Saturday, June 30, 2012

Date night at Macchialina


So this past week Danny heard about this new restaurant that was opening up here on South Beach by the same owners of this place that we love called "Pubbelly". The place is called Macchialina, if you can imagine a tapas style restaurant that serves ITALIAN!! i almost died when i heard about this slice of heaven.. I love italian, everything italian. The thought of being able to try different dishes of this amazing cuisine thrilled my taste buds. Whenever we go to an italian place the portions are so large you can basically order one or two things at most without being stuffed. Now let me walk you through our amazing meal, I really don't know how this was not created sooner.
The menu is broken down into different sections for our "stuzzichini" which are snacks we had fried olives stuffed with gorgonzola and herbs with a date balsamic dipping sauce. The way i would describe this is explosion of flavor!
We also had from this section the stromboli which consisted of mortadella and fontina cheese.
For our antipasti we had some broccolini al cesare, this was toasted garlic and parm with broccoli. so cheesy and tasty.. just to think we haven't gotten to my favorite part yet :)
Now for Danny's favorite.. the Polenta. I am not really into polenta but this sounded too good to pass up. It had bits of spicy sausage that added just the right amount of kick. Doesn't look too appealing to the eyes but boy was it outstanding.

Now for the stars of our night.. The short rib lasagna, need i say more. My mouth watered when i saw this on the menu, short rib anything will satisfy me BUT in lasagna?!?! The picture does not do it justice, this thing had chunks of short rib all over ..deliciousness!
Last but not least was the cavatelli, these were baby meatballs with porchetta and pecorino.. oh so good. 
And that my friends was one of the tastiest meals I have had!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Quinoa and corn with honey glazed chicken

T.G.I.Friday!!! finally the end of the week. 
Going out for happy hour while i'm trying to eat healthy and stay in line is a tad hard... all the delicious drinks and food that await are like giant teasers. Tonight we will be going to a sushi place *sigh of relief* sushi is one of those things i don't feel guilty when i eat it. I've even taken a sushi making class :) which might i add i kicked butt at!


On to other news .. my mother showed up at my apartment today with that book "50 shades of grey", not too sure how i feel about that haha. So for lunch i wanted to make her something she had never had..Quinoa
I found this recipe on pinterest and knew i had to have it, Corn mixed quinoa.
I altered some of the ingredients and served it with honey glazed chicken.


Ingredients:
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup quinoa
salt and pepper to taste 
chicken strips
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tbsp butter
1 can corn


So to make the quinoa i boiled the broth with the quinoa and then let it simmer for about 20min. After it soaked up the broth i fluffed it and added the corn and and butter. 
Grill the chicken and then glaze the honey over it before serving. 
To add more color to the dish i would suggest serving with a green veggie!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Spaghetti squash and meatless meatballs

Oh Spaghetti squash how i love thee... your thin strands of deliciousness mimic that of spaghetti and make my mouth water.

My love of this versatile squash came about when i crossed paths with a recipe a while ago when i was on a diet and veggies were 0pts. The whole thing sounded strange i mean i had never tried this type of squash or any squash really. So i went forth and bought the pastel yellow squash the next day at the market.
It was fairly easy to prepare, the hardest part was cutting it open. I made some turkey meatballs to accompany the squash to make a "mock spaghetti and meatballs" . This is so healthy and you can eat a big bowl and not feel like you are bursting at the seams!


Instead of making the turkey meatballs this time i decided to go meatless. I found some great meat substitute brands such as veggie patch and morning star. In this recipe i used the veggie patch which for 6 meatballs it's only 100cals!

So all i did was cut and seed the squash length wise and spray some olive oil in it and sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste. Preheat the oven to 350 and pop it in for about an hour.
The meatballs come precooked so all you have to do is put them in your choice of sauce stovetop. I used spicy marinara, it gives it the most delicious flavor with a tiny kick.
I stirred them every couple minutes on mid high heat so they wouldn't stick.. what came out in 15min was amazing saucy thick meatballs!
This is one of my go to meals when i'm not really sure what to make for dinner and its healthy.
Enjoy!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Homemade Bagel Bites





One of my favorite snacks/ meals from my childhood was pizza bagel bites. I used to devour these things in a heartbeat. The ones they sell at the supermarket have too many chemicals and all that so I wanted to make my own with wholesome ingredients. The result was cheesy deliciousness! They took about 10min to make so it was perfect for a quick lunch. 


Homemade bagel bites:


All you will need is (as per 1 serving):


1 whole wheat bagel or bagel of your choice
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
2 1/2 tbsp pizza sauce (I used my favorite italian brand)




1. Preheat the oven to 350. 
2. Lightly grease a baking sheet so the bagels won't stick
3. Spread sauce on bagel evenly and then sprinkle cheese so the entire bagel is covered


4. Place in oven, when cheese has started to melt switch the heat to broil


I kept an eye on them every 2min to ensure they would not burn. Then just pull them out and enjoy your very own bagel bite :)



Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Spicy Broccoli Pasta

One of my favorite veggies is broccoli, you can really throw this into anything and it just brightens the dish up! I was inspired by a dish on skinnytaste.com that looked appealing to me, broccoli florets with big rigatoni pasta.
The only problem here was how was i going to get away with a vegetarian dish living with a major carnivore. My boyfriend danny believes every meal needs a "meat". When i told him what was cooking for dinner you could only imagine the disappointment.
So to make this dish extra special i added a bunch of red pepper flakes, he loves spicy food.
Here is my rendition of broccoli pasta:

Ingredients as per 3 servings: 

3 cups rigatoni pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
stalk of broccoli cut into florets
grated pecorino cheese
dash of salt & pepper
4 shakes red pepper flakes (or to taste)


I tossed the broccoli florets with the olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes as i heated the oven to 425. Put the timer for 20 min  and toss half way through.

Boiled pasta as the box directed and salted the water. When everything is done toss everything together and add red pepper flakes to taste. The result..... Explosion of flavor in your mouth!!
Enjoy :) I know i did!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

First day blogging

I have been contemplating writing a blog for a few weeks now... I have recently started cooking and baking waaayyyyy more than i used to and i LOVE it. There is that feeling you get when you make something and it comes out way better than you expected, and you smile proudly thinking "I made that!!". A little background on me: first things first food lover; anything cheesy and flaky has my seal of approval. Trying new restaurants is one of my favorite things to do.  I love traveling, i live with my fabulous boyfriend danny and we plan to see EVERYTHING! I plan to keep you updated on all things amazing in my life... kitchen adventures included :) Welcome to my world.. hope you enjoy!