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Monday Musing: Celebrating the difference a year can make

21 Oct
This cake signified more to me than just a birthday cake.

This cake signified more to me than just a birthday cake.

Caroline is about to be 14.

Her birthday is next weekend, but we celebrated with our family this past weekend.

As I was thinking about her upcoming birthday, planning out my menu and thinking about a birthday cake, I was struck by the difference a year can make.

One year ago, for her 13th birthday, we were in a very different place. She hadn’t been feeling well for months, and she was really quite sick most of the time, but we weren’t sure why.

That birthday was a rough one. She’d been to the hospital just a week or so before. She was seeing so many doctors, having lots of testing and trying to go to school each day even though she was really not herself.

She was such a trooper, and it was an intense time for us as a family; very stressful and scary for a while there.

Just before Christmas last year, it was finally determined that it was the fat in foods that was making her so sick, each and every day.

We went to town, immediately revamping our menus from top to bottom, changing our diets to make as much of what we ate low fat or non fat, as much as possible; working hard to make her well again, and it worked. It took many months, literally, for her to begin to feel well more times than she didn’t, and it’s been many weeks since she’s felt sick now that we’ve got our eating habits down pat.

One year later, here we were again, ready to celebrate another one of her birthdays.

As I Googled “Low Fat Nutella Cakes” trying to find a fun, but low fat birthday cake for her celebration, it hit me how far she’s come and how well she is, and how healthy she looks, compared to last year.

I found a great recipe, different than the birthday cakes we used to make, but good for her and with just enough sweetness to make it delightful, and I made it this weekend.

To me, this cake signified more than just a birthday. To me, it stood for how far we’ve come as a family over the past year, and specifically how well she is. In my mind, I was celebrating the difference that a year has made in her life, and in the life of our family. Last year we were in such a dark place at this time and this year, everyone is healthy and happy.

I take nothing for granted, and I celebrate every blessing. This weekend was a bigger celebration than just a 14th birthday, at least for me. So as I share this cake recipe with you, a healthy, low fat recipe from Turntablekitchen.com, know that it signifies so much more than just a cake recipe. I’m sharing with you a piece of our celebration of good health, happiness, and blessings.

Happy 14th Birthday Caroline! What a difference a year makes!

Happy 14th Birthday Caroline! What a difference a year makes!

Here is the recipe, just as it appears on Turntable Kitchen. Thanks to them for sharing a recipe that was healthy and delicious!

**Pay attention to the recipe, as the ingredients need to be mixed in a certain order, different than the way they are listed. For our own purposes, we used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, and 1/3 less fat cream cheese. Using the low fat cream cheese meant we needed to add a bit more confectioner’s sugar to the top frosting, to make it sweet enough, and about a teaspoon of vanilla, to taste.

Banana Cake with Nutella and Cream Cheese Frosting

*serves 6-8

 For the cake:

 1 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 pinch salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

4 ripe bananas, mashed

2/3 cup buttermilk

For the Nutella frosting:

3 heaping tablespoons of Nutella

1/2 cup of powdered sugar

3 1/2 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature

1/4 cup of butter

For the cream cheese frosting:

1/2 cup of powdered sugar

3 1/2 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature

1/4 cup of butter

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and dust them with flour.

2. Sift the flours, baking soda and salt into a small bowl and set aside.

3. Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs until incorporated. Next, add the mashed bananas, vanilla and buttermilk. Beat until incorporated. Add about half of the flour mixture and beat until combined. Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat until just incorporated.

4. Evenly divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes (until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean). Cool the cake layers to room temperature.

5. To prepare the Nutella frosting, combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until fluffy. Set aside.

6. Repeat step five (omitting the Nutella) to make the cream cheese frosting.

7. To assemble: place one cake layer flat side up on a serving platter. Frost evenly with the Nutella frosting. Top with the second cake layer. Spread the cream cheese frosting evenly over the top.

