In the air there's a feeling of Christmas...

Finally!  Christmas break... and by break I mean yay for four day weekends.  I'm done shopping, but there's still a lot of work to do.  My sister and I are usually forced to wrap a ton of presents for my parents, but apparently they already got a big head start, which is great because I still have a bunch of presents to wrap anyway.  In addition to wrapping, tomorrow will be spent cleaning the house, baking cookies, running last minute errands, and desperately trying to make my room look less like a hurricane just came through.  It's a constant struggle.

Hey look, I'm crafty!

Ta-freaking-da!  Thank goodness I have some crafty friends because I thought I could attach the flowers with some glue and it was not working out.  The wire that Leah just so happened to bring along was a lifesaver.  Leah and Heather are definitely my crafting mentors!

This weekend will be a whirlwind of everything I love about Christmas. Homemade pierogies. A tree with so many ornaments you may find two on the same branch. Family. Santa coming up the street on a firetruck. Silent night in perfect harmony in a candlelit church. My brother dragging my dad out of bed, filled with excitement. Flipping back and forth to see both of the Christmas parades on TV. Merging traditions. Making new ones.

What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?

Pesto Chicken Pizza!

My blog should probably just be called Amber Cooks the Amazing Recipes from Iowa Girl Eats ... it's not very catchy though.  She made this pizza and I couldn't resist recreating it!

Pesto Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:
- Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough
- Pesto (I used Classico brand)
- Chicken (cooked and chopped)
- Bacon (cooked and chopped)
- Artichoke hearts (chopped)
- Spinach
- Mozzarella
- Parmesan

Directions:
1.  Spread pizza dough onto greased pan

2.  Layer all ingredients

3. Bake as directed by the dough packaging

4. Try not to food coma!

No, I did not feed my pup any pizza... much to her dismay.

This pizza is SO tasty and super easy!  I love simple recipes and homemade pizza rocks!

What are your favorite pizza toppings?

Local Groceries & Homemade Sauce

In our quest for fresh and local eats, the boyfriend and I went to check out Kimberton Whole Foods on Thursday.  This was not one of the huge chain Whole Foods stores, it was a tiny grocery store where the cashier said "yeah, I didn't recognize you guys" when we told her it was our first trip.  The store had a variety of local produce, bulk grain and granola bins, various organic foods, a beauty and health section, and a little cafe.  We spent a good bit of time wandering around the store checking out all it had to offer.

We left with avocados, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, peaches, a giant bag of spinach, a package of chicken, pasta, some Chobani, granola bars, and some french vanilla granola from a bulk bin.  It felt good to support a small local business and the local farmers.

Later that night we put on some tunes and Dave cleaned the house while I whipped up my first homemade tomato sauce.  It was a total "you know I how know we're old" kinda night!  I was planning to make some chicken parm for our Friday night dinner guests, Sarah and Chris, and I decided that some jar of store bought sauce just wasn't going to cut it.  I asked my mom for her recipe and I now know where I get my lack of recipe details from.

I put in about 1/3 of an onion.  And I may or may not have forgot my 3rd can of tomato paste when I went grocery shopping.  To adjust for my absent mindedness, I only put in 2 cans of water and only used half of the third can of crushed tomatoes.  I used the spices in the recipe and also added some additional spices that I found in the counter like Italian Seasoning, a Garden Blend Mix, and Onion Powder.  I have no idea how much of each spice I put in because I kept adding a little at at time, tasting it, making Dave taste it, and then adding a swirl of something else.  You can always put more in, but you can't take it out!

 

The sauce came out great!  And I made a lot of it, I had plenty for our dinner, some for the freezer, and some to use this week.  I will definitely be making this again!

Have you ever made homemade sauce?  What's your fave pasta sauce?

Homemade Chipotle Bowls!

You may remember last week when I made homemade Chipotle bowls for Dave's birthday.  I love eating at Chipotle, but I really love when I can control and customize everything that goes into my bowl.  Here are a few of my "recipes" (aka I tend not to measure things, obviously something to improve for future recipe posts).  Also, I don't make everything from scratch, I'm just not that awesome but that's something I would like to work towards in the future too.  Enjoy!

1.  Create some cilantro lime rice.

Cilantro Lime Rice
(Adapted from this recipe)

• 1 hunk of butter (Recipe = 1 teaspoon)
• 2 teaspoons fresh chopped cilantro
• Rice (Recipe = 2/3 cups, I've used both white and brown rice)
• Lime juice to taste (juice of 1 lime? I am too lazy so I use the bottled stuff)
• Salt to taste

1.  Cook rice as directed.
2.  Stir in butter, cilantro, lime juice, and salt.

2.  Heat up some black beans in a pot with a little water, oregano, chili powder, and cayenne pepper.

3.  Cook some steak on the grill.  We've been trying out various store bought marinades since I had an epic fail trying to create my own rub/marinade the first time.  Obviously you can use whatever meat you want or just go meatless!

4.  Cook some sliced peppers and onions in a pan on medium heat with some butter.  I like them cooked but still a bit crunchy.

Please excuse my amature photography and the boil in a bag rice.

 5.  Whip up some guacamole.

Semi-Homemade Guacamole

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1 teaspoon chopped cilantro
• Squirt of lime juice to taste
• Salt to taste (a good couple of shakes out of my salt shaker)
• 2 tablespoons fresh salsa (purchased in the produce section of the grocery store, or you could be more awesome and make your own)

1.  Mash avocados
2.  Combine all ingredients and continue to mash and stir until desired consistency.  It's up to you how chunky you want your avocados.

6.  Layer your rice, beans, fajita veggies, and steak in a big bowl then top with lots of fresh salsa, sour cream, cheese, and don't forget the guacamole!

 

Yum yum yum!  I have a serious obsession with Chipotle!  And if you want to get really fancy, you could create multiple layers of each ingredient, I want to do this next time!  I always make enough to have some leftovers, but the second time I ate the bowl I realized I had a lot of rice left (and not as much of the good stuff on top) so I want to try and hide some of the good stuff at the bottom next time.  Also, don't forget since the guac will turn brown when it's exposed to air over time, cover it up with other things in the bowl before you store your leftovers.

Enjoy!

Sorry Puddin', none for you.

Do you like to recreate your restaurant favorites at home?  Which ones?