wedding dress

I am trying to plan out the brunch for my Royal Wedding Watching Party. Yes, all capitalized because it is that important. One way or the other, I think this tart needs to make the cut.

via buzzle
Most people will tell you that homemade brownies will never beat the box. I have a hard time accepting this theory. I have been bookmarking brownie recipes I have seen across the web and will be putting them to the test. Well really my little sister will be doing most of the cooking and commenting, she is the brownie queen after all. Here are the recipes she (and sometimes I) will be trying:


York Brownies from Try This!
Brownies from Epicurious
Sea Salt Caramel Brownies from She's Becoming DoughMesstic
Julia Child's Brownies from CuisineNIE
Caramel Swirled Brownies from CuisineNIE
Double Chocolate Brownies from Martha Stewart
Brownie Candy Cups from Bakerella
Best Cocoa Brownies from Smitten Kitchen
Classic Brownies from Smitten Kitchen
Cookies & Cream Swirled Brownies w/Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache from Picky Palate
Easiest Brownies in the World from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
Deep Dark Chocolate Brownies from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
Suzanne's Best Brownies from Simply Recipes
Salted Caramel Brownies from Pioneer Woman
Mexican Chocolate Crunch Brownies from Newlywed Cooking
Sweet and Salty Candy Bar Brownies from Newlywed Cooking
Brooke's Best Bombshell Brownies from Allrecipes.com

Have any suggestions for other brownie recipes you have seen or tried? Let me know. Let the Tour de Brownie begin!

These recipes have spiked my interest. Hamburgers with grated zucchini and beef? Baked, egg-less egg rolls? I want to try them...

Sirloin Burgers with Roasted Garlic & Rosemary


Baked Southwest Egg Rolls

P.S. There will be a giveaway later this week!

P.P.S. I made it through the wedding (pictures to come) and my graduate presentation. I am now one 20-30 page paper from graduation!!

Really I should say dishes because meals implies more than an entree. If I ever make more than one dish for a "meal" it is Sunday or a special occasion. Here are some dishes I am eying to make in the next month.

Quinoa and grilled pepper salad- I have been trying out various quinoa dishes since buying a Costco sized bag of it. So far the only failure has been my own creation.

Chicken and Lemon- Broccoli Alfredo- I have chicken and broccoli and I am trying to clean out the freezer and food storage. This meets my requirements.

Honey Lime Enchiladas- I had honey mixed in some herbal tea right before getting a mean bout of the flu a couple of years ago. It has kind of ruined honey for me. I am hoping this recipe will help me get past that memory.

This white prosciutto pizza from say YES! to hoboken looked so good that I couldn't resist the prosciutto at the grocery store. I got 1/8 lbs. of prosciutto for $1.80 and it should be more than enough for a homemade pizza on Saturday.

I have made these panini's from Giada before, they are fantastic. I mad some minor alterations to fit what I had at home (provolone cheese and mixed greens) and they are still just as good.

P.S. Don't forget the giveaway ends tomorrow night. Leave a comment if you would like a chance to win the earrings!

photos via say yes to hoboken, food network

via she knows
We are having friends over for the Super Bowl. This year I decided to do a pot luck and I think one of my contributions will be meat balls. This is my favorite tried and true meat ball recipe, I kind of like the idea I saw on She Knows, of substituting ground turkey for a healthier version.

Monthly meal planning isn't doing it for me any more. I am trying my hand at weekly meal planning. It worked pretty well last week, the question at the end of the month will be whether r not it is more cost efficient.

photos via Dana Made and Simply Recipes
This coming week my plan includes:
Chicken Fajitas from Dana Made It
Tortilla Soup from Recipe Picnic
Meatball Subs
Chicken Broccoli Casserole
Greek Black-Eyed Pea Salad

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via wikipedia

Have you ever tried quinoa? Apparently it is a "super food", more nutritious than any other grain. I saw a couple of recipes featuring it, so I decided to try one of them but I could not find quinoa anywhere in my grocery store. I still made the mexican quinoa salad recipe but substituted white rice for quinoa. It was delicious, but after hearing my sister rave about quinoa yesterday, I really want to try the real thing. Wish me luck!

I just tried something very similar to this recipe for a layered goat cheese torta, it was quite simply amazing. So amazing that I immediately googled it to see if I could find a recipe. Hizzoner's has the closest.

