My Favorite Smoothie! Raspberry Orange =]

This is a smoothie I have been making for years and have just started making a few changes to it. I started using greek yogurt, for protein, and now I throw some spinach in there! You can’t taste the spinach at all and it doesn’t turn a nasty poop green color. Gross. Dun dun dun! My favorite yogurt flavor is vanilla but I didn’t have that this time so I used mixed berry. When you use greek yogurt, you don’t have to stir it up like you would if you’re going to eat it since the blender will do all the work for you =] Also, some people like to use fresh fruit for smoothies. I think they’re crazy. If you use frozen fruit you don’t need ice! Genius! It is my biggest pet peeve when I drink a smoothie and I can taste the little ice chunks. Nasty.

Raspberry Orange (spinach) Smoothie

6ish oz Frozen raspberries (I just used about half a bag)

1 Greek yogurt, whatever size the normal container is

2 Big handfuls of fresh spinach

1/2-1c Orange juice, depending on desired consistency

1. Layer items in blender with raspberries first, yogurt, spinach, and orange juice. I find this way mixes stuff better otherwise you’re just swirling around yogurt and juice

2 Blend. Pretty hard, you know?

3. Add more juice depending on consistency. I normally like mine with a straw and nice and thick but we didn’t have straws so I made it thinner

This makes approximately 32ish ounces of smoothie so either two smoothies or one really big one. I opted for the second option =]

Food For the Week =]

Yes, it’s Wednesday but it’s been a little weird down here. There’s ice outside. In Louisiana. Yea, you read that right. So here is my plan for the week

Monday:

Cajun Pot Roast. I made this already. It was ok, but not something I will make again. It tastes like green peppers and I don’t like that. The boy said it was ok. I will make it again sometime with MASSIVE changes and post that but here is the Original Recipe.

Tuesday:

Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas

Wednesday:

Ham Skillet Pasta

Thursday:

Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

Friday:

Fish, again

Saturday:

Out

Sunday:

Slow Cooker Whole Chicken

Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas

YUMMY! Anything Chipotle is delicious. I don’t know where the pictures I took of this went. The camera on my pad was going a little insane and apparently they didn’t save. Stupid thing, they looked good too. Anyways, these were super easy to make and pretty filling.

UPDATE!! I made these again and got pictures! They were delicious the second time as well!

Original Recipe

Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas

3 Chicken breast tenderloins

1t Paprika

1t Cayenne pepper

1t Garlic powder

4 tortillas

4 Chipotle peppers, in sauce

1/4c Greek yogurt

Mexican cheese

1. Cook chicken breasts until fully cooked. Shred with a fork and add paprika, cayenne, and garlic powder and mix it up

2. While chicken is cooking, put chipotle peppers in food processer and add yogurt. Pulse until smooth and creamy

3. Assemble quesadilla layering tortilla, chipotles, cheese, chicken, cheese, tortialla

4. Set carefully in pan and cook quesadilla until browned on one side. Flip and do the same. Cut into slices and serve with sour cream and salsa. I ate it with the seasoned sour cream I made with Fish Tacos

Roasted Tomato Sauce

A while ago, I made some Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic. Today, I decided to use them in a sauce. I had some leftover Spaghetti Squash so that it what I ate mine with but the boy just ate it with noodles. This was the simplest most delicious sauce I have ever made.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

1c Roasted tomatoes

10 Cloves roasted garlic

2T Dried basil

1-14.5oz Can tomatoes, with liquid

2T Butter

1. In blender or food processor, blend all ingredients until smooth

2. Warm on stovetop or in microwave with butter. Stir to combine and eat on noodles or vegetables

If I had had more roasted tomatoes I would have used just those but that is all that I had left. Next time I will try it with all roasted tomatoes.

Fish Tacos!!!

Since the boy got his boat back in October, he has been fishing like nobody’s business. Last time he went out, they got a ton of fish. Like a lot. A few weeks ago I took the boy out for Mexican (or he took me out, depending on how you look at it haha) and he got fish tacos for the first time. They were so good and I wanted to recreate the deliciousness at home. fish marinade but it was pretty easy. The real shine was the slaw and seasoned sour cream. I love seasoned sour cream, if I have it in my fridge I will eat it on everything possible. So, on to fish tacos!

Original Slaw Recipe

Fish Tacos

Fish:

2lbs White fish, we used a mix of trout and redfish

3-4T Lime juice

1-2T Cilantro

1. Marinate fish in lime juice and cilantro. Grill or pan fry until fish is done

Slaw:

2c Shredded green cabbage

2-3T Mayo, depending on how saucy you like it

2T Dried cilantro

1T Lime juice

1t Jalapeno hot sauce

1. Combine cabbage, mayo, lime, and cilantro. Taste and add any additional seasonings if necessary. This is where I added the hot sauce and adjust to taste

Seasoned Sour Cream:

1c Sour cream

1/2t Cumin

1/2t Garlic powder

2T Taco seasoning

Hot sauce if desired for heat

1. Stir in all ingredients. I normally make this when I have half a tub of sour cream left and just snack on it

Assemble the tacos:

1. On tortilla shells, arrange slaw, fish, and sauce. Roll up and enjoy. I like mine without cheese but the boy just eats fish, cheese, and hot sauce on his. He’s weird. Enjoy! This makes about 4-6 tacos depending on how topping heavy you are =]

 

Parmesan Spaghetti Squash

I have only eaten spaghetti squash once before in my life and I don’t really remember it. I don’t remember loving it or hating it so I’ve been on the lookout for it to try again and I finally found some. So I went onto pinterest and found my Parmesan Spaghetti Squash recipe and realized it didn’t tell me how to  cook the squash. Just how to flavor it once it was cooked. Well back onto pinterest as I distinctively remember my dad baking the squash in the oven. Well I found the directions and the first was cut off both ends and cut spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise. No problem! Got out my huge knife I got for Christmas and when I tried to cut it? Nothing happened. I made a small indent in the skin. Fast forward to me 15 minutes later giving up on cutting this thing in half when I find a way to roast it whole. Lifesaver. I go to take the sticker off and it says microwave 1 minute before cutting to soften the skin. Of course. I threw it in the microwave and it cut right in half. Wish I had seen that sooner. Point being, it was pretty tasty and I will defs be trying it again soon.

