valentine's day

happy valentine's day!

it's not a big holiday around our house, but we try to make the day just a little bit special.

we started out the day with a special breakfast of cinnamon rolls, eggs, and strawberries. i made them last night from this recipe. they are low-carb, gluten, and sugar free. the first batch was a terrible disappointment. they smelled delicious, but were as hard as rocks! i baked them too long and also learned that i needed to add more almond flour than the recipe says. the second batch turned out better. not perfect, but good enough that we were able to enjoy them for breakfast this morning. i put heart stickers on toothpicks and stuck them in the cinnamon rolls to add a festive feel this morning.

we exchanged valentine's cards. always homemade at our house.

and the other day i made some truffles, because i knew the day wouldn't be complete without chocolate. (the recipe is from a book i recently got from the library: sensational stevia desserts, by lisa jobs). they were quite a lot of work, but they are delicious and definitely satisfy a desire for chocolate.

dutch baby

we usually have pancakes for breakfast on saturday morning. it's just our tradition. we get up, jeremy makes coffee, i have tea, and little one and i mix up the batter and make pancakes. this last saturday, i decided to shake things up a bit and make something i've been wanting to try for awhile...a dutch baby. i've never had one before. it was so easy, and so delicious. we all loved it! it will definitely be made again.

i put together a recipe from several that i found on the internet. here's how to make one...

ingredients:

2 TB butter
4 eggs
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup milk (i used whole, raw milk, but you can probably use any kind?)
apple slices (optional)
cinnamon (optional)

1. preheat the oven to 475 F. put butter in cast iron pan (from what i have read online, you can also use a glass pyrex dish if you don't have cast iron) and put it in the oven to let the butter melt.

2. while butter is melting, slice up an apple. after butter is melted, turn the oven down to 425 F, remove pan from oven and put the apple in. sprinkle with cinnamon. put back in the oven until the apples are slightly softened.

3. while apples are softening, mix together eggs, flour, and milk. take pan out of oven, pour flour/egg/milk mixture over apples and place pan back in oven.

4. bake 20 to 25 minutes. can be served with lemon juice, maple syrup, and/or powdered sugar.

wild rice chicken pilaf

i decided it's time to share the recipe to one of our favorite meals.

wild rice chicken pilaf
(based on a recipe i ripped out of real simple magazine years ago...the original recipe was for wild rice stuffing, but i modified it to make a main dish)

ingredients:
1/2 cup wild rice
1 1/4 cups brown rice
enough chicken broth to cook the rice in (or some chicken broth and some water)
1 stick butter (or less)
1 small onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 cup chopped nuts (whatever you have on hand...pecans, walnuts, and cashews are all really good)
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
oregano, basil, and thyme to taste
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
splash of lemon juice

1. soak rice in water with a splash of apple cider vinegar for eight hours (optional)...makes the rice easier to digest/more nutritious
2. preheat stove to 350 F.
3. in a pot, put broth/water needed to equal amount of liquid needed to cook rice. add rice. bring to boil, reduce to low heat, cover. Simmer about 45 minutes or until rice is finished cooking.
4. melt butter in large skillet, add onion and celery and cook for ten minutes. add rice, spices, nuts, fruit, and chicken and mix. add splash of lemon juice.
5. place in buttered casserole dish. cover and bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes.
6. enjoy!

this pilaf tastes great with a simple side salad, or the other night we ate it with cooked peas and that was really yummy! this recipe is very forgiving, and really you can use whatever you have on hand. that's the great thing about a pilaf!

this recipe will serve 6 to 8 people - we always have a lot of leftovers when i make it.

banana peanut butter smoothie shake

i went to make smoothies for breakfast this morning, but felt like making something a little different than our usual blend. i threw a few things in the blender and ended up with a wonderfully yummy treat that i will definitely be making again in the future!

