Carrot Salad

Chick-fil-a used to make this carrot salad, but it wasn't at our store anymore when I went a few weeks ago. It was one of my mom's favorite thing from a fast food restaurant. I like to make copycat recipes, so I said I would try to duplicate it.

I saw this recipe on Just a Pinch.

Ingredients:
-1 cup carrots, shredded (I used about 8 baby carrots because it was what I had)
-1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, with juice
-1/2 cup raisins
-1/4 cup mayonnaise
-1/2 Tbsp sugar

Mix it all together.

Enjoy

My mom really liked this, it tasted similar to the fast food version. She told me I would have to make it again, but the only suggestion was to use a little less pineapple juice, I didn't drain any of it, so there was a lot of liquid in it. It was really simple to make this since there wasn't any actual cooking, just mixing the ingredients together.

Applebee’s Maple Butter Blondie

I always like restaurant copycat recipes, it is fun to have a recipe that people know they like from a restaurant and be able to have it at home. We've made this one before, and it turned out really well. I eat at Applebee's a lot, and I have my favorite things on the menu, and this is one of the best desserts. It worth the time to make it at home, and it was even good to eat the next day.

This came from Todd Wilbur's book Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2.

This recipe is cut in half from what the book said, it made enough enough for about 6 servings.

Ingredients:

Blondie

-2 egg whites

-1/4 cup butter

-1/4 cup brown sugar

-2 Tbsp. sugar

-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

-1 cup + 2 Tbsp. flour

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/4 tsp. baking powder

-1/4 cup milk

-4 oz. white chocolate

-1/4 cup chopped walnuts

-pinch of salt

Sauce

-1/4 cup softened butter

-1/4 cup powdered sugar

-1/8 cup softened cream cheese

-1 Tbsp. maple syrup

-pinch salt

-ice cream

-extra walnuts for topping

Preheat the oven to 325.

Beat the egg whites until they form peaks. Add the butter and
brown sugar and mix well.
Add the dry ingredients and mix. Then stir in the milk, chocolate chips, and  walnuts.

Since I cut the original in half, and it was supposed to go
in a 9x13 pan, I used an 8x8, the batter was spread pretty
thin, but they turned out to be a good thickness.
I baked mine for about 32 minutes.

While the blondie is in the oven, mix all the ingredients for the sauce in the blender.

Wait about 15 minutes for the blondie to cool, then cut
it an serve on a plate with ice cream.

The sauce looked pretty thin when I made it, but
you should heat it in the microwave for about 30 seconds,
and it turned to the perfect consistency. Top with walnuts.

There kind of looks like a lot of ingredients in this recipe, but the only one I didn't have when I decided to make this was the vanilla ice cream, so you likely have most of these ingredients in your kitchen already.

Panera Apple Fuji Salad

For this Salad Wednesday, I decided to do a copycat recipe from Panera. Salads there are always really good, and this one had a lot of good ingredients. I got the recipe from this copycat website. This salad was really easy, the hardest part was just gathering up all the ingredients. The original Panera salad has chicken or turkey on it as well, but I just left it out. It would be easy to add to the top though if you were making this for a non-vegetarian too.

Other Salad Wednesday recipes so far: Cucumber Salad, Deconstructed Wedge Salad, Edible Flower Salad and Buffalo Cauliflower Salad.

The ingredient list is kind of a guide from the original website, and makes 6 servings. I adjusted a bit based on what and how much of each thing I like on my salad.

Ingredients:

-8 oz. spring greens
-2 tomatoes, chopped (vine ripe is best)
-1 cup toasted pecan halves
-1 (2 1/2 oz.) bag apple chips (I couldn't find these, so I just cut slices of an apple)
-6 ounces feta cheese
-1/2 red onion, sliced into rings

Dressing
-1/2 cup dried cranberries
-2/3 cup olive oil
-2 tablespoons golden balsamic vinegar
-2 garlic cloves, finely diced
-2 small shallots, finely chopped
-3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
-3 tablespoons honey

Put all the ingredients for the dressing together in a bowl.

Mix.

Cut up the apples, onion and tomato.

Add the feta and pecans on top of the lettuce.

Put the rest of the ingredients on.

Top with dressing.

This recipe was good because it had enough in it to make a whole meal on its own. The balsamic vinegar had a bit of a strong flavor, so I would use a little less if you aren't a huge fan of the taste. I also don't think I've really had dried cranberries before, they were really good, really sweet, much more than raisins, which is what I would think they would be like. But the sweetness went really well in the salad.

Olive Garden Lasagna Rollata Al Forno Copy Recipe

I am in love with Olive Garden. When I found this recipe on Pinterest I decided that I needed to try it, however, I adapted the original recipe because it called for a little bit of three Italian cheeses and I decided to satisfy that with a shredded Italian Cheese Blend.

Ingredients
Five Cheese Marinara Sauce
-2 cups marinara sauce
-2 cups alfredo sauce
-1/2 cup ricotta cheese
-1 cup italian blend shredded cheese
-1/4 cup red wine

Filling
-1 egg
-15 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese
-1 (8 ounce) mozzarella cheese, grated
-1 1/2 cup Italian cheese blend, grated
-1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, blend
-salt and pepper, to taste

Noodles
-1 lb lasagna noodle
-1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs

Mix all of the sauce ingredients in a saucepan and heat until the cheese is melted. Keep over low heat until ready.

