8 Favorite Fall Recipes!

Happy Fall everyone!

The weather is starting to cool down which always makes me want to stay home, cozy up and bake!

In 2012 I tried 100 new recipes, here are my 8 favorite fall dishes from that list! Click on the title of the dish to follow the link to the recipe!

1. Apple Cranberry Pie

This pie is amazing! So simple and so delicious! A great way to eat cranberries without the SUPER tart taste!

2. Upside Down Chicken Pot Pies

Easy as can be "filling" and fluffy sheets of puff pastry! Hearty and warm for those chilly fall days!

3. Honey Peanut Butter Granola
Yummy yummy yummy! This granola is so flavorful and delicious! I have tried it several different ways and it always turns out great! Put it in a jar and you've got breakfast for 2 weeks!

4. Sausage Skillet Hash

This skillet dinner is so easy and comforting. The potatoes, spinach, sausage and sauce are so flavorful and warm. The cider vinegar gives you a little "fall" flavor while you're cooking. (and I don't even like cider vinegar!)

5. Bierocks
The ultimate Midwestern comfort food. Breaded pocket filled with hamburger, onions and cabbage. Sounds weird if you haven't had it before.. but it's amazing! This recipe feeds a crowd so consider freezing or throwing a party!

6. Pumpkin Waffles
I don't really need to say anything about this one. 
Pumpkin. Waffles.

7. Easy Cheesy Potato Soup
So So So good. Warm, cheesy.. delicious!

8. Chili Pie
Chili is one of those foods that automatically makes me think of fall. This dish is a twist on your usual chili... cheesy potato topping can't make it worse... :) 

Looking forward to re-making these recipes this fall as well as trying out a bunch of new soup recipes from Pinterest!

Have you read my fall bucket list?

What are your favorite fall recipes? I'd love to know!

Thank you for reading!

All for now,

Alexandra

2012 Cookbook Review

Happy National Pie Day! 

I will be posting my pictures and recipe soon! :) (here)

As most of you know I made it a goal in 2012 to try out 100 new recipes. I went through many cookbooks and believe me, it's not always easy to find a good recipe! Some cookbooks, even the ones that look great can end up being full of duds! So I wanted to let all of you in on my favorite cookbooks so far! The ones that passed the test of having many good or very good recipes in them.

Here we go!

Pioneer Woman 1 & 2 - Duh

The Pioneer Woman cookbooks are filled with delicious from scratch recipes. There is a definite down-home almost Southern vibe to the comfort food type recipes, but there are definitely some very creative more interesting ones as well. Each book has step by step pictures and you feel like she is reading them to you herself. They are hilarious and filled with great pictures and tips. I have yet to make something out of either of these books that hasn't been AMAZING! Seriously, go buy these. Pioneer Woman also has a show on food network, a novel about her life, children's books and a blog.

The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen

I bought this cookbook because it was cute. Seriously. And there was a pie on the cover... you know how I love pie. However, the recipes turned out to be the most amazing part of the book.. which is definitely a good thing. The Farm Chicks live in Spokane, Washington {a region of the country that I desperately want to visit!} so there is a bit of a healthier vibe to these recipes. Now, I'm not talking kale, nutritional yeast and vegan healhty.. I mean that they love to use real ingredients and a variety of fruits and veggies. They have tons of great desserts but other recipes as well! It also has craft and thrifting ideas in it too, so those are very fun to read in between recipes. I am hoping to purchase their Christmas cookbook this coming fall so I can test out those as well!

Katie Brown's Cookbooks

Katie Brown is one of my favorite ladies in the cooking/crafting/gardening/entertaining etc world. She has a TV show on PBS that I love to watch, many books and a really fun blog/website. I am constantly inspired by her. I only  have 2 of her books so far, but I love the recipes! Of course there are crafts and other ideas as well, but the recipes are fantastic! She is a Midwestern/Great Lakes girl at heart like me, so I love to read her books because they are so rooted in family and entertaining those whom you love the very most. When that is at the heart of a book you can't go wrong. Her recipes range from homemade classics and staples to culinary twists on basics and global influences for theme parties. There is something for everyone in these books!

Cookbooks by the Carle Sisters

The Carle sisters are definitely the lesser known of my favorites, but they definitely know what they are doing! These girls are in their twenties and write cookbooks about college and young adult life. You might think that that would cause their recipes to be so basic that they are boring... but in all actuality they are sharing their love of food with those who are learning to cook in new lifestyle situations. I would recommend all 3 of the pictured books to anyone, even a more advanced cook. They cover so many different types of food that you can always find something to spice up your weekly menu in one of their books! The two college books also have sections on budget meals, party menus and feeding crowds. I highly recommend all three!

