In My Kitchen Volume 1

Feeling inspired by Amy and encouraged by Michelle I thought since I am too lazy to do any real blogging I would just occasionally share what I have going on in the kitchen. New recipes- success and fails, our favorites, anything I stumble upon I guess! Enjoy!

 

Mexican food. It's what we do. A lot. One of our favorites are taco/burrito bar nights. I make a bunch of toppings, throw it on my giant wooden cutting board and call it good. Grilled chicken, guacamole (I buy TONS of Wholly Guacamole 100 calorie packs and keep it on my freezer), cilantro lime rice and beans of some sort always make an appearance. 

Lately our my greatest obsession is this Zest Black Bean and Corn Salad from Cooking Light. I am seriously obsessed. I could eat it (and do) every single day. Its healthy, its good. Just trust me. Make it. Now.

  

Hey look! More bean salad! With a side of baked Southwestern Egg Rolls. The recipe at Cake & Allie is the bomb. (Does anyone say that anymore?) I make tons of them, freeze them and store them. Baking straight from the freezer makes them super easy too. I haven't made the ranch recipe that goes along with them though. Instead I mix one 100 calorie pack of Wholly Guacamole with a big dollop of sour cream and some dry Ranch dressing mix. Boom. Delicious.

 Speaking of Ranch dip mix did you know you can buy a canister of it instead of the small packets? I love it! Now if only they sold the Italian mix the same way.

  

I made some crab Rangoon dip last week and had a bunch of leftover wonton wrappers. What to do, what to do? Well the over ripe banana on my counter, joined forces with the half empty container of Nutella and like that dessert was born.

 

I filled the wonton with small dollops of Nutella and slices of bananas. I baked them at 425F on a parchment lined cookie sheet until they were nice and crispy. I may have over did it on a few though since I had a bit of a Nutella flow going on but it was still tasty!

 My tip to you. Goat cheese + endive + honey = delicious. If you have candied walnuts they make a fantastic addition too.

 This was supposed to be Michael Symon's gnudi in brown butter sauce. Obviously it did not come out as I hoped. I will probably... maybe try it again.

S'mores sticks? I decided late at night- as I usually do- that it would be a great idea to make Maddie a special snack for her lunch box. I ended up dipping low fat cinnamon graham crackers in melted chocolate and then in Jet Puffed Mallow Bits. Maddie was thrilled and I totally snuck a few- tasty!

Now Pinterest. I LOVE Pinterest but my boards were getting cluttered... and still are but I needed a way to find the recipes I had tried and liked so I now have a Tried and True board. They are recipe I made. That were good. Its so much easier to find the good recipes now!