After almost one year of Wicked Domestic, we’ve finally upgraded to a wonderful new look! You like? Elizabeth and I have been working with Krystyn from Krizzy Designs for a couple of months to perfect our new look. I hope you all like it! And a special thanks again to Krystyn for all of her hard work!
- Jackie
I’ve always steered away from stir fry dishes because I’m not a big fan of soy sauce. But when I discovered that Trader Joe’s makes a sweet chili sauce, I thought that would be the perfect compliment to a wok full of chicken and vegetables. (Okay, I don’t actually have a wok, on account of the not really making stir fry very often. A sautee pan works just fine.) I do looooove chili sauce – such a delicious combination of heat and sweet. In order to balance out a couple of recent junk food junkie weekends, I’ve been trying to eat extra healthy midweek. This meal was loaded with veggies, lean protein, and brown rice, and as per usual, I made enough to last me several lunches. There is nothing better than having a good lunch to look forward to at work! Added bonus: it was really really easy.
Ingredients
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
about 1/2 cup (maybe less – I’m totally guessing…) sweet chili sauce
vegetables
rice
Sorry – I know that that is an extremely lame and vague ingredient list. But this is such an “open” recipe – do what works for you in whatever amounts fit your needs.
First, I baked the chicken with a little of the sweet chili sauce to bake in the flavor – about 25 min at 350.
Next, I shredded the chicken into bite size chunks.
For vegetables I bought a pre-mixed bag of stir fry vegetables and two fresh peppers. I was a bit wary of the mix, but it was really convenient and really fresh and worked out great. I sauteed all the veggies in olive oil, then added a couple tablespoons or so of the sweet chili sauce. I didn’t want to coat everything, just spread the chili sauce throughout.
Once the veggies were almost done, I added the shredded chicken and let all the flavors meld for a few minutes.
I had cooked up some brown rice, which rounded out this super healthy meal.
This dinner was so easy and really good. I highly recommend the sweet chili sauce! A little goes a long way and it’s packed with flavor. No need for soy sauce – I’ve found my stir fry staple!
- Elizabeth
This year at Christmas my dad gave each us girls two very unique gifts – a handheld bug zapper and a Chia herb garden. I suppose that’s what’s left at Building 19 on Christmas Eve. The bug zapper is tucked safely away until bug zapping season. But a few days after Christmas I excitedly set up my Chia herb garden. Last summer was my first foray into any kind of gardening, and I had moderate success with tomatoes and basil. This summer my goal is to grow more vegetables and herbs, so the Chia garden was a great way to get started. The kit contains 3 clay pots, 6 varieties of herbs, 3 pre-formed peat/soil blends, and poorly written (but still understandable) directions. I chose to grow the cilantro, basil, and parsley; the other 3 herbs were chives, marjoram, and dill.
The reviews of the herb garden suggest that you read the directions closely and really stick to them. The first week or so of the germination process is tentative – you have to keep the pots warm (I kept them on the stovetop under the microwave light – except for when I used the stove) and cover each one loosely with a plastic baggie to help create a greenhouse effect. However, if they’re covered too tightly, not enough air circulates and they can grow a sort of light mold. It’s no big deal – you just wipe it off and carry on. The seeds all sprout at different rates and, as I discovered, not necessarily in the timeframe that the directions indicate. But it’s fun to watch those first few little green sprouts push through the soil. And in the midst of all the snow this winter, it was kind of nice to see some signs of life and a promise of summer!
Once the herbs have sprouted, they need at least 6 hours of sunshine per day. Wesley was not happy about losing part of his window on the world.
I’m having varying degrees of success with the herbs. The basil sprouted first and is doing okay for now. I think it might need some plant food.
The cilantro was growing beautifully at first, but has slowed. I tried to save some of the coriander seeds after they fell off – you can see a few still clinging to the leaves.
Luckily, parsley is my least favorite of the three herbs. It was the last to sprout and hasn’t made much progress. Parsley is kind of a dud.
I think that pretty soon I should repot so that the roots can spread out and hopefully the herbs will grow some more. I love looking forward to making cilantro-heavy salsa and lots of fresh tomato basil paninis!