I am sure that the more I cook and test out other cookbooks I will come up with more and new favorites. But for now, these are the ones that I am sure about! I promise to post more good ones as I find them!

If you are interested in purchasing any of the books mentioned above {you should be... :)} I have included links on each of their titles. 

What are some of your favorite cookbooks?

All for now,

Alexandra

Top 12 Recipes of 2012 {out of 100!} + 3 Runner's Up!

When I set the goal to try 100 new recipes in 2012, I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking... or if I thought I would make it. But somehow, I did. And I really enjoyed {most of} the process. I found a lot of recipes that I can have ready to go when I make my menus! I got to try a lot of fun new things and to be honest not too terribly many of them turned out to be bad! :)

So in December, I thought it would be fun to go through and pick my favorites and then share them with you! There were so many to choose from! I loved many of them and a lot were good enough to repeat even though they did not make this list.. In order to narrow enough I did not include recipes that I had tasted before even if I had never MADE them myself. If I had.. Spritz Cookies for sure would have made the list! :)  

Here we go! {in no particular order}

1) Garlic Basil Shrimp

Garlic-y, basil-y, fresh and delicious! Fairly healthy and filled to the brim with ingredients I love!

2) Chicken Bruschetta Pasta

Super fresh! Really healthy but flavorful! I was surprised by how great this recipe was! I say, wait and make it when you've got yummy fresh tomatoes! :)

3) Old Fashioned Banana Cream Pie

 This was what I tried for national pie day 2012! It ended up being really great and work the {minimal} extra effort to make it from scratch!

4) Granola #2

 I love granola, and I really wanted to find a recipe I liked! I got lucky on my 2nd try! This stuff is heavenly! Its like a cookie in your cereal bowl! It made the house smell heavenly! Make this right now.. and make it monthly!

5) Parmesan Red Pepper Crusted Tilapia

 This meal was so flavorful! I loved the spice of the peppers and the freshness of real Parmesan. This was easy and really cheap for a fish dish! I highly recommend this recipe!

6) Jambalaya

Oh my goodness I love cajun food! I've even started putting cajun seasoning in our scrambled eggs! This recipe was easy and super delicious. It is way more exciting than any of the usual styles of food we choose from. This meal makes me want to head south to New Orleans the first chance I get! :)

7) Beirocks

This meal is straight comfort food! It was surprisingly easy and extremely tasty! Don't be intimidated! It is worth it and really not that hard! 

8) Chicken Apricot Paninis

Pioneer Woman is a genius. I know I say this a lot.. but for very good reason. This recipe was so fantastic. The flavors were things that I never would have picked to go together and it got me really excited about trying crazier recipes and mixing in my own ideas to recipes I found. Taking a chance in the kitchen can be very rewarding!

9) Sausage Skillet Hash

I love how simple this recipe is, but it has this crazy combination of flavors. It has the tang from the Dijon, the sweetness of the brown sugar and it is very hearty! I made this again this week because it is just that easy! Note: don't be alarmed by the initial amount of spinach! It looks like a ton when it goes in.. but it cooks down and isn't overwhelming at all!

10) Mocha Cheesecake

Oh my Lord.. this recipe turned me into a cheesecake lover! It was insanely rich! Seriously guys, small slices and lots of sharing! But it was heavenly. You won't believe that you could make something that tastes so good!

11) {insert fruit here} crisp - My favorite in raspberry

This has become my go-to dessert. It's warm, bubbly, fruity and not too sweet. It is great with ice cream and just about everyone loves it!

12) french toast! (the best in the world!) 

I cannot actually explain how much I love this french toast. So I won't try.

Runners Up:

Pumpkin Waffles

Perfect for fall, easy as can be, unusual flavor... such a great meal.

Cheesy Potato Soup

I figured that this recipe would be pretty bland since I hadn't really tried many soup recipes.. but it wasn't! The sharp cheddar was just the ticket! Perfect for a super chilly day!

Ham and Cheese Biscuit Pockets

These are so easy and tasty! They are great for busy nights when you just want to whip up something really easy but satisfying. I recommend you work this into your monthly menus! This one is really kid friendly!

 What were your favorite recipes of 2012? Send them my way! Which of mine did you like the best?

