What My Family Ate For Dinner - Week 15

Another week in the books, and I'll be honest, I'm starting to feel some recipe burnout.

Here is what my family ate for dinner this week.

Sunday, June 8: We went out to dinner with Scott's parents and my Mom. We went to one of our favorites, Abuelo's. I love their carnita enchiladas!

Monday, June 9: After a day at Hollywood Studios, we arrived home to one of our favorites cooking in the slow cooker, buffalo chicken sliders. This is such an easy recipe and is a family favorite.

Tuesday, June 10: Dirty rice with turkey sausage. Aaron loves rice dishes, and this is one of his favorites.

Wednesday, June 11: Root beer BBQ pork tenderloin in the slow cooker. We love this recipe! It is so easy and makes plenty for leftovers.

Thursday, June 12: Chicken ranch tacos. I LOVE this recipe! It is so easy, so delicious and makes plenty for leftovers.

Friday, June 13: Leftover night. Seriously, I don't know how we end up with so many leftovers during the week.

Saturday, June 14: Meatball subs. Again, really simple. I just brown the meatballs and toss into a marinara sauce.

I hope you enjoy and if you have any must try recipes, let me know!

What My Family Ate For Dinner - Week 13

One of the things I love about this weekly post is that it keeps us honest. Scott is on a huge weight loss journey and it has caused us to completely reevaluate what we eat. Never in a million years did I think we would eat the way we are now (that's not to say we were unhealthy eaters before).  It's amazing to see the growth these past 13 weeks. I cannot wait to see where we go from here!

Now on to why you're really here...

This is what my family ate for dinner this week...

Sunday, May 25: We celebrated Memorial Day a day early since Scott had to work. We had a late lunch of turkey burgers, turkey hot dogs, beans, chips and salsa, fruit salad, veggies and apples. It's safe to say we burned a lot of that off in the pool.

Black Bean Burrito Bowl

Monday, May 26: I made black bean burrito bowls and oh my word. They were DELICIOUS! They are so easy to make, too. You can either use quinoa or brown rice, black beans, and literally whatever veggies you want. It's that simple. 

Tuesday, May 27: (Happy anniversary to us!) This recipe is what I like to call stupid simple. It's BBQ chicken melts that literally takes zero time to prep and make. How did I not think of this sooner?

Wednesday, May 28: Aaron is on a noodle kick, so we made shrimp alfredo with broccoli. I think he ate 3 servings. No, really. I just used the Bertolli light alfredo, frozen shrimp, broccoli and whole wheat penne. That simple.

BBQ Chicken Melt

Thursday, May 29: Another Aaron request...Jambalaya. I cannot find the andouille sausage I like at my Target, so I swapped it for chicken sausage. Um, yum! Again, I was lucky I had any of this. Aaron gobbled it all up.

Friday, May 30: Uncle Bob, Aunt Vanessa and sweet baby Jaxson were in town, so we brought in Giordano's. I'm proud to say I can still hold a baby and eat at the same time. Momma's still got it!

Saturday, May 31: Shrimp Boil. That's all I need to say. It is SO good and we just gobble it up. 

I hope you enjoy all of these recipes as much as we did!

Cooking Through History

While perusing Facebook after the holidays I saw this great post from my favorite local cupcakery (yeah, I made up a word, what?), Sweet!, about handwritten recipes. 

It was perfect timing for me to see this post because my Mom had just brought down all of my Grandma's recipes and some of her old cookbooks for me. 

I have to agree with Holly that there is something magical about having a handwritten recipe from someone in your family. Not only does it give you something they had written, but it's a little piece of family history. 

So many of us associate food with memories of our childhood and they are always with us. I know when my parents were here and my Mom and I were making kolacky (which I was on my second batch of dough) I told her I just wanted to get them thin enough like Grandma would make. Grandma made it look so easy when she made them and here I was cursing like a sailor and five-seconds from throwing the dough at the wall. I don't remember Grandma ever doing that. My Mom gave me the best advice in that moment, she said, "Your kolacky will never be hers, so just get that out of your mind right now and make them your own way." 

That's the art of food and cooking, you can have the same recipe passed down from generation to generation, but it will always be your own. I spent a night just digging through the bag of loose recipe cards and found myself smiling at most of them because it would remind me of baking with my Grandma in her kitchen.  

So I challenge you to follow suit and start collecting handwritten recipes from family members to pass down. I know I'm going to start asking for some and I cannot wait to see which memories I'll be cooking up next. 

