Recipes

creamy cheesy potato soup

March 17, 2013 1 Comment

Oh my, y’all. I love me some potato soup. I’ve tried the potato soup at just about every restaurant that serves it and I’ve made several recipes myself. I’ll had some really good ones, and I’ve had some ~~really bad~~ not so delicious ones. But this recipe I have to say is the best potato soup I’ve ever had. It’s way better than my old potato soup recipe or any of that stuff served in the restaurants. I love it and it’s pretty easy, too (total plus).

It’s creamy. It’s cheesy. It doesn’t require peeling any potatoes. It’s delicious.

Let’s make some, shall we?

You don’t need too many ingredients – just potatoes, onion, chicken broth (we make our own so it’s way darker than store bought), cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and garlic.

Chop up those potatoes but don’t even worry about peeling the potatoes…just leave the peel on and chop them up into a small-ish pieces.

Ok so I got a little overexcited and forgot to take pictures of each step, but the gist of it is…chop the onion and then put the onion, potatoes, garlic, and chicken broth in a po

Bring it to a low boil and cook it until the potatoes are nice and soft.

Add the cream cheese and cheddar cheese. Stir them into until they are melted. Once that’s all mixed together then you’re all done!

Serve it up, top with some more cheese and bacon (chives and/or sour cream would also be good here), then enjoy!

Recipe (adapted from here)

Ingredients

2.5 pounds of potatoes, chopped with peel left on
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
5 cups of chicken broth (we make our own but you could certainly use store bought)
2 TBSP garlic powder
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese
any desired toppings (extra shredded cheese, crumbled bacon, chives, sour cream, etc.)

Instructions

Combine the chopped potatoes, chopped onion, garlic powder, and chicken broth in a stock pot. Cook on a low boil until the potatoes are soft, the peeling is starting to fall off, and it looks creamy rather than brothy. For our stove this takes about an hour. Stir occasionally and don’t be afraid to stir vigorously – this helps the potatoes break up and dissolve a little, which gives it that creamier texture. Add the cream cheese and cheddar cheese; stir until melted and mixed thoroughly. Top with desired garnishes and serve!

This recipe makes about 8 cups of soup. It can easily be doubled to feed a larger crowd, but it will take longer for the potatoes to cook down, and make sure you use a large pot. A double recipe fills my 6 quart pot nearly to the top and I have to be very careful stirring it.

Oh and one other note…2 tablespoons of garlic powder seems like a ton, and it may smell super garlicky when it first starts cooking, but I promise it doesn’t taste strong at all. So don’t worry.

Mmmm. I’m not even hungry right now but I still want to go heat up a big ‘ole bowl.

If you’ve been looking for a good potato soup recipe, you can stop looking now. Go try this recipe out and see if you agree with me.

Filed Under: recipes Tagged With: potato soup, potatoes, recipes

the best hummus ever

February 8, 2013 Leave a Comment

Growing up I was a huge BabySitter’s Club fan. I so bad wanted to be a part of their group. I distinctly remember in one book when Dawn’s friends from California threw the BSC a party and served hummus, one of Dawn’s favorite foods. I didn’t really know what it was (in my head I pronounced it “hew-muss”, not “huh-muss” like it’s supposed to be) but I imagined it to be some crunchy, health-nut-y, weirdo food.

Fast forward to college. That heath-nut-y weirdo food was starting to become part of my life. I was so fortunate that we had an AMAZING cafeteria at our school. We had a ton of choices and lots of pretty heathy variety. One day there was homemade hummus. I tried it and thought it was delicious. I still didn’t really know what it was, but I definitely liked it.

After that hummus experience in the cafeteria I searched for more hummus. However, every batch or brand of hummus I’d ever purchased at the store was not at all like the hummus I remembered Every single one was way too garlicky and had a super strong flavor.

