Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Food Hacks Recap

Eggs-In-A-Ham Basket
Eggs-In-A-Ham Basket - Taking an extra couple minutes on your weekend morning to prepare breakfast doesn't have to be a chore, well, that is if you have a handy food hack up your sleeve! Introducing my Eggs-In-A-Ham Basket, the answer to your weekend morning hunger woes! With as little as five-minutes of prep time and 20-minutes of baking in the oven, you can deliver a delicious dish that will make your belly happy and put your mind at ease! By simply fitting slices of ham into greased ramekins, cracking an egg inside, and topping with cheese and barbecue sauce, you have done all the work required for the ultimate quickie morning bite. It's just that easy, and all the more appetizing than a bowl of cereal!
Valentine's Day Cake
Valentine's Day Cake - With Food Hacks on the brain this past Valentine's Day, not to mention a busy schedule and a limited budget, I turned to my collection of hacking tips and tricks to come up with something interesting and striking for my loved one. Ever since I was first appointed the title of being Kraft's 'Ultimate Food Hacker,' I have been dying to try a hack for making a heart-shaped cake, using only one square pan and two circle pans. The hack looked so incredibly simple to execute, and the results were gorgeous! Sure enough, my heart-shaped cake turned out beautiful! It was absolutely delicious, and featured some of my boyfriends favourite flavours, pistachio and orange! 
Banana Peanut Butter "Ice Cream" In Chocolate Bowls
Banana Peanut Butter "Ice Cream" In Chocolate Bowls - I recently heard of a hack for making ice cream that sounded far too simple to be true. The hack apparently took mere minutes to make, required only a food processor, and was even dairy free! I didn't believe it was possible! The hack stated that by blending frozen, chopped bananas in a food processor, you will be left with the best ice cream! With low expectations, I began making this wild sounding "ice cream." To my complete shock, the "ice cream" turned out incredible! Creamy and sweet, I couldn't believe how much this mixture of bananas and fixings tasted just like ice cream! What was equally wild was the chocolate serving bowl that I served the ice cream in! By dipping the ends of small balloons into melted chocolate, letting it set, and carefully popping, I had created the tastiest serving bowl ever! 
Spicy Chicken Hard Tacos
Spicy Chicken Hard Tacos - How does one cater taco night to reflect both hard and soft taco shell enthusiasts without having to purchase both types? You know the answer! With a food hack! By simply draping small, soft tortillas over the bars of an oven rack and baking until crisp, you will have the most perfect hard taco shells ready to be stuffed with your favourite fillings! What I love about these homemade hard taco shells is that the width between the bars of the oven rack creates a flat base for your shells, eliminating the issue of having your hard tacos topple over and spilling the filling onto your plate. 
Waffled Has Browns
Waffled Hash Browns - Just like the waffle iron stepped in to deliver an incredibly crisp crunch to my Grilled Chicken Caesar Wafflewich, the waffle iron once again acted as the perfect tool for achieving the ultimate hash browns! When I say 'ultimate' I truly mean it, because these babies were, dare I say, better than any hash browns I have ever had at any restaurant! With the most dreamy, crunchy crust, and a light and soft interior, it's insane to think just how simple these hash browns were to prepare. What I really loved about making hash browns with this method was being able to step away from the waffle iron as the potato shreds cooked, allowing me to prepare the rest of my breakfast spread and set the table. Crispy, soft, with an herbaceous hit of ranch dressing, your breakfast table is begging for these!
Mini Corn Dog Bites
Mini Corn Dog Bites - Corn dogs have got to be one of the most fun carinal foods, but truth be told, they aren't exactly the easiest thing to make at home. They're messy, they're repetitive, they require deep-frying, and they can only be cooked a couple at a time. Let's face it, I wasn't planning on making corn dogs at home anytime soon until I came up with the easiest way to make this beloved fusion dish using a mini muffin tin. A mini muffin tin is the perfect tool for this hack, allowing you to create tiny, bite-sized corn dogs by filling the muffin cups with cornbread batter and a hot dog surprise in the middle. No mess, no repetition, no deep-frying, no problem! 
Mexican Cauliflower "Rice:
Mexican Cauliflower "Rice" - Though there are so many fantastic new ways to prepare cauliflower that have caught my attention lately, there's one cauliflower dish that has me the most inspired. Thanks to its insanely simple preparation and absolutely delicious results, I can't stop obsessing over cauliflower "rice"! Cauliflower rice is just as it sounds - simply cauliflower made to look, feel, and taste just like rice. All it takes to achieve this wonderful rice-like texture is a quick pulse of chopped cauliflower pieces in a food processor. Cook in a skillet with a little butter until tender-crisp. That's it! Can you believe it's just that easy to hack cauliflower into a low-carb, high-fiber comfort food favourite?
Crispy Stuffed French Toast
Crispy Stuffed French Toast - There's nothing worse than soggy french toast! What makes french toast really incredible is the inside is soft and fluffy from the infused egg custard, and the outside gets nice and crisp. It's not always easy to achieve that crisp exterior, risking the chance of burning the outside or drying out the inside, and that's where the food hack comes in! By coating the egg-soaked bread in crushed cereal, you will easily be able to achieve that mouth-watering crisp exterior that breakfast dreams are made of! To enhance that textural contrast even further, I stuffed the french toast with velvety Philadelphia Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cream Cheese! Hungry yet? 
Mini Deep Dish Pizzas
Mini Deep Dish Pizzas - With pizza nights holding a special place in my heart, I was so excited to try a hack for making mini, individual deep-dish pizzas using store-bought biscuit dough baked in muffin tins! What drew me to this hack was memories of making my own personal pizzas with my family. I love that this hack encourages personal expression, allowing each member of the family to dress their pizza as they wish! 

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1 comment:

Robyn said...

Hi Danielle,
I saw you over on Velva's blog and when you mentioned Canada, I just had to come take a peek :)
I'm loving your blog and your amazing imagination. These dishes looks unique and scrumptious looking.
It's always nice to find a fellow Canucklehead - love your passion for food :)