Chocolate Chip Cookies

Over the summer our family fell off the "clean eating" wagon. Life circumstances hit and it was quickly moved to the back burner. Not to say that that was the smart thing to do, but that's what happened. I'm not here to pretend to be perfect, judgemental, or holier-than-thou. For about a month and a half, we ate whatever was in front of us, I made quick trips to the store for random necessities and somehow ice cream and Chips Ahoy ended up in my cart. How did that happen? 

While that month and a half reminded me of how good crappy food is, it definitely did a number on our bodies.The kids started having digestive problems again (which is a nice way of saying their poop turned green), I started getting pimples all over my face and gaining weight (shocker there - gain weight eating Fruit Loops everyday? What?), and Chad just generally felt like crap.

Needless to say we have been in bad shape. It bums me out, but I also know that life happens and you can't blame yourself for things you can't control. It also reiterated to me that we NEED to eat this way. It's not a fad, it's not bcs all the cool kids are doing it, it's because our bodies function better when we put real food into it. And now I have the proof I need to continue this food journey.

So what does this have to do with the ooey-gooey cookies pictured above? I have a sweet tooth. Well, most likely they are all sweet teeth, but the point is, I love sugar. LOVE it. And for anyone that loves sugar, you know that it is extremely hard to quit eating it. Over the last year I had learned to control my sugar carvings and even managed to go without anything sugary for a few months. Now that I have re-indulged in things like sugar cereals, ice cream, and cookies, it is going to be very hard to transition back to a sugar-free lifestyle. So these little beauties are going to help me do that!

They are mainly comprised of oatmeal, almonds, and honey with a few other ingredients. 

Throw all of your ingredients, minus the chocolate chips, in a food processor and blend it.

Once everything is blended, transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the chocolate chips. The dough is very wet, sticky, and a bit chunky. If you want, you can put the almonds in the processor first to grind them up. If you don't mind some chunks of almond then put all ingredients in together. 

Spoon them onto a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. 

The original recipe came from The Gracious Pantry, big surprise, I know. But of course I tweaked the recipe a bit. I added cocoa powder and extra oatmeal. I also doubled the recipe because it doesn't make very much, and cookies don't last long in our house!

So here's the the original recipe. I'll post my version below. 

Clean Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 1/3 cup almonds
• 1 cup cooked oatmeal (1/2 cup uncooked)
• 6 Tbsp honey
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/8 unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup grain sweetened chocolate chips (or regular if you want)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Blend everything except the chocolate chips in food processor. 

Scrape into a medium mixing bowl and stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon onto cookie sheet - either lined with parchment paper or spray sheet with cooking spray or olive oil

Bake for 20 minutes.

Enjoy! 

I will be using these to ween myself off of my sugar dependency. Don't get me wrong, they are clean but they still aren't "healthy"!

But I'm ok with that.

Clean Baked Ziti

Ahhh, is your mouth watering yet?

This dish was the very first clean dinner I made. I found it on the website The Gracious Pantry. This website is where I first learned a lot about clean eating and I would recommend it to anyone that wants to learn more from someone that REALLY knows what she's talking about. I don't ever pretend to be the expert on anything, especially clean eating. I'm learning just like everyone else!

Baked Ziti is pretty much my favorite. I used to order it all the time at Olive Garden, Fazolli's, Avanti's ...or any other Italian restaurant we eat at. While those versions are oh so cheesy, melty, and CARBy...this recipe doesn't come with a side of guilt. 

We are HUGE pasta lovers in our house....which doesn't really agree with our waistlines...but our taste buds love it. When eating clean, pasta is supposed to be whole wheat. Luckily for us, we already ate whole wheat pasta so that wasn't a transition issue. The main thing that changed in this recipe for us was the sauce. And what a change! Usually when I make baked ziti, I use Prego sauce or something else in a jar. With this recipe you make your own sauce, and you can certainly tell the difference. This homemade sauce has a much lighter consistency that doesn't fill you up as much, and in my opinion, has a fresher flavor. 

