Summertime in a Bowl

There has been a lot of interest in the Green Bowl that I recently made. My local coffee shop is legit. They serve homemade everything and incredible coffee/drinks. I first got introduced to the Green Bowl there. It’s pretty much like summertime in a bowl. A glorious, thick smoothie with incredible toppings and layered with homemade granola. Here’s the low-down:

It’s a layer of granola, smoothie, and topped with fresh strawberries, fresh banana, unsweetened coconut, raw pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and a drizzle of raw honey. The smoothie can be your own concoction of your favorite recipe, but make it thick. Here’s mine:

Green Bowl Smoothie

1/2 banana

1 cup spinach

1 cup mixed, frozen berries

homemade whey (derived from homemade yogurt)

2 scoops of   Superfood Blend protein powder

1 cup filtered water

1 tbsp organic raw honey

Blend banana, spinach and water first. Then add the remaining ingredients and blend till smooth. Make it thick, similar to ice cream if possible. Add more frozen berries if it needed to thicken. Grab a bowl and cover bottom with good granola (I have a fantastic recipe I will share here soon) pour on smoothie, top with whatever you may want; I slice strawberries, bananas, and add chia seeds, raw pumpkin seeds, unsweetened coconut, and a drizzle of honey. Summertime in a bowl right into your belly!

 

 

 

Favorite Pizza Dough: Mellow Mushroom Copycat

Pizza is a staple in our household. Every Friday night, unless some emergency has occurred, we have pizza. I searched for a while for the perfect homemade dough. One with the right texture, consistency, and taste of course. I have tried several different crusts. Some good, some not so good. Finally, like a beacon of light, the perfect crust found me and that’s the only one I ever make now. It’s a copycat Mellow Mushroom recipe. It’s a no-fail. I always double it so I have crust made for the next Friday too, and it keeps in the fridge in an air tight container like a heavenly pillow. It cooks perfectly in 5-6 minutes, and you can even substitute half with whole wheat flour if you want a denser crust. Another little tip from Mellow Mushroom is making a garlic, olive oil, butter sauce and brushing it on the crust before it bakes, and directly after it comes out of the oven. Also, brushing it on the middle of the pizza when it comes out is another little trick of theirs. Sprinkle the crust with kosher salt and that baby is on point.

Pizza Crust Recipe – A Mellow Mushroom Copycat (yields 2 pizza doughs)

We made the flag pizza on the Fourth of July and it used up 2 doughs. Half of the flour was whole wheat to make a thicker crust. It would be fine using only white flour, but just wanted something a little denser. The cooking time is just a minute or two longer. The spinach was sautéed in a little olive oil with garlic and salt and pepper. First add your marinara to the entire dough, and add the cooked spinach to the top left corner. Then a few dots of mozzarella cheese to make the stars. Feta or ricotta would also work well for the stars too. The rest of the pizza is covered in shredded mozzarella, and then pepperoni for the stripes. It was fun to make with the kids too!

Enjoy this pizza dough. It’s truly the best!

Modified from Lark & Lola

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups hot water (optional, use spring water)
2 Tbsp molasses (I use honey here, or I do half honey and half molasses when I’m feeling crazy)
2 packets of active yeast
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
cornmeal
melted butter with garlic
parmesan cheese crumbs or kosher salt

Directions:
1. Place hot water in mixer bowl and stir in molasses. Once cooled to warm, sprinkle on yeast and gently stir it in. Let sit 10 minutes.
2. Mix flour and salt together. Add flour mix and olive oil to yeast mixture.
3. Using a dough hook, run mixer on low/stir for 5 minutes.
4. Form dough into ball and place in a lightly greased bowl, sprinkle with flour. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and kitchen towel, let rise in fridge over several hours or on counter top for 2 hours, or until doubled.
5. Preheat oven to 550 degrees with pizza stone, hold temperature at least 30 minutes before baking pizza.
6. Form dough into pizza crust, top as desired. Brush crust with garlic butter. Slide onto preheated pizza stone, bake 5-7 minutes or until done, using oven on bake or broil setting, as desired. Sprinkle crust with parmesan cheese immediately after removing from oven.

 

Let Freedom Ring and Not My Alarm

Any morning I have the entire day off I will lay in bed, without the alarm waking me,  underneath the cool sheets, before my feet even think about hitting the floor contemplating what to cook for the day. I think about what my pantry and fridge is full of and began to meticulously plan my menu. This morning, July 4th, had me thinking in red, white, and blues. Pancakes sounded perfect, topped with red strawberries, white greek yogurt, and blueberries.

