Quinoa Blueberry Breakfast

I've been experimenting with different breakfast recipes. I have this one blueberry oatmeal bake that's super yummy, but oatmeal tends to make me starving hungry an hour later. So I decided to play around with quinoa instead. My first try was a casserole with uncooked quinoa and while it wasn't bad, it didn't turn out quite right.

Since then, I've adjusted the recipe a bit and found something that works pretty well. Quinoa does not stick together as well as oats, so I might eventually try this with some additional sticky liquids (I was thinking extra eggs or maybe even some applesauce). But here's what I have so far.

Quinoa Blueberry Breakfast Bake

1-1/2 cups uncooked quinoa
½ cup (or more!) chopped nuts
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
½ cup maple syrup
1-1/2 cups almond milk
2 large eggs
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
2 ripe bananas
1 pint fresh blueberries

Cook the quinoa according to the package directions, in approximately 3 cups of water, and let cool slightly. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the cooked quinoa, half the nuts, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate bowl, mush up the bananas and then beat in the maple syrup, almond milk, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla, until it has an even consistency.


Pour the wet mixture over the dry mixture and stir until combined. Transfer to a 9x13 glass baking dish, sprayed with oil. Sprinkle the top with the remainder of the nuts and the blueberries, mixing in a little bit. Bake for 35 minutes or until it looks set (higher altitude means I went with 55 minutes). Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Squash Soup Recipe

I found and adapted this recipe from my VitaMix cookbook, but it looks like it's not on their website. I don't think I've tried it without the VitaMix, but I would assume you could cook on the stove and use a blender.

Squash Soup

2 cups water plus 1 tsp Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base
2 cups of cooked squash or pumpkin
1/4 small onion, peeled
1/2 medium apple, seeded
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp dried ground sage
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup heavy cream

To cook squash or pumpkin
Preheat over to 400 degrees. Slice squash or pumpkin in half and remove all the seeds and strings. Lay flat side down on a foil lined cookie sheet. Spread a little olive oil over the top (the part with the skin). Cook for 45 minutes to an hour and a half, until a push on the skin feels like the insides are all soft and squishy. (At high altitude, it needs the hour and a half. Low altitude, it might only be 45 minutes.) When it's cool enough, turn each half over and scrape out the flesh with a spoon. One regular size pumpkin normally gives me at least 4 cups of meat - enough for one or two batches of soup, plus sometimes pumpkin bread.

For the soup
Place all the ingredients, except the heavy cream, into the Vitamix container in the order listed. Put the lid on. Start at Variable Speed 1 and quickly increase to Variable 10, then High. Blend for 6-7 minutes or until heavy steam escapes from the lid plug.

Reduce speed to Variable 4 and remove the lid plug. Add in the heavy cream through the opening. Blend for an additional 20 seconds.

Best served with french bread. Even my kids will gobble this soup up if there's french bread for dipping.

(Healthier) Carrot Cake

I didn't go full Paleo on this recipe. Frankly, I didn't want to spend the money on all the extra almond flour if it ended up tasting nasty. But this one has whole wheat flour, almond flour, no refined sugar, and coconut oil. I rank it as quite a lot better for you than just plain carrot cake - healthy enough to eat for breakfast :) And if it always turns out the same way this batch did...slightly crunchy top with a nice, moist inside, it won't last long in this house. It's a slightly more nutty taste, and one child didn't care for the difference, but I though it was pretty darn perfect.

(Healthier) Carrot Cake

6-8 cups of baby carrots
2 cups white whole wheat flour
3 cups almond flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups coconut sugar
1 cup coconut oil
9 eggs
1 cup maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use a little bit of coconut oil to grease five large aluminum foil loaf pans.

Use your Vita-Mix to wet chop the carrots: put half of them at a time in the Vita-Mix, cover with water, turn on and increase to level 6, and process until they're all chopped up. Pour into a sieve to let the water drain out.

In a separate bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and coconut sugar. When it's all uniformly mixed, add in the coconut oil. You can use a wooden spoon, mixer, or pastry knife thing to squish it all up until it's distributed evenly with very small chunks (like when you're making pie crust).