ingredients:
frozen bananas (mine were peeled and cut into chunks before freezing...makes them easy to throw in the blender) - it was probably a total of two or three bananas
ripe (non-frozen) bananas - i used two
cocoa powder
peanut butter
whole milk

i often don't measure when i'm making something, so i don't know how much of each thing i put in. i just tasted it a couple of times to get it right. this totally tasted like a peanut butter banana shake. it was so good!

banana boats

we're both feeling achy today, and baby is taking an extra-long nap...we must have caught something.

besides that, there's not much to blog about today, so i want to share a dessert we had a couple of weekends ago. i had seen ideas floating all over the web about making banana boats in the campfire. we will definitely be making these on our next camping trip, but we couldn't wait that long to try them! one night, we grilled chicken for chicken salad, and i knew it would be the perfect time to try this treat, so we put them together and put them on the grill for a bit. it worked great and they were so yummy!

to make your own, take a banana and carefully unpeel one side of it. scoop out a little channel in the banana and fill with whatever you would like. we used raspberries and dark chocolate, but you could really use any kind of fruit, or nuts, or coconut. be creative! wrap it in tin foil and put it on the grill for a few minutes. peek at it after a bit...once the chocolate is melted, enjoy!

homemade playdough

our little one is becoming more and more interested in working with her hands...coloring, mixing, cleaning, and playing with playdough!

i made a batch of it several weeks ago and she has played with it several times since. the first time i gave it to her, she stayed busy in her high chair for over an hour!

the recipe i used was:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups water

put the dry ingredients in a pan on the stove, then add the water and oil. if you want to add color to your playdough, add it at this time as well. cook on medium heat and stir until it becomes thick. after a few minutes it will become one big glob of playdough that can't be mixed anymore. take it off the heat, put it on a plate or in a bowl to cool for a bit, and then use your hands to form it into a ball. if it is still sticky at this point, just add a bit more flour. i store ours in a recycled yogurt container and have kept it in the fridge in hopes that it will last longer. i made it at least four weeks ago, though, and it is still soft and use-able. easy, cheap, and natural playdough!

the smell totally brought me back to my own childhood because my mom used to make playdough for us! i'm glad my little girl can have the same experience as she grows up.

mexican pizza

mexican pizza

our little one is quite the picky eater these days. i often struggle with knowing what to feed her - especially since we are not at home and do not have our usual food resources around us. i recently started making mexican pizzas. they are easy, nutritious, and yummy and are perfect for a pinch when we need a quick, easy meal. in fact, we're going to have them for supper tomorrow after a busy day of church and our nephew's birthday party.

you need:

tortillas (any kind will work. i've been using food for life's sprouted corn tortillas and they work great)

refried beans or leftover beans from making beans and rice

cheese (i use raw sharp cheddar, but any kind will do!)

toppings...tomatoes, olives, corn, whatever is on hand...

1. assemble the "pizza"

2. bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted to your satisfaction

3. enjoy! these are really yummy with a bit of sour cream and salsa.

treats

this morning i woke up to find a layer of snow on the ground. it's a good thing there was a baby in the next room crying for my attention, or i definitely would have crawled back into bed, pulled the covers over my head, and told my husband to wake me when spring decides to show up for real (at this point, i don't think i would have cared how long it took).

mondays always seem to be long days at our house. jeremy has a full morning and early afternoon of class, and then he works an extra hour and gets home shortly after seven. the combination of this long day, my strong desire to be with family in california, piles of laundry to fold, the snow this morning, and still struggling to get back into our routine really put me in a funk this morning.

so what was i to do? well...after folding those piles of laundry and doing various tasks around the house, i decided it was time to bake something. i couldn't decide between brownies and mounds candy bars, so i made both.

the brownies are absolutely delicious. they are very rich, so a little goes a long way, which i like. our little one loves to "help" me cook and bake, and she fully participated in the creation of these brownies. she poured, stirred, and loved helping me grease the pan with butter. when i cook or bake, i like to let her touch as many things as possible - all those different textures are great for learning. fingers stuck in the salt container? sure, why not. a little one reaching for a handful of batter? that's fine, see what it feels like! this is all easier when daddy is here to hold her up next to me, but when he is not, we make it work.

