The Jennifer Aniston Salad

Have you ever heard of 'The Jennifer Aniston Salad'? I hadn't until my boss shared the recipe with our team and raved about it. Apparently, Jennifer Aniston ate this salad every day on the set of Friends for the entire run of the show! 2 weeks after my boss sent the recipe, 4 of us {out of 6} have tried it and are obsessed with it! I'm going to share the recipe but also tell you my tweaks, ha.

The Jennifer Aniston Salad

3.5 cups cooked bulgur wheat {I subbed for quinoa}

2-3 chopped small cucumbers

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup chopped mint {I used spinach instead of mint/parsley because...lazy}

1/3 cup chopped red onion {I skipped}

1 (15 oz.) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup EVOO

salt & pepper

1/2 cup crumbled feta

*I added craisins for a little sweet kick*

It is SO GOOD. I have eaten it every day this week for lunch {because it makes a lot}!

Having The Jennifer Aniston salad over lunch with my team

If you try this, let me know! I think it's a great vegetarian option and would be easy to make vegan - and I love the thought of having it for Fridays during Lent!!

Slow Cooker Hot Chocolate

One of the things we had at Paige's 2nd birthday party was hot chocolate and lots of it! I had seen a slow cooker hot chocolate recipe on Mix & Match Mama's blog for a while and finally decided to try it. I've been reading her blog for years but have only tried a few of her recipes and, honestly, have been mostly disappointed in them. I am BY NO MEANS a food critic or expert chef, but the ones I've tried just fell flat for me. However, this recipe looked easy and delicious, so I gave it a whirl. The reason I'm blogging about it is because I feel like her recipe didn't quite work out as expected and while it's a great recipe in theory, I wanted to document it out for when real people might want to try it, ha.

Ingredients:
2 14-ounce cans of sweetened, condensed milk
2 12-ounce bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips***
1 gallon of milk {I used whole but Mix & Match Mama said she uses 2%}
1 teaspoon vanilla
Whipped cream, candy canes, marshmallows, etc. for garnish

1. Layer your sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips and turn your slow cooker on high and stir every 15 minutes.
2. Once your chocolate chips have melted, add in milk and vanilla and stir.
3. Cover and continue to cook on high for 3-4 hours, stirring periodically.

In theory, that sounds super easy, right?

***WELL, we had a slight overflow situation because of too much chocolate. We ended up having to also cook hot chocolate in my big soup pot on the stove and had to add in a lot more milk. Going forward I will make this again because it was SO good, BUT I will probably do about half the chocolate chips to start with and then add until the flavor is right.

This recipe is really good...after you get the proportions right!

Father's Day Extravaganza

We had a pretty busy and fun Father's Day weekend! I am taking the kids away for 4 days to the lake with my mom's side of the family, and Brent isn't coming with us, so he wanted to spend today together instead of playing golf like he normally likes to do. We joked that his present was 4 days of bachelorhood. {grin}

Saturday, however, he DID play golf {in a charity tournament}. I took the big 2 to get haircuts {I think it has been 2 years since Drew has had a haircut, so she was due for a trim}, and then we went to my parents' house since they had my sister's kids.

GAAAAAAHHHH!

Sleeping thumb-sucking sweetie in the crib at my parents' house - 

This was a good $100 spent by Patty and me since all 6 grands have slept in it!

A Pops pile-on!

I saw a recipe a few weeks ago in a local magazine for a donut sandwich that I wanted to make for Brent.

Ingredients:
-Donuts
-Breakfast sausage {cook into a patty}
-Scrambled eggs
-Cheese

*Layer all together in a sandwich!

YUM!

Drew wanted to make something for Daddy too!

Tortilla, crushed Pringles, mustard, ketchup, and cheese

Yum??

Pool bound!

Happy Father's Day to our main man! We love our daddy so much!

I also wanted to give a shout out to this guy.

My daddy set the bar high for what I expected out of a husband and father.

Luckily I won on both fronts!

Recipe: Chicken Fried Rice

So chicken fried rice isn't anything new or special, but it's a staple at our house, and I have perfected a really easy and healthy way to make it and thought it'd be worth sharing for any moms out there with picky kids like I've got! We do a 'deconstructed' version so that everyone can get exactly what they want and for the 4 people in our house who eat food that means something different for everyone!

