Spaghetti Squash Fettuccine and Pan Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I know, I promised I wouldn't drop off the face of the earth again. But I did. Oops. I'll make it up to you somehow.

Okay, so winter squash is everywhere and its cheap. Awesome. Its also cheap calorie wise (42 calories per cup as opposed to 221 calories in a cup of cooked spaghetti pasta.) You know what that means? You can load on the sauce! I've made spaghetti squash with a tomato based sauce before and it was great, but I was really in the mood for some chicken fettuccine alfredo tonight. So I made it. And it rocked.

First, I roasted the spaghetti squash. Its really simple: cut squash in half, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, place cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet and back in a 425 degree oven for 35-45 minutes or until you can slide a knife through it easily. Now all you have to do is scrape out the squash into a bowl. It will look a lot like a bowl of yellow pasta. Cool, right?

While the squash is cooking, you make the Alfredo sauce. I used half and half instead of cream so that cut the calories a little bit, but you don't have to. Remember, you're not eating pasta (you'll forget when you take a bite.) I threw in some of the leftover rotisserie chicken from last night (I love Costco) but you can make this vegetarian if you like. By the way, the nutmeg is pretty important to the alfredo sauce. Don't skip it, I promise it makes a big difference.

I still felt like I needed a vegetable to go with this meal. I had a huge bag of brussels sprouts (also from Costco) and I pan roasted them with garlic. I know a lot of people hate brussels sprouts, but they really don't suck. At least not like this (they still do if you boil them.)

Dinner turned out pretty yummy! The Bug even said "This is good, mommy!" and she ate more than 3 bites. Pretty amazing for her. 

Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

Ingredients:

1 whole spaghetti squash

2 Tbs olive oil

2 Tbs butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup half and half (or cream)

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Freshly grated nutmeg

Ground red pepper

For the Squash: 

1. Cut in half, lengthwise.

2. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

3. Place cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet.

4. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 35-45 minutes

5. Scrape out squash into a bowl and cover with foil to keep warm.

For the Alfredo Sauce:

1. Heat butter over medium heat

2. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant

3. Slowly whisk in half and half and bring just to a boil.

4. Add parmesan and nutmeg, red pepper, salt and pepper to taste

5. Whisk together until smooth

6. Lower heat to low and let the sauce thicken.

7. Serve over  squash.

Pan Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients:

2-3 cups brussels sprouts-halved

2 Tbs olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp lemon zest

Juice of half of 1 lemon

1. In a medium bowl, combine brussels sprouts, garlic, olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

2. Heat a large non stick skillet over medium high heat

3. Saute brussels sprouts until browned, stirring occasionally.
4. Transfer to a medium bowl, add lemon zest and lemon juice and toss to combine. Serve immediately.

Its a cupcake...or is it?!?!

Yep, I'm opening with a picture. Isn't it beautiful? A cupcake with frosting and WAIT?!?! Is that bacon and chives?

Why yes my friend, it is. Things aren't always what they seem. I learned that from Aladdin.

Full disclosure, this isn't really a cupcake. Its a muffin. A quinoa muffin. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart and adapted it to make it less sweet. I omitted the raisins, only added 1/2 cup white sugar instead of brown sugar (I would use even less next time) and left out the vanilla. It makes a pretty dense, but delicious muffin.

For the "frosting" I mixed goat cheese and cream cheese (about half and half) in my food processor. It made a beautiful, creamy white frosting.

All that was left to do was sprinkle some chopped bacon and chives on there. I sat at the dinner table and patted myself on my back for quite a while last night. This turned out PERFECT. It was exactly what I was hoping for. A yummy muffin with the creamy, tart goat cheese frosting and the salty, crispy bacon on top. I made a potato and leek soup to go with it and let me tell you, we were all stuffed.

Oh, by the way, you could use just about whatever kind of not too sweet muffin you wanted to use. I think corn muffins would have been good too. I think I want to try and go even more savory next time and add some sauteed onions or something to the actual muffin.

