Vegan Crispy Coconut Cauliflower Tacos with Vegan Mayo - WIN

Let me just start by saying that my family is not vegan. Or vegetarian. I think we firmly land in the meat-atarian category, especially my husband. My brother on the other hand, announced a year ago that he had become vegan. It was quite the shocker, him being the guy who would have a bacon sandwich that included a pound of cooked bacon and two merger slices of bread. But, being the awesome people we are, we embraced is new found veganism and supported his decision. But when my dear vegan brother came to visit and asked me to host is birthday dinner for him and our parents, I suddenly became aware that I had NO idea what to make him! I've cooked many vegetarian meals, but thinking of a meal that everyone, including my kids, would enjoy became a consuming task. Until I came across this little gem.

Vegan Crispy Coconut Lime Cauliflower Tacos with Home Made Vegan Mayo

(it's not as daunting as it sounds)

The first major appealing feature of this recipe is that it didn't require any 'odd' ingredients that required an special visit to a local health food store. It was all stuff I could get easily. The Vegan mayo I replaced with a Vegan Mayo I made myself - the recipe was another Pinterest find.

The second was it could easily pass as non-vegan for my kids. I just told them they were crunchy tacos and they ate them all up!!

See how tasty that looks? Amazing that it looks almost exactly like the pics in the link! How rare is that!

For my first completely vegan meal, it came together quite easily. There was the usually dip - dredge - repeat with the cauliflower as you find with any breaded recipe. As I mentioned before, all the ingredients were things that I normally kept in my fridge or pantry so no special shopping trips or expenses were required. Making the mayo was obviously an extra step. I decided I didn't want a large container of mayo since I already had traditional mayo in the fridge and I'm the only one who eats it in my house. I found the link (see above) which clearly went through three separate recipes for home made vegan mayo - I chose the second with soy milk and olive oil. It was a perfect base for the sauce in this taco recipe, and my brother took the rest with him to eat during his visit.

The cauliflower was crispy on the outside and perfectly flavoured. The coleslaw and aloi were a perfect addition and added a lot of flavour. We added a little dash of a favourite hot sauce for the adults, this recipe is a total winner. And even my brother the vegan agreed!

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DIY Tutu - Win!

I'm not a girly girl really, but occasionally I like to get my frilly on. And I've tried hard not to pink-wash my daughter as best as I can, making sure she has lots of blues and greens and yellows in her room and wardrobe. It's a hard fight since she's the only girl granddaughter right now. But for her birthday I decided 'what the heck' and made her a tutu.

Yup. A pink full frilly tutu just for her birthday.
It's awesome!

The tutorial found here from The Pinning Momma is fairly simple to follow and is a no sew version. This was the best for me, since a) I can barely sew and b) I don't have a sewing machine. It just required a few stitches to connect the elastic, but you could easily tie them together if you lack needle and thread or like me are prone to poking yourself. A lot.

I picked three colours: white, light pink, and a darker pink. Yah, I know I don't like too much pink, but she only turns one once, right? The best thing about this is you can make it in any colour combo you want. And changing how I layered the tulle changed the colour for each section giving it a really neat effect.

Getting the number of wraps around the cardboard was a tiny bit tricky because I kept loosing count. I found it helpful to make a small pencil mark on the 'top' of the cardboard to help keep track of when I made a full rotation of the tulle. 
Below is a quick video I took to show what a full rotation looks like. From start to finish that's counted as one wrap around.

The whole project maybe took a little over an hour from start to finish because I had to layer all the different colours. If you're doing one colour, it should take less time.

The tutu looked great and had a nice fullness to it and held up well for the party. It can definitely be used again. And I even had someone ask to make them an adult sized one :)





















The project cost about $15 total, the tulle was on sale. You can jazz it up as well by adding ribbon or a bow at the back if you'd want something a little flashier or fun.

Overall, a super simple DIY project!

