Whole Wheat, Oat and Blueberry Waffles

Leggo my Eggo! Who needs those nasty freezer waffles when you can have this deliciously healthy tastiness?! I like to make a triple batch of these and freeze em so we have them for breakfast throughout the week. My mom and dad do waffles every Saturday morning, and I remember as a kid thinking it was the COOLEST thing when we had waffles on Saturday mornings, so I decided it was something I wanted to do with my family as well. Also, I wanted to make a point of explaining why I sometimes say organic and I sometimes don't. I know it is expensive to buy all organic. I mean we can't afford it either. However, there are some things that are more important to have organic than others. Some things have more chemicals and hormones than others. So, if you see me make a point of saying organic, it is because it is something that is important for me to have organic...just a little side note. ;)

Ingredients

2/3 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 C Organic Oats
1 Tbs Raw Honey
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Sea Salt
2/3 C Organic Milk or Almond Milk
1 Organic Egg
1/4 C Oikos Organic Vanilla Greek Yogurt

3/4 C Fresh or Frozen Blueberries (I have some fresh picked from an organic blueberry patch! YUM!)

Directions

Mix the flour, oats, honey, baking powder and salt together. Add in the milk, egg and yogurt and mix well. ( I use my kitchen aid stand mixer) Add in the blueberries and stir with a spoon or spatula. Spray your waffle iron with non stick olive oil cooking spray. Spoon 1/2 C of batter on the waffle iron and smooth around until ALMOST to the edges. I keep mine set on high so it makes them more browned but if you want them soft, adjust your heat setting to medium. Follow your waffle iron directions from here on out. And btw, my waffle iron has never been as messier.....These suckers will squirt blueberry goo out the sides. Oh well, they are totally worth it! :)

The Weekly Dish

It was such a great weekend. We woke up with out an alarm on Saturday. Had some AHHHHmazing blueberry, oatmeal waffles and took the boys to the park. Sunday, we went to church, spent a few hours with some Good friends we hadn't seen in far too long and then took the boys for ice cream and 3 mile walk along the millrace. And to end the weekend, Andy and I sat in front of an open window with the fresh cool air, drinking coffee and eating dark chocolate covered raspberries and bananas Ahh....I love weekends like this! They seem to be few and far between these days and I loved every moment of it! Since we had so much fun we took about a million and one pictures, so I will probably bore you all with more than just one picture this week. ;)

Whole Wheat, Oatmeal and Blueberry Waffles

Tomato, Basil Salad...Straight from the garden! 

Riding papas Oliver

ICE CREAM!

My husbands photog Skeelz

looking at the dam

cows lol

Where is my shirt you ask? Nahum got cold lol!

Olie was sooo over the stroller by mile 2.5 

static ahhhhh

Hello....

aww...Olie loves his daddy

My sweet boy

Nahum at the park

Olie pop at the park

Nahum climbin the rock wall

Wee..eeee...

Chicken fajitas

Fajitas are one of my favorite Mexican style  foods...however, I refuse to order it when I eat out! Why?! Because of the stench! Come on, you all know what I am talking about! The "B.O." smell clinging to your flesh when you leave a Mexican restaurant... It is from those darn sizzling fajitas! So tasty, but ohhhh so smelly! Somehow, it just doesn't stink like that when I make it at home, so that is how I like it! :) It makes for great leftovers as well. I like to heat the leftovers and throw em on a salad the next day. mmm...

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb chicken

1 large red onion
2 tbs taco seasoning
4 cloves garlic
3 green peppers
2 red peppers
1 jalapeno
ww tortillas
plain Greek yogurt
tomatoes
cilantro
cheese if ya want it
1 tbs oo

Directions

Place oo in pan on md/high heat. Slice chicken thinly(Chicken cuts easier if it is slightly frozen.) and place in the pan. Sprinkle with the taco seasoning. Cook for about 2-4 minutes until it is no longer frozen. Slice onions, peppers and garlic thinly and in similar sizes. Add to the pan. cover and cook for about 15 minutes or until all are cooked through. Place on tortillas with tomatoes cilantro and Greek yogurt. (cheese if ya want it, but I don't use it. ) :) easy peasy!

Vanilla frozen yogurt with honeyed pink grapefruit GF

This recipe is somewhat time consuming due to the amount of time it has to sit in the freezer etc. However, it is well worth it! It is great for company, but I made it just for us to eat. I had some frozen yogurt left and ate it for a few nights. This is a protein packed dessert that is super good for you! Nothing in this is unhealthy and it tastes amazing!