All for now,

Alexandra 

Blueberry Bliss Smoothie {Recipe #100!}

With this post I vow to never forget to take a picture of a recipe again! Whew! This super easy recipe has taken me forever to make again. ... but now that I have, this blueberry bliss is all yours.

Blueberry Bliss Smoothie

Borrowed, Adapted and Enjoyed from the Little Black Book of Smoothies

Makes 1 tall smoothie or 2 juice glass sized ones {pictured}.

Ingredients

1 cup chilled white grape juice {no sugar added} 

1/2 cup low fat blueberry yogurt {Greek would be even better + a bit of honey!}

1/2 frozen banana*

1 cup frozen blueberries

1) Add liquid first, then yogurt, then frozen solids. Blend on high until smooth.

Enjoy!

You can change around the fruit, juice and yogurt to your tastes! This is the basic smoothie formula, so change it up! We sometimes add spinach leaves or ground flax seed to add extra fiber and vitamins! and NO you can't taste it! :) PROMISE! As it is, this recipe is super healthy for you, especially if you swap for the Greek yogurt!

*note* freeze your banana in chunks and peeled. It is super tricky to peel a frozen banana!

Also, if you love smoothies, invest in a good blender! We broke our first one.. but we got to buy this one to replace it! :)

What is your favorite smoothie recipe?

All for now,

Alexandra

Nutella Cookies {Recipe #99}

Hi all! I hope 2013 is treating you well so far!

Kyle and I have been starting up a new routine for a new schedule and I have been organizing and decorating our apartment like crazy! {a year later....} Posts coming soon! SO excited about it too!

Anyway, through all of this I have been struggling to get these last few recipes re-made {for pictures} and posted! But hopefully I can get in the last one by the end of the week! 

Then I will have a top 10 recipes of 2012 + 3 Runner's up recipes post and a best and worst cookbook post! Exciting! :) 

So here's the recipe you were waiting for!

I made this back in March for Kyle's birthday, but didn't have my camera with me at the time. They were delicious! Kyle loves nutella so the recipe was a hit! I would recommend these to anyone who loves chocolate. They are fairly dark chocolate-y which is nice. 

Nutella Cookies

Via pinterest & altered a bit

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups of flour {spooned into measuring cup and leveled off}

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt {only if you are using unsalted butter}

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 stick of butter softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract {real, please}

1/3 cup nutella

1/3 cup milk

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. 

2) In a small bowl mix together flour, powders and salt {if using}.

3) in a mixer, cream butter and sugars. Then add extract. 

4) Next, add the nutella to the butter mixture.

5) Mix in half of the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Then add the milk. Then add the last 1/2 of the dry mixture and mix until well combined.

6) Cover and let dough chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes {I suggest longer}, up to 2 days.

7) Use a lined cookie sheet {with silpat mats, parchment paper etc.} Roll tablespoons of the batter into balls and place on cookie sheets. Flatten slightly and bake for 10-12 minutes. 

8) Let sit on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving to cooling rack. 

Share & Enjoy! 

I Like to turn mine into cookie sandwiches by spreading a little bit of nutella in between 2 cookies! This also helps because I am less of a dark chocolate lover than Kyle is. So it makes it a little sweeter! It is delicious! :)

What is your favorite cookie recipe? 

All for now,

Alexandra

Bikini Season Salmon and Broccoli {Recipes 97 & 98}

My sister-in-law, Kelsey gave me the Glamour Magazine Cookbook for Christmas. 

I have flipped through the book many times since I got it and I am so excited to try more of the recipes. The Frozen Mango Mimosa recipe came originally from the book. We just changed up the sorbet flavor. 

Anyhow, these 2 recipes also came from this cookbook. It turned out to be a light and delicious meal. It wasn't hard at all and was really tasty, not to mention healthy!

Bikini Season Salmon

{borrowed, adapted and enjoyed from Glamour's Cookbook}

Serves 4

{we cut ours in half and still had 4 servings!}

Ingredients

Four 8-ounce skin-on salmon fillets

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup dry white wine

½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

½ cup fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons capers*

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Put the salmon skin-side down in a glass baking pan. Rub the salmon fillets with 1-tablespoon olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Let the salmon sit in the pan for at least 10 minutes. 

2) Drizzle the white wine over the salmon, then sprinkle 1/4 cup parsley on top; save the remaining parsley to use later. Put the pan in the oven and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the salmon fillets are opaque. {I overcooked mine a bit, it was still good but a bit dry. So make sure to take it out on time!

3) Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix the lemon juice, capers, remaining parsley, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Top each salmon fillet with the lemon juice mixture and serve immediately. 