 
  

Make Buttercream Icing look like Fondant - Win

It's birthday season in our house! Birthday #1 went off without a hitch, but the chalkboard sadly never recovered and will probably need to be repainted.
On to Birthday #2!
My son is turning 5 and had requested a Spiderman birthday. Easy enough! This time instead of cupcakes, I chose a traditional cake since it's a smaller crowd. When it comes to cakes I tend to half-cheat. The cake comes from a box but the icing I make myself from an awesome recipe I got from a cake decorator friend of mine. I've used it for years and it hasn't failed yet.

I searched all over Pinterest for inspiration for the cake. I wanted to do blue instead of red, and would need a very smooth surface for the decorating. Now I could have gone off and used fondant. However a) I've never used fondant before and b) most people I talk to really dislike the taste or texture of fondant. And I really didn't want to venture into an entirely new icing medium without a little practice.

I had come across this method a while ago when looking for icing techniques for my baby girls birthday. I searched around a little more and found that the method was very similar across the board and the effect was lovely. I won't include a link since there are lots of tutorials and videos.
So I thought "what the heck". If it didn't work, I'd have a bumpy spiderman cake!

I baked two 9" round cakes and made a double batch of buttercream icing. I iced between the cakes, lopped off the top to make it flatter, and did a crumb coat. Then I used almost an entire container of blue food colouring to get the right 'Spiderman blue'. Next time I'd use the gels.

When using buttercream you need to make sure it's at the right temperature to manipulate. Too hot and it'll melt, too cold and it won't spread. Keep this in mind.

Sorry - no in progress pics. Between the icing and the food colouring, my hands and kitchen looked like I beat up a Smurf. 

After my crumb coat had set in the fridge, I did a rough icing around the cake. Use more icing then you think you'll need, you can always work it off later. I used a metal icing spatula to get the cake covered.

Now for the smooth finish. 
Keep very hot water and a clean paper towel near by your cake and icing bowl. The method I tried worked mostly like this:

- Run spatula under hot water for about 10 seconds (until metal becomes hot)
- Quickly wipe with clean paper towel to remove water
- Sweep the spatula over the icing. No need to push or dig the icing, your just smoothing it out, not pushing it around.
- Scrape excess icing off the spatula onto the bowl
- Repeat and continue working around your cake

It's a LOT of steps and extra work, and I found I had to reheat my spatula for every pass on the cake (I had to redo the spot on the right in the pic above) or it would mess it up. So keep your hot water tap running. But I think it turned out pretty well for the first time and it definitely worth the extra work if you want a smooth finish on your cake but don't want to use fondant. 

There is an additional step where you use a Viva paper towel and smooth the icing even further which I skipped. Because it HAS to be this specific brand and no other, and I had just bought a bunch of our regular kind, I passed on this step. But if I really wanted the 'fondant finish', I'd plan ahead and get some. 
I'm pretty impressed with myself and this method.

With the amount of work aside, this is a definite win!

Blueberry Orange Oatmeal Muffins - Win

I do love my muffins!

Now that I'm back to shift work and the kiddos are in daycare, I actually get a bit of time to do some large batch cooking. This time was some home made granola bars and muffins. Instead of going to my usual apple muffins, I decided to try something new. Plus I had an orange sitting around that needed to be used.

This is yet another solid recipe from Damn Delicious. I only made two variations, - using vanilla greek yogurt instead of plain, and I omitted the vanilla extract (mostly cause I didn't have any) and using just regular sugar instead of Turbinado. Just as described these are a hearty and tasty muffin, and the smell simply delicious. I mean who doesn't love the smell of orange zest?

The batch whipped up quickly and the keep very well. The only difference is that the recipe states that it makes 11 muffins but I came out with 14. Maybe I just make mine a bit smaller, but keep that in mind when trying this one out.

These muffins are perfect for breakfast or snacks, and will definitely end up in our lunch bags as a tasty and healthy treat.

Enjoy!

Super Easy Pizza Dough - Win!

We had some visitors a few weeks ago and got an amazing housewarming present - a pizza stone!
Now I remember when I was a kid, you used to be able to buy uncooked pizza dough. We loved making pizzas, and the taste never compares to frozen or delivered. Sorry, Panago.
I've told myself for years "I have to make pizza dough" but I've never actually done it. Well, with our new fancy pizza stone, I finally have run out of excuses. PLUS it can go on the BBQ! Seriously, this thing is amazing.