Until one day while shopping at Whole Foods. They had a sample station set up with pita chips and hummus. I tried a bite and felt the relief of the end of a long journey…I had finally found a hummus that tasted like the stuff we had in college! We bought some immediately and I gobbled it up. We went back a few weeks later and bought some more. It was so so yummy.

The only problem was that the closest Whole Foods is an hour away from us. We only make it there once a month at the most so buying hummus there to have on a day-to-day basis just wasn’t practical. So I checked out the ingredient list…it only had a few ingredients listed (garbanzo beans, lemon juice, tahini, extra virgin olive oil, garlic cloves, salt, and cumin), so I figured I could make it myself, I just didn’t know what proportions to use. Making it myself would also be a cheaper option than the pre-made hummus.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found The Barefoot Contessa’s hummus recipe. It had almost the exact same ingredients as the Whole Foods hummus so I used that as a jumping off point for my recipe. I’ve now made this recipe at least five times and we love it! I eat it every day for a snack with some raw veggies. Hummus is a perfect alternative to ranch if you want some variety, it has less calories, and it’s much more “real” than bottled ranch.

So here it is. The best hummus recipe ever.

What you need: garbanzo beans (chick peas), tahini, hot sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic cloves, and salt

Put a little bit of water in a pot and bring it to a boil. Drop the garlic clove in and let boil for 30 seconds. From what I’ve heard, this takes the bite out of the garlic and gives it a nice, garlic flavor without being too strong.

The rest of the recipe is easy…just a bunch of mixing in your food processor. Chop the garlic (picture 1), then add the chickpeas and lemon juice (2), the hot sauce (3), the salt (4), olive oil (5), and tahini (6). Then process until smooth. Easy peasy.

Yum. So good!

Hummus Recipe (adapted from here)

Ingredients:

2 cups garbanzo beans (chick peas) – I use dried beans. I soak them overnight, rinse them, boil them in water until soft, and rinse again. You could also use canned beans to save a few steps
1/4 cup tahini – It’s like peanut butter but made out of sesame seeds. I found mine in the organic section at Kroger
5 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large clove garlic
1 teaspoon salt
5-7 tablespoons water or liquid left from cooking the beans (depending on how thin you like your hummus)
4-8 dashes of hot sauce (depending on how hot you like it)

Instructions:

Put enough water in a pot to cover a garlic clove, bring it to a boil. Drop the clove of garlic in the boiling water for 30 seconds, then remove. Chop the garlic with your food processor. Then add chick peas, tahini, olive oil, salt, lemon juice, hot sauce, and water/liquid. Process until smooth.

Enjoy!

This is a South Beach Phase 1 food and has 30 calories per tablespoon.

Filed Under: recipes Tagged With: hummus, real food, recip

favorite holiday recipes

November 27, 2012 Leave a Comment

Along with the upcoming holidays comes lots and lots of eating. If you’re like me, every time you turn around you are taking food somewhere for a party. To try to help you get ready, here are some of my favorite (and most are very simple) recipes to make at the holidays.

Better than Cinnabon cinnamon rolls

Once you have these babies you won’t ever want to go back to the store-bought cinnamon rolls in a can. These take a little bit of prep work, but I promise they are so worth it! We just had some Sunday morning for Michael’s birthday and they were divine. These cinnamon rolls would be the perfect Christmas morning breakfast, too.

amazing pumpkin bread

This pumpkin bread is so ridiculously easy to make – just mix up the ingredient, pour in a pan (or muffin tin) and bake. No kneading or waiting for it to rise. The recipe makes two big loaves, too, so you get a lot of food for a little work. Perfect to give as presents, hostess gifts, or to whip up for a brunch.

buffalo chicken dip

This is a definite crowd pleaser. I get tons of compliments and requests for the recipe when I make this. It’s yet another easy dish to make and takes just a few minutes to mix together. One full recipe makes a bunch so you can feed a crowd (I recommend cutting the recipe in half unless you have a huge group coming).

