Food Frenzy: Avocado

It is official. I am full blown obsessed with avocados. It blows my mind that I had never really even given them a chance until 2010's Super Bowl when I tried my friend Betsy's guacamole. Slowly but surely I fell in love with guac, and anything it came on. I have now progressed to Avocados and ANYTHING I can put them on. Sandwiches, check. Taco salad, check. Makeshift guacamole, check. Nachos, check. Next up I want to try something a little crazier like putting them into some stir fry or doing some kind of vegetable/seafood salad or something with them.

If you have ANY suggestions for great recipes involving Avocado, send 'em my way! It doesn't hurt that they have all sorts of health benefits either. (Heart health, lower cholestrol, eye health, potential cancer prevention... can't argue with that!) ;-)

Spinach Taco Salad chock-full of carrots, onions, tomatoes, and a heaping helping of avocado chunks!

How Sweet's 'Better Than Crack Brownies'

For this recipe, I'm just going to link you up with the original recipe from How Sweet It Is, because she is hilarious and I don't think I can do any justice to her original post. These brownies are true to their name (all the best desserts have controversial names!), and can almost not even be adequately described to someone who has not tried them. The brownies covered with the fluffy-crunchy-chocolatey top layer has the most amazing combination of flavors and textures, and they are not even difficult to make!

Check out How Sweet's original recipe here*! And follow her if you don't already, because if you're following this, you're clearly a foodie to some degree which means her blog and her mouth watering recipes are right up your alley.

(*As a side note, I accidentally bought semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate, and that worked out just as well! I've had them both ways, and the semi-sweet is still delicious but just tones down the sweetness a tiny bit, which may be good for those of you who don't like "sweet" in overwhelming quantities... though one could argue that in this case, this recipe might not be the one for you! ;-) )

Just looking at the pictures makes me hungry! Enjoy!

Restaurant Review: Le Colonial, Chicago

Le Colonial is a French Vietnamese restaurant located on Rush Street in Chicago with other locations in NYC and San Francisco, and is a must for anyone looking to try new upscale dining locales in the area. It's a little bit pricier but really not too extreme, making it a great but reasonable place to celebrate various occasions. We got reservations at 7:00 on a Friday night a couple of days in advance, but I don't think they are too difficult to get. (Click here for Le Colonial's website, Menus, pricing and online reservation booking available)

The atmosphere was really neat, as seen in the picture below, and the restaurant has an upstairs bar with couches and chairs for enjoying a before or after dinner drink (or two).

The menu has a great selection, and we started off with the Shrimp/Pork Spring Rolls and Chicken Mushroom Ravioli. The Spring Rolls were the table favorite: perfectly crispy, they are served with lettuce to wrap them in and a chili lime sauce for dipping.


For dinner I went with the Tom Xao Sate, which is Jumbo Shrimp with asparagus, onions, and scallions in a Sate/Chili/Garlic sauce. The flavor was excellent and not overwhelming, and the shrimp had the perfect crisp to the outside.


Others at the table had the Ga Xao Xa Ot (A Lemongrass Chicken dish) and Vit Quay (A Ginger marinated duck) and both were fantastic. The flavors were all really interesting with a little bit of spice, and everyone enjoyed sampling off all of the plates!!!

If you're looking for a new, unique, and DELICIOUS upscale but reasonable dining experience in Chicago, Le Colonial is the place to go.

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts

This recipe idea came from my friend Kim and is REALLY simple to make. It has amazing texture and makes a great little appetizer!

Ingredients
Whole Water Chestnuts (Can)
Bacon
Soy Sauce

Toothpicks

I cut the strips of bacon into 4 pieces, each of which can be wrapped around one water chestnut. If they're a little bigger, you can just cut the strip into 3 pieces.

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Leave water chestnuts in the can and drizzle them with a coating of soy sauce. If you don't want to use all of the chestnuts you can take some out and stick them in an air tight container and store them in the refrigerator. You want to let the water chestnuts soak in a little layer of the soy sauce for maybe ten minutes... giving them a little toss occasionally so they all get evenly coated.


