Easy AND Healthy Lunch For 1

We eat a lot of simple foods. With eating no meat this year, it got a lot simpler. We have a steady diet of noodles, quinoa, bread, rice, and tortillas. I mean, what else is there? We don't have gluten intolerances, so that's not an issue. That's not even mentioning how many fruits and vegetables we eat, and there are a LOT.

This is such a simple lunch, heck, even dinner. I have it when I have a day off work and Tim is working:

You'll need:
Package of noodles (For gluten free, buy gluten free noodles or cook a spaghetti squash)
Spinach
Tomatoes
Dressing of your choice (we use Briana's brand, some garlic vinaigrette that has no processed sugars)

Start cooking those noodles. While they are cooking, grabbed your desired amount of spinach and roughly chop it (can be done by loosely rolling the spinach leaves like a burrito and cutting them); Add those to your bowl. Remember, spinach shrinks like nobody's business so add more if you like it!

Cut your tomatoes now! Set them aside.

When the noodles are finished, drain (this is where I take some out and put them in bowls for the kidlets and add some Italian sauce). Add noodles to your bowl, placing them on the spinach but not mixing. I put a plate on top of the bowl and tend to the kids who usually want more by then. They are quick.

The spinach should be shriveled by now! If they aren't you can wait a few more minutes or pop them in the microwave in your BPA free bowl. Add your sauce and tomatoes, mix everything up and enjoy.

If your life is anything like mine, you won't be able to eat it for about an hour, and it's perfect by then!

xoxo
~Jenni

Favorite Cake Friday

It was hard to make a cake in Kentucky for 2 reasons: the siblings think they are health nuts and Marybeth's boyfriend's graduation sheet cake made it to the house and they ate on that for over a week. They never would have let me make another one.

SO, I'm delighted to present my cake this week! I made it for Tim, for father's day since we weren't here on the date. Too bad Sehara wasn't home...

I got the recipe from "I am Baker", it's titled "The Perfect Chocolate Cake", then I used her icing recipe, too(under the cake recipe), but it turns out that it's almost the same as the one on the back of the powder sugar bag, plus 1/2 cup whole milk/heavy cream mixed in at the very end.

 Because of how my previous cakes have tasted, I was afraid this would taste too much like eggs, it didn't. I'm pleased. I should have brewed the coffee an hour before I started making the cake though. If you put something hot in with raw eggs, it will cook them. I had to wait 30 minutes to add the coffee. I have the keurig and it brews scolding hot coffee!

I did replace 1/4 of the cocoa powder with dark cocoa powder (so I used 1/4 cup good dark unsweetened cocoa powder and 1/2 cup good unsweetened cocoa powder). I mean, if you call the kroger brand "good". LOL.

Because it was for Tim, I wanted to make it special! EXPERIMENT TIME.
I made a brown sugar blondie recipe and used a mustache cookie cutter, and cut a few mustaches out!

 

It was kind of a pinterest fail. You pour a little batter in your cake pan, place your shapes and then pour the batter around and over them. It's really simple, kind of. I could have executed it better.

I should have just made a white cake, like a really big, skinny one and cut a ton more mustaches out. I think the trick is to put a bunch throughout the pan, together, so they don't have a chance to fall over and lay down. I had to open the oven a few times and adjust them upright. Burned myself, too.

LOL, Tim thought it was a Reese's cake at first, he couldn't see the mustaches. He even took his finger and swiped it to get some peanut butter on there, hahaha. No, those are blonde brownies, ha!

Eh, I'll do better next time. I want to do a polka dot cake!

Favorite Cake Friday

Friday came a little early this week (like on Tuesday or Wednesday)...

I wanted to make another cake from scratch. It's scary sometimes because I never know how it's going to turn out. I started with a handmade yellow cake that I had written down years ago (I would cite the source but I'm not sure where it came from....). It was a recipe intended for mason jar gifts.

If you can't tell by now, I like to start simple and then get more extravagant and complicated as my confidence increases.

