Category Archives: Recipes

Gorton’s Seafood Grilled Fish Tacos

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for the two newest Element fitness DVDs from Anchor Bay Entertainment! Entries close this Saturday 9/8 at 11:59PM EST.

So remember when I went to the Evening at the Expo party at BlogHer ’12, and took this silly photo at the Gorton’s Seafood booth?

If you like it then you shoulda #PutAWheelOnIt!

Well I tweeted it with the #PutAWheelOnIt hashtag. You know, just doin’ my usual blogger thang. And then I find out…

Yup, that’s me in the Gorton’s e-newsletter!

…I was the lucky winner of a YEAR’S SUPPLY OF GORTON’S SEAFOOD!!!!

THANK YOU GORTON’S!

Could a prize be ANY more up my alley?! I am a mondo seafood lover! And my mom is always hesitant to cook it at home because she feels like restaurants can always “do it so much better”. Thanks to Gorton’s, we’re armed with plenty of tools to dispel that feeling! And with use of my first Gorton’s purchase, I’d so far call that mission a great success.

Does that look like it came from a box to you?!

Gorton’s Seafood Grilled Fish Tacos:

Ingredients: (NOTE: you can use other varieties of Gorton’s grilled fish products or even other brands, but the below Gorton’s products are specifically what I used!)

  1. Gorton’s Garlic Butter Grilled Fillets
  2. Gorton’s Signature Grilled Tilapia
  3. 1 cup of pico de gallo
  4. 1 tsp of cumin
  5. Ortega Whole Grain Corn Taco Shells

Directions:

  1. Prepare fillets according to microwave instructions on boxes.
  2. Put whole fillets into pot (like one pictured below) and use whatever utensils preferred to cut fish into tiny pieces (see below photo).
  3. Add pico de gallo and cumin, stir together until well blended.
  4. Turn burner on low heat to keep taco filling warm.
  5. Spoon into taco shells and serve!

Mix and match!

How easy is that?! And it’s not a meal in the Croswell home without black beans, so my mom opened up a can of those and put them together in another stove-top pot with extra garlic and more pico de gallo.

What’s a Mexican meal without beans?!

She also had steamed up some broccoli with MORE garlic, because if there’s one thing in the Croswell house more commonplace than greens, it’s garlic. I fixed myself a marvelous plate.

A fitfluential meal indeed!

And then I fixed myself ANOTHER marvelous plate. Because that’s the way you do it after an evening gym session! I know that many folks say breakfast “should” be the biggest meal of the day, but my biggest meal is always, without fail, dinner. Probably because it’s my FAVORITE meal of the day!

My mom could not get over a) how affordable Gorton’s products are (even if you’re spending money on them and didn’t just win a year’s supply of seafood :-P) or b) how simple it was to make the fish. Those are both fabulous qualities for a product to possess, but my number one was the fact that the fish tasted so darn fresh. Not at all bland, not at all “fake”. Just tasted like white fish should taste! It almost seems like it shouldn’t have tasted so good since it was so easy to put this meal together, but hey, we’ll take it.

Thank you to Gorton’s Seafood for my free seafood! I can’t wait to share more recipes on the blog throughout the year!

Do you have any recipe suggestions that I could use Gorton’s products in?

Have you ever made your own fish tacos?

Do you prefer your fished tacos grilled or fried? I won’t judge if you say fried 😉 it is indeed yummy!

Blogger Recipe Pairing

Tina of Carrots N Cake (a healthy living blog I’ve been reading for several years, since I first discovered them) posted a recipe at the end of last month in a post titled The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Obviously I was immediately intrigued. You would be too, right? Well, I’m pleased to report that Tina is a truthful blogger.

The recipe was for sweet potato quesadillas. YUP. If the post’s title had grabbed me before, I had now been…snatched?…by the recipe’s title. Tina’s version used black beans, sweet potato, and a whole wheat tortilla – all of which my mom used when she made these for her and I two Sundays ago. But Tina also used Babybel cheese and chopped kale, which my mom and I replaced with goat cheese and edamame for extra protein! Mashing the sweet potato was easy thanks to Ore Ida’s frozen sweet potato steak fries. The edamame was also a frozen variety that we simply heated up in the microwave. For the tortilla, we used Flat Out Healthy Grain Harvest Wheat wraps.

How amazing does that look? I have to tell you that it tasted even better. My mom and I did a lot of moaning and groaning – foodgasm-ing, if you will. We paired our quesadillas with Columbia Crest Two Vines Merlot-Cabernet blend. I really loved it – and it’s such a cheap wine! Definitely recommended if you’re on a wine budget.

