This is one of those lunches that you MUST serve with a salad or else you’re staring down the barrel of a seriously sad meal, nutrition-wise. Taste wise? I hear it’s amazing! I’m going to defend myself a little here and say that when I do make something like this these days, all the ingredients are as healthy as I can get my hands on. So the chicken is local and grain fed, the bacon is low sodium, the cheese is local and rBST-free, the flatbread is all multigrainy and the ranch is homemade. The entire family gobbled these down and that pretty much never happens.

Chicken-Bacon Wraps
4 pieces flatbread
2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
4 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup cheese, chopped or shredded
1 green onions, chopped
1 batch ranch dressing

So painfully simple. Lay out the chicken in the middle of the flatbread, top with cheese and bacon.
Then drizzle on some ranch dressing and sprinkle the green onion bits over top. Roll them up and baket at 350 for about 15 minutes (so the bread is crispy and the cheese has a chance to melt).
Each wee one asked for a second wrap when they were done! Miracles!

One of those genius ideas I’d have no idea about if I didn’t read blogs! All you need is sandpaper (the finer the better), crayons, an iron and some paper towels – and something to iron the image onto. I came across this idea on Alpha Mom last summer and knew I had to try it with the kids.

The finer the sandpaper the clearer the image so depending on the look you are going for, a coarser grit may be better.

Draw whatever masterpiece you’d like with crayon on a piece of sandpaper.
Once the drawing is finished, place the sandpaper image side down on the fabric you’re ironing it on to, with a piece of paper towel between the sandpaper and the iron. If you’re ironing onto a shirt, slide a piece of cardboard inside of it to keep the image from transferring right through to the back of the shirt! If you’re ironing it onto something else, place a piece of cardboard under it to protect your ironing board. I also ironed it over it again with a paper towel on top and then I set it by running it through the dryer (alone) on high heat for about 30 minutes.
We made this one for my dad, it’s so cute and he totally wears it!

My kitchen is so confused. Silken tofu and dairy free cream cheese in the morning, buttermilk fried chicken at night. What can I say? I cook what makes me happy and then I do my best to cook for my family the things that make them happy. There is a lot of dish washing going on around here.

I first found this recipe in February and bookmarked it to do it, but I’m not a huge fan of frying (or more specifically, the splashy mess it makes of my stove top) so I put it off. Once we got down to LA I thought it was time to actually cook up some of these dusty bookmarked recipes and away I went. I’m not going to lie, it feels so wrong to pour that much oil in a pot and have at it, but I’ll keep the honesty going and admit that it was actually a fun recipe to make.

Super simple to do, as long as you make sure your oil doesn’t get too hot (but gets hot enough) and you have some patience with it. Everyone loved this meal, I served it with wedges! I will not be making this again this week, but it did rank really high with the fam so I will likely make it again soonish and thought it’d be a fun addition to Menu Monday! This week I will photograph all of the recipes as I do them so I can link back to them!

This Week’s Menu:

Sunday – Mini Chicken Hot Pockets with Potato Rings for the fam, Chick Pea Salad for me and Salty Sweet Butterscotch Brownies for dessert

Buttermilk Fried Chicken – via Allrecipes

Before you do anything, mix all of the ingredients in the left column with the buttermilk, plunk your chicken in it and soak for about 6 hours. Then get your oil heating and theeeeeeen, mix all the ingredients on the right side and use that to dredge your chicken pieces in.
So you just shake off the buttermilk coated piece of chicken and place it in the seasoned flour. Roll it around a bunch to make sure it’s totally coated. Pile them all up and wait for your oil to heat to about 350 degrees.
Now add your chicken to the pot, with 2 1/2 quarts of oil you should be able to cook all of the chicken at once. Leave it in there for about 10 minutes, then poke at it and turn all the pieces around and leave it for another 10-15 minutes. Dry the chicken on pieces of paper towel for at least 10 minutes. Serve with wedges and a salad!

In the spirit of Thankful Thursdays, I am so very thankful to be here in Los Angeles. I’m thankful that all five of us are healthy, I’m thankful for my husband’s job and that they moved us here and not somewhere boring haha. Waking up to my husband saying ‘wanna go check out Hollywood?’ or our new friends saying ‘lets go peek at some sea urchins’ or our other new friends inviting us to cook in their Pottery Barn/Crate and Barrel-esque kitchen is pretty amazing, I’m not gonna lie. Also, when a bad day means we go swimming at the outdoor pool in our little apartment community instead of hitting the beach, there’s a lot to be thankful for.

