Mediterranean Tuna Cakes and Citrus Mayo

I have been making this recipe for years! It's so deish and I wanted to share it. Best part is the Citrus Mayo so don't leave that out. Enjoy!

Click here for the full recipe! Enjoy!!

Ingredients:

Mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fat-free mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fat-free milk
1/2 teaspoon grated lime rind
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

Tuna Cakes:
3/4 pounds tuna steaks, finely chopped
3/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh or 1 teaspoon dried mint
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon dry breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon onion, minced
1 tablespoon fat-free mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon olive oil
Cooking spray

What to do:
1. To prepare mayonnaise, combine all 5 ingredients in a small bowl. Cover and chill.
2. To prepare tuna cakes, combine tuna and next 8 ingredients (tuna through salt) in a bowl; stir until well-blended. Divide tuna mixture into 4 equal portions; shape into patties. Dredge patties in 2 tablespoons bread crumbs. Heat oil in nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add patties and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Serve with the mayo and side salad!

Slow Cooker Jerk Chicken and Rice

We have chicken as our main dish about 3-4 times a week. As you can imagine, the same old recipes get tiresome to prepare and even more boring to eat. So, I've been searching for some new ways to create exciting chicken dishes that all of my kiddos and the hubs will enjoy.

On our vacation last summer, we sampled some amazing, authentically Jamaican-prepared Jerk Chicken and I've never forgotten how great it was. The thought of making this on my own was daunting. C'mon! The Jamaicans had been perfecting this meal for many many many years. But I stumbled across this recipe and thought, "I can do that!"

I'm sure our new Jamaican friends don't use a slow cooker and I bet their recipes are not quite the same as this one. But the outcome is pretty close to what I remember enjoying and that is all that matters to us. I took the liberty to make a few modifications to the recipe I found that would better suite our taste buds. This is definitely a "do-again" meal.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the final prepared meal. We were too busy enjoying the dinner and remembering our vacation moments to stop and have a photo-shoot. But I will try to add some the next time I prepare this dish! If you make this and take your own photos, send them my way and I will add yours to this blog post!

Here I am enjoying the spicy aroma as the meat is cooking!

Ingredients:
5 drumsticks and 2 chicken breasts
4 teaspoons of salt
4 teaspoons of paprika
1 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons of onion powder
2 teaspoons of thyme
2 teaspoons of garlic powder
2 teaspoons of black pepper

What to do:
1. Combine all of the spices together in a large bowl. This will be the rub or the chicken chicken. Feel free to adjust the amount of cayenne pepper based on your desired level of spiciness. You can even leave it out and add a bit more onion powder, but it will still be a bit spicy due to the paprika.

2. Wash each of the chicken pieces in cold water briefly and pat dry. Place the washed chicken meat into the bowl with the rub, and completely rub the spices onto the meat trying to get it under the chicken skin if you can.

3. Place chicken into the slow cooker. No need to add any liquid.

4. Set the slow ­cooker on low heat and cook for 5-­6 hours. When the chicken is done, the meat will fall off the bone.

We served the chicken over steamed white rice and a side salad. The chicken will produce extra juices while cooking so we used these juices as a sauce to spice up the rice. Enjoy!

7-minute frosting cookies...really?

I remember watching my Ginny (Grandmother on my mother's side) when she would make 7-minute frosting for all of our birthday cakes.  I may have been just a kid but I already knew it was the most delicious cake frosting EVER!!  And she made it look so easy! Then I grew up and found that it was so much easier to buy the pre-made frosting at the grocery store. I have no problem admitting that making 7-minute frosting intimidates me a lot.  Just the thought of it would make me sweat.....Then I became a mother of a child who does not like the store-bought frosting......or frosting from any cake bakery EVER....

I love cake! Actually, let me clarify, I love beautiful cakes that can make our birthday party center-pieces look amazing. I have been known to search out the most unique cake designer and order it 6 weeks in advance of the celebration....at a pretty penny, I might add, and then not eat a single slice. Sometimes, the cake looks amazing but tastes terrible. This is when I ask myself, "Why do I do this every time?" But I continue this crazy behavior.

My husband's birthday is why I bring this up. I did my normal search for the most unique cake for his 45th birthday. But what I found was that it was going to cost me $245. WHAT??? I. Just. Said. No! Then I came up the brilliant idea to simply ask my hubs what kind of cake he would like, and to my surprise, he told me!  What have I stumbled onto here....maybe a homemade cake that is enjoyable and that will be devoured. That's the way to go.

So here we are back to the 7-minute frosting. This was part of his request. And now I am hyperventilating and my heartbeat is increasing....how can I live up to my Ginny and my mother who can both make this frosting effortlessly. Oh, let me add that this is the icing that the hub's mother use to make for him when he was a kid. Now I have to live up to my Ginny, my mother, AND his mother. Oh the pressure! But, I have a plan (were you surprised?).

Today, it's two days before his official celebration and I've decided to try it out....Can I say SUCCESS??? I am so proud! Big sigh of relief going on over here.

Here's how I made it (not a family secret recipe):

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup water
2 egg whites
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

What to do:
Mix the sugar, cream of tartar, salt, water and egg whites in the top of a double boiler. Beat with a handheld mixer for one minute. Place pan over boiling water in the bottom of the double boiler. Beat constantly for 7 minutes on high speed with the handheld mixer. Then beat in the vanilla.

That's it! Easy-peasy!


Again, here we are, two days before the celebration and I now have a ton of frosting that I should just throw out. But, I can't do that so I decide to try is to make them into meringue cookies. My version of meringue cookies, that is. Or "7-minute frosting cookies".

I simply dumped the icing into a large zip lock bag, cut a corner off, and piped the cookies onto a greased cookie sheet. Then let them bake in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes. I let them cool for a New York minute and then scooped them off of the cookie sheet with a metal spatula to completely cool. They were fluffy and so delicious!

Here they are piped onto the cookie sheet ready for the 250 degree oven. 

Baked and ready to eat!!

Here is The Little who now has a favorite new cookie to enjoy!