My Cali Style Burger

Light Cali Style Burger

So I love grilling outdoors but I don't always enjoy the heaviness of a burger and hot dogs just don't sit well for me anymore. Yet sometimes, I want the burger feel. You know what I mean? The wrapping your hands around freshly warmed buns and that first bite of what feels like summer. However, sometimes that delicious burger you just bit into leaves you feeling like you swallowed a brick and can't digest it without a gallon of seltzer.

My goal was to come up with something that could freeze as easy as a beef or turkey burger and grill as equally fast. My solution, a light Salmon burger garnished with Guacamole, tomato and Kale sprouts. It's oh so good tasting and oh so good for you.

Here's the thing you could bake some salmon and then make the burgers (more power to you) but I also wanted to save time in the process. So although I usually try to avoid most canned foods, this was a corner I was willing to cut to save time and money.

Recipe to my Cali Style Burger
Makes about 10 patties

2 Cans     Wild Alaskan Salmon (1lb Fresh Sockeye Salmon)
1/4 Cup   Italian Style Bread crumbs
1/4 Cup   Olive Oil Mayonnaise
1 tbsp      Minced Garlic
1 tbsp      Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp     Fresh Rosemary Chopped
1/4 tsp     Salt (optional)
1/4 tsp     Black pepper

Mix with hands and let rest in refrigerator for at least an hour before making into patties. Cook however you like. I usually precook them on stove to ensure they stay together and then freeze for another day. To warm up, I defrost night before and put on the grill or microwave.

To garnish, I like them best with Avocado, Kale Sprouts and Tomato for that extra kick of healthy. It's delicious! Trust me you will love them. Let me know if you have tried it would love to hear from you. And if you put your own twist on it. Always happy to hear new ways of making things.

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As always, Be Blessed, Be Healthy and Be Beautiful!

Food, fun and Forty!

Here is what I have been up to. 

Mini Pancake muffins

In honor of National Pancake Week/Day yesterday, I made these tasty Mini-Pancake muffins for the kids. Flavors I made were the recommended Blueberry,  Chocolate chip and Banana Peanut Butter Chip. They freeze well and the recipe made 36 mini's. I have to say it was super easy and the kids loved dipping them in syrup and eating them up. I enjoyed a few syrup-less and they were still good. 

The recipe came from one of my favorite cooking shows, The Pioneer Woman. Click here for recipe. I absolutely love her show. She doesn't know it, but we are such good friends. LOL! I've watched her show for a while on Food Network but when we went antenna instead of cable, I am no longer able to watch the show. How I wish she would do a show for PBS. Thank goodness for Netflix and Amazon. I can at least catch up post airing. 

Any ways....My best friend came for a visit to celebrate my 40th birthday (What?). We have known one another for so long that we talk for hours or just sit quietly watching TV or something. It's great fun! This time around many of our conversations brought us to food. Didn't matter how we started, we ended up with "God, now I am hungry" or "Here we are talking about food again." I wouldn't have changed a minute of it. Unlike my pretend friendship with, Ree of The Pioneer Woman, I have known my best friend Lisa since childhood. I was one years old when we met, she, an ancient two years old. We have been friends ever since. If your doing the math, thats 39 years of knowing someone and maintaining a friendship. Crazy cool!  I was discussing a recipe with her when I mentioned The Pioneer Woman. Put it on Netflix and after an episode, she was hooked. We watched the entire first season over the weekend. Thanks Ree!

Natural Chow
Easy Homemade Bagels

Others things I have made this past week. I made a batch of Natural Chow's Easy Homemade Bagels. Click here for recipe. Super easy to make and taste so darn good. They reminded me of the bagels I use to eat in New York. Yes, they are that good.  It adapts easy for added ingredients for flavors. I made Plain Bagels and plan to make Rosemary Olive Oil and Blueberry bagels next. Oh so good! A must try, so please, try it. 

