Yup! The most amazing flavor EVER was inaccessible to me for all 40 days and 40 nights. I kept my promise and never broke it once. So, considering how much I was craving it this whole time, I was surprised that I wasn’t overcome with the desire to run to the kitchen and take a bite out of the chocolate bar I had in my pantry when I woke up Sunday morning.
Instead, I enjoyed a lovely 7am Easter service on the beach, a wonderful drive by the water, several cups of coffee, a nap and THEN decided to eat this very delicious double chocolate chip cookie at my mom’s house as we waited for lunch to be served… totally worth the wait! Can you see the look of bliss on my face!?
We ate twice and were EXHAUSTED when it was over but it was a great day. Very blessed. Happy Easter or Passover everyone! 🙂
Here’s a pic that will probably scare small children, LOL!
Here’s a little something I came up with for my BBQ this past weekend. Many of my friends are vegetarians and ALL of my friends are healthy eaters. I thought this would make a great side dish (or main dish for any who preferred it).
This also makes a great picnic or potluck dish as there is no mayonnaise so it can be left out of the fridge for a little bit. Actually, it tastes better at room temperature. Bonus is that it is easy, filling and the recipe yields A LOT!
Ingredients:
2, 12-16 oz boxes of tricolor rotelle pasta
1, 16 oz package of fresh broccoli florets
3-4 green zucchini
3-4 yellow squash
shredded carrots
1 pint of grape tomatoes, halved
1, 8 oz can of small pitted black olives
1, 12-16 oz container of crumbled feta cheese
Italian Dressing of your choice (I used Wishbone Robusto Italian)
Cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
Directions:
Cook pasta to al dente and drain. Rince with water and let cool as you prepare other ingredients
Line two sheet pans with foil. Throw broccoli florets on one pan with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Dice up zucchini and squash and place on second sheet pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees until tender and some bits are charred.
In a large container, throw in shredded carrots, olives, grape tomatoes etc. When roasted veggies are cooled, add them as well.
Toss the pasta in with the veggies. At this point, dump in your feta, 1/3 your bottle of Italian Dressing (or more) and sprinkle with Cayenne if desired.
Really get in there and mix with your hands (a chef’s best tool!) Enjoy!!
I’m felling kinda sick so I made myself some Lentil Soup with Kale… This thing is so insanely full of vitamins that, if it doesn’t cure me… I’m convinced that whatever is bothering me is psychosomatic.
Here’s a recipe for some amazingly delicious carrot cup-cakes that were a SERIOUS hit at my Easter BBQ! I drew inspiration from the following recipe from the Food Network web site. I was originally drawn to the recipe because of the pineapple. The carrot cake recipe my mother has made since I was a little girl also includes pineapple and this recipe is reminiscent of that.
Just as a note, however, the pineapple can’t really be detected in the taste of the cupcakes. It simply adds a certain sweetness and moistness to the cake.
Ingredients:
Cake
1 1/2 cups grated fresh carrots
1/2 cup canned crushed pineapple
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
1 cup of canned pumpkin puree
Icing
2, 8oz packages of room temperature cream cheese
1 1/2 sticks of room temperature butter (unsalted, of course)
2 cups of powdered sugar
2 tsps of vanilla
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and prepare muffin tins with 24 cupcake papers.
Toss the carrots, walnuts and 1/2 cup pineapple with 3/4 cup of the flour in a small bowl and set aside.
Combine dry ingredients: 1 1/2 cups flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.
In separate bowl, mix wet ingredients: beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until thick and light, about 5 minutes. Gradually add the oil and canned pumpkin puree.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 2-3 batches and mix using electric mixer. When combined, add carrot and pineapple mixture into the batter.
Pour into the prepared tins and bake for 20 minutes. At 10 minute mark, move cupcakes on bottom rack to top rack and those on the top rack to the bottom rack for even baking.
Let cool before icing or freeze until you’re ready to eat.
For Icing and decorations:
Combine ingredients for Icing mix with electric mixer until smoother.
Place in a piping bag with largest tip.
Decorate as desired. I used Peeps and malted “easter eggs.” I also made mini cupcakes and decorated with some Easter picks.
Plain iced.
Minis with Easter Pics. (I got these pics from the dollar store!
