Homemade Honey Lemonade Recipe. And a Cocktail - Because You Earned It.

Summer is not the same without lemonade. Squeezing dozens of lemons isn't something I'm going to do every day - but every now and then, it's so worth it. This is the best homemade lemonade, and the basis for one of my favorite simple summer cocktails. 

It's not quite summer yet, but we sure have had some lovely spring weather around here.  The kind of weather that makes you think of cold, refreshing lemonade!

One of my kids has recently decided that she doesn't want to drink much. It's a whole long story about night wetting, and really trying to stay dry, and her making the connection about drinking = wetting, and so refusing to drink.  But refusing to drink much also leads to some other problematic stopped up type bathroom issues which aren't too fun for a little kid (which actually contribute to wetting), which I don't need to go into any more than that (because bathroom stuff = TMI on a food page!).

So anyway, long story made even longer... I have been trying to get creative about coming up with things that she really wants to drink.  And she LOVES lemonade.  But store bought lemonade has so much sugar!  Even the good brands, and the organic brands, it's just so much processed sugar. And it gets expensive after a while. And most recipes you read call for cups and cups of white sugar too.

I wanted to come up with my own that didn't have as much highly processed white sugar in it - so I created this recipe that is sweetened mostly with honey.  Of course it's still sugar in some form, but at least it's not so much of the white stuff. I did try this with all honey, but in order to get the right balance of sweetness with the lemons I personally thought it ended up with too strong of a honey flavor for a child's palette.  So I balanced it out with a little organic sugar. 

Ingredients:

• 5-6 cups of water (or more)

• 1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 pounds of medium lemons)

• 1 cup of honey

• 1/2 cup raw or organic sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

In a small saucepan, combine honey, sugar, salt, and 1 cup of water.

Don't let the salt worry you - it does not taste salty.  Just a little salt brings out the flavor in everything -it's the secret ingredient in a lot of sweet treats. 

Let this simmer until all the sugar and honey are dissolved and well combined. You're basically making a honey simple syrup here. 

Once you get that going, squeeze your lemons.  

After you've got a few lemons squeezed, put a few of the squeezed out halves in your pot of simmering syrup.  This will give your syrup an extra little kick of lemon flavor.  

Watch that pot carefully, honey can boil over really quickly! Just keep it on very low so the heat can help extract that lemon flavor, while you work on squeezing the rest of your lemons.  

Take the syrup off the stove, strain out the lemons, and add 1 1/2 cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice. 

Now - STOP!

What you have is an amazing and wonderful lemon honey syrup mixture.  

This right here is the basis for a fabulous cocktail!  So set aside a quarter cup or so of this mixture and save it for later.  Mix a tablespoon of this with an ounce of your favorite bourbon or other liquor, shake with ice, pour into a glass and top with a splash of soda (We make ours in a SodaStream, and we love it!).  It's a fabulous cocktail and you surely earned it after squeezing all those lemons!

Cheers!

Or for something a little different - you can use that lemon syrup mixture to make an awesome lemon soda! Just mix to your liking with sparkling water for a super refreshing and slightly more sophisticated thirst quencher, without alcohol. 

OK. Back to the lemonade...

After you've set aside a bit for yourself, you should have about 3 cups or so of the lemon honey syrup mixture.  You'll notice that this is not a pure yellow color like most lemonade, because the combination of the honey and the organic sugar are going to give it a more golden color.  I personally think that looks really pretty! 

Pour this in a big pitcher or jar and add 4 or more cups of cold water - this is the part that is really up to your personal taste. If you want a very strong and sweet lemonade, add less water.  If you want it more diluted then add more water.  

For my kids I serve it pretty diluted and they still love it - it helps get them hydrated and actually isn't all that much sugar when you do the math (a cup and a half of honey + sugar, diluted across 6-8 cups of water). 

It's so refreshing over ice! Enjoy!

Weeknight Lemon Dijon Chicken Thighs

Hands down my favorite way to cook chicken. It's so easy. This recipe has instructions for the oven below, but you can also let this marinade and then throw them on the grill for a summer dinner. I do them for about 7 minutes each side over medium heat. Use the leftover marinade to baste them a couple times on each side. 

This is my favorite weeknight chicken recipe.  I've made this for years without a recipe, but the last time I made it I finally took the time to scribble down what I put in it, and take a few pictures for you.  It's so easy, once you've made it you don't really need a recipe.

The quantities are just a guideline - it really doesn't matter how much of each thing you add.  It's all good. 

Ingredients:

• 3-4 pounds chicken thighs (you can use other pieces as well, but thighs are my favorite)

• 1/2 cup white wine (and a little extra for the cook)

• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (and the squeezed lemon halves)

• 1 teaspoon salt, and a little more to sprinkle on top

• a heaping tablespoon dijon mustard

• 1 teaspoon (or more) crushed or chopped garlic

• fresh round pepper, to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. 

Put chicken pieces in zip top plastic bag. Add all the rest of the ingredients. Don't for get to add the pieces of lemon that you squeezed, they add great flavor.  Close the bag securely and just massage it all around so it's well mixed and the chicken is well coated.  If you have time, let this sit for an hour or more.  If not, that's fine too.  When you are ready to cook, just dump it all in a casserole dish or other oven safe pan. I like to sprinkle a little more salt on top, because I love that salty, crispy skin. 

Cook for 35-45 minutes - depending on how hot your oven is (mine runs a little cold) - until all the juice looks clear and cooked (no red or pink juices from the chicken), and the skin is nicely browned.  The nice thing about thighs is that it's harder to overcook them, you have to really overcook them in order for them to not be good.  Also cooking with all this marinade helps too, it really keeps them juicy.  If you decide to do this with white meat you will need to watch it more closely.

I like to serve this with some white rice or plain pasta on the side.  The juices from the chicken, combined with the lemon juice, wine, and mustard, make the most amazing and delicious sauce, so you really don't need to do anything else.  Steam a veggie or make a quick salad, and you have a super easy weeknight dinner.  

After you're done - don't throw out those bones! Take the meat off the bones and save, and dump everything else that's left into a pot, cover with water, and simmer for a couple hours until you have broth.  It's the most amazing lemony flavored broth and it is perfect for making soup. 

Swiss Muesli: an easy overnight oats recipe that the whole family will love

Swiss Muesli: The original easy overnight oats recipe

Muesli is one of my favorite summer breakfasts.

It's cool and refreshing when it's hot out, and it's made ahead, so you don't have to spend time in the kitchen on a beautiful summer morning. Everybody who has tried my version of this recipe loves it!

Do you want a breakfast that's easy, and hearty, and healthy, and the whole family will love?

Well this might just be it.  

Swiss Meusli is the original easy overnight oats recipe. 

Have you seen all the buzz lately about these overnight refrigerator oats recipes?

Seems like some new way to make oats?  Nope, not new.  The Swiss have been doing it this way for over 100 years.  They call it Muesli, or Swiss Muesli, or Bircher Muesli (named from the doctor that created the recipe for the health benefits of his patients).  