Add in the eggs and the maple syrup and stir until the batter is all the same consistency. Fold in the chopped carrots. Divide up the batter into the five loaf pans (approximately two cups of batter each). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Here at a higher altitude, that turned out to be about 55 minutes. It could be as little as 30 minutes for you.

-- This recipe is loosely based off the Carrot Cake recipe in my Better Home and Gardens Cookbook.

Revised Brownies

I assume most people reading this have seen the original Paleo Brownies that I make every few weeks. Well, I tend to mess around with these sorts of recipes. I have trouble making the same thing, the same way, twice. This month's iteration turned out really good and much more consistently-textured, so I just had to share.

The problem with the original recipe is that, in an 8x8 pan: you have to cook it for a really long time, the outer edges are a bit hard and rubbery, and the inner section is really gooey. This variation takes care of all those issues and still gives you a very yummy brownie.

First off, I had to up the amount of nuts. I use 2-1/2 cups of un-ground nuts (combined any way you want...this batch was 1-1/2 cups almonds, 1/2 cup walnuts, 1/2 cup pecans. I find just almonds to be a bit bland tasting and just walnuts are on the bitter side). After grinding them up, mix in a bowl with 1/2 cup baking cocoa, 1/2 cup coconut sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp baking soda. Try to get as much lumpiness out as you can, until you have a nice even texture and all of the cocoa is incorporated.

In the same bowl (look what I did there! One bowl!), add 2 eggs, 1/2 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup coconut oil and 1 tbls vanilla. This was a warm day, so I had no trouble with the coconut oil melting as I mixed. In winter, it might be necessary to melt first. Mix just until it has a consistent texture. Then add in about 2.5 oz of shaved dark chocolate, and fold over a few times to combine.

Use coconut oil to grease a 9x13 baking pan. Pour the batter in and use a spatula to spread it out evenly. It'll seem pretty thin, maybe 1/2 inch thick, so work it gently but make sure it's spread all the way to the edges of the pan. Bake for 30 minutes in a 325 degree oven. You might even want to check it after 20 minutes and decide how much longer. I normally have to give recipes extra time since I'm at a higher altitude, but 35 minutes for this batch was actually a little too long.

They turned out nicely cake-y (so if you're looking for gooey, definitely take the time down) and very evenly textured. Easy to cut and remove from the pan too. And they were eaten too fast to get a picture of a whole piece! I'll definitely make these again in this same way.

A New Spaghetti Sauce

You know me, always looking for more veggies. This time, I had a whole ton of stuff in the fridge getting ready to go bad, and DH is out of town so it had to be something that the boys would eat. I figured pasta is the easiest thing for them, so I'd just go with sauce that would last a while.

I had to make it at 9pm the other night. We got home late and the ground turkey had finished defrosting so I couldn't leave it until the next day. That means I got to try it right after it was done, but the boys had to wait until the next day. I was ready to eat it like soup, it was so good. It got two thumbs up from the boys too.

I sautéed 5 large florets of cauliflower, a bunch of baby carrots and 6 oz of spinach with some oil and almost 2 tsp of minced garlic. Once the spinach was all wilty, I added in 9 roma tomatoes, quartered and sautéed for another few minutes.

I threw all of that into the Vita-Mix and added about 2 cups of water. It was so super full, but the Vita-Mix was still able to handle it. Everything was ground up into a nice smooth soupy mixture.

Then I fried down a pound of ground turkey. I might have thrown in some onion too if it wasn't so late. I sucked out all the grease and then added the veggie puree, along with 2 tablespoons of sugar, a cup of red wine, 2 tsp of basil and a tsp of salt. I simmered it all for about 20 minutes (although I couldn't put the lid on because the pot was too small).

When things got a little foamy, I had to skim off the top from the sauce. After the 20 minutes, I added two cups of mozzarella and stirred until it was all melted and combined. Last was a cup of whipping cream (it makes the sauce stick to the noodles so much better).

Next time, I need to use a bigger pot. If it weren't for the 9 tomatoes about to go bad, I think the pot would have been fine. The boys had the sauce over pasta. I finished up the spaghetti squash. It was all good. (Except my first try with spaghetti squash and it was still really crunchy.) I will definitely be making something like this again.