Grandpa's Super Secret Fudge Recipe

I'm about to do something that would make my grandpa Jim turn over in his grave. I'm going to share his secret fudge recipe with you.

The story that I heard was that my grandpa got this recipe from a woman who bought the recipe from a rather famous candy company. I don't know how true this was. My grandpa also swore up and down that he saw a unicorn in the woods when he worked for the Forest Service. Regardless of where the recipe came from, this will be the best fudge you've ever tasted.

I know, you have a fudge recipe that you make every Christmas and everyone says "oooh, yum, fudge." but its not as good as this recipe. I promise.

The first thing that you'll need is a well seasoned cast iron skillet. I've never made it in anything else. Don't try. If you don't have a cast iron skillet, go buy one. Why don't you already have one anyways? Geez.

The second thing that you'll need to know is that you're basically making a molten lava glue that will burn the bejeezus out of you if you get it anywhere on you. So don't. Along those same lines, make sure any little children or animals that you have running around your house are tucked snugly in bed or wherever you choose to keep them. Just keep them out of your kitchen.

So here's what you'll need:

1 12 oz package of semi sweet chocolate chips- I always use nestle'
Just under 1 cup of evaporated milk, maybe a tablespoon and a half less than a cup
13 regular sized marshmallows
1 tsp vanilla
1 cube of unsalted butter
1 cup nuts (optional)
2 cups sugar

As you can see by the picture, I didn't add nuts. I really like to add pecans and my mom adds walnuts a lot of the time. I want to try adding macadamia nuts next time. I skipped it this time because we're taking this batch with us over to some friends' house for dinner and I didn't know if they liked nuts or not. Better safe than sorry!

So your first step is to cut your cube of butter into small pieces and put that into the mixing bowl (I use my stand mixer.) Add the chocolate chips and the vanilla to that bowl as well

In your cast iron skillet, mix the sugar and evaporated milk together with a wire whisk. Add the marshmallows and heat over a medium-low heat. Adjust the heat as everything is melting so your mixture doesn't bubble over and create a huge, sticky monster mess.

This is what the mixture will look like when the marshmallows have just melted. Keep stirring and cooking.

It should look more like this. I don't even own a candy thermometer so I couldn't tell you what the temperature of it should be but it should be the color of a perfectly toasted marshmallow and it should separate easily when you run your whisk through it. This step might take some practice. Getting it dark enough is the key to keeping the fudge from being gritty but you have to make sure it doesn't burn either. No pressure, right?

When your marshmallow mixture is the perfect color and consistency, you will, CAREFULLY, pour it into the mixing bowl with the chocolate chips, butter and vanilla. I'm going to stress this, you're basically pouring sticky lava into another bowl from a scorching hot skillet. Don't get any on you!

All that's left is to mix it all up. Keep mixing until it starts to set up and then, using a spatula, smooth it all into a parchment paper lined, square baking pan (this is the only part of the recipe I changed from Grandpa's version. He greased the pan with butter, but I didn't like the greasiness of it on the bottom.) If you got the marshmallow mixture to the perfect temp this should set up at room temperature. If it doesn't set up quickly, stick it in the fridge. I usually do that anyways because I can hardly wait to taste it.

Hopefully Grandpa won't come back and haunt me for sharing this with all of you...

Corn Chowder-Lame title, good soup

I went to TWO farmer's markets last week! Look at me, supporting local stuff. I like being able to get produce that is so fresh and sometimes organic. The knowledge that they'll only be around for several more weeks makes me sad. I feel like we got shorted on summer a little bit this year (I wonder where I can send my complaint form.)

At the first market, on Thursday, my big purchase was a box of peaches, which I managed (with help from my sis) to can yesterday. They are awesome peaches, which is good because it made 10 quarts.

At the market on Friday I got corn. Awesome corn. Its grown organically by a farm that is owned by a friend of mine from high school. She doesn't usually come to our market but her truck broke down on the way to one on Thursday and she had to get the produce to a market, so we lucked out and got her!

