Tag Archives: recipes

Sharing a Comfort Food Recipe

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I’m feeling a little under the weather today. Tough week with a draining travel schedule, plus the winter weather this weekend in APRIL, has me feeling like I either have a cold or some serious allergy stuff going on. Trying this recipe today because I’m feeling like I want some comfort food. Planning on spending the rest of the day resting and watching some movies, and napping. 😊 I am listening to my body and it’s saying “Rest woman!!” Stuff will get done when I’m feeling better.

Vegan Chai Breakfast Quinoa

I had planned to write a new blog post today but this will have to suffice. I found this website and recipe on Pinterest. The ingredients list made me want to try it. Plus I’m a sucker for any type of quinoa porridge.

Homemade Chai Tea Latte

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I’m still hanging tough with the no artificial sweetener, and I am still free of the strong sugar cravings I once had (M&M cookies from HyVee and Snickers candy bars were my go-to faves). I used to get a strong sugar craving mid-afternoon and I usually satisfied that craving with some kind of sugar-laden coffee from any number of the coffee shops here in my town. I have not had a sugar craving, but the weather got cold here 2 days ago and I wanted a hot, creamy, comforting drink. I didn’t want hot green or mint tea, and I didn’t want black coffee. I wanted something that reminded me of cuddling up on the couch with a fluffy blanket or my star quilt, and one of my big puppies. I didn’t necessarily want sugar, but rather some comforting beverage in a pretty mug.

Soooooo….I love Pinterest for times like this. I got to searching and browsing, and I came across this recipe from a young blogger’s site called “The Foodie Teen”. I’m not only amazed at her recipes, but her photography is just beautiful. And she started her blog when she was 14 I believe….I’m still reading her site and I highly recommend it for the photography alone. Lol.

http://thefoodieteen.com/almond-milk-chai-latte/

Here is how I prepared her recipe for an Almond Milk Latte. I always have Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk on-hand. I haven’t used regular dairy milk for a long time, although I don’t claim to be dairy free. I still eat cheese and Greek yogurt. I always read the labels of any milk substitute I buy and make sure it doesn’t include carrageenan, a thickener made from red seaweed extract, as I learned it promotes inflammation. If you want a thicker, creamier milk-substitute, I would use unsweetened cashew milk. I used that for awhile until I remembered my nephew has a tree nut allergy (hazelnuts, walnuts & cashews) so I keep it out of my house now.

I tried out the Zen Chai Tea bags, the caffeinated version. They are very flavorful! This turned out so sweet, and creamy, with just the right amount of sweetness….it hit the spot.

Almond Milk Chai Tea Latte* (from The Foodie Teen)

*I modified the amounts in some of the ingredients.

2 cups unsweetened almond milk

2 chai tea bags

1 Tbs organic maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pinch of ground cloves and nutmeg

Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it’s just starting to simmer and steam. Remove from heat and add the 2 chai tea bags. Steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags (I use a tool to squeeze the tea bags to get all the spicy goodness out of them) and add the rest of the ingredients. I used a wire whisk to blend them in. Reheat the pan if necessary over low heat.

Use the maple syrup cautiously….I tend to think the sweetener is overdone in foods or beverages I buy. That’s what I like about making things at home when I can. It’s less convenient, but I can control and decide how much sweetener and spices according to my taste. I used 1 Tbs and added another small splash to my Latte.

I put my tea in a blender to make it froth up. What I really want is a small gadget that mitozan (my niece) HolyElk found to make milk foamy like in a coffee shop. I think I need to reconsider getting an immersion blender…..

This made my house smell soooo good. I haven’t had a craving for a warm, comforting drink since I made this. It’s good to know my cravings are still under control and that I have this wonderful beverage to satisfy it, if necessary. Enjoy!

Breakfast Smoothie Made with Kefir

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Kefir, fruit and spinach smoothie

I think my best smoothie concoctions are created when I just use whatever I have on-hand.

I came down with strep throat in March and was prescribed a 10-day antibiotic. I haven’t taken a 10-day round of antibiotics in decades. The only times I have needed an antibiotic were for sinus infections and I usually get a Z-pack. Right after I finished my prescription I experienced terrible stomach upset to the point where I had no appetite. I didn’t feel like eating and when I did I couldn’t eat more than a couple of bites at time. This went on for 4 days before I started looking up information on the side effects of antibiotics and gut health.

