Muffins

Why is it that when you're looking for a recipe, that's the one that is stuck to another page in your cook book? Probably because you spilled something on that page the last time. . .

Well, to make sure that doesn't happen again, here is my muffin recipe. . .

Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I prefer safflower oil with vitamin E in it)
1 large egg
1 tbsp vanilla
1 cup blueberries

2 cups all purpose flour (I prefer King Arthur's brand)
1/2 cup plus 2 heaping tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder (I prefer aluminum free)
1/2 tsp salt
cinnamon if desired

Preheat oven to 400 and spray bottom of muffin cups or line with muffin papers.
mix first 4 ingredients with a whisk, add blueberries
sift last 5 ingredients together
add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, stir just until moist (will be lumpy)
fill muffin cups about 2/3 full
bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. if in muffin papers, remove immediately. If not, let stand for 5 minutes then remove from pan.

Garbanzo Pasta recipe

Preface: This is delicious, addictive, super easy to make and - GASP - healthy. I could eat this 2 times a day for a week and still not get sick of it.

Ingredients:
1 pkg spiral noodles, either whole wheat or multicolored (I like multicolored because they have a serving of veggies in the noodles and that's pretty cool to me)
Wishbone House Italian dressing
1 cucumber
4 spines of celery
1/2 onion
2-3 chives or scallions
1 cup shredded carrots

Directions:
Boil noodles according to package directions and rinse with cold water.
Finely chop veggies.
Mix all ingredients together in bowl with top, reserving some dressing for when serving.
Place in fridge to chill.
Spoon into bowl, add a little more dressing and top with parmesan cheese if you would like or salt if you're like me ;)
Enjoy and repeat often :)

Pancake Recipe

I posted previously about "pancake success" and posted a link to the recipe there; however, I keep having to go back to that link to find the recipe, so I thought I'd go ahead and post the recipe here so I can find it more easily. This recipe is based upon the linked recipe I posted previously and has what I doctor it with included in it as well.

Pancake mix recipe
Dry Ingredients:
1 ½ cups sifted flour
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
1 tbsp sugar
Combine these 4 ingredients.

If you want to add chocolate chips or nuts, you can do it now as well.

Liquid Ingredients:
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tbsp vanilla
Beat all ingredients in a large bowl. Add the dry pancake mix and stir gently until moist.

If adding bananas, add them now.

Head a griddle or pan to medium high heat (375 on griddle)
Pour approx 1/4 cup batter for each pancake.
Cook until small bubbles form then flip and make sure each side is golden brown.

The best darn buffalo chicken dip recipe EVER

I developed a taste for buffalo chicken dip when I was pregnant with my 2nd daughter, Evie. We went to a family friend's child's birthday party and her neighbor had brought buffalo chicken dip. I was hooked.

When I'm pregnant, I generally crave foods I've eaten before, so when I got pregnant with my 3rd daughter, Izzy, I craved buffalo chicken dip. But I didn't know how to make it.

I suffered through that pregnancy, craving buffalo chicken dip and when I got pregnant with my 4th daughter, Rory, it started all over again. But this time, my friend, Rebecca hooked me up with a crock pot buffalo chicken dip recipe that was pretty good. Not to be undone, my sister, Joanna, who is ALWAYS finding better recipes than mine (and I love her for it because then I can steal the better recipes LOL) started making buffalo chicken dip.

We moved in with her in February and I think I've eaten buffalo chicken dip 3-4 times a week since we moved in. So far, she has always made it. A couple days ago, I convinced her to tell me the recipe and today, I made it myself. While waiting for it to bake, I decided to type this up so I won't ever be able to lose it and so others can benefit from it. Here is the recipe. Use with caution. It is extremely addictive.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients:
1 pkg boneless skinless chicken breast (about 3 breasts), cooked and shredded
about 6 ounces of shredded mild cheddar cheese
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
3 TBSP sour cream
3/8 cup hot sauce (Louisiana brand recommended or Frank's in a pinch, but NEVER use Tobasco. I love Tobasco sauce and its great in chili, but just doesn't work in this recipe. At ALL.)
1.5 tbsp Sriracha (oriental hot sauce)
tortilla chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spray 9 x 9 pan with cooking spray.
3. Combine all ingredients except chips.
4. Put in pan.
5. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
6. Broil for 5 minutes.
7. Enjoy.
8. Repeat.

