Tortillas and Honey

Portabello Breakfast Cups I was sent an e-mail earlier this month by Latina Bloggers Connect to participate in their #ILoveAvocados Avocados from Mexico holiday campaign. With Christmas right around the corner and families gathering together and celebrate the holidays, they asked bloggers to create a new recipe or share a family or traditional recipe with your readers as well as your favorite holiday traditions. Every family is different in their traditions and sometimes they change. Because I'm young, my family traditions have changed over the years. My brother and I are older and moved out of the house. Our family has grown to include our significant others and we both split our time with their families as well. My favorite family tradition was when I was young and my family would drive around on Christmas Eve looking at Christmas lights (usually a wealthy neighborhood or one with the most lights). When we came back home, Santa would have visited while we were away

Heath Bits Peanut Butter Cookies Today is a very special post because this year I signed up for the The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swa p! Not only did I send out three dozen of these yummy cookies to three different bloggers, I received three dozen delicious different cookies from three different bloggers. And this cookie swap helped to benefit Cookies for Kids' Cancer ! This was such a positive experience, the hardest part of deciding on a recipe to make! I didn't want to make cookies that went stale quickly or that would break in the shipping process (and I hope that these cookies did none of that!). I decided on these Heath Bits Peanut Butter Cookies, which I've been making the past several years. This recipe combines two of my favorite things, peanut butter cookies and toffee. This combines sweet and salty cookies with sweet and salty candies, so if you're into that flavor combination I think you would really love these cookies. Please see below who I sent

Dilly Parmesan Chicken Hello! I'm back and have nearly survived my first semester of grad school! I actually have to finish my last final, which is due Monday but I'm taking a break from it for the rest of the evening. My goal is to finish tomorrow before I go to my parents' for dinner and before work on Monday so I don't have to take time off work and stress about it. Fingers crossed! And cross your toes that my grades come back good!! Then I'll have a month off from school and I have several recipes lined up to post! I am sharing one of our favorite dishes with you today! I like the fact that this dish takes only minutes to prepare before it goes in the oven and the end result is very impressive. (To me this also means I can clean or prepare the side dish or study.) The first time I made this dish, Joe said it was delicious, which is a rare term he uses so this was a huge compliment. And he didn't catch himself before he could take it back! I origina

Spicy Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos This week I prepared an amazingly fast and delicious meal that I got from Jen at Juanita's Cocina , which is one of my favorite blogs that I read religiously. She tells some of the greatest stories which complement the yummy food that she shares. This is her Spicy Bang Bang Shrimp recipe that only contains a few ingredients and takes no time in the kitchen to prepare. Shrimp = shrimp and cornstarch. Bang Bang sauce = mayo, sweet chile sauce, and sriracha. So easy! I originally saved this recipe because it reminded me of my brother Eddy because he puts sriracha on everything. No joke! That's his hot sauce of choice. Mine? It's Cholula. You'd be amazed how much Cholula I use in one sitting. But Cholula's not for these tacos, so I had to go out and buy my own first bottle of sriracha. I wasn't really sure how much shrimp was in a pound, so I estimated about 25 shrimp. Joe looked at the shrimp I had thawed and asked if that wa

Chocolate Chip and Toffee Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars So guess what? I'm surviving graduate school so far. I've gotten two A's on two of my papers. I just turned in my third paper for the semester yesterday. I have a midterm due next week and two more papers due two weeks after that. So ask me in a couple weeks if I still feel the same way! My excitement for the fall has been depleted slightly. Every year I forget about the dark mornings. Every morning seems a little darker and I do NOT like waking up before sunrise. It just doesn't seem natural! Also, a cold front is coming through New Mexico so it's cold right now (not the crisp mornings and warm afternoons). And I won't go into trying on last year's fall/winter clothes. But I like scarves! Anyway, I love it when people send me recipes or ideas. My brother's girlfriend sent me this recipe that she had found online. It's cheesecake and cookie dough together in one. Sounds heavenly right?

Chinese No Clay-Pot with Chicken and Shrimp When I was living at my old place, one of my favorite restaurants was right down the street. We'd go there almost every other weekend. It is a little Vietnamese restaurant called Viet Q Vietnamese Grill. They make some of the best Vietnamese sandwiches (banh mi) or these dishes called hot rice claypot, which to me seems either like a fancy fried rice or a better version of teriyaki chicken. When I moved in with Joe, I asked him if we could still go there for dinner even if it was all the way across town. Now that he can't eat gluten, I'm afraid our Viet Q days are over. :-( I've been searching for dishes that are similar to the claypot at Viet Q, but have had a difficult time finding recipes that look even similar to the ones that we had at the restaurant. I came across this recipe a couple weeks ago at The Kitchn and was very excited because it looks similar to the one at Viet Q, even though this dish says it's