0 Tasty Tuesday: steam-fried sausage and veggies

You know what's good? When you make a recipe that is easy and makes you feel like you're eating decently. I love striving for health when it comes to my food, but dang, I hate the preparation involved to get there. Enter the genius of throwing a bunch of stuff in your fridge into a skillet and steam-frying (totes legit cooking term) it all together until yumminess occurs. Well, B, the veggie hater, would say the sausage part was good, but he still ate the bowl I served him.

Steam-fried Sausage and Veggies

Ingredients:

• 1 package Aidell's chicken apple sausages (or 5 links of your fave cooked chicken sausage), sliced
• 1 medium zucchini, sliced and quartered
• 1 small sweet potato, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup of cooked broccoli (mine was frozen, so I microwaved for two minutes and dumped it in semi-frozen)

Directions:

Slice, chop and assemble ingredients. Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat. Brown sausage and sweet potato, then add zucchini and broccoli. Cook thoroughly and serve. 

Easy, right? And tasty. I'm not paleo or anything, but I think this recipe would fit that diet pretty easily. 

Detail: Tasty Tuesday: steam-fried sausage and veggies

0 Grandma Ople's apple pie

In 2010, when I was still blogging on a now defunct blog over at WordPress, I wrote a post about my favorite apple pie recipe.

A friend of mine, also named Adrienne (we spell it differently) loved the recipe so much she begged me to find it for her this year after a tech snafu that caused her to lose the link.

So, I figured I would add it to my current blog (even though I'm terrible about updating) so I could find it easier.

Enjoy!
***

A lot of women can ask their mom or grandma for a trusty pie recipe, however my grandma is not really known as a cook. She can get along all right in the kitchen, but she will be the first person to let you know she isn’t very good. Instead of asking my own grandma for her apple pie recipe (because she doesn’t have one) I looked to allrecipes.com for a yummy apple pie recipe. One of the first recipes I looked at was Grandma Ople’s apple pie. It looked easy enough and had delicious ingredients, so I decided to give it a try.

I followed the recipe very closely, only adding a little cinnamon, and using trader Joe’s frozen pie crust, even making the lattice top crust. The pie was amazing. I mean melt in your mouth, buttery perfection. I have never had an apple pie that delicious. The only bad thing was it wasn’t very pretty with the lumpy lattice top.

I made the pie again for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner party I was attending, and decided to use a full crust this time. It turned out even better this time around, and I got so many wonderfully sweet comments on how yummy it was! The other day, my friend Adrienne asked for apple pie recipes, and of course I had to offer her Grandma Ople’s recipe! I don’t know who Grandma Ople is, but I just want to hug and kiss her for creating this wonderful recipe! I am giving you the recipe with my own little additions and changes so you can try it for yourself!

Grandma Ople’s Apple Pie, a la Adrian

1 pkg Trader Joe’s frozen pie crust (includes 2)

6 large (8 small) Honeycrisp apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 tbls flour

1/4 water

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, cinnamon, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer for 5 minutes.

2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, remove and let cool for a few minutes.

3. In a separate bowl, pour sugar and butter mixture over apples, saving just a little of the mix for the top crust. Toss to coat, then fill pie crust with apples, mounding slightly.

4. Cover with full crust and paint with leftover sugar mixture. Pinch both crusts together, making a pattern if you want all the way around the pie.

5. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F. Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

Remove, let cool and enjoy!! Let me know if you use this pie recipe, I want to see if you make any adjustments and what you think!

Detail: Grandma Ople's apple pie

0 Tasty Tuesday: almond butter yogurt bowl

Here's a delicious, filling, protein packed treat that pretty much anyone can enjoy. You can change ingredients to suit your tastes and needs, so feel free to make this your own. It's super easy to throw together when a sweets craving hits, or when you just want a healthy snack.