All you need is a pound of turkey (or hamburger if you prefer, although healthwise turkey is better), whole wheat pasta, shredded cheese, and your sauce ingredients....

Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.

Lightly whisk ingredients until they are fully combined. Set the sauce aside.

Brown the turkey in a skillet and drain the fat. In a large pot cook your pasta according to the directions on the box. Once turkey and pasta are ready, mix them together in the pot with the sauce. 

Pour mixture into a casserole dish and sprinkle with freshly grated cheese. The original recipe calls for Parmesan, but we really like a Pecorino Romano from the grocery deli. Place in oven preheated to 350 degrees and bake for about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

How's that watering mouth doing?

This was a really great recipe to start out with for making clean dinners. It is your basic pasta dish, but with homemade sauce. If you have been thinking of eating healthier or even switching to eating clean, this is a great place to start. And once you learn the sauce recipe, you can use it for any pasta recipe in place of the jarred version. Yay!

Here's the recipe:

Clean Baked Ziti
Original Recipe by Gracious Pantry

• 1 lb whole wheat penne pasta, cooked
• 1 lb lean, ground turkey
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp onion powder
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce, no salt added
• 1 cup parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook pasta in a pot according to directions on box. While pasta cooks, brown turkey in a skillet with the olive oil.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine basil, oregano, garlic & onion powder, honey, vinegar, water, and tomato sauce. Whisk lightly.

Combine cooked pasta, cooked meat, and sauce and mix well.

Pour mixture into greased baking dish and top with cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until cheese melts. 

Devour!

Clean Back-To-School Lunches

Well I finally have made it back. While it was NOT my intention to not post any blogs over the ENTIRE summer....that's sort of what happened...Whoops!

June was just an incredibly busy month, as always, and I'm still new to the blogging thing, so I had a hard time finding the time to put some posts together. 

Then, unfortunately, we had some personal circumstances happen over the rest of the summer that were beyond our control and kept me from posting until now. Someday I hope to enlighten you, but for now...let's stick to lunch!

I don't know about you, but my daughter went back to school yesterday. YAY!! Oh, I mean, boooooo.........Oh who am I kidding? Don't get me wrong, I love her dearly, but yesterday it was nice to have a large portion of the day without arguing and fighting between my two darling daughters. 

Now that it's back-to-school time, I figured lunch would be a good topic to start posting again with. I actually had this blog planned a long time ago, but it's rather fitting now. 

Before we started eating "clean", Liv's lunch consisted of PB&J sandwiches, chips, a fruit, and a juice box. Sometimes a meat sandwich would happen, but it was usually PB&J. She never really had a problem with having the same lunch everyday, or if she did she didn't make it known. 

When we started the "clean" thing, I started researching different options for school lunches, and also lunch at home for myself and my 3-year-old. I found this website, 100 Days of Real Food. I've linked up to this site before but she really has great ideas for lunches. On her facebook page she was posting daily pictures of her kids' lunch for everyone to see. As I started to realize that bag lunch didn't have to be the same old thing, a whole new world of options opened up! Suddenly Liv had lunches that were never the same thing and I was finding it fun to come up with new ideas. I was even a little jealous. I mean, I never had lunches like that when I was in school! And she loved them. She even requested to have....wait for it....SALAD one time. Just once, but I have that day recorded in the family history books.

Here is a pic of one of the lunches she took to school. Meat and cheese roll ups, grapes, applesauce, and pistachios. Plenty of protein and fruit, and no bad carbs! Totally clean lunch. Although she was wary of the pistachios, once she tried them she really like them. 

