Hawaiian Pancakes

How about a new, healthy pancake recipe that doesn’t include pumpkin or cranberries?! I don’t know about you but I’m tired of pumpkin ha! Plus the pineapple/banana/coconut blend makes me feel like summer is getting closer (hard to believe that with snow on the ground!) These pancakes came about as one of those that ingredients just end up in the bowl. I just kept tossing things in there until I was satisfied with the flavors. This would make a great summer breakfast too – but we’ll enjoy it now anyway! Makes about 6 medium sized pancakes.

Hawaiian Pancakes

Quick & Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

Move over canned soup! This quick and easy meal will make you never want to buy soup in a can again! If you don’t have a pressure cooker – it may prove to be a worthwhile investment (my opinion is electric is easiest). Mine is a multi-function electric that can slow cook, pressure cook, cook rice, brown, etc.  It is my go to appliance on busy dinner nights. I also like it on those cold days or sick days when you just don’t feel like cooking. This soup is comforting and filling. I used to love having chicken noodle soup on hand but I will only make homemade from now on. Using this recipe, I know exactly what it is in the soup and can rest easy knowing that I’m giving my family something healthy with no preservatives. This makes about 4 large servings.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Individual Apple Pies

These little guys are just too cute. I saw the idea on Pinterest but never really put much thought or research into it. I had some extra apples that needed cooked and really craved some pie. So I remembered the pin and gave it a try. These turned out pretty great. I added a little stuffing to mine for a little extra flavor. These are very easy and much lighter than the traditional pie. This recipe makes two servings. 

Individual Apple Pies

Shrimp Taco Bowls

How about a quick and easy weeknight dinner recipe? Sometimes you just need something fast and light after a busy day at work or school. This recipe would also be good as an appetizer. This makes cute little individual servings that are perfectly customizable for each person. This recipe makes about 6 taco bowls.

Shrimp Taco Bowls

Peanut Butter Pie

Oh my… peanut butter pie. Full of healthy fats and free of many allergies – it is perfect! It tastes so similar to a peanut butter cheesecake with a flaky chocolate crust. What I like best about this recipe is that it is so customizable to fit your dietary needs. Don’t have almond flour? Substitute graham crackers. Don’t have coconut milk? Use heavy cream. Don’t have stevia? Use sugar or honey. Don’t have a dairy allergy? Use regular cream cheese or milk. Have a peanut allergy?  Use sunflower seed butter. This makes about 8 servings (or if you are like us, it makes four servings : ))

Peanut Butter Pie

Strawberry Waffles

You can thank my son for these waffles. He wanted strawberries inside his waffles and I decided to puree them so the waffles didn’t have chunks of fruit. The strawberries give the waffles a wonderful flavor with just an extra hint of sweetness. Serve with maple syrup and powdered sugar.

 Strawberry Waffles

Loaded Carrot Soup

We have been plagued with sickness at our house. We’ve had the head colds, coughs, strep throat, sinus infection and now the stomach bug. I know why I can’t seem to kick anything; blood tests have proven my immune system sucks. My kids are very healthy though and they just keep passing it along! This soup may not be one you want to eat if you are in the beginning stages of a stomach bug but maybe if you’ve got other cold symptoms it will provide some comfort. It is loaded with nutritious veggies and at least made us feel a little better. It’s light enough when you don’t feel like eating but loaded with foods to help you feel full and healthy. I need a quick fix so I made this in the pressure cooker but you could easily make it in a crock pot or over the stove. 

Loaded Carrot Soup

Veggie Spring Rolls with Sesame Dipping Sauce

Be forewarned – rice roll paper is very tricky! This was my first time using it but don’t worry, I won’t post my first rolls to show my poor rolling skills. Actually, maybe I will; it might be a good how “not” to do it guide. Anyway, once you get down the rice paper, the rest is easy! These are quick to make and are very filling. We served them alone with the dipping sauce and didn’t need anything else to complete the meal. I really liked how these turned out so I will probably be posting several different recipes using this rice paper!