– See more at: http://www.turntablekitchen.com/2011/11/banana-cake-with-nutella-and-cream-cheese-frosting/#sthash.GLbbjQCw.dpuf

Banana Cake with Nutella and Cream Cheese Frosting
*serves 6-8

For the cake:

1 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup buttermilk

For the Nutella frosting:

3 heaping tablespoons of Nutella
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
3 1/2 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup of butter

For the cream cheese frosting:

1/2 cup of powdered sugar
3 1/2 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup of butter

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and dust them with flour.
2. Sift the flours, baking soda and salt into a small bowl and set aside.
3. Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs until incorporated. Next, add the mashed bananas, vanilla and buttermilk. Beat until incorporated. Add about half of the flour mixture and beat until combined. Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat until just incorporated.
4. Evenly divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes (until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean). Cool the cake layers to room temperature.
5. To prepare the Nutella frosting, combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until fluffy. Set aside.
6. Repeat step five (omitting the Nutella) to make the cream cheese frosting.
7. To assemble: place one cake layer flat side up on a serving platter. Frost evenly with the Nutella frosting. Top with the second cake layer. Spread the cream cheese frosting evenly over the top.

– See more at: http://www.turntablekitchen.com/2011/11/banana-cake-with-nutella-and-cream-cheese-frosting/#sthash.6Elj5jvc.dpuf

Banana Cake with Nutella and Cream Cheese Frosting
*serves 6-8

For the cake:

1 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup buttermilk

For the Nutella frosting:

3 heaping tablespoons of Nutella
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
3 1/2 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup of butter

For the cream cheese frosting:

1/2 cup of powdered sugar
3 1/2 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup of butter

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and dust them with flour.
2. Sift the flours, baking soda and salt into a small bowl and set aside.
3. Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs until incorporated. Next, add the mashed bananas, vanilla and buttermilk. Beat until incorporated. Add about half of the flour mixture and beat until combined. Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat until just incorporated.
4. Evenly divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes (until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean). Cool the cake layers to room temperature.
5. To prepare the Nutella frosting, combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until fluffy. Set aside.
6. Repeat step five (omitting the Nutella) to make the cream cheese frosting.
7. To assemble: place one cake layer flat side up on a serving platter. Frost evenly with the Nutella frosting. Top with the second cake layer. Spread the cream cheese frosting evenly over the top.

– See more at: http://www.turntablekitchen.com/2011/11/banana-cake-with-nutella-and-cream-cheese-frosting/#sthash.6Elj5jvc.dpuf

Banana Cake with Nutella and Cream Cheese Frosting
*serves 6-8

For the cake:

1 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup buttermilk

For the Nutella frosting:

3 heaping tablespoons of Nutella
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
3 1/2 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup of butter

For the cream cheese frosting:

1/2 cup of powdered sugar
3 1/2 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup of butter

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and dust them with flour.
2. Sift the flours, baking soda and salt into a small bowl and set aside.
3. Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs until incorporated. Next, add the mashed bananas, vanilla and buttermilk. Beat until incorporated. Add about half of the flour mixture and beat until combined. Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat until just incorporated.
4. Evenly divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes (until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean). Cool the cake layers to room temperature.
5. To prepare the Nutella frosting, combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until fluffy. Set aside.
6. Repeat step five (omitting the Nutella) to make the cream cheese frosting.
7. To assemble: place one cake layer flat side up on a serving platter. Frost evenly with the Nutella frosting. Top with the second cake layer. Spread the cream cheese frosting evenly over the top.

– See more at: http://www.turntablekitchen.com/2011/11/banana-cake-with-nutella-and-cream-cheese-frosting/#sthash.6Elj5jvc.dpuf

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Fun Friday: Betty Crocker’s Banana-Cinnamon Muffins

18 Oct
These muffins were fabulous as an after school snack one fall afternoon!

These muffins were fabulous as an after school snack one fall afternoon!

If you’re a regular reader of The Whole Bag of Chips, you know I love muffins. I also love after school snacks.

