at home with ann

The fluffy texture and blueberry lemon flavor is reminiscent of my favorite muffins.  But, the shape says cookie.  This just means you can eat them anytime of day.  Plus, since they use yogurt instead of butter or oil, we can go ahead and call them healthy.  The batch made quite a few, and even after sending some home with friends, we were left with a lot of cookies.  I tossed them in the freezer in an effort to prevent us from eating them nonstop, and they seemed to fare well.  You can take them straight from the freezer and reheat them for about 7 minutes in a 350 oven.  Blueberry Muffin Top Cookies original recipe from spoon fork bacon Yield ~48 cookies Ingredients: 2 cups all purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 cup sugar 1 1/4 cups Greek yogurt 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 lemon, zested 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/4 cup blueberries Preheat ov...

When we moved into this house, the kitchen was mostly functional, but ugly.  Our house was built in 1986, and the kitchen showed everything that the 80s had to offer by way of style.  Grainy oak cabinets, heavy hardware, beige laminate countertops, a white tile backsplash with little flowers painted on, and a weird tiny eat-in area that had been converted to a useless tile countertop that was impossible to keep clean.   In the three years that we have lived here, I complained about the ugliness of the kitchen approximately 8,888,888,888,888 times.  We discussed several iterations of this renovation ranging from taking down load-bearing walls, reconfiguring the layout, and gutting everything to just getting new cabinet hardware.  This winter, when we had a few months without too many commitments, we tackled the renovation.  Obviously, by we I mean that Jon did the bulk of the work, I complained about how many times I had to clean tile dust off th...

In my pantry I have two large mason jars with grains in them.  I'm fairly certain one of them is hard red wheat berries.  I determined this after comparing them to a bag I had, and getting really close to stare at them.  For a while, I thought the other jar held barley.  But then I got some barley and it looked different.  Instead of just cooking them and figuring it out, I ignored them for several months, and complained about the space they took up.  Finally, I used them for this recipe and determined they are soft white wheat berries.  Mystery solved.  The mystery of why I can't be bothered to label my jars is still out there, however.  Now I feel like I may have told you this boring story before.  Sorry. This salad is great on it's own, but we had some leftovers from a roast chicken so I added it for some protein.  Chickpeas are a good vegetarian option. Wheat Berry Salad with Chicken 1 cup wheat berries, soaked and then si...

This was so easy I won't call it a recipe.  I didn't even make my own pesto, so the whole thing was ready for the table in 20 minutes.  I used tilapia, because I like it and it was on sale at the market.  Use whatever fish you like. I'm also happy to report that my little guy liked it, especially the pieces with pesto breadcrumbs, so if I have any readers who cook for little people, I'd recommend giving it a try.  Also, sorry about using the word moist later on.    One more thing!  If you read via Google reader, word on the street is that it's going away.  I've switched my blog reader to Bloglovin, and it's working out well. Baked Lemon and Pesto Tilapia 1 lb. tilapia fillets 1/2-1 lemon, sliced 1/4-1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs 2-4 Tablespoons pesto Olive oil Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange tilapia in a single layer in a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and turn to coat all sides. In a small bowl, mix together breadcrumbs an...

Now that it's May and Jon's birthday and corresponding pie was last week, we are making an effort to eat a little cleaner.  Sadly, this means cutting down on our consumption of things like nightly dessert.  Thankfully it does not mean we are going to stop going out to ice cream, because that's an important Sunday evening tradition for us in the summer.  At least for me, and I'm fairly certain I can get Colin in my corner.  This doesn't have much to do with anything, aside from the fact that this salad is healthy, filling and delicious.  And won't leave you craving peanut butter cups.   I love salmon.  Love, love, love.  I always feel good after eating it, and it's so versatile.  Ina made this recipe originally with fresh tuna, but I never see that in the stores, and when I do it can be crazy expensive. I think this would also be good with any firm white fish.  Asian Style Salmon Salad inspired by Barefoot Contessa   Ingr...