How to Make a Tasty Christmas Themed Platter with Healthy Broccoli Bites and Carrot Crackers:
I don't know about you, but now, only a month into the school year, I've completely lost all the steam I had the first couple weeks of school trying to make healthy, unique lunches everyday. I started out the school year like super mom baking cookies and crackers and creating school lunch bento box works of art and now I'm like; here's some cheddar bunnies, a box of raisins and some apple slices, lunch is served...
Read MoreHoney powder! WHO KNEW?! I saw this cool stuff called honey powder last time I was at Whole Foods, and though it was stupid expensive (Whole Foods ain't cheap!), I had to buy it because I just knew I could do something really cool with it. I pondered the honey powder until I came up with the perfect use: Honey vanilla buttercream frosting! The cupcake batter for these scrumptious vanilla honey cupcakes is super easy to make and comes out really soft and buttery despite the lack of refined sugar. So that problem was solved pretty easily. But how do you make honey buttercream frosting without sugar and not end up with a sticky, gooey mess? I'll tell you! Just use honey powder which you can buy for a whole lot cheaper than Whole Foods online here. Substitute the honey powder for the powdered sugar, add a little raw honey and, viola, delicious honey vanilla buttercream frosting! I'm taking these cupcakes to a toddler Valentine's Day party this afternoon. Now the toddlers can have their sugar induced tantrum free cupcakes and eat them too!
Read MoreI'm a snacker. Around 2pm I start raiding the pantry for a tasty treat to nibble on. Yes, I know I should grab a banana or an apple or some carrot sticks. But, I still have the mentality of a 7 year old most of the time and "I don't wanna! Nah nah nah!" I want something sweet and savory, crunchy and filling to eat. So I feel like I'm making a healthy compromise between nature's whole foods and a Snickers bar with these chocolate peanut butter bars. Plus they are so handy dandy to throw in your purse or diaper bag for an energy boosting fix. With ground flax seed, chopped nuts, puffed rice and no refined sugar, they are healthy enough to pass as an energy bar. But, the raw honey and peanut butter and carob chips will satisfy those inevitable sweet cravings. Make some up today and put them in your children's lunches or stash a few in your desk and keep the evil candy bars at bay.
Read MoreThese cookies may look healthy, but they taste oh so sinful. They are plenty sweet with the coconut sugar and maple sugar and the chocolate taste is perfection. My husband is a major carob cynic and he could not believe how good they tasted. When cooking gluten free, it is really important to add something to the flours to help with the binding process. Gluten does all of the binding in wheat flour baking. I added xanthan gum to help bind these cookies, but if you can't find it or don't want to make an extra trip to the store, you can use corn starch instead. You should be able to find all of the ingredients I've listed at health food store or Whole Foods. If you don't live near a good health food store you can also order all of the harder to find ingredients online.
Read MoreI really wanted to make sugar cookies with Ruby this year and let her use sprinkles, red hots and those weird silver BB-looking things to decorate them when they came out the oven. But then I picture the mess. Sticky red and green sprinkles and silver BB's undigested in Ruby's poop. No thanks. So I came up with a fun way for her to decorate cookies and still maintain my sanity. These gingerbread men covered in white icing are the perfect substrate for a toddler's natural artistic skills. Set out the red and green icing bowls and unleash your toddler's artistic abilities.
Read More
When I find a new way to get my toddler to eat healthy food I feel like I'm the smartest person in the world. I want to call the president and be like; "Um hello. Did you know I just solved the problem of how to feed my toddler healthy food? Well, I guess you should put me on the next space shuttle to the moon because I'm a goddamn genius." And I totally deserve to feel this way. Cracking the code of finicky toddler eating habits is harder than I ever thought it would be. One minute she is like "Yum! Tofu!" and the next she is like "Tofu, floor, all done." But, cut that boring old tofu into star shapes, bread it and fry it up in healthy olive oil and she is like "Star! Tofu! Star! Yummy!!" and gobbles it all up like it's chocolate chip cookies. Genius I say.
Read MoreI love this time of year more than any other time of year mainly because of the abundance of fresh vegetables and fruits. I get so overwhelmed with all of the fresh veggies and fruits at the farmer's stand that I sometimes find my fridge full of items that I'm not sure what to do with. Luckily, I grew up with an Italian momma and I'm able to make a pasta dish with my eyes closed. Recently, I bought a bunch of kale and didn't know what to make with it so I looked up kale pasta recipes but couldn't find anything that looked appetizing. So, I came up with my own recipe that you can throw together in a jiffy for a healthy and quick family meal.
I don't know about you, but I crave a burger on about a weekly basis. Now, if I ate a beef burger on a weekly basis I would have to get my big butt to the gym a whole lot more than I currently make it there. So instead of letting the beef burger get the best of me, I like to substitute with healthy ground chicken. A weekly chicken burger has curbed my burger cravings, kept my waist line at a reasonable circumference and (bonus) fulfilled the toddler-will-eat entree requirement for one night a week. I like to add basil, garlic and Worcestershire sauce to my chicken patties to give them a little zip. Enjoy!
