Zucchini Appetizer

Also on Father's Day, I made Zucchini Boats as an appetizer for my parents house. They were super simple and came out really good. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of the finished product but you get the idea!

 

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

On Father's Day I tried out my new mini donut (and donut hole) pan using this recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Donuts. A few notes…

• I used all whole wheat flour instead of a combination like the recipe calls for.
• I used coconut (palm) sugar and added a bit less than ½ cup.
• I didn’t have any yogurt on hand so I used apple sauce instead.
• I used coconut oil instead of vegetable or canola (which I almost never use).
• I added chopped nuts to the cinnamon sugar topping. Next time I make these (and there will be a next time) I will add chopped nuts to the batter itself. This is based on my own personal preference.

So the donuts were really easy to throw together and came out pretty good (for being on the healthy-ish side).

Almond Crusted Chicken

A couple weekends ago, I made my regular batch of homemade almond milk (see previous post about almond milk) but this time, instead of throwing the pulp away, I dried it out in the oven to make almond meal. I have read about this many times but I have never taken the time to actually do it. Since I was home for the day anyways (I was watching my besties kids that day so all 4 kiddos were busy playing their hearts out) I decided it would be a good time to give it a try.

 

With my oven on the lowest setting, I just spread the ground up almond pulp on a parchemnt lined cookie sheet and roasted it for about 2.5 hours or so. I lost track of time after a while; it could have been more like 3 hours. I set my timer every 30 minutes to give the meal a toss with some tongs. Once it felt good and dry, slightly cripsy, I pulled it out to let it cool down.

 

Using my homemade almond meal, I made Almond Crusted Chicken for dinner one night. It came out pretty good!

 

To go along with the almond chicken, I also made a batch of Maple Glazed Carrots.I found this recipe earlier this year and have made them half a dozen times since. I am not at the point where I just eyeball everything. They are so easy and so good! My kids love carrots and the maple just gives them a little something extra!

Super Power Chia Bread

So this recipe might sound strange but I tried it today and it is pretty darn good. It is very different, so much so that I cannot really put it into words. I can't think of how to describe the consistency but it is definitely food. My kids liked it right away and I had a few pieces myself. Husband has been away for the weekend working so I am eager to see what he has to say when he gets home. Super Power Chia Bread. 

Peanut Butter Greek Frozen Yogurt

I have found it. Nirvana. Or the greatest thing that has ever happened to my out of control sweet tooth. On Saturday night I decided to try this recipe for homemade peanut butter greek frozen yogurt. Holy hell it is amazing. It is ridiculously easy and oh-so-damn-delicious. Maybe I am being a little obsessive about it bc pnut frozen yogurt is my favorite kind and I can eats bowls and bowls of this with much less guilt bc I know that I only included a tiny spoonful of organic coconut sugar and a very small squeeze of raw honey. Ok so it might be a little high in saturated fat but...it still beats what I would be eating in it's place. REAL ice cream or awful frozen yogurt from the local shop that as has god knows what in it. Just sayin' this recipe is amazing (especially w/ some mini dark chocolate chips mixed into it. 

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

So it was Saturday morning and the kids and I were hungry (husband was working). Cereal and oatmeal do get boring from time to time and my oldest requested pancakes so I ventured to my trusty healthy food blog, 100 Days of Real Food and quickly located a basic recipe for Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes. I had everything I needed including overly ripe bananas that were headed for some sort of baking recipe. I whipped up a some batter, cutting her recipe in half as I just wasn't interested in flipping dozens of pancakes that morning. I also added a handful of chopped walnuts. Banana pancakes just weren't enough. Banana nut pancakes however, hit the spot!

So let me back up a bit...I cook and bake all sorts of things, some things are freakin' awesome and some aren't so much. I can make a mean meal of many different varieties but for some reason, I cannot master a simple pancake. My pancakes suck. I have tried and tried and tried and they always...suck. And I am not just being hard on myself; ask my husband, he'll vouch for me. I have tried dozens of recipes and followed several different techniques and I fail at all of them. Whatever. I have accepted that I am not a pancake person. I know my other strong points so I'm not bitter! 

Feeling brave (and hungry) I gave this recipe a try and wouldn't ya know, I made a pretty decent pancake. They cooked beautifully and tasted great! They weren't completely dry and brittle and they weren't full of uncooked batter in the middle. The stars aligned, the humidity was just right, the heat and the pan was perfect and the pancakes came out like pancakes are supposed to. Low and behold, I made a decent pancake! Too bad my husband wasn't home to witness (and taste) my success. 

