foodiecrush

Friday Faves

January 18, 2019

Hello, hello and happy Friday!

It’s an especially happy Friday for me because it’s my birthday on Monday! One more year down and I’m still kickin’. Sure, it’s a little more achey when I do, and sometimes I can’t remember where I put my boots to kick it up in, but hey, I’m lucky in so many other ways that another wrinkle isn’t going to ruin my day. Or my year!

And this girl is celebrating her birthday in style.

It was just last Friday we were skiing the slopes of Park City’s Deer Valley Resort and eating the BEST lobster rolls right on the mountain (thanks Rime Raw Bar!) and here we are today, in a tropical paradise. I mean, I am literally counting my lucky stars every.single.day.

Last night my husband and I left the snow and cold behind and took the red eye to arrive today in Puerto Rico, readying ourselves to set sail through the Caribbean with Viking Cruises. When Viking asked us to join them on this trip it was a happy coincidence it fell upon my birthday week. And yes, I learned years ago from my best friend Kim that each of these momentous yearly occasions should always be looked at as a birth-week instead of a measly birth-day. Raise your hand with an an enthusiastic HECK TO THE YES!continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves

Sautéed Spinach with Garlic

January 16, 2019

This sautéed spinach recipe with sweet, caramelized slivers of garlic takes just 10 minutes to cook for a healthy side dish that goes with any meal.

Who else is joining me on the eat-more-plants train? And doing it the super easy way? I see you! You’re coming along for the ride too!

Getting more greens in our diets should be the focus of every eater, and the darker and leafier, the better.

While pretty much everyone likes a wedge of Iceberg, it’s the dark, leafy greens where you’ll find the real health benefits of getting in your veggie greens. Sorry iceberg, but all greens are not created equal.

This spinach side dish is fresh and light, with chunks of sweetened, caramelized garlic that infuses the oil the spinach is cooked in. It makes a perfect pairing for just about any main meal.continue to the recipe… about Sautéed Spinach with Garlic

5 Easy Tips for Juicy Roast Chicken

January 14, 2019

A juicy, crispy roast chicken with vegetables is one recipe every home cook can—and should—easily master.

Roast Chicken Recipe

Why would a little old bird seem so intimidating to me? Maybe because the little clucker has inspired more failed recipe attempts for me than any other recipe I’ve tried to master.

Am I alone here?

Roast chicken is supposed to be easy. It’s not like you need new technology or fancy schmancy ingredients. It’s one of the basics and cooks have been roasting birds for, like, forever.

So what was my problem?

continue to the recipe… about 5 Easy Tips for Juicy Roast Chicken

50 Favorite Mediterranean Diet Recipes

January 13, 2019

The Mediterranean Diet has been named 2019’s diet of the year, and this list of 50 breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes makes it easy to add more of the Med-inspired lifestyle to your weekly meal plan.

The Best Diet of 2019

Just as we were setting our sights on eating better with the New Year, US News and World Report came out with their standings of the best diets to follow for 2019, and for the first time, the Mediterranean Diet took top honors. CNN reports the diets were ranked on: “how easy it is to follow, its nutritional completeness, its ability to produce short-term and long-term weight loss, its safety and its potential for preventing and managing diabetes and heart disease.”

Unlike many of the trendy, silver bullet diets that are at the bottom of this year’s list and you see everyone jumping through hoops to try (and ultimately bail out on), the Mediterranean diet is a centuries-old lifestyle for long-term health and wellness instead of a quick weight loss fad that never seems to really last.continue to the recipe… about 50 Favorite Mediterranean Diet Recipes

Friday Faves

January 11, 2019

Hello hello and what a happy Friday it is!

We’re here. We’re alive. We have money for food on the table and an internet to scan for the links we love. There’s so much big, heart wrenching stuff going on out there that focusing on the little things that matter are a real source of joy.

We’re nearly two weeks into the new year and I’m still committed to my NY resolve and eating more plants (this avo toast has been breakfast every.single.day), getting more sleep, and keeping my inner and outer critic in check.

Life is a work in progress. Last week I talked about how I’ve always believed I was a good multi-tasker until I was called out as simply being a procrastinator.

Well, yesterday I read this article that is 100% how I feel 99% of the time. Decision fatigue, where “people’s brains get worn out by the necessity of being decisive and exercising restraint, usually at work.”

Is decision fatigue a real thing? I 100% think so, because I live it, and too often I feel just like Gloria who is quoted about completing personal chores, “Instead of doing it, I’m thinking about all the times I should have been. So I end up kind of catatonic over not doing stuff instead of doing that stuff.” Hand to heart, that’s me.

It’s another supporting reason why I chose my word of 2019: DO IT.

continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves

Easy Chicken Piccata

January 9, 2019

This easy chicken piccata recipe with a lemon-caper sauce is a classic you’ll find on the menu of nearly every Italian restaurant, and because it can be made in just 20 minutes, it’s one of my favorite at-home recipes too.

