Knead For A Change

Yesterday, my toddler and I "cooked". We made granola bars. I've made these from the recipe before as regular granola (not bars) and they were a big hit with my toddler, so I thought I would try bar form and work to make them a little healthier. They did not turn out quite as thick as the ones my sister in law made and I may have overcooked them slightly, but overall they are pretty good and the granola crumbles leftover are also tasty! Next time I will just watch to make sure they are not overcooked and I will make them thicker, for sure. I also think I will use Old Fashioned Oats vs. the quick oats I had on hand. This recipe came from my sister-in-law, but I have no idea where she got it! Ingredients: 5 cups oats (you can use any combination of steel cut, regular, and quick oats) 10 oz raw almonds (you can grind these as fine as you like - also, I only had a combo of almonds and pecans which turned out ok too!) 4oz coconut oil (last time I made the granola form

A couple recent creations.... This one was inspired by Panera's new broth bowls. After trying to find a quick way to recreate these and coming up with only high sodium options, I decided to buy some rice noodles and try things out myself. While Panera's execution of a broth bowl was far superior to my somewhat bland attempt, I'd be willing to bet that mine had a significantly lower sodium content! A re-attempt at this one may be in my future! I also recently made enchiladas after purchasing some ground chicken on accident. Given my husband was recovering from having a tooth pulled and was on a (very) soft food and/or liquid diet, I knew I needed to make something that required minimal chewing. I also knew that one more bowl of soup might put me over the edge. So, after some searching and brainstorming and recalling one of our favorite enchilada recipes that I'd made multiple times before (found here:   http://www.sproutedkitchen.com/home/2012/7/10/roasted-zucc

One of our friends has a super fun blog that has inspired some delicious and unique creations lately. Because I have a problem following a recipe to a tee, I usually deviate a little, but it is totally unnecessary as her recipes are generally very healthy, not to mention several of my alterations haven't  really changed the taste from what I can tell but have definitely made them less pretty or have a slightly different texture... My alterations also sometimes make it pretty obvious that my friend has quite a bit more patience than I do! In any case, you should totally check the blog out @  http://strawberrymint.org/ ! Tonight my husband raved about the gluten free chocolate molten lava cakes I made after reading about/seeing photos of them on her Instagram feed. I subbed 1tbsp coconut sugar + ~1tbsp agave for the white sugar and used about a tsp or more of regular vanilla instead of the real vanilla bean in the cake (which was sad and only because we do not currently have any va

Yep. I said it. This is hands down the best homemade, healthy pizza crust I've made thus far. http://www.mynaturalfamily.com/recipes/family-dinner/the-best-lightest-healthiest-pizza-dough-recipe-ever-can-be-made-with-spelt-or-regular-flour/ Homemade sauce and creative toppings seal the deal!

Last night I made a mess (a fairly common occurrence to tell the truth...). I wanted to create a creamy noodle dish, but I don't really do pasta and Justin wants healthy, so a classic fettuccini alfredo just wasn't part of the plan. But then I found some healthy recipes for Alfredo sauce. Then I started searching for sauces using cottage cheese since we had plenty and it's fat free. And THEN I found this recipe:   http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/tuna_tomato_mac_cheese.html ! What happened next, you ask? The mess happened next.  Zucchini noodles + veggie infused fettuccine noodles + grape tomatoes + steamed/boiled carrots and broccoli + sauce in recipe ... Except I obviously altered it (mainly to avoid a trip to the store...) Ingredients added: smoked paprika, onion salt, garlic pepper (should have added real garlic too!), extra chili powder (regular, not the ancho variety). I believe my husband added chili flakes to his helping and loved it! Ingredients ch

One of my close friends was recently diagnosed with Celiac disease. So, in preparation for our picnic at Saxapahaw this weekend, I made these: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2007/02/two-fops-and-a-fix-it/. They are like eating air, really, really tasty air... which could eventually pose a problem for my waist-line. In reality though, these cookies really aren't all that bad for you! In fact, compared to a mall vendor's Chocolate Chip Cookie, well, there really isn't any comparison. They are light and just the right amount of sweet. (and totally gluten-free and full of protein). Since I've made these cookies before (and, amazingly enough, followed the recipe to a tee), I decided it was time to experiment. A friend at work (who happens to claim to not really like cookies usually) had fallen in love with the salted caramel cookies I brought in awhile ago and ever since has been asking when I would be bringing more in to share. So, I decided to compromise... Google,