Chicken with Tomatoes, Onions and Olives

We ended up cooking a lot this week on our days off. I wanted to make a few things since its been awhile and we came up with this recipe along with a few others that we made. For this recipe, it only took about 30-40 minutes. All the ingredients were very simple and it seemed to turn out like a mediteranean dish. I added some cilantro into a basmati rice and juice from maybe about half of a

lime for our side dish. this one was a keeper! Yummo!





October Surprise Date Night

We've decided that once a month, we are going to take turns planning a date night. This month, we went to one of the parks off Ken Caryl to play a couple of rounds of frisbee golf and then went out to dinner at
 Pei Wei- thee best asian "fast food". Although its not technically fast food but for those of you who have been to Noodle's, its basically the same style. Order, sit down, grab drinks and they bring your food out within 5-10 minutes. Its pretty awesome stuff and Ryan has never been there. Ive been wanting him to
 try it for awhile now and we finally got the chance. Its a pretty scarce restuarant around here so I was pretty excited to find one not so far away! Here's what we enjoyed for the night :)

Zucchini Breads

This morning Kellie and I spent about 3 hours in the kitchen making two different kinds of zucchini bread which turned into about 6 loaves of bread! She had gotten this insanely large zucchini and needed to do something with it before it went bad. The first one we made was the same as grandmas chocolate banana bread only instead of the bananas we substituted zucchini. The second one we did was Ryans moms recipe....

Jackie's Zucchini Bread:

3 eggs, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup olive oil> mix well

add 2 cups of grated zuchinni (cheese grater works perfectly), 3 tsp vanilla,

3 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 3 tsp cinnamon,

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional) also, we added about
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips for fun! (optional)

Grease two loaf pans & flour them so that the bread won't stick.

bake at 325 for about an hour. We baked at 375 for about 35-40

minutes because of the high altitude. Cool 10 min before removing from pans.

Homemade Pizza

This is mom's recipe for pizza dough. We always bought the Pillsbury dough in a tube but nothing compares to homemade!!!

For Two Medium Pizzas:

1 1/2 cups water

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

4 cups flour

4 tsp quick-rise yeast

Let rise in bowl for one hour. Then cut into two pieces and roll out with floured rolling pin to fit the size of each pan. Grease pans with olive oil (the Misto sprayer is our new favorite kitchen tool for olive oil), and sprinkle with yellow cornmeal. Then lay dough onto pans and layer with pizza sauce, cheese, and your choice of toppings! Our favorites are pinneapple, pepperoni, sausage and mushrooms.

Halloween Sugar Cookies

These cookies can be made for any holiday such as valentines day with hearts and easter with bunnies but I think they have always been a fun halloween treat :) This year, mom had found an owl recipe and wanted to change from doing just the normal pumpkins. Michaels sells a three pack of Wilton cookie cutters for about 4 bucks that includes an owl, cat, and a pumpkin. We used a candy corn for the nose and mini chocolate chips for the eyes! This is the perfect treat for any sweet tooth!

Flank Steak, Green Beans with Tomatoes and Wild Rice

This was Ryans meal to make. He loves his steak so he chose this recipe which turned out quite well. The green beans had onion and tomato in and didnt give much flavor so we decided we probably won't make them again but everything else was delcious!

Date Night at Yardhouse

These are just pictures of what we ate at the Yardhouse for our date night this month. It's an upscale grill and brewery and Ryan had planned to surprise me with all of our plans for the night! We went to Red Rocks, The Colorado Mills Mall and ended eating dinner here :)



Panko Crusted Tilapia- Fish Sticks

If you need an easy lunch, this is it. Im not at all a seafood fan, but when I saw the recipe for this I was excited because I love fish sticks! All you do for the coating is add 2 cups of Panko bread crumbs, 2 tbsp evoo, and 1 tbsp Bay seafood seasoning.  Whisk one egg together with salt and pepper, and dip each piece of tilapia in the egg mixture. This helps the bread crumbs to stick and makes the crunchy breading to the fish.  Lay onto a baking pan and  bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes. Enjoy with tartar sauce and serve with lemon wedges.

Grandma Dianne's Chocolate Chocolate Banana Bread

This recipe is my grandma's and has been in the family for as long as I could remember. I was looking for something chocolate and could never come up with anything that we liked and then I remembered that my mom had a recipe from grandma for the perfect banana bread :) My father in law Mike requested this specially for his birthday on wednesday instead of cake! Happy Birthday!