On a side note, organic corn on the cob is not for the faint of stomach, or more specifically, those afraid of worms. Luckily for me, I'm not really bothered by them. They're just little caterpillar looking guys and we even got a big green one that my daughter was very excited about. It lead to a conversation that went like this:

Her: Mom, do you like caterpillars?
Me: Yep
Her: Do you like daddy caterpillars?
Me: Yep
Her: Do you like mommy caterpillars?
Me: Yep
Her: Do you like baby caterpillars?
Me:...

OK, back to the subject. So what does one do with 10 ears of corn (besides eat 4 of them for dinner the night we got them)?

You make Corn Chowder! Duh
Its so easy and so yummy. I barely even messed up my kitchen. In fact, I COULD have cleaned up the little mess I made while the potatoes were cooking and had a clean kitchen by the time we sat down for dinner. It didn't happen, I had important things to do, like check facebook or something, but in theory I could have.

This chowder has so much flavor for a soup that took under an hour to make. I'm pretty sure the key is making it in my big, green cast iron pot. I love meals that you just keep tossing ingredients into one pot.

Definitely serve this with a big, crusty/chewy piece of sourdough bread.

Oh yea! I almost forgot. I added this all up and there are only about 200 calories a serving. SCORE!

Corn Chowder

6 slices turkey bacon, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 ears of corn, kernels stripped from the cob

2-3 large yellow flesh potatoes, cubed

2 cups half and half

1 cup fat free milk

Seasoning salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Ground red pepper to taste

Makes 8 servings

1. Saute onion and bacon together in a large, cast iron pot. This only works if you use pre-cooked turkey bacon. If you use regular bacon, you'll have to do cook these separately.

2. When the bacon is cooked through and the onion is softened, add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant.

3. Add the corn and saute for a couple minutes until everything has mixed together. Make sure and scrape up that browned goodness on the bottom of the pan. 

4. Dump in your potatoes, milk and half and half and give it all a good stir.

5. Add the seasonings to taste and let the chowder simmer until the potatoes have softened completely and start to fall apart. I even took my potato masher to it just to speed up the thickening process. The chowder should have a thicker consistency.

6. Serve immediately with crusty french bread or sourdough.

Reinventing the wheel, or elbow, as it were...

Don't you love comfort food? That's a stupid question, I guess, because if you didn't love it, it wouldn't be comfort food. Well anyways, I don't think I've ever meet anyone who's said "I don't like Macaroni and Cheese." Well except for the instant stuff, but its not really the same thing, is it?

On the way home from Target (I insisted that we go tonight because I needed something essential for daily life, like vinegar or something, but really just wanted to get out of the house for a bit) I was thinking over what I had planned for dinner tonight. I knew Mac and Cheese was on the menu sometime soon as I had all the fixings for it but I wanted something different. Sometimes my Mac and Cheese ends up being a little like pasta nachos which isn't as good as it sounds. I grew with a pretty basic recipe that my mom would make (and we all loved!!!!) that was basically 1. Boil noodles 2. Put said noodles in a baking dish with Cheddar cheese and milk 3. Season to taste with salt and pepper 4. Turn your oven up as high as it will go and try to get it out before the smoke alarm goes off (sorry mom :)

Now don't get me wrong, we would all scarf down the stuff because it was delicious, but I wanted something different. I wanted creamy like Easy Mac but crunchy on top. I wanted the best of both worlds! And we got it!

It involves sauteing some onions and garlic in butter (I wonder how many recipes I can start like this...) and then making a sort of cheesy  Béchamel sauce with cheddar cheese, parmesan and this yummy Dubliner cheese. 


Now you're tasting your sauce and you're thinking, "What is this missing?" 

MUSTARD

And not just any mustard, this Harvest Course Ground mustard. My sister-in-law bought some for some salmon that she made and it thankfully, got left in my fridge. This was EXACTLY what the sauce needed. Along with a little bit of ground red pepper.


This all went in with the elbow pasta (which, by the way, was whole wheat because I'm , you know, healthy and stuff) it was topped with more shredded cheese to give it that melty top and then some panko bread crumbs and a few dollops of butter to make the bread crumbs all golden brown. This is what came out:

I should have taken a picture of the inside but I didn't have the patience. It was very creamy and not at all nacho like. 

