Rachel McCarthy, Author at A Blonde's Moment

Baby It’s Cold Outside

January 7, 2014 by Rachel McCarthy

Brrr! Today’s high in the DC metro area was 16 degrees. Yes, it is winter, but we are in Virginia!! One good thing to come from this cold spell: a whole new set of clothes. This cold has inspired me to take a look at staying fashionable even in the sub-zero temperatures. We might as well embrace it!

Sperry Top-Sider for J.Crew Flannel Shearwater Boots

Sperry Top-Sider Flannel Shearwater Boots ($150): I am in love with these boots! They look so warm and seem so functional!

J.Crew’s Wintress Puffer

Wintress puffer ($268): The warmest coat I own! Especially perfect for early mornings taking our puppy outside in this weather.

Anthropologie’s North Sea Beanie

North Sea Beanie ($128): I am slightly obsessed with this hat from Anthropologie. Very Parisian and perfect for more formal occasions.

Cornelia James Side Bow Gloves

Cornelia James Pure Wool Glove with Side Bow: (£60.00 or about $100 USD with today’s exchange rate)

I completely adore my new gloves. Worn (and made famous) by the Duchess of Cambridge, these wool gloves are not only warm but extremely feminine with the side bow at the top of the glove. You can never go wrong with bows.

Zara Combined Faux Leather Coat

Zara Combined Faux Leather Coat: (Originally $179 but marked down to $139.99)

A very “of the moment” style with leather accents, this coat is perfect for a stylish secondary coat — might not be a style for years to come, but perfect for staying in line with the leather trend. And it’s marked down!

Spinach and Black Bean Burritos

January 7, 2014 by Rachel McCarthy

This was a super quick and delicious dinner, perfect for a weeknight. Although it sounds like a lot of steps, each step is pretty quick and everything comes together really fast. I added the cilantro and lime juice to the brown rice to attempt to recreate Chipotle’s rice, and it was a pretty good substitute! Dare I say it’s a good replacement to Chipotle, and a lot healthier!

Spinach and Black Bean Burritos

2 cups brown rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups fresh spinach, chopped
2 cups romaine, chopped
1 yellow onion, diced
1/4-1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Whole wheat tortillas
1 bag 4 Cheese Mexican cheese, I used Sargento Reduced Fat
1 cup plain Greek yogurt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap whole wheat tortillas in foil and bake for about 10 minutes to warm. Cook brown rice according to package directions. Sauté diced onion in olive oil for about 2-3 minutes until fragrant. Add black beans and chopped spinach. Cook spinach and bean mixture for about 5 minutes or until spinach starts to wilt. Once brown rice is cooked, add chopped cilantro and juice of 1 lime to rice. To assemble, place a scoop of brown rice on the tortilla, followed by the spinach and black bean mixture. Top with romaine, cheese and a scoop of Greek yogurt. Begin wrapping and tucking the ends of the tortilla in to finish off the burrito!

Ella’s Peanut Butter Cookies

January 6, 2014 by Rachel McCarthy

Ella’s Peanut Butter Cookies

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

1 cup peanut butter

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In large bowl, whisk together milk, egg and peanut butter until combined. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, until stiff consistency is reached. With small scoop, roll into 1/2 inch balls and press flat onto baking sheet (you can also use cookie cutters to make shapes, just roll out dough onto floured surface and cut into desired shapes with a thickness of about 1/4″. Our puppy is only 12 pounds, and I didn’t have a small enough cookie cutter, hence the no-shape cookies!) Bake for 20 minutes and then flip the cookies, baking on the other side for 15 minutes. Let cool before serving to your dog!

These were a hit with our Ella (especially when they first came out of the oven!). A pretty simple recipe, with apparently a delicious taste. Ella seems to give it two paws up! 🙂

Baked Potato Soup

January 5, 2014 by Rachel McCarthy

The perfect Sunday crock pot meal! Especially great for a cold January night. I used green onions and cheese to garnish the soup, but use any toppings that you like on your baked potato!

Baked Potato Soup

5 pounds Russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

48 ounces (1.5 packages) chicken stock (I used 32 ounces low sodium and 16 ounces regular)
1 yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
16 ounces softened cream cheese (I used low fat)

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more if you like it more spicy)

Salt and pepper to taste

Cheddar cheese and green onions to garnish

Peel and cube potatoes. Spray cooking spray in the crock pot. Add cubed potatoes. Add onion and garlic. Add salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Pour chicken stock over potatoes. Cook for 4-6 hours. Half an hour before soup is finished cooking, break up some of the potatoes with a potato masher and add the softened cream cheese. Stir to combine and finish cooking for the additional 30 minutes. Once finished cooking, you can mash potatoes more if you like (I didn’t do much mashing so there were still chunks of potatoes in the soup). Garnish with chopped green onions and cheddar cheese.

