Yummy in my Tummy!

If there is anything you should know about me, it is my love of food... and my love of Pinterest. It is a rule of mine that I will try at least one new recipe every week, and in the last month I have been trying out a lot of different treats as well. (Got to love the holiday season. Thank goodness I've been working out at least 4x a week). Any other time of the year most of my new recipes will be dinners that I have tried, but sorry not sorry... there are some goodies in store for you today! If I was extra, I would have actually organized all of the recipes, but I don't discriminate based on food type! Lets Que the drooling!!!


Raspberry Pretzel Jello

• I followed this recipe exactly, and it was just as delicious as I thought it was going to be. Josh and I made this the morning of Thanksgiving and it was a real winner in the household. I'm pretty sure that Josh, Britney, Steven, Ellie, and I finished it off by lunch the next day. This definitely has its share of sugar though, so not something I'll be making super often (but it is dang delicious). The only thing that I would change/add would be to put more raspberries in it. We did the exact amount the recipe called for, and we would have liked a little more. The picture below is the jello I actually made (pat on the back for me.. haha).
• RECIPE LINK: https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/raspberry-pretzel-salad/cda03cb1-c34a-449a-899c-40301a50ccc0?utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=02_2017_standard&crlt.pid=camp.m1u2tf7ws18k
• BLOG: Betty Crocker

Sweet Potato Casserole

• Sweet potato casserole is another recipe that I only make once a year, and it never disappoints. I've done a different recipe each year, and it has always been delicious, but I'm pretty sure that there is no way you can fail a recipe in which the main ingredients are sweet potatoes, pecans, sugar, and marshmallows. Its insane. Again, there is a good amount of sugar, but its up to you on how much you want to add. (The picture below is actually the one I made! I'm like a proud mother with my food. I may put a sticker on my car that my food is in the honor roll... extra points if its a roll recipe!!! hahahahahaha)
• https://www.pipandebby.com/pip-ebby/2015/12/5/sweet-potato-casserole#_a5y_p=4705897
• BLOG: Pip and Ebby

Black Bean Nachos

• Josh and I roughly followed this recipe one day after church. We pretty much just simplified it a little bit more to suit our tastes, but you could be fancy and follow their original recipe as well. (because those chips are Instagram worthy!) Josh and I made the bean mixture, but we didn't have any chipotles in adobo sauce, so instead I just added 1/2 of a large jalapeno as well as some cayenne pepper to taste. This made it perfectly spicy for us. We also just mashed the beans slightly rather than putting it into the blender. I always say no to extra dishes. We also added half of a white onion and some cut up red pepper to cook down with the beans as well. Along with some homemade guacamole and my mother's home made salsa, this was a totally satisfying lunch! Josh and I eat nachos almost every Sunday after church, so we go through quite a lot of salsa. Thanks Mom!!! Mom, don't give any more salsa away because I'm planning on taking home some more when I visit this Christmas.
• https://www.mexicanplease.com/spicy-black-bean-nachos/ 
• BLOG: Mexican Please. Picture is theirs!! They take some pretty nice food shots... yummy! I want to make more of their recipes in the future for sure.

Pumpkin Banana Bread

• I wanted to make this because I had some pumpkin in the fridge and some bananas going bad. I like to try new banana bread recipes every time and this one was pretty good. I don't always eat a lot of the bread, but Josh really enjoys it. In fact, I'm pretty sure he ate almost the entire thing, so that must mean that it was delicious! Also, for the 1/2 cup of honey, I substituted a 1/4 of it for agave because I had it and wanted to try it. I don't feel like the taste was affected at all really by using a different natural sweetener. It was still really sweet and yummy. I've got to be honest though... my man loves his chocolate chips, so I put a ton in!
• http://takingcareofmonkeybusiness.com/blog/2015/08/19/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-banana-bread/#_a5y_p=4240635
•  BLOG: Taking Care of Monkey Business

Buttery Garlic Herb Chicken with Zucchini

• Josh and I are all about those quick and easy meals that don't require a ton of steps. This is one of them! We did not use chicken thighs, and instead just sliced some chicken breasts up. We also used two pans, because we wanted food quicker... Yes, we love our food.  We followed the recipe exactly other than the meat difference and the two pan thing. We had it alongside some quinoa and it was perfect for dinner and also delicious as leftovers. Have you ever had something that is delicious the day of and then over night it becomes the evil twin sister and is no longer good as leftovers? I hate when that happens. One plus for this recipe is definitely the ingredient list!!!!! It is nice to not have a million ingredients that I have to buy and pull out of my cupboards.
• https://therecipecritic.com/2017/07/buttery-garlic-herb-chicken-with-zucchini/
• The Recipe Critic. The picture is theirs as well. They take some really pretty food shots. My food never looks like this, but it is as delicious as she said it would be.