The beginnings of a great side.

Because that one quesadilla each is NOT enough food for us, my mom also whipped up a second blog-based recipe: Jenny’s refried black beans from Tofu Swag. My mom was doubtful that she’d pull this one off, but it came out AMAZING. The only change my madre made was adding the onions in the beginning (see photo above).

Fabulous AND healthy. This entire meal was protein-packed AND vegetarian! I may eat meat but there’s no denying that it’s totally possible to get enough protein from plants. The refried beans were drool-worthy and we can’t wait to whip them up again.

Thanks for sharing the recipes, Tina and Jenny! Thanks to you two, my mom and I dined like queens on a Sunday evening.

I also just have to say that I had the most kickass workout yesterday. I went to my favorite class at my gym, a Step class with awesome choreography broken up by HIIT drills. The combos were filled with kicks, knees, and “basketball shooters” (for da glutes). I worked most of the moves to perfection and even had the energy after class to rock a 4 minute #plankaday!

#PROOF

Also, check out what I hung up in my work cubicle today…a recap of my Color Me Rad experience is coming to the Fitfluential blog soon! I’ll let you all know when it’s up!

Have you ever tried making your own refried beans?

What’s the best recipe you’ve ever gotten off of a blog?

What’s the most innovative way you’ve ever used sweet potato?

Not-So-Tea-Infused Veggie Burgers

Don’t forget to enter the Mohegan Sun giveaway for an autographed copy of Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Teresa Giudice’s newest cookbook! If you live near the casino, you can even meet her to get your autograph. You have until tomorrow (Friday) night at 11:59PM EST.

I have a ridiculously packed, planned-in-advance calendar. I’ve actually been making a conscious effort to make LESS plans. But for now, the next couple months’ worth of weekends are chock-full of summer class, trips, and local events and outings that I’ve already scheduled, some as far back as February or March. This past Saturday evening’s girls night with Kim, for example, has been on my calendar for almost two months. Not a joke – that’s how long it took to find a Saturday night that worked for both of us! But we planned, we waited, and we (finally) cooked. It was time for another tea-infused cooking adventure with the Alice’s Tea Cup cookbook.

Oh…and vino.

This time, Kim and I decided to make the tea-infused Alice’s Veggie Burgers. The book has a recipe for both beef and veggie burgers, but the veggie variety sounded way more interesting! The tea to be used was supposed to be a variety called pu-erh, but we both had no idea what that was and Wikipedia didn’t offer any ideas for a comparative type, so we just used an earthy loose-leaf tea from Daybreak. Kim handled boiling the water in her cute tea pot and steeping the tea.

Kim probably has one of my favorite kitchens ever. I adore cooking there. And you guys know I don’t really cook.

Kitchen cuteness.

Kim finely diced some of the above garlic, along with five or six small mushrooms, and sauteed them in EVOO. I handled cracking two eggs to separate the whites (used in the burgers) from the yolks, microwaving and mashing the frozen cauliflower (awkwardly packaged in a bag that asked me to “massage” before heating and to not “penetrate” the bag in any way), and rinsing and draining the black eyed peas. I combined all of that in a bowl with sea salt and ground black pepper, instant oatmeal, the tea, and the sauteed mushrooms and garlic.

The recipe called for us to mix the above with our bare hands, but it seemed to us that this method would not produce a sticky-enough product. So, I took to the bowl’s contents with the “masher”. After a few minutes, I had a nice mushy combo that was ready for patty-forming.

Making the patties with our hands was way-fun, just like when we mixed our tea-infused berry scones with our hands!

We struggled at first to fit four patties onto the pan, but man we were getting hungry, so we managed to do it!

We had a bit of a fail when we realized the reason the patties weren’t searing on each side after six minutes, like the recipe said they would, was because we had the burner set on the lowest heat setting. We were finally cookin’ (ha) once we fixed that.

Each side got nice and crispy (burnt in some cases, but I dibsed those, I love carcinogens). We also melted some smoked cheddar on top, and Kim fixed some Alexia frozen sweet potato fries in the oven. I decided last-minute to chop up some veggies after spying some olive hummus in her fridge! I also threw arbitrary amounts of garlic powder and ground black pepper on the rest of the cauliflower so that I could mash it all together and add extra bulk to my burger.

