Fresh fruit smoothies

Although he's not writing it, we'll pretend that this is a guest post from Justin since he was the one who started this smoothie jazz....actually, his brother Tony is the initiator so we can give him props as well!  We shall call these recipe postings from the realms of his mind "Justin's Tasties".  Nice ring to it, huh? I bought a food processor/blender thingie this Spring and have never used a kitchen appliance more...I am in love with the thing.  Like I get legit squirmy/anxiety when Justin tries to use it...I don't want him breaking my precious piece of kitchen equipment. 

Well, we went to the grocery store Sunday afternoon and Justin starts picking up all this fresh fruit....Whaaaaaa?  Bananas (which I happen to have a serious dislike for but are actually decently tasty in a smoothie), strawberries, honeycrisp apples, etc.  Usually when he buys a sack of fruit that he plans on eating, I end up throwing it out when it gets squishy in the fridge....but folks, THE STRAWBERRIES ARE GONE, WE NEED MORE BANANAS, and I SAW HIM EAT AN APPLE (granted it had caramel on it but you gotta start somewhere). 

So, I start wondering to myself....should I try one of these smoothie creations?  So I did.  And Justin wins. This is a great way to start your day and stay full for quite a while, and a great way to get the vits you need from fruit without having to chow down on it all day.

I added a half a banana (remember I have a very irrational hatred for them so there was no way I was adding a whole one), 4 strawberries, a plain yogurt, 1/4 cup skim milk, 1/4 cup orange juice, and 1 T peanut butter (this was my addition for some protein).....

Now....Vrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee   vreeeeee vreeeeee vreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  Liquify that fruit and throw it in the fridge.  He started doing it in the morning at first and had to add ice cubes because it was pretty warm, but if you do it in the evening and throw it in the fridge to grab right away in the morning, it's easier all around!

I just knew I would find a great use for the cups I stole from the cruise ship in February...perfect! Although wouldn't it be great to be sitting in a chair on the beach with my feet in the ocean drinking a miami vice rather than mixing up a healthy fruit smoothie for a pre-run meal??  Man, now I'm depressed....ain't life a B??!

Laura's spagetti sauce

My mom's friend Laura is a legit Italian.  I used to babysit for her chillins when I was younger, and I remember the homemade pizza like it was yesterday...I'm talking from scratch, no refridgerated crusts here, people. She always made her own bread too, the smells in this house were amazing!

Well, I happened to get to go out to lunch with Mama K and Laura a while back and somehow touched on the subject that I was looking for a good pasta sauce recipe for the gazillion tomatoes that would be coming up soon.  Could I have mentioned this around a better lunch partner?? Not in a million...

So she scribbled down her ingredient list, gave me some instructions, and I couldn't wait to get enough tomatoes to give it a shot.  Well, my tomatoes first started coming in smaller batches...and I had some Mrs. Wages packets so I cheated and used those for my first two smaller attempts at pasta sauce. A couple weeks ago, my luck changed and my bounty was ready to be harvested!! I had more tomatoes that I knew what to do with...so I knew it was time!

4 pork chops

olive oil

tomato sauce

tomato paste

fresh basil

sugar

minced garlic

I added:

turkey pepperonis

onions

mushrooms

ground italian sausage

diced tomatoes, drained

4 jalopenos, whole

Sear the pork chops (bone in) in your stock pot with olive oil.

Add all other ingredients....I went by instinct/taste for amounts since I was making such a large batch. I also used my own tomatoes that I blanched to remove the skin and blended up to make juice.  The spagetti sauce link above will show you this method if you have whole tomatoes to use....I added the jalopenos to the blending so there are no chunks, it's liquified heat added to the sauce. My little helper is adding ingredients to the pot as I prepare them....

We took the bones off the pork chops at this point and let the sauce simmer overnight (setting the alarm to stir every so often of course).  Simmering for 5-6 hours is the key to great pasta sauce in my opinion...it melds all the flavors together so perfectly, and basically melts/disintegrates the pork chops to add taste without huge chunks of pork....believe me, this takes a while but it is totally worth it!

You will never catch me buying pasta sauce at the store again....

And in true food hoarder fashion, I canned the whole stockpot full (although I did freeze 4 pints).  Some people, Laura included, are not fans of canning the sauce since freezing takes less time and keeps it for the same length of time.  With a cow, a pig, my Sam's Club seafood hoard, the frozen green beans from the garden, and frozen sweet corn I do each year taking up my freezer space, I like to have the canning option available to me and just store my hoard of sauce, salsa, and pickles downstairs and out of the way. 

