Homemade Spinach Basil Pesto (Nut Free!)

I like to sneak veggies in anywhere I can. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes I have to get a little creative. One of my favorite easy recipes is Spinach Basil Pesto. This time of year Basil is easy to come by, so I get a few plants, and make a batch to keep in the freezer. Before we started our "real food lifestyle" easy mac was my go to food on my lazy mom nights. Now, I just add some Pesto from the freezer to whole wheat pasta, and my boys are happy! They have no idea they are eating spinach either. I'm not gonna tell.
I've also used this as a base for homemade pizza, rather than tomato sauce. Now, the hubby and I prefer it!
This recipe is so easy to throw together in the blender, and have fresh pesto sauce in minutes. You can use some right then, and then freeze the rest in ice cube trays for later!

So grab the blender, an empty ice cube tray, and go!
Ingredients:
4 cups fresh spinach leaves

2 cups fresh basil

1/4 cup parmesan blend

2 cloves minced garlic

1/2 cup Olive oil

1 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Pepper

Place all ingredients in Blender (I use my Ninja), and blend until all the leaves are finely chopped. This only takes a minute or so.

 Once it is the right consistency, you can spoon it out into ice cube trays. Place in freezer, and leave until its fully frozen. Usually I just leave it overnight.

Once it is set, you can place the individual "Pesto cubes" into a ziploc freezer bag. These usually keep for about 6 months in the freezer. 

When I make pasta for the kids, I typically add two cubes to boiled, drained whole wheat pasta. You can dress it up with some fresh tomato, and even add some diced chicken for a big kid meal! ~ C

Chipotle Black Bean Mango Salad

Lately I have been wanting Southwestern flavors non-stop, so I have been testing all kinds of new Mexican and Southwestern recipes to satisfy the craving. In my hunt I stumbled across this super tasty burrito bowl recipe from Damn Delicious. It is so tasty and a great substitute for my favorite Burrito Bowl from Chipotle, but it's a little heavy to eat as frequently as I want. I really liked the flavor combination and could seriously have eaten her burrito bowl everyday for lunch, so I have been tweaking her recipe and I finally came up with the perfect vegetarian salad I can eat for lunch everyday guilt-free. Here is my newest food obsession -

Chipotle Black Bean Mango Salad

Salad Ingredients: 

2-3 cups chopped lettuce of your choice, washed (I like red leaf or romaine)

1/2 cup black beans, rinsed

1 medium tomato, chopped

1/4 cup chopped mango

1/2 avocado, chopped

1/4 cup yellow or orange bell pepper, chopped (optional)

Cilantro for garnish, to taste (I'm a little heavy-handed with the cilantro as you can see)

Dressing Ingredients: 

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream

1/4 cup salsa of your choice (I like to use a fresh salsa)

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

1/8-1/4 tsp ground Chipotle pepper - more if you like it extra smoky (I use Penzey's) 

I'm heavy-handed with the Chipotle because I can't get enough of the smoky flavor. 

Instructions: 

In a salad bowl, layer the lettuce, black beans, tomato, mango, avocado, and bell pepper (if using). In a small bowl, stir Greek yogurt (or sour cream), salsa, lime juice, and ground Chipotle seasoning together until well blended. Pour the dressing over the layered salad, add cilantro, and toss ingredients until combined and coated with dressing. Enjoy! 

Because we all know I love my gadgetry, I just had to add a little plug for the value of a mango slicer. If you haven't invested in a mango slicer yet, you seriously should! I picked one up for $0.60 at St. Vinny's a few months ago, and we have eaten more mango in the past few months than I think I have in my whole life. It is SOOO handy; I just put it over the stem, press down, and voila - 2 perfect halves of edible mango. After it's cut, I just scoop the fruit out with a spoon, just like an avocado. Here's a photo from today (because I was, of course, making this salad for probably the sixth time in 2 weeks). 

Perfectly Sliced Mango!!

Grain Free Cauliflower Pizza Casserole!

I came across a pin of a healthy "Pizza Casserole" on Pinterest,  but could never find an actual recipe for it. (Isn't that the most annoying thing ever? Why pin it if you're not going to tell us how to make it??) Ok, rant over... It looked like it wasn't that difficult, so I threw this together for supper tonight, and was very pleased with the simplicity of it. The best part is that my boys are eating their veggies, without even realizing it!
--C

Ingredients:
4 cups cooked cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces.
1 cup freshly shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup of your favorite marinara or pizza sauce
Toppings of choice. I used Boars Head Pepperoni

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl mix the cooked cauliflower, marinara and 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese.
Pour into a 2.8 liter (3 quart) casserole dish.
Top with remaining cheese and any additional toppings.
Bake uncovered for approximately 20-25 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Creamy Spinach "Alfredo" Chicken Sausage

I have been thinking about making this all day. It's cold, and I want some creamy comfort food! Trying to accomplish creamy, and stick to real food can have it's challenges. But, I was on a mission, and I was determined to be successful!! And, I was! This turned out exactly how I pictured it would! It was pretty easy, and didn't take too long to make, even though I had several things cooking at one time. You could easily add more seasonings to the sauce, according to your tastes. I probably will next time, but this time I was focused on creaminess! (Is that a word?)
Yum, just yum!!!

