Spontanous Moment #34: Gobble Gobble

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. I love everything about it: family, food, friends, and thankfulness. So any chance I get to celebrate the holiday, I take. When I heard that there would be a bunch of little kids at our Thanksgiving dinner, I immediately knew I had to make a few Thanksgiving treats!!

I decided to make acorns and turkey treats!

Acorn Bites

Ingredients:
Donut holes
 Nutella
Chocolate sprinkles
Pretzel sticks

Make donut holes (see Spontaneous Moment #22).

Once they cool, dip donut holes halfway into the Nutella jar and immediately dip that into a bowl of sprinkles.

Place pretzel stick halfway into the donut hole.

Turkey Treats

 Ingredients:
Nutter butter cookies
Jelly beans
Sour patch kids
Reese peanut butter cups
Mini M&Ms
Chocolate cookie
White Icing

I made a variety of different gobblers. I made all the eyes out of the mini M&Ms, but I mixed up the jelly beans and the sour patch kids as the feathers. I also made some with cookies and some sitting alone.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Spontaneous Moment #33: Eggplant Pizza

If you can't tell by the many posts I've made in the past, I have a small addiction to pizza. It's so easy to make and the cheese just oozes in my mouth as I gulp it down.

In my attempt to create a healthier version of pizza, I turned to vegetables for a little help. Thankfully, eggplant seemed to be up to the challenge.

Eggplant Pizza

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant
1 teaspoons salt
Don Pepino Pizza Sauce
2 cloves of garlic
Basil
Pepper
Shredded Mozarella Cheese
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Chili flakes
Turkey pepperoni (optional)


Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 375.

Slice your eggplants thick enough so that they  cook evenly. (Basically, don't make it too thin)

Lay out all of your eggplant slices on two sheets of paper towels and sprinkle a teaspoon of salt on your slices. This will absorb all of the moisture out of the eggplant. Let it sit for 15 minutes and then turn over and cover the other side in a teaspoon of salt. Sit for another 15 minutes.

Wipe off all of the salt/moisture off the top of your eggplant slices. Lay your eggplant slices on a cooking sheet and brush the tops with olive oil. Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. While they're baking, thinly slice your basil leaves and mince your garlic.

Remove the eggplants from the oven and turn on your broiler.

Put a generous amount of pizza sauce on the eggplant. Sprinkle with the garlic, chili flakes and basil. Then crack some pepper on top.

Sprinkle your mozzarella cheese on top and then place a single pepperoni on each slice. Top your slices with parmesan cheese.

Put your eggplant slices in the broiler for 6-7 minutes or until cheese is slightly brown.

I like to add a little more pepper and pepper flakes on top after I take them out, but that's optional.

Right out of the oven

Not the best picture, but this is my plate. YUUMMM!

Just taken out of the broiler after 6 minutes

Spontaneous Moment #31: Zucchini Fritters

I just purchased a mandolin and I'll find any excuse to use it. So on my journey to eat healthier, why not whip up some zucchini fritters.

The sound of this recipe made John want to gag, but he was changing his tune by the end of the night.

They were so incredibly easy to make and the entire process took less than 20 minutes!

10 minutes prep time
6 minutes cooking time
Serves 2 (to serve four: double the zucchini, garlic, onion & egg, but keep the rest the same)

Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini
1 medium red onion
10 sprigs of parsley, stems removed (or if you want to mix it up 5 green onions)
Lemon Zest (I zested one lemon then cut lemon wedges with the rest of it)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper (to taste)
1 large egg
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup flour
Olive oil

Grate zucchini and onion into a medium bowl. Add chopped parsley, lemon zest, garlic, salt, pepper, parmesan and egg. Mix well. Slowly add flour, stirring the entire time so that you won't have any clumps.

How it should look after mixing in the first 9 ingredients

John helping me slowly mix in the flour

How it should look after the flour is added

Heat up olive oil in a large pan on medium-high heat. Take a spoon full of the mixture and plop it into the pan. Repeat spacing the fritters evenly apart.

The size your fritter should be on the pan

Nom nom nom..cooking for about 2 1/2 minutes

Cook fritters until golden brown which is about 2-3 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate.

Garnish with parsley or lemon wedges. Enjoy!

Spontaneous Moment #30: The Burger of all Burgers

Whenever I go to the counter at a burger joint and they ask what toppings I want... I tend to pick everything. Yes, I can't fit the burger in my mouth. No, I don't care. I call those kind of burgers SMASH BURGERS.

I love making turkey burgers at home and then cramming everything under the sun in between the buns. Tonight was no different.

