Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread

As part of our family fun in celebrating St. Patrick's Day all week long we made this bread.  I've never made or had Irish soda bread before but my kids and I liked it and felt like it was quite a treat with all the sweet raisins.

Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread  Rating: 8

This was an easy bread to put together and it is a quick bread so not much waiting.  I made this with my kids and some others that we had welcomed into our home for the the morning.  Everyone enjoyed helping out in some little way, whether turning on the oven, grinding wheat, or kneading the dough.  We went with the molasses option because it is a good source of iron.  It made two loaves so we were able to send the second loaf home with our friends.  Might become one of our St. Patrick Day traditions, who knows?

Kickin' Southwestern Quinoa Salad

Still have lots of pinto beans. 

Kickin' Southwestern Quinoa Salad  Rating: 8

Pretty good salad that came together pretty quick.  Used Anaheim pepper instead of jalapeno, pintos in place of black beans, lemon juice instead of lime juice, and a large Roma tomato in place of the heirloom tomatoes.  The beans and the quinoa made this a protein packed meal.  Would be nice served on a bed of lettuce as well.

Taco Soup

So we were bummed to find that 4 of our 7 quart jars of pinto beans did not seal when we last canned.  And although I am told I can freeze legumes well, we are trying to use up a few of the jars this week on our menu.

Taco Soup  Rating: 7

Neal said this was a 6 but with some pickled jalapenos and hot sauce it became a 7.  The kids ate it fine and I thought a few drops of hot sauce did the trick.

Changes we made were using freshly roasted Anaheim peppers in place of the green chiles.  I also used taco seasoning in place of the cumin and chili powder but kept the oregano.  It was a quick meal I could throw together with stuff I had on hand and it was good enough. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Bean Cookies (SELF version)

In honor of Chocolate Chip Cookie Week we consented to our four-year-old's request and baked cookies but with a twist.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Bean Cookies (SELF version)  Rating: 6

These were not your decadent chocolate chip cookie but they were okay.  A couple of things to consider, they don't change shape when baking.  I had to flatten them with the bottom of a cup measure before placing the second batch in the oven. 

They are best right out of the oven and become drier as time passes. 

They have no weird bean taste but they don't taste buttery sweet like a traditional chocolate chip cookie.  My kids don't know the difference but I do and I still enjoy them but I know there is a better bean cookie out there so I will keep looking.

Pineapple and Ham Stuffed Sweet Potatoes and an Asian Slaw Dressing

The Ham and Pineapple Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (Rating: 7) was a recipe I found in his book Fresh Start: Your Child's Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating which we borrowed from our local library.  The salty sweet combination was great.  We don't eat ham very often but we had some in the freezer to use up.

We served it with an Asian slaw of shredded cabbage and cucumbers and scallions.  I topped it with chopped peanuts and a dressing I got off some Internet message board.  It also earned a Rating: 7 but I don't think it'll make a repeat in our house.  It was good but there is more out there.

Asian Slaw Dressing

for one small head of cabbage 

1 Tbsp. peanut butter

2 Tbsp. mayonnaise

2 Tbsp. sesame oil

1/2 tsp. red chili flakes

2 1/2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

Mix well and toss with slaw.

Seriously Healthy Ice Cream

Just one ingredient needed.  Don't bother pulling out the ice cream maker.

So creamy, satisfying, and easy!  On rare occasion bananas in our house actually reach that brown spotted stage when they are super ripe and getting almost mushy soft.  That, my friends, is when I contrive to gain my family's adoration by peeling the banana, dividing it into 6ths (so they are easy to process and so I know how much banana I am using), and storing them in a quart size freezer bag in our freezer. 

Then I say, "Do you want ice cream tonight?" --sweet treats being only occasional in our home.  Then they laud me tremendously!  That Bible verse, Proverbs 31:28, "Her children arise up, and call her blessed." --yeah, it's because of this ice cream.

Seriously Healthy Ice Cream  Rating: 10

I sometimes make this with just the banana and love it.  Her idea for adding nut butter (I use peanut butter) is great!  Depending on what I've eaten that day and where my calorie count lies, I will add or subtract extra ingredients.  I really like it with peanut butter, dark chocolate chips and chopped walnuts best.  You can have fun with this but the calories add up quickly so do behave.  All you need is your food processor!

I love giving my family healthy foods that feel decedent.  I mean who wouldn't hand their kid a banana?!  It's fruit! Win-Win!

Dill Pickle Meatloaf and Garlic and Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

Dill Pickle Meatloaf  Rating: 8

What's a girl to do?!  If you've read our Pickle Soup post, you know I have 5 grieving jars of botched home canned pickles sulking in my pantry.  I must put them out of their misery!

We made several changes to the recipe.  We used 1 cup old fashioned or rolled oats in place of the bread, 1/3 cup chopped pickles in the meatloaf, added one grated medium carrot, 4 finely chopped kale leaves, and ground turkey rather than beef.  For the sauce we doubled it and used demerara sugar in place of brown sugar and cut it by 1/3 (1 Tbsp., and 1 tsp. for the doubled sauce).  I also upped the amount of chopped pickles to a heaping 1/2 cup (for the doubled sauce).

The recipe had us bake it in a 8x8 pan which felt a little weird to Keri.  It sort of lost it's meatloaf appearance and made her think of it more of a meat cake.  Mmmmm...meat cake. 

But after pushing past that it came out really good.

It was tasty.  We liked it and the kids ate it up.  Keri who loves pickles and has tried selling her first born for extra pickles on her burger would have tripled all things pickle in this recipe; however, not everyone is as enthusiastic as she.  But two good things happened here: 1.) a good dinner and 2.) we used up a jar of pickles!

The meatloaf held together well and made plenty more than 4 servings.  So it you like meatloaf sandwiches or love it as leftovers, hooray for you.

What better to serve up meat with than potatoes?

Johnny Garlic's Famous Garlic and Rosemary Mashed Potatoes  Rating: 8

We halved this recipe and have plenty for leftovers.  We did use 2 1/2 tsp. minced rosemary for the halved recipe since our rosemary is not very strong.  It's an old plant and it has been dry this year so the oils are not so pungent.  We also used whole milk in place of skim because that's what we have.  And we did not have Yukon gold potatoes so we used red skin potatoes.

The adults liked the creamy mashed potatoes, although, Keri would reduce the amount of white pepper if she makes it again.  It had kick and she found it overpowered the rosemary.  We did have chives but forgot to add them before taking the photo. 

Mango Gazpacho

Mango Gazpacho  Rating: 8

We wanted something fresh for dinner and this was great.  It was sort of like a big bowl of mango salsa.  In fact, we are pretty sure the recipes are very close if not exactly the same.  It was sweet, spicy, and fresh.  Now if we just had tortilla chips in the house...

Pineapple, Mango, and Meyer Lemon Salad

This recipe came from March 2012 issue of  Whole Living magazine in an article titled Naturally Brilliant.  The article promoted "eat-your-colors" diet which spotlighted a given color per dish.  Here, we enjoyed the bright yellows.

Pineapple, Mango, and Meyer Lemon Salad  Rating: 9

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 pineapple, skin removed, cored, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 mango, peeled, pitted, cut into 1/2 pieces
1 Meyer lemon, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced, seeds removed, plus 1 Tbsp. lemon juice (rind stays on the lemon and is part of the salad)
1/2 cup toasted unsweetened coconut flakes

Method
Combine fruit and lemon juice in a bowl.  Top with coconut flakes.

177 cal per serving, 30g carbs, 2 g protien.

Beautiful and so good!  Not filling so maybe a good light breakfast or lunch.  Felt like a real treat to eat.