Christmas 2013

January 5, 2014 by Rachel McCarthy

Snow in Ohio!

What a busy couple weeks it has been! You may (hopefully!) have noticed I have been absent as of late, all in part to our busy Christmas week back in Ohio. It was definitely great to be back in Ohio for the holidays, but it is so nice to be back at home and back to reality. We had quite the busy week: between cooking (and more cooking), visiting with family and officially starting the half marathon training.

It’s always busy when we are back in Ohio, and this trip was no exception. It seems like the majority of the week was spent in the kitchen. Obviously, I love to cook, but by Friday, I was most assuredly sick of washing dishes!

Chicken Tetrazzini

It started Saturday night, only hours after arriving at my parent’s house. My mom had made one of my favorite dinners, Chicken Tetrazzini. I think the last time we had this dish was last Christmas – and there is certainly a reason for that. When I say the casserole dish was 10 pounds, I’m not even exaggerating. Between the Velveeta cheese, 1 ½ pounds of pasta and 5 pounds of shredded chicken, it’s the most outrageous, yet delicious casserole you will ever taste. And that’s why we only have it once a year!

After scarfing down waaaay too much Chicken Tetrazzini, we starting making the peanut butter blossom cookies, one of my favorite Christmas cookies. After losing the recipe, only to be found by my cousin, Ethan, we weren’t sure of a lot of the ingredients and decided to wing it. [Ethan conveniently found the recipe after we had started rolling the dough into balls!] Although we weren’t sure of all the ingredients, they turned out great, and I ate way too many, as usual.

Pre-decorating – a blank slate!

Christmas cookies all decorated!

Christmas sugar cookies were up next, but we waited until Sunday to start decorating. We are just slightly obsessive compulsive when it comes to decorating sugar cookies. After outlining the shape, we thin our frosting so we can paint the inside, perfectly of course. Yes, we paint the cookie with a special cookie paintbrush. Although it is time consuming, the cookies turn out looking flawless, so it’s all worth it in the end.

As I mentioned, half marathon training was set to begin the week we were in Ohio. After running in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in DC this past March, I decided in October that I had to do it again, with the goal of beating my time from last year. This year, my cousin Caroline is going to be running in the race with me in her first half! It will be great to have someone to “train” with, even if we are five hours apart! After some snowy and slippery conditions on Monday morning, we decided it was probably for the best that we run on a treadmill [we wouldn’t want to slip on ice on DAY 1 of training!]. Three miles were on tap for Monday morning and we were ready to go!

After our run, we started our third day of cooking and baking. On the agenda for today: preparing for my parent’s annual Christmas Eve party and Christmas Day with the family.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Buttercream

Cupcakes are probably one of my favorite desserts to make. I have a little side cupcakery business and love trying new recipes, my office reaps the benefits of this obsession. The week before Christmas, I made Hot Chocolate Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting and Gingerbread Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Buttercream [at the request for “something gingerbread” by my husband]. The Gingerbread Cupcakes were SO delicious; I decided that I had to make them again.

Delicious Crab Cakes

To recap, our Christmas Eve party menu was unbelievable: crab cakes with remoulade sauce, sausage and peppers, penne with marinara, herbed nut mixture, cheese and crackers and of course all the Christmas cookies and cupcakes! And continuing the superb food trend, we came to Christmas morning: Baked French Toast and Egg Casserole. Both were beyond delicious. Christmas Dinner was quickly approaching [it’s a good thing training started this week with all this food!] and what was on the menu was, again, nothing short of incredible: beef tenderloin, green beans with crispy shallots, mashed potatoes and more crab cakes.

Beef Tenderloin

It has been our tradition to look at Christmas lights after Christmas Day dinner for quite some time now. But, after consuming way entirely too much food, we had to save our Christmas light tradition for the next day. But, it did not disappoint! There are two houses in Canfield that have their ENTIRE front yards decorated with red, green and white lights that are synchronized to music. You tune your radio to the specified station and you have one amazing display.

Christmas lights in Canfield. This picture doesn’t do it justice!

After a fun-filled week, we came home and back to reality. As of this morning, the Christmas tree and all inside decorations are down and packed away. Outside decorations will have to wait until it gets warmer and the snow melts! As much fun as it is putting up the decorations, taking them down is so liberating! The house looks not only much bigger but so clean!

