Creamy Summer Pea Salad

Creamy cheese pieces, fresh vibrant peas, crunchy bacon.... I love this creamy summer pea salad. When I first saw this recipe I adored the colors white, yellow, grass green, light purple... its like a little rainbow. Okay rainbow is taking it a bit too far. But it really is a beautiful dish. 

Summer is a great time for salads and bbqs and picnics. All the of these seem to holler for sides like potato salad or macaroni salad. This creamy delightful recipe fits right in that list and is a nice pleasant trade for the one of those traditional standbys with half the chopping and half the amount of time. It contains mayo like most other potato and macaroni salads so you have to be careful about leaving it out and about, but it has wiggled its way into my summer dinner rotations and even my 5 yr old told me he liked it. 

This creamy Summer Pea Salad side dish recipe from Love Bakes Good Cakes, modified, feeds 2-4 people. 

Ingredients:
2 pieces of crunchy cooked bacon, chopped or crumbled
8 oz of frozen peas, defrosted and drained of excess water
1/4 cup of diced cheddar cheese (1 or 2 extra thick slices) 
1/4 cup diced mozzarella cheese (1 or 2 extra thick slices) 
2 small shallots, finely diced
1/4 cup mayo, reduced fat or whatever you have on hand
Salt and pepper to taste (at least 1/4 tsp each)

3 Step Directions:
1. Defrost the peas in warm water. I threw a small bag of peas in warm water and weighed out 8 oz - turned out to be 3/4ths of the bag. I put the rest in the fridge to use on a chef salad later in the week. 

2. While peas are defrosting bake/cook your bacon unless you are using leftovers from something else. 

3. Chop, measure, and drop everything else into a medium sized bowl and store in the fridge unless everything else is ready. Combine the peas as soon as they are defrosted. Stir in the cooked and cooled bacon. You don't want to melt the cheese. 

Cheers to all those great summer dinners with family and friends. Salad would taste great along side burgers, steaks, hot dogs, sandwiches, chips, and/or sliders of any kind.

Stephanie

Strawberry Oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes

Strawberry Oatmeal Pancakes topped with Blueberries. Summer food. Weekend food. Food that smells so good it will get your kids or husband out of bed to enjoy the summer day with you kind of food. One of my most favorite things about summer is the great berries and produce that instantly becomes available. Everything is so colorful, flavorful, and juicy. In honor of the upcoming fourth of July I wanted to fix something red, white, blue-ish here are some healthy colorful pancakes. 

 EASY strawberry OATMEAL blueberry PANCAKES

Makes 5 1/2 medium sized pancakes (using a 1/2 cup measuring cup)
Prep time 5 minutes. Cooking time: approx. 3-5 minutes. 

Batter can be made the night before,covered, in the fridge. If you do make it ahead you will need to add more liquid - add 1/4 cup at a time until it gets back to the consistency you want to make it pourable

Ingredients:
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1 Tbs baking powder
1 Tbs unprocessed wheat bran
2 Tbs white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of 2% milk * can use water here too
1 egg
1 Tbs veg oil * melted butter is a good sub here
1/2 pint of blueberries, 1/4 lb strawberries diced small
optional: butter & syrup

Directions:

1. In a large bowl combine all the wet and dry ingredients 

2. Then heat your flat pan to medium heat

3. Apply some unsalted butter or nonstick spray or oil to the pan to help with the browning process and not sticking part.

4. Using a measuring cup, 1/2 cup or 1/4 cup, to measure out the batter and start cooking the first few pancakes 

5. Cook for 4-5 minutes each side 

6. Top each of the cooking pancakes with strawberry pieces and blueberries.  I did equal ones of blueberry and strawberry with the idea of putting the opposite berry on the top when serving. 

7. Lightly and carefully touch each berry so they so they sink into the pancake and not just resting no the top. 

8. You will know when they are ready to flip by the massive amount of little bubbles formed, a dry appearance on the edge of the pancake, and by checking the color on the other side of the pancake. Should be firm and golden colored. 

9. Cook the second side for an additional 3-5 minutes until it too is golden and delicious

10. Serve with the additional berries on top

Enjoy!

Stephanie  

Crockpot Chicken Bowls

Weekends should by definition be relaxed, shouldn't they? Monday - Friday are pretty busy. Granted my household's most relaxed days are Monday and Tuesday instead of Saturday, but that's just because of work schedules. But back to the relaxing weekend, whenever it happens to be.... there are certain foods that just are easier and more fun after running errands, rushing to/from kiddos practices, and/or having fun family time. 

Enter the crock pot.  It is one of life's greatest inventions. 

This HEALTHY crock pot recipe is a new favorite for weekend meals. I love cooking. I really do. It's one of my top 5 favorite things to do. But sometimes (especially being prego) I just need the crock pot to handle it because I know I am not going to have time otherwise.  Just because you are out and getting stuff done doesn't mean you have to resort to frozen pizza or take out which often is more expensive and higher in fat and calories than its homemade equivalent. 

Let me show how FLEXIBLE and EASY this recipe is...

• You can cook it on low, or on high depending on your schedule. 
• You can make a lot or a little, and freeze/reheat it later on the stove. 
• You can use whatever meat you want. Bone in meat or boneless meat. I have only made this with chicken so far, but I think it would be great with steak or pork too. 
• Or you don't have to follow the recipe at all. While I have a recipe written below, I recognize its almost more a formula or a set of guidelines instead of a strict list. The formula is simple. spices + meat + veggies + starch or more veggies that you can serve it in or over the top of (such as noodles, a green salad (for taco salad), cooked white or brown rice, or mashed cauliflower, mashed potatoes, soft taco shells, hard taco shells, or chips think nachos). 

Really. It's completely flexible - which is best for weekend meals if you are attempting to eat as a family, which we try to do at least 4x a week. Use whats in your fridge. Use whats in season. Use the veggies that your family likes the most. Get out the crock pot and feel good about providing a healthy and flavorful meal with minimal effort. Only thing that would make it easier was if it was easier to photograph for the blog - its not the prettiest thing in the crockpot. 

Crock Pot Chicken Bowls

serves 6-8

prep time: 2-3 minutes

cooking time: 9-10 hrs on low, 6 hrs on high
recipe adapted from Chef in Training & Skinny Taste

ingredients

1 1/2 lbs of chicken or whatever meat you want to use 
1 can of tomatoes with mild green chilies, undrained
1 can of black beans, low sodium, drained
14 oz of chicken broth homemade or store bought (use beef or veggie depending on what kind meat goes best)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder 
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
1 package or 2 Tbs of homemade mild taco seasoning
*if you like spicier foods add in 1-2 tsp of red pepper flakes and a spicier taco seasoning heat level 

additional/optional ingredients: shredded cheese, sliced avocado, grilled corn cut off the cob, chopped green onion/scallions, grilled veggies, chopped fresh cilantro, tortilla chips, rice, greek yogurt or sour cream, ect. 

**I used shredded medium cheddar cheese, cilantro, rice, and sour cream as the toppings for the dinner that night. 

directions

1. Put everything in the crockpot except for the additional items
2. Cook as directed above 5 hrs on high or 9 hrs on low
3. During the last hr of cooking remove the meat, shred it, stir it back into the veggies. I had thought there was a lot of liquid in there at that point and if I was going to be using it for tacos for nachos I would've removed half of it. But after shredding the chicken it didn't seem to be too much. 
4. Serve it up how ever you want. We did it easy with rice = rice bowls. I have had great success with serving my family rice bowls with fish in the past and it seemed a less messy way for kids. 

Enjoy!
Stephanie

p.s excited to try this out with new meats and seasonings next time...