For dessert I made these babies (well, I made them last night.) 

Just basic little sugar cookies iced with almond bark and sprinkles. Kind of an imitation Circus Animal cookie, which my husband LOVES. I'll be honest, I sort of like them too. 

NEW Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

1 box elbow pasta (whole wheat if you're into that sort of stuff)

3T Butter

1/4 minced onion

2t minced garlic (or more, I won't judge)

1T flour

1/2-1 C half and half or milk

1 T Harvest Course Ground Mustard

1/2 t ground red pepper

1 C shredded Cheddar

1/2 C Dubliner Cheese

1/4 C Parmesan Cheese

1/2 CPanko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1. Boil pasta according to box until its almost done. It will cook a little more in the oven. Drain and place in a large baking dish.

2. Shred all the cheese and mix it together in a large bowl.

3. Saute onions in 1 T butter until translucent and then add the garlic, saute for 30 seconds or until the garlic is fragrant.

4. Add 1 T butter and let it foam. After that subsides, whisk in the flour and cook until it browns up a little.

5. Whisk in the milk, mustard and red pepper and then season to taste with salt and pepper. Let this thicken up a little.

6. Add all but about a handful of the shredded cheese to your bechamel sauce and stir until its creamy and thick.

7. Pour sauce over pasta in baking dish and stir until its all combined. Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top and then sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top. Place thin slices of the remaining tablespoon of butter over the bread crumbs

8. Bake in preheated oven for 15 min or until top is golden brown. Serve immediately. 

At least I didn't break anything...

You know, when I fell off the face of the earth :) hehe...

OK, so this summer has been INSANE. A good insane, but insane nonetheless. We've had such good times with family and friends and those good times included some amazing food (and maybe just a little wine...)
Unfortunately, I didn't have the ambition at the end of the day to document those meals. I'll just tell you, they were good.

Things have slowed down a little in the last week or so and I've been able to make a couple of meals for my family. One of them was some grilled mahi mahi which was tasty but nothing super special; heat the grill, stick some fish, olive oil, thyme, lemon, salt and pepper in some tin foil and cook for 10 min or so. Pretty easy. I made this pretty little salad to go with it

Its sort a caprese salad, but instead of fresh mozzarella I used avocados, and instead of basil I used thyme. Oh yea, there's a balsamic dressing over it too. 

Also one night I wanted pizza, but you know, pizza is BAD for you or something...So I made it anyways, but instead of a normal crust I used tortillas. This was SO easy. And not at all ground breaking, but it was yummy.

Just pile on your normal pizza toppings and pop it into a 400 degree oven until it turns pretty (which means melted, browned mozzarella).

The last thing I remembered to take a picture of was an amazing strawberry shortcake. 

I got the recipe out of a Magnolia Bakery cookbook. I thought about sharing the recipe with you, but I'm going to force you to do yourself a favor and buy the cookbook. Its my dessert bible. I love it and I'll be eternally grateful to my Mother-in-law for buying it for me.

So I'll try not to disappear again anytime soon. Tonight I'm making scallops like I saw my sister-in-law make this summer. I'm excited!

Summer Vegetable Chicken and Barley Soup

It was unseasonably cold here today. I expect July to be in the 90's and today it didn't even hit 80. This put me in the mood for soup. I know, not really soup weather, but I was being dramatic.

I decided to make a vegetable soup with barley and chicken, mostly because those were the ingredients that I had. So I dove into my fridge and pantry and pulled out whatever looked good.

The only chicken I had was frozen chicken breast so I stuck that in my cast iron pot and boiled it in salty water until I could shred it. Yes, I boiled the chicken. Because its easy, that's why.

I added a lot of garlic to my soup, like 6-8 cloves. I really like the stuff and my philosophy on it is there is no such thing as too much garlic. I didn't mince it either. I like finding a big chunk of it, so I just coarsely chopped it.

