Cute #Christmas Santa & #SantaHat #cupcake #recipe

I was bored, so I whipped up some santa cupcakes. Be forewarned, this is not my average healthy dish. The strawberry is the only healthy part of this, but that's OK because Christmas doesn't count! I saw a version of santa hat cupcakes and whilst making these, I decided I wanted to make a whole santa face cupcake and this is what i came up with. I think the chitlins would approve, don't you? The best part is that they can help you make these. It's a simple boxed cupcake recipe, with candy and fruit for toppings. These would work great at a Christmas themed party or just a night in desert.

Ingredients:

Two large eggs
Any boxed yellow cupcake mix or your own recipe. (Makes 12)
12 fresh strawberries. Don't use the frozen strawberries, they melt all over the place.
2 bags of m&m's or enough to make 2 eyes and 1 nose for 12 faces. (36) I used an off brand and made only 4 cupcakes.
Vanilla frosting, any kind. I used Duncan Hines.
Silver and white cupcake liners. I wish i could have found red. Definitely get red if you can. the cute factor would go up. They should make santa suit cupcake liners!
1 bag of shredded coconut
1 bottle of peppermint sprinkles
2 bars of thin white chocolate. (Room temperature so it's easier to cut) I used Lindt. Maybe even go with 3, in case you make mistakes. You need enough to make 12 small triangular beards.


Recipe:
Follow the directions on the cupcake box and put the cupcakes in the fridge.

After about an hour, take them out and apply a generous slab of frosting on each. Make sure to cover the whole top and crevices.

Take out your room temperature white chocolate and cut small beard shaped triangles. This can be tricky. I broke a few trying to get it just right. A trick i figured out from doing my Halloween project, is to heat the knife under hot water and then cut.

Once the triangles are shaped and ready, take out your strawberries, wash them, and cut the stems off so that they take the shape of a santa hat.

Apply the strawberry santa hats in the middle of the cupcake, so that they don't slide off. Then apply the M&M eyes and noses.

Then, apply the white chocolate beards. Use the frosting as a glue to adhere it to the cupcake.

Carefully put some peppermint sprinkles and shredded coconut around the whole cupcake, avoiding the eyes and mouth.

Lastly, put a dollop of frosting right on the top of the strawberry santa hat, to mimic fur.

Put the cupcakes back in the fridge and let everything stick to itself. Give it about an hour or so. Enjoy!

If the white chocolate becomes too difficult to cut the shape accurately, you may want to try marshmallow.

Toasted cheesy herbed sun dried tomato & avocado sandwich

So I've never really embarked on a delectable sandwich and today was the day I was going to do so. I think I can safely say I met the mark with this one. All my favorite things wrapped in cheese. It just doesn't get much better for a sandwich. I tried to make it 100% healthy, but the butter, cheese, and olive oil were just what it needed to complete its delectability. That's a word now. It could be worse, I could be indulging in a big mac. My favorite part about this sandwich is the contrast of the delicious crunchy, crispy texture of the bread against the gooey cheese. This is jam packed with nutrients and fresh herbs are a must!

Ingredients:

5 fresh Oregano leaves

1 tablespoon of Bragg's Organic Apple Cider vinegar. (I've been finding a use for this in almost everything. In addition to my shot of two tablespoons in the morning, it adds such a healthy and sweet & tangy kick to food.)

1 small-medium size ball of fresh mozzarella cut into 8 thin circle slices

1.5 tspn garlic

1 ripe avocado

8 thin strips of red onion

6 julienne cut sun dried tomatoes

4 fresh broccoli florets

1/4 cup no fat mozzarella shredded cheese

2 slices of Italian 5 grain bread (Bought at Publix)

1 tblspn i can't believe it's not butter

1 tblspn cold pressed extra virgin olive oil

1 tspn sea salt

Recipe:

Get out a bowl. Make small scoops of the the avocados entirety into the bowl. Follow with the broccoli, sun dried tomatoes, onions, garlic, ACV, and sea salt. Then, mix GENTLY, so as not to break up the avocado into mush, but get the flavor on the added veggies.

Put that aside and set your oven to broil at 350 degrees, while you butter your two slices of bread. (The bottom of one, the top of the other) Gently scoop half the mix onto the bottom bread slice, butter side down. Lay the slices of mozzarella on top of that. Then scoop the rest of the mix and repeat. Top with shredded mozzarella and top that with the remaining slice of bread, butter side up.

Put the sandwich onto two layers of tin foil, drizzle it with the olive oil, and set in the oven for about 3 min (or until browned) Then, gently turn the sandwich over and cook that side until browned and the cheese reaches your idea of sufficient gooeyness. For me, it's not done until the cheese is oozing out onto the plate. Enjoy! I certainly did.

I have to confess, i took the pictures too early the first time around. I put it back in for another minute to get it more melted! But it melted so much it covered all the beauty that was the vegetable colors, so i'm happy with the photographic outcome. :)

Banana nut Ice-dream

Today I was joking with my friend about his states heat index, 110. I think it's blasphemous that Florida is cooler than North Carolina right now. How did that happen? He said he's convinced that he must be somehow in closer proximity to hell. I told him that hells brim fires were surfacing and to repent post haste...but let's have ice cream before we do that, shall we? Or something close to ice cream, as I don't have my own ice cream maker.

Enter what I like to call "The banana nut ice-dream". A ridiculously easy, yet yummy recipe I stumbled upon in my search for anti-candida recipes. #Candida is an on going battle for me, as I always give into something sweetly decadent eventually. Regardless, this is actually a wonderfully healthy and tasty replacement.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp nut butter of your choice. I used my favorite organic Almond butter. (I actually used 2 tbsp of nut butter, because when I taste tested it, the banana was overwhelming for me. I would blend and mix to your taste)

1 banana (I used a pre-frozen banana to give it more thickness)

2 Sprinkles of cinnamon, nut meg or both.

That's it!

Recipe:

1. Put the banana and almond butter into the blender and blend on low, until it reaches a smooth consistency.
Then, sprinkle cinnamon, nut meg, or both and blend for a few more seconds.

2. Scoop the mixture out with a spoon into a small freezer friendly container.
I used a stone ramekin as it's all i had at the moment and i thought maybe i could trick myself into thinking it was some kind of fancy frozen creme brulee.

3. Put in the freezer for a few hours or until it reaches your desired consistency.

I bet this recipe would taste not as healthy, but really yummy with some chocolate added. There is another pudding recipe i want to try out that is just as simple, with one added ingredient. I'll post that when i make it. I love bananas, they're so versatile and sweet on their own that there's just no need for added sugar in a lot of recipes. The next time you feel a craving for ice cream and it's really hot outside, i implore you to try this.

Reference: You can find this and many other low-sugar, candida recipes  at  Holistic Help

Cheesy feta bean & broccoli grilled chicken wrap.

So, I recently bought a small George Foreman grill. It was on sale and i remember I loved using it eons ago in college, but abhorred the cleanup ordeal. Well, i figured at this point in my mature adulthood I would tolerate the cleanup better right? Wrong. Some things never change, but alas, it is worth the grilled taste in the end! Also, seriously, nothing trumps smoldering days like today than an indoor grill. Submitted for your approval is the Cheesy feta bean & broccoli grilled chicken wrap.

Ingredients:

1 medium fajita wrap
1 Tbsp crumbled feta cheese
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp garlic
1 cup of broccoli
1/2 cup of black beans
1 skinless boneless thawed chicken breast
1 Tbsp EVOO
3 generous sprinkles of Mrs. Dash Table Blend


Recipe:

1. Take a piece of skinless boneless thawed chicken, marinate it in EVOO, garlic and Mrs. Dash table spice overnight or soak it in the ingredients 10 minutes before you slap it on the grill.

2. Steam your broccoli until it is a medium to soft texture (i like it practically mushy, i have baby syndrome when it comes to food) Heat up your black beans (I used canned this time as i was in a bit of a time crunch, but I always recommend making them fresh to avoid all the sodium content) Transfer the beans and broccoli to a pan on low heat, and mix in 1 tbsp butter, 3 generous sprinkles of Mrs. Dash, and 1 tsp of garlic powder. Let that sit on low while you preheat the grill.

3. After about a 5 minute preheat, put your thawed chicken breast/s on the grill. This will take about 11 minutes. After about 5 minutes, check on the chicken to see if it is cooking thoroughly through, sometimes it's necessary to flip and rearrange the chicken depending on how thick it is, but the grill is designed to cook both sides at once. It should be thoroughly cooked at around 11 minutes. When that is done, take your chicken and slice it up into thin fajita strips.

