Power bowls of yumminess

I am so sure I didn't invent this "recipe" but love it and could eat one of these every day. Lately, to save time, money and make my meal prep quicker- I cook a batch of quinoa every Sunday, then on Tuesday or Wednesday make either a batch of pasta or a batch of brown rice. This was dinner on the night that I had just enough of the quinoa left and plenty of rice- it's been a massive help in my meal planning and getting dinner ready fast so we can eat all together more often

Here is what you will need (serves 4)

 1 cup dry quinoa (prep according to package)
1 cup dry Brown rice (prep according to package)
1 avocado, chopped
1 mango, chopped
1 cup shelled steamed edamame (you can buy this frozen, hullo easy fabulousness!)
1/4 cup pickled ginger chopped
a handful of kale "microchips" (from THIS POST)
Dried seaweed sheets (one package, you'll have leftovers- or skip this if you are not down with the dried sea weed!)
sesame seeds
Soy/ wasabi or ginger miso dressing  (you can buy ginger miso salad dressing, it's yummy....or, what we did, was mix a bit of wasabi in some low sodium soy sauce and drizzle it over everything!)

For each bowl, mix 1/2 cup cooked, cooled quinoa, 1/2 cup cooked, cooled brown rice- 1/4 avocado, 1/4 mango, 1/4 cup edamame, some ginger, sprinkle w sesame seeds & kale chips serve w seaweed sheets as an option.

Good Stuff- Easy Chicken Noodle Soup & Pintrest!

Well, our little dude is officially THREE MONTHS OLD! How did that happen? Everyone tells you how fast it will all go- and once you get into it, it's more than true- time = ZOOM.
Of course it's also the armpit of cold & flu season which is EXTRA magical when you have a newborn. We're staying well and relentlessly washing hands over here, but the other night my husband was a little congested and using stuff I had on hand I made us chicken noodle soup for dinner - it was so freakin quick, easy and good that I had to post it!
You can use rotisserie chicken from the grocery store OR any leftover turkey you may have on hand after a holiday meal!

In a big stock pot melt 1-2 T butter.
Add 1/2 a white or yellow onion (chopped), 2-3 stalks of celery (chopped), 2 carrots (chopped).
Saute until the onions are opaque- like 5 minutes.
Add 32oz low-sodium chicken broth, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil (aprox measurements- just shake some in!) a pinch of chili flakes, salt & pepper.... and cook, stirring occasionaly on med-high heat for about 10 minutes- until it boils....meanwhile- boil water in a medium sauce pot and add 2 cups uncooked corkscrew pasta to boiling water to par-boil. Only let it boil for about 6 minutes- so you can finish cooking it in the soup and it can absorb the chicken broth goodness.
Drain the pasta and add it and 2 cooked grocery-store rotisserie chicken breasts (shredded)- to the boiling soup pot, let boil about 4 minutes- until pasta is tender.
Ladle into bowls to cool, serve with some yummy crusty bread and feel better SOON!!

As my updates are a little few and far between these days, you can also find me on PINTEREST now for daily ideas and inspiration! (It's easier to do that with one hand while nursing a bebe!) I'll add this little reminder to my updates through December so you can click the link below to find me and follow along! If you are not on Pinterest but would like to be feel free to email me your email and I will send you an invite!

Sweet Life Kitchen (Beth Griffin/ Our Sweet Life) on Pintrest

Ham & Turkey Pot Pie

I got this recipe from Nate's mom and it was really good!! The only major downside of this great dinner with leftovers was that after surviving the making tons of food over a long 5-day weekend, it was taking this pot pie out of the oven that I burned the crap out of my hand. Right after removing my oven mitt I moved my hand and accidentally whacked the pie dish and cookie sheet that were about a million degrees. I'll spare you the nausea of showing you the damage- but I have a gnarly burned line on the outside of my wrist and a good size ding taken out of my pinkie finger too...I keep using the A & D Ointment and used it right away, so I know it could be worse.

Ok, now onto the pot pie......

Source: Nate's Mom
Serves: 6-8


2 9" prepared pie crusts (thaw if frozen)
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch of Kosher salt
Pinch of black pepper
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
1/2 cup milk (I used 1%)
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey ( I used leftover thanksgiving turkey and ham)
1 1/2 cup frozen hash browns
1 cup frozen mixed veggies (I used broccoli and carrots, because Nate hates peas)


Pre heat oven to 425°F.
In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well combined. Gradually stir in broth and milk, cooking and stirring constantly until bubbly and thickened.
Stir in meat, hash browns and mixed vegetables. Remove from heat. Spray pie plate with non-stick spray and line with bottom pie crust- bake for about 7-10 minutes then fill with mixture and top with second crust; seal edge and flute. Cut slits in several places in top crust.
Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let stand 7 minutes before serving and try not to burn yourself!!

Turkey, Cranberry & Gouda Grilled Cheese

One of my FAVORITE things about Thanksgiving is making turkey sandwiches out of the leftovers. I usually make a big messy sandwich the next day that has stuffing, topped with gravy, and shredded turkey on one side and the top bread spread with cranberry sauce....it's sweet.
Smoked Gouda is a great cheese, and on the Monday after Thanksgiving I was out doing some shopping and found it at a fabulous price so I thought I'd make a grilled cheese for lunch after my morning adventures...

