Read Your Recipe!
I’ve had a revelation! We should all eat like babies. Seriously, babies have wonderfully healthy diets. They don’t eat sugar, they enjoy small portions of high fat dairy, lean meat and fish, whole grains, and fruits and veggies. It’s seriously the way we all should eat! These muffins pass the baby health test (as well as the Tessa taste test – decidedly choosy), which means they are FANTASTIC for you.
Occasionally (Ok, every day) I take out the peanut butter, the jelly, and a spoon. I spoon some pb, then dunk in the strawberry jelly, and trace it with a sip of almond milk. In one of my fave cookbooks there is a peanut butter and jelly cookie bar that I’ve been dying to try due to my delight in this mid-afternoon snack. This past weekend I read through the ingredients only to realize there were 3 STICKS of butter in it. Even though I was making it for a party, three sticks just didn’t work for me – Paula Deen I am not. I knew I could find a recipe that was still scrumptious but not plain old ridiculous when it came to the calories and fat. I did! I found one! It’s not health food, by ANY means, but it won’t rock the calorie bank, either.
A salad like this is the PERFect thing to have in your fridge for the sticky summer nights. So many people opt to just grill chicken or fish for dinner, but that makes for a pretty boring plate. Who wants to steam broccoli or bake a sweet potato when it’s 98 degrees outside? Instead, throw this together and not only will your plate be muy colorful, it will healthier and tastier to boot!
Biscotti means “twiced cooked” in Italian, and though this is a cookie many novice bakers shy away from, it’s actually a lot less time consuming than your standard chocolate chip. Especially this recipe! No need for electric mixers – everything is done by hand. Also, the cookies are baked (and then toasted) all on the same sheet, so you don’t need to devote an hour to oven timer watching as you make your way through your bowl of batter.
I would just like to say that the rice krispie treat is underrated. They come together in LITerally five minutes and their deliciousness makes you have shameful conversations with yourself. “I already had one, I don’t need another. But they’re basically breakfast cereal, so another one is fine. Marshmallows are fat free, so it’s cool if I have a third. Oh look, that edge isn’t totally straight, I should even it out”.
I don’t cook/eat beef very often, just ask my husband. If I tell him we are having red meat for dinner, his eyes light up like Christmas morning. It’s sad, really, poor guy. I SHOULD man up and seek out some grass-fed beef for dinner at least once a week. Why? It’s one of the best sources of iron, which is a mineral most women in their child-bearing years are lacking and missing it can cause weakness/exhaustion. It’s also chock-full of protein, B-vitamins and zinc. When cooked up with veggies and beans it’s an absolutely a-okay diet food!
I like homemaking things, as in, I like food that is homemade. I think it tastes better, and I like that I can pronounce and recognize all the ingredients used to make it. That being said, when a recipe has TOO much involved, I pass. If it’s full of arbitrary ingredients that are stupid expensive or difficult to find, I turn the page. Anyone notice that Cooking Light recipes are often this way? Way too many random ingredients. Anyways, I love when you dig into an appetizer dip or a dessert and think – “OMG this is divine! How do you make it!? I need to recreate it as soon as possible!”, and your friend says something like, “Oh, it’s sausage, salsa and sour cream mixed together”. Or, “it’s boxed pudding and oreo cookies”. Dangit! Why did I do all that work for my so-so dish?? If this has happened to you before, I am pleased to bring you this coconut cake recipe.
This post is dedicated to Jenna.. who’s fried ravioli obsession led to many memorable heist jobs from our college cafeteria – my girl straight up brought tupperware.
I love a pasta dish that’s simple but tasty. Forget the anchovy paste and fancy fresh herbs – this is a week night dinner that LITERALLY comes together in the time it takes your pasta to cook – what, 11 minutes?
A restaurant menu with great salad options is the best – like Iron Hill’s. It’s easier to resist the burgers and pizzas when the salads sound so scrumptious. However, I find it difficult to create these huge, multi-ingredient salads at home as I never seem to have the long list (and small amounts) of add-ins in my kitchen – like who randomly has Chinese noodles on hand?