Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookie for Kids (or you!)

So you know I eat my three ingredient cookies everyday (ok usually two a day!) But I don’t feel guilty about that. They are only about 45 calories a piece and made from completely clean ingredients –no dairy, no oil, just deliciousness. 

Well while scrolling through pinterest during our snow days here recently I saw a new twist on the same cookie idea. The difference? These are peanut butter and jelly cookies instead of chocolate chips cookies. Now I love chocolate chips but not everyone in my family is quite as addicted so I thought this might be a good change for them.  And my kids love pb&j so why not a pb&j cookie?

So here is the recipe. It is easy, quick, and you can feel great about your kids having one or two cookies a day if they are made with these ingredients!

No Bake Peanut Butter Bars

As I have mentioned before, I am constantly working to get the processed foods out of my house and start making my own things for the kids and for me.  This isn't something I'm doing over night. It is a small steady change that I work on. I am busy, my kids are crazy some days, and some days we just need a quick easy snack. But then there are times when I can try out a new recipe and I embrace those opportunities.  This was one of them.  We tried out making the no bake peanut butter bars.  Now you know I posted another peanut butter bar recently here, and this is very similar. The difference is this one is sturdier.  You know for a real snack - a nice heavy snack that will tide you over. The Cheerio one is a bit light and definitely not as filling as this one.  I like both because I like to mix it up.  

Here is what you need:

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup honey

3 cups quick cook oats

Here is what you do:

1  Melt the honey and peanut butter over medium heat until smooth

2.  Mix in the oats and remove from heat

3. Stir well

4.  Press into 9x9 pan

5.  Let cool (I refrigerate mine but that is how I like them. They do not have to be refrigerated!)

Verdict? These were delicious and perfect for everyone. The kids like them for snacks, I eat them for a night time treat, and Daddy takes them in his lunch to work.  Score! Clean, easy, and home made. 

Enjoy!

original recipe here:http://www.food.com/recipe/natural-no-bake-peanut-butter-energy-bars-163297?layout=desktop

Frosted Mint Brownies

Welcome to December!  I can't believe it's here already.  We go from Thanksgiving to BOOM. Christmas.  I must say, I kind of like it, but it makes me feel a little more rushed this holiday season.  I have been craving sweets....... but with Little Two I've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, so I can't have sweets (or just have to enjoy them in VERY VERY limited quantities).  These gems are already packaged up and ready to send off with DH to work.  I've had a little bite.  And can I tell you that little bite was AMAZING!!!!! Ahh.  Even better than how they taste is how simple and easy they are to come together!  

Just look.  Yes.  Just look.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

I'm craving sweets.  Real bad.  Lots of sweets.  Anything I can get my hands on really.  And this is happening during one of the worst possible times of the year - Halloween candy is EVERYWHERE!!  I overdid it yesterday and felt it in the afternoon.  But, nonetheless I woke up this morning with more sweets on the brain.  Pregnancy, sigh.  After a quick look on Facebook this morning, I found that Team ACT had posted a picture of her Super Easy 2 Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins and decided it was high time for some pumpkin in these parts!  One problem.  No cake mix.  Doh!  SO, online searching I went.  These from Kitchen Treaty are moist and delicious, just like the pumpkin muffins Team ACT made, but they do require a little more time.  Good news, however, (Miss Team ACT :)) ... they're even better if you add chocolate chips to the mix!!

Whole Wheat Muffins - Ready for Mix-ins! : Freezer Friendly

I've been doing a lot of reading online lately about food, our ability to get food, and the kind of foods we eat.  I have high cholesterol.  At 28.  Had I not had Little One I probably wouldn't have learned this little tidbit and it might not have mattered as much to me.  Honestly, my whole worldview has changed now that I'm a mom.  This little life depends on me to be healthy... to set a good, healthy lifestyle example in food and exercise.  Now, I don't love eating healthy all the time (cheese is my weakness!!) and working out on a regular basis (ugh.  it feels soooooooo repetitive.  I just don't enjoy "the hurt" from working out.  But.  My mind has got to change.  I'm really trying to become better at these - for myself and for Little One.  

Now back from that tangent - I am trying to reduce the amount of processed (pre-made) food that we consume and to increase our amount of daily vegetable and fruit intake.  DH and I decided yesterday that we will cut out most fast food, especially if we're eating it because we're being lazy.  I read something a while back that has really stuck with me as it pertains to children and what they eat.  It was something along these lines... children aren't born with the taste and cravings for salty, processed, empty food.  They learn to like these foods because we feed it to them.  I fail daily at this, but it serves as a reminder to me to stop and think about what I'm feeding Little One.  

So you're a busy mom?  Hectic schedule?  Too many things to do in one day?  How can I possibly cook for my family to cut out some of the processed foods?  Check out this site and this site.  Tried and true places to start.

