Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcakes

     This Christmas, my family all got together and did sort of a potluck meal.  Everyone brought something to the table!  For my offering, I made Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcakes.  So decadent, right?!?  Actually...these are made with Greek yogurt and only about 140 calories per cupcake!!!  CRAZY!!!  The original recipe is from culinarytuesdays.com.  Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcakes
Ingredients:
****Cake****
1 box Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Red Velvet Cake Mix
6 oz container of Chobani 0% Vanilla Greek Yogurt

Two bowls with the two batters...

1 egg
1 cup water
****Cheesecake****
1 block of 8 oz Reduced Fat Cream Cheese (Philly)
1/4 cup Chobani 0% Vanilla (2 oz) Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup Light Sour Cream
2 Large Egg Whites
1/4 cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Flour
1 tsp Vanilla

Gently swirl the two together.  So pretty!

Directions:

1. Pre-Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Prepare muffin/cupcake tins with foil liners (24); set aside
3. In a large mixing bowl: beat all the Cake Ingredients on medium speed until all well combined; set aside
4. In a medium mixing bowl: beat all the Cheesecake Ingredients on med/low until all well combined
5. Add Red Velvet Cake Mix to the all the cupcake liners, approx 1/2 full
6. Add an ice cream scoop size of the cheesecake mixture on top of the cake mix
7. Swirl with a fork to combine slightly and get a swirled design (look at picture above)
8. Bake for 25 minutes until the cheesecake is set.
9. Cook and cool until they come to room temp
10. Refrigerate in a covered container for minimum of 1 hour.

Honey Mustard Pork and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

     A protein that I rarely cook is pork.  I'm not sure why...but it gets passed over most nights as the main course.  While watching a Rachel Ray show (not sure which one), I got this idea for a breaded and baked boneless pork chop.  She did something similar using the honey mustard mixture.  Here's is the recipe!  This pork is super easy and very tasty!  As my side dish, I roasted diced sweet potatoes with cinnamon and honey.  That recipe also follows!

Honey Mustard Pork

Ingredients:

2 boneless pork chops, thawed 

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon stone ground mustard (yellow or spicy brown mustard will work)

Splash of vinegar (white wine vinegar also works)

1/2 cup regular bread crumbs

1 tablespoon dried thyme

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

If you have thick pork chops, you may want to pound them a little thinner.  This will help them cook more evenly and be more tender to eat.  Place one pork chop at a time into a ziplock bag and pound evenly on both sides.  Thinner pork chops don't need this step.  You don't want the pork too thin and flimsy.  

Create your honey mustard mixture by combining honey, mustard, and vinegar into a small bowl.  Whisk until everything is thoroughly combined.  I taste at this point to make sure it's not too sweet or too tangy.  Add or subtract ingredients as you need to.

Prepare your breading by combining bread crumbs and thyme onto a plate.  Mix with a fork to make sure the seasoning is all through the crumbs.

Bread your pork chops.  First, dip each piece into the honey mustard mixture and then into the bread crumbs.  You want to completely cover the meat with the sauce.  That's where the delicious flavor comes from!  

Place the pork chops onto a greased baking sheet.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  The breading should be golden brown and the pork should be white in the middle.  Time will vary depending on your oven and the size of the pork chops.   You could serve this will extra honey mustard sauce (not any that has touch raw pork!!!) or your favorite barbecue sauce.  Enjoy!  

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced (the smaller the dice, the faster they cook...also make sure they are all the same size)

3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil

Ground cinnamon

Honey

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  These will take a while!  Be patient!  Whenever I make these as a side dish, I get these in the oven first before doing anything else.  It'll be so worth it!

In a baking dish, lay out sweet potato cubes in a single layer.  Add oil and salt and pepper to taste.  With clean hands, mix everything up so that the oil is touching all of the sweet potato.  This helps them stay moist and keep them from burning.  Bake for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes in the oven, very carefully take them out and stir.  The sweet potatoes should be brighter in color and starting to get soft.  Drizzle the whole thing with a healthy amount of honey and sprinkle on your ground cinnamon.  Stir again and bake for another 20 minutes.  You should start to smell them towards the end of the cooking time.  Check them because they will burn and that's never good!  I always say....Your nose knows!  You eat with your eyes and nose first, so trust your senses!  

