Mini Taco Bowld

If you are looking for a new way to do Mexican night, try making some mini taco bowls instead of the normal shell. Take a small corn tortilla and brush it lightly with olive oil. Then, place it between the cups of an upside muffin or cupcake tin. Bake on 325 until crispy. The sides will be curvy when you place the tortilla in the pan and will maintain their shape after baking. Now, you can fill with your desired ingredients!

Broil

For those of you who know me personally, you might remember my thrill when I moved into my new apartment and not only did it have a gas stove and oven, but also a separate broiler. Today I an going to gush about the wonders of a broiler. I love broiling my chicken tenders instead of browning them in a pan because the tops get so nice and crunchy while the chicken itself is still super moist and juicy. When glazing a piece of meat, its nice to trap the natural moisture into the meat and then add the glaze for the last few minutes. It is quicker than baking and less work than pan browning. I always use aluminum foil when I broil because broiling pans can be such a pain to clean. If you haven't tried out your broiler, do!

Fruit in Salad

Most people have a hard time getting a full serving of fruits and vegetables in throughout the day. One way to help achieve this is to add some fruit to a salad. Mandarins, grapes, dried fruit, apples, and pears all make tasty additions to a salad.

New Format

I am working on reformatting the pages so that each recipe is its own post. This will also enable readers to comment on the recipes themselves. So far, I have breakfast and lite lunches complete. There may be some slight disruption while I am working on transferring everything over to the new format. However, I believe that this will make the site a bit more user friendly. After getting everything transferred, I will enable the search function on each page so that you are able to type in an ingredient or dish name and find it with more ease. Enjoy!

An Apple a Day

You've probably heard that eating an apple daily is good for your health but do you know why? Apples contain fiber which is imperative to maintaining a healthy digestive tract and fiber also helps to keep you fuller longer. Besides that, apples also contain vitamin C. One of the lesser known facts about apples is that they can help keep you teeth clean, too. If you eat an apple after drinking coffee or other dark liquids or after eating dark berries, you can help reduce the amount of staining that occurs.

Asparagus Bottoms

Many people throw away the bottoms of their asparagus. However, you can use these trimmings as a tasty addition to a salad or stir fry. Start by trimming about 1 inch off of the bottom, just so you get all of the pale purple off. Then cut about 5 slices each a centimeter or so wide. You can store these in a sealed container and add to future dishes.

Winter Squash Made Easy

I was talking about how much I love butternut squash soup with a friend this weekend, but that I don't make it because I hate trying to cut through the thick, tough skin. As a solution to this, she suggested baking the whole squash first and then peeling it. For a quicker fix, try wrapping the squash in plastic wrap and microwaving for 8-10 minutes then peeling. I'm looking forward to trying this and posting delicious squash recipes in the future!