Buffalo Wing Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

-1 lb ground or shredded chicken cooked with cumin, salt, and pepper

-1 c chopped celery 

-1/2 c onion, diced

-2 cans green chiles 

-1/4 c Franks hot sauce

-2 tsp oregano

-2 bell peppers, halved and seeded 

-salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the topping ingredients together and season to taste. Stuff in the pepper halves and put on a baking sheet with a rim. 

Preheat the oven to 350F. Add a loaf pan half full of water and let it warm up about fifteen minutes before adding the peppers in. The steam will help cook the peppers and keep the filling moist. 

Bake for about 35-40 minutes. I plan on topping them with a greek yogurt bleu cheese dressing that is light and healthy. 

Happy crafting!

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Shrimp Skimpy (Healthy Scampi)

Ingredients

-1 zucchini about 6-8 inches long, spiralized into noodles

-1/4 c diced onion

-8 to 10 shrimp

-2 garlic cloves, minced

-EVOO and another flavored oil if desired, I used Fustini's Serrano Honey Vinegar

-salt and pepper to taste

Welcome to your new go-to for healthy in under 15 minutes. 

Anyway put a couple teaspoons of EVOO and a teaspoon or so of the flavored oil if using it in the bottom of a nonstick pan on medium heat. Add your garlic and onions and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring a few times. 

I chopped up my shrimp so that I could get the taste through the dish without having to add so many shrimp. They are kinda expensive and I'm kinda cheap. 

Anyway add the zucchini noodles and shrimp and cook until the shrimp is done, adding salt and pepper as needed. 

And that's IT. You are welcome.  No, seriously, this is really simple and really quick but tastes like you had time. I made this as a lunch dish for tomorrow at work. 

I do suggest chopping your noodle pile in two or three places. You would be surprised how long a zucchini noodle gets from such a small veggie...

I'm really sleepy, so we will keep this short and sweet. Happy crafting!

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Chipotle Fajita Filling

Ingredients:

-1/2 tablespoon espresso bean balsamic vinegar (I like Fustini's)

-1.5 tsp EVOO

-1 tsp puréed chipotle peppers

-4 ounces of cab steak strips or other steak variety 

-2 green bell peppers, sliced

-1/2 medium sized onion, sliced (about a cup is the goal)

I start by sautéing my veggies on medium high heat with one half of the sauce, made by combining the first three ingredients and mixing.  Do this until they are starting to get tender. 

At that point, scoot the veggies around the pan so the center is clear for your meat.  Add it in, season with a little salt and pepper, and use half of the leftover sauce per side as you are cooking. You should only need a couple minutes on each side for these thin strips. 

Toss all the veggies and beef then devour. You can do these in lettuce wraps, on tortillas, or on cauliflower rice. 

If you are paying attention, these fajitas follow pretty well the zone guidelines.  My boyfriend has done zone for a while now, and I jumped in a little before we started dating. In fact, I think it might have been one of the things that brought us together. 

Partly, this was due to the fact that I did not think the meals he was eating looked appetizing, as four cups of green beans looks a lot like misery to me, and I decided to butt in and develop recipes that were zone and pretty and yummy.  Crossfit zone doesn't really approve of bread, and that did scare me a bit. But I do love a good challenge. 

So fast forward a couple of months and this is one of the tastier dishes I have developed. Flavored vinegars and oils from quality stores add a lot of flavor options without having to drown something in oils and heavy spices. I have become quite addicted to Fustini's Blood Orange EVOO and the Espresso Balsamic Vinegar. Eventually I may even branch out and try new ones. Maybe. 

It has long been my argument that food brings people together. Healthy food doesn't have to be boring, and good times can be had without caloric overload. It just takes a little creativity and quality products. 

Happy crafting!

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Buffalo Chicken Snack

Ingredients:

-2 ounces shredded chicken

-1/3 C Greek yogurt

-1 TB franks hot

-2 TB black beans, rinsed

-1/3 C finely chopped onion

-6 celery pieces

-salt and pepper to taste

So I like to keep life simple when I get back from vacation. You just mix everything but the celery and season to your liking. You could use your favorite hot sauce or spin off this with adobo sauce or others. I like to chill stuff like this overnight before eating it. 

Why is this such a simple post when I have such lofty goals of making wonderful food? Sometimes wonderful is things that come together quickly when you get in super late returning from a trip. Or something you don't have to turn the oven on for because your apartment is 80 because you just got back from a trip. Or something with a lot of flavor but very little work because you want to curl up and sleep but yet you also want to look like you made an effort. 

