Pizza!

My husband LOVES pizza. Every time I ask him what he wants for dinner, his answer is always, "pizza." Sometimes I'll ask him a question that is completely unrelated to food and his answer will still be, "pizza."

I've always wanted to make homemade pizza but I've failed many times...the crust has always given me a hard time. While grocery shopping a few weeks ago I stumbled upon frozen cornmeal crust pizza crusts. I was elated! Finally I could make homemade pizza! They were gluten-free which is a plus for many people and they were smaller so we could still use portion control.

Next I needed to find the toppings, our family friend gave us a jar of her homemade marinara sauce, so we definitely wanted to use that. Then I decided on leeks, chipotle sausage, and mozzarella cheese. But you can put any toppings you like on it. Leeks are a great alternative to onions, especially when they are all caramelized...yum!

Leek-Sausage Pizza on a Cornmeal Crust
2 frozen cornmeal pizza crusts (or make your own or get regular crust)
1 lb chipotle sausage
1 large leek, sliced
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup marinara sauce

I baked my crusts just a tad so they were a little crisp. Meanwhile I sauteed my leeks until they were tender and caramelized. I also cooked the chipotle sausage until mostly cooked through. Once the crusts were ready, I ladled the homemade marinara sauce on top, a big scoop of sausage, leeks and finally, shredded mozzarella. Bake in 400 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. This pizza was outstanding, we can't wait to make it again.

We served this with a simple romaine lettuce salad, raw mushrooms and southwest cheddar dressing.

This is a fantastic meal if you need to whip something up quickly, if you are craving pizza but don't want to ruin your healthy eating habits or just want a yummy dinner for a Friday movie night.

Enjoy! xo Lo

Chicken Milanese

Chicken Milanese is one of those iconic dishes that seems to be forgotten or skipped over. I wanted to rejuvenate this recipe a bit.

Chicken Milanese

chicken breasts (2-4)
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 cup flour
2 eggs
fennel bulb
cherry tomatoes, halved
garlic
1/2 cup cream cheese
penne pasta
 salt
pepper

Preheat oven on the lowest setting, 150-170.

Boil water for the pasta, put plenty of salt in the water, once bubbling add in whichever pasta you prefer, I used penne.

Take your chicken breasts and pound them until they are about a 1/2 inch thick. Sometimes the breasts are so large I cut them in half. In three bowls add flour, salt and pepper in one, eggs in the second and panko in the third. Dip the breasts into the flour, then coat with the eggs and dredge in the panko bread crumbs. Once pasta is al dente, drain.

Brown each side of the chicken using olive oil in a hot pan, about three minutes per side. Then place the coated chicken breasts on a baking sheet with a wire rack on it, put in the oven to cook through and keep warm.

In the same pan you browned the chicken in, add in the fennel, let it cook until soft. Then add in the garlic and lastly the tomatoes. Once the vegetables are soft, add in the cream cheese to create a creamy sauce. Retrieve the chicken from the oven. Spoon pasta in bowl, top with crispy chicken and finally the creamy sauce. I garnished with a little of the fennel sprigs. The panko makes this chicken even more crispy and slow cooking makes the chicken extra moist. The bite from the fennel and creaminess from the sauce makes this dish irresistible. Any guest will love this meal.

Enjoy! xo Lo

Pass the dessert please!

I have been on quite the hiatus since I gave birth to my daughter two months ago. It has been a whirlwind and I'm finally starting to feel more settled. Halen is my gorgeous daughter and I love her more with every breath she takes.

My dad and his girlfriend were coming over for dinner so I wanted to make a special dessert. As always, I looked around my pantry to see what I had. I had Nutella and almonds. I decided to make mini cheesecakes. I grabbed cream cheese and almond crisp cookies from the grocery store and got to work.

Nutella Cheesecake

3/4 package of cream cheese

2/3 c Nutella
1 tsp vanilla
12 crisp cookies
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 chopped almonds

The best thing about this cheesecake is it does not require baking, which makes it super easy to put together and set aside until your guests arrive. In a hand mixer or standing mixer, blend the cream cheese and Nutella together. Add in the vanilla when well blended, set aside.

You can use any kind of cookies you want, I decided to use thin, crisp almond cookies. I took about 12 and crunched them up until they were in tiny pieces. Then I mixed them with melted butter. To give this dessert some extra special flair I decided to use my grandmother's old tea cups. I pressed the cookie mixture into the bottom and then spooned the Nutella mixture on top. Then I put them into the fridge; you want them to chill for at least two hours before serving.

