When I was a little girl I would get angry and throw fits, as most kids do. In the morning if I didn’t like what I was wearing, or my pigtails were too tight, or my favorite lace-trimmed socks were dirty, it was the end of the world. I’d cry, scream and lose my ability […]
I’m officially insane. Every time I try to simplify my life, I find something fabulous I need to add to it. My son has been taking piano lessons for three years. Plus he goes to karate twice a week and has cub scouts once a week. My daughter is in ballet and tap. Every Sunday I sit on my porch swing and think about how nice it is to relax and how we need to get rid of some activities in our lives. So what did I do last week? I signed my daughter up for piano as well. What’s worse is that it was my idea. She was content with ballet and tap but then I opened my big mouth and asked her if she wanted to take piano. She was thrilled! She’s been “practicing” every day since. The good mom in me is really excited for her. Learning music is important and she’ll love it. But the other side of the good mom is not so happy. I’ve added one more thing to our lives. Sigh. Oh well. It will all work out in the end. Or else I’ll die of exhaustion. Guess I won’t know until I try, right?
So for all you other insane moms out there who are also stretched beyond your limits, I have yet another slow cooker recipe for you. I believe the slow cooker was the best invention since 2-ply toilet paper. Some days, it’s the only way we have a warm meal on the table at dinner time. I can throw everything together in the morning and then come home from ballet or piano or karate or cub scouts or the therapy sessions I should sign myself up for and still be able to give my family a delicious, healthy dinner.
This salsa beef meets all the criteria of comfort food. It’s packed with flavor, tender and super healthy.
This is another fabulous dump and go recipe. While that doesn’t sound glamorous, it’s way better than a bowl of cereal, which is plan B on busy days. Just pull out the slow cooker and add stew meat, carrots, stewed tomatoes, salsa, molasses and garlic. Then let all the flavors meld together. Mmmmmm. A word about salsa. You have to be careful when picking salsa. A lot has added sugar, but it’s still easy to find one that does not if you’re willing to read labels.
Stir this together and cook the entire thing on low for 6-8 hours.
My husband eats this over rice, but my daughter and I like it over mashed sweet potatoes. Either way, you can congratulate yourself at the end of the day for preparing a delicious, healthy dinner for your family even though you spend your days as a taxi driver.
I love to roast vegetables. It doesn’t make them mushy, but rather crunchy on the outside, warm on the inside and gives them a great smoky flavor. Plus, you can use whatever vegetables you want. In our house, we have to separate them into rows in the pan because my husband is convinced if certain vegetables touch the food he eats, he’ll die. Since I don’t want him to die from zucchini contact, we do ours in rows, but you can just as easily toss all the vegetables together.
Just cube up what veggies you want, drizzle them in avocado oil and season them with salt and pepper. Rather than do this in a bowl, I just toss the whole thing right on the pan.
Then bake them in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes. I like to go with 40 minutes because I like them to have some black char on them. If you’re not a fan of that, go with 30 minutes.
Below I’ve listed the vegetables we used, but feel free to use whatever you like.
We recently moved into a new house. And while I love my new house, there is one thing about the house I can not stand for. This is the most beige house I’ve ever seen. Luckily I found a way to accommodate a big punch of color in the kitchen.
Girls’ night in college usually involved my roommates and I going to a movie, getting dessert at midnight in a restaurant, daring each other to do something really stupid and then dancing until 2 a.m. when someone would suggest making cookie dough, which we’d do, and then eat the entire bowl before falling asleep on the couch about 4 a.m. Now that I have a daughter, we do regular girls’ nights. Though these days, they usually involve painting nails, watching Angelina Ballerina and making a treat together. I have to say, I prefer these girls’ nights.
Last Friday after our nails were sparkly turquoise and Angelina was having a dilemma about being jealous of another mouse ballerina, we decided it was treat time. Giving my daughter loads of sugar right before I send her to sleep does not make for a happy ending to girls’ night. Instead, we made this healthy version of a Wendy’s Frosty with only 3 ingredients, all of which are healthy and easy to pronounce.
Just throw the frozen bananas, cocoa powder and a milk of your choice (we went with almond milk) in a blender and you’re good to go! I really want to make some sweet potato fries to see how they taste dipped in. Come on. You know you used to dip your fries in your frosty.
As I’ve mentioned several times, I love stir fry. Even though it’s May, today I was in the mood for the flavors of fall. That’s what I love about stir fry. You can eat the flavors you’re craving whenever you want.
As usual, start out by cooking the vegetables in salt and pepper. Rather than take the time to cook and dice sweet potatoes on my own, I used these:
These are one of the most convenient things I’ve found. Eating healthy often requires a lot of chopping, so these pre-cooked make it much easier.
Because I used pre-cooked sausages, I just had to cook them long enough to brown the outside and warm the inside. These chicken apple sausages are great to have on hand. We use them in salads, in eggs for breakfast and, of course, in stir frys.
