Deconstructed Burger Bowl (FWTFL)

 

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb Extra Lean Ground Beef
• 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 tsp Chili Powder
• 1 tsp Cumin
• 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
• 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
• 1/4 cup Mayonnaise
• 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
• 1 1/2 head Romaine Hearts (chopped)
• 1 cup Cherry Tomatoes (chopped)
• 8 stalks Green Onion (chopped, green tops only)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a pan over medium-high heat, brown the beef. Break the meat into small chunks with a spatula and cook until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Drain any excess drippings, but keep the beef in the pan.
2. Add the Italian seasoning, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper to the beef and stir to combine. Season with additional salt and pepper if needed.
3. In a small bowl combine the mayonnaise and Dijon mustard.
4. Divide the lettuce, tomatoes and onion between bowls and top with cooked beef and the Dijon mayo. Enjoy!

Lemon Ricotta Cake

Lemon Ricotta Cake – Low Carb, Gluten Free

1 CAKES – SERVES 10 

•                125g soft unsalted butter (1/2 c.)

•                80g of sweetener (I used 40g of Sukrin Gold and 40g of Xylitol) (1/3c)

•                1 tsp of vanilla powder

•                zest from 3 large organic lemons

•                4 eggs, separated in whites and yolks

•                250g og almond flour (1 c.)

•                1-2 tablespoons of psyllium husks

•                250g of ricotta cheese (1 c.)

•                flakes almonds for topping

•                some Sukrin Icing Sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 320°F/160°C fan.

2. In a bowl, beat butter, vanilla and lemon zest well together.

3. Add egg yolks one by one and beat well until fully combined.

4. Add almond meal and psyllium husks and beat to combine. Your batter will now become thick and firm.

5. Fold or toss ricotta cheese into the batter.

6. In a different bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Mix the egg whites into the batter with a spoon.

7. Pour the batter into a greased spring form (about 20-22 cm) and smooth it with a spatula or palette knife. Decorate with almons flakes and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until the cake is firm to touch. If it starts to get too dark at the top, put over some tinfoil and bake it for the rest of the time..

8. Allow the cake to cool for at least 30 minutes before you serve it. Dust with icing sugar before serving.  

Crunchy Granola

This is the best granola I've ever tasted! It makes a TON, too, so it's worth the effort to make, since it will last for a while. We eat it like cereal with milk and also on top of homemade yogurt. Yummy! All the nuts in this are what put it over the top, in my opinion.


INGREDIENTS
8 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups wheat germ
1 1/2 cups oat bran (*For more fiber, use all wheat germ)
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup honey
1 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup raisins
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line three large baking sheets (with sides) with parchment or aluminum foil.
2. Combine the oats, wheat germ, oat bran, sunflower seeds, almonds, pecans, and walnuts in a large bowl. Stir together the salt, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, oil, cinnamon, and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to coat. Spread the mixture out evenly on the baking sheets.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until crispy and toasted, about 20 minutes. Stir once halfway through. Cool, then stir in the raisins or cranberries before storing in an airtight container.

* Note on the bake time: This will still seem chewy at 20 minutes. Resist the temptation to bake it until it is completely crisp, as it will continue to cook a bit after it is removed from the oven and may burn. It will be crispy after it is cooled.

Homemade Graham Crackers

So these aren't technically graham crackers since they don't use graham flour, but they are 100% whole wheat and 100% delicious! I've been making them for several months now, ever since I found the original recipe on Heavenly Homemakers. Mostly square shapes, but I also cut out umpteen dozen little leaf and pumpkin shapes in November and in December decided to give them a Christmas kick by dipping in almond bark and letting the girls decorate them with sprinkles. That was a VERY good idea. :)

INGREDIENTS:

2 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
4 Tablespoons honey
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
3. Add the liquids: honey, water, vanilla and melted butter.
4. Stir well until a nice ball of dough is formed.
5. Lay one Silpat (or parchment paper) on a cookie sheet.
6. Place the ball of dough on the parchment paper. Lay a second Silpat (or another piece of parchment paper) on top of the ball of dough.  Squish dough down a little with your fist.
7. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough between the pieces of parchment paper.  Roll until the dough covers the whole cookie sheet.
8. Peel off the top Silpat and cut rolled dough into 2 inch squares, or cut shapes with cookie cutters, being sure to separate the shapes from the surrounding dough a little. (I use a pizza cutter *very gently* to make the cuts)
9. Bake in oven for 18 minutes.
10. Turn oven off, but leave crackers in the oven to get crisp for about 30 minutes.
11. Break cooled graham crackers apart and store in an air tight container.

To decorate them, I melted almond bark in a large coffee mug. Then I scrapped some bark on one side of the cookie and set it on wax paper where my assistants could decorate them with colored sugar and sprinkles. This, obviously, makes them not very healthy, but fun for a special treat.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

So I found these on gimme some oven. They call them "No-Bake Energy Bites." This is true, but they taste like cookie dough balls! I will absolutely make them again. And again. And again.


