3 Ingredient Margaritas

In 2011, when I left my position at Hanky Panky my awesome coworkers took me out for a farewell Happy Hour. My old coworker and very close friend Erika ordered a margarita on the rocks. I took a sip and was immediately in love and that became my signature drink over the years. I've always thought it was silly that I didn't know how to make my signature drink at home, so I decided to learn. 

Happily, I was able to create my own 3 ingredient, somewhat healthy version (healthy in the sense that there is no sour mix or funky ingredients), which I'm sharing with you guys today. 

FYI- this would be the perfect cocktail to round out your MDW menu or upcoming BBQs and can be made ahead in a pitcher and poured over ice for guests!

Lemon and Ricotta Muffins

Last week, we were having brunch and I saw lemon and herb muffins on the menu and for fear of eating too much (not that that has stopped me before), I did not order one. Then while eating, I saw a fresh tray of them come out and I became obsessed. I thought aloud about ordering one to take home and Jon advised against it (again, out of character for me, I listened to him) and decided immediately that I had to create a batch myself. 

A quick Pinterest searched provided me with with this recipe. With my ingredient list in my phone, I headed straight from brunch to Trader Joes to grab my lemons and accoutrement and spent my Sunday afternoon baking them. 

I am SO glad that I made them. At first I was a bit concerned, I've never been a person that is overly into Lemon, but they just sounded so damn good, so I went for it.  

Rosemary Parmesan Pancakes

Let me set the scene for you on where this recipe came from. I spent my day off last week sleeping in, taking yoga, washing my comforter, and baking rosemary shortbread cookies. I had wanted to make these damn cookies for weeks and never found the right day to make it happen. So, I embarked on this cookie journey which wound up consuming 3 hours of my day and left me with no remaining sunlight to shoot them. GREAT. So, I threw half the batter out and hightailed to to the nail salon for a 6pm pedicure to cap off  my day. Whilst sitting in the chair, being pampered by a lovely earth angel known only to me as "Maria", I began to ponder other ways to ingest rosemary.

I've been on a complete rosemary kick. In my previous 25+ years, I never gave it much thought, and then suddenly I was in love. I made those devil cookies (though tasty, I won't be giving it another go) and I had been planning to make these rosemary almonds. I had the rosemary and now I just needed a way to eat more of it. I thought about rosemary infused homemade pasta, but I don't make homemade pasta without my husband (I technically don't make it at all) and he was at school. A thought came to me.

Take rosemary and add it to pancakes. done. Also, add some parm cheese for shits and giggles. double done.

Once my toes were dry and my eyebrows had been waxed within an inch of their lives (these women never understand when I ask for, "thick but cleaned up"), I went home to break out the Aunt Jemima's. I have the Aunt Jemima "Complete" mix that requires only water and mix, so that is what you'll find in the below recipe.

Please be sure to pour yourself a generous serving of Chardonnay and sit down to really enjoy these delicious cakes.



Recipe (makes about 4 full sized pancakes):

• 1 cup of Aunt Jemima Complete pancake mix
• 3/4 cup of water (add more as needed in intervals of 1 tablespoon)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2-1 tablespoon of freshly chopped rosemary (measure to your preference)

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1. Combine pancake mix, cheese, and rosemary
2. Make a well in the center and add water
3. Whisk until combined, adding more water as needed until batter is the consistency of gravy
4. Use a ladle to pour batter into a buttered, warmed skillet-I had mine on medium-low heat

I like to use a ton of butter in my skillet to ensure crispiness on the edges of the pancakes, but this is totally up to your preference. I also like to add another pat of butter to the pan once I flip the cakes. Clearly, I have no concern for my cholesterol-check back in 10-15 years. 

True Life: I'm a Bunny

So I mentioned in a couple other posts that my husband and I were "cleansing" last week.  I will admit that sentence sounds horribly pretentious, but the truth is that we both needed a reset on the way that we've been eating. I won't lie to you, I was also hoping to drop 3 pounds (is butter a carb?). 

