A year?!

Has it really been a year since I updated this? How bizarre to think of how time changes, priorities change...

Test Menu!

Know what I love? Like LOVE? Besides my family of course? I LOVE to cook - literally I can be in the worst mood ever and throw me into a kitchen and there is my happy place -













Yep you will see Mister I Am 2 is "helping" me with my apples and still it was a blast! Now that I snacked and tasted everything though I am not terribly hungry ha!

Either way - want to meal prep? you should head on over and check them out! SO worth it!














I also got to play with my new Tupperware toy and refill all my freezer containers so count today a WIN!

A long while back I am sure I posted some about Once A Month Meals, it really is an amazing web page with wonderful people working behind the scenes. In an effort to "reclaim my happy" I reached out to the team to ask if I could BEG for a new test menu! It paid off! I had one within a few days and today was AMAZING fun!

Potato Soup

Some days you wake up and it's pouring down rain and you decide "Soup, yes soup and home made rolls for dinner" and then you eat until you burst cause it's so delicious!

Of course my roll is torn up and tossed in ;)

6 TBS butter
1 onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrots, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
8-15 potatoes depending on size, chopped
4 cups broth (I used Imagine No Chicken Broth)
Salt and pepper to taste
Cheese for garnish

Melt butter in a stock pot, then saute onion, celery, carrots and garlic until onions are translucent. Then toss the potatoes to coat, if using a bullion or stock base add it now, then add water (alternately add all your broth now) Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

I then used my Vitamix to blend over half of it and topped with a little spinkle of cheese. Everyone devoured it the 4 (almost 5) year old inhaled it!

I then served it with home made buns..

Lasagna!

Tonight - I made Lasagna tonight that was out of this world so I HAD to share.



Sauce:

*1lb sweet sausage                             *2 TBS White Sugar

*1/2 lb ground beef                            *1 1/2 tsp dried basil

*1/2 minced onion                              *1/2 tsp fennel seeds

*3 garlic cloved minced                       *1 tsp italian seasonings

*1 (28 oz) can crushed tomates           *1 tbs salt

*2 (6 oz) cans of tomato paste            *1/4 tsp black pepper

*1 (15 oz) can of tomato sauce

*1/2 cup of water 


Cook meats, onions and garlic and cook until softened or browned. Then add the remaining ingredients and simmer at LEAST an hour!

Home made noodles:

*2 cups whole wheat flour
*3 eggs 
*1/4 tsp salt
*water as needed

Have you made noodles? If not check here for this recipe. My one disclaimer is that I always roll my noodles for lasagna PAPER THIN literally the thinnest setting on my pasta roller that I can. Why you ask? Well it is essential to me that a lasagna have a lot of THIN layers, for one the flavor is SO MUCH better. Don't believe me? Make one. Then you can tell me a 6 noodle lasagna of 2 layers is better than my 5 or six =)

Filling:

*1 16 oz container of ricotta
*1 egg

Beat together and make creamy

Others:

*1 cup mozzarella
*1/4-1/2 cup Asiago
*1/4-1/2 cup Parmesan

My layering technique is as follows. 

*a little sauce
*noodles
*sauce 
*mozzarella
*noodles
*ricotta
*sauce
*noodles
*repeat
*parm and asiago for the top!

Bake at 350* covered for 20 minutes and then uncovered for 20 more!

Then devour. Warning - you may eat every last bite. I am so glad I made this in my Tupperware Brand Ovenware - cleanup was SO easy! Need to get some of your own? (Yes of course you do, everyone needs this amazing stuff) Shop here! 

Talk about delicious clean eating!
These boats are decadent and so healthy.

Bake your spaghetti squash at 425* for 20 minutes. Then shred the squash meat and place in a bowl.

While your squash is cooking: in a skillet cook onions, garlic, meat and potatoes. When they are soft, use seasonings to taste (I used about 1 tsp of each). Stir in the corn salsa (mine was homemade) and beans and heat through. Mix the filling with the squash meat.
Re stuff the squash drizzle some extra salsa on top and top with cheese.
Bake for 20 minutes at 350*.

Garlic Chicken Mushroom Pizza

I used my Pressure Cooker again. This time I put the chicken breast, garlic, and mushrooms into the cooker, with broth to cover. Cooked 11 minutes. Rough chopped it all and threw it onto my homemade pizza dough with cheese!
The best part? While the toppings cooked I made the dough. Baked 20 minutes and DONE.

