Low Fat Gingerbread Cookies

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas!! That means cold weather, snow, and lots of treats. That also means, you have to watch your portions too. I was really in the mood to decorate some cookies, but I didn't want each cookie to be over 100 calories. Thanks to one of my favorite food blogs, I was able to find these perfect low fat gingerbread cookies.

I went to the store and bought some festive icing. The icing recipe below was great, but I didn't want only white cookies.

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope this Christmas is the best, and this New Year is great for all of you!

Fresh Pumpkin Puree

Okay, I know that fall is pretty much over; but if you are like me, then you will cook with pumpkin as long as you can. I discovered last year that fresh pumpkin is definitely worth the effort. Up until then, I had always used canned. Then I decided to take the plunge and try roasting a pumpkin and making my own puree. After all that I made myself a pumpkin pie. Oh. My. Goodness. That was the best pumpkin pie I had ever had (up till then of course). After that I have went the fresh pumpkin way if I could, or had the energy.

It's really easy converting a recipe from canned to fresh.

Rosemary-Lemon Roasted Chicken with Fresh Harvest Salad

I think roasted chicken is one of my favorite meals to make. It is so easy, and absolutely gorgeous when it comes out of the oven all golden brown. I'm sure I've said this before, but I love pretty food!

This is a great fall recipe. So fresh with all the vegetables, and the rosemary gives the chicken a whole other dimension of flavor. Rosemary and lemon is such a great combo. Make this on a cold fall night and your family will love you forever. Make the salad first so it has time to chill while the chicken is cooking. Then as the chicken cooks, you can make whatever dessert you want, or sit down with a glass of beer and your loved ones. :)

It has been a while since I last posted, but I have had a tough last couple of months. On top of my husband leaving for training in another state, I have had been dealing with an anxiety disorder. I have been having panic attacks since high school, but they were years apart. For some reason starting in October I have had multiple attacks and severe anxiety on random days; usually for no reason. Now, I am learning how to keep myself calm in stressful situations. Yoga and chamomile tea have become staples in my daily life and I am realizing that cooking is also relaxing to me. So, luckily for me, one of my favorite things to do in life also helps keeps me relaxed. 

With my favorite season upon us, I will definitely be "relaxing" with tons of fall flavors and dishes. :)

Banana Crunch Muffins

Hooray for Sunday football! I am so excited to have football back. Not only to watch my favorite team defend their title, but for the fantastic game day food. These may be a little weird as a pick for Sunday games, but I believe everyone will love them either way. Keep these to the side and let people pick through the wings and chips, then they can grab a little dessert. 

Along with mashed, you have diced bananas for a change in texture, and the crunch from the granola and nuts are fantastic. Use them as a game day dessert, or keep them on your counter to grab as breakfast-on-the-go. 

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting (great at high altitudes too!)

So the title of this recipe should really be The-most-delicious Pumpkin Cupcakes with Super-Heavenly Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. I can not explain in words how fantastic these cupcakes are. I have made them two years in a row now, and every time I do they are gone with-in 24 hours. The recipe makes about 20-24 cupcakes, so I always give some to friends and co-workers, but trust me, they do not last long. Especially with this cream cheese frosting. The cinnamon and vanilla give it such an elegant taste that you may just eat the bowl before frosting the cupcakes. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't have a few spoonfuls myself. :)

If you are looking for a way to start off this fall season, these are the way to go. Super simple, but oh so delicious. I found this wonderful recipe at Nancy Creative. Thankfully these are perfect for high-altitude baking as well. I was so excited when I made these the first time and found out that I didn't need to mess with the recipe at all. They rose to the perfect fluffy texture.

The frosting recipe below makes a TON of frosting. I had half of the frosting left over when I finished putting some on the cupcakes. Now if you want to use the whole bowl, I'm not saying you shouldn't. The measurements below allow you to liberally frost each cupcakes with this heavenly frosting. Next time I make these (and I definitely will) I think I will half the frosting recipe. I even thought about doing that this time but I decided against it. Unfortunately I couldn't justify eating the bowl of frosting on it's own, so I had to throw away a lot of it. So just a heads up, half the frosting if you don't think you will top each cupcake with at least two inches of it. :)

Fajita Bowl (can be vegetarian or not!!)

I am so excited for fall to start! The changing colors and brisk mornings. September to December has always been my favorite time of year. Not only for the weather, but for the food. The pumpkins, squash, and spices that come out around this time makes everything better. Just writing about it makes me ready to start pulling out my fall decoration and make my own pumpkin puree. Well, with only a couple weeks until the official first day of fall I can start planning! I might even do it a few days early. :)

This fajita bowl is a quick and flavorful way to curb any Mexican craving you may be having. I was on a huge craving at the time, but I didn't want to go out and eat a plate full of greasy rice and beans. So, I found this recipe. Low in calories and full of nutrition. The avocados have the good fats, the beans give out extra protein, and of course your daily serving of veggies. If you are not a meat eater, you can substitute large portabella mushrooms for the chicken. So no matter what your eating style is, or if you are on a specific diet, this recipe would be great for you!