MOM's Minestrone Soup

It's pretty cold here in Florida right now, and I'm being totally serious, it was a low of 20 something last night. That's really cold. I decided to make my MOM's Minestrone soup for dinner, and of course Scott wanted corn bread because, well, cornbread apparently goes with everything.

Here's what you need for the soup:

• 2 Tablespoons Oil (I used olive oil)

• l cup chopped celery

• l cup chopped onion

• 2 cloves garlic chopped

• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

• 1 tsp. oregano

• 1/2 teaspoon basil

• 5 cans College Inn Beef broth

• 1 can (Large) Italian tomatoes

• 1 can northern beans drained

• 1 box frozen peas & carrots

• 1 box frozen Italian green beans

• 1 cup uncooked macaroni

• Italian sausage, either removed from casing or ground
  

What to do:

• Saute the oil, onion, celery, pepper, oregano and basil until your onions are translucent

• Brown your sausage in another pan
  

• Add the beef broth, tomatoes, beans, peas & carrots, green beans, macaroni and sausage (when cooked)
  

• Bring to a boil

• Simmer for at least one hour

My MOM suggests making this the day before to really let the flavors set in. Also you may need to salt and pepper this to your taste.

We had it last night and it was crazy delicious, plus took zero time to make. I can't wait to have it again for lunch, and maybe even dinner again?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

I've been playing with this recipe for a few weeks now. When I found the recipe it used boxed cake mix and a crappy cookie dough recipe, well crappy in my opinion. The first time I made it I used the suggested cookie dough recipe, but made my own yellow cake and buttercream. The cupcakes were good, but I knew my cookie dough would be better. I finally remade them with my cookie dough recipe and they were a slam dunk! Plus I had enough cookie dough leftover to make a batch of cookies. Win-win!

For the cookie dough:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened (unsalted)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup semi-sweet chips
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

*If you don't want the tri-chip variety you would just use 2 cups of semi-sweet chips

What to do:

• Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.
• Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in flour mixture.
• Stir in chips
• Scoop out small portions of dough to place inside cupcake
• Roll into balls and place on wax paper on cookie sheet
• Place cookie sheet in freezer for two hours

*For remainder of dough bake for 9-11 minutes in a 375 degree oven

For cupcakes:

• 3/4 cup of butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups milk

What to do:

• Stir together flour, baking powder and salt
• In a large mixing bowl beat butter
• Gradually add sugar about 1/4 cup at a time until combined
• Add eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each are added
• Beat in vanilla
• Alternately add flour and milk mixture until just combined

Prepping cupcakes:

• Preheat oven to 375
• Scoop your cupcake batter into your muffin/cupcake pan
• Drop one of your frozen cookie dough balls in the middle
• Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake (not cookie dough) comes out clean
• Allow to cool

Chocolate Buttercream You Need:

• 3/4 cup of butter, softened
• 8 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar *I know this is a lot, it's enough to frost 2 cakes, so just add until you think you have enough to frost your cupcakes
  
• 1/2 cup of cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 1/4 cup milk to start, will need more
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

What to do:

• In a very large mixing bowl beat butter until smooth
• Gradually add 2 cups of powdered sugar beat well
• Slowly beat in 1/4 cup of milk and vanilla
• Gradually beat in remainder of powdered sugar and cocoa powder
• Beat in enough milk to reach desired consistency
  
  
  

Alternately you can use boxed yellow cake mix and store buttercream, but it's so much better homemade! Enjoy!

Four Cheese and Bacon Mac 'n' Cheese

As if mac 'n' cheese wasn't already delicious on it's own, let's add some bacon. Everything truly is better with bacon. I found this recipe in Family Circle magazine, it was actually the photo on the cover and Scott about lost it when he saw it. I made it that night, as a side dish, which was a mistake. This makes 12 servings, so we had leftovers all week.

