Kale & Black Bean Salad

This past weekend I was trying to figure out what to bring to a cookout using ingredients that I had in my fridge... and I came up with this. I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out! The kale doesn't get soggy and I liked that it was a bean salad that was packed with veggies. I have the feeling I'll be making some version of this a lot this summer! Later I thought if I had a red onion that might have been a good addition, or maybe a red bell pepper, or substitute feta for the parmesan. You could even add quinoa to bulk it up. I think you could use a number of ingredients and it would turn out great as long as you've got a good base dressing. My favorites are homemade dressings, or the Good Seasons packets, which are basically homemade just easier. Homemade is so much better than store bought!

Roasted pepper, goat cheese, & basil pasta

Happy Friday! Thank goodness it's the weekend, amiright?! The weather here has suddenly cooled to a beautiful 80-degrees-and-sunny for the last couple days, which is unheard of mid-July in North Carolina. We have been eating out on our back patio in the evenings, exercising outside, and overall just enjoying the lack of humidity. It's been lovely. It also makes it especially hard to sit in an office all day, hence the strong TGIF emotions I've been feeling all day!

You should make this bread

While I love me some fresh bread, I don't have the time to spend all day making it like I did here. When I saw this recipe, it looked fairly simple and didn't seem like it would take that long so I gave it a whirl on a random week night. And I'm SO glad I did. This bread is flavorful and perfect for toasting for breakfast. Add a little cinnamon sugar or strawberry jam on top and you're good to go. The best part is that this bread is so easy and simple. I whipped up the dough of only 5 ingredients, let it rise while I watched a TV show, baked it in the oven for 30 minutes, and then let it cool. I actually halved this recipe and it worked really well!

What I'm Up To

Hello to the Internet world! I'll resume my France posts soon. But for now, here's what I'm up to right now:

Making Blueberry Zucchini Bread
with our produce box goodies

Reading these books

Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

I started this book a little unsure of how interested I'd be in the story, but I had heard from so many people it was great that I decided to give it a shot. Several times have I almost busted out laughing mid-read, it's that funny. I also failed to notice that the author is one of the writers for Arrested Development. It has just as many awkward, ironic situations as you would picture and more. Such clever writing. I'm almost finished and a little sad about it.

Saturday brunch

We've been busy.

In January we went out of town every single weekend, mostly for fun reasons, but still. It was a LOT. This past weekend we finally had a weekend at home. It was wonderful! Friday we relaxed, ate homemade pizza, and fell asleep watching a movie (that never happens. we were wiped). Saturday called for sleeping in, having brunch, catching up on chores, Mexican for dinner, and seeing a movie (Zero Dark Thirty, if you really want to know). And of course there was Super Bowl Sunday. We actually went on a hike earlier that day to help ourselves not feel so bad about the calories we would consume later that night. All in all, it was a fun-filled and relaxing weekend. Thank goodness for weekends, because Lord knows I couldn't survive without 'em.

Saturday's brunch included scrambled eggs, and this bread (via Joy the Baker). I did have to mix the dough the night before, and what with all the yeast activating and waiting for it to rise and all that, I almost second guessed myself. Would all of this work be worth it?

Oh, but it was. It really was. The disheveled way my loaf turned out actually made it taste that much better. Definitely not as perfectly beautiful as Joy's, but it was beautiful to my tastebuds, and that's what counts. Right? Right. Oh, and be sure to add some cinnamon in your coffee, too. It adds a bit of magic.

A simple homemade brunch for two. I like it.

I said it once and I'll say it again,

thank goodness for weekends.

Apple Crisp Pie

Of course when you go to an apple orchard and come home with two large bags of apples, you must make lots of apple desserts! Every year for Thanksgiving (and sometimes Christmas too), my sister makes a traditional apple pie with a flaky crust topping, and it's amazing. But I was craving a crispy crumbly topping instead, so I tried this recipe from Jen at Beantown Baker. It was just what I was hoping for! It is packed with apples, sugar, and spices, and the crumble topping is perfection. Mine had more liquid than the one pictured Jen made. And I probably would use a deep dish pie pan if you had one. I didn't, so I used a 9-inch pan and that worked fine!

This pie was incredible. You should totally make it if you've got a bunch of apples lying around. And if you don't, just go buy some at the grocery store because this pie is calling your name.