Veggie Spring Rolls

Good Monday morning all!
Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. Ours was spent deep cleaning and organizing our house. It's amazing how much junk a family can accumulate in a short amount of time. I love reading tips for organizing on the menu planning host site  -www.orgjunkie.com. Check out some of the tips and tricks plus check out all the other menu plans for this week here!
Have a great week!

Tomato Foccacia Bread

Here’s another short cut recipe for you. I would prefer to make everything we eat from scratch. However, sometimes our busy schedules don’t allow this and we just need a little help. I don’t like using mixes all of the time but I will use them if I can find one that I really like. I found this boxed bread mix at Whole Foods. I just did some of my own modifications to get my desired results. Gluten free breads are still a challenge for me. You have to get the combination so flours just right – and when I was craving this bread, I did not have time for trial and error. I really think the key to this bread is the tomatoes and onions on top. It just gives it a good extra flavor plus it looks pretty! Makes one 9” round loaf.

Tomato Focaccia Bread

Paleo Hawaiian Chicken

I’m sure you’ve heard of this “paleo” diet storm going on. I kind of accidently stumbled into it. I started reading up on different things after my various medical tests/exams. The more I read, the more curious I got. I’ve found a couple books that I would definitely recommend. One is Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo.  It is a very informative book about starting to eat Paleo. Diane provides good/bad food lists, menu plans and recipes for different medical uses (digestive issues, cancer recovery, overall health, etc). The other is Digestive Health with REAL Food by Algaee Jacob. This book is more of an approach that goes in depth explaining how the digestive system works and what can be the causes of typical digestive problems. He also includes some recipes as well. I first started reading Digestive Health because I was curious about what could be going on with me. I didn’t diagnose myself (that’s what I’m paying my doctors for) but I did find useful information to help me understand better. Anyway, read up on the Paleo diet and see what you think. We have turned into almost an all-natural family (me especially).  We avoid preservatives, additives, food colorings, etc. Basically, anything isn’t a natural food item, we try to avoid it. That includes our meat or seafood, which is proving to be the biggest challenge.  Regardless, I think it is helping all of us feel a little better by literally removing “junk” from our foods. This recipe is one I created with my first all-natural, grass fed chicken.  In addition, we enjoyed it with some cauliflower rice to remove the grains for me. It’s great! You could even cook the chicken mixture in a crockpot to make it easier.

Paleo Hawaiian Chicken

Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice

For Christmas I got a few new cookbooks. One of them was Against All Grain by Danielle Walker. I really love it. She has a great story, somewhat similar to mine. I love her positive attitude and I can’t wait to try some more of her recipes. She cooks grain free (among other things) so I think her book will be my go to for new ideas while on my current diet. One of them that I was skeptical to try was her recipe for Cauliflower Rice. I hate cauliflower in general. However, I tried it as a pizza crust (found here) and loved it. Just like the pizza crust, I love it as rice. It is so similar to rice that it is a perfect substitute for so many recipes. I’m excited to try some new flavor combinations. I love the combination of cilantro and lime and I have frequently made it with regular rice so I was excited to try it this new way. Find more recipes from her over at her blog here or buy her book here!

Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice

Quinoa Stuffed Dumpling Squash

Before this recipe, I had never tried dumpling squash. In looks it resembles an acorn squash. However, in taste, it is more like a sweet potato/butternut squash mix. It has a very sweet flavor. That being said, I wanted to do more of an Italian or savory stuffing rather than sweet. It turned out great. The tangy, savory flavors of the stuffing helped take away from some of the sweet of the squash but still complemented each other nicely!

Quinoa Stuffed Dumpling Squash

Strawberry Banana Stuffed French Toast

I recently got one of those little mini sandwich makers. It’s basically like a George Foreman only for sandwiches. It makes really good grilled cheese but I thought we’d try some French toast in it. It works perfectly. Like so perfect that I probably won’t make French toast any other way for a while. It gets the toast perfectly crisp throughout and the possibilities for stuffing the toast are almost endless. I really liked the plain strawberry-banana stuffed version. The strawberries gave it a little tartness but the bananas helped sweetened the whole thing up. Top these little sandwiches with some maple syrup or powdered sugar. This recipe is very adaptable to make it not gluten-free (just swap the bread out for regular). 