- Elizabeth
In an attempt to not share every wedding related detail with you readers, I can’t help but share a few wedded ideas from time to time. In my (what felt like an eternal) quest to find myself the perfect wedding shoes, I simply needed to share my brilliant beyond brilliant idea.
I’m totally in love with the whole blue wedding shoe idea, as your something blue. As I’ve seen in many wedding magazines and blogs, brides have gone wild… WILD I SAY…with funky colored shoes and I wanted to jump on that bandwagon. I didn’t necessarily want to go the blue route, but definitely wanted a great color that would go with my wedding colors (light sage green, dusty pink, light blue). That’s when I turned to Etsy.com for inspiration. And inspiration I got! There are a bunch of amazing DIYers (do-it-yourself) who make homemade shoe clips that you order (or in my case customize) in a color or pattern of your choosing, to then clip on your shoes. Beyond brilliant!
So when I contacted the wonderful Linden Lovebirds to inquire about customization with the fabric of choice, I was tickled when she said it was a go! They have a ton of already made shoe clips, but because my bridesmaids dresses are a pattern (plaid to be exact), I thought it would be awesome to match my shoes to the girls’ dresses! I sent along the swatches and my made-to-order shoe clips were created in mere days!
I found a great pair of light pink peeptoe pumps that ended up matching perfectly. The shoe clips are such a great and super fun accessory to add to shoes to give them a little bit of umph. If you have a pair of boring old heels that need a little lift, these ab fab shoe clips are sure to please. I can’t wait to dance the night away in these cute little puppies!
- Jackie
They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Do you know who “they” are? I don’t, but I believe them. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever missed breakfast. Maybe once or twice when I had the flu, but breakfast is what keeps me going all day. If not for that delightful morning bowl full of Special K or and English muffin, yours truly would be dreaming of Doritos at 9:00 am. Seriously.
Currently, I’m obsessed with hot cereals, particularly anything from Bob’s Red Mill. I’ve heard amazingly healthy things about steel cut oats and thought I should incorporate them into my diet. In this past month’s Real Simple Magazine, they had an article about the 30 most healthy foods for you and I was pleasantly surprised when tons of my weekly grocery store staples were present on the list…including steel cut oats. Score one for me!
To bump up the health factor of my morning oatmeal routine, I wanted to add wild blueberries for antioxidants (on the list) and walnuts for lovely crunch and multiple health benefits (also on the list). What up super healthy bfast?! With the addition of nutmeg, cinnamon and a dash of skim milk (another item of the list!) this was some serious morning meal. Here’s what I did (around 3 servings):
3 cups water
1 cup steel-cut oats
1/2 cup wild blueberries
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
dash of cinnamon and nutmeg
dash of skim milk
Put the water in a pot and set to boil. Once the water has boiled, add the oats and turn down the heat to a simmer. Cover and leave for 15-20 minutes. If you like your oatmeal chewier, take it off the heat around 15 mins. For the last minute or two, throw in the rest of the ingredients and combine.
Granted, the oatmeal cooking process is a bit too lengthy for me to do every week day morning, so I just make a big pot of it, and chow down each morning.
This bowl of oatmeal is super satisfying and wicked tasty. It makes me despise that crappy stuff you get in a packet. This is a great way to incorporate more of those super foods in your diet, while still having a super tasty breakfast!
- Jackie
Is blogging about a cupcake mix a cop out? I don’t think so. Especially because it was SO GOOD. My sister-in-law gave me this Barefoot Contessa coconut cupcake mix for Christmas…
… and I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to give it a try (read: an opportunity to make the cupcakes and bring them somewhere, so they didn’t sit on my counter tempting me!). The Pats game at a friend’s house was the perfect excuse to whip them up. It was definitely more involved than most mixes. Not difficult, just more steps than the usual “add eggs, oil, mix packet, and stir”. Worth every second, though!
My one recommendation is to make 12 cupcakes from mix, instead of the recommended 10. I made 10 and they were huge – almost more like muffins, with the top extending way beyond the bottom. It made it hard to create my usual sandwich (taking the bottom off and sticking it on top of the frosting).
