy!

Unseasonably Warm

Yesterday the high was almost 70 degrees in Charlotte!  Less than a week ago we had a high of about 40, so this was quite the contrast!

I started my Saturday by making a loaf of banana bread.  I actually subbed half the flour for oat flour by grinding some rolled oats in my food processor.  I like this recipe because there's no eggs, so I don't worry quite as much if it's slightly undercooked.  Sometimes breads give me trouble because I tend to worry that it's not cooked enough and over cook it.  The honey in this recipe makes the bread kind of chewy too, which I like.

I spent most of the morning engrossed in my Kindle book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, but finally put the book down and got out around noon and to take Clyde for a walk.  I think the trees are confused about the warm weather too- check it out, the cherry blossoms are already out!

We walked for about 45 minutes.  It was actually warmer than I thought it would be and I was hot in my yoga pants and fleece vest.

I came home and decided that having a salad on the deck sounded great so that I could continue enjoying the weather.  I found this one, an apple, walnut, goat cheese salad, on Pinterest and basically made it the same except using spinach and green leaf lettuce as my base..  I've been eating a lot of walnuts as I heard they're good for fertility.

This time I put shorts on, before heading out to the deck to eat.

Ahhh, I'm so white!  This made my next task incredibly unpleasant: bathing suit shopping...

Greg and I are taking a trip in a couple weeks and am in need of some new bathing suits.  Target actually has bathing suits out already, so I headed there to take a look.  Biggest gripe?  You can only take 6 items at a time into their dressing room, which adds up quick when you have bathing suit tops and bottoms.  I had to go in twice to try everything I wanted to try on.  I hate that!  They did have some cute suits though, so I got two tops and three different bottoms.

I'm not sure if I should be wearing bikinis anymore, but I couldn't find anything else I liked and you can't beat the price, I think each piece was around $15.  I really want to get a tankini, but I have a really short torso, so they always come down past the top of my bottoms, which is silly looking.  The one piece suits weren't looking too promising either.  Anyway, I'm just glad that's over with.

On the way home I drove with the sunroof open.  Still pretty warm!

Shortly after I got home, some rain came through, and I suddenly wanted soup for dinner.  I made soup using these beans we got at Costco recently.

You boil one cup in three cups of liquid for 5 minutes, then let them sit for 10 minutes and can use them any way you want.  I have a good recipe for split pea soup, so I decided to try and use the beans in that recipe.

Pea Soup

Cook time 4-4.5 hours

1 lb bag of dried split peas

2 quarts water

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon of pepper

1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder (I used minced garlic)

1/8 teaspoon cumin

1/8 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/2 teaspoon basil

1/2 teaspoon dill

1/2 teaspoon rosemary

1 chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped carrot

2 stalks of celery, chopped

Boil peas in water 2 minutes.  Turn off head and keep covered an hour.  Add seasonings and simmer 2 hours, add vegetables, then cook for another hour.

Since I didn't have 4 hours and I was hoping these beans would cook faster, I cooked the beans as directed (5 minutes, then sit for 10), I just sauteed the onions and carrot til softened, added the seasonings, then put them in the pot with the seasonings and cooked it all together for another 40 minutes or so, then used my immersion blender to try to puree it. 

Honestly, it probably needed more cooking time, but I was hungry and it was decent this way, the beans just weren't as soft as they might be if they were cooked longer.  I love the seasonings in this soup.

I spent a quiet night in with this pup.

We watched the movie Up, which I hadn't seen.  So cute!

I think it's going to rain today, but I'm hoping not, because I have some fun stuff planned for the afternoon.  More on that next time!



Pumpkin Lasagna

The other day I saw this recipe for pumpkin mac and cheese on Jenna's blog.  YUM!  I got home and figured I would try it, only I had NO shells or pasta resembling shells.  I did have two boxes of lasagna noodles though, and thus, I decided to create pumpkin lasagna.  As it turns out, I changed a bunch of other things along the way too, adding garlic, using dried herbs instead of fresh, etc.  So here's my adapted version of Jenna's mac and cheese turned into pumpkin lasagna.

Pumpkin Lasagna

Feeds about 3-4 people.

Prep time: about 30 minutes, Cook time 25 minutes

Ingredients


Lasagna noodles (It depends on what size pan you are using how many you'll need.  I used about seven for a square pan by cutting the noodles to fit on two layers of lasagna)

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp flour

1 clove of garlic, minced

3 1/2 cups milk (I used skim)

4-5 oz grated parmesan cheese (use the good stuff, not the powdered can)

¾ cup pumpkin puree (1/2 15-oz can)

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

¼ tsp cayenne

1/3 cup breadcrumbs (mine were Italian seasoned)

Directions


1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Cook noodles in boiling salted water. Drain. Set aside.

3.  In a saucepan over medium high heat, melt the butter and add the flour. Whisk together and cook for thirty seconds. Add 2 cups milk, rosemary, and garlic and whisk until smooth. Add another cup of the milk and continue to whisk as the sauce thickens.
4.  Add 3/4 of the grated parmesan cheese (you're saving some for the top) gradually and stir well so that the cheese melts. Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne followed by the last half cup of milk and the pumpkin puree.

5.  Spray baking dish with cooking spray. Spoon a layer of sauce into the bottom, then layer with lasagna noodles, then sauce, then noodles, then sauce.  I only got two layers out of mine, so if you want more layers, you may want to double this recipe in it's entirety.  On top of the last layer of sauce, sprinkle the bread crumbs and the remaining parmesan cheese.

6.  Bake for 25 minutes until bubbling.



Even my husband, who is ready to kill me with the amount of pumpkin I keep putting in everything, loved this.

 

I still want to try Jenna's version, but I thought this was really delicious and will make it again!