Freezin is the easier option,  but if you would like to can your sauce, directions for canning are here and are pretty simple if you have the time. Either way, if you have a free afternoon, do yourself a favor and enter the world of homemade pasta sauce....I would bet the farm that you won't be returning to the other side!  Thanks for the authentic recipe, Laura!!

Parmesan roasted broccoli

This recipe is from the Food Network's website, so you know it's been tested and approved by many!  I always make my broccoli the same way, so I'm in turn always looking for a new recipe to shake it up.  This included pine nuts as well, and I just so happened to have a little jar (holy eff, that stuff is expensive!) in the pantry to use.

My standard way of preparing broccoli is to steam it, and then add fresh cracked salt and pepper, and some reduced fat parmesan cheese on top....I'm telling you, I can eat my weight in the stuff, and you don't want to know how much that is! Justin thinks I should stick with our normal recipe but I thought this one was pretty tasty and little different than normal....although with the addition of the olive oil, I will probably stick with my standard method most of the time to keep calories in check.

1 bunch broccoli
olive oil
4 minced garlic cloves
cracked salt and pepper to taste
2 T lemon juice
3 T pine nuts
1/2 cup reduced fat parmesan cheese
2 T ripped basil leaves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Toss the broccoli with all the ingredients except for parmesan and lemon juice before throwing into a greased baking sheet. 

Roast for 20-25 minutes (or until florets and pine nuts are browning), stirring a couple times throughout cook time. Toss with lemon juice and parmesan cheese. Serve that shizz.

Doesn't that look nummy!?  So glad I grew into a veggie lover from my veggie hater status as a kid....

Baked herbed tilapia

If you like seafood, and need a meal in 20 minutes from start to plate with ingredients most people have in their fridge and spice rack, you're in the right place!

2 skinless tilapia fillets
ground salt and pepper
1 T fat free mayo
1 T parsley
1 T dill weed
lemon wedges for serving, optional

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Place fillets in a baking dish, and season with desired amount of salt and pepper.  Divide mayo evenly over the top of the fillets, and then sprinkle the fish with parsley and dill evenly as well.

Bake until opaque throughout, about 15 minutes. This literally takes 5 minutes to prep...perfect for a weeknight meal!

I really enjoyed this meal, as tilapia is one my fave fishies since it's so mild.  The mayo gave it a little creaminess with not much added fat and the dill was a great touch to give it some different flavor.  I don't think Justin was impressed though...when he saw it before I put it in the oven he went out to the shop nonchalantly and got a pizza out of the deep freeze to sneak in the oven while this cooked.  I've been trying to cut calories so portion sizes are smaller and I'm going as low cal as possible, and he's very supportive most of the time.  He usually likes tilapia but I think the mayo scared him....I did get him to chomp on a side of broccoli though!

And he saw me eyeballing the rest of the pizza so he went to the pan, spit on all of them and then put them on his plate, and proceeded to eat the. whole. thing.  He knew the pizza would stare at me and whisper my name every time I opened the fridge if he had leftovers (pizza is sort of my achilles heel when trying to cut weight), so he took one for the team....now that's love! Haha!

FAT STATS (for the tilapia, not the pizza!)
231 cals
7 grams of fat (this was with light mayo not with fat free so I would think it would be significantly lower than this)
41.6 g protein
1.5 g carbs

Balsamic parmesan green beans with mushrooms

Easy as sin and just as tasty! We had a little trip South to Chariton to see my mom's side of the family this weekend, and you can't really beat a couple of great grillouts with the fam!  We headed to Aunt Vicki and Uncle Mike's Saturday evening for a dinner cookout with a pretty huge spread....my cousin Michelle made homemade mac and cheese (I will need the recipe for that), Grandma Theda made her brownies which for some reason are better than any brownie in the world as well as a cake, Aunt Vicki had burgers, brats, and a potato mix ready to throw on, and Aunt Christi brought the yummiest veggie tray with peppers and these sugar snap peas that were to die for!!  This was my contribution to the festivities and I was very happy with how it turned out...

1 large ziplock bag
1 lb fresh green beans (hard ends snapped off)
2 large portabello mushrooms, cut into bite sized pieces
2 T olive oil
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Clean and trim the beans and the mushrooms before adding them to your large ziplock bag.  Add all ofther ingredients to the bag and combine thouroughly and all the veggies are covered evenly, before throwing into your greased baking dish.  Cover with tin foil and throw in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Or you can throw them on the grill, or over an open fire, all the while stirring and heating. 