So from what I can take from what I sampled and what I saw on the recipe the cheese is a mixture of garlic, cream cheese and goat cheese. The layers are chopped sun dried tomatoes and pesto. I will be trying this in the very near future, it is perfect for book club.

via good life eats
I don't know about everyone else but it has been very apparent where I live that Fall is here to stay. When I lived just a little further south Fall was always exciting. Now that I practically live in the Arctic circle fall brings the dread of the "W" word and cold gray days.

In an effort to ignore the looming "W" and embrace Fall, I think I should make these pumpkin cinnamon rolls, because nothing says Fall like pumpkin food.

via cooking light
I have been trying out different methods of meal planning. I started with monthly menus, then I went to weekly menus, more recently I have been trying the clear the pantry method. I am moving on to a hybrid option of the monthly planning and the clear the pantry method. Here is my first attempt at the hybrid plan.

September Planned:
BBQ Chicken sandwiches
I have been wanting to try a homemade BBQ sauce but friends tell me homemade can't touch the store bought stuff. Any thoughts on homemade vs. store bought?
Black bean burgers
Chicken Philly's
Empanadas
Falafel

General clear the pantry options:
Costa Rican rice
Burritos
Hamburgers
Pesto Pasta
Quesadillas
Homemade pizza

photo via Shirley J
I was feeling lazy yesterday so I wanted an easy dinner. My first thought was meatballs, then I realized I am out of brown sugar so I lacked an essential ingredient for my favorite sweet and sour meatballs. I navigated to Food Network for some inspiration and I found meatball sandwiches. Not a groundbreaking recipe but perfect for the level of effort I was willing to put into dinner.

I used this meatball recipe from Rachael Ray because I wanted to try something a little different from my usual meatball. I put the cooked meatballs on a sub and melted provolone cheese on them and then added warmed up marinara sauce. They were delicious, mostly because the meatball recipe was awesome.

In not to long I will be heading to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a family vacation. In my family each of the children and their families take a night to cook a meal for everyone. I have been trying to decide what to cook for my night. I am very tempted to make my favorite Greek Chicken Burgers. My sister is campaigning for Carne Asada's for the sole purpose that it goes with my signature corn salsa and guacamole. I think I will test out this everyday chocolate cake this week and maybe use it for the dessert portion.

I am tempted to give in to my sister's request since she is 7 months pregnant, and we all love Mexican food so it could be a win-win-win situation.

And since I have never shared the corn salsa recipe, which I was very tempted to keep secret. Here it is. I combined my favorite parts of two different recipes and ended up with (in my opinion) a far superior hybrid. It is delicious.

2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 16 oz. bag of frozen corn
1 1/2-2 cups cherry tomatoes halved
1/2 cup red onion diced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 lb. feta
1 clove garlic minced
1 15 oz. can black beans drained and rinsed
salt and pepper to taste
drizzle with olive oil and lime juice

I usually put the corn on a cookie sheet and put olive oil over it and broil it till it starts to barely brown. This is a very forgiving recipe I never measure out anything except the cumin and chili powder.

I found these recipes on Real Simple today. They look delicious and theoretically take less than 15 minutes to prepare...

Parmesan pasta with chicken and rosemary

gnocchi with butter and herbs

via Bakerella
My husband's birthday is on Friday and on Sunday we are going to have a dinner to celebrate. For his cake he requested the usual chocolate. This year I am going to try Bakerella's flourless chocolate cake. I think I might bake two and invite friends over for the party, I am excited.

photo via timeless gourmet
I started thinking about calzones yesterday, I don't know if I have ever had one before but I love the concept- homemade pizza pockets. I was getting ricotta to make this pasta recipe (which was delicious, next time I might double the ricotta though) and I decided to get a larger carton of ricotta to make calzones (according to wikipedia ricotta is traditionally used in them).

I found this Emeril calzone recipe (I will probably substitute chicken for the sausage) and this buffalo chicken recipe and I think I might try to make up a Mexican pizza calzone as well. I love how you can cater calzones and pizza to what you have on hand.

This pasta recipe from Real Simple was highly recommended to me yesterday. I am excited to try it this weekend. Tonight we will be polishing off chicken shish kabobs basted with a peanut satay sauce. Yum.

We will be BBQing this weekend with friends. Today I decided on these chicken burgers. For the group dish a salad or corn salsa?

Yesterday I discovered Eatingwell.com. There is a whole section on healthy meal options that still taste good. I want to try this broccoli pizza, I think it looks delicious.

These caramel swirled brownies from Rookie Cookie look delicious. I think I need to make some. Tonight.