A Hangover and Enchiladas

Today I did basically nothing all day because I was "sick".....and by "sick" I mean hungover. I think I'm officially too old to drink copious amounts of alcohol. It was rough!

The culprit for the hangover was a very fun Halloween party that we went to last night. Hubs and I dressed up as the Blues Brothers, I drank margaritas and played MANY games of cornhole and beer pong. Too many, in fact, but I was winning so I kept going to prove it wasn't a fluke!

If only having so much fun didn't result in a terrible all-day long hangover and one stint with my head over the toilet at 9 am. Yuck!

When I finally started to feel human again around 6 pm tonight and the thought of food hitting my mouth didn't make me gag, I decided to cook.

Veggie Enchiladas....aka hangover cure

And I'm so glad I did, because this is probably one of my new favorite dishes.

I spotted the recipe over on How Sweet It Is a while back and had it bookmarked since. I'm so glad she shared this because it is a great way to incorporate lots and lots of veggies in a more palatable way for those who aren't huge veggie fans (ahem husband).

Plus, it's warm and gooey and cheesy! Who doesn't love those things?!

I modified the recipe slightly so my way is listed below. My mix of veggies was pretty random, but that's the great thing about this recipe: you can modify it to include whatever veggies you have on hand!

Loaded Veggie Enchiladas

Source: Modified from How Sweet It Is

8-10 whole wheat tortillas

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 green pepper, chopped

1/2 red onion, chopped

2 medium white or red potatoes, chopped

1/2 cup butternut squash, chopped

1/2 cup broccoli florets, chopped

1 summer squash, chopped

1 cup refried black beans (half a can)

1 can red enchilada sauce

1 1/2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat a skillet on medium heat and add olive oil. Add peppers, onions, potatoes and butternut squash, sprinkle with salt and saute until soft, about 8 minutes. Add in summer squash and broccoli, sauteing for another 5 minutes. Add refried beans and half the can of enchilada sauce, mixing until combined and heating through.

To assemble enchiladas, add about 1/2 cup mix into the center of a tortilla and roll tightly. Add to baking dish and repeat with tortillas and mix. Top with remaining enchilada sauce and cheese.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Hangover officially cured.

But I'm still never drinking alcohol again. (yeah right)

Yes, I Still Shave My Pits

I made my own granola today.

But yes, I still shave my pits. I'm not that granola. :)

(Thanks to my husband for that brilliant idea of a post title. He makes me laugh.)

When I was visiting Seattle my friend Megan fed us some of her homemade granola and was talking up the ease and cost effectiveness of doing it yourself. I can honestly say that I never even really thought about making my own granola, which is weird for me since I'm always looking for new things to cook/bake.

Anyway, after eating Megan's delicious homemade granola I knew I needed to try making some of my own soon. Then I saw Heather Eats Almond Butter post about how she made her own granola using this recipe from Healthy Coconut.

Double Coconut Nut Granola? Um...yes please!

And let me tell you, this stuff is like CRACK! My hand kept finding its way in the bowl after it was done cooking!

See?

I can't wait to add this to yogurt, oatmeal, ice cream....so many possibilities!

Double Coconut Nuts Granola

Source: Healthy Coconut

• 1 & 3/4 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup slice almonds
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut (I used coconut "chips" instead of flakes...they were a bit more substantial, which I like)
• 2 tbsp agave (You could sub in honey if you don't have it)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil (If you don't have it, any oil would probably work here...although then it would only be Single Coconut Granola)
• 1 tbsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Put agave and coconut oil on very low heat until thin. Stir in almonds, walnuts, coconut and vanilla. Mix until they are coated well. Add oats to the mixture and mix well.

Transfer the mixture on a greased non-stick cookie sheet. Spread them evenly. Bake for 10 minutes and then stir mixture. Bake for another 10 minutes or so. Watch it carefully. The mixture will turn brown quickly.

Blogworthy

I haven't had much that I deemed blogworthy going on in my life since I got back from Seattle. Just your typical work, sleep, repeat cycle with not a lot of blogworthy cooking or eating going on.

