What we ate: February

Again this was over several weeks of some meals that we ate.  I didn't take pictures of everything because I am a slacker these days.  We also ate a lot of meals with other people as well as some dinners out.  Hope this gives you some inspiration for how to feed your family real food on a budget.  What did you eat?  I love ideas from other people!  Please share in the comments.

BBQ chicken bacon pizza.  Made with leftover chicken and homemade whole grain crust.

Roasted chicken, quick sauteed greens with onions, and mashed potatoes.

 Chicken parm sandwiches with kale chips.  An easy and quick meal that everyone liked.  Chicken strips cooked on the stove in coconut oil.  Topped with a quick tomato sauce, parm and mozzarella cheese all on a sprouted 7 grain bun.

Chicken fajitas made with leftover roasted chicken, peppers, onions, and mexican spices.  Quick and soooo good!

 Red beans and rice.  My momma's recipe.  Quick and delicious.  Sausage, garlic, onions, jalepeno, garlic, chicken broth, and red beans served over rice.

Broiled trout (caught by our neighbor), sweet potatoes roasted in coconut oil, and buttered peas

Homemade sloppy joes on a sprouted grain bun, homemade macaroni and cheese.  I substituted a little honey for the brown sugar in the sloppy joes and red peppers for green pepper since that's what I had on hand.

Mongolian beef

I don't know about you but I love Chinese takeout.  I also have a thing for Pei Wei, the scaled down version of P.F. Changs.  One dish that I am particularly fond of is Mongolian beef.  You know, that sweet, salty, and slightly spicey beef dish with the green onions in it.  Yeah that's the one I'm talking about.  It's delicious.  This is a quick and tasty version of the original healthified so it's made without soybean oil, genetically modified cornstarch and soy sauce, and brown sugar.  We all enjoyed this dish and I'm sure it will be one that I make again and again when I need a quick meal.  I served ours with stir fried garlic green beans and cauliflower "rice".  All three things came together in under 30 minutes.  You can't even order take out and have it delivered in that time.  The price tag was much cheaper too, even using grass fed beef, and you can feel better about your health since you cooked it at home using healthy high quality ingredients!

Mongolian beef:  serves 2-3
1 T coconut oil
1 lb. grass fed steak (skirt or flank both work well) sliced thinly
2 green onions sliced on the diagonal

Sauce
1.5 T coconut oil
3 cloves minced or pressed garlic
1/8 t. ground ginger
1/3 c. coconut aminos (soy sauce alternative)
1/4. c. raw honey
1/8 t. crushed red pepper flakes
1 T arrowroot powder (natural thickener)


In a small sauce pan, heat 1.5 T coconut oil over Med-high heat.  Add garlic and cook for just a few seconds.  Whisk in ginger, coconut aminos, honey, and red pepper flakes.  Cook for a few minutes until well combined and sauce is smooth.  Take off of heat and whisk in arrowroot powder until sauce is smooth and thickened.

 While sauce is cooking, in a cast iron skillet or wok, heat 1 T of coconut oil over Med-high heat.  Add sliced beef and stir fry for a couple of minutes until cooked through.

Pour sauce over top of beef.  Add sliced green onions.  Stir to combine.  Serve hot alongside rice or cauliflower "rice".

UN-rolled cabbage casserole

My mom makes killer stuffed cabbage rolls.  I mean they are just fantastic.  A flavorful meat mixture wrapped in delicate cabbage leaves and simmered for hours in a yummy tomato sauce.  YUM!  I've used her recipe a couple of times, and while the end result was quite delicious, the time and energy it took to get there was more than I wanted to spend.  See in the original recipe, you have to core and boil the cabbage, then let it cool enough to take apart all of the leaves individually, then roll about a bajillion little rolls, then let it simmer for longer than I want to wait.  I'm a little lazy by nature and frankly folks, this is all a little too much work for me.  I usually only have about 15-20 minutes in the kitchen by myself before a three year old is trying to "help" me or asking for a snack and a 10 month old is down around my ankles or dumping the dog's water bowl all over himself.  I require meals that are get in and get out, if you know what I mean.

Enter the un-stuffed cabbage casserole.  It's all the flavor of a cabbage roll without the boiling of the cabbage and the work of rolling.  The original recipe also called for rice.  I'm certainly not against rice, but I'm trying to get more veggies in our diet, so I substituted cauliflower instead.  I know you're probably thinking that doesn't sound too appetizing but really it is.  If you chop the cauliflower into tiny bits that resemble rice, you can hardly tell the difference. If you prefer rice instead, by all means, use rice.  You might want to add only a 1/2 cup raw rice and maybe add more liquid ingredients.  Basically, you'll have to play around with it. 

My husband and I love this dish, while my three year old still isn't sure of it.  I've made this twice now and the first time she wouldn't even touch it.  The second time she took a couple of bites, so we're making progress.  She's not a big fan of ground meat.  Crazy girl.  :)  So here's the recipe.  Hope you like it.

Un-rolled Cabbage Casserole

1.5 lbs ground beef or a mixture of ground beef and sausage (grass fed is best)
1 small head of green cabbage
1 cup cauliflower (chopped very small to resemble rice)
1/2- 1 c diced onion depending on how oniony you like your food
2 cups diced tomatoes
2 cups strained or crushed tomatoes (divided)
1 T. dried oregano
1/2 t. Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic or 1/4 t. garlic powder
sea salt (1 t. divided) and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Core and chop up a small head of cabbage into bite sized pieces and place in the bottom of a deep 9x13 casserole dish.  Sprinkle with a 1/4 t. salt and drizzle about 1 c. tomato product over the cabbage as well.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, combine meat, cauliflower, onion, 2 c diced tomatoes, 1/2 t salt, garlic, and spices.  Mix well with hands.  Crumble meat mixture in an even layer over the cabbage.  Drizzle remaining 1 cup of tomato product over top.  Sprinkle 1/4 t salt and a generous amount of pepper on top.  Bake covered for 50 minutes and uncovered for 10 minutes.  Make sure meat mixture is no longer pink before serving.