Cook the lasagna noodles in boiling salted water until al dente. Rinse the noodles in cool water so that they can be handled.

Mix all of the filling in a bowl.

Lay out a noodle.

Spread a little of the cheese mixture onto the noodle.

Roll the noodle loosely.

Almost done.

Place into a pan.

Roll all of the noodles until all of the filling is gone -- depending on if you used enough filling you made need to add to some noodles. 

Pour the sauce over the noodles and fill the rest of the pan with sauce.

Top with mozzarella cheese and breadcrumbs. 

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Serve.

I'll be honest, I've never had these at an Olive Garden restaurant so I'm not sure how they compare to the real thing. However, these were pretty good, parts of the noodles did get very crispy in the oven -- in order to fix this the noodles could be laid on their sides or more sauce could be made. Although I enjoyed these, J. didn't love them, he said the filling needed something more substantial in it like a vegetable rather than being just cheese.

Panera Bread Broccoli Cheese Soup

Here is a recipe for soup Wednesday. All the soups at Panera Bread are great, and this recipe is a copy of its broccoli cheese soup. The original recipe came from this website.

Ingredients:

-1 tablespoon butter, melted
-1/2 medium onion, chopped
-1/4 cup melted butter
-1/4 cup flour
-2 cups half-and-half
-2 cups vegetable stock
-1/2 pound fresh broccoli (about 3 1/2 cups)
-1 cup carrots, julienned
-salt and pepper, to taste
-1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
-8 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese

Saute the onion with the tablespoon of butter. Set aside.

Separately, cook the 1/4 cup of butter with the flour for 5 minutes on medium heat.

Add the half and half then the vegetable stock while stirring.
Simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the broccoli, carrots, and onions.
Cook for another 20-25 minutes, until tender.

Use an immersion blender to mix and puree the vegetables.

While still on low heat, add the grated cheese.

Add the nutmeg.

I thought this tasted good, and was really similar to the recipe at Panera. It took a while to make, but each step was pretty easy.

Panera Mac & Cheese

I am in love with Panera Bread and it's not uncommon for me to eat there multiple time a day while visiting my boyfriend. His favorite meal is the macaroni & cheese which he always orders so when I found this pin on Pinterest I decided to try the recipe that was originally printed in People Magazine  because we had left over white cheddar cheese from the White Cheddar Stuffed Garlic Bread.

Ingredients:-1 (16-oz.) package small pasta shells
-¼ cup butter
-1/3 cup all-purpose flour
-2½ cups 2% reduced-fat milk
-6 slices white American cheese, chopped
-1 cup (8 oz.) shredded extra-sharp white cheddar cheese
-1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
-1 tsp. kosher salt
-¼ tsp. hot sauce
-Paprika (optional) 

Grate your white cheddar cheese and chop your American Cheese. 

Prepare a large pot of boiling water and cook the noodles according to package directions. My shells took 10 minutes to be al dente.

Towards the end of the cooking time start the other steps.

Melt butter in a large pot, stir in flour. Whisk for one minute.

Add milk and cook on medium heat until bubbly.

Stir in both cheeses, the salt, mustard and hot sauce.

Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and stir until coated.

Top with paprika if desired and serve immediately.

This recipe was a pretty close match to Panera's, I think it needed a little more white cheddar, but overall it was a really good mac and cheese recipe.

Fried Zucchini with Hibachi Yum Yum Sauce

Ingredients:

Fried Zucchini
-Zucchini
-Flour
-Egg
-Panko Breadcrumbs

Yum Yum Sauce
-1 Cup Mayonnaise
-1/4 Cup Water
-1 tsp Tomato Paste
-1 tbsp Melted Butter
-1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
-1 tsp Sugar
-1/4 teaspoon Paprika
-1 dash Cayenne Pepper

Fried zucchini is one of my favorite things about summertime, this vegetable is always the best growing one in my family's garden and I love it's versatility.

I am also in love with Yum Yum Sauce (also called Shrimp Sauce) which is the delicious orange sauce served at Hibachi restaurants -- I spent so much time dipping my stir-fried vegetables into the Yum Yum Sauce during a recent trip to my local Hibachi restaurant that I ran out and needed to trade my sauce plate with my date's in order to get more of the deliciousness that is Yum Yum Sauce.

Being the ingenuous person  that I am when I saw a way to incorporate Yum Yum Sauce into my summertime dinner ritual I jumped at the chance -- the original recipe comes from Gluesticks.

For the Yum Yum Sauce -- combine the mayo, tomato paste (I used tomato sauce), melted butter, garlic powder, sugar, paprika and cayenne. Stir. Then slowly at the water, stirring the mixture until the desired consistency is reached (I used all of the water for my sauce).

Now you're ready to fry up some zucchini.

First thinly slice the zucchini.

Coat each slice in flour, dip in the egg, then coat in Panko breadcrumbs.

The zucchini will then fry up in a pan of hot oil until it looks done (golden brown).

Serve with the Yum Yum sauce.

I was really impressed with this! The Yum Yum sauce tasted very similar to the sauce that my local Hibachi grill serves and you can rarely go wrong with a deep fried vegetable. Serve the zucchini with or without the Yum Yum and use the Hibachi sauce for any stir-fry or vegetable and rice dish.