Chili Creations...

We've been enjoying some yummy summer Chili Creations....

Chili Taquito Casserole

Cornbread Chili Casserole

Corn Chip Pie

Check 'em out!

Father's Day Breakfast

Our Daddy sure did enjoy his Father's Day Breakfast...

Drop Biscuits & Sausage Gravy

Ree Drummond Recipe

aka The Pioneer Woman

Biscuits and Gravy was a favorite of mine growing up. When my Grandpa lived with us for a few years he frequently made this yummy breakfast. I know he was smiling down on me while I was making it! We were staying with our good friends on this special day and all six boys helped us two moms prepare in one way or another!

Biscuits Ingredients

• 3 cups All-purpose Flour
• 2 Tablespoons Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1-1/2 stick (3/4 Cup) Cold Butter, Cut Into Pieces
• 1-1/4 cup Buttermilk

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Add flour, baking powder, and salt to the bowl of a food processor (or a large bowl.) Add butter pieces and pulse until butter is completely cut into the flour mixture (or use a pastry cutter if using a bowl.) While pulsing (or stirring) drizzle in the buttermilk until dough just comes together and is no longer crumbly.

Drop in clumps on two baking sheets, then bake for 15-17 minutes, or until golden brown. (Optional: Brush with melted butter when biscuits first come out of the oven.)

SAUSAGE GRAVY

• 1 pound Breakfast Sausage, Hot Or Mild
• 1/3 cup All-purpose Flour
• 4 cups Whole Milk
• 1/2 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 2 teaspoons Black Pepper, More To Taste

Preparation Instructions

Brown the sausage over medium-high heat until no longer pink. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Sprinkle on half the flour and stir so that the sausage soaks it all up, then add a little more until just before the sausage looks too dry. Stir it around and cook it for another minute or so, then pour in the milk, stirring constantly.

Cook the gravy, stirring frequently, until it thickens. (This may take a good 10-12 minutes.) Sprinkle in the seasoned salt and pepper and continue cooking until very thick and luscious. If it gets too thick too soon, just splash in 1/2 cup of milk or more if needed. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Spoon sausage gravy over warm biscuits and serve immediately!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/03/drop-biscuits-and-sausage-gravy/

We also made her Best Breakfast Potatoes Ever and some scrambled eggs.

Enjoy because our dad's sure did!!!

Fried Rice Nori Wraps

My little 許家庭 Xujiating could eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They love it and I love to be able to just throw together whatever I have in the fridge that needs to be used! Easy peasy. 

But of course, as in anything moderation is best! Here's what I used Leftover...rice, small baked chicken, some organic frozen veggies mix, and fried egg, seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil, and ginger. 

Then use some Nori to wrap it up or slice it. The health benefits of Nori or seaweed are so good! Being that it's a sea vegetable it's filled with tons of vitamins and minerals, such as iodine. Read up about it here and here.

To seal the seaweed just get your fingers wet and run along the edge of it and gently press it closed. 

Enjoy :)

Green Chicken!

This is Nom Nom Paleos amazing recipe called...My Sister's Phenomenal Green Chicken that I made for dinner. Which was the closest thing we did to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, last week being that we were going to be traveling. 

All my hubby says is,"Wow, Wow, Wow. This is so good." While eating it. Others have enjoyed it a lot too. The flavors are just too excellent to not!!

From her website...

Here’s what I gathered to make enough grilled drumsticks to feed 4-6 people:

• 1 medium sweet onion, peeled and coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup packed cilantro leaves and stems
• 1 1/4 cups packed basil leaves
• 1/4 cup packed mint leaves
• 4 tablespoons of  Red Boat fish sauce
• 3 peeled garlic cloves
• zest of 1 lime
• plenty ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of Aleppo pepper
• 2 tablespoons of apple juice (or 1 teaspoon of maple syrup if you’re not on a Whole30)
•  Kosher salt
• 3 pounds of chicken drumsticks or thighs

Directions:

Put everything in the blender, except the chicken. Put the chicken in a ziplock bag and pour the marinade in. Let it marinate for at least an hour, but overnight up to a day is best. I like to poke the chicken with a fork all over to get more of the flavor soaked in. 

Cook it up on a grill or to bake it out it on a wire rack and cook for 35-45mins at 400 deg F. and flip the chicken at 20mins. *I keep it in the marinade and bake in a dish. 

The cilantro and basil go great together, but I think one of the secret ingredients is the fish sauce, especially the Red Boat Fish Sauce she recommends. We love cooking with fish sauce and if you do you'll know that...It smells soooo bad, but tastes soooo good!

