Tag Archives: honey

Sweet Potato Fries

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My husband is a big fan of fries and he’s not giving them up any time soon. So, I decided to make him a slightly healthier version – baked sweet potato fries. They only took about 5 minutes to prepare and 20 minutes to cook, and they were well worth it. We paired them with this salmon recipe and it was a perfectly easy dinner to throw together. And who doesn’t like perfectly easy?

  • 2-3 sweet potatoes
  • 2 tbsp olive oil (enough to give them a very light covering)
  • 1/2 – 1 tsp each salt, pepper, and paprika
  • Agave nectar (or honey)

Heat the oven to 450. Clean, peel, and cut (long ways) the potatoes. In a bowl, combine the olive oil, salt, pepper, and paprika and toss in the potatoes. Once they have a light covering, move them to a baking sheet and lightly drizzle the agave nectar. (Feel free to leave this out if you don’t want them too sweet. But as I’m sure you’ve learned by now, my sweet tooth is insatiable so bring on the agave!)

Bake them for about 20 minutes. Some of the small fries will be done before the big ones so keep an eye on them closer to the end.

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Happy Eating, XO.

Wine. ‘Nuff said.

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Pull yourself together, putting out cheese cubes is so blasé. And since cheese to wine is like peanut butter to jelly, you’ll need a grown up way to serve it with your finest goblet of vino. This recipe is an easy modern twist on a traditional brie en croute. Its fancy enough to serve for your next holiday cocktail party or simple enough to make, for the next time Jess and I open up a bottle of our favorite pinot noir.

Peeled & sliced green apple (granny smith, kids).
Pecans (roasted, toasted, candied, salted, whichever you have lying around).
Drizzle of honey
Brie
Crescent roll dough

Pile & Roll per photo below & bake at 375 degrees for 11-13 minutes.

Note the crunch of the nuts, with the tart apple, with the sweet honey, and creamy brie is the perfect palette pleaser to your wine night. Best part is it compliments red or white wine which as many of you food & wine snobs know is very rare to have something accentuate both!

Feel free to check out no cookin’ good lookin’ for the italian horn recipe, another yummy cocktail appetizer!
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Happy eating, XO.

You fancy huh?

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Lamb Chops scream special occasion. They don’t however have to scream hard work. This is one of the easiest recipes and will please any meat loving man on the planet. I mean ladies, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. So keep this puppy on hand the next time you are in the dog house. Right, like we women ever screw up?! Oh and another great thing is that some of the ingredients overlap from other blog recipes and so you should already have them lying around the pantry!

  • 1/4 cup of chopped fresh mint (buy it! use it in a berry salad or a mojito if you have leftovers).
  • 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons of ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon of dry mustard (I bought this for the recipe, but I doubt if you used Dijon mustard it would change the flavor greatly. Perhaps it would lower the heat kick and make it more tangy, so try to use the dry mustard if you can but don’t be afraid that you will ruin the dish if you are in a pinch).
  • 2 teaspoons of honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper (not to be a snob but try & do freshly ground if you can, if not no worries)
  • 8 (4-ounce) lamb loin chops, about 1 inch thick, trimmed (have that done at the store, I wouldn’t even know how to advise you on how to do that yourself).
  • Cooking spray

Combine first 7 ingredients in a small bowl, stirring well.
Place lamb in a single layer in a shallow dish; rub spice mixture evenly over both sides of lamb. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.
Place lamb on a grill pan coated with cooking spray (or in a non stick pan. I don’t have a grill pan so whatevs).
Cook 4 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. (I did this on high heat at first since I wanted a crust to form. I then cut to medium heat for the remaining 1-2 minutes. Also I would say 5-6 minutes on each side if doing in a non stick pan vs. grill). Regardless it cooks fast so serve immediately. I served with a side of cous-cous, but anything works!

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Happy Eating, XO.

Sunday Simmer

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People say Sunday is the day of God, Rest, and Football. As you know I am a prolaxer (professional relaxer, for those of you slow on the uptake) So when it comes to a nice Sunday dinner, I am not one to slave over to stove for hours. I want something I can set & forget while I watch some NFL games and pray to God that my team wins! Here is an easy and yummy crock pot special that you can make any day of the week, mine just happened to be on a Sunday.

  • 1 package of  boneless, skinless chicken breasts (dark meat tends to be juicer and less dry so feel free to use chicken thighs vs. breasts. I just had breasts lying around…haha oh breasts.)
  • 3 chopped garlic cloves
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • Pinch of dried basil (if you do fresh, add it at the end and not to crock pot mixture).
  • Salt & pepper to  taste

(So I added a few of my own twists since again god forbid a recipe is too easy or short for me: 1 tbsp. of brown sugar, 1 chopped medium onion, 1 tsp of sri racha or a pinch of cayenne pepper)

Cut your chicken breasts in half, sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in bottom of crock pot. Chop up your garlic cloves (or use 3 tbsp. of that jarred minced stuff we keep referencing) and add to the cup and half of liquids listed above (And my additions because I am an over achiever and act like I have an important cooking blog or something). Pour over chicken and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours.
Remove chicken from the crock pot and transfer to covered plate to keep warm. Simmer or reduce the sauce in a pot until thickened to desired consistency. Serve sauce over chicken.
Note, I made the jazzed up rice and steamed some broccoli to go with this and it was pretty yummy!
Happy Eating, XO.
Sunday Simmer