Category Archives: Recipes

Frozen Yogurt Pops

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Frozen Yogurt Pops - Blueberry or orange from the 100 Days of Real Food Cookbook! They are so good!

Homemade Popsicles are a favorite in our house! They make the perfect sized afternoon snack (even breakfast at times) for my 3 year old. I typically don’t use a recipe, but instead just dump things in the blender and let it whirl away.

A couple weeks ago I talked about one of my new favorite cookbooks, 100 Days of Read Food (you can buy the book on Amazon – affiliate link). The post got long enough I didn’t have a chance to share one of the recipes I tried from it.

Frozen Yogurt Pops - Blueberry or orange from the 100 Days of Real Food Cookbook! They are so good!

My daughter chose what we would make first. She selected these Frozen Yogurt Pops. No Surprise considering she loves the color purple. She helped measure the ingredients, dump them in the blender, and hold the button down. Definitely an easy recipe for the young chef.

This is a snapshot of what a page looks like in the book (there is also a picture that goes with the recipe, such as the one on the top of this post):

Frozen Yogurt Pops - Blueberry or orange from the 100 Days of Real Food Cookbook! They are so good!

Of course we chose the purple option and used all blueberries since that’s what we had and decreased the maple syrup slightly. The half batch filled our 6 little blue Ikea popsicle molds.

The verdict? My daughter voted them a winner! She thoroughly enjoyed them.

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Frozen Yogurt Pops - Orange Cream and Mixed Berry
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
Orange Cream
  • 2 cups plain yogurt
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • ⅓ cup maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Mixed Berry
  • 2 cups plain yogurt
  • 1 cup frozen mixed berries
  • ½ cup maple syrup
Instructions
For the Orange Cream:
  1. Whisk together all the ingredients in a bowl. Pour into popsicle molds and insert sticks. Freeze completely - 4-5 hours or overnight.
For the Mixed Berry:
  1. Place all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Pour into popsicle molds and insert sticks. Freeze completely - 4-5 hours or overnight.

What’s your favorite popsicle combination?

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Bean Tostadas

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Bean Tostadas. Super simple meal your kids will eat up. I love that it can be dressed up for the adults.

I spent 5 years working as a server at a Mexican restaurant in our town. The kid’s menu was filled with things like corn dogs, mac and cheese, burgers, and chicken fingers. Then there was the taco meal and Mexican pizza. I always thought the name Mexican pizza was a complete misnomer and if any poor child ordered it for the first time they’d be sorely disappointed. It was a crispy corn tortilla topped with taco meat and melted cheese served with beans and rice. Not a very traditional pizza.

This recipe is basically that “Mexican Pizza”. It’s a super easy and quick lunch or supper that kids love! My daughter inhales this when I make it. If I already have beans and tortillas cooked, it is done in under 10 minutes. Can’t beat that on a rushed day.

You can make this as easy or complicated as you’d like. Use canned or dehydrated refried beans or cook up your own. I like to cook up my own beans in bulk and freeze in meal size portions. Buy tostada shells or what I do is bake corn tortillas directly on the oven rack at 200 degrees until they are crispy. Serve simply topped with cheese or set out an array of toppings that everyone can add after the tostadas come out of the oven. Things such as: green onions, sliced olives, sour cream, homemade salsa, guacamole, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, cilantro. My daughter loves hers with just the beans and cheese. I’m okay with that (plus, it’s less messy for her to eat)!

You really don’t even need a recipe for this, but I’ll share what I do. This would be a good meal to put the kids in charge of making. If your family likes meat, add some taco beef or chicken on top of the beans. If there are bean haters, just do the meat.

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Bean Tostadas Full Post
 
Ingredients
  • Tostada Shells (purchased or make you own by baking at 200 until crispy)
  • Refried Beans (and/or taco beef or chicken)
  • Shredded cheddar cheese
  • Optional Toppings:
  • Guacamole, green onions, salsa, sour cream, cilantro, olives, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes etc
Instructions
  1. Spread a layer of beans on top of the tostada shells.
  2. Sprinkle with meat if you are using.
  3. Top with shredded cheddar cheese.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for 5-8 minutes or until cheese is melted.
  5. Remove from oven and cut each tostada into 4 wedges.
  6. Serve with optional toppings I desired.