The only pancake I ever make anymore are filled with oats and almond flour. They are completely guilt-free, super easy thanks to the blender, and they are some of the best tasting pancakes I have ever had. They are sweet, but not too sweet. Fluffy, and moist. They are perfect with any kind of topping, and in my household it takes longer to make then it does to eat. They have usually disappeared by the time I even sit down, so I sit a couple off to the side for myself. A girl, has to look out for herself sometimes.

I’m thinking for lunch we will have a flag pizza. Homemade crust shaped in a rectangle, spinach and feta maybe for the stars, and pepperoni and mozzarella for the stripes. Then dinner will be your typical cookout food. Burgers and hotdogs down at the lake while we wait for the fireworks.

Happy 4th of July!

 

Almond Flour and Oat Pancakes

Modified from The Family Cooks by Laurie David and Kristin Uhrenholdt

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of milk (I use almond milk)

3 eggs

1 tbsp maple syrup or honey

1 1/2 cups of almond flour

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats (not instant)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

fresh strawberries, blueberries, greek yogurt, honey, or maple syrup for toppings (optional)

Directions:

Combine milk, eggs, maple syrup/honey, almond flour, oats, baking powder, and salt in a blender and blend on high speed until oats are fairly smooth. This takes about 30 seconds. Let rest for about 15 minutes so it has time to thicken a bit.

Heat up griddle or skillet to medium heat. Grease the pan. I use a little butter. Spoon 1/4 cup batter onto the skillet for each cake. Let cook until bubbles start to form. Flip for another minute or until golden brown.

Serve fresh or keep warm in the oven. Also, any leftover pancakes can be frozen, and are great reheated on busy mornings. The batter will keep in the fridge for about a week.

 

 

 

New Year, New You

Hi y’all! I’ve missed this. It feels good to be back. Let me quickly bring you up to date.

We recently moved to a small town this past fall, where I grew up. Life was a little chaotic, and though life is still fairly busy we are in a routine and have settled into real life again.

I truly didn’t realize how good it would be to be back in my hometown. I have loved getting reaquianted with old high school friends, and making new ones. It has been good to be a part of a somewhat tight-knit community. I love being in the same town as my parents and brothers, and even sweet little things like my son going to the elementary school I went to, my little girl taking dance lessons from my dance teacher I had for so many years, and both of them playing on the soccer fields I grew up kicking around on. It’s neat seeing all that.

Now that we are moved, and settled I have really been wanting to get back some to Dinner at Six, so here I am.

You know with the whole “New Year, New You” thing going on I recently started meal prepping (I’ll explain more on that), and the end of last year even began excercising regularly, shock and awe. Thanks to this great Crossfit box or gym (whichever you want to call it), with incredibly encouraging people and friends that without even trying to, hold me accountable to going. There are some mornings that I look at the “Workout of the Day” (WOD) that’s been posted, and I want to stay under the covers in my cozy bed, but miraculously I put on my workout clothes, grab an overnight oatmeal, and somehow my feet walk out the door. Next thing I know I find myself pulling into the parking lot. Now once the workout begins, I’m not going to lie, it almost always hurts, but the amazing thing is that what I would never do by myself, or think, “There is no way I am going to be able to do that, or even finish it!” I somehow do.

For example, 100 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 squats (which was one of my earlier workouts when I first started) I just knew I wouldn’t make it to the end, but I did. I didn’t finish in glamorous fashion or anything, but I finished! At the end of it all I wasn’t sure I would be able to drive myself home (I seriously contemplated having my husband come and pick me up that day), and I did have to stop 5 minutes down the road and throw up in the Dairy Queen parking lot, but hey I did it! I have surprised myself time and time again; thanks to the comradery of everyone there and the great coaching and encouragement. It feels like I’m playing a team sport. Thankfully, I haven’t thrown up since that day…. (knock on wood) knock, knock.

So to this meal prepping thing…. I started out by getting these containers, which has a place for what I like to say (to make it as easy as possible) is a green vegetable, brown rice or sweet potato, and a protein (typically fish or chicken). I meal prep as much as possible on Sunday evening. These containers really do make all the difference. I eat about 5 meals a day, which includes 2 snacks and sometimes a protein shake – especially on my workout days (on average which is 3 days a week depending on my schedule. I’m not one of those people who are going to wake up at 5 am to get my workout in for the day…I have finally come to terms with that).

I’ll get more into the details of meal prepping on one of my next posts. If you have questions let me know! So good to be back on the “blog wagon”.

We’ll talk soon.

