Have you tried this?

I picked up a new salad dressing a few weeks backs called Bolthouse Farms Chunky Blue Cheese Creamy Yogurt Dressing. I must say I was a little hesitant steering away from my usual Bob's or Marie's blue cheese dressing but I wasn't disappointed! This dressing has a great flavor and chunks of blue cheese in it PLUS it's only 70 calories per 2 Tbs!!

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 2 tbsp
Amount Per Serving
Calories 60
Total Fat 6.5g
Saturated Fat 2.5g

Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 15mg
Sodium 150mg

Total Carbohydrate 2g
Dietary Fiber 0g
Sugars 0g
Protein 2g
Iron 0%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

BBQ Garlic Chicken

Hi Y'all! I am sorry the recipes aren't coming as fast as they use to, now that summer is here I am finding a lot less time to putz around the kitchen. I do have some recipes comin though!

This marinade/sauce is a quick, healthy and very garlicky cilantro blend. Easy for a hot summer

night when you've just come home super sweaty from a great outdoor activity, but you do need to let it marinade for at least 1 hour so plan ahead!

BBQ GARLIC CHICKEN

Ingredients

1 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breast/thighs or whatever you want

5-8 garlic cloves roughly chopped

1-2 cups cilantro, roughly chopped
Juice of 1 lime

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Add all ingredients but the chicken in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. You may need to add a Tbs of water to get your desired consistency.

Rub the mixture all over the chicken pieces and let marinade for at least 1 hour to overnight!

Grill chicken over high heat until cooked through, crispy and you just can't stand waiting any longer!

Enjoy

Curried Tilapia with Mango Salsa

I came across this recipe while looking for a curried lentils dish. It looked so simple and straightforward so I decided to give it a whirl. It turned out delish and was even better the next day for lunch!!

Curried Tilapia with Mango Salsa

Mango Salsa Ingredients

1 mango diced
1/4 cup red onion chopped
1 Serrano minced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped
Dash of garlic salt

Squeeze of lime juice if you like!

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Curried Tilapia Ingredients

4 tilapia fillets
1 Tbs curry powder
1 Tbs garlic powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbs olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat grill or broiler to high heat

Combine the curry powder, garlic powder, cayenne and olive oil in a small bowl to make a paste.

Spread the mixture over one side of the fish and season with salt and pepper. Flip fish over and do the same to the other side.

Cook fish for about 3-4 minutes on each side or until flakes easy with a fork.Serve with mango salsa on top!
Yummy!

my fourth of July cupcakes

I decided to go with the flag cupcakes and I think they turned out cute and it was fun making them with friends. I used a dark chocolate boxed cake mix and then made a vanilla buttercream frosting. http://www.recipezaar.com/Vanilla-Buttercream-Frosting-From-Sprinkles-Cupcakes-222188

The only thing with the recipe is it says it makes frosting for 12 cupcakes so I doubled it because I made 24 cupcakes and now I have a TON of frosting left over. My opinion is that the recipe makes enough for 24 cupcakes, if you are making more than that then double it!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

4th of July dessert ideas

I have been searching for some fun patriotic dessert ideas for our 4th of July BBQ and I just wanted to share some of the ideas I came across!

flag cupcake

cream cheese and pecan stuffed strawberries

berry flag cake

corn on the cob cupcake

patriotic cookie pizza

Greek Turkey Meatballs

Here is another great idea for ground turkey. This recipe has so many different flavors going on
you really don't need to serve a dipping sauce with them, however they go really really well with
tzatziki.

Greek Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients

1 Tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ medium yellow onion garlic
1 slice bread pulsed into crumbs ( I used pita bread, I thought it was fitting )

zest of 1 orange
1 tsp oregano
½ tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs chopped fresh mint
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Salt and fresh ground pepper
1 pound ground turkey

Directions

In a sauce pan heat 1 tbs oil over medium heat and add the garlic and onion and red pepper flakes, cook for 1 minute then let cool.

Meanwhile crumble turkey into large bowl,

scatter the mint, orange zest, oregano, cinnamon, ½ of the bread crumbs and salt & pepper. Gently mix, then add the cooled garlic, onion mixture and continue to mix until combined.

Then form 1- 11/4 inch balls and transfer to a plate or cookie sheet. (see note for neato trick to rolling out meatballs)

heat a large pan over medium to medium high heat, and working in batched cook the meatballs until brown on all sides and cooked through. Serve with tzatziki!

*Neat trick to making meatballs, courtesy of another blogger

http://coconutlime.blogspot.com/

Roll about a cup of the meat mixture out into a log

then cut into pieces about 1 tbsp for your mini meatballs.

Then place the pieces into a wire mesh strainer and sprinkle some more bread crumbs over them.

Toss and roll the meatballs around in the strainer over a bowl or the sink and you’ll have lightly-coated, perfectly round meatballs.

How brilliant is that?

Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus

Since I now have a mini garden in my backyard I decided to make a cilantro jalapeno hummus to try some of my peppers. The jalapenos weren't very big so I used to two smallish ones, one really tiny red one and a serrano for the extra heat. There are so many recipes out there for hummus so I just picked one I had around for awhile. I didn't make any real changes to the recipe besides the fact that I couldn't find tahini paste, well actually I didn't look very hard. I should say they didn't have tahini paste at Trader Joe's but they did have a tahini sauce which i thought would suffice, and it did!

Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus

Ingredients

1/3-1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1-2 jalapeno peppers, ribbed and seeded (depending on desired flavor)

1 clove garlic, peeled

3 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup water

6 tbsp. tahini or tahini sauce from TJs

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 (14 oz.) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 tsp. salt1/4 tsp. cumin

Pinch of cayenne pepper ( large pinch if you like it extra spicy )

Directions

Combine the cilantro, jalapenos, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the ingredients have been finely minced.

In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice and water.
In another bowl, whisk together the tahini and olive oil.
Set aside. Scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl and add the chickpeas, salt, cumin and cayenne.

Process until almost fully ground, about 15 seconds. Scrape down the bowl.

Add the oil-tahini mixture and then continue to process until smooth and creamy, about 15 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed.

Scrape down the bowl again and with the machine running add the lemon juice-water mixture in a steady stream through the feed tube. Blend for 1 minute, scraping down the bowl as needed!

Transfer the hummus to a serving bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let stand until the flavors meld, at least 30 minutes. Enjoy with whole wheat pita bread, chips or veggies!