The recipe from Mom's Need to Know was super easy to put together (hence the name) and makes four decent sized thin crust pizzas. If you want thicker crust or larger, split the dough in half instead of in four. Right off the bat I made 3 different pizzas using my stone on the BBQ, and froze the fourth bit of dough. I was cooking for 6 people so there are no pics. Sorry!
My second time was whipping up a pizza in the oven (it was raining) before soccer using the extra dough I had frozen before.

Yes, apparently there is still soccer games when you sink ankle deep into the field because it's so wet.
Good thing tomorrow is laundry day.

The dough comes together easily and is really tasty. It makes a perfect crust, not doughy or chewy, or over cooked. It's a really solid recipe. The recipe suggests flour on the pizza stone / pan which is highly recommended so it doesn't stick. Next time I may get cornmeal which may be a nice touch. I've even doubled this batch and it still worked great. It will be more work if you don't have a stand up mixer, and it'll need more time in the mixer if you do. It was also stickier then the first batch, but it worked out perfectly.

 

Making a well, as seen above, is the method used to mix the wet ingredients and the yeast. There are other methods around, but this worked fine for me.

Before and after rising of the double batch

Homemade pizza is awesome since you can pick and choose and make what ever you want. This is easily a recipe you can make, then bake a pizza for one or two people. We really enjoy it on the pizza stone, but any baking pan would do! Try and make your own pizza dough, you'll never go back to take out again!

Enjoy!

Easy Strawberry Shortcake - Win

It's Father's Day!

And what better gift to give the father of your kids then baked goods. A way to a man is through his stomach, right?
We're heading off to dinner with the inlaws this afternoon and each of the dad's got to pick a course. My husband got to pick desert (yippie!). And one of his all time favs is Strawberry Shortcake.

The timing is perfect for this recipe. Ontario strawberries are coming out and look fantastic, plus this gave me an excuse to pull out my big stand up mixer. I seriously debated pulling out my old recipe using bisquick and cool whip, but decided that a) an entire cake isn't that portable and b) after a recent family health scare, a slightly healthier version might be in order.

A quick search of Pinterest lead to this recipe from Just a Taste. Simple and easy, but looking tasty. Now for the waist-watchers, this recipe does call for heavy cream for the cakes. This could probably be replaces with milk, but I'm not too sure how it would turn out. Also this recipe is egg free, and can easily be made sugar free as well.

The dough is super simple, but REALLY sticky. I have no pictures of the pre-baked dough because it was everywhere! I tried not to over work it, but ended up having to put it all back in the bowl and re-flour my work board and rolling pin. And my rolling pin did jack all. It just kept sticking to the dough. SO learn from my mistakes! Be generous with the flour on your working surface, and butter your hands. I also just used my hands to flatten out the dough instead of my rolling pin, it was much faster. 
After baking the cakes for 15 minutes they came out light and brown and lovely.

I eliminated most of the sugar in the entire recipe, opting for a tiny bit of regular on the scones, in the strawberries, and in the whipped cream. You could really do this to taste, but for health reasons I decided to heavily reduce it. 

One of the best things is I could pre-make everything and assemble it later. It's really easy to transport this way as well.

Don't they look lovely??

Now because I eliminated the sugar they were not sweet at all, which is something that might not be everyones taste. The shortcakes were a bit heavy, but it worked perfectly with a lot of strawberries and fresh whipped cream.

Overall, a perfectly easy summer desert!

One Pot Garlic Parmesan Pasta - Win!

Yet another winner from Damn Delicious! Seriously, this girl has a lot of solid recipes.

As the move-in-chaos settles down I'm slowly getting back into cooking. But I'm also very quickly getting uninspired and bored of my recipes. Maybe it's because I have a really bad desire to reno my kitchen, I'm not sure. So once again Pinterest came to save the dinner!

One Pot Garlic Parmesan Pasta.

