When I worked at a doctors office, we used to get lunch catered a lot. There was this one company, Lettuce Eat, that was awesome, she always had delicious salads and desserts but my absolute favorite thing she made was green beans! Of course I never got the recipe but ever since having her's, I've been on a mission to replicate them.

On my quest for the perfect tender-crisp green bean, I've steamed, baked, roasted and fried. Through trial and many, many error I found roasting the best, not to mention it only takes 15 minutes! 

So to get started, I rinsed and cut the tips off all my beans, I only used about 1/2 lb

To make my life easier, I put my beans on a foil lined tray

Drizzled a little oil, salt and pepper over them

Then stuck them in the oven @ 425 for 15 minutes, shaking them around halfway through

For me, these were the perfect combination of soft and crunchy. But of course, you can roast them longer or shorter based on your preference

As you may be able to tell, I ate quite a few before taking the photo because they were amazing straight out of the oven! But I stuck to my plan and the Parmesan just set it off! And voila, my copycat original recipe was born

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans

Serves 2

1 lb fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed

2 T Parmesan cheese

1-2 T vegetable oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 and line a cookie sheet or tray with aluminum foil

2. Place green beans in one single layer on tray and drizzle with oil

3. Season to taste with salt and pepper and mix up to coat all beans evenly

4. Roast beans in oven for 15 minutes, shaking tray to roll beans over halfway through

food green beans healthy Parmesan sides vegetable

9:11 PM

Most people who know me know I'm a ridiculously huge Spongebob fan so it was only right that I named my crab cakes, Krabby Patties and serve them up like spongebob would, as a sandwich!

Since this was my first time making crab cakes I wanted to keep it simple and let the crabmeat be the main focus. Unlike most recipes I saw,  I used an avocado in lieu of mayo to cut calories and also because I'm just really not into mayo, I use it very rarely!

So to make my "secret krabby patty recipe" I started by mashing up my avocado with an egg, some deli mustard and a little Tony's. I thought I could just fold the crabmeat and breadcrumbs in and keep it chunky but I wasn't so fortunate 

I had very few chunks remaining once I mixed everything up but that was okay because they came out delicious! So next I scooped up some of the crab mixture, shaped it into a patty about 3/4-1 in. thick and placed it in some flour and breadcrumbs to get a nice brown coating

At this point I put them in the fridge for about 30 minutes or so to let them come together, or set, a bit but you can cook them immediately if you want, they'll just be a little softer

Once they had set, I heated some oil in a skillet and fried each patty for about 2-3 minutes or so on each side until they were nicely browned and hot all the way through.

Now these can be served however you want, I personally chose sandwiches because I was tryna be fry cook like my favorite cartoon character but you can put these over a bed of lettuce or add some colorful veggies on the side or even have some French fries! You could even eat them solo or for breakfast, it's up to you but my sandwiches were AMAZING! 

I also made my own remoulade sauce from various recipes I saw, I totally freestyled it but it turned out great (recipe here)! I was feeling fancy so I served my patties as open faced sandwiches with avocado slices, roasted red peppers (from my garden, before the...incident), lettuce and my remoulade sauce. For sides I did steamed broccoli and hasselback potatoes (recipe coming). I hope you guys try it and let me know/see how it comes out, find me on twitter and instagram =)

Krabby Patties

Serves 2

1 C crab meat

1/2 avocado, mashed (or ~1/3 C mayo)

1 egg

1 1/2 C breadcrumbs

~1/4 C flour

Old Bay or Tonys seasoning to taste

Oil for frying

Directions

1. Mix avocado, egg and seasoning in a bowl. Gently mix in crabmeat and 1/2 C breadcrumbs

2. Mix remaining breadcrumbs with flour and a little seasoning on a plate 

3. Scoop up about a palmful of crabmeat mixture and shape into patties

4. Place each patty into breadcrumb mixture and coat both sides

*optional* 5. Put patties in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour so they hold together better. You could cook them immediately but they will be very soft

6. Heat a little oil in a pan and add a patty. Fry without touching for 2-3 minutes, until it browns then flip and brown the other side, repeat with remaining patties.

crab Featured food healthy

9:10 PM

Or fruit leather!

