Spinach and Cheese Filled Shells

 This is a great dinner if your looking for an easier and quicker way to make a lasagna dinner that is also healthier coming in at about 126 calories per shell. When I made this for dinner it served 3 of us, and we had about half left over which we froze it for later. Overall this is a delicious dinner, that fills you up and leaves everyone satisfied.

Ingredients:

• 20-22 jumbo shells (I used the Barilla ones)
• 1 1/2 cups of Low Fat ricotta cheese
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• 1 lb ground beef
• 24 oz jar of marinara sauce
• Parmesan cheese for topping
• salt 
• Pepper
• Italian Seasoning
• Fennel

Directions:

1.Begin by heating your oven to 400°F
2.Then bring a pot of water to a boil, then add in the noodles, and cook until done, drain and set aside.
3.Well noodles are cooking, cook the ground beef in a pan with Italian seasoning and fennel.

4.In another bowl, mix together the ricotta, mozzarella, spinach, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

5.When the meat is done take 3/4 of it and mix in with the cheese mixture.
6.Take a 9*12in pan, and spread a layer of marinara sauce so the noodles wont stick.

7.Take the noodles and individually  spoon about a tablespoon of the cheese mixture into it, then place face down in the pan.  Repeat this with all of the noodles until none are left.

8. Once all noodles are facing down take the remaining meat and layer on top, followed by sauce, and some Parmesan cheese.

9.Put the noodles in the oven heated oven and cook for 15-20 min.
10. Once done take out and serve. You can serve on top of spinach, and put some extra marinara and cheese on top if you'd like. Enjoy!

-Megan

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5 days of Mason Jar Salads

One of my favorite healthy lunches is a mason jar salad, these recipes are super cute, delicious, and healthy as well.  remember you can alter these anyway you like to fit your personal taste.  These are 5 of my favorite salads.  For alterations you can change dressings, add or get rid of vegetables, and change the cheeses to fit you tastes and make these amazing salads your own. For each of these recipes I will share how to layer them, and what I used when making them, as well as a few options you can have for alterations.

Options: Pepperocini's, red onions, beets, cucumbers, zucchini,cranberries, Parmesan cheese, Mexican cheese, cucumbers, or eggs.


1)  Summertime Salad

• Lettuce
• Chicken
• feta cheese
•  Strawberries
• Sunflower Seeds 
• Raspberry and Walnut Dressing( you may put take this separately in a container or put on the bottom with strawberries on top so lettuce doesn't get soggy)

2) Greek Salad

• Greek Dressing
• Tomato (make sure tomatoes go after dressing so salad doesn't get soggy)
• Lettuce
• Chicken
• Feta cheese

3) Creamy walnut salad

• Creamy Raspberry Vinaigrette (keep separate)
• lettuce
• feta cheese
• chicken
• apples
• walnuts

Option: I sometimes change this up by adding pecans, or pears, and your welcome to add cranberries if you'd like.

4)Garden Salad

• Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Carrots 
• Tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Feta Cheese
• Chicken(I used frozen pre-cooked chicken from Costco, and just took out the amount I wanted, then put it in a Ziploc bag.  Overnight I let it defrost and during the day so it's ready to eat at lunch.

5) Cesar Salad

• Lettuce
• Parmesan Cheese
• Chicken ( Mine was defrosting in a plastic bag)
• Cruotons
• Cesar dressing( I kept it on the side)

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Simple Shortbread Cookies

Hi guys! Since Christmas is around the corner, my family and I  decided to make shortbread cookies. They are super quick and easy. All my friends really liked them!

 Ingredients: 

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups of butter

A pinch bit of salt

Directions:

1. Soften butter in microwave

2. Sift powdered sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt into large bowl.

3. Mix the butter and dry ingredients together with hands.

4. Press dough into 2 pans

5. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes or until cookies are golden brown

6. Cut cookies into about 1.5 inch by 1.5 inch segments 

7. Let the cookies cool

-Jessie

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Chocolate Brownies

Last night I made some brownies, and I thought I'd share the recipe  I used to make them. These brownies have oil, instead of butter, and I used a mixture of sugars, when I came up with recipe.   Hopefully you enjoy  this, and lets get into it.

