Summer is fast approaching and between the warmer weather and the ToneItUp bikini series that we started, this salad has been a staple in our meals this past week. It’s easy to make, super refreshing, and SUPER delicious!I took a homemade truffle dressing recipe from my friend Linz, altered it by an ingredient so that my vegan child could enjoy it also, tossed in some almonds for crunch, and fresh strawberry slices for an extra kick! For some more protein I also added in some shredded chicken in my bowl!
Combine the ingredients for the truffle dressing in a different bowl and then combine the two and toss
Add in the optional ingredients if you choose
ENJOY!!!!!
And tadaaa! There you have it! Try this out and let me know how you like it and leave it in the comments any alterations you make to the recipe so I can try them too!
Macarons can totally be romantic right?! You bet! These babies were a labor of LOVE!!! These sweet treats make a perfect dessert or gift idea for this Valentine’s day- for your loved ones and friends! These are salted caramel metallic gold and silver macarons and I get it now why these crunchy, chewy, sweet, and savory treats can be so expensive. This photo was taken this morning after:
two trips to Bed Bath & Beyond
two trips to my local grocery store (in sweats and tear streaked cheeks)
an impromptu trip to Target at 10PM
a trip to Michael’s
and dumping the entire first batch to start again from scratch at 11PM
Let me tell ya, if you’ve mastered the art of making macarons than you’ve mastered an art. Below is a recipe I got from two different places EatLiveTravelWrite and HowToCookThat blogs.
I’ve linked you to the two original recipes if you want to follow their method, HowToCookThat’s blog, saved me from breakdown number two! I won’t list the step by step here since she so adequately displays the ‘how to’s’ over there. Instead I’ll show you what I learned along the way to get these fluffy, chewy, and delicious macarons…..errr take two!
First sift your dry ingredients once twice….trust me on this. And set aside.
I took my egg whites out for about 2 hours before I whipped them into a fluffy mound. Just when you think it’s ready, it’s not…keep on whisking folks! It took me about 15 minutes by hand to achieve what 2 minutes of an electric mixer did.
I wanted a golden macaron to fit in with the theme of metallic salted caramel, so I mixed in 10 drops of yellow food coloring with 2 drops of red food coloring.
Then I added it into my dry ingredients and folded, press, turn….that’s the method. Fold, press, turn, repeat. Until your mixture flows like lava!
I piped my ‘rows’ of batter into an odd zig zag pattern for some reason, also they were huge like loving lil cookies, some even touching. They will spread so don’t over pipe them out like I did.
Allow them to rest on the counter for about 30 minutes after racking them to release air pockets. This is the time to set your oven to 300 degrees and sprinkle a bit of coarse salt on top of each of them.
Then pipe out some homemade Dulce de Leche in the centers and sandwhich with another macaron.
I also got inspired by my friend’s birthday macaroons that were bright gold, so I picked up some cake spray paint in metallic gold and silver and when the macaroons were set, I sprayed them down and above is what I got!
I took a ton of photos with them and then allowed my family to devour them, they were soooo delicious!!! They are chewy and fluffy, they’re delicious and delightful, try them out!
I love to bake but I’d give these a sold 7 in difficulty level haha. Try them out and tag me in your yummy posts! You can make them for events, holidays, and gifts! Happy love day to you and yours!!!
xoxo- Jess
Yes, I dare say yummiest! This dish is a creamy Italian sweet sausage pasta sauce over al dente rigatoni, and it’s the comfort food to end all comfort foods. Deeeliishhh! It’s day 3 of our 6 courses in 6 days and this won’t fail to impress! So grab your vino and meet me in the kitchen!