Many times my snacks are muffins and if there’s enough leftover they are breakfast the next day too.

I can tell you…today’s recipe: none leftover.

These were so good.

I have tons of muffin recipes but I still love trying new ones. On this particular day I was looking to try a new recipe for banana muffins. When I saw one by Betty Crocker that incorporated bananas and cinnamon and sugar; well that had my name all over it.

These were so great, the kids all loved them.

I only made a minor modification: Instead of melting the butter at the end and dipping the muffins into it and then into cinnamon-sugar, I opted to just sprinkle some cinnamon-sugar on the tops prior to baking them.

Normally I also substitute plain nonfat yogurt instead of oil, but on this day I actually forgot and I used canola oil. It wasn’t until I dumped it in, that I realized I’d forgotten. So that’d be another substitute you might want to make if you’re trying to healthify the recipe a little bit more.

Here, from the Betty Crocker website is the recipe as they have it. I also linked to their site above.

Give these a try this weekend, they’re fantastic!

BANANA CINNAMON MUFFINS by Betty Crocker

INGREDIENTS

MUFFINS

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2/3 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 small)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 2/3 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
TOPPING
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
DIRECTIONS
  • Heat oven to 375°F. Grease bottoms only of 12 regular-size muffin cups with shortening or spray, or line with paper baking cups.
  •  In medium bowl, beat 2/3 cup sugar, the oil and eggs with wire whisk. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Stir in remaining muffin ingredients just until moistened. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.
  •  Bake 17 to 21 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately remove from pan to cooling rack.
  •  In small bowl, mix 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Dip muffin tops into melted butter, then into cinnamon-sugar. Serve warm.

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What’s For Dinner Wednesday: Asian Lettuce Wraps…in the crock pot

25 Sep
This was by far, one of my favorite crock pot meals from the first week. Every single one of us loved them.

This was by far, one of my favorite crock pot meals from the first week. Every single one of us loved them.

I’ve been keeping you all up to date with our ongoing crock pot meals experiment as the school year goes on.

I must say, so far so good.

The one I’m sharing today, however, was by far my personal favorite meal of all the ones we have tried thus far.

It is a recipe for Asian Lettuce Wraps and it’s the meat that you cook all day in the crock pot.

My house smelled absolutely amazing on this day, thanks in part to the sesame oil that is used in the recipe.

This was one I could not wait for even the next day, so that I could use the leftovers for my lunch. In a way, it was almost like our DIY taco night, but with an Asian flair instead.

Serving everything "on the side" allows people do customize their wraps, adding as much or as little of whatever the want to each of their wraps.

Serving everything “on the side” allows people do customize their wraps, adding as much or as little of whatever the want to each of their wraps.

I served everything a la carte, with Chinese Fried Rice as our side dish, and I let everyone build their own wraps. I wasn’t sure if everyone would try their food in the lettuce or not, but I encouraged them to at least give it a try. I ended up having to put out even more lettuce as each of us had two or three wraps that night.

The wrap that is pictured above (before being rolled up and eaten) actually has the rice on the bottom, followed by the meat and then the Chinese noodles, chopped cashews and the sauce.

DELICIOUS.

I saved the sauce as leftovers as well, and the next day I used it to make my leftover wraps for lunch, but the following day I just had the leftover rice and used the sauce on top of that. Perfect.

Although most of my crock pot recipes have been coming from the Who Needs a Cape website, this one actually didn’t. It was sent to me by my friend Gina, who is doing this crock pot recipe experiment along with me, far away in another state. But we’re trying out some of the same recipes and then some different ones, and letting each other know how they are. This is one she tried out first and loved it, passing it along to us. We loved it too. She found it at Today’s Creative Blog and I’ve linked to it above. The recipe is below, as well.

So today, I am passing it along to you as well. It was very different for a crock pot meal, and you’d never know it was made in the crock pot. It was fun and unique and tasty. I encourage you to try it out, and if you’re up for it, give the Chinese Fried Rice a try too. We use that as a side dish often and it always goes over well.

