Photo Challenge Update 2/24/2013

It's time for the Photo Challenge Update:

Something Sweet

Self-Portrait

A gift

Handwriting

My favorite part of today

Holding Hands

What You're Reading

My something sweet photo is a picture of a fake flower somehow left behind on a hiking trail we went on! If you're in Oklahoma, and want a fun place to go fishing, hiking, climbing, or camping ya'll should check out Osage State Park, which is located just west of Bartlesville! We had a blast hiking through the park for about 5 miles (which didn't begin to cover all the trails they have)! We can't wait to go back when the weather is nicer and go camping and see everything this park has to offer! If you want some good ideas, stop by the ranger station! They are very friendly and will point you in your whatever direction your heart desires!

My self portrait picture! Dee Jay came home from work, and saw my hair and told me I looked like a flapper girl from back in the day! I was trying a Pinterest hair-do which is supposed to make you wake up with curly hair! Well, I woke up with curly hair, on the downside it was big enough to send me back 30 years to the 80's! So...I won't be doing that one again, but at least I tried!

This pineapple was a gift to myself! :) It's been so long since I've bought a fresh pineapple and I couldn't resist them at the store! So I bought it, and will be devouring it today! Can't wait!

My handwriting on Wednesday! We had a snow storm blow through Okla and it was absolutely beautiful! We have another one on the forecast, and of course it's going to be almost 60 today and then by Tuesday morning, we may have more snow on the ground! Gotta love OK weather!

This was my favorite part of the day on Thursday! My sister had a pampered chef party at her house, and my sweet nephew was missing DJ! So we snapped this picture (sorry it's so blurry, he was holding the phone and trying to wave at DJ at the same time) and sent it to D at work to say hello! Love anytime I get with my family :)

I looked at the days wrong, but it's okay! Saturday was supposed to be holding hands and Friday was supposed to be, what you're reading. I switched since I don't know my days of the week! LOL 

I know that we are completely behind on reading this book! We've seen the movie, and I'm trying to finish the book now! My nieces LOVE "The Hunger Games", so I decided if I want to know what they are talking about at all, I needed to read the book myself! I'm enjoying the book!

Okay, before we finish out the day, I want to share with you a FANTASTIC place we went and ate with some friends yesterday! S&J Oyster Company, in downtown Tulsa (around 1st and Elgin) is WONDERFUL! The service, the food, the atmosphere, the location...ALL OF IT was outstanding! If you're looking for a great place to try out downtown I highly recommend this place! 

Oyster's on the half shell! I really can't explain the absolute wonderfulness of this appetizer! They made our cocktail sauce right there in front of us, and it was the perfect amount of spicy and tart! I like to put my oyster's on a cracker, however you can just take them right from the shell! (It's a texture thing for me! The cracker gives the crunchy texture that I need.) 

This was my main dish! 

Crawfish Etouffee! 

Gorgeous presentation, and a taste to match! The pickled jalapeno, the buttered bread, the rice, the crawfish, & the sauce, all came together for the most wonderful fusion of flavors! I can't wait to go back and try something else sometime soon! Baseball season is right around the corner, and this is isn't far from the ball park! 

In my opinion, this place has earned my repeat business, and if you haven't tried...you should! 

Stay tuned for more great food and the final photo challenge update for February!

Until then...

Go Green

I'm so proud of myself! I made a green smoothie and I LOVED it! I see these floating around on Pinterest all the time, but the color has always made me second guess the flavor of these drinks. It's kind of like eating green eggs and ham! I just don't think a drink should be quite so "green" especially when I know the green comes from a leafy substance I usually put in salad or something else! So, I decided to give it a try and was very surprised that I couldn't taste the "green" at all. Instead this almost tastes like a banana & cinnamon drink! So let's get started on this delicious and nutritious drink...

Ingredients

2 c Kale

1 c ice

1/2 c almond milk

1/2 c plain yogurt

2 TB peanut butter

1 banana

6 strawberries

1 tsp cinnamon

1 TB Chia seeds

Put all this together in your blender and blend away! 

This smoothie is packed with potassium (660 mg), vitamin A (210% of your daily value), vitamin C (178% of your daily value), among others! It has 276 calories, which made for a great snack because it's about the same as eating 2 small bags of Doritos and much better for you! I wasn't tempted to snack on anything else because it is very satisfying! I came across this recipe at Tone It Up! 

If you want to know more about Chia seeds and their nutritional value you can check out this list on Livestrong. I throw some in to my water bottles and juices sometimes! The "texture" is something I had to get used to, however I barely notice it anymore!    

Stay tuned for the photo challenge update and many more recipes! 

Until then...

