GARLIC SHRIMP WITH ASPARAGUS AND PEAS- LOW CALORIE

This is a great meal. Its only 220 calories per serving this will make 2 big servings. So you will be full and it taste great and its low calorie cant get any better than this... oh and lets not forget it only takes about 10-15 minutes to make, so that makes it even better. Hope ya Enjoy!!!

Ingredients:
1 lb frozen Shrimp
1 cup frozen peas
1 bunch of Asparagus
4 cloves of garlic
butter or olive oil to saute
1/2 lemon -juiced
dill to taste
salt and pepper

Heat the pan on medium heat and add the olive oil or butter then throw in the shrimp and garlic and cook for about 5-7 minutes a little longer if shrimp are frozen. Add lemon juice, seasoning, dill and asparagus and cook for 1-2 minutes with a lid on so it steams.

got this recipe from: http://www.goingcavewoman.com/garlic-shrimp

GIADA DE LAURENTIIS ROMAN-STYLE CHICKEN

Ok let me start off by saying that this dish was so delish. I couldnt get enough of it. My husband was running late getting home and all i wanted to do was eat it. I did a couple taste test and was in love with this. Giadas recipe won my stomach over lol.

ENJOY!!!

INGREDIENTS

• 4 skinless chicken breast halves, with ribs
• 2 skinless chicken thighs, with bones
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus 1 teaspoon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus 1 teaspoon
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
• 3 ounces prosciutto, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

DIRECTIONS

Season the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. In a heavy, large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, cook the chicken until browned on both sides. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Keeping the same pan over medium heat, add the peppers and prosciutto and cook until the peppers have browned and the prosciutto is crisp, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, wine, and herbs. Using a wooden spoon, scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Return the chicken to the pan, add the stock, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 to 30 minutes.

If serving immediately, add the capers and the parsley. Stir to combine and serve. If making ahead of time, transfer the chicken and sauce to a storage container, cool, and refrigerate. The next day, reheat the chicken to a simmer over medium heat. Stir in the capers and the parsley and serve.

Note: I would not salt the chicken as the prosciutto is very salty itself and this dish is pretty salty. I personally love salty things so it didnt bother me much.

TAMALES

These are the tamales my family has been making since i can ever remember. We usually make them together every year as a family all the women get together gossip and make tamales. Since being away from my family for so long i do it on my own every year in (usually) November. I usually make about 200 of them by myself which as least a full days work for me. Its tiring but i enjoy it. Last year i made them for all my husbands co workers. They loved them thats when they decided i really am hispanic lol.

INGREDIENTS

1-2 bags of California chilis ( i usually find them by the spices they are dry and red, any mexican store should sell them as well)

1 bag of masa mix or prepared masa ( the masa mix is in a bag like flour, depending where you live you might be able to find some stores that sale the masa already made just ask :))

lard ( if you are making the masa from the mix only)

1 roast

Corn Husk

Tamala Pot

Directions:

Make the roast as you normally would season to taste. I usually put mine in the crockpot the day before and let it cook all day so its ready the next morning for me to use.

take the chilis open them and devain and seed them.

Soak the corn husks and clean out the red stringy stuff i dont know what its called lol.

Boil the chilis till tender. Put chilis in the blender i always add a couple cups of the broth from the roast but you can also add the water they were boiled in. Blend really well till it makes like a sauce. Pour into a strainer/colander to get rid of the excess skin from the chilis.

Shred up the roast and add the chili sauce to it. Mix up really well as to evenly coat the meat.

open the corn husk and with a butterknife or spoon whatever your comfortable with spread the masa on the bottom/big half of the corn husk. Fill with the Meat. Roll the tamale then fold the top part down.

Put water at the bottom of the pot, put the little crate back on at the bottom of the pot then place a bowl in the center of it. Lean the tamalas on the bowl in a circle and just keep piling them up. Put on the stove and let cook for 2-4 hours depending how much you make. You will need to check them after 2 hours to see if the masa is done you will be able to tell if it is like bread or not.

viola! Tamales

i will post additional pictures soon of the process

Note: You can use other stuff than just meat you can use beans, cheese pretty much anything you think might sound good inside. You can use a beef or pork roast :)

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF FALL (SPICY PUMPKIN CHILI)