Here's what you need:

• 1 box (1lb) cavatappi or macaroni
• 6 slices bacon, diced
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups 2% milk
• 1/2 teaspoon onion flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 pound sharp cheddar cheese shredded
• 1 cup shredded colby jack cheese
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 8 slices American Cheese

Here's what to do:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Coat a 3 quart broiler safe baking dish with nonstick spray
• Cook your pasta and drain
• Cook bacon in a medium saucepan until crisp
• Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain
• Pour off all drippings except 2 tablespoons
• Add butter to bacon drippings
• Whisk in flour until smooth
• In a thin stream whisk in milk
• Stir in onion flakes, salt and pepper
• Bring to a boil over medium-high heat then reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes
• In a large bowl toss together cheddar, colby jack, mozzarella
• Remove milk mixture from heat, whisk in American cheese and 1 1/4 cup of cheese mixture
• Toss bacon in with remaining cheese mixture
• In pasta pot combine cooked pasta and cheese sauce
• Pour half into prepared dish
• Sprinkle with a generous cup of cheese and bacon mixture
• Repeat layering
• Bake at 350 for 20 minutes
• Increase oven temp to broil and broil 3 minutes until top is lightly browned.

This truly is super yummy, not the healthiest, but good every once in a while!

Vanilla Bean Fig Cupcakes with Orange Blossom Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

Is that not the longest name for a dessert? Totally worth it though. I have a "Greek" themed dinner tonight so I wanted to make a dessert with figs (especially since fig season is upon us). I found this yummy recipe on the blog Dessert First. Now, let me warn you, hers looks so much nicer than mine, but I gave it a try. There's three separate recipes for this one, so buckle up kiddos.

Let's start with the Vanilla Bean Cupcake

You will need (for 12 cupcakes):

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg plus 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste*

*Let's digress here a moment, this vanilla bean paste has been the bane of my existence the past few days. Apparently it's like some secret treasure or something because you cannot find it just anywhere. None of the grocery stores had it, so I called Whole Foods, no dice. I found it online, but uh yeah I couldn't wait to have it shipped (will be ordering some though). I also found it at Williams Sonoma, drove out there and found out they were sold out. How are you sold out of this?! Is it that popular? Do you not reorder things when the supply gets low???? THEN I was going to make my own but do you know how expensive vanilla beans are?! Try $9.99 for 2, as in two, I needed 4. Needless to say I subbed out vanilla extract for the paste (teaspoon for teaspoon), but I cannot wait to try with the paste!*

What to do:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Line muffin tin with cupcake liners
• Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl and set aside
• Beat butter and sugar in a stand mixer on medium speed until very light and fluffy (3-4 minutes)
• Add in the egg and beat to combine
• Add in the egg whites, one at a time, and beat to combine
• Combine the milk and vanilla bean paste in a cup
• Add flour mixture and milk mixture to the batter in alternating additions, starting and ending with flour
• Once the last bit of flour has been added beat just to combine, do not overbeat
• Divide batter among the muffin tins
• Bake for 15-20 minutes until the tops are lightly golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean
• Let cool on a wire rack

Now while the cupcakes were baking I made the Fig and Brown Sugar Filling

Here's what you need:

• 1 cup (about 8) fresh figs, washed and cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

What to do:

• Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 15-20 minutes, until the mixture thickens
• The figs should turn soft and mushy; mash them with a spoon.
• Remove from heat and let cool
• If you don't like the little pieces of fig skin, process the mixture in a food processor (I did)

After everything was cool enough to work with I made the Orange Blossom Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

Here's what you need:

• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 2 ounces (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature
• 3/4-1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted
• 1/4 cup orange blossom honey (this stuff smells amazing by the way)

What to do:

• Beat the cream cheese and butter in a stand mixer until just combined (do not overbeat)
• Add in the sugar and honey and beat until combined
• If it looks too runny add more confectioner's sugar (make sure you taste though so it's not too sweet)

Ok, now that you have everything made you need to assemble these yummy little cupcakes. There were no directions on her site on how to do this, so I played this one by ear.

Here's what I did:

• I took a small paring knife and cut a circle in the top of the cupcakes I was filling
• I used a baby spoon and spooned some of the fig filling into the opening
• I then cut off everything but the very top of what I cut out of the cupcake (does that make sense?) and placed it over the filling
• I then frosted the cupcakes (you can't pipe these since it's cream cheese)
• For the ones I filled I added a little more fig filling to the top

In the words of my sister, these are figgin' delicious and will be made often in this house during fig season. Head over to Dessert First to check out her cupcakes, they look better than mine for sure and you can see one that is filled and cut in half. Plus, she has a million delicious desserts on there!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Oreo Cake

Paw Paw's birthday was yesterday and he is a HUGE fan of chocolate cake. Instead of just making a plain chocolate cake with chocolate icing I decided to try my hand at an Oreo cake. You can either make your own chocolate cake batter or buy the stuff in the box.

