Brazilian Stroganoff

My sister Katie made us this Brazilian Stroganoff (she served her mission in Brazil so it's super authentic) and I loooooved it!!!! So I asked her for the recipe and here it is! I added green bell peppers.

Delish! 

*You can freeze cream! I put it in a large mason jar and stuck it in the freezer. I pulled it out when I needed it and let it defrost and voila! It helps you avoid buying a bunch of cream for one recipe and feeling like you need to use it all before it goes bad.*

Tasty Treats!

And the Baking Adventures continue!

Baking just brings me so much happiness. Don't ask me why. I just like it. Like a lot. And just cooking in general.


Back to School Zucchini Carrot Cake Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting 

These were very near disaster (I forgot to put in the eggs until after I put them in the oven, the oven got turned off somehow and we thought it was on the whole time, I mixed all the frosting ingredients together at once, we didn't have walnuts), but they turned out yummy in the end! You can't taste the zucchini at all! I am a fan of raisins and so I like this addition but I discovered that a lot of people don't like raisins so leave em out if you must! Also I just didn't put in ginger because I didn't have any. College lyfe. 

I want to make Back to School Carrot Cake a tradition in my life! 

Oatmeal Caramelitas

My mom used to make these at Christmastime to put on our plates to give away to people! Just a yummy mixture of caramel and chocolate mmmmmmm! I made these during the BYU football game yesterday and my friends loved them! 

Also, as a bonus, they freeze really well in tupperware! Then you can have these scrumptious dessert throughout the semester. Booyah. I'm all about satisfying the sugar craving. 

Happy Sunday! 

Here is my thought for today:

I had the opportunity to go sing at a rest home with Utah Healing Arts a week or two ago, and I met this sweet old lady who had a really hard time hearing. I could feel the slight desperation she was feeling; she wanted to hear so badly, and she wanted to have a conversation because she was probably lonely. 

I introduced myself to her initially while standing on my feet, but then as her hearing problem became apparent I dropped down a little lower, and as we continued to interact I finally ended up sitting on my knees before her. 

I had this moment of realization as I did so. 

Christ does this for us. He drops down before us in the depths of humility with sincere desire to know us and feel with us. 

I was so, so, so grateful for that opportunity to meet her and to feel Christ's love.

We talked about charity in Relief Society today and a girl brought up the example of Christ when Mary comes to Him saying Lazarus is dead, and when He hears this, "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). 

Christ knew everything was going to be okay, He knew that He could and would raise Lazarus from the dead, and Mary and Martha will be happy again. 

But He still wept with them. 

Jesus has a perfect ability to empathize with us. 

Charity is about learning to feel with others, seeing where they come from and understanding, not judging.  

There is always one thing we can count on, 

"Charity never faileth." (1 Corinthians 13:8)

HAPPY SUNDAY! 

Stuffed Chicken and Cookie bars

Yesterday I finally tried a recipe I've been DYING to try and I finally had all the right ingredients (mostly)!

My wonderful and super talented sister Christina gave me a bunch of veggies from her garden yesterday, and so I used fresh basil in this dish, as well as fresh tomatoes.

PANKO CRUSTED CHICKEN STUFFED WITH RICOTTA, SPINACH, TOMATOES, AND BASIL

I didn't have any Italian bread crumbs, so I put 3/4 of a roll of Ritz crackers in the food processor with some Italian blend seasoning and garlic salt and blended it up! It was fantastic! 

Also, after much Internet research about how to prepare Swiss chard (also from Tina's garden!), I finally decided to cut out the veins/stems and put it in the salad! I highly recommend this. Most of the websites I found said Swiss chard is similar to spinach and kale. I love it! 

The chicken is SO good! and it really wasn't very hard. So much gooey deliciousness all wrapped up in a chicken. 

Courtney and I drove to PG to hang out with Mollie and her cute/hilarious kids! We made these yummy/classic cookie bars and watched Once Upon a Time on Netflix :) 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars 

We didn't make them thin in a jelly roll pan like in the picture on the website, we put it in a 9x13 pan and they come out nice and thick like you see above. I prefer deep dish cookie bars myself! These would be AMAZING with vanilla ice cream on top!

We love Mollie! She's the best! :) We taught her about snapchat last night too and she made a debut in my snapchat story! 

This. Was. GOOD.

Okay Court and I loved this.

And it's healthier than normal sloppy joes. Courtesy of Rachel Ray.

So I had some ground turkey already cooked in the fridge so I basically sauteed it in a frying pan with a little oil, chopped white onions, a little bit of chopped red bell pepper. Then Court mixed up the simple sauce from the recipe and we mixed it in, simmered it for 5 minutes or so.

