Cooking with Blue Diamond -New Honey Roasted Flavors (Sponsored)

*We received 2 free cans of Blue Diamond Almonds because I am a Blue Diamond Taste Maker. The following thoughts and opinions are my own honest ones.*

 Recently we had the opportunity to sample some more Blue Diamond almonds from their honey roasted line-honey roasted vanilla almonds and honey roasted chipotle almonds.  I was most excited to try the honey roasted vanilla ones because I don't generally care for spicy flavored nuts. That being said all 4 of us enjoyed both the honey roasted vanilla flavor and the  roasted chipotle flavor. They aren't nearly as spicy as I thought they would be. I think adding honey to these flavors really gives them a great overall flavor. They are definitely quite tasty on there own for snacking.

Next we decided to get creative with them and try them in some recipes. For the honey roasted chipotle flavor we decided to use them as part of a coating for chicken tenders. So we took panko breadcrumbs, flour, salt and almonds and then coated chicken tenders with it. It was pretty good but it would have worked out better if we used an egg wash. I also think it needed a bit more salt. One other thing we would have done different ones used half seasoned bread crumbs and half plain breadcrumbs.

For the honey roasted vanilla flavor we decided to make a peach crisp and add the nuts in with the crisp part. I think the nuts added a nice crunch to the topping. The peach turned out pretty tasty. Here's the recipe that we used.

Mom's Peach Crisp from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
4 cups slice fresh peaches
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of cold butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup rolled oats

Edited:
2 tablespoons of bourbon
1/4 cup of almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Arrange peaches evenly in an 8x8-inch baking dish.
3. Mix flour, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl using a pastry cutter until evenly crumbled. Fold oats into flour mixture; sprinkle and press topping into peaches.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until topping is lightly browned, about 30 minutes.  

 Hope everyone had a great summer. There will be more great sponsored content and regular content soon. :)
 

Roasted Cauliflower

We decided to try roasting cauliflower last night. I found this recipe on simplyrecipes.com and then we modified it a bit to suit our tastes. Here is the recipe with the modifications. It was quite tasty. :)

~Chelsea

Roasted Cauliflower

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely minced (used 4)
• Lemon juice (from 1/2 or a whole lemon)
• Olive Oil
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper (only used salt)
• Parmesan cheese (used pecorino romano)

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit. Cut cauliflower into florets and put in a single layer in an oven proof baking dish. Toss in the garlic. Squeeze lemon juice over cauliflower and drizzle each piece with olive oil. Sprinke with salt and pepper. If the oven hasn't reached 400 degrees Farenheit yet, set aside until it has.

2. Place casserole in the hot oven, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is lightly brown. Test with a fork for desired doneness. Fork tines should be able to easily pierce the cauliflower. Remove from the oven and sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.