Monday, July 21, 2014

Recipe Round Up!

This is a round up sorts...

Last week in my weekly menu I tried a TON  of new recipes. Each of them were very good, so I wanted to highlight them, show you my finished product, and let you know of any changes I made.

Recipes I tried this past week:

Angela's Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate over at Oh She Glows:

I did the coffee concentrate exactly as described in the recipe, I made no changes. The coffee I used was Kati Kati from Starbucks. It is their summer blend (at least here in The Netherlands) and it is amazing! It has great citrus notes to it which you think would not be good, but oh my word is it ever the best! Cold brewing it like this takes away any acidity it may have, which is usually my biggest problem with Starbucks coffee's is the acidity. 

How I made my coffee: 
Lots of ice
1/4 cup-1/2 cup or so of coffee concentrate
1oz maple syrup
1/2-3/4 cup Oat milk
Dallop of coconut cream (I put mine in a pastry bag & dispense that way)

How teenager makes hers:
Lots of ice
1/4 cup-1/2 cup of coffee concentrate
1oz vanilla, hazelnut, or caramel syrup from starbuck (can use Monin or whatever your preferred brand but we don't have access to that here)
1/2-3/4 cup whole milk (Yes, we use whole milk *gasp*)
Spritz of real whipped cream

...and Megan's Blueberry and Coconut Coffee Cake Breakfast Bars


I didn't change a single thing about this recipe I followed it almost exactly. The only thing I cannot find here in Amsterdam is liquid egg whites in a separate bottle so I used two whole eggs and two egg whites.

Combine these two and you have the most amazing homemade breakfast treat you could ever imagine and they are healthy to boot!
People often think when you live a healthy lifestyle and eat food that is good for your body you never get any treats...well, there is balance and there are ways to make your favorite foods healthier so you can eat them more often. Coffee cake is something I haven't had in year so this was a fantastic treat without spending a ton on going out...because, as I've mentioned before, eating out can be very expensive in the Netherlands.

So, I pretty much didn't follow this recipe at all, except for the seasoning. I chopped the potatoes real small...I did regular and sweet potatoes. When the potatoes were done, I then cracked the eggs over the top & let them cook for a while until they were *almost* done and then I sprinkled with cheese & let it sit until it was melted and the eggs were totally set. It was really good and very filling.





This was quite delicious. The only problem I had was deciphering the cuts of meat at the grocery store since, well, they aren't in English and the butcher didn't really understand what I was asking and my phone wasn't charged so, ya know,just a good ol' case of a calamity of errors! But, even said they were delicious. I also couldn't find the bottled marinade she had so I used some teriyaki marinade and I crush garlic in to the teriyaki sauce. It was delicious and made a great glaze on the steak. 

For the potatoes, since I wasn't doing an appetizer like the author of the recipe,  I just made the regular twice baked potatoes my family enjoys which pretty much follows her recipe only I included bacon.



Sausage and Potatoes Au Gratin

I'm not including a picture because my pictures do not do it justice. Just visit the page and look at Christine's photos because her photo's are way more awesome than the ones I took...in fact, mine made it just look gross...probably because it is dark! lol

I found this recipe when Christine, over at Foody Schmoody posted on Facebook asking if we would like to see more of different types of recipes or something (it was a while ago) and I mentioned that my husband is totally a meat and potatoes kind of guy. She linked me to this recipe for the Sausage and Potatoes Au Gratin and suggested I give it a try. So, I pinned it...and like all things on pinterest it got lost in the shuffle and I forgot about it! Well, I was needing some inspiration and since smoked sausage is HUGE here in my area of Europe I figured why not give it a try!

Changes I made:
  • I left out the onions because my husband HATES them with a thriving passion lol I did throw in onion powder because he loves that...go figure :-/
  • I used organic unbleached flour
  • I used half unsweetened almond milk and half full fat cow's milk to cut the cals a bit ;)
  • I can't find bricks of cheddar or shredded cheddar in my local grocery (have to go to a specialty store for it) so I use gouda.
Did you try any new recipes last week? Any worth putting on a menu this upcoming week?

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