Easter Celebration + Veggie Frittata Recipe

Easter always seems to sneak up on me. It's one of those holidays that is here and gone before you know it. I don't know exactly why that is. Maybe it's because it's always on a weekend so no one gets any extra work or school off. Or maybe because it doesn't necessarily require much preparation. No matter the reason, Easter doesn't get it's fair share of attention. It's this incredible holiday of celebration and jubilation. This year, I wanted to really soak that in.

Soaking in the spirit of the season meant preparing my home for Easter and spring. I created this sweet little banner with pastel springy colors and bunny cut-outs. I loved the pop of spring time color and the message is a great year-round reminder, "He is Risen!" In addition to my banner, I created my own bouquet display of springy flowers and busted out my homemade place mats. My one and only go at sewing. Maybe someday I'll pick up that craft more consistently. Today is definitely not that day though.

I know Easter isn't really about gifts, Easter baskets, or eggs, but I couldn't help but give in to the cliches and traditions of the season. I bought some plastic Easter eggs and spray painted them with glitter paint for a little sparkle. I filled the eggs with candy. I used these to add to the baskets I made for the husband and a sweet friend who joined us to celebrate. I forgot to take a picture of my friend's basket but here's the husband's "basket".

The fun thing about Easter is that it can be a week long celebration if you celebrate Holy Week. It kicks off with Palm Sunday and is followed by Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and then Easter itself. To reflect on Maundy Thursday and the last supper with Jesus and his disciples, I gathered with a large group of friends from my church and we enjoyed a massive meal together. It was such a great way to remember history. I usually like to spend Good Friday a little more somber, but my Friday was already booked up and I couldn't help but enjoy the wonderful spring time weather we were having. So instead of my usual somber Good Friday, I set out to hiking with some friends from school. It was the first hike of the season and it got me amped for the rest of hiking season. This hike was one of the many in Boulder, CO. 

Sunday finally arrived and the day couldn't have been more beautiful. We started out the day with a delicious breakfast consisting of an egg & veggie frittata (recipe to follow), fruit salad, and turkey bacon. After breakfast, the husband, my friend, and I headed to church. Before the service began, we watched and celebrated people getting baptized outside. It was so great!

After church, we celebrated with a huge church potluck at a park in downtown Denver. There was so much amazing food and great company. The day consisted of lounging in the warm sun, eating great food, playing bocce ball, and a boys game of shirts vs. skins soccer.

With full bellies and full hearts, the husband and I napped and rested on the couch for the rest of the evening. We forgot how much a full day of sunshine can take it out of you!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter celebration as well!

Here's the Veggie Frittata recipe:
(recipe adapted from a friend's recipe)

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• 1 cup chopped broccoli 
• 2-3 Tbsp chopped onion
• 10 eggs (5 full eggs, 5 egg whites)
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 cup Swiss cheese, shredded or chopped small

Preparation Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Melt butter in oven-safe skillet on medium-low heat
• Sauté veggies - spinach, broccoli, and onion for about 3 minutes or until soft
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients (except cheese) until light and fluffy, then add cheese
• Pour ingredients from bowl over cooked veggies
• Cook frittata on stove for about 4-5 minutes
• Transfer to the oven and bake for an additional 12 minutes or until the frittata is set
• Slice and enjoy!

I love mixing up this recipe with different veggies or adding various meats to it - you could do ham, bacon, breakfast sausage, etc. Every time I make this, it's slightly different but every time it's delicious!

avocado chicken egg salad

For some reason, a turkey sandwich makes me want to puke. I don’t know when I got so tired of them. I wasn’t even a sack lunch kid. It’s funny because you always envy what you don’t have. I envied my classmates and friends that had homemade lunches. And they probably envied me – they probably thought I was the rich kid that bought lunch every day. The reality though is that my parents just didn’t really do sack lunches. I guess it was easier for them to reload the lunch card than creatively make and pack a lunch.

I get it now. I don’t even like having to pack my own lunch.

But I do because I just don’t understand how someone spends [on average] $7-$9 for lunch everyday.

Leftovers use to be my “go-to” lunch but that was back when I was making dinner most nights and had a microwave at work to reheat it. My days don’t look like that anymore. I rarely have time to make dinner on any night of the week, let alone most nights. This results in minimal leftovers. Not to mention my school campus lacks a microwave. Hence, the turkey sandwich dilemma!

To avoid the turkey sandwich, I desperately search around for other types of cold sandwiches, wraps, salads, etc. The husband and I have established quite a repertoire, but my taste buds can’t handle too much repetition. I needed something new so here’s the arrival of the Avocado Chicken Egg Salad. It’s delightfully good! If you need a new lunch idea, try this!

RECIPE:

Ingredients

• 1 avocado, chopped (almost mashed)
• 5 hard boiled eggs, chopped (I used mostly only the whites)
• 2 tsp. coarse ground dijon mustard
• 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. dill weed
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• dash of pepper
• 1/4 tsp. parsley
• 1 Tbsp. greek nonfat yogurt
• 1 can white chicken
• 1 stalk celery, chopped thinly
• sun-dried tomato wraps, bread, or bowl - up to you!