Apple Crisp Pie

Filling:
6 c apple chunks (I used 3 Pink Ladies and 3 Fujis)
1/2 c brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp lemon juice

Topping:
1 1/4 c four
1/2 c brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare dry filling ingredients in a large bowl, set aside. Core, peel, and slice apples (I used an apple/peeler/corer/slicer which made this normally long process a dream!). Transfer into large bowl with dry ingredients. Top off with vanilla and lemon juice. Toss to coat apples well. Set aside for 10-15 minutes while you prep the dough.

Fit your pie crust into a pie plate (I used a store bought crust). Fill pie crust with prepared apple filling.

In a medium bowl, combine the dry topping ingredients. Pour cooled melted butter into bowl. Toss and cut until small to medium sized chunks form. Break up large chunks as needed. Using a spoon, sprinkle crumb topping over entire pie.

Cover pie loosely with foil. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 and continue baking for an additional 35 minutes. Remove foil for a few minutes at the end to get the topping more crispy if you prefer. Cool and enjoy!

source: Beantown Baker guest post on Nutmeg Nanny

Chili-Pasta Skillet

This dinner out on our balcony was actually a couple weeks ago. We wouldn't have been able to stand the heat this past weekend - it was a hot one, pushing past 100 and almost breaking a record! Instead we mostly spent our time in the blessed AC. We had absolutely no plans going into the weekend, so we were able to spontaneously join friends at the pool on Saturday afternoon, where I discovered that 105 degrees is the exact perfect temperature for optimal pool relaxation. We also joined them for dinner downtown that night. It was so nice to not have a schedule and just truly relax. I delved into a new Elizabeth Berg novel (one of my fave authors) and pretty much did nothing else. We're moving in 3 weeks, so it was nice to enjoy the freedom and relaxation now, since it will get busier as moving day approaches. It was glorious to say the least!

Here's a little sampling of a yummy meal that is so easy and quick to make if you have all these canned goods in your pantry. Feel free to use the pasta measurement as a guideline, not a rule. Clearly I added a bit more! Hope you had a wonderful weekend :)

Chili-Pasta Skillet

1 lb. lean ground beef

3/4 c. chopped onion

1 15-oz. can red kidney beans, black beans, or red beans, rinsed and drained

1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 8-oz. can tomato sauce

1 4-oz. can diced green chile peppers, drained

1/2 cup dried elbow macaroni or other pasta shapes (2 oz.)

2-3 tsp. chili powder (or to taste)

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar jack cheese

In a large skillet cook meat and onion until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat. Stir in beans, undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, chile peppers, macaroni, chili powder, and garlic salt. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, about 20 minutes or until macaroni is tender, stirring often. Remove from heat; sprinkle with cheese. Cover and let stand about 2 minutes or until cheese melts.

source: Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook

Pinterest-inspired Birthday Cheesecake

Pinterest is an amazing thing. When I asked Michael what kind of cake he'd like for his birthday this year, he came up with the idea of some type of peanut butter-y chocolate-y cheesecake. Most normal people don't really have a recipe on hand for something that specific... cue Pinterest. I searched "peanut butter chocolate cheesecake" and dozens of different recipes came up on the page. I simply scrolled through the pictures and showed them to Michael, and he picked out the one he wanted.

pinned here and the recipe can be found at this blog post

Of course he would pick that one. A little intimidating, huh?

Surprisingly enough, I actually pulled it off! Here is my version:

It was a huge success with the birthday boy, and that makes me happy! It was super creamy and the peanut butter baked really well with the cheesecake flavor (I was a little unsure when tasting the batter). We had Michael's sister and husband over to help us eat it, thank goodness. It was so rich though, that none of us were even able to finish a whole slice. We'll be freezing some of this for sure. Michael would never let a good dessert go to waste.

Seriously though, what did we do before Pinterest?

Happy birthday Michael, I love you!

Strawberry bread

It's strawberry season, y'all! There is truly something amazing about fresh strawberries. I grabbed a bucket at the farmers market this weekend and they are incredible! They are 10x better than grocery store strawberries and they helped me whip up this spectacular bread. Honestly I was just looking for a recipe that had minimal ingredients since I didn't want to go to the grocery store, and this one turned out to be perfect. I halved the original recipe so it would just make one loaf, but seeing that hubby and I devoured half of the one in about the first hour, I probably should have made two! The next day I was wanting more, so I turned the recipe into muffins by adding a little milk. Perfect for breakfast all week :)

Strawberry Bread

1/2 cup oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1.5-2 cups chopped fresh strawberries, or 1 10-oz. package frozen strawberries*