Last Minute Mac n Cheese

Yesterday after we got home from a bday party, I offered to watch my best friends kids (who are relatively the same age as my kids). It was a last minute plan and I didn't have anything in mind for dinner. I quickly thought up making the kids a batch of mac n cheese. I knew I had everything I needed on hand and I figured I would just make an impromptu cheese sauce using the recipe I always follow for my regular mac n cheese. See my previous post on fully loaded mac n cheese. 

I cooked some pasta (probably about 16 ounces or so) that I had in the cupboard and while it drained in the colander I made the sauce in the same pan. Over medium-high heat, I heated 1 tablespoon each of olive oil and whole wheat flour until it was good and brown (be careful, it will burn easily). After about a minute or two, I poured in 1/2 cup milk and stirred it until the flour paste was all mixed in. It quickly began to thicken so I threw in the shredded cheddar cheese (about 3/4 of a bar; not even sure how many ounces it was...does it matter??) and half a can of pumpkin puree. I kept stirring the sauce until the cheese was all melted and I also added a few sprinkles of paprika, salt and pepper. I threw the pasta into the sauce, tossed it to coat and served it to the kids w/ peas and carrots. Dinner for four kids and one mom done in about 15 minutes. And it was GOOD!

Chicken Pitas

Last week I made chicken pitas following this recipe that I found on Pinterest. They were easy, quick and delicious! 

I realize the chicken doesn't look entirely appetizing but the flavor was amazing! 

While the recipe didn't include this, I stirred the cut up chicken into the sauce and then spooned the mixture into the pita. I also shoved a little spinach in the bottom of the pita. 

The whole wheat pita's from Trader Joe's are awesome. The ingredients are satisfactory and I use them in my son's lunches when I have extras. I've stuffed them w/ pnut butter, bananas and honey as well as hummus and cheese and he always eats them. 

I served a small spinach salad with this meal. 

Taco Salad w/ Lentils

Tonight we had lentil taco salad with taco seasoned lentils (see this previous post about those). I made the lentils the way I usually do, adding about 1 cup of green lentils and 1/2 cup of red/orange lentils to a saucepan with about 4-5 cups of water (I just eyeball the water). I also added two chopped portebello mushrooms and a few generous spoonfuls of my homemade taco seasoning. I brought it to a boil and then lowered to medium/low to let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes. 

I made a huge batch of beans in my crockpot yesterday that I had already separated into batches so I reheated the beans designated for tonights meal in another saucepan on the stove. 

On a plate I added some lettuce, tomato (for me, not hubby), a couple strained spoonfuls of the lentil/mushroom mixture, a couple strained spoonfuls of beans, some cheddar cheese, pepita seeds, crushed tortilla chips and salsa. Everything on this plate was organic with the exception of the pepita seeds. 

I also made quesadillas for the kids adding cheese and strained lentil mixture to a whole wheat tortilla. My kids LOVE quesadillas so I knew they would eat these, even with the lentils inside! I also served them beans and some chips and salsa, other foods they love. 

This may not look very impressive but in my opinion it was de-licious! Like really, really delicious! If only I had, had some black olives on hand. Next time! 

Catfish

Whole Foods had some fresh catfish on sale so I looked it up on my seafood app and saw that it is a relatively healthy fish and is low in contaminants; I ventured from my comfort zone and bought some. I laid the filets on top of a bed of lemons and then sprinkled the fish with a little pepper. I don't like to over season fish. Lemon and pepper is all I ever need on any kind of fish. I baked it at 400 for about 30 minutes, checking it often. They were pretty thick filets so I wanted to make sure they were done. 

Before I put the fish in the oven, bc I knew they would need the longest amount of time to cook, I cut up some red potatoes and an onion and sautéed them in a skillet with some olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper. I let these cook on Medium/Low tossing them often so they didn't burn or stick to the pan. These probably cooked for 40 minutes or so. 

While the potatoes were on and the fish was baking, I threw together a batch of kale chips (click here to see previous post on kale chips). Lastly I warmed some frozen green beans (my kids love these). This was a basic no frills dinner but it came out pretty good. My kids ate more fish than I did and they devoured everything on their plates before proceeding to eat second and third helpings. Once in a while they will just eat and eat and eat all the healthy food on their plate without any coaxing or constant reminding on my part and nothing makes me happier! 

Tamale Casserole

I recently made a Tamale Casserole, inspired by this recipe that I found on Pinterest. It was different but definitely good. I did alter the recipe a bit (don't I always?!). 