Amazing Spinach Salad

I keep thinking of posting this recipe, but I always convince myself - who really likes salad anyway? But maybe you've been looking for a good salad to try. Maybe you've been hoping for something a little different. Maybe you've wanted to add more salad to your life. Maybe your plain iceberg lettuce has needed a pick me up.

Well, I have the recipe for you. I'm sort of on a kick of this salad. I've been making it for myself a couple times a week. My husband has his own special salad mix, but he likes this dressing. So, use what you want and let this inspire you. Eat Salad!

First off, The Dressing
Juice about 3 lemons into a shakeable container. Pull out all the seeds and throw them away. Add a teaspoon of minced garlic, a couple sprinkles of salt, about 1/2 teaspoon of truvia, and up to a teaspoon of the herb of your choice. (I've tried once with basil and once with rosemary.) Look at how much liquid you have and add in approximately the same amount of sunflower oil (so now your liquid is doubled). Put the lid on and shake it really well. Voila. Dressing.

And my salad base contains:
About 3 large handfuls of spinach, ripped into bite size pieces.
A bunch of baby carrots
Half an avocado, cut into bite size pieces
One apple, peeled and sliced
Some parmesan flakes
Some crumbled up sweet potato chia seed tortilla chips.

I drizzle on about 3-4 tablespoons of dressing for this much salad. I recommend putting on the dressing and tossing, before you put the chips in. This much salad serves just me for lunch or dinner. As a side dish, you could probably stretch it out to 3-4 people.

Meatball Stew

It's hard to believe I ran out of chicken this week. I had it all planned that I'd make some more plain chicken and potatoes because they boys went so wild over them last time, but alas it was not in the cards. I found some teriyaki meatballs in the freezer from Costco, but they're a little on the spicy side for the boys so they don't care for them plain. I decided to try stew and it turned out really good. The boys gave it a 4ish star rating. They didn't really want to eat it a second time, but managed the first time just fine.

I modified according to our tastes from this recipe. It was simple, fast, and smelled fantastic in the crock pot.

Crock Pot Meatball Stew

About 1-1/2 packages of meatballs (I think I used about 36 oz of the teriyaki ones)
8 smaller size white potatoes, cut in one inch cubes
1 onion, diced as small or large as you like
1-1/2 packages of the really small baby carrots
1 can tomato sauce
2 tsp Better Than Bouillon Beef Flavor
1/2 cup red wine
2+ cups water
1 tsp minced garlic
2 Tbls flour

Put the meatballs, onion, potatoes, and carrots in the crock pot. In a separate bowl, combine the tomato sauce, Better Than Bouillon, wine, and garlic. Add enough water to make approximately 4 cups total. Stir until combined and then add to the crock pot. Cook on low for about 7-8 hours. During the last hour, mix the flour with about a 1/2 cup of water and stir it into the crock pot.

Quinoa Risotto with Roasted Cauliflower

I didn't even try to get my kids to eat this. But sometimes there's cauliflower in the house and you just want to do something with it. I've been thinking about risotto for a while and decided to experiment. I found a couple recipes, including one for the roasted cauliflower risotto (that I loved for the sliced almonds) and a different one for quinoa risotto with different veggies. Here's what my hands came up with. It turned out very yummy. I think it'll go on the 'make again' list.

Quinoa Risotto with Roasted Cauliflower

Doesn't it look so pretty?! Fair warning: red wine
makes the risotto sort-of brownish

1 head of cauliflower

1/2 an onion, diced

2 Tbls butter

1 Tbls Better Than Bouillon

1 cup wine

4 cups water

A little bit of oil

1 cup raw sliced almonds

1-1/2 cups uncooked quinoa, rinsed

1 cup parmesan cheese

1-1/2 cups shredded cheese

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Wash and dice the cauliflower. Make all the flower parts no larger than 1"x1", slice the stalk parts even smaller but in a separate pile. Put the florets on a cookie sheet, pour some oil over them and mix it around. Add salt and pepper. Cook on the top rack of the oven for 5 minutes, then sprinkle the almonds on top and cook for about 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool while you work on the rest.

