My New Job

I love cooking.

I love teaching people how to cook.

I love talking to people.

I have become a Pampered Chef Consultant.

I did my first party last night. Aside from forgetting that one of my guests was vegetarian, and losing control of the party once or twice. I think it went well.

We had fun. I made a new recipe I never had before and got to use tools I didn't own.

Last night we demonstrated that if you are prepping a meal, you can double the meat, and veggies and prep for a second meal at the same time.
Last night we were prepping for two entirely different recipes. Chicken and Sweet Potato Pad Thai and Bruschetta Pasta

https://www.pamperedchef.com/recipe/Main+Dishes/Grill+Pan/Bruschetta+%26+Zucchini+Pasta/1125680

https://www.pamperedchef.com/recipe/Main+Dishes/Under+30+minutes/Chicken+%26+Sweet+Potato+Pad+Thai/1125031

We cooked 4 large, boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the Quick Cooker. ( Pampered Chef's answer to the InstantPot ) We seasoned them with salt, pepper and garlic herb seasoning. I added about 3/4 of a cup of chicken broth. Then we cooked the chicken for 15 minutes, and did a quick pressure release after about 5 minutes.

The chicken was delicious. It was moist and flavorful. We used 2 breasts for the Pad Thai. The Pad Thai is a yummy recipe, it is full of veggies. broccoli, red bell peppers, and sweet potato noodles (we call them swoodles), we also added zucchini noodles.
This was an easy prep and quick cook recipe. If you already have the veggies chopped, all you are doing is sautéing the veggies, and then combining the chicken with the veggies and adding the sauce.

We precooked the chicken, so it took less time for cooking it up.
 I opted to serve it over rice. (Pre cooked Basmati rice, 1 minute in the microwave.) This served 6 adults, and we had leftovers, that easily could have been lunch for the next day.

You could easily add or swap veggies on this recipe. Don't like broccoli? Add asparagus, or sliced zucchini or snow peas. Don't like red bell pepper, swap it for green or yellow.

The second recipe we prepped last night is Bruschetta Pasta. We prepped the bruschetta topping last night, now that I have the zoodles prepped and the chicken cooked, all I need to do is cook the pasta and zoodles, and add the chicken and topping. This pre-prepped meal will be a godsend on our family Taekwondo nights.

I am always committed to trying to make our lives happy and healthy.  I love finding new things to feed my family. We recently found that My husband and my son are allergic to milk, dairy and whey protein. As a result, my recipes for my family will either utilize simple swaps, or have a modified portion to accommodate our non dairy eaters.



(ignore the following.. for SEO purposes Non-Dairy, allergy, dairy, gluten free, Pampered Chef, Healthy, Quick, Weeknight meals )

Good For You Chicken Salad

This is so good. You will never make chicken salad the old way again.
Years ago, when my husband (then boyfriend) lived on his own, his mom would bring him food. She would come down and load up his fridge. He brought out this "salad" and a bag of tortilla chips one evening. He didn't know what was in it (forcing me to back create it). One bite and I was hooked. What was in it? Hmmm Bite.. , Bite, OOOh not mayo. sour cream. YUM, and onions, and cillantro? WOW.
A few years later, when my best friend was living with me and my boyfriend (now husband), we were hungry. We had one left over chicken breast, from dinner the night before, and 1 cucumber, and 2 green onions (pretty sad looking. but edible), and cellery,  and cottage cheese, and a little bit of sour cream oh and some lettuce and cabbage (pathetic looking, But edible). we just jumped in and started dicing up everything. We used all of the sour cream, not enough to really bring it all together, so we used some cottage cheese. salt and pepper. IT was DELISH.
So here it is. We have played with it over the years and you can too. But the basics are that this is a delicious way to make Chicken Salad.
This is one of those recipes, where if you can make it for 2 you can make it for 12.
This is the for 2 recipe.

1 chicken breast (2 small thin breasts) sliced thin and then diced.
1/2 cucumber peeled, seeded, and diced
2 scallions sliced thin
1 celery stick diced thin.
1 tbs finely diced cillantro (you could omit, or swap with parsley or basil)

1/2 c cottage cheese

1/2 c light sour cream (if you like the extra tang, you could use greek yogurt)
salt and pepper, and garlic powder (we use it on everything.)
Basically, dice it all up, then toss it in a bowl. Add sour cream, cottage cheese, stir to combine. DONE. Don't put the salt in NOW. put a tiny sprinkle on when you want to eat it. if you do it now, it will draw the moisture out of the cucumber and onions and make your chicken salad wet... It doesn't taste bad. just wet.
NOW what to do with this.
Serve it like a sandwich. Soft breads for soft fillings. So a potato bread, or onion rolls, would be great.

