Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf "Muffins"

You know what seems to be all the rage in restaurants these days? Fusion, or the combining of several separate cuisines into one dish/restaurant concept. This is kind of like that, but far less fancy because mine involves meatloaf. It’s more like diner-fusion than an elegant and eclectic mix of Japanese, Brazilian and Parisian fare (or whatever). I’m good with that. Meatloaf and Chicken Parmesan are two of my favorite  comfort foods, and I loved the idea of combining them. The finished product kind of reminded me of a chicken version of meatballs (which are one of my favorite foods of all time -  I LOVE meatballs), so I loved them. Of course I also followed my instinct to portion them into muffin tins, and as always it made for added convenience, presentation, portion control, and in this case – a shorter cooking time! These "muffins make great leftovers and are freezer and kid-friendly. Plus, you get to transform your kitchen into the next great Italian-American fusion restaurant! Look at you, being all hip and fancy.

Chocolate Crepes with Raspberry Sauce

Holy decadent breakfast, Batman! Or dessert, if you’d rather. Really, these would be heavenly anytime. The crepes are light and chocolatey and the raspberry sauce is rich, sweet and a little tart and absolutely perfect with the dollop of whipped cream on top. I’ve had crepes on my to make list for a long time, but I was somewhat intimidated to make them since I’ve only ever seen them made on a crepe pan with one of those wooden dowel thingies. Little did I know they’re actually just as easy to make at home on a skillet! I’m not going to lie to you, straining the raspberry puree to remove the seeds for the sauce took a little bit more time than I thought it would (around 15 minutes, maybe?) but it was well worth it. That sauce is amazing. I may make more of it just to drizzle over other things. It’s really good.

These crepes are perfect to serve guests for an elegant brunch or for a Sunday breakfast at home. As I mentioned above, they’d also make a fabulous dessert. The best part is, you can store any leftover crepes and sauce separately in the fridge and then just quickly assemble them when need be for the next days. Now that I know crepes are pretty easy to make, I have a bunch of ideas for other varieties. Expect to see more crepes on EB in the future!

Shredded Mexican Chicken

I’m very into versatile shredded meats lately. That’s probably a weird statement, but I live by myself so I’m constantly eating leftovers, and it’s so nice to make a batch of something and then be able to use it creatively in new ways for a few days. When I was on my family vacation in North Carolina last week my cousin Dan made this recipe and served it for tacos and I absolutely loved it. The chicken is juicy and flavorful and can be used in endless ways: to top a salad (pictured below), in taco shells, in a burrito bowl, in lettuce wraps, on a Mexican pizza, etc. My favorite way to eat this is actually straight-up (pictured above) because it’s full of flavor on its own. Add a few sides and you’re good to go.

For other versatile shredded meats (still a weird statement, but I’m rolling with it), see: Slow Cooked Mexican Pulled Pork Tacos, Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken, or Slow Cooked Barbecue Beef.

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Ba-nilla Pudding Pops

These popsicles are bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Really. Not even just silly, crazy bananas, but also packed full of banana flavor and actual bananas. I’m at the beach this week on vacation with my family and I’m currently typing this up on the deck of our rental beach house (see my current view below), so I wanted to post something super summery. I love bananas and I knew I wanted to do a banana pudding pop, so I started thinking about what to include and the box of Nilla Wafers in my cupboard kept calling out to me. It was a good call. These pudding pops are cold and creamy and perfectly sweet and refreshing. You get big bites of real bananas and the wafers get kind of soft and cakey. It’s a perfect summer dessert for a hot day and each popsicle is only 69 calories!

My popsicle molds hold about a ½ cup is liquid or ingredients in each section. I can’t remember where I found them, but they are just like these ones on Amazon. You can obviously make these in any popsicle mold, or in Dixie cups with popsicle sticks, but I like these because if your popsicle gets drippy you can suck all the juices out through the sippy straw built into the handle. Genius.

Oak Island, NC

White Vegetable Lasagna "Cupcakes"

For a while now, I’ve been receiving comments from vegetarians looking for ways to adapt my different wonton “cupcakes” to be meatless. Though the meat in many of those recipes can be replaced by beans or veggies or fake “meat” products and still be delicious, I thought it was probably time I made a meat-free wonton “cupcake” – no adaptation required! For all you carnivores out there, I thought these were perfectly satisfying with veggies only, but if you want to swap out some of the veggies for cooked chicken, just sub the same amount in ounces (so if you decide to replace 3 oz of veggies, use 3 oz of cooked chicken in its place).

