Need A Healthy Breakfast???

I know how hard breakfasts can be, all I want to do is just try to get these kiddos fed before we have a meltdown because every morning they are according to them “absolutely starving!”  Often times HEALTHY is the last thing you have time to focus on so I’ve got a nice yummy and best of all… quick smoothie/juice recipe to share with you.

The best part about this one is……

It only takes FOUR ingredients…. yep, you read that right!! So say goodbye to boxed pastry breakfasts or frozen things that resemble something like a waffle and say hello to a yummy, healthy and also really cool colorful breakfast! When you start your morning with this smoothie you will also feel so much better by giving your body the nutrients it needs!!

For starters lets see what you need:

• 1/2 C. spinach
• 1 green apple (I choose granny smith)
• 1 inch cube of fresh peeled ginger
• 1/2 cup of water ***or ice

*** If you freeze the spinach and green apple then you add water instead of ice.

Here’s what I did when I first made it, add all your ingredients into the blender and blend away.

and blend away, blend until you get the consistency you are looking for, for me that consistency resembles as close to juice as I can get it.

This is mid-way through blending, doesn’t it look so yummy!

I LOVE the green color. You could also obviously use a juicer for this but, I really hate losing all the nutrients that get left out when you use a juicer.

Next, all you need to do is serve and enjoy!

I could be wrong but I think it tastes even better when you drink it out of a mason jar! 😉

For this one I didn’t freeze the spinach and apple, and to me the ice didn’t make it cold enough so I still chilled it for a bit, but, now I’ll share another tip of what I did to make it even better and to save you even more time on your busy mornings.

I just took the time to make individual “smoothie bags” I peeled and sliced my ginger, cubed the apple and added all the measured ingredients except for the water to its own little bag and stuck it in the freezer, so all you have to do in the morning is grab out a bag and stick it straight in the blender, and this time no chilling was needed!! Yay!!

I found that since I had full bags of spinach and apples I needed to go through that an assembly line was very effective, I just added one ingredient to all the bags at a time. To make about 14 smoothie bags took me about 10 minutes so it really wasn’t a big deal to get them all ready at once. Be sure to label your smoothie bags to remind yourself to add the water to them when it’s time to blend. I do recommend adding the water in last but only add it in small amounts at a time as the rest is blending, if you don’t you have to keep on taking the lid off and trying to shove the food down to the blades over and over again (that part of trial and error wasn’t too fun).

I hope you enjoy this recipe and I can’t wait to try some others soon. What’s your favorite smoothie recipe? Share it in the comments below!!

I Love My Crock-Pot!!

No joke, I absolutely LOVE my crock-pot.  It makes dinner time so super easy sometimes, I love knowing that I can toss in a few ingredients mix it up, and by the time it’s time to eat we have a wonderful delicious meal that I pretty much had to do nothing to make.

I thought I would share a few recipes I have with you I have already shared my potato soup recipe with you and you can find that one here:     https://resourcefulhomeschoolmom.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/new-recipe/                                        But, here are a few more I have to share with you.  One of my favorites would have to be chicken with cream of chicken soup and yes, it’s as simple as it sounds you just take several pieces of chicken (as many as you need for your family),  a can of cream of chicken soup (I use the large cans), and enough water to completely cover the chicken stir and set for whatever time you want your food to be done usually I do it on high for 4-6 hours.  The soup and water will basically make a gravy for your chicken, and I always serve this with brown rice and pour the gravy on the rice and steam some veggies for the side, the chicken just falls apart and is super moist.  You can also make this with cream of mushroom soup I just don’t add as much water to the soup.  Tip: once you’re done with the meal, save the gravy and freeze it to use for another meal later.

Another yummy one, take a whole young chicken (will also work with boneless, skinless), cover with water add vegetables (celery, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, etc.) and add either egg noodles or rice for a yummy chicken soup.  Again, you can cook this one high 4-6 hours or if you want cook it on low for 8-10.  I left the skin on the chicken and pulled it out whole set it on a platter and removed the skin and then removed the meat from the bone, I found that when I leave the skin on during cooking it just helps hold it together better and makes it easier to remove at the end of cooking.

