Friday 5-Recipe Edition

Yesterday I was looking at the million recipes I have pinned on my pinterest board.  And I came to this realization, there are 1,000+  recipes pinned their and I have maybe tried 10 (and that could be an exaggeration)!  My pinterset board is becoming my new black hole of recipes, and I am not sure I am ok with this!

So for my Friday 5 I though I would share 5 recipes I would like to attempt to make in the next week!  

1- I don't know if any of you have tried Trader Joe's Cookie Butter yet, but if you haven't then you need to!  You need to run to your nearest Trader Joe's and pick this stuff up.  Cookie Butter is like a sweet peanut butter like spread that literally taste like a gingerbread cookie!  No Joke!  And then when you are completely addicted to the stuff like I am you can make your own using this recipe!!

Source: foodiefiasco.com via Hilliary on Pinterest

Homemade Cooke Butter Brought to you by Foodie Fiasco!

2- I recently made Pea's and Thank You's Banana Bread (seriously love this cookbook, I highly recommend it), and it was nothing short of amazing.  I mean you get to put almond butter (or peanut butter in my case, no almond butter in the pantry) into the bread!!  Ever since I made this glorious loaf of banana bread Tuesday I have had the desire to bake!  Then I came across this recipe from Eat Live Run 

Source: eatliverun.com via Hilliary on Pinterest

Almond Apple Sauce Bread!  Looks Delicious!

3- I am dying to make this delicious salad!  Broccoli and Cauliflower two of my favorite recipes.  I am not sure why I have not made this Detox Salad from Oh She Glows sooner!

Source: ohsheglows.com via Hilliary on Pinterest

I had originally bookmarked the recipe when Angela first blogged about it (Pinterest wasn't around).  This would be a great salad to take to work for lunch, I am a all about brown bagging my lunch, or in my case packing my Vera!

4- I need the perfect morning to whip these puppies up!

Source: howsweeteats.com via Hilliary on Pinterest

Whats not to love about a lazy Saturday with Banana Pancakes!  I have been drooling over this recipe from How Sweet It Is for far to long now!  Maybe this stack of pancakes will fill the craving I have been having for Golden Nugget Banana Pancakes!
And number 5 (although this list could go on and on and on)!

Spanikopita Casserole From Clean Eating Magazine

Source: cleaneatingmag.com via Hilliary on Pinterest

Because I could seriously eat the whole box of Trader Joe's Spanikopita, yes it is that good!
Maybe a New Years goal of mine should have been to cook my way through my pinterest board one recipe at the time. It could be like Julie and Julia!  Although I am not sure there would ever be an end to that little goal since I pin new recipes almost daily!
Is there a recipe you have pinned that you are dying to make?  Share it with me!
Happy Friday Everyone!

Source: thekitchn.com via Hilliary on Pinterest

A New Year Around the Corner-Top 5 Recipes from 2011

Wow, it is Thursday already, and the new year is right around the corner!  Where did 2011 go?  When I look back at 2011 there are several big moments that stick out to me.  But you will have to wait and read about those BIG moments tomorrow, because today I am sharing my top 5 all time favorite recipes (cooking moments) from 2011!  After all Happily Ever Healthy did start out as a cooking blog!

Enjoy!

I have to say I kinda enjoyed looking through some of the older cooking posts.  I am happy with where my blog has gone, lets just say the blog has improved a bit with time!  But as promised here are my top 5 recipes (in nor particular order) from 2011!

Lets start with breakfast.  A meal I use to detest but now wouldn't dream of missing!
1. Oatmeal Pancakes!
Delicious any time of the day, and even better when you add banana!

If you like a pumpkin version check out Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes
2. Pumpkin Coffee Cake
A little experiment that turned out fabulous!

Perfect for any festive brunch, or when you want something sweet!

3. BBQ Chicken Burrito Bowls (Remade)

One of Marks All time Favorites... along with
Stir Fry!

4. What is a year without a little chocolate!
My Mom's Chocolate Sheet Cake!

5. And last but not least... my Tzaziki CousCous Salad!
The remake, with so much more flavor.  This was the first recipe to be featured on a website!

Well there you have it... my top 5 recipes from 2011!
Have you ever gone back and looked at where your blog started?

Pumpkin Bread Anyone

Happy Monday Everyone!  Did you all have a fabulous weekend?  Did you do anything fun?

I have a wonderful recipe to share with you today.  On Saturday I finally decided enough was enough, I had to make pumpkin bread (I had only been craving it for the past week), and boy am I glad I made it.  I was extremely happy with how the bread turned out, moist, a little sweet, melty chocolate and PUMPKIN!