This is not the "muesli" that you've seen in a cereal box.  That is a granola like cereal that has some oats and dried fruit and somebody decided to give it the name because some of the ingredients are similar.

No, this is a totally different thing - it's a way of preparing oats that's like nothing you've probably ever tasted. I love it, it's one of my favorite breakfasts. I first learned about Swiss Muesli almost 30 years ago, when my older sister came home from being an exchange student in Switzerland.  

She introduced us to the way the Swiss do oats, and I've loved it ever since.  In the summer I like to make up a huge bowl and eat it for breakfast all week long.  It's cool and refreshing, but hearty and filling.  And you can dress it up however you like. 

There are so many ways to make muesli, with various combinations of milk, yogurt, juice - but the basic idea is combining oats with some combination of those, plus apples, and soaking overnight.  

The apple appears to be required, in order for it to be the original Bircher Muesli.  I think it's part of what makes it so unique, although you could leave it out if you prefer.  

What you get in the morning is so great - the oats have soaked up the liquid and have softened, but not turned to mush.  They still have some texture, just enough, and they have flavor.  

The bits of grated apple are still a little crisp.  There's just enough sweetness from the honey.  The milk and yogurt are creamy. It's just so good. 

If you look around you'll find that no two recipes are exactly alike.  The original Bircher Muesli is still around, but now it has evolved and everyone makes it just a little different.  My personal preference is what I think is a pretty simple version. 

Here's how I make Swiss Muesli.

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats (not quick oats!)

• 1 cup of milk (whatever kind you like)

• 1 cup of plain yogurt

• 1/4 cup (or less if you like less sweet) of honey

• Juice from 1 medium size lemon

• 1 large apple, grated.

Optional toppings:

• milk, cream or half & half

• diced fresh fruit

• dried fruits

• chopped nuts

• seeds

• dried coconut

• anything else that sounds good!

Preparation:  

Mix together all of the ingredients (not the toppings), cover, and refrigerate overnight.  If it's your first time making it, you might want to hold back on some of the honey, mix everything else, and taste.  See if it's sweet enough before you add all the honey.  It might vary depending on how big or sweet your apple is.  Also if you've used almond milk or some other kind of non-dairy milk that's sweetened, I would leave out the honey altogether until you've tasted it.  

In the morning, scoop out a serving, and top it however you like. I like mine with just a little bit of extra half & half and some diced bananas or some blueberries.  Simple, creamy, just a little tart from the lemon and apple, just sweet enough from the honey and banana.  Breakfast perfection. 

You can go as crazy as you want though - nuts, all different kinds of dried and fresh fruit, sunflower seeds or chia seeds, or ground flax seeds, nut butter - whatever sounds good.  If you want, you can really load it up with all kinds of yummy and nutritious stuff.  This is way more than just overnight oatmeal!

Give it a try, and let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

~ Lisa

Easy Quick Bread and Muffin Recipe

An easy recipe for quick bread and muffins that comes together super fast in the blender.

My kids love it when I make homemade breads and muffins - the climb all over each other to be the first one to get to the banana bread or carrot bread or pumpkin muffins.  They get so excited when they see me mixing, or smell it baking, or see it come out of the oven.  I can hardly make them wait until it's cool enough to eat.  But I haven't been making it all that often, because it just seems like too much work and advance planning.  I am no good at setting butter or eggs in advance out to get to room temp, and the creaming of butter and sugar seems like a lot of effort, and I can't stand the mess of all the bowls I need to wash. Sometimes it just seems like more trouble than it's worth.  I've got a lot going on.

But I couldn't help but think that there had to be an easier way.  There had to be a way to shortcut some of those steps. So I set out to figure it out. 

Banana chocolate chip mini muffins.

My goals: it had to be easy, it had to be fast, but it still had to be relatively healthy.  I wasn't going to trade off making it easier by using processed junk. So many quick bread recipes you see call for so much sugar, it's crazy.  We need to just be honest with ourselves and call those things for what they are: they are cake.  If a recipe has a couple of cups of sugar in it, it's not bread. It's cake. And don't get me wrong, I love cake. But not for an everyday staple, for a school day breakfast or an after school snack. So I had to come up with a recipe that was going to taste great but not be loaded with sugar.  And I think I've done it!

This is it folks, the last quick bread recipe you will ever need. 

This recipe is made with whole wheat flour, whole fruits and veggies, and no refined sugar (or very little, if you decide to add some). It is sweetened with just a little honey and the natural flavors of fruit. Best of all - it's made all in the blender, and takes less than 5 minutes from start until it's in the oven.  It is so fast and easy, you are just not even going to believe it. This is not your grandma's banana bread - there is no need to let your butter or eggs come to room temperature, there is no creaming of butter and sugar. You aren't washing multiple bowls.

Carrot Apple Bread and Pumpkin Muffins

This. Is. Easy. 

It's the perfect balance of hearty and sweet, with a little tang from plain yogurt. It's moist in the middle, just a little chewy and just a little crumbly, with a nice crunch of crust on the top. Spread a hot slice with some butter, or a little cream cheese, and I think you've got breakfast or snack time perfection. 

What I have for you is a basic master recipe that can be used to make any number of flavors of quick bread. You can turn this into a super quick zucchini bread, banana bread, pumpkin bread, apple bread, carrot bread, or whatever else you like.  I've tried it with all of those, and a number of combinations.  I LOVE the combinations.  I've made apple + carrot, carrot + pear, zucchini + banana, apple + carrot + chocolate chip. The combination of a little fruit and a little veggie gives a great flavor and just the right amount of sweetness.  See the variations below for some suggestions of flavor combinations. 

This is not a super sweet loaf, because that's how I like it.  If you like your breads to be more sweet, then you'll want to increase the honey or add a little sugar (I included a bit of brown sugar in the ingredients as optional - read my note about it).

I recommend you read all the way through before starting.  This is very easy, but the technique is a little different than what you are used to, so you want to read the directions before you just start tossing stuff in a bowl. This is still a basic "mix your wet, then mix your dry, the combine the two" type of situation, but the way you mix the wet and the way you combine are a little different. 

Ingredients: (in the order in which I add them)

Carrots & Pears

• 1/2 cup honey

• 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (I use whole milk yogurt. Sour cream will work too)

• Approximately 1 cup pureed fruit and/or veggies (apple, banana, carrot, zucchini, pumpkin, etc.). Or enough whole fruit & veg, roughly chopped, to make about a cup pureed. (see notes & variations below)

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• optional: 1/4 cup brown sugar (see notes)

• 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (see notes & variations)

• 2 cups whole wheat flour

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• Oil spray or butter for the baking pan.

• optional: up to a cup of chopped nuts, raisins, chopped fruit, or even chocolate chips!

Recipe makes 1 regular loaf, or 3 mini loaves, or 12 standard size muffins, or about 3 dozen mini muffins.  I don't recommend doubling this with the blender method, the blender would be too full and it won't mix properly.  But it's so fast and easy to mix up that making several at a time is no problem.  I made 3 different batches in less than 15 minutes. 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350, or 300 convection. Grease a loaf pan or a muffin pan.  (Rub it with a bit of butter, or if you're in a hurry like me just hit it with a little spray oil. I use a coconut oil spray that I get at Trader Joe's.) 

