Pesto

                                       

I have been HARDCORE slacking on the blog here guys.  I have been quite busy though! :) The wedding planning is coming full fledge and we are only about two months away! I can't wait to see all this work I've done :) I am also training for a half marathon right after the wedding which I am SUPER pumped about. After running all these months I didn't think I could do it but it has actually been a lot of fun and very self fulfilling....now on to pesto!

Pesto is a delicious condiment to add to TONS of different recipes. Ways to use pesto other than pasta

It's also ridiculously easy to make! It's so much better than some of the store bought stuff out there that has all the extra additives and weird aftertastes.....who wants that?? 

There is also a whole world of pesto's besides basil and pine nuts! PESTO GALORE

Now enjoy the rest of this hot summer and make some pesto! This is pesto we will be having at our wedding!!! :) 

Perfect Pesto

Popcorn

Growing up all I ever had was the prepackaged and boxed orville redenbacher popcorn. I now have come to find how HORRIBLE that stuff is for you. READ THIS

Besides pre-packaged popcorn being so bad for you, do you know HOW EASY it is to make your own popcorn//? It's a million times better and you can come up with so many different POPCORN variations :)

You don't even need a popcorn maker! They are a great addition to a kitchen, but all you need is a pot, lid, and oil! Popcorn is also pretty healthy for you as well Check it out here.

I'll leave you with a basic popcorn recipe, now get poppin ;) 

Perfect Popcorn

Chocolate Banana Muffins

Yet another muffin recipe.... I think the reason I love muffins so much is because I sure love waffles and pancakes for breakfast, but If you have left overs they really aren't as good the next couple days. Muffins on the other hand stay good for almost a week AND freeze beautifully :) They are also great on the go! 

I have seen a ton of chocolate chip banana recipes and I have made my fair share. I however have not seen a lot of chocolate banana muffin recipes. I love cocoa powder and all you can do with it! 

Healthy ways to use cocoa powder

Benefits to cocoa powder

This is a great recipe for using cocoa powder, chocolate, and bananas :). I used a little less oil and added my apple butter! I  didn't even add the chocolate chips but I'm sure the added chips are delish! 

Enjoy

Chocolate Banana Muffins

Spinach Walnut and Pancetta Pasta

Oh how this pasta reminds me of Italy :) Simple, elegant, and utterly delicous. Please go make this pasta now, and top it with lots of parmesan cheese!!

Spinach Walnut Pancetta Pasta

don't have pancetta? Use bacon!

Also if this link comes up in French, just scroll down and press in English!

Pumpkin

So grocery shopping happened last week. I go down EVERY aisle because I have to look at every single new product...even though I'd never buy it ;) but it gives me great idea's to make my own delicious creations!

ANYWAYS I am rollin down the baking aisle and stop at the pumpkin. I got so excited because I realized I hadn't had pumpkin since Thanksgiving! Who says we should only have pumpkin flavored things around holidays anyways??? It has a wonderful flavor, you can do SO much with it and extremely healthy to boost! 

I was looking through my saved recipes and came across some great pumpkin recipes check it out Here!

The picture I took and the recipe I am posting today are these pumpkin oat muffins (I bet you guys can tell I am a LITTLE obsessed with healthy muffins). These muffins are moist, filling, light, and fluffy! Pumpkin is one of those ingredients (as well as bananas) you can mix into breads and cakes and it becomes extremely moist without adding a bunch of oil! :) I followed this recipe pretty much exactly as is expect I subbed in 1/4 cup apple butter for the oil and did a little less then a 1/2 cup of sugar. Look at this article, it's a great read if you want to try and substitute things, you have to be carful! 

Baking Alterations Rules

Pumpkin muffins

I'm headed to Chicago this weekend for one of my best friends Bach parties...It should be a good one! :) 

Enjoy yours!

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

Man the past couple months or so have been crazy! I've been totally slacking on the blog posts....I guess that'll happen when you are trying to plan your ENTIRE wedding that is happening in four months by the way!

I had one the most memorable weekends of my life this past weekend, I drove all the way out to Ohio with my good friend/bridesmaid to celebrate my bridal shower! :) My maid of honor/best friend/child hood friend since kindergarden threw it for me and I couldn't of asked for a better party! She surprised me by having everyone make something from this blog. I must say the stuff they made came out delicious!!  That is the whole point of this blog, so people can find easy delicious/healthy food to cook for others!! I'm still beaming :) I'm not sure how many people read this blog but I sure love writing in it!