Mexican rice

During the busy holidays it can be hard to find time to cook nutritious meals for your family. Mexican rice is a great, quick meal that can be whipped up in seconds (although you have to let it cook for 30-45 minutes) and is delicious.

parmesan lemon basil broccoli

If you need to bring a side dish to a holiday dinner, I highly recommend this broccoli. It is the best broccoli I’ve ever eaten. Michael and I will polish off one big bunch of broccoli (usually 3 large heads) in one meal when we cook it like that, and will often still want more. It’s that good.

chocolate chip cheesecake dip

This is by far one of the easiest desserts to make (especially if you have a stand mixer) – just throw all the ingredients in a bowl, mix them up, and you’re ready to go. Then try not to eat this by the spoonfuls out of the bowl…it’s difficult, I know.

eclair cake

Another crowd pleaser, and by far my most loved dessert (that picture isn’t the best ever…but just trust me that it’s ah-mazing). I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like this dessert. This is also another super easy one (that seems to be my type of recipe!) – I made this Sunday morning before church to have for Thanksgiving Sunday lunch and it took all of ten minutes to assemble.

pecan pie brownies

I make these for the first time last Christmas and they were amazing. I’m not even a pecan pie fan, and I still loved these. They aren’t quite as quick and easy as some of the other recipes I’ve posted, but they are way good and you should definitely give them a try.

pretzel Rolo turtles

These are all over Pinterest so this probably isn’t anything new for you, but I have to mention them anyway. I discovered these last Christmas and have made them several times since. They are super easy (the most time consuming thing is unwrapping the Rolos) and everyone loves them. All you do is melt Rolos on pretzels and top with a pecan. I’ve also seen them made with Hershey’s kisses instead of Rolos and M&Ms instead of pecans. With all the fun Hershey’s kiss flavors out there, you could make all kinds of cool combinations.

This is just a sample of some of my favorite holiday recipes. To see all the other recipes I love, check out my recipe index.

Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday

Filed Under: recipes Tagged With: Christmas, recipes

homemade pizza sauce

October 4, 2012 Leave a Comment

We’ve been homemade pizza makers for years, thanks to our super easy whole wheat pizza dough recipe. However, we’ve always used jarred pizza sauce and after starting on our real food journey we decided we needed to find something a little more natural. After searching online for recipes, I found this tomato sauce recipe that seemed pretty easy – I used that as a base and then added my own blend of spices.

I was way intimidated by the idea of making a sauce from fresh tomatoes – I’ve never done anything but open up a jar of tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, or pizza sauce, so I didn’t even know where to begin. I had no idea how to get from fresh firm tomatoes to a nice smooth sauce. The good new is, it was much easier than I expected and now I’m here to pass on what I’ve learned to you! So don’t be scared!

The tomato sauce recipe calls for 2 pounds of tomatoes – I don’t have a food scale so I just guestimated and used about 10 Roma tomatoes. I like Romas the best because they aren’t very watery and have much more tomato “meat” to them. You’ll also need an onion and some butter.

Use a paring knife to cut Xs in the bottom of each tomato – this is optional but it only takes a second will make it easier to peel the tomato once we blanch it.

Bring a pot of water to a boil, then drop the tomatoes in the water and boil for one minute – the skins should start to crack and/or peel back.

Remove the tomatoes and immediately submerge them into an ice water bath until they are cool enough to handle.

FYI, boiling something for a very short time then putting it in ice water to cool it down quickly is called blanching…it’s very useful for freezing vegetables, too.

The tomato will be slimy and messy, but the skin should peel off very easily.

Now roughly chop the tomatoes (I chop mine into 8ths usually), melt the butter (hint: pour out the water you used to boil the tomatoes and use that same pot to make the sauce), and add the chopped tomatoes to the butter.

Chop up the onion and add that as well.

