Southwest Spaghetti Squash

In between the cookies and fudge and homemade ice cream, I try to create a balance by looking for healthier dishes and I find most of my inspiration at my sister-in-law's house.  She's always cooking something completely creative and good for you.  It's where I go to escape my evil "let's have brownies for dinner" self.  Over the weekend, she made this Southwest Spaghetti Squash from a vegetarian cookbook (I do not know the source).  It's completely delicious, and I only adapted it slightly to add a little more spice (green onions for tang and hot sauce for zing).  By the way, did anyone notice I just put the words "tang" and "zing" in parentheses?   

Southwest Spaghetti Squash

(Serves 6-8)

Printable Recipe

1 spaghetti squash, sliced lengthwise, seeds removed

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes (I used one with bell peppers), drained

1 14 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack or Mexican Mix cheese, divided

1 bunch green onion, white and pale green part only, finely chopped

1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Hot sauce (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray baking pan with cooking spray.  Place squash cut-side down in dish and bake for 45 minutes.  Let squash cool slightly, and then shred with fork into large bowl.  Add tomatoes, beans, half of the cheese, green onions, cilantro and spices.  Sprinkle with hot sauce if using and stir.  

Place back in baking dish and top with remaining cheese.  

Bake for 30 minutes and serve immediately.  (If you want, you can garnish with more cilantro or sour cream.)

Manchego Cheese and Lime Butter

How were your long weekends?  Did you relax, sleep in, go outside, eat a burger or many?  I did most of those things (sleeping in is for teenagers and people without children).  Now that we've officially "kicked off summer" and can wear white pants again, I've been in outdoor grilling mode.  All I want to do is put my oven on hiatus (with the exception of baking projects) and BBQ.  We've been grilling a lot of corn (because it's the only vegetable my son will eat) and here's a fun way to dress it up...

     Take some softened butter and put 4 tablespoons in a small dish.  Grate a couple tablespoons of  Manchego cheese (or any salty cheese will do) into the dish.  Add the zest and juice of half a lime.  Stir it all together (and add a little salt if your butter is unsalted).  Spread on hot corn.     

Perfect Peanut Butter Banana Bread

A friend of ours delivered the most delicious banana bread to us the other day.  Perfectly moist and a flavor I couldn't quite make out, until I noticed she also included the recipe.  Bisquick!!  No flour, just bisquick.  And I swear, it turned the loaf into a fluffy banana pancake bread.  Pretend that makes sense.  I couldn't wait to try it myself.  I only adapted her recipe slightly to include peanut butter and peanut butter chips, because why not.  Also, I only had 2 eggs so I threw some buttermilk in because I had it.  

Perfect, perfect, perfect.  Thank you Linda!!!  

Perfect Peanut Butter Banana Bread
(Makes 1 large loaf or 2 small loaves)
Printable Recipe

4 ripe bananas
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/3 cups Bisquick
1 cup sugar
Peanut butter chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 325.  In a large bowl, mash bananas with fork.  Add eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, peanut butter and vanilla and stir to combine.  Stir in Bisquick, sugar and peanut butter chips if using - careful not to over mix.  Place in greased bread pan(s) and bake - 1 hour for large loaf and 25 minutes for small loaves.

*Have a Happy Memorial Day Weekend!*

Memorial Day Fruit Ice Cubes

I have been wanting to make fruit ice cubes for awhile after seeing them all over the world wide web.  This weekend, we're heading to the desert where it's sure to be at least 90 degrees everyday.  If it's hot where you are, well then it's the perfect weather to dress up your favorite beverage or even WATER.  And if you use red and blue berries, you've got a Memorial Day themed frozen treat.  Ta Da!  

For more frozen treats, check out Yum Sugar today and their slideshow of 11 Iconic Homemade Frozen Treats featuring yours truly's Chipwich!  Thanks Yum Sugar! 

AND for more patriotic food, remember this Flag Cake?

Bittersweet Chocolate Fudge with Sea Salt

Since I've been pregnant, I haven't really wanted to make anything in the kitchen if it doesn't involve chocolate and butter.  Sugar and cream are bonuses too.  In other words, I'm disgusting.  

Oh, hi Family, you want some dinner tonight, do you?  Here's an Ice Cream Sundae.  What.

