Pinterest Recipes I Tried and Loved

My goal for the month of February was to try two new recipes. I have all these recipes pinned on my "dinner" and "healthy snacks" board that just sit there and look pretty. Throughout the year I want to try new things every month - including recipes. Here's what I've tried recently.

Zucchini Pizza Poppers

I found this recipe from fellow blogger Krysten who writes at Dash of Herbs - a weight watchers friendly foodie blog. It's a recently new endeavor of hers, and I think she's doing a fantastic job. So many of the recipes she posts sound absolutely delicious - and they are generally a healthier alternative to something I would normally eat.

Firstly, I love anything pizza related so I knew I just had to make these. Secondly. these were so easy to make. Just slice the zucchini, add marinara, and sprinkle the cheese - bam you're done. Confession time: my husband really really does not like green vegetables. He will tolerate green beans and he really loves field peas, but anything else, he will just turn his nose up and add more mashed potatoes to his plate. When he tried these he said "They aren't that bad." That's a victory in my book.

Jalepeno Popper Dip

I found this browsing pinterest one day and knew it would be a huge hit. I enjoy spicy foods and my husband LOVES spicy foods. I first made it last year at our pumpkin carving party and it was a huge hit. The best thing about this dip is that you can alter the amount of peppers you use to vary the heat. We even made it one time with a habenero pepper thrown in and it was HOT but really flavorful.

I use neufchetel cheese rather than cream cheese and low fat plain greek yogurt rather than sour cream and it still tastes great, I also generally skip out on the parsley . I highly recommend this dip for your next party.

  

Cajun Pasta (O'Charley's Copycat)

I hadn't been to O'Charley's in years and at our new place, there's one less than five minutes away. I was really craving some good pasta one night but Olive Garden (my usual pasta go-to) was packed so we headed across the street to O'Charley's. I tried their cajun pasta with chicken and it was awesome. I immediately started scouring pinterest for a copycat recipe and found this one from food.com.
I usually cook the onions and peppers separately because even though I like jalepenos, I'm not a fan of a lot of peppers in my pasta. So I usually add more to derek's portion than to mine. I thought it would be hard to make but it's surprisingly easing and now one of my favorite meals to make. I usually add grilled chicken rather than shrimp.

Stuffed French Toast

A little over two years ago, I went on a family vacation with my mother-in-law's family. Me plus about 17 virtual strangers in one house on the beach for a week - it actually turned out to be a pretty awesome trip! One morning all the ladies went out to brunch at the cutest little restaurant called Maggie's European Bakery. (Side note: we actually went to celebrate Derek's little cousin's "first moon" which totally took me by surprise. I had no idea we were celebrating this special occasion until one of the aunts made a toast to the young lady "blossoming into womanhood." Anyone else had an experience like that?)
Back to the point: at Maggie's European Bakery, I ordered/ate the most delicious breakfast I've every had in my entire life - stuffed french toast filled with whipped cream cheese and blueberry spread. I seriously still dream about this amazing french toast but for some reason never have attempted it. This year on Valentine's Day, I decided to change that. I used blueberry plus whipped cream cheese mix for me and substituted honey in place of fruit for Derek. It was absolutely delicious, and using the waffle maker rather than a skillet was pure genius. 

What recipes have been a hit in your house recently? Suggestions are greatly appreciated - I love trying new things!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

If you haven't noticed, I kind of like buffalo-flavored things. Louisiana or Texas Pete hot sauce is a staple in our refrigerator, along with Chipotle Tabasco sauce, jalapenos, and Tony's seasoning. I guess you can say we just like spicy food in general.

I've mentioned that pizza is one of my favorite meals to make, not to mention one of the easiest, and we have it usually once or twice a week. The great thing about pizza is that there are SO MANY options, it's hard to get tired of it because it can always be different.

One of my favorites is buffalo-chicken pizza. For this you'll need:

Pizza crust

Tomato sauce (one 8 oz can)

Chicken

EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

Buffalo/hot sauce

Peppers

Onions

Tomatoes

Shredded cheese

Any other topping you'd like on your pizza (mushrooms, anchovies, jalapenos, etc.)

I'm going to start with a little disclaimer saying that I love making things SIMPLE and EASY when I'm cooking, because the last thing I want to do after a long day of work is slave in the kitchen for hours. Therefore, I do not make my own crust or pizza sauce. If you prefer to do that, kudos to you. I use a pre-made, pre-cooked thin whole wheat crust, which I usually purchase from Wal-Mart.