If you stopped here and let just these three ingredients cook, then you would end up with a very nice, generic tomato sauce base. Since we’re making pizza sauce we need to add some other stuff to give it that pizza sauce flavor (but you could go other directions and turn this into a spaghetti sauce, or chili, or any other tomato based sauce, just by tweaking the ingredients a bit).

This is my typical pizza sauce lineup (starting in the bottom left and going clockwise): parsley, green bell pepper, black pepper, crushed red pepper, LOTS of basil, oregano, and garlic (in the middle of the picture). This is very flexible – you can use dried spices if you don’t have an herb garden. You can add or subtract whatever suits your fancy. One time I chopped up some carrots and added them in just because they were starting to get mushy and I needed to use them up – it didn’t really alter the taste and I suppose it gave it a few extra nutrients.

The rest is pretty easy – chop up the herbs, pepper, and garlic and add it along with a few shakes of the other spices to the tomato/butter/onion mixture.

Let the sauce cook for 45 minutes to an hour. It will start to cook down and get thicker, like so.

After the sauce has cooked down, toss it in a blender and blend it to a nice smooth consistency. And you did it! You made pizza sauce! Now whip up some homemade crust, slather on your sauce and the yummy toppings of your choice, and enjoy your fresh, natural pizza.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 pounds of tomatos (I use Romas and it takes about 10)
1 onion
5 TBSP butter
1/2 bell pepper
3 cloves garlic
parsley, oregano, basil, black pepper, and crushed red pepper – to taste (I use a few sprigs of parsley and oregano, a big handful of basil, about a tsp of black pepper, and just a shake or two of crushed red pepper)

Instructions

Cut Xs in the bottom of the tomatoes. Bring a pot of water to a boil and drop the tomatoes into the water. Boil for one minute (the skin should start to crack and peel off) and then remove and immediately submerge tomatoes into a bowl of ice water. Once the tomatoes have cooled enough to handle, peel the skin off. Chop the tomatoes and remove the hard core. Melt the butter in a large pot, then add the tomatoes and chopped onion. Also chop and add the bell pepper, garlic, herbs, and spices. Simmer for 45 minute to an hour. Blend sauce in blender until it reaches a smooth consistency.

This makes enough for about 4 pizzas and will keep for several weeks in the fridge. It also freezes very nicely so if you aren’t going to eat it quickly then I suggest you freeze it so it doesn’t go bad.

Filed Under: recipes Tagged With: homemade pizza sauce, pizza, real food, whole wheat pizza dough

Banana Mocha Smoothie

August 28, 2012 2 Comments

The people have spoken…I mentioned a banana mocha smoothie in a recent High Five for Friday post and several people mentioned wanting the recipe…which I have happily provided!

Since starting our real food challenge, we’ve been eating lots and lots of smoothies. They are a nice “dessert” without being full of sugar and junk. One of my most recent smoothie creations is a banana mocha smoothie.

I love mochas and mocha frappes – in fact, I’ve actually posted recipes for South Beach friendly mocha and a copycat McDonald’s mocha frappe. However, while pretty low-calorie, neither of those recipes could be considered real food since they both use lots of fake, processed ingredients. I had to get a little creative to figure out a way to make a mocha “real”, but I think I’ve found a pretty good solution.

ingredients for a real foods banana mocha smoothie

What you need: banana, instant coffee, cocoa, honey, yogurt, milk, flaxseed, and greens (acutally the flaxseed and greens are totally optional, but I like to include them to add a few extra nutrients)

I start by putting the banana and yogurt in the bottom of the blender

then I add my flaxseed

next comes the coffee and cocoa

a handful of greens…

follow with some honey, ice, and milk… then blend

Yum yum. So easy, and quite healthy while still tasting like a decadent, frozen coffee treat.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 banana
1/4 cup yogurt
1 to 1 and 1/2 TBSP instant coffee
1/2 TBSP cocoa powder
1/2 TBSP honey
1/4 – 1/2 cup milk
12-14 cups of ice
2 cups leafy greens
2 TBSP flaxseed

A note on these ingredients – all of these amounts are approximations and can be easily changed, substituted, removed, increased, or decreased to your liking. If you like your coffee black then you may not need the honey as an extra sweetener. If you like your coffee strong, you may want to add more that what I use. I’m not really sure why I use both yogurt and milk – I’m sure one or the other would be fine (yogurt if you want a thicker, smoothie like consistency, milk if you want a more drinkable shake).

