Food & Drink | Musings on Momentum

Quick and Easy Chocolate Bark

February 2, 2016

Is it just me or is this year already flying by? I can scarcely believe that January is over and February is upon us. And you know what February means…all of our resolutions to eat healthier and avoid sugar are about to go out the window with the arrival of Valentine’s Day sweets. In lieu of that fact I only feel a teeny bit guilty about today’s post.

The recipe I’m sharing today is a quick and easy dessert option that I have found myself making almost every weekend lately. I have drastically cut back on my sugar intake in the past couple of weeks (hello angry post-holiday skin!) but still occasionally need a little something to satisfy my sweet tooth. That is where this easy chocolate bark comes into play.

This recipe is about as simple and straightforward as a dessert recipe can be and is even fun to make! It would be a great little treat to whip up with kids for Valentine’s Day gifts and an even better one to indulge in yourself.

Bacon Asparagus Pasta – Your Go-To Valentine’s Day Recipe

January 26, 2016

Over the years Valentine’s Day has taken on many incarnations. For the first eighteen years of my life I absolutely despised the day because it represented a day when I was tangibly reminded of the fact that I was not popular nor were any of the boys at my school remotely interested in me. I’m sure we’ve all been there at one time or another…it feels lousy and it greatly influenced how I have celebrated the occasion as an adult.

While the day has been consistently good from the time I was nineteen on, I still choose to commemorate it in a more low-key fashion. I’ll pass on the overcrowded restaurants and boxes of chocolate (wait, I take that back, please still give me the chocolate!) and instead generally opt to cook a nice meal at home and enjoy some down time with my valentine.

In keeping with that tradition, today’s recipe is equal parts simple and delicious making it the ideal Valentine’s Day dinner. This bacon asparagus pasta has been a favorite in our house for over a year. You can whip up this five-ingredient Valentine’s Day recipe in a jiffy and are guaranteed to please your guest. Especially guests of the bacon loving variety.

Zesty Cucumber Amsterdam Mule Recipe

January 19, 2016

On our final day in Amsterdam my husband and I meandered through the streets of the city, soaking in as much of the vibrant town as we could before our flight to Prague. We stopped for a late lunch at a little corner cafe situated on a canal and lingered there for a couple of hours, watching the city go by.

Amsterdam is a town where beer flows like water; in fact a glass of beer is considerably less expensive than a glass of water. Needless to say, I was getting a little tired of drinking beer at every meal and decided ~~water~~ a cocktail was in order. After surveying the menu I settled on a Moscow Mule, fully expecting to be served a classic no-frills vodka and ginger beer concoction.

What was placed in front of me however was a gorgeous glass filled with slices of cucumber and topped with black pepper. I took a sip and, to my great surprise, the cocktail tasted even better than it looked! I immediately took a photo of the drink and announced that I was going to recreate the mule recipe and share it on the blog as soon as we got home. I did exactly that my first weekend home and thus the Amsterdam Mule was born.

Rich and Easy Gluten Free Brownie Cake

January 12, 2016

As the big 3-0 approached, I found myself craving the taste of the rich chocolate birthday cakes I enjoyed in my youth. The only problem was that all of the chocolate cake recipes I had in my arsenal contained gluten. Not one to be deterred by my gluten-free lifestyle, I set out on a quest to find an easy and delicious alternative to the chocolate cake recipes I remember from my childhood.

Lactose Free Chicken in Cream Sauce

January 5, 2016

For each of my childhood birthdays my mom would prepare a special meal and dessert for me; it could be anything I wanted. Without fail, I would request the same dinner every single year – a super rich chicken in cream sauce recipe. Having it for my birthday was our family tradition up until I moved to California six years ago.

With a monumental birthday coming up (the big 3-0) I found myself homesick and longing for my mom’s chicken and cream sauce. I had never previously attempted to make it but figured that I had enough cooking experience under my belt to give it a try. My mom still had the recipe handy and sent it to me but there was one problem…I have cut lactose and gluten out of my diet and the original recipe was heavy on cream and flour. Hmm.

Substituting almond flour for regular flour seemed straight forward enough, but what to do about the cream… Fortunately for me, Google exists and was able to provide a plethora of alternatives. I threw caution to the wind and went with the most basic option I could find – substituting 2/6 cup of soy milk and 1/6 cup of oil for 1/2 cup of heavy cream. The consistency seemed okay. Not perfect, but okay. And flour behaves like flour so the recipe should work, right? Wrong.

Now, this was in no way a complete disaster. It just didn’t taste exactly like my mom’s and that turned me into an emotional mess. Neither the meal or the pictures came out quite how I wanted them to and I considered not posting this entrée at all. It was my mom who encouraged me to go ahead with it as planned because it’s a recipe that means a lot to me, it still tasted amazing and, as she pointed out, maybe somebody out there has a suggestion for how to improve it next time. So without further explanation or ado, I give you…

« Previous Page