Mexican Spaghetti Sauce

Mexican Spaghetti Sau

March 2010

Don't remember anything about it, but I must have made it.

Holy Grail Almond Buns

These Holy Grail Almond Buns deserve a post of their own so I can find the link quickly. They are amazing!! I've made them a few times now and done some experimenting with it.

Here are the basic ingredients:

almond flour
sweetener (I've used coconut sugar)
baking powder
eggs
oil (I've used both butter and coconut oil)

I've made it with Briana's Baking Blend in place of the almond flour and it worked pretty well also. I tend to make it with 2 parts almond flour and 1 part flax seed meal and oat fiber (about 1 or 2 TB) though. I recently used egg substitutes also. The chia seed egg makes a nice crunch to the bread.

The recipe calls for a muffin top pan to create a bun shape. The first time I made it I thought that just putting it in a round shape on the silicone mat would be good enough. I ended up with a rounded flat piece of 'bread.' It had a delicious taste and probably would have made a decent pizza crust but I ended up eating them more like cookies. Since then I've been putting the dough into a square dish and making a loaf to slice. I really like it toasted with cream cheese and jelly. It tastes very similar to real bread this way. Yum.

I love this recipe!!

Substitutions Quick Ref (eggs, fibers, sweeteners)

Go-to Substitution Chart  for eggs and sugar, as well as husks and xanthan gum

Psyllium Husks subs
Oat fiber 
THM Sweetener conversion chart

THM/low carb breads and wraps

My tabs are full of recipes for different breads and wraps that I don't want to close because once I add them to my bookmarks they get lost. I thought this might be a good place to create an easy reference.

Everything bagel dogs 

(mozz cheese, almond flour, xanthan gum, cream cheese, eggs)

Paleo Bagel 

(coconut flour, chia seeds, psyllium husk powder, coconut milk, applesauce, ACV, oil, baking soda, salt)

low carb pumpkin bagels 

(coconut flour, flax meal, eggs, oil, milk, pumpkin, sweetener, ACV, baking soda, salt, vanilla, pumpkin spice, cinnamon)

Basic psylli wraps 

(whole psyllium husks, baking powder, salt, egg whites,spices)

Coconut flour oat fiber psylli wraps 

(whole psyllium husks, coconut flour, oat fiber, baking powder, salt, egg whites, ACV)

Coconut flour, oat fiber, psylli buns and wraps 

(whole psyllium husks, coconut flour, oat fiber, baking powder, salt, egg whites, water, ACV)

Coconut Wonder Wraps 

(coconut flour, psyllium husk powder, water, egg whites)

Gluten free tortillas 

(almond flour, psyllium husk powder, salt, eggs, water)

*Almond flax tortillas 

(almond flour, flaxseed meal, water, salt)

*Holy Grail Almond Buns 

(almond flour, baking powder, sweetener (opt), eggs, butter)

Pita Bread (not low carb) (flour, salt, sweetener, yeast, water, oil)

*have made and enjoyed. Experimented with baking blend and has worked well

Jared's Pokemon Dive Ball Cake

Jared's birthday is Friday, but one of his friends is only around on Weds, so we decided to celebrate early with a Pokemon Battle Party. This is really Jared's first official party, though it was not pitched as a birthday party at all. Some of his friends brought gifts, but most did not. In our head, the party would consist of a tournament style event. Eight boys were invited and everyone drew a card. Matching cards were meant to battle each other. Unfortunately half the group had no idea how to battle and a good hour or so was spent teaching them so only a couple of boys managed to do more than one battle. As a party favor, everyone received a Pokemon card from a booster pack. At the end we went swimming for about a half hour. I hope everyone had fun.

Like Aaron, Jared chose a Pokemon themed cake. He chose a Pokemon Dive Ball, making it another year of a water theme. I decided a poke cake would be a fun way to prepare it because I could use blue jello and have a water effect all the way through. So although he didn't have the jello pool like in year's past, he did have jello in the cake. I debated a white cake or a lemon cake and ended up with a blend. I added lemon juice to the cake batter and frosting but it really wasn't flavored much. I used the Jolly Rancher Blue Raspberry jello, strawberry cream cheese frosting to layer and stack the cakes, and a cream cheese/whipped topping lemon frosting dyed blue for the design. I think it turned out pretty well.