Well, that is, except for the fried oreos that we devoured while at the fair last weekend.

Those were most definitely blogworthy, but unfortunately also undocumented. :(

And then there are the Iced Pumpkin Cookies that I made for a party earlier today.

Cakey, soft, sweet but not-too-sweet, positively delightful.

And lucky for you, those cookies WERE documented:

And they were quite a hit at the party, so I guess I'm not the only one who thinks these are blogworthy.

I need to remember to make these more often.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Source: Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.

4. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

Eating my Way Through Seattle

That's right, I said SEATTLE!

I kind of disappeared from Blogland before the trip so I didn't have a chance to let my readers know that I'd be traveling but...well I did! :)


Three of my college girlfriends/sorority sisters and I decided a while back to have a little reunion trip in Seattle, where one of the girls currently lives. Needless to say I was SO excited for a vacation and for a chance to catch up with the girls.


Instead of going over all the details of trip on the blog (which, I admit, I'm too lazy to do) I figured I would just focus on the one area that I typically gravitate towards: FOOD!


Because, vacations are all about the food anyway, right?!


THURSDAY:


We all arrived in Seattle late on Wednesday night so our first real Seattle meal was breakfast the following morning. For that we walked down to Pike's Place Market for a local Russian Bakery called Piroshky, Piroshky for....well, piroshkys!



A piroshky is a handheld, stuffed pie that can be filled with any variety of fillings. My piroshky was stuffed with "Smoked Salmon Pate" or basically a smoked salmon and cream cheese mixture. It was a really tasty filling but my favorite part was definitely the doughy bread...I'm a carbaholic! It was also great that the piroshky was portable so we could continue our exploring while eating.


For lunch later that day we found the food truck called Maximus Minimus, which is shaped like a metal pig!



They're known for their pulled pork sandwiches which are either spicy ("maximus") or mild ("minimus"). I ordered the "maximus" pork sandwich but was disappointed at how non-spicy it was. I'm a Texan, darnit...if you say it's gonna be spicy then it should at LEAST make my tongue burn a little. :) But other than the disappointing spiciness, it was a delicious sandwich!



Chomp!!


They also have cool drink options: Ginger Lemonade or Hibiscus Juice.

I had half of each combined, which was a sweet and tasty combo!


That night we decided to save a little money and cook our own meal! We went to Megan's apartment and cooked Seafood Risotto for dinner.




Yum!! I don't have the exact recipe that we used for this but this one looks really similar. It was actually really easy!


To finish off the night, Megan and her boyfriend Scott took us to their favorite ice cream shop, Molly Moon's.






FRIDAY:


Friday morning we just made breakfast at the apartment (scrambled eggs & toast), which is totally unexciting.


But we made up for it with lunch!



Caribbean Grilled Pork Sandwiches from Paseo, which is simply an open-air food booth located close to the Seattle beach. It doesn't look like much from the outside....





But OH.MY.GOD. do they ever know how to make a good sandwich!!

The pork was sooooo tender and juicy and the toppings made it all come together...grilled onions, avocado, lettuce, cilantro & garlic aioli. Holy crap this was good! I want another one now!


And well just look at this view that we had as we ate:



Yum on two counts: sandwich + view of ocean.


The only downside to this sandwich was that it was SO messy to eat! They totally fell apart on us but we didn't mind....we were too busy scarfing to care about the method of eating.


Friday night we went out to a restaurant called Eva, which specializes in fresh, local and seasonal cuisine.


We started out with an order of the mussels steamed with golden tomato, lime leaves, lemongrass and ginger. I forgot to get a picture of them before we devoured them so this is all you get.

The buttery leftover sauce was perfect for bread dipping!


For my main course, I ordered the Roast Pork which was served with southern green beans and grits.