Happy Girl Yogurt Bowl

Ingredients

1/2 cup nonfat Greek Yogurt, I used plain Fage

1 tbsp almond or peanut butter

1 dash cinnamon

1 tsp agave syrup

1 banana

4 strawberries, sliced

Directions: Place yogurt, nut butter, cinnamon, and agave into a small bowl and mix together. Top with sliced bananas and strawberries. Enjoy the heck out of your delicious treat.

My bowl ended up being just over 300 calories, with 14 grams of protein and 7 grams of fiber. Not bad! You can use coconut or soy yogurt, any nut butter you like, and any fruit that sounds like a good addition. You can skip the agave, or use honey or stevia as your sweetener instead. Pumpkin pie spice would probably be a fantastic trade off for the cinnamon. It's an extremely versatile dish that can be changed so many ways, so feel free to experiment and find what works for you.

Detail: Tasty Tuesday: almond butter yogurt bowl

0 Tasty Tuesday: Peanut butter and banana oat cookies

Y'all know I am a total cookie monster. Doesn't matter if it's fresh out of the oven, or 5 days old, chocolate chip, or oatmeal, I love me some cookies. Even when I am satisfying my sweet tooth in a healthy way, I still want cookies. Or cupcakes, but that's a whole 'nother post. Basically, give me a baked good, and I'm a happy girl. I digress. Back to those healthy cookies.

I've been fighting a sweets craving something fierce lately while on this TIU bikini series, and while I applaud myself for my restraint, I am still dying for something sweet to take the edge off. Last week, I finally allowed myself to experiment with some healthy cookies in hopes I could find something that would satisfy the craving, while not dumping me off the wagon. These did great! Chocolate chips, peanut butter, the lovely mouth feel of the oats...not bad at all. I had to put the rest in the freezer to get them out of my sight so I wouldn't eat the entire batch ;)

Healthy peanut butter and banana oat cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups old fashioned oats

2 ripe bananas

1 cup peanut butter (I used Jif reduced fat)

1/2 cup apple sauce (I used one Gogo Squeeze pouch)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life brand chocolate chunks which are dairy, soy, nut free)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350F. Spray cookie sheets with non-stick spray.

In a stand mixer, mash bananas with peanut butter, apple sauce and vanilla until creamy. Add in oats until combined. Add in chocolate chips.

Use a small cookie scoop to place 1 inch balls of dough on your cookie sheets. Smash down slightly with a fork. 

Bake for 15 minutes, and immediately transfer to a rack or onto a plate to cool.

I was able to make 50 small cookies, at 65 calories each. 

And just try not eating the dough, it was delicious before even being baked!

Detail: Tasty Tuesday: Peanut butter and banana oat cookies

0 Tasty Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers

A few weeks back, Billy and I tried a new to us restaurant called Greenhouse Craft Food in Round Rock, TX. It's a locally sourced, seasonal kind of place, and everything we had was delicious! I had the chicken spring rolls for an appetizer, and the black bean burger for my main course. I've actually recreated both of those dishes now! The spring rolls I ate for three days straight and loved every minute of my first attempt at making spring rolls. Now I've tackled my first try at black bean burgers, and think it went over decently. I'll probably be tweaking the recipe each time I make it, but this was a good first shot!

photo via the foodie physician 

Black Bean Burgers

Ingredients for 6 burgers:

2 15oz cans black beans, drained, rinsed and patted dry
1/2 medium bell pepper, cut into pieces
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 cup grated zucchini (squeeze the excess water out after grating)
1/4 cup grated carrot (squeeze the excess water out after grating)
1/2 cup corn
2 egg (for vegan option, use 1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 3 tbsp water for each egg)
1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup bread crumbs (or oats/brown rice/quinoa)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and coat with non-stick spray.
Place beans, bell pepper, garlic, zucchini and carrot into a or food processor (or blender, like me, if you don't have a FP. Then swear like a sailor when you realize it would be easier if you did) and blend until it's the consistency of refried beans. Transfer to a large bowl.
Add spices, breadcrumbs and egg, stir to incorporate. Feel free to adjust the amount of breadcrumbs used to thicken the batter.
Use a spatula to divide the mixture into 6 parts, then form into patties and place on the baking sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes, flip (have fun with that!) and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Serve with your favorite burger toppings and sides!

