avocado "dressing"

I love avocado. Who doesn't? You can do a lot with it; put it in salads, use it as a spread, grill it, eat it out of the peel... You get the picture. This time, I decided to use it in a dressing. I will use the term dressing loosely, given that the consistency is somewhere between a dip and a nicely flowing dressing. But as I type this I am realizing that it has a similar consistency to blue cheese dressing: sans chunks of aged moldy cheese. I found my recipe here. Be advised that when you click on that particular pin, it doesn't give you the same recipe as it does on the actual pin. I didn't realize that until AFTER I made the "dressing". I ended up making a few little changes because well, why not?! Turns out, the linked recipe is much more of a dressing than what I ended up with. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
Fresh lemon & lime juice- 1/2 the lemon, whole lime
2-3 cloves of garlic depending on size (I used 2- they were big)
A few dashes of hot sauce (personal preference: Frank's)
Salt and pepper to taste
6 oz. plain Greek yogurt (I used non-fat because it was what I had and went with this brand)

What to do (Sorry, I forgot to snap some photos mid-recipe):
Peel the stuff that needs peeling (garlic, avocado) and open the things that need opening (yogurt)
Put everything in the food processor. Turn it on. Let it go.
Scrape the sides part way through and then give it another mix.
Store in a mason jar or other jar suitable for fridge storage.

I tried mine as a dip for some beet chips I made earlier in the day and used it with some of those real thin pretzel crisps. I'm excited to try it on a salad with some chicken or steak and love knowing that I controlled everything that went into it. I also threw the avocado pit into the jar to keep it green, although I'm not sure if it would have turned or not given the other ingredients. I think I could probably use another avocado and less of the liquids and have a twist on guac (yummm) and I may try it with a little cilantro and skip lemon next time, just to switch it up (a la guac style).

While Mr. Picky did not try it,  I'm pretty happy with my new "dressing"!!

What's your favorite homemade dressing?
Happy Fooding!

(The brands I used are strictly personal choice. You can use what you like best of course!)

a new pasta recipe!?

Yes. That's right. A NEW pasta recipe. We like pasta around here. While I fully understand the carb overload aspect of pasta, one cannot overlook the value (I got mine buy 1 get 2 free... That's budget food!) and the ease of pasta. Plus, it's perfect for Mr. Picky. I'm  always looking for new pasta recipe. We do the usual jar of sauce or on occasion Alfredo with chicken and broccoli, and I make a chicken and pasta with a lemon sauce that's pretty good but still, I felt like it was time for something new. Then I stumbled upon this and decided to try it... With my twist of course!

Check out the ingredients they used. They were simple and basic, as we're the instructions. Chicken, asparagus, pasta, parm cheese. I took that and put my (garlicky) twist on it.

Here's what I did....
I used 6-8 (can't remember exactly) boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders. I usually buy these in bulk, package them myself and throw them in the freezer so I can pull them out whenever we feel like chicken. I thawed a bag of them and cut them up into cube (ish) sized pieces.

I should mention that before I did this, I did my prep work for the garlic, cut my lemon and snapped the ends off my asparagus. I hate how short the stalks get when you snap them but we love asparagus over here so I can't complain too much.

After cutting everything up, I melted about 1/2 a tbsp of butter and probably about 1/2 a tbsp of olive oil in a pan. I put a little salt and pepper on the chicken to season it and once everything was melty and mixed, I threw in the chicken to start browning. I used to throw the garlic in first (which you could) but then I read somewhere that if you throw the garlic in midway through, you get a stronger garlic flavor. This was something that sounded too good to pass up and now, I'm hooked. Stronger flavor and doesn't burn as easily! But, you can always do it earlier if you like a little less garlic flavor. Or just use less garlic! I ended up using 4 fairly good sized cloves of garlic and didn't chop them up super fine. Okay, enough about garlic.

Once everything started to brown, I tossed the garlic in and gave it a stir. Then, I took the juice of 1/2 a lemon and coated everything in the pan. I used my hand juicer to make sure I had as much as possible from the lemon.

While all of this was going, I started my pasta water, salted and cooked the pasta. The original recipe says to steam the asparagus but in the sense of saving a dish, I threw it in right with the pasta. I pulled the asparagus out right before I drained the pasta. I cut it into pieces that were a similar size to my pasta (we had penne w/ it, but you could pretty much use anything).

The original recipe also called for fresh Parmesan cheese. At the risk of being a little frugal, I opted for a blend of cheeses (parm and mozzarella) that happened to be on sale. I just couldn't see paying $4 when I could pay $2.50....

I mixed the pasta, chicken, asparagus and a hand full of the cheese all together and threw it in a 9x12 baking dish. I put it under the broiler on high and watched it until the cheese started to bubble and brown a little. The end result looked like this:

The verdict? "The chicken is bomb, and the whole thing is really light. Can I have more?" {thank you, Mr. Picky!!}.