Recipe for Yellow Cake:

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups milk
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1 stick butter, softened
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs



Instructions

Place softened butter into stand mixer and mix on medium for 1-2 minutes.
Place dry ingredients into stand mixer and combine with butter for 30 seconds.
Add milk, oil, vanilla and eggs and mix on medium-high for one minute.
Pour batter into oiled or buttered pans. Bake at 350. 
*For 9-inch pans its 20-25 minutes. For cupcakes start checking around 15 minutes. 

Cool before frosting.


I was a little disappointed at first because the cake tasted like eggs. I frosted it with Hershey's chocolate frosting and it was delicious.

As soon as I feel like it, I'll load my pictures from my phone and update the blog with it.

Favorite Cake Friday

I'm trying something new. I am going to make a new cake every Friday to celebrate our week well done. Between having a ton of orders from the etsy shop and trying to let the kids be physically active, it's been busy.  "Ain't nothing wrong with that."

I've also been trying to teach Madeline to talk. That's such a challenge. We've been successful with a few words; "More" "No" "Ma" "Sissy" "Go" "Hi" (along with some she already knew...).

Next: "Down" "Milk" "Play" and I'd like her to tell me if she's hungry and thirsty. She has to learn how to communicate more without throwing fits.

I am also trying to organize trips, yard sales, play times, swimming, splash pad, family time and sports.

I made a basic butter cake this week. Here's my butter cake recipe.

 

Basic Butter Cake Recipe:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs, works better when they are room temperature

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour plus a few tablespoons on the side

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 - 1/2 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F

Grease/butter pan (I used 9 x 12 but it doesn't really matter, just adjust cooking time accordingly)

Sift baking powder and flour in a bowl; set aside

In your large (main) bowl, beat the butter and sugar until creamy

Beat in the eggs, one at a time (add that extra flour if it doesn't seem to mix or curdles)

Beat in the vanilla

Fold in the flour mixture or beat on very low speed just until mixed

The batter should be able to plop/drop off your spoon, if it doesn't add the milk 

Pour your batter in the pan and spread it nicely across the pan

Bake 20-25 minutes or until a tooth picks comes out clean (sometimes it's much less time!!)

Let that cake cool completely before you frost it!

I cheated on the icing. I used a store bought can of vanilla (colored pink for Valentine's Day) and added a teaspoon and a half of orange extract. Then chopped up a baker's bar of dark chocolate, removed the bigger pieces and sprinkled chocolate dust on the top.

Basic Cake Recipe

Easy Cake Recipe

Mid-day Snack

Seems to me these days I'm forgetting to eat, and the only reason I remember is because I'm shaking or I'm craving food like nothing else. Today, I after dropping Sehara off at her grandmother's I decided it was time to eat. While it may not seem like much, this is what I consider fine dinning:

Home-grown tomatoes on eggs on a piece of toast. I added a sprinkle of basil and pepper to my eggs.

I've already devoured it! Mouth watering good.

My Veggie Bake

My Veggie Bake

I'm doing a 5 day slim down program through Beachbody. It's been fun because now I have a reason to eat all the things I've been wanting to, and should have been doing.
You could consider this "eating clean" or clean eating, or whatever.

My Veggie Bake:

Cauliflower
Broccoli
Carrots sliced thinly or baby carrots
Squash cut thinly
Onion(fresh or powdered)
Garlic (fresh or powdered)
Pepper
Olive Oil
Water

Combine veggies and coat very lightly with olive oil. You only want a hint, not greasy veggies. Pour the water in the pan (obviously don't use water if you're using a flat pan, just use a little more olive oil. I use these pans so I can use less oil and more water to cook the veggies). If I have garlic cloves on hand, I dump a few in, whole. They are delicious. Minced or chopped tend to burn. Sprinkle your seasonings to taste. More is more, less is less. I prefer more, healthy, seasonings in my dishes. This is exact, I use more broccoli than cauliflower because we like it more. I've put other vegetables in, too.

I DO NOT USE SALT. We get too much of that in other foods, no need to add it. If you feel it's bland, add some spices.

Bakes at 375-400 degrees, covered, for 40-45 minutes. Take the foil off and bake for 10 more minutes to get the veggies crispy on top. If that is too long, broil them after the foil comes off but keep your eyes on the prize or they'll burn.

Enjoy!