Take each water chestnut and wrap it in a piece of bacon. I did this by setting it toward the center of the piece of bacon and pulling each corner up around it and securing on top with a toothpick. The bacon should stretch a little to fit.


Place the bacon wrapped water chestnuts on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 450 for approximately 20 minutes. You want to keep an eye on them towards the end and judge whether they're done or not by your desired level of crispiness for the bacon.

Enjoy!

Cheesy Shrimp Dip

This was inspired by the Cheesy Shrimp Dip that O'Charley's had when I went there quite some time ago. I found the recipe online and altered it just a bit, and it seemed pretty close! It can also be made by leaving the shrimp out, as I did on New Year's Eve, if anyone is not a fan of seafood. It makes a great appetizer or snack to munch on during parties/events!

Ingredients

1 Can small shrimp
6 Ounces shredded mild Cheddar cheese (1 bag)
6 Ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese (1 bag)
8 Ounces cream cheese (softened)
1/4 Cup sun dried tomatoes (diced)
1/2 Cup Romano/Asiago/Parmesan cheese mix (can or container)
1/2 Teaspoon onion powder
1/2 Teaspoon garlic powder



Directions

Mix all ingredients together. Sometimes the easiest way to do this is by thoroughly washing your hands and just using them to knead the cheeses into the cream cheese, depending on how soft it is.


Spread mix into a casserole dish (If you have any shredded cheese leftover you can sprinkle some on top) and bake at 325 degrees until bubbly, or about 20 minutes. Watch closely towards the end as the cheese on the edges will burn before the middle gets completely bubbly.

I recommend serving with Tortitos or Fritos Scoop chips.

ENJOY!

Baked Pizza Spaghetti

This recipe can be made in about a million variations just by doing a pasta combination covered with cheese and thrown into the oven. This one was made kind of based on a pizza spaghetti a co-worker brought in on Black Friday that was SO good I just had to try my own recipe for it. I used a jar of sauce, but in the future when I have more time I think I want to come up with a more customized recipe.

Ingredients

1 Box Spaghetti
1 Jar Spaghetti Sauce of Your Choice
1 Small Can Tomato Sauce
1/2 lb Ground Beef
1/2 lb Sausage
1/4 Cup Diced Onion
2 Tablespoons Minced Garlic
Oregano
8oz Shredded Cheese (Italian Mix goes well!)
Pepperoni

Directions

Boil spaghetti according to directions. Meanwhile, in a separate skillet brown the ground beef and sausage. Once browned, add the diced onion and garlic and cook for a few minutes until the onions start to become translucent. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of oregano in for a little extra flavor.

(Preheat oven to 425 degrees) Add large jar of spaghetti sauce to the meat and cook for 5-10 minutes until sauce is warmed and starts to bubble.

After straining spaghetti, pour into 9x13in glass baking dish. Cover with meat/sauce mixture and stir to mix up. (This might be easier if you just do it in the pot you boiled the spaghetti in, but I guess I just wanted to make as little of a mess as possible haha). Pour small sauce can over the spaghetti once it has all been mixed together.

Top with pepperoni (or any other "pizza toppings" you might like) and then cover with cheese. Throw in the oven for about ten minutes to start to melt the cheese, and then turn on the broiler and broil for just a few minutes to get the cheese bubbly and starting to turn golden around the edges. Make sure to watch it because the broiler can burn things quickly if you don't keep an eye on it!

Let cool, serve, and enjoy!!!!

Easy Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies

This was another recipe inspired by How Sweet It Is that made a great addition to the great cookie bake of 2010 and the resulting Christmas cookie platter, but would be delicious all year round. It's also very easy using the cake mix, though you can also find a recipe under the How Sweet Recipe List to make them from scratch! I tweaked the recipe just a little bit from the original.

Ingredients

1 box Red Velvet cake mix

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup chocolate chips

1 Tablespoon water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

In an electric mixing bowl, combine cake mix, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until a dough forms. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop spoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Makes about 24 cookies. (Or maybe 16ish if you're like me and make them huge. I always find that it helps them get crispy on the outside while staying gooey in the middle!)

ENJOY!