Serve it with crackers, or chips. Top it with some chopped tomato or avocado, and eat like a dip. This is Hubby's favorite way to eat it.

Serve about 1/2-3/4 of a cup on top of a green salad with light vinaigrette. The salad offers a creamy consistency and protein. Plus if you do it on a salad of mixed greens with spinach, you are getting protein X2 and calcium X2. This would be a great work lunch.

You can change this up A MILLION WAYS>
off the top of my head. instead of cillantro, use a little Curry powder.
use left over chicken. Today I had a great buy on garlic and herb chicken breast, single packs from the lunch meat section. I have done it with rotisserie chicken, grilled chicken, pulled chicken would work too, but you would want it to be pretty dry. (maybe lay it on paper towels while you dice the veg)
I bet a salsa baked chicken would be good, nice spicy flavor. I would scrape off any extra salsa. But.. You see where this is going. Don't like cucumber? Omit it, double up on the celery, or add a little carrot. Bell pepper would be good for color and crunch. Start with this recipe, but then the sky is the limit.

Quinoa the new rice/ pasta.

I am making this again soon.  Quinoa. is NOT grain. It is a seed. It is pronounced "keen-Wah".
Nutritional facts about quinoa.

Eat one cup of quinoa (a single serving size), and you’ll consume:

• 220 calories (70 percent carbs, 15 percent fat, 15 percent protein)
• 40 grams of carbohydrates (13 percent daily value)
• 8 grams of protein (16 percent of daily value)
• 3.5 grams of fat (5 percent daily value with no saturated fat)
• A glycemic load (blood sugar spike) of only 18 out of 250
• 5 grams of fiber (20 percent of daily value)
• 20 percent of daily value of folate (various forms of Vitamin B)
• 30 percent of magnesium daily value (beneficial for people with migraine headaches); 28 percent daily value of phosphorous; iron (15 percent); copper (18 percent); and manganese (almost 60 percent)

Quinoa is stocked with life-sustaining nutrients all across the board, including all eight essential amino acids. There are other highly beneficial compounds, vitamins and minerals in this food that the Incas reverently called "chisaya mama" (mother of all grains).
(Thank you Mother Nature Network for making that information easy to find.)
I have had quinoa combined in a rice blend with brown rice and long grain/ wild rice.  and then cook in chicken broth and add your favorite flavors. Use just like rice and serve hot) 

Or cool it and use it like pasta and serve cold. Either way it is excellent for you.

Quinoa Salad
• 1 can black beans drained and rinsed
• 1 tomato diced
• 1/2 cucumber seeded and diced. (scoop the seeds out. Then cut in long strips and cut across)
• ½ c Frozen corn (I like white)
• ½ red or orange bell pepper diced.
• parsley
• cilantro
• avocado (optional)
• 1 cup quinoa
• ½ lime juice
• 1-2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup basalmic vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 green onions sliced or ½ c of finely diced red onion.
• Small pinch of red chili flakes ( crushed red) a splash of it for the dressing
How to make it
________________________________________
• Boil 1 cup Quinoa with 2 cups water and salt for 15 minutes. The water will evaporate or be absorbed kind of like rice. Fluff and let cool.
• In the meantime, put the black beans, tomato, and cucumber in to a serving bowl. Chop parsley and cilantro well and add to the bowl (you may want a lot or a little it is up to you), about 5 sprigs or more of each.
• To make the dressing put the green onions, garlic clove, red chili, 3 parsley sprigs, 3 cilantro sprigs, 1 tbsp of dijon mustard into the food processor (or blender) and process. Then add the basalmic and olive oil and process until mixed together well. This will make MORE than enough dressing.
• Once the Quinoa is done cooking and cooled dump into the bowl and add ½ c of the dressing. Stir it all together (or put it all into a bowl with a lid, and shake to mix.) and if you would like avocado I would add it now (to avoid it getting mooshy.)
• Taste. Add salt and pepper more dressing if you would like. Enjoy!
• I have also added a jalepeno to the dressing before with the seeds removed. This is optional. GO SPARINGLY with jalepeno, unless you know you like it hot.

Lasagna Roll Ups- Now and Later

This is the recipe, photos, and results for the Lasagna Roll Ups. I made up this recipe while I was pregnant, and wanted to figure out a way to make lasagna, that could be a good freezer meal. It has almost always been exactly this recipe. I combined three recipes, and used tips from my sister (the vegan one.. not sure if I have mentioned her before. She is vegan, and loves to cook.)
YAY. I remembered to take pics the whole time.

so here is the recipe.



