90 calorie homemade peppermint brownies

Ok, so I may of fudged a bit they were actual like 92.444 calories and then I sprinkled a little organic powdered sugar on top. :) Never the less yummy! It makes a really light and fluffy brownie. Now, you could cut this into as many slice as you like. I chose to have a good size brownie so I did 9 slices. So an 8 x 8 pan is about 832 calories total.

I haven't really posted recipes since I started my clean eating journey. No particular reason I guess I just didn't realize how little I was focusing on the "chicken" side of my blog. :)

I used the ingredients I already had in my pantry. This was a quick and easy dessert I whipped up on a whim after dinner. Now the clean eating world how this whole "eat clean train dirty" or "you don't have to count calories because your eating whole foods" thought process well....one year and 10 lbs later I'm here to tell ya that's a damn lie! I personally am not a big work out person. I go through whims when I feel the need to run but it soon fades. I'd much rather prefer to count calories or points.

Anywho, so I decided I was going to try and post more recipes. But I wanted to share some clean eating recipes that are low calorie too. With out further a do....

Peppermint Brownies

1/4 cup organic raw cacao powder(coco powder will work)
1/2 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder(regular will work too)
1/4 cup organic unbleached flour(all-purpose flour will work)
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup coconut sugar(brown sugar will work)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
DoTERRA Peppermint oil
*optional organic powder sugar

My husband is always nagging about "the mess" I make in the kitchen. So when I made this I used a few dishes as possible.

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. oil an 8 x8 pan and set aside ( I cheated and used coconut oil spray from Trader Joes)

3. Mix together the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs and vanilla until well blended. Gently mix in your cacao, baking powder, and flour. Last, add in a drop of peppermint oil. It is almost impossible to get one drop so tilt it slowly. :) I pretty much wasted a drop b/c I DID NOT want more than one drop b/c that stuff is strong.

4. Bake for 14 mins, set out, and let it cool.

Now even if you make the non clean ingredient version the calorie count shouldn't really change. I know coconut sugar actually has 1 extra calorie per serving than regular sugar.

**optional** sprinkle about a teaspoon of organic powder sugar over the brownies

Enjoy :)

Look at that huge piece of deliciousness for just 93 calories :)

Pumpkin Parade



Hello my sweets! To say it's been a while is an understatement. I've just been busy playing mom. Oh AND I switched grades AGAIN. I know I'm crazy, but this time wasn't really an option. They didn't need as many teachers in fourth grade this year. Ya know the golden rule: last one in is first one out. So I'm teaching 5th grade ELA and SS this year. So I get to join the slave to STAAR club. If you don't know what STAAR is lucky you. :)

Anywho, one of my favorite things about playing mom is cooking with my little princess. That girl loves to cook. It's actually my new favorite sentence from her, "I cook wit mama", love her!  She cooks it all. I've even been brave enough to let her help with the meat. I just can't turn my back b/c she thinks she has to taste everything I pull out.



It looks like she was praying here, it's a possibility.

Well last weekend I did my once a month crazy cooking sessions. I cook tons of things to prep for her school lunches and weekday breakfast. I came across this recipe and decided to clean it up a little. It was AMAZINGLY delicious and I decided this should be the post to get me back in the blogging world, mainly b/c my friend Amber was helping to host the pumpkin parade and I told her I would link up. (check out her Fashion Fridays LOVE them)  Enough with the jabber, on to the deliciousness.

Pecan Streusel Pumpkin Muffin

First thing first preheat your oven to 350

Gather your ingredients

Muffins

1 1/2 cups of organic unbleached flour
1tsp baking powder (I use Rumford Aluminum Free)
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp baking soda ( I use Bob's Red Mill, just seems to blend better)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
15oz organic canned pure pumpkin
1 1/4 cups of sugar (see why I said cleaned it up a little)
1/3 cup safflower oil
2 eggs from your neighbors backyard

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup of organic unbleached flour
1/3 coconut sugar (you can use brown)
1/4 cup Trader Joe's unsalted dry roasted pecan pieces
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp. soften butter

You will need 3 bowls. One for your dry ingredients, one for your wet ingredients, and one for your topping. First, mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pie spice, baking soda, and salt. In the second bowl mix the can of pumpkin, sugar, safflower oil, and eggs. I guess you could use any type of oil or melted butter. But that's what I had in the pantry so that's what I used. Combine your dry and wet ingredients and set aside.

