Whole Wheat Pancakes

I am not a fan of flour most of the time, but for my kids I will have waffles, pancakes, and mini-muffins around the house for quick breakfasts, and easy snacks.  I use whole-wheat flour all the time, and will always add some flax seed to help lower the Glycemic Index, as well as add some Omega 3s :-)  This is by far my favorite pancake recipe, it is so easy to make and freezes amazingly.  I usually double the recipe and than freeze whatever we don't eat that morning. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Pancakes
1 egg
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
3/4 Cup Milk
1 Tbsp Sugar Substitute (I use Ideal)
2 Tbsp Natural No Sugar Added Applesauce
3 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Ground Flax Seed

1. Beat egg in a bowl until fluffy.  Beat in remaining ingredients just until smooth.  Add more milk if too thick.

2. Cook pancakes on griddle or pan on stove  with each pancake being a little less than 1/4 cup of batter. 

3. To freeze remaining pancakes, once cool line up pancakes on cookie sheet and flash freeze in freezer for one hour.  Stack Pancakes in freezer friendly bowl, and freeze.  To warm up pancakes: put on microwave friendly plate and microwave for about 30 seconds per pancake, flipping over once.

Peanut Butter Jelly Sushi Rolls

I saw this recipe in a magazine a few months ago and decided to try it last week. My 3 year old really enjoyed it and loved rolling out the bread!

Peanut Butter Jelly Sushi Rolls
Bread (I use the Brownberry Double Fiber bread)
Natural No-Sugar Added Peanut Butter
Sugar Free Jelly

1.  Cut the crust off the slices of bread, and roll the bread flat, either with a rolling pin or a can
2.  Spread peanut butter and jelly on the bread
3. Roll the piece of bread and cut into 4 bite-sized pieces
Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream

3 Frozen Bananas
1 tsp cocoa powder
2 Tbsp Peanut Butter
splash of milk

1. Peel bananas and chop into chunks and freeze overnight.
2. Put 1/2 the frozen bananas into a food processor and then add cocoa powder and peanut butter and a splash of milk and top with the rest of the frozen bananas
3. Pulse the mixture, scrapping down the mixture frequently.  When it starts to become creamy blend until you reach your desired consistency.
- you might need to keep adding  a few more splashes of milk to keep it blending.  also you can add as much peanut butter to your taste and the same with the cocoa powder

4. Enjoy! You can also make more to freeze, but the consistency won't be the same. The possibilities are endless with this, you can mix it up with so many different flavors!

Turkey Meatloaf

I LOVE this dish, I like regular meatloaf but it is lacking flavor sometimes, this is full of favor and my husband and kids LOVE it!  Tonight we are having this with sweet potato chips, and broccoli...Yummy :-)

Turkey Meatloaf

2 lbs ground turkey
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp salsa
1/4 cup egg substitute
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (I love pepper so I always add lots more)
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 Tbsp dried oregano
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and then form into a pan
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until done.

Canada 2011

Well, we had an amazing time on our annual Canadian vacation.  We left on June 4th and got back to our house June 11th.  I spent about the week prior to going packing and organizing. We stay in cabins that were built in 1939, that are fairly small so had to think about food for kids, medicine, etc.  Our biggest challenge was how to keep babies from crawling all over the cabins; our solution was a big baby play yard with a blanket on the floor.  This worked well, but took up the whole kitchen! All-in-all it was a lot of fun, lots of work, but well worth it.  Cameron caught some fish, Elise started blowing kisses, and Elliott enjoyed dancing in his highchair! Can't wait to go again next Spring!  :-)

Jedd, Cameron, and me

Jedd and Cameron with his first walleye

Elliott and Elise

Sugar Free Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing

1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup seasoned rice vinegart
1 (10 ounce) jar seedless raspberry jam

Combine the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Store in the fridge.

Pumpkin Apple Muffins

My kids LOVE these muffins. I make a super huge batch and then freeze them!

