Stuffed Peppers!!! Yummy :)

One of my husband's favorite dish is stuffed peppers. I remember when we were dating I surprised him with that dish for dinner, I loved his face and reaction and also his hugs and kisses. I find it not so hard to make so now that we're married I make it for him once in a while, not to often because I want him to keep loving it the way he does.

Ingredients:

4 large bell peppers (any color)

1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef

2 tablespoons chopped onion

1 cup cooked rice

1 teaspoon salt

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce or more if you prefer

3/4 cup shredded cheese (the cheese you prefer)

Directions:

Cut thin slice from stem end of each bell pepper to remove top of pepper. Remove seeds and membranes; rinse peppers. If necessary, cut thin slice from bottom of each pepper so they stand up straight. In 4-quart Dutch oven, add enough water to cover peppers. Heat to boiling; add peppers. Cook about 2 minutes; drain.

In 10-inch skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown; drain. Stir in rice, salt, garlic and 1 cup of the tomato sauce; cook until hot.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Stuff peppers with beef mixture. Stand peppers upright in ungreased 8-inch square glass baking dish. Pour remaining tomato sauce over peppers.

Cover tightly with foil. Bake 10 minutes. Uncover and bake about 15 minutes longer or until peppers are tender. Sprinkle with cheese.

I have my own way of making this stuffed pepper. I skip the boiling part and this time I only used two peppers and cut them in half before putting the mixture in them. I cooked them for 35 minutes covered with foil paper and then sprinkled the cheese and cooked for another 20 minutes uncovered. My way seems to take longer but the peppers are not so soft, when you boil the peppers they come out softer and we don't like it that way

Aren't you glad is Friday!!!! Hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy!!!

New Grill Fever!!!! Excited :)

We bought our first new grill together and I am super excited!!!!
Before we had a grill I used to make burgers, steak, pork chops and so on inside the house on the stove top or in the oven (yes, I would smoke up the house)

Yesterday I was making pork chops so I got to use our grill and it was soooo good not to have that smell inside of the house, plus it tasted so much better.

I seasoned my pork chops like 4 hours earlier so they could soak up the flavor and when I put them in the grill I cooked them for no longer then 20 minutes and they were so juicy and tender. We ate them with a delicious BLT pasta salad.

Yes, this had bacon, lettuce and tomatoes!!! I also added salami, turkey breast lunch meat and of course the mayo to make it creamy and salt and pepper to taste. It was so good and a very nice side dish for the pork chops.

My husband enjoyed it so much and so did I. Of course we had a little piece of banana bread for dessert and my husband had two pieces with milk before we went to bed (that's how good that was). 

Hope you enjoy reading my blogs and looking at my pictures as I enjoy posting them for you. Happy Cooking!!!!

The Perfect Banana Bread

My husband is a banana eater and so am I, every week we go to the store and if we are out of bananas at the house we have to get some because he eats one every morning. This time we bought some that were still green but to our surprise they ripened much faster then we thought. My husband woke up the other day and went to go eat his banana like always but noticed it was to ripe for his taste so he went and told me about it. After thinking about what to do with them because I didn't want to throw them away or wasn't in the mood for a banana shake the thought hit me "why not make a banana bread", when I told him about that he was super excited and wanted me to make it the next day. My husband has a sweet tooth and I need to have sweet things for him to eat as desserts.

The Perfect Banana Bread

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas (mashed)
1 stick of butter (melted)
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the butter mixture until smooth. Finally, fold in the sour cream, walnuts and bananas. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

This bread is super rich and moist, my hubby said it was the best banana bread he has ever had so I'm sticking to this recipe. 

Have a very good day and happy cooking!!!!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Doesn't this look good? I think it does and it was very good too. We had it last night while watching a heart warming movie "My Sister's Keeper", and it really warmed my heart and made me cry even though it wasn't the first time I'd seen the movie.

The spaghetti and meatballs I made them with regular spaghetti sauce, some onions, peppers, garlic, put my meatballs in the sauce and let them cook in the sauce (even though they were already cooked) so they can soak up the sauce flavor and cook the spaghetti like you normally do. You can mix your pasta in the sauce if you want or just do it like I did (shown in picture). We ate it with some salad and buttered biscuits. 

