New Recipes Full of Fruit and Veggie Love

I tried some great new meals this week and thought I'd share some photos and recipes.

Curried Cauliflower and Chickpea Stew (from Epicurious.com) Buddha Bowl

Buddha Bowl

(adapted from Crazy, Sexy, Life.com)

Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients:
1-2 cups of brown rice (you’ll have extra)
1/2 head broccoli
1 cup chickpeas
1/2 purple onion, diced
1 grated carrot
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup ground flaxseeds
1 avocado
Sea salt
1 tbsp olive oil
Dash of cayenne

Instructions:
Step 1: Cook the brown rice first. Use a 2:1 ratio of water to rice in the cooking process.

Step 2: If you’re using raw veggies, finely chop them and toss them with the rice while it’s still hot. This cooks them a bit, but you don’t lose nutrients. Season and dress to taste.

Variation: You can saute the veggies in olive oil then put on top of the cooked brown rice. (I did this).

Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette (from Crazy, Sexy, Diet)
Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette

4 Roma tomatoes (halved)
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Toss the tomatoes with 1 tablespoon EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), along with the salt and pepper. Place the tomatoes on a baking sheet, cut-side down, and roast for 20-25 minutes, until the skin blisters. Set aside to cool.

Transfer the tomatoes, remaining 1 1/4 cups olive oil, vinegar, red pepper flakes, garlic, cilantro, and salt and pepper to a blender (I use my magic bullet) and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings. The vinaigrette will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for about a week.

Variation: For Spicy Southwestern-Style Roasted vinaigrette, add 4 rehydrated chipotles to the tomatoes before blending.

Here's my tasty salad with the lovely dressing.

Music Muesli (from The Athlete’s Plate) Cashier Cashew Butter and Jelly (from The Athlete’s Plate)

I don't have any photos of the wonderful sweet potato and chickpea dish that I made on Tuesday because I was so hungry when I made it that I didn't bother taking pictures and started eating. It was very tasty and I had lots of leftovers that were very good the next day. The original recipe called for jalepeno, but I didn't have any.

Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry with Green Peas

(adapted from No Meat Athlete)

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

•Basmati brown rice
•2 Tbsp Extra Virgin olive oil
•1 small yellow onion, chopped
•2 cloves garlic, minced
•thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
•1 Tbsp curry powder
•1 Tbsp garam masala
•1 large sweet potato, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
•15-oz can chickpeas
•15-oz can coconut milk, solid and liquid parts mixed (just shake the can)
•1/2 cup frozen peas
•1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes
•1 cup water

In a heavy saucepan, heat the oil over medium-low heat. After the pan has heated up for a few minutes, add the onion, garlic, ginger. Cook for about 5 minutes until everything is softened. Add the curry powder and garam masala then stir for 30 seconds. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the sweet potato, chickpeas, coconut milk, and water to the pan. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the sweet potato is tender, about 15 minutes. Add the peas and tomatoes; stir occasionally until they're heated through, about 4 more minutes. Serve over brown rice.

A Fun Weekend and Some Recipes to Share

It's hard being a 3 year old!
My husband took the 2 oldest boys skiing on Saturday and he sent me this picture from the slopes. This was at lunch time. I guess James was skiing hard and needed to take a break!

Sunday the boys had their ice skating lessons. Afterward, I decided to make some homemade banana soft serve. This was a recipe I found on a website called Choosing Raw. The title of the post is called, "This Post Will Change Your Life". This really isn't even a recipe because you only need one ingredient...frozen bananas! other ingredients are optional. I did add a little bit of almond milk because it wasn't getting creamy at first, but once I did that it immediately got thick and creamy. Charlie wanted me to add some chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, both of which I added and it turned out great.
The boys love it. Seriously, this is so easy and so yummy that I'm going to be making it all the time. The possibilities are endless as far as add-ins go. You could add berries, peanut butter, cocoa powder...anything you want. Go and read about it HERE.

One of my goals for the year is to start eating healthier. I don't think that we do that bad of a job so far, but I'd like to incorporate more raw foods into our diet, especially vegetables and reduce the amount of white flour and sugar that we consume. I made a trip to Wegmans last night and got a lot of good things. I'm going to be making some Zesty Black Bean & Corn Salad tonight. I've made it before lots of times and it's really good. I thought it would be something easy for me to make and take to work this week. This is one of my favorite healthy recipes to make, I love all of the fresh ingredients, especially the cilantro. Here's the recipe I'll be using.

