Raw Oatmeal

The above picture was taken from here. Isn't it lovely!!!


We had something similar to this last year. My daughter and I actually prefer it to cooked oatmeal. Plus, you make it ahead of time which means instant breakfast. Here's the recipe. You can skip the kefir or yogurt all together and just up your juice a bit.

1/2 cup rolled (thick) oats
1/4 cup kefir or 1/8 cup vanilla yogurt (stoneyfield)
1/4 cup apple juice or cider
2 Tablespoons almonds whole or chopped
2 Tablespoons raisins, gogi berries, craisins,etc...

Mix all together and cover. Keep in fridge overnight and eat in the morning.

Tuna Salad

Yesterday for lunch we couldn't figure out what to make . We ended up getting a can of tongul tuna (actually 2) out of the cupboard and mixing in some olive oil based mayo and sweet pickle relish. We placed it on a bed of spinach and tomatoes that were drizzled with a bit of olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Yum!

My Husband's Pizza Making Skills!

While not feeling well the other day, I had started the pizza dough in my bread machine for my dh. He said he would gladly make us some pizza. Now I made the same old pizza dough recipe and had made the same old sauce that I keep in the freezer. However, Matt's pizza was way better. I have no idea what he did different. From now on, he'll make the pizza. lol.

Check in older posts for the dough and sauce recipe. You won't be sorry.

Gnocchi with 'French Toast'

We did this for school not too long ago. Here's the recipes for what we made.

Gnocchi with homemade sauce. We also made italian style French Toast. While the gnocchi was the most time consuming part of this meal, it was very fun.

Sagano's - Japanese Restaurant

So can I just say I will never again mistake Japanese food being like Chinese. This was my first experience and it was wonderful!

I'm in love! We went to a room that had a grill in it. I ended up getting Hibachi Chicken.

We started out with a chicken broth based soup with mushrooms and a few other unrecognizable things in it. I could have eaten that all night.

Next was a basic salad of iceberg lettuce with cabbage, onion and a slice of tomato. I'm not sure what the dressing was but it was very thin and a brown color. The flavor was out of this world!

Next "the man" cooking for us grilled veggies and noodles separately. The noodles had some kind of sauce. Both amazing! He also gave us each two kinds of sauce to dip our food in. One was a orange type color and was creamy. I loved it. The next was more watery and a brownish red. Didn't like that as well.

Next he grilled our fried rice and chicken.

This had to have been the most enjoyable restarant experience I've had in a long time. If you're ever in Michigan in the Flint area, check out Sagano's.

Mostoccioli

I altered the recipe I found online a bit. It was a huge hit for the kids and for my husband as well. They went nuts on it. My 2 year old son asked for 4 helpings. lol. The best part about this is that if you have a family of 5 or less, there's plenty of leftovers.

Ingredients:
1 can meijer organic traditional pasta sauce
1 can meijer organic roasted garlic pasta sauce
1 diced onion
1 lb ground beef - we use free range so it doesn't really cook down.
1/2 cup water
16oz package mostoccioli noodles
1 12oz package mozzarella cheese - shredded
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Brown ground beef with onion and grind fresh pepper into the meat.

2. While meat is browning, start water boiling for noodles. Prepare according to the directions on the package.

3. When meat is cooked through, pour both cans of sauce and 1/2 cup water into skillet. Simmer for 10 minutes.

4. When noodles are done cooking, drain and pour into sauce mixture. Mix together well.

5. Pour noodles into a greased casserole dish and sprinkle a thin layer of freshly grated parm. cheese on top.

6. Top with mozz. cheese and bake at 375 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

Chicken Taco's

I got this recipe from Deb off of amomshideout.com These were fabulous! My husband said that it was good enough to even eat on his own or in a chicken chili. He really, really loved this as did we all. You'll see two pictures above. The one with the lettuce on it was his. He said I needed a picture of his on the site because it was "prettier". lol! Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 lb frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 can tomatoes and chili's
1 packet taco seasoning

Directions:
Place chicken in crock pot.

Mix together tomatoes and taco seasoning and dump over chicken.

Cover with lid and cook for 8 hours. The directions I had said cook on high for 8 hours. My crockpot cooks very fast so I only had to cook on low for 4 1/2 hours.

Serve with your regular taco toppings and enjoy! And once again Deb, thanks so much for the amazing recipe! This is definately a keeper for our family.

Burgers and Asparagus

The key to a good burger is a few things.

Good meat - we get ours from Turtlebee Farms in Michigan. I can't say enough good things about this business. They are such a wonderful family. We LOVE their honey as well. To contact Tim and Kathy at Turtlebee Farms click here.

Grilled buns - This is definately key.

Good cheese - not that american cheese slices stuff. I mean real cheese. I had muenster and cheddar on mine while dh has pepperjack.

Those are the main things for a good burger. Anything else can follow. Today I made carmelized onions to go on the top of the burgers. They are so simple to make. I have some refined coconut oil (flavorless) that I put in the bottom of my skillet followed by thinly sliced onion. You just cook that on medium/low heat till it browns up good.

We also picked some yummy tomatoes from the garden. Delicious!

On to the asparagus. In my opinion this is the only way to eat it. Here's how you make it.

Lemon Asparagus
Ingredients:
Fresh or frozen asparagus
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Lemon

Directions:
Put spears into a pan and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Grill till desired doneness.

Remove onto serving platter and squeeze fresh lemon juice on the top.

This is absolutely fantastic. I hope you enjoy this meal as much as I do.

Salad with Chicken

I didn't want to say Chicken Salad because once I do people think of chopped chicken with a mayo base that you put on bread. Anyway, we are up to our ears in cherry tomatoes and had to use them up. Ok maybe not that many, but we still always have tomatoes to use up. Here's what we put on our salad for lunch.

Salad fixings:
cherry tomatoes
chicken strips
hard boiled eggs
cheddar cheese
and i put tater tots on mine.

Yes that's what I said, tater tots. When visiting a relative in Pennsylvania they made a salad for us. It had all the regular salad fixings including chicken. The one thing that threw us back was that they put french fries on the salad. Oddly enough it was very good. So, having leftover tater tots I decided to heat them on the stove with some olive oil and put them on my salad. It was very yummy.

Granola Bars - Our Favorite!!

These are bar-none our favorite granola bar. Not only are they yummy but they are pretty healthy too. Just make sure to mix ingredients well, pat down hard and not overbake:)

Ingredients:
4 cups oatmeal
2 cups unbleached flour
1-2 tablespoons flax meal, oat bran or wheat germ (optional)
1/4 cup raw agave nectar (or sugar)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup olive or coconut oil
3/4 cup honey
chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients first, then add wet ingredients. Make sure to stir very well till everything is totally combined.

Pour into a greased cake pan and press down firmly to make sure bars stay together after they are baked.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or till the top is puffy and soft. Do not brown or they will turn out hard.

Cut while still warm.

Easy, Peasy Guacamole

This guacamole has gotten raving reviews everywhere we go. The awesome thing is it's so simple to make!

Mash 1 avocado and mix in 1 Tablespoon organic salsa (we use Meijer). I sometimes like to add in some fresh lemon juice as well.

Serve with fresh tortilla chips. Mmmm!!!

Everyone's Favorite Salad

My dear friend and alternative practitioner came over awhile ago and we made this salad.

Ingredients:
chopped avocado
chopped tomatoes
red onion
raisins
spinach (I used romaine this time)
pine nuts

For the dressing she used olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. This time I just used olive oil and apple cider vinegar.

This was such a lovely and refreshing salad. We made some tuna salad and I ate that with it. So yummy! You can also see how beautiful it looks.