This was a lunch for Jilly. Again, meat and cheese roll-ups, carrots, and clementines. In the past when I would see a picture like this, I would say "yeah right, my kid won't eat that". And at the time they wouldn't. But when we changed how we were eating, I basically didn't give them a choice. With things like carrots or celery, I eased our way in by giving them things to dip them in, ranch dressing, ketchup (don't ask), peanut butter, etc. And over time it has gotten to the point that they will eat them without any added condiments. 

I know kids can be really picky but I honestly think that it's at least worth a shot to see if you can mold them to eat better foods. If you stick to your guns and don't back down then they hopefully will learn to like new things. Our taste buds get so desensitized by all the sugary/salty/deliciously-bad-for-you foods that when we eat fresh food like veggies they don't "taste good". 

Tortilla Pizzas

 I made these for the kids one weekend when I was running out of ideas. I had leftover olives and green peppers from a pizza I had made a few days prior so I just used tortillas instead of pizza dough. They each got their own individual pizza with some tomato sauce, grated cheese, olives, and green pepper. I popped them in the oven at 350 and just waited for the cheese to melt and the tortilla to get a little crispy. Pretty easy and the kids loved them!

There are ALL kinds of options for lunch other than PB&J. And a lot of them can also avoid bread and chips or other empty calories. Here are some of the items I give my kids for lunches. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any more food ideas to share! I'm always looking for more!

• Hard Boiled Eggs
• Meat & Cheese Roll Ups
• Cottage Cheese
• Applesauce
• Greek Yogurt with berries
• String Cheese
• Tortilla roll up w/ Banana & PB (or Almond Butter)
• Celery & PB w/ raisins
• PB&J Smoothie (frozen in smoothie tube that thaws by lunch)
• Veggies - Carrots, Sweet Peppers
• Fruits - Grapes, Oranges, Apples, Berries, Pineapple, etc
• Nuts - Almonds, Peanuts, Pistachios, Sunflower Seeds
• Homemade Trail Mix - Raisins, Nuts, Craisins, Seeds
• Nut Thins, Lunch Meat & Cheese (homemade lunchables)
• Leftovers from dinner the night before
• Homemade Protein Bars
• Tortilla Pizzas
• Tortilla Chips and Salsa
• Tortilla Chips w/ Salsa & Cottage Cheese (Just TRY it!)

And the list goes on....

The one thing I realized is that there is no rule that says you can only have one fruit or vegetable in your lunch. Kids LOVE fruit, so go ahead and put strawberries AND grapes in their lunch.

So what do you think? Worth a try? Hopefully you have some ideas here that can get you and your kids started on healthier lunches. Just remember to make them try it more than once, they will learn to like it! (And so will you!)

Do you have any other ideas?? Please share!

Happy Back-To-School Days!!

Homemade Granola

Granola. The un-healthy, healthy snack. 

Well, this version is a healthier one. Pretty much any homemade granola is going to better than store bought. With store bought granola you get all kinds of extra ingredients, a TON of sugar, and all those wonderful preservatives. 

The thing I like about this recipe is that it makes a lot! And you can play around with it, adding things or taking things out. I've added a couple things to our version because I have found that no matter what I put in this, it still gets eaten. So I sneak things like almonds and chia seeds into it, which would never be eaten otherwise. 

The main ingredients

I found this recipe on a website called Out of the Box. It's a website that has homemade recipes for food you normal buy in a box at the store. There is granola, granola bars, pop tarts, other snack foods and lunch box type food. I like it because they break down the nutrition for you. They list out the ingredients in the store bought box and then the difference in the homemade version. It's nice to see all of the things you are NOT putting in your kids' bodies by making it at home.

Mix all of your dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

The granola recipe I found on the website is a Nut-free recipe, but we are lucky enough to not have any nut issues so I add nuts. I also sometimes add chia seeds and today when I made some I tried adding raisins. It looks and smells great, so I'm thinking the raisins are a success. 

Whisk wet ingredients on low heat for 5 minutes.

