For almost the entire time that I was away, I had a horrible craving for Mexican food. So I wasted no time when I got home and made these enchiladas right away! I was kind of tired of beef and pork, and I don’t care for chicken enchiladas, so I decided to go with a vegetarian option. Shawn recently ordered spinach and cheese enchiladas at a restaurant, so I used those as my inspiration. They don’t taste overly spinach-y, but the vegetables add bulk to the filling so that you can use less cheese and keep the calorie and fat count down (don’t worry, there’s still plenty of ooey, gooey cheese!).
I attempted to find a recipe for spinach and cheese enchiladas online, but none of them looked very good – they all had weird ingredients like ricotta cheese! Nothing that I found was even close to what i was looking for, so I made my recipe up as I went along. I shredded the cheese for my filling and mixed it with the spinach so that you wouldn’t end up with big clumps of either. I also added a poblano pepper and a chili pepper to add a little bit of heat. The poblano gave the whole dish a nice, authentic Mexican flavor and I’ll definitely use them again the next time I make these.
I used
Good Food Mexican red sauce, which I liked a lot, on these enchiladas. It caught my eye at the store because it had fewer ingredients than the enchilada sauces an the ingredients were recognizable. It also had significantly less calories and sodium than the other sauce options. The fact the the sauce was made by Good Housekeeping had me a little worried, but I shouldn’t have been. It was great! I liked that it had a little bit of a kick to it, and the smell was incredible. I can’t wait to try the other flavors. [....]
I just got back from my last holiday get-together of the season, and while it’s nice to see everyone I have to admit that I’m so happy it’s finally over! All of that traveling is exhausting, and I think I’ve eaten enough cookies over the past two weeks to last me until summer. Everyone kept trying to send me home with goodies, but I honestly just didn’t want them. I’m tired of eating garbage, and I can feel the negative effects that eating like like this has had on my body. I’m definitely ready to get some balance back in my diet.
I made this clam chowder last week, and it’s exactly the type of dish that I’m looking forward to eating over the next few weeks. We love clam chowder, but typically go for the creamy New England style over the tomato-based Manhattan style. I wasn’t in the mood for a creamy soup this time though (even if I lightened it in terms of calories, it seemed too heavy), so I set out to make a new and improved Manhattan Chowder.
And improved I did! First, I used fire-roasted tomatoes since I love the way they taste with seafood. They gave the soup a really nice flavor that was mellower and less tomatoey than typical soups. A few slices of bacon lent a slight smokiness and tabasco passed at the table provided some heat. Nutritious vegetables added bulk to make the soup filling while keeping the calorie count down, and fresh seafood made the dish seem special. Shawn was actually very skeptical when I said I wanted to make this, because he hates tomatoes so tomato based soups really aren’t his thing. He loved it though, and told me that I should make it again! Served with a crusty piece of bread to sop up the broth, this is the perfect dinner on a snowy January night. [....]
Remo the pits from some good-quality olives, such as castelveltrano. Stuff each olive with a small piece of asiago cheese. Toss in some flour to lightly coat.
Heat about 2 inches of oil in a deep pot. When the oil is heated, fry the oil in batches for about 45 seconds or until batter has crisped and turned golden. Remove from oil and cool on paper towels.
Next up is a crostini bar with two types of tapenade and some seasoned artichoke hearts. These are all super simple to make, and taste much more complex than they are. The first is artichoke and green olive tapenade. Basically just throw some artichoke hearts and some garlic-stuffed olives in the food processor along with some parsley and a few olives. Pulse a few times to chop it all up, then drizzle in some olive oil and process until it comes together. I have to say that I wasn’t a huge fan of the garlic olives on their own – they were just too strong! – but mixed up in the tapenade, they were fabulous.
These tapenades were both amazing. We couldn’t decide which we liked better!
I also need to take a minute to gush about these blue cheese stuffed olives. I. LOVE. THESE! And I’m super bummed because they won’t be available on the East Coast until next summer (hint, hint West Coast friends… send me some more!). The first time I had blue cheese stuffed olives was a few years ago in a martini at the Cheesecake Factory. I’ve always wanted to have them at home, but have never been able to find good ones. I was getting really tired of spending money on jars that were too salty, or had nasty cheese that was too hard, not blue enough, or just tasted downright funky. But these are pretty much perfection. The olives taste fresh and not too briney, and the cheese is soft and sharp like blue cheese should be. I can’t recommend them highly enough.
I can’t believe it’s December already – where has this year gone?! Thanksgiving totally snuck up on me this year, and I was scrambling at the last minute to come up with something to bring to my parents house. Since there are usually a million desserts, I didn’t want to bring anything sweet and since it takes us an hour to get there a side dish wasn’t really an option because it would get cold. Finally, I decided on cheese. We never have any appetizers, and thought it would be nice to have something to snack on before the main meal was served.
Bakes brie is one of my standard holiday recipes. It’s cheap and easy to make and it travels extremely well. And it always goes over well because who doesn’t like cheese? I’ve been loving cranberries lately – especially when they’re paired with pears – so I decided stuff my brie with a cranberry and pear chutney. I really liked the way that the tart berries played off the buttery brie. If you don’t like cranberries or can’t find fresh ones, raspberries are also fabulous in this recipe.[....]
By the time my samples arrived, I came to my senses and realized that 1) it was ridiculous to try to justify my glass of wine by adding a supplement to it and 2) adding this to my wine seemed like a really good was to ruin said glass of wine. So much for that idea!
Since I never really like powdered drinks (I’ve never even liked powdered iced tea or anything like that), I decided to start with the liquid concentrate. You can either reconstitute the liquid with water or drink it as it. Based on the smell I decided the best move would be to get it down the hatch as quickly as possible, so I chose to try it straight up. In a shot glass, which I figured would be the best way to bypass the taste buds.
Don’t pay any attention to the look on my face in the last photo there. This stuff actually doesn’t taste bad at all! It’s honestly grown on me quite a bit, and my bottle is about a third of the way finished already. It tastes like super strong grape juice with a finish that reminds me of currants. I don’t know if this is the miracle drink that it claims to be, but I do like it a lot. It gives me energy and it makes me feel happy and radiant. In these cold, dark winter months where fruit is hard to come by and a box of clementines costs $8, I’ll take it! It’s a little expensive, but there’s a decent chance that I’ll buy another bottle when I run out.
As for the powdered formula? As suspected, I don’t like it dissolved in water. It seems gritty. It’s not bad mixed into vanilla yogurt, but for now I’ll stick with the liquid.
I’m a little confused about what exactly I need to say in order to be in compliance with the FTC’s new disclosure policy – I hope this covers it: The products discussed above were provided to me free of charge by Novelle International. While I was under no obligation to do a review, I did tell them that I would do one if I liked the product. All opinions written above are my own. I am not a doctor, and I assume no liability for any health claims written or implied.
