My Pinterest Fail

You all have one...right? A pinterest fail? Something you saw and thought "oh boy! I'm going to make that!" And then right before your eyes it all goes downhill? Please tell me I'm not alone....

Introduce: Scrambled egg bananas

These are my "banana pancakes" made from 1 banana and 2 eggs. They are supposed to be amazing and apparently people actually succeed in making these. See here. I, on the other hand, fail. Miserably.

They wouldn't flip, turned to mush, and then into a scrambled kind of mess.

So then I made the rest of it into real scrambled eggs for fun. I tried to feed them to my husband. He decided maybe if our little guy was a toddler they would be a good toddler food. I guess he didn't like banana flavored eggs. Bummer. lol

I always ask Mark if a recipe is "bloggabe", or not after he tries it. Normally they are, but this was an unbloggable sort of day for me to say the least.

Pin It

Chicken Fajitas

Normally when we go to Costco I go into the vegetable cooler and come out with Mushrooms. Period. I am always so tempted by all of the other delicious things in there but we are frugal so I get mushrooms and leave before I cram every other healthy veggie into my cart. Then I head over to Buy Low...which is like a on sale produce heaven here in good old Provo, UT. I may just cry when we leave because that store is my best friend. Seriously sometimes they have oranges 10 lbs for $1 NOT LYING PEOPLE. It is incredible and that is just one example. 

The only thing wrong with Buy Low is they normally have just your fruit and veggie basics so we don't ever get anything out of the ordinary...but we're frugal so it works. Now the other day I sent my hubby into the vegetable cooler because I didn't want to freeze my cute little dude that I was holding. And he does not come out with only mushrooms. He on the other hand and he comes out with: Asparagus, Sugar Snap Peas, and Mini Bell Peppers. Oh my how I love that man. Those are actually 3 of my most favorite things in the world! He does not even like the peas or the peppers but knows i'll eat them all raw in a week. 

I had to reward him for his purchases and decided to use the bell peppers in something he would eat: fajitas. We had these with the rice I posted Thursday. Here is what you need: 

First you are going to make a marinade for your chicken (cut into strips) and marinate it for 1 hour:

2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into strips

1/4 cup lime juice
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
6 cloves garlic minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
Salt and black pepper, to taste

While your chicken is marinating cut up 1 onion into strips and about 6 mini bell peppers or 2 regular sized bell peppers into strips. 

Once chicken is done marinating dump it with the sauce into a skillet and cook until the chicken is cooked through. Take the chicken out and add 1 tablespoon of oil to the skillet (but don't rinse it out at all leave everything from the chicken in the skillet) Cook your bell peppers and onion until soft and add the chicken back into the pan. By now your kitchen should smell so delicious you might find yourself sneaking bites of the fajita mixture before you tell anyone else dinner is ready. 

Tips from KJ: 

We had these on corn tortillas...but you can have them on any kind of tortilla you want. 

You could also add some cheese and enchilada sauce and turn these into enchiladas or smothered burritos. 

We just had them with sour cream and guacamole but the fun thing about fajitas is that you control what goes on them and what doesn't :) 

Pin It

Sweet Lime Rice

When I first married Mark I was not really much of a rice eater. I would have it every now and then but really it was not a staple in my diet. I quickly learned that while I LOVED potatoes and veggies as sides with meals Mark really loved rice. It soon became something I loved too and I have fun trying out new rice recipes so we don't have to have plain white rice all the time. (Or I would not love having rice always) Even if it is just adding a few herbs/spices rice is easy to experiment with.

This rice gets most of it's credit from my mom. She has a recipe for it and she has given me the recipe too. But, we were up camping and we didn't have the recipe so I decided to just wing it. I came up with this rice (it does not taste like her original recipe but my dad liked it so much he said she had to get the recipe from him.....so then I had to try to re-create it and I got pretty close I think!)

Ingredients:

4 Servings rice pre-cooked. (you can use instant or regular...I normally use my rice maker for this part) This is about 4 cups of rice.
1/3 c Milk
1/2 c Sugar
Juice of 2 limes
2 Tsp Dried Cilantro
Salt to taste

Once your rice is done just add all of your ingredients and stir it up! I like to add salt to this because it gives a little bit of a nice contrast to the sweet. It is okay though if you just want to let everyone add salt as they see fit because it is very good without it!

Tips from KJ:

If your rice is seeming a little dry you can add a little more milk. It is supposed to be more of a sticky rice consistency.

We always use Vanilla Soy Milk for this. I can't have dairy right now and Mark just can't have cows milk so we pretty much only drink Soy milk in the Helberg home :)

If you don't like Cilantro leave it out! Or if you love it than add FRESH! Pin It

Garlic Broiled Asparagus

Recently I have become more healthy than I ever thought was possible. I have been banned from DAIRY for the next 8 months while I breastfeed my little guy. I guess his little tummy does not do well with the protein that is in dairy and for now because I love him and want him to be happy I am taking all dairy out of my diet. It is HARD my friends. But possible! I just have to do a little bit of tweaking to my portion of the foods I make and have to watch Mark eating cheese, trifle, cheese, ice cream, and more cheese making me Jealous. I just keep reminding myself that there is no better way to lose pregnancy weight like going dairy free! :) 

Mark got me a giant bag of Asparagus when we were at Costco the other day and I could not wait to experiment with some new recipes. He is lucky because he got to enjoy the full deliciousness of this recipe while I had to leave one part off of mine...the Parmesan Cheese so all of you diary lovers out there....eat your Parmesan cheese for me.  

These are so quick and easy. Here is what you need!