Read on to get this wonderful recipe!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

I know today I was supposed to share the wonderful salad I made a few days ago but I think my breakfast deserves the spotlight.  Especially since everyone seems to be all about these right now!

Fall is finally here!

And I have a small confession to make something I would have never thought possible!  I am getting a bit sick of my daily bowl of oatmeal, I know this is shocking!  But as I was flipping through recipes last night Pumpkin Pancakes caught my eye!  The only problem was that I was not finding a recipe that I absolutely fell in love with.  The recipes either had way way to many ingredients or had things I didn't have (like bisquick).  So I developed a plan or I guess an idea and prayed that today when I set out to make these pumpkin pancakes that my idea would work!

The end result?  FABULOUS!

Not only did I want pumpkin pancakes today, but I wanted those pumpkin pancakes to be oatmeal pancakes.  I know I know just a few small demands.  Well remember those Applesauce Oatmeal Pancakes I feel in love with?  The ones from this post?  Well my thought was why couldn't I sub in pumpkin puree for the applesauce?  They both have the same consistency, and would not change the nutritional stats of the pancakes at all!  And you know what that crazy idea worked!  This morning I was happily munching on delicious pumpkin pancakes with a pumpkin yogurt topping!

Here is the fabulous recipe, which was adapted from this Taste of Homes Recipe

Pumpkin Pancakes

Serves 5 - 2 Pancakes Each

Dry Ingredients 

1-Cup Quick Cooking Oats

1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour 

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

Cinnamon, Nutmeg and a bit of sweetener-All as much as you want (not in original recipe)

Wet Ingredients 

1 Cup Milk (Calls for Skim I used Unsweetened Almond Milk)

2 Tablespoons Pumpkin Puree (Not Pumpkin Pie Filling)

4 Egg Whites 

A Splash of Vanilla

What you do:

Combine all Dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Then combine all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. 

Add your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and start flipping pancakes!

Cook the pancakes as you would a normal buttermilk pancake, about 3-4 min per side.  Wait till you see tiny bubbles form and pop to flip your pancakes!

For the Pumpkin Yogurt Sauce!

1 Container Dannon Vanilla Greek Yogurt

1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Puree

Cinnamon, and Nutmeg

Combine all the ingredients together stir and enjoy!

I ate all the yogurt atop my pancakes with a bit of peanut butter!  I have to say there was jut the faintest hint of pumpkin to these pancakes, that is why I added a pumpkin dipping sauce! But still they were YUM!

I will leave you with this, enjoy your Thursday and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

This quote was emailed to me today and I laughed a bit to myself when I read it!

"Always behave like a duck-keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath"

-Jacob Braude

Hill Vs. The Pancakes, and Updates from Margaritaville

Have you ever watched the show Man Vs. Food?  Well I felt like Man Vs. Food yesterday when my plate of pancakes came out at breakfast!  I dubbed my fake show Hill Vs. The Pancakes!  These mammoth size pancakes were curtsey of The Butter Cafe!  I was so excited to go to The Butter Cafe for brunch, I have been wanting to go there for some time now!  Butter Cafe supports sustainable cooking, which means they use only the best ingredients (ingredients that don't hurt animals, the environment and are healthy for consumers) aka lots of Organic!!

 I was struggling on what to get, everything sounded so good post run, and I was starving!  I went between Banana Pancakes, French Toast Kebabs, Oatmeal, and Cinnamon Sugar Pancakes!  I wish I could have ordered one of each (then you would have been rolling me out of the cafe)!  So what did I finally settle on?  Drum roll please...  Cinnamon Sugar Pancakes!  Best decision ever, these pancakes were sweet but not that overpowering sweet.  Topped with bananas and of course peanut butter, the pancakes hit the spot!  I took the rest of my pancakes with me to snack on latter because let me tell you those suckers were huge!  Take a look.

Mammouth Cinnamon Sugar Pancakes!!

And after Mark, his mom and I Went to town!

Clearly food won that round in Hill Vs. The Pancakes!  

We left the Butter Cafe ready to tackle the hour and a half drive to Indy for the Concert!!

Upon arriving in Indy we decided we would check into our hotel before hitting up the venue... lets just say its a good thing we did!  There were a few issues with the hotel lets just leave it at that (makes for a great story)!