Pumpkin Apple Muffins

1 1/3 Cups All Purpose Flour
2/3 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Pumpkin Spice
3 Tbsp Apple Sauce
1/2 Cup Agave
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Pumpkin Puree
1 Medium Apple, peeled and grated

1. Preheat ovenb to 350 degrees
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix
3. In a Seperate bowl, whisk the remaing ingredients.
4.  Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, slowly, until just combined.
5.  Grease a mini-muffins tin and fill each with 1 Tbsp batter.
6. Cook for 15-20 minutes

GIVEAWAY

Hey Everyone, I need your help! I am going to be doing a give-a-way, once I hit 100 followers.  The item I am giving away is an Isotonix Kids multi-vitamin! Invite all your friends to follow my blog and once I hit 100 I will be posting instructions on how to enter!! These vitamins are amazing, they are 95% absorbed within 10 minutes of drinking it!!! For more information on Might-a-mins click here, or email me with questions!!!  Good Luck!
~Leah

Granola Bars

1/4 Cup Sugar Free Chocolate Chips
1/4 Cup Natural Peanut Butter
1/4 Cup Milk
1- 1 1/2 Cups Oats
2 tsp Vanilla
2 Tbsp Agave Syrup
1 Tbsp baking cocoa
2 Scoops Vanilla Protein Powder
1/2 Cups Ground Flaxseed

Melt the Chocolate Chips, Peanut Butter, and Milk in the microwave, stiring every 30 seconds until completely melted.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients.  You want the mixture to be somewhat dry, so if it is still too 'wet' add a little more oats.  Line a square cake pan with wax paper and press down mixture until evenly spread.  Place in freezer for 30 minutes.  Take out of freezer and place on cutting board and cut with pizza cutter, into desired size.  Store in air tight container in the fridge or freezer. Enjoy!!

My batch made 8 bars each with:
Fat- 13.13g
Calories- 129
Carbs- 14.53g
Sugar- 4.375g
Fiber- 4.125g
Protein- 9.40g

Lemon Pepper Chicken

This dish is so simple, but so flavorful and yummy! Enjoy!!

4-6 Lemon Pepper Chicken Breasts cut up in bite size pieces
(you could also use plain chicken breasts and Lemon Pepper Seasoning)
1/2 Purple Onion diced
1 Cup Peppers diced (I like to use all different color peppers, makes it pretty)
1 Cup Pea Pods
1 Cup Carrots (I use the shredded Carrots)
2 Cloves of Garlic - crushed
Olive Oil

1. In a skillet add olive oil to coat and turn head on medium.
2. Add cut up chicken breasts and cook until brown and remove from pan.
3. Add olive oil to coat pan and then add onion, garlic, pepper, and carrots. Cook until veggies are almost tender and then add the cooked chicken and the pea pods.  Cook until the pea pods are warm, but still crunchy, about 5 minutes.

Everything Cameron Likes Craft Project

I am always looking for easy craft projects to do with Cameron.  Coloring keeps his attention for like five minutes and he doesn't really care for stickers, stamps, etc so it always has to be something I have to help him with because he is into sissors and glue.  Having infant twins and daycare kids three days a week makes it hard for me to sit down with him to do more in depth art projects.  Last week I was trying to figure out what I could do with all my old Parenting magazines, and I had an idea; an everything Cameron like picture.  He flipped through magazines with me and looked for thing she likes and I would cut them out and we glued them on paper.  He always got so excited when he found something he liked....especially chicken nuggets and nutella (I no longer give him Nutella though because of the sugar). We had a lot of fun, and the best part of it was, it wasn't messy and it didn't take long!

