Nonnie's All-Naturals

Just this weekend I learned about a great new start-up company owned by the sister of one of my good friends. Natalie is the mother to adorable little boy Talon who has some health issues that make it necessary for their family to eat gluten and dairy free and also to avoid many additives. She has created her own house cleaning products, 100% soy candles and has recently added a line of homemade, organic pie fillings to her inventory! I just placed an order for both her pear and apple pie fillings as well as a peach and ginger scented soy candle. Her prices are very reasonable at $5.00 for the pie fillings and $12 for the candles. I'm so excited to receive my order and bake up some pies while I burn my yummy scented candle!

Natalie just started a Facebook account for her company. Please visit Nonnie's All-Naturals to learn a little more about her company and message her if you'd like to place an order. 

Disclaimer: I have not received any free product from Nonnie's All-Naturals nor am I being compensated in any way for using the space on my blog to let you all know about her company. I'm just excited about this new company and thought I'd share the news and help a fellow mother get a start with her new business venture. Any opinions expressed are completely my own.

 Thanks for reading!

Yummy, HEALTHY Dessert - Pecan & Grape Yogurt Salad

I don't know about you, but I'm always on the lookout for dessert options for my family that are healthy and still delicious. While making dinner tonight I was munching on a few pecans I found in my pantry. I realized that if I chopped the nuts and combined them with some fresh grapes it might make a tasty combo. I tried it and it was! Then I got to thinking that I should try to make some kind of dessert using that combo. I've heard of similar desserts using a pudding or whipped topping type base that the nuts and fruit are stirred into. While that sounds delicious, I really wanted something healthier. I can't eat dairy or sugar right now, but my husband and son can and this dessert was really for their enjoyment so I decided to use some homemade, plain yogurt. I made this yogurt just last night from our raw cow's milk so it is really fresh and delicious! I also added a touch of real maple syrup to sweeten it up. I served it with dinner and both Josh and Evan loved it! They both had seconds. I guess that's a win!

Recipe

Ingredients:
Bunch of grapes
Pecans (or other nut), chopped
Plain yogurt
Maple syrup

The amounts of all the ingredients are based on  your taste so add as much or as little as you want. Remember that the amount of yogurt you use will determine how "soupy" the consistency of the dish will be so keep that in mind as you are determining how much you want to use.

Just mix everything together and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Asian Style Chicken with Pineapple Fried Rice

I'm making dinner tonight for a friend who recently had a baby. I remembered this last night at dinner. Today I looked in my freezer to see what was available and decided on chicken something. Yes, you heard that right. I had NO IDEA.

After a trip to the gym, lunch and then putting Evan down for his nap I got started. I knew I wanted to chop the chicken into chunks to make it cook faster so I started to work cutting the boneless, skinless breasts into one inch cubes. As I sliced I started to think about cooking the chicken in olive oil and Italian spices, but changed my mind when I realized that I had a pineapple that needed to be eaten. I quickly switched gears and decided to cook the chicken in Braggs liquid aminos (sort of tastes like soy sauce), with coconut oil, ginger, garlic, sliced onion and a bit of pepper. For the last 10 minutes of cooking I added some cubes of pineapple. I'm pairing this with rice cooked in water and pineapple juice, then sauteed with more pineapple and peppers in coconut oil and a dash of Braggs liquid aminos. Makes me wish we were having more than just leftovers for our own dinner tonight!

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed (I used three large breasts)
Onion, chopped or sliced
Fresh Ginger, about a 1 inch chunk from the root, peeled then pressed through a garlic press
Fresh Garlic, 3 cloves, put through a garlic press
Black Pepper, to taste
Braggs Liquid Aminos, to taste (I used appx. 1/2 cup)
Coconut Oil - 1 tbls, maybe a bit more if you like the coconut taste
Water
Pineapple cubes (as much as you like)

Throw everything but the coconut oil and pineapple in a baking dish and stir until the chicken is well coated with the spices and Braggs. Throw in the coconut oil in one spot. (It will melt after it heats up and disperse through the dish.) Add water so that it covers the chicken about halfway. Bake at 400 until done. In the last 10 minutes or so of cooking throw in the pineapple chunks and stir.