Original Recipe

Cooking Squash Directions

Parmesan Spaghetti Squash

1 Spaghetti Squash

EVOO

Garlic salt and pepper

1/4c Parmesan cheese

3T Butter

2T Minced garlic

2t Herbs de Provence

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Pop squash in microwave for 1 minute to soften, cut in half lengthwise. Remove the gross pumpkin like stuff in the middle

3. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place flesh side down on baking sheet and bake 40-60 minutes depending on the size of your squash

4. Once squash is fork tender, scrape out the innards so that they look like spaghetti and empty into large frying pan

5. Turn heat to medium and add butter, garlic, parmesan cheese , herbs de Provence, and salt and pepper if necessary and sauté until squash is as tender and flavored to your liking. I may have melted more butter on mine right before I ate it, just an idea =]

Grilled Pizza

Ok, so these aren’t really grilled. Normally they are but our water pipe broke and we had to do that instead so we just made them in the oven as they were quicker. Usually we make them on the grill and they are spectacular. Make sure if you are using any type of meat, you use the precooked time as you really are just warming this up. That is why it’s so easy on the grill. Normally we just use pita bread, but we actually bought pizza crust this time so it’s really up to you. We were hungry so we both ate most of our pizza. I like the pitas since I will then only eat one and it’s more single serve and everyone can make their own.

UPDATE!! More grilled pizza from dough!

Grilled Pizza
Pizza crust
Pizza sauce, try this Easy Homemade Version!
Cheese
Toppings of choice
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees or heat up your grill
2. Assemble pizza and place on baking sheet in oven or on grill
3. Cook about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust starts to crisp up

Topping ideas:
3 Cheese Pizza:
Red pizza sauce, roasted garlic cloves, Italian blend cheese, Colby jack cheese, pizza blend cheese
Roasted Veggies Pizza:
Red pizza sauce, roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic cloves, mushrooms, artichokes, pepperoncini, Italian blend cheese, pizza blend cheese

This last time I made it we used raw dough instead of precooked on the grill and it turned out awesome! We will definitely be doing it this way from now on. I used the premixed dough from Trader Joes and put it on the grill until it was starting to bubble on the top (kind of like how you know to flip a pancake) and then flipped it and put the toppings on the side that had started cooking already so that it didn’t get soggy. It was yummy!

I used one whole wheat crust and one garlic and herb crust =

 

New pad!

I’m so excited, I finally got a replacement for my hazardous computer and I am in love with it! I’m updating you from my new tablet with docking station. And it’s windows 8 so it’s just like my computer and so perfect! I just got it last night and was a good girl and waited for it t charge and everything before I used it so go me =] Lt night our water pipe broke so I got a little time to play with it while we were waiting for the water company to get here to shut off the water. I just love this thing. And I got it off groupon so score! Anyway, we made pizzas last night and I will put that recipe up when I got some more time later today for you guys. Have a happy Wednesday!

 I tried to just add a picture but apparently I don’t know how to do that yet haha. It’s on my list to figure out!

Food for the Week =]

Last week was a little overwhelming with not much of anything haha. But this week the boy decided to go grocery shopping before I had menu planned and we ended up with way too much food but I’ll make it work. So I’m basing this menu exclusively on what we have in the house minus a few veggies I will grab for myself while on my lunch break.

Monday:

BL(roasted)T’s with

Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic

Tuesday:

Grilled Pizza

Wednesday:

Hamburgers. Nothing fancy, but we tried grass-fed beef for the first time

Thursday:

Super Cabbage

Friday:

Chicken Kiev with Parmesan Spaghetti Squash

Saturday:

Fish Tacos

Sunday:

Roasted Tomato Sauce with spaghetti

BL(roasted)T

Since I made these delicious Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic last night, I was dying to try them in a BLT today. It was beyond amazing. I’m not even going to write about  it, you just need to make it and eat one. I made it for lunch and I plan on making one for dinner as well. No shame.

Original Recipe

BL(roasted)T

2 Slices bread

4 Slices bacon, cooked

4 Slices roasted tomatoes, warmed in the bacon grease you just cooked

Lettuce

Mayo

Basil

Fresh roasted garlic, I think I used 5 or 6 cloves, don’t judge me, just love me

1. Once bacon and tomatoes are all warmed up, assemble sandwich. Layer lettuce, bacon and tomatoes on one slice of bread and spread mayo, sprinkle basil, and squish garlic cloves on the other side

2. Put both pieces together and grill. I use our George Foreman but you could also do it grilled cheese style in a pan on the stove or a toaster oven or just toast the bread first and call it a day. As long as you eat this sandwich it really doesn’t matter

DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for any OD’ing of this sandwich. It is highly addicting and you have to know that going into it. This could be a gateway sandwich to itself…