Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

No it's not Monday but, it is a baking day here. We were craving something sweet for dessert so what better (and easier) than a skillet cookie. Ours was with mini chocolate chips so added a note below about that for a better ratio. Last time we did it with mini it was very chocolatey. This time... perfection.

Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie
Makes 1 (8-10" cast iron pan)
Original recipe here.
Ingredients: 
6 tbsp unsalted butter (softened)
1/3 cup brown sugar (recipe says dark but, I used light)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips (1/2 cup if using mini chips)

Directions: 
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a large bowl, combine sugars and butter.
3. Stir in egg and vanilla.
4. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Then add chips
6. Transfer to cast iron pan and smooth top.
7. Bake 18-20 minutes (until golden) then let cool 5 minutes.
9. Enjoy!

Apple Oat Bread

It's Monday so, you know what that means... another week in Quarantine. But also, baking day for me! This week was a bit tough since we haven't gone to the store in a while so I was both trying to use up stuff in our fridge while also not using everything up. That being said, there will definitely be a trend in the ingredient list of "I used this AND this" (Subtext is: I ran out of the main thing...). I had low standards for this loaf but actually it's super flavorful!

Apple Oat Bread
Makes 1 loaf
Recipe augmented from my favorite source, King Arthur Flour.

I couldn't resist trying a slice before I took
this photo... oops.

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar (used less than the recipe based on reviews)

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil (I used 2/3 coconut and the rest olive)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla (I used 3/4 tsp vanilla and the rest maple syrup) 

1 1/2 cup All purpose flour (no whole wheat)

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup applesauce (I made my own with about 1 1/2 diced old apples, water, and sugar) 

1/2 cup Nuts/Raisins (optional) 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease loaf pan

2. In a large bowl, mix together sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt.

4. Add them to the wet ingredients in bowl

5. Mix in rolled oats, applesauce, and nuts/raisins (if you'd like)

6. Pour mixture into pan and bake bread for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

7. Remove from oven and cool.

8. Enjoy!

Peach Bread

This is a fun game of "what can I make with canned goods." Todays bake was peach bread. From the recipe I was meant to use sliced peaches but they weren't available at the store so, I did diced and just drained them (saving the juice for a smoothie). Honestly, not peachy enough for me so I may have to try this one again sometime. I may add in the peach juice next time to see if that enhances it.

Peach Bread
Recipe here
Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:
2 cans sliced peaches drained (I used 4 small plastic containers of diced peaches)
4 ounces butter (e.g. 1 stick) melted
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
garnish: cinnamon sugar (for topping)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease loaf pan.
2. Save 1 plastic container (or 10-12 peach slices) for the garnish. Process the remaining slices until almost pureed (e.g. 1 cup or a bit more)
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine peaches, butter, eggs, and vanilla until well blended.
4. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
5. Add flour mixture to first mixture until blended.
6. Pour batter into greased loaf pan.
7. Add remaining peaches over top (for slices: slice lengthwise into two thinner slices and arrange them overlapping on top of the batter). Sprinkle with a little cinnamon sugar.
8. Bake in oven 55-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
9. Cool in pan on rack for approx 15 minutes
10. Remove from pan to cool completely.
11. Enjoy!

Scones

Today I revived an old recipe and made some scones. This time though, I separated the dough into two batches and made half berry scones and half lemon poppyseed so I'll put my directions below on that front. It was nice to have a mix!

Scones

Recipe originally posted here


Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients (for 1/2 berry and 1/2 lemon poppyseed)
10 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 cup frozen berries
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup yogurt
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
zest of 1 lemon
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp poppyseeds
vanilla sugar (mix 1/4 cup sugar with 1/4 tsp vanilla)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Grate 8 tbsp butter and place in freezer until needed.
3. Melt 2 tbsp butter and set aside.
4. Whisk together cream and yogurt in small bowl and refrigerate until needed.
5. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and zest in large bowl
6. Add frozen butter and toss until coated.
7. Add milk mixture and fold until just combined.
8. Transfer dough to floured surface.
9. With floured hands, kneed dough 6-8 times until it just holds together in a ball.
10. Split dough in half and put half back in the bowl until ready.
11. Roll half of the dough in a 6" square. Fold dough in half and then half again.
12. Transfer that dough to plate (covered in parchment paper or flour).
13. Roll other half of dough into a 6" square. Add 1 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp poppyseeds then fold like above.
14. Transfer dough to same plate and refrigerate 10-15 minutes.
15. Transfer dough to floured work surface (one at a time) and roll into a 6" square.
16. Add berries (that have been coated with 1 tsp sugar) evenly over surface.
17. Loosen dough from work surface and fold in thirds (to make a log)
18. Lay seam side down and press into 6" x 2" rectangle.
19. Cut in half and then diagonally into 4 triangles.
20. Transfer to parchment lined baking sheet.
21. With other half of the dough, repeat #15-19 but instead of adding berries, add zest, remaining juice, and poppyseeds.
22. Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with vanilla sugar.
23. Bake until tops are golden brown (approx 25 minutes) then transfer to wire rack to cool.
24. Enjoy!