Detail: Tasty Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers

0 Tasty Thursday: Hawaiian chicken burgers

Yes, I realize it isn't Tuesday, but I have been enjoying this recipe and wanted to share it with you! Forgive me for changing the days? OK, good. I knew you would rather have a recipe on a random day, than not.

Since joining the Tone It Up Bikini Series, I have been eating a ton of healthier food. I mean, something like 80% of weight loss comes from your diet, right? Because I was running and biking my little heart out, but eating all sorts of crap that counteracted the exercise and left me at the same weight, or worse, gaining. 

Well, thankfully there are a ton of recipes from the TIU community for healthy, tasty food. Even the bikini series welcome pack came with a few recipes to try, so of course I had to put my own spin on one. And yes, it's healthy and delicious!

Via Tone It Up Bikini Series starter pack

Hawaiian chicken burgers with portabello caps

Ingredients:

makes 6

1lb 97% lean ground chicken breast

1/2 cup egg whites

1/2 cup plain panko breadcrumbs

2 tbsp crushed pineapple

2 tsp maple syrup

6 portobello mushroom caps

6 tbsp soyaki sauce (or teriyake)

onion powder, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper, or other seasonings to taste

Instructions:

• Heat oven to 375F. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with foil, and spray with non-stick spray. 
• Combine chicken, egg whites, breadcrumbs, pineapple, syrup and seasonings to taste. It will be very liquidy, but that's cool.
• Use your hands to form 6 patties and place on the baking sheet. I sort of scooped up a handful and plopped it onto the baking sheet where it kept a patty sort of shape. 
• Pull out the stem from the portobello caps, place bottom up on baking sheet. Add 1/2 tbsp of soyaki sauce to each cap.
• Bake chicken patties and mushrooms for 20 minutes, flipping half way through cooking time. 
• Pull both sheets out of oven and top chicken patties with 1/2 tbsp soyaki sauce each. 
• Serve warm, with your choice of sides. I ate my chicken patty on a mushroom cap open face style, and had a salad and a side of quinoa with it. I'm sure it would be awesome on a good bun if carbs are a part of your diet.

Detail: Tasty Thursday: Hawaiian chicken burgers

0 Tasty Tuesday: Tex-Mex Spaghetti Squash

Go check out my girl Cassie's blog to see if she has a yummy recipe for you today!

So today,  I am giving you a recipe that while new to me, is probably not new to anyone else. I actually got the idea from a recipe that Raven of Don't Quote the Raven posted recently in her healthy living posts. I changed it a tiny bit to accommodate my preferences. You can do the same thing! Make any additions or subtractions that suit your tastes, steal this recipe and make it yours. I am trying to be better about my eating by incorporating more veggies, and making smarter choices. Not easy for a self-professed sugar-holic, but I'm trying, as you can see by this recipe, which I had for two meals yesterday.

Tex-Mex Spaghetti Squash 

source

Ingredients:

1 large spaghetti squash

1/2 packet reduced sodium taco season (or make your own!)

1/2 container of black bean and corn pico de gallo

1 can no salt added black beans, drained and rinsed

Add any toppings you may like.  I added a serving of tortilla chips to one of my meals, but avocado, cheese, etc. would be great. 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375F
• Split your spaghetti squash in half and remove the seeds. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet that's been coated with cooking spray or foil. Bake for 45 minutes, flip the squash over and bake until flesh is tender, which for me was 15 more minutes. You can also microwave the squash, I think for 7 minutes or so, if you are short on time.
• Allow squash to cool, then use a fork to scrape the inside of the squash to create spaghetti like strands. Dump into a bowl.
• Add taco seasoning to squash and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Add black beans and pico. Dish out and enjoy.

