The Colorful Salad

For some reason, I had red cabbage in the fridge. I am at a loss as to why I bought it. But there it sat; a little bag of shredded red cabbage.

I must have had some plan for it, but that plan has gone from my brain long ago it seems. So I needed a new plan. I bought some fresh spinach and an avocado and dug around the pantry to find a can of mandarin orange slices. Pow! Salad.

The Colorful Salad

1 cup sliced red cabbage
3 cups torn fresh spinach
1/4 cup mandarin orange slices (canned)
1/2 avocado, diced
1/4 cup canned white beans, rinsed and drained
2 tbsp Mandarin Orange Balsamic
1 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil

The instructions are pretty vague here. It's a salad. Just toss it all together. My white beans were stubbornly sunk to the bottom of the bowl and didn't want their picture taken. I advise a shallow dish to serve this in. The avocados want to slide away too. Don't give any of the ingredients a chance to chicken out. You want them all present when you eat this!

Orange Pancakes

My mom loves to eat breakfast. And she loves to cover these pancakes in balsamic vinegar. She uses Blueberry and Pear mostly, but I though I would play up the orange flavor with the Mandarin Orange Balsamic. Since my husband isn't in to pouring straight balsamic on his pancakes, I whisked it with some maple syrup, but feel free to use the balsamic straight up.

Orange Pancakes*

1 cup all purpose flour 

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup milk (I love Almond Milk in pancakes)

3 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil

1 large egg

Syrup

4 tbsp maple syrup or honey

8 tbsp Mandarin Orange Balsamic

Whisk the pancake ingredients together gently. I use a really big bowl and put all the dry stuff in, stir it around and gradually whisk in all the wet ingredients. You don't want to over mix it, but break down the large lumps.

Heat a large flat pan or griddle to medium. Lightly oil your cooking surface. Scoop out some pancake mix, 2-4 tbsp each and drizzle it in a pile onto your pan.

After about 1-2 minutes, the tops of each pancake should have little bubbles in it and some should be popping. Flip them and brown the other side. 

It depends on what size you want your pancakes to be, but if you use 2-3 tbsp per pancake, you should end up with about 12-15 pancakes.

Whisk the syrup and the Balsamic Vinegar together, and drizzle away.

*If all you have is box mix at home, fret not! Just use milk instead of water and toss in a couple tablespoons of the Blood Orange Olive Oil. The milk has a little more body than water, so you may need to add a bit extra to get the right consistency. But it turns out fantastic just the same.

Blood Orange Chocolate Confetti Cake

So, our store is 2. Right now at 2pm. Lets break out the balloons!

Some of the employees here are vegan, so I made a vegan cake. I wanted to be sure that we could all eat! The batter is really thick and sticky, and makes a dense and moist cake with a slightly fudge-y crumb. If you aren't vegan and would like the cake to be more fluffy, go ahead and add an egg.

And the frosting... The frosting recipe is after the pictures!

Blood Orange Chocolate Confetti Cake

3 cups flour
6 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
pinch or two of salt
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup Blood Orange Olive Oil + some for greasing the pan
1 cup Tofutti Sour Cream
1 cup Almond Milk
1 container hard sugar sprinkles

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Use a drizzle of the Olive Oil to grease an 11x14 pan.

Combine the sugar, Olive Oil, sour cream and milk in a large bowl. Stir to combine. In another bowl, stir the four, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together.

Stir them together in batches, slowly. Mix well, until everything is moistened. Pour the sprinkles into the batter and stir to distribute.

Turn out into the pan. The batter is very thick and sticky, so smooth it out as best as you can. If it is too thick and sits in a lump, try mixing in a couple extra tablespoons of Almond Milk.

Bake for 35-45 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.

Cool. Drizzle with frosting before serving.

Orange Frosting

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
3 tbsp Mandarin Orange Balsamic
1 tsp vanilla extract
Water as needed

Stir the ingredients together until it makes a smooth paste. Add water, by teaspoon as needed until you reach a consistency that you can drizzle.

You don't need a lot, just a little drizzle on each piece before serving will do you. I also think this would be great using the Vanilla Balsamic, and a touch of orange juice instead of water.

Vanilla Mandarin Chicken

I caramelize my onions in large batches. I got the recipe from here. I modified it for olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I usually use a basic olive oil, like the Spanish Blend, but for this batch I used the Vanilla Olive Oil because I really wanted that punch of vanilla. I think it turned out the best and will use the Vanilla from now on. But if you don't caramelize before hand, the recipe takes a little longer, but not much.

Vanilla Mandarin Chicken

1 Onion, sliced thin
1 pkg chicken, chopped
1 small can mandarin orange segments, drained
3 tbsp + 2 tbsp Vanilla Olive Oil
2 tbsp Mandarin Orange Balsamic
Dash of salt

Start with your onions. Heat 2 tbsp Vanilla Olive Oil on medium-low heat. Add the onions and an dash of salt. Cook over medium low heat, stirring every few minutes. To be fully caramelized, it takes about 15 minutes. You can cook them up to half an hour if you want them more caramelized. Set them aside.

Heat 3 tbsp Vanilla Olive Oil in another pan to medium high. Add the chicken and saute about 7-9 minutes. The chicken should be browning and cooked through. Add your onion and orange segments. Stir.

Add the Mandarin Orange Balsamic and toss to coat. Let cook an additional one to two minutes and serve.