Sometimes, I take on what looks like a simple vegan recipe and I’m trapped in my kitchen all day (not that I mind being trapped in there, really), and sometimes I roll up my sleeves to get into a new recipe and BAM, I’m done. This is one of those quickies I treasure (ha). The other amazing thing about this recipe, aside from how GOOD it is, is how inexpensive it is! I had all of these ingredients in my kitchen already! You likely do too, the only slight oddball in there is the flax, but even that is way more common that it used to be.

It’s equally good for breakfast as it is for dessert – chocolate chips and all!

Vegan Chocolate Oatmeal Tart – via Oh, Ladycakes

1 cup banana puree
1/2 cup flax meal
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup almond milk
2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Mash up and measure your bananas, then mix the flax, coconut and almond milk.
This is where I cheated and used about 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Now add the banana puree, then the oats and the chocolate chips. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes and that’s that. It takes all of 5 minutes to pull together!

So I know that I posted a Peas and Thank You treat yesterday and refused to give you the recipe, and I’m doing it again. BUT I also posted those raw brownie bites! The more recipes I make from this book, the more I push it because it honestly is that good. I will make a list next year of all the recipes from this book that have become staples – because there are already a few that I turn to on the regular (Crack Wraps and Tofu Nuggets are made alarmingly often).

Please excuse the pie plate doubling as a brownie pan. I didn’t have one in this apartment when until a few hours later. That’s what happens when you don’t bring your entire kitchen with you when you move. Anyhoo…they are no more effort than any other standard brownie. The difference is, natch, these are way better for you AND they’re denser. I love me some dense brownies.

Ok, so why does any of this matter? Without getting into the other vitamins and minerals I mentioned, these brownies can be considered health food for the manganese and copper alone!

Manganese is one of those trace minerals found in all life forms, in humans it’s found mostly in our bones, kidneys, liver and pancreas. So what does it even do? It’s defo another of the random minerals that most of us don’t know much about, but when I started reading about it I was pretty impressed. It plays a role in bone formation, thyroid function, formation of connective tissues, sex hormone function, calcium absorption, blood sugar regulation, immune function and in fat and carbohydrate metabolism. Um, manganese had me at sex hormone function and carb metabolism! Eat it up!

I knew that copper was a big part of energy production and I knew that it’s important for nerve health, but I didn’t know until I wrote this that just like manganese it helps connective tissues, and that it helps your body use iron! Above all that, it’s essential for your skin and bones and your blood vessels and joints.

B6 has a rep for being the maker of antibodies, leveler of nerve function and blood sugar, and of course, our hemoglobin champ. Vitamin E, of course, is an antioxidant. Magnesium’s jobs are a little lesser known, essentially it’s responsible for the contraction and relaxation of muscles, and the production of protien (among other things). Phosphorus, as you probably already know, is mainly used by your body for your bones and teeth. And zinc helps your immune system fight off invading bacteria and viruses. Ewww. Let’s all bulk up on zinc.

The recipe and actual step by step are so simple it’s hardly a recipe at all, but that’s partly what makes them so great. If you have everything on hand, you can be eating these in under 15 minutes.

Raw Brownie Bites – via Dr. Axe

2 cups walnuts, chopped
2 1/2 cups Medjool dates, chopped
1 cup raw cocoa (or carob)
1 cup chopped almonds
1/4 tsp sea salt

First, chop the dates and walnuts! Mmmmm.
Then process them together. You can even use your Magic Bullet or small blender if you don’t have a food processor, just be careful to add the dates one at a time so you don’t gum it up! Then add the cocoa or carob and sea salt. Now just press it into a mini cupcake tray! By the time you wash and cut your fruit, the little cakes will be ready to pop out and eat!

Again, I will NOT post the recipe because I want to encourage you to buy the book – right here!

TGIF! Enjoy HH Instant Cookie Dough: 1 cup rolled oats, 2 T peanut butter, 2-3 T maple syrup, 2 T cocoa, mix together. Eat with a spoon!

