This week’s Monday Meal, Cracker Jack Quinoa, is one of my new favorite dishes and I’m excited to share it with you. There are a lot of different steps for this dish so it can take around an hour to cook it all at once. But, you can make parts of it ahead of time to save time on the evening you’d like to enjoy it. See below for ideas. A couple of notes about this recipe: 1. Up to 3 days in advance you can make the sauce and cook the quinoa. Keep the sauce in the refrigerator in
Read More »Quinoa can be a tricky ingredient. It can be as easy to cook as rice, but there are some simple steps one must take to ensure it comes out well. I used to wonder why my quinoa was sometimes mushy, had an off taste and well, kind of sucked. I felt so silly when I realized a couple simple steps would make it so much better. So now I’m turning my previous kitchen failure into your success and sharing with you the secrets to cooking a great batch of quinoa. 1. After you measure out the quinoa, pour it into
Read More »Today I’m sharing my final recipe for Sweet September, which is one last sweet treat that is “smart about sugar”. You can check out some of the other recipes I’ve shared, including brownies, milkshakes, muffins and more by clicking here. For this Monday Meal, I’ve given the traditional recipe for Oatmeal Cookies a healthy makeover by cutting down the sugar content and upping the fiber and wholegrain goodness. My Oatie Cookie Bites have ½ teaspoon of sugar per “bite” but since no one ever wants to eat only 1 cookie, you can enjoy two of them and still consume only
Read More »A few months ago I was asked by Diana Rice and the folks at The Monday Campaigns to take part in a really fun cooking challenge. My task, if I chose to accept it, was to create a special recipe for brownies that followed the strict guidelines listed below: 1. Don’t use any artificial sweeteners, only real sugar 2. A fruit purée, without added sugar, could provide additional sweetness 3. Each serving should contain no more than 4 grams, or 1 teaspoon, of sugar 4. Use 100% whole-wheat flour 5. Use traditional, easily accessible ingredients that people can find in
Read More »With summer starting to wind down, I thought I’d share one last refreshing and delicious treat the whole family can enjoy for this week’s Monday Meal–Peppery Peach Purée Pops! Something I love to do with leftover purées is make popsicles. Popsicles are a perfect warm weather treat because they simultaneously satisfy your sweet tooth and cool you down. Plus, your whole family from 6 months old and up can enjoy them! Most brands of popsicles you can buy in the store have a ton of added sugar. Don’t be fooled by labels that boast “all-natural” and “made with real fruit” because
Read More »I love quesadillas for a bunch of reasons. First, I’m basically a cheese addict, so something that consists mostly of melted cheese is a favorite in my book. Second, quesadillas can be on the table in around 10 minutes, so they are a lunch and dinner staple around here. Third, I love quesadillas because they can be customized to include anything you, and your family members, want. This way, everyone in the family can have fun “building” his or her preferred quesadilla and the food battles are kept at bay. Mom likes carrots and black beans? Toddler wants just corn
Read More »I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, one thing I love about eggs is that I can toss just about anything in them and make it into a meal. This week’s Monday Meal came about when I was emptying out the kitchen recently before leaving town. As I was searching around the kitchen I found a bunch of different ingredients that would need to be used before we returned. Here’s what I found: an onion, an ear of corn, and one zucchini leftover from our trip to the farmers market. I also found some leftover fresh mozzarella
Read More »Over the last several weeks, we’ve been on an avocado kick in the teeny tiny foodie home. Avocados are delicious and are really good for you, though they can have a bad reputation because they are high in fat. However, they are full of good fats, as well as numerous vitamins, minerals and nutrients that provide many health benefits for the whole family. For example, avocados are filled with folate, which is a vitamin that promotes healthy cell and tissue development. This means it is an especially great addition to the diet of a pregnant mama, nursing mama, baby or
Read More »The Big 3. No, not The Big 3-0, but The Big 3. My pediatrician warned me that while parents typically worry about the “Terrible Twos” they actually need to be on guard for what she calls the “Terrorist Threes”. Well, let me tell you that we are a little over a month into Eliana being officially 3-years old and I’ve coined my own term for it: the “Tyrannical Threes”. This is not to say that my sweet little lady couldn’t easily flip the switch and turn into a crazy person in an instant when she was the tender age of
Read More »My teeny tiny foodie takes after me in a lot of ways. The most obvious way is that she basically looks like a “Mini-Me.” But, we also share a lot of personality traits, too. Like her Mommy, my little lady likes things the way she likes them and she has LOTS of opinions. Most recently, these opinions on how things “should be” manifested in the cupcakes she was dead set on eating at her birthday party this past weekend. Eliana basically demanded “magenta cupcakes” for her party and there was no way she was going to accept anything else. Being
Read More »I love traditional hummus. I think it’s a great, easy dish to prepare for a meal or a snack. But, what to do if you’re hankering for hummus and have no chickpeas in the pantry? Well, when I found myself in that exact situation I decided to use beans that I had on hand, which happened to be white beans. I also happened to have a little bit of baby spinach leftover and since I love to throw green leafy goodness into all sorts of recipes, I decided to add it to the food processor to see what would happen
Read More »There are few dishes I love more than a vegetable strata. A strata is basically a frittata but with a layer of bread at the bottom, which makes it a complete dish of protein, carbohydrates and produce all in one. It’s a great BLD meal you can serve for breakfast, lunch or dinner. When I feed my family, my goal is to serve a meal that has a combination of protein, starch and produce, so a strata is an easy way to pack it all in. To make a strata, you can use whatever fresh vegetables you have on hand
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