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 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)

Layers of Red soup

This soup. OH MY

LOOK at that color. Have you read 'Color Me Vegan' by Colleen Patrick Goudreau yet? If not and you are in any way looking to eat more vegetables folks. She will make you fall in love

 

Look at all this red! I forgot to take a picture of the miso and vegetable juice

Mmm lentils

In total you use:

2 cups Red Lentils

1 Red onion, chopped

3 Red Potatoes, chopped smallish

3 Beets, chopped smallish

2 Carrots, minced

1/4 tsp Red pepper

3 cloves Garlic, minced

1 tsp Fresh Dill

Place all the above ingredients in a pot with 8-10 cups of water, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

1/2 cupVegetable Juice

1/4 cup Red Miso

Meanwhile mix the vegetable juice and miso until thoroughly blended. 

Once the vegetables are tender, remove from heat, stir in miso mixture and enjoy!

Fun fact if you read this far, the soup was super good the night of, but it was a but more red. The next day the leftovers were the rich purple red you see above, and the soup went from souper (ha) to out of this world.

Carne Asada Steak with creamed Spinach

So I have this 1/2 gallon of Carne Asada marinade I picked up at Cash and Carry hanging out in my fridge, normally I prefer to make all my own marinades, they are so much healthier that way, but alas I opted to use the marinade last night. Mind you it was delicious, but the meat never really got 'tender' like a real carne asada steak, so I will have to try it again in the near future.
I also 'creamed' some spinach, which I thought was pretty tasty for cooked spinach.
I would normally recommend serving this with a baked sweet potato or other nutrient dense starch but I was STARVING when I got home and was not willing to wait 18 more minutes for said sweet potato to make it's appearance from the oven.. I found the sauce to be plentiful on the spinach so I would reduce the amounts to what I have listed below.

1lb flank steak
1/2 cup marinade

1 bag baby spinach

1/4 cup low sodium broth
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 TBS parmesan cheese
1 TBS Sour cream

I marinated the steak in the carne asada marinade overnight. Grilled it for about 10 minutes

Mean while I heated the broth to boiling, added the entire bag of spinach and wilted, stirring frequently) for about 5 minutes. Stirred in the garlic, cheese and cream and cooked an additional 2 minutes.

This came together so fast and had so much flavor.

Cauliflower Bake

First, Sorry for the total lack of photo. I went to a meeting for a potential preschool for my son so I made it and rushed out the door.

Super Yummy and cheap.

 Medium head cauliflower, cut into bite sized pieces = 2.69 (I did have about 1 cup left over however)
1 16oz container cottage cheese = 1.58
3 TBS arrowroot powder or GF flour (or glutened flour if you choose)
1 Cup cheddar, shredded =.73 (If you figure 4 cups to one lb of my 2 lb block @ 5.78)

Total = $5

Preheat oven to 350*
Steam Cauliflower about 5-6 minutes.
Combine Cauliflower cottage cheese flour and salt and pepper in an 8x8 casserole dish. top with cheese and bake 30 minutes. Eat, and relish the ooey gooey goodness.

We had this with side salad. It fed 3 adults and one 2 year old.

Grilled Asparagus and Zucchini Lasagna

Oh. My. Heck. YUMMY.

I love lasagna, but I'll admit I was a little leery of this one once I got going. But it was sooooo good. Again the Hubs and 2.5 year old devoured it!
It's so green and amazing that everyone should at least try it, such a yummy way to eat your greens

Lasagna Noodles: I made my own noodles again using
1 Cup Flour
1 Egg
2 TBS roughly water

kneaded all together to make a smooth dough, allowed to rest 30 minutes then rolled to the thinnest setting in my pasta roller.

1 Head broccoli cut into florets - Steamed 5 minutes
1 lb asparagus - Grilled or steamed
1 lb zucchini sliced about 1/4" thick - Grilled about 3 minutes
1/2 Package Shredded Parmesan Cheese
1/2 Package Shredded Mozzerella or Italian Blend

Basic White Sauce
2 TBS butter
2 TBS flour
1 Cup milk

Melt butter, whisk in flour and then milk, heat until thick and bubbly, season with a dash of nutmeg and garlic powder

Layer all the goodies into an 11x7 baking dish in whatever order you like. Bake about 45 minutes to an hour (choose an hour if you don't boil your noodles first) at 350*.

Yum. Yum. Yum.

Broccoli Topped Spuds

This is VERY similar to the "Twice Baked Brocccoli Potatoes" I've made before, only easier. This one was so good my hubs and 2.5 year old scarffed down every bite! VERY filling as well

1 Medium Potato per person
1 head broccoli cut into florets
about 1 Cup shredded cheese
butter (optional)
dallops of sour cream

Preheat oven to 400* and bake potatoes (puncturend washed and wrapped in foil) about an hour or until done.
Steam broccoli cut into bite sizes about 5 minutes.

Remove potatoes from oven and foil, slice and fluff slightly with a fork. Top with butter if using and the broccoli, cheese and sour cream (if using) salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Seared Peppers and Onions

Okay, killer fajita topping, might replace my standard  "Fajita" for that matter. I can see adapting this to include a few more veggies and rounding out strait up Fajitas. Anyhow, We smothered these on Fajita Burgers, they would be equally goon on say, steak? Chicken? Rabbit? Fish? Baked Potato? Temph, Rice?
Get the picture?
Make it. Eat it. Love it.

Olive oil
2 large bell peppers thinly cut
1 medium/large onion, sliced into half moons
2 Garlic cloves minced
1 jalapeno seeded and minced
1 cup green salsa


In a large pan over high heat begin searing the peppers and onion, the goal is stir fried, soft but still crunchy. As they cook down reduce heat slightly and add garlic and jalapeno, cook about 3 minutes take care not to burn the garlic. Stir in salsa and heat through. Viola!

African Inspired Sweet Potato Peanut soup

OK, it's time I admit I'm sick of eating copious amounts of not healthy food. So we decided to try to "clean up" the menu a bit, by "we" I mean me. We are still going to have those easy to eat horrible for you meals but we are also adding loads of healthier options to the menu. Not so Ironically our 2.5 year old enjoys these recipes, sometimes more than the "campbells" quickies that so many kiddos love. He certainly likes making these more.

Water or olive oil for saute
1 large (I have HUGE) yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 TBS brown sugar
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
1 can white beans, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes
4 cups vegetable stock (imagine NO chicken chicken broth is my favorite)
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Saute onions and garlic in a large soup pot until soft. Add bell peppers and cook about 5 more minutes, stir in ALL seasonings (sugar through cayenne) and coat veggies, then stir in peanut butter. Add all remaining ingredients and cook about 30 minutes or until soft, I blended about 2/3 for my Mr's (neither of which care for a lot of chewing) and it was SO good.

Sounds like a lot of work? Just chop the veggies, then add all seasonings to the same bowl. That reduces so much "work" the other part is knowing it's nutritious and delicious and will feed you for days!

Stuffed Peppers - Chili Style

This makes two:

2 Bell peppers

1/4 cup diced onion

2 cloves garlic minced

1 small zucchini, diced

1/4 cup or so tomato paste

1 tbs Chili powder

1 can black beans

1 can diced tomatoes

1/4 tsp cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup shredded pepper jack

1/4 cup shredded cheddar.

Cup tops off peppers and seed and core. Preheat the oven to 400*F. 

In a medium skillet, saute onions, zucchini and garlic, add beans, diced tomatos, seasonings and tomato paste. Heat through. Stir in 1/2 the cheese. Fill peppers with filling. Top with cheese. Place into a baking dish (mine was lined with foil) add 1/2 cup water to the pan and then tightly cover with foil. Cook 30-40 minutes or until the peppers are getting soft.

YUM YUM YUM. Grain free which made us even happier, packed with flavor. The concept was chili stuffed peppers, with impromptu chili, you could use prepared chili if you were shorter or time. All in all we LOVED these

Roasted Vegetable Soup

This is the last bit of my "dinner today dinner tomorrow" recipe from the Roasted Chicken, disclaimer is that if you did cook the chicken on top of the vegetables it wouldn't truly be vegetarian.

Not the "prettiest" but so good.

Now use 5 cups or so of left over vegetables (I did use about 4.5 cups and still felt like we had a ton)

2.5 cup vegetable broth.

Salt and pepper

Heat broth, add veggies and cook about 15 minutes, then blenderize.

Wow. So good. Thick, creamy, bursting with flavor and filling

Creamy Baked Pumpkin Risotto

Okay, first things first I have never even heard of the  TV show this recipe came from, we don't have cable. However I was looking for a savory pumpkin recipe I could whip up with what I had on hand, so I found this one and thought I'd give it a try..

The original recipe can be found here, I adapted it to my discretion.

Ingredients

• 52.5 cups low-sodium  vegetable broth
• 1 cup arborrio rice
• 1 cup acorn squash, small dice, and slightly pre cooked (mine was blanched prior to cutting and freezing)
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree 
• 1/4 medium yellow onion, minced
• 1-1 1/2 cups shredded spinach
• 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
• 1/8 - 1/4 cup shredded smoked mozerella cheese
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Prior to being baked

Heat oven to 400 degrees F and arrange a rack in the middle.

Combine broth, rice, squash, puree, and onion in a 3-quart baking dish, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and stir to evenly combine. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake, stirring about every 25 minutes, until most the water has been absorbed and rice granules are puffed. Total time for me was about an hour.

Remove from oven, stir in remaining ingredients, season to taste and serve.

This was okay. It was an easy one dish meal and actually came together pretty quickly minus taking almost an hour to cook. However I can't say I'll rush out to make it again, I certainly thought it was tasty and worth a try.

Purple Garlicky Cabbage noodles

Super fast, and decidedly tasty. I will admit I wasn't as wild about the left overs as the original. I served it Vegan but offered Parmesan reggiano to everyone to add if they preferred  the reviews i got were swimming both ways. The only change I would add is maybe a few more pine nuts!

