Healthy Pasta

So I'm like a bread pasta lover!! Seriously can't get enough but we all know that too many carbs especially bad carbs are just that, bad for you. So to add my healthily twist to my favorite dish of pasta I do it simple. Use veggies and multigrain pasta for a carb fix and a conscious one at that.

1/2 box multigrain pasta penne noodles
Put sea salt in pan to lower boiling point as well as add flavor to your noodles.

For the veggies:
1/2 of a green bell pepper
1 leek use the white and some of the leaves.
1/2 of a tomato
2 cups Bella mushrooms
3 gloves of garlic finely sliced

Let veggies simmer. For about 20 mins. Until the mushroom and peppers are tender and the leek is translucent.

Add pasta and veggies to bowl, grate parmesan cheese on top and about 1/4 cup of olive oil mix together and serve.

Whipped delight

Okay so I made a yummy dessert tonight, so easy so light so hardly fattening at all!!

Basically it's a meringue.
4 egg whites whipped with a 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Whip on high till frothy then slowly add a cup of sugar till it can stand on its own. Then fold in a 1/2 tsp of lemon juice and a tablespoon of coco powder.
Place in oven on 300 F for an hour to hour and a half. Then turn off oven and let in stay in the closed over for an hour. When cooled and out top with shaved chocolate and melted chocolate drizzles I've a layer of fat free cool whip yum!

Bedroom update

Okay so slowly my bedroom is coming together. Behind my bed there was a door that led to my dinning room. Hated but don't have the money or the time to make it go away so instead I put an old barn door that I love! Next to my bed I added a old metal lamp stand and put on it just some random pretties lol but one was a homemade lamp. I have a light cord that went to an over head light but had no use for it so I had an old hurricane candle thing lol and because it was clear I put a coat of clear primer and an old antique white acrylic paint on it. Then I placed my light inside making an awesome bed side old time lamp!!!!

Potato and Leek Chowder

Sorry everyone I've been sick this terrible flu has been going around and I've got it all in my chest ugh! Oh well perfect time for soup! I decided to make a nice potato soup chowder to make me feel better.

I basically used what veggies I had hanging out in my fridge and cupboard.

Ingredients:
5 yellow potatoes
3 medium carrots
1 leek and yes the greens too
3 garlic cloves
1/4 cup of red pepper
1/4 cup of green pepper
1/4 cup of butter (optional) you can use Extra Virgin Olive Oil for this part.
1 teaspoon of either dry or fresh thyme I only had dry.
2 tablespoons of flour
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of water
64 oz of vegetable broth

Directions:
Take butter and put in pot and melt on medium heat add diced garlic, leek, greens and bulb all cut up finely chopped, thyme, carrots and peppers. Cook until translucent and tender.
Add broth, cut up potatoes, and let simmer for about an hour till potatos are tender. Next bring to a boil mix flour and water whisk and slowly pur in soup. (this is what makes it chowder) then add milk and let simmer another five mins or so till soup has thickened some. Serve!

This chowder is so easy to make and best part is you can add whatever veggies you like! Enjoy!

A little color

Well for dinner tonight since I'm longing for the day I can enjoy the outdoors again with out freezing, I decided to make Kabobs, in the oven. They were Delicious!!

Basically,

5 Turkey Brats cut into about 4 pieces
Half of a green pepper
Half of a red pepper
20 grape tomatoes
5 cut in half bella mushrooms
(here you can add or take away whatever ingredient you like)

In a bag put all ingredients and add a
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 crushed garlic cloves
1 tsp onion powder
let marinate for about 30 mins

Place on backing sheet on 350 F for about 30 mins or until your desired browness.

Healthy and amazing this made 10 kabobs.
ENJOY!!

Cabin Fever

So apparently I must be getting cabin fever because today all I wanted to do was go outside and plant a garden. So to fix my urge I started in on my herb pots. Normally I tape the label to what I planted on the pot but sometimes I forget and then I have no clue what I planted till however long it takes for them to spout, mature and have a leaf I can recognize haha. So I decided to take the left over chalkboard paint I had (previously used on a old wall in the sun room for the girls to write on), and spray my pots. this way I can write on it with chalk and then erase it after I'm done growing whatever in there. Silly maybe but I found the idea perfect for me especially since I am a person who forgets A LOT!!! Oh also, In my pictures you will see my green onions. They are just sitting in water, don't throw your onion bulb (the white part) away because you can just stick it in a pot of water and it regrows, saving you money never having to buy green onions again and they grow right in my kitchen window! Well hope you enjoy the project and try it for yourself! 

Chop Stix

So I love playing with chop sticks, not really sure why, I suppose they pose as a challenge for me to use so inspired by my find of my chop sticks in my drawer I decided to make some rice. To add a little to the rice and make it a well balanced, healthy meal.

