Mini Frittata

I have been on a frittata kick lately.  

Crockpot fritta's, mini fritta's....you get the idea.  

They are SO yummy and SO healthy.

All I could hear this morning, over and over, was "nummy, nummy. peeeeeeezzzzzzz (please)".  They were a hit!  Even my picky baby LOVED them!

I even put the rest of them in the freezer to see how well they freeze.  I can't WAIT to find out!  I want to make lots and lots of them to eat for later.  All of the ingredients freeze well.  I just hope they freeze well together :).

Mini Frittata

8 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup bell pepper, chopped (I did 1/2 green 1/2 red)
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cups spinach, chopped
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
salt & pepper
mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 325.

Saute onions and bell peppers until tender.  Add the spinach until slightly wilted.

Wisk eggs, milk and salt & pepper together and pour evenly into 12 (lightly greased) muffin tins.

Add spoonfuls of veggies to the tin.  Top with tomatoes and cheese.

Bake for 25 minutes or until egg is slightly browned.  Cool for 5 and then take out and cool completely before serving.

A variation of THIS recipe.

Spaghetti with Sauteed Chicken and Grape Tomatoes

We had this for dinner tonight:

Find the recipe here:

I don't remember a time when I have seen 
my kids devour food that fast!

I will be honest when I say I didn't think it was going to be that good.  But it was seriously restaurant good!  Even better it was SO.DANG.EASY peasy!  I made it in about 12 minutes, start to finish!

Avocado Chicken Salad with Cilantro and Lime

I made this for a party and got so many compliments. It is really light and summery tasting. It is just perfect! I found the recipe here:

Chicken Salad

2 lbs chicken breasts, shredded

1/4 cup lime juice

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

3 avocado's

3 green onions

1/2 cup cilantro, lightly packed

I just mashed the avocado, salt, pepper and lime juice together and then mixed it with the shredded chicken then I added the green onion and cilantro and refrigerated it for an hour or two.

Oatmeal at it's Finest.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday...and Saturday and Sunday usually we have oatmeal. We are constantly changing it up. We just use quick oats, and make them normal on the stove. We do not add any honey or sugar, just a sprinkle of salt. If you add enough fruit it sweetens it up quite a bit. The ones on the picture would be great for Valentines day. Here are some idea's:

My boys favorite:

Put frozen or fresh raspberries in the water before adding the quick oats.

Slice up a banana in the oats just after adding them.

Add dried apples and raisins while the water is preparing to boil.

We also do:

Slice frozen strawberries and add them to water just before the oats.

Sliced frozen Blackberries in the water as it prepares to boil.

Fresh or frozen blueberries.

If you ask my boys what their favorite breakfast is they ALWAYS say quick oats.

Strawberry Banana Crepes

Just make these whole wheat crepes and last weeks "ice cream" and trickle with chocolate and sprinkle with powdered sugar! SO DELISH and ooooohhhh so healthy.

Ice Cream??

This is delicious. We made a big batch and kept it in the freezer. It freezes HARD so we leave it out for a bit so it comes out soft.

Pure:

1 banana

1 cup of strawberries

1/3 cup of almond milk

I found this recipe on Pinterest here.

Cucumber Sandwich's

I saw this idea on Pinterest. I decided to use some cheese and Chicken. We REALLY liked these and will DEFINITELY do it again.

Hollow out your cucumbers.
You need:

Cucumber

Mozarella Cheese

Avocado's
Fill them with sliced Avocado, Grilled Chicken and a slice of mozzarella cheese. You may think it needs more than that but it really doesn't. I did spice my grilled chicken up with some cayenne pepper, paprika and chili powder.

Southwestern Sandwich...

All I did was use half of a Whole Wheat Roll and put my mix for the Southwester Egg Rolls from last week on top. Put a little grilled Chicken on top and some cheese...and WHA-LA! Deliciousness

Baked Southwestern Egg Rolls

Ok. These were SO easy and my new favorite. I LOVE this recipe. Next week I will tell you what I did with the left-overs....SO YUMMY!!!!!!

Want the recipe? Look here! It said to use mexican cheese but I just used Mild Cheddar.