1/8-1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 medium onion, preferably red, thinly sliced
6 large garlic cloves minced
1/2-3/4 head of cabbage thinly sliced
1/2-1 lb noodles
salt and pepper to taste
1/4-1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

Heat oil in a large skillet with a lid, add onions and cover, cook about 10 minutes, then add the garlic and cook uncovered about 3 minutes more. Add the cabbage and stir to coat, cook covered about 20 minutes stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile cook the noodles (I opted to cook them in a diluted vegetable base). Drain the pasta and reserve about 1 cup cooking liquid (even if you just use water, make sure it's the starchy cooking water). Return pasta to the pot or serving bowl, and toss with cabbage, add the reserved cooking liquid.

To toast the pine nuts, add to a dry pan and cook over medium low heat until you begin to smell them, then pull them off.

Garnish pasta with nuts ans season with salt and pepper. Yummers.

Roasting a pumpkin to make puree

Easily done actually.

Was pumpkin flesh.

Preheat oven to 350*

Cut pumpkin in half and scoop out yucko in the middle.

Reserve the seeds to make yummy power snacks with one of natures natural superfoods!

Place cut side down in a casserole dish and bake about 45 minutes.

Scoop out and puree in a blender or processor until smooth. Use in all sorts of recipes

Roasted Jalapeno poppers

Yield 16

16 fat jalapeno peppers
1 minced fresno chili pepper (I didn't add this one, I simply forgot)
8 oz cream cheese
3 TBS grated onion
1 tsp ground cumin
1-1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
salt and pepper
3/4 cup GR bread crumbs, or panko
1/2 cup parmesan reggiano

Cut jalapenos length wise in half, making little boats, reserve 1-4 jalapeno's and dice those small.

Combine minced peppers, cheeses, onion and seasonings spoon into hallowed out peppers.

Sprinkle the peppers with bread crumbs and parmesan.

Roast at 425 15-18 minutes then let stand 10.

YUM YUM YUM. WOW these totally hit the spot for "lower carb" poppers! I sprinkled on just enough bread crumbs to lightly cover the top. RR actually requests rolling said poppers in the crumb parm mix. I did have mine, over flow a bit, but so good. Just spicy enough, totally tender and totally making them again. Wow, that was a lot of capitals, and "totally", my regrets.

Another roasted veggie combo

Oven was heated to 500* this time. And veggies were seasoned with rosemary took about 15 minutes

String Bean Aglio e Olio

Fill a large skillet with water, bring to a boil and add a generous pinch of salt. Add 2 lbs fresh string beans and cook for 2-3 minutes. Place into an ice bath, drain water and dry pan.

Heat olive oil in the pan and add 6 garlic cloves minced, and 1 tsp hot crushed red pepper. Also add a dash of worcestershire sauce cook about 2 minutes, then add beans and toss to coat. Salt the beans if you think they need it and enjoy.

Such a surprisingly delicious way to eat them.

Roasted veggies

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Trim the ends off 1 large head broccoli and break into little spears. Dice up some carrots into little rounds, and toss them with some asparagus on a baking sheet with 3 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and a generous amount EVOO.

Bake about 15 minutes then enjoy!

Smashed Cheesy Cauli

Want a fun new way to eat cauliflower, and a great alternative to mashed spuds? Look no further my friends.

Rachel Ray NAILS it, I cut back a bit on the cheese (using what is below not in the book) and used veggie broth.

1 large head cauliflower
1 cup vegetable stock
2 TBS butter
3/4 cup shredded white cheddar
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan Reggiano
Salt and Pepper

In a sauce pan, place cauliflower, cover with broth and then bring to a boil, cover and simmer 8 minutes.

Remove top then allow to cook on medium high two more minutes or so to reduce the sauce. Add butter and cheese and smash to the consistency of mashed potatoes.

Season with salt and pepper and eat!

YUM YUM YUM.  I found that I had a bit to much juice in mine but WOW the flavor was KILLER!

We had this with London Broil with Steak Sauce Gravy, and sauted spinach.

Cider Poached Beets

Okay, loads of people don't like beets, or they are put off for one reason or another, but we are not. I am however one of those that only likes my beets cooked a certain way, as in not in a pot of plain boiled water.

Here are some reasons to eat your beets:

• They have ZERO trans and saturated fats.
• Low calorie
• Since they are high in carbohydrates, they give your body INSTANT ENERGY, and are the good carbs, the ones that your body uses as fuel.
• They contain a plethora of goodies: sodium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, calcium, fiber, Vitamins A and C, and niacin. Also the biggie for MOMS TO BE Folic Acid.

Now here is a recipe that we both (and our 14 month old) adored.

3/4 cup apple cranberry sparkling cider (or plain cider, or sparkling wine)
1/2 cup water
1 TBS packed brown sugar
2 1/2 lbs beets peeled and cut into bite sized pieces

Mix the first 3 ingredients in a sauce pan and heat until sugar is dissolved (ultimately bring to a boil), then add the beets, reduce to a simmer, and cover. Allow to poach for about 45 minutes, or until tender. Drain off poaching liquid and season with salt and pepper to taste.