Although it may seem like I eat meatballs at every meal, I occasionally opt for different meats of the non-ball variety. (Like when I’ve run out of meatballs and don’t have the necessary ingredients to make more.) Tonight was one of those nights. With a grumbling belly and nary a meatball in sight, I decided to remix my usual spaghetti squash with some ingredients I had on hand.
Enter Spaghetti Squash with Sausage, Pesto, and Tomatoes:
I love to cook, but sometimes all I want is to dump a bunch of ingredients in a pot and come back an hour later to a piping hot bowl of flavorful comfort. I need my unproductive internet perusing and phantom shopping time, which means I can’t spend every ounce of my free time in the kitchen. That’s what I love about this chili. You simply brown the turkey then dump everything in the pot.
Perhaps, at first glance, the name Brown Dump Chili is unappealing to some. Given the two-step process behind the chili, I’m sure you wholeheartedly agree the name is appropriate (or, at the very least, foretelling).
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I shamelessly consider myself a meatball connoisseur. If meatballs are on the menu, you can bet your last breadstick I’m gonna order one. Just one solitary meatball is all I need for my analysis. Texture, taste, accouterments. More often than not, I’m disappointed. I’m not a fan of mushy ones and I need them to be thoroughly seasoned, preferably bobbing along in a vat of marina sauce (though I’m flexible on that stipulation). Every once in a while, about 1 in 5 tries, I will sink my teeth into an amazing meatball and for that brief moment this crazy messed up world is right again.
I have been trying to create a delicious healthified meatball recipe for YEARS, and have been wholeheartedly devoted to the cause. I’ve tried dozens of impromptu turkey meatball concoctions, but they always left something to be desired. Too dry, too poultry-ee, not meatbally enough, etc. I kept crawling back to my favorite, albeit it no-so-healthy, meatball recipe: Meatball Nirvana on Allrecipes.com. I LOVE this recipe because it results in meatballs that are juicy, flavorful, and that have the coveted sink-your-teeth-in meaty texture.
If I ever volunteer to come to your house and make you breakfast, you should consider yourself very lucky. You should also consider yourself forewarned:
For no dish, no matter how simple, will the kitchen be left unscathed. What can I say? I like to become one with my food 
And yes, that IS a bottle of wine next to the eggs.
I’ve always wanted to make a frittata, and this Sunday morning I was in the mood to get my cook on so I decided to give it a shot. Once I started googling frittata recipes, I realized I was lacking a major piece of equipment: a skillet that could go from stove top to oven without causing a fire. Dangit. That’s going on the T.J. Maxx list.
Since I had my heart set on eggy bliss, I decided to just use a standard glass pie pan. Does that mean it’s not a frittata anymore? Hmmmm what would its proper classification be? I say frittata, you say….. frrrrreggcasserole?
Something to ponder as the man pours your mimosa.
This frittata consisted of:
)While I cooked up the sausage, and sautéed the onion, mushroom, and garlic, I got to egg crackalacking. Once the sausage was cooked and the veggies were soft, I stirred all the goodies into the eggs then poured into a pie pan that I’d coated with cooking spray.
Into the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, and you’ll end up with this beauty:
The frittata set up PERFECTLY. Perfect temperature, perfect cook time:
I started off with just a slice:
But ended up eating precisely half of the frittata…
Good news is the stats on half the frittata: 318 calories, 11g carbs, 11g fat, 41g protein, 3g fiber
Molto bene 
Somehow in the past few months I seemed to have forgotten my passion for cooking. Let’s take a moment to ponder how the heck this is even possible. Somewhere between leaving a job of over four years, attempting to sell a house, subsequently becoming a landlord, selling off and donating an insane amount of my possessions, a crazy condo hunt, leaving my family and home state of 26 years, a HORRIBLE moving experience, starting a new job, and immersing myself in the culinary delights of a new city I forgot how much fun and just how darn rewarding a home cooked meal can be.
Blasphemy!
Through these past few whirlwind months I’ve been a little *ahem* emotional. Ok, not just emotional. Let’s also throw in irrational, brash, and downright scary at times. This Saturday I actually cried over burnt pizza. I CRIED, PEOPLE. And then I sat on the living room floor with my knees clenched up to my chest and just stared off into nothingness as my body seethed in furry searching for some sort of carbohydrate to peak my bottomed out blood sugar.
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: bad things happen when I don’t eat.
While I was in the midst of nuclear shutdown, the BF came over, sat down beside me, and put his arm around his little sugar feigning zombie. And we sat. And then he did what any good man would do: he didn’t talk, didn’t ask questions, he just got up from the floor sauntered over to the kitchen and made me a snack.
