Sweet and Sour Chicken

My husband and I used to love getting Chinese take-out once a week. In the last few years as our eating habits have turned towards healthier options, we've slowly evolved from greasy Chinese take-out no longer tasting good to it just flat out not craving it. I just love how our bodies can respond to our choices!! This is a great, healthy (and cheaper!) alternative.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients:
-1 20oz can of pineapple chunks in their own juices
-2 Tbs white vinegar
-2 Tbs soy sauce
-4 tsp cornstarch
-1 Tbs ketchup
-2 Tbs grated ginger
-1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
-vegetable oil
-bell pepper, cut into pieces
-prepared white or brown rice

1. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 c pineapple juice (from the can of pineapple chunks), vinegar, soy sauce, 2 tsp cornstarch, ketchup, and ginger.
2. In a separate bowl, toss the chicken pieces with 2 tsp cornstarch and a bit of salt and pepper.
3. Heat oil over medium heat, then add chicken and cook until browned, about 5 min. Once browned, Remove the chicken and set aside.
4. Add the bell pepper and cook until tender; then stir in pineapple and reserved chicken.
5. Whisk pineapple juice mixture into the chicken mixture and cook until sauce thickens and chicken is cooked through.
5. Serve up top a bed of rice and maybe with a side of dumplings from Trader Joes? :)

Basic French Toast

I've tried so many french toast recipes, including this one for Baked French Toast Cups, but have never been able to master a simple, basic french toast that wasn't too soggy or just plain bland. This recipe is super simple, but it turned out really good. I honestly think the type of bread made the biggest difference. I usually try to make it with whole wheat bread in an effort to boost the nutrient value and quite frankly, that just doesn't cut. Dense white bread is what is needed!

Basic French Toast

Ingredients:
-1/4 c flour
-1 c milk (or eggnog if you want to make it festive or use up leftovers!)
-pinch of salt
-3 eggs
-cinnamon to taste
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 Tbs white sugar
-sliced dense white bread, like potato or sourdough

1. Put flour in a large bowl. Whisk in milk, then salt, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla and sugar until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat.
3. Soak bread slices in mixtures until saturated. Cook bread on each side until golden brown.

Serving suggestions: butter, agave, maple syrup, fresh fruit, more cinnamon, baked apples or pears, the list goes on and on and on. . .

Chicken Cacciatore

If you haven't noticed, my crockpot has been working overtime lately! With so much going on, I really haven't been in the mood to cook meals in the evenings and I'm preparing for the arrival of our third little one and assuming once he arrives, I'll have to have plenty of good crockpot recipes on hand to get this crew fed!

Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients:
-2 c marinara sauce
-1 onion, chopped
-garlic, chopped to your taste
-1 bell pepper, chopped
-4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
-2-3 carrots, chopped
-2 Tbs flour
-2 Tbs water
-Prepared quinoa or rice

1. Pour half of the marinara on the bottom of the crockpot. Then add all the veggies, garlic and chicken. Pour remaining marinara over the top.
2. Cook in crockpot for 6-7 hours on low.
3. Remove the chicken from crockpot and chop/shred it to your desired texture.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and water and stir the combined paste into the crockpot sauce. Cook on HIGH for 10-15 minutes until sauce has thickened.
5. Serve chicken and sauce from crockpot over a bed of cooked quinoa.

Carrot Soup with Honey

We went through a bout here last week where everyone was in serious need of an immunity boost. I made this nutrient rich soup in the hopes of bringing everyone back around to healthy. It worked, and it was delicious!

Carrot Soup with Honey

Ingredients:
-Olive oil
-2 onions, chopped
-2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
-3 lbs carrots, chopped
-minced garlic, to your taste
-1/2 tsp dried majoram
-4-6 cups water or broth, or a combo of the two
-2 Tbs honey
-1 tsp nutmeg
-salt and pepper

1. Saute the onion in a large skillet in a bit of oil. Cook until soft.
2. Put in crockpot: potatoes, carrots, garlic, and herbs. Add the onions and oil. Add enough water/broth to cover everything.
3. Cook on high for 1 hour.
4. Turn crockpot to low and cook for 5-7 hours, until veggies are soft.
5. Puree in batches in a food processor (or right in the crockpot if you happen to have an immersion blender!).
6. Stir in honey and nutmeg, season with salt & pepper. Serve with crusty bread or crackers.