Combine all ingredients and enjoy! This recipe probably provided 4 sandwiches worth for the husband and me so feel free to double or halve as necessary.

apple cider baked chicken

I am obsessed with pumpkin. I am also obsessed with fall. But Colorado just recently had the arrival of true fall. The temperatures were still a little too high for me to bust out all the fall-ish treats. I also don’t want to overdo it too soon. I don’t want to ruin my love for pumpkin or for fall. But, like many, I was craving it. I was SO ready for fall to be here. I had to resort to other “fall” things to get my fix without prematurely jumping on the pumpkin bandwagon. Instead of pumpkin bread, I made banana muffins. Instead of pumpkin soup, I made Apple Cider Baked Chicken. Apple Cider recipes scream fall too so I successfully postponed my pumpkin while still getting my fall fix.

I absolutely loved this meal. In fact, it may just make it into the “staples” category for meals. Please try this. Quite easy and amazingly tasty.

RECIPE: (adapted from here)

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
• 1/2 large onion, cut into large chunks
• 1 red bell paper, cut into large chunks
• 1 lemon, cut into thin rounds
• 2 cups apple cider
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. dried thyme (fresh would be better - put in about 1/4 cup if you use fresh)
• 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp. coarse ground dijon mustard
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 large apple, sliced 
• 1/2 lb small red or yukon potatoes, cut into large chunks

Place all ingredients except the apple and potatoes into a large ziploc bag, shaking and combining well. Allow to marinate in fridge overnight or at least 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour entire bag of ingredients (including liquid marinade) into a roasting pan -- I used my iron skillet and it worked great. Cook for 1 hour and 30 minutes and stir halfway through. I like my potatoes on the softer side so I had to cook those for an additional 10 minutes or so. 

Now that Colorado has had the first two snows of the year and halloween is in a few short days, I'm beyond ready to bust out the pumpkin! Thanks to pinterest, here are a few recipes I want to try out.

Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Buns

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin Better Than... Cake

Pumpkin Poppers

Pumpkin Coffee Cake w/ Brown Sugar Glaze

Or my friend, Mackenzie, posted this great little treat

Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares

Oh, did I say a few? I guess I meant a lot. I told you that I can easily get carried away with pumpkin!

Do you have a favorite pumpkin recipe that I should try out? Or what about apple cider recipes? Let's bring on fall!

quinoa + quesadilla

I haven't really been cooking lately. Or baking. In fact, I think I'm losing my touch. The few recipes I've tried out recently, have somehow managed to be utter disasters. Despite my never-ending to-do list, I keep longing to be in the kitchen. Yet, whenever I squeeze in the time, I fail miserably. So until I have enough time to give my kitchen the proper attention again, you'll have to deal with recipes I tried out over the summer -- like this one:

There's so much goodness going on in this meal that I don't even know what to call it. The name would be really long...something like Quinoa, Black Bean, Feta & Peach Salsa Quesadilla. Whoa. Too many words for a title. Especially a food title. But, that's what it is.

This recipe was inspired by a couple cooks. You can check out their page for detailed instructions. I didn't modify it much - basically just added crumbled feta cheese and placed it in a tortilla.

But here's the basic rundown of ingredients:

• 2 cups quinoa
• 2 cans black beans
• 6-8 green onions
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• salt & pepper to taste
• 4 ripe peaches
• 1/2 red onion
• 1/2 jalapeño pepper
• 1 lime
• handful of cilantro
• crumbled feta
• tortillas

Try it out - it was delish! 

chicken, apple, and gouda salad

I thought my blog would be mostly about food. Somehow it has no food appearances yet! I have no idea how that happened. 

It's kind of like when you have your mind set on buying a new pair of shoes - you've looked for days on the internet comparing prices, styles, brands, etc and then you finally have a day off of work and you set out to the mall to buy your shoes...

But then you don't buy any shoes at all. 

Instead, you bought a purse.

You might love the purse and it may have quenched your desire to have something new, but it still wasn't what you intended to buy. 

Well, that's my blog. Kind of. I don't know if that makes sense but my blog was supposed to be about food and it's not. It's been about life, adventures, crafty projects, being thrifty and the like. I still love talking about those things, but it wasn't what I intended to talk about.

I figure it's about time for me to talk about my true love - FOOD! 

Quick confession: I didn't really know how to cook until I got married. I didn't care about food that much or even eating healthy. Now, I care a lot about those things. Oh, how my life has changed (for the better, might I add!). 

I'll stop rambling, it's time to get to the food. The important stuff. The worthwhile stuff. The stuff that makes my heart happy. Oh, food, how I love you!

I made a modified version of this salad. 

Here's what my salad had:

2 gala apples (thinly sliced)

1 white nectarine (thinly sliced)

4-5 chicken tenders (shredded)

1 package of spinach and spring greens mix

1 cup celery (chopped)

1/2 of red onion (thinly diced)

1 1/2 cups shredded gouda cheese

1 cup craisins

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Honey-Mustard Dressing:

1/2 cup greek non-fat yogurt

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp dried basil (I was out of fresh basil, but I'd prefer 1/4 cup of fresh basil)

1/4 cup yellow mustard

1/4 cup dijon mustard

3 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp sugar

dash of red pepper flakes

dash of salt

It was quite delicious. I love salads in the summer. Actually, I love salads all year round but I especially love them in the summer.

The husband and I aren't really huge eaters so this was a perfect dinner salad for us. But I'm sure it would be great as a side salad too! Modify yours to the way you like and enjoy!