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HEALTH/ Healthy Eating/ How-Tos

What Will Kill Our Children

This post is linked to 30-Minute Blog Challenge @ Steady Mom.

It is estimated that one out of every three children in the United States is obese.  It is an epidemic.

This video is one of the absolute best I have seen in making this real.  Please, please watch even just a few minutes.  Jamie Oliver is now on my list of favorite people.  I love his message, I love his delivery (he is funny!) and I hope as many people as possible can view this video.  Please share this with those you love.  Share it on facebook, email it, tweet it-get the word out and save our children!

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Brunch/ RECIPES

Homemade Granola Bars

I have wanted to make homemade granola bars for quite awhile now.  I just can’t stand how expensive they are at the stores, and so full of hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup or sugar!  I’ve seen several recipes for granola bars, but I am not sure I will need to try any others out after tasting these! They were very easy to make, made a big batch, and tasted super yummy.  They are great for the lunch box or an after school snack!

I found the recipe at Kitchen Stewardship.  I will need to continue to look around and find more recipes on her blog, she earned my trust with this one recipe!

Homemade Granola Bars
41/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup butter, softened* (I did 1/4 c butter and 1/4 c peanut butter. YUM! I’d like to try coconut oil instead of butter in my next batch)
1 cup honey (I used 3/4 cup, +1/4 cup water, then added 1/2 cup dried cranberries and 1/2 cup chocolate chips for more sweetness)

Add-ins: 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup chopped walnuts, dried fruit, sunflower seeds, coconut etc)

Lightly butter a 9×13 inch pan.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and honey together first, then add all ingredients except add-ins.  Beat hard until combined.  Stir in add-ins.  Press mixture into the pan, really press so the bars don’t fall apart. (I used my hands).
Bake 325 degrees for 25 minutes until golden brown.  Let it cool at least 10 minutes before cutting into bars.  Let it cool completely in the pan before removing and serving.
This recipe makes at least 20 good-sized bars, which as Kitchen Stewardship said, “might be equivalent of 3 boxes of Quaker chewy bars.  Even though butter and honey are on the pricey side, it still works out to be nicely frugal”

More thoughts from Kitchen Stewardship below:

Transformations:

  • Add 1/4 cup cocoa powder and skip the chocolate chips
  • Use 1/2 cup natural peanut butter in place of 1/2 cup of butter (tried this today – it is divine!)
  • The honey flavor is very distinct in this recipe, but when using peanut butter, it almost disappears.  I’m wondering if PB is sweet enough that I can cut out some honey and just use water instead.  ??
  • Crumbs in the bottom of the storage bag?  So yummy over homemade yogurt with fresh fruit.

this post is linked to:
Tasty Tuesday Parade Of Foods @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
Show and Tell Wednesdays @ Blue Cricket Designs
Real Food Wednesdays @ Cheeseslave

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Meals/ RECIPES

Easy Shredded Beef Taco Meat In The Crockpot

I found this recipe online years ago. The story was that it came from small, family- run, Mexican restaurant in Chicago.  The original poster said he had to beg the owners for the recipe for at least a couple of years, until they rewarded him with a copy for being such a faithful customer.

It is a favorite of mine, and everyone I serve it to wants the recipe.
It really could not be easier!

Easy Shredded Beef Taco Meat
1lb. beef stew meat
3-4 cloves of garlic
3-4 Tbls Worchestishire Sauce
3 capfulls hot sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste

Mix all and cover with water in the crockpot.  (water should come to just above the mixture)
Cook 5-6 hours on low, until tender and can be shredded.  Drain.
Serve on tacos, with your choice of taco toppings.
Is also great on nachos!

This post is linked to:
Foodie Friday @ Designs By Gollum
Friday Food @ MomTrends

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Brunch/ RECIPES

Mabel’s Corncakes

One of my favorite recipe books was a gift from my mom years ago.  It is called “The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook.”  It is full of comfort food, brunch recipes, and soup recipes, many that have been passed down through generations.  I love that there are recipes with simple food such as these corncakes, but also plenty of elegant foods.  It takes you all over the States, with a little story about each Inn/Bed & Breakfast.  I love it, and I love my mom for knowing how much I would love it!

The American Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook, Vol. 1: More Than 1,700 Crowd-Pleasing Recipes from 500 American Inns

This recipe comes from The Lemon Bay Bed and Breakfast in Englewood, Florida.  I’m assuming it is from Mabel:), as it is called “Mabel’s Corncakes.”

I made breakfast for dinner this weekend, and I wanted something a bit different from my normal Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancake recipe.  This recipe caught my eye, it only had 7 ingredients and one of them was buttermilk, which we all know I use often.  My girls liked them so much that they only saved ONE for me!  Guess I will have to double the recipe next time!

Mabel’s Corncakes
11/3 c. buttermilk
1 tbls. oil (I used coconut oil)
1 egg
1 tsp salt
3/4 c. corn meal
1/4 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda

Combine the ingredients and mix well.  Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a got griddle.  Cook until golden on each side.  Serve with homemade jam or 100% maple syrup.  (add a bit more flour if batter is too runny, I had to add about 1/8 of a cup). Serves 4,

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Brunch/ Healthy Eating/ RECIPES

Healthy Buttermilk Coffee Cake

We had company from out of town this weekend.  I love having company, especially when it is dear, dear friends who are coming to visit.  I have a post on “anti-procrastination” coming up, where I will talk more about our company, as I think everyone should meet them-yes, they are THAT great.

While they were here, I made coffee cake.