*In the recipe below, my modifications were: ground turkey instead of chicken, I used apple juice not wine, dried ginger not fresh, cumin instead of coriander, and cashews instead of peanuts. *

Crock Pot Asian Lettuce Wraps from Today’s Creative Blog

  • 2 chicken breasts – cut into really small pieces. (most recipes call for ground chicken or turkey)
  • 2 cloves garlic – chopped really small
  • 1/2 medium onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup white wine or apple juice – I used apple juice because I didn’t have wine
  • 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger (you can also use what you have in your spice cabinet)
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (same as rice vinegar)
  • 1 head Romaine lettuce,washed. Trim lettuce leaves to the size you want to use
  • Peanuts for garnish
  • Dipping Sauce
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon red chile paste
The fried rice was great with the dipping sauce right on top, and some of the wraps had the rice right inside!

The fried rice was great with the dipping sauce right on top, and some of the wraps had the rice right inside!

Instructions

  1. Cut your chicken into very small pieces and place inside your crockpot.
  2. Combine all other ingredients into your crock and stir.
  3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or low for 4-6 hours.
  4. Prep your lettuce leaves by washing, patting dry and trimming. I used Romaine, but butter lettuce would also work. Place your chicken directly onto the lettuce.
  5. Dipping Sauce
  6. Combine all ingredients together before your chicken is done. I like to let mine sit a bit before serving.
  7. Drizzle a small amount onto your chicken filled lettuce, garnish with peanuts, wrap it together and enjoy!

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Chicken tacos…the dinner that kept on giving

18 Sep
Chicken Tacos in the crock pot was one of our favorite meals last week!

Chicken Tacos in the crock pot was one of our favorite meals last week!

Just the other day I talked in my post about how I love meals that I can cook enough of to last more than one day or night.

Well, last Thursday’s dinner, a crock pot meal of Chicken Tacos was amazing in every department: It was fast and easy, delicious, everyone loved it, and I got four people’s lunches plus another whole dinner out of it.

“That’s amazing!” You must be saying.

“I wonder how she did that!!” You’re probably wondering.

Well here’s how it all went down:

As you know, we’ve been in need of some heavy duty crock pot cooking with the advent of the new school year. I figured that if I can do crock pot recipes four nights a week, we will be in good shape with our dinners. My friend Gina sent me this link with more than a dozen recipes for crock pot cooking. I talked about it last week in my What’s for Dinner Wednesday post as well.

So far we’re up to six crock pot meals and we’re pretty much six for six. Everyone’s liked everything.

I made due with what I had to make the fresh Pico de Gallo and it was amazing.

I made due with what I had to make the fresh Pico de Gallo and it was amazing.

Last Thursday I tried the Chicken Taco recipe, which you can find here. It called for Pico de Gallo, which I didn’t have but I had two large tomatoes and a regular onion so I adapted this recipe from Allrecipes.com to make my own, fresh batch, and I threw it on there.

Amazing.

We served it with a choice of hard or soft taco shells and we had toppings of nonfat refried beans, nonfat sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, and shredded cheddar cheese.

Those toppings are an important detail.

The reason they matter is that forever, Elizabeth has been asking for a seven layer dip type of recipe that she saw in her lunchbox cookbook, as her lunch. I had actually seen something similar, called Burrito in a Jar on Skinnyms.com and I thought she’d like that. I kept saying that the next time we had tacos I’d do the dip for her lunch the next day.

The lunches following the Chicken Taco dinner were a big hit the next day!

The lunches following the Chicken Taco dinner were a big hit the next day!

Additionally, Alex had been asking for a Taco Salad ever since we had it at our annual Labor Day cookout. Someone brings it every year, and Alex declared it to be so fabulous that she wanted it for lunch asap. I had been giving her the same answer; next taco meal, she’d have Taco Salad for lunch.

