Turkey Taco Tuesday

Here's a quick healthy weeknight meal to make!
Turkey Tacos 3 different ways
Turkey Taco meat
Sautée 1/2 sweet onion and bell peppers in olive oil until soft
Add extra lean turkey meat and brown
Season with salt, garlic powder, lemon pepper, red pepper, paprika and chili powder
Let cook through

I always make pinto beans and a pot of rice with this

The girls love the taco meat as quesadilla with avocado and cheese
Or
Build your own taco bowl-
Layer rice, beans, lettuce, taco meat, cheese, avocado and tomatoes

Jerry and I usually make taco salad with it
Or last night turkey taco in lettuce cups

Happy taco Tuesday!

Protein Pancakes

Several years ago I started making what I call protein pancakes. If you knew me right after college, you probably heard about this recipe.
The original recipe
4 egg whites
1/2 c oats
spoonful of fav jam/fruit preserve
blend and cook like a normal pancake
Over the years my mom and I have come up with all sorts of different versions.
Here is a version I made to have for quick bfasts this week
I made a big batch (same ratios as above)

12 egg whites
1 1/2 c of gluten free oat flour (its what I had so I used, i normally used gluten free oats)
1/2 cup of frozen blueberries
1 banana
lots of cinnamon
you can also add agave to make it a lil sweeter

 

Blend it all up together

Pour on sheet pan, sprayed with cocunut oil spray

Bake at 350 until they are cooked all the way through, they will prob crack

I didn't say they were the prettiest, although the girls thought they were bc they were purple!

Pancakes for fast bfasts for the girls this week ready to go!
I warm them up and spread cocunut oil on instead of butter. My girls LOVE cocunut oil!

 

You really can't go wrong with all different kinds of fruit/vegs combinations. Zuchhini really goes well in them! I'll feature more good combinations...

Chicken Salad version 2.0

Do you prepare meals for the week on Sunday/Monday? I am not one to prepare all our meals for the week-I actually enjoy cooking and love making fresh meals for us every night but I like making batches of healthy fast quick meals to have in the fridge to eat on and snack on during the week. Makes it a lot easier to eat healthy when you have things ready to eat.
Chicken and tuna salad is one of those things.
I know I made chicken salad last week but this week I made a different version.
I took a shortcut and used a store bought roasted chicken

Deboned, deskinned and chopped it up
Chopped sweet onion and sweet bellpeppers in red, orange and yellow and chopped italian parsley
Seasoned with Tony's and one spoon of olive oil mayo

Fish Friday

If you knew me in college, you knew I was obsessed with 2 things: Salmon and Spinach Salad.
Well, 2 pregnancies later I can no longer eat raw spinach. If it is hidden in a mixed salad and it touches my tongue, my gag reflex kicks in immediately!
BUT I still love Salmon!!!
I cook salmon usually once a week.

Here's Jerry's favorite way-
Place on broiler pan
Season with touch of olive oil, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar
Salt, red pepper, garlic powder, lemon pepper, basil and oregano
Broil for like 10 mins prob max
You have to watch it bc the broiler cooks it so fast, and you dont want to over cook it but I do not like it under cook it so I really watch it pretty closely.

I cooked this for lunch one day so I would have salmon just to eat on for the week and didn't get a picture.....Will get one next week!
I wish I could say my girls ate salmon but so far havent been successful. It is a strong fish though but if they keep seeing us eat it, they will eventually.
They do like other lighter fishes like tilapia and Giuliana loves tuna...
Those recipes to come!

If you didn't know...NOW you do!

This is my new FAVORITE thing!
If you didn't already know about this, now you do!
LOVE THIS!
I use this for cooking eggs in the morning, roasting veggies in oven when I need a non stick spray.
I make egg white muffins about once a week for easy fast bfasts and I always wiped cocunut oil on the tins bc i wanted the cocunut oil but now I use this!
LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!!

Meditteranean Lamb, 3 Dishes

Another Meditteranean post.
So you would think that since I am 1/2 lebanese and eat and cook lebanese food A LOT, lamb would be a staple in my house. Well it is, but not until this year. I never ate it growing up. It was one of those things I assumed I didn't like, so I never ate....
Well, this past year a good friend who is Indian cooked lamb and I tried it and it was delicious! HA! So at 30, this Lebanese girl decided she liked lamb! And my girls LOVE it.
I make this simple lamb and its so versatile. This dish is a version of what my good friend cooked me that got me to like it!
Sautee 1/2 onion and 3 fresh garlic pressed
Add 1 lb of ground lamb (i use a lean, young ground lamb)
**you can do more than 1 lb at a time and many times I do, because it makes lots of several fast meals**
Season with salt, red pepper, lemon pepper, cinnamon and tumeric
Let meat brown and cook all the way through
That's it!

