Veggie and Turkey Egg Casserole

This is a recipe that I like to make to make to have for lunches during my work week.  It makes 10 - 12 servings, so I cut it into servings and freeze it, and then thaw a serving for lunch when I need a quick lunch. 

Healthy Meatballs

Here's a meatball recipe that is both healthy and kid-friendly!

Instant Pot Sous Vide Egg Bites

I am currently obsessed with Starbuck's Sous Vide Egg Bites, so when I saw Food & Wine's copycat recipe using the Instant Pot, I had to give it a try!  It's a really flexible recipe, so you can switch out ingredients to your liking.  I made one batch with just spinach and ham and called it "Green Eggs and Ham" for my children, and then made another with roasted red peppers and hot sauce for myself.  I did alter Food & Wine's cooking time, because I used bigger size jars.  You may have to play around with yours to see what time works best for yours.  If it comes out a bit undone, just throw it under the broiler in your oven for a few minutes until it's cooked completely through!

Healthy Meatloaf

My meatloaf is actually my kids' favorite meal.  I try to make it healthier by using oats instead of bread crumbs, and I think it really adds to the flavor.  My secret ingredient though?  Buttermilk.  It makes the mealoaf extra rich and moist!

Chicken Taco Salad

Craving Mexican food but want something light?  This salad is perfect!

One Pot Baked Ziti

My life has been so chaotic lately, I barely have time to cook or post recipes any more.  My 4 year old never stops chattering, and my 18 month old's idea of fun is trying to climb furniture or turn the oven on.  So when I make dinner these days, I need it to be relatively easy, and with little clean up.  Also ideal?  A meal that everyone in my family will actually eat.  I'm trying to eat lower calorie meals in order to lose the last few pounds of baby weight, my husband wants to feel full, my daughter hates anything with vegetables, and my son doesn't like most meat.  

This Baked Ziti was pretty much a miracle.  First of all, it all bakes in one pot!  Just make sure you use something that can go in the oven, like an enamel dutch oven.  Otherwise, you'll need to transfer the food into a baking dish, which will give you two dishes to clean up (the horror!).  It only takes about 30-40 minutes to cook, which is super necessary in my life right now.  I held my breath when I served it to my family, praying that the meal wouldn't be filled with tears and gagging (like most meals these days...toddlers are so much fun!).  To my immense relief, everyone ate it happily!  Sweet success!  And to my own happiness, this dish is under 400 calories a serving, so I can eat it guilt-free.  WOO!

Cheesy Broccoli & Chicken Quinoa Casserole

I have a deep love for casseroles.  It is really hard to cook a main dish and several sides when you have two young children.  A casserole means less cooking, less cleaning, and a less frazzled mama.  Plus, casseroles will always be the quintessential comfort food.  

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins are currently my breakfast obsession.  I make a batch every other Sunday, freeze half (they freeze and reheat great!), and then keep the other half in the fridge to eat all week.  I usually do blueberries, but sometimes I use cherries or peaches instead.  I bet it would be great with pecans too!  Not only are these muffins delicious, but they keep you full all the way until lunchtime despite only being 229 calories a serving.  I love that it only takes 30 seconds to warm them up in the microwave in the morning, and then they are ready to eat.  My mornings are so chaotic now that I'm a mom of two kids.  One day  I'll have the chance to actually sit and eat breakfast again, but until then, I'm glad I have these oatmeal cups!

Cashew Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I needed a quick and healthy dinner that would appease both my husband and my picky toddler.  I'm a huge fan of cashews and lettuce wraps, so I thought, "Hey, let's try Cashew Chicken Lettuce Wraps!".   It only took about 20 minutes to make, and everyone gobbled the wraps right up.  Success!

Pasta with Creamy Butternut Sauce

One of my favorite fall dishes is Pasta with Creamy Butternut Sauce.  The sauce tastes rich and decadent, but it is oh-so-healthy. It's also a really easy dish to make vegetarian!  But for my meat-eaters, this dish is excellent with sliced sausage added to it.  Either way, it makes the perfect comfort meal for a cool fall evening.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Today is the official last day of summer.  Most people are excited about the start of fall, but I have to admit, I'm more of a summer gal.  I love swimming, and the long summer days, and the fresh meals you can make with all the wonderful summer produce.  Summer food pretty much trumps fall food in every way...except breakfast.  As soon as I start waking up to the chill in the morning air, I know it's time to start making my favorite weekday breakfast:  Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal.

Gazpacho with Goat Cheese Salsa

Summer is finally coming to an end, so it's time to hurry up and make your final summer dishes.  Gazpacho is definitely one of those recipes that require in-season produce.  If you tried to make this during the winter, you would end up with a watery flavorless soup.  In the summer this soup is vibrant and fresh and delightful!  It's one of my absolute favorite summer side dishes.  I like to pair it with a BLAT, and it makes for the perfect meal on a hot summer day.  