Smash Burger ingredients:

Ground turkey
Lipton Onion Soup Mix
2 Garlic cloves
Potato bun
Sliced pickles
Sliced onions
Mushrooms
Lettuce
Tomato
Reduced fat Colby Jack cheese
Pepper
Sirarcha Sauce
Spicy Mustard

Preheat your onion to 350 degrees. Take out your ground turkey and put it in the bowl. Mince the garlic and then add it to your bowl. Pour one packet onion soup mix into the bowl and mix all three ingredients together. Make little turkey patties and cook on the stove top in a skillet.

Put your buns in the oven for 3 minutes. Take out the bun and finish toasting it a little bit on the stove top in the same pan you used to make your turkey burgers. Set aside.

On the same pan, toss in your mushrooms and sautee them until they're soft.  Set aside.

Put your spicy mustard and sirarcha sauce in a bowl and mix them together. Spread the mix on your bun.

Pop that burger on the bun and then slap on all of your ingredients. Once you've stacked everything up sky high, take your hand and just smash it all down!

Spontaneous Moment #29: Fall & Football

As that brisk weather comes in, those gorgeous yellow tomatoes are in full season. I'm sure you see yellow tomato gazpacho on every restaurant menu in town, but I'm going to mix it up.

To me, fall means football. When you watch football, you want to eat greasy food like chicken wings and pizza. So why not opt for a healthier option?

While checking my fantasy football stats (thank you Peyton Manning for all of those points), I decided to make a margarita pizza to munch on while watching Sunday football.

I purchased my fresh ingredients at the local farmer's market (Eastern Market) and cut basil from my herb garden.

Ingredients:
Pillsbury thin crust pizza dough
Grated 2% milk mozarrella cheese
1 yellow tomato
1 red tomato
mushrooms
a few leaves of basil
truffle oil
pepper (to taste)

 Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Slice your tomatoes, mushrooms, and basil. Spray the cooking sheet with some Pam and then spread your dough out on a cooking sheet. Put it in the oven for 5 minutes so your dough fluffs up a little bit.

Take out your dough after five minutes and brush on a small amount of truffle oil. Sprinkle with cheese, layer your tomatoes then plop on the mushrooms. Even disburse the basil and sprinkle on some pepper. I like to drizzle a little extra truffle oil on top. Sprinkle a little more cheese on top and put back into the oven for 8-12 minutes.

John and I scarfed down the pizza before the end of the game. I can't wait to make this dish again..and again... and again!

Spontaneous Moment #28: Coffee Filter Flowers

I love peonies, but they only last so long. So how about replace the real flowers with something much longer lasting. So here's how to make gorgeous white peonies from coffee filters.

What you'll need:

Coffee Filters

Floral Wire

Floral Tape

Glue (any will do)

Scissors

Take out your coffee filters. Take two or three together and fold them in half.

Fold again towards the right.

Fold over once more.

Last time to fold over. Make sure it's nice and tight. Feel to trim off a little from the top if these are the inner parts of the flower.

Cut off the side of the filter that is folded.

When you unfold the first part, it should look like a heart.

Unfold all of your coffee filters and crinkle them a little bit.

Grab the floral wire and bend it at the top.

Poke a hole into your coffee filters.

Push your coffee filters to the bottom of the floral wire all the way to the loop.

Glue the coffee filter to the floral wire.

Twist the bottom of the of the coffee filters. Repeat steps with more coffee filters.

Once you're done with adding all of your coffee filters and twisting the bottom, wrap the floral tape around the stem and continue down the floral wire.

Fluff out your pedals and TA-DA!

This is what the final product looks like. I kept the background dark so you can just focus on the flowers.

An ugly washed out version.

The final product.

Spontaneous Moment #27: Easter EGGS

I wanted to make a little something special for Easter. So instead of making your typical deviled eggs, I made some festive deviled eggs. Not just festive, but HEALTHY.

Hard boiled eggs

My ingredients: Greek yogurt, honey, mustard, chives, paprika and chili powder.

Slice dem eggies

My pink and green eggs soaking

The final product!

Healthier Deviled Eggs:

6 hard boiled eggs
6 teaspoons of Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of honey
2 tablespoons of paprika
chili powder (to taste)
2 teaspoons of chives (optional)

Peel the eggs and then cut them in half.

Put the egg yolk into a bowl and mash them up.

Mix in the Greek yogurt, mustard, honey, and paprika.

I like to chop up chives and mix those in as well. 

Sprinkle the top with chili power and stir.

Then place your egg mixture in a piping bag or use a plastic bag with the tip snipped. Put about a teaspoon full in your hard boiled egg whites.

Sprinkle the top of each egg with paprika and chives.

Serve!