Apple Juice Cubes

Cameron started having juice at a pretty young age, and now gets upset when I try to give him water because he wants juice.  If you look at the labels on juice they are packed with sugar.  For some reasons why everyone should limit sugar and have a low sugar diet check out Dr. Mecola's The 76 Dangers of Sugar to Your Health   I came up with a solution to start trying to get him drink more water, Apple Juice Cubes. I buy the Healthy Balance juice, which as significant less sugar, and made it into ice cubes.  In each of his glasses of water now, he gets 2 cubes, so 2 ounces of apple juice, he loves it! This is also a good cost savings for us because a bottle of juice is usually close to $2.50 and that one bottle of juice now can last us close to a month in the cube form.

Salsa Chicken

This dish is my favorite, it is simple to make (2 ingredients) and is super tasty and tastes even better the second day!

Salsa Chicken
1/2 jar of salsa
6 chicken breasts (frozen or thawed)
crockpot

1) Place chicken breasts in crockpot (either frozen or thawed)
2) Top with 1/2 jar of Salsa
3) Turn on Crockpot
Yes it is as easy as that!!!
4) For frozen chicken breasts, put in sometime in the morning and put on low for 6-8 hours
     For fresh chicken breasts, put in around lunch time on low for 4-6 hours
5) When you are almost ready to eat pull (shred) chicken apart with a fork, let cook in crock pot for about 15 more minutes (so chicken soaks up the rest of the salsa)
6) You can serve it in low carb tortillas, or my favorite is in a bowl with sour cream, cheese, and avacado!

This is prior to cooking

Egg Muffins

I am always looking for a quick and easy breakfast for my husband.  He works early, and I could  A) be a good wife and get up extra early and make him breakfast, or B) I could spend a Sunday evening making breakfast for him for the whole week...I choose option B!  This is a simple recipe, but tastes wonderful and is packed full of protein....14 grams in each  muffin!

Sausage Egg Muffins

12 Large Eggs, beaten
2 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder, or one small diced onion
Salt and Pepper
1 pound Ground Turkey Sausage, browned
1 cup Peppers, diced
any additional ingredients such as bacon, veggies, etc - many possibilities

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 12 count muffin tin
2. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
3. Measure about 1/4 cup mixture into each muffin. 
4. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, until eggs are set.
5. Let muffins rest for 5 minutes in the tin, then transfer to wire rack until cool. Store in air tight container in the fridge.
6. In the morning microwave for approximatley 45 seconds.

Enjoy!

Makes 12 muffins

Breadsticks

Breadsticks

1 Cup Cooked, riced cauliflower
1 egg
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp fennel
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp parsley

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix together the above ingredients
3. Grease a casserole dish, and press about an inch deep the cauliflower mixture

What it looks like before you pop it in the oven

4. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until set
5. Losen the dough with a spatula and remove the square dough to a greased cookie sheet
6. Cut the dough with a pizza cutter, in the shape of breadsticks.  Seperate slightly and sprinkle with garlic salt and some more cheese if desired.
7.  Bake until the top is brown
8.  Serve with marinara if desired.

Ultimate Aloe

My new FAVORITE product.  Elise has had issues going to the bathroom ever since she was about four months old. We had to use suppositories a couple times and we have been giving her apple juice everyday. It was better; she wasn't getting constipated, but she would go to the bathroom many times during the day and the consistency was pellet like.  I gave her Ultimate Aloe about a week ago and the results are amazing! Take a look at the product information here, if you click on details it will take you to the product information and there is a video and information on the product.  This product has amazing results for adults as well. Take a look, and let me know if you have any questions!

~Leah

Coconut Flour Cupcakes

I have my friend Stefanie to thanks for the WONDERFUL cupcakes! It was my birthday yesteday, and I had to have cupcakes.  These are super yummy and made them rainbow colored. Cameron and I had a great time making them! Enjoy!!

