Pesto Chicken Salad Wrap

I was so excited to find some whole wheat tortillas at Costco that have 12 grams of fiber each, no hydrogenated oils they are only 80 calories each and they actually TASTE GOOD! Score. I Love Costco, and we got all of the ingredients for this fantastic wrap during our last trip there.

Ingredients for filling (makes 4-6 rolls):

2 cans white meat chicken
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced red grapes
1/2 cup mayo
3 Tablespoons pesto

You will also need:

4-6 cups fresh baby spinach
1 tomato (diced)
4-6 whole wheat tortillas

To Make Filling:

Drain chicken and shred with a fork. Mix mayo into the chicken. Mix pesto into chicken, mix well. Mix celery and grapes into chicken mixture.

To Assemble Wraps:

One at a time; Lay tortilla down flat. Place about 1 cup spinach in the middle of your tortilla. Top spinach with about 3/4 cup chicken mixture. Top with 1/4 cup diced tomato and roll up like a burrito.

A healthy lunch with protein, loads of fiber and whole grain, nearly 2 servings of vegetables and some fruit for good measure. Serve with a side of fruit and a tall glass of water.

Creamy Pasta Salad

This was lunch for Day Two of our dairy free, meat free week. It is not vegan, but can easily be made vegan by using vegannaise instead of mayonnaise. The beans add protein where the meat would be for some and the variety of colorful veggies makes this as pretty as it is tasty! Pair it with a side of fruit and you have a perfectly balanced meal with food from all the food groups.

I'm eating this right now.... it's good :) I made it last night and let it chill overnight. I sent some with Mike for his lunch at work and he enjoyed it too.

Ingredients:

16oz. pasta of your choice. I had a mix of misfit macaroni that I used. The ends of the bags of some large macaroni, small & whole wheat.
1 cup chopped baby spinach
1 cup diced carrots
2 tomatoes (seeded and diced)
1 can white beans (any beans really) drained and rinsed
1/2 cup mayonnaise (or vegannaise)
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon paprika
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Boil pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Mix diced veggies and beans together with pasta.

In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, vinegar and other spices. Mix well and adjust as needed.

Pour dressing over salad and mix well. Refrigerate overnight.

Vegetarian Split Pea Soup

Split peas are full of healthy fiber, helping to lower cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar. Just one cup of cooked dried peas provides you with over 60% of your daily fiber needs.

Day One of meat and dairy free week. I thought I'd try a vegetarian split pea soup recipe. I found this one on AllRecipes.com. I made some changes and ended up with the following recipe. This isn't your "traditional" split pea soup. Knowing my Father-In-Law would say "This would be great..... with ham" as soon as he looked at it I wanted to wow him with how much flavor this soup could have without ham. I looked at what I had on hand and what the recipe called for, tweaked some things around and ended up with a fantastic soup! Joshua gobbled this up with amazing speed :)

Ingredients:

2 cups dry split peas
1/2 cup barley
1 cup diced carrots (I had baby carrots on hand, this was about 15 of them)
4 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 teaspoon Thyme
1 teaspoon basil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 cups tomato & roasted red pepper soup
5 1/2 cups vegetable broth (this makes a thinner soup. If you like it thicker start with about 2 cups less broth, you can always add more later if you want to.)
2 cups water

Directions:

Mix ingredients into your slow cooker. Turn on high for 4 hours and then low or warm until you are ready to eat!

Quesadilla Casserole

This came about as I was standing in line at the grocery store buying new pinto beans to make the Last Minute Pinto Bean Dip. A magazine boasting many casserole recipes was taunting me because I love the ease of one pot meals. The front page showed a picture of a Quesadilla Casserole with peppers, olives, chicken, red beans and cheddar..... yum. I made it out of the store without buying the magazine, yay me :)

I got home and was disappointed that we didn't have olives.. or many of the other ingredients for that matter. But a quesadilla can be filled with so many different things, why not a Quesadilla Casserole? So while this was delicious, it could be equally good or even better with some added ingredients like avocado, olives, sharp cheddar or a Mexican cheese blend, onion or even beef or no meat at all.

This was so easy and fast, just what I was looking for because I was so tired last night.

Ingredients:

5 tortillas
1 can chicken
1 large tomato (chopped)
1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
3/4 cup salsa of desired heat (we used mild)
1 cup mozzarella cheese (shredded)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 F and grease a 9X9 pan.

Layer two tortillas along the bottom of the pan so they cover the entire bottom (they will go up the sides a bit)

Mix all ingredients except for the cheese and tortillas.

Top the tortillas with half of your filling mixture and top with some cheese (a little less than half)

Layer two more tortillas on top of the cheese and top with the remaining mixture and some more cheese (leave just a little for the very top)

Lay last tortilla in the middle of the casserole on the top and top with the remaining cheese.

Lightly grease any uncovered pieces of tortilla on the top of the casserole to help it brown rather than burn.

