Stuffed Acorn Squash

Sometimes I just get the urge to make and eat a lot of vegetables.  I have to say that I'm pretty happy about these urges right about now.  Every other day, I seem to find myself eating three- to four-course meals, then inhaling a pile of desserts.  Just to make sure they're good, ya know.  I'm doing some self-appointed quality control testing.

While I love hanging out with the family and trying to figure out how food much I can actually fit into my stomach, it's time to give myself a reality check.  Christmas is over and I really need to reign things in.  It's probably a wise idea to kickstart this healthy eating with stuffed squash.  Only good things can come from roasting acorn squash, and then stuffing it with brown rice, cranberries, and pecans.

In all honesty, this is my first time making a dish using acorn squash and I'm pretty proud of how this turned out.  The recipe is so easy that it would be quite difficult for me to fail at making this.  Since I'm pretty much still nursing a food hangover (4 days later, oof), simplicity is the name of my game.

Spicy Tomato & Blue Cheese Soup

Happy Merry Christmas Eve!

I know we're all in the middle of eating Christmas cookies, drinking egg nog (spiked, of course!), and singing carols.  But, contrary to popular belief, we cannot live on these things alone.  Hence, I'm bringing you some soup.  Who's in on this with me?

In case you're still hesitating, let me tell you that sriracha and blue cheese are involved in this situation.  Get you some soup bowls and sit down.  Now dig in.

Chocolate Coconut Sugar Scrub

In case you're wondering, you can eat this.

Not that I have tried it or anything.  I'm just saying...

I've begun an obsession as of late with bath scrubs.  I'm pretty sure it has to do with the weather being colder and other such things.  So imagine my surprise and excitement when I found this recipe to make my own sugar scrub.  I don't know if you know this, but those little pots of sugar, oil, and really nice scents can get pretty pricey.  Making my own would not only allow me to save a little money this holiday season, but I could also customize my scrub to my own liking.  I'm just winning all over the place.

Let's also think ahead and if you still need a holiday gift, you can make this, put it in a fancy package and boom!  You have solved your problem.  I did this myself this past weekend when my girlfriends and I had our annual Secret Santa gift exchange dinner.  That dinner was epic, as per usual.  Can we say "fried chicken and eggnog waffles" at Melba's in Harlem.  I'm still dying just thinking about that dish.  Trust me, you need it in your life.

I'm pretty sure you also need this scrub.  This scrub is a combination of chocolate and coconut and sugar.  Nothing can go wrong here.  Nothing.

Baked Eggnog French Toast with Cranberries and White Chocolate

 

Let's get Christmas-y up in here.

I've been super busy lately traveling for my job, but this is just too good to keep away from you guys.  Baked eggnog french toast is the new business.  And we add some cranberries and white chocolate to make it festive.  I will definitely keep this breakfast item in the repertoire for the future.  I think I can also tweak this to make it work for various seasons.  Not that this particular recipe isn't completely amazing.  It is.

I got the luck of the draw this month when I received the Cheese Curd in Paradise blog for the Secret Recipe Club.  Ashley has blogged about so many recipes that I want to indulge in, but unfortunately I can only choose one for this post.  That special "one" turned out to be this recipe.  Once I laid eyes on it, my mind was immediately made up.  I made this recipe when my family came to visit me the weekend after Thanksgiving.  It was the perfect indulgent post-Thanksgiving brunch item and we all fell in love with it.  I allegedly had two servings.  Let me tell you that it was worth it.

Jamaican Beef Patty Flatbread

I don't even know how this thing happened.

My work schedule was a bit wonky last week, and at the last minute I ended up working from home the entire week.  On or about Tuesday, I realized that I didn't have enough real food to sustain me much longer.  I had to go to the grocery store.  But, for various reasons (most of which had to do with something called "laziness"), I never made it.

And so began the process of existing on coffee, Babybel miniature cheese, and turkey wraps from the restaurant across the street.  Yeah.  Low points.

So I did what I do best: I raided my freezer.  In it, I found 1/2 lb of ground beef, two flatbreads, and frozen peas.  Things were not looking up...until I found a recipe that would let me use all of this good stuff.

OK, I tweaked a few things, but are you surprised about that?  You shouldn't be.

Growing up in the Bahamas, I have been eating Jamaican beef patties as a snack since I was a child.  They will always take me back to the time of carefree living and remind me of being back in Nassau.  I figured I should probably take a stab at my own version of this recipe.

Chicken Enchilada Cups

Let's recreate some summer goodness.  I can't ever get enough of Mexican-inspired cuisine and this is no exception.  While the weather has been slightly warmer in the past few days, it has still been much cooler than my preferred 60-70 degrees F.  Let's warm ourselves up.

I actually made these cups as appetizers for my housewarming party earlier this year.  However, in all the brouhaha, I never got shots of the final items.  In fact, I remember it being mid-party and wondering why my apartment was so warm (this place is always freezing!) and realizing my oven was preheating for these little things...which were chilling out in the kitchen and definitely not in the oven.

I can't even take these...in a good way.  They're tiny, which means that they're automatically cuter than cute.  Also, I'm certain I'm ingesting fewer calories than if I were to eat a huge wonton filled with this enchilada mix.  Obviously.

Livin' The Life 12/1/2013

I haven't done one of these posts in a while, so while I'm digesting Thanksgiving meal numero umpteen, here's a roundup of my latest set of iPhone pictures.

I took a trip to Baltimore in early November.  I spent some time on a

street with cobblestones and colorful autumn leaves.  I also liked 

this sign, even though I don't like olives.