Ingredients:
-Chicken {we do about 1.5 pounds so that we have leftovers}
-Rice
-Eggs
-Frozen peas
-Chopped carrots {I shred using my cheese grater}
-Any other veggies you want to add
-Butter
-Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder
-Coconut aminos

Instructions:
1. Cook rice according to package instructions. I do about 1.5 cups of brown rice and about 2 cups of water. The great part about this is you can make this super early - even the day, or days, ahead of time.

Do you like my sign? {grin}

2. Cut your chicken into chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Melt butter in a pan and cook your chicken. After your chicken is cooked, move it into a bowl. I also do this ahead of time sometimes. A great activity while on a conference call!

3. Put more butter in your pan, and mix in your frozen peas and carrots. Sprinkle with onion powder and garlic powder. I don't like real onions, but you can always use those!
4. After your peas and carrots are cooked, break eggs into the pan and scramble. The number of eggs depends on how much peas and carrots you used and how eggy you want it to be.

5. Combine the combination of rice, chicken, and egg mixture you want. Pour in coconut aminos for a healthier, tastier version of soy sauce. I use A LOT!
6. Enjoy!

In our house, Trent eats a bowl of chicken, a separate bowl of rice, and a 3rd bowl of raw carrots. Drew wants rice, egg mixture, and coconut aminos. Brent wants everything except the coconut aminos, and I want it all! I love that we can each have what we want without me cooking 4 different meals because I am not a short-order cook!

Recipe: Breakfast Bake

I found this recipe from 100 Days of Real Food a few years ago and my dad started making it for our Christmas morning breakfast. I decided to make it as a freezer meal for after Paige was born because we love to have breakfast for dinner. It's a great meal to make ahead and freeze, it's nutritious, and it tastes yummy.

Ingredients:
-1 pound of breakfast sausage
-1 1/2 cups of frozen hashbrowns
-2 eggs
-1 1/2 - 2 cups of cheese {I use more because we love cheese!}
-1/2 cup whole wheat flour
-1 cup milk
-3/4 tsp baking powder
-salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Brown sausage. {The original recipe calls for chopped onions and bell peppers, cook those too if you like them - we don't, ha.}
3. Pour sausage into an 8x8 or 9x9 ungreased baking dish.
4. Stir in frozen hashbrowns and 3/4 cup - 1 cup of cheese into the sausage.
5. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in a separate bowl. Add the cup of milk and 2 eggs. Whisk gently until all mixed together. Pour into baking dish.
6. Cover with remaining cheese.
7. Cook for 35-40 minutes until cheese is golden brown.
8. Enjoy!

I eat it with Chalula hot sauce sometimes, and that's amazing too!

Oven Baked Chicken Goodness

I might have mentioned a time or 10 that I've been on the hunt for new recipes. Well, one I tried earlier this week was GOOD. Like EVERYONE in our family ate and enjoyed it. Let me say that again - EVERYONE IN OUR FAMILY ATE AND ENJOYED IT.

I don't really know what to call this because it has very simple ingredients:

-Chicken breast or tenders {I use breasts and cut into smaller pieces and I used about 1.5 pounds so we'd have leftovers}

-Salt and pepper to taste

-Mayonaise {PLEASE do yourself a favor and make your own using THIS recipe - it is heavenly - or at least don't use Miracle Whip - this needs the real deal}

-Parmesan cheese

1. Mix 1 cup of mayo with 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese {I got grated, not the fake stuff}.

2. Salt and pepper your chicken.

3. Coat with the mayo/parmesan mixture - you don't want it super thick otherwise the chicken won't cook. I did both sides but I'm not sure you NEED to - if you plan to just coat one side, you could half the amount of mayo and parm.

4. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

5. Enjoy!

I might be the worst food photographer ever. {grin}

How I Feed My Kiddos

So I got a couple of requests after I posted the Banana Almond Butter Muffin recipe last week for what I feed my kids, since I tend to be a bit crazy particular about what they eat. I would say 80-90% of the time they eat very clean. But do we eat donuts sometimes and stop for a Starbucks treat from time-to-time or get Chick-fil-A on a night where I just can't even think? Of course. I think balance is important, but MOST of the time they eat pretty clean.

