Creamy Garlic Pasta (aka Homemade Alfredo)

I made this pasta for dinner on Monday and it was just too good not to share or post on here so I would always remember.  I, of course, found the recipe on pinterest and it did not disappoint.  It was quick and easy too, which is always a bonus.  If I ever get to go to Italy and eat some real Italian food, I imagine that it would taste like this…

Creamy Garlic Pasta

2 tsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

3 cups chicken stock

1/2 lb angel hair pasta

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

3/4 cup heavy cream

garnish with fresh parsley (optional)

 

In a pot, bring olive oil to medium-low heat.  Add the garlic and stir, allowing it to cook for 1-2 minutes.  Mix in the butter until melted.  Add salt, pepper, and chicken stock.  Raise the heat to high and let it come to a boil.

Once it is at a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook for as long as the box’s directions indicate.  Reduce the stove to medium heat and mix in the parmesan until completely melted.  Turn off the heat and stir in the cream and parsley.  Serve immediately.

Mmmm.  I’ll just go ahead and say, “you’re welcome!”

A Cleanse and Some Tacos

Nate and I made it through our seven day cleanse!  You are supposedly guaranteed to lose 10-17 lbs, but we only lost 6 lbs each.  I am totally happy with that though, because during my weight watcher days I only lost 1-2 lbs/week.  It was a great jump start to our new healthy eating plan…. and I really did feel cleansed.

We did the GM Diet March 5-11.

The GM Diet was originally created by GM and only for the employees and families. Somehow GM (biggest company in the world at the time) got a grant from the FDA and the Department of Agriculture to create this. Johns Hopkins was involved and the diet was approved and launched in 1985.

The GM Diet is designed to flush your system of impurities and give you a feeling of well being.

Here is the plan… (For a longer, more in depth version click HERE)

Day One All fruits except bananas. Your first day will consist of all the fruits you want.

Day Two All vegetables. You are encouraged to eat until you are stuffed with all the raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. There is no limit on the amount or type.

Day Three A mixture of fruits and vegetables of your choice. Any amount, any quantity.

Day Four Bananas and milk.

Day Five Today is feast day. You will eat beef and tomatoes.

Day Six Beef and vegetables. Today you may eat an unlimited amount of beef and vegetables. Eat to your hearts content.

Day Seven Today your food intake will consist of brown rice, fruit juices and all the vegetables you care to consume.

It was pretty hard to get through the first three days, but we made it.  I taught myself to like veggies and fruits that I thought I hated, and I even tried a banana (maybe for the first time in my life).  When day five got here, we had never been so excited to see some meat on our plate.

I learned that I like to cover my food in sauces and eat crunchy things.  It is something that needs to change, but it is also something that I missed terribly during the cleanse week.  It doesn’t matter what I’m eating I like a nice condiment for dipping.  Whether it’s ketchup, ranch, gravy, or chick-fil-a sauce, I am the dipping queen.  And who knew that apples aren’t crunchy enough for my weird mouth.

Anyway, we were super proud of ourselves for making it through the whole week.  We even had to go to a restaurant and order “the veggie platter” on the last day.

To celebrate our conquering food week, I made a taco feast!  It was so delish… making tacos even more my favorite food (or at least at the top tied with pizza).

Food For a Month

I have been a planner my entire life.  I can remember in middle school how excited I was to get the “agenda” they passed out at the beginning of every year.  It was the OCD planner’s dream… where I wrote everything I did everyday, took notes of funny things I wanted to remember, and kept track of all the homework scheduled and done.  There is just something glorious about checking off a list.  Isn’t there?

Anyway… I have been thinking about trying to plan a menu for an entire month since we got married back in 2005.  For some reason it always seemed like an impossible task to me.  Nate and I would usually spend every Friday in Wal-Mart buying some kind of food.

It was just as great as I thought it would be to have everything planned out and to not step foot in Wal-Mart for a while.  Don’t get me wrong, I love “WM” and have started putting that in my check book register instead of spelling it out, just because we go there so much.  It is, in fact, the one stop shop for everything.  It was just great to not be running there every day.