Seriously some of my favourite words in this recipe, one pot, garlic, and pasta. Can't go wrong here! And when I asked my hubby after a few bites what he thought, and the response was "Can't talk - Devouring", I figured this is a good one. The recipe is super easy and involves your every day ingredients. And as advertised, it's an under 30 minute dinner.

I personally had a few hiccups, but that could be because I'm still working out the kinks in my new stove (medium heat is hot, and high heat is 'better call the pizza guy, Mommy just burnt dinner'). Mainly my pot ran out of liquid and I ended up adding about one additional cup of milk while cooking. This could be because a) too much heat or b) too much pasta. SO next time I'll start with a bit more liquid and go from there.

Also, when it says stir...STIR! I had to whip out my wooden spatula and scrape the bottom a few times to keep the pasta from sticking.

I used 1% milk, spaghetti instead of fettuccine, and added a pinch of thyme, and the recipe was amazing. 

Now the pasta alone is obviously vegetarian. It can be served as a side, or you could amp it up with some meat and or veggies and make it a full meal. This time I used grilled chicken and broccoli and it was perfect. Even my son, who has been refusing any dinner that isn't PB&J for about a week, devoured it. The possibilities are endless! Broccoli, asparagus, peas, bean, or even wilt some spinach in there and it would be a lovely addition. And chicken, shrimp, salmon, or lobster if you want to go decadent, for proteins. This can easily go from one pot side to a full balanced meal with a couple additions and still remain an easy week night meal. 

My hubby wanted to lick the bowl. Really. Not kidding. 

This recipe will definitely be in our regular rotation. Check it out for something a little different!

Enjoy!

Flourless Chocolate Muffins - Win and Update!

Update Below!

Ah, bananas. Always something I have around. But either we eat so many I can barely stay stocked or they sit around for a week until they're all brown and mushy. There is rarely an in-between. Last week I ended up with two lone ripe bananas. So not enough for banana bread. I could freeze them but since we're moving I'm trying to DECREASE my freezer stock, not increase it. So I looked through my pin boards and came across a recipe that just might work.

Flourless Chocolate Muffins.

A perfect excuse to procrastinate on a rainy Tuesday.

Now I'm going to be honest, I totally thought these were going to fail in some way. Nearly no dry ingredients involved, no flour, no sugar, no egg. I thought they were going to be a gooey mess post-baking.

Boy was I wrong!

These muffins are super simple to make and just require four ingredients. FOUR! And nothing nuts that you'd need to run to a health food store for. Yes the batter is sticky as the instructions state. I was unable to find too lazy to use muffin liners, so I was very generous with the cooking spray and the muffins popped out without a problem. And be prepared for a bit of a mess when scooping the batter from your blender/mixer. But it's still tasty raw!


This recipe made about 9 muffins using a regular muffin pan. Since they don't rise, you don't have to follow the usual rule of filling the muffin cups 2/3 full. You can go most of the way up and they won't bake over. And adding a few chocolate chips on top adds a nice touch.

The taste is great, a nice balance between banana, chocolate, and peanut butter. The texture is like a dense cake, very moist, but not overly heavy like a brownie.







As I said, I was pleasantly surprised by this recipe. These are perfect for a healthy chocolate fix, and I don't feel TOO horrible giving my son a chocolate muffin. And these muffins can be gluten free or even vegan with the right ingredients. 
These are a definite win in my book and I'll be making them again.

Happy Baking!



UPDATE
So I made these a second time. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I have a good idea, however they didn't turn out the same. This time I was SLIGHTLY under the amount of coco powder, and used REALLY ripe bananas when before they were sorta ripe. I may have also over-blended. They still taste fantastic, but after baking for nearly 30 minutes they still are very mushy and aren't holding together.
So learn from my experience! Be precise with your measurements, don't over mix, and use slightly ripe bananas. If I do this again with really ripe ones I would probably increase the coco powder to offset the moisture content.
Good luck!

No Egg Oatmeal Cookies - Win!

What do you do when you're craving cookies but don't have eggs?

