I’m not sure why I bought this coconut flour, but I’m glad I did. Typically, I pass up on recipes where coconut flour is the only flour used. A lot of people complain coconut flour leaves the goods a bit dry. I can tell you, that did not happen today!
Mixed Berry Coconut Flour Pancakes!
Read the rest of this entry
I know what you are going to say, it has been a long time! I’ve missed you too. Things have been so chaotic! No matter how busy I’ve been though, I keep thinking of all the recipes I want to share with you! I’m totally hooked on these stuffed peppers. I have enjoyed theses so much that I have bought more ingredients for these at back to back shopping trips. I even look forward to leftovers.
I just signed up for a three month program at my gym that will focus on preparing me for a half marathon! Although I think I could do this on my own, I’m really excited to get out there with others who have the same goal. For me it isn’t even about “socializing” just their presence is motivating. It totally brings out the competitor in me. The program starts next month and is going to keep me busy for two nights (and one morning). So that dinners don’t become neglected, I’m going to have to really plan to have good “leftover” meals or crockpot meals. Some people hate leftovers but for me it is all about how much I really liked the dish the first time around. Hint: I really loved this dish the first time around…
Cajun Chicken Pasta! Normally, when pasta and creamy sauces are put together you get one heck of a calorie laden meal. Not with this recipe! A whole 11/2 cups of this pasta comes in at only 328 calories. Not bad! Also, I just love all the veggies packed into it!
I think the chicken is hiding in my pictures but don’t worry, there was just the right amount in each dish.
I followed the suggested recipe, however I added just a pinch of ground red pepper at the end just to make it a little more spicy! It was even a great leftovers meal for the next day which was great for today because my kids had a ton of homework and I needed to help them and not be busy cooking.
So do you have any favorite healthy leftover meals or crockpot meals? I’d love to hear about them!
The recipe for this yummy dish can be found at Skinnytaste.com.
Well the New Year is here. Did you make a resolution? Have you kept it? I’ve really not been much of a resolution person in the past, but between the family being sick, being busy with the holidays, eating too much “comfort food,” I used the New Year to get back into my fitness routines.
These helped too…
This, although it is super beautiful, did not…
The good news is, my gym is pretty close so I can cruise on over there until it’s not so chilly! Also there is always sled riding for some physical activity!
If you play outside, be sure to make this dish for when you come back in. Spicy Chicken Stew!
Yet another Christmas is coming to an end. Almost. We have one more get together this weekend. In my head I feel like things will settle down then, however we have New Years and my dad’s birthday before the festivities will actually be over. Long story short, I have all kinds of recipes to share with you right now!
These Avocado, Cream Cheese and Salsa Puffed Pastries were a hit! Next time I think I’ll let them cook a little longer, but I was so worried they would burn and I didn’t want to the the chance. I’m also interested in how they would be if you used wonton or egg roll wrappers in lieu of the puff pastry. If you try that out, let me know how they turn out.
I really liked how quickly these came together! I’ll be honest I just spooned the avocado, cream cheese and salsa onto each square without measuring. Whatever looked good seemed to work out just fine. The only thing I didn’t like was that my salsa was naturally a little too wet and leaked from a few of the pastries. Next time I think I’ll use my little mesh strainer or even a fork to add the salsa so it’s a little drier.
Aside from not measuring, I followed the original recipe pretty closely and it can be found here at Averie Cooks.
So if you celebrate Christmas, I hoped you enjoyed it! Here are a few picture of my favorite things.
The weather was terrible and we had to get a tree so this is our $20.00 purchase from Tractor Supply! Not bad huh? My kids decorated our cookies, clearly they love sprinkles. Also our Elf, George was a hit and will be missed very much.
Although I got loads of cool gifts, I’m happy to share that I got this…
Also I’m hoping that this gift will help with all the holiday indulging!
Do you have one of these gadgets? I haven’t used my Nike band yet but I’m hoping it is as neat as it looks!!
If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed that oatmeal is one of my favorite breakfast picks!
It’s hearty, sticks to your ribs, and fun to dress up. Nuts, nut butters, fruit, dried fruit, Biscoff, chocolate chips, they have all visited my bowl of oats at one time or another. But recently, my mad skills of oatmeal creation got a big ol’ slap in the face.
The can be made bigger, creamier and packed with protein.
Right now, it seems the only thing there is time to make and eat is a sandwich. And that may only get done standing up. As everyone else is getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday, my husband and I (with the help of some friends and family) have about five different projects moving around our house all at the same time. I don’t anticipate that I’ll be able to get out there Black Friday, to experience the nostalgia and bliss of shopping for my little ones’ Christmas. You know…it is sort of like this…
And by the way, if you have failed to watch The Walking Dead, I say shame on you and encourage you to spend Black Friday watching the first two seasons. And you can shop via the internet and choose to put on real clothes or stay in your pjs. See? It’s a win-win! Although, I think some people feel this concept is acceptable anywhere anymore.
So what else has been going on?
First we got asked to take a hot tub off my parents hands at a very low price. They had bought it less than two years ago and hardly ever used it and were ready to get it off their deck. We had a really small older hot tub (that maybe had four jets in the entire tub). We use it all the time and knew that we would be fools to pass it up! We were even able to quickly sell our old one, which made it an even better decision. The new hot tub is massive and took eight men to move. Later four of us tried to scoot it a couple inches and it was impossible. Massive.
