Bad *** pasta

Do you have an inner bad-ass that is just dying to be let out?  You know, that little voice inside your head that says things like, "daaaaayum, you GO girl".  See, I may be a crunchy, granola, Mother-Earth kind of girl, but don't be fooled.  I've got some serious inner bad-ass.

So the other day I was getting my first opportunity of the day to sit down and relax.  As I happily reached for my iPad to log into Pinterest, I realized it was 5:30 and I had 3 minis staring at me, expecting me to feed them.  Being the loving mom that I am, I set aside my iPad (telling myself that I was getting these 3 minis into bed ASAP because my Pinterest account was screaming my name) and went to work in the kitchen.  And that's when my inner bad-ass told me to crank up the Flo-Rida and start cooking.

So I started by roasting some bell peppers that I had harvested from the garden that morning.  

As soon as I saw my peppers blackening under that open flame I knew that I was a force to be reckoned with that night in the kitchen.  So I chopped up some garlic and onion and sauteed them in some olive oil.

At this point, Flo-Rida was singing Wild One, and I was inspired to tap into my inner wild side, so I reached for a package of chicken sausage.  And, guess what?  My inner wild side doesn't care that this chicken sausage has more than 5 ingredients, so it got chopped and sauteed as well.

At this point, I was on a roll, so I threw in some sundried tomatoes as well.

I tossed it all together with some whole wheat pasta noodles, and topped with fresh shredded parmesan.

Delish.  Seriously.  Flo-Rida would be proud to know that he inspired such bad-ass pasta.

I loved this pasta.  Mr. McGhee loved this pasta.  My minis loved this pasta.  My sweet snuggly middle mini LOVED this pasta.  And, now I am a little concerned that he has a screamin' inner bad-ass as well.

Heids McGhee's bad-ass pasta

• bell peppers (I used red, orange, and yellow)
• diced onion 
• diced garlic (2-10 cloves, depends on how bad you really want to be!)
• olive oil
• chicken sausage, sliced
• sun-dried tomato packed in oil (sliced)
• whole wheat pasta
• fresh shredded parmesan cheese

1.  Roast bell peppers.

2.  Saute garlic and onion in olive oil for a couple of minutes.  Add chicken sausage and saute until browned.

3.  Add sun-dried tomato and saute an additional minute or two.

4.  Toss chicken mixture with roasted peppers and pasta.  Top with cheese.

Pesto Pizza

I apologize, but I can't stop talking about my garden.  It is gorgeous and overflowing.  And whenever I am out working in my garden, I can't stop the "OMG, I am actually good at this" train of thought in my head.  My basil was overflowing, so I had to cut it all down and whip up a batch of pesto.  (I also saved a small amount of my basil, in order to make basil cocktails.  All for the sake of this blog, of course.  See what I do for my readers.)

Pesto

• 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese

Directions

1.  Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. 

2.  Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

3.  If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.

If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.  (I freeze mine in an ice-cube tray.)

The possibilities of pesto are endless.....pasta, pesto grilled cheese, pesto chicken, pesto sandwich spread, and my favorite....pesto pizza!

Pesto Pizza

• pizza crust (cauliflower pizza crust, no knead-focaccia, or store-bought premade crust)
• pesto
• fresh grated mozzarella cheese (you must buy a chunk of mozz and grate it yourself.  No pre-shredded, please!)
• sliced tomatoes

1.  Prepare your crust.

2.  Slather crust with pesto.

3.  Top with cheese.

4.  Arrange sliced tomatoes.

5.  Bake according to the directions based on your crust.

Crust, slathered with pesto.  Resist temptation to lick the crust.  

Load up with cheese.  Shove handfuls of cheese in your mouth and then yell at the minis when they try to do the same.

Layer with gorgeous tomatoes from your garden.  Don't have a garden?  Go to a farmer's market.  Don't put crappy store-bought tomatoes on this pizza.

Bake to perfection.

Now I am a girl that is known for being to pack away the food.  Seriously.  I could have eaten this entire pizza myself.  But, I am a selfless mother that remembers to feed my minis, so I did share.  Next time, I'm making two.

Fancy Water

Are we all out happily shopping for new wardrobes, thanks to all the weight we've dropped from drinking sassy water?  OK, so my suspicions were correct....sassy water doesn't actually help you to lose weight.  But it does make you feel sassy, sophisticated, and hydrated.