Granola

This is a recipe that I use all the time to make granola. Over the years, I've definitely tweaked it based on what I have in the house and such but the oil/honey/oats ratio is what I have kept consistent. It really does work great!

Granola
Recipe found here 
Makes about 6 cups

Ingredients
3 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1-1 1/2 cups nuts (almonds and mixed nuts are my go-to's)
1/2-3/4 cup sweetener (honey or maple syrup are my go-to's)
1/4-1/2 cup oil (coconut oil is my go-to)
1 tsp salt
1-2 cups seeds (pumpkin and chia are my go-to's)
1 cup coconut (unsweetened is best)
1 tsp spices (e.g. cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, cloves)
Dried fruit (optional)
Cocoa (optional)

*Really just pay attention to the amount of sweetener, oil, and oats. Beyond that, add whatever you'd like and make it look good to you.



Directions: 
1. Preheat oven to 300 (our oven doesn't go that low so, I have been doing 310 and works fine!)
2. Add oats, nuts, seeds, salt, and spices into a large bowl.
3. Add sweeteners and oil.
4. Stir. Ensure all oats are coated with oil and sweetener. If not, you may want to add more.
5.  Put parchment paper down on a large baking sheet.
6. Spread mixture out to make even layer
7. Put in oven for 45-60 minutes (mixing halfway).
8. When it's golden brown, take it out of the oven. Note: If you don't like chunks, stir right away. If you do, let it sit (no stirring) and cool so that it chunks up better.
9. Enjoy!

5 Meal Deliveries Reviewed

Over the past month, we have tried several meal delivery services to test them out and see how we feel about them. I wanted to share these thoughts with you!

For this and our overall rating, we looked at the following categories:

• Overall cost (incl. shipping)
• Actual serving sizes
• Taste
• Ease
• Variety
• Packaging
• Other

Below are our notes on each category. If you want to skip ahead to go to overall rating, go forth and scroll on down!

Overall Cost

All delivery services seem to tout their price per meal but unfortunately those don't include the shipping cost so, it can be a bit different. For instance, EveryPlate says $4.99 per meal but, with shipping it's actually $6.49. That being said, at an overall cost for 3 meals @ 2 people, EveryPlate still landed at $38.93 with shipping, roughly $20 behind HomeChef and HelloFresh at $59.70 and 60.93 respectively and BlueApron and SunBasket both landing in the $70 range.

For us, EveryPlate won the most bang for our buck here.

Actual Serving Sizes

For most meals, we got 3 meals @ 2 servings but for BlueApron we tried 2 meals @ 4 servings and Home Chef 2 meals @ 2 servings. Regardless, they all provided extremely solid portions (except for the oven-ready meal from SunBasket that was simply not enough!). They were full meals and true to them. For Hello Fresh and EveryPlate, we even occasionally had leftovers.

For us, both Every Plate and Hello Fresh won this, giving us full serving sizes (and the leftovers were a plus). 

Taste

Now this certainly comes down to the variety and the meals we chose. There were some winners within all of the boxes, including the Italian Noodle Soup from HelloFresh, the oven-ready szechuan noodles from SunBasket, the chicken pita from BlueApron, the stuffed peppers from EveryPlate. 

But, the clear winner for taste was HomeChef. The szechuan noodle bowl took 20 minutes and was easy and delicious with crunchy wonton noodles on top and the jalapeño popper burgers were easily swapped out for turkey instead of beef and were absolutely delicious.

Ease

All the recipe pages have a bit of nuance to them on how they are laid out. Some have the ingredients you'll need from your pantry listed, some even have the utensils you'll need listed too, and some require far too many bowls. All of them were not too difficult to do - definitely some easier than others. 

I'd say the winner was a tie between HelloFresh and HomeChef. These were extremely easy and laid out. Each recipe clearly listed the steps out with the things needed and did a step by step without treating the chef like they knew nothing in the kitchen.