First thing's first, you want to cook your chicken, I prefer to cut my boneless skinless chicken breast (one breast should be enough for one pizza) in to teeny pieces, toss in some salt and pepper, and cook on a skillet in a little bit of evoo. If you don't have any EVOO and just want to use regular ole vegetable oil, that's fine too. Or if you want to make this super simple, just use chicken in a can.

After the chicken is cooked all the way through (or you've opened your can and dumped it on the skillet) add about 1/3 can of your tomato sauce, along with your buffalo/hot sauce. I don't ever measure these things. Measuring is for the birds. But if you want to get technical, probably around 1/4 cup of tomato sauce and 1/4 cup of buffalo sauce. If you don't want it too spicy I'd put about half that amount. Turn your stove eye to low and let the chicken simmer in the tomato/buffalo/hot sauce mixture. Stir occasionally.

In a small sauce pan, dump the remaining tomato sauce and add some more buffalo sauce. Turn stove eye to low and let simmer. Stir occasionally.

While the chicken and sauce is simmering, cut up all your veggies and other pizza toppings. I shouldn't need to go in to detail about how to cut your vegetables, and if I do then maybe you should re-think making pizza at home and give your local Pizza Hut a call. I'm sure they'll even deliver.

By this time your tomato/buffalo/hot sauce mixture should be nice and warm. Turn the sauce mix and the chicken off. Spread the sauce all over your pizza crust with a spoon. Spread chicken pieces around and add sliced veggies evenly. Cover entire pizza with your choice of shredded cheese (my favorites are mozzarella or cheddar). It's up to you how much cheese you add, but I usually end up using about a cup.

Bake at 375 until cheese is melted and starting to turn golden brown. This usually takes about 15-20 minutes. Cut in to sections and serve!

What is your favorite go-to meal after a long day of work?

   

Good Food Friday!

Its the last Friday of the month, so you know what that means?! Its Good Food Friday! What is Good Food Friday, you ask? It's a link-up that is all about great food and recipe posts from blogland! Each month, the link-up is open for a week for everybody to post their best food-related posts from the previous month!

Its so simple to join. You don't have to write a special post for this day or anything like that. Just take a recipe post that you have published in the month of August. All you have to do is link up your post, and you could be next month's featured blogger, chosen by our hosts! So without any further ado, here is our featured post!

This month we are featuring my very own Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese (definitely a house favorite). So if you haven't tried it, now is your chance to go check it out.

Hosts

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We look forward to seeing another month of amazing summer recipes!

Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese

The other week I was craving something cheesy and a little spicy. I thought about making a buffalo chicken pizza (one of mine and Derek's recent favorites) but for some reason I just wasn't feeling it. After a little brain storming (and kitchen inventory assessment) I decided I'd throw together two of my my most favoritest things: macaroni and cheese and buffalo chicken.

I'm not going to lie, I've made this several times since I originally 'grammed it, and each time it's been a little different, so bear with me as none of these measurements are exact.
You'll need:
Shredded cheddar cheese (the amount varies, depending how much you like cheese. I LOVE cheese so I kind of tend to over do it a little. Generally 1 to 1 1/2 cups) 1 cup milk 1 tbs melted butter/margarine 3 tbs flour 1 cup (dry) whole wheat noodles 1 chicken breast, cooked, seasoned, and shredded 1/2 cup buffalo sauce (I used Texas Pete) Italian bread crumbs (optional)
First boil your noodles. I'm not going to tell you how to do that because you should already know. Drain the water. Also at this point your chicken should be cooked and seasoned, but I would hope you knew that since it said you needed cooked, seasoned, and shredded chicken in the ingredients. Moving on.
Instead of adding the cheese directly to the noodles, I like to make a cheese sauce instead. It usually turns out a lot better, because it seems every time I add cheese directly to noodles, it gets all goopy and stringy instead of creamy (ps, does anyone else hate the word creamy?). I usually do this while the noodles are boiling because it doesn't really take too long. So to make a cheese sauce, melt the butter in a sauce pan then lower the heat and add the flour. Stir until thick and smooth. Gradually add milk and let simmer for 2-3 minutes on low-med heat. Add the cheese and stir until melted and it's a "saucy" consistency.
Combine the chicken, noodles, cheese sauce, and buffalo sauce in a medium glass baking dish and top with more shredded cheese and bread crumbs (optional). Bake on 375 for about 15 minutes or until cheese on top is melted/slightly browned.