I guessed that the 10 days of amoxicillin might have caused an imbalance of the good bacteria in my gut. So off to the store I went and found a probiotic supplement. Later when I was grocery shopping I saw a bottles of kefir. Kefir is like drinkable yogurt and contains the active yogurt cultures that help maintain gut health. I have avoided buying it in the past because most of the kefir I’ve come across contains a high amount of sugar (except for the plain variety). This brand was low-fat, fruit flavored and sweetened with Stevia. I bought a bottle and tried it out immediately. I really liked the taste and texture. It must be good because my little 8-year foodie daughter loves it.

I drank a cup of the kefir every morning for a week. It helped settle my stomach and gave me a little energy (I was feeling run-down from not eating enough). Within that week my stomach finally returned to normal but I still wanted to keep kefir on hand.

Before my trip to the grocery store last week, I was rummaging around my refrigerator and freezer looking to use up food remnants for breakfast. The remains I found were some of this kefir, 1 cup of frozen cherries, half a carton of blueberries, and one big handful of spinach. I blended them all together, added a little water to make it less thick, and put a few drops of liquid stevia in so that Joe B would drink it.

This is one of the best smoothies I’ve ever come up with. I’ve made it 3 times for our breakfast since then. The exact ingredients and the amounts I used are below.

Lifeway Kefir

Kefir, Fruit and Spinach Smoothie:

Makes 2 servings

1 Cup Kefir – low-fat, fruit flavored (sweetened with Stevia)
1 heaping Cup frozen sweet cherries
1/2 Cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1-2 Cups Spinach (I just use a big handful)
1/2 C water
Drops of liquid Stevia to taste

The combination of the kefir and frozen fruit gives it a really nice cold texture, similar to a milkshake but it’s tart, not overly sweet. And the best thing is that you get a serving of dairy and fruit, and half a serving of veggies, not to mention some gut healthy probiotics, all in one shot. Let me know if you try it and if you liked it. 🙂

Family Recipe for Tacos

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I’ve mentioned before that my mom used to cook for us all the time. Eating out at a fast-food place back then was a treat reserved for payday, and it might have happened every other week at the most. My mom cooked all the time for us. We never ate Hamburger Helper and she made her own taco meat and seasoning. I’m lucky to still have several of her recipes that I cook for my family today.

Her taco recipe is one of my go-to meals. I’ve cooked it for company and it is always well-received. I usually make a double batch because they make great leftovers and can be used for taco salads or taco bowls. My daughter likes to take this in a thermos for her lunch at school and I love to pack it for my lunch at work as well. It’s also a great vehicle to sneak some extra veggies in. My addition to my mom’s recipe is the shredded zucchini. It cooks down and blends in with the tomato sauce and beef until you can barely see it.

What I love about this recipe is that you have several options for your protein. I’ve cooked this using 95% lean ground beef, I’ve used ground bison meat, I’ve tried it with half lean ground turkey and half lean ground beef. I love ground bison meat but it is expensive. I also love using grass-fed beef, but it costs about the same per pound as ground bison. What I often do is mix ground bison or grass-fed beef with lean ground beef. If I can’t swing the expense of using all bison or grass-fed beef, I will up the nutrition value of the beef by mixing it with a less expensive, but lean protein.

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs lean ground beef (optional: mix 50/50 with ground bison or grass-fed beef, or lean ground turkey)
1 – 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 small onion – diced
1 small zucchini – shredded
2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin

Brown diced onion in a heated skillet. Add ground beef and brown until cooked through. Remove cooked beef and onions with a slotted spoon to drain excess fat, place in a medium sauce pan. Add tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin and shredded zucchini. Simmer for about 20 minutes until zucchini has softened and some of the liquid has cooked down. The meat mixture will have a little extra liquid the first night, but it thickens up when re-heating the leftovers.

There are a variety of ways to serve this. My girls like using regular corn tortilla taco shells. I like to make a soft taco using a whole grain flour tortilla. Top the hard shell or soft tacos with shredded cheese, shredded lettuce or spinach, chopped tomato and salsa or hot sauce. Joe B likes to make deluxe nachos.

I also love to make a taco salad out of this. I’ll take one serving of tortilla chips (about 8 chips) and break them up in the bottom of a bowl. Then I’ll layer on about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of some type of leafy green (I like to use spinach but will serve romaine lettuce to company), approximately half a cup of the taco meat mixture, then top with shredded cheese, salsa or picante sauce, and chopped tomato.

