Sherry's Granola

We've always just purchased granola. 

It's something I've never really thought to make on my own... Until I tried Sherry Erickson's (She's a really amazing mother and friend to our family) granola.

  Ummmmm.....YES, I needed the recipe!

Ingredients:

4 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut (if you have a WINCO store, that's the best coconut to use that's in the bulk bin)
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 cup coconut oil (bring to a liquid state)

1/2 cup real/pure maple syrup 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium/large mixing bowl.
(Oats, pecans, almonds, coconut, salt, sugar and cinnamon)

Mix together.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.
(Coconut oil and Maple syrup)

Pour over the dry ingredients and mix well.

Spread it ALL onto a cookie sheet.

Bake at 300 degrees for 40 min.

Stirring after every 10 min.

...and then it's ready to be consumed!
My kids LOVE this with almond milk for breakfast.
This can also be used as a topping over Greek yogurt or ice cream (hey now....WHY NOT?)
YUMM!!!

Recipe courtesy of Sherry Erickson, a great friend and wonderful mother.

Butternut Squash Soup

Okay, okay.... Don't laugh. I was reading "RedBook" magazine 

and I stumbled upon the recipe section within the magazine. 

I quickly skimmed through the ingredients of "Kelly's Butternut Squash Soup"

and realized just HOW easy this soup could be. 

I also noticed the base was a vegetable stock and coconut milk. 

Even better!

Ingredients:

4 tbsp Olive Oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium onions, diced small

2 large butternut quash (2 lb), peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes

4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped

2 small yukon gold or russet potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes (I used 4 small yukon)

8 cups vegetable stock or water (I actually used chicken stock)

2 cups canned coconut milk (I used lite)

salt and pepper to taste

This recipe makes 12 servings. Each (1 cup serving): ~210 cal.

Heat oil in a large stock-pot over medium-low heat.
Add garlic, onion and a pinch of salt, stirring until translucent, 3 to 5 min.

Add squash.

Add carrots and potatoes.

Add stock.
Bring to a BOIL.
Lower heat to a simmer and cook 25-30 min,
or until vegetables can be easily pierced with a fork.
Remove from heat and add coconut milk.

Puree soup with a blender. 

Season with salt and pepper.

I garnished my bowl of soup with 4 oz. grilled chicken.
This is a great soup.
Easy. Simple and very delicious!

Recipe courtesy of: Redbook Magazine p.24; Kelly Osbourne, "Kelly's Butternut Squash Soup"

Roasted Garlic Chicken & Alfredo Pizza

My kids LOVE pizza. A lot.

I feel like I'm trying to come up with new creations because WE LOVE IT TOO!!! However, I LOVE HOME-MADE pizza, crust and all... 

I decided to take a stab at homemade pizza crust using the Homemade bread Recipe. 

 Read on....you'll see if it worked out! (Kind of a loaded statement...huh? Of course it did, or I wouldn't be posting this)

So first...you need an elephant garlic bulb.
You'll cut off the top to be able to expose the garlic cloves,
Then drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the entire bulb and sprinkle salt and pepper over everything.
Wrap completely in foil. Place on cookie sheet and bake.
Bake at 350 for 50 min.

After it's done roasting, remove from foil and it's ready to use in recipes.

Then, open this "Homemade Bread" tab and prepare your bread and let it rise.

Once the bread is done rising in the bowl, get all your other ingredients and tools ready.

Ingredients:

Flour

Corn meal

Bread dough

Tools:

Rolling pin,

flat surface

Cooking stone (works the best)

or cookie sheet with parchment paper laid on it.

Punch Bread dough down, until all AIR is out of dough.

Take a big chunk of the dough (about half of it) and place it on a lightly floured surface.

As you can see, I took about half the dough and will make the pizza crust from the dough. The remaining dough I will make into homemade dinner rolls. 

Roll out the bread dough to a very THIN pizza crust.

Place some cornmeal on the back and gently rub it in.

