Actually it’s been over a year. I’ve had a lot going on, and far too many exciting things to list in a blog post without boring you. Let’s just say that I finally started having adventures with people important to my life and that meant leaving the blog behind for a while.

Jorge is pretty convinced that I should give the blog a makeover and combine my two loves, food and movies, together in a blog. So, I may see what I can do with that, provide you guys with recipes for foods that are inspired by my favorite movies. Does that sound good to anyone?

For now, here’s a simple salad that I am in love with. It’s simple to make and tastes delicious. It also makes you feel good about what is going in your body. So it’s a win, win for everyone.

BLTA Salad

Serves 2 -4

• 8 slices bacon
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 package bagged romaine lettuce
• Dressing of choice, olive oil or vinaigrette based

What you do:

1. Pre-heat the oven according to the directions on the bacon package you chose.

(Right now i’m obsessed with Hormel’s Cherrywood Bacon. Check it out. That’s not a plug. I just like bacon.)

2. While your bacon is cooking in the oven, half all of the cherry tomatoes. Cut the avocado into cubes. Place the tomatoes, avocado, and lettuce in a bowl.

3. Let the bacon cool before cutting it into inch long pieces. Add to the bowl of veggies. Toss the salad ingredients until everything is distributed evenly.

4. Here comes the difficult part. If you aren’t eating the salad right away, don’t add dressing. If you leave it too long, it’ll make everything soggy. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of dressing per serving. I like to do it once I’ve distributed salad so that it’s totally coated.

Sorry this was so simple for my overdue return, but I’ve been eating this a lot lately so I wanted to share it with you.

A very special thank you to all my new followers who urged me to put out something new!

Today is my birthday! While semi-patiently awaiting dinner and dessert this evening with my favorite person, I decided to share this chowder I made this weekend with you guys. After all, the amazing people that read this blog (and those who write their own!) have inspired me so much within the last year. I have befriended some amazing women and men thanks to Dining With Dani. I am spending today reflecting on how much I have to be thankful for at the start of this year, and that includes every single one of you.

One of my roommates favorite things about living with her is that I cook and bake almost every day. Some of it is for the blog, but some of it is just for fun. So when she asked me to make her corn chowder, I happily obliged. Actually, I crinkled up my nose at first. Mashed corn? Gross. But then I remembered that I’ve had corn chowder before — at Whiskey Cake back in December. Remember how much I raved about it? After thinking about that amazing afternoon, I was thrilled to try to recreate it for Ashley. The best part though was when I got a text telling me how amazing it was and that she planned to eat the whole crockpot in one sitting. That’s my girl.

Recipe: Chunky Jalapeno Corn Chowder

What You Need:

• 1 bag frozen corn kernels
• 4 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 fresh jalapeno, diced
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

   

  What To Do:

  1. Combine all ingredients except for the heavy cream in a crock pot and cook on HIGH for 8 hours.

  2. Stir in the heavy cream and use a potato masher to lightly mash the remaining chunks of potato.

   

If you are following me on Instagram, you know that last month I visited the Texas Veggie Fair for the first time and spent the entire day with my mouth full of vegan cupcakes. While I definitely am not vegan, I loved finding soft and delicious baked goods that contained no eggs or milk. I immedaitely came home and started researching how to make my own. I even started off small and made these Vegan Sweet Potato Cranberry Cookies. What? You’ve got to keep it festive! That’s why these cupcakes have homemade cranberry sauce in the middle. You’re welcome.

I love how unassuming the cupcakes look when they come out of the oven. Besides some teeny dark red spots, they just look like standard chocolate cupcakes. The bite into fruit is a total surprise. The cranberry tastes amazing with the moist cake, too. I am definitely making these again for Thanksgiving.

Recipe: Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Cranberry Filling

What You Need for the Filling:

• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

What to Do:

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the sugar and lemon juice.

2. Add in the cranberries and cinnamon, stirring frequently, until the berries begin to make a popping noise and begin to become sauce like.

