Hello!! Are you wanting to try something outside of your comfort zone but don’t want to be overwhelmed with a difficult and confusing recipe? Look no further! This recipe may have an intimidating name but is very simple.

Ingredients:

• 2 poblano peppers (if you need more servings, use more peppers and adjust other ingredients accordingly)
• 1 can of can corn, drained
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Black pepper
• 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese
• Mexican crema

Begin by placing poblano peppers on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil, and place underneath the broiler. Cook, flipping occasionally, until blacked on all sides.

Once poblano peppers are blackened, transfer to a plastic bag and seal or place in a bowl and cover with a kitchen towel. Let them steam for at least five minutes. This will help peeling the skin off. When done, peel off the blackened skins carefully, make sure not to rip the pepper. Cut a slit down the side, and carefully remove the seeds. Once the seeds are removed, place onto a baking sheet and set aside while you cook the filling.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the olive oil begins to simmer, add the onion and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent, about 2–3 minutes. Add the drained corn next and season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until corn is brown. Remember to stir often so the corn doesn’t burn. Turn off heat and set aside.

Stuff each pepper with a layer of ½ cup of the sauteed corn mixture, ¼ cup of the shredded cheese, and 1 ½ tablespoons of the crema. Finally, add a 1 ½ tablespoon of cheese on top of each slit. When stuffed, place each pepper slit side up on a baking dish. TIP: if you don’t have Mexican crema, sour cream would be a good substitute.

Cook at 375 degrees for ten minutes. Turn on the broiler to high, and cook until the cheese is golden brown, about five minutes. Serve with rice and beans.

Enjoy!!!

Happy Monday!! I hope you all had a wonderful day. To end this great day, I made Chicken and Veggie Stir Fry over Rice. Suggestion: If you are not a fan of spicy foods, you may want to take it down a notch on the chili flakes.

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast, sliced into 1 inch pieces

1/4 onion, thinly sliced

1 carrot, thinly sliced

1 green pepper, thinly sliced

1 squash, thinly sliced

5 white button mushrooms, sliced

1 cup of white rice

Salt and Pepper

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 drop of sesame seed oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon peanut butter

Start by measuring 1 cup of white rice and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to low and cover for 20 minutes. Now it’s time to get started on the sauce.

How to make the sauce:

Whisk together 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup chicken broth, 1 drop of sesame seed oil, 1 tablespoon chili flake, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 1 tablespoon honey and 1/4 tsp of pepper. TIP: Sesame seed oil is very strong so be careful not to use too much. If you do, it will become over powering and the dish won’t be appetizing. The peanut butter is a secret ingredient that helps make the sauce creamy and add a little flavor punch that ties this dish together. Lastly, soy sauce has a lot of salt in it so adding additional salt isn’t necessary.

Next, begin to prep your meat and veggies. Slice up all your veggies and chicken breast. TIP: I used one chicken breast for 2 people. It helps the pocket book as well as saving on calories. Once all your veggies are thinly sliced, heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a wok. You will need to have your wok over medium high heat to get the chicken and veggies crispy without leaving a lot of liquid. Once the oil is hot, add in the chicken, sliced onions and carrots. Season with salt and pepper and continually stir to avoid burning.

It should take about 3–4 minutes to cook the chicken pieces all the way through. Add in the remaining veggies and cook on medium high heat for 2 minutes. Stir in the sauce until all the chicken and veggies are coated.

Serve the chicken and veggies over the rice and garnish with sesame seeds and green onions! ENJOY!!!

Wanting to try something new but are watching what you eat? Look no further!!

Ingredients For Salmon:

Fresh Salmon

Olive oil

Zest from 1 lemon

salt and pepper

Season meat side of salmon with salt and pepper, and sprinkle lemon zest onto each filet. Drizzle olive oil onto the baking sheet, and place salmon skin side down onto baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, or until the salmon reaches an internal temperature of 145. REMEMBER: Remove the skin after the salmon is cooked. This can be done placing a spatula between the meat and skin and slowly pushing the spatula until the skin comes off the meat with ease.

