Favorite Recipes | Cupcakes and Commentary

Crab cakes

May 23, 2017 No Comments

We splurged on our Saturday night dinner cooking and upgraded our typical tuna or salmon (from the can) to fresh crab cakes. I kept it really simple to focus on the crab, only panko, eggs, fresh chopped parsley, lemon zest, and a bit of salt & pepper. I only mixed enough of the extra five ingredients to hold the crab together. Then I fried it in a bit of canola oil (about 4 minutes per side), and we served it on fresh bib lettuce and arugula (from our garden!). It was amazing! So tasty. And I made honey rolls to go on the side:

A delicious Saturday night dinner! And we watched a Saturday storm roll in and debated if the power was going to go out while we ate every last bite!

Favorite Recipes

My favorite summer meal

May 16, 2017 No Comments

This is going to quickly become my go to summer dish! It’s so simple and tasty!

Ingredients

1lb uncooked, peeled, and deveined shrimp

The kernels from 4 ears of corn

1 container of grape tomatoes

1 bunch of arugula

salt, pepper, olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine shrimp, corn, tomatoes in a large bowl and toss with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Pour out onto a large foil lined pan. Roast 15-20 minutes until shrimp is cooked through and tomatoes begin to burst. Remove from oven and toss on pan with arugula. Serve with warm, crusty bread. (See tips below!)

Tips: Slice tomatoes in half to cut down cooking time (and chance of spraying the tomato across the room). If you want to roast the veggies longer than the shrimp, place them in the oven 5-10 minutes before adding the shrimp. Need to make it even easier? Use frozen corn.

Favorite Recipes

Favorite trail mix

May 9, 2017 No Comments

The boys declared this their favorite trail mix, ever, so I figured I better remember what I made for next time. My idea was simple, grab items from the pantry that were not chocolate or cheese covered, and would be both a treat and something filling.

Other items on our list for future trail mix is dried fruit, white chocolate chips, and granola clusters! They definitely enjoyed their snacks on the trail!

Favorite Recipes

Taco potatoes with chicken

May 3, 2017 No Comments

This meal is really about the potatoes, friends. I have been trying for years to convince the boys that oven cooked potatoes are as good as french fries from the bag. They never believed me. Until now! So I whipped up a batch of taco potatoes (two large russet potatoes were plenty for my family, so adjust accordingly), and served it with store bought rotesserie chicken. I used our taco seasoning for the potatoes. I topped it with BBQ sauce (however, you could do ranch or sour cream), and sprinkled it with cilantro. The boys ate it up, and asked for seconds. Mission accomplished.

Favorite Recipes

Cherry Crumble

April 17, 2017 No Comments

This is the easiest dessert to make, and so delicious! A bag of frozen cherries, a Meyer lemon, some pantry ingredients, and an hour of bake time is all it takes!

Ingredients

12 oz frozen cherries (pitted)

1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter diced

1 Meyer lemon

Pinch kosher salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 8 x 8 glass pan with canola oil. Spread cherries in bottom of pan. Grate Meyer lemon peel over top of cherries, and then squeeze juice over cherries. In a medium bowl combine, flour, sugar, salt, then mix in cold butter until it resembles sand. Place bowl with combined ingredients in fridge for five minutes then spread over top of cherries. Place in oven and bake for one hour or until bubbly. Let cool for five minutes (it’ll be super hot!) and serve with ice cream.

Favorite Recipes

Avocado hummus

April 12, 2017 No Comments

I made this as our side dip for dinner on Saturday night. It’s not easy to find a dip that my whole family can and will eat. I served it with pita chips and the boys ate it up! It has a guacamole quality to it, but without the salsa. Here’s the recipe!

Ingredients

2 avocados

1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

1 lime

1 tsp kosher salt (more to taste)

1 small bunch cilantro

1/4 cup olive oil

Directions

Place all ingredients in a food processor, pulse until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary!

Favorite Recipes

Using our herbs…

April 4, 2017 No Comments

So the boys’ favorite new spaghetti sauce is…

Herb filled! A requested spaghetti on Friday night and I obliged with this quick recipe. A couple springs of fresh rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, a can of tomato sauce, a can of diced tomatoes, tbs of tomato paste, a sprinkle of garlic powder, pepper, and kosher salt.

Blend it all up:

And of course I forgot to take a picture of anything else. I cooked it over low to medium heat for a good thirty minutes while we prepped everything else. And it was awesome! Definitely on our rotation.

Favorite Recipes, Mini Cupcakes

Smoothie madness

March 22, 2017 No Comments

Over Spring Break the boys and I made a smoothie. Then they asked for one the next day. And the next day. And then we were headed to the store to buy kefir, and frozen fruit, nuts, and such. Most of my ideas come from Weelicious’ awesome chart.

And I’ve found that I can put in pretty much any kind of tasty goodness in a smoothie and they’ll drink up!

Our favorite combinations right now are:

Oranges-Peaches-Hemp Seed-Vanilla Honey Kefir-Walnut-Unsweetned Coconut Milk

Raspberries-Blueberries-Strawberries-Vanilla Honey Kefir-Unsweetened Cocoa Powder-Chia Seeds-Unsweetned Coconut Milk

Peaches-Flax Seed-Cashews-Strawberry Honey Kefir-Milk

I’m planning on expanding their palate by adding veggies and other yogurt flavors soon!

Favorite Recipes

Funfetti cookies

March 15, 2017 No Comments

This is literally the easiest cookie recipe you’ll ever make. The boys absolutely loved them and they still have a cake like quality after a few days. If they last that long!

The boys took turns mixing…

And scooping…

?

And eating!

Here’s the recipe!

Funfetti Cookies

1 box funfetti cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup canola oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir all ingredients until combined. Scoop out tablespoon size portions and place on cookie sheet an inch apart. Bake for 6 minutes then rotate the pan and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes until edges are slightly golden. Cool for 2 minutes on pan and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

And if you want to make cookie sandwiches, after the cookies are cooled put a layer of funfetti frosting in between two cookies and roll in the accompanied sprinkles.