Jared wanted characters on top and I had originally planned on creating some water characters for it, but it was delusions of grandeur. I ended up making the cake within hours before the party which is a bad thing for a poke cake. It is best to let it soak overnight. I ended up putting it in the freezer to chill and most of the boys didn't eat their slice. Oh well. But I digress.... While I worked on the cake, Jared and Aaron made Pokemon characters from marshmallows: Cleffa, Igglybuff, and Execute. There were just enough that I could put them around the cake.

Recipes Used:

Nathan's Lemon Cake base (subbed whole milk w/ vinegar and 4 TB lemon juice. I dyed 1/4 c sugar blue thinking I'd use it as sprinkles on the top of the cake, but added it to the batter instead. The cake turned a greenish hue as it mixed with the yellow butter, but it looked fine once it was done and the blue jello was absorbed. I also only had one egg, so two of them were THRIVE eggs. Instead of water I added lemon juice.)

Raspberry poke cake (referenced for making and adding the jello)

Lemon Poke Cake (Recipe is basically the same as Nathan's cake but uses sour cream instead of buttermilk. She adds sweetened condensed milk instead of jello. I based my frosting off her cream cheese frosting and the traditional cool whip frosting for poke cakes.)

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting (Used the leftover frosting from Aaron's cake to layer and dirty frost Jared's cake)

My frosting:

8 oz tub of cool whip
8 oz softened cream cheese
powdered sugar to consistency (at least one cup)
about 1 tsp lemon extract (I didn't measure, just poured)

We want cake! Give me some chocolate cake!

Aaron's birthday was on Wednesday. This was no ordinary one though, this was his 8th birthday! He had the privilege of being baptized that day as well, due to the timing of the move and grandparents being in town still. It was a great experience. Matthew gave a combined talk on baptism and the Holy Ghost. He asked Aaron questions throughout, as he answered each of them with assurity. Afterwards, Sharon said she was very impressed by him because she would have had to whisper the answers to Eliza.

After the baptism everyone came to the apartment and Matthew cooked hamburgers. Only the Blacks and the family attended, but we were prepared for as many as fifty people. We have a lot of hamburgers left :p Mike and Tran left as we pulled out the cake because Gen was getting fussy tired. Aaron chose a Pokemon theme this year, so I made a Master Ball. Simple enough - round cake with purple and white frosting. Unfortunately I ended up having to make his cake twice because my flour tasted too metallic from the #10 can. But it was so much better the second time. I added chocolate chips to the batter and tried the trick of coating them in flour so they don't sink. It worked, but since I forgot to put them in the batter until they were already in the pan, they just sat on top and didn't melt into the cake. I ended up getting the chips off the bottom cake so it would be flat enough to stack. Oops. I left them on the second cake and used it for the top layer. It worked.

I also decided to make the strawberry cream cheese frosting from scratch. I made a strawberry reduction and went the extra mile to sieve the seeds out so Mom could eat it. It was very time consuming but Aaron was happy to do that for me. I'd wanted to make the cream cheese frosting as well but bought one just in case which is good because I used it.

Overall I think it turned out well. It wasn't pretty or very creative, but all the stress and effort are worth it when I hear the words, "I love it!"

For future reference, these are the recipes I used:

The Best Chocolate Cake is a great reference for the 'why' of each ingredient
Chocolate Cake (ended up adding three eggs instead of 2 plus 1 yolk)
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting (I used probably two cups of strawberries, half frozen and half fresh. I still have a lot of the reduction left and have used it to flavor yogurt and other things.)

The strawberry cream cheese frosting was still kind of runny after using the sugar amount listed, so I added another cup or so. It hardened up well in the fridge though. Had I realized the implications of that, I would have added more to the middle layer but it was still ok. We ended up with three flavors. Purple was vanilla, white was cream cheese, and pink was strawberry cream cheese.

