Okay, total moment of honesty here. I broke down from my clean eating this past Sunday and ordered Chinese food takeout. Why? It sounded damn delicious, that's why. It tasted damn delicious too, not even going to try to skirt around that. The only part that wasn't awesome was how full & lethargic I felt after. It's amazing how much more "bad" food effects you when you've been on a health kick! Anyway, one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen is create healthier alternatives to some of my favorite foods. I'm a total junk food lover at heart, clean eating decisions don't always come easy so I feel a lot of inspiration to find ways to eat what I love without feeling all the guilt... because I love food, but I also love feeling good about myself. Ya feel me? This quinoa fried rice was absolutely delicious and left me feeling a whole lot better after eating it. Score! I hope y'all enjoy! 

Summertime is just around the corner which means lots of barbecues, picnics, and gatherings that are perfect occasions for a yummy chilled pasta salad! Also a quick side note, once I posted this I realized I have been using pesto in just about every recipe I have posted lately. I really love it so much, but I promise to tone down on using pesto for a bit and get back to some variety! This pasta salad is so yummy, light, and most importantly it is really easy to put together and can be done fairly last minute, because let's be honest... we don't always prepare and put stuff together ahead of time like we probably should. 

Ever heard of cajun garlic bread? Nope? Neither had I. I was making cajun shrimp to go over pasta the other day and decided to turn my garlic bread into cajun seasoned garlic bread just for the hell of it. This is such a simple post but I had to share with you guys because it turned out so yummy! I got a stern "you better save the rest of that bread" from my guy as we started to clean up dinner, always a tell tale sign that the recipe of the night was a good one. I mean what's not to like about anything involving butter, bread, cheese, and some good seasoning? I know this will become a staple dinner addition whenever I cook up a cajun style meal. I hope y'all enjoy!  

hi y'all! I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. I know I am- this is my favorite time of the year! The only downside is my schedule gets so crazy I don't have nearly as much time to cook and blog as I would like to so I'm so excited to finally be getting this recipe up for y'all. As you may have seen from previous posts I participate  in a monthly recipe swap club where I select another blogger's recipe to try out and share with all of you. I'm having so much fun being a part of this club as I get to expand my network and share extra recipes with you that I may not have thought of myself! This month I worked from Mom Noms blog. I truly loved reading through mom noms because fun fact: she is also a bay area based foodie! Hey neighbor! I had a hard time selecting what I wanted to make but I eventually landed on her bacon mac & cheese recipe because let's get real, I could always use more bacon and cheese in my life. 

Stuffed peppers have really grown on me over the last couple of years. I wasn't always a fan, or just really never thought to make them because my family didn't growing up, but lately I'm totally loving them! They're a great way to mix in your veggies and your carbs or your veggies and your protein up into one side dish that's super easy and yummy! This recipe is a great basic staple and starter stuffed pepper recipe with only a few ingredients and minimal prep time. It's one of my favorites for that very reason! I love pairing this with a serving of lean meat such as grilled chicken for a well balanced meal or if you want to get creative I'd also highly recommend mixing up some cooked ground beef or turkey into your cheese rice mix and making a complete meal out of these babies! I hope you enjoy them! 

Hi y'all! After a weekend full of wine-tasting, brunch, bottomless mimosas, and pizza it was time to get a healthy meal on the table and load up on some veggies. Don't get me wrong this weekend was totally worth every calorie, but now it's time to get back into the swing of things as we roll into another week. My friends and I were tossing some teriyaki chicken on the grill tonight with my job being to fry up some rice and prepare the vegetables for a good ol' well balanced meal. Since the grill was fired up anyway I figured why not do a "stir-fry" on the grill and I'm happy to report the balance between stir-fry sauce & veggies and the taste of being cooked on the grill was perfect! I hope y'all enjoy as much as we did!

I am totally loving chilled quinoa lately, it has such a light bland flavor when chilled so it really takes on the flavor of all the ingredients you put in the salad which I love. Another huge bonus? Quinoa is packed with protein and fiber which helps you feel really full and stay that way longer than a traditional lettuce based salad. Healthy, filling, AND delicious? Yes please! If you like a standard Greek salad this is a totally delicious alternative and makes a great meal or side dish! 

Hi y'all! Summer may be on it's way out for the year but football season is rolling in which means grilling season is still in full swing! In my opinion corn tastes miles better when grilled vs. boiled or baked and is such an easy go to side dish to add to any meal you may be firing up the grill for.  Most importantly it's super easy and low maintenance meaning you can pay attention to your game, your company, or maybe most importantly, your game day beverage. Don't get me wrong, this recipe is great and easy for any night of the week, I've just got football on my mind today! My boyfriend and I love dinners on the grill because not only is it tasty, but it's fun for both of us.I love nights when I season and prep dinner and he takes on the BBQ - date night team work! Anyways, enough about me and why I love grilling, let's get to it so you can enjoy too! 

These. were. addicting. To be honest I'm not sure I'd ever had a shishito pepper until this year, maybe unknowingly at a restaurant, but certainly hadn't bought them before. This year my boyfriend brought home a shishito pepper plant for our garden and it is producing like crazy so I had to think of something to do with them! They're crunchy snacking peppers that are typically not hot, but occasionally you'll get a spicy one in the mix. They came the perfect texture when fried, softened up but not mushy with a nice crispy batter layer - I couldn't get enough of them! The garlic sriracha dipping sauce I made paired so well, so we'll walk through how to mix that up as well, but if spicy or sriracha isn't your thing these would taste great with a ranch, possibly even ketchup, or just plain with no sauce as my guy preferred them. Anything that people like without a sauce or flavor additive I consider a recipe success! These would make a great appetizer to serve up for guests to snack on, for game day, or even as a side dish instead of french fries!