Now you need to go make you a bowl of this deliciousness and tell me all about it.

Raspberry Oatmeal Bars

You know what I haven't done in a while? Posted a recipe.
It's really odd because I LOVE to cook, and really enjoy being in the kitchen, but I rarely post any recipes online. I don't know if it's because I don't think my meals are blog-worthy (enchiladas, spaghetti and turkey meatballs, and steaks + broccoli are some of my faves) or if it's because I never think to take pictures of anything until my food's already half eaten off my plate. Probably more of the latter.
But today, you get a special treat. Raspberry oatmeal bars using homemade raspberry jam. The recipe I based mine off of can be found here. Being the rebellious gal I am, I made a few changes of my own.

Raspberry Jam Measurments are approximate 1 cup raw raspberries 1 tbs sugar lemon zest
Put raspberries in a medium saucepan on low-medium heat. After a few minutes, mash the raspberries with a fork and stir continually. Add sugar and lemon zest. Keep on low heat for 10-15 minutes until all sugar is dissolved and the jam is a "jammy" consistency. I know, I have such a technical vocabulary.
Raspberry Oatmeal Bars 1 c.whole wheat flour 1 c. raw oats 1/2 c. brown sugar dash of salt 1/4 tsp baking powder 1 tbs. butter 1/4 c. applesauce
Combine first five ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend together. Add butter and applesauce and mix by hand or with a pastry blender until entire mixture becomes crumbly (it should be loose in the bowl but if you squeezed some with your hand it should hold it's shape). 
Put all but 1/2 cup of mixture into a greased 8x8 baking pan and pack down evenly. Spread raspberry jam evenly to within 1/4 inch of the edge of the pan. Sprinkle remaining crumbles evenly over jam (it shouldn't cover all of the jam) and press down lightly. Bake in oven on 350 for approximately 30-35 minutes.
Cut into squares and serve hot or cool. Store in dry storage container.

I'd love to know if you decide to make some of these delicious bars! Enjoy!

Taste of Tuesday: Peach Tarts

Before I get to today's post, I'd like to point out my AWESOME new blog design brought to you by Erin @ Erin Elizabeth Design. Isn't it great? Erin was great to work with, always replying to my (many) emails promptly and accommodating my every thought, no matter how scatterbrained I was. Thank's again, Erin!

My favorite of favorite fruit-oriented deserts my Mama Teen (great-grandmother) used to make were her peach tarts (I have to say fruit oriented because I don't think I could pick an overall favorite). I'm not kidding you, these things were the bomb diggity. A few weekends ago, I got some fresh peaches from the Santuck Flea Market and what better to make than some yummy peach tarts?

If you were to google "peach tart recipe" you're going to get some results for something that looks kind of like a pie. That is not what I'm about to teach you to make, think more along the lines of homemade pop-tarts, except better. If cobbler is the easiest dessert you ever make, tarts are the second easiest (and one of the yummiest)!

The Filling
What you'll need:
4-5 medium/large fresh peaches
1/2-1 cup of sugar

The Crust
What you'll need:
2 c flour
dash of salt
1/2 cup Crisco
3/4 - 1 c. milk
OR
one can of biscuits (not the flaky kind)

Begin by peeling, pitting and dicing your peaches and placing them into a large boiler/saucepan set to med-high heat. Add the sugar to the peaches and stir frequently. I only used 1/2 cup of sugar for 4 large peaches, but you can really use as much as you like, depending on how sweet you want the filling.

While the peach/sugar mixture is cooking, begin making your dough. (If you're going the canned biscuit route, at this point you'll want to pour a glass of wine and sit pretty while the peaches cook).

Begin by mixing your dry ingredients together (salt + flour). Second, add the Crisco and mix with a mixer until mixture becomes crumbly. Note: if you don't have any Crisco or other shortening available butter/margarine/vegetable oil works, too. However if using these, don't use any or as much salt. After the dough becomes crumbly, add milk gradually until it forms. You'll want the dough to be on the slightly sticky side, so it doesn't come apart when rolled out.

Once dough is made, section it into 4-5 even balls (about the size you can get your fist around) and roll each ball flat into an oval shape. If you're using biscuits, just roll each biscuit out. (Sorry I didn't take any pictures at this point, my hands were covered in flour/dough). Each piece should be about 1/8-1/4 of an inch thick. Lie each piece onto a greased cooking sheet.