Enjoy!

We made this broccoli recipe from the same book as a side.

Beyond Basic Broccoli

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs of fresh broccoli cut into florets

3 T. Olive oil

4 garlic cloves thinly sliced

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp or less red pepper flakes {optional}

1) Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. meanwhile, fill a large bowl with ice water. Add brocolli to the boiling water and cook, uncovered until tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer the brocooli to the ice water using tongs or a slotted spoon, then drain in a colander. Wipe out the pot.

2) Ad the olive oil and garlic to the pot and cook over medium high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally until just golden, about 1 minute. Add the broccoli and cook while stirring for 2 minutes. Add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste. 

Enjoy!

What is your go-to healthy but tasty meal?

All for now,

Alexandra

*capers are pickled flower buds. They smell disgusting, but they really do taste good! Kyle liked them too! :)

Frozen Mango Mimosas {Recipe #96}

Mimosas are great. 

I like regular mimosas as long as they are 3/4 good* oj and 1/4 champagne... :)

But this recipe was really fantastic! {& easy}

We had a bottle of champagne leftover from our wedding that we opened on our anniversary and made this yummy recipe.

 Frozen Mango Mimosas

Recipe Borrowed, Adapted and Enjoyed from Glamour's Cookbook

Ingredients

Champagne

Frozen Sorbet or Sherbert 

{we used Ciao Bella's mango, but it comes in lots of flavors}

1) scoop sorbet into festive glasses.

2) pour champagne over sorbet.

3) stir until smooth.

Share & Enjoy!

What is your favorite way spice up champagne?

All for now,

Alexandra

*not from concentrate. I like Simply Orange best

Movie Night Bark {Recipe #95}

I love Redbook Magazine. 

I know it's not really geared toward people my age, but I love it.

In December's Redbook Magazine they had recipes for various barks. You know like peppermint bark or something. I decided to try one called Movie Night Bark. 

It is a really fun idea that you just make a chocolate based bark and then drop your typical movie night snacks into it and let it harden. Their recipe contained a lot of things that kyle likes so I thought, why not?

Bonus? This has got to be one of the easiest recipes I tried in 2012!

Movie Night Bark

Borrowed, Adapted and Enjoyed from Redbook Magazine, December 2012

Note you can very easily sub any type of chocolate for the milk chocolate and sub out the toppings as well based on your tastes!

Ingredients:

12 oz milk chocolate chopped {chips work too}

1/2 cup mini pretzel pieces

1/2 cup chocolate covered raisins {we used chocolate covered cherries}

1/2 cup cracker jacks, poppycock or caramel corn

1/2 cup salted peanuts

1) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or non-stick foil.

 2) Melt chocolate in microwave. Heat for 1 minute, stir and then heat for an additional 30 seconds. Stir until smooth. Pour into lined baking sheet and smooth out as best as you can. Barks should have a thin layer of chocolate, so don't worry if it seems thinner than what you are expecting.

3) Sprinkle your chosen ingredients over the chocolate as evenly as possible.

4) Let the bark chill in the fridge for about an hour.

5) Remove from fridge and break into pieces. 

Share and Enjoy!

This bark can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 month! {if you can make it last that long!}

What are your favorite movie night snacks?

All for now,

Alexandra

2012 Goal Review

A good way to keep track of your goals and progress is to revisit them at the end of the indicated time and evaluate your progress. So I have decided to revisit my 2012 resolutions to track my progress in goal setting! 

When you do this, remember that it is often just as important to celebrate the small steps toward a goal & goals you don't want to complete as it is to check things off of your list.

Here we go!

1) Try 100 new recipes

This goal was my BHAG {big hairy audacious goal} and I was really motivated/scared by it! I was SO happy that I was able to complete it, just before midnight on New Year's Eve! I have so far posted all but 6 of the recipes to this blog. I should have them up fairly soon! I will also post my top 12 recipes of the year and my cookbook reviews coming up soon! Through the process I found some really good and really bad recipes! I am happy to say that most were pretty darn good. I definitely found some new favorites, which was the goal. Through this process I feel like a fairly accomplished home cook! :) I've got new skills! I hope you are enjoying the recipes that I have shared so far, and enjoy the last few that have yet to be added! {there are some GREAT ones left! :)}

2) obtain and sustain the life of 3 new plants

Completed/failed: Depends on how you look at it. Kyle bought me an ivy topiary in February and then at the end of March we bought 7 herbs and planted them. The ivy is still alive and the herbs lasted through most of the summer. It was a dreadfully hot summer here, so that was not ideal for growing anything. So because herbs aren't meant to live year-round, {at least most} this is sort of a pass. This year I made a goal to buy 3 house plants. Which is a better goal I think.

