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FUN/DIY/ Holidays/Parties/ RECIPES/ Sweets

Apple S’mores

My in-laws have the best fire pit, and we have used it more than once the last few weeks.  There is nothing like the smell of fire in air and seeing marshmallows puff up and turn golden that gets me more excited about fall.  Ok, maybe the smell of chili, but, naw…s’mores win!
This Apple S’more is a version that is a favorite with my family.  My sister-in-law’s mother learned to do this in girl scouts, and boy am I glad she did!  It really is a great way to have a s’more.  It adds some great texture and makes me feel good that we are having a bit of fiber with all that sugar!  All you need to do is substitute apple for graham crackers.  
Want to know a way to take this even up a notch?  Instead of Hershey’s chocolate bars, use a large Reese’s Peanut Butter cup.  Oh man.  It is awesome!  It is like you are eating an apple dipped in peanut butter and chocolate and marshmallow–oh my!

Isn’t it a pretty pit?  Our friend Michael, author of Koinoia, knows how to build a wicked fire.  He built the one above for us during my daughter’s birthday party.  See the cross in it?  Fitting, for he is a Godly man.

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GF, Vegan & Raw/ Meals/ RECIPES

Garbanzo Bean Taco “Meat”

I get so excited when I find plant-based recipes that are easy, healthy and my whole family loves.  This is one of those recipes.  I will make it again and again!

Even if you do not consider yourself vegetarian or vegan, it is still a great thing to incorporate more plant foods in one’s diet.  Even one meat-free dinner a week will help your health, and your budget!  Beans are much cheaper than meat!

This recipe is from Happy Herbivore.  She has done it again with a fast and easy recipe that will find it’s way into my regular rotation recipe box.

All you do is drain a can of garbanzo beans (or chickpeas if you will) and then toss them with taco seasoning, tamari (or soy sauce), & lemon juice.  Then roast.

 

While my beans were roasting, I decided to use up some of the veggies I had on hand and sliced them thin with a mandolin slicer, then softened them up in my grill pan.  I added a little grill seasoning (21 Salute Seasoning from Trader Joes.)  This added a layer and texture that really made these tacos.

When the beans are done, they are nice and crunchy on the outside.  I pulsed them in the food processor for a minute, as suggested by others who commented on this recipe.  Leaving the beans round can make for very messy eating.  This also gave them what I consider a “meaty” texture.

I did make sure I saved a few whole beans out for snacking.  My sister-in-law recommended this recipe to me and said that her husband just ate the leftover beans as a healthy, crunchy snack.  Yum!

Another way to eat this is wrapped up in lettuce.  This was super good and refreshing lunch that I made the next day with leftovers.

Garbanzo Bean Taco “Meat”

15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained & rinsed

1 tbsp tamari (or soy sauce)

2 tsp lemon juice

1 recipe taco seasoning (I used 1/2 of a Trader Joes Taco Seasoning packet.  Can use 3 tbsp of this recipe if desired)

Preheat oven to 400.  Toss tamari, lemon juice and seasonings.  Add beans and toss until coated.  Place on a tray, spray with oil.  Bake 20-25 minutes until crunchy.

Assemble tacos with lettuce and tomatoes and fajita vegetables (optional) & enjoy!

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4th of July/ Drinks/ FUN/DIY/ Holidays/Parties/ RECIPES

2 Ingredient Sparkling Lemonade

This is the easiest beverage to make, and tastes great!  I have used it for 2 parties in the last 2 weeks, and I got positive feedback both times.  Both kids and adults love this.  
All you have to do is buy frozen lemonade concentrate, and in place of water, use sparkling water!  
That is it!  The sparkling water adds fizz and sparkle, but does not over-sweeten like adding a lemon-lime soda would.  It is delicious and super refreshing!

I love to use Lemonade Concentrate from Trader Joes.  It is the only brand I can find that does not contain high fructose corn syrup.  The brand of sparkling water really does not matter.  Add a slice of lemon to each glass for pretty!

Sparkling Lemonade
1 can Lemonade Concentrate
Sparkling Water
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Make lemonade according to directions on can, using sparkling water instead of regular water.  Add a slice of lemon if desired to each glass. Serve over ice & enjoy!

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RECIPES

Hummus Sandwich Heaven

This amazing hummus sandwich is brought to you by a guest of mine that I’m really excited for you to meet.  It is not just any ol’ sandwich, it has creamy hummus and crunchy green apple and chewy dried cranberries oh yum…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let me introduce you to the maker of the beauty–Kasey of In Kase You Were Wondering.  Kasey and I are “in real life” friends, meaning, I know her in real life, not just a cyber relationship. What is funny is, most of our friendship has been built online! We know a lot of the same peeps, we go to the same church, she makes amazing food at a coffee shop I love and go to, but I feel I know her heart through what she shares on Facebook and her blog. Usually bloggers need time to ‘find their voice,’ before their writing really takes off.  Not Kasey. She has a gift to keep things real, to write in her own voice, AND she is one of the few bloggers I know that make me laugh out loud more often than not with her posts.
 