Well, I just wanted to show you my delicious dinner. Hope you are enjoying your weekend, today is my day off all duties because I am sooooo tired from everything I did this week from laundry to vacuuming the carpet and part of the stairs. But the good thing is that this is where the Lord wants me to be and I enjoy every minute of it. See you soon!!!

Used my Slow Cooker for The First Time and Loved it!!!!

Hi y'all, I'm so excited to say that I used my slow cooker for the first time, yes!!! the first time. I wanted to make split pea soup and was going to my parents so decided to start dinner at 8:00 am before I left to their house, it's a 50 min drive so whenever we go we stay a while.
Ok, so back to the slow cooker and dinner, LOL!!! I got all my ingredients ready and got my precious slow cooker out of the cabinet where it had been store since we got married. Started by emptying the bag of split peas, then put the ham in the bone I had left in my refrigerator, put onions, carrots, a little bit of cilantro, minced garlic and seasoning to taste, oh!!! and water of course; put the lid on and set it to cook on low.

This was awesome because I knew that when I got home at around 6:00 pm my soup was going to be ready. So it was, I only had to add a little bit more salt and make a side for it. I made to much soup that we ate Wednesday and Thursday, took some to a friend that just had surgery and still have some left overs but they will be frozen for another time.

Wednesday I was craving avocado and forgot to get it on my way home so I called my awesome husband and he brought it home; we ate our soup with avocado and whole wheat toasts. (I forgot to take a picture)
Thursday I made some cheese quesadillas to go with our soup and If I had avocado I would probably had had it again but I had told my hubby to buy just one, my mistake!!!

It probably doesn't look that great but believe me it was very good and the chunks of ham tasted so good in the soup. Next time we eat it I want to make cornbread, I know it would be amazing. 

Tonight it's a pasta night, spaghetti and meat balls one of my hubby's favorites.

Have an awesome day and a good Memorial Day weekend.  

Monday Cravings!!!! A Loaf of Love

Monday afternoon I found myself craving something sweet, but not just anything, I wanted some cake or some type of sweet bread. I really like the cinnamon taste and smell but my husband is not crazy about it so I hardly make anything with cinnamon for us unless I'm taking it to my mom's house where we are all eating from it and there won't be any left overs.
Well, today I really didn't care about the cinnamon thing, I wanted something sweet and didn't mind if it had cinnamon or not, if hubby liked it or not (a little selfish, right?) so I looked through my recipes and found this yummy cinnamon sugar bread. The best thing about it was that it was super easy to make and all the ingredients were in my pantry.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. 

In large bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and 1 cup sugar. Add egg, milk, vanilla and oil to flour mixture.

Stir until just moistened. Pour half of the batter into pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and 1/3 cup sugar (you can mix together cinnamon and sugar beforehand, I didn't though I just sprinkled away).

Cover with remaining batter. Top with more cinnamon/sugar if desired. Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Wrap in foil and let sit overnight before slicing. I couldn't resist and cut 2 pieces so we could try it; then I covered it with a clean kitchen towel. 

Well, let me tell you that even though I sounded selfish at first, my husband really liked it and even called the bread "a loaf of love". You can imagine how excited I was and he even took some to work this morning.

We're going to Disney with the in-laws this weekend and I'm planning on making this again but with guava in the middle, because they for sure don't like cinnamon and my father in-law really likes guava pastry. I'll let you know how it goes. 

Have a great day and happy cooking!!!! 

Homemade Delicious Meatballs

Tuesday night I was craving some meatballs and started to look for a very good recipe on how to make them. I didn't want to buy the frozen bag at Walmart I wanted them to be made by me and have that homemade taste in them, plus not to mention that they would probably be healthier.
The first thing I did was season my meat and pour a little bit of lemon juice in it, I think it gives the meat a better flavor. After seasoning I started adding the ingredients that were going to help my meatballs stay together and not fall apart.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
2 eggs beaten
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp whipping cream or milk
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
seasoning to taste

Directions:

Season your meat with your favorite ingredients, then mix all the other ingredients in the meat. Start making your meatballs. Pretty simple!!!