What I really love about this recipe is the quantity. It makes about 13 cups which completely fills a large Glad container. We have a family of four and it lasts us a little more than 2 weeks even after making a batch or two of granola bars with it. In a lifestyle where you feel like you are constantly in the kitchen cooking or baking, it's nice to have a recipe that you can make and then forget about for a while. 

Pour sauce over oats and mix well.

Baking it does take some attention. You want to check it every 10 minutes to stir and switch the cookie sheets to around to different racks. That's what I do anyway, I find that if I switch the cookie sheets every time I stir them, then it cooks more evenly.

So here is the recipe - 

Homemade Granola
original recipe by Out of the Box

• 9 cups of Traditional Oats
• 1 cup sunflower seeds (unsalted)
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup flaxseed meal
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp sea salt (or regular salt if you don't have sea salt)
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tsp vanilla

My additions:

• 3/4 cup chopped almonds
• 3 TBSP chia seeds
• 1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.

Whisk together all the wet ingredients over low heat for about 5 minutes. Once heated through, pour mixture over the oat mixture and mix well. Make sure you get all of the oats covered with the sauce.

Pour mixture in a single layer onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake for 40-50 minutes. Every 10 minutes stir mixture to cook evenly and prevent burning.

Let it cool and then store in air tight container. 

Some of my notes:

As far as the nuts go, I buy whole, unsalted almonds and then chop them up myself. It's a little more work, but cost efficient. If you don't like almonds, I would think you could really put any type of nut in here. 

You definitely want to buy parchment paper for this recipe if you don't already have it. I like to find ways around unnecessary kitchen items, but this one is necessary. Plus, if you make the granola bars from this recipe you can re-use the paper. I will be posting the recipe for the granola bars (and my failed attempts at experimenting with them) soon.

I know there are TONS of granola recipes out there, but we really like this one. I'd love to hear if you try it what you think or if you have any other great granola recipes to try!

Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to try out the batch with raisins!

Fighting My Inner Dragon Lady...and Winning

School is out! School is out? Oh, wait...School is out...

In the words of my sister-in-law, I don't know how I feel about that. 

I have an array of "mom" friends. And I can tell you that half of them are excited by the aspect of having all of their kids home all day for three months and the other half want to go screaming for the hills. I don't judge either.

Last summer I went back to work. Since I was training in a new job I worked 4 days a week, so essentially I missed out on summer with my kids last year. At the time I was okay with it because that's where I felt God had led me. 

Well, guess what? I just quit my job! So this summer I get to be home with my kids all summer. In my long-laid plans I saw sunny days at the pool, trips to the zoo, play dates at the park, and just having fun with my girls. Very optimistic I would say.

Today was the first of summer break for us. Tomorrow is Report Card Day, if you even want to call it a day. It's ten minutes that they make buses run and parents drive kids in just to pick up report cards. Luckily we live across the street, so it doesn't bother me too much. 

Our Front Yard Picnic

It started out as a decent morning. I made the kids eggs for breakfast, managed to get a shower in before 9:00am (!), got our June schedule all figured out and finally signed Olivia up for a camp she had been asking about. I had to mail the forms for the camp so I thought we could take advantage of the perfectly beautiful day and walk to the post office and then stop at the library. We did just that and it went great! We got home and I read a book and soaked up some sun while the kids played in the yard and then we had a picnic lunch in the front yard.

Cheese Taco anyone?

We even had a surprise visit from Daddy on his lunch break!

So far this reads like those Facebook posts that everyone is annoyed by because they state how "wonderful" and "perfect" my day/kids/life is. Keep reading. 

Honestly, nothing major happened. No one broke a lamp or painted the dog blue or scratched the car with their bike. But I was really tired this afternoon...and we all know how things can get when Mom gets tired. 

Lately I've been tired, like really tired. Like got-hit-by-a-mac-truck-and-only-a-four-hour-nap-will-revive-me tired. Know the feeling? And I don't even take naps! So after our picnic lunch I finally got my 3-year-old down for her nap (or so I thought) and decided that I was going to try and take one myself. I informed Olivia that I was going to lay down for a while and I got an "uh huh" from behind the game she was playing on my phone. 