1) Start with freezer friendly meals.  

2) Set apart an hour a week to meal plan (look up some recipes you want to try!).  

3) Prepare your grocery list based on sections of the store.  I'm kinda crazy, but every time I go I always follow the same path.  This allows me to set up my grocery list the same way every time.  This little time I take to categorize my list based on section of the grocery store or aisle saves me A TON of time in the store and I don't have to backtrack.  

4) One weekend day (or week day - it doesn't matter... just sometime when you have childcare or you know your child can be easily entertained while you cook for about 30 - 45 minutes...) prepare your meals.  

5) Start with 2 or 3.  That's 2 or 3 more than you had before you started!  I try to pick meals or foods that have similar ingredients to save time on prep work.  Start small and slowly work it in.  If you don't like something you've made, mark that off the "to-try" list for next time.  If you like it add it to your "regulars" list.  You can do it!!  

I've found this site - 100 Days of Real Food - she has A TON of good ideas and recipes.  These muffins are from her site.  Little One LOVED them.  They aren't sweet like regular muffins - and it's super fun to be able to add your own different "sweet" fruit mix-ins.  Banana was our favorite (but we're a banana muffin kind of family!)  Let me know what you decide to mix in - the options are endless!

 

Update: Mama & Baby Love's Healing Chicken Soup: Freezer Friendly

I forgot to take a picture, but this is definitely worth a mention. I made my 2nd bag a while back of Mama & Baby Love's Healing Chicken Soup I had stashed in the freezer.  This time I made some adjustments and it turned out better than the first time I made it! At the time of cooking, instead of adding uncooked chicken, I added some shredded precooked chicken I already had on hand in the freezer.  I usually pull off the dark meat from a rotisserie chicken and stash it away in the freezer for another day, such as this one!  I also added a can of drained and rinsed cannellini beans.  I cooked this on low for 3 hours. An hour before I wanted to serve it, I broke up sticks (into thirds) of whole wheat linguine pasta - about a fourth of a box.  Cook an additional hour on low. Serve hot. And boy is this a hearty, warm soup for a cold, rainy, miserable, "I don't feel good", or otherwise crummy kinda day ;) And the best part is - all you had to do was pull it out of the freezer and pop it in the crockpot to cook!  I love make ahead meals!!

Baked Broccoli & Rice Cups

My SIL and her sweet husband came for a visit (waaaay back in February).  We had a busy weekend planned and I was looking for vegetarian friendly recipes to meet her needs.  Can I just say I'm so glad I have someone I can bounce ideas off of as I contemplate heading more towards a vegetarian lifestyle for myself?!  I found these baked broccoli and rice cups on Pinterest - old trusty friend - and decided they were exactly what I was looking for! They had a great texture and were very filling.   Great for little ones or those on the go!

Mama & Baby Love's Healing Chicken Soup: Freezer Friendly!

We're supposed to get a blizzard tonight.  Yes.  You read that right!  There's just something about the warning of snow that makes me crave soup.  I made this soup from Mama and Baby Love's ecookbook - you can find yours here!  It's the first ecookbook I've ever purchased and I wasn't disappointed.  All of her recipes are freezer friendly and 95% of her recipes are grain-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free.  Annnnnd it's only $9.99.  Totally worth the splurge in my book!

Try this recipe of hers and you'll be hooked.  Although hers called for making it with a whole chicken, I used some cubed frozen chicken breasts I had on hand.  It was hearty, made the house smell heavenly while cooking all afternoon, and most importantly was scrumptious to eat.  Love. 

Mama and Baby Love that is ;)

Chocolate Frozen Banana Pops

Or I like to affectionately call them "Hello Summer - I miss you - Please come back - Chocolate Frozen Banana Pops" ;)   I don't know about you but these frigid days lately have been a little too much.  And today it's 60 degrees?  Saturday, yep, it's gonna be 30.  Weird.

Alas.  Make these SUPER easy fun treats.  And pretend.  Just pretend.  You may have to crank up the heat in the house, but pretend you're on a tropical paradise!  DH and I were looking for some sweet, easy on the wallet and waistline, dessert options.  These fit the bill!  Yum.

Lasagna Roll Ups & Homemade Marinara Sauce

I made these roll ups on January 16th.  Today is January 28th and I'm just now blogging about it.  Can you tell I'm SO ready for February?  New month.  New start.  Do you want to know a secret?  FRIDAY is February 1st!!  This Friday.  Does it amaze you as much as me that this year is flying by already?!?  Let's all do a small celebratory dance... drum roll please... because I've sold THREE orders in my Etsy store.  Y'all.  That is just amazing.  Thank you to everyone who has backed my projects with your support!  As a sign of thanks - I'm doing a giveaway! Check out my Facebook page and comment before 8 pm tonight to be entered in the drawing :)  You just don't know how much I've needed your sweet faces this past month.  You are truly a gift from God!!

