Move Over Bdubs

For some odd reason, I've been really craving wings lately. I was looking on Pinterest one day trying to find a good, healthy recipe for wings that would be easy to make. I found this recipe for parmesan garlic wings that are super easy to make and DELICIOUS.

I've made the wings a few times now and they get better each time I cook them. They've become a hit with my friends and my roommates and I'm sure they'll continue to ask me to make them from time to time.

I stayed pretty true to the recipe with a few exceptions: I did my own spice combination (using spices that I know work together and that I like), added red pepper flakes for some spice, and added the minced garlic to the wings before baking for more flavor.

Easiest Pancakes Ever

Sunday morning, I wanted something different and special for breakfast. I got a sudden craving for pancakes, but didn't have the right ingredients. And since my friend and I were on a low carb challenge (which by the way only lasted a week), I knew real pancakes would ruin the progress. Bummer.

Looking on Pinterest, I found this recipe for low carb pancakes , which did not disappoint. This recipe only calls for 4 ingredients: cream cheese, eggs, cinnamon, and Splenda. The pancakes were light, filling, and tasted just like normal pancakes.

Part of me wishes the pancakes were a tad thicker, but the thinness makes it easier to eat as many as you want without feeling guilty :)

A Healthy Alternative

This past week, my friend has been trying out the Atkins diet. Since we're both usually home at the same time every night, we usually cook dinner together. The diet helps you cut down on your carbs, which required us to research some new recipes that are different from our normal, carb-filled meals.

Trust me, this diet seems hard! Turning to Pinterest, we found a nice, healthy alternative to a tasty, low carb meal: turkey and feta stuffed peppers. We actually had all of the necessary ingredients for this recipe, which made us super excited to try it out. It had longer prep and cook times than the past recipes I cooked, but it was pretty easy to make.

We strayed a little from the actual recipe by adding zucchini instead of celery and tomato sauce instead of paste, but the result was definitely a success. The peppers were filling, flavorful, and a healthy choice for dinner.

So Many Flavors

I've been on a huge salmon kick lately and wanted to try something different than plain old baked salmon. While laying in bed this morning, I looked on Pinterest for any cool and interesting salmon recipes that were also easy to make. As soon as I saw the recipe for BLT Salmon, I knew I had to try it.

The finished dish was fantastic. There are a ton of flavors going on, so I had to take about two bites before I made my decision about it. All of the flavors work together nicely and balance each other out. The saltiness of the bacon and salmon mixing with the sweetness of the tomato is delicious and unique.

This is a quick and easy dish to make and a great way to dress up a piece of salmon.

Quick Workouts

For spring break, some friends and I went to Panama City Beach, and had so much fun! Even though we had a blast on vacation, we felt kind of bad about ourselves because of how unhealthy we were the entire week. Of course we didn't think about that while in Florida, but thinking about the amount of food we ate and beer we drank gave us the urge to start eating healthy again and working out.

I pinned several workouts before spring break, in the hopes of actually doing them, but being home from this vacation, I'm excited to try some of them and see the results. I've tried two quick, simple workouts before and even though I didn't stick to them, I felt good after. Also, they can be done at home for the days you don't feel like heading out to the gym.

The 5-4-3-2-1 Workout is pretty creative and definitely works your body. The first time I did this workout, my calves were sore for days from all of the jumping jacks. It ads up to a total of 15 minutes, which is a nice, quick workout.

This next workout is very short, but will leave you panting. I've seen the same workout a few different places on Pinterest and is often referred to as "wake up/before you shower" workout. I love looking at Pinterest workouts because you can find different ones for targeted areas, as well as good ones for the gym and at home.

Hummus Craze

Lately, I've been on a hummus craze. It all started when I tried putting some on my wraps instead of using ranch, which I love, but not when trying to eat healthier. I began craving hummus, even if I was eating something that hummus would not go well together.

I was surfing through Pinterest one day and saw a recipe for hummus crusted chicken. Immediately, my mouth started to water. After looking in my freezer and realizing that I was out of chicken, I turned to Pinterest to find a similar recipe using tilapia, which was something I had available. Of course I found a recipe and was so excited to try.

This Hummus Crusted Tilapia recipe was to die for. It was definitely the best Pinterest recipe I made thus far. The hummus gives the fish such bold flavor and helps make it incredibly tender.

Substituting red pepper flakes for paprika was a success. Definitely making this again.

Feeling Fancy

On my last grocery trip, I came across a small bag of scallops and wanted to try a dish using them. I've never cooked scallops before, which is a shame because I LOVE scallops. I bought them without having a specific recipe in mind, which is odd for something that's not your typical, everyday grocery item.