ANYWAYS....on to these muffins. A couple weeks ago we had a memorial day party and WAY to many strawberries were purchased. What to do with extra strawberries I asked myself??? Well first I tried out the lemon blueberry jam with strawberries instead of blueberries and it turned out fantastic. I still had strawberries left so I googled some recipes and this muffin recipe popped up! I really do love making muffins that are not loaded with sugar and calories yet still are extremely tasty and healthy all at the same time. It just proves over and over again you can still have things that are labeled "bad for you", one just must put a little more time and effort into it. 

These muffins are a great breakfast or afternoon snack. They also aren't too sweet you feel like you will go into a sugar coma! The recipe calls for applesauce but I used organic apple butter and it still turned out great! I also wanted a little fat in them so I subbed a quarter of the applesauce for coconut oil.  Either way if you use the oil or not these muffins are fantastic. Now get baking ;)

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

Pecan butter

I hope everyone had a good memorial day weekend! We enjoyed it by cooking some hamburgers on the grill, drinking and playing croquet. :) Has anyone every played? It's actually a lot of fun!

After a weekend drinking and eating all I want to do is cleanse myself with healthy delicious food and exercise:) It's the middle of the week so I'm getting there/feeling better!

I made this pecan butter on memorial day and it turned out AMAZING. I mean I've made homemade peanut butter and homemade almond butter so I OBVIOUSLY had to try this...I got the idea from HERE.

If you like pecans, I would suggest making this, it's simple and a healthy protein! : ).  I just toasted my pecans in the oven for 8 minutes at 350 instead of tossing it in the pan like they do. 

Pecan butter

Garlic Dill White Bean Dip

Every big holiday my family would gather at my grandparents house and it would always involve a hodgepodge of appetizers, sandwiches, and finger foods galore. One of my favorite things that was always there was dill dip. It was some weird tradition my grandma started and I loved it! I was quite the picky child so when I would see that dip it's all I would eat! I of coarse dipped them with potato chips not vegetables....

Fast forward 20 years and my eating habits have changed a bit :) I still love normal dips based with mayo and sour cream but I try to switch it up with lighter mayo and instead of sour cream I use greek yogurt! I'm telling yea f you haven't tried to switch them DO IT...It taste just the same! Greek yogurt dips. 

I didn't always love beans but now I can't get enough of them. Black, pinto, chickpeas, and white beans are all so good, and good for you! This garlic white bean dill dip reminds me of my childhood love for dill dip but heartier and healthier :) Enjoy with pita chips and fresh veggies!

If you don't have time to roast the garlic I just used garlic powder and it was still delicious!

Garlic Dill White Bean Dip

Salad dressings

Did you know salad dressing was ridiculously easy to make? All you need is oil, vinegar, and spices!

Making your own dressing is a MILLION times better than buying the crazy crap they have out there on the grocery shelves. I'm a huge chipotle fan and my fiancée found the salad dressing recipe for their salad.

It's so good it makes me want to cry......a little dramatic but it's OUTRAGEOUSLY yummy. You'll thank me later...

Honey Vinaigrette

Eggs

Eggs are great. There are so many ways to eat them it's a lil CRAZY.  These are some great recipes. 

Growing up my dad used to make over easy eggs for us like it was his job! I also ate a lot of hard boiled eggs. I think my favorite now is scrambled or poached. I know the runny egg freaks some people out but poached eggs are AMAZING...please watch this video and you are going to make them all the time with that nifty trick!

Last night I was thinking about what I wanted for lunch. Everyday I know what I'm going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner the night before...I'm a wee bit indecisive so this process helps me so the next day I don't freak out because I can't decide what to eat because I want to eat EVERYTHING.

I stumbled across a ton of recipe for mini egg muffins. They are a great on the go healthy breakfast or lunch. There are so many different things you can add to them, this recipe is just one of dozens! The other great thing about them is they keep well in the fridge for awhile or even longer in the freezer!

Egg muffins

I'm throwing a wild card at you and I myself thought these eggs were a little weird but they are anything but! The combo of the spicy tomato sauce and texture of eggs was out of this world. Also a great hang over cure ;) Please try!