We agreed to eat only fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, coffee, and dark chocolate. We cut out all excess white sugar, dairy, meat/fish, and simple carbs. I can imagine what you must be thinking by reading this, and honestly, it wasn't so bad. I will say that I have been dreaming about dairy and eggs since I stopped eating both (last seen on 11/9). For a while now, I've been eating salads for most lunches and dinner, but it did require me to give up my regular cappuccinos (I used almond milk instead of 2%) and my beloved Chobani Flips for breakfast. 

Somehow, we survived with only a couple minor slip-ups in the form of shredded cheese on a salad and a ton of butter on a sweet potato (both instances on me). Jon's school schedule required me to prep our Monday and Tuesday night dinner to allow him to bring it to work with him the morning of, and I won't say that I loved prepping dinner 2 hours after a 10 hour workday, but otherwise it was great! 

We both felt satisfied and fairly happy and felt that we were digesting our food more easily than usual. We also came across really great recipes that we plan on adding to the regular rotation with a few tweaks thrown in. If nothing else, this cleanse began a love affair with lentils for both of us. If anyone is interested in the recipes we used, leave a comment below and I'll get a follow-up together! 

As far as the weight loss portion of this cleanse is concerned, I was a bit disappointed that I wiped all the "bad" food from my diet and only lost 1.2 pounds, but Jon swears that my waist is thinner and that I'm looking great (I pay him to say these things). 

We're still incorporating normal foods back into our diet and currently we are eating protein and grains again. We are paying special attention to the grains portion here because I am convinced that Jon has a gluten intolerance. After that, we will be adding in dairy and Jon seems pretty set on avoiding eggs all together-he almost always finds himself sick after eating them. Honestly, that's fine by me because I'd like them all to myself anyway (fried eggs fah dayz).  

I'll sum up my thoughts about this cleanse by saying that I am so proud of the two of us for spending a week eating really well and stepping outside of our comfort zones. I can't speak for Jon, but I would be open to doing this week long "reset" a few times a year, just to help reinforce healthy eating habits. (I can't fucking wait to dig into a glass of chardonnay and some gouda)

Lazy Guacamole

We learned quite a lot this past week during our cleanse. I think we both went into it a bit scared to see what eating nothing but fruits, veg, nuts, coffee, and dark chocolate would be like. We've decided that it's not as bad as it sounds-we have since begun incorporating grains back in-I chose to first incorporate blueberry oatmeal while Jon went with a buttered DD bagel (just to give you an idea here).

We definitely came out of last week with several vegan recipes that we plan to tweak and keep on rotation for regular dinners. One of those things was what I have dubbed, "Lazy Guacamole". I have an unhealthy obsession with avocados and would happily eat them daily, and this recipe is so easy, that I probably could. 

I call it lazy because it doesn't require chopping onions (which I really don't care for in their raw state), and I chose to use halved grape tomatoes-thus, we have lazy guacamole!

Ingredients

• 1 pitted avocado
• 10-15 grape tomatoes cut in half
• 4 TBSP of sweet corn
• 4 TBSP of black beans
• juice from 1/2 lime
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Anything else you wish to add in! 

Instructions

• Pit avocado and cube-be very careful if you are holding the avocado and slicing into it. The best way to practice is to use soft, almost over ripened avocados and cube them with a butter knife.
• Heat corn and black beans until warm on stove or in microwave
• While heating, slice grape tomatoes in half and add to bowl with avocado
• Once warm, add corn and beans, chili powder, and salt
• Mix all ingredients together (TIP-I used a hand dough blender to do so, here)
• Squeeze lime juice over the top and toss quickly
• Enjoy! 

Salted

Occasionally, my husband turns me on to really cool concepts (Whimseybox, Bill Evans, and grits), and Salted is gonna go down in history as one of his all-time greatest suggestions.