Almond Milk & Kale

After a year of planning on it, I have finally used my almonds to make almond milk. It was pretty easy. The basic gist is you soak your almonds then blend them with milk, strain out the crumbs, and voila! The almond crumbs were then dehydrated and put in the freezer to be used for almond meal later. So, here is the result:

yielded from 1 c. almonds

Many of the recipes I looked at suggested adding a date to sweeten it and vanilla to flavor it. I did neither because I didn't actually taste it until this morning. The boys had it with their cereal for breakfast. Both thought it was interesting. Aaron seemed the most enthusiastic, and Jared didn't care for it. At that point I decided to try adding vanilla to it. Aaron thought it was even better and raved at how good it was. Jared appreciated the change and felt it helped. I suggested they have the frosted shredded wheat with it so the sugar would dissolve and sweeten it. Aaron ended up finishing his cereal but giving up the remaining milk, and Jared had me finish off both. I really appreciate their willingness to at least try all these experiments I undertake :)

As for me, it was different but I didn't dislike it. It wouldn't be hard to get used to. I may experiment with it some more to see what kind of flavors to add to it. I haven't tried it in a smoothie yet so I don't know how it would taste that way. The coconut milk I have been using doesn't add a lot of flavor change, but I have noticed it isn't quite as creamy tasting.

Yesterday Whole Foods had a 4 hour sale on kale - 5 for $5. Kale goes for $2/bunch at regular stores and this organic stuff sells for a lot more than that. Either way $1 a bunch was a great bargain so I had to get my hands on it. Five bunches is a LOT of kale though. So, I've spent my morning processing it. I've made kale chips (already eaten most of them), frozen two bunches, and will use the remaining two for recipes. These are the ones I'm planning for:

Enchilada Casserole with Kale and Sweet Potatoes (will probably use the butternut squash in my freezer for it)

Kale Tart (basically a quiche)

Zuppa Tuscano (from FB)

The only reason these aren't already in the works is b/c it isn't dinner time! Maybe I should make them anyway and freeze for later.... hmm

Oh, and my next experiment will be coconut and peanut butters.

Easy Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Easy Baked Eggplant Parmesan
from WholeFoodsMarket.com

Ingredients: 

• 1 large eggplant, sliced lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick pieces (about eight)
• 2 eggs, beaten with a fork
• 1 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (sundried tomato or plain)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil*
• 1 (25 ounce) jar pasta sauce (roasted vegetable or any variety)*
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese*
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 
  
• Method: 

  
  

  Preheat oven with a baking sheet inside to 375°F. Coat eggplant slices with beaten egg, then bread with panko crumbs. Spread oil on hot baking sheet and place eggplant slices on it in a single layer. Bake 15 minutes, flip and bake another 10 minutes.
  
  Increase oven temperature to 475°F. In an 8 x 10-inch ovenproof dish, layer pasta sauce, then eggplant, and top with cheeses. Repeat, finishing with cheese. Bake until the cheese melts and turns golden in spots, about 15 minutes.
  Nutritional Info: 

  PER SERVING:400 calories (180 from fat), 20g total fat, 8g saturated fat, 130mg cholesterol, 970mg sodium, 44g carbohydrate (5g dietary fiber, 9g sugar), 21g protein

  ******

  I have discovered that I love the taste of eggplant and with the abundance of eggplant I've been getting from our crop share this summer, I have been experimenting with it quite a bit. Now that I know the secret to good eggplant dishes is to salt and drain them first, every dish has been delish. This one, however, had oohs and ahhs from everyone :)  

  I liked the simplicity of the dish. I did not dip the eggplant in egg and dredge it through the crumbs then roast it in hot oil. Instead I sprayed the with cooking spray, sprinkled bread crumbs on top and put them on a cold baking sheet and roasted them in the oven (but cooking and flipping according to the directions). I did at least remember to coat the baking sheet with cooking spray as well. Too many times I've forgotten that step and had vegetables stick :/

  I will definitely be making this again!

BBQ ribs

8 Easy Crockpot Recipes: BBQ ribs
from www.mommysfabulousfinds.com

Crock-Pot BBQ Spareribs

 

Ingredients

• 2lbs of pork ribs
• 1½ cups ketchup
• 1½ Tbsp seasoned salt
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white vinegar

Instructions

1. Place pork ribs in gallon sized ziplock. Mix remaining ingredients together in a separate bowl and pour over ribs. Seal bag and place in freezer. Thaw over night in fridge. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-7 hours.

***

Made this for dinner. It was super easy. I added a squirt of mustard to my sauce. I trimmed the fat before cooking but I still ended up with a lot of grease which diluted the BBQ sauce. One of my favorite meals my mom makes is BBQ ribs. She does it in the oven by cooking the ribs, then adding the sauce and heating through. I think next time I'd rather go that route b/c I can pour the grease out before adding the sauce.