My kids are very different eaters. Drew eats almost everything. She will try pretty much anything and loves fruits and vegetables. This girl picks spinach, okra, peppers, and tomatoes straight from her Pops' garden and immediately eats it. BUT her brother...not so much. After many years and many tears {and some help from speech therapy at 3}, he only eats 3 fruits and vegetables - carrots, apples, and grapes. They are very different, and for the most part, I am not a short-order cook. So I have learned to take what I know about my family and craft our meals and snacks around that! I am not a gourmet cook by any means - but I will not sacrifice quality. A recipe that has a million ingredients or steps just isn't going to cut it.

Here are some of my rules:
1) No or low sugar. There are very few things I buy with added sugar. If it does have added sugar, it must be VERY LITTLE. If I put a * by the food below, it does have added sugar.
2) Very few carbs. We eat very little bread, tortillas, and 'crunchy' snacks. Your body treats bread the same way it treats sugar, so I try to limit that. The kids get to pick 1 snack/day and the ones I buy are as clean as possible. Probably half our meals don't have a carb or if they do many times it's rice or potatoes.
3) Water. The kids main drink is water. They do get about 2-4 ounces of juice a day with all their vitamins {Omega 3, Vitamin D, and a probiotic put in the juice}. If they ask for milk, I let them have it, but they probably ask AT MOST once a week.
4) Squirty fruits. We still eat quite a few pouches, but I have cut Trent down from 6-8/day down to 4.
5) Read labels. I am constantly reading labels and making sure I understand the ingredients. I search for added {sometimes hidden} sugar and junk ingredients.

So here's a sample of what we do:

Breakfast:
-Drew wakes up hungry and wants to eat! She loves scrambled eggs, Applegate breakfast sausage*, fruits, and veggies. Once in a while she'll ask for a sunbutter/jelly/honey sandwich which is just sugar/carbs, but I let her have that occasionally.
-Trent is NOT hungry when he wakes up. I might get an apple or a hard-boiled egg in him. 
-If they eat a good breakfast {relative to each kid}, they can have a squirty fruit before we leave.

Lunch:
-Drew gets meat {Applegate hot dogs are her favorite, lunch meat**, dinner leftovers}, a string cheese, a squirty fruit, and either 2 fruits/1 veggie or 2 veggies/1 fruit. She loves grapes, oranges, bananas, apples, watermelon, blueberries, and strawberries for fruit, and she loves tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, green beans, green peas, and sweet potatoes as her veggies. See? My easy eater!
-Trent gets meat {lunch meat**, Applegate chicken nuggets, spinach hamburgers - I have been making these for years and switched from zucchini to spinach and now also blend in tomatoes, grilled chicken or pork chops}, a Siggi's yogurt*, carrots, and 2 squirty fruits.

Snack:
-When I pick the kids up from school, they get a snack. Trent usually eats pecans, string cheese, or an apple {or all of the above - he seems to make up for not having a big breakfast by eating a ton after school}. Drew eats raisins, a banana, pecans/cashews/almonds.
-I make my own popcorn using this recipe. I use coconut oil and salt and that's it!
-The time period before dinner is when they usually get their 1 crunchy snack - Mary's Gone pretzels, Nut Thins...as clean as possible!

Dinner:
-I typically cook big meals Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Brent golfs on Wednesdays, so that's when I might pan grill chicken or pork chops. I am working on adding a Sunday dinner, but I'm not there yet, ha! The weekends are leftovers, super simple meals, occasional meals out, etc.
-We are big spaghetti eaters. I buy Amy's sauce {I don't buy it through Amazon but get at Natural Grocer} because it's organic with no added sugar. It is HARD to find spaghetti sauce without added sugar. I make spaghetti probably twice a month, and I've recently started sauteeing and pureeing spinach and adding it to the sauce to get more greens into Trent.
-I make 2 'breakfast for dinner' meals. 1 is bacon, eggs, hash browns. I buy Pedersen's bacon - no added sugar. I make sure the hash browns are clean - a lot have crap added. Everyone also adds a fruit/veggie. This is usually when Trent eats grapes. This is our newest fruit for him, so I still have to force it a bit. The other breakfast is a sausage/egg scramble. I have yet to find breakfast sausage without sugar but I buy the healthiest I can find.
-Quesadillas, burritos or fajitas - I buy Stacy's tortillas - 5 ingredients and super clean. Trent and Drew typically just want cheese quesadillas, Brent and I will eat them with chicken and apples inside - yum. I might do one of these options once a month because of the tortillas.
-Chicken fried rice - this one makes me laugh because everyone eats this differently. Trent only eats the chicken and rice, Drew wants the rice, eggs, and veggies, Brent wants chicken, rice, eggs, veggies, and I eat it all PLUS coconut aminos instead of soy sauce - y'all this is a must have - soy sauce is TERRIBLE for you but coconut aminos are GOOD for you and taste AMAZING.
-Bacon wrapped chicken - salt, pepper on chicken tenders, wrap in bacon, bake at 350 for about 45 minutes - flip halfway
-Chicken, green beans, and red/sweet potatoes baked in the oven at 350 - super easy and delicious!
-I make my own chicken nuggets sometimes using this recipe.
-I will make meatloaf but cook in cupcake tins so it cooks quicker and makes little meatballs.
-I don't use our slow cooker a ton but plan to change that because some of our afternoons are getting busy with after school activities, so I'm going to start dusting off my crock pot recipes and seeing what I still consider clean enough to make {grin} and using Pinterest for new ideas!