Ingredients

1 c Raw Honey
1 Tbs Vanilla Extract
32 oz Plain Greek Yogurt (I like stoney field farms oikos)
*
3 Pink Grapefruit
3 Tbs Raw Honey

This is after 4 hours in the freezer stirring every 45 min.

Cover and let freeze

after freezing overnight

This is how it looks before you slice it.

Simmering the juice and honey. It is ok if it bubbles. You want it to reduce and slightly caramelize.

Finished product!

Directions

In a bowl, mix the yogurt, Honey and vanilla extract together. Mix well! Now, at this point you could do one of two things. 1~ If you have an ice cream maker you could put it in that and let it go. 2~ Put it in the freezer for 4-6 hours and stir it every 45 min-1 hour. After that 4-6 hours/ice cream machine, line a loaf pan with plastic wrap and pour the soft ice cream into the loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit for 4-6 hours or until firm. I just made it at night and froze it overnight for the next day.
When you are ready to serve it, it is time to make the grapefruit sauce. Segment the grapefruits over a bowl so that you catch the juice. Put the honey (3 Tbs) and the juice into a small pan and simmer for 10-15 min stirring frequently. It will reduce down and make a thick sticky sauce.Stir in the grapefruit segments and remove from heat. Remove the Yogurt from the freezer while making the sauce so that it thaws enough to remove and slice. Slice the yogurt into desired sizes and top with the sauce and grapefruit slices. mmmm.......

The Weekly Dish

I love my husband!

What a week! Even though Nahum was with my parents all week, I still managed to be crazy busy! I finished most of my freezing and canning, made a trip to the Shipshewana flea market and....well, I don't remember what else lol!  After packing my freezer and having no more space I decided it was time to fix that problem. I froze peaches, blueberries, corn, pickles basil, jalapenos and zuchinni. My little freezer in the kitchen just wasn't getting the job done! So, I  bought a side by side freezer/fridge for 10 BUCKS! Thank you craigslist! It is older than the hills but it gets the job done. Besides, it is in my garage so who cares what it looks like right?! I remember being a kid and thinking my friends that had those in their garages were super cool....I have no idea why, but I did. I guess that makes me cool now huh?! baha! All that ramble to say; Be looking out for recipes using all of those items I froze. I sure didn't do all of that work for no reason! I am hoping to save some moo-lah and make some awesome food all winter long!

*Frozen Vanilla Yogurt with Honeyed Pink Grapefruit

* Chicken Fajitas

Spicy Sesame Beef GF

This recipe is a fairly quick and easy one. My hubby loves good ole red meat, so I have done my best to incorporate it at least once a week. I am not a huge red meat eater, but even I loved this one! I love anything Asian inspired! Not much to say today, so I am just going to get right to it!

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs steak cut in thin slices
2 tbs sesame seeds
2 tbs sesame oil
4 tbs amino acids
1/2 jalapeno finely chopped (If you like it spicy add the seeds. If not, remove em!)
2 tbs raw honey
1/2 onion thinly sliced (any kind works)
3 handfuls sugar snap peas
1/2 tbs coarse black peppercorns
green onion

Directions

Place the oil in a wok on md/high heat. Add in the steak and let cook for about 2-3 minutes or until the color is more brown than pink. Add in the jalapeno, onion and peas. While that begins to cook, add in the Amino acids, honey, and peppercorns. I usually put the meat in the middle of the wok on the direct heat and the veggies out around the edges for a more indirect heat. Once the meat is cooked to your liking, add in the sesame seeds and let cook for one more minute. Serve with Chinese noodles or Himalayan whole grains. Add a few extra sesame seeds and some green onion before serving..

Bonus Blog...strictly humor!

So tonight we were on our way home and Andy said, "Man! I'm hungry! Whatcha gonna make me?" In all seriousness I said "I could make a nice toasted quinoa salad." And Andy says the following...."Where's the meat?!" and without skipping a beat quotes the following dialogue from Parks and Recreation" 

Leslie Knope: "What did you bring?"

Chris Trager: "I was in charge of the cake. To be fair, it's not so much  a cake as it is a vegetable loaf. You got your mushrooms, your alfalfa  sprouts, your spinach, and I had it sweetened with fruit reduction."

Ron Swanson: "But did they ask you to bring a vegetable loaf or a cake?"

Chris Trager:  "No, a cake. But this is so much healthier."

