FAMILY/ Featured

My Favorite Necklace & Why I Get One Every Year

{this post is was written for my one word of 2015. Stay tuned for an upcoming post with my one word for this year!}

Every year I choose one word to keep close to my heart throughout the year. This year my word is ‘COMPLETE,’ and I literally keep it close to my heart by wearing it on a special necklace. I have a tradition of getting a one word necklace each year with my ‘word’ on it from our dear Krafty Kash, and it is always so special to me.

Let me tell you why I chose the word ‘COMPLETE.’

Almost 1 year ago I was at a conference called Refresh My Heart that was put on here in Nebraska by my friend Lelia Chealey. I was looking forward to the retreat for so many reasons. My sweet pink sister Karen, whom I met through this blog, was coming all the way from California to be with me and attend the retreat. She was there to support, for I was speaking on “How To Fully Live While Facing Death.” I am a two-time cancer survivor, one whose chances of living a long life has been cut short by cancer.

When we arrived to the conference, at the sign in table there were tiny little boxes that had each of our names on them. We were to carry them with us and NOT to open them until we were told. The anticipation was super fun and I wondered what was in the box…

…I’m writing about my one word choice from last year over at Krafty Kash today. Join me for the rest of the story of how I am living ‘complete’ & to see how the necklace looks on me over there?

………………..

Want your own one-word necklace? There is a great deal going on now. Use olw2016 for to receive 20% off your order. The offer is good through 1/18/16.

Drinks/ Featured/ RECIPES

Creamy Banana Mango Smoothie

Come January I am usually trying to cut out processed sugar after the holidays, & this Creamy Banana Mango Smoothie has been just the thing to help me in that process!

A Natural, Healthy Sweet

Whenever I am craving something sweet, a fruit smoothie really helps satisfy the craving. I love a green smoothie, and I love berry smoothies, but this smoothie with banana and mango is a great break from my typical green smoothies. My youngest girl, Avery, loves this one because there are no seeds in it from berries, and because it is extra creamy!

Health Benefits of This Smoothie

Banana gives great potassium, mango is full of vitamin C, & the yogurt gives great probiotic’s that help keep the gut healthy and happy. Yogurt is also a great source of protein. I love when a smoothie recipe has natural protein in it, whether it is from yogurt or soaked nuts.

Storing Your Smoothie

We like storing smoothies in these fun little glass milk bottles, and I usually double my smoothie recipe just so I can have extra to store in the refrigerator, ready to grab and go. I ordered these glass milk bottles off of Amazon and you can too, using this link. They are a great size, especially for a snack or for kids. They look so sweet all lined up in my refrigerator! We always drink our smoothies with a straw. I’ve been drooling over these extra-large stainless steel straws for smoothies, and want to order some soon. I have the regular size stainless, but extra large would be great for thick smoothies!

……………….
What are your favorite smoothie recipes?

Do you ever make extra and store it?

………………..

Creamy Banana Mango Smoothie

3/4 cup organic yogurt

2 cups frozen cubed mango

1 frozen banana*

honey to taste (optional-usually not needed-depends on the sweetness of your fruit)

Blend yogurt, frozen mango & frozen banana on high until smooth. Add water if needed to thin enough to create a nice vortex, but not so much that you lose the creamyness! Taste. Add some honey if it is too tangy & blend some more until incorporated.

………………..

Tip:

*to easily peel a frozen banana, I fill the blender up with warm water & place the frozen banana in it for a few minutes. I use the blender container because it is tall enough to submerge the entire banana & I will be using it anyway. Once it has soaked enough for the outside of the banana to feel soft, (you don’t want it completely thawed) slice off one end of peel, (I just use my fingers), empty the water, & help the banana slip & slide right out into the blender. If it does not slide easily, you need to let it thaw a bit more, but don’t soak so long that the banana thaws completely. It only takes a minute or two.

Brunch/ Featured/ Homemade Gifts/ RECIPES/ Sweets

Cranberry Chia Jam

I cannot get enough cranberries for some reason this season! I crave them. It all started around Thanksgiving with my Hall of Fame Cranberry Sauce, which was so good that I started putting it on my toast in the morning. Then the New Year hit and I wanted a healthier version, so I came up with this Cranberry Chia Jam recipe. This awesome recipe is sweetened naturally & packed with 2 superfoods; cranberries and chia seeds.

Cranberries

Cranberries are so very healthy. According to WebMD:

Cranberries have vitamin C and fiber, and are only 45 calories per cup. In disease-fighting antioxidants, cranberries outrank nearly every fruit and vegetable–including strawberries, spinach, broccoli, red grapes, apples, raspberries, and cherries.

One cup of whole cranberries has 8,983 total antioxidant capacity. Only blueberries can top that: Wild varieties have 13,427; cultivated blueberries have 9,019.

