Archives for July 2015

3 Ingredient Nutella Brownies

· Jul 25, 2015 ·

Brownies. The struggle is real. But once in a while, a cheat day is a must. After all, it’s better to share a whole jar of Nutella rather than have it on your own right? The bonus to this recipe is it’s just 3 ingredients. Yes.. just 3.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. (13 oz) jar of Nutella
2 large eggs
1/2 c. all purpose flour

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350f

2. In a large bowl mix all ingredients and mix until smooth

3. Grease a 9 x 9 baking dish with non stick cooking spray.

4. Pour into prepared dish and smooth top with spatula

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Make sure you don’t overbake or you will get dry brownies!

This recipe is from BuzzFeed

Flourless Pancakes

· Jul 20, 2015 ·

I’m all about trying to find healthier meal options especially for breakfast. Often times my go-to breakfast dishes have so much carbohydrates. While this does have some carbs, it’s healthier. I’ve made these before, 38 weeks ago to be exact. I can’t believe I forgot about it! You only need 3 minimum ingredients. If you’re not into the flourless pancake texture, you may want to skip this and search for my old-fashioned pancakes. A little sacrifice for me to help with my figure is a-ok in my book.

TIP: Be patient, do not flip the pancake too many times or too early. If you do, let’s just say it won’t look like a pancake when you’re finished.

Ingredients:

1/2 steamed potato
2 eggs
2 tbs butter
Dash of cinnamon (optional)

1. Steam sweet potato

2. Whisk eggs and mash in sweet potato. You can also blend it, but make sure you don’t over blend.

3. In pan, heat butter on medium-low heat. Make sure you wait a few minutes before flipping! If not, you WILL have broken pancakes

4. Top with syrup, or honey (no honey before one), fruit etc.

Strawberry Cheese Rollups

· Jul 14, 2015 ·

This is my old recipe, that just never gets old. These strawberry cheese rollups are perfect for little fingers and are incredibly tasty. It’s easy to grasp for young children and frankly, I can eat way too many of these for my own good. Fortunately, my boys didn’t leave too many behind.

I don’t know any kid who doesn’t like dipping. Pair this with a side of apple sauce and let them go to town. You can also indulge if you’d like and roll it in sugar or top with powdered sugar. We’re a kale and chocolate household. I love to give me kids a little of everything , even some indulgent foods once in a while.

French Toast Roll Ups

Allergic to eggs? No problem. Just skip the egg milk mixture step and dip in melted butter. If you’re lazy to melt butter just place butter in a pan on low heat and add the rolls.

Wonder why I often cook in butter? It’s great for brain development . Nevertheless, butter makes everything taste better right? At least that’s what my kids say anyway.

RECIPE

Print
Strawberry Cheese Rollups
Ingredients
5 slices bread
3 tbs cream cheese room temp or spreadable
1 egg
1 tbs milk or milk of choice
strawberries chopped
2 tbs butter
Instructions
Flatten bread with rolling pin or glass and remove crusts with a knife or pizza cutter. I've eve used shears, and it works great.
Spread cream cheese on one end of the bread and on the other end. The cream cheese will help keep the roll together.
Add chopped strawberries to bread, making sure not to over stuff
Carefully roll the bread and set aside. Repeat same steps above for all bread slices
In a bowl whisk egg and milk
Dip bread rolls into milk mixture. It's best not to over saturate the roll with the mixture unless you like the thicker roll up.
Cook in a pan with butter. Flip and cook each side evenly until brown
Serve with applesauce or plain

Don’t forget to pin this recipe so you can find it easily!

French Toast Roll Ups — These 4 ingredient goodies are so tasty!

Looking for more breakfast ideas? Try these Sunshine Egg Pies

Creamy Broccoli Salad

· Jul 12, 2015 ·

Summer time is upon us and I love a refreshing salad. It’s also a great way to give your child vegetables in its natural state. We don’t put too much dressing on our salads, so it’s not entirely visible on the photo but it’s definitely delish. P.S. Just like his father, my toddler picked out the onions, but ate everything else.

Ingredients:

3/4 c. mayonnaise (you can do light mayo for older children, but low fat is not recommended for those under 2 years of age)
2 tsp white vinegar
1/2 c. agave nectar, you can also substitute it with sugar
1/4 c. sunflower seeds
12 oz broccoli florets (bite size)
1/4 c. sunflower seeds
1/3 c. chopped onions
1/2 c. baby carrots
Almond slithers (optional)

1. In a large bowl, whisk first three ingredients

2. Add the remaining ingredients in the bowl and mix well

3. Refrigerate until ready to serve

Butternut Squash Beet Fries

· Jul 11, 2015 ·

I love beets, but don’t like beet red fingers. I recently discovered the golden beet. It tastes great and doesn’t stain everything in sight. I also coupled it with some butternut squash to make a fry medley. It’s a great alternative to your everyday french fry.

