Jalepeño Crunch Burger

Welcome to Man Monday.

Folks. Are you ready for the lie of the century? What if I told you something that would challenge your faith in humanity? What if I revealed to you something so shocking, so unbelievable, you might just never come back to our blog? Now, I know what you guys are thinking. Zach, there is NO way we would stop reading your Man Monday posts. We would sell our children to Nike, sentenced to a life of child-labor-servitude before leaving your blog. *Zach blushes* You guys are just TOO loyal. 

Anyway, back to the lie.

What if I told you that for the last 11 months and 2 weeks that High Heels and GRILLS has been around, we (Sarah and I)... *Zach quietly whispers the next part, hiding his words behind his hand* ... we haven't even owned a grill...

*Collective mind-explosion from the world*

Well, for those too loyal people that aren't offended by our deceivings and actually stick around to hear me out, Sarah got me a grill for Father's Day! In celebration, I made this.

Jalapeno Crunch Burger

Makes about 4 burgers
Ingredients:

The Hamburger:

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• Hamburger seasoning:
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder

The Jalepeño Crunches:

• 2 jalepeños, cut into 1" strips
• 1 egg
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cooking oil (vegetable, peanut, or canola are best for this)

Directions:

The Burger:

1. Divide your beef into quarters, roll into a ball. Place your beef balls on a sheet of wax paper. Place another sheet of wax paper over the top of the beef. Flatten by pushing a baking sheet down evenly on the patties. Remove wax paper. Season both sides of your patties with your seasoning mix.
2. If you like your burgers medium-done, grill your patties for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Obviously, you can adjust the time depending on your liking. Let the patties rest for 30 seconds before serving.

The Jalepeño Crunches:

1. Beat your egg in a bowl and take the jalepeños for a swim.
2. Mix your flour and salt together.
3. After the jalepeños are fully egg-coated, dip them in the flour for a few seconds.
4. When the oil is to a nice temperature (325° or when a toothpick bubbles when inserted), place your jalepeños in. Let them fry for about 2 minutes, or until golden brown.
5. Remove your jalepeños from the oil, and let drain on a paper towel for a minute or so. Serve on your burger and enjoy!
6. Optional Method: I noticed that the aforementioned (fancy for what-you-just-read-idiot) method, though crispy, tends to reduce the jalepeño flavor and heat. If you want to retain that flavor and heat, just skip the egg-wash, dip them directly into the flour mixture and fry. This will give your jalepeños a more genuine flavor.

Alrighty folks, just assemble your burgers with whatever the heck you want and enjoy the grill out of these (see what I did there, I said grill instead of.... *Zach trails off as he realizes nobody cares*). If you are sticking around still after the falsity concerning our name and not actually having a grill, bless you. Bless you all. You will be rewarded with MANY grilled recipes to come. 

-Zach

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Coconut Blondies

It's a good thing this isn't a Man Monday post because there really isn't anything manly about coconut blondies. However, that didn't stop one of my dude coworkers from eating seven (yes, no joke) of these.

Sarah, feeling extra pregnant one day, decided she needed a dessert, stat. Well, I'm tired of making desserts that put more chunk on me so I took another recipe from the book 400 Calorie Fix Cookbook.  These puppies are only 250 calories each for a good 3" square. A normal brownie? 360+ calories.

Coconut Blondies

Makes about 8 bars
Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons trans-free margarine, melted
• 2 large egg-whites
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Coat an 8" x 8" baking pan with cooking spray and dust lightly with flour.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the margarine, egg whites, whole egg, brown sugar, coconut extract, and vanilla. Slowly stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture until well combined. Stir in the flaked coconut, and pour mixture into the baking pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cut into eight bars.

Now, if you are like me, you will serve this less-bad-for-you-but-delicious dessert hot with a scoop of ice cream on top. In doing so, you will definitely make it BAD for you, but at least you can say you are trying. Give yourself 10 seconds to watch the ice cream slowly melt over the sides and cue the salivating. I PROMISE you won't have any trouble enjoying this.

-Zach

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Red, White, and Blue Sugar Cookie Bars

I seriously love the 4th of July. I think it's my favorite holiday behind Christmas. I love all the themed ideas for it and just the pure sense of patriotism I feel when that day rolls around. I don't know if it has come with being a military wife and living on base or what, but these last few years have been especially meaningful to me and have really grown my appreciation for this special day.

