Starting tomorrow, Lovebug has 2 weeks of swimming lessons first thing in the morning, followed by a week of Science Camp in the mornings. That means we will not be sitting down at the table for a leisurely breakfast for quite some time, so we needed something we could “grab & go”.
It couldn’t be just any food though. It needs to be healthy and packed full of nutrients so that she can get through the morning with enough energy and is able to focus.
Today I made “Egg Cupcakes”, and “Apple Muffins”, and I made a ton of them so I can throw them in the freezer and just pop a couple out each day. One of each, and a side of grapes or apple slices will make a perfect breakfast that can be eaten easily in the car if needed.
The Egg Cupcakes have eggs, chopped ham, zucchini, red bell pepper, spinach and seasonings. Lovebug will eat almost anything, but she doesn’t like zucchini or red bell pepper. However, thanks to my food processor, she can’t even taste it in there – as evidenced by the fact that she ate 3 of them tonight fresh out of the oven!
The Apple Muffins have apples (of course), banana, grated carrots, & raisins. They are also GFCF, and made with almond meal instead of flour. Delicious!!
These also make great snacks, or a quick lunch too!
I love my Vitamix!! It was a generous gift from my parents 3 years ago, and I bet not 10 days have gone by that we haven’t used it. It is the BEST gift they’ve ever given us!
I love almond butter, but it’s so expensive. Not with the Vitamix! I buy almonds in bulk at Sam’s and got 3 pounds for under $9.00.
Then, I pour about 3 cups at a time into the Vitamix, crank that baby on high and in a matter of minutes, I have fresh, creamy almond butter at a fraction of the price I would pay for the pre-jarred stuff. If you are trying this, it doesn’t just grind them all up by itself – you have to use the tamper for this and keep pushing the nuts down into the blades. That’s another thing I love about the Vitamix – the tamper will NOT reach the blades, so no getting plastic pieces in your food. Not that I ever had that happen with a regular blender…nope, not me
Lovebug loves to help me make it, and I have so much fun with my favorite sous chef in the kitchen!
The blender looks dirty because I had just made a batch of macadamia nut butter and didn’t rinse it out. I didn’t really care if they mixed a tiny bit.
Taste testing!
Final products: Almond Butter and Macadamia Nut Butter! The macadamia nut butter is much more runny, but is better after sitting in the fridge for a couple days. It is super runny coming out of the blender because it gets so warm. It’s oh so tasty though!
My husband grew up enjoying his Granny’s homemade chocolate gravy & biscuits when he would visit her house. He has talked about this tradition many times over the years, and I always thought I would try to make it sometime. I kept putting it off because I’m not an experienced gravy maker, and I thought it would be difficult. It’s not!
Granny is visiting with us right now, so I wanted to make this family favorite for her & Hubby to enjoy…and to introduce it to our daughter to pass on the tradition.
It turned out so YUMMY, and was simple to make. I admit, I was a little nervous in the middle of the cooking process because I thought it wouldn’t thicken up, but it all turned out perfect and just required a bit of patience.
Want the recipe? Ok, I’ll share! I didn’t take pictures of the process, but I’ll try to do that next time.
CHOCOLATE GRAVY
Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup butter
* 4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 2 cups milk
Directions:
Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add cocoa and flour, then stir until thick. Stir in sugar and milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until thick. This will take several minutes, so be patient – it’s worth the wait!
This is best served immediately, but the cold leftovers are also very tasty!
** Click here for a printable version of the chocolate gravy recipe **
I also made homemade biscuits to pour the gravy over, although it’s good enough to just eat with a spoon! If you want a good recipe for biscuits, here is a great one from the AllRecipes website.
For those kids who DON’T like fish or seaweed, this is a great alternative.
My daughter LOVES sushi – the real kind. She and her Daddy go on “Sushi Dates”, she even requested it for her 5th birthday, but she would love making these at home!
These adorable party wrappers come in several pretty colors with all natural coloring! None of that fake stuff. You can also find several fun recipes on their site as well. Here is a picture from one of their recipe ideas:
I came across an article in Eating Well magazine from their Nov/Dec 2010 issue discussing food dyes. I already knew that synthetic dyes are scary stuff, as we have been avoiding them in our family for 3.5 years now, but it’s nice to see more studies being done. In some countries, these dyes are banned completely, but that hasn’t happened (yet!) in the United States.
