faux s'ghetti & meatballs.

I have a confession: I LOVE pasta. 

As in it's an obsession of mine. 

I could eat it every day. 

But alas, the hubs is STILL making us 'diet' ... No carbs after lunch. STILL. 

{though I have made him cheat several times}

Last week I was CRAVING pasta ... So I made the next best thing ... Spaghetti squash and meatballs 

I totally made up the recipe but here she is ... 

~ 1 spaghetti squash

~ 1 lb. ground beef {or turkey}

~ 1/2 C. breadcrumbs

~ 1 clove minced garlic

~ 1 egg

~ 1 Tbs. dried parsley

~ Cut squash in half lengthwise and scrape out seeds. Place in a microwave safe dish; add some water to the bottom. Microwave for 15-25 minutes or until tender. Let cool slightly then scrape with a fork ... This makes the s'ghetti! Drizzle with olive oil. 

~ While squash is cooking, mix beef, breadcrumbs, garlic, egg and parsley together. Form into 1 inch balls. Heat 2 Tbs. olive oil in large pan. Add meatballs and sauté for 5-7 minutes or until cooked through. 

~ I put about 1/2 C. spinach in the bottom of both of our bowls then added spaghetti squash, topped with more spinach and meatballs. Then for a little extra kick I drizzled the bowls with a balsamic glaze! 

This was SO SO good y'all! A must try! 

Happy Monday! 

**linking up with**

menu monday. {salads galore}

We're still on a major diet overhaul in our house ... 

Especially after eating my weight in Easter candy this past weekend!! 

{and all the other YUMMY goodness my SWEET mama made for us!}

Plus I've recently been craving all sorts of salads ... I think it's the warm weather ... Makes me long for all things fresh and light ... 

Check out these DELISH salads ... I'm sure we'll be munching on these this week! 

Spinach Salad

Ingredients

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 (8-ounce) bag baby spinach

1 roasted red pepper, cut into strips

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 can whole chunk tuna in water

1 orange, cut into segments

1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds

Dressing:

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

In a medium saute pan over medium heat add oil. When oil is hot add onions and cook, stirring occasionally until onions release their natural sugar and become golden brown, about 20 minutes.

To make dressing: In a small jar or pint container with a lid add mustard, honey, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Place top on container and shake to combine.

In a large mixing bowl add spinach, roasted pepper, beans, feta, tuna and 2 tablespoons dressing. Toss to combine. Garnish with caramelized onion, orange segments and toasted almonds.

Grilled Salmon and Grapefruit Salad

Ingredients

• 2 (6-ounce) salmon fillets (1 to 1 1/4 inches thick)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large Vidalia or other sweet onion, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• Cooking spray
• 8 cups mixed baby salad greens
• 1 (24-ounce) jar red grapefruit sections (such as Del Monte), drained

• Preparation

  • 1. Prepare grill.
  • 2. Sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper. Coat fillets and onion slices with cooking spray. Place fish and onion on grill rack coated with cooking spray. Cover and grill 5 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork and onion is tender.
  • 3. Cut onion into bite-sized chunks; break fish into chunks. Place 2 cups salad greens on each of 4 serving plates; arrange grapefruit sections, onion, and fish evenly over greens on each plate. Drizzle Blood Orange Vinaigrette evenly over salads.
  
  
  
  
  So how 'bout you ... When the weather warms up, what light and refreshing meal do you crave? 

menu monday. {and a sweet treat!}

Monday ... Monday ... How do you ALWAYS come so quickly!?!

Thanks for your sweet comments yesterday about my store ... It's my little pride and joy! We had a great day yesterday ... Lots of people turned out for the open house and I had lots of positive feedback on my space {along with a few sales! :)}

On our menu board this week: 

~ Monday: burgers & sweet potato fries

~ Tuesday: sweet potato gnocchi with brown butter and asparagus

~ Wednesday: huevos rancheros

~ Thursday: spaghetti with meatballs

~ Friday & Saturday: hubs is going out of town for a guys weekend :( which means I will be eating a lot of this ...

It's a pretty easy week in the kitchen this week! I'm so excited for the gnocchi ... It's by far one of my fave dishes! :) 

Now onto a sweet treat for y'all ... 

Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread 

{via}

Ingredients

2  cups  all-purpose flour

3/4  teaspoon  baking soda

1/2  teaspoon  salt

1  cup  sugar

1/4  cup  butter, softened

1 1/2  cups  mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)

2  eggs

3/4 cup plain yogurt, Greek or regular

1/2 cup  semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 chocolate covered almonds, or other add-in of your choice

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

3. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add banana, eggs, and yogurt; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist.

4. Place chocolate chips in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 cup batter to chocolate, stirring until well combined. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch greased loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Swirl batters together using a knife. 

Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. 

Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

This bread turned out delicious! 

I didn't have chocolate covered almonds so instead I used some sunflower seeds! YUMMMM! 

Now I promise before y'all think I buy bananas only to let them over-ripen so that I can bake with them ... this was a rare occurrence! :) 

Happy Monday Y'all! What's on your menu this week?  

** linking up with** 

 

menu monday. {and a CUPCAKE recipe!}

How is it possible that the weekend just went by that fast? I blinked and it was over! 

It was a good one though! Lots of rain ... which meant lots of couch snuggles with hubs & pup! My kind of weekend! 

Lots of yummy goodness on our menu this week! 

But before I get to that ... Can I just say, it has become less & less of a chore and more & more fun to plan these menus and to challenge myself to spend less & less at the grocery! If I've never mentioned before ... I am extremely competitive ... don't worry, it's just with myself! 

I always push myself to do more and better than before. In grad school, this competitiveness allowed me to graduate with a 4.0 .... Now it's allowing me to save more dough at the sto'. 

{omg. I'm a dork but that rhyme just made me die laughing}

So here's what on our menu board this week: 

~ Monday: sushi date night with a GF {so fun!}

~ Tuesday: chicken fried rice

~ Wednesday: pork tacos with yellow rice

~ Thursday: roasted cauliflower pasta 
{we're doing ours without ham}

~ Friday: egg & potato samis

~ Saturday: FIL's bday! 

~ Sunday: spicy grits with chorizo

I think I'm most excited about the pork tacos! I love 'different' kinds of tacos! 

Ok so now the moment all you fellow cupcake lovers have been waiting for ... {drum roll please}

BANANA CUPCAKES WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING 

{and the best part: they're from COOKING LIGHT!} 

{Amazing, I know.}

                                                                                  Ingredients

• Cupcakes:
• 3/4  cup  granulated sugar, divided
• 1/2  cup  mashed ripe banana
• 1/4  cup  butter or stick margarine, softened
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 2  large eggs
• 1  cup  all-purpose flour
• 1/2  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground nutmeg
• 1/4  cup  plain fat-free yogurt
• Frosting:
• 1 3/4  cups  powdered sugar
• 1/2  cup  (4 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, chilled
• 1/2  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 2  tablespoons  finely chopped walnuts, toasted

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare cupcakes, combine 1/4 cup granulated sugar and banana; set aside. Beat 1/2 cup granulated sugar, butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 3 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana mixture to sugar mixture, beating well. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix after each addition.

Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups lined with paper liners. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

To prepare the frosting, beat the powdered sugar, chilled cream cheese, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla at medium speed of a mixer just until blended (do not overbeat). Spread frosting over cupcakes, and sprinkle with toasted walnuts.

Now y'all these things are amazing!
They taste like you could eat them for breakfast {which I may or may not have done!}
So try them this week! And tell me how they were! 

Ok, gotta finish my cupcake coffee! Happy Monday Y'all!

*linking to

{guest post} KT's Refinishing School

As y'all are probably aware ... Monday's are usually the day that I share what's on our menu board ... 

This Monday however, I have one of my FAVE gals who's sharing a DELICIOUS recipe with us!  

May I introduce KT from KT's Refinishing School ...

Hi, I'm KT and I blog over at KT's Refinishing School.  I'm so thrilled to be blogging for Lauren today while she is in Charleston taking a much deserved break with friends.  Most Mondays I share my menu for the week in Menu Monday (see last week's here) and Lauren asked me to share a recipe of one of my favorite foods, Bread Pudding, and I am more than happy to oblige.

With St. Patrick's Day just last week, I thought I would share a recipe for Irish Bread Pudding with Caramel-Whiskey Sauce, a recipe I made for St. Patrick's Day last year.  This is a great recipe because you get all of the flavor of a traditional bread pudding without the guilt (think less than 400 calories a serving!)

Even leprechaun Woods approves!

Woods wasn't super thrilled with his beads, hence the hungover look!

Irish Bread Pudding with Caramel-Whiskey Sauce, modified from The Best of Cooking Light cookbook

Ingredients:

For the bread pudding

1/4 cup light butter, melted

1 (10 ounce) French bread baguette, cut into 1/2 inch cubes--day old, crusty bread is best.  It will absorb the butter and custard better that way.  If you don't have day-old bread, you can dry it out by baking it for ten minutes at 350 degrees.

1/2 cup raisins--golden raisins would be gorgeous in this recipe but either variety will do

1/4 cup Irish whiskey

1 3/4 cups 1% low-fat milk

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 (12 ounce) can evaporated fat-free milk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Cooking spray

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

* Can substitute 1/4 cup apple juice for whiskey, if desired.

