My Week in Photos + Recipe of the Week

This past week was one of trying new recipes and having a good time with friends. Friday night my friend and I had an Office marathon (the final season premieres this Thursday) and had frozen hot chocolate a la Serendipity:

Delicious Serendipity frozen hot chocolate.

Saturday night, I went out with the girls from the skating team. Not without a photoshoot beforehand, though:

Photoshoot with the skating girls:)

Sunday, I tried a new recipe, Pizzuchini boats. The recipe was pretty easy, super low cal and carb and absolutely delicious. Here’s what you’ll need for a single serving:

• 2 zucchini
• Low calorie pizza sauce
• Ground turkey
• Chopped onion
• Chopped green pepper
• Mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan cheese
• Red pepper flakes
• Garlic salt

1. Preheat oven to 400. Spray a frying pan and begin browning ground turkey, add garlic salt and red pepper flakes.

2. While the turkey is browning, slice zucchini in half and begin to remove the seeds and inside contents of the zucchini with a spoon:

3. Once this is done, grease a baking pan and set zucchini aside.

4. Chop onion and pepper and add it to the turkey to blend the tastes. Add more seasoning to taste. Then spoon 3-4 tablespoons of pizza or spaghetti sauce and Parmesan cheese to mixture and let simmer:

5. Once blended, remove from heat and spoon the mixture into your zucchini boats and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese:

6. Bake for 15 minutes, let cool and enjoy!

Recipe of the week: honey lime chicken skewers

Recently, I’ve been trying a lot of new recipes to keep things interesting at dinnertime. Most of my recipes use chicken (it’s within my college student budget) but I’m realizing there are so many options that I’m avoiding monotony.

I’ve never really been one to marinate chicken, usually because I forget to put it together in the morning before class/work and end up making something with less prep time when I get home in the evenings. But thanks to Pinterest, I’ve been inspired to put in a little extra work and try new things:

I made these skewers last night, and had several requests for the recipe so here goes!

For the marinade:

• 1 chicken breast
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce (I used a light version)
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 1 garlic clove (minced)
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• lemon juice (1-2 tbsp)

I combined these ingredients in a plastic bag and put the chicken in, shook it around a bit so that the chicken was thoroughly cooked and left it in the fridge while I was at work all day. 

When I got home, I preheated the oven to 375-400, boiled a bit of broccoli and cut up some red pepper, and took the chicken out of the fridge and cut it up. (Note: probably would have been even more saturated had I cut it up beforehand.. hindsight.)

I put the ingredients on two skewers,poured the leftover liquid on them and baked on foil for 20 minutes. SO delicious!

Note: This recipe would probably be even better grilled! I don’t have a grill at my convenience so baking was all I could do.

 

Recipe of the Week: Stuffed Peppers

Ok, before I write this post, I have to admit that I actually make these last week, which means I’ve absolutely been slacking on my posting. But, hey, I’ve been distracted.

I decided to try stuffed peppers, which are surprisingly easy to make:

What you’ll need:

• How ever many peppers you’d like to make (I made four) in whichever color you like. Clearly, I chose green.
• Brown rice (approx 1c.)
• Mexican-style sausage (or turkey sausage, or ground beef)
• 1-onion, diced
• Mozzarella cheese
• Grated parmesan cheese
• Garlic salt
• 2tsp. olive oil

Start by boiling water and cooking your rice (I just made mine on the stove top) and preheating your oven to 375.

Barely slice the bottoms off the bell peppers (just enough so that they will be able to stand up on their own. Then, slice a generous amount off the top (you will be dicing this part up to put inside the pepper) and hollow out your peppers as much as you can. Lightly coat a baking dish that is close to the size of your peppers with non-stick spray.

Next, dice the tops of your peppers (sans stem) and dice your onion.

In a frying pan, heat two tsp. of olive oil and cook your onion and pepper until soft (not browned!).  This will take about 5 minutes. Then, remove them from the frying pan, add one more tsp. of olive oil, and squeeze the sausage out of the casing, and saute until browned, breaking it apart as your cook.

