Food Friday:Favorite Snacks

Hello Friday!  Oh how I love Fridays.  This might be wrong but I kind-of live for them.  I feel like a little kid in a candy shop when 5PM rolls around on Fridays.  I leave work satisfied and in need of a weekend to do whatever I please.

So to help roll in your weekend I wanted to share with you some of my most FAVORITE SNACKS!

For all of my chocolate lovers out there this is a must have!  Dark Chocolate with a touch of sea salt...delicious!

Can you tell I like sea salt?!  'Boom Chicka Pop' popcorn with a touch of olive oil & sea salt.  That's it!  Healthy and delicious...you can't beat it.

I love all nuts but especially raw almonds and pistachios

Chobani has some delicious greek yogurt with add-in packs.
I love this Key Lime Crumble & Their Coconut greek yogurt add-in.

Depending on where you live you may have absolutely delicious tap water.  Right now I live in a place where the city water is revolting.  So I have opted to buying bottled water.  I love smart water mostly because of it's bottle cap.  These bottles are great to keep and store and fill with your own 'free water'.

What are some of your favorite snacks?

Food Friday: Fruit Pizza the Healthy Way

So I have found another oh so amazing blog with healthy but delicious recipes{'healthy mama, happy mama' found here}.  We all know the recipes that are "healthy" but taste horrible so of course you are going to be skinnier because you don't want to eat something that doesn't taste good right?  Well these are the delicious type of healthy recipes...so don't panic!

FRUIT PIZZA

{picture credit to Trish Allen and her amazing blog of healthy yumminess}

CRUST:
3/4 cup oats
1/3 cup almond flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp powdered stevia
1 TB coconut oil
3 TB unsweetened vanilla almond milk

FROSTING
:
1/4 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
2 TB FAVAO vanilla protein powder
cinnamon
stevia

Blend oats into a fine flour in a small blender. Combine all crust ingredients in a mixer and mix well. Press crust evenly into a sprayed pie dish or onto a piece of parchment paper. Bake in oven at 350 for 12-15 minutes. While crust is cooling, mix all frosting ingredients and spread on cooled crust. Top pizza with your favorite fruit.  kiwi, strawberries, bananas, and blueberries. Cut pizza into slices and serve. 

Enjoy!

Food Friday: Serendipity's Frozen Hot Chocolate

I am really excited about today's Food Friday!  One thing you should know about me is i LOVE hot chocolate...all year round.  I'm somewhat of a self proclaimed connoisseur!

So how did my obsession for frozen hot chocolate start?  After seeing the movie Serendipity of course {every female knows what I am talking about}.  Once seeing this movie I decided I wanted  needed to try out Serendipity's famous frozen hot chocolate that looked absolutely divine in the movie.  

Last weekend my husband and I were in D.C. for one of my husbands Color in Motion 5K races.  We decided to make the short trip to Georgetown to get this obsession out of my system.

I tried it. loved it. Still obsessed.

{sadly the service was horrible and i think that ruined it for my husband}

I loved the frozen hot chocolate, but with each amazing frothy glass of frozen chocolaty goodness costing $10 a pop I decided to embark on finding Serendipity's famous frozen hot chocolate recipe and making it myself.  A couple google click's later and here we are with the famous recipe in hand!

Enjoy!

Food Friday: Lemon Garlic Salmon/Tilapia & Green Bean Fries

Hello Friday!  I missed you this whole week!

So excited to share with you one of my favorite meals. Why is it one of my favorites?:

1. Because it's healthy and I'm a health connoisseur...most of the time;)

2. Because it tastes delicious

3. I love fish!

4. It is husband approved

 

 

Here is the recipe again for the Green Bean Fries:{Recipe brought to you by Britney Munday}

 

INGREDIENTS:

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Powder

Green Beans

1. Heat oven to 400.

 

2. Lay green beans straight across two baking sheets.

 

3. Drizzle olive oil over green beans.

4. Season with salt, fresh cracked pepper and garlic powder to taste. (I'd say I probably coat with 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp garlic powder... But do it to what tastes right to you!)

 

5. Toss to coat.

 

6. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes... Flipping at 10 minutes.



