Grandma's Chicken Marinade

For my wedding, one of my sweet grandmas made me recipe cards, and they're some of my favorite to try because I know that my mom grew up with these recipes and they are true and tested by somebody who I trust. Do you ever try recipes on Pinterest and they just don't work out? I made one of those today that was a gravy and it's so  disappointing, it was even for a dinner at a friend's house, so we couldn't even bring it- good thing she had extra gravy for the meal. My mom said she has a curse that always ruins food whenever she is cooking it for company. I'm pretty sure that I inherited that from her because I have that struggle quite often!
This recipe is, as always my style, super easy. It's a chicken marinade so I love to put it in the morning and let it sit throughout the day and let it marinade all day long. I like to put it in a large bowl or in a Ziploc bag. Whenever my parents marinaded chicken, they'd use soda in it and I loved it, the carbonation makes it taste so much better! Sprite is best for chicken marinade and Coke for a red meat!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Eggs- Reece's Copycat

Reece's chocolate eggs are my weakness. I like regular Reece's but the creamy eggs just speak to me. You know how they put Easter candy out shortly before Valentine's Day and everyone is upset? I'm not because it means I can buy myself a chocolate egg. This year, I decided to bring an Easter treat home to my family and thought I would give these eggs a go. My favorite thing about them is that they're super rich so you pretty much can only eat one and then stop instead of eating a whole pack like I normally do.
I love Easter. Coming from a small town, we have a city Easter egg hunt each year, and for as long as I can remember, I have helped stuff the eggs beforehand and set them out for the kids to pick up at the local park. My family is religious, so we always celebrate the Easter Bunny and egg hunting the day before Easter Sunday so we can focus on Christ on Easter Sunday where we read in the Bible and discuss His death and resurrection. I have enjoyed this tradition because it's fun to have fun, but also a great time to love and appreciate what Easter is about. Another reason why I love Easter is because of the movies. My favorite Easter movies are: "It's the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown", "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" (original version), and "The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town"- this one is my absolute favorite because of the colors and graphics, it's adorable! Spring is beautiful and the flowers for Easter is another highlight of this time for me.
I would definately recommend getting an egg-shaped cookie cutter before starting these. I completely forgot and ended up cutting them all individually, which was honestly a little bit of a hassle. So, get a cookie cutter and it will make this a lot easier and way more enjoyable to make. Another hint: keep them in the freezer while dipping in chocolate. Don't take the whole sheet out, just one or two at a time so they stay frozen and don't break in the hot chocolate you're dipping them in. The recipe was found from The Recipe Critic.

Fruit Dip

I've been trying to be eating better snacks recently. I try not to snack, but learned in my nutrition class that it's actually pretty good for you if you make sure to eat smaller meals. It's better for your metabolism if you eat five small meals throughout the day instead of three large meals. It's a work in progress, and I think I weill always have three meals, but smaller meals with snacks in between will probably be my go-to. And as much as I love chips and salsa (because I could live the rest of my life off of that stuff) there are way better options like this for healthier snacks!
There is a wonderful woman who I gew up in my high school years with the opportunity of knowing. I looked up to her very much, and her daughter was a huge role model to me. Now, her daughter is actually my sister-in-law and I am able to spend time with her regularly. They both have this wonderful spirit to them and are some of the most enjoyable people to be around. The mother owns a website, Lioness at the Door . I recently started following it, and I would recommend it to anyone for some extra positivity. One of her most recent blog posts featured Real Food Snacks. I tried the fruit dip and absolutely LOVED it! I never eat enough fruit, and this dip adds just a little "extra" to apples and even grapes. My fruit always ends up going bad because I can't finish it in time, but this fruit dip reminds me to eat the fruit because I want to keep eating it- haha!
It uses cream cheese, molasses, honey, and a little bit of vanilla. If you don't like molasses, I guess you could use brown sugar or something, but I think it tastes just fine if you add the correct amount of molasses- it mixes very well. It's the perfect little snack, I saw my nephew eating it the other night and loving it, so it proves that even kids like it!

