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

BLT with Mushrooms and Jalapeno

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.

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.

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.

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.

Skillet Lasagna

I made this several times for my sister-in-law and her family. It comes together really quickly--in about 30 minutes, but with the full lasagna taste. It's especially great when you don't want to heat up the entire oven for an hour. And kids like spiral noodles. To be honest, I think spiral noodles are pretty cool too.

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.

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?

Tortellini Soup

Wonderful, cool days call for warming soups. Here's a new one: tomato based soup with seasoned ground turkey, delicious cheese-filled tortellini pasta, spinach, carrots, and even some red bell pepper.

This soup isn't super-full of tortellini or meat or vegetables, but has a balance between them.

I served this with my recipe for Golden Rolls, so we got some extra hidden vegetables and whole wheat from the bread.

Bulgur Banana Parfait

Why reserve your dessert cups for just dessert? I decided I wanted to eat breakfast in style, so I did. This parfait has layers of bulgar--which is like cracked wheat. It also has cinnamon, greek yogurt, walnuts, and bananas.

Chocolate Chip Protein Bites

Today is a good day for chocolate chips in your breakfast. I'll bet you agree!

This simple breakfast is whole grain and protein packed. 

Italian Tomatoes

When I took French in high school my teacher Madame Kelly, a beautiful French lady, tried to explain many things about France, especially its food! One thing she told us is that in France salads are very different. You wouldn't have a side salad with lettuce, tomato, carrot, cucumber, etc., but usually would just have one vegetable in your salad.
Years later at college I was at a party and one girl brought a tomato salad--slices of tomato with seasonings. I can see what the French like about it!