1/2 pound each ground turkey and turkey sausage
2 1/2 cups diced mushrooms
1 onion diced
2 cups zucchini diced
1 box of lasagna
1 jar of sauce ( dealers choice, we use four cheese)
2 cups of cheese (Italian blend or 1/2c Parmesan and 1 1/2 cups Mozzarella)
2 tbs olive oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 block soft tofu
1 box of lasagna noodles

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1 tbs of olive oil and 1 tbs of salt (IF YOU WANT. Some people swear by all of this. I recommend the oil though because the pasta will be sitting for a few minutes while you prep the roll ups.)
Heat a large pan over medium heat. Add 1 tbs of olive oil. Saute' mushrooms, zucchini, onions, and garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms and zucchini are soft. Divide the mushroom, zucchini mixture.
Combine 1/2 of it with the tofu. Add the garlic powder,
and the grated Parmesan cheese.
This will replicate ricotta in a standard lasagna recipe.
Cook the turkey and sausage. (I use the same pan that I cooked the veggies in.)
Cook the lasagna noodles, just a little short of al dente. (if you cook by the times. do it for about 2 minutes less.) Pull the noodles out and lay them out on a cookie sheet.

So now you have, everything cooked. Lay it out and prep your area to make 3 meals worth. This can be one meal for dinner tonight, and 2 freezer meals, or 3 freezer meals.

This is how I set up to make these tonight. I am right handed. so I work right to left. Right. sauce (no need to heat it), the veggie and tofu mixture, the cooked turkey and sausage, and the rest of the cooked veggies. Middle, I am using a cookie sheet to prep the rolls on, above the cookie sheet I have the lasagna noodles in a roasting pan. (it was close and easy.) I have the black cookie sheet, for the ones I am freezing, and the baking pan for the ones I am cooking for tonight.

First coat the noodles in a little bit of sauce. As you can see in the above picture.
Second spread 2 tsp of the veggie tofu mixture across the noodle. Leaving about 1/2 an inch at the bottom of the noodle. The far left picture above, you just layer everything on. I do the tofu mixture, cheese, meat, and then the veggie. You can do a second layer of cheese. all these layers should be about 2 tsps. you don't want too much in there, then it is hard to roll.

Once you have rolled all of the noodles. It should look like this.Tonight I had enough to make 17 rolls. There was a little meat and veggie left. I could have done meat and veg in the two I made with just cheese. Instead I just topped the roll ups with the meat and veg, then the remainder of the sauce, and then about a 1/4 c of cheese. (whatever is left.)

< This is what it looked like about to come out of the oven. And that> is what it looked like in the freezer.
This is what it looks like once I bagged them up with the directions and the cheese with it.When you want to eat these for dinner. DO NOT DEFROST. Prep a baking pan, with about 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce. Lay these in the pan, cover with sauce and top with cheese. Bake 40-45 minutes in a 350.

This is what it looked like for dinner last night. I usually have one, sometimes two. I was going to make a salad, but ran out of time. This would be great with the garlic monkey bread.

This is the first in a series of Freezer Meals. The second of a Fast meals pictorials.

FoodSperiment: Green Banana Muffins

I did it. I made GREEN banana chocolate chip muffins. The worst thing in these is the chocolate chips. They came out awesome, and no food coloring. Secret ingredient? Spinach. that I got for $.99 for a pound of washed bagged leaves. My kids ate them (ages 2-4), My best friends kids ate them (ages 9 and 11), My mother in law, best friend and her husband all ate them. No one said "Hey why are these green?" or " what are these green flecks?"
Do I get extra mommy food war points when I get other peoples kids to like them?

I combined these two recipes.
http://www.anjasfood4thought.com/2010/11/spinach-banana-muffins.html
combined with my normal recipe of
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-chip-banana-muffins-2/
This is what I came up with... YUMMMY
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 egg
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup spinach puree ( I used raw spinach in my food pro, with about 1-2 tbs water)
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Measure dry into large bowl. in different bowl beat together, eggs oil, yogurt, vanilla and bananas. then add wet to dry, stir gently to combine, add spinach fold in, and add choco chips.
375 12-15 minutes.
They came out so good. They are green and pretty. (were... they are gone now. they lasted about 15 hours.) It made 12 muffins and 2 mini loaves.
That is EXACTLY the recipe as I made them.
this is the recipe I actually created
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 egg
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup spinach puree
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
I don't know HOW. But i omitted almost 3/4 cup of flour and it didn't seem to affect it at all.