I have to confess, the only time I've ever had barley before was in a Campbell's condensed soup. You can understand my blasè attitude towards the grain. I'd always thought it mushy, but it didn't end up that way at all. In fact, next to the corn, it was my favorite component of the whole soup. 

The corn though, let me tell you about the corn. I got really lucky at WalMart today. They had really yummy corn. So juicy and sweet. So lucky. And it was perfect for this summery soup. After I cut all the kernels off the cob, I threw the cob in the pot too and let it simmer with all the veggies. Good move, me! Even my husband said he could taste the sweet corn flavor throughout the whole soup. That made me happy. Don't you just love it when something you decide to do on a whim turns out awesome?

This was such an easy soup, if only a little time consuming (the barley actually takes about 15 min to cook.) It really hit the spot. I served it with the left over pita bread from Tuesday, only I brushed them with some olive oil, sprinkled on some garlic powder, shredded Parmesan cheese, and dried rosemary and broiled it in my oven for a few minutes.

Yes, I know its basil in the picture. I changed my mind, OK?!?!

This soup did an excellent job of warding off the chill of this actually, perfectly mild weathered day.

Summer Vegetable Chicken and Barley Soup

2 Cups shredded chicken

1 onion, sliced and sauteed in olive oil

6-8 cloves of garlic, chopped and sauteed

2 small zucchini, slice and sauteed

4 cups chicken broth

add water to desired consistency 

dried thyme

dried rosemary

1 ear of corn (don't forget the cob!)

1 1/2 cups barley

2 tomatoes 

salt and pepper to taste

gyro gonna love this one!

Hehehe I crack myself up sometimes...

For various reasons, I always think to make homemade bread at around 3:30 in the afternoon. Its usually around the time I start to think about what I am going to make for dinner, and because, generally, at least one of the kids is napping at that time, I start feeling ambitious.

The problem with my timing is this; homemade bread usually takes more than an hour and a half to make. I mean seriously, how many times does this bread have to rise?!?! For this reason, I usually end up making something like cornbread or biscuits, breads that don't need time to rise (who am I kidding, I usually buy a loaf of french bread from the grocery store.) But not today! Today, I made whole wheat pitas. They take about 2 hours total which isn't terrible by homemade bread standards.

I found this recipe for whole wheat pita bread a few months ago, just after we moved and they turned out good the first time and AMAZING this time. I'm thinking my yeast might have not been any good last time because the bubbly mixture didn't look like this:

See? Nice and foamy, just like the recipe said.

I accidentally added all the water in the first step because I wasn't paying enough attention (little brother wasn't happy that mom was making bread and not snuggling him) and just dumped it all in. It didn't seem to hurt them. The other change I made is adding several tablespoons of flaxseed meal to the mix before I let it rise the second time. Its pretty awesome stuff and it added some cool texture to the bread.

So now I needed something to go in my pitas and what better than gyro meat?! Well I didn't have any ground lamb in my fridge, not something I generally have sitting around, but I did have some frozen turkey burger. Turkey is better for you anyways, right? So I stuck that in the microwave to thaw and while that was going I used my handy dandy food processor to shred an onion. There was a lot water from that so I scooped out those onions, put them in a cheesecloth and squeezed out all the moisture. They went back in the food processor (and I switched back to my pureeing attachment) along with the defrosted turkey, some salt, pepper, dried rosemary, thyme and oregano. This got pulverized into a meaty goo that did NOT photograph well. I sprayed some cooking spray in a loaf pan and patted the meat mixture into it (think meatloaf) and stuck it in a 375 degree oven for 30 min or so.

Its not particularly beautiful, but it sure was tasty! And who cares, it goes inside the gorgeous pitas which, by the way, looked like this:

All that was left to do was assemble the gyros: stick a thick slice or two of the meat on the pita, add some lettuce, tomato and Tzatziki sauce (I used store-bought Tzatziki because I already had some, but its not really very hard to make some at home.)

I think the only thing I would change would be to add some thinly sliced red onions, but it was really yummy and we estimated them to be about 280 calories each. Not too bad, I was definitely full after one.