Here is to hoping your holiday was just as great!

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Buttercream

January 5, 2014 by Rachel McCarthy

Although we are arguably past gingerbread season, these cupcakes were so delicious, I would consider making them year-round! And without the traditional cream cheese frosting, that in my opinion, is so over-done, the brown sugar buttercream is a sweet addition.

gingerbread-cupcake-brown-sugar-buttercream

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Buttercream

1 box yellow cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)

1 cup water
½ cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup molasses
1 ½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice

Brown Sugar Buttercream Frosting:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cups confectioners sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk (I used skim)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pans with cupcake liners and set aside. In a large bowl, beat all the ingredients together until completely blended. Evenly portion the batter in the muffin tins, filling about 2/3 full (I like to use an ice cream scoop to make sure the amount is consistent, but you can easily use a spoon too). Bake for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting: Cream together the butter and the brown sugar. Add the cinnamon, vanilla and confectioners sugar, mixing until just combined (I like to add one cup of confectioners sugar at a time, in an attempt to limit the mess I make!). Slowly add the milk until you reach your desired texture.

Mexican Lasagna

January 1, 2014 by Rachel McCarthy

We love Mexican food in our house. Sometimes, we have Mexican twice a week. Although, I sometimes run out of ideas; you can only have tacos so many ways. This meal is a play on another one of our favorite meals, Italian Lasagna. This lasagna is loaded with fat and carbs, and although delicious, very heavy for a weeknight.

This Mexican Lasagna is a little healthier than regular lasagna and a good change up. Like most of my recipes, you can really customize this dish to your liking. It is pretty simple to assemble but the cook time is about an hour.

Mexican Lasagna

1 ½ pounds ground beef or turkey

12 corn tortillas

1 12-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 12-ounce can diced tomatoes (with liquid)

1 4-ounce can diced green chilies (with liquid)

1 package taco seasoning (I used low-sodium)

1 yellow onion, diced

2 cups Mexican shredded cheese (I used low-fat)

¼ cup water

½ cup taco sauce or enchilada sauce

Additional spices to taste: chili powder, cayenne pepper, cumin, garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Sour cream, I used light, for garnish

Preheat oven to 375°. Over medium heat, cook the ground beef or turkey until brown. Add the taco seasoning packet and about ¼ cup water. Stir to coat the meat in the seasoning. To enhance the flavor, I added about a tablespoon of chili powder. Add the diced yellow onion. Stir to combine. Cook for about 2 minutes on medium heat. Add diced tomatoes, diced green chilies and the drained and rinsed black beans. Stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Spray 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray. Coat the bottom of the baking dish with taco sauce or enchilada sauce so the bottom doesn’t burn. Evenly place corn tortillas on top of sauce. Add meat mixture on top of corn tortillas. Top with Mexican cheese. Repeat this process and end with corn tortillas and cheese on top. Cover with foil and bake for 50 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes uncovered. Top with a scoop of sour cream.

This lasagna is such a great meal because it makes enough for at least two dinners (or even lunch!). The layers of corn tortillas almost melted together with the sauce and meat mixture to create a warm and enjoyable winter meal. As I was writing the recipe out, I thought of using frozen corn to add to the meat mixture. You would just want to add that after the yellow onion to give the corn a chance to cook since it’s been in the freezer. You could also add green onions to the top of the sour cream for added flavor. Although this dinner took a little longer to cook, since it was enough for two dinners, the cooking time was worth it!

Half Marathon Training Plan

December 31, 2013 by Rachel McCarthy

As of last year, the week of Christmas has a new meaning: the first day of training for the Rock ‘n’ Roll DC Half Marathon. This past March was my first time running the race, and my first half marathon. And as we are quickly approaching the stroke of midnight, I cannot wait for March to run in this race again. It was such an accomplishment and I had SO much fun with the training. I was fortunate enough to train on part of the race route since we are so close to DC. I am very much looking forward to improving my time and becoming a second-time half marathoner 🙂

In the spirit of all this half marathon talk, something obviously “trending” in my life right now is the training. I had a lot of success with this training plan last year and decided to go with it again. It is inspired from an article I read in Shape magazine. With my busy schedule, I’m only able to squeeze in three runs a week, but I can say, I definitely felt prepared for the race. I gradually increase my mileage each weekend, not running more than 10 miles while training for the half. I run Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and Saturdays are always the long run of the week. Fridays are always a rest day, and if you have time, Tuesdays and Thursdays can be cross train days, doing some exercise besides running.

