Instead of the usual recipe, I am giving you guys a little round-up and a little peek into my super boring (but kind of chaotic) life. If all you want is the food, just skip the last part of this post. If all you want is the life talk, skip down to the bottom. If you want both, well yeah, just read the whole thing! First though, let’s talk food. FYI, the food is my comfort zone, the life talk – not so much. January is an odd month. It’s the start of a new year, people get the idea that they need to eat super healthy to lose the holiday pounds. But at the same time it is the height of the football season and game day is a big deal for a lot of people. Of course a large part of game day is the food. In my book, healthy eating should be part of your lifestyle, as should exercise and the occasional indulgence. Compensate for those indulgences by walking a little farther or adding a plank or two. Anyway, if I am being honest, the only reason I am loving football these days is solely because of the football food. Well, that and my dad? He loves football and it gives me something to ask him questions about when he sometimes comes around after work to help with the dishes (lately he’s been helping out a lot, since the dishes have been piling up way past my elbows). Yes, you read that correctly. I have got my dad helping me with dishes. I like to call it father daughter bonding time since I never, ever, see anyone else during the ‘the cleaning hour” which happens almost everyday after the sun sets. So anyway, I am liking football these days and I thought it might be extra nice if we could do football food in a healthy way – and we can! Here are twenty-eight (I think – I tried counting twice and then just gave up and went with twenty-eight) healthy recipes for game day! Oh, and maybe one or two are not so healthy, but geez live a little. The Snacks + Dips + BBQ Sauce:
Fiesta Guacamole (make this in 5 minutes) Loaded Greek Goddess Pita Chip + Quinoa Nachos Roasted Cauliflower White Pizza Dip Blue Cheese Guacamole Stuffed Mushrooms with Buffalo Sauce Buffalo Oven Fried Goat Cheese Homemade BBQ Sauce……Just Like Sweet Baby Rays (The best BBQ Sauce and SO easy) The Burgers + Sandwiches + Pizzas (+ a quesadilla and maybe a taco too!)
Epic Quinoa + Sweet Potato Fry Burgers with Beer Caramelized Onions Teriyaki Chicken Sub Sandwiches Hawaiian BBQ Quesadillas with Mango Guacamole Hawaiian BBQ Salmon Burger with Caramelized Pineapple Roasted Garlic Chipotle Cheddar Sweet Potato Burgers Loaded Crockpot Carne Asada Tacos Buffalo Shrimp Sandwiches with Spicy Avocado Ranch Thai Salmon Burgers Spinach and Artichoke Melts (they are lightened up and one of my most popular recipes!) Green Olive Pesto Pizza with Roasted Red Peppers and Feta Stuffed Crust The Soups + Salads + Wings (and a stuffed sweet potato):
Smoky Chipotle Chicken Chili Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Salad Crispy Buffalo Quinoa Bites Salad Healthier One Pot Cincinnati Chili Zucchini Crusted Parmesan Chicken Nuggets Sweet and Sour Sticky Thai Boneless Baked Wings Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins The Desserts:
Healthy Dark Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookie Bars (Idiot Proof) Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Special K-Bars Dark Chocolate Covered Coffee Roasted Almond and Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bites The Questionable (I really just love these):
Homemade Soft Pretzels with Buffalo Cheddar Cheese Sauce Spinach and Artichoke Stuffed Soft Pretzels Now let’s talk a little life. Honestly, my life is so boring. I cook, clean, edit pictures, rack my brain for recipes until it hurts and do it all over again the next day, but I have been told that I should share more about my everyday life. I mean, it is not that I do not agree, but seriously I am just not one to talk about myself or my life. I have alway been shy and pretty private, so it is actually a miracle that I started a blog that anyone around the world can read. Whatever, I am going to try and give it my best shot. It is one of my New Year’s goals. Luckily, it should not be too hard this year since I have an exciting project ahead of me and from the comments on this post it sounds like you guys want to know all about it. Ah yess!! Everyone meet my very first house. Also being referred to around here as Tieghan’s Barn.
Yes, right now it is still currently a barn and completely not livable. Well, livable for people anyway. If you are a horse, you are good to go! If you are a little lost, before Christmas I had shared that my family had moved to a new house. One of the reasons for buying this house was because of this barn. For a while now I have been trying to find a place to live that is close enough to my family that I can still give them most of the food I make every day. I mean, I make a ton of food. More than just what you see on the blog (I have been doing a lot of recipe development for companies as well). If I were to live far away, I have no a clue how all the food I make would ever get eaten. So I wanted to find something close enough to home where it would not be a huge pain to hand over food, but something that was all my own. I honestly thought that nothing would ever come up. Living in a small ski town, tiny apartments are crazy expensive and honestly the perfect one is rare to come by, but then somehow we found this house. Actually pretty weird how it all came about, but you’ve Probably read enough for one day. Anyway, my dad had the idea to convert the barn, that we otherwise would never use, into a house. A house for me to rent, that I get to re-do and design. Meaning I get to design my own kitchen with everything I have always wanted, like a ton of counter space with an island that has nothing built into it except space, a giant farm sink and the most perfect windows. I know, it is honestly my dream coming true and it may sound totally cheesy, but come on! It is so true! So here are two pictures of the barn. I am going to give you a whole boat load of the before photos, including the inside sometime very soon. Then I will probably be updating you guys with lots of photos + ideas I have on Saturdays. I would love to hear any ideas you guys have or any links to kitchen’s you love! I may just have to start a home pinterest board to pin them to. So if you follow me on pinterest, send me your links. Otherwise leave them in the comments area below. And I am done. Longest post ever.
Lots of snow!
