Meatless Monday: One Pot Meal

This is a meal I have made a couple of times. It started when I saw those one pot meals on Pintrest. I read the directions and I was like I can make this. I walking into my kitchen and I didn’t have all the ingredients needed so I just used what I had.

white onion was already in the pan cooking.

Now I have fine tuned it to how my family likes it. This is a hearty and warm dish; I really like to make it on chillier days here at home.

Let’s get cooking

First a use the biggest sauté pan I have add a little oil or cooking spray whatever you like to use. I use about ¼ of a white onion and start to brown it.

Once that is going I get 4 and a half cups of cold water. Once the onions are nice and translucent I add 4 cups of water over medium heat. Then add 1 and ½ cups of tomato sauce. Stir and add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and let that sit until the tomato paste is starting to dissolve. Now you can add 2 tablespoons of bouillon (I used chicken flavor but you can use what you have or veggie flavor).  At that point go a head and add your pasta and make sure that it is fully by the liquids.

 I now start getting the tofu drained and cut it up into little cubes. I use extra firm tofu but have used silken before. We prefer the extra firm for this meal. Now the soup will have started to thicken and I use the last ½ cup of water.

 Stir it good at this point. I used about 4 cups of spinach leaves for this because we really love it with it. It gives this meal such a great color and flavor. You can adjust it to what you like. I quickly run my knife thru the leaves and toss them in with the rest of it give it a few more good stirs cover it  an let it cook for a good 20 minutes.

 I serve it up with some Parmesan bread and start eating.

 Hope you enjoy another meal less meal. 

Meatless Monday Recipes

So excited to share one of my all time favorite meals calabasitas. I got it from my momma!

Mom your welcome for this picture of us drinking it up on NYE 2013!

 My mom made this dish all the time as we were growing up and I am a huge fan. This meal is super tasty and how I got Davis to start eating more veggies. It doesn't have any meat it's mostly all veggies and 2 tablespoons of Chicken bouillon which could easily be replaced by veggie bouillon. I use 4 zucchini, 1/2 of a small white or red onion, 1 roma tomato, 1/2 a jalapeno and 1/2 bag of frozen organic corn. The corn could be canned or even fresh but all I had was frozen so that's what we used.

First you want to cut up the zucchini, onion,tomato and jalapeno. Get a medium sized pan and add a tiny bit of butter or cooking spray maybe half a tablespoon over medium heat. Toss in the zucchini, onions, tomatoes, and corn. I always add the jalapenos once everything else is cooked because I don't want Charles eating any quite yet. I add 4 ounces of water and 2 tablespoons of the chicken bouillon to it and let it cook for roughly 20 minutes . When the zucchini is soft and a little translucent I take a little out for the baby and toss in the jalapenos leave it for 3 minutes and it's ready to eat. We usually top it off with some queso fresco or mozzarella you can eat it alone or with some tortillas. This can be used as a side dish or the main dish and served with veggie beans and some brown rice or quinoa.

I hope you enjoy my 1st Meatless Monday Recipe and here is to many more.

 P.S. Monday's are my favorite days of the week. We get to start a whole new week! What is your favorite day of the week and why?

Pepermint Chocolate Shakeology

Doesn't it feel like Christmas! To some people like my husband it's not the holidays until he's had some eggnog. For me it's all things peppermint. I love it. Borderline obsession. I want to use peppermint everything during this time of year. I happened to have some peppermint bark lying around the house. Meaning I totally went out of my way to pick some up while we were grocery shopping =). So I thought I would share my recipe with you.

I used 1/2 of the candy cane, 2 Ghiraradelli peppermint bark squares and chocolate Shakeology and some almond milk.

1. I took my half candy cane and put it in my ninja food processor to break it into tiny pieces. 

 Then I added 8 ounces of almond milk, 1 scoop of shakeology gave it a quick spin then added some ice cubes (4-5 cubes) and the chocolate squares finished blending it. Serve it up hopefully in your Shakeology cup or in a cute mason jar with a festive straw. I have been lacking in the festive straws I am still using my these.

 

It's not Christmas till???  What makes your holidays? I would love to know.

Mandarin Orange Chrispy Ckick'n

This is on our current must have dinner menu. We only discovered it recently and let me tell you we are totally obsessed with this meal. It's simple and easy to put together. We have had it like 10 times in the past month it's that good. 

First cook the chick'n per the instructions you will need a little oil to get it going. While that is cooking thaw the sauce it comes in the packet. Then put your veggies in the microwave with that's all going. Once they are ready and your chick'n has browned added it to your pan. Mix it all together and add the sauce to it. Make sure the sauce is fully coating all the food. Serve over rice and add the sriracha sauce and your all set for a delicious meal.

Here is the best part of the meal.

Green Chile Enchiladas

I love green chile enchiladas the are so easy to make and super simple to put together. I made them as a dish for Charles 1st Birthday party. They were a huge hit but those were made with shrimp. For a easier way to incorporate it to your menu I used chicken.

Preheat oven to 350° Once your chicken breast are cooked, cooled, and shredded.