We used whole wheat sandwich thins (lower cal and still delicious!) and put sloppy joe mixture on 4 halves and sprinkled some mexican cheese on top, baked it in the oven at 415 degrees for 2-3 minutes and PRESTO! Cheap, healthy, good. The golden attributes of college cooking.

Sloppy Turkey Joes 

Mmmm mmmm. 

Back to school college meal! Plus peaches.

School starts next week!

I picked up my roomie Courtney from the airport and my friend Miranda from her hotel and we were all STARVING. So we pulled together this beauty pretty quick. I had exactly three pieces of pork in my freezer and voila! The carrots were a little....uhhhh charred. Oh well. We just made some instant mashed potatoes we already had in the cupboard (the juices from the pork are great on the potatoes) and a salad.

Cheesy Garlic and Brown Sugar Pork Chops

The cuties. 

It is my family's fave season- Peach season!! We got a huge box of peaches from the Harward Farms stand, and I was gifted with like a million peaches when my parents left for SB that were all rotting before my very eyes, so we whipped together: 

Southern Peach Cobbler

and served it with ice cream (and I added whipped cream because I do that.) 

Also, on a GF note, I tried this new flourless/butterless cookie recipe and it was a HIT. Definitely a repeater. 

Soft and Chewy Toffee Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies 

Happy Back to School Cooking! 

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Dessert.

Well today I decided was a cooking day. So here's what I got:

Better For You Banana Muffins with Crumble Topping

Yummy, simple, classic. The best part is you can freeze them by wrapping each individual muffin in saran wrap! Perfect for a college student with busy mornings, late mornings, and mornings where you forget what day it is because your alarm didn't go off at the right time and you realize you've already missed a class. Whoops. 

Chicken Zucchini Fritters 

I love this recipe! Thanks to Christina, I had two zucchinis to use. I used ground turkey instead of ground chicken, and it was delish!! I chose to eat them at this particular meal as an open-faced burger/sandwich thing. You could just as well eat them plain or dipped in ketchup/chili sauce! I just made a few for myself and froze the rest of the mixture to fry later. Also perfect for a college student who needs a quick and light lunch before classes.

Pork Chops Dijon

I recently read something on pinterest that suggested you not eat carbs after lunch, so I decided to try it. Instead of making a wrap with a tortilla or a sandwich or pasta, I just pulled one porkchop for myself out of the freezer, browned it on both sides butterfly-style, put some chopped onions in the pan, mixed a little dijon mustard, italian dressing and black pepper and put it over the top to cook until the meat was done. I used some of the extra sauce to dip my meat in afterwards, because as my sister says, "I'm a sauce girl".  It's a single serving miracle! Of course, you can make it for multiple people but you easily adjust it to feed one. It's quick and much more filling than cereal for dinner. But of course, we've all done it. Don't be ashamed. :) 

Banana Chocolate Delights 

I have wayyyy more bananas than I could ever use by myself, so I sliced two bananas in coins, put them on a cookie sheet, spread peanut butter on every other slice and made a sandwich with the other half. I melted some semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave with just a smidge of butter and attempted to dip each one fully in the chocolate, but then I got lazy and impatient and just dipped one side in. But hey, it's less calories that way, right?! 

I put my banana snacks in a tupperware in the freezer to eat whenever I'm craving something sweet! Small portions for the win! 

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread!

My sister Christina and I combined forces (and ingredients) to make a delicious meal.
One of my contributions to the dinner was this scrumdidiliumptious dessert using Tina's plentiful zucchini from her garden.

Chocolate- Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

This is a moist, sweet and chocolately bread that has no oil or butter in it! Woohooo!! Go not-so-guilty pleasures! Enjoy this summer bread. 

Clever College Girl

So I'm starting a new section of my blog including all the tricks I've discovered as a college student to saving money, saving time, staying fit, and more.

So to jumpstart this business, I made THE EASIEST GRANOLA IN THE WORLD! And the best part is, I don't have to BUY granola for like, months!

So the trick is, you mix all the ingredients together, bake it in the oven for 10 minutes, give it a stir, turn OFF the oven (this is *key*, it doesn't say to do this specifically in the recipe, but after some worrying about my apartment burning down and google searching, I came to this conclusion.) and put the granola right back in and leave it there all night! Wake up in the morning to homemade granola awaiting you!

Without further ado, here is the recipe:

Easy Overnight Granola

See and you can put it in a cute container and keep it in your pantry! Wooohoo go frugality. 

And here is a glimpse of my scrumptious breakfast with my tasty granola. Honey Greek yogurt and strawbs. MMM. My fave. 

Katie's famous chicken and GF croutons!

Happy Sunday my friends!
Sunday is such a wonderful day of the week. The best, actually.