Jared liked them but Aaron did not.

Beef, Eggplant & Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Beef, eggplant & quinoa stuffed peppers
from http://cleananddelicious.com

Beef, Eggplant, & Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

YIELD: 10 SERVINGS

 

PREP TIME: 40 MINUTES

 

COOK TIME: 30 MINUTES

 

TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 10 MINUTES

Ingredients:

• 5 bell peppers
• 1 lb grass fed ground beef
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 medium eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1-3 tsp Red pepper flakes
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• ¼ cup water
• 1 cup of cooked quinoa
• 1/3-cup fresh chopped parsley
• 5 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350

Halve and seed the bell peppers.  Lay the peppers in single file on a rimmed baking sheet and cook for twenty minutes.

In the meantime, heat one teaspoon of olive oil in a large non-stick sauté pan and add in ground beef along with some salt and pepper.  Use a wooden spoon or spatula to break up the meat and cook for about five minutes or until the meat as browned.  Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.

Add the remainder of the olive oil into the pan along with the onions, and garlic.  Cook for about three minutes before stirring in the eggplant, red pepper flakes, and another kiss of salt and pepper.  Cook until the all of the veggies are soft and tender (this will take about ten or fifteen minutes).  If the pan seems dry add a splash of water.

Add the tomato paste and water to the veggies and stir until all the veggies have been coated with the tomatoes.  Add the beef back to the pan along with the quinoa and adjust the seasonings.  Shut off the heat and stir in the parsley.

Stuff each pepper with about a half-cup of beef and quinoa filling (or as much as it takes to fill the pepper).  Pop the peppers back into the oven for about 20 minutes or until heated through.  Remove from the oven and top each pepper with one tablespoon of cheese and then finish them in the oven for another five minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Enjoy!

Makes 10 servings.

Nutritional Analysis

Nutrients per 1/2 pepper: Calories: 205; Total Fat: 10.7g; Saturated Fat: 3.3g; Cholesterol: 36mg; Carbohydrate: 15.7g; Dietary Fiber: 3.5g; Sugars: 2.7g; Protein: 13.9g

*****

Discovered this recipe after Jared googled eggplant for me. We've had quite the stash of them from the CSA and though I've decided I really like their taste, I didn't know what to do with them. We found Dani Spies' video Eggplant 101 and then went to her website and found this recipe. We also got a bunch of bell peppers so it was killing two birds with one stone. Maybe it was b/c the boys were really hungry, but everyone really liked it! I only used three peppers since it was just the three of us (and the last time I made stuffed peppers there were a lot of leftovers I had to eat) and froze the remaining stuffing for future use. 

Kitchen Escapades - Pizza

So after a great first day back on 1500 calories, I've managed to go over every day since :/ Tonight we had a movie night so I spent the day in the kitchen preparing for a homemade pizza party for dinner - besides baking bread for the week. Standing in the kitchen for hours and kneading dough should count as some exercise, right? I did Just Dance this morning for about 30 minutes and only burned 178 calories. Fun, but not the most bang for my buck. But I digress....

Twice now I have used this pizza dough recipe. The first time I made it, I thought I overworked the dough and stuck it in the fridge for later. I was really skeptical about it, but once I took it out of the fridge and started working with it, I discovered it was actually a really good dough and a great one to work with once it warmed back up. Pretty forgiving. I used it to make the Pioneer Woman's easy calzones which turned out really yummy (except Aaron didn't like them. He prefers regular pizza.) Though I used white sugar the first time I made the dough, this time I used honey. Calorie wise, sugar was the better way to go (for future reference).

I got 14 large calzones out of the dough. As far as actual pizza dough, it could make two large pizzas or be divided up into smaller ones. We decided to each make our own pizzas, so we ended up with 4 smaller dough balls and two medium sized (put in the freezer for another time). Aaron wanted to use the cookie cutters today, so he made a bunch of little pizzas shaped like Christmas cookies while Jared created the Millenium Falcon. I had a regular round thin crusted Hawaiian BBQ pizza with cilantro, and Matthew had a thick crusted face. It was great fun.

