Lemon Mango Smoothie

So the weather is finally starting to warm up so today I decided to make myself a delicious smoothie!

A Lemon Mango Smoothie

To make it I used some lemon yogurt, a mango that I chopped up and froze, and some orange juice. I blended it all up then I drank it all up!

Citrus and Garlic Roasted Chicken

Today I made roasted citrus and garlic chicken!

I saw Giada De Laurentiis make this on the food network the other day and I thought it looked really good and pretty simple so I decided to try it.

I have never roasted a chicken before so I was pretty excited to see how it turned out

It was super delicious! I wasn't sure how much I was going to like all the lemon and orange on the chicken but it was great!

I also made a pan sauce from all the pan drippings which was very tasty on the white meat, which let me tell you did not need it because this chicken was SUPER moist!

I received the stamp of approval from both the parents

To go with the chicken I made some couscous with yellow squash, zucchini, and roasted red peppers.

I added a little lemon juice and oregano to help tie in the flavors of the chicken

This was also very popular amongst the parents =]

Like I said I used Giada De Laurentiis' recipe so if you would also like to try here is the link

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/garlic-and-citrus-chicken-recipe/index.html

It was super easy I encourage you to try!

Ice Cream

Alright so I really didn't have anything interesting to eat today just leftovers and stuff so I decided to do a dessert blog!

I made myself a nice cup of my favorite ice cream ever

MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP!

oh and I also added a nice chocolate cookie just for kicks

Oh so I forgot to mention my mom and I had a movie night so this is what she made

ICE CREAM SANDWICH

So as you can see I'm definitely an ice cream girl and she is more of a cookie gal

We wanted to make banana splits but I have never had one and I would like my first to be a proper split so I guess I will just have to wait until dairy king opens and I find someone who will share it with me lol
Alright well hopefully I will have some real food for you tomorrow, this week should be good because I'm on spring break so I have a lot more time to make some sweet lunch's and dinners!

Ribs & Potato Salad

My dad finally got to smoke his ribs today!

I just love when the weather starts to get warm it gets my dad in the mood to start playing with his smoker, its so exciting!

So he tried the ribs again and this time they weren't burnt so that's good, but they were a little though. He would have liked to leave them in for another hour or so but we were all REALLY hungry so we didn't mind.

Next time he will get it right, third times the charm!

I also made some tangy Dijon potato salad
The dressing is really very simple all it is is some Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, bacon, and its dripping (or you can substitute the bacon fat for olive oil, but why would you want to? lol)
I like to serve the potato salad warm but you can also refrigerate it and the flavor just gets better.

Buffalo and Blue Cheese Salad

Today my friend and I decided to go to the local hippie town of Yellow Springs lol

well we wanted to go because Heath Ledger's last film was playing in the little art theater and we really wanted to see it.

Well turns out it wasn't playing anymore

So we decided to go get coffee at this awesome little coffee shop down town, then after that we decide to go get dinner

Ok I know we did that backwards but that is how we like it

So while we were at dinner my parents happened to show up at the same restaurant so we invited them to join us

I decided to get the Fried Chicken salad but as you can see I swapped the fried chicken for grilled and I got it with Buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing!
It was REALLY good and I don't know if you can tell but it was HUGE

It was a very nice evening and it was fun to hang out with my parents, now how many teenagers say that =]

BTW sorry this is kind of late Bethany and I went to go see Avatar and as you might know that movie is really long, but it was amazing

Pasta Carbonara

Tonight I made pasta carbonara now i know you this is normally made with spaghetti or linguine but I wanted to use Farfalle(bowtie pasta) because I think its cute and I just liked it
So if you don't know pasta carbonara is simply pasta tossed with eggs, cream, and cheese. The pasta is hot enough to gently heat and cook the eggs so it makes a lovely creamy sauce. There is also BACON in it as you can see which just makes it better and adds a little crunch!
I also made some yummy garlic bread to go with it

Pasta Salad

Today was a busy busy day so none of us really had an official dinner but I did make this pasta salad that I nibbled on before we went to the musical tonight so I guess that was my dinner.

I made this on a whim and I'm still not sure if I really like it or not

I made it with whole wheat noodles and a lot of those pickled pepper things I got for the Italian sandwichs so its a little hot lol

but the flavor is good maybe after it sits over night it will get better

Ok I apologize in advance for this picture because it looks terrible but I'm not responsible for a restaurants presentation so I didn't fix it lol

But no matter it was still very delicious

Alright so my papa and I went to Applebees for dinner because my mom is out of town for tonight. I got the grilled Dijon and portabello chicken with seasonal veggies and potatoes!

It was all very yummy and I especially liked the potatoes they were good and buttery and amazing!

