I’m headed back to work next week and stocking up on some yummy food for Sam and Josie.
I’ve really enjoyed making their food. It’s super easy and doable even when you’re keeping your eye on two little ones. I’ve been able to use my rice steamer to steam the food and then my KitchenAid hand blender to puree it (yes, note the brand reference).
Bon appetite Sam and Josie!
I’ve tried several granola recipes and I’m telling you, this is THE BEST ONE. I have to give credit to my mom for finding it. She used to make it for us a lot when she was staying with us right after the babies were born.
Since then, I tried making it myself and adjusted the recipe a bit to see if I could make it just a little more healthy and have it still taste delicious. It’s original name is “Butter Pecan Granola”. Sounds good, right? I kept the pecans, but got rid of the butter and replaced it with coconut oil. I also added flax seed and walnuts which are super foods, to the original recipe. The test was successful! It was still so good!
Here’s the recipe below. The great thing about granola is that you can add or remove whatever you want based on your taste preferences or how healthy you want it to be.
Let’s be honest. Granola can be a great food to use to pretend you are eating something healthy when you’re really not. Granola made with tons of butter, sugar and chocolate chips is basically just like eating a crumbled up cookie (sort of). Anyway, this is a great and healthy recipe. Enjoy!
Preheat oven to 325°. Stir together melted coconut oil, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Add oats, pecans, walnuts, wheat germ, sesame seeds and flax seed and stir until mixture is evenly coated. Spread oat mixture on a lightly greased 15- x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toasted, stirring every 10 minutes. Spread granola onto wax paper, and cool completely (about 30 minutes). Store in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple weeks or freeze up to 6 months.
These days I’m finding lots of shortcuts to help me get things done faster. My life is now planned out in two to three hour increments (the time I have between each feeding during awake hours).
I need to be able to maximize those time increments to do simple things like eat or get dressed and sometimes to do more complicated things like work on a Bible study or do some cleaning.
I’ve been wanting to eat an egg for breakfast for a while now, but just couldn’t bring myself to take the time to get out a frying pan and stay next to the stove to cook the egg, never mind having to clean the pan when I’m done.
I’ve heard of making an egg in the microwave before but never tried it. Today was the day to give it a go and I’m hooked.
I can make an egg in a coffee cup and it takes less than a minute! Awesome! I can then put the coffee mug in the dishwasher so I don’t have to wash it myself. Double awesome!
Look at all these easy and healthy microwave egg recipes. I’m so excited about this new shortcut!
We’ve had a lot of wonderful people that have offered to make us a meal over the past few weeks, which has been a huge blessing to us.
My friend Katie set up a a website where people could sign up to bring us a meal. If you’ve never seen it before, check it out. It’s such a great way to organize meals for someone in need.
But, back to the amazing food that we’ve enjoyed. I just had to share this Eclair Cake recipe. I am in love with this cake. I would have eaten the whole thing in approximately 1.5 days if I could. It was so delicious and it looks super easy to make. It also stores well in the refrigerator so you can easily make it ahead of time. I will be making this sometime soon. Delish!
Yesterday I tried two new recipes for a bachelorette party based on recommendations from my sister – thanks Sarah! Both were super easy and great for either a casual or more formal summer party.
I love when recipes take little effort and look beautiful when you display them. Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of the finished product, but here are the links to the two recipes. Enjoy!
(By the way, I made the shrimp recipe with just shrimp and canteloupe and it was great, so adding the other vegetables would surely be delicious too)
I’ve had a little conversion experience that’s occurred over the past year or two. I can’t remember the last time I bought ground beef. We’ve switched to using ground turkey for pretty much anything that we previously used ground beef for (spaghetti, lasagna, burgers, sloppy joes).
I don’t miss the beef one bit. In fact, we decided to order a burger at a nice restaurant the other day and I really felt that it didn’t quite measure up to the turkey burgers we make at home.
I originally got this recipe from Weight Watchers, but have since just sort of some up with my own version and adjust it a bit each time we make it depending on what we have on hand. I made them the other night and they were probably one of the best batches we’ve had yet, so I thought I’d share. Everyone loves a healthy meal that tastes amazing, right?