I’ve experimented cooking different vegetables with the taco meat such as red bell pepper, and one time I mixed a can of rinsed and drained black beans into the meat mixture while it was still in the skillet. That particular experiment didn’t go over so well because my girls could see and taste the beans. I’ll try that one again a later date. 🙂

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By the way, this is my first attempt at photographing a meal I cooked for the blog. I’ll continue to be brave and experiment some more with this.

Need your daily fruits and veggies? Make smoothies!!

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We are doing our Nutrition unit in my diabetes class and we discussed the number of fruit and vegetable servings that people need each day (5-7). A smoothie can be a really good meal/snack and a very efficient way to get your fruits and veggies in. I prefer making a smoothie to “juicing” because when you juice fruits and veggies it just extracts the liquid and the fructose, leaving you with a simple carbohydrate (read “sugar”). The pulp is left in the bottom tray of the juice machine and discarded, but that’s the important part….the pulp contains the fiber of the fruits and veggies. Whole fruits and veggies have a high water content, fructose, nutrients, and FIBER which is important to heart health, colon health, and keeping your digestive system running like a well-oiled machine. Your body has to work harder to break down whole fruits and veggies due to the fiber so it slows down the blood sugar spike that can occur when you drink fruit juice alone. Smoothies are the way to go. Although the blender breaks down some of the food for you, smoothies are still a healthier alternative to any kind of juice.

I have four “go-to” smoothie recipes. My kids like some of them, Joe B likes all of them, except for the new one I came up with this morning because he hasn’t tried it yet. One of them I got online and the others are variations of recipes I’ve seen on-line. Easy to make and I love the fact that I can get a couple of servings of fruit and vegetables consumed in one shot.

Green Monster Smoothie (courtesy of “Fit Mama” and motivational speaker Erin Brown): 1 Cup of milk (I use unsweetened almond milk for myself, 1% organic milk for the Swirlies), 1 banana, 2 Cups of Spinach. Optional: I will add half a scoop of organic whey vanilla flavored protein powder to give it smoother, more creamy texture. Feel free to add a little bit of maple syrup or stevia if it’s not sweet enough (although the bananas add plenty of sweetness). Make sure the put the spinach on the bottom of the blender and the rest of the ingredients on top so it doesn’t fly up and stick to the lid. And add some ice, it will feel like a milkshake. Shelby’s favorite smoothie to date. Makes 1 large serving or 2 Swirlie sized servings. http://www.fitmamatraining.com

Green Kale/Cucumber/Apple/Pineapple Smoothie (2 Servings): 2 Cups Kale (or spinach), 1 cup peeled diced cucumber (i use seedless cucumbers), 1 diced apple (leave the peel on, use any apple of choice), 1 C diced pineapple, 1 C water, 1 C ice, 1-2 packets of Stevia. Optional: 2 tsp. Omega-3-oil supplement. Put the leafy greens at the bottom of the blender and layer the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth. Joe B’s favorite smoothie. Even some of my students have tried this and like it, bright green color and all. 🙂 I didn’t see a recipe for this, I just used what I thought sounded good.

Peanut Butter Protein Smoothie (serves 1):  1 C unsweetened Almond Milk, 2 Tbs natural peanut butter, 1 scoop organic chocolate whey protein powder (make sure there are no more than 2 g of carbs per serving), handful of ice. I take this smoothie on the road with us to powwows and this is mine and Joe B’s breakfast in the morning. I bring my Magic Bullet and my protein powder. I usually find the milk and PB when I get there, or I bring it in a cooler. Good power protein breakfast and this also makes a good workout recovery drink.

Cherry Almond Smoothie (serves 1): Just tried this out this morning. Modified a recipe I saw on Pinterest. 1 C frozen cherries, 1 handful of spinach, 1/2 C unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 C greek yogurt (I use regular, full-fat greek yogurt), I threw in some sliced almonds and a little dab of maple syrup. It was delicious! The recipe I saw on Sweet Peas and Saffron’s website (www.sweatpeasandsaffron) called for almond extract instead of the sliced almonds (I didn’t have any extract) and omitted the spinach. I added so I could get the leafy greens. And it called for 1/2 tsp of honey but I just added a very small drizzle of maple syrup, I knew the cherries would make it very sweet.