She is a new blogger, so if you visit her site and like what you see, will you subscribe, like or add your name to her email list? Please? I don’t think you will regret it…I love having Kasey in my life and I know you will too!

On to that sandwich…this sandwich came up on my Instagram feed, and my mouth started watering.  When I saw who posted it, I knew I had to know how to make it.  So I made a request, and look what happens when you ask nicely! {and Kasey– it was no joke! :}

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A Guest post by Kasey of In Kase You Were Wondering:

I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about a sandwich before. I don’t know why I haven’t either, because I LOVE me a good sandwich. But tonight, I had a first…a request (even if it was maybe just a joke) to blog about a delicious sandwich known as (drum roll…) the hummus sandwich. Thanks for the inspiration, Amy! 🙂

This may be something all you healthy eaters have always known about, but remember I am fairly new to the whole healthy eating gig. My idea of healthy used to be not eating ALL the french fries from McDonalds….that’s kind of a joke, but not really. I didn’t used to even know what hummus was. Now, I’ve eaten so much of it that I actually had to take a hummus hiatus…or better known to me as a hummaitus. I’m getting off track here, I can see that…

I make this at the coffee shop I work at and I don’t think I’m doing a disservice to the place by sharing with you how it’s made. Anyone with eyes can look at their sandwich and identify each ingredient. It’s not that hard. But I will say…{click here to continue reading, & for a Hummus Sandwich Heaven how-to}
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RECIPES

Introducing Recipage at New Nostalgia

We are excited to introduce Recipage here at New Nostalgia!  Recipage is a page that you can access by the tab above, marked by the arrow.  We wanted to make finding a recipe here at New Nostalgia as easy as possible for our readers, and Recipage is a way to do just that!
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When you hit the Recipage tab, it will take you to a page that looks like the one above.  There will be a featured recipe slideshow, the most recently added recipes below that, and an area to search using keywords for recipes.  It will also list some most popular keywords.
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As you scroll a bit further down the page, you will see my favorite area.  There are 4 tabs that allow you to search for recipes in 4 different ways: Cooking Method, Course, Dietary & Key Ingredient.
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My favorite tab is the ‘Course’ tab.  When you hit this tab, it will give you the names of different courses. I choose ‘snack’ (of course.)  The above pic is what the snack course looks like visually.  It has all of the recipes on New Nostalgia that are tagged as ‘snacks.’  Nifty, huh?
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The last way it allows you to browse is alphabetically.  To find this area, you just scroll down and it is at the bottom of the main Recipage.
We hope you like what you see, and we hope that this will make using our site easier and more enjoyable for you!

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Brunch/ Featured/ GF, Vegan & Raw/ RECIPES/ Sweets

Chocolate Chia Pudding

I needed some chocolate asap, and I also knew I needed to figure out how to get a bit of protein, iron and fiber into my body. I had skipped my daily green smoothie so I knew I was missing some of these key nutrients.  Enter, the chia seed, and hello Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Pudding!

I got this craving at 7:30 in the evening just as the sun was going down. I hurried to gather my ingredients to take advantage of the fading natural light for photos. I’m not kidding when I say this takes just a minute to make. It was so easy! Milk of your choice, cocoa powder, chia seeds, peanut butter & maple syrup. Throw it all into a cup measure and stir!

 

The hardest part of this recipe is having the patience for the chia seed to do its thing. It takes a few minutes for the chia to swell and absorb the liquid to turn it into a pudding consistency. The top photo was take after 5 minutes of refrigeration. It still was on the runny side, but I was impatient and my light was fading. It thickened up enough to use as a dip for apples in just about 10 more minutes.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Pudding
{makes 1 serving}
1/2 cup milk ( I used almond.  Can use dairy or coconut or whatever you desire)
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp maple syrup
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Frozen berries (optional)
Throw all into a cup and stir. Refrigerate, stirring every few minutes, until desired consistency…up to 20 minutes. (I ate mine after 10 minutes)
I’ve talked about chia before.  It is a superstar superfood and I love it.  I bought the above book and devoured it in 2 days. My family had fun teasing me, as I sat and read my book while drinking a bottle of chia kombucha.
                More about chia from The Wellness Warrior:
1. Chia is gluten free
2. It is super high in dietary fibre, making it great for digestion and healing digestion issues.
3. It contains 20% Omega 3 ALA, making it a super food for the brain and heart. Chia has eight times more Omega 3 than salmon!
4. It boasts 20% protein
5. The protein is a complete protein with all 8 essential amino acids
6. It is high in antioxidants (It has a four times higher ORAC value than blueberries)
7. Chia contains five times more calcium than milk
8. Chia contains seven times more vitamin C than oranges
9. It contains three times more iron than spinach
10. It contains twice the potassium content of banana
11. It is food for healthy skin, hair and nails
12. It has a positive impact balancing blood glucose levels (making it awesome for diabetics)
13. Chia makes a great egg replacement. Just combine with water to form a gel, and add it to recipes that call for egg.