Salted is an online cooking school. Over the past few weeks, I've become increasingly interested in learning to cook. I've been seriously considering attending a 2-day bootcamp at the Culinary Institute of America. I want so badly to go there because CIA is such a prestigious school and I'd love to say that I trained there! I'd also love the excuse to take 2 days off from work and roam the city. *edit* my husband has informed me that CIA is not in the city-there goes my whole plan. (I have a real problem with tangents).

Back to Salted. This site is PERFECT for me because I'm very much a get-in-and-get-out kind of girl and I've yet to watch a video lasting more than 20 minutes. Salted offers brand new courses on a monthly basis led by awesome chefs located throughout the country. The first month of your membership is free and will run you $9.99 per month after. In addition to offering a decent collection of cooking videos, a membership will give you unlimited access to their chef hotline which offers answers to your most pressing questions in 30 minutes or less.

I've been signed up for about a week and a half and I have completed 3 courses thus far.

• Fundamental Knife Skills with Jonathan Benno of LINCOLN RISTORANTE
• The Essentials of Seasoning with Daniel Holzman of THE MEATBALL SHOP
• Grilled Cheese Masterclass with Dave Danhi-founder of THE GRILLED CHEESE TRUCK 
• All About the Avocado Masterclass with Bryon Freeze of CIRCA MANHATTAN BEACH

A FUCKING GRILLED CHEESE MASTERCLASS. I can't think of anything I'd rather watch.

If you have any interest in learning how to cook from really cool, knowledgeable chefs while in the comfort of your own yoga pants home for a fair price, I recommend it. If you have no desire to know what parmesan-crusted grilled cheese is, then disregard this post (and let's not be friends).




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Zucchini and Feta Orzo Salad

This recipe was inspired by an orzo salad on the menu at Positano in Wayne, NJ. While their version is delicious and has quickly become one of my favorites, my version is super easy to make and I don't have to wear pants leave my house to enjoy it!

Ingredients are as follows:

• 1 cup dry Orzo (cooked then drained)
• 2.5-3 cups chopped and grilled zucchini and yellow squash
• Added deli salad of your choice (I used Feta and olive salad)
• Olive Oil to dress

  

I used 2 cups of diced zucchini and yellow squash but would recommend using 2.5-3 cups to get a bit more into the salad. I also used feta and olive salad from Whole Foods-this was already marinated and seasoned and made execution that much easier-just mix and go!

I used this panini pan (on sale) to grill the vegetables, which is perfect for when you want that grill look and feel without having to go outside (holy humidity). 

 

All that's left for you to do is to mix your orzo, deli salad, and grilled vegetables together and enjoy! I fully intend to whip this recipe up the next time I'm asked to a BBQ.

A 1 cup serving will run you about 320 calories. 

Zucchini 5 Ways

Last week my friend brought me a 5lb home grown zucchini (Thanks Tij!)-I may be exaggerating when I say that it was 5 lbs, but I'll put it this way; it was about the size of a newborn child. She mentioned to me that she had just made a tomato and zucchini frittata so that sparked my week of the zucchini.

Determined not to waste this gorgeous piece of vegetation, I set out to use every last piece of it and wound up with this post that contains 5 recipes centered around the Zucchini. As the summer comes to an end, I'm sure many people are gathering their garden treasures or are receiving them from family and friends and I thought you could all benefit from this collection. Technically there are only 4 recipes listed on today's post as the last one that I have for you guys is my own and I want to give it some extra attention-check back tomorrow for the 5th dish!

Don't forget to share any favorite recipes that you may have, I'm always down to try a new ones!


Tomato and Zucchini Frittata [Recipe ]

This was honestly one of the best things I've ever cooked. My husband enjoyed it so much that he went back for a second slice and I had my second slice for lunch the next day. At 176 calories per quarter this recipe is super easy to execute, tastes amazing, and won't leave you feeling guilty. I made this on a weekday night after coming home late and we were eating in about 35 minutes.