In this particular study mentioned in the article it was found that,
“children who consumed a mixture of common synthetic dyes displayed hyperactive behavior within an hour of consumption”
We’ve seen plenty of evidence of that in our daughter, that’s for sure!
We are talking about the dyes listed in the ingredient list as a color followed by a number such as: Blue 1 and 2, Citrus Red 2, Green 3, Red 3 and 40, Yellow 5 and 6. Do your own research on the ingredients and dangers of these toxins. Did you know they are made from tar and petroleum? Yuck! Who wants to eat crude oil?
One thing to note as you are looking at the labels is that the terms “artificial color,” “artificial color added” or “color added” indicate that nature-derived pigments were used since synthetic dyes must be listed by their names.
Start watching the ingredients of the foods you buy, and I bet you will be surprised how many of them contain these synthetic dyes. Vanilla pudding, and even white marshmallows contain dyes to get it “just the right shade”. M&Ms, cereals, chewing gum, Kool-Aid, Jello, maraschino cherries, Doritos, Sun Chips – it’s everywhere!! Some blueberry waffles don’t even have blueberries in them – just blue colored bits.
Good News! There are healthier alternatives available. We’ve been able to find comparable dye-free substitutes for just about everything (Except candy corn! Someone make an organic version, PLEASE!). If you are looking for some dye-free candy alternatives for your family and you don’t have a Whole Foods Market nearby, check out NaturalCandyStore.com! We shop from them frequently, stocking up on things like candy canes for Christmas and cotton candy before we go to the fair. Right now they have lots of cute natural Valentine Candy available!
If you are looking for other suggestions to replace dye-filled foods in your pantry, let me know and I’ll point you in the right direction. We’ve had no trouble having cupcakes with sprinkles, ice cream sundaes with cherries, or even cereal with marshmallows – it’s just about finding the right products.
Obviously, this isn’t a problem when eating meat, veggies, fruits, and whole grains. That’s why I only focused on all the sweet treats in my suggestions. I find that a lot of parents are afraid to make the change because their kids are used to having these treats and they don’t want to take them away from them. You don’t have to – just switch to a better product. For their sake – and yours!
As we get closer to moving, I’ve been trying to use up the foods that we have on hand in the freezer and pantry. I really don’t want to move much food with us, so I’ve been getting creative with our meals. It’s been a fun challenge, but I’ve also realized that we have way too much food on hand. While I’m thankful it isn’t wasted because most of it is in the freezer or pantry, it still annoys me that we have so much that we aren’t using. I do pride myself on not wasting food – I rarely throw food out because it’s gone bad. We either eat it or freeze it before that has a chance of happening.
I’m looking forward to starting fresh and buying less. Doing this Pantry-Clean-Out has caused me to break away from the rut we can get in of eating the same thing over and over. Also, Lovebug loves her Muffin Tin Meals and while I love doing these for lunch I don’t really want to do them for dinner too often, but sometimes when it’s just the two of us it’s easy to fall back on that. Not exactly a real sit-down dinner!
One of my goals this year is to eat even less processed food and make more of our meals using whole foods. We already avoid artificial food coloring, artificial sweeteners, and high fructose corn syrup. That eliminates a lot of the processed foods, but I’d like to cut back even more on the pre-packaged (more expensive!) products that we use. This also helps our grocery budget, which I’m working on lowering! Buying meat in bulk on sale and pairing it with in-season produce and a side of rice/potatoes/pasta can be pretty cheap. I want to focus on planning our meals around the store sales, and buying less pre-packaged snack foods unless I get them on a good sale!
One of the meals I made this week was this Pork Chops with Sour Cream & Mushroom Sauce. One of the things I love about AllRecipes.com is that you can search by ingredients. You can put in a few things that you have in your pantry and it will give you recipes that use those ingredients. That’s how I found this one. I had a couple cans of soup leftover that I wanted to use up and some pork chops on hand. Perfect! I served it over brown rice (also on hand) and a side of green peas from the freezer.
It’s also how I made yesterday’s chili recipe the first time. I substituted pasta sauce for the plain tomato sauce because it’s what I had on hand. I also used mayo instead of eggs in my cornbread today.
