Breeze's Favorite Muffins

Breeze LOVES banana muffins.  Banana chocolate chip, banana peanut butter, banana whateva, he loves them.

He asks me to make them somewhere around 5 nights a week.  Lucky for him I frequently buy bananas with every intention of eating them on the oatmeal I also have every intention of eating for breakfast and then I don't.

I like muffins just as much as the next person so I gave in tonight and made the following muffins.

Banana Muffins with Crunchy Topping
(Muffins adapted from this TastyKitchen Member recipe, topping from HowSweetEats)

For the Muffins
¾ cups Whole Wheat Flour
¾ cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Sea Salt
3  Large Ripe Bananas, Mashed
¼ cups Brown Sugar (lightly Packed)
½ cups Sugar
1  Egg
⅓ cups Unsalted Butter, melted


Except the egg, I forgot the egg!

For the Topping

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon flour

2 tablespoons softened butter

Except the butter, I forgot the butter too!

These muffins are seriously good.  I ate three (they're mini!) before I came in to write this blog post and realized they had no egg and no butter.

Enjoy!

Weekend Fajitas

I've been lucky recently in that I've spent a ton of time in the kitchen.  I've really made an effort to prep and grocery shop to make sure we eat good, nutritional meals.  This weekend was no different and I have lots of ideas for meals throughout this week.  Fingers crossed- I'm hoping/planning on sharing a few of them.

Like I was saying, we ate good this weekend.  Friday night we ate Louisiana Pan Roast at Turtleheads, which I highly recommend as well as the grilled oysters.

This picture tells it all.

Saturday, after some glorious sleeping in and a good workout I spent a while researching new fajita and margarita recipes.  I wanted to make the fajitas that I posted here a few months ago and Breeze wanted to try something new so . . .

Drumroll, please . . .

Here is the winner.
Steak & Chicken Fajitas with Pico adapted from TastyKitchen

Chicken- fajita sliced from the grocery store
Steak- about one pound of tips cut into strips
1 Red bell pepper
1 Green bell pepper
1 Yellow onion
3 Jalapeno peppers
3-4 Roma tomatoes
6 Tbs Vegetable oil
2-3 Limes
2 Tbs Soy sauce
1 Tbs Worcestershire
1/2 c. Chopped cilantro
2 Cloves minced garlic

Shredded cheese
Shredded romaine lettuce
Tortillas
Greek yogurt with fresh lime juice mixed in

Prep (~35 min.):
Make the pico. Finely chop tomatoes, half of the onion, jalapeno peppers, and cilantro. Place in a bowl and squeeze fresh lime juice over the vegetables and stir.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Make the marinade. Whisk together vegetable oil, juice of one lime, soy sauce, Worcestershire, cilantro, and garlic.  Pour marinade over chicken and steak. Refrigerate for a few hours.

Slice peppers and half of onion.

Cook (10-15 min):
Pour meat with juice into a skillet.  Heat between medium to medium-high until cooked through.
Pour a little bit of olive oil into a skillet. Add peppers and onion.  Heat on medium until veggies are cooked through but not soggy.

We ate our fajitas as fajita tacos.  I layered veggies, combination of meat, cheese, pico, and lots of lettuce.

Margaritas adapted from Sandra Lee
Makes about 4 servings.
3 Trader Jose Light beers
1 can Lemonade concentrate
1/2 - 3/4 cup Tequila

Mix together and enjjjjoy.

We are eating leftover fajtas tonight, we're all pretty tired after Dyl's bath today.

Spice Cookies after a long day

So I didn't get to eat much lunch today.  I had a granola bar at 8:00 with my coffee followed by a small snack at lunch.  I had every intention of eating at least an apple in the afternoon, but time just got away from me and I didn't get around to it.  Because of this occurrence, I was STARVING when I got home today.  All I wanted when I finally got home tonight was one loaf of french bread with a container of butter.  Good ol' white flour carbs.  So, I went to the store to buy a loaf of French bread before Breeze got home.  On the way I stopped to get gas (second attempt of the day) but my gas tank opening would not open.  No budging.  I knew for sure it was broken and we would have to take it into the shop tomorrow.  I went to show my sister the problem when I arrived at home and it freakin' popped right open!  To make a long story somewhat short, I got gas and finally went to the store to get french bread, a spice cake mix to make cookies, some veggies, flour and cinnamon sticks.  My only thought on the way home was which item I was going to eat for dinner first.  Fortunately I have a rational husband who made me tacos for dinner and I made the cookies for dessert.  The recipe is below. 

Recap- Hunger is NOT good for the mind!! I'm pretty sure there are studies out there that say you get dumber (see!) when you don't eat.  

One Spice Cake + One Can Pumpkin + 10-12 minutes on 350 = Deliciousness

You don't even have to be smart to make these... Perfect for a day you skip lunch

 

First Trip to Trader Joes

I got to go to Trader Joes this weekend!! And to add bonus points, it was with my mom, sister, aunt, and cousin and they love food as much as I do.  We had so much fun.  I walked around the perimeter of the store first, then I walked up and down each aisle, up one side then down the other to make sure I didn't miss anything.  I'm pretty sure I bought one of each of everything they had to offer.

This isn't everything.  I kept trying to get everything together for a picture and just couldn't manage it.  I kept forgetting 1-5 items.  I was tired, okay.

Booze, baby!  Ginger beer for Moscow Mules (my girl Oprah's favorite drink), 3 Buck Chuck, and Trader Jose.

Grocery items, some of which I needed anyway and some of which I just had to take home.  2 salad dressings- Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette and Champagne Pear Vinaigrette with Gorgonzola (OMG!), fancy cherries, better 'n peanut butter, Trader Joes pizza sauce, Gouda cheese, Munster cheese, whole wheat pizza dough!, almond milk, and spicy jalapeno chicken sausages.

Sweets and junk.  Reduced fat cheese puffs (total hungover impulse buy), Fiberful fruit bars, dark chocolate pistachio covered toffee (ah-mazing), smashed smores, vanilla something caramels, chocolate frozen banana bites, brownie batter, and dark chocolate with caramel and sea salt.

Believe it or not this isn't even everything.  I had so much fun there!  The only thing they didn't have was Kombucha tea but I won't bring that up because I don't want to be a Debbie Downer.

Chili + Corn Muffins + Apple Cake

Yeah, it's totally fall around this neck of the woods.  It's stormy and rainy today and I was so happy we went to the store before the nasty weather rolled in.  We planned for the ultimate "first weekend it really feels like fall" kind of weekend.  I'll give you three guesses on what we planned to make.

Chili, duh.

We made Breeze's famous chili!  And corn muffins (I'm not talking about Jiffy here).  And apple cake.

Since you'll be making all this tomorrow, here are the recipes.

Chili- There is no recipe, but this is the general outline of how we make chili.

Recipe
Black beans
Chili beans- medium and mild
Kindey beans
Red beans
Fire roasted diced tomatoes
Chili diced tomatoes
Tomato paste
Tomato sauce
Orange pepper
Yellow pepper
Red peppers
Green peppers
Pickles
Pickle juice (this is the secret ingredient that makes all the difference)
3 lbs. ground beef
Onion
Salt and pepper


Brown the meat with the onion.  Add everything together in the crock pot on high for a few hours or until heated through.

Corn Muffins
Adapted from How Sweet Eats Blog
Recipe
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup creamed corn
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 egg
1/3 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 jalapeno, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 425.
Stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl.  Add the cream corn, melted butter, milk, cream, and egg.  Mix it all together.  Fold in the grated cheese and jalapenos if using.  Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Caramelized Apple Upside Down Cake
Adapted from Food Network
Recipe
1 stick butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash nutmeg
1 apple, thinly sliced
For the cake
6 tablespoons butter, very soft
1 cup sugar (I only had 1/2 cup white sugar left so I used 1/2 white, 1/2 brown sugar)
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare the cake 9 inch round cake pan by buttering the bottom and the sides.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  After everything melts together, let boil for 30 seconds.  Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan, scraping all of the mixture with a spatula evenly into the pan. Place the apple slices on top.