Coconut Flour Cupcakes

1/2 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Milk
8 eggs
3/4 Cup Splenda or Ideal
3/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla
3/4 Cup Coconut Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
6 Bowls
Food Coloring

1. Mix butter, milk, eggs, splenda, salt and vanilla. 
2. In a seperate bowl combine the coconut flour with the baking powder and then wisk in above ingredients until there are no lumps
3.  Pour batter evenly into 6 bowls. Add a few drops of your food coloring into each bowl to make all the color of the rainbow. 
4. Starting with purple add about a tsp into 12 greased muffin tins, you may need to use your spoon to make it even in the tin.  Continue with each color, ending with red.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, until tooth pick inserted into middle comes out clean.
6. Cool and then frost

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese (could probably get by with 5-6 oz) (room temperature)
1 egg (I used egg substitute)
1 Tbsp coconut Flour
1/4 Cup Splenda
1 tsp vanilla

1.  Beat cream cheese with eggs, coconut flour, splenda, and vanilla until well blended.
2. Frost Cupcakes :-)

Spanish "Rice"

Spanish "Rice"

2 Head of Cauliflower
2 Cans of Diced Tomatoes
1 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
Green Onion

Cook Cauliflower your prefered method. I like to seperate it into little pieces and steam it until tender, about 10 minutes.  While that is steaming in a big fry pan, on medium heat, put Tomatoes, Cumin, Chili Powder, garlic powder.  Once cauliflower is done run the pieces of through the grate insert on your food processor.  Combine the cauliflower with the tomato mixture and simmer for 5 minutes.  You can play with the spices, if you like it spicer add more chili powder, etc.  Dump "rice" into a serving bowl and garnish with some cut up green onion.

Mini Cheese Cakes

Mini Cheese Cakes

"Graham Cracker" Crust
1 1/4 Cup Almond Flour
4 Tbsp Wheat Germ
3 Tbsp Ideal/Splenda Sweetner
6 Tbsp Butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Mix all ingredients until everything is combined.  Fill lined cupcake foils with a heaping tablespoon of crust.  Use your fingers to firmly press mixture into place.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until very light golden brown. Cool Before Filling.

Cheesecakes
2 Packages of 8 oz Cream Cheese
1/2 Cup Splenda or Ideal
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
Strawberries, diced

Oven preheated at 325 degrees.  Combine softened cream cheese, vanilla, and Sweetner with a hand mixer, making sure to get all cream cheese clumps out.  Add eggs one at a time and mix until well blended.  Spoon cream cheese batter into crusts, filling each liner about 3/4 full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, you want a little cracking in the middle, be careful not to over bake. Cool completely on a cooling rack and top with diced strawberries.

Enjoy!

Makes 24 servings

Per Cheesecake:
150 calories, 12.57g Fat, 3.85g Carbs, 1.33g Fiber, 5.5g protein, and 1.51g sugar

Rice Balls

Since the twins are 9 1/2 months I have mainly been giving them finger food/table food, it is so much cheaper than buying the 3rd foods! I like to come up with good finger foods for them because it is so much easier for me to put food on their trays and then I can feed Cameron too, or do dishes quick.  Here is a recipe for what they had for dinner last night.

Baby Rice Balls

1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1/2 pound cooked ground turkey
10 carrotts
water - as needed

1) puree rice until the is an almost paste-like consistency
2) add turkey to the mixture and puree a little bit more
3) add carrots to the mixture and puree a little bit more

I added some water as needed, but you don't want to add too much or it will get to runny, you really want to maintain that paste-like consistency.

4) chill mixture for about an hour
5) shape into little balls and serve, you can heat if desired. 

The food is very clingly so sticks to fingers great, makes a little bit of a mess if babies smash it with their fingers, but great practice for them!

Pizza Muffins

I LOVE pizza rolls, when I was pregnant I thought they were the best lunch/snack ever! I was so wrong, they are full of transfat, GROSS.  I tried these a couple weeks ago, and they were super yummy, Cameron loved them cause he got to dip them in pizza sauce. They are super low carb (net 1 carb) compared to Totino Pizza Rolls (37 net carbs) Enjoy!

