Homemade Restaurant Style Fried Calamari

I'm gonna teach you to get Restaurant quality Calamari in the comfort of your home!

Even from the time I was a kid I have always LOVED calamari.  It was my favorite thing to get when we would eat out at Italian places.  If it's done right, it is just oh, so good!

Hover over this image to pin it!

Last year I saw that in the freezer section at my grocery store they have frozen raw calamari, I was shocked!  You see, since we live in such a rural area, they don't carry some of the fancier or odder things because there just isn't a market for it.  Anyway, I decided to be bold and buy it and I took it home and cooked it up and holy smokes, it was so easy and sooooo good.  We went through it so fast it was ridiculous! Ever since then I have been wanting to make it again and do a post about it.

Well, I forgot about it.....

 I try to always add something new when we have leftovers, to make if feel a little less redundant.  So, Monday evening I was looking through the fridge and freezer trying to come up with something for to go with leftover spaghetti when I happened upon a package of frozen raw calamari and thought, YUP!  What a perfect combination!

Perfect Avocado Ranch Dip

I am a complete and total sucker for all things Avocado

I love the color the smell the texture the flavor

the whole bit

This dip envelopes all of those things and adds it with the cool refreshing flavor of ranch

This dip is awesome with chips or veggies 

we also use it for quesadillas, sandwiches and burgers.

Due to the versatility and deliciousity (is that a word?) this is the Perfect Avocado Ranch Dip

It tastes Fancy but is so easy to make!

Florentine Stuffed Chicken Breasts

When I was a teenager I worked at this restaurant and they served this dish called

"Chicken Florentine"

I had never had it before so I tried it and let me just say it was just 

INSANELY delicious

I don't know about you other cooks and wives out there, but I get in food ruts

We get into a groove where we eat the same things every week

And so my husband started asking if I would make something different

I have no problem trying new things, 

in fact, I quite enjoy it, but it's always a little daunting.

What's it Gonna Take!?

not the most flattering outfit.  I was around 10 or 11 here

As a young person I never struggled with my weight,

yeah sure in 7th grade I had an awkward phase, but it was not extreme, and it was short lived.

When I was at my thinnest and best looking, life threw me a loop and I got pregnant with my son.

I gained a total of 85 pounds with him and that sent me reeling. 

I had no idea how to get in shape and I had positively NO work ethic in that way.

It was awful.

Mummy Bait

Around Easter I found a really awesome recipe for a chex mix the likes of which I had never seen

It was called "Bunny Bait" {from Life in the Green House}

and it was a huge hit at our house!

So I decided to make a Halloween Version and have Dubbed it

MUMMY BAIT! 

This stuff is crazy good!