Luscious Creamy Spaghetti Carbonara and Blueberry Lemon Drizzle Cake

Can we just start today's post with a blanket statement? Spaghetti Carbonara is pretty much the greatest pasta dish under the sun. And I don't just mean when I make it. I mean, when I go to a good Italian restaurant I can count on Spaghetti Carbonara being the best, most reliable dish on the menu. Really, what's better than a thick, creamy sauce and bacon tossed with delicious al dente pasta? Nothing.

Now traditionally in Italy the sauce is literally just eggs, but other countries include a portion of heavy cream. I'm one of those people who likes the inclusion of cream. I've eaten the Italian version made with only egg and have even tried my hand at making that version but if the egg is applied and the pasta is too hot the egg will curdle/scramble instead of adhering as a smooth, creamy sauce. Including the cream helps prevents that and leaves you with a delicious, smooth pasta dish.

Also, traditional Carbonara uses guanciale, a bacon made from cured pork cheeks. I don't know about you but my local Kroger (or any other grocery store in the area) doesn't just happen to carry this. Pancetta is an excellent substitution, but let's be real. Normal bacon also works just fine.

In fact, I used normal grocery story bacon in this recipe. I didn't go to my usual Kroger when I went grocery shopping as I was already on the other side of town and even though I'm a creature of habit I didn't want to drive to the opposite side of town just to go to my normal Kroger. Needless to say I was completely turned around. I know my Kroger like the back of my hand but this other Kroger is arranged differently and I couldn't find the pancetta. And anyone who knows me knows I don't like to ask the employees for help as I have this weird thing about feeling like I'm inconveniencing them. Anyway...

I've actually made this recipe many times before. It comes from Danilo Alfaro over at The Spruce Eats and it's one of the first Pinterest recipes I'd ever tried. In fact, long before I decided to start this blog of my cooking exploits. It's already earned a place in my recipe box but I thought I still needed to include it on my master list of recipes to try. After all, the whole point is to introduce you to great recipes, too!

This recipe creates a perfect, creamy sauce with the perfect amount of bacon. I'm drooling again and I've already eaten a pretty good sized portion tonight. The recipe claims this only makes four servings but can I say as a pregnant pasta lover even I think four portions is going overboard? You could easily get six servings out of this. Maybe eight if you're using this as a side dish. But let's face it. Pasta is the main meal in our house. In fact, Dear Husband requests some sort of pasta weekly, with Carbonara being the most popular of all the requested pasta dishes.

So the breakdown of this recipe. The total cost of this meal was: $5.37. Each serving, at six servings was: $0.89! I think that makes it the cheapest recipe I've tried for this blog so far. Now the calorie count is a bit...rangy... Using my app I show 434 calories per serving but according to the Spruce Eats website it's 633 calories per serving. That's a pretty good difference. Not sure how they calculate. And to be honest I'm not sure how accurate my app is either. Either way you get an estimate.

The other recipe I tried today is the Blueberry Lemon Drizzle Cake. I intended to make this recipe on Monday for FHE but I was in such a hormonal, cranky mood that I didn't want to do anything, including trying to make this cake.

I'm glad I waited. It was worth waiting for. Look at it! But then again...it's a terrible picture. I'm really just at that point where I know with a good camera and a light box I could take decent pictures for this blog but I just can't justify it yet. So you guys will just have to make do with my crappy iPhone photos taken under terrible lighting.

This recipe comes Barry at Rock Recipes. Now I must admit I was skeptical. As a formerly picky eater I wouldn't eat any kind of dessert that included fruit, especially blueberries. I was (and still am) a die hard chocoholic and anything that wasn't chocolate was immediately suspect. Now as a mom-to-be I want to incorporate as much fruit into recipes (desserts or otherwise) as possible so my children don't take after my former picky habits.

I love that this recipe doesn't overdo it with sugar. Sometimes dessert recipes have nearly as much, or more, sugar than flour! This one doesn't. There's just enough sugar that, between that and the blueberries, gives it just enough sweetness. In the actual cake, that is. There is a lot of sugar in the icing. But if you're conscious of your sugar intake feel free to leave the icing off.