Chew Chew Food Company (food truck)

     Today's "on the town..." post brings us Chew Chew Food Company.  This is a newer food truck in the Jax truck scene, but it has quickly become one of my favorites.  The menu is pretty diverse with BBQ, blackened fish, and curried chicken.  Of course, being a food truck, the menu does change regularly.  Chew Chew always has a variety of options to satisfy your pallet.  For me, this is super important and where this food truck gets much of my approval vote.  I like options!
     This time I ordered the the blackened fish tacos.  Now, if you've read any of my recipe posts you'll see that I make fish and shrimp tacos regularly.  I kind of think of myself as a fish taco snob.  If I'm going to order and pay you to make me a fish or shrimp taco, it has to taste better the ones I make.  Not too much to ask, right?  As soon as I ordered these, Chew Chew was set to a pretty high standard!
     And the verdict!  I can without a doubt say that these fish tacos are the BEST fish tacos I've ever had!  Now, I have tried several other taco offerings from restaurants (that will remain nameless) and they were far from acceptable.  I would order Chew Chew's blackened fish tacos again!  Here's why they're so delicious...three flour tortillas stuffed (I'm not exaggerating) with blackened Mahi, shaved cabbage, pineapple salsa, and poblano ranch.  The fish is blackened and cooked perfectly!  The salsa is sweet and tangy!  The ranch is creamy and sweet!  I can not say enough great things about this dish.

Check Chew Chew Food Company out on facebook!

Blackened Fish Tacos with Aardwolf's Hasselhoffenweiss beer :)

Vanilla Porter Egg Nog

     This year, we started a new Christmas tradition.  Christmas Eve now consists of a nice dinner at home, presents, movie, and egg nog.  For dinner, we recreated our anniversary dinner; bacon wrapped beef filet (recipe located here!) with roasted asparagus (recipe also located here!) and sweet potato fries.  For the movie, we watched "Wolverine."  Not very Christmas-y, I know, but a pretty good movie none the less.
    The main attraction was the EGG NOG!  In my research, I found of lot of different recipes with different key notes.  I originally picked a Weight Watchers egg nog recipe, but... silly me... trying to be healthy during the holidays!  In the decision dilemma, Tory took the cake with a beer inspired egg nog recipe.  Of course, Weight Watchers went out the door (sorry)!  The original recipe can be found at http://www.stonebrew.com/holiday/ along with some other beer based recipes. I will be trying these soon!

Vanilla Porter Egg Nog
Ingredients:
6 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
10 ounces Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean...I could not find this one so I used Breckingridge Vanilla Porter.  I also used the whole bottle (oops :)
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp ground nutmeg

Directions:
Place the egg yolks, vanilla and ½ cup of the sugar in the bowl of an
electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Beat for several minutes, until
the yolks lighten up and magically double in volume. Add the remaining
ingredients—except for the egg white and the rest of the sugar—and mix
until everything’s fully combined. Transfer the mixture to another bowl and
forget about it for a bit.

Wash the bowl and whisk, then place the egg whites in the bowl and
start whisking them up. Slowly sprinkle in the rest of the sugar and keep
whisking until thick and stiff. Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk
mixture and chill.

When you’re ready to serve, pour the nog into stylish goblets or your favorite
form of beer glass, garnish with a little more nutmeg and go spread some
beery holiday cheer.

