Shredded Wheat Apple Muffins

What do you do with the crushed Frosted Shredded Wheat in the bottom of your cereal box?

If you want, the crumbs could be baked into some yummy muffins.

Oatmeal Bites

Just like my Oatmeal Pancakes, I have been looking for more ways to eat lots of oatmeal, even when it's so hot! These are great for breakfast, dessert, or a 3 a.m. snack. They don't need refrigeration, but I think they're extra delicious that way. These are a good example of something that you can make to suit your mood: When I really want something healthy, I use oatmeal in the place of the coconut flakes and substitute all raisins instead of half raisins and half chocolate chips. On other days, I use these to indulge my sweet tooth and eat the recipe as written.

These are so easy -- just stir, scoop, and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Notice they require no cooking or baking, so I have made them countless times over the summer.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Frito Pie

This meal is always a winner, even if everyone is tired of eating leftover chili. While Fritos aren't healthy, I still buy them occasionally. After all, I have some tricks for making my chili healthy, adding hidden pureed vegetables and even oatmeal.

The other day I was busy and at the store and so I grabbed a bag of Fritos to dress up some chili I had in the freezer. If you're wondering, chili freezes beautifully.

Simple Miniature Cheesecakes

These delicious treats are great for a summer day, and they don't heat up your kitchen at all! These cheesecakes were great when we had some missionaries from our church over for dinner. It was fun to let everyone put on whatever toppings they chose. My favorite was raspberry jam with chocolate chips.
Because it takes no cooking or baking, this would be a great recipe to let kids make. I imagine most 8-year-old kids could manage this with a little supervision.

Strawberry Yogurt and Oats

Has summer hit hard for anyone else? It seems like it's been about a million degrees out here in Northern California. Normally I love oatmeal for breakfast, but it's just so hot to eat. I sometimes will blend 3 tablespoons of dry oatmeal into my smoothies, but I was ready for something different.

Easy Peeling Hard Boiled Eggs

My husband, Jay, told me recently that he had a new trick to make hard boiled easy to peel, and that he just used it. When he told me how, I said, "That won't work!"
I was proved wrong.

Date Night Reese's Bar

Something about chocolate is just romantic, especially since this easy recipe only makes 4 servings.

Orange Banana Smoothie with Carrot

I had some leftover cooked carrots the other day and decided to use them with a smoothie. After some experimentation, I found a combination that tasted really good and the carrot gave it a really pretty orange color.
Inspired by a creamsicle, I decided to use some milk in this smoothie.

Fajitas

Versatile fajitas can be served with just a tortilla or with beans, rice, spinach, chopped tomato, cheese, and sour cream. I've used this recipe for years and even my 2-year-old nephew would eat the chicken in a tortilla with refried beans and rice.

This recipe is great because you can have everything easily chopped and prepped before hand. I have walked in the door and been able to have a hot dinner on the table in 10 minutes.
If you're making for a bigger crowd, you can double the recipe to serve 8-10 and just heat up 2 big frying pans or woks to cook it all at once.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal and a Kiwi Orange Smoothie

These recipes are a bit of a no-brainer, but I thought I'd share because I've been eating peanut butter oatmeal since I was in college. Studying always made me starving.

Breadcrumbs

Make your own breadcrumbs. Why pay several dollars for breadcrumbs when you can make yours from bread scraps at home?  

I usually use breadcrumbs either to coat chicken (like shake and bake), or to put on baked casseroles, like baked spinach or homemade macaroni and cheese.

Chicken Nuggets--healthy option

Crispy chicken nuggets will make your picky eaters--and yourself happy. The fact that it's lean chicken with flour, egg, breadcrumbs, and spices will make this guilt free. Just serve it with vegetables.

Mary's Amazing Biscuits--only 3 ingredients

These are great as a last minute addition to dinner (or breakfast) because they're so fast and easy. I also love that because they have mayonnaise in them rather than an egg, I can easily halve the recipe if I only want 4-5 biscuits. That means I can whip up a few fresh for every meal for 2. And don't worry, you can't taste the mayonnaise at all.

My Husband's Favorite Broccoli

I can only think of a few surefire ways to get my husband to eat vegetables, and this broccoli is one of them. It comes with a lot of good flavor and smells.


The garlic and lemon on it is yummy, but the real trick is roasting it.

Frito Pie

Well it's March and we all know what that means:
Saint Patrick's Day? Yes, but no.
March Madness? Ummm... I'm not entirely even sure what sport that's for. So yes March Madness is probably a thing right now, but I'm thinking of something else.
Give up?
Pi Day is coming! Hurrah for math, circles, and constant ratios.


March 14, or 3.14 is the day we eat pie, so I'm putting together some different pies this month, starting with Frito pie.
Fritos, chili, cheese, tomato, spinach, Greek yogurt, green onion, and cilantro make this so delicious.

Oat Flour--from oats

Apples and oats go together so well, but my husband isn't always game for muffins with oatmeal in them, even if I put apples in them to tempt him. He really should give in to the temptation of apples: Adam and Snow White both did.*

So we compromised. I put oatmeal in the muffins anyway. That's compromise, right?
I ground up the oats into oat flour. I use it in rolls, muffins, cookies, and sometimes to help thicken chili. It's easy to make. Oat flour helps you get another whole grain into your diet.

Red Sauce--for spaghetti, pizza, and *anything*

When one of my brothers was tiny my mom was trying to explain to him about Thanksgiving. She said, "It's a special day where we are thankful and we get to eat our favorite things."

I hear that my brother looked at her and said, excitedly, "You mean we get to eat spaghetti?"

Sorry, there is no spaghetti in a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but we get to eat red sauce year round, which is even better.

Easy Baked Potato--low-fat option

My mom has never met a potato she didn't like, and I'm her daughter. Even simple potatoes are worthy of a meal.

Growing up in a family of nine, my mom would make baked potatoes in the oven. I remember scrubbing and wrapping them for my mom, as she prepped the rest of dinner.

But now that I'm living with just my husband it doesn't always make sense to heat up the entire oven for 2 baked potatoes.

My father-in-law showed me this trick: Use plastic wrap to steam your potato in the microwave.

Trivia question for you:

What has more potassium, a banana or a baked potato?

Easy No-Sugar-Added Cinnamon Applesauce

Chunky-style applesauce

Applesauce sometimes get a bad rap--it's too processed, it has too much sugar. Personally, I think making it yourself is the perfect solution, especially if you have another problem: that you have some soft or bruised apples around the house. It's actually a healthy, easy choice!