Hummus Chicken

The boyfriend decided that he enjoys chicken and he enjoys roasted red pepper hummus. So one night when we weren't sure what to do for dinner he decided to bring the two together. Isn't that usually when something tastes the best? When you have no idea what you're thinking of making? Okay, so need a quick and delicious dinner? Here you go!


Ingredients: 
Chicken Breast
Your favorite roasted red pepper hummus (2 TBSP each chicken breast)

Directions:
1.) Put the roasted red pepper on the chicken breast
2.) Cook at 350 degrees for 20-30mins (depending on the size of the chicken)

That's it! Serve with salad, couscous, veggies or rice! Enjoy!

Dinner for Two

Hello Everyone!


This post is going to my first blog that's literally dinner for two. It's also going to be a three course meal! It's also going to be the first time I have made any of it except for the brownies (I got lazy, the brownies are box made).

Anyway, I'm not going to go into the recipes, I'm going to give you the links and just let you know if I did anything differently. Like I said earlier in the post, this is the first time I've made any of it other than the dessert (though I'm mixing it up this time). Since everything I'm making is new though I'm going to at least tell you all about whether or not we loved it and/or how I came up with the menu.

Appetizer:

Roasted Red Pepper Soup from my girl Sweet Love & Ginger
     Reason behind making this: For one, it's been cold all week. Second, I hadn't really thought about needing an appetizer until I saw her blog about what she was doing for Valentine's Day and decided what the heck. FYI this is in fact the only thing I stole from her for the night. I asked Francis what he wanted for dessert and well, he chose the same thing.
    The Verdict: I wish I had a better blender! It was really hard for my blender to do make it smooth and I got annoyed and gave up. As for the actual soup, it was good! A little too cheesy for my liking so I might cut back or double everything else but otherwise it was delicious. I could totally have this with a salad for a meal one night. It was also super easy to make (other than the blender issue).


Dinner/Entree

Bacon Wrapped Lime Shrimp with Couscous and Broccoli 
      Reason behind making this: So there is this little place in Saratoga, NY, Burlington, VT and Lake Placid, NY where you can try all different Balsamic Vinegar and Oils. I love this place, one because it's like a wine tasting shop-- you can try everything before you buy it and two because it has unique flavors. It wasn't until recently that I realized their website has recipes for each type of vinegar or oil you may buy! I mean does it get any better than that? I bought this Chipotle oil over the weekend and found this recipe and knew we had to try it.  FYI- We used this oil for homemade pizza Sunday night- added it as a dressing, and it was the best homemade pizza we have made.
     The Verdict:  This also came out pretty good, it was a lot of work and a little difficult to try and maintain everything I was trying to do by myself-- especially since it was the first time. I also should have gotten larger shrimp and not used Francis' favorite bacon which is maple flavored, it definitely took away from the lime. I think I might like this just as well as a stir fry without the bacon.


Dessert
Turtle Brownie Cheesecake Bars
      Reason behind making this: Francis loves turtle brownies but I really wanted cheesecake brownies, so I decided to mix it up and put them together. I found this really cool and pretty simple looking recipe off of my favorite recipe place, Pinterest.
     The Verdict: uhm amazing. Of course, I'm not surprised. I am a baker-- warning though, I used a boxed brownie mix because I really didn't think I had time, on a work night to make all these in 2 hours. Anyway, it was great, I have leftovers of these and can't wait to go home and have some!

Enjoy!

Boyfriend's Breakfast Burritos

Another one of my resolution's for the year was to start making dinner/meals more regularly. My boyfriend does most of the cooking and I'm hoping that I can start cooking more often. Part of this reason is to have myself get better at it (I like to bake more), to keep myself busy AND because I really don't think it's fair that Francis cooks so much. Okay, done with the tangent....

Anyway, here's Francis' Breakfast Burritos (obviously). These are SO good that I decided to make them myself. Now to start, I'm sure Francis got this recipe offline but honestly we don't look at it anymore and we change it up all the time, so I can't give you the actual link.

Here's a sample recipe to serve 2!

Ingredients:
1/3 cup onion (chopped)
1/3 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)
4 eggs
Wrap
1-2 Tbsp of butter
1/2 cup pepper (chopped)

                                             Directions:
1.) Melt butter in a large skillet
2.) Add the eggs, pepper and onion to the skillet
3.) Mix the ingredients together until the eggs are scrambled to your liking
4.) Add the shredded cheese until it's melted
5.) Add them to the wrap or bagel, whatever you choose to use and voila! Your breakfast burritos are complete!


It's really easy to add bacon or sausage to this as well, or any other veggies you might enjoy. It's really simple and really fast to make which is even better.

Enjoy!

Homemade Crab Cakes- Thanks Mom!

Crab Cakes!

This is one of my boyfriends favorites. If he sees crab cakes on the menu he has to order them. Anyway, my mom and I decided to make them one night. I have no idea if she got the recipe from someone but I wouldn't be surprised if she came up with it herself- she's good like that. Since then, we've been trying to make them, on occasion. They aren't the healthiest so it's usually a treat when we make them. 

Ingredients:

Crab Meat- around 16 ounces (will make 4 smaller ones or 3 larger crab cakes)

     obviously fresh crab meat is better but if it can't be fresh, canned crab meat works too
1 egg
chopped roasted red pepper
8ish slices of bread (without crust- you might need more)
1-2Tbsp light Mayo
Basil
Parsley
Garlic

Directions:

1.) Mix crab meat, egg, mayo, basil, parsley, garlic together
2.) once mixed, add bread, you will need to add enough bread to be able to make it into a cake
3.) Make the ingredients into a cake use your hands for this,set them aside on an plate with parchment paper
4.) once you have made the crab cakes the size you want, put them in the fridge for at 1-2hours
5.) After that, fry them up in the pan and you're ready to eat!
6.) I usually try to find a red pepper relish to go on my crab cake, Francis puts salad dressing. Unfortunately the red pepper relish/jelly I use is one made in Vermont that I get a Farmer's market so it won't really help you. My advice, find something with a little spice to it :)

We change our sides on a regular basis, usually salad or rice goes really well this. Sometimes maybe some baked sweet potato fries. It all depends on the mood :)