We did our massive shopping trip on January 12 and didn’t go back for food until around February 24.  It was great!  The crock pot became my really good friend and Nate enjoyed all the home cooked meals.

Here are some of our favorite recipes we enjoyed:

Cheesy Chicken-N-Rice

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 8 oz. box Zataran’s Yellow Rice Mix, cooked according to directions
• 1-2 cups cheddar cheese
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can whole kernal corn, drained

Place chicken in bottom of slow cooker.  Scatter chopped onions over top.  Spoon cream of chicken soup over top of that.  Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours, or on high 3-4 hours.  A few minutes before serving, add in cooked rice, corn, and cheese.  Stir to combine.  Serve hot.

 

Chicken Salad

• 1 lb cooked chicken breasts, cut into cubes or shredded
• 1 cup mayo
• 1 cup halved purple grapes
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
• 1 tsp finely chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup whipped cream
• salt and pepper to taste

Ranch Pork Chops

• 6 pork chops
• 1 pkt. dry ranch mix
• 1 can cream of chicken soup

Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.  Serve over rice.

 

Applesauce Pork Chops

• 6-8 pork chops
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 16 oz. can tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup vinegar

Salt and pepper chops and place in bottom of crock pot.  Pour the rest of the ingredients on top.  Cook on high for 6-8 hours.  Serve over rice or on hamburger bun with bar-b-q sauce.

 

Pork Chops and Corn Stuffing

• 1 tbsp. oil
• 6 boneless pork chops
• 1 1/2 tsp. dried pork seasoning
• 4 cups cornbread stuffing mix
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 can whole kernal corn with red and green peppers, drained
• 1 egg beaten

1.  Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat, brown pork chops on both sides.  Drain.  Sprinkle with pork seasoning.

2.  Combine all remaining ingredients, mix well.

3.  Spray insided of crock pot with nonstick cooking spray.  Spoon stuffing mixture in the bottom.  Arrange pork chops in 2 layers over stuffing.

4.  Cover and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours or until pork is no longer pink in the center.

(a mix of 1/4 tsp each of seasoned salt, garlic powder, thyme leaves and black pepper can be used if pork seasoning is not available)

No Sweets? No Sweat.

Hello.  My name is Whitney and I am a sweet-a-holic.  That is probably not a word, but you get what I’m saying.  I didn’t used to be so bad… or maybe it never affected my body as much.  I did always enjoy the candy bars at my mom and dad’s station.  To this day, when I go in there I feel like I have to get something sweet to eat.  Then when Nate and I got married, I just ate when he ate.  And Nate likes a little bite of something sweet after every meal.  Then when we moved and I went through a year of depression and ate everything in sight… that wasn’t too good either.

My weight has been up and down and this year I am ready to make a major change and stick with it.  I don’t need to be super skinny, but I need to fill good about myself.  So… I have taken a few steps, and have a few more in mind to get to my goal.

Step One:  Since our house in Rogers is finally out of our hands, we can really focus on living here and being here.  It is like my mind has been in two different places for 2 1/2 years, so having it gone will completely change my life here.  And the number on my bathroom scale :)

Step Two:  My friend is going through a book called “The Fasting of the Sevens” by Jen Hatmaker.  Every month there is something to focus on and fast from… showing us how much we live in excess.  Last month Hollie decided to go without sweets.  I took the challenge with her.  We did it for completely different reasons, but were there to keep each other accountable.  Man, is it sooo much easier to do any kind of diet with someone doing it with you. 

It was definitely hard for me.  Especially when Nate would leave an open pack of gummy worms out on the counter, or when we got two boxes of Russell Stover’s chocolates for Valentine’s Day… but I did it!  And I didn’t die!  This was a great accomplishment for me and I proved to myself that it is possible to live without a bite of chocolate everyday.

