Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

A carrot cake is one of my all-time favorite desserts.  It's sweet, crunchy, warm topped with a creamy cream cheese frosting - what's not to love?

Every year for the last 5 years or so, a family friend has brought us a carrot cake for Christmas.  I look forward to it every year, as she makes the best one I've ever had.  This year, husband's mom asked if there was anything I wanted them to bring from home when they came for Christmas (assuming I'd request BBQ...again).  I (half-jokingly) said "Please tell Debbie to make me a carrot cake!  The clan decided to not disappoint the brand new mamma, so Debbie baked a cake and the Alfords drove it to Boston!  What love.

This Easter, I was asked to bring a carrot cake to dinner.  I knew just who to call for a recipe.  Debbie was kind enough to share her recipe with me - and agreed to let me share it with all of you!



Ingredients

Cake
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups self-rising flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp vanilla
1.5 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup roughly chopped pecans (toasted optional)

Icing
1 stick butter, softened to room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 box (1 lb) powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 Tbsp milk (add a little at a time to get the right consistency)
Optional: 1/4 cup roughly chopped pecans (or more if desired)

Directions

Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut wax paper to fit bottom of 2 round cake pans.  Grease pan & place wax paper in bottom.
Mix sugar, baking soda, flour & cinnamon in large bowl or mixer.
Make a well in the dry ingredients.  Add oil.  Add eggs 1 at a time.
Add vanilla, nuts and carrots and mix well.
Pour batter evenly into pans.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, testing for doneness with toothpick.
Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes.  Flip layers onto cooling rack.

Cream Cheese Icing
Mix wet ingredients (except milk) together until smooth.
Add powdered sugar.
Add milk a little at a time until you reach desired consistency.
Optional: Stir in pecans, or sprinkle on top

Once cake has cooled, ice between the layers, top and sides of cake.

Optional: sprinkle top or around the rim with chopped pecans or grated carrots.

Enjoy!

Quick and delicious cornbread recipe - half homemade!

Last week, I made our last stock pot full of chili (check out my recipe here!) of the season.  Husband has been craving it lately, and I decided that since i snowed the day before, it would still be acceptable.  I split the pot between us and my friend Robyn, who had a baby a few weeks after us!

In our house, cornbread is basically a requirement when enjoying chili.  With a newborn, I'm looking for faster ways to do things, so I decided to "soup up" some boxed mix.  It turned out SO well, you won't make yours from scratch anymore.  Gotta love half-homemade!  I added canned corn, cheese and sour cream - the best of the best. 

It sweet, soft, and tastes homemade!  

Ingredients

Box of cornbread mix (for 8x8 or 9x9 pan)

Ingredients to prepare boxed cornbread as directed

1 cup canned corn, drained and chopped

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

Prepare boxed cornbread as directed.

Add corn (drained and chopped), sour cream, and shredded cheese, and mix.

Grease 8x8 or 9x9 pan, and pour mix in.  Bake as directed on box, or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

While cooking, play with baby.

Enjoy!

Monte Cristo Recipe

Brunch is one of my favorite meals of the day.  Sausage and Cheese Casserole, cinnamon and nutmeg pancakes, or a yummy Monte Cristo sandwich.  Today I'm going to share our recipe for the delicious Monte Cristo!

It's really the epitome of "brunch" - it's a ham and cheese sandwich, dipped in egg and cooked like french toast.  Perfect.  We especially love to make these when using up leftover ham. Use honey mustard to kick the dish up a notch!

Ingredients

Oatmeal bread
Ham
Swiss cheese
Honey mustard
Eggs
Milk
Maple syrup
Powdered sugar (optional)
Jam (optional)


Directions

Make your sandwich: ham, Swiss cheese and honey mustard.  (You could even add a little mayo if you wanted!)

Whisk together eggs and milk (1 egg per sandwich + generous splash of milk).

Spray frying pan with Pam cooking spray and turn burner on low/medium.

Dip each side of sandwich in egg/milk mixture and place in frying pan.

Cook for 4-6 minutes (or until side is browned) on each side.

Serve immediately with maple syrup, powdered sugar and fruit or jam.

Enjoy!

Honey Lime Shrimp

I come from a long line of shrimp lovers.  My grandpa loves to tell the story of one of the first times they met my mom.  If you know my mamma, you know she's not usually a big eater.  On this first meeting of what would be her future in-laws, they went to an all you can eat seafood restaurant where she apparently made the most of the never-ending shrimp.  The entire table got their money's worth for sure.  Plate...after plate...after plate.  :)

This week, I decided to try a Honey Lime Shrimp recipe, which was perfectly sweet and tangy.

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lime juice
Zest from 1/2 a large lime
1.5 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 pinch black pepper

1/2 pound shrimp (you could do up to one pound)

Directions

Combine first 8 ingredients in a medium bowl.  Add shrimp to marinade and marinate 30 to 60 minutes.

Transfer shrimp to a medium frying pan.  Pour half marinade into pan and simmer on medium a few minutes on each side, or until shrimp turn pink.

Remove shrimp from pan.  Continue simmering remaining marinade for 5-8 minutes for a tasty drizzle.

I served ours with green beans and Garlic & Herb Mashed Cauliflower.  Delicious!

Does this have you in the mood for shrimp?  Check out my Mushroom and Shrimp Pasta in a butter garlic sauce.

Healthy Smoothie - Oatmeal, Spinach & Berries

If you've been following along at home, you know I'm a sucker for a good smoothie.  This week I decided to add a few ingredients to one of my favorite mixtures of fruit to make it healthier, and loved what I ended up with.  Adding oats and spinach to the already delicious list of ingredients makes this a fantastic breakfast! I was SO full after drinking mine!