Yes, as you can see this meatballs were going in the oven to get some heat at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

I had to try one before I put them in red sauce and let me tell you that it was very juicy and tender. I made around 28 meatballs but we were not going to it them all, so what I did was put some in a container and to the freezer they went. The rest of them I cooked them in red sauce like if we were going to eat them with pasta, but we weren't.

Oh boy!!!! they look so good. My house was filled with a awesome aroma that slapped my husband's face when he came through the door. Yesterday he put his briefcase in the usual place and went straight to wash his hands, like telling me "let's get it done".  

We had this awesome meatballs with rousted potatoes and a simple salad. Dinner was very good!!! My husband really liked them because they were very soft and juicy, and of course because they were in red sauce which is his favorite.

Enjoy your day and happy cooking!!!!

"Cheesy Spinach and Turkey Breast Bread"

This is a recipe that I found really good and fun so I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy!!!!

Ingredients

3 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped  (I used turkey breast) 

1 can of seamless crescent roll dough

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 heaping cup of fresh baby spinach

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 and spray a cooking sheet with non-stick spray.

Roll crescent sheet out on to baking sheet.

In a small bowl or glass measuring cup combine cream cheese, garlic, and lemon juice.

Spread crescent roll dough with cream cheese mixture then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bacon. Top with a layer of spinach.

Working on the long side of the dough roll the dough up.  Place seam side down and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes before cutting. Slice into 12 pieces. (Cutting too quickly will squish your bread.)

Serve alone or with marinara or spaghetti sauce for dipping.

They were very good!!!! Give it a try.

Mother's Day Cake!!!

This is one of the best cakes I've had and made, of course it's a Paula Deen recipe and you can never go wrong with them.

I was so nervous about making this cake for mother's day because it's from scratch and sometimes they tend to be a little dry but went ahead and made it anyways. My family was delighted at how good it came out and how soft and juicy it was, the outside of the cake its a little crunchy but the inside it's perfect and moist. My mom enjoyed it very much and that was my purpose!!!!

Uncle Bob's Fresh Apple Cake

Ingredients:

3 cups diced Granny Smith apples, about 2 apples ( I used 3 Gala apples)

1 cup lightly toasted chopped walnuts

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

3 eggs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease a Bundt pan or tube pan.

In a bowl, mix together the apples, walnuts, vanilla, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Using an electric mixer beat the sugar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl. Add in the dry ingredients and beat until completely combined. Fold in the apple mixture. The mixture will be very, very thick so don't get scared y'all.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. 

Allow the cake to fully cool in the pan, about 1 hour, and then turn it out onto a plate.

Drizzle the apple cake with some of your favorite glaze, serve and enjoy!

Here is a piece of my awesome cake, enjoy!!!! Have and awesome day. :)

Sloppy Joes & a Delicious and Very Colorful Black Bean Salad

Last night we had sloppy joes for dinner and I wanted to make a healthy, low in calories side to accompanied them. Browsing on Pinterest I found this salad that seem very good and hardy so I bought all the ingredients to make it. I altered some of the ingredients because it was going to be too strong for our taste.

  

This are the ingredients I used: Lemon juice, olive oil, sugar, garlic, cayenne pepper, and salt. In the plate I have corn, red pepper, cilantro and black beans; when is almost time to eat it I'm going to add the avocado.

Here is a close-up picture of the ingredients on the plate before mixing them. Next time I will use less cilantro because my husband thought it was a little bit too strong. 

 Now here is the original recipe for the salad. I used less ingredients because it was just my hubby and I eating dinner together last night.

Black Bean Salad with Corn, Red Peppers, Avocado and Lime-Cilantro Vinaigrette

Ingredients

2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed and drained

3 ears fresh cooked corn, kernels cut off the cob (I used a can of corn)

2 red bell peppers, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons minced shallots, from one medium shallot

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons sugar

9 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, best quality such as Colavita

1 teaspoon lime zest (be sure to zest limes before juicing them)

6 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish

2 Hass avocados, chopped

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except for avocados in a large bowl and mix well. Cover and chill for a few hours or overnight. Right before serving, add avocados and mix gently, being careful not to mash avocados. Garnish with a more chopped cilantro if desired. Serve at room temperature.

