Come check me out at my new web address: www.newpinkapron.com
I moved my blog everyone!!!
Come check me out at my new web address: www.newpinkapron.com
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SNOW DAY!! I absolutely love the fact that I work in a profession where I can still get excited as a kid does about snow days. I may celebrate these days a little differently than I did when I was 8, but the simple joy of a free day still makes me do a fist pump at 6am. This is how I spent most of my snow day morning... It was an absolutely lovely morning and I enjoyed every minute of it, and the fact that it was VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!.....made it even better. Tom gave me this envelope....there was a very adorable card inside too but I liked the envelope message most. He also gave me these..........i love him. Ok OK! Enough gushing about my handsome feller.....and my snow day. I actually DID do something productive with my life on this day. I MADE SOUP!! Creamy, Sumptuous, Luxurious, Butternut Squash Soup. I was introduced to this recipe by my good friends and colleagues from Moncton High, Chris and Lindsay West. They got it from an amazing website called www.againstallgrain.com. This soup is so simple to make, which, I mean....clearly, is right up my alley. AND!! It tastes like you're eating a hot and steamy bowl of melted butter and chicken. Which again.......is right up my alley. Mmmmm................. Ok drumroll please! The Recipe!!!!!! Ingredients 2 garlic cloves minced 2 carrots, peeled and cubed one cup butternut squash *side note, this was the first time I've ever bought butternut squash and I had to watch a youtube video to figure out how to cut it and peel it. Tom was very frightened for the life of my fingers. BUT I PREVAILED! 1 small sweet potato peeled and cubed half yellow onion chopped 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 4 cups chicken broth * I bought one of those Knorr boxes of chicken broth, the whole box is what you need. 2-3 cups shredded chicken * I bought one of those roasted chickens from Superstore and shredded just the breasts. Saved the rest of the chicken for Tom and the carcass to boil for homemade broth. 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley 1/4 teaspoon oregano 1/4 teaspoon cracked pepper 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary 1 teaspoon sea salt 1 cup water 2 cup baby spinach Directions 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F 2. Toss vegetables with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour into a roasting pan and roast for 20 mins. 3. Meanwhile, bring the chicken broth to a simmer in a large pot. Add in the chicken, herbs and salt and pepper. Cover and cook while the vegetables are roasting. 4. When the vegetables are done roasting, take half of them and put them in a blender with one cup of water. Blend until smooth. Pour the puree into the pot with the broth. Add the rest of the roasted veggies and baby spinach. Cover and simmer another 10 mins. 5. SERVE AND FRIGGING ENJOY! Since I got this recipe I've made it twice in one week. For Tom and I it makes about 6 servings? It's hard to say...I usually scoop out one measuring cup full, but Tom is a monster so.......... I like to serve it with a hunk of multigrain baguette! Extra deliciousness. Also! For calorie counters like myself, I put this recipe into My Fitness Pal and it comes out to about 223 cals per serving! This is the perfect lunch to take to school because the leftovers are even better the next day... or two.... or three. So I made soup....but it was not our planned dinner for Valentine's Day. Come on guys...soup is good.....but it's not romantic. So..................... WE MADE PITA PIZZAS!!!! THE MOST ROMANTIC OF ALL THE FOODS! Jaime was pretty stoked. First we decorated the apartment for V-day, then we decorated our pizzas.....and then we decorated..... CUPCAKES!!!! The best part of this photo is the little Meowface....