Now, let me tell you another secret.  

These beautiful things are in my freezer right now!  Topped with my homemade marinara.  Waiting on February 14th.  8 pm.  Dinner date at home with the DH after Little One is in bed.  I'm so excited!  We won't have to fight the crowds.  Won't have to worry that Little One will decide to be cranky on that one night we want to eat in peace.         I won't have to be flustered and running all around wondering what I'm going to fix.  These are 4 leftovers from my meal we had mid-January.  Frozen.  Ready to go.  All I have to do is add a salad and some garlic bread.  And boom.  Valentine's Dinner - ah-hem - a homemade Valentine's dinner is made!  

I'll be the first to say these do take a little prep time - or maybe it's just me. Those blasted lasagna noodles gave me a little trouble because I didn't have a pot big enough to really cook them.  Maybe you are better at this than I!  Now I know why I usually stick to the Crockpot Lasagna ;)  Buuuut.  This is worth the effort.  Especially to dote on your special ones with.  What else says love like good, homemade food.  Only you and I have to know you pre-made it, froze it, and it only took 35 minutes to reheat on a weeknight! 

Frozen Yogurt Berries

Heeeeelllllllooooooooo!  Lots of new things going on with OurGreeneHome lately!  Let's see here - I've started a Facebook page, revamped my Etsy store and sold my FIRST official order!  Of course, don't forget you can also hop on over and find us on Pinterest too.  Join us to see what's up!!  I guess there's been a lot of time to sit and think about what the new year will look like around these parts.  Unfortunately I haven't been cooking much lately thanks to DH and Little One being sick basically for the whole month of January so far!  Boo.  Poor fellas!  A touch of pneumonia (DH) and conjunctivitis (Little One) about did us in last week.  Thanks to my trusty teacher immune system, I've been playing mommy, wife, and most importantly nurse - doling out lots of hugs, Kleenex, and medicine.  SO.   Sorry for the absence of blog posts!  Now you know why ;)  Thankfully, they are both on the mend now.  February is looking up!

Here's a tasty treat that I tried thanks to a Pinterest find... I made it last week because I knew I had the ingredients on hand.  We were looking for sore throat remedies and healthy sweet treats... and quite frankly I was going stir crazy!  Haha!

These are easy peasy.  Seriously.  And seriously good.  The yogurt makes the berries creamy and the sweetness from the honey pairs well with the tangy berry bites.  These frozen yogurt berries would be so good on top of frozen yogurt ice cream, pound cake, angel food cake, and remember these?   Drizzle with a hit of melted chocolate for a less-than-sinful treat! Sign.  Me.  Up.

Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

Happy New Year!  Here's a great recipe to start off 2013 in a healthy way!!  I'll cut right to the chase...

I was pleasantly surprised by this deceivingly cheesy treat.  The whole dish has just 8 ounces of cheese.  Yes.  Just 8 ounces!  The butternut squash gave the dish it's traditional yellow-orange color and a mildly sweet, fresh taste. This meal looks like a heavy, cheesy macaroni dish, but it's light enough that you'll want to eat the entire pan full.  Yes.  It's on the menu this week too!  It's just that good.

Oatmeal Banana Breakfast Muffins

I swear there must be some Thing in our house that says "Bananas.  Since you've just come in from the grocery store I now command you to become brown and mushy."  Good thing that's the exact type of banana you need for this recipe :)  

Side note: In my desperate attempt to buy bananas for the entire week for Little One, I tried out a trick I found on Pinterest.  To keep the bananas from browning as quickly, pull the bananas apart from the stem when you get home.  That's right.  I bought the absolute greenest bananas I could find on Friday night.  When I got home I separated each banana from the group until I had all single bananas.  I laid them out on the table.  And by the next Friday my banana was perfectly ripe and just starting to get the brown speckled dots.  Amazing.  

Back to the original story.  Take a look at these delicious bites.  Let me be the first to say - these aren't your traditional muffins.  They are dense, but oh so moist.  Perfect banana flavoring with a hint of oatmeal.  To me, it felt like you were eating a bowl full of warm oatmeal in muffin form!  My recipe made 18.  Between DH, Little One and I, we ate 6 {half of the first batch} while the second six were baking ;)  I kept the leftovers in the fridge and Little One would pull the bag out and ask for one any chance he got.  They were a definite hit!!

Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken: Crockpot & Freezer Friendly

Earlier this year I bought my very first ecookbook.  It takes up no space and is available wherever my computer or smart phone go --- which is, one or the other, always with me.  I think I may be in love.  It's this one from Mama and Baby Love and the cookbook is well worth your money.  It's chocked full of healthy freezer friendly meals!

