Chewy Granola Squares

I know I said I would post the recipe for the buns today, but these granola sqyares are so yummy I had to share. The recipe is versatile, so feel free to add different things that your family will enjoy. My 11 month old would survive on these if I let him! They are chewy and wont crumble when you take a bite, which means less mess when little ones are running around with these. I like to stick a few of these in my purse for a healthy snack on the go.







Chewy Granola Squares

Ingredients:
2C old fashioned oats
1/2C brown sugar
1/2C flax seed
3/4t cinnamon
1C whole wheat flour
3/4t salt
1/4C honey
1 egg
3/4C applesauce
2t vanilla
1/2C crispy brown rice cereal
3/4C mix of dried fruits/nuts/chocolate chips- I used dried apples only this time

Directions:
-Heat oven to 350F
-In a bowl mix dry ingredients. Stir in wet ingredients and mix until well combined.
-Spray a 9x13in baking pan with non-stick spray. Lightly press mixture evenly into the pan.
-Bake 25-30 minutes. Cut and remove to a cooling rack.

White Castle Sliders

I have never been to a White Castle restaurant so I cant be a good judge of how close to the real thing these little burgers are, but I can say they were very good! I love how simple they are to make and they are full of flavor with very few ingredients. My husband LOVED these! I served mine one homemade hamburger buns. I will be sharing that recipe in the next post. You could use regular buns for large burgers, but I think they are best with the mini buns I made, or you can buy small rolls.






White Castle Sliders
Adapted from Favorite Family Recipes

Ingredients:
2 lbs hamburger meat
1 onion-finely chopped
1 package Lipton Onion Soup Mix
1T peanut butter
1/2C milk
Rolls or Buns
Sliced Cheese- I really recommend the velveeta slices

Directions:
-In a large bowl mix the hamburger, onion soup mix, peanut butter and milk. Spread the mixture on a cookie sheet that has a rim. A rolling pin can be used to help roll it out evenly
-Heat oven to 350F and bake for 10 minutes.Take it out of the oven and place diced onion all around the edges of the meat.(The meat will shrink while cooking) Place back in the oven for 15 minutes. Take it back out and add cheese slices and bake for 7-10 more minutes, or until cheese is melted. Remove and add the tops of your rolls and place back in the oven for 5 minutes. (The bottom part of the rolls will just sit on the counter) Slice the meat and pick up the slider/top bun with spatula and set it on the bottom bun.
-Enjoy!

I know, I know!

Sorry I have been slacking again! Things have been pretty busy around here.

My amazing-beautiful-smart-energetic-creative-funny-attitude filled daughter turned 5 and I have been planning her party which was shared with her handsome-curious-amazing-smart-chunky butt brother who turns 1 on October 7th!








And she had her very first day of Pre-K! It was a very sad but very exciting day! I cannot believe how much she has grown in the past 5 years. Here is a picture of her on her way to school! She was so excited!




Now that the chaos has settled, I have some yummy new recipes to share with you all. Stay tuned....

Best Ever Dinner Rolls!

Ok, so these are the only rolls I have ever made but they were so delicious! They were light and fluffy in the middle and a little bit crisp on the outside. Spreading some melted butter on top equals HEAVENLY! They are really simple to make too, bonus!! My 4 year old wanted to just eat the rolls for dinner, and I had one for breakfast this morning. Yumm Yumm







Best Ever Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:
1C water
2T butter-softened
1 egg
2C bread flour
1 1/4C whole wheat flour
1/4C sugar
1t salt
3t active dry yeast
Melted butter for tops-optional

Directions:
-Place all ingredients in bread machine in the order recommended by manufacturer. Select dough cycle. (Mine takes about 1.5 hours)
-Remove dough from pan, using lightly floured hands. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.
- Grease a large cookie sheet. Divide dough into 12 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Place 2in apart. Cover and let rise in a warm place 30-45 minutes, or until doubled.
-Heat oven to 375F. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Brush tops with melted butter and serve!

Chicken Scallopini with Lemon Glaze

This was an easy to throw together, flavorful dish. The title says it has a lemon glaze, but to me a glaze is thicker so it was more of a saucy type thing. Either way, I just spooned a little over the chicken and let it soak up all the delicious lemon flavor. I also made the dijon because I thought I had some in the fridge and realized I used the very last of it a few days before and well lets face it, I was to lazy to run to the store. I never realized how simple it is to make! I will never buy another jar of dijon!