The greens and flaxseed are 100% optional and don’t really effect the taste at all. I just add them in so I can get a few more nutrients. The flaxseed can be a bit gritty, but I blend my smoothie on the liquify setting on my blender because I like mine drinkable, so the flaxseed gets pretty ground up. If you haven’t tried putting greens in your shake, I challenge you to give it a try. Start with just a little and work your way up to a big ‘ole handful (that’s what I did). You really can’t taste it (at least, I can’t) and it’s like eating a bowl of salad while having a yummy smoothie snack.

Instructions

Add all ingredients to the blender. Blend until smoothie reaches desired consistency (hint: add more ice if it is too runny, more milk if it is too thick). Enjoy!

Filed Under: food, recipes Tagged With: 100 days of real food, banana mocha smoothie, real food, recipes

honey whole-wheat sandwich bread (no bread machine needed)

July 14, 2012 4 Comments

Since starting our real food challenge, I’ve been trying to make as much of our food from scratch as possible. I’ve made things like tortillas, biscuits, pizza sauce, pasta sauce, and salsa. Most of the recipes I use have come from Lisa at 100 Days of Real Food. I also wanted to try making our sandwich bread but Lisa’s recipe calls for a bread machine, which we don’t have. I read through all the comments and found some advice on how to make this bread without a bread machine. I tried it several times but each time it just wasn’t quite right. On my third try I finally got it to turn out the way I wanted it!

Thanks to a sweet friend who read my post about my bread frustrations and offered me her bread machine, pretty soon I should be able to use Lisa’s bread machine recipe. However, I know that many people don’t have a bread machine and might appreciate knowing how to make this bread without one. The process is a little time consuming but not that difficult and totally worth it. Here’s what has worked for me.

what you need: whole wheat flour, oil, yeast, honey, and salt

mix the flour, salt, oil, and honey

dissolve the yeast into warm water

add in the yeast+water mixture, as well as some more water

place dough in an oiled bowl

cover

let rise

punch it down

oil and flour a loaf pan

place dough in the pan

let it rise some more

bake it

enjoy your healthy, homemade bread!

Recipe (adapted from here)

Ingredients

3 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur White Whole Wheat)
1/4 cup oil (I use olive oil)
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp salt
1 packet or 2 1/2 tsp yeast
approximately 1 – 1 and 1/4 cup warm water

Instructions

Mix the flour, salt, oil, and honey together. I mixed mine in my KitchenAid mixer using the dough hook, but you could definitely mix this by hand if you don’t have a stand mixer.
Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup warm water.
Add the yeast+water mixture to the flour mixture.
Slowly add more warm water until the dough forms a ball and starts banging around in the bowl. If you accidentally add too much water and the dough becomes wet, just add a little more flour until it’s a firmer consistency. I usually end up using 3/4 cup or less of water.
Put the ball of dough in a lightly oiled bowl (this keeps the dough from sticking as it rises).
Cover the bowl and let rise for 1 hour. I don’t know if keeping it in a dark, undisturbed spot makes any difference but I remember my mom doing that with bread when I was little so I did it to0, just in case.
Oil and flour a bread pan.
After the first hour is up, punch the dough down and place it in the bread pan.
Cover and let rise for another 45 minutes.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
After removing from the oven, let stand for 15 minutes. Then remove from pan to finish cooling.