No Egg Oatmeal Cookies!

When I was pregnant with Baby Girl I baked... a lot. So during one of my fresh baked cookie cravings I was very disappointed to realize we'd run out of eggs. So off to Pinterest I went to see if a No Egg Cookie recipe existed, and I was pleasantly surprised!

The recipe from Spark People worked out beautifully. The cookies were a bit crunchy but still chewy, and there was no compromise on taste with the lack of egg. 

The cookies baked up perfectly. And I was really excited that there were no 'weird' ingredients in the recipe. As long as you have Quick Oats, you can make these cookies. So a definite win if you have an Egg Allergy or just don't have eggs in the house, but REALLY want cookies!

Happy Baking!

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken - Win

Another Slowcooker win!
This recipe is perfect, with the right amount of sweet and heat. Very very simple to make with only a few ingredients, and can easily be made with frozen chicken if you adjust your cooking time. 

This winner is another via Family Fresh Meals. 
Now the BBQ sauce clearly affects the outcome of this dinner. I moved away from our usual sauce to try the recommended Sweet Baby Ray's, and I think we have a new favourite sauce! Feel free to use your favourite sauce, as long as it's a thicker sauce since you always end up with more liquid at the end of a Slowcooker meal. 

 

I definitely recommend following the suggestion of fresh kaiser buns and coleslaw for this dinner. The coleslaw adds a bit of a tart crunch that works very well. There is just a bit of heat to this chicken, I'm sure you could add in chili or even chipotle powder if you like an extra kick. Corn on the cob and a cold beer round this meal out perfectly. 
I plan to try this again with beef or pork, I think it'll be amazing!

UPDATE
I have tried this with pork and it was amazing. Make sure you use a shoulder cut of pork, since a smaller cut will dry out. Pork won't be our go-to for this recipe due to price, but it's a very lovely treat!
Enjoy!

Free Yoga Workouts - Win

I was a nubbie yogi many lifetimes ago during university. It was a great way to stretch all the nursing school stress away. I sadly got out of it and have missed it. Now as I'm trying to get my better-than-before-baby body back, I'm trying it again for the days when I'm not doing cardio or weights.
This selection of videos is great. I tried it for the first time today and really enjoyed it

10 Free At Home Yoga Workouts for Busy Moms - or busy anyone, not just moms!

The yoga is for beginners, and as a very out of shape yogi I found the moves challenging but not too difficult I couldn't get through it or kept falling over. Each video is about 10 minutes, so you could easily do multiple videos to meek one long routine, or just one if you want to squeeze something in quickly in your day. All the videos link to YouTube and all work, so it's a good site.
I plan to repeat the first few for a week or two, then build as I become more familiar with the moves and form. 

Namaste

Apple Pie Cookies - Fail-ish

I love baking, if you haven't noticed. But when it comes to cookies, I rarely move away from my never-fail tried and true chocolate chip cookie recipe. 
But with fall here and a preschooler to entertain, I find I'm baking more. So I needed to break out of my regular (but tasty) cookie rut. 
And what better way to celebrate fall with Apple Pie Cookies! Serious! Like pie but less effort. These Apple Pie Cookies taste fantastic, but they really don't store well.

Right out of the oven, these cookies are lovely. They totally remind me of warm apple pie. However, after 24 hours they start to get super soft. After a couple days they're nearly impossible to pick up because they're almost like dough again. They still taste awesome though!

Freshly Baked

Baked on a Tuesday, soggy but still tasty on Friday

I've made these cookies twice, adding slightly more flour, increasing the cooking time, decreased the cookie size, and changing the storage method and still ended up with the same doughy results after a few days. My theory is the apple pieces leech their water into the cookie making it soft and doughy. After a few days, they are so soggy they are difficult to even pick up because they just fall apart.

These cookies still taste fantastic. They'd be perfect for a bake sale or potluck where you could bake and consume them in the same day. If I make them again I may use parchment paper for storage, and try something to keep the apples from 'leaking' so to speak. 
So these cookies are a win for taste, but a fail for long term consistency and storage. 

