Saturday Happenings: A Wedding!

If you followed our last post, then you know we enjoyed spending our Friday evening inside, relaxing, and cooking Texas Chicken Burgers. The rest of the weekend, however, wasn't so laid-back.

On Saturday, Jesse graded some papers for class and I worked on some school work myself.

After a quiet morning/afternoon, Jesse and I got semi-dressed up to attend a friend of Jesse's wedding. I must say that even though I knew no one at the wedding, I actually had a fun time. Of course, if you got there at 7:07 pm and not 7:00 pm, all you came for was the reception and not the wedding at that point. I think it's safe to say, and Jesse would agree, that it was the shortest ceremony we've ever attended.

Still, though, it was nice for  Jesse to see her friends from her home town and from her time at The University of Louisiana at Monroe.

We didn't take many pictures at the wedding, especially of the food--we thought that might be rude. The food, though, wasn't bad. There were quite a few local favorites to choose from: jambalaya, blackened chicken alfredo, mini muffalettas, and crawfish bread. 

Surprising as it may seem to Jesse, I actually started reading other people's blogs and found some interesting recipes to try out. One of the recipes that looked interesting to me was a slow cooker lasagna. Of course lasagna always sounds delicious, but the ease of the recipe really grabbed my attention: mix the ingredients and walk away, come back and serve. You had me at "walk away."

So I decided that if I'm going to be making some fun recipes that maybe it would be fun to show us actually making them in a video. So the video below is our first experience at a cooking video; don't worry, they will improve over time.

Slow Cooker Lasagna Makes 6 servings Nutritional Facts (per 1 serving): 363 Calories, 16g Fat, 77mg Cholesterol, 670mg Sodium, 88mg Potassium, 30g Carbs, 1g Fiber,  15g Sugars, 22g Protein, 9% Vitamin A, 25% Vitamin C, 31% Calcium, 14% Iron
Ingredients: 1 lb. Lean Ground Beef 93/7 15 oz. Ricotta Cheese Part Skim 1 bag Kraft Italian Cheese 2 Tbsp. Shredded Parmesan Cheese 24 oz. Tomato Sauce (6) 2 oz. Lasagna Noodles, Uncooked 1 Egg
Steps:
1. Brown the ground beef.
2. Drain the beef, then place back in the pan.
3. Add tomato sauce, egg, 1.25 cup italian cheese, parmesan cheese, and ricotta cheese.
4. Blend mixture together.
5. Pour 1-1.25 cup of mixture into the bottom of the slow cooker.
6. Layer the lasagna noodles across the mixture.
7. Add a layer of the mixture and then add a layer of lasagna.
8. Add the remaining layer of mixture and cover.
9. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or until the liquid dries up.
10. At 3-4 hours add the remaining Italian cheese.
11. Serve and enjoy.

Chef Creations: Sweet Potato Boats, never heard of them but they were delicious!

We decided to try recreating a recipe Stephen saw on Instagram from someone he follows. We saw a great looking dish which combined meat, sweet potato, and salsa. We made them in two different formats to see how they would work out.

Since Stephen had just made some boudin balls and remoulade sauce, he decided to scoop out some of the sweet potato, break apart a boudin ball, and top it with remoulade sauce. I decided to try ground buffalo spread over a sweet potato, and covered with salsa. Both were delicious, I just think Stephen added too much remoulade sauce and might need to back down the amount next time not to overpower it.

Sweet Potato Boat with Buffalo & Salsa

Makes 2 servings

Nutritional Facts (per 1 serving):

155 Calories, 2g Fat, 35mg Cholesterol, 433mg Sodium, 601mg Potassium, 23g Carbs, 5g Fiber, 

8g Sugars, 14g Protein, 325% Vitamin A, 28% Vitamin C, 4% Calcium, 12% Iron

Ingredients:
1 large Sweet Potato
3 oz. Ground Buffalo
2 Tbsp. Salsa

Steps:

1. Cut a large sweet potato in half.

2. Bake the two halves in the oven to soften the potato.

3. Remove from oven and scoop out some of the middle.

4. Heat up 6 oz. of ground buffalo. Cover each half with 3 oz. of ground buffalo.

5. Top each half of boudin with one tablespoon of salsa.

Sweet Potato Boat with Boudin & Remoulade Sauce

Makes 2 servings

Nutritional Facts (per 1 serving):