Meatless Mommy Dinner

Potstickers and Morningstar Farms (you know I love them.) The Asian veggie patties and some veggie potstickers. YUMMY Yummy in my Tummy. I would have taken a picture, but I didn't know how good it was and then it was all gone. Super quick and easy. Healthy, low fat, low cholesterol, mommy dinner.
The patties have a zingy spicy flavor. I don't know that I would like them as a burger. But baked in the oven with a little oil, they got nicely crispy.
The potstickers have been a favorite of mine since I was pregnant with my daughter. They are easy to make a whole meal out of for one person. Saute' the potstickers in a little oil in a med high pan, until they are golden brown. Turn them for a few minutes. Then add 1/4-1/2 cup of water, and a cup or so of frozen veggies, and 1-2 tbs terriyaki sauce. Lid the pan, reduce heat to low and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Basically a one pan meal for one or two.

Meatless Monday New Product Review

(CLEARLY I am getting caught up today.)
Monday was Meatless Monday. We had tostadas. It is our fall back easy meatless thing. Hubby and I actually like the meatless crumbles, he calls it Veat (vegetarian meat). This week I found Yves Meatless Ground Turkey on sale ($1.50), so I picked it up to try it.
I seasoned it with onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, cayenne powder, a little salt and some paprika.
I used one pack. There was plenty for the 6 tostadas Hubby and I had. The kids had beans, rice and some of the veat mixed together like a dip. (as for the battle... Mommy gets 1/2. Hubby loved it. Caleigh ate it.) There was even some left That I am having for lunch today.
I Love this product. I would like it to be freezable, but it has a decent shelf life and it seasons really well. I would like to try it again in pasta sauce. But I think if I can find it on sale, will use this instead of the Morningstar Farms crumbles ($4-5 a bag).

Food Speriment Garlic Monkey Bread

A few weeks ago I found a Bridgford Monkey Bread... But it was Garlic Monkey Bread. I made it with dinner one night and it was SUPER yummy. I got it on clearance, so I paid $2.00. But normally it is $4.00. Not really willing to spend that much and I haven't been able to find it at any of my local stores. Last night I was at the store. (Grocery Outlet. If you have one near you.. Visit it.) I was getting a frozen garlic chicken pasta for dinner, and I thought garlic bread would be yummy. So I bought a Pilsbury french loaf. I unrolled it, just find the seam and unroll the dough. then I cut it into little 1/2X1/2 squares. Dipped the squares in 4 tbs melted butter with 2 tbs of chopped garlic in it. I then tossed them in parmesean, basil, oregano, and fines herbs. Then the pieces go into the spring form bundt pan. (I am cool and have one. You could probably pile them into the muffin cups in a muffin pan or into a round baking pan.) then baked at 350 for 22 minutes. The result FABULOUS. I really need to start taking pictures of these things. Because it was so good it was gone. So yummy, not salty, just garlicky and yummy little bites of bread. perfect for the kids.

A New Direction

While this food blog makes me sound like a crunchy earth momma, domestic goddess, this is not entirely so. I have a love for cheap mexican food, I love deserts, and I love cheese. This has resulted in my current predicament. My dr. called the other day to tell me that my cholesterol is too high. He wants me to start medication for 4 weeks and then retake the blood tests. I don't want to. SO. I have an appointment to talk to him (face to face). I am going to propose radical diet change and starting to work out again, instead of going on medication. If in 4 weeks my cholesterol has gone down. No medication. If not.. Well. I guess I am on medication.
So it is time for me to channel my inner crunchy earth momma, and do more home cooking and less eating mexican. I am going back to using whole grains, quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat breads. More fish, chicken and turkey and less red meat and pork. Less creamy sauces and less cheese. I guess I will be having oatmeal and cheerios for breakfast.
I will still eat out one day a week. My family goes to a mexican place near our church every Sunday after church, we have done it since I was 12 years old. So I will be doing that still.
The main problem is (confession...) I am terrible about doing the dishes. I hate doing the dishes. I don't know why. It really isn't that hard. But I will procrastinate until I have no clean dishes and we are eating off the "good china" with plastic forks. Then the leaning tower of plates, requires 4 loads of the dishwasher and 30 minutes of hand washing pots and pans. (I have started being better. It is another habit that I have to create. ) But when the kitchen is like that, I don't want to cook, so hubby lets me go out and get food. (an expensive and lazy habit.) The worst part is I love cooking, so it is stupid for me to eat food that doesn't make me happy.
So new direction.
Eat food that makes me happy, nourishes my body, and is healthy.
Get my ass to the gym 3-4 days a week.
Use whole grains, and convert the family.
Reinstate Meatless Monday, Fishy Friday and Wery Weggie Wednesday (sorry. little Star Trek reference there).
Oh and do the dishes every day.