The best part came AFTER the pizza though - dessert. To go along with the pizza theme, I decided it would be nice to do a fruit pizza. I knew the basic concept, but googled for some recipes to nail down the concept and decided on this one for the cream cheese topping because I had all the ingredients. The cookie part seemed simple enough too but I opted to go with a ChocolateCoveredKatie grain free sugar cookie recipe instead. Per a commentor's suggestion from the allrecipes recipe, I used our frozen fruit and added some cream of tartar to thicken the juice as it thawed. Oh. My. Goodness!! It was SO delicous!!!! All 446 calories of it :P (Is it any wonder how I ended up 469 calories over tonight?!)

Here is the ingredient list for CCK's cookie:

• 1 cup finely-ground almond meal (also known as almond flour.) (75g)
• a little over 1/8 tsp salt (1/8 plus 1/16 tsp)
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup, or stevia to taste (For substitutions, see nutrition link below.) (30g)
• 1 1/2 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil (15g)
• For maple syrup version: up to 2 level teaspoons milk of choice or extra oil, as needed (5-10g). For stevia version: 1 tbsp milk of choice, added with the liquid ingredients. (15g)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• optional: pure almond extract

What I did:

- Ground up 1 cup of almonds in the food processor, then measured out 1 cup of the meal. Followed the rest of the ingredient list subbing honey for the maple syrup, added 1 tsp of almond extract, and then misread the milk part and added 2 TABLESPOONS!! oops!!! Way too wet at that point, so I added in the rest of the almond meal, about 1/4 cup of white flour, then added an extra 1/8 tsp of salt and baking soda - essentially doubling the recipe for the dry ingredients. It was still sticky, but it was much closer to what I thought the consistency should be at that point so I followed through on the rest of the instructions and it worked!! It was the best dessert I've eaten in a long time!!

Cream Cheese Frosting: (I halved the recipe)

4 oz 1/3 fat cream cheese

1/4 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Blueberry Muffin and Lemon Cake for One

Blueberry Muffin for One and Lemon Cake
courtesy of chocolatecoveredkatie.com

As I've been trolling the CCK blog, I decided to make her cupcakes/muffins for breakfast. The boys both chose the lemon flavor and I went with the blueberry. She gives directions for baking them in the oven, but I was in a hurry and used the microwave instead. I cooked them each for one minute. Because mine used frozen blueberries I ended up adding an extra 10-15 seconds (don't remember). From my previous experience with minute muffins, if you put them in too long they turn hard. Apparently the longer these set out while the boys picked at them, the harder they got.

Aaron liked his and Jared said it tasted funny. I used olive oil in theirs and it was easily recognizable by my buds so I told them that's what it was. Jared did say it tasted lemony though. Mine wasn't bad. I subbed regular butter for the oil hoping for a better flavor. It worked, but when I inputted it in MFP I was shocked to see that 1 TB was 100 calories!!! YIKES! This seemingly innocent muffin turned into a 236 calorie breakfast besides the milk to drink it down. I played around just now with some of the oil options and olive oil would have been 120 calories so I definitely got the better deal with the butter. My best bet would have subbed half of it with applesauce (which is how I made Matthew's but it didn't rise as much).

The recipe is easy enough that I will have to play around with it a bit and see what I can do to slim it down more and further 'healthify' it. In the meantime, here's the link to all of her single serving muffin/cupcakes.

**************

As a side note, today I am feeling the 4 mph program I did yesterday. My legs haven't felt this sore for weeks when I quit running as much and mostly walked for long stretches of time for my exercise. It is nice to feel like I worked out yesterday not just be tired. Today I plan to do Chicken Fat to get some calisthenics in and see if we can't begin to get this core back in shape now that I have no physical limitations.

Quinoa Blueberry Muffin

Quinoa Blueberry Muffin
courtesy of Hillbillyhousewife.com

Quinoa Muffins

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cook the quinoa in a cup of water. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa is tender. You will end up with 2 cups of cooked quinoa. Set it aside to cool.

In the meantime combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the quinoa and stir until you have it worked into the flour mixture.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a cup or small bowl, then pour them into the flour / quinoa mixture. Stir it just until everything is combined.

Spray a regular sized 12 cup muffin pan with nonstick spray. Scoop the batter into the tins. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 25 minutes.

Quinoa Muffin Variations

Here are a couple of “

add-on” ideas for these rather plain quinoa muffins. Incorporate those ingredients with the quinoa into the flour mixture, then proceed as mentioned above.