Slow Cooker Sesame Chicken - win!

I'm slowly falling in love with my slow cooker. The whole "set it and forget it" dinner prep is very appealing. And this recipe is a fantastic addition to my slow cooker recipe book!

The Sesame Chicken recipe literally takes 10 minutes to prep. The sauce turns out lovely and thick, but a bit on the sweet side for our tastes. Next time I may add a bit more spice and cut down the sweetness, but that's just our preference. 
I made a few alterations to the recipe 

1) I replaced 1 tbsp of olive oil for sesame oil. I love the flavour it gives Asian style foods
2) I only added 1/4 cup honey because that is all I had. I added 1.5 Tbsp of brown sugar to make it up, but I may cut it down next time
3) Onion was replaced with onion powder (I forgot I had one)
4) Chili instead of flakes

This was a quick and easy recipe. Four chicken breasts made a huge amount, we had decent dinner portions and enough for left overs. Round out your meal with some quick brown rice and steamed veggies and it's the perfect weeknight dinner with minimal effort

UPDATE
I've made this recipe a few times now. It really tastes better and cuts on the sweetness if you can use real onion, so do so if you can. I'm not an onion fan, so I still reduced the amount and had good results. And 1/4 cup honey and 1-2 tbsp brown sugar was plenty sweet enough for us, so you can adjust this recipe to your own tastes. 

Enjoy!

Baked Ravioli - Weeknight win!

Meals that require minimal effort that yield a tasty meal are almost always a win. Crowd pleases are an added bonus. And since Munchkin's response to this dish was "Mommy this is amazing!", it's now on our regular menu. 

My version is a combo of two recipes. One is super basic, the other adds a few ingredients and time, but I found an extra 10 minutes of cook and prep adds a great dimension to the meal. 

The basic version is simply frozen ravioli, cheese and spaghetti/marinara sauce, layered and baked. The link is here. 
My preference is to use this recipe, repeated below, which adds some herbs and cream cheese to the sauce. I didn't get to add any fresh basil since our September snowfall killed my already stunted plant. 

Easy to assemble, just like lasagna

Spinach and cheese ravioli works great and makes this a totally vegetarian meal. I'd love to try with a beef ravioli if I can find one. But this 30 minute meal is amazingly cheesy, perfect with salad as a side. And the leftovers are just as tasty!

Cheesy goodness!

Sprinkle your serving with a little extra parmesan cheese and chopped parsley for a lovely weeknight meal, and enjoy!

Strawberry Muffins - Win

I love muffins.
Seriously. Love. Muffins.
Healthy or sugar-loaded. Breakfast or snack. Muffins are almost always a winner for me.
But I've been in a muffin creativity rut lately. I usually fall back to my Apple Spiced Muffins, a recipe my mom gave me. These are muffins from my childhood and I love them. But a little variety is needed.
These Strawberry Muffins are very similar to my own Apple Spiced version, but the strawberries add a lovely sweetness/tartness to it. They're quick to whip together and definitely a tasty contender to my long standing go-to muffin.

STRAWBERRY MUFFINS

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

For Topping
3 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl
Add egg, mix well
In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt
Next, alternately add flour mixture and milk into butter/sugar mixture in large bowl
Add vanilla, then gently fold in strawberries
Spoon batter in to lined or greased muffin pans
Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over muffins. 
Bake for 20 min
CONSUME

 

Happy Baking!!

Teriyaki Chicken - Win!

Back to the food!

I have a love - hate relationship with jarred sauces and marinades. Love the convenience. Hate the sodium, additives, and sometimes even the taste. I usually end up adding in some herbs or spices of my own to tweak the flavours.
I've been looking for a good teriyaki sauce for a while, our jarred sauce is getting boring and frankly is way too sweet. And here is another Pinterest win!

Teriyaki Chicken

The modifications I made will be noted.