Cranberries are amazing, but being as tart as they are, it is tempting to use sugar to sweeten them up. There is a reason my Hall of Fame Cranberry Sauce is so good, and that is the 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar in it! I am really trying to detox from sugar so I had to find a way to keep my cranberry -jammed toast habit, but dump the sugar.

My solution was to sweeten the recipe up with honey or maple syrup instead of brown sugar, and cut the amount of sweetness way down. Another way I added some sweetness is by using the juice of the orange. The recipe calls for grated orange peel, so it made sense to use the juice from the orange as a natural sweetener.

Chia Seeds

Using juice and a liquid natural sweetener made the cranberry mixture a bit too runny after cooking, so my solution to this was chia seeds! I was giddy to think that not only would they thicken the jam and act as pectin would in regular jam recipes, (chia seeds swell and turn gelatinous) but they would add more health benefits on top of my toast!

Here are a few reasons why chia seeds are my favorite seed:

~they are jammed packed with protein and minerals and healthy fats and fiber

~they provide more plant-based Omega 3’s than any other food, even FLAX
~5 times the calcium of milk, plus boron which is a trace mineral that helps transfer calcium to bones
~8 times the omega 3’s found in salmon
~3 times more iron than spinach
~2 times the amount of potassium than bananas
~more antioxidants than found in blueberries

~they have 5 GRAMS of fiber PER TABLESPOON!
~the are a complete source of protein, providing all the essential amino acids
~can be stored for years without deterioration of flavor or color

~they are flavorless and dissolve in juice, soups, stews, shakes etc..

~they are low-calorie way to get super FULL!

My Morning Toast Habit

I am in a major morning toast habit. I have found my favorite bread from Sam’s called Dave’s Killer Bread, and it is full of seeds and nuts and all kinds of organic goodness. It has 6 grams of protein, 4 grams of fiber & 670mg of Omega 3’s due to all of the great flax and pumpkin seeds in it. I make 2 slices so all of that goodness doubled. I like to use a softer bread for sandwiches, unless they are grilled or Panini pressed, but this bread is delicious with just a touch of sweet & makes wonderful toast. I buy it in bulk and freeze it. I take it straight from the freezer to the toaster. You can buy it here on Amazon or at Sam’s.

I use either Earth Balance spread or organic butter…whatever we have on hand. We do not drink milk around here but I have added some organic animal products back into our diet. We just do better health- wise with some good organic animal fats & protein, and it especially seems to be a positive thing for our family when it comes to brain health– but that is another post!

Cranberry Chia Jam As A Gift

Here is where I have to make a confession. I had a jar of my Hall of Fame Cranberry Sauce all packaged up and ready to give to my sweet neighbors during the Christmas season. They always give us great home-baked goods and I wanted to send a little something their way, too. I even shared a picture of it on my New Nostalgia Facebook page. I made a jar for them and a jar for us. Confession: I ate the jar for us… and the jar for them. I know! I know! I just couldn’t imagine my toast without cranberry sauce on top and mine ran out so I just had to open their jar and help myself.

Because of my selfishness, our poor neighbors didn’t get a gift until New Year’s…ok…I confess, I delivered it just yesterday. But, I feel like it all worked out well. They are very health conscience, so it felt great to give them my Cranberry Chia Jam instead of the sugar-filled Hall of Fame Cranberry Sauce, and last night I got a text from my neighbor letting me know he was looking forward to toast in the morning. I did have to dump the original Christmas packaging idea, and instead added a fun polka dot tag and a little hint of sparkle, as New Year’s day really was not THAT long ago, right?

Cranberry Chia Jam Recipe

makes 1 pint

2 cups fresh or frozen organic cranberries, sorted and rinsed

1/3 cup of organic 100% maple syrup or honey (more if you want sweeter)

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Peel of one orange, grated (or 2 clementines) I use the fine side of this grater.

Juice of one orange (or 2 clementines)

1 Tablespoon chia seeds

………………..

Add all but chia seeds to a medium saucepan.

On medium heat, let the cranberries pop and cook, 7-9 minutes, mashing and stirring as they cook.

Let cool, then stir in the chia seeds.

Store in a jar. Jam will thicken upon standing.

This will keep for about a month in the refrigerator.

………………..

Enjoy!

Do you love the taste of cranberries?

Do you use chia seeds? How?

Did you make any homemade gifts this holiday season?

Uncategorized

7 Ways To Journal & Why I Write VS Type

Warming Spiced Almond Milk

Chicken Fried Rice

24 Ways To Be A Helper To Your Husband

Lemon Sugar Hand Scrub

Mexican Food Pile On

Hall Of Fame Cranberry Sauce

6 Tried & True Beauty Treatments To Do At Home

Honey Ginger Lemon Tea

My Top 5 Ways To Relieve Stress

Korean Beef

Simple Steps To Meeting With God

…………

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2016! I am so excited for a new year.

