Kale-Broccoli Slaw

Our girls went back to school yesterday, I'm definitely one of those moms that never wants summer to end. Yes, my kids make me want to pull my hair out at times but I truly enjoy spending my days with them and dread sending them off. Our oldest is officially in high school this year, let me tell you, this is scary stuff! I am clearly not ready for all of this, she's growing up way too fast for me.

Our middle child entered into 2nd grade. She's got so much sass and makes me laugh numerous times throughout the day. Just this morning she informed me that I do not need to walk her up to her line at school, she's not little anymore. Ha!

I am enjoying these last few days home with our youngest. She'll start full day preschool on Monday while I begin working with our local schools as a substitute paraeducator. I'm really excited for this new journey! Next week will surely be interesting as we start this new adventure and adjust to a whole different schedule.

I brought this new salad along to dinner at my parent's house this past Sunday. It had been awhile since we've all gotten together for a nice meal. We typically don't get a chance during the summer due to every one's busy schedules. I had some kale in our fridge from our CSA and tried to figure out a new way to use it up.

Well, I came home with an empty bowl that's for sure. So that's a good sign, right? I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed this, including most of the kids. I made a simple dressing with mayo, apple cider vinegar and honey. You can certainly substitute plain Greek yogurt for an even healthier dressing. The salad was light and refreshing and paired great with our grilled meal.

You know, summer's not over just yet. We've still got Labor Day coming up quickly and plenty of nice fall weekends for grilling out with family and friends. You've got to make this easy salad at least once. And it tastes so good that you won't even notice you're eating something good for you. Trust me.


Kale-Broccoli Slaw

Ingredients:
12 oz. package broccoli slaw
2-1/2 cups kale, thinly sliced
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup dried cranberries

for the dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise {or plain Greek yogurt}
fresh lemon juice {1/2 lemon}
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp honey
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a medium bowl, combine together broccoli slaw, kale, sunflower seeds and dried cranberries. Gently toss all together.

In another small bowl, mix together dressing ingredients. Adjust seasonings as needed.

Pour dressing over slaw and gently toss together. You may serve immediately or let chill in the fridge until ready to enjoy.

Chicken Tacos w/Summer Veggies

You guys! I had a lot of fun this weekend in the kitchen creating new dishes to share with you in the upcoming weeks. Everything turned out amazing, which I promise, doesn't always happen. And these tacos were one of them.

What family doesn't love tacos?! I know it's always one meal I can plan on the kids gobbling up, maybe even asking for seconds. This time though, I added in zucchini to my veggie mixture. We're starting to receive a lot more veggies in our produce box and my fridge is full at the moment with them. While I love sauteing or grilling up zucchini, summer squash, green beans, etc as a side dish; the hubs gets tired of them after a while. I figured if I sort of snuck them into our tacos, no one would really notice they were actually eating something good for them.

The veggies ended up being really flavorful and everything blended so well together. I love how versatile this dish can be, you can substitute any vegetables you have on hand. Fresh corn from the cob, eggplant, summer squash, onion; they are all great choices. Don't feel like tacos? No problem, make up a batch of rice and toss the mixture all together. Or add the chicken and veggie mixture over a nice bed of salad greens for something a little lighter. You could certainly even enjoy this mixture all on it's own.

That is what's great about simple meals like this; many variations so you never feel like you're eating quite the same thing.


Chicken Tacos w/Summer Veggies

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
salt and pepper, to taste
1 garlic clove, minced {garlic scapes are great too}
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered
cilantro, for serving
Tortillas shells
Grated cheese

Directions:
In a large skillet, drizzle olive oil in pan along with the garlic and let warm. Add in cubed chicken breasts along with seasonings and mix together well. Let chicken cook for 3 minutes before adding in veggies. Let cool for another 5 minutes, just until chicken is cooked through and veggies are slightly tender. Remove from heat.

Divide mixture between tortilla shells. Top with your favorite taco toppings; cilantro, cheese, salsa, etc.

Freezer Fridays: Freezer Salsa

Welcome to Freezer Fridays! I've been brainstorming a lot lately; many of you seemed to really enjoy my 31 days of freezer cooking series and I'd like to continue sharing freezer friendly recipes more often.The goal is to showcase a new recipe each Friday that's perfect for making ahead and freezing. What do you think? Are you game? I hope so!

My tomatoes are really starting to ripen in the garden, it's about time. The girls love going out every morning to check and see what's available for the days picking. Fresh salsa is one of our favorites to snack on in the summer. When you can grab most of the ingredients from the backyard, the store bought versions just don't compare!

