A Taste of Home

This recipe just cannot help but remind me of home. 

Actually every time I see a butternut squash it reminds me of my mom in the kitchen cooking up this delicious dish.

I don't think that my recipe is quite as good as my mom's, but really how could it be? Below you will find the best I could do. I must say we did eat it all, between just my husband and I, so it must be pretty good. 

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Slice your squash in half length wise. 

2. Lightly spread a butter spread (I used promise) over the squash. I would say I used about 1 1/2 Tablespoons over the 2 halves. 

3. Use a shaker of cinnamon and sugar over the entire squash and then put 1-2 tablespoons of brown sugar over that. 

4. Bake your squash for about 60-90 minutes of until a fork can be inserted easily. 

5. Let your squash cool for about 20 minutes until you can handle it. After that just peel away the skin and put your squash in a mixer until soft. 

6. ENJOY!!! It is just so yummy with all the great flavors that were cooked together. Yum!

Delicious Eats!

Delicious.

That is the only way to describe my current cooking style! 

My goal has been to limit the amount of preservatives we eat, and they are just in everything! Salad dressing, frozen food, soup, lunch meat, ugh...the list goes on and on and on. I know in this world and with our busy schedules it will be almost impossible to completely cut them from our diets. But a girl can dream...

The delicious salad above it a combo of my farmers market finds from this week (except the olives). I even made the dressing!! It is so so so so yummy and was adapted from the recipe found Here.

Cilantro-Lime-Ginger Dressing 

4 large (6 small) Cloves of Garlic

2 T. Fresh Ginger (just estimate)

2 Bunches of Cilantro (trim the stocks off)

1/3 Red Onion

 Juice from 3-4 Large Limes

1/2 cup White Wine Vinegar

2 t. Crushed Red Pepper

1 t. Salt

3 T. Honey

1/2-3/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

1/2 cup Canola Oil

1/4-1/2 cup Olive Oil

Put it all in a food processor (or a blender if you don't have a processor). You may need a bit more oil or vinegar if it seems to thick from the cilantro. 

It should keep for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.

These delicious pretzel dogs were so fun and delicious! The recipe was from Brown Eyed Baker who is an absolute genius.

My little version of a...

 ...Monte Cristo...

...from let over french toast.

2 slices of French Toast

1 slice of Thick Ham

1 slice of Thick Turkey

1-2 t. of Apricot Jam

1 slice of Provolone Cheese

Make a sandwich out of the above ingredients minus the jam. Wrap your sandwich in paper towel and microwave for 45 seconds. After you take it out of the microwave and put on the jam. 

Eat Up! Yum!

Falling in Love with Autum Dessert!

With all this eating healthy I have been doing I was completely craving a little piece of something sweet. But with cookies, pastries & chocolate off limits I was having a hard time thinking of something that would keep my healthy habits unbroken. 

Luckily, my rules said nothing about adult beverages (which would not be considered healthy at all)...and we have had our martini glasses for months and they had yet to be used. So a martini it was, now I just had to find a fun recipe with the little alcohol we have in our apartment. Actually, we only have Gin. So that would be considered very limited in the martini world. 

This recipe for an Apple Cider & Ginger Martini caught my eye and it was utterly delicious!! Watch out tho, this recipe will sneak up on ya if your not careful.

With that I was thinking that a baked apple would be great. I just love apples in the fall. A crisp apple has to be my favorite all time snack and the fall opens the doors to a fresh crop of apples, yum!

I searched and search the internet and could not find just the right recipe. Nothing felt right with trying to eat a healthy dessert. Well you know what to do then, make one! 

I can up with...

 Spiced Pastry Cream Baked Apples

A Touch of Spice: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Calvin just LOVES Chicken Tortilla Soup! I have never tried my hand at making it before but I am sure glad that I did tonight! It was soooooo good and actually really easy!

Continue reading for the recipe...

Spinach Pesto Lasagna Rolls

After looking for a lasagna recipe to make one night I came up with this little recipe. With it just being two of us I didn't want to make a large lasagna and then be eating it for days, I really wanted something I could freeze. So I decided that the Lasagna roll recipes I found looked best for us. After looking at a few different recipes I decided to make it my own. 

Cookin' Queen

As we were on our way home from the beach Saturday Calvin spotted what looked to be a local favorite. A cute little BBQ joint in an old train car. It looked and smelled delicious!! Of course he looked at me with the eyes that said, "Lets get some BBQ!" my look back to him obviously reminded him of our tight budget. So I just promised to make him some good BBQ for dinner :) We decided instead to stop and get him some dark beer (which is def. on his favorite things list) and I devised a plan...

BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches