Soft Baked Fig Crumbles

My friend recently introduced me to Eat Live Run's blog and I'm hooked. There are so many recipes on her blog I want to try, and the added bonus is that she also blogs about travel and wine country, 2 things close to my heart.

I decided to make the soft baked fig cereal bars, as they looked like a healthy option for breakfast or for an afternoon snack. Also, because I love figs.  You're probably starting to notice that I love a lot of food. I didn't have the patience to put the love into rolling out the crumbly dough, so mine turned out more like soft baked fig crumbles, which worked just as well for me. I 'rolled' out the bottom rectangle straight onto the cookie sheet, covered it with the fig paste, and then pieced together the other half of the dough on top as crumbles. I also baked it as one big giant bar and then cut it into squares after it was cooked. Needless to say I had one for breakfast this morning, and I was sad I didn't bring an extra for an afternoon snack.

An added bonus is that I had a lot of left over fig paste and I can't wait to use that up with some other recipes. I'll keep you posted on what I end up using it for.

Slow Cooker Carnitas

A slow cooker is a must for any busy cook. You can't beat throwing some ingredients into a slow cooker before heading to work, and coming home to a great smelling apartment and dinner ready. I tend to use mine more in the fall and winter, but really it would be a good way to avoid spending time in the hot kitchen in the summer. I had some pork butt in the freezer so I decided to make carnitas, as it would be a great way to use up some of my tomatillo salsa that I made last week. By the way, the pork butt does not actually come from the pigs rear end, it's part of the shoulder. This is also another one of those dishes that doesn't photograph nearly as well as it tastes, the recipe is below.

Strawberry Green Tea Smoothie

Smoothie's are such a refreshing summer breakfast, drink or snack. Almost as refreshing as an ice cold beer on a nice summer day, and definitely healthier. Smoothies are a great way to use up fruit that is on the verge of going bad, which is exactly what I did here.  I'll be adding this strawberry green tea to my smoothie rotation, changing up the fruit depending on what I have on hand.  One of my other favorites is my peanut butter banana, yes it's as good as it sounds and I'll be posting about it here at some point.

I also completed the Philadelphia Triathlon, ate a Pat's Cheesesteak, and had a lot of fun with friends this weekend, which is my excuse for taking the easy way out and posting an easy baked sweet potato and smoothie recipe in a row.  Don't get me wrong they are both delicious, but I'll be honest, it's my filler for not cooking in the past 5 days.  Keep reading for the smoothie recipe, and keep in mind that you can substitute any fruit you have on hand for the strawberries and peach.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite vegetables, which works out great since they are packed full of nutrients and very healthy for you. They give you more than the recommended daily value of Vitamin A and about 1/3 of the Vitamin C needed, Whole Foods has the details here, or you can just trust me.

Sweet potatoes are also very versatile. I've never been a fan of the way you usually see them prepared at Thanksgiving with brown sugar and the works, that's just too sweet for me. I really enjoy them cooked on the grill, sauteed with spinach, in a black bean burrito, baked, in soups, as french fries, really the list could go on. The baked sweet potatoes I'm featuring in this post are far from fancy, and a ridiculously easy weeknight side and also make a good lunch. Most offices have microwaves, and it's definitely worth annoying your coworkers and holding up the microwave for 10 minutes for this healthy and tasty lunch. The recipe for this recipe, which is a knock off of these grilled sweet potatoes with scallions, is below.

Grilled Fish Tacos

Grilled Tilapia

The Taco

I used the Roasted Tomatillo Salsa recipe from yesterday on these Tilapia Fish Tacos, and they made the perfect pair. Tilapia is pretty widely available and reasonably priced, but can be substituted with any white fish (cod, haddock, catfish, mahi mahi, pollock, red snapper, sea bass). If you already made the Tomatillo Salsa, or just opted to buy some bottled at the store, these make a quick and easy weeknight meal.  This was just what I was looking for after a long day of work, followed by one of my last training workouts before the Philly Triathlon this weekend. The tacos were really tasty too! Click below for the recipe.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

I've always been a fan of Mexican and Tex Mex foods, and chips and salsa are one of my favorite snacks. So when I saw tomatillos at the store last weekend I decided to venture away from my normal red and give my try at making some salsa verde.  Tomatillos look like small green tomatoes that grow in husks, and create a salsa that is a bit more tangy and mild (which can be made up for with extra jalapeños and a little hot sauce).  It goes really well with enchiladas, tacos, fish and eggs, among many other things.  


Keep reading for the Roasted Tomatillo Salsa recipe and check back later this week for the fish tacos we had with it tonight for dinner.

3 Ingredient Cookies!

Our good friends moved into our building last week, and growing up my mom always taught me to welcome new neighbors with cookies.  In fact, we moved around a lot, and we would just welcome ourselves with cookies. So I went back to Picky Palate's vault and found these Fluffernutter cookies with only 3 ingredients.  They sounded too good to be true, peanut butter, fluff and an egg, that's it.  I literally whipped the dough together in 5 minutes and threw them in the oven, can't beat that!  Mine didn't turn out as pretty as the ones on Picky Palate's page, but they were soft, chewy and delicious.  I think next time I need to add a little extra fluff, and there will be a next time.

Happy Father's Day!

Firecracker Shrimp Salad

I made this salad using The Pioneer Woman's Firecracker Shrimp, which is delicious on its own as well as in this salad, and is so so easy to make. I agree with her that Sriracha is the best hot sauce choice, so definitely use that when making this recipe.  I don't skewer the shrimp before putting them on my grill pan, call me lazy.