This is my sloppy joe and my very colorful and yummy salad!!! My husband mixed his salad with the sloppy joe so the flavor wouldn't be so strong and after that he was fine with it. 

Enjoy your day!!!! Happy Friday :)

Pork Chops, Yummy & Tender Pork Chops!!!

Who doesn't like a good, tasty and tender pork chop? Yes, I know people that don't eat pork or vegetarians but other then that people enjoy them if they are not dry and hard.

I found a really good recipe that would give you the juicy and tender meat you are looking for and it can also be used with chicken. 

Cola Pork Chops 

Ingredients:

1 cup ketchup

1 cup cola-flavored carbonated beverage

2 tablespoons brown sugar

8 pork chops or chicken breast

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Mix together the ketchup, cola and brown sugar.

Place pork chops into a baking pan and pour cola mixture over, coating well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake for about one hour depending on the thickness of the pork chop.

(I seasoned my pork chops before and added chopped onions to them. I only made two pork chops and used the same amount of sauce, it was very good)

We had our pork chop with baked potato and salad, but you can do it with the side of your preference. Enjoy and have a good day!!!!

Fresh Out of The Oven!!!

My husband is a sucker for chocolate chip cookies, let me better say chocolate in general. Last night we ran out of deserts for him to eat after dinner or one or two hours before bed time, so I told him I was going to make him something fresh for him to have when he gets home (you should've seen his face, it lighted up like a little child) of course he was super excited about it.

I found a recipe for chocolate chip cookies from scratch but the problem was I didn't have chocolate chips at home, so what to do in that case!!!! Yes, I had M&Ms and used them instead of the chocolate chips. Now here is the recipe for the cookies my hubby is going to eat tonight and the rest of this week (because I made them bigger then normal cookies).

                                            This are my cookies before they went in the oven.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 (12 ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups) or M&Ms

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Beat brown sugar, white sugar and butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed about 3 minutes or until fluffy.

3. Beat in eggs and vanilla, then stir in the baking soda, salt and flour. Add the walnuts and chocolate.

4. Drop dough by large scoops onto ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly with fork.

Now this are my cookies ready to eat, I hope my husband likes them!!!

Delish!!!! Lettuce and Chicken Salad :)

I did it!!!! I behaved better yesterday counting my calories and even ate a little less than 1500-1700 I have as my goal.
I made a yummy salad and a little bit of mac and cheese. I ate lots of salad and half a cup of mac & cheese (I really wanted more but could not do it).
My salad had lettuce, tomatoes, feta cheese, croutons and grilled chicken on top. Here is a close up picture of it.

I don't want to call this a diet because that's when I mess up on it, I'm really bad at doing diets and just the word makes me want to eat more. I really enjoy food and as you can see I also love making them.

This was my plate last night, doesn't it look good and healthy!!! Hope you have a good day and happy cooking to all. 

Oh Boy!!!! Lots of Calories

Friday was homemade cheeseburger day for us and even though I'm trying to cut down on calories I had to do it. It was so good and enjoyed it to the fullest.

Not just did I eat my cheeseburger but I also made some onion rings, and to be honest they were good but not the best ones I've had so I got to keep on looking for a better recipe. 

Saturday was a very busy day for my husband and I but I enjoyed every bit of it. Starting from going to get an oil change on my car to making our flower bed in the front yard look nice, we finished at around 4:00 pm and lots of calories burned down, but I again had to make some tasty dinner. Even though I had cheeseburgers on Friday, we wanted to do a pizza and a movie on Saturday but we wanted to do it at home and rest from such a busy day. So I got on it and in 30 minutes dinner was ready. I made a homemade pizza using pancake mix in my crust, it might sound crazy but it was really good and it looks really good, you tell me!!!

Yes, my crust burned a little on the edges but the rest of it was perfect. I had to have two pieces that's how good it was.