Turkey, Cranberry and Gouda Grilled Cheese:
By Me

2 Slices of wheat bread, each buttered on one side
Lay pieces of Gouda on each un-buttered side of the slices of bread.
Spread cranberry sauce over one side on top of the cheese and put turkey on the other side, put one side on top of the other and cook in a medium skillet over medium head for about 4-6 minutes per side or until each side is golden brown and cheese is soft and getting melty.
Slice in half and enjoy!!

Mexi-mix-n-cheese

This was a yummy mix of leftovers that we had for dinner the night of the Black forest cake. I combined my leftovers of The Lady's Mac & Cheese and mixed that with my leftovers from the Taco Ring and it was pretty excellent! Here would be a re-do of that recipe, easy to make the night after taco night or something...

1/2 a casserole dish of The Lady's Mac & Cheese ...or 1 box of shells n' cheese (prepared according to package directions)
1/2 can re fried beans
1/4 lb taco seasoned cooked ground beef
1 small hand full of chopped onion
1/4 of a can of sliced black olives

Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce-pot and stir together until warmed and well combined. Serve with sour cream and salsa!

Chili Cheeseburgers

Hooray for football! We had some friends over to watch the USC game this weekend and decided on making some burgers. I'd made My Crockpot Chili a few weeks ago and froze a few servings. So we cooked that up and made these chili cheese burgers.
They were sooo good. I couldn't even finish mine, but one of our guests liked them so much he ate two! YUM!

Chili Cheese Burgers
Serves 6
Click HERE for my chili recipe or just heat up a can of your favorite chili.
Shape 2 lbs ground beef into 6 patties.
Season both sides with garlic powder & season salt
Grill (about 7 minutes per side) until cooked to your liking
Top with some Tikamook sharp cheddar cheese
On the bottom bun I put spicy brown mustard and Clausen pickle, then the cheese burger patty, then chili, some shredded cheese, sliced onion and the top bun.
Huge, messy and DELICIOUS!!!!!

Penne Prima Vera

I was feeling the need to make something with lots of veggies and also wanted to use things I had on hand so we could make some room in the fridge & cupboard.
This came out pretty tasty and made enough for us to have it for dinner tomorrow night too! I love stuff like that~



Improvised Penne Prima Vera

4 sausages (Spicy Italian would be best case) cooked & sliced
1 Yellow squash sliced in quarters
1/2 a zucchini sliced in quarter sized slices
1/2 c chopped sweet onion
1/2 c frozen spinach
2 c whole wheat penne pasta
1/4 tsp chili flakes (we like stuff SPICY) so adjust to your preference

Sauce
1 little jar artichoke hearts, drained
1 little jar roasted red peppers, drained
4 green olives
basil, oregano, salt, pepper & chili flakes
1 T olive oil
1/2 Tomato puree
1 T chopped garlic

Cooke sausage. Steam zucchini and squash, heat spinach in microwave & drain. Combine all sauce ingredients in blender or food processor and puree. Prepare penne according to package directions & drain. In the skillet you cook the sausage in, drain 95% of the grease, then add 1 tsp olive oil, onion blended sauce and simmer for 10 minutes. Slice sausage.
In a large bowl combine penne, sauce, spinach, squash & zucchini and sausage & chili flakes & stir to combine well. Top with Parmesan.
Serves 4

Chicken Pot Pie

Ahhhh, this was excellent. I can't wait to make it again. A super easy- super delicious dinner that (when you're cooking for 2) makes multiple dinners.....unless you leave it out all night long. I foiled it up but it was still ever so hot, so I thought I'd let it sit for a bit, and then I fell asleep & we went to bed and forgot about the beautiful, wonderful chicken pot pie. I polled everyone I knew (thanks for your thoughts and stories!) and decided that we toss it rather than risk a very upset tummy or worse. So alas, this was only one dinner, but a great, easy recipe that I will definately make again!





Frozen Pie Crust (both sides) thawed
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
1 cooked roticerie chicken remove skin and bones and fat & chop up
3/4 of a bag of frozen broccoli
3/4 of a bag of frozen baby carrots
(I love peas, but nate hates them...I think you should add them!! They're delicious!!)
(spices are aproxamate, I just added & tasted)
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp pepper

Pre-heat oven to 400
Lightly grease glass pie dish and roll out bottom crust, place on foil covered cookie sheet. in a large pot over medium heat combine all ingredients and stir until all are well combined. Pour mix into pie crust and top with second crust,press & seal edges. Cut a few little vent holes in the top.
Bake at 400 about 35-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Let cool at least 20-30 minutes before slicing....and DON'T forget to wrap and refridgerate your leftovers!!!

Pulled Pork Omlette

I was still recovering from a week of being super-sick this morning, and while I relaxed on the couch, Nate made this amazing omelet. We made Pulled Pork on Thursday for dinner, and I had leftover mozzarella cheese from the Baked Penne and he brought those two yummy leftovers together into this brilliant breakfast.

3 Jumbo Eggs
Leftover Root beer bbq pulled pork
Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Spray a large skillet with non-stick cooking spray. Mix eggs with a fork and pour into heated, sprayed pan. Let the eggs cook until just the very top is not cooked, Add pork and cheese to half the circle of eggs and flip one side over to make the omelet. Flip once after about 1 minutes and flip again after 2 minute.
Serve with hot salsa.