Luckily, I have some friends who are also pregnant and due within days of me.  I am not alone.  Like my friend Megan who has been craving her mama's fudge and thankfully wrote about it on her blog.  Check out that recipe - FIVE INGREDIENTS.  A monkey could make it.  And that monkey would be the most popular monkey in all of the jungle because the other monkeys would be like, ooo ooo aah aah eee eee fudge fudge!  They would.  I'm telling you, the sea salt turns this lusciously rich, fluffy chocolate into something magical.        

Mini marshmallows, sweetened condensed milk and butter - melting...

Stir in chocolate...

I have no nail polish to show off today because I'm too busy eating fudge...

Easy Baked Polenta with Sausage and Vegetables

Sometimes at night, to save time, you have to begin the dinner process with pre-cooked, pre-packaged ingredients.  It's a must, to maintain sanity.  At least in my house.  But that doesn't mean you can't still get creative and have fun with what you cook, NO SIR!  (Sirs read this blog right?)  At the market yesterday, I brought home a tube of already-cooked polenta and a package of fully cooked chicken sausage and I whipped up the following dish.  It was very flavorful - even tasted somewhat sinful for something so healthy - and you could serve the sausage and vegetable sauce over pasta if you can't find polenta (it's usually low on the shelf in the pasta aisle).  

p.s. I was super excited to serve chopped up polenta to Jack with a little marinara and Parmesan.  I called it "Special Pasta!"  Like that, with an exclamation.  He took one bite and said, "no, I don't like all that orange stuff" (the sauce).  PICKY WICKY.  (I'm sorry I just said that.)

Easy Baked Polenta with Sausage and Vegetables

(Serves 4)

Printable Recipe

2 T extra-virgin olive oil

1 shallot, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, finely minced

1/2 tsp fresh basil, finely chopped

1/2 tsp fresh sage, finely chopped

1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1 zucchini, diced

1 yellow squash, diced

1 red pepper, finely diced

1 can diced tomatoes with garlic

1 pkg pre-cooked chicken sausage (or any variety you like)

1 pkg pre-cooked polenta

Salt and pepper

Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 375.  Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Add shallots and sauté for 5-7 minutes, until they soften and begin to brown.  Add chopped herbs and garlic, sauté for another 5 minutes.  

Add zucchini, squash and red pepper.  Saute for 5 minutes and season with salt and pepper.  Add canned tomatoes and continue to simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes (or more).  Season with more salt and pepper to taste.  

Place vegetable sauce in a square baking dish.  Top with sliced sausage...

...and sliced Polenta.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  

Bake for 10 minutes.  (I placed mine under the broiler for a few minutes after that.)

Homemade Chipwich

After I made Homemade Chocolate Chip Ice Cream the other day I could have done 1 of 2 things... I could have eaten the entire bowl in one sitting, or I could have taken it and added chocolate chip cookies and more chocolate chips.  I did the latter.  I'm not sure which option would have been better for me?  Probably option 3: exercise and carrots.  NO THANKS.

So I made some chocolate chip cookies from dough I had hanging out in my freezer, and I tried to make them as thin as possible and roughly the same size...

I smothered ice cream in between 2 cookies and rolled the sides in mini chocolate chips... and now I'm slowly eating all of them.  

p.s. Nail polish color above is Essie Tart Deco : )

Homemade Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (sans machine)

All this time, I've been sitting here feeling sorry for myself.  Watching you make ice cream with your fancy machines and rubbing it in my face.  (Listen, I know they're relatively inexpensive these days and I could get one, but I'm lazy and like to feel sorry for myself.)

But yesterday, this how-to article changed my life FOREVER.  How to make ice cream without a machine!!  Without one!  It's simple!  And, and, AND, it's the most delicious, creamy, lusciously rich and flavorful ice cream you'll ever have.    

Sure, you're making trips to the freezer every 30 minutes for many, many hours (the article said 2-3 but mine took longer to get to the right consistency) - but on a hot summer day, what's better than practically climbing into your freezer to make ice cream?  

All you need are egg yolks, sugar, whole milk and heavy cream.  Yeah, I know.  I decided to try out this vanilla custard base (using 8 egg yolks instead of 5 shhhhh), and then I added chocolate chips later.  

Below is a vanilla bean infusing in milk and sugar...

Stirring the egg yolks with the milk and vanilla...

Combining everything with the heavy cream over an ice bath...

Starting to freeze...

Adding chocolate chips...

Ice cream for breakfast...

Why Hello There.

So sorry I've been absent all week.  Traveling + Broken Computer = UnHappy Blogger.  Does anyone know what it means when 'RESTORE WINDOWS' keeps flashing over your Mac screen, prohibiting you from clicking on anything??  Genius Bar, here I come.  Anyway, I hope to be back later on this afternoon if not first thing tomorrow.  I miss yous.