When your peaches look like the above picture (after about 20 minutes of cooking) spoon onto your dough pieces. Only cover one half of each piece, and fold the other half over the filling and pinch the edges together, forming something similar to a hot-pocket (it's helpful to use fork tongs to pinch the edges together.

Once you have all of your tarts filled and pinched, bake at 400 for about 15-20 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned. Brush the tops with butter and/or powdered sugar, allow to cool, and enjoy!

Try not to eat the whole batch at once!

Do you have any old family recipes that you absolutely love? 

Linking up with Ashley and Jessica for Taste of Tuesday!

 

Crappy picures, amazing dessert

Whew, yesterday was a Monday for sure. Recently my Mondays have been pretty relaxing: I have a 3-11 clinical, so I spend my mornings at the gym, Starbucks, and occasionally a little shopping here and there until it's time for me to leave. Well yesterday, not only did I forget a clean bra to put on after the gym (ew), I dropped my phone as I was headed in to Starbucks and shattered the screen. Even though I got a super cool new phone out of it, I really didn't want to have to spend the money. Okay, done venting.

My most favorite desserts in the summertime are cobblers. Preferably with freshly picked fruit. My Mamateen (great grandmother) was known for her baking skills. She actually baked all of the desserts for my parents restaurant and they were such a huge hit, they were frequently requested for caterings or bought whole. Some of my favorites were her carrot cake (I even requested one for my birthday), apple tarts, and peach cobbler.

 

I didn't have any fresh peaches around, buy Derek's mom had recently picked a million some blueberries. Let me start off by telling you that cobbler is literally the easiest dessert in the world to make. And also easily one of the best and most popular/most yummy.

What you'll need:

1 c. flour

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. butter (melted)

fruit of choice

milk (optional)

The rule of thumb is to use equal parts flour and sugar, and enough butter to make it form a dough. I added some milk so I didn't have to use so much butter, but it isn't a necessary step. Some people will tell you that you need baking powder or eggs or some other things, but really cobbler is best left simple.

 

Step 1: After pre-heating your oven to 350 (I always forget this step), combine flour and sugar. Add melted butter and mix well until it forms a dough like consistency. It's okay for the mixture to be a little crumbly. You don't want it to be liquid, like cake batter. If you mess up, it's okay. Just add more flour + sugar until it's right.

 

Step 2: Spray a glass baking pan with non-stick cooking spray (or use a paper towel to smear melted butter on it). Add your fruit. As a rule, I generally use about the same amount of fruit as I do flour/sugar combined (so for this recipe, use two cups of fruit). If you want to line your pan with some dough to make a crust, that's fine, but it isn't necessary. After adding the fruit, add the dough mixture on top.

Step 3: Bake on center rack for approximately 45 minutes or until edges of dough begin to brown. Try to avoid eating the whole pan of deliciousness right away, to prevent burning your tongue.

A lot of people like eating their cobbler with ice-cream, but we didn't have any around, so I just enjoyed the gooey deliciousness all by it's lonesome and it was just fine.

Now, go impress your friends and family with this amazingly delicious and easy dessert. Or just make some and eat it all yourself, like I did. I promise your secret is safe with me.

 

 



Green Smoothie Challenge

For those of you that don't know, this week I'm participating in the Green Smoothie Challenge hosted by Katherine who blogs over at Real Food Runner. Her blog is filled with tons of healthy and yummy recipes that I'm dying to try out. The only rule of the challenge is that you have to drink at least one green smoothie every day for seven days (April 22-28).

Day 1 

I was a little short on supplies since I hadn't done my weekly grocery shopping yet (I worked the weekend) so I kinda just threw some things together.

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup milk

2 handfuls of spinach

1 apple (the red kind)

1 handful of blueberries

1 cup fresh pineapple

1 Chobani plain greek gogurt

 

This smoothie was not the best. It was the yogurt, I know it. I wanted the smoothie to be a little on the thick side, so I added the yogurt since I had no bananas. Bad idea. It didn't completely ruin the smoothie, but it left it tasting very tart. Now I know better.

 

Day 2

Yesterday I cheated a little. Like I said, still hadn't gone grocery shopping, so I just had a Green Machine by Naked Juices.

I'f you've never had one of these, please do. This was the first green thing I ever tried and I absolutely love them.