Eggs in purgatory

Lemon Blueberry Jam

We used to live about half a mile away from a blueberry picking patch. I only went there once...can you believe that??  I ran by it for the three summer's we lived there and I would aways tell myself I was going to go but only made it the one time. We now live by a raspberry patch. I will definitely be visiting that more.  :) 

So if you live in the vicinity of a delicious fruit picking patch.....GO!! You won't regret it and can have delicious fresh fruit to just eat or to make anything you want...especially JAM!

My love affair with jam started last year. I grew up with grape jelly and that was never my favorite. Once I discovered strawberry jam in my later years I really started to enjoy all the different mixed jam out there on the market. I recently was given an orange marmalade that was fantastic. Some brands I really love are stonewall kitchen or Bonne Maman. HERE is a good list of store brought brands.

When I went picking for these blueberries I had a plan to make some sort of jam but I was a little nervous. I had herd jamming could be complicated and a long process. I plugged a couple ideas into google and this recipe popped up! All it uses is the blueberries, sugar and lemon jello, THATS IT. If you have ever tried to put lemon and blueberries together you'll know the flavor is amazing. The citrus of the lemon goes PERFECTLY with the tartness of blueberries. 

Once again if you ever get the chance to pick anything I would recommend it! It's a lot of fun :) 

Easy Lemon Blueberry Jam

Two ingredient banana pancakes

Who doesn't love pancakes?? They are a great weekend breakfast to have with family or friends at home or at your favorite breakfast cafe to order! Pancakes are delicious but sometimes you don't have the time to make them or you might be looking for a lighter option then a huge stack of pancakes.

I give you these yummy two ingredient pancakes! No sugar, flour, or oil! Gluten free, healthy, quick to make and tasty....thats what I'm talking about! :)

All you need for these pancakes is 1 banana and 2 eggs. When I made them I used half a banana and 1 egg and that makes 3 small pancakes for one individual :) I also added blueberries to them. These pancakes are very light, seeing as it is only bananas and eggs. Be careful when flipping them on pan because they are quite fragile! Make sure you have enough oil on the pan and the heat isn't to high! I only added a little maple syrup which isn't even necessary because they are already naturally sweet from banana! For a more filling breakfast top with greek yogurt or peanubutter. I am going to try that next time and I'm sure I'm going to like these even more! Here are a couple recipes for them around the web!

Banana blueberry (this is the recipe I used, you should also look at her blog... she is funny, cute and informative on the best subjects (marriage,life,kids, food, fashion)

Two ingredient pancakes

Two ingredient pancakes

Happy Friday! 

Pretzels

Fun Fact: I used to call pretzels PRENzels. I think I pronounced it like that until sometime in elementary school! My best friend still makes fun of me for it...I was special.

We always had pretzels in the house growing up. My mom was and still is a die hard rold gold fan. I was never much a fan, I was more of a potato chip girl growing up. Ruffles were the best! 

Then I met Alex. He LOVES pretzels. He buys snyders pretzels, and I must say in my opinion snyders does make the best pretzel! I think they just have a better flavor and saltiness to them then rold gold. They also have so many fun flavors and different shapes/sizes and even ones with peanut butter and chocolate! That sold me over right there! 

Alright why do I keep going on and on about pretzels.....because it's National Pretzel Day :) Buzzfeed put out this fun list of things to eat today.

What I am talking about today though is homemade soft pretzels. I made these for Alex's birthday one year because he isn't much of a sweets fan but loves his salt.  He now requests these ALL the time. I should of never made them ;). This recipe is kind of time consuming and not as simple as some but the pretzels are crunchy, salty, chewy and DELICIOUS.  There are a ton of recipes out there that are little easier than this, just google homemade soft pretzels. If you want to give this one a whirl though it's totally worth it. Enjoy!

Soft Pretzels  

Moderation

I made this salad a couple weeks ago. It included of spinach, arugula, prosciutto, balsamic vinegar and burata cheese. It was AMAZING and the glass of wine complimented it perfectly. Simple and delicious. 

I've always been about moderation my whole life. Even as a kid my dad was always amazed that I stopped when I wasn't hungry anymore or I got a bowl to portion out things. 