All you need is:

1 medium banana
5-6 strawberries
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup yogurt (I used strawberry Chobani)
1/4 cup oats (I used Old Fashioned Quaker Oats)
1-1.5 cups baby spinach
1/2 cup water (or more)

Then just fill your blender and blend until smooth!  I gave it a little longer than usual to make sure the oats were pulverized.  :)

Even husband liked it!

Have fun switching out the fruit you use - I don't think you'll come up with a bad combination.

Interested in other cool treats?  Check out a few of my frozen yogurt recipes - Blackberry Honey Frozen Yogurt and Strawberry Banana Fro Yo!

Enjoy!

Mushroom Stuffed Sirloin

Last May I went home for my brother's graduation from Pharmacy School.  After graduation, everyone went to Sullivan's in Raleigh for a celebratory dinner.  As I was looking over the menu, I couldn't move past the fillet mignon stuffed with mushrooms - YUM!  Turns out it was even more delicious than I could have imagined, so I knew I had to try to recreate it at home.

The best part is this isn't a dinner that takes hours to prep and cook.  This took us about 45 minutes from fridge to plate.  You must try this soon - you won't be sorry!

Ingredients

Mushrooms
8 oz mushrooms
1 cup low sodium beef broth
1/4 cup parsley
2 teaspoons garlic powder
butter
olive oil
salt

Steak
2 sirloins
butter
garlic powder
salt

Directions

Saute mushrooms in 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and a dash of salt.  When they begin to soften (about 6-8 minutes), add beef broth, parsley, and garlic powder.  Simmer on medium, stirring every few minutes, until broth mostly cooks off (about 10-15 minutes).

While mushrooms are cooking, season each side of your steaks with salt and garlic powder.  Cook steaks 6-8 minutes on each side, or until they are about half done (to your liking).  I added 1/2 a tablespoon of butter to the pan for each side.

Remove steaks from pan and butterfly each about 3/4 of the way through, then return them to the pan and sear the inside of each steak for 30 seconds.

Transfer 2/3 of your mushrooms to a cutting board and dice.  Divide mushrooms and fill the inside of each steak.

Carefully transfer steaks to an oven-safe baking dish, and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Our steaks were cooked medium-well, so depending on your "done" preference or thickness of steaks, cook time may vary.

I added another splash of beef broth to the remaining mushrooms, and topped the steaks before serving.

You will BLOW your family away.  I served mine with Parmesan mashed potatoes and green beans.  Husband was "Mmmmmm'ing" so loudly I thought he was kidding at first.

Enjoy!

Italian Chicken and Pasta

I love a good, quick, pasta recipe.  Even better...one that uses leftovers from the night before.

One of my go-to "I want to sit on the couch while dinner cooks" recipes is Italian chicken.  It's simple - marinate chicken breasts with Italian dressing in a plastic bag before you go to work in the morning.  When you come home, pour the chicken and dressing into a Pyrex dish and bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

I usually baked 4-6 breasts so we'll have leftovers throughout the week.  One of my favorite things to do with this flavorful chicken is a quick pasta dish you're gonna love.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts (with a little of the marinade)
3 small tomatoes
1/2 red onion
Olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese + more to top with
Garlic powder
Salt
1/2 box pasta (we went with thin spaghetti)

Directions

Prepare your ingredients!  Cut chicken into bite-size pieces, dice red onion, and cut tomatoes into chunks.  I like to remove the seeds from the tomato to keep them from watering down the sauce.

Saute red onion in 1 tablespoon olive oil and salt.

Once onions are translucent, add chicken and tomatoes.  Cook over medium heat until the tomatoes have broken down, stirring frequently (about 15 minutes).

Cook and drain pasta.  Add pasta, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, and a sprinkle of garlic powder to the pan and mix with sauce until combined.

Serve and top with a little more Parmesan cheese.  So quick and easy!  Nothing better than a delicious meal from leftovers!

Another thing I wanted to mention is a photography workshop I'm going to this weekend.  If you're in the (greater) Boston area, check out Camera Ready Boston.  It's a full day (10-5:30) of lots of information and fun with other novices and bloggers.  Here's what we're going to learn.

By the end of the day you'll be able to comfortably shoot in manual mode and know all about aperture, ISO and shutter speed. You'll understand how best to shoot in low light, bright sun, and how to maximize and use available light most effectively when shooting. You'll learn the basic rules of framing shots, how to shoot still objects, people, and how to tell a story and shoot a process. You'll also learn basic editing tricks in Lightroom to really make your images shine. You'll get hands on practice and learn best practices for using your images on the web, in a blog, for your small business, or for your family albums.

At the end of the day, the professionals are even going to take portraits of everyone who attends.  There are a few spots left, so act soon!

Strawberry Banana Frozen Yogurt

If you can't tell, I've been on an ice cream kick lately.  Last week I was trying to use my bananas as quickly as possible, so I decided to try another variation of the Blackberry-Honey Frozen Yogurt - this time using Bananas and Strawberry Chobani - classic.

The best part about this (besides its thick and creamy texture) is that it only has three ingredients.  No need to keep lots of items on hand to whip this up!

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas, mashed
3 6oz Strawberry Chobani yogurts
14oz Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk

Directions

Peel and smash bananas.

In a medium bowl, combine smashed bananas, Chobani, and Eagle Brand milk.  Stir until mixture is smooth, cover, and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.  The cold mixture will freeze better in your ice cream maker.

Once the mixture has chilled, pour into your ice cream maker and let it spin for 45 minutes to 1 hour according to the manufacturer's instructions.

So simple!  Check out some of my other ice cream recipes!

Bananas Foster Ice Cream
Chocolate Ice Cream
Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches
Blackberry Honey Frozen Yogurt