Super Easy Camp Fire Roasted Potato, Onion & Cheesey Bake

Roasted Potato, Onion & Cheesey Side Dish

You might remember my Memorial Day Camping recipe for Camp fire baked Tilapia that I posted last year. Well, now we have a fire pit in our back yard and we've really been enjoying our "camp fire" in the evenings.

For "Clean Eating" my husband and I stick to baked onions to top our steaks with... the pescatarians eat grilled fish, and Kainan chose grilled chicken.  Whatever your tastes or restrictions, this is a super simple way to make an amazingly deeply flavored side dish for your meal.

Directions:

• Set out some pieces of foil about 18" long (this is a good "assembly line" type of family prep if you like)
• Using coconut butter, oil the foil, leaving just 1-2 inches around the edge
• Add your choice of vegetables (we've used garlic, onion, potato, cheese so far **Slice the potato into somewhat thin slices, and make a short stack.
• Fold the foil and wrap up tight.  Since our foil this time is the cheap stuff, I  used two layers... the turning of the packets in the fire can be a little hard on these little packets!
• Once your camp fire (or grill) is hot and has the hot coals *don't put the packets in the direct flames*, put your packets in the hot coals.  After 8-10 minutes, use grill tongs to carefully turn the packets. 
• Another 8-10 minutes and you'll have scrumptious baked onions/potatoes!

Grilled onions are fantastic as a steak topper!

The steaks, fish and chicken... I have to admit, my mouth is watering just remembering how good this was last night!

What are your favorite fall dishes? 

(Ie:  I need new ideas.  I'm bored with my own ideas!:) 

I must admit that this year, Fall has definitely won out for my favorite season.  The weather is gorgeous, I am in love with our new house and yard... and things are shaping up to so well, I am ALMOST happy to see winter get here.  Okay, not really.  Unless its really REALLY mild, I'd really prefer to just go straight from fall to spring!

The kids sitting by the fire eating dinner.  Look at all that wood in the background that they  helped chop & carry today!

Clean Eating #146: Super Easy Roasted Asparagus w/Sesame Seeds

Super Easy Roasted Asparagus w/Sesame Seeds

Ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus

1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

handful of sesame seeds

Directions:

Coat the asparagus with oil

Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sesame seeds

Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes 

See?  Super easy!  That's all you get today because my hubby is on his way home from work and we have no kids this week!

Enjoy your day!

Clean Eating #146: Salad w/Toasted Spiced Almonds

Salad with Toasted Spiced Almonds

I used to buy those 'flavored' almonds at the store for our salads... but of course those are full of MSG, which we are trying to avoid.  So I grabbed my slivered almonds and thought I'd give it a go.  As you can see, I left them in a bit too long.  It seemed like nothing was happening, then I got distracted for a second and boom, brown almonds.

Oh well, we all loved them anyway.  I LOVE having crunchy things in my salad.

Easy as pie.  Wait, pie isn't even easy.

• Take about a cup of slivered almonds and spread them out on a baking sheet.
• Spray lightly with Olive oil (if you don't like spray oil, you might be able to get the same effect by tossing them in a bag with some oil)
• Sprinkle with seasonings (I used chili powder and garlic pepper)

This was SO easy and so yummy.  My hubby didn't even notice that they were in the salad until he started eating and he asked, "YUM!  Where did you get the almonds?  That is a fantastic flavor combination!)

WINNER!:)

Clean Eating #98: Vegetarian Parmesan Pesto Style Pasta

Vegetarian Parmesan Pesto Style Pasta

Served with my stuffed tomato recipe

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium tomato, diced

1 bell pepper (I used 1/2 an orange one and 1/2 a yellow one), diced

3 garlic cloves, diced

1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

1 Tbsp Parsley

Pepper & Salt to taste

1/2-3/4 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Grated or Shredded Parmesan Cheese for topping

Clean Eating #94: Super Simple Apple Sweet Potato Casserole

Super Simple Apple Sweet Potato Casserole

by Paris

My kids all made recipes for me this weekend while I was busy painting.  This is Paris' recipe... a nice side dish that I've made for Thanksgiving for years.  Serve with a good source of lean protein and a fresh salad for a well rounded meal.  My kids LOVE this dish so much, even the ones that generally don't care much for sweet potatoes!

Ingredients:
5 large sweet potatoes
4 apples, cored & sliced
1/8th cup of Ideal bread Brown Sugar Xylitol substitute
a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil





Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
2. Carefully put the sweet potatoes in the boiling water for about 10 minutes.
3. Remove from the pot and rinse with cold water to cool.
4. The peels should just slide off.
5. Slice the potatoes and the apples thickly and line your casserole pan with them.  
6. Drizzle with a little EVOO and sprinkle with sugar.
7. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes and you have a wonderful side dish that your family will love!

Paris actually used regular Xylitol because she thought we were out of the brown kind.  I recommend that brown sugar version instead:)

Delicious!!!  We ate this all up with a bunch of salad since leaf lettuce was on sale this week!

Clean Eating #89: Cheesy Garlic Rolls & Pizza Bread

Cheesy Garlic Rolls & Pizza Bread

Okay guys, this post is going to be like food porn.  Especially to my husband.

I know if he was here, I wouldn't be able to post the video of his reaction.  Just tasting a sample of the bread dipped in the roasted garlic oil and a few chunks of roasted garlic earlier made him nearly swoon.  Then he grabbed me and gave me an astounding "I've never had anything that awesome in my entire life except you of course" kind of major kissing moment.  Well, perhaps that's too much information.  Anyway, he acted like a teenager.  Again.  It was nice.  I'm thinking he wants bread & garlic more often.  I will have to see what I can do.

