Taziki's Friday Special Recip {Guest Post}

Hi bloggy friends! Today I have something special for you! Since I am on vacation this week, my sweet friend Lauren is gracious enough to be sharing one of my all time favorite meal recipe on the blog! So come read, stop by her blog and show her some love!

Hey! I'm Lauren and I blog over at Simply Free. I'm a southern newlywed trying to live out this life as simply & creatively as I can while serving Christ, loving others, and finding an abundance of joy & laughter along the way! I write about life & love, as well as recipes & other crafts I've really enjoyed creating. I am so excited to guest post over here with the lovely miss Clara. I have known Clara for - wow - eight years now! We met in Auburn through our campus ministry and the world of blogging and both being the same city again has brought us back together. She is quite wonderful (as I know y'all already know!) so I was delighted when she asked if I wanted to do a guest post :)

As cooking is something both of our little families enjoy, I wanted to share with y'all one of my favorite simple recipes which is one of Clara's favorites as well! The Taziki's Friday's Special. Now if you've never heard of this - it's AMAZING!  ANd very simple to make which is great especially if you don't live near one. It's actually really good without the chicken as well, so it's a good vegetarian option too - just add more tomatoes at the end!

Ingredients:

1 handful fresh basil (chopped)     1 tablespoon shallot (minced)

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar                 Juice from one lemon

1 teaspoon sugar                            1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (we omitted this)

1 1/2 cups blended olive oil            Salt and pepper to taste

6 cups mixed lettuces                    1 1/2 pounds penne pasta (cooked)

2 cups feta cheese crumbled          3 tomatoes (seeded and diced)

3 tablespoons fresh thyme (chopped)

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (grilled and cubed)

Directions:

• To make vinaigrette:
• Mix thyme, shallots, balsamic vinegar, lemon, and sugar (and Dijon mustard if desired).
• Slowly whisk in oil.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Place about 1 cup mixed lettuces on each plate.
• Toss cooked pasta with about 12 ounces (or to taste - we used a tad less) vinaigrette.
• Toss grilled chicken with about 6 ounces (or to taste) vinaigrette.
• Spoon about 3 cups pasta onto lettuce
• Top with chicken, then diced tomato, feta cheese and fresh basil as you like

And there you have a copycat of Taziki's Friday Special! I actually think ours looks even better than original :) Enjoy!

I would love to connect with you so come on over to my blog & say hello, follow via GFC, or connect via the other buttons below  :)

  

  

Rosemary & Garlic Carrots {Recipe}

My hubs and I love some carrots. Seriously. There are carrots in our refrigerator at all times. If I run out, I will make a quick trip to the store for them alone. Did I mention the closet grocery store is about 15 minutes away. Yes, we love 'em that much!

  Here is a simple and easy recipe to make Rosemary and Garlic Carrots!
 

Ingredients:

1. 1 TBSP butter

2. 1 clove garlic, minced

3. 1 lb. carrots, sliced

4. 4 sprigs rosemary

5. 1/2 cup water

6. 1/2 tsp salt

7. 1/4 tsp pepper

 

Directions:

Add butter and garlic to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted, add the carrots and sauté for about 2-3 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients to the pan, and boil until the water has evaporated and carrots are crisp-tender, about 5-7 minutes.

Make sure to stir occasionally.

Remove rosemary before serving. Enjoy!

Notes: Use olive or canola oil for dairy-free/vegan


Enjoy your new and simple side dish!

Homemade Frappe's

Frappichinos!
Yum. Yummy yum yum.

Yea, I love 'em. I would really love to visit Starbucks everyday, but it wouldn't be good for bank account. I tried just plain coffee, but realized I couldn't even take a snip without wanting to chuck the cup at the wall. I will pass on the plain jane stuff. 

Here is an AH-mazing recipe for a homemade Frapp. 

Ingredients:

1. Ice

2. 1/2 package of Jell-O Instant Pudding

3. any flavor 2 cups strongly brewed coffee or instant coffee individual packets (For a little more of a Starbucks flavor, add one package of Via instant coffee instead of liquid coffee.)