Lemon Garlic Salmon/Tilapia

 

My husband does not like salmon and I love salmon

So I make salmon for me and tilapia for him...this recipe is great for both

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

2 4oz fish fillets

Salt

Pepper

Garlic

Lemon

Olive Oil

 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees

2. Place fish fillets on a coated cookie/baking sheet

3. Drizzle a little olive oil over fish fillets

4. Sprinkle fillets with salt, pepper, and garlic (to your preference)

5. Place thin slices of lemon over fish

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through (the salmon fillet was thicker than the tilapia fillet and took about 10 more minutes to cook).

 

Serve with rice, Green Bean Fries, and Watermelon:)



Food Friday: Peach Pie

It's the last week of August and Peaches are in season!  My mother-in-law is notorious for being a queen B of cooking.  It's safe to say my husband has been fed by a golden spoon his whole life.  My husband is also not a sweets guy but come August he craves this peach pie(which is saying something).

Thank you Mama Hansen for allowing me to share your famous Peach Pie recipe!

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

5-6 peaches

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

2 Tb. cornstarch

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 oz. Cream cheese

1 cup whipping cream

1 graham cracker or regular pie crust

DIRECTIONS:

Put 1/2 water with enough peaches to make 1cup puree in a blender. Cook and boil with 3/4 c, sugar 2 Tb lemon juice and 2 Tb, cornstarch. Cook and stir until thick and clear. Cool.

Meanwhile....

Soften cream cheese with 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Whip 1 cup cream. Fold into cream cheese mixture, Spoon into crust, arrange sliced peaches on top and spoon glaze over pie. Chill.

Serve once chilled to desire temperature!

Food Friday-Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I found this amazing recipe on Sallys Baking Addiction blog.  It is the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever tasted.  This recipe is for those who like a chewy chocolate chip cookie...live myselft:)  For more of Sallys amazing recipes check out her website here

Happy Friday!

Ingredients

• 2 and 1/4 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour, spoon & leveled
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170 grams) unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) light brown sugar, loosely packed
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk*
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup (180 grams) chocolate chips or chocolate chunks

Instructions

1. Toss together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In a medium size bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg, then the egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft. Fold in the chocolate chips. They may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to have them evenly dispersed among the dough. Cover the dough and chill for 2 hours, or up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory.
3. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 325F degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
5. Roll the dough into balls, about 3 Tablespoons of dough each. The dough will be crumbly, but the warmth of your hands will allow the balls to stay intact. Roll the cookie dough balls to be taller rather than wide, to ensure the cookies will bake up to be thick. See this post for more clarity and a photo. Put 8 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet. Press a few more chocolate chips/chunks on top of the dough balls for looks, if desired. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and underbaked. Do not bake longer than 12 minutes. They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

*Room temperature egg + egg yolk are preferred for even disbursement. Typically, if a recipe calls for room temperature butter, it's a good idea to use room temperature eggs as well. To bring eggs to room temperature quickly, simply place the whole eggs into a glass of warm water for 10 minutes. What to do with the extra egg white? Make these orthese.

Food Friday-Great Harvest Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tbs Active Dry Yeast

2 Cups lukewarm water 

5 Cups whole wheat flower

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 Cup honey

Directions:

1. Mix yeast, water, and honey together. Let sit for 5 minutes or until yeast foams.

2. Add all five cups of flower. Mix by hand or with KitchenAid.

3. Add salt

5. Knead dough for 4-6 minutes.

6. Cover with towel and allow to rise for 15 minutes. 

7. Punch down, form into loaf, let loaf raise in an bread pan (spray with non-stick cooking spray) for 30 minutes.

8. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

9. Serve warm with butter!

Food Friday: Healthy Banana Bread Muffins

Welcome to Food Friday!  The recipes I share on here will be tried and approved by me.  I LOVE banana bread and fell upon this new recipe a few days ago while reading the lovely Britney Munday Blog

{this is an amazing blog to follow if you want to see an awesome transformation}

Ingredients:

2 1/2 Cups of old fashioned oatmeal

2 Bananas

2 Eggs

1 Cup vanilla flavored yogurt(you can do nonfat)

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees while you blend up this loveliness.

 Mix all of your wet ingredients together...

 Mix all of your dry ingredients together...

 Then combine the two.  Whip em' up. And put them in muffin tins.

{use cupcake liners if you wish...or if you're like me and ran out of non-stick spray}

 Bake for 20-25 min

{I baked mine the full 25 min to make them a little more crispy on top}

 Eat one when it is hot and fresh with a little butter!  It will put a smile on your kisser!

 Allow to cool and store in an airtight container or display on a cake stand.

 Bon Appetite!