Baby's Badass Burgers (food truck)

     I love to cook!  But, I love to eat twice as much!  Recently, Tory and I have gotten in to trying out different local food trucks.  So far, most of them are quite delicious!  It amazes me that such tasty food can come out of a vehicle.  Remarkable!
     Most recently, we tested Baby's Badass Burgers.  The food was just that; BADASS!  Tory ordered the "Original Beauty" with two patties, Swiss cheese, special sauce, and sauteed mushrooms and onions.  Is your mouth watering yet?  I ordered the "Cover Girl"...a turkey burger with Swiss cheese, sauteed onions, lettice, tomato, and special sauce.  Throw in a side of seasoned curly fries and OMG!  I highly recommend any burger lover to track this truck down.  We would definitely eat there again!  I've already picked out my next order :)

Check out their menu at http://www.babysbadassburgers.com/jacksonville/menu.php.  Follow JaxTruckies on facebook to find them around town!

The Cover Girl with Aardwolf's Pilot Batch The Crafty Rascal beer :)

Brunch Special:Bold and Spicy Bloody Mary and Hash Brown Casserole

     Recently I have had some serious cravings for a Bloody Mary.  This has been an acquired taste for me but I have now fallen in love with the tomato-y, spiciness that this brunch in a glass has to offer.  I have found some amazing Bloody Mary's in Jacksonville at BlackFinn (especially the Bacon Mary...OMG!) and Black Sheep.  Both are reasonably priced and very tasty!  I recommend both and all!
     While I love a good brunch and drink out on the weekends, it can get a little expensive.  This time, we decided to try brunch at home!  On the menu, hash brown casserole and (of course) Bloody Mary's.  I was actually a little nervous about the drink mixing.  I'm not really one for intricate and fancy mixed drinks, but after some research I tried it out.  Now, the Bloody Mary is in the recipe wheelhouse for weekend brunch (and "hair of the dog" hangovers).  Oh!  And the casserole was amazing too!

Bold and Spicy Bloody Mary
Ingredients:
Absolut Peppar (If you use unflavored vodka, you'll need 1/2 teaspoon of prepared horseradish)
Bloody Mary mix
Lemon juice
Cajun seasoning
Worcestershire sauce
Hot sauce
Garnish - green olives, bacon, lemon/lime wedge, celery stalk, pickle spear, etc.

Directions:
Fill your drinking glass with ice cubes.  In a mixing glass (I use the trusty solo cup!), start with about a tablespoon of lemon juice, 4-5 shakes each of Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce, and a teaspoon of Cajun seasoning.  If you're using unflavored vodka, add your prepared horseradish here.  If you're using the Peppar, it can get pretty spicy!  We leave the horseradish out.

Add the vodka.  I fill about 3/4 of the cup.  Then, add the mix to the top.  Make sure your stir completely!  Pour this over the ice cubes.  I usually have leftovers and just top my glass off as I drink it down.  Garnish with your choice of toppings!  Bottoms up!

***Bacon tip!!!  Cook your bacon in the oven!  Lay the strips out in an even layer onto a foil-lined cookie sheet.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Drain excess grease on a paper towel-lined plate.  Perfect every time!  And you won't have to fight the grease pops!

Hash Brown Casserole (original recipe found at jensfunlittlethings.blogspot.com)

Ingredients:

2 cups of frozen shredded hash browns, thawed

2 tablespoons butter, melted

4 whole eggs, beaten

1/4 cup half and half

3 strips cooked bacon, diced

1 cup of diced vegetables (I used black olives, baby spinach, tomatoes, onion)

Shredded cheddar cheese

Hot sauce

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  In an un-greased square baking dish, combine butter and hash browns.  Press down and up the sides to form a crust layer.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until hash browns are golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool.

Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients.  Pour into the hash brown crust.  Bake for 30 minutes or until the eggs have set.  Top with bacon and shredded cheese before serving.  Amazingly delicious!

Birthday Special:The Breakfast Dog

      This month has been a very exciting month!  Not only do we have Christmas, holiday vacation from school, my sister's birthday, and Tory's birthday....we got ENGAGED!  Eeeeekkkkk!  This, of course, has nothing to do with this blog post, but oh well.  I'll be posting some wedding planning things as the experiences happen.  I've honestly already found a lot of help in other's wedding-related posts.  So I'll share my stuff too!