I say fruit roll-ups and even fruit by the foot which is what my last batch most resembled, doesn't matter what you call them, they're delicious! 

These fruit roll-ups are an awesome, healthy snack (you know exactly what's in it and how much) for kids and adults alike, plus you can try it with all sorts of fruits. So far I've only done strawberry and mango but when I get more fruit I will definitely be doing some combos, I'm really anxious to try strawberry/blueberry and strawberry/lemon to feed my addiction to sour stuff.

Unlike all the other recipes on my blog, this one is definitely not quick to make! But similar to all the others, it's totally worth it! All you need are a couple ingredients and a few hours. 

Mango Fruit Roll-Ups  (7 1 in. strips)

1 mango

1/2 lemon*

Plastic wrap

Blender or food processor

Directions

First preheat your oven to 170 (or no more than 200) and line your tray with plastic. Make sure to have a couple inches of plastic past each end of the tray because it shrinks a bit in the oven.

Then chop up your fruit and place it in the blender or food processor along with the juice of half a lemon, you can use more for taste

*the lemon is optional, I only used it because I read it helps prevent the mango from browning*

Blend until smooth throughout 

Pour the mixture onto the plastic and spread into a thin even layer 

Place in the oven and let it bake for about 4-5 hours. Make sure to turn your tray around every hour or so so that it cooks evenly (super helpful if you tend to have thick sections like I do)

Once it's dry to the touch remove from the oven, let it cool a bit and cut into strips!

If you find it a little crunchy/over cooked, just wet your hands and rub over the candy but don't soak it, just a thin layer of water to rehydrate it a little will do the trick! 

------------------------------------------------

For the strawberry roll-ups I made I used

~4 cups chopped fresh strawberries

2-3 T sugar

I made them the exact same way but it made almost twice as much candy as the mango recipe!

candy dessert food fruit healthy mango snack strawberry

9:07 PM

I originally made this sauce for my Krabby Patty recipe but it can be used on any seafood or on a burger or even as dipping sauce for chicken tenders, onion rings or any other fried and/or crunchy goodness! This "recipe" is one of my I-didn't-measure-anything-and-added-stuff-as-I-went recipes so definitely experiment with it and tweak it to your tastes!

I used ketchup, creamy horseradish, mayo (rare occasion), deli mustard, minced garlic, black pepper, cayenne pepper, onion powder, a little sugar and like a squeeze of lemon juice. Dumped all that in my mini chopper (you could also use a blender) and blended until smooth

You can find tons of recipes for remoulade sauces online if you want a more structured recipe but I tried to use equal parts of all the the "liquid" stuff, maybe 1 T but a bit more ketchup, roughly 1 t garlic, and like 1/4 t or less of the spices and sugar.

It came together really quickly and was the perfect sweet heat addition to my krabby patties! I'll definitely be making it again to dip fried fish and shrimp in!

diy easy fast food healthy homemade quick recipe remoulade sauce

12:09 PM

Feast in 5 minutes!

I haven't done a post on just a side and technically this could be a main dish but for the purpose of this post it'll be a side only =)!

Like most of the recipes I make this one is one of those "whatever I had on hand" type deals so this actual batch was a two bean, one pea salad. I normally use garbanzo beans, black beans and edamames but you can use whatever your favorite beans are. This time I only had garbanzo and black beans in the cabine so I used one can of each, drained and rinsed

The veggies are also, of course, interchangeable as well. I tend to stick with sweet peppers, cucumbers and broccoli but I didn't have any broccoli in the fridge so I substituted it with some of my own home grown sugar snap peas, fresh from my garden!! 