3. Remove from the heat and set aside.

What You Need for the Vegan Cupcakes:

• 1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup granulated sdugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup brewed coffee
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. In a mixer or large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

3. Add in the coffee, vanilla, and olive oil until well combined.

4. Fill up cupcake liners 1/3 of the way with the chocolate batter. Top each of these with a heaping teaspoon of cranberry filling. Use the remainder of the batter to cover the cranberry completely. Do this until all the batter is gone.

5. Bake for 18 minutes.

6. Let cool and then frost with chocolate icing. (Confession time: I used pre-packaged chocolate icing because I was running out of time. I originally planned to use a cranberry buttercream, but it was a disaster.)

One of the biggest reasons I have been so busy this month is because I got a few promotions at work. They aren’t neccesarily big promotions, but they do make me work longer (and later) hours sometimes. I am far from complaining though, with all the opportunities this provides. A few weeks ago there was a special screening of the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film and the now-grown kids who played Veruca Salt and Mike Teevee did special Q&As before and after the film. I know these pictures aren’t the greatest quality, but I wanted to share with you a night I will definitely not be forgetting anytime soon.

 One of my favorite nights in October was going to see comedian Bo Burnham. Although he comes off as kind of a jerk in his stand-up, he is one of the sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. He even signed his new poetry book for me (and then instantly liked my picture of it on Instagram!)

Of course, since my world revolves around food, one of my favorite things about my favorite month is my annual trip to the State Fair of Texas. The fair, and I’m 100% serious on this, is also known as the “Fried Food Capital of the World”. I ate so many deep fried snacks that day that I was actually ashamed. Pictured (in order) are the Fried Nutella, Deep Fried Spinach Dip Bites, and Fried King Ranch Casserole (in the shape of Texas, because we can). That sculpture, in case you can’t tell, is made entirely of butter. It weighs over 2 tons and broke the Guinness Book World Record.

On a healthier note, I also found a new fair this year — The Texas Veggie Fair. It’s a one day only festival that hosts vegan vendors and restaurants. They also have yoga, animal adoption events, and Q&As with celebrity vegans. My favorite part was the vegan bakeries I found. The chocolate cupcake is from Austin-based Capital City Bakery. The witch one (the coolest cupcake I have ever eaten) is from a new local bakery called Reverie Bake Shop. I plan on visiting. Often.

  Meeting celebrities and eating my face off in fried food are both wonderful, but the most unforgettable thing that happened to me this month is when I got a recipe published in All You Magazine. My Chocolate Covered Espresso Cookies won a contest the magazine hosted back in April (which I had only entered because the winner got a Ben & Jerry’s prize pack), and one of the prizes was that you get your winning recipe featured in an issue. This is actually the November 15th issue, but it hit the stores early. I couldn’t believe that I got a half page spread, and that my name and picture were featured on the table of contents page as well!

My favorite part of October is and always will be Halloween. I am lucky enough to share my love of it with my nephew Michael. Besides pumpkin carving and baking holiday-themed snacks, every year Michael and I go trick or treating and then watch Hocus Pocus while sorting his candy. This year I promised that I would actually go up to a few doors with him (I am always in costume) because people often think I am a teenager who is actually trick or treating and he wanted to see if anyone stopped me because they realized I am an adult. (They didn’t.) So yes, that is me dressed as Vannelope Von Schweetz from Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph. Michael wanted to be a walker from “The Walking Dead”. His makeup and costume turned out phenomenally, don’t you think?

Happy November, dear reader! I hope this month is as great as the last!

In a last ditch effort to not eat both bags by myself, I threw together a batch of cookie dough for the remaining chocolate morsels and ended up with the softest, chewiest cookie recipe I have ever made. I had done some research and decided to try cornstarch in the batter. You can definitely taste it in there, but it does not take anything away from the candy or the rest of the vanilla extract-fueled dough. You have to chill the batter for a while before you bake it so that the bite-sized bars keep their shape, but the payoff is worth it. Recipe: Soft and Chewy Milky Way Cookies adapted from Center Cut Cook

Makes about 3 dozen

What You Need:

• 2 & 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 package Milky Way Bites
•  

What To Do:

1. Mix together all the dry ingredients.

2. Add in the eggs, butter, and vanilla extract until creamy

3. Gently mix in the Milky Way Bites, being careful not to break them.

4. Chill the batter in the fridge for an hour. This will harden the candy enough so that they keep their shape in the oven.

5. Form dough into tablespoon sized balls, making sure there is at least one candy bar in each.

6. Bake for 10 minutes. The cookies will look like they are not quite ready to come out yet, but once you let them cool down they will look awesome!

Makes 1 and 1/2 dozen

What You Need:

• 1 box cake mix
• 1 tub vanilla frosting
• 10 drops yellow food coloring
• Bagged frosting with a small decorating tip
• 1 box mini to-go Oreo cookies
• 1/8 cup brown M&Ms
• 1 small bag black licorice
• cupcake liners (I used blue because the minions wear blue overalls) 

What To Do:

• 1. Make cupcakes according to the package. Let cool completely.

  2. While the cupcakes are baking, empty your frosting into a small bowl and mix it with the food coloring until you have a nice bright yellow.

  3. Frost the cupcakes.

  4. Carefully open all the oreos and discard — or eat — the sides without cream on them.

  5.  Gently place one or two of the frosted oreo sides onto the cupcake. Top each with one M&M.

  6. Cut licorice into 1 inch long pieces. Arrange in threes for a minion-like look, or place above the oreos for cute little eyebrows.

  7. Use the tube of frosting to create different mouths on the minions. Have fun with it.

  Nothing special, and not what I originally intended them to look like, but I thought that they were still fun and cute! Happy weekend!

Of course, to me the trip is all about food. There are tons of things available in New York that Texas doesn’t have. Deli sandwiches, Entenmann’s coffee cake, and Ralph’s Italian Ice are among my favorite things to grab while back in the Big Apple. In fact, I love them so much that I willingly gained weight on the trip. I’m only here once a year, so I decided to follow the rule of my newest favorite fictional character Tom Haverford — “treat yo self”.

In fact, I started eating rare finds way before we made it to Long Island. On the drive — yes, we drove 26 hours because I hate flying — I stopped in Nashville at a place my coworker had reccomended called The Loveless Cafe. The building was tiny and the wait was an hour, but it was 100% worth it. You get homemade biscuits and preserves whether you order breakfast or dinner. When I couldn’t eat all of my pork and explained to the friendly waitress why I couldn’t take a to-go box, she packed me up a ton of the biscuits to go. It was heavenly.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful and so much fun. My 9 year old godson tore up the dance floor with his breakdance moves, courtesy of us watching Step Up 3 too many times. There was a photo booth that everyone crammed into to take glamour shots for the newlyweds and the ceremony left my adorable uncle crying as he watched his daughter become a Mrs.

Although almost everyone else in my family hates it, I absolutely love going into New York City. In fact, I even went in at 5 am one morning to get standby seats for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. I am that dedicated to city adventures. Actually, I lucked out by waking up before the sun because on the way to breakfast near 30 Rock I ran into actor Ken Jeong (Leslie Chow from The Hangover). He grabbed my cell phone and snapped a picture of us. I was in movie buff heaven.

I got to take my baby cousins to the zoo in Central Park, which was less exciting when we found out that the polar bears wouldn’t come out in the heat. We adventured around the petting zoo before taking them to F.A.O. Schwartz.

I also got to show my godson Times Square for the first time. It was adorable. I told him I would take him anywhere he wanted. Only place he wanted to go? “I want to see the place where they film Saturday Night Live”. I was happy to oblige. I do anything for that kid. I found a way to have Twlight’s Jackson Rathbone take a picture with his Flat Stanley for school, I’ve brought him along when I was going to meet “Drake and Josh” star Josh Peck, and I made him this ridiculous Cheeseburger Cake for his birthday. It’s worth it to see him freak out when he gets excited.

It was sad to come home, but it is nice to get back into the kitchen! I hope you’re having a great weekend, reader. Stay posted for new recipes this week!

Although it may not seem like it from all the cookie recipes I post on here, I have been working really hard over the past year to lose weight. I had always been overweight for my age & height and finally decided to do something about it. I found a program called Lose It! that would design a calorie plan specifically for me and then let me plug in what I ate every day. If I exercised it would add the calories I worked off back into my allotment for the day. This free app is pure magic and has helped changed my life. Anyway, I am currently doing a challenge on it where you have to eat 150 calories of vegetables a day. I looked at it and said, “no problem”. Then I discovered I never get close to that. Ever. So I went on the hunt for vegetable recipes so I didn’t just eat 5 servings of raw baby carrots a day.

I knew I had saved this Roasted Vegetable Penne Pasta from The Slow-Roasted Italian a while ago but was skeptical for two reasons. 1. Who wants to eat a meatless dinner? 2. I was still on the fence about eggplant. However, if I wanted to succeed at this challenge and get more veggies in my diet I was going to need to take the leap. It was delicious. Like, I’m-eating-the-leftovers-for-every-meal until-they-are-gone delicious. I changed it up a bit. I used regular grated parmesan for the cheese, used more garlic, and used vegetable rotini instead of penne. I thought it added color to the meal & it had more protein per serving.

Recipe: Roasted Vegetable Rotini 

(Serves 5)

What You Need:

1 eggplant

2 large zucchini

2 containers cherry tomatoes

1 pound rotini pasta

4 cloves garlic

1/4 cup EVOO

1 cup grated parmesan

What To Do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F

2. Cut eggplant and zucchini into bite sized pieces. Place them and tomatoes onto two cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 40 minutes. Note: Make sure to check the veggies often, as the eggplant seems to cook faster than the others.

4. While the vegetables are roasting, prepare pasta according to the package. Drain.

5. Put drained pasta into serving bowl. Top with veggies, garlic, and cheese. Toss until evenly distributed.

Recipe: “Faux Cone” Cupcakes

Here’s What You Need:

24 plastic or wooden spoons

24 small strofoam cups

white or vanilla cake mix

1 tub white frosting

3 colors crystalized sugar (preferably blue, green, and red)

Here’s What To Do:

1. Make the cupcakes as the package directs & let cool

2. Carefully take each cupcake out of its wrapper and place inside strofoam cups

–Note: You may have to cut the cups down to size after you have put the cupcakes in them. That’s fine, just watch out for strofoam bits! —

3. Ice each cupcake with a thin layer of frosting. This is more to help the sugar stick than to frost the cake

4. Carefully pour the 3 sugars in rows on each cupcake. It will look like the 3 different flavors of your snowcone. Be careful though, because these sugars pour pretty fast and can get messy!

5. Place spoon in each Snow Cone

*Serve!

Note on colors: I used red, green, and yellow sugars, Not only did it look Cinco de Mayo themed in July, but its also hard to get the yellow to hide the frosted cupcake under it unless you really pour it on. I would suggest not using this color!

One problem: I hate oatmeal. Just the appearance of oatmeal makes me dry heave. But I thought maybe since I’m older now, maybe my tastes have change.

They did.

Oatmeal is apparently INCREDIBLY delicious once you put bananas, strawberries, and chocolate chips in it. This baked version is light and it makes you feel like you’re being super healthy. It was also pretty simple to make and has you looking like a Champion of Breakfast.

Recipe: Baked Oatmeal with Chocolate, Strawberries, and Banana

(Adapted from Inspired Taste)

Makes 6 Servings

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup walnut pieces, chopped

1 cup sliced strawberries

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups milk

1 large egg

3 tablespoons butter, melted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 banana, peeled, 1/2-inch slices

1. Preheat oven to 375°F
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, half the walnuts, half the strawberries and half the chocolate. (Save the other half of strawberries, walnuts and chocolate for the top of the oatmeal).
3. In another large bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, butter and vanilla extract.
4. Add the oat mixture to greased 10 1/2 x 7 in. baking dish
5. Place remaining chocolate, strawberries, and walnuts evenly on top, along with the banana slices.
6. Pour wet mixture on top of the oats.
7. Bake 40 minutes and serve warm.