I’m sure I’ll add more blog entries like this when I try different smoothie combinations. Drinking fruit and veggie smoothies consistently does wonders for your energy, your mood, your skin, etc. You will be surprised how your body responds to really nutritious foods on the regular.

Breakfast ideas for my Swirlies

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I like to post on FB about my girls. The Swirlies. A lot. They are hilarious….like two little old ladies. And to clarify, their nickname “The Swirlies” came from how I used to call them when they were really small. I’d say “Let’s go girly-swirly-whirlies!” when we were trying to leave the house or if I was trying to get them moving. Then it became abbreviated to “Girly Swirlies”….then just “The Swirlies.”

They, like all kids, have completely different personalities and tastes. Shelby tends to be a picky eater and Sara tends to “graze” where she will snack on fruit, yogurt, cereal, cheese sticks, etc., all day long. My focus since the beginning of this year is to get as much “fake foods”, processed foods, foods with long lists of ingredients that I can’t pronounce, out of our eating. “Clean eating” is what it’s often referred to, but I just think of it as getting as much real, whole foods, onto our plates as much as possible. Doing this gradually, so no one will freak out or rebel in house…I know when I am pushing it too far because I can just smell mutiny in the air when I do (and their dad is usually the rebel leader).

This can be very challenging for most families because the food industry is so clever at packaging foods to make them appear more healthy than they really are. “Health halos” is how Brian Wansink, PhD (“Mindless Eating”, 2006) referred to the deceptively “healthy” packaging of most processed foods (a book that I highly recommend). I fell victim to the health halos in spite of how I always prided myself on being able to distinguish between what is healthy and what isn’t. I found myself eating much more processed food than I perceived. And feeding that to my children. Seeing my 9-year old’s weight go up this winter was the motivation I needed to do something different. Cooking most of my meals at home out of real foods, whole foods, is my focus and I can already tell it’s making a difference in all of us. I’ll blog more on this later, but I just wanted to give a little background on what started us on this whole foods thing.

I cook my girls breakfast at home every day. I am fortunate that my work schedule allows this, I am able to feed them at home each morning and take them to school. I have a go-to list of breakfast ideas that I have to switch up occasionally, depending on the whim of the Swirlies.

Their favorite breakfast right now is homemade waffles. Santa brought me a waffle iron two Christmases ago and it’s been awesome. It doesn’t take long, I use Bob’s Red Mill 10 Grain Pancake & Waffle whole grain mix and follow the directions for waffles. It mixes up fast and tastes really good. It has whole flax seeds in it, and you don’t get the Omega-3 benefits of flax unless the seeds are ground up. So I always throw a couple tablespoons of ground flax seed into the mix (I keep a package of ground flax seeds in my freezer so it won’t go rancid so quickly), and I use olive oil or melted coconut oil for the mix. If you are pressed for time in the morning, you could make several waffles in advance and then freeze them. My waffle iron is for a thicker, Belgium-style waffle, so I’ve been afraid to freeze them because I don’t know how they will reheat in the microwave. Maybe I should invest in a toaster oven (like I NEED another appliance up in hurr).

I stopped buying what I thought were healthy, whole grain, frozen waffles because of how many ingredients they had, and how much unhealthy fat they contained (trying to get away from soybean oil, and any type of fat derived from corn). Not to mention the ever-present high fructose corn syrup, or one of the many other names for processed sugar.

Pancakes are always another Swirly favorite. I use the same Bob’s Red Mill mix but follow the directions for pancakes. And I change up the flavor by adding mashed bananas, or blueberries, or strawberries, or their current favorite – semi-sweet chocolate chips. Sometimes I’ll make a large pancake for each of them and they’ll decorate them with fruit, similar to the “Create-a-Face” pancake that they serve at IHOP.

I switched to organic maple syrup as well last year. One of my issues is that my 9-year old finds it too sweet, as do I. So I admit I keep a bottle of low-carb pancake syrup on-hand. Lol. I have to figure out something that works besides that because it is loaded with ingredients I don’t recognize. It’s all a work in-progress….