What is one of your favorite tasty and healthy recipes?

January's Big Cooking Day

What exciting thing did I do on the first day of the new year you ask? I spent the day cooking. All. Day. Cooking. I wanted to continue what I had been doing the previous year as far as saving money on groceries, spending more time with my kids and more time to run! So we decided to do grocery shopping on Friday and Saturday I would cook my little heart out.

I got a new cookbook for Christmas called Don't Panic-Dinner's in the Freezer. I love the book because it describes in detail how to cook, package and freeze meals and even triples the recipe ingredients for you. There are lots of great freezing tips and techniques given in the book as well as tricks and shortcuts that make cooking much easier. The recipes sound very good and they aren't your usual casserole type things. Most of the recipes below came from the book. I am hoping that when trying these new recipes my boys will find more things to like and eat. It's hard finding meals that all 3 boys like.On a side note: I thought these plates were funny. My sister-in-law gave them to the boys for Christmas.

Snacks/Sides
Applesauce (lots of apples & cinnamon..that's it)
Banana Bread
Oatmeal Raisin cookies
Steel Cut Oatmeal x5 (I used the recipe on the bag of Bob's Redmill Steel Cut Oats then added apples, cinnamon, honey & flax seed)

Lunches
Chicken Salad

Dinners
Turkey Chili x2 (my thrown together recipe)
Chicken Picado x2
Lemon Glazed Chicken Breasts
Chicken Cacciatore x2
Honey Pork Chops x3
Dijon Roast Pork Loin x3
Chicken Enchiladas x3
Salsa Shredded Beef x2

June's Big Cooking Day

Success is mine!

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I got done cooking a lot sooner this time than I did last month. I think that it's mainly because I started making a few things the night before. There were a couple of things that I didn't get around to making, but then there were also a couple dishes that I made more of...like the chicken fried rice and the pulled pork. It helped a lot that I was able to use my mother-in-law's crock pot. I only have one small one and hers is huge (Thanks Jane!).

I also realized that I still have a few dinners left in the freezer from last month's big cooking day!!
Now that I know I'm going to stick with this type of cooking, I think I need to invest in some large cookware, mixing bowls and possibly some more baking sheets.

Breakfast:

• Chocolate chip and banana pancakes (x 5)
  
• Rainbow Pancakes (x 5)
  

Sides:

• Applesauce (x 3)
• Garlic Bread (x2)
  

Dinners:

• Buffalo Chicken Fajitas (x 3)
  


• BBQ Pulled Pork (x 5)
  


• Lasagna Soup (x 3)
  


• Cheesy Ham & Pasta Bake (x 2)
  


• Chicken Fried Rice (x 4)
  


• Pizza Pinwheels (x 1)
  


• Chili (x 3)
  


• Teriyaki Chicken (x 2)
  


• Beef Brisket (x 2)

I really want to try making these Cinnamon Rolls next time. They look delicious and don't seem like they would be that bad for you...

If you want more menu ideas or recipes then you can check out Life as a Mom. If you're thinking about doing this type of cooking she's got so much helpful information to get you started.

Another great site that has information and menus for each week is Orgjunkie.com. She hosts Menu Plan Monday at the beginning of each week and other bloggers link up and post their menus and recipes too.

May's Big Cooking Day

Since last month's meal plan was such a success (we didn't go out to eat once and never ordered take out) I decided to do everything on my own this time. I chose recipes that I thought our family would like and I also added some sides and breakfast items this time. I cooked most of this on Saturday and a little more on Sunday. I tried to make sure that each meal would make enough for a dinner and for lunches the next day.

I thought it would be nice to share the links to the recipes I used and to also add comments about each of them. Each month I will comment on which meals worked out and which ones didn't.

I'm on my second month and I am happy to report that it's been fun and we've enjoyed trying new recipes. Charlie doesn't always eat the new food but that's no surprise because he's always been a picky eater. I did recently find out that both of the older boys really like Spanish Rice!

Breakfast:

• French Toast Sticks - I made this recipe without the butter and not so much sugar. Charlie ate two of them without any syrup and he really liked them.


• Blueberry Pancakes - I used the pancake mix from a box I had in the pantry and added vanilla and blueberries.

