Saturday, July 9, 2011

Sour Cream Biscuits


I had a full container of sour cream left in my fridge and I needed to use it up! I absolutely HATE wasting things that I buy so I always try to use things up before they go bad. I ended up making warm biscuits for a breakfast dish I had to bring to a gathering in the morning and they paired perfectly with homemade jam. Now, I know making biscuits from a Bisquick box is probably faster, but nothing beats homemade biscuits! Another favorite biscuit recipe I have is a buttermilk chive biscuit- also very yummy, but not as versatile because of the addition of chives. (That recipe will be posted soon!) There are endless possibilities when it comes to homemade biscuits...to name a few, biscuits and gravy, egg, bacon cheese sandwiches on biscuits, biscuits and jam, and they always make a nice side to practically any meal. I love to make a big batch a biscuits for us and then freeze most of them so they are ready to take out of the freezer and bake at any time. They taste just as good out of the freezer and baked as they do baked fresh! The last thing I love about this biscuit dough is that you can make the dough the night before, wrap it in plastic wrap in the fridge, and then roll it out and cut the biscuits in the morning for a quick breakfast! I love things I can prepare the night before! I hope you try out these delicious flaky biscuits for yourself and see how you can incorporate them in many meals to come! 

Recipe: 
2 Cups Flour 
2 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Baking soda 
1/2 tsp. Salt 
1 TBS. Sugar 
1/2 Cup Butter (chilled or placed in freezer for few minutes) - I use unsalted butter
1 Cup Sour cream ( I used low-fat) 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
In a large bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients and then add butter to the mix and rub together with your fingers or a pastry blender until it resembles coarse sand. (I have a little trick I use...I grate my frozen butter with a cheese grater into the mixture because it makes it SO much easier than trying to do it with your fingers). Stir in the sour cream until the dough starts to come together and then turn over onto a lightly floured surface ans knead with your hands a few times until a ball forms. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is 1/2 inch thick and then with a biscuit cutter or a floured drinking glass, cut the dough into circles and place on baking sheet. (At this point, you could freeze the biscuit dough circles on a baking sheet for a few minutes and then place in a freezer bag to keep in your freezer until ready to be baked...to bake from freezer, just a add a few minutes to your baking time) You can re-roll and cut again the dough once. You should get about 10 biscuits, depending on the size of your biscuit cutter. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the biscuits have puffed up and are golden brown. Serve warm! 




recipe slightly adapted from: http://bakingbites.com/2008/11/sour-cream-and-green-onion-biscuits/

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Work Out and Cool Down

It has been almost a week since my last post! Sorry, I have been a slightly busy girl this past week! One thing I have had a lot of time for though, is work outs! This weekend has been full of some great work outs! Friday, we went hiking for a total of about 5 miles (up and down a mountain), talk about a great work out! I am still feeling sore from that! On Sunday, my husband and I went for a run around our neighborhood and the lake near our house and it was actually a great work out and I am looking forward to doing that more! Oh, and I have been taking those Gravity classes I talked about in an earlier post- definitely loving those! Now, today's work out is an upper body strength session that took me about 25 minutes. (I got this work out from a book Skinny Chicks Don't Eat Salads).   Its broken up into sections, covering Chest, Shoulders, Back, Triceps, and Biceps. This is what I did: 
Chest: 
Dumbbell Bench Press: 10 lbs - 15 reps 
Dumbbell Bench Press: 10 lbs - 15 reps 
Push Ups : On knees - 10 
Shoulders: 
Seated Overhead Shoulder Press: 8 lbs - 15 reps 
"                                "                : 8 lbs - 15 reps 
Side Lateral Raise: 3 lbs - 15 reps 
"           "              : 3 lbs - 15 reps 
Back: 
Standing Bent Row: 5 lbs - 15 reps 
"             "             : 5 lbs - 15 reps 
Lat Pull Down- Using rubber bands 
Triceps: 
Tricep Push Back- 5 lbs - 15 reps 
"                  "      : 5 lbs - 15 reps 
Dumbbell Extension(Seated) : 8 lbs - 15 reps 
"                  "                       : 8 lbs - 15 reps 
Biceps: 
Seated Dumbbell Hammer Curl : 10 lbs - 12 reps (alternating arms) 
"                       "                       : 10 lbs- 12 reps 
Standing Bicep Curl: 8 lbs - 12 reps 
"                "           : 8 lbs - 10 reps 


If you have any questions about the moves or work out, don't hesitate to ask. : ) Now, onto the "cool down" which is actually a delicious homemade Orange Sorbet Recipe that I made last week and it is amazing! It is light, refreshing, sweet, and the perfect healthy treat to cool you down! 




Recipe: 
1 Cup Sugar 
1 Cup Water 
1 tsp Orange zest 
4 Oranges 


Combine Sugar and water in a saucepan and heat on medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil and don't stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat and then set aside. Zest the oranges until you get 1 tsp zest.  In a 4 Cup measuring cup, squeeze all of the oranges and remove seeds. Stir in water/sugar mixture and zest to the orange juice and then add enough water to make 3 1/2 Cups of liquid total. Place in fridge for at least 1 hour and then transfer to your ice cream maker and let it do its thing! (Mine took about 15 minutes) After it is done, transfer to a freezer proof container and freeze! Enjoy!