Easy 1 Dish Dinner

      Before make the choice to eat cleaner, we would always have a meal that came out of a bag stashed in our freezer.  It might be Asian, Italian, or American cuisine.  They were super tasty, super fast, and very easy on long days where I just didn't want to labor so much for my dinner.  The idea behind this was that it was "healthier" than fast food (big bonus, right?) and, not just fast to make, but also fast to clean up.  Now, these aren't an option.  Those meals had loads of sugar and loads of sodium.  Two things that don't fit into my almost 30 year-old, post baby diet.  So, how could I find something with all the benefits, but still be prepared from the form that it came from the Earth?  Read this post and I will tell you!
     Last night I found myself exhausted at the end of a long day and needing to have a healthy dinner ready in an hour.  Ah, it would have been so easy to get a pizza!  That, however, would have been neither financially responsible, nor good for us in any way.  So I grabbed a cookie sheet and decided whatever I cooked would all fit in there and be ready to eat within an hours time.  The meal is based on my favorite veggie, red new potatoes, and chicken (that can be seasoned to your taste).  Let me first tell you what you may need and then I will talk about the food!

You will need:

2 Chopped broccoli heads
4 or 5 chopped red potatoes
2 Large chopped chicken breasts
(I guess chopped is the theme!)

For seasonings and "sauces" :

Olive Oil
Italian Seasoning (or any of your other favorite green seasonings!)
Greek Seasoning
Vinegar
Brown Sugar
Cumin
Asian Oyster Sauce
Simple heinz ketchup (or a couple tablespoons of tomato puree would be a good substitute)

 First, I chopped up the broccoli and drizzled a light glaze of Olive oil over it to evenly moisten and then sprinkled a light amount of Greek Seasoning over the broccoli.  I then tossed the broccoli around to make sure everything was evenly dispersed.  You can look up how to make your own Greek seasoning at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/greek-seasoning-2/.  This way you can be salt free!  Make sure your broccoli takes up no more than one third of your cooking sheet so you will have room for your potatoes.

The potatoes are very similar.  I chopped them, drizzled a little olive oil on them and sprinkled them with Italian seasoning and a little Greek seasoning.  Now, go ahead and set your oven to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Now, for the chicken (this won't be to difficult).

Cut all your chicken into nugget sized bites.  Last night, I was in the mood for barbecued chicken.  That is actually what inspired this meal.  As I was 90% read to just spread over a glaze of barbecue sauce, I thought about how much sugar, salt, and high fructose corn syrup would be added to this meal.  I decided to take just a couple more minutes and make my own barbecue sauce from what I had in my pantry.  I don't have the exact proportions, but I will give you an idea of what I did.

Every barbecue sauce is basically some take on brown sugar and vinegar.  So I lightly sprinkled a thin layer of brown sugar over my chicken and mixed it all together.  I did this all on my cookie sheet, so I didn't dirty another bowl.  Then, I sprinkled a layer (no more that 3 shakes would be enough) of cumin over it. I squirted a little "simply heinz" ketchup, but if you are really good you can just put in a couple tablespoons of tomato puree.  I poured in just enough vinegar to make a sauce out of the sugar spices.  I also added a couple of tablespoons of oyster sauce and mixed that in.

As I mixed all of the seasonings in each part of the meal, I kept it in its own segment of the cookie sheet.  Everything tastes great but I wanted each pieces to have its own complimentary flavor.

I slid the sheet in the oven and left it alone for almost an hour.  Make sure to check it at around 45 minutes since every oven cooks differently.  When it's all done, evenly plate your dish and enjoy!

I didn't do this, but if you are really creative you can make extra chicken sauce and lightly glaze it over your chicken after you take it out the oven.

Simply Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies!