I know, right?
Why can’t I see things so simply? Is it really just a man thing? Are women really just crazy complex, overanalyzing, (often) emotional basket cases? Whatever the case may be (lord knows I don’t have the answers) the BF does a pretty darn good job of reeling me back from Mary’s Land of Anxious Gloom by trying to insert some of the simple things into my life. Sunday morning he convinced me to simply sit on the porch and drink mimosas, and Sunday night we simply made jambalaya for dinner.
This was simply stick to your ribs delicious, guys. I’m serious. It gave the jambalaya we had in New Orleans a run for the money!
We used an old Cooking Light recipe (with a few minor modifications—if you’re interested, check out the original here).
Jambalaya Ingredients List (serves 5)
Simplified instructions:
Stats on 1 serving: 351 calories, 54g carbs, 4g fat, 25g protein, 5g fiber
Looking for a Jambalaya-for-one recipe? Check out this post.
Looking for a crazy, borderline incoherent, slightly volatile woman? Catch me on a day when I miss my midmorning snack.
What do these three ingredients have in common?
Cottage cheese (bleghhhhhh), eggs, and oatmeal?
Despite being super healthy and good for your body, these three ingredients have one MAJOR thing in common.
A big ole plate of PURE breakfast bliss, that’s what.
I hope you are as excited as I am 
Thank you to Jessica from Warfield Ninjas for sharing with me one of the simplest yet tastiest belly pleasing recipes I’ve tried in a while!
For two good sized pancakes (similar in size to a toaster waffle), you’ll need to combine the following in a food processor:
Give all the goods a quick buzz in the food processor until the lumps are gone, and cook them up like you would “normal” pancakes!
get. in. my. bellllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
I was feeling a little OVER THE TOP, so I decided to top mine off with some all-natural peanut butter, Dannon Vanilla Greek yogurt, strawberries, AND Smuckers sugar free syrup.
Feel free to use the toppings of your choice. To each her own pancake, I always say 
I made a smaller version of these for my mom over the holiday weekend, and she said they were surprisingly tasty and that she appreciated the “healthy and hearty” texture of the pancakes. I completely agree!
Pure breakfast bliss.
I’m looking forward to playing with this recipe a bit – and hopefully making it waffle-iron ready 
Stats on two pancakes (without any toppings): 203 calories, 21g carbs, 2g fat, 22g protein, 3g fiber.
Reasons why you should never judge a recipe by its cover.. err title:
Chicken Larb!
Say whaaaaa? What the crap is “larb”? Google tells me “larb” is a type of meat salad. Good to know, Google. Good to know.
Had I known this fun fact, I might not have hesitated to clip the recipe for “Chicken Larb” out of one of my issues of Cooking Light. But lucky for my belly, I looked past the gag-reflex-prompting title and filed this puppy away in my big black book.
I tweaked the recipe slightly and scaled it down to one delicious serving. First up, toss the following in a food processor:
Give it a quick buzz in the food processor, and you’ll end up with this crazy orange colored ground chicken:
I’m still amazed that I can make my own ground meat at home. It’s the little things, I guess!
Saute the chicken in a pan coated with nonstick spray over medium heat. I occasionally added a tbsp of water to the pan to help moisten things up.
Meanwhile, combine the following:
Thing of beauty:
Once the chicken is cooked through, combine the chicken with the cucumber mixture and then spoon onto romaine lettuce leaves, and juice a quarter lime over top:
Looks crazy good, am I right? I had a big serving of roasted broccoli on the side:
This was super tasty and SUPER healthful. I decided mid-meal to grab a tablespoon or so of fat-free plan Greek Yogurt to dollop on top. It really was the icing on the larb 
This was my first time using red curry paste, and the paste along with the cilantro really made for a tasty combo.
There’s a recipe on the back of the paste bottle for Red Curry Shrimp. I need to try that STAT!
Roasted broccoli 
A delicious dinner enjoyed on my newly assembled patio furniture:
It’s nice to have a little helper. Or a 6’4” helper… either way
Stats on the Chicken Larb + 1.5 cups broccolee broccolye brocco-lee-hee: 221 calories, 19g carbs, 1g fat, 27g protein, 4g fiber
I can’t believe how outrageously low cal yet still tasty that meal was – next time I may beef it up with some beans or avocado.
Soooooo did you catch the broccoli reference?!?! PLEASE take 4 minutes and watch this. You won’t regret it. And as an added bonus you will now know the song I sing to myself every time I chop up broccoli 
