She's back....

The Skinny Chef in Disguise has returned!! After a long hiatus, I am back! In the last few weeks I have rediscovered my love for cooking, baking, and all things...FOOD! This year I have been on a journey in weight loss and becoming more aware of my relationship with food. No phenomenal revelation other than this: food is not a bad thing, moderation is a good thing, obsession about food (in any capacity) is a horrible thing! So I've decided, that I love to cook and that's ok! It doesn't mean I have to be overweight, and it doesn't mean I have to obsess over calories. So this post will be about some of the things I've cooked over the past few weeks. Maybe I'll be back more regularly!

First up! Pork chops!! What I'm really enjoying about cooking lately is making things my own. Don't get me wrong, you can't replace a good recipe, but sometimes it's ok to think outside the box and just try things! So, I served my pork chops over a dried cherry, apple stuffing and topped it with sauteed cinnamon apples! I find myself remembering things I've heard on Food Network, and in this case I had the idea to carry the apple theme through the whole meal. So, I cooked the stuffing in apple juice instead of water to connect it with the apples on top. My husband LOVES applesause with pork chops so I made my own apples with a few dried cherries to revisit the idea of the cherries in the stuffin.! After eating the dish, he said he would have rather had the apples on the side, but I like the way it all looks piled up on the plate!

Next up was a super yummy pasta salad. For Christmas my mom got me a Dean Brothers cookbook. It's nice because all the recipes are EASY! I occassionally enjoy a challenging recipe, but tend to lean toward the easy ones! So, I made this pasta salad from that cookbook for Alan and I to take to work for lunch! Cheese tortellini, brocolli, cherry tomatoes, cheese....yum!

The same day I made the pasta salad I made a super simple, super delish chicken alfredo pasta bake for dinner!

I am loving all the fresh berries this summer! I serve them at least once a week with a meal! Ava (my 3 year old) LOVES strawberries, but doesn't care for blueberries. Molly Kate (21 months old) will only eat blueberries, so they spend half the meal trading berries with each other!

Unfortunately, I have no documentation of the fish tacos I made a few weeks ago! I'm really horrible at taking pictures, so unless my phone is sitting on the counter, I don't really remember to take photos of my kids, much less my food! Oh well, they were still yummy! If you don't believe me, ask my mom! She tried them and said they were good!

Last night, was the ultimate! I've been on a quest to try new things that I've never made before (ie. fish tacos) and I have had the itch to do barbecue lately! Not just any old barbecue though, I wanted to tackle baby back ribs. I had absolutely no idea where to start so I did some research online. Of course I found about 74 different ways to do ribs in about 2 minutes. So I formulated a plan in my mind and headed off to the store! I decided to try two different sauces for the ribs: a bourbon bbq sauce and a Kansas City sticky red sauce. I decided to do some chicken too, more as a back up in case the ribs were a bust! But, here's the result!

Topped off the meal with homemade peach cobbler made with the peaches from my backyard!

Amazingly, I have maintained a weight loss of 20 pounds since January! Even with all this yummy food!