So that's basically how we eat. The kids know if they've had their crunchy snack and if they have hit their limit of squirty fruit. They know not to ask for food after dinner {unless they want to eat a fruit or vegetable}. They know sometimes we will have treats but that it isn't an every day thing. We talk about what foods fuel our body and what foods don't and why that's important. We talk about things that help our brains and things that don't. I explain why I give them the vitamins I give them, etc. Am I perfect? Of course not! But I view their little bodies as a miracle that I want to cherish and nurture as much as possible.

I hope this post wasn't terribly boring!! {grin}

**What I wanted to say about lunch meat is it is hard to find good quality stuff. I always buy organic and nitrate/nitrite free and where possible I buy without added sugar. At our main grocery store, I can't find it without sugar, but it's very low.

Banana Almond Butter Muffins

I have been trying to find some recipes that would freeze well and be easy breakfasts for the kiddos after Smoochie gets here. But you guys know I'm kind of nuts about ingredients which can make it kind of challenging for me when I'm looking online. Well, I think I found a winner! Paleo! Gluten free! Dairy free!

Banana Almond Butter Muffins

Ingredients:
-2 eggs
-2 ripe bananas
-1 cup almond butter {check your ingredients for hidden sugar}
-1 tsp. baking soda
-1 tsp. vanilla
-1/8 to 1/4 c. honey {optional}

1. Mix all ingredients together using either a blender of mixer. I used my mixer since it seemed less messy.
2. Pour into lined muffin tins - fill about 2/3 full. Should make about 15 muffins.
3. Cook at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

When I found this recipe on Pinterest, it didn't have the honey, but I thought it would need a little something. I did 1/4 c. which would be less than 1 tsp./muffin which is an additional 20 calories and 5 g of sugar. Given my kids get almost no added sugar in a day, I am comfortable with this, but next time I make this recipe, I'll probably do less and experiment with what makes them a little sweeter without going overboard.

Bottom line: They were delicious! Drew loved them, Trent still hasn't tried one {anyone else shocked by this?}, but I'm working on him!

Recipe: The Best Queso EVER

When I shared my DITL post last week, I had some comments/emails talking about the queso I made for Easter at my parents. This queso is so good, I think you need to know about it so you can make it. {grin}

A food photographer I am not, but this is DELICIOUS.

Ingredients:
-1 pound ground beef
-1 package Velveeta
-1 8 oz. package cream cheese
-1 can cream of mushroom soup
-1 can of Rotel

Steps:
1. Cup of Velveeta and cream cheese. Place into crock pot with cream of mushroom soup and Rotel. Cook for 30 minutes.
1a. Something I do every time I use Rotel, salsa, spaghetti sauce, basically anything with tomatoes - I use my immersion blender to puree it. I can't stand chunks of tomatoes in any of my food, and this not only gets rid of the chunks but helps make the whole recipe smoother.
2. Brown pound of meat.
3. Add to the crock pot after everything has started to melt together.
4. Cook for 30 more minutes.
5. Eat and enjoy!

My Whole 30 Recipes

I don't know if there is anybody out there {besides Veronica} who cares about my Whole 30 journey, but I'm still blogging about it! 