While the cauliflower is cooking, mix up the water with the Better Than Bouillon in a measuring bowl for later. Melt butter in a 4qt pot. With the heat around medium, add the onion and cauliflower stalk pieces. Cook until the onion is wimpy. Add the quinoa and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the wine and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the wine is mostly dissolved. Pour in about a third of the water mixture and keep cooking. Cook about 5 minutes and then add another third. Stir pretty constantly and keep cooking. After you've added the last third, it'll take about 5-10 minutes for the mixture to get thicker, but it won't look like all the water is dissolved. The quinoa is cooked enough if it's pretty clear except for a little curl of grain.

Add both cheese and stir until they're well combined and melted. Dish up a bowlful and put a large scoop or two of the cauliflower and almonds on top. These amounts look like they'll make about 4-6 full sized main dish meals.

Calabacitas

A friend passed this recipe on to me ages ago during the time of Facebook notes. I don't know where she got it from. She says it's a traditional New Mexican dish. I'll post her original recipe at the bottom, but I make quite a few modifications to my recipe. My family doesn't really care for spicy, so I rarely add the green chilies listed in the original recipe. You can skip the bacon, but everything is better with bacon.

My version of Calabacitas

6-8 slices of bacon
2 Tbls butter
1 medium size onion, chopped
3-5 medium sized summer squash, diced to 1/2 inch cubes (I normally use zucchini and yellow squash) (I've also made this recipe with broccoli and carrots instead of squash)
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups shredded cheese

Cook the bacon however you prefer. I have a microwave plate for bacon. Set it on a paper towel covered plate to cool and then crumble when it's cool enough.

While you're working on the bacon, melt the butter in a large pot/skillet. Add the onions and cook until it's almost translucent. Keep the heat around medium and add the squash and corn. Cook for about 8-10 minutes, covered, until the squash is slightly tender. Reduce heat to low and add the heavy cream. Simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes to let the flavors combine and the sauce to thicken slightly. Stir in the cheese until it's melted then add the bacon. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Calabacitas (Original recipe)

• Six slices of bacon, diced
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• One medium sized onion, chopped
• Three to four large summer squash, cubed into bite sized pieces (zucchini, pattypan, yellow squash, etc.) - about 5-6 cups of cut squash
• Two cups of whole kernel corn, for best results, cut straight from fresh corn (about 3 ears) however frozen is fine if it's not in season
• 3/4 cup roasted, peeled, mile to medium-heat green chilies (two Trader Joe's cans)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup shredded cheese, cheddar or monterey jack or a mixture of both

In a large skillet over medium head, brown the bacon. Once browned, remove to a waiting paper towel, leaving the bacon grease in the pan. Add butter and onion. Wilt the onion until almost translucent before adding the squash, corn and chilies. Cook for about eight to ten minutes until the squash is almost tender. Add the heavy cream, reduce heat to low and simmer slowly for fifteen to twenty minutes to allow flavors to combine and to thicken slightly. After simmering, add cheese, stirring to melt, and bacon. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

#1 Comfort Food

There's always things like stew or chili or chicken noodle soup as comfort food, but growing up my favorite was always Cream Turkey. Not it's real name, not even a real, written down recipe. But it was always my favorite. A creamy sauce, lots of turkey, all poured over buttered bread. And if mom and dad were feeling especially like messing up the comfort food, add peas.

Now that I'm the grown up, I only remember to make this every now and then, but it's always a hit with the boys. Short Stuff eats an adult-sized serving and the Small Person is still on a half serving, but there's never any complaining. Mr. G. prefers it with corn and peas, so he gets a little side dish to pour on top.

We only used to have this near Thanksgiving when there would be fresh turkey, but now that Costco sells pre-cooked turkey breasts, we can have it anytime. A batch of this uses half a Costco turkey breast and will make at least two meals for the four of us.

Cream Turkey

1 stick butter
2/3 cup flour
2 cups water w/Better Than Bullion
4 cups milk
half a Costco pre-cooked turkey breast, sliced into 1/2 inch cubes
sliced bread
butter for the bread
frozen peas and corn (if desired)

Melt the butter in a medium pot. Add the flour. Stir until it's made a nice solid paste with the butter. Keep stirring and cooking for about a minute. Add the chicken stock (water and Better Than Bullion) and milk to the pot all at once. Stir constantly (in a figure eight shape) while cooking on medium to medium high heat. Keep cooking and stirring until the sauce starts to thicken. It should start to look like white gravy. (Don't get impatient. Give it time - probably about 5-10 minutes.) When it's close to gravy thickness, add the turkey (and the corn and peas if that's in your plan) and keep it on the heat (and stirring!) until the turkey is heated though - another 5 minutes maybe.