It was a life-changing event. No really it was. I’ve literally eaten it every day since I first saw it. I use Joseph’s Sugar Free Maple Flavor Syrup in place of the maple syrup and low fat peanut butter.

I do love that it’s healthy, especially great for anyone who doesn’t eat oatmeal everyday, but I’m even more happy about how quickly it comes together. I find it mixes best by adding one thing at a time and mixing with the back of a spoon.

With over 12,000 followers on Twitter and 21,000 fans on Facebook, when you search Google for hh instant cookie dough you get about a zillion results of other people that have blogged about it – it’s that good.

Hooray for making local friends turned local babysitters! Last night my husband and I went on our first official LA date and man it was fun. I mean, anytime we get to be alone together is fun, but especially nice when it involves a lovely restaurant, a glass of good wine and a late night walk (ending the night with pomegranate Pinkberry was a nice touch too).

This recipe had been in my to-make queue for almost a year before I finally made it last week. It was one of the first recipes I used to break in my new kitchen and being surrounded by alarmingly beautiful people (and also a pretty surprising amount of like, morbidly obese people, what’s up with that, LA?!) this recipe felt like a god jumping off point for a pumped up healthy kick.

The original recipe is not vegan – it includes an egg and cheese in the crust and also mozzarella cheese on top, which I subbed for a handful of oats in the cust and vegan cheese on top. Deeelish and healthier too!

Cauliflower Crust (Vegan) Pizza adapted from Eat. Drink. Smile.

1 cup cooked, pureed cauliflower
1 cup shredded vegan cheese
1/2 cup whole oats, ground
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp garlic salt

pizza sauce, shredded vegan cheese & whatever toppings you like

First steam and strain your cauliflower, then run it through your food processor to a smooth puree.
You’ll need about a cup. Pureed cauliflower is great to have on hand for adding vitamins to almost anything. Stir some into mashed potatoes, add a few tablespoons to scrambled eggs – whatever!
Chop up some garlic and add it to a bowl with the cauliflower puree and shredded vegan cheese.
This is where an egg is added in the original recipe, in my version I added 1/2 cup of ground whole oats to help it stick together.
Mix it up a bit more and roll it out (or pat it out if it’s too sticky) onto a baking sheet. I divided it in two pieces for two crusts. Bake at 450 for about 20 minutes.
Top it with pizza sauce, vegan cheese and whatever other toppings you like! Bake again for 5 minutes and voila!

Moving over 2200 miles and not bringing everything with us put a few kinks in our kitchen at first. Hello no fridge for a few days and only a small fraction of my kitchen gear. Today marks two weeks in our new place and I am happy to report that I spent this weekend running errands and baking up a storm – I am even happier to report that I can even get back into Menu Mondays because I can finally reliably plan what I’m cooking at night. Although to be honest, there are more rando ‘wanna go out for dinner’ nights because there are just so many rad places to go! This, however, is what I’m planning on for now…I’m including desserts this week because I almost always plan and make those too!

This Week’s Menu (April 23 – 29)

Sunday – Homemade Pizza and Calzones and Peas and Thank You’s Peanut Butter Blondies for dessert

These treats are Wednesday’s dessert this week and so simple I don’t even want to call this a recipe! You just make your favorite brownies and once they’re cool, cut out cute shapes with cookie cutters and ‘glue’ them to pretzel sticks with melted chocolate. Adorable, right?! If you’re super lazy really pressed for time, you can even use a brownie mix. Yes, I’m judging you (that can’t be a huge surprise).

I’m almost positive I’ve posted this recipe for brownies before but I’ll post it again because I know it by heart and it’s such a great brownie recipe you should know it by heart too and I swear it only takes like maybe two whole minutes longer than a mix. True story. It’s easy for a weekday dessert for the kids too!

Preheat your oven to 350, and melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once it’s melted, remove from heat and stir in the sugar till it’s melted and the eggs until they’re combined. Then add the vanilla.
In a smaller bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Then dump that into the pot with the melted butter mixture.
Stir, stir, stir!!
Pour the batter in a greased brownie pan and bake for about 25 minutes. Then attack with your cookie cutters.
Now melt some chocolate chips and dip the pretzel sticks in the melted chocolate and then poke inot each brownie shape. Voila!