Its a vicious cycle. Its like that Lambchops song that never ends. Start the cycle at your own risk ;)

Shepherd's Pie recipe

My sister made a shepherd's pie tonight that was amazing. Well, I think it was. I've never had Shepherd's Pie before, so don't have anything to compare it with, but you should try it. Really. Like, tomorrow.

She found the recipe here, but modified it by using 2 lbs ground turkey (no beef), veggie broth instead of beef broth (we don't really like beef much here), and flour in water to thicken it instead of cornstarch. Oh and I *think* she used butter in the mashed potatoes instead of EVOO. It made 2 (1 13 x 9 and 1 8 x 8) casserole dishes full, all the kids except Izzy asked for 2nds and when I get done here, I am going to go grab another bowlful from the 8 x 8 dish. It is YUMMY and an entire meal in 1 dish.

Pancake Success!!!

After a 2 day absence (sorry about that, I was moving then tired from moving), I am happy to be back blogging and am double happy to report pancake success!!!

I found a pancake recipe here that I doctored so I would love it. I added a tablespoon of sugar to the dry ingredients and a tablespoon (splash LOL) of vanilla to the liquids. I let it sit for a minute, as I would do with my Aunt Jemima mix then poured slightly under 1/2 cup of batter on a preheated griddle (preheated to 350 degrees), let cook on one side and flipped once then let cook on the other side. DO NOT press down with the spatula or you will end up with flat pancakes instead of fluffy ones. This recipe made 1 pankcake with nothing in it for my nephew then split the batter into 2 bowls -- one for banana pancakes (made 6) and 1 for chocolate chip (also made 6), so total this recipe made 13 pancakes. It was a great success. And if you knew how long I've been addicted to Aunt Jemima and unable to find a pancake recipe that I could tolerate compared to my premade pancake love, you would know just how happy I am to have found this recipe! And if you look here , there are directions for how to premake this pancake mix. Its really easy and should cut down on morning breakfast making time. I will have to let you know how much time it cuts out when I get a chance to try premaking it.

Happy breakfasts to you until we meet again :)

Venison Spaghetti

Ingredients:
1 pkg venison (approx 1 lb)
2 cans tomato paste (I get the ones that has tomatoes as the only ingredient)
1 can petite diced tomatoes (again with tomatoes as the only ingredient)
1 onion
1 bell pepper
4 cloves garlic
oregano
basil
salt
garlic salt
1 pkg whole grain spaghetti or angel hair pasta noodles

Directions:
Place 2 cans of tomato paste, 4 cans of water, and diced tomatoes with juice in a large pot.
Place onion, bell pepper, and garlic in food processor and dice finely (I process until mush because then my kids don't even know its in there), add to pot.
Brown venison, add to pot.
Add oregano, basil, salt and garlic salt to taste.
Cook noodles.
Drain and add to sauce.

This recipe made enough sauce for the entire box of noodles and my family of 5 ate spaghetti for one meal a day for 4 days. We loved it. If you prefer, you could also cook less than the package of noodles and add spaghetti sauce per plate then freeze the leftovers for use later. I was just in a spaghetti mood then and decided to eat it all then :)

Pico de Gallo recipe

Pico de Gallo

Ingredients:
5 on the vine tomatoes
2 avacados
1 bundle chives
1 bundle cilantro
1/2 jalapeno (optional)
small onion
lime juice (optional)
salt to taste

Instructions:
1. Chop tomatoes, onion, avacados, chives and jalapeno.
2. De-stem cilantro.
3. Combine tomatoes, avacado, chives, jalapeno and cilantro in a bowl.
4. Salt to taste.
5. If you are not going to eat this in one sitting (which, believe me, it is easy to eat it all in one sitting), add some lime juice to prevent the avacado from browning.

