Sophisticated

Today we celebrated my sister, Shelley's 20th birthday. She's such a fun girl and it was great to spend a day with her. We spent saturday shopping for a "cocktail dress" to go to a party later that night at Spark Lounge in provo. It was fun to see what she picked out, everything looked so great on her!

In years past Shelley has always requested hot pink, bright flowers, crazy cakes...overall just young and fun. Well as she's maturing, her tastes are changing too. This year when we asked about her birthday she said she wanted everything a little more "sophisticated". I had fun decorating the table for her family dinner and did a chocolate ganache cake with chocolate leaves on top.

I found bottles and flowers around my house and the beads from the ceiling are christmas tree garland! They added a little sparkle to the table.

Happy Birthday

S.E.J

Oh, and look and the post before this, I just added it yesterday about Brandon's website but it shows a date for a month ago! No idea what I did to make it do that!

Who knew Homework Could Taste So Good?

I promoted myself to Chef/Food Stylist on Brandon lastest school project. Not that the title perfectly describes my short attempts at recipes and sometimes terrible plating and presentations. He created a website for class (quite a large undertaking for one assignment!-there's so much involved!) and is required to take all his own photos. He selected healthy foods as the subject since food is fairly easy to come by to snap a quick pic.

Glad I could at least help with a little cooking since he's got so much on his plate-besides all this food we cooked! I had three days to make 12 meals! We made it and enjoyed eating the finished product. All the recipes came from my favorite cookbook since the nutritional information was already included with the recipes & I wouldn't have to calculate it; The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger. Brandon gave this cookbook to me for Christmas-i love it. Every recipe so far has become a favorite.

You have to visit his website! It turned out so great and I love the clean, open look of it. He did great with all the pictures and layouts- He always does such a great job and I'm always impressed with his work!

http://www.fall10.graphicinterfacedesign.com/students/bfinch/html/choicefoods/index.php

Breakfast

whole wheat pancakes with strawberry sauce

broccoli and cheddar fritattablueberry blast smoothieLunch

roasted ratatouille tart

sweet and spicy grilled sandwichcurried butternut squash soup
Dinner

jerk chicken with pineapple salsa

steak tacos with cucumber-avacado salsa

whole wheat spaghetti with turkey meatballs

Dessert

banana cream pie

chocolate pudding towers watermelon granita

Grillin' Girl

Grilling is one of my favorite methods of cooking. You need limited added oil, if any. You get great flavor and those beautiful GRILL MARKS! Usually I think of the grill for chicken and burgers but am starting to understand how much fun you can have with it. Guaranteed, I'll be using the grill year around, snow and all! It's totally worth it!
Below is a more traditional grill entree-Kabobs. Then a more adventurous option, Grilled Pizza-SO GOOD!

CHICKEN KABOBS WITH LIME RICE

The added lime, chicken stock and green onions to the rice made so much difference. Kabobs are an easy way to get picky vegetable eaters on board. ____________________________________________________________________

GRILLED PIZZA w/ HOT SAUSAGE, GRILLED PEPPERS & ONIONS, OREGANO RICOTTA drizzled w/ SWEET BASIL VINAIGRETTE

Everything for this pizza was grilled, including the CRUST! We used turkey sausage for this recipe. We made a wheat dough, rolled it out, barely brushed it with olive oil and then threw it on the grill. Once both sides are done you top w/ pre-grilled meats and veggies & place it back on the grill and cover it til the cheese melts. We did end up finishing ours in the oven inside because the grill was being temperamental. The ricotta was spooned on after baking and then the pizza was drizzled with a sweet basil vinaigrette. The basil topping was really interesting, it had a good amount of honey in it which juxtaposed the spicy peppers beautifully! This pizza could be made with any ingredients but this sausage and pepper was pretty tasty. Grilled pizza is a great idea for a dinner party/cookout. Everything including the crusts can be done in advance and then just warmed up after the guests get to select their personal toppings. Who knew Grilled Pizza would be so tasty?!

Everyday Italian

Whenever I see a recipe I want to try, more often than not it's italian! There's something about it-maybe the common use of cheese! Yes italian can add a hefty amount of calories to your day but I think if you're careful about it you can get the same great taste minus any guilt for indulging in a favorite~

INDIVIDUAL SPINACH & TURKEY LASAGNA

w/ TURKEY MEATBALLS

Turkey Meatballs have become one of my favorite things to make. The carrots and red pepper in them keeps them so moist and they have great flavor. The great think about these lasagnas is that each only has 2 lasagna noodles so it's not too high on carbs.

Everyday should be Italian Day!

Just Jessica Jill

This is me! Well for right now at least. Life is made up of work, church and play, just like most everyone else. Life is good! I find a little added enjoyment by experimenting in the kitchen. I'm constantly trying new recipes and more importantly trying to take a healthy spin. Most of my postings will be of my kitchen endeavors; the delicious, the overcooked, and the hopefully healthy!

Here's my most recent attempt~
GLAZED PORK TENDERLOIN with PINEAPPLE JICAMA SLAW

The pork turned out really great although I had to look up internal temperatures since I was worried about it being pink. Tenderloin's ok from 145-160*. Jicama was a fun, new find. It's a sweet vegetable with a slight apple/pear taste. It definitely needs to be paired with lime when raw. Overall a tasty new addition to the cookbook!