For Mother's Day a few weeks ago, I signed up to make the dessert. I had been leaning towards something light and simple, but I ran across this recipe and thought it was amazing. However, it's a lot of sugar! I didn't think my parents would like it at all, but my whole family surprised my by saying they wanted to try it, so I decided to go for it.

There's nothing like biting into a sweet and soft cupcake after a stressful day. Even though I'm working hard to lose weight (and currently failing), I still can't give up chocolate or cake. Part of me says it's a habit, but the other part of me just says that it's so good it'd be a crime to give it up! These strawberry white chocolate cupcakes fell into the latter category.

I love chicken pot pie. There's just something comforting about a warm mini pie, with a crust that crumbles in your mouth, and a soft filling that can be made as healthy as you like. Couple it with some chips, or my Brazilian version of white rice and black beans, and you've got a perfect cold winter night dinner.

And now for my mom's dessert on her birthday. Like I'd mentioned, for my mom's birthday a few weeks ago, I made spinach and cheese stuffed shells for lunch, and a red velvet white chocolate cheesecake for dessert. I barely finished both before the Seahawks started against the Packers (it was a great birthday). Not only did the pasta turn out great, but this dessert was absolutely delicious. Even though there's a lot of steps and it looks like it may be a bit complicated, it really wasn't. Granted, I somehow managed to forget about the white chocolate chips in the microwave and ended up burning the first batch, but overall it was pretty great! This original recipe is also from Culinary Couture Blog, although I may have edited a few of the quantities to my liking and simplicity of ingredients.

It was my mom's birthday a few weeks back, and as a celebration I decided to cook lunch for everyone. This is kind of a big deal in my family, since I'm probably the one with the least cooking skills in the house. Add to that the fact that I chose two recipes I'd never tried to make before and the fact that the Seahawks were playing at noon, and it turned into a race against time. I showed up at my parents' with all the ingredients I'd need at 9 AM. For lunch I made spinach and cheese stuffed shells with marinara sauce. For dessert, a red velvet and white chocolate cheesecake (which I'll post a recipe for separately). Not only was it delicious, but fairly simple to put together, and looked really nice!

Pasta is probably one of the easiest things to make. Boil it, add a can or jar of sauce, some sort of meat if you have any at home, some cheese, and you're good to go! This weekend, I made some baked penne with tomato sauce and shredded chicken breasts. I always exaggerate when I'm cooking, so I ended up making enough for an army, or really enough for 6 meals this week, and 10 more that I stuck in the freezer.

One of my favorite desserts is an orange bread roll. While this roll is absolutely delicious and can really be eaten at any time of the day, it's pretty time-consuming to make. However, I'd been craving it for a few months, so I decided to set aside a Saturday afternoon for it. Quick note, I don't regret it!

I may have mentioned this already, but I'm an extremely picky eater. I don't eat vegetables, legumes, fruits, and many other things. Although I've been trying very hard to branch out and find healthy alternatives on a daily basis, there are a few dishes that I still fall back on. One of my favorites is salmon. In addition to actually liking salmon, I get the added benefit of it being rich in omega 3 fats and amino acids. Salmon is also an extremely easy and flexible dish to make, as prep time can take as little as 10 minutes and it can be served with a multitude of sides. For this weekend, I chose to go plain, with just some white rice and oven roasted potatoes.

For numerous years, I was not much of a pizza person. I think that was because my mom loves pizza, so we had it quite often, and I grew tired of it. When I went to college, I didn't usually eat the pizza in the cafeteria, so I started missing my mom's homemade pizza. After graduating undergraduate, I started loving pizza again. She has recently changed her recipe to going off of one presented in a Brazilian cooking show. So this is what we made the other night.

As some people may know, my birthday was this month, on July 9th. Lucky for me, my parents bought me a KitchenAid mixer (YAY, trying to contain the excitement).

So last night I started another class to prepare for the GMAT. This one is twice a week, 3 hours each night. While I understood it would be rushed, I forgot about one important thing: food! For my first class on Tuesday, I didn't realize how little time I would have between getting home from work, exercising with Zoey, eating dinner, and driving to class. So it turned into me running out the door with a poorly thrown together sandwich and no water to go sit in a "let me overload your brain with information until you just stare straight ahead and look like a zombie" 3 hour class. So tonight, I decided to prepare myself for tomorrow night.

One of my favorite dishes to make for parties is a filled bread roll. This specific recipe makes four rolls, enough to cut up and serve 6-8 people, up to 12 if there are other snacks too. You can also make it with any filling you'd like, but they typically need to be dry, without a lot of sauce. I usually make one with ham and cheese, one with turkey and cheese, one with ham, cheese, and pineapples, and one with just cheese. I'm looking forward to trying with different fillings, and will hopefully find a way to make it sweet, like with chocolate filling.

One of the many snacks my nutritionist asked me to try (instead of my Gardetto's or chocolate) was chickpeas. Since I'm allergic to nuts, it's difficult to find a healthy and crunchy snack, so I started looking around for recipes that would make chickpeas or similar foods crispy. I'd never had chickpeas before, so I had no idea I could roast them! I've tried and adapted this recipe numerous times, and here's my favorite version so far.

While cooking is not my favorite thing to do, I do enjoy making a few dishes. One of my favorites ever is chicken pot pie. At least once a month, I'll set aside a Saturday morning to make enough for the whole week and a few more to save in the freezer. While I've adjusted the recipe from my mom's original (it still doesn't come near hers), the idea is basically the same:

I'm a big fan of sweets, especially anything that has chocolate. I'm also a fan of crunchy snacks. Several months back, a friend shared a recipe she'd found for caramel corn, one of my favorites! I love popcorn in general, it's a great, satisfying, and light snack. Since I'm hosting a game watch party tomorrow night for Game 1 of the NBA playoffs, I figured there'd be enough people for me to share with. So I got started tonight!

Finding time to cook between working, dog walking, and studying has been hard. I've gotten very good at making enough food over the weekend to get me through the following week. When that doesn't work, I've nailed down a few quick recipes that will give me enough energy to finish out the night by studying. This recipe takes me less than 5 minutes to put together, and it's not the prettiest, but it works. A scrambled egg, a little bit of a yellow and an orange bell pepper, some spinach, cilantro, and carrots. Mix it all together, spritz a little bit of cheese, and it's a quick and filling dinner! Adding some passion fruit juice on the side and an egg boiling in the background for a morning breakfast tomorrow caps it off!