Blog – Page 4

Slow Cooker Maple Spiced Steel Cut Oats and Quinoa

November 21, 2016 by Asharae Leave a Comment

Happy Thanksgiving Week! Anyone traveling this week? Or welcoming family into your home? Anyone preparing to feed lots of friends and family? If you’re in need of a super simple homemade breakfast option for feeding lots of people this week, I’ve got the perfect recipe for you. And if you’re making this recipe for just one or two, I’ve got instructions for freezing any leftovers to have later!

This Maple Spiced Oats and Quinoa dish is healthy-ish, hearty, so delicious and can be customized to suit each person you’ll be hosting this Thanksgiving. When you’re worried about getting the turkey in the oven, all the pies made on time, and getting Grandma’s stuffing just right, you really don’t need to be thinking about anything complicated for breakfast! Just get up early and throw all these ingredients in your slow cooker (try doubling it and adding some time if you have more than 8 of guests.) You can set out lots of topping options so everyone can customize their own bowl, and this dish is hearty enough that it’ll give everyone energy to help out with all your Thanksgiving dinner prep!

This recipe is adapted from two I found online – this Pumpkin Overnight Oats recipe from Well Plated and this Slow Cooker Overnight Quinoa and Oats by Chelsea’s Messy Apron. Feel free to adapt and adjust to fit your preferences!

Slow Cooker Maple Spiced Steel Cut Oats and Quinoa

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Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 3 hrs

Total Time 3 hrs 10 mins

Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 c steel cut oats (do not use old fashioned or quick cook oats)
1/2 c quinoa rinsed (or purchase pre-rinsed)
3-4 c water depending on how thick you want your oatmeal to be
2 c milk
2 Tbs chia seeds
2 Tbs ground flaxseed
1/4 c brown sugar
2 Tbs maple syrup
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs cinammon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice

Garnishes

Sliced almonds
Dried cranberries
Additional brown sugar
Chopped apples
Additional cinnamon nutmeg, or allspice

Instructions

Spray slow cooker with cooking spray.
Rinse quinoa well, using a fine mesh sieve. (Skip this step if you bought pre-rinsed quinoa)
Combine all ingredients except garnishes in slow cooker, stir well to combine.
Set on high for 2-3 hours, stirring after an hour and a half so you know how much longer to cook it. This will depend on how hot your slow cooker gets. (See note below.)
Oats are finished when they reach the consistency you desire - I like mine to still be slightly chewy, so I cooked mine for just over 2 hours.
Turn off heat and serve topped with dried cranberries, sliced almonds, extra brown sugar, or whatever you like!

Notes

The recipe I adapted this from said to cook it on low for 7 hours or high for 4, but mine would have been burnt to a crisp if I let it go that long. Use your best judgement depending on how quickly your particular slow cooker operates.

If you want to make this recipe to save for later, use a muffin tin to divide the remaining cooked oats and quinoa. Let cool completely on the counter, then place in the freezer for a few hours. Remove oats from muffin tin once frozen, store in a freezer safe ziplock bag, and keep in freezer until ready to eat. Reheat in microwave, top with garnishes, and enjoy!

Butternut Squash with Cilantro Garlic Sauce and Sriracha Crema

November 1, 2016 by Asharae 3 Comments

Let’s talk about how pretty this dish is. The bright orange butternut squash, vibrant green cilantro sauce, the Sriracha crema with just a hint of red in it, and crunchy roasted butternut squash seeds to top it off. And it’s not only gorgeous, but delicious too.

This recipe was inspired by one from Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook Plenty More. His recipe just used cinnamon, but I wanted a smokier, spicier flavor to the squash, so I added cumin, paprika, and chile powder as well. If you’re not a fan of so much spice, you can go easy on the Sriracha and the spices, but the yogurt does cool the flavors down quite a bit.

This serves 4-6 as a side, but I won’t judge if you decide to eat is as your main course. My husband and I polished of an entire butternut squash in one sitting, so I give you permission to do the same. Enjoy!

Butternut Squash with Cilantro Garlic Sauce and Sriracha Crema

Asharae Kroll

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Total Time 45 mins

Servings 4

Ingredients

For the Butternut Squash

1 large butternut squash about 3 lb
2 Tbs olive oil
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp chile powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Dash of paprika