Note:If your meat is not very lean, I would recommend draining off some of the grease that will accumulate on the sides.  If you use lean grass fed beef, you shouldn't have much problem.

What we ate: Jan 22-Feb 4

I skipped a couple of weeks with the "What we ate" series so here I am trying to play catch up.  Honestly I don't remember exactly what was on the menu the last couple of weeks but here are some pictures that I have taken of our food.  This was made with all real food, no processed ingredients except for the pastas which have very few ingredients.  Hope you get some good ideas from this.  What was on your dinner plate?  I LOVE getting ideas from you so please share!

 Homemade chicken nuggets and mac and cheese made with quinoa pasta.  

 Broiled halibut, roasted cabbage and roasted butternut squash.  An extremely easy and fast meal.

 Huge batch of chili that lasted several days.

 Basil pesto chicken, buttered carrots and roasted broccoli.  So quick. Literally just spoon some pesto on top of chicken and pop in oven for 20-30 minutes.  Done.

 Chili mac:  leftover chili on top of rice pasta.

 

Chili cheese fries.  Homemade french fries (yum) with leftover chili and cheddar cheese.  Looks unhealthy but it's really not...all real food!  Fries were cooked in coconut oil.

 Pork chops, roasted brussel sprouts and buttered carrots

 Chicken parmeasan bake made with homemade sprouted bread croutons.  Extremely easy, fast and tasty.  Served with a salad.

 Philly cheesesteak bowl

Letter of the Week: N

Bailey has been so independent in her crafting lately.  She wants to do everything her way and without my help.  I'm certainly ok with that, but I'm having to make the projects a little more simple so she can do it all herself.  Sometimes she doesn't like my "plans" either so they get scrapped for something else she comes up with.  I think I've created a monster!

 

Noodle N

Simple craft just involved gluing noodles onto the letter N.  Anything that involved glue is a hit with a 3 year old though.

Nest

I thought this one was hilarious but it was all her ideas.  I had gotten a package in the mail and this weird packing material was in it.  Bailey thought we could make a nest out of it.  She cut it up and put some cotton balls in it to look like eggs.  Then she put her robot bird on top of the eggs to keep them warm.  We fed the bird birdseed and worms and waited for the eggs to hatch.

DIY picture display

This is a terrible title for this post, but I have no idea what to call this particular thing.  If any of you brilliant people out there are more creative than me in naming things, help me out and comment on what I can name it.  hehe  Anyway, on to the post.  Sorry for rambling.  :)

 

This was a present for my dad and step mom for Christmas.  I love to give gifts, especially handmade gifts, but it's difficult to buy for someone that you feel like has everything.  One thing they do both love though is pictures of family.  Their house is full of pictures of their kids and especially grandkids.  I thought this was a unique way to display some of their pictures and an easy way to update with new pictures.  Just take it off of the clothespin and clip on another one in its place.  Here's what I did.


First I found a piece of wood.  We have LOTS of scrap wood lying around because my hubby likes to build a lot and we have done our share of updates in the house over the last 6 years. 

 

 Next I painted it.  I should have primed it first but I didn't.  I'm lazy like that, but by all means, prime yours first.  I used paint that I had leftover from another project too.  This particular paint was called Navajo white.

 

After it was thoroughly dry, I added vinyl lettering to the wood.  Easy peasy.  You can cut your own if you have a fancy machine or buy it at a craft store like Michaels, JoAnns, Hancocks, or Hobby Lobby.  (not pictured)




Next I mod-modged strips of card stock onto the fronts of tiny clothespins.  I don't have a picture of this step but you can see what it looks like on the close up picture below.



Then I took the fronts off of the clothespins, nailed the backs onto the bottom of the wood using tiny pin head nails and put the front back onto the clothespin.

  That's it!  Super easy and pretty cute I think.  You can add a picture hanger on the back so it can hang on a wall or you could put it on a shelf or mantle like I have it displayed.  You could also distress it to give it a little more character but I liked mine the way it was.  This makes a great Grandparent gift, housewarming gift, or just something to add a little charm to your house as well. 

Kale chips

This is not an original recipe by any means.  Kale chips has definitely made an appearance on just about every healthy blog out there I think.  Some of you though that read my blog may have never heard of this before, so I thought I would include it.  Dark leafy greens are EXTREMELY good for you, and especially kale.  If you want a snack full of nutrition, try some kale.  Here's what web md has to say about it.

One cup of kale contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.
Kale’s health benefits are primarily linked to the high concentration and excellent source of antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K -- and sulphur-containing phytonutrients.
Carotenoids and flavonoids are the specific types of antioxidants associated with many of the anti-cancer health benefits. Kale is also rich in the eye-health promoting lutein and zeaxanthin compounds.
Beyond antioxidants, the fiber content of cruciferous kale binds bile acids and helps lower blood cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease, especially when kale is cooked instead of raw.

Not only is kale extremely healthy for you, I happen to like it.  My favorite ways to eat it are in soups like my kale and white bean soup or these kale chips.  Kale is pretty inexpensive so it can't hurt to give it a try.  Who knows?  You may like it.

Kale chips

1 bunch kale (organic is best)
2 T olive oil
sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Wash and dry kale thoroughly.  Chop or tear into bite sized pieces.  Place in single layer on cookie sheet.  You may have to use two.  Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until crispy.  Watch carefully and DO NOT burn.  They will get bitter if you do.  Sprinkle with sea salt and enjoy!