Ingredients for Butter Sauce:

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 tsp Thyme

Juice from 1 lemon

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

Add butter, thyme, lemon juice and pepper into a small sauce pan, and cook over low heat until the butter sauce thickens. This should be about 3/4 the way cooked down. Be careful not to over cook and burn butter. Low and slow is best with this sauce!!

Ingredients for Asparagus:

Asparagus

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Begin by washing your asparagus, and breaking the ends of the asparagus off. TIP: The bottom of the asparagus stalk can be woody in flavor so grab the asparagus by the top and bottom and gently bend. Break the stalk where is bends and discard the bottom half. Put the asparagus onto a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to evenly coat and cook at 350 for 5- 8 minutes.

Ingredients for Wild Rice:

Box of Rice a Roni Wild Rice

4 Mushrooms, quartered

This is part of this recipe where I take short cut. I use the box wild rice and follow the directions as stated. The only difference is I add 4 quartered mushrooms into the rice for added flavor.

Drizzle the butter sauce over the salmon and asparagus and enjoy!!!

Salmon with a Butter Sauce was originally published in Forever Young on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Biscuits and gravy isn’t only good for breakfast but can also be a great dinner!! Making gravy from scratch can be an intimidating task but my gravy recipe is fool proof and guaranteed to produce thick and delicious sausage gravy every time.

Ingredients:

1 pound sausage

1/4 cup flour

2 1/2 cups whole milk

1 tablespoon black pepper

Begin by cooking your sausage over medium heat. Crumble the sausage with a spatula, as it cooks, into small pea size pieces. Once the sausage is cooked, drain off most of the grease but leave about tablespoon of grease to help make the roux. TIP: a roux is a fat and flour mixture that is used to thicken a sauce or gravy. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of flour over the sausage and cook over medium low heat for 5 minutes to cook off the flour taste. Next, stir in 2 1/2 cups of whole milk and stir until you receive your ideal thickness. We prefer very thick gravy but if you like thin gravy stir for less time. Once you have achieved ideal thickness, add in 1 tablespoon of black pepper and mix well.

Serve over warm biscuits, eggs or hash-browns! Enjoy.

It is almost the weekend y’all!! Now, if you are anything like me, the weekends make you tend to splurge a little when it comes to eating so here is a light and satisfying dish.

Ingredients:

Angel Hair Pasta

Olive Oil

Onion, diced

1/2 can of 14 oz Diced Tomatoes

2 garlic cloves, minced

Zest from 1 lemon

Juice from 1 lemon

Kale

Salt and Pepper

Basil

Begin your recipe by preheating your oven to 350 and putting a pot of water on the stove to boil. Next, clean and de-vein your bundle of kale. TIP: the vein or stem that runs through the kale is tough and not satisfying to eat so removing it is desired. Chop the kale into bite size pieces and place onto a sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook at 350 for 13 minutes then stir the kale around and cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the kale is to your desired crispiness.

While your kale is cooking, roughly chop 1/4 onion and saute with 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. After the onion has become translucent, about 3–5 minutes, add in 1/2 can of diced tomatoes. TIP: I used half a can of 14 oz diced tomatoes to help speed up the cooking process but if you prefer fresh tomatoes use them and cook them for a bit longer until they are soft. Cook the onion and diced tomatoes for 3 minutes and then add in the minced garlic. While the onion, garlic and tomatoes are cooking, prep your shrimp. TIP: I use the frozen medium sized shrimp that are already cleaned for quicker cooking. Add the cleaned shrimp into your onion mixture, season with salt and pepper and cook 2 minutes per side. Stir in the zest and juice from one lemon.

While your shrimp is cooking, boil your pasta. When the pasta is finished cooking add into the shrimp and vegetables and mix well. Add in the crispy cooked kale at the last second so it doesn’t become soggy and mix gently not to break up the kale.

Garnish with fresh basil.

Enjoy!!!

Happy Hump Day!!!! Tonight for dinner we had baked beef taquitos with mexicorn. Super simple recipe that is also figure friendly without missing out on flavor!!

