Being around food makes me happy

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Lately I've been stressed worrying about my future. I currently work with children and I have a great time whenever I go to work. I laugh, I get irritated, and I love to see them smile and grow as a person. However, it's not something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life so where does that leave me? I've been researching about other careers where I can work with children, but the more information I find, the more confused and stressed I get. When that happens, I start reading food blogs and thinking about new dishes to make to destress myself. What does that mean? Does that mean my passion lies within food and not children? Or maybe the reason I enjoy being around food is because it's a hobby and not a job? So much to think about....

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Pineapple-Banana Smoothie

Makes 3 cups

Ingredients

• 3/4 cups fresh pineapples, frozen
• 1 small banana, sliced and frozen
• 6 oz plain yogurt (or any flavor)
• 1/2 cup milk (or more)

Directions

1. Add all ingredients into the blender and blend away until it's to your desired consistency.
2. You may need to add more milk if the smoothie is too thick.

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"Healthy" Deviled eggs

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 2 hard-boiled eggs
• smidge of Dijon mustard for flavor
• 1 tsp green onion, finely sliced
• 1 tsp Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Slice hard-boiled eggs in half.
2. Keep 1 yolk and toss the other.
3. Mix yolk with mustard, green onion, and Parmesan cheese.
4. Fill the egg halves with filling and enjoy!

Raspberry Banana Smoothie

Back in the day (wow...way to make myself sound old), my typical after school snacks included munching on crackers, slurping up instant cup of noodles, gobbling up cookies, and drinking milkshakes and juice. Talk about sugar, sodium, and fat overload.

Since I've started blogging, my need to consume junk food declined rapidly. I think it's changed because it's much more fun to photograph homemade fresh foods than packaged foods. The best part about creating my own dishes is hearing my family telling me that they enjoyed with I made. And if they did not enjoy it, it motivates me to try again and again until they give me the seal of approval.

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Raspberry Banana Smoothie

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 cup banana, frozen
• 3/4 cup raspberries, frozen
• 1/2 cup milk (or more depending on the consistency)

Directions

1. Toss everything in the blender and blend away until its to your desired consistency.
2. You may need to add more milk to the smoothie if you find it too thick.

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Tomato Sauce and Oven-baked Wings (recipes)

I had a wonderful vacation this past week. It was relaxing and I got to spend quality time with my man. There was only one problem. I started getting cranky near the end of our trip. I was ingesting too much grease in my system and not enough fresh vegetables. It only took a vacation to remind me how much I love to cook my own food.

Basic Tomato Sauce
Recipe from The Amateur Gourmet
(the recipe below was taken from his book, but his website has a similar one)

Makes 4 Cups

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Spanish Onion (substitute: yellow onion), finely diced
• 4 garlic gloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 TBSP chopped fresh thyme (or 1 TBSP dried thyme)
• 1/2 medium carrot, finely shredded
• 2 28-oz cans peeled whole tomatoes
• kosher salt

Directions

1. In a 3-quart sauce pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until soft and light golden brown (8-10 minutes).
2. Add thyme and carrots and cook for 5 minutes or more until carrots are soft.
3. With your hands, crush tomatoes and add them with their juices into the saucepan.
4. Bring to a boil, stir often, and lower heat. Simmer for 30 minutes or until sauce is thick as hot cereal.
5. Season with salt. Serve.

Notes:

• Keeps for 1 week in fridge or 6 months in freezer.
• I found the sauce a tad too salty for me, because of the sodium in the canned tomatoes. Next time, I may attempt to cook this sauce with super ripe fresh tomatoes to cut back on the salt.

Oven-Baked Chicken Wings

Serves as many as you want.

Ingredients

• Chicken wings
• Black pepper
• Salt
• Garlic Powder
• Olive Oil

Directions

1. Rinse the wings and dry with a paper towel. Lay them out on a baking sheet.
2. Preheat oven to 400°F.
3. Drizzle the wings in olive oil and make sure the wings are evenly covered in the oil. Liberally cover the wings in black pepper and garlic powder. Add a dash of salt on each wing and rub the salt into the wing (a wing massage if you will.).
4. Line cooking sheet/baking sheet in foil and lay the wings on it. Make sure to give ample space between each wing (about 1 inch of space).
5. Bake in oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until the skin is golden brown.