Strawberry Banana Stuffed French Toast

Super Hot Breakfast Cereal

When I first had to eliminate eggs from my diet, I had no idea what I was going to eat for breakfast. I love breakfast foods but a lot of breakfast foods were causing me trouble. I could not have gluten, dairy, eggs or oats. I was at a loss… until I looked outside of the egg cartons and oatmeal packages. This breakfast cereal is very tasty and packed with foods that will help keep you full during the morning. You could use oatmeal to replace some of the other ingredients I used, just adjust your liquid amounts and cooking time. I used a couple different grains: quinoa and millet. I also used buckwheat; it is not derived of wheat and is not actually a grain; it is a fruit! I threw in some of my favorite extra superfoods like goji berries, coconut and pumpkin. Feel free to swap out your favorite fruits/nuts/etc in place of these. This makes about 6 servings and it keeps in the fridge well; just reheat and add extra milk.

Super Hot Breakfast Cereal

Menu Plan Week of 01/19/14-01/25/14

Good morning all!

Here is this week's menu plan! I was getting ready to post my menu along with other blogger's menus on www.orgjunkie.com and I saw a post about setting up beverage stations. It was super cute and a fun idea to try! Check out the other tips on the website about getting organized. Be sure to also check out the other menu's to get some ideas for your own menu plan this week. You can find them and mine here!

Hope you all have a great week!


Menu Plan Week of 01/19/14-01/25/14

Crock-pot Merlot Spiced Apples

This recipe is very simple, yet elegant. Slow cooking the apples with the spices and sauce makes the take on a great flavor and texture without a lot of work. Merlot is a wonderful addition to the cinnamon apple flavors. These apples could be used in a pie or pastry, served with ice cream, thrown into some oatmeal, or just eaten plain! An added bonus is that they make your house smell fantastic! 

Merlot Spiced Apples

Homemade Cinnamon Pecan Butter

Today represents 6 months of posting for me!!! I'm so excited! In just a few short months I've received over 8,500 views! Thanks to all of you who read this blog!

I’ve always wanted to try pecan butter. I love almond butter and cashew butter. However, sometimes it is SO expensive to buy it. You can easily spend $15 on a regular sized jar of it. No thanks! I can buy a big package of plain pecans (or I can crack the gallons of pecans that fell out of my mom’s tree!) for less than that. Plus by making it myself, I know exactly what is going in it – no preservatives, artificial flavors, gluten, etc. It was really very simple to make and tastes great! I added some flaxseed oil for to get some more good fats for myself but you could replace with another type of oil if desired or leave it out! Makes 1 16oz jar. 

Homemade Cinnamon Pecan Butter

Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

In addition to being grain free, these are gluten free, dairy free, egg free and soy free! I have also found a new love making these – chestnut flour! I had never used it before, but it’s great! I like almond flour BUT I haven’t found one that is fine enough for my liking. Most of them are really grainy. The chestnut flour I found on Amazon (here) is super fine and much easier to work with! It is the same substitute ratio of almond flour to your recipes (about 1/3 cup nut flour: 1 cup wheat flour). I used an almond/chestnut mixture for this recipe but you could easily use one or the other. If you aren’t concerned with being allergy free, I’ve added typical substitutes to the recipe. Okay, now to the actual cookies. They are AWESOME! The best chocolate chip cookies I have made so far. They have a slightly crisp outside but still a soft, gooey center plus loaded with chocolate chips! I served these with some fresh strawberries for a perfect dessert! 

Grain Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chicken Fried Chicken with Country Gravy

I feel bad for my husband some days. He really is a blessing. He has given up some of his favorite foods to support me in my food challenges. He’s kindly finished his plate of quinoa or asparagus. He’s choked down veggie burgers and cauliflower pizza. At first I knew it was hard for him, but overtime he has accepted our new diet just as I have. I try to make as much for him as I can that resembles his comfort food. I’m not sure why I never thought of this before but I wanted to make him some chicken fried steak – healthy style. It’s just a comforting home-style dish in our area and it was very simple to recreate. Instead of steak, I had some organic ground chicken and it worked perfectly. Serve this with some green beans and mashed potatoes and you’ve got a meal!

Chicken Fried Chicken with Country Gravy