Bento 3

I LOVE my bento box - style lunchbox, and I try to use it every week to switch it up for my office lunches.

Here's an example of what a few of my lunches last week looked like:

• Hard boiled eggs
• Baby carrots
• Cucumber
• Roasted pine nut hummus
• Whole wheat sandwich thins with mayo, sliced chicken breast (deli meat) and sharp cheddar cheese

Healthy Weeknight Dinners, part 2!

Roasted Salmon Dinner:

• Asian-marinated salmon filet (rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic powder, black pepper, white sesame seeds) roasted in the oven.
• Diced sweet potato, roasted in the oven with olive oil, salt, black pepper and garlic powder.
• Spinach orzo in an Alredo sauce (made with a flour/butter roux, freshly minced garlic, heavy cream, whole milk, and Parmesan cheese).

Dijon-Glazed Chicken:

• Oven roasted chicken breast (glaze: Dijon mustard, honey, brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and melted butter).
• Roasted yellow potatoes (olive oil, salt, black pepper, and garlic powder).
• Steamed green beans, tossed in olive oil, salt, black pepper and garlic powder.

Butternut Squash Risotto!

One of my mom's best friends is a lovely lady from Northern Italy, and she makes the best risotto I've ever tasted. Inspired by a warm Sunday night dinner she recently hosted in her beautiful home, I decided to try it myself.

Pics from the dinner party a few weeks ago!

Risotto is known as a labor of love, because you are essentially devoted to the making of it for at least 30-40 continuous minutes. The reason why risotto is so creamy is because the special Italian type of rice required for it (called Arborio rice) slowly absorbs hot chicken stock and wine, as you slowly pour ladleful after ladleful, and constantly stir the pot for half an hour.

I roasted some diced butternut squash in the oven, and grated some fresh Parmesan from a wedge (trust me - this tastes way better than the tub of already grated Parm!), and voila! The risotto is complete, with just a few ingredients, but plenty of work!

Strawberry Shortcake Parfaits!

As a busy working mama always on the go with a full planner - I sometimes find myself out of time for baking, and needing to come up with a quick and tasty dessert to bring with me to an outing. These strawberry shortcake parfaits are always my fallback dessert - they are easy to whip up in a few minutes, require only a handful of ingredients, and look as good as they taste!

I just buy one box of Entemann's butter loaf pound cake, a carton of heavy whipping cream, and a carton of organic strawberries. The only work involved (besides cutting the cake and strawberries) is to whip the cream using an immersion blender and vanilla extract. Once the cream is whipped, assembly takes no time at all. I like to use plastic 9 oz tumbler cups because they are easy to transport, and you can throw them away when finished.

Healthy Weeknight Dinners, part 1!

My family and I love to cook, and we typically eat healthy with lots of seafood, and using olive oil instead of butter, following a traditional Mediterranean diet (we are Portuguese on my side, Italian on my husband's).

Below are three typical weeknight dinners that I prepare, and my husband and toddler both enjoy.

#1: Chicken

• Oven roasted chicken tenderloins, seasoned simply with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder, and then diced. 
• Portabella mushrooms cooked in a port wine sauce. 
• Diced zucchini, oven roasted with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and then oven broiled with Italian breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan cheese.

#2: Salmon

• Oven roasted Asian-marinated salmon fillets. The marinade consists of rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, black pepper, and sesame seeds. (I omit salt because the soy sauce is salty enough!).
• Sauteed cannellini beans and spinach in a white wine, olive oil and lemon sauce.
• Portabella mushrooms sauteed in Marsala wine.
• Brown rice.

#3: Tilapia

• Oven roasted tilapia filets seasoned with olive oil, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, lemon juice, and a pinch of grated Parmesan cheese.
• Oven roasted yellow potatoes and zucchini, seasoned with olive oil, salt black pepper, garlic powder, and grated Parmesan cheese.
• Orzo (small type of pasta that more closely resembles rice) and sauteed spinach in a garlicky Alfredo sauce (roux of flour and butter, then minced garlic, heavy cream, milk, and Parmesan cheese whisked together for a thick sauce). 

DaVinci's 1

One of my family's favorite local restaurants is DaVinci's located in the Town Center mall here in Boca Raton. The food is always delicious and fresh, and their happy hour is one of the best in town.

We had dinner here a few weeks ago to celebrate one of my mom's best friend's birthdays.

Short rib ravioli in a creamy mascarpone and beef jus sauce!

Prosciutto and burrata salad, yum!

Spaghetti alle vongole ... I love clams!

A delicious super Tuscan to complement the meal.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes!

'Tis the season for all things pumpkin! I LOVE baking with pumpkin, and these cupcakes are a fall staple in my household.

My Pumpkin Spice Bailey's gives the cream cheese frosting a kick!

More Spaghetti Squash....

This year really kicked off a love affair between me and spaghetti squash. I am a big time pasta lover, so I am very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy the healthy veggie alternate of spaghetti squash.

At this point, I've made several different recipes with it, but last week I made an interesting one. Sauteed onions, garlic, and zucchini slowly cooking in a blend of lemon juice, olive oil, chicken broth, and cream. I roasted the chicken tenderloins separately from the spaghetti squash, and then chopped the chicken and added it to the pan with the veggies and sauce. I added some spinach to wilt, seasoned everything with salt and pepper, and then put it all together.

This meal tasted very healthy and fresh. It was easy to make, and substitutions can be made with whatever veggies you have on hand. I would love to try this again with mushrooms or eggplant.

Ritz Carlton Coconut Grove Miami

I attended a Business Summit hosted by the business school my dad attended in Barcelona, IESE, a few weeks ago. The all day conference was held at the Ritz Carlton in Coconut Grove Miami and of course, the food was fabulous.

Lunch: grilled chicken with mango glaze over rosemary orzo, topped with grilled baby asparagus.

Dessert: Strawberry mousse cake with strawberry gelee.

Cocktail Hour: Plenty of delicious Spanish Rioja (Olee!), assorted mini dessert platters, and appetizer bites.

The small yellow squares are pieces of a traditional Spanish-style tapa: basically an egg potato quiche, with small squeeze stoppers full of hot sauce!

Chicken Corn Chowder!

I found an awesome recipe for chicken & corn chowder on Pinterest, using the crockpot, and I made it my mission to make it for Sunday night supper, where I invited two good friends over. This recipe was a bit more labor intensive than others, as I cooked the chicken breasts first in the crockpot with white wine for 5 hours on low, before shredded and setting it aside. Then I prepared the rest of the chowder, chicken broth, seasonings, canned corn, heavy cream, diced potatoes for 3 hours on high, before adding back in the chicken and some shredded cheddar cheese.

To accompany the chowder, I put a bowl of bacon and cheddar cheese on the table. I don't normally eat bacon, but the cripsy bacon tasted delicious with the rich chowder broth.

My friends brought over plenty of good wine and a beautiful fruit tart, which perfectly complemented the chowder.

This was definitely a winner, and I would make it again! I also brought out my fall decorations since we are now in mid September, and I feel like chowder is an autumn type dish anyway!

Cooper's Hawk 2.0!

I visited Cooper's Hawk in Coconut Creek a few weeks ago with a girlfriend, and we had the best time. The wines were tasty, the food delicious, and the atmosphere was very fun. I went back last weekend to celebrate a dear friend's birthday, and we had a blast! I love this place.