This was SO YUMMY! The pork was soooooooo tender and juicy. The only thing I disliked was that I wished they had given me more grits. It looks like a lot in the photo but it wasn't nearly enough in real life. :)


Megan ordered the Roasted Quail with Chorizo Bread Pudding Stuffing and Sherry Jus.



Courtney ordered the Filet Mignon with Salsa Verde and a Saute of Roasted Potato, Red Onion and Autumn Vegetables.



And Lindsey ordered the Washington Salmon with Summer Squash Moussaka and an Eggplant Yogurt Sauce.

This was probably the only slightly disappointing dish from the bunch. It was just "eh".


We finished the night with an order of the Warm Apple Crisp with Cinnamon Ice Cream.
There's a pic of all of us with our delicious dessert!


SATURDAY:


Saturday was our "outdoorsy" day. We drove out to the Cascade Mountains and did a little hiking.

It was BEAUTIFUL!


Since we were hiking we kept lunch simple by packing Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches.


On our way back to Seattle we stopped into the Red Hook Brewery for a few brews and a snack.



We ordered a couple "flights" of brews for tasting purposes.



And a MASSIVE pile of nachos to share.

Totally hit the spot and canceled out all the calories that we had burned during our hiking excursion! :)


Saturday night we went out to a restaurant called Etta's, which is a Tom Douglas seafood restaurant.


We started out each ordering one of their DELICIOUS specialty cocktails.
These were so fun! I ordered the Vanilla Lime Martini but we all tasted each other's drinks and I think the overall winner was the Blood Orange Margarita!

For food we decided to just order a bunch of dishes and split them between the four of us. We started out with an order of the raw oysters.

And Mini Dungeness Crab Cakes.

Then we had the Cioppino (crab, mussels, clams, halibut, shrimp & calamari in a spicy tomato sauce).
The Ciopinno was flavorful and delicious and PERFECT for sharing, since there was a little of everything inside!

We also had the Halibut, which was served with crispy potatoes.
This one was good, but nothing too memorable.

We were too full after all that food so we passed on dessert.

Well that about covers all the food that we ate while in Seattle, but I just have to share some of these photos from our trip before I wrap it up.

Seattle was a foodie's heaven because everywhere you looked there was fresh, local, organic food!

Fresh flowers everywhere you looked...

And one of my favorite pictures from the trip....

Proper British Bacon! For some reason this just cracked me up. I mean, what is UNproper British Bacon??


So have YOU ever been to Seattle?? If not, I highly recommend you visit sometime! It's a beautiful and unique city. And if you visit in September or early October like us, you may get lucky and have perfect weather too!

Worry Not!

I promise I am working on a couple of posts to catch up!

I was out of town for 5 days over the past week and I've been trying to get caught up and unpacked since then.

I should have something "real" up by tomorrow, but until then here are a few teaser photos from my trip....

Any guesses on where I was?!?

P.S. My dad is having another major surgery tomorrow to remove his thyroid and his lymph nodes. If you have a spare moment, please send up a prayer for his surgery to go smoothly and as pain-free as possible. Thank you!

Sister-in-Laws, Babies & Easy Apple Crisp

Sorry I've been MIA the past few days! We've been busy bees with a houseguest, the arrival of a friend's new baby and the celebration of a friend's daughter's 1st birthday. Here we go with a little {long} recap:

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday night we had a houseguest: my sister-in-law (a.k.a. Alex's sister)!!

She was passing through our part of Texas on her way to meet up with her boyfriend in San Antonio so she stopped in for the night. It was a quick visit but it was a lot of fun to catch up with her. She lived with me last summer when Alex was deployed and interned at my job so we have become close.

She's also a loyal Cupcakes & Combat Boots reader so she insisted that I take a picture of her to make it on the blog. In turn, I insisted that if this was to happen, it needed to be a photo of her eating. She agreed to my terms. :)

Chomp!

And yes, we ate dinner on the couch, even with a houseguest. We're casual like that. ;-)

So what did we eat? Well, it's a dish that's been seen on Cupcakes & Combat Boots before but it's certainly worth repeating.

