Easy Homemade Yogurt - Instant Pot (Cold Start)

I'm here to profess my undying love for my Instant Pot.  I've made so many wonderful things with it, and it's hard to choose what has been my favorite so far.  Chicken that literally falls off the bone, pot roast that melts in your mouth, healthy bone broth, hearty soups, amazingly creamy yogurt... the list goes on and on.

Who knew homemade yogurt could be so easy and tasty to make!?  With the Instant Pot, there's no need to go through the tedious steps of heating the yogurt to 180, cooling it to 115 degrees, etc.  This is a cold start recipe, meaning you simply dump the cold ingredients into the pot, cover it, use the yogurt setting, and then chill it in the refrigerator!  I won't be using store-bought yogurt anymore!  I love the fact that I can control exactly what I put into my yogurt!

Zucchini Crisp - Tastes Just Like Apples!

'Tis the season for zucchini!  As much as I love a good zucchini cake, after a while, I get tired of the same old zucchini desserts.  Enter Zucchini Crisp.  Shh!  Don't tell anyone, and I promise they'll never know that this crisp has zucchini in it.  It tastes just like apples and the consistency is just like apples, too!  Really?  Really!  My daughter, who HATES zucchini, gobbled it up and absolutely loved it.  Once I told her what was really in it, she had a complete look of disbelief on her face and said, "How did you get apple flavor inside the zucchini?"  She even continued to finish and have seconds after the secret was revealed to her.  Give it a try... you will not be disappointed!  

Notes:  If you use a very large zucchini from your garden, make sure to remove the seeds from it after you cut it lengthwise.  Small zucchini don't need to be seeded.

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

These are our favorite granola bars.  They're amazingly good, super easy to make, perfectly chewy, and they won't crumble on you!  The only problem you'll have with these is suppressing your urge to eat them all!  

Note:  You can substitute the honey with additional maple syrup, if desired.  

Harvest Salsa

Well, we're heading into our third week of homeschooling already!  I love spending the extra time with my little sous chef and also the freedom that we have in our schedule.  Fall is my favorite season for so many reasons, but I have a feeling that homeschooling is going to top my list this year!  Speaking of fall, it's not quite here yet, but it sure has felt like it for some time now.  This has got to be the mildest (and wettest) summer that I can remember!  I've only had to water my garden three or four times this year because of how much rain we've had!  Not that I'm complaining.  My garden is bursting at the seams, and I've been trying my best to not waste anything and use the things that I have in excess in creative ways.  Last week, I made some Cinnamon White Chocolate and Zucchini Cookies, and they were ahhhmazing!  Unfortunately, they didn't last long enough for me to blog about them.

This week, I found myself with a lot of extra corn and tomatoes, so I decided to make a salsa to go along with blackened chicken and rice for dinner.  This salsa is bright, refreshing, and uses ingredients straight from the garden.  While the avocado is optional, it really adds a lovely creamy contrast to the crunchy texture of the salsa.  Serve it with tortilla chips, chicken, beef, or seafood!

Perfect Crispy Homemade Hash Browns

Every Saturday morning, I cook a big breakfast for my family.  It's one of my favorite parts of the week.  The smell of bacon, the sound of dishes clanging, the warm mug of coffee in my hands, the sight of my family in their PJs... and as an added bonus, the scene of snowflakes falling silently outside the back door.  When I asked my family what sounded good for breakfast this morning, my husband suggested hash browns.  As I got to work on the potatoes, I quickly realized that I've never shared my hash browns recipe.  They aren't the prettiest things in the world to photograph, but they sure are delicious!  This method yields perfectly crispy hash browns... or as my little sous chef mistakenly called them this morning, hashtags!  The potatoes are sliced, squeezed of as much liquid as possible, par-cooked in the microwave, and then fried in a skillet.            

Vegetarian Cauliflower Fried "Rice"

We're expected to get about a foot of snow between today and tomorrow!  Since my little sous chef and I were snowed in today and I was able to finish work early, I decided to venture into the kitchen and try something different.  I've been noticing cauliflower being used in place of rice in recipes, and I've wanted to try it for myself for quite some time now.  Today was the day.  I was definitely skeptical at first, but now that I've tried it, I'm a believer.  When seasoned properly, you really can't taste a difference between the two!  This is a delicious, healthy, and satisfying version of fried "rice" that's both low in calories and low in carbs.  It can also be made in under 30 minutes!  

Homemade Almond Milk (Step-By-Step Instructions)

Making your own almond milk is so easy!  You just need to plan ahead for it.  It's raw, lactose-free, unprocessed, and healthy.  It's also creamy and delicious!  Simply soak the almonds in water for 12 hours, drain them, and then process the almonds in the blender with fresh water.  You can also add other ingredients such as vanilla, cinnamon and honey.  It's so easy!  