Here's what you need for the cake batter:

• 3/4 cup of butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup of crushed Oreo's

Here's what to do:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Allow butter and eggs to come to room temperature for 30 minutes
• Grease whatever kind of cake pan you are using (I used a 9x1.5)
• Stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt
• In a large mixing bowl beat the butter for 30 seconds
• Gradually add the sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time
• Continue to beat for about 2 minutes
• Add eggs one at a time
• Beat in vanilla
• Alternately add flour mixture and milk until combined
• Stir in crushed Oreo's
• Spread evenly into pan
• Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
• Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes
• Cool on cooling racks for at least an hour before frosting

For frosting you need:

• Vanilla frosting
• 3 tablespoons crushed Oreo's

What to do:

• I recommend really crushing the Oreo's before you mix into frosting, that way it spreads on the cake easier
• Put wax paper underneath edges of cake so when you frost the cake you don't make a mess of the plate (fun tip, right?)
• Spread frosting on the cake

Since it was Paw Paw's birthday I decorated the cake with icing, poorly. I can bake, but I most certainly cannot decorate. See:

I totally messed up writing Happy Birthday, the icing came out too fast so it looked like "Hoppy" and when I went to fix it I got that awesome purple icing. Sigh....

Blueberry Health Muffins

Blueberries are at their peak right now, so I want to take advantage of these little bites of heaven. Thankfully, Whole Living had this recipe in August issue:

Here's what you need:

• 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup of all purpose flour (white flour)
• 1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup of brown sugar
• 3/4 cup of 2% milk
• 1/4 vegetable oil
• 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup blueberries
• additional 2 tablespoons of toasted wheat germ
• additional tablespoon of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup rolled oats

What to do:

• Preheat oven to 375
• Line muffin pan with paper liners (spray them with Pam for baking so they don't stick)
• In a bowl whisk together the wheat flour, all purpose flour, wheat germ, baking powder, salt and brown sugar
• Make a well in the center of the bowl and add the milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla.
• Fold in the blueberries
• Divide batter among the 12 cups
• In a small bowl combine the additional wheat germ, brown sugar and rolled oats
• Top each muffin with the mixture
• Bake for 20-22 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean)
• Let sit in pan for 10 minutes then transfer to cooling rack

Per serving: 196 calories, 1g saturated fat, 5g unsaturated fat, 36mg cholesterol, 30g carb, 138mg sodium, 5g protein, 2g fiber

Here's a tip on taking advantage of berries this season: Buy them while they are at these rock bottom prices and freeze them yourself for use later on when they are sky high. Line cookie sheets with the berries and flash freeze them for a few hours in your freezer. Then put them in containers to use later. They work really well with baking or for smoothies.

Fresh Fruit Salad with Mint

With the 4th tomorrow I figured this would be a yummy recipe to share. It's really refreshing and super easy to make.

What you need:

• 1 1/2 cups hulled and sliced fresh strawberries

• 1 medium mango, seeded, peeled and cubed

• 1 cup fresh blueberries or blackberries (I did half a cup of each)

• 1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries

• 2 tablespoons orange juice

• 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh mint

What to do:

• In a large bowl combine strawberries, mango and blue/blackberries

• Just before serving add raspberries, orange juice and mint

Easy, right? Enjoy and have a safe weekend!

Chicken Noodle Salad

I don't know what the weather is like by you, but here in super sunny Florida it is beyond hot. The last thing I want to do right now is crank up the oven, so we're eating a lot of salads. This one is Scott's favorite, I make him a big batch for him to take for lunch.

Here's what you need:

• 2 carrots diced

• 2 celery stalks, diced

• 1 red bell pepper, diced (you can really use any pepper here, I've mixed stoplight peppers for it too, super yummy!)

• 2 cups small pasta noodles (shells or elbows) cooked

• 2 cups of cooked chicken (I've also used tuna, again, super yummy)

• 3 cups of romaine lettuce, chopped

• handful of tomatoes (optional)

What to do:

Mix it all up, it's that easy! Then add either your favorite dressing, or this really yummy one I've made...

BBQ Honey Ranch Dressing

• 4 tablespoons low fat ranch dressing

• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

• 2 tablespoons store bought BBQ sauce

• 1 tablespoon honey

Mix everything together, add to salad and toss. Enjoy!

Strawberry Muffins from Weelicious

I'm a huge fan of Weelicious.com, Catherine makes some amazing kid friendly food that is really good for you. With berries being in season I decided to try this recipe for strawberry muffins. The kids could not get enough of them!

