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I only moved about 45 minutes away from our last house. But honestly – sometimes it feels like I’m in a whole new place. 45 minutes away means you have to find new doctors, new pediatricians, new dentists. You have to get a new library card. You have to find new “best” roads to drive on and quickest ways to get places. And you have to get used to new stores.

I had things pretty well figured out where I lived before. If there was a certain ingredient that was a little harder to come by, I usually knew the one place to go to find it. I knew what ingredients to buy where, and what to leave off of my menu plan if I didn’t want to go to a certain store, or to multiple stores. But now that has all changed!! I had this meal on my menu plan. I bought all of the ingredients, but couldn’t find any gnocchi. I guess I really wanted to make this recipe, because I even considered making my own, (something that I’ve never done, although it is on my list of things I want to try very soon.) Luckily, I found some gnocchi, after a little bit of searching, and was able to try this recipe.

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And all of the searching was worth it. This meal may not look like much, but this was de-lic-ious. I actually even liked it more than I thought I would. And my husband was head over heels for it. In fact, while we almost always have leftovers, there wasn’t a bit left over after dinner. And this is so packed with veggies and goodness that you can feel pretty good while eating it, too!
Click through for the recipe!

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I am here with another delicious recipe inspired by the wonderful 2012 Flavor Forecast from McCormick. (If you missed the first time I talked about this, check it out – along with a recipe for delicious Coconut Ginger Muffins – here). I am really loving all of these trends and flavor combinations from McCormick.
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I’m so sorry, but I totally had to go here.  You would think that by now, I’d be tired of the whole buffalo chicken thing.  But obviously, I’m obsessed.  (If you missed it, I even compiled a list of 51 different buffalo chicken inspired recipes from around the web.)  And I’m not even going to pretend that this will be the last buffalo chicken recipe that I will post, because I’ll probably think up something else tomorrow that I just have to make.  So consider yourself warned.
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Since I’ve been living at my parent’s house, with a limited pantry, I think my cooking habits have really changed a lot these past couple months. I haven’t had my pantry full of lots of ingredients, and I’ve really only been cooking for myself and Abbi. (Which means I’m mostly cooking for myself, since Abbi has been on a bit of an eating strike lately, unless it’s peanut butter sandwiches, string cheese, or chocolate…) Before, I’d have a whole meal plan, and mostly stick with it. If I didn’t feel like cooking one night, we would survive on leftovers. But these last couple of months, I have found myself, more than once, faced with dinner time and no plan at all. Honestly, I’m surprised at how well I’ve adapted. I have been able to make quite a few meals on the fly, no grocery store trip required.
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I can’t believe it, but this will be my last recipe for 2011.  Where has the time gone??  A college friend texted me over a picture she found of us, and we both looked so young.  I about died when she said it was from 14 years ago.  It seriously feels like it was only a few years ago – not 14!  So yeah, time flies.  Especially when you are having fun!!

I have some changes coming to the blog in the new year, but we’ll talk about those on Monday.  And typically, I would be doing this month’s Cookbook of the Month review today, but I’m being lazy and I’m going to save that until Monday, too.  Besides – these enchiladas need a whole post dedicated to them.  Oh yes, they do!

I’ve made plenty of enchiladas in my day.  In fact, they are probably my go-to meal.  As dependent I am on recipes, enchiladas are one of those things that I feel like I can just throw together, no recipe needed.  But these babies here – this is a recipe I will be saving.  First of all, they are a little unique.  Zucchini in enchiladas?  I know it sounds a bit strange, but it totally works here.  And this sauce is amazing.  If you don’t make anything else, at least make the sauce.  It’s delicious and will have you licking the bowl.

The original recipe for these enchiladas actually made 8 chicken enchiladas, and 8 black bean and zucchini enchiladas.  I wanted it all, so I cut the recipe back a bit and combined it all.  But these would be SO easy to make vegetarian.  Just leave the chicken out and make sure you use vegetable stock.  But I loved combining it all.  The only thing I would have changed would have been to add more black beans, so the recipe below has what I wish I would have added.  But seriously – besides that, which is easily fixed – I wouldn’t change a thing.

If you are an enchilada lover, these are some that you want to add to the top of your list!

Recipe Rating: 9.5 out of 10

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Click through for the recipe!

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I used to think that I thrived on change. I used to be that person who would move the furniture around a couple of times a year, or change up the bedding often, just because I liked that feeling of change. Well, I think I’ve changed in my old age. I don’t really like change anymore. I want stability, and predictability, and scheduling. I’ve gotten boring, haven’t I?? Last night, my husband was able to come down and visit us, and he was in the living room with the kids, and I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and everything felt so normal. I’ve really been craving that lately, and while it was short-lived, I really cherished it.

Speaking of change, I haven’t even been able to keep regularity in my posting. You’ll notice that today’s post is the Cookbook of the Month post, which I usually post on Fridays. I had another recipe I had to post on Friday, so this recipe got postponed until today. I’m learning to roll with the punches right now!! So you’ll get 2 recipes from this month’s cookbook this week. So it kind of feels like a bonus!!

Confession time. On the rare occasion that we go out to that certain fast food Chinese food restaurant, I like to get the orange chicken. There is something about that deep fried, super sweet dish that draws me in every time. And I’m guessing many of you are the same, since it’s their most popular dish. But if you are looking for a reproduction of that recipe here today, you’ll have to look somewhere else. Because this is not the same kind of orange chicken. But believe me when I say this – this is an orange chicken that you’ll want to try! This recipe is a little more refined, a little more special. And definitely delicious!

This recipe starts off with dredging the pieces of chicken in cornstarch and then frying them. Next time, I would skip the whole deep frying thing, because I think that even though it was delicious, I think it would be equally delicious if you just sauteed the chicken and saved a few calories. (And some oil, and a bit of a mess, since I’m notoriously messy when it comes to frying!) But besides this, I wouldn’t change a thing. I did adapt some amounts in the recipe below, based on how much chicken I had on hand and how much sauce I wanted, but I think it all turned out pretty perfectly. In fact, my sister stopped by that day, and I was telling her about the recipe. I had a plate of it in the fridge and brought it out for her to try it, and she ended up eating the whole plate – cold! That’s got to mean something, right?

Recipe Rating: 9 out of 10

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Click through for the recipe!