I hear year after year that freezing salsa is a great way to preserve some of those tomatoes and enjoy it in those cold, winter months. I figured now was as good of time as any to give that a try. Now, I like to make my batches with lots of chunky veggies rather than pureeing into a smooth consistency. Of course my batches probably won't hold up for as long in the freezer than the latter. I expect the veggies to soften quit a bit when I try to thaw out so I will make sure we use these up within a few months.

Has anyone had great luck with freezing salsa rather than going the canning route? I'd love to hear your tips, please share them below! I'll plan to be back with an update on how these really turn out over time. I'm confident they'll taste great!

Freezer Salsa

Ingredients:
5-6 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 green pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup onion, finely diced
1-2 jalapenos or other hot peppers, finely diced {I don't add very many seeds to mine so that it's mild for the kids}
1 garlic clove, minced
small handful of cilantro, chopped
1 tsp lime zest
salt, to taste

Directions:
Add all chopped ingredients into a medium sized bowl and stir together gently to combine. Taste and add additional seasonings if needed. You may enjoy salsa right away or store in the fridge.

To freeze:  Ladle into 2 pint sized jars until almost full, make sure to leave just a bit of room at the top. Place lids on top and seal shut. Immediately place into freezer and store until ready to enjoy. When ready to use, remove from freezer and let thaw. Serve with tortilla chips. Salsa should keep in freezer for up to 3 months.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

I love a good, easy cookie recipe. One with few ingredients, won't take long to mix together and tastes good. And because I like to change up my recipes often, I love when they are versatile. I can add a variety of treats into this particular cookie and they'll turn out great.

Cookies don't ever last long in our house. Do you have that same problem? I don't stress too much though when I make these; I barely get two dozen out of the batch and they're quite small. If they're gone in a day, they're gone. With five of us in the house, hey it's bound to happen.

If soft and chewy cookies are your favorite, then you'll love these! For those of you that like thin, crispy cookies, you probably won't enjoy these as much. {Sorry Dad!} Skip the mess with measuring out flour and try these, especially for those that follow a gluten free diet, you'll love them!


Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
1 egg
pinch of salt
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
add-ins if desired: butterscotch chips, mini M&Ms or chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together one egg and salt. Add in peanut butter and both sugars. Stir together until combined.

Using a spoon, drop dough by the teaspoon onto a prepared cookie sheet. I always like to line mine with those silicone baking mats, I think they bake much better. Using a fork, make a crisscross pattern onto the cookie dough. Top with any desired candies or chips.

Bake in the oven for about 11-12 minutes. Cookies will be set and lightly browned, but very soft. Remove from oven and let cool. Makes about 2 dozen bite sized cookies.

5 Things I'm Loving Right Now

It's been awhile since we've sat down and chatted. A whole month dedicated to freezer cooking has passed us and I don't think I talked about much else during that duration. So pull up and chair and let's get comfy for a bit!

Last week was a tough one for our family. After struggling for almost three years, my uncle lost his battle to cancer. He's had a very difficult summer and these past few weeks have been hard watching him suffer with pain.  A family friend posted this on her Facebook page and it seems so fitting. Even through our tears, we can be comforted in knowing that he's not suffering anymore.

Okay moving on to happier subjects! Even though I want summer to stay forever, I think I'm ready to enjoy some of those fall comfort foods. Erin from Table for Seven shared these baked doughnuts on her Facebook page today. I haven't made doughnuts in a long time, I might have to wipe the dust off my pan and bake a batch of these!

We're down to our last full week of summer vacation. Soon my Sunday afternoons will be spent prepping for the upcoming week. Do you do any meal prepping during the weekend? I love this recent post from MOMables. Lots of great tips!

This was an interesting read from last week. Have you ever given much thought into how much food you already have in your home? I know personally, I can look into our pantry and declare I have not a single thing to make. But in all reality that's not true one bit. During our own personal spending strike back in February, we forced ourselves to really use up what we had on hand. That included a lot of produce I had frozen during the summer months. Part of me wonders if some of it might have gone to waste if I hadn't taken on the challenge. Anyways, I thought you might enjoy this article; just a little food for thought.

Need one more quick craft to do with the kiddos before they are sent off to school? I really like this sand castle card from Inner Child Fun. Seems pretty easy,especially for the older ones.

