The Ultimate Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Today my beautiful twin sister and I are celebrating our 25th Birthday! We are officially a quarter-century old! It's going to be a great day, I'm just sad we're not able to be together today. It's pretty special and fun to share a birthday with someone, especially my sister who are care so much about! Happy Birthday Liz! Love you! 
 

Skinny Orange Chicken

Crispy, fried orange chicken is my weakness at an Chinese restaurant. Make it extra saucy and extra spicy and I'm in heaven! This dish however, is probably the worst thing I could possibly order off the menu!  When cooking at home I love to make this healthier, baked orange chicken recipe! I love the light breading on this when it's baked and crispy and the orange sauce is soo fresh tasting!

This is also yummy, and even healthier, with grilled chicken (still smothered in the delightful orange sauce of course)! Serve with brown rice and steamed broccoli...YUM!

Banana Bread Bars with Brown Butter Glaze

Bananas are a hot commodity in our house! I love them every morning sliced in my cereal, yogurt or on top of my peanut butter toast. Jeff takes a half a banana with him on his way to school every morning. BUT, we both only like them when they're pretty much green!  So I often find that I bought a few to many bananas and we end up with some that are way to ripe to eat plain.

Typically my go-to recipes are banana bran muffins for my freezer (I like to pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds and eat them for an on-the-go breakfast), OR my favorite banana bread, but I saw this recipe on pinterest and I've been eager to try it.

The verdict: these little bars were insanely good! I'll be throwing this recipe into the "bad bananas" rotation, that's for sure!

Couscous Crusted Tilapia

Tilapia is such a mild and tender fish that you can count on even picky eaters liking it.  It doesn't have a super strong fishy flavor that often turns off non-seafood lovers. I especially love the yummy couscous crust in the dish! Couscous is a really fun alternative to rice and it's so fast to whip together!  Serve with some sauteed brussels sprouts or roasted asparagus and you've got a pretty nice meal!

Chile Relleno Quiche

This is an old family recipe I recently called and asked my mom for so that I could make it for a baby shower this past weekend.  After adding some cheese and eggs to the dish you spoon salsa and green chiles all over the top before baking it!  YA.... delicious!

Chick-Fil-A Crispy Chicken Sandwhich copycat

If you're familiar with Chick-fil-A you will know that fans of this fast food chain are passionate!  So many people, my husband Jeff included, are completely fanatical about their chicken sandwiches!

Gourmet Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Although chocolate covered strawberries are litterally one of the easiest and cheapest desserts to make, they appear way fancier than they really are. I think it's simply because they look so gorgeous dipped in chocolate that it makes them seem impressive.
One batch of these honestly takes me 20 minutes to make and they look professional! Plus, it only cost me about $5 to make a big batch! Double score!