Homemade Snacks

I love reading health magazines, I especially love the tasty and healthy recipes that many of the magazines feature. Usually these recipes are torn out of their magazines, placed into an unorganized folder aka the black hole of recipes!   This particular recipe was saved from the black hole of recipes!  These homemade granola bars remind me of my baked oatmeal only thinner.  The smell that filled the kitchen was delicious, sweet cinnamon, oats and brown sugar.  Nothing better then having something sweet in the oven!  The great thing about these granola bars is most of the stuff you probably have in your pantry right now, I made a few substitutions to my liking but they turned out great!  These bars will be the perfect addition to my healthy snack drawer at work!

Enjoy!

Homemade Granola Bars

Adapted from Women's Health, November 2011

1 Cup Pecans

1/2 Cup Walnuts

(I used Walnuts and Pecans in place of Soy Nuts and Pumpkin Seeds)

1 1/2 Cup Quick Cooking Oats 

1/2 Cup Nonfat Dry Milk 

1/3 Cup Brown Sugar 

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon 

1 Egg 

1 1/2 Cups Plain nonfat Greek Yogurt (I used Fage 0%)

1 Tablespoon Vanilla 

1 Cup Craisons and Raisons (instead of dried cherries)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

In a food processor combine your walnuts and pecans.  Roughly Chop.

Combine your chopped nuts, oats, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.

In a small bowl whisk your egg, yogurt, and vanilla together.

Add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients.  

Stir to combine, now add your craisons and raisons.  

Pour batter into a 13x9 greased baking dish and bake for 25 min.

Cut into 15 equal bars.  

You can keep these bars wrapped individually in plastic wrap for up to three months!  To me these are way tastier then any store bought granola bar, so go make them right now!

Enjoy and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

Do you stock your desk at work with healthy snacks?

Jambalaya

Happy Friday to everyone, I have the perfect recipe for you to make this weekend.  Yes, this is the Jambalaya recipe that I promised you all yesterday!  There is a little story behind this vegetarian jambalaya.  You see, there is restaurant in Dayton called Meadowlark.

 I went there with Mark and his family to celebrate my birthday and Mark's new job.  Long story short, Meadowlark had a fabulous vegetarian jambalaya filled with eggplant, squash, zucchini, and tofu!  Lets just say that this is a dish that I knew I wanted to attempt to recreate and I think Mark and I got pretty close!

Mark and I followed this recipe from Taste of Home.  Next time I am going to substitute two cups of chicken broth for the two cups of water!  Otherwise this recipe got a two thumbs up from Mark and I!

Vegetarian Jambalaya:
1 Medium Onion
1 Cup Chopped Celery
1 Cup Red Pepper
1 Cup Fresh Mushrooms
1 Cup Zucchini (Mark and I added)
3 Cups Tomatoes (we used 2 cans of tomatoes)
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
2 Cups Water (I suggest subbing in chicken broth for more flavor)
Paprika, Cayenne Pepper, Black Pepper and Parsley to Taste ( we used a cajun blend)
Sour Cream or Greek Yogurt for Topping

First chop all your veggies, Mark and I rough chopped them.  Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan and cook veggies until tender.  Add your garlic and saute another minute.

Stir in the tomatoes,

rice, water or chicken broth, soy sauce and the spices.

Transfer your jambalaya to a 2 1/2 quart baking dish.  Place in a pre heated 350 degree oven and bake for 65-70 minutes (or until rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed).

Mark and I decided to bake chicken and tofu to top or veggie packed jambalaya with!  It was delicious, I cannot wait to try this recipe again with chicken broth!

Enjoy, Happy Friday and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

Have you had a great dish at a restaurant that you have wanted to recreate?  Have you been successful?

The Redwood Room

In Rochester there is a chain of three restaurants (City Cafe, Redwood Room, and 300 First (previously The Broadstreet), and they have been family favorites for as long as I can remember!  

 To make a long story short Redwood Room closed and has recently reopened (the Wolfe family is insanely excited about this)!  Lets just say that the restaurant opened in the Redwood Room's place was not successful, and everyone seriously missed the Redwood Room!  

To make a long story short my family went to dinner at the Redwood Room last night.  Dinner brought back tons of wonderful memories.  The Redwood room was the Wolfe family go to restaurant for special occasions, Birthdays, Graduations, Anniversary's you get the picture!  The Redwood room is known for its cozy dimly lit atmosphere, and their great selection of live music (voted 2007 most romantic restaurant and best live music, Rochester Magazine).   I could spend an evening there simply sipping on wine and enjoying the company of close friends and family!  

Dinner last night at the Redwood Room did not disappoint.  Dinner started out with artichoke dip and the fabulous Redwood Room bread with garlic infused olive oil and parmesan cheese.  I could literally make a meal out of this bread it is that good! But I kept myself in check because I was really looking forward to the main entree!  I had the hardest time deciding on what to eat for dinner though.  Everything sounded amazing, does that ever happen to anyone else?  Well after much debate and flipping back and forth between entrees I finally decided on the fish of the day which was Swordfish.  The Swordfish was served over mashed potatoes with a tomato sort of sauce and the swordfish was wrapped in thinly sliced potatoes.  It was delicious I cannot wait to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!   My mom ordered Shrimp Risotto with corn (amazing I stole several bites), Miranda had the famous Apple Cider Pork and my dad enjoyed a Cajun Pasta!  I wish I would have snapped a few pictures of dinner, but sometimes I am just to caught up in the moment.   I enjoyed being able to spend the evening with my family.  It was great to be able to share a wonderful meal, in a restaurant with a cozy atmosphere and fabulous food!

