Author Archives: thepetitecroissant

My Favorite Meal of the Week – Spinach Chicken Enchiladas

Posted in Dinner, Gluten Free, Vegetarian by
I love all Mexican food. Good, fresh guacamole makes me weak at the knees. No really, it does. It’s the one food I’d pick if I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life. But anyways, back to today’s post. I love Mexican food, but it is not always the healthiest option. Today’s recipe attempts to take a classic Mexican dish, and make it healthy. These spinach chicken enchiladas are delicious, and relatively easy to make. But sadly, I can’t take credit for the recipe, it comes from my mom who made these all the time when I was growing up.
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Maple Honey Granola

Posted in Breakfast, Brunch by
For those of you who read my Easter brunch post, you know that I served mini yogurt and granola parfaits. I decided to do them because I felt like I had to have at least one healthy breakfast item, just in case anyone didn’t feel like indulging. Below is the recipe for the granola. It was delicious, and I even made it again this weekend. I love taking a little bag of it to work to munch on.
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My Favorite Meal of the Week – Baked Teriyaki Chicken and Broccoli

Posted in Dinner by

This is another easy, healthy dinner. I’m posting it in honor of the health kick I need to go on after all the eating I did in the last 10 days of vacation. I was in NYC for a friend’s bridal shower, then in Charleston with Dave and my parents, and then in DC with my parents. And oh my god, did we eat well. So much amazing food!

So to combat all that good southern BBQ, I am sharing another one of my favorite healthy dinners. The other great thing about this recipe is that it also involves very few ingredients (mostly stuff you already have in the kitchen), which I love. The chicken takes about 15 minutes to prep, and then 50 minutes to cook, and then I just served ours with some broccoli that I’d sauteed on the stove for a few minutes in a little bit of olive oil (you could also do a tablespoon or two of butter). Very low maintenance dinner! You could probably even throw some veggies in the pan with the chicken if you wanted to make it even easier!

Blueberry Muffins with Lemon Streusel Topping

Posted in Breakfast, Brunch, Fruit by

I’ve made these muffins twice, and both times, they have been delicious. Most recently, I served them at our Easter brunch (see this post). There are a couple of things that make these more interesting than your average blueberry muffins. First of all, they have a yummy crunchy lemon streusel topping. Secondly, they involve blueberries in two forms- whole and then also a blueberry jelly of sorts that is swirled through the dough.

If you’re a muffin fan, I definitely recommend making these.

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My Favorite Meal of the Week – EASTER Edition

Posted in Breakfast, Brunch, Entertaining, Holiday, Spring by
Last year, we had a last minute Easter brunch for a few friends and had so much fun that we decided to do a bigger (more official) one this year. As you know by now, I love brunch. But it is also the hardest meal to host because it requires a lot of last minute things being done in the morning. And after throwing a brunch at the holidays (and being in sweats when the first people showed up), I was determined to get things done on time for this one.
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Our menu involved the following items (and was written out on a sign for our guests to see):

– Scrambled eggs wrapped in bacon (see recipe here)
– Blueberry muffins with lemon streusel topping (see my recipe here)
– Mustard potatoes (see recipe here)
– Mini yogurt parfaits with homemade maple granola and strawberries (see granola recipe here)
– Buttermilk donuts (see recipe on the blog next Sunday)
– Chocolate chip banana bread (see recipe here)
– Spinach salad with caramelized onions, candied nuts, blue cheese and bacon (see recipe here) Continue reading →

Meyer Lemon Macadamia Nut Tart

Posted in Dessert, Fruit, Pies/Tarts/Crumbles by
This tart was delicious. It is so great for spring because of the vibrant yellow color. My only warning is that macadamia nuts are surprisingly expensive. So if you’re looking for a cheap dessert, maybe don’t do this (especially since you only use a small amount of nuts).
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My Favorite Meal of the Week – Potato and Tuna Salad

Posted in Dinner, Gluten Free, Healthy, Salads by
I tend to stay away from tuna. I’ve cemented the idea in my ahead that mercury is bad and, therefore, I can’t eat it. In reality, as long as you don’t eat it regularly, you’re probably fine. Dave recently found this recipe and I gave in to trying it. And oh my god, so glad. It’s delicious and very easy to make. We’ve made it part of our regular dinner rotation!
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Dark Chocolate Tart with Gingersnap Crust

Posted in Dessert, Pies/Tarts/Crumbles by
So if you read my post from Wednesday, you know that I served this for a dinner party recently. What you don’t know is that it was so good, that I’ve already served it at a second dinner party. I have been making this same crust for years (my mom taught it to me) and it’s amazing. And the best part is it has two ingredients, store bought gingersnaps and butter. Doesn’t get much easier than that and the flavor is amazing. The other perk to this crust is that if you are GF, it’s really easy to make with GF gingersnaps (which you can find at Trader Joes).
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My Favorite Meal of the Week – Flank Steak and Bloody Mary Salad

Posted in Dinner, Entertaining, Salads by
A few weeks ago, I volunteered to have some of our friends over for dinner on the same day that I planned to participate in a bottomless mimosa brunch with friends who were in town visiting. After making the plans, I realized that this was going to make things interesting. I’m not used to preparing a full dinner and dessert after a day of drinking. So when picking out my menu, it was all about finding something that could be done the day before and/or required very little last minute preparation. To find inspiration, I turned to one of my favorite blogs – Smitten Kitchen. I’d been eyeing a couple of her recipes and decided to use several of them for this dinner.
Here is what I pulled together:

1) Blood Orange Margaritas (recipe here)

2) Veggies and Hummus & Crackers and Cheese (all from Trader Joes)

3) Flank Steak and Bloody Mary Salad (recipe here)

4) Dark Chocolate Tart with Gingersnap Crust (recipe on this blog here)
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Sticky Buns

Posted in Breakfast, Brunch by

As I’ve mentioned many times on my blog, one of the reasons I love to bake is so that on the weekends you can wake up to delicious home baked goods. These sticky buns are a perfect example of this. You do all the work the night before, and then just bake them the next morning.