*If you're using fresh ones, save a couple before chopping to use for the top. Also the amount is a guesstimate - just eyeball it. Add enough to make it good, but don't overload the dough.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix oil, sugar, and eggs. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well until thoroughly blended. Add in strawberries. They will mash a little in this process and that's okay.  Grease a loaf pan and sprinkle with sugar. Pour batter into the loaf pan. Slice 1-2 strawberries and lay the slices on top. Bake at 325 for 1 hour. To make it fancy, serve with cream cheese and extra strawberries.

adapted from: Just Cook Already

And just because it's fun, here's a cute May calendar for your desktop or phone via RedStamp! Follow them on Facebook and you'll get a cute calendar for every month of the year. I LOVE this month's!

desktop

phone

(I did not get asked/paid by RedStamp to promote this, I just wanted to share it with you because it's cute!)

Roasted Corn on the Cob

This weekend I had a wonderful date with my friend Jenn. We went to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch and then walked around the outdoor mall and browsed some of my favorite stores: Pottery Barn, Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel. As soon as we walked into Crate & Barrel we got so excited about all of their bright summery colors! I walked out with just a couple of items, but I'm very excited about them:

Just the other day I realized I didn't have any corn picks, and therefore I hadn't made much corn on the cob. When I saw these I knew it was a sign I had to have them! While I was checking out, the lady at the register told me about some amazing seasoning to go on corn. Apparently everyone has been raving about how good it is. So of course I had to get that too :)

I wish we had a grill, but since we don't I tried out roasting the cobs in the oven. I preheated the oven to 350, and then shucked the corn. (For some reason I always feel like a prairie girl when I do this. Is that weird?) I placed the cobs on some foil and sprinkled seasoning along with a just little olive oil drizzled over top.

I wrapped them up tightly, placed them directly on the oven rack, and roasted them for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

The result was pure, steaming deliciousness.

The seasoning was amazing and it had so much flavor I didn't feel the need to slather butter all over it. Served with some leftover cheeseburger pie, we had ourselves a wonderful and easy Sunday night dinner!

I'm so excited to have corn on the cob all summer! And hopefully when we move we will be able to grill it :)

Lovely things

I've run across a few things today that have just plain warmed my heart. There is a lot of junk on the internet that is not worth our time, nor is it good for our minds. But there is also a lot of wonderful-ness - genuine people with beautiful stories. Here a few of my recent faves:

a soldier's precious welcome home

Some inspiration on loving our husbands. I just met Nicole today on her blog The Neesby Lookbook, and she is just so cute and encouraging! I can't wait to get to know her more as I follow along with her blog. She has a blogger button that she created as a way to commit to loving our husbands and building them up whenever we can. How convicting! I know I do not do this enough so from now on I've decided to join in on some Hubs Lovin'! I am mainly going to work in this in real life (encouraging him and speaking highly of him to my friends), but don't be weirded out if I brag about my hubby on this blog. I'm his wife and I shouldn't be afraid to tell everyone how much I love him! I've also added the button to my blog's sidebar.

Joy the Baker and her adorable, heart-warming personality. I've heard some buzz about her but never checked out her blog until this week, and I'm so glad I did! If you haven't yet, watch her video to get to know her and follow along to see all the wonderful things she bakes! She also recently published her own cookbook and I'm just dying to have it. Too bad my birthday just passed... I like random presents too! hint hint...

Running across the recipe for a beautiful Strawberry Brown Butter Banana Bread. Doesn't it just look delectable? I can't wait to try this.

There you have it! A collection of this week's findings that have warmed my heart and just gotten me excited about life. I feel encouraged and ready for the weekend. I certainly hope you do too. Happy Friday!

P.S. I just added a "pin it" button button to my blog. It's right at the bottom of the post and if you click it, you can "pin" to Pinterest whatever you want from the blog post you are reading. So if you see a recipe or a craft on here that you like, pin it and share the idea! I thought I would also share the link that showed me how to do it so you can add it to your blog too! :)

Crescent Roll Breakfast Casserole

The other day I posted about my girls weekend, and how we had this casserole for breakfast:

It was truly delicious and I knew I needed to share it with you! I made it Thursday night, froze it, and then it thawed on the 4-hr drive up to Blacksburg (since it was frozen, it remained cold and I didn't have to bother with a cooler). I put it in the fridge overnight and then took it out as soon as I woke up, so it would warm a little before baking. This worked really well and made it so easy not to have to worry about cooking anything that morning! That just gave us more time for talking over coffee :)