Now I'm not perfect, I've strayed away from that moderate lifestyle and I've regretted it. It's extremely hard to do, and it keeps getting harder and harder with all the ridiculous food products rot there now. The best advice I can give you is if you don't know what's in it, DONT eat it. EAT REAL WHOLE FOODS. I love Huffpost articles and I stumbled upon this today. It's a great read and happy to say I follow a lot of the habits.

14 habits of people with a healthy relationship to food

Happy Monday!

Peanut butter jelly thumbprints

Peanut buter and jelly, it really is the perfect combo. When I found this cookie recipe I was PRETTY excited. I got a lot of good pictures of them...

These are RIDICULOUSLY easy to make. Now go make them and impress all your friends and family :) 

Peanutbutter and Jelly thumbprint cookies

Happy Monday

Because cookies are delicious...happy

Monday! 

Banana " Icecream"

I LOVE bananas. They are so versatile. In breads they are moist and delicious, with peanut butter they are a filling snack, and when you freeze them it's a whole other ball game! Once frozen and blended they take on this wonderful creamy texture, both in smoothies and in this "icecream". All you need to do is peel a banana, cut it up and freeze it and blend it in a food processor and BOOM an amazing healthy icecream! You can take it to the next level by adding peanut butter or chocolate cocoa to it! I've done both (peanut butter is my fav obviously). I also have topped it with granola or nuts for a sundae like creation.  You REALLY need a food processor for this unless you have a really good blender or this fun gadget. 

Banana icecream

Enjoy this yummy treat! 

Peanutbutter oat balls

I've been making these little energy balls for a couple years now. They are SO GOOD and super easy to make. They are a great on the go snack and the ingredients are really simple. I have played around with the recipe and switched some of the ingredients. Instead of peanutbutter I've used almond butter or sun butter. Instead of maple syrup I have used honey. I also always use chocolate graham crackers instead of plain. I would recommend using the chocolate instead of the plain :). I've actually even made them with homemade chocolate graham crackers! 

Have them for breakfast or a mid afternoon snack, either way it a healthier treat than a cookie (but it tasted like one!)

Peanut-butter Oat Balls

Have a great Monday :) 

Blueberry corn muffins

Oh spring you are so close yet so far away....I went and bought myself a lovely colorful scarf full of spring colors and ever since then I can't stop thinking about spring recipes, weather, and clothes! This defiantly has been a brutal winter. I have been living in Connecticut the past four years and we have had it pretty ROUGH ever since I moved here from Ohio, so I guess this year hasn't been that bad comparable to the other years! Snow storms, tornados, hurricanes OH MY. We have also had less storms then in Ohio this year so I'll be thankful for that~

I used to LOVE buying those pre-made muffin packets you just add water to....yea not so much anymore. Two of the packets I would buy most frequently were the blueberry muffins or the corn muffins.  Now I never saw these two flavors put together until a year or so ago and the sweetness of the blueberries really livens up a bland corn muffin! I follow the recipe pretty much as is. I use almond milk for buttermilk (you just add a tablespoon of white vinegar to make it buttermilk!) I also just use frozen blueberries instead of the mix. You might need to bake it a little longer because of frozen berries :) Enjoy!

Blueberry corn muffins

I also NEED to make this pasta soon. It sounds DELICIOUS 

Weekend fun

Happy weekend! We are headed to Florida for some wedding fun :) I thought this quote was appropriate. It's a big year for a lot of people including myself! We have 6 months left and I can't believe how quickly time has passed! This weekend will be a good start to the exciting 6 months ahead! Here's some fun links I found....I'll try to bring some warmth back from Florida :)

We like gin this sounds awesome!

What to pair with chocolate

More quinoa

Chocolate makes you healthier? Yes please

Simple

Easy as that!  I had some delicious oatmeal this morning. I added chocolate and strawberries. The amount of oatmeal combos is endless! 

Endless oatmeal

Happy hump day all! 

Sweet Potato quinoa cakes

Happy St Patricks Day! I unfortunately didn't do anything to celebrate this year. We usually like to have corned beef and potatoes but we didn't plan ahead and we are now having fajitas! :) At least we are cooking right? I am also decked out and green and 3 pins, so thats my way of celebratin! 

I'm sure you have all herd of quinoa by now. I absolutely LOVE it. It has so many Healthy factors to it! Check it out Here. 

