Baby Shower Yummies

So throughout this pregnancy journey I have been so lucky to have one of my dear friends along for the ride. Her due date was 5 weeks ahead of mind and she has already welcomed her bundle of joy. At the beginning of August we threw each other a baby shower. We decided to do it the same weekend in case any of our mutual out of town friends were able to make it in. Crazy busy weekend for two pregnant ladies, but totally worth it and a great time! Her sister and I co-hosted her shower, but most of the food was my job. Today’s post is dedicated to sharing all the yummy treats we had.

BBQ Beef Sandwiches

I took some help from the internet and my crockpot for the main dish. Here is the recipe. Super easy and just served with some buns. I didn’t even set out BBQ sauce since the crockpot had a sauce in it. Also, apparently I forgot a picture of the meat but you don't need one right?

Fruit Bowl

I cut the watermelon out of the rhine and used as my bowl. I then used a melon baller to get circle pieces of watermelon and cantaloupe and added grapes and blueberries.

Veggies and Dip

I found some cute little martini glasses and filled them with chopped veggies - cucumber, carrots and red pepper. The dip was a version of my ranch dressing. Instead of mayo and milk, I used sour cream and plain yogurt to make it thicker.

Ingredients:

Dried parsley, 2 tsp

Dried dill, 1 tsp

Dried onion powder, 1.5 tsp

Dried garlic powder, 1.5 tsp

Salt, ½  tsp

Pepper, ¼ tsp

Sour cream, 1 c

Plain yogurt, ½ c

Deviled Eggs

Not going to lie, these were the saddest eggs I have ever made. They would not peel for the life of me, so they weren’t very pretty and the yolks were very very light in color, so the flavor was pretty light as well. Cooking isn’t perfect for everyone all the time and I wanted to go ahead and post them, because I think it is important for people to remember that!

Ingredients:

Eggs, 1 carton

Dijon mustard, 2 tsp

Mayo, 2 T

Yogurt, 3 T

Hard boil the eggs. I use my egg timer. Let cool and then peel (hopefully easier than for me). Slice eggs in half. Mix your mustard, mayo, yogurt and yolks and then add to a ziplock bag. Cut the tip off of the bag and use as a piping tool to add the mixture back into the egg whites. Make sure the yolk is well smashed so it can make it through your baggy.  Top with some paprika and fresh chopped chives.

Caprese Kabobs with Balsamic Reduction Drizzle

This concept is not new, but so yummy! I think the balsamic reduction makes these. I used the ‘little ones’, also known as pearls for my mozzarella. They are a little bit smaller than the traditional bocconcini size balls. Any will work.

Ingredients:

Cherry tomatoes

Fresh basil

Mini mozzarella balls

Balsamic vinegar

Using a toothpick or something similar and skewer the cherry tomato, mozzarella and basil.  Set aside and make the balsamic reduction. Pour balsamic vinegar in saucepan over low heat and simmer until it reduces by half. You can also stick a spoon into the saucepan and you will start to notice it thickening because it won’t run off the spoon very easy. Once done, let cool and then drizzle over kabobs.

Potato Bites

These are perfect little bites of yumminess. I found the best size of potatoes, called nibbles but my guess is you may not be able to find these. If you can only find bigger ones you could cut the potatoes in half. You could also use a melon baller to scoop out some of the potato flesh from the inside for the yummy topping to go inside of instead of on top, like I did. If you scoop out some of the flesh, don’t throw away the potato - you might have enough to make a little side dish.

Ingredients:

Potatoes, 2 lbs

Sour cream, ½ c

Garlic powder, ¾ tsp

Cheddar, shredded, 2 T

Fresh chives, 1 T chopped

Cooked bacon, 3 slices crumbled

Roast potatoes with a little oil, salt and pepper in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Once done, let cool.

Make the topping mixture by combining remaining ingredients and add to a ziplock bag. Cut the tip off, just like we did for the eggs and use the bag to pipe topping onto the potatoes.

Party Favor: Homemade Lavender Sugar Scrub

This is a great exfoliator in the shower. Feel free to use salt instead of sugar, it will just be a bit more coarse. The sugar helps exfoliate and the oil helps give you super soft skin. Be careful if you use on your feet though, because the oil will make it slippery.

Ingredients:

Sugar, 2 parts

Oil, 1 part

Essential oil, optional

Mix and add to your favorite container. You know me - I love mason jars and these are just too cute, 4 oz ones!

Her sister also made some cute baby cupcakes and we had a mimosa bar. She bought some different juices and I spruced them up by adding them to some of my wine bottles that I use for water when entertaining. I then added chalkboard vinyl sticker labels so people knew what the flavors were. And of course we had some non alcoholic champagne for the mommy to be (and me)!

Overall, I think the party was a success! Welcome to the world - Lexie! I can’t wait for our little guy to grow up your best bud or boyfriend, you get to decide :).

~Ashley

Zucchini Caprese Salad with Spinach Walnut Pesto

I try so hard to be a good gardener! I want to be good at it and have this amazing garden in my backyard, but every year it just doesn’t go great. Last year, I shared my garden box. I grew more than just herbs and tomatoes for the first time. It went okay and I'm glad I did it. Sadly, when we moved, we had to leave it at the house, so I am back to not having a designated garden area. I think practice will make me better and I just haven’t been consistent with it.

My dream would be to have a neighborhood garden, but problem is I need to learn a little better what to do or someone else will need to be the leader. This year I ended up just doing tomatoes and herbs again. I have two old whisky type barrels - one for the tomatoes and one for my herbs. My tomatoes are there. Lots of them. They just won’t turn red. Have not had a single red tomato yet :( My herbs are doing good though.  One of my favorite herbs to grow is basil and I personally have better success from seeds than I do from starter plants. Problem with seeds is they take a longer time to produce, but the plant is usually flourishing toward the end of summer when my tomatoes are going strong.