This can be mixed up a bit by adding cooked black beans and corn, red onions, a different kind of peppers, pretty much anything you like in salsa. . . they salsa bowl's the limit. . .

Pico de gallo is fantastic on tortilla chips, burritos, tacos. . . pretty much anything mexican. Can add veggies to your mexican dinner or just be a fun snack, but be careful. . . Its hard to stop eating once you've started. . . and it can be addictive. Or inspire cravings. Or make you salivate just thinking about it. YUM.

Baked Mac 'n' Cheese (from scratch)

I've been ISO a go to mac 'n' cheese recipe for a while. Ever since my research has shown me that the boxed mac 'n' cheese that tastes good is full of crap and the boxed mac 'n' cheese that isn't full of crap tastes like crap.

My ideal mac 'n' cheese recipe was one that did not have eggs in it, was semi-healthy, easy to make, and good reheated. And boy did I find it. It was recommended to me by someone on diaperswappers when I posted that I was ISO a recipe.

Ingredients:
1 lb uncooked elbow macaroni noodles (or noodles of your choice)
cheese (amount to your discretion/taste)
1/2 stick butter, softened
salt
5 cups milk
cooking spray

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
2. Spray 9 x 13 casserole dish with cooking spray. I use olive oil cooking spray to avoid GMOs.
3. Layer uncooked noodles with cheese, sprinkling salt throughout and ending with a layer of cheese.
4. Place pats of softened butter on top.
5. Pour 5 cups of milk on top. It will cover everything else, but that's ok. Its supposed to.
6. Place in oven and cook for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until top layer of cheese is slightly browned.
7. Enjoy.
8. Refridgerate.
9. Enjoy again.
10. Repeat steps 8 and 9 until its gone. Then start all over at step 1.

Easy peasy, nice and cheesy, made from scatch and NOT full of crap. I mean, it uses the same amount of butter as a box of Kraft mac 'n' cheese and makes a whole lot more mac 'n' cheese.

Crock pot barbecue

I used this recipe Sunday to make crock pot bbq chicken that was TDF. I'm sure you can use the same recipe to make other bbq meats. We won't because we only eat bbq chicken, but feel free to adapt as you see fit.

I got this recipe from a friend whose bbq chicken makes me drool just thinking about it (and all I did was smell it lol). But as we all know, when you're pregnant, to smell is to want LOL.

Ingredients:
meat (I used 3 large frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts)
1 bottle bbq sauce of your choice (I used Jack Daniels brand, but I plan to try Williamson Bros brand next time)
1/2 cup italian dressing (I used Wishbone House Italian)
2 tbsp worstershire sauce

Directions:
1. Place frozen chicken breasts in the bottom of your crock pot
2. Mix bbq sauce, italian dressing and worstershire sauce in a bowl
3. Pour over chicken
4. Cook on high for 4 hours
5. Take chicken out and shred
6. Put chicken back into crock pot and cook for another hour on high.
7. Enjoy on loaf bread, buns, baked potatoes, the starch of your choice or by itself.

The Venison Version: Venison Chili

Ingredients:
3 cups dried pinto beans
water
salt
apple cider vinegar (I like bragg's organic because it has "the mother" and anything involving "the mother" is always better in my book ;))
2 or 3 15 ounce cans of tomatoes
1 large onion
1 bundle celery
fresh peppers (bell for mild, banana or chili or other peppers for hotter chili)
1 lb venison
2 or 3 pkgs chili seasoning (I use mild since I have small children who don't like it spicy and I add tobasco sauce to the finished chili to give mine some kick)

Instructions:
1. Sort beans and put in large bowl with 12 cups water and 6 tbsp apple cider vinegar and soak overnight.
2. Rinse beans and place in crock pot. Fill with fresh water up to 2" from the top of the crock pot (I think I'm using a 5 quart), add salt and chopped onion, cook on high for an hour then cook on low for 3-5 hours more, testing beans periodically for doneness.