I mentioned on Monday that I enjoyed 'bad' eating a little longer than I intended after our weekend away, and that was largely due to poor meal planning when we got home. The most important thing for me {and sometimes the most annoying part} is the meal prep. But I can tell you that I've noticed a big difference in how I feel when I'm eating clean vs. when I'm not, so I'm so excited to get back on track!

I used the Whole 30 book and Pinterest a lot accumulating recipes. I am a pretty picky eater, so a lot of recipes I found were immediately vetoed. Luckily there are hundreds, if not thousands, of recipes out there, so I've gathered a lot that worked for me and our family. My goal is to get a month's worth of recipes, I'm not there yet, but I'm still searching and saving! I thought I'd put all the recipes I've liked in 1 place in case anyone out there is looking for healthy recipes or even contemplating Whole 30!

I am not a huge mayonnaise person, but man, Whole 30 mayo is amazing. I eat it on food, as a veggie dip, in recipes. It literally takes less than 5 minutes to make, has only a few ingredients, and is delicious. The mayo is an easy way to get a healthy fat with your meals. It's also the base for Whole 30 ranch, but I haven't made that yet {although I intend to}. Here's a link for a ton of Whole 30 sauces. I am a huge sauce person!

This meatloaf was super easy and good. Next time I might blend up some spinach to get some more veggies in it. The only things I did differently were I only used 2 pounds of meat {3 seemed a little excessive} and omitted the onions {I hate them and used onion powder instead}, and I made it in cupcake tins to have individual servings - it cooked faster and made it easy to serve.

I crave this pan-fried lemon chicken. It was a little too tart for the kids, but I think I ate it for 3 or 4 meals during my Whole 30.

I found this recipe for chicken baked with potatoes and green beans before Whole 30, but it's easy to make compliant by subbing ghee for the butter. I also use fresh green beans instead of canned. The whole family loves this one.

I have 2 pork recipes from the Whole 30 book - one is for pork carnitas in the crock pot and the other was for walnut-encrusted pork tenderloin. Both were AMAZING, but I can't find online links. I can email those to anyone who might like the sound of them. {grin}

My boss recommended chicken zucchini poppers. I liked these but the rest of the family wasn't wild about them. You could too easily see the shredded zucchini, so Brent and Trent wouldn't try it. Grrrr. Next time I try this, I might try puree-ing the zucchini?

As a kid, my mom would fry salmon cakes, and it was one of the few fish dishes I would eat. I am still not a fan of fish, but when I found this recipe for Whole 30 salmon cakes, I had to try it. And they were awesome! I will admit it was kind of gross touching the fish because I had to dig around to make sure there weren't any bones, and I almost couldn't finish, but I'm so glad I did. This one is a keeper!

I will admit I haven't made these buffalo ranch chicken meatballs, but they are up next on my 'to try' list. I love buffalo chicken wings with ranch, so I'm hopeful these will be similar.

I follow @whole30recipes on Instagram. There are only a few recipes I've tried from there, but bacon wrapped chicken was a winner. I salted and peppered chicken tenders and then wrapped each tender with bacon. Then I baked at 350* for about 60 minutes in a baking dish. {I actually put on a cookie sheet and smoked out the house because the bacon grease dripped, so don't make my same mistake.} Easy, simple ingredients and delicious.

For a take on chicken nuggets, try these zesty chicken bites! Again a little too spicy for the kids, so next time, I'll cut down on the cayenne pepper, but the breading turned out so good.

There were also a lot of meals I ate that we ate before Whole 30 - I just modified.

• Spaghetti on Zoodles - I made spaghetti like normal for everyone and just ate mine on sauteed zucchini noodles. {Just make sure the sauce you use doesn't have added sugar.}
• Tacos - I ate mine as a wrap inside big pieces of lettuce.
• Hamburgers - Just ate without a bun. The Whole 30 website has a whole blog post about things you can use instead of buns, I didn't try any but I think a sweet potato bun would be yummy! You can also make your own french fries - just slice up a potato really thin, put on a baking sheet, salt and pepper, and coat with olive oil. Bake at 350* until soft.
• Chicken salad - I made this pretty much every week and ate it as breakfast or lunch a lot {including yesterday and probably today}. Canned chicken, mayo, apples, grapes, pecans, and celery - yum! I would usually eat it on spinach with a little bit of balsamic vinaigrette. Delish!

I also had plenty of lazy meals too. Planning is important, but you can't cook 3 meals a day every day without going a little crazy!