Good Evening Everyone,
 First off thanks to everyone for following my food blog. I know its been a while i've been super busy with work and have been keeping up with the cooking but its been hard and i'm usually pressed for time so i haven't been able to keep the blogging part up. However this is my favorite time of the year to cook, i think mainly because its comfort food season. Now just to be able to cook all this goodness without gaining to much would be just wonderful lol. Ive got a few things i'm going to do here today.
 First off im going to Start trying to make a pinterest inspired project with my husband once week probably on the weekend, and i will post pictures and how to make it here along with the pin itself. I also have 2 wonderful recipes for yall to try the Spicy Pumpkin Chili, which is amazing and that little bit of pumpkin flavor and spice really makes it feel like the fall season, and then S'mores Brownies. The brownies are amazingly delicious. We don't eat a lot of Sweets here in the Flanagan house, i  usually try a little bite of whatever i bake and leave a small piece for the husband and then the rest of it always ends up going to one of our jobs with us. This time i took these to my work and they absolutely loved them. I hope you enjoy everything in this blog today :)

Lets start off with my pin of the week:

This was super easy yet cute to make and my husband even got to add his touch to it

click here to find it on pinterest

This is super easy to make all you need is mason jars we only used 3 you can make however many you would like then we poured candy corn in them and then put in the fake tealights i wanted to add some burlap and this is what my husband thought up to do with it. See super easy and cost us less than 15.00 to make these!

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Now on to the food portion. We shall start with the Spicy Pumpkin Chili. 

Ingredients: 

1 lb ground beef or turkey

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 large onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 (15 oz) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (15 oz)  can great northern beans, rinsed and drained

1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

2 (14.5 oz) cans petite diced tomatoes

1 (15.5) oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice 

2 tsp chili powder 

1 tsp ground cumin 

1 tsp salt

Directions:

Cook and stir the beef in a large skillet over medium heat until no longer pink, stir in the red pepper flakes, garlic and onion and cook all together until meat has browned and the onion is soft and translucent. Add the green and red peppers and cook for about 5 more minutes. 

While the beef is cooking thow the remaining ingredients in a slow cooker... kidney beans, black beans, great northern beans, tomato sauce, tomato paste, petite diced tomatoes, fire roasted diced tomatoes, pumpkin puree,  pumpkin pie spice, chili powder, ground cumin and salt. Stir in the ground beef mixture and cook on high for 1- 2 hours until chili is hot. ENJOY!!! 

Now im just saying your kitchen will smell amazing while cooking this. If you love the smell of pumpkin, which i totally do, you will love the smell this lets out into your kitchen. I hope you love this dish as much as the husband and i did. 

i got this recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spicy-pumpkin-chili/detail.aspx

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Now onto my last and final thing i'm putting up this is probably the best part because well for one who doesn't like s'mores and for 2 who doesn't like brownies and why would you not want to put these two things together to make a fabulous dessert and your kids are sure to love them. 

S'mores Brownies

Ingredients: 

1 package of brownie mix

6 graham crackers 

1 2/2 cups miniature marshmallows 

1 big hersheys bar ( 8- 1.5 oz bars milk chocolate)

Prepare brownie mix according to package. Spread into 9x13 inch pan. In a medium bowl, break up the graham crackers into 1 inch pieces and toss with marshmallows and milk chocolate, set aside. Bake brownies until they have about  5-10 minutes left of cooking and remove them and sprinkle with the s'mores goodies evenly, pop back in the oven and let finish baking until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow brownies to cool before cutting. 

got this recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spicy-pumpkin-chili/detail.aspx

SHRIMP FETTUCCINE ALFREDO

This is the first i have ever made homemade alfredo sauce i normally just buy the stuff in the jar haha. I never knew it could be soooo easy. Hope you enjoy this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 pound fettuccini pasta
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 pound cooked shrimp - peeled and deveined
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• salt to taste

Directions

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

In a large skillet, saute shrimp and garlic in the butter for about one minute. Pour in half and half; stir. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese in one tablespoon at a time, stirring constantly. After all Parmesan is added, mix in parsley and salt. Stir frequently making sure it does not boil. Sauce will take a while to thicken.

When sauce has thickened, combine with cooked pasta noodles; serve hot.

Notes: The sauce will not get as thick as you might think while cooking but once you pour it on your noodles it will thicken up a little bit more.

CROCKPOT PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES

 Happy First Day of September. (Even thought I'm technically typing this on the 2nd). Who's all ready for fall? ME ME ME! The first day of fall is September 23 by the way. I am so excited that September is here and already the cooler weather has started. I woke up to a cool 53 degrees and the high today here in Bavaria is 63 degrees. I have all my windows open and my blinds its such a beautiful day.
 Im sure yall know September also starts the EVERYTHING PUMPKIN time of the year. I've already started. I personally am not a huge everything pumpkin fan i do love the pumpkin scents though. Im more of a christmas everything kinda gal. Some might say i'm even obsessed. Anyways i thought id start off September by making everyone's favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte. I found a crockpot recipe on pinterest of course and it was super easy with easy ingredients and only took 2 hours in the crockpot. I of course had to have a taste tester as i've only ever tried it at Starbucks once. So my friend came over and tried it and said it was delicious. So i shall be making more to pass out on Halloween :)
 Well here is the recipe! ENJOY!!