Fiesta Spud

I was severally lacking on brain power tonight when it came to thinking of supper.  I was in one of those moods where I had no idea what I wanted for dinner, and my parents were not being much help either!  I kept looking up recipes, but nothing stood out.  Finally baked potatoes were decided on.   Baked potatoes are versatile and basically a blank canvas.  I love that you can give each person a baked potato and then give everyone free reign to do whatever they want with their potato!  While the potatoes were cooking a made a quick salad and cut up toppings for the spuds!  I dressed my spud up fiesta style with beans, black bean and corn salsa hot sauce and some onions!  There was also a bit of cheese!  Delicious.

I think I had a veggie overload at dinner, is that possible?

Home I Go, and A Big Thank You!

Good afternoon Everyone!  Todays blog post is coming to you once again from the Chicago Union Station.  I am sitting waiting for my train back to Minnesota.  Hard to believe that I have been gone for a week!  But I had a blast!

Mark and I got into Chicago about 5 yesterday afternoon. We immediately headed to dinner to meet up with my friend/sorority sister Sam for dinner!

Breakfast for Dinner

Good Evening Everyone!  I hope your weekend is off to a fabulous start.  I am having a relaxing evening watching movies, I want to be nice and awake tomorrow night for the Bachelorette Party! The festivities start tomorrow night at 6!  I don't want to give anything away so I am just going to talk about my amazing dinner.  Breakfast for dinner!  Yum!  I think that the continuous rain all day, the gloominess and the fact I did not sleep well left me wanting comfort food.  

Here is what comfort food consists of in my eyes:

Oats

Peanut Butter

Bananas

Any guesses as to what I made?

Unbearable

Good Morning Everyone!  Yes I realize it is a bit of an early morning here, but the house is unbearably hot.    The house is stiflingly hot due to the fact that the AC stopped working!  I feel like I am back in Indianapolis in my un air-conditioned ancient apartment!  Since my room was an inferno I spent most of the night tossing and turning because I could not get comfortable.  Not only do I not sleep well when its hot but my eating habits change completely.  I only want food that is fresh (well thats not out of the ordinary for me).  I guess a better way to put it would be I only want food that is not piping hot this means I usually eat lots of salad, yogurt, veggies, hummus and tons of fruit!  The heat even made me change my pretty set in stone breakfast routine.  While I still had oatmeal today, decided I would be better off (and much cooler) if I at overnight oats or cold oats.

In my mix:

1/3 Cup Multigrain Oats

1/2 Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk 

1 Tablespoon Yogurt (I used Organic Brown Cow Maple flavored)

1 Huge Cup of Fresh Sliced Strawberries

1/2 Teaspoon Almond Butter (not in picture)

1 Tablespoon Granola (not in picture)

What I did was mix together my oats, almond milk and yogurt.  I let the oat mixture sit in the fridge over night.  This morning upon waking up I topped my oats with the strawberries almond butter and granola!

Yuuum!  Don't get me wrong I still prefer hot oats to cold oats, but a hot breakfast was out of the question!

Aren't these roses pretty?  My mom cut them off her rose bushes in the front yard!

I know a little random and off topic but I just had to share them with you.

Any way dinner was much of the same thing last night.  Neither my parents or I wanted anything we had to stand in a hot kitchen and make.  Solution you grill, and make a fresh Puttanesca!  The only cooking that really needed to do last night was boil water for the brown rice, and grill up the chicken (added bonus my dad grilled up lots of chicken to use in Fajitas tonight)!  I came across this recipe in one of the weekly Mayo Clinic News letters.  This is a gluten free recipe (not that I eat a gluten free diet) and the news letter also gave information on a gluten free diet.  The article simply stated in bold letters should you go gluten-free?  That caught my eye as the big trend now is to switch to a gluten free diet whether you need to or not.  For people with Celiac Disease gluten free is a way of life.  For others going gluten free is a choice and some celebrities have been raving about the health benefits of a gluten free diet.  Anyways this article went on to say that some gluten free foods lack important nutrients that or body needs.  On top of that if you are a healthy adult and you go gluten free what doctors like to call good bacteria begins to decrease in your digestive system while the bad bacteria increases!  YIKES! Who knew?  I certainly didn't!  But thats enough of my rambling you need to chose a diet that soots you and your body best!  Now on to the recipe!

Fresh Puttanesca with Brown Rice

The Mayo Clinic

**Note-I left out the Capers (not a fan!), and since my mom is not a huge tomato person I used 2 cups tomatoes 2 cups red pepper.  This substitution was in place of the 4 cups of tomatoes originally called for!

What you need:

2 Cups Tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes, bigger tomatoes just aren't looking that good!)

2 Cups Chopped Red Pepper

4 Green Olives Pitted and Sliced

4 Kalamata Olives Pitted and Sliced 

1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil 

1/4 Cup Chopped Fresh Basil 

1 Tablespoon Fresh Minced Parsley

1/8 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes (I used cayenne pepper, and added a bit much!)