In an attempt to avoid buying much additional food, we’ve also been eating a lot of PB&J sandwiches for lunch. Simple, cheap, and tasty. Serve with some celery & carrot sticks or apple slices and it’s a great meal.
Once we get moved and stop eating-on-the go for a couple weeks, I’ll get back to menu planning. My friend, Brit at Living with 3 Boys is a great inspiration for me. She’s great at this! I look forward to sharing my menu ideas with you as well as how we manage to eat healthy foods and stay frugal while traveling!
Any tips you have for frugal, healthy meals? I’d love to hear them!
I made chili while Hubby was home at Christmas, and since I sent it all with him when he went back to post I’ve been craving it ever since. Yesterday’s SNOW DAY gave me the perfect excuse! Today, I added cornbread to the menu!
I almost had a setback. I had most of the ingredients mixed up for the cornbread, when I realized I used the last of my eggs at breakfast. Oops! A quick Bing search led me to the suggestion of substituting mayo for eggs. 3 Tablespoons for each egg. Hmmm, mayo is made from eggs, so why not? I was a little nervous. I’m comfortable experimenting with cooking, but not with baking – it’s too scientific.
It worked! I used Kraft Mayo made with olive oil and it turned out perfect.
By the way, if you have the chance to get your hands on some freshly ground corn meal (check farmer’s markets) – do so!! Now, I like Jiffy as much as anyone, but this? SO much better!!
Want to make some yourself? Check out these recipes!
* For the chili, if you have plenty of time and ingredients, I encourage you to try this one! It’s deee-licious!
* If you are looking for faster that uses ingredients you likely have on hand, give this Blue Ribbon Chili a try. I’ve made it a few times now and LOVE it! This is what I made yesterday. You can adjust the amount of salsa and chili mix to your own spice preferences. If it ends up too spicy for the kids, just add a sprinkle or two of sugar to their bowl and it cuts the spice factor.
Do you eat chili WITH beans or WITHOUT? In our house, I add extra meat and leave out the beans.
Gluten Free or NOT Gluten Free….That is the question!
We put Lovebug on a Gluten Free diet a few months ago. At first I thought I was seeing some changes, but the more we progressed I’m not so sure anymore. I think we were just in a “season” of hers. See, ever since she’s been very young, Hubby and I have noticed that she has cycles. 6 months on, 6 months off. She tends to have half the year that is easier for her, and then the other half is more…well…challenging. Physical changes I’m sure play a big part in it as she’s growing. It seems that she is often learning a new skill or going through a change and it all plays a part. So, sometimes I find myself thinking we are in a really challenging time with her and trying to figure out what’s wrong and what we should do. Other times I’m thinking “Wow, this is easy sailing…is this the same child?”. All to realize we’re on one side of the 6 month cycle.
So, a couple weeks ago, I stopped avoiding the gluten. Just to see how it goes. I let her have pizza. Regular bread. A sausage roll. I haven’t seen any negative effects yet.
I know some will argue that I should give it a whole year ON the diet to really see any changes. But the truth is, I don’t wanna. I’m just not sure that she needs it. I don’t know that it would cause a noticeable improvement. I’m not sure that her struggles are “bad” enough to warrant the effort required for a GF diet. It’s also VERY expensive and has put a serious dent in our grocery budget. I’m frugal, so this is painful.
Now, of course I would do ANYTHING for her if I thought it would help. I would spend whatever I had to in order to help her health. But if there is a cheaper option that works just as well, I’ll choose that first. We already avoid HFCS, artificial colorings, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and we eat mostly organic. I KNOW those things have made a WORLD of difference! I wouldn’t go back on these things, ever! I just don’t know that we have that much more room for improvement.
It’s also REALLY hard on her emotionally to be GF. We already avoid so many things, that to add to that list was hard for her to take. Sure, she got excited when she saw so many things in the store labeled gluten free. She has also, many times, cried in the grocery store when I had to tell her she couldn’t have an old favorite food because it wasn’t gluten free.
It would be one thing if it made her noticeably sick or in pain. But she doesn’t have Celiac Disease. She knows that artificial coloring alters her behavior and her ability to focus, so she has no problem avoiding that. But she also knows that she feels no different ON gluten or OFF gluten. So that makes it harder to enforce or explain.
