Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Banana Bites

Happy Monday & to those of you who have the day off - enjoy it! To those of you reading this from your office desk - I feel you, so am I :)

I thought I’d start the week off with being real. Sometimes you just want to eat dessert first - so if you need it justified tell everyone I told you to do it. Sometimes real is dessert first & sometimes it isn't pretty. I wasn’t going to post these deliciously simple bites because well they’re just not that pretty [insert whiny frowny face & voice here] - but as Chris replied to my mini tantrum “they taste pretty” which translates to they taste good, put them on the blog - so I am. Here they are.

The other night as we indulged in season 2 of a House of Cards binge (OMG!!! that first episode) I felt we needed some dessert but I didn’t feel like baking & all of the brownies were gone already. I looked around to see what we had. Bananas, check. Peanut butter, check. Chocolate, check.  So I decided to make mini peanut butter & banana sandwiches covered in chocolate. Luckily, peanut butter & banana make a complete protein & dark chocolate has lots of happy antioxidants in it so I felt good about eating these sweet little bites & you should too.

Baked Egg in an Avocado

I’ve seen this egg in an avocado thing all over social media & have wanted to try it for a while. Yesterday, while working from home (thank you snow day!) I was actually able to make it for lunch - being that I had access to  an oven & the ingredients I needed to make it. It’s really very simple. The most challenging part is balancing the egg inside the avocado but it’s ok if it spills out as long as you follow my steps for anticipating a mess :)

I’ve always had my avocados raw so I was hesitant to fix something that wasn’t broken. I still liked the avocado part but in a different way. It almost reminded me of a baked potato in some ways. Have you tried it? What does it taste like to you?

I will definitely make this again. I think it would be great as brunch appetizer if you want to show off in front of guests.


Happy Valentine's Day!

Faux Cake Stand

I've yet to acquire an official cake stand. I've seen d.i.y. versions of cake plates with a candle stick & drilling a hole into a plate but I haven't had time to do that, so when I had my girl friends over for lunch I made a quick impromptu version of a cake stand.  All you need is...

Bigger Hair Comb

My hair is pretty fine so I love whenever I can add volume (or even extra hair) to it.  This little comb is readily available at your local CVS for under 3 bucks & it will give you the lift & volume you need in just a matter of minutes. It's pretty traditinal to back comb or tease your hair for volume, but it works & it lasts. I know this sounds like yesterdays news or even decades old but this little tool is new to my routine & I'm a super fan of the extra teeth on it that do just the trick in bringing me closer to bigger hair (& god).


If you too are in the fine hair club what do you do to add volume?

Get a Naturally Longer & Thicker Ponytail in Just 2 Minutes

It's back-to-school time & I'm torn with the idea of getting my hair cut or letting it grow. You know as soon as you cut it you want it long (& vice versa).  I was perusing my favorite hair tutorial channel on youtube, Luxy Hair, when I came across this genius tutorial.  The Luxy Hair gal shows you how to make your ponytail longer & thicker in just 2 minutes with your own hair, no extensions needed.  So I tried it & it worked & had my sister fooled.  This is the conversation* that we had:

sister: Are you wearing your fake hair**?
me: Nope
sister: I mean are you wearing your real fake hair?
me: Nope
sister: HUH? Why is your hair so long?
me: It's this trick I learned (flips her hair up to expose the secret second ponytail)

Yep all you need to make your ponytail look longer is 2 minutes, 2 hair ties & 2 bobby pins. This trick works for gals with fine (or 'small hair' as my sister & I like to refer to our hair) or thick hair - I think it would actually hold the hair of thick haired girls better than just one single rubber band.  Try it & see if you can trick your family!

*I can't remember the conversation verbatim but it was something like that above.
**I did recently purchased some gorgeous hair extensions from Luxy Hair that I wore to my cousin's wedding to bulk up my fishtail braid (but I promise this is all my own hair). 

How-To Make Fluffy White Rice

I have a confession to make, until this weekend I never cooked white rice properly.  Yeah & I can't make hard boiled eggs. Laugh it up because now I can do both!

I don't know about you but when I was in college I used to make rice in a bag. You'd stick it in a bowl of water & nuke it in the microwave for a five minutes & you had some form of rice that with enough butter made for a great dinner.  Those days are past.  Up until recently I made rice by burning the bottom layer & serving from only the top. Pathetic. I know.

I figured it was time to learn how to make rice properly, even though, yes as my sister-in-law Marie pointed out the directions are on the bag.  For some reason those directions just didn't work for me, but these did & still do!

One of the key things I've always missed are rinsing the rice - it makes a huge difference so that it doesn't stick & clump together.  The other important step I always skipped was letting it rest so that the liquid can redistribute after you take it off the heat.  How could I have survived this long without knowing these simple steps to perfect rice?

Keep reading if you need some pointers, I've shared them with you so you too can have perfect rice & if you already know how - points for you :) What do you want to learn how to make? Maybe I can shed some light.