Note:  Homemade almond milk lasts covered in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.  Use the best quality almonds that you can find for the best results.  Hot water makes the almond milk more creamy.  Also, the longer you soak the almonds, the more creamy your results will be.  

Skinny Overnight Oats with Chia Seeds, Blueberries & Bananas

My little sous chef was home sick yesterday with a yucky cold.  The only thing that she wanted to eat all day was oatmeal.  I get it.  It's comforting, it's tasty, and it warms the soul.  There are also so many wonderful health benefits to eating oats, and I have been trying to incorporate them more into my diet.  

Overnight oats have become one of my favorite things to look forward to in the morning.  When I stumbled across Skinny Taste's skinny version, I knew I had to try them immediately.  The oats are soaked in milk overnight in the fridge along with chia seeds and fruit.  When you wake up the next morning, you have a delicious, creamy, and healthy breakfast to enjoy before starting your day.  Give it a try!  If you decide you're not a fan of cold oatmeal, you could always just heat it up.  

Notes:  If you don't like chia seeds, you can leave them out and add an extra 1/4 cup of oats.  The general rule of thumb is equal parts liquid to oats.  Also, I don't typically add the honey called for in the ingredients because the blueberries and banana add just the right amount of sweetness for me, but you can certainly use any of your favorite sweeteners such as agave nectar, maple syrup, brown sugar, etc.  Enjoy!  

Superfood Quinoa & Three-Bean Chili (Vegetarian)

Oh, to be a kid again and wake up to find you have a two-hour delay from school!  When I was a kid, winter was my favorite time of year, and everything seemed to be magically followed by a hot cup of cocoa.  Now?  Not so much.  Right now, you could ice skate on my driveway, my car is covered in ice, the air hurts my face, and I really don't want to know what my electric heat is doing to my electric bill.  It's days like these that I am so thankful I work out of home.  After about the second week of January, I'm daydreaming about spring.  

Enough with the negative talk.  One of my favorite things about winter is all of the hearty soups and stews that we get to enjoy.  Now that it's the New Year, my husband and I have resolved to eat healthier than we did in 2014.  For dinner last night, I decided to make chili sans meat.  Instead of beef, I used quinoa and three different types of beans to make it healthy and hearty.  This chili is packed with flavor and rich in protein and fiber, so it will fill you up faster and keep you satisfied longer.  My non-vegetarian husband loved it and said he didn't miss the meat at all.  Score!

Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake & Gingersnap Trifles

Happy National Dessert Day!  Treat yourself to these quick, easy, and delicious pumpkin cheesecake trifles with crushed gingersnaps.  They're so good, you might find yourself eating the whole thing like I did!

Homemade Cinnamon-Spiced Applesauce with Canning Instructions

One of my favorite things to do on a chilly fall day is make applesauce.  It's super easy, tastes better than any of that store-bought stuff you can buy, and it makes the house smell ahh-mazing while it's simmering!  For the best flavor, try to use a variety of apples that are good for cooking such as Fuji, Gala, Pippin, Jonathan, Gravenstein, Rome, Jonagold, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and McIntosh.  Honeycrisp apples are also very good (actually my favorite), but they are a little more on the watery side.  Whenever I use Honeycrisp apples, I reduce the amount of water to usually 3/4 cup.  The beauty of homemade applesauce is that it's very forgiving.  The natural sweetness of your apples will ultimately determine how much sugar you will want to use.  Always start out using less sugar than you think because you can always add more later.  If your applesauce is too sweet, add some lemon juice.  Try substituting the water for apple juice and even add a touch of pure vanilla extract for some more depth of flavor.

For making a larger quantity of applesauce for canning, see below.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Pumpkin-Cream Cheese Glaze

It started a couple weeks ago while we were celebrating the wedding of some friends.  After a very touching, beautiful ceremony, we found ourselves enjoying cocktail hour with friends and family.  Mid-conversation, a tray of what looked to be martinis were presented to us.  Pumpkin martinis you say?  Sure, I'll try one.  One sip, ahhh - I was in heaven!  They were the most it was the most (okay, so I had two!) delicious pumpkin martini I have ever had!  I tend to not jump on the pumpkin train as quickly as everyone else does when autumn rolls around, but I am officially on board!  Choo choo!  

For my first pumpkin recipe of the season, I made these delectable pumpkin cinnamon rolls.  I decided to amp up the pumpkin and add it not only to the dough, but to the filling and the glaze.  Making cinnamon rolls from scratch may be time consuming, but these are so worth it in the end!  They are certainly a family favorite, and they don't last very long around here at all.  They are amazing warm, but I enjoy them the most when they are cold.  I indulged in two of these bad boys today, so please excuse me while I go do some crunches.  