Strawberry Muffins (Makes 24-28 Mini Muffins)

2 Cups All Purpose Flour
3 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Large Egg
3/4 Cup Milk (low fat or whole cow’s milk, almond, rice or soy milk will work)
1/4 Cup Vegetable or Canola Oil
1/2 Cup Honey or Agave Nectar
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Tsp Lemon Zest
1 1/2 Cups Strawberries, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a bowl, combine the first 3 ingredients.‬
3. In a separate bowl, whisk egg and add milk, oil, honey, vanilla, and lemon zest and stir.‬
4. Using a standing mixer or hand mixer, slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet until incorporated (try not to over mix the batter).‬
5. Add the strawberries to the batter and slowly combine.‬
6. Line or grease muffin tins and fill 2/3 of the way with batter.‬
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick tester comes out clean.‬
8. Cool and serve.‬

* If you want to make regular sized muffins, fill 12 muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy and be sure to check out weelicious.com for more yummy recipes!

Italian Crescent Roll Casserole

This recipe came from my super handy "Cooking with PRIDE" cookbook from my high school band. I love this recipe, it's super easy, super yummy and super cheap.

What you need:

• 1.5-2 lbs ground beef/turkey

• 1/4 cup onions chopped

• 1 (8oz) can tomato sauce

• 1 package spaghetti sauce mix

• 1 (8oz) container of sour cream

• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

• 1 (8ct) tube crescent rolls

• 1/4 cup butter melted

• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

What to do:

• Brown the beef/turkey and onions.

• Drain off the grease

• Mix in tomato sauce and spaghetti mix until blended

• Simmer for 10 minutes

• Place meat mixture into a 13x9 inch pan

• Mix the sour cream with the mozzarella and spread over meat mixture

• Unroll crescent rolls and place over the cheese mixture to form a crust

• Mix the melted butter with the parmesan cheese

• Spread over the rolls

• Place in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes until the top is golden brown

*I like to add garlic powder to the butter mixture, you should try it :)

Orange Creamsicles

With it being summer and all, I thought it was the perfect time to share this yummy recipe for a cool treat.

What you need:

• 1/2 cup orange juice (no pulp) -getting the kind with extra calcium is always a plus!

• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt (I used honey Greek style yogurt, which worked really well too)

• 2 tablespoons sugar (I'm thinking of cutting this down to 1 tablespoon, it made it way too sweet)

• Rainbow sprinkles

• Popsicle mold

What to do:

• Blend all the ingredients, except the sprinkles, in your blender or food processor until smooth

• Drop a few sprinkles into each mold

• Pour equal amounts of the mixture into the molds

• Insert the stick

• Freeze for at least 3 hours and enjoy!

Anyone have any other popsicle recipes?

Want more recipes? Check out the My Recipes tab!

Oreo Truffles

My friend Jenn's son's birthday party was this weekend and he is the truffle king. Anytime he comes to our house he asks if I have any of those chocolate things in my fridge. I made up my mind to make him special truffles for his birthday and boy did I succeed! I got the recipe for these Oreo truffles from my sister Cathy, I have a feeling that hers looked better though. I used two types of melting chocolate, dark and white, and the white didn't work out so well. Naturally those are the ones I remembered to take a picture of.

Here's what you need:

• 1-1/2 lbs Double Stuff Oreos (package and a half)

• 1 (8oz) package cream cheese, room temperature

• 1 package melting chocolate for dipping

What to do:

• Place cookies in a zippered bag and crush into tiny pieces (you can use your hands or a rolling pin)

• Put the crushed cookies in a mixing bowl and add the cream cheese

• Use a hand mixer and blend them together

• Place dough in fridge for about an hour to let the dough chill (makes it easier to roll)

• Form the dough into little balls

• Dip each ball into melted chocolate and place on waxed paper to cool

• Once chocolate has cooled place the truffles in a bag or container and refrigerate.

Enjoy!

The Epic Fail in the Kitchen

It happened...

I attempted, twice, to make the kids homemade granola bars today. I got the recipe from The Sneaky Chef and was pretty pumped. It's all natural (all the ingredients but 2 are organic) and the most unhealthy thing in it are the chocolate chips.

I mixed all the dry ingredients:


Added the wet ingredients:

Baked it like the recipe in the book said and got this:

Epic fail....

I told Scott it didn't work out and he said that there is a "fix" for the recipe on The Sneaky Chef website. So I tried it again, with the "fix". Still didn't work, but I'm going to try again tomorrow and see what happens. I'm really hoping this works because the granola is super yummy and cheap to make. Stay tuned...