Cheese Burger Macaroni

So I have the new Tupperware Microwave Pressure Cooker. And I am having so much fun playing with it!
My kids and husband love Hamburger helper. It's true. I have accepted it, but I don't have to feed them it. Enter my homemade version.
Made in ONE pot. 20 minutes start to finish.
Literally toss all ingredients (except cheese) into the pressure cooker. Microwave for 15 minutes, let the pressure drop, stir in cheese and eat!

Still using Meal Mentor

Hey Y'all Still using Meal mentor from Lindsay Nixion, Time to tempt you with her deliciousness

Buffalo Chickpea Pasta

Burrito Squash Boat

Chickpea Florentine

Enchilada Burrito

Italian Pasta Salad

Italian Squash Boat

Potato Nachoes

Summer Rolls

Thai Rice

Indian Spiced Potatoes and Peppers

Mexican Potato

PB and B (my creation but inspired by her!

Buffalo Egg

Okay, this. This melted my heart into an ooey gooey puddle and gave me food coma.
Not WFPB by any means but totally vegetarian

1 Slice local made bread
2 eggs
Buffalo sauce
Spinach or mixed greens
Tomato
Drizzle Ranch
*optional cheese

Toast bread, top with greens and tomato. Fry up eggs in a non stick (no oil peeps) skillet, top greens and drizzle with sauces.

1 yellow, 1 red, partial green and partial orange.

Meal Mentor

So I decided to try a meal planning service. It's offered by Happy Herbivore  which is perfect for me since I am trying to stay Plant based... Let me re- phrase that. I AM mostly plant based I just make a few changes on occasion like eggs.
ANYHOW. After doing my reset I decided that the facts just point to me doing better on less or no animal protein, and my hunt led me to Happy Herbi, where I tried some of her recipes and FELL IN LOVE. She mentioned offering a meal plan, WFPB (whole foods plant based) so limited nuts and soy. You can kinda customize it from there. I jumped in and boy week one has been a blast!
I made a family menu from a few weeks back, first there was too much food, for us. I disclaim that cause some people probably eat a lot more quantity than us, but I have a houseful of grazers. The plan says it will feed a family of 4. For R and I we found that we got 5-6 meals out of each one, this isn't a problem as all the

There, in about 3 hours (with two kiddos underfoot) I nailed all the prep (even brown rice!) It flew by and was super fun.

Seriously. I spent $137 for the week, and let's be honest that included extras for the other 3 people in the house.

Hawaii 5-0 Quinoa Bowl

Asian Pasta Salad - one with buffalo sauce, one without

Brownie batter overnight oats with local strawberries

Enchilada Pasta Bowl

"Meat" ball Subs

BBQ Lentil Sloppy Joes

Indian Spiced Potatoes and Peppers

Mexican Potato

Smashed Avocado and White bean sami

The only thing my husband wasn't crazy about. Literally THE ONLY THING, was the Indian spiced potatoes, he isn't wild about anything with INdian Flare, sigh. but he tried it! He even said teh flavor wasn't awful but he wasn't having it. My 15 month old? He DEVOURED IT. In fact the only thing he didn't like was the Avo White Bean samis, and he isn't much of a bread kid.

So if you want life simpliefied and to be Whole Foods Plant Based. Head over to Meal Mentor and at least download your free three day menu. I am in hog heaven (well without the hog) and loving it. I have lost another 2 lbs from this plan! 

No Beef and Broccoli

This is adapted from Happy Herbivore. Since I think it is amazing and she has blogs and books out there I wont divulge ALL her secrets. You will need to track down her "no beef broth" I followed it to a T, the recipe however I adapted a bit.

Serves 2

Ingredients:
3-5 Cremini mushrooms, coarse chopped
1.5 cups of No Beef Broth
1/2 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
2 TBS ketchup
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp seasoned rice vinegar
1 red bell pepper sliced
1 small head broccoli, cut into florets

1/2 cup-2 cups cooked sprouted ancient grains

Method:
Use 1/2 cup broth in a skillet over medium and cook mushrooms about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat, being mindful most of the sauce should be absorbed.

Adding another 1/2 cup broth to pan, add onions and garlic, cook about 3 minutes, add broccoli and cook about 5-7 more. Stir in all remaining ingredients, including mushrooms and bring to a rapid boil to reduce the sauce. Serve over rice

I used this on the 21 day fix and counted it as 1 green, 1 yellow and 1 tsp

Buffalo Style Salad

Okay, so not really a "recipe" but an idea!

This is created in lou of the reset but with more, you know umph.

Romaine

Tomato

Celery (um can't say I will add these again)

Carrots

Green onion

Topped with Buffalo wing sauce

For an extra yum, I used 6 wedges of baked potato cut into fries (cut a medium potato into 6-8 wedges and baked at 425* with a bit of oil for 30 minutes)