4. Milk (any kind)

5. Cool Whip (optional)

Directions:

1. Add ice to your Blender or Magic Bullet (You can purchase a Magic Bullet for $49 at Bed, Bath and Beyond.) I did about 3 hand fulls of ice.

2. Add half a package (approximately 2 1/2 tablespoons) of your chosen pudding.

3. Add coffee.

4. Top with milk (should reach brim of cup).

5. Blend to desired consistency, or until you don’t hear the ice crushing anymore.

6. Top with whipped cream if desired. 

*If it looks too thick, there should be room for a little bit more milk. Stir and pack down what you have now, and add milk to the brim of cup. Blend for 5 seconds more.*

Homemade Fried Chicken {Recipe}

Last week Stephen and me went to a friends house for dinner where we ate fried chicken fingers. They were good, but it got me craving some really good homemade chicken fingers. Does that ever happen to you? You eat a good meal but think about they ways you can improve it and really start craving it? Well, it definitely was on my mind.

  

My Mother in law makes the most delicious homemade chicken fingers, so I had her email me the recipe and BAM- a new yummy meal to serve instead of the 5 things I normally make - and my craving was satisfied.

I was intimated at first, thinking this was going to be an over the top tough meal to make, but it was easy and quick. My recipe feeds 2 people but you can easily add to it to feed lots more or have it for leftovers.

WARNING: This is super unhealthy. Seriously - its coated in oil. But, so gooooooooooood!

Ingredients:

1. 1 pound Chicken (not frozen)

2. 1 tbsp Onion powder

3. 1 tbsp Garlic powder

4. 1 cup Flour

5. 1 tsp. Salt

6. 1 tsp. Pepper

7. 1 cup Buttermilk ( I used cream)

8. 1/2 cup Oil (I used Canola)

Directions:

1. Cut up the raw chicken in to small strips or bite size pieces.

2. Place the raw chicken in a bowl of cream until it covers all the chicken. Let it sit in the frig for a couple of hours.

3. Mix, garlic, onion powder, salt, pepper and flour together.

4. Coat the chicken in the dry mixture.

5.  Add the oil to a pan and set the heat on medium/high.

6. Place the chicken  in the pan.

7. Flip the chicken over when it looks done.

8. Dab off the excess oil.

9. Eat and enjoy!

We added honey, chipotle sauce and ketchup to our chicken fingers.

Enjoy!

Valentines Red Velvet Cupcakes {Recipe}

Cupcakes! Valentines! What a great combination!

I bought some cute cupcake paper cups and heart inserts awhile back and wanted to use them. Great reason to bake, right?

So I thought I would make some red velvet cupcakes to go with the red theme. 

Ingredients for cake:

1. 2 1/2 cups flour

2. 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3. 1 tsp baking soda

4. 1/2 tsp salt

5. 2 cups sugar

6. 4 eggs

7. 1 cup sour cream

8. 1/2 cup milk

9. 1 ounce red food color

10. 2 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients for vanilla cream cheese frosting:

1. 1 (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened

2. 1/4 cup butter, softened

3. 2 tsp sour cream

4. 2 tsp vanilla extract

5. 1 (16 ounce) box confectioners sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. . Spoon batter into 30 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.

3. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.

4. Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat cream cheese, softened, butter, sour cream and Vanilla Extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.

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Homemade stir fry {Recipe}

I have to admit, I'm not too creative when coming up or experimenting with recipes, but this one was so good! 

 I decided to make my own version of stir fry.We eat too much beef in our family, so I wanted to get some protein without the red meat and add in some healthy veggies too. 

 I searched through the spice rack and picked what looked good. This is NOT like me. I'm the person who changes one thing in a recipe or substitute something it goes to pot. Well, not this time!