I have sort of a love affair with fresh green beans going on so I may be biased but I just loved these.  I used some of the green beans from our garden that I had frozen before (check HERE if you want a tutorial on how to do this) and I have been very happy with how these green beans work in recipes.  Besides that, anything with balsamic on it has my heart, so the taste of these mushrooms after they soaked the juice up was amazing!  I may have a new fave green bean recipe to throw in the mix....

Pizza casserole

Got kids? Having kids for dinner? That didn't sound right, how about this: Having kids OVER for dinner?  Pizza to the rescuuuuuuue!  This is a whole heckuva lot less greasy than take out, tastes as good as pizza, feeds an army (including toddlers), and is easy to make ahead so it's hands off when you're trying to wrangle the little peeps...plus I skinnied it up a bit :)

We had a special guest over for dinner, so I wanted to try this recipe out on her.  Little Ms. Delaney Jones pictured here with Baby...

And counting with daddy:

I made this the night before so I could just throw it in the oven and I think she ate more of it than her daddy did! Here's what you need:

1 bag egg noodles (no yolks)
1 extra large can of spagetti sauce
3 cups shredded mozzerella cheese (2 %)
1.5 lbs hamburger (you could def use turkey here, I just happen to have a large bovine in my freezer to use)
1 package pepperonis (I use turkey pepperonis because you literally can't tell the difference)
1 can mushrooms, drained

Boil  your noodles per the package instructions. Brown your hamburger in a skillet, I added a can of mushrooms for good measure.  I would have added onions if we didn't have an onion hater in our midst...and no, it wasn't the 2 year old!  We went onionless for Christina :) I also added a lot, and I mean A LOT of italian seasoning at this point. I didnt measure, just dumped till it tasted yummy!

Grease your baking dish with Pam and spread a layer of spagetti sauce on the bottom to prevent stickage (yes, that's a word in my book).

Now layer in half the noodles, and then half the meat mixture....

Now half the sauce on top.  Now add the rest of the noodles, then half the cheese, the rest of the meat, the rest of the sauce, and then the rest of the cheese.  Finally, throw a layer of pepperoni on top with another few dashes of italian seasoning.

Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes. Once it's done baking, take it out and let it sit for 10 minutes so it can cool off and settle together, otherwise it just falls apart on your fork.

Add a little parmesan cheese and some cracked red pepper and dig on in! We fed 4 adults (with one going back for a huge helping of seconds) and one child and still had a decent amount of leftovers so I woult think this would easily serve 6 adults and a few children. 

And this doesn't have to be just for kids...the Trix rabbit would be pumped!  Justin killed the leftovers last night and here was his review: "NOMNOMNOM you need to NOMNOMNOM make this NOMNOMNOM again NOM soon NOM. It's like goulash NOMNOM but better. No, its like NOMNOM spagetti and pizza combined NOM.  Whatever, NOMNOM, its just really good so make it again NOM."

Light lasagna soup

Mrs. Michelle had a soup contest at work.  Mrs. Michelle wanted to win.  Mrs. Michelle wanted to try a different soup than the standard chicken noodle or chili recipe she thought everyone else would try.  My obsession with Pinterest finally paid off when she asked if I had any good soup recipes...although I hadn't given this recipe a shot yet, literally everyone and their mother had pinned it and the pictures looked TO DIE FOR! 

I will let her text message to me the night she made it do the talking...."Oooohhhh mmmmyyyyy ggggoooodddd Abby! If people don't pick my soup they don't deserve to have tastebuds! The lasgna soup is freaking out of this world!" 

Endquote. And I didn't add any of the extra letters for effect, those were all her.  So, needless to say, I will be making this as soon as I can get my butt to the store to get the ingredients, but thought I should pass it along to you all as well since it seemed to be such a hit!!

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 pound Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (32-ounce) container chicken broth
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
4 ounces broken whole-wheat lasagna noodles (about 4 noodles)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup reduced-fat shredded mozzarella cheese
8 Whole-wheat breadsticks or grissini (optional)

Instructions:

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large nonstick saucepot or Dutch oven. Add the sausage, onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sausage is crumbled and browned, 8 – 10 minutes.

Add the broth, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, salt, and crushed red pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the flavors are blended, about 20 minutes. Add the noodles; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the soup thickens slightly and the noodles are tender, 10 – 12 minutes. Serve with the breadsticks, if using. (whole-wheat lasagna noodles take a little longer to cook.)

Fat Stats:
Per Serving (1 cup) 225 Cal (27% from Fat, 42% from Protein, 31% from Carb); 23 g Protein; 7 g Tot Fat; 2 g Sat Fat; 2 g Mono Fat; 17 g Carb; 2 g Fiber; 4 g Sugar; 108 mg Calcium; 3 mg Iron; 826 mg Sodium; 53 mg Cholesterol