Ron Swanson: "So not only does this thing exist, but now you have  deprived everyone of cake!" I DIED laughing!!! For those of you who don't watch this show,  it might not seem quite as funny to you. However, you still get the  point. I tend to be a little on the healthier side than Andy. He usually  loves what I make and even requests my strange concoctions.  However, Sometimes a man just needs his MEAT! :) One other fun thing I did recently was let Nahum make his own lunch.  I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but lucky for me, he chose to make a peanut butter and jelly pocket. Super easy and fun. So here are  a few cutie pictures of my cutie "cooking". Right about here is where I start singing the childhood song... "Peanut, peanut butter and jelly. Peanut, peanut butter and jelly!"

Peppery Lime Chicken Wraps

This is a quick and simple meal that I like to pull out on busy days. There isn't a whole lot that goes into it and it doesn't take much time either. Nahum isn't a fan of this stuff cause it is fairly spicy, so if you do have kiddos you may want to tone down the pepper a bit. However, I just make him a quesadilla cause Andy and I like the peppery tastiness! :)

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs Chicken Breast
Zest of 2 Limes
Juice of 4 Limes
1 Tbs Coarsely Ground Black Pepper
1 tsp Sea Salt
Whole Grain Tortillas
Plain Greek Yogurt
Tomatoes
2 Avocados
4 Lettuce leaves

Directions

Cook chicken on md heat with the lime zest, lime juice, pepper and salt. Cook about 15 min until cooked through and shred. Place on a tortilla with yogurt, tomato, avocado and lettuce. Roll up and eat up!

The Weekly Dish

It has been a weekend of picking, canning and freezing....annnnnnd I'm still not done yet! I haven't been able to do much cooking since my time has been taken by all of that stuff, but lucky for you all, I have had a few recipes on reserve to post this week! My parents were here this weekend, and I am certain my mom saw a sight she NEVER would have imagined seeing....me sitting on the floor cutting corn off of 120 ears of corn. (BTW I originally had 240 ears in the back of my car cause I picked some up for my friend Amy. Can I just say it was the funniest sight ever!!!! And, I found a corn worm in the center console of my car today. Guess he escaped from an ear and made his way up front. Yuck!) Or, maybe the canning was more of a stretch. My mom use to can and freeze when I was growing up and I never was much of a fan of all of the work....my how the tables have turned. Mom, now I know why you did it and I am thankful for being able to learn from you! :) I enjoyed seeing the benefits of my work, and my wallet will enjoy it even more this winter! DISCLAIMER: I look like a hillbilly cause I had been outside in the heat shucking corn, I am sitting cause I hated the idea of standing for 2 hours cutting corn off the cob, and I have an old sheet down cause this corn was the BEST, juiciest corn ever and it sprayed EVERYWHERE when I cut it!

~Peppery Lime Chicken Wraps
~Spicy Sesame Beef

Prosciutto, Pear rolls GF

Alright, this is sorta posh sounding, but hear me now.....THESE ARE AMAZING!!!! So so simple yet gourmet-ish and amazing! Did I make them for a dinner party you ask? um no! Andy and I munched these while sitting on the couch watching some Parks and Recreation reruns! LOL! You can never get too fancy for your hubby! I am not lying when I tell you we ate absolutely all of them on our own! All of em! Nothing like watching a show about a small Indiana town eating Prosciutto! :) Seriously. Make these!

Ingredients

2 Ripe Anjou pears (you could use any fresh slicing, to eat raw type of pears)
1/2 of a lemon juiced
8 slices of Prosciutto
arugula or another semi spicy/zippy variety of green
fresh Parmesan cheese

Directions

Cut your pears in half, then again, and again so you get a total of 16 slices. Remove the core as you go. Squeeze the juice of half of  a lemon over the pears. Slice each piece of Prosciutto in half, place on a pear and a piece of arugula on each slice. Shave a long piece of fresh parm (I use a peeler) and put that on as well. Roll em up and use a tooth pick to hold them together. It is super easy, just assemble as you go! Seriously....do this, you won't regret it!

Avocado Salsa GF

I would consider my family to be salsa junkies. And when it comes to salsa I am fresh all the way! I don't do canned or jarred salsa. It just doesn't quite taste the same to me. I also have a tendency to lean towards the more authentic flavors than the tex mex flavors. So, that means tomatillos and cilantro!!! I got a recipe from a Mexican girl my sister use to work with. Hers was good, but I think it needed a tad bit of tweaking for my taste buds. This is my version. Most ingredients in this are straight from my garden! YUM!