1.25 lb package of Jenny O lean ground turkey (or whatever brand you prefer)
1/3 cup salsa (we like Tostitos chunky salsa)
A generous handful of crushed Tostitos chips (use baked for the healthiest version)
Chopped green onion if you have it on hand
Garlic powder or salt (however much you like)
Ground Pepper
Lowry’s Seasoning Salt
A handful of chopped cilantro (I love Cilantro so I am very generous with this)
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and then form four patties. Get your grill pan or grill nice and hot. We actually prefer to do this in our grill pan. They turn out great that way. Cook till they’re done. : )
For toppings, we typically use cheese, cilantro and salsa. We also use whole wheat buns. You’re healthiest option would be to leave off of the cheese of course. Honestly, these are good enough that you can go without the cheese easily.
I wish I had a picture to share, but I don’t so you will just have to imagine how delicious they look in your mind.
Delish!
I was in the mood to try and cook something new for our Bible study group that meets twice a month. I had forgotten to bring my trusty family cookbook to work so I could scour it for a recipe over lunch, so I spent some time looking on a few of my favorite recipe websites and thankfully, I found a couple of winners.
The Pioneer Woman contributed the main dish. This Cajun Chicken Pasta was great. Everyone loved the spicy kick. This asparagus appetizer was awesome. I used Boursin cheese. Who doesn’t love anything wrapped in proscuitto or bacon? I’m a huge fan of arugula so this salad looked fantastic to me and it was. Yum! Three new recipes and three new things I’d make again. Delish!
Pregnancy has made me crave comfort food OR maybe I just feel less guilty going for the meat and potatoes now than I did when I wasn’t eating for three. At any rate, tonight we knew we wanted to cook at home using some ground lean turkey meat that we had in the freezer. By the way, I may be a little late to the party here, but I’ve just discovered ground lean turkey in the past year and I’m in love. We have been able to make the BEST turkey burgers and spaghetti with the ground turkey. I don’t miss the beef taste one bit and I love that it’s healthier for us. Did you know that turkey is a superfood? Bonus!
But, back to tonight. Searching through my recipe books, we found a couple of Barefoot Contessa recipes that sounded like they would make a great comfort meal and didn’t look too difficult to pull together. We had our meat, this Turkey Meatloaf recipe and we had our potatoes, this Parmesan Smashed Potatoes recipe. So, so good!
The meatloaf has some thyme in it which gives it an extra layer of flavor for your taste buds. For the smashed potatoes we used plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream to cut back on the fat and add some protein and boy did that work well!
We didn’t forget a vegetable, don’t worry. We used our favorite grill pan to make some brussel sprouts marinated in a paprika Dijon and garlic marinade. It made me really excited for summer when we can get back to grilling vegetables on the grill. Yum!
Here’s a picture of the finished product. A perfect plate of comfort food for the four of us! : ) Delish!
My husband loves Indian food which means he’s also pretty fond of anything with curry. For me, curry is best in small doses. I’ve had some delicious curry dishes eating out, but have never tried to cook with it myself.
The other night Tim’s mom gave us a recipe to try that was a perfect introduction for me to try cooking with curry. This Fish Stew recipe was really good and quite easy to make. I’d recommend it for any curry shy cooks wanting to step out of your comfort zone a little bit. It was delish!
Fish Stew Recipe
4 T butter
1 leek, washed and thinly sliced
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1 T curry (use less if it is the spicy variety)
1 tomato peeled, seeded and chopped
1 cups vegetable or fish stock (I used vegetable)
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1 t brown sugar
1/2 t salt
9 oz fish fillets (cod or other mild white fish)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup heavy cream (you can use fat free half and half for a healthier version)
1/4 cup parsley (chopped as garnish)
1) Heat butter in a saucepan and saute leek, carrot and onion over a low heat for five minutes or until the vegetables are tender
2) Stir in curry powder and cook for two minutes. Add tomato and cook for five minutes. Stir in stock, potato, sugar and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and summer for 15 minutes.
3) Add fish and seasonings and simmer for additional 10 minutes. Stir through cream and reheat without boiling. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
sweet30something 