Talking About it Tuesday ~ Cheese, Glorious Cottage Cheese

 Today I am talking about cottage cheese and using it in different recipes.  I am not a fan of cottage cheese by itself, but I have tried a few recipes with it over the last year and am sharing a few of those here with my thoughts.

Cottage Cheese Waffles

2 Tablespoons fat free cottage cheese

2 large eggs

Pinch of salt and pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

4 Tablespoons of cheddar cheese, divided

Puree cottage cheese in blender until smooth.  Add eggs, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Blend well until mixed.

Lightly coat waffle maker with cooking spray.

Add 1 Tablespoon of cheese to the bottom plate.  Add half of egg mixture to the waffle maker.

Top with another tablesppon of cheese.  Cook 2-4 minutes

Makes 2 mini waffles...verdict:  These were just okay for me.  As seldom as I eat waffles, I think I enjoy the Kodiak protein waffles better.

Chocolate Pudding

2 cups fat free cottage cheese

1/3 cup Monk fruit weetner with erythirtol

2 2/3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Process the cottage cheese in a food processor or blender until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add the sweetner, cocoa powder and vanilla.  Process until well combined, 30 seconds-1 minute.

I added some chocolate chips to mine.  Verdict:  Again for me, this was not bad, but wasn't so great that I thought I would make it as a regular snack. 

Below are my 2 favorite recipes I have made using cottage cheese.  These are both so good and I have made these multiple times!

Cottage Cheese Queso

1 cup cottage cheese, blended smooth

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 Tablespoon taco seasoning

Mix blended cottage cheese, shredded cheese and taco seasoning together.  Heat in microwave until cheese melts and serve with chips.

Egg Bake

1 cup fat free cottage cheese

6 eggs

1 small can chopped green chilis

Optional:  package of bacon bits

Whisk all ingredients together, add seasonings of choice and pour into baking dish sprayed with cooking spray (I used a pie plate).

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the edges start to brown.

Here are 2 recipes I haven't made yet, but they sound good.

Breakfast Tortilla

3 eggs

1/3 cup cottage cheese

Your favorite veggie toppings

Mozzarella cheese.

salt and pepper

totilla

Spray a pie pan and line it with a tortilla.  Fill it with your favorite ingredients.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until eggs are set.

Crustless Vanilla Cheesecake

serves 8

4 cups fat free cottage cheese

2/3 cup Monk fruit sweetner with erythirtol

1/2 cup plain fat free greek yogurt

1 1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350. Coat an 8 inch springform pan wiht spray; wrap the outside of the pan with foil.

Blend the cottage cheese in a food processor until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sweetner, yogurt and vanilla.  Process until well combined.  Add the eggs and mix until smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the cheese is golden around the edges and still a bit wobbly in the center (about 1 hour 5minutes-15 minutes). Remove the cheesecake and cool to room temperature.

Cover and refrigerate until completely chilled and set, at leasts 3 hours. Remove the sides of the pan.  Cut into 8 slices and top with strawberries or furit of choice.

Have you made another fun recipe with cottage cheese?  

Hello Monday/Share Our Lives ~ May 13, 2024/Mother's Day Edition

 

Happy Monday!  I am sharing a little about my weekend for Hello Monday and also joining in with Share Our Lives.

I worked all day Friday for a work event, which I will highlight pictures tomorrow.

Saturday, I did random little things and was lazy at home.  Saturday night, I attended a party with my former travel agent co-workers.  This was the group of us who worked together prior to the pandemic when most of us got laid off from our jobs.  Only a few are still working in travel.  This group worked together for a long time, so there were lots of memories and laughs.

The home where we had the gathering was beautiful!

I went to church Sunday morning and then went to my sister's house for the afternoon.  Every year she hosts a crawfish boil.  This year, we had crawfish, but also had other foods since the price of crawfish is crazy these days.  It was so good to be with family, including celebrating with my own mom!  I was able to talk to both of my girls since they were out of town. I am a believer in living life with parallel emotions.  In this case, I was sad to not see my girls and missed them, but was still able to enjoy the day with family and have a good Mother's Day!  I hope you did too!

My sister, mom and I

We had so many delicious desserts!

The crawfish table

My youngest great nephew eating crawfish for the first time.

These kids spent lots of tme in the pool!

We had a facetime with my youngest and I talked with my oldest on the phone.  

I sure missed my girls, but it was still a great day overall!

Now on to Share our Lives.....