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs tomatillos
2 jalapenos seeded and ribbed
1 bunch cilantro
1 small red onion
3 avocados
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp sea salt

Directions

Cut all veggies down to a decent size for your food processor. Or, you could do what I do and cut them into similar sizes throw em in a bowl and go at it with a hand blender...it's less to wash and gets the job done! Remember, do not use the stems of the cilantro and removed the seeds and ribs of the jalapeno unless you like yours hot! Blend it all up and chow down! It is super simple and super tasty! This salsa is a bit thicker than normal tomato salsa and thinner than guac.

The Weekly Dish MUST SEE!!!

So it's 10:41pm and my wife has been passed out since before 8pm.  We've had a sick little 4yr old the past couple days and Erin had to take him to the doctor today...PLUS everything else she normally does anyway.  Needless to say she was beat and needed some sleep.
I thought even though I have no idea what she's making this week I though I might share some of my culinary expertise with everyone.  Below you'll find one of my world famous (or maybe just house famous) breakfast dishes.  I call it Bread with spread...it is Erin's homemade bread with Marshmallow Fluff, Peanut Butter, and Grape Jelly.  Nahum loves it and I can make it, so it's a win win...and Erin gets to sleep in on Saturday so it's a Win Win Win (for those of you who follow The Office).  I hope you Enjoy!

Ingredients
-1 Slice of Bread
-Marshmallow Fluff
-Peanut Butter
-Grape Jelly



Directions
STEP 1: Evenly spread the toppings onto the bread.  (Feel free to substitute any of the toppings for things you or your kids would like better.  Also feel free to substitute the bread for anything you want.)
STEP 2: Serve  

Garden "Pasta" GF

Tonight I planned on using up a half used jar of sauce in my fridge for my spaghetti squash....dun dun dun....as I opened the jar a fuzzy white friend met me....mold! New plan! I ran out to my garden grabbed some tomatoes and basil off of my plants and went a new direction with my meal. I must say I am so glad there was mold in my jar of sauce. I used garden fresh ingredients and I loved it! I also had some left over prosciutto from a few nights ago so I threw that in to add some protein. While my husband loved the meat aspect, I think I would prefer this without it. So, you chose. Make it however you wish. I will give you my ingredient list, but feel free to tweak it! Ya gotta love when your entire meal can be made out of your garden!

Ingredients

1 Large Spaghetti Squash
1 Handful of Basil
2 Handfuls of cherry or grape tomatoes
2-4 slices of prosciutto
1/4 ish of fresh grated or sliced Parmesan cheese
A Drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
S&P to taste

Directions

Cut your squash in half length wise. Remove the seedy, stringy center with a large spoon. Place them open side down on a  cookie sheet. (I suggest lining it with foil, cause the juices run out and burn on the pan) Bake at 400 degrees for one full hour.Slice tomatoes in half, using scissors cut the basil in thin strips, break the prosciutto apart into pieces and shave off your parm. Set aside. Take the squash out and using a large spoon scrape out the stringy, spaghetti like meat of the squash. Put in a bowl and top with your previously cut ingredients. Drizzle with olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste...It definitely needs S&P!

Flourless Pear and Dark Chocolate Cake GF

Ok, I saw flourless cake on a cooking show one time and then I found a recipe for it the other day. What a great way for the gluten free folk to enjoy some tasty cake! I took the recipe I found and went at it to make a sugarless version. The taste of the slightly bitter dark chocolate mixed with the sweet juiciness of the pear is AMAZING!!! And a cake with lots of protein?! I mean come on! Can't go wrong here!!!

Ingredients

3 Bartlett pears
3 oz dark choc
1/4 lb toasted slivered almonds
3 tbs butter
1 tbs coffee
3 tbs raw honey
3 egg separated

Directions

Make a double boiler out of a metal or glass bowl and a sauce pan. Put water in the sauce pan and rest the bowl on the edges of the pan. Break chocolate into bowl . Add butter and melt it down until it is creamy. Add the coffee and let sit. Whip together the honey and the egg yolks until blended well (about 2 min) Toast the slivered almonds in a dry pan over md/high heat until lightly browned. Blend almonds in a food processor until finely chopped. They almost get powdery. Fold the chocolate, egg/honey mixture and almonds together. Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. If you get them too stiff they are hard to mix later. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate one spoonful at a time. (break it up into 3 spoonfuls) Line the bottom of a spring form pan with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the spring form pan. Peel 3 pears. Cut them in half and remove the cores using a melon baller. Place them face down onto the top of the cake batter and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let cool before opening the spring on your pan.