Pineapple Fried Rice

Brown Rice, cooked according to package but put a little pineapple juice in the water too (I pressed a few slices in a lemon press to get the juice out.)
Coconut oil
Pineapple chunks
Pepper chunks
Braggs Liquid Aminos
Black Pepper, to taste

Saute pineapple and sweet pepper chunks in coconut oil until they just start to soften. Add in rice, Braggs and pepper and saute until the rice is hot and everything is mixed. Easy!

Sorry, no pictures again. I'm in a rush to get my friends this meal so Evan and I are headed out the door with no time to stop for pictures.

Taco Crockpot Chicken Recipe

And I use the term "recipe" loosely... I rarely measure ingredients, but rather tend to throw a little of this, a dash of that into a pot and turn it into dinner. Hopefully that doesn't throw you off if try to copy a recipe. Just add the ingredients to your "taste" and it should turn out fine.

Taco Crockpot Chicken

Ingredients:
Chicken (Any type, but whatever you use boneless, skinless will be easiest) - I used boneless, skinless thighs.
Chili Powder
Minced Onion
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Cumin
Red Pepper Flakes
Oregano
Salt
Pepper
Water

Put the chicken in the bottom of the crockpot. Throw in the spices until you feel like there's enough flavor on the chicken. (I warned you!) Add water until it almost covers the chicken. Stir. Set the crockpot to cook on low for 6-8 hours or high if you have less time. (Not sure how long it will need on high so just make sure to check to be sure the meat is cooked before you dig in if you choose to use the high setting!)

When the chicken is done you can shred it (It practically falls apart anyway!) and put it on a salad or put it into taco or tortilla shells with other taco type toppings and enjoy! It's also great if you serve it with a little cilantro lime rice (just cook rice and then refry it with cilantro, lime juice and salt thrown in. Yum!)

I ate mine on salad with a little olive oil and lime juice as dressing and Josh had his on a tortilla with various toppings.

For Josh's lunch the next day I threw some of the chicken into a lidded dish with leftover rice, frozen corn, chopped onions, raw milk cheddar cheese, salsa and homemade plain yogurt (made with raw cow milk) instead of sour cream. He said it was tasty!

If you give this recipe a try I'd love to hear how it worked for you and what you thought. Oh, and feel free to ask me any questions you might have too.

I want to be a blogger...

But I'm so darn inconsistent with my posts!

My mom asked me to post my recipes that I usually create on the fly. I have a habit of telling her about them and rattle off the ingredients and instructions when she isn't in a position to write it all down. She suggested I post the recipes on my blog and she'll just copy my recipe the next day. Basically, we'll be eating the same menu, but she'll be one day behind me.

I'm not very good with meal plans... I like to have lots of ingredients on hand and create the meals at the last minute. Normally it works out fine, but every now and then it backfires on me and I don't feel like being creative. Then we eat out! (So I guess it doesn't really backfire. :) )

My next post (coming as soon as I can type it out) is a recipe for Taco Crockpot Chicken.

Stay tuned.

Why I Love Being a Mom of a Boy - Almost Wordless Wednesday

I get to discover things like this and it makes me smile.

Isn't my kid creative?

Better Late...

I just discovered the Stats tab on my dashboard! I know, I know... a little late to the game, but at least I found it! While clicking through the stats I discovered that my recipe for an alternative apple pie was one of the featured pies in this post over at www.godairyfree.org. How cool!

Curried Pasta Salad

I've always enjoyed cooking, but since I've been married I've really taken off with trying and even creating new recipes. I'm going to try to post recipes that I've tried and enjoyed on this blog (hopefully with pictures!). Some will be original recipes and some will be things I've seen or read that other people have created, but hopefully all will be delicious! (Otherwise, why would I bother writing about them?)