Ingredients
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp cold water
1/2 cup white sugar (substituted for 1/2 cup BROWN sugar)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup cider vinegar (substituted for 1/2 cup rice vinegar)
1 clove garlic, minced (increased to 2 cloves)
1/2 tsp ground ginger (fresh grated ginger was used)
1/4 tsp black pepper
12 skinless chicken thighs (substituted for 2 skinless/boneless chicken breasts)
Sesame oil for cooking
Vegetables of your choice - broccoli, cauliflower, carrots were my pick
Brown rice

** The following is the cooking instructions I used since I diverted from the original. Please visit The Baking Beauties for the original instructions. 
In a small saucepan over low heat, combine cornstarch, water, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger and pepper. Let simmer, stirring frequently, until sauce thickens
While the sauce thickens, wash and slice your vegetables, and dice up your chicken. Heat a pan with the sesame oil. Cook your chicken pieces - you may lightly season with salt and pepper if you like.
Saute your vegetables in a saute pan with water. Don't forget your rice (I used minute microwave rice)
When chicken is cooked you can either leave it in bit sized chucks or take two forks and shred it. Add the sauce to your chicken.
Serve with rice and vegetables. 


I diverted from the original instructions for the sake of time, since they said to bake the chicken and baste it with the sauce. Sounds amazing, but time consuming. So I went to the standard stir fry technique. 

It turned out fantastic. My hubby who is a teriyaki lover really approves of this recipe. The rice vinegar adds a nice bite to the sauce (it can be reduced if you like but don't cut it out). The sauce is nice and thick and covers things nicely.
And yes, it's Munchkin approved.

Another Pinterest food win!

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos - Win

After the last slow cooker recipe I was hesitant to try again, but a co-worker of mine put me onto this recipe. She told me her little man ate this and claimed "THESE ARE THE BEST TACOS EVER" so I had to give it a try.

Huge advantage to this recipe? Super simple and you can eat the final results lots of ways. You can tweak the heat level to your liking as well. 

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

INGREDIENTS
3-4 chicken breasts
8oz taco seasoning (I used my own mix - recipe here)
2 cups salsa

Spray slow cooker with non-stick spray, or use a liner to help with clean up. Place chicken breasts into slow cooker, cover chicken with taco seasoning. Pour salsa over chicken and spread it out so it covers everything. 

Cook on LOW for 8 hours. **NO PEAKING**
Once cooked, take two forks and shred the chicken. It will help absorb all the salsa left over and turn into a thicker mixture. 

Serve with rice, on tacos (hard or soft), tortilla chips, whatever you like!

This recipe was fantastic. Really easy to do. I halved the recipe (2 chicken breasts) and we had lots of chicken and even left overs for a couple lunches the next day (still tasty). The Munchkin ate it too! We had it on soft and hard taco shells with the usual fixings. A definite win and a new twist to taco night!

Enjoy!

Primal Fudge - Win!

Looking to deal with your chocolate fix? How about healthy fudge? 15 minutes to chocolately heaven? HECK YES!
This recipe is quick, easy and super tasty! It's vegetarian too! Original recipe from here.
This recipe involves coconut oil which is my new favourite thing. I've been using it as a hair mask and on my skin (love it but a heavy scent), and now with cooking in place of oil or butter. It's a lovely alternative and doesn't always leave a coconut taste. If you have never used coconut oil before it is solid at room temperature but it melts even in your hands. I kept a small jar in my bathroom for hair masks and it was constantly liquid in the summer months from the increased temperature (no AC in my neck of the woods). You can use a microwave to melt your oil, but some people believe it ruins the health benefits so do so carefully. Again, you won't need much heat to melt your coconut oil. 


Primal Fudge

Ingredients
1/2 cup Coconut Oil
1/2 cup high quality cocoa powder
1/2 cup smooth almond butter
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup (I used honey)
1/2 tsp vanilla




Melt coconut oil. Blend ingredients (Original recipe says to use blender or food processor, but a spoon/whisk worked just fine for me). 




Pour mixture into lined muffin tins, filling about half full. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 10. When firm - remove from tin.



















These are FANTASTIC. They store well in the fridge or freezer and are great for a quick chocolate fix. They get fairly melty once out of the fridge, so eat them quick!

Enjoy!!