Ingredients:

1 box (13.25 oz) cooked pasta of choice. I used 100% Whole Wheat
8 oz block of shredded white sharp cheddar
1 cup fresh or frozen spinach (I buy the bagged frozen so I can use as little as I want to)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp tapioca powder/flour (you can sub corn starch or arrowroot powder)
1 1/4 cup plus 3 tsp milk of choice (I used unsweetened almond milk)
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 package of Bilinski's Organic Spinach & Feta Chicken Sausage** (or sub meat of choice)



For the Meat:
Just heat and slice! I heated in a skillet while everything else was cooking.
For the Pasta: 
Boil as you normally would, then drain and place in a medium bowl that you can add the rest of the ingredients to as they get done.
For the Spinach:
While you have your pasta boiling, heat the olive oil in a skillet then add the minced garlic. When it is just starting to look toasted, add your spinach and saute until it is done. Add to the cooked pasta.
For the sauce:
Combine the 1 1/4 cup milk, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a small saucepan on low heat. While that is heating, have your shredded cheese close by. In a small bowl combine the 3 tsp milk and tapioca flour and mix until all the lumps are out and it forms a paste.
When your milk is heated, slowly add the cheese, stirring constantly to help it to melt and to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once you have all the cheese melted, add the tapioca paste and continue to stir over the heat until you reach a creamy consistency. This should only take a few short minutes. If you do not think it is thick enough, you can make another paste 1 tsp at a time, equal parts tapioca powder and milk.
Once you get the creamy texture you are looking for, pour it over your cooked pasta and spinach.
Add the meat, and stir.
That's it, you are ready to eat it up!

**Here is the Sausage I found at our local Harris Teeter. For a sausage, it has a pretty minimal ingredient list. It also tastes fantastic!!

Chipotle Black Bean & Sweet Potato Vegetarian Stew

I put this recipe together the other night while trying to figure out something to do with the dozens of sweet potatoes we keep getting from our vegetable CSA. I think my whole family is a little burned out on chili, so I decided to skip the meat and serve this one-pot meal over rice. 

You could easily add chicken, ground beef, or andouille to this one to change up the flavor. If you do, just brown it, cut it up, and mix it in when you add the chicken stock.

Chipotle Black Bean & Sweet Potato Vegetarian Stew

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 large sweet potatoes, cubed
3 medium carrots, chopped
¼ - ½ red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cans black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 chipotle in adobo, finely chopped (add a tbsp of the adobo sauce for smokier flavor)
1 tsp chili powder
1 ½ tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried parsley
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup vegetable stock (or any stock for non-vegetarian)
sour cream (omit for vegan) & prepared rice for serving 

Instructions:
In Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat. Once oil is heated, add cubed sweet potatoes, chopped carrots, and red onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 8-10 minutes, or until vegetables are slightly softened. Add minced garlic, and continue cooking, stirring continuously, for 30 seconds – 1 minute. Add rest of ingredients through salt & pepper, stirring to combine. Add stock, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Continue simmering for 20 minutes, or until vegetables are completely softened and liquid has reduced. Serve over prepared rice, and top with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt. 

Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken Taco Bowls

Time to redefine Taco Night! This dish is easy, and can cook while you work, making dinner prep a breeze! 

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless skinless thighs1 Can Rotel tomatoes 1 cup shredded zucchini (hidden veggies!!)***1 tablespoon chili powder

½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon paprika
1½ teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Lime Juice, squeezed from 2 limes

8 oz shredded Monterey Jack cheese ( or white cheddar)

1/2 bunch cilantro

2 cups cooked quinoa (1 cup dry + 2 cups water or broth)

Place chicken in slow cooker (I throw it in frozen) and top with Rotel, seasonings, and lime juice. 

Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. About an hour before serving, add the cilantro and zucchini and shred the chicken with a fork to mix it all well. 

Prepare your quinoa, and shred the cheese. Serve with quinoa at the bottom, top with chicken, then top with cheese! Enjoy!! 

*** You could always add corn or black beans, too! We don't eat either due to food allergies, but they would be a great addition if you like them!  

adapted from: http://www.budgetbytes.com/2011/07/taco-chicken-bowls/

Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Chili- kid friendly!

It is Chili season in North Carolina! Cooler temps mean it's time to break out the Crock Pot and let it do all the work for me. I love chili this time of year!

My 3 year old has a bean/pea allergy so we avoid all legumes and lentils. I came across a recipe for sweet potato chili last year, and tried it, but omitted the beans the recipe called for. I've made it several times since then, tweaking the recipe a little each time. I finally got the perfect chili that we will all eat. 

Try it, you will not be disappointed! The sweet potato is the perfect bean replacement, but still gives you a similar texture. I actually double this recipe in my large Crock Pot so I have extra for the freezer.  --C

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground (beef, venison, turkey, chicken)

2-3 sweet potato, peeled and diced into cubes

1- 15oz can of organic diced tomatoes

1- 8oz can organic tomato sauce

1 Homemade Chili seasoning recipe (below)

Chili Seasoning*:

1 TBSP Chili Powder

1.5  TBSP minced onion

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp ground pepper

Instructions:

Line your slow cooker with a liner to reduce clean up, if desired. (Totally worth the money to get these!)