Our friends are coffee snobs, so I knew I would need coffee cake to go with our coffee snobbery.  I left it up to them to make the coffee, and boy was it GOOD, they know coffee!
I made the coffee cake, and was really happy with it! I had never made it before, and it was on the healthy side, so I was not sure how it would turn out.  I knew if it bombed, I would still be loved, because coffee is the only thing they are snobby about. 🙂

I found the recipe at Passionate Homemaking.  It uses many wholesome ingredients including buttermilk, and if you read this blog regularly, you know I have a thing for buttermilk.  It is part of my every week shopping trip, it is great for the gut and cheap!  You can read more about the benefits of buttermilk here. (scroll down when you get to the post)

Healthy Buttermilk Coffee Cake

2 1/4 cup flour (I used 11/4 cups whole wheat flour & 1 cup white flour)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup rapadura (or sucanant  (whole cane sugar))
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup walnuts, optional (I left these out)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk
Combine flour, salt, and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon into a large bowl. Add sweeteners and oils. Mix till well blended. Take out 3/4 cup for topping and add chopped nuts, and 1 tsp. cinnamon and mix. Set aside. To the original batter, add soda, baking powder, egg and buttermilk. DO NOT OVERMIX. If you do so, it will not rise well. Place in oiled 8×8 pan or pie pan. Sprinkle topping. Bake at 300 degrees for approx. 45 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. (I had to bake mine for about 55-60 minutes)

My friends liked it, my kids liked it, and it complimented our coffee just perfectly.  I will for sure be making this again!  Thanks for the recipe, Lindsey at Passionate Homemaking!

This post linked to:
Made By You Monday @ Skip To My Lou
Market Yourself Monday @ Sumo’s Sweet Stuff
Mouth Watering Monday @ A Southern Fairytale
Tasty Tuesdays @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
Tuesdays At The Table @ All The Small Stuff
Foodie Friday @ Designs By Gollum
Real Food Wednesdays @ Kelly The Kitchen Kop

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FUN/DIY/ HEALTH/ Healthy Eating/ How-Tos/ RECIPES/ Valentine's Day

Fun For Kids Food!

Thinking outside the lunchbox.

What little one would not want to eat this? Read more here.

Something that surprised me when I started blogging was COMMUNITY.  I had no idea I would ‘meet’ such great people.  There are many amazing mom bloggers that I have learned so much from, and have had a great time commenting back and forth with.  I’d like to introduce you to one of them.  Her name is Sarah, from For The Love Of Naps.  Isn’t that a great title?  She is a “Lover Of Naptime,” the mom of two young boys, and she “takes each day, starts fresh, and tries to learn moment to moment.” Her perspective on life and parenting is one to be admired. This quote is under her header on her blog:

“The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.”
-Anna Quindlen(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11)

Yep, she ‘gets it,’ and I love reading and learning from someone who does! She has a great way of seeing things through the eyes of children and instinctively knows what would delight them. Here are a few fun food posts of that in action, shared with her permission.  Read on, then take some time to go visit her, here.

Just in time for Valentines Day, a healthy- for- your- heart breakfast.

See how she did it here.

She created some love at lunchtime, read about it here.

If she lived closer, I’d invite myself over and just hope she would serve food

on a toothpick! She even suggested making little mini pea kabobs, so cute.

How blessed are her boys?  Brings this verse to mind:

 “Her children get up and give her honour, and her husband gives her praise…Proverbs 31:28

Healthy Eating/ Meals/ RECIPES

Simple Shredded Chicken

The last few weeks, I have been using this method of cooking my chicken, and really love the simplicity of it.  I stocked up on Smart Chicken Bone-In Chicken Breasts when they were on sale.  They come 2 to a package, which I have found makes about 2 cups of shredded chicken.  I use the bones to make Bone Stock, then I use the chicken in Chicken Soup for my husbands lunches, or I use it for different dinner recipes that I have (Chicken Tacos, Chicken & Rice casserole, Chicken Pot Pie, Chicken Tortilla Soup, etc)

All I do is:
1.} Thaw the chicken
2.} Slice open package and get the chicken out with tongs so I don’t have to touch its slime:)
3.} Plop it in a stock pan
4.} Cover it with water
5.} Quarter an onion and add.
6.} Peel and cut in half 2-3 carrots, add.
7.} Wash and cut in half 2-3 celery stalks, add.
8.} Bring to boil
9.} Turn down heat and simmer for 11/2 hours, or until no longer pink.
10.} Take a long whiff of my incredible- smelling house.
11.}Remove chicken from broth using tongs (don’t pitch that broth!)
12.} Let cool.
13.} Take off bone and shred. (don’t throw away those bones!)
14.} Use in a recipe or freeze in a mason jar for later use.

Use bones to make very healthful chicken stock:
1.} Throw bones in crockpot
2.}Add broth saved from above steps.
3.} Do steps 4-7 above. (depending on how much broth you had from cooking chicken, you may not need to add water.  Just eyeball it and fill crockpot up about 2/3 full.)
4.} Add 1 Tbls vinegar (this helps all the healthful minerals extract from the bones into the stock)
5.} Cook in crockpot on low 12-14 hours.
6.} Cool and strain.
7.} Put in mason jar and freeze until needed.
8.} Remember to season with salt and pepper when ready to use.

Read this post for more information on the health benefits of making your own stock.


This post is linked to:
Food on Fridays @Ann Kroeker. Writer.
30 Minute Blog Challenge @ Steady Mom
Made It Mondays @ The Persimmon Perch

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