Ingredients for Beef Taquitos:

1 pound ground beef

1/2 medium onion diced

2 garlic cloves minced

1/2 jalapeno minced

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 1/2 tsp chili powder

Ingredients for Mexicorn:

8 oz can of corn drained and rinsed

1/2 onion diced

1 roman tomato diced

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 jalapeno minced

Start off with cooking the ground beef over medium heat. While the beef is cooking, drain and rinse off the corn. Add the corn, onion, tomato, jalapeno, salt and pepper into a saute pan and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes, turn the heat down to medium low and cook until ready for dinner. TIP: if you don’t like spicy food just remove the seeds from the jalapeno and that will tone down the spiciness.

After the beef is browned, drain off the grease and add in onion, jalapeno, garlic, salt, pepper and chili powder. Mix well and then portion 2 tablespoons of mixture into a 6 inch flour tortilla with 1 tsp of cheese and roll tightly. Do this until all of the beef mixture is used up. Bake the taquitos at 350 for 10 minutes or until the ends of tortillas turn brown and the tortilla is crunchy.

Garnish with sour cream and parsley!!

ENJOY!!!

Hey everyone!! I hope you are all having a wonderful week, but if it is anything like mine you have been very busy and don’t feel like slaving over the stove all night. So, here is a simple, quick and delicious pasta meal.

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Angel Hair Pasta

Fresh Basil

Garlic

Onion

Tomato Sauce

Heavy Whipping Cream

Parmesan Cheese

The first step, is to start boiling your water to cook your pasta. Once you have the water heating up, begin prepping the chicken breast. I use 1 chicken breast per 2 people to help the pocket book. Dice the chicken into 1 inch cubes and season with salt and pepper. After the chicken is prepped, begin to cook in a skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. After browning the chicken on medium heat, this should take about 5 minutes per side, add in 1/2 onion diced and 2 garlic cloves finely diced. Cook for an additional 3–5 minutes on medium heat.

The second step is to add in an 8 oz can of tomato sauce into the chicken mixture and simmer for 10 minutes. At this point, the water should be boiling and ready for the pasta. Before you add the pasta into the boiling water, remember to salt the water liberally. TIP: Salted pasta water will help flavor the pasta and make your dish that much more yummy. Angel hair pasta needs to boil for 3 minutes. While the pasta is boiling add in 1 cup of heavy whipping cream into the tomato sauce and chicken and simmer until the pasta is cooked. Once the pasta is done cooking add it into the creamy tomato sauce and mix thoroughly.

Garnish the dish with fresh basil and shredded Parmesan cheese.

ENJOY!!!

My wonderful hubby turned 32 today and to celebrate I made him a dinner fit for a KING!

Let’s begin by going back to last night when I begin marinating the sirloin steaks we got from our local butcher. The marinade consists of the following ingredients:

2 Sirloin Steak

1 Cup of Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 cup of Olive Oil

1 T black pepper

1 T of Salt

2 tsp Garlic Powder

2 tsp Chili Powder

Put the above ingredients into a gallon sized ziploc bag. Massage the marinade into the steak and put in the fridge over night.

Fast forward to tonight.

Start by pulling out your steaks and letting them come to room temperature.

Next, begin the cheesy mac n’ cheese. Begin by cooking your elbow noodles in boiling water for 4 minutes. The elbow noodles should still be hard on the inside. If you cook the elbow noodles completely through you will get gummy mac n’ cheese after baking in the oven. After the noodles are boiled for 4 minutes drain and set aside. Begin melting a half a stick of butter in a large pot. Once the butter is melted, add 1/4 cup of flour and stir constantly for 5 minutes. The flour and butter mixture will become the roux that thickens the mac n’ cheese. The next step is adding 2 1/2 cups of milk and whisking for 5 minutes until thick. Once thick, season with 2 tsp of ground mustard, 2 tsp of black pepper and 1 tsp of salt. Stir in 1 pound of grated cheddar cheese. After the cheese is melted stir in the elbow noodles and VOILA!!!, homemade mac n’ cheese. Transfer the mac n’ cheese into a buttered baking dish and cook for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

While the mac n’ cheese is baking wash the potatoes and poke holes into the potato ( a fork works perfect). The holes will help the steam release and make the potatoes cook faster. Cook the potatoes in the microwave for 15 minutes. TIP: I bought the microwaveable baked potatoes at the store because they cook up faster.