214 Calories, 15g Fat, 14mg Cholesterol, 145mg Sodium, 318mg Potassium, 15g Carbs, 3g Fiber,

5g Sugars, 7g Protein, 245% Vitamin A, 32% Vitamin C, 4% Calcium, 4% Iron

Ingredients:
1 large Sweet Potato
2 2 oz. Boudin Ball
1 Tbsp. Remoulade Sauce

Steps:

1. Cut a large sweet potato in half.

2. Bake the two halves in the oven to soften the potato.

3. Remove from oven and scoop out some of the middle.

4. Heat up two boudin balls. Break apart two boudin balls and spread across each half.

5. Top each half of boudin with one tablespoon of remoulade sauce.

Another Birthday for Jesse!!! And Stephen's isn't far behind :/

Over the past weekend, Jesse celebrated her birthday. She undoubtably did not enjoy making that leap of age into the late twenties. I really have no room to talk, I'm already in my late twenties and have accepted that I'm not going to get younger in age by number, but I can get younger, faster, and stronger in ability of mind and body.

I never realized what kind of girl I fell in love with, apparently I didn't notice she is a four year old trapped in an aging body who is over the age of twenty one. What makes me have this comment?? Oh just the fact that the breakfast she asked me to make her on her birthday morning was a banana cake batter protein pancake with sprinkles baked inside, topped with bubble gum flavored icing, sprinkles, & candles.

Even though she is a kid when it comes to her birthday, apparently I have blonde hair that is just colored wrong. Last night I cooked a dinner for Jesse and my parents. How simple is cooking chicken wrapped in bacon?? Not only did I mess it up, I burned the heck out of the first two pieces of chicken.

My only defense was that I was using my cast iron skillet for maybe the third time, used a little too much extra virgin olive oil, and had the temperature raised too high for too long (I didn't think the skillet would heat up that quickly).

I will admit that there are no pictures of my disaster, only because my plate did not resemble the fact I was eating chicken wrapped in bacon, but Jesse made some delicious twice baked potatoes. She'll have to give the recipe just in case you don't already know how to do it, like me.

Unfortunately for the two of us, we've been rather busy and fell off the healthy eating and working out schedule we had created. Fear not, we will be jumping back on the wagon after this weekend and/or whenever we get back from Houston for my birthday weekend.

Healthy Chef creations: Under 100 calorie Buffalo/Turkey Burgers!!

So the other day was a food prep day for me. I made a simple dish, yet very delicious and healthy. Try it out if you'd love something easy to make, low cal, and high protein. It's also great to grab on the way out the door.

Stephen's Buffalo/Turkey Burgers with Jalapeños and Bacon

Nutritional Facts per 1 Burger:

Calories: 95, Fat: 4g, Cholesterol: 48g, Sodium: 63.4g, Carbs: 1g, Fiber: 0.3g, Sugars: 0.7g, Protein: 15g, Vitamin A: 0.2%, Vitamin C: 1.2%, Calcium: 2.2%, Iron: 8.8%

Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 lb. Ground Buffalo
1 lb. Lean Ground Turkey Breast
1 Jalapeño, diced
1 Medium Yellow Onion, diced
1.5 Tbsp Cajun Seasoning
2 links Jennie-O Turkey Bacon

Steps:
1) Diced the onion, turkey bacon, and jalapeño.

2) Place the buffalo, turkey, and diced ingredients into a mixing bowl.

3) Add the Cajun seasoning into the mixture and mix together the ingredients fully.

4) Using a food scale, roll 3 oz. balls of the mixture.

5) Use either a George Forman grill or a BBQ pit. Place the amount of balls into the grill. Space about 2 inches apart. Smash the ball down while on the grill into a patty about 2 inches thick.

6) Flip when necessary, let them flip twice and should turn a light grey color, not fully brown like a traditional beef burger. Cook time on the grill is roughly 5-9 minutes depending on temperature of the grill.

8) Serve and enjoy.