Well that's it for this post! Until next time friends! Now go enjoy a hot and steamy bowl of butternut squash chicken soup! PICO DE GALLO! I don't know how many of you have had Pico before but it is soooo yummy! I haven't had it in forever and I most certainly have never made it myself. When I found a recipe for it on Pinterest and actually looked at the ingredients, I felt like a fool. A Pico de FOOL! It's INSANELY simple!!! So after school I marched myself right over to Superstore and picked up these lovely items: I had never bought fresh jalapeno peppers before and I'm sure I looked like a complete dummy standing in the grocery store staring at the plethora of little unique peppers in the veggie area. Conveniently the packages have a thermometer on them to show you how "Spicy" or how "Hot" each of the different peppers are. Jalapenos, I have discovered, are low on the thermometer. They are considered just spicy, not hot.... more on this later. Something else new I picked up were these Neal Brothers Multigrain Tortilla Chips. I usually buy the Tostitos ones, you know, the one next to the pre-made salsa and all the other chips? Well because I'm on this kick of trying to eat as clean and/or naturally as I can manage/afford....I wondered through the organic section of chips and crackers etc instead..I spied these Neal Brothers chips and found that they were $3.29 per bag, of course I cringed at the price and headed out to find my tried and true Tostitos....Only to find that they were $3.99 per bag! Pffffft! So I ran right back to 'ol Neal and put him in my cart. And I'm glad I did! Not only can I pronounce every single ingredient on the back of the bag, but they are DELICIOUS! So....from now on..........I'm with Neal. Ok, so let's get to the "recipe". Literally you just have to chop all of your veggies up and throw em in a bowl But I'll tell you how many veggies I chopped. 3 Roma Tomatoes Half of a sweet onion Half green pepper 2 jalapeno peppers One whole package of cilantro (you can see the size of package I used in the photo above) Once you get all that into a bowl, squeeze the juice from half a lime in, add half teaspoon of salt and pepper and mix it all together. Voila! Doesn't that look tasty?!
Also, I promise I'll eventually get better at taking "food photos". I gotta figure out a way to get more light into these. So, after I whipped this up it smelled soooooo good but it needed to chill before serving so I popped it in my fridge and hit the treadmill for an hour. You bettah BELIEVE I was STARVING by the time I was finished, so I was a little too eager. When I dived in I immediately regretted it!! Yes, it was delicious! BUT! IT WAS SO SPICY! *Disclaimer* I am a giant wuss when it comes to spicy food. I looked like the cookie monster because I felt that the more tortilla chips I ate, the less my mouth would be on fire. Seems like a genius idea right? Nope. The salt made it worse! Hahaha But honestly, with a few chugs of water I was better. So I kept eating and it was just a vicious cycle. Needless to say, when I make this again I will only use ONE Jalapeno pepper and see if that makes a difference. Until then, I blast Rhianna's "Girl on Fire" and eat my Pico de Gallo like a demented cookie monster. And I will enjoy every minute of it because I made this food myself. :) OK! So here we go! Yesterday I made the most delicious little muffins I have ever had. I must tell you, first and foremost, I am no baker....this is not something I do. I tend to have the type of personality that looks at a recipe and goes "well, most of these ingredients could be substituted for what I actually have in my cupboards right?" But alas! I followed yesterdays recipe to a tee (mostly because the ingredient list was so small and simple, even I couldn't screw it up) And I ended up with the muffins of the gods. The recipe is from my new favourite website: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/ If you get a chance head over to her site because she has tons and tons of recipes for muffins, cakes, bars, etc. All the good stuff! She also has a whole section of "Skinny" treats which are lightened up for those calorie counters like myself. I entered this recipe into My Fitness Pal and it came out at 112 cals per muffin. I think I may have used less chocolate chips than Sally but they were still incredibly good and satisfying. My boyfriend, Tom, the meat, bread and cheese eater, even gave these a thumbs up (and ate like six of them). They are moist, chocolately, easy and perfect to take to school! My kind of treat! Here's the recipe in case you don't get over to http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/ BUT YOU SHOULD!
Ingredients:
Directions: Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray a muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. In a large bowl, gently toss the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and applesauce until together until no brown sugar lumps remain - a fork works well to break up the brown sugar here. Add the beaten egg white until fully incorporated. Add the wet ingredients to the dry until *just* combined - do not overmix. Fold in the strawberries and chocolate chips. Divide the batter evenly between 10 muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Muffins will be lightly golden in color and a toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean. Mine took about 17 minutes. Allow muffins to cool and enjoy! Muffins stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for 7 days. Muffins can be frozen. So there you go! I did some baking and it turned out wonderful! So far so good! I have another post for you that I am working on where I made Pico de Gallo for the first time.....little bit of a different story. |