Now make the cake.  Beat the butter and sugar until creamy.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth and fluffy (about two minutes).  Add in the dry ingredients and beat 10 seconds.  Add the milk and beat until until fully mixed, about one minute.  Pour the batter on top of the apple slices.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Flip the cake over onto a plate.

To review-
Chili
Corn Muffins
Apple Cake

Enjoy!  And try not to do this!

So we put too many chili ingredients in the crock pot.  Our bad.

 

Let's Talk About the Weather

I have super conflicted feelings about this weather.  I'm okay with it being this wonderful outside as long as we have a few more outrageously hot days.  I need to get my fix before the heat is gone.  Plus, the ragweed has come out in full force.  Welcome back to a wonderful piece of nature that ruins my life.  I had to get a shot in my butt cheek yesterday to try and ward off the pollen's power.  And I had no time to prepare for it. Looking back it was probably best not to tell me any more than two minutes that the shot was coming or I guarantee I would have rescheduled it!
Anywho, back to the weather.
The one thing I do love about this weather is grilling.  It always seems to be associated with summer but who wants to cook outside when it's a million degrees outside?  Not my hubby.  So now that we have these amazing temperatures, we get to grill again!

On tonight's menu, we had cheeseburgers from outside and roasted broccoli and asparagus from inside.  That's what we call teamwork!

Step One:
Our burgers were a modified version of Breeze's favorite recipe.  I used ground beef, bits of bacon, Worcestershire, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

Step Two:
Roasting vegetables is the best way to cook any veggie, I swear on it!  Just spray down some asparagus and broccoli pieces with some olive oil, sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic powder and pop it in the oven at 450 for 20-25 minutes or until the burgers are ready.

Enjoy!

Hey, what's up?

Hey Blog Followers!
First things first, I'd like to apologize for my loooong absence!  I can make up excuses or I can just tell you is that I put the blog on the back burner.  Because there are no signs of anything slowly down, I have new blog goals.
1. To blog at a minimum of once a week, hopefully more.
2. To blog about many things, not just recipes, but keeping healthy living as the main theme.  Trust me food is on my mind about 99% of the time so there shouldn't be any issue with it coming up frequently.

Now, let's catch up!

I've still been cooking dinner almost every night since I started working/quit blogging.  It makes me feel guilty that I don't share the recipes/pictures.  The main problem is I'm in much more of a hurry these days.  If I remember half way through the cooking process that I forgot to take pictures, I scrap the idea of blogging about that specific recipe.  I guess that is another goal of mine, to take pics of more meals so I have more options on which recipes I want to blog about given a more limited amount of time.

Tonight I had a cardio meltdown.  It's pretty much what drove me to blog tonight.  I'm sooooo bummed because I didn't get signed up for Spin in time this session and all the bikes were reserved when I called.  I literally almost cried.  This led to me really dreading working out/doing cardio  tonight, which led to the following routine:
Dance cardio DVD I haven't done in months.  Lasted ten minutes.  Treadmill to do interval training.  Lasted ten more minutes.  Five jumping jacks. Blog.

Lastly, I want to address the main reason I've been gone so long which is as most people know, I started my new career.  I love saying career vs job.  Job was explained to me as just over broke and I never liked thinking that is how I was living.  One of the best things about my current work is I'm so busy I don't even think about paychecks or stress about when pay day is anymore.  It's such a relief.  That's not to say there aren't new stresses, because there totally are.  I feel a whole different kind of stress/pressure than I felt at the salon.  Joining a new company means there is so much to learn: names, faces, responsibilities, terminology, etc.  Although marketing is a whole different ballgame than coordinating chaos at Salon 9, I use many of the skills I was taught or developed while I was there.  One thing that definitely didn't change when I switched to a new workplace is that I still work with mostly women.  I might as well get used to it, huh?

Well there are my somewhat random thoughts to get me back to blogging.  I'll be back soon!
By the way, what's for dinner?