Well, the leftovers for this meal provided all the fixings for both the dip and the salad. I prepped everything for everyone’s lunches as I cleaned up from dinner, basically using the leftover toppings from the tacos to make the dips and salad. I put some multigrain tortilla chips into ziploc bags and four lunches went into the fridge, all made for the next morning, when dinner was cleaned up. Done and done.

You’d think that there was no place else to go with this meal, that we’d used it and used it again, so it was done, but it wasn’t! I actually had not yet used the leftover chicken and Pico de Gallo that had cooked for the hot portion of the tacos. I’d only used the leftover toppings. So I saved them, on the advice of my friend Gina, who said that I should consider making Tortilla Soup with the leftovers, on another night. Coincidentally, my other friend, Paula, just happened to post a recipe for Tortilla Soup on her soup blog, My Soup For You, the very next day. Gotta love friends like that! They work together and don’t even know it. One’s in Florida, one’s in Maryland, and I’m here! But we all got my dinner for Monday night, prepped and planned!!

Tortilla soup preparation was fast and easy and it simmered in the crock pot all day long on Monday.

Tortilla soup preparation was fast and easy and it simmered in the crock pot all day long on Monday.

To make my own Tortilla soup, I used Paula’s recipe as a guide. I threw in the leftover chicken and pico, with a 32 oz. container of chicken broth plus two cups of water with two boullion cubes dissolved in it (I had run out of the containers of broth, but would’ve just used two if I had them.)

In addition, I threw in a can of black beans (rinsed), about a half bag of frozen corn, and at the last minute I decided to saute half a green and half a red pepper and throw that in near the end of the cooking time.

I served the soup with nonfat sour cream, nonfat shredded cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips that you could crush up and put into the soup if you wanted to.

It was amazing. I loved it, Liz loved it, Don loved it. Alex and Caroline did not love it. But they are the pickiest of the five of us, so I wasn’t surprised at all that it wasn’t up their alley.

I’d totally make it again.

And the best part…..there was leftover soup.

For my lunch for my lunch the next day.

This was by far the furthest I have ever stretched a meal of ours. It was inexpensive to make too. Nothing in it cost very much and every part of it was delicious.

If you’re looking to stretch your budget and your meals, I highly recommend you try this out!

I got two dinners and two lunches out of one crock pot meal!

I got two dinners and two lunches out of one crock pot meal!

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Anything I can crock pot

11 Sep
On the table and ready to eat!

On the table and ready to eat!

It’s back to school time.

Back to sports time.

Back to scouts time.

And of course, back to work time.

That makes cooking dinner time quite complicated.

This fall, for the first time, everyone’s every thing is on every night, with pick ups and drop offs in and around dinner time.

Most nights we can eat together but most nights there is going to be no one home to cook.

As I looked at my schedule for the next eight weeks, I knew I had to come up with a solution, and fast. If I could figure out how to get everyone everywhere and home again, I needed to have a meal waiting when we got here. Eating together is really important to us, and so is eating a home-cooked, healthy meal.

Around the same time I was contemplating my fall schedule dilemma, a friend of mine, Gina, forwarded me a link to the blog whoneedsacape.com, Specifically, to the 40 Meals/Four Hours recipe collection.

I was sold. It looked like exactly what I needed–the ability to prep meals way ahead of time and cook them while I was gone on the days that I needed them. It almost sounded too good to be true.

Very rarely have I found a crock pot meal that we all like, that I’d want to make again. But, with so many options to choose from–more than a dozen recipes, all of which could be prepped ahead, it was worth a try.

I decided that rather than prepping several sets of any one recipe, I’d instead go through the list, see what sounded like things my family might like, and try each one just once. If they were successful, then I’d prep more of the ones we liked for the future.

Elizabeth happened to be around when I first received the link. We clicked through and looked at every photo, every recipe. We came up with a list of those we wanted to try. It seemed doable.

