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. 

Breakfast Sausage Casserole

We love to make this breakfast casserole for holiday brunches.  You can easily make it the night before and then bake it in the morning.  It's easy to make and super indulgent. 

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.  

Creamy Sausage & Spinach Pasta

My sweet newborn baby is apparently not a newborn any more...he's a whopping 8 month old.  If you think the first baby grows up fast...well, the second is just a blur!  He's crawling, pulling up, cruising, eating grown-up food; and most importantly, he is sleeping through the night.  However, back 8 months ago, none of us were getting much sleep, and my husband and I were zombies.  When you have just one child, you can theoretically sleep when the baby sleeps.  But when you have two kids?  Well, that clearly just doesn't work. 

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.

Blue Cheese Chicken & Broccoli Casserole

When I reached the end of my pregnancy, I made a ton of freezer meals, so that I would have easy dinner fixings after the baby arrived.  One of my favorites was a dish I created by thinking of a few of my favorite things:  Blue Cheese Chicken & Broccoli Casserole.  This is a rich and decadent casserole; it's definitely not low calorie, but it is for sure high comfort food!  I wanted something that would be soothing and delicious, and more importantly, something my picky toddler would eat without a fight. It did all those things!  

Low Carb Taco Pie

This recipe for Taco Pie is probably the lowest carb dinner I have on the blog.  I promise you won't miss a single carb though, as this as filling and comforting as a carb-filled casserole.  It whips up quickly and easily, and is easy to amend to your own personal tastes.  I keep mine on the mild side, so that my toddler will eat it, but feel free to adjust the seasonings if you prefer more heat.  Once baked, top with your favorite taco garnishes, and you will be in food heaven!

Summer Garden Gnocchi

Our family just returned from a fabulous beach trip; the last family trip with just the three of us.  Next time, our number will be four! As wonderful as the vacation was, I'm feeling exhausted this week from all the excitement.  I've been too tired to make it to the grocery store, which means our kitchen is depressingly empty.  Fortunately, I sometimes view an empty fridge as a fun challenge, and become motivated to try to create a new recipe using only what I have on hand.  

Cheesy Hamburger Macaroni

Today's blog post is a special one!  I've been chosen to write and share a recipe for one of my favorite grocery stores:  Earth Fare.  Normally when I grocery shop, I spend an inordinate amount of time reading the labels of every item I'm considering purchasing, and then scanning it on the phone app Fooducate to ensure I'm not getting something with scary ingredients.  I don't have to do that at Earth Fare.  I can trust that everything in the store has already been well vetted.  Their company vision is to be the most trusted organic and natural food market in the country.  Nothing in their store contains high fructose corn syrup, artificial color or sweeteners, synthetic growth hormones, and trans fat.  If other big chain grocery stores did that, half the store would be empty!  

Chicken Taco Soup

Our local weather guys, Athens GA Weather, are forecasting a nasty winter storm for this week.  Which is crazy, because we just had a winter storm two weeks ago, and normally we don't get to see snowflakes but once a year.  Since it's slated to be cold and icy, I've decided that a hot and zesty soup should be on the menu.  At first I considered making a ramen soup that I've been eyeballing, but ultimately went with old faithful: Chicken Taco Soup.  It's easy to make and always a crowd pleaser.  Before I became a parent, I would make it pretty spicy, but this time I aimed to keep it kid friendly.  So if you like heat, be sure to amend the recipe to add cayenne pepper and/or garnish with hot sauce.  Also, this is a great soup to double, since it freezes beautifully.  Finally, this recipe can easily be made in the crockpot, if you happen to be too busy sledding outside to be standing over a stove.   

Zucchini Lasagna

Many are surprised to learn that I suffered from gestational diabetes during my pregnancy. I've found that a lot of people have misconceptions about gestational diabetes, such as believing that only those who are overweight and/or have unhealthy eating habits can get it.  While those factors can be a cause, some people (like myself), just have rotten (genetic) luck, and get it regardless of our life choices.  I would get so upset when I would hear women saying that they weren't worried about their gestational diabetes test, because they ate healthy or hadn't gained a lot of pregnancy weight.  It made me feel as if it was MY fault for having gestational diabetes; like I was already failing as a mother, before my child was even born.  

Chicken Spaghetti Casserole

Sometimes you have a day where you just need some comfort food.  I had a whole week of those days last week, so after some recipe searching, I decided on Chicken Spaghetti Casserole.  It looked warm and cheesy and filling, and yes, it is made with the "cream of" soups I usually avoid, but darn it, sometimes you just want something easy.  So if you are looking for a filling one-dish meal that has a reasonable amount of calories (and taste), this Chicken Spaghetti Casserole is perfect for you.