When the burgers and fries were almost ready, we poured some Noble Vines 337 Cabernet Sauvignon that Kim’s dad picked out for us. It was a really good Cab Sauv! I often don’t prefer them because they are sometimes too light for my tastes and are more similar to Pinot Noirs. But this Cab had a Chianti-like dryness to it. Plus, a lighter red like a Cab definitely was OK for a meal with no meat involved. As soon as the wine was poured, we had to take domestic housewife pictures.

Do housewives often cook in workout gear?

Finallyyyyy everything was ready. Kim and I were chomping at the bit (didn’t even let the cheese melt on the burgers) but somehow managed to be patient enough to take a “proud table display” photo before diving in.

After taking this, we decided it was awkward to sit across from each other, and she moved next to me.

So how’d the burgers turn out? I’m not going to bother telling you the sweet potato fries were awesome – well OK, I guess I just did. Love Alexia’s frozen fries, especially with both Grey Poupon and French’s yellow mustard! Our veggie burgers didn’t taste tea-infused at ALL. We may as well have just saved the tea for drinking. I feel like the Alice’s cookbook recipe creators just threw tea in there to say the burgers were tea-infused. I’m not sure why it was included because I’m sure they tasted the burgers before selecting them for the cookbook. Maybe if we’d used the actual Pu-erh tea?

Multiply this plate by two. And the wine by three. 😉

However, the veggie burgers were amazing. They tasted so hearty and were extremely satisfying. This was my first time having black-eyed peas and I loved them! I’d definitely like to cook more with them in the future. The smoked cheddar was of a really high quality and was fun to pair with the wine (along with everything else).

Despite the presence of the aforementioned food and wine, the best part of the evening was hanging out with Kim. We shared the girliest of girl talk and watched “I Love the 90’s”. We learned new things about each other and deepened our friendship, cheesy (smoked cheddar cheesy) as it sounds. And it all happened over preparing and enjoying a meal together. It was truly an evening of enjoyment.

Have you ever cooked with black eyed peas? Any recipes to share?

What was the last girl’s night you had? Or boy’s night for my male readers 😉

Have you ever heard of and/or had pu-erh tea?

Bakin’ and Drankin’ with Tea

Happy Monday! I’m not feeling too happy that it’s Monday but maybe if I repeat that greeting enough, it’ll actually rub off on me. Enjoy today’s baking (gasp!) post and also be sure to check out my Healthy Page interview!

Have you ever heard of Alice’s Tea Cup? It’s an NYC restaurant (it seems all the best are there!) with a few locations. This place serves up both food and drinks made with tea (the closest thing we have to that here in CT is Tisane in Hartford, which is certainly excellent). Of course, they also serve tea on its own, but if I can make loose leaf tea at home then I’d much rather have a unique infusion creation!

All-star ingredient lineup.

Luckily the founders, Haley and Lauren Scott, have made it possible to have more than just Alice’s Tea Cup teas in your own home. They published the Alice’s Tea Cup: Delectable Recipes for Scones, Cakes, Sandwiches, & More from New York’s Most Whimsical Tea Spot, a cookbook full of recipes drinks and food fit for all meals, some with tea and some without.

I used Splenda instead of sugar and fat-free buttermilk instead of regular to lighten the recipe up a bit! We also skipped the heavy cream and sugar topping.

I can thank my friend Kim for the small amount of tea knowledge I possess…of course, the above copy of the cookbook is hers! She told me about it and we immediately made plans to get coffee at Daybreak and select one dish and one drink to whip up at a later date. Our requirements? A) Delicious (oops, according to my Foodstock education I just made an error in using that word!) and b) tea-infused. Perhaps being in Daybreak, a place with wonderful scones, inspired us to pick out the above recipe for Berry Bunch Tisane-Infused Scones. Or perhaps we just picked them out because we love scones and tea. Whatever the reason, a date was set, groceries were purchased (see the first photo), and we met up at Kim’s house to do some cookin’! (Please, don’t be TOO surprised to see me in the kitchen.)

Hello, I want that mug.

Kim didn’t have any tisane on hand, but her mom recommended a Celestial Seasonings Blueberry Breeze Green Tea (sadly looks like it’s been discontinued, but the website offers suggested replacements). As soon as we put it into the hot water to let it steep, we knew she’d chosen a winner! A pleasant blueberry smell filled the room and was a nice “background” to our scone-making.

Dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt) were combined in one bowl…

…and wet ingredients (buttermilk, vanilla extract, and the blueberry tea) were combined in another.

Oh lookin’ SOOO domestic!

Keeping the wet away from the dry for now, we had to work the butter and blueberries into the batter carefully with our hands (to avoid too much berry-squashing). Um, don’t have to ask me twice! This was so much fun.