Foodsperiment Sweet Potato Fries

This was me trying to use the sweet potatoes we have and do something that the kids might actually eat.
I tried just baking sweet potatoes and giving Duckie and Kiwi chunks. Failure.. But I can put Sweet potatoes into JUST about ANYTHING and they will eat it. (french toast, muffins, pancakes.)
So I decided to make some sweet potato fries.
I sliced a sweet potato, then tossed it with some oil.
Then I quartered a about 8-10 carrots and tossed those too.
I preheated my oven and my baking sheets to 400.
I spread the potatoes and carrots out on the pans. Turned them after about 12-15 minutes. I think it took about 25-30 minutes to get everything ince and soft.. ( they didn't get crispy on the outside, maybe if I had baked them on a wire rack. but i can't find mine....)
I remembered something my grandmother had asked when I had seen her last, "Do they like cinnamon?" I decided to make sweet sweet potatoes.
In a big bowl I sprinkled about 2 tsp of cinnamon, 1/4-1/5 tsp of fresh grated nutmeg and about 2 tbs of sugar. then I tossed the carrots and sweet potatoes in the cinnamon and sugar right out of the oven. Then Serve....
Declan had two servings, Daddy had two servings, Caleigh ate all of hers, I was JAZZED, and this was all that was left.
I tricked my family into eating sweet potatoes and carrots.... AWESOME.

Little Boy Blue Muffins and Pink Berry Muffins

These are basically just Blueberry muffins and Orange Cranberry muffins. With a twist... The Pincess wanted pink muffins, I figured if I am making muffins for her. I should make muffins for him too. I was given a cookbook. It is a Betty Crocker cook book from 1972. It has a FABULOUS muffin recipe. Super simple. It is a base recipe and then it tells you what to add to change the recipe. However, I cannot, just make the recipe normal... I have to change it up. Here was our recent experiments and successes.
Little Boy Blue Muffins. These are basic Blueberry Muffins. I used frozen ( buy them fresh, when they are on sale, toss the whole container in your freezer and when they are frozen solid transfer them to a ziplock baggie.) I changed part of the oil out for plain non fat yogurt, and I did a little zest of lemon in the batter and a sprinkle of white sugar on top. ( I will do the original recipe further down and the changes I made for each of these muffins)

Pink Berry Muffins.... These were fun to make.. because I was experimenting. AND they came out pretty good too. The neighbors loved them.
I used a Cranberry Orange recipe, I added, beet puree (to make them pink) and yogurt to cut the oil content, I didn't have enough orange zest, so I tried to use orange juice. Note, the Zest really makes the orange flavor, the juice really didn't cut it. I had my friend over for the weekend. She looked at me like I was out of my mind that I wanted to MAKE muffins, then when she saw me put beet puree in them, she said "I am NOT eating those. " I said "YES you will and I guarantee you won't taste the beet and that you will like them." 35 minutes later, and 3 muffins gone in her tummy.... I was right. ( does that count as another score for me???)

Original recipe.
Sweet Muffins-
1 egg
1/2 cup of milk
1/4 cup of salad oil
1 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
Heat oven to 400. Grease 12 muffin cups.
Beat egg, stir in milk and oil.
Mix in remaining ingredients just until flour is moistened. Batter should be lumpy.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown, immediately remove from pan, serve warm.

WHAT DID I DO?
Little Boy Blue Muffins
First I doubled the recipe.
Sweet Muffins-
2 egg
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of Plain Non Fat Yogurt
3 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp baking soda ( to counteract the acidity of the yogurt)
3/4 cup frozen Blueberries. (still frozen, this minimizes berry bleed..Original recipe called fro frozen, thawed and drained.)
I loaded the muffin cups almost to the top. I got about 18 muffins, that made nice big muffins. :)

Pink Berry Muffins-
First I doubled the recipe.
Sweet Muffins-
2 egg
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of Plain Non Fat Yogurt
3 1/2 cups of flour
1/4 of beet puree
1 cup of sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp baking soda ( to counteract the acidity of the yogurt)
1 tbs grated orange peel (I used orange zest, done on my microplane) 1 cup cranberries ( I used 1 cup of Craisins)
This made 20 muffins. Next time... more beet puree, these weren't very pink. It did make the tops of them look pink, though.