 PS-this recipe calls for a whole medium sized onion-which I did not notice at all (texturally)!



Zucchini, Garlic, Cheddar Bread [Recipe]

I've never made bread before and I was a bit nervous about taking on this recipe and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to make! The process got a bit hairy at times due to me messing up measurements (thinking I needed 4 eggs instead of 2), not having fresh dill or garlic powder, and using every last drop of flour that I had in the house. If you are less spastic than I am, you will be just fine executing this recipe. This is definitely a weekend recipe as it takes about 55 minutes for the bread to bake, but once it's done, you'll see how worth the effort it is!

PS-I've been loving slicing a piece off and toasting it with some butter-delicious! 

Mini Zucchini Pizzas [Recipe]

 

These were so easy to execute; simply slice your zucchini, tab some sauce, and sprinkle your cheese. Of course I went a bit overboard with the cheese-sometimes ya gotta be reckless! 

Parmesan Zucchini Chips [Recipe]

These are a delicious addition to any meal. The zucchinis can be sliced prior and just crisped up alongside dinner! These are also a great snack and work well over salad or incorporated into an omelet (if sliced smaller).

 My helpful little dishwasher has been on-site to assist with the cleanup of various dishes! 

Mini Pizza-Image

Zucchini Chips-Image

French Toast [donut] Bites

The other night we were both craving Italian and had no energy to actually make dinner so we ordered take out from a restaurant in town and brought home stuffed shells (for him) and baked manicotti (for me). If you're anything like us, you can't possibly bring yourself to enjoy pasta without garlic, cheesy bread, so it goes without saying that we ordered a loaf of that to share. Unbeknownst to me, each of our dinners came with a quarter loaf of Italian bread which we were left with after gorging ourselves on their cheesier sister.

I took one look at the leftover loaves and said to my husband, "French toast bites tomorrow", and he was in. He swears that I stole this recipe from Pinterest, but for once I did not (and you know I always cop to using Pinterest). All I did was tweak my usual french toast recipe and switch it up a bit!

Slice and cube bread, soak in egg mixture (recipe below), then fry in loads of butter!

Once cooked, remove cubes directly from the pan and into cinnamon sugar mix for coating.

Plate and enjoy! It was a happy realization that I had a fresh new bottle of Canadian maple syrup that was begging for french toast. 

French Toast (Donut) Bites

Ingredients:

Bread

Eggs

Cinnamon

Sugar

Vanilla Extract

Milk

Egg mixture: whisk eggs, 1/2 TSP of vanilla, and a splash of milk.

Cinnamon sugar: mix 1 cup sugar with 3 TBSP of cinnamon

• Heat skillet on medium with 1 TBSP of butter, let melt. 
• Soak cubed bread pieces in egg mixture then move into the pan to fry. 
• Once pieces have cooked, move them directly into the cinnamon sugar mix. 
• Cover with cinnamon sugar, shake off excess and place in a bowl until ready to eat. 
• Enjoy! 

The Incredible, Edible

Since changing my diet, I've found that I'm craving foods that I NEVER before craved. Eggs, goat/Gorgonzola cheese, spinach, avocados, apples, bananas, and coconut are never far from my mind or my stomach. At this point, eggs have pushed coconuts out of the top position on my crave list and I cannot get enough of them. We recently decided to move from 12 to 18 egg cartons. You should also know that my husband hardly eats eggs anymore, so those little sunnies are all for me! I've written this post in the hopes that it will inspire others to eat more eggs and share recipes with me.

I'll go first, here are some recipes that I need to make ASAP. Now it's your turn to tell me your favorite ways to enjoy eggs! ( I strongly suggest frying yours in some bacon fat-makes a world of difference)!

Avocado Toast with Eggs and Sriracha via Alaska from Scratch

Eggs Florentine with Baby Spinach and Goat Cheese via Martha Stewart (hail the trifecta!)