Then, re-add the onion and pepper and garlic salt and/or pepper to taste for about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the cooked brown rice and parm cheese to mix the flavors.

Stuff the filling into the peppers, pushing it down with a spoon so the mixture is tightly stuffed.  Place in oven and bake for approx. 30 minutes, then take them out, add a generous helping of mozz. cheese and bake for about 10 more minutes.

 

 

Recipe of the week: Zucchini pizza bites

This week, I decided to try yet another Pinterest recipe, from my recipes board: Baked pizza zucchini bites. They’re super easy to make (as most of my recipes are) and taste just like pizza bites, without being fattening.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Of course, zucchini, light Prego, turkey pepperoni, a little garlic salt, pepper (optional), Italian cheese and (not pictured) cooking spray.

Slice your zucchini, spread on your baking sheet and spray one side very lightly with cooking spray:

Next, lightly shake garlic salt and pepper on the zucchini.

Put about half a tablespoon of pizza sauce on each piece, followed by one slice of pepperoni, and a little cheese.

Bake at 250 degrees for approximately 10 minutes, and let cool for a few minutes after.

These bites taste absolutely delicious and make a great quick and easy appetizer for a cookout or event. Enjoy!

Recipe of the Week: Pizza Quesadilla

If you’re like me, or any other normal human, you love pizza. It’s easy to make, and delicious. However, it’s also really fattening and unhealthy. Sigh.

I found a healthier alternative on Pinterest and decided to try it: pizza quesadillas.

The finished product: my pizza quesadillas.

What you’ll need:

1. Whole wheat tortillas
2. Prego light smart traditional Italian sauce
3. Shredded mozzarella cheese
4. Turkey pepperoni
5. Chopped green peppers
6. Chopped onion
7. Baked chicken (optional)
8. any other ingredients you like on your pizza

To start, I defrosted and cut up a chicken breast and baked it for 15-20 minutes. When it was finished, I lightly sprayed a frying pan with canola oil and filled my tortilla up with my ingredients. 

Next,  cook until brown and slightly crispy on each side – then enjoy!

SO delicious.

I think these fast and easy quesadillas taste almost just like the real thing – with a fraction of the calories.

My Weekend in Pictures: Weekend of May 12

This weekend was a very relaxing weekend full of homework and Mad Men, and lots of sleeping. After my four-night excursion last ‘weekend’ (which, if you know me, is unlike me) I decided to take it easy this weekend and only go out one night and use the rest of the weekend to get homework done.

Saturday morning, I lounged in bed with my coffee reading my new book, The American Heiress, until 11 or so.

If you’re a fan of Dowton Abbey, I suggest you pick this book up to satisfy your cravings while the show is on hiatus.

I re-purposed mason jars that held salsa to be frosted mugs.

The toughest part of this project was getting all the label gunk off the outside of the jar (and getting the spice smell out of the jar – lots of soaking). Goo-Gone was a miracle worker on this one.

Megan and I went to our friends house at Mill Fest, and witnessed what looks like the 75th annual Kentucky Derby (haha).

Mill Fest ended up being very tame from what I understand. There weren’t a lot of people where I was which was nice.

Megan and I ate dessert from Fluff on the courthouse steps on Court Street.

This is a tradition in Athens, so I’m glad I was able to check this one off my bucket list.

I played Fooseball for the first time Saturday at Cats Eye.

This is my hilarious partner, Dave.

This morning I made egg muffins for brunch.

They turned out delicious. All you have to do is mix omelet ingredients together in a mixing bowl, pour into a greased cupcake pan and bake at 375 for 20 minutes. I used egg, cheese, turkey bacon, green pepper and onion and they turned out delicious! (I used four eggs which filled a 6-cupcake pan.)

Tonight was the OUSST ‘potluck’ dinner.

I use the term loosely, as you can see our dinner was very… eclectic? It consisted of crock pot mac n cheese, a ton of chips, pizza rolls, birthday cake Oreos and red velvet cake. (Shh, I obviously took a healthy-eating break tonight.)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

[Healthy] BBQ Chicken Quesadillas

Healthy chicken quesadillas,

Tonight, I decided to try making  a twist on a BBQ Chicken quesadilla recipe that I saw on Pinterest the other day, but I wanted to make a semi-healthier version so I tried it tonight.

