easy blueberry banana smoothies + $25 UncommonGoods giveaway

Life is better during the summer, isn't it? I'll take frosty glasses over frosty winter mornings any day (then again I live in San Diego, so what do I know). These smoothies are so easy, so healthy, and so versatile (substitute blueberries for whatever fruit you like). While I'm not one to jump on bandwagons, these smoothies tick all the in-vogue foodie groupie bandwagon boxes: raw, organic, vegan (could be), etc. 

A quick side note: This post is brought to you by another collaboration post with UncommonGoods, who graciously gifted me the soapstone shot glasses you see above. To get them click here. Also, Chow Creations and UncommonGoods want to show all of y'all our love by giving one of our lucky readers a free $25 gift certificate to UncommonGoods' catalog. Details on entering are at the bottom of this post. I made the criteria super easy, quick, simple, and painless. Now back to the post. 

heirloom tomato & blackberry crostinis + $25 giveaway

Last week, I treated myself to an early Father’s Day gift (no, I’m not a father, yet, so goes my rational). And, I didn't even need to spend much time searching cause I knew exactly what I wanted was on UncommonGoods dot to the com. I literally ordered myself some socks and rocks (I’m not even joking), plus two soapstone appetizer platters and a shot glass set. Then I realized. What am I going to do with two (two!) soapstone appetizer platters and a soapstone shot glass set? I can’t even drink yet! Then I realized. What can’t I do with two soapstone appetizer platters and a shot glass set! I even rationalized my buying a "hiding-place rock" for top secret recipes (more on that later). This Father’s Day, treat dad to this beautiful Heirloom Tomato & Blackberry Crostini that's rich, refreshing, and so easy. And, don’t think I’m just writing this post to brag to y’all about my new haul. Keep reading below to learn how you can win a fresh-off-the-printing-press $25 UncommonGoods gift card (I haven’t forgot about y’all, my fellow incorrigible shopaholics)!

This post is divided into two sections: 1) Heirloom Tomato & Blackberry Crostini, and 2) $25 UncommonGoods Giveaway. Peppered throughout are my reviews of the four uncommon goods I got from UncommonGoods. You can check out the exact items I bought here. 

crunchy honey almond butter

Read the back of a Skippy jar. I'll bet you at least three words in the ingredients list you cannot pronounce. If you can't even sound out what your eating, why are you spreading it on your breakfast toast (some of us for lunch as well). While today's intro comes from the platitudinously uninspired section of my vernacular, the message still rings true. Whether you're a parent with young children or an old fart who likes reading about mushy foods (usually I can get away with insulting the elderly because most of them haven't figured out how to use the "box"), you've arrived at the right place. Even though Homemade Almond Butter falls into the dreaded category of raw, healthy, and organic, it fortunately doubles as a delicious and satisfying alternative to practically anything spreadable. Homemade is not only healthier than Store-bought, it's actually easier to make than having to go to the store. Come along as we discover the one-ingredient fix (and the fixings you could add) to end all pantry guilty pleasures. 

mango blueberry sherbert

People all over the world - except Australians and their backwards idiosyncrasies - are on the brink of summer; however they're ill prepared and I'm here to help. My suggestion? Go to Costco, buy a 24 family pack of sunblock, grab 6 industrial sized towels, and some summer fruits - provided that you left Costco otherwise you're gonna have to buy a lot of fruits (which is probably a problem only particular to the first world). After you finally leave Sampleworld with all of your beach day things run home and make this sherbert! It's so good, and surprisingly easy. 

When I was making this recipe I overestimated the capacity of my ice cream maker and when I measured the first batch I realized only an eighth of the mixture could fit in at one time. I practically have a toy ice cream maker. I concluded that the only sane thing to do was to make the sherbert by hand. So, every 30 minutes I took the sherberts out of the freezer and stirred them. That's probably why the blueberry one turned out kind of icy. Nevertheless I loved it even more because I literally made it myself. So the moral of the story is don't get your cooking equipment from Dave & Busters. 

fire roasted pepper salsa - {fire}sta time!

No, no you don't need a blowtorch for this recipe. The truth is, if you have a couple veggies and a stove, you've got everything you need to make this bright & delicious spring dip! This salsa is perfect for parties and potlucks. And the best part is you can make this hours, even days in advance and it'll be perfect, maybe even better as I'll explain later. 

Roasting the peppers and the tomatoes (and even the limes) not only gives this salsa a better texture, but it makes it sweet and fruity. I know fruity is a weird adjective to describe salsa, but it's all my sleep deprived mind can produce. Get it. Produce. As in fruits and vegetables. Okay, now I'm just freestyling. Combined with the acidity of the limes and the spiciness of the jalapenos, I haven't found a salsa that is more balanced or delicious than this one. Chowtinue reading for the directions and recipe!

no-bake caramel reese's peanut butter cups

Not a lot of us like preparing huge Thanksgiving meals. In fact, in a study I just made up, that is the number one reason why people make friends at all, so they can crash their friends' Thanksgiving dinners. But you can't go to your friend's mother's house and expect to get a meal without bringing her a gift. That's where these no-bake, super quick and easy caramel reese's peanut butter cups come into play. In fact, in another survey I just made up, it takes longer to say the name, than it takes to make the actual recipe. 

I should also remind you that your friend's mother loves peanut butter and chocolate. Bring these and I guarantee you she'll give you first dibs on turkey. You know what to do. Click Chowtinue Reading.

kale and green apple salad - we're so cool we had to wait till kale wasn't a trend anymore

Before I begin, let me preface this week's post with a statement, a statement of my own character which will become progressively clearer as you scroll further down."I am lazy". (what's new)

This week I've been plagued with a sore throat, so forgive me if I don't talk much in this post. Trust that there will be various occasions in this post where I "cough" to give myself an excuse not to finish the sentence. This week I made a *cough. 

Unless you're blind or illiterate, you know that Chow Creations has finally succumbed to the raw, healthy, vegan, gluten-free, I hate to say it but yes we're getting onto the kale trend. Wait...what do you mean "kale" isn't a trend anymore? So my producers are telling me that "kale", nor "justin bieber" are trends anymore. I know, I'm as astounded as you are. That means Chow Creations has successfully diverted yet another food trend! Yes! Long time readers of this blog know that it's our highest goal to subvert any food trends until we start our own. I'm still trying to get "grapeberries" and/or "rectangular cake prisms" started. 

how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker | coffee oreo parfait

This super cool technique to make ice cream without an ice cream maker (or liquid nitrogen) is not only comparable, perhaps even superseding it's churned variety, but is healthier, lighter, and so much more impressive. Plus, it's really easy.

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I love making things with really fancy french monikers because they sound so much more exotic and more difficult to make than their American counterparts. So in keeping with the theme, this week we'll be making a "sabayon", the French version of the Italian zabaglione. It's merely whisking egg yolks and wine together which I'm sure all of you can do. And we're turning the sabayon, usually served as a sauce for fruits and stuff, into a parfait which is a French frozen dessert with a texture similar to the love child of an ice cream and a mousse. Did you know parfait is the French word for "perfect". The more you chow. Just to be clear, French parfaits are completely different from layered yogurt, granola, and fruit parfaits we have in the states. I mean just look at the pictures. 

pesto + manchego + marcona almond

Viewer Discretion Advised. This post is home to 99.9% of the manchego cheese porn on the internet. 

Chow Creations usually strays away from the lewd and cheesy concupiscence that inundates the food blogging universe, after all, we're not a pizza blog, wait, what do you mean the next post is a pizza, what happened to the cookies and cakes, and what type of lunatic creates an entire post for pesto, has this all been one sentence, no we're having a conversation, wait, who are you, who am I, *sings Who Am I from Les Mis for a couple minutes, and we're back. 

easy hot fudge sauce + coconut + sea salt

Remember when you were a kid and you used to brazenly cascade pump after pump of chocolate sauce over your ice cream, beautifully unaware of its affects on your mind and body. Before now, the health conscious population has avoided the indulgent world that I live in. Finally a chocolate sauce that will take away all that worry, and bridge the gap between health and food. That's right this is vegan. Say what?

spicy asian cucumber salad - sweet | cool | spicy

If there was only one thing I would want people to remember about my momma, it would be that she is an amazing cook. Okay...she's also kind, and funny, and all these other things, but really, people don't come over for the jokes, they come over for the food (sorry momma). And this is one of the "secret" dishes that drives droves of hungry folk through our dinky paint-scraped doors every weekend. 

This spicy cucumber salad is the perfect side dish and accompaniment to...everything. Spicy, crunchy, sweet, refreshing, and probably best of all, it takes 5 minutes max to make. 

goji berry cashew granola bars - 1st annual picnic earth day celebration!

