5 mediterranean stuffed peppers.

I've got another recipe for you today!  This time it's Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers.  We make this recipe a lot, it's the only vegetarian meal my husband will eat without complaining about the lack of meat.  The couscous and beans really fill you up! All it takes is 15 minutes of prep time and a few hours in the crockpot!  They are great as leftovers as well.

Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers (makes about 5 peppers)
Adapted from this Martha Stewart recipe.

Ingredients:
4-5 large bell peppers
2 medium tomatoes
1 small onion
1 can cannellini or white beans, rinsed and drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
8 oz. crumbled feta
1 garlic clove, minced
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 (4.7 oz) box of Near East Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil couscous (do not cook it first!) and seasoning packet, or about 1 c. couscous. You can also use 1 c. quinoa to make this gluten free, but I would cook it halfway before adding it to the peppers.
1 tsp mediterreanean seasoning (if you can find it, I got mine at World Market...otherwise just use oregano)
Coarse sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Cut the tops off of the peppers and arrange them in the crockpot standing up. Dice tomatoes and onions and place in a large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients to the tomatoes and onions and mix together. Fill peppers with the mixture, any extra stuffing can be placed in the gaps between the peppers. You can drizzle some additional olive oil into each pepper as well to keep them moist. Cook in the crockpot on high for about 4 hours or until peppers are tender and couscous is cooked.

Note:  You can also stuff tomatoes instead...just swap the pepper and tomato quantities in the recipe.

9 Chicken Pesto Alfredo with Cherry Tomatoes.

We ate so much amazing food on our retreat! I made one of my favorite pasta dishes on Friday night, chicken pesto alfredo with cherry tomatoes. (sorry for the old instagram picture!)

This pasta is deliciously creamy, and the pesto gives it a little twist!  Here's the recipe:

Chicken Pesto Alfredo with Cherry Tomatoes (serves about 4-6)

1 box bowtie pasta
pinch of salt
1 pint cherry tomatoes

2 large chicken breasts
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
Garlic salt & pepper to taste

1/4 c. butter
1 c. heavy cream
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 c. pesto
1 1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
Chop cherry tomatoes in half. Set aside.
Boil water and salt in a large saucepan. Add pasta, cook until done, and strain. You can cook the chicken and sauce while the pasta is cooking.

Cook the chicken:
Heat a few teaspoons of olive oil in a skillet, dice the chicken breasts, add chicken to pan. Sprinkle with italian seasoning, garlic salt and pepper. Cook chicken until done while you make the sauce and cook the pasta. 

Sauce:
Melt butter in a medium saucepan on medium low heat. Add cream and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add garlic, pesto, and parmesan cheese and stir constantly until cheese melts and sauce is slightly thickened.

When everything is done, add cherry tomatoes and chicken to pasta. Pour sauce over the top of the pasta mixture and stir to coat. 

Serve with shredded parmesan cheese and fresh parsley (optional).

7 prepping.

Prepping for a little party with some girl friends tonight.  Pinterest is the best place to find new recipes!  Here are a few of the things I'm making.

This caramel and sea salt shortbread.  I may have taste tested a piece or two.  So delicious!

Just picked some basil from my garden to make these caprese skewers.  They're going to look so cute!

Cucumber cups with my own herbed cream cheese (seasoned salt, garlic and onion powder, dill and parsley).

Pretzel bites.  I can't stop eating these.  I swear they aren't burnt, they kind of look like they are in this picture.

Also making spinach dip, pepperoni bread, jalapeno pinwheels, and white wine sangria.

p.s. You can follow me on Pinterest here.

10 the best summer salsa.

I thought I'd share a recipe for my go-to summer dish to bring to a cookout.  This salsa (called Texas Caviar) is so delicious!  Every time I make it someone asks for the recipe, and it is so simple and quick to make.

Texas Caviar
For the salsa:
3 multi-colored peppers, diced (I usually use red, green, and orange for the most color...today I had yellow instead of orange).
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), rinsed
1 can whole kernel corn, rinsed

For the marinade:
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar

Directions:  
Dice peppers and onions, combine with rinsed beans, chickpeas, and corn into a medium sized bowl.  Combine marinade ingredients in a small saucepan, heat to boiling and stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.  Pour marinade over salsa and refrigerate overnight.  Drain before serving (save some of the marinade to store leftovers in).  Serve on tortilla chips or crackers.

This recipe makes a lot of salsa...you'll worry you have too much, but I assure you that won't be the case!  I bet it is almost all gone by the end of the cookout, and if you have some left over, it will taste even better the next day.

I usually serve it in a glass trifle bowl since it's so colorful.  It looks really pretty sitting on the table!  Enjoy!

2 easter dessert.

I hope you all had a nice Easter weekend!  I spent part of my day yesterday baking Easter dessert.  I haven't baked much lately, so it felt good to spend some time in the kitchen!  After searching online for awhile, I decided to try something new and make a ricotta cake.

You essentially create a very rich rice pudding, and then mix it with ricotta, egg, and sugar to make a type of cheesecake.  I would've been happy just eating the rice pudding, it was so delicious!

I made two different sauces to go with dessert, a strawberry sauce and some lemon curd.

 Overall, I am very happy with the way the cake turned out, even if it did take an hour longer to bake than the recipe stated.

 I liked the lemon curd more than the strawberry sauce, but the combination of the two was even better!

 Everyone really enjoyed their dessert so I think I'll be making this one again sometime.

1 handmade holiday: part four.

I like to gift my coworkers with calories. I make cakes on their birthdays, bring in cupcakes for fun, and usually bring in boxes and boxes of cookies during the holidays. This year, rather than baking 20 different kinds of cookies, I decided to bake little cakes for everyone. I made mini cardamom cakes like I did for our wedding favors, and packaged them up in little kraft paper boxes wrapped with green yarn and a little glass ornament. I also made a few larger cakes for a few "special" people, i.e. my bosses and our office manager. 

Each of those cakes was placed in a large white box wrapped with the same green ribbon and three pretty ornaments! 

I can't share the recipe for the cakes since it's top secret in our family, but this recipe is very similar if you want to make one. You can substitute 1 tsp. regular vanilla extract for the vanilla bean paste.  I use a cathedral bundt pan and sprinkle powdered sugar over the top to make it look like a church covered in snow.

The jury is still out on whether or not making these cakes saved me any time compared to baking a ton of cookies, since I had to make five batches of cake total for all the mini cakes (48) and the three big cakes.  They definitely didn't save me any money...the ingredients are expensive!  They were a hit though, and one of my bosses liked it so much he took his cake home with him and then brought it back to work the next day so he could have it for a snack!  Most importantly to me (aside from the flavor), they are pretty and festive, so I will probably make them again next year.

1 hello weekend!

Happy Friday! Today the nerdy engineer in me is loving these Periodic Table of Sentiments greeting cards by Nicole at Pink Loves Brown.

And the girly side of me is in love with her Christmas tree. It's pink and perfect.

I'll be spending the weekend making the last of our Christmas gifts, visiting with friends, and attempting to make these macarons from Vanilla Bakeshop on Style Me Pretty.

I hope you all have a nice weekend!

4 lovely recipes: thumbprint cookies.

I started baking Christmas cookies tonight! First on the list were thumbprint cookies...my favorite! 

I thought I'd share the recipe in case anyone would like to make a batch. They are really simple to make and they are seriously delicious!

If you share this recipe, please credit bijou lovely.  Or my mother.  Either way, I'd appreciate it.

Does anyone else make thumbprint cookies?