Basically my nap didn't happen. You know when you are just on the verge of falling asleep and then something wakes you up? That happened about every 15 minutes. The thing was that it was constantly Olivia doing something that she was told not to do or waking me up to ask me something that I had already told her no to three times. So I was starting to get pretty irritated. Jillian never actually fell asleep and when she heard Olivia walking up the stairs she called out for me. Usually I would just let her go or call up and tell her to lay back down, but Olivia decided to go in her room and get her up. This of course caused a big issue when I got up and put Jillian back down for a second time. Luckily the second try worked and she fell asleep. But then I was being kept up by the dog barking at the neighbor kids because Liv kept putting her out after I got up and brought her in so she wouldn't bark, and then there were a couple requests for ice cream that I had already said no to. I think the thing that broke me was that I even faked sleeping to see if she would really wake me up to ask for ice cream a third time. And she did. 

So now I'm laying on my bed, with a throbbing headache from being almost asleep 8 times and that over all feeling of exhaustion and I wanted to snap. I felt like I had a war going on inside me between the calm, rational mom that I knew I should be and the evil dragon lady that I really wanted to be. To anyone looking at me, I looked totally normal laying on my bed trying to sleep. But on the inside raged a battle between Super Mom with the cape and a shirt that says PATIENCE shielding and striking at a giant dragon spiting fire about people not obeying or respecting her. Dragon Lady spouts fire and Super Mom raises her shield just in time. Who will win? Will Dragon Lady win and get up from her failed attempt at a nap only to be in a bad mood and yell at everyone and send kids to their room because of not listening to her? Or will Super Mom win and take a deep breath, come up with a plan of action to present to the children at dinner time so that this doesn't happen tomorrow? Or maybe they will tie? 

Anyone else ever have this inner struggle? Between the mom we are being and the mom we want to be? Sometimes even as I'm shouting at one of my kids, I'm thinking in my head "What are you doing?? You are going to ruin them!". 

At this point as my literal and imaginative brain is picturing this fight between good and evil inside me, I had an all-too-clear thought pop into my head. God will win this fight for me. If I feel like I'm fighting a battle, who better to go to for help? The God of angel armies, as Chris Tomlin sings, is always by my side. So why am I fighting this battle? Hey, God...if you have a minute...HELP! 

Thankfully, having this thought made me smile. And then I started composing this blog in my head...and somehow the battle inside disappeared. Am I still irritated that Olivia seems to have no regard for my authority? MOST DEFINITELY. But did I get up and start acting like a big baby about it? No. Even though it was in a round about way, God helped me calm down and win the battle. Now, would I say Super Mom won? No way. I'm not even close to Super Mom, but seriously, she is a way better example to use for fighting evil than regular old me. 

So my advice for the days when you feel the inner struggle between your raging Dragon Lady and your more rational Super Mom? Start a blog! But just in case you aren't the blogging type, then give the battle over to God. All we have to do is ask and He is right there for us. Even with something as simple as whether or not to freak out on your kids. Doesn't that blow your mind? The God of ALL the universe, who has billions of people he loves and cares about, who is constantly fighting spiritual battles against the enemy, has the time to help me with my tiny little inner struggle with being a better mom. WOW. 

I leave you with this:

"In the day when I called out, You answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul." Psalm 138:3

I'm going to go make dinner now. I've taken some Tylenol to help with my headache, and I've decided that the best way to get through the summer is to come up with some special guidelines that we are going to follow. Once I have those figured out I will hang them on the fridge so that we can all remember them. Will it work? Who knows...but I figure it's better than unleashing the dragon lady and making every one miserable. Here's to making it through the rest of the day...and the whole summer. 

I have a feeling "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" is going to be my mantra this summer...

What will yours be?