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May was INSANE!
I know I say that almost every month but I just feel like there is so much going on all the time. It just get’s crazier and crazier.
The thing is I don’t want to jinx anything until it’s officially official, so a lot of the goings on of this month will remain a secret for just a few more days.
In the mean time however one pretty big announcement is that I’m going to be an aunt! I’m so excited I can barely stand it. I’ve already started experimenting with crochet patterns for baby blankets. My Sewing & Yarn Projects pinterest board is overflowing right now.
We went on a booze cruise with some of our best friends. I didn’t drink much, but it was so much fun.
I spent a weekend building a new photo backdrop for my 12-12-12 project and it’s got me wondering why I didn’t do it sooner.
I realized that our wedding is not going to be a traditional wedding, and listed all the reasons why.
We went to the most gorgeous and fun wedding for our dear friends last weekend. I couldn’t be happier for them. No I don’t have pictures, since I was having too much fun and eating way too much food. We won’t talk about the fact that I had some flu like illness for the few days leading up to the bash, I stayed home from work and rested up just to be prepared for the big event. Not Kidding.
I told you all about the many lessons that I learned from house hunting. There are more I’m sure, and since we are on the topic the whole house hunting thing has a lot to do with the crazy month we had this month. Again I know you’ve heard it a million times, but it really does take over everything for a while.
June is bound to be a wild ride as well. On the docket we have more house hunting, my wedding shower (eek!), lot’s of wedding planning, and some travel plans. Seriously I am exhausted just thinking about all that.
I hope you all had a great month as well. Give me your highlights in the comments. I always want to learn more about you guys!
This is a simple recipe based on McDonald’s Sweet Chili Chicken Wrap for a Sweet Chili Chicken Salad.
I have to admit something to you.
Sometimes I eat fast food.
I know I know, the stigma of a semi-healthy food blogger stopping at drive through windows is quite unsettling, but I’m human!
Besides, sometimes fast food is the best place to get inspiration. For example one of my most popular posts is my Copy Cat Recipe for Panera’s Soba Noodle Broth Bowls, and my second most popular post is my version of Evelyns Favorite Pasta from the Cheesecake Factory.
For this particular recipe I actually took my inspiration from McDonald’s. Yep Good O;’ Mc D’s. We have been traveling a lot and it seems to me that the golden arches may very well have a monopoly on the rest stops on our local highway system, so I’ve eaten there more in the last couple months than I think I have ever in my life. I’ve been trying a few of the healthier options and really liked the Sweet Chili Chicken wrap, so much so that I thought I would try my own version of it at home, except I opted to make it in salad form, because we can’t seem to eat enough salad lately.
I started by copying the golden arches chicken marinade, which I used to grill the chicken before tossing it in my homemade sweet chili sauce. I made a big hearty salad with mixed spring greens, baby Swiss chard, broccoli, carrot, shredded green and purple cabbage, sliced bell pepper, and cucumber.
For the dressing I mixed the sweet chili sauce with some bright Asian flavors. It came out perfectly and complimented the rest of the salad. Overall it turned out great and will definitely be on our regular summer food rotation.
You can find the sweet chili sauce recipe here.
This is a simple and delicious recipe for Thai Style Sweet Chili Sauce.
This is an unscheduled post.
I hope you don’t mind but as I was typing up tomorrows post I realized that this little sauce needed its own post. It has too many wonderful attributes and uses to be tucked into another post with the focus not on it.
So without further ado let’s talk about sweet chili sauce.
I love sweet chili sauce.
It’s great on wings, shrimp, fried chicken, wontons, egg rolls, salmon, and you get the idea.
Now In my infinite wisdom I thought I would try to come up with a clean alternative for the store bought, or take out stuff, but every single one that I tried just did not match up. So eventually I broke down and made the recipe below inspired by Life Tastes Like Food. Turns out it pays to be bad sometimes because this is the best sweet chili sauce that I have ever had.
The best part is that it has a pretty long shelf life so I can make a larger batch and use it in a few different meals throughout the week, or bring it to a potluck on the weekend.
This is a great Copy Cat recipe for Morningstar Farms Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers that is full of flavor!
Remember way back when I did that whole Part Time Vegetarian thing? Well I’m still kind of doing it. I say kind of because I haven’t really kept track of what I eat in about 3 months, but while writing this post I decided to give my diet for the last little while a run down, and aside from a couple weekends I’m still doing it with out even thinking about it. How awesome is that.
For those of you who don’t know Part Time Vegetarian, basically means that I only eat meat after 6 pm or with dinner. You can read more about why I started it in this post.
No when this whole thing started I was reliant on humus, bean burritos and MorningStar
products, but as time passes I have really expanded my horizons with hearty salads, tofu, and lots of veggie packed soups (I really love soup). I have also gotten a lot better about eating breakfast, and this Juice
has become a staple snack in my life. I find myself craving vegetables like eggplant and zucchini, things that I was previously convinced that I didn’t like.
One of the things I started doing now that summer has hit is experiment with veggie burgers, which are incredibly satisfying and something I don’t know why I didn’t try more often before. I’m pretty sure that I perfected my own version of my all time favorite MorningStar Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers. These burgers from morning start are packed with flavor and great not only in burger form, but cut up in a wrap or on a salad. With this recipe I am able to make my own version in bulk for way cheaper, and then freeze them individually so that I can use them as needed. If you hadn’t noticed I’ve been into that lately.
The trick to keeping these from sticking together when frozen is to freeze them on a sheet tray first and then stack them with wax paper in between before sealing them up.
I know you are just going to love my copy cat recipe for these burgers. They are so flavorful, and have a dynamic texture that makes it hard to stop after just one!
What are your favorite vegetarian burger recipes?
Related Posts:
Moroccan Chickpea Chili
Chicken Caesar Burger
Loaded Greek Salad