Chicken Scallopini with Lemon Glaze

Ingredients:
1lb chicken breasts- pounded thin
1T dijon mustard -recipe below
1 egg
1C breadcrumbs
1/2t Italian seasoning
1t garlic powder
1t onion powder
2T olive oil for frying

Lemon Glaze
1/2C chicken broth
4T lemon juice
1/2t salt
1 lemon- sliced thin

Directions:
-In a shallow dish whisk together mustard and eggs; set aside. In a seperate dish combine breadcrumbs, italian seasonings, garlic, onion and salt.
-Dip chicken in egg mixture (shake off excess egg) and the coat in breadcrumb mixture.
-Heat oil in a skiller over med-high heat. Cook chicken about 5 minutes on each side, or until it is no longer pink; remove and keep warm.
-For the glaze: in the same skillet add broth and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, scraping down any brown bits from the pan. Add in lemon slices and parsley, cook 1 minute.
-Spoon sauce over the chicken.





Dijon Mustard

2T dry mustard
1T mayo
1t water
1t white vinegar
Pinch of sugar

Mix together! Makes about 2T dijon.

Simple Chicken Stir Fry

Making a stir fry is a great option when you are short on time and your pantry is looking a little bare. They require few ingredients and you really can throw whatever you have on hand in and it will still taste fabulous! The ingredients for this particular stir fry I pretty much will always have on hand and its packed with flavor and can be done in a matter of minutes. I will go ahead and admit that I used a pack of 90 second Uncle Bens brown rice instead of making my own but whatever, I was in a hurry!





Simple Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts- cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2C juliened bell peppers- I used a bag of frozen mixed peppers
1/2C broccoli florets
1t sesame seed oil
1T minced garlic
3T honey
3T soy sauce
3T lemon juice
2T water
2t cornstarch

Directions:
-In a large non-stick skillet brown diced chicken in 1t sesame seed oil. When cooked through remove from pan and keep warm.
-Saute bell pepper and broccoli in the same pan, remove keep warm.
-Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Add to pan bringing to a boil. Stir in chicken and veggies. Cook about 1 minute.
-Serve over hot rice, or noodles

ZAP-ple Muffins

Thats what I told my 4 year old they were. Not that she needs any encouragement to eat something in the shape of a muffin! These are a sweet treat packed with chopped apples and zuchinni. The yogurt ensures they stay moist, and you have to love the hint of cinnamon. I made mini muffins and it made about 32 muffins. If you have a small scoop like the ones pampered chef sell it really helps to place the batter in the muffin tins. Enjoy!





ZAP-ple Muffins

Ingredients:

3/4C Unbleached AP Flour
3/4C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2C Rolled Oats
1.5t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/2t cinnamon
1/4t salt
2 eggs
3/4C nonfat vanilla yogurt
1/2C packed light brown sugar
1C chopped zucchini- 1 medium
1C peeled, cored, chopped apples- About 2 small apples

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350F. Spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray
-In a bowl mix together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
-Peel core and slice apples. Peel and slice zuchinni.Place in a food processor and chop until finely minced.
-In a seperate bowl beat the eggs. Add yogurt, and brown sugar.Mix thoroughly. Fold in zuchinni and apples.
-Spoon into muffin tin and Bake about 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. For mini muffins cook about 22 minutes.

Sneaky Sneaky

Ok let me start off by saying that im sorry for the lack of posts lately. I like to post pictures with my recipes so you can get an idea of what its supposed to look like, and lets face it we eat with our eyes too! Well, my camera batteries are dead and I cant find my charger! Grrr. If I use regular batteries it will let me take like 2 pictures before it dies, so I really need to find my charger!


So, as you may have read from me before I do Baby Led Weaning (also know as Baby Led Solids) with my son. But before I realized how awesome BLW was I bought a boat load of baby mush in jars. So now im stuck with jars and jars and nothing to do with them...until now. It is always a challenge for me to get veggies in my kids, and well me and my husband also! Before my daughter even tastes a veggie, she automatically tells me that she doesnt like them and they are gross. (Insert eye roll) Well I discovered if she cant actually see them, then they taste great! Ha! I have been putting purees into all kinds of things and they get gobbled up! If you dont have baby food then you can always just bake/steam/saute them then puree and add to your dish. For the record I dont think you should just sneak the veggies in and leave it at that. I will always serve the whole food too. So if they happen to eat the whole veggie too, then double yay! So go ahead, be a little sneaky, its good for your kids.....promise!

Haitian Style Chicken over Quinoa

Have you ever eaten quinoa? Me either, until tonight. I have read that it is a super food and well I get tired of rice and potatoes over and over for a side so I thought I would give it a try......Im impressed! My rice hating 5 year old had 2 helpings! Anyways, the star of the dish is the chicken. It has a very nice flavor to it. The sauce is great mixed in with the quinoa. Yumm, I will be making this again!