The recipe says it takes 40-45 minutes to bake in a 9x9 pan. I only had an 8x8 pan and mine needed an extra twenty five minutes to cook all the way through.

This cake was delicious! Perfectly moist. Perfectly sweet. And if picky me is saying that you know it must be a winner! Dear Husband liked it, too.

The breakdown. This cake cost me $5.87 to make and it works out to be $0.65 per serving, at nine servings. And it has approximately 339 calories per serving.

Anyway, I hope you're feeling inspired to try something new! Much Love, Hailee

Roasted Salmon with Lentils and Sauteed Asparagus with Garlic Butter & Parmesan and Strawberry Mocktails

Happy Mother's Day!

With a bun in the oven I consider myself two thirds of a mother this year. One third left to go before I get to hold this little guy in my arms for the first time! It's been such a chill, lovely day. All the mother's days in the future are going to be full of crying or laughing babies, burnt breakfasts in bed, macaroni necklaces, crayon drawn cards, and bouquets of backyard weed flowers. And I'm looking forward to each and every single one!

If you are wondering whether Dear Husband cooked my dinner the answer is no. We both collectively decided we wanted to keep the kitchen in one piece. It's better for all involved if I just cooked. But no worries. It's part of my life plan to teach Dear Husband how to cook more than just ramen and scrambled eggs.

Tonight I attempted three different recipes, all a smashing success. Unlike the fiasco last night. I chose to do Roasted Salmon with Lentils, with a side of Sauteed Asparagus with Garlic Butter and Parmesan, and a Strawberry Mocktail.

I'm definitely a food blogger newbie. My food photography skills have a long way to evolve.

Anyway, the first recipe, Roasted Salmon with Lentils, comes from a fun little cookbook called Cook This, Not That! Skinny Comfort Foods. The premise of this cookbook, if you've not heard of it before, is to provide lower calorie recipe alternatives to popular comfort foods. I've tried some of the recipes long before I started this blog all with great success. I'd recommend it!

Anyway, the salmon was delicious! It's glazed with a brown sugar and Dijon mustard sauce and is presented over a bed of lentils, carrots, onions, and garlic. I liked the lentils as well but I think I under-cooked them just a smidge. It was my very first time cooking lentils so I was uncertain what texture and consistency I was going for. But I doubt lentils were supposed to be al dente. Anyway, both myself and Dear Husband really liked it. 5 Wooden Spoons and it's earned a place in the box.

The recipe breakdown. Total cost of meal: $10.45. Cost per serving (at four servings): $2.62. Calories per serving: 354. Now, the book also lists the cost and calorie count. It lists $3.35 per serving and 440 calories per serving. Perhaps my salmon fillets were smaller or something. Either way, that should give you an approximate estimate as to what you'll pay and the calorie count.

Also, side note, this recipe can be totally pescetarian friendly if you substitute the chicken broth with vegetable broth.

Up next, as a side, Sauteed Asparagus with Garlic Butter and Parmesan. This awesome recipe comes from Elaina at The Rising Spoon. It's super easy and totally delicious! It's the perfect complimentary flavors for asparagus. Dear Husband rated it a ten on the vegetable scale, which is a big deal for him to rate this so highly considering how much he doesn't love vegetables. Check it out for an awesome side dish for your next meal. This also earns 5 Wooden Spoons and a place in the box.

The breakdown: Total cost of this side dish: $3.12. Cost per serving (at four servings): $0.78. Calories per serving: 118.

And last but not least is a Strawberry Mocktail. The weather here has been up in the nineties (welcome to the South) and our air conditioner is acting wonky so it hasn't exactly been cool in the house either. So what's the solution? A cool, refreshing strawberry mocktail! Just two ingredients!

It was based on a pin on Pinterest, but after checking out the pin, it linked to something else entirely. So I made up my own recipe. I used 1.25 liters of Sprite and the remaining good strawberries from the Strawberry Cucumber Spinach salad from two posts ago, approximately one third of a pound, pureed in a food processor. Mix the two together, and, bam, a super summer sweet treat! It was just the thing for a hot day! So yummy!

The breakdown. Total cost: $3.49. Total cost per serving (six smallish servings): $0.58. Calories per serving: 90.