This dish takes you all the way to Italy and back again! Thanks to Fr. Leo for creating this 6 course meal in 1 day! So today is day 3 and you’ll find that the creaminess of this sauce meets the savory notes of the Italian sausage, and your taste buds and house guests won’t believe it’s real! It seems too good to be true, but it is… mind blown, I know. So for the sweet sausage pasta sauce you’ll need: – sweet Italian sausage– 1/2 cup of finely chopped white onion – one clove crushed fresh garlic – white wine (compliments the sweetness of the sausage) – pinch or two of crushed red pepper – 2 tablespoons of salted butter – 2 tablespoons of flour – 1/2 cup finely cut fresh parsley – 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream – sea salt – fresh cracked black pepper – rigatoni pasta (cooked al dente) Cut each Italian sausage length wise just deep enough so that you’re able to remove the outer casing. Drop the sausage into a sauce pan and cook on medium heat. As it cooks it will crumble a part, when you see the sausage is just about done, add in the onion and garlic. Stir. Then add in JUST enough white wine into the pot to cover the sausage and let the wine cook out over HIGH heat. It will boil, let it cook for about 7 minutes and then lower the heat. Slowly add in the flour (dusting it in) and stir, this will thicken the mixture. Add in your butter and fresh parsley, and then add in the heavy whipping cream and turn the heat to LOW so that you don’t cook the cream out. Sprinkle in the salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and allow the mixture to come to a soft boil over LOW heat. Remove from heat after a few minutes of boiling, and then pour on top of a bed of al dente rigatoni pasta! Try not to get too addicted to this sauce and want to put it over everything! I know I did! Sending out a big ol’ hug to Fr. Leo for making my bday night so incredible with all this food! 3 more days of this! Be sure to check out Grace Before Meals for more recipes and I’ll see you right back here tomorrow for another mouth watering recipe! Have a delicious kind of day yo! xoxo
Oh it tastes even better than it sounds! Welcome to day 2 of our, 6 courses in 6 days, menu extravaganza! Today we’re making a bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with rosemary and cumin, a top a bed of creamy coconut rice, and then topped with mango chutney! Mango chutney! I mean, I can’t even describe how delicious this dish is! When people came over I kept blurting out what it was before Fr. Leo even got a chance to plate it! So wipe the drool and grab a fork, here we go!
So start the rice first so that by the time everything is prepared, you can just let it sit in the pot or in the rice cooker until you’re ready to plate this amazingness! The coconut rice is so complimentary to the savory bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, and the sweetness of the mango chutney just puts it right over the edge. This is great for a dinner get together, or in my case, a birthday dinner!
So for the coconut rice:
-2 1/2 cups cooked basmati brown rice (you can use whichever rice you prefer)
-1/2 can full fat coconut milk
-1 teaspoon sea salt
-1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
-1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Cook the rice how you normally choose to do and then when it is done, add in all of the spices and coconut milk and stir. Set this aside until everything is ready.
For the bacon wrapped pork tenderloin:
-Pork tenderloin
-4-5 slices bacon
-1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
-2 teaspoons rosemary (adds the woodsy- piney flavor)
-salt
-fresh cracked black pepper
Crack the pepper over the pork tenderloin, sprinkle on the cumin, rosemary, and sea salt, and rub it all into the tenderloin.
Wrap the tenderloin in the bacon by laying out the bacon horizontally next to one another and then placing the rubbed tenderloin at one end of the bacon, and wrapping it to the other end until the tenderloin is fully wrapped in bacon.
Pre heat your oven to 500 degrees and allow the tenderloin to cook for about 10 minutes and then drop the temperature to 350 degrees and cook for an additional 20-25 minutes until the bacon is nice and crisp. Set aside.
Now it’s time for the topping, the mango chutney! You’ll need:
-2 mangoes
-2 oranges
-red wine vinegar
-1/4 cup of VERY finely chopped red onion
-freshly chopped cilantro
-freshly chopped parsley (this combined with the cilantro will be about 1/4 cup)
– 2 teaspoons sea salt
-cracked fresh black pepper
– 1 tablespoon olive oil
– 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar (this cooks the onion down)
Cube the mango and scoop out the squares into a bowl. Add in the finely chopped onion, and the rest of the spices and herbs. Almost done!
Now for the plating of it! Slice your tenderloin and place a few slices on top of a mound of coconut rice, and then top it with a generous scoop of the mango chutney and enjoy devour! This is what it will look like! Mmmmm mmm mmmmmm!!!
This dish was sweet and savory, had a tropical twist with the coconut notes in the rice, and filling but not enough to where you’re gonna want to un button that top fly button! Give this a try and when you do tag me on Instagram and Twitter so I can drool over this food porn photo! I mean, I think this is by far one of my most favorite dishes ever. So tropical, so yummy, so enjoy!!!
Big huuuge thank you to Fr. Leo for coming out and cooking for us all, check out his site, he’s the best cook! I mean he beat Bobby Flay!!!!! haha 😉 http://gracebeforemeals.com/