Of course when March 1 got here I went crazy at Sam’s and bought a double-layered cookie cake (I dreamed about it, okay).  And Hollie and I met up at Freddy’s for some much deserved custard to celebrate… Notice mine is the chocolatiest one I could get (I know another made up word).

Step Three: Do a seven day cleanse.  I have tried some “Jillian Michael” cleansing pills before and nothing happened to me.  So this time, I am going to start my healthy eating life with the seven day GM diet.  It is pretty extreme, but it will be a great jump start to shred some lb’s.  I am currently on day two and it’s looking good.  Nate is doing it with me, so that is a huge support.  Yesterday we ate nothing but fruit.  Today we are eating nothing but veggies.  I’ll keep you updated on how the rest of the week goes.  Nate will probably lose like 20 lbs. and I’ll lose 5, but that’s ok.  I’m keeping my eyes on the end prize… which may not be here until November (or later).

Step Four:  Run a 5K.  I am signed up… even paid good money to go run this race.  The date is April 21 so after we get back from Nicaragua, I will be a training machine.  This is another thing that I never in a million years thought I would be doing… So I can just imagine how it’s going to feel when I really do it next month.

Step Five:  Go back to weight watchers and exercise regularly until I get to my goal weight.

That’s it… I am on step three.  We will see what happens from here.  Wish me luck!

Sushi…is Good-si! Who knew?

Mark another one off the list!  I ate sushi!  I was pretty nervous about the whole thing but we went with an expert, my good friend Cassie, and she ordered some stuff I liked.  I have never liked fish, and I am a freak about food textures so I was afraid after taking the first bite… I would spew raw sea creatures all over the place.  But, it was actually really good!  I was so delightfully surprised and felt very cultured and grown up. ha

  My first bite. Ever.

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Our spread.

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It was Kaylie’s first time to try sushi too.

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And, Nate’s fist time also.  He probably liked it the best out of us three newbies.  He ate like 20 pieces or something. And he wants to find a place here to eat some more!

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I have learned lately that it is really liberating and fun to do things that I never thought I would do.  Making this “27 Things before 27” has been pretty great for me.  Once I make a list, I have to mark everything off.  I have found through this experiment (already), that I am becoming a tad spontaneous.  Nate will enjoy this new side of me…. and so will I!

I can’t wait to try something else new, and mark things off my list!

Baked Spinach Dip Mini Bread Bowls

I made these little bites of heaven over Christmas and wanted to share the recipe.  They are very delish!  Enjoy…

 

Baked Spinach Dip Mini Bread Bowls

13.3 oz roll of refrigerated french bread loaf, I used Simply Pillsbury

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Cups baby spinach, coarsely chopped

1 clove fresh garlic, minced

3 oz softened cream cheese

1/2 Cup light sour cream

2 Tablespoons fresh shredded parmesan cheese

1/8 teaspoon McCormick Gourmet Ancho Chile Pepper

1/8 teaspoon McCormick Gourmet Garlic Salt

1/8 teaspoon McCormick Gourmet Sicilian Sea Salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/3 Cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin cups with non stick cooking spray.  Unroll package of french bread loaf and slice into equal size slices, about 1 inch thick.  Press each slice into about a 3 inch round, I did this by pressing in between my hands.  Press into the bottom and up sides of the muffin cup.  Set aside.

2.  Heat oil in medium skillet over medium heat.  Cook and stir spinach until wilted, about 3 minutes then add garlic, cook and stir for another minute then turn heat off.

3.  Place cream cheese, sour cream, cooked spinach and garlic, Parmesan Cheese, Ancho Chili Powder, garlic salt, salt and pepper into a medium bowl.  Mix until well combined.  With a medium cookie scoop, scoop dip into each of the centers of bread bowls.  Top evenly with shredded cheese (I am rather generous with the cheese…. in everything I make. ha) and bake for 15-17 minutes until just turning brown on edges.  Remove and let cool for 3-5 minutes before removing from oven.