 

Homemade Salsa

12 Replies

We love Mexican food. The one thing that makes an appearance most often is salsa. It goes perfectly with anything – quesadillas, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, salad, tostadas and on and on. Sometimes we even feast on just chips and salsa for dinner.

I can’t remember the last time we’ve purchased salsa from the store. Once you see how simple it can be to make and how superior the taste is to those bottles on the store shelf, I don’t think you’ll go back either! I made this for a cookout a few weeks ago and I had numerous comments on how good the salsa was. Several people even asked for the recipe.

You can have this homemade salsa done in under 5 minutes though I prefer making it ahead of time (even the day before) and letting the flavors develop as it chills in the refrigerator.

I’ve frozen extra salsa before, and even though it doesn’t taste as good as freshly made (and is a little more watery) it still hits the spot. If you are going to be adding it to a recipe and cooking it anyway, I don’t think you’d notice a difference at all.

Homemade Salsa you can have done in under 5 minutes! This rivals what you'd get at any restaurant. We LOVE it!

5.0 from 2 reviews
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Homemade Salsa
Cuisine: Mexican
Prep time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
  • 1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes
  • 1 jalapeno, de-seeded
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled
  • ¼ onion (I've used red, white, and yellow)
  • Cilantro (I love cilantro, so I use lots but adjust to taste)
  • Juice from ½-1 lemon (a couple Tablespoons)
  • ½-1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ -1 teaspoon cumin
  • Red Pepper Flakes
Instructions
  1. Pour the diced tomatoes into a blender or food processor. Add the de-seeded jalapeno, garlic, onion, cilantro, ½ teaspoons salt and cumin. Squeeze in the juice from half of the lemon.
  2. Pulse the blender until everything is in small pieces. Taste and adjust salt, cumin, and lemon juice. If you want it spicier, add a few red pepper flakes.
  3. Refrigerate until serving.

 

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Creamy Mac and Cheese

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Creamy Mac and Cheese! Tasty and yummy and on the table in under 30 minutes!

Today I have another guest post up on The Best Blog Recipes! We were gone all day and I needed something fast to put on the table for supper and an added bonuses was that my daughter had leftovers to eat for lunch all week.

Imagine with me for a moment. You are gone all day running errands in a nearby city. Not only are you gone all day but you also run into car trouble and your trip is extended by several hours. You arrive home after 7 and no one has eaten since lunch. The kids are tired and hungry and you really don’t want to do anything. What options are there? Buying take out. Frozen food from the grocery store. Eating out. Looking in the pantry and finding something quick and easy. This was a scenario that recently played out in our home. I didn’t want to spend any more money than we already had that day and wanted to feed my family something quick and healthy.

I opened the pantry and saw noodles and knew I had milk in the refrigerator. Macaroni and cheese it would be. I seriously had this ready to eat in under 30 minutes. The secret is to make the most of your time in the kitchen. Noodles will take the longest so the first thing you are going to want to do is to start the water to boil. Once you’ve done that move on to quickly chopping some onions and garlic and getting them sautéing. By the time the noodles are cooked, your cheesy sauce will be ready and you can mix them together. Steam some broccoli while you are already at the stove or cut up some raw vegetables and you can have a rounded meal on the table in no time. Our supper was done in the same amount of time it would have taken to go to the store and cook frozen pizza or pick up take out from the restaurant down the road.

Head over to The Best Blog Recipes to see the recipe!

I’d love to know what your favorite meals are you can have on the table in under 30 minutes!

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How to Eat Gluten Free Cheap

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Have you ever wondered if it was possible to eat gluten free cheap? To eat gluten free if you are on a tight budget?

Last week I shared why we went wheat free for 6 weeks and next week I have a round up of the recipes and meal ideas we used during that time.

