sibling saturdays

Sometimes it's kinda fun to have the little siblings over for pizza-making, quirkle-playing, and cowboys & aliens-watching on a Saturday night. And just so you know, that show doesn't get any less weird watching it the second time around. Pretty sure alien movies will never NOT be weird and distrubing. Acutally, not true. Avatar is so bomb. So I guess there are some exceptions.

Another delish snack/lunch/dinner side that's super healthy!
Get 1/4-1/2 can of chicken broth boiling in a frying pan on the stove.
add 1-2 sliced zuchini and yellow squash. (they are the best if brightly colored and under 8in long)
sprinkle with garlic, dried onion and salt.
sautee till tender.
voila! so tastey.

Beef and beans.

My husband is a picky eater. Not to any extreme extent, but finding meals that we both love AND are healthy AND easy-ish... is kinda difficult. Thank goodness for pinterest! I probably spend wayyy too much time looking at food on there though.

Behold! The beef and bean enchilada casserole!

Husband rates this a ten. That's unheard of, p.s.

So naturally, I must share to all the other wives of picky eaters.

Ingredients:

3 oz. ground beef

¼ cup dried onion

¾ tsp chili powder (I used chili peppers… the little round flakes?)

¾ tsp cumin

one 15 oz can pinto beans (drained)

one 4 oz can diced green chili peppers (I only put in half because we are spicy weaklings)

¾ cup sour cream

1 ½ Tbs. flour

¼ tsp. garlic powder (I just used normal garlic)

three 6 in corn tortillas (I used two 12in flour ones)

one 10 oz can enchilada sauce (we used the mild – original kind... and only about 3/4 the can)

½ cup shredded cheese (i used a little more than that on his)

1. Spray 9x13 pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In skillet cook onion and beef, drain fat. Stir in chili powder and cumin. Stir in pinto beans, enchilada sauce, green chilies and half of the cheese. Set aside.

2. In small bowl stir together sour cream, flour and garlic powder.

3. Spread sour cream mixture onto tortillas. Top with meat mixture and cheese. Roll tortillas and place in pan. Top with enchilada sauce, remaining meat mixture, and sour cream.

I have a thing with adding vegetables to all recipes. So before I put it in the oven for the last five  minutes, I cut up and added a tomato, half an avocado, half a green pepper, and a couple green onions and put them on the top. I Think it really made a difference!

4.Bake 30 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with cheese (and vegetables if you so desire). Bake 5 more minutes.

Disclaimer: All measurements, amounts etc are just approximations. Most the time I don't even measure it. That's the beauty of this recipe, you can make it just how you like it and it still turns out. I've used taco seasoning on the meat instead of the spices, added green onions, black beans instead of pinto, used wheat tortillas, made my enchilada vegetarian, you could use cooked chicken instead of beef... the list goes on and on.

In other news, we have taken a liking to staying on the phone/face-timing for hours whilst I'm dead bored at work, and he is home without me. You know that office episode where Pam is in NY and she and Jim get the microscopic bluetooths and stay on the phone all day long and Dwight thinks Jim is going crazy because he keeps talking to himself, but he is really just talking to Pam? Yeah same thing. People think I'm just listening to music on my ipod, when I'm really listening to Steven singing on the other end. Awesome.

Steven is spoiled. That is all. But who could say no to that face?

And what's a post without a cute picture of flynn and a video of him going crazy?

Peace and love. And chocolate.

healthyness

This year, along with the rest of america, I wanted to try to eat healthier and take care of my slowly but inevitably deteriorating body. And poor Steven has had to deal with my obsessive nutritional craze. Gym memberships, large grocery bills, my whining over lack of chocolate, and garbaging of his heart-disease-in-a-box frozen pizzas... all within two months of being married. He's a trooper!

After a couple nutrition classes, and countless hours researching recipes and snacks on the internet... I'm finally getting into a healthy buying and eating routine. Here's a couple of my healthy favorites I've tried and loved so far.

Breakfast: Strawberry Banana Gronola Yogurt

I use 1/2 cup chobani's vanilla flavored greek yogurt

drizzeled with some honey

added some granola with dark chocolate chunks

and some sliced bananas and strawberries

yum.

Breakfast/Snack: Monster Smoothie (*that actually doesn't tast like ogre poo)

I found the recipe through pinterest HERE.

1 frozen sliced banana
*I added about 6 frozen sliced strawberries
1 Tablespoon peanut butter
1/2 cup 0% Vanilla Chobani Greek yogurt
1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze (or other kind of milk)
4 cups baby spinach (or more, or less)

The thing I love, is that a lot of the recipes I'm finding call for the same ingredients... lots of fruit, vegetables, greek yogart, almond milk, etc... so I can use the seemingly random grocery items for lots of healthy meals! And that's all for now. Happy weekending!