Something else I have started drinking is called Fancy Water.  Fancy water is basically a homemade raspberry-flavored water.  It's super easy to put together.  And it's very tasty.  And it's super fancy, so the next time your fancy friends come over, pour them a glass.

Fancy water

• fresh raspberries
• water
• mint leaves

1.  Pour a container of raspberries into a glass pitcher.

2.  Add a bunch of mint leaves.

3.  Fill pitcher with water.

4.  Let sit over-night and start your morning off feeling fancy the following day.

Back to School

It's nearly back to school time.  That means parents everywhere are shedding tears of sadness while they jump for joy.  

I always try to do something special on that first morning that I send my minis off to school each year.  I figure the memory of a special breakfast will erase the memory of my "hurry up, grab your 100 pound backpack, remember your swim bag, are you kidding-me-you-didn't-do-a-summer-educational-project?, don't you dare forget that all-organic-homemade lunch I got up at 4 am to pack" rant.  

This year I plan on making my minis a dutch baby.  A dutch baby is basically an egg-based pancake that puffs up when baked.  The minis will love it.  And it has an easy prep time of 5 minutes.  I can prep and toss it in the oven.  Head upstairs and drag the minis out of bed and get them ready in time to take it out of the oven.  

Ingredients.

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp butter

1. HEAT oven to 450°F. WHISK eggs, milk, flour, sugar and salt in medium bowl until smooth.
2. PLACE butter in 9-inch metal pie plate or 9 or 10-inch ovenproof skillet. HEAT in oven to melt butter, about 2 minutes. TILT plate to coat evenly with butter.
3. POUR batter into hot pie plate. BAKE in 450°F oven 8 minutes. Reduce oven setting to 375°F. CONTINUE baking until pancake is golden brown and sides are puffy, 8 to 10 minutes. CUT into wedges. SERVE immediately.

Dutch babies are traditionally served with powdered sugar and lemon wedges.  I will serve mine with fruit....strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.  It would also be delicious with 100% pure maple syrup.  Make sure your minis get a peek of it while it is still puffed up and in the oven because it flattens quickly.  Call it their summer educational project.

Crockpot Fajita

I was having one of those days and then I remembered when all else fails, make Mexican!  I love Mexican food.  It's easy.  It's easy.  It's tasty.  Everyone eats it without complaining.  And nobody judges you when you pour yourself a nice tall glass of iced tequila to drink with your dinner.  

And then, after dinner, all the minis are left wondering what the heck it is about Mexican food that makes mama so happy?

I tried this recipe a couple of weeks ago and I quickly realized it will be added to my school-year dinner rotation.  It was very easy and everyone loved it.

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas 

• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 3 sweet peppers, sliced
• 1 ½ pounds boneless chicken breast or thighs (I did a mix of both)
• ½ cup chicken broth
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
• Squirt of lime juice
• Tortillas
• Fajita fixings (avocado, sour cream, salsa, etc)

1.  Combine sliced onion and peppers in the bottom of a greased crockpot. 

2.  Lay chicken on top of veggies. Pour chicken broth over top. 

3.  Sprinkle everything with cumin, salt, and chili powder. 

4.  Give a nice quirt of lime juice over the top. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (or on High for 4-6 hours). 

5.  When meat is done, shred with two forks and stir back into juices. Serve meat mixture with slotted spoon on tortillas with your choice of fixings.

Peppers and onions on the first layer.

Chicken and spices on the next layer.

Cooked, shredded, and ready to be served.

Delish! 

Milk?!?!?

Does anyone else hear the term almond milk and have one of these moments?

I don't know.  I was always under the impression that in order for something to produce milk, it needed to have....errr.....milkers.  

Apparently that is not the case.  Due to many people discovering they are lactose-intolerant, there has been a recent surge in cow-milk alternatives.....soy, coconut, rice, hemp, and almond.  And, if you notice, none of these have...errr....milkers.

Almond milk is basically made by soaking almonds in water, blending the almond/water mixture, and then straining the remaining almond pieces.  According to this website, almond milk is a good source of magnesium, manganese, selenium, and Vitamin E.  That means it's good for your bones, immunity, cell membranes, and thyroid function.  Almond milk is a source of unsaturated fat, protein, flavanoids, and potassium.  

