This Cheesy Breakfast Taco Is the Best Thing I Ate in Austin

There’s nothing like the fresh-made tortillas at Rosita’s Al Pastor in Austin, Texas. I love watching the women in the empty bingo-hall parking lot, rounding masa in their palms into perfect spheres before plunging …

There’s nothing like the fresh-made tortillas at Rosita’s Al Pastor in Austin, Texas. I love watching the women in the empty bingo-hall parking lot, rounding masa in their palms into perfect spheres before plunging down the tortilla lever and throwing the flattened discs into shimmering oil. It’s magic.

At Veracruz All Natural, the migas poblanos are a heavenly kick to the face, thanks to the spice. Tacodeli specializes in gourmet, organic tacos. Upon pulling into the driveway at Valentina’s Tex-Mex BBQ, cedar smoke magnetically permeates the car before you’ve even stepped outside and onto the gravel. Here there’s a wonderful barbecue–breakfast taco mash-up involving smoked brisket that will change your life.

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The Friday Buzz: What We Make for Lunch

Welcome to The Friday Buzz, our roundup of all good things, good advice, good feelings. It’s the happy hour of blog posts! Up this week: Easy Lunches! 
Friday is here, and for a lot of us that means we are planning our menus to get ready to g…

Welcome to The Friday Buzz, our roundup of all good things, good advice, good feelings. It’s the happy hour of blog posts! Up this week: Easy Lunches! 

Friday is here, and for a lot of us that means we are planning our menus to get ready to go grocery shopping over the weekend. I’m pretty good about having breakfast foods on hand and planning out dinners, but I’m always on the hunt for quick and easy lunch ideas that take zero brainpower to make.

So, I thought I’d ask The Simply Team to share their go-to lunches, and here’s what they had to say!

OUR FAVE QUICK LUNCHES

  • It’s a Wrap! Andy’s go-to lunch is a chicken wrap made from a whole wheat tortilla, ranch dressing (he does a homemade non-dairy ranch, but you could do your own version), spinach, precooked chicken, and craisins.
  • Think Big! Emma loves to make big batches of something (anything, really!) that she can reheat throughout the week. Her two recent favorites are: Frittata made with chicken sausage and all the leftover vegetables from the weekend, and Beet and Barley Salad with a poached egg on top.
  • Oodles of Noodles: Summer likes to make our Thai Noodle Salad and eat it throughout the week. (It makes a lot!) She also likes sautéed peppers and onions with an egg on top.
  • Avo-Toast! Megan turns to avocado toast with an egg on top or some sort of egg scramble with a whole wheat tortilla.
  • Smash It! Cambria often smashes chickpeas on a piece of Ezekiel bread with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Simple and delicious!

What are some of your go-to quick and easy lunches?

MEANWHILE ON INSTAGRAM

Our Orange Chicken is taking the Instagram world by storm, and it’s not hard to see why.

READER COMMENT OF THE WEEK

Man in the North left a comment that warmed our heart and souls on our Egg Drop Soup.

I followed the recipe, with a few substitutions that turned out great. My fiance is sick and when she tasted this soup, her whole day changed and lifted her spirits. We both agreed it’s the best egg drop soup we have ever had. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, it meant more than you can imagine.

Watch out, Chicken Noodle Soup. Looks like I’ll be making Egg Drop Soup the next time I get sick!

Continue reading "The Friday Buzz: What We Make for Lunch" »

The Floral Trend That’s Changing Everything We Knew About Flowers

Home is the place we feel the most like ourselves—where we kick off our shoes, share our meals, and make memories. We’re taking our love for all things home and bringing it to Instagram. Follow along at Home52 and make yourselves—well, you know.

I l…

Home is the place we feel the most like ourselves—where we kick off our shoes, share our meals, and make memories. We’re taking our love for all things home and bringing it to Instagram. Follow along at Home52 and make yourselves—well, you know.


I love fresh cut flowers. I’m not alone in this, as I find most people have an instinctually pleasurable reaction to a vase of flowers—empirical evidence being all the petal-fondling and "oh-how-pretty" I get when I have an arrangement on my desk at work. For a very long time, I’ve pined after ranunculus as my favorite flower—tight petals, curled around an impossibly intricate center, that unfurl after a few days. But death comes swiftly after: A couple days after they open, they turn brown and go soggy—and I have no choice but to toss them.

