Roasted Veggies

RoastedVeggiesCooked

I love roasted vegetables – they are simple to make and healthy, but I hadn’t made any in quite some time. I bought some zucchini and mushrooms a couple of weeks ago and roasted them with onions. They were DELICIOUS! In fact, they were so delicious, I made more this week :). I had some tomatoes that needed eaten before they went bad, so I decided to roast those with mushrooms and onions.

Here’s the recipe:

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 small container of whole mushrooms
  • 1 tomato
  • 1 small onion
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • sea salt
  • black pepper

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Cut the mushrooms in half, then cut the tomatoes and onions into pieces of a similar size as the cut mushrooms.
  3. Put all veggies in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil. Stir to coat. Add more olive oil if necessary.
  4. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper, to taste. Stir.
  5. Pour mixture onto a baking sheet and spread out evenly.
  6. Bake for about 15 minutes or until veggies are tender, but still have a little crunch. If desired, stir the veggies about halfway through (I usually don’t).

I’m not a huge fan of roasted tomatoes, but it’s just what I had on hand. Use whatever veggies you have! Just keep in mind, you may have to adjust the roasting time depending on how crunchy the veggies are that you begin with (e.g., broccoli would probably take longer to cook).

Here is another roasted veggie recipe you could try!

What is your favorite roasted veggie recipe? I’m always looking for new ones :).

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake

I was given some cilantro by a neighbor the other day and was itching to use it. I LOVE cilantro. I scoured my Pinterest Food Board and came across this Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake recipe. Most of the ingredients I had on hand, but I also had to do some improvising. Here’s the original recipe. My version is below.

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Continue reading »

Update: Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

A couple of months ago we finished off the freezer meals I prepared back in May. In short, I was sooo disappointed with them :(! Here’s a quick summary:

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo:  At first, this tasted pretty good, but after several bites it just got gross.

Beef Stew:  This was actually edible and tasted ok. It’s not worth making again, though.

Maple Dijon Glazed Chicken:  We ate this over rice. Without the rice it would have been inedible. It looked really gross, too, lol.

Cilantro Lime Chicken with Corn and Black Beans:  This was ok. It would have tasted better served with tortilla chips. I won’t make it again.

Italian Beef Sandwiches:  We would definitely make this again. It’s one of our favorites. I think it tastes better as a non-freezer meal, though.

The original post is below with my updated comments included at the beginning of each recipe. Hopefully you’ll have better luck than I did with freezer meals!

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In preparation for our baby girl’s June 6th due date, I decided to make some freezer meals. With the help of my bother, I was able to prepare five freezer meals in less than an hour (including clean up). Not too shabby! The grocery shopping probably took an additional hour. I’m just not a very efficient grocery shopper, plus I just despise doing it! Look at all those groceries :/ (most of them were for the freezer meals, but not all).

Groceries

Continue reading »

Cookie Dough Truffles

I found the recipe for these no-bake cookie dough truffles on Pinterest. They only take a few minutes to make, plus the time it takes for the dough and chocolate to harden. The not-so-great part is they are definitely NOT healthy :(. It’s ok to indulge every once in a while, though :).

Cookie Dough

Cookie Dough Truffles

Continue reading »

Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

In preparation for our baby girl’s June 6th due date, I decided to make some freezer meals. With the help of my bother, I was able to prepare five freezer meals in less than an hour (including clean up). Not too shabby! The grocery shopping probably took an additional hour. I’m just not a very efficient grocery shopper, plus I just despise doing it! Look at all those groceries :/ (most of them were for the freezer meals, but not all).

Groceries

Continue reading »

Food for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is less than a week away…boy how time flies. If you are anything like me, you’re trying to decide what dish to cook for the big meal. Below are several simple recipes that would be great for a Thanksgiving meal. I’ve made all of these, and highly recommend them!

Brown Sugar Ham

If you are hosting Thanksgiving, this is a great main dish.

ham

Source: crockingirls.com

Ingredients:

  • 1 ham, pre-cooked, bone-in, spiral cut (mine was 11lbs)
  • 3 cups brown sugar
  • 1 can pineapple tidbits, undrained

Directions:

  1. Cover the bottom of the roaster with brown sugar.
  2. Place ham on top of brown sugar and add the pineapple with the juice. Sprinkle ham with more brown sugar.
  3. Cover and cook on low (about 200 degrees) for about 8 hours.

The original recipe said to use a crockpot, but I didn’t have one big enough to fit an 11lb ham.

Parmesan Ranch Mushrooms & Green Beans

This recipe works really well because you can throw all of the ingredients in the crockpot in the morning, then you’re done. It’ll be ready by lunch.   Continue reading »

Garlic Chicken with Orzo

I’m always looking for easy recipes, especially recipes that are at least semi-healthy. This garlic chicken with orzo recipe was one I found on Pinterest. I’ve made it twice now, and we BOTH enjoyed it BOTH times – yay! Here’s my modified recipe below:  Continue reading »

Peanut Butter Bites

These peanut butter bites are super easy to make and are delicious. I eat them for breakfast, but they would be just as good for dessert. Here’s the original recipe I found on Pinterest.

Recipe:

  • 1 cup dry oatmeal
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I use dark chocolate)
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter (I’ve also used almond butter)
  • 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla (I leave this out and you can’t tell the difference)

Mix everything together and roll into balls (I also refrigerate mine). Enjoy!

peanut butter bites

Veghetti (Veggie Spaghetti)

I created (yes, created!) a healthy meatless spaghetti recipe tonight, and it actually turned out really, really well! The hubby even really liked it. It’s been a struggle to find relatively simple and tasty meatless recipes, so I was so excited that we enjoyed this one so much. It seems the cooking genes I inherited from my dad and grandma are finally showing themselves :).

You’ll notice most of the ingredient amounts are approximations. When I was adding things to the skillet, I didn’t pay attention to the amount (sorry). Also, I’m not sure the sun dried tomatoes added much flavor. We just had some left over from another recipe and needed to use them, so my husband suggested I throw them in the mix as well. Continue reading »

Roasted Green Veggies

My husband and I are trying to be more intentional about eating our veggies. These two recipes have helped! They are super simple, healthy, and tasty. I found both of them on Pinterest.

Roasted Green Beans

skinny-roasted-parmesan-green-beans

Source: Skinny Taste

Ingredients:

  • 12 oz green beans, trimmed (make sure they are dry)
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 tbsp shredded Parmesan

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum for easy clean-up. Lay green beans out on the baking sheet and drizzle oil over them. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder and toss to evenly coat.

Bake 10 minutes, shake the pan to turn; bake 5 additional minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with grated cheese.

(Click here for the original recipe.)

Roasted Asparagus

Ingredients:

  • Same as the roasted green beans, just use asparagus instead.
  • (I didn’t use garlic powder in this recipe.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Season the asparagus with everything except the cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and add the cheese.

(Click here for the original recipe.)