Quinoa, Goat Cheese, and Butternut Squash pasta

My family has a love of goat cheese. My kids will just eat big chunks of it as I open the package. Its hard to use all of it in a recipe without 1/2 of it being stolen.
I have a new love of quinoa pasta. What a great substitute for my normal whole wheat pasta.

Ingredients:
1 (1lb) box quinoa noodles, any shape or whole wheat
1 (2lb) butternut squash
1 onion
olive oil
sea salt and pepper
10 oz goat cheese
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/3 cup finely graded parmesan

Directions:
Peel and dice butternut squash into 1/2-3/4 inch cubes (dispose of seeds).
Dice onion into large 1/2 inch pieces
Drizzle onion and squash with olive oil and place on cookie sheet. Bake 40-45 min at 425 degrees.
Turn squash and onion half way through the cooking time.
When done, set aside.
Toast walnuts on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 6 min.
While squash is cooling, cook your noodles as directed. Then drain, reserving 1-2 cups of the pasta water.
In a large bowl, combine the onion, squash, crumbled goat cheese and toasted walnuts.
Stir until the goat cheese has coated all of the ingredients. Add the pasta water a little at a time until it is very creamy. 
Add salt and pepper as needed and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top before serving.

We love this salad warm, but it can be served cold too. I'm known for eating the leftovers without warming it up.

Enjoy!

Softest whole wheat honey rolls

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 Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup warm milk or almond milk
1 egg beaten
2 TBS butter softened
1/4 cup honey
3/4 tsp salt
4 1/4 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 TBS chia seeds (optional)

Place all ingredients in your breadmaker in the order given. Select the dough cycle on the bread machine and let that machine do its job!
When the dough cycle is finished, punch it down and separate into 15-20 even balls. Pinch into a round ball and place in a greased 9x13 pan. I stuff as many in as I can.
Let rise for about an hour until doubled in size. Bake at 350 for 12-14 min.

To me, there is nothing better than a fresh, warm roll with butter and honey on it. Yumm! I hope you enjoy these very soft rolls as much as my family does. Its our favorite bread recipe. Yes, you can shape it into a loaf instead and make a nice loaf of bread. Its a large loaf but very yummy. I'd cook it on a slightly lower rack at 350 for 20-25 min. Good luck!

Most moist and tasty banana bread...

 I've found the best way to make healthy, moist, banana bread. There are a few tricks that may surprise you.
Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas (I use thawed out bananas from my freezer)
2 eggs
2/3 cup coconut oil (or sub apple sauce)
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup agave
1/3 cup stevia in the raw
1/3 cup organic cane sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups freshly ground whole wheat
walnuts are optional
1-2 TBS chia seeds optional

In a mixer, combine bananas, eggs, oil, greek yogurt, oil, sugar, stevia, agave, and vanilla. In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Combine in your mixer. Stir in nuts if desired. Stir in desired chia seeds. Pour into 2 loaf pans evenly. This recipe makes 2 medium size loaves. If you doubled it, you'd get 3 nice and large loaves. Bake at 325 for 50 min.
My family took care of both loaves in 1 day. Its pretty darn good!

In case you are wondering why I use so many different types of sugars... The answer is that I just like the flavor. I don't like plain stevia, but if you do, use that. I like a little bit of sugar flavor from the cane sugar and try to hide the stevia. I'd use agave more, but it costs a lot of money and its very liquidy. I find this to be the best combination. Work with what you like. Enjoy!

Fluffiest pancakes ever!

These are no joke, the lightest pancakes that I have ever had. Whole wheat or not.
Ingredients :
1 1/2 cups milk (no almond, soy, etc)
3 TBS lemon juice
2 cups whole wheat flour (freshly ground)
3 TBS organic cane sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
4 TBS melted butter

Directions:
1. Combine milk with lemon juice in medium bowl and let it sit for 5 min or so to sour.
2. In another bowl, combine all dry ingredients.
3.Whisk in the eggs and butter into the soured milk. Then pour this mixture into the flour mix.
   Mix until most of the lumps are gone.
4. Prepare your griddle or pan to a medium heat. Spray with cooking spray. Use a 1/4 measuring cup
    to pour batter on your griddle. Flip with a spatula when lots of bubbles appear. Cook a couple
    of minutes longer and remove.

We serve these pancakes with butter and maple syrup or agave. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

German Pancakes

Ingredients:
6 eggs ( I use fresh, free range, farm eggs)
1 cup of milk or almond milk (this pic was my almond milk recipe. Slightly less airy)
1 cup whole wheat flour ( I use freshly ground)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp lemon or lemon extract (can be left out)
*1/4 cup of butter- just for pan

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Melt 1/4 cup of butter in your 9x13 pan in the oven. Careful not to burn.

Add all ingredients to blender and blend for a minute or two until mixed. Then pour in your 9x13 pan with melted butter and bake at 450 degrees for 15-18 minutes.

When it comes out, its sometimes huge and puffy. It will fall a bit. Then cut into squares and pour some maple syrup or agave on top.  The best part is the thin layer of extra crispy, buttered batter. MMM...

Kale chips

 Kale chips are a very healthy and light snack. So easy to make too.
You will need 1 bundle of Kale, cleaned and dried. Rip up into bite size pieces and toss on an oiled pan. Spray with a little olive oil spray, sprinkle sea salt on top and bake. Easy as that! Bake for 15 min at 350 degrees. They will come out light and crispy. Munch on right away.  My kids ate the whole pan in 30 minutes.

Best sugar substitutes

These are some of my favorite sugar substitutes

Stevia is one of the healthiest and natural zero calorie sweeteners. It comes from a plant and can be used exactly like sugar. It has a slight after taste that reminds me alot of Splenda so after lots of experimenting, I have found the magic way to hide that flavor. If a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar, I use 1/2 cup Stevia and 1/2 cup of organic cane sugar or agave. So this brings me to my next favorite sweetener...

Organic Cane Sugar is the best! It is of course sugar, but not refined. Your body uses it as a natural substance rather than a chemical. It is yummy stuff. 

Agave is also a top sweetener in our house. It is like syrup with a low glycemic index. In other words, it doesn't hit your body like sugar. It is slightly sweeter than sugar so you usually use 3/4 cup agave instead of 1 cup of sugar. It can be used on pancakes (my fav), in baking or in anything else that you need sugar or sweetener. 

I encourage everyone to give it a try. I promise, you wont even notice that you ditched that refined sugar.