vicious sweet tooth

The weather this weekend was AH-MAZING!!  The temps were just right and the sun was shining all weekend long. We couldn’t have asked for anything better all weekend!  We had so much going on, so it was great that the weather cooperated with us!  

Here’s what we did this weekend.  Sorry for the lack of pics too, I need to do better…bad food blogger, bad!  

Anyway, here we go…  

Saturday  

We got in pretty late from our friend’s house Friday night and decided to sleep in a bit.  However, we really didn’t sleep in too late, the hubby went to a Men’s Breakfast at church and I decided to get the day started and get grocery shopping outs the way!  

Breakfast: Breakfast was random and I ate some roasted almonds and artichoke olive spread on zucchini and 1 pc of focaccia bread before heading out to run some errands  

We had an appointment @ 1:00pm to look at a condo over in Ybor to possibly rent that when our lease is up.  We got over there a little early and decided to walk around a bit.  Then we tried to grab some lunch before our appointment and headed over to restaurant called Mema’s Alaskan Tacos.  We placed our order but had to wait forever.  So I walked back to meet our contact for the condo and the hubby waited on the food.  So, the service was poor!  And then they only gave me one of the tacos I had ordered.  I wanted a chicken and a tofu one, but only got the chicken!  I was so mad because we both were starving and had to wait forever.  But the food was good.  

Lunch: I had – 1 Chicken Alaskan taco w/ chicken breast, lettuce, salsa in a corn tortilla.  It was yummy  

After our appointment, we walked around for a little while and then decided to drive around Ybor to see what was for rent out there.  Then headed home to hang out.  

The hubby headed out meet up with some friends and I worked on getting some items prepared for this upcoming week and for a cookout we attended on Sunday.  

For the cookout, I wanted to make a dessert and a side dish, so I made a big crumb cake and pinto bean salad.  

Crumb Cake – Mine looked similar to this one below.  It was fantastic!  This recipe calls for cake flour and I normally do not have it on hand, but since I made the cake for my friends b-day, I did.  And there is a noticable texture difference and I do think I like the delicacy of the cake flour compared with the All-Purpose flour.  

All cut and wrapped up ready to go  

Big Crumb Cake

Pinto Bean Salad  

I also made this Pinto Bean Salad from Kalyn’s Kitchen and it was yummy. I didn’t have any white balsamic vinegar, so I used the regular and it wasn’t too overpowering like I thought it would be. Super fresh tasting! I also accidentally bought flat leaf parsley instead of cilantro, but it gave it a nice flavor. I also added another 1/2 avocado since it was for a larger group. Mine looked a little like this and contained pinto beans, red onions, tomatoes, avocado, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and flat leaf parsley.  

Pinto Bean Salad

Mini Quiche w/ Spinach and Kielbasa  

Mini breakfast quiche

Small Casserole

 

10 eggs

1/4 pkg of Turkey Kielbasa

1/2 cup asparagus

1/4 cup chopped spinach

1/2 cup mushrooms

1/4th diced red onion

1/4 Almond milk – plain

granulated garlic

salt

pepper

I sautéed the veggies first and then placed about a Tablespoon or so in muffin tin.  Combined the eggs, milk and kielbasa and added to muffin tins.  Then I added a little bit of cheese to these for the hubby.  Baked @ 350 degrees for about 25 mins

After these were done, I just decided to throw the rest of the ingredients into a ceramic casserole dish and let it cook for 25 mins instead of making them into “muffins” because they were sticking. So, I made 6 muffins and a small casserole dish

 

After making these, I moved onto making a Ground Turkey stew.  The hubby made it for us last week and it was so yummy.  Since I didn’t have any cilantro, I threw in some frozen spinach for color and added nutrition.

 

Ground Turkey Stew – adapted from this recipe from Kalyn’s Kitchen

Turkey Stew

 

1.5 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 lbs. ground turkey (use turkey with less than 10% fat for the South Beach Diet)
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste, to season ground turkey
1/3rd large red onion, diced in 1/2 inch pieces
1 T minced garlic
2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 can pinto bean

1 can cannelloni beans

1 cans (4 oz.) diced green Anaheim chiles
1 can cups chicken stock + 1 can of water
1 can (16 oz.) spicy refried pinto beans
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup chopped spinach

Heat the olive oil in a heavy soup pot with high sides, add ground turkey, season to taste with salt and fresh ground black pepper and cook over medium heat until the turkey is well browned.

While turkey browns, peel a large onion and chop into 1/2 inch pieces. When turkey is well browned, push it over to the side of the pan, add 1 tsp. more olive oil, add onion pieces and cook about 5 minutes, until onion is lightly browned. Stir in minced garlic and ground cumin and cook the mixture about 3 minutes more, stirring a few times.

Add cooked beans,  diced green Anaheim chiles, and chicken stock + 1 can water. Stir to combine, then reduce heat and let the mixture simmer about 30 minutes.  

Combine 1 can refried pinto beans with 1/4 cup water to thin the beans, then stir refried beans into the turkey and bean mixture. Add frozen spinach. Simmer about 25 minutes more.  

Sunday  

 Breakfast: Veggie & Kielbasa casserole + A spoonful of Almond Butter

Bfast Casserole

 

Almond Butter

 

Then I headed to church.  This was the first Sunday that we were trying 2 services one @ 9:30am and one @ 11:00am.  So, we attended the earlier service and then volunteered in the second service.  I helped out in one of the children’s classes.  It was a lot of fun.

After church we headed home to change and grab our dishes for the cookout at our friends house.  He grilled out salmon and ribs.  He also made cheddar biscuits, collard greens and some potatoes.  I brought my pinto bean salad and we also had a spinach salad, cuban bread, parmesan baked zucchini.

Desserts were my crumb cake, tw0-bite brownies and 2 other cakes. Yum!

After we grabbed our plates, we all sat around outside eating and talking – the weather was Ah-mazing!  Then we played some games and headed out around 3:00pm.

Then around 4:30 we headed out to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City which is about 30 mins or so from us. We met up with a girl and her husband I just met through the Tampa Bay Alpha Gam Alumn chapter.

We grabbed some carnival-type food that is oh so healthy…the hubby and I had fried pickle spears and grilled chicken skewers.  The pickles were pretty good…fried pickle chips are better and the chicken was fatty.  But we tried to behave ourselves. We sat down and chatted for a while so everyone could get to know each other a little better.  They are great people – super nice and funny!

After we talked for a while, they took us to the place that made the best strawberry shortcake I’ve probably ever had.  Even their whip cream is homemade. It’s a yearly fundraiser that one of the Catholic churches host annually.  And the line is forever long, but moved rather quickly, which was a nice surprise.  You could opt for a biscuit or cake and we all chose the little cake.  I loaded mine up with strawberries w/ a hint of whipped cream.

Yes, as you can see this weekend we didn’t stay so true to the SBD…but ate as best as we could in our situations…well, maybe not the best, but better then we’ve done in the past.

So, after we walked around some more, we decided to call it a night and head our separate ways.  And on the way to our car, we bought some awesome fresh strawberries!  Score.  These babies are delicious.

Strawberries

 

After we got home, we turned on the Oscars for about 45 mins and then crashed out.

It was such a great weekend.  We spent a lot of time with friends and it was cool.  Peace out…