Mediterranean Tilapia

I love my grill. Love it. I love cooking things in foil. Love it! You see where I'm going with this right? Foil packets full of glorious tasty food on the grill! Tonight my foil packets involved tilapia, green beans, red onion, snow peas bell pepper and dill. I have an unhealthy love for dill and fish together. 

I had three tilapia fillets. So I measured out three pieces of foil. The foil needs to be big enough to wrap around your fish and veggies but doesn't need to be huge. 

Place one fillet on the center of the foil. Drizzle with lemon juice. Tear off a few sprigs of dill (I used more than a few but we've already established I have a problem) then sprinkle on some pepper and some garlic powder. 

Pile your veggies high! On top of the fish place all the aforementioned vegetables, sliced to taste. Personally, I left my beans and peas whole, and had my bell pepper and onion cut into strips. Once you've piled your veggies on, drizzle them with Greek dressing. No I didn't make it. Yes, it's shameful but meh. Then top with crumbled feta cheese. I used tomato basil feta because mmm. 

Seal your dinner in and place it on the grill. Cook for eight minutes, then flip and cook for another eight minutes. What do you have? A glorious tasty fantastic (and many more enthusiastic adjectives) meal that is healthy and fun from my kitchen to your table.

Chili Cheese Stuffed Corn Muffins

Remember how I mentioned in my S'mores Cupcake blog that I love filling cupcakes? Well I decided to try that with a savory food. I had some leftover chili and everything to make cornbread. Thus, chili cheese stuffed corn muffins were born. 

Now my way of making cornbread is... different. I'm aneyeballer. But here are the rough measurements:

1 cup yellow cornmeal 

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder 

1 can creamed corn

1 large jalapeño, diced

1/4 cup green onions, diced

1 tbsp. garlic powder

1 large egg

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

1/2 cup granulated sugar. 

Now mix all the ingredients. Are they mixed? Good. Now grease your muffin tin well or use the cupcake liners. I used the cupcake liners and they stuck to the liner a bit. Fill each muffin cup a third of the way. 

Now put a generous glop (my standard unit of measurement) of chili on top of the batter. I used leftover chili. You could make a new batch just for these, or you could even buy a can of chili. No. Don't buy a can. Make the chili. It will make these 1000x better. 

After you've placed a glop of chili in each muffin tin, cover the chili with the remaining batter. Bake at 375 for 22 minutes. Now for the hard part... Let them cool! Not completely, just enough to set up a bit and not scald the ever loving bazooka out of your  poor mouth. A certain grown man who knows better did that in my house. There you have it! Another great dish from my kitchen to your table!

Carmel Apple Cake

Last night I made Carmel apple cake, and it was divine. Very simple, very tasty. So I thought I would share. 

For The Cake:

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tbsp. melted butter

1 large egg

2 tsp. baking powder

For The Apples

2 Granny Smith apples, diced

2 tbsp. melted butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp milk

For The Cinnamon Swirl

2 tbsp softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon 

Prepare your cake by mixing all your dry cake ingredients before mixing in all your wet cake ingredients. Pour into a greased 8x8 pan.

The preparation of the apples is also fairly simple. Put your butter and brown sugar in the pan. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved, add your milk and bring to a simmer. Add your diced apples, stirring frequently, cook until tender

The cinnamon swirl is easier yet. Mix all three ingredients together and place the resulting filling in a ziplock baggie. Snip off the tip of the bag, boom instant squeeze bag.

Squeeze some of your cinnamon swirl onto your cake batter. Iet my daughter do this part and we ended up with some fabulous spirals. Pour your apples and remaining sauce over your batter and top with the remaining cinnamon swirl. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. There you have it! Another great dish, from my kitchen to your table!

Easy S'mores Cupcakes

I don't make a whole lot of desserts. But I saw something in my local grocery store that made me think. On one end cap there was a display for the cake mixes and frostings they had on sale. On another end cap, right next to the first was a whole display dedicated to summers favorite treat, S'mores. That made me wonder what a s'mores cake would taste like. Then I decided I had to know, so I bought a chocolate cake mix, chocolate frosting, a box of graham crackers and a bag of mini marshmallows. Then just to be safe I bought a jar of marshmallow fluff.

My original intention was to mix the chocolate frosting with the marshmallow fluff and put the mini marshmallows in the cake and sprinkle crushed graham crackers on top of the frosted cake. It was the pure genius of my three year old daughter to make cupcakes instead. And I LOVE stuffing cupcakes. I think it adds a whole new level of awesome. 

So I prepared the chocolate cake mix as the box directed. I used the cupcake liners because I had them but I imagine you could just grease the cups well if you don't.

I filled each cup a third of the way with the chocolate batter. Then I piped in a glop (that's a unit of measurement right?) of marshmallow fluff. And by piped I mean I scooped it into a ziplock bag and snipped off the tip with scissors. Remember this intricate piping technique for the frosting stage, it will be implemented again!

The next step is to cover the marshmallow fluff with the remaining batter. I got 24 regular sized cupcakes when it was all said and done. Bake the cupcakes in accordance to your cake mix box. The box is incredibly helpful. 

While your cupcakes bake, prepare your frosting. And by that I mean crush up your graham crackers and mix them into your chocolate frosting. Scoop into your fancy piping ziplock and wait. The cupcakes need to cook and cool completely before you pipe your frosting onto them.

Once they are cooled and frosted, top each cupcake with a mini marshmallow. If you're ambitious like I was, you can toast the marshmallows. I used a regular old lighter because I'm not one of the cool kids with a food grade torch. 

There you have it! A fun and delicious dessert from my kitchen to your table! 

Lasagna is a favorite dish in my household, and is usually pretty standard. This time though, I decided to go above and beyond and make a fancy lasagna loaded with tasty healthy veggies. You know, to offset all that cheese. So featured in this fabulous lasagna is a rainbow of vegetables. Zucchini, summer squash, red onions, orange bell pepper and black olives compliment the ground chuck, Italian sausage and thick tomato sauce. And of course, three kinds of cheese to make it ooey gooey and delicious. I used mild cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan. 

The process is very simple. Brown your ground chuck and Italian sausage with minced garlic and drain off the grease. Add your chopped rainbow of veggies to the meat, then a jar of sauce. 

I precook my noodles, I know not everyone does but I do. So I layer my cooked noodles into my pan before I add a generous portion of the meat and veggie mixture. Ordinarily I would add ricotta cheese, but I forgot to buy ricotta so there is none. I used cottage cheese as a substitute. Feel free to add it to your lasagna though. It can only make it better. 

Top the meat mixture with your cheeses and add another layer of noodles on top. Repeat this process as many times as your pan will allow. I got three layers before my pan was full. Remember to add extra cheese to the top of yours. I had leftover black olives so those went on top as well. Bake at 350 until all your cheese is melted and the whole house smells fantastic. So there you have it, another great meal from my kitchen to your table!