What I Ate: Creamsicle Cocktail

‘What I Ate’ is a series of posts for so-easy-this-doesn’t-need-a-recipe but I’m sharing with ya for the idea or inspiration.

This cocktail is too easy for a recipe (and I didn’t measure), but it was delicious and unplanned and did I say delicious? I just had to share. I was whipping up something for dinner and my eyes fell on the orange soda in the fridge. I don’t buy many every-day drink options so we normally only have water & milk to offer. I rarely make cocktails but maybe I need to do that more often! An after work cocktail definitely makes any random weeknight feel special. I also thought this was perfectly summery.

creamcicle_cocktail_390_390
‘Fancy’ orange soda + orange zest + whipped cream flavored vodka = creamsicle!

creamcicle_cup_590_390

This tastes even better than it looks. This cocktail took instagram by storm, well, not really but I was cocktail-happy so any likes made me smile.

non-alcoholic creamsicle found here as a smoothie (one of my favorite smoothies ever).

This whipped cream vodka goes with anything for an instant cocktail. I love it in hot chocolate once winter hits but now I want to attempt some sort of frozen-blended fudgsicle cocktail with this too! Any ideas/suggestions for that one?

What I Ate: Chicken ‘n Waffles

‘What I Ate’ is a series of posts for so-easy-this-doesn’t-need-a-recipe but I’m sharing with ya for the idea or inspiration.

The south has some pretty good food ideas. I mean biscuits/beignets/fried pickles/bbq are just so good. The list goes on. I like dinner to be varied so after my fun experiment with cinnamon roll waffles on the waffle iron I was thinking about more waffles that could be dinner.

I was going for simplicity here, but also think they could be amped up a bit. I used chicken fingers and only tweaked basic waffle batter by adding cornmeal and a touch of hot sauce.
chick_waff_plate_590_390

Ingredients:

4 chicken fingers
2 pre-made waffles or waffle batter ingredients below:
1 egg
¾ cup flour
¾ cup cornmeal
¾ cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbs hot sauce (optional)
1 cup arugula (optional)
1 small tomato, sliced (optional)
maple syrup

Directions:

Preheat oven to chicken finger cooking instructions (some are fully cooked, some are raw and need to reach an internal temperature)
Preheat waffle iron.
Mix waffle ingredients until combined.
Generously spray waffle iron.
When chicken is almost ready, cook the waffles in batches according to your iron’s size.
Top waffles with arugula, tomatoes, and drizzle with syrup.

I thought this was a fun dinner and totally out of the ordinary. I loved the freshness of the veggies on here with the salty chicken fingers and corny waffles and sticky sweet syrup. I didn’t want my dinner to be only brown/yellow in color.
chick_waff_greens_590_390

Next time I might add some whole corn into the waffles. Spinach or arugula would also be fun additions to the waffle itself.

What I Ate: Italian Subs

‘What I Ate’ is a series of posts for so-easy-this-doesn’t-need-a-recipe but I’m sharing with ya for the idea or inspiration.

I’ve posted a few sandwiches here but thought these Italian subs would seem special enough to be dinner. I loved having them at home, and the next day’s lunch reaped the benefit too!
italian_plate_590_390
Mr. J is from Maine where they call them simply “Italians”. Growing up for pool-side parties my mum would slice a very long loaf, and fill with sandwichy things and cut it into lots of pieces. I’m now remembering that she’d toss the lettuce & tomato with Italian dressing which is a good idea for the oil/vinegar sub topping. #nexttime

Ingredients:

soft fluffy rolls, or 1 long baguette to cut into pieces
¼ pound sliced hard salami
¼ pound sliced honey ham
¼ pound sliced provolone
½ cucumber, sliced
½ green bell pepper
1 small tomato, sliced
2 cups mixed greens, or lettuce of your choosing
1 small onion, sliced
1 cup basil (optional)
mayo, mustard, or veggie oil
salt & pepper

Directions:

Cut, slice, and unwrap everything.
italian_sub_ingred_590_390
Build your sandwich.

Now, this seems like a lot of ingredients, but assembling takes all of 5 minutes AND it’s all prepped for lunch the following day! Plus, leftovers of these ingredients are good things to have on hand (think panini! or bfast burrito with the peppers, ham & cheese! or skip the lettuce & cukes and use the rest to build yourself a calzone!). This would make for a good salad too, if sandwiches aren’t your thing. They’re not usually my thing if they’re going to sitting around in a packed lunch all day getting soggy. I like ‘em fresh off the press.
italian_close_590_390

I swear by the basil. That makes the sandwich for me. It is also a good use for any leftover basil you already have, before it goes bad (strawberry basil sangria would be a good use too). I threw some basil into my salad the other day and LOVED discovering the basil leaves amongst my greens at lunch. I’ve also been throwing this mustard in lots of dishes lately so these subs were no exception.

Mr. J was really jazzed about this dinner, which surprised me. It was fun to assemble our own and only have to do some slicing for dinner to be prepped. I should do this more often. And you should do it too. Lesson learned, a blast from the past or something unusual with no frills is fun.

Happy weekend! Stay tuned for next week for a pizza that was a social media frenzy!

What I Ate: Rodeo Burgers

‘What I Ate’ is a series of posts for so-easy-this-doesn’t-need-a-recipe but I’m sharing with ya for the idea or inspiration.

Sometimes the burger is about the quality and correct cooking. This burger is all about the toppings.
rodeo_burg_plate_590_390

I topped these burgers with cheese, onion rings, and barbecue sauce. Ohhh wow. This is amazing. It is so fun to have bbq sauce dripping even when there isn’t a bone in sight!

Ingredients:

2 burgers (we did 1 beef for Mr. J and one ground pork for me)
½ chopped onion
1 tsp spice rub
2 burger rolls
4-6 onion rings (I used some frozen o-rings)
3-5 tbs barbecue sauce

Directions:

Finely chop the onion and mix it into the ground meat.
Form the patties and sprinkle the outside with the bbq spice rub mix.
rodeo_burg_formed_590_390
Grill until cooked to your liking.
rodeo_burg_cut_590_390

It was so good. I like the spice rub with the sweet BBQ sauce. The onion ring was the best part. I love onion rings so this was just perfect.

Enjoy the weekend! I’m looking forward to celebrating my dad’s bday with a FEAST! and the whole C family is coming so we can take the cutest nephews to a baseball game! We’ll be enjoying some lobsters and hoping for sunshine. Yay! I have a super exciting surprise for Monday so stay tuned!! 😀

What I Ate: Starbucks Copycat Iced Passion Fruit Tea Lemonade

‘What I Ate’ is a series of posts for so-easy-this-doesn’t-need-a-recipe but I’m sharing with ya for the idea or inspiration.

Who doesn’t love a good ole Arnold Palmer? I saw this deviation of tea/lemonade on Pinterest. It seems to have arose to copy a Starbucks treat.

Brew 3 cups of strong passion fruit tea
tealemonade_tea_590_390
Mix up some lemonade. Crystal Light is my fav and makes this beverage have far fewer calories than Starbuck’s version. I like that this lemonade isn’t as mouth-puckeringly tart as some others. I didn’t add any sweetener. Crystal Light is sweet enough.

tealemonade_both_590_390
Mix them together. Mine was about 1/3 tea to 2/3 lemonade, saving some lemonade asside. The mixture quantity came about according to what fit in my pitcher. #exactscience

tealemonade_pitcher_590_390
It is such a delightful pink in a happy-fushia kind of way. Let chill and serve on ice.  Some ruby red vodka or grand marnier would be just lovely for an evening/poolside variation as well!

Check out other What I Ate posts for easy ideas!