Variety

Similar to taste, I think this truly came down to the meals we chose. If you are a vegetarian, I will say there is less variety among EveryPlate whereas HomeChef really allowed me to customize this based on my eating habits (e.g. swapping beef for turkey in the burgers). Additionally if you are specific to organic foods, then SunBasket may be better for you. Overall, I'd say that they all have a lot of variety, it just depends what kind of food you'd like to cook, what you can eat, and what you typically cook based on this. 

For us, EveryPlate and HomeChef tied giving us some changes to what we typically cook and tools for what we can now cook very easily.

Packaging

We hate when there is so much plastic and unnecessary packaging. BlueApron used so much plastic, having everything individually wrapped and precisely measured. Other companies (e.g. HelloFresh and HomeChef) wrapped the meals together, which was nice but perhaps unnecessary. Luckily HelloFresh used paper bags for them while HomeChef used a plastic one. The HomeChef bag though we used to discard meat juice and any other trash trying to make good use of the plastic. 

SunBasket was great for minimal waste however, their packaging is only recyclable where denim can be recycled and while that may be possible regularly. In a pandemic, where do I go?

Ultimately though if you are looking for minimal waste and ease of discard, EveryPlate is the place to go. All the vegetables and ingredients are given in a small cardboard box that can easily slide in your fridge to keep it separated for those meals (so you don't accidentally use a pepper for something else) while also not giving you plastic upon plastic to open.

Other

We all love a nebulous "other" category. This elaborates on deliveries, when it was delivered, and any other fun things to note about these.

EveryPlate is typically delivered on Tuesdays and late in the day. Though the prep and cook times are accurate, it seems like it would be difficult to try and plan to cook this on the day it was delivered as it was like 8pm. Not many options for vegetarians but, overall, easy and you got your moneys worth.

Hello Fresh could be delivered any day, around7pm. There are more complex recipes than EveryPlate (for better or for worse) and everything was packaged in a more individual bag so if you wanted to bring something over to a friends, you could grab the bag and go.

BlueApron was pretty much the only "no" for us. Lots of plastic and the meals were not intuitive to follow. It felt as though we were doing one thing when we could've done another. Though BlueApron wasn't right for us, I think it would be helpful to someone just getting into cooking.

SunBasket is the only organic produce meal delivery service I've seen. These are unique meals that incorporate new ingredients that I would typically not have other wise (e.g. arrowroot powder). These were a bit fiddly recipes that honestly, ended up being totally fine but not mind blowing or something I was excited to make again (or really can easily, without going to an organic market to find arrowroot powder).

HomeChef had some great variety and allows a lot of customizations which is nice. It charges you per meal and shipping is free over $40 so, if you end up getting 1 meal/2 people or 2 meal/2 people, it changes based on that instead of an overall cost (which is good and bad). But, for people with dietary restrictions the customizations can be nice. Also it's very easy to get the recipes out as they are all in plastic bags separately. Additionally as a fun bonus they gave us a binder for recipes that we are now using and all the recipes have 3 hole punch so it's easy to keep them all around.

Overall, it was nice to try all of these and we will be getting them in the future for sure but, I think we will just stick to one or two of these instead of all five again. Also, if you can get free trials from folks, do. They get a benefit and you get the benefit of trying them though, if you can't, there are many discount codes online to find!

Below were our final ratings. 
1st - EveryPlate
2nd - Home Chef
3rd - Hello Fresh
4th - Sun Basket
5th - Blue Apron

Pumpkin Bread

Another easy recipe! I did soak the raisins in rum for a week prior though to add in and it gave it some great flavor.

Pumpkin Bread (Recipe linked here)
Makes: 1 Bundt



Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 75 minutes
Total Time: 95 minutes

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 can pumpkin puree
1/4 cup raisins (soaked in 1/4 cup rum for 3-5 days)


Directions: 
1. Optional: Soak 1/4 cup raisins in 1/4 cup rum for 3-5 days.
2. Preheat oven to 350℉
3. Grease and flour bundt pan
4. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Whisk to blend thoroughly.
5. In a large bowl, combine sugar, vegetable oil (I used half coconut oil, half olive oil), and eggs.
6. Stir pumpkin into egg mixture.
7. Gradually add dry ingredients to the pumpkin and egg mixture. Stirring well after each addition.
8. Fold in raisins.
9. Spoon batter into prepared bundt cake pan.
10. Bake in the preheated oven for 75 - 80 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean).
11. Remove the bread from the oven and cool it for 10 minutes before removing from pan.
12. Use knife around the outside of the pan and take out of pan then cool.
13. Enjoy!