I’ve been approximately everywhere except for my own home in the past month. I went down to Santa Cruz to work a couple long weekends in a row, I’ve gone to New York, and then BACK down to Santa Cruz to work, and then to some family get-togethers.

Being home feels soooooo good. You don’t even know. Although next week I’m packing up and going, where else? DISNEYLAND!!!!

Uuuuugh SO excited!!

Anywho, I figured I’d do a life update to fill you guys in until I can get another post up, which SHOULD be soon.

Like I said, I’ve been on planes, trains, and automobiles (buses, blarg) for the past month. I’m still doing all my great new healthy stuff, and I’m happy to say I’ve lost about 25 pounds! Cool, right?

And, as we all know, the best part of it all (besides the losing weight part or whatever) are the cheat days.

Normally I start to feel ill around 11 am, and I just work through the pain for the rest of the day. Cheat days require dedication. And I am very dedicated to them.

Two weeks ago on a cheat day I discovered one of my new favorite places on earth. It’s called Max Brenner, it’s in New York in Union Square, and it’s pretty much Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory.

The boyfriend and I split bacon macaroni and cheese for dinner and then shared a dessert. And are you guys ready for this? It was a churro fondue.

Churro. Fondue.

One more time. Churro fondue. Oh muh lawd. They give you six fairly large churros along with pots of melted chocolate and toffee, and a bowl of raspberry preserves. I so gracefully pretty much made-out with four of the churros. I kindly allowed the boyfriend to enjoy two.

Have I mentioned I lost 25 pounds?

Then last Sunday was Easter, or Feaster as it’s known among my group of friends.

I’m not sure how I surrounded myself with Catholics, but it happened, and we celebrate Feaster in the holiest of ways by shoveling food in our pie-holes.

It was a group cooking effort and at the end of the day we had all consumed- muffins, bailey’s scones, cinnamon rolls, banana bread and caramel sauce, eggs benedict, many cookies, ham, rabbit, casserole, and pulled pork sliders. Also we all pretty much swam in mimosas.

All in all a successful feaster.

And now after that novel of a post, I’ll leave with promises of a recipe soon to come.

Cheers!

Once again- this is NOT my recipe. Maybe one day I’ll concoct my own recipes for the videos, but at the moment I’m having a ton of fun making other people’s recipes for these videos so that’s what I’m sticking with for now.

This is one I’ve seen a billion and a half times on Pinterest. They looked so easy and I loved the clever factor, plus y’all know by now how much I love stuffing food things in other food things. Clearly this was a winner in my book.

I used this recipe from Nutmeg Nanny. You should stop by and check out the rest of her recipes, because they all look fantastic.

Hope you enjoy!

Music: “Introducing The Explosive Bolts” by My Teenage Stride (CC)
Recipe from nutmegnanny.com
Shot by Mark Cersosimo

But good thing you don’t care about that since this is tasty delicious anyway. And healthy for you! I’m sure y’all were concerned about that.

Now that I’ve started working-out hardcore, I could spend approximately 99 percent of my time stuffing my face. Out of that stuffing-face-time, if left to my own devices, I could probably stuff my face with gyros 73 percent of the time.

If I were Julie Andrews, I would add ‘gyros’ to a melody I’d sing to frightened children during a thunderstorm.

If I were Oprah, I’d give them to manic audience members for Christmas.

They’re good, yo. I’m not lying.

Also…before we start, a pro tip. They’re pronounced ‘yee-rohs’.

Now you know everything I know. Let’s do this party people.

OH!!! And THIS is what you’re going to want to bust out the mint and lemon garlic tzatziki for! DO IT.

You will need defrosted chicken (sooo…I was trying to defrost the chicken quickly, which I normally just do in a bowl of water, but it was suggested that I use the microwave. Let’s just say it’ll never happen again and I’m sorry the chicken looks so funky), an onion, a few tomatoes, some of that lemon infused garlic, dill, some baby greens, salt, flatbread and that mint and lemon garlic tzatziki.

Chop yer onion. I recommend cutting in half, then each half in half yet again, and then slicing along the top of two quarters pushed together.

Do the same with your tomatoes.

Once everything is prepped, drizzle some olive oil in a large sautée pan and let it heat up for a handful of seconds.

Once it’s got a little heat, you can add the chicken. With tongs of course. Safety or whatever.

Season with some salt.

And add in some of that lemony garlic.

Give the chicken a minute or so to start cooking, then drizzle some olive oil on your chopped onion.

And go ahead and dump the whole thing in.

