Showing posts with label Recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recipes. Show all posts

How to Make Grocery Shopping More Fun

by 3:03 PM

Hello lovely blog reading people!


You may or may not know that I have a serious problem with grocery shopping......I am way to organized about it, okay maybe this isn't a "problem" per say but, when it comes to shopping I believe in staying super organized to help keep our little family on budget. Feeding 4 people in their 20's can get expensive for all of us very quickly if we don't have some process in place. I can currently feel everyone else in our house rolling their eyes as they read that line because this is the mantra I repeat almost every week!
Now, to prepare for shopping, I always plan out all of our meals ahead of time. Normally I do this just on a plain piece of paper. However, always wanted to make some pretty organizers for me (and whoever else) to use when  we make the daunting weekly grocery shopping trip. You can't be upset grocery shopping when you have pretty things with you! 

I had a super fun time making these, I'm pretty new (as you will be able to tell by some of these lines) to the designing world so it was nice to refine some of my skills working on these! I decided to share with you all!

Click each photo below to download (it will open in  Google Drive!):



Well everyone, I sincerely hope you enjoy these! I know I am going to!

Love you all!

The Best Spinach Artichoke Dip

by 4:00 PM
I decided to share the Spinach Artichoke Dip recipe after how much everyone loved it over Labor Day weekend! On Saturday it was all gone in about 15 minutes and Sunday it got nothing but rave reviews! Now, My sister-in-law Jillian is probably giggling while reading this, if nothing for the fact that after 5 years I’m finally writing this dang thing down. A little back story, I first made this for a Thanksgiving 5 or 6 years ago, this is the original recipe, however, I obviously changed it, but in true Heather fashion, I never wrote down those changes. So, over the last 5 years Jillian and I have made it a few times, continually asking each other what the heck we did to it. So, Jillian, here it is the official, written down, Spinach Artichoke Dip Recipe!

Photo Cred: Recipris

Prep Time: 20 min Bake Time: 20-25 min Oven: 350

Ingredients - 1 14 oz can Artichoke hearts, drained
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 1 16 oz Container of mixed Romano, Parmesan, Asiago Cheese
- 1 10 oz container frozen spinach, thawed
- 1 8 oz brick of cream cheese
- 1/2 to 3/4 Cup Heavy Cream
- 1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese


Grease a 9x13 pan and preheat oven to 350.
Take out cream cheese and let soften, if you forget this step like I always do, pop in the microwave for 10-15 seconds to soften.
Add garlic, artichoke hearts to food processor/blend blend until coarsely chopped.
In a Medium bowl mix softened cream cheese and spinach. Once mixed well add in Mozzarella, then add in mixed cheese. Once combined, slowly add heavy cream until smooth, you may not need all ¾ cup, you do not want too much liquid. Add in artichokes and garlic.

Place mixture in greased pan and bake for 20 min, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

There it is! I hope you enjoy this and if you have any changes make sure you write them down in a comment, so you don't have to wait 5 years for a final recipe!



Friday Faves: Grilled Chipotle-Lime Fish Tacos with Brown Rice and Bean Salad

by 3:06 PM
Monday night I made these fish tacos, they were delicious! They are Gluten Free, but those in extreme cases may want to substitute the Vinegar. 

So, I decided to share the recipe with you all as my favorite of the week. This does have a marinating time of 8-10 hours, I hate when I get excited about a recipe and realize it has too long of a marinating time for me to make that night and of course it doesn't say that until the bottom of the recipe after I've already put it together so, I'm saving you  from that experience now.

This recipe is for 2lbs of fish.


Marinade:


1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 TBS Distilled White Vinegar
4 TBS Fresh Lime Juice (about 3-4 limes).
4 tsp Lime Zest
1 TBS honey
4 Cloves of Minced Garlic (I just cut the garlic into small pieces since my garlic mincer somehow disappeared)
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Chili powder
2 tsp Chesapeake Seasoning (Such as Old Bay™)
1 tsp Black Pepper
2 tsp Hot Pepper Sauce (I used Sriracha)
2 lbs White Fish (the original recipe called for Tilapia, I used Pollock because that is what I had in my freezer)

A tip on juicing the limes, don't just cut them open and squeeze the juice out. First roll them on the table with the heel of your hand until soft. This will break up the lime before you cut it resulting in much more juice. 




Whisk all of the ingredients above together in a bowl (Minus the fish, obviously). Place the fish in a shallow pan (I used a 9x13 baking dish) pour marinade over fish and refrigerate 8-10 hours.

Cook the fish according to any package directions. I grilled it over medium/medium low heat for 7-10  minutes, next time I will definitely broil, since this was a very delicate fish and it fell apart all over the grill.

Chipotle Dressing:

I also made this in the morning and let sit in the fridge all day, I would do it at least an hour before to let all the flavors "Make a Marriage" as my mother-in-law would say (That's also the name of my wonderful Sister-in-Law's blog, if you click the link you can be taken there).

Originally I planned on making this with Greek Yogurt instead of Sour Cream, which I will do next time, but I promised I would make these to everyone in the house before I could get some from work. 

So,
First step, run to the gas station across the street because you forget to add sour cream to your grocery list.




1 8oz Container of Sour Cream
1/4 cup Adoba Sauce from Chipotle Peppers (the original recipe called for 1/2 cup, but this stuff is seriously spicy and not everyone in our house is a huge spicy fan. If you can only find the can with both the peppers and sauce that is fine but do not add the peppers unless you want serious spice, I'll show you what we did with the leftover peppers at the end.)
2 TBS Fresh Lime Juice
2 tsp Lime Zest (I omitted this and just added a bit more lime juice, I was having serious zesting problems and I did not add as much Adoba sauce as the original, it had plenty of lime flavor)
1/4 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Chesapeake Seasoning (Again I used Old Bay™)
salt and pepper to taste



Toppings:
You can use what ever you would like for toppings but this is what we had.
Tomatoes
Coleslaw
Avocados
Shredded Cheddar
Cilantro






Brown Rice and Bean Salad
This is a wonderful summer salad, it's cool and refreshing, and it tied together well with the tacos. I made it in the morning also and let it sit in the fridge all day. Let it sit at least an hour before serving, to chill.




2 Cups Cooked Brown Rice
1 (15 oz can) Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15oz can) Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1(15.25 oz can) Whole Kernel Corn, drained
1 small onion
1 diced Green Bell Pepper (I used 2)
2 diced Jalapenos
Juice from 2 limes (original recipe called for 1 lime and zest, however, there were a lot of comments it was too dry, so I omitted the zest and added more lime juice, in the future I will add the juice from the second lime right before serving as it was still a bit too dry)
1/4 cup Chopped Cilantro
1 Clove Minced Garlic
1 1/2 tsp Cumin
Salt to Taste




I eventually gave up on the tacos shells and just tossed the salad in a bowl and put the fish and taco toppings on top, that was amazing! Anytime we do this in the future it will just be eaten "Burrito Bowl" style!


I actually cannot take credit for the idea on what we did with the leftover peppers, this was all Andy's idea, which he got from having this at his brother Christopher's house. So good job Chris.
We took all the peppers and placed them in a mason jar and filled the mason jar with Olive Oil, 10-24 hours later....Voila homemade dipping oil!



Original recipes can be found:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-fish-tacos-with-chipotle-lime-dressing/detail.aspx
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-bean-and-rice-salad/detail.aspx

 

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