Pepperoni Pizza

Followed that up recipe up with Pizza for kids using a basic pizza dough recipe that I had. I mean I had the flour out so why not, right? My son did most of the work after the KitchenAide mixed the dough and I flattened it out. I think he did a great job. It was no NYC pizza but it was still very good. Most importantly it was fun for my son to make. He was proud of himself. 

If you get a chance to try any of these recipes or have one you really love, I hope you will let me know about it. I'm doing my best to make things fresh for my family and could use some of the best of the best recipes you may have. Sharing is caring. 

So I would say that my last week of my thirties has been spent well with my family, food and fun. Oh I had fun! From my BFF visiting to eating out and pole dancing, (Yes, Pole dancing) it has been awesome! Honestly,  could not have asked for a better way to say goodbye to my thirties. I'm happy, hopeful for what is to come and I wish that those of you reading this, are happy too! 

Talk to you again when I'm officially forty. What, What!!

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As always, Be Blessed, Be Healthy and Be Beautiful!

Prepping for holidays...Yippee!

You know this made you laugh.

Having mentioned that I would discuss things other than skin care from time to time her goes the latest.

We all remember the Thanksgiving episode  where on Friends, character Monica gets her head in a turkey. Then decides to make the best of a horrible situation to cheer up Chandler. 

I am currently avoiding the horrors of the holidays by going to someone else's house. Let them get their heads stuck in a turkey, metaphorically of course. However,  I can't show up empty handed. I wasn't raised that way. One positive in my up bringing. (Kudo's to you mom and dad.)

Since I haved started to cook things more from scratch for the family. I have been searching for authentic meals and desserts to feed them all. Some of the childhood memories I still have and my happiest, are around the kitchen watching my mother, grandmothers or who ever cooking. The smells, the sampling of food as it prepares and watching it cook in the oven. That little oven light was like turning on the television for me. In some ways, it still is today. 

Now sadly, I know that you should never relate joy to food because it puts you at risk to over eating. However, I feel like if you eat foods made with fresh ingredients and control the quantity, you should be all right. Plus some exercise wouldn't hurt either. (HAHA!) 

With the holidays fast approaching, I have begun the process to seek out yummy whole food meals that I can make for the family to enjoy through out the holidays. Since I am not hosting this year (Can I get an AMEN?),  I want to make sure I don't show up empty handed and that I have great meals at home prepped and ready. Incase no one eats enough at our hosts home. I always have hungry little monsters so I try to have meals prepped for them. 

The holidays are a confusing time for me. I have mixed feelings about them. They bring good memories to mind but also stress the heck out of me. Since I am not hosting this year, (notice how I keep saying that) I do have it easier then my hosts for sure. Since I am in charge of dessert as I am often during the holidays, I am posting one recipe that I will make for home and one that I will be taking to my hosts home. (Okay, it's my sister house. It's no secret we get along.) I'm still thinking I may host Christmas Eve, still thinking on how I can manage it. 

The great thing about cooking for me is that its where I let all me stress out. It's having people over that stresses me out. I never feel like the house is clean or organized enough. And now a days, I feel like that even more.  Every thing is way harder to do now with the three kids. So I have to plan ahead and often, cook enough to freeze or eat for two days. 

DIY: Rice Pudding, no jarred stuff here.

In any case, I have selected two desserts for this coming Thanksgiving. When I was a kid, my mom use to make Rice Pudding for the holidays for my brother. Back then, I wasn't a fan (cooked raisins, Yuck!) but I love the stuff now. Though I am still not a fan of cooked raisins, my husband and son love them. I think that this recipe for Rice Pudding by The Pioneer Woman would be a great one since it is so close to how my mom made it. Note: My son is only 3, so I think I will skip the Bourbon and use vanilla extract with warm water to plump up the raisins and add to their flavor.  I may just divide the batch and make a small batch without raisins for myself and introduce this treat to the twins. I'll let you know how my first sample batch comes out but looks simple enough.

