Sauteed Kale with Balsamic and Bacon

AKA, "My New Favorite Way to Eat Kale."

Well, hello there!  Things have kind of reached a fever-pitch at home, and I'm currently a chaotic mix of crazed cleaning frenzy and trying to find my inner piece.  I'll let you guess which is winning?

Really, tho, I'm getting surgery this Friday to remove a fibroid, and it's got me in a bit of a tailspin.  I've never had surgery before - other than getting my wisdom teeth removed - so I'm trying to prepare myself, but really, I'm very nervous about the whole thing.  So, I'm feeling more than a little spastic and unsettled and of course, I most likely won't be able to blog recipes for a few weeks.  (But you can bet that I'll have worn holes in the pages of my Food Network magazine while I'm forced to be way less mobile than I'm used to.)

Bourbon Gingersnap Ham (Alton Brown's City Ham)

Easter Ham!  They're plastered all over the grocery ads and commercials right now, but you weren't quite sure what you'd do with one this year.  Right?  How about something a little different, but a lot delicious?  And easy, to boot?

Enter Alton Brown's "City Ham."  This recipe has been floating around in my head for - I kid you not - at least 7 years.  And I finally just got around to making it!  I'm not sure why on earth I stalled in making it; it's awesome stuff.  Bo even declared it the best ham he's ever had.  And I have to say, I loved that it was easy to make and didn't involve any guesswork.  But that's what's wonderful about Alton Brown's recipes; they are science-y and detailed and easy to follow.

Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Hey, look.  Yet another salad dressing recipe.  (Here's one and another and another and another and another and three more.)  But the thing is, I eat a lot of salad.  For a while there, I was packing some kind of huge salad in my lunch every day.  So you can bet that I quickly grow tired of the same ingredients and the same dressings.  Add to that the fact that bought salad dressing is so iffy on flavor, and buying a whole bottle of something new is an expensive taste-test.

Berry Birthday Cake for Rory

Happy Birthday, Rory!  Yep.  Today she turns 9!*

Healthy Super Bowl: Hot Wing Hummus and Pizza Hummus

I got really fed up with Pinterest the other day.  Sometimes, I swear, my feed is strictly cheese and donuts.  Which - don't get me wrong - are delicious (but maybe not together).  But when I'm trying to eat healthy and make a concerted effort to increase the amount of veggies in my diet, Pinterest can be the opposite of helpful.  So I dug up an old issue of the Food Network magazine, and whipped up these hummus recipes to share with you.

If you're making snacks for a Super Bowl party this weekend, these recipes are deliciously healthy alternatives to dips laden with cheese and sour cream.  They're great served with pita chips, but you can give your health a yummy boost by serving these dips with chopped veggies.  I luvvvv smearing hummus on cucumbers and bell peppers!  Both recipes below are full of flavor and quick and easy to whip up. 

Three Cheers for Healthy Snacks!

Healthier Broccoli Beef

Is it a happy Monday for you so far?  I super hope so.  After travelling last week to Kansas City and its 16 degree mornings, I'm definitely glad to be back here in the ATL, even if the weather can't make up its mind (very chilly weekend and then 70 degree prediction for tomorrow??).

Anyway, I wanted to share this quick weeknight recipe with you.  It's fantastic for getting loads of broccoli onto your plate, and like most Asian style cooking, it's pretty healthy - and tasty - all around.  I used bison in this recipe instead of beef because it was on sale and I just couldn't pass up all those omegas and lean, free range goodness.  This recipe would also work fantastically for venison if you've got that in your freezer.   It's quick to make, uses only one pan and is full of flavor.  Make a little extra to pack in your lunch the next day, and you'll be really glad you did.  I served this over steamed brown rice, but you can pair it with any carb you like best, or none at all.

I Heart Broccoli,

Cuban Black Bean Soup

Hurrah, more soup!  This time of year just seems to be the perfect time to whip up all the amazing soup recipes I keep seeing out on the interwebs.  This one caught my eye because it's hearty enough that Bo doesn't grimace over the lack of meat.  But it's also dirt cheap to put together a huge pot of it.  Win win, am I right?

And once you get the black beans set to soaking, this soup comes together in no time at all.  It's fabulous to slow cook on a Sunday afternoon.  The bonus is that with all the leftovers, you'll have an easy lunch to pack with you all week.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I just watched a thing on the news tonight that said that 70% of the people you hear coughing actually have the flu.  YIKES.  Knock on wood, but I haven't been sick in ages.  The last nasty cold I had was three years ago.  This is partly because we don't yet have kids.  But also because at the first sign of feeling run-down, I'm running around with a bottle of Vitamin C, mugs of hot water with honey and lemon, and getting extra rest.

Recipe Rewind: Homemade Marshmallows

Well, helloooooooo.

I must confess - I've been in a bit of a funk for the past few months.  I could blame it on moving, I suppose.  I love our house, but I'm one of those cranky and OCD Type As who needs everything in its place to feel peace in my own house.  It's getting there, and I'm definitely not putting too much pressure on myself to be an over-achiever with settling in.  But there are moments that I stop in my tracks and just can't wrap my frantic little brain around all the zillion things screaming at me to accomplish.  So it's no shocker that my list-making tendencies are in serious overdrive right now.  Oh, and Christmas is drawing near?  My most favorite  and the dreamiest of holidays?  I've got 3 separate lists going for that.