Healthy Halibut with Strawberry and Poblano Relish

Ever since I started cooking, I have gotten more and more into the presentation. At first I didn't care how it was presented, as long as it tasted good. Now that I have learned so much, I am all about pretty food. With every dish, I try really hard to make sure everything is cut evenly and that it still looks as good as it tastes. I find myself getting upset if something goes wrong. My husband can definitely tell you how my mood will go from high to low when I mess up. Once I had friends over and they were laughing at me because I was upset about a dish I was making. I knew it would taste okay, but something went wrong and I knew it wasn't going to look as good as I wanted. In the end it all looked fine and tasted fantastic.

Well, that tangent was all because I love the look of this dish. The gorgeous white fish with the vibrant green cilantro and bright red strawberries. I mean, who can say no to something so pretty!

Roasted Garlic Mashed Cauliflower

If I ever meet someone that says they don't like mashed potatoes, I wouldn't know how to act around them. Should they even be considered a person? Well, of course they should, but I would just think they are a really weird person. :)

I have heard of substituting cauliflower for potatoes in a mashed potato recipe before, it always sounded a little weird to me though. I knew it would be a great way to hide vegetables when you have people who doesn't like veggies. Now, I will honestly say that nothing is as good as the real thing, but this a fantastic healthy and quick version. Just like potatoes, you can season this mash with any flavors you and your family love. This recipe was a definite try for me, because I love roasted garlic!! Of course, I added a little dash of cayenne pepper, but you can do any seasoning you want. Rosemary, thyme, red pepper flakes, etc...this a blank canvas. A very healthy blank canvas!!

Grilled Salmon with Basil Sauce

When you love to cook, you kind of need people to cook for. Sounds about right...right? For the last few weeks, and a couple more to go, my husband has been out in the field. After the first few nights I realized how boring it is without him. Mind you we have no kids, so it's just me and our two year old dog. Well, since it's summer she gets tired after ten minutes of play, and sleeps for hours on end. Therefore, she is absolutely no help to my boredom. I keep finding recipes I want to make, but it serves a million people. I have made a few of those, and had lunch for work and dinner for the next night. Maybe it's just me though, but I can't stand eating the same thing for every meal, or more than two nights in a row. That just means leftovers go to waste when it's just me. Enough of my venting!

Thankfully, when I found this recipe my husband was still home so I was able to eat delectable flaky salmon. Now that the weather is ridiculously hot and I'm melting slowly, I need recipes that will not turn the oven on and make our house 20 degrees warmer. That is where the grill comes in. Then when you put salmon on that grill, it makes life perfect. This was such a simple dish, but full of flavor. Prepping the salmon couldn't be easier, and you get a great smoky flavor from the grill. Once you pour over the sauce, you have an inexpensive dish that doesn't taste cheap at all!

4th of July Cheesecake Yogurt Cupcakes

The 4th of July is a great time of year. Cold weather has finally moved away, and the sun shows it's face a little more. Grill parties are definitely a staple when the weather gets nice. The fresh ingredients that come out at this time of year are also why summer is great!

For some reason, the month of July has always put me in a good mood.  If we were back in Washington we would have been to at least two baseball games already. (Excuse me while I day dream about garlic fries and soft pretzels.) I love seeing the American pride everywhere too. That might be because we are a military family. Ever since my husband enlisted, holidays like the 4th of July and Memorial Day have a whole new meaning. I take pride knowing my husband is spending everyday doing what he does in part to work toward his dream, and sacrificing so much in order to do so.

You know, I may be feeling all "Let's go America" because of the World Cup going on right now. We are huge Seattle Sounders fans, and have been cheering on the players that have made it onto the USA team. Being able to watch the USA go as far as they did was awesome! Of course I wish they could have gone further. :(

Greek Yogurt Cheesecake

In my last post I mentioned that I was back to calorie counting. It's been going okay so far. There have been no casualties or injuries. The people that know me well, know that when I get hungry, I am not the happiest/nicest person to be around. I'm finding that I need to always have snacks on me to curb those cravings. All that means is that I really have to be strategic about what I'm eating. Once you find the right snacks and meals for you though things get really easy. :)

With calorie counting, I have to be careful about desserts. I love desserts. My sweet tooth is bigger than my stomach that is for sure. So I went in search of low calorie, "healthier" desserts. That is when I stumbled across this beautiful recipe. Oh man, I can't even tell you how much I love cheesecake. If I could eat it everyday, and not gain an ounce, I would totally do it. So of course I was definitely going to make this and eat it all up. Well not all, that wouldn't help me at all in my counting.