Me and my hubby-to-be!

     Anyways :)  Back to the post at hand!  This past Monday, Tory celebrated his birthday.  So instead of going out to dinner (my family had already taken everybody to celebrate), I decided to be creative a cook a new and special meal.  I do believe that it has become a new tradition!  The original recipe for the Breakfast Dog can be found at pinkpistachio.com along with some other hotdog variations.  They all look amazing!

Breakfast Dog

Ingredients:

hotdog buns (I used whole wheat by Nature's Own)

hotdogs (I used turkey hotdogs)

egg

shredded, frozen country hash browns

ketchup

garlic powder

salt and pepper

Directions:

Cook hash browns according to package.  Mine said to fry in a skillet using a couple tablespoons of oil until golden brown.  Lay them out onto a paper towel to soak up excess oil and sprinkle with salt.

Toast your hotdog buns.  Cook your hotdogs.  Tory worked the grill for this step!  You could just use your oven.  

Fry one (or two) eggs over-medium for each hotdog.  I use a little bit of canola oil and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Now assemble!  Bun first with a squirt of ketchup.  Then a layer of hash browns (I put more ketchup after this step on mine!).  Then your hotdog.  Finally, top with your runny egg.  And eat!  This is going to be messy!

That's a good lookin' dog!  I served this with a side of Family Recipe Baked Beans (recipe below).

Family Recipe Baked Beans: (This recipe is courtesy of Tory's mom!  So easy and so delicious!)

Ingredients:

1 can of Bush's original baked beans

1 heaping tablespoon each light brown sugar, ketchup, yellow mustard, honey, and maple syrup.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a baking dish, mix everything together.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until everything is bubbly!  Enjoy!

Meatless Monday:Cheese Tortellini Primavera

     We've started "Meatless Mondays" according to The Skinny Rules (found ...in the gym).  Last week, I tried this cheese tortellini recipe and it was a big hit!  As always, I modify the recipe to fit what I have on hand and my flavor preferences.  The original recipe is found at kitchendaily.com.  Try it out!

Cheese Tortellini Primavera
Ingredients: 8 oz. vegetable broth

1 tbsp, all-purpose flour
1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp minced garlic
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 tsp dried chives
Pinch of salt
4 cups vegetables, frozen (I use crinkled cut carrots and sugar snap peas)
9 oz. package frozen tortellini

Directions: 1. Put a large pot of water on to boil.

2. Meanwhile, whisk broth and flour in a small bowl. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until just beginning to brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the broth mixture to the pan, bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in cheese, tarragon (or dill or chives) and salt.

3. Add vegetables and tortellini to the boiling water; return the water to a simmer and cook until the vegetables and tortellini are tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain; add to the pan with the sauce and stir to coat.

Skinny Shrimp Alfredo

     One of my favorite meals is Shrimp Alfredo.  But as we all know, alfredo sauce is not that great for you.  I recently bought a jar of Bertolli Light Alfredo sauce.  It's only 50 calories per quarter cup.  This is not too bad if measured out properly.  As I researched alfredo based recipes, all I found was pasta dishes.  So I decided to lighten it up and leave the pasta out!

Skinny Shrimp Alfredo
Ingredients: 2 cups of medium white shrimp, peeled and de-veined with tail off
1/4 cup Light Alfredo sauce
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 package of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 cup of baby spinach
1 tablespoon of canola or olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions: In a medium fry pan, heat oil over medium heat.  Saute onion until translucent and fragrant, just a couple of minutes.  Add shrimp and cook until pink all the way around.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add baby spinach and tomatoes.  Let everything cook down and soften.  Add Alfredo sauce and stir thoroughly.  Allow everything to sit and meld together.  It's so delicious!  Enjoy!

Huevos Rancheros

[Apparently every kitchen post starts the same and I need to change the name of my blog to "Everybody loves..." lol.  But I can't think of anything else to open with right this second!  So here it goes.]