• Chicken apple sausage - there are several brands you can buy {Aidell's, Applegate, Coleman's} - I would just grill it and then eat with mayo, a fruit, and a veggie. Super easy!
• Applegate turkey pepperoni
• Lunch meat - this is tricky because a lot of them have carrageenan {a Whole 30 no-no} or added sugar, but you can find it.
• Bacon - again be careful with added sugar - I've only been able to find one brand without added sugar, Pederson's, and I've only found it at Whole Foods and Natural Grocer.

Hopefully this was helpful to someone out there! If you find anything you think I might like, I'd love some new recipes to work on my list of 30!

Making Meals!

*This is a little bit of an embarrassing post to write, but I'm so excited I just had to share.*

Meal planning has always been a big nemesis of mine. I could list all my faults, but it really boils down to poor planning and a lack of organization. If you don't plan ahead, there's little chance you'll have all the ingredients you need to make much of anything. 

Shocker.

I go to the store almost every weekend, and if I haven't planned my meals in advance, Monday evening rolls around, and I can't make anything! Brent has commented more than once that he is amazed I can spend as much money as I do at the store and have nothing to show for it. #truth

Here's how it sounds in my brain: Can I make spaghetti? No sauce. Can I make tacos? No shells. Could I grill some chicken? Maybe, but what sides? And on and on.

But after almost 11 years of marriage and 6 years of motherhood, I am finally getting my act together!

I have been using Pinterest and pinning recipes to try, bugging friends and family for their go-to easy and healthy meals, and I've been creating a spreadsheet as we try things and find keepers. My goal is to have 2 months worth of meals in rotation and grow from there, and I'm pretty much there! It's nothing fancy, but it's stuff that everyone {or a majority of the family} will eat. Simple stuff like breakfast for dinner and everything from chicken fried rice {Trent will eat the chicken and the rice separate from everything else, ha} to hamburgers, from tried and true staples {hello, enchilada casserole} to new favorites {I made these grilled burritos and Brent loved them}. I would say 90% of them are very healthy with a few mixed in that are the opposite of healthy, but I'm pretty darn proud of my list!

So if you have any great recipes to share, I'll take them!

Recipe: Chicken and Wild Rice Crock Pot Soup

I'm trying to work out my recipe rolodex. It is currently in pitiful shape. I don't cook very often, and I cook the same stuff repeatedly. Now that I'm going to be working from home {100% remember? grin}, I am optimistic that I will be able to cook more. {Who knows - a month from now I might laugh at that optimism.} So anyway, yesterday I made a 100 Days of Real Food crock pot recipe. It was easy {prep time was maybe 20 minutes}! It was healthy! It was good!

Ingredients:

• medium onion, 1/2 - chopped
• 3 celery ribs - diced
• 6 - 8 ounces fresh mushroom {full disclosure - I skipped this}
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup whole grain wild rice
• 1 pound raw, boneless, skinless chicken breast - cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 tsp salt {I think it needed a little more}
• 1/2 tsp pepper {ditto the salt}
• 8 cups chicken broth {I think next time I will do 6 cups and make it thicker}
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Optional topping - toasted almonds {I forgot to buy these!}

Cooking:

• Combine everything but broth and cream in crock pot.
• Cover with broth.
• Cook on low for 4-5 hours.
• Top with cream and mix. Add toasted almonds.
• EAT

Lasagna Deliciousness: A Recipe

I think I've established {many, many times} that cooking is not my forte and frankly doesn't happen very often in our abode. I've been trying to remedy that by cooking more regularly and trying new recipes here and there. Well, Kristen gave me a super easy and DELICIOUS recipe for lasagna. Brent isn't a huge Italian food fan, but I love it, so when he said 'This was pretty good', I glowed. {grin}

Ingredients:
-2 pounds ground beef
-32 oz. spaghetti sauce {or a super big container}
-lasagna noodles {Don't tell Brent but I used brown rice noodles!}
-1 container Ricotta cheese
-1 container small curd cottage cheese
-1 egg
-grated cheese {Italian blend or just mozzarella}
-sliced mozzarella
-Italian seasoning
-garlic salt

Steps:
1. Brown meat and mix with spaghetti sauce {I use a hand mixer and blend up the sauce extra which I think makes the sauce so much better.}
2. Mix Ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, egg and Italian seasoning and garlic salt {I just sprinkled a healthy dose in there}.
3. Layer the ingredients as follows {which I actually did wrong, ha}
-Layer 1: noodles
-Layer 2: meat mixture
-Layer 3: noodles
-Layer 4: cheese mixture, top with shredded cheese
-Layer 5: noodles
-Layer 6: meat sauce
-Layer 7: sliced mozzarella, top with shredded cheese
4. Cook at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until cheese on-top is golden brown.

