Cook with me
Featured Recipe: Agave Glazed Carrots
This is a personal favorite because it’s my own recipe! A great side to go with any meal but pair it with something spicy to really appreciate the savory sweetness. It’s also super easy because it can all be prepped in one bowl and if you’re feeling really dangerous, you can prep everything in the dish you bake it in.
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch diagonals
1 shallot, minced
4-5 garlic cloves, grated or crushed
2 tbsp agave nectar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1 -2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Step 1: Preheat oven to 420F.
Step 2: Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and transfer to a 9x13 baking dish. Cover with foil for 25 minutes and then remove foil for the last 10 mins.
Once you can pierce easily with a fork, take out and enjoy!
Featured Recipe: Yogurt Bark Bars
Diabetes runs in my family and growing up, I didn’t think I’d need to worry about it because I was a savory over sweet person. Cut to my thirties, and I’ve almost finished a bucket (A BUCKET) of meringue cookies in less than 5 days. I stumbled across recipes for frozen yogurt bark bars when I was looking for something that would satisfy my sweet tooth and help me avoid necrosis. I ended up using this recipe as a base since I always have greek yogurt in the fridge and riffed on it with my favorite toppings. Check out my tips below before getting started:
Most recipes I saw suggest freezing over night. I left it in for way longer which was a mistake because it did get a little freezer burnt. So def don’t overdo it — next time I make this, I’ll probably only leave it for 4 hours before breaking up and storing.
I used agave as my sweetener which has a low glycemic index and supposedly healthier. Is it? Don’t tell me.
You don’t have to use greek yogurt but the fattier your yogurt, the creamier your end product will be. I used a 5% greek yogurt.
Cut your fruit into bite sized chunks. I sliced my strawberries and while it makes it pretty, it’s a little annoying to break up into pieces and eat. Additionally, I like a textural contrast with most sweet treats so I sprinkled on a homemade desi version of granola. It’s basically pulverized nuts, dates, and gur (the plight of being the child of immigrants: I don’t know what gur is in English.)
Since this a frozen treat, adjust your sugar levels accordingly. It’ll be less sweet tasting once it’s been blasted in the freezer.
Featured Recipe: Brown Butter and Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’m not much of a baker but while I was visiting my sister, she was really craving these cookies from @bonappetitmag and she just pushed out a whole ass baby so I figured I’d do her a solid. I didn’t really know what to expect but as soon as the smell of brown butter filled the kitchen, I was hooked. I’ve made them three times now. The recipe is a little technical but absolutely worth the close read and diligence. Link to recipe here but see some tips below!
The recipe calls for chocolate discs (expensive) and Skor chocolate bars (hard to find). I used regular old chocolate chips and Heath toffee bits I found in the baking aisle at my local grocery store. Trader Joe’s does have Toffee Chips which looks like Skor and I definitely want to substitute next time though I’d stick to the dark chocolate version.
Step 1 says to cool the butter once it’s melted for about 10 minutes - I’d say it took closer to 20 minutes to reach the desired temperature. At one impatient point, I cooled it over an ice bath stirring continuously until it reached the suggested temp.
The recipe says that the yield is about 20 cookies at 1oz but I found it to be A LOT more. The last time I did it, I weighed out each lil dough ball on a scale and probably got about 35 out of it at the end. I froze what I didn’t bake and have been enjoying a few cookies at a time!