If you have a second person, you can toast and butter the bread while you're cooking the sauce, but do not skimp on the stirring. If you have to, just wait until it's all done cooking and off the heat, then take care of the bread. Once the bread is toasted and buttered, lay it flat on a plate and ladle out a scoop or so of the sauce and turkey onto each slice of bread. Sometimes a little salt and pepper on top can be extra nice but not necessary. Use a fork and knife to cut into bite-sized pieces so you can soak up plenty of sauce on each piece of bread.

Green Veggie Cheesy Pasta

Here's the thing: if you've seen my recipes for a while, I'm always trying to get more green (and other colored) veggies into my children. They've generally accepted the idea of green, smooth sauces and soups as long as nothing is obviously leafy. I count that as a win, but sometimes you just have to push the boundaries a bit.

Enter the cauliflower. It's white! How can the kids object?! But my last couple efforts were a total failure. "There's something chunky in here." "Did you put cauliflower in here?" "I don't like this." and so on forever and ever amen. They managed cauliflower pizza crust ok because it's really cheesy but nothing with obvious veggie-ness.

Onto the experiment. Rice the cauliflower? check. Grind up spinach and onions? check. The boys saw me make the cauliflower. But I'm getting smarter to their ways. When we sat down to eat, before they even took a bite, they asked "does this have cauliflower in it?". Evasion... well, there's a lot of parmesan cheese. *Take bite* "I think I felt something chunky in here." It's probably just the parmesan cheese. A little more evasion and they both ate their whole bowl. Success. Hubby said it tastes a lot like a pizza.

Green Veggie Cheesy Pasta

1 head of cauliflower
6 oz spinach
1/2 an onion
1-1/2 tsp minced garlic
2 Tbls butter
1 Tbls lemon juice
2-1/2 cups water
1 Tbls Better Than Bullion
a bunch of fresh mint leaves
2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar jack or something fun)
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup whipping cream
16 oz pasta (cooked according to package directions)

Start by chopping up the cauliflower and sending it through the food processor/Vitamix until it's the size of rice or smaller (for the Vitamix, I process about 1/3 at a time). Put all processed cauliflower in a bowl and microwave, covered, for about 8 minutes.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Chop up the onion and sauté with the spinach and garlic in the melted butter. Cook until the onion is translucent and the spinach is all wilty.

Put the water and Better Than Bullion into the Vitamix, then add the onion and spinach mixture. Process on high for 15-30 seconds, until it's all smooth. Pour back into the saucepan. Chop up the mint leaves (I ended up with about 1/2 a cup of chopped mint). Add the lemon juice and mint to the saucepan along with the riced cauliflower. Cook on medium heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add all of the cheeses and stir constantly until they're well melted. After the sauce is smooth again (except for the cauliflower of course), add the whipping cream and keep stirring until everything is warmed through and the same shade of green.

Pour over your prepared pasta (all together, or in individual bowls). Mix it up before you hand it out to the kiddies. Remind yourself to say "it's just parmesan cheese". Sit down and enjoy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had a craving for peanut butter cookies recents and it's much harder than I thought to find a grain free version that's not simply peanut butter. I really wanted almond flour, but still with peanut butter. Then, if I'm making peanut butter cookies, it wouldn't be that complete without some chocolate chips thrown in. So, I found this recipe. I made a couple changes to avoid the refined sugar, so here's what I got. They turned out really yummy, although the boys voted for the plain chocolate chip cookies I made last time. Those will be next on the list to make again.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/4 cup butter, mostly melted
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (Skippy for me, cause that's the way I roll)
3/8 cup coconut sugar (this is 1/4 cup plus 2 tbls)
3/8 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2-1/2 cups raw almonds
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Combine the butter, coconut oil and peanut butter. Stir until everything is smooth (no chunks of coconut oil). Add the coconut sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, and eggs. Beat well. In the Vitamix, process one cup of almonds at a time until it's like flour and pour finished flour into a separate bowl. (Note: to get an even consistency, I found that NOT using the tamper at all was a better way to go here.) Once all almonds are processed, add baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder to the almonds and stir until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing until there aren't any dry lumps. Stir in the chocolate chips.

