Pinterest Made Me Do It.

It's not that often that I see something on Pinterest and am absolutely in need of buying it.

But in my hopes for weight loss through low carb living I've been uninspired. I've been bored with meat and cheese. I don't like vegetables that much, so its a huge chore to find a recipe that is all veggie that I will enjoy. 

Enter the GEFU Spiral Slicer.

Weird name, I know. It's German. It's like fully german, the box and directions and everything. 

As soon as I saw the picture of it on Pinterest I knew I had to have it. For a girl that grew up on pasta every night, I miss the crap out of pasta. I miss how easy it is and how versatile the recipes are. I don't miss how much weight it kept on me though, and in comes the Gefu.

Heres how it works: Cut off the end of your cylindrical veggie, and turn counter clock-wise against the blades inside the Gefu. I like zucchini and squash best. You can also try carrots, cucumber, radish...there's a lot of options. 

Next: Be amazed at how much 1 squash and 1 zucchini can produce when they are cut in this way. 

Yes people, that is 1 of each. Granted, they do shrink when they are cooked..but I was still surprised at how much they produced!

Next: sauté to your liking. Or leave raw if you can stand to eat veggies that way. I added some left over ground beef and vodka sauce. It was my favorite low carb lunch ever. 

The texture definitely mimics spaghetti. I am so happy that I found this contraption on Pinterest. It was definitely worth the $29.95 price tag. I will be enjoying low carb "pasta" for a very long time thanks to it!

I got mine on Amazon but there are plenty of other online retails to buy from. 

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored. My blog is not that cool yet, and I really just wanted to tell you how much this has changed my life. 

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Raspberry Cream Tart...Or you can just call it "Heaven"

Happy Pinter-test kitchen!

I still haven't been doing a lot of pinning lately, but after pinning this recipe and glancing around at what I've been missing, I'm determined to get back on there and find some inspiration! Particularly dinner inspiration, we've been in a funk of taco night and grilled chicken because I'm too lazy to do anything fancier. 

Anyways, I'm really excited to share with you today the most amazing tarte I've ever made. I think it might be the only tarte I've ever made, but I promise it is the BEST.

Seth and I are part of a wonderful little Neighborhood Group at our church. We meet in our leaders coffee shop, we each bring a part of a meal, and we meet and talk about the sermon and what God is doing in our lives.

The food themes have been pretty basic over the past couple months: Southern, Breakfast for Dinner, Mexican...and I thought we needed some excitement. On Sunday afternoon after church, I saw one of the girls in our neighborhood group and grabbed her to ask what the food theme was because I hadn't heard yet. She told me that there wasn't one decided so I quickly thought..lets do "Food that starts with the letter....R!" We started dreaming up all of the random things we could make.

People were a little befuddled about my letter choice, my husband says "Why not Q?".

But we heard exciting things like ravioli, raddish, rotisserie chicken, rolls, and rice! It was surely going to be interesting. I decided on something "raspberry", and obviously that needed to be a dessert. So off to the internet I went to find something perfect.

I found this yummy tart on the first link I clicked: I was sold right away.

At first I was a little intimidated, I mean, that crust looks homemade, and what the heck is a tar pan? This wannabe housewife did not know that there was such thing as a tart pan.

I did have a pie pan though, a really cute red pie pan that I hadn't used yet. It wasn't quite 11 inches like the recipe called for, I believe mine is about 9 inches, it turned out delicious anyways.

Here is what you'll need:

1 16.5 oz roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices

2 3-ounce package cream cheese -- I don't know what country they make packages of cream cheese that small, I grabbed an 8 ounce package and did just fined.

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups fresh red raspberries, blueberries, or blackberries

2 teaspoons sugar

powdered sugar

1. Press cookie dough slices into bottom and fluted sides of a greased 11-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Do not prick. (Or, press onto bottom of greased 12-inch pizza pan.) Bake in a 350 degrees F oven 20 minutes or until light brown. Remove from oven; set aside. 

Notice how I bolded the word greased? Yea, I forgot to do that, and we were scraping the pieces out of the pan all night because they were stuck. I will make sure I do that next time so we have clean cut pieces!