Ingredients;

• 3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 6 tbsp oil (I used vegetable but you can use coconut, or canola oil)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Take a 13*9 in pan and line with greased aluminum foil
3. Melt together the chocolate and oil in a pan on your stove.
4. Once the choc late mixture is melted together let cool completely.
5. Once the mixture is cooled, stir in the sugar and vanilla until combined.
6. Whisk in the eggs until thoroughly combined.
7. Stir in the flour until mixed together.
8. Pour the mixture into your greased pan, and put into the oven and bake for 23-28 minutes or until a knife can be inserted cleanly into the brownies.

-Megan

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Sugar cookies

Today we have a fun, and easy sugar cookie recipe to use during the upcoming holiday season.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of unsalted butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups of flour
• 2 tbsp almond milk

Directions:

1. Mix together the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until creamed together
2. Mix in the vanilla, and egg into the sugar mixture
3. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, and baking powder.
4. Begin to add the flour mixture into the sugar mixture slowly until combined together.
5.  Add in the milk so the batter reach a good fry batter that sticks together and has a little wetness.
6. Taking the batter you can roll it out and cut it into shapes using cookie cutters this will make about 70 cookies.
7.  Place the cookies on a nonstick baking sheet and place in the heated oven at 350° F. Bake for 8-10min.  Take the cookie out the cookies when done and let cool.

Frosting:
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup half and half
• 2 oz cream cheese (I used the 1/3 fat one)
• 1/8 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 cups of powderd sugar (the amount used depends on how much you need and the consistency you like it.

Directions:

1. Mix together the cream cheese, salt, and vanilla extract.
2. Add the half and half, to the cream cheese mixture .
3. Then add the liquid to the powderd sugar untill you get the consitency you want for your frosting.  Side note: Add more liquid if you want it to be liquidier, or add more powderd sugar if you want it to be dryer. 
4.  Take the frosting and spread on your cooled cookies, and enjoy!!!

-Megan 

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Pumpkin Pie- from real pumpkin

Hey guys, today I'm back with a pumpkin pie recipe I made for my mom's birthday.  Pumpkin pie is one of my mom's and mine favorite desserts, especially in the fall and winter seasons, it's super delicious, sweet, and has an amazing texture.  I also found some fun facts about pumpkin as well to go along with this recipe.  Did you know that 1cup of pumpkin only contains about 30 calories, and supplies you with 197% of your daily vitamin A requirements.  Pumpkin also supports your heart health, as it contains fiber, potassium, and vitamin C. Overall though pumpkin is a delicious vegetable, and is very useful in cooking.  You can making lots of things out of it such as cookies, drinks, breads, and of course pie. Speaking of pumpkin pie I based this recipe off of the Libby's famous pumpkin pie recipe but  I instead used a pie pumpkin instead of canned pumpkin which does take some more time but it is definitely more fresh, and it allows you to know where your pumpkin is coming from. I also made a few adjustments, and used 2% evaporated milk instead of the regular. Hopefully you enjoy this recipe and lets get started.

 Ingredients:

• 1 medium pie pumpkin 
• Vegetable oil
• crust
• 12 oz 2% evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 2 eggs
• Pumpkin spice

Making the pumpkin 

1. To start take your  pumpkin and rip off the stem.
2. Then cut the pumpkin in half  and scoop out the seeds and guts from the pumpkin.
3. Sprinkle the insides of the pumpkin with cinnamon, and allspice then lay cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet.
4. Rub the vegetable oil over  the skin then place the pumpkin in the oven at 350°F for 1 hour or until fork tender.
5. To get the filling you then scoop out the pulp and mix together the pumpkin in a blender( because mine was a little dry I put about 3 tbsp of the evaporated milk into the blender so it would mix better)

Filling:

1. Mix together the sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and cloves in a small bowl,
2. Beat together eggs in a large bowl
3. Stir in the pumpkin, and the sugar mixture into the eggs.
4. Once mixed gradually stir the evaporated milk and a dash of pumpkin spice into the large bowl.
5. Pour the pie filling into the pie crust. And bake for 15min in the oven at 425°F .
6. Reduce the heat to 375 °F and bake for 40-50 min or until the knife comes out clean.
7. Cool for 2 hours, then serve or refrigerate.