But oh wait the great meal didn't end after entrees!  We split Creme Brulee, and a wonderful French Silk Pie!  I have to say the French Silk Pie was my favorite.  

And for those of you who wanted to know how the Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting turned out lets just say peanut butter frosting is very very addicting!  Yum!  If you are a peanut butter lover like me this is the frosting for you!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!  Hard to believe the week is over!

Do you have a favorite restaurant that has closed and come back due to popular demand?

What I am Loving- The Soup Edition

The weather is certainly starting to get colder up here in Minnesota!  As I am looking out the window this morning it looks like today is going to be another chilly grey day.  These cold gloomy days are perfect for a great cup of coffee, a warm bowl of oatmeal, a fuzzy blanket, sitting by the fireplace and warm thick soups!  When the weather starts to turn chilly I find myself wanting one thing and one thing only (well besides oatmeal) soup.  With the endless flavor combinations its hard for me to get sick of eating soup!  My favorite soups are thick ones loaded with tons of veggies and flavors.  One great thing  about soup is you can add and substitute things to a recipe to suit your taste.  Not to mention if you make a big batch of soup you can eat the leftovers for days!   I thought today would be the perfect day to share my absolute favorite soup recipes, you know the ones I come back and make time and time again! 

Enjoy!

Pinterest Inspirations

I don't know what it is about Pinterest lately but I feel more obsessed with it then I first was!  Recently I have been pinning a lot of DIY projects.  I always love the idea of DIY crafts but have to admit I am not very creative.  I always love reading about Meg's DIY projects over at Henning Love!  I guess she has inspired me a bit and I have a few DIY projects I would like to tackle when I have some free time!

I thought today I would share a few of the projects I wish will be doing at some point!

A Braided Scarf

Source

I love how you could wear this to keep you warm, but it also adds a statement!

Another sorta braided scarf!

Would be great to wrap around your neck on those chilly chilly mornings!  And I love the color combination!

And finally how cute is this?

Source

Looks like something that you could find at Anthropoligie!  

Hopefully I can find some time to make these!  

I hope your week is off to a great start!  

Ratatouille

Does anyone else love that movie?

  It could be one of my favorites right next to Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and about a million other Disney movies!

Aren't Disney movies the best?

Any guesses as to what was for dinner last night?

If you guessed Ratatouille you are correct.  Unfortunately I didn't make the Ratatouille because I was at work.  But it was nice to come home to a fresh, healthy and homemade dinner.  If you like a good veggie overload like me you will more then likely love a Ratatouille!  

The touille of Ratatouille means to toss.  Basically Ratatouille is a mixture of vegetables that are tossed together.  Ratatouille is usually served as a side dish to a meal, but may also be served as the main course.  Usually Ratatouille is accompanied by bread, pasta or rice if being served as a main dish!  There are several different methods to making Ratatouille.  Some just toss all the veggies together and let them cook, while some cooks like Julia Child use a layering method!    I secretly wish I could have cooked with Julia Child! 

I mean wouldn't she be just the best teacher?

Speaking of Julia Child the movie Julie and Julia is another on of my favorites!

I have thought many times of cooking through an entire cook book.  I just haven't found the right cookbook!

Anyways lets get back to the Ratatouille.

I found a great recipe on Eating Well.  Actually I found several recipes and wanted to mix and match you know make it my own.  But for dinner last night my dad stuck with the Eating Well Recipe which can be found here.  

Our Ratatouille was served over pasta!  

I already have some great ideas for what to use the leftovers for.  Because let me tell you this recipe makes A LOT of Ratatouille!

  

My thoughts for left overs are 

Ratatouille Burschetta

Ratatouille Filled Crepes

 and I am sure I could come up with more!

Stay tuned for more recipes, and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

PS here are some other fabulous Ratatouille recipes I found online!
A healthified Julie Child Ratatouille - Healthy Green Kitchen
Kitchen Parades Ratatouille
Ratatouille (Vegetable Provencal) From the Natural Health Magazine
Enjoy!!

Set Your Pace

I was reading the latest issue of Shape Magazine and I just love their page called"A moment for yourself."

I thought that I would share this particular moment for yourself today!

It was titled Set Your Pace:

To succeed at any challenge in life, you've got to tune out the noise around you- the footsteps of others (ahead and behind), distracting "advice," doubters who tell you it can't be done.  Instead, focus on your inner voice.  Setting your own goal, charting your course and trusting your instincts take courage, but they are the surest route to crossing your personal finish line a winner.  

October 2011 Shape Magazine. 

I can apply this little passage in so many aspects of my life.  To running, the job search, healthy lifestyle, and figuring out the next step in my life.  

I promis I will have a new recipe for you soon!

Enjoy your Monday and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!