NOW it was time to make a well in the dry ingredients, butter, and berries and add the wet ingredients.

Attacked it all with a rubber spatula…don’t worry, hands would get to come into play again. The rubber spatula was gentle enough to keep most berries un-squashed.

Fun dough playtime! We sprinkled a cutting board with flour and got to work cutting the dough into scone shapes.

Couldn’t resist.

There were no photos taken of the scone-cutting because it got VERY sloppy. The Scone Monster made an appearance though.

Even with her around, we still managed to get a few trays of only slightly haphazard-looking scones into the oven.

The scones baked and we got down to the drankin’ portion of our tea party. Tea and a little something else that is…

This couldn’t have been easier to make! Kim brewed the peach tea before we even started on the scones, and then we added the Splenda (instead of sugar) and stirred. It made a nice simple (literally) syrup that we were able to let cool and coagulate (fun word!) in the fridge while we worked on the food.

Once the syrup was done, all we had to do was add it to a pitcher of Prosecco with a splash of OJ, and we had Peach Tea Bellinis! We also had the idea to add our leftover berries to our drinks!

Despite a few incidents with the oven timer (AKA forgetting to set it, that’s what happens when your mind is stuck on bellinis…), our scones came out looking like REAL scones! So proud.

Pretty darn close, right?!

Side-by-side comparison.

We each took a bite and literally swooned. They turned out so well!!

Kim’s mom joined our little tea party, but her dad was too busy being a manly-man and attacking trees with a chainsaw to notice. Typical dad behavior!

We also asked Kim’s cat Cali to join us, but she not-so-politely declined.

“Too cool for tea parties. Don’t talk to me.”

Don’t worry, our meal wasn’t just carbs and alcohol and fruit. Kim’s mom donated some tasty rotisserie chicken she had on hand in the fridge. I had completely forgotten how much I love rotisserie chicken. A super random, but super lean and protein-filled, addition to our meal!

But maybe not as pretty as the rest of the meal….

Now you can continue to be impressed…it was a nice day, so we got a cute setup going outside. Complete with background music AKA Mr. Bronson’s chainsaw.

You like?

Baking buddies!

It was really rewarding to sit down with Kim and her mom, savor our drinks and scones, and enjoy and appreciate our work in the kitchen. OK, so I may be too lazy to cook, and I do still prefer to pay others to do it for me, but I understand the pride one gets from putting something special together!

I helped myself to a few scones, some chicken, and a few bellinis…when in Rome, right? Or, when in Kim’s backyard on a Sunday afternoon. And since I’m more likely to be there than Rome, I’m gonna roll with that.

Have you ever made a food item or alcoholic beverage that used tea as an ingredient? Or been to a restaurant that does the same?

What is your favorite kind of scone?

What’s the last baked good you made? The last cocktail?

Soy Protein…Soy What?

Soy – good or bad? Right or wrong? Yes or no? Soy is one of those seemingly eternally-debated foods that seem to be bad for you one second, and great for you the next. And so goes the never-ending phenomenon of the media latching onto every scientific study that’s released, blowing up the results (positive or negative), and reporting their skewed version of them. Help for the curious consumer to interpret studies’ findings and make a rational, informed decision about what he or she is going to consume is not often included.

So what I’m here to do today is talk about the findings of a study that found soy has benefits. But I’m not here to blow those positive findings into a, “Soy is your savior!” kind of blog post. I’m just here to share the benefits of a food I consume weekly, and some tips for easy ways to incorporate soy into your diet.

Dr. Blake Rasmussen’s clinical study, “Effect of Protein Blend vs. Whey Protein Ingestion on Muscle Protein Synthesis Following Resistance Exercise”, peaked my interest because not only am I constantly making an effort to incorporate resistance exercise (strength training) into my fitness routine several times a week, but I am always hearing differing opinions on what form of protein is the “best” to consume post-lifting for maximum muscle repair and growth. It turns out the answer isn’t one protein – it’s several!

Between sets!

The double-blind, randomized clinical trial examined 19 young adults and split them into two groups. All members of the study performed a high-intensity leg workout and consumed some form of protein an hour later. One group of 10 consumed 19 grams of a protein blend (25% soy, 25% whey, 50% casein), and the second group of 9 consumed 17.5 grams of just whey protein. Before and after both the leg workout and protein consumption, scientists took measurements which gave them an idea of the degree of muscle protein synthesis occurring in each subject.

Different types of tofu!