Once everything has cooked through and down nicely, add in some dill at the very end. Remove errthang from the heat, and I recommend putting your meat and onion in a bowl to make arranging a bit easier.

And gather your main players in one convenient area. Or not, do what you please. And assemble away! Once you have everything, you can do no wrong with however you choose to layer.

Enjoy!!

Photo Credit Kat Martin

First of all, as usual, making your own is way cheaper beyond cheap. PLUS it’s fresh which makes it that much better. I used some lemon infused garlic I had in the freezer that the awesome neighbors gave us a while back, but if you don’t happen to have neighbors as wonderful, some minced garlic with a squeeze of lemon will do just fine.

Let’s goooooo!!!

You’ll need fresh dill, a cucumber, greek yogurt (I used non-fat and it worked great), fresh mint, lemon garlic, olive oil, and salt.

Oh weird!! How did that picture of my new beautiful knives get in here!?? How peculiar!

Oh, that’s right, food. Anywho, halve and quarter your cucumbers. You’ll only need to use half of one in this recipe so you can go ahead and much on the other side.

Using a spoon, scoop out the watery seeds.

And chop the cucumber into smaller chunks.

Throw ‘em in your food processor or blender along with a couple sprigs of fresh dill.

Toss in a couple mint leaves.

A half a teaspoon or so of garlic (depending on how brave you are)

Drizzle in some olive oil (as you can see, this recipe is horribly exact and if you mess up at all the entire thing is ruined).

And if you’re me, use your freaky-deaky looking hands to secure the lid and blend. Or if you’re anyone else, just blend.

More green things in blenders! I think I’m going to refocus the entire blog…

That right there, that alone is delicious. Kat has a slight aversion to dairy, and she used this as her tzatziki and it was incredible even without the creamy yogurt. Give it a shot. It’s like a super light refreshing not spicy at all salsa. So basically it’s nothing like a salsa but whatever.

And add in desired amount of yogurt and mix well.

Enjoy!!!

Photo Credit Kat Martin

So, as y’all can see, I haven’t been too consistant with posting. I’ve read a bazillion different bloggers write about hitting walls in writing and posting. I was always like “Who cares? Just suck it up and post.” Well, I get it now.

I’m pretty sure I just got bored. I’ve been doing the same thing now since I started in September. One post and recipe a week. Blahblahblah. After a while, even my incredibly witty and hilarious banter doesn’t cut it if it’s the same old thing week after week.

So I’m gonna revamp. I’m drawing inspiration from a make-up blog I follow (make fun all you want), where she does different series.

First, the Key Lime Pie video post will not be the last! I’m hoping to do a video post once a month. Along with a meal challenge my friend Richard and I have done in the past that was a ton’o'fun. Basically he goes nutso in the grocery store buying a bunch of random ingredients and I have to use all of them to create a cohesive and edible meal.

So there’s just a couple series ideas I have, but I’d love your input. What series would want to see? Video or otherwise. If you have any awesome series idea (the more ridiculous the better) you can email me, tweet me (just click the twitter icon below) comment down below or send smoke signals.

Cheers!

Except on Valentines Day. I pretty much ate my way through Valentines Day (it landed on a cheat day). My boyfriend looked on with a mixture of pride and disgust.

However, a green smoothie is one of the best things ever to detox from Valentines Day AND Mardi Gras which is coming up on Tuesday (February 21st) AND anything else you do on your Saturday night that you try to hush up.

Seeing as they pack a ton of veggies into one impressive drink, green smoothies are crazy good for you. And since they’re so fabulous, there are about a bazillion recipes out there for green smoothies and they’re all wonderful. It’s just really about tuning in on what you want in yours. The one below is packed with all of my favorite things, including a green tea base which puts a nice pep in my step. Yeah, I said it.

Another thing y’all should know about the green smoothie, is even though it looks mildly disgusting, the flavor of the pear overpowers everything else. I promise.

Onward!

You will need a pear, some spinach, a cucumber, celery and a couple bags of your favorite green tea.

Boil water and steep your tea bags for about 5 minutes. Remove the bags and then set in the refrigerator to chill.

And chop yer veggies and pear.

Wash and pull out your spinach leaves.

And you’re good to go! Pack it all in your blender.

Pour in your green tea…

And blend!! And can I just say- I know this is total product placement (it would be awesome if someone was paying me to say this, but no one’s noticed me to the point of selling out yet) but this blender made my day. It’s a total rockstar.

I think this is the second picture on this blog that shows a shot of green stuff in a blender. I’ll make it a thing.

ANYWAY! There you have it. Suuuuuper simple. After all, after a hard night of eating/partying, we couldn’t have anything TOO difficult to save you the morning after.

