I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend – it went by so fast even with having Friday off of work! Before I get to the recap, I have to announce the winner of my 500k pageview giveaway. . . .winner, winner, lobster dinner of the cookbook giveaway is:
True Random Number Generator 36
My current favorite (and not too healthy, might I add) is Bakerella’s Cake Pops Book. I’m making the Easter eggs and chicks for this weekend – so adorable!
Congrats Betsy! Please send me your street address to mybizzykitchen@gmail.com and I’ll get the cookbooks out to you. 😀
My MIL, SIL and I shopped on Friday – it was nice to have that extra day to get ready. Tony and I love these garlic crisps – we buy them at Fresh Market even though they are $3.99 for a small container – they are so addicting. Tony thought we could make them ourselves, and we actually like our version better.
We can buy French bread at our local store – 2 loaves for .99 cents. I simply mixed together 4 tablespoons olive oil, 4 teaspoons minced garlic and 1 teaspoon of garlic salt, and brushed that over the sliced bread and baked it for 15 minutes, or until the bread is completely crisp.
My favorite appetizer of the day – the garlic crisp with goat cheese and super thin proscuitto on top. Next time I’ll drizzle a bit of balsamic over the top – yum!
Next up is something I had completely forgotten about – this will age me, but growing up we could buy shrimp cocktail in a jar – you could literally it eat with a fork, and I remember my mom saving those shrimp jars and we’d have orange juice in them for breakfast. I couldn’t find those – so I bought cooked salad shrimp, tossed it with cocktail sauce and poured that over room temperature cream cheese – holy yum – so simple, yet so delicious over a crips cracker.
And while I was working on other things, Tony put together this relish tray – he loves those black olives with the pits in them – I love the salami and pickled jalapenos!
Another favorite though is the quickest to put together – 5 minute roasted red pepper hummus.
- 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed
- 1 glove garlic
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- pinch of salt
- cracked pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1 7 oz. jar of roasted red peppers, undrained
Throw everything into a food processor – add a splash of water to get the right consistency. So delicious!
We had so much food – I really didn’t take a lot of pictures in the heat of the cooking. I did a spiral ham on the gas grill, a beef roast in the oven, my Italian Sunday gravy in the crockpot – my MIL brought delicious green beans, strawberry pie that was out of this world and cupcakes.
My plate:
My MIL’s strawberry pie – holy cow I will need to get this recipe – its not low calorie, but its not very sweet which is why I loved it.
And my MIL didn’t want any of her pictures on the blog, so I will give you my nephew and his girlfriend – she makes the best bacon wrapped water chestnuts, but the picture came out blurred of her dish, but here’s a picture of them in my back yard.
She’s a really sweet girl – and she has some kick ass tattoos – I liked this one – I’ll have to ask her next time what the dynamite symbol is for!
I did not go to my WI on Saturday. I needed to regroup with all the stress, but I think it may have backfired – I haven’t counted a point since last Thursday, so I have to get back on track stat. I have the free membership at the gym near my new office this week so I plan to take full advantage. Another bad thing about not exercising? My average blood sugar last week was 170! Eek!
Goals for the week:
- minimum of 60 minutes of exercise each day
- count all my points
- no alcohol
- drink a minimum of 64 ounces of water each day
So here’s to having a clean week and I promise to go to my WI on Saturday! Happy Monday!
Your weekend eats look amazing! I haven’t been tracking, either..shame, shame!!
I love that tat, too! And I’m not a tat lover at all!
Glad your holiday was nice! Congrats to the lucky winner!!!
Dang, everything looks freaking awesome! i would be all over the salami and black olives…hell, who am I kidding, I would be all over all of your food 😉
Thanks Jen! 😀
Great food Biz!! I love the salami tray 🙂
Those garlic crisps look amazing! I love making bruschetta with toasted bread. It’s delicious!
happy belated easter! i’m impressed that you made a ham and a roast. wow! i wimped out and made chicken sausages. i’m just terrible at cooking meat! i’ve messed it up so many times that now it intimidates me.
good luck with your weekly goals. no booze, that’s a tough one but you can totally rock it!!
Everything looks so yummy! I don’t know why I rarely make homemade hummus…. I love it so much!
2 for $0.99?! Lucky! I would be eating bread everyday!!
Sounds like a wonderful weekend. JUST what you needed after all the difficulties in the last few weeks. Take care of yourself!!!
Glad you had a good weekend!!! Hubby has been mentioning shrimp cocktail forever. I really should make some soon… 🙂
Have a great week!
Those appetizers look awesome! Gotta remember them for next time I’m having people over or need to bring something to a party.
Looking forward to the strawberry pie recipe! Totally something my husband would love!
Here’s to a great week! Crossing my fingers that there are no lingering stresses!
We just had the last of it tonight after dinner – so good! Although I think I am going to try to make a healthier version and post that recipe 😀
That roasted red pepper hummus looks amazing. I love the color.
I’ve been eating roasted red pepper hummus out here – your version looks so easy to make! I’ll have to try it once I get home.
Sounds like you had a busy weekend on top of your wild week – hope you can regroup, relax and settle in this week with your new job. And enjoy that free week at the gym! 🙂
Keep having fun in Cali! 😀
Good luck on your clean week.
Um garlic toast, goat cheese AND prosciutto? I die.
I could have made a whole meal out of the appetizers. Bread with anything and anti-pasto platters are probably my favorites!
I’m sorry you think your break backfired but I totally think you deserved a rest from the stress. Hope you have a great week Biz!
Thanks Helen – and if it were up to me and Hannah, we’d eat small plates of different food every night. 😀
A yummy Easter weekend, Biz! So glad you enjoyed your time off 🙂
What a great meal! I’ve never been a strawberry pie fan, so I may have to try this one if you post the recipe. 🙂
Sounds like a GREAT weekend! We did our ham on the grill, too! And that strawberry pie looks perfect for summer!
Great meal 🙂 I love doing up homemade hummus- so easy and so tasty. And I’ve never had a strawberry pie before- I totally want to try. Enjoy your Monday
I’m starting a new diet today for 2 weeks and hummus is NOT on the menu plan! Can you believe it! You better believe I’ll be making this in a couple of weeks when I can eat it!
Biz, sounds like a fantastic weekend!