La Fonda Del Oso: Avocado Mac & Cheese

This week's (sounds so good I just had to try it) recipe comes from Two Peas & Their Pod.

The weather this week has been downright awful, with the windchill factor it feels like -5 degrees outside on most days and inside with the heater running all day at full blast the thermostat does not seem to creep up past a chilly 67 degrees.  Mac & Cheese is the mother of all comfort foods and adding our household staple of avocado made it sound even better, you can find the original recipe here.

Ingredients I used: 
10 ounces dry macaroni shells
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 avocados
juice from 1.5 limes
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
7 slices pepper jack cheese

Cook macaroni according to package instructions. While the pasta is cooking mash the avocados along with the garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper (kind of like making guacamole).

To make cheese sauce melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When butter is melted whisk in flour to create a paste. Next whisk in milk and stir until sauce has thickened just a bit. Add in cheese and stir until cheese is melted and creamy.

Put macaroni in a large bowl, first add avocado mixture and stir with a fork until well mixed. Pour cheese mixture, stir some more and serve.

Add salt to taste and garnish with red pepper flakes, enjoy!

La Fonda Del Oso: Roasted Butternut Squash Pasta

Last night I finally tried The Kitchn's Fettuccine with Roasted Butternut Squash, Brown Butter and Sage. This dish proved to be the perfect remedy to warm up a cold & rainy NYC day.

Ingredients I used: 
1 package of Trader Joe's peeled and cubed butternut squash
1 package pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup pasta water
15 sage leaves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

Toss the butternut squash with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt then spread out on a baking sheet and roast at 450 degrees for 35 minutes.

Cook pasta according to instructions and drain, save 1/2 cup of pasta water.

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter and cook butter for 5 minutes or until butter has browned. Add sage leaves and fry until crispy (about 30 seconds), add the roasted butternut squash, nutmeg and salt to the pan and stir until squash is evenly coated with butter. Pour in the reserved pasta water and cook until the sauce thickens. Finally, add the cooked pasta and mix evenly, serve with pine nuts and Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

La Fonda Del Oso: Baked Apple Pancakes

When I was home for the holidays I wanted to show off my newly acquired culinary skills so I decided to make breakfast for the fam on a lazy Sunday morning.

On the menu I had huevos rancheros and for the picky eaters I knew I wanted to try out the baked apple pancakes with apple cider syrup recipe I found on Pinch of Yum.

Ingredients I used: 
1 cup and 2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 cups apple cider
2 cinnamon sticks
1 apple
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 eggs
2/3 cup skim milk
2/3 cup flour
2 tablespoons apple sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

Bring the apple cider, 1 cup of brown sugar and cinnamon sticks to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 30 minutes until reduced.

Preheat oven to 350. Combine apples, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and cinnamon and place on bottom of buttered pie plate.

Whisk the rest of the ingredients until combined and pour the mixture over the apples. Bake for 20 minutes or until top is browned. Loosen the edges of the pancake from pie plate, invert onto a serving platter and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Serve with home made apple cider syrup and enjoy!

La Fonda Del Oso: Lemony Chicken Saltimbocca

Pretty much the only thing I like about Mondays is that Yahoo posts its dinner recipes for the week and its guaranteed that I will want to try and make at least one. Last week I tried their Lemon Chicken Saltimbocca recipe and truth be told it really does take only 20 minutes!

Ingredients I used: 
7 chicken tenders
14 fresh sage leaves
7 slices prosciutto
4 teaspoons olive oil
1/3 cup chicken broth
Juice from 2 lemons
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup basmati rice

While the rice is cooking place one sage leave on the chicken tender and wrap prosciutto around it to secure.

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook chicken for 3 minutes each side or until done. Remove from skillet.

Stir lemon juice, chicken broth and cornstarch in a small bowl, add to skillet with 1 teaspoon olive oil and boil for 1 minute or until sauce slightly thickens. Serve chicken over rice and spoon lemon sauce on top. 

A couple observations I made with this recipe, salt is not necessary (as required in the Yahoo version) because the prosciutto is salty as it is. I also found that 2 sage leaves was too strong for our taste buds  so when I make this again I will definitely stick to 1 sage leave per chicken tender.

Enjoy! 