Today i started my morning by making my first-ever batch of blueberry pancakes. While they weren’t the best pancakes I’ve ever eaten, they certainly weren’t the worst. And, they were beautiful if I don’t say so myself… 🙂
After breakfast, I got a SURGE of energy and was on a mission to do gardening and housework before the end of my weekend… Work starts again on Monday! I started in the garden by cleaning up some fallen palm fronds and finding some bulbs in the bushes… One of the bulbs had sprouted some serious roots despite not being in the soil and the other was just beginning to grow. I decided to tie one to a palm and plant the other…. Lets see what they become! LOL
mystery bulb #1 found in the bushes
tied it to a palm
mystery bulb #2… planted this one.
I also managed to salvage the last of my Aunt’s orchid. She sprouted three babies that were beginning to wilt because the mother plant has died and begun to dry out. I cut the babies off the mother plant and tied them to palms in my yard as well. Next year my yard is going to be VERY colorful. Can’t wait!
I always offer to bring something over when invited to dinner. And because I love to bake, I get really happy when I get to bring dessert! The dilemma usually is…. what to bring?!
Pies in general are easy to make and are attractive in presentation. I haven’t made a blueberry pie since last 4th of July and thought, what the heck! I read a few recipes on- line but created this one on my own. Its got my special twist.
I do have a pretty good recipe for home-made pie dough but, I’ll let you in on a little secret. The majority of the time that I make pie, I use store-bought pie crusts. When I make the dough from scratch, I make double batches. I use half and stick the other half in the freezer for future use. Yesterday, however, I had no more frozen pie dough waiting for me in my freezer so I had to buy some from my grocery store. It turned out just as yummy. Here’s how I did it.
Ingredients:
Two store bought raw pie crusts defrosted
4 cups of blueberries
3/4 cup of sugar (vanilla sugar is also great with this if you have any)
3 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of salt
zest of one lemon
1 tbsp of butter cut into small cubes
optional egg wash: one egg, one tbsp water
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and measure 4 cups of blueberries
Zest one lemon right on top of blueberries using a microplane
In a separate bowl, mix all remaining ingredients except butter. Then pour over blueberries and mix well using your hands so as not to bruise berries too much.
Pour mixture into store-bought or home made pie crust. Scatter the small dabs of butter on top.
Cut second pie crust into strips using knife or pizza cutter.
Create a lattice on top of the pie using these strips then crimp edges with a fork.
Beat one egg with a little bit of water then brush on top of pie. This egg wash is optional but gives the top of the pie a pretty shine when it comes out of the oven.
Place the pie on a sheet tray before placing in the center rack of your oven. (It’ll bubble over blueberry juice all over the floor of your oven if you don’t.)
Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Lower heat to 275 then bake for another 30 to 35 minutes.
Enjoy with some vanilla ice cream!
For those of you who are a little freaked out about making a lattice top for your pie, here’s a super simple tutorial on youtube. The woman in the video measured the strips with a ruler but… just eye ball it guys… You’re making a pie, not conducting a science experiment. It doesn’t have to be that perfect 😉
Check out what I made from yesterday’s left-overs. I made chicken fajitas last night and decided that, for lunch, I didn’t want to eat the left-overs wrapped in a tortilla. Instead, I placed the meat and veggies over lettuce and tomato, used salsa as the dressing and voila! A healthy, low-fat and super nutritious lunch was served.
Here’s how I made yesterday’s fajitas.
Ingredients:
1 lb chicken tenderloins cut into cubes
1/2 large onion sliced
1 green bell pepper sliced
1 orange, yellow or red bell pepper sliced
garlic powder
cumin
Sazon Goya Complete Latin Seasoning Mix with Saffron
cayenne pepper
olive oil
Suggested garnish ingredients:
2% milk cheese (Mexican blend)
low fat sour cream
salsa
guacamole
shredded lettuce
diced tomato
whole wheat soft tortillas
Directions:
heat a drizzle of olive oil in large skillet and toss onions and peppers along with desired amount of seasoning until veggies are slightly tender and are a bit charred.
transfer to a plate
using same skillet, heat up another drizzle of oil and cook the cubed chicken tenderloins with desired amount of seasoning
throw both veggies and chicken together in skillet and heat through
Serve family style. Let everyone fill their whole wheat tortillas as they wish with chicken/veggie mixture and garnishes.
