This recipe for taco seasoning
from Joy the Baker is so great
because as long as you've got a spoon and spices, you can make your own taco
seasoning in minutes. I love that you can play around with the recipe (or
spoonfuls) to make a taco seasoning that is just right for you. I also
love knowing exactly what went into my taco seasoning. I can actually
pronounce the names of everything and I like that.
Homemade Taco Seasoning
2 spoonfuls chili powder
1 spoonful ground cumin
1/2 spoonful sweet paprika
1/2 spoonful smoked paprika
1 spoonful dried oregano
1 spoonful garlic powder
1 spoonful onion powder
Half a spoonful coriander
Half a spoonful salt
Quarter to a half spoonful
crushed red pepper flakes
Toss spices together.
Store in a jar.
*In the original recipe it calls
for 1 spoonful of paprika instead of a 1/2 a spoonful of sweet and smoked paprika.
Recipe slightly adapted
from Joy
the Baker
This summer is my first with a
little garden of my own. It was planted a little late in the season, but
I was determined to get it in. The whole gardening thing is quite a
miracle to me. To watch something that starts as a very small plant or
seed, grow and produce something that I can feed my family is pretty amazing. I love going
out every morning to see my growing vegetable plants. I kind of love
picking weeds (remember my garden is small). I love the way my hands
smell after I've touched a tomato or pepper plant. I love knowing that I
am able to walk out and grab a zucchini for dinner or a jalapeno to make
salsa. There is something very satisfying about growing your own food.
I'm already thinking about next year and what I will add to my little garden
and it makes me feel excited! One vegetable that seems to grow overnight
(no kidding) is zucchini. My kiddies prefer it in the form of zucchini
bread, but for me, I love it in any form. This charred Mexican zucchini
is filled with creamy cheesy goodness, dusted with a smokey chili powder and given a spritz of fresh lime juice. Seriously soooo good!
Charred Mexican Zucchini
4 green zucchini, sliced in half
lengthwise and seeds removed
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and red pepper flakes, to
taste
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 cup queso, crumbled
Fresh cracked black pepper, to
taste
Ancho chili powder, for dusting
1 lime cut into wedges
Heat grill on high. Place
zucchini halves on baking sheet cut side up. Drizzle zucchini with olive
oil and sprinkle with salt and crushed red pepper flakes. Place on the
grill cut side down. Cook until zucchini has dark grill marks and looks
charred around the edges.
Remove from the grill and allow
to cool while making the filling.
To a medium sized bowl, add the
mayonnaise, queso, and some freshly cracked black pepper. Stir until evenly
combined.
Top each zucchini half with a
few spoonfuls of the creamy, cheesy filling. Dust the zucchini with a smokey,
chili powder followed by a spritz of fresh lime juice. Serve immediately.
Recipe from Joy the Baker
*Picture taken with my iphone (summertime food for me and my family through the eyes of me and my iphone).
I
love summer mornings. I love that there isn't the "rush" that I
feel during the school year. After my morning run, I spend a little time
in my little growing garden. I love inspecting each plant and watching
with amazement as zucchini, peppers and peas seem to grow overnight. I
love that when I walk into my house, breakfasts are slow and drawn out and are
more than just a quick bowl of cereal with bites taken in between making peanut
butter sandwiches. Sometimes (okay a lot of the time), I go to sleep at
night thinking about what I will make for breakfast in the morning. A
little while back, I came across this recipe for baked donuts and new they
would make the perfect slow morning summer breakfast. The donuts were
tender and not overly sweet, making the vanilla bean glaze a perfect compliment
for this simple summer breakfast.
Vanilla Bean Baked Donuts
Doughnuts:
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vinegar
3 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose
flour
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking
powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated
nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoon honey
1 large egg
1/4 vanilla bean
Glaze:
1 1/2 tablespoons half and half
1/4 vanilla bean
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated
nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a small bowl, mix together
milk and vinegar. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes to curdle. Melt
butter in a small bowl and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, whisk together
flours, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Set aside.
