Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Squares

I have never really made cheesecake before...and Allen is a huge cheesecake fan. Allen and I went to a friends for dinner last night and I was in charge of dessert so I decided to give cheesecake a try for it.

I found this cheesecake recipe from Annie's Eats.

Check out my finished product!

I was so nervous the whole time I was making the dessert, worrying that I was going to screw it up somehow. Overall the recipe was pretty helpful. I did have to bake the crust longer than suggested, but otherwise it was pretty simple.

This would be a great recipe to try during the summer when blueberries are in abundance!

Check out Annie's Eats for the recipe. I won't bother retyping it out as I didn't change her recipe besides the crust baking time.

Check out the recipes I am going to try this week:

Cheesy Quinoa Bites

Quinoa Salad

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffins

Photos and reviews to come!

B

Kitchen Goals for 2012

"The discovery of a new dish does more for happiness

of mankind than the discovery of a star."

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

My lovely friend Morgan gave me a great idea for blogging about my goals for 2012, in particular, my cooking goals.

The last couple of years have really inspired me to become a great cook and baker. I have tried some great recipes this past year....

Broccoli Quinoa Casserole

Honey and Walnut Salmon

Black Bean Enchiladas

Sweet Soy Glazed Chicken

My kitchen goals for 2012 are the following:

Attempt to make pizza dough

Make gnocchi like this recipe

Try out black bean burgers

Make this Caramelized Onion and Spinach Bread

Attempt to make Pad Thai

Perfect a quinoa burger recipe *I've tried one...going to keep looking

Make carne asada from scratch

Theres more...but thats all for now!

B

Crockpot Chicken

Thanks to pinterest, I have found some great crock pot recipes that I want to try out this year. I got a new crock pot for Christmas and I am loving it!

I tried out Cafe Rio Chicken last night and it was good. Allen said its his new fave chicken dish.

So after eating my chicken dinner, I realized that I didn't exactly follow the recipe. I forgot a couple things.... OOPS!

Cafe Rio Chicken

(from Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms)

Ingredients:

4-5 chicken breasts

1/2 small bottle of Zesty Italian Dressing (approx. 3/4 cup)

1 ranch dressing package (mixed with 1/2 cup water)

1/2 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tbsp ground cumin

Combine all the ingredients into the crock pot. Cook on high for 5 to 6 hours or 8 hours on low. Shred with a fork and serve with burritos, tacos, salads or rice.

So guess what I forgot? I forgot the 1/2 cup water...and the garlic. I will definately try this recipe again properly, but needless to say it still tasted delicious. I served my chicken over a bed of spinach, tomatoes and corn. I tossed it with a bit of ranch dressing, but really you don't need much extra flavor. Allen had his chicken with rice and he loved it!

So this is a very easy recipe to try out!

Stay tuned for my next post. I will be giving you a list of cooking goals for the year.

Check out Miss Morgz blog as she was my inspiration for this topic!

Take care,

B

Christmas Catchup

I have some major catching up to do from Christmas holidays. I have a number of things to go over in this post.

First things first.. check out what my mom and I made for some DIY gifts!

Christmas Joy Cookies-in-a-jar

*We changed the name to Christmas Joy cookies instead of Girlfriend cookies

My mom and I made these cookies in a jar for a bunch of my family members. Everyone seemed really excited about them. We put all the ingredients into jars, then attached some little recipe cards.

Our other DIY gift:

Chocolate Oreo Cookie Bark

Before I give you this recipe I must make a disclaimer. THIS IS SWEET and you may have a sugar high after eating some of this.

My mom found this recipe for Chocolate Oreo Cookie Bark on the Kraft website.

We followed the recipe on our first batch, then made some adaptations for the second batch. We found that when mixing peanut butter and oreo into white chocolate...the white chocolate looks kinda "meh". So we mixed the peanut butter into the semi sweet chocolate. This made the white chocolate keep a "whiter" color.

After the bark had cooled and hardened, we broke it up into pieces and wrapped it up into fancy gift bags.

This is a super easy recipe and gift to give at the holidays!

So other than baking and crafting, I have taken part in some great Christmas festivities.

Ugly Sweater Party

New Years Party



And lots of wonderful family time! Allen and I had 4 family dinners for Christmas which was awesome!

I am very thankful for the wonderful Christmas I had....and

I am very excited for the beginning of 2012!

Here are a couple of my resolutions for the year:

• Continue with a fitness plan. Try to find balance between the exercising and good eating.
• Be more openminded...think outside the box
• Consume less sugar
• Work hard to save and cut down on my debt levels
• Work lots
• Take more photos

There they are...hope I can stick to them!

B

Bucket List

Through pinterest I discovered this awesome BucketList site Before I Die. The amount of time I could waste on this site is endless. I thought I would share some of my Bucket List choices..

I could go on and on...check out my pinterest board for more.

What are some of your bucket list items??

B

Honey and Walnut Salmon

I managed to find another piece of salmon hanging out in our freezer so I got to test out a new recipe.

Honey and Walnut Salmon

(adapated from The Girl Who Eats Everything)

4 tsp walnuts or pecans

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp soy sauce

4 salmon fillets

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the first 3 ingredients in a bowl. Sprinke fish with salt and pepper (I omitted this step...I forgot and didn't think it needed it). Place fish in a baking dish then spread marinade onto fish. *I would recommend covering the dish with tin foil before placing the fish and marinade in.

Cover and marinate in fridge for at least 15 minutes.

Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes or until fish is flakey. *When the fish was almost done baking I lowered the temperature a bit as the honey was really starting to burn.

I served this with salad and rice. Allen and I both really liked the fish. I think next time I may chop the nuts finer so they stay on the fish better.

I would definately recommend trying this recipe though!

B

Best Workout Songs

After reading my friend Morgan's blog about crossfit and good music...I thought I would give you some more recommendationsas well.

First thing, this is just a little something to make you wanna dance!

Now onto the music..

"Levels" by Avicii

"Jeopardy" by Sultan and Ned Shepard

"Feel It" by Ferry Corsten

"Call My Name" by Sultan and Ned Shepard

"Save the World" by Swedish House Mafia

"Champagne Showers" by LMFAO

"T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)" by Wil.I.Am, JLo and Mick Jagger

Hope this gives you a little something to get you moving at the gym...on the run...or at home.

B