5 Favorite Foods

Pizza - cheese/pepperoni

Mexican - chicken tortilla soup, chicken fajita salad, guacamole

Desserts - frozen yogurt, chocolate chip cookie, key lime pie (I have 22 variations of key lime recipes on my Pinterest!) , Strawberry pretzel salad-WW version!

Chicken rotel spaghetti

Poppyseed chicken

5 Least Favorite Foods

Sushi

Mushrooms

Beans

Olives

Peanuts

Can you see a theme here?  I don't like anything too slimy :).  I have never had a peanut butter & jelly sandwich in my life because I have never liked peanuts.  I do eat pistachios and pecans, but that is about all the nuts I eat.  

Tuesday Talk: Girls Trip Food ~ April 23, 2024

 Today I am talking about the foods we ate in Franklin & Nashville on our girls trip!

Every bite I had was enjoyable, including the Twizzlers consumed on the car ride :).

Friday night, we ate dinner at Mojo's Tacos, located at the Factory at Franklin, and I had a brisket and chicken taco.  They were both delicious! It was a crowded place, but the food came out very quick.

We had a low-key breakfast of sourdough bread and fruit Saturday morning.  We ate lunch at Merridee's Breadbasket in Franklin.  I would love to go back here and try a few more things. I had the pot roast, grilled vegetables and a huge salad.

This is just half of the entree.  It was so much food.

Saturday evening, we went to an Italian restaurant, Chrysalis.

The bread here was so good.  It said this bread serves 2, but we split it 4 ways and it was just right.  The food was delicious, but I didn't leave feeling stuffed, which is a good feeling after eating pasta.  This pasta was homemade and served with salmon.

Sunday lunch was at Cava.  I had not been to one before, but I really liked it.  It is a customizeable Mediterranean casual restaurant.

As you may have heard, we had not one, but two stops at the famous Jeni's Ice Cream.  I am usually a frozen yogurt girl, but this ice cream was yummy!

I had Gooey Butter Cake and Texas Sheet Cake and also had Gooey Butter Cake and Dark Chocolate. I have just discovered they sell this at Whole Foods, Fresh Market and some Target locations, so be on the lookout!

Our last meal was at the famous Loveless Cafe in Nashville for breakfast Monday morning. The biscuits were small in size, but huge in flavor.  I ordered an omelet with pimento cheese, bacon, onions and peppers. It was a great way to end the trip.

I would eat at any of these places again, so put this on your list if you are in the Franklin/Nashville area.  

Go eat something you enjoy today!

Grocery Shopping Routine

It is quite interesting to see all the different things/ways we all do our grocery shopping.  Today, I am sharing a little bit of my process, which admittedly does change from time to time!

The 4 places I grocery shop are Kroger, Wal-Mart, Aldi and Trader Joe's.  I honestly probably go to Kroger the most, yet I rarely do Kroger pick-up. I really don't mind grocery shopping and it gets me out of the house.  I may be picking up some more part-time work this fall, so if that happens, I may use the pick-up option more.  Kroger and Wal-Mart are 10 minutes from my house and Aldi and Trader Joe's are 15 minutes, so all are convenient.  I usually only go to Wal-Mart if I need some other random household items as well.

Here is a sampling of some of my standard groceries/pantry items:

Fruits & produce - bananas & at least one other fruit, like grapes, apples, cantelope, or strawberries

avocadoes, onions and peppers, potatoes, carrots, broccoli

Packaged items - canned tomatoes, canned corn/green beans, pumpkin (especially during the fall months!), crackers, unsweetened applesauce, chips, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, cooking spray, cereal, sugar free bread, Coke zero bottles, sugar free/decaf sweet tea, sugar free BBQ sauce, sugar free chocolate sauce, tortillas, hot tea bags, ground coffee, coffee pods, peanut butter

Baking goods - almond flour, sugar/brown sugar substitutes, spices, salts, grapeseed/avocado oil

Refrigerated/frozen items - nonfat greek yogurt, Oikos yogurt cups, nonfat cottage cheese/cream cheese, cool whip, almond milk, 2% milk, low fat cheese sticks, shredded cheeses, mild cheddar cheese block, eggs, deli meat, sometimes hot dogs, frozen strawberries, Carbmaster vanilla ice cream, frozen veggies

Meats - turkey sausage, regular bacon, chicken breasts, rotisserie chicken, 90/10 ground beef, salmon, pork chops, roast

Speaking of roast, if you don't have time for a slow cooker or oven roast, this is a delicious option.  This is sometimes cheaper than buying a full roast and is the perfect amount for 2-3 people.  It is also so, so easy.  Just pair it with your favorite sides.