In a smaller bowl combine all the ingredients for the topping. I just pinched the butter off into little pieces and then mixed it all together until it was crumbly. I used my fingers and gently squeezed and smushed until it was crumbly. Yep, those are legit baking terms right there.

Lightly grease your muffin tins. I filled each tin up with mix and left a little room for the topping. I got 12 muffins. Plop them in the oven and let them bake for about 20 mins. (If your in a good mood be a good wife and wash dishes while you wait). You can stick a fork in the middle to double check. When you take them out they will continue to cook a little while the pan is hot. My muffins were nice and plump. Most of all amazingly delicious and moist.

I would love to tell you they were low cal but that's just not the truth. But they are worth every bite. I plan to play around with it and try some applesauce and banana to reduce the calories. However, they are just perfect for a little princess that is not counting calories.



I'll be sharing this post on WillsCasa. Check out her pumpkin post pretty nifty and gave me an idea. Princess is working on the color green and rectangles at school. I'm thinking of spray painting pumpkins pink, cutting rectangles out of those cheapy sponges, and letting her dip them in green paint to put on the pumpkins. But we aren't heading to the farm until next Saturday so that will have to wait for now. :) I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as we did. They are even better warm!


I'm also sharing here and here and here

May's Menu

I know it's been a while since I've posted a monthly menu. Well I've been a little busy trying to figure out this whole clean eating thing. Trust me, some most of the recipes you could live with out. Finally, this month it hit me. Why am I making this so friggin hard! Think about what you would normally cook and search and scour the net for it in a clean version, ya idiot! So that's what I did. I'm really excited to share this clean menu with you. Keep in mind  you have to buy clean ingredients to make the meal clean. So keep the clean eating rules in mind as you shop. I've listed 12 dinners and 4 of breakfast, lunch, and snack. Oh, and how could I forget 2 ice cream recipes. Mr. Spouse has begged for ice cream the last two weeks. Now I will tell ya this, I am a lazy cook. I prep and cook breakfast and lunch for the entire week on Sunday nights. In other words, I eat the same breakfast and lunch all week long. It's not as bad as it sounds, give it a try. It takes a lot of the planning away and it makes the meal about nourishment not mmm what am I going to have today. I hope these recipes help you and perhaps start you on your clean eating journey!

 

I'm sharing these recipes with my fellow cooks at Six Sisters Stuff, I heart Naptime, I should be mopping the floor, and Skip to my lou.

Quick and Easy Chicken and Dumplings

This recipe is pretty easy. I actually came up with it on my own. I guess the term quick is relative. It probably took me about an hour. That's pretty quick considering the way I learned to make them, which was DELICIOUS and completely from scratch took about 4 hours. I'll admit, I'm one lazy sister and a four hour dinner making session is just not on my agenda. I mean it could probably be done in less time once you are confident w/the recipe. But, after I had them I of course wanted more. So, I started browsing the web for a quicker version. I didn't really have any luck.I did find a quick cook method. But, it just didn't taste close enough. Here is what I came up with while trying it out on my own.

Your Ingredients

For the Soup portion
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon Celery Seasoning(The Kroger brand cost $1.00)
10-12 baby carrots sliced
1 cooked chicken
48 oz Chicken Broth
about 1/4 cup of coke

Dumplings
2 1/4 Cup of  Bisquick
2/3 Cup of milk

Directions

Pour the chicken broth and coke into your pot. I have no idea why it needs coke but it does. Not exactly the same without it. I'm sure when I originally learned to make dumplings she told me why it needs coke but I just can't remember.

Add in your salt, pepper, and celery seasoning. Now of course you could actually chop up some celery and just take it out before you eat. But, I'm lazy and this is quicker AND I can get a whole jar of seasoning that will last longer than the actually celery stalks and for less money.

Slice your carrots and toss them in. The amount is really up to you. That's just how many I used for ours. Mr. Spouse doesn't like a bunch of carrots in them. But myself and the little princess love them.

Get your broth going on a low simmer to get the flavors meshing. This is when you start to shred your chicken. I just picked a rotisserie one up from Kroger for like $5. I just pull it all apart and dump it in the pot. I even put the skin in the pot. It has yummy flavor that helps add to your soup flavoring. I just fish it out before serving. Ok, so now that everything is in the pot turn the heat up to medium. It should look something like this..

