Easy Flavorful Chicken Fajitas

I recently thought about going on a raw food diet. But then I remembered how much I love chicken.

I really love chicken, guys. My family does too. So much so that we buy our chicken wholesale from Restaurant Depot. We actually have to pre-order it since it's halal chicken and not always available, and the few days or weeks that go by without chicken in the house is truly a miserable time for us.

So yeah, no raw food diet for me any time soon. Actually, I plan on making these chicken fajitas every day for the next week because they are SO GOOD.

I don't really dabble in Mexican food much. I've never been to Chipotle. The closest I've gotten to Mexican food is Taco Bell, which some would argue isn't real Mexican food, but I only enjoy one item on their menu anyway, so yeah. You get what I'm saying.

But I had some boneless, skinless chicken breast (my fave!) on hand and I wanted to try something new. And marinated chicken has never steered me wrong. So, I took a shot ....and I scored big time!

Tiramisu Layer Cake

With the amount of tiramisu recipes I have on here, a tiramisu cake was just waiting to happen. Unfortunately, now that it's happened, I have 3/4 of it staring me in the face every time I open my fridge. #sendhelp

No regrets though. It's all for the sake of providing you guys with awesome desserts. And this right here folks, is a front runner.

The recipe starts off with a doctored white cake mix. It's by far my favorite white cake recipe because it always produces moist, tender, and dense cakes, perfect for stacking.

To add a tiramisu factor to the cake, I added instant coffee to the batter for two of the layers. You can add it to all three or just one. I wanted to make sure the coffee flavor really came through, so I also brushed the cake layers with brewed coffee after they were baked.

For the filling, I whipped up a simple mascarpone cheese/confectioners sugar mixture. No need to over complicate things. Tiramisu is a simple and light dessert and we want to channel that here. That's why I also decided to cover the cake with freshly whipped cream. Buttercream would have just weighed it down.

Now this last part is optional, but for a signature tiramisu look, you can place ladyfingers around the perimeter of the cake. I went the extra mile and tied a satin ribbon around the ladyfingers to make for an even more beautiful presentation. It's the cake decorator in me.

Grapeseed Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't always make chocolate chip cookies, but when I do, I like to make them a different way every time. Okay, the first part of that statement isn't true. But the second, SO TRUE. Case in point: here, here, here, and here. I don't even think I can say I have a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, because they're all amazing in their own ways. It's like the same way you feel about your children. My cookies are my babies.

And yesterday, I gave birth to a beautiful grapeseed oil chocolate chip cookie baby. Okay, that sounds weird. But you understand.

Said grapeseed oil chocolate chip cookie baby was soft, chewy, and a little bit crispy around the edges--- basically fulfilling all the requirements of a great chocolate chip cookie. So, it's a keeper! Not that I would ever give any of my children away.

Let me know when I overdo it with the child analogies, guys.

Okay but seriously, besides the fact that this is a great cookie, it's also pretty good for your health because grapeseed oil happens to have zero transfats, zero cholesterol, is non hydrogenated, and has a whole bunch of Vitamin E and polyunsaturated fats. Polyunsaturated fats are good fats; they help lower your blood pressure and all that jazz.

Football Whoopie Pies

You guys! The SuperBowl is in two weeks and some days!? What?! I feel like it was just yesterday I was waiting for football season to start, excited to see what my Jets had to offer this year. FYI, they had nothing to offer but interceptions. I guess I should probably be glad then, that this season flew by so fast.

In any case, you'll know I'll be celebrating come February 1st!

And stuffing myself with these football whoopie pies right here will be exactly how I do it. Holy deliciousness y'all. I've had my fair share of Devil Dogs, but these right here are legit. And they're so simple to make, you'll want to cry.

All you need is your favorite boxed chocolate cake mix, eggs, water, oil, butter, marshmallow fluff, and powdered sugar. That's 7 ingredients, just in case you weren't counting. And the last three are for the filling, which will seriously blow your mind. I'm thinking it will be my go to filling for my oatmeal creme pies now. I pretty much want to find every way to use it. Maybe even in these s'mores macarons? I.can't.even.

Do you see what I'm talking about here? How good does that look? Dive face first into it, that's how good.

Spaghetti and Meatless Meatballs

...Or as I like to call them, beanballs!

But whatever you do, don't introduce these as beanballs to your family. Meatballs is just fine. It's just enough to get them to take that first bite. After which, they'll be so in love with them that they won't care what they're made of. Then you can be all like, there's no meat! There's no meat!

I feel like I'm a little too excited about these. I can't help it. I'm a meat lover. And a pasta lover. My thighs hate both. Do you see my problem?

Now, I wasn't ready to switch over to spaghetti squash just yet, so I went halfway and tried these meatless meatballs. Fun fact: I actually hate beans and never eat them, unless they're in cake or brownies. But you know, covering the bean taste with lots of sugar wasn't really helping.

So I went the savory route to avoid any and all sweetness. And I liked it! The texture of these isn't quite like meatballs, but I like it! I suppose I could always add more breadcrumbs or process the mixture less in the food processor.

Ferrero Rocher Macarons

Happy 2015 everybody! Whaddya say we start the new year off with some macarons?!

I think you'd all be pretty happy with that decision considering three of my top ten recipes of 2014 were none other than macarons themselves!

Lucky for you guys, I'm starting to get more comfortable making them. They're still a pain in the neck when they want to be, but practice makes perfect! And these Ferrero Rocher macarons are darn near flawless!

I made the macaron shell entirely out of hazelnut flour, with a touch of cocoa powder in the mix. And let me tell you, the shells alone were delicious. You can't really say that for entirely almond based shells because almonds don't taste like much and the amount of sugar in the shells usually overpowers everything. But these, these were amazing alone.

Top 10 Recipes of 2014

It's been a year since last year! Isn't that crazy? This year, the biggest milestone for my blog was purchasing a DSLR camera. I was sort of forced into that decision because my little old point and shoot broke, but I'm glad I was because it has really challenged me to improve my photography. And perhaps by doing so, I'll be able to grow my blog in ways it hasn't before. So here's to better pictures in 2015! And maybe less desserts and more real food because lawd knows this blog needs it!

And with that toast, I leave you to the top 10 recipes of 2014.