 1.5 Eat extra cookie dough because your pan might be too small. 

1.8 Marvel at the giant cookie you now have in front of you, and try not to eat it. 

2. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add 1/4 cup sugar, egg, lemon peel, lemon juice and vanilla. Beat until combined. Pour cheese mixture over warm crust and spread evenly.

I finally had the chance to use my zester that my MIL bought me. It worked really well! I'm not sure if this counts as "finely shredded" but there weren't any large pieces of lemon zest in the final product so I consider it a success!

This was also my first time using my kitchen-aid  I don't think I can ever go back to stirring something with a fork (my usual method)!

2.5 Try really hard not to eat the filling before you put it inside the giant cookie, I mean crust. 

3. Place the 2 cups raspberries in a single layer on top of cheese mixture. Sprinkle raspberries with 2 teaspoons sugar. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes more or until or until cheese mixture is set. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool for 30 minutes before serving. 

Tada!

4. Just before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Garnish with additional fresh berries, if you like. Makes 8 servings.

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You guys......

I normally don't have a lot of faith in what I cook, but holy smokes, this tarte is to die for.

The texture of the cream cheese filling mixed with the cookie dough..it is M-O-I-S-T perfection. 

It was completely gone before we left neighborhood group.

I licked the knife.

I licked my fingers which scraped the knife.

It is embarrassingly good. 

Now its your turn to make this delicious treat!

Thanks, Jess for this fun opportunity! I wouldn't have love handles without it :)

Oh, PS -- Seth and I have been married for 6 months today. Wahoo! It's gone by so fast :)

The Big Cornbread Debate: PinterTest Kitchen

This month I haven't been doing a lot of pinning. I'm not sure why, I guess the desire comes and goes or that I've been doing a bunch of other junk on the computer.  

So, this months PinterTest kitchen doesn't necessarily come from Pinterest, but AllRecipes.com which might be the birthplace of all the best recipes on Pinterest anyways. I know the old fashioned way to go is to try things from cookbooks and cooks magazines (my mama's favorite), but I just am too afraid to waste a whole meal on a recipe that I don't trust and that I haven't read reviews about! I guess thats a product of this technological generation, I Google EVERYTHING, I check reviews for EVERYTHING!

So for our Neighborhood Group at church, each week we are supposed to bring something that goes along with the food theme. This weekend the food theme was Southern, so I chose cornbread. Having never made cornbread I consulted Seth for if he had a preference on what kind. Let me preface this by saying that Seth is picky about nothing, except dijon mustard. Seth likes everything, every freaking thing....BUT when I told him about the cornbread he says..."Well, Cornbread might be something I'm kind of picky about"

My mind almost blew up. And then in the midst of my shock that there was something he was actually picky about...I came up with a challenge.  Let's see if I can find a recipe that he actually likes thats homemade, I figured the box recipes rendered a more dry consistency so I decided to try a boxed cornbread and a recipe that I found online.  Of course I searched high and low on AllRecipes.com knowing that whatever I chose had to have rave reviews, and had to be m.o.i.s.t. 

Side note: I HATE that word with every fiber of my being. I don't like spelling it, I don't like hearing it, I surely cannot say it out loud. But how else do you describe a good piece of cornbread?

I digress. 

I really wanted to try three different recipes to see which was best. But, Monday being my only day off to do anything productive I was only able to try one...and honestly, how fancy can cornbread get? Apparently very fancy judging by the amount of recipes you can find online.

I started with the Trader Joes boxed brand:

The instructions were simple enough. You just need a little oil, 1 egg and some milk.

The ingredients had little bits of corn in it which added a nice touch when you bit in.

The bread came out very flat, almost like a cake. 

This recipe was quick and easy. 45 minutes in the oven and bam!

The recipe I chose from All Recipes had to have great reviews, I wanted to do more searching...but I'll be honest I was already at the grocery store and had a long list of things to do that day. But this recipe had almost 5 stars and a ton of reviews!