I would definitely recommend this if you go to Applebees sometime soon

Salmon & Cream Cheese Bagel

Another attempt at bagels and lox lol

this time we actually had cream cheese so, its a little more legit

except for the fact that its not cured salmon so its not really lox

I will just call it a salmon and cream cheese bagel I guess lol

Well that's about it nothing special, my parents weren't home tonight so I just whipped up something quick

Tomorrow my dad might try smoking some more ribs!

General Tso & Chicken Quesadillas

For lunch today my dad picked up some take out from our favorite Chinese restaurant (Flying Tiger) on his way home from church.

I got general tso, its my very favorite and I especially love it from Flying Tiger!

Their lunch is so amazing, it comes with egg drop soup, an egg roll and a chicken leg!

lol yep a chicken leg

So for dinner I just thought we would continue the food travels and have MEXICAN!

I made chicken quesadillas and like you have seen so often chili corn.

The quesadillas are just grilled chicken, with a Mexican spice rub, salsa, corn, and CHEESE of course!

BBQ Mishap

My dad smoked some ribs today for dinner but they didn't turn out the greatest

You see he had to leave for awhile and when my mom took the ribs out for my dad they were pretty well done.

So we just had to kind of picked at the ribs and try to salvage as much of the unburnt meat as we could.

We did however have some good baked beans. My dad put some of the crunchy rib tips in, so that was good!

well my dad told me not to take a pic of it, I think he was just mad the ribs didn't turn out, it really wasn't that bad. Well anyway I will honor his request and I will not put a picture up.

Well I'm sure he will be trying it again here soon, especially since the weather is starting to warm up, so be on the look out hopefully it will turn out better than today.

Italian Grilled Chicken Salad

Alright so if I haven't mentioned it already this week I got out of school everyday at 10:45 so I have been able to come home and make myself a nice lunch everyday, its really nice. So today my update will be of my lunch because well I'm not sure I'm going to be home until after midnight tonight and then I will have missed today so here is my early post.

We had some leftover chicken breasts from when I made my soup the other night so I grilled one up and I decided to toss it in a nice Italian salad It was really yummy!

It was also nice to have something healthy for lunch before I go to the birthday party tonight and just eat a bunch of junk.

Now i do make things like this a lot to take to school be you guys never see that because I don't want to look like a weirdo at school taking pictures of my lunch lol

Well that's all for today Ill probably have something better for you tomorrow so make sure you check back!

Shepherds Pie

Tonight was another delivery dinner night so I made shepherds pie

I saw this on a show the other night were some home cooks were making meals that they remembered from their past and this one man made this which his mom use to make whenever they had leftover mashed potatoes.

Now granted its not the prettiest thing in the world but it was tasty and a real homey dinner

It was really simple to make so this is how I did it
I browned about 2 pounds of ground beef (this was for two pies mind you) when the meat was browned I removed it from the pan and drained off the grease. I sauteed some chopped onion in the same pan with the residual grease left in the pan and once they were softened I deglazed the pan with some red wine then added the meat back to the pan.

I added a lot of Worcestershire, and soy sauce to the meat along with some garlic powder and salt and pepper of course.

So while I did all of that I had the potatoes boiling for the mashed potato topping

When the meat had cooled and the potatoes were ready for mashing I added some cream and buttermilk to them and went to work mashing them up

Now comes the layering

I divided the meat into two pie pans then topped each with a can of creamed corn and some peas

Finally I topped it all off with the mashed potatoes and BUTTER =]

I baked it all for about 30min and then finished it off under the broiler to brown and crisp up the potatoes

Ok that was an intense description for something really simple but I don't care lol

Apple Streusel Muffins & Chicken Orzo Soup

So today when I got home from school I just really felt like cooking something, but it was nowhere near time for dinner so I decided to make these apple streusel muffins that I saw in my magazine!

They turned out just lovely and they tasted AMAZING!

and whats even better is they are low fat =]

Well both of my parents are sick so I made soup for dinner
This is chicken orzo soup and it was very yummy

This is the base of the soup and as you can see it is full of tasty veggies and chicken

Once all this has cooked down you simply add chicken broth some cooked orzo and a TON of spinach, let it simmer and the flavors marry and there you have it!

So tonight I wasn't feeling to hot so I decided to just make a quick dinner, so I made breakfast!

As you can see I made pancakes and scrambled eggs

nothing special but it was good and sometimes you just have to have breakfast for dinner!

Chicken Catchatori

Ok so again this is one of the recipes from my magazine

Its chicken catchatori and it was simple and delicious!