4. Then, put your broccoli and beans into a bowl and mix a tablespoon of feta cheese inside. Heat your wrap in the microwave for 7 seconds, put it on a plate and pour the mix on top. Then, add the chicken strips, sprinkle some garlic powder to taste, fold, cut, and enjoy. The chicken had that great grilled flavor and came out so juicy. The combination of the slightly tart feta with that was so tasty. I love feta and put it in practically everything. There you have it. A simple, cheap and healthy grilled wrap. Next time, i'll take it one step further and grill the halves for a minute, to get that slightly charred effect. I can't wait to grill veggies and my Greek grilled cheese pita!

Burrito wraps can be so stubborn. This is my tilapia burrito being uncooperative.

Greek Grilled Cheese, with a sweet lemon garlic yogurt dip

Upon rising in a famished state, i got into major grilled cheese mode and remembered I had soy mozzarella cheese, pita bread, and salsa. Then i pulled out the olive spread i just bought, and got into a Greek mode.(I was craving a specific type i bought a year back when i was at our local arts market. Nothing trumps homemade olive tapenade, so good. This wasn't nearly the same, but still yum enough)

Alas, this resulted in The Greek grilled cheese pita. Then i thought "OMG, i have yogurt" (yes, i get this excited when i'm starved)
"That means i can make a dipping sauce, which i've never tried with yogurt".

I distinctly remember the taste of the last sauce i dipped my falafels in at a local greek hole in the wall. It is an amazingly yummy place. So, I decided to try and mimic it, but then decided to play with it. It's hard to resist playing, when you have such a wide pallet for taste.

I wasn't sure if the dip would go well with the very salty and sour olive tapenade, but it was what brought it ALL together. They work together in contrasting harmony, thus opposites really do attract. Really.

This is very healthy (aside from the bleached pita pocket bread) You can use any bread, but pita is just my favorite and very low cal, let alone cheap. I'll go with the unbleached wheat next time.

Ingredients:

1 pita pocket
2 thin pieces of soy mozzarella (or fresh, it's just what i had on hand)
3 Tbsp Greek 100% non-fat yogurt
tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp garlic or more depending how strong you like your garlic taste
1 tsp organic extra virgin olive oil
1/2 of 1/4 tsp of pure honey
2 tsp salsa or: diced tomatoes
1 Tbsp diced red onion
2 tspn olive tempenade or: minced or grinded olives with a little bit of olive oil, oregano and garlic (I really need to buy a food processor)
Mrs.dash table blend or salt and pepper for added taste
Pam cooking spray


Spray the skillet with some Pam. Let it warm up on med-high heat.
While you wait, carefully cut the pita bread in half (they fall apart easily) so it looks like two half moons,
Cut the cheese so that it fits nicely into each pita half. Put the cheese inside, then follow with the salsa, red onions and tapenade. (1 tsp per half)

Cook each half until lightly browned and the cheese is melted. Turn over and repeat.

(Don't leave the stove while waiting for each side to cook, it only takes but 1-2 minutes)

When they are half way through cooking, spray a little more Pam on top and sprinkle some Mrs. dash or your desired herb

Let that sit for a min to cool down, while you mix the dip.

Dip:

Get a small bowl and put in 3 Tbsp yogurt, 1 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp lemon juice, and 1/2 tsp garlic.
Mix it all together vigorously, then squeeze in 1/4 tsp honey.
I am guesstimating this is how much i used, so i recommend a taste test, you may need to tweak to your liking.

Finally, get a really sharp knife, unlike mine (as evidenced) and cut the pita pieces into triangles, like pizza, or leave them be and enjoy a mouthful, while you say "Olive Juice!"... or "EW!". We all like different things.

If you try this, let me know what you think!

Side note: This would be awesome with hummus dip too.

Italian brown rice salad, with sweet garlic dressing.

I love a good healthy salad. Especially in the warm summer months, post chilled and waiting to be devoured. A refreshing contrast to the heat beaming down on you all day. I had a huge craving for some this afternoon and tossed up this easy, Italian style version.

Ingredients:
3 cups organic baby spinach
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup black olives
1/2 cup baby tomatoes
1 cup brown rice cooked (1/2 cup uncooked)
3 inch thick chunk of fresh mozzarella

Dressing:

3 Tblspns organic extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tspn honey

3 cracks of sea salt

1/2 tspn garlic powder or minced garlic

Recipe: Cook up a 1/2 cup of brown rice on the stove or if you want it quick, use Uncle Bens 90 minute made rice for the microwave. Put that aside and Bring out a large salad bowl. I love my wooden one from Target. They're so easy to clean, pretty to look at, and chill fast. Fill it with the baby spinach leaves, olives, baby tomatoes, and shredded carrots. Cut up the mozzarella into one inch chunks or however you desire. Throw them in the bowl and toss with a salad fork and spoon. Then take a small bowl and whisk the olive oil, honey, salt and garlic. This is my favorite homemade dressing that i conjured up a while ago. Pour it over the salad and mix again. Then pour the rice in and toss everything up. Then, toss into your mouth. Next time i'm going to make some homemade bread crumbs for this, so it's like bruscheta, but in salad form. This is a very hearty and healthy salad that would pass for dinner or lunch.

