From the Mouths of Babes...

Today I have a guest blogger. My daughter Olivia. 

While my husband was away on a work trip, I came home from work one evening to find Olivia and the babysitter making dinner. Of course, after recovering from my shock and joy, I promptly took advantage of the opportunity and went to my room for a few minutes of peace and quiet...and to hurry up and finish my bible study for that night's meeting. As I was in my room, Olivia came in and showed me the pictures she had been taking of the food they were cooking. 

Ever since I started this blog and have been taking pictures of our food, the kids think that all food needs to be photographed. I got out the peanut butter the other day and Jillian says, "Picture Mommy? Picture? Cheeeeeese!". 

As I was looking at Olivia's pictures she asked if I was going to put them on my blog and I replied with a "maybe". Then I had the idea. 

"Do you want to write a blog, Olivia?"

"ME???? YEAH!!!"

And here we are. 

So without further ado, here is the story/recipe of Spaghetti Pie from the mind of a 7-year-old. All words and pictures are entirely hers. Enjoy.

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Hi, my name is Olivia and I love to cook.

Me and my babysitter, Joyelle, thought of making dinner for my mom so we could sit down and eat when my mom came home. So we looked through a new cooking book that we got and we found Spaghetti Pie. It was a new thing that we never had before. We thought we did not have all of the ingredients, then we found all of them. 

This is the Spaghetti Pie that we are making. 

Step One, Preheat the oven to 35 degrees. We cooked the spaghetti noodles. You put the noodles in a pot and then you cook them like spaghetti. Then when we were done, I drained them. You put them in a strainer and shake them. 

Then I put the ground turkey in the pot. You smash it up and make small chunks. Joyelle cooked it until it was like bubbling but it had no water in it. You know that noise that like sizzles? It made that noise. Then we add green peppers and onions. While Joyelle cooked the ground turkey I grated the cheese. 

Then we go back to the noodles. We spread them in a dessert pan and spread them around. Then we get the cottage cheese and spread it over the noodles.

Then go back to the ground turkey. Then you add the tomatoes and the tomato sauce. 

After that you mix it all up. Then you spread the meat and vegetables over the cottage cheese and spaghetti. 

This is the spaghetti with the meat and veggies. Then you spread the meat out with the wooden spoon. Make sure you have every thing hot except the cottage cheese.

Next you sprinkle the grated cheese on and put it in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. 

Then you are done!!

All of us loooooved it!! And Joyelle stayed for dinner! Mom never gets seconds, but she got seconds this time. It was really good when you eat it for leftovers, too.  And Mom was so surprised!

Thanks for reading this! Goodbye world!!

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I think she did pretty good!  

This really was a delicious meal. I had seen it in the cookbook and passed it by thinking it was the same as any other pasta casserole, but I am so glad that they made it. It will definitely be a staple dish in our household, especially because it makes great leftovers. With my husband gone, we had enough to eat it for three nights!

So for those of you that would like the official version of this recipe. Here you go, straight from the Mayo cookbook. 

Spaghetti Pie

• 4 ounces thin whole-wheat spaghetti
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp reduced-fat Parmesan Cheese
• 1 egg (or egg substitute)
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese (we used cottage cheese)
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced green or red bell pepper
• 1/2 lb ground turkey
• 1 cup canned tomatoes, no salt added, undrained
• 1/4 tomato paste, no salt added
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/4 cup shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Cook spaghetti according to the box directions. Drain and return to saucepan.

Stir olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and beaten egg into cooked spaghetti. Spoon spaghetti mixture into pie dish (or casserole dish). Using your fingers, spread noodles along the bottom and up the sides of the dish to form a crust.

Spread the ricotta cheese over the bottom of the crust. Set aside.

Cook turkey, onion, and peppers until turkey is no longer pink. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, and oregano to meat. Cook until heated through. 

Spoon meat mixture over the ricotta cheese. 

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top. Bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

Cut and serve. 

We hope you all enjoy this as much as we did!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I don't know about you, but I have a sweet tooth. More like sweet teeth. Sweets are my biggest downfall...that and a bag of Kettle Brand Potato Chips.  At 9:00 p.m. I get the craving for some cold, creamy ice cream or some sweet, melty chocolate and the mental battle ensues.