Haitian Style Chicken
Adapted from Sandy on CFYF

1/2 onion-chopped
1/2 serrano pepper- seeds removed and minced
Juice of 2 limes
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
2T canola oil
1C orange juice
1/4C water
1/4t dried thyme
1/2t salt
1/2t black pepper

Directions:
-Cut chicken into 1 inch cubes, mince onions and pepper
-Heat oil in a large saucepan over med-high heat. Add chicken and cook until brown on all sides.
-Add in onion and pepper, cooking 3 mor eminutes
-Stir in lime juice, orange juice, water, thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil
-Reduce heat to low and partially cover, simmer for 30 minutes.


Basic Quinoa
1C quinoa
1C chicken broth
1C water

Directions:
-In a small saucepan bring water and broth to a boil.
-Pour in quinoa and return to boil.
-Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes

Lower Fat Banana Bread

There are 1,001 recipes for banana bread, and I have tried a few of them myself. I like this variation because it is a bit healthier and thats always a plus in my book! This always turns out very moist and full of flavor. So, enjoy one of my favorite recipes for banana bread!






Lower Fat Banana Bread

Ingredients:
1C all purpose flour
3/4C whole wheat flour
1T milled flax seed -optional
1/3C sugar
1t cinnamon
2t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/2t salt
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas
1/3C low fat milk
1/4C fat free vanilla yogurt
1t vanilla extract


Directions:
-Preheat oven to 325F
-In a bowl, beat eggs and sugar until fluffy. Then beat in yogurt, bananas, milk and vanilla.
-In a seperate bowl sift together dry ingredients. Stir dry ingredients into the wet. Stir unti lwell combined.
- Pour into a loaf pan, sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake 1 hour

Graham Cracker Cookies

So I was at the store looking for snacks for the kids and grabbed a box of Graham Crackers. I was looking through the ingredients (yes this is another, OMG did you know what that was in there posts) and it had high fructose corn syrup. That stuff is horrible for you and its in everything!! Needless to say, I set the box right back on the shelf and went on my merry way. Amazingly enough I was looking on one of my favorite sits, weelicious.com the next day and homemade graham crackers was the first post I saw! It was a sign! These taste like the real deal to me, and my kids both scarfed these down. I used a small glass to cut out my circles and they tasted more like cookies, so I changed the name for my post. If you are a graham cracker fan, or your looking for a little healthier snack for the kids, you must try these!









Graham Crackers
Recipe via Weelicious.com

Ingredients
1C whole wheat flour
1 1/2C unbleached all purpose flour
1/2C brown sugar, packed --I used light brown, the recipes says dark
1/2t salt
1t cinnamon
1t baking soda
1/2C butter, chilled and cubed
1/4C honey
1/4C water

Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 350F.
-In a food processor or with a mixer combine the first 6 ingredients.
-Add cubed butter to the mixture and pulse/mix until it resembles coarse meal.
-Add honey and water and continue to mix until all combined.
-Remove and shape dough into a flat disk. Roll out until 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes
-Place on parchment lined baking sheet and bake 15 minutes.

Frijoles de Olla

This is a plan ahead side because you need to soak the beans and they take a few hours to cook. I didnt actually make these for any particular meal, I made them to go straight into the freezer for later meals. After reading the ingredients for refried beans I realized just how unhealthy they can be, so decided to make my own! After these are cooked you can scoop some out and puree to thicken it up, or you can puree the entire batch. These are great as a side, on burritos, in taco meat, on tostadas, the possibilities are endless!






Frijoles de Olla (Pot Beans)

Ingredients:
2C dried pinto beans
1C chicken stock
Water- Enough to cover the beans
1 head of garlic- peeled and chopped
2t chili powder
2t cumin
1/4t chili flakes
1t dried oregeno
1/2 onion-chopped
1-2 jalapenos, minced
1t salt


Directions:
- Pick through the beans and rinse carefully looking for any grit. Let soak overnight.
- Place beans in a stock pot. Add chicken stock and enough water to cover the beans. Add the remaining ingredietns except for the salt. Bring beans to a boil over high heat; reduce to low and simmer uncovered. Plan on a cooking time of 3-4 hours.
- After 1 hour stir the beans and check water level. If there isnt at least 1in more water than beans, add enough hot water to cover the beans. Keep checking and adding water as needed. Add salt the last hour and continue simmering.
- There should be extra liquid at the end of cooking, but it should not be soupy.