INGREDIENTS:
1 cup old-fashioned oats
2/3 cup toasted unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla

DIRECTIONS:
Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour. Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like. ***I found my small Pampered Chef scoop worked well for this! Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Yield: 16 balls (+1 for the chef)

Herbed Spaghetti Squash

This is a wonderful, healthy dish from Emeril. There's something almost magical about scraping the sides of a spaghetti squash and seeing the little strands break away. It truly does look like angel hair pasta! I went out into the garden and just snipped a little bit of each herb I had growing and tossed them in.

Ingredients
1 small spaghetti squash, about 2 1/4 pounds
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped mixed soft herbs, such as basil, chives, chervil, parsley and sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Using a sharp knife, cut the squash in half lengthwise and place, cut side down, in a baking dish. Add enough water to come 1/2-inch up the sides of the baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 45 minutes, until the squash is easily pierced with a paring knife. Turn squash over and cover with foil again and continue to cook another 15 minutes, until the squash is very tender. Remove from the oven, uncover, and allow to cool slightly. Using a spoon, remove the seeds and discard. Using a fork, gently pull the strands of squash away from the peel and place the squash strands into a mixing bowl.

Heat a skillet. Add the butter, spaghetti squash, herbs, salt and pepper and toss thoroughly but gently to heat and combine. Serve immediately or cover and keep warm until ready to serve.

SERVES 4

Mango Quinoa Salad

I have made this dish from Our Best Bites several times now, and it's turned out well every time! As a cold salad, it's wonderful in the summertime. You can serve it as a side dish or main dish. 


INGREDIENTS:
2 cups cooked quinoa at room temperature, or chilled
1 (14 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium mango, peeled and diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
6 green onions, thinly sliced
1 handful chopped cilantro (about 1/2 cup)
4 tablespoon red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1-2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Place cooked quinoa in a large bowl.  Add mango, red pepper, green onion, black beans, and cilantro.  In a small bowl combine vinegar, olive oil, and lime juice.  Whisk until smooth and pour on top of salad.  Toss to combine and add salt and pepper to taste.  Chill for at least one hour before serving.

Garden Fresh Spaghetti Sauce

While my own garden has produced a pitful amount of tomatoes, I was gifted some tomatoes from some more successful gardeners. I used them, along with fresh herbs from my garden and some onions from the root cellar to create this amazing recipe from food.com! 


INGREDIENTS:
4 lbs fresh tomatoes, chopped & peeled
2 medium onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
3 sprigs fresh oregano, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
4 sprigs parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar

DIRECTIONS:
To cook pasta sauce, heat olive oil over medium heat in a large iron skillet or heavy saucepan.
Add onion, basil, oregano, garlic and salt.
Saute until onion is tender, approximately 5 minutes.
Add tomato, parsley and sugar; heat to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for about 2 hours, stirring often or until sauce has thickened. *This took about 3 hours for me, but so worth it! It does thicken up if you are patient.

Yield: approx. 4 cups or 28 oz. pasta sauce.

Breakfast Cookies

Cookies for breakfast? I'm in! These are a tasty, healthy way to start your day. I combined recipes from Food Network, King Arthur Flour and Eat Better America to make my own concoction. 


INGREDIENTS:
1 large banana (the riper the better)
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. baby food carrots (1 small container)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. oats
1/2 c. whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
1/4 c. nonfat dry milk powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 cup "mix ins" (craisins, raisins, coconut, chopped nuts, m&m's, choc chips, etc.)

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• Using a hand mixer, beat banana, peanut butter, brown sugar, carrots and vanilla until smooth.
• In separate bowl, mix oats, flour, milk powder, cinnamon and baking soda. Stire into wet mixture until combined.
• Stir in mix-ins.
• Prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper or cooking spray or, my favorite, Silpats.
• Drop 1/4 cup mounds of dough 3 inches apart on sheets. With a metal spoon dipped in water, flatten mounds into cookie shapes (will not spread much during baking).
• Bake for 15 minutes or until browned. 
• Cool completely and store in airtight container or freeze.

Yield: 10 cookies

German Chocolate Fudge Bites

I have become obsessed with Katie's "Fudge Bites" from her Chocolate-Covered Katie blog. For the Super Bowl, we made the Peanut Butter and Samoa flavors (along with the chocolate chip cookie dough dip, which Elise and I devoured!).

But the very best of all, was the German chocolate flavored fudge bites. EVERYBODY likes these. And with my Penzey's Dutch Process cocoa, they are out of this world. Seriously. The ingredients are natural - pitted dates is the real secret to the fudge babies. The German chocolate flavor adds vanilla, salt, coconut, pecans and cocoa to the mix. SO yummy! I added a couple tablespoons of chocolate chips for extra decadence.

Measure it all out into the Magic Bullet cup (or a food processor):

And grind it all up. I usually scrape down the sides half-way through. You're left with a sticky, delicious dough.

Roll into bite-sized balls and store in the fridge (if there's any left after you make them!) You can get about 10 tablespoon sized bites from this recipe.

Healthy Deep Dish Cookie Pie

I recently stumbled across a new food blog called Chocolate-Covered Katie. She creates healthy dessert recipes, featuring chocolate! A lot of her recipes are also gluten-free and vegan. While those diet restrictions don't apply to our family, I have more and more friends who are moving to strict diets and it's nice to have some recipes that I know everyone will be able to enjoy.