Enjoy!

Photo Credit Kat Martin

Seriously, though.

No junk food, no sweets, lots of veggies and pure eating.

I’m even exercising on a daily basis, switching between running and yoga.

I even ran a 5K yesterday!! My first ever! Here I am with my friend Justine. Her outfit was clearly way superior to my get-up.

Justine looks so fancy because it was the first (to San Francisco) Love Em or Leave Em Valentines Dash and it was so much fun. I’ve already signed up for my next 5K with my boyfriend taking place in March in NYC.

Now with all that said, you might be wondering what the eff is up with this post. If I’m riding away so fast and awesome on my high-horse, what’s with this crazy ass recipe?

I believe in cheat days. For those of you who aren’t familiar with a cheat day, cheat days are the one day a week you can eat pretty much whatever you want (you know, in moderation or whatever). And since Kat and I both swore off junk food, we decided to coordinate our cheat days. Specifically to blog cooking/shooting days.

We both didn’t have any junk food for the month of January and just recently started incorporating cheat days into the weekly schedule. And don’t worry- I have some of my favorite healthy recipes backlogged who knows where on my computer to post, but since it’s almost Valentine’s day, I thought I’d do something a little more themed.

The main concept for this recipe was born out of a need to save time. We get one cheat day a week to eat treats. One. I don’t have time to eat a cookie AND a cupcake. BOOM. COMBINED. You’re welcome.

Let’s get to this ridiculously lengthy but well worth-it recipe.

Here’s the great boatload of ingredients. White sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar (for decoration purposes), greek yogurt (in lieu of sour cream which makes me want to gag), AP flour, baking soda, unsweetened cocoa powder, lemon, butter, chocolate chips, eggs, red food coloring, pure vanilla extract, salt and milk. It takes a lot ingredients to stuff your face once a week.

In a medium-ish bowl add your flour.

Next it’s time for cocoa powder.

And baking soda.

A bit of salt action.

Mix ‘em all together and set aside.

In another bowl pour sugar over a stick of butter. I’m pretty sure this is what diabetes looks like. Just make sure to share these with a bunch of friends and you should be fine.

And dig in! Mix using your hands. Or an electric mixer if you’re fancy and own one of those. If not, work the sugar into the butter.

Crack in the first egg.

And whisk until incorporated.

Crack in the other and combine fully.

Add in your yogurt. Or sour cream- but I substituted non-fat yogurt I had in the fridge for the sour cream and it worked wonderfully.

Now for something a little gross. I don’t have buttermilk. It costs a bunch and it has like-4 uses total. So, instead of using buttermilk you can sub in milk with a little lemon mixed in. The lemon curdles the milk, acting as a buttermilk. Gross, I know. But it turns into a cookie-filled-cupcake so you can’t complain too much.

Mix in your milk.

Vanilla is the next to go in.

And now your red food coloring. How unceremonious, right? Am I the only one that was a little disheartened when I learned that a red velvet cupcake is basically a chocolate cupcake with red food coloring? It feels like cheating, but whateves.

It’s so pretty, you forget you’re cheating. Oh- and another note. As you can tell by the opening picture, they’re not exactly red. Apparently you have to put in a TON of red food coloring to win over the color of the cocoa powder. Just keep adding until you’re happy with the coloring.

Slowly stir in the cocoa/ flour mixture.

I, in vain, attempted to achieve a richer red color. I obviously failed at that.

And there’s the red velvet batter! You could just bake these off. OR you could fill them with cookie dough. Obvious answer. Let’s get to the cookie dough.

Like all good recipes, this one starts with pouring sugar over a stick of butter. Remember. Share.

Add yer egg and combine.

Next goes in the vanilla.

Next, slowly sift in your flour.

In goes the baking soda…

…and a drizzle or pinch or whatever you like of salt.

Annnnnd the chocolate chips. They got a little melty. It was amazing. You can’t tell in the picture below, but the melty ones just swirled chocolate into the rest of the dough. It was the greatest surprise ever.

And there you have it! Now let’s combine the two into one baked goods to rule all other baked goods.

Line yer cupcake pan.

Add a heafty tablespoon or so of the red velvet batter to the bottom of the liner. Then roll a bit of cookie dough in your hands and plop it right into the middle of that red velvet batter.

And cover.

In a cheat day freedom craze, Kat and I began looking around the kitchen for other things to fill cupcakes with.

And then we got a little crafty-er. That’s right. And it was DELICIOUS.

Cover up all your creations with the red velvet batter and set in a 350 degree f oven.