Oh that sounds good....No....but just a little bit won't hurt....drink some water stupid....but water doesn't taste the same....you'll hate yourself in the morning....but....

Before last year, the sweet tooth almost always won. I mean, come on, how can you say no to mint chip ice cream?? Isn't that why being a grown-up is worth it? I can eat ice cream WHENEVER I WANT. 

Now I am able to fight a little harder when the cravings come...and they still come. I've accepted that they will always come back. Maybe not as bad as before or as often, but there will always be a time when I have to "Just Say No". Hi, my name is Evie, and I'm a sugar addict. 

Enter the cookies. 

I found this recipe on Pinterest. It didn't have a link to a website, so I have no clue who to give credit for these. 

The first time I made these was on Valentine's Day. It wasn't a sugar craving that caused me to make them...it was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed and seeing all the crafty, cute things other moms did for their kids on Valentine's Day. Not only did I forget to find a box for Olivia to decorate for her school party until the day before (causing a major meltdown and me coloring the box for her after bedtime) but I didn't make, bake, or buy anything for my kids. *gasp* My only defense is that my anniversary is one week before Valentine's Day, so my husband and I typically don't celebrate it. I know...that's no excuse. 

So there I am Facebook scrolling and realizing that I don't have any cute baggies with homemade valentine's or melted crayon hearts (Hi Megan!) or red heart shaped pancakes and the guilt floods in.  

Crap. I suppose I should try and whip something up. After all, I wouldn't want to look like a bad mom, right?!

I remembered this cookie recipe so I decided to make these. I didn't have raisins or even chocolate chips, but I did find a bag of Andes mints baking chips in the freezer leftover from Christmas....that'll work. Then being the ultra-creative, awesome mom that I am (not) I added red food coloring and shaped the cookies like hearts. 

I've had a few compliments from people about my honesty on this blog...well here's honest for ya: They were kind of gross. This is one instance where my tweaking and making-do did not work out for me. The mint chocolate did not mix well with the banana and applesauce and frankly, the pink color just wasn't appetizing. They were just weird. 

So this time I made the cookies exactly as the recipe instructed...and they turned out much better!

First you need:

Then you:

Next you:

Spoon onto cookie sheets and:

And you're done! Grab a glass of cold milk and enjoy!

Here's the recipe.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

• 3 mashed ripe bananas
• 2 cups oats
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 almond milk (I used unsweetened vanilla flavored)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until fully blended. The mixture will be sticky and very wet. Place about a spoonful per cookie on a cookie sheet. Since these cookies have no flour and they don't expand, they will stay in whatever shape you put them. I mashed them down a bit so they weren't too thick.

Bake 15-20 minutes. Let them cool completely before placing them in a container. 

Makes about 2 dozen 2 in. cookies.

According to Myfitnesspal it's about 50 calories per cookie. Score!

Perfect afternoon snack. 

Sloppy Joes and Mock Mashed Potatoes

If you have trouble getting veggies into your kids, then this is the meal for you!

This was probably the first time I ever made dinner and had no starch/grain side dish. I wasn't sure how well it would go over, considering this meal is about 65% vegetables. 

Shhhhh, I won't tell if you don't.

When I was making this, it reminded me of a cookbook that I have called Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. It's full of recipes that she hides vegetables in by pureeing them.

These Clean Sloppy Joes are loaded with veggies and taste! 

This was another recipe from the kids' Mayo Clinic cookbook, but I tweaked it to make it totally clean. 

Brown the meat with onion and green peppers.

From what I understand about clean eating, when it comes to meat it's all your own discretion. The main thing is to watch the fat content. Our family has decided to cut back on red meat...but not cut out. (We like our steak) We have always eaten ground turkey so we use a lot of that and we have added more fish to our menu. I'm also learning that there are plenty of other ways to get protein other than meat, such as beans. As I learn more, I'll share it here. 

For this purpose I used ground turkey. 