The second, is an easy one that I have already made. I took a box of Hodgins Mills Gingerbread mix,  and a can of Trader Joe's All Natural Pumpkin Puree. Mixed it together. Added Chocolate chips. Poured it into a rectangle baking pan. Topped with some more chocolate chips. Placed in oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Note: You want to coat your pan with butter and flour. You can top with ice cream, warm chocolate, whipped cream or all of the above if you aren't concerned about your waist line. My sister and son sampled it and they liked it so it's ago. You could also use a box of Duncan Hines Spice Cake and just add can of Pumpkin Puree. One less ingredient to add but probably would contain more preservatives from this type of Spice Cake mix. It's the holidays though, so enjoy it however you like.

My hope is that you all can get through the holidays as easy as I'm planning to. Best laid plans of course so we shall see how it goes. Now I just have to start jotting down all the many things I am thankful for. Happy planning.

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Until next time, Be Blessed, Be Healthy and Be Beautiful!

All time favorite yogurt

My Favorite Yummie Yogurt by FAGE!

As they say, it's best to nourish the body inside and out. So this ins't a skin tip but it's a great food tip if you haven't heard of it or tried it yet. And is serves as dual purpose from the inside out.

The product is a yogurt by FAGE (fa-yeh) and it is officially my all time favorite yogurt and flavor. It is the Mango Guanabana flavor. I'm telling you, this is so good I could eat them all day. I also like the Strawberry Goji. My wish now is that they will make a frozen yogurt in these yummie flavors to indulge without the guilt.

It's jammed packed with probiotics, great source of calcium and is only 120 calories. Did I mention ZERO fat. Woohoo! The best part is my son loves it too. So though I am not keen on sharing, I know that it is something I can with him. As he often attacks me when he sees his mommy eating something. 

With that said, I am really hoping that no one comes along and burst my bubble here. I am thinking this is a good go-to-food for all to enjoy. Hope Dr. Oz doesn't come out saying something otherwise. LOL! I don't see how since Greek yogurt is all the rave now. 

Plain is great when you add fresh fruit.

Seriously though, if you enjoy eating yogurt, especially a greek base yogurt, I just know you'll love it. If you don't, you could always make a yogurt mask for your face.The lactic Acid found in yogurt is great for the skin as it exfoliates and brightens. So there is no waste and no harm in trying. I also read in the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NDDIC) that dairy items like yogurt with probiotics is easier digested by the lactose intolerant. Bonus!  They have plenty of other flavors to that you can try out too. Check it out, try it out and I do hope you enjoy it like I did. 

Below is the index information of FAGE Mango Guanabana yogurt.  

Happy Healthy eating! 

As always, Be Blessed, Be Healthy and Be Beautiful!

Serving Size: 1 Container 5.3oz (150g)
Servings per Container 1

Calories	120
Calories from fat	0
Total fat	0g
% DV Total fat	0%
Saturated fat	0g
% DV Saturated fat	0%
Trans fat	0g
Cholesterol	0mg
% DV Cholesterol	0%
Sodium	45mg
% DV Sodium	2%
Total carbohydrates	18g
% DV carbohydrates	6%
Dietary fiber	0g
% DV fiber	0%
Sugars	17g
Protein	13g
% DV Protein	26%
Vitamin A	0%
Vitamin C	0%
Calcium	15%
Iron	0%

Percent Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000-calorie diet.

• Ingredients:
STRAINED YOGURT: Grade A Pasteurized Skimmed Milk, Live Active Yogurt Cultures (L. Bulgaricus, S. Thermophilus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Casei). MANGO-GUANABANA FRUIT PREPARATION (20%): Sugar, Mangos, Water, Guanabana Puree, Corn Starch, Contains 2% or less of: Lemon Juice Concentrate, Natural Flavors, Xanthan Gum.

• Appropriate for:
• Gluten-Free
• Vegetarians