I used a 1-inch cookie scoop and got about 34 cookies. Place the cookies about two inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet (aluminum is my favorite) and bake in a 350 degree oven for 11--15 minutes. I needed the maximum time, if not a little extra, otherwise the cookies were too squishy when I took them off the pan. This made the edges slightly crisp, with a nice, soft inside. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack, at least until you can pick them up and eat them.

Broccoli Spinach Soup

Ok, so here's my favorite soup for the week in the Vitamix. I made this one last week and it was so good, I made another double batch last night. It's got a really great taste and is perfect with a couple slices of toast with butter.

Broccoli Spinach Soup

1 Tbls butter
6 oz. spinach
1 head of broccoli
1 small onion
1 tsp minced garlic
2-3 carrots, sliced
2-3 stalks of celery, sliced
2 small white potatoes
1/2 a small apple, quartered
1/4 or so tsp of nutmeg
1/2 tsp of thyme
dash of salt
1 tsp Better Than Bouillon
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a pan, then add the spinach, broccoli, onion, carrots, celery, and garlic. Stir and let it sauté for 5-10 minutes, until the onions are soft and the spinach is all wilty. (While this is cooking, microwave the potatoes until they're cooked, the quarter them.) Put 2 cups of water in the Vitamix, then add everything else except the cheese. Turn the Vitamix on and quickly turn up to High. Let it process for 6-7 minutes, then turn it down to about 5, take out the lid plug and pour in the cheese. Let it process for 15-30 seconds, until you don't see shreds of cheese anymore. Turn it off and pour into your bowl. This makes at least 4 servings of soup.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These ended up being all stars in my house. This one batch made exactly 24 cookies and they were gone within a day or two. Not very sweet, soft on the inside with a little crisp feeling on the outside. Even the boys, who say they don't like anything with nuts, ate these like there was no tomorrow. Everyone has already asked me to make another batch. I believe these are Paleo/Gluten Free, but if I'm wrong let me know.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2-1/2 cups raw almonds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 eggs
2 Tbls maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Put 1 cup of almonds at a time into the Vitamix and process on high for 15-30 seconds until you get almond flour. Put the processed almond flour into a mixing bowl and keep going until you've finished with all the almonds. If there are any chunks left, just throw them back into the Vitamix and/or leave them in the bowl and have some crunch in your cookies. Add the salt and baking soda to the almond flour and mix. Add the coconut oil as a solid or liquid and mix well (try to squish all the chunks of coconut oil so it's spread evenly throughout the dough). Add the eggs, maple syrup and vanilla and stir until everything is combined. Finally, throw in the chocolate chips (1/2 cup or maybe even a little extra) and evenly distribute throughout the dough.

I used a 1 inch cookie scoop and got 24 cookies. I put them on aluminum cookie sheets and squished the tops flat a bit (like if you were making peanut butter cookies). Cook at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets immediately and try to wait until they're cool enough before everyone starts noshing. They're not too sweet, so you can even treat yourself for breakfast or snack time.

Chicken And Dumplings

So, I still haven't actually convinced my kids to willingly eat this one, which is so disturbing because I practically begged for chicken and dumplings when I was growing up. I usually only get a batch of mixed veggies thrown in but in my quest to add more greens I ground up a whole package of spinach this time and it turned out just fine. Besides the whole "completely green" broth, you'd never even taste that there's spinach.

Easy Slow-Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

2-3 chicken breasts, diced (not cooked)

1/3 cup flour

frozen mixed veggies

baby carrots

6 oz raw spinach

1 tbls Better Than Bullion 

1 roll Pillsbury biscuits

Put the veggies, carrots and chicken into the slow cooker. Sprinkle the flour on top. Push the whole wad of spinach into the Vitamix and add enough water to get up to the four cup line. Throw in the Better Than Bullion. Turn on the Vitamix and process on High for 15ish seconds, until you don't see any clumps of spinach. Pour into the slow cooker. Add another cup of water to the Vitamix and swish around to get the last of the spinach, then pour that into the slow cooker as well.