As far as measurements, I used about 15-16 peas that I broke into pieces, roughly half a cucumber and 5 mini sweet peppers

Next I added my "secret ingredient", about 1/2 a pack of dry buttermilk ranch dressing (you can use more or less for taste) and enough apple cider vinegar to get everything covered a bit

Then mix everything up and eat! You can eat this room temp or cold, but the longer it sits in the fridge the better the flavor! Also if you like it a bit creamier you can add mayo with the seasoning and vinegar, I usually only add mayo when I'm making pasta salad but do what you like best. I also went back and added some cilantro because I had a bunch in the fridge, you can toss just about anything in this salad and it'd be awesome! 

Try it as a main dish with a baked potato for a meatless Monday dinner, or serve it as a healthy side with burgers! 

black beans chickpeas easy edamame fast food garbanzo beans healthy salad sides veggie

2:18 PM

So about a month and a half ago I decided I wanted to start a garden. My mom has a garden so I was already pretty familiar with how to get started. First I decided what I wanted to grow and where I would grow it, this was my first dilemma. I live on the top floor in a duplex  apartment with limited space for a garden. Since I only rent here I didn't know if I could use the backyard, which is also used for parking sometimes, for my plants so I decided to do a container garden on my "porch". I put that in quotations because I'm not sure if it can truly be called a porch, it's just a staircase with an extended top step...if that makes sense. But anyway, once I had an idea for how this could work I went out and got my supplies!

I started with snap pea and carrot seeds and potting soil from dollar tree. I also got a few planters from there, I like to be as thrifty as possible when starting new projects =). Next I went to Home Depot, who had their herb, fruit and veggie plants on sale 5 for $10, so I picked up 2 strawberry plants, 2 pepper plants (sweet red and orange) and a cilantro plant as well as some plant food and gloves just because I wanted to feel official (and not mess up my nails lol). For my other planters, I used two milks jugs, the bottom half of a 2 L soda bottle and my mom, who generously donated 5 garlic plants to my garden, supplied the last planter.

So far things had been going smoothly until this past weekend. I was in Atlanta and my poor plants all but died in the Savannah sun! My once almost too bountiful cilantro plant was knocked over and sizzled to a crisp against the metal staircase =(, the pepper plants' leaves were horribly wilted and one strawberry plant gave up on life. Thankfully all was not lost because I've nursed them all, save the cilantro, back to health since and my garlic and snap peas didn't suffer much. There are no before pictures but this is what I'm working with now.

This is my red sweet pepper plant that has two peppers coming in and I'm sooooo excited! I buy TONS of peppers, almost every week, which is why I wanted to grow my own, I know I'll save money because they are not cheap!

Here's my orange bell pepper plant, which only has one fruit but I'm hopeful for more, it was wilted so bad that the top half of it had to be cut so I'll be watching it carefully.

My garlic has been prospering since I brought them home from my mom's. Also if you look closely you can see how pitiful my cilantro looks now, it's the between the garlic and strawberry plants.The strawberry plants have produced maybe 3 or 4 fruit but the were all pretty tiny, like no bigger than the top half of my thumb, so I'm thinking of planting them in something with a little more room soon.

And last are my snap peas which have been sprouting up like crazy but no fruit yet. I'm not sure what their flowers, if they have any, look like but so far it's been all green. I've read they get up to 6 ft so I may have get bigger sticks soon to keep them upright.

And a group picture plus my "porch" =)

**from top left, clockwise: snap peas, starwberries, cilantro (in recovery), garlic, (newly planted) flowers, red pepper, orange pepper**

So that's what I have so far, I'm happy to see my plants recovering and bearing fruit! When my cilantro bounces back, I'll be sure to do an update post. But I just wanted to show you that growing a garden doesn't have to be hard and you don't need a lot of space (or money) to get started! Plus it's fun! It teaches me paitience and persistence, which I definitely need in my life. I'm no expert so I'm always open for suggestions/comments or questions. Hopefully I inspire someone to try their hand at growing something. ✌️

apartment garden cilantro Featured frugal Garden gardening garlic green healthy miscellany organic peppers plants recycle small space garden strawberries

10:17 AM