I usually find myself giddy about the start of a brand new year but this year I am especially excited to say goodbye to 2015 and have a brand spakin’ new 2016! 2015 was a hard year for me, as an extreme anxiety overtook my body & it took much of the year to figure out what it was and what to do about it.

This little blog of mine took a hit, as my writing voice and stamina was lost during much of the year last year. It was survival. I am so thankful to have found it again & it is slowly returning to something that feels familiar and “me.” As I continue to find my voice & my bravery, I will share with you more of my struggle with anxiety, not to spotlight struggle, but to hopefully give hope to others who find themselves surprised by the same battle.

Despite a hard year, you all were so great and supportive to continue to read New Nostalgia. Looking back over the posts of the last year, I see God’s goodness in helping me produce some content despite my struggle. I hope you enjoyed this little roundup of last years bests posts, and if there is anything that is of use to you, know that was my Heavenly Father carrying me through and helping me create, despite hardship. What a great, sweet & faithful God! All praise and glory goes to Him.

Christmas/ Decorating/ Holidays/Parties/ HOME/ Homemaking/ Sponsored

Easy Simple & Functional Holiday Decor

The holidays are a busy time, especially for Moms preparing their homes for kids winter break or out-of-town guests. Every year, I strive to make this time of year a simple and slow as possible, especially once my kids are on break from school. This year, that has meant paring down my holiday decor and keeping only the things that are simple, efficient, practical, functional & bring us joy.

Here are a few ways I’ve kept holiday decor functional but still beautiful:

Holidays/Parties/ RECIPES/ Sponsored

Warming Spiced Almond Milk

We had our first few flurries of the season last week here in the midwest, and it made me giddy! I immediately wanted to slow life way down, grab a warm drink, a fuzzy blanket & hunker down & savor the moments. The holidays are upon us, and I’ve learned that this is the time to be intentional about creating slow moments so that I can focus in on what matters most. Slowing down allows me to make the Christmas season my own.

A recent slow moment that I enjoyed was with a cup of Warming Spiced Almond Milk. The recipe has been in the back of my brain for a while now, and with the cold weather and holidays upon us, a trip to Target was what was needed to make my warm, slow moment come true!

Meals/ RECIPES/ Sponsored

Creamy Tomato Cauliflower Alfredo Pasta With Arugula & Topped with Crunchy Breadcrumbs

I loved gathering my family around the table for this good-for-you but oh- so- creamy pasta dish. They never guessed by looking at it that the creaminess of the tomato alfredo sauce comes from cauliflower & avocado! When they saw pasta with creamy sauce and crunchy breadcrumb topping, they were ready to dig in.

I’m finding it hard to believe that my girls are growing so quickly. I feel almost frantic to get them to the dinner table every day, just to hold on to the moments of us all being together as a family before they are all grown up and out of the house. I’ve found myself mentioning this quite often on the blog lately, but boy, with 2 of my girls already in high school, reality has hit that they are growing up fast and that time flies.

Thankfully it does not take more than pasta & a great sauce to make my girls happy to come to our family dinner table, and Ragu has made it really easy to obtain a great sauce with just a twist of a jar.

For this recipe, I did a little bit more that twist a jar open. I’m participating in the Ragu Ready. Set. Cook! contest, which is a contest that challenges home cooks to create new and unique recipes featuring a product from the Ragu line, plus a set list of other contest ingredients.

Ragu Ready. Set. Cook! Contest

Would you like to enter this contest? I will give more details at the end of the post, but the grand prize is $5,000, runner-up gets $1,700 & people’s’ choice gets $750. How fun would it be to win some cash while getting creative in the kitchen & feeding your family a great pasta dish?

To align with the contest, your recipe must include 4 of the below ingredients + Ragu. You may also use ingredients outside of the list in your recipe as well.

Here is the list of ingredients you must choose from:

Italian Sausage
Black Beans
Garbanzo Beans
Eggs
Feta Cheese
Goat Cheese
Breadcrumbs
Arugula
Cilantro
Pine Nuts
Bacon
Shrimp
Polenta
Pasta
Corn Tortillas
Cauliflower
Spaghetti Squash
Avocado

For my recipe, I chose pasta, cauliflower, avocado & breadcrumbs. I decided to keep it meat free as I am always looking for a hearty pasta dish for our Meatless Monday nights.

I love that you can now find pasta that has protein in it. The pasta I used in this dish had 17 grams of protein per serving in it, all from plant sources (lentils, chickpeas, flaxseed, barley, oats & spelt).