As you lift up the bread dough, the remaining cornmeal will fall off.
Cover your cooking stone with cornmeal (or cover your parchment paper with cornmeal)
and lay bread dough over stone.

Cut the hanging dough using a pizza cutter and trim the edges.

Trim the edges, so it fits perfectly on the stone.

VOILA! Pizza crust.
DONE!!!

Place immediately into refrigerator.
 (or it will start rising again)

Next, grab your pizza ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 Roma tomato

5 green onions

1 elephant garlic, roasted

2 c. Mozzarella cheese

1 c. Colby Jack cheese

1-2 c. Rotisserie Chicken

Pizza Seasoning grinder (I LOVE this grinder)

1 jar pizza sauce

1 jar of alfredo sauce

1/2 package of turkey pepperoni

First, place 3 roasted cloves in a food processor, or blender.

Pour in 1/2 the jar of Alfredo sauce.

Pour in 1/3 jar of pizza sauce.

Blend.

Pour over pizza crust.
(My kids love the good ol' fashioned pepperoni pizza, so for the rest of these pictures it will be a half and half pizza)

You may choose to do a half and half pizza or the full garlic chicken alfredo pizza.
Place original pizza sauce on one side and the garlic-alfredo on the other.
Place rotisserie chicken on the garlic-alfredo.

Place topping over the areas you wish to have them.
Grind the pizza seasonings over the entire pizza.

Cover entire pizza with mozzarella cheese.
Place onions and tomatoes on the garlic-alfredo side.

....and DONE!

Preheat oven to 425.
Bake for 15-19 min.
Check after 10 min for big bubbles in dough to develop.
Make sure those bubbles are popped with a fork.

Remove from oven and let cool for about 5-10 min.

Hope you enjoy our spin on semi-homemade garlic alfredo and chicken pizza!

Chicken and Ham Creamy Parmesan Lasagna

Another one of OUR favorites. Go ahead, I dare you to not fall in love with this combination. 

The flavors are unexpectedly perfect together. 

Ham, fresh parsley, chicken broth..... go on, keep reading....or salivating.

Ingredients:

2 C. Chicken Broth

1/2 tsp. Freshly ground black pepper

3 1/4 C. Skim Milk

1/3 C. + 1 tbsp. Flour

1 1/2 C. freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/4 C. chopped parsley

12 no-cook lasagna noodles,divided

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked and chopped up, divided (I've used rotisserie chicken in the past, but that increases the sodium, FYI)

8 oz. ham, divided

1 cup thinly chopped asparagus, divided

1 cup Pepper Jack cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place broth and 1/4 tsp. pepper in a large pot over medium high heat.
Bring to a boil.

In a blender, combine flour, milk and remaining pepper together.

Mix thoroughly.

Add milk mixture to broth in pan.

Stir CONSTANTLY over medium-high heat.

Bring to a boil.

Let cook for ONE minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat,
Add 1 C. Parmesan cheese.

Add parsley.

Stirring until cheese melts.

You can use one 9x13 pan
or two 8x8 pans.
Be sure to spray PAM on your pans.

Spread a little sauce over the bottom of the pan(s). 

Layer the "oven ready" noodles over sauce.

Layer the Asparagus, Chicken, Ham & Pepper Jack over the noodles.

Noodles again.

Spoon a little more sauce over the noodles.

Add some chicken, ham, asparagus and pepper jack cheese.

Then noodles and sauce, again.

Last layer of Chicken, Ham, Asparagus and Pepper jack.

Follow up with the final layer of noodles.
Add a pinch of fresh parsley (if you still have some left over) and the rest of the Parmesan cheese on top.

Cover with foil that's been sprayed with Pam as well.
Cook for 30 min

Remove from oven and let it cool for about 10-15 min.
It allows the lasagna to set up.

Then, serve alongside a hearty salad or veggie of your choice.

It makes a great meal, and what do you know....green veggies are even inside!
Eat up!

This was for dessert!
Boy, oh boy....I love cooking for my little family!