Cashew Chicken

This really was SO so delicious. It is a definite do again! I found this recipe on Pinterest Here.

Just note that I used normal white vinegar instead of White wine vinegar. I would have used brown rice which would have also been delicious but I was sucking up to the hubby ;)

Parmesan Asparagus

Asparagus is on sale...and we love it. We do this exact same thing all the time but without the Parmesan. YUMMY!

1 lb asparagus

1 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1/8 cup Parmesan cheese

Bake on 400 for 10 minutes. So easy, so simply, so perfectly, perfect!

Veggie Bake with Parmesan Cheese

I found this recipe Here. It was delicious but took WAY longer to bake than she said. I really liked the mix of flavors and I LOVED having so many leftovers!

Penne with Roasted Asparagus

I found this recipe on Pinterest. The link for the original recipe is here. We absolutely SALIVATE for this dinner. It smells good and it is DIVINE! I.LOVE.IT! It is so full of flavor and since asparagus went on sale for 1.77 lb this week I am having this at least twice this week. My boys don't mind...they DEVOUR it! Of course I made some changes so here is my version of this deliciousness!

Penne with Roasted Asparagus

1 lb asparagus(cut into 1 inch pieces)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 1/2 T olive oil (divided)

1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp brown sugar

1 lb penne pasta

3 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup grated parmesan

Directions: Roast 1/2 Tbsp oil, asparagus, 1/4 tsp both salt and pepper at 400 for 10 minutes. Put vinegar in sauce pan and cook on medium low until about 3 Tbsp remaining. Stir in the sugar and the rest of the pepper and take off heat. Cook pasta and add remaining ingredients. stir together and serve.

Extremely Low Sugar Strawberry Jam

This can be bottled and stored on your shelf OR in your freezer.

The best thing about it is you don't have to us pectin!

So I wrote down exactly what I did today. Strawberry's went on sale for 1.27 lb so I stocked up and made some jam. We were running low. I use this EXACT same recipe for apricots and peaches...minus the lemon juice. This is about 1/6th of the jam that recipe's normally use to make jam. The riper the strawberries the YUMMIER it will be. Here you go:

Extremely Low Sugar Strawberry Jam:

6 lbs strawberries (this is 12 cups puree'd)

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup modified corn starch

1/4 cup lemon juice

I started by cutting off the leaves and quartering them.

Then I put them in the blender and lightly puree'd them. I am not a big fan of the clumps but if you don't mind it you can actually skip pureeing and put them in your pan and mash them. You can use LOTS less cornstarch if you do.

Then, I added the rest of the ingredients in a sauce pan and cooked it on medium heat until it came to a boil. I boiled it for 5 minutes.

I almost immediately put it in the containers before it starts to set.

No joke that this is how clean my kitchen was 1 hr after getting the stuff out to make it. It is THAT easy.

Don't you love my empty house? We just moved in. I need to start decorating and painting and STOP making jam :D.

Butternut Squash Soup

Can I just tell you that while I was making this I thought it was going to turn out absolutely disgusting. I was SO pleasantly surprised! I doubled it and made 2 extra freezer meals of it. AND we have eaten them all and I am making more to freeze and eat this week. We LOVE it!

My kids snarf it too. That is a big deal! It is an awesome substitute for tomato soup on those cold days. It has that creaminess and that hearty goodness that just fills you up with warm fuzzy's!

2 lbs butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed (just use a peeler and go at it like a potato)

4 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered

3 1/2 cups chicken broth (low sodium of course)

2 slices stale wheat bread, cut in to pieces

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp dried basil

Directions: simmer the first three ingredients for about 20 minutes or until the squash is tender. Add bread, pepper and basil. Simmer 2-3 minutes longer. Puree in a blender until smooth. Put in a prettier bowl than mine and EAT IT UP!

Lemon Garlic Spaghetti

Holy Smokes y'all, this one is SO.GOOD!! Serious. Like restaurant good! We made this last night and my entire family (including 4 yr old, 2 yr old AND 1 yr old) DEVOURED it. I seriously should have made more. Serious YUMMINESS! (oh, and SO EASY peasy!)