Between the protein in the pasta and all of the veggies that create the sauce, I did not serve this pasta with anything but a few sliced tomatoes, the last from our garden. We didn’t even need a salad as the arugula greens were right in the pasta! It was such an easy, hearty meal.

The sauce starts out with an entire head of cauliflower. This is the key ingredient to making a creamy, vegetarian alfredo sauce. You simply cut up the cauliflower, put it in a pan with some garlic and water, cover & let cook until very soft. It must be soft if you want your sauce super creamy!

When I saw that avocado was an ingredient in the contest list, I knew it would add some good-for-you fats into the dish while upping the creamy factor even more! I added lemon for 2 reasons–to keep the avocado from browning & also to add some acid to the dish, which is always pleasing to the palate.

While your pasta is boiling & your cauliflower is getting nice and soft on the stove, prepare your avocado with lemon by smashing them together with a fork.

This is also a great time to prepare your crunchy breadcrumb topping. This topping takes the recipe to a whole new level! Putting just a couple of butter into breadcrumbs and adding just a bit of parmesan cheese makes such a great cheesy & crunchy topping to the creamy pasta. This is so much better for you than having cream, butter and cheese in large portions in the sauce like most alfredo sauce recipes call for.

Pictured above are all the components to the recipe that I prepared while the cauliflower is cooking.

Ragu sauce adds a ton of rich flavor & aroma to the sauce. Ragu has been an Assunta secret recipe since 1937 & is made with vine- ripened, slow- simmered tomatoes, garlic, and herbs. I love that there is no artificial color, flavor, or high-fructose corn syrup added to their sauces. They let us smell, see & savor their long-standing tradition of fresh taste, and they even offer an organic sauce!

The cauliflower should be cooked soft enough to easy break up with just a spoon. Look how amazingly creamy it is after blending! That is just cauliflower, garlic, water, salt & pepper. This alone tastes amazing, but for the contest, I wanted to kick it up even further.

I added the smashed up avocado & jar of Ragu sauce, then blended some more.

Isn’t that a beautiful, rich, creamy dreamy sauce? Can you believe there is no dairy in it?

I mixed the hot pasta and sauce together in a large pan, added the arugula and stirred until it wilted.

I then put it into a baking dish and topped it with the prepared breadcrumbs.

After just a few minutes under the broiler, the topping becomes a beautiful crunchy, golden brown & the parmesan cheese sizzles and smells SO good!

My family had no idea that the bread crumb mixture is the only place there is cheese in this recipe! They ate it up and asked for seconds.

So what do you think? Do you think you would make this recipe for your family? Do you want to participate in the Ragu Ready. Set. Cook! contest too? If so, keep reading for instructions after the recipe.

Creamy Cauliflower Tomato Alfredo Pasta with Arugula & Crunchy Breadcrumb Topping

1 tsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 head of cauliflower – cut up

1-1/2 cups of water

1 lb pasta

1 avocado

juice of half a lemon

1 jar Ragu Sauce, Traditional

1 cup arugula

1 cup breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons of butter

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

salt & pepper

Directions:

Saute the minced garlic in the olive oil in a small saucepan over low heat. Allow to cook for a few minutes, until the garlic is tender and fragrant, but not browned. Add 1 cup of water to the saucepan, along with the cauliflower, and bring the water to a boil. (The water will not cover the cauliflower, and that’s okay.) Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the pot for 8-10 minutes, until the cauliflower is fork-tender and very soft. You may need to add a bit more water if it evaporates completely before cauliflower is tender.

Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook pasta to al dente according to instructions on the box. Drain and set aside in the large pan it boiled and keep warm.

Meanwhile:

Smash avocado with juice of 1/2 of lemon. Set aside.

Mix breadcrumbs with melted butter & parmesan cheese. Mix well and set aside.

When cauliflower is finished cooking, transfer all contents in the pan to the blender. Blend until very creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Season well!

Add avocado & lemon mixture. Blend again.

Add jar of Ragu sauce. Blend again.

Add sauce to the pasta & toss. Add arugula. Heat gently and stir until arugula is wilted.

Put pasta into a 9×13 pan, top with breadcrumb mixture.

Broil for just a couple of minutes, until the breadcrumbs are toasty brown.

Serve immediately while hot.

……………

Ragu Ready. Set. Cook! Contest Information:

Ready. Set. Cook! challenges home cooks to create new and unique recipes featuring a sponsored ingredient, plus a set list of other contest ingredients.

Recipe Contest Elements:

Entry phase –4 weeks from 11/2 – 11/30- (you can enter on Food.com/Ragu page. Live on 11/2)
Rate and review phase –2 weeks
Judging phase –2 weeks
Winner announcement
People’s choice award

Prizing:

Grand prize $3,000
Runner-up $1,250
People’s Choice: $750

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Ragu. The opinions and text are all mine.

Older Posts

Newer Posts