One word – pesto.  One of my favourite sauces by far that is super versatile and this is just one of the ways that I use it on a regular basis.  This recipe is a go-to for me during the week and once I shared it with my brother, it’s now one of his favourites too which he cooks up for his friends.

I hope this delicious and quick dinner recipe makes its way onto your dinner table in the future!

Total time: 40 minutes
Servings: 4
Equipment:  oven-safe skillet OR frying pan & baking dish

Ingredients:

1/2 small yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 chicken breasts
Salt and pepper each side of the chicken breast
2 tbsp olive oil
2/3 cup chicken stock (low or no sodium)
1 tbsp butter
1 cup baby tomatoes, cut in half
4 tbsp pesto
1/2 cup feta, crumbled

Instructions:

Chop 1/2 of a small yellow onion and mince 3 cloves of garlic; combine into a small bowl and set aside. Wash 1 cup of baby tomatoes, then cut them in half and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat oven-safe skillet (I like cast iron) or your frying pan to medium and add the olive oil.

Add onion and garlic, cook until soft & browned, about 5 minutes.

Next season the chicken with salt and pepper.  Then, push the onion and garlic to the sides of the skillet and add the chicken, cooking each side of the chicken breast for 5 minutes.

After the second side is cooked, add the chicken stock, butter and tomatoes and simmer in the pan for 5 minutes.

**If you are NOT using an oven-safe skillet, transfer the chicken and all of the sauce to your oven-safe baking dish before continuing to the next step**

Then, spread 1 tbsp of pesto on top of each chicken breast and then top off each with the crumbled feta (dividing the feta between the 4 chicken breasts).

Cover the skillet or baking dish with foil and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Take the pan out and let cool a couple of minutes before serving.

I love serving this Pesto Baked Chicken with a side of quinoa or rice and green veggies like sautéed kale or broccoli.

PLUS this dish makes excellent leftovers!

Until the next cooking adventure,
Jess

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A blend of coconut, almonds, oats and cinnamon makes this granola absolutely delicious when baked in the oven.

It’s perfect with your favourite milk or yogurt for an easy breakfast during the week or even the weekend.

I love to meal-prep for the week ahead and even more so during the holiday season when we have visitors. This way I have an easy breakfast that is ready to serve to my guests.

This Coconut & Almond Granola is such a crowd pleaser, that I nicknamed it ‘giftable granola.’ I found these cute food gift tags that I knew would be perfect tied around a mason jar of granola for the holiday season!

Print

Coconut & Almond Granola

With a blend of coconut, almond, oats and cinnamon, this Coconut & Almond Granola is perfect for an easy weekday breakfast or to serve to guests! Plus it's an easy DIY gift for the holidays.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword granola

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 4 cups

Author Jess

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup large flake oats
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 cup almonds, chopped roughly
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted measure solid then melt
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp almond butter
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes

Optional: 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Instructions

• Pre-heat oven to 325F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Measure a cup of almonds and chop them roughly. Then stir the almonds with the remaining dry ingredients (oats, coconut, flax seed & cinnamon).
  
• Measure coconut oil (solid form) and then melt; to that add the honey and almond butter. Stir the wet ingredients and then pour over the dry, stirring with a fork until coated.
• Pour granola mixture onto the parchment paper, spread out evenly and pop in the oven.
• Bake at 325F for 10 minutes, stir the granola, then bake for 10 more minutes.
• Cook's Note: After 20 minutes it will more than likely be nice and golden. However, if its not quite golden yet, place back in the oven for another 3-5 minutes – just watch it carefully so it doesn't burn.
• Once cooled, add in the coconut flakes (and optional dried cranberries) and mix. Then place in a container with a tight-fitting lid and store for up to a week.

Notes

• If you don't have almond butter, peanut butter or cashew butter will also work. 
• A great substitution for the flax is chia seeds!

My personal favourite way to gift this granola is a mason jar to keep the granola nice & fresh.

And, if you’re looking for the perfect breakfast, try my Cranberry-Pear Chia Seed Jam with this granola and yogurt; a match made in breakfast heaven!

Until the next cooking adventure,
Jess

The post Coconut & Almond Granola appeared first on Cooking in my Genes.

You see, the day before I made my way to The Italian Store here in Calgary to pickup ingredients and pizza dough for the YYC Pizza Week Food Blogger Challenge. As a part of the challenge, we had to choose two of the following toppings to feature on our pizza – Fig Spread, Housemade pesto, Ricotta or Pitted assorted olives. I was immediately drawn to the housemade pesto and ricotta.

Inspired by the autumn colours and flavours of the season, this cozy pizza creation celebrates my favourite time of year. Starting with a pesto base then topped with roasted vegetables of zucchini, mushrooms, red reppers, red onion and finished off with creamy ricotta and a nutty crunch from the toasted pine nuts – it’s the perfect pizza to enjoy by the fire with friends and family on cool autumn evenings.