The great thing about almond milk is that we can make our own.  A while back, I followed this tutorial and made a batch of almond milk that lasted a whopping 5 minutes in my house. So, I am being completely honest here.....I have been cheating and buying my almond milk.  And lately, I have been really bad and buying flavored almond milk (dark chocolate AND vanilla).  

My minis love almond milk (especially dark chcolate) and my minis love smoothies.  So, I guess it would make sense that they use almond milk in nearly all their smoothies.  Here are the ones I have shared so far:

1.  Chocolate Shake Smoothie

2.  Pumped up and Buff smoothie

3.  Peanut butter and spinach smoothie

And, remember chia Pudding?  You need almond milk for that too.

So make some almond milk.  Or cheat and buy some.  A friend of mine shared this recipe with me yesterday and you should use your almond milk to whip up a batch.  It's totally delish.

Monkey Maddness Smoothie

• kiwi
• mango
• ginger
• strawberries
• kefir (he suggests peach, I would use plain homemade yogurt or plain keifer and add 1/2 of a fresh peach)
• cinnamon
• dark chocolate or vanilla almond milk 

 1.  Blend and enjoy!

Remember my friend Deb?  Deb told me the other day that her minis do not drink smoothies.  I was stunned and speechless (I mean, really, her minis do not drink smoothies?!?!?)  Then I remembered that once I made a smoothie that my minis turned their noses up at, and then I tricked them into eating it by pouring it into popsicle molds.  It worked!  So ever since then, whenever I have leftover smoothie, I make them into a popsicle.  And then I win best-mommy-ever award when I offer the minis popsicles for breakfast!  And that cancels out the worst-mommy-ever award when I make them eat chia seeds for breakfast.

Grilled cheeeeeese

One of my goals when I we decided to give up processed foods was to make all of our baked goods.  And I did come up with a delish bread recipe that takes about 2 minutes of prep work.  That being said, I haven't made a loaf of bread yet this summer.  


And it's all because of these guys.


Before I go on, I want to say that I am not paid to endorse Great Harvest Bread Company.  And even though I go there 2 times a week, they have no clue that I am a food blogger that occasionally obsesses over them.  But the reason that I continue to promote, gush, and rave about them is their bread is amazing.  And the fact that the lovely ladies at the counter remember to ask my minis how their new puppy is doing each week is an added bonus.  


I always buy honey wheat bread for my family.  (And I always let my minis have a free sample of the cinnamon roll bread).  But this week I decided to go crazy and try something new....the Dakota bread.


Oh My Goodness.  The Dakota bread is proof that God loves us and wants us to happily eat our whole grains.

I don't even know what all is in the Dakota bread, but I know that I trust my friends from Great Harvest and it is healthy.  And amazingly delish.


I decided to make grilled cheese with our Dakota bread.  In the past I have blogged about grilled cheese on the honey wheat bread, and I do believe I declared it the best school-lunch inspired meal ever.  Well, today I  am going to share yet another best-ever grilled cheese recipe.


Heids McGhee's Grilled Cheese

• bread 
• pesto
• spinach
• avocado
• cheese (I used muenster and goat)
• butter
• olive oil

When it comes to pesto, I am sort of a purist and make basil pesto.  (That being said, someone has suggested to me that I try kale pesto with my overabundance of garden kale.)  You can make (or buy, if you must) whatever pesto you prefer.

1.  Butter one side of each slice of bread.

2.  On the other side of each slice, slather on some pesto.

3.  Layer spinach leaves, avocado, and cheese on a slice of bread.

4.  Top with the remaining slice, butter side up.

5.  If you want to be really bad (and I was bad, but justified it by telling myself I did run 6 miles that morning), heat up a little olive oil in a pan.

6.  Grill your sandwich in the pan until each side is browned.

Slather with pesto.  Lick the knife.

Layer on spinach.  Lots of spinach.  It's good for you.  

(Next time I will also add artichoke).

Cheese.  Muenster for the McGhees.

Slices of avocado.  Save leftovers for guacamole.

Sprinkle some goat cheese.

Grill to perfection.

We ate our grilled cheese with zucchini chips and fresh pineapple.  And it was one of those meals where the food was so good that there was silence.  Well, mostly silent, except for my occasional outburst of "BAM! Mama makes some grilled cheese!"