For the Cilantro Garlic Sauce

4 Tbs olive oil
1 bunch of cilantro leaves
1 clove of garlic minced

For the Sriracha Crema

1/2 c plain Greek yogurt
1 tsp Sriracha
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 425 F.
Prepare your butternut squash. To more easily peel your butternut squash, use a fork to poke holes all over. Heat for 1-2 minutes in the microwave. Let cool, cut each end off with a knife, then use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin. Cut your butternut squash in half, separating the taller skinny half from the wide fat end. Place each half of the squash on your cutting board, cut side down, and cut each one in half. Scoop the seeds out and set them aside to use later. Continue cutting the squash till you have small wedge or fry shapes.
Place squash in a large bowl with 2 Tbs of the olive oil, toss well to coat, and add cumin, chile powder, cinnamon, paprika, 3/4 tsp salt, and a dash of pepper. Toss well.
Place the squash on two large baking sheets, roast for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and flip the squash with a spatula. Return your pans to the oven (switching which shelf you had them on) and roast for 15 more minutes, or until squash is tender and starting to color on top. Remove from oven and set aside.
While the squash is roasting, make the cilantro sauce. Place cilantro, garlic, 4 Tbs olive oil, and a generous pinch of salt into a small food processor and blend until well combined. Add more cilantro or olive oil as necessary.
When the squash is finished roasting, lower the oven temperature to 350 F. Clean the saved seeds from the squash, separating them from the orange pulp and rinsing in a sieve if you wish. Pat seeds dry with a paper towel, place on a baking sheet, and sprinkle lightly with salt (I like using popcorn salt for this. It's such a fine salt that it sticks better.) Roast seeds for 6-8 minutes, checking on them and shaking the pan often to make sure they don't burn. Remove from oven when they start to brown. Let cool.
Stir the yogurt and Sriracha together and set aside.
Serve butternut squash drizzled with cilantro sauce, Sriracha crema, and sprinkled with roasted squash seeds.

CLT Food Bloggers – Food Photography Workshop

July 7, 2016 by Asharae 1 Comment

A couple weeks ago Tim and I had the privilege of teaching a photography workshop for CLT Food Bloggers at Craft Growler Shop in Charlotte. It was approximately 102,000 degrees outside, but we had a blast sharing all about food photography, styling, and storytelling with a fantastic group of local bloggers.

We felt like we barely scratched the surface of all the things we could have covered, but you can only talk about so much in two hours! It was so fun to see everyone practice and put their new-found skills to use with all the fun goodies and props the ladies from CLT Food Bloggers rounded up. Between styling food and helping with camera questions Tim and I even managed to sneak in a few of our own photos along with some behind-the-scenes shots of everyone doing their thing.

Many thanks to Craft for opening up their patio to us and providing the excellent charcuterie plates, Sugar for the delicious donuts, and Vintage Charlotte for some of the props we used in our photographs!

If you want to learn more about food photography, shoot us an email! We would love to do one-on-one mentor sessions with aspiring food bloggers and food photographers! And if you’d rather just hire us to do food photography or videography for your restaurant or brand, we’re onboard with that too! Let’s chat!

On the Edge of Motherhood

July 5, 2016 by Asharae 2 Comments

I sit here in our nursery on the edge of our biggest life transition yet. Just under a week to go till our due date, our hospital bags are packed, the bassinet is setup, baby clothes are washed, and our car seat is installed, and yet I feel so utterly unprepared. Not in a bad way – just in the way that I know everything is about to be different and I know there’s no possible way I could truly prepare myself for it.

No amount of reading books and asking friends and Googling my questions can prepare me for this next step of our adventure. I have a feeling that learning what it looks like to welcome a child into this world and into our family has to be experienced to be learned. And I kinda love that.

When you’re pregnant everyone tells you, “Life will never be the same!” “Everything changes when you have kids!” And a particularly annoying one, “Get all the sleep you can now!” as if you could stockpile sleep. One quick sidenote – a nurse friend of mine framed this advice differently telling me to nap when I need to nap and get lots of rest leading up to delivery because I’d need the energy for labor. Now that I can get onboard with! I have felt a little more weary lately, so it’s helpful to think of resting to prepare for labor rather than simply to make deposits to this mythical sleep bank everyone else seems to be referring to.

I know everyone’s advice is well-meaning, and I know they’re right in saying that everything is about to change. But rather than make it sound like a doomsday prophesy, why not share all the ways life is about to get sweeter? Sure there will be sleepless nights and dirty diapers, but those are the things I know I signed up for.

What I’m more interested in is what’s around the corner that I don’t even realize yet. It might be baby snuggles and sweet baby smell, the discussions of whose baby photos our babe most resembles, the joy of watching this little one learn and grow, and an intense and overwhelming love for something so tiny. But what are the other things? The things I can’t even put words to yet? Those are the ones I’m most excited about.

Raspberry Mango Popsicles

June 16, 2016 by Asharae 6 Comments

Summer has arrived in full-force here in North Carolina and we’re in desperate need of a little something to cool off with! Enter these raspberry mango popsicles. I finally got my hands on a popsicle mold at World Market recently and can’t stop making all. the. popsicles. It’s really not a bad problem to have. I actually recommend it.

I’ve got hopes of trying peach green tea popsicles, yogurt and granola ones, balsamic and fresh strawberry, mojito popsicles, and on and on! I’m currently working on perfecting a butterfinger popsicle recipe to share with you soon, but for now enjoy this one with its fresh summer fruit and gorgeous colors!

I’d love to hear if you have a favorite summer time popsicle recipe you love to make! Links are welcome in the comments below!

Raspberry Mango Popsicles

Asharae Kroll

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Ingredients

2 c frozen mango chunks slightly thawed
3/4 c light coconut milk
Honey to taste
1/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 c raspberries

Instructions

Use an immersion blender (or traditional blender) to blend mango, coconut milk, honey, and vanilla.
Pour mixture into approximately 8 popsicle molds, filling 3/4 of the way full. Save some of the mixture so you'll be able to top them off.
Add raspberries and use a chopstick or skewer to press them down into the mold and swirl them around a bit.
Finish filling the popsicle molds, add popsicle sticks, freeze for several hours till set.