	Monday	Wednesday	Saturday
Week 1	3 miles	3 miles	4 miles
Week 2	3 miles	3 miles	5 miles
Week 3	4 miles	4 miles	6 miles
Week 4	4 miles	4 miles	7 miles
Week 5	4 miles	4 miles	4 miles
Week 6	4 miles	4 miles	8 miles
Week 7	5 miles	5 miles	9 miles
Week 8	3 miles	5 miles	6 miles
Week 9	5 miles	5 miles	10 miles
Week 10	3 miles	5 miles	7 miles
Week 11	3 miles	3 miles	6 miles
Week 12	3 miles	3 miles	Race Day 13.1!

Now that I have one year under my belt, I’m hoping that this training plan allows me to have an even better time in March!

Here’s to many great runs in 2014! Happy New Year!

Caramelized Onion, Mushroom and Brie Pizza

December 20, 2013 by Rachel McCarthy

Friday night is pizza night in our house. More specifically, homemade pizza night. Although the toppings sometimes change, it’s always some kind of pizza for dinner on Friday night. Lately, we have been doing Meatball Pizza, which is absolutely amazing! Unfortunately, we get our meatballs back in Ohio (they are the best!) and we are currently out 🙁 So, until we visit Ohio over Christmas, I have to get creative.

But, not to worry! This pizza would have to come in a close second (maybe even tie for first?). It’s only three ingredients (excluding the crust, oil and spices) and super easy to make. It is super filling and on the richer side, so you won’t have to eat as much of it (even though we always do!).

I’m so happy that we have finally reached Friday, and even more excited that it’s Pizza Friday. After writing about the pizza and listing all the ingredients, I am very much looking forward to making this delicious pizza this evening 🙂

Happy Pizza Friday and Enjoy!

Caramelized Onion, Mushroom and Brie Pizza

1 yellow onion, sliced

8 ounces mushrooms (I used baby portabella)
5 ounces brie
1 tablespoon butter
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Pizza dough
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (this was the recommended time on the fresh pizza dough I bought from the grocery store). Start off by caramelized onions in olive oil and butter over medium-low heat. Add a little salt to help with the caramelizing process. Once onions begin to brown, about 10 minutes, add the mushrooms. Cook until the liquid from the marshmallows has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the brie in small pieces. Prepare dough on pizza pan and add onion and mushroom mixture. Cook for about 5 minutes in the oven, or until the crust is starting to look golden brown. You don’t want to put the cheese on yet since the dough is still raw. The cheese won’t need that long to melt. Scatter the brie cheese around the pizza and bake for an additional 8-10 minutes, or until the crust is a deep golden brown and the cheese starts to melt and becomes bubbly (if you are using Boboli pizza crust, you can put the cheese on top of the onion and mushroom mixture and just let it cook, no need to wait on the cheese). Let cool about 5 minutes before serving.

Southwest Chopped Salad

December 19, 2013 by Rachel McCarthy

Usually, the quickest dinner I can come up with is a salad. Not only is it quick, but by all accounts, it’s pretty healthy. But admittedly, salads can be boring. This Southwest Chopped Salad is anything but boring. The true Southwestern flavors of beans, corn, ranch dressing and various spices combine together with the crisp Romaine lettuce to create a delicious and filling salad.

Add your own favorite Southwestern flavors as you see fit! I made this the vegetarian way, but adding ground beef, chicken or steak would only add to this flavorful dish. It has become a weekly meal in our house, not only because it’s super easy to put together, but because it’s that good. I told my husband it reminds me of a burrito bowl at Chipotle. His response: “it’s better.” I’ll take that 🙂

Southwest Chopped Salad

1 bag chopped Romaine lettuce

16 ounces black beans, drained & rinsed
16 ounces corn, cooked to package instructions (if using frozen)
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cups cherry tomatoes, chopped
4-5 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon powdered ranch dressing
1 tablespoon taco seasoning packet (I used low sodium)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Begin by chopping vegetables: Romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, green onion and green onions. Add to salad bowl. Drain and rinse black beans. Cook corn to package instructions, let cool. Combine sour cream and mayonnaise in small bowl. Add ranch powder and taco seasoning (if you need more dressing, just make sure you keep equal parts of the sour cream and the mayonnaise and the ranch and taco seasoning). Stir to combine. Add the lime juice and salt and pepper to taste, creating a dressing-like consistency. You can alter the flavor to your liking by adding more lime juice or salt and pepper. Pour dressing over salad and toss. Garnish each plate with tortilla chips, avocado, taco sauce or any other favorite Southwestern topping.