The recipe I got from All Recipes.com is this:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup sour cream

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish.
2. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Mix egg, sour cream, milk, and butter in a small bowl. Fold egg mixture into flour mixture until just moistened; pour into prepared baking dish.
3. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm.

Another very easy recipe, nothing out of the ordinary. I really thought the sour cream would take it over the top. I think the trick is not in the fancy stuff, its just making sure that it is m.o.i.s.t enough!

I wish I had taken a picture of the second one...it pretty much looked the same as the first but it had a little more character, it rose more in the center and looked more home baked.

Off to group we went. 

I prefaced our friends with the situation and that they had to try both to get the full effect.

I specifically watched Seth's face when he was eating both ones...

and then he slyly smiled at me half way through and told me he liked the boxed one better.

I was stunned!

I definitely liked the home baked one so much better, it had more flavor and texture and the boxed one tasted like a corny cupcake. The rest of our group agreed thats the homemade one was better..

But Seth actually liked the boxed one! He said it was because it was more m.o.i.s.t...

but I tell you it lacked in the flavor department, even with the extra bits of corn. 

Morale of that story?

Keep cornmeal on hand at home, and I bet you can make a better cornbread with these ingredients and at a faster cooking time than bothering with the store recipe. Maybe next time I would add more sour cream to make a little m.o.i.s.t-er?

Or maybe I'll keep testing out all of these recipes to find something that can make BM happy! Maybe something with cheese in it perhaps.

Happy Pintertesting friends,

perhaps I could find a good recipe there :)

Crock-tober: Crockpot Pumpkin Chili

Yes, you read that correctly.

PUMPKIN chili.

Today I'm really really really excited to eat pumpkin chili,  and I've never even heard of it until this morning.  Which means I don't really have good pictures of yummy looking chili, but I promise to update later.

All I know is that there is a whole can of pumpkin and a good amount of pumpkin pie spice.

You see, I'm very very new to this whole crock pot thing. I've never seen my mother use one, ever. So the only things I've made in it were these AMAZING ribs, courtesy of Mel's blog post last Crock-tober.  I also made beef stew last weekend, it was very yummy too. All that being said, I think I'll stick with this whole crockpot trend!

Here is the pumpkin:

And here is a crap load of beans and tomatoes.

Also, it doesn't have that much meat. I just decided to buy a lot more than the recipe called for so we could eat it later :)

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 Pound Ground Beef

1/2 Teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 Teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 large onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (15 ounce) can Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (4 ounce) can tomato sauce with garlic and onions ** I couldn't find this 

2 (14.5 ounce) cans petite diced tomatoes 

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

2 Teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

2 Teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

PHEW. That is a lot of cans.

Directions:

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat; cook and stir the beef in the skillet until crumbly and no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Stir in the red pepper flakes, garlic, and onion; continue cooking until the beef has browned and the onion has softened and turned translucent. Add the green and red bell pepper and cook 5 minutes more.

2. While the beef is cooking, combine the kidney beans, black beans, Great Northern beans, tomato sauce, tomato sauce with garlic and onions, petite diced tomatoes, fire roasted diced tomatoes, and pumpkin puree in a large slow cooker. Season with pumpkin pie spice, chili powder, cumin, and salt. Stir in the ground beef mixture.

3. Cook on Low until the chili is hot, 1 to 2 hours.

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I will be updating later today after we try it.

I can't wait!

I wish it cooked longer so I could get started on it right now...

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UPDATE:

GO MAKE THIS CHILI NOW!!!

Ok, this recipe really lived up to the AllRecipe.com Reviews, it was super super super good.

Seth was eating it out of the crockpot late last night and proclaimed

"This chili is awesome!"

When Seth uses the word "awesome" you know it's good.

On our wedding day, when I got to the end of the aisle and saw him for the first time, he told me... "you look awesome!"

That to me, was better than him telling me I looked beautiful..and if you know Seth, you know exactly what I'm talking about!

I would chop the onion a little less finely next time, just because I like a chunkier onion. 

And you could always add more spice, without the red pepper flakes it had close to no spice -- just how I like it!

Thanks Mel, for posting such a fun link up! I'm already enjoying reading other peoples favorite crock pot recipes :)