Four Days Strong!

It has officially been 4 days since I ate macaroni and cheese. This is an incredible feat for me. Probably not as big a feat as not having a bagel since I got back down to Tampa on January 15th (mini bagels do not count). Anyway, I have made a few more delicious things in the past few days.

Mashed cauliflower is always a treat. I tried to make it when I was home over Christmas break, but didn't feel like using the food processor and it was a failure. It wasn't awful, but not nearly as good as the couple of time I have made it with the food processor. I made some steamed green beans with mashed cauliflower and balsamic chicken the other night. Delicious. I just seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper and then sautéed it on medium heat for a few minutes per side. Added some balsamic vinegar, covered for a few minutes and voilá!

Last night I cooked up some steak I had in the freezer from when I made fajitas a little while ago. I tossed it in the pan and let it heat up, put about a tablespoon of barbecue sauce on it, covered, and done.  I also had that with some leftover cauliflower and green beans.

I bought the most delicious bread the other day at Greenwise. It is wheat bread made with flax and sunflower seeds. Delicious as a sandwich, or I also made a yummy breakfast yesterday. Toasted the bread, spread some avocado, fried an egg, topped with sriracha. Delicious.

I am going to tackle a very simple crockpot meal tomorrow. Start my own kind of "Slow-Cooker Sunday" tradition. How grown up of me. Or cliché, I can't decide.

Today's The Day

I decided that I need to get back into blogging. I've been much too lazy lately and I think publishing my meals will also get me back into eating healthier! I've taken a much too long vacation. 

I woke up this morning wanting nothing more than an orange KitchenAid mixer. I suppose the appropriate term would be "tangerine," but it'll match my cats and that's what matters. I think I'll be requesting one of those as a graduation gift in May. Seems a bit silly since I'm moving back in with mommy and she already has one. I'm a winner. Oh well, I want one. 

Off to plan meals for the weekend!

You will be mine.

You're already mine,

Bare Fridge

My refrigerator is as bare as it could be at this point, because I fly back to Boston tomorrow! I am very excited to be going home for the winter break and to see my family over Christmas. I am hoping I can bear the cold. When I left there in August, it was pretty hot up north, too! Anyway, I wish I could share more recipes before I go. Hopefully I will continue to post when the semester ends and the new one begins. This was a good semester, and I am glad my professor encouraged us to get our creative juices flowing through blogging.

Thanks for reading!

Brown Sugar Cookie Icing

The cookies came out a bit dry. I wasn't  used to the batter being so thin, so I added a bit more flour. They ended up tasting a bit like cupcakes. Tasty anyway.

For the icing you'll need:

1/8 cup butter

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Start by melting the butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Make sure to keep and eye on it. 

Add the confectioners sugar, using a sifter if you have one. 

Mine was a bit clump.

Finally, add enough milk to get a spreading consistency. 

Spread on the cookies, and enjoy!

These would have come our much better if I had used different ingredients. I used fake butter which I think made them the way they are. I got the original recipe here. Perhaps I will try them again in the future and see how they come out! Definitely not a total fail, and I also am not really a big fan of cookies. Oh well! 

Brown Sugar Coookies

I came across these online, and decided to test them out. They seemed pretty easy, and as my food resources are dwindling I figured, why not? I'm not a huge fan of sweets, as I've mentioned before, but they looked too good in the picture. I halved the recipe.

All you'll need: 

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon melted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cup flour

1/3 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter, and add the brown sugar.

Add the egg and beat. 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking power, baking soda, and salt. 

Begin adding the flour mixture while alternating with sour cream, and mixing. 

Spoon the batter onto an un-greased cookie sheet, and bake for about 9 minutes. 

Check out the next post to see the icing!

Steak Fajita Burrito Hybrid

My roommate wanted to make tacos for dinner the other night, but I needed to make something new that I could post on my blog. So, I recommended fajitas. I have never made them before, but decided to give it a go. I'm not even sure I made them correctly, because I didn't follow a recipe at all. I pretty much threw some stuff together that we already had!

So, to recreate this you'll need:

1/2 pound steak

1/3 cup barbecue sauce

1 pouch ready rice

1/2 medium onion

1 pepper

3 tortillas

Start by marinading the steak a few hours before you cook.

Chop the onions and the peppers and sauté them over medium heat.

Add the steak, and cover. Let simmer until the sauce thickens. 

Place the tortillas in the oven and bake, just to heat up.

When the steak is almost done, cook the rice!

Add the rice to the tortilla first, then the steak and the peppers and onions.

Top with plain greek yogurt if desired, and enjoy!

The reason I named these guys fajita burrito hybrids is because I added the rice. I was going to add some black beans too, but we didn't have any! My roommate must have eaten them when I wasn't looking one day. So, I suppose they aren't fajitas at all because I didn't even use a fajita seasoning. Oh well, I like the name!

Parma Rosa Helper?

So I am trying to clear out my fridge and pantry because I'll be going home for winter break. I had some left over ground turkey that needed to be cooked, but I didn't feel like having tacos or anything like that. My mom used to always make me pasta with parma rosa sauce when I was a kid. I am absolutely addicted to it. I couldn't find a place in Florida that sold it until a few weeks ago, and she used to mail it to me! So, I decided to just make some pasta with parma rosa sauce, and cook up the ground turkey and throw it it. Super easy...

What you'll need:

Ground turkey

Pasta

Parma Rosa sauce (or any other sauce you like)

1 1/4 cup milk or almond milk

1 tablespoon butter

I like to use almond milk for everything. I think it actually makes things taste a little creamier and sweeter. 

Start by cooking the ground turkey over a skillet.

 It doesn't take long to brown. 

Meanwhile, boil your water for the pasta. 

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat. 

Add the milk, and mix. 

Add the parma rosa mix and whisk until smooth. 

Continue to stir until it begins to boil, and then let simmer until you're ready to eat.

Cook your desired pasta according to the instructions on the package. 

Strain the pasta,

add the ground turkey, 

pour the sauce over the top, 

sprinkle cheese over if desired.

Enjoy! I am an absolute carb lover. I could eat and entire box of pasta. So, this may be a very boring meal to some, but so me its wonderful. I decided to call it Parma Rosa Helper because of my weird decision to throw some ground turkey in there. My recipes will probably continue to be strange until I go home!