Chicken, Cheddar, Bacon & Rice Bake

I came upon yet another fun food blog titled, What's cooking in the burbs! She has some serious great looking recipes that I can't wait to try! I'm no where near going through them but I did however find this little gem on Pinterest which is what got me to her blog in the first place. She adapted this recipe from AllRecipes and we LOVED it! I really struggled with putting the bacon in or leaving it out (healthy eating...remember?)! However, I still had a ways to go before I reached my goal for the day, so in went the bacon! Just FYI in case you're interested, this recipe, as is, runs about 445 calories per serving. If you leave out the bacon you can subtract 135 calories and come up with 310 calories per serving! If bacon is involved, I will typically favor the bacon IN instead of the bacon OUT! So let's get started, because once you make it, you're not going to want to stop eating it! This recipe serves about 6 people, so for 2 of us we had plenty of leftovers!

Ingredients

4 TB butter

1 medium onion, chopped (about one cup)

4 garlic cloves-minced (I used 3 because they were pretty big)

1 tsp seasoning salt

1 tsp Kosher salt (I forgot this when I made it-tasted just fine)

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 TB flour

3 1/2 c chicken stock

3 1/2 c milk

1 1/2 c long grain rice

3 c cooked chicken

1 1/2 c cheddar cheese-shredded

1/2 c cooked-crumbled bacon

To start it out you're going to melt the butter in a pan and add the onions. Cook the onions until they are tender, then add the garlic, seasoning salt and pepper. Stir this all together and add in the flour. Mix well! It's going to start to "clump" together so make sure you don't leave it alone for too long! Stir in the milk and chicken stock and turn the heat on the stove up to medium-high. Add in ONE CUP of cheese! (NOTE: This is not all the cheese for the recipe! I ALWAYS mess up and see "stir in cheese and add the whole cup and half and then realize later I was only supposed to put in a portion of the ingredient.) 

Continue to whisk until everything comes to a simmer. Add in the rice and lower the heat to medium-low and cook about 20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid! 

While this mixture was cooking, Dee Jay was working on getting the bacon cooked and crumbled!

Once your rice mixture is finished on the stove, add in the chicken and bacon to the rice/sauce mix! Pour all this into a 9x13 pan and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 c of cheese on top! Place it in the oven for 20-25 (we did 22 minutes) and bake until the cheese is bubbly! 

This is everything in the pan EXCEPT for the cheese topping!

I cannot express to you how much we enjoyed this recipe! It's not to heavy or loaded down, it's just...dare I say...perfectly delicious! Stay tuned for some more yummy recipes! 

Until then...

Banana-Oat Smoothie

BANANA-OAT SMOOTHIE

One of my new favorite things to whip up in the kitchen since I re-placed my blender are smoothies! There are soooo many options, and I like to try all of them and keep notes in my recipe book about whether or not I liked them and if they worked! How does a smoothie "work" you ask? Well, there are so many combinations the possibilities are almost endless. Feeling sick? Make an anti-oxidant smoothie! Need some energy? Make an energizing smoothie! DJ and I have been trying to do better with tracking what we eat, so we can see what we're missing out on during the day! Now that I'm trying to get more in shape, it's especially important that I'm getting enough protein and calories to make up for what I burn off exercising! It's not always easy, and I'm NOT a calorie counter and HATE doing so, but it's important to stay healthy-so here we go down that road! 

So here are a few reasons why this smoothie is packed with a nourishing punch!  

According to LiveStrong, bananas come with the following:

Vitamins A,B,C,D,E, & K

Potassium

Healthy source of carbs

Fiber

Low Sodium

So with that being said, here are the ingredients...

1 Banana

1/2 c plain yogurt 

1/2 c milk (we use Almond)

1/4 c oats

1 TB honey

1 c ice

All you have to do is put all these ingredients into your blender and mix away! 

This particular recipe serves 2, and each serving is 165 calories! I would much rather down one of these for a snack than grab a bag of potato chips! 

You can find a list of smoothies at Whole Living, which I'm sure you'll hear back from me about more of these! I'll be the first to admit that I'm not always the healthiest eater, but I'm working on it!!

In goes the yogurt!

Yes, I have an OU gnome in my kitchen! We love him!!

Everything is in except for the ice!

Delicious!!

Until next time...

Photo Challenge Update 1/17/2013

What you wore

The Sky

Something Blue

Something Red

The one you love

Something you see every morning

What's in my bag

This is a picture of what I wore last Sunday! (And of me holding DJ's cello) ;)

This is a picture of the sky right before nighttime! 

My something blue picture was easy, because I had to take a trip to Wal-Mart! I saw this lone basket while waiting in the garden center to check out, so I snapped a picture of it! The lady in front of me heard the shutter, and turned around to see me "posing the basket", I'm sure she was thinking I don't get out much lol

My something red is a picture of DJ's card and gift I got him for Valentine's Day! 