Since this is made with plain Greek yogurt, it's not as sweet or rich as regular cheesecake. When you are trying to eating a little healthier sometimes you have to change up the things you love. Even though this wasn't the sweetest cheesecake I ever had, it was definitely one of the best. Knowing that one slice wasn't going to make me feel full and weighed downed made it even better. My husband even went back for seconds, and he doesn't like sweets as much as me. :)

Open Faced Enchilada Veggie Quesadillas

Well, I have decided to go back to calorie counting. When I lost weight a few years ago that was one of the ways I was able to stay on track. Ever since we have moved here to Colorado, I have been slacking on my eating and exercise habits. I will still exercise now and then, but a routine would never stick. So I have decided to try something I know helped me in the past. Honestly, even after a few days of counting I do feel loads better! There really isn't anything bad about calorie counting, but my big sweet tooth has to be tamed that is for sure. I have to find different ways to curb my sweet cravings. Small pieces of chocolate, a bite of a lemon bar, fruit...etc. If you are thinking about calorie counting it does take a lot of will power and a good workout routine. Start out with an easy daily goal and then work down from there. Then add in whatever workout you did for that day and you will be able to eat a little more too. 

Enough about my crazy self! On to delicious food!!

Grilled Salmon with Avocado Salsa

It's grilling weather!! Time to get outside and grill anything you can find. Okay maybe not anything, but I bet you could find something. :) If you don't have the ability to grill outside I will strongly suggest getting a cast iron grill pan. That pan as gotten so much action in my kitchen in the winter time when it was impossible to grill outside. The cast iron still gives it a little bit of a smokey flavor and always produces beautiful grill marks, you know if you are like me and like your food to look pretty.

Along with grilling it's also a great time for avocados. So many things to get out a do after being stuck in the house for months with freezing temperatures and snow. Now get outside and fire up that grill with this light and fast seafood meal. If you wanted to grill a different type of fish go for it, I have always preferred salmon. Plus salmon is a great fish that holds up to grilling.

Chiles Rellenos Casserole

The best recipes for a hot day are light, refreshing dishes that don't weigh you down. An ethnic remix to a beloved classic is a great twist on any spring day. Chili Rellenos is one of those classic Mexican dishes you will find on any restaurant menu. What if you are craving that fantastic dish, but you are a little too lazy to go into all the work? Don't worry that happens to me every night. Dinner would never happen in my house if I didn't like cooking so much. :)

With a little hot sauce and fluffy eggs, this twist on a classic is a great way to add a little bit of Mexico into your home. On top of the flavor and ease, this recipe is also lightened up. Tasty and healthy? Why aren't you making this right now?! :) I would personally add more chilies if I make this again, but it was a hit with my husband either way!

Double Chocolate Souffle Torte with Raspberry Sauce

I like living here in Colorado, but there is one thing I would gladly move elsewhere for. Baking! So many times I crave to bake something, then I remember I live at high altitude and it will probably turn out hard as a rock. There are tons of articles and tips on how to alter a recipe to fit high altitude. Whenever I decide to take a recipe and alter it, I end up with many failed attempts and wasted ingredients. I hate wasting ingredients. I know baking is a lot like trial and error, but I can't help it!

A lot of times I forget I'm at high altitude. I start baking and when I pull whatever it is out of the oven it's dense and hard. That's when I get sad. I have even thrown out rock hard cupcakes before and just reverted to the high altitude alterations on a box. Yes shameful, but sometimes I just want to bake and I only have the patience to waste so many ingredients.

Slow Cooker French Dip

My slow cooker is one of my favorite appliances in my kitchen. If I could cook everyday with it I would! Pretty sure if I got determined enough I could find nonstop recipes that would allow me to use this beauty all the time. For now I don't have an infinite number of slow cooker recipes but I do have this gem right here. 

Cool Salmon & Couscous Salad with Snap Peas, Orange, & Mint

I have been tempted to try a lot of new things. Like a cold salmon couscous salad for example. I would have never even thought twice about making this. When I saw this recipe I was actually excited to try it. So much nutrition and flavor! 

Now I had to cook my snap peas before mixing everything together. I am allergic to raw snap peas. I know weird. If they are cooked though I am all good. So just so I wasn't thrown any curve balls while eating I simply sauteed the snap peas for a few minutes. This dish is so flexible you could really do anything you want.

Flour-less Brownies with a Secret Ingredient!

