• Food

    Quick Dinners & Pantry Staples

    Now that school is in full swing, extracurriculars are consuming our lives, and germs are being passed around…quick dinners have become the norm around here.  I definitely love pouring my heart into preparing meals for friends and family, but most often I just don’t have the time or energy during the week to be very elaborate.  Healthy, yummy meals are still my top priority…but there are plenty of meals that can be prepared quickly and are still healthy. Quinoa, Jasmine rice, and various types of pasta are always in my pantry.  Quinoa bowls are a weekly occurrence in my house.  It is easy to cook and easy to flavor.  Some of my…

  • Food

    No Oats Oatmeal

    Growing up my dad would fix us oatmeal and he would add raisins, which he called flies.  While I wasn’t too fond of raisins growing up, I loved it when dad would add them and then tell us to make sure we ate all of the flies.  Now that I am an adult, I still love the old school oatmeal my dad makes, but my tastes have expanded.  I originally found this recipe here, but I’ve tweaked it a little.  I like to make this in advance, but not more than a few days.  The crispiness begins to change and the texture becomes funny.  I also like to top it with several variations. …

  • Food

    Loaded Roasted Cauliflower Bowl

    I just love potatoes!  Fried, mashed, baked, cubed, you name it…I’ll eat it.  BUT…potatoes are full of carbs.  While they are healthier carbs than that of white bread or a Snickers bar; they are still loaded with carbs.  Thus, potatoes must be eaten in moderation.  That’s where cauliflower comes in.  I’ve riced it, I’ve roasted it, I’ve steamed it, I’ve mashed it…there isn’t much I haven’t done with cauliflower in recipes.  This recipe though, I have to say was WAY better with the roasted cauliflower than with potatoes.  My mouth was so happy with these flavors that I was rather sad when the bowl was empty.  If you’d like to…

  • Food

    Beef Street Tacos

    First recipe of my meal planning series with shredded beef brisket cooked in the instapot.  These street tacos are addicting!  I had a hard time stopping myself at just 2 tacos…and I’m already looking forward to eating more tomorrow.  This recipe is super easy and quick after you’ve already roasted the beef brisket in the instapot.  Takes 30 minutes or less.  The original instapot beef brisket recipe is linked below. Beef Street Tacos ingredients: Shredded beef brisket, at least 2 cups (click for link to brisket recipe) 2-4oz diced green chilies 1 cup low sodium beef stock Street taco shells Mexican blend cheese Mango Pineapple Salsa Fresco directions: Place the…

  • Food

    Mango Pineapple Salsa Fresco

    Mr. Man would do just about anything for fresh pineapple.  If I have a fresh pineapple and need it for a recipe, I have to chop it up and prepare it before he knows what I’ve done.  Otherwise, it disappears faster than a fart in a fan factory.  So when I decided to refine my pineapple mango salsa recipe, I had to do it while he was at work.  Don’t worry, I shared the end results with him…and he loved it.  I loved it…no, cooking, a lot of chopping.  AND…it’s heart healthy, dairy-free, gluten-free, paleo, whole 30, vegetarian…you name it…well except keto.  This recipe is definitely now in our regular…

  • Food

    Shredded Beef Brisket

    Sometimes when I meal plan for a week, I like to make it as easy as possible.  Which means cooking a large amount of a protein and then divvying it up between several meals.  One of my favorites is to roast a beef brisket in my instapot.  Whenever I do this I make sure I roast enough protein to be able to use in at least 3 meals.  This last week we had a meal with brisket sliced up, roasted sweet potatoes, and fresh spinach and strawberry salad.  The next meal I made with the brisket is Loaded Cauliflower Bowls, and the last one was Beef Street Tacos.  I had…

  • Food

    Honey Garlic Shrimp with Quinoa

      I grew up on seafood, every summer we would trek to Oregon to visit grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  More often than not, we would spend some time on the coast, usually bouncing between Newport, Florence, and the sand dunes.  Grandpa Harold taught me how to fish, we would spend the whole week playing on the beach, fishing, catching crabs and clams.  I loved every minute of it.  Mr. Man, on the other hand, his version of seafood is…well, it’s steak.  He tolerates some seafood, but mostly if it isn’t battered in coconut and deep-fried, he doesn’t like it.  Still, we are trying to be mostly heart-healthy, and frankly,…

  • Food

    Roasted Heirloom Tomato and Garlic Marinara

    I found gorgeous baby heirloom cherry tomatoes at my local Costco last week and just had to snag them.  I have to say I am not a tomato lover…I seriously desire to like raw tomatoes, I will eat them on a salad, but overall I avoid them like the plague.  I think my dislike stems from when my parents would stew and can tomatoes almost every year as I was growing up and that smell…that smell rivals baby poo.  It…well it scarred me for life.  BUT I love to figure out how to add them to recipes and spice them up so they don’t dredge up memories that I probably…

  • Food

    Chicken Fried Quinoa

    I’ve been wanting to incorporate quinoa into my diet, but I was afraid because the last time I tried to make something with it the taste was awful.  I even soaked the quinoa before I cooked it and it still tasted like bug spray.  That was several years ago, and now there are a lot more options when it comes to quinoa.  Quite a few of them don’t require presoaking before cooking which is a huge win for me.  Tonight I decided to do chicken fried rice, but with quinoa instead, and guess what…it was SO SO yummy.  I will say, although I love me some cauliflower rice, I think I…

  • Food

    Chocolate PB Chia Seed Pudding

    I am not the most adventurous foodie.  It’s not that I’m afraid to try new things, it’s that I hate spending money on food that I end up not liking.  It’s perfectly acceptable to me for Mr. Man to purchase from the store or order a meal that is new and different and then I will try it.  I know, it’s super odd, especially since the money to pay for the food comes from the same place whether he purchased it or I did.  It’s just something I’ve always had a hard time overcoming. So for a long time, I pinned and oogled over various chia seed pudding recipes, but…