Cooked Carrots

I love these carrots! I usually make a large amount to snack on throughout the day and then also to have as a side for dinner. They're the most simple thing ever. Sometimes, I get sick of the same old snacks: raw veggies, fruit, crackers, and granola bars. Snacks are quick, easy, and usually not cooked because of these reasons. A lot of the time, because of convenience, snacks can be pretty unhealthy. I found the perfect solution to this problem with these carrots.
Originally, I just made these as a side for dinners. But, I have this problem-I pick at food so badly! If there is food sitting there, I will test it a few times just to make sure it tastes okay and whatnot. When cooking these for dinner, there was usually only about half the carrots left for dinner- oops! So now, I make them double just to be able to have carrots for snacks throughout the day!
This could be one of the most simple recipes ever. You wash the carrots, and then throw them in the slow cooker. Add some liquid- you can use water, but I prefer using chicken broth. I add about one cup, but there is usually quite a bit of liquid to drain at the end. I would rather this than them burning. Add salt and pepper, butter, or even brown sugar to the carrots for flavor (don't do brown sugar if you cooked with chicken broth, only water).

Thai Coconut-Curry Broiled Tilapia

This is, HANDS DOWN, my new favorite tilapia recipe. Oh my goodness, it's amazing. Not a curry fan? Originally, me neither. But this completely converted me. My mom made this a few times when I was in high school, so I thought I'd give it a try again since we're trying to eat more fish. We love it! I've made it a few times, but made sure to add the fresh ginger and garlic and it MAKES it!
It's a super easy recipe, surprisingly. And again, fish is full of Omega-3's, so it's incredibly good for you! The original recipe is from Food.com , which I feel is always a trustworthy site. For spices, I also use good old McCormick, they are always perfect for my needs!

Tilapia Tips 

Keep your tilapia frozen. When thawing out, don't defrost in microwave like other meats. It thaws out super fast! Tilapia is pre-packaged individually, keep them in the plastic when thawing out. Fill a medium-sized bowl with lukewarm water and place tilapia filets into the bowl until thaw, refreshing the water every 5 minutes (only have to replace once for a a few fish-for more, you'll have to replace more). You can also place packaged filets inside of a colander and run slightly warmed water over them until thawed. 

Take the fish out of the packaging and rinse off. This gets the not-so-good, slimy, fishy taste off of them a little more and leaves the good taste. Another way you can do this, is soak them in a brine mixture in the fridge for about 10 minutes (1 cup of water to 1 tsp. salt). This makes them taste way better!

Lemon Garlic Slow Cooker Chicken

I am ALWAYS searching for a new slow cooker meal. They’re my favorite because I can just throw them in and then they’re all ready for dinner. With the warmer months coming up, I think I am looking for them a lot more now. The oven heats up the house too much, so the slow cooker is usually my go-to. I feel like this is a great recipe because it’s pretty healthy, a lot of the recipes I find for chicken and the slow cooker have a lot of creamy soups and other fattening ingredients. I love those recipes, and that’s the problem, I eat too much of it and it’s unhealthy, so I have to save them for special occasions- not every day! I was so excited when I found this recipe and it tasted SO GOOD paired with rice and green beans. Have you ever had green beans with lemons or lemon pepper, it’s amazing. So, I had to try them with this and oh my, delicious! 

This recipe is perfect! The lemon-garlic mixture has a fresh taste to it and it compliments the chicken very well. It’s super easy too: mix the spices and pat onto chicken, throw onto fryer for about 2 min. each side, and throw into the crockpot with liquids and garlic. Simple as that! 

Seasoned Oven Fries

Friday night calls for fun food. That's my philosophy. You've made it through the week, so now it's time to kick back and relax. Most Friday's, I don't even want to cook dinner. But eating out has many downsided. So, on Friday, I try to find meals that are fun to eat and make. These are better than Wendy's fries (those are my favorite fast food fries for some reason haha) and I always pair them with Quinoa Chicken Nuggets. It's like a homemade kids meal. And since it's healthier, there's still a little room for a weekend treat!
I don't cook potatoes very often, because I feel that there are healthier choices for sides and also, they're hard for me to season. I always want to add a lot of butter, milk, sour cream, ANYTHING to add a little bit more taste to them. Salt them up and have some ketchup handy is usually my "healthy" option for any kind of potatoes. But, these changed my life. The seasoning mixture is oh, so good. A little kick, and definately salty. 
I always have a hard time cutting these things correctly, so I usually let Michael do it. We cute some thinner French fries and also some slightly thicker wedges to please the both of us. They've turned out perfectly every time we've tried them. One thing to know about cooking fries, is that they're better if you start them earlier that day if you're going to chill them. Keep them in the fridge all day if needed! Boiling is a faster option, but you need to be on the ball the whole time while making these.