VEGETARIAN CHILI

I'm not very carnivorous, but I don't think I would ever go completely vegan or vegetarian. However, there are certain dishes, that I prefer meat-less and chili is one of them. As a child, I would peculiarly pick out the meat from my chili. That being said, I decided to use this recipe (the very last one) with just a few minor changes.

Ingredients: 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1/2 of a yellow onion, 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, 1/2 of a red bell pepper, 1 can of great northern beans, 1 can of black beans, 1 jalepeno pepper (de-seeded and de-veined), 1 can of diced tomatoes, 2-3 tablespoons of cumin, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/ Prepare your ingredients. Dice the onion, red bell pepper, and jalepeno pepper. Drain and rinse the beans. 

2/ Sauté the onion, bell pepper, and jalepeno pepper with olive oil in a medium-sized pot until onions are soft.

3/ Stir in the diced tomatoes and mix in the spices. Let cook for 2-3 minutes.

4/ Lastly, add the beans into your pot and mix until well-incorporated. Let cook for 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Serve with grated cheese or sour cream.

HOMEMADE POTATO CHIPS WITH SEA SALT AND ROSEMARY

Potato chips are a classic. They're a snack, barbeque side component, and appetizer all in one. Creating your own and tossing it with sea salt and rosemary make it the ideal comfort food for any occasion.

Ingredients: 2 potatoes (any type is fine), 1-2 tablespoons of rosemary, 1-2 tablespoons of sea salt

1/ Using a mandolin, slide your potatoes down the cutter into several slices. 

2/ In a pan, fry your potato slices until golden brown (dark brown is fine around the edges).

3/ Drain the oil off of your potato slices and toss in rosemary and sea salt.

xo

MINI BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

When I first tasted these banana chocolate chip muffins, it took me back to my childhood. When I was little, my favorite pastry used to be Entenmann's Banana Crunch cake. Their recipe really did let the bananas shine and the chocolate drizzle on top made it even better. I used this recipe, but added my own chocolate chips.

xo

WEEKEND INSPIRATION

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{Intricate embellishments giving a look drama}

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{A sleek gallery wall}

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{A pendant lamp with close attention to detail makes a great statement piece to a room}

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{Cheesy pull-apart bread}

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{Macarons in a Tiffany-inspired color}

xo

BASIC HOMEMADE GRANOLA

I'm not a big breakfast person. However, since it is the most important meal of the day, I like to have a small, hearty breakfast that'll keep me full and energized until lunchtime. Granola is one of my breakfast essentials. I love to add it to plain greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey. This recipe is for very basic granola (just rolled oats). I would've added pecans or chopped almonds or even dried berries if I had them on stock, but at the time, I hadn't.

Ingredients: 2 cups of rolled oats, 1 teaspoon of honey, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1/ Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a pot, melt your butter. Once your butter is melted, add in your brown sugar to create a simple syrup. 

2/ Add in your honey and your rolled oats and mix. Once well-incorporated, mix in the vegetable oil.

3/ Line a cookie sheet with wax or parchment paper and spread granola across the cookie sheet.

4/ Place in oven for about twenty to thirty minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on it as all ovens are not the same.

5/ Let cool for fifteen minutes and then store in a container. It can be stored for up to a week.

xo

PEACH PIE WITH PEANUT CRUMBLE

I've never really been a fan of pies, but a sudden interest in pies occurred when I bought these freshly picked in season peaches from the farm stand the other weekend. I used this pie crust recipe and made my own peach filling and peanut crumble.

Peach Filling Ingredients: 2-3 sliced peaches, 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Dump your sugar in a bowl and add in your vanilla extract. Mix until well incorporated. Mix in the sliced peaches and voila!

Peanut Crumble Ingredients: 1/2 cup of peanuts, 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

In a food processor, process your peanuts until they are coarsely fine. In a bowl, dump your sugar and vanilla and mix until well incorporated. Add ground peanuts into the bowl and mix. Use as a topping on a pie.

CANTALOUPE MINT JUICE

I love lemonade, but I have to say that this cantaloupe mint juice beats it as the best summer refreshment. The cantaloupe is already sweet so it does not require as much needed sugar. I have a whole pitcher this juice chilled in the fridge right now actually.

HOMEMADE SALSA

My mom has always been the master of making a fresh, simple tomato salsa. I was excited to be able to use the fresh cilantro I had grown in my little garden for the first time. She gave me her recipe and I made some to go along with some homemade tortilla chips we had picked up from Whole Foods. It was delicious! The perfect summer snack.

Ingredients: 1 sprig of fresh cilantro, 2 tomatoes (don't let the photo below fool you), 1/2-1 lemon, 1/4 onion (yellow or red), 1 clove of garlic, 1/2 Jalepeno pepper

1/ Chop up all your ingredients.

2/ Add all your ingredients into a food processor. Process until it is well-incorporated.

3/ Eat with tortilla chips or add to any Mexican dish and enjoy!

*I apologize for the low quality of the photos. It should be back to normal soon.

xo

MUG BROWNIE WITH FRENCH VANILLA ICE CREAM

It was the other day when I was craving something sweet. I wanted something quick and easy to make and turned this recipe I found on the other blog I write for (here). It might be one of the easiest things I've made. It makes me feel guilty to think that I ate an entire brownie with French Vanilla ice cream and guiltier that I made it by just mixing up a few ingredients and heating it up in the microwave. The only change I made was heating the brownie mixture only for 50 seconds instead of the 1 minute and 40 seconds the recipe suggested.