My sister Katie made this recipe a wonderful GF fave in our family, since it is one of her faves to make! And, I would go so far as to say she has mastered it.

Katie's Bacon Wrapped Chicken 

So delish. Here's the recipe. 

I made gluten free croutons! Easy! And this is such a good use for gluten free bread that you decide you hate or is about to go bad. 

Gluten Free Croutons! 

Ain't it pertty? On my Cesar salad I chopped up romaine lettuce, tomatoes, sliced black olives (A MUST), shredded parmesan from Trader Joe's, my gf croutons and cesar salad dressing! 

Find the recipe for the gf croutons here. 

Since it is Sunday, here is my spiritual bit for the week.

We can't demand God for answers. He doesn't work that way.  

And when we get answers, in whatever form they come, however soft or subtle they may be, we can't decide that it actually isn't an answer. 

When we pray for guidance and direction, we must pray with the faith that God will answer us and with the courage that we can and will do what He asks of us.

Fear is not of our Savior, it is of the devil. We can't let our fears get in the way of doing the things the Lord asks of us.

An answer is an answer. And if you're afraid of that answer, "Do it afraid". The Lord will provide a way. 

Chicken, green beans, and pretty nails!

Well. I made super easy Crockpot Hawaiian chicken over rice in the crockpot! I used instant rice. Why in the world would you could regular rice when you have instant. That's like deciding to take a horse and buggy to work instead of driving a car.

Anyways, This recipe calls for Hawaiian style BBQ sauce from Target, and since we don't HAVE a Target in Santa Barbara (grumble grumble) I decided to just improvise (with help from the internet) and make some using regular BBQ sauce. It was a little heavy on the teriyaki side, but it was still good. I basically mixed BBQ sauce, teriyaki glaze/marinade, a little garlic, a little ginger, and pineapple juice.

Also, the recipe says you can add chopped onion and green bell pepper, and you should. It's good.

These green beans were the agreed favorite part of the meal. These Buttery Garlic Green Beans are light and simple. Lovely accompaniment to any chicken dish. Get the recipe here.

My talented artistic friend Natalie painted my nails with SUNFLOWERS on them! I love it! She does all these crazy designs free hand with like a paper clip or a mechanical pencil. Talent people. So naturally I attempted artzy pics, cause we happened to have sunflowers.

Also, this.

Heres my virtual support to all my dieting friends and/or those currently struggling with that demon called "self control" (me). 

TTFN! 

Cabbage Rolls and Caprese Salad

Tonight's dinner featured a completely gluten free (and white sugar free, of course) meal.

I was advised by my mom that the best Cabbage Roll recipes are the ones with a little brown sugar in it and hooooray I found one on pinterest, here. It's a crockpot recipe.

And it's a lovely recipe! However, DO NOT BOIL THE CABBAGE LEAVES FOR TOO LONG. Or else you end up with a rather mushy mess to work with. However, as evident by the success of my beautiful cabbage rolls, It can be done! Never say never my friends. Also, I started the crockpot cooking a bit late so instead of cooking it on low for 6-8 hours I cooked it on high for a little over 3 1/2 and it worked out just fine. 

Here is my captive experimental dinner audience in the flesh, posing in just the way I forced them to. (but aren't they cute like that?! I think so :) .) 

And of course a Caprese salad always looks so colorful and lovely with any main course. We suffered the death of yet another basil plant recently, so in lieu of fresh basil I just sprinkled a little dried basil flakes on the top along with tomatoes, mozzarella, capers, olive oil and lots of balsamic vinegar. 

Perf! 

Pink Breakfast Smoothie

An absolutely delightful and easy smoothie was born, courtesy of Pinterest. 

Also, please keep in mind that.....

all burgers are beautiful. 

That is all. 

Oh. my. gosh.

THESE ARE THE BEST BROWNIES I'VE EVER MADE.

Welcome to heaven.

I mean how can you go wrong?

PEANUT BUTTER BROWNIES WITH PEANUT BUTTER CUP FROSTING! A miracle. 

Change your life by following the recipe, here. 

This piece was a little messy coming out of the pan, but it's CHOCOLATE. Where can you go wrong?! Plus it proves it was ultra warm and gooey when we ate it. 

Brown eating a brownie. (and loving it). 

I don't like eggplant.

That is what I discovered with this meal. Gross.

Eggplant Caprese Stacks

Good recipe, bad vegetable. Sorry to all those eggplant lovers out there, but I think there's a reason it was not included in the Veggie Tales entourage. 

This gluten free dish, however, is easy, simple, and delish. 

Ground beef, onions, rice, tomato sauce, and cheese! 

It's Too Easy Cheeseburger Casserole

Find the recipe here! 

*Make sure to use a sauce pan with taller sides than I did! That's a lot of ingredients in one place.*