Hi friends. Today I've got another one of my favorite family recipes. Homemade fish sticks, rather than store bought frozen fish sticks, are definitely the way to go. They taste about a million times better and are way more nutritious if you use fresh fish. Also, I'm not sure if you have ever made your own tartar sauce instead of using the jarred kind, but homemade is definitely the way to go in the tartar sauce department. It is so tangy and fresh with fresh lemon juice and fresh onions and it only takes about 5 minutes to prepare. Plus, while your making it, you can pop 2-10 gherkin pickles in your mouth making the cooking process a whole lot more fun. This meal is so quick and easy to make, that I end up making it about once a week. It seriously only takes about 25 minutes from start to finish. I like to serve the fish sticks with baked sweet potatoes, sauteed spinach or a smoothie. My toddler really loves this meal and so does her father and I. I guarantee your family will love it too!
Read More
As promised, I am rolling out recipes for some of my favorite family meals. This one is a huge hit with my toddler because it has "noodeeze" and turkey meatballs. She isn't so keen on the tomatoes, but I reserve those for my husband and I. Also, the finely chopped greens that end up on the "noodeeze" are a great way to sneak some greens into her picky little mouth. Ramps are only around in the spring and early summer so get em while the gettin' is good!
Ever since I waited tables at the Spotted Pig way back in 2006, I have been obsessed with perfected my own rosemary garlic french fries. The Spotted Pig's shoestring french fries with fried rosemary and garlic chips will definitely make your heart go pitter -patter, pitter-patter. Unfortunately, they may also make your heart go phut, phut, phut, eeeeee-arrrrrr- kerplunk because they are basically just a whole lotta oil with a little starch. Over the years, I've tinkered around with my own recipe and I think I've devised a delicious and healthy (well, healthIER) alternative to the Spotted Pig french fries. Baked fries using nutritious red potatoes with loads of garlic and rosemary!! Enjoy!
Lately, I have been looking for new family meals that my entire family will enjoy, including my southern husband and my picky toddler. This recipe was derived from the southern ham and beans recipe but I added my northern twist to it making the beans with ketchup, mustard and brown sugar to give them more of baked bean flavor. The skillet cornbread is a MUST with this recipe because the juice from the beans is so yummy and flavorful that you have to have something to mop up all that goodness. Over the next couple of months, I will be sharing many of my original family/ toddler friendly meals with you. So please stay tuned!
I've been looking for a way to get my picky one and half year old to eat a healthy breakfast that isn't limited to cheerios and apple juice. She likes oatmeal but god forbid you try and take away an iota of autonomy from her by *gasp* spoon feeding it to her. I have tried baking some of the oatmeal breakfast bars for babies I've seen online, but they are bit too crumbly and mushy and the taste is rather bland. Cookies are pretty much a sure fire way to get any kid to eat so I came up with these low sugar oatmeal raisin cookies that look and taste like the real thing but are actually just a bowl of oatmeal dressed up in a cute little cookie outfit. Even my cookie monster couldn't tell the difference and we had a very peaceful breakfast this morning sans the force feeding, screaming and food throwing.
Read MoreLately I've been craving savory baked goods for breakfast, or lunch, or an afternoon snack, or a morning snack or a late night snack.... well you get my point... I'm craving melty cheese and salty ham wrapped up in a buttery biscuit like a Martha Stewart craves hospital corners.
Read MoreEver since I discovered that Ruby loves cheese crackers, I have been researching recipes for homemade cheese crackers. I found this recipe for Carrot Sticks from the fantastic website Weelicious. I modified the recipe by adding more cheese and salt and incorporating paprika which created a cheese cracker with the healthy bonus of carrots and a good amount of cheesy flavor.
Read MoreWell, it's still colder than a witch's titty in brass bra (according to my husband) outside and I'm getting a little tired of being cooped up indoors all the time. I did venture outside on Saturday with my husband and daughter for some sledding and a hike in the woods. And, though it was nice to get some fresh air and say hello to the trees, I could only stand to be out there for about an hour. After we came back in and got the fire going I was ready for a warm wintery baked good to nibble on. This recipe was concocted from the ingredients I had in my cupboard because I was too lazy to drive to the store. Still, they are some of the best scones I've ever eaten. My husband and daughter loved them so much that they were gone by the end of the day and I had to exclaim that a delicious baked good is here today, but scone tomorrow ; )
Read MoreAre you looking for an incredibly original way to surprise your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day? Why not find your way into their heart through their stomach, or, in this case, put a heart in their stomach! I used a simple german pancake recipe and two heart shaped cake tins to make this delicious Valentine for my husband and my daughter. The recipe is very, very easy and it is actually a very healthy, protein heavy breakfast because each serving has 3 eggs, 1/2 cup milk and only 1/2 cup flour. I have substituted with whole wheat flour before and it turned out scrumptious and healthy.
Read MoreThis recipe was handed down to me from my mother who got the recipe from her mother, Irene Colucci. Irene Colucci immigrated to western Pennsylvania from Naples, Italy when she was just a child. Irene (Grandma to me) would always have the ingredients for Italian Wedding Soup on hand so that she was always ready for unexpected visitors. I find it so heart warming that she would have such a beautiful dish ready to feed a hungry visitor. Recently, during Hurricane Sandy, I found myself needing to feed some displaced neighbors who were eating meals at our home because they were without power. Miraculously, I had all the ingredients to make Grandma Colucci’s wedding soup! I felt I was channeling her spirit that day as I prepared and served my friends. I hope you can make this soup for friends or unexpected visitors and warm some bellies and hearts this cold winter.
Read More
