Oatmeal pancakes - Refined Sugar and wheat free

These days, I'm on the hunt for wheat free and refined sugar free recipes.  Our family has had to change up the way we eat a little bit, and it's been a challenge, but it's also been fun. Some food we have just given up completely, but for others, I've just replaced the ingredients so we are still able to eat some of our favorites.  Pancakes are definitely a favorite that we didn't want to give up at our house.  I found a recipe that I was able to modify, and whip up in about ten minutes.  These pancakes are wheat free and sweetened with maple syrup or honey.  They were delicious served with just butter, but would be tasty with a little syrup or sauteed apples on top too.

Oatmeal Pancakes
2 cups whole oats
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
1/4 cup real maple syrup or honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup diced dried apples (optional)

Place oats in blender and pulse a few times to make oat flour.  Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until mixed thoroughly.  Add the apples if you are using them and pulse just to mix.  Pour onto a greased griddle or pan and enjoy!  This recipe makes about 12 small to medium sized pancakes.

Chewy Granola Bars

I'm so excited about this recipe!  I've been looking for a good recipe for granola bars that doesn't use corn syrup or tons of sugar, for a while now.  I've had failures, here is one example.  These bars are adapted from a recipe I found in Whole Living magazine.  You could use whatever dried fruit you have on hand, and if you want to add nuts or seeds, that would be fine too!  Hope you enjoy them as much as we did! 

Ingredients:

3 cups whole oats
4 tbsp ground flax meal
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 cup raisins
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp coarse salt
1/2 cup peanut (or any nut butter) butter
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup real maple syrup or honey
1/4 tsp vanilla exract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8x8 inch pan with coconut oil or olive oil and line with parchment paper.  Combine the first six ingredients and mix together.  In another bowl mix together the wet ingredients and stir to combine.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together.  Press mixture evenly into the pan with your hands.  Bake until the bars are golden brown and firm, about 30 minutes.  Let cool completely and remove from pan.  Store bars in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Mediterranean Turkey Meatballs

I think I am going to start updating the blog again, now that I actually have my appetite back. I'm well into my second trimester and finally starting to feel better.  So, hopefully more yummy blog posts to come!

I love meatballs, all different kinds. I love how you can dress them up with sauces or change them completely with spices.  They are not fancy, but versatile and so tasty!  I was in the mood for Mediterranean food, and found a recipe from Cooking Light, it was a quick and easy meal.  As I was cooking the meatballs, I sauteed a bell pepper in another pan and made some homemade Tzatziki (by no means authentic, but still really good) sauce.  We ate the meatballs over spinach salad and topped with the peppers, Tzatziki, and feta cheese.  They would also be tasty wrapped up in pita bread!  Enjoy!

Mediterranean Turkey Meatballs:

1/2 cup panko or plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled feta cheese
1 tablespoon minced red onion
2 tablespoons store-bought or homemade pesto
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound ground turkey breast 
1 garlic clove, minced

Mix together, careful to not over mix.  Shape into balls or disks and cook in olive oil over medium-high heat, until cooked through.

Homemade Tzatziki:

1 cup Greek yogurt
1 tsp minced garlic
1 chopped cucumber
1 tsp dill (I didn't have any, and it was still super tasty)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix together and store in fridge until ready to eat.

Little Things - Baked Tortilla Chips

So the other night, I was really craving chicken nachos.  I was getting my ingredients together...chicken - check, avocado - check, cheese - check, beans - check, tortilla chips - nope...How could I make nachos without chips...time to make homemade tortilla chips out of the 5 pounds of white corn tortillas that I have stored in the freezer!  It was beyond easy, here's what I did.


Baked Tortilla Chips:

Corn tortilla - cut into triangles or strips ( I used a pizza cutter and cut them into fourths)
Olive oil
Salt

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut tortillas and place on baking sheet.  Spray with olive oil (or brush on before cutting) and sprinkle with salt.  Bake for 6-8 minutes, check on them half way through and stir.  That's it, super easy!

Yellow Salsa

Life has been busier lately, and I've had less time to update the blog...but I'm still passionate about my food and sharing it with others, so I'm not saying goodbye yet!

Here it is October, and I'm still getting tomatoes, and lots of them!  I still have jalapenos too, so I was thinking that I should can salsa, then I thought about it and realized that may be more work than I'm willing to do right now.  So, I've been making this quick and easy salsa with my yellow pear tomatoes.  I love the color, and using tomatoes freshly picked out of the garden makes the tastiest salsa!

Isn't it pretty?!?!

Yellow Salsa

2 cups yellow pear tomatoes
1/4 of a white onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 tsp lime juice or squeeze half a lime
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp pepper
1-2 jalapenos (depending on your desired heat level, and I usually make two batches, one for us and a smaller one for the little guy, sans jalapenos.

Place all of your ingredients in a food processor and pulse a few times until it's the consistency you like.  Taste and add more spices if you need to.  Enjoy!

Lemon Zucchini Cornmeal Cookies

This is a recipe I found in an old issue of Everyday Food, and these cookies are delicious!  They have quickly become my favorite Summer treat. They are super easy to make, and help make sure I use up all of the extra zucchini I have laying around.  I have all of the ingredients on hand, even the lemon zest needed stored in my freezer.  I did make one addition to the recipe, I replaced half of the vanilla extract with lemon extract, just to make it a little more lemony.  Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon packed finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup fine cornmeal
1 medium zucchini, grated on small holes of a box grater (about 1 cup)


Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until pale and fluffy. Stir in vanilla, lemon extract, lemon zest, and salt. Add flour and cornmeal and mix until mixture is crumbly. Add zucchini and stir until a thick dough forms.  Drop dough by rounded tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies are light golden brown at edges, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool completely on wire racks.

Whole grain (mostly) healthy Zucchini muffins

This is a whole grain muffin recipe, filled with yumminess of all sorts, but without all of the sugar.  If you are looking for a sweet, buttery, sugary muffin...this recipe is probably not for you.  However, if you are looking for a healthy muffin for breakfast on the go, or a mid afternoon snack, then you will love this recipe.  You can change up the ingredients a bit if you want, you can add carrots and raisins instead of the zucchini and apples, or substitute the zucchini and apples for blueberries.  This is a versatile, hearty muffin recipe, and has quickly become my go to recipe for muffins.

Zucchini Muffins (makes 12-15 muffins)

3/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 (heaping) tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1 cup chopped dehydrated apples

2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups zucchini

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease muffin tins.  Combine the dry ingredients and set aside.  In a small bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, brown sugar, and vanilla, then stir in the zucchini.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Scoop batter into muffins tins and bake for 15-20 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.  Enjoy!!