Cheddar and Chive Chicken Waffles with Pepper Gravy

I love the food blog, Oh Bite It! A couple months ago, she posted a recipe for Chicken In Waffles, that was a wonderful version of Chicken and Waffles, where the chicken was actually cooked inside the waffle and was drizzled with syrup. My husband doesn't like sweets with his savory, so I decided to modify the recipe for his tastes and it was transcendental. I seriously almost started crying while eating them, they were THAT good.

To make this yeast free, you need to just search for yeast free chicken tenders. Again, Tyson makes a southern chicken tender that is yeast free, just check the ingredients.

You can use my recipe for waffles, here if you are sensitive to baking powder or use Bisquick like the recipe calls for if your intestines tolerate it. If using the recipe linked above, simply omit the sugar and add salt, pepper, chives, cheese and chicken to the prepared waffle batter.

I suggest serving this with bacon. I cook mine in the oven at 425 for about 15-20 minutes or until it is crispy and delicious.

For the Waffles

2 cups bisquick or other baking mix

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 egg

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pinch of pepper

1 tablespoon chives

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1-2 cups diced defrosted precooked fried chicken tenders

Nonstick Spray for waffle iron

For the gravy

2 tablespoons butter

2-3 tablespoons flour

2 cups milk

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your waffle maker.

Mix all of the ingredients for the waffles in a large bowl until well combined.  

Spray waffle maker with nonstick spray.

Place about 1/2 cup of batter in the middle of your waffle iron (or in each section if you have a square waffle maker, instead of the round sort), and cook until the waffle iron tells you it is done.

Meanwhile, combine the butter and flour in a small pot over medium heat. 

Cook until the flour smells nutty and becomes golden in color, a few minutes.

Slowly whisk in milk to avoid making lumps.

Allow to come to a boil, add more milk as needed if your gravy is too thick. 

Season with salt and pepper, tasting as you go.

Serve the waffles covered in gravy, with bacon on the side. Also great covered with a poached egg.

Makes 4-5 large waffles

Pepperoni Pizza Soup

I made Oh Bite It's "Grilled Cheese Pull Apart Rolls" tonight for dinner and wanted a soup to go with it, since it is rainy and cold out. This was the perfect match for it.

One of the things I find I miss most is pizza, and I don't always want to go all out and make a fancy pizza on a puff pastry crust, so I created pizza soup to mimic the flavor of pizza without the crust. I use shortcuts, like canned tomato soup, so that I can whip up a pot of soup in no time at all.

This particular recipe is for a Pepperoni Pizza Soup, but you are welcome to omit that and make it a vegetarian soup, adding mushrooms and roasted red peppers, or onions, or whatever topping you like. Be creative!

Ingredients:
2 11 oz. cans of condensed tomato soup + 3 cans of water
2 tablespoons of butter
2 green onions, sliced
About 2 oz of pepperoni, sliced
2 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp Italian seasoning (oregano and thyme)
1 cup or more of Italian blend cheese
½ cup shredded parmesan blend
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional - ½ can of heavy cream

In a soup pot, melt butter over medium heat.
Sweat the onions in the melted butter and add sliced pepperoni.
Allow the pepperoni to crisp up, which will allow the fats to render.
Add the garlic and Italian seasoning. Stir until fragrant, a few moments, then add the condensed soup.
Stir well, add water and stir.
Allow to come to a boil, stirring periodically.
Once hot, add cheeses, allowing them to melt.
Add salt and pepper to taste, adjust seasoning as needed.
Finish with heavy cream, if desired, and serve hot with a little extra cheese on top.

Chocolate Toffee Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

So, for the past year about, I have been taking Amitriptyline for my fibromyalgia (yay, comorbidities!) which doesn't do much for the fibro, but does work as an antihistamine, so I am no longer reactive to baking soda or baking powder (amongst other things, like corn), which means, OMG CUPCAKES!

I missed cupcakes so much. I mean, sponge cakes are fine and dandy, and pound cake is all right, but it isn't a soft delicious cupcake.