BLT Pizza

Last night was pizza night in our house. My usual batch of dough makes enough for three pizzas, plenty to feed our family of five even at our hungriest and then usually a little bit of leftovers for lunch the next day. I took advantage of some leftover chicken and made our favorite buffalo chicken pizza and also another favorite, ham with mozzarella cheese.

For our third, I wanted to combine a summer favorite: BLTs with pizza. My tomatoes are slowly starting to ripen, which is probably a good thing so I won't be overwhelmed all at once. Our youngest is constantly checking on them in the garden and pleading to just have one. She's eating the cherry tomatoes as fast as I can get to them!

I managed to gather a few before she could get to them and thought of incorporating them into our pizza night. Along with some cooked, crumbled bacon and lettuce; it was very delicious. As for the sauce, I was a little torn. I couldn't imagine spreading mayo on my pizza, it just didn't seem very appealing. Ranch dressing would probably be good, but then that would leave me to eat a whole pizza myself. So I decided on a traditional tomato sauce.

Made just like any regular pizza but adding in bacon, lettuce and tomato; I really like this new version. If you think you'd like ranch or mayo better, go for it! Tailor your food to suite your own tastes. And be sure to let me know what you think!


BLT Pizza

Ingredients:
Pizza dough for one crust
6 slices bacon, cooked
pizza sauce
2 cups mozzarella cheese
handful of cut lettuce
4 cherry tomatoes, diced
Ranch dressing, for serving

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a pizza pan or stone. Using a little bit of extra flour, roll out pizza dough to fit pan. Spread sauce over dough. Take three slices of bacon, crumble and layer over the sauce. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on how brown you like your crust and cheese.

Remove pizza from oven and immediately layer on lettuce, tomatoes and remaining three slices of bacon. Cut into slices, serve with ranch dressing on the side if desired.

Strawberry Lemonade

I took a much needed break from blogging over the weekend, after lots of extra cooking and baking in July it was relaxing to have a few days off. We're busy getting ready for school, only two weeks left of summer break. Eeek, where has the time gone?! I'm still not sure where I'm headed, I've enjoyed the summer with my girls no doubt but I won't lie. I'm stressing, I know the perfect job will land in my lap but it's so hard being patient and giving God all the control.

As for our weekend; it was pretty relaxing for the most part. Here are just a couple of our highlights:

Our church volunteers their time at our local food bank the first Saturday of every month. My girls are a little familiar with the food bank because I took them with me to volunteer last December. Our family had planned to help out in both June and July but each time they decided they either didn't have enough work for us or because it was the holiday weekend they were not going to work. I couldn't make up my mind regarding August. Some of us had other things going on so we couldn't go as a family. I decided I would rather sleep in and be lazy on Saturday. Well, Friday afternoon I get an email asking if I could help out, even though it was really late notice. Divine intervention? I think so. Our 6-year old and I had a great time volunteering our Saturday morning. It felt much better to help out where needed than to be lazy at home.

We then spent our Saturday evening at a local baseball game. Our good friend is a manager for one of the local bowling alleys, occasionally they will take their bowling pin mascot to these events to visit with the kids and hand out some bowling goodies. The girls loved getting their pics taken. Can you guess who's behind that costume? Yes, the hubby of course! He was a good sport.

Sunday afternoon we spent much of our time at the pool, it was a great day for it too! When we got home, I mixed up some of this strawberry lemonade for us to cool down with. It was very refreshing! Instead of using sugar, I substituted some local honey as the sweetener. It was perfect, the strawberries are already sweet enough and you still get that nice tartness from the lemons.

Of course it doesn't make a whole lot and lemons are so darn expensive this time of year. $0.77 each and when you need a lot it adds up quickly. But it was worth it, the little girls and I got to relax outside for a bit before dinner and they felt pretty special drinking out of those mason jars.

Strawberry Lemonade

Ingredients:
5-6 lemons
1 lb. strawberries
1/3 cup honey
1 cup hot tap water
4 cups cold water
Ice, for serving

Directions:
In a blender puree the strawberries with the juice of one half of lemon after they've been washed and hulled. Make sure to save a few for garnishes, if desired. Strain the puree through a mesh sieve to remove the seeds. You should end up with a little over one cup of puree.

In a large pitcher combine juice of all lemons with honey and hot water. Mix together well to incorporate honey. Add in strawberry puree and mix well. Then pour in cold water and stir again.

You may serve immediately with ice or chill in the fridge for a bit. Garnish with additional strawberries or lemon slices if desired.