Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins

I haven't made muffins in awhile.  When I saw this recipe I first thought of the kids (who are often the first I think of when deciding to try out a recipe!).   They love citrus and chocolate....but aren't huge fans of ricotta.  However, in these muffins, the ricotta adds moisture to them, not ricotta flavor.  The original recipe included an orange glaze.  Since we eat muffins in the morning for breakfast and I usually serve them with yogurt and fruit for the kids, I decided not to add glaze.  Even without the glaze, the muffins were flavorful and tasty and the kids didn't miss the extra sugar!  I'm not a big citrus fan so these weren't my favorite but the rest of the family really enjoyed them.

Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins
recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 12 cup muffin tin.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, add the sugar and orange zest. Rub the orange zest and sugar together with your fingers.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar and orange zest mixture together until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Add the ricotta cheese and beat until smooth. Beat in the egg, orange juice, and vanilla extract.

4. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups.

5. Bake muffins for about 18-20 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown. Let muffins cool completely.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Mimosa Muffins

I am happy that I can be joining This Week's Cravings over at Moms Crazy Cooking again.  It's been awhile, since I don't always make a recipe that goes with the "Craving of the Week."  Last month's supper club theme though was brunch.  So over the next few days I will post and link up the recipes that my husband and I made.  Normally, the couple hosting that month's supper club will make the protein/main dish and then everyone else is free to pick whatever they want to make to go with it - appetizer, side, salad, dessert, etc.  Several years ago we had done a brunch theme, so to add to this month's challenge, we didn't want to make anything that was made at that supper club so very long ago.  Seeing what everyone else was making I thought a muffin would be nice.  As my husband says, muffins are just an excuse to eat cake for breakfast!  These muffins looked different and with the champagne definitely said "adult."  We ate these pretty soon after they came out of the oven.  They were so fluffy from all the baking powder!  The orange flavor was much more pronounced than the champagne, so we even let the kids try some of the leftovers.  I recommend eating the first day!  The leftovers lost some of the moistness over the course of the next few days.

Mimosa Muffins
recipe from Inspired by Charm which was actually a guest post from No. 2 Pencil

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of all-pupose flour
1/2 cup of sugar
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
zest of two large oranges - 1 teaspoon reserved for glaze
1 cup of champagne (sparkling wine)
1 stick of melted butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

For the glaze:
1 cup of powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon of orange zest

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add zest from two oranges and whisk into dry ingredients. Don't forget to reserve a teaspoon of zest for the glaze. In a separate smaller bowl, combine melted butter, champagne, eggs and vanilla and stir together. Then add wet mixture to dry ingredients and stir, just until combined.
Divide batter evenly among the cupcake pan, and bake for about 18 minutes, or until light golden brown.

Remove muffins from oven, and prepare glaze while they begin to cool. Spoon glaze over muffins while they are still warm, not hot. If the muffins are very hot, the glaze will run off too quickly.

Mommy & Daddy Rating: 2 thumbs up!

Orange-Apricot Pork Chops in the CrockPot

I haven't used the slow cooker in awhile.  It's been slowly gathering dust in the upstairs closet.  When I was looking for a pork chop recipe to use up some that I had in the freezer I found this.  I love how quick and easy this recipe was.  My slow cooker tends to cook things super fast, so I ended up cooking this recipe on low for 4 1/2 hours, but I left the original cooking time from Stephanie's recipe below.  It's really difficult for me to give a recipe two thumbs up.  It means that everyone in the family loved it (or sometimes just my husband and I, but we LOVED it if we give it two thumbs up!).  So, mostly desserts make the two thumbs up rating.  This recipe was so close though!  When my son eats all of his dinner and tells me what a good cook that I am, then I know that I have a winner.  Unfortunately, my daughter, who loves fruit, has a thing about "warm" fruit and so, she only thought that this dish was okay.  She ended up giving her oranges to her brother, who was more than happy to eat them for her.  I served this with rice and veggies.  This was a super quick and tasty dinner!

Orange-Apricot Pork Chops in the CrockPot
recipe adapted from Stephanie O'Dea - A Year of Slow Cooking

Ingredients:
6 pork chops
1 cup apricot jam
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges, undrained

Directions:
Use a 4-6 quart crockpot. Put pork chops into your crockpot. In a small bowl, combine jam, brown sugar, and spices. Spoon over pork chops. Add the entire can of mandarin oranges evenly over the top. Cover and cook on low for about 8 hours, or on high for about 4.

Serve with rice to soak up the juice.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Sesame-Orange Chicken

We used to order Chinese take-out close to once a week, back when I was working.  Quick and cheap, it was usually on the weekends when neither my husband or I really wanted to spend time cooking!  Now that I'm home, I think we are down to about one time a month ordering Chinese. My kids had recently taken a liking to sesame chicken.  Yes, those chicken chunks deep fried and smothered in that sticky sauce with sesame seeds.  I don't want to think about how unhealthy it is because I have to admit it tastes so darn good!  However, I've been on the lookout for a healthier version of the dish.  Cooking Light is my trusted go-to cookbook.  I have six of the annual cookbooks and tons of magazine rip outs of recipes.....and I'm still a current subscriber!  I usually have luck finding tasty, health recipes. Well, we were truly disappointed with this recipe.  The chicken was supposed to have a sesame-orange sauce but it was really thin and tasteless.  No one liked this.  I ended taking out some teriyaki sauce and dipping the chicken in that to give it some flavor.  I was very disappointed, but my hunt for a tasty sesame chicken recipe continues....

Sesame-Orange Chicken
Cooking Light, May 2005

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/4 teaspoon salt, divided
Dash of ground red pepper
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 teaspoon butter
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon whipping cream

 Preparation:
Combine sesame seeds, rind, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and pepper in a food processor; process until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle chicken evenly with 1/8 teaspoon salt.

Heat oil and butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until butter melts. Add chicken; cook 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm.

Add ground sesame mixture to pan, stirring with a whisk. Add broth, and bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook broth mixture until reduced to 2/3 cup (about 3 minutes). Add orange juice and cream; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Serve sauce over chicken.

Family Rating: thumbs down!