{Photo courtesy of Google Images}
I’ve been putting this stuff on eVeRyThInG lately…
It’ll perk up a Whole Grain Turkey, Ham & Cheese Lean Hot Pocket like nobody’s business.
Add a kick in the pants to a Lean Cuisine (preferably Sesame Chicken) any day of the week.
Possibly some spicy tuna rolls and California rolls with a kick in our future?
YES, indeed!
My friend, Hollie, had a brilliant idea…
Take turns swapping the kids and celebrate Valentine’s Day sans midgets!
GREAT idea.
Jay and I celebrated last night and the Sullivan kiddos will come spend a few hours with us tonight.
We went to Saturday evening Mass and then came home to prepare a Pioneer Woman Valentine’s dinner:
Filet with onion and blue cheese sauce
Twice Baked Potatoes
Bread Pudding with Bailey’s Irish Cream sauce
Talk about a meat and potatoes meal. Veggies were NOWHERE to be found on this table tonight.
Personally I don’t like to prepare steaks at home…I always screw them up. I think cooking steaks is a science and it makes me WAY nervous. But we were trying to save some dough and decided to stay in. I substituted PW’s ribeye recipe with some filets. I told the butcher to say a prayer for me that I wouldn’t massacre them. They turned out OK, but the onion blue cheese sauce was simply out of this world and oh SO easy to make.
I’m telling you, the sauce was divine!
I’ve also not been able to successfully graduate from the school of bread pudding…not too sure why…it’s NOT that difficult.
I attempted PW’s sourdough bread pudding and substituted some almond extract for a portion of the vanilla and added sliced almonds on the top rather than the pecans she calls for. I also used Bailey’s Irish Creme Coffee liquor in place of the Jack Daniel’s for the sauce. Both substitutions worked out nicely and the pudding had a very distinct, but not overpowering, almond flavor.
We were so stuffed from our hearty, stick-to-your-ribs dinner that we just sampled the dessert, but are looking forward to enjoying it again this evening.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
~XOXO~
Last night we had a nice, relaxing Friday evening with the female half of the Sullivan family ~ our friends who live 2 doors down.
I found these scrumptous looking enchiladas on one of my favorite blogs and decided it was the perfect night to make them. I’m going to rename them “You had me at cilantro” chicken enchiladas, though.
I LOVE me some cilantro. Forget the chicken, cheese, sour cream, tortillas…..I made these for the cilantro! This flavorful herb runs throughout this recipe and I was chompin’ at the bit to try these.
Here is the line up:
Two ingredients are missing from this pic…the ginormous bunch of cilantro is covering up the little sour cream tub and I also used some jarred roasted red peppers which didn’t make the photo shoot.
The meat from one whole rotisserie chicken made eight HUGE enchiladas.
And here is the final product:
They were SUPER DUPER yummy, but I was expecting them to be a little spicier…we added some jalapeño rings and then they were absolute perfection on a plate!
These paired with Gramma K, good friends, a couple bottles of wine and the Olympic Opening Ceremonies was the perfect way to wrap up the week and welcome Valentine’s Day weekend.
So, if you don’t know what to make for your special Valentine, may I suggest these…spicy, creamy, cheesy, cilantro(y)!
It’s 6:45am and these have already been served this morning:
I’m sipping HOT coffee out of my zebra print latte cup.
FrIdAy is out of the gates and off to a running start!
I feel another great weekend coming on…
Gramma K coming. Dance class. Shopping. Chicken enchiladas tonight. Saturday night mass with Jay. Steak with onion blue cheese sauce and twice-baked potatoes tomorrow night. Just Jay & Me. Valentine’s Day fun on Sunday. Maybe introduce Gramma to Monkey Bread. Etc.
Bring it on.
I hope your Valentine’s weekend is full of conversation hearts, red roses, martinis, chocolates, good food and time spent with that special someone in your life.
** Side note: Speaking of martinis, I was able to meet up with an old friend last night, sip on a pomegranate martini and chit chat. It was a great early start to the weekend and I am so grateful for friendships that I have made over the years. Thank you, Gina! It was LONG overdue! **
Last night I was up 5, f-i-v-e, cinco, cinq, cinque, one, two, three, four, FIVE times!
All because Holden fed Riggs, our Border Collie, this:
Ugh! Don’t feed your dogs high fiber bran cereal people!
This is where Riggs will be ALL day:
This is what I will be drinking ALL day:
Maybe with one of these on the side:
That was rough!
But now to get Elliott to school for her Valentine’s Party…
and maybe swing by the Starbucks drive-thru on the way!