Makes 4 servings at 187 calories per serving without additional toppings.

Detail: Tasty Tuesday: Tex-Mex Spaghetti Squash

0 Tasty Tuesday: Sweet and spicy roasted lemon chicken

This is a special edition of Tasty Tuesday, in which I give you some recipes from a seasonal dinner party I hosted. Stop by Cassie's blog to see if she is sharing a recipe, too!

A few weeks back, I had Stephanie, Casey, their husbands, and Casey's adorable son Wilder over for dinner. We had come up with the idea to have seasonal dinner parties weeks before in a group text, and I was so excited to host the first one. We started with a Winter menu, trying to get ingredients that are readily available during this season. With imported produce, it's not like you can only find certain ingredients in their natural season, but we were trying. This was my first dinner party in my new home, so I was super excited to set my cool table and have people over. I bought flowers for the table, even though I'm allergic. I just made sure to find ones without super pollen-filled stamens.

As the host, I was in charge of the entree, and a salad, but I also roasted some veggies and heated up a garlic herb flatbread from Costco just because. Stephanie brought brie with blackberry jam wrapped in pastry, and Casey brought apple and blackberry cobblers for dessert and a creamy veggie casserole.

Right away, I knew I wanted to roast a whole chicken with a citrus twist, since citrus is mainly a winter fruit. Thanks to Pinterest, I found a few recipes and settled on one with a fiery glaze, thinking a tangy, sweet and spicy chicken would hit the spot.

Citrus Chicken with a honey glaze

Not the prettiest photo, but it was delicious.

Ingredients:

• a 4-5lb whole roasting chicken, giblets and weird innards removed
• 5 small lemons
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 lemons, halved or quartered if desired

Directions:

1. Remove giblets from chicken if present. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Place chicken into a gallon size ziploc bag set in a shallow dish. 
2. Slice two of the lemons and add to the bag. Zest a lemon to get about 2 tsps of peel, set aside. Squeeze remaining lemons to get 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsps of juice for the glaze. 
3. For the marinade: in a bowl combine 1/2 cup lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, garlic 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper. Whisk to mix, then pour into the bag over chicken. Seal bag and turn to coat chicken, then pop in the fridge for at least 4 hours. My recipe had called for 8-12 hours, so this would be a good step to do the night before or morning of. Turn the bag whenever you happen to peak in the fridge.
4. Preheat oven to 375F. Put oven racks to lowest position. Place a small rack, or do what I do and ball up foil, in the bottom of a shallow roasting pan. 
5. Let chicken stand for 15 minutes at room temperature. Drain chicken and set aside lemon slices, throw out the marinade. 
6. Place the chicken, breast side up{I think I flipped this when I did it!}, on the rack or foil in the shallow roasting pan. Cover with the lemon slices. If you want, you can place lemon halves or quarters inside chicken cavity, or around the roasting pan. Roast uncovered for 1 hour.
7. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine honey, 2 tsps lemon zest, 2 tbsps lemon juice, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside.
8. At the hour mark, pull chicken out of oven, remove the lemons, and brush with honey sauce. return to oven and continue cooking another 30 minutes to 1 hour, or until a thermometer reads 175F and drumsticks move freely in their sockets. Brush with the honey mixture during cooking, and coat with the remaining when the cooking time is done. Let chicken rest 15 minutes before carving. Enjoy!

The table full of delicious foods

I can't wait for our Spring seasonal dinner! I get to make the appetizer for that one, so now I have to come up with some tasty recipe ideas that incorporate spring ingredients. Feel free to follow our Seasonal Dinner board on Pinterest to see what recipes we are considering!

Have you ever hosted a seasonal dinner party? I highly recommend it. Also, I wish I could fit a huge amount of people at my table and had more friends in the area, this would be so much fun with a big group. 

