Pepper Jack Turkey Burgers

My husband has been working really long hours at work so I decided I would spoil him with his favorite type of food, a burger. Jon is a red meat type of guy. However, over the years, he has truly come to love my Feta Turkey Burgers. So, I wanted to make a twist on them. I have been trying to cut down my cheese intake. However, I allowed myself to indulge a little with these.

It is also worth mentioning that on this day I decided to spoil him, he decided to bring home some flowers and a card to thank me for taking care of the house and meals since he hasn't been home to help me. Being appreciated is the best feeling in the world!

1.25 lb ground turkey breast
1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 tsp creole seasoning
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 egg white
2 tbsp whole wheat bread crumbs
1 tbsp lime juice
1/4 lb pepper jack cheese, cut into small cubes

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients with hands until well incorporated. Spray griddle or skillet with cooking spray. Cook burgers until lightly browned and cooked through, about 6-7 minutes each side on medium heat. Serve on toasted whole wheat bun. Enjoy!

BBQ Chicken Portobello Mushrooms with Caramelized Onions

The BBQ sauce was such a huge hit I used it two nights in a row for dinner. The first night was the unforgettable BBQ pulled pork tacos. The next night was pizzas made with portobello mushrooms. So. Very. Delicious.

4 portobello mushrooms (removed stems and chop them, reserve on side)

1/2 red onion, sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp agave nectar

1 cup bbq sauce

1 cup shredded chicken (fully cooked)

about 1/4 cup of shredded cheese if desired to spread between 4 mushrooms

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray. Place portobello mushrooms on baking sheet with hollow side up.

Cook onions in olive oil on medium high. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes and then add sea salt. Stir continuously. After about 5 minutes, drizzle agave nectar over it. Reduce to low-medium. Keep stirring onions until browned. Add mushroom stems. Cook for about 2 minutes. Add in bbq sauce and shredded chicken. Cook for about 2-3 minutes until chicken is heated through.

Place an even amount of mixture in each mushroom. Place in oven (without the cheese) for about 7 minutes. Take out of oven, sprinkle with a little cheese on each and put back in oven for 3-5 minutes until bubbly. 

BBQ Pulled Pork Tacos

I am finally using my crockpot the way it deserves to be used. I was so excited to try a recipe like this that I drove to three different stores just to find pork tenderloin. This is hands down one of my all time favorite dinners I've made.

1.39 lb pork tenderloin
1/2 red onion, sliced
2 tsp creole seasoning
Salt & Pepper to season tenderloin
1 cup bbq sauce (plus 1/2-1 cup extra)
1/2 cup chicken stock
8 whole wheat tortillas

Spread onion slices on bottom of crockpot and season with a little creole seasoning. Season both sides of tenderloin with creole seasoning, salt and pepper. Cut into 3 or 4 sections and place in crockpot. Pour bbq sauce and chicken stock over tenderloin. Cook on low for 4-6 hours until pork is tender enough to shred with a fork. Shred with fork and pour extra sauce in. Stir together and cook for an additional 30 minutes.

While pork is finishing, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray tortillas with cooking spray. Place on baking sheet and cook until golden brown, about 5-7 minutes. As soon as they come out of the oven, fold over itself to make a taco shell. (Use a fork to do it- they will be hot!)

Once pork is done, fill shells with pork. Serve with shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes if desired. Enjoy!

Low Sugar BBQ Sauce

So I had like 3 or 4 posts pending for here and I am totally skipping their deliciousness to bring you my newest concoction, low sugar BBQ sauce. It was such a big hit I used it for two dinners in a row. I will post the sauce recipe here and then those will follow shortly after.

1 29 oz can tomato sauce
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp smoked paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp yellow mustard
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar

In a medium stockpot on medium-high, whisk all ingredients together. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low-medium and stir repeatedly. Reduce to low and allow to simmer about 20 minutes until sauce is thickened.

Garlic Shrimp

Recently I moved to the west side of the island of Oahu. Until now, I had been living on the North Shore. One of the best parts of living on the North Shore was driving 5 minutes down the road to get famous garlic butter shrimp. I can't drive 5 minutes to Fumi's anymore, and I also can't afford the calories in it anyways.

So, I got crafty at home. I used 5 ingredients to get this delicious dinner made. I go crazy heavy on garlic because I'm obsessed. So feel free to scale it back if you don't want to stink up an entire zip code with your breath.

The first time I made it, I used olive oil. The second time I used coconut oil. They were both delicious but coconut oil is supposed to be reeeeally good for you, so if you have it, use it. If you don't have it, I totally recommend it! I even found some at home spa treatments that use coconut oil on Pinterest too, haha.

Here is the star ingredient that saved me a million calories. Love you! :*

1-2 tbsp coconut (or olive) oil to coat sautee pan

5-6 cloves garlic, finely diced

10-12 pieces shrimp, deveined and tail off (I honestly just bought the frozen kind pre-cooked, pre-prepped at Costco and it was still delicious!)

Sprinkle popcorn seasoning butter flavor to taste

Sprinkle sea salt to taste

In a pan, on medium high, sautee garlic in oil for about 2 minutes. Add in shrimp. Cook shrimp until pink for about 3-4 minutes if raw. If pre-cooked, just cook until heated through. Add in butter seasoning and sea salt. And you are done!

Wow, so I realized that I never even blogged about the best day of my life! I have flooded people's Facebook newsfeeds and instagrams with obnoxious pictures but never did here. Weird.

