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