Enjoy!

Strawberry Shortcake w/ Coconut Whip Cream

While out grocery shopping I've noticed all the strawberries coming out on the shelves. And since the weather has dramatically warmed up I couldn't resist wanting to make this!

We had some guests over and after our meal enjoyed this awesome treat outside while the kids played and everyone (but me I enjoyed my Maple Pie Cocoroon) enjoyed the weather and delicious dessert that was on the back of my Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Sugar bag. One of my kids requested these for their birthday cake. I make my own Coconut Whip Cream to top it off!

Frontera's Famous Strawberry Shortcakes 

By Chef Rick Bayless

Ingredients

For the shortcakes:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp Wholesome Sweeteners Fairtrade Organic Sugar (divided use)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 large cage-free organic egg

1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp buttermilk (divided use)

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract, preferably Mexican

1/4 cup grated semi-sweet or Mexican chocolate

For the topping:

1 qt strawberries, hulled

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp Wholesome Sweeteners Fairtrade Organic Sugar, divided use

1 to 1 1/2 cups heavy (whipping) cream

Wholesome Sweeteners Fairtrade Organic Powdered Sugar, for garnish

Directions

To make the shortcakes: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Measure the flour, 1/4 cup of the sugar, the baking powder and the salt into a food processor. Scatter the chilled butter evenly over dry ingredients. Pulse the processor 10 to 12 times (1-second pulses) until the butter is in tiny bits. Add the egg, 1⁄3 cup buttermilk, vanilla and grated chocolate. Pulse the processor 7 to 8 times until the soft dough just comes together. 

Turn out the dough onto a well-floured board and press together to form a disk that is ¾ inch thick. The dough will be very moist. With a floured 3-inch biscuit cutter, cut out 4 biscuits. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Gently bring the scraps back together and pat out the dough again. Cut two more disks and transfer to the baking sheet. Brush tops with the remaining 1 tablespoon of buttermilk, then sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake for about 18 minutes, until the biscuits are lightly browned. Cool.

To fill and serve: Thinly slice the strawberries and scoop into a medium bowl. Gently mix in 1/4 cup of the sugar. With an electric mixer, beat the cream and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar (using the whisk attachment if available) until the cream holds soft peaks. 

Just before serving, split each biscuit as you would a bagel. Top the bottom layer with a generous dollop of whipped cream, spoon on a portion of the strawberries (and any of their juices), then set the top in place (or off slightly off to the side, to show off the strawberries more). Sprinkle with powdered sugar and you’re ready to serve.

Recipe source

Chef Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, Chicago, IL

*We don't drink cows milk (just occasionally), so no buttermilk for us. Luckily, I've discovered how to substitute with a diary free option. In a bigger measuring cup put one tablespoon of white vinegar and then add your dairy free milk (I usually use coconut milk) until it reaches 1 cup. Mix and let it sit for five minutes and then it out "Buttermilk" is ready to use!

*Next time I'm going to sub coconut oil for the butter. Yum. 

Enjoy :)

Nanniskadii w/ Turkey Soup

Nanniskadii is a Navajo food staple growing up we loved it when our mom made Nanniskadii or Frybread for dinner!

Nanniskadii is Navajo for tortilla and is so good. Just some flour, baking powder, salt, warm water, and SKILL is all it takes, yes, I have to emphasis SKILL. 

I'm still working on mine.

It was supposed to compliment our Stew, but I didn't have any stew meat and our local grocery store is closed on Monday's. So, upon searching my freezer I found the last of our leftover Thanksgiving Turkey meat. Well, that needed to be used up!

In my awesome Instant Pot pressure cooker I made the broth from grass-fed beef bones, which I purchase at Wholefoods from the meat department. Then chopped up veggies...

Bay Leaves

Onions

Garlic

Carrots

Celery

Potatoes

Zucchini

Stewed Tomatoes

Salt

& 

Pepper

It was enjoyed!

Instant Pot

This was my Christmas present an Instant Pot aka pressure cooker!

But, this isn't any regular old pressure cooker this is an awesome 7-n-1...

Pressure Cooker

Slow Cooker

Rice Cooker 

Saute/Browning 

Yogurt Maker

Steamer/Warmer

Reviews are great on this check it out at Amazon.

We've been using it and I love it.

It is very time and energy efficient.

Here's a great review from Whole Health Source.

I make lots of bone broths in this in the fraction of the time it takes in the crock pot or stove top.

Our soups always turn out so yummy!

So check it out it's totally worth it.

If you end up with one on your counter you'll enjoy it :)

Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Chicken

This curry smelled so delicious!