I take about 6 of the tortillas and wrap them in paper towels and put them in the microwave I find that this prevents them from breaking. While they are warming up I layer a coat of the sauce on your baking dish. Once the tortillas are out I start my assembly line. Add your chicken to the tortilla and the tuck in the sides. Place it seam down in to your dish. Repeat over and over until your done. Once you have your whole dish full with one row you top it more enchilada sauce.

 Here you can choose to added a second layer of enchiladas for more of a casserole or just get another dish and do single layers. Top it off with your cheese, cover with foil. Then place in the oven for 15-20 minutes and your ready to eat.

 We pair our enchiladas with brown rice salsa and a couple of slices of avocado. & Being me I added some sauce to my rice. Cause I am awesome like that.

Do you use store bought or make your own enchilada sauce? I tried so many recipes and can sauces and I finally found my favorite will you share yours.

Spicy Salmon Bake

How is it tuesday already? No seriously, Thanksgiving is two days away. We don't go out to eat because 1. I love to cook. 2. It's was cheaper. That said I have an awesome dinner idea for a baked spicy salmon.

Top it off with fresh ground black pepper. Serve it up with a side salad and corn tortillas and enjoy.

Baby Meals

I am always on the search for new meal ideas for Charles. He is not a picky eat so it's not to hard to feed him. But coming up with meals is not always easy so I thought I would put together a few of his meals and hopefully inspire you to try some of these with your little ones. Charles loves sweet potatoes he has them a few times a week. I bake them on my meal prep days and just have them ready to go. I use them for his breakfast our current family favorite is Turkey bacon, sweet potatoes, eggs and a little bit of cheddar all scrambled together and stuffed in a corn tortilla.Recipe is adapted from Schue love  It's awesome. I always put a little homemade salsa on it and  inhale it. On and there is Pediasure in his cups. Per his G.I. we are trying to get him to gain weight. That will be on another post about our struggles with his weight.

Ezequiel Cinnamon Raisin, Peanut butter, and peaches.

Eggs with Spinach, Ezequiel bread, Kashi Warm Cinnamon cereal, Apple sauce.

Sweet potatoes with turkey bacon, eggs and cheddar, and Apple sauce. 

Chicken Del Sol over brown rice, peaches with pineapples.

Gardein Mandarin Chick'n I added veggies, and served it with brown rice.

Campanella pasta with spinach, Cantaloupe, Sweet potato, Apple sauce and Simply Cheetos Puff's 

He is a lean and tall baby, but don't let his size fool you he can chow down like the best of them. Hope this gives you a few ideas on what to feed your little ones.

Homemade Salsa

This is a super easy homemade salsa I always have this in our fridge. It's only 3 ingredients and water. It's packed with flavor and super easy.

 You will need 4-5 roma tomatoes, 6-8 jalapenos depending on how spicy you want it. Water and a little garlic salt. I wash the tomatoes and jalapenos and get a pot. fill the pot with water over tomatoes and jalapenos. Cook it on medium high for about 25 minutes or until soft. Then carefully put the tomatoes and jalapenos it in a blender and add a few scoops of the water that they cooked in. Blend it up until you get the consistency that you prefer I do it for 45 seconds with my ninja blender. Pour it into a heat resistant dish add garlic salt to taste and enjoy.

D.I.Y. Body Scrub

Hi my name is Gabby,I had a baby and got stretchmarks. Well to be fair I had some prior to baby. I tried my hardest to always put on belly lotion while I was pregnant.But  I  still got a few from Charles and then more from the tugging on my skin from the C-section. I have been using oils and lotions to help the appearance of my stretchmarks but by far the best thing I have done is this body scrub. It's a combination of things that I had at home and mixed them up and started using it in the shower. I interned with a skin specialist moons ago and I took inspiration from there. This is the recipe I have used I use what I have but I'm sure you can substitute for what you have on hand. First off I go to Starbucks inside of my local Target. No seriously that's were they lovely workers give me their ground up used coffee. Seriously and free. You can use it for your garden too. They always give me a huge bag. It's awesome. I then take about 4 cups if the coffee and put it in my mixer.

Then I gather the rest of my ingredients: Baby oil, Olive oil, Kosher salt, Turbinado Cane sugar, Vanilla extract (I used Imitation because that's all I had.) and you will need some jars and a measuring cup and measuring spoon.
I take about half a cup of kosher salt and a little over 1/3 of the cane sugar in the measuring cup and put it in the mixer.

Then add 2 tablespoons of  baby oil and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. I add the vanilla for the scent only just because I got strong grounds. and I only used a tablespoon. Then I mix it all up I have a Kitchen aid mix and use speed 2 I don't usually go any faster cause this could get messy. In about a minute it's done.

Then I scoop it out and place it in some old jars. I put one in the shower and the other two in the fridge so they don't go bad. The jars last about 2 weeks each depending on how much I use and how often. I always apply it on wet skin and in a circular motion for about 2 to 3 minutes on my stretchmarks. Then wash it off. When I'm out of the shower then I just put on lotion this scrub has really help me.

My finished body scrubs. Happy scrubbing.