Then I have my delicious french dip with au jus sandwiches, just get any type of roast I’ve used all different types, add in a container of beef broth cook on high 4-6 hours or low for 8-10 hours then once it’s done take a cup or two of the broth and add a small amount of worchestechire sauce just a tsp. or two and mix well, there’s your au jus.  Pull apart the meat, and put into a french bread roll (I used whole wheat).  Top with swiss cheese and enjoy.  Serve with a salad or other vegetables on the side.

Last but not least hearty beef stew, you can either buy stew beef already cut up for you or get a bottom roast and cube it up yourself then chop up all your vegetables (carrots, celery, red potatoes, onions) and add them in now as far as the gravy and the seasonings you can do one of two things, nine times out of ten I usually take the extremely easy route with this one and buy seasoning pack specifically for crock-pot beef stew or you can make a mixture of beef broth with flour and add in your favorite herbs and meat spices.

There are a few I’m wanting to try but haven’t had the chance to yet are meatloaf and lasagna.  Do you like cooking in your crock-pot?  What are your favorite recipes have any to share, I love trying new ones comment below and let me know what they are so I can enjoy them too!

New Recipe

Here is a simple recipe we have mostly on busy days.  I love pulling out my crock-pot taking a few minutes to throw something in and knowing that when dinner time rolls around, everything will be done and we can enjoy a nice hot dinner without having to do the hard work.

Now, this meal is probably not the most healthy, but it is very yummy and we do occasionally have it.  This one I’m going to share with you is potato soup and it’s pretty much one of the easiest meals I know to make if you don’t mind peeling and dicing potatoes.

For us, I always make extra so we can have more to eat the next day at lunch which makes for an easy lunchtime meal too.  I haven’t tried freezing it yet, I’m kind of worried about freezing cooked potatoes I did that a long time ago and they just didn’t have a good texture so I haven’t tried it with the soup yet, but if you try this and freeze the leftovers let me know how they turn out it would be nice if it does work.

But all you do is take 7 medium russet potatoes, peel and dice them into cubes, you then add some chicken broth or stock and some water (I usually add about 8 cups of water and then add in 8 chicken bouillon cubes).  Then, add in your garlic, we LOVE garlic around here, so I add several cloves, but it’s just personal preference, if you don’t like it then don’t add as much.  You can also add onions, I just do the onion powder to get the flavor since some of my family members don’t like the texture of onion but if you’re like me and love onions then add about 1/2 to 1 medium white onion.  All you do after that is cut it on I usually cook it for 4 hours but again, it just depends on how long you want it to cook, if you start it really early in the morning then cook it on low for 8 to 10 hours.

Once it’s done and you’re ready to dig in just add some milk again, it doesn’t have to be a certain measurement of milk it’s just to your preferred taste, I usually add about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of milk to this.  Serve with some yummy add-ins like bacon, chives, or cheese and enjoy!

Do you have a favorite crock-pot recipe that you go to for busy days?  If so, share it.

Is there any recipe you would like, just comment and let me know and if I make it, I’ll share it with you.

Super EASY recipe

So, last night I was totally unprepared for dinner and didn’t have very long before the kids HAD to be fed, since they have to eat every night I figured I better start looking in the pantry for ideas because again I was unprepared and didn’t follow my meal plan for the week so I was left with “nothing” to make so I thought.  Earlier in the week I had thought of making enchiladas so I had bought wheat tortillas, salsa, and a few other ingredients but somehow throughout this crazy busy week the tortillas were gone and so was the cheddar cheese, so no enchiladas but I did still have the salsa and some black beans and I also had corn so what did I do I was totally lazy about it, I took out my casserole dish sliced up some chicken and simply poured some salsa, corn, and black beans over it and voila dinner!! It was so yummy we all loved it and it will for sure be made again. So here’s the recipe:

 

Easy Santa Fe Chicken

2 large chicken breasts sliced

1 can black beans (drained)

2 cans low sodium corn (drained) or 1 bag of frozen corn

1 jar chunky salsa (or make your own)

8 oz. mozzarella cheese (or you can use cheddar)

preheat oven to 375, place chicken in the bottom of casserole dish, pour beans, corn, and salsa over top of the chicken, stir then top with cheese cook for 30 minutes and it’s done! Easy isn’t it.  Serve over brown rice.