Once our dinner was finished I retrieved the cheesecakes, topped them with whipped cream (usually I make mine homemade...but alas being a mom you learn to cut corners sometimes) then topped each individual cheesecake with some chopped almonds.

They were creamy, just the right amount of chocolate with a delicious buttery crunch from the cookie crust and nuttiness from the almonds. A perfect summer dessert!

Mango-Roasted Almond-Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup of almonds
1 cup of oatmeal
1/2 cup of softened butter
1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped, dried mango

Instead of the typical oatmeal-raisin cookie, I wanted to step it up a notch. I ended up having dried mango and almonds, so I decided to use those.

Pre-heat oven to 350 and lay the almonds on a baking sheet. Roast for about 5-10 minutes.

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside. Mix butter, olive oil and brown sugar in a mixer. Add in eggs and vanilla. Slowly add in dry ingredients. Once fully mixed, add in oats. Lastly, add in almonds and dried mango.

Use cookie scoop to lay on baking sheet. Bake for about 9 minutes and let cool. This cookie is a great vehicle to add in any types of nuts you may have in your pantry or dried fruit. Makes for a more exciting, delicious cookie!

Hope you enjoy! xo Lo

Indian Made Easy

How many of you love Indian food but when it comes to cooking it at home you have no clue where to start? I LOVE Indian food, the powerful flavors, punchy spices and health benefits keep me coming back for more. Recently I've been trying to incorporate more turkey into our diets, it is low in fat and high in protein. Plus like chicken it is very versatile.

This night in particular I had a package of turkey cutlets, I also had jasmine rice, Greek yogurt and plenty of spices. I combined them altogether for an easy, healthy, delicious Indian meal.

Easy Curry Turkey & Rice

4 turkey cutlets
1 cup Greek plain yogurt
2 cups jasmine/basmati rice
1 1/2 Tbsp curry powder
1 tsp salt + 1 tsp salt
pinch pepper
2 Tbsp butter
3 cups water

First you want to combine your Greek yogurt, salt and curry together into a thick paste. Then chop up your turkey into one inch chunks, add the turkey to the curry paste and use your hands to make sure every piece of turkey is covered. Then cover and let marinate for one hour in the refridgerator.

When the turkey is done marinating, add to an oven-safe pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. While the turkey is baking, boil three cups water, add salt and rice. When the rice absorbs most of the water, add in the butter.

When the turkey is done, plate a big spoonful of the rice in a bowl and smother with the turkey and curry sauce. This plate will have your mouth saying "Dhanyawaad!"(Thank you in Hindu).

Enjoy! xo Lo

Meals with Four Ingredients or Less!

My best friend mentioned to me she wanted to see some meals with four ingredients or less so here ya go D! During the week it can be hard to plan meals, your brain is often somewhere else, kids may be screaming, a home may need cleaning. Well no worries: I've got just the thing! Here are two delicious, healthy recipes you can make with four ingredients or less, and serve for breakfast, dinner or snack.

Banana Disks with Peanut Butter & Agave Nectar
1 banana
3 Tbsp peanut butter
2 Tbsp agave nectar

Slice up your banana into thick disks and scoop a bit of peanut butter on each disk. Drizzle with agave nectar (or honey) and enjoy! My mom always made breakfast for my brother and I growing up, this was one of my favorite breakfast dishes! Now I crave it for a snack or a simple breakfast. Full of protein and potassium, this dish will knock your socks off.

One Pan Chicken

4 chicken cutlets
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup onion
1 can black beans
salt
pepper

This dinner can be made in one pan! Add your frozen peas to an oiled pan, dice up your chicken and add that to the pan. Open your can of black beans and pour the beans with the sauce into the pan. Sprinkle the top with sliced onions, salt, pepper and cover for 10 minutes. Stir, cover for another 7-10 minutes and serve.

These are for you busy moms, stay at home dads, workaholics, healthnuts and college kids!

xo Lo

Easy, Elegant Entertaining

One of my ultimate favorite things to do is to celebrate life by entertaining. To most entertaining is a daunting, stressful idea...I am here to clear the air and help you realize that entertaining can be easy and elegant. The first thing you want to do is come up with your theme, this is what you'll usually center your food and decor around. Being creative with serverware is another tidbit I love to focus on, the details will truly pull in all your guests and having them saying, "Wow!" all event long.

