Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Tis the season for pumpkin flavored everything! (or, so I’m told)

Here’s an easy video recipe for my Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes.

I like to top these with cream cheese frosting because it’s my favorite! But feel free to top with your favorite frosting!

My Tio Nick’s Corn Salsa

I can’t tell you how much I love this salsa! What pushes it over the edge is how easy it is to make, just make it the night before so all the flavors have a chance to sit and meld with each other.

 

Tio Nick’s Corn Salsa

Easy Chik’n & Steak Enchiladas

Typically if a recipe requires too much prep, it’s just not for me. And, “too much prep” can be as little as having to finish a dish in the oven after doing a bunch of stuff over the stove. I don’t even have kids and I don’t have the energy for that!

Then I found this recipe for Ingrid Hoffman’s Fastest-Ever Enchiladas. While it requires a good amount of prep work, she uses store-bought rotisserie chicken so there’s no combination over the stove and baking required. It cuts your prep time in half!

I’m still trying to eat mainly vegetarian so I thought I’d change it up using some chik’n strips and steak strips from Morning Star Farms. I love these because they really satisfy my craving for the texture and flavor of meat. When you mix them into a has-style dish like these enchiladas I’m willing to bet even the pickiest of meat eaters would barely notice!

French Onion Soup- Vegetarian Style

I realize that having a soup post is totally out of season, but French Onion Soup is my favorite! I think it was the melty cheese on top that did me in. It’s definitely one many meals I miss about eating meat, which was why I knew I had to create a vegetarian-friendly version.

I tried filming the process and learned many things not to do when making French Onion soup…it was a little disastrous. I figured that’s life- sometimes it works out great the first time around and sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and try something new. A recipe that imitated life imitating art? Wow.

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Vegetarian French Onion Soup

Vegetarian Picadillo (ground beef hash)

Here’s another vegetarian-ified meal for ya! This one is a remake of one of my favorite meals my grandmother used to make, Picadillo, which is like a ground beef hash mixture. We always paired it with white rice and my dad likes topping it with catsup, but that’s never appealed to me.

This meat-free version is made from Morning Star Farms’ Grillers Crumbles, which I found in the frozen food section of my grocery store. I’ve made this before using a mixture of the crumbles as well as some crumbled tofu, which came out quite tasty also and would be a great option if you couldn’t find these crumbles. I like that the crumbles give meat-eaters the mental ease of their dinner still looking like something that’s not too far from their comfort zone. Great for a Meatless Monday!

 Vegetarian Picadillo

Butternut Squash Soup

I’ve recently been inspired by Leanne Brown, who wrote a cookbook with recipes that are affordable and specifically geared for those who are on the SNAP/Food Stamps benefit. The pdf version of her book is available for free on her website or you can donate to her Kickstarter campaign and make sure that a family in need also gets a copy (much like Toms shoes).

African Stew

I love this stew! Although it’s not much of a stew, I guess…whatever! It’s delicious and you should try it and you should let me know what you think! As always, the video (and I think more entertaining) version here!

Poutine Recipe

As always, video versions (here) of recipes are on my YouTube channel!

I remember having this recipe for the first time at Le Cellier Steakhouse in Disney’s Epcot. I was celebrating a friend’s birthday and we were out for a fancy meal..and fancy it was! I was definitely in a try-something-new type of mood so I asked our waiter what “pout-eye-n” was. He told me “poo-teen”  was basically French fries with gravy and cheese on top…and I was sold.

Guava Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

**Updated 10/3/16 to account for easier measures in cupcake recipe**

These cupcakes are my pride- they were the first recipe I felt I truly created. I don’t even really love guava, but these cupcakes are quite bomb (if I do say so myself)

Wait…I like kale chips??

Before you start thinking I’m one of those people who likes kale on its own let me remind you that my first love was and always will be the cupcake. I was most possibly THE LAST person who jumped on the kale chip bandwagon and now that I’m on it I can’t help but wonder what took me so long.