Ingredients:

1 medium size butternut squash
1 golden beet
2 tbs olive oil
2 tsp parmesan cheese (optional)
cilantro (optional)
sea salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 390F

2. Peel and cut butternut squash and beet into fries

3. In a bowl, toss squash and beets i olive oil

4. Bake for 20-35 minutes, or until golden brown

5. Sprinkle with parmesan and salt if desired

Garlic Butter Shrimp

· Jul 9, 2015 ·

Ever have one of those days where you have maybe 15 minutes to cook dinner? Here’s something so easy, but yet so tasty. Pair it with some couscous and/or some veggies and call it dinner!

Ingredients:

8-10 peeled shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 tbs of unsalted butter
salt and pepper to taste
parsley, chopped (optional)
1 tsp garlic, chopped
lemon (optional)

1. In a pan, add butter and garlic on medium heat

2. Add shrimp and season.

3. Cooked until pink and cooked. If desired squeeze a little lemon from a lemon wedge

Strawberry Milk

· Jul 7, 2015 ·

I had another nostalgic moment and craved strawberry milk. Remember that yummy goodness? Here’s a homemade version without all the additives. So good and easy.

Ingredients:

1 cup medium strawberries, hulled and chopped
2 cups of milk of choice
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbs agave nectar or honey

Procedure:

Blend strawberries, milk, vanilla, and sweetener on high until smooth in a blender.
Allow the seeds to settle to the bottom of the blender. Pour into glasses without seeds. You can also store them into ice cube trays so it will nice and cold!

Zucchini Patties

· Jul 6, 2015 ·

My son will eat anything in patty form, especially veggie packed patties! These are healthy and low calorie. That means I can eat them too, without too much guilt. These are tasty and easy to make and it’s packed with a lot of nutrients.

Ingredients:

1 c. yellow zucchini (one small zucchini), grated
1 c. green zucchini (one small zucchini), grated
3 broccoli florets (optional)
1/4 c. green onions, chopped
1/4 c. flour
Dash of pepper
Dash of salt
Dash of garlic powder
1 egg
1/4 c. shredded parmesan (optional)
Olive oil for frying

Procedure:

1. Wash and grate zucchini and dry with paper towel

2. Chop green onions and set aside

3. In a bowl, mix all ingredients until well incorporated

4. In a pan add a little 1 tbs of olive oil on medium high heat

5. Using a spoon or ice cream scooper, scoop about a tablespoon of batter onto the pan for each pattie. Cook until golden brown and flip on the other side for a few minutes.

Serve with chives and sour cream if desired

Flax Seeds Grape Fruit Rollups

· Jul 5, 2015 ·

Growing up, I loved fruit rollups. I wanted to recreate it for my son without the added additives. I also jazzed it up by adding the super food flax seed on them. I don’t have a dehydrator so I used my oven. I used the same technique as veggie chips. Low heat for a long period of time is how this is the name of the game.

Get ready for this.. you can make this with just one ingredient folks. Grapes are naturally so sweet that you don’t need any sugar or honey. Flax seeds are optional. Tip: If you or your child don’t like the texture of seeds, you can always blend it in with the grapes.

Ingredients:

3 cups grapes
flax seeds

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 170F

2. In a blender, (we use a Blendtec) blend grapes until liquid

3. Pour on a baking sheet lined with a non stick baking mat like a Silpat. The silpat is a game changer and well worth the buy. I’ve seen others use parchment paper also. It’s probably best you spray it with non stick spray before pouring if you do use paper.

4. Evenly pour the grape puree on the baking sheet. It’s important you make this as even as possible to about 1/8 of an inch.

5. Sprinkle flax seeds if desired

6. Bake for 6-8 hours, until the fruit leather is easy to peel off the baking mat or parchment paper.

7. Remove from oven and allow to cool

The amount of time it takes to make varies by oven. Check starting at 4 hours. It does take a long time, but it’s a perfect for a day in with the kids. The oven doesn’t get too hot because of the low temp.

Egg Star Sandwiches

· Jul 4, 2015 ·

Happy Fourth of July!

Yes, this is festive and cute, but I made it for another reason as well. My son stopped eating eggs for the last week or so. Perhaps he’s just bored. I mean he’s just like us, if you eat too much of one thing it gets old. When this happens, I always try to change up the recipe to spike his interest again. Since he loves pointing out anything that he knows the word of, this was a hit!