Heavy Day of Cooking Yesterday

[Please excuse the poor quality pictures since these are all from my phone. Next week it will all be from a better camera!]
But first, lets discuss Saturday night dips!

2 of our friends had a joint birthday bash on Saturday, and it was requested that I make my cheesy dips. So, I did (I just love my 3 pot crockpot!)

First, we had Pizza Dip!
8oz package of cream cheese
1 tub of garlic & herb cooking cream cheese
1 bag of shredded mozzarella & parmessan
1 bag of shredded Velveeta
1 bag of turkey pepperoni
[this was seriously super cheesy]

1. Dice up the pepperoni.
2. Throw everything into crockpot
3. Set on high for 1 hour. Then, set on warm for the rest of the evening.
4. Eat it like it's going out of style.

Next we had Sundried Tomato Dip!
Jar of sundried tomatoes
8oz package of cream cheese
1 tub of plain cooking cream cheese

1. Throw everything into the crockpot [don't miss!!]
2. Set on high for 1 hour. Then, set to warm.
3. Eat it with wheat thins. OM NOM NOM NOM

And the 3rd pot contained White Queso Dip!
1 package of velveeta white queso
8oz of sour cream
1 can of salsa (or Rotel) [I completely forgot about this step on Saturday!]
~1/2 lb of ground turkey [shhhh, don't tell the guys!]

1. Season and brown the ground turkey the skillet.
2. Dump all ingredients into the pot, including the turkey.
3. Set on high for 1 hour, and then on warm.
4. Eat like a fat kid.

And finally, a surprise favorite of everyone's..... CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH DIP!
Adapted from What Megan's Making blog...
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 8-ounce block of cream cheese, softened
3/4 to 1 cup powdered sugar (*to taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips, plus extra for sprinkling

1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the brown sugar until it dissolves and the mixture starts to bubble. Stir in vanilla and set aside to cool.
2. In a separate bowl, cream the cream cheese and powdered sugar together for 60 seconds.
3. With the mixer on low speed, add in brown sugar and butter mixture. Mix until combined.
4. Stir in the mini chocolate chips.
5. Garnish with additional mini chocolate chips.
6. Serve with animal cracker, nilla wafers or graham crackers.

This is what was left of it 4 hours later...

 

And there were nothing left the next day. Vultures! :D

Ok, ok, getting to the fun stuff on Sunday...

Every Saturday, I create my meal plan for the next week and then write out a grocery list. I do all of my shopping on Saturday & use most of Sunday to cook (and do laundry, and watch tv, and be lazy).

On the menu for this week, I had:

• Salmon
• Edamame Salad
• Jambalaya
• Blueberry Muffins
• Hummus [which I found out is super easy & cheap to make! Seriously... I'll make this all of the time now!!!]

I started out the day with salmon. Sorry, no ingredient list this time since it was a bunch of stuff that I mixed together & forgot to write down. I will, however, tell you how to pan sear salmon beautifully.
1. Spray a cooking pan with nonstick spray or a dab of olive oil
2. Set on high. Wait for it to heat up.
3. Place salmon and cook for 1 minute on high.
4. Lower temperature to medium and cook for 2 more minutes.
5. Flip. Cook on the other side for 3 minutes for medium-well or 4 minutes for well done.

 

 

Edamame Salad

1 package of frozen edamame, thawed (shelled if possible-- I couldn't find any shelled so my happy little butt shelled edamame for about 20 minutes)

2 roma tomatoes

2 green onions

1. Mix all ingredients together

2. Garnish with your favorite low-fat dressing (I used an asian sesame I had on hand)

 

It's the thing in the top left corner [this is my Monday lunch, by the way... more details below]

Jambalaya

[not as hard to make as you may imagine!]

[Recipe to be announced later... I actually have to drag my butt up from this chair an get the recipe book... I KNOW!]

But here are pics to make you drool

Blueberry Muffins
1 T flax seeds
1 c blueberries
1 c quick oats
1 c lowfat buttermilk
1 c whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t cinnamon
1 t salt
1 whole egg
1/4 c unsweetened applesauce
3/4 c brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Spray muffin pans with nonstick spray or line with paper liners.
3. Use a clean coffee grinder to roughly grind the flax seeds, trying not to process them into a mealy texture. (You can use pre-ground flax if that's what you have on hand.)
4. Wash and dry the blueberries.
5. In a small bowl, combine the oats and buttermilk, and let stand at room temperature for five minutes.
6. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; mix with a fork to blend and set aside.
7. In a large bowl and using a hand mixer, beat the egg, applesauce, brown sugar at medium speed for 3 minutes.
8. Blend in the oat-buttermilk mixture.
9. Stir in the flour mixture only to combine, try not to overwork the mixture.
10. Fold in the blueberries.
11. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and top with a sprinkle of flax seed.
12. Bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

This original recipe called for 12 mini muffins, but who honestly gets satisfied after eating a MINI muffin (the size of a cupcake)?! Yeah, not me! So... I busted out my large muffin pan and made 6 delicious muffins.

 

 Ok, and now for the super easy, super delicious hummus!
2 cans of canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
2 cloves of garlic (or 1 T of minced garlic for us lazy folk)
4 tbsp lemon juice (or less to taste)
1 tsp of salt 

1. Put it all together
2. Process it
3. Effin eat it with a spoon (or Triscuit thin crisps... om nom nom)

I want you all to also know that I made this while watching Dirty Dancing. Lil trivia for you all.

 

Ok, and now to end this giant rambling of a blog with what I had for my Monday lunch...

Snack 1: 1oz turkey jerky, 10 slices of cucumber, mini babybel cheese in white cheddar

Lunch: salmon, edamame salad, FiberOne brownie [they're seriously not that bad], nectarine

Snack 2: hummus, triscuit thin crisps, grapes

Anddddd... I'm out!