    Everybody loves EGGS!  Or at least they should.  :)  I personally could eggs for every single meal and not think twice.  I found this recipe for huevos rancheros on bevcooks.com and wanted to try it one night for dinner.  So in my quest for healthier cooking and eating, I did some research on the ole egg to justify this meal. I found out that eggs are a great source of essential vitamins and minerals, and are also a great source of low calorie protein.  They also help in weight loss and have been found to prevent breast cancer (source: http://www.besthealthmag.ca/eggs).  Therefore, I can eat as many eggs as I want, right? ;)
     This particular recipe was very easy and delicious.  The only thing I will do differently next time would be to fix the tortilla part.  Maybe I didn't cook it long enough, but we found it to be useless.  The meal just turned into a runny egg salsa scramble.  Don't get me wrong, it was very tasty.  Next time I'm going to do more of a fry on the tortilla so that it'll be crispy.
     Below is the original recipe with my notes in italics.  Enjoy!

Huevos Rancheros (1 serving)
Ingredients:

* about 3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil, divided (For the frying method, you will need more)
* 2 corn tortillas (I used one medium soft taco flour tortilla)
* 1/2 cup black beans (from a can, drained and rinsed)
* 1 clove garlic
* 1 tsp chili powder
* 1 tsp ground cumin
* 2 Tbs. salsa 
* 2 eggs
* 1 Tbs. sour cream
* fresh cilantro, for garnish, optional
* coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:In a mini food processor, add the beans, garlic, cumin, chili powder, a tsp of oil and a small pinch of salt and pepper. Blitz until you get a puree. Transfer to a small sauce pan and set it on a low heat. Stir (or press around) the mixture until it’s heated through. Remove from heat.  (This by itself would make a great black bean dip!  We actually ate the leftovers with wheat thin crackers the next day.)

Put a small skillet over the heated burner and add the tiniest bit of oil. Lightly fry (it’s almost toasting really) each tortilla until slightly browned and bubbly. Transfer to a plate.  (Again, in the future, I'm going to add more oil and fry my tortilla.  This will make it crispy!  This part is completely up to you.)

Add a tsp of oil (or a little more) to the skillet and crack your first egg in. If you want to use a bigger skillet and just fry both eggs at the same time.  Continue to fry the eggs until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny.

In the meantime, spread the bean mixture over each tortilla, followed by the salsa. Then top each with an egg. Dollop with a little more salsa, fresh cilantro sprigs and a good grind of black pepper.  (Since I used a larger tortilla, I put both eggs on it.)

Serve with lime wedges and sour cream!

The Skinny Rules

     Today, I found a great list called the "Skinny Rules" from Bob Harper (the guy from the Biggest Loser).  It lists some doable things to help in weight loss and overall health.  Most of these things we already do.

Rule #1 is interesting.  We know that we need to drink lots of water but drinking right before every meal will help with getting full.

Rule #2 will be very difficult for us!  If you've read anything else on my blog, you know that I love beer (lol). Beer is very high in calories.  This is going to be the trick...keeping the beer drinking to the one allotted splurge day.

I admit that I had to do some research for some of these!  Rule #4 just means that we need to eat more whole grains.  I also looked up some foods that are fiber-rich for rule #5.  Check out this link from Dr. Oz for food choices: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/50-fiber-rich-foods.  Some are common in our house like spinach, broccoli, and whole wheat bread.  Others are not so common.  I'm definitely going to need my list the next time I go grocery shopping.

Rule #10 will also be difficult.  We use sweetener daily in our morning coffee.  I guess that's not very much...just one packet per day.  I'm gonna say that our one pack is ok :).

Rule #12 will be fun to do.  I get to research and try new delicious recipes!  We have decided to do "Meatless Mondays."  The first day of the week is always the hardest and the alliteration is fun!

     I hope that we can stick to these Skinny Rules and I hope that you will too!