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Baked Apples

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Desserts, Posts, Recipes

Baked-Apples

Every year it seems like the seasons change too quickly for me to keep up. It had to be late July when everyone seemed to be excited for the fall. I hadn’t even had my fill of the summer when I started getting pre-fall sale emails featuring sweaters and jackets. And then, once September rolls around, the pools close and kids go back to school and all of a sudden we’ve skipped August altogether and moved straight into pumpkin-everything season.

It’s early September and it’s still 80 degrees out in DC – warm enough for the pools to stay open, but who am I to make the rules. And yet, Starbucks has already started selling their pumpkin spice lattes! There we go skipping all of September and jumping straight into October. Some of my friends have already started picking up said pumpkin spice lattes on their way to work … but I refuse to let go of the summer and indulge in my favorite fall coffee until it’s at least cool enough to strut a sweater and my boots. (more…)

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Grilled Garlic Hassleback Potatoes

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Posts, Recipes, Vegetables & Sides

Grilled Garlic HassleBack Potatoes

There are a few times a year when it seems almost obligatory to BBQ – either BBQ yourself or attend one. And those times are Memorial Day weekend, July 4, and Labor Day weekend. That’s not to say you can’t BBQ all summer long, if you so desire. But it’s around those holidays that you see the grocery stores pull all their grilling items to the front of the store so you can’t miss the charcoal, the sodas and the chips and dip. (more…)

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Spinach Lasagna Rolls

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Pasta, Posts, Recipes

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

 

Lasagna gets boring after a while – at least it does for me. Not that I eat it all the time. To be completely honest, I keep lasagna noodles at home and have never made traditional lasagna once. I’ve eaten it and my mom used to make it when I was a kid, but I didn’t really venture into making it the traditional way. I just find it boring – layers of cheese, ground beef, tomato sauce and noodles. But for a working mom, it must have been really easy to pull together for her kids. (more…)

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Skinny Banana Bread

categories: 500 Calories or Less, Breads, Posts, Recipes

Skinny-Banana-Bread

It’s been more than four months since my last blog post. Well, my blog has really been put on the back burner because I’ve been juggling work, travel and trying to drop a few pounds (26 pounds to be exact). And with losing weight for me, comes a disinterest in food overall. Imagine! As much as I enjoy cooking for those I love, they’ve been starving while I’ve been keeping my calorie intake to a minimum. I can’t give cutting back on eating all the credit. Believe it or not, I started running — yes on a treadmill, and yes at a pace faster than speed #3. The treadmill terrified me until I got to know a spunky girl with a big heart and a whole lot of attitude that made running on the treadmill look like fun. For those who know me personally, I would have never have used the words “treadmill” and “fun” in the same sentence. That combined with her constant pushing me to go to the gym after work really paid off. Just because I’ve lost a few pounds, doesn’t mean I won’t be enjoying my fries and sweets. I’ll just have to get smart about consumption and quantity. (more…)

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Skillet Almond Cake

categories: Desserts, Posts, Recipes

Almond Cake_2

 

In general, I’m much better at making savory foods than I am sweets. But I occasionally get a wild hair and decide to try my luck at making sweets. 

Cakes aren’t really my thing. Last year, I tried to bake a birthday cake and all went well until I started frosting it and started completely falling apart. Needless to say, it was a major fail and I ended up buying a cake and sticking a candle in it. But this Almond cake is fool-proof. (more…)

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Kubbeh Bel Sineyeh

categories: Arabic Food Made Easy, Beef, Posts, Recipes

kubbeh_2

 

Arabic food is tough. It may partially be because I psych myself out before cooking. I know there’s rarely such thing as a 30-minute meal and so I reserve cooking it to the weekends – if that.

My parents have instituted a once a week rule. That is, I’m required to contribute to the weekly cooking at least once a week. In theory, it’s a brilliant idea! In practice, it’s a bit more tricky. Especially since the days I pick, usually don’t work for the family. This last weekend, I decided to reserve Sunday lunch. I refused to discuss the menu with my mom ahead of time so that I could surprise her with my Arabic cooking abilities. (more…)

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