I love shrimp, of course fresh is the best, but I stock up on frozen uncooked shrimp as it thaws and cooks up quickly, which is perfect for weeknight dinners.

For this salad I used fresh shrimp that I picked up on sale at the store and tossed it with mixed greens,  avocado, corn, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, black beans, and onions.  I threw on a little ranch dressing as it helped balance the very spicy shrimp (because I always use extra Sriracha).  I'll be making this again, very soon.

Southwest Chicken Burgers

I have the grinding attachment for my mixer, and I love it when I find the time to actually use it to grind up some meat.  I enjoy playing with combinations of different cuts and combinations. I also like knowing that it gives me control of the quality and cut going into my meatball or burger, rather than just buying a package of ground meat.  This is probably more so for beef than chicken like I ground (I want to say grinded, but Google  tells me it's not actually a real word) up this past weekend, but I had fun with it and made a juicy and delicious chicken burger that was well worth the grinding.

I ground up some chicken thighs and breasts for my burgers, to have a combination of light and dark meat, and added in some chipotle peppers and other spices to come up with my Southwest Chicken Burgers.  I served them with Healthy Crunchy Onion Rings from How Sweet It Is.  Keep reading for the burger recipe, which makes about 6-8 burgers depending on what size patties you prefer.

S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have two amazing/adorable/wonderful nephews and an equally amazing/adorable/wonderful niece. And I'm not just saying that because I'm their aunt, I have proof.  Unfortunately they live too far away from me and talking on the phone to their crazy aunt isn't on the top of their priority list, I fall far behind playing baseball and watching Dora.  So this weekend I decided to bribe my youngest nephew to talk on the phone to me with cookies, and it worked, he was on the phone faster than I've ever seen him.  He was nice enough to tell me he likes any cookies, anything with sugar really, so I decided to make these S'more Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies from Picky Palate.  It was really hard to decide which cookies of hers to make, she has so many good looking cookies on her blog and proves that you can stuff a cookie with pretty much anything,  I'll keep you updated as I work my way through this collection.

The cookies are HUGE and sinful, so large and full of sugar, my brother and sister-in-law may forbid my nephews from talking on the phone to me from now on.  They were put in the mail Monday so I'm hoping they stay fresh all the way to California.  If they don't, it's the thought that counts (or that I got him on the phone).

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Blue Cheese

In preparation for my triathlon in a couple of weeks, I went for a long run in the rain Saturday morning. To reward myself (and to keep out of the rain) I cooked up a storm the rest of the weekend; Baked Artichoke Dip, S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chicken Burgers (with meat from my grinder), Onion Rings, and these Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms.  I don't know if I'm done yet, but my husband uncorked a bottle of wine so I'm pretty sure that means he's done cleaning up my messes for the weekend.  I'm not sure why, but I have been craving stuffed mushrooms for awhile now and these definitely satisfied me.  The recipe for the mushrooms is below and I'll post the other recipes soon.

Baked Artichoke Dip

I've had my eye on this Baked Artichoke Dip from 101 Cookbooks for quite awhile.  I'm a sucker for dips and anytime I can find a healthier version I'll give it a try.  I will definitely be making this again, although I will make a few changes next time.  I will leave some artichoke chunks in the puree, add spinach, a little more cheese on top, and add more cayenne or crushed red pepper flakes.  And now that my husband is a fan, I won't have to hide the fact that there is tofu in the recipe!

Eating and Drinking Our Way Through Munich

It's been a busy week with very little cooking so I figured now is good time to give my Munich update. We began our trip in Amsterdam, which I posted about here, and from there took the overnight train to Munich.  We spent most of our three days in Munich eating meat and hopping around to different bierhauses and biergartens, but also took a day trip to Füssen to see the picturesque Neuschwanstein Castle.

Now onto the food and beer.  

Barbecue Rubbed Pork Chops

These Barbecue Rubbed Pork Chops from Cooking Light are a staple in my house. They make for a quick weeknight meal and are very juicy and flavorful. I stock up my freezer with pork chops when they are on sale, and I have all of the other ingredients in my pantry so the lack of planning required is a big bonus for me. The only changes I make to the recipe are that I add extra brown sugar if I'm in the mood to make it a little sweeter or extra ground red pepper if I want something spicier, I add more rub each time I turn the meat, and if I have onions on hand I slice them up and grill them with the meat and rub.

I usually serve this with the grilled sweet potatoes from this post or just microwave a sweet potato (poke some holes with a fork and microwave 5 minutes, flip it over and cook for 5 more minutes), but tonight I wanted to make whatever side I could find at the small farmers market outside of my building. So red potatoes and random ingredients from my fridge resulted in mashed red potatoes with spinach and mascarpone cheese. The recipe is below.

Eating & Drinking Our Way Through Amsterdam

My husband and I recently took a trip to Amsterdam and Munich and on top of all of the wonderful museums, castles, and palaces we spoiled ourselves with delicious food and beer.  My cousin lives in Amsterdam so we were lucky enough to stay with him and he was able to show us where to find all of this delicious food and drink.

Naan Pizza

I made two variations of naan pizza for dinner last night; one meatball and spinach (because I had some leftover meatballs begging to be eaten in the freezer) and one zucchini, tomato, and onion. Both were really tasty and it was tough deciding which one I wanted a second slice of, so I opted for both.

Naan pizzas are a great solution if you don't know what kind of pizza to make, the smaller size allows you to make several different kinds and it's quicker and easier than making pizza dough. If you can't find naan, use flatbread. Below are the ingredients and directions, but you can of course use any combination that inspires you.  I also refer to 'grilling', but I live an apartment so am forced to use a grill pan which doesn't give the taste that a real grill does.