Now here's the hard part. If you're feeling so inclined, you could make your own dumplings and drop them into the slow cooker. I'm usually in a hurry so I grab the Pillsbury biscuits, open the container, cut small pieces directly into the slow cooker using scissors. Or hire some little people to do your cutting. Try to get the pieces to land all across the top of the mixture (not just clumped in the middle).

Cook on high for 4-6 hours. The dumplings will be all along the top so be sure you scoop servings out all the way to the bottom of the crock pot so everyone gets some dumplings.

Sweet Potato Burritos

I don't even remember where I got this general recipe from. Someone passed it along ages ago and I make it every now and then. Sweet Potatoes are not a common food for me so I'm glad to get a little variety into my life. This is just filling for a burrito, so you can throw some spinach on top, or a dollop of plain greek yogurt (or sour cream), even some olives or salsa.

Sweet Potato Burritos

2 tbls butter
3 sweet potatoes
1/4 cup-ish of almond milk
1 15 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
3ish tsp of cilantro (I use 3-4 cubes of the frozen Dorio stuff)
2 cups cheese

First scrub the sweet potatoes, poke them all over and microwave until they're soft (possibly 12-15 minutes). Let them cool down if you want (so you don't burn your fingers), then peal off the skin and mash the meat in a bowl.

Melt the butter in a skillet and then add the sweet potato mash. Stir around and add the almond milk - enough so the sweet potatoes are a little fluffier but not runny. Add the black beans and cilantro. Stir until heated through. Finally add the cheese and keep stirring until it's all incorporated and nicely melted.

Use it to fill whatever burrito-y thing you feel like: tortillas, lettuce wraps. Even grab a bowl and use it as dip for chips. My favorite is wrapping in a tortilla with spinach on top and some plain greek yogurt. If I remember, I'll throw on olives too. Sadly, my kids refuse this mixture altogether and after forcing the issue once (and having a child with a tummy ache later), I decided the beans and sweet potatoes are not the thing for my kids. Maybe one day their palette will mature.

All Star Spaghetti Sauce

I would bet that almost everyone with kids knows that spaghetti is a sure-fire dinner. As long as you don't go too crazy, everyone eats it without complaining and even asks for seconds. Now, you can go pretty wrong sometimes. I've had some pretty bad spaghetti sauce that my kids wouldn't touch. But this recipe is just perfect for the boys. We call it "pink sauce" to distinguish from any other type of "red sauce". Sometimes I'll throw in ground up sautéed spinach and mushrooms for some extra flavor and nutrition, but it's really good simply like this too.

I'm a single pot sort of person, so pretty much everything goes in the pot, cook, serve. And the whipping cream is definitely the secret here. It makes everything stick to the noodles so nicely and makes a nice thick sauce. It's a lot harder for the kids to pick out the sauce and/or meat when it's a bit thicker.

All Star Spaghetti Sauce

1 lb ground beef or ground turkey
2 15oz cans of tomato sauce
3/4 cup some kind of wine
2 Tbls brown sugar
1 tsp dried basil leaves
1 cup whipping cream

Fry down the ground beef in a 2 quart pot. When it's not pink, drain out the grease but leave the meat in the pot. Add the tomato sauce, wine, brown sugar, and basil to the meat. Simmer covered for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the whipping cream and stir until it's all a uniform color. Serve with your favorite pasta. Throw some parmesan on top of each serving if you feel so inclined.

This recipe usually lasts for at least 32 oz of pasta.

Potato Soup

I love, love, love potato soup. I get it as often as I can when we go out, but I rarely make it. My kids have a bit of a thing about potatoes, so I really haven't wanted to risk it. They're getting a little better and I had a whole bunch of leftover ham that I thought sounded good in soup, so I decided to try. I saw this recipe and thought it sounded really yummy, but it doesn't have many veggies, the rest of the family has a thing about celery (and onion, and sometimes carrots), and the chunks of potato are iffy in my house. Also, I don't like to peel potatoes. So here's what I came up with. It turned out so wonderful. My kids complained a little bit but did eat it and the rest of us really liked it... and spinach, hooray.