In the morning I chopped up everything and then put it all in the crock pot.

Then when my kids came home they sniffed their little noses and said, "Is that curry??" Yay!"

I used chicken drumsticks, so it may not look like curry, as the meat slow cooks it just falls off the bone and shreds so nicely!

The Fish Fam ate most of it, but we had a little bit left over and were going away for the weekend so I passed on all my leftovers to my neighbor. She then wanted this recipe. Here it is Rebecca...

Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Chicken:

Recipe by Kristy

From Sweet Treats & More

Ingredients

• 2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs, cut into cubes
• 5 large carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 large bell pepper, seeded and chopped (I used a green pepper)
• 1 (5 oz ) can tomato paste
• 1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and halved OR 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch

Instructions

• 1
  Grease your slow cooker with Pam. Place the chicken and carrots on the bottom of slow cooker.
• 2
  Place the rest of the ingredients (except water and corn starch) in a food processor and process together until mixture is mostly smooth. ***If your food processor is too small to hold everything, process everything but the coconut milk. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl then mix in the coconut milk.
• 3
  Pour the sauce over the chicken and carrots, mix well, then cover and cook on low for about 6 hours.
• 4
  An hour or so before serving, mix cornstarch and water together in a small bowl until cornstarch is dissolved. Pour mixture into the slow cooker, stir to combine, and continue cooking for another hour. **This will thicken up the sauce. When the sauce is to your desired thickness, turn slow cooker to warm setting until ready to serve.
• 5
  Serve over rice, with Naan, and garnish with cilantro.

Notes

• *if you want you can chop the bell pepper into larger pieces and place in with the chicken and carrots rather than processing into the sauce. This is what I did and we loved the different textures of the carrots, chicken, and pepper in the sauce.
  
  
  Plenty more for leftovers...
  
  
  
  
  
  Enjoy!
  
  

Valentine Sweets & Treats < 3

There was plenty of Valentines baking and treat making over the week!

I'm pretty wiped out from all the Love Day Week events going on with my little ones.

Nonetheless, we made some yummy sweets and treats!

I make two different kinds of sugar cookies with butter or switch it for coconut oil.

The Fish Fam prefers the coconut sugar cookies.

Recipe for Coconut Sugar Cookies here and for the butter sugar cookies this recipe.

I made these heart shaped fruit pizzas for my youngest's Vday Party.

Yummy! Just make your sugar cookie, spread cool whip over the top, and then add your favorite sliced fruits. <3

These were for the older kids school teachers.

I used heart shaped silicone cupcake molders.

Then I put the Vday sprinkles and M&M's at the bottom. Then poured the melted chocolate on top. Which, I had to do some research on it is important to use the right type of chocolate to melt and use. There is a big difference that will give you very different results. Read here!

Homemade Fruit Snacks!

By Wellness Mama

Recipe here.

My kids sure loved these. Once you have all the right ingredients they are easy to make, but let me tell you it does take some practice to get it right. Mine failed the first time because come to find out I used fresh pineapple juice and just like she said it won't thicken. So I made them into popsicles. But, the second time they formed using pineapple juice from a can. Finally, but I still have much room for improvement.

We got some pretty sweet molds at amazon...heart shaped, dinos, and legos.

(I'll make a more detail post about this sometime soon.)

Banana Cream Pie Bars

Since I'm raising Monkey's we always have plenty of bananas to go around!

And WOW, these Paleo Banana Cream Pie Bars were amazing.

Definitely an enjoyable treat for me :)

Taylor Made It Paleo

Banana Cream Pie Bars

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

-1 1/2 cups almond flour

-1/4 cup honey (I used maple syrup)

-2 T nut butter (I used almond)

-1 T maple syrup

-pinch of salt

For the Topping:

-1 can of coconut milk (left in the fridge overnight to let the cream settle at the top and ONLY use the cream on the top and not the liquid underneath.)

-1 ripe banana, mashed (I used to small bananas)

-1 T maple syrup

-1 tsp vanilla (I don't add, don't like the taste)

Directions:

1. Combine all crust ingredients until crust like texture forms.

2. Press dough evenly into the bottom of a pan.

3. Whip together coconut cream, banana, maple syrup, and vanilla until well combined.

4. Spread evenly over the top of the crust.

5. Top with additional banana slices.

6. Place in freezer for 1 hr.

7. Cut into squares and enjoy!

8. Store in fridge. (I've kept mine in the freezer because if you don't eat it all up fast enough it gets too soft and runny.)

And nope, you don't need to bake the crust, I had to double check myself :)

These are really easy to make and very delicious!