P.S. The Parisian Almond Créme you see above is my NEW favorite! If you love almond (yes, please!), try this…pour it in your coffee, sit back, close your eyes and imagine yourself strolling through the streets of Paris…that’s what I do.
Have a caffeine charged Thursday!
Au revoir.
My bro-in-law works for Glacéau, the makers of vitaminwater. He was in town a couple weeks back and delivered two cases of brand-spankin’ new formulas and flavors ~ which aren’t even on the shelves yet.
Facebook had a contest where fans could essentially choose a new flavor of vitaminwater and the winner was…..Black Cherry Lime!
I don’t drink the ones that have calories, but I tried this one and it was pretty tasty.
He also brought some NEW vitaminwater ZERO which will eventually replace the vitaminwater10 ~ apparently 10 calories was too many for some people! This new flavor is grape-raspberry and I. LOVE. IT. I don’t normally drink these, but it’s nice to periodically treat myself to one instead of H2O during my workouts.
I always see these Go Girl energy drinks at the store and I think the name is so cute (plus a portion of the proceeds to to breast cancer research). I picked one up and did a little taste test.
The verdict:
I like the flavor of the vitaminwater, but I like the carbonation of the Go Girl. I think the color of the GG was a little bit of a turn off – maybe dial down the “pinkness” a few notches? But the GG has a citrus taste which I did enjoy.
So, I guess, with that said, I like them equally as far as energy drinks go…
…but I know the best thing is good ‘ol H2O, so I will stick to that and occasionally treat myself to some bling’d out version ~ plus I don’t really ever feel ENERGIZED after drinking an energy drink!
Do you?
OK, this will be the last of the recipe posts for a bit…I’ll be eating rice cakes and water for the next week and those two aren’t very blog worthy! I feel like ALL I’ve been posting lately is FOOD, FOOD, FOOD…so this next week, I am going to shoot for some calorie free topics. But……..
Today we had some neighbors over for the Superbowl and I tried to keep things simple with some quick and easy favorites, but I’ve been wanting to try these Cranberry Meatballs since the holidays, so I HAD to make them for the big game today. The verdict is that they were a hit because when I went to take a picture of them all nestled in the crock pot swimming in their sweet cranberry sauce, there were only about 5 remaining:
This recipe is a keeper and next time I may try them with turkey meatballs although they were just perfect with the beef variety. Super easy AND a big hit? That’s a good recipe in my book.
Then there was the always popular Sonoma Salad…
which again, when I went to the bowl to snap a pic this was all that was left:
This is a great salad because it’s so versatile and can be switched out with different goodness:
{switch out the butter lettuce with spring mix or baby spinach}
{substitute gorgonzola or goat cheese for the blue}
{use dried blueberries, cherries or raisins in place of the Craisins}
{honey roasted almonds can easily replace the glazed walnuts}
{pears can take the place of the apple}
The possibilities are endless and that is why I love this go-to salad! Again, thank you Melanie for bringing this to us almost 3 years ago when we brought our sweet baby Holden home! This salad also brings back happy memories every time I serve it!
And then there is the Artichoke Dip that tickled my taste buds so many years ago in the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot! I’ve loved it and made it LOTS ever since. No oven necessary!
Normally I use quartered artichoke hearts, but Albertson’s was fresh out of them this morning so I tried these artichoke bottoms and there was nothing sacrificed. I just chopped the bottoms in my mini food processor and that was that ~ not any real difference than with the quarters.
And there she is….served with a multigrain baguette and some Ritz crakers…sheer perfection on a carb! Can’t go wrong with this one folks, believe me!
I realize that my decor looks more like a bridal shower or Mother’s Day brunch and not reflective at all of Superbowl Sunday, but nobody seemed to care…these recipes are all a hit and I hope that you try them sometime soon! Whoever is on the receiving end will thank you!
We washed all these yummies down with a good ‘ol Cape Codder or vodka cran with lime!
It was a great game with a great menu spent with great friends….another weekend down! Bring on Monday!
I hope you have a “super” week ahead!
Tonight I’m having a Mommy’s Night Out of sorts…
I’m. So. Excited.
I’m going to “Bitch Bingo” (pardon my French!). My good friend, Hollie, introduced me to this FUN, monthly get-together of women and we play bingo. Now when I think of BINGO, I think of old people with their colorful bingo dotters sitting in a smoke filled room, but this new version of the game is much more fun and since it’s Ladies Only and once a month, it gives me something to look forward to and a chance to have girl talk, laugh, sample lots of different yummies and sip on a nice adult beverage!
