Western Breakfast Strata

I graduated with my Master of Architecture this past Saturday!  I was so excited for the day to finally arrive, and wanted to make a special breakfast to celebrate the big day!  I didn't want to make just any ordinary breakfast, I wanted to try something completely new...so I decided to turn my favorite breakfast - western omelette with toast and a side of home fries - into a single breakfast strata that is out of this world delicious!

Peach Mango Sangria

There's nothing I love more than a tasty cocktail at the end of a hot summer day.  One that uses the fresh peaches that are in season right now?  Even better.  I promise this summery peach mango sangria will not disappoint!

Slow Cooker Stuffed Pepper Soup with Homemade Croutons

I know it's the middle of August, but for some reason, I had the biggest craving for stuffed peppers this week!  I'm not sure if it's because the summer green bell peppers are PERFECT right now, or if packing up my sweaters and coats for my move in 2 short weeks is secretly making me excited for those cool fall days.  What I didn't have time for this week was spending a couple hours at dinner time preparing the peppers, baking them and making a tomato sauce to serve on the side.  So I decided to get creative and turn the dish I've been craving into a crock pot stuffed pepper soup.  All you need is 20 minutes of prep time, 8 hours of daytime activities (like that's hard to find!), and an extra twenty minutes to finish off the dish with homemade croutons and a little salad.  I don't care if it's 80 degrees out, this is just plain old delicious!

Peanut Butter Chip Banana Bars

I'm on a serious mission to find creative ways to use my entire banana graveyard by the time I move out in 3 short weeks. For those of you that don't know what a banana graveyard is, it's the lonely top shelf of my freezer home to half a dozen ripe bananas that are begging to be incorporated into baked goods.  They actually look dead because of the dark brown color they turn when they freeze.  No matter how hard I try to bake banana things, the collection seems to keep growing.  Though I pride myself on my banana bread recipe, I'm bored of baking the same loaf and having it go stale after one day in the summer (thank you Lake Erie humidity!).  I did, however, come up with a new recipe that I'm really excited about: peanut butter chip banana bars.  It's pretty great that I came up with a new way to use my banana graveyard, even more great that they taste delicious, but fantastic that they rely on peanut butter and banana, my favorite flavor combination on earth!!

Blueberry Banana Streusel Muffins

Today is the big moving day from Tremont to Lakewood for Howie and his 2 roommates!  Since I know I won't be much assistance with the heavy lifting, I decided to use my real skills to do my share for the day: baking!  My blueberry banana streusel muffins are soft and fluffy, with a slight tartness from the blueberries balanced out by a crunchy, buttery cinnamon topping.  I know the guys are going to love them...especially considering all their food is packed away in boxes!

Father's Day Weekend

For some reason, it seems like dads are the hardest people to pick out gifts for!  I solved this issue early by figuring out what I was going to do for Father's Day a couple of months ago when my dad was raving about a chimichurri sauce served with dinner at an Argentinian client's home.  I wanted to make a big batch of it myself to give him!  In case you don't know, chimichurri is a very salty green sauce made with fresh oregano, parsley, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, red pepper flakes.  It's not used as a marinade, but as a dipping sauce for grilled meat, especially steak and pork; it went perfectly with the grilled pork tenderloin we made for dinner that night.  For dessert, I made a chocolate raspberry trifle filled with moist brownies, chocolate mousse and fresh raspberries.  Summer cooking can't get much better!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothies

I had the pleasure of getting mouth surgery yesterday morning, which has resulted in a liquid diet for the next 4-5 days.  It's the worst.  I made a promise to myself that I will try to follow these instructions for at least 2-3 days, but I'm going nuts already considering the fact that dairy upsets my stomach and they said no hot foods.  What happened to soup and oatmeal being my Plan A?!?!  Clearly I had to get creative to avoid not eating altogether, so I created a delicious Plan B.  My peanut butter banana oatmeal smoothies are not only filling, but taste like a dessert!  And did I mention that they're less than 400 calories (thank you almond milk!); this beats my favorite Mitchell's PB Banana Smoothies by a long shot!