To the cooled butter, add the sugar, honey, egg and vanilla bean seeds and
whisk until combined. Add in curdled milk. Add wet ingredients to
dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Over mixing with create a
donut that is dense. Spray donut pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Add donut batter to a piping bag (a large Ziploc bag also works) and pipe
batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 7 minutes. Allow to
cool for 1 minute before removing donuts from pan to cool on cooling rack.
While the donuts are cooling, make
the glaze. In a flat bottomed bowl, whisk together the half and half,
vanilla bean seeds, nutmeg, and salt until evenly combined. Slowly whisk
in powdered sugar until smooth. If glaze is too thick, add 1 teaspoon
more of half and half at a time. If glaze is to thin, add 1 tablespoon
more of powdered sugar at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Once the donuts have cooled
completely, about 15-20 minutes, dunk donut in glaze to evenly coat the top of
the donut. Repeat until each donut is topped with the vanilla bean
glaze. Place on the cooking rack and allow to dry for about 20
minutes. (I'm pretty sure we only waited about two minutes.) Makes
six donuts.
Recipe changed just a bit from The
Faux Martha
*Picture taken with my iphone (summertime food for me and my family through the eyes of me and my iphone).
With school coming to end a
month and a half ago, I wasn't quite sure I was ready for summer to
begin. To be quite honest, I wasn't sure I was ready to have my kiddies
home all day long. I worried about them being with each other so much
that they'd begin to get on each other’s nerves and that eventually we'd all
begin to get on each other’s nerves. And while there are moments I want
to stuff cotton balls in my ears (and my kids may want to stuff cotton balls in
theirs), I am loving the more relaxed, but still seemingly busy days. I
love that when I come home from running in the morning, it's not a mad rush to
make lunches, make sure my kids are fed and have my boys out the door for
school. I love that our days are filled with slow breakfasts, swimming, lunches by the
pool, and jumping on the tramp with a sprinkler underneath and very large squirt of
dish soap (or two or three) to make the tramp bubbly and very slippery. I love that my
little garden is growing. I love that every time we look at our zucchini
plant, all of us are constantly amazed at just how fast a zucchini can
grow. I love all the delicious summer produce that is available and all
the road side stands selling local produce. Just last night, Todd and I
were talking about how school starts in just a little over a month. I felt
my heart sink thinking about sending my kiddies back to school. I'm not
quite ready and so for now, we are going to enjoy the rest of what summer has
to offer and drink lots of strawberry lemonade.
(While I thought I'd have all
the time in the world to take pictures of all the delicious food that the
summer has to offer and then blog about it, it just hasn't happened. My
days seem to be busier and our nights later (I can't seem to get my kids in bed
before 9:30 or later). So for now, you will be seeing the food my family
and I eat through the eyes of me and my iPhone.)
Strawberry Lemonade
1 cup water
3/4 cup pure cane sugar
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 cup lemon juice, freshly
squeezed (about 6 lemons)
1 cup chopped strawberries
1 cup water
2 tablespoons agave nectar
4 cups chilled water
In a small saucepan, combine 1
cup of water and sugar. Heat over medium-high heat until the sugar has
dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the agave nectar. Let cool.
Meanwhile, puree 1 cup chopped
strawberries with 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons agave nectar. Pour
through a fine mesh sieve; set aside.
Once the simple syrup has
cooled, add to a pitcher along with fresh squeezed lemon juice, strawberry
puree and chilled water. Stir to combine. Refrigerate and serve
cold with ice (pebbled ice is the best).
-To make strawberry basil
lemonade, add a couple of sprigs of basil to the simple syrup while
cooling. I let my simple syrup sit overnight in the refrigerator before
making the lemonade so that the basil flavor would be more pronounced. It
was very delicious!
Recipe slightly adapted
from The Faux
Martha
