Welcome back- Quinoa taco bowls and microwave cheese cake

Howdy all!

It has been way too long since I has lave posted. A lot has happened since then. I went to California (where I payed to work 40hrs a week at a hospital) and got to go to Disneyland for the first time!! Oh- and I also graduated with my doctorate of physical therapy aka DPT!!! Now all I have to do is study for the next eleven weeks so I can pass to boards and get my license and then get a job! I am back home now and hoping to cook an epic meal once a week, and even more hopefully actually remember to blog about it. So, lets get to it! Last week I made amazing quinoa taco bowls and microwave cheese cakes. All was super awesome and fairly healthy and really easy to make. Basically if you can use a microwave and boil water you can make this meal. 

Quinoa Taco Bowls-
1 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa (will make about 3 cups cooked)
1 package taco seasoning or you can make your own with this recipe. 
Toppings of your choice- I used corn, black beans, cilantro, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, onions, shredded cheese, and sliced black olives. 
Top it all with your favorite salsa

Spices used in taco seasoning

Steps- 
Cook quinoa in 3 cups water (quinoa will cook until water is absorbed and the quinoa is tender), it should take about 10-15 minutes. While cooking, this is the perfect time to prepare the taco seasoning (if making your own) and prepare your toppings. After the quinoa is finished cooking, stir in taco seasoning. Divide quinoa into bowls for serving and top with the toppings of your choice. Enjoy!

The left overs also make a great breakfast with a fried egg over top. I didn't use all of the toppings, only the corn, black beans, and cheese. YUM!

Ingredients used for Taco Bowls

Toppings and quinoa with taco seasoning mixed in

Completed little piece of heaven!

For the microwave cheese cake I used this recipe. It is so very easy and quick. Great for when you are craving a little sweet treat that won't break your waist line or leave you with pesky left overs to tempt you. 

You need:

• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons fat free sour cream
• 3 tablespoons low fat cream cheese
• ⅛ teaspoon lemon juice- fresh squeezed is always best
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ egg, beaten fluffy (egg substitute works too)
• topping/ add in of your choice- I used semisweet chocolate chips.

 Mix the first five ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add in the beaten egg (I beat it with a whisk, I was too lazy to get out the mixer and clean the beaters and it still turned out just fine). Finally add in your add-in. I made four at once, so I started in a bowl and transferred them to small ramekins and proceeded to microwave. I did about a minute, let it rest for 20sec, and microwaved for another 50sec. They looked mildly underdone, but after cooling they set well. 

 Well, I hope you enjoy these recipes. They truly were quite delicious and are on the list to make again. 

Happy eating, 
Smashley

Chicken Pot Pie

Hi all!

As I said in the last post, I haven't forgotten about the blog-o-sphere. I am nearing the end of this crazy semester, so hopefully more time to post in the up coming months. So I made this chicken pot pie a while ago with some left over chicken. The chicken was a whole chicken made in the crock pot. If you have never tried this...my friend you are missing out. So easy. Here is a link to an amazing and super easy recipe. My only tweak was when it was fully cooked, I took the chicken out of the crock pot and put it under the broiler to crisp up the skin. YUM! 

On a side note, don't forget to check out my etsy store, click here.

 So the ingredients-
About 2 chicken breasts
2Tbsp flour (to thicken sauce)
About 1 3/4 cup  chicken broth (I used about 1C broth and 3/4C drippings from the crock pot)
1bag frozen veggies
1/2tsp dried thyme, sea salt, and black pepper (more or less depending on your tastes. Other herbs can be used depending on what you have. Play with it.)
2 store bought pie crusts (or home made...I was too lazy)

 Put crust in pan

 Add chicken /\ and veggies \/

 Mix the flour, seasonings, and broth

 Pour into the pie. There were still some flour chunks, and they disappeared, so no worries if you can't get yours completely smooth.

 Cover and with second crust and crimp.

 Bake at around 375* until cooked through (it took around 1 1/2 - 1 3/4hrs) I do recommend covering the edges so the crust doesn't burn.

 Cut and enjoy. Be careful of the steam, very hot.

Last but not least- ENJOY! The sauce did later thicken. The first night it was soupy, but the rest of the servings were not as liquidy.

Well, that is all I have for now. Hope you enjoy!

Happy eatings!

Smashley :)

Not forgotten

Hello blog world,

I feel like a terrible blogger. I promise I haven't forgotten about you! Things have just been a little crazy. I had my second clinical for PT school (it was amazing) and have started a business on Etsy for my spoon necklaces. I am really excited about opening the store, but again even there I have been slacking (partially because I am back at school and don't have many supplies) now that school has started. Last semester of in class work. It is super exciting and terrifying all at the same time!!! I promise I will be more on top of things as the semester winds down, and I already have things I have made stored up so expect a day of mass posting ;)

Happy eatings,
Smashley 

Asparagus Quinoa chicken salad

Howdy all!