It was found that the first group (consumers of the protein blend) was still showing signs of muscle protein synthesis up to five hours after doing the leg workout! Quick subtraction reveals that to be four hours after consuming the protein blend. Imagine getting your protein on post-iron-pumping, heading out to run your errands, and continuing to build muscle as you stand in line a few hours later at the grocery store. Talk about multi-tasking! Dr. Rasmussen posits that the answer to the question of why these results occurred lies in the rates at which the body digests casein, whey, and soy. Casein is a “slow protein”, whey is “fast”, and soy lies somewhere in the middle. The more complicated a protein blend you throw at your body, the more work it will have to do to get those amino acids and deliver them to your muscles, prolonging the length of time muscle protein synthesis occurs.

Dipping sauce makes EVERYTHING better!

So much for needing meat to build muscle! I myself know plenty of vegetarians and vegans who have seen impressive gains from strength training as a result of consuming soy-based proteins. Just like meats, it is a complete source of protein containing both non-essential amino acids and the essential ones that the body cannot make on its own. How to consume it, you ask? Here are some recipes I’ve scouted-out from some of my favorite bloggers that incorporate ingredients containing soy:

Source

Cooking isn’t a requirement, though. You can also use soy creamer or milk in your coffee or tea, have soy yogurt as a snack, or keep soy jerky (a recent find of mine) nearby for a fast protein fix. Even if you’re not into strength training (cough – it’s nothing but good for you – cough), soy still provides plenty of other benefits. It gets a bad rep for the hormones it’s said to contain, but soy doesn’t actually contain estrogen, which you may hear can feminize men and impair fertility. It contains isoflavones, a form of “plant” estrogen, and studies have not shown feminization or impaired fertility in men who consume them. Soy has even been shown to have benefits for kids, such as being an attractive alternative for those allergic to other forms of protein (milk, eggs, peanuts, etc) and possibly increasing chances of having a lower BMI later in life.

A soy snack!

So before you knock soy down, if you haven’t tried it yet, I’d suggest heading to your nearest grocery store and getting yourself a few different products to taste-test. You may find love for a new food! And it’ll love you right back 😀

Fitfluential, LLC compensated me for this campaign. All opinions are my own.

Lisa’s Five Bean Salad

Believe it or not, I don’t cook. That’s right – I mooch. I live at home and eat my mom’s cooking. I make a salad every day for lunch, but I don’t consider this cooking. I go out and pay restaurants to feed me. I have not cooked or baked anything since the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap in December.

Talk about working backwards…this is me on Easter Sunday with the finished product!

But this year Easter was being celebrated at my house, and I felt like contributing. I felt domestic. And thanks to Lisa, I felt inspired when I was reading her blog one day and saw that she had posted a recipe for a Five Bean Salad.

Missing from this photo are olive oil and frozen shelled edamame.

I followed Lisa’s recipe, but used goat cheese instead of feta. I love feta cheese, but goat is my favorite!

I started by rinsing and draining the chickpeas, kidney beans, and black beans in a colander.

The above green beans came in their own steam-able bag, so I microwaved them and set them out on a plate to cool off a bit. Per Lisa’s instructions, I cut the ones that were going into the salad in half and also cut the “string” ends off.

I smugly put the rest of the green beans in a container to use throughout the week. In fact, I added them to both yesterday and today’s lunch salads, and last night’s dinner too! Helps to be prepped when eating healthy.

I added the green beans to the other three beans in a mixing bowl, and threw in minced onions, salt, pepper, and lime juice as well.

Then it occured to me that I’d forgotten to prepare and include the frozen shelled edamame. D’oh! It was super easy to defrost in the microwave. I’ve never bought edamame before, I just eat it when I’m dining out at Asian restaurants or at my local Whole Foods salad bar. I think I’ll have to reconsider.

MORE smug leftovers that I’ve been nommin’ on already!

I added the edamame and then the GOAT CHEESE. Of course I saved the best for last!

An unexpected perk that came from using goat instead of feta – goat cheese has a creamier consistency and totally coated all the beans (yes, all five types ;-)). Win!

This forgetful cook was then reminded by her mother that she’d forgotten the olive oil. First the edamame, now this! Can’t forget that EVOO. I added 1.5 tablespoons.

TA-DA! Was there ever an easier side dish for a non-cooking moocher like me to make?! I don’t think so!

I let it veg (ha – punny) overnight in the fridge. I also didn’t try it before I served it. Yes, I like to live on the edge! Or…that thought didn’t even occur to me. I am NOT used to cooking, I told you!