So project one: move tub, reinforce deck, and rewire electric to proper voltage.
The next project came last Saturday, my husband woke me up and told me there was sales on refrigerators that was too good to pass up. Within the hour, I was headed out with a latte in hand to make my purchase. I forgot to get a picture of the outside of it, it will be here Tuesday. But I did snap one of the inside. Sorry, I couldn’t completely open it because they had the fridges too close to each other.
Glorious!! My kids are so excited because I told them we could put there snacks in the bottom pull out drawer, that way they could reach them. In fact, I’ve never seen kids so stoked about a refrigerator.
Project two, purchase new fridge, make plans for delivery, move all of our existing food elsewhere and make a home for our old fridge (we are hanging onto it for our rental). Move food into new fridge.
The very next day from purchasing the fridge, we went to a house auction that had loads of high end household items. The auction was packed and things were selling way overpriced. I did however get this lovely chair, ottoman, and matching couch. For a fair price.
The chair and couch are huge which spurred several projects into motion at once.
Project three, move kids play room into a different room, create “man cave.”
Project four, paint both kids room and man cave, paint trim and ceiling, install new lighting.
Disaster one: man cave tv blew up! This tv was actually going to be move upstairs (we really only have one tv in our house at the time, you know the dead one…) in the living room so that I could watch The Walking Dead while my husband is watching football. Ahhhhhh!
So now project five: replace lamp in old tv, purchase man cave tv.
Project six: move around upstairs living room to accommodate tv after we get it repaired.
Project seven: restore the leather couch and chair. The furniture and leather itself are in great shape but the color in some places has faded. So far, from my research, I think that I am going to send in a sample to a company who will make me a balm to restore the color. Have you ever done this?? What was your experience?
Well that is the main projects right now!! I’m not in charge of Thanksgiving this year but I do have a fantastic recipe for making your turkey if you need one!!
But now, all I have time for is this:
<;;
Thank you Pinterest!!
Yes these sandwiches are different (although not really), I made them back to back but used a different colored pepper.
Here is all you need:
Adapted from: BS’ In The Kitchen
Roasted peppers (great TJ Maxx find!)
Goat cheese
Portabella mushrooms (I used 1 1/2 caps per sandwich, sliced)
Wrap (I used a Smart and Delicious wrap and really liked the flavor)
Olive oil in my Misto
Salt and pepper
1. Spray pan generously with olive oil. On medium heat add mushrooms, spray the top of the with oil and allow them to cook. Once they start to soften up, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Remove cooked mushrooms from pan and set them aside. Add pepper if yours are cold so that they are nice and warm. Turn heat off. Wipe out pan carefully (don’t burn yourself!!) and add fresh olive oil. Add heat back and once oil is warm, add wrap. Top wit cheese and pepper and mushroom. Cook over medium. Once cheese starts warming, fold tortilla in half.
3. Put sandwich on a plate, cut and serve!!
This week has been super chilly! It only seems right to break out the crockpot. Whenever my husband figures out I’m making vegetable soup, he gives me that look. That look that tells me he would rather eat pretty much anything else (including dirt). Then I remind him that there is beef and potatoes in it, and suddenly vegetable soup doesn’t sound too bad.
The beef in this soup was perfect! It was a super thick chuck roast. Two days before making this soup, I thawed the roast out and then marinaded it olive oil and beef broth powder (similar to a bouillon just in powder form) and threw it in a container to hang out in my fridge. About 30 minutes before cooking, I took the roast out of the fridge and let it sit.
Here are the other ingredients I added:
1 bag mix frozen veggies (peas, corn, carrots)
1 large can stewed tomatoes with juice (I used a jar that I had canned)
3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
beef broth about 1 1/2-2 cups
Worcester
rosemary (few sprigs)
parsley (mine was dried)
onion powder (I would have added onion but I didn’t have any!)
sea salt and pepper
1. Cut beef into manageable pieces. I also removed any visible fat.
2. In a lightly sprayed skillet, brown meat and cook celery until soft. My meat wasn’t completely cooked trough when it went into the crock pot, but close.
3. While meat is cooking, add everything else to crock pot. I started added rosemary to the top.
4. Turn crock pot on low. When beef is done in skillet, add it to the top. Cover and slowly back away ;). No really, go have fun and know that come dinner time, all you have to do is scoop and serve!!
Oh and remember how I said the beef was perfect?? Just look how it nearly fell apart on my spoon!
Oh chicken wings, it has been a while!
Typically, I don’t venture far from the traditional flavors of buffalo and blue cheese when it comes to wings. However words like brown sugar, goat cheese and roasted red pepper perked my ears right up. This recipe looked amazing when I saw it on Pinterest and I was expecting to be disappointed with my own wings when I actually made them (some things on Pinterest just look too good to be true). I was proven wrong! They not only looked good it tasted great!
I have a love-hate relationship with sub shops! Typically, I opt for a salad but I really want to run out of there with loaves of bread packed full of tasty meats and hot melty cheese. Well today I came to a compromise (I do that a lot with cravings 🙂 ).
The stuffing in this pepper was so tasty! It reminded me of grilled turkey sandwiches I would get from a small deli during my college years. I wish there would have been leftovers because I would have loved to used it in the morning in an omelet. Maybe next time!
...so I did it myself 