One of my favorite things to do with fresh tomatoes and basil is add some balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and occasionally slices of fresh mozzarella. Tomato, mozzarella and basil is a traditional salad, known as caprese.  Today, I am making a different take on a caprese salad - Zucchini Caprese Salad with Spinach Walnut Pesto.

The inspiration for adding zucchini is I am seeing a lot of recipes that have noodle like pieces of zucchini. To get these noodles, most people use a spiralizer tool. I don’t own one of these and my guess is you don’t either, so I wanted to do this as easy as possible.

Couple of other things to note before we get started. For the mozzarella, I use the ‘little ones’, also known as pearls, which are a little bit smaller than the traditional bocconcini size balls. Any will work. You could even buy a big ball of fresh mozzarella and cut into bite size pieces. For the pesto, I decided to not do a traditional pesto. Traditional pesto is parsley, basil and pine nuts. Pine nuts are super expensive because they truly come from a pine cone and are extremely tedious to remove. Feel free to use traditional ingredients if you would like. Here is my recipe.

Zucchini Caprese Salad with Spinach Walnut Pesto

Servings: 4 small servings

Ingredients:

Zucchini, 1-2 depending on size

Cherry tomatoes, 1 c halved or quartered

Fresh basil, 2 T

Mozzarella balls, ½ c

Pesto (makes ¼ c):

Spinach, 1 c

Walnuts, ⅛ c

Lemon, ½

Garlic, 1 clove

Parmesan cheese, ⅛ c

Oil, ⅛ c

Salt and Pepper

Peel skin off of zucchini and trim ends. Continuing to use your vegetable peeler, shave off slices. Layer them on top of each other and then use your paring knife to make tiny thin strips. You want to end up with one heaping cup.

Better Bonus TIp:  If you have a mandolin or julienne tool, feel free to use that. Or of course the spiralizer tool I mentioned above.

Add zucchini, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella to a bowl and set aside.

To make pesto, add spinach, walnuts, garlic, cheese, zest and juice of half of a lemon to a food processor or blender. Pulse until combined, scrapping sides as needed. Add oil and continue to pulse until smooth.

Better Bonus Tip: This will be easier if you have a small food processor because it doesn’t make a lot. Feel free to double or triple this. You can add to shrimp, a grain like rice or pasta or freeze for later.

Add pesto to bowl of zucchini, tomatoes and mozzarella. Mix to combine. Chiffonade basil and add to bowl with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Gently fold all together and serve.  

This is a great refreshing side dish that we really enjoy and I hope you will too!

~Ashley

Antipasto Pasta Salad

Today is my 100th post! Kind of crazy. In September of 2011, I first decided to take the plunge and start this blog. I was a little nervous - didn’t really know what I was doing, but really truly have enjoyed every minute. It has forced me to continue to learn and experiment. I made the commitment to you two years ago, that I would post once a week and I have been able to maintain that promise. As you have heard me say many times my goal with this blog is to help share what I learn in order to hopefully help you make better choices in the kitchen. I am thankful for each and every one of you for continuing to read each weekly post. You are why I do this!

Oh man do I have so much more I want to do, but time is always the factor! I tend to think it will be awhile before I get to pursue those goals for myself due to the huge life changes our family will be experiencing soon! And I am SO okay with that right now!

In the meantime if you are wishing for more, be sure to like the Cooking For A Better Tomorrow Facebook page where I try to update a few times a week. I share articles and blogs I find interesting, along with different food I am playing around with or other's recipes I am cooking. 

Anyway, what are we making today?

Just as I hope to inspire you, I take inspiration from others. That can be watching TV, eating out, reading a magazine or book, or eating something friends and family create. Today is actually a simple summer side dish that I took inspiration from a coworker a couple years back. She brought a similar dish to a work potluck and I really enjoyed it. She didn’t really have a recipe, but it seemed easy enough to re-create, so I gave it a try. Turned out great and we have had it many times since. This is a great summer dish because it only takes 10-15 minutes to make and is not mayo based, so can tolerate the heat a bit better. I call it an Antipasto Pasta Salad. Antipasto is Italian by nature and is typically an appetizer that contains cured meats, cheese and pickled ‘stuff’. Feel free to take this base and make changes to a way that fit your liking. Again, the great thing about cooking and learning is you take the basics and modify for yourself, family and friends! Lets get started...

Antipasto Pasta Salad

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

Cheese tortellini pasta, 9 oz uncooked

Salami, 10 slices

Mozzarella cheese, 4 oz

Pickled mixture, 2 c (I used peppadew peppers, kalamata olives, artichokes, roasted garlic) plus reserved oil / vinegar liquid, ½ c

Honey, ½ T

Cook tortellini pasta according to directions. Mine said 4-6 minutes. Once done cooking, cool.

Better Bonus Tip: If short on time, flash cool in the fridge.

Lay salami slices on top of each other and slice into small squares.

For the mozzarella, I used a block of cheese. I cut off a slice and then cubed.

Mix the ½ c oil / vinegar liquid from the pickled mixture with the honey.

Mix the pasta, salami, cheese and pickled mixture into a bowl and add the vinaigrette liquid, stirring to coat.

Better Bonus Tip: I keep my pickled ‘stuff’ size as is, but feel free to chop into smaller pieces especially if the peppers and artichokes are bigger.

So easy right? Enjoy this for your end of summer cookout!

~Ashley