Chipotle Shells and Black Beans

This was a recipe I cribbed from the Cooking Light web site, but as usual, I modified the bejeesus out of it, so I think it's safe to post my variation. Hubz loved this, although it was very spicy and could benefit from the addition of more cheese.

• 1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, chopped, plus 1 tsp sauce
  
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
  
• 1/2 small onion, diced
  
• 1 tbs. flour
  
• 1/2 tsp teaspoon chili powder
• sprinkling of salt
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin (or more...we looooove cumin in this house, so I'm pretty generous with it)
  
• 1 1/3 cups skim milk
• 1/2 shredded cheese (like I said, it could def use more, but this was all we had at the time)
  
• 3 c. cooked leftover pasta of any kind
• 1/2 c black beans, drained
  

Spray a big pot with cooking spray and sautee the onion, adding the red pepper after about a minute. Add adobo chili, sauce, all spices and flour, cook for about one minute. Add the milk gradually, stirring constantly, and cook until the sauce thickens and becomes bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in cheese. Add cooked pasta and beans to sauce, stirring to coat. Pour mixture into a 9x9 casserole dish coated in cooking spray. Sprinkle more cheese on top and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until warmed through. Makes 3-4 servings.
We added the beans for a little protein power, but I think this would also be great with shredded chicken (and beans!), or more veggies like bell peppers and corn. This served the two of us twice, and the recipe could easily be doubled for more.

Dannon Light & Fit Limited Edition Watermelon Flavor

First of all, who knew they made limited edition yogurt? Not me. But luckily I had been keeping an eye out for this flavor since spotting it on a Hungry Girl email a while ago. I had this little gem as an afternoon snackie yesterday. This was very weird, but I kind of liked it anyway! It tasted just like a watermelon Jolly Rancher! The consistency was smooth and creamy, but I think my beloved Fage has spoiled me on all regular yogurts for eternity because I did miss the thickness. 80 cals, 5 g protein. Plus,even though it looks kinds orange in this pic, it was actually a loverly pink color. Nothing bad about a pink snack! I grabbed the Limited Edition Cantaloupe flavor, too, so look for a posting on that soon :)

Lovin' My Leftovers aka Buff Chix

After my visit to Sugar House BBQ (as chronicled in my last post), I took home some glorious leftovers, including some of that Buffalo Chicken a.k.a Buff Chix for short. Ha Ha. Instead of just shoveling it into my mouth out of the container like I wanted to do about five minutes after we got home, I reluctantly counted down the hours until I could make this:

Behold my Buffalo Chicken pizza creation of YUM. I used an Alternative Baking Co. Whole Wheat Pita topped with a sheeload of Frank's, fat-free mozzarella and a sprinkling of feta along with some of the divine Buffalo Chicken.

It was fabulous and I know you're jealous. Just kidding. Actually, the pictures hardly do it justice and I know it may look kind of gross, but I swear it was a saucy, spicy, gooey and chewy slice of Hea-ven!

Sugar House BBQ

As I've mentioned before, there is nothing my husband and I love to eat more than barbecue. Since yesterday was the 4th of July, it seemed like no better occasion to dine on true American cuisine. My parents were in town for a few hours and to celebrate, we headed to our FAVORITE BBQ joint of all time, Sugar House BBQ. Of all the places we've tried, this one is still the no-contest, hands-down winner.

One thing I love about Sugar House BBQ is that all of their meat comes sans sauce so you can add as much or as little or as many combos as you want. Obviously, I make my own mess of sauce, but they have several to choose from: Original (so good!), Southern Vinegar, Louisiana Hot, and Carolina Mustard (the best!).
I have never had a bad meal there, but my top pick is their pulled pork. I got a platter with that, some steamed veggies, and a new menu item: Buffalo Chicken.
The pulled pork was phenom as always, and I really liked the Buffalo Chicken, too, even though it was slightly more oily and a tad greasier than I usually prefer to eat things. I thought it had just the right kick of cayenne, but my mom's eyes popped out of her head a little when she tried it, so beware if your taste buds are particularly sensitive (also beware that they only serve the Buffalo Chicken on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so don't get your hopes up if you come another day).

Hubs got the ribs as usual which are oh so delicious and not at all fatty which is quite an anomaly. Another great thing about this restaurant is that they have tons of sides to choose from. I always get the steamed veggies, and you can see on Dustin's plate, he got mashed potatoes and stuffing, but they also have roasted potatoes, cucumber salad, coleslaw, baked beans, collard greens, potato salad and each entree comes with cornbread too. I'm not a fan of cornbread in general, but my sister loves it and always leaves with a stack of little bread from me and D.

I definitely recommend this place in the event that you ever decide to embark on you own 'Que Adventures. It was the perfect way to celebrate the US of A, and even better that I have some perfectly patriotic leftovers for lata. :)

Red, White and Bluberries

Just for fun...
It's a bee--ee--a-yoo-tiful day here in the SLC and I got my morning off to a rockin start with this gem: Nature's Path fig and flax, cottage cheese, cinnamon and some very patriotic fruits. It's neither that original nor that photogenic, but I thought it was adorable and quite festive :) My husband laughed at me, but I think he was just sad I didn't make his breakfast all fab and fruity too. I can't wait until I have kids so I can do this sort of goofy food fun all the time--loves it! Happy 4th!

With a View

Happy 4th of July! It's so nice to share a 3-day weekend with my hubby, and to celebrate our mutual Independence from work, we went on our first hike of the summer together ( what took us so looong??). This is up one of the canyons near us and is one of the great benefits of living a la Utah.
I wanted to share the view since it's so amazing, and I figured I better throw the eats in there too since this is, after all, a food blog. Nothing too exciting or experimental, but yummy anyways...whole wheat, naturally more pb, raspberries and bananas--who needs jam when you've got the real thing :)
Have a great weekend! I hope everyone enjoys their holiday and lots of fantastic food to go along with it! xoxo
P.S. Miss Fancy Face over at Snackface is having a super awesome giveaway so make sure to check it out along with her amazing blog!

Open Sesame

Inspired by a recent recipe in this month's issue of Shape magazine (I couldn't find a link online), I created a little sweet n' savory chickpea salad of my own. I say inspired because, as usual, I took the basis of the recipe and then totally ignored the rest of the recommendations. Sometimes I do this just because I am an experimentarian, but in this case it was partially necessitated by the fact that I didn't have some of the ingredients called for.
The Shape recipe called for peanut oil, which I don't usually have just hanging around the house, so I decided to use some sesame oil I had on hand. Sesame oil has a pretty strong flavor, and I thought it might overpower some of the spices suggested, so I kept it simple instead.
Here's what went into my mix:

• about 1/3 c. leftover chickpeas
• handful shredded baby carrots
• 1 small stalk of celery, chopped
• sprinkling of raisins
• 2 tbs. cider vinegar
• drizzle of sesame oil
• salt and pepper

I was pretty pleased with the way this turned out, my only recommendation would be to add some onion to jazz it up a little. I ate this with some leftover grilled chix and Kashi crackers on the side for scooping and it was super filling. It would also be great on top of mixed greens or stuffed into a pita. Let me know if you try this or any other variation!