Spicy Bloody Mary + Garden Party

~3 small tomatoes (on the vine)
~2 stalks celery
~2 carrots
~1 slice of jalapeño, or 1/2-1 whole pepper, seeded
~1 small bunch parsley
~1 squeeze lemon
~1/2 cucumber
~tabasco, salt and pepper, and a dash of worcestershire sauce

Put all ingredients except the spices through your juicer.

If you've never had fresh tomato juice, you have to try this!

If you add more than a slice of jalapeño, and you don't like spicy food very much (at all), prepare for it to be undrinkable.

Garden Party

 ~5 c. spinach
~1 apple
~1/4 c. parsley
~1 green pepper
~3 carrots

These drinks inspired by this article

DIY Pumpkin Spice Syrup with Molasses!

1 c. water

3/4 c. brown sugar

3 tbsp. pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

(alternatively, a dash of cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and ground cloves)

1 tbsp. molasses

whisk together in small saucepan

bring to a boil

stir for 3-5 min. or until slightly thickened

remove from heat

to make a pumpkin spice latte:

1 shot espresso

1 shot PSL syrup

6 oz. (3/4 c.) steamed milk

stir to combine

Super, super delicious! ;-)

Homemade Margaritas + Orange Margarita option

Homemade Margaritas:

add salt to rim of glass, if desired

4.5 oz.  Tampico limonada (sweet Mexican Lemon-Limeade)

1 oz. tequila (2 oz for a more boozy margarita)

Add whole or crushed ice, stir

Homemade Orange Margaritas:

add salt to rim, if desired

3 oz. fresh orange juice

1 oz. margarita mix or limonata

3/4 c. crushed ice

1 oz. tequila

add all to blender, serve frozen

Avocado Salad Wrap

Can I food-blog about something I didn't make myself?

This avocado salad wrap from Publix was SO GOOD I couldn't not photograph and share all over the 'gram. I'm in love. It was so tasty, especially with the sweet chili sauce it came with.

Two Recipes: Sweet Potato Hashbrowns + Mexican Quinoa Casserole

My brother was coming over for dinner, so I decided to make a few fancier dishes the other night. They both turned out so yummy, I had to write down the recipes I used.

Mexican Casserole with Red Quinoa

(Adapted from this recipe)

-1 c. white rice 

-1 c. red quinoa

-1/2 lb ground turkey

-tomato

-grated cheese

-avocado

-onion

Cook white rice and red quinoa according to package, add butter

chop (dice) tomatoes and add to rice

cook ground turkey and add diced onion at the end

add cooked ground turkey, seasoned to taste (I used chili powder, cumin, and sloppy joe seasoning) to the top of your rice

top with mexican cheese and/or grated cheddar cheese

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

serve/garnish with tomato and avocado and onion

Serve with a salad and raisin and date banana bread... and THIS...

Sweet Potato Hashbrowns with sausage

(adapted from this recipe)

-2-3 sweet potatoes (3 if small)

-garlic

-onion

-1/2 lb sausage (italian turkey sausage)~ can do bacon, I love bacon!

seasoning (I used garlic salt because I didn't have garlic on hand)

-2 tbsp. coconut oil

-1 tbsp butter

-tomato, avocado, egg*

-fresh rosemary, chopped

-fresh chives, chopped

* optional

Cook sausage, set aside

add coconut oil to grease

toss in bite-size potato pieces

cut up onion, chives, rosemary

Cook potatoes about 20 minutes (covered, but sauté/ stir once every few minutes)

add onion, garlic, seasoning

Cook for a couple more minutes
Remove from heat

Cook eggs and top with them

Thai Enchiladas

This version of a recipe for Thai Enchiladas was so good, I had to write down the recipe.  I memorized a recipe by reading it over a bunch of times and bought all of the ingredients. I altered it quite a bit, so.. I won't leak my original recipe (hint: on my Pinterest foodie page). But this is now one of my favorite recipes. I'm definitely, definitely going to be making this again! YUMMY!

Ingredients:

-tortillas
-4 chicken breasts
-carrots, 1-2 shredded
-1/2 cup corn kernels (frozen)
-green enchilada sauce
-coconut milk
-garnish: chopped jalapeños, crushed peanuts, and cilantro

Get your chicken boiling, turn down to low and simmer for about 19-20 min.

When cool, shred the chicken, using your hands, or a fork and knife, to tear it apart.

Meanwhile, make your sauce. Stir 1 tbsp. coconut milk into a can of green enchilada sauce, add shredded carrots and corn. Stir in the shredded chicken. Heat until all throughly warm. Add chopped cilantro if desired.

Put the filling into restaurant style/size tortillas.  Or any kind of tortillas, but we like them big.

Cover enchiladas with about 1/2 of a can of lite coconut milk.

Cook in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes or until piping hot.

Serve with sour cream and spicy salsa and garnish with peanuts, cilantro, and jalepeno.

To make them more spicy: add red sauce to coconut milk, or use medium-hot enchilada sauce.

Irish Soda Bread

4 c. Flour

4 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. salt

4 tbsp butter, softened

1 1/2 c. milk

1 egg

1/4 c. whipping cream

1 c. raisins (or currants)

optional: 1 tbsp. melted butter + brown sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 375. 

Add softened butter to flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Incorporate through the dough.

Mix milk and egg, and slowly add to the batter.

Fold in whipping cream.

Add raisins (or currants) and incorporate slowly throughout.

Mix dough. It will be wet.  Knead on a floured surface until the dough holds together nicely.  Make an X or a snowflake with a serrated knife. Using a plastic baggie, pipe the butter and brown sugar mixture into the X or snowflake shape on top of the bread.

Bake for 40 min.

Enjoy!