These little lasagnas are stuffed with creamy, cheesy flavor and the different vegetables provide great texture. I love broccoli, zucchini and carrots, but you could certainly use different veggies depending on what you prefer/have on hand. I highly recommend the Classico brand light Alfredo sauce. It’s my personal favorite. I don’t think it tastes light at all. As a matter of fact, I doubt anyone trying one of these “cupcakes” would ever dream they’re light. These are man-approved, kid-friendly, and I think they’d even work great as a side dish for steak or chicken. Vegetarians and carnivores rejoice! These wonton cupcakes are for everyone.

*For more information or to convert this recipe to mini-muffin sized appetizers, visit the Wonton "Cupcakes" section of my FAQs page!*

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

Ch-ch-ch-changes! If you’ve been here before and you’re reading this post directly on my site, you’ve probably noticed it looks completely different. If you’re reading this in Google Reader or by email or something similar, cut it out and get on over here or else this post isn’t going to make much sense to you!

In addition to my new look, I also added some features to improve your experience and make grocery shopping, meal planning and recipe sharing even easier! I’ve outlined all the new features below:

1.    Brand New Look: The most obvious change is my complete new redesign, courtesy of Melissa Rose Graphic Design Studio! I told Melissa I wanted a fresh, clean look that was professional and cohesive while still reflecting my bubbly personality. I’m so happy with what we came up with! Melissa was great to work with and remained patient with me when I asked a ton of questions or wanted the shade of pink changed multiple times until it matched the vision in my head. She did a great job making the site feel like “me” with my favorite colors, and she even kept a few polka dots around as an homage to my old look. Thanks, Melissa!

2.    Ziplist - Recipe Box, Shopping List and Meal Planner: I think you’re all going to be excited about this part. Have you ever wished you could save recipes from all over the web to one central recipe box? Even better, have you imagined you could then select a few of those recipes that you want to make next and have all the ingredients transformed into a printable grocery list with the click of a button? Hey, while you’re dreaming you might as well wish this recipe box also had a mobile app so you could create/carry that grocery list with you anywhere you go (no more “Oops, I forgot the list! What was I here for again...?”). The super-organized among you may even wish for a Meal Planning feature where you can add meals to your queue or schedule them for specific dates.

Guess what? It’s not a dream! I’m happy to say that Emily Bites has teamed up with Ziplist.com which is a really great site that actually does all of those dream-features I listed above. Pretty cool, right? While Emily Bites is undoubtedly your favorite source for recipes on the web (*cough cough*), a lot of other really great sites use Ziplist as well, and you can save recipes from any of them directly to your recipe box! A few examples of sites you may already know and love: Martha Stewart, Recipe Girl, Skinnytaste, Simply Recipes, Baked Bree, Our Best Bites, Kalyn's Kitchen, Plain Chicken, Pennies on a Platter and many more!

To save a recipe from Emily Bites, simply scroll down to the bottom of the post and click the blue “save recipe” button (as pictured below):

You’ll need to make an account with Ziplist if you haven’t already, but once you have you’ll be able to access your recipe box from Ziplist.com, their mobile app, or on any partner site. To access it on Emily Bites just click on the Ziplist link in the top navigation bar!

3.    Social Media Share Buttons: Love one of my recipes and want to share it with all your friends? It’s easy! At the bottom of each post you’ll now find options to share the recipe on Facebook, like the recipe on Facebook, tweet the recipe, or pin it on Pinterest! All you have to do is click the appropriate button and a pop up will appear so you can customize your message. The bottom of each post also has a print-friendly button (which has always been there, but I’m not sure everyone noticed it before). 

4.    Sponsor Opportunities: Do any of you out there have a blog, etsy shop or web site you want to promote? Emily Bites gets over 360,000 page views a month from over 94,000 unique users - that’s a lot of new potential readers/customers! I’m going to do a separate post to officially announce this so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle (keep your eyes peeled!), but I wanted to mention it now as well since I’m talking about new features. Click on the Sponsor link in the top navigation bar for more details, pricing and to purchase sidebar ads and share your blog or shop with other Emily Bites readers. I am now accepting September Sponsors!

I hope you’re all as excited about the new look and the new features as I am. What do you think? Leave me a note in the comments below!

Special Note: As always, thank you so much for reading my blog. You can’t imagine how honored I am to have you all making Emily Bites recipes and cooking alongside me. I love reading all your comments (even though I’ve been slow to respond lately – sorry, things have been hectic! I promise I’ll catch up) and discovering the fun twists you add and the reactions of your family members. I have the best readers in the world. Love you all!