Reindeer Crunch

Posted on December 20, 2009 by Andrea

I have come across a snack mix that is typically referred to as Puppy Chow. It is a snack mix that is covered with tons of powdered sugar and is typically seen during the holiday season. Has it made an appearance near you?

I have never eaten this snack mix before. First of all it’s covered in powdered sugar which means it’s gonna be major sweet. And secondly, it’s called Puppy Chow for frack’s sake. I’m not eating that. At the risk of sounding totally snotty, I don’t even feed my dog kibble, you think I’m gonna touch something that is named after some crappy dog food?

Fat chance.

I don’t know what prompted me to look into this snack mix a bit further but I did and realized that it’s pretty easy to make.

I decided to come up with my own recipe because most of the other recipes I saw used lots of butter or shortening. Even the vegan versions used vegan shortening.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Andrea

Not that long ago I had a hankering for some chocolate zucchini bread. Or at least I assumed this was the case, as I had never actually had chocolate zucchini bread.

Zucchini bread, yes. But it was always the same way, spicy and more along the lines of like a carrot cake, spice cake kind of taste. Lots of cinnamon, clove, and allspice in the mix.

That wasn’t exactly what I envisioned. I wanted a dense chocolate quick bread with some zucchini in it. I started looking around for recipes to see what I could find. There were loads out there!

But they all had tons of sugar, white flour, and a load of eggs in them.

This is where my knack to never follow a recipe comes in handy. I looked at the recipes to get an idea of the basic ingredients and then I created my own chocolate zucchini bread recipe.

Andrea’s Chocolate Zucchini Bread

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Cocoa-Chili Rubbed Chicken Thighs

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Andrea

Cocoa-Chili Rub

I have seen people use cocoa powder before in savory recipes and it always interested me. However, I’ve never been inspired enough nor had that spark of creativity to come up with a use for it till now. I was watching some Food TV one Sunday morning and at the same time thinking about what I can make for dinner that evening. I like to create sort of traditional Sunday Suppers for us and when the warm weather arrives, both of us love when Sunday Supper includes grilling.

I started going through the inventory sheet in my mind of things I had on hand that I could use with cocoa powder. One of my favorite combinations is dark chocolate and dried cranberries. Normally I’m not much of a fruit + chocolate person but there is just something about the slight bitterness of dark chocolate paired with the sweet tartness of cranberry that makes me sigh with delight.