And about 18 minutes later- BAM. Out come these lovelies.

And since we essentially stuffed cookies into cupcakes, I felt adding icing might be a touch overboard. Instead we did these little hearts with powdered sugar over the tops. And then proceeded to eat them. Hope you enjoy them like we did!

Photo credit Kat Martin

This was something my boyfriend had been pushing me to do for a while but I was hesitant because I’m not entirely too eager to see and/or hear myself talk on video. Hearing one’s own voice on recording is always traumatizing and I wanted to spare my poor readers from that sure-to-be-horror.

You’re welcome, by the way.

But, he convinced me we could do it in a way where the most anyone would see are my slightly frightening hands.

So we took one of our favorite recipes, and decided to shoot it! And I totally fell in love with it, so don’t fret, this will not be the last of the video recipe!

Just to clarify- this is not my recipe. This is the recipe from Steve Tarpin, the owner of Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies, a shop found in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

ALSO: Since the eggs in the recipe are never cooked, make sure to buy pasteurized eggs. You can also pasteurize your own eggs, google will show you the way on that one.

Video Credit Mark Cersosimo

Visit here for the recipe.

Remember?

Turns out I lied. My bad.

I was having a grand ole time in The Big Apple, and since I happen to completely lack any discipline, the follow up never happened until now.

But I was being productive I swear. My boyfriend and I filmed a ton of stuff, a few things for this very blog and something we’re hoping to submit to a few film festivals around New York. I’ll make sure to keep you updated. In the meantime, make sure to check back in on Thursday for the very first recipe video.

That’s right. Video. I’m pretty sure you’re going to love it.

For now, as promised a really long time ago, I have a perfect way for you to put that homemade pesto to good use.

I love this recipe. It’s so flavorful, and since each shell is packed full, it only takes a couple to be satisfied which also makes it a perfect recipe to share with a big group of friends.

You will need jumbo shells, mozzarella cheese, cooked and shredded chicken, cooked and diced bacon, ricotta cheese, pecorino cheese, parmesan cheese, and fresh pesto.

Start by plopping your ricotta in a medium bowl.

Spread it out a bit. Make a cheese bed of sorts to welcome the other ingredients to the bowl.

Add your parm.

And your pecorino.

Chicken and bacon next. By the way- I figured you’d all know how to cook up bacon by now, and I just simply cooked the chicken through on the stove with just a little salt and pepper and then shredded it with a couple of forks. Creating entire steps for cooking plain chicken and bacon seemed a little unnecessary to me. Saves us all a little time, right?

Add in your pesto!

And finally your mozzarella. Combine.

Boil your jumbo shells until they’re al dente.

Line ‘em up in a baking dish of your choice.

And stuff them until they’re full of all that goodness.

Also- I suggest sprinkling the tops with breadcrumbs. It takes it to a whole new level. No lie.

And pop ‘em in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

And there you have it! Enjoy!

Photo Credit Mark Cersosimo

Well, lucky week to be exact because y’all get TWO posts this week.

I know what you’re thinking. This is some straight up Oprah stuff happening right now. But instead of giving everyone cars, you all receive two FREE recipes!

You’re welcome.

As it goes, I’m still in New York having an amazing time.  And good thing I surround myself with talented and creative people all across the US, because while I miss my dearly beloved Win Twin Kat, my boyfriend also happens to be quite incredible with a camera and we’ve been cooking and shooting along with filming a bit over here in NY.

Last week he shot me cooking one of our favorite recipes. And here, ladies and gentlemen, is a component of that recipe. Sure, you could always go out and buy some ready made pesto, but it’s beyond easy and fast to make, so might as well bust out your blender and do it yourself.

You’ll need fresh basil, olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper. Ignore the garlic powder. I forgot to pick up some garlic at the grocery store and tried to use some garlic powder as a last ditch effort. Not recommended. If you want garlic, just throw in a clove or two. Also, some pesto recipes call for pine nuts or walnuts, which I love. Pine nuts or walnuts will make it creamy and add a bit of nuttiness, but they were also expensive so I skipped that since they’re not necessary.

De-spring and wash your basil.

Pack it into your blender or food processer. A food processer would most likely yield a finer pesto, while the blender leaves it a bit chunkier, but it’s damn good either way so I feel a blender works just fine.

Add in your parm

Let it rain olive oil.

And yer salt and pepper.

And blend! You might have to add more olive oil to make the process a little smoother.

And there you have it.

Your very own pesto! Make sure to check back in tomorrow to see a good way to put this pesto to work!

Photo Credit Mark Cersosimo