 

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HOME/ How-Tos/ Meals/ Organizing/ RECIPES

School Lunch Plan-No More Baggies & A Free Weekly Lunch Plan Printable

Like I said in this post, I am on a mission this year to make school lunches something my kids look forward to.  I also want to feel good about the food I am serving them.  By the end of last year, if they had to eat one more peanut butter and jelly sandwich (which they had in their lunch every day) my girls would look at me like I was asking them to eat dirt.  Thankfully, over the summer their taste for pb & j has returned, and I want to keep it that way.
I also wanted to get rid of baggies.  I hated spending the money on zip baggies, not to mention the waste!  I started early on my search for the perfect lunch bag & containers, and after using them for almost a week, I can say I am super excited about how smoothly packing school lunches has been going.  
The lunch bags I found are Nike brand.  I found them at Shopko, but you can also order them here on Amazon.  These are perfect.  They have 2 pockets, and are deep enough to fit the water bottle inside with the lunch.  I love that I can fit the sandwich size container in the front pocket, which leaves the large back pocket open for water bottle & whatever else I want to fit in there.  The zippers are heavy duty and the bag is really well made.  I also found the BPA free water bottles at Shopko, my girls LOVE these. They are also Aladdin brand and they unscrew on the top like a regular water bottle, but they also unscrew further down to fit ice in if desired.

The blue containers are Aladdin brand and are AWESOME.  I found them at Target, but they can also be purchased here.  The sandwich size container is deep and comes with a removable ice pack…love that! The smaller blue container also has a removable ice pack.  The little green containers are from Rubbermaid also from Target.  They are perfect for a single cookie, nuts, dips, dried apricots, etc.  I bought each girl one large sandwich container, one side container, and two small green lid containers.  It has worked perfectly for lunches so far.
I was concerned about washing them out every night, but it really is not a big deal.  Usually we just wipe them out, but if the food is messy, we throw them in the dishwasher.  The girls empty their lunch bags as part of their afternoon routine, and they know that filling their water bottles and putting them in the refrigerator, putting their ice packs in the freezer, and emptying their containers are all part of their chart.  

Click Here To Download Free Printable
So how am I keeping this all organized and easy peasy?  With the help of our sponsor, Clean Mama.  She makes beautiful printables that keep ones home running smoothly, and she made free Weekly Lunch Plan for us!  I just love it!  It has definitely helped in keeping my mind less frazzled in trying to remember what to serve for lunch.  I especially like the area for ideas, it reminds me of food that might otherwise sit in the refrigerator and go to waste.  If you love the above printable, make sure you check out Clean Mama’s shop, which is full of more!

Here is what is on our idea list this week:
Main
Turkey Sandwich
PB & J Sandwich
Cheese Tortellini
Bean Burrito
Fruits
Apples
Peaches
Kiwi
Frozen Berries (thawed perfectly by lunch)
Veggies
Shredded carrots
Spinach Salad
Pepper strips
Protein & Dairy
I skip these because we don’t eat dairy in our home, or at least very little.  
Beverages
My girls drink water every day.  I believe juice is just too expensive and full of sugar.  Even 100 percent juice has natural sugars in it that can spike blood sugar levels since the fiber is removed from it. I can’t tell you how much money we save by just being water drinkers in our home!
Treats
Whole grain bars
Chocolate bars
Dried cranberries
Nuts
Popcorn
Chips
Dried apricots
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Here is our lunch plan for this week:

Monday
No School
Tuesday
Turkey Sandwich
Chips
Peach
Carrots
Cookie
Wednesday
Cheese Tortellini
Bread Cubes
Italian Dressing for both
Whole Grain Bar
Kiwi
Dried Cranberries
Thursday
Pb & Jelly Sandwich
Popcorn
Apple 
Granola bar
Dried Apricots

Friday
Bean Tacos
Chips & Salsa
Apples
Granola Bar
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I also bought them each a new thermos, same Alladin brand.  I will save that and my ideas for another post!

Need MORE School Lunch Food Ideas?  Click here.

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