Really all I had to do was cut up a few chicken breasts and brown them off with some mushrooms and bell peppers. Then when the chicken was browned I added some diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, a little red wine, and a ton of basil and oregano. I let it simmer for 10min and served over some brown rice.

My parents still can't believe this was a "lite" dinner, like I have said before I am slowly getting to them =]

Rigatoni in a Mushroom Cream Sauce

Last night for my parents anniversary they went out to dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy with some of their friends. My mom had some leftovers of her dinner and she liked it so much she wanted me to taste it so I could attempt to recreate it here at home.

So that was my dinner, Rigatoni in a mushroom cream sauce.

I'm not sure if I can get it exact but I think I know how to do it, so you may see this again soon when I try to recreate it. Hopefully I can get it because it was really good and that restaurant is pretty far to travel to on a regular bases lol

Portobello Sandwich

Tonight I went to the Wellington Grille for a friends birthday party

Everything was pretty expensive so I got the portobello sandwich because it was one of the cheaper things on the menu and it sounded pretty good.

It came on a pretzel bun and was topped with pesto, bruschetta, and parmesan cheese.

It sounds better than it was, it was pretty bland and it was so wet from the bruschetta it kind of got sawgy =/

Well I would have to say I probably won't go back to the Wellington Grille because we had terrible service and I don't think the food was worth the money.

But the party was fun and I had a good time, and that's all that matters right?

So tonight is going to be a busy night for me, I'm going putt putting this evening then having a girls night at a friends house so I'm not going to be making dinner. Plus my parents have abandoned me for the weekend lol

Well I do have something for you though, my breakfast!

This is my new MULTI GRAIN oatmeal with PECANS!

Yum it was tasty and a good way to start off my day!

Turkey Loaf

Turkey meat loaf

I have been hesitant for a while to use ground turkey because I knew my dad wouldn't like it but I finally decided to try it, you couldn't even tell it was turkey.

I have also been afraid to use turkey because I have always heard that it can be very dry, well again this recipe proved that wrong because this meat loaf was not the least bit dry.

The loaf includes sauteed onions and mushroom, which I loved, and it has some Worcestershire and soy sauce which helped a lot to flavor the meat and make it almost beefy.

The sauce on the top of the loaf is an easy ketchup sauce made of ketchup(obviously), brown sugar, nutmeg and a little mustard powder.

It was all very yummy and my dad approved which is a plus!

I'm slowly converting him =]

Italian Beef Sandwich

Yep it was another recipe from my mag tonight, this time Italian Beef Sandwiches

(Chicago style)

Now considering my sister lives in Chicago and I have visited her multiple times you would think I would have had an authentic Italian Beef from its birth place, but nope this was my first experience.

But let me tell you I plan on visiting sometime this summer and I assure you I will be try as much of the traditional Chicago cuisines as possible!

This was the lovely roast after its 8 hour bath in the crock pot.

It was about as tinder as you could get, I couldn't even slice it because it just feel apart.

The pepper and onion topping, something I make often and my family loves!

Oh and this stuff, it is one of my new favorite condiments!

Its pickled chopped peppers and it is a little hot a little tangy and all delicious

It gave the sandwich just that little extra pop of flavor

Oh and if any of you who know anything about an Italian beef I will tell you now that I did not let those lovely juices from the roast go to waist, we all made sure to dip our sandwiches just like true Chicagoans lol

Shrimp and Pine Nut Spaghetti

Tonight I tried another recipe from my cooking lite magazine, its called Shrimp and Pine nut Spaghetti.

It was really very simple all i had to do was cook the pasta and while that was cooking I made a roux with milk and flour then I added more milk, parm, a little Dijon and nutmeg.

When the pasta was almost cooked I added the shrimp to the pot and drained once they were cooked through.

I tossed the pasta and the shrimp in the sauce and then served.

This is a dish that must be eaten right away because the sauce doesn't have much butter fat so the pasta quickly absorbs it all.

Well the end result was surprisingly delicious considering it was a LITE Alfredo sauce but we all enjoyed it and I'm sure I will make it again.

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Now I know it's not homemade but it was good

Tonight we quickly put together some spaghetti and meatballs using a store bought sauce and some frozen meatballs that my dad wanted to try.

It was any easy quick dinner and I know many people are against store bought things like this but obviously we are not and for good reason, it can be good.

Adobo Chicken

Today I decided to finally open up one of my cooking magazines and try one of their recipes, because every cooking magazine I get I always go through it an pick out all the recipes I like but then I never go back and actually make it =/

Well today I finally made one, and I decided on the adobo chicken.

I'm really not sure why its called Adobo because it has no adobo in it whatsoever, in fact it was more like at teriyaki or Bourbon chicken.

