Years of heavy snacking has taught me that triscuits, peppered salami, and sharp cheese is THE ultimate, infallable savior for the hungry, angry, and hangry alike.

What you’ll need:
Triscuits
Gruyère cheese
10 oz peppered salami
hot sauce (optional)
dijon mustard (optional

I called this one the hungry dude because it could be the snacking solution equivalent to that of those gross frozen meals for the hungrier gent..Hungry Man dinners.  So manly. Remember those commercials?

A root beer float for adults is still a regular root beer float, but we have an alternative option exclusively for adults.. one with hard liquor.  Yeah it’s pretty great to be a grown-up sometimes..

Ingredients:

Crushed ice
1.5 oz Pinnacle whipped vodka (they sell them in smaller bottles if you dont want to commit to a whole bottle)
6-8 oz. root beer, Dr. Pepper, or Coke- whatever you prefer
whipped cream
1-2 marchino cherries

Fill tall glass with  ice, add vodka and root beer. Stir. Top with whipped cream and cherries.  Serve with a straw.

 This is quite a treat for summer and tastes exactly like a regular float.  I suggest you TREAT YO SELF

This recipe hits the nail on the head.  The salty, savory marinated chicken combined with colorful veggies and cashews over rice creates the quintessential stir fry dish.  SO GOOD.  I have a salt tooth from time to time and this is the meal that brings it on home.

Ingredients:

1 lb of chicken breast, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp sherry
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup miscellaneous veggies (snow peas, carrots, etc. whatever you want to add)
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup whole cashews
cooked white rice

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, sherry and ground ginger. Add chicken pieces and stir to evenly distribute the marinade. Let the chicken stand for 10 minutes while you prep the veggies.

2. Steam veggies however you prefer til they are tender but not too soft.  Set aside.

3. Now for the fun:  mix half of your canola oil with garlic powder in large skillet or wok on medium-high heat. Add cashews and stir continuously for 3 minutes.  Immediately transfer cashews to a bowl and set aside.

4. Reduce heat to medium.  Add the remaining canola oil to the pan and stir in the chicken and veggies.  Stir constantly for 5-6 minutes until the chicken is cooked all the way through.  Stir in the cashews and take off heat.  Serve immediately over rice.

Adapted from: half hour meals

Of the several hundred vices I’ve accumulated in my lifetime (I’m a very weak human being), the chipwich is arguably in the top 20 behind bleeding steak and red wine.  At 400-600(!) calories a pop, I really can’t afford to have a weekday ice cream monstrosity without feeling a bit slow and gross.

Enter the healthy chipwich.  I’ve seen a few recipes for healthy 3-ingredient cookies floating around on Pinterest and decided that those cookies with any frozen yogurt (vanilla, coffee, chocolate, etc) would be outstanding.  AND IT WAS.

Makes 6 chipwiches

Ingredients:

1 large banana
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
vanilla frozen yogurt or low fat ice cream

Directions:

1. Preheat 350 degrees. Mash banana until smooth. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

2.  Set up greased cookie sheet or sheet with tin foil or parchment paper. spoon out a flat tablespoon for each cookie and place on sheet. Should be about 12 cookies.

3.  Bake for 15 minutes. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes then flatten cookies by pressing down with a spatula (more cookie surface area=more ice cream).  Let cookies cool to room temperature.

4.  Using a regular spoon, scoop out frozen yogurt/ice cream to desired thickness and form with fingers (think: hockey puck). Place on one cookie and press second cookie over ice cream.  Wrap chipwiches in saran wrap and put in freezer for at least 2-3 hours. Enjoy!

I calculated these to be about 100-120 calories each.  So that’s pretty good, right?

I can’t wait to make several variations of this including:

• banana-oat-walnut with chocolate yogurt
  
• banana-oat-peanut butter with vanilla yogurt
• banana-oat-butterscotch chip with coffee yogurt

Welcome to the Summer of the Chipwich, everyone.

This is so so delicious. Quite possibly the best marg I’ve made yet.   Cinco de Mayo is around the corner so feel free to work this into your fiesta-ing for cinco-el-drinko.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

3 oz. tequila
1 oz. triple sec
6 oz. grapefruit juice, best quality
6 oz. Polar grapefruit club soda
salt and sugar

Directions:

Wet the rim of each glass and press on to a 50/50 salt and sugar combo. Fill glasses with ice. Divide the above ingredients into two glasses. Stir. Serve. Enjoy!!

forever favorite:

Ingredients:

1 tube of crescent roll dough (8 rolls)
2 oz medium brie
4 tbsp your favorite jam, I used triple berry
1 tbsp honey

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Open a tube of crescent roll dough and unroll them onto a baking pan, spacing evenly. (I’ve never bought this before and I guess the tube *pops* when you open it.  I did not see it coming and jumped like this bun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Is8cVgAE-0)

2.  Spread a half tablespoon of jam onto each triangle of dough.

3.  Slice the brie into pieces and place on the widest side of the dough. Roll dough from widest end to point. Bake in the oven for 11-13 minutes, until golden brown. Drizzle honey over each roll.  Serve warm.