All in all, I think this was a fantastic mother's day meal and I definitely look forward to making all of these recipes again in the future. Much love, Hailee

Tomato Broth with Angel Hair Pasta

I can only begin this post with: what the literal hell happened with this recipe?

I was really excited to tackle this recipe. Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate tomatoes but over the last few years I've been determined to overcome my picky habits. Tomatoes are one of the last big things on my list. I thought making a tomato broth soup with fresh tomatoes would be a good way to segue into tomato based foods. And in theory, it was a good idea. But take a look at my "soup."

Now take a look at how it was supposed to look. 

Notice anything...off...about my batch? Yeah, me too. I'm not really sure what went wrong. I have a very thorough recipe reading process. I read through all the directions when I select the recipe for my meal plan. Then, I sit down and read through all the directions again before I cooking. And then I consult the recipe as I cook. And to be honest, it's a really simple recipe. There should have been no room for screw ups. But alas, as you can see, there was. My soup just ended up being a pasta dish with a thin tomato sauce. 

I got the recipe from one of the cookbooks I've acquired over the years. It's called Pasta: 100 Everyday Recipes. Judging by how hard it was to find a link on Amazon I think it's fair to say it's not a popular cook book. And maybe it's because the recipes don't always yield correct results? 

Anyway, for the review. If I were reviewing solely on flavor profile it would a straight 5 Wooden Spoons. Even botched it still tasted delicious! Dear Husband even went back for seconds. But I also have to review how much the recipe actually worked. And, as you can see above, my results were nothing like to book. Nothing like soup. Even my broth, before the pasta was added, was nowhere near as red or thick as the pictured broth. So, in total, this recipe is probably worth 2 Wooden Spoons. 

That said, I'd like to keep tinkering around with the recipe and figure out how to get my Tomato Broth with Angel Hair Pasta to look exactly like the pictured version (not too hard, I imagine. Double the broth and keep the pasta amount the same). I did like the flavors so I'd like to add this to my recipe box eventually. But until I get it worked out, it doesn't make the box. 

So, the breakdown of this recipe. Total cost of the meal: $7.16. Total cost per serving (serves four): $1.79. I'm actually surprised it came out so cheap. One of the ingredients called for is saffron and, if you've never purchased saffron before, it's terribly expensive! The cheapest saffron at my grocery store was $12.99 for a bottle that contains maybe a tablespoon of saffron threads. Holy cow. Anyway, total calorie count per serving: 364. This meal is fully vegetarian, and if you use a vegan friendly pasta, there is no reason this can't be vegan too. 

I'll chalk this one up to experience. Until next time, my friend. Much love, Hailee

Strawberry Cucumber Spinach Salad and Sensational Chicken Carbonara

Oh wow! Look Mom, I'm blogging!

So how did this blog come about? Well, pull up a chair, my friends, and I'll tell you a story. One day, per usual, I was pinning away on Pinterest when it occurred to me that I've only tried a handful of the recipes I've pinned. And not only that I have a dozen or so cookbooks that I've hardly touched. I realized that I'm tired of making the same dozen or so dishes over and over again. It was simple. I'd simply jot a quick list of things to try cooking, and, over the course of a year I'd make all these dishes and expand my recipe box.

Yes, recipe box. I prefer my recipes handwritten on index cards filed away neatly in a box. I can't stand reading recipes on my tablet or laptop. Half the time my hands are gooped up while I'm in the middle of cooking and I don't want to touch my electronics with icky hands. But I digress.

It quickly became apparent that it would take *slightly* more than a year to work my way through my ever growing list. My first draft of the list, which only included main dishes, was 773 recipes long. If I made two recipes a week it would take seven and a half years to cook my way through that list. By the time I added in side dishes, breakfasts, breads, and desserts it's currently running 1,278 recipes long, and I'm not done sorting through my cookbooks yet. This is turning into a lifelong quest.

About halfway through writing the list I decided it would be fun to chronicle my adventures through my recipe-trying. And maybe it would provide motivation to keep working through my list so as not to give up and revert back to my same twelve-ish recipes.

As I cook my way through these recipes, I'll review them and let you know which ones are worth trying and which ones aren't. If I'm feeling really motivated, I'll even try to post the calorie count and cost of the dish. Hopefully you find this enlightening and inspire you to try something new!