Happy Picnic Earth Day Chowder Heads! This is our first National Picnic Day, Earth Day Mashup and I hope to remember to do this for all the years to come. My goal is to show ya'll how to make something that is uniquely Earth Day themed while also picnic friendly. What I came up with are these Goji Berry Cashew Granola Bars. Think of these like an upscale version of the archetype trail mix bar you get at the supermarket. These packable snacks are chock-full of sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. I just think they are the perfect embodiment of what the earth provides for us and the variety of flavors it can produce - #motherearth, #savetheenvironment, #aliensarenotreal. So without further ado let's get started! By the way, I've gotten comments that I invariably say "did I mention this is easy to make" in all my first paragraphs, so I want to apologize and I won't ever do it again. Unless, by pointing it out I inadvertently say it again in which I don't apologize because that was the plan. 

Like I said before, these aren't your average, one note, cloyingly sweet supermarket granola bars. These are naturally sweetened with honey, a little bitter from the goji berries which I will explain later, salty from the sea salt, and just the slightest bit spicy from some black pepper. Although these have the look, texture, and feel of a mundane granola bar, when you bite into one I'll guarantee it'll be an experience like none other. 

chocolate cashew butter - this takes more time explaining than making

Those of you who know me, know that I love desserts disguised as breakfast items. Like coffee cakes, muffins, and danishes. But this Chocolate Cashew Butter is the most incognito of them all. This is like the nutella of kidney shaped nuts. You can market nutella all you want with multigrain bread and floating bubbled nutrition facts. But at the end of the day, all it is is eating chocolate for breakfast. Which is precisely why I love this recipe. It taste similar to nutella, except creamier and nuttier but without all the high fructose corn syrup and artificial additives. 

candied lemon slices - more like lemon rings

These days the shelves at the stores are inundated with rows and rows of processed overly sweet crap. You want to be able to feed your family delicious sweets that you know they'll love, but more than that, you know what's in them. That's why these Candied Lemon Slices are exactly what you've been waiting for. Well, they started out as slices but turned into rings. Later I'll show you how you can avoid this. They're naturally sweet, chewy, and you can be sure that they taste like the real deal because they are the real deal. Not only will the kids love these, but you'll love them too because they are just so easy to put together. You literally only need sugar, water, and a couple lemons. Heck, it's even easier than going to the store to buy them. So let's get started. 

First you need to obtain some lemons, obviously. Try to pick lemons that are round so all of your slices turn out the same. Although it may seem like common sense, you should also use lemons that have no blemishes or dried parts because remember we'll be eating the rinds as well. Rinse your lemons thoroughly and using a very sharp knife, cut an inch off both ends. 

dairy-free strawberry banana ice cream with flambeed bananas

Three Ingredients. Three minutes. Strawberry Banana Ice Cream. It's elementary Watson. Do you know why bananas are the best curved fruits on the planet? Well besides the fact that you can bake banana breads and banana cream pies with them, they're also perfect for making creamy, thick, luscious ice cream. Finally a healthy and fun way to get the family to eat their fruits (I've got nothing for those icky vegetables). And for you foreigners and babies who did not understand the title, yes, this is dairy-free. So how do we make a dairyless ice cream? I'm glad you asked. 

Through magic culinary voodoo we're about to turn an ordinary tropical fruit into a cold and creamy dessert. Yup, who knew pureed frozen bananas could make such thick and satisfyingly rich ice cream. I did. Okay, now you do too. This recipe basically calls for only three ingredients. Two of which you probably guessed were strawberries and bananas. And you might be thinking to yourself, this is probably one of those yucky healthy recipes that those vegans came up with on their hippie buses to world peace, but I can assure to you that only half of that is true. Yes this dessert is 100% animal exclusive, but no it taste just like a creamy ice cream or sorbet you get from the store. So follow me to creamy heaven as we make the healthiest, surprisingly tastiest ice cream we've made on this blog to date. 

nutella no-bake crumb bars - "fudge"ddaboudit

Are you cheap? Is it too much effort for you to get a shopping cart so you end up carrying all your groceries? Are you hungry? If you answered yes to any of the questions above  then, this chow-fection is perfect for you. Not only is this easy to make, but you can have better than store-bought fudge in under ten minutes. Yes, it's amazing what sugar, butter, and chocolate can do in the same amount of time it takes for you to take a dump. And although these bars are certainly fudgy I wouldn't necessarily call them fudge. When you sink your teeth into these bars the chocolate automatically melts on the tongue, but the oats provide a nice chewy, nutty finish. If the kids are itching to give the family gifts this is the perfect activity to get them involved. Not only are these super easy to make, but you're friends and family will finally know that you have the best kids in the family. So scroll down and check these out!

To start I am going to bring my sugar, butter, cream, and cocoa to a boil over medium heat. Once the butter has completely melted and the mixture boils, keep it on the heat for another minute.