Orange Sesame Noodles
Whew! I’m feeling super relieved to have nothing to do for the first time in several weeks. This past weekend, I hosted my sister’s bachelorette weekend, which I’d been planning for months. Thankfully, everything went off without a hitch and everyone had agreat time. I also got the chance to cook for more than two people, which is a rare occurrence, so you guys can look forward to some fun recipe posts from that soon!
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But today, to reflect my relaxed state of mind, I want to share this super simple recipe for orange sesame noodles. This is an easy, healthy dinner that can be thrown together in as little time as it takes to cook your pasta. The sauce is light, slightly sweet, slightly spicy, toasty, and tangy. All you have to do is cook the pasta, whisk together the sauce and reduce, and prep any vegetables you want to add.
The tasty orange sesame sauce recipe can be used for more than noodles, too: it makes a fantastic stir-fry base. You can even make the sauce up to one day ahead and refrigerate until you’re ready to use it—and you can even make the whole dish ahead oftime and serve cold. It couldn’t be easier.
Cinnamon-Sugar Doughnut Hole Muffins
I originally intended this post to be a savory dish to give you a break from all the sweetness around here lately. I was going to post a lovely spring pasta, but when I made it I forgot to add any vegetables whatsoever. So it was just like, pasta. I just forgot to put anything else in. When I took a bite, I instantly remembered and audibly groaned. Where is my brain lately?
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So that pasta will have to wait until another time. I’m pretty sure everyone likes the sweet stuff better anyway, right? Here’s another treat inspired by the Back in the Day Bakery cookbook, but per usual, I made some modifications to healthify it. The result was perfectly fluffy cake doughnuts in the form of mini-muffins, dipped in cinnamon-sugar and absolutely irresistible. I honestly didn’t think these would be anything special since they’re so simple, but dang, were they good. We couldn’t stop eating them!
Meyer Lemon Loaf
I’ve been traveling for work for the past couple weeks. The thing about traveling is that it inspires a domino effect of bad eating habits. First, in the days leading up to your trip, you don’t want to go grocery shopping and are stuck eating the weirdo hodgepodge at the back of the freezer—or, eating out for every meal. Then, on the trip you eat out for every meal. Then, when you get home, if you can’t go grocery shopping immediately, you have the option of eating the remnants of the weirdo freezer hodgepodge—orrrr eating out for every meal.
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Let’s just say, it hasn’t been a great couple of weeks as far as home cooking goes. Today, I at least got back in the kitchen—though it wasn’t exactly for a wholesome, healthy meal. But gosh, was it good. And after some tweaking, a totally reasonable indulgence. As you know if you’ve been reading the ol’ blog for a while, until last summer, I lived in Savannah, Georgia. I couldn’t be happier with my decision to move, but there is one thing that makes me wistfully recall those Southern days of yore: Back in the Day Bakery. I now realize that I should have eaten there as often as possible while I had the chance (and maybe taken up marathon running to counteract it).
Thankfully, Back in the Day recently came out with a cookbook. And it’s a seriously awesome cookbook. You should all buy it. I want to make everything in it forever. For my first recipe from the book, I could’ve made any number of the delicious sweet treats (and savories) that I sampled when I visited the bakery, but I wanted to try something new—and the recipe for “Lovely Lemon Loaf” caught my eye. As I’ve mentioned before, I haven’t been a huge fan of lemon-anything in the past. It takes a really good lemon-something to make me like it, but I trusted in Back in the Day Bakery. And it didn’t disappoint. This is really good.
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Of course I made a few changes to healthify it a bit and due to the fact that I have no groceries, but the essence remains: a moist, fluffy, light, lemony cake. It’s beautiful in its simplicity. I’m an all-chocolate-all-the-time kinda gal, but I gotta say that if you put a chocolate cupcake in front of me right now, I would reach for another slice of this lemon loaf.
Meyer Lemon Coconut Pancakes
I’m loving citrus right now. This is really the first year I’ve taken advantage of it, because for so long I thought that since I didn’t like eating oranges and grapefruits and such out of hand, it meant that there was no reason to buy them. Not true! There are so many uses for citrus fruits even if, like me, you don’t love them for snacking. Lemons, in particular, are endlessly useful. Meyer lemons, which are plentiful this time of year, are pretty rad. They’re super sweet—some taste just like lemonade. They’re bright and fresh and feel so summery.
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So why not pair them with coconut for tropical deliciousness? Tonight was breakfast for dinner night, but regular pancakes sounded unremarkable. Lemon pancakes sounded slightly more interesting. Meyer lemon coconut pancakes? Fantastic. Of course, you can use regular lemons when Meyers aren’t in season. These pancakes are simple to throw together, and even if you don’t care for lemons or coconut, you can simply leave both out for some tasty multigrain pancakes.
Citrus Almond Poppy Seed Muffins
Hi all! Sorry for the little hiatus. I didn’t intend to take a month off from blogging, honest! But the important thing is, I’m back. With muffins. I am, however, a little out of practice. So out of practice, in fact, that I forgot to photograph most of the steps in this recipe. Oops. Luckily, these muffins are so easy, you won’t even need step-by-step photos.
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These muffins started with a lemon and a couple of lonely tangerines waiting to be used. I took this Tuscan Lemon Muffin recipe from Cooking Light and started messing with it until I figured out exactly what I wanted to do. What I wanted to do was poppy seeds. I am weak in the presence of an almond poppy seed muffin. Possibly—definitely—my favorite muffin flavor. However, I had all this citrus to use. Why doesn’t anybody ever combine almond and citrus flavors in a poppy seed muffin? I thought the combination could be delightful: light, nutty, and bright. Thus, these muffins were born.
The beauty of these muffins—besides the fact that they’re crazy delicious—is that they’re muffins. For real. They’re not naked cupcakes masquerading as breakfast food. I cut down the sugar and substituted agave so that you can feel good about eating one of these babies for breakfast. Of course, it’s still sugar, but it won’t give your blood sugar a spike and crash like Frosted Flakes will.
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After working hard to break my addiction to sugar since New Year’s (I’ve been doing well!), I’ve realized that sugary breakfasts aren’t as awesome as I once believed. They don’t fill you up, they don’t energize, and they just kind of make you feel like a slug. These muffins definitely won’t weigh you down. They have a nice hint of sweetness, but it’s subtle enough to allow the citrus and almond flavors to shine. The ricotta cheese and olive oil base creates a dense, yet light crumb that stays moist. They’re easy to make, and you don’t even need a mixer. Follow the jump for the recipe.
