Baked Potato Pesto

Recently, I've realized that I really like POTATOES. I've already successfully replicated the Creamy Potato Gratin that I loved during my college days. Now, it was time to try making some potato jackets and fill them up with nothing else but potatoes!

I came across this recipe for Pesto Baked Potato on Pinterest, and I knew I just had to try it out, with a few tweaks, of course.

So, here are things you'll be needing:

Equipment:
Any baking pan (I used my non-stick square pan)

Ingredients: Makes 2 servings
1 lb potato, washed
Garlic
Onion
150g cream
1 tbsp pesto sauce
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese, grated


Preheat your oven to 400F. Pinch your washed potatoes for about 6-8 times.

Pat the potatoes dry, then brush on some olive oil and rub with some sea salt. Bake the potato for about an hour or until it is tender.

 

When the potato has been in the oven for about 30 minutes, butter up a pan over low heat and toss in the garlic and onions.

When garlic starts to brown, put in the heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper.

When cream starts to simmer, add in the pesto sauce. Leave the sauce to cool until potatoes are done.

Once potatoes are done, cut them in half using thongs to hold them steady. Leave the oven on low heat while preparing potatoes.

Scoop out some of the potatoes, making sure to leave some on with the skin.

Mix the scooped potatoes with the creamy pesto sauce, then put some into each of the potato jackets.

For one of the potato jackets, I added some peanuts to see if the added texture would really make it better.

Top the potatoes with some parmesan cheese.

Pop the potatoes back into the hot oven for about 10-15 minutes. Serve hot.

In my opinion, this dish is good by itself, but it can also be a side dish as suggested in the original recipe. Since I had nothing to serve it with, I ended up eating the entire thing for lunch.

Oh, and the peanuts did make it more interesting, but I still love good old fashioned potatoes by themselves. ^_~

Cinnamon French Toast

Growing up, I've never been a fan of breakfast. Given a choice, I would rather sleep in my bed or take my time in the shower and dressing up than to drag myself to our dining table just to eat. I also don't feel hungry in the morning, so whenever I do eat, it feels like I'm forcing myself. And my options for breakfast meals are so limited, especially now that I've pledged that I won't be eating anything fried in oil.

After coming up with the Scrambled Egg Muffin, I just had to think of another dish for my least favorite meal. This time, I wanted a dish that would excite me by just thinking about it. And that is why I decided to try my luck with some french toast. I decided to add one of my favorite spices so far, which is CINNAMON!

Here's are the things you'll be needing:

CINNAMON FRENCH TOAST: Makes 2 toasts

Ingredients:
2 slices of bread

3 tbsp milk

3 tsp all-purpose flour
2 eggs
3 tsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Butter
Ground cinnamon


First step is to mix the milk and flour in a mixing bowl. As the flour dissolves, add in the eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract. Whisk until well blended.

Now, dip bread slices one at a time until bread has absorb the egg mixture on both sides. Sprinkle one side with as much cinnamon as you like.

Over low heat, butter up a flat pan or heat up a non-stick pan if you have one. Take soaked bread slice and place on pan with the cinnamon side facing down. Sprinkle cinnamon on the other side of the bread slice.

Flip bread slice after 2-3 minutes or until bread is brown and not burnt. Don't worry, if you want it to be toasted a little more, you can always flip it over again.

Repeat the steps to the other slice of bread. Serve with maple syrup, and a few sprinkles of cinnamon and sugar.

If you've noticed, this dish is pretty sweet. The cinnamon provides a bit of kick. If you're concerned with the amount of sweetness in this dish, you can always use less maple syrup and add some fruits to your french toast.

Scrambled Egg Muffin

Once again, the season of Lent is upon us. The main thing I struggle with is the No-Meat-Fridays because I  don't like fish at all, except for canned tuna. And lately, I've been trying to come up with new ideas for breakfast because I've been trying to avoid anything fried since February.

And so, one late morning I found myself really hungry. My first idea was to have some eggs, sunny side up, but then I remembered no fried foods. So the next idea that came to my mind was to bake them using a method I had seen in a few food magazines.

Here's what I had available in the kitchen:

SCRAMBLED EGG MUFFIN: Makes 2 servings

Equipment:
Regular Muffin Pans

Ingredients:
Butter
2 large eggs, scrambled
2 slices of bread
Any type of cheese (I used Parmesan and Cheddar)
Salt and pepper, to taste

The first step is to butter the muffin pans and preheat your oven to 300F. Even if you're using non-stick pans, it would still be better to put some butter so that any egg that will seep through the bread won't taste like rubber. The best way is to melt some butter and brush it onto the muffin pan. Keep some extra butter for the bread.

Next step would be to place a slice of bread onto the muffin pans. I made a mistake of trying to fit the bread into the pan, which resulted to a few holes in the bread. So I suggest that each slice be cut in half first, and each piece be put be placed on top of one another with just a little overlapping. This will make sure that there is some bread to absorb the egg mixture later.

 

Once you have the slices of bread in place, brush the remaining melted butter onto the bread.

Then take the scrambled eggs, add some salt and pepper to you liking, mix well and pour equally onto the muffin pans. If your egg mixture seeps through or runs to the sides of the bread, don't worry since it will all come together when cooked.

 

Sprinkle on as much cheese as you like on top of your egg mixture.

Place pans into preheated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. Eggs should be pale yellow and bread should be toasted, not burnt. Let them cool for 3-5 minutes, then remove from pan and serve.

Feel free to add some meat or veggies to the egg mixture, such as slices of pepperoni, hungarian sausages, mushrooms, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, etc.

Happy eating!

Book Fest!

This week happens to be our school's Humanities week, which means one thing...BOOK FEST! Since Monday, we've had National Bookstore in our school gym selling popular books for kids, teens, and even us teachers! And lucky for me, teachers get a 10% discount and have the option to pay in cash or have it deducted from our next salary.

I seriously had to stop myself from buying a lot of books since one of my resolutions this year is to say "NO" to impulse buying.

But it was just such a good deal that I had to get a few books, and if you haven't guessed by now, what I got were COOK BOOKS!

I had such a hard time deciding what to get because I didn't want to spend more that 600php. I had to decide whether to get the Italian (my favorite cuisine), Bake It (which I've been doing a lot of lately), Desserts (my favorite part of any meal), and Chicken Dishes (my favorite type of meat). I had to sleep on it before I made a final decision.

Here's a photo of the books I got from Good Housekeeping:

I knew I had to get the Italian recipes because I just love making pasta, and I already overused my carbonara and pesto recipes at home. And I just wanted to get Desserts because I need more options for my favorite part of any meal, aside from cheesecake, cupcakes and chocolates.

Each cook book costs 295php, which came as a surprise since I expected it to be 500php each with it being hardbound. In total, I spent only 531php. And the books are just in time for my new food blogging adventure this coming March.

I just can't wait to open those books and try out the recipes!

Something New is MARCHing In

Okay, so it's been awhile since I've updated this website. I feel really guilty for not coming up with anything new to post. Which got me thinking...


Lately, I've been obsessed with looking for great recipes to try during my free weekends. Okay, I've always looked up recipes but lately I've been able to find enough time and resources to actually try them out.  So, I thought it would be very interesting if I place the recipes of my successful weekend food ventures here to share with everyone else. 

Beginning this March, I'll be posting some of the things I've cooked up in our kitchen. Don't worry, it won't be limited to sweet things. I'm mostly into Italian food, so there will be a lot of pasta, and I'm also trying to eat better so there might be some healthy dishes. I might even share some of my own personal and original recipes.

And so, watch out for my posts! Hopefully you'll love each one.