Nothing Tastes as Good as Skinny Feels...or Not...a Recipe

Y'all...I needed something to take to book club 2 weeks ago. I wanted to bring a dessert, and I just wanted to make something {rare}. I spun my small mental recipe rolodex and remembered a recipe I haven't made in a while. But it's so good and so easy that I remembered the recipe off the top of my head (and makes 2 pies). I present Millionaire Pie!

Millionaire Pie

• 2 graham cracker pie crusts
• 1 can Eagle brand condensed milk (which in itself is dessert)
• 1 8 oz. container of Cool Whip
• 1/3 C. lemon juice
• 1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
• Chopped pecans (if desired)

Mix everything together and divide between 2 crusts. Chill overnight in the fridge or freezer for an hour.

BAM! You're welcome!

Recipe: Oven Baked Chicken Tacos

As I work on cooking more for our family, I peruse blogs daily trying to develop a decent 'catalog' to pull from for meal planning. I'm creating a word doc with links to all the recipes we deem worth repeating. {I need to get rid of all my dusty, unused cookbooks because I never, EVER pull them out!}

This recipe was one I found awhile back and promptly decided to make, and I'm happy to say it is staying in our rotation!

Ingredients:

• 1-1 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 package taco seasoning
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon chopped Cilantro
• 1/2 squeezed lime
• 1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 can refried beans
• shredded cheese
• taco shells
• your favorite toppings for Mexican food (salsa, guac, sour cream, etc.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Boil chicken and shred.
3. In a skillet combine shredded chicken, taco seasoning, cumin, cilantro, lime juice, tomato sauce and refried beans. Mix well and heat ingredients thoroughly.
4. In a 9X13 arrange taco shells so they are standing. 
5. Add chicken mixture to each shell.
6. Top with shredded cheese.
7. Bake 10-12 minutes.
8. Top with your favorite garnishes and enjoy.

Notes: I don't think these held up well the next day, so I think next time I'll reserve half the mixture to make a fresh batch for another meal.  I'm curious if the mixture would freeze or not because, really, who needs 18 tacos?

A Delicious Dinner

Ingredients:

-Water

-Milk

-Flour

-Powdered Sugar

-Salt and pepper

-EVOO

-Cornstarch

I don't think Trent and I have cooked much since Drew arrived. And yesterday's recipe was a doozie!

He got out the bowl and spoons for Brent and me to have as 'dinner'. Love that kid!

Homemade Goodness Part 2

I blogged over a month ago about my homemade laundry detergent.  Well, that's not all I've made.  I also made glass cleaner and an all-purpose cleaner.

Just a few ingredients (who doesn't love that!) and recycled spray bottles

All-Purpose Cleaner
Ingredients:
-1/2 water
-1/2 vinegar
-Essential oil
THE END!

*I just mixed water and vinegar until my spray bottle was about half full and put enough essential oil in (still Lavender from our experiments with T's sleep) to cover the vinegar smell.  I use this all the time and love it!*

Glass Cleaner
-1/4 cup vinegar
-2 cups water
-1/2 tsp. Dr. Bronner's Castile soap {I originally thought you had to buy this at Whole Food's, I have since found it at Target AND H-E-B.}
-Essential oil

*I think I made a 1 1/2 batch due to how big my bottle was so it's easy to experiment and get the right amount.  And again, just use enough essential oil for the smell, but Dr. Bronner's smells great too so you don't need as much of the oil as you do for the all-purpose cleaner.*

Both of these products have worked great so far, and I feel great about using them!

How 'Bout Them Apples?

*I wanted to sneak some apples into a recipe to see if I could get Trent to eat them and unknowingly get some fruit.  {Don't judge me, peeps.  You know we're facing this in his speech therapy.}

Chicken Apple Quesadillas
Ingredients:
-cooked, cup-up chicken
-sliced up apples (I peeled them, not sure you need to and chopped them really finely to be extra sneaky)
-grated cheese
-tortillas
I didn't put amounts because it can be as much or as little as you want.

