{Quinoa Chicken Salad}

the bunch had the opportunity to apply to blog for Bountiful Baskets... and we are SO excited!  I love to cook, but busy life often means creativity in the kitchen is slacking.  If we are selected to blog for them, it will FORCE me to start getting creative again and THAT MAKES ME EXCITED!!

Applying for the position alone has already stirred some creativity- today when I got home with my basket, I had already come up with the idea of using the uncooked single chicken breast [that has been sitting in the fridge for most of the week, with out a purpose] and the quinoa that hasn't gotten eaten up yet along with my basket contents to pull together a Chicken Salad!

Here's my list of ingredients:

• 6 oz of Chicken Breast
• 1/2 cup cooked Quinoa
• 2 Celery Stocks 
• 1/2 small Red Onion
• Butter Lettuce Leaves
• 1/2 cup Cottage Cheese
• 1/4 cup Non-Fat Greek Yogurt
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/4 tsp. Mrs. Dash

Here's how I made it:

First I trimmed up my Chicken Breast and cut it in half.  Laid it in a hot pan and added Salt and Pepper.  Then I added about 1/4 cup water in the bottom of the pan and covered with a lid.  I wanted the chicken to stay really moist and didn't want to add any oil to the pan, so this is a great way to achieve that!

While my chicken was cooking, I prepared my celery by washing, then tearing back the top so it breaks off and rip it backwards down the stock to peel off most of the chewy strings.

Then I cut them into long skinny strips and chopped it up fine.

I chopped up the red onion as well, but did it a little smaller (I'm not a huge fan of chomping into a LARGE piece of raw onion in any type of food).  

When the chicken was done cooking, I chopped it up into small chunks.  Then, in a bowl I combined all of the ingredients.  If your mixed salad is looking a little dry still, add another spoonful or so of Greek Yogurt.

I plucked off 4 leaves of of butter lettuce and washed and dried them.  Laid 2 leaves on top of each other and spooned about 1/2 cup of the salad mixture into the lettuce leaves.  

AND ENJOYED!

I hope you love this recipe as much as I did.   It made enough for me to have for 3 lunches- and the flavors developed even more each day- it got Yummier and Yummier!

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"Healthy" Blueberry Muffins {No Sugar Added}

My sweet little family went blueberry picking at a farm we recently learned about through a friend.  It was just about half an hour from our home, organic growing practices and only $2 per pound!  Madisyn SERIOUSLY thought she died and went to Heaven.  Mommy was pretty content as well.  We had a blast picking, and we will definitely be back several times before all the varieties are done blooming at the end of September.  I HIGHLY recommend visiting The Rusty Plow Blueberry Farm in Enumclaw, Washington!
Here are some photos from our picking adventure:

With the last few cups of our Blueberrys I wanted to make something special.  The guys at Kyle's work always enjoy some home baked goods to snack on throughout their day, and we all know I hardly EVER bake.  So this was a special occasion.

I found a recipe on Pinterest for a "Healthy Blueberry Muffin" over at Liz Eats and thought I would give it a try.

I followed the recipe below, but I didn't have flax seed- they turned out great without them and the guys at the store ate them all in just a few minutes.  

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup 2% milk (or any milk substitute you prefer)
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons fat free, plain Greek yogurt
• 2 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners.

Combine flours, flaxseed, baking powder and salt in a bowl and whisk together.

In a large bowl, stir together bananas, milk, egg and yogurt until well-blended. Mix in dry ingredients then gently stir in blueberries.

Divide batter among muffin papers. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove muffins from pan and cool for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Smoothie Pops

Popsicles are such a great way to cool off in the summer heat.  It has been very warm in Seattle for the past couple of weeks- and the extended forecast isn't showing any change in the near future.  I love the idea of Madisyn cooling off with a Popsicle while she's playing outside- but I'm never super excited about unhealthy snacks full of sugar and no nutrients... SO I decided to make my own!

Here's the recipe I used:

• 2 cups frozen berry mix (I used Raspberry, Blueberry, Blackberry)

• 2 cups Non-fat Greek Yogurt

• 1 cup water

I put everything in my magic bullet blender attachment and blended it up.

Then I poured the smoothie into our Popsicle molds and 3 hours later- MADISYN WAS IN HEAVEN!!!

No sugar added- and they are full of protein!  I buy my Non-Fat Greek Yogurt at Costco- in the 2 big tubs and it has 24 grams of protein and only 7 grams of sugar in 1 cup!

"Don't you want to try some?!"

You could switch this up with all sorts of fruit!  Tomorrow I plan on adding in some Cantaloupe to make them a little sweeter.  Please share any recipes you've tried and love!

Grow Your Own Wheat Grass in a Week! (Bringing some Earth Inside- Belated Earth Day Post)

Happy Earth Day, a day late

I thought, what better way to celebrate Earth Day, than to show you how you can bring a little Earth Inside!  Growing Wheat grass is VERY simple and so fun to watch progress because it happens so quickly!

AND... Not only does it look pretty inside, it also has some GREAT HEALTH BENEFITS!!! Here's an article I enjoyed on the Health Benefits of Wheat Grass, since you are growing it yourself- you know where it came from and how it was grown, does it get any more ORGANIC than that?!

Buy

Step one to growing your own Wheat Grass is to go to a store with a bulk food section (we love Fred Meyer for this reason).  You should be able to find Wheat Berries.  There are several different varieties- I usually end up getting Red.  This is what they look like.