Crescent Roll Breakfast Casserole

1 can crescent rolls
1 lb. sausage (I used turkey breakfast sausage)
1 small onion, chopped
1 green or red bell pepper, chopped
8 eggs
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Brown sausage and onion; drain if necessary (my turkey sausage didn't really have any grease to drain). Spray/grease a 9x13 pan and lay down the crescent roll flat on the bottom (leaving all triangles intact). Layer sausage and onion mixture on top. Add chopped bell pepper (if you'd prefer not to have crunchy bell pepper, saute these with the onion and sausage in the first step). Layer the cheddar on top. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, adding milk and salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over meat and cheese. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until bubbly.

adapted from: Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour, found on Pinterest

Weekend with my girls

Yesterday I tearfully drove home from an amazing weekend with my bestest college friends. It's kind of funny that the most central place for all of us to meet is the home of our glory days: Blacksburg, VA. I was excited to see them, but spending time with them was way more fun than I anticipated. We stayed in a cabin at Mountain Lake (where they filmed the movie Dirty Dancing) and it rained most of the weekend, but that didn't matter. We talked about everything under the sun, and under the moon, too. We laughed, drank wine, hiked a mountain, ate great food, talked about our recent life discoveries, and laughed some more. It was so refreshing to spend time with those girls, and I am so thankful for each and every one of them. I dearly cherish the moments when we can all be together - our time is so much more precious now than it was in college. I'm already looking forward to our next trip! Here are a few snippets of the weekend.

breakfast in our cabin

dinner at Boudreaux's on Main Street

one of the great things about Blacksburg - cheap gas and cheap drinks

Gillie's Special - my most favorite brunch in the world!

Grasshopper Pie

When I emailed my grandma to get this recipe (yes, she has a laptop computer - she's so with it), she told me that the original recipe calls for crushing Oreos to make a pie crust, but that was "much too much work - just buy a chocolate pie crust" (as if this recipe needs to be simplified even more). Not to argue with Grandma, I bought an Oreo pie crust and whipped up this pie in about 10 minutes. The hardest part was finding a place in my freezer that was level! This pie is minty and chocolatey - one delicious combination.

Grandma also mentioned that she's making two of these pies for a couple of "St. Pat's parties" with her friends, and she even has a green hat ready to wear. I would love to be half as social and fashionable as her when I'm 81!

Happy St. Patricks' Day!!

Grasshopper Pie

2 tbsp. Creme de Menthe Liqueur, or 1/4 cup Creme de Menthe syrup*
7 oz. marshmallow cream
8 oz. whipped cream/Cool Whip, thawed
chocolate pie crust

Mix Creme de Menthe and marshmallow cream well (the liqueur I bought was green, add food coloring if you'd like it to be more green). Mix in the Cool Whip. Pour into the chocolate pie crust and freeze firm. Warm at room temperature 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

*I could not find the syrup at Harris Teeter. I had to go to the ABC store to buy the liqueur. I read online that you can maybe find the syrup at World Market or a specialty grocery store that sells a lot of gourmet coffee syrups.

Turkey Meatloaf

Meatloaf is definitely underrated. I didn't grow up eating it, but I've realized in my adult life that I really like it! I had some ground turkey that I needed to use, so I tweaked this recipe a little so that I could use what I had at home without having to go to the store. It turned out delicious! And it doesn't contain any bread, so it's completely guilt-free :)

Turkey Meatloaf

1.3 lbs. lean ground turkey
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup ketchup, + 2 tbsp
1 large egg
1 tbsp minced onion
1 tsp oregano
salt
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, mix turkey meat, oatmeal, ketchup, egg, minced onion, oregano, and salt.

The easiest way to do this is to use your hands.

Place into an un-greased nonstick loaf pan. In a small bowl, mix 2 tbsp ketchup and Worcestershire sauce and brush onto the loaf.

Bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes at 350°, or until cooked through. Add ketchup when served if desired.
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I served it with sauteed red potatoes and a fresh salad. A pretty good meal for a Monday night!

source: adapted from Skinny Taste

Relaxing weekend

My weekend flew by. How about yours? I got to spend it with my family at the beach, which was so, so nice. Michael was away for a friend's bachelor weekend, so it was the perfect time to leave the apartment for the weekend and get some family time. Since it rained for about 24 hours straight on Saturday, we spent a lot of time watching movies, playing Bananagrams, and watching season 2 of Downton Abbey. We basically relaxed all weekend and it was fantastic. Thankfully it was dry enough to walk on the beach some on Sunday, even though it was still a tad chilly! What can you expect in March, though?