Prep Time: 30 minutes (or up to 4.5 hours if making your own pizza dough)
Equipment: Electric mixer (if you’re making your own pizza dough)
Servings: 4

Ingredients:

1 pre-made pizza dough (or make your own)
Cook’s Note: One of my favourite pizza dough recipes that I use regularly is from Style at Home Magazine. The dough has to sit in the fridge for 4 hours so just make sure you give yourself enough time. 

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 Zucchini, sliced thinly
1/2 red pepper, sliced thinly
3 mushrooms, sliced thinly
1/2 medium red onion, sliced thinly
3/4 cup pesto
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 cup fresh ricotta (may also be called ‘ricotta fresca’ in the deli aisle)
¼ cup pine nuts

Slice the zucchini, red pepper, mushrooms and red onion.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Toss in the zucchini, red pepper, mushrooms and red onion plus the salt and pepper. Sauté for 8-10 minutes, stirring often – this process helps release the water from the vegetables before adding them to the pizza. Once you take the vegetables off the heat, stir in 2 tbsp of the pesto sauce and set aside.

Next, heat the oven to 425F and then roll out the pizza dough. Put a bit of cornmeal on a cookie sheet, place your pizza dough on the pan and then dress your pizza.

Use the pesto as the base, as much or little as you want spread out onto the dough. Then, spread out the vegetables and top with ricotta and pine nuts.

Bake the pizza for 8-12 minutes (depending on your oven) until crust is golden.

Cook’s Note: It will take different ovens more or less time, just depending so keep an eye on the pizza. Also, if you don’t think your pizza is done by 12 minutes keep it in the oven a couple more minutes but watch it closely.

Cook’s Note: If you have a pizza stone, follow the same instructions but instead place the dough on the back of a cookie sheet and let the pizza stone warm-up in the oven as it warms up. Then the cornmeal will help the pizza slide off the cookie sheet onto the pizza stone when your oven is ready to cook the pizza.

If you LOVE this pizza please head on over and VOTE for me in the Food Blogger Challenge! CLICK HERE to Vote!

Until the next cooking adventure,
Jess

The post Harvest Vegetable Pizza appeared first on Cooking in my Genes.

It’s a bit funny as a lot of my pancake memories link back to eating them for dinner instead of breakfast.

Growing up my Oma would make these delicious apple pancakes for dinner, yes, for dinner. As a kid this was one of my absolute favourite meals (for obvious reasons) – does it get better than pancakes topped with cinnamon and sugar?!

The actual German name for this dish which I can remember from growing up is “Apfelkrapfen” (‘up-full-grep-fen’) – this word actually translates directly to mean ‘apple fritter.’  However, in my Oma’s recipe we always cooked them in a frying pan on the stove-top.

The recipe is a simple crepe-style dough in which you dip whole apple slices, then cook them.

Such simple ingredients with such a delicious outcome – you can make these for breakfast, lunch/brunch or (my personal favourite) dinner.  Heck you could probably even serve them for dessert!

I have not eaten or made these in at least 10 years  so when I made them the taste and smell immediately transported me back to being a kid – I could picture myself and my brother in my Oma’s kitchen eating them up.

Prep time: 30 minutes
Equipment: Small & Large Mixing Bowls, Frying Pan (Optional: Apple Corer)
Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:

Crepe Dough:
4 eggs
1 ½ cups whole milk (3.25%)
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp sugar
pinch (1/8 tsp) salt
Extra: ½ cup whole milk (3.25%) in case you need to thin out your batter
Extra: butter for the frying pan when cooking

Apples:
6 large apples peeled & cored (Gala apples are my preferred apple but Granny Smith would work too)
**Helpful tip: If you don’t have an apple corer, you can simply use a small knife.  Use the knife to cut around the core from both ends and then press from one end to pop the core out.  Once you cut the apple slices you might have to trim a bit if there is any core left.

Cinnamon-Sugar Mix:
½ cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
**Helpful tip:  You can double, triple this sugary mix if you need to OR add more cinnamon or sugar to adjust the taste to your liking.

Instructions:

Mix the wet ingredients together (eggs and 1 ½ cups of milk) and set aside.

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl, then whisk in the sugar and salt.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, whisking until you get a smooth batter.  If for some reason your batter is not as smooth as you like it and/or a bit thick, this is where the extra ½ cup of milk comes in.  Gradually add a few drops of milk and whisk again – repeat this until your batter smooths out then set aside.

Next up are the apples.  Peel and core the apples.

**Helpful tip: If you don’t have an apple corer, you can simply use a small knife.  Use the knife to cut around the core from both ends and then press from one end to pop the core out.  Once you cut the apple slices you might have to trim a bit if there is any core left.