We will CERTAINLY be having this again soon! I think it's a great meal because it's easy, pretty cheap (especially if you get some good deals), and not overdone with sauce or the same chicken dish you always have. Chicken can be a little boring but trying something new can liven it up!

What's your go-to pasta dish?
Happy Fooding!

my first attempt at something new

new kitchen toys!

While this blog was inspired by my classroom resolutions, it was also
inspired by some pretty great Christmas gifts. I opened a box of all kitchen stuff and I was pretty pumped {Thanks, Mom}. You might think me crazy but a bread knife, new utility knife, new box grater, hand mandolin and rolling pin were on the list. I've been wanting a rolling pin forever- using a can has gotten pretty old. The splatter guard was not on the list but was a welcomed addition to the kitchen none the less.

Today, I set out to make my first "new" thing. I posted a status on Facebook looking for a recipe for Italian style meatballs except, newsflash: I have a picky eater on my hands. He's gotten better since we first met (a lot better-he actually tried sushi on NYE- cooked of course). But he's picky. He likes simple things and isn't a huge fan of many veggies. But he does love pasta and that prompted me to make some meatballs. We often buy them but the cost does not equal the taste and we are even picky about which ones we'll eat, making it a little harder to have them on hand. I got a few responses to my status, this particular one being from my sister and thought, what the heck. Let's try it. So I ventured out into the snow and grabbed the necessary items, came home and started cooking.

The exact recipe can be found here, but I made some of my own adjustments along the way. Prep states 10 minutes- probably took me a little bit longer, and it said 10-16 meatballs; I got about 50. They were considerably smaller than what the initial recipe stated but we like them that way.

Ingredients (I used)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (I used about 2)
1 tbsp chopped fresh basil  (about 2 here as well)
tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper (used a bit more pepper)
2 crushed garlic cloves (I used about 8... what can I say, I like garlic)
2 eggs
2 lbs ground beef (it was a little over- the store has a hard time packaging 1 lb apparently)
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (I made these: see below, and used a little over a cup)

                                           Fresh Breadcrumbs

going to put this to good use!

grab a few slices of white bread (or any of your choice I guess) and throw them in the food processor, pulse until crumbs. wallah... fresh breadcrumbs! I used this food processor, another new present for Christmas thanks to an awesome friend who enjoys cooking new things as much as I do!

But back to the meatballs.
Heat up a pan w/ some olive oil. While that's heating, mix all the ingredients together (gently-over mixing can make them tough) and roll into balls that are the size you want. Like I said, it said 10-16. I got 50... Figure out what works best for you. Place a few meatballs in the pan at a time (this really depends on how big or small your balls are) and let them cook until brown. I put aside some for dinner and put the rest away in a freezer bag for a future dinner.

I'll definitely make these again. They were pretty easy, and tasted pretty good. Come on, you know I tried one. I might add even more garlic (yes, I realize it's a lot but it
will keep the vampires away) and I would try to chop the basil a little finer but overall, I'm pretty happy with my first attempt at something new and thankful to my sister for her recommendation!



Do you have a meatball recipe that you love?

Happy Fooding!

New Year's "Resolutions"

There's a lot of talk this time of year about "resolutions". And why not? It's the start of a new year; a blank slate where you can do anything, be anything, try anything. Not that you can't do these things any other time of year because newsflash: you can! But, we are always trying to find a "start date". We do it with everything... "I'll start doing this on Monday", "next month, I'll do this"... we always need a start. So a new year is a perfect time to make a "resolution".

I'm a full-time Special Ed teacher. I work in a classroom designed to support students social, emotional and behavioral needs. Why am I telling you this on a "foodie" blog? Well, because coincidentally, the inspiration came from my students, sort of. Every Friday, I run a therapeutic group w/ my students. The last Friday before vacation, and before Christmas break, I made the students, and therefor myself, fill out a sheet about 2013 and their goals for 2014. Goals could be personal, academic, social or anything in between (and they were). When I started to consider what I wanted to do in 2014, it turned out to be more personal than anything. I wanted to take more time for myself- to do things I want to do that I normally put off or make excuses for. Leaving it at that, we all left for break. It wasn't until New Years Day (very early morning) that I settled on a goal.

Sitting around with some friends after watching the ball drop, we were sharing "revolutions" for 2014. It was then that I decided that this year, I want to cook more. What!? Cook more!? Yes. Except I don't mean just cook more often. This year, I want to cook new things. I am a pinterest JUNKIE (follow me here). The problem with that is I spend a lot of time pinning and not a lot of time doing. So this year, I'm going to DO. I'm going to attempt 52 (ish) new (to me) recipes and blog about them. My goal is 1 per week, although some weeks/days there will be more and some, not as many. Yes, I realize it's a little "Julia & Julia" of me, but since I'm not held to only one cookbook, I'm free to make whatever I please.

I hope you'll share your new recipes with me and that I can do them justice while adding them to my (new) recipe holder {Thanks, Mom!}.

Happy Fooding.