Quickie Potato Soup without Chunks

10 small red potatoes, scrubbed and diced
6 ribs of celery, washed and diced
1 bag of mini baby carrots (8oz?), diced
1 small red onion, diced
3 Tbls butter
1 bag of spinach
10 cups water
1 Tbls Better than Bouillon
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup flour
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/4-1/2 tsp nutmeg
3+ cups of diced ham

Once all the veggies are diced, melt 2 Tbls of butter in a large stock pot, then add all the veggies (onion, carrots, celery, and potatoes). Cook for about 10 minutes, then throw in the water, Better Than Bouillon, and salt. Let this simmer (uncovered is fine) for about 20-30 minutes - until the potatoes seem soft/cooked through.

While it's simmering, melt the other Tbls of butter in a pan and cook the spinach until it's all wilt-y. Transfer the spinach to the Vita-Mix, add water to cover the spinach, and blend on high for 15-20 seconds. Keep going until you don't see any actual leafy bits of spinach. It should be totally smooth. Add this to the soup pot as soon as it's done in the Vita-Mix and keep simmering.

When everything seems to be cooked long enough, transfer 4-ish cups of soup at a time to the Vita-Mix and process on high for 15-30 seconds each batch until there are no lumps (careful, this is hot and too much in the Vita-Mix at a time means it'll spray out the top at you when you turn it on!). Transfer to a holding container until you've gotten through the whole pot. Then you can pour everything back into the stock pot. Mix the flour and almond milk in a separate container until it's smooth, then add it into the freshly processed soup in the stock pot. Cook and stir for 5 minutes or so. Then add the nutmeg and cheese. Cook and stir until the cheese is completely melted and combined. Finally, add all the ham and stir until it's warm enough - maybe 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

Kale and White Bean Soup

I've never really tried kale. Lots of people talk about it but I figured spinach was good enough for me. But when I found this recipe, I decided I should give it a try. I'm not much of a leafy-things-in-my-soup person (and I'm more of an everything-in-the-pot-and-go person) so instead I tried this in the Vita-Mix. I have to say it turned out pretty good. A hearty, green soup with some nice smoky undertones. Of course, it would be really nice with some bread but for now I just ate it straight up. When you're going for detox meals but it's too cold for smoothies, this would be a great option.

Kale and White Bean Soup

3/4 of a small red onion
1 large handful of baby carrots
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4-1/2 tsp paprika
1/4-1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 a can of tomato sauce
1 tbls Better Than Bullion Chicken base
2 cups packed fresh kale
Water
1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed

Put the onion, carrots, spices, chicken base and tomato sauce into the Vita-Mix. Stuff the kale in last, it will probably be almost to the top of the Vita-Mix. Add water to at least the 4 cup mark. Put on the lid, start the Vita-Mix on Variable Speed 1 and increase to Variable Speed 10 then High. Blend for 6 minutes. Turn the Vita-Mix down to Variable speed 4, open the lid plug and pour in the beans. Blend for another 30 seconds. Turn off, serve and enjoy.

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Soup

This is another variation of a soup I found from a friend on twitter, to a pinterest account, and on to the world wide web. (I swear things get more and more complicated.) The recipe looked really yummy but my family has a thing about celery, and I always like to throw in peas and green beans in my soups so here's what I came up with. It got a winning vote from my husband, but the kids haven't tried it yet (partly you know, because there's green things in it).

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Soup

1/4 of a small red onion, quartered

2 large handfuls of baby carrots

2 ribs of celery, sliced

1 tsp minced garlic

1-1/2 tsp Better Than Bullion Chicken base

Water

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp salt

1-1/2 cups cooked chicken, shredded

2 cups frozen veggies

1 can of green beans

1 cup long grain rice

2 cups milk

1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cheddar cheese

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Put the onion, carrots, celery, garlic and chicken base in the Vita-Mix. Add water to cover. Cover and turn on at Variable Speed 1. Increase quickly to Variable Speed 10, then High. Blend until smooth (30 seconds?). Turn off and pour contents into a pot. Throw in the rest of the spices and veggies, another 2 cups of water and 1-3/4 cups of milk. Cook on Medium-ish heat until everything is just about boiling. Add the rice and turn down to low. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes, until rice is tender. In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the milk and the flour. Whisk together until smooth and then dribble into the soup pot while stirring the soup constantly. Cook for 2-5 minutes until the soup starts to thicken up a bit. Turn off the stove and add the cheese, stirring until all of the cheese is melted. Wait 10 minutes, then serve and enjoy.