It has almost been forever since I posted last, with finals and my clinical things have just be absolutely crazy. I have had to wonderful experience of a community kitchen, and have to say not the ideal place for a blog ready meal. With that said, today's meal/post is just that. I had some fresh asparagus and was going to make some quinoa, so I decided to make an epic quinoa salad. Very tasty indeed. I have been trying hard to eat healthy and not always succeeding. It is quite a battle when the unhealthy food is so much easier and so tasty. Healthy food takes more time, but more time is also more love and end results mean more and taste better.  

You need-
Asparagus
Olive oil
seasoning of your choice (I used Lawry's Mediterranean blend and garlic powder)
Quinoa- I used 2/3 cup (when uncooked) and twice the water.
1/2cube chicken stock (or beef or vegetable)
vegetables of your choice (I used carrots, radishes, and cucumber)
1 can of chicken meat (optional) well rinsed

 Start with putting the quinoa and I used a bullion cube into the pot on ~medium heat. Allow to come to a boil. Once boiling put the lid on and let simmer until the water is no more and the quinoa is translucent (aka able to see light through).

 Next, cut the ends off your asparagus and put in a pot with water. (I had to break mine in half to fit in a pot, I was limited with my pots and pans)

 Heat the asparagus until it is just softening and then remove and put in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil and your seasonings. Sautee/cook on medium heat until done to your liking.

 I also chopped up my veggies(obviously not pictured)and mixed the cooked quinoa, asparagus, canned chicken meat, and fresh veggies.

Nice and healthy. Side note- I recommend using broth when cooking quinoa but plain water will do fine. I just prefer the added flavor from the broth. I also don't always rinse my quinoa prior to use for the sole fact that I don't have anything to rinse with. I have made is rinsed and un-rinsed and don't really notice a difference between the two.

So there it is. It isn't hard to make, but the quinoa does take about 20 minutes give or take a few minutes. I hope you enjoy this recipe.

What is your favorite healthy meal to prepare?

Happy eatings,
Smashley

Cilantro Lime night

Howdy!

Happy Thursday all! The best part about this Thursday is that there is no school tomorrow in honor of Good Friday! So I was able to enjoy some cooking without having to worry about school tomorrow. I don't know about you guys, but I like to carry over a few flavors into the different aspects of my food when I cook. Tonight those flavors were cilantro and lime. I had a whole bunch of cilantro that needed to be used and a failed crock-pot meal last night (that was accidentally left out overnight so def not eating it) that left me needing good creative food. Of course pintrest did it again for me, and I found these recipes. The chicken recipe was here and the quinoa I found here. 

I made half of the recipe, and of course tweaked it at the get to. I added a little sriracha and ginger. Also like usual I have a tendency to not read all the way and didn't make the marinade quite as it was supposed to be, but it worked out. I was going to put it in the George Forman, but after realizing I did the marinade wrong, I didn't think the large cilantro would bode well on the griddle.  I baked the chicken at 400* for about 25 minutes and broiled it for another 5minutes or so.

 Marinade with extras

 Before tonight I was not the hugest fan of quinoa, but cooking it with a bullion cube made all the difference. This right here is gold. 

 So there you have it. I had a nice, unintentionally green dinner. It was wonderful and I would make all of them again.

I hope you enjoyed enough to at least try and maybe even enough to follow. I could use some new faces :)

Happy eatings,
Smashley

Giant cookie!!!!!

Howdy Y'all!!!

This afternoon was one of those days were I wanted any excuse to not study for my test I have at nine tomorrow morning. I know that sounds awful, but its true. Thanks to Pintrest (the procrastinators  dream/nightmare) I found my distraction. What could be better than super chocolatey and gooey...nothing you say? False...add some caramel and sea salt and then it is truly heaven. I also made one for my roomie, needless to say she ate it without me having to twist her arm too much.

I got the recipe here and really didn't change the ingredients other than the addition of caramels and sea salt. The caramels made the dough larger and over all the cookie larger. YUM!

All in all the cookie ended up being larger than my hand. It was rich, moist, and wonderful. This is definitely a keeper recipe. Easy, no equipment other than bowls, a fork, and measuring utensils. Very wonderful. 

On the days when you are avoiding doing something, what do you do? 

Happy eatings,
Smashley

Craft time- spoon neckalces

Hello all!

So this is neither food nor yarn related, but I was really excited about how these turned out. I had seen somewhere a picture of necklaces made from spoons. So I decided to make my over twist.  I am finally seeing where my creative genes are hiding. My family is great at painting or drawing, but I not me. I guess my creative niche is more of making things not pictures :). I used a mini sledge hammer, ball pein hammer for texture, hack saw to cut off the handle of some, for those I used a drill press,  the others I just bent the handle to make a loop, and a grinder to make the edges of things smooth.  

I was so excited about these I just had to share:)

Hope I can inspire you to find your creative niche!

Happy crafting,
Smashley