Refridgerator Dinner

My mom is the queen of making something delicious out of ingredients and leftovers in the fridge. When it's 7 oclock at night and I am beyond hangry I am always really thankful for the "fridge skills" I have inherited. The most recent refrigerator dinner creation Meatball Vegetable Ragu.

The great part of this meal is the veggies that go in it are flexible so you can just use what you have.

Meatball Vegetable Ragu
1lb ground beef
1 medium eggplant
2 zucchini
1 medium onion
1 large red pepper
1 small jar of spaghetti sauce
3 tsp. onion powder
2 tbls. garlic poweder 

1. Make the ground beef into mini meatballs. If you don't want to take the time to do this, just brown the hamburger.
2. Dice the eggplant, red pepper, and onion, and them to the pan
3. Sautee until the veggies are soft but not over done.
4. Add the sauce, and garlic and onion powder, and let the veggies and meatballs just simmer.
5. Slice the zucchini into 1/4 thin strips. Then add them to the sauce. The serve as the noodles in this meal, no need to wait for noodles to boil.
6. Let everything simmer together, on med-low heat, until the zucchini is soft.
7. ENJOY!!!

Sassily Yours,

Evan

Happy Birthday Julia

  "If you are afraid of butter use cream." - Julia Child

Today would have been Julia's 100th birthday.  Happy Birthday to a woman who made us laugh, taught us about the world, and inspired numerous generations of women to peruse their dreams, culinary or otherwise. She certainly always approached life with a "sprinkle of sass."


Sassily yours,

Evan

Tuesday Treats: Zucchini Brownies

Hey hey hey!

Today is Tuesday.  It was a long day.  Almost like a Monday.  You know how you have those days that you have planned, but then something happens and there goes your day?  Well, I had one of those days.  It wasn't bad, just busy and long.  Now, some people might choose to sit on their couch and veg out after a day like that, but I like to bake.  I don't know when this started, but I like to get in the kitchen and create.  Tonight, I wanted brownies, but I wanted to make something healthy.

Thanks to Google for pointing me in the direction of The Redeeming Table and the Paleo Zucchini Brownie Recipe!

Here is the cast:

All natural, well, except the chocolate chips, but they are delicious, so go with it!

I admit, I was skeptical of the zucchini and it looks funny when you mix it:

I promise, this ends up tasting yummy.

Here is the delicious end product:

Zucchini Brownies

Please, do yourself a favor: go buy a zucchini and make these!  Delicious and healthy!  Find the recipe from the original blog post at The Redeeming Table here.

Sassily Yours,

Aubs

Indiana State Fair

Oh hey there!

I hope y'all had a great weekend!  I spent it with friends and cleaning my apartment.  Cleaning is not so fun, so instead of focusing on that, let's talk about my two visits to the Indiana State Fair last week!  I won't apologize for all the carbs in this post, but I will at least warn you.  Spoiler alert:  This posts contains lots of carbs.

First, since my brother was in town and it was Evan's last weekend in Indianapolis, we went to the state fair.  Nothing says celebration like deep fried food!

We started with an Elephant Ear.  If you aren't familiar, don't be ashamed; I had no idea what they were until I moved here.  Anyway, they are basically a large piece of fried dough with cinnamon and sugar all over it.

Elephant Ear

I like them, but I prefer the doughiness of funnel cakes.  Elephant ears have some crunchy spots that aren't as good, at least to me.

Next, we moved on to the Indiana Pork tent.  We had pork burgers, BBQ pork, and a pork chop.  YUM!

The other white meat.

Pearce enjoyed his first Pork Burger.  It's a thing here.  If you want to read more about a lovely hot dog festival and my first pork burger, please visit my blog here.  So, having had some food and feeling at least partially satiated, we moved on to some actual fair displays.  

Thank goodness I found this.

Peppers!

Zinas!

After a short storm passed through, we began the great search for the Fried Girl Scout Cookies.  When I say great search, I mean we wandered around the fair for like an hour trying to find this delicacy.  We got sidetracked by the kids rodeo events.  And literally asked 10 people, who were minding their own business, where to find these things.  We probably looked like deranged people looking for a sugar fix.  Finally, on the way out, we found the information booth and asked.  Apparently, they were hiding them in the Midway.  Weird.  Good news is that we finally found them and they were worth the wait.  Well, Allison didn't think so because she doesn't like coconut.  (How are we friends?)

Deep fried Samoas.  Or Carmel Delights, depending on where you are from.

So after Evan and Pearce left to go back to the land of Oz, my friends and I decided to partake in the $2 fair night.  Sadly for you, I was too consumed by my food to take photos.  What was the best thing I had Tuesday?  Deep Fried Cookie Dough.  Yes, I'm sorry, I put it out there.  If you ever come across it, please do you yourself a favor and try it.  It tastes like cookie dough, but is warm like a freshly baked cookie.  There were some other highlights, but I want to leave you with that.  You're welcome.

Sassily yours,

Aubs

Homemade Fruit Snacks

 

I understand that as a senior in college fruit snacks should no longer be one of my primary food groups but I can't help it. Fruit snacks are my guilty pleasure. I know that fruit snacks have no obvious nutritional value, so I've been on the lookout for a recipe that would be low or no carb. I finally found a version I could make my own. Homemade fruit snacks sound weird but, they are an awesome little treat when you need something sweet. (I worked on making that rhyme for a really long time) These taste just like the real thing.

Here is the super easy (and quick) recipe.

2  1/4 oz. packages unflavored gelatin
1  .3 oz package of sugar free flavored Jello (the smaller box)
1/3 cup of water

1. Sprinkle jello and gelatin over water.

2. Heat over medium high heat until the gelatin is completely disolved.

3. Spoon warm mixture into candy molds.

4. Let set for at least 20 minutes or until completely cooled.

5. ENJOY!

Store in an air tight container. They don't have to be refrigerated!

Sassily yours,
Evan