Ingredients:

1. 1.2 Spaghetti noodles box

2. 2 cups Vegetables - any kind. I used broccoli, yellow squash and carrots

3. A dash Garlic power

4. 3 tablespoons Low Sodium Soy Sauce

5. A dash of Chives

6.  1 Egg

7.  1/2 tablespoon Butter

8.  1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

9. Black pepper

Directions:

1. First, begin by cooking noodles in a pot of water to make them soft

2. I cut up the vegetables and placed in a double boiler to steam. 

3. Once the noodles were soft, I place them in a pan on high heat with my butter and olive oil.

4. I then added my chives, black pepper and garlic powder.

5. I added my egg in the dish and cooked through while mixing with the noodles. ( I took out the yoke and kept only the whites)

6. Lastly, I added my veggies to the mix and added soy sauce. 

7. Adjust your recipe based on taste. :)

The final product - a request for this more often! YAY, success! 

Simple white bread {bread machine}

Have you read the label on bread from the grocery store lately? There are probably 30+ ingredients in it and I'm appalled. I'm not against all  processed foods, but I am trying to be better in our eating and living a healthier lifestyle.



 

I inherited an old bread machine from a friends mom when she was cleaning out a year ago. I had never made my own bread and called my sister for some help (she is a rock star Mom and a great cook). I've done a bunch of recipes over the course of the year, but I think this one is my favorite! My taste tester (aka hubby) was very happy with this one and gave his seal of approval!


Ingredients:
1. 1 cup water
2. 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or canola)
3. 2 tablespoons honey
4. 1 teaspoon salt
5. 3 cups of bread flour (or all purpose flour - just  nothing self rising)
6. 1 package of active dry yeast

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in the bread machine

2. Set for 4 hours

3. Press start.

Delicious and simple. Enjoy!!!

Almond Pound Cake

In preparation for New Years Eve celebration, I decided to whip up some yummy dessert. Growing up my grandmother had the best Rum Cake, yet sadly I don't have the recipe.  I decided I would instead try an Almond Pound Cake. Stephen and I sampled a bit and oh. my. gah! I nearly fell over when I had the first bite. Needless to say, it might not make it til tonight. 

Warning: So good it might be hard not to consume the entire cake. 

Ingredients:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter

3 cups sugar

• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. 

In the bowl of a mixer, butter and sugar together and then add sour cream. Mix the flour and baking soda together and add to the butter mixture. While mixing, add the eggs and finally add the orange and almond extracts and mix well.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
 

Once out of the oven, I added some whip cream and black berries.

Happy New Year's Eve!! 2013 is going to be epic!

Homemade Hot Chocolate

A favorite past time of mine is to curl up next to a hot fire, watch a good movie, snuggle down with a blanket and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate. Life so often seems to fly right past me and moments like these help relax.

Anyway, I digress...This past week while enjoying one of these relaxing moments,  I decided I wanted to make my own healthier/tastier version of hot chocolate. I guess in that time of chilling, I realized I was drinking pure junk. In a normal packet of instant hot chocolate the main ingredients are corn syrup, artificial flavors and some other words I cannot pronounce. I decided I was done with that cup and going to make a new one where I knew everything that was being added to it.

I grabbed 1/2 tea spoon of unsweetened cocoa, 1 teaspoon of pure maple syrup and 3/4 cup of warm milk and took a sip. WOWZERS! It was delicious! I was pleasantly surprised how good it tasted. It tasted much better than the hot chocolate packets and is healthier too! Thumbs up on all accounts. I am definitely going to have to make this a daily routine in our household.

Please forgive the half empty cup of coco. I drank it down before I even thought of taking a picture! Hmmm, I might need to run make another cup of this right now....

Reindeer Cookies

I had a gloomy day at work and wanted to come home and make something that would cheer me right on up. I thought about what I wanted to make and nothing was coming to mind. Then, poof..I remembered the nutter butters that were on my desk and I knew what I wanted to create - reindeer cookies!

This was such a simple and no-stress snack I whipped up in no time. I think I am going to have to make these with my nephew and nieces over Christmas.

The other good news about this project is that there are hardly and ingredients and you don't have to bake it!