Overnight Oatmeal

Ingredients:

5 tbsp plain nonfat Greek yogurt

1 tsp of good honey (local, raw is said to be best)

1/2 cup plain rolled oats

small handful of almonds (any raw, healthy nut will do)

small handful of Goji Berries (optional, whole dates chopped are great too)

1/2 cup black berries (any berry works)

mason jar

Directions:

Layer the ingredients in order as listed. Add another small drizzle of honey on top. Place the lid on and let sit over night so all the flavors have a chance to mingle and oats become a little soft. In the morning, mix it all together in the jar with a spoon and enjoy! If you close your eyes real tight you may start believing you are eating ice cream.

 

 

 

End of the School Year: A Recap

It’s close to the end of the year; one large leap and we are practically there. It’s not like it’s that complicated having just one kid in school right now, but when you add other activities, sports, church, work, etc. towards the end of the year school is a little rougher then it was in the beginning.

The beginning is a glorious array of pristine uniforms, clean backpacks, and new school supplies. A new lunch box, perfectly packed with nutritious food, and a note from Mommy.

I show up on time for school parties. Bring in homemade goodies, creatively made to fit the theme.

Homework is finished neatly and double checked.  Mom of the year award will be coming very soon to me.

Then I don’t know what happens….sometime as early as March….I think….things start going downhill.

I may stay in bed a few minutes too long, and realize I haven’t even checked his homework folder from the night before. Frantically, going through it, I realize there are forms that need to be signed, a blank piece of math homework that is due that day. There’s not enough time to get the homework finished. AHHHHHH! I am mortified! He won’t be in Homework Club this week! My world is going to end.

Or there’s the time I looked down on the way to school to see Simms’ toes poking out of his shoes. What?!?!? When did this happen? Oh my word….people are going to think he’s homeless….How can this have happened? This is his second pair of shoes we bought for the year? They only needed to hold on for like 35 more days!  I can’t turn around to go back and get his “play” shoes because he’ll be late. I’ll have to get a new pair and bring them to him at school. Mortified!

Oh, speaking of being late. One day he got a note sent home saying that he was tardy three times! What?!?! Three times!!! He has never been late a day since Kindergarten. Am I going to be sent to jail? Apparently, Simms was not getting enough to eat in the morning. Mom Fail #982. Mainly protein bars and a banana or apple (depending on the day) were not satisfying enough for him. Or even on the “more together” days of toast and scrambled eggs. So I come to find out that he would slowly be walking by the cafeteria, or actually come to think about it; he would make a complete detour to the cafeteria where the smells of sausage and cinnamon rolls were cascading through the hall. So this detour was apparently causing him to be late quite a bit! Yet, another moment where people are going to think he is homeless.

Or the time our house kept having this horrible smell every time we walked in the front door. Eventually it would go away, but then the next time we walked in or left the house it would stink again. Almost like a mildew smell. Or rotten eggs. For a week we could not figure out where it was coming from. Then we finally discovered a carton of old milk that was leaking in the front pocket of his back pack, which hangs on hooks that we have right beside the front door. Completely mortified! Time to get a new back pack.

The Mom of the Year Award is no longer even in my grasp!

Oh then there’s that one time (yeah they keep coming) where Simms’ homework was left out on the table for me to go over. When I got back to the house after work that day shreds of paper were scattered like snow flakes across the carpet and as I made my way to the kitchen table his homework pack had been ripped to shreds by our precious little kitties! I didn’t even know they were capable of that! But now we know that they have a fetish for paper. Strange….so that day I sent a note to school that read something like this:

Hi Mrs. Roberts,

You know how you’ve heard the phrase, “My dog ate my homework”? Well, our cats really did eat Simms’ homework. I know, crazy! So sorry!

Thanks for all you do!

Megan

Did I mention teachers ROCK?!?! Because they totally ROCK! And Simms has been blessed with some good ones. Grace upon Grace.

Thankfully we are all in the home stretch now. School is almost over, so that part of my brain can take a break. I know Mom Fails will still continue, but more than anything I am grateful that it doesn’t matter. God’s grace covers all of it. Those mess-ups are just a glimpse of my messy life. I no longer have to work to be the perfect mom or person for that matter. I have a perfect Creator that has covered all of my imperfections, all of my sin, even all of my “good works” that don’t mean a thing unless they are being led by His Love and for His Glory, not my own. He has done all of the work, so I can rest in Him, it is finished! It is truly finished!!!