As I was browsing Pinterest for some cute 4th of July decorations and ideas {because that's where us craft-hindered-folk get our inspiration these days, right?} I came across so many awesome ideas! Then as I got thinking about my personal favorite dessert from our blog, these sugar cookie bars, I thought, 'Hey, why not make them patriotic themed??' I made them candy corn themed for Halloween last year, so it was going to be a cinch putting it all together. I, personally, think they turned out fantastic and I love how truly simple this recipe is!

Red, White, and Blue Sugar Cookie Bars

Makes 15-18 bars
Recipe adapted from Cooking Classy
Ingredients:

Cookies:

• 2 & 1/2 cups bread flour {or all-purpose works fine}*
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 & 1/2 Tbsp. sour cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Several drops of red food coloring

Frosting:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup half and half
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• Several drops of blue food coloring

Directions:

1. COOKIES: Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder; set aside.
4. In a large bowl {I use my stand mixer}, beat butter until smooth.
5. Add sugar and cream together until light and fluffy - about 3 minutes. {This step is important. If you don't cream it long enough, your cookie will end up dry. Press on, friends!}
6. Add egg and mix until fully incorporated.
7. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix well.
8. Add the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time until dough no longer sticks to the side.
9. Gather up all your dough and cut it in half. 
10. Place one half back in the bowl and add a few drops of red food coloring.
11. Mix until food coloring is fully incorporated. {Add more if desired.}
12. Press red dough into baking dish until it covers the entire bottom.
13. Next, press non-colored dough on top of the red dough until the red is no longer visible. {I found that the non-colored dough was a little stiff to spread, so I put it back in the mixer and mixed it for a few seconds to kind of loosen it up. It seemed to do the trick. Just make sure you wash out all the red dye from the previous mixing! Otherwise you'll be left with red and pink dough. :)}
14. Bake for 17-20 minutes or until the edges of the cookies just start to brown.
15. Let cool completely.
16. FROSTING: In a large bowl, {again, I use my stand mixer} beat butter until smooth.
17. Add powdered sugar and half and half and mix until light and fluffy.
18. Stir in salt, vanilla, and food coloring to your desired color.
19. Frost your cooled cookie bars evenly.
20. Cut into squares and serve.

*Note: We live at a 6,000+ ft. altitude, so it may be required that you use less flour to keep your cookies from becoming too dry. I recommend that you start with 1 & 3/4 cups and go up from there.

To add a little variety and festivity, feel free to cut your sugar cookie bars with a star shaped cookie cutter before frosting. I was going to do this with all of them, buuuuuuuut I'm a dufus and cut my hand first. So that was short-lived. The one star that I did get out of it though was super cute, so I highly recommend it! Enjoy.

-Sarah

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Lobster Roll

Confession by Zach:

I'm getting fatter.

I hate that. Almost a year ago, I looked better than I've ever looked before. It took me only 11 short months to gain *cough* 12 pounds.

I'd like to say it's this blog's fault. Take a look at our recipe's page. What section is the biggest? DESSERT! We aren't like those communist-cheatin'-good-for-nothing-blog-stealin'-scum-bags who steal pictures and recipes. We have made EVERY SINGLE dessert listed on our blog. Which means we've probably eaten every single one too. Occasionally we give sweets away, but not nearly enough.

Ultimately, I can only blame myself. And if I expect to lose any weight and get back to where I was, I can only task myself in doing so. Nobody will do it for me. Soooo, I went out and bought an awesome recipe book called 400 Calorie Fix Cookbook. It has all sorts of awesome/delicious recipes with low calories.

So, with that lengthy explanation out of the way, let me introduce you to a delicious, and calorie conscious meal. Each sandwich is only 260 calories!

Lobster Roll

Makes 4 Rolls
Ingredients:

• 12 ounces lobster meat, chopped (about 3 cups). I tried both real lobster and imitation... I'll be honest, they were both equally delicious. Just save yourself a few bucks and get the fake stuff (just my opinion).
• 1/4 cup finely chopped celery
• 3 tablespoons light mayo
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon (the recipe calls for 2 tsp, but I thought that was a little too much)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 New England style hot-dog rolls, or french rolls, toasted

Directions:

1. This is so easy. Combine the lobster, celery, mayo, onion, tarragon, lemon juice, and pepper in a medium bowl.
2. Divvy out equal portions to each bread-roll, aaaaaand EAT!