Ingredients:

Nutter butter cookies

Classic white frosting

Mini M&M's

Pretzels

Tools:

Zip lock bag/sandwich bag

Knife

Scissors

First, I grabbed some white frosting and add it to my zip lock bag. With this new pipping bag, I clipped the bottom of the bag with scissors allowing only a tiny opening. This allows me to easily squirt the frosting where I needed it.

I took my nutter butter cookies and opened them into two halves. From there, I put a dot of frosting at the top of the cookie and one at the bottom.

Then, I took a knife and cut the pretzels into antlers. When I tried to break them apart, they crumbled - the knife was a great solution to keep the pretzels from breaking into a million pieces.

I added my pretzel antlers at the top of the cookie on top of the icing dot  and placed the other half of the cookie back on top.

Then, I put two small dollops on the top of the cookie for eyes and one at the bottom for the nose. Some of my dots for the eyes smeared together, but I figured it gave them more character anyway. Who wants perfect cookies anyhow? ;)

Lastly, I took some mini M&M's and placed them on top of the frosting. I chose blue and brown M&M's for the eyes and a read nose for each to look like Rudolph. 

I think they turned out pretty cute! They were super easy and yummy in my tummy! !

Cookie dough Ice Cream Pop {recipe}

See the epic awesomeness of a cookie dough ice cream pop! Sugar, chocolate chips and the magic of a freezer.

I'm very proud of the non-mess I made. I'm happy with the delicious flavor of chocolate. I'm proud that I own my own popsicle kit. I'm just excited all the way around. :)

Recipe:
2 1.2 c. of milk
2/3 c. of light brown sugar, packed
couple of pinches of salt
2 tsp. of vanilla extract
1/4 c. of mini chocolate chips

Instructions:
Place milk in a bowl and heat to 1-2 minutes in the microwave. Stir n brown sugar and salt until dissolved, Then stir in vanilla.

Place chocolate chips in the bottom of your popsicle mold and then fill to the top with your mixture. Let it freeze and ta-da! Yummy-ness!

How to make iced coffee

Stephen and I LOVE iced coffee. I would rather have an iced coffee than any other dessert (well, strawberry short cake might rival it)and I never knew how to make if before. I tried pouring hot coffee into ice - yuck. Idon't enjoy watered down coffee. So, here is a recipe that works!

You will need:

1. whole beans

2. Coffee grinder

3. Jar with lid (mason jars work well)

Measure out 1 cup of coffee beans and coarsely grind them.

Fill 8oz jar with  ground beans and fill with water. If you are great at pouring things into jars, by all means don't worry about a funnel. But for people like me, take a piece of paper or a funnel to pour beans into jar (or else you will have a huge mess) Seal the lid and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

 Its morning! So, take a coffee filter and place over a cup.  

All the beans will catch and the coffee will land in the cup.

Add in creamer, sugar and ice and stir to mix.

*Lighten things up in this drink by using nonfat milk... or fat-free half & half. Use your desired low/no calorie sweetener in place of sugar.

*Another option is to add a flavored creamer, which will cover both the cream and the sugar.

Enjoy!



Quiche, why haven't I tried you before

So yesterday (Monday) I went to our Atlanta office for work. I loved seeing our other branches and getting to put names and faces together.

But besides that, when I was riding back to Birmingham my co-workers and I began to talk about easy and yummy meals to make for dinner. So, quiche came up. I have hardly ever eaten quiche (any type) but hearing how simple they are to make and all the different ways you can make them, I decided to give it a try. So, I ran to Publix, bought spinach, eggs, cheese, milk and frozen pie crusts. I didn't quite know how to measure out portions, but I figured I would throw it all in and see how it worked out.

I used 2 frozen pie crusts, 2 cups of cheese, 1 frozen bag of chopped spinach, a cup of milk and 4 eggs. Mixed it all up, and put in the 2 pies for an hour on 350 in the oven and bam! Yummy quiche! I was super happy with the way they turned out-now I just have to eat it all:) Hopefully it can freeze!

I looked up online ways to make quiche-basically you can make it as healthy or unhealthy as possible. The longest wait was it cooking but very worth waiting!

Happy baking!