Healthy Spinach Lsagna Roll

I LOVE pasta!!! This one is a nice twist from just eating regular pasta...

Ingredients

• 9 lasagna noodles, cooked
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
• 1 (15 ounce) container fat free ricotta cheese
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon minced garlic
• ½ teaspoon dried Italian seasonings
• salt and fresh pepper
• (optional) 1 chicken breast, cooked and diced
• 32 oz tomato sauce (I used spaghetti sauce)
• 9 Tablespoons part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350°. Make sure you drain the spinach well. Combine spinach, ricotta, Parmesan cheese, egg, garlic, Italian seasonings, chicken, and salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Pour about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry by patting them with a paper towel.

 Take ⅓ cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over a noodle. Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.

Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 Tablespoon of mozzarella cheese. Cover baking dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts..

Makes 9 rolls.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fall is definitly in there up here in Ohio. We woke up to 44 degrees this morning!! When the weather gets cooler, definitly puts me in the mood for baking and pumpkin! I like to have a healthier cookie option around the house...and especially one that has chocolate in it.
I think I'll volunteer to bring the sweets to Thanksgiving and include these...they are that yummy!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups rolled quick oats
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup organic peanut butter
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup  chocolate chips (the chocolate chips pictured from Meijer are quickly becoming my favorite ones)

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add in the wet ingredients in order

Use a wooden spoon or spatula and stir together until together, stirring for about 30 seconds so as to incorporate everything but not over mix. The batter should be sticky and thick.

Using a little less than 3 tablespoons for each cookie, form dough firmly into cookies, and place on baking mat. Leave a little space between each cookie (they won't spread out while baking but will puff up just a little bit). Be sure before you do this step to line the cookie sheet with either parchment paper or a mat.

Bake for 15 minutes on the top rack of your oven until tops are golden brown

Allow time to cool.Enjoy!

21 Day Fix Approved Chicken in Vodka Sauce

If Grey Goose can be a part of my dinner....and it's 21 Day Fix Approved...BRING IT ON!!!

LOL!!

I love pasta...but when you look at many of the pasta sauce nutrition labels...they can be scary. Luckily while making this sauce I was able to control what goes in the sauce!! And it was delicious! 

This is one that will definitely be made again!!!

Ingredients

• 4 slices turkey bacon (nitrate-free)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium red onion, chopped
• sprinkle of red pepper flakes, or more to taste
• 28 oz crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 cup plus 1 T of vodka
• 4 T 2% plain Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese and more for topping
• 1 T chopped fresh basil
• 2 tsp dried oregano flakes
• 2 boneless chicken breasts, grilled
• Pasta or Zoodles
  

1. Chop turkey bacon into bits and sautee until brown. Remove from pan.
2. Add olive oil to pan and diced onions. Cook for a few minutes until they begin to soften, then add garlic and crushed red pepper. Cook for another minute.
3. Add can of crushed tomatoes to the pan, as well salt, pepper and the herbs. Stir in bacon and vodka. Simmer for ten minutes on medium low heat.
4. Add in Greek yogurt and Parmesan cheese. Stir to combine and cook for a few more minutes. The sauce should turn a more pinkish color.
5. Plate your noodles or zoodles, add chicken, then top with sauce. Add a bit more Parmesan on top!
    
   I love this pasta..and it can be found at Aldi. I think it's a little over $2.00 a bag..but so worth it!!! Easy to cook...big on taste!!! You all have to go and look for it!!!
   
   
   
   Hope you enjoy this pasta as much as my family and I did!!!
   
    

Apple Pie Oatmeal Cookies

Fall is here!!! The boys and I were pretty excited! On Saturday we decided to take an outing to a local fruit farm (Lynd) for some corn maze fun...pumpkin fun..and apple picking! We go through three 3 lb. bags in our house. So I knew that the boys would love this weekend activty.

They had fun picking them off the ground..off the trees..I had to make sure they understood the cookies had to get to our house. LOL!!!

I looked around and kind of combined some of the recipes that I found to best suit our families taste buds and healthy. And this combo was perfect!!!

 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup  instant oats (measured correctly & gluten-free if necessary)
• ¾ cup  whole wheat or gluten-free* flour (measured correctly)
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 2 tbsp  coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup  pure maple syrup
• 1 cup finely diced red apple (medium)

1. Whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil or butter, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the maple syrup. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in the apple. Chill for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Drop the cookie dough into 15 rounded scoops onto the prepared sheet, and flatten slightly. Bake at 325°F for 13-15 minutes. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Bites

 Are you looking for an easy dish to bring to a pot luck? Looking for an easy dish to have on hand when friends come over? Look no further. I made this for dinner and it was super easy to prep...tasted good..and left us all full!!!

Ingredients:
1 package Lean Ground Chicken
1/4 cup Gluten Free Breadcrumbs
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp onion powder
8oz Franks Red Hot Sauce

Directions:
1. PreHeat oven to 400 degrees
2. Stir together Lean Ground Chicken, Breadcrumbs, garlic powder, pepper and onion powder.
3. Roll into small 1 inch balls
4. Cook at 400 for 5 minutes or until brown.
5. Throw into crock pot with 8oz of Franks Red Hot Sauce on Low for 2 hours.
6. ENJOY!

I served ours with a side salad as well some risotto. Made for a great Monday meal!

A Pretty Healthy Chili

Football season...having friends over...a little bit of cooler weather...calls for some chili!!! Here's a delicious recipe that has a light taste...leaves you full..and no belly aching!

10-12 tomatoes diced
2 onions diced
2-3 peppers diced
Can add any other veggies such as zucchini, carrots, celery, whatever you fancy (I left out other veggie just so my middle one would eat it)
Can of  organic pizza sauce (I found one at a local store really low in sugar)
Can of  tomato sauce
Can of organic sweet corn
1-2lbs ground beef cooked
1-2 TBS garlic minced
Spices. I used chili spice, garlic salt, pepper and I spice until I like the flavor

What did I do with all those ingredients?
First I cooked up my ground beef. Cut up the tomatoes...cut up the onions...cut up peppers (I used only red ones..up to you what colors you want to do). Put the previously mentioned into my slow cooker...added the two sauces..corn...garlic and spices...and put the slow cooker on low and let it heat it up!!!

I made some corn bread muffins to go with it..topped with cheese...delicious!!

Chicken Faijitas Bowl

I had seen one of those foodie videos for this...and had to try it for our lunches. I made three for myself and three for Tom to take to work for lunches. Easy to prep and will keep us on track with a healthy meal. I was needing something new for lunches...so this was perfect.

You will need:
Chicken (as much as you want to portion out meals)
3 peppers (I used one orange and two red)
1 red onion
Brown rice (again as much as you think you want to portion out meals. I personally didnt want to add a lot to the bowls so I made 1 cup of the brown rice).
1 can of sweet corn
1 can of black beans
1 jar of salsa
1 pkg. of taco seasoning (or make your own)
cheese

What I did:
Preheat oven to 400. Line the cookie sheet with foil. Cut up the three peppers...and red onion. Place on sheet. Place chicken on the cookie sheet. Sprinkle with the taco seasoning and top with salsa (I used almost the whole jar but saved some for the bowls). Cook at 400 for about 25 minutes.
Cook the brown rice according to package.
Get out your containers. Place rice on the bottom. I put one spoonful of the beans, corn, and salsa in the containers. I added some of the chicken and veggies to each. Topped with some cheese.
Bam!!! Lunches for three days!