Jazz up Boxed Mac N Cheese!

You can dress up boxed mac and cheese so it's gourmet and it's so simple and only uses a few extra ingredients!

I like to use the Annies Organic Mac and Cheese, but you can use craft or whatever you'd like.

Prepare the mac and cheese as you normally would, I add a little extra milk and stir in extra cheese - whatever kind you'd like! Sometimes I use an italian blend, or mexican blend, sometimes just a sharp cheddar - whatever your preference is, go crazy!

and I like to top off the finished mac and cheese with some toasted panko bread crumbs that I just toast in a sauce pan with a little butter until I can smell them and/or they are light brown.

Ah, it's so yummy and becomes so much more cheesey with the added REAL cheese! And the toasted, crunchy bread crumbs add a more gourmet feel to your boxed mac n cheese!

Enjoy!

Easiest Ever Taco Salad

So I actually maybe may have kind of stole this recipe from a Trader Joe's employee.... and improved upon it of course!

It's so easy you won't even believe it!

What you'll need:

- Yellow onion

- Chili Lime Chicken Burgers from Trader Joe's

- Cowboy Caviar from Trader Joe's (A delicious "salsa" of black beans, corn, etc)

- Lite Mexican blend cheese

- Tomato

- Lettuce

- Greek Yogurt

- Avocado

- Chips (I like to use the black bean & quinoa chips from TJ's!)

 

I start by dicing up about 1/4 cup of yellow onion (depending on how much you are making), and throw it in a medium sauce pan with about a table spoon of olive oil over medium/high heat. After about 2 minutes -  I add the chicken burger, I use about 1 patty per person (4 pattys come in the package). Break up the chicken patty (or pattys) until it resembles ground meat and cook until the meat is cooked through - this takes about 4-7 minutes. Once the chicken is cooked through - add about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of the cowboy caviar.

Portion out chicken and "caviar" mixture into a bowl, top with your favorite toppings and enjoy!

"Magic Trick" !!

Ok so I learned the coolest thing ever recently!

I was so over buying celery and throwing half of it away because it got

 too wilted and "rubbery" to use. 

I learned that if you give it a fresh cut on the bottom and set it in water 

(cut side in the water) the celery will become crunchy again!! 

This works for kale and other leafy greens too!

This little trick more than doubled the lifetime 

of my celery and other greens, so I wanted to share!

Enjoy!

Rosemary!

ROSEMARY!

I have this obsession with rosemary, its kind of recent, but I think it's here to stay a while..

 I love the way it smells, looks, tastes... my obsession may have originally stemmed from these amazing rosemary garlic fries at The Counter (a build your own burger joint... it's amazing...)

There are so many different things you can do with it!

Good thing it grows like crazy-

I make flower crowns and arrangements with it all the time, you can use it in recipes, or just to fill your house with delicious smells!

Cool Tip!:

 in a sauce pan/pot on the stove fill it about halfway with water - add lemon juice, the outside of the lemon, a splash of vanilla and a few sprigs of rosemary.. let it simmer on the stove and your house will smell amazing! (but keep an eye on the water level and remember to fill it if you are going to be simmering for a long time)

 A little tip I learned from William & Sonoma.

 Rosemary requires minimal water, it grows like crazy (so it can fill a big space), and its beautiful!

Switching Gears... Kinda

Hello Friends and Fellow Bloggers!

I am switching gears a bit on here since I am finding it hard to keep up with all my recipes! I will still be posting yummy recipes - but I hope to post more about other aspects of my life as well! I recently started a little flower company called The Bloom Bar! I am so excited about it! I hope to be able to share tips on here about floral arranging, sharing my work with you guys, and other things I find so fun! I find myself very domestic (is that anti-feminist for me to refer to myself like that?) in the way that I love cooking, I love cleaning, I love taking care of people, and I love creating and improving on a comfy and adorable home! So I hope to share my ideas, tips and pointers on here!

I hope you all enjoy my new approach!

To check out my little company visit us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/thebloombarco

Instagram: @thebloombarco

to shop crowns and other fun floral pieces, check out my Etsy shop!

www.etsy.com/shop/thebloombar

I really appreciate the support!

xoxo

Chicken and Vegetable Rice Bowl

I'm going to share with you one of my favorite things of all time.... Asian Food..

I honestly used to be (well I still kind of am) intimidated by making Asian food..

Am I the only one? I'm asking for a friend...

Here's what you'll need to make 1 rice bowl:

• 1 Chicken Breast
• Soyaki
• 1 package of microwavable brown rice
• Soy sauce
• Fish sauce (optional)
• Onion
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Mushroom
• Olive Oil
• Salt and pepper

So here's what I do:

First, I marinade the chicken.

I use this awesome marinade called Soyaki - it's teriyaki and soy sauce.. I mean right? It already sounds delicious. As if teriyaki could get any better lets throw in some soy sauce..

I marinade a chicken breast in soyaki for as little as an hour but no longer than a day.

First I will microwave the brown rice - I ususally get the packs that cook in the microwave in about a minute and a half. I like to let it sit and dry out a little as it cools while I prepare everything else. Did you know that most Asian restuarants use day old rice to make their fried rice? I never have it that well together to make hardly anything a day ahead of time so this works just fine.

I cut up the broccoli, carrots and mushrooms into bite sized pieces, coat them in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast them in the oven at 375 degrees until tender - about 20 minutes.

Then I will get my chicken cooking, you can cook it in the oven or you can make it on the stove top.

I use the stove top but you have to be careful not to have the pan too, too hot or the sauce will burn.

I cook the chicken about 10-15 minutes depending on how thick the breast is, until it is fully cooked and not at all pink inside.

Meanwhile - while the chicken is cooking - I dice an onion (about 1/3 cup of onion) and saute it in olive oil for about 1-2 minutes. Then I add the brown rice I cooked prior (about a cup). You want your pan pretty hot for this so you get a nice consistancy in your fried rice. Then once the rice is done cooking - about 4-5 minutes - I add a little squirt of fish sauce (totally optional, if you don't like fish sauce just leave it out) and I add about 1-2 tablespoons of soy sauce. It's easier to add less when cooking and add more soy sauce to your dish when you are done. 

Then I just assembal the dish - rice down on the bottom of the bowl. Chicken sliced and veggies on top! I sometimes like to put a little balsamic reduction ontop of my veggies, Yum!

Enjoy!