 Lemon Butter Garlic Shrimp

• Josh and I made this one night because we had some shrimp that we wanted use up, and this was a really quick, easy to prep and clean dinner.. plus it was delicious! I have made a few recipes from this blog, and they have not failed me! The only thing that I would change for the future is use less oil because it was still pretty runny after cooking it for more time (with the frozen shrimp, oil, butter, and lemon juice... that's a lot of liquid). We used the whole amount of red pepper flakes, and loved the spiciness. This pairs really well with some quinoa. BTW, I did cook this longer than required because I wanted my veggies to be a little more crisp, and it was a win in this family!
• http://carlsbadcravings.com/roasted-lemon-butter-garlic-shrimp-recipe/ 
• BLOG: Carlsbad Cravings. Picture is theirs! They even do some videos for their recipes as well, so if you're unsure on what to do or if it looks right, they have a video! How neat is that??!

Pumpkin Spice Mexican Wedding Cookies

• These were bomb. At first I didn't think that they were going to be flavorful enough, but they were perfect. These cookies are very light (I think its probably because we dunk them in powdered sugar like twice. haha).  I also just used pumpkin spice instead of the individual spice ingredients, but she mentions that as an option in the blog. These are pretty easy and make a lot more than you think. The process of making the cookies may be slightly tedious, but they are perfect along with a cup of tea or some hot chocolate.
• https://www.crazyforcrust.com/pumpkin-spice-snowballs/print/ 
• BLOG: Crazy for Crust. Picture is theirs

Chocolate Mint Stars

• This recipe is from 1001 Cupcakes Cookies and other Tempting Treats. I've had this cookbook for a long time, and I love making treats out of it because they are all unique in some way (plus they add different variations for each recipe as well). This recipe called for peppermint extract, but I instead used six drops of peppermint essential oil. The dough was a little hard to roll out and press, but I feel like that was probably more of an error on my part (but they ended up turning out terrific, so whatevs). A big difference I had was that the recipe said cooking time was like 10-12 minutes and I did 8 minutes tops. Just watch them and take them out when they're browning around the edges. I took these to the ward Christmas party, and every single one was devoured. I also just drizzled some melted semisweet chocolate chips to drizzle on top. To me these are a total dupe for Milano cookies!

• If you are interested in the recipe, send me a text/email.. or comment below, and I will post a picture of it. I was going to just add the text in here, but I thought that would be a little much. Let me know! BTW, don't judge my super low quality picture. It was the only one that I took! I didn't make beautiful cookies, but boy did they taste good!

 Fresh Squeezed Lemonade

• I decided to make some lemonade because I had a few lemons in my fridge and we are going to be traveling in a week. This is super easy! I didn't have as much lemon juice as it called for, but I still did the same amount of water and SEVERELY cut back on the amount of sugar added. I think it calls for like a cup and a half and I only did half of a cup.. No thank you diabetes. I still think that it tasted perfect and had just the right amount of zing and sweetness. I probably won't even follow a recipe in the future since it is so simple to make. 
• http://thefrugalgirls.com/2010/05/tastebud-squealin-lemonade-recipe.html 
• BLOG: The Frugal Girls. Picture is theirs. I would have taken a picture of mine, but it wasn't as fancy looking, so might as well keep it original, right?

You've made it to the end!!! WAY TO GO! Would y'all be interested in some meal planning blog posts? I meal plan every two weeks and then Josh and I normally go shopping every 2 or so weeks as well. (With 1-2 quick trader Joe's visits in between #addictionisreal) It would be cool to show you guys how I meal plan, and you would get to see what recipes I use most often. Plus this way you would have me trial and error testing the meals and you would just benefit from my food experiments!

I hope you enjoyed this post, and let me know what you have tried from Pinterest recently and/or what recipes are regulars in your home!?

~Anna Wilson