To make the rice:

Here I used 2 cups white rice (use whatever you prefer)
Half of a red bell pepper
1/2 cup of peas
1 scrambled egg ( I cooked in nonstick spray flavored butter)
2 Tbs of Soy Sauce (Here you can get the soy sauce that is sodium free)
1/4 cup of carrots
1/4 cup of onion
You can add whatever veggies you like, this was just what I had on hand. The more veggies you add the better and the more appetizing it looks too because of all the colors.


First you boil your rice to cook it down. While this is boiling I suggest you cook your egg.
Then in a wok  I put the nonstick spray butter flavored and then cooked down my bell pepper, carrot and peas and onion for a bit. After it was cooked to the texture I prefer a little hard but soft I added my rice and my egg and then my soy sauce. Cooked till they were all mixed and served hot!

There ya go simple quick and Delicious! This meal is also healthy for you and it feels you up so you don't really need a lot on your plate. I ate it as my lunch and that was all I had. If you are serving it with a meal you maybe need a nice sized tablespoon helping. Hope you all like and enjoy yourself!

Spice

Well it's lunch time at my casa so I thought I'd share my lunch special for the day. Remember I probably won't be posting everyday or at least not every meal everyday I need a cheat day too lol. For today however we will be good. So here is my lunch. I made a Mushroom Dill Sandwich with Chili tortillas and homemade hummus and re-fried bean dip. All I have to say about this meal is YUMMMYYY!!!

For the Sandwich:
1 multigrain ciabatta bread roll
2 thin slices of Dill Havarti Cheese
1 medium sliced bella mushroom
A couple piece of Kale

Place bottom half of sandwich on baking sheet layered with cheese and mushroom bake on 350 F for about 15 mins till cheese is melted and mushrooms are flat.

Chili Tortillas:
One flour tortilla sided into about 10 triangle chip shapes. I used a pizza cutter for this part. Then brush with a very small about of olive oil and sprinkle with chili powder. Bake online side with sandwich on 350 F again for about 15 mins.

Hummus:
Love this and so simple!
So simply take a handful of Kale (make sure the hard vein in the middle is removed), a can of butter beans rinsed and drained, two avocados (pitted, obviously) half of a lemon for the juice, a clove of garlic, and a handful of cilantro and a handful of parsley, add it all in a food processor mix until smooth or a consistency you like and there it is! YUM!

Re-fried beans:
You don't have to have these if you have the hummus but I like to mix them together so it's your preferences they are are cheater beans from a can lol but if you want to make them your self just take a can of red beans add a little water put in a food processor and pulse. There ya go!

Hope you guys enjoy this meal as much as I did!!
Let me know how your own food making goes! Be creative with it too omit things add things spice it up! Let me know if you chance anything or prefer it a different way!

A taste of summer

Good morning everyone, happy Sunday! For me growing up Sunday was always special, filled with a good breakfast before church. I try to do the same for my family. Because eating breakfast is important since your body has used all its energy sleeping and recharging so its important to have good carbs and good sugars to boost and fully allow your body to start the day right. With little kids its even more important because they use so much energy so I try to incorporate energy filled meals for my family. Since last night we had ice and snow I felt like having a little summer this morning to make me feel awake on this gloomy day and get my kids up and moving. So this morning I made a Kiwi Banana Sandwich.

For one sandwich:

1 Tbs low fat cream cheese
1 tsp honey
1/4 cup or less depending on your preference of lime juice
2 piece whole wheat bread
Half of a banana sliced
1 whole Kiwi sliced.

Mix cream cheese, line juice and honey, slice kiwi and banana.
Toast bread
Spread mixture and lay banana and kiwi slices and make your sandwich. This is sure to add flavor to your taste buds and give your body a great start to the day!
Enjoy!

Face Lift!

Hi everyone sorry I've been MIA for such a long time. I know I had lots of ideas and supposedly free time. HA! The holidays where anything but free time for me...busy busy busy! Oh well. While on the holiday break I found out my sister has to go on a healthier living live style due to her lack of ability to soak up Vitamin D (She's allergic too the sun, sad but true, living vamp. LOL). Well cause she's my sister and I love her I told her I would help her out, I've always had a passion for cooking and even almost attended culinary school, twice, but life always through me in a different direction which seemed to turn out fine so I just take it as a passion and enjoy doing it. Any who, so I told her I would help her learn how to make good meals and healthy meals that helps her body do the things that vitamin d are suppose to do for her, since she can't get it all through a pill. So I gave my blog a face lift. Now not only will I be posting pictures and tells of new home decor ideas for you to love and do ;) but I'll also be incorporating fun, creative, and most of all tasty foods for you all to try out if you like. So I apologize if you only wanted home decor but think of it this way, not only can you make your house look great through a little spice but also yourself. So I hope you all continue to read and I will start my first post tomorrow! Wish me luck!