Pulled Pork

So…Nate loves pulled pork.  Since I don’t have time to cook during the week days, I have been trying out several new crock pot recipes that I found on pinterest.  I am obsessed with that by the way…best thing since sliced bread.

This was my first attempt ever to make something with pork and I can’t believe how easy and great it turned out.  The pork was a little on the expensive side for two people, but we will probably eat it for like 50 meals (that makes $14 go a long way).  I will definitely keep this in mind for when I have a crowd of people over.

(don’t judge on the paper plate, ok?  I don’t spend my 45 minutes at home doing dishes)

Pulled Pork

4 lbs of pork roast

2 white or yellow onions (I buy the already chopped kind and just dump them in there)

2 cups of apple cider vinegar

2 cups of apple juice

2 tsp of liquid smoke

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp brown sugar

1/2 bottle of regular/classic BBQ sauce (about 9 oz)

Put it all in a crock pot on high for 4 hours or low for 7-8 hours.  Stir to shred the meat and enjoy.  If you choose you can drain… add crushed red pepper flakes for a hotter taste… or more brown sugar for a sweeter taste.

Bon appetite… Or since this is kind of a southern recipe, I guess I should say… Come get it y’all.

The Best Chocolate Cake I’ve Ever Made

Something great has happened…. I am into cooking again!  I have always loved to cook, but the whole living in my brother’s barn for a couple months and then living in the mission house for ten months ruined me.  I have been useless in the kitchen for the past two years.

Now that we are all settled and I feel like my old self again….. along with all the great recipes I am finding on Pinterest…. I am cooking up a storm.  I’m sure Nate is happy about this recent change too….. cause we really have been living off of cereal and sandwiches.

Anyway, the other night we went over to our friend’s house and I made the best chocolate cake I have ever made!  It was so chocolate-y, moist, creamy, and wonderful…. Mmmm.  My mouth is kinda watering thinking about it.  Usually when I would try to make cakes from scratch, I could taste the flour…. This is not the case with this cake.  And the icing… best simple chocolate icing ever!

On to the recipe for The Best Chocolate Cake Ever:

1 3/4 C all purpose flour

2 C sugar

3/4 C cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 C strong black coffee, cooled

1 C buttermilk

1/2 C vegetable oil

1 tsp real vanilla extract

Frosting:

1/2 C margarine, softened

2 oz melted unsweetened chocolate, cooled

3 C powdered sugar

3 Tbsp milk

2 real vanilla extract

Directions

1.  Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

2.  Add eggs, coffee, buttemilk, oil, and vanilla.

3.  Beat at medium speed for two minutes.  Batter will be thin.

4.  Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x13 pan or two 9 inch cake pans.

5.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes for a 9x13, or 30-35 minutes for layer pans.

6.  Combine frosting ingredients and mix.  Spread frosting on cooled cake.

Next time you need to make a chocolate cake… make this.  You won’t be disappointed.  The effort is totally worth it.  And don’t worry about the 1 C coffee….you can’t taste it at all.

Happy Cooking!

Chicken Tacos

Chicken Tacos

Something crazy happened last night. I made dinner.

Thought I'd share one of our favorite meals. (and it's so easy)

Ingredients:

3 or 4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast

16 oz. jar of Salsa

1 can of Corn, drained

1 can of Black Beans, drained and rinsed

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Put it all in a crock pot on high for 4 hours.

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And this is what it will look like

Mmmm.

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Serve with:

taco shells or tortillas

sour cream

shredded lettuce

shredded cheese

chopped tomato

...and whatever else you like on your tacos.

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3 points for 1/2 cup on weight watchers.

Taco Soup

Taco Soup

Great for these cold days. Mmmm...

• 1 lb. lean hamburger meat
• chopped onion
• 2 cans ranch style beans
• 1 can corn
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 1 12 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 can water
• 1 pkg. taco seasoning

Cook hamburger meat with onion and drain. In a large pot mix together all ingredients. Do not drain vegetables. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.

Easy and so delicious.

3 points for a cup on weight watchers.