Detail: Tasty Tuesday: Sweet and spicy roasted lemon chicken

0 Tasty Tuesday: French dip sandwiches

Well, howdy! It's my favorite blogging day, Tasty Tuesday! It's my favorite because I get to share with you a yummy new recipe that is making me quite happy. As usual, head on over and say hello to my girl Cassie, who I constantly encourage to keep posting her own recipes on the day she created.

I wasn't going to post this recipe until next week, because I have a bunch of delicious recipes to share from the Seasonal Dinner Party I hosted this past Saturday. However, one delicious Instagram photo and many requests for the recipe later, and here I am, writing it out. 

Like most of my recipes, this one comes with a little story. I, Adrian the happy girl, think that grocery shopping should come with a mandatory free snack before you begin. Raise your hand if you have gone to the store "just for yogurt" and walked out with a cart full of random stuff you have no idea what to do with? And heaven forbid you go to Target, where absolutely everything on the shelves calls your name and wants to just hop in your cart to do a little snuggling with you on the way home. 

Happens to me All. the. time. 

And that's what happened yesterday. I went to Target while I was hungry to "pick up cat food" and walked out with a cart load. I was even so determined to just get what I needed that I didn't grab a cart. Once my hands were full, I opted for a hand basket. Once that got heavy and I gave up all hope, I got a cart and loaded up. My local Target is a Super Target, so they have a whole grocery store complete with meat counter and bakery inside, so I like to do a lot of my grocery shopping there. I happened to get the bright idea that I wanted French dip sandwiches for dinner, so of course I made 400 passes of all the food aisles as I remembered what I would need. And this recipe was born.

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches

Ingredients:

3lb beef roast, I used Top Round

12oz dark beer, I used Guinness, but realized later that Shiner Bock is dark and I had it in my fridge already. I'm not a beer drinker so I went for what I knew was dark.

2 cups water

1 tbsp beef flavored Better than Bullion {I had never heard of this until I researched recipes to model this on, you can use bullion cubes, or beef broth and skip the 2 cups water}

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

ground black pepper to taste, I used 1 tsp

crusty bread rolls, such as Hoagie rolls

sliced cheese such as provolone or Swiss

Directions:

1. Trim any visible fat from your roast. Place in the crock pot.
2. Add all of the remaining ingredients to the pot. Cook on low for 8 hours, turning halfway through if you are home. I cooked mine on high for 4.5 hours and it was totally fine.
3. Split your bread rolls open, spread with butter {or spray with I can't believe it's not butter spray, like I did} and toast in the oven at 350F for 5-10 minutes depending on how toasty you want it. 
4. Slice meat and pile onto your bread. Top with cheese and pop back in the oven under the broiler to melt everything.
5. Serve hot, with a side of the cooking juices in a small bowl. That would be the jus and it's fantastic for dipping, thus, French DIP sandwiches.

And voila, you have a delicious meal that was hardly any work at all. This would be a great recipe for St. Patrick's day, since I used Guinness! 

A few more tasty photos for you :)

Detail: Tasty Tuesday: French dip sandwiches

0 Tasty Tuesday: Strawberry coffee cake

As always, giving a shout out to my girl Cassie for creating Tasty Tuesdays :)

While the family was visiting last week, I wanted to give them a really great breakfast to welcome them to Texas. They flew in late Wednesday, so I knew I could take advantage of a late wake up to put together something yummy. I had no real plans in place, but wanted to bake up a coffee cake of some sort to go with the scrambled eggs and bacon I was making. I searched through a bunch of recipes, and ended up throwing this together with what I had on hand, and it was well received! The cake was moist and slightly sweet, while the strawberries were bursting with flavor and gave a juicy touch to a dish that can often dry out. The topping was crunchy and deliciously buttery. It actually took just a moment to throw together, and baked while I put together the rest of the meal. Definitely bookmark this for your next lazy Saturday morning, or when you want to impress guests at brunch. 

Sorry for the bad photo! I put this on the table and it was gone quicker than I could snap a nice photo!

