Absolutely DELICIOUS!

And on to Day 25

I hope you just ate because this post may just make you HUNGRY!

Today is a recipe day!

I have fallen in love with this blog

Check out Gina's Skinny Recipes!

Seriously if you have not yet checked out this blog you must.... Go! Seriously..... I'll wait!

Doesn't everything look SO SO delicious!

I have yet to try a recipe from her site that I have not liked! A huge crowd favourite around here is

Gina's Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken

Source: skinnytaste.com

As you can see Gina takes GORGEOUS photo's of her food! She is very talented!

This recipe is So simple, I've even thrown my chicken in frozen and it has still turned out fabulous! I usually cook up some Quinoa to serve this on, and I add sides of salsa, guacamole, grated cheese, sour cream, hot sauce (my hubby loves them) and anything else I think would be delicious to add on top.
It has always been a crowd pleaser and I doubt we will ever get sick of it! I definitely recommend you add this on to your menu plan next week!

Do you have any favourite cooking blogs or recipes? please share!

Step into my kitchen my friends

Before we head off to the kitchen let's chat wedding for a moment. I have a few posts that I want to share with you from my wedding. I will share them promise, but I am waiting to get my photo's back from my photographer. After that watch out cause my wedding was FANTASTIC and I can't wait to share it with you!

NOW let's step into my kitchen shall we......

My friend was over quite a while ago for an impromptu visit around dinner time. I had quickly thrown together one of my favourite easy meals and she loved it. She's been asking me for the recipe, and you know those recipes that you don't know how much or can't really sit down and write what you do cause it's one of those, I just do it in the moment without thinking sorts of things??? Well that is what my Tuna Melts are, so last time I made tuna melts I decided to document with photo's so I could show her and you how I make them here on my blog.

Ingredients list

Tuna - 2 cans

Mayo - a few heaping spoonfuls

Herbs particularly DILL!

Pepper (I prefer fresh ground)

Grated Cheese

Bagels or Bread or Buns

 I usually use two cans of tuna, I like chunk light or white tuna in water but really whatever you prefer and/or have on hand will work. I also like to mix it up with a fork I like the way it breaks up the tuna as I mix. but that's just my quirky tuna mixing preference.

 I add just enough Mayo to make it wet, I don't like mine to 'saucy' - I figure I'm saucy enough as is ... ;) - You can use your preference of miracle whip or mayo or salad dressing.... When I make tuna I like to use Mayo, I often buy Hellman's light or Hellman's olive oil light. I don't notice too much of a difference in taste once you have mixed everything together. And for two cans of tuna I'd likely put a few heaping spoonfuls in.

 Next I add the yummy seasonings. Dill is a must! I actually use Victorian Epicure Lemon Dilly Dip Mix just dumping in a bunch, if I were to guess from looking at this photo it's likely around 2 Tbsp, maybe a little less. You may not own VE Lemon Dilly Dip Mix, If I wasn't using it I would use dill, garlic powder, parsley, chives, and maybe try some lemon thyme, really experimenting with any herb you would put on fish I just grab and add bits of anything that sounds good to me at the time.

 Fresh ground pepper of course. My husband loves pepper and so do I! We can't make most things without adding fresh ground pepper. He usually adds more once it's on his plate but I enjoy with it just added into the tuna.

 Now is the yummy cheesy part, I grate a bunch of cheese (my preference is old cheddar) and add a generous handful into the tuna mix. I make sure to set aside enough to add more on top. If needed add a little more mayo, I have it pretty down pat so I can guess how wet when I first add my mayo but it takes a few tries before you figure out and after you add the cheese you might find it becomes too dry. No worries just add a bit more and ta da ... perfecto! This is also the time I would add really finely chopped celery or cucumber if I had that on hand. Probably only about 1/8 cup. I also love to add finely chopped onions or green onions but my husband HATES onions and it must be love, as I don't even buy onions anymore. The things we give up for love, ha ha!

 Using the fork spread out an even coating of tuna on your bread. My preference is to use Bagels, but this day we were out of bagels so just used the yummy grainy bread we had on hand. Open faced buns work too. Now the trick is you don't want to add too much tuna or too little. Too much makes it messy to eat but too little means it is dry. So start with less and add more if you think it needs it.

 Sprinkle a bit of cheese on top and place it on the rack to broil. Now I use our fantastic Toaster Oven that we received as a wedding gift, but you can use the oven if you don't have a toaster oven. Just place it right on the rack or on a pan and put it to broil on high.