Buffalo Grilled Chicken with Blue Cheese Potatoes

I have to tell you this is hands down one of the best, fastest recipes I've ever made. Scott found it at Publix, at their Apron's stand.

Here's what you need:

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (I used chicken breast)
• 1 (24oz) package refrigerated mashed potatoes
• 4-5 chives, optional
• 2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese
• 2 teaspoons cooked bacon pieces, optional
• 1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce
• cooking spray
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
• large zip top bag

What you need to do:

For the chicken:

• Preheat 2-sided tabletop grill
• Place cornstarch and seasoned salt in zip-top bag; shake to mix
• Add chicken, seal tightly and shake to coat
• Add wing sauce, seal tightly and knead bag to coat completely
• Coat both sides of grill with cooking spray
• Place chicken on the grill
• Close lid and grill 8-10 minutes, pressing the lid down occasionally to sear chicken
• Cook until edges are crisp and internal temperature is 165 degrees

For the blue cheese potatoes:

• Chop chives finely, if using and combine the remaining ingredients in microwave safe bowl
• Cover and microwave on high 4-5 minutes, stirring once.

It's that easy! Hope you enjoy!

Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

The Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking cookbook strikes again!

What you need

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup of cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2/3 cup of brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

What you need to do

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Whisk eggs until blended
• Whisk in milk and butter
• Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and stir with spatula until moistened
• Fold in blueberries
• Spoon batter into muffin cups
• Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar evenly over the tops
• Bake until a toothpick comes clean when you insert it (about 15-18 minutes)
• Serve warm

These are way better than any blueberry muffin I've ever had, and incredibly light! Enjoy!

Spicy Seared Swordfish

Since it's Lent I've been trying some new seafood recipes and came across this one, which was insanely delicious! I got it out of my Delicious Disney cookbook, which is also the home of many of my other favorite recipes.


What you need for swordfish:

• 4 swordfish fillets (6oz each)
• 4 teaspoons Cajun spice
• Olive oil as needed
• Tomato-Garlic Relish

What to do:

• Lightly coat swordfish with olive oil, rub with Cajun spice, and sear both sides in a hot saute pan for 2-3 minutes on each side, or to desired doneness (I did it longer than the 2-3 minutes since it was still pink inside)
• Top with relish and serve

What you need for Tomato-Garlic Relish:

• 5 roma tomatoes
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 medium sweet white onion, diced large
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1 green pepper seeded and diced
• 1/4 dry white wine
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Cajun spice

What to do for Tomato-Garlic Relish:

• Preheat oven to 375
• Drizzle tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil and bake 30 minutes until tender, but not too soft
• Let tomatoes cool, then peel skins and squeeze out seeds. Chop in large chunks and set aside
• In a medium saucepan over high heat, saute garlic and onions in olive oil. Add the green pepper and saute until tender.
• Stir in wine and balsamic vinegar, loosening browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add tomatoes and season with Cajun spice.
  

This was super easy to make and insanely delicious. Scott said I could make it every Friday from now on. Hope you enjoy it as well!

Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast

I've made this recipe a few times already, and seriously, it just gets better and better! This time I used my homemade honey whole wheat bread, but you could use a traditional baguette or whatever you have handy. I got the recipe from Weelicious.com, if you haven't checked out Catherine's site yet, you really need to. All her recipes are really yummy for the whole family, and so good for you too!

Blueberry Cream Cheese French Toast (Makes 6 Servings) from Weelicious.com
What you need:

• 1 1/4 Cup Milk
• 3 Eggs
• 2 Tsp Vanilla
• 2 Tbsp Agave
• 1/2 Loaf (4 Cups) French Bread, fresh or day old, cut into cubes
• 4 Oz Cream Cheese, cut into cubes
• 1/2 Cup Blueberries
• butter for greasing pan

What to do:

1. In a large bowl, whisk milk, eggs, vanilla and agave.
2. Add the bread cubes and toss with the liquid mixture.
3. Add the cream cheese and blueberries and mix gently to combine.
4. Place in a buttered 8×8 inch baking dish or individual ramekins.
5. Refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. Cover the dish with foil. If using the 8×8 inch dish, back for 25 minutes covered and 20-25 minutes uncovered. If using individual ramekins bake for 15 minutes covered and 10 minutes uncovered.
8. Serve.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as we do!