Now for the best part… the sirloin steaks!! Your mac n’ cheese should be done and the baked potatoes ready. Cook your steaks in a saute pan over high heat for 2 minutes on each side.Transfer onto a sheet pan and finish in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. This will give you a perfectly cooked medium steak but if you want it more medium-well leave it in the oven a few extra minutes.

To assemble:

Top the steak with a pad of butter and your favorite steak sauce. Dress up your baked potato with your favorite toppings. Ours are butter, black pepper, sour cream, cheese and green onions.

Enjoy!!

Tonight for dinner I was feeling a bit…. spicy! So, I decided to make my spin on the traditional Southern dish Red Beans and Rice. Instead of red beans my recipe has pinto beans and Cajun Sausage from our local butcher.

What you will need:

2 Cups of White Rice

1 pound of Cajun Sausage

1 white onion, diced

1/2 green pepper, diced

1 T tomato paste

1 can pinto beans, drained

1 Cup of beef broth

1 T chili powder

2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 T Cajun Seasoning

To begin the recipe, drain the can of pinto beans and put into a sauce pot. Simmer beans on low for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes the beans should begin to soften. Next, add in the diced onion, green pepper, 1 cup of beef broth and 1 Tablespoon of tomato paste. Stir the beans, onion, green pepper, beef broth and tomato paste until incorporated. Simmer for 15 minutes.

While the beans are simmering for the second time begin your rice. For every cup of white rice add 2 cups of water. Add 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of water to a small pot. Once it begins to boil turn the heat down to simmer and cover for 25 minutes.

While the rice is cooking and beans are simmering. Chop your Cajun Sausage into 1/4 inch rounds and saute over medium heat until browned on both sides. This will take about 5 minutes per side. After the sausage is browned add to the beans and stir in 1 T chili powder, 2 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp salt and 1 T Cajun Seasoning. Tip: If you don’t have Cajun Sausage, Polish Sausage will work just as well.

Serve the sausage and bean mix over the rice and enjoy!!

Tonight for dinner I decided to make my spin on a sweet and spicy chicken sandwich. Below you will find the step by step directions on how to make the sweet and spicy chicken sandwich, roasted potatoes and sauteed broccoli.

The Roasted Potatoes:

The night before clean, cube and soak your potatoes in water. Put enough water into the bowl to just cover the potatoes. Soaking your potatoes helps create crispness while roasting or frying. Tip: Any potato will work for this recipe. I used a red potato because I find that I like the flavor better than the traditional russet potato.

When you are ready to start cooking dinner begin with your soaked potatoes. Drain the potatoes and season with the season mix listed below. Roast at 400 degrees for 50 minutes or until fork tender.

Ingredients:

· 4 large red potatoes, cubed

· ½ cup olive oil

· ¼ cup honey

· ½ tsp red pepper flakes

· ½ tsp black pepper

· ¼ tsp salt

· ½ tsp oregano

· 1 T parsley

The Chicken:

Once there is about 20 minutes left on the potatoes begin the sweet and spicy baked chicken. First, cut a chicken breast in half and pound out each half until about 1/4 inch thick. Tip: Put chicken into zip lock bag and use a sauce pan to pound the chicken thin. Season both sides with salt and pepper and then begin the dredging process.

Set one in the dredge. This is seasoned flour then 2 eggs beaten and lastly panko bread crumbs.

Seasoned Flour:

· ½ tsp Cayenne Pepper

· ¼ tsp Black Pepper

After the chicken breast are dredged pan fry both sides on medium heat until golden brown then finish cooking in the 400 degree oven with the potatoes. Cook the chicken for 8–10 minutes or until cooked to 165 degrees. Lastly, drizzle the cooked chicken with honey. The cayenne pepper gives the chicken just enough spice and the honey adds the sweet element.

Broccoli:

Cut your broccoli florets, the tops of the broccoli, into bite size pieces. Drizzle a pan with olive oil and cook broccoli on medium heat for 4 minutes. When the broccoli is finished cooking season with salt and pepper. Tip: For the best quality broccoli do not over cook. The broccoli should still be bright green when finished cooking. I like to keep my broccoli with a little crisp.

To finish off the sandwich, I toast my bun, spread with mayo, and top with pepper jack cheese, lettuce, onions and pickles to compliment the sweet and spicy chicken.