Mix together the "wet" ingredients: 

In your blender, put honey, yogurt, and fruit and veggies. Pulse the blender until the fruit and veggies are mostly pureed and well blended.  Check your quantity - if you are not at 2 cups, you can add a little more fruit and puree some more.

Add butter, egg, vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar if you are using it. Turn on blender to mix at a medium speed until the butter is blended in.  This should only take a few seconds, unless your butter is super hard.  Pulse it a few times, check to make sure the butter isn't still in a chunk.  If you still have some big chunks of butter, then puree a bit more.

Mix together the "dry" ingredients: 

In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder. 

Combine wet and dry.  

Method 1: all in the blender. You can do this all in the blender if you have a high powered blender.  Just dump the flour mixture in, put the lid on tight, and turn it on at a high setting. On a Vitamix - this would be variable 9 or 10 - turn the dial to 9 or 10 and then pulse it on and off (don't start on low and turn it up, just start it on high).  That will suck some of the flour down to the bottom.  Then get in there with a spatula or spoon and stir a little, pulse again, stir a little.  You are just trying to get the dry just mixed with the wet so there are no obvious areas of dry flour left. Don't overmix, you just want the flour moistened.  

Method 2: in a bowl. You can also do this step in a bowl - just pour your wet mixture in the bowl with the dry, and gently stir until all the flour is moistened. 

It should be a fairly thick batter. Pureed raw fruit will still release more moisture when it bakes, so you want to start out with a fairly thick batter in order to have a finished baked good that's not too moist.  But if you think it really is too dry to mix together without having to work it too hard, then add a little more moisture.  You can add up to a quarter cup of milk, or applesauce, or yogurt. 

If you are adding any chopped nuts or fruit or chocolate chips, you will want to do this last step in a bowl.  Pour the wet mixture over the dry, add your nuts or chocolate chips, and fold it all together until combined. 

Then dump it in your greased loaf pan, or divide into muffin pans, and bake. I've been using this for mini muffins, and using a small cookie scoop to make it quick and even.

Baking times:

(approximate, will vary depending on your oven):

• Full size loaf: 1 hour

• Mini loaves: 30 minutes

• Full size muffins: 25 minutes

• Mini muffins: 15 minutes

Notes:

• This is not a very sweet recipe. I put a 1/4 cup of brown sugar in there as optional - if you like your breads on the sweeter side, you'll want to add this. Or if you are starting with just veggies that aren't very sweet (like zucchini, or pumpkin), then you'll probably want it. But if you are using super ripe bananas that are already very sweet, or sweet applesauce, then I don't think you need it. If you are adding chocolate chips, then you probably don't need it.

• If you are starting with already pureed fruit, then just measure 1 cup and add it to the rest of the wet ingredients and puree.

• If you are starting with whole fruit and veggies, you need to estimate what will be enough to total no more than 2 cups when blended with the yogurt and honey. Start with a little, puree, and read the measurement on the side of the blender, then add more if you need to.

• If you're worried about pureeing all your fruit and having no actual texture or chunks of fruit, just dice or grate a little and fold that in at the end, the same time as when you would add any nuts or chocolate chips. Remember it will release moisture though, so cut back on your puree just a tiny bit.

• I have made this with all purpose white flour. It works. Personally I think the whole wheat version tastes better, it gives it a heartiness that you don't get from white flour, and I think the texture is nicer. But if you want to do it with white flour, go for it. You might want to decrease your wet ingredients just a bit, because the white flour doesn't seem to absorb as much liquid. I have also done half white and half wheat, and that works well.

• I have not yet tried it with a gluten free flour, but I will soon. If you try it, let me know.

• You could totally skip the yogurt and add an extra 1/4 cup of fruit puree instead (or an extra banana). I just like the little bit of tang that it gives, I think it rounds out the sweet fruit flavors really nicely. It seems to also somehow help contribute to a little crunch in the crust. You can also replace the yogurt with sour cream.

• You can do this with less butter, or skip the butter and add more yogurt or some applesauce.

Top: banana; Middle: zucchini; Bottom: apple + carrot

Variations:

Quantities of fruit and veggies here are approximate and will vary depending on size.  You still want to follow the rule of no more than 2 cups total when pureed with the honey and yogurt.  I want you to experiment!  Tell me what combinations you try!

• Banana Bread: 3 very ripe bananas, 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

• Pumpkin Bread: 1 1/4 cups organic canned pureed pumpkin, replace the cinnamon with 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, replace the honey with real maple syrup, and add 1/4 cup brown sugar.

• Apple Bread: 2 medium tart & juicy apples (I've been using Jonagold), 2 teaspoons cinnamon. I think this one is my favorite. It tastes like pie.

• Zucchini Bread: 1 medium zucchini, just 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and add 1/4 cup brown sugar.

• Apple + Carrot Bread: 1 medium apple, 2 medium carrots, 2 teaspoons cinnamon.

• Carrot + Pear Bread: 1 medium pear, 2 medium carrots, 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

• Banana chocolate chip: 3 very ripe bananas, 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips, no cinnamon (I don't like cinnamon and chocolate together in this kind of thing).

The possible combinations are endless!  We made one this week with carrot, pear, apple, and chocolate chips. 

Pumpkin Muffin with butter.

Carrot + Apple bread, with cream cheese.

Banana Chocolate Chip Blender Muffins

You read that title right - blender muffins.  Absorb that for a sec....

I think I need to just bow out while I'm ahead with this one - I will never try another muffin recipe again.  My children have declared these to be the best muffins they've ever had.  And if you knew my kids, you'd know that they are pretty tough little food critics (my fault, I'm sure). 

I've made a couple batches of these over the last week, and they are inhaling them as fast as I can bake them. But it's totally ok, because these are super easy to make, and relatively healthy (as far as things containing chocolate chips go), and fast! We're talking from starting mixing, to in the oven, in like 5 minutes. 

They are fast to make because they are mostly made in the blender!

I know it's an unconventional way to make this type of recipe, but it totally works.  I love baking stuff like this for my kids, but all the steps and multiple bowls, and waiting for butter to come to room temperature so you can slowly cream it with sugar.... it was kiiillllling me. I had to find an easier way. I am an instant gratification kind of cook.  I like to whip it out and move on to the next thing. So this is just my type of recipe. 

Also the amount of sugar in so many recipes is just crazy! We're not making cake folks, we're making muffins.  If I'm going to put 2 cups of white sugar in something, then let's just be honest and call it cake. I love cake, but I'm not feeding it to my kids every day.  With super sweet ripe bananas and some honey, all that sugar is just not necessary. 

I think these work best as mini muffins, they are just a perfect two bite size, for a little sweet treat or snack. But full size muffins work great too. The whole wheat flour makes them feel really filling, and the little bit of yogurt adds moisture and just a hint of tang that balances out the sweetness really nicely.  You can swap out sour cream if you don't have yogurt.  Or add more banana. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour

• 3 very ripe bananas

• 1/2 cup honey

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

• 1/4 cup plain yogurt (I use whole milk Greek yogurt)

• 1 egg

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350, or 300 convection. Grease muffin pans (we prefer mini muffin pans), or if you are using paper or silicone liners then just set them out. 

• In the container of your high powered blender, put bananas (broken into a couple of pieces), cold butter (cut up a little), honey, yogurt, vanilla, and egg.

• Start out pulsing the blender to get it started. Stop and push the contents down if you need to. Pulse some more. Once the butter is starting to break up and the ingredients blend together, turn it up gradually. Blend just until everything is well mixed.

• In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and chocolate chips.

• Pour the wet mixture over the dry and fold together gently just until all the flour is moistened.

Note: if you don't have a high powered blender, you can still make these! You'll just do it the old school way - let the butter soften, cream together with the honey, mix in the other wet ingredients (including mashed bananas), and then mix with the dry ingredients.  They will still taste awesome, it will just take a little longer. So get yourself a blender, ok? 

For mini muffins, I like to use a small cookie scoop to fill the muffin cups.  I get the perfect amount every time and all the muffins end up evenly sized with no overflow.

Bake: 20 minutes for mini muffins.  30-40 minutes for regular muffins (depends on how big your cups are and how full you fill them). 1 hour for a loaf of bread. 

If you're of the banana nut persuasion, you could totally add some chopped nuts to these.  We just don't believe in mixing our nuts with our baked goods in this house. ;-) 

Also, a hint:  this recipe totally works with other mashed/pureed fruits too. I'm working an upcoming post about that, with a master quick bread recipe.  But if you can't wait - just use this recipe, and swap out the bananas for any other pureed fruit, just make sure that it adds up to no more than 1 1/4 cups of puree, less if you're using something super wet (like apples). Leave out the chocolate chips and add nuts or raisins, and add a little spice.

Just a few ideas:

• pumpkin muffins: pureed pumpkin, swap maple syrup for the honey, and add 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

• apple pie muffins: puree a couple of tart apples, and add 2 teaspoons cinnamon

• carrot muffin: puree a couple of carrots & a zucchini, and add 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• try other combinations - banana + zucchini, pear + carrot, apple + carrot

(Links contained here are affiliate links.  If you purchase something from a product link I've provided, I get a small commission.  It doesn't cost you any more, but it helps me keep the lights on here.)

How to Make Almond Milk

I've been making my own almond milk for a while now. I love having it in my morning coffee - it gives the milkiness I like from putting milk in my coffee, and just the right amount of sweetness, but somehow seems lighter on the stomach.  I also love using it in my kid's smoothies. 

When I made it the first time I was completely blown away at how easy it was.  I couldn't believe I'd been holding off on making nut milk, for some reason thinking it would be too much work.  So wrong! 

As with anything I do, of course I have to tinker with it.  I might start by following somebody else's recipe, but I tweak and change until I've figured out the way that works for me. You can google around and you'll find plenty of recipes for homemade almond milk, the variety is quite surprising actually, given how simple it is.  So what we have here is the method I've been using that's working well for me. One of my goals when messing with a recipe is to figure out how much I can simplify the process, while still getting the best possible flavor.  I try to cut out any unnecessary steps and just get it down to the most efficient process possible.  I've also experimented with different amounts of water, and different combinations of sweetness and flavor. One of the things I have learned for sure is that having a great blender makes a HUGE difference in how creamy your milk will be.  I use my Vitamix to make my almond milk.  Once you try homemade almond milk made in a high powered blender like this, you will never want to go back to store bought. 

So now I'm sharing with you my recipe - I think it's about as easy as you can get, and the flavor is great. 

What you'll need to make about a quart of almond milk:

• 1 cup of raw almonds

• Dates, or other sweetener (I'm using 2 medjool dates. If you use smaller dates you might want more. Or you can use honey, or any other natural sweetener you like)

• About 4 cups of water, maybe slightly more

• Other flavorings as desired (vanilla, cinnamon)

• A high powered blender

• A nut milk bag or some cheesecloth and a strainer

• A glass bottle or other storage container.

Note that I have tried doubling this to make more than a quart at a time, but my blender doesn't quite hold enough to allow for the doubled recipe and still have room to really blend it up.  So one quart at a time it is.  But it's so easy, that it's really not a problem to do this a couple times a week. 

How to make almond milk:

Measure out 1 cup of almonds.  Put them directly in your blender container and fill with water up to the 5 cup line.  This will end up being just a little over 4 cups of water.

Let soak overnight.  The next day the almonds will have swelled a little and the water will look a little murky.  Some people strain them at this point and start over with fresh water.  I've tried it both ways and I think switching the water is not necessary.  It maybe gets you a slightly whiter milk, but the flavor is the same so why not skip that step.  This is why I just start out soaking right in my blender - no need to dirty another vessel, no need to drain or do anything else at this point.

Drop in your dates and/or any other sweetener or flavoring you like.  Some people like vanilla, some also add a little cinnamon.  Some do honey instead. It's really all about personal taste and I've found that the dates alone give me just enough of a clean sweetness, so I like keeping it simple.  Don't forget to take the pits out of the dates! 

Blend it all up on high power.  I like to let it go for a minute or two, to really get the almonds as pulverized as possible and get every bit of flavor out of them. 

When it's as blended as you think you can get it, get your straining setup ready.  I bought a nut milk bag which makes it so easy.  I just set my bag down in a bowl.  

But before I got the bag I would set a strainer over the bowl and line it with a couple layers of cheesecloth.  Both methods work just as good, the nut milk bag just makes the process a little easier and faster. 

Pour everything from your blender into your strainer. 

Gather it up and let it start to drain. 

I hang my bag from a cabinet knob, so it easily drains right into my bowl.  With the nut milk bag you can let it drain for just a few minutes and then squeeze the rest out.  The mesh is fine enough that you can squeeze pretty hard and none of the pulp gets through.  This satisfies my need for instant gratification - I can't stand waiting for it to strain.  

If you're using a strainer and cheesecloth you'll want to just walk away and let it drip for a while, maybe a couple hours - if you do too much squeezing with the cheesecloth you will start to get some pulp coming through. 

And that's it! Pour milk into a jar, chill, and enjoy! The first time I made it I couldn't believe how easy it was, and also how creamy and milky it was.  If you like store bought almond milk, you're going to absolutely love this!  It will separate as it sits in the fridge, so you'll just need to give it a good shake before you pour some. 

Quick and Easy Homemade Peanut Butter

With four kids, we go through a lot of peanut butter in this house. I buy lots of it, but sometimes it's fun to figure out how to make some of our everyday things from scratch. 

And I can definitely tell you - once you've had fresh homemade peanut butter, you will not want to go back. Especially if you can make it with fresh peanuts. I recommend buying them from the bulk bins at someplace that goes through a lot of bulk food, so you know they haven't been sitting around for very long.