On Saturday evening I cooked an herb crusted roast (I'll post that recipe some other time.) for our dinner. It's a favorite for our little family and is always met with approval when I tell Josh what we'll be eating. (Makes me feel good that my husband loves my cooking so much!) Normally I bake potatoes in the oven at the same time the roast is cooking, but this time I forgot. Whoops! I looked through my pantry and refrigerator for a good starch option that wouldn't take an hour to cook and settled on pasta. I knew I wanted some kind of sauce to flavor the pasta, but wasn't really feeling a marinara sauce and we didn't have any white sauce in the house. We were completely out of butter (we don't eat it often) so making my own alfredo sauce wasn't an option. I remembered that I had half a tomato, a small chunk of cucumber and a half cup or so of leftover steamed peas in the refrigerator and decided to make a pasta salad. At first I planned to add olive oil and Italian spices to give  the salad a traditional pasta salad taste, but decided instead to spice things up and make it a curried pasta salad. It was a raging success! Josh loves it and has declared it one of my best recipes EVER! Win!

Here are the details if you'd like to try to make it yourself. It's super delicious and over all pretty healthy for you. If you are okay with eating pasta, that is.

Curried Pasta Salad

Wagon wheel pasta - I used half a box

1 medium onion, chopped small
Random veggie leftovers from your refrigerator - I used steamed peas, cucumber, mushrooms and tomato. Olives, zucchini, green beans or peppers would also be delicious additions!
Can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
3 Tbls. (roughly) Olive oil - next time I might try coconut oil
 1-2 Tbls. lemon juice - I probably used 1.5 Tbls.
Garlic powder - to taste
Onion powder - to taste
Curry powder - to taste
Salt and Pepper - to taste (Catching a pattern here?)


Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Transfer drained pasta to a large bowl and add the vegetables (Stop and celebrate that you've just saved a bunch of produce from going bad in your fridge and being dumped down the disposal.) and beans. Put the olive oil, lemon juice, and spices in a jar and shake until mixed. Then pour over the salad and stir until everything is coated in the dressing. At this point you can refrigerate the salad until you are ready to serve it or dish it up at room temperature. I've had it both ways and can honestly say that I enjoy it lukewarm or cold! It really is delicious any way you choose to eat it! Here's a picture to see if I can tempt your taste buds..

I know I'm not a food photographer. Please forgive the amateur picture. :)

Also, I rarely measure the ingredients in my recipes. I prefer to opt for the "Throw all the ingredients together until it looks and smells good" approach. Obviously I don't do this for baked goods, but for stove top recipes I'm all about winging it!

If you try this dish please comment back and let me know if you liked it and if you made any changes. I'd love to have some new ideas for ingredients to add and spice it up a bit more!

Resolutions - Yeah, sure....

I don't make New Year Resolutions. There, I said it. I prefer to recognize that a change needs to be made in my life and make the change right then. Why wait until January 1st? At the end of 2010 I started mulling over some changes that I felt I needed in my life and made the decision to dive in and make those changes. Coincidentally, the New Year, resolution time, was just about to happen so this year I guess I'm making resolutions. Sort of.

Here's a list of the changes I am striving to make in my life:

1. Spend less time online. (I've fallen into a habit of playing way too many games on Facebook and way to little time tending to my housework and other hobbies.)

2. Get to bed at a decent hour. (I'm a night owl, but I know it's not good for me.)

3. Eat better. Make healthier choices with the foods I put into my body. (I feel like I got off the healthy eating bandwagon about a year ago and I can definitely see the change in my health and weight. It's time to get serious again!)

4. Blog more often. (Part of me really wants to be a blogger. Another part of me doesn't want to bother. I want to give it a shot and see if I like it.)

5. Get in some kind of physical activity at least once a week. (Could be the gym, laps at the mall or a walk around my neighborhood if the sidewalks are cleared of ice.)

6. Try to get my handmade jewelry business off the ground and make a little money from the hobby I love.

7. Reconnect with my inner child and re-learn how to play with toys, pretend and imagine. (Evan is getting to the age where he really enjoys having someone play with his toys along with him. He tries to get me to play, but I get bored really quickly because I just can't get my imagination engaged like I did when I was a kid. This year I want to relearn how to have fun!)

There. Hopefully getting all of this typed out will keep me motivated to keep at these necessary changes until they become my new habits.