Combine all the ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

I have not ventured into baking my own buns yet, but it is on the to-do list. Since I didn't have any homemade buns, I just bought whole wheat buns. We are still new to the clean eating way of life and it's taking a while to fully get on board. We live on a budget, like most of America, so I have a certain amount for groceries every month. I have been slowly replacing the old with the new every time I get groceries and trying to learn what ingredients I need to have on hand at all times. It is definitely a time-consuming and involved process, but I really am enjoying it! And someday I'll get to those homemade buns. 

For the mock-mashed potatoes there is only one secret. It's not potatoes. 

It's cauliflower. 

Steam Cauliflower until soft and tender.

I know a lot of people have heard of these or have tried them, but we hadn't yet. There are lots of recipes out there for them, but this one that I made was SO good! Cheesy, garlicky, delicious, and so easy to make. 

Mash the cauliflower, then mix in cheese and garlic powder.

Ok, ok, enough with the chit-chat, on to the recipes...right?

Sloppy Joes

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 1 zucchini, grated
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 15oz can diced tomatoes, no salt added, undrained
• 1 TBSP chili powder
• 1 Tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 4 TBSP tomato paste
• pepper to taste

Brown turkey, onion, and green pepper in a skillet. Once fully cooked, drain fat.

Add tomatoes, chili powder, paprika, garlic and pepper. Stir together. Then stir in zucchini. Turn heat to medium, put lid on and bring mixture to a boil.

Once boiling, add tomato paste. Turn heat to low and let simmer for 5 minutes. Stir and serve.

Mock-Mashed Potatoes

I made this recipe to feed 4.

• 1 head Cauliflower, steamed until soft
• 1 cup Non-fat Cottage Cheese
• 1 cup shredded Romano cheese (or Parmesean or Asiago)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Steam cauliflower until it is soft. If you are serving this with the sloppy joes, you can do this while your meat mixture is coming to a boil.

Mash cauliflower in a bowl. Add cottage cheese, Romano cheese, and garlic. stir/mash together. 

I sprinkled some dried parsley on top for looks. It made it look more like potatoes!

Here is the Original Recipe. This says that if you blend everything in a kitchen appliance the consistency is more runny. That's why I just mashed it with a potato masher. We like ours lumpy. 

The Sloppy Joes and Cauliflower were all we had for dinner that night, and it was plenty. It was all so tasty and filling that we were happy to just have seconds. 

And the best part? No one felt like they HAD to eat their vegetables. 

  

Lean, Mean, Baking Machine

What did you do last weekend?

I was a single girl! My hubby took off for his monthly drill weekend and then my in-laws whisked my girls away after school on Friday.

What's a gal to do??

BAKE!

I had lots of new recipes to try and what better time to do it than when I can crank up the radio and dance around the kitchen at the same time.

I found a website that has become my Clean Eating Go-To Guide. She has every recipe you can ask for, and more, and the recipes I made Saturday were all from this website: The Gracious Pantry.

On the list for this particular Saturday was sandwich bread, pizza dough, and protein bars.

I've been trying to find a good bread alternative and also figure out what would be the most cost effective way to get bread, so I have been experimenting with baking my own bread. I haven't made up my mind on bread yet, but I'm having fun figuring it out!

We used to eat a lot of frozen pizza. It was the go-to dinner for either Friday or Saturday night. Not too expensive and easy to make. Well, on a clean diet frozen pizza is out. So....now what? How about making our own pizza? I've made homemade pizza before, but I usually bought the pre-made crusts from the store. This time I wanted to try out a clean pizza dough recipe.

As I've stated before, I've been trying to find more snacks for all of us. My husband, Chad, drives a lot for work so he needs food that is portable. He has been so supportive of our eating clean, so I have been trying to support him as well by buying or making food that he can take to work. Protein bars seemed like a great portable snack. Less chance of pit-stopping for fast food!

I couldn't believe how well I timed all of the baking. It's amazing what you can accomplish when there is no one to take to the potty every five minutes or no arguing to break up. (It's also amazing how clean the house stays.) There was a lot of toast these while you mix that, knead this while that rises, bake this while that rises, eat this...and this...and this...

At one point I had this going on:

And then of course there was this:

  And last but not least, it all turned into this:

Here are the links for each of the recipes. They were all surprisingly easy to make, of course as long as you have the patience to wait for dough to rise. And most importantly, they were all delicious!

