***I’m editing this a week late and it is currently Labor Day weekend.***

Ok, I really didn’t know what to title this post or the last one because my thoughts were nothing what it ended up being.  It was supposed to be about Oreos, but my mind has 1,000 thoughts at once so that will be in another one…

My last post was about my tiramisu adventure from the Food Network: Italian Edition Magazine.  A member from the gym (I’ll call her Mrs. M) gave me a bunch of food magazines and I can’t wait to cook my way through them all!  Isn’t that why they make elastic??

I chose too many recipes.  Have you ever spent too much money at the grocery store?  Have you ever picked way too many recipes to try at once because you needed them all “RIGHT NOW”?  I didn’t buy anything for an entire week.  There was no excuse.  Every meal and snack was covered.  Then, during that week a recipe for blueberry muffins popped up so I made those, too.  I couldn’t help myself.  But, I tried to make them as healthy as possible and ate  them for breakfast during the week (and already had ingredients).  I ground up oats making oat flour and mashed bananas to use as the sugar.  They served their purpose. 🙂

I had no excuse to buy anything for at least one week…ok maybe one month…

This week’s food magazine of choice was America’s Test Kitchen.  When Mrs. M left the magazines at the counter I couldn’t stop looking at the Dacquoise recipe that was allllll the way in the back!  I didn’t even look at the others at the time…I would just flip and stare at this cake like a moth drawn to artificial light…it was SO PRETTY.  Thanks to Google I can accurately describe a dacquoise: “a dessert cake made with layers of almond and hazelnut meringue and whipped cream or buttercream”.  (Thanks, Google.)   Spoiler alert: I didn’t make the cake this weekend.  The meringue and time intimidated me.  I have all of the ingredients though.  Maybe this (coming) weekend?  It (will be) Labor Day weekend so I’ll have an extra day. 🙂

So what did I make??  Shrimp Fra Diavolo (I had to google how to pronounce it) and Baked Ziti.  I also cooked a healthy stuffed spaghetti squash recipe with sundried tomatoes, chicken, and artichokes.  I found it on Facebook.  (Facebook is so dangerous.)  So.  Yummy.  (I bought ingredients again to remake for my lunch next week).

Shrimp Fra Diavolo is tomato based cooked down with white wine.  It calls for anchovies, but I skipped that step.  (If that is a major ingredient to this dish I am a fraud.)
1. My grandma has to watch her sodium.
2. I didn’t want to touch anchovies.

Win, win.

I don’t have any pictures of the baked ziti because I forgot about it.  I used whole wheat rigatoni (“Well, look at this rebel!”) and because I had never made that before can summarize by describing it as lasagna tossed in a bowl and baked.  There are no organized layers….just beautiful chaos thrown around in there!  🙂

In this ziti recipe they used ricotta instead of cottage cheese.  It had a sweeter flavor than other pasta dishes I am used to.  The gravy had a tiny bit or oregano and basil.

On to the spaghetti squash…

Every time I have to cook with spinach I panic that it’s going to take over my meal even while knowing it cooks down every time.

While the spaghetti squash shells are in the oven you cook your artichokes down with garlic and chopped up sun-dried tomatoes.  (YUMMY!!!)  The recipe calls for shredded rotisserie chicken, but I had marinated chicken breasts in a healthy Italian dressing and cut that up and added to the pan.  You toss it all together with some cheese, fill the cleaned out shells, and bake in the oven until the cheese melts.

Here is the recipe from Eat Your Self Skinny’s blog.  🙂

My dessert for the week was chocolate espresso bars by Ambitious Kitchen.

I enjoyed them so much that I made them two weekends in a row (about to be 3) and couldn’t wait to remake them.

The only problem was it was 6:00 AM before coffee. I forgot to save granola for the pan and mixed filling and granola together in the bowl.  I panicked at first, but decided to just go with it.  It became a happy accident breakfast brownie.

You’re supposed to press granola mixture on bottom of pan, pour date filling, and spread remaining granola on top.  I think I might remake them ‘wrong’ this weekend.  I haven’t decided.

Next on the list is Oreo recipes.  Someone posted on Facebook that there are Oreo M&Ms and I am on a quest.

I stopped at Walgreens yesterday.  Not there.
Walmart today?  Not there.

I googled it and apparently it is a Fall thing (THINGS TO DISCLOSE!) and will be available at Target.

Also, there is a recipe for an oreo brownie cheesecake from Facebook!  Oh my gosh.  May have to work on that this weekend…