** At this point, its usually dinner time, so we eat bean burritos for dinner this night and then make chili the next night, but you could go ahead and make chili now if you want. . . **

3. Brown venison, sometimes I brown it with a package of chili seasoning. Sometimes I don't. Dip some of the bean juice out of the crock pot and pour browned venison into crock pot.
4. (optional) put chopped celery, more chopped onion and chopped peppers into skillet used to brown venison and grill for a couple minutes. I usually only do this if I cooked the venison with the spices so that the veggies can soak up some of the spices as well. If you don't want to grill your veggies first, then just dump them into the crock pot. Dump tomatoes (including tomato juice) in as well.
5. Cook on high for 1 hour then switch to low and cook another couple of hours, testing veggies periodically to see if they are done enough for you (some people like their veggies slightly crunchy, but we like ours soft).
6. Enjoy in a bowl. Enjoy on a baked potato. Enjoy on crackers. However you eat it, enjoy it.

We sometimes also add frozen organic corn and sliced black olives to chili, just to give it more color and sometimes I use fresh tomatoes instead of canned. It just depends on what I have on hand.

HFCS free chocolate Syrup recipe

Homemade Hershey's Chocolate Syrup
1/2 cup Hershey's baking cocoa
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Dash of salt (not too much!)
Combine the cocoa, sugar, salt and water in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and stir constantly. Let it boil for 1 minute and then remove from heat. Let it cool a little and then add the vanilla. Store in an old squeezy bottle or a jar in the fridge. You could probably even replace the vanilla with some peppermint oil and make this mint-chocolate syrup! This is great for making chocolate milk or for on ice cream!

If only Hersheys made baking strawberry powder LOL. I always gravitated toward the strawberry syrup and strawberry milk as opposed to chocolate, but I am a big fan of anything HFCS free and thought you guys might like this recipe and I'm sure my hubby will like this when he gets back from training and of course my kiddos will like it.

This is not my recipe. I borrowed it from a post by Amanda on Diaper Swappers. Amanda has a blog called The Screaming Penny. This recipe is posted with her permission and I highly recommend visiting her blog. It has a lot of heads ups for great deals and also has some recipes on it. So go check it out :)

Venison Muffintin Meatloaves

Ingredients: 2-3 lbs venison ground, thawed
1/2 cup ketchup (I'm guessing here as I used 4 squirts for 1-1.5 lbs venison)
1/4 cup mustard (also a rough estimate)
salt
pepper
3-4 tbsp finely chopped onion
8-10 dashes worstershire sauce

Directions:
(1) Preheat oven to 350 F.
(2) Combine all ingredients and mix until just mixed. Do not overmix or flatten.
(3) Spray muffin pan.
(4) Press lightly into muffin pan.
(5) Bake for 30-40 minutes or until meatloafs have internal temp of at least 160 farenheit and begin pulling away from the sides.
(6) Put ketchup on top.
(7) Bake for 10 minutes.

We serve ours with mashed potatoes, steamed carrots and croissants. I make the mashed potatoes and steamed carrots while the meatloaves do the initial 40 minute bake then change the oven temp to 375 and bake the croissants for 11 minutes while the meatloaves cook with ketchup on them. It is delicious.

The Venison Version Project: Meatloaf take 1

I've been doing a lot more cooking lately than I used to when Joey was here, but most of my cooking has been with chicken and fish as that is what I have the most experience cooking with. I was never much a fan of beef and don't even buy it these days. Our only red meat consumption is venison. Joey's father likes to hunt and they never eats as much as he kills, so they give us some of their extra venison. But I'm a chicken. I'm so afraid of trying recipes with the venison and epically failing and wasting the venison that I tend not to try. The only things I've cooked with venison so far have been burgers and hamburger helper and taco meat.