One wonderful part of the weekend was the food. Saturday morning we baked this delicious French Toast Souffle that I had made the night before. We dug in so fast that I forgot to grab a picture, and the photo from the recipe source certainly does not do it justice!


French Toast Souffle, via Tomatoes on the Vine

Driving alone can get quite boring, but thankfully I had some huge beautiful rainbows all through Wilmington to brighten my drive home. I'm pretty sure I drove under one at one point!

Sunday evenings always leave me longing for the next weekend. Does anyone else feel this way?

Homemade Bread

Well guess what I did this weekend? I decided it was high time I learned how to bake bread.  I found this little recipe for multigrain bread on Pinterest. And for my first batch of bread, I thought I did pretty well! It was moist and soft but packed full with flavor. We used it to make grilled cheese and tomato soup on Sunday's rainy afternoon, and it was so yummy! It did take me all day to make it on Saturday, but that was mainly because of the lag time: waiting on the hot cereal mix to cool and letting the bread rise twice. But it was so worth it! If you're thinking of trying to bake bread and like a good healthy wheat bread, this one is perfect! [The instructions are rather lengthy so I'll let you jump over to Our Best Bites to read Sara's instructions.]

Now I'm headed to the kitchen to go slice off another piece... What did you do this weekend?

Simple night

Sometimes a simple spaghetti and meat sauce is all you need. It really is my favorite comfort food, and I realized that I hardly ever make it! I am always trying to try new things or do something fancy. Tonight I stuck with the basics. And let me tell you, this meal hit the spot.

The sauce is Giada's Tomato & Basil sauce, found at Target. I added a pound of lean ground beef, 1 clove of garlic, and a little fresh ground pepper. The spaghetti noodles are from World Market.

Cooking with Leeks

One of my goals for this year is to try 2 new recipes a week. Within the realm of that goal, I really want to experiment with different foods and techniques that I haven't tried yet:
- baking bread
- roasts, like chicken, beef, and turkey
- fish
- different quiche styles
- using veggies in main dishes like cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, okra, and leeks
- experimenting with different cultural flavors, like Latino and Indian

I have never cooked with leeks before, and when I saw this recipe I decided it was time to try them. I had no idea what they even tasted like (I've probably had them before and just never knew it). Found out they are similar to an onion - more like a giant green onion with a delicate unique flavoring. I was so excited when Michael took a bite of my experimental dish and actually liked it! He'll be honest with me about recipes, and with this one he said multiple times that he liked it (wife points!). So I will definitely be trying leeks out more in the future.

Chicken with Leeks & Sun-dried Tomatoes

1 or 2 leeks, white and light green parts only

16 oz chicken breast cutlets, sliced thin (I used just 2 large breasts and sliced through them to make them thin)
2 tsp butter, divided
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 clove garlic, minced
2 oz. ready-to-eat sun dried tomatoes
1/4 c. white wine
1/2 c. fat-free low sodium chicken broth
salt & pepper to taste
2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

a little weird looking, right?

Cut off green tops of leek and remove outer tough leaves. Cut off root and cut leeks in half lengthwise.

Fan out the leeks and rinse well under running water, leaving them intact. Slice leeks into 1/4 inch slices. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 200°. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Lightly dredge in flour, shaking off excess. Heat a large skillet on medium heat; when hot add 1 tsp. butter and 1 tsp. olive oil. Add chicken to skillet and cook on medium heat for about 3-4 minutes on each side, until no longer pink. Set aside in warm oven.

Add additional oil and butter to the skillet, then garlic and cook a few seconds, then add leeks, salt, and pepper. Saute, stirring occasionally until golden, about 5 minutes.

Add sun dried tomatoes, wine, chicken broth, parsley. Stir the pan, breaking up any brown bits in the bottom. Cook 2 more minutes or until the liquid reduces to almost half. Top the chicken with the leeks & sun-dried tomatoes and serve!

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Source: Skinny Taste

In case you were wondering, I chose this chicken broth because of the low sodium. There are other brands that say "low sodium," but when I read the label this was significantly lower than all the others. I am always looking for ways to cut out the salt (since so much food out there is high in sodium) and this one was the best option! And that wine you see in the background is Simply Naked Pinot Grigio - one of my favorites!