I used to be sane, but I got better.

Hello everyone!

I know this abrupt change came as a surprise to a lot of people and it will probably take awhile for people to trickle over and I'll probably have to start building my followers all over again, but hey! I am EXCITED about this change. I have been stagnating over in the cooking world for a little while. Don't get me wrong! I still love it and I still hope to play a major part in it, but I think I might have some other things to offer as well.
Like I said in my previous post, I need a creative outlet. I can only post so many craft, painting, sewing projects on my family blog before people start getting bored and wonder why I don't talk about my hubby more. I started writing a journal and that didn't turn out to be enough. My husband is going bonkers because I keep telling him all about blankets, changing pads, curtains, blah blah blah that I want to share so instead YOU (lucky you...) get to hear all about it.
One of the first things I want to change from my previous blog is I want to add a playlist on here. I know some people despise these things and for that, I am terribly sorry. HOWEVER, music is very much a part of my life! So scroll on down to the very bottom and get to know me a bit by looking at my musical choices.

Hope you enjoy!

Gianina

I Need a Creative Outlet.

I think I am going to change the purpose of this blog. I am interested in so many things and want to do so many things and I would love to share all of these things with many people. (I also consequently am not paying very close attention to my grammar.)
I want to make this blog respresent me. I'm still planning on posting recipes (which I have like 5 I need to post btw) but I would also like to post book reviews, movie reviews, crafts I want to do, crafts I've done... etc. and get feedback on all of it. This may not make a lot of sense to some people, but it makes a lot of sense to me, because that is how my mind works 99% of the time. One big jumbled mess of life.
I don't promise that it will be interesting, but I do promise it will be me.

What do you think?

Greek Potato Salad

If you ever are wondering what I'm doing on a Friday night when my husband is still at work, you can be sure to find me searching the internet for yet another food blog so that I can expand my cooking horizons. I found this blog a couple of weeks ago and I LOVE it. My brother has been begging me to make her Chicken Pineapple Blackbean Enchiladas for him and I have her another recipe of hers on the menu for this next week. Thanks to Mindi for having such an awesome blog!

I was hesitant and excited to try this greek potato salad. I was unsure of whether or not Emi or I would like it because we are kind of potato salad snobs. :-D I loved cutting up all the vegetables and the delicious smells that came from them. Nothing smells better than fresh cut vegetables... seriously... nothing. However, this recipe wasn't mine and Emi's cup of tea. We weren't sure why exactly. We didn't hate it, and we didn't love it. I wanted to share it though because I'm sure other people would find it to their liking. My mom tried some and she loved it! I gave it to her and she said that she even ate some right before she went to bed! Haha. So if your game, definitely try this recipe. Who knows.... you might like it!

GREEK POTATO SALAD
1 ½ lb. red potatoes, cubed
1 C. cherry tomatoes, halved
1 C. cucumber, seeded, diced
½ C. pitted Calamata olives, sliced
¼ C. red onion, diced
1 T. chopped fresh oregano
1 C. shredded grilled chicken (optional)

VINAIGRETTE
½ C. feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 C. fresh lemon juice
¼ C. olive oil
2 T. plain yogurt (or Greek yogurt)
1 t. sugar
Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, 12-15 minutes; drain.
2. Mix all the ingredients for the vinaigrette in a blender.
3. Combine tomatoes, cucumber, olives, onions and oregano.
4. Add potatoes, chicken and vinaigrette.
5. Lightly mix until vinaigrette is evenly distributed.
6. Chill the refrigerator before serving.

Source: Mindika Moments

Steak Kabobs

I have really been enjoying being able to cook on the grill. This last meal I cooked was completely by myself with no help from Emi and the steak ended up being cooked perfect!!! It still had a bit of red in it and was moist and flavorful. I changed this just a little bit from the orginal recipe. For one thing, I used 2 garlic cloves instead of just the 1 and Emi and I never use hot sauce, so I didn't want to buy any for 1/8 of a tsp. Plus, I was a little afraid that if Emi saw the hot sauce, he wouldn't even try the steak, although I'm sure 1/8 of a teaspoon wouldn't add any heat to it. Instead I added 2 T of teriyaki sauce. It turned out great!!! My vegetables of choice were red onions and green bell peppers.

