New. Favorite. Thing. Ever. Obsessed. I can't even! So let me tell you how this went down. Every Tuesday in my group, The OP Lounge, we have something called TIP TUESDAY. Each week has a theme, and not long ago, one of the themes was cooking. One fabulous gal shared this recipe with us and I nearly fell out of my chair. What is this dream of a food come true? It one slice of cheese that is made into a crispy taco shell, or if … [Read more...]
Eat This: Greek Potatoes
Do you remember in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding how Toula was eating Moussaka for lunch while her American friends were eating normal food like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? This is a true story. Us Greek kids grew up with Greek foods ending up making their way into our lunch boxes and to our schools. My son had all in one, steak, pastichio, Greek salad in a thermos even... yes all in one. Because that was GOOD food for us, … [Read more...]
What To Eat: Green Goodness Sauce
When you go somewhere out to eat and are like HOLY SMOKES WHAT IT THAT DIVINE THING THAT GOT A PARTY GOING WITH MY TASTEBUDS? That happened on vacation. Every day while at lunch at the Bar Jack at the Ritz Carlton, they served us these plantain chips and with it, this sauce. This heavenly sauce. I can't say they gave me the recipe, but I put it all together from my knowledge of cooking, and my family said I NAILED IT! They didn't have a … [Read more...]
The BEST Cranberry Sauce EVER
The BEST cranberry sauce EVER. Requested EVERY year. Don't know if I'll ever make another. There. Enough said. I'll be making it for Thanksgiving this week. Recipe from my Williams Sonoma book I got eons ago. But you can find the recipe HERE. SO good if you like the fresh stuff vs canned. Just sayin... ... to grandmother's house we go.... Tell me if everyone raves about it! … [Read more...]
Simple Stir Fry 1, 2, 3
You and I have had this discussion before. Being vertically challenged isn't easy. I'm always keeping tabs on what I eat. Sometimes I keep tabs and watch it go down the hatch! HA! But seriously, the older I get, the more I try to really keep on top of myself because something as little as 5 pounds shows way more than someone who is inches taller than me. So I'm always coming up with ways to have easy throw together meals that take little … [Read more...]
Easy Crockpot Chicken Tacos: Taco Tuesday
Now that school is back in session, I've made a promise to myself that I'm going to try to do better as mother hen and be better about preparing dinner for the crew. We all get busy, I work from home, which is nice and flexible, but still, I consider myself busy working, not eating bon bons on the sofa. ... While many days I wish I WAS eating bon bons on the sofa! LOL!... but often I've found I look up from my errands and … [Read more...]
How To Make Grilled Pineapple
We had the fam over this weekend for an impromptu backyard barbecue. We leave in a few days to go out of town yet again, so entertaining isn't top on my list of to-dos. But we just whipped up easy stuff... burgers, chicken, salad... and I had a craving for something I've never made before... grilled pineapple. Of course my mom said, "Are you pregnant?" Of course that was the BIGGEST no ever! LOL! But something about it sounded SO good! … [Read more...]
Baked Chicken and Angel Hair
I whipped up a little din din on the fly, of course didn't think a thing of it. Like, the way I make most of my things, it's really a splish of this and sprinkle of that, because that's kinda how most of us Greeks do it. And such was the case last night. But I posted a picture on instagram last night, and I thought I need to spread the love and share this one. I think the key that made this so good was 2 things. 1. The noodles were like … [Read more...]
In the Kitchen: Pink Dip
You know when it's good to have some things always in the fridge or the pantry that you can count on being there so you can whip up some goodness if you need it? That's this kinda recipe. With those kinda ingredients. I tasted this at a neighbors some time ago and I nearly died it was SO good. I said WHAT IS IT? And when she told me how simple it was, my jaw dropped. So I'm passing this goodness on to you. Kinda like Grandma's old recipe? … [Read more...]
In the Kitchen: Sugared Bacon
I made this TO DIE FOR side dish over the holidays, and all I can say is my family was like OOOMMMMGGGGG... like NON STOP, licking their fingers, and I couldn't make more of it fast enough. Let's face it. I don't know why all things bacon seem to be hot, but they are. Bacon in this, bacon in that. I had THE most amazing Candied Bacon Cinnamon Roll with Maple Icing at Cafe 501 this fall... and I mean to tell you... ya... um... ya. … [Read more...]