Clean Sandwich Bread

I followed this recipe exactly, the only thing I omitted was the 10 grain cereal. She recommends a cereal from Trader Joe's, but we don't have one where I live and I didn't find something comparable, so I just left it out. I still think it tasted good and we have been using it for sandwiches all week. 

Clean Pizza Dough

This recipe was wonderful! I made it exactly and it tasted great, perfectly in-between thin and thick crust. I made my own pizza sauce using canned tomato sauce (no salt added) mixed with a sprinkle of onion powder, garlic powder, basil, and oregano. Then I dug out whatever veggies I had, in this case peppers, olives, and spinach and grated some cheese, and voila! Homemade clean pizza. I was extremely surprised when I ate this, it tasted really light and fresh! It is my new favorite! So long Red Baron, don't let the door hit ya...

Clean Chocolate Protein Bars

Ok, these are where I tweaked a little. It was one of those, "oh crap, I don't have that ingredient" moments where you just make due. First off, the recipe calls for vanilla whey protein powder, but all I had was chocolate so I used that instead. It also called for grain-sweetened chocolate chips....honestly, I had never even heard of those, so I didn't bother. I left them out, figuring the chocolate powder would be enough chocolate (like you can ever have ENOUGH chocolate). And then it also calls for Chia Seeds. This also brought forth a "Huh?" from my lips...Although I did find these at the store, they were a little pricey for that shopping trip, so they are on the list for next time. So this time around I also left out the chia seeds. I thought the version I made turned out pretty good, at least we all like them. But I do want to make the original version sometime, to compare how they taste. All in all, they make a great snack!

I was lacking my regular taste-testers, but luckily my sister-in-law was coming over that night for one of our Sweatpants Parties. Yes, that's right. A party that you wear sweatpants to and have no expectations to meet. The best kind of party there is. Anyway, she graciously offered her services in the the taste-testing department and gave all of the recipes a thumbs-up.

So there you have it, a little bread, a little mess, and a whole lot of taste! 

Lean, Mean, Baking Machine? 

I don't know about the lean or mean part....but the baking machine is accurate!

Now time for a snack....where are those banana oatmeal muffins I just made....(coming soon!)



The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg

Such a simple thing to make. Eggs.

However, when I first got married, I couldn't hard boil them to save my life. They were always undercooked, overcooked, or the shell wouldn't peel off and they just got ruined.

Then Betty saved me.

Betty Crocker, that is.

I gave up trying all the ways people kept telling me to try and I went to the best source I knew.

Remember, I was newly married and newly cooking more than Mac & Cheese or Tater-tots.

Here is the kicker: The cookbook was my husbands.

He had a red, three-ring, Betty Crocker cookbook from 1986 that I'm sure he acquired from his mom when he moved out.

I really wish that I could tell you that it was mine, after all, I'm the wife, right? But, alas, that would be a lie.

Moving on.

So why is this relevant?

Since we have been trying to eat clean, I've been buying eggs much more frequently. We have them for breakfast a lot but I have also been hard boiling them to have for lunch or a snack. I have probably hard boiled more eggs in the last three weeks than I have in the 5 years I've been married.

Today as I was peeling the shells off, it occurred to me that every time I cook these, they are perfect. Flawless. Cooked to perfection and the shell slides right off. Betty, you've done it again.

I chewed on whether or not this was blog-worthy...but ultimately decided that if someone had told me 5 years ago to cook them this way, I would have been grateful. So I decided to share. Maybe there is some young mom that has the same trouble I did, or maybe this will just inspire you to eat more eggs!

So here you go:

Put your eggs in a medium sized pot. Fill with water until the water is an inch above the eggs. Turn the burner on high, cover and bring to a boil. When rapidly boiling, turn off the burner and keep lid on. Set timer for 20-24 minutes. I typically do 20.

When the timer goes off, drain the water from the pan and then fill with cold water. Or you can have a bowl of ice water waiting to put the eggs in. The point is to stop the eggs from cooking further. Let them sit in the cold water for a few minutes until they have cooled.

Once cooled, gently crack the shell by tapping it on a paper towel on the counter. Then, while holding the egg under gently running water, begin to peel off the shell.

Eat and smile.

The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg.