day one . . . again

day one . . . again

this morning after getting a cup or two of coffee, i got the trusty crock pot down off the shelf and got dinner started.  i think that was one of my "screw ups"over the last couple of months.  dinner, we ate a ton of unhealthy crap.  there is no other way to put it.  life happen in september, i started college, ccd, gymnastic, homework, and life.  my time was extremely limited and i simply did not plan dinner time well.  

so tonight a healthy dinner for us!  back to the basics.  there will be planning for dinners once again.  i would love to hear how everyone else plans their family dinners.

lisa 

grilled shrimp with mango salsa

i found this recipe for grilled shrimp on a coupon for reynolds wrap a few years ago. now it's a family favorite. hope you all enjoy it as much as we do. it is not 100% real food. anyone have a healthier alternative for worcestershire sauce?

spicy grilled shrimp

• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce (need to find an alternative)
• 4 teaspoons seafood seasoning
• 2 teaspoons lemon pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 pound raw shrimp, peeled & cleaned

whisk all the ingredients (except shrimp) together, until thickened. throw in the shrimp and marinate for 30 mins or up to a few hours in the fridge. when you are ready to grill, skewer the shrimp and get your grill hot. throw the shrimp skewers on the grill, they only take a few minutes on each side. or broil them in your oven, on a foiled lined cookie sheet with cooking spray. few minutes on each side.

mango salsa

• mangoes
• onion
• red pepper
• cucumbers
• jalapenos
• fresh lime juice
• cilantro
• sea salt & pepper

chop it all up and throw it in a bowl. then keep tasting & adding until you get it right :)

we also had yummy blue tortilla chips. we found some with only 4 ingredients in the 'healthy' aisle at the super market. oh and a pasta salad with whole wheat macaroni, oil, vinegar and a whole bunch of different spices. i was grabbing whatever caught my eye from the pantry. i wish i had added veggies, but sadly i ran out of time.

if there are leftovers, the shrimp are yummy cold. you can have them as a late night snack while doing the cabinet shuffle.

thanks for reading.
amy~

label obsession

i was just tryin' to make some dinner. and then it happened. it never used to matter. i never cared to look. but now, every thing i touch, when i take it out of the cupboard or before it goes in my shopping cart, i have to read the label. what's in it? how many ingredients? can i pronounce the words? a meal i've made before, lots of times actually, turned into an eye opening experience. chicken nuggets, garlic smashed potatoes and tossed salad. seems easy enough, pretty straight forward. let's start with the chicken. i used a recipe for homemade chicken nuggets from lisa over at 100 days of real food. i was out of homemade whole wheat bread crumbs so i grabbed some packaged stuff i had in the fridge. big difference in ingredients in plain breadcrumbs vs. panko. check it out. i really need to re-up my supply of the homemade stuff.

next up was grated cheese. my dad is pretty awesome and surprised me with a big bag of freshly grated parmesan cheese he picked up at the italian market.

i'd much rather have that than this!

yikes!

next is the garlic smashed potatoes. my husbands favorite. i use parmesan cheese, butter, half & half and a boatload of garlic. check out the ingredients in the half & half. the container on the left is a major grocery store brand. on the right is stuff from a local farm. it's called half & half cause its half milk and half cream. what the heck is disodium phosphate?

(it's a anti-caking additive, um, no thanks!)

  

moving on to the salad...we love love love good seasons dressing. but now we like to make our own with oil, vinegar, herbs from my spice cabinet and we leave out the xanthan gum, maltodextrin, guar gum and citric acid.

so there ya have it folks, check your labels. why eat all this nonsense when it's just as easy to eat real foods! thanks for reading.

amy~

fiesty fajitas

made flank steak fajitas in the crock pot yesterday for dinner. you all know how much i love some crock potin' on a sunday. just had the leftovers for dinner tonight. what i love more than a crock pot meal on a sunday is not having to cook on a monday. my husband and i love these, our 4yo, not so much. she had leftover chicken nuggets from saturday. click here for the slow cooker flank steak fajitas recipe from lisa over at 100 days of real food.

thanks for reading.
amy~

taco taco

amy's taco seasoning recipe. i make up a couple batches in a glass jar and keep it in the pantry.

• 6 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 4 tablespoons paprika
• 3 tablespoons onion powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more or less depending on how hot you like it)

for about 1.5 pounds of meat i add 4 tablespoons taco seasoning with 1 cup water

it's like the energizer bunny

i love to take a hunk of meat, rub it down with some tasty spices and throw it in a crock it. especially on a sunday. you can do all your dirty work in the morning and then go about your day. the best is coming home from running errands with the family and the delicious aroma slaps ya in the face before you can even get through the door. this past weekend i did a whole chicken and let me tell you, it's like a gift that keeps on giving. that night we had chicken, brown rice and tossed salads for dinner. the chicken was super moist and we couldn't stop nibbling at it. i kept the juices and carcass in the crock pot and after dinner i added water, threw in a few spices, a couple carrots and let it simmer, all night. i woke up the next morning to homemade chicken stock. i jarred some up for the fridge and also froze some in an ice cube tray. why get it from a can or carton when it's that easy to make? monday night we had pulled chicken tacos. i'm not brave enough to attempt the homemade tortillas that my cousin lisa tried but i do make a mean taco seasoning, no packets for us. tuesday night, more shredded chicken. this time i threw it in a vodka cream sauce i whipped up and served it with whole wheat penne. this meal made enough for wednesday night too. one chicken = 4 nights of dinners & a boatload of chicken stock. it just kept going and going and going.

thanks for reading.
amy~

click here for the 'best whole chicken in a crock pot' recipe. there's a link for the chicken stock as well. this is from my bff lisa over at 100 days of real food.

click here for the vodka cream sauce recipe from allrecipes. i used 1/2 & 1/2 in place of the heavy cream and used less than half a pint.

beans, beans, beans . . .

well, i did it! i made the re-fried beans! they were yummy and soooo easy!!!  after the beans had been cooking for about 3 hours i called amy in a panic and said, "now what?  what do i do with the re-fried beans?" 

let's just say my easy one recipe turned into all day cooking...however dinner was  AMAZING!!!! and i found yet another great recipe for a processed food that i couldn't find with less then 5 ingredient's, tortilla shells!  we had taco's with homemade taco seasoning, homemade re-fried beans, and homemade whole wheat tortilla shells. all 3 recipes are from http://www.100daysofralfood.com/ .  My mouth is water just thinking about how yummy dinner was!! the re-fried beans made a ton and the best part is it was cheap to make. it only cost $1.63.

I can not wait to make ALL of it again!!!

lisa