Adapted from: The not so desparate chef wife

In the midst of this slowwww (herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter)  slow pace of spring up here, I’ve been craving something both fresh and warm.

I saw a recipe for a warm butternut squash salad a few years ago that looked phenomenal.   But that gourd has dominated the winter soups, salads, and pastas and I’m officially squashed-out.  Instead, I thought sweet potato would be perfect.

Ingredients:

salad:
1 large sweet potato, cut into 1-inch coins
1 15-oz. can chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 of a medium red onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper

dressing:
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp garlic powder

(if you can find tahini paste, just use that, lemon juice, and garlic powder for the dressing)

Directions: 

Preheat oven 375 degrees

1.   For the dressing: place sesame seeds in food processor and grind until smooth. Add sesame oil, salt, and water. Process until fully blended. Transfer to small bowl. Mix in lemon juice and garlic powder and set aside.

2.  Coat baking sheet with olive oil. Place sweet potatoes on the baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. Take out of the oven and carefully flip each piece and put back in the oven for another 15 minutes until both sides are slightly brown. Test with a fork. If it’s marshmallow-y and soft, it’s done. Add salt and pepper.

3. Cut up the sweet potato coins into 1 inch cubes. Combine the squash, chickpeas, and onion in a medium, microwave-safe mixing bowl.  Pop in the microwave for 30 seconds. Toss in the tahini dressing. Sprinkle parsley. Serve immediately.

It’s amazing how persuasive food photography can be.  I stumbled upon this recipe from Ambitious Kitchen and after looking at maybe three pictures, my freewill had diminished.  Thereon, the rest of my day was about making a “those cookies” to “this face” connection.  I sped to the grocery store after work, grabbed all of the cookie ingredients with the same fervor as those overzealous assclowns shopping on Black Friday, ran in my house,  and turned on the oven with eight grocery bags looped around my arms and my coat and shoes still on.   All this over a photo

I guess that intense junkie reaction is part of the reason why I cook, why I do anything at all, half of the time.  It’s  “I want to eat that. Now.  Wtf is tahini? wtf is garam masala? Whatever I’ll find it and figure out how to make it”.  It’s impulsive, yes, but that’s how it gets done.

So yeah, the cookies are exactly as you imagine they might be.  Heaven.   I copied the recipe directly from Ambitious Kitchen because it is absolutely perfect the way she made it.

Here it is:

• 1+1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter at room temperature
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon honey
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt or sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips)

Today is my dad’s birthday!   Mark Boylan is smart, thoughtful guy with a dry wit and a sometimes goofy/oddball sense of humor. He loves biking, baseball, history, art, photography, and the comfort of a great meal or a nice beer.

It might be a missed opportunity to include a certain Beatles song about a certain age, but I’m sure he’d rather hear one of his fav songs instead.  Happy Birthday Dad I love you!

A salad that tastes exactly like a BLT. I know, it seems like another one of those “salad traps” (that old chestnut..) where the salad pusher is straight-up lying to you. They say their salad is satisfying and comparable to whatever food it’s imitating, but it’s always a farce.  For the most part, the salad version of a meal you love is disappointing.  Taco salad is the worst offender- taking a glorious fiesta-in-your-mouth portable pocket and making it a cold, slimy chore to eat. Yes it has all the taco ingredients, but now it sucks.

This salad, however, provides the full BLT experience (the BLT experience. new band name. take it someone, it’s a freebie.) in that it really does taste like the sandwich. This will be your first bite reaction (at 0:20):

In this scenario, your brain is slapping your tastebuds in disbelief.

Ingredients:

3 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
1 cup fresh spinach
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1+1/2 cups seasoned croutons
10 slices thick-cut bacon
1/3 cup low-fat mayo
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp garlic salt
black pepper

Directions:

1. Cook bacon however you prefer. Drain grease,  chop bacon into 1 inch crumbles, set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine mayo, milk, garlic salt, and pepper.  Whisk until blended.

3. Combine lettuce, tomatoes, bacon and croutons in a large salad bowl. Toss with dressing, and serve immediately.

It’s perfect to make for a dinner party or a large crowd. Just be wary- your friends may slap you in the face (revisit the video above) and accuse you of witchcraft.. I mean, you did just make a salad taste like the world’s most perfect sandwich.  Yep. Witch, fo sho.

adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/blt-salad/