Broccoli & Egg Casserole

Now that we have two children, our mornings are quite chaotic.  My husband usually gets the toddler ready, and I'm in charge of the baby, which doesn't leave much time for ourselves.  To make things easier, I make a big batch of breakfast for the whole week on Sunday night.  During the Winter, we ate Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal, but now that it is officially Spring, I wanted to find a more season-appropriate meal to start our day.  I've also started to work on losing the baby weight, so I wanted a meal that was nutritious and full of protein.  I came up with a Broccoli & Egg Bake, and it is so delicious!  I use just broccoli in my egg casserole, but you could easily add in ham, or swap out broccoli for asparagus or whatever vegetable you prefer.  It is easily adaptable to your tastes!  After I finish baking it, I wait for it to cool, cut it into 10 servings, and stick it in the fridge.  On weekday mornings, I take out individual servings and microwave it.  It reheats beautifully!  I love that I have such a healthy and easy breakfast at my disposal on hectic mornings.

Buffalo Chicken Bake with Quinoa & Broccoli

During my pregnancy, I had a constant craving for Buffalo Chicken Dip.  I was determined to figure out a way to turn this awesome dip into an awesome entree.   However, since the baby was born, I barely have had time to feed myself, much less create new recipes.  But as the weather gets warmer and the days get a little longer, I'm determined to get back into my regular routine of cooking new, healthy recipes for my family.  And, yes, we could argue over the label of "healthy" when it comes to this recipe...after all, Buffalo Wing Sauce is high in sodium, and there is a copious amount of cheese.  But...BUT!  There is quinoa and tons of broccoli!  And lean chicken!  And a generous serving size is under 500 calories!  Most importantly, it is frigging delicious, and sometimes you just want to eat something frigging delicious.  

Sweet Potato Beef Stew

How about one last hearty soup before Winter officially ends?  The weather here in Georgia keeps flip flopping between 80 degree sunny days and 40 degree drizzly evenings.  On one of those recent chilly nights, I felt motivated to put a healthy spin on the traditional Beef Stew.  I made sure to fill the soup with as much veggies as possible, and I swapped out the white potatoes for sweet potatoes.  I think the sweet potatoes added a needed touch of natural sugar to balance out the saltiness of all the other ingredients in the stew.  I don't think I'll ever go back to regular old white potatoes in a beef stew again!

Chicken & Quinoa Casserole

Seriously, who doesn't love a casserole?  You have your protein, veggies, and grains all whipped up in one dish!  Easy to make, easy to eat, easy to clean up.  It's the lazy cook's trifecta. My newest one dish favorite is this Chicken & Quinoa Casserole.  For this particular go-around, I decided that mushrooms, asparagus, and sun-dried tomatoes would be my vegetables, but this recipe is so adaptable!  Feel free to swap out those veggies for whatever vegetables you're craving, or (keeping with the lazy theme) whatever is in your fridge.   I replace all 3 veggies for just lots of broccoli when I'm making it with my picky toddler in mind.  Report back if you try a different combination that you'd recommend!

Turkey & Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

Yesterday we had our first bout of winter weather for 2015.  Here in Georgia, that means ice and sleet; not exactly fun outdoor weather.  So I decided to fight cabin fever by working on a new recipe:  Shepherd's Pie.  I've been wanting to give Shepherd's Pie a healthy makeover for a long time now, and let me say, I truly like the healthier version so much better!  I swapped out the ground lamb (or ground beef) for lean ground turkey, and switched up the white potatoes for the much more nutritious sweet potatoes.  Not only is this dish more healthful, it is also diet-friendly:  under 450 calories for a very satisfying portion.  However, the best part of this casserole is that my picky eating toddler loves it!  

Zuppa Toscana

My favorite new recipe find this season is Gimme Some Oven's 7-Ingredient Easy Zuppa Toscana.  It's a creamy Italian soup made with sausage and gnocchi, and it warms up your entire body when you eat it.  It's super simple to make, and takes only about half an hour to whip up.  While this hearty soup definitely tastes like it's an indulgent high calorie meal, it's actually under 450 calories for a huge bowl of it.  So slurp away!

Chicken Pot Pie

I've been working on creating a healthy (and delicious) chicken pot pie for a while now.  I've looked over a ton of different recipes, and played around with various ideas, and I can say with absolute certainty that I have definitely come up with a winner.  The weather was chilly last night, and my husband built a roaring fire in the fireplace, so I figured it was the perfect night for a hearty chicken pot pie.  To make my pie as healthy as possible, I made it bursting with my favorite winter vegetables.  Feel free to adapt the vegetables to your own taste; just try to keep the amount of vegetables roughly the same to make sure that there is enough filling for the gravy (for example, if you'd rather not use parsnips, increase the carrots from 2 to 3, or substitute a potato instead).  When developing the recipe, I toyed with the idea of finding a substitute for the pie crust (like phyllo), but ultimately decided that real pie crust is the best part of pot pie, so it would be almost sacrilegious to remove it.  So I only used one pie crust as opposed to the traditional two, to keep the calorie and carbs low without sacrificing the integrity of the dish.  The result?  A healthy yet hearty chicken pot pie that is under 500 calories for a nice large serving.  Most importantly...it's comfort food at its best: warm, filling, and full of rich flavor.

15 Minute Spaghetti Squash Curry

A few months ago, my brother and sister-in-law came over for dinner and we each made our favorite Asian-style recipes to share with each other.  I made my Asian Lettuce Wraps and they made a Spaghetti Squash Curry.  I was astonished that such a tasty meal (and boy was it tasty!) was so quick and easy to prepare!  You can jazz it up with your favorite sautéed vegetables and/or proteins (I like tofu, red bell pepper, and mushrooms), or you can keep it simple and just serve it as is.   The simplicity of this delicious recipe, has made it into one of our regular family dinners.