Cook for 18-20 minutes at 350 F

Slice this into 6 pieces and each one is under 200 calories (using whole wheat tortillas)!

You can top it with salsa, guacamole or sour cream. Serve with Pinto Bean Dip & chips.

Last Minute Pinto Bean Dip

I just got the dry blade attachment for my VitaMix so I was searching for flours to make and other recipes where I could grind stuff up :) I'm terrible about remembering to soak my beans overnight so a recipe using dry pinto beans jumped out at me.

After my first attempt it stayed gritty, the beans just wouldn't cook as I thought might happen. The beans were just too old. So I tossed our old beans and went to the store for some new ones. At the store I was attacked by Girl Scouts who forced cookies upon me. Thin Mints and Samoas... there's really no substitute for either, but I'm tempted to try some day.

Second try with fresh beans this time and some changes to the base recipe and we had a great bean dip to go alongside our Quesadilla Casserole.

Last Minute Pinto Bean Dip:

3/4 cup dry (fresh) pinto beans
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock (I actually used chicken because it's what I had & the original recipe called for water)
1/2 cup salsa of desired spiciness

You could always garnish with sliced olives, tomatoes, jalapenos or whatever you'd like.

Directions:

Grind dry ingredients in your food processor (or new VitaMix dry blade container!)

Place in a large saucepan and whisk in stock.

Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Cook an additional 15 minutes or so. Taste it to be sure the beans are done.

Remove from heat and stir in salsa.

Baked Spaghetti

We were walking through Costco and one of the samples happened to be spaghetti. The kids played "baby bird" all the way through the store, so naturally, we had spaghetti for dinner. Tomato sauce is an excellent opportunity to add additional healthy ingredients. Most kids will eat tomato sauce no problem and there are plenty of healthy additions you can use that nobody will even know are in there.

To one jar of spaghetti sauce I added 1/2 cup of carrot juice. The boys actually really liked the plain carrot juice (yuck) and the color and flavor make it combine very well with tomato sauce. I also added 1/2 cup of sweet potato puree. Too much sweet potato and you will be able to taste it (although not a bad thing if you enjoy sweet potatoes). I'm not a big fan and neither is anyone else here so I added just 1/2 cup and couldn't taste it at all. I Love spinach, can you tell by looking at my recipes? Not canned or frozen, I think those taste terrible, but fresh (especially baby) spinach has almost no real taste to it (but amazing health benefits) and mixes well with almost anything. But it's not such a bad thing to love :) I added 2 cups of fresh baby spinach. If you have family members that you couldn't pay to eat anything with spinach I suggest taking those 2 cups, or even cutting it back to one and pureeing it in your food processor. The last thing I added was flax seed for the Omega-3s. If I put a bread topping on this, which would be good but Mike would have nothing to do with it, then I would mix the ground flax into that. But I only top it with cheese so I took 2 Tablespoons of flax seeds ground in the food processor (your body can't absorb them whole, they are too small) and mixed it into the sauce. To get the right amount of Omega-3s adults should have about 2 Tablespoons of flax seed a day. Fish is the other good source of Omega-3s, but Mike refuses to eat store bought fish and he hasn't been fishing in awhile. I miss our freezer full of Halibut and Salmon :( But he did finally get the new boat floor cut so maybe, just maybe, this year?

The meatballs I used were from Costco, can you tell we made a Costco trip today? They are precooked chicken, spinach and fontina meatballs. So good.

Okay, enough rambling.

Ingredients: *this makes a lot of spaghetti, but who doesn't love spaghetti leftovers?

1 package of spaghetti noodles (17.6oz)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (32oz.)
1 package of precooked meatballs or make your own *enough to cover the bottom of a 13x9" pan.
1/2 cup carrot juice
1/2 cup pureed sweet potato
2 cups fresh baby spinach
2 Tablespoons flax seed
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Heat oven to 350F and grease a 13x9" pan
Spread meatballs out over the bottom of the pan
Cook pasta according to package directions until just done, about 8 minutes. Drain and rinse.
Put anything you need to in the food processor. (flax seeds, spinach if you need to...)
Mix sauce, carrot juice, sweet potato, spinach and ground flax together in a bowl. Mix in cooked noodles.
Pour noodle/sauce mixture over meatballs and top with shredded cheese.
Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.

All of us barely ate half of this casserole it was so much, but Thomas has been begging for spaghetti in his school lunch and Mike loves spaghetti sandwiches so it will save me some work throughout the week.

And the picture really doesn't do it justice. The slightly crunchy cheese and noodles at the top are the best part :)

Pizza Night

Usually we just go down the street to our local Papa Murphy's and pick up a take n bake pizza. Tonight I wanted to get the kids involved and let them put their own toppings on... and whatdya know, it saves money too :)

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons agave (or honey)
2 teaspoons quick rise yeast
4 Tablespoons oil
5 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:

Mix water, agave and salt together until dissolved. Pour in yeast and let sit for 10 minutes.

Stir in oil and slowly add flour, mixing one cup at a time until dough forms a nice ball.