Who says you can only have cinnamon and sweet potatoes in the fall? Not me!
Last week, I decided I needed to add more color to the kitchen. I made this pedestal out of things I found at Goodwill. So far, my husband hasn’t mentioned it. Either he doesn’t notice, or he’s just resigned himself to the fact that for the rest of his life, he’ll come home frequently to […]
I feel guilty calling this a recipe. Guilty because it’s like calling Easy Mac a recipe, except Easy Mac is terrible for you and eggs aren’t. But as far as difficulty level, these eggs and Easy Mac are on the same level.
My daughter loves to have eggs for breakfast. The problem is, I have 45 minutes in the morning to make her breakfast, do her hair, shower and get myself ready. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for an omelet. So when she wants eggs, this is my go-to. Why? Because this egg comes together in the microwave in just one minute.
In fact… this summer the kids spent four nights with my parents while my husband and I took a trip to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. One morning, my daughter asked for an egg. My mom got out her frying pan, buttered it and cooked a beautiful scrambled egg. My daughter looked at it and said, “This is not the way to make an egg.” My poor mom.
So now the process. Pay attention or you’ll miss it, because it’s fast and not very complicated.
Just beat the egg with a little salt, pepper and milk in a small bowl.
Pour this into a microwave safe mug greased with your favorite pan greaser (butter, coconut oil, cooking spray, etc.). This is very important. First off, if you don’t use a microwave safe mug, you’ll have an explosion. My husband learned this the hard way when he tried to make my daughter her egg one morning. He thought he covered his tracks, until I saw the egg explosion stuck to the top of the microwave. Don’t do that. Second off, if you don’t grease it, it will stick like crazy. If you do, it will just slide right out.
Cook it in the microwave for 30 seconds and then stir it. Put it back in the microwave for another 30 seconds. If I make two eggs, I cook it in two sets of 45 second intervals.
My daughter loves cheese on her eggs so after it’s cooked, I sprinkle some shredded cheese on top and let the heat from the egg melt it. By the time the cheese is melted, the egg is cool enough for her to eat.
Now I can make her a nutritious breakfast in just one minute and still have time to shower and possibly even shave my legs… maybe.
I have another stir fry recipe today. I love stir fry because it’s a great way to use up excess or about-to-expire vegetables and meat. Plus you can flavor the mixture to fit your mood. This day, I felt like curry. This isn’t surprising since I could eat curry every day.
As is the case with most my stir frys, this comes together quickly in one pan. This serves one very hungry person or two people who are just sort of hungry. I tend to fit in the category of a very hungry person, so this is a great lunch for me.
I’m the youngest of three kids. The oldest is my brother. While he was a fabulous big brother (no really, he was) and is still one of my heroes, he was still a big brother and had to mock and tease me without remorse. In fact, now that we’re grown, he still feels it is his duty to mock me. It’s alright. I can take it.
So when I was a kid, whenever I did something I was particularly proud of and announced it to my family my brother would respond with, “Want a biscuit?” So now whenever anyone in our family tells us something they did, we respond with, “Want a biscuit?”
Hey speaking of biscuits; aren’t they delicious!? Yeah they are. A few nights ago we had soup for dinner and I thought “Yes. I DO want a biscuit!” But biscuits aren’t that fabulous for you. Because they are so dense, they are really loaded with processed, white flour which doesn’t provide any actual nutrients. I took the challenge to make a delicious, healthy biscuit and am happy to say, was very successful.
Plus these come together quickly which is great since I usually decide I want bread 20 minutes before dinner.
My mom used to make biscuits by sifting the dry ingredients in a large metal sifter with a turn handle. I take the lazy way out and just whisk everything together.
Then add in some butter. Since the butter has to be cold, I cut it into small cubes before I add it. To cut it in you can use an actual pastry cutter, but I don’t have luck with pastry cutters. They seem more like medieval torture devices, so I just stick with smashing the butter in with two forks. For those of you who are wondering, “What in the world is she talking about with ‘cutting in?’ ” All this means is incorporating the butter into the dry ingredients. Rather than softening it and beating it in like you do with cookies, you want to still see bits of butter. Your dough will look a bit like small pebbles when you finish this step.
Traditional biscuits don’t always call for eggs, but since almond flour has no gluten, you really need the eggs to bind the biscuits together. As far as milk goes, I used almond milk but you can use coconut milk, cashew milk or regular milk or cream. Just use what you have and what works for you.
You could roll these out and cut them into nice circles but that’s an extra step I’m not willing to take. That seems like far too much effort so I did these “drop biscuit” style. Sorry about the picture. I forgot to take one before I put them in the oven. Thank goodness I’d cleaned my oven earlier that week…
After these cook, you definitely want to let them sit for a bit to cool. This helps them set a little better so they don’t crumble.
And now you can have bread with your soup without guilt.
Want a biscuit?
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