I made some tweaks to her recipe so I will write them here. Go to her site (i nom things) for pictures of HOW to make it and everything. This picture is hers...I made min with thin wheat spaghetti noodles.

Lemon Garlic Spaghetti – serves 2

4 oz dry spaghetti (I used whole wheat, thin spaghetti noodles)
1/4 cup grated parmesan
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/2 lemon (I used the stuff in a little lemon bottle)
2 tbsp pine nuts (didn't even use these...didn't have 'em)
5-6 basil leaves, chiffonaded (I used 1 tsp of dry)

Start a small pan on low with the oil and minced garlic. Cook on low until the garlic begins to brown (mine took about 15 min). Once that is going boil your noodles.

When the garlic is done, add the garlic (with the oil) to the noodles. Add the rest of the ingredients and serve.

YUM!...I think I will make this tomorrow too....

Next Monday, my AMAZING Butternut Squash Soup...AND IT FREEZES!!! Get excited. I AM!

Green Chili Chicken and Lime Soup

OK y'all. This is my FAVORITE soup and my kids love it too. It is SO divine. I got it from here. I am going to post how I make it though. I make some very slight changes. We also freeze the left overs of this one. From one pot I fed my family and another family in need. THEN I made and extra batch without the cilantro to freeze. We have frozen it with the cilantro in it and it is just as good either way.

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves fresh or roasted garlic, minced

80 oz (10 c) chicken broth (I use the reduced salt bullion cubes)

10 oz can Rotel tomatoes, mild

7 oz can diced green chilies

4 medium chicken breasts, shredded

2 1/2 cups cooked rice

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

Pinches Kosher salt

fresh cracked black pepper

1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

3 diced avocados, drizzled with lime juice

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Cook chicken in a crockpot; shred.

2. Spray a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion for 5 minutes then add in garlic; cook for 1 minute. Stir in chicken broth, tomatoes, green chilies, chicken breast, rice, lime juice and seasonings. Cook for 5 minutes; taste and season according to your liking. Right before serving add chopped cilantro.

3. Serve soup with fresh diced avocado, shredded cheese.

10-12 servings

Black Bean Butternut Squash Crockpot Chili

For the life of me I cannot remember where I got this recipe so if you know, let me know so I can link it up. We love it though. My husband was shocked when he was mid-meal and I told him there was no meat in it. We had A LOT left so I stuck the rest of it in a gallon freezer bag and froze it for later. It was as good as the first time.

Here we go:

3 onions, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

2 jalapenos, seeded and minced

2 14.5 ox cans of diced fire roasted tomatoes (or regular)

4 15 oz cans of black beans, rinsed and drained (or 8 cups of your pre-made beans)

3 tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon dried oregano

2lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded and shopped into 1/2 inch cubes

salt and pepper

Spray large skillet with pan spray and add onions, peppers and garlic until tender. Put in slow cooker and everything else, except the squash. Arrange the squash over the chili. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

Update: I found this recipe on Crockpot Girls site.

Dried Fruit

I have loved all this fruit going on sale for 77 cents a pound! I have been buying it in the truck loads to freeze and dry. My lovely momma has a dryer. I was SO excited to dry TONS of plums this year. They are my favorite dried, next to pears. They are awesome for food storage AND for when you need fruit and run out. We love to snack on them too.

Give it a try!

EASY Peasy Jam!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I have been opting to make my own jam lately because I am sick of feeding my kids sugar by the sandwich-full!

Get this: all you need is fruit, sugar, and modified cornstarch...SERIOUSLY...totally not kidding.

I wish there was a step by step instruction for you to follow on this one but there isn't. You just guess and throw it together.

I, so far, have made: Strawberry, apricot and peach jam...all the exact same way.

I chop and pit my fruit, puree it, stick it in a pot with about 8:1 ratio of fruit:sugar and then add some modified cornstarch (I use stuff from Kitchen Kneads). I boil it until it thickens (sometimes I have to add about 2 cups for 16 cups of pureed fruit). Put it in bottles or 2 cup tupperware and either bottle it or freeze it after it cools.

THAT IS IT! Feel free to ask questions if you need to. We LOVE this. We can actually TASTE the fruit and it is SOOOO yummy on toast or PB&J's!