Today, I want to share some tips for those of you who are contemplating doing the same thing. I had people wonder what you can eat if you are avoiding gluten. My friend’s immediate thought was that basically everything has gluten it and she’d have no clue what to feed her family.

When you are eating gluten free you not only need to eliminate all forms of wheat but also rye, barley, and bulgur. (Did you know that malt was made from barley? I didn’t.) Be sure to read all labels. Chicken broth, chips, soy sauce – everything!

Change also holds the possibility of having to increase your grocery budget. We didn’t set extra money aside to use during this experiment so we had to work within the constraints of our usual budget.

I have nine tips for going gluten free cheap!

How to eat gluten free cheap

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How to Eat Gluten Free Cheap

Don’t Buy Packaged Foods

Buying Larabars, boxes of gluten free macaroni and cheese, crackers, and snacks will quickly eat away at your budget. Make a batch of homemade larabars, granola bars, and oat flour muffins to use as snacks and breakfast. Make double or triple batches and keep the extras in the freezer and you’ll have your own convenience food for later in the month.

Don’t Buy Specialty Flours

There are tons of flours out there you can use in gluten free cooking and baking. This was a temporary diet change for us so it wasn’t worth it to spend a lot of money stocking my kitchen for gluten free baking. Just avoid recipes for your meals and snacks that would require purchasing these things. I already had coconut flour in my pantry so I used it and oat flour that I ground in my blender. If the change becomes permanent then slowly began adding different products to your kitchen.

Use Produce

Add extra in season produce to your diets. Instead of having bread as a side, roast some asparagus. Bring out a bowl of fruit salad for dessert instead of cookies. Fruit and vegetables make a super easy snack as well. If you buy the produce that’s on sale each week you can do this without blowing your budget. The majority of my grocery shopping trips consist of produce so I just added some more to the pile and we were good to go.

Keep it Simple

Don’t burn yourself out! Make the process enjoyable. I made a few recipes that took a little more work but that didn’t happen every day. When I cooked, I tried to make large quantities so that there would be enough for a second meal.

Read Labels

If you buy processed foods (or eat out) read labels! You will most likely find wheat a few places you weren’t expecting it. If you aren’t used to checking, this might take a little while to get in the habit of.

Make What You Like

Every meal doesn’t have to be unique and a new recipe for your family. Take some ideas you know your kids will like and find ways to adapt them. Use lettuce for a wrap instead of a flour tortilla or bread. Make quesadillas on corn tortillas. Does your family love shredded beef sandwiches? Try serving it over a potato. Turn recipes into salads (like how this recipe can be either a wrap of salad). There are a lot of possibilities that are simple and easy on the budget.

Grill, Stir-Fry,  Mexican, and Soups

These are four meal types that are easily wheat free! Tacos (and taco salad), tostadas, and enchiladas were favorites in our house. Stir fries also made many appearances. Simply cut up a lot of vegetables add some meat cook it up with a sauce. Grilling meat and serving with fruits and veggies and maybe rice or quinoa makes a quick and easy supper. Soups are another simple way to go gluten free cheap. Great way to use up all the leftover veggies you have in the fridge.

Beans

We also ate a fair amount of beans the past 6 weeks. Even if you don’t like eating a pot of beans for supper (which my husband doesn’t) there are ways to incorporate them into your meals. Have your tacos with refried beans some of the time. Add black beans to the enchiladas. Top your salad with garbanzo beans. They were a great way to stretch our budget and make recipes more filling and go further.

Oats and Oat Flour

Rolled oats are super affordable and you can turn it into flour by putting it in your blender. Easy! I tried not to go overboard on the amount of oats in our diets but this made it possible for us to have some traditional wheat type foods – pancakes, waffles, and muffins. Granola and baked oatmeal (or baked oatmeal muffins) also made great and filling breakfasts. If you are allergic to gluten, you are going to want to be sure to buy gluten free oats to avoid cross contamination.

What suggestions do you have for going gluten free cheap or for making the transition easy for your family?

Don’t forget to stop back by next week for meal ideas while being wheat free (that would also be great to add to your menu anytime).

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