We do still eat real food

I haven't shared any recipes or food photos that aren't cake or cookie related in a loooooong time!  Don't worry - we do still eat things that are not in the dessert family!

raspberry bread
I made this for the play date I hosted before Riley's birthday.  It was really moist and tasty.  It has been so long since I made it that I can't remember what changes I made, if any.  I suspect that I would have reduced the sugar by half and increased the berries, but I can't be 100% sure!

dijon chicken linguine with mushrooms and almonds
This was something I pinned a long time ago and finally got around to making.  The flavors all worked together so well.  It was really delicious.  I used button mushrooms, added in spinach, and used less cream.

peanut pork and noodles
I really liked this and forgot I had even made it until now!  I love dinner salads!  I didn't have chili garlic sauce, so I used some sriracha for heat.  I also used rice noodles instead of ramen and raw sugar snap peas instead of cooked snow peas.  I forgot the bok choy - oops!  And then I added in cilantro, jicama, and green onion and garnished with lime wedges.  I should make this again soon - and so should you!

honey glazed sweet potato, chicken and peach skewers
I served these over baby spinach as a salad and used extra glaze (used apple cider vinegar not sherry vinegar) as a dressing.  Another yummy dinner salad!

baked eggs napoleon with hollandaise sauce
There is nothing healthy about these, but they are cute and so so so SO good to eat!  I have a weakness for hollandaise sauce, and who doesn't love bacon?!?!  The recipe makes way more hollandaise than you need for 4 egg cups and the cooking time was a bit long, I think.  Next time I'd aim for 15 minutes.

peanut butter banana oatmeal muffins
I made 12 muffins without peanut butter and then added in 2 Tbsp of peanut butter to the batter for the last 6 muffins.  Both the peanut butter and plain versions were well received in this household!

pasta with leeks and bacon
Another unhealthy but oh so worth it dinner!  I needed to use up the rest of the package of bacon from the egg cups, so I tried out this pasta.  Glad I did!

basil lime chicken
We all really liked the flavor of this!

chicken yakisoba
I am pretty sure that I've linked to my friend's blog before, but in case I haven't this is another of her recipes that I've tried and enjoyed!

prosciutto wrapped persimmon and jalapeño 
We were not crazy about these.  The meat completely overpowered the other flavors.  The sweetness of the persimmon was completely masked.  I added some goat cheese to a few, but it was 'meh'.  I brushed some maple syrup on a few while they were warm to increase the sweetness, and that helped, but these are NOT a 'keeper'.  I like the idea of the prosciutto with the persimmon but I think it needs to be a different ratio of meat to fruit to work.  And maybe a less smoky prosciutto as well.  My mom's cousin has a very delicious prosciutto that was recently highlighted in the NY Times and is a fav of some chefs in the US and and I should have tried his, but I didn't go to the right store that day to get it that day!

creamy sausage and tomato pasta
I used the recipe as inspiration but didn't follow it exactly.  I used fire roasted tomatoes and added in some colored peppers I needed to use up.

apple baked pork chops
I had made something like this when we lived in NYC and had a huge bag of apples after apple picking on year.  OUr kids seem to really like pork, so I thought I'd try it out again.  I think we all enjoyed it, if I remember correctly all the way back to October!!  I combine two recipes for this: used the brown sugar and cinnamon from recipe one and the cooking method from recipe two with apple juice as my liquid.

coconut lime chicken
Another keeper!  I really liked the combination of flavors.

coconut curry cauliflower
Roy and I both liked this a lot.  I need to remember to make it again!

white cheese and chicken lasagna
Leighton had seen this on a pasta box or cheese package once, so I found a recipe to try.  I like it, but I seem to recall it not being a huge hit with the kids … and maybe not even with Roy, either!  Here are some ugly phone photos for your viewing pleasure!