STEAK KABOBS
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 T oil
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp paprika
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 T teriyaki sauce
3/4 lb steak- cubed
veggies of choice (like onion, mushrooms, peppers)

Combine first 9 ingredients. Pour 1/4 cup in a large zip loc bag. Cover and refrigerate remaining liquid. Add beef to bag and marinate at least 2 hours. Put meat and veggies of choice on skewers (soak skewers in water for 20 minutes before putting meat and veggies on them so they don't burn). Grill until desired doneness brushing with reserved liquid.

Source: Tried and True Cooking With Heidi

Sausage Calzones

Here is another wonderful recipe from Annie's Eats. My husband just LOVED this and told me to make them again soon! These were really easy to put together and satisfied my pizza craving that I always have! (I always crave pizza or tex-mexican food. :-D) I didn't have all the ingredients that I needed so I played around with it a bit and it turned out great!

However, I'm just going to include Annie's recipe because how I wish I had had everything I needed because I bet it would have been even better. I didn't have mushrooms or spinach so I left out the mushrooms (sad day) and put in some fresh parsley instead of spinach (obviously not as much). I have a little pot of parsley that is growing nicely on our balcony that was just begging me to use it. I also added the tomato sauce to the calzone before I put it in the oven! Yum!

Check out Annie's Eats Sausage Calzone recipe here.

How to Grill Pizza

Hello Again!

So I'm giving myself 100% for my efforts on blogging this past week. :-D I'm pretty much caught up now and I need to find some more recipes to grace you all with.

Since its pretty much summertime, we are doing most things on the grill. I am not a fan of cooking things over the stove because I always worry that it isn't done, and dislike cooking with oil. Last week, I decided that I wanted to try cooking pizza on the grill. I had never done this before and I was SOOOO nervous. My husband was even more nervous that I was going to ruin his precious grill. :-D

I could not for the life of me find a good tutorial on cooking pizza on the grill. So... I read a couple of different things and just decided to go for it! And here is my tutorial for you. :-D

1. Oil down grill. To do this, pour some olive oil onto a paper towel and rub down the area you will cook on.
2. Turn on grill and put it on high heat. Mine was at 500 degrees by the time I was ready to put the pizza on.
3. Make pizza dough. Lightly brush pizza dough with olive oil. Once dough is ready, place it on the grill. It will start to bubble immediately. Turn grill down to low heat. Once it is puffed up, you know to turn it on it's other side. (You may want to use two spatulas or a pizza turner. I made my pizzas kind of small since I don't have another grill spatula or a special pizza one!)
4. Start adding your pizza sauce and toppings.
5. Close the lid and allow cheese to melt. Once melted, your pizza is done!

SUPER EASY... and I didn't ruin the grill!

Here are some pizza recipes you can try on the grill.

Chicken Barbeque Pizza (This is the one pictured above)
Chicken Garlic Pizza
Ranch Chicken Pizza

...or you could always go for good ol' pepperoni and cheese!

Source: Gianina

Chicken with Lemon Sauce

This was another meal that me and my mom put together for a get together at my parent's house. My mom did most of the work, but I provided the recipe from Delectable Dining.
This dish turned out amazing and was so creamy. My only advice would be... make sure that you cool the sauce a bit before you taste it. I tasted the sauce and couldn't taste the lemon so I added more and it was a bit overpowering. I will definitely make this again!

CHICKEN WITH LEMON SAUCE
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup all purpose flour, divided
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 teaspoons salt, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons pepper, divided
2 eggs
5 tablespoons butter, divided
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups apple juice
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Flatten chicken to 1/4-inch thickness. In a shallow bowl, combine 3/4 cup flour, Parmesan cheese, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. In another bowl, beat the eggs. Dip chicken into eggs and coat with flour mixture. In a large skillet, cook chicken in 2 tablespoons butter and oil over medium heat for 3-5 minutes on each side or until juices run clear. Remove and keep warm. In a small bowl, combine the remaining flour, salt and pepper; stir in broth until smooth. Add apple juice to the skillet, stirring to loosen any browned bits. Stir broth mixture and add to the pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. Stir in lemon juice; cook for 1 minute. Add parsley and remaining butter; cook and stir until butter is melted. Serve over chicken.