So I made some cupcakes today. It took me four days to build up the motivation to do it, but they are way delicious, and beautiful!

I used a regular boxed cake, but if you know that baking powder doesn't work for you, there are plenty of cake recipes out there (and in this blog), to choose from.

And I also totally didn't use measuring cups when I made this, so my measurements are approximate. You can do that with frosting. Not so much with cake recipes.

Ingredients:

-Cake-

Boxed chocolate cake mix (I used german chocolate) + the stuff it says you need to make it (likely oil, water, eggs)

1 cup chocolate toffee chips (you can find it on the baking aisle near the chocolate chips, or just break up toffee bars)

-Frosting-

8 oz. cream cheese

1 stick butter

1 12 oz. jar of caramel (I used Smucker's Hot Caramel sauce at room temperature- you can make your own but I have no energy to do that)

1/4 tsp kosher salt

2 cups or more of organic corn-free powdered sugar (to taste... I really didn't measure, so just keep tasting it and add slowly to get sweet but not too sweet) 

Directions:

Make the cake according to its instructions, mix in toffee chips at the very end and portion into lined cupcake tins (makes 24), about 3/4 full. Bake according to package instructions. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Whip in the caramel and salt. Add the powdered sugar to the frosting at low speed, taste and add more as needed. Scrape down the sides of your bowl and continue to whip until it is all incorporated and a pleasing consistency (you know, like frosting and neither like soup, nor like a lumpy mess of sadness). Place in a piping bag, or a ziplock if you are super fancy like me, and pipe frosting onto cupcakes.

Garnish with extra toffee chips, or perhaps some fancy salt.  

Penuche - Brown Sugar Fudge

When I was a little girl, living in Southern California, my family used to take weekend trips to Tijuana Mexico every once in a while. My greatest memory was visiting the candy shops during the Autumn when they had displays full of Dia de la Muerta (Day of the Dead) candies: little sugar skulls,  bright colored marzipan figures, and cubes of buttery caramely brown sugar fudge that had a bit of a salty finish. I had no idea what it was but I loved it, and I got some every time we went. 

This recipe is an homage to the candy I had and loved as a child. 

If you don't have a candy thermometer, which I highly recommend having if you make candy with any frequency, you can use the cold water method to check the state of your candy.  With a bowl of very cold water (throw a piece of ice in there for good measure) once the mixture has been boiling for about 10 minutes (this is totally an estimate, look up water method if you've not used it before, please) over medium to medium low heat, drop a small bit of sugar mixture into the cold water and create a ball, it should smoosh like a pancake when you take it out of the water hence “soft ball stage.”

A non-food update

I haven't posted a recipe in a while. I apologize. I have a few new ones that I just need to get photos of so I can share, and I hope to get to that soon, but I do have news.

I had a colonoscopy done in March, and my intestines are fantastic. They did about 30 biopsies all the way through my intestines and I have no inflammation, and no active Crohn's disease present, which ultimately means, this diet is working and is keeping me in remission. I hope other people will follow along this path, because having IBD is horrible, especially when this might be a way out of it.

Philly Cheese Open Faced Sandwich

This is like a cross between a Philly Cheese and a French Dip. It could be made better with the addition of a thin layer of horseradish spread on the matzo brie before adding the onions, meat and cheese. Also, sauteed mushrooms would be a great addition.

And of course, this is only kosher for Passover if you a) are willing to eat moistened matzo, which some people avoid, and b) you either don't keep kosher otherwise (I only observe Passover for the tradition, not for the religious aspect, really) or you forgo the cheese, since meat and dairy together is a no-no.

Chex Muddy Buddies

Muddy Buddies are a wonderful holiday treat, and making a few changes to the recipe Chex provides makes them yeast-free. If you have an aversion to peanut butter, any nut or soy butter will do!  I do recommend using the name brand cereal, as the generic is not as tasty.

I like to use my Muddy Buddies in holiday packages to make "Reindeer Chow" in which I mix the treats with M&M candies and yeast free pretzel pieces.