This is a picture of my love on Valentine's Day! He was headed to work...So handsome ;)

Something I see every morning is my coffee! YUM!

The first thing I pulled out of my bag was my headphone set! It was the last thing I threw in there, so I guess it makes since that it was on top! 

Only 12 more days left in February for pictures then we're on to March! Stay tuned for some great recipes this week! Until then...

Tasty Fried Zucchini

It seems like zucchini has been all over Pinterest lately. A good reason why is that zucchini is packed full of nutrients for your body! Want to know more? Check this article out on Livestrong.com and tell me you don't want to stuff your face with it! We went borderline "healthy" and decided on a fried zucchini recipe from the Neely's on Food Network. About 4 thick slices is 150 calories, 9 grams of fat but you still get the fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron! So we're still on the board for having a somewhat healthy snack! This is a bit more time consuming for an afternoon snack than I would normally go for but it was completely worth it! Let's get started!

Ingredients: 

Oil For Frying (we used our mini-fryer with Canola oil)

3 large zucchini (slice into small rounds)

1/2 c all purpose flour

1 1/2 c Panko bread crumbs

1/4 c grated Parmesan Cheese

2 TB finely chopped Parsley

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Salt & Pepper

3 eggs-lightly beaten

1/4 c water

Dipping Sauce

1 c sour cream

2 TB Butter milk 

(I had to make my own which is one cup of milk with 2 TB of white vinegar. Let sit for about 15 mins)

(I didn't have shallots or chives but she calls for them. We thought it tasted just fine without it. I did add a little minced onion in there!)

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Dash of hot sauce

Salt and Pepper

Here is how we did this:

We started with the bowl of flour at one end, followed by the egg and water mixture, and then finally the breadcrumbs with all the seasonings in the final bowl. 

Once your zucchini is sliced into rounds, you're going to want to coat the slices in flour, then dip each round into the egg/water mixture. After you have each piece coated, you're going to add to the Panko and spices bowl and make sure it covered in all the goodies! (I added a little more Parmesan cheese at this point because I didn't think it looked like enough). Once all your pieces are covered we put ours down in the frying oil for exactly 3 minutes. They turned out beautifully! 

Each piece is packed with flavor and the dipping sauce compliments this perfectly!

To make the dipping sauce, all you need to do is mix all the ingredients together and chill in the fridge. It says to chill for one hour, we chilled as long as it took to make the zucchini (about 15-20 minutes). 

Stay tuned tomorrow for the photo challenge update!

Until then..

Chicken Pot Pie

What could be better than a double-crust chicken pot pie with a side of mashed potatoes?! (Not a lot is the answer you're looking for if you were raised in Ok!) Thanks to MyRecipes for sharing Southern Living's double-crust chicken pot pie! I'm sad that we devoured it and I can't have one more slice for lunch, but I guess that just means I'm on to the next recipe! Okay, so since it is Valentine's Day and I'm sure many of you are fixing up a great meal to surprise your loved one, or maybe going out tonight, I'm going to share one of my new favorite melodies with you, so you can crank it up while you're cooking to put you in the romantic mood! DJ and I were just talking about how artists must feel when they hear their music through the sounds of another artist! Well, if I were Bruno Mars, I probably would have closed my eyes, and took a deep breath and let the beauty of this version of, Just the Way You Are, course through my veins! This is an absolutely stunning version of his song!

Let's get started!

Ingredients

1/2 c of butter

2 medium leeks, sliced

1/2 c of flour

1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth

3 c cooked chicken

1 1/2 c frozen hash-browns with onion and pepper 

(I couldn't find any like that so I added my own onion and pepper...easy enough)

1 c of matchstick carrots

1/3 c of parsley

1/2 tsp. slat

1/2 tsp pepper

1 (17.3 oz) pkg. of frozen pastry sheets 

(They come in a box of two in the frozen section)

1 large egg

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. 

In a large skillet, melt the 1/2 cup of butter (one stick) and add the leeks. 

Saute the leeks in the butter for 3 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and cook, STIRRING CONSTANTLY! Whisk in the chicken broth, and bring to a boil! All the while CONTINUE WHISKING! Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the chicken, hash-browns, carrots, parsley, salt and pepper. 

Roll out each pastry sheet into a 12x10 rectangle on a lightly floured surface! 

Fit 1 sheet into a 9 inch deep pie plate. Spoon chicken mix into pastry, and place the remaining pastry sheet over the filling in the opposite direction. Fold the edges under and press with a fork to seal the bottom sheet to the top! 

Whisk together the egg and 1 TB of water and brush over the pie. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees on the lower rack for 55-60 minutes or until the crust is browned! Let stand for 15 minutes before serving! 

You really can't go wrong with this dinner! Absolutely wonderful! 

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Stay tuned for great new recipes! Until then...

~Happy Eating~