Fun to Say and Fun to Eat

Succotash is such a fun word and made me really excited to make it since I’d never had it before. Announcing this made Mr. J’s jaw drop which made me even more excited to make this chicken & succotash meal!
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Sometimes I dream about when I won’t live in an apartment and I can have a normal kitchen, or when my puppy can have a yard, and especially when I can have a grill! That sometimes might actually be quite frequently. I promise the dog he’ll have his own yard all. the. time.

This dinner is pretty good inside but would be amazing on a grill outside too. The chicken is stuffed with pepperjack cheese and spinach with a zippy spice on the outside. It’s served with succotash too.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts
6 oz pepperjack cheese, sliced
2 cups baby spinach
2 tbs grilling rub of your preference
1 cup edamame
1 cup red pepper
1 cup corn
1 tomato, chopped
¼ cup lime salad dressing or lime juice and olive oil

Directions

Butterfly the chicken breasts and stuff with cheese and spinach, or cut a pocket into the middle and stuff with cheese and spinach.
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Season the outside with a rub or spice mix
Grill chicken on a grill pan or panini press for about 10-minutes until all juices are running clear
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Meanwhile, saute edamame, red pepper, corn, for about 3 minutes and then add tomato.
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Add lime dressing and serve
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I got this recipe from The Food Network Magazine awhile back. I use spinach instead of argula like they recommend. I also did edamame instead of lima beans and threw in the red pepper instead of summer squash and thought it made it wayyy better.

Funny story. I always stop by the reduced produce, don’t judge, and I thought I was grabbing a bag of cukes & zuccs. I figured the store employees don’t know the difference. I got home and had lots of cukes but no zucchinis. This is kind of like the time when they didn’t know how to label prosciutto and charged me the bologna price. Score! Anywho,  I also got a steal on red & orange peppers (4 for $1.77!!). The cashier just entered the pepper code and it would have been $5-something if I wasn’t watching. I felt like I was on extreme couponing!!

This is an easy & casual one that would definitely impress friends with only a few pans OR deviate from the norm of your grilling menus this weekend!

Thirsty in the Bahamas

Don’t worry…this is the end of my Bahamas vacay recap. Our last day in the Bahamas before heading back to the cruise ship seemed like the perfect time to grab a smoothie at the cutest little hut you’ve ever seen.
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We soon realized that apparently it was election day. Do you know what Bahamians don’t do on election days? They don’t drink. Liquor isn’t served on election days. How interesting?! We got our smoothies sans liquor and enjoyed them just as much.
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I chose mango & sis chose a mixed fruit one. I liked hers better and wondered why I didn’t go with strawberry, a seemingly obvious choice for me. Ohh well. Next time. Ohh, wait, we were in the Bahamas on the last day.

While we’re speaking of drinks on vacation, we took advantage of the 2-for-1 happy hour on the cruise one day. I thought: there are 2 of us, and we’ll pay for 1 drink. Nope. We got 4 drinks and paid for 2. It was fun to tote the 2nd along with us to dinner after a few rounds of skip-bo. I got a traditional mojito and sis got one called something like Strawberry Lava or Strawberry Fiesta or something like that. Half pina colada and half strawberry daiquiri.
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Hers was too sweet for me, but it was definitely a fun cruise-y drink garnished with fresh pineapple. Mine had a great amount of mint. It wasn’t super muddled but my straw + ice cubes helped with that.
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Blast of Berry Sangria

I was racking my brain to come up with what to bring to a 4th of July weekend with Mr. J’s family at the lake house. There’s always more than enough food and snacks so I went with a drink!
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I figured a sweet sangria was the way to go! I made it early in the afternoon and we drank it a few hours later. It was even better the next day. Making the strawberry sangria was huge for the flavor.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups strawberries, sliced
1 cup blueberries
¼ cup sugar
2 tbs honey
¼ cup water
1 packet Raspberry Lemonade Crystal Light
1 bottle Reisling, chilled
1 nip citrus vodka

Directions

Bring 1 cup strawberries, ¾ cup blueberries, sugar, and honey to a low boil for 5 minutes. Add  water and remove from heat.
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Strain to catch all the pieces, leaving berry syrup.
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Prepare lemonade according to directions
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Mix in wine, vodka, berry syrup, and remaining berries.
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Refrigerate at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
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I’d definitely make this again. I think the berry lemonade was a nice touch to mellow it out a bit. Reisling was a good addition too.

Cruisin’ to Bahamas

On the cruise to the Bahamas, sis and I had some some tasty meals!

I started with chipotle shrimp with tempura zucchini strings. The shrimp had a good smoky flavor. I would have liked it as my whole meal!
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Sis started with the onion soup. She thought it was OK but the fried onions on the top lost their crunch.
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She had salad for the next course and I had a weird one. I had spicy pineapple salad. It had fresh pineapple, red pepper, and tomatoes.
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Next for the main course, I had a pork chop with sweet potato and apple. Sound familiar? It was good, but huge! There were about four green beans hidden underneath.
cruise_pork_290_200Sis got the chef’s special roasted chicken. It makes me want to roast a chicken as a right of passage in the kitchen. This one wasn’t a photogenic as it looked in person.
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We both got a chocolate moose dessert. The couple next to us described it as a chocolate peep. It wasn’t good. It was a waste of calories. Didn’t it look good though?
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bermuda BAHAMA come on pretty mama

Ohh thank you Beach Boys for such a catchy tune for my vacay. Sis and I returned from our trip in the Bahamas after having a great time. It was beautiful and we loved the cruise and island stay combo.

I usually felt delayed by the slow pace but at meals it was perfect! We wandered towards the shopping and restaurants after spending the day between the pools and beach. After checking out the local fare, we ended up on the porch at After Deck.
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Our waitress was adorable! She brought some warm, local, potato bread and butter to us. It may not look like anything fancy but it had great flavor!
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We shared eggplant fritters to start. They were good, but I think the eggplant was a bit too thick. As eggplant can be, they were a bit bitter. The garlic yogurt on them was amazing and counteracted the bitterness. I’ve always shredded the eggplant for fritters so it was a nice change.
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I got stuffed red snapper with fries. It felt like the perfect beachy meal. It was stuffed with crab and shrimp. I loved it. I ate all of the fish.
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Sis got the fisherman’s platter. She asked for no shrimp and to double up on anything else. It included fried conch, conch fritters, and a few other items. The conch is a very popular fish for them so she wanted to try it. I found it a bit chewy when left in big pieces like calamari can be but it was pretty comparable to a tougher scallop.
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I really loved my meal and want to cook more fish at home.
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