Mahi Mahi Tacos with Homemade Salsa

I first had fish tacos at Hooters and they were so yummy. Since having them, I was inspired to try them at home. I have made them a few times, but tonight they came out so good.

Mahi Mahi Tacos

1 lb mahi mahi
1 tsp season all (we use lowry's)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 pinch cayenne pepper
Tortillas
Toppings of your choice (I used cheese, shredded cabbage- or use coleslaw mix with no sauce- sour cream, and the homemade salsa)

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Combine all spices with lime juice (will be like a paste) and rub on mahi mahi. Place on baking sheet and bake about 10 minutes or until fish flakes with fork.
3. Put cooked mahi mahi along with toppings in tortilla and enjoy!

Homemade salsa
1 medium-large tomato
1 small piece jalapeno (I cut a small piece off the jalapeno and freeze the rest)
1/4 small onion
1 garlic clove
Small bunch of cilantro
Salt to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in blender and pulse until chopped to desired consistency.

Caramel Corn

We had planned a dinner and a movie date night, but we ended up taking our friend for a pretty big (and delicious) pizza lunch. We decided to make it a movie and dessert night. I decided popcorn might be a yummy snack. Now a few months ago, I bought the Orville Redenbaucher 100 calorie kettle corn snack bags. They have absolutley NO taste. Bleh....so I decided I wanted to use them up some how....I saw a few recipes for caramel corn and was inspired to make this. I decided to trust the amazing Mrs. Paula Deen and was not disappointed. So easy and so tasty! I made only 1/4 recipe and am super glad because it is addicting! (I used 3 snack bags and I think it was a little too much popcorn, so I suggest if you make 1/4 of the recipe, use 2 snack bags) I am going to post the whole recipe in case you want to make a big batch.

Caramel Corn
Courtesy of Paula Deen

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp salt (oops I left this out and it was still great)
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp baking powder
8 qts of popped plain popcorn
Melted chocolate (optional- unless you are a chocoholic like I am, then it is mandatory)

1. Preheat oven to 200F. Put popcorn in baking dish
2. Over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, salt, and corn syrup. Boil for 5 minutes. (Watch that it doesn't get too brown, it burns quickly....don't leave the stove!) Remove from heat and add baking powder.
3. Pour caramel over popped corn. Stir to coat.
4. Bake at 200F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes....I only baked mine 25 minutes because I slightly overcooked the sugar, and it was still great.
5. Drizzle melted chocolate over caramel corn...then enjoy when it has cooled!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese frosting

I had a block of cream cheese just waiting to expire in the refrigerator. It was pushed all the way to the back of the fridge...one of those extra ones I got because I had a coupon. Well I decided to make my stuffed chicken breasts (see previous post for those). That only used half of the block, and it was about to expire, so I decided I needed to use it up somehow. I decided then, a sweet treat was in order. I looked online for something and found a recipe for banana nut cake with cream cheese frosting by Paula Deen. I do have LOTS of leftover bananas in the freezer just waiting to be used....but I made a banana bread and brought it to work and nobody ate it...so I decided to nix that idea. I remembered that a lot of my co-workers love carrot cake and it is typically made with a cream cheese frosting...so that is what I made. This is my FIRST attempt at carrot cake....everyone raved about it. They were fighting over the cupcakes....yup, even mad at me for not making enough of them. One girl asked for the recipe! So here it is....

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting
Courtesy of Paula Deen

4 ounces of cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat) at room temperature
1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick) at room temperature
1/2 pound confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a bowl with a hand mixer, blend together the cream cheese and butter.
2. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the vanilla.
4. Store in refrigerator until cakes are baked and cool.

Carrot Cake
Courtesy of Allrecipes.com

2 eggs
1/2 cup all natural, no sugar added applesauce
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1-1/2 cups grated carrots

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Prepare muffin/cupcake tins- either grease them or use paper liners.
3. In a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat together eggs, applesauce, white sugar and vanilla.
4. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots.
5. Pour even amounts into prepared cupcake tin. Sometimes using an ice cream scoop or a measuring cup will allow for more even amounts and therefore more even cooking times.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
7. When cool, decorate or frost with cream cheese frosting.

If you let these sit in the refrigerator overnight they get so much more tasty!

Banana Pudding

So as promised, here is another yummy banana recipe. One of our friends loves banana pudding as do I, so I decided to whip up a batch to use up some of the awesome free bananas I got from the guy at the fruit stand. I love the Publix banana pudding, but on my quick search, I couldn't find a copy cat recipe, so I decided to stick with the original Nilla wafer recipe. Now I used skim milk as this is all I ever have in the house, and I had some issues with the thickness, so I did some tweaking, which I will list below, to make mine into a pudding consistency (vs the liquid I had when I originally started).

Nilla Wafer Original Banana Pudding

3/4 cup sugar (divided)
1/3 cup flour
Dash salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
45 Nilla Wafers
5 ripe bananas (I only used 3)
Additional Nilla wafers and bananas for decoration
***I also had to use 1 Tbsp cornstarch****

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. (Note- this recipe has a meringue topping which is why you will need the oven, I could definitley have skipped the meringue and still had a great pudding. If you decide you don't want the meringue, skip this step.)
2. Prepare a double boiler. In the top of the double boiler, combine 1/2 cup sugar and flour. Blend in 3 eggs yolks and milk. Cook over boiling water, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. ****Now at this point, my pudding was still just liquid. What I did was add 1 Tbsp of cornstarch and then put the pudding into a pot over medium heat. Stirring constantly until it bubbles and is thick.*****
3. Spread a small amount of the pudding onto the bottom of a 1 1/2 quart casserole. Top with 1/3 bananas and 1/3 Nilla wafers. Top with pudding. Repeat layers ending with pudding.
4. ****Do these parts if you want the meringue topping, otherwise, just start enjoying the tasty pudding.******** Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add in 1/4 sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Spoon on top of pudding making sure it goes to edges and covers all pudding.
5. Bake at 350 F foe 10- 15 minutes or until meringue is browned.
6. Cool. Garnish with Nilla wafers and banana slices before serving.