There are a million different ways to have quinoa it's a little CRAZY. I like it cold, hot, for breakfast, for dinner, and especially the way I have made it in these pictures. Quinoa makes for a really good

"cake" with it's texture and flavor. This recipe adds sweet potato and it makes it even more awesome.  If you love sweet potatoes and quinoa this is your recipe!

Sweet potato quinoa cakes

Food for thought

I thought this quote was adorable and very me! I love aprons and I sure love to bake. These aprons are very fashionable and I wish I could own them all!. Etsy is an amazing web site and I have found tons of cute things on the site. 

One of my friends recently got me this necklace from Etsy and it has quickly became one of my favorite necklaces. I mean HOW CUTE IS THIS!

Here is some awesome links I found looking through my blogs the other day, enjoy! :) 

Give Brussels a chance!

Breakfast is so interesting

Foods in the world

Waffles

I love a good waffle. We always just made pancakes growing up and if I wanted a waffle I would just go to Waffle House (hmm Waffle House, I wish one were closer). When I moved to Connecticut my fiancée gave me a waffle maker he never used and I have been wafflin it up ever since! I of coarse tried to find some healthifed recipes! I used THIS oat waffle recipe for a really long time. The oat flour is really easy to make and makes for a great tasting waffle!   How to make oat flour

The other recipe I now use most often is SO easy. It includes bananas and oats and anything with those two ingredients I'm sold :) the recipe calls for you to use just water but try using milk to (I used almond) both are delicious! Spread with peanubutter and jelly and have a delicious breakfast or lunch! 

Banana Oat Waffles  

Kindness

A little kindness goes a long way not just to others but also for yourself.  Everyone struggles with confidence, I know I do. Read the article it's a good one!

I'm excited it's Friday...I started my day off cleaning and rocking out on my elliptical (the only way I can stay on my exercise machine is listening to some Brittany Spears pandora, I don't know what it is about her station that makes time go by faster). I really don't like exercise machines, I would much rather run but this polar vortex has got me and I think everyone else huddled up inside! I think it's almost over.... I can almost taste spring!

My Mom is visiting for the weekend and she has never been here before! I hope everyone has a great weekend...get out, stay positive for yourself and for everyone else!

Olive oil berry cake

Have you ever tried using olive oil in cake? It's actually really tasty. Olive oil is more heart healthy than butter and canola oil. It also makes some moist, amazing cake! One of the worst things in my opinion is dry cake. I find my least favorite type of cake is chocolate cake becuse it can be sooooo dry! I have a recipe I use and love which I will definitely post sometime. This post is about an awesome lemon berry olive oil cake I stumbled apon on food gawker, a website all foodies know and love. 

This cake is the perfect amount of lemon and berry. It's more of a dense cake then light and fluffy but delicious all the same. The ingredients are simple and easy and it a pretty small portion, just the way I like it  ...enjoy and think of warm weather to come! 

Lemon Olive oil cake

Chocolate Peanut butter Granola

This past weekend was national peanut butter lovers day . What a great day to celebrate indeed!  I celebrated by eating a delicious homemade muffin with a big heaping tablespoon of homemade peanut butter :) 

I also am a huge fan of granola. There are so many varieties out there its a little ridiculous, here are some simple ones to give a try if you aren't making your own!

I would highly recommend making this recipe. It's crunchy chocolaty and a good flavor of peanut butter shines through. It's just enough sweetness to satisfy that little bit of chocolate EVERYONE needs, recipe here

Making your own granola is SO EASY and way better for you than a lot of store bought brands. Granola can be a great snack..... just don't eat a whole bag!

Quotes to live by

Nothing could be more true 

Cats

So I'm kind of a crazy cat lady....I mean how could you not love these two cuties. I've loved cats ever since I was a kid...we always had at least one. Our first cats were kitty and Moo...I loved kitty but UNFORTUNATELY she did not like me. She would sit on my bed and if I tried to take her off she wans't having it! Calico's can be temperamental... I know a lot of people don't like cats but if you find the right breed they really can be great! I've found that orange tabbies, tuxedo and blue russians are extremely friendly :) I have a blue russian and he's probably one of the most social cats I've ever met and will ever meet.  I mean I made them homemade cat treats for god sakes!

I actually had a ball making them :)

Still love this

Crazy cat ladies UNITE!