This week alone, I’ve got several of these recipes on my list to try out. The very first one, made on Monday night, was a keeper, according to my family. As I try each one, they’ll appear on future “What’s For Dinner Wednesday” posts if they’re deemed worthy by my family.

Maple Dijon Chicken was the one I chose to try out first. I opted to switch out the chicken thighs that it called for, switching in boneless, skinless breasts instead.

The recipe was simple and quick to prep, which I liked. I could have prepped it ahead and froze it, but this time I didn’t need to. I had some time in the morning to do it. The house smelled great all day long! I love that about crock pot cooking!

Here is the recipe as found on Who Needs A Cape.com, with my few modifications. Give it a try and see what you think! I served ours with brown rice and veggies on the side. Thumbs up all around!

Throw it all in the crock pot and turn it on!

Throw it all in the crock pot and turn it on!

MAPLE DIJON CHICKEN

Ingredients

  • 6-8 Chicken thighs  (I used boneless, skinless breasts, thawed.)
  • 1/2 C Dijon Mustard
  • 1/4 C Maple Syrup
  • 1 T Rice Wine Vinegar
  • 1 can of Sliced Mushrooms, drained* (I used fresh mushrooms.)
  • 1 onion sliced*  (I used half an onion.)

Instructions

  1. Spray crock pot with non-stick cooking spray
  2. Place chicken in crock pot
  3. Mix together mustard, syrup, vinegar and pour over chicken
  4. Top with mushrooms and sliced onion
  5. Cook on low for 6 hours

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After School Snack: Nutella Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

6 Sep
This is a great treat for (me) the kids after school!

This is a great treat for (me) the kids after school!

Recently a friend passed along a recipe for a Nutella Frosty which sounded delicious. It called for milk and vanilla ice cream and Nutella.

It sounded wonderful.

We decided to make it even MORE wonderful!

It was such a hit, we had it several times this summer and we already had it for an after school snack once this school year, and we’ve only had six days of school!

We added a few ingredients to the original frosty recipe, making it a little bit healthier.

Into the blender it goes!

Into the blender it goes!

Into our blender we put:
Nutella

Peanut Butter (we used reduced fat because of our dietary restrictions)

Two bananas

Fat Free Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

Skim milk

Blend it all up, add some light whipped cream to the top, throw in a straw and you’re good to go!

Enjoy!

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Back to School Edition: What’s for Dinner Wednesday?? Lunch!

28 Aug
Our newly posted lunch menu. Good idea? We'll find out!

Our newly posted lunch menu. Good idea? We’ll find out!

Lunch.

My nemesis. It always has been, even when my kids were toddlers and preschoolers. I hate lunch. I hated coming up with lunch ideas. I also hated relying too heavily on things like chicken nuggets, hot dogs and mac and cheese. Although all have their place, they couldn’t all be every day occurrences. We didn’t love sandwiches at the time, our choices seemed few.

First kid enters first grade, and it’s time to send in lunches. The other option–buy school lunches.

What to send? Who likes what? Who likes nothing? Who wants to spend $2.25 on school lunches that may be less than stellar?

And so it went, on and on. Each couple of years or so, another child entered full day school and the lunch issue hovered over us. It didn’t consume us, it was just a pain, trying to figure out lunches.

This past school year, I wrote about Elizabeth’s desire for better lunchtime choices and her new cookbook, purchased with her own money, “The Lunch Box.” Last year, Caroline and I won the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge and traveled to DC for the first Kids’ State Dinner, and Alexandra came in second place for the Jr. Chefs Competition in our school district with her Healthy Sunshine Salad.

I felt like this coming school year, we just had to do better.

I thought about it all summer as we tried out different lunches at home from various cookbooks. In the meantime, my kids also changed a little bit in that they all suddenly seemed to love sandwiches. We joked when we were at Subway one day that we could name some of the sandwiches after them, “The Alexandra, The Caroline, The Elizabeth” because they each had their favorites and they’d sometimes order their sisters’ favorites instead of their own.  We started recreating their favorites at home on occasion too, and they’d start ordering them by name, as if on a menu.

