{Great Gatsby Party}

It was my birthday recently... {two months ago "recently"} One thing I love is the 1920's! So I figured it's my last year in my 20's let's go Great Gatsby style. So I took a little trip over to Pinterest to start my inspiration board. Since it was just a few friends over I wanted to keep it simple. However, "simple" always ends up being more stress. I just can't seem to have a stress free party. There's never enough time to get all my details hashed out before guest start arriving. I got simple decorations from Ross, Walmart, and Party City. I made the sparkly bottles out of recycled bottles and glitter spray paint. Overally it still worked out in the end... I might need to hire an assistant though.. I am now taking applications. 

menu

{links below}

Baked tortellini with marinara dipping sauce

mini veggie dips

pesto chicken and tomato kabobs 

pepperoni caprese bites

Sparkling cider

Strawberry pineapple shaker-upper

Mother Mocktail {Juice Blend}

 

Kiss the Cook

I haven't tried any new recipes lately. But I thought I would share one of our favorites that are now a staple in our weekly meal plans.

We have consciously tried to switch out a lot of ingredients in our food to make them a bit healthier for us. They have turned out to be really awesome and we can't get enough!

Tacos

We switched ground beef for ground turkey and we can't even taste the difference.

As well as making our own taco seasoning. It's way better than buying the packaged seasoning. They end up having too much "extra" stuff that we don't want. 

1lb Ground Turkey

Corn taco shells

cheese {we shred block cheese ourselves. Supposedly the bagged stuff is more processed}

Tomatoes

Plain greek yogurt {instead of sour cream}

Avocados 

Taco Seasoning

1Tbl Chili Powder

1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2 tsp Dried Oregano

1/2 tsp Paprika

1 1/2 tsp Ground cumin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Brown meat, rinse

Add seasoning to meat. Add 1/3 cup water



Happy Fiesta!

Kiss the cook

We tried a new recipe this weekend and it was super easy and tasty. We also had one of our favorites as well. I found Cinnamon Roll waffles on Pinterest of course. One of those pictures that pops up as you are scrolling away. I thought that is the easiest thing ever might as well try it. Basically follow the steps on the pictures and spray the waffle maker with some non stick spray. The only weird thing is the texture. I definitely like the dough'y part of cinnamon rolls and these get flattened and a little stiffer like waffles. But they are still good and faster to make then cinnamon rolls in the oven. You can eat them with your hands too.

Cinnamon Roll waffles

Lasagna Roll ups 

This is by far one of our favorite dinner recipes. It's so easy and fast to make.  We got it from our Taste of home recipe book. It calls for three rolls but you can easily double it up for more people. It also says to use swiss cheese. Which we tried the first time but you can really use any cheese. We prefer to use mozarella cheese and we also switch to turkey pepperoni. You can't really tell the difference. Add some salad and garlic bread and it's time to eat! YUM!

{Kiss the Cook}

Another new weekly post I wanted to share. I am always trying new recipes out from the internet. Some are awesome, some not so much. Here are a few new recipes we have tried as of late and my reviews on them. 

Baked Chicken Stuffed with pesto and cheese

Recipe from kalynskitchen.com

This one was mainly for the hubby. He loves pesto and so I thought why not. I didn't have the right crumbs for the coating so I just used Italian style bread crumbs instead. I wasn't a huge fan with the end result. But Evan loved it. Not sure I will make it again since we weren't raving about it.

Caprese stuffed turkey burgers

Recipe from brokeandbougie.blogspot.com

I recently searched for clean eating recipes on Pinterest and came across this recipe. I had a ton of ground turkey so I chose this one to try out. 

It was pretty easy to make too. The only thing was cooking it a bit extra to make sure both sides of meat were cooked all the way through. I didn't have the right cheese either so I just substituted the cheese with whatever we had. It didn't really matter. 

I also made this again for my parents and they loved it too. And I figured out that it taste good with ranch dressing to dip in. 

What's your favorite recipe you think I should try? 

Been there...Ate That!

I have been getting adventurous in the Kitchen. I really enjoy cooking now!

It's funny because when I was younger and pretty far into my young mama years! I would constantly look in the pantry or fridge and say the most common phrase of the "lazy people"

"There's nothing to eat!"

