Whatcha eating Wednesday

 

Our Menu for this week:

Pizza- I know, I know not the healthiest but sometimes I need a break
Spaghetti - With Lentil penne pasta and homemade meat sauce
Taco- Super easy and delicious. A go to for busy nights
Grilled Chicken with quinoa salad-because the lentil quinoa salad I intended to make was a big fat Pinterest FAIL
Chicken and veg Primivera with "Zoodles" -Pinterest




For our Pizza this week I used a store bought whole wheat dough from Trader Joe's. I can and have made from scratch pizza but sometimes it's nice to have a little help. I'm human after all! I made a quick sauce by sautéing some spinach and garlic then blending that with a can of fire roasted tomatoes, a tiny bit of onion, oregano, basil and salt and pepper. SORRY, no pics for this.
Next time I promise. 


 I like to add nutritional yeast to little Miss section to limit the cheese and boost the nutritional value. She LOVES pizza and I really try to limit the traditional dough cause I just feel like it's so void of nutrition but every now and then it's a nice treat. I have made her cauliflower pizza, which isn't our fav but both times I've made it she gobbled it up. SHOCKED! She calls it, "pizza, pizza cauliflower" I also like to make mini pizza's on Ezekiel English muffins with my quick spinach tomato sauce and nutritional yeast for a quick lunch during the week. She loves it! Be on the look out for those recipes coming up!  Follow Me~




The featured recipe for this post is was going to be Qunioa Lentil Salad BUT it turned into a giant mushy mess! Bla!~ SO mushy lentils yet the quinoa wasn't quite cooked! I'm still so disappointed!

  I really want to make this work so I'm going to try again soon. Stay Tuned and Follow me!
I had to change it up at the last minute cause it was dinner time  pool time! I already had the veggies for the salad roasting in the oven so I just threw out the mush and make a new pot of quinoa.


If you haven't tried Quinoa before you must! It's is so easy and quick to make. It's pretty bland which is actually a good thing cause it can adapt to anything pretty easily. This is the kind I buy from Costco.

So here is the recipe:


Roast chopped brussel sprouts, 2 thinly sliced shallots and 1 sliced red pepper
Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper
Roast at 400 for about 20-25min

In the meantime combine 2cups chicken stock/veggie stock/ water (one of these, not all of them)  with 1 cup quinoa
Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer for about 10-12min. This is what cooked quinoa looks like.



Once the quinoa and roasted veggies are done combine them and add the zest and juice of 1 lemon and a good handful of chopped parsley.

SO guys, if you don't regularly zest your lemons you must, you must, you must!!!! Go buy a zester, spend $12 on a decent one (a cheap one won't work!) and zest away!

 At the last minute I decided something sweet and juicy would be delicious so I grabbed a big handful of grapes and cut them in half. If you don't have grapes it's fine, but the grapes definitely take this salad to the next level.  Oh yeah, a handful of chopped parsley is a nice fresh touch too.

 I Served this with Grilled Chicken

I saw this pic on Pinterest for garlic and basil grilled chicken and thought it looked good. It calls for skin on Chicken breast. I don't ever buy skin on chicken breast so naturally I didn't have any on hand. I just used my regular skinless boneless chicken breast. I really like to cut my chicken in half butterfly style. It cooks faster and more evenly and I just like it!

Here it is whole 

 and.... in half

at some point I may upload a quick video of how I do this with ease!

The recipe called for basil but
I didn't have any so I used thyme.
Now, it's important to know that
you can't just sub herbs willy nilly.
#Yesthat'sarealword! If a recipe
calls for cilantro you can't just
sub parsley! Sorry mom. I mean, you could
it just wouldn't taste at all the same!
Anyway thyme and garlic grilled chicken
is something I've done variations of
and it all goes together. Obviously
it's not going to taste like basil but thyme
and garlic are perfect together so it's fine.
#trustmeit'sfine



I chopped all this thyme and about 3T worth of fresh garlic (please don't use the jar stuff, it's just not the same). I added some olive oil and salt and pepper. Mixed it all up and added my chicken.

I threw the chicken back in the fridge cause we were going to the pool! 

I meant to add in some lemon juice when we got home before I put it on the grill but I forgot. It was still OK, but a squeeze of lemon would have really brought everything together.

I grilled these to 160-165. 165 is done but when they are truly done the temp rises high and fast so if the temp is rising fast you can take it off around 160 cause it will get to 165 in about 10 seconds.

Also BIG TIP here unless you cook chicken to perfection 10 times every night you need a meat thermometer! You DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT! DO NOT! want overcooked chicken. Nothing ruins a nicely seasoned chicken breast like dry, chewy, overcooked chicken! Don't cut in to the chicken and let all the juice pour out! Just use a meat thermometer! Please! 

There ya go! 

Follow me! My plan for now is to post on Wednesdays and Fridays. Follow me! 

I will be posting our weekly menu's and a meal or 2 from the list as well as some random breakfasts or things we are eating for lunch. Friday's will mostly be "treats" Follow me! 

That's it for now, see you back Friday! 

Follow me! 

Friday Treat Day!

This recipe for healthy no sugar, no sweetener of any kind, kid and parent approved, no guilt cookie comes from The Skinny Fork

I pinned this recipe on pinterest a while ago and today seemed like a perfect day to try them out! 

The recipe is as simple as:
2 mashed banana
1/3C creamy peanut butter
2/3C unsweetened applesauce

Mashed and mixed together

Add:
1 1/2C oats
1tsp vanilla
1tsp cinnamon

The original recipe calls for 1/2C of chocolate chips but since I was making these for little miss I decided to leave them out. I did put the tiniest dab of shaved 72% dark chocolate on top of about half of them.