This happens to be the first recipe I made of hers and it was delicious!  Can I tell you that I stretched two chicken breasts into four HUGE meals (1 dinner, 2 people + 1 lunch, 2 people) for my family.  You should try this one too!  And can I say... I'm stoked that the recipe made 2 big bags for my freezer... because one is waiting on me when I want to do nothing after this busy holiday season ahead!!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

These tasty treats are good for the Little One and with the addition of some of this ooey gooey chocolate peanut butter dip they become a sweet treat for Mom and Dad!  You can't even taste that they're loaded with zucchini!!  You can use these as breakfast muffins - they'd be delicious with a hot cup of coffee AND you can top them with some icing to fulfill your sweet tooth that {at least for me} rears its head after dinner!   Enjoy these universal muffins!!

Banana Nut Muffins

My LIttle One has a banana for breakfast every morning, so I have to keep a lot on hand.  This particular week we had 2 that we just couldn't eat fast enough.  Normal people would throw these away... but I guess that makes me not normal ;)  I started googlin' Banana Nut Bread recipes and found one that didn't use oil.  I was going to make the loaf of bread but when I looked up to see that it was 9:30 last night, I knew I didn't have time to wait for the hour cooking and then cooling time.  So I decided to adapt the recipe to muffins!  This recipe made 10.  In 12 hours 3 remain.  You do the math!! Our family of 3 is in looooove with these yummy muffins.  That's really all I have to say.  Try them for yourself!! Yum!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies

Happy Holidays!!  Yes.  The season has officially begun - it's my favorite time of the year!  We are having our first ever cookie swap.  So excited!  My wonderful DH was more than happy to be the guinea pig for my new recipe ;)  Let me tell you... we ate pretty much the entire recipe in one weekend.  I made these Friday night - Monday night there are 3 left.  Yep.  Good thing they're calorie free on the weekends... ah hem.  Haha!  Needless to say these scrumptious cookies are the ones I'm taking to the cookie swap.  Hope you have a happy and healthy holiday season - take some time to enjoy the small things this time of year!

Zucchini Turkey Burgers Revisted

Hello.  I've missed you.  It's been a CRAZY - I repeat - CRAZY couple of weeks.  We traveled back to our home home for a weekend of wedding preparations and engagement partyin'. On our ride back I had shingles appear and was subsequently banished to my home for a week praying so hard that Little One wouldn't catch the chicken pox from me!  We traveled back home home to happily help celebrate DH's sister's wedding.  {insert deep breath here} And we had to leave early so we could travel back to our home and prepare for Hurricane Sandy.  Whew.  Just writing all that makes me tired.  I've never wanted to get back into a schedule and routine as I do now.  I wasn't lying when I said I was stocking my freezer for a busy October!  The good news is we are okay and we had no property damage from the storm.  We did, however, lose power and some of my freezer meals.  So sad!  I will post one of the recipes I was waiting on to cook - and I'll remake it - and let you know how it turned out.

I'm so glad I had these handy zucchini turkey burgers in the freezer. I was able to cook them up before we lost power so we could have some good protein to eat after the storm.  I unfortunately didn't have the ability to let them thaw all the way so they were still quite frozen when the time had come to cook them.  The winds were picking up and I just couldn't wait any longer.  But let me tell you - even though they were a little tough because I had to cook cook cook them - their flavor was delicious!  I was afraid the zucchini would make these fall apart when they were cooked, but they held together really well.  Know that I will make these again and prepare them in a way that they will maintain their juiciness :)  

See?  Easy way to get hidden veggies into your kids!  They look {and taste} just like real burgers, but they're loaded with zucchini!  They had a great flavor.  As you can tell, I cooked them on the stovetop.  I would highly highly suggest that you allow these burgers to thaw completely before cooking them.  

Even if our burgers were tough, we are so thankful that was one of the biggest problems of the week!  SO many people lost SO much.  

Together we are prayerful for all those affected by Sandy's wrath.

Say a prayer today with me,

Lemon Caper Tilapia Packets: Freezer Friendly

As a part of my recent freezer friendly adventures, I decided to try a fish dish.  We had these this week and their delicate and moist deliciousness did not disappoint.  I served these with a side of steamed cabbage for a healthy, light weeknight supper.  And the best part is the only preparation I had on a busy, ok. let's be honest, tired night, was to pop the packets on a sheet tray and bake.

Zucchini Turkey Burgers: Freezer Friendly

These burgers are in the freezer and waiting on me!  I'm excited to try them since I added zucchini to them for the first time.  If they're great - it would be an awesome way to add some more vegetables into our diet... something I'm always looking to do.  Check back and I'll let you know how they turn out!! - big juicy burger picture goes here -