Dinner in 15

As week’s get busier and busier meal planning is often something that gets pushed to the side. I always promise myself that I will get to it later. Without the plan for the week I usually am left with just staples in the house. As dinner gets close to time to be put on the burner I still am sometimes racking my brain to what I can throw together with what little I have in the fridge and pantry.

My dear friend got me this cook book for my birthday, and it already has stains on it and bent corners on the pages where I have marked some of my favorite recipes. It’s simple, nurticious meals. Nothing too complicated; just homemade, real food.

A favorite meal of mine is almost so simple that I second-guess myself every time I make it. It seems like there is no way that it would be flavorful or even satisfying. Then when it’s ready to be put on the dinner table in 15 minutes (yeah you heard me right) I keep thinking it may be a bust, but the first spoonful is warm and flavorful and surprising. This usually turns into one of those silent meals; where we all just keep on shoveling spoonfuls in our mouths and all you can hear is the clank of the spoon hitting the bowl. This is my kind of meal; fast and cheap and requires just one pan (dishes are not my forte). It’s full of protein and it’s rich and a little tangy. Try it for yourself!

Cannellini Bean Tartine

from The Family Cooks

Ingredients:

Olive Oil, enough to coat the pan

Good crusty bread, sliced

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 can Cannellini beans (or other white bean)

1 cup tomato sauce

Directions:

Heat a dutch oven or heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Drizzle in olive oil to cover the bottom. Slide in the pieces of bread and let them sizzle on both sides until they are golden brown and crisp. Remove from the pan and transfer to a plate.

Drizzle more oil in the pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes over medium  heat until golden brown.

Add beans and tomato sauce and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beans and sauce are thickened for about 10 minutes.

Spoon into bowls with toast, and be amazed*.

*There are a million different ways to “doctor” this dish up (not that it’s needed necessarily). Add grated parmesan on top, top with a fried egg, add hot sauce, or fold in spinach or kale, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and a squeeze of lemon juice, or simply toss with fresh herbs like rosemary, basil, thyme, and parsley. Be creative!

Dough Play

One of the things I struggle with the most is keeping the kids entertained and somewhat stimulated while I am working at home. I’m always looking out for new ideas and activities that the kids will be interested in themselves without me right there by their side. I’m pretty bad at playing with them. My go-to when we are playing dolls is picking up the Barbie and saying, “Hey girl what’s up?!?!”. Yeah, brilliant I know. Can you believe I have a college degree and everything?!?!

Lately, one of my daughter’s favorite things to do is play with Playdough, but it’s expensive and never lasts very long. So after scanning the interwebs and talking to other mom’s I discovered this beautiful, little, lifesaving recipe. This play dough recipe gives the kids hours of entertainment and stimulation and creativity. I make several batches and store it in an air tight container. Not only is it more cost effective, but the quality of the dough is so much better. I now always try to keep these ingredients on hand so when it’s time to make a new batch we have more dough in a matter of minutes. Evie even likes to help out with choosing what color she wants and mixing it all together herself.

Homemade Playdough

Modified from http://www.familyeducation.com

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup salt

1 tbsp cream of tartar

food coloring

1 cup flour

8-10 drops essential oil (optional, I use lavender since it smells good and is calming)

Directions:

Combine water, oil, salt, cream of tartar, and food coloring of your choice in a sauce pan and heat until the combined ingredients are warmed throughout. Remove immediately from heat and mix in flour and cream of tartar (which makes the dough last for up to 6 months). Knead until smooth. If you have a standing mixer with a dough hook let it do all the work until the dough is smooth. If you don’t, put plastic gloves on and knead away. No gloves? Then just prepare to have hands the color of a smurf or swamp monster.

Rise and Shine

Okay, so I’m not a morning person, but that doesn’t mean I can use that as an excuse to just lay in bed till that horrible feeling like I’ve been run over by a truck and then somebody clashed a set of cymbals in my face is gone. Just as long as nobody talks to me, or asks me for anything then I am fine. Every morning I try to not to say anything to my kids or husband because I have no idea what may come out. So I try to just keep my head down, eyes glued to the ground (if my eyes stray for just a second it could be dangerous), and I pretend like I don’t hear, “Mom, Mom, MOOOOOM!”; at least until I have my morning cup of coffee injected into my veins.

Eventually, I come to and can somewhat coherently speak. Then when I get a good breakfast in my system (other than a cheese stick and an apple in the car while I’m dropping off the kids to school) I am then able to go put on my super hero cape ready to conquer tea parties and laundry.