*I don't always have all the meats on hand at the same time, but I do rotate between these.

I don't have standing food items I get at Trader Joe's, but they certainly have fun seasonal items and easy packaged meals, so I always find something when I am there!  I do like buying some of their misc. items, like their hand sanitizing spray, candles and hand soap.  That being said, I went to Trader Joe's yesterday and I didn't buy any of those things!  Their fall items come today in store, so I will go back at a later time for some of those goodies.  Here is what I bought yesterday:

I bought salmon, milk, chocolate chip cookies, corn, orange chicken, some veggies and arepas.  We actually have been making arepas every week homemade at home lately, but I was trying to think of quick easy foods when Brook is back at school.

I also bought more bananas, flour, dog treats and then some chocolate and chips to have for our road trip.

Here is a picture of some items I purchased recently at Aldi:

The sweet potato chips were so good!  This doesn't show the refrigerated items, but I did pick up a face roller and this candle below.  It is a pumpkin scent and has a wood wick!  I have this on my desk at work.

While on the subject of food, I made this banana bread last week.  We rarely have ripe bananas, but I had brought home a lot from the 5K the weekend before and made the recipe that Andrea mentioned on her blog.  

I have made lots of other breads before, but honestly, I think this was the first time I had made banana bread and it turned out pretty good. 

Now to get motivated on what to cook!

After an unusual week of me posting 4 days in a row, I will be off until mid-next week. Hope you all enjoy the weekend & thanks for reading!

Christmas Week Menu ~ 2022

 Today I am sharing my Christmas menu, along with a few other random goodies we are eating this week.  I have so many recipes I want to try and I hope to cook a lot of desserts this week and next too. I do work 3 days this week, so we will see how much of this I actually do!  If not, I will cook some of this between Christmas and New Years. 

I'm not sure of exactly which day/order I will cook these items.  One night, I hope we can go out to eat as a family then go look at Christmas lights and I have plans one night, so the family will probably eat grilled cheese, which is always a crowd pleaser.  

I plan on trying this new recipe for a pork loin with potatoes.  

Along side the pork and potatoes, I will cook black eyed peas (which neither of my girls eat, but it is what is in the freezer), and these Rosemary dinner rolls, which look good and sound pretty easy to make. 

The next recipe I hope to try is this festive Cranberry Chicken.  Doesn't it look pretty?

With that, I am going to make a macaroni and cheese kit I bought at Williams & Sonoma and serve this with a salad.

One night, we will plan on an easy breakfast for dinner meal, including pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs and fruit.

Christmas Eve, I will bring some veggies and a dessert to our family gathering.  I am not sure what we will do for dinner that night.  Last year, we went to a Christmas Eve service and realized when that is over, it is hard to find food anywhere so this year I need to plan ahead.  I am thinking of possibly just having some chips and our favorite queso and guacamole along with some other snacks.

Christmas Day night, I always make spaghetti while we watch our Christmas movie.  This year, I may switch it up a little bit and keeping with the pasta theme, but changing it to chicken pesto pasta & this bread.

Now on to desserts!

Last weekend, I was craving sweets (just a normal day for me) & made these brownies.

I used a sugar free brownie mix, but then I added in about a cup of these chocolate chips with cream cheese flavor and a cup and a half of Christmas M&M's.  They tasted delicious!

I have been wanting to make this recipe for a Chocolate Pecan Chess Pie and plan to bring this to our Christmas Eve lunch.  

For Christmas morning, I will bring these Red Velvet cookies to our brunch.  I will add a cup of those Hershey's white chocolate chips with cream cheese to the cookies. That powdered sugar sure adds a pretty look!

I am thinking of making these Pretzel/Rolo/M&M's favorite for Christmas morning brunch too. I may not add the sprinkles like is pictured below...depends on what I have on hand!

If I am not too desserted out at this point, I would like to try this Keto Cheesecake. Maybe I will do this for New Years.

For our Christmas brunch, I am thinking of bringing these two things, along with my desserts:

Cinnamon Roll Muffins

Bacon Rotel Cups

Last random thing to share...a few weeks ago I went to Trader Joe's and bought the Jingle Jangle.  Let me just say, it is delicious.  I am glad it is seasonal, becuase this would not be good for me to have this in my house year round!  If you haven't tried it though, it is worth the hype.

How is your menu different these next few weeks of holidays?