Foodsperiment- Peanut Butter Banana Magic Muffins

This is our recent Foodsperiment. ( with plans of repeating it tomorrow.)
Peanut Butter Banana Magic Muffins.
Here are the ingredients, peanut butter, banana, brown sugar, 1 egg white flour, baking powder, baking soda, oh.. and the MAGIC.. in this case it was Sweet Potato. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of carrot or cauliflower puree, I didn't have either. I did have sweet potato puree.
The first time I did them. My daughter wanted to help make them. she saw me making the sweet potato puree and started in with " EWWW I don't like that" I said " You don't know that you don't like it you haven't tried it". Then she asked what it was. I said. "Magic." She said " MAGIC?" I went with it... "This is the magic that gives fairies and princesses their magic." She seemed to be good with that. The first batch was realllly sweet. (The 3 year old and the 18 year old loved them. I think because I didn't reduce the brown sugar to accomadate the sweetness of the sweet potato. But I liked them. I am making another batch tomorrow. The next try, I am doing 1/2 the brown sugar. I used smooth peanut butter the first time, but I think I will use chunky next time.
Here is the recipe- and my changes in BLUE
1 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar (1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar)
1/2 cup natural peanut butter ( 1/2 cup JIF because it is what we had.)
1/2 cup carrot or cauliflower puree (1/2 cup sweet potato puree)
1/2 cup banana puree ( I actually pureed up some bananas, but I think it was an unnecessary step. I keep bananas in the freezer to make muffins. All you have to do is let them defrost and cut the peel and slide the banana goo out. )
1 large egg white
1 cup whole wheat flour ( I used AP because; say it with me now: it was what I had)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
1. Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray or liners.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix 1/2 cup of the brown sugar and the peanut butter, the vegetable and banana purees and the egg white using a wooden spoon. (I was trying to read the recipe and let the three year old help. so I did all the brown sugar at this point. and we used a silicone spatula.)
3.Put the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a smaller bowl or ziplock bag, stir or shake to mix. ( I put it through a mesh strainer, instead of dirtying another bowl or wasting another bag) Add to the peanut butter mixture and stir just to combine. Batter will be a little lumpy, do not overmix. ( pretty sure that the Three year old helped over mix a bit...) add the remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar and stir once or twice. ( like I said.. I didn't have any sugar to add here.)
4. Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake until the muffins are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean. 15-20 minutes. turn muffins out onto rack to cool.
5. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or wrap and freeze for up to one month. ( there were only 3 left and they were eaten the next morning.)

I don't know how many changes you have to make to a recipe to call it your own and not someone else's. But CREDIT where credit is due. this was originally a recipe from Jessica Seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious.

Tomorow is Peanut Butter Banana Magic Muffins take two and Pink Berry Muffins (and depending on the size of the fit my daughter pitches.. Little Boy Blue Muffins too.)

Scrambled Egg-Speriments

I have this great cook book, Deceptively Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld. It is all about ways to incorporate and hide vegetable and sometimes meat in foods, normal foods for your kids.
One of the fist recipes I found and tried was for scrambled eggs. Caleigh LOVES scrambled eggs and I figured sneaking veggies into it would be great.
First, I tried sweet potato puree. No go. She ate one bite and spit it out.
Second try, I tried the actual recipe. 2 eggs, 4 egg whites, and cauliflower. NO GO again. Total ambivalence, she ate a few bites, but not like her usual breakfast eating habits.
Third try, this time I did 6 whole eggs, and 1/2 cup of cauliflower puree. Success. Both hubby, and Caleigh devoured them, no question.
I have since played with Egg beaters, and egg vs egg white combos. I can get away with a half and half ratio. I have used cauliflower and squash puree. Both eaten successfully.
I have found for my kid. it needed to look "normal". The sweet potatoes, actually add a sweet taste. If you started off with that and it was all the kids knew, you could maybe get away with the sweet potato. I like the cauliflower and the squash.
For adults. I have also added, cooked chopped broccoli, carrots and zucchini. I have had people who HATE zucchini, But love my veggie scramble.
Score one for the Mommy. I have managed to convert my kids to love something that has veggies in it... WOO HOO.

Little Picky Eaters

This is the beginning of what I am calling FoodSperiments. I need to get food into the kids. I need for that food to contain veggies and to be good for them. They want to eat crackers, muffins, cheerios, macaroni and cheese and as my daughter calls it "chicken srench sries". So this is the battle ground. Mommy's goal to trick the children into eating as many veggies as I can. Kids goal, to try and thwart mommy and only eat Yummy food. These are my opponents. Declan 18 months and Caleigh age 3.

