I had to fight to snap of photo of these babies from Super Bowl Sunday.

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

They went so fast they were devoured before the end of the first quarter. I can’t rave enough about them and they were done so much faster than actual chicken wings.

All I can say it just make them, any man in your life will thank you.

Last night’s dinner was my dad’s tasty seafood cioppino. I’ve always loved this dish, it was one of my favorites growing up and it’s delightfully healthy.

I’ve always eaten it over rice but it would be amazing with just a piece of crusty bread to soak up the broth. I also like to add red pepper flakes to mine.

Simple Cioppino

• 4 oz fresh or frozen cod
• 14 ½ oz can stewed tomatoes or Italian style tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp prepared pesto (make mine from scratch)
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• ½ of medium green pepper, cut into thin bite size strips
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 oz peeled, deveined fresh or frozen shrimp
• Can of navy beans, drained

Stir together tomato paste and pesto in a medium saucepan. Heat through about 30 seconds to a minute. Add tomatoes, white wine, and bay leaf. Simmer 10-20 minutes.  Thaw cod and shrimp if frozen.  Cut cod into ¾ inch cubes; set aside. Stir in green pepper, navy beans, shrimp and cod. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 2-3 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. 

Dinner last night: coconut shrimp and noodle soup

I threw this together last night and luckily I looked up enough similar recipes that this turned out great.

I started with a carrot, quarter of an onion, one mushroom, and half a green pepper. I used my food processor to get them sliced super thin. I sauteed the veggie mix in olive oil with a little salt and pepper, a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp ground ginger for about 3 minutes. Then I added in half a can of diced tomatoes, 1/2 teaspoon roasted garlic, ~ 1 1/2 cups water (I think I’ll try stock next time) and a can of coconut milk. I brought it to a boil, tossed in a couple frozen shrimp and a handful of angel hair pasta that I broke in half. I let it simmer for about 10 minutes. I threw in some dried cilantro before I simmered it but if you have fresh I would throw it on before you serve. I finished it with a drizzle of lime juice.

Mark liked it so it’s now in the rotation.

Pioneer Woman’s Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Dinner the other night.

OMG. Add basil, trust me. I didn’t have any fresh basil so I just used dry, but add fresh basil - you will not regret it.

I also make mine without pine-nuts because I’m allergic to tree nuts and it would cause me to die. Not a fan.

[Recipe]

p.s. Use jarred roasted peppers. I roasted them myself once and it was messy and I burned my fingers. Not worth it.

I made cinnamon rolls…

From scratch.

OK - not scratch, I used Bisquik, which I’m pretty sure is devil magic. What else can make so many different things from just one mix?

• Country biscuits - BAM! Bisquik.
• Buttermilk pancakes - POW! Bisquik.
• Waffles - KABLAM! Bisquik.
• Cinnamon Rolls - BOOM! Bisquik.

Like I said, devil magic.

And then I made them more awesome.

That’s cream cheese frosting. Just sayin’.

Also - last week I found out I have the 4th AND 5th off of work. So - yay today!

Cinnamon Rolls [recipe]
Icing [recipe]

Garlic basil shrimp with orzo.

I’m one of those people who keep a 2lb bag of frozen shrimp in my freezer at all times. Shrimp are just so great for a quick and healthy dinner and Mark and I both LOVE shrimp.

I made this the other night for dinner. It was delicious - although, as you can see, I used dried basil because I didn’t have fresh on hand. I like to use fresh herbs but I inevitably don’t use it up before it rots in my fridge. I want to have some small potted varieties eventually but its not high on my priority list, so, for now, dried herbs work just as well.

[Recipe]

I picked up a big bag of Meyer lemons the other day. I wanted to display them on my table and then juice the absolute heck out of them for lemon bars.

The nice thing about working from home is being able to bake over my lunch hour and spend the rest of my work day smelling the fruits of my labor. Smelling these lemon bars bake was especially lovely.

Recipe after the break.

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Last week I made Indian Butter Chicken [recipe] and it was delicious.

Mark (husband) and I are pretty budget conscious people and while we’d love to go out to an Indian restaurant every week and gorge ourselves we aren’t that flush.

Now - I know this dish is far from traditional Indian food but it’s still amazing and I encourage you to try it. It’s very simple to make.

Tip: I deviated from the recipe a bit and used plain Greek yogurt instead of heavy cream. I’ve made it before with heavy cream and I couldn’t tell the difference when I used the yogurt.

These storms need to vamoose so I can really enjoy my summer - until then, however, I’ll continue to make meals like this that seriously remind me of summer.

Here’s what we had:

Grilled Flank Steak [recipe]

Buttered egg noodles with parsley

Sauteed corn and zucchini

• I sauteed some red onion in olive oil until it was tender then added in the zucchini - when the zucchini was almost done I added in frozen corn (fresh would have been amazing if I had it). I added a dash of salt, pepper, some smoked paprika, and about a tsp of dried basil (fresh would have been better). It was awesome and my new go-to summer side dish

I saw this recipe for Pineapple Bliss cupcakes and I HAD TO MAKE THEM!

Only 90 calories a cupcake (w/o frosting)? Yes, please.

Confession - I didn’t use the frosting recipe that went with the cupcakes, I made marscapone frosting because I desperately wanted to use up the marscapone cheese in my fridge.

Confession #2 - I didn’t look at the frosting recipe instructions. It came out tasting great but not as smooth and lovely as Martha’s.

I was a little worried the cupcakes would be really dense, they only have two ingredients, but they were sooo light and fluffy. We had to invite people over to help us eat them because they were so good we could have eaten all of them in a day.