I will admit, I don't always do pancakes on Pancake Day. Hubby on the other hand thinks it is outrageous not to have pancakes on Pancake Day :) Therefore we had pancakes for dinner tonight, made by Hubby.

Had Rupert's today for lunch and it was fantastic as always! Used up the last of my free sandwich and a free piece of cake, each week for a year, that I won last year. Have eaten many sandwiches and pieces of cheesecake there over the last couple of years, and even though my free ones are finished, I will still be a regular customer :)

The cheesecake is my favorite; wouldn't bother to order cheesecake anywhere else now.

It was our turn for dinner club this month. We toyed with a few ideas and finally settled on Creole Jambalaya. We worked the rest of the menu around our main.
​As a pre-appetizer, we had a couple of cheeses (a mild Gouda & a smoked cheddar) and tomatoes as well as bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping. 

For our appetizer we decided to do Stuffed Sweet Potatoes but with a twist. Instead of serving them in the potato skins; partly because the sweet potatoes came from Costco and were huge, we made them in small ramekin dishes instead. They turned out great. I simply put the cooked sweet potato in the bottom of the dishes, Next layered with the topping, then cheese and bacon and broiled in the oven. They were still very yummy and looked great for serving :)

Our main was Creole Jambalaya. We made this recently for ourselves for dinner and forgot how good it was so we decided to make it for dinner club. I did use the Italian sausage again this time so there was lots of protein with the chicken and shrimp as well. Very tasty. One regret I have is we made it a little earlier in the evening, so as not to be rushed with everything, and the rice ended up getting a little gluey on me. It still tasted fine but the texture wasn't as good. I suggest make it fresh, or make it and take it off the heat completely and reheat at a later time.

For dessert I did something I never do and I did something I try not to do.
First I made a dessert recipe that we have never tried before. I never do this as you wouldn't want to end up with a bad dessert for a dinner club; luckily it worked out. Secondly, my dessert was not 100% real food. I try to use whole, real foods whenever possible but I did end up cutting some corners with the dessert and using most of what the recipe called for. It was still good but I'm sure it could be so much tastier and healthier with a few tweaks. 
Dessert was a No Bake Caramel Apple Cheesecake in a jar. They turned out pretty good. Next time I will try to find an alternative for the graham crumbs, as well as make my own pie filling. I did use homemade caramel sauce from Old Dublin Bakery :) as well as a cream cheese without the questionable ingredient list.

Made a couple of great, and pretty easy, meals the last couple of evenings.

Tonight I made Pita Pizzas. This was something we would have often in the past but stopped the last few years because I could never find pita bread that had a perfect ingredient list. I still try to eat healthy but am also trying to keep it a bit more realistic. Pita Pizzas are so easy and so tasty. Use whatever ingredients you like. Today I topped my whole wheat pitas with a little marinara sauce. Then added diced red pepper, tomato, and onion. Sprinkled with oregano and basil. Added some diced pineapple and topped with shredded white cheddar and Parmesan. They were just as I remember them; delicious.

Last night I made another favorite; Stuffed Peppers. These are delicious as well and the recipe always makes a bigger batch than I need, so I freeze the leftover stuffing mix to use later in wraps.

We decided to go out for dinner this Monday, Feb 13th. Not because we were celebrating Valentine's Day but because EVOO had 2 for 1 pasta :) I guess it could be to celebrate Valentines as well, lol.
We didn't bother with appetizers as I can never finish my meal if I eat an app first. I did have a drink to start, their Partridge-berry Bellini is very nice. Hubby ordered the Rabbit Pappardelle and I had the Cannelloni with Caesar Salad. Both were amazing. 
They do have a Valentine menu available for the week. It had Baklava as a dessert which I really enjoy. I was able to order just the dessert from the special menu :) It was good.

Made my Creole Jambalaya tonight! It was excellent as always. Added Italian sausage to it tonight and think I will keep doing that as it was fantastic. There's just something I love about a one-dish meal.

We are part of a dinner club. Myself, Hubby and two other couples cook a meal for the group once a month. It works out great since you only have to cook for the group once every three months but you get a nice night with friends each month :)

This month was a Mexican theme (no, nothing to do with the hoopla in the States, lol). There was cheese and crackers to start, sorry no photo. The appetizer was crab cakes with a mango salsa. These were delicious; very tasty. I am usually not a lover of crab cakes as I find most tend to be made with canned crab which I am not overly fond of. These cakes were delicious and didn't use canned crab :) The mango salsa paired very nicely with the crab cake. The main was tacos! There was a choice of fish or chicken with lots of additional toppings, including homemade guacamole. Even the tortillas were homemade. It was a make your own serving style. I had one of each and both were great but I liked the chicken more; just due to personal preference. Yummy!. Dessert was baked churros done with a cinnamon sugar and served with a chocolate dipping sauce. These were excellent!