• I used one pound of grass fed organic ground beef and omitted the sausage altogether. 
• To add more fiber, flavor, texture and to offset the loss of the half pound of sausage, I added a batch of homemade beans that I usually have on hand in my freezer. Obviously I have to remember to defrost ahead of time; when I know I am going to want beans I just move a jar from the freezer to the fridge a couple days prior. If I have forgotten to take beans out of the freezer or don't have a homemade batch on hand, I keep spare cans in the pantry for emergencies! On this night I probably added about 1-2 cups of cooked beans. 
• I added diced zucchini and yellow squash to enhance the vegetable/nutrition content. 
• I did not add the tomatoes or tomato paste bc this would not bc conducive to hubby's tummy however I did add a couple spoonfuls of salsa. For whatever reason, he does ok eating salsa. And it was a pretty small amount in comparison to the giant pan full of ingredients that I added it to. 
• I did include everything else mentioned in the recipe; onions, olives, spices, bell pepper, garlic, corn, etc. 
• As for the cornbread, I used organic cornmeal (corn is one of the worst GMO crops in our country-always buy organic corn anything) and I used whole wheat flour instead of white. I don't even have white in my cupboard anymore. I am either just used to it or you really just can't tell the difference.  

I pretty much followed the recipe as far as cooking the dish. And I added a lot of cheese at the end. Never too much cheese! I had invited my parents over for dinner than night so between them, my husband, kids and I, we ate the entire dish. While the dish was fairly simple to make, the prep took a little bit of time but I was able to clean up after that mess while it cooked in the oven. It came out pretty darn good! I will definitely make this one again!

The filling. 

The finished dish. Sorry but we were too busy eating the entire thing and I neglected to take pictures of what it looked like. Trust me when I say that it was darn tasty! Something different but definitely a worthy dinner. 

Thai Peanut Wraps

I have been out out town the past 2 weekends in a row (we went to the river in Arizona for Memorial Weekend and then we attended a wedding in San Luis Obispo last weekend). It has been hectic at home trying to prepare and come back from each of these trips all while preparing healthy meals for my family and working full time! And simply bc we ate well against my standards while we were out of town, some serious nutrition was definitely in order once we got home.

One of the meals I prepared was Thai Peanut Chicken Wraps. I found the recipe on Pinterest and it was fairly simple and pretty tasty. I did make a few changes though (of course)! Bc I was fighting a mean cold, I had made a batch of Chicken Soup earlier in the week (as I've explained previously, I boil an entire chicken to make the stock but don't use nearly all of the meat in the actual soup so I reserve a good amount of meat for a later meal). So I had a bag of boiled chicken (white and dark meat) on hand to make this recipe. It's all about meal planning!!!

I also couldn't find broccoli slaw anywhere, and I wasn't about to make it myself, so I used bean sprouts instead. They are packed with nutrition and they have a soft crunch similar to that of cooked broccoli slaw. It worked. I used a cheese grater to shred the carrot but I think I added triple the amount that the recipe called for (sort of accidentally). But again...it worked. As for the sauce, I didn't have creamy peanut butter (who eats that anyways) so I used crunchy but I also didn't have any peanuts on hand (like the recipe called for) so it was pretty much a wash.

Lastly, I used some organic whole wheat lavash bread for the wrap. I (usually) always have this in the house as it's a favorite among all 4 of us. It's similar to a tortilla but a little softer. I use them for all sorts of things and they were very good as wraps for these ingredients.

My assembly line...

The carrot and sprout mixture in my new pretty yellow bowl!

Chicken

Sauce...super easy by the way!

Lavash-Sauce-Carrots/Sprouts-Chicken-More Sauce

 

I made some quinoa to have on the side. 

Breakfast

A couple weeks ago I made this recipe that I found on Pinterest for Breakfast Baked Oatmeal. I ended up using frozen mango and peaches but followed everything else almost exactly. As for the sugars, I only added a couple tablespoons of coconut/palm sugar. Honestly the fruit makes it sweet enough. And I did opt to add walnuts, pecans and some shredded coconut. This was really easy, pretty healthy and really, really good! It tasted somewhat tropical!

It was SO DELICIOUS! My husband had some the night that I made it with a scoop of vanilla on top. I ate it for breakfast every day that week and my kids were lucky that they got some too. I wanted the whole pan to myself! I will definitely make this again and I want to experiment with other fruits.

 

*This was not my photo. I was so intent on eat every last bite of this dish that I never bothered to take a picture. This came from the recipe source. 

Fajitas

I found this recipe on Pinterest for basic chicken fajitas and they were so good! I only started to like bell peppers about a year ago and now we eat them all the time. They are packed full of nutrition and while my four year old is hit and miss, my one year old devours them! I served these fajitas with whole wheat tortillas and some white cheddar cheese, all organic of course and I also pulled a jar of homemade beans out of my freezer.

 

*Again, not my picture! Sometimes getting dinner prepared and on the table for my family after working all day can be *busy* and I neglect to take any pictures of the actual food. This photo is courtesy of the recipe source.