“I have too many easy chicken dinner recipes” said nobody ever. And you guys agree, the more healthy the flavor, the more better. Not grammatically correct, but dang it tastes good.

When it seems there’s nothing to cook for dinner, this chicken recipe is one I can always pull out of my magic hat and wow my family with dinner on the table in under 20 minutes.

Because nobody ever said they didn’t want more fast dinners, too.continue to the recipe… about Easy Chicken Piccata

50 Easy Slow Cooker Dinner Recipe Ideas

January 7, 2019

This list of 50 slow cooker recipes for chicken, chili, pot roast, and even pizza are the secret to getting easy crockpot dinners on the table fast.

We all know money doesn’t grow on trees, and neither does time. Despite our best laid plans, it always seems to slip through our busy little fingers, and before we know it, we glance up from our watches after a hectic work day, and it’s already 5 o’clock.

On marathon days like these, coming home and having to scramble to figure out what’s for dinner, or diving into a multiple step recipe with a laundry list of ingredients is pretty much the last thing we feel like doing.

However, coming home to a kitchen that smells like Ina Garten’s taken over and has been cooking for Jeffrey all day—that’s just what the doctor ordered. And thanks to a little planning and a little slow cooker magic, it’s perfectly achievable.

Check out this list of FIFTY (!) slow cooker recipes for easy, breezy weeknight dinners that work for weekends too.

continue to the recipe… about 50 Easy Slow Cooker Dinner Recipe Ideas

Friday Faves

January 4, 2019

Hello there 2019, and Happy Friday!

The Christmas tree is still up, with half of the lights burned out. Frigging tree. I didn’t get any of my over-the-vacation-clean-the-clutter projects completed. Too much crap not enough time. And I’ve yet to figure out what my word is. You know, my word of 2019. The word I set to define and guide the next 12 months ahead.

I’ve set an intention word for the the past 5 years and they’ve been:

Focus
Enough
Present
Thoughtful
Nourish

Have I delivered on all of them? I tried. I put my best effort out there. They definitely gave me a mantra to work toward. Isn’t that really what it’s about in the end?

This year my intention word(s) is: continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves

Easy Instant Pot Monkey Bread

January 2, 2019

This easy pull-apart bread starts with frozen dinner rolls that rise overnight and are then baked in the Instant Pot pressure cooker for a sweet and fast cinnamon sugared breakfast or brunch treat.

I’m not sure who made up the name for this sweet, sticky pull-apart bread, but whoever did nailed it on the head. Because just like monkeys who are known to pick, pick, pick at their favorite things, this cinnamon, brown sugar, and pecan-laced monkey bread is the perfect sweet breakfast or brunch finger food.

This overnight monkey bread is made with frozen yeast dinner rolls so be sure to plan ahead and allow time for the rolls to rise overnight.

The unique part of this recipe is that instead of being baked in the oven, this monkey bread is baked in the Instant Pot pressure cooker. Yes! You can bake in the Instant Pot, and successfully do so too.

The other part of this recipe I love so much is the “balls” of the monkey bread are cut in half before baking to make smaller bites, ensuring that every single nugget is lathered in that classic sticky, cinnamon and brown sugar goodness.

Half the size means you can enjoy them all year long, whether it’s Christmas breakfasst, or New Years brunch, or any time you’re craving that sweet treat any monkey would put his hat on and dance for.continue to the recipe… about Easy Instant Pot Monkey Bread

Friday Faves

December 28, 2018

Hello and happy final Friday of 2018.

Whoa. We say it every year but this year it’s totally true. This year went by SO DANG FAST. Did the year fly by for you? Because it sure did for me, and for nearly every person I talk to, too.

Remember how loooooong it took to finally get your braces off, or become 16 to get your first driver’s license, to go on your first date, and what about turning 18 and finally graduating from high school to become an adult? Each one seemed like a mother loving eternity. But each one was a first, a rite of passage, and marked something you’d never done before.

It’s a fact that time really does go by faster as we age. We get stuck in the routine. Things become mundane. Days turn into weeks and weeks into months and we feel like the year is one big replay of the movie Groundhog Day.

But this article says there’s a simple way to make the year go by slower, and it’s done by simply doing something different. By switching things up. Getting out of the same old routine. Adding some spice to life.

The key is to add a list of “firsts” to your year. So this year, instead of making resolutions, make it the year to try new things. Go someplace you’ve never been. Try something for the first time. Do it differently—whatever it is.

Create your list of intriguing but not totally out-of-the-realm things you’d like to try. And then simply do them.

Challenge yourself to bake a cake every week. Or make that road trip you’ve always daydreamed of taking. Learn how to stand-up paddle board, take a lettering class, or become a volunteer to inspire yourself thanks to giving to others.

Instead of middling in the middle, move to the front.

This year, choose to be extra.

Whatever you do, just choose to do something different. And watch time slow down as you savor every minute.

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Let’s make 2019 amazing together, and let’s dig into this week’s Friday Faves.continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves