Inspiring home cooks to be creative with accessible, nutritious recipes.
1/4 cup dried onion flakes
2 Tbsp beef bouillon granules
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp parsley flakes
1/8 tsp celery seed
1/8 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 tbs. garlic powder
1 tbs onion powder
2 tbs oregano
1 tbs sugar
1 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
1 tbs parsley
1/4 tsp celery seed
2 tbs salt
Combine all ingredients together in a container with a tight fitting lid and shake well. Can be used in any recipe that calls for Italian Dressing Mix. To make into a dressing, combine 2 Tbsp mix with 1/4 cup red wine vinegar and 2/3 cup olive oil.
If you do not have celery seed, you can substitute celery salt. Just be sure to reduce the amount of salt in the mix. A scant 2 Tbsp is equal to 1 dressing mix packet.
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 Tbsp powdered mushrooms
1 Tbsp dehydrated onions
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp salt
Combine all ingredients in an air-tight glass jar. Note: Powdered mushrooms can be made by putting dried mushrooms into a food processor or blender and processing until finely ground.
1 heaping tsp = 1 bouillon cube
4 Tbsp beef bouillon granules
4 tsp onion powder
2 tsp parsley
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
4 Tbsp potato starch
Combine all ingredients together in a jar with a lid for storage. Shake to combine. To use as Au Jus dipping liquid, add 4 1/2 tsp to 2 cups water and heat over medium heat for 15 minutes.
My brothers have all lived in California for quite some time. Every time I go visit, my favorite thing to get for breakfast or lunch is a Berry Acai Bowl! I would come home and attempt to recreate the bowl at home in my fancy blender, and every time ended up with liquified fruit. Not exactly what I was going for.
A couple months ago, my Magic Bullet quit on me, so I was at the store we all love best (Target, obviously), looking for a replacement. I happened to see the Ninja Foodi Smoothie Bowl Maker. I knew nothing about it and hadn’t read any reviews, but decided that maybe this little tool was the secret to my açaí bowl dreams!
Over the next several weeks, I tested the ratios of all of the ingredients, determined to get it just right. I have finally mastered the perfect Berry Acai Bowl and can’t wait to share it with you! It’s as thick as ice cream, with just the right amount of sweetness. The thing I love about the Ninja Foodi Smoothie Bowl Maker is that it has a paddle in the top of it that gets all of the pieces of fruit equally blended as you twist it. It’s so easy and gives the perfect açaí bowl consistency every time! I know the measurement sound very exact (6 slices of banana), but trust me, this will get you perfect results! Just look at how perfectly thick this açaí bowl is!
Now that I have perfected a thick açaí bowl, it has become my go-to breakfast, especially on busy mornings because there’s no cooking involved. For other great breakfast ideas, check out some of my favorites!
Avocado and Egg Breakfast Stack
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1/4 cup apple juice
6 slices frozen banana
6 slices of sliced frozen strawberries
1/4 to 1/3 cup frozen blueberries
1 frozen açaí packet
Granola
Cacao chips
Honey
Fresh berries
Add the apple juice to the blender cup. Run the açaí packet under hot water for a few seconds, until you are able to break it into 3-4 pieces. Add the açaí packet to the blender cup. Add the strawberries and banana, then fill to the fill line with blueberries. Secure the lid and process on the “bowl” setting, twisting the top the entire time.
Once well blended, scoop the açaí base mixture into a refrigerated bowl. Top with granola, fresh berries, cacao chips, and a drizzle of honey.
Tip: I like to store a couple small bowls in the refrigerator so that they are nice and cold when I make my açaí bowl. It makes the base melt less quickly.
Tip: My favorite toppings are the Organic Toasted Coconut Granola from Trader Joes and the Organic Cacao chips from Trader Joes.
Every time our family serves Fruit Pizza, we have these Barbecue Cocktail Hot Dogs with it. They are both part of our Christmas Eve meal tradition. One of my brothers makes the Fruit Pizza every year, and another makes these hot dogs. They are both kid-friendly and fun to serve!
1 package hot dogs or lil smokies
3/4 c ketchup
3/4 c barbecue sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp chopped onion
If using hot dogs, cut each hot dog into 4 equal pieces. In a small saucepan, stir together the ketchup, barbecue sauce, brown sugar, and onion over medium heat. Add the hot dogs and simmer until heated through.
It’s been a minute, but I’m back with a really fun recipe! As we’ve added people to our family, this recipe is often highly debated. When I was a kid, we ate this for dinner, but as our family has grown, no one else seems to consider this a meal….weird. They all consider it dessert. Whatever you want to consider it, it’s delicious! I will admit, I make this as a super-fun-special-treat for my kids. They think its awesome when they get to basically eat cookies for dinner. While fueling their bodies with nourishing food is very important to me, you only live once! My family makes this Fruit Pizza every Christmas Eve, as part of our Christmas Eve Appetizer tradition.
It’s super simple to make. Roll out refrigerated sugar cookie dough into the shape of a pizza and bake according to package directions.
Make the cream cheese frosting and spread over the cooled sugar cookie crust. Set out different types of cut fruit and let people top their fruit pizza the way they like!
1 roll of sugar cookie dough
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Assorted fruit, washed and cut
Spread the sugar cookie dough in a pizza sized circle on a pizza pan. Bake at 375 for 12 min. Using a mixer, cream together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla. When the cookie dough is finished cooking, let cool completely. Once cool, spread the cream cheese mixture over the top of the cookie. Top with cut fruit of your choice. (I use berries, apples, kiwi, banana).
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I love salads for lunch or as a side with dinner. Berry and Goat Cheese Salad is a great way to get in some extra vitamins! It’s packed with flavor and brightens up any meal. It is incredibly easy to throw together too!
I get asked a lot if my kids eat the salads I make. The answer is yes and no. I find that they often eat things better in a “deconstructed” fashion. So, I don’t typically cook separate meals for them, but I do serve things a bit differently to them. They also eat much better and are willing to try more new things if they serve themselves. So, when serving something like this salad, I’ll make the bowl of salad for my husband and I, but for the boys, I will put the fruit, avocado, greens, and pecans in small bowls or on a plate, but with each ingredient separated. I put that on the table with a spoon and they will serve themselves. One of the best books I’ve read on feeding kids is called Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School. It breaks down feeding strategies for every age group and walks through what’s normal and not. I’ve found that the strategies have worked very well for us. Who knew that something as simple as no longer plating their food for them would bring about such a huge change in our dinnertime battles?! I highly recommend this book after reading more than my fair share of books about feeding kids!
By the way – you can easily turn this Berry and Goat Cheese Salad into a main dish by adding a little shredded rotisserie chicken. Yum!
Mixed greens
Strawberries, sliced
Blueberries
Goat Cheese
Avocado
Candied Pecans (I buy mine at Trader Joe’s)
Balsamic vinaigrette dressing
In a bowl, combine all ingredients (quantities of each to your liking). Top with a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette and serve immediately.
Need a quick side dish that is packed with flavor and comes together in minutes? Blistered Garlicky Green Beans is it! I’m always looking for quick veggie sides – gotta get those veggies in! My kids actually like green beans better than I do. I love a green bean casserole, but fresh green beans are not typically my thing. I don’t like the squeaky-ness…anyone with me?! These Blistered Garlicky Green Beans are really good though! They get nice and crispy, and I think it eliminates that squeaky-ness. Very technical food terms here, by the way.
To start, trim the green beans, wash them, and make sure they are nice and dry. If there is water left on them, they will splatter even more when they hit the oil. I typically do this step on the weekend, so mine are ready to go as a quick side dish. Plus I hate trimming green beans and asparagus, so if I don’t do it right when I get home from the store, I probably won’t use them.
Add the olive oil to a pan and heat it over high heat, until shimmering. Make sure the green beans are nice and dry before you put them in the pan. They will splatter quite a bit, so a splatter screen can come in handy. Throw in the green beans and use tongs to spread them out evenly. Cook them, without disturbing them, for about 3 minutes. Then use tongs to flip them over (be very careful – the hot oil will splatter). Spread them out in an even layer again and let cook for about 4 more minutes.
Once they are blistered, add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and the sliced garlic. Let cook for about 1 more minute, being careful not to burn the garlic. I love to serve these with Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops. The green beans cook while the pork chops are in the oven.
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
3 garlic cloves, sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over high heat. Once hot, add the green beans (be sure they are very dry – no water on them). Spread them in an even layer and cook for about 3 minutes, until browning on the underside. Using tongs (and with an oven mitt on), carefully turn the green beans over. Cook for 4 more minutes, rearranging with tongs as needed, until all sides are browned. Add the sliced garlic and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cook for one more minute, being careful not to burn the garlic.
The further we get into staying at home, the more I am completely over cooking! As someone who loves to cook, even I am tired of preparing meals three times a day. It seems as though all I do is cook, cleanup, and repeat. Who’s with me?! My goal for this weekend is to put together a list of my favorite freezer meals and get them prepped so that I can cut back on my time in the kitchen. Until then, it’s Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops to the rescue as a quick and easy weeknight meal!
As you well know by now, I love prep ahead recipes for weeknight meals. This Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops recipe is easy to prep ahead. Mix the Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, garlic powder, and black pepper in a bowl. Cover and store in the fridge until you are ready to bake the pork chops. When ready, remove the mixture from the fridge and give it a quick stir with a fork. Rub the olive oil on the pork chops and press them into the bread crumb mixture. Shake off the excess and place on a baking pan with edges. I like to line my baking pan with foil to make cleanup easier.
Throw a veggie in a skillet (or microwave a bag of steamer veggies), the pork chops in the oven, and 30 minutes later, dinner is served! I love recipes like this! One of my favorite recipes to serve with Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops is my Blistered Garlicky Green Beans. They are oh-so-good!
What are your go-to easy meals right now?
4 boneless pork chops, 1/2 inch thick
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
Preheat oven to 350°. Combine the Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, pepper, and garlic powder in a bowl. Rub the pork chops with olive oil, then press in the breadcrumb mixture on all sides, to coat. Shake off excess and place on a foil-lined baking pan. Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes, until pork chops are cooked through.