Put meat in bottom of cooker (I put it in frozen, no need to thaw ahead of time!)

Top meat with seasoning, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and diced sweet potatoes. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. 

About an hour before eating, take a spoon and mix everything well, making sure to crumble the meat.

**I don’t add cayenne pepper to my chili seasoning, because my hubby and kids don’t like spicy foods. If you do want it spicy, add ¼ tsp cayenne, or more to taste.  I usually just sprinkle a little on the top of mine and then mix it up!

Sweet Potato & Ground Bison Sloppy Joes Recipe

Sloppy Joes are such an easy, quick, and kid-friendly weeknight dinner. While I always have these great aspirations to try something new with ground meat, 9 out of 10 times I come back to Sloppy Joes. ... and why wouldn't I? I know that they are nearly impossible to screw up even when left unattended for 15 minutes while I change a diaper or break up a fight, and  I know my kids will actually eat them, which is most often not the case for dinner at our house these days. 

I like to change them up by adding different root veggies or beans to the mixture. Not only does it add a little fiber and another veg to their plates, it also stretches the meat a little further. 

We currently have a whole bunch of sweet potatoes from our CSA farm share (read about what a CSA is here), so I took some inspiration from a Martha Stewart recipe and 100 Days of Real Food recipe to come up with this fantastic new Sloppy Joe recipe. This is my first time making "Real Food" rules approved Sloppy Joes and I will definitely be using this recipe from now on. 

Note: We like our Sloppy Joes to have a smoky flavor with a hint of heat; if you prefer a sweeter mix, you'll want to cut the amount of chili powder and cumin used. 

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium sweet potato, chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped (OR ½ small onion & 1 clove garlic, finely chopped)
1 pound ground bison (or any ground meat)
1 14.5 oz. can tomato sauce (no sugar added)
1 tablespoon honey
1½ teaspoons chili powder
1½ teaspoons cumin
Dash of cinnamon
salt & pepper

Directions

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add sweet potato, cook for about 3 minutes. Add shallot, and continue cooking until both sweet potato and shallot soften, 2-3 minutes.

Add ground meat to skillet and brown until no pink visible, breaking up meat with wooden spoon while it cooks. Season with salt & pepper.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together tomato sauce, honey, chili powder, cumin, and cinnamon. 

Add sauce to browned meat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer for   5-10 minutes until most liquid has evaporated and mixture has thickened. 

Serve Sloppy Joes on whole wheat buns. 

*Adapted from 100 Days of Real Food Turkey Sloppy Joes & Martha Stewart's Turkey Sloppy Joes.*

20 Minute Tomato Soup Recipe

Every year when the temperatures start to drop as summer turns to fall I get excited because I know "Soup Season" is upon us once more. Starting in mid-September there is rarely a week that goes by where I don't make soup or chili. This week is no exception.

A few days ago I found myself staring blankly into the refrigerator trying to figure out what to feed the kids for lunch, yet again. Since we've made the switch to minimally processed and unrefined food in our house, lunchtime seems to be a much bigger conundrum than it used to be. My kids used to eat PB&J 5 days/week, and while I still feed them PB&J regularly it's not as mindless as it used to be. We no longer get our bread from our grocery store shelf, instead D makes it from scratch. 

For some reason, the added effort that goes into the homemade bread makes me think twice about using it for PB&J; it's as if I feel like homemade bread deserves something a bit more extravagant than PB&J. So with that in mind, I decided to make the girls grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for lunch. Seeing as I had two hungry girls waiting for lunch, I did a Google search for "quick tomato soup" and came up with this Rachel Ray recipe. I doubted that I could make a decent tomato soup in 20 minutes, but after a few modifications and a short 15 minute simmer, I had a tasty tomato soup that both girls gobbled up. Here's the recipe:

20 Minute Tomato Soup

Ingredients
32 ounces chicken broth (use vegetable broth to make vegetarian)
1-14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1-14.5 oz can tomato sauce (no added sugar preferred)
1 cup whole milk
1/2-1 Tbsp Penzeys "Pasta Sprinkle" or a combination of basil, oregano, thyme, and garlic
Salt & Pepper to taste

DirectionsPulse diced tomatoes in food processor for approximately 15 seconds (OR you can skip this step and use the immersion blender before serving). Combine chicken broth, diced tomatoes, and tomato sauce in Dutch oven over medium heat. Bring to a slow boil, add milk and spices. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with grilled cheese or crusty bread. 

**Also, can I just say how awesome Penzeys Spices is? We're fortunate enough to live in Wisconsin and have access to a brick and mortar store, but even if you don't, you should definitely check out their website or catalog. You will be hard-pressed to find a better selection of quality spices and knowledgeable employees anywhere.** 

Modified from Food Network's "Quick Creamy Tomato Soup"