Ohhhh man I want one right now! I will definitely make these again. Why reinvent the wheel? If there’s a mix that doesn’t taste like a mix, go for it!
You can buy the mix at Crate and Barrel. Looks like the Barefoot Contessa makes several other cupcake mixes… I may just have to try them out!
- Elizabeth
Okay, so I know that early January may not exactly be booming with weddings, but here’s a gift idea for those just-engaged-brides or for those of you looking to give a creative bridal shower gift! I found these amazing personalized wedding dress hangers on etsy.com and they are the perfect thing for brides to hang their wedding gown on for a fabulous photo-op.
The maker of these hangers advises you to not necessarily hang your wedding dress on this hanger for a long period of time (since the weight of the dress may bend the hanger) but it’s perfect for day of photos and bridal party ohhing and ahhhing.
My cousin Katherine is also getting married, so I thought I’d jazz up her wedding day hanger situation.
A steal at $25, this is the perfect add-on bridal shower gift. To create and purchase your own personalized hanger, here’s the website. I can’t wait to put this to good use in September! 
- Jackie
I’m a big time snacker. According to the school of thought that says eating frequent small meals throughout the day is good for you, snacking isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it’s not necessarily a good thing if a) I still eat normal (okay, big) meals, and b) the snacks are unhealthy. So I try to eat mostly healthy snacks, but from time to time you will catch me with a spoonful of Nutella. Here are a few of my newest favorite munchies.
Rainier Cherries - I admit that I was drawn to these cherries by the name. Last August Matt and I took an amazing trip to the Pacific Northwest (Whistler, Vancouver, and Seattle) and spent a day hiking at Mount Rainier. It was a gorgeous day and a great (albeit difficult at times) hike. I’d post a picture of me flexing on a glacier, but unfortunately our camera broke early in the trip and instead of just buying a new camera, we foolishly bought a series of disposables. So I do have pics, they’re just not on the computer. Anyway, these cherries enticed me simply because of the association with Rainier. They had a really bright, sunny taste.
Spicy Sunflower Seeds - These a great snack because the spiciness keeps you (well, me anyway) from eating too many. And they’re really really good for you! Lots of Omega 3s and 6s and 9s, tons of fiber and protein, plus iron, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc. And they taste salty, but they’re not – only 75 mg/3% of salt per serving (each package has 3.5 servings, but for once in my life I normally eat less than the suggested serving size). I found them in the organic granola section of Shaw’s.
Homemade Iced Tea – Yes, people, it is “iced” tea, not “ice”. I am a total grammar nerd/vigilante, and “ice tea” is one of my bigger pet peeves. Maybe I should start a grammar blog. I never used to like iced tea very much, but I’ve been obsessed with it this summer. I’ve been making my own, and quite a bit of it since I’ve been going through it so quickly. My preferred brew is 2 teabags of decaf black tea (I’m not big on caffeine… unlike my French Pressed sister) and 1 teabag of jasmine green. I may step it up soon to equal black and jasmine green since I love the jasmine flavor. I keep two pitchers going in the fridge and refill as needed… which, at the rate I’m going, is at least once a day.
Riceworks Chips - Ah, the new love of my snacking life. I stumbled upon these in a random section of the supermarket – with the rice cakes in the bread aisle. They’re brown rice chips, and according to the website they come in several flavors. My local Shaw’s only has the Salsa Fresca, which is fine by me! These chips are gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, kosher… and any other specification you could possible ask for. But they taste good! Really good! The key must be in the seasoning. Every so often you get a bite that tastes more like bland brown rice than salsa fresca, but the well seasoned chips are a delight. They don’t have any nutritionally redeeming qualities, and they’re empty calories, but… it’s better than eating a family sized bag of Doritos, right? (Which I could totally do. Doritos, as gross as they are, are one of my biggest junk food weaknesses.) I would have taken a picture, but I…ummm… ate the whole bag and threw it away before I remembered the camera. (Disclaimer: Not in one sitting!) But here’s the website for pictures and more info. I hope the grocery store starts carrying more flavors – I’d love to try the Sweet Chili and the Baked Cinnamon! www.riceworkssnacks.com
Happy snacking!
