What was in those baskets on April 28th

This weeks basket had strawberries, pineapple, mango, apples, watermelon, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli, and broccoflower (which you can cook just like cauliflower).

Strawberries:

Strawberry Cake (making this this week)

Fruit Dip

Strawberry Popsicles

Strawberry Lemonade

Fruit Smoothie

Broccoli:

Broccoli with Cashews

Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Bake

Oven Roasted Broccoli

Broccoli Casserole

Broccoli and Tortellini Salad

Green Beans:

Bacon Wrapped Green Beans (my favorite)

Oven Roasted Green Beans with Garlic

Oven Roasted Green Beans with Garlic, Mushrooms, and Cherry Tomatoes

Potatoes:

Potato Skins

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

Onion-Roasted Potatoes

Olive Garden Copycat Zuppa Toscana Soup

Smashed Hot Potatoes

Bacon Ranch Potato Salad

Apples:

Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Glazed Apples

Crock-pot Applesauce

Caramel Apple Dip

Baked Apple Crisps

Tomatoes:

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

Tomato and Basil Brushetta

Tropical Pack Ideas:

Coconut Almond Bread (my favorite)

Toasted Coconut, Toffee, and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pineapple, Banana, Coconut, and White Chocolate Chip Bread

Teriyaki Pineapple Turkey Burgers

Tropical Fruit Sorbet

Grilled Pineapple

Mexican Pack Ideas:

Guacamole Salsa (great with fish tacos)

Chipotle Shredded Pork Enchiladas

Enchiladas Verdes (my favorite)

Guacamole

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Black Bean, Corn, & Avocado Dip

Easy Blender Salsa

Chile Relleno Pie

Let me know what your making this week with your basket. I hope everyone enjoys there bounty from this week and we will see you next week.

 

 

Zucchini Bites

It is that time of the year where everyone starts planting their garden and next thing you know you have zucchini coming out your ears. Growing up my dad always planted lots of zucchini and we ate it for almost every meal all summer long. Due to this I was not much of a fan. I only liked to eat it Barbecued, which is still a favorite of mine. But I decided that I wanted to change things up a bit and step away from the usual way that I cook zucchini.

I of course found this recipe floating around pinterest and decided to give it a try. You can find it over at The Curious Country Cook. I had all the ingredients on the list in my pantry and it went together really easy. Just make sure that you spray your muffin tin and that you get all the moisture out of your shredded zucchini or else you will have soggy bites.

Zucchini Bites

~ 1 cup zucchini, grated

~ 1 egg

~ 1/4 yellow onion, diced

~ 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, or whatever you like best

~ 1/4 cup Italian style bread crumbs, or whatever you have on hand

~ salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Spray a mini-muffin tin with nonstick spray, set aside.

2. Grate the zucchini and then place in a dish towel to squeeze out the excess water, like when using frozen spinach. If you skip this part, the middle of the zucchini bites will be really soggy while the outside gets crispy.

3. In a bowl combine, the egg, onion, cheese, bread crumbs, zucchini, salt and pepper.

4. Using a spoon or a cookie scoop, fill the mini muffin cups to the top. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the top is browned and set.

Click Below to Print Recipe

Zucchini Bites

Homemade Play Dough

My kids love play dough as much as any other kid but I have two problems with it besides the mess it can make. First it can be a bit pricey and after 5 minutes they have just mixed all the colors together to form gray so the money isn’t well spent in my eyes. Second I get a bit worried when it makes it to their mouth when they are pretend eating their pizza. Pretend eating to my 2 year old is actually eating it, go figure.

Because of these two things I prefer to make my own play dough. It uses cheap things that I have in my house and because I know what goes into it I don’t worry as much about them eating it. Not to mention the kids can help me make it which is always a lot of fun.

Homemade Play Dough

~ 2 1/2 cups flour

~ 1/2 cup salt

~ 1 Tsp. alum

~ 2 cups boiling water

~ 2 Tsp. vegetable oil

~ food coloring

Boil the water, vegetable oil and food coloring. Stir in the dry ingredients with the moist. Kneed. Refrigerate in an airtight container to store.

Click Below to Print Recipe

Homemade Play Dough

Korean Spinach

I love Asian flavors and this recipe combines those flavors with spinach to create a great side dish to any recipe. Super simple to make and can be served either warm or cold. My husband and I love this recipe and will defiantly be making it with our spinach this week.

Korean Spinach

~ 1 lb. fresh spinach

~ 2 Tbsp. soy sauce

~ 1 1/4 Tbsp. sesame oil

~ 1 Tbsp. sesame seed, crushed and toasted

~ 1 clove garlic, crushed

~ 1 tsp. sugar

~ 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar

Steam spinach until limp. Squeeze dry and chop. For dressing, combine remaining ingredients and pour over spinach. Mix well and can be served warm or chilled.