Strawberry Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk {I had vanilla soy milk on hand, so that's what I used}

1 egg

2 tbsp melted butter

1 1/2 cup chopped strawberries

Topping

1/4 cup old fashioned oats

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 
3. Add milk, egg, and butter. Beat for 2 minutes. 
4. Fold in chopped strawberries, then pour into a greased 9 inch pie pan or 8x8 square pan. 
5. Combine remaining flour, oats, and sugar. Cut in chilled butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Spoon evenly onto the batter.
6. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
7. Serve hot and let everyone pat you on the back for a great recipe!

Detail: Tasty Tuesday: Strawberry coffee cake

0 Tasty Tuesday: creamy chocolate cake balls

I like to give Cassie the credit for starting Tasty Tuesday, whether or not she happens to be posting her own recipe. It's just nice blogger etiquette.

I says balls a lot in this post. If it makes you giggle, welcome to the club, you can be my new bff. If it bothers you, well, come up with another word to replace balls with, like bluffs, or something like that.

I posted a little teaser of my cake balls on Instagram the other day, and mentioned that I used a new secret ingredient as the binder. You guys, this is so simple, yet ridiculously delicious. 

I have no doubts that you have had a cake ball, made them yourself, or at least heard of them in the past few years. Starbucks even sells them, so I know I would be hard pressed to find a person unfamiliar. The typical cake ball recipes I have seen and used say to mix in most of a can of store-bought frosting to your crumbled cake. Not bad, and quite delicious. But I really am not a fan of store-bought frosting, and when you are using so much, it makes cake balls a little less appealing to me. I say a little because, let's face it, I will eat pretty much any baked treat, good or bad, and I'll eat it all, too.

So imagine my delight when I found a suggestion online that did not use frosting at all as the binder for the cake balls. Color me impressed. Who knew you could use a liqueur, half and half, or whipping cream, in addition to the usual frosting option? However, I only had coffee creamer on hand, so I figured I would give it a shot. Um, best decision ever!

Creamy Dark Chocolate Cake Balls

Ingredients:

1 box Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix

3 eggs

1 cup water

1/3 cup oil

1 cup Bailey's coffee creamer. I used vanilla brown sugar, but the Toffee Almond Cream sounds great!

1 bag Wilton Dark Cocoa Candy Melts

Directions:

1. Bake the cake according to box instructions using a 13x9 pan. 
2. Allow to cool, then crumble the cake into a large mixing bowl. I cut the cake into 8 pieces, and rubbed them against each other over the bowl, then used a fork to break up the bigger pieces. I also ate the edges that were not crumbling, hah!
3. Add 1 cup of creamer {or other liquid of choice} to the crumbs, and use a spoon to mix together. If the mixture seems too dry, add a little more creamer by the tablespoon until it all sticks together well. 
4. Using a small ice cream, or medium cookie scoop, grab a bit of the mixture and pat it together into a ball shape. Place balls on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet. I had a little trouble with consistent sizing, and my mixture was on the dry side, but I still managed to make 32 balls when all was said and done.

   

   Freshly rolled cake balls

5. Chill in the freezer for at least 30 minutes so the cake balls can be handled without breaking apart.
6. Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl according to package directions. Drop a ball at a time in the chocolate, rolling until it is coated, then set back on the waxed paper lined cookie sheet.

   

   All 3 stages of balls, uncoated, freshly coated, hardened coating 

7. Chill in freezer again until the shells are hardened. Transfer to a resealable container and keep in the fridge until ready to eat. 

Disclaimer: These are really good. Like "eat them all in one weak moment" good. Or "Can't stop thinking about balls" good. I suggest having a destination for the finished product before you set to making these, as you won't want to part with them unless you have a very good reason. Like making your significant other worship you, impressing the heck out of your friends, being very popular at a bake sale, or to console your PMSing sister, as just a few very worthwhile options.

Happy baking!