- Elizabeth
Farm fresh tomatoes this time of year are pretty much the best food ever. They are so juicy and full and flavor, I can’t even imagine eating a tomato in the winter months. I remember when I lived and worked in Woods Hole a couple of summers ago, I would walk out into the vegetable garden and just eat tomatoes straight from the vines. What could be better? With that thought in mind, I was strolling through the Dewey Square farmers market on Tuesday, I made a beeline for the tomatoes.
So what to do this said tomato? I wanted a super simple dinner and wasn’t even wicked hungry, so I thought I might just cut the thing up and eat it with a little salt. Summer dining at it’s finest (and might I add simplest). But then I realized that I have a wonderful jar of truffle & salt in the cabinet that would make a simple summer tomato a gourmet snack!
Truffle salt is one of life’s wonders, let me tell you. It’s an expensive item to buy, but it keeps for a long time and you don’t use a ton at a time. I highly recommend buying some (I purchased mine at Williams Sonoma, but I’m sure you can find it online). Once I sprinkled the truffle salt on the juicy tomato, I let it sit for about a half hour to let the flavors marry.
While I thought this is a pretty delicious summer treat, I thought since it was dubbed my dinner, I should probably have something else too. I bought this amazing block of cheese through Boston Organics this week from Neighborly Farms of Vermont, green onion cheddar cheese. It has such a lovely, subtile green onion flavor and is just plain delicious. And of course, it’s local and organics…more to love! So I sliced up a little bit of the cheddar cheese and I was on my way to bliss.
This is exactly one of the best things about summer in my eyes. You don’t have to go through leaps and bounds to have a huge dinner each night. You can grab a few veggies or fruits and whip something up in a flash!
- Jackie
The organic food movement is pretty amazing, growing by leaps and bounds all the time. I’m not super huge into buying organic all the time, simply because it’s on the expensive side, but I totally appreciate the fact that organic products, from fruit to clothes (yes, organic clothes) are readily available to us all. I recently signed up for Boston Organics which is an unbelieveable service that delivers organic fruits and vegetables to your door.
Courtesy of Boston Organics
You pick what kind of box you want to get: half vegetable half fruit, all vegetable, all fruit or anything in between, and then you choose if you want it on a weekly or biweekly basis. Then when your delivery day comes, you receive a wonderful array of organic produce! The produce differs from week to week, depending on what’s in season, but they try to include in-season fruits and veggies from local farmers.
I get the smallest box because I don’t like anything to go to waste…I can always get more farm fresh fruits and veggies from the farmers market!
They also have a “No list” which you can check off any fruits or veggies you may not like and don’t want to ever appear in your produce box. Genius! No cucumbers here, folks. Another one of my favorite parts of Boston Organics, is that you can add on a bunch of awesome local products too! From coffee and tea, to locally made breads, eggs and cheese and pickled items!
I decided to use up those lovely scallions and make the daring, yet delicious curry dip. Here’s what I did (note: I doubled the recipe in the pictures, but the recipe is the regular serving):
To 1 block of softened cream cheese, add:
½ tsp of curry powder
½ tsp of turmeric
4-6 dashes of Tabasco sauce
Mix the above together and spread on bottom of dish.
Mix:
1/3 cup of red pepper jelly
1/3 cup of mango chutney
Spread above on top of the cream cheese mixture.
Take:
¼ cup of chopped green onions or scallions
¼ cup of golden raisins (I couldn’t find golden raisins that day, so I used regular)
¼ cup of roasted cashews (the recipe actually called for pine nuts, but I’m offended by how expensive pine nuts are, and the cashews were just as good, if not better)
Spread above 3 ingredients on top. Serve with crispy pita chips and dive right into curry dip heaven. This dip has unbelievable flavor and was a huge hit when I brought it to my Uncle Jack’s birthday party.
It’s so fun to get home from work to an awesome crate full of organic goodies. Not knowing what exactly what you’ll receive is fun because then can come up with creative ways of using all of the produce. If you live in Boston or a surrounding city that the company delivers to, I definitely recommend Boston Organics.
- Jackie
Wicked Domestic