Click Below to Print Recipe

Korean Spinach

What was in those baskets on April 21st

What a difference a week can make! We had rain and snow last weekend and this weekend there is record heat and we are up in the high 80’s. Crazy but I love the warmer weather. Plus it means that we will start to see great summer fruits in our baskets and today was just the beginning with strawberries!!

This weeks basket had bananas, onions, roma tomatoes, lemons, strawberries, corn, apples, yellow squash, kiwi, spinach, lettuce, and celery.

Don’t forget that as the weather gets warmer you lettuce and spinach will look a bit wilted from sitting in the sun. It will perk back up if you soak it in a ice bath or even just cold water for 15-30 minutes when you get home.  As the weather gets warmer make sure that after you get your basket you head straight home and get it into the refrigerator or it will spoil quickly in a hot car while running errands.

Strawberries: If they last long enough to make something with them.

Strawberry Lemonade (also uses lemons)

Strawberry Popsicles

Strawberry Cake (love this recipe)

Fruit Smoothie

Spinach:

Mini Florentine Cups (making this tonight)

Chicken Parmesan Bundles

Spinach Mushroom Cannelloni

Chicken Florentine Bowtie Pasta

White Pizza with Spinach and Tomatoes

Corn:

Corn & Cheese Chowder

Corn Chowder

Black Bean, Corn, and Avocado Dip

Lemon:

Eggs Benedict (my favorite and we are making this this week)

Shrimp Scampi

Chex Lemon Buddies

Strawberry Filled Butter Cookies with Lemon Glaze

Tomatoes:

Greek Chicken Wraps

Greek Salad

Taco Salad

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

Tomato and Basil Bruschetta (making this this week)

Apples:

Caramel Apple Dip

Fruit Dip (great with strawberries)

Baked Apple Crisps

Crock-pot Applesauce

Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Glazed Apples

Banana:

Chocolate Chip Coconut Banana Bread

Pineapple, Banana, Coconut, and White Chocolate Chip Bread

Tropical Fruit Sorbet

Behavior Clip Chart

I don’t know about anybody else who has kids but my daughter is now 4 1/2 and I am still waiting for the terrible two’s to end. In fact over the last month things have been the worst that they have every been. So in a hunt to try something new to hopefully wipe my child out of this funk I decided to enact the Clip Chart in my house.

The idea came from my daughters preschool class. They have the same system in class and she loves it. She comes home every day and can’t wait to tell us where she ended her day and if she got “bling”. So I went searching and found this cute chart over at Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten.

I modified it a bit to fit our house only using superstar, rockin’, fabulous, good, warning, and cool down. I didn’t think that parent contact or go to the office would work no matter how much I wished it would.

How it works is every day both of my kids clips start out on good. As I see them playing nicely, using good manners, following directions, or any other good behavior I instruct them to go move their clip up to the next level. If there is bad behavior I usually give a warning first and let them know that if it happens again then their clip will get moved down. The exception to this is if there is hitting then the clip gets moved down automatically. At the end of the day if their clip is on red then my kids receive a treat. However you could reward them with a sticker or “bling” on their clip (sticker rhinestones). If they end up on Cool down at any point of the day then they get 30 minutes by themselves in their room to cool down.

This has been in our house for almost two weeks and so far it is working great. My 2 1/2 year old son loves it. He gets so excited to move his clip up and as the day is coming to an end he gets super excited when he knows that he is on red. I choose to not use red for cool down because I feel that so many times red is negative and I really wanted mine to just mimic the rainbow and not have any negative connotation to behavior.

I hope this helps you in your house with discipline, let me know what you use to help with discipline in your house.

Click here to Download Clip Chart Graphics

(I printed two per page so that my clip chart wasn’t super big)

What was in those baskets on April 14th

What a cold and dreary day for the middle of April. We have been in the 80’s then it drops down into the 60’s with rain and a bit of snow at times. This is crazy and I am ready for warmer weather. At least we are fortunate to go inside when we have these rainy days. We also have amazing volunteers that were running baskets, cases of tomatoes, and 25 lb. bags of carrots to peoples car so they wouldn’t have to wait in the rain longer. Thanks to all our volunteers.

This weeks basket had apples, bananas, green bell peppers, Brussel sprouts, kiwi, lemons, lettuce, Minneola’s, onion, pears, Italian squash, yellow squash, and roma tomatoes.

Lemon:

Shrimp Scampi

Strawberry Lemonade

Eggs Benedict

Chex Lemon Buddies

Greek Salad (also uses lettuce, tomatoes, and bell pepper)

Strawberry Filled Butter Cookies with Lemon Glaze

Tomato:

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

Tomato and Basil Bruschetta

Taco Salad (also uses lettuce and bell pepper)

Chipotle Shredded Pork Enchiladas

Brussel Sprouts:

Brussel Sprouts with Balsamic and Cranberries

Onion:

Baked Onion Rings

Corn Chowder

Black-Eyed Pea Dip

Easy Blender Salsa

Guacamole Salsa

Hope everyone has a great week and let me know what you are doing with your bountiful basket this week.

