SPD: No Bake Energy Balls

We attended a Super Bowl party where someone brought these 'No Bake Energy Balls'. I tried one and then proceeded to eat about 5 of them. I felt bad after thinking I ate a few too many 'sweets'. After getting home and finding them on pinterest, I learned that it did not contain sugar as one of the ingredients. This recipe was 'Tate' approved :)

Source: snhblog.com via Bridget on Pinterest

Turns out that I pinned it from the blog that hosts this awesome link up!!!

So I finally bought the ingredients and made them. They were SUPER delicious and easy to make.

Ingredients

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup coconut flakes

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup ground flax seed

1/2 cup nut butter (almond, peanut or cashew butter)

1/3 cup honey

Mix all ingredients together in bowl

After you mix the ingredients together, refrigerate for 30 minutes. After chilling for 30 minutes, make into balls by either rolling or using an ice cream scoop.

Before enjoying, chill for another 30-60 minutes.

We have enjoyed them as a nice snack. I feel like I am eating cookie dough.

Buy the ingredients, make them and enjoy!!!!

 

Baked Salmon

I am a very picky eater...so it seems that we are eating the same thing over and over again. Thanks to pinterest, we have switched it up a bit here and there. I decided that we could spoil ouselves a few times a month and I picked up some salmon at the grocery store. I knew Tate would just love it. I had tried it on our honeymoon and really liked it, so I was hoping I could make it to taste just as good.

What you need:
- Fresh Salmon
- Spices of your choosing (we used Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt)
- A glaze of your choosing (we used Tastefully Simply Honey Teriyaki Sauce on mine and Pomengranate Chipotle Glaze on Tate's)

What to do:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Lightly paste salmon with olive oil
- Sprinkle spices on salmon
- Cook salmon for 15 minutes
- After 15 minutes, paste glaze on salmon
- Cook another 5 minutes

My piece with Honey Teriyaki Sauce

Tate's piece with Pomengranate Chipotle Glaze

We served wild rice with our fish...which I love! This meal was delicious and it tasted better than what I had on our honeymoon. It may be that I love teriyaki sauce.

Super Easy Lasagna

My mom has made this recipe as long as I can remember. It's the only way I make lasagna and I refuse to make it any other way...because every other way that I have heard is not this quick and easy. My mom got this recipe from a cookbook from her co-workers that they put together a LONG time ago!

What you need:
1. 8oz package of lasagna noodles (I use whole wheat)
2. 12 oz of mozzarella cheese
3. 1lb of ground beef or ground turkey (extra lean)
4. 1 jar of spaghetti sauce
5. 8 oz of ricotta cheese
6. Parmesan cheese

How to make (EVERYTHING IS RAW DURING THIS PROCESS...INCLUDING MEAT):
1. Grease 9x13 pan & preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Start with 1 layer of lasagna noodles.
3. Sprinkle chunks of meat over noodles
4. Sprinkle 1/2 of ricotta cheese around meat
5. Pour 1/2 of spaghetti sauce in pan
6. Sprinkle 1/2 of mozzarella cheese over everything
7. Dash Parmesan cheese over it all

After one layer

8. Do a 2nd layer (repeat 2-7 above).
9. Cover with tinfoil and bake for 1 hour.

Ready to cook

10. After the 1 hour of cooking, take off tinfoil and cook another 10 min.
11. Take out and let sit for 10 minute before serving.

You can also add veggies to this recipe. I am not a veggie person so that is why I don't.

The best thing about this recipe is you only dirty 1 pan. No need to boil noodles, ground meat, etc....just one dirty cake pan is all it is! People always comment when I make this recipe on how good it is and they can't believe that it all goes in raw. I can't believe people cook lasagna any other way :)

Chicken Dumplings Crockpot Soup

To say I was so excited when I saw Ruthie over @ The Chronicles of Ruthie Hart put up this recipe, is an understatement. I absolutely love chicken dumpling soup and have always wanted to make it at home. I made this recipe within a week of her posting it and was not disappointed. I knew I had to share it also.

What you need:
4-6 large boneless skinless chicken breast
2 tablespoons of butter
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
1 (15 oz) can of chicken broth
1 medium onion diced
1 tablespoon of dried parsley
6-8 refrigerator biscuits or crescent rolls (raw)

OK...as I just listed out the ingredients, I just realized I did something different when I made mine and it still tasted so good. I actually baked my biscuits before adding them to the crock pot and the recipe actually calls for you to put them in raw. Well I plan to make this again this week and I will make it the recipe actually says it should be made and will determine which is better. Anyways...back to the recipe :)

What to do:
- put defrosted chicken in the crock pot
- add butter, cream of chicken soups and chicken broth and stir to combine
- add the onion and parsley and stir again to combine
- cook on low for 4-6 hours stirring occasionally and shredding the chicken as it cooks
- 30 min to 1 hour before you plan on eating, cut the raw biscuits or crescents into small pieces and add to the crock pot. Cook on low for another 30 min to 1 hour.

*As I stated above, I actually baked my biscuits and then cut them up and added them to the crock pot. I certainly didn't add 6-8 because they were already so big from being baked...but it was really delicious...I guess you can make it either way*

Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!!!

Ground Turkey Chili

This recipe is super delicious! I have made it many times and plan to make it this weekend for the Super Bowl. I changed up a few things to make it to my liking!