I’m still a huge fan of all-natural and organic eating as well as finding healthy, fun, kid-friendly foods, so I’ll continue to do that and pass on gluten free recipes that I find. I have so many friends that are gluten free that it’s definitely an interest of mine. And who knows….we might go back to it. But first, I’d have to find a way to make more things from scratch because I just can’t handle the price of pre-made, gluten free bread/pizza/muffin/cupcake products!
That said, I think that I’ll be careful not to overdose on gluten, if there is such a thing. But I’m also not going to avoid it. We might revisit this at a later time, but for now we’re off the wagon.
Today the kids and I were checking out a brand new Whole Foods that just opened near us. We shop at Whole Foods all the time, but this location is much closer. Plus, it’s new
Today I saw something that took me back to my Junior High days and an old favorite! I saw a blue package, the triangle shape chip, and then….the word RANCH!
Could it be? Could these possibly taste as good as my old favorite?
I stopped eating the Doritos brand years ago because they have artificial coloring in them, along with other stuff I can’t pronounce. I’ve missed them though.
But these Kettle TIAS! taste just like the Doritos…only better! No MSG, no artificial coloring…just yummy-ness!
I used to dip the Cool Ranch Doritos in Hidden Valley Ranch dressing! Good use of my lunch money, right? Tonight, I just couldn’t resist. I had to try it with these. It was as good as I remember.
Too bad I can’t kick my Hidden Valley Ranch dressing habit. We try to avoid MSG and to eat mostly organic or all natural so I’ve tried. I’ve tried so many other brands, and they just don’t compare. I did get excited recently when I saw a Hidden Valley ORGANIC Ranch dressing. No MSG! Also…..no taste! At least, not the same taste as the “original” version. I guess it’s the MSG that makes it so good. Too bad. I do limit my intake, but I just can’t get rid of it completely.
So, what are some of your old favorites that take you back? Come on, share! I can’t be the only one!
Strawberries & Cream Crepes, served with a side of “Cheesy Eggs”
My husband is the King of Crepes! Before Bug was born, Hubby’s mom bought us a crepe pan and a crepe cookbook. Those 2 things are in the top 5 most-used gifts we’ve received! We’ve had to replace the pan a couple times since because we use it SO often for all sorts of things. He can even flip them!! See?
Recently we had our first try at making Gluten Free pancakes, and they were delicious! We couldn’t tell the difference from what we used to make. We made Strawberry & Cream Crepes. YUM!! Make them yourselves, and see what you think.
Crepe Batter Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups milk OR your favorite dairy free milk substitute
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter OR light olive oil
1 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour mix (Use your favorite – we used Bob’s Red Mill GF All Purpose Baking Flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
Light olive oil or canola oil to grease skillet
Preparation:
Crêpe Batter- Pour milk, egg, melted butter OR olive oil and vanilla into a blender pitcher or a medium mixing bowl. Whisk the dry ingredients together and add to the blender or mixing bowl. Blend or whisk just until combined and smooth. The batter should be the consistency of thin pancake batter. Add more milk, one teaspoon at a time if the batter is too thick.
Note-Batter can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for up to one day. (We always make it the day before)
Directions:
Heat a low-sided 8-inch skillet or crêpe pan over medium high heat. Add 1/4 teaspoon oil to the skillet and brush to coat the bottom of the skillet. (Do this before making each crêpe) Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the heated skillet. Swirl the skillet until the bottom of the pan is covered with batter. Cook the crepe for about 1 minute- the crepe should be barely moist on top. Use a thin spatula to loosen the edges of the crêpe, slide the spatula under the crêpe and gently flip it upside down. Cook for about one more minute, just until golden and transfer crêpe to a cooling rack or plate. Repeat with the remaining batter.
We turn the oven on 200 degrees F, and place the cooked crepes on a cookie sheet to keep warm if using right away.
Filling:
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
Mix together by hand, or in a food processor.
Topping:
I took a bowl full of frozen (no-sugar-added) strawberries, microwaved till soft, added 1/4 cup or of sugar, then tossed it all in the Vitamix and pureed till smooth. Use your favorite berry, or a mixture!
Assembly:
Place crepe on plate.
Put 1/4 cup or so of filling down the middle of crepe.
Fold like a burrito – tops/bottoms in, then roll from one side.