• 1/2 cup of raisins
• 1/2 cup of chopped dried dates
• 1/4 cup of dried apricots and 1/4 cup of chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup of chopped apple pieces and a good dash of cinnamon
• 1/4 cup of apple finely chopped apple or raisins and 1/4 cup chopped walnut pieces
• 1/2 cup mashed banana and 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup fresh, frozen or dried blueberries

********************

LOVE these! They make such a great quick snack. I used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose flour so they were pretty dense and didn't raise much. I made them twice and both times I ended up with 22 muffins. Here is the nutritional info for mine:

Calories: 107

Carbs: 16

Fat: 3

Protein: 3

Fiber: 1

Iron: 4

Cheesy Quinoa Mac N Cheese

Quinoa Mac n Cheese
courtesy of http://aroundthetableri.blogspot.com

Serving Size: 8

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained
• Veggies of your choice (optional)
• good pinch of salt
• a few grinds of seasoning salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup soy milk or non-fat milk
• 1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese, more for sprinkling
• Optional- Crushed Red Pepper, Panko Bread crumbs for topping
• Toppings (optional)- salsa, hot sauce, sour cream, scallions

I went through a quinoa phase in February and this is one of the recipes I tried. Since most of my experience with mac n cheese is the boxed kind, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. This certainly got mixed reviews. Matthew and Aaron could leave it, but Jared really liked it as did I though as leftovers it took me a few days to be willing to eat it again. I have realized I really don't care for the texture of quinoa except in breads. It has a distinctive flavor too that I am not all too fond of. Since I added garlic to the water the quinoa was cooked in, it absorbed that flavor and really added a nice touch to the overall dish. 

My variation: added 2 oz of cream cheese to enhance the creaminess as suggested by a commenter on the original blog post and bread crumbs for the topping.

Dessert Mania

I stumbled upon the blog Chocolate Covered Katie recently and today in my productive mode, have set out to try her recipes. I just whipped up some Brownie Batter Dip, One Minute Chocolate Cake (for one though I shared it with Aaron), and the Deep Dish Cookie Pie is in the oven. She incorporates some surprise ingredients to fit her vegan life style so it is fun to find them so tasty!! I look forward to presenting the to the family tonight to see what they think. By the time Jared gets home I may have so many desserts I'll need a girl's night to have a place to share them and purge my house of the sweets!

Biscuit Pizza

I had a hankering for pizza today but didn't want to make a big ordeal about it, so I turned to my trusty easy pizza method.

Ingredients

1 can of refrigerated biscuits (I had homestyle on hand)
marinara sauce (or tomato sauce with added pizza seasonings)
cheddar cheese
mozzerella cheese
toppings

Directions:

Place each biscuit next to each other in the middle of a greased cookie sheet. Flatten them out to enlarge the 'crust'. They should be touching. Add a spoonful of sauce to each biscuit, then top with cheese and toppings of your choosing. Cook 10- 12 minutes at 400 degrees.

This makes for a great playgroup snack because the biscuits make a great individual serving. Today's pizza was only 80 calories a serving. Unfortunately I went overboard and ate 6!!

Peanut Butter Choco Crunch Balls

After being on vacation and eating fast food and cookies every day, I came home with a lot of cravings and no desire to return to logging my food. But, considering my body is already showing the consequences of such free eating with no exercise, back on the band wagon I go! I was hungry for something chewy and chocolate yesterday so I did a search through all the food blogs I recently discovered and decided on fitfoodiefinds.com and her array of simple 'healthy' recipes. I would have liked to try her raw brownie chews or her almond joy chews but they require dates and there are none in my cupboard. Instead I ended up making her peanut butter choco crunch balls with a slight variation.



Ingredients:

1 cup corn chex
1/4 c rolled oats
1/4 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. honey
1 TB cocoa powder

I crunched up the corn chex in a bag then mix all the remaining ingredients together. Use a TB or cookie scoop and shape into balls. Makes 10 - 12 balls.

I think the honey is a little overpowering and unfortunately now regular peanut butter is treating me the same as natural peanut butter so though they taste good, I can't handle eating them. Aaron really likes them though and is happy to finish my share! If I were to make them again, I would probably cut the honey back to 2 or 3 TB and the same for the peanut butter. Or add more oats.