Filed Under: recipes Tagged With: 100 days of real food, recipes, whole wheat bread

real food challenge week 2

June 24, 2012 3 Comments

After today we will be halfway through our 30 day challenge! It’s going by so fast! Week 2 was just as good or better than week 1. After I posted about last week’s meals, ‘Becca commented:

Thanks for sharing! It is so much easier to imagine what a diet is like when you see several days’ real meals–and, unlike a lot of “real food” blogging I’ve seen, you are eating mostly simple things that are familiar to most people, instead of fermented liver with homemade buckwheat vinegar or whatever. :-)

Congratulations on escaping the clutches of TV!

Her comment made me laugh because I totally know what she’s talking about – usually people who post real food recipes use ingredients that are so foreign to me. As soon as I see ingredients I don’t recognize, I immediately dismiss that recipe and move on. So I hope that seeing what we are eating on our real food challenge (hopefully not too much weird crazy stuff) will give you some ideas that don’t seem so daunting.

So here are some of the things we’ve been eating this week (I’ve provided links to all recipes used…unless there wasn’t a recipe used):

One thing that I forgot to take a picture of was the chicken we cooked. My mom almost always cooked whole chickens when I was growing up (as opposed to the boneless, skinless chicken breast that I usually use) and I’d helped her de-bone them a lot, but I’d never actually cooked on myself. So we bought a whole chicken from the farmer’s market last weekend, cooked it in my largest pot (and it still barely fit!), then de-boned it. It was actually much easier than I expected (although Michael did the hard part of touching the raw chicken, checking the cavity to see if anything needed to be removed, and putting it in the pot) and we got a ton of chicken.

We used some of the chicken to make Greek pitas (which I sadly failed to take any pictures of). They were super easy; just chicken, whole wheat pitas, shredded mozzarella, tomatoes, cucumbers, and tzatziki sauce.

homemade honey whole wheat bread

Michael used this bread and some of the chicken we cooked for sandwiches some days.

This is the only recipe I’ve made that I still haven’t gotten right yet. Lisa’s recipe calls for a bread machine, which we don’t have, so I’ve been adapting it to try to cook it in the oven. However, it keeps not getting cooked all the way through. Each time I make it I’ve been adding 5 more minutes and I guess I’ll just keep doing that until I get it right (unless one of you dear readers wants to make my life easier and send me a bread machine…). It’s still edible, just a little doughy.

kale chips – these are my new obsession! They are super easy to make and so delicious! I’ve been eating them with my lunches just about every day this week. Yum yum yum.

There was tons of fresh fruit at the fame’s market and at Jackson’s Orchard last weekend, so I had a delicious bowl of fruit (peaches, blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries) nearly every day for an afternoon snack.

Another snack we’ve been enjoying is zucchini bread muffins (apparently I forgot to take a picture of them!)

I know I showed you pizza last week, and I’m trying not to repeat even if we ate the same things this week, but I just had to show you these pizzas we made. Michael’s brother came and ate with us one night so instead of making one pizza and splitting it like we usually do, I divided the dough into thirds and we each had our own little pizza. I used my whole wheat pizza dough recipe, homemade pizza sauce (I used this recipe as a guide but added a bunch of stuff to it, I plan to do a tutorial soon so you can have the full recipe), and we shredded mozzarella cheese. Then we each picked our own toppings: Michael had chicken and green pepper (his is on the left in the cast iron skillet), I had green pepper, banana pepper, and onion, and Joe Donald topped his with fresh basil from our garden.

They were fantastic (except that the basil got a little overcooked…now I know to put it under the cheese instead of on top). I’m getting hungry just thinking about them!

Just about every day we make smoothies. We usually make them a few hours after supper for our “dessert”, although they are also a good breakfast on the go or afternoon snack. Michael usually puts a ton of different fruits in his; my smoothie of choice is peanut butter + banana + honey.