Fish Tacos

I'm seriously lacking inspiration tonight. I think I used it all up cooking dinner, because dinner tonight ROCKED.

I had some frozen Mahi Mahi from Costco that I decided would work really well for fish tacos. The thing was, I don't think I've ever had fish tacos before. I've seen them often enough, but for some reason they just never sounded good to me before today. Weird, I know.

I knew I didn't want to fry the fish, I wanted something light and summery. So I grilled it with just a little salt and pepper. I love Mahi Mahi so much.

Now you can't just shove some fish in a tortilla and call it a fish taco, you have to have something else and that something else ended up being a black bean-mango salsa.
And it was awesome.
I dumped a can of rinsed black beans into a bowl then I added half a red bell pepper and half a green bell pepper, diced. Also a diced, small onion, some cilantro, lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper. I was lucky and had picked up some mangoes today that were really yummy, so I diced a couple of them up and threw them in too. I let it all set for a while while the fish cooked. I think that next time I would put some jalapeno in there to give it a little heat.

They turned out so pretty. They made me think of San Diego which made me happy because I love San Diego.

I heart my food processor

One Saturday morning, about 2 years ago, my husband made a quick run to the grocery store for some breakfast items. As he was headed out the door I jokingly yelled "bring me back a surprise!" (well only sort of jokingly. I really like surprises.) What he returned with changed my life. It was the Black and Decker Powerpro Food Processor.

OK, that's a little dramatic, but seriously, I love this thing. It turns anything I throw in it into a glorious puree of smooth, creamy goodness.

While I've loved my food processor since I opened its box, I have come to find a new appreciation for it as of late because my son started eating solid foods and when I say eating, I mean devouring. This kid is the exact opposite of his sister, who survives on roughly 100 calories per day. He will eat two medium sized jars of store bought baby food for breakfast and two for dinner and still be begging for more. And don't let him fool you, he doesn't skip a nursing session either. To put it simply, this kid loves food (I wonder where he could have gotten that...)
So, in an effort to save money and the poor environment from all those little plastic containers we were going through, I started making my own baby food.

This has turned out to be much simpler than I imagined (it takes me roughly an hour to make a week and a half's worth and freeze it) and a TON cheaper than buying it at the grocery store. Also, I like being able to pick out what produce actually goes into his food and I know its not wormy apples or something and he gets to try stuff that they don't usually sell in the store (this week I made him some figs.) Also it makes me feel good about myself, like I'm single handily saving the world/polar bears. This must be what it feels like to own a Prius.

Happy Birthday Bug!

Today is my daughter's 3rd birthday. I'm gonna be super cliche and say I can't believe that the last 3 years have gone by so fast. She's not a baby anymore, she's a big girl (which she reminds me every time I slip and call her Baby.) She's this amazing little person with the most personality per square inch of anybody I know.


When I asked the birthday girl what she wanted for her birthday breakfast she, of course, said "cupcakes!" Well it is her birthday, so I thought I would go with it, a little at least. I cheated and used some Krusteaz pancake mix because its fast and yummy. I threw some sprinkles in the mix though so it looked just like confetti cake batter. I cooked those babies up, topped them with a little cream cheese icing that I whipped up and added more sprinkles, of course.

It was a pretty big hit (which for her means that she ate some of it!). I think I'll always add sprinkles to my pancakes. Why not!?

Happy birthday to my Bug! Your Momma loves you SO MUCH!

Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed bell peppers are one of those things that I never remember having had before I was an adult. I talked to my mom the other day and she said that she used to make them when I was a kid, but for the life of me I can't remember having them. Its weird because I really do LOVE them. Before, I made them with hamburger and couscous, which wasn't terrible for us I guess, but when I decided to make them again last week I thought "I can go lighter!" 

Costco had bags of six red bell peppers for a smokin' deal so I used those. I like them better than the green ones, don't you?

Instead of couscous, I used quinoa (I just learned today that its pronounced kin-wah, so yea I've been sounding like a moron all week bragging about my kwi-noah stuffed peppers) which is awesome because not only does it have lots of fiber and other nutrients, its a complete protein, which is really hard to find in a plant. 