Well, no one ever learned anything from chickening out and I've really been craving meatloaf, so first up on the venison version project is meatloaf. I've actually been craving meatloaf since before Joey left for basic, so for almost 5 weeks now. And I found this really neat meatloaf idea -- to make it in a muffin pan, thereby reducing the amount of time it takes to cook the meatloaf and producing single serving portions of meatloaf that can be easily frozen and reheated. My mom has never used breadcrumbs or cracker crumbs in her meatloaf, so after fruitlessly searching for a meatloaf recipe that does not call for either, I finally called her and got her recipe. Its not very technical.

1 to 1.5 lbs beef (I'm using venison)
ketchup (enough -- I used about 4 squirts)
mustard (1/2 of enough -- I used about 2 squirts)
salt
pepper
chopped onion (3-4 slices chopped finely)
worstershire sauce (4-5 shakes)

(1) Preheat oven to 350 F.
(2) Mix all ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix.
(3) Spray muffin pan.
(4) Press lightly into muffin tins.
(5) Bake for 40 minutes or until meatloafs have internal temp of at least 160 farenheit and begin pulling away from the sides.
(6) Ketchup on top.
(7) Bake for 10 minutes.

While its baking for the initial 40 minutes, that gives you plenty of time to make mashed potatoes (I make mine with milk, butter and sour cream), steam some carrots and if you want to make croissants with your meal, when you pull the meatloaves out to put ketchup on top, change oven temp to 375 degrees farenheit and when its preheated (it doesn't take long to preheat 25 degrees -- by the time you roll the croissants and put ketchup on the meatloaves, it should be ready), you put the croissants and meatloaves in the oven for 11 minutes then they are both done at the same time.

Green Smoothie Tutorial

I have done several posts regarding green smoothies and thought I would consolidate all the important tips into one post. Remember, though, these are my tips regarding making tasty and healthy green smoothies that you and your kids will enjoy. However, my taste buds and yours may not agree on what is "tasty", so feel free to experiment if my recipes/tips don't work for your taste buds.

A simple, basic recipe for making green smoothies requires your choice of greens, a liquid, frozen or fresh fruits, and a sweetener (optional). Any greens will work. For liquids, water or juice are recommended, but some people do use milk, soy milk and coconut milk, etc. I just don't prefer the taste of milks in my green smoothies so I use water or juice, generally juice as I don't have to use a sweetener when I use juice. I prefer juices that are not from concentrate, like orange-pineapple juice from Simply Orange or acai juice by Bom Dia. For fruits, I prefer frozen fruits or a combination of fresh and frozen fruits as the frozen fruits give the smoothie a thicker more smoothie-esque quality, like the smoothies I used to make from yogurt, milk, and fruit. I have made smoothies with strawberries, mangos, bananas, peaches, blueberries, blackberries, and pineapple all with great success. When I use a sweetener, I prefer agave nectar or honey. I also add flaxseed meal to my smoothies.

To make your smoothies, place greens and liquid in your blender and blend until smooth. Add fruit and any other ingredients you choose such as flaxseed meal or sweeteners and blend until smooth again. You may have to add extra juice to allow the frozen fruits to blend completely.

My best tip for green smoothies is just try it. I know it sounds weird, but its a great way to get the benefits of consuming greens without having to deal with the greens taste.

Shaking up Pizza Night a bit

We've talked and talked about pizza, but here are a couple options we haven't talked about.

An alternative to pizza crust is tortillas. Joey and I have used tortillas in place of pizza crust to make a fantastic thin crust alternative. You use the tortilla just like any other crust, put tomato sauce, cheese and toppings on and bake until cheese is melted. The best part is you can pick different sizes of tortillas for different sized appetites (taco sized for younger kids, soft taco size for older kids or burrito sized for adults).

Another alternative, also incorporating tortillas, is pizzadillas. You put cheese and toppings in a folded tortilla, cook like a quesadilla and dip in pizza sauce. Yummy.

Either of these options allows each person to choose their own toppings and have their own customized entree and you can have your kiddos help make their own with either of these options.

A final option, which doesn't make individual entrees, but is still yummy and you can still have the kiddos assist in preparing is pizza pasta. You take elbow noodles or ziti noodles or really any kind of noodles, tomato sauce, motzarella, and whatever toppings you like, toss them together and bake on 350 for 15 minutes or until thoroughly heated with cheese melted.