Anyways, We got married On October 6, 2012. The day started out cloudy and a little rainy apparently. However, I was too busy getting ready and rocking out to Pandora with my friends and family to even notice. I managed to have no bridezilla meltdowns. I got to the point where all I cared about was marrying Jon. One of our groomsmen actually tried to play a prank of us that he didn't pick up the pants from the rental place. My bridesmaid freaked out about it more than I did. I was about to have him borrow a pair of Jon's jeans. Haha. He was just messing with us anyways. Also, my groom decided to spend a little too much time doing shots with the boys. We were able to get 8 adult and 3 child females out of the house before he could get himself and 3 other men. Typical. Haha. One of my bridesmaids came up with the idea to all rock silly aloha shirts for the "getting ready" pic. Loved the idea :)

We got married around 4:00pm at Waimea Valley. A couple months before our wedding day, our pastor unfortunately passed away. Jon knew a pastor who lived in the condo complex who offered to step in and officiate the ceremony for us. He did an amazing job. One of my favorite memories of the day was when our ring bearer presented the pillow, which was a Patriots pillow pet, and he laughed at us. He said "and I thought I had seen everything!". We are serious about our love for the New England Patriots.

Our ceremony was short, sweet and to the point. It lasted about 15 minutes in total. After that, the guests went on to the cocktail hour and we started the photo session. We did the group pictures with our families and the bridal party.

Funny story about the bridal party pictures. When planning the wedding, the one part that was freaking me out the most was how unbalanced our pictures were going to be. Jon and I both only have sisters and I have four very close girl friends. So, I ended up with 7 bridesmaids and he only 3 groomsmen. Being a Libra and loving balance and all that, this was totally throwing me off. I figured out a way to line up everyone evenly with 5 on each side, which made me feel much better. As a joke to make fun of his OCD wife, Jon asked the photographer to get a picture with 3 groomsmen on his side and the 10,000 females on mine. It ended up being my favorite picture! Haha.

Then, we went across the street alone to get some shots at infamous Waimea Bay beach at sunset.

After the photos, we headed back over to join the party. Our theme was love birds, in tiffany blue and peach. Our moms set up the entire room and it looked amazing! We had a candy bar, and each guest got a favor box to go fill up. We DIY'd the invitations, programs, centerpieces, favor boxes and candy bar. Our first dance was Michael Buble "Everything". I danced with my father to "Have I Told You Lately?" by Van Morrison. My dad raised me listening to Van Morrison so it was a perfect song for us to dance to. I would've loved to dance to Brown Eyed Girl but my blue eyes kind of ruined that for us, haha. Jon danced with his mom to Landslide by Stevie Knicks. We also went ahead and led the dance floor with Gangnam Style because what would a 2012 wedding be without that? Its also worth mentioning that I specifically asked that guy NOT to smash cake all over the makeup that took precious time to happen. Photo evidence that he doesn't listen very well follows.

A couple worthy shout outs to the photographer and cake designer. Both were incredibly reasonably priced, super professional and I was overly satisfied with their work. My photographer can be found at http://www.hawaiiphotos.com/.

The whole night was just totally wonderful. Jon and I have been together now about 8 1/2 years and it is so wonderful to finally be husband and wife. We have seen each other through good, bad and ugly times. He is my best friend in the whole world and challenges me every day to be a better person. I hope that everyone reading this has someone like that in their life and if not that 2013 brings that person to you!

I will finish this post with a few pictures from our "staycation" honeymoon. We are going on a "real" honeymoon in April to Vegas. But, hi, we live in Hawaii, I'd say that's a worthy honeymoon destination!

Turkey Chili

The hardest part of changing your eating habits is getting your husband to follow suit. It is a lot easier when you have a recipe like this one in your back pocket. I've started making this every Sunday morning and letting it cook in the crockpot on low all day. Jon and I both love it so much that we are perfectly fine having a cup of it for lunch everyday throughout the week.

One tip I would definitely give when making it is to season every step of the way. So although the recipe is going to call for 1 tbsp chili powder, I season the vegetables when I'm sauteeing them and then the turkey when I'm browning that off with some chili powder, salt and pepper too. Maybe it's just my mind telling me it makes a difference, but I'm not going to mess with it! I also used organic for everything in the recipe. Besides the ground turkey breast. I don't even know if that is made organic, haha.

About 2 tbsp olive oil for bottom of sautee pan

3-4 cloves garlic

1/2 onion, chopped

1 orange or red bell pepper (or green if you have, I just like it colorful), chopped, seeds removed

1 serrano pepper, finely diced, seeds removed

1 lb ground turkey breast

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 can 6 oz. tomato paste

2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

3 tbsp brown sugar (or agave sweetener works well too!)

2 cans 14.5 oz. diced tomatoes

1 can 14.5 oz kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can 15.25 oz. corn

1 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp ground cumin

Salt & Pepper to taste

In a skillet, sautee garlic and onion in olive oil for about 2 minutes. Add in bell and serrano peppers. Season with some chili powder, salt and pepper. While this is sauteeing, pour diced tomatoes, beans and corn in crockpot. Set on low. Add sauteed vegetables to crockpot. In skillet, brown ground turkey. Season with some chili powder, salt and pepper. Once browned, add chicken stock and tomato paste. Stir until well combined. Add in worcestershire and brown sugar. Once fully combined, add to crockpot. Stir in chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper. Adjust seasonings as needed. Sometimes I add a little more brown sugar. :)