Pizza Muffins

1/3 Cup Ground Flaxseed
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 Tbps Italian Seasoning
pinch of salt
4 eggs, beaten
1 Cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1 Cup cut up Turkey Pepperoni
No Sugar Added Pizza Sauce for dipping

Preheat Oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a muffin tin (a mini-muffin tin would work great, I didn't have one and a regular worked just fine) In a large bowl, whisk together the flaxseed, baking powder, Italian season, and salt.  Whisk in the egg.  Stir in mozzarella, parmesan and pepperoni; let stand for 5 minutes.

Stire the batter and drop into the muffin tins, about 2/3 full.  Bake until puffed up and golden brown, about 20 minutes.  Heat pizza sauce, if desired, and served on the side for dipping. 

Cheesy Garlic Mashed "Potatoes" aka Cauliflower

I am so excited for this dish! One thing I have been craving lately has been Mashed Potatoes.  One large potato has approximately 55 grams of carbs, so I wanted to come up something that was better choice for my family.  Looking on website, blogs, etc I found Fauxpotatoes, or Cauliflower potatoes!!! So here is my verison of this dish!!

Cheesy Garlic Mashed "Potatoes"

1 large head of cauliflower
1/4 cup milk
2-3 wedges Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese
1/4 cup cheddar Cheese
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
Parsley

1) Steam Cauliflower in Steamer until tender
2) In food processor puree Cauliflower until a smooth consistency
3) Add in Milk, Cheeses, Garlic Powder, Salt and Pepper and puree until blended.
4) Put in a serving bowl and sprinkle with Parsley

Enjoy!!!

Makes 5 servings
Per Serving:
Calories 60.5, Fat 2.4g, Carbs 5.5g, Fiber 2g, Sugar 3g, and Protein 3.6g

Swing Set

We are so excited about our swing set, we finished putting it together last night! It is hard to get out to parks during the week with my kids and daycare kids so we decided it would be a great investment. We ordered the swing set at Walmart through my website and since Walmart is a Partner Store got 2% cash back, what a great deal!  Walmart has Free Shipping Site-to-Store so took advantage of that!  The quality is great and looks just as nice as some of the more expensive ones!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

My friend Stefanie had this great recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies that are amazing! I have made them three times now and they keep getting better with each batch. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 Cup Butter, Softened (You can also use Coconut Oil)
1 1/2 Cups Brown Ideal Sweetner
2 eggs
1 Cup Peanut Flour
1 Cup Vanilla whey protein powder
1/4 Cup Oat Bran
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz sugar free chocolate chips (I found these at Walmart)

Preheat oven to 375.  Cream the butter and Sweetner with a hand mixer.  Add eggs, one at a time and beat.

In a seperate bowl combine the peanut flour, protein powder, oat bran, baking soda, and salt.  Add this mixture a little at a time to the butter mixture until it is well blended.  Fold in the chocolate Chips.

Use a cookie scoop to drop the cookies on a non-stick cookie sheet.  These cookies won't flatten while baking like typical cookies so flatten them a little with the back of a spoon. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.  Cool on the cookie sheet for two minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Makes 4 dozen. 

Per Cookie:
60 Calories, 4g of fat, 2g carbs, 2.75g protein

Compared to Phillsbury Refridgerated Cookie Dough:
135 Calories, 7g fat (1g trans fat), 17 g carbs, 1g protein 

My Little Brew Crew

We are so excited at the Buchman house, it's baseball Season!!!!  That means we are getting closer to spring, although there are still mass amouts of snow outside and it is almost the middle of April :-)  Brewer's were off to a rocky start this season but they have won the last three now, so we are very hopeful for a playoff run!!

I had a meeting tonight and drove past where Jedd plays softball two nights a week in the summer, so that also got me excited! How much fun is that gonna be with my three kids to watching daddy play! Last year, I was so pregnant that it was so hard keeping up wtih Cameron, I wonder if this year will be easier or harder cause I have triple the amount of kids now??