For the girls I serve it over rice with Tzatzki sauce on top
Tzatzki Sauce
greek yogurt
chopped fresh mint and basil
1-2 fresh garlic pressed (the more, the spicer and stronger it will be)
you can put chopped fine cucumber and onion too

 

 

This is a really bad picture, I had 2 very hungry girls and couldnt stop for a proper picture....
It was one of those days where we played outside and came in and they were ready to eat and I couldn't get the plates to the table fast enough!
I also added cucumbers and cherry tomatoes halved on their plate for veggies.

For Jerry and I, I made a simple salad and put the ground lamb on top and used the Tzatziki as the dressing.

It makes great pita's too. Lamb, lettuce, tomatoe and tzatziki sauce!

Ground Lamb
3 Different Ways
1. Over rice
2. Salad
3. Pitas

One Pot Dinners

As a busy momma, I cook a lot of one pot dinners. Basically, throwing everything in one pot, seasoning it, throwing it in the oven, forgetting about it and then bam...its ready when you need it! I know most people use the crockpot for the same use, but I'm sorry I just can't get into the crockpot. I think its because my momma never used one and so I never have and honestly, really dont think I will...it's just not my style....but never say never.
So are ya'll tired of chicken recipes, because I here is another chicken recipe :)
Another version of baked chicken.

I threw all of the following in a pyrex-
chicken breasts
1/2 sweet onion
1 red bell pepper
3 carrots
4 raw garlic
Seasoned with salt, lemon pepper, garlic powder, cinnamon and red pepper (noticing a trend, I season everything pretty much the same way)
Olive oil, lemon juice and worsteschire
bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hrs

I served over rice for the girls and Jerry and I had the chicken and vegetables with a salad.
You can add quartered potatoes to this and it would be a complete meal.
I promise to cook something other than chicken tomorrow!!!

Rice Dressing

Do certain foods and their smells bring back special memories like the do for me? The smell of rice dressing cooking in the kitchen definitely does for me! Rice dressing is another lebanese dish, usually a side dish. It is a staple at our family holidays and is usually paired with our turkeys on Thanksgiving and Christmas or with our BBQ chicken at Easter. The smell puts me back as a little girl in my Sittee's kitchen, sitting on the coveted orange stool my sisters and I would fight over watching my mom and Sittee cook and prepare for all of our Big FAT LEBANESE Holidays! Those were the days....Miss my Sittee everyday...
Rice dressing has become a staple in my house for my girls. THEY Love it. It is one of those things I like to make a big batch of at the beginning of the week and have in the fridge for the girls to eat on.
Recipe-
Sautee onion in olive oil until soft
Add 1 lb of your choice of ground meat (I do grass fed beef or lamb)
Break up meat and brown your meat all the way through
Once meat is cooked pour Kitchen Bouqet (liquid browning sauce you buy at the store) once around the pot (sorry, everything I cook is not by recipe but learned by watching so I never know measurements)
Season with salt, red pepper, garlic powder, and good amount of cinnamon
Stir so everything is mixed well
Add 1/2 cup of rice
Add water 3/4  way up the rice/meat mixture
Cook on med to let water cook out and cook the rice
Once the water is almost all the way cooked out, turn on low and cover pot and let finish cooking.
Top with chopped finely italian parsley

***Most of my family adds toasted pine nuts before adding water but since Jacquelyn has a nut allergy I do not add the pine nuts. But the true recipe calls for them.

This is what I served the girls for lunch. They love it with avocado and of course cucumbers!
You can always make a bigger batch, just use the 1 lb meat to 1/2 cup rice ratio.

Chicken Salad

So today for lunch, I used the leftover roasted chicken to make chicken salad. I make several versions of chicken salad. Lately, I have been OBSESSED with the chicken salad from Zoe's kitchen so I tried making their version.
I put all my leftover de-boned, de-skinned roasted chicken, added 2 stalks of celery and one spoonful of olive oil trader joe's mayonaise and sprinkled Tony's (all purpose seasoning) into my food processor. Pulsed.
Ate it lettuce wrap style with Boston lettuce and cherry tomatoes.
I didn't plan for the girls to eat this with me and made them something else (next post) but Giuliana LOVED it. It was very smooth since I had put it in the food processor so it was easy for her to eat. Would make for good sandwiches for them, but I just fed it to Giuliana with a spoon!
I had about half the chicken left and it made a good amount of chicken salad, probably a pint!