I’ve been craving some chicken soup for a little while and today I jumped at the chance to make myself a big ol’ pot of it! I love all types of chicken soups. I adore chicken matzo ball soup, traditional american chicken soup with noodles, chicken tortilla soup… but my favorite of all-time has GOT to be my momma’s recipe for Cuban chicken soup.
The reason I have called it “kinda-Cuban” chicken soup in this article is because I omitted the noodles (broken up spaghetti noodles) that are traditionally included in the soup but I can’t stand. Secondly, I forgot to buy corn which is actually one of my favorite parts of the soup. It was a real bummer to realize this when I got back from the grocery store but the soup turned out pretty good regardless. I’ll include them in the recipe but I’ll admit to having had a brain fart when I made it for myself this evening.
Ingredients:
3-4 stalks of celery
3-4 carrots or 1 small bag of baby carrots
1 medium onion
1 medium calabaza pumpkin (if you can’t find this at your grocery store, use butternut squash like I did today because its not in season)
2 medium pieces of Malanga (this is a traditional Caribbean root vegetable similar to a potato but A LOT more dense. It can be found in most grocery stores but, if you ABSOLUTELY MUST substitute it, use potatoes. I’m warning you though…. it just won’t be the same)
2 cobs of corn quartered
2 pounds of skinless dark meat chicken. (trim off the extra fat)
3 bay leaves
1 envelope of Sazon Goya complete seasoning mix with saffron
2 chicken bouillon cubes
Dice up carrots, celery and onion and place in large pot with a minimum of 10 cups of water. Add bouillon, bay leaves and seasoning mix
While that boils, peel and wash off the malanga.
Cut into large, rustic cubes then place in pot.
Cube calabaza or butternut squash same size as malanga leaving the rind ON. This helps it maintain its shape in the pot as it boils with the rest of the soup. The rind softens and can be eating once the soup is finished.
Place chicken pieces and let boil until all vegetables and chicken are cooked through. Taste and season additionally if needed.
Enjoy!
Cuban chicken soup is traditionally enjoyed with a squeeze of lime juice and a side of greasy white rice…. (Cubans are not known to be healthy eaters.)
Or, you can enjoy it my way and enjoy it with a healthy squeeze of lime juice and a few dashes of tabasco sauce! 🙂 Either way, it MUST have a squeeze of lime juice. It brings out all the flavors and takes the soup to a whole new level of yumminess.
Enjoy!! What are YOUR favorite types of chicken soup recipes?! I’d love for you to share!
On my way to the grocery store this afternoon, I called my friend Magaly to see how she was doing. True to her energetic and endearingly quirky way of being, she went into some random tangent about a topic that was completely unrelated but interesting none the less… “How do you make squash soup? I tried to make it the other day and it was grainy and awful!”
I gave her a quick recap on how I usually make the soup then felt instantly inspired to make and eat some myself tonight! There are very few ingredients, it contains barely any fat and it is completely vegetarian. Although I finished making the soup way after I had eaten my steelhead trout dinner, I filled a mug and had treated myself to some on the couch while watching tv. I also packed myself some for lunch tomorrow. Yum!!
Ingredients:
2, 12 oz packages of frozen cooked squash
3-4 carrots
3-4 stalks of celery
1/2 large onion or 1 small
2 bay leaves
1 vegetable bouillon cube
1/2 tsp each of garlic powder, ginger and cinnamon
1/4 tsp (or more if you like spice) red cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
(1 tbsp sugar is optional)
Directions:
Chop vegetables and saute in a large pot with a little bit of olive oil until vegetables are translucent
Add the two packages of defrosted squash, spices, bay leaves and 7 cups of water. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
Blend soup in traditional blender or use immersion blender (one of man’s greatest inventions, I must say)
You can finish the pot with a tbsp of sugar and a little more salt and cinnamon to taste if desired. Enjoy!
The ginger and cayenne give this one a real kick. Enjoy!
See that?! There’s steam comin’ off of those sugar snap peas. They were delicious and probably the easiest side dish I could think to make. Here’s how I did it:
Ingredients:
Package of Sugar Snap Peas (wash and take the fibrous tips off)
Little Miss Sunshine State 