Lunch:

• Chicken Salad

Dinner:

• Pork Loin - We bought a large piece and cut it up into 3 separate pieces and froze them. Mike will grill them with his seasonings when the time comes and each piece will be enough for dinner and lunch the next day.
• Turkey Meatballs - We tasted these after they came out of the oven and they tasted very good and were moist.
• Chicken Spaghetti
• Oven baked Potato Wedges - I got the instructions from a very helpful and informative article that explains how to cook, freeze and reheat any type of potato.
• Applesauce - I used Rome apples, added a bit of cinnamon and no sugar. It turned out great. The baby liked it! The other boys haven't tried it yet.
• Pulled Pork - this was really simple to make and turned out very tasty. I'll definitely be making this again.
• Stir-Fry Chicken With Garlic Sauce
• Baked Chicken Fingers - I used this recipe but I did not bake the chicken fingers, instead I flash froze them then put them in Ziploc bags. On baking day I'll put them in the oven at 425 for 18-20 minutes.
  

The meals we liked from last month:
These are the original recipes, but they were adjusted a bit because they were all frozen and cooked later.

• Slow Cooker Chicken in Mushroom Sherry Sauce - I ended up mixing everything together in a Ziploc bag and placing it in the freezer. I thawed it out the night before then baked it in the oven. I served it over egg noodles and it was good.


• Buffalo Chicken Fajitas - For this I combined the cut up chicken and sauce in one bag and the veggies in the other bag and put them in the freezer. I only thawed out the chicken and sauce the night before (kept the veggies frozen.) Then on the day of cooking I cooked the chicken and sauce in one pan and the frozen veggies in the other. When both were cooked I added them together and topped it with the blue cheese.


• Baked Southwestern Egg Rolls - I assembled these then put them in Ziploc bags and froze. The day of cooking I followed the regular baking instructions. I really liked these a lot and would definitely make them again.
  
  

April's Big Cooking Day

I finally did it! Two weeks ago I took my grocery list to the store and picked up all the ingredients I needed to make a month's worth of dinners. On Sunday I prepared and froze all of the meals. My Freezer was stocked, full, absolutely packed! We're going on week 3 and I'm happy to say that I still have lots of meals left in the freezer. I've spent less time preparing meals and no time stressing about what we're going to have each day. What it has given me is more time to spend with my family.

I'm already putting together my menu/recipe list for next month. I really think this is saving us money and time. I must admit that I was exhausted by the time I was done preparing and freezing everything on my big day of cooking for the month, but the time and money I will be saving is worth it!

Besides saving time and money, the other thing I like about make ahead meals is trying new recipes. Most of the meals we've tried so far have been great and it's made me realize how many other things I could make in batches and freeze instead of spending lots of money on store bought items that definitely aren't as tasty as homemade. I'd like to try this bread recipe sometime.

I've been wanting to try this type of cooking for quite some time but always felt overwhelmed when it came to finding all of the recipes and compiling the shopping list. Then I found a website that did all of that for me, it's called Once a Month Mom and it's great. Everything is organized and ready to print, from the recipes to the grocery list and even labels with baking instructions. They even have a section on baby/toddler food. I thought this recipe for Toddler French Toast Sticks looked good and is something I'm going to try.

Banana Crumb Muffins

My bananas turned brown and I thought banana muffins would be good to make with them. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com. I think they turned out very moist. Charlie had one this morning and I heard him tell Mike "they are soooo good!" If Charlie thinks they're good then they must be good....He's so picky!

Banana Crumb Muffins
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2.In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3.In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4.Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

The only things I modified from the original recipe was that I added 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp. vanilla and 1/8 tsp nutmeg to the muffin mixture.

Mummy Dogs

In the spirit of Halloween, which happens to be one of Charlie's favorite holidays, we made Hot Dog Mummies last night. They were easy to make and turned out great!

Hot Dog Mummies: Serves 12

Ingredients:
•1 can (11 oz.) Pillsbury refrigerated bread sticks, 12 large hot dogs, cooking spray, ketchup and/or mustard

Directions:
•Heat oven to 375 degrees. Unroll dough and separate at perforations into 12 bread sticks.
•Cut each bread stick lengthwise and crosswise into 4 pieces for a total of 48 pieces of dough.
•Wrap 4 pieces of dough around each hot dog to resemble “bandages” stretching the dough slightly completely covering the hot dog and a small separation so that the hot dog shows through the dough for a face.
•Place wrapped hot dogs on an ungreased cookie sheets and spray lightly with cooking spray.
•Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until the dough is golden brown and hot dogs are hot. With mustard, draw features on “face.”

Recipe is from Pillsbury.