P.S. Check out this awesome giveaway.

xo

THIN MINTS

Thin Mints have always been my favorite girl scout cookie. I thought I would make my own homemade thin mints since I didn't get to order myself a box during girl scout cookie season. These resembled the exact ones the girls sold. My only concern was the thickness of the cookie. Mine ended up to be thicker than I thought it would be since the cookies didn't expand in the oven. At least, next time I know to cut the chocolate cookie logs into thinner slices. I used this recipe.

xo

SUMMER SALAD

Sometimes all I ever want to eat during summer is a refreshing salad. This is exactly what I did last week. I laid out a simple bed of spinach, sprinkled it with some blue cheese, drizzled it with some Romano caesar dressing from Trader Joe's, and topped it off with a simple peppered steak. No necessary recipe to follow for the steak. Just season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, sear and brown for about 10-15 minutes on a pan and then, cook on broil in the oven for about 30 minutes.

xo

FLAVORED LEMONADE

First of all, I've loved lemonade my whole life. It's always on my favorite drink list (along with tea, margaritas, and Italian soda). I make lemonade religiously every summer and I love to mix it up by adding different fruit or herbs for flavoring. Here, I added strawberry and melon. I make the lemonade fresh before I make each drink and add it to each glass with the fruit mixture.

For the lemonade, I don't usually pay attention or follow a specific ratio of lemon juice to sugar. Just find a balance. And once you have a concentrate, add water. Bonus: sparkling water.

Ingredients: Fruit(s) of choice, lemonade

1/ Muddle your fruit with a wooden spoon in your cup until it is your desired size and has released the juices.

2/ Pour your lemonade  over the muddled fruit and stir. Add mint leaves for garnish. Enjoy!

xo

SPICY CILANTRO CHICKEN

I made this cilantro chicken in the slow cooker and didn't expect it to be as spicy as I thought it would be. I like the spice though, so if you prefer a milder option, just take away the chopped Jalepeno pepper from the recipe. I served this with rice, but I ate it with tortilla chips as a snack later on. It's delicious!

Ingredients: Cooked chicken (pre-shred it yourself), 1 can of tomato sauce, the juice of 2 lemons, a pinch of salt and pepper, 1-2 teaspoons of cumin, a pinch of cayenne pepper, 3 tablespoons of taco seasoning, 1 teaspoon of cajun seasoning, chopped fresh cilantro, 1 finely chopped Jalepeno pepper (optional), 2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/ In a slow cooker, mix the tomato sauce, seasonings, olive oil, and herbs.

2/ Toss in all the shredded chicken into the slow cooker and mix until well-incorporated.

3/ Put lid on slow cooker and cook for at least 40 minutes (you can keep it on until 3-4 hours max). The longer it is kept in the slow cooker, the tastier and more flavorful it will get.

xo

GRILLED SPICED SHRIMP

I made these grilled spiced shrimp skewers recipe-less and I'm so glad I did. Going without a recipe definitely gives you more creativity with ingredients. These turned out so much better than I expected. In spite of the long ingredient list, this recipe is much easier than you would think.


Ingredients: 1 pound of cooked deveined shrimp (I removed the shell myself), the juice of 2 lemons or 3 limes a pinch of kosher salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1 teaspoon of cumin, a pinch of cayenne pepper, a pinch of garlic salt, 1 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning, freshly chopped dill and cilantro, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tiny jalapeño finely chopped


1/ In a mixing bowl, mix together your lemon or lime juice along with all your herbs and spices until well incorporated.

2/ Add your shrimp into the mixing bowl and toss around the mixture. Add olive oil and toss again until all shrimp is coated with all of the mixture.

3/ Skewer the shrimp on your sticks.

3/ Turn on your grill and allow the shrimp to cook on one side for 3-5 minutes with the grill closed. Open grill and flip the shrimp skewers. Cook the other side for 3-5 minutes.

4/ Enjoy!

xo

CRAB OMELET

I'm not so big on breakfast, but when I am, I always love omelets and old-fashioned bacon. Café Bonaparte was the place where I had my very first crab benedict (or benedict, in general). Every time breakfast comes up at my house, I can't stop thinking about the crab benedict. So, I decided to create my own breakfast with crab in it. I'm not such a fan of poached eggs (the yolks!), so I decided to create my own crab egg white omelet.

Ingredients: 1-2 cups of lump crab meat, 4 egg whites, some green onion, and a dash of salt and pepper

1/ On medium-high heat, drizzle some canola or vegetable oil (olive oil evaporates too quickly) on your skillet or pan. Once the oil has been heated, sauté your crab meat in the same skillet/pan. Sprinkle salt and pepper on on crab meat and then mix around for about 2 minutes.

2/ Stir in your chopped green onion. Pour your egg whites into the skillet/pan.

3/ Once the bottom of the omelet is cooked (2-3 minutes), flip the omelet and let it cook on the other side for another 2-3 minutes.

4/ Serve on an english muffin (as seen in the photos), bagel, or toast. Enjoy!

xo

PUFFED PANCAKE

I'm a huge fan of Naomi's blog, Rockstar Diaries, and so I was pleased to see that she had finally posted the recipe to her puffed pancakes in this post. I didn't change anything from the recipe, but I did add a little bit more than a dash of cinnamon. I garnished this with confectionary sugar and some strawberries.

xo

DOUBLE BERRY LAYER CAKE

As the summer begins, I keep seeing so many delicious looking berry cakes (here and here), so I thought I'd give it a go and give my take on it. I used regular white cake box mix and split the batter to make two cake layers. I used this recipe for the icing and placed raspberries and strawberries in cake layers and on top for garnish.

Place the first layer of cake on a cake holder or large plate. Apply the first coat of frosting.

Thinly slice the strawberries and layer them.

Add another thin layer of whipped cream and then layout the raspberries.

Coat the whole cake with the whipped cream frosting and garnish the top of the cake with more berries. Enjoy!

xo