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