So I cooked the quinoa in my rice cooker. While that was going, I sauteed up a yellow onion and some garlic. Then I dumped in a can of diced tomatoes, juice and all, and let that simmer while the quinoa finished cooking. When the quinoa was finished, I dumped it into the pan (btw, I used a really big skillet for the onion/tomato mixture) and then seasoned it with sea salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I mixed it all up, stuffed it in my emptied-out peppers, put them into a baking dish, sprinkled just a tiny amount of mozzarella cheese on top and stuck them in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or so, just till the cheese was nice and melty.

What came out of my oven was a beautiful, protein packed, vegetarian's delight!

The picture turned out kind of dark because I'm using my iPhone, but I think you can appreciate the beauty of its meat-free yumminess.

I threw a little cottage cheese in there with it (AWESOME move) and dug in. Delish! It was a filling but light summery meal.

Turkey Burgers Caprese

So tonight I made the mistake of dragging my poor family to Walmart before dinner. Dumb move, I know, but it had to be done. We were all starving by the time we were done. It took all my will power not to say "lets just go to Burger King because its right there and I like burgers." But I did it. We made it home and while the hubby fed the baby some pureed sweet potatoes, I went to work on dinner.

All I could think about was BURGERS. Luckily, I had bought a giant sleeve of pre-made turkey burgers at Costco. These saved dinner tonight.

While I cooked the burgers, I cut up some tomatoes and red onions. Then I sliced up a little mozzarella cheese. I washed up some green leaf lettuce and pulled off a big leaf for each of us and put them each on a plate. These I topped with the now fully cooked burgers. Then the mozzarella went on, then tomatoes and then the onion. I drizzled some balsamic vinegar over the top and sprinkled on some dried basil. Voila! Dinner

was done! How flippin' easy was that?!

They really turned out good. And the whole thing was just a little over 300 calories. Can you beat that?

Turkey Burgers Caprese

Honey, I know what I'm going to do today...

As I sat at the dinner table tonight, patting myself on the back for a particularly successful dinner that I had just thought up out of the blue, I looked over at my husband and said "I think I'll start a food blog." He smiled at me and, being the amazing/supportive/handsome husband that he is, says "I think that's a great idea." So here I am, starting my very own, brand new blog.

I guess you're asking yourself, why would she start a food blog? Aren't there like 1,234,679 of those already in existence? Because I'm awesome, that's why!

OK, maybe I am, maybe I'm not (it really depends on who you talk to) but one thing that I am sure about is that I really love to eat. I mean LOVE it. When people ask me what my favorite food is, I'm never able to really say for sure. Some days its steamed snow crab, other days its chocolate covered caramel (today I would probably say peach cobbler. Doesn't that sound AMAZING?) It changes all the time. There are really only two things that I can think of that I really don't like to eat: Liver and Sushi (I know, weird, right? I like all the individual bits, but put it all together and BLEH!")

Now for the real point of this blog. Recently, my husband and I decided to start eating differently. In the past we kind of just ate with the reckless abandon of people in their early 20's. Loving each bite for what it was, not for its calorie content. This worked (sort of) until we decided that we should have kids. Add together a loss of time for workouts, emergency oh-my-god-I'm exhausted, just order pizza-nights, and devouring half a batch of chocolate chip cookies that I baked to relieve some stress, and you end up with some extra poundage. So after trying on my swimsuit that didn't fit like I remembered, I said to my husband "something has to change." So we downloaded a calorie counting app for our iPhones and started recording everything we ate.

So far its working really well. When I feel like I have a budget for calories every day, it makes me more accountable for what I put in my mouth. I've actually lost 6 lbs in a little over a week by only making sure I don't go over 1800 calories per day.

OK, I digress a little. The point of this blog isn't about weight loss. Its about food. Yummy, delicious food. It won't all be health food. Next weekend is my daughter's 3rd birthday and I know I'll be making some vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. They're going to be so yummy (I use a recipe from Magnolia Bakery. Its SO GOOD). All I want to do is share the things that I make because food makes me happy.