Honey Dijon Chicken Cutlets

From first through eighth grade, I attended a teeny tiny parochial school in Bedford, NY, where my class-size was 26 and birthday parties consisted of inviting your entire grade.

Claire and me in our super-cool St. Pat's uniforms circa 1994

On the first Friday of every month, we had a half day and were dismissed at lunch time. For many years, these 'First Fridays' as we called them meant one thing: a trip to McDonalds after school for lunch with our friends. My parents were pretty good about limiting our fast food consumption, so this was a HUGE deal. I'd basically start strategically planning which Happy Meal I was going to get on Monday of that week. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's still a red, plastic briefcase with my name on it lying around my parents house somewhere filled with my Happy Meal toys of childhood past (ha).

So, to make an unnecessarily long story short, I absolutely loved ordering McDonald's chicken nuggets. What made these little nuggets even BETTER was smothering them in the honey dipping sauce (do they even make that anymore?). This recipe took me back to those days, but its ten times better since there's a little dijon mixed in there!

Kale & Jalapeño Salad

Since Beta's Bites has been a taddddd bit carb-centric lately, I'm switching gears with today's post and sharing a recipe for a healthy kale and jalapeno salad.

This is my take on a salad that I'm obsessed with from Spreads Sandwich Shop in NYC. It's simple, yet flavorful, and the jalapeno adds a nice little ka-pow to the dish. I highly recommend making it at least a few hours before you plan on serving. The longer you keep it in the fridge, the more the flavors blend and the better it tastes.

(PS, did I mention that this salad is 100% tailgate certified? A light, perfect side dish to complement all the burgers, dogs, and sausages devoured in the parking lot pre-game... plus, you can make it the night before!)

Paisley Post

I just had to...

That is all.

Recipe for Kale Jalapeno Salad coming later!

My Faves: Soup Edition

This morning when I was commuting to work it finally felt like fall outside. We're talking too cold for short sleeves but too warm for a jacket, leaves spinning off the trees, brisk and beautiful fall.

Sometimes, after a long week in the fall, there's nothing I'd rather come home to than warm soup. A bowl of your favorite concoction that you can take to the couch, curl up with under a blanket and watch the shows that you DVR'd over the course of the week.

So here are my five favorite soup recipes as of late (in no particular order)... They're a good mix of heavy, light and healthy.

What's your favorite fall soup? I'm especially looking for a good butternut squash soup recipe!


1. The Pioneer Woman's Perfect Potato Soup -  although its probably not the healthiest of the bunch, it definitely wins the award for being the most down-right delicious.

Photo courtesy of www.thepioneerwoman.com

Meet Paisley!

So I've been a bit distracted this week and haven't really had time to cook anything exciting... but it's all for a really great reason, I promise!

Anthony and I had been having the 'puppy' conversation for a long time now and, to make a long story short, we took a trip on Saturday to North Shore Animal League in Long Island to 'browse.'

If you know me you know that 'browsing' in an animal shelter means that I'm going to be walking out with something. Come on now.

We ended up laying eyes on a beautiful 6-month old lab hound mix who completely stole my heart and had the perfect personality for us. She's happy, active, friendly and absolutely hysterical to be around so clearly we just had to take her home.

Everyone, meet Paisley!

Love her to pieces (now if we could just potty train her already)...

Artichoke Pizza

This might be the thousandth time I've mentioned it, but we've been on quite a pizza kick lately. 

A couple weeks ago, Anthony and I went to a charity event in the Chelsea neighborhood of NYC for a good friend of ours' organization, Hope for Hope. Afterwards, we stopped into the famous Artichoke Basille's Pizza for a quick slice. I'd never been there before, but had heard amazing things. 

To make a long story short, their signature pizza - the artichoke pie - absolutely lived up to all my expectations. The crust was thick and crunchy, the sauce delicious and creamy. Basically it was perfect and I dreamt about it for about a week afterward. 

So I decided to attempt to recreate the pizza. It surprisingly worked out great (a friend even said it was one of the best pizzas she's ever had)!

My Faves: Nestle's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Photo courtesy of www.verybestbaking.com

In my opinion (not that it matters), there's nothing that warms your heart more than a chocolate chip cookie.

Stressful day at work? Easy fix: chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk.

Spill coffee on your dress on the way to a wedding? Easy fix: chocolate chip cookie and a Tide pen.

Bad breakup? Not such an easy fix, but a chocolate chip cookie and a bottle of wine should help.