Detail: Tasty Tuesday: creamy chocolate cake balls

0 Tasty Tuesday: spicy chicken noodle soup

It has been a bit since I have posted a recipe. Thankfully, I got to cooking the other day, and actually made something worth mentioning! 

My favorite meal as of late has been to bake a bag of frozen breaded chicken, dump the accompanying sauce over it, heat brown rice in the microwave, throw it all together in a bowl with some broccoli, sweet chili sauce and call it dinner. It's a cheater version of real cooking, where you would actually make the chicken yourself, rather than opening a bag haha

Being sick and having super cold weather last week, made me want a satisfying warm soup. I had nothing of the canned variety to turn to, and was seriously limited in my ingredients to make my favorite tortellini soup recipe, or even a basic chicken noodle soup recipe, so I made up something else entirely. I was skeptical as I threw the ingredients in my crock pot, but a few hours later I was thrilled. Spicy, warm and all together delicious, this soup hit home and made me feel better, just as I had hoped it would. 

Spicy chicken noodle soup

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks

1/2 cup reduced sodium chicken broth

1 14oz can mild green enchilada sauce

1 14oz can black beans, rinsed

1 14oz can Rotel, or just chopped tomatoes

1/2 tsp each salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin

2 cups water

2 cups pasta of choice, mine was farfalle{bow tie}

Directions:

Place all ingredients except pasta into your crock pot, stir, and cook for 2 hours on high, or 4 hours on low. Use two forks to shred the chicken pieces a little. Add in pasta and cook 30 more minutes, or until pasta is tender. Eat as is, or serve with sliced avocado, tortilla strips, or cheese as optional garnishment. 

This really helped to clear my sinuses, and made my throat feel a little better. I'd say that is a successful soup for a cold winter day when you are feeling under the weather!

Detail: Tasty Tuesday: spicy chicken noodle soup

0 tasty Tuesday: Mahi Mahi tacos

Woo hoo it's the best day of the week, Tasty Tuesday! As always, go show my girl Cassie some love and see what she's got cooking. 

Now, I have to admit something, and it shames me to do so. I haven't done much real cooking lately. Well, I have made my breakfast tacos and smoothies a few times, but that's just scrambled eggs and sauteed veggies scooped up in a tortilla, or frozen fruit whirled together in a blender. Not much effort. As for dinners and baking? Hmmm, I've been lazy. I blame all of the books I have been obsessed with reading, the TV shows and movies I have to watch to stay current, and the running and biking I have to do to train for a half marathon. Oh, and working at the salon, doing hair and makeup for weddings, and taking a ton of babysitting jobs too. Cooking hasn't really been on my mind. I did however make these awesome tacos for the kids I babysat for last week, and they loved them! I actually can't believe I haven't shared this super easy peasy recipe with you yet, I was inspired by Rubio's habanero mango mahi mahi tacos, and I've been making it every other week or so because I love it so much. 

Mahi Mahi tacos

serves 4, or two really hungry people

Ingredients

1 pkg of 3 frozen Mahi Mahi fillets, Trader Joe's brand are awesome

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning

2 tbsp lime juice

1/2 cup mango salsa, I used the TJ's fresh fire roasted papaya mango salsa and it's divine

8 small corn tortillas, I like the TJ's De Mi Abuela corn and wheat tortillas

1/2 cup slaw type shredded veggies, I like TJ's broccoli slaw

1 avocado, sliced

optional add ons: black beans, cheese, sour cream, rice, etc.

Directions: 

Heat oven to 375F. Line a rimmed baking dish with foil, and coat with non-stick spray. Remove Mahi fillets from package and place in the baking dish. Drizzle olive oil over the fillets, then season with Mrs. Dash on both side, and baste with lime juice. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until fish is opaque and flakes easily. Allow to cool, then use your fork to separate the fish into large flaked pieces. Heat your tortillas according to package directions. Top each tortilla with a bit of fish, salsa, slaw, avocado, and any other toppings you like. I keep it simple with the first 4. Dig in and be amazed at how this easy to put together meal tastes. 