Baked zucchini fries

I just followed this revamped recipe to a T and I have to say I am a huge fan of these. They may be a bit more crumbly than traditional zucchini fries, but the fact that it's lower in calories compensates plenty! Remember to really let the individual pieces drip off the excess egg, or the crumbs will bunch up and not stick to the zucchini. I'm going to use the same method with my Tilapia filet, tonight! So good.

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/01/baked-zucchini-fries

Cherry cornbread, with cinnamon drizzle.

I've been on quite the budget pinch lately, so i picked up a few of those 49 cent boxed cornbread mixes, thinking they'd come in handy for a good sweet fix. Well, that time came tonight, but i didn't want just any bland corn bread. So I fished around in my fridge and found some cherries that i re-hydrated to put in my morning yogurt, and thought that would taste really good. So i spooned out a handful and threw them in the mix. Then i thought that some kind of cinnamon topping might taste good to top it off. So, while that cornbread was baking, i looked in my cupboard to see if i had the ingredients to pull something off. Indeed I did. Cinnamon is always at my fingertips, as i add it to almost everything. You'll probably see this in the near future. I had some brown sugar, and half and half and mixed it all together to form a medium thick syrup consistency. Then drizzled it onto the finished bread. It turned out simply yummy, for never experimenting with cornbread before. Emphasis on simple!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup re-hydrated cherries
1 box of cornbread mix

Topping:
1.2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp half and half

Directions: Bake corn bread as usual, but stir in the rehydrated cherries 

For the topping, mix all ingredients together and lightly drizzle on bread when it has cooled off in the fridge for about 45 min's or so.

Sun dried tomato "Bagelet"

This morning I was about to cook my normal run of the mill breakfast, with little deviations here and there, and thought. "You know what, I'm just going to cook it all together and see what happens." Enter the Sun dried tomato, Bagelet. (Bagel-Omelet)


Ingredients:
1 Tbsp of unsalted butter
1 tsp of garlic
1 tsp of Mrs. Dash (It's my fast go to when I want a punch of herbs that I don't have fresh. It's also great, as it doesn't contain any added salt)
2 eggs or 1 cup of egg whites (I used Market Pantry, as it’s all I had at the time)
1 Market Pantry part-skim mozzarella string cheese (I used String cheese, for the same reason as above, and it’s cheaper. Nothing holds a candle to fresh mozzarella, but this makes a great alternative when on a budget.)
Handful of julienne cut, sun dried tomatoes
1/2 cup raw organic baby spinach
1 Tbsp of tomato sauce
2 Thomas bagel thin slices
2 cracks of sea salt
Sprinkle of Parmesan cheese



Recipe:
Normally, I put my bagel in the oven and fry up some scrambled eggs or an omelet, while I wait.  This time, I decided to lightly fry the bagel in the pan, with some butter, on med/high heat. I let that cook for about 3 minutes, while I prepared my egg mixture. I used egg whites this time, but whole eggs would have been even yummier and added a thicker, more wholesome taste. Whisk egg whites or two whole eggs. Add the garlic, Mrs. Dash, and two cracks of sea salt. Mix all ingredients well. Then add the spinach, cheese, and sundried tomatoes. Whisk together all ingredients; flip the bagel onto the other side, making sure it’s lightly browned. ( I cheated and used two pans, as I started out with a small pan. I’m not afraid to admit I’m an amateur ;)  Then, pour mixture evenly right over top, making sure to cover all of the bagel part. Let that cook for approximately 3 more minutes and be careful not to let the cheese burn. Top with some fresh tomato sauce and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and you are done!   My favorite part about this dish is how the outer layer was nice and toasty, yet the bagel was soft when I bit in. Very similar to a french toast, only not sweet, and a different texture of bread. It blended in wonderfully with the eggs, cheese, and sun dried tomato flavor. This was just a surprising treat to my taste buds and a lesson to myself, to never underestimate even the simplest of combination's.