The first recipes I selected and made today are the Strawberry Cucumber Spinach Salad and Sensational Chicken Carbonara.

The Strawberry Cucumber Spinach Salad comes from Marie at Yay For Food and I must say, this is a fabulous salad!

I apologize my food blogging photography skills are not up to the same level as all the other food blogs out there. I'm learning.

I'm not a huge salad eater, usually, but this year I'm determined to eat better. With our first little one on the way I want to establish healthy eating habits early so our kids will *hopefully* develop a wide and healthy palette.

Anyway, my Salad Pinterest board only had a half dozen recipes to choose from and Kroger had a great deal on strawberries this week ($2.98 for two pounds!) so this recipe was the obvious choice. It's definitely a keeper! This is a great way for someone like me to eat more salad; stuff it full of fruit. Besides yummy strawberries, cucumbers, and spinach it also has a fabulous apple cider vinaigrette along with feta and walnuts. It's everything a delicious salad should be! Dear Husband was less enthusiastic about my healthy eating vision but I finally coerced him into admitting it was good. That's a win in itself.

With this recipe I pretty much followed the recipe as it's written. I mean, it's a salad so there are only so many ways you can deviate. This recipe is great for all my vegetarian friends, too. The recipe says it serves four side dish servings but I think we'll get six out of our batch. I'd highly recommend this and it's earned a place in my box.

Breakdown of the recipe. Servings: 4. Total cost to make: $9.72. Price per serving: $2.43. Calories per serving 269-292 (my calorie tally came out slightly less than her calorie tally). I've decided to rate this as 5 Wooden Spoons, the highest rating I can bestow.

Next up, because a salad isn't a full dinner in my honest opinion (lunch maybe), I made Sensational Chicken Carbonara from Amber at Busy Creating Memories who adapted it from the Pioneer Woman's Bowtie Chicken Alfredo.

Now I feel it imperative to address the elephant in the recipe. It's called Sensational Chicken Carbonara but it is not, in fact, an actual carbonara. And as you can see, the Pioneer Woman got it right in the name; it's an Alfredo. Adding bacon to an Alfredo sauce does not a carbonara make.

So what is the difference, you might ask? Well, let's just take a quick jaunt down into Italian culinary history.

The very root of a carbonara dish is a pasta in a sauce composed of egg, a hard cheese of choice. pancetta, and pepper. It comes from Rome and is first mentioned in an Italian newspaper in 1950, and fun fact, was popularized due to food supplies brought in by US troops. Cream is a popular addition to the dish outside of Italy, and often in the US bacon is substituted for pancetta.

Alfredo is based off a dish called fettuccine al burro, which is a pasta tossed with parmesan and butter. It has evolved a bit to include cream and different variations include other ingredients. Fettuccine Al Burro dates back to the 15th century! Italians definitely know what they're doing with food.

Anyway, one can see from the ingredients list of Sensational Chicken Carbonara that it is definitely in the Alfredo family and not a carbonara.

But don't let that distract you! It's still a really good recipe. Al dente farfalle pasta tossed with a yummy alfredo sauce made from milk, cream, butter, and parmesan with pan grilled chicken and crumbly, crunchy bacon. Doesn't that just sound mouth watering?

I adjusted the recipe a smidge to suit my own taste. In addition to salting and peppering the chicken I also added poultry seasoning, which is a gift from God. Normally I would also brine my chicken but I totally spaced that today. I also omitted the peas. Dear Husband and I have an agreement that if there are peas in the pasta, he knows I'm mad at him (he doesn't like peas much). I didn't want him to think I was mad at him for any reason. I guess I could've substituted broccoli or something but that only just occurred to me now. How does that sound for next time, Babe?

So, the breakdown of the recipe. Servings: 6-8. Total cost to make: $10.88. Cost per serving (at six servings): $1.81. Calories per serving (at six servings) 455. I rate this at 4 Wooden Spoons and it has earned both enthusiastic praise from Dear Husband and a place in the box. But I'm going to re-christian it Chicken Bacon Alfredo.

All in all, this was a great start to my new food adventure! Check out both these recipes and try something new tomorrow! Much Love, Hailee