I went a little extra on this year’s Valentine’s Day treats for Charlotte’s daycare friends. I truly LOVE to bake, but even I must admit this was a bit too time consuming. However, I still want to share with you my go-to sugar cookie and royal icing recipe! They both come from one of my favorite baking blogs, Bake at 350. You can tell I’m not a master decorator, but I hope to work on my royal icing technique this year!
She cut a few before getting bored.
Xs & Os!
Not perfect, but DELICIOUS.
Decorating treat bags.
The final product.
Tell me, what have you gone a little “extra” on recently??
While I was home visiting my family, my mom and I made one of her food-delivery-dinners… You know, those boxes that come with everything you need to make an amazing meal. I happened to love this meal, but it was SO EASY that I felt like I could recreate it at home. And so I did, and now I’m sharing with you. You’re welcome.
Tandoori Roasted Cauliflower with Yogurt Sauce and Orange Salad
Ingredients
Cauliflower:
1-2 heads of cauliflower (serves 2-4)
tandoori masala seasoning mix
olive oil
Yogurt Sauce:
1 container plain greek yogurt
tandoori masala seasoning mix
cilantro
Orange Salad:
1-2 large oranges (serves 2-4), pealed and cut into bite sized pieces
1 shallot, thinly sliced
cilantro
olive oil
Side:
Warm naan or couscous makes a good combo with this meal.
Directions
This is SO EASY. Get ready.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Mix together your orange pieces, shallot (to taste), a few pinches of cilantro, and about a tablespoon of olive oil. I also add a little salt and pepper. Set aside.
Mix together yogurt, 1 tablespoon tandoori seasoning, and another few pinches of cilantro. Set aside.
Remove stem and leaves of cauliflower, and cut each head into 8ths. Drizzle olive oil, 2-3 tablespoons tandoori, salt, and pepper and toss to coat. Lay pieces on an aluminum foil covered baking sheet (I recommend spraying it), and bake for about 20 minutes, until roasted.
Serve cauliflower with yogurt sauce, and with orange salad on the side.
I looooove granola, but I feel like the ones we buy in the store are so full of sugar, and are SO expensive. So I decided to attempt my own, and I have to say, I’m pretty happy with the results! It’s not nearly as sweet, and has a great nutty flavor overall. I don’t know about you, but when something is so sweet, it’s easy to overeat it. So here you go, my homemade granola!
Ingredients
4 cups of oats
1 1/2 cup pecans
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt
handful of almond slivers / nuts of your choosing
1/2 cup of oil (I used olive but coconut would be REALLY good)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
extra add ins once it’s cooled: shredded coconut (add halfway through baking for toasted coconut), dried fruit, chocolate chips, and just about anything else you can think of.
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone liners.
2. In a large bowl, combine oats, nuts, cinnamon, and salt. Add in oil, syrup, and vanilla and mix until everything is coated. Pour mixture out onto your prepared pan.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, then stir. Bake for another 8-10. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely before breaking it into pieces. Once it’s cool, add in anything else you’d like, such as dried fruit, chocolate chips, etc.
Enjoy!! I love this with a good greek yogurt. Happy summering!
I hope you had an amazing 4th of July! We had fun with our family and friends, which of course included a cookout. I love to cook and to bake, but sometimes, I just want to make something really simple – especially when I’m bringing it to someone else’s home. So today I’m sharing a few simple ideas for some three-ingredient, patriotic cookout contributions.
Fruit Salad
This is an obvious summer favorite, but you can keep it super simple with watermelon, blueberries, and bananas if you’re stick with a red, “white,” and blue theme. Add in strawberries, apples, pears, and anything else you love! And cutting watermelon into stars is fun for the kids, and for the adults.
Chocolate M&M Pretzels
Remember these beauties? I love these because every holiday has its own themed m&m’s, which makes it easy to create a treat that is holiday-appropriate. Substitute the m&ms with red, white, and blue ones to go patriotic. And if you like caramel, try using rolos instead of hershey kisses!