Not only does it taste amazing, but it's so easy!

Basically, I took a pile of peanuts and dumped the whole thing into my Vitamix, added a dash of salt, and voila! Peanut Butter.

Ok, it wasn't quite that magical.  

But it was close.  I had to coax it along at first - pulsing off and on, pushing it down several times. But once it got going and all that oil was released, it very quickly turned into a super smooth and almost liquid consistency. Amazing how something that seems so dry can turn into liquid!  And the whole process took less than 5 minutes. 

 Ingredients:

• 1 pound roasted shelled peanuts.

• 1/2 teaspoon (or so) kosher salt.

• A drizzle of honey to taste (optional)

Directions:

Put peanuts and salt in blender.  Pulse and push down until the peanuts start to release their oil. This is the only slightly labor intensive part. It takes a bit of coaxing to get it going. But once they start to release their oil then you can move faster, and blend to the consistency you prefer. We like creamy peanut butter here, so I really let it go until there were no chunks left. Once you think it looks good, taste it. At this stage you can add a little honey if you like your peanut butter lightly sweetened (most popular commercial peanut butters have sugar in them), and you can also add a little more salt if you like, and then just blend long enough to get that well mixed in. 

Pour in a jar, let it rest to firm up just a bit, and then get out the bread and jam, because you're going to want to make a sandwich. 

Also note - you can follow this same technique with basically any kind of nuts or seeds. I've also made sunflower seed butter this way, and it tastes great. If the seeds or nuts you buy aren't already roasted, then you'll want to either roast them in the oven or toast lightly in a pan first, to really bring out the flavor.

Butter Cookies

I came up with this cookie recipe a while back, and it only just came to me that I never shared it. These are melt in your mouth delicious, and super easy to make.  

Enjoy! 

Homemade "instant" oatmeal

It totally kills me that my kids prefer those instant oatmeal packets over real cooked oats.  But lately I'm really trying to focus on choosing my battles, and trying to force people to learn to like oatmeal with some texture over the creamy, mushy stuff, just seems like a fight that's not worth fighting at this stage, especially on an already manic school day morning.  But instant oatmeal packets have all kinds of strikes against them, and I just can't bring myself to buy them any more.  The artificial flavorings in so many of the mainstream brands, the amount of sugar, and the cost - with 4 kids eating two packets each, we would use whole box at one meal.  I have bought some organic ones before, which are a little better, but they still have so much sugar and are even more expensive. I had seen several mentions on various food blogs and pinterest boards about making your own, so I thought I'd give it a try.

There are lots of different versions of recipes out there, some of which are no healthier than the store-bought ones, calling for things like non-dairy creamer and way too much sugar.  But I did find a few that I liked.  I can't seem to find the exact page that I got the final recipe from that I ended up using, I'll certainly link back to it when I come across it again.  But I don't think it was a totally original recipe anyway, as so many of them have the same basic proportions in common.

Homemade Instant Oatmeal

• 10 cups of quick cooking oats (I use this brand - 10 cups was almost the whole bag, so I think you could use the whole bag and be just fine)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup brown sugar (I actually substituted coconut sugar because that was what I had, and I really like the flavor).  Use more sugar if you know you want it sweeter, but I like the idea of keeping it less sweet to start, and then I can add a little maple syrup if someone really wants sweeter.
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 cup powdered milk (I use this organic one).

Here's the key that all the good recipes seem to have in common: some of the oats need to be blended and broken down - that is what gives the softer consistency.  So, put 4 cups of the oats in your blender or food processor and blend until almost like flour.  Then just mix all the ingredients together.  That's all.

I think you could easily go ahead and add in some chopped up dried apples or apricots, or nuts, at this stage as well.  Given how fast I think we'll go through it, I think it would keep just fine. Maple sugar would probably be really good in this, or vanilla sugar too.

Most of the other recipes out there have you portion it out in 1/2 cup servings in individual snack bags.  But I thought that seemed like way too much waste, so I just put it all in a couple of big containers and I measure it out when I am ready to serve it.  I also thought for home use you could just as easily measure out your portions into pint sized jam jars, and then just add your water and serve right out the jars.  For eating right away, using equal parts water to the dry mix seems about right, which I think would be the same as the packets.  But I've noticed that instant oatmeal tends to get thicker as it sits, so if making ahead for lunch I would add a little extra water, so it's not too thick by lunch time.  Maybe 3/4 water to 1/2 cup dry mix.  I also like to add just a little cream or half & half to the finished oatmeal.

I made this last week and my kids ate it up for breakfast.  And today I used it for breakfast for lunch (which my kids love).  I measured the mixture out the night before, and just added hot water this morning when I was ready to pack up the lunches.

Enjoy!

How to Make Homemade Chicken Broth

Once you've had good homemade stock you'll really never want to go back.  The store bought stuff tastes so bland, or sometimes tastes like nothing but salt.  I love good chicken broth.  I love it so much that sometimes it doesn't survive long enough to make it into soup.  When someone in the house is sick, I make up a big pot of it and drink as much as I can.  I think it's the definition of classic comfort food, and it's so good for you.  Just do a quick google on the benefits of bone broth and you'll find pages and pages of info.

The other great thing about making it yourself is that it's basically free.  Free!  Something so delicious, and so good for you - that costs you nothing.  That's because you're making it out of stuff that you would otherwise be throwing away.  I cringe at the thought of anyone throwing out the leftover carcass from their roast chicken or turkey - such a waste when you can turn it into such good broth.

People have asked for my recipe for making my chicken broth.  It's not so much of a recipe as it is just a simple method with some guidelines for basic ingredients.  You need chicken bones of course, and water, but the other flavorings are totally optional.

Here's what I like to use:

• a couple pounds of leftover chicken or turkey bones
• a few pieces of aromatic vegetables (traditionally onion, carrot, celery, but you can use others too)
• salt
• a couple quarts of water
• pepper and other seasonings as desired
• A quarter cup of some kind of acid - either a couple of sliced lemons, or some vinegar
• a good slow cooker or big stock pot

A few additional notes:

• You can use any kind of bones for this, it doesn't have to be whole roast chickens.  If you've cooked up a bunch of thighs, or wings, definitely use the bones for those.  Or if you really just need broth and you don't want to have a chicken dinner, then ask your butcher for scraps - wings, necks, whatever.  I've heard that chicken feet make amazing stock.  
• I keep a ziploc bag in my freezer, and when I trim veggies for cooking I add the clean trimmings to the bag - carrot tops, ends of onions, ends of celery, kale ribs. You can use just about anything, just remember that they are adding flavor so don't use anything that you don't want to taste too much. I wouldn't recommend things like broccoli or cauliflower, I think the flavor would be too strong.  
• For seasoning I usually just do salt and pepper, but you could certainly throw in a bay leaf, a few sprigs of rosemary or thyme or sage, really anything you like the flavor of.
• A little acid of some kind somehow helps get all the flavor out of the bones.  I usually cut a couple lemons in half and throw them in, they give a great flavor.  If I don't have lemons then I do apple cider vinegar.
• Don't be shy with the salt.
• I make mine in a slow cooker so that I can leave it overnight or while I'm out of the house for the day, but you can do this in a pot.  You'll just need to keep it on a low simmer and keep an eye on it. 
• I generally figure on about a quart of broth per whole chicken.  I usually do 2 chickens, so I put in a little more than 2 quarts of water and get about 2 quarts of broth.

