Mango Crepes

A Saturday morning breakfast that brought everyone crawling into the kitchen. Perfect for four people. No doubt we were stuffed and ready to enjoy a walk around town. Delicious mangoes are a must.

What's your favorite brunch item?


Ingredients:
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup AP flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2 ripe mangoes, diced
powdered sugar
cinnamon (optional)
fat free vanilla yogurt (optional)
maple syrup (optional)


Directions:
Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center and crack eggs in the middle of the well. Beat the eggs in the middle and slowly add the milk, slowly adding the flour into your whisking path. When it forms a smooth batter, no chunks, mix in the chilled melted butter. 
Butter a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pour in about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of batter into pan and swirl until the batter hits the edges. When edges begin to brown, use a spatula to lift an edge, and flip with your hand. Do not damage the crepe by folding over. Allow to cook for about 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate. Stack crepes on top of each other.
Fill crepes with mango pieces and powdered sugar. You may want to add syrup, cinnamon, or yogurt, depending on your preferences.

Blackened Fish Taco Towers

A favorite around our home?? Mahi Mahi fish tacos.
A meal we like to play around with and make unique every time. Changing up salsas, adding a sour cream sauce, or switching up the marinade... it's a perfect dish to experiment with.
This one ended up being our "taco tower".
The night before we made some delicious Naan flat bread and so I incorporated the leftovers (there surely weren't many...) with our fish. Had some ripe mangoes and.. Ta-da! Blackened mahi mahi with a mango salsa on some yummy Naan.


*makes two tacos


For the salsa:
Ingredients:
1-2 mangoes, preferably not quite ripe, cubed
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 chopped small red onion
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon lime juice
dash of salt, optional


Directions: Toss all ingredients together and refrigerate for an hour to let flavors mingle.


For the fish:
Ingredients:
4-8 oz cut of mahi mahi, thawed
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
0.5 tablespoon Mccormick Smokehouse seasoning
0.5 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
dash of ground oregano
0.5 tablespoon lime juice


1-2 tablespoons olive oil


Directions: Place thawed mahi mahi in a bag and incorporate the next six ingredients in a bowl, mix. Combine the marinade atop the mahi mahi and thoroughly smother the fish in the red mixture. Marinate in fridge for at least 2 hours.
About 10 minutes before you serve, heat olive oil in a skillet until it smokes. Carefully tong the fish into the oil and cook, flipping fish when half of the pink on the fish turns white. When just cooked through, a fish is white, remove from pan and break up into chunks. 


For tacos:
Ingredients:
Black beans, heated
Queso Fresco, crumbled
Green Leaf Lettuce, chopped


On tortilla or Naan, lay down a bed of chopped up green leaf lettuce, then black beans. Cover with your mango salsa, queso fresco crumbles, and blackened mahi mahi. Serve.

Greek Pasta Salad

Coming home from the beach, I was fishing through our fridge for something to whip up for dinner and decided I had enough to do something Greek. Since I recently bought some whole wheat pasta... Pasta salad it was! By the time it was cold and ready to eat, I snapped one picture before my husband snapped the bowl out of my hands and into his mouth. Smiling, he sauntered off with it...


Ingredients:
1 cucumber diced
1 tomato diced
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 cups cooked and cooled whole wheat penne pasta


Dressing:
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
dash of nutmeg


Directions:
Cook and cool penne pasta to package directions.
Combine cucumber, tomato, and sun dried tomatoes with the cooled pasta. Add all of the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk them until smooth. Toss it over the pasta, adding the feta in. Place in fridge for about an hour before serving.

Oreo, Oreo Cookies

Caution: If you are currently dieting and don't want to be tempted do not read or look any further!! Because if you make these you will be sitting here wishing you worked out before starting the dough....

You know these cookies are WAY too good for your own good when you make a batch and can't stop licking the dough off a spoon that you shouldn't have picked up in the first place... If you like cookies and cream ice cream in cookie form I would recommend this cookie recipe. The pudding makes the cookie come out soft and creamy, makes them taste good days later too! :)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (4.2 ounce) package instant Oreo Pudding mix (see Note)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla 
2 1/4 cups flour  
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups smashed, crumbled Oreo cookies


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Smash about one row of Oreo cookies in a bag just until each cookies is broken up, with varying shapes and crumbs.
Mix butter, sugars, and pudding mix together until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, then vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add one cup of the flour mixture at a time to the wet ingredients and mix until incorporated. Pour in all the smashed Oreos and mix on low for a couple seconds. Roll into 1 inch balls on a nonstick sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Wait 3 minutes before transferring over to wire rack.

Mango, Cucumber, and Black Bean Quinoa Salad

Oh how my husband loves this salad. He has established it his favorite dinner and now I must have all the ingredients in the kitchen at all times, just in case... Well, it is delicious.


With a perfect combination of flavors, trust me, you will have happy taste buds.


Ingredients:
*Note: I always cook my quinoa in veg. broth & remember to rinse.
2 cups cooked quinoa
1 mango, peeled and diced
1 (15 oz) can black beans rinsed and drained
1 cup diced cucumber
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon black pepper


Directions:
In a large bowl, combine quinoa, mango, black beans, cucumber, cilantro.


In a separate dish, whisk together red wine vinegar, olive oil, lime juice, and pepper until combined and toss into salad. Refrigerate for at least an hour.


Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Homemade Puppy Treats

Yesterday I was so extremely happy when Boston ran out the door, ran straight for the grass, and went potty. I praised him "good boy" enthusiastically and gave him a treat. He was pleased but he's so young that the treat is difficult for him to eat so, today, I made him some. They're extremely basic and easy which is wonderful because half of my attention is always on watching him! Another plus? It's so much cheaper.

Here's how the four ingredient puppy treats go:

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix peanut butter and milk together in a bowl. Once combined, add flour and baking powder. Knead and roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4" thick. Cut into 1/4" squares and bake for 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool before handing them to pup!