     You can't just have one of these tasty treats, but they are so nutritious that just a few of them will leave you full and satisfied.  You can make them as healthy as you want and modify them to be vegan and/or gluten free!  Grab your blender, some oatmeal and your favorite chocolate chips and let's get baking!  Here is everything you will need:

1 1/2 cups of oatmeal (use your blender or food processor to crumb or powder to your desired texture)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 Tablespoon of turbinado sugar (or your desired sweetener)
1 Tablespoon of brown sugar
1/2-1 cup of your favorite dark chocolate chips (somehow we always throw in a few extra, so I will let you decide how many you want to add.  You can also add your favorite nut as well!)
1/2 Teaspoon of Vanilla extract
A few Tablespoons of Milk (substitute almond or soy depending on your diet)
A few Tablespoons of Olive oil or Coconut oil

First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, then blend all of your oatmeal.  Oatmeal is great, because it's technically gluten free, but can't be advertised as that since it is often packaged in companies that package wheat.  So if you are incorporating gluten free into your diet for weight loss or to be extra healthy, this works great!  If you do have a serious gluten sensitivity/allergy, make sure to get oatmeal that is labeled Gluten Free!  I like to make the oatmeal as powdered as possible.  This way the cookies have a closer to flour consistency and come out nice and gooey!

Next, stir in all your dry ingredients.  Every time, I do these I experiment with the sugar.  The chocolate chips will be somewhat sweet, so you don't need much sugar to make them delectable!  I have even left out all sugar and put in a mashed banana.  Try what works for you! Have fun with it!

Drop in a 1/2 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract.

Mix in your milk and oil one tablespoon at a time.  Only add the next tablespoon when you have mixed the previous one in as much as possible.  This will ensure that you have a dough like texture and it won't be runny!

You did it! You made super healthy cookie dough that you can also eat, because there are no raw eggs in it! Now, let's press them into cookies and pop them in the oven!  Roll your dough into small 1-2 inch balls and press them in the middle to make them nice and flat.  Lay them on a cookie sheet and let them bake for 12 minutes.

They might come out looking like mine or however your creative self led you.  Once they are out, don't eat them yet.  Let them finishing cooking on the sheet for 3-4 minutes.  Voila!

 These cookies are so great at satisfying your sweet tooth, while also being filling, too!  After all, they are as healthy as a bowl of oatmeal!

They have the toddlers seal of approval!

Don't forget the (almond) milk!

Finding Food that is Healthy, Tastes Good, and simple to prepare!

     After having my first very healthy, extremely attached and strong baby boy, my body had changed quite a bit.  His first year of life was one growth spurt after another, which meant I was nursing 24/7.  My baby left behind some baggage on me that had to go.  My body retained water like crazy, because of nursing and all my hormones were out of whack!  I didn't have much time to cook and quickly realized I had to find food that could satisfy my mommy cravings and be healthy at the same time.  My outlook on food was changing.
     I'm not one to jump on fad dieting, but I always look for pros and cons of all of the newest trend diets.  They always seem to be based on an ounce of truth.  I started with common sense.  The diet that appealed to me the most was clean eating.  It basically says you just eat food the way it comes out of the earth.  You should cook all of your food and every individual ingredient should be made of (something like) no more than three [natural] ingredients.  Ideally, everything is organic, fresh, etc.  You can check out Clean Eating Magazine at http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/ for more information and recipes!  In our modern world, sometimes this is difficult.  I can't always do it, but I try.  I would say on a good day 85% of what we eat is clean and we try to shoot for no less 75% of all days.  We have days we don't make it though.

     I've also had to figure out a balance for me.  One week I went gluten free and also incorporated some ideas from the paleo diet.  I didn't see much of a difference on the scale and I felt a little weaker, since those diets do take out some important nutrients.  After trials, the best balance incorporated a really good balance of everything: only drink water, have gluten in very moderate amounts, and up the veggies a lot!  I really hope to reflect some fun, tasty and SIMPLE tricks to eating great, while feeling great, too!
     It's hard.  Life moves pretty fast.  Through lots of perseverance and trials I have come up with several recipes and tricks to get some of our favorites to be some of the healthiest, most delicious meals you can imagine.  Now, if I can just blog before we eat them!