For the caramel-whiskey sauce

1 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cup water

1/4 cup (2 ounces) 1/3 less fat cream cheese

1/4 cup Irish Whiskey

1/4 cup 1% low-fat milk

*Irish whiskey can be substituted for 1 tablespoon imitation rum extract and 3 tablespoons of water

Kitchen Supplies:

Baking sheet (if you are using fresh bread that needs to be dried out)

Bread knife

Three mixing bowls--small, medium and large

Whisk

9 x 13 baking dish--I used a pie pan and it worked just fine!

Small heavy saucepan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.   Combine raisins and whiskey (or apple juice) in a small bowl; cover and let stand 10 minutes or until soft.  Do not drain.

Combine bread cubes with melted butter in a medium bowl, tossing to coat and set aside.   Combine 1% milk, sugar, vanilla extract, evaporated milk and eggs; stirring well with a whisk.  Add bread and raisin mixtures, pressing gently to moisten and let bread mixture stand for 15 minutes.  Spoon mixture into baking vessel of your choice coated with cooking spray.  Combine 1 tablespoon sugar and ground cinnamon and sprinkle over pudding.

Bake at 350 degrees for thirty-five minutes or until pudding is set.   While the pudding bakes, combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves.  Cook an additional 15 minutes or until golden but do not stir!  Remove from heat and carefully add butter and cream cheese, stirring constantly with a whisk.  The mixture will be extremely hot and bubble vigorously while you whisk.  Cool slightly then stir in whiskey and milk.

Remove bread pudding from oven and serve warm with caramel-whiskey sauce drizzled over the top.  Enjoy!

Yields: 12 servings

Serving size: (1) 3 inch square and 2 tablespoons of sauce

Calories (including sauce): 362

This photo was taken last year, hence the different arrangement on the counter behind the bread pudding.  My cookbooks are now in our pantry and our stand mixer has taken their place on the counter in case you were curious!

Now that I've shared that recipe with you, let's talk bread pudding.  I love traditional bread pudding like the one above but recently had a chocolate-orange version that was to die for!  

What's your favorite flavor?

Another big thank you to Lauren for the opportunity to share this recipe with you all.  Please let me know if you try the recipe and have a great Monday!

Ummmm Hello Deliciousness! I adore bread pudding {though at this point y'all are probably wondering if there's a food I don't like ... answer: NOPE!}

Thanks so much for sharing KT! Now y'all be sure to pop over to KT's Refinishing School and give this lovely lady a big 'HEY!'

Happy Monday Y'all! 

menu monday.

Y'all I've been MIA! I'm so sorry! 

I ran the race this Saturday AM and twisted my ankle ... 

Then was stranded on the couch with NO INTERNET! 

{pre race}

{post race & mimosas}

Ok so stranded may be a little bit of an exaggeration ... I had my fabulous family taking care of me! 

{ankle all 'doctored' up}

I'm back now though {and only a LITTLE hobbly still}! :) 

And it's time for me to share what's on our menu ... 

~ Monday: Take-out {ankle still sore, so I'm taking full advantage of getting takeout one more night!}

~ Tuesday: Turkey Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries 

~ Wednesday: Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes

~ Thursday: Spaghetti with Bolognese 

~ Friday: Meatloaf Samis

~ Saturday: Dinner with friends! :) 

~ Sunday: Beer Can Chicken 

So that's what we're having this week! 

Come back tomorrow for some peeks at my wedding plans and showers! :) 

Happy Monday Y'all!

** Don't forget tonight is the last night for the GIVEAWAY! **

menu monday. {+ 2 recipes}

{whew} 

Can y'all believe it's ALREADY Monday?! 

What in the world happened to the weekend?!

It's that time of the week again ... 

you know, when I impress you all with my CRAZY GOOD cooking skills?! :) 

Here's what on the board for this week: 

~ Monday: Pork Tenderloin and Roasted Veggies

~ Tuesday: Sweet Potato Burgers {if the hubs agrees, if not ... breakfast for din}

~ Wednesday: Pulled Pork Tacos

~ Thursday: Paninis 

~ Friday & Saturday: this girl's out of town ... running a race this weekend! 

Ok now I must share TWO new recipes with y'all ... I made both this weekend and they are TO.DIE.FOR. 

Red Potato Homefries: {via}

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 2 pounds (4 medium) red potatoes, boiled and cut into wedges
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• Direction
• ~ Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until limp, about 5 minutes
• ~ Add the potatoes, salt, and pepper. Turning the potatoes over frequently with a metal spatula, cook until crusty, about 15 minutes.
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• These were AMAZING! I will never make another kind of homefrie! :) 
• 
  
• And now ... Grand Finale: 

EASY PEASY Sugar Cookies {via}

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

~ Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

~ In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.

~ Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

I hope y'all will try these! They were both SO SO GOOD!!! 

Happy Monday Y'all! Hope it's a beautiful one! xo!