Cajun Chicken Ranch Sandwiches

w/ sweet potato oven fries

Yummmmm. The flavors just go together so well!

As a military-related side note, my sister-in-law's boyfriend is also in the Army and he is deploying to Afghanistan next week. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he sets off on this journey. Also, please pray for peace for Andrea that she can remain calm during this deployment (it's the first she's had to deal with, besides her brother's of course) and that it goes by quickly.

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THURSDAY:

One of my very good friends, Connie, had her baby on Wednesday evening (!!!) so on Thursday night we headed out to the hospital to visit her and meet little Max.

Hubs with Max

Me with Max...he was so awake and alert...I was shocked!

Look at that big yawn! He's so adorable!

So since we had to drive 45 minutes each way to go visit Max & Connie, we were planning on just grabbing dinner along the way somewhere. When we spotted a Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburger we knew that was where we were eating.

We had both had Freddy's before in Wichita, KS (which is where the Hubs is from and, incidentally where the Freddy's chain began) and loved it.

I didn't take any photos of our dinner, but just trust me, if you ever have a chance to eat at Freddy's DO IT. It's a retro-esque burger & custard joint that specializes in super-thin "steak burgers" and delicious custard treats. The shoestring french fries are also TO DIE FOR.

I enjoyed a burger, fries, and a mini-Reese's concrete {basically a Blizzard by a different name}. It was sooooooooooo good and so absolutely worth the splurge in calories/fat/etc.

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Friday night we went to a 1st birthday party for our friend's daughter but I didn't take any photos. They served hot dogs, chips & queso, potato salad, etc. It was a fun night but I was so very tired by the end of the night.

SATURDAY:

Saturday night we had another repeat dinner while hanging around the house watching football.

Seared Skirt Steak with Balsamic Cherry Tomatoes (click link for recipe from Men's Health)

w/ Roasted Potato Wedges

{I'm so annoyed that it's getting dark sooner at night now. It makes it almost impossible for me to get good natural light photos since we are post-7pm dinner eaters usually.}

We really like this recipe. It's easy, quick and super tasty. We had a few "issues" while cooking it tonight though so it wasn't our best work. ;-) The meat was extremely undercooked when we cut into it so we tried to cook it a little more but it ended up being rather tough. Also, we almost smoked ourselves out of the kitchen at one point...beware the searing! :)

For the roasted potato wedges I just coated yellow-skinned potato wedges in olive oil and then sprinkled with kosher salt & pepper. Then I spread them out on a rack placed on top of a baking sheet. Baked for 20 minutes at 425 degrees until crispy and browned. They were really good!

Then for dessert, I made an Apple Crisp!

We had a sack of little baby Gala apples in our fridge so I figured I'd use some of them up in a delicious, fall dessert!

Gracie at Girl Meets Health posted the recipe for this apple crisp earlier this week and she swore it was amazing so I decided to give it a whirl.
She was absolutely right! It was SO good! The best part though was how stinkin' easy it was to make. I seriously whipped this up in 10 minutes and then all I had to do was wait for it to bake. That's dangerous because now I'm going to want apple crisp all the time and I'll know that it's not hard to get it! Uh oh...

I'm posting the recipe the below with my slight alterations but I basically followed it exactly.

Easy Apple Crisp

Ingredients:

• 4 apples, peeled and sliced {I used 6 small apples and cut them into small chunks, instead of slicing. I also left the peel on because I like it.}
• lemon juice {juice from 1 lemon}
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 stick cold butter, cut into tiny pieces
• 3/4 cup old fashioned oats

Preheat the oven to 375 and spray a shallow pan (I used a square pan) with cooking spray. Spread out the apples evenly along the bottom of the pan and sprinkle the lemon juice on top.

In a large bowl, combine all the rest of the ingredients and use your hands to work in the butter. In the end, you should have tiny pieces of butter throughout. You still want some chunks for optimal streusel.

Spread the streusel on top of the apples and bake for about 25 minutes {35 minutes for mine}. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.