I would drive my mom up the wall. Fact was there was nothing easy to make or nothing I wanted.

I wasn't really forced to cook growing up. I knew some basics. How to boil water, how to use a microwave ;) etc. You know important things.

I remember a couple times when we were living in Colorado. I had friends over for dinner on two separate occasions. Two separate friends. I think I made something easy that night. Probably things you just pop into an oven. And you know what?! Those friends made fun of me! They were expecting a real meal. I guess we had different views on a "real meal". I laughed it off but I was secretly bummed. No one likes to be made fun of. I kind of felt like a failure as a wife and a mom. Because I couldn't cook.

Another reason I believe Pinterest is sent from God to help some of us girls out with these stressful areas of our lives! Cooking, decorating, wedding planning, etc.

I had had enough and I started cooking. You know the funny thing was! I did know how to cook! Anyone can cook you just follow a recipe. Then after all it just comes naturally.

I even impress the husband on occasion!

Here are a few recipes I've done recently.

Grilled Flank Steak with Tomatoes

Egg Nog French Toast

Caprese Stuffed Turkey Burgers

{Sweet Tooth}

There are two blogs I follow on for some awesome recipes. One is mainly dinners and trying to stay healthy. The other one is to satisfy my serious sweet tooth! So be warned! You will be drooling after you read this post!

From Sallysbakingaddiction.com

Golden Oreo Cake Batter Blondies

 

When I made these I was trying to please the husband because he has an obsession with cake batter anything. We had friends over so I figured I would try this dessert. While I made them I finally realized {Total "Blonde" Moment...No pun intended} I never knew why they were called blondies. Brownies are brown! Blondies are blonde! A lightbulb lit up in front of me and I felt so stupid. But we had a good laugh about it! That's me! Baking you tasty treats and providing the comedic relief.. :)

DISCLAIMER:

These are soooo sweet/rich so one is plenty with vanilla ice cream.  

I found these bad boys on Pinterest. But my family has been making them for years! 

They are called  Resurrection Rolls on a different site. We always called them snails. I like the idea of it representing something special though and you can do it with kids. They are super easy! Perfect for Easter coming up!

Now for some SkinnyTaste recipes. Low Fat desserts that taste awesome are a great find. I seriously swear by this site. Everything tastes good. One of our favorite desserts is this pie. 

Takes a few minutes to make then its in the fridge for a couple hours and that's it!

Since it's low-fat the ingredients were cut in half. So it doesn't fill the entire pie crust. Just an FYI! Still tastes awesome though!

 

No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie 

I made these back in May for my nephews birthday. Everyone loved them! It's kinda hard to stop at just one!

Mini- red, white, and blueberry Cheesecakes

 

{Favorite SKINNYTASTE recipes}

If you know me you know I don't have a long history of being a "cook". In fact I when I was growing up there were many times where I would go look in the fridge/pantry and yell to my mom that there was nothing to eat. Our first several years of marriage consisted of a lot of pasta, a lot of frozen dinners and maybe burritos. Easy stuff that could just be pulled out, heated up and ready to eat in no time.
Thank God for pinterest. Honestly! It made recipe finding a whole lot easier. You see a picture of a dish it looks good so you click the recipe. Now that we are in our new place for almost a year already. I've been consistently cooking up a storm.

This NEW year I've been trying really hard for this family to eat better. It's hard! Not because of lack of willing to do so. But because of time and budget. Unfortunately it's always been this way that healthier foods cost more where junk food is super cheap. There's really no way around that. Or healthy food doesn't taste good and takes up too much time to make. Since I can't fix the cost factor, I can help with the time and taste. So I have compiled a ton of my favorite recipes from my favorite website. www.Skinnytaste.com It's got a lot of lightened up recipes that taste absolutely yummy. Here are a few our favorites that we have made several times and can't get enough of.

Spaghetti with Sauteed chicken and grape tomatoes

Grilled Flank Steak

Mexican Slow Cooked Pork Carnitas

Baked Chicken Parmesan

Baked Chicken Milanese with Arugula and tomatoes

Puerto Rican style beans

I will post my favorite dessert recipes from Skinnytaste next time. This should occupy for awhile :)