I don’t buy yogurt in a tube anymore. One of my goals with the change in foods is to take alot of the food dyes and processed sugar out as well. Shelby had an allergic reaction to one brand of kid yogurt and I think it was the food dye they used in it that set her off. Any kind of kid yogurt in a tube has a lot of sugar, so I just quit buying it for a long time until they forgot about it. I recently started buying plain, low-fat, organic yogurt and flavor it with maple syrup or sometimes add a little vanilla extract. I have some strawberry puree in the refrigerator that I want to use to try to make strawberry yogurt, but I don’t have any takers, or any enthusiasm, for that idea just yet. Sara is a fan of plain, sweetened-at-home yogurt with homemade granola mixed in.

Eggs are a breakfast staple. They like them scrambled or hard-boiled, with a slice of toast on the side. I started buying whole wheat bread from a local bakery and it was a tough sell for the Swirlies. Although I like it because it is locally produced and only has 5 ingredients (no high fructose corn syrup or sugar, it has honey in it), they didn’t like the coarse, heavier texture. So that same bakery (Great Harvest Bread Co., here in Lawrence, KS) also offers a bread they call Half & Half bread. All the same ingredients but instead of 100% whole wheat flour, they use half whole wheat flour and half white flour. It’s softer and it has a slightly sweeter taste. The Swirlies love it. I’m willing to give a little on the bread so that they will eat something as close to whole foods as I can get it. I always give them some fruit with their breakfast and they always drink a cup of 1% organic milk, Shelby sometimes prefers water.

Sometimes they like smoothies for their breakfast. Shelby is a fan of a smoothie I got from Erin Brown’s Fit Mama Training website (http://www.fitmamatraining.com) called the Green Monster Smoothie, while Sara just likes a banana blended with a cup of milk. I like to give them a smoothie with a homemade, whole grain muffin or donut. The fruit is in their smoothie so I don’t need to serve any additional unless they ask.

They also like to eat toast with different toppings. Shelby has a peanut allergy and I haven’t convinced her of the virtues of almond butter. She was addicted to Nutella, but with the food changes, that was the first thing to go. I made a homemade version of Nutella using fresh ground cashew butter that I got at the Community Mercantile here in town, and blew out my Magic Bullet AND my blender trying to mix it with cocoa powder, coconut oil, and some maple syrup. I like it. It’s sweet and chocolatey without all the sugar and palm oil in Nutella. Shelby tolerates it. I think I need to tweak my recipe next time. Shelby will eat a slice of toast with homemade nutella and sliced bananas on top, Sara will eat a slice of toast with natural peanut butter and sliced bananas on top. I noticed that since I switched breads (I used to buy a low-carb 45 calorie name brand bread), and changed the nutella from store-bought to homemade, that they get full faster. Shelby went from eating 2 slices of low carb bread to just getting full on one.

Cream of Wheat and oatmeal from rolled oats (old fashioned oatmeal) are always good as a back-up plan. They just like them plain, there was a tepid response when I cooked them with diced apples and cinnamon. They will ask for a diced banana in their hot cereal sometimes. I used to throw some vanilla protein powder in their cereal, but I stopped doing that and just find another source of protein to go with it, like a boiled egg or a piece of string cheese. They are pretty good at telling me what they want in the morning.

For my wild rice loving peeps: I am a huge fan of a rice pudding type breakfast. I figured out how to make a hot cereal dish with wild rice when I have the good stuff from Minnesota. I take leftover cooked wild rice, mix it with some almond milk, add dried cranberries, some cinnamon, a little maple syrup, a dash of vanilla extract, sometimes I’ll throw some sliced almonds or pecans in, and heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds to warm it all up. It is soooooo good. It’s almost dessert-like. And you can’t get any closer to clean, organic, whole grain than the real wild rice from northern Minnesota.

And I have to give some…so this week I bought them a box of Cascadian Farm Organic Cinnamon Crunch cereal. They really liked that this morning.

Here are some of the websites where I get recipes for homemade donuts, muffins, granola, etc. They have awesome recipes that I’ve tried for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I’m still working my way through their lists.

Real Fit Real Food Mom:  http://www.realfitrealfoodmom.com

*My girls love the recipe for Snickerdoodle pancakes on this site, and the recipe for applesauce donuts.

100 Days of Real Food:  http://www.100daysofrealfood.com

Super Healthy Kids: http://www.superhealthykids.com

So those are some ideas to get started. Look for more posts like this in the future because I always have people asking me for meal ideas. And I’m very thankful for all the moms who blog who have inspired me and helped me learn how to feed my family better.