Just thought I'd post these pizza night alternatives as I'm sure I'll be using them once Joey's in basic. I doubt I'll really want pizza once a week, but pizzadillas and pizza pasta are great ways to have pizza night but also mix it up a bit and give it some variety.

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:
1 pkg of 2 pie crusts
1 can cream-of-soup (or prepare your own, see cream-of-soup recipe)
1 pkg mixed veggies, steamed and drained (I like Cascadian Farms organic frozen mixed veggies) or 2 14.5 ounce cans of mixed veggies drained
2 chicken breasts
chicken broth (optional)

Instructions:
Boil chicken breasts in chicken broth and water or just water for about 30 minutes or until done. (I like to boil my chicken for chicken pot pie with my chicken for chicken ziti to make the most of that chicken broth, but you can always refrigerate and reuse it).
Remove pie crusts from box and let sit out to thaw while cooking chicken breasts.
Chop chicken breasts finely.
Steam veggies and drain.
Make cream-of-soup.
In large mixing bowl, mix cream of soup, diced chicken and veggies.
Press first crust into pie pan, fill with chicken/veggie/soup mixture, moisten top of bottom crust, place 2nd crust on top, use fork to flute crusts together.
Bake on 375 for 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown on top and bottom.
Enjoy.

All my girls love this. Its "chicken pie" and we eat it for dinner one night and lunch the next day and then its gone and they are asking for more.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:
1 bell pepper per person you are feeding (we needed 4)
1 lb ground meat per 4 bell peppers (we used ground venison)
old bay seasoning
salsa
Mexican cheese
Sour Cream
1/2 onion per pound of meat
2 mushrooms per pound of meat

Directions:
Cook ground meat with old bay seasoning until browned.
Chop onion and mushrooms and add to meat with salsa, cook a few minutes to soften onions and mushrooms and allow flavors to combine.
Pour meat mixture into mixing bowl and add cheese.
Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remove top of bell peppers, hollow out and rinse.
Fill peppers with meat mixture, packing down so there are no air pockets. Cover with cheese and bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is crispy.
Remove from oven, let cool for a few minutes, put in a bowl and add sour cream.

Sour cream, onions and mushrooms are optional as is salsa. You can also customize this by adding Italian seasoning instead of old bay and mixing with spaghetti sauce instead of salsa and using motzarella instead of Mexican cheese to make it an Italian meal instead of a Mexican one.

The best thing about this meal -- all my girls ate it!!!! Evie wanted to be fed (for the attention) as usual, so Joey fed her, but she ate it all (1/2 a stuffed bell pepper) and so did Addy. We just gave Izzy the meat mixture as the bell pepper would be too hard for her to chew as it was still a bit crunchy (which is how its supposed to be) and she ate all her meat and mushrooms, but the onions were too big and crunchy for her, so when I make it, I'll chop the onions smaller and add them to the meat when I start it browning.

Quick, easy, yummy recipes and green smoothies

For some reason, blogger won't let me comment right now, so I just wanted to give you guys a heads up that I'll be posting a lot more quick, easy, yummy, tried and true recipes in the coming days, partially because they are wonderful and I like to share and partially so I don't forget how to make them when Joey's gone. Its funny how many times I ask Joey to remind me what temp I cook dishes at, etc, when I'm cooking and I won't be able to ask him when he's gone, so I'll post them on here so if I forget, I can just reference my blog. I'll be using a lot of quick, easy, yummy, tried-and-true recipes while Joey's gone as I think that sticking with what the girls are familiar with and already like will be less stressful for the kiddos than giving them a bunch of new stuff to try, which sometimes stresses my middle daughter out. Not only am I going to add some more recipes, but I'm also going to add a new category that's "quick recipes" so you can find the quick, easy recipes quickly.

I am going to introduce some new stuff to the girls while Joey is here, though. If they like them, then they will be "tried-and-true" recipes by the time he leaves, so we'll be able to stick with them then.