Life tip, fellow humans, don't start lofty diet regimes on the day you get back from vacation. You really won't want to meal plan the night before. But for those of you who are like me and even though you said you weren't super woman you are still trying to prove yourself wrong, I offer these tips:

Preshredded rotisserie chicken. It's probably in your stores deli section. Take advantage of the fact that they over estimated their demand. 

Precut celery bits. They last so long in the fridge. And they are so ready to go. 

Happy crafting! And goodnight. 

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Cucumber Dill Chicken Salad

Ingredients: 

- 6 oz shredded chicken

-1/2 to 1 c Greek yogurt 

-1 large cucumber, diced

-1/2 c chickpeas

-1.5 TB dill

-2 TB parsley

-dash oregano

-pinch of lemon zest

-salt and pepper to taste

Mix all of these ingredients up and season to your taste. You can also add olives to this or even feta cheese and adapt it as preferred. 

This is something we have been using a lot for snacks, and it is best chilled overnight but can be eaten immediately as well. This involves a lot of healthy ingredients and is packed with healthy ingredients. This makes it in to our meal plans multiple times per month. It is a great summer picnic snack, and one that won't heat up your kitchen. 

Cook the chicken in your crockpot overnight on low for an even easier assembly with essentially no heat required! 

Happy crafting!

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Simple Lego Cake

I got talked in to making a Lego cake for one of my boyfriend's friend's kid's party (yes I just wanted to use a lot of apostrophes) and the theme was Lego.

Let me start off by saying that I thought of 800 ways to make it the most complicated cake in the world.

I considered making Lego men out of marshmallows and rice crispy treats.

I considered making Legos out of cookie bars.

I considered a 3D two tiered shenanigan.

And then I decided that the best Lego cake might just be the ones that mimic a Lego play area itself.  Because that is, in fact, the most recognizable form to a four year old.

So what better to make than one that looks like a Lego play mat.  I can still remember the big Lego table with the green base that was at my pediatrician's office while I was growing up.  Just like all the questionable towers I built waiting for my check-ups, this cake just needed a good base.

I used buttercream icing (2 sticks of butter, 2-4 cups of powdered sugar depending on your stiffness preference, a dash of vanilla, a tablespoon or so of water, as needed, whip on high for at least 5 minutes!).  I also bought candy blocks from the movie theater food aisle at Meijer.  Talk about a life saver.  I used one of the larger blocks upside down to stamp the circle pattern in the green base.

Now I know that technically those dots should stick out, not in, but seriously I did not have any desire to try to make uniform dots.  If you are obsessed with accuracy, by fondant and use a larger writing tip or similar as a cookie cutter for dots.

Anyway, then I used more icing directly on the back of the blocks to cement them down to the cake and to each other.

For the lettering, I used a large round tip for the name and did the white first.  Then I use a normal writing tip to do the yellow name outline and the wording base.  For these, I did the equivalent of two lines wide of icing because I knew I was going to come back and put black on it.  In hindsight, I wish I had gone ahead and used yellow for the piping as well, but overall that did not make that big of a difference.

Plus, it was a relief to have one small bit of icing without a ridiculous amount of color in it...

As could be expected, everyone was really happy with the cake and it was a pretty good success.  I have the most fun helping out on fun cakes like this as opposed to some of the elaborate cakes in life, mostly because we all need a little more whimsy.

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Maple Bacon Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:
For the Cookies
-2 sticks butter, softened
-1 C packed brown sugar
-1/2 C sugar
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 3/4 C AP flour
-1/4 C real maple syrup
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp cinnamon
-dash of nutmeg
-3 C oats, plus a few tablespoons more as needed for a thicker, firm batter
-about 6 strips of thick bacon, fried just under crispy and cut into small pieces

For the frosting
-1/2 stick butter
-1 C+ powdered sugar
-1/4 C Maple syrup
-dash of water, as needed

Mix the butter and sugars first until they are creamy.  Add in the egg, vanilla, maple syrup, and spices and beat well. Add in your dry ingredients, saving the bacon for last, and mix well.  Fold in the bacon and drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet or one lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 350F for about 10 minutes.  Allow to cool before frosting.

Mix the icing ingredients, adding enough powdered sugar to make it pretty firm like a candy center, or adding just a little water if it gets too hard to mix.  When it is the right consistency, pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds or so and frost on the cookies.  When it cools down it will set pretty firmly.

Devour.  And relish the moment.

These were a big hit at work.  They are sweet but not too sweet.  This is the first time I have included bacon in cookies, and I think these are going to be a pretty consistent make for me.

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