You need to bring your soup to a boil before the dumplings go in. While your waiting on that to happen we are going to make the dumplings. :)

Dump the 2 1/4 cup of Bisquick and 2/3 cup of milk in a bowl and mix together. It will feel like biscuit dough. I then sprinkle more Bisquick on the dough. I want it a little less sticky so I can roll the dough into dumplings without all the dough getting stuck to my hands. And the extra mix will help thicken your soup so no worries.

Once you have your dumplings and your soup is boiling drop the dumplings into the soup. Just let them sit for 10 minutes. Your dumplings will expand as you cook. (Keep that in mind when you are forming the dough balls.)  After 10 minutes carefully flip your dumplings over so the tops can cook. You are going to let the dumplings continue to cook for another 10 minutes. Now, sprinkle in a couple tablespoons of flour for thickening and stir it all together. All done!

Enjoy :)

Before we go I have to share a picture of the little princess. She heard the camera click on the first snap and automatically said CHEESE. So how could I not take her picture :)

And yes, that is a medicine thingy in her hand. She had just had her allergy medicine before we started cooking. She didn't want to give it up, it was empty so why fight with her. Gotta pick ya battles right?

October Dinner Menu Ideas

**UPDATE** I've added a follower button if you would like to come out and follow in the open :)

 

First off I just wanted to say, I'm oober excited about that new little button to the right! I guess the stats aren't lying, people are actually reading my little blog. Okay, menus...now I know it's almost halfway through the month at this point. Well, I had tons of food left over from last month. In fact I just went to the store on Monday. I've decided 20 meals a month is to much for my little family. We either eat a lot of left overs or go out to eat way more than I originally thought. It's probably a combination of both. The reason I say that is that the past two months we've had a ton of food left over. So much so that the only meat I had to buy this month was chicken. This month I think I planned like 12 meals or something. Ok now on with the food! It's Fall, well kinda...so I have tons of soups this month!

Pot roast
Chicken and Dumplings I made the chicken and dumplings this week. It made ALOT!!! We've eaten about 5 or 6 bowls and there is still a ton. I did add celery for flavoring and a 1/4 cup of coke.
Chili
Potato soup
Pepperoni Pizza Burgers
Chicken tortilla soup
Ground Beef stew
Taco soup
Skillet porkchop w/fried potatoes
Italian porkchops
Homemade meatballs and pasta
Fried fish-sorry no recipe here, Mr. Hubs just whipps that up when he wants fried food

Dessert Ideas
lowfat pumpkin muffins
pumpkin roll bars (love this idea)
cookie cake

Sharing this list on these wonderful blogs
skiptomylou.org
iheartnaptime.net
thisweekfordinner.com
sixsistersstuff.com
orgjunkie.com
scrapsoflife

Dinner Menu Ideas for September

**UPDATE** I've added a follower button if you would like to come out and follow in the open :)

The once of a month grocery shop last month was totally awesome and cheap. Although, I did find myself going back to the grocery store for things like fruit and bread.The hardest part was doing it with a toddler. She was definitely a trooper! The best part about the menu was that I didn't make anything the same the whole month. So this month I just took things we really liked and added them to the menu for this month. My favorite were the Italian Breaded Pork chops. Micah liked the Knock You Naked Brownies. We eat a lot of brownies in this house and these were his all time favorite. I had to make myself share with 2 other families so we wouldn't eat them all in 2 days. I'm pretty sure we demolished the half I didn't share in 2 days. Y'all I seriously made my menu list for the whole month in like 5 minutes or less. This storing all your meal ideas in one place was one of my best ideas. I'll share my ideas for this month with you guys and hyperlink the recipes. Bon appetit!

1.       Taco salad

2.       Baked Ranch pork chops

3.       Lemon pepper chicken

4.       Penne w/chicken sausage and tomatoes

5.       Tuna sandwiches

6.       Italian Meatloaf

7.       Cream of mushroom porkchops

8.       BBQ chicken

9.       Chicken Jambalaya

10.   Dirty Rice

11.   Italian Breaded Pork chops

12.   Chili dogs

13.   Chicken bacon ranch taquitos

14.   Sloppy Joes

15.   Potato chip chicken nuggets

16.   Burgers with special sauce

17.   Chicken pot pie

18.   Chicken caccatorie

19.   Mexican Cornbread Pie

20.   Layered Enchiladas

 

Desserts

York Peppermint Brownies

Rolo stuffed cookies

Peanut butter chocolate bars

 

Breakfast

Sausage and Egg Burritos

Oatmeal

Waffles

Pancakes

Grits

 

20 Dinner Menu Ideas Under $200

Last month I wrote about the frustrations of grocery shopping. I made a big list of meal ideas. This month I gave the once a month shopping a go. I created my menu, made a list, and headed to the grocery store w/my sweet girl tagging along. She was a trooper! It was quit a haul.