 

Bang Bang Cauliflower

The last few weeks have been very busy in our house. My daughter started playing Tee Ball and this was the first week of games. Easter was quickly approaching and I am still trying to keep up with my swimming workouts. Since things have been so crazy we have not been getting through our produce from Bountiful Baskets quite as well as we usually do. So a couple nights a week we have had just veggies to get through it and luckily we had gotten Cauliflower which lasts quite a while in the fridge.

A friend who helps out every Saturday at our local Bountiful Baskets was telling me about how she had made this amazing recipe with Cauliflower. Now keep in mind this was several weeks ago and I just now got around to it. I wish I would have made it sooner because it was amazing. I found the recipe over at That’s so Michelle. My husband and I both loved it so it will defiantly be a new favorite in our house.

Bang Bang Cauliflower

~ 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs

~ 2 Tbsp. cornstarch

~ 2 eggs, beaten

~ 1 head cauliflower

~ salt & pepper

~ 1 Tbsp. garlic powder

~ green onion

~ 1/4 cup vegetable oil or coconut oil

Sauce:

~ 1/4 cup mayo

~ 1/4 cup Franks Red Hot Sweet Chili Sauce or Siracha (add more or less to make it as hot as you want)

~ 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar

~ 2 Tbsp. sugar

1. Slice your cauliflower florets. Mix salt, pepper, and garlic powder into your Panko breadcrumbs in a shallow dish.

2. Set separate bowls aside with eggs and cornstarch. Dip your florets one by one into the cornstarch, and shake off excess. Then dip into egg, and then coat with Panko mixture.

3. After coating all of your florets, warm up your oil in a large frying pan and place all florets in hot oil. Turn with tongs making sure all sides are browned. Set on top of paper towels to remove excess oil. Top with more salt.

4. In a small bowl mix all of your sauce ingredients. Coat your breaded and pan fried florets with sauce top with sprinkles of green onion and serve right away.

Click Below to Print Recipe

Bang Bang Cauliflower 

Peeps S’mores

I know it is the day after Easter but I just had to share this. I made these cute little packets for all of the kids in my daughters preschool class. I thought it was such a cute way to use Peeps, which I am not a huge fan of.

I stuffed bags with a peep, 2 graham cracker halves and a mini Hershey’s bar. Just enough to make one Peeps S’mores.

Then I printed of labels with the directions for how to make the Peeps S’mores in the microwave and sealed the bag closed. I think that all the kids loved them and they were a cute Easter gift.

Below is an attachment for the labels that I used. They Print on 3 1/3” x 4” label size.

Peeps Smores labels

What was in those baskets on April 7th

Another fantastic basket from Bountiful Baskets. This co-op is such a great blessing to my family. We really do east healthier because of Bountiful Baskets and I really don’t know what I would do with out it. I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine does!!

This weeks basket had bananas, pineapple, Mineola oranges, tomatoes, apples, grapefruit, lettuce, yams, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, broccoli, and asparagus.

I also got the Italian Veggie pack because I love eggplant and mushrooms. This week it had eggplant, mushrooms, onions, garlic, lemon, zucchini, green onions, rosemary, mint, and parsley.

Brussels Sprouts:

Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic and Cranberries

Tomatoes:

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

Tomato and Basil Bruschetta

Taco Salad (also uses lettuce)

Greek Chicken Wraps

Zucchini:

Barbecued Zucchini (having this tonight)

Baked Zucchini

Broccoli:

Broccoli and Tortellini Salad

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Broccoli with Cashews

Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce

Broccoli Casserole

Oven Roasted Broccoli

Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Bake

Asparagus:

Sautéed Asparagus with Bacon and Dijon

Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

Balsamic Asparagus Chicken (also uses mushrooms)

Oven Roasted Asparagus

Banana:

Chocolate Chip Coconut Banana Bread

Pineapple, Banana, Coconut, and White Chocolate Chip Bread

Pineapple:

Teriyaki Pineapple Turkey Burgers

Grilled Pineapple

Yams: (I use just like you would sweet potatoes)

Mashed Sweet Potato Casserole

Sweet Potato Fries

Sweet Potato and Parmesan Chips

Apples:

Crock-pot Applesauce

Caramel Apple Dip

Fruit Dip (my favorite)

Baked Apple Crisps

Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Glazed Apples

Italian Pack:

Eggplant Parmesan (my favorite)

Baked Onion Rings

Mushrooms Sautéed with Garlic Butter

BBQ Portobello Sliders (can sub any kind of mushroom)

Chicken with Prosciutto, Fontina, and Mushroom Sauce

Creamy Chicken Spaghetti Casserole

Blue Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Salisbury Steak

I hope everyone has a great Easter tomorrow and we will see you next week.