Toddlers love to help and taste! No worries since there are no raw eggs in this recipe.

I sprayed coconut oil on my sheet pan and baked the cookies at 350 for about 25min and then let them sit on the pan for a few minutes to cool.

They stay together well and taste pretty good! Obviously not the same as a traditional cookie but pretty darn good for us!

Little Miss Approved!

Changes coming!

So...it's been awhile,

ok a long while! I had a baby and now she is a toddler and I am pretty devoted to providing her with healthy delicious food! We struggled a lot with her eating in the beginning. I wouldn't say she was extra picky as much as she just didn't eat much at all! It was so frustrating for me! I was determined to not give in to chicken nuggets and easy mac just so she would eat. For now she is eating pretty well. She is still a kid so she loves pizza and pasta but I try and make everything as nutrient dense as possible.

The next chapter of this blog will be all about what we eat, how I pack those nutrients in, how we have treats that don't ruin everything I'm trying to accomplish, and how we fun in the process.

I'm going to try and post twice a week to start. I have a long list of my normal go to meals and snacks, but lately I've been turning to Pinterest for inspiration.

Stay tuned....  

Parmesan crusted Steak

 

 

Parmesan Steak

Our Valentines Dinner

 

Let me start by saying we hadn't really planned on having a special meal because we were planning on going out to a nice dinner on Saturday. When I went to the grocery store on V-Day I saw these yummy looking filets and I hadn't made anything "special" in a while so I decided to go for it. Hubby's favorite topping for his steak is a gorgonzola cream sauce I make, but I didn't feel like that and I'm the Prego so I get the final say. I hadn't really decided what I was gonna do till a few hours later, which is why I used a whole piece of bread in my parmesan crust instead of bread crumbs.

 

 

 

In a food processor combine about 1 cup of parmesan cheese, 1 clove of garlic, 4TBS of softened butter, and in theory a handful of bread crumbs. I didn't have any so I tore up a piece of bread.

Pulse it together 

It will look like this

Place it on parchment paper and fold the paper over and press it out so it's pretty thin

 

Like this, then wrap it back up and throw it in the freezer

Now for the steak! Hands down the best technique for cooking steak is NOT grilling. It's searing and finishing in the oven.

 

Step 1. Liberally salt and pepper the steak

 

I drizzled a tiny bit of oil in my screaming hot cast iron pan and then threw in 1 TBL of BUTTER

 

Place the steak SEASONED SIDE DOWN (FYI always put everything seasoned side down)

I then seasoned the side facing up.



 Don't touch it for 2 min or so. After 2 min you can gently peak at the under side to see if you have some nice color and crust if you do flip it if not leave it alone for another minute.

 

Once both sides are seared (about 2 min on each side)

Top with your prepared parmesan crust and place pan in 400 degree oven.

 (unless you are a pro the best thing to do to insure your steak is cooked properly is to use an instant read thermometer)

 

 

 

I cooked mine to medium (the way God intended) I actually removed mine at 135. It took 5-6 minutes. Remove from the oven and cover with foil to let rest for a few minutes.

	Rare		Medium-Rare		Medium		Medium-Well
	Remove	Ideal	Remove	Ideal	Remove	Ideal	Remove	Ideal
Beef Steaks	125º	130º	130º	135º	140º	145º	155º	160º

 

I served this with steamed broccoli and Garlic Mashed Potatoes

 



 

Spicy (as you like it) Yogurt marinated Chicken

 

Spicy (as you like it) Yogurt Marinated Chicken.

 

 

 

In a bowl add this much Turmeric

 

This pic is hard to figure out but it's red pepper flakes. (My chicken wasn't that spicy so if you want you can add more than this) Or add some hot sauce or something.

 This much Paprika

This much garlic powder

Mix together with Plain Greek Yogurt. I used the whole 6oz cup

It will look like this.

Season with plenty of salt and pepper.

 Cut up your chicken into big bite sizes

 Combine chicken with yogurt mixture and chill for at least 15 min or so. It's not gonna be a disaster if it's already 6:00 and your family is hungry and you throw this in the oven right away.

 

I spread the chicken out on a foil lined cookie sheet and cooked at the highest my temp my oven would go. I had it on 500 but it started smoking so I lowered it to 450. I cooked it for about 12min or so. But depending on how big your pieces are and how hot your oven is your time will vary. Set your timer for 10-12 min and then test a piece to see if it's ready or if you need a few more minutes.

 

I served this with lemon and parsley couscous. No recipe, just cook your couscous, or rice or quinoa and add lemon zest, lemon juice, and chopped parsley. Something with citrus and lite tasting goes well with this.

Alternatively, You could leave the chicken whole, grill it, or skewer it. 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

 

From Pinterest

 

http://pinchofyum.com/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookie-cheesecake-bars

 

 

 

This was delicious!!!! I followed the recipe exactly, except that I only had an 8X8 instead of 9inch pan as per the recipe so my cooking time was longer but these really were delicious!



No Bake Energy Bites

No Bake Energy Bites

From Pinterest

 

http://fooddoodles.com/2012/01/12/chocolate-no-bake-energy-bites/

 

 

I made these almost according to the recipe listed. I used Pure Maple Syrup for my sweetner and I didn't add 3/4C of coconut I added a small handful of chopped up almonds and dried cranberries. This is so simple and adaptable you can make them according to your taste.