Pecan Raisin Monkey Bread

By Lisa VanWilliams

This is a great treat if you have a group over for breakfast time. It's pretty easy to make and they are a gooey cinnamon bite-sized doughnut type bread that tastes best served warm. It's an American dish that has many variations. Some use biscuit dough, you can use walnuts instead of pecans, different glazes, or stuff them with apples instead. There are also lots of low-fat healthier versions made with whole wheat, coconut oil & almond milk if you look.

Ingredients:
1 tube Pillsbury croissants
3 tablespoons buttter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
few teaspoons of cream cheese
handful of raisins
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Melt the butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup in oven or on stove top in baking pan. Toss in pecans.

Break the croissants into pieces and cut each piece in halve to make 2 pieces. Stuff with a couple of raisins and 1/2 teaspoon of cream cheese and wrap it up so there's no leaks.

Repeat till all the dough is gone. In a small bowl mix together sugar and cinnamon and toss the dough balls into the mixture to coat. Then put the balls into sugar mixture for baking.

Bake in oven about 20 mins until the balls turn a golden brown. Remove from oven and put plate over pan and flip it. The bread will fall off the pan and onto the plate. Enjoy!

LUSH Ocean Salt Cleanser

Review by Lisa VanWilliams

Looking to scrub off all the dead skin for an end of summer cleanse? Try this incredibly refreshing salt scrub from LUSH. It's great at removing dirt and dead skin and it will leave you with a glowing complexion and radiant skin. I did a before and after of my dishpan hands to show you how obviously well it works! It's expensive for $35.95 for 8.8 ounces but a little goes a long way. You can always ask for a sample before you take the plunge. The lingering intoxicating coconut lime smell will have your wondering if it's edible. With an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, over 1,400 people that have reviewed it totally are in love with it too.

Before scrub

After scrub

Pumpkin Tortilla Chips With Yogurt Dip

By Lisa VanWilliams

If you are looking for a sweet Fall treat here's a yummy one! Pumpkin is hitting the shelves in full effect and we found these tasty Tortilla chips at Trader Joe's. They are made with pumpkin puree, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I paired them with a sweet Greek nonfat mango yogurt, with a sprinkle of brown sugar, honey, and cinnamon added into the yogurt.  These are like little subtle bites of pumpkin pie that will certainly fulfill any sweet cravings. Enjoy!

Keep Your Body Guessing

We recently read a great article by Women's Health titled, "Your Probably Setting Your Treadmill To The Wrong Incline" and it had some great tips. Did you know if you walk at a 9% incline you can increase your gluteus maximus activation by 345% compared to walking at zero percent incline? That's gonna be a hard poppin booty.  Another big mistake people make is don't hang on! If the incline is too steep and you need to hang on, you are damaging your posture and walking gait. Hands free, lower your incline.

Our favorite line from the article,

"The best workout routine is going to vary things regularly—you want to keep your body guessing. After all, you aren’t going to be running up a hill—or on a perfectly flat stretch of pavement—forever."

To read the whole article, please go to:
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/treadmill-incline

Twice Baked Spicy Garden Salsa

By Lisa VanWilliams

We had an accumulation of garden peppers and tomatoes so we made a fresh salsa. It's a great way to use up a ton of veggies as they reduce down to nothing when you bake them in the oven. Plus you can store this for later use. We added some garlic and onions and baked them until they were soft and fragrant, then we whipped it together in the blender. You can keep it healthy and eat it straight up like this once it's cooled, or you can add some cheese and throw it back in the oven if you want to be bad.

Ingredients:
Hot peppers
Cherry peppers
Jalapeno peppers
Sweet peppers
Red peppers
Cherry tomatoes
Garden tomatoes
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
garlic powder
onion powder
salt & pepper
olive oil

Pepperjack cheese
Cheddar cheese
Philly Cream cheese with Chives

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Remove all the seeds from the peppers and cut everything into pieces/slices. Toss it onto a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Bake for around half hour - 45 mins. Put everything in the blender and puree until desired consistency.

Toss some cheese in bottom of baking dish. Cover with salsa and top with more cheese. Bake in oven another 10 mins and broil for last few mins to brown top. Enjoy!

Easy Stromboli Bread

By Lisa VanWilliams

Last night I made a few of these for a client and they smelled incredible. They would be great to make if you are having people over for the Labor Day weekend. They are easy to throw together and you can use any combo of meats or veggies you like. This is a loaf style but you can also do bite size appetizer version which you can view how to make here:
http://thevanwilliamsway.blogspot.com/2014/12/stromboli-bites-in-puffed-pastry.html

Pick up Pillsbury puffed pastry sheets (2 in a box). We used a combo of salami, pepperoni, danish ham, swiss cheese, american cheese, green olives with pimiento, and some roasted red peppers. Let the pastries thaw out, open them up and start layering.  Once you are done you can cut diagonal slits in the side dough and do a little cross twist to seal up the bread. Cover in egg wash and bake about 20 mins or so until it turns a golden brown. Enjoy!

Cooking Day - Episode 5

By Lisa VanWilliams

We made a few new recipes, and changed the ingredients on some old ones! The thing about cooking for so many families is the diversity of foods and recipes I get to experience. I have made salmon 3 different ways since last week and they are all totally different recipes with distinctive flavors and sensations. It's great to try different combo's to see what might work for you, plus the variety helps keep monotony at bay.


Herb-Crusted London Broil
Recipe from:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/herb-crusted-roast-beef

This a nice Summery recipe to use those herbs in the garden! I have done roasts with this rub and steaks. It's not a heavy marinade but it's very refreshing. The recipe states to use dried herbs but I will throw some fresh into the mix as well.

Empanadas - Buenos Aires style
Recipe from:
http://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/carne-beef-empanadas

I had to make 30 of these for client but I did not want them to get tired of them all the same, so I switched them up. I did 3 different types of stuffing. First one was plain stuffing (left side of picture with rounded edges), second one has raisins in them (fork imprinted ones on right side of picture), and lastly I did some with black beans in them. I did the different folding methods so they could tell which ones had which stuffing.  We also baked these instead of frying for a healthier version. I used Goya discs to save time, and I brushed these with egg wash to give them a nice gloss.

Balsamic Glazed Salmon
Recipe from:
http://www.wellplated.com/balsamic-glazed-salmon/

Sweet and tangy.

Brussels Sprout Hash with Caramelized Shallots
Recipe from:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/brussels-sprout-hash-with-caramelized-shallots-240411

***** 5 Star rating from 284 people = Brussels Sprouts that don't suck!