Chipotle Quinoa & Summer Harvest Salad with Smoked Gouda

I can never relate to the parent that says they're happy to shove their kids back on the school bus and get them out of their hair when school starts back up.  For me, it's a sad time.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited that my little sous chef is getting bigger and starting 4th grade, but I really do enjoy those precious moments of summer break with her each day!  If you haven't noticed, I've haven't posted a new recipe for nearly a month.  This is mainly because the last month of summer is always a super busy time for us.  Now that school has started and our schedules have become a lot more structured, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things and start posting on a weekly basis again.

One of the things that has really kept us busy over the last month is processing harvested vegetables from the garden.  I had some green pepper, tomato, and corn that I needed to use up from all that harvesting, so I decided to make this warm, spicy quinoa salad with freshly harvested garden vegetables, topped with smoked gouda.  It's delicious, guilt-free and packed with flavor!  

Strawberry & Peach Salsa

This summery fruit salsa makes for an attractive and delicious garnish to grilled chicken, pork, and fish.  It's also good as a dip for tortilla chips.  Light, fresh, healthy, and easy to throw together - perfect for your summer festivities!  

Southwestern Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms for Breakfast

Organic heirloom tomatoes are given a Southwestern flare, stuffed in a hearty portobello mushroom, and topped with an egg.  It's a healthy and delicious vegetarian breakfast with a little bit of a spicy kick.  If you're not into the whole vegetarian thing, cooked bacon or ham are lovely additions.  Happy Friday!  

Our Favorite Guacamole

The first time I introduced my husband to guacamole, he was not a fan of it.  At.  All.  I, on the other hand, am a self-proclaimed guacamoholic.  It's very healthy, but I try hard not to overindulge because of the high calorie count.  A few years back, we fell in love with these beautiful salads at a local Mexican restaurant that included a little side of guacamole.  I don't know if it was because they used less lime than we were used to, but my husband was hooked... and so was my little sous chef!  This recipe is my copycat version, and it's pretty darn close.  It's delicious, creamy, and very easy to make.  We like our guacamole smooth and creamy with a few chunks here and there, but if you prefer it chunky, just mash less.  

Cherry Crumble Bars

Oh, how I love sweet cherries!  They are in season for far too short a time, so I jump on them as soon as I see a good sale.  As a little girl, I remember my Grandmommy putting them in the freezer, pits and all.  Later on in the evening, we would take them out and enjoy them as a frozen treat.  I've carried on that sweet "tradition" with my little sous chef, but I wanted to use them in something special now that she's out of school.  I decided to make crumble bars, and they turned out fantastic!  They are a perfect summer treat for breakfast or dessert!  

A note on pitting cherries:  Once cherries go on sale, I immediately put them in my freezer, without pitting them.  Once I'm ready to use them, I run them under warm water in a colander for a minute or two in order to partially thaw them out.  I then pit them using a pastry tip.  When the cherries are partially frozen, they are easier to pit and the juices don't run everywhere.

Tropical Oat Bars with Pineapple & Coconut

Looking forward to your next vacation?  These oat bars will send your taste buds straight to paradise!  Sweet pineapple, flaked coconut, and freshly squeezed lime juice give them a delicious tropical flare.  The pineapple filling in the center is made by cooking fresh pineapple in some sugar and lime juice.  When the bars are baked, the the center sets up as delicious pineapple preserves.  Better yet, I made these lower in fat by using nonfat Greek yogurt to replace half of the butter!  These are great for breakfast or as a snack.  Give them a try!

Vegetarian Mexican-Style Stuffed Mini Peppers

Give your taste buds a fun ride with these vegetarian stuffed mini sweet peppers!  They are given a Mexican spin using cilantro, lime, black beans, rice, corn, tomatoes, onions, and even a little splash of tequila.  The sweetness of the peppers are beautifully balanced by the spice from the jalapeno, cayenne, and crushed red pepper flakes.  Happy Cinco de Mayo!

(Flourless & Butterless) Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Glaze

Just because we're spring cleaning our diets doesn't mean that we have to deprive ourselves of the things that we love!  I had a few hours to myself between my little sous chef's dance recital and violin concert this weekend, so I decided to fool around with some ingredients and make healthy cookies that I can treat myself to throughout the week.  I came up with these flourless and butterless cookies that include goodies like oats, shredded carrot, flaked coconut, wheat germ, and walnuts.  They are delicious, delightfully chewy, and not overly sweet.  When paired with the cream cheese glaze, they are just dreamy.  These healthy, guilt-free cookies are so easy to make and can be ready for you to indulge in, in under 20 minutes!  They would be a great option for breakfast on-the-go, too!  

Note:  These cookies will maintain the exact shape that you place them on the baking sheet, so use your fingers to form them into your desired shape.