How-To Store Fresh Herbs

I don't have much luck with keeping potted plants alive. The green thumb gene seemed to skip over me since both my mom & grandma could grow a jack a bean stalk from a Mexican jumping bean with googley eyes glued to it. I really love fresh herbs, one day I'll grow (not kill) my own but until then I'll probably continue to buy them at the super market. In hopes to keep them as fresh as possible my new goal is to do a better job of storing them. It's actually really simple & only takes a few minutes of prep.

Spring Salmon with Almonds, Avocado & Strawberries

'Tis the season for sweet strawberries & ripe avocado.  Since we've been eating salmon once a week in our house I try to change up the way we eat it. I use this no-fail-perfect-salmon recipe every time.  Last night I topped our salmon with some fresh sliced avocado, strawberries & almond slivers. To finish I drizzled some extra virgin olive oil on top & seasoned each portion with a pinch of salt & pepper. Et voila dinner a pretty spring salmon dinner.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 1 (1 pound) salmon fillet, (if it doesn't fit in your skillet, cut it so it does)
• 1 avocado
• 6 strawberries
• 2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Make it!

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Meanwhile, place a large (12-inch) cast-iron pan over high heat for 5 minutes.
3. Brush the salmon all over with olive oil, season with salt & pepper, & place in the the pan skin side up.
4. Cook fish for 3 to 4 minutes without moving them until browned.
5. Turn the salmon skin side down, I used tongs to gently pull & flip each piece or you can use a spatula.
6. Transfer the pan to the oven for 8 minutes.
7. The salmon will not be completely cooked through yet. Remove the salmon from the oven & cover with foil for about 5 minutes, this will complete the cooking without drying out the salmon.
8. Slice the avocado (use this trick!) & the strawberries. 
9. Just before serving, plate each dish with the half the salmon.
10. Position the half the sliced avocado & strawberries neatly on top of each piece.
11. Sprinkle with almonds.
12. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over each piece & season with salt & pepper.   

Pear Pie

We've been buying a ton of fruits & veggies, even more so than normal. We've been juicing! But that's not what this post is about. We had a ton of pears (because they make for a very delicious juice) so I decided to use some of them for dessert number two for Easter Sunday dinner (this was the first).  I know you don't normal hear pear pie as a dessert, apple pie, cherry pie sure but not pear. Pear tart yes, but not pear pie. Well you're hearing it now. I made pear pie.  I didn't know how it was going to turn out but my overly stuffed family & I managed to get it down just fine. Now only if I had taken the leftovers home with me. #kickingmyself

Celery Root Purée

Recently I've been drooling over all the recipes on the fantastic blog, Oh My Veggies.  This gal Kiersten has some great vegetarian recipes up her sleeve.  Since our fridge is stuffed with mostly veggies, a tiny bit of chicken, some fish & on a rare occasion, red meat, this is right up my alley.  Head over & check out her recipes today. 

I recently the found myself lusting over this post for celery root purée on Oh My Veggies. Then I saw something on Food Network about it & then I was in the grocery store standing face-to-face with the ugliest thing in the produce department - celery root. I took it as a sign from the universe.  It was time to make & try celery root. I can't remember if I've had it before but I really haven't met a root vegetable I didn't like. 

These ugly - yet tasty- roots are what the stalks of celery you're making ants on a log & sticking in peanut butter grow out of. Not sure how they've been such an underdog of the desired part of this vegetable because they're actually really tasty so much so that I think my gal Ashley, who HATES celery, might actually enjoy them.

This purée is a great mashed potato alternative. It has milk, butter & salt mixed in with a root veggie - it's adult baby food & is oh so good.  Try it I think you'll like it.  Chris & I definitely did (read: no leftovers here).

Click through for the recipe that I adapted from the Eating Well recipe that I found via Oh My Veggies & my photos of this quick & easy process.



PS: "Hoppy" Easter :)

Ricotta Gnudi with Spicy Tomato Sauce

Last week I posted about recipes for gnudi (pronounced nude-y) that I wanted to try. To be honest, I didn't grow up eating gnudi. Yes I have ate lots of delicious American-Italian cheese & sauce covered dishes but gnudi wasn't one of them. I had it at a restaurant once & it put it on the map.

So mom & Jennifer (who didn't know what gnudi was when I told them about it) gnudi is like a cheesy dumpling - or as I like to think of it a delicious cheese blob - but that might not sound so appetizing - but it is. They're kind of like the cousin of a ravioli, the difference is there is no clear definition between the pasta & the filling - it's all one homogeneous mixture. DELICIOUS.

I went with Lottie + Doof's  ricotta gnudi recipe.  I used the sauce I posted about on Monday. Overall it made for a pretty tasty Sunday dinner.

Click through for Lottie + Doof's  recipe & photos, of course.