The awesome thing about this recipe is that it can be used as any kind of salad-sandwich recipe. If you don't like lobster, just use chicken, or tuna, or hard-boiled eggs, or, or, *Zach nervously looks around for help in coming up with another protein to substitute for lobster* ... whatever. 

-Zach

Work It Wednesday 30

Hola and welcome back to this week's Work It Wednesday!

We've had a pretty uneventful week here. I don't remember if I said it in earlier weeks, but I've been on bed rest for about three weeks now and boy, is it getting ooooooold! If it keeps this little girl in though, then it's worth it, right? Oh, the things us mothers do for our babies. I've watched more shows on Netflix than I think I've watched in my entire life, which really? I can't complain about. On days where I was working full time, I used to fantasize about having just one day to do absolutely nothing and here I am! Day...after day....after day. We decided to shake things up a little on Saturday though.

Fort Collins, CO is about a half an hour from where we live and last year there was a huge event called Taste of Fort Collins and I absolutely loved it! Well, this year, I put it in my phone's calendar like a month ago because I was so excited and then the whole bed rest thing kind of ruined my plans . Sooooo...to make things fun, we rented a wheelchair and Zachary totally pushed me around in it all day. Haha! {Can you say best husband ever??} I got a lot of funny looks, but it was oh so worth it!

{Follow me on Instagram @sarah_highheelsandgrills!}

It was so nice just being outside. My feet even got a little sunburned. I've never welcomed a sunburn more than this one! That's been the excitement of our week. Now, I want to hear all about yours! But first, here are the features for the week.

The most viewed link was:

10 Ways to Add Class to Your Builder-Grade Home from Home Made Modern

I already bookmarked some of these ideas to incorporate into our new house. I can't even wait!! As for my favorites from the week, they are:

Churro Caramel Corn from Creme de la Crumb

Overnight Blueberry French Toast from The Moon and Me

Caramel Brownie Chunk Milkshake from While He Was Napping 

Easy Curb Appeal Ideas from Thrifty and Fabulous Accessories

Carnival Worthy Caramel Corn from The Cheery Baker

Thank you everyone for participating in Work It Wednesday! Everything look so great! If you were featured, be sure to grab yourself a featured button here! Now...let's get down to the nitty gritty. All I ask is that you remember 3 simple rules:

#1 - Link up anything {recipes, crafts, projects, tutorials, etc.} that has been made by you. I don't care what it is as long as it isn't a shop, giveaway, advertisement, link party or something of the like. Please try to limit your link ups to no more than 5 per party. Also, please don't link up things that have already been linked up before. Let's keep the content fresh and new!
#2 - Please link back to us in some way, shape, or form. I understand how annoying this can be sometimes, so I've had a cute little button made for your convenience! You can also put a text link at the end of your post or even put our link in your party page. Just please give credit where credit is deserved!

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#3 - Please please PLEASE don't link and run. The whole point of a link party is to make connections and friends with people. Put a stop to selfish blogging right now and make someone's day by commenting on at least two blogs! 
If after doing these 3 things, you decide you want to subscribe to us via E-mail, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Pinterest, Twitter, or Instagram, I definitely would not object! Thank you all. With that being said, work it friends and show me what you've got!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Pin It To Win It: Blogiversary Giveaway!

Today is a momentus occasion. Today we are celebrating 1 year of blog existence with my bloggy best friend, Alyssa, over at The Recipe Critic! I just have to take a minute and say how much I love this girl. She  was the first follower we had on our blog and we've pretty much been inseparable since. {Virtually, anyway.} I've had countless conversations with her over Facebook and on the phone and she was actually one of the first people to know that I was pregnant. I seriously love her to death and I'm so excited to celebrate with her in this huge blogging milestone! Anyway, follow the rules below to enter and be sure to give her some blogging love!

Step 1: Pin the image above.

Step 2: Follow all the bloggers listed below on Pinterest.


Step 3: Enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. For additional
entries, follow some awesome new blogs on Facebook! The rafflecopter may take a second to load or you may need to refresh the page.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

-Sarah