For now, above is a Mother's Day treat of chocolate covered strawberries, mini cupcakes and exotic fruit.  MMM.  And below is my new favorite color.  Orange.  All sorts of orange.  

BE BACK SOON!

Pink Lemonade Cake Pops

I had one of those moments in the store the other day where you walk by something and absentmindedly throw it in your cart.  Like, absolutely no thought process involved.  My subconscious saw 'Pink Lemonade Cake Mix' and somewhere, in the far corners of my brain, I thought, YupMustHaveNoBrainerGonnaBuyItDon'tKnowWhy.   

And then I had to buy the Pink Lemonade Frosting that went with it OBVIOUSLY. 

They sat in my pantry for a few weeks until yesterday, when I suddenly decided what I wanted to do with them.  Cake Pops.  Have you ever attempted to make a Cake Pop before?  They're not the easiest thing in the world to pull off.  The cake/frosting combo gets VERY messy and working with melted white chocolate is never easy unless it's a very high quality product.  The next time I make these, I'll use regular chocolate.  All that said, aren't they purty?  

For more detailed instructions on how to make cake balls or pops, check out this website.

cake batter...

crumbled baked cake + frosting...

rolled into balls and then chilled...

lollipop sticks...

getting ready to dip...

cake pops...

Spinach, Chickpea and Tomato Frittata

Last night was one of those "ugh, dinner" nights.  I had no inspiration, nothing (or so I thought) in my fridge or pantry, and zero desire to drive to the market.  On the couch I sat, putting off doing anything about it until the very last minute in hopes that a magical dinner elf would come and take care of it for me.    Until I remembered that magical dinner elves ask for stupidly expensive tips and also aren't real.

So I slapped myself 5 times across the face (I actually used to do that in college), and marched to the kitchen whistling a semi-happy tune.  I started pulling stuff out of cabinets, freezers and the fridge.  A can of garbanzo beans, a box of frozen spinach, some cherry tomatoes, eggs and garlic.  Our dinner...

Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  Add one clove of minced garlic.  When it starts to brown, turn down heat to medium-low and add sliced cherry tomatoes and a half a can of garbanzo beans.  Season with salt and pepper.  In the meantime, defrost frozen spinach.  Make sure to squeeze out as much excess liquid as you can.  Add to pan.  Season with more salt and pepper and some paprika.  Let cook for 10-15 minutes over medium-low heat.  

Preheat oven to 450.  In two bowls, separate 6 eggs, saving the yolks for another day.  Add a splash of milk to the egg whites and whisk, seasoning with salt and pepper.  

Add to pan.  When corners start to set, place entire pan (uncovered, and make sure it's oven-proof) in the oven.  Bake for 10 minutes or until egg whites have cooked and turn brown and bubbly.  

*This was very delicious.  Smoky from the paprika, hearty from the garbanzo beans, flavorful from the garlicky tomatoes and spinach.  Would be excellent served on toast, but we ate it as is (smothered with hot sauce, mmm).  SEE!?  YOU CAN MAKE DINNER EVEN WITHOUT MAGICAL ELVES!

French Toast Muffins

For breakfast - are you savory or sweet?  I'm usually savory and I don't stray far from the following order: scrambled eggs, bagel, sliced tomatoes and bacon, well done please.  Servers HATE when you say "well done please" but I'm sorry, I have to say it.  There is nothing worse than fatty bacon.  IN LIFE!  Anyway, occasionally I have a craving for pancakes or french toast.  Like, now, when I'm almost 6 months pregnant.  And when my friend sent me a link for French Toast Muffins, I was sold. 

My favorite part of this recipe is the cinnamon raisin toast that is cubed, soaked in egg and milk and placed a top each muffin.  And then AFTER baking, you dip those tops in melted butter and cinnamon sugar.  Duh.  You could even sprinkle some maple syrup on top, but I thought the teaspoon of maple extract in the wet ingredients gave them more than enough of the familiar flavor.   

These muffins would be the perfect thing to make your mama this Sunday (that's right fellas, THIS SUNDAY).  So go to this recipe, and check out my friend Katy's blog in a few days for more Mother's Day Brunch ideas (she is also responsible for lovely photo above).  

wet ingredients, dry ingredients...

topped with french toast topping...

baked and ready for butter and cinnamon sugar...