Here are the battles so far. (Blog posts coming to describe each battle in detail....)
*Scrambled Eggs with sweet potato puree... BIG fail the first time. (Kids 1- Mommy 0)
*Macaroni and Cheese with sweet potato puree, another fail. (Kids 2- Mommy 0)
*Cauliflower Mashed " Potatoes" 1/2 win for mommy, Daddy LOVED it, and he normally hates cauliflower. (kids 3 -Mommy 1/2)
* Scrambled Egg whites with Cauliflower (another fail....) (Kids 4 -Mommy1/2 )
*French Toast with Sweet Potato puree. HUGE SUCCESS. My daughter's friend, who had already had breakfast, ate 2 whole pieces. Caleigh ate 4 pieces and Declan at 1. BIG success (Kids 4- Mommy 1 1/2) With NOTHING but successes since.
*Scrambled Eggs with Cauliflower FINALLY a success... WOO HOO (Kids 4 -Mommy2 1/2)
*Pancakes with sweet potato puree. ANOTHER success. (Kids 4 -Mommy 3 1/2 )
*Oatmeal with apples and applesauce. Success ((Kids 4 -Mommy41/2 )
AND MOMMY PULLS AHEAD
*Turkey meatballs and rice. Partial fail. Once I got Caleigh to try it she liked it, but Declan wouldn't eat it. (Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 5 )
*Black Beans and rice (aka Con Gris. ) Always a winner. (Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 6 )
* Chicken Strips Parmesan with cauliflower puree. ( hopefully a replacement for chicken and french fries...) Score one for the home team.. (Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 7 )
Macaroni and Cheese with cauliflower or Squash puree ((Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 8 )
Scrambled eggs with sweet potato humus. Success. (Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 9 )
Chicken Poncit with broccoli, carrots, celery and bean threads, instead of rice noodles. Score for mommy. They Both loved it. ((Kids 4 1/2 -Mommy 10)
That is how the battles have gone so far. As you can see. Mommy is in the lead. When they have a few days of finickiness, I resort to one of the Big winners. usually french toast for dinner.
I still use some pre-made and boxed things. But it is all better, than fast food. Right?

Fish Experiment # 31

I don't mind fish. I have had fish that I totally loved, however, I am consistently afraid of fish. I hate fishy, mushy fish. I am never sure what to try. I do really well with ocean fish. I do mahi-mahi, salmon and shark pretty well. But, I have also had fish that was mushy, fishy, slimy and to me... totally gross. So every time Alex wants to try a new fish, or something, I wait as long as possible. I have to build up courage to try it. Last night we tried Tilapia again. This was the second time I have made it. However, it was the first time I have seasoned it.
We had pan seared tilapia with roasted potatoes and green beans.
I didn't think I had any lemons, so I used grapefruit. I zested it for the potatoes. Then I segmented it for the fish. I used the juice from the grapefruit and a couple of the segments broken up. 1 clove of garlic, minced, 1 tbs of oil, 2 tsps of basil, and (I did find a lemon) zest of one lemon and juice of half of a lemon. I let the fish rest in the marinade for a minute, then into a hot pan with a little bit of oil. I seared them for 2 minutes. Then I topped them with the rest of the marinade. Then I put them into the oven to finish off. (350*) I left them in there for about four more minutes.
They came out AWESOME. The fish was tender, flavorful, moist and perfectly cooked. The potatoes were Yummy. Here is a picture.
Yummy. I think tilapia is added to the list of fish I like.

Meatless Monday Experiment

My mom told me about this alternative to MEAT, called Jackfruit. It is an Asian fruit that looks like a bumpy football. (or if you get it my way it looks like a metal can...) you tear it apart and pull the middle core out. Then re-heat, season, and sauce or flavor it and build a dish.





I decided to make Pulled Not Pork Barbecue Sandwiches. Then I decided to make my OWN BARBECUE SAUCE. (thank you Bobby Flay for showing me how to do that).




OH MY WORD DEAR the sauce is fabulous. It had a nice flavor, good build up of heat, but not overwhelming. I sauteed the jackfruit with minced garlic and onions. Then I added the sauce and cooked it in for a few minutes. Heat up some sandwich rolls, add yummy barbecue stuff.














MMMM YUMMY.