3) read 20 books {one more than I finished in 2011}

I realized around Christmas time that I needed to read 2 more books. Luckily I picked The Giver and my sister-in-law Kelsey had the companion Gathering Blue. I was able to read each of those very quickly! I was proud that I knocked 2 more classics off of my list and one being the massive Anna Karenina. Favorites among the 20 were: The Host By: Stephene Meyer, Persuasion By: Jane Austen, Elixir By: Hilary Duff, Water for Elephants By: Sara Gruen, Anna Karenina By: Leo Tolstoy and The Giver books By: Lois Lowery.

4) make a miller scrapbook

I was severely behind on this goal until the last week of March when I went into a scrapbooking frenzy! I have HUNDREDS of pictures from my 2 1/2 years at Miller and its proving to be quite the project! So far I have filled up the pages the scrapbook came with and made one page beyond that! Still more to go, but I think I am about halfway done! I loved this goal, it was a wonderful creative outlet! I am excited to finish it and start more for other subjects :)

5) go to 5 new places

Completed! Our honeymoon in January took us to Quebec, Canada, It put me on a plane, Our spring break road trip then took us to 5 cities in Texas! Then we went to Tulsa in April and Minneapolis/St. Paul in August! We were busy travelers! :)

6) find eco-friendly hair products that I like

I have been trying out shampoos and conditioners.. but haven't found any great ones for my hair yet. Looking into doing simple vinegar rinses.. but I am not a huge fan of vinegar! :) I found a wonderful hair cream to use after I wash my hair that works great and smells like a tropical paradise, without the chemical fragrance! I will post about it at some point. So this was a small success! :)

7) compost! 

Completed/Failed: Depends on how you look at this, we realized that there really isn't a good way for us to compost in our tiny apartment with no yard. So we started and then had to quit. There wasn't anywhere to put our food scraps. We are looking forward to having our own home someday where we can compost, or joining a community that has its own compost area.

8) become a merc member

We did not do this. We couldn't decide if it was the best move. Even though it isn't in our 2013 list.. we might continue to weigh our options. :)

9) use daily feats consistently

In the beginning I did pretty well on this goal. I was interviewed by daily feats and did a lot of phone interviews for improving their website. It was fun to help them out :) I downloaded the app when I got my iphone but I have so many feats saved that it takes FOREVER to load. So I need to really do that on the computer instead. So this is a fail, but I still managed to donate quite a bit of money to Companions to Heroes. :)

10) blog at least 3 times per month

I managed to blog at least 3 times every month except for August. Which makes sense. August is busy with the start of school. I made this goal more for the overall number of posts than the monthly ones so it worked out the way I wanted it to. I posted over the number of times expected this year even though I didn't post 3 times in August. Thank you for reading!!! :)

11) shop at the farmer's market regularly

We visited the farmer's market 3 times this season (April-October) this is by no means regularly, but much more than we would have gone otherwise. So I consider this a small success.

12) explore local parks and nature trails

Kyle and I visited the McGrew nature trail off of 15th street in Lawrence. It was nice for the neighborhood, but not really very outdoorsy. Many more to see though! I didn't get very far on this goal, but I still consider it a pass because I would have seen zero had this not been on my list. :)

13) get into a yoga routine with kyle

We had a few weeks or so where we did really well, but it was on and off so not at all completed. The problem was that I didn't specifically lay out a goal for our routine. So it wasn't set up to be completed. This year's goal is much better. But through trying to complete this goal we did accomplish important things like getting 2 air conditioner units and re-arrange our living room countless times. Now we finally have a decent set up where there is room to do yoga on the floor! This is a pretty darn great thing, even if I didn't accomplish what I wanted to initially.

So I felt like I "completed" or made significant progress on 9 out of 12 goals! Really not bad!

Other Accomplishments in 2012:

Interviewed by Daily Feats!

Graduated from KU!!

Got an A++ in my internship hours!

Gained over 30,000 blog views on this blog! {thanks for reading!}

Finished Anna Karenina!! :)

BEAT my travel goal!

Celebrated 1 year of amazing marriage with Kyle!

Checked a few things off of my 10 year list! {also coming soon!}

 How did you do with your goals in 2012? 

Still looking to set goals for 2013? Check out my goals for 2013 & my tips for goal success for ideas and strategies!

All for now,

Alexandra