1 Bunch of asparagus
2 Tablespoons Oil
3 Cloves of Garlic Grated/Minced
Sprinkle of Garlic Salt
Parmesan Cheese

Pre-Heat your broiler on High. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Place asparagus on a cookie sheet and drizzle mixture over the top. Then make sure all of the asparagus is covered completely. Once coated sprinkle Parmesan cheese (or as we call it Parm Cheese)  over the top of all of the asparagus.

Broil for about 8 minutes or until they are tender. (They still will be a little crunchy but you should be able to easily pierce with a fork)

Tips from Kj:

LEMON!! I cannot say that enough. Lemon with Asparagus is absolutely delicious. We didn't have one. It was sad. Next time. Drizzle it on before or after broiling and you will not be sorry. Pin It

Herb Grilled Pork Chops

Pork chops are a tricky meat...either they will turn out juicy and delicious or on the other hand you might find yourself taking a big bite of a dry flavorless disappointment.

Fortunately for us these were delicious and juicy! 

Here is what you need: 

1/2 cup oil
1 tsp Parsley
6 Garlic Cloves Minced/Grated
1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp rosemary

1/2 tsp Salt

2 Pork Chops

Mix all of the ingredients in a zip lock bag and add the pork chops. You can let them marinate for a while or just stick them on the George* once they have been coated in the mixture. 

*George is the name that we lovingly and naturally call our George Foreman Grill. If you are lucky enough to have a real live grill out on your beautiful wrap around porch with nice patio furniture, while your children play on your in ground trampoline, and playground worthy swing set, waiting anxiously for the marshmallow roasting in your own backyard fire pit after dinner....grill away my friends. But we use George for all of our grilling needs and dream of the days we can have a real grill with all of the above mentioned extras. :) 

Grill on your George if you have one for about 3 Minutes Per side (Flipping Every 3 minutes) 

We had these with some lovely Rice A Roni Rice Pilaf and Garlic Broiled Asparagus (See THIS post) 

Tips from KJ:

I think it would be so yummy to omit the oil and baste the chops with butter as you are cooking. So I would coat them in the dry herb mixture and then baste them on each side as I flipped. Sounds healthy right? Probably as healthy as oil and you could use light butter, so there. 

Pin It

Sweet Meatballs

My hubby is staring at me in disbelief….I just put a movie I have been dying to watch in the dvd player, our baby is sleeping, we can totally snuggle and all of a sudden I said, “Wait!! I have to post the meatballs or all my followers of my cooking blog will be so disappointed” You know, because I promised you all a recipe today. So here I sit frantically typing this recipe so we can still get in some good cuddle time before our little cutie wakes up :) (He also laughs when I say followers…like he doesn’t think you are out there but I have faith that there might at least be two of you)

I have seen on pinterest recently a lot of posts of meatballs cooked in the crock pot with grape jelly. I decided to make my own rendition of those…minus crockpot…I love cooking in the crock pot it just takes planning. I didn’t have hours to let them cook or any pre-made meatballs so I made my own and I baked them in the oven for 30 minutes!

Ingredients:

For the meatballs

1 lb Hamburger
1 Tbsp Mustard
1/8 C Milk
1/2 C Breadcrumbs
1 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Honey

Mix all together and roll into 12 balls and place in an 8x8 baking dish.

Add 1/2 of an 18 oz Jar of grape jelly and spread around the meatballs.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup brown sugar over the top of the meatballs.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes

Take the meatballs out and flip them all over so they are now bottom up and the tops of them can get covered with sweet goodness :)

Bake for 15 more minutes and you are done! We had these with our usual spaghetti and American cheese on the side. Yummy.

Tips from Kj:

If you have pre-made meatballs go ahead and use those but I prefer to make my own. It is fun to experiment with the spices I put into them. I don’t think I ever make the same meatballs twice.

I am sure if  you don’t like grape jelly you could make these with other kinds of jelly. Although you can’t really tell it is grape jelly in the end…promise!

Pin It

Oven Roasted Red Potatoes and a Re-vamp

So I've decided to try a little re-vamp with my blog and change how I do it a little bit. I have been having a hard time finding time to blog my recipes. It is now my goal to have a new recipe posted every SUNDAY AND THURSDAY. So check back on Sunday for some delicious meatballs! I am hoping that with the consistency of recipes twice a week maybe I can get some of my followers back. :) To those of you that are still with me I really appreciate it!

I decided that the step by step instructions for my posts were what was taking too much time and making it so that I was not getting any posts written. I have this adorable cooking buddy that is my priority so I needed to find a way to keep it that way but still be able to blog!

I have decided to leave the step by step instructions out of my recipe posts unless I feel like it is something you probably need to see with your very own eyes. From now on I'll post a picture that will make your mouth water and then the recipe along with tips from Kj at the end. Hopefully you all will like the change and maybe it will make it easier to follow some of the recipes without having to scroll a lot.

And now for Oven Roasted Red Potatoes :)

Ingredients: 

4 Red Potatoes

2 Tbsp light Butter
1/2 tsp dill weed
1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp parsley 

1 tsp salt

2 cloves finely minced garlic (As usual I grated mine) 

Parmesan Cheese

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees

First slice your potatoes in whatever way you desire. I decided to make them into discs...haha okay I am sure there is a fancy cooking term for this way to slice potatoes but I don't know what it is so I chose discs. Make them about 1/4 of an inch thick. Lay potatoes in a 9x13 baking pan. 

Then melt your butter and add all of the spices and mix it up. Pour over your potatoes and toss them around to make sure they are all evenly coated. Lastly sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top. 

Bake at 450 for about 30 minutes or until soft. 

We had these with a pot roast (recipe to come soon!) They were so yummy! 

Tips from Kj:

The fun thing about these is that you can get creative with your combination of spices! If you feel like giving your potatoes a little kick add some red pepper flakes. Or you could make roasted ranch potatoes by adding powdered ranch dressing mix to the butter mixture....I think that is what I am going to do next! Pin It