This cold snowy day has been a great day for lighting a fire, reading, and baking brownies. Not just any brownies mind you. Brownies that are lower in calories and made with a "secret" ingredient. I put that in quotes cause it's really not much of a secret. I have heard about this recipe many times but I never believed that this specific ingredient could taste like brownies. Oh man was I wrong.

Lemon-Pistachio Chicken

I really enjoy productive days off. Today I checked a few things off my list, as well as a few others that I wasn't expecting. Good thing I did everything early and now I can relax for the rest of the day. Pretty sure I'm going to cut this post short so I can go have a beer and wait for dinner to cook itself in the crock pot (to be posted soon).
:)

This recipe is great as a light lemony dinner. If you love lemon, and I mean LOVE, then you will enjoy this. It's very "airy" and summery. When it starts getting warm outside I promise to make this again, because this is definitely for one of those nights where it still above 90 and you just want to cool off. Yum!

Hominy & Jalapeno Chicken Soup

When it's below 10 outside you know it's time for some soup. Especially if you plan on staying inside to watch the 2014 Winter Olympics. Every night we just turned on whatever event is playing. The event we like the most is curling. Unfortunately it seems to be the only event that plays in the middle of the night where we live. As long as we wake up at 3 am we can watch it. Probably won't happen as much as we want. :) 

This is a fantastic flavorful Mexican style soup. It's great because you can really dial the spice up or down, depending on how you like it. The original recipe called for the peppers to be seeded, but I know in this household we want to be breathing fire! So I decided to leave in the seeds, as well as adding a little more chili powder. For us it still wasn't as spicy as we like, so my husband ended up adding a little hot sauce to his third helping. Pretty sure after his third bowl I knew this dish got a double thumbs up. Along with being tasteful, this recipe was also very easy. It requires time, but most of that time doesn't require any action. So if you want a simple but exotic dish, here you go! 

Barbecue Turkey Sloppy Joes

This has been one crazy week. So much going on with work and home. Especially when we were sitting with a high in the single digits for a couple days in a row. Not much fun let me tell you. When you step outside and your face instantly stings...nope. No thank you. Good thing there is such a thing as comfort food. 

If you want sloppy, cozy, finger licking, saucy deliciousness then makes this. Sloppy joes are a staple in any household I believe. I remember eating sloppy joes when I was a kid and getting that filling all over my hands. Aw, the time when it was socially acceptable to be messy. Now we are adults and have to actually clean ourselves. Oops, off topic. Anyways. I love barbecue sauce on pretty much anything. With this recipe you could get any flavor barbecue sauce every time you make it and it would be like a brand new recipe. I only had original in my pantry this time, but I usually go for the sweet and spicy kind. After working around the warm cozy sandwich you still have all that fell out on to your plate. It's like seconds. :)

Gooey Butter Cake with Dried Blueberries

Oh man did it feel good to get back into blogging. Knowing that I was going to share this recipe felt good, and made me try so much harder while making it. Of course I always have to remind everyone that I am not a professional and I make mistakes. This cake was supposed to be a little more under cooked than in the pictures. I mentioned before that we just moved into a house. This house was built in the 80's so some of the appliances are a little older. We are still trying to get used to the stove. It gets so much hotter than any other stove I have used! I have burned more things in the month we have lived here than in the last few years I have started cooking. 

All I ask is be patient with me as I get used to these new appliances and actually remember to take pictures. I almost forgot to take pictures of the dinner I made tonight. :)

Where have I been?!

Wow, I pretty much just dropped off the face of the earth with this blog. So much has happened in the last 6 months that I have had almost no time to post. I have still been cooking but I never got around to taking pictures. Who knew that having a full time job with a husband and fur-baby at home would take up so much time!

One thing that I am proud of is that we finally got out of an apartment and moved into a house. It is so nice having more room. Plus not having to hear voices, music, and TVs through the walls. The most is a few dog barks and I can live with that. Leia (our adorable boxer mix pup) loves the space as well. It took her a while to get used to the new house; but after a weekend of accidents and horrid smells she understood that this is her house and she can run around as much as she wants. We have only been here a couple weeks and there is already a path etched in the dirt where she has sprinted in circles in the backyard. I can also say I feel a lot better knowing she isn't stuck in a small apartment without daily exercise.

Along with more space for Leia, I have more space in the kitchen. This is my first place in ages that has an island. Cooking the few dinners that we have has been so easy; plus more fun! My husband can come in to help without the two of us bumping into each other because of the lack of counter space. I have a feeling that with more space I can get back to posting new recipes.

So I am announcing here and now that I will start capturing meals with my camera and posting them. I still have so much to learn with cooking and love sharing them with the world. I may start off a little slow, but I know that once I get back into I will remember how much fun I had. Here I go!! :)