French beef and red wine stew 
This smelled lovely as it was cooking, but I wasn't in love with it and won't make it again.  The sauce was pretty much straight alcohol flavor so I didn't put any over the dish like the recipe photo showed.  I definitely prefer my regular beef stew.

pulled pork stuffed sweet potatoes
I saw this idea on pinterest, but there isn't a specifyc recipe to share - we just made our pulled pork as usual and baked some potatoes in the oven.  Ta-da!

coconut banana chocolate granola bars
These were great for sending in Leighton's snack for school.  And for the rest of us to snack on, too!

cinnamon swirl banana bread
Roy and Leighton loved this.  I wanted to love it, but for some reason I often don't like the texture of the banana breads I make.  I love them as muffins, but the way it cooks as a loaf makes parts dry and other parts a bit soggy or something.  I think I need a really good loaf pan to bake in.  Note to self - go shopping!

ricotta gnocchi and sweet potato gnocchi
I thought Leighton would love it all.  Not so much.  Riley wouldn't eat any of it.  Roy liked the ricotta one but not the two sweet potato ones.  I didn't mind the orange sweet potato but the purple was awful. I really liked the ricotta ones and would make them again. They need to be eaten immediately (like right out of the pot only to cool a moment) though or they get tough and hard.

One Pot Wonder: Thai Peanut Pasta
This was my first time making a 'one pot wonder' meal and was pleased with the results.  The taste was fantastic.  The noodles were a wee bit mushy, but not to much that I wouldn't make or eat it again.  I did make a few changes: I grated the garlic and ginger, I didn't have tamarind paste to use, I used only a handful of peanuts in the pot (Didn't think I'k like the eat the boiled peanuts but wanted the flavor there) and then garnished with chopped peanuts, I also used some cilantro and green onion for garnish, and I didn't need to use any salt or pepper.

Roast beef and yorkshire puddings
I needed to sear the meat first.  I was too worried I'd get a blah looking piece of meat like in the photo of the recipe!  It took mine longer than 20 min/lb to get to 135 but not too much longer.  It was cooked perfectly.  And the yorkshire puddings were so yummy but made a HUGE mess in the oven with oil spilling over.  I've never had that happen.

Carrot applesauce muffins
I didn't make these vegan because I used an egg.  I also used 1/2 all purpose and 1/2 whole wheat flour and regular white sugar.  They were good though - we all enjoyed them.

Gingerbread Muffins
The first time I made these, I was rushing and made lots of mistakes (forgot the milk, used applesauce instead of butter, cooked at too high of a temp).  They still were tasty though, surprisingly.  I followed the recipe correctly the next time I made them - still tasty!

Honey mustard and molasses glaze for ham
I seem to always make a maple/honey dijon glaze so tried something a little different.  I will definitely make it again!

Homemade hot chocolate
I made this with the kids one chilly afternoon.  I thought it was really good, and so did Leighton.  Riley pretended to like it, but she doesn't really like hot chocolate or chocolate milk!

Sweet Thai chili sauce
I was making some (frozen) pot stickers for lunch and realized we were out of the Trader Joe's sweet Thai chili sauce that I like.  I remembered this happening in the Bronx once, too, and knew that I rectified the situation with a good, homemade version.  I looked online to try to refresh my memory and ended up combining this recipe and this recipe.  Perfect!

Jackie's scones
When we lived in NYC, my friend (and boss at the time!) Jackie introduced me to her scone recipe.  Roy loves plain scones, so I got it from her.  And then I lost in in all our moves.  Well, misplaced.  Or forgot.  Or whatever.  But a few weeks ago, we were sitting around on a rainy weekend day, and I said, "I feel like I should bake something." Roy smiled and said, "I feel like you should bake something, too!"  And since there are so many cakes and cookies and muffins going on around here, I wanted something different.  I wanted plain.  I wanted Jackie's scones!  I did (easily) find the photocopied pages of the recipe she gave me (but I think the link I gave above is the same recipe so it saves me writing it out!).  I looked up how to make clotted cream, but didn't have enough time for that! So, scones and jam it was.