I have become a big smoothie freak, and it is often the best and easiest way to start my morning. The most requested smoothie in our household is what Simms has affectionately named The Purple Monster. If you want to go diary-free with this smoothie replace the greek yogurt for a tablespoon or two of almond butter or peanut butter (natural and sugar free is best). Also, real maple syrup and honey can be interchangeable, but my favorite little helper is not ;-).

The Purple Monster Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 banana

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 cup spinach or kale

1 tablespoon real maple syrup (NOT Mrs. Butterworth’s 😉 )

1 tsp flax seeds

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

1 cup water

Directions:

Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.

Muffins with Mom

Saturday mornings with nothing scheduled is sometimes a rarity these days; so on those days I try to take advantage of them by just enjoying time together. Taking time to make a late breakfast and enjoy the process is something I crave, and I look forward to it when I get that chance. Lately Evie, my 3-year-old has started to get interested in cooking with me, and I am trying to take full-advantage of that little spark in her eye when there’s an opportunity for her to help out. It’s not always the easiest to include the kids with their sometimes short attention span, but the outcome is always more fulfilling than cooking just by myself. One of my best friends just blessed me with this great, inspiring cookbook called The Family Cooks, which has innovative, healthy, kid-friendly recipes. This muffin recipe from the book gave Evie and I the perfect opportunity to enjoy being in the kitchen together, and eating the fruits of her labor. I improvised a little, which is kind of a reoccurring event in the kitchen; we were out of honey so I substituted the honey for maple syrup, and I dare say it is delicious; you may want to try this too.

Banana Muffins

Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup Grade A 100% pure maple syrup (original recipe calls for 1/2-3/4 cup of honey)

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 11 cups of a muffin tin with liners and fill the remaining cup halfway with water (I learned this trick recently, and it makes the muffins more moist).

In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Add the egg, oil, and maple syrup and stir to combine. Using a rubber spatula fold in the remaining ingredients. Fill the muffin cups three-fourths full.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

#KySnowstorm2015″

Cabin fever is sitting in quite a bit because of the snow apocalypse that has hit our home (even our cats have lost it a couple of times for some reason). I ventured out the other night by myself finally (some alone time was essential for my sanity), but still with a little one and negative temperatures there’s only so much we can do without hypothermia attacking. And with a week out of school, and dropping temperatures, playing out in the snow is no longer as popular as it once was. Even the neighborhood kids have thrown in the towel; so my son had to do with me sledding and having “epic” snowball fights the other day instead. By now video games have kind of become a staple for my 7-year-old, and I have had to come up with more and more innovative ideas to keep my 3 year-old from going nuts (and my self). There’s only so much Frozen one can watch people! We’ve painted, we have had tea parties, dressed in every princess costume possible, and we have played with every toy we own (which makes me feel like I have gotten my money’s worth for once)!

Thankfully Evie had a birthday so she got some new things like books, and an art set, a doll, and a new play dough set. Also this Doc McStuffins mobile (that I highly recommend) has been a big hit.

I miraculously also had a couple of new things for Simms stocked for a “rainy” day that got busted out because snow is only frozen rain right?

But, even with all that (MAJOR first world problems here) things still run out of interest, and there’s only so much one person can do because there are other things that need to get done. Something that I actually have to stop them from doing is this “Sensory Snow Play” set that I made. I’m pretty sure I found it on the almighty Pinterest. It has been a lifesaver. Sometimes I feel a little weird about it when we have a foot of actual snow outside, but when it takes 30 minutes to put on all the snow gear, and I am sweating and irritated because I can’t get Evie’s little snow gloves on; it’s just not worth it when she wants to go back in after 3 minutes (no exaggeration; last time it was an actual 3 minutes), and plus it really is too cold right now.

Another perk to this play set is the “snow” smells pretty good, feels good, and they can be as creative as they want with it.

We also used it for an activity for her Frozen birthday party with some of her friends, and it kept their interest for quite a while.

I promise if you try this you will have a happy snow day! Now, go and build a “snow” man.

Sensory Home Snow Play

(Adapted from www.brisbanekids.com)

Ingredients:

3 cups of Baking Soda (Costco has the best deal I have seen)

1/2 cup white hair conditioner

Directions:

Mix the baking soda and hair conditioner together in a baking dish with deep sides, or a disposable aluminum pan, or even a plastic container until it gets the consistency you are looking for. Mix until a “snow ball” can form. Store in an air tight container or gallon plastic zip bag, and it should last a while. Add small toys, shells, beach toys, stones, Lego figures, etc. They have some great, inexpensive options at Dollar Tree. Be has creative as you’d like. I added all the parts to make a snow man like a baby carrot, black buttons, and tooth picks. Have fun and let them let their imagination run wild!