 Watch it closely to make sure it doesn't burn you just want the cheese to melt and get gooey. then pull it out and yummy! This is kid pleaser as well, my niece and nephew gobble these up!

 I like to serve with fresh veg and dip. We love hummus dip or as shown here tzatziki! yummy

 ENJOY!

Let me know if you make these and what you think! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, I know a lot of people make their own variation of the tuna melt, but I really recommend you at least try with the dill and herb based flavour it is my absolute favourite.

I'm always looking for quick and yummy meal ideas. What is your favourite quick & easy no fail meal?

Valentine's Love gone Cheesy!

Sit back relax and enjoy for today is my first attempt at a Tutorial.. not sure how this will end up but hey it's all a big experiment for me anyways.... It may be a long one so make sure you're comfy!

I have been very tight on cash lately so when Valentine's popped up I really had to think about what I wanted to do. And decided I could lovingly make my amazing valentine a wonderful gift. But what.....

enter Cheese buns stage left..... mmmm delicious cheese buns. Both Kelly and I LOVE cheese buns and if we buy a bag they are gone before we even realize it. So how about I make my love some cheese buns all his very own I won't even taste them! (Promise ... as I am on a crazy bit of a health kick right now committing myself to lose some weight and get in shape before the wedding only 6 months away!!)

But of course I can't just make him cheese buns .. No I have to make them special somehow so that all will know they are made with love and for valentines! Enter heart shaped buns stage right...... but how is the best way to make them heart shaped and for them to keep their shape as they rise and bake... google it!!! I came across this blog with a lovely tutorial for making heart shaped apple buns... check it out I bet they are delicious.

So here goes... gathered the ingredients 

but as it always must happen .... I am out of eggs... quick trip to the store and we are back in business...

Oh and by the way I am just using a delicious bun recipe so use your own tried tested and true bun recipe ... mine is actually a secret... it really is, not my secret the amazing lady who gave me the recipe told me she would hunt me down if I ever gave it out to anyone (even my mom and she loves my mom) so I assume she means business ... so don't even try it ... back off and get your own bun recipe :)

Buns all mixed up ... My recipe calls for white and whole wheat flour but what ever yours is I'm sure it'll be great! Now time to let it rise, punch it down and let it rise again (again just follow your recipe's instructions for how long to rise and such) Now comes the fun part ..... making the buns.

I like to cut my bowl of dough into quarters with a sharp knife and handle a quarter of it at a time.. that's just the way I do it... and then I squeeze about enough dough for a typical dinner roll size (I'm not very good at guessing my bun size but I'm getting better and better.... like they say practice makes perfect). For me it was easiest to work with about 6 buns at a time ....

roll the buns out into circle-ish shapes .... as you can see mine aren't perfectly round. This doesn't matter as much as long as they are somewhat round we are in business.

Brush those puppies with some melted butter (I melted maybe 3 Tbsp and my recipe made 3 dozen).

then sprinkle with shredded cheese.... OK so I shredded WAY too much cheese I'm talking I must have been crazy.... I probably would have been fine with about 4 cups of shredded cheese ... making sure you save some for the end as you want to sprinkle them with cheese as soon as they come out of the oven...

Now roll those puppies up, and fold them in half... I'll put another picture so you can see them folded in half.

Now this time I rolled and folded all 6 before the next step but I actually found it easier to just roll fold and then cut and open each bun then move on to the next bun... (the cut and open photo's coming right up)

So using a sharp knife cut down the middle slicing the folded end open but don't cut the whole thing in half... hopefully looking at the picture will help you understand what I just said, kind of hard to explain.

and next you flip open what you just cut (see how the bottom part wasn't cut) and there you have a lovely heart that will still rise and bake heart shaped... yay! One down only 35 more to go ;)
put them on the greased sheet spaced apart and let rise ... my recipe has me letting the buns rise for an hour before baking....

ready to pop in the oven.... they look delicious already!!

sprinkle cheese on just a moment before pulling them out of the oven and voila .... delicious cheesy valentine!!

Don't they look cute and delicious!! Man I'm going to have to make these again next year but next year I'll make them for the both of us so I can have one :)
Takes a bit of a time commitment but that's how you make sure the extra love goes in. Enjoy baking and if you try these out let me know. I'd love to see how yours turn out!

Happy Early Valentine's everyone!