4 Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Yep... and they were YUMMY.
So, here is the recipe.
I made 6, so that is what the recipe is based on.
1/4 med onion diced
1/2 medium zucchini, diced
2 cloves of garlic diced
oil spray
total of 1/4 cup of your four favorite cheeses. We used 1 Tbs Parmesan (grated), 1Tbs feta, 1 Tbs Monterrey Jack (grated or diced) and 1 Tbs of Mozzerella. semi soft to hard cheeses are best, brie, goats cheeses and other soft could be messy.
OH and the mushrooms. 6 Med-Large (muffin cup sized) mushroom, cleaned, stemmed.
Heat oven to 400
Combine diced onion, zucchini and garlic and saute` until lightly golden. Move to mixing bowl.
Using your MUFFIN PAN (thank you Rachael Ray) or a regular cookie sheet, or an oven proof skillet. Oil lightly with spray. Place mushrooms stem side down and bake for about 5 minutes. this is to pre-cook them a bit and dry them out so you don't have soggy mushrooms or filling.
Return to filling add 1/4 cup of bread crumbs, and a little basil (or any other herbs you like.)
Stir to combine. Add in 3 of the 4 cheeses, reserve one to melt on top. We used the mozzarella to melt on top.
Remove mushrooms. Mound the stuffing up on the mushrooms, and pack it a little bit. Return them to the pan and bake 5-7 minutes. Just until everything starts to melt. Top with reserved cheese and return to oven to melt.
These were SO yummy. Totally vegetarian as is. We decided though that this would lend itself well to adding crab (or Krab), shrimp, or sausage, or even pieces of shredded chicken. You could add green chiles instead of the feta and Parmesan with the chicken. MMM maybe that will be next.
This was easy to make. It took me about 20 minutes. I did it while I was marinating the fish for dinner.

Our First Meatless Monday

Last night was our first Meatless Monday. We had tostadas. Vegetarian refried beans. My favorite tostada shell, Los Pericos. Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Grillers Recipe Crumbles, that I cooked with salsa. Then topped it all with shredded romaine lettuce, tomatoes, scallions, and avocados. It was super yummy.
I love the Morningstar Farms meatless crumbles. You find them in the freezer section. they cook up in about 5 minutes. It makes enough to make 8-10 totadas. I cook it in a skillet over medium-high heat. Spray the pan with a little oil spray, and add 1-2 tbs of your favorite salsa (or 2-3 packets of Taco Bell hot sauce) Then cook stirring often for a couple minutes. It really cooks so fast. Dinner is ready in no time. The price per meal is comparable to ground beef. I had a package of ground beef in my hand that was a little over a pound of 85/15 that was $4. 26 and the Morningstar Farms crumbles were on sale 2/$7.
Enjoy. Super easy, Low cost.
Morningstar Farms crumbles 2/$7 on sale (used one bag). Refried beans $.88, Lettuce $1.89 a head (only used 1/2) Avocados $1.00 each, Tomatoes $.99 a lb. Scallions $.89 a bunch (used 1/2) Tostada shells $1.49. Grand total. $10.05 for 3-4 people.

Meatless Mondays and Fishy Fridays

I have decided to do at least one day a week where we eat meatless meals, and at least one day a week where we eat fish. This is another attempt to set a good example for my children, expand our recipes, and eat healthier.
Alex wants to eat fish more often. I bought a fish and seafood cookbook. Fishy friday is my way of committing to one day a week. We will likely work up to more times a week. But for now, one day a week is a start.
I have been partially vegetarian for years. I find that when it is just me alone, I revert to eating basically vegetarian. Alex has been very accepting of vegetarian food. Even though he still "lovingly" calls it fascist food. Meghan, my sister, is vegan and has been very good for getting Alex to try new things.

Brie and bread

So, my friend is getting ready to move and we had to clean out her fridge. What did we find? Two kinds of brie cheese, a DELICIOUS cheese that is a white cheddar with apricots in it. (I know sounds weird but it was yummmy.) Well that was in addition to the cheddars, and mozzerellas. We decided on brie for breakfast.
We went to the store to buy sourdough french bread. There wasn't any. So, I bought 2 artizan baguettes, and a regular french loaf. One was an artizan sourdough baguette with sea salt on top. The second was also sourdough but it was everything style. Like an everything bagel.
Here is what to do. I am sure lots of people to this, and I am sure it is really common in France and Europe, but, I had never seen it before.
heat oven to 350
slice the bread. if you slice it on an angle you get a bigger slice. lay them out on PARCHMENT PAPER or that neat non stick foil.
slice the brie. we used standard brie, and this wonderful herb coated brie, covered in basil.
lay the slices on the bread...(duh...)
place in the oven to melt the cheese. 10 minutes at the most.
then eat. I think doing it with more than one kind of bread and more than one kind of cheese is the best. because then you get to have a different taste each time.
NOW. this was delicious on it's own. But in my world I think some oven broiled sausages would be a great addition.
Ok so this might not be the healthiest of breakfasts, but it is probably still healthier that going to Denny's. Plus it will definitely taste better than anything you can get at a Denny's