After all that being said - I've made wonderful chicken broth with just chicken bones, water and salt.  If you don't add other flavoring, then it's called stock.  With seasoning and flavoring it's called broth.  Technicalities.  It's all good.

How to make your broth:

After you've had your lovely roast chicken dinner, take all the remaining meat off the bones and put it away to use later in your soup. Put all the scraps and bones and any leftover drippings in your slow cooker - don't forget the skin, it adds great flavor too.  Add in your vegetables, seasoning, acid.  Add enough water to completely cover it all (in a big slow cooker with bones from 2 chickens you should be looking at about 8-9 cups of water).  Turn your slow cooker on low for as long as it will go (mine has a timer that will go for 10 hours). Go to bed.  The next morning you will have a lovely stock.  You can call it  good at this point, or you can just let it keep going.  The longer you let it cook, the better it will taste.  You might need to add a bit more water. So give it a stir, and taste it.  If you were a little shy with the salt at first then you might want to add some now.  

When you are satisfied that it's ready, strain out all the stuff.  I put a strainer over a big glass bowl and ladle everything into that, catching the chunks in the strainer.  Some people will then strain through cheesecloth or something fine, to get all the little bits of stuff out.  I usually don't do this because I don't mind the stuff, I'm making soup anyway so it will be fine.  But if you want a really clear broth then a separate straining might be good. 

You don't have to cook it for 24 hours.  You can make a really good broth just simmering on the stove for a couple hours.  The slow cooker is just an easy way to bring out even more flavor. 

If you want to be even more frugal - you can actually make two whole batches of broth from one set of bones!  Just strain out your first batch of broth after simmering overnight or all day, and fill it up with water again, add a little more salt, and let it got another 8-10 hours.  The second batch might not have quite as much flavor as the first, but it will still make an amazing soup. 

If your chicken was really fatty, you might want to separate the fat.  In the one pictured I didn't bother, and you can see there's just a tiny bit of fat on the top.  I'm ok with that.  But if that is going to bother you, then you must have one of these handy fat separators.  They work great. 

And that's it!  Now go make your favorite soup recipe.  Or just pour some in a mug and drink it.  A lot of people freeze theirs, but ours never lasts long enough to bother with that. 

Easy weeknight meatball soup

This is a super quick and easy one that I made for dinner last week. It turned out so yummy that I figured I'd better share the recipe. This is the kind of soup I love to make, it's fast, it's healthy, and it's a big crowd pleaser. 

I made a big pot. Because, soup. Why wouldn't you want a big pot? Leftover soup is even better than fresh soup, and it's a really easy and cost effective way to feed a crowd. But of course you could cut this  recipe and make less.

As with all of my recipes - this is really flexible! My quantities are just a guideline for you to start with, but I very much encourage you to customize this with whatever you've got on hand, or whatever sounds good.  Add more veggies, less veggies, leave out the tomatoes, swap the beef broth for chicken or turkey broth and use turkey meatballs - this is just a good basic technique that you can apply to any kind of soup. 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 parsnip
• 1 bunch of kale
• a couple cloves of garlic  
• oil for sautéing  
• 2 quarts beef broth
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 2 small bags frozen mini meatballs (mine were from Trader Joes) 
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 2 cups cooked rice or pasta (optional)
• salt to taste

Directions:

Chop or dice all of your veggies. Size doesn't really matter, it's just personal preference. If you like chunky soups, then cut them in bigger chunks. If you think your littles (like mine) are more likely to eat it with small bites of veggies, then cut them as small as you can.

Heat a good size soup pot, and then pour in just enough oil to cover the bottom. Saute all the veggies in the oil until beginning to soften. You can season with a pinch or two of salt to help them along. Once your veggies are cooked a little, add everything else except the salt. I hold off on the salt for a while because the saltiness of broths and meatballs can really very, so you want to let your soup simmer for a while and let all the flavors start to combine before you add more salt. 

The rice or pasta is optional. I love this kind of soup with rice, I just think it makes it even more comforting. But it's really delicious without, so if you're trying to cut carbs go ahead and leave it out. Or sometimes when I make something like this I will serve it with a bowl of cooked rice or pasta on the side, so that I can have mine without the extra carbs and my kids can add carbs to theirs. You can also start with uncooked rice, but you'll want to add an extra 2 cups of broth for each 1 cup of dry rice. 

This is so easy to make that it's a great one to have the kids help with. I chopped and sautéed the veggies, and one of my five-year-old girls did everything else. 

Once everything is combine in the pot, then just let it simmer.  You'll want to simmer it for at least long enough to get your meatballs all heated and cooked through, probably 20 minutes. But really the longer the better.  This is totally the kind of things that you could put in your slow cooker and let it just simmer on low for several hours, or put it on a back burner of your stove. I like to let this kind of soup simmer for at least an hour if I have time, it all just tastes better that way, but even after 20 minutes it will be delicious. That's what makes this the perfect weeknight meal. After it has simmered for a while, and your meatballs have cooked and released some of their flavor in to the broth, give it a taste. It's at this point that you can add more salt or other seasoning if you think it needs it. 

enjoy!

Tummy Soothing Smoothie

I've got a couple of kids home sick today, and one of them asked for a smoothie.  I was hesitant to oblige him, because the last thing I need right now is somebody losing their berry smoothie all over my white couch. But he did need to get a little something in his stomach.

So I thought for a moment about what are some of the classic things we are taught are good for upset tummies, and realized that I could make a smoothie out of those.  Here is a very simple tummy soothing smoothie. It's not the tastiest smoothie I've ever made, but really it's not bad, and hopefully is just the thing that a little tummy needs. 

Tummy Soothing Smoothie

• 1 cup organic apple juice
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• a handful of ice cubes

Put everything in a high powered blender and process until the oats are all blended in. If you let it sit for a few minutes the oats will absorb a little of the liquid and thicken up the smoothie a bit. 

Slow Cooker Lentil & Sausage Soup Recipe

This lentil soup is hearty and comforting and great for those nights when you need something to warm your tummy. It's super easy to make and it has a great balance of veggies and the delicious taste you can only get from sausage. My kids, like most, are not big veggie eaters.  But they eat this soup! They are suckers for anything with sausage in it.  When I serve it to the kids I put a big dollop of sour cream on top - they seem to like it better with the creaminess, and it's a great way to cool it off quickly. One of my kids actually loves this so much that she requested the leftovers for breakfast the next day, and for snack when she got home from school.