Light White Chicken Chili
Cold days are here and there isn't anything better than coming home to a pot full of comfort food, something filling and warm, and something healthy. I'm a huge chili lover. So tonight I decided to make a light chicken chili for the gang. It was pretty easy, and I made if from scratch. INGREDIENTS 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts 4 cups chicken stock 1 clove garlic, minced 1 medium onion, diced 1 (15-ounce) … [Read more...]
Thanksgiving Dinner: Cranberry Sauce
Consider this a "from the archives" post... A few new peeps have joined our little "On Purpose" family since last Thanksgiving, and this is TRULY so yummy, that I thought I would play a "rerun" of last year's episode. From a can? The kind you can "slice"? Or homemade? I love cranberry any way you serve it up to me. It's YUM! I have been making this recipe since about the time I got married (which would be 16 years ago), and it's … [Read more...]
Taquitos
Say what? Um ya, taquitos. Not the frozen kind. But I made them to be LIKE the frozen kind so that we could have a little snack ready to go when we wanted something like that, but not the frozen ones. I donno what got into me that I was kinda craving them, but ya. I remember seeing my friend Dora make them years ago, but I had totally forgotten, so I literally just kinda thought of what it might be to myself and did it. Hoping for the … [Read more...]
Pumpkin Pie Whip Dip
Tis the season for comfort food and fall foods. First thing I think of is pumpkin. Pumpkin this, pumpkin that, so I decided to whip up my own concoction as I so often do, totally experimental mind you, and it was a hit. I call it my Pumpkin Pie Whip Dip. Why? Well, it's kinda like pumpkin pie, I whipped it up, and it's a dip.... pretty complicated, right? The best part, seriously, I wanna say it's like almost 0 points if you're a Weight … [Read more...]
Crockpot Glazed Pork Tenderloin
Thanks to my new favorite source of things to cook, Pinterest provided me with a YUMMY recipe for dinner this week. I can't take credit for this recipe..... I only pinned it. Some awesome chic created this. And I forgot to take pics until after I served up one whole tenderloin and said to myself, "self, these peeps GOTTA try this!".... and it was then that I grabbed my camera. Crockpot Brown Sugar Balsamic Glazed … [Read more...]
No Carb Spaghetti
Thanks to Pinterest and Instagram, I broke down and bought yet ANOTHER "As Seen On TV" item. I hate to admit I'm a sucker for those things, and if it claims to help me lose weight, shrink my thighs, make yummy food, you'll bet I'm owning it. And because of my love of pasta and Italian delights, even though I'm not Italian (close enough), I purchased the {drumroll please...... } Veggetti. This little hand held … [Read more...]
RECIPE: Beeftekia aka Greek Beef Patties
Sometimes I think I've done a huge disservice to my family by raising my kids to eat their food groups in such a way that THAT is the way we eat around here all the time if I want to cook the same thing for everyone. It's not bad thing, but it does limit me because they won't eat the fruffy things, the casseroles, the crock pot things (rarely). ... all of which that I just mentioned would make MY life as mama bear a heck of a lot easier when … [Read more...]
Yemista: Greek Cuisine
Last week we hit all time record low temps… so cool that I felt like I needed a jacket on some days. And the sun wasn't wanting to peek his head out either. So it being cold and gray it definitely felt like comfort food. Coupled with the fact that my family actually REQUESTED a major Greek meal. When people find out my ethnic background one of the many questions I get asked it DO YOU COOK LOTS OF GREEK FOOD. And the answer is truly no. Not … [Read more...]
Lemon Berry Dessert
It's that time of year when all things around us are Red, White and Blue (if you're in the U.S. … I know some of you reading this aren't!)… and what perfect time to celebrate with something easy to whip up that's yummy AND easy AND light with a red, white and blue flair. This is something I make often, for guests as well as for my family. And it's something that I've thrown together as I do so many of my cooking delights. Some not always so … [Read more...]
Spinach Chips
I have seen kale chips mentioned lots on healthy boards and on recipe posts and even for sale in bags at the store. But I haven't seen as much on spinach… unless I really never took the time to look! … Ok, I haven't. But when I was at the store last week, of course I had on my "I'm going to kick a** and only eat healthy stuff" hat on (you know what I'm talking about, and then it all fails when the fam says let's go out for burgers? lol!!)… I … [Read more...]