Baked Potato Soup

This one comes from one of my favorite blogs, the Crockin' Girls. Check them out and enjoy this recipe!

Baked Potato Soup
Ingredients:
-6 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
-1 large onion, diced
-1 quart chicken broth
-3 garlic cloves, minced
-1/4 cup butter
-salt and pepper to taste
-1 cup whole milk
-1 cup shredded cheese (cheddar or colby jack work great)
-Toppings: scallions, bacon, roasted veggies, sour cream, more cheese, etc.

1. Put in a large crockpot: potatoes,onion, broth, garlic, butter, salt and pepper.
2. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
3. Use a potato masher or immersion blender to smash up remaining potatoes and smooth out the soup.
4. Add milk and cheese, mix thoroughly.
5. Serve with toppings of your choice!

Lentil and Red Pepper Soup

A little work in the morning (or the night before) and this serves up hot for dinner! Serve it up alongside a green salad, grilled cheese, or some crusty bread. Perfect for this unusually March-ish weather we're currently having here!

Lentil and Red Pepper Soup
Ingredients:
-2 Tbs olive oil (or just a couple turns of the pan)
-1 onion, roughly chopped
-4-6 cloves of garlic chopped
-1 tsp paprika
-2-3 red peppers, roughly chopped
-1 c dried lentils
-5 c water
-2 tsp salt, or to taste
-pepper to taste
-1-2 Tbs white wine vinegar

1. Place onion, garlic, and red pepper in the food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
2. Put processor contents plus olive oil in a skillet and saute until veggies are tender. Stir in paprika.
3. Put skillet contents into the slow cooker. Add water and lentils.
4. Cook on low 7-9 hours, until lentils are tender.
5. Season with salt, pepper, and white wine vinegar. Serve hot!

Raw Granola Bars

First, I challenge you: If this sounds like something you wouldn't like, I dare you to try it anyway. It's like nothing you would expect. I'm not a fan of coconut or dates, but I LOVE these!

Second, I can't wait to share this recipe with you! This is another recipe from our "raw food" theme week at Mom's Group, made by a friend. I am indebted to her for introducing me to these! What an awesome, healthy, easy-to-make snack for my granola bar loving family.

Seriously, try them...

Raw Granola Bars
Ingredients:
-2 c raw almonds
-3 c shredded coconut
-2 c chopped, pitted, dates
-1 Tbs coconut oil
-the zest of 1 orange or lemon

1. Put the almonds in the food processor and process until they become a fine grain/dust.
2. Add the coconut and continue processing until finely ground. Put the coconut/almond mixture in large mixing bowl.
3. Put the chopped dates and coconut oil in the food processor. Process until they create a paste. NOTE: The coconut oil is extremely important here. Without it, my processor moaned and groaned and almost broke the blade because the dates were too sticky.
4. Add date paste to the almond/coconut mixture. Add zest and thoroughly combine all ingredients. (I found it easiest to take off my rings use my hands.)
5. Press mixture into a 9 x 13 pan. Refrigerate. (You can serve them before refrigerating, but they are super crumbly. Refrigeration helps hold them together.)
6. Cut, serve, and enjoy!
3.

Jan's White Chicken Chili (Crockpot)

I am blessed to know Jan. She is a beautiful woman who loves our family so much and she's an amazing cook to boot. (We should know, we eat dinner at her house every other week!) Traditionally, white chicken chili has a cream sauce base, but this one is broth base and this lighter version is so refreshing. All that, and you can cook it in the crock pot. Does it get any better?

Jan's White Chicken Chili
Ingredients:
-3 + cups cooked chicken*
-1 c onion, chopped
-garlic powder to taste
-2 tsp cumin
-1 tsp oregano
-1/2 tsp ground red pepper
-3 15oz cans of white beans (you choose the variety)
-2 4oz cans of chopped green chilies**
-4+ c chicken broth (add to your desired level of thick/thinness)
-2 c shredded monterey jack cheese

1. Put all ingredients, except the cheese, into a crock pot.
2. Cook 7-8 hours on LOW.
3. Serve in bowls topped with cheese. Tortilla chips also make a nice addition!


*I was going to serve this on a Saturday night. So, on Friday afternoon I put 1 package of frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot with a bit of chicken broth and cooked them on HIGH for 5 hours. When they were done, I shredded the chicken, added the remaining ingredients listed above and stuck the whole crockpot in the fridge. Mid-morning the next day, all I had to do was pull the crockpot out of the fridge and turn it on. Several hours later, dinner was served!
**I used only one to cut down on the spice for the younger members of our family.

Apple Cereal

My awesome Mom's group meets weekly and each week they choose a theme for the refreshments and ask for volunteers to provide them. Always up for a challenge in the kitchen, I signed up for the "raw foods" week. Most of the appealing raw food recipes I found involved dehydrating something at some point. Now that was a little more of a challenge than I was up for this week. Then, happily, I stumbled upon this recipe. It was an interesting combination of ingredients and everyone seemed to enjoy it. While I'm pretty sure I'll never be on an entirely raw food diet (oh, how I LOVE my cooked food, especially in the winter!), this was fun and something I would definitely make again.

Fair warning, I'm not a fan of specifying ingredient quantities in something like this where you can really adjust according to your own tastes, so below is my best guess of what I included but you should feel free to adjust according to your own taste.

Apple Cereal (for a single serving)

Ingredients:
-1 apple, finely chopped
-1 banana, small dice
-1 palm full of almonds, chopped
-1 pinch of coconut
-splash of almond milk
-drizzle of honey
-sprinkle of cinnamon

Mix all ingredients in large bowl and serve immediately (unless you don't mind the appearance of browned apples and bananas!).

Cheeseburger Meatloaf

Sorry, no photo for this one, but it really just looked like a traditional meatloaf, nothing special. It was a fun twist on the original with the cheese, though! And packed with veggies, what more could you ask for?

Cheeseburger Meatloaf

Ingredients:
-2 cups breadcrumbs*
-1 carrot
-a couple celery ribs
-1 onion
-2 lbs ground beef
-2 eggs
-1/4 c ketchup
-salt and pepper
-colby jack cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400.

1. Cut veggies into 1 inch pieces and process in a food processor until finely chopped.
2. In a large bowl, mix: breadcrumbs, veggies, ground beef, eggs, ketchup, salt, and pepper. I prefer to take my rings off and use my hands to mix the ingredients thoroughly.
3. Press mixture flat into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Place cheese down the middle and then roll the beef around it, sealing all seems so the cheese is "locked" in.
4. Bake until cooked through, about 50 minutes.

*Substitute cornflake crumbs or cooked quinoa for GF version.

Thanksgiving Leftover Ideas

I apologize for not getting this posted sooner. By now, your leftovers are or should be gone (don't keep that turkey for too long, it's not healthy!). I am posting regardless of my tardiness so I can remember these good ideas for next year!

Thanksgiving Stromboli (pictured here)
Roll out refrigerated pizza dough (I prefer the whole wheat version from Trader Joes). Spread leftover cranberry sauce, leftover turkey chopped or shredded thin, and crumbled leftover stuffing. Roll into a log and place on a cookie sheet. Brush the dough with an egg wash (beaten egg mixed with a little water) and bake according to dough directions. Cut into slices and serve.

Homemade Turkey Nuggets
You can easily sub turkey for chicken in this homemade nugget recipe.

Turkey Salad
Ditto on the subbing turkey for chicken in this salad recipe!