Then, cut into approximately 1/2-inch slices – for me each apple gave me about 6 slices.

Then, mix the cinnamon and sugar together and set aside.

Now, time to cook! At this time give your batter another good stir.

Turn your frying pan to medium and add butter to melt and cover the bottom of the pan (approximately 1 tbsp).   As soon as the pan heats up and butter is melted (and before butter turns brown), using a fork or knife (chefs choice) grab an apple slice, dip into the batter letting excess drip off and then place in the pan.

I fit about 6 slices per batch in my frying pan.

Cook for 5 ½ minutes (batter will start to bubble on top and edges will start to brown).

Flip and cook another 4 ½-5 minutes until both sides are golden.

Take the batch out of the pan and serve immediately.  Then, start the process over again with butter in the pan and dip and drop the apples into the pan for the next batch.

Cook’s Note:  After a few batches I found I needed to give my pan a good clean with a paper towel as some of the leftover butter started to brown quite a bit.  Then you can start with a few more batches.

If you want to keep them warm in order to serve more than one batch at a time, turn your oven to 200F and you can keep the pancakes warm on a baking sheet until ready to eat.

Cook’s Note:  If you find one side of the pancake is getting darker than the other, just turn your dial down a bit to just under medium – you might have to adjust as you go depending on how hot your stove-top gets.

Lastly, serve up the pancakes and cinnamon-sugar mix for each person to customize their plate.

Until the next cooking adventure,
Jess

The post Apple Pancakes appeared first on Cooking in my Genes.

We would all gather at the table, the aroma of coffee in the air and enjoy coffee & cake every afternoon around 3PM.  I absolutely loved this tradition – I mean really, which kid wouldn’t love cake mid-day?!

While I liked the cake part of ‘coffee time,’ having everyone together at the table just being together was what I loved most and remember most.  It was a pretty neat tradition and one I still talk about to this day.

I had my mom send me some of my all-time favourite recipes of my Oma’s, specifically related to ‘coffee time’ and today I’m sharing with you Blueberry Streusel Cake.  When I baked this recently I opened the oven and this wave of sweetness plus baked blueberries hit me, it smelled EXACTLY like it did 20 years ago at the cottage; it was like being transported back in time.

Perhaps this cake will inspire you to start your own coffee & cake tradition.

Prep time: 1 hour for cottage cheese step + 1 hour to prep & bake
Equipment: 15″ x 10″ (approximately) Cookie Sheet, scale & stand mixer (if you choose to use)

Ingredients: (Recipe serves 12-16)

Dough:
200g cottage cheese (drip/drained for 1 hour prior to use in recipe)
6 tbsp milk
1 egg
8 tbsp vegetable oil (only use vegetable oil, do not use olive oil)
100g sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt
400g flour
4 tsp baking powder

Blueberry Streusel Topping:
4 small blueberry containers, washed and dried
Streusel:
65g melted butter
100g flour
65g sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

**Special Step:  Measure out the cottage cheese.  Rest a sieve on a bowl, put the cottage cheese in and let it drip/drain for 1 hour.  Once most of the liquid is gone, empty liquid and press the cottage cheese through the sieve.  You will end up with a finer curd.

Mix cottage cheese with milk. Then, add the rest of the liquids (egg, vegetable oil, vanilla) and the sugar.

Measure the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl and whisk to combine.

Then mix in half of flour mixture into the liquid mixture. This will start to form a doughy texture.

Knead the rest of flour mixture into the dough you’ve already started to form. I would recommend incorporating the flour gradually, you can use a quarter or half cup to transfer the flour, then knead in until combined. Repeat until the flour is gone. (This part of the recipe is where you get an arm workout OR you can use the knead function if you own a stand mixer at home).

Use butter to grease a cookie sheet.  Then, roll dough to approximately the same size of the cookie sheet – transfer to cookie sheet.  **Helpful tip: I rolled my dough onto a piece of parchment paper approximately the size of the cookie sheet, then used it to help flip the dough onto the cookie sheet.

Layer blueberries onto dough.

To make the streusel topping, measure & then melt the butter.  Combine melted butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl – stir until ingredients are combined and form into crumbles (otherwise known as streusels).

Use hands and crumble streusel onto blueberries.

Bake 20 – 30 min at 350. (Berries will start to burst and bottom of cake will be golden)

Once cooled, dust with icing sugar.

Cook’s Note:  This cake is good covered and stored on cookie sheet pan for 1-2 days.  To make it go a bit further, store in an airtight container.  Also, since the cake overall is on the less sweet side, you could definitely have a piece as breakfast – I may have done this a few times growing up.

While this cake is delicious fresh-baked, it’s even better the next day! Pour yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy.

Until the next cooking adventure,
Jess

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