The first thing I love to do is have a beautiful arrangement of flowers, candles, glasses as a tablescape for my guests to see. With the help of my fabulous friend, Amanda Kordes, we found some wild sunflowers that I picked, which looked lovely for our Southern Ladies Cooking Club. We then surrounded the sunflowers with beautiful glasses, antique pieces and some chocolate-berry compote cupcakes.

Chocolate Berry-Compote Cupcakes

2 cups organic unbleached flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 Tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 cup organic skim milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
3 oz semi-sweet chocolate

Combine soft butter and sugar until creamed. Add dry ingredients, mix until blended. Add milk and vanilla, blend well. Melt chocolate and add with eggs, slowly. Pour into greased cupcake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

While the cupcakes are baking put blueberries, blackberries and raspberries into a sauce pan with sugar on medium heat.

Berry Chocolate Icing

1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
4 cups powdered sugar
2 oz semi-sweet chocolate

Add soft butter into mixer, mix until creamy. Add corn syrup, mix on high til creamy. Slowly add in powdered sugar. Melt chocolate in a double boiler (if you don't have one put a metal  bowl on top of a sauce pan with a bit of water, make sure the bottom of the bowl cannot touch the water, bring the water to boil, once boiling turn heat down, chocolate will melt, stir constantly to avoid burning). Add in chocolate, put in a piping bag or ziploc bag to ice cupcakes.

Meanwhile, stir berries until the sugar has reduced the fruit into a jelly-like compote. Remove from heat to cool. Once cooled put into a piping bag or ziploc for cupcake filling.

When cupcakes are down, let them cool, then poke little holes in each cupcake, fill with berry compote and ice with piping bag. Ta da!

The next thing I like to have out when my guests arrive is a few things to snack on, when I was registering for my wedding I found this tri-bowl serving set that I just loved, it was perfect to put a few snacks in when entertaining. You could put in almonds, cubes of cheese, cherry tomatoes, dark chocolate, granola, berries, etc.

After my wedding I received some really fun serverware plates from Martha Stewart's Living collection. They are all different pattens of various leaves, this one in particular I used for some cajun jalapeno poppers that delighted any palate!

Cajun Jalapeno Poppers

My husband and I decided to make two different kinds, one had a batter on it and one was left simple. We took 1/2 package of cream cheese, cajun seasoning, fresh jalapenos (completely de-seeded and cleaned), bacon, 2 Tbs flour, 1/4 cup milk. For the battered poppers we first mixed the cajun seasoning into the soft cream cheese (and in the flour), filled each half jalapeno, wrapped in bacon then dipped into the cajun spice flour, dip into milk then back into cajun spice flour mix.

For the un-battered jalapeno poppers we mixed the cajun spices into the soft cream cheese, wrapped in bacon. We baked all of the jalapeno poppers into 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cream cheese should be bubbly and bacon should be crisp.

Enjoy all these lovely recipes and ideas for your next girl's night in, birthday party, dinner for the in-laws or for your special someone.

xo Lo

Cornflake Encrusted Pork

How many of you love fried chicken or fried pork chops? With this recipe it'll be like eating fried pork chops but for half the calories! I had tried cornflake encrusted chicken and decided I wanted to try this recipe on my pork cutlet. My husband and I love pork so with this dinner I paired fresh strawberry, spinach salad and sauteed onions and mushrooms.

Ingredient List

2 pork cutlets
1 1/2 cups of basic cornflakes
1/2 red onion
5 button mushrooms
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
2 cups of fresh spinach
1/2 cup fresh, sliced strawberries
1/2 cup sliced cherry tomatoes
salad dressing of choice

Heat oven to 350 and allow pork to tenderize in milk for 30 minutes. Assemble your pork, in one dish put in cornflakes, in the next dish put in flour,  salt, pepper and paprika (mix together), take the pork from the milk and dredge into the flour mixture, back to milk then finally into the cornflakes. Once completely covered put the pork onto a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil. Put in the oven to bake for 25-30 minutes.

While your pork is baking, chop your onion and mushrooms. Heat saute pan to medium heat and drizzle in some olive oil, throw your veggies in to saute. Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, assemble your salad, rinse your spinach, slice your strawberries, cut your cherry tomatoes in half. If you have a salad spinner (I highly recommend one) put your spinach in there to get rid of all the water, if not pat down with paper towels. On your plate pile up our spinach, sprinkle on strawberries and tomatoes. Use whichever dressing you prefer, we used bleu cheese dressing. Once the pork is done add that to the plate with your sauteed veggies. Enjoy this simple, healthy meal!

xo Lo