Michael still had bacon egg biscuits for breakfast most days, and I did some of the time, but I also wanted to try something else so a few days I had oatmeal (rolled oats, whole milk, honey, vanilla, coconut, and raisins). Even Michael thought it smelled good (and he can’t stand oatmeal!).

This is possibly what I’m most proud of so far on our real food journey: homemade whole wheat tortillas

They weren’t as hard to make as I expected and they are delicious!

homemade salsa (super easy and tastes like Chili’s salsa)

and refried beans in the crockpot (also so easy to make)

tortillas + refried beans + salsa + sour cream = possible my favorite meal so far

delicious!

And finally, we had Michael’s parents over last night for a belated Father’s Day celebration. Michael grilled salmon with a honey glaze that he concocted (it was incredible!). We also had grilled corn, salad with red wine vinaigrette dressing, squash and zucchini, and green beans. Quite the feast!

So in summary, this challenge is going great! We’re eating tons of yummy food and I don’t feel deprived at all. I will say that I spend much more time in the kitchen cooking and washing dishes than I did before, but it’s not as bad as I expected and I think it’s totally worth it. Also, in case you are wondering about cost, I haven’t kept super detailed records or anything, but just from what I’ve estimated, we aren’t spending any more now per week than we did before we started this. So don’t let cost deter you.

Oh yes, and other then a few minutes of Disney channel that was on while I was babysitting last week, we haven’t watched any tv in the past 15 days. We haven’t chosen to use our “allotted” two hours each week. And guess what? I don’t even miss it! Who woulda thunk it?

Filed Under: food, recipes Tagged With: 100 days of real food, challenge, real food

real food challenge week 1

June 17, 2012 3 Comments

Our first week of our real food challenge is complete, and I am thrilled with how it has gone. We’ve had plenty of delicious food to eat and surprisingly I haven’t craved sugar once. Michael had headaches the first couple of days going without coke but he seems to be over that now.

In case any of you out there are thinking about doing a real food challenge, or just want to try to eat a bit healthier, I’ve made a list of some of the foods we’ve eaten for inspiration (apologies in advance for the pictures – 1) they were taken with my cell phone and I just can’t seem to take a good cell phone picture and 2) we usually eat off red plates, which I’ve come to notice are not the most appealing color for food to be on…but at least you can still get an idea – I’ll try to take pictures with my real camera next week).

Our cheese, milk, meat, eggs, maple syrup, all of the veggies, and some of the fruit were all purchased locally (farmer’s market, Jackson’s orchard, Chaney’s milk, etc.). A few things did come from Kroger – mostly organic (avocados, spring mix, oranges, yogurt, butter, mozzarella, bacon).

whole wheat biscuits, bacon, and eggs

burger on a whole wheat pita with sliced tomato and avocado, grilled corn on the cob, and butter beans

pan fried potatoes with leftover crumbled up hamburger, tomato slices, and a peach

leftover potatoes and ground beef, corn on the cob, tomato slices, cucumbers with homemade ranch dip, and an orange

pizza: whole wheat crust and homemade tomato sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese, onion, banana peppers, and green peppers; spring mix salad with homemade red wine vinaigrette

toasted whole wheat pita pocket with cheese, avocado, cucumbers with homemade ranch, tomato slices

mashed potatoes with fresh chives, zucchini and squash, a peach, spring mix salad with homemade red wine vinaigrette

Some other things we’ve eat that I don’t have pictures of are:

homemade banana bread (delicious with just a little peanut butter smeared on it!)
smoothies (peanut butter + banana or banana + various fruits, usually with some greens thrown in)
trail mix (I just mixed peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, and raisins together)
apples with almond butter or peanut butter
whole wheat blueberry waffles with pure maple syrup

So anyway, that’s just a glimpse into our first work. Like I said before, so far so good. Now it’s time to go whip up some other yummy things for next week!