Honey chicken
This recipe was dead simple.  And really yummy.  Even Leighton from the land of no sauce ever wanted it poured over his rice!  I left the recipe as is for the kids, but Roy & I added in some crushed red chili flakes for heat.

Greek tacos
If you are looking for something simple but really tasty - this is your dinner.  The key is finding pillowy soft pitas.  Luckily there is a grocery store near us that sells amazing pitas (too bad it is SO expensive there though!), so I will pop in to grab them whenever we need good ones for dinner!

Penny Egg Sandwiches

Jalapeño cheesesteak sandwiches
I combined this and this to come up with our dinner.  I would really like to make the second recipe as it is sometime.  Unfortunately, my grocery store meat guy said he couldn't slice the steak that thin for me, so I partially froze it and did it myself.  Would be nice to try it super thin though.  I cooked the steak and mixed in some of the new Philadelphia Jalapeño Cream Cheese and topped with sautéed onions and peppers and put it all on toasted garlic bread buns.  It was so good!

Sparkling cranberry brie bites with cranberry chutney
Luke & Douniazed were supposed to come over for an adult only, after kids are in bed type of date last month, but Luke ended up not feeling well, unfortunately.  I had already prepared to make these, so Roy & enjoyed them on our own!  Leighton LOVED the cranberries.  Riley licked the sugar off and left it at that!  I have them pictured with white cheddar here though because we finished all the brie but I ate some like this for lunch a couple days later!

Mayo-free chicken salad
We had some BBQ chicken legs leftover and I decided to make a chicken salad out of them for lunch (I was lazy to heat them up on the BBQ or in the oven and I do not like chicken reheated in the microwave.  I didn't have mayo, so went for a different style.  To the chicken, I added celery, dried cranberries, and walnuts.  And lots of pepper.  I used a little sesame/soy/ginger dressing. I wish I would have toasted the walnuts, but other than that - it was yummy!

peanut butter coconut granola bars
The taste of these was really good, but they were a bit too thick though - I might bake them in a larger pan next time to get them a bit thinner.

Foolproof standing rib roast
I had come across this method last year and was eager to give it a shot.  When I went to get a alb roast, it was $16.99/lb, however.  Not what I felt like spending for a regular dinner for the 4 of us!  Before Christmas it went on sale for $5.99/lb at a market-type store near us that I had never shopped at.  I took the plunge and got my $37 hunk of meat (at first I was thinking that was crazy expensive, but it was enough for like 3 meals and we spend $40 just going out for burgers these days!).  The method is great, but I was unsure what temp to let the meat go to based on all the different theories of the temp for rare/med/well.  Ours was a little per the medium-rare I was hoping for, but the meat was so tasty that it didn't matter so much.  Next time I will definitely go for a lower temp to get it more medium-rare.  I also made the yorkshire puddings again and this time it was mess-free (1tsp of oil per muffin cup NOT 1Tbsp as some recipes call for!)

eggnog scones for Christmas breakfast
I made these to take to Lindsey and Charlie's for our family happy hour play date, and then popped some unbaked ones in the freezer for a later time.  Like Christmas morning, when Roy & I had decided to skip the bigger Xmas breakfast since we knew the kids would be busy and excited, but then Leighton asks for a 'special' breakfast!!

eggnog coffee cake muffins
I made these and didn't taste one or take pictures for a couple days, so they aren't looking as lovely as they did when fresh.  But not to worry - they will be made again and I can take another picture then!!!

banana blackberry buttermilk bread
You are going to have to trust me that this was good.  But again, the part mushy areas of banana bread plagued me.  Nobody seemed to mind though!

Frank's Red Hot buffalo chicken dip
I've made this many times.  We looooooove it.  Didn't take a picture though, sorry!

Pan fried onion dip
This was YUMMY!  I don't think Roy was as in love as I was, but our guests liked it and I liked the leftovers on my burger, too!