The results though? Everyone LOVED the dish. There was barely any left but I’m honestly glad there was some because I was able to finish it off at dinner last night 🙂 mixed with extra green beans, edamame, black beans, marinara sauce, and turkey meatballs! It was what I like to call a hodge-podge of leftovers.

Thank you so much to Lisa for providing such an easy, healthy, tasty recipe for me to make and share with family and friends!

How often do you cook? Are you a “fraud” aka a food blogger that doesn’t cook, like me?

What are your favorite healthy dishes to bring to parties?

C is for Cookies

WARNING: Today’s post contains more COOKIES! And it should be the last cookie-centric post for a bit, now that my cookie swaps have wrapped up. To balance things out a bit, I’ll talk about some stuff that isn’t cookie-related. I still know how to!

I had a most excellent workout yesterday in the form of a Step class. Non-stop combos, with cardio intervals mixed in. I performed the moves very well and only had to stop for a break a couple of times. I felt so energized, but by the end of the class I was ready for it to be over. I just love those workouts that boost the mood and provide those endorphins that put the benefits beyond just the physical. Such a fun class! I’ve been a bit of a Step monster lately (I went on Friday and Sunday as well) so I probably will not be doing another one of those classes until Saturday so that I can keep my routine fresh. We’ll see though – I try to do what I like.

This past weekend was full of all things excellent. Delicious coffee…

…as well as one of the best Italian red wines I’ve had in awhile, courtesy of the best package store in town, Sonoma Wines & Spirits. I also participated in a tasting of sherry and port, which I wrote about on Facebook yesterday.

Lidia and I headed back to our alma mater and saw Connecticut Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” at Jorgensen. It was an excellent performance (thanks Groupon!) and also made me feel silly, because I didn’t realize that so many orchestra pieces that I know so well are from that ballet!

Gotta get as many holiday pics as possible.

The weekend wrapped up on Sunday night with an excellent dinner of chili topped with leftover coleslaw and black beans. And a festive tiny fork!

And now it’s game time AKA cookie time. I’d like to share the wonderful cookies I was sent by three talented bloogers, through the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.

My first batch was a pleasant surprise because it arrived earlier than expected, and also on a day when I had been particularly ravenous! Faith of The Stirring Place made my day with her Smookies – NOT to be confused with Snooki.

Each s’mores cookie was different than the rest. Some were drizzled with white chocolate, some were dipped in milk chocolate and sprinkles. But each and every single one contained marshmallows and was honestly one of the best cookies I’ve ever had.

You’re drooling, right?

Faith called the cookies a “work in progress” in her note to me. I beg to differ – DON’T CHANGE A THING!

Meg of Eat, Drink, and Be Sperry wins the award for cutest packaging. Snowman wrapping paper, glittery Santa tag, and a green bow – need I say/show more?

She also wins the award for best smelling cookies. As soon as I opened the box, the minty aroma of her Double Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies hit my nostrils and had me ready for dessert.

They retained so much of their softness! Even my picky little brother loved these.

Last, but certainly not least, are Jamie of J-Fit‘s Cookies and Cream Cookies – once again, little brother approved! And more Caitlin-approved packaging – I love cookie tins! My mom practically stuck her nose in the tin, inhaled deeply, and proclaimed, “They smell like ice cream!!”

The card she sent was so cute as well. I love the design! These cookies were amazing – I really lucked out. 3 for 3 with great bloggers and great cookies!

Thank you to the three bloggers who sent me such amazing baking creations!

Which of these three do you think you’d like to try most?

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!

What an amazing weekend! They seem to keep piling up one after the other, which is never a bad thing. I have plenty to recap later on as usual, but for now please head over to the amazing Bethany’s blog, More Fruit Please, to check out her post on the brunch she hosted and so kindly invited me to yesterday. It was just beyond amazing! I can’t wait to share my post on it.

NOTE: This post features a recipe I used in a post last week, but has many new photos, so you may want to tune in!

It’s time for another cookie swap – the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap to be exact! Unlike last week’s Virtual Cookie Swap, this one involved the actual exchange of the cookies with other bloggers. Each participant baked three dozen of one cookie, and sent one dozen each to three other bloggers. Love that concept – spreading the love to more bloggers, and I get three different cookies in my mailbox!

My cookies, ready to ship out the door.

This swap was organized by Julie of The Little Kitchen and Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil (can I just say that I’m in LOVE with that name). They did such a great job keeping participants updated regularly via email, creating a Facebook page, and spreading the word about the #fbcookieswap hashtag.