(P.S. our first week of our no tv challenge also went well – we actually chose not to use our allotted two hours of tv this week in order to read. I haven’t really missed it, I’ve just listened to audiobooks while I work around the house rather than watch tv like usual)

Filed Under: food, health, recipes Tagged With: 100 days of real food, challenge, real food, tv

chicken salad

April 17, 2012 1 Comment

I love chicken salad! You know, the kind with the grapes and pecans? So yummy! I don’t love chicken salad that has celery or is loaded with mayonnaise, though. Let me share with you my lighter, celery-free version of chicken salad. Instead of using all mayonnaise, I mix mayo and Greek yogurt – the yogurt has less calories and much more protein, and it kind of “stretches” the mayo so that there is still that taste (since I used a little) but you don’t have to use as much as you normally would.

what you need: chicken, grapes, mayo, Greek yogurt, and pecans

cook and shred your chicken

add mayo

and then add Greek yogurt

halve grapes and add them

and finally, add the pecan pieces

Recipe

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (or cubed if you prefer)
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I use Hellmann’s with canola oil)
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 cup grapes, halved
1/2 cup pecan pieces
salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Cook chicken and shred or cube. Let cool. Add mayo, yogurt, grapes, pecan pieces, salt, and pepper and mix well. Keep refrigerated.

Makes 6 servings of 1/2 cup each; 200 calories per serving. This is South Beach Phase 2.

I love taking chicken salad for my lunch. You can eat it on crackers, on a bed of lettuce, or with bread/pita to make a sandwich, but I just eat mine with a fork. This is also a great dish to take to a potluck or baby/wedding shower.

Filed Under: food, recipes Tagged With: chicken salad, phase 2, South Beach Diet

That Works For Me {book review + giveaway}

April 10, 2012 6 Comments

*******This giveaway is now closed************

The winner is Stephanie Ann – congratulations!

You know how I post a Works for Me Wednesday tip every Wednesday? Well, I’m not the only one – hundreds of helpful tips covering all kinds of topics are linked up each week. And now, Kristen (who hosts WFMW each week) has compiled many of those tips into a organized book.

And guess what else? Yours truly is featured in this book! Yep, three of my Works for Me Wednesday tips were included in the book (but I’m not going to tell you which ones…you’ll have to buy it to find out…).

I am so excited about That Works for Me! (and not just because I’m in it…) There are tons and tons of helpful tips that have been used and confirmed by real people! The book is divided into categories like babies, beauty/fashion, blogging, cleaning, organizing, crafts, gardening, frugality, decor, gifts, homeschooling, parties/holidays, laundry, hospitality, recipes, parenting, marriage, time management, technology, and traveling. Whew! There’s something for everyone! Each entry includes a summary of the tip and provides a link to the original blog post for that tip so you can check it out in more detail.

If you want to find out more about That Works for Me!, go here. Here‘s an example of what a page from the e-book looks like.

There is also a related contest going through the end of April: submit a tip that works for you (you don’t have to have a blog to participate) and you might win a $150 to use to get your house professionally cleaned!! Wowza! You can submit as many tips as you want, too. Go here to find out more about the contest and/or submit your helpful tips.

But that’s not all! I’m also giving away one copy of That Works for Me!. Here’s how you can win:

entry #1: leave a comment on this post telling us about a tip that works for you (it can be a tip about anything!)
entry #2: become a follower of my blog (sign up is on the right side of the blog) and then leave a comment telling me you’re a follower (if you’re already a follower you can just leave a comment telling me so)
entry #3: Like That Works for Me! on Facebook (go here) and then leave a commenting telling me that you did.

The giveaway will end Sunday, April 22.

Can’t wait until then? You can go ahead and buy it now: Click here to visit wearethatfamily. - use the coupon code SAVE1 to get $1 off your purchase.

Filed Under: blogging, crafts, fashion, food, recipes Tagged With: Works for Me Wednesday

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That Works For Me {book review + giveaway}

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