By 100 Days of Real Food, on September 12th, 2011 This is another one of those recipes where you can throw in whatever veggies you have on hand (and need to eat!). That is my favorite kind of recipe because I love it when you can still make a dish even if you don’t have all the “exact” ingredients. Plus if you don’t like a certain vegetable then leave it out…you can use whatever you and your family like!
 Vegetable Pancakes And I must share that my picky daughter, who normally doesn’t even eat very many vegetables, asked for thirds of the pictured vegetable pancakes. I used a mix of sweet potatoes, carrots and zucchini. I think the sweet potatoes helped to “sweeten it up,” and she absolutely loves sour cream so this side item ended up being a very big hit! Continue Reading »
By 100 Days of Real Food, on August 31st, 2011 We absolutely love quesadillas in this house. It is one of our most favorite “go-to” meals and the reason is because you don’t need a lot of specific ingredients to make them. It’s one of those dishes where you can throw in whatever vegetables you have on hand (and need to eat)! As long as you have whole-wheat tortillas, cheese, and some spices the rest can come together pretty easily. I do admit that sweet potatoes somehow do something magical to the flavor of this dish, but even if we don’t have any we still make quesadillas all the time. So don’t let that stop you! Continue Reading »
By 100 Days of Real Food, on August 29th, 2011  Slow Cooker Refried Beans I think I might be a little late getting on this bandwagon, but refried beans with melted cheese on a warm homemade whole-wheat tortilla is the bomb! Oh and don’t forget to top it with a little sour cream. I seriously cannot believe I am just figuring out how good this combination is. The reason why though is because I didn’t think I liked refried beans. That’s what happens when you only try them out of a can. But much like the difference between store-bought and homegrown tomatoes…homemade refried beans are light-years beyond the canned stuff! And with this super easy recipe below there is no excuse not to make them yourself.
I am even going to pull out a bullet point list to tell you all the reasons why I like this recipe so much:
- Beans in general are super cheap and a good source of protein
- You don’t have to soak these dried beans overnight (which I often forget to do)
- They are sooo easy to make you could even do it with one hand tied behind your back 
- You can freeze the leftovers for another day
- And for me, since I don’t normally love beans for textural reasons, this mashed up version is the perfect way to make them extra good Continue Reading »
By 100 Days of Real Food, on August 17th, 2011  It is no secret that I’ve been working to perfect a whole-wheat sandwich bread recipe for months now. I was not only looking for a recipe that was reliable and tasted good of course, but that also didn’t contain any “unusual” ingredients like dried milk powder or wheat gluten. We absolutely LOVE the honey whole-wheat loaf from Great Harvest, and if they can make it with only five simple ingredients (freshly ground whole-wheat flour, water, honey, salt & yeast) then I should be able to do it too!
So after months of experimenting I am thrilled to finally have something to share. And while this recipe comes out just right 9 times out of 10 I’ve learned that things can’t always be “perfect” when it comes to making bread in your bread machine. If you aren’t weighing your ingredients and instead just measuring them out like me, and if you live in a place where the humidity might change from time to time…well then, expect some occasional surprises with the outcome of your bread. I have learned one valuable trick though (from a blog reader!), and that is to check on the bread once or twice during the kneading process to make sure the dough looks “right.” I’ve caught mine looking too wet and sticky a couple times so I’ve added a few sprinkles of flour to get things back on track before the baking started. That’s exactly why the picture loaf looks a little “floury.”
I also want to share that this particular recipe makes a loaf that is on the larger side, which I like because then I don’t have to replenish our bread supply every two days. This loaf also comes out with a lighter crust due to its big size and that is a plus in my book as well. If you have any good bread making tips or recipes that you’d like to share please do so in the comments below! Continue Reading »
By 100 Days of Real Food, on July 27th, 2011 To be honest, I never really liked lunch meat that much anyway so it was very easy for me to stop buying it. The main reason we gave it up was because (especially after watching Food, Inc.) we made a decision to only eat locally raised meats. And have you ever seen someone slicing off pieces of deli meat at your local farmers’ market? Shortly after writing off all lunch meat I soon realized other good benefits would come from this decision as well. Like helping us to reduce our overall meat consumption, which is better for our health and environment anyway. So this is the reason I haven’t bought a pack of deli meat in over a year (or even missed it one bit), and as you can see it was quite a simple decision for us!
 Grilled Caprese Sandwich with Balsamic Vinegar With that being said, this change opened up a whole new window of opportunity when it came to sandwiches. But with anything, I can sometimes get in a rut. So I recently asked my wonderful facebook community to share their most favorite sandwich combinations, which helped inspire this fresh list of sandwich ideas below. Please also feel free to leave your ideas in the comments at the bottom! Continue Reading »
By 100 Days of Real Food, on July 18th, 2011 One day I was out of berries and my girls wanted a fruit smoothie so, inspired by a blog reader, we tried a peanut butter banana  smoothie instead and…yum! It doesn’t get much easier than this, and we find smoothies to be the perfect supplement to almost any breakfast or lunch. These are also super good frozen too, but more on that later.
Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
Inspired by Blog Reader Julie
Ingredients
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