We went on our first family camping trip a couple weeks ago. Troy is the master when it comes to perfectly roasted marshmallows.
As I’ve mentioned before, I gave up dairy a few months back. Overall, it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be, but one of the things I miss the most is pizza. I don’t care for any of the fake cheese substitutes, but I thought I’d give cheese-less pizza a try. This is my usual whole wheat dough, topped with another Pinterest find, chickepea basil pesto from this blog, portabello mushrooms, Gimme Lean veggie sausage, fresh roma tomatoes, and then drizzled with just a bit of olive oil. It was actually pretty good, but still not as satisfying as the real thing. I think I may brush the dough with olive oil and put the pesto on top of the veggies next time.
We’ve recently started participating in a produce co-op. It’s been a great way to try out vegetables we normally don’t buy very often and eat a lot more of the ones that we do. Last weekend’s box had a TON of lettuce in it. One can only eat so much salad, so I thought Asian-style lettuce wraps would be another good way to use it one of the heads of green leaf lettuce. It’s also a great way to include other veggies that kids (or husbands) won’t normally eat – in this case. mushrooms. I used ground turkey to keep the fat content down, but you could easily substitute chicken, pork or even TVP for a vegetarian version. This was pretty quick and easy to put together and a big hit with family. I’ve included the recipe after the jump.
Since I deviated quite a bit from the source, I thought I’d try something a little different today and post a recipe to go along with the photo (after the jump). I saw this recipe on Pinterest the other day and realized it’d be a perfect use for leftover chicken. One of my favorite easy dinners is to throw some chicken breasts in the crockpot along with a jar of salsa, or a can or rotel or enchilada sauce. Let it cook on low, shred it up and voila! Instant chicken tacos, enchilada filling, or in this case, flauta filling! If you have plain shredded chicken, like leftover or rotisserie, I would just combine it with 1/2 – 3/4 cup of your favorite salsa and double the cumin in the recipe.
In the last 6 months, I’ve discovered I have some food sensitivities, so I’ve more or less cut dairy and eggs completely out of my diet, and I’m trying to limit my gluten intake as well. This recipe lends itself well to being gluten and dairy free since you can sub vegan (Tofutti) sour cream for the dairy kind, and it still has a bit of that nice creamy texture. I generally won’t cook two separate meals each night, but in this case, it was easy enough to divide the filling into two batches and use real dairy for the hubby and kiddo. You could also substitute Daiya shreds for the cheese, but I personally don’t care for them, so I’ve learned to live without cheese in my life.
Greek chicken pita with homemade tzitziki, lettuce & grape tomatoes, and a side of falafel (frozen, from Trader Joe’s).
Trying to eat a little bit healthier after a summer of overindulging, so I made a quick marinade of lemon juice, olive oil and herbs and dumped in some chicken breast cut into strips. We grilled it up and ate them on Greek-style pitas, which I prefer over the kind with a pocket, but I’m fairly certain are more fattening. Oh well. The falafel was bought on a whim after trying a sample but in retrospect, I probably should have skipped it. I think I’d better off buying a mix and frying them fresh.
Top: sugar snap peas, homemade ranch dressing (in the blue container), whole wheat fig bar;
Bottom: Ham sandwich on multi-grain sandwich thin, with Swiss & Colby-Jack flowers on top, romaine lettuce, quartered strawberries
Now that E is back in school and I have to pack lunches, you’ll probably be seeing more bentos on here, although this may be as fancy as they get. She helped pick out what went into her lunch for the first day, and shockingly, ate pretty much every bit of what I had thought would be way too much food. In fact, she was still munching on the last of the peas when I showed up! I guess they worked up an appetite!
Canned quartered peaches (left) and peach pie filling (right)
Continuing on my crazy canning kick, I decided to take advantage of cheap peaches and made up a large batch of peach pie filling and then just canned the rest mostly whole, in juice, for my fruit-crazy daughter to eat this winter.
