05/12/13

bircher muesli

Happy Mother’s Day! Hope you all got to spend time with your mamas. As a gift, Jacob built me 3 raised garden boxes (2 of them pictured below).

I’m excited to get them into the ground and filled with dirt. Also, I have kale and cucumber beginning to sprout in my DIY egg shell seed starters! Hooray for 2 year old seeds to still grow!

Today is another Secret Recipe Club reveal day. This month was super fun for me. I was given Jennifer of Peanut Butter and Peppers! Jennifer is a blogger I’ve known since before Hunter was born. She even guest posted for me once he arrived. Jennifer loves food and shares so many yummy looking meals, snacks and treats. I seriously just want her to come and cook for me. Like every day. Personal chef????

Okay, it will probably be a no, so I guess I’ll make some food for myself. The recipe I chose as a no brainer – bircher muesli – AKA overnight oats!

With the warmer temps around here I’ve been eating less and less hot oats - and that makes me sad!

Soaking your raw rolled oats in liquid (yogurt, milk and juice) plumps them up and ‘cooks’ your oatmeal for you. No hot stove required.

Jennifer’s bircher muesli is a bit different than previous overnight oats I’ve made. Normally I go with banana and peanut butter, but here, the flavors are bright and fresh. OJ and pineapple juice + fresh shredded apple set the tone with natural sweetness. I went ahead and amped up the fruity flavors with a fig and orange zest Chobani bite.

Bircher Muesli
Serves 1

Adapted from peanut butter and peppers

Ingredients

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 small apple, grated

1/4 cup juice (combo orange and pineapple juice)

3.5 oz fig and orange zest chobani bite (or plain yogurt)

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tbsp raisins

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Add all of the ingredients in a bowl; mix well. Cover and refrigerated for at least 8 hours.

And it’s all ready and waiting for you in the morning! So so yummy, thanks Jennifer!

Emily at Chobani was so sweet and sent me all four Chobani bite flavors to try. And try I have. Here are my order of favorites: raspberry with dark chocolate chunks, coffee with dark chocolate chunks, caramel with pineapple chunks, and lastly fig with orange zest. Obviously, I love me some chocolate!

Last thing before I head to bed - tomorrow (Monday) is Make It Monday! What are you sharing? Read more about it on the Make It Monday page – I hope you’ll join in!

What is your favorite warm weather breakfast? Do you make breakfast the night before often? How was your Mother’s Day?

Until next time,

Heather

05/7/13

blueberry yogurt protein pancakes

Pancakes are a beautiful thing. Hunter (and I) can easily grab and gobble them up. I love eating custard oatmeal, but it gets a little messy when I let Hunter grab it by the fistful. That’s BLW for you… messy.

Pancakes are not messy though! And are quite delicious. These blueberry yogurt protein pancakes are delicate ones made with mostly blueberry chobani, oats and eggs. Soft and thin pancakes. If you’re looking for fluffy pancakes, these are not them. As they cook the sugars in the blueberry begin to caramelize and give you the color that looks almost burnt, but they aren’t burnt! Just make sure to use a well oil pan or non-stick griddle pan. Since they are so delicate, any sticking will make them turn ugly quickly.

And we don’t want ugly pancakes.

Side note: is it weird to you that raspberries have little hairs growing out of them?? Kind of to me…

I made a double batch (which makes 8 pancakes) thinking that I would have enough left over for another breakfast during the week. Wrong. I ate 3. Then Hunter ate 2.5 pancakes! That boy LOVED them. We’ve also been chowing down on fresh raspberries, which are currently my favorite berry.

Add a smear of your favorite nut butter on top (PB for me!), throw on some fresh raspberries and gobble these yummy cakes up!

Blueberry Yogurt Protein Pancakes
makes 4 pancakes

Ingredients

6 oz blueberry Chobani (or any greek yogurt)

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 egg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

Directions

Pre-heat a greased pan to medium heat or griddle to 325 degrees.

In a food processor (or blender) add all the ingredients. Blend until smooth.

Pour batter into 4 pancakes (they will spread). Flip when the top bubbles. Cook another 2-3 minutes on second side.

Tomorrow is another installment of Workout Wednesday!

The focus is on HIIT workouts. If you have a favorite one, email it to me (heather.englund@comcast.net) and I will get it included in the post!

What is your favorite berry? Are you a fluffy or thin pancake person?

I am already highly caffeinated and have about an hour before Hunter wakes. Time to see what all I can do in that time!

Heather

04/16/13

thai peanut chicken pasta + crazy coconut oil deal

Good morning! How are you all doing? A big welcome to all the new readers from yesterday! Secret Recipe Club reveal day is always so much fun, not only because it’s fun to surprise a blogger with my pick (plus I get to be surprised), but I also get to discover a whole bunch of new blogs.

Do you remember when I meal planned for an entire month? Well I’ve made it more than half way through my list (a couple more have been marked off since this picture).

I’ve also gone rogue and not cooked off my meal plan. Sometimes I just don’t feel like making what I’ve planned, but mostly I’ve been lazy about grocery shopping which means I’ll either modify based on what I have on hand, or make something different. Last night I went with something different – thai peanut chicken pasta.

I’ve been going through old post and updating the links + reinserting pictures that have disappeared. While doing that I’ve rediscovered some recipes from the past. One in I was super excited to find again was my thai peanut chicken wrap. Peanut sauce is where it’s at. While I didn’t have any wraps on hand, I did have whole wheat spaghetti. And with that, the pasta dish with peanut sauce was created.

Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta
Serves 4

Inspired by thai peanut chicken wrap

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, grilled and chopped
12 ounces whole wheat pasta
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1/2 white onion, sliced (although green onion would be great here too!)
1 tbsp sesame seeds
peanut sauce – recipe below

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions.
Add the oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add in the bell pepper and onion. Saute for 5-7 minutes until soft. Add a pinch of sea salt here if desired.
Make your peanut sauce while the veggies are cooking. Once soft, add in chicken to heat through.
Once the pasta is done cooking, reserve 1/2 cup pasta water. Drain remaining liquid from the pasta, and add it to the pan with the veggies and chicken. Pour peanut sauce and pasta water over the pasta. Toss to coat everything, then sprinkle the sesame seeds over.

Peanut Sauce

makes a little less than 1 cup

Ingredients

1/3 cup water
1/3 cup creamy natural peanut butter (mine had a little sea salt in it)
1 tbsp soy sauce, low sodium
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp lime juice
1 tsp maple syrup
a squirt of sriracha

Directions

In a microwave safe bowl combine the water, peanut butter and soy sauce. Heat on high for 1 minute, then whisk to combine.
Whisk in the remaining ingredients. The sauce will thicken up naturally after a couple minutes, so make sure to let it sit for a few before serving.

We all devoured multiple servings.

Are you a fan of coconut oil? Recently I became an affiliate with Nutiva. Today they are running a Tuesday organic crazy deal. Here’s what you get for $19.99:

The sale ends tomorrow morning at 9am. I’m stocking up on my coconut oil. I need it for my PB coconut no bake bars I’ve been making like crazy. If you end up ordering from Nutiva, I’d love it if you used my link!

Lastly, the Chobani Champions giveaway is still running through Friday. Make sure to enter and win some yummy yogurt!

Are you a fan of peanut sauce? It’s pretty much my favorite thing. Happy Tuesday all!

Heather