La Fonda Del Oso: Carrot Loaf with Yogurt Glaze

Here is a great recipe guaranteed to warm up these chilly autumn nights! You can find the original recipe for carrot loaf here. 

Ingredients I used: 
Cooking spray
2 cups flour, plus more for pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
1 small non-fat plain greek yogurt
1/4 cup grape-seed oil
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 large carrots (grated)
1/4 cup confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350

Spray a 9 x 3 x 5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray and dust with flour. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together sugar, 1/3 cup yogurt, oil, eggs and ginger. Stir dry mixture then stir in carrots. Transfer to baking pan and bake for 50 minutes. Stir together remaining yogurt and confectioner's sugar for glaze.

La Fonda Del Oso: Pumpkin Spice Yogurt

Hello and happy Fall!

In anticipation of our very first soccer match last weekend, I wanted to make sure Ces and I got on the field fed and ready to coach and cheer on our team. I was looking for a quick and easy breakfast and came across this recipe from the blog Family Chic. 

Ingredients: 
Chobani Greek Yogurt
Canned Pumpkin
Brown Sugar
Powdered Cinnamon

This really is as simple as mixing the yogurt and pumpkin together, topping it off with brown sugar and cinnamon to give it that "Pumpkin Spice" that is synonymous with Fall. 

Left overs where stored back in the yogurt container and were great week-long breakfast options. Ces' verdict? "Amor this is delicious!". 

Needless to say, pumpkin pie yogurt will be a pre-game staple for us this Fall soccer season. Enjoy! 

La Fonda Del Oso: Jalapeno Hawaiian Pizza

After a busy week (soccer meetings, team practice and meeting friends for dinner) Thursday night we were finally able to enjoy a home-cooked meal. So yesterday I pulled ingredients from the fridge took out the Trader Joe's pizza dough and got to work on pizza night.

I used a variation of this pizza sauce recipe using only the ingredients I had on-hand. 

Sauce ingredients: 

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste 

6 ounces of warm water 

1 teaspoon minced garlic 

2 tablespoons honey

3/4 teaspoon onion powder 

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 

1/4 teaspoon chili powder 

1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes. 

I stretched out the pizza dough into a rectangle and brushed on the sauce. (I apologize for my ugly burnt cookie sheet, but hey this is real life). 

I added some toppings I already had. I used a Mexican cheese blend that we keep handy for those late-night quesadillas, ham, frozen pineapple chunks and left over jalapeno peppers from our Sunday cook-out. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes and dinner is served. 

A homemade pizza is easy, cheap (about a buck for the pizza dough) and healthier than its frozen store-bought counterpart. 

It's not delivery, it's homemade!

La Fonda Del Oso: Chipotle Mushroom Wraps

Hello and Happy Friday!

I want to share with you a delicious, healthy and ridiculously easy recipe.

Ingredients: 
6 Whole wheat wraps
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Onion chopped 
2 Garlic cloves
4 Cups mushrooms
3 Chipotle peppers plus adobo sauce to taste
Avocado
Greek yogurt

Heat olive oil in large frying pan, add the onion, garlic mushrooms and chipotles and cook for about 10 minutes or until onion and mushrooms are tender.

Serve on a whole wheat wrap and dress it up with some avocado slices and plain Greek yogurt to take the heat off.

You could also add this as a topping on nachos or incorporate it into quesadillas. Simple and delicious!

La Fonda Del Oso: Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles

Summer is quickly coming to an end :( but as long as we have warm weather I want to try as many popsicle recipes as possible! I broke in my new popsicle molds from Bed Bath and Beyond with this recipe from The Kitchn. The Kitchn is one of my go to websites for meal-making inspiration; their recipes are creative, healthy and delicious.

Ingredients:
1 box strawberries
1/4 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)
2 table spoons water
1 single serving non-flavored Greek yogurt

Start by cutting your strawberries into quarters

Next I cooked the strawberries, sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat for 5 minutes until they were soft and syrupy. 

I poured the mix into the blender and gave it a couple pulses before mixing in the Greek yogurt. This made 4 popsicle servings plus a little extra for an impromptu snack. 

Freeze for 5 hours and voila a delicious healthy summer treat! 

I can't wait to try this recipe next!