Tonight I made a spinach salad with warm bacon dressing...but do not be fooled by the salad title...this was definitely a comfort food.
This salad included bacon (YUM),sauteed red onions, and sauteed mushrooms. The warm dressing was made out of reduced apple cider, apple cider vinegar, and dijon mustard.

This salad was the most un-salady salad ever.

I absolutely love moist chicken....and the chicken I made tonight was oh so deliciously moist. I made oven-baked bone-in chicken thighs with a maple-mustard crust. The crust was made out of dijon mustard, fresh garlic, dried marjoram, and maple syrup. I baked the chicken low and slow for about an hour and it was so perfect.

Chop Suey!

Tonight I made chicken chop suey. I love the name, but the dish was only so-so. It had great potential, but ended up being a little bit bland. It also took a whole lot of time to prepare (lots of chopping...I guess that's why it is called chopped suey?:))

But it was still decent, and definitely very healthy because it was LOADED with veggies! The recipe included: scallions, garlic, cabbage, celery, bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, and much more. It was pretty good but could have used some more seasoning. I am thinking about loading the leftovers with soy sauce:) can't ever go wrong with soy sauce!

Tonight I made ziti with sweet italian sausage, onions, and fennel. This was my first time cooking with fennel and it was so great! I love its licorice flavor. I'm sleepy so this is all I am going to write for now.:)

It was a surprise in my mouth!

Tonight I made STUFFED turkey burgers!!! yum!!!!! These healthy recipes just keep getting better and better.


For only 310 calories per burger, this turkey burger was just as mouthwatering as any beef creation. I stuffed the burger with roasted red peppers and mozzarella cheese. It was so good.

Tonight I made a classic cuban dish called Picadillo. It was divine.
This dish is kind of a cuban take on hamburger casserole. It is one of those simple recipes where all you have to do is throw a bunch of ingredients in a skillet and then let those ingredients slowly simmer and marry together. And this marriage is incredibly delicious. This picadillo recipe includes white onion, ground round beef, garlic, beef broth, raisins, pimiento-stuffed olives, capers, tomato paste, and freshly ground black pepper. All of this yummy-ness is then served over rice. The flavor of Picadillo is sweet and savory at the same time. The sweetness of the raisins combined with the saltiness of the olives and capers is amazing. I really loved this dish.

The best lamb I have ever had

Other than incredible lamb madras at a select few indian restaurants, tonight I made the best lamb I have ever had.

I marinated the lamb chops (at room temperature for 20 minutes) with a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, fresh oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper. Then I broiled the lamb for about 5 minutes on each side. The meat was so tender, so moist, so perfect. I absolutely loved this marinade and will definitely make this lamb again. I was also very careful not to overcook the lamb because overcooked lamb is chewy and icky and dry. Moist lamb is yummy yum yum.

For a side dish, I tried out a grilled romaine lettuce recipe. I really didn't like it much and wouldn't recommend it. But the lamb made up for the side dish.

Today I attempted my first homemade soup, and I am SO happy with the outcome! I made lemon chicken soup with orzo, basically a chicken noodle soup with lemon substituting orzo for noodles. It was DELICIOUS! It was definitely a comfort lunch.

Tonight I made balsamic chicken with baby spinach and couscous. It was great. I made plain couscous with a little bit of olive oil, sauteed spinach with toasted garlic, pan grilled chicken, and finally the best part of the entire meal: A sauce made with balsamic vinegar, chicken broth, and chopped tomatoes. The flavor in the sauce was outstanding and made the entire meal perfect.

Quick update: I had the fettuccine alfredo leftovers tonight and to help thicken the sauce, I added cornstarch and it worked miracles. I literally googled "how to thicken sauce" and found a random website with directions. So, I used a tablespoon of cornstarch for every cup of sauce, added a bit of water to the cornstarch to make it a thin paste, added the corn starch mixture to the sauce on the stove top, let it simmer to activate the corn starch and voila! Thickened sauce. Perfection.

Tonight I made fettuccine with homemade alfredo sauce. The alfredo sauce came from a healthy cookbook, so it was supposed to be a healthy rendition of the typical fettuccine alfredo. I made it with butter, half-and-half, fresh grated parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.The flavor was spot on and very delicious. Unfortunately, the consistency was not there. The sauce was very liquidy. But, because the flavor was so good I will play around with this recipe and hopefully get it to a better consistency where the sauce is still relatively healthy.

French fries are my number one guilty pleasure, but chicken fingers come in as a very very veryyy close second. When I found a recipe for healthy chicken fingers, I had to try it. And I am so glad I did because the chicken fingers I made tonight were amazing!

To make the chicken, first I soaked the slices of chicken in buttermilk for 15 minutes in the fridge. Then, I breaded the chicken with crushed corn chex cereal seasoned with salt and pepper. Then, I simply baked the chicken pieces in the oven until fully cooked through.

Also, I made a homemade honey mustard sauce. I combined dijon mustard, honey, and a little bit of mayonnaise. It was so much better than store bought honey mustard.

My guilty pleasure has now become just a pleasure. Healthy childhood favorite win.