I planned for 20 dinners, 3 lunch choices, 4 breakfast choices, and 2 desserts. I also picked up a few household items and treats for Layla. I figured we will go out to eat a few times and at least have left overs from something once a week. Layla is the only one that eats breakfast/lunch daily on a regular breakfast. So I didn't have to buy to much of that. My grand total was $195. I almost fell over. Just two weeks ago my husband grabbed enough for about 8 dinners only and spent $130. Now, I will say that we already had 2 pounds of ground beef and 2 packs of pork chops in the freezer. So that saved a little money. I spent about $155 at Wal-mart and $40 on chicken from the farm. (We're trying something new w/meat starting this month.)

I'll leave you with my list of meals for the month of August.

Dinner Ideas

       1.       Cabbage Rolls w/green beans

2.       Pita bread sandwiches

3.       Oven toasted Ravioli w/salad

4.       Tacos

5.       Baked Ranch pork chops w/garlic potatoes and peas

6.       Lemon pepper chicken w/peas and pasta

7.       Penne w/sausage, tomatoes, and spinach

8.       Tuna sandwiches w/chips

9.       Meatloaf w/peas and rice

10.   Baked pork chops w/rice and green beans

11.   BBQ chicken w/peas and mashed potatoes

12.   Fish tacos

13.   Chicken Jambalaya

14.   Italian breaded pork chops w/black eyed peas and corn

15.   Chili dogs w/chips

16.   Chicken Bacon Ranch Taquitos w/ranch salsa

17.   Sloppy joes w/peas and corn

18.   Talapia w/potatoes and green beans

19. Potato Chip Chicken Nuggets

20.   Burgers w/sweet potatoes

Breakfast options

Pancakes

Waffles

Oatmeal

Eggs

Bacon

Lunch options

Burritos

PB&J

Lunch meat

Chips

Dessert

Crescent roll pecan pie bars

Knock you naked brownies

I can't wait to try these brownies! These sound A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! (That was my inner fat kid singing to you about food.) I think I'm developing a small crush on pioneer woman. Not really, but ya know what I mean jelly bean :) :)

Dinner Menu Ideas

I just went to the grocery store the other day but looking in my fridge it's starting to look empty. I have ingredients for two dinners left. It seems like I'm going to the grocery store once a week. I don't know about you guys but I can't just jump up and go shopping. It's a process. I have to make a menu, write down all the ingredients, and then I can go shopping. But I seem to run into the same problems each time. I get foodie block. I start to think of what meals to plan for and after about 3, I'm at a lost. I try asking Mr. Husband if there are any meals he would like. I always, always, always get one of two answers from him. The response is either hot dogs or I don't care babe. This is how and why I end up at the grocery store once a week simply because I can't think of enough meals on the spot.

Finally, a little idea popped into my head. Out of pure frustration today I started writing down EVERY meal I knew how to make really well. Once I started writing I thought it was a brilliant idea. I sorted each meal by the type of main ingredient. Before I knew it there were over 40 meal ideas. I like to throw in making something sweet for dessert a couple of times each month. After I finished listing all the dinner ideas I wrote down a few dessert ideas.

I am so relieved. Now I can totally make one trip to the grocery store each month. I hear this saves money so double bonus. All I have to do is go through the list and pick out about 4 meal ideas for each week. I try to plan for left overs once or twice a week and I take the day off on Saturdays. Any who, I thought I would share my menu ideas with blog world. And... if you stay tuned and keep coming back you'll have the recipes too. :) But for now I'll leave you with two of the dessert recipes. I have these posted on my old blog. You know, the one I locked myself out of. Here are the Cookies and Cream and Banana Split cupcakes recipes. The Banana Split cupcakes are what you see in the picture. Enjoy :)