quick – OwlCat Designs

July 3, 2012December 16, 2017

Very Merry Blackberry Ice

Many of you are wondering what kind of treat to serve for your 4th of July celebration. It has to be tasty, should ideally not be too filling and still feel good after a full meal, good for a hot barbecue day, but at the same time, you don’t want to go overboard on the calories either. I got just the treat for you: ice cold and healthy and you don’t even need an ice cream maker!
To your rescue comes…

Three ingredient blackberry ice!

I have not read up on my ice box deserts lately, but I suspect that this should actually be called ‘gelato’, since I am not only using cream…very very exited about my animal cracker cookie cutters 🙂

You can vary the amount of sugar you add to this, depending on how sweet the berries are. Just remember to start this half a day in advance or use already frozen berries.

Ingredients

12 oz (big carton/box) blackberries
6oz box raspberries or some strawberries
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup to 1 cup half & half, whole milk or cream

Directions

Wash and gently dry the berries by shaking them a little in a colander. Place back into original container and freeze until rock hard, about 6 hours (depends on the freezer)
In the bowl of a good food processor, combine the berries and the sugar, pulse until everything is crushed and starts to resemble a powder.
With the machine running, in a slow stream add milk or half & half through the feed hole on the lid of the blender bowl. You may have to scrape down the sides once or so as you are going through this, but work quickly as the berries will start to thaw rapidly as you are processing them. Keep adding half&half until the berries and the dairy form a creamy mass. The ice cream will be quite soft (almost like soft serve) either eat right away, or place in the freezer for approximately 15 to 20 minutes to firm up a bit before serving.
Enjoy with animal crackers or any other crunchy item you enjoy 🙂

January 24, 2012December 16, 2017

Paprika Coriander Chicken

Paprika Coriander Glazed Chicken Breast (shown with red and golden beets)

Part I of the series: Chicken for every day of the week!

Chicken, the easy way out, right? When you just don’t feel like putting that much effort into your dinner, there’s nothing easier or quicker to cook. And let’s face it what else is as perfect of a ‘canvas’ for different flavor as mild chicken?

Each one of these recipe’s makes 2 servings, so make ahead as lunches for the week, something I started doing lately, since there are days when I simply don’t have any time to cook something and end up, you guessed it, eating less than healthy or worse, not at all. Not good, not good, at least not when you’re trying to get back to eating small meals every three hours to have more balanced energy and leave the Christmas pounds behind in January.

This one can be made in the pan or the oven, your preference really. It tastes delicious with steamed red and golden beets and some broccoli…

Ingredients

1 chicken breast half
1 1/2 tsp paprika, mild/sweet
1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds, whole
1 tbsp lemon juice, preferably fresh squeezed
1 1/2 tsp raw honey
1/8 tsp salt

Directions

Pound the chicken breast between two sheets of clear wrap, using a meat mallet or bottom of a pot
For the glaze, crush the coriander seeds in a mortar using a pestle, until roughly ground
In a small bowl combine crushed coriander, salt, paprika, lemon juice and honey and stir to combine
Stovetop: Heat oil in a skillet over medium or
Remove top layer of cling wrap from flattened chicken, and spread half of the glaze over the surface using the back of a spoon, then pick up and flip over into the pan, removing the second layer of cling wrap as you do so.
Spread the remaining glaze over top of chicken in the pan, cook until bottom is nicely browned, about 2-3 minutes, flip over, cook 1 minute then add 1/4 cup water to prevent from getting too dark and dry, cook until cooked through about another 2 minutes.

Oven: preheat oven to 400°F and line a small baking sheet with foil
Place the chicken on the sheet, then spread half the glaze over the top, reserve the rest to re-apply once the chicken is done
Bake 15-20 minutes depending on thickness, or until chicken breast is cooked all the way through, remove from oven and spread the remainder of the glaze over the chicken before serving.