Soak

Step 2 is just as simple.  Put them in a bowl and soak them in some water for 1-2 days.  After they are soaked, they will start to sprout- like the image below.  Once they've sprouted you are only a couple days away from beautiful grass!

Plant

You can use virtually any container to grow your wheat grass.  I personally think it is fascinating to also see the roots grow so I like planting them in glass.  But, I also like the look of the barnwood box I used, and metal!  (If you are using wood, make sure you line it with plastic so water doesn't seep out and ruin the surface you put it on.)  Use potting soil to fill your container about 1/2 an inch from the top.  Then sprinkle your sprouted wheat grass on top of the soil.  You want them to be really close together, but they don't need to be layered on top of each other.  

Water

The most important part of growing wheat grass is watering.  When you first lay them on top of your soil, make sure you saturate the soil pretty well with water.  Then, twice a day use a spray bottle on a mist setting and mist the wheat grass.  That is ALL YOU HAVE TO DO!

WATCH IT GROW

Using Wheat Grass in your Decor

I used a variety of containers to grow and incorporated them in my Kitchen, Dining Room and Living Room Mantel to brighten up my rooms for Spring!  There are many cute ideas on Pinterest, I am sure for how to use it in other seasons as well- Have fun Pinning!  How cute would a creative container planted with Wheat Grass be for a Mother's Day Gift?!

FOR KIDS TOO!

I also brought a container I planted to my Charges (the littles that I Nanny).  They LOVED watching the grass sprout, grow roots and grow each day and also enjoyed watering!  I encourage you to do this project with your children- and maybe even put some Wheat Grass in their next smoothie!

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It's ALMOST Strawberry season!!! Two For One Strawberry Recipe

Mmm... Nothing beats the smell of 8 clam shells of fresh strawberries sitting on the kitchen counter!  But, what to do with them all?!  

A sweet friend of mine, Kelly Makavage always comes to our gatherings with all sorts of hand-crafted treats and I am inspired each time she comes with something new!  One time at the cabin, she brought home made fruit leathers!  Yum... they were SO GOOD!  

With all these strawberries, I thought it was a perfect chance to attempt these sweet, no sugar added treats (with a little, over-the-phone help from Kelly)! ***A note of caution- this process takes two days to complete***

Strawberry-Applesauce

Let me just begin with a little plug- have you heard of Bountiful Baskets Produce Co-op?  If you have not, you should look into it!  For $15 each week my family enjoys all the fruits and veggies we can eat!  Almost every week I end up with a few apples, oranges or a pineapple left from the week before.  These build up over time, and then I decide I better do something with them. The Strawberry Applesauce is the first step to our end result and an awesome by-product!
I took 4 green apples from my surplus, peeled and cored them.  Cut them into slices and put them in my crock pot.

Oh, I forgot to mention while I was working with the apples I was soaking my strawberries (4 clam shells)- check out how much dirt comes of them!!! I highly recommend soaking your strawberries in cool water for a few minutes before eating. I don't think that just rinsing has the same affect.
After I soaked my strawberries I cut the tops off, cut them in half and tossed them into my crock pot on top of the apples.

All those strawberry tops have a TON of nutrients, and you've already made sure they are clean.  DON'T THROW THEM AWAY!!! Put them in a freezer zip lock and freeze to put in smoothies when you are out of your fresh greens!  I promise you won't taste anything but strawberry!

Now, you are ready to hurry up and wait.  Turn your crock pot on low and let it do its thing for the rest of the day (8-12 hours).  Every few hours take a potato masher and squish everything around a bit.  It will help the fruit break down.  Once you notice the consistency of applesauce, it's DONE!

Strawberry Applesauce Uses:

-Eat is as is (Madisyn LOVES IT!)

-Mix with plain Greek Yogurt for a little treat

-Use as a replacement for oil or butter in most baking recipes (this goes for all applesauce- but strawberry will just make it yummier!)
-Mix with your steel cut oats for a yum-o breakfast!

It freezes well- but feel free to keep it in the fridge for up to a week.

Strawberry Apple Fruit Leather

I let my sauce chill in the fridge overnight.  The next morning, I turned my oven on to 170 (the lowest my oven would go- if your's goes lower set it around 140).  Then I lined a cookie sheet (with sides) with Saran Wrap.  Seems like it would melt in the oven right?  Well, the heat is low enough that its fine.
Use a ladle and spoon a few ladle fulls of sauce into the pan and spread evenly over the surface.  You want it to  be about 1/4 inch thick in every spot.  If the sauce is different thicknesses in places it will not dehydrate evenly, so please pay close attention.

Now we wait, AGAIN... for up to 12 hours.  It depends on the air circulation and temperature in your oven.  I checked mine every hour or so and you can see the progress.

After 4 hours you can see that the corners are starting to look a lot like fruit leather!

After 6 hours mine was done!  The edges were dehydrated a bit more than the center- but all the liquid is gone!  

I pulled the baking sheet out of the oven.  I lifted the Saran Wrap out of the cookie sheet and let it cool on my cutting board for about half an hour.  Next, I used a pizza cutter and rolled through both the leather and the plastic to create strips.  Roll up the strips and you have a home made fruit roll up!

You can store the fruit leather in a zip lock bag or a mason jar with a lid for up to a month!


ENJOY!

Have a great rest of your week!

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