Since the Virtual Cookie Swap did not involve sending any physical cookies, I used the same recipe that I did for that swap, from Luisa of The Wednesday Chef. Only now, bloggers were actually going to get to taste my baking! Remember, this recipe is Luisa’s property, not mine, so please visit her blog to check it out! I simply doubled all the ingredients to ensure that I would have enough cookies to send out – and taste test.

First, I mixed my brown sugar, butter (the real stuff!), eggs, and vanilla extract in a big bowl. I’m sure you could use imitation vanilla extract, but I didn’t realize that at the grocery store (my mom informed me later) so just like the butter, the vanilla extract was the real stuff. I did not use the almond extract that the recipe calls for because I couldn’t find it at the store!

Secondly, I mixed my salt, baking soda, buckwheat groats (courtesy of Tara, my November foodie pen pal), and whole wheat flour in a separate bowl…

…and then slowly combined the dry mixture, little by little, into the wet ingredients.

This took a bit of arm strength – and with a rubbery bendy spoon too! Oops.

Third, I broke a bunch of Whole Foods dark chocolate squares into chunks by hand.

I liked the idea of using dark chocolate instead of semisweet, and chunks instead of chips, because I think this made for a heartier cookie!

It took a lot of willpower not to eat this.

Fourth, I lined the cookies up on some special silver cookie baking trays we have. Only one tray could go in the oven at a time (top rack only), so while one tray was baking, I worked on prepping the next tray. Thank goodness we had multiples!

Fifth, it’s bake time! Instead of baking the cookies for 6 minutes, flipping the pan, and then cooking for another 6 minutes, I did 5 minutes. Every oven is different! Always check on baked goods before the time on the box/recipe is up, just in case.

Sixth, I removed them from the trays fairly soon after taking them out of the oven – otherwise the trays continue to cook the cookies, and they get too hard. Another Mom-tip!

I packaged the cookies by putting each dozen in a holiday-themed plastic bag, and then putting the bag in a cookie tin!

I also wrote each blogger a note to send off with my cookies, letting them know they could find the recipe at The Wednesday Chef.

I sent my cookies to Sarah of Both Sides Now, Talida of Talida Bakes, and Susan of Happy Hippie. Another pro of this swap, aside from the obvious receipt of COOKIES, is learning about blogs I otherwise might never have found!

Soon I will be posting about the three different cookies I received, so be on the lookout for that! Thanks to Julie and Lindsay for doing such a wonderful job on this!

Virtual Cookie Swap

When Rachel mentioned a Virtual Cookie Swap, I volunteered immediately. Then I started getting a little nervous. I mean, I love eating. Obviously. But I’m still living with my parents…hence, I don’t cook. Ever! It’s not that I’m one of those people who can’t boil water without messing it up. It’s just that I don’t ever have a need to cook, so I don’t. And there are plenty of amazing, ridiculously talented cooks, bakers, etc in the blog world that I am certain could out-bake me any day.

But then I decided to end my pity party and turn to one of those fabulous baking bloggers to help me decide what to bake! I knew I wanted to use two items I had acquired in the past couple of months, but hadn’t gotten a chance to use yet.

I got the above dark chocolate squares from my local Whole Foods – for FREE! They posted on their Facebook page that the first “X” number of people to like the status could come in that weekend and pick up a free bag of candy that didn’t get sold for Halloween. Waste not! I was all over that.

I also wanted to utilize the buckwheat groats that Tara got me for November’s foodie pen pal exchange. So, I turned to my old friend Google, and that’s how I found Luisa of The Wednesday Chef and her chocolate chip cookies with buckwheat groats. Please visit her website for this recipe – it is her property! The only change I made was using dark chocolate instead of semisweet, and I did not use almond extract (because I couldn’t find it at the store).

First, I mixed my brown sugar, butter (the real stuff!), eggs, and vanilla extract in a big bowl.

Secondly, I mixed my salt, baking soda, buckwheat groats, and whole wheat flour into the wet ingredients.

This took a bit of arm strength – and with a rubbery bendy spoon too! Oops.

Third, I broke a bunch of the dark chocolate squares into chunks by hand. Is it weird that it was a bit fun? Kinda therapeutic!

Fourth, I lined the cookies up on some special silver cookie baking trays we have. They honestly make a big difference whenever my mom makes cookies on those pans instead of regular ones!

Here’s where another recipe difference comes in – instead of baking the cookies for 6 minutes, flipping the pan, and then cooking for another 6 minutes, I did 5 minutes. Every oven is different!