Ingredients: (serves 10-15 ppl)

6 cups of Milk
4-6 cups of strongly brewed coffee
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cinnamon sticks

Directions:

In your crockpot combine the milk and coffee. In a bowl whip together the pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, sugar and cinnamon. Add them to the crockpot and mix together. Toss in the cinnamon sticks and cover the crockpot, cook on high for 2 hours.

HOMEMADE CHUNKY TOMATO SOUP

The last few days have been loong. The husband had a 4 day weekend. We spent a lot of time just being lazy on the couch. We did have date night on Friday which consisted of our favorite bar Yannis some drinks and really really good pizza.
Saturday was a going away party for one of my friends. Sad day, especially because i thought she was really cool and have only known her for a couple months and now shes about to be getting on a plane in the next couple days or so. I had fun though took lots of pictures and got to hang out with all my wonderful friends.
The rest of the weekend we spent doing pretty much nothing but laying on the couch. It was rainy and cold all weekend. Yay Welcome September/almost fall. I may be the only one super excited for the rainy days and cold weather being from Washington and all i'm feeling quite at home here.
So of course with the cooler weather brings lots of soups. YUMMO!!!!  Of course it also brings lots of baking (to help keep the house warm, of course) :) So i thought id start off my soup season with only the best kid memory i have from the cold days with my mom. Coming in out of the snow or the rain all wet. Changing my clothes and getting ready for dinner and of course it had to be Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese sandwiches. After eating this for dinner i felt the need to watch tv curled up on the couch in my blankets. What a great feeling. Anyways here is the recipe. ENJOY!!!

Ingredients:

7 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped tomato (about 7-8 large tomatoes)
1 cup finely chopped carrots (about 2 medium carrots)
3/4 cup finely chopped onion (about 1 medium onion)
1 (13.75 oz) can chicken broth
1 TBS white sugar
2 tsp sea salt
3 TBS butter
3 TBS all purpose flour
2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Directions:

To peel the tomatoes boil them for a couple minutes and then remove them. Then unpeel they should be pretty easy to peel after that. Bring the tomatoes, carrots, and onion to a boil over medium-high heat in a dutch oven, then reduce heat to medium- low. Simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in the chicken broth, sugar, and salt.

Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a small saucepan. Whisk the flour, stirring until thick. Slowly whisk in the milk until smooth. Cook and stir, whisking constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes, then stir milk mixture in to the dutch oven. Season with basil, celery salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Continue to simmer the soup on low to reduce and thicken, about 1 hour.

BEER BRAISED SPICY CHILI

Good Morning/noonish from Germany,
 Its a cool 55 degrees outside. Fall officially started a couple days ago on the 23rd. So happy fall y'all. Here in Germany though it started feeling like fall the first of September. We have been enjoying some nice cool weather. Big change from our last placed we live in california where temps are still in the 100's. 
 Once fall hits and/or it starts cooling down i love to make soups, soups and more soups. I love to bake lots of goodies as well. I usually send those to work with the husband. I decided to to other day it was time for me to make my first chili for the fall.
 I made this wonderful yummy spicy beer braised chili. I made it with our wonderful German beer, Zoigl its soo yummy. You can of course any beer you want but as my husband said when i told him, "I know i used the good beer for this and you think its a waste", Good beer just makes the quality and taste of the chili even better. Anyways I hope yall enjoy this yummy recipe and keep warm in this cooler weather.

Beer Braised Spicy Chili

Ingredients:
2 TBS olive oil
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb ground beef or turkey
6 oz beer
15 oz beef broth
6 oz tomato paste
15 oz diced tomatoes, drained
1.5 TBS chilli powder
1 TBS ground cumin
1/4 cup barbeque sauce
1 TBS or to taste hot sauce. (if you dont like really spicy id put a little less)
1 15 oz can Kidney Beans

Directions:

In a large pot or dutch oven heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and saute until onions are opaque and soft. Add Ground beef or turkey and brown for about 3-5 min. Season the meat and onions with steak seasoning or salt and pepper. Add beer and let reduce by half. Stir in the rest of the ingredients except the kidney beans. Reduce to medium low heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Add kidney beans and let simmer for another 5 min or so.