Tonight (this morning now haha), I am sharing something on my blog that I have never shared before and that is FOOD!!! I love trying new recipes and of course taking pictures of them, 😋 so this time I thought, Why not make a blog post from them! I hope you all like this new addition and if you do, leave me a comment telling me what you thought and maybe I'll post more like this.😊
The Perfect end of the Weekend Meal
To set the stage, I will say that I am a HUGE Pinterest fan (junkie😁) and that is where I found all the recipes for this meal. Just click the blog title from where I found the recipe and boom! you'll have the recipe to make it yourself!
I had been planning to make this meal for about a week or so, with the mindset of having my grandma over to enjoy it with us and it was a hit! So filling and perfect to end this spring break and weekend with.
Let's jump into the pictures!
Let's jump into the pictures!
Entree: Stuffed Bell Peppers with Cheesy Cauliflower "Bread" Sticks
I have been craving stuffed bell peppers for a while and yay! they finally made it on the menu this evening (last night)!
For these stuffed peppers, I followed a recipe over at a blog called Jo and Sue. This recipe makes 7 stuffed peppers and they are quinoa and vegetable stuffed.
Thanks to my wonderful mom, who did most of the prep work (chopping the veggies the night before), today I was able to put everything together fairly quickly! I followed the recipe almost to a tee, however, I did use a full cup of tomato sauce instead of a 1/2, and the stuffing wasn't too runny. I thought it was just right. I also used my favorite manchego sheep cheese in the place of the called for Tex Mex cheese mix. We get it at Costco and I have it say it is the best!
To go along with the stuffed peppers, I wanted to make something on the lines of bread or something that had a little crunch to it and these cheesy cauliflower "bread" sticks did the trick! Although I wouldn't say that they were on the bread side of things or really crunchy . . . hahaha, but they were good!
I found the recipe for these over at Center Cut Cook and in the midst of making them, I found that the recipe is almost identical to what we do to make cauliflower pizza crust. (P.S. if you haven't tried making pizza with a cauliflower crust, you need to add it to your menu!)
After my mom cut these so perfectly, I realized that I forgot to add the "cheesy" part, so I just sprinkled some mozzarella cheese onto each individual piece, placed them in the oven for a few minutes, sprinkled some Italian seasoning on top, and voila! we had "bread" sticks!
It was so good!
Dessert: Paleo Lemon Bars with Coconut Whipped Cream and Double Chocolate Dairy-Free Ice Cream
What better way to end the evening and scrumptious meal than with some lemon bars and "ice cream!" Nobody in my family is gluten or dairy free, but we do like to eat clean and play around with different recipes.
I actually just came across the recipe for these lemon bars this last week and boy oh boy am I glad I did! They are from Paleo Running Mom and they are such a healthy alternative to the original lemon bars and are especially better for someone who can't have a lot of sugar, as I put in a little over a 1/2 cup (besides any natural sugar in the main ingredients). I also used about a full cup total of lemon juice (2-3 tbsp in the crust, and the rest of it I put into the filling), with the addition of a couple drops of Young Living's Lemon Essential oil. If you can't tell . . . I LOVE LEMON! 😋 I believe it had just the right amount of lemon flavoring, where you could actually taste it but it wasn't too overbearing. My other taste testers also loved it!
I had also never made whipped cream out of coconut cream before and it was a success! I can just image making it now every time I need whipped cream for my hot chocolate! The flavor is on the coconut side but it's light and not strong (as I myself am not a huge plain coconut fan). I will definitely memorize how it make it for the future!
Lastly, I made (in under 5 minutes) a double chocolate "ice cream" from Life a Little Brighter. It didn't turn out quite like how the original blogger made it, but it was still good and I know with a little more tweaking it will make an excellent replacement for the store bought chocolate ice cream. I topped it off with some frozen cherries, blueberries, and a strawberry, and yummy in the tummy it goes!
I have to say that having the lemon bars and the chocolate ice cream really did balance out all the flavors well and they made for an excellent dessert!
Well, that's it for now and I hope you enjoyed all the yummy food ideas and pictures! I would love to hear what your favorite weekend meal(s) is and/or if you have tried any of the recipes mentioned.
Have a great week!
Never tried cauliflower bread before. Going to have to try that out for sure.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to read this post! I'm glad that I was able to share something new with you! Making pizza crust and now just plain cheesy bread with cauliflower is the best! Taking that time to squeeze most of the excess water out is a big deal, especially if you want to have a mostly sturdy piece of "bread." I have made the pizza crust skipping that step and even though it still turned out good, it was defiantly moist (it was excellent the next day after reheating though!).
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