And voila! I removed them from the trays fairly soon after taking them out of the oven – otherwise the trays continue to cook the cookies, and they get too hard.

My family and I did some taste testing of course. Our household approves – these taste indulgent, despite the healthy whole wheat flour and buckwheat used in the recipe. Maybe it was that real butter and Splenda-less brown sugar? 😉

Thanks to Rachel for putting on such a fun virtual blogger event, and to Luisa for an inspired recipe!

What’s your favorite “healthified” cookie type?

Weekend Wednesday

Confusing title, no? But I am super behind on posting photos, and this post on some weekend eats is occurring on a Wednesday. And I need to upload my work week photos next. Bad blogger – I’m workin’ on it.

As long as you have something to look at, right?

Nonfat amaretti cafe au lait, with a side of homework, at Daybreak Coffee.

On Saturday and Sunday morning I set up camp at Daybreak to get homework done. The owner was kind enough to let me ask for a french-pressed cafe au lait on Sunday using whatever flavor I wanted (that they already had roasted and ready to grind). I went with toasted butternut and it was out of this world. Definitely tops their pecan pie flavor. FYI a cafe au lait is just a coffee with steamed milk. At Daybreak they actually call it a blanc, and at Starbucks they call it a misto, if either of those sound more familiar.

Whole Foods salad beast

I moved my study party to Whole Foods later on Saturday afternoon and had lunch while I waited to pick my brother up from work. I could not even begin to tell you what was in this beast, but it included their broccoli/sundried tomato/kalamata olive medley that I LOVE, avocado kale salad, about five different bean salads, pineapple, edamame, artichokes, red pepper fish, falafel, and…OK that’s all I remember but that’s probably only half. This was almost a two-pounder.

Falafel tacos

After the Renaissance Faire on Saturday night, and after my fiber-rific lunch had finally digested, I was ready for dinner pretty late (about 8:30pm) and was feeling particularly lazy since I had already been parked on the couch for over an hour watching “Secret Circle”. And since my parents were out of town, aka Dad the grill man was gone, our fridge was devoid of all meat except my brother’s ham (no thanks). So I went the vegetarian route for dinner (vs. the pescatarian route for lunch) and decided to mix two food “genres” to create some Greek/Mexican magic.

Falafel, pico de gallo, tzatziki sauce in whole grain taco shells

These were SO good! And so easy to put together too – I used a boxed brand of pre-made falafel (can’t recall the name right now) and these awesome whole grain taco shells we have that are less than 200cal for two! The pico I used was the Yummy Hummy variety I got at the Coventry Farmer’s Market. It’s still SO fresh and delicious over a week later!

And since that was not nearly enough for me, I proceeded to go tzatziki-carrot crazy, because once I start with tzatziki I just cannot stop.

Sunday was another day of packed study snacks in the morning, cheese and other goodies in the afternoon, and before I knew it, it was dinnertime and I was craving some take-out. So off to Moe’s I went to get my favorite item on their menu – a burrito “streaker”. Moe’s > Chipotle – who’s with me?!

Chicken with cucumber, cilantro, corn, olives, pico, salsa, black beans, onions, and green pepper.

After I was 75% done, I switched from fork to chips as my method-of-choice for getting this delicious pile of food into my mouth. It was a good decision. And when the bowl was gone, the chip munching continued with some more of the Yummy Hummy pico.

Those are my weekend eats photos – maybe this weekend I will post my week eats photos. No?! OK, I’ll try to be faster than that.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a weekend fashion post! These delays are getting out of hand. I should stop revealing when my photos were taken…nah.

What was the best thing you ate this past weekend? Only half a week left til the next weekend!

Meet Caitlin

I’m a 28 year old full-time working girl living in Boston (previously lived in Connecticut). I’m passionate about food/drink, restaurants, self-love, fitness, and the ever-present search for balance. I write about that journey on this blog – I hope you enjoy!

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Design Credit

My header was originally designed by Mai Le and later tweaked by Chris Roggi to match this theme, which he helped me customize. He also moved me over to self-hosting! Both can be contacted through their sites for design & development work!

Disclaimer

I am not an RD and do not have any official training, certifications, or degrees in nutrition or fitness. This blog is a way to write about my life. Any views I express are mine alone, based on what works for me, and should never be taken as medical advice. Always talk to your doctor or a trained professional before starting a new diet or fitness plan. In addition, this blog and its content are in no way affiliated with Kate Gosselin, “Kate Plus 8”, TLC, or any related affiliates.

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