Source: Delectable Dining

Sausage and Spinach Stuffed Shells

I am a BIG fan of Annie's blog over at Annie's Eats. I probably have more than half of her blog bookmarked to try. I really think she is an amazing cooker/baker.
I have made stuffed shells before, and while I liked them, I kind of found that I felt they were too much trouble for what their worth. These, however, were not. These were AMAZING! By far my favorite stuffed shell recipe. If you try anything from Annie's blog... TRY THESE.

SAUSAGE AND SPINACH STUFFED SHELLS
1 12-oz. package jumbo pasta shells
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
1 lb. Italian sausage, casings removed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 15-oz. container ricotta cheese
6-7 oz. fresh spinach, chopped OR 10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 tbsp. chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp. dried basil
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 28-oz. can chopped tomatoes with herbs, including the liquid

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta shells according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water, and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage to the pan, breaking it into smaller pieces as it cooks. Cook until the sausage is completely cooked through and no pink remains, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg, ricotta, spinach, 1/2 cup of the Parmesan, basil, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Stir together to combine. Add the cooked sausage mixture to the bowl and stir until evenly mixed.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spread a thin layer of the chopped tomatoes in the baking dishes (either three 8×8″ pans, or one 9×13″ and one 8×8″). Stuff each shell with some of the sausage and cheese mixture, and arrange in the baking dishes, open side up. Spread the remaining tomatoes over the top of the pasta shells.

Cover the pans with foil and bake for 30 minutes, until hot and bubbling. Remove foil and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 10 more minutes.

Source: Annie's Eats

Creamy Ground Turkey Enchiladas

This is a Gianina original. I had some ground turkey left over from the tacos that I made so I decided to throw together some enchiladas. These turned out great and were simple and easy to make. My husband kept telling EVERYONE how I came up with my own enchilada recipe and that it was SOOOOO good. :-P

GROUND TURKEY ENCHILADAS
2 T olive oil
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 onion, chopped
Garlic powder, to taste
1 can cream of mushroom
8 oz sour cream
1 can green chile enchilada sauce
2 cups medium cheddar cheese
10 flour tortillas
Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat oil in skillet. Add onions and sautee. Brown ground turkey with garlic powder.
3. Put ground turkey in a bowl and set aside.
4. In same skillet, add cream of mushroom, sour cream, and green enchilada sauce. Stir until well mixed.
5. Pour 1/3 of the sauce over the ground turkey.
6. Place meat and cheese inside flour tortillas and roll up. Spray a 9 X 13 baking pan with cooking spray. Place seamside down. Pour remaining sauce over the top of enchiladas. Top with cheese.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 30 - 35 minutes.

We like ours extra crispy so we do the full 35 minutes.

Ground Turkey Tacos

I am really behind on my blogging so I have quite a few recipes ready to go. My husband has been on vacation and while we have been eating well... I've been too busy spending time with him to post.

I got this recipe from a new site I was referred to by a friend a couple of weeks ago. Gina at Skinny Weight Watcher Recipes has a lot of great recipes and I was so excited to try this one. I have cooked with ground turkey before... and the result was not the greatest, but I'm happy to report that this turned out well! I was also a little afraid they would be too spicy for my husband, but they tasted almost exactly like the store bought packet of taco seasoning minus all the extra sodium!

GROUND TURKEY TACOS

1.3 lbs 99% lean ground turkey
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 small onion, minced
2 tbsp bell pepper, minced
3/4 cup water
1/2 8 oz can tomato sauce
8 large lettuce leaves from Iceberg lettuce

Brown turkey in a large skillet. When no longer pink add dry seasoning and mix well. Add onion, pepper, water and tomato sauce and cover. Simmer on low for about 20 minutes.

We tried these in the lettuce wraps, but despite drying them the end result was pretty messy (as well as tasty) so we decided to go with the traditional tortilla after that.

Source: Skinny Weight Watcher Recipes