Tex-Mex Turkey and Bean Chili

Most Chili's consist of beans, tomatoes, and meat. This one is unique because of the ground turkey, bacon, and cocoa in it. Who would have ever thought to add chocolate to a chili!?! It works so well, and it doesn't over power any of it. I was looking for something that was not like any other chili and this is it. It's a keeper!

Serves 8, Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Here are the directions:

1.) Heat a dutch oven or heavy stock pot over medium. Chop 4 slices of bacon into 1/2 inch chunks and add to pot until crisp about 8 minutes. Turn heat to high and add 3 lbs of ground turkey cooking until no longer pink.

2.) Add 4 onions coursely chopped, 4 garlic cloves, minced, and 2 jalepeno chiles, minced. Cook until soft about 5 minutes. Then 3 tbsp chili powder, 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, and 4tsp ground cumin. Add to meat and stir in for about 1 minute.

3.) For the tomatoes, it called for 2 28oz cans of whole peeled tomatoes but I would suggest using just regular diced tomatoes-then you dont have to cut them up. So you add in two cans of whichever tomatoes you prefer along with the juices. Add in 2 tbsp molasses, and 1 cup of water. Season with salt for taste. Bring to a boil, and cover for 30 minutes.

4.) Add beans, continue cooking until turkey is tender, and liquid has thickened about 30 minutes more.

5.) Serve hot with sour cream, cheese, and jalepeno slices. Buon Appetite!

Stuffed Poblanos

   We got together with Mary, Amy's old roomate, for this delicious dinner and just to hang out since we haven't seen her since our wedding in March. This recipe we have made before but it was before we started our blog so we wanted to include it now! Along with the stuffed peppers, we made corn bread with green chiles.

Ingredients :

Serves 4. Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes

1 can peeled tomatoes in juice

1 jalepeno chile

2 small onions coursely chopped

3 garlic cloves, 2 crushed 1 minced

salt and pepper

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
1 teaspoon ground cumin

3/4 cup water

4 large poblano chiles, halved lengthwise,ribs and seeds removed

Puree tomotoes, jalepeno, half of the onions, and crushed garlic. Season with

salt and pepper and then pour sauce into a 9x13 inch baking dish.

In a bowl, combine beans, cormeal, 1/2 cup cheese, remaining onion, minced garlic, cumin, water.

Slice peppers in half, removing seeds, but leaving the stems intact.

Divide bean mixture evenly and stuff peppers. Place on top of sauce in baking dish.

Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil.

Bake at 425 until poblanos are tender about 45 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and continue to cook until sauce thickens slightly and cheese is browned. 10-15 minutes more. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Also, for our homemade cornbread...

3 tablesoopns unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup yellow cornmeal

3/4 flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

1 large egg

1 1/4 cup buttermilk

mix in a small can of diced green chiles for color and flavor

Comine ingredients and spread batter in prepared pan. Bake until golden, 15-20 minutes. Serves 6

Playing with Friends & Food :)

Today we had our friends Tony and Kellie over for the labor day weekend. We spent the morning shopping at the Sunflower Market (which I had never been too), and then headed back to our apartment to begin with our creations. Our menu consited of the following:

Lunch-

"Wierd Pizza Thing"-aka a tortilla and 3 ingredients

1. sour cream

2. brown sugar

3. grapes

Crisp tortillas in oven: 3 minutes per side, then spread sour cream over the top, mixing in brown sugar and then top with grapes. Wha-la!

"Spring Salad with Strawberries and Creamy Orange Avacado Dressing"

1. baby spring mix

2. strawberries

3. orange juice

4. avacado

5. green onion

6. walnuts

For the salad dressing, blend OJ, avacado, and green onions together in food processor until smooth and creamy. Then prepare strawberries walnuts and baby spring mix and toss together with the dressing.

Dinner-
"30 Minute Gumbo"

(Which actually took an hour!)

 with Cornbread

Flank Steak Stir Fry

We tried making this stir fry for tuesday night's dinner. It turned out well, but it was a little bit difficult because you are supposed to cook everything on high heat so its very fast paced and everything that you throw into the stir fry needs to be prepared a head of time- which we didnt do. So we learned from that, and everything about it tasted good. The best part was it was done in less than 30 minutes! This meal is for those who don't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen! Served with Basmati rice...