1. Mix apples and chicken together.
2. Sprinkle a little cheese on 1/2 of a tortilla, add apple/chicken mix, sprinkle a little more cheese.
3. Fold tortilla in half to make quesadilla.
4. Cook in skillet until cheese is melted and quesadilla is crunchy.

B and I loved them.  T wouldn't try them...  I will still call it a victory because these were super easy to make and B enjoyed them - that in itself is almost a miracle!

*On Friday, for speech, I was to bring some apple.  We used apples last time and the goal was to get Trent to touch and interact with the apples.  He did!  This time, I brought some of the leftover apple from our quesadillas.  He and the therapist painted with the apples, then acted like dinosaurs and TRENT ATE 18 BITES OF APPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I almost cried when the therapist and I discussed his session.  What a big moment!

*Saturday night, I bought Snow White and the Huntsman off pay-per-view.  {Hopefully my apple reference isn't too far of a stretch with this story.}

Plot: In a twist to the fairy tale, the Huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the Evil Queen.

Review: I would say this movie was okay.  Charlize Theron is fantastic as the Evil Queen (and I thought her creepy brother was great too).  Chris Hemsworth was also great as the Huntsman. Kristen Stewart?  Meh.  She was less twitchy than she is as Bella Swan, but overall, she's just not that interesting.  The plot was pretty good, but I'm glad this only cost me $5.

Good thing I like apples.

Recipe: Spicy Taco Soup

Brent went hunting with his uncle last year and came home with a recipe that I make often (or I guess you should say often for me since I don't cook much).  It is amazing.  I've made it twice in the last 3 weeks.

Spicy Taco soup:
2 pounds ground beef
2 cans hot Rotel*
1 can corn
2 cans pinto beans (I've done pinto and kidney too to mix it up a little)
1 package ranch dressing powder
1 package hot taco seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1 medium chopped onion (I usually omit this, ha)

1. Brown meat with chopped onion
2. Add everything else and cook for 20 minutes
3. Eat!  Brent and I put it over crackers with shredded cheese.  Delish!!!

This version makes a lot.  I will eat it for a week solid.  Cut in half if you prefer, but I will think you are crazy if you do!

My sis was actually going to try a vegetarian version with just more beans, so I will ask her how that turned out.  I bet delicious!

*I actually puree the Rotel with my hand mixer because I hate tomatoes, and this way I'm eating them instead of picking them out, and I think it helps make more of a soupy texture.

Homemade Goodness Part 1

I've talked many times about trying to be more natural.  I annoy Brent because he thinks I'm a weird-o.  But the older wiser I get, the more I am concerned about what I put into my body {although I fail miserably at this more than I'd like to admit} and into the earth.  And especially what goes into Trent as we try to raise him 'right'...even though that kid only wants to eat goldfish.

One thing I mentioned was wanting to make my own cleaning products.

What I've made so far is glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaner and laundry detergent.  All recipes I found came from Edible Perspectives.  I want to put a lot of information here, so I've included links to all the ingredients so you can read about what makes them 'good' products for your home and the environment.  I'm also going to make it a couple of posts to make them not quite so long!

Laundry Detergent

Ingredients:

1 c. Borax

1.5 bars Castile soap

1 c. Baking soda

1 c. Super washing soda {This was the hardest to find.  Sold mostly at Ace Hardware stores, but the closest one to me was 20 miles away...which i drove to just for it to be sold out.  My dad suggested a local store that did have it!  Score for dad.  So local peeps, go here.}

All my ingredients ready to go!

Steps:
1. Grate the soap bars.  I used a cheese grater.  {I also increased the recipe by 33% to use the full 2 bars.  Yes, I'm an accountant and like math.}

I used Almond and Peppermint and the combo smelled AH-MAZING!

And it looks like cheese, huh?  Don't eat it!

2. Mix all ingredients together.
3. Use approximately 2T per load of laundry.

Bottom line?
It's good for your clothes.
It's good for the environment.
It's cheaper than store bought detergent because everything but the bar soap will make SEVERAL batches - and each batch can wash about 30-40 loads.  I spent less than $20...so do the math.

I've washed a lot of loads and think my clothes come out great and even a little softer! #hippiemomwin