It turned out to be delicious! Here’s what you’ll need:

• Whole wheat tortillas (mine were 80 calories per tortilla)
• Chicken breast (I like Perdue individually packaged chicken breasts)
• Diced Green pepper
• Diced onion
• Whatever kind of cheese you want (I used leftover Kraft Mexican cheese, but white cheese would have been healthier)
• BBQ Sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s, although there are probably healthier options

What to do: 

1. Coat a frying pan with cooking spray, thaw chicken and cook in pan for about three-four minutes on each side. (I added a bit of fiesta lime seasoning for taste).
2. While chicken is cooking spread 2 tablespoons of BBQ sauce on tortilla.
3. Cover the tortilla in a thin layer of cheese.
4. Add onion and green pepper.
5. Once chicken is cooked, add it to the tortilla.
6. Fold tortilla over, add to frying pan and cook for 2-3 minutes per side.

PS- If you have or use the MyFitnessPal app, I log all my meals there my username is annelw! Friend me!

Recipe of the week: Baked Avocado Fries

Tonight I tried the baked avocado fries recipe I found on Pinterest a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but I took pictures along the way despite the fact so I could post it here if it turned out to be delicious.

Well, they turned out delicious!

Here’s what you’ll need:

•  1-2 avacados (each makes about eight fries)
• Panko bread crumbs (I used original, but flavored options would probably be yummy, too.)
• Cajun seasoning
• Grated parmesan cheese

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Slice the avocado.

3. Mix Panko crumbs, cajun seasoning and parm together on a plate.

4. Cover slices in the mixture and place on a baking sheet (I just used foil).

5. Bake for approximately 45 minutes (or until brown).

6. Eat and enjoy!

4. Bake in the oven for approximately 45 minutes (or until brown).

Thanksgiving Break Recipes

As I mentioned before, I was home last week for Thanksgiving. I decided to try a new recipe (of course I found it on Pinterest, if you haven’t already,  I highly suggest you join!).

I decided to try a holiday recipe (although let’s be real, I’m obsessed so I’ll probably make them year round):

Cinnamon Sugar Pecans

These were super easy to make:

• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1lb. pecan halves
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I left this out)

 Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

 In a gallon sized freezer bag mix together the egg whites, vanilla extract, and water. In a separate gallon sized freezer bag mix together the sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add pecans to the bag with the egg white mixture. Seal the bag and shake around the pecans until they are evenly coated. Transfer the coated pecans to the bag with the sugar mixture. Seal the bag and shake around until the pecans are evenly coated with the sugar mixture. Spread the pecans on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

I love how simple these are, because with some nice packaging, these will make great Christmas gifts.

Study Group Snacks

One of the perks of being a grad student is that my classmates are willing to take part in study groups when we’re preparing for finals. For our last study session of the quarter, I decided to try some of the recipes that I found on Pinterest.com.

Even though I’ve become a better cook since coming to college, I’m not claiming to be an iron chef by any means, but I’ve gotten pretty good. Here’s what I made (most of these would make great appetizers at a party or get together):

1. Pizza Bites:

Cut up canned biscuits, chopped pepperoni and sausage, mozarella cheese. Roll into balls, bake at 350 for 15 mins. Dip in Pizza sauce.

2. Mozarella Sticks

Made by wrapping string cheese in egg roll wrappers. bake instead of fry.

Note: I ended up baking these and then having to fry them because they didn’t look very good.

3. Parmesan crusted zucchini

Egg wash and bread zucchini with parmesan cheese and spices, then bake at 425 for 30 minutes (flipping halfway).

4. Parmesan knots:

Roll biscuits into strips and tie into a knot; tuck ends under. Place 2 in. apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400° for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Then brush with parm mixture.

Most of these recipes came from my new favorite food blog FoodGawker. This website has a ton of really simple recipes that take minimal ingredients and minimal time.

Happy cooking!