We had a very good weekend and enjoyed it to the fullest. Now Monday is here and I am so busy doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms ( took a little break to tell you a little bit about my eating habits last weekend) and in a little bit will be starting dinner but this time we will be behaving, we are having some good salad with chicken for dinner. 

Enjoy the rest of your day!!!!

Best Steak Ever!!!!

I've seen and heard that not everyone can make a juice tender steak even my husband told me so yesterday. Making a super good steak was my goal yesterday for dinner so I started looking online to what was the secret to a really tender melt in your mouth steak, let me tell you that I have found the secret and I'm going to share it with you.
OK, so first thing I did was season it like I always do so it can have lots of flavor for when it's time to cook it but the different thing I did was to add half of a coke to it and put it in a zip lock bag for 6 hours or more, they say that coke is a meat tenderizer and I believe it. Man!!! was it good. You have to try it for sure.

We like our steak cooked medium to medium rare. 

I also made some glazed carrots, potatoes with salt and vinegar onions and corn on the cob. My onions I cook them in a little bit of oil and then add salt and vinegar to it then when they are cooked I add them to the potatoes (they are really good!!!!)

Believe me, dinner was so good last night and I met my goal with that delicious tender melt in your mouth steak. I even dare to tell my husband that it was as good or better than Outback steak. LOL!!!

Today is a home made burgers day for me, yummy!!! Have a good day and happy cooking!!!! 

Wonderful husband!!!!

I really have to tell you that I have the most wonderful husband in the world. Since Tuesday evening I haven't been feeling good, at first I thought it was allergies but yesterday I felt lots of pressure in my head and forehead, sneezing a lot and stuffy nose (that's not allergies for sure!!!) so I told my husband to go to Walmart to get me some Mucinex or nasal decongestant on his way home. He calls me from Walmart to make sure that he gets exactly what I told him. OK, so he gets home and I go to the door to greet him and this is what he brought home for his sick wife.

Isn't he just adorable, wouldn't you feel better as soon as you saw that. He even got praised when he was paying for it. I know for sure the Lord loves me and I am very very blessed.

Have a good day and hope you don't get sick like I am. Much love!!!

Busy but Worth it!!!!

Yesterday was a very busy day for me and my kitchen, there was all sorts of things going around. As I had told you in my last blog my kitchen was going to be full of yummy cooking; we were celebrating my husband's grandma's 94th birthday which is pretty amazing in this days to reach that age with a pretty decent health.
The first thing I did in the morning was go and buy some balloons for her so she can feel celebrated and our place looked more like a birthday party. 

After I got the balloons the cooking party started. Started cooking the items for my potato salad, putting together a delicious lasagna and making an awesome strawberry upside down cake. Later I finished the potato salad and put it in the refrigerator, then it was time to start my honey baked ham, doesn't it sound good already!!!! At about 5:00 pm  I put the lasagna in the oven and some rolls.

Here is the cake made and decorated by me. :)

My in-laws got to the house at around 5:45 pm and my husband went to get the grandma and aunt, I had a full house but it all was worth it when we saw how happy they all were specially the grandma. She was so surprised and amazed at all the food at the table that she couldn't stop talking about it.

I was praying all the time that the food came out really good, this was my time to proof myself to the whole family. Everything looked good but the question was, does it taste good? It was time to say grace and start eating and I was waiting for my father-in-law's reaction to the ham and all, but instead of just his reaction I got everyone's good response back. This was the Lord's hand in all because it was my first time cooking a lot of dishes for a lot of people.

Family going around the table 

Now here is a close up of the food. I think it was really good too!!!

Cake in the middle, potato salad, yellow rice, corn w/peas, honey baked ham, lasagna
and some lettuce w/tomato salad.

Busy vs Worth it!!! I think it all was worth it because everyone was happy and the family was together enjoying some quality time.

 Today I feel so tired but it's OK, I have the most amazing husband in the world. He cleaned up the whole kitchen before he went to work this morning and went to our room and told me "babe don't worry about the dishes" I said OK thinking he meant not to do it if I couldn't but that was not the case. I had to call him at work and tell him how amazing he is and how much I love him. I'm very blessed!!!!

Enjoy your day and remember to thank God for all you have. Much love to all!!!