Add water or flour a little at a time to reach desired consistency.

Place ball of dough in a well oiled bowl and coat in oil. Cover and let sit for one hour.

Punch dough down and separate into 12 little balls. I made 10, but a few were too big so I'll be making 12 next time. You could spend the extra minute and make them prettier than mine, but you're going to flatten them out anyway right?

Oil and place in an oiled baking sheet to rise for another hour, covered.

On a floured surface use your hands to make each ball into a flat little pizza. Now lets get to the fun part!

While I'd prefer to make my own pizza sauce I had a can of it I needed to use up so to make myself feel better about all the sugar in the canned pizza sauce I added a can of pureed sweet potato (nobody even noticed). Mikes hates sweet potatoes and he loved the pizza. Spread each pizza with 1-2 Tablespoons of sauce.

Top with shredded mozzarella cheese and your favorite pizza toppings... and then a little more cheese because it's good.

Thomas added turkey pepperoni, pineapple and tomato. Michael added turkey pepperoni and pineapple, but later picked off the pineapple. Joshua had turkey pepperoni, black beans and pineapple.

My pizza had spinach,tomato, black beans, bell pepper and turkey pepperoni. It filled a small salad place perfectly and I was stuffed after eating 3/4 of it, probably should've stopped at half.

Tomato and Broccoli Mac n Cheese

Who doesn't love mac n cheese? It's pasta and cheese, two of my favorite things. Now have you ever read the back of a mac n cheese box? Gross. I mean, at least I think it's gross because I have no idea what they are talking about in that list of ingredients, but it can't be good. Homemade mac n cheese is delicious and better for you, but don't fool yourself, it is still pasta and cheese. To make it a touch healthier and reach that five servings of fruits/veggies a day I made a tomato and broccoli mac n cheese. Even when the kids pick around the broccoli they are still getting the tomato; Victory, sweet victory.

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
2 cups tomato soup *I used my organic boxed tomato and roasted red pepper soup because it rocks
2 cups broccoli (washed and chopped)
1 1/2 cups extra sharp cheddar (shredded)
1/2 cup milk

Directions:

Grease casserole dish and preheat oven to 350 F.

Cook macaroni until just barely done... what's that fancy word???? Al dente? Sounds right. Drain.

Oh! Throw the broccoli in with the pasta for the last minute of boiling.

Heat soup and milk together until boiling. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of the cheese.

Mix pasta and sauce together. Put it in a greased casserole dish and top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Now I know it looks like noodles and soup (I was a little worried myself), but trust me here... it'll work out :)

Cover and cook at 350 F for 30 minutes, removing foil for the last 5-10 minutes.

Splitting this recipe into four servings (which are large servings) they are each under 400 calories!

This was good, but would be excellent with the right herbs. If only I knew what those would be..... Mom? are you reading this? What would those be?

Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

Chili is an amazing comfort food that CAN be packed full of nutrients. It's a great way to use up leftovers and often tastes better the second day.

Another highly adaptable recipe, I love adaptable recipes. I am NOT going to run out to the store for one item I don't have. I want a recipe that will accept a substitution, chili is great for that.

Ingredients:

1 box organic tomato/roasted red pepper soup (this MADE the chili, use it)

1 can tomato with green chilies

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can corn, drained

1 scallion, chopped

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

1-2 cups cooked turkey, chopped or use ground

1 Tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon fresh Thyme

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Optional - 1 Tablespoon crushed red pepper I'm not a fan of hot, but if you are that should do it :)

Optional for garnish:

sharp cheddar cheese, grated

avocado <- great source of healthy fats

sour cream

Directions:

Saute mushrooms and onion in the oil until cooked well.

Mix spices with your soup in the slow cooker until well combined. Mix all ingredients in your slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Garnish and enjoy, this is SO GOOD! And so EASY.

Hey look... another fancy video :) I'm so cool.

Spinach Lunch Wrap

Okay, I don't have a picture of this one yet, but I couldn't bring myself to post a dinner recipe after breakfast without having lunch :)

This wrap is surprisingly my seven year old's favorite sandwich for school lunch, I must be doing something right. It is packed with things that are great for you. With three servings of veggies, some protein and a serving of whole grains you can high five the food pyramid chart and stick your tongue out at the bathroom scale. Eat it with a side of fruit... maybe an apple and color yourself healthy today!

Ingredients:

We use the 90 calories whole grain flat wraps, but you can use any soft tortilla.

1-2 Tablespoons hummus - Excellent source of fiber and protein and SOOOO tasty.

1/2 tomato

1/2 cucumber

1 cup raw baby spinach - A great superfood full of iron!

Directions:

Wash your veggies well. Chop your tomato and cucumber into average sized chunks. Spread hummus onto the wrap. Lay spinach in the middle of the wrap and top with chopped veggies. Wrap it up all pretty like and eat or send it to school/work for lunch.

*When making the night before for a lunch I seed the tomato so the wrap doesn't get soggy overnight.