3 Cups Cooked Brown Rice

Here is what you do:

Before you even start chopping up your tomatoes and red pepper get the water boiling for the rice!  Cook your rice according to the directions on the package!

Then Cut your tomatoes, 

Chop your red pepper and add them to the tomatoes, 

Slice both kinds of olives, and toss them into the bowl as well!

Now add your cayenne, parsley, garlic, and olive oil.  Stir everything to combine.

Chop your fresh basil and sprinkle on top of the tomato and red pepper mixture.

Doesn't that look pretty?

Stir everything to combine, and let the fresh puttanesca sit for 20-30 minutes at room temp.  Stir every once in a while, now just wait for the brown rice!

Fresh Puttanesca served over brown rice with grilled chicken!

Yum!  I thought that this dish had good flavor.  I will be interested to try the puttanesca after it has sat in the fridge all night.  My dad thought it needed a bit of salt, I will not disagree.  I am wondering if the capers helped add some salty flavor to the dish.  However this was a good dinner for a hot night, and especially good since no one wanted to stand over a stove in an already stifling kitchen! Well i think I need to go get ready for church.  Enjoy your Sunday, I hope you get a bit more relaxation time in before the work week starts all over again!  

See you all later, and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

Be Committed

"From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back.  That is the point that must be reached."

- Franz Kafka

Would you ever consider going Gluten Free?

Another Rainy Day! Smoothie Steel Cut Oats

Good Morning Everyone!  And Happy rainy Sunday here in Indianapolis.  Once again the rain is back, at least right now there is no torrential down pour going on outside!  Lets hope the sun comes out a bit later, wouldn't that be nice?

I slept better last night, only waking up once when my cold medicine wore off.  While I am not feeling 100% better, I can feel the end of this cold or whatever I have hopefully coming to an end!  I would like to not have to spend another week hacking up a lung, I am ready to run.  Don't get me wrong all forms of cardio I love, but I am starting to miss my long mind clearing runs (running is hard to do when your all stuffed up)!

When I woke up this morning (before my alarm) I knew I wanted Steel Cut Oats for breakfast, and I knew I wanted to load them with as many fresh ingredients as possible.  Preferably fruits with lots of vitamins and nutrients to help my body fight this cold off!  I knew that adding cut up fruit on top of my oatmeal would be easy.  However this is something I do often, I wanted something different with a little twist!  With my eyes still half shut (since I hadn't enjoyed my freshly brewed coffee)

I scanned the kitchen for an idea.  Suddenly my eyes landed on my Cuisinart hand blender that was sitting out!  A light bulb suddenly came on in my mind, why not combine a smoothie and oats!

I quickly ran to the fridge pulled out my almond milk, the rest of my fresh strawberries, and half a banana, and my prepared steel cut oats.  I dumped the oats in a pot and started heating them on low and then set to work on this smoothie of mine!

For the smoothie I sliced up half a banana, 5 strawberries, and 1/4 cup almond milk.  I simply put them in a cup, and used the handy dandy hand blender to turn this,

into this,

I didn't even need to add sugar, the combination of the banana and strawberries was sweet enough as is!  I waited for my oats to heat up a bit before pouring half the prepared smoothie straight into the pot with my oats.  I stirred to combine and let the smoothie and oat mixture heat up for another 2 minutes.  As a final touch I added a pinch of splenda, 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, and of course 1/2 tablespoon peanut butter for a little protein!

Now thats a breakfast of champions, Smoothie oats, with Gloria Jean Buttered Toffee K-cup (my favorite), and the remaining smoothie on the side.

Breakfast was just what I wanted this morning, and had tons of nutrients to help me feel better!  Strawberries are packed with good for you fiber, antioxidants, and vitamin c.  I found that just 8 strawberries alone have more vitamin c then an orange!  WOW!  And need I mention the health benefits of the Blueberry, sometimes refereed to as the super fruit!  These little berries are packed full of vitamins, antioxidants, fiber and iron.

Now that breakfast is done,

the time has come for me to get ready for the day.  I have a long list of things to do today, including church, lunch with Kalyn, a trip to Trader Joe's, Target (I am out of almost everything) and dinner with Mark!  There maybe a bike ride in there today if the weather decides to cooperate.  Stay tuned for a later post!  Enjoy your Sunday, hopefully here in Indianapolis the rain will decide to stop!

Remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

Question of the day: How do you spend your Sundays?  Are they busy running errands, or do you like to have a relaxing day?