That’s when an idea hit me. Good idea, bad idea, we’ll see as the year goes on.

I had the idea to make a list of all the things they loved to eat that I could put into a lunchbox pretty easily, so that similar to the school menu that comes home each month, they could pick and choose what they’d like for lunch from home and as long as I had the items on hand in the house, I could make them some lunches with more variety than what’s now known as “The Usual” (pb&j).

The girls and I sat one day and came up with our lists. We started with our new-found love: sandwiches. Then we added salads, something Alex always loves to take and something easy enough to change up depending on your tastes. We thought about sides–healthy fruits, vegetables and dips/dressings etc. Finally, we added in specials: the things that they get to take only when we have leftovers from the night before–pasta with meatballs, mac and cheese, things like that.

It looked good! I even had my own sandwich, “The Mommy,” which is Nutella, Peanut Butter and Banana on a fat free wrap.

I printed it out. It took up three pages, with all the choices we’d come up with. Is this something I could maintain all year? Something I could manage?

I’m not sure. But, I’m going to try.

Mix and match, grab and go, fast and easy!

Mix and match, grab and go, fast and easy!

Keeping our already-chosen dinner meal plan in mind for leftovers (or “specials”), and knowing that my days are a little more open this first week of school, we came up with a decent list of lunches for each of the kids. Caroline’s newly into braces and still needed something soft the first day because they’d been tightened the day before. Elizabeth chose something that might sound complicated--Baby Quiches, but is fast and easy to prep early in the week and grab and go. Salads made the list for each of them on one of the day; I was thrilled.

The night before school, I mixed up one dozen eggs in a bowl. I added some milk, and grabbed a muffin tin. Into it I put some spinach and cheese in six of the cups, ham and cheese in six more, and since I still had leftover egg, I did just cheese in three more. 25 minutes later I had 15 mini quiches, or whatever you’d like to call them, for anyone’s taste. I put them into ziploc bags labeled with the chosen variety on them and put all the bags into a bucket in my fridge. Done. Lots of lunches. Both Alex and Liz took those on the first day and they’re scheduled to take them again later in the week, if they last that long.

I don’t know how this new system will work out. I do know how crazy our weeks get, but I feel like at least we’re trying; we’re making an effort to have a good variety of healthy choices for everyone to eat for lunch. And I feel like for every day that we can’t pull it off, and they have to have “The Usual,” there will be so many more days that we can.

I am a keeper of lists. I need to see things in print or I forget about them. I have lists of smaller lists. I now have a list of lunch ideas to keep things creative in our lunchboxes this year.

We’ll see how it goes.

In the meantime, on this first day of school, it’s time for lunch!

Enjoy!

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Monday Musings: It’s over and done…have a cookie.

26 Aug
All's quiet as we prepare for the first day back to school, back to routine.

All’s quiet as we prepare for the first day back to school, back to routine.

Well folks, that’s that.

Summer’s over, at least for us. The best two months of the calendar year have flown by, but they’ve been two wonderful months, for sure.

Tomorrow is the first day back to school.

We’ll be starting our first year where both our elementary kids are on the intermediate hallway. No more primary grades. Ever.

We’ll be starting our last year of middle school for our first kid. Next year…high school.

Yikes.

On a happy note…only ten more months until summer.

To celebrate, let’s have a cookie.

A couple of weeks back I tried out a new recipe, modified it for our needs, and it was a huge success. So today I’m sharing that recipe with you. Enjoy your week, munch on a cookie, it makes everything seem better.

These were in a new cookbook I received from a family friend recently. Everyone loved them!

These were in a new cookbook I received from a family friend recently. Everyone loved them! They’d make a great after school snack!