 

Day 3

Today I actually had food in my house and was able to try again on creating my own tasty smoothie.

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup fat free milk

1 handful baby spinach

1 medium banana

1/2 granny smith apple

1 kiwi

 

YUM. I'm not gonna lie I hit the nail on the head with this one. It has the perfect balance of sweet (banana) vs. tart (apple and kiwi) and I love it. I'm not going to say I'll make it every day this week because I want to try more/different recipes, but it will definitely be made again.

 

Linking up here and here. 

 



Not-cookie cookies

You guys may or may not know that I am a little obsessed with activities in the kitchen: baking, sautéing, boiling, broiling, slicing, dicing, mixing, stirring, and any other kind of cooking you can think of. But you probably don't know that because I never blog about it. Wanna know why? I hate taking pictures of food. And what's a good blog post without pictures. Truth is, I feel kinda silly. Especially since Derek loves to be like "Why the eff are you taking pictures of your cereal?" and make me feel all awkward (but that's because he doesn't understand blog life). Also it really gets me out of my groove to stop what I'm doing and take pictures to show each step.

BUT.

This day was different. There was no one in the kitchen to judge me for taking pictures of peanut butter on a spoon and I had all the time in the world to finish what I was doing. So I present to you:

These "cookies" aren't you're typical cookie, no sir-ee bob. That's because their good for you. That's right a cookie that is healthy and you don't have to feel guilty about eating one or five. I got inspired for this recipe here, here, and here. But I tweaked and combined them all until I got something to my liking. This is what you'll need:

Bananas

Nut butter (peanut, almond, etc. whatever you prefer)

Honey

Cinnamon

Oats or oatmeal

Whole wheat flour (or the regular kind, its okay)

Dried fruit, chocolate chips, peanuts or any other kind of crunchy yummy toppings you like

Firstly I would like to disclaim that I don't use measurements when I'm experimenting. I just go with the flow, taste testing along the way. So here we go.

Get ya some nanners like this one.

I used two large bananas for this recipe.

Maybe you'll be lucky enough to have this sticker on your nanner

I may or may not have worn this the whole time I made these.

 When you're done taking pictures of yourself, mash the bananas.

 Its kinda harder than it looks..

After you get your nanners mashed up, you want to add about three heaping spoonfuls of peanut butter.

Heaping

Get it all mixed together and then add the flour. I used a little over 1/2 a cup.

After adding the flour, add oats, honey, cinnamon, fruit, or whatever else you want to sweeten these babies with.

At this point it will look a lot like baby food. That's okay.

Now you plop down tablespoon size size dollops.

And cook on 350 for about 15 minutes

 Then enjoy!

Now these cookies aren't going to be the same texture of regular cookies since they obviously aren't made with the same types of ingredients. But they sure are yummy. I've been eating them for breakfast the past few days, and they're really good for when you're in a hurry and don't have time for cooking.



**I apologize for poor picture quality due to the fact I shot these with my phone and I was also more worried about taste testing 



Awesome (and easy) chicken quesadillas

If you're anything like me, you are obsessed with really like Mexican food and you go out to your local Mexican restaurant any time you can, especially for birthdays because there's usually margaritas involved or at least some fried ice cream and an awesome hat. One of my Mexican favorites are chicken and cheese quesadillas, so I decided to make my own version. Here's what you'll need:

- One chicken breast, cooked and shredded
- Salsa of your choice
- Your favorite hot sauce
- Shredded cheese
- Olive oil (vegetable oil works too)
- Tortillas
*You can also add onions, bell peppers, jalapenos, or any other topping you like in your quesadillas. I would usually do this too, but I didn't have them on hand and didn't feel like going to the grocery store.

1. If you haven't already, cook your chicken breast and shred it. Or use chicken from a can. Either way works fine.
2. Lightly brush both sides of one tortilla with olive oil.
3. Layer hot sauce, salsa, cheese, and chicken on the tortilla you just coated with olive oil.

4. Add more cheese or salsa if you would like, then brush another tortilla with olive oil and put on top of the layers of yumminess you have created.

5. Cook on a non stick frying pan set to low heat. You'll want to cook it on each side for about a minute to a minute and a half. If you smell something burning, you may have left on that side too long. And be careful when you flip it, because some of the insides might try to come out on you.

When I was finished cooking it, I cut it like I would a pizza and added some sour cream and ate it like it was going out of style.

If you decide to make this or a similar rendition, let me know how it goes! TTFN