greasing the pan:

the recipe for the brownies is from elanaspantry.com. i haven't made very many recipes from her blog, but the ones i have made have turned out very well and i look forward to trying more. i appreciate the fact that the food she makes is nutritious. although these brownies are sweets, they don't have any sugar, and are packed with a lot of nutrition. (i have to confess that the ones i made did have some sugar in the chocolate chips. we had a bag of regular semi-sweet chocolate chips left over from the little one's birthday party that i couldn't let go to waste. usually, however, i would probably use a chopped up dark chocolate bar or dark chocolate chips). 

i used honey instead of agave nectar, and peanut butter instead of almond butter. yum. some (most!) of these brownies will definitely be going in the freezer.

the "mounds candy bars" were next on my list. the recipe calls for a candy bar mold, which i don't have, so i decided to make them in muffin cups...similar to how i made peanut butter cups a while back (after clicking on the link, scroll down to find the recipe). because of that, they ended up being more like mounds candy drops for me. either way, they are yummy. i melted half of the chocolate on the stove, poured it into the muffin cups and let it harden in the fridge (for about 15 minutes?). meanwhile, i mixed up the coconut filling using honey instead of agave nectar. i formed little balls and placed them on top of the hardened chocolate. 

waiting for another layer of chocolate...

i melted the rest of the chocolate, poured it over the coconut filling, and put it all in the fridge to harden.

 they turned out kind-of big, so they are definitely best cut in half. 

yummy treats over here. they don't take away the snow, or the laundry, or the sadness we are experiencing...but it is therapeutic and satisfying to create them, and a great little treat for the day.

dinner.

roasted root vegetable salad

and melon.
yum.

spaghetti squash

yum. 

we don't even eat spaghetti with noodles anymore. baby loves this too!

i wash a spaghetti squash, slice it in half and scoop out the seeds, put it in a baking dish  (sliced side down) with a half-inch or so of water and bake at 350 F for 45 - 60 minutes. when i can easily poke a fork into it, i take it out and let it cool for a bit before i use a spoon to scoop the "spaghetti noodles" out.

my recipe for sauce varies every time. i use some combination of a large can of plain tomato sauce, ground beef, onion, garlic, carrots, peppers, or other veggies i have on hand, oregano, basil, parsley, paprika. 

yum.

p.s. the blueberry coffee cake for sunday morning was oh-so-delicious!

yummy crockpot meatballs (without sugar!)

i am married to a football fan. not a crazy, can't-do-anything-but-watch-football on sundays kind of fan, but a fan nonetheless. we had plans to watch the superbowl "together" (together meant that i was present in the room but was working on the baby book the whole time), and i wanted to make some special superbowl party type foods to make the evening extra special for my love.

one of the things i wanted to make was some kind of meatballs. i have never made meatballs before, so it was fun to try something new. these were a great contribution to our little superbowl party, and my husband especially loved them. one of the other things on our menu was baked chicken wings and we dipped the chicken wings in the meatball sauce -  yum!

i kind of used this recipe, but modified it as we don't eat sugar in our house and i didn't want to use bread crumbs. i also used all pork. here's the way i made them...

first i made the sauce.

ingredients for the sauce:
1 small can tomato sauce
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon dijon mustard (i use a kind that is just straight up mustard without any additives)

mix all ingredients in crock pot. stir well. 
then make the meatballs...

meatball ingredients:
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/2 small yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 pound free range ground pork (without hormones/antibiotics)
1/2 cup almond meal (i use bob's red mill or get it at the local health food store)
1 tablespoon paprika
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste

heat the coconut oil in a frying pan, add the onions and garlic and cook until soft. in a medium-sized bowl, mix the pork, almond meal, paprika, eggs, onions and garlic, and salt and pepper. form into small meatballs. using same saucepan as earlier, brown the meatballs on all sides. put in crock pot with barbeque sauce. cook on high for about 2 hours or until meat thermometer indicates meat is cooked.

this recipe made about 24 meatballs. enjoy!