Flag Kabobs
These are even more fun than star-shaped watermelon for the kiddos. Simply use kabob skewers with marshmallows, blueberries, and either strawberries, cherries, or raspberries (or all of them!) to create a fun little display. Let me know if you’re able to make yours with straighter lines than I did…
What else? Do you have a favorite, easy, summer trick when it comes to all the cookouts and holidays? Please share!
Over the years of my adult life, I’ve really come to LOVE Thanksgiving. I wasn’t a big fan as a kid – we ate a meal and then my boy cousins made jokes I didn’t understand and fell asleep on the floor, while my girl cousins were more than five years older than me and got to sit at the adult table. But NOW. Now I love Thanksgiving. It’s all the food and family and cooking without the stress of gifts and snow and travel that Christmas time brings. Don’t get me wrong – Christmas is still the BEST – but Thanksgiving season means 1) the year is wrapping up soon, 2) more holidays and days off of work are around the corner, and 3) SNUGGLING. Plus wine. Now I can drink wine. Cheers to you, 8-year-old self.
So anyway, in the years of this blog, I’ve managed to write about lots of different recipes, from desserts to health foods to main dishes. And so today I present you with a summary entitled:
Thanksgiving Recipes for All Your People
#1 Three (or less) ingredient appetizers that even your cousin who can’t cook can make.
Pear and Prosciutto Wraps
Baked Brie with Green Pepper Jelly
Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts
#2 Paleo and vegetarian dishes for your health-conscious Aunt Jo, depending on what camp she’s in this year.
Spicy Swiss Chard and Zucchini
Turkey Stuffed Bell Peppers
Garlic Mashed Cauliflower – IT’S SO GOOD.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chili
#3 Traditional-ish desserts for your in-laws.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
Peanut Butter Pie
Pumpkin Spice Layer Cake
Katy’s Strawberry Cake
Let me know how it goes if you try any of them out! And enjoy the kickoff to this holiday season with your family and loved ones. Blessings!
Sometimes, I shop a tad bit impulsively online. It’s not always on clothes – it’s often on random fitness things or jewelry or whatever random thing I think is JUST SO CLEVER.
Recently, I did just such a thing on the website FlapJacked. As my husband can attest, I often am trying new muffin and bar recipes, trying to make them healthier and full of protein. They don’t usually taste very good…so when I stumbled on FlapJacked, I decided to try it! I bought the buttermilk pancake mix (which you can actually make a lot of recipes from) as well as a four-pack with their two types of protein muffins – apple cinnamon and chocolate.
THEY ARE SO GOOD. I mean, granted, if you are familiar with the flavor of protein powder, you can taste it a bit, but seriously these pack such a nutritional punch and seriously curb my muffin cravings.
This weekend, I finally got around to trying the pancake mix. I added cinnamon, and sprinkled each pancake with unsweetened coconut and a few banana slices. Topped it all off with a few walnuts. I was seriously full for such a long time. And again, totally fulfilled my Sunday morning pancake craving. I highly recommend trying it – I certainly will try their other mixes down the road!
I make a lot of recipes from Skinnytaste, but so far, this is definitely one of my favorites. The Skinny Eggplant Rollatini is super flavorful and rich, but yet light enough for a summer dinner. The hubs is out of town, so I made myself this nice big pan on Sunday night, so I have dinners ready-made throughout the week. It was also pretty easy. Only took me a minute to slice up the eggplant (I didn’t use my mandolin, so they are a little uneven, but it really didn’t matter…)
Three minutes to mix up the filling…
Another three minutes to roll them up, and voila! Just need to bake them!
Not the prettiest photo, I know, but these were SO GOOD. And that’s four meals or so right there, ready to go.
I don’t usually go meatless at meals, but I decided to switch it up. You could definitely throw some ground turkey or something into the mix if you wanted to up the protein. I’m sure this would make a great “lasagna,” too, but the cute little rolls make me happy. Enjoy!