Lists, lists, lists.  I don't love having them but they definitely help keep my sanity from inching its toe near that crumbling cliff of no return.

Overnight Apple Pie Oatmeal

Anyone else nearly sick of pumpkin by now?  I blame Pinterest.  I haven't actually eaten much pumpkin this Fall, but with the overload of pumpkin eighty-two different ways in my Pinterest feed, I'm ready to move on. At least until Thanksgiving actually arrives.  Then it's all about the pumpkin piiiiiiie.

Make it From Scratch: Ranch Dressing Mix

Happy October!!  This is by far my favorite month, so I'm going to apologize up front if my posts over the next few weeks contain a ridiculous amount of exclamation points and a terrible amount of squealing.  That won't stop me from those annoying behaviors, but at least you've been forewarned :)

Ok, so this dressing mix.  I ran out of ranch dressing mix a couple of weeks ago, and rather than make a trip to the grocery store, I searched for a recipe I could whip up at home.  Store bought ranch mix has MSG and a few other creepy ingredients, so this fits right in with my goal to eliminate bad ingredients from our pantry.  I made this dressing two ways - regular and nondairy, so that we can accommodate everybody in one fell swoop.  If you check the photos below, you can see how both versions turned out.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

So, basically, when I found this recipe, I nearly jumped for joy.  While I love drinking my green smoothies for breakfast (they seriously make me more alert than any cup of coffee), the thought of swapping them out for pumpkin that looks like a milkshake wasn't even worth pausing to consider.  Done.  Let's drink them every day through the end of the year, shall we?

Hollyhock Yeast Dressing

I know.  Another salad dressing.  When will she stop with the salad  dressing  recipes?

But, in my defense, this can be used for soooo much more than salad.  For instance: It's amazing when you dunk salad rolls into it (and this time I filled my salad rolls with the Lettuce Wrap chicken).  And I used it to marinate chicken last night and as a sauce for the fried rice we had on the side.  It's pretty much endless what you can do with this savory, slightly zingy sauce that's just jammed with flavor.  When I first read that everyone was proclaiming it their favorite dressing in the whole world, I thought - sure, ok.  But then after I started eating (nay, slurping?) it, I realized that they all spoke the truth.  I. Love. This. Dressing. 

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

 

I just want to pause a minute to let you know how over-the-top amazing you are.

The other day, a few of you spotted one of my photos on someone else's site, without mention of where they found those tasty pictures.  And not only did you take the time to find my recipe here and then alert me to the use of my photo, but - and here's what warms my sugary heart - you noticed.  You recognized my photo.  You remembered.

Tangy Cucumber and Avocado Salad

Oh, I'd forgotten how yummy this recipe is!  I went digging through my cooking notebook (which is just shy of completely falling apart), and rediscovered this recipe I had saved four years ago.  Whoops!  And now, I'm wondering what other amazing recipes are in there that I'd forgotten about?

Cookie Dough Bites

And then, there were cookies for her.

That's right.  My turn!  Which means, some funky recipe that's swapped out sugar for something crazy.  You know me by now, yes?

Once again, Pinterest has delivered something fantastic and fun.  It's absolutely my new favorite recipe, and I've made it no fewer than four times over the past ten days.  Oh, yes, I have.  It honest-to-goodness tastes like cookie dough, and the texture is a bit chewy like a granola bar.  It takes 10 minutes to whip up, and doesn't require any oven time.  You may eat the entire batch while you're standing there at the counter.  Or maybe that's just me.

Strawberry Lime Granitas

Yum, yum, yum, yum, YUM!  This little recipe is just way too easy and delicious to skip!

It's a bit like an amazing strawberry-lime slushy popsicle you eat with a spoon.  And with only 3 ingredients, and no need for an ice cream maker, it's seriously your new favorite thing.  You can mix this up with other fruits (watermelon, anyone?!) and citrus; just follow the same basic steps.

Lime & Salt Popcorn

Know what they say about the best laid plans?  Exactly.

I had planned to make granitas yesterday, but instead of 90+ degree sunshine, we got cool and glorious rain.  Couple that with a free HBO weekend, and my Sunday suddenly became all about movies on the couch.  And what better snack than some jazzed up popcorn?

No Sugar Coconut Pecan Cookies

Hi!  My name is Sara!  I used to post fairly regularly on this little blog here and then a bunch of life happened, and I straight-up disappeared on you.  Whoops.

Every have one of those months?  Where everything extra you've been successfully juggling for forever suddenly seems like way too much, and you sit down and say "WHOA" and put the brakes on everything except for the most essential?  Yeah, I'm just now recovering from one of those.  My house is still a crazy mess, but my laundry is all caught up!  And I grocery shopped this weekend!  Baby steps, people, baby steps.

Coconut Forbidden Rice Pudding

'Mornin! ('Afternoon!, 'Evenin!)

So, I'm back with another recipe using our handy dandy and yummy Forbidden rice.  When I was growing up, one of my favorite breakfasts was my mom's rice pudding, made with leftover rice from dinner.  Custardy, sweet, with cinnamon, and so delicious when straight from the refrigerator.