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies

(with our modifications in italics)
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup butter (we use I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk (we use skim)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 3/4 cup white flour (we did one cup of white and 3/4 cup wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional and I did NOT add it in)
2 1/2 cups uncooked quick-cooking or old fashioned rolled oats
1 pkg. Semisweet Chocolate morsels
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (optional and I did NOT add it in)
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
In large mixing bowl combine brown sugar, butter and granulated sugar.
Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, milk and vanilla.
Beat at medium speed until well blended.
Add flour, baking soda and salt.
Beat at low speed until soft dough forms.
Stir in oats, chocolate chips and nuts.
Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls 2″ apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 9-10 minutes for chewy cookies or 12-13 minutes for a crisp cookie (I DID TEN.)
Let cool for 1 minute before removing from cookie sheets. Cool completely before storing.

Makes approximately 5 dozen cookies.

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A delicious weekend breakfast: Baked Eggs

29 Jul
These were absolutely fabulous!

These were absolutely fabulous!

This past Saturday I was in the mood for something different for breakfast. I wasn’t sure what, but I knew I didn’t want the same old thing.

While I was pondering what I was in the mood for, I remembered that when my kids slept over my parents’ house last, they had mentioned a new baked egg breakfast they’d tried. My mom found it in “Dash” magazine, and it had ham in the muffin cups with the eggs cracked inside, and parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. The kids had loved it and I’d been meaning to try it here ever since.

At the same time, I also remembered that Alex’s new “High Five” magazine had come in the mail this week, and that coincidentally, the recipe had been one for baked eggs as well. It was slightly different in that it didn’t call for ham on the bottom but instead had diced tomatoes and shredded cheese.

So, I decided to combine the two recipes. The bake time and temperature was the same for both recipes. The only difference was the ingredients and we liked everything the two recipes called for.

They.Were.Amazing.

Fabulous.

Delicious.

We loved them.

I highly recommend you try these out the next time you are craving something different for your breakfast. They’d even be great for a brunch.

Fast, easy.

Into the oven they went. One pan, couldn't be any easier!

Into the oven they went. One pan, couldn’t be any easier!

Here’s what I did:

1) Spray each muffin well with nonstick spray.

2) Place a slice of ham in the bottom of each muffin well. I actually used deli ham that was sliced in half. One half into each spot.

3) Place about a teaspoon or so of diced tomatoes on top of the ham. (One large vine ripened tomato was enough for all 12 portions.)

4) Sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese over the tomatoes. (I used nonfat cheddar.)

5) Break one egg into each spot.

6) Sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper on each.

7) Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until the yolks are as firm as you desire and the whites are cooked through.

Serve with toast or an English Muffin if you’d like.

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Strawberry English Muffin Fruitwiches

24 Jul
English muffins: not just for breakfast!

English muffins: not just for breakfast!

A while back I posted about Elizabeth’s cookbook and I posted one of the recipes we’d tried at the time, a tuna salad recipe. Since then we’ve had it for lunch and even for dinner!

Today, I thought I’d post another recipe from that same cookbook, one that we have had for lunch and for dinner this summer, and one that we’ve also modified slightly to meet everyone’s different taste buds. It’s a great summer meal because it is cool, doesn’t involve using an oven, and uses a great summer fruit: fresh strawberries.

The ingredients for this are simple, no matter which way you choose to make it. You need:

Fresh sliced strawberries

an English Muffin

Strawberry jam

Goat cheese, cream cheese, or peanut butter

Elizabeth's cookbook of choice

Elizabeth’s cookbook of choice

The directions are even more simple!

“Split an English Muffin and lightly toast the halves. Spread the cut side of the bottom half with softened goat cheese or plain whipped cream cheese (we also have done peanut butter). Top with a thin layer of strawberry jam, followed by a layer of thin strawberry slices. Cover with the top half of the muffin, jam side down, and press gently.”

We prefer to do open-faced sandwiches, in order to have more fresh strawberries! This sandwich has been a hit every time we’ve served it, and it’s easily modified for everyone.

Next time you’re looking for a summery lunch or a cool dinner (or maybe even a yummy summer breakfast,) give these English Muffin Fruitwiches a try!

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