This recipe makes 6 servings.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 lb ground turkey
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1 15oz can of tomato sauce
1 14.5oz can of no-salt-added tomatoes, cut up
1 cup water
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1 15oz can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup of frozen whole kernel corn
Shredded cheese

What to do:
1. In a large pan (I used a dutch oven pan), cook ground turkey until done; drain.
2. Stir in onions, 1/4 cup water and the garlic. Cook about 5 minutes more or until tender, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in tomato sauce, undrained tomatoes, 1 cup of water, chili powder, cumin and sugar.
4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat.
5. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Stir in beans and corn and return to a boil.
7. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes more, stirring occasionally.

Serve with cheese on top.

I plan to cook this all and keep warm in my crock pot for the Super Bowl this weekend. I hope it will still taste the same!

Enjoy :)

Pin It

Lime Chicken Fajitas

Another super yummy receipe from the very awesome website...pinterest. I seriously think that I would be eating the same thing every week if it wasn't for pinterest. I love love love all the different recipes I find and I know Tate does also. He loves trying new things...so even though he thinks I spend too much time on there, he is thankful for the fabulous food I make that I get from there.

Lime Chicken Fajitas...best homemade fajitas ever!!!

You really can make fajitas any way you want...but the marinade for the chicken and veggies is what makes the fajitas so good. I am a super picky eater, so I am always tweaking recipes I find to make them so I know I will like them. The marinade on this one though, I did not mess with and I am not sure any tweaking is needed...ever!

Marinade ingredients:
Juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons of rice vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of black pepper
2 teaspoons of cumin

I started out by cutting up my chicken into little pieces. I also cute up the veggies (peppers & onion) into strips. I put all the chicken in a zip lock bag and all the veggies in a different zip lock bag.

Mix together all the marinade ingredients in a small bowl. After you stir, pour 1/2 the marinade in the chicken bag and the other 1/2 in the veggie bag. Let them marinade for a good 30 minutes.

After it's all marinaded, I put the chicken in a stove top pan to cook. After the chicken was cooked, I added in the peppers and onions. Once that is all cooked together...you are ready to build your fajitas.

Everyone likes different things on their fajitas. I usually cook some rice so I can put that in mine along with sour cream, cheese, lettuce and salsa. So yummy and I am drooling just thinking about theses. We have made this recipe 3 times now and it is definitely on the dinner calendar every other week now!!!

Lasagna Soup

This pinterest recipe was so easy to make and super yummy!! I changed a few things about it so my ingredients may differ than the linked recipe.

You will need:

2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 pound of ground turkey
1/2 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1.5 tablespoons of minced garlic
1 32 ounce can of chicken broth
1 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 14.5 ounce can of petite diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
8 whole wheat lasagna noodles
1/2 cup of chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup of reduced fat mozzarella cheese
3 tablespoons of parmesan
Garlic bread or breadsticks

What to do:

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large non-stick dutch oven pan. Brown the ground turkey. After the ground turkey is browned, add the bell peppers, onion and garlic. Cook together over medium-high heat for 5 minutes.

Add broth, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, salt and crushed red pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the flavors are blended, about 20 minutes. Add the noodles; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the soup thickens slightly and the noodles are tender, 10 – 12 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in mozzarella, basil, and the parmesan(whole-wheat lasagna noodles take a little longer to cook).

I always make garlic bread with my Italian meals. You will need 1 loaf of Italian bread (less or more depending on how many people you are serving). Slice the bread and butter both sides. Put garlic salt on one side of each slice of bread. Put the loaf back together and wrap in tinfoil. Cook at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Baked Walleye & Asparagus

So yummy and healthier than beer battered, deep fried walleye [even though I love it that way too].

Walleye ingredients:
Walleye fillets
1 medium tomato chopped
2 tbls chopped green pepper
2 tbls chopped onion
1 tbls lemon juice
1/4 tsp of Thyme

Directions:
Arrange fish in single layer greased 9x9 baking pan. Combine other ingredients and then pour over fish. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Asparagus ingredients:
Raw asaragus
Extra virgin olive oil
Parmesean cheese
Salt & Pepper

Directions:
Season asparagus with olive oil, parmesean cheese, salt and pepper, Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

The walleye receipe is from my mom. The asparagus receipe was a pinterest find...so here is the LINK to that.

We put tinfoil in the pan so it makes for easier cleaning

We also made boxed wild rice...love it!

So healthy and good!!!!

Homemade Sushi

A few weeks ago, Tate and I decided to have to try to make sushi at home.

We were craving it from enjoying it on our honeymoon. While on our honeymoon, I tried it for the first time and loved it. I only ate veggie sushi...but at home, we decided to make sushi with veggies, smoked salmon & crab. I didn't eat any of the crab ones because I am not a fan...but the veggie and salmon ones were great.

Ingredients:

Smoked Salmon

Imitation Crab

Cucumber

Avocado

Cream cheese
Fresh squeezed lemon juice

Short or medium grain rice (Not long grain...won't get sticky)

Dried seaweed
Soy sauce
Wasabi
Rice vinegar
Sugar
Salt

We followed this website for making the sushi and cooking the rice --> Homemade Sushi

Our fresh ingredients all ready to go

The dried seaweed, rolling pad and rice spoon.

All ready to go to start making our sushi rolls

Added the rice. The saran wrap is used to keep the sushi roll board from getting dirty.

Added our ingredients. This one has cucumber, smoked salmon and cream cheese.

Tate rolling the sushi

Cutting the sushi















All finished and it was sooo yummy!!!