Fried Eggs and Asparagus with Parmesan via Epicurious

Roasted Asparagus Caprese Melts with Balsamic Reduction and Fried Egg via Half Baked Harvest

Sweet Potato and Mozzarella Egg Skillet via Averie Cooks

Vegetarian Bibimbap with Crispy Brown Rice via Williams Sonoma

Black Tie Popcorn

I live for popcorn, when I'm buying it (microwavable, obviously), I always reach for the one with the highest fat/salt content. I've been trying to make healthier food choices since gaining 10lbs after giving up meat-apparently one should not eat grilled cheese sandwiches twice a day. I grabbed some popcorn kernels and thought about ways to make bland ass popcorn taste better and coconut came to me. Oddly enough, I've been craving coconut in every single form since introducing more fruits and veggies into my diet-I want to smother everything in coconut and eat it for days.

Also, I've always been a fan of rosemary in theory. I love the look and smell of rosemary but every time one of those little sticks lands itself on my tongue, I sit there like a toddler trying to blow it off. WELL NOT TODAY, ROSEY!! This recipe is a great way for me to slowly fall in love, it's chopped so finely and mixed with popcorn, which is a textural playground, so I didn't even notice it. While I was prepping my ingredients to make this popcorn, I thought to myself that for the first time since starting Novelty, I'd be making something solely for the blog. I always eat whatever it is that I make on here, I try really hard not to waste food. Well, I wasn't paying attention while styling my popcorn and mindlessly popped some in my mouth and almost died-this popcorn is SO good! Without further rambling, my dressed up popcorn  . . .

Rosemary Popcorn
2 Cups popped popcorn
1/2 TSP Salt
1/2 TSP Pepper
1/2 TBSP Chopped Rosemary
2 TBSP Butter

• Melt butter in small sauce pan until it begins to bubble, add rosemary- be sure to coat your rosemary thoroughly.
• Cook for another 30 seconds or so-just enough to warm the rosemary and release its aroma.
• Have popcorn in a large bowl, pour butter mixture over popcorn, season with salt and pepper.
• Enjoy!

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Toasted Coconut Popcorn

2 Cups popped popcorn

3 TBSP shredded coconut

2 TBSP coconut oil

• Begin toasting shredded coconut in small saucepan on low-med heat. 
• Just as coconut begins to brown, add coconut oil and cook until melted. 
• Once coconut oil is melted, remove from heat and pour over popcorn (in a large mixing bowl).
• Add a pinch of salt to enhance the sweetness of the coconut and enjoy!

Blueberry [mint] Lemonade

This lemonade is so light and refreshing on top of looking like so much more work than it actually was! Unfortunately, after traveling to 2 different supermarkets (eff you Food Basics and ShopRite), I was unable to locate fresh mint. What makes this even more frustrating is that up until the moment that I needed it, we had wild mint growing in the backyard. Either my next door or upstairs neighbor trimmed it all back and I wanted to scream!

The moral of my story is that I highly recommend adding fresh mint to your lemonade if you can locate it in your area of the world (you're SOL if you live in Northern NJ). Also, I meant to say that this lemonade would be perfect for upcoming 4th of July celebrations! Just add vodka to take this right into cocktail mode!

If you have any leftover blueberries, drop them into an ice tray to freeze for later, these are perfect for spicing up water, seltzer, mojitos, prosecco, or Sprite!

Blueberry Mint Lemonade

8 Cups of water
2 Cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice (feel free to use bottled lemon juice)
1.5 Cups of Powdered Sugar (dissolves nicely into your water)
1.5 Cups of whole blueberries
2 whole lemons (sliced for garnish)
1 cup of whole mint leaves
Vodka (For those of you that want a little kick to your lemonade)

• Mix water, lemon juice, and powdered sugar-stir to dissolve sugar completely.
• Add blueberries, mint, and sliced lemons.
• Allow lemonade to sit for as long as possible to ensure all flavors meld together.
• {Optional} Add Vodka to taste.