Pomodoro Pizza

Fillippos on First, our favorite pizza place in Hoboken sadly was not able to recover after Sandy so we've been trying out other pizza places in the neighborhood but lately our favorite has been the one right in our kitchen.  I've been whipping up my own pizza dough as of late with Bobby Flay's recipe but I also use the store bought stuff too - I don't discriminate.  Our newest pizza stone has been a great replacement to the one that we broke earlier last year. Per the recommendation of my girlfriend of Amanda the William-Sonoma pizza stone doesn't stick - well if you use cooking spray or olive oil is what i've found. Now that I've figured out how to use it we  (the pizza stone & I) work well together.

Since it's still pretty chilly (spring where are you?!?!) it's still nice to heat up the oven & make the house smell like fresh pizza.

Click through for my simple method of how you can make your own pomodoro (tomato) pizza at home with the multi-purpose tomato sauce that I posted about yesterday.

Spicy Homemade Tomato Sauce

The other day Chris was out for dinner with the guys & I was home left to my own devices. I opened the fridge & looked long & hard for something to make for dinner for one.  As I reached for the leftovers from the night before I noticed a jar - A JAR OF SAUCE. I immediately texted Chris to ask him what this jar of sauce was doing in our house, let alone fridge. He responded that he needed it for his meatball hero he planned to eat. I let him get away with it but honestly I didn't grow up with jarred sauce & I prefer the homemade stuff. Yes that probably makes me a sauce snob - but I've been spoiled by the cooks in my Italian family - I learned by watching them (kudos to you if you remember the frying pan commercial this references).  By watching them I also learned how to make my own sauce, which is in fact super easy, inexpensive & well just delicious. So before you reach for the jarred sauce give yourself a vote of confidence, click through & make this super easy recipe.

Chicken & Veggie Turnover

I really love when I can revamp the leftovers in my fridge & this recipe was a winner in both the tasty department & in the finishing-up-the-leftovers-department.

Essentially you should be able to chop the cooked chicken & vegetables that you so neatly stored in your fridge the night before to concoct this recipe. All you'll really need to do to them is to cut them into equal sized pieces, make a simple cheese sauce & make one giant hot pocket for it all.

Click through for the recipe on how to make your own at home.

Mushroom, Basil & Egg Crepe Squares

These crepes seem to be my go-to for weekend brunch.  I usually take a look in the fridge at what's left from the week & try to work with it. This recipe incorporates the mushroom mixture from these delicious appetizers plus a basic crepe.

See more photos & the recipe after the jump!

Spaghetti Squash with Arugula Basil Pesto

I cannot believe I've never had spaghetti squash - until last night. The gals at the office were chatting it up so much I had to try it. Turns out it's not only delish & gluten-free it's super easy - so don't worry about making your own pasta with some alternative flour to steer clear of flour allergies. No ma'am. Mother nature has done it all for us.

We will definitely be eating spaghetti squash at our house again & again very soon.

Click through for the full recipe & full photos of how to make spaghetti squash with arugula basil pesto.

Gluten-Free Pasta with Crab, Citrus & Fresh Greens

We clearly eat some pasta at our house. Don't let the "O" and apostrophe in my last name fool you - this girl is Italian & her Irish husband is now too :) Well part Italian at least.

I'm always looking for new recipes to use with the staples I pick up at the grocery store. Yes, canned crab is one of those staples since there is only so much chicken & salmon we can eat.

I jazzed this recipe up with my gluten-free pasta & some fresh greens of course.

Click through for a citrusy take on crab & pasta. Yum.

Baked Root Vegetable Frites

Yesterday, I posted about mussels. Other than great bread to soak up the yummy sauce you should definitely eat them some some sort of "frites."  Instead of your traditional pomme frites (potato french fries), Chris & I munched on a tasty alternative: root vegetable frites.

Lately, I'm trying cook more with coconut oil. It's a bit lighter then olive oil & has some really great benefits too - whether you eat it or rub it on like a body lotion - it can help boost your immune system, help you to lose weight & does wonders for skin care. Check out more about these benefits here.

Click through for this tasty & guilt-free recipe.

Mussels with Leeks & Cream

Every few months I rediscover mussels while I'm grocery shopping.  Two reasons to pick up a bag the next time you're at the super market they're (1) cheap & (2) quick to make. I think they're best served with a big glass of wine & some fresh crusty bread to sop up the sauce at the bottom of your bowl.

Click through for my super easy way to prepare mussels for your next quick dinner.

Sweet & Crunchy Wasabi Tuna Salad Sandwich

After a conversation with my girlfriends Allison & Natalie about jicama I had a craving to whip up some tuna salad that my sister & I used to live off of during our early post-college days when she managed a restaurant & filled our bellies with fresh food. Jicama if you have never had it is crunchy like and apple but not as sweet. I'd compare it to a love child between  an apple and a potato. You really must try it if you never have.

This recipe is inspired by Tossed's tuna salad but I jazzed it up with one of my favorite Trader Joe's products: wasabi mayo.

Read more for the full recipe.