Seriously, Mahi Mahi and mango salsa were born to go together. It's a ridiculous combination that brings out the spicy sweetness of the salsa, and the mild buttery-ness of the fish. Perfection. A good corn tortilla doesn't hurt, and the slaw gives a much needed crunch to the rest of the soft taco, while creamy avocado is just the cherry on top for this special treat. Give it a try next time you are in a crunch and have only a short while to get a delicious dinner ready. I especially love that the fish cooks from frozen so quickly! Being able to cook frozen meat beats the heck out of defrosting something. 

Detail: tasty Tuesday: Mahi Mahi tacos

0 Tasty Tuesday: butterscotch banana bread

Oh hey there friends! I'm jumping back onto Cassie's Tasty Tuesday bandwagon after a long hiatus. Poor Cassie uprooted her life for a big move back to San Jose in December, so she hasn't blogged much the last two months. I am hoping that this little reminder of something she started will get her back to it, at least to share her yummy recipes again!

For today, I've got a doctored up box mix recipe to share with you that I threw together on Saturday and was pleasantly surprised by the results! I love to use a boxed cake or bread mix as a base and add a bunch of things in to make it even better, so this was a nice experiment, and proved delicious. I love when that happens! I happened to be low on vegetable oil, and was out of chocolate chips which are my go-to banana bread mix in, so I used coconut oil {my newest addiction, I could eat it by the spoonful...but that's bad} and butterscotch chips instead. 

Butterscotch banana bread

Ingredients

• 1 box Trader Joe's banana bread mix {or similar}
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 2/3 cup butterscotch chips
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, mostly melted
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup water

Directions

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease the bottom and sides of a loaf pan, or 8x8 inch pan like I did. 

In a mixing bowl, combine bread mix, water, eggs, coconut oil, and mashed banana mixing thoroughly.  

Fold in butterscotch chips. 

Pour into pan and bake for about 50 minutes. Allow to cool, then shove into your mouth as quickly as possible. Or is that just me? 

I think you will agree with me that the use of butterscotch chips compliments the banana, and really gives a great flavor. There was something very comforting, and home-like about the butterscotch taste. It made me happy. And my tummy happy. My butterscotch chips sunk in the batter and made a really yummy bottom layer that I ended up scraping out of the pan with a fork to eat. What? You've never eaten right out of the pan before? I dare you to make this recipe and NOT scrape out the butterscotch goodness. Go on, try it for yourself!

Detail: Tasty Tuesday: butterscotch banana bread

0 Tasty Tuesday {tortellini soup}

Welcome back to one of my favorite blogging days! I love my girl Cassie, and I think it's great that she puts out a Tasty Tuesday post every week. I love playing along with her, so I decided to pull up some of my old recipe posts that needed to be dusted off and see the light of day again. 

Tortellini Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1 pkg Trader Joe's  mirepoix mix {about 2 cups of chopped celery, onions and carrots}
• 2 quarts reduced sodium chicken stock {2- 24oz containers}
• 6 cups Trader Joe's Garden Patch vegetable juice {like V8 juice}
• 1 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes 
• 2 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 medium zucchini, halved and sliced into half moons
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 10oz bag of baby spinach
• 1 pkg of frozen cheese tortellini, frozen {I used Olivieri brand from Costco}
• 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
• Parmesan cheese and/or cheese croutons to garnish

Directions:

1. In a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat, cook sausage and mirepoix mix until sausage is no longer pink.
2. Add chicken stock, vegetable juice, tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.
3.  Add zucchini, peppers and spinach. cook 5-7 minutes or until pepper is tender.
4. Stir in tortellini and parsley, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Top with parmesan or croutons {or both!} just before serving.

Makes about 9-10 servings, and is so, so good on a chilly fall day! 

About 365 calories for 1.5 cups worth.

Detail: Tasty Tuesday {tortellini soup}