Roasted Chicken

I think one of the easiest and most versatile things to cook is a simple roasted chicken. I roast chicken several different ways. Honestly, between my mom and I, I think we could come up with enough recipes of chicken and rice to fill a whole cookbook. I seriously cook some version of chicken and rice at least twice a week. It's easy, it's fast, my girls love it and it makes versatile leftovers.
Today, I did a basic lemon herb roasted chicken

I washed the chicken, put it on the roasting rack. Rubbed it down with olive oil, the juice of 2 meyer lemons, meyer lemon zest, salt, garlic powder, lemon pepper, red pepper, sweet basil, and oregano. I rubbed it good and spread seasoning in between the breast meat and skin.
I stuffed a lemon sliced in half into the carcass as well.
Baked at 350 for a good 2 hours
I always let my chicken rest after I take it out of the oven for about 5 mins then I cut it and place it on a platter and pour the juice from the bottom of the pan all over.
I cut the chicken by first slicing down the middle of the breasts. I then cut the drumsticks and thighs together then wings. Makes for a pretty platter. The key though is pouring all the juice over the meat!

 

For this meal, I cooked some Trader Joe's butternut squash ravioli, roasted zucchini and a simple salad.

Here is what I served the girls

 To be honest, they were not the biggest fans of the butternut squash ravioli's. They were kind of a bust and wouldn't buy them again. My girls LOVE cucumbers so that is always my go to fresh vegetable to serve to them. We seriously go through so many cucumbers in our house it's crazy. We all love them and probably eat at least 4 cucumbers a day!

 

For Jerry and I, we ate the chicken with salad and roasted zucchini.
I love oven roasted vegetables and you will see that almost every night we have them.
They are so fast and easy.
I usually cook supper in the late afternoon while the girls are napping or playing, so I like to cook things I dont have to think about too much or watch constantly.
I just season with olive oil, salt, red pepper, lemon pepper, basil and oregano and bake at 350 until tender on a foil lined cookie sheet.

The best thing about roasting a chicken is the leftover chicken! The chicken is moist and flavorful and there is endless possiblities of easy fast meals to make with it.
Here are some of our favorites...

Chicken Salad (finely chop chicken, celery, onions, pepers and a lil mayo) then you can stuff it in a tomato or avocado
Chicken Quesadillas (girls love tortilla, avocado, cheese cooked on stovetop quesadilla style)
Chicken Pitas (pita with chicken, topped with tzatziki sauce and tomatoes

Some weeks, when I know its going to be a busy week I will roast two chickens to have the meat on hand to make fast easy meals!

Blogging again?

A few years ago when blogging was new and everyone had a blog, I too blogged. But not really for a reason...! Occasionally, I would post recipes since cooking is one of my passions. Well since I quit, randomly some of my friends will ask me for a recipe and remind me that when I had the blog it was easy for them to go back and find my recipes.
Well, fast forward like 4 years, 2 babies, VERY part time realtor and seriously no time to blog.... now I decide its the perfect time to start a new blog!
As a mom who is on a constant mission to find ways to make my meals easier, faster and healthy for my kids, I thought it would be fun to post the meals I make...wins and failures.
You can learn from my mistakes and hopefully find a new recipe that your family will enjoy too.
My main focus is always cooking things that my girls will like but also satisfies Jerry and me too. Jerry and I usually eat what I cook for the girls. I do not believe in being a short order cook. I cook one supper. If they dont like it, then they can have a bowl of cereal but thats it. That is how my momma raised me and that is how I plan on raising my girls. I'm also determined that my kids will LIKE healthy food and not WANT mac'n cheese everyday!
I will most likely show you what I cook for them and how I serve the same meal to Jerry and I. I am ALWAYS dieting and usually cut down on the amount of carbs me and Jerry eat.
Hoping someone finds benefit from this new blog!

Lebanese Lentil Soup with a Twist

If you don't know, I am half Lebanese. My mom is full blooded Lebanese, so we cook a lot of middle eastern food. My Sittee (arabic for grandma) was the best cook I WILL ever know! One thing that I grew up eating and still enjoy is Dreda. It is a lentil and rice soup. My girls LOVE beans so naturally they love dreda. I recently started added vegetables to it to make it a more complete meal and more nutritious. Our favorite is dreda with carrots and kale.
Recipe-
Sautee 1/2 sweet yellow onion and 2-3 carrots chopped small in olive oil until onions are soft. add 1 cup to 1 1/2 cup of lentils (you can use any kind). Season with salt, red pepper, garlic powder, and cinnamon. Add a quart of chicken stock and bring to a boil. Let cook until lentils are tender. Once lentils are tender add 1/2 cup of rice. Add 1-2 cups of water at this time to make sure you have enough liquid to cook the rice and it still be somewhat soupy. Cover and cook on low-medium. I let my rice cook slowly so I dont cook out all the liquid. Add chopped kale at the end. Taste and re-season if needed with same spices.