Inspiring Families to Eat Real Food

I was poking around the fridge last night for something to make for dinner for my family.  Tuesdays is usually “throw whatever is still in the fridge together-day”, Wednesdays being shopping day and all.  I felt particularly inspired and I have gotten quite great at throwing together a healthy meal using leftover foods.  I love the challenge

Here’s what I had in the fridge:

1 bunch of spinach

6 eggs

A few cloves of garlic on hand

Cooked quinoa

Raw milk cheddar (unpasteurized)

a bag of organic carrots

butter

splash of organic full-fat milk

This is what I did:

Peeled and sliced the carrots, placed them in a casserole dish with a bit of real butter, pinch of sea salt and tsp of honey.  Popped those in the oven to glaze and started on the fritatta.

I sauteed the spinach and garlic in a bit of olive oil until wilted.  I greased a glass pie plate with butter, layered the wilted spinach and quinoa in the bottom (about 1/2 c. cooked quinoa).  I scrambled the eggs, added a splash of milk, sea salt and pepper, then poured the mixture over top the quinoa and spinach in the pie plate.  Topping off with grated raw milk cheddar.  The carrots were baked @375 for 45 mins.   The pie was baked @375 for about 40 mins.  Remove when the carrots look “glazed” and the fritatta is golden brown and cooked all the way through.

It was a hit with the kids!  My oldest Jayden asked me as she was going to bed if we could make a “mini” version of this in muffin tins to take for school lunches.  What a smart kid!  We are going to take on the mini-fritatta’s together this week   One more dish to add to the “kids liked this” list.

Per request for a muffin that is great for breakfast and has some energy boosting qualities; here is a recipe we use often in our house…..

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups Spelt flour (you can substitute Gluten Free flour)

1 cup oatmeal, old fashioned- uncooked (you can use GF oats or quick oats as well)

2/3 cup chocolate chips (recipe calls for 1/2 c.- I use dairy and gluten free mini chips, enjoy life brand)

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp.baking soda

¼ tsp sea salt

2/3 cup buttermilk (organic is best)

**Note: you can use 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar or a squeeze of lemon into 2/3 cup regular milk to substitute for buttermilk

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup olive oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Mix flour, oats, baking powder, soda and salt in large bowl. In another bowl combine buttermilk, honey, oil and egg and mix well; then add wet ingredients to dry mixture and mix until just blended. Do not overmix! Divide mixture evenly to the 12 muffin cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove muffins from pan after about 5 minutes. These are great muffins for quick breakfast options in the morning, accompanied with sliced fresh fruit and a small cup of fresh plain yogurt or kefir.  They also pack well in lunch boxes, I try to make 1 pan of large muffins (breakfast) and 1 pan of mini muffins (snacks and lunchboxes).

NUTRITION TIP: If using Old Fashioned Oats, the batter will at first be somewhat thin, but don’t add more oatmeal. The oatmeal will absorb the liquid and will bake up just right.  I let my muffins soak a bit before baking!
I found that if you use the Quick Oatmeal, the batter will be thick when you stir it up. It will still work just fine. The Quick Oatmeal absorbs the liquid in the batter very quickly, thus the thicker texture.

I have recently had a request for this recipe, my husband was talking about it at work and piqued some interest!  Here it goes, enjoy!  We loved it……

Crust:

2 cups pecans

4-6 soft pitted dates

1 tbsp. maple syrup

2 tbsp. cocoa powder

1 tbsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. ground fresh nutmeg (powder will work too)

1 tbsp. vanilla (optional)

a pinch sea salt

Filling:

2-3 ripe avocados

1 tsp. lemon juice (fresh squeezed)

1 tsp. vanilla

12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips ( I use dairy and gluten free enjoy life brand found at superstore or planet organic)

Directions for the crust:

Soak 1 cup of the pecans in fresh water for 2-4 hours.  Drain and rinse.  In a food processor chop 1 c. of the dry pecans into a fine meal.  Set aside.  Chop soaked pecans into a fine meal.  Cut or break dates into pieces.  If the dates are very dry or firm, soak them in 1/2 cup fresh water for 5 mins to soften.  Add the date pieces, maple syrup, cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and sea salt to the ground soaked pecans and chop until well mixed.  The dough should be crumbly but sticky enough to hold shape when pressed.  Press the dough evenly into a pie plate, I started with the dough in the center and worked my way to the outer edges and it worked fantastically.

Filling:

In a blender, cream together avocados, lemon juice and vanilla.  Melt chocolate chips and add to the blender, blend until smooth.  Pour filling into the crust and chill overnight.

Nutrition Tip: Pure, organic cocoa powder when properly grown and harvested is considered a superfood.  It supplies whole food sourced iron and fiber.

I made this as a side dish for dinner last night.  We were barbecuing for company and I wanted to throw together something different, using the ingredients in my fridge.  I had a pot of black beans that had been soaked for 24 hours, then slowly cooked in my crock pot, then refrigerated.  This turned out great!

Ingredients:

3 grilled corn on the cob

Several heaping scoops black beans (or you can use 1 large can)

diced red onion (approx 1/2 c.)

10 halved cherry tomatoes

Goat feta if desired (i used approx. 1/2 c.)

1/2 squeezed fresh lime (or approx. 4 tbsp. or to taste)

4 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. sea salt

chopped cilantro for garnish

How TO:

I grilled the 3 corn on the cob by removing  the entire husk, then I rubbed the corn with olive oil and cooked until tender.  You know it is finished when it has a “grilled” look to it (approx. 20 mins.), but NOT burnt.   I set them aside and once they cooled I sliced off the kernels into a large ceramic mixing bowl.

I added a few heaping scoops of the cooked black beans, diced red onion, chopped tomatoes, feta, lime juice, olive oil, sea salt and cilantro.  Mix well, then refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour to allow flavor mingling!

This was an excellent side dish to go with our sausages (free range bought from the market of course!) with homemade garlic bread using soft rye bread both done on the bbq as well……you can add a side of saurkraut for a perfect summer meal!

Nutrition TIP:

Saurkraut is a lacto-fermented condiment and has beneficial enzymes when properly prepared.  The addition of this condiment helps you to digest your foods, especially meats.  This condiment has been served with sausages and other meats traditionally for thousands of years, our ancestors knew the benefits of this wonderful superfood!