Either way it was really good and if it looks burnt its not, the sauce was just a very thick inky reduction of soy sauce, vinegar, honey and a few other things.

Lunch!

When I got back from the YMCA today I decided to make myself a nice healthy lunch because I was feeling a bit icky after last nights events.

I had a nice spinach and romaine salad with chicken and Italian dressing.

Because I did a pretty intense workout I decided to try this new kind of power shake to get my energy back.

My new favorite drink!
Now I know it just looks like chocolate milk, but its not.
It is Silk chocolate soy milk lite, 1 frozen banana, a few teaspoons of honey and a heaping teaspoon of peanut butter, all blended up into a delicious smoothie! =]
Its like a milk shake that's good for you!
This is going to be my new breakfast of choice on school days.
Oh btw chocolate soy milk is also amazing with coffee =]

SO MANY CARBS!

Tonight two of my gals and I went to the movies!

We snuck in some yummy treats and I would have taken a pic but I didn't want to anger the other people in the theater =/

But I will tell you what we brought, tortilla chips and queso, mini Reece's, butterfinger eggs, jelly beans, and M&M's, oh and assorted drinks for each of us lol

Haha can you tell we found the Easter candy isle?

Well If you can believe it we were a bit hungry after the movie so we went to PANERA!

All three of us got soup bread bowls they were delicious, I had the veggie because I figured I should have something to counter act all the sweets lol.

Well I brought my little baguette home so ill probably make some kind of sandwich with it tomorrow, Yum I love baguettes!

BBQ Salmon

Tonight i made BBQ salmon because as you might know my mom HATES fish so I always have to find some way to make it less fishy for her my adding some kind of sauce or giving her something she can cover her fish all up with.

Well we found some squash at the grocery the other day so i decided to toss it with some corn and grill it ( I know I'm faking myself out, can you tell I want it to be summer?)

I also made some bulgur, I added a bit of the BBQ rub I used on the salmon in both the veggies and the bulgur to tie it all together.

Im thinking we need to have fish more often...SORRY MOM =]

Pizza

Pizza Pizza!

That's what I decided to make tonight for dinner and for my delivery meal this week.

As you can see we like our pizzas LOADED!
This one has sausage, peppers, onions, pepperoni, my pesto pizza sauce and a ton of cheese!
Oh and btw the crust is a homemade whole wheat crust =]

The finished product!

When you can make pizza like this at home i don't know why you would get delivery

Broccoli and Cheddar Frittata

I made a broccoli and Cheddar frittata for dinner tonight because well when I opened the frig I saw that we had 3 FULL cartons of eggs! I'm not sure why we have so many, but we do so I thought a frittata would be a good way to use up some of them.

We didn't have the usual ingredients that I use in my frittatas like bell peppers and sausage, but you can really make a frittata with whatever you got. So I found a bag of frozen broccoli and i decided to make a nice cheesy frittata with broccoli!

I sauteed an onion that I diced and when that had softened I added the broccoli to the pan and covered it to let the broccoli steam for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile I started my egg mixture by beating 5 whole eggs and 5 egg whites together with a little bit of cream, some cottage cheese, cheddar cheese and salt and pepper to season. When the broccoli was tinder I removed it from the heat then added it to the egg mixture.

I then added a little more oil to my pan and poured the whole mixture in.

I cook my frittatas on a very low temp until everything is just about set except for a little bit of the middle, then I finish it off under the broiler and top with more cheese.

While the frittata cooked I started on my home fries! I cut up the potatoes and boiled them just until they were fork tender, no more or else your home fries will be mushy and not crisp and crunchy. I drained them off then added them to a HOT pan with both olive oil and butter and I don't touch them for the first like 5 or so minutes, let them sit and develop that yummy crust. Well after that you can season with whatever you like, I do garlic salt and pepper, then you can toss and continue crisping the potatoes on all sides.

I do love this dinner, its so simple and versatile...plus leftovers make a delicious breakfast!

Quesadilla Burgers

Tonight I made one of my moms favorite meals, quesadilla burgers!

This is one of the first recipes I came up with on my own after having a few different types of Mexican style burgers and trying to tie them all together into my own thing.

In the burgers themselves I just put onion, bread crumbs, an egg to bind it all and some taco seasoning to spice them up. Sometimes I put chopped black beans in the burgers but we didn't have any for tonight.

When the burgers are all cooked I use a tortilla to wrap them instead of a bun.

I layer some salsa and sour cream in the tortilla along with the burger and cheese, then I wrap it all up and lay it on the flat top to seal the tortilla and melt the cheese.

The flat top makes the tortilla nice and crispy so it just makes the burgers that much better!

To go with the burgers I made some Mexican style rice and some chili corn.