This is how it all goes down:
Every chickie brings an appetizer or sweet to share, a drinkie poo of their choice, a $20 “gift” pertaining to the month’s theme (this month is “Romance” for February ~ should be interesting!) in a brown paper bag and $5 to add to the pot. We play as many games as there are brown bags and the winner of each game picks a brown bag or steals a gift from another woman (that’s where the bitch part comes in!) There is NO limit to the amount of times a gift can be stolen so there is a whole lot of bitchiness goin’ on. Fun stuff!
At the end of the night, the last game is played and that lucky lady wins the pot which usually consists of $100 give or take! Pretty cool, huh? I think so!
Tonight I am taking some guacamole and this Cilantro Lime Corn Salsa to go along with the Mexican theme.
I. Heart. This. Salsa. The link above will take you to the pork soft tacos that go along with this yummy salsa. The pork soft tacos are fabuloso, too! I have made them TONS. (I use cumin instead of the paprika). Anyhoo……this corn salsa is great on anything Mexican or added to a salad, so if you decide to make it, makes LOTS! I imagine it’d be great with some chopped tomatoes added in and chips, too!
Have a super, spicy Saturday night…..I know I’m planning to! {wink wink}
P.S. Jay is taking the kiddos to Chuck E. Cheese….so glad I got a hall pass out of that escapade! Thanks, babe! XOXO
1. Superbowl menu is set….making it easy:
Cranberry Meatballs (as seen here)
Sonoma Salad (find it here)
Artichoke Dip (check it out here)
Superbowl sipping will be vodka crans with a twist of lime.
There…..done! That was easy!
2. Elliott made all her playdate friends some paper chains – one for each child. She was busy, cutting, taping and creating this morning…this was all HER idea! Love that girl…
3. I’ve been bitten by a creativity bug….all these cute blogs that I’ve discovered…the only thing is is that I’m not a sewer or a scrapbooker or a gardener, but I am feeling inspired and am going to look around the house and see what I can CREATE or REARRANGE or ORGANIZE and give the place a little kick in the pants for Valentine’s Day! So glad it’s on a weekend so we can celebrate as a family and I can try some new recipes! Stay tuned…
4. I am feeling a little selfish lately and am looking forward to reserving a teeny bit of this year’s tax return for MYSELF. (Don’t worry Jay….I only need a few bucks (relatively speaking, of course!) There are some goodies that I have my eye on….nothing expensive, just a couple things on Etsy, The Pioneer Woman Cookbook and a couple apothecary jars….that’s about it.
5. Countdown to Holden’s 3rd birthday party…I am having fun planning the menu, getting the favor bags all figured out, picturing the decorations all hung and working out the FUN cake that I have planned…
I am also excited to see how low I can keep the budget on this party ~ so far, so good:
*Invites were under 10 cents a piece
*FREE bounce house thanks to MEG!
*Decorations from Dollar Tree and 90% off Christmas stuff @ Target
*Making my own cake
Should be a “blast”!
Happy Friday!
When I come across a recipe that makes my mouth water, I want to make it yesterday…
I read about these Peanut Butter & Honey Cookies here.
I had all the ingredients except for Mr. Quaker so, while strolling through Target this morning, I picked up some old-fashioned oats and couldn’t wait to get home to try these.
I brought my KitchenAid mixer out of hiding and enlisted the help of one pajama clad 4-year old. Now you know having an almost 5 year old “help” in the kitchen can wear on your patience, but we managed to get everything in the mixing bowl without too many gray hairs popping up!
I had high hopes of posting a pic of these cookies on my cute polka dot cake stand looking all beautiful and stacked nicely, but they did not look nearly as gorgeous as Heather’s! I dropped them too close together on the cookie sheet and they all had one big love fest in the oven! I HATE when that happens because you no longer have beautiful, round cookies, you have some that are square and some that are round on one side and square on the other three sides from cutting them away from their lovers! I am all about aesthetics when I cook, so this was not a good day in the cucina in the eye candy department. Note to self: next time only 9 cookies to a sheet!
But nevertheless, they were delish (square-shaped and all) ~ just like Heather said ~ “crispy on the outside & chewy on the inside”.
Here is a picture of my assistant (pajama day at school today ~ but this is not to say that somedays we don’t stay in our jammies well into the afternoon!):
Here is what you’ll need:
Here’s what they look like while waiting for the oven to come to 350:
…and here’s what they look like when you put too many on the pan too close together:
I tried to focus on the ONE perfect one…..
No matter what shape you make these, they’re “buzzing” (get it? honey) with delight!