Mexican casserole

Ingredients 
1.5 pounds of chicken cooked and diced
1 cup canned corn
15.5 oz can re-fried beans heated
1 1/2 cups crushed tortilla chips
1 container of salsa
15.5 Black Beans
1 cup scallions
1 green pepper
4 tbs cilantro powder
4 tbs garlic powder
12 oz cheddar cheese
1 cup spinach


Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 13 x9 in pan with the crushed tortilla chips.

Take the scallions and green peppers and saute them. Then add the black beans. Once all has been heated (approximately 5 minutes) drain out excess liquid. Put into a large bowl.

Add to the large bowl the re-fried beans, salsa, corn, and chicken. Then add 1 tbs cilantro and 1 tbs garlic and mix together.

Put half of the chicken mixture into the 13 x 9 inch pan and put half of the salsa on top. Then sprinkle on 6 oz of cheese. Placing over that, place the spinach on covering the whole casserole. Sprinkle on 2 tbs garlic powder and 2 tbs cilantro.

The rest of the chicken mixture, salsa and cheese goes on top. Finally, sprinkle over the casserole the rest of the cilantro and garlic.

Cook for 25-30 minutes. Let it cool before serving and enjoy!

Mixing it all together

Layering it up!

Enjoy!

(Inspired by http://www.yummly.com/recipe/My-Favorite-Mexican-Casserole-Epicurious-51549?servings=8)

Crabby Pizza

Story time! I love pizza and when I saw the pizza dough at Trader Joes, I just knew that i had to make pizza tonight. If you have read one of my previous posts, you would also know that I love Feta cheese. Now, my mom wanted crab on the pizza and I wanted Feta so I decided to make it a challenge to have both! We just picked up some whole wheat crust and ingredients, I made the creation below, and we feasted! Yummy and filling!

















Feeds 2-3 people

Ingredients 
1/3 cup Mexican Cheese
1/3 cup Feta cheese
1/2 cup "Real Crab Meat"
16 oz whole wheat pizza dough
1/3 cup pizza sauce
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried onion
flour for rolling
1 tsp olive oil

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and oil your baking dish.

First, take the pizza dough and roll it out to about 12 in diameter on a floured surface.  Then, take about 1/4 cup of feta and delicately place it one piece at a time around the pizza. Fold the dough over the feta cheese and press down making sure it is secure.
Now, lather the pizza sauce over the dough making sure to cover it completely. Then throw on the crab meat making sure there is no blank space! Sprinkle the pizza with the onion and garlic powder. Finally, sprinkle the Mexican cheese over the pizza and sprinkle the rest of the Feta.

Cook the pizza for 10-15 minutes or until the bottom of the pizza is golden brown.

Authors note: I used a toaster oven which worked great! However, on the package for the dough it did say to put the pizza into a regular oven at 425 degrees and to cook it for 6-8 minutes. However, in the toaster oven it DID take longer.

Roll the dough

Add the feta and tomato sauce

This is what it should look like after the crust has been folded and the crab, Mexican cheese and Feta are on there

ENJOY

Individual Toll House pie

Don't you sometimes have that craving for chocolate chip cookies? Wouldn't it taste amazing in pie form? Well, my boyfriend brought me to the best resturant which had this dessert called TollHouse Pie! It is a chocolate chip cookie IN PIE FORM. Now, the dessert that I had was huge. It had ice cream, the slice of pie was gigantic, and it had chocolate sauce on it.
Now this is his favorite dessert but I also couldn't eat another slice like that again...Wayy too much dessert. However, I then got the bright idea of making individual Toll House Pies! Better than that, I thought making it with Oreo would be AMAZING! With the pies being smaller, they would taste just as good as the huge slice but be more manageable (Also, if you want seconds then GREAT). I came up with the recipe below with some help from the internet. I hope you enjoy!

Oreo Crust and top of pie

Honey Gram Cracker crust and  Oreo Crust

                               
Yields 24

Crust
1 3/4 cups of Oreo crumbs (about 30 Oreo cookies)
3 Tbs. stick of butter
Plastic bag
PAM or butter for pan
Directions
Place cookies into plastic bag and crush cookies until they are crumbs. Then put into a bowl and add the butter. Mix everything together. Take 2 cupcake tins and grease it with PAM. Finally, take the crumbs and press into 2 cupcake tins to about 1/4 of the way up.

Tollhouse filling
Ingredients
3 large eggs
3/4 whole wheat flour
3/4 whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks) softened

Directions
Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl until foamy. Then, add in the flour, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Mix until smooth. Beat in the butter and add chocolate chips. Then take a spoon and fill cup cake tin up to the top.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.



Side Note: You can also make it with apple sauce which tastes pretty good too. You just substitute most of the butter for 1 little tub (111 g) apple sauce and just add 3 Tbs butter. Also Honey gram cracker crust tastes good too with the pie!


(Inspiration http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/28218/NESTL%C3%89-TOLL-HOUSE-Chocolate-Chip-Pie/detail.aspx/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXvu8hrO8lo)

Cinnamon yogurt: The perfect snack

I realized today how much I love spices. I add them to EVERYTHING! For those who haven't read some of my other blog posts, I love spices most of all in eggs but I also add them to my Greek yogurt to add flavoring without the added calories. Do you know what tastes delicious? Cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in yogurt. I know everyone knows about adding fruit or even protein powder (many of the body builders/health websites gave that idea). However, adding just cinnamon gives a sweet like flavor and tastes yummy!! Give it a try :)

Ingredients 
1 cup Greek Yogurt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Directions
Put the Greek Yogurt in a bowl, add the spices on top, and enjoy! Its that simple :D