The beauty of this type of recipe is in its flexibility.  You can make this however you want, so please use this recipe as a guideline, not as a strict rule.  If you like more or less or something, go for it. Change the type of sausage (or use meatballs or chicken), try different veggies, and different spices. That's the great thing about soup - you can personalize it and never make it the same twice!

Ingredients:

• 1 package of sausage - usually a little over a pound. 
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 stalk of celery
• 2 cloves of garlic (or 2 teaspoons crushed)
• 3 quarts chicken broth
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups dry lentils 
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 bunch of kale, or other greens.
• salt & pepper to taste
• Other herbs or seasoning to taste. 

This works with basically any kind of sausage you like.  I usually use brats or Italian sausage because I like the flavor.  But if you want a little spice you could use a spicy sausage.  Or if you want to keep it a little lighter you could use a chicken sausage.  

You can also use any kind of lentils.  Different kinds will have different textures when cooked, and take different cooking times, so just experiment and use ones you like.  Red and orange lentils cook faster and have a softer texture when cooked.  Green and black ones tend to hold their shape better. The one pictured was a very generic package of green lentils, I often have those on hand because they are usually the cheapest. 

If you have homemade broth (here's how I make it), then that will kick this up into the ultra amazing category - it just adds so much flavor.  But this is still great with store bought broth, and obviously that makes it very easy. 

You could totally leave out the tomatoes if you're not a tomato person.  I like to add them because I think the slight acidity goes well with the lentils and sausage. It's not enough that it seems like a very tomato-ey soup, but it's just enough to add a depth of flavor. 

I like to hold off on the salt until I've got it all put together and simmering, because depending on the type of sausage and broth you use, it salt level is really going to vary.  Some are very salty, some are not.  Get it all assembled and then give the broth a taste, and then season as you think it needs.  And here's where you can get creative: add other spices to give it a totally different flavor.  If you want an Indian type flavor, add some curry powder.  Or add cumin and extra garlic.  Or for a more Italian flavor add some basil and oregano, or just an Italian seasoning blend.  Or add a little cumin and chili powder for more of a southwest flavor.  The possibilities are endless. Or keep it simple with just salt and pepper and you will still love it!

Directions:

• If you are starting with uncooked sausage, squeeze them out of the casings into little lumps, the size of small meatballs. Heat a heavy bottom pot (or the insert for your stove-top slow cooker), and add sausage balls.  You don't need oil because the sausage is going to release plenty of fat. Brown all over.
• Chop onion, carrot, celery, and garlic, and add to the pot with the browned sausage.  Saute until onions are getting soft. 
• Add chicken broth and can of tomatoes (with juice!). Bring to a simmer, and then add dry lentils. 
• Chop cauliflower and greens and add to the pot. 
• Cover and simmer for at least an hour. 

I like to make this in my slow cooker.  I have a slow cooker with a metal insert, so I can do all the browning and sauteing on the stove right in the slow cooker pot, and then move it to the cooker to simmer. (This is the slow cooker I have, and I love it!) I will throw this together in the afternoon, and then let it simmer on low for 3 hours or so while I go to the after school run around, and we come home to dinner ready to eat.  But you can just as easily do this all on the stove. 

Shortcut:

If you want to make this really fast, use pre-cooked lentils and cooked sausage. You can get a package of pre-cooked lentils at Trader Joes or most grocery stores.  Use the whole package.  Saute all your veggies, cut your sausage into chunks, and then add all the other ingredients. Cut the broth to just 1 1/2 or 2 quarts, depending on how brothy you like it. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, just until the veggies are cooked to your liking.  It's an easy way to make a super quick weeknight meal. 

Easy Lemonade Lemon Cookie Recipe

I first came across a couple different versions of this recipe over the summer and made some with the kids.  We loved them!  They taste like summer, they are light and tangy and just the right amount of sweet. I think it's a little bit genius to make a lemon cookie using concentrated lemonade (the frozen kind) - you get all that great lemon flavor, but it's so quick and easy!  I use an organic lemonade concentrate, so it does not contain high fructose corn syrup.  

I of course had to tinker with the recipe a bit to suit our taste, so here is my version.

Lemonade Cookies

Ingredients: 

3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup lemonade concentrate (the frozen kind)
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Thaw your lemonade concentrate.  I do this by setting the can in a bowl of hot water while I get the rest of the ingredients ready.  Preheat oven to 350 (or 300 convection). 

The usual cookie method: cream butter & sugar (in this case, honey). Then add eggs, vanilla, and lemonade concentrate.  Mix together dry ingredients.  Then fold wet into dry. Stir gently, just enough to moisten all the flour.  This keeps the cookies very light and soft. 

I do all the wet part in my Vitamix. This lets you make it with cold butter.  I hate having to wait for butter to soften. Put the honey and cold butter in the blender.  Pulse on and off, and push down with a spatula, until they are creamed together.  Have patience, this takes a few minutes. But it's a heck of a lot quicker than waiting for butter to soften. Once blended with the rest of the wet ingredients you end up with something very light which, when folded gently into the flour, makes for a very light and soft cookie. 

Drop spoonfuls (or I use a small cookie scoop) on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, depending on size. This will make at least 2 dozen, but probably more depending on how big you make them. 

If you want them extra lemony, use a cup of the lemonade concentrate.  Or you can brush the tops with a bit of it before baking.  To make them look a little extra fancy you could dust them with powdered sugar. 

Yogurt Parfaits

I recently wrote about my super picky child, and how she is finally starting to try new foods, now that I have completely given up on pushing her.  But we are still in the baby steps phase with that, she certainly has a ways to go before she is eating everything the rest of us eat.  So for now, a very large part of her diet is still yogurt.  I'm thankful at least that she really loves something that is so healthy, and I can load it up with fruit and oats to really make it an even more complete meal for her.  

I make plain yogurt, or if I haven't had time, I buy it.  She likes her yogurt all dressed up with oats and honey and sometimes some jam or fruit.  I recently made lemon curd, so lately that has been her topping of choice, along with a little whipped cream.

It's a fantastic meal for her, but it can be a bit of a mess to get all these things out, so to save myself some time I decided to make her some yogurt parfait's in jam jars, so that she can help herself to one in the fridge whenever she needs a snack.  Or they are great for an easy week day breakfast.  

These are kind of like a combination of a flavored yogurt + an overnight oats idea.  

There's no real recipe here - that's the beauty of it.  You just take whatever you would normally put in yogurt or an overnight oats, and layer it.  Things like: 

• honey
• oats or granola (it will get soft)
• berries
• bananas
• jam
• cream
• dried fruit
• nuts or seeds

For this batch I layered plain yogurt, honey, oats, cream, lemon curd, and strawberries.  Just a little bit of each, and then repeat, until the jar is mostly full.  Its a good idea to leave a little room for stirring. 

Leftover jam jars seem to make the perfect size for a good serving, and I've got tons of them around.  But I'm sure you could get creative with other kinds of containers.  

Once you've layered everything, just put a lid on and put in the fridge.  I think they'll be good for several days, and it will probably very depending on whether you used fresh fruit. 

Enjoy!