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How to Make Puff Pastry, According to the Fearless Baker

I’ve always had a thing for dough. Bread dough, pie dough, biscuit dough…I love diving into a big bowl of ingredients and coming out of it with floury hands and something delicious to show for my efforts. This is why, despite being one of the m…

I’ve always had a thing for dough. Bread dough, pie dough, biscuit dough...I love diving into a big bowl of ingredients and coming out of it with floury hands and something delicious to show for my efforts. This is why, despite being one of the more complicated recipes on my long list of doughy loves, I adore making puff pastry. 

Puff pastry is made using a method known as lamination, where a block of butter is wrapped fully and sealed inside a dough. The dough then goes through a series of folds, where it is rolled out to a certain thickness and folded over onto itself. The first fold creates a series of layers (thin, alternating layers of dough and butter). The subsequent folds increase these layers, ultimately creating a versatile dough that can be used to make a huge variety of impressive desserts. (The dough for puff pastry can also be yeasted, which is then used to make things like croissants and Danish, and while the method is similar, this article focuses on a non-yeasted puff.) When the dough hits the heat of the oven, the moisture inside the thin layers of butter evaporate, creating steam, which creates the crisp, insanely flaky dough that is puff pastry. 

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Recipe | Sweet Potato & Kale Wraps

Originally these were going to be burritos. Having never wrapped burritos before, they turned out a little flat. I was hoping no one would notice, but as soon as I gave my husband his, he was all, “This doesn’t look like a burrito at all! B…

Originally these were going to be burritos. Having never wrapped burritos before, they turned out a little flat. I was hoping no one would notice, but as soon as I gave my husband his, he was all, “This doesn’t look like a burrito at all! Burritos are round!” So I decided rather than making them again, I’d just call them Sweet Potato & Kale Wraps. I’m lazy like that. These wraps were inspired by a recipe for Portuguese Burritos by MomFoodie. She had mentioned that she felt they were lacking something, so I decided to add a crapload of stuff to the burritos to add flavor. I didn’t want to add cheese, but I needed something to help bind the burrito together, hence the mashed sweet potatoes. I added black beans too and to replicate that smoky flavor the beans have at Mexican restaurants, I added a little smoked Spanish paprika to them. Caramelized onions clearly make everything better, so those went in too. I guess I kind of used a “throw enough things at the wall and eventually something will stick” approach to these burritos wraps. Luckily everything did stick, and although they might sound a little bit weird, […]

Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.

These chocolate chip cookie bars are GOLD.  Okay so no big deal but you have to drop what you’re doing right now and go make these. YES LIKE RIGHT NOW!! Last weekend I shared some stories of these on instagram and in my weekend post, and you guys have been blowing up my messages ever […]

The post Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

These chocolate chip cookie bars are GOLD. 

These brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars are chewy, chocolately and sprinkled with flaky salt. What else do you need in life?!

Okay so no big deal but you have to drop what you’re doing right now and go make these. YES LIKE RIGHT NOW!!

brown butter

Last weekend I shared some stories of these on instagram and in my weekend post, and you guys have been blowing up my messages ever since. I knew the recipe had to get out ASAP, so here we are! I made them again (life is so hard) just to photograph and share with you this week. Because they need to make an appearance in your kitchen this weekend.

Hello saturday treat! 

brown butter

These bars are chewy and perfectly flavored. Studded with both milk chocolate and dark chocolate. Dreamy! 

brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough

The biggest and best part?

They start with two whole sticks of butter… BROWNED. Oh yes, we brown two entire sticks of butter. Seriously just throw all your candles away because this will make your house smell like absolute heaven. I no longer need to burn any home fragrance – I’m just going to brown butter when I want to impress friends and make our house smell lovely. 

chocolate chip cookie dough

There is so much brown butter in this recipe that you can taste it in the bars. Which I know sounds a little crazy, but the thing is, when cookies or bars are made with brown butter, sometimes it’s hard to taste the brown butter inside. Unless it’s a glaze or something. You get me?

This is a totally different story. These bars have the most brown buttery, almost caramely, almost butterscotch-like flavor. They are seriously the best chocolate chip bars I’ve ever made!

These brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars are chewy, chocolately and sprinkled with flaky salt. What else do you need in life?!

Some other exciting points:

The butter doesn’t have to be softened because we are browning it anyway.

You don’t have to use a stand mixer for this recipe! Just stir it up.

Aside from browning the butter, the recipe comes together SO quickly. If you’re really in a pinch you don’t HAVE to brown the butter, but I mean… 

The bars bake for 30 minutes then cool. You can get these made and baked within one hour. You’ll have to wait a bit for them to cool, but if you’re taking them somewhere – just take and slice once you’re there! 

These brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars are chewy, chocolately and sprinkled with flaky salt. What else do you need in life?!

Now here’s the other thing – I do like a thicker bar, and I went back and forth on if I should show these made in an 8×8 pan instead. The thing is, they are really rich and just SO good made in the 9×13 pan, albeit a bit thinner. They serve a crowd and you can also wrap and freeze leftovers.

If you’re really in a pinch though, you can cut the recipe in half and do an 8×8 pan.

These brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars are chewy, chocolately and sprinkled with flaky salt. What else do you need in life?!

My favorite part, aside from the brown butter (of course!!!) is the flaky salt on top.

OMG. It adds a little texture and crunch, and obviously a salty bite to the rich, decadent melty chocolate and caramely baked dough.

These brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars are chewy, chocolately and sprinkled with flaky salt. What else do you need in life?!

And see how the top layer of the bars are also thin and crisp? The texture is so good and also means everyone doesn’t have to fight for the outer edges.

These brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars are chewy, chocolately and sprinkled with flaky salt. What else do you need in life?!

Give me all of these bars!

I hope they appear in your kitchen ASAP. And head over to instagram, so you can see me make them on my stories today!

These brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars are chewy, chocolately and sprinkled with flaky salt. What else do you need in life?!

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Print

Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

These brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars are chewy, chocolately and sprinkled with flaky salt. What else do you need in life?!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 12 people +
Author How Sweet Eats

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, loosely packed
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup milk chocolate chips
  • 1 cup dark chocolate chips
  • maldon flaked salt, for topping

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have a 9x13 inch baking dish out.
  • In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
  • Place the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Cook and let the mixture bubble, stirring occasionally, until brown bits begin to appear on the bottom. Once the brown bits appear, turn the heat off and continue to stir for about 30 seconds. Let the butter cool slightly. Take a pastry brush and brush a bit of the butter all over the bottom and sides of the 9x13 inch dish.
  • Place the brown sugar in a large bowl. Pour in the brown butter and mix until combined combined and smooth - the sugar will somewhat dissolve. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring immediately after so they don’t cook if the butter is still warm. Stir in the vanilla extract.
  • Use a wooden spoon to stir in the dry ingredients until they are almost combined. Stir in the chocolate chips until they are evenly dispersed.
  • Press the mixture into the buttered dish. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and set in the center. Remove the dish and immediately sprinkle the top with flaked salt. Let cool completely before slicing into squares.

Notes

slightly adapted from food network

These brown butter chocolate chip cookie bars are chewy, chocolately and sprinkled with flaky salt. What else do you need in life?!

Life is made.

The post Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.

Tomato Lentil Curry

This cozy tomato lentil curry recipe is made with the most delicious coconut curry tomato broth, it’s naturally gluten-free and vegan, plus it’s a breeze to make and always a crowd fave. This tomato lentil curry is exactly what I am craving this time of year. ♡ It’s super-hearty and comforting and made with the […]

This cozy tomato lentil curry recipe is made with the most delicious coconut curry tomato broth, it’s naturally gluten-free and vegan, plus it’s a breeze to make and always a crowd fave.

Tomato Lentil Curry Recipe

This tomato lentil curry is exactly what I am craving this time of year. ♡

It’s super-hearty and comforting and made with the coziest curry spices that are certain to warm you up on a chilly end-of-winter’s evening.  Yet at the same time, it’s still nice and healthy (also gluten-free and vegan) and full of the feel-good ingredients that I’m craving right now as we transition into spring.  And it is simply so delicious.

We’re talking a rich savory coconut tomato curry broth, lots of tender hearty lentils, diced sweet potatoes and veggies, plus a swirl of coconut milk and fresh cilantro sprinkled on top of each serving.  Altogether, the flavors here are perfectly balanced and downright irresistible.  And it’s one of those recipes that tastes even better the next day, making it perfect for easy meal prep if you would like (plus it also freezes well).

Alright, let’s make some tomato lentil curry!

(more…)

Jenny’s Nursery Reveal

Jenny’s Nursery Reveal My baby girl just turned 3 months old last week and life since she arrived has definitely been a whirlwind. So many people had told me that the first year with a baby is the fastest-slowest time of your life and it’s total…

Jenny’s Nursery Reveal
My baby girl just turned 3 months old last week and life since she arrived has definitely been a whirlwind. So many people had told me that the first year with a baby is the fastest-slowest time of your life and it’s totally true! Olivia’s growing so fast and changing every day. I can’t wait until she’s a little older and spending more time in her room. Decorating rooms can be such a daunting task...
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