Today in class, all of a sudden, I remembered the scallops I bought and wanted to make them for dinner. I had no idea what I wanted to do with them, so I turned to Pinterest. Like always, Pinterest never fails me.

I came across a recipe for Scallops with Asparagus - it seemed easy enough and I had most of the ingredients. The dish was pretty easy to make and turned out very good. The only ingredient I didn't have was white wine, but I made up for it and still seemed successful.

I definitely want to make this again soon and include white wine to see how its supposed to taste.

Coffee + Social Media

This past week has been a little hectic and annoying. A combination of being sick and swamped with homework left no time to do a Pinterest activity, sad day.

Even though I'm not posting a Pinterest recipe/activity, I want to share a funny infographic that I found relating coffee and social media. Weird right? But being a caffeine addict and social media lover, this image made me laugh and was very interesting how they used different social media vehicles to describe coffee.

I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I did.

Breakfast for Dinner

These past two weeks, I've been growing so bored with the food I have in my house. I'm trying not to eat out alot, to make up for my food boredom, so I've just been sucking it up and making the same old food I always make. Usually for times like these, I'll go grocery shopping for a few things and fix the problem right away. Only problem is, I have no money for grocery shopping, well my kind of grocery shopping which goes from "I'll get a couple of things" to spending too much money.

So as I was searching my Pinterest boards this week to figure out what I wanted to make, I needed to find something that I could make that would be interesting and tasty, and easy to do with what I have on hand. These problems led me to make something I've been wanting to make for awhile: egg bake cups.

I had to stray a little from the original recipe, but it was definitely a hit with me and my roommates. The recipe calls for a whole egg in the cup, but since I didn't have eggs on hand, I used egg whites and little spinach and feta for flavor. These cups were very tasty and not heavy on the stomach either, having a few won't hurt you :)

I personally think the cups came out nicely, however, since my slices of meat had cuts on the bottom, the egg ran out around the sides. Other than that, success!

My friend and I had 3 pieces...

Spring break is coming close! Because some friends and I are going to Florida next month, we're trying to eat healthy, for the time being, to be in good shape when we get there. Scrolling through Pinterest one day, I came across a low-carb alternative to lasagna. Now, I am a HUGE lasagna fan and just assumed that nothing could be as good as the original, especially without using pasta. Boy, was I was wrong.

This take on the old classic used basic elements from the classic, but uses zucchini slices instead of pasta. Sounds crazy, but it was delicious.

At first, I had some doubts while making the dish, because I was having and OCD moment and wanted everything to look like the picture and be perfect. Everything turned out great though and tasted just like regular lasagna. Good tips: 1) using ground turkey and part skim cheeses will help cut down on the calories as well 2) baking the zucchini for a few minutes instead of grilling is an easier route.

I hope to make this dish again soon, with thicker zucchini slices, and more cheese :)

Recipe link: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/02/zucchini-lasagna.html

First Pinterest activity! Well... first recipe.

I've been turning to Pinterest lately to find healthy recipes that look delicious (of course) but also easy to make. I have about two boards dedicated to recipes that I want to try - one is hidden because it's annoying to see when someone is posting about how they're on a diet.

Earlier for dinner, I decided to attempt a recipe I found a few weeks ago that I have been dying to try: eggs in green pepper rings. The dish was super easy to make and fun to customize in my own way (I strayed a little from the original post, but stayed pretty true to the recipe). Word of caution: learn how to flip things in the pan nicely, or find someone who can, this will help keep all of the egg in the pepper.

Overall, the dish was pretty tasty, and even paired nicely with brown rice (just to add a side for dinner). I was nervous about the egg cooking so one side was a little burnt :( but was fixed with a little scraping :)

Next time, I'm making more than one - one is not enough!

Here is the link for the recipe: http://interludefrominsanity.blogspot.com/2012/04/eggs-in-green-pepper-rings-wwpp4.html

Beginning My New Resolution

After discussing my New Years resolution with friends that I celebrated with, I realized how TYPICAL my resolution was. Like everyone else, my goal was to shed some pounds this new year. Since this seems to be my resolution every year, I decided that I would add a new, creative resolution to my typical one: actually do some of the things I pin on Pinterest. Currently, I have 455 pins and 104 likes, and I've never done any of the pins I've saved! Most of my pins are recipes I think look great, because I love food so much :). I find so many interesting recipes, workouts, and crafts that I plan to complete soon after I pin them, however, I either forget, or can't find the time. This blog will follow my journey as I cook, try, or complete the many recipes, workouts, and crafts I have pinned over the past year.