 -Megan

 

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A Healthy Twist on Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hi guys, its Jessie! In this recipe I take the classic chocolate chip cookie and alter it to make it a little healthier, yet still really yummy!  I brought these cookies to a party I went to and everyone loved them. What I did was substitute wheat flour for white flour, and cut down on sugar and butter. My family said that the cookies still tasted really good!

https://bakingblonde.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/may-2011-062.jpg

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

2 cups of wheat flour

1 large egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 stick of softened butter

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt into a small bowl

3. In a separate bowl beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, and the egg until creamy

4. Gradually add in the flour mixture 

5. Stir until dough is a light brown, then add chocolate chips. (Feel free to add anything else you want also! i.e. chopped nuts, m&ms, etc.)

6. Roll dough into about tablespoon portions onto a baking sheet (Make sure the balls aren't too close together!)

7. Bake for 8-10 minutes

8. Enjoy!

http://www.simplyscratch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Chocolate-Chip-Sprinkle-Cookies-l-www.SimplyScratch.com-cookie-dough.jpg

  

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Healthier version of Apple Galette

A few weeks ago I went to Trader Joe's  with my mom, and we tried a sample of an apple galette and we instantly fell in love with it.  It was so delicious, but when we looked at the nutrition we realized how unhealthy it was, so of course my first idea was to try and make my own version of it that was at least a little bit healthier.  After looking up various versions and recipes of crusts, and galette's I then came up with my own recipe.
So this week I'm here to share my recipe for a "healthier" version of an apple galette.  Overall you can make as many modifications to this recipe as you'd like. When I made the crust I tried to make my own version without butter, and instead used applesauce, and whole wheat flour.  This tasted actually pretty good, but the dough was a little chewy and rough, although I believe that may have been because of the whole wheat flour I used.  If you would like to though your welcome to just use a regular crust recipe, or a store bought one if you feel like it. So without further ado lets get started with this recipe.

Crust:
 Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup flour 
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 10 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce 
• 2 tbsp water

Directions:

1.  In a food processor pulse together the flour and the salt.
2. Add in the applesauce and pulse together the ingredients.
3. If  the crust is still to dry you can put in the water until it reaches the wanted consistency for your dough.
4. Roll the dough into a ball put on a plate and cover, then place in the refrigerator for at least 30 min, or up to 2 day.

Galette:
Ingredients:

• 2 apples cored and thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp of sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp of honey
• Juice of 1/3 a lemon
• ball of dough for the crust

Directions:

1. Before starting make sure to heat your oven to 350°F
2. Put the apple slices into a bowl, then squeeze the lemon juice onto them.  Mix together until all the apples are coated.
3. Then add the honey to the apples and make sure its coated completely.
4. Take your ball of dough and flatten it out on a buttered cooking sheet, so you have a thin circular crust. 
5. Lay the apples in a circular spiral out onto the crust.
6. In a separate small bowl mix together the cinnamon and sugar together.
7. Sprinkle 1/2 of the sugar mixture onto the apples and crust.
8. Fold in the crust so it covers half of the apples. Then sprinkle the rest of your sugar mixture on the apples and a little bit onto the crust as well.
9.  Put the galette into the heated oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Glaze:
Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp of melted butter
• 1 tbsp of honey
• 1 tbsp of water

Directions:

1. Mix together the butter, honey, and water
2. Take the baking gallete out after 30min and brush the glaze over the crust, and drizzle the extra over the apples
3. Put the galette bake into the oven and bake for another 5-10min.
4. Take the galette out and let it cool, then serve as itself, or top with whipped cream if you please. Hope you enjoy!!

-Megan

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