This deep-dish cookie pie caught my eye and I made it yesterday. The girls DEVOURED it. They didn't know what was in it, they just saw it's gooey, chocolate-chip yumminess and gobbled it up. It is made with oatmeal and garbanzo beans. BEANS! My girls ate beans! And they LOVED it! :)  Doug also ate a piece without knowing and he liked it as well. He said it's texture was "different" but he had no clue it was made with beans.

If you have picky eaters, like I do, you have to check out her site. I can't wait to try her "ice cream" and fudge pie.

Check out Katie's site for the full cookie pie recipe.

I have also made her Cookie Dough Baked Oatmeal for breakfast and it was delish!

Banana Chocolate Ice Cream

Ok - so this is NOT real ice cream.  Technically it may be a sorbet? But it is very yummy (provided you like bananas) and really satisfies my ice cream craving without all the calories and sugar.  I've tried a couple different variations of this "banana ice cream" and this one from Always Order Dessert is my favorite. See my modifications below:



Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 squirt of chocolate syrup (sugar-free if possible)

Directions:
Peel and slice the bananas into small chunks. Spread on a tray (*on wax paper) and freeze overnight or for at least 4 hours.

In a food processor or blender, combine the frozen banana pieces, peanut butter, and cocoa. Begin to puree.  Add one quick squirt of chocolate syrup to help the process along. Puree until smooth, pausing to scrape down sides and push down banana chunks as needed.  This may take a few minutes!

 Eat right away (it will have a soft-serve like texture), or refreeze for 2 hours to give it a more scoopable texture.

Store in freezer in an air-tight freezer safe container. Can be made up to 48 hours in advance.

Yield: 3 servings

Granola Bars

I've been wanting to try to make my own granola bars for a while now. Doug loves the Nature Valley Trail Mix bars, and takes one to work each day. My goal was to copy them, and I found a great recipe online, and have copied it below. (You should really check out the link, however, as the step-by-step photos are great.) Minus the almonds, these are nearly identical! And he said they even taste more "natural." One more thing - I found that the waxed paper stuck like glue to the bars, even with nonstick spray. I think next time I will just spray the glass pan and use wax paper just to press down on the bars and then remove it while they're still warm.

Here's a little video with the girls' critique:


INGREDIENTS:
2 cups oats
3/4 cup wheat germ
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup peanuts, crushed
2/3 cup brown sugar (can reduce to 1/3 cup)
1/2 cup honey
4 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
approximately 8 oz. dried fruit
(*I used 1/2 raisins and 1/2 dried cranberries)
(*Nature Valley includes almonds in their Trail Mix bars, but I didn't have any)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

To crush your peanuts, put them in a plastic bag and smash them with a heavy mallet, measuring cup, or sauce pan.

Then, mix the peanuts, oats, wheat germ, and sunflower seeds in a baking dish with sides. Toast them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes so that they don’t get burned.

Meanwhile, prepare a glass baking dish (about 11 x 13 inches) (*I used 9x13) for your granola by spraying with a nonstick spray.

Put the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Let it bubble and get frothy, stirring constantly for 1 minute. This will caramelize the sugars and become the glue to help the bars stick together.

By now, your grains and nuts should be toasted, so mix everything together in a large bowl. The grains, the liquid “glue,” and the dried fruit. Mix everything w because you want to make sure the “glue” gets all over everything. Now, dump your granola mixture into your prepared baking dish.

Spread out the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Now fold over the sides of the waxed paper or add a sheet on top, and PRESS HARD all over the granola. You want to compact it together so that your bars won’t fall apart when you cut them. Remove the wax paper.

Wait 2-3 hours or until the granola has totally cooled.

Carefully turn the granola onto a large cutting board, peeling away the rest of the paper.

Now, firmly pressing down with a big knife (not sawing), cut your granola into whatever size bars you’d like. * We like to get 20 bars from a 9x13 pan.

I wrapped ours individually in plastic wrap, so that we could just throw one into our bag or lunch box in the morning. If you’d like to save on packaging though, you can store yours in an airtight container, between sheets of waxed paper (so they don’t stick together).

Healthy Chicken Fingers and Fries

This is a healthy recipe I found on Kraft's website. This is sooooo good when you stick it in the toaster or regular oven after it has been frozen.

Ingredients:
4 large baking potatoes (about 2 lb.), unpeeled
1/2 cup KRAFT Fat Free Zesty Italian Dressing
1/2 cup KRAFT 100% Fat Free Grated Parmesan Cheese
2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 pkt. SHAKE 'N BAKE Original Chicken Seasoned Coating Mix

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 425°F. Cut potatoes into 1/2-inch-thick strips;
place in large bowl. Add dressing and cheese; toss to coat.
Place in single layer on large greased baking sheet.
BAKE 12 min. Meanwhile, coat chicken strips with coating mix.
TURN potatoes over with large spatula; push to one side of
baking sheet. Place chicken strips on other side of baking sheet.
Bake an additional 15 min. or until potatoes are tender and
chicken is cooked through. Serves 8.