Snow Ice Cream

Woke up starving and despite all the effort I put in to figuring out the best nutrient dense breakfast, the first thing I ate today was snow ice cream. I have been anticipating a snow day of this depth since moving here. 4 - 8 inches. LOVE it!! So, I took a bowl and scooped up snow to the top, added 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of milk, a tsp of vanilla and voila!! Vanilla ice cream. There is still plenty of clean snow on the ground, so I may try the other popular recipe floating around:

big bowl of snow (gallon?)
can of sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

The ice cream I made had a good flavor, but it was a little gritty from the sugar granules. I could probably get away with only 3/4 c. of sugar. Topped with cantalope and it was dreamy :)

Now to find something a little more nutritious........

I have changed the nutrients I am tracking to really focus on calcium, protein, iron, and fiber intake. Man those are tough to meet the recommended daily allowance!! I keep going through my recipes trying to find the most bang for my buck and pretty much have decided that without my smoothies full of protein powder and greens, I won't have much luck getting my RDA. To make my life easier, I have put the breakfast/lunch recipes with the highest ratings in these categories here as a quick reference. 

This is a really yummy smoothie but I am all out of mango at this point but I do have cantalope in the fridge so I was curious about the nutrition would be effected with using the cantalope instead of the mango. Interesting that they provide opposite vitamins: mango is calcium & iron while cantalop is protein. If I add a kale leaf to the mix it will up the calcium to 12, protein to 8, iron to 15, and fiber stays at 3.

I think this is the power meal right here! Look at those  numbers! I think it may be worth all those calories:)  

This is a recipe I came across today but haven't made. This is not the end product for nutrition but more like a scenario. I want to cut down on the calories and hadn't decided which sugar would best serve the recipe. My guess is that I can scale back on the coconut or even cut out the sugar since the coconut is already sweetened. Once I've made it I'll have a better idea of what works for flavoring but for now it creates a good picture for the other things I am tracking.

As I look at the various nutritional data for these foods, it is interesting the reaction I get from my mind. Looking at the fact the blueberries have no offering except calories makes me want to choose another fruit. However, I have to remind myself that just because it says 0 across the board for these nutrients, they don't have value. A search on http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/10507/2 tells me that these babies are full of manganese and a good source of fiber - even if MFP doesn't show it. I am reminded that eating a variety of fruits and vegetables is really the best way to go. 

Ricotta Spinach & Tomato Quesadilla

Over at neverhomemaker.com she has a recipe for Lunch "Calzone" For One which is basically a quesadilla with ricotta cheese, greens, and tomatoes. It looked good the other day but I thought I was out of ricotta cheese so didn't make it. Today as I cleaned out the fridge I discovered I did have just a tiny bit left in the bottom of the container at the back of the fridge. Score!

I am a fairly picky tomato eater. As a child I would only eat a fresh tomato in a BLT. At this point in my life I can appreciate a good tasting tomato though I still won't eat the ones that come in a salad unless it is diced and hidden with lettuce and other salad goodies. I tried popping a cherry or grape tomato once just to see if I would like it. Nope. That being said, I was a little hesistant to put fresh tomato inside this 'calzone'. The tomatoes ended up a little cooked and added a great flavor. I ended up really liking this concoction. I used spinach for my greens then added basil, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning as the spices. With it only being 159 calories, I decided to play with the recipe a little bit.

Remember the kale & butternut quesadilla? I have been trying to think of ways to cut down on that 600 calorie beauty and wondered how kale and butternut would taste in this 'calzone'. Turns out is delicious for only 240 calories. YES! So, here is the basic recipe for the final product.

Ingredients

1 flour tortilla
2 TB ricotta cheese
2 kale leaves
1/4 c. diced butternut squash
1/4 c. diced tomatoes
chili powder
pepper
basil
Italian seasoning
garlic powder

Directions

In a saute pan, wilt the kale leaves (Pioneer Woman did it in olive oil. I was using a nonstick pan and didn't even add cooking spray). Remove from heat.

In same pan, saute butternut squash until tender. Add a dash of chili powder for seasoning. Remove from heat when done.

In pan, heat tortilla on both sides til warm, then spread ricotta cheese on the top side. Spread the tomatoes on top of the ricotta cheese. Add pepper, then kale leaves, and finally the squash. Top with the remaining seasonings.

Use a spatula to fold the tortilla in half and create a quesadilla. I like to flip it over on the side that became the top to make sure it is nice and browned and everything is warmed through.

Enjoy!