The first thing I'm going to introduce is green smoothies. I've seen people talking about them on Diaper Swappers before, but wasn't inspired to try them until my sister said she was going to try them. I did some research about it today and the idea behind green smoothies (which don't have to be green by the way) is to add green, leafy veggies to your diet without tasting them. In theory, and keep in mind that I haven't tried these yet, spinach has no detectable flavor when added to a smoothie.

My typical smoothie recipe is 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/4-1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup frozen fruit (peaches or strawberries and pineapple typically), 1 tbsp flax seed meal and 1 tbsp honey for one serving.

According to my research, to add greens to it you put the greens in with the liquid and blend that together before adding the rest of the ingredients. I also saw that if you add berries to the smoothie, it makes the smoothie a different color besides green (purplish), thereby creating a non-green green smoothie. So if your kiddos freak out at the color green, its rather easily masked.

You can also do green smoothies with bananas in them in place of the yogurt to make them creamy and you can use water in place of the milk to make a lactose free green smoothie, but I'm going to start with what I know that I like, add the spinach and see what kind of difference the spinach makes in the taste. I keep saying spinach because that is what my sister was adding to her smoothies, but in my research today I found you can use any kind of greens, although different greens have different levels of taste. Some are bitterer than others, so you'd have to add more honey/fruit to counteract the bitterness.

True to the creed that variety is the spice of life, my research also indicated that the best way to do green smoothies is not to eat today what you ate yesterday, meaning if you had a strawberry banana spinach smoothie yesterday, then today you should have something different -- different greens and different fruit. But since we don't eat a lot of greens and I'm just starting out and figuring out what recipes to use, etc, and since I just got back from grocery shopping for this week, I'm going to be making smoothies with spinach thru at least Friday this week and then I'll get a variety of greens and fruit for next week.

The best reason to incorporate greens into your diet is because they are invaluable at removing toxins from your body. Kale, for example, has so much fiber that it can soak up several times its own weight in toxins from your body. And less toxins in our bodies is always a plus in my book. Plus, if my girls will actually drink it, its another way to sneak veggies into their diet, which is especially important for Evie, who is very anti-veggie.

So the girls are having their nap time now. When nap time is almost over (since its important to drink them soon after making them to preserve their nutritional content), I will go into the kitchen, whip up a batch of green smoothies and then bring them downstairs for snack time. I'll let you know how it works out for us and what recipe I use (if it turns out to be any good).

Baked Chicken Ziti recipe

You're lucky I like y'all. . . and just because I do, I'm going to share one of my favorite recipes with you. I made it last night for dinner and I just ate the last of it today. YUM.

Ingredients:
chicken (I use 3 frozen chicken breasts)
1 box ziti noodles
1 box chicken stock (I like the MSG free stuff)
a couple cloves of garlic, diced
1 onion sliced
spaghetti sauce (I like prego)
motzarella

Directions:
Boil chicken breasts in chicken broth and water for about 30 minutes.
Remove chicken from water and put noodles, garlic and onions in water and chicken broth mixture. Add water if needed. Boil noodles according to direction on the box.
Shred chicken while noodles are boiling.
drain noodles and combine noodles, shredded chicken, spaghetti sauce and some of the motzarella in 3 quart casserole dish.
Sprinkle remainder of cheese on top
Bake on 350 for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and spaghetti sauce has been thoroughly warmed.

It is unbelievably yummy, tastes great when first made and if possible it tastes even better when its reheated. And best of all, ALL my kids eat it. Even my picky eater middle child. So I hope you and your kiddos enjoy it. Its great with a salad or by itself as the spaghetti sauce has a full serving of veggies in it. You could also add garlic bread, but I never have as I believe there is plenty of starch in the noodles and the last thing my children need is too much starch. Well, that's not the whole reason. I might decide to add garlic bread to the meal for a special occasion, but I wouldn't do it all the time and don't usually have time as once the casserole is done cooking, I just want to eat it all up. I don't want to take time to make garlic bread ;)

Bon Appetit.