Easy Sunday Breakfast

I love Sunday breakfast with the family.  It's a day of the week when we usually have no plans, we take our time, we relax, and we enjoy just doing our thing and hanging out.  It's also usually the one day of the week when I get to take the time to fix a real full breakfast for the whole family, and I enjoy it.

I usually make some kind of pancakes or waffles, along with either bacon or sausage, and maybe some scrambled eggs.  This Sunday I decided to freshen things up just a bit and experiment with a new egg dish.  And I'm so glad I did - this was easy to make, mostly hands off, and very satisfying.

I'm not exactly sure what to call it - a crustless quiche, or maybe a baked scrambled egg.  You could easily load this up with lots of extras, but I decided to keep it simple.

Ingredients: (which are approximate)

• 14 eggs (12 would have been fine, but I had 2 extra so I used them)
• 1/2 cup each of grated cheddar, jack, cottage, and parmesan cheese (any mixture of cheese will do)
• butter
• a splash of cream
• salt, pepper, garlic powder

Directions: 

I greased by baking dish with butter, and then coated that with most of the parmesan cheese.  Then I beat all the eggs very well until frothy, with the cream, and my seasonings, and then folded in the cheeses.  I poured the egg & cheese mixture in my dish, sprinkled the rest of the parmesan cheese on top.  Then baked at 350 for about 45 minutes until puffed and golden and set. 

So easy.

With the eggs we had some fried polish sausage, toast, strawberries and cantaloupe, and honey yogurt (plain yogurt that has been sweetened with honey) with lemon curd. The lemon curd is an amazing addition to the yogurt and/or on top of the fruit.  You can find my lemon curd recipe here. 

Pizza Muffins and Meatball Muffins!!

These little guys really are irresistible!  The meatball muffins are like a little bite size (or two bite!) meatball sandwich.  Everything you want - a tasty meatball, a little drippy with sauce, melted cheese, and soft bread that gets a little soaked up with sauce - but in a much more manageable size, so it's not all running down your elbows.

The pizza version is the same, minus the meatball - just a couple bites of saucy and cheesy goodness.  They are very much like my pizza rolls, only shaped a little different.   I made these for my kids to have for dinner, and enough to save for a school lunch later in the week. 

I don't think I can call these recipes, they're just too easy.  These were really just something I threw together, but as soon as I shared it on IG and FB I had folks asking me for the recipe.  So I guess these easy crowd pleasers are what you all want!  I don't get as much opportunities to cook and photograph something as I'd like.  This isn't one of those food blogs where people are cooking something just to photograph and blog about.  No, here you are getting what we are actually eating.  But this was a rare occasion when I was cooking something in the middle of the day to have ready for later, so I was able to actually get some nice photos of it for you. 

The "Ingredients"

• Crescent roll dough
• Tomato sauce
• Cheese
• Cooked meatballs

I use Trader Joe's crescent roll dough.  I think it has a much more 'homemade' flavor than the other brands, and even though it's still quite processed it at least doesn't have a big long list of unrecognizable stuff in it.  It doesn't come out of the can very nicely, they almost always tear when it pops open.  I'm guessing that this is because the package isn't lined with all that nice BPA, so it's a tradeoff I"m willing to make.  You could use biscuits as well, or you could certainly do this with any kind of homemade dough.   One can of dough has 8 rolls, so you'll need 1 1/2 for a dozen muffins.  I made two pans, half with meatballs and half without, so 3 cans of dough and 12 meatballs. 

My tomato sauce was just canned tomatoes, pureed with a blender.  We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner last night so I had heated up the meatballs in the sauce.  I think you could use any kind of tomato sauce or pizza sauce.

The meatballs I used were a combination of some homemade, and some frozen from the store - I had a little bit of each.  My homemade meatball recipe is here.  If you're going to make meatballs for this I would suggest you make them small.  The dough is very tender, so I don't think it will hold a big meatball.  These meatballs were all cooked and cold from the refrigerator (not frozen). 

And for cheese - well, I would have used shredded mozzarella, but I was out, so I just took some mozzarella string cheese and tore it into pieces.  I think any kind of cheese you've got would be just great. 

Directions:

• Line muffin tins with dough.  For the crescent rolls, I used one piece per muffin space, and just folded and worked it around to shape like a little nest. I did not grease my pans at all because my pans are new and pretty well nonstick, and this dough has a lot of fat in it.
• Put in a small spoonful of sauce
• For the meatball muffins: place 1 meatball on top of dough.
• Cover with shredded or just pieces of cheese.
• If you have pieces of dough hanging over the sides, fold them over just a bit.
• Bake in a 350 oven for 12-15 minutes.
• Let cool for a few minutes before trying to remove from the pans, they are much easier to handle once the cheese has set up a little. 

And that's it.  Easy!

pineapple, orange & banana green smoothie

This is a bright and fresh tasting green smoothie to start off our day with a little extra energy.  I think half my kitchen freezer is full of frozen fruit.  Plenty of smoothie recipes call for fresh fruit, but I just like it better with frozen.  I buy extra bananas and just let them ripen on the counter, then break into pieces and freeze.  I also recently had a glut of oranges that we weren't going to get to, so I peeled and cut them into chunks and froze, and I've been using those in smoothies. 

I try to avoid using juice in my smoothies.  It just adds a lot of sugar without all the other nutrients from the fruit.  Instead I prefer to whole fruits and then add other liquid as needed.  In this one today I used my homemade almond milk. 

Ingredients are approximate.  This is a big smoothie - enough for me and four kids - so if you're just making it for yourself I would probably cut this down by at least half.  

• 1 cup frozen pineapple
• 2 frozen bananas
• 1 cup frozen orange chunks
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 2 cups almond milk
• 3 kale leaves
• 3 tablespoons honey (or to taste)

Blend in a high speed blender until totally smooth. 

Cold fighting smoothie

I've got a little one with the sniffles and a cough today, so I blended this up for an afternoon snack. Hopefully it will help her feel better. 

Strawberry Banana Orange Smoothie

The measurements are very approximate.

• a cup or so of Homemade almond milk
• a cup of orange juice
• a frozen banana
• a few slices of frozen oranges
• a handful of frozen strawberries
• about a half cup of plain yogurt
• about a tablespoon of grass fed gelatin
• about a teaspoon of raw honey

Blend until smooth, adding extra liquid if needed, or a little more frozen fruit if it's not thick enough. 

Your new favorite holiday cocktail

I'll keep this one short and sweet, so you can get to drinking.  Because this is going to be your new favorite holiday cocktail.  Mostly because it tastes so good.  But also because it's so easy to make.  Just equal parts chocolate milk, eggnog, and Kahlua.  You really should use good (real) eggnog - not that 'nog flavored' stuff, and I always recommend you try to get a chocolate milk without high fructose corn syrup. 

If you want precise measurements, here's what I've been doing: 

• 2 ounces good eggnog
• 2 ounces chocolate milk
• 2 ounces Kahlúa (if you're feeling a little less bold, just 1 ounce)
• 1 ice cube

You can thank me later.