Onward!  I pretty much used the bread recipe from the cinnamon rolls the other day, but I replaced the butter with coconut oil and full out eggs with egg whites this time.

• 1 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened
• 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 5 Tbsp Vital Wheat Gluten
• 2 Tbsp instant yeast
• 1/2 cup Xylitol
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 egg whites
• FILLING
• Roasted Garlic
• Marinara/Pizza Sauce *I boiled down some of my hearty vegetable marinara sauce for ours.
• Finely Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Mix warm water, yeast and xylitol in a small cup/bowl
2. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl ****LEAVE OUT TWO CUPS OF FLOUR FOR KNEADING
3. Add warmed milk and yeast mixture
4. Mix Thoroughly
5. Pour the rest of the flour on the table and knead it into the bread
6. Let Rise lightly covered for an hour or so
7. When it has doubled in size, take out and form as though you're making cinnamon rolls

Except instead of adding cinnamon & sugar, you add pizza sauce, garlic & cheese

Look at those HOT chunks of garlic in there!  My husband is going to have a COW!  I think I'm going to text him right now and tell him to look at this post just to torment him... because that's just the way I am.

Did I mention that one of the other things my husband loves is CHEESE?

Pizza Bread, fresh out of the oven!

Need I say more?  It was yummy!

Clean Eating #79: Refried Beans for Burritos, Enchiladas, Side Dishes, Mexican Pizza, etc

Refried Beans

Cooking with dried beans was something that took me a few tries to get right.  It was also one of the first things that I made that my husband preferred the 'store bought' version.  I ended up having to mix half canned and half home made for a bit so that everyone got used to the texture.  Now we can't stand the canned stuff.  It tastes like paste or something.  Yay for finally figuring it out! 

Another thing that messed me up was trying to cook them in our crock pot.  Our crock pot didn't get quite hot enough, so I kept wasting tons of beans when they would NEVER soften.  I cook them on the stove in a large stock pot now and freeze them in quart sized bags for making bean dip/refried beans later on.


This is what I do with our beans. 

• I usually don't soak them because I just forget to plan that far ahead.  I just cook them in water on med-low for a couple of hours, then cook them slightly higher than medium (a 6 on our stove).
• Do not add any salt/broth/whatever until the skins are soft.
• After the skins are soft, drain 1/2 the water and add broth, peppers, garlic & onions.
• Cook until mushy (about 3-4 hours)
• Puree in a blender with extra broth if needed and salsa. 
• Add extra ingredients for a great bean dip, or leave plain for regular refried beans.

Ingredients

Dried Pinto beans *I tossed the bag and can't remember what size it was.  It was fairly large, as the beans themselves filled up my 5 quart pan before they 'grew'

1 quart Vegetable or other broth

1 large onion, diced & sauteed

2 cloves of garlic, diced & sauteed
1 red chili pepper, diced & sauteed

1 quart homemade Salsa

*1 quart prepared dried black beans
*cooked corn

*We add these to already pureed beans for a nice dip.  The kids like cheese in theirs.

Clean Eating #77: Easy Mexican Rice & a Cooking Class

Easy Mexican Rice & a Cooking Class

Do you love Mexican food?  Does you family love enchiladas so much that they'll eat you out of house and home in seconds?  Mine does!  This time I was smart, though, and made the side dish so it would be done BEFORE the Enchiladas:)  That way we actually had leftovers at the end of the meal.  I'm so clever.

Mexican Rice is SUPER easy... but it takes a long LONG time.  At least it did for me, using whole grain, brown rice.

Ingredients *Remember, I was making a LOT so I could send some home with each of the families, I would probably only make 1/4th of this if it were just my family)
1 bag brown rice
1 Quart bag of Salsa (I used our frozen homemade salsa)
1 small bag of frozen corn
1 quart sized bag of black beans (I used some frozen that I made last time I did a big dried bean cooking day)
handful of chopped & cooked jalapenos
1 carton/quart of vegetable or chicken broth
1 quart of water (at least, I just add water as it cooks down as needed)

Directions:
Add rice to the water and broth, bring to a boil over medium heat.
Add salsa, beans and corn, stir and cover, turn heat down to med-low and simmer.
Stir occasionally, add more water if needed.
Simmer on med-low for at least an hour until tender.

This is the meal that we had for dinner... the cooking students took home the rice and enchiladas, but I forgot to send the beans home... oops!

Cooking Class!

I also had a cooking "class" yesterday.  I teach a nutrition & fitness class for our homeschool group's co-op.  I had 7 students over yesterday to learn how to make Chicken Enchiladas with homemade sauce.  Everyone brought enough ingredients so they could take home a pan of enchiladas for their family.  I also sent home Mexican Rice for everyone as well.

It went SO fast.  We had four pans of enchiladas with homemade sauce done and out the door in an HOUR!  I was impressed.  Those kids were fast!  We had the Tomatillos and various peppers chopped, diced and ready to puree really fast.  I had two girls chopping the tomatillos, another dicing up peppers (with gloves on), a couple chopping up garlic, one chopping spinach... then while the sauce was bubbling, we had girls dicing up chicken breasts and someone else chopping Cilantro.  It made for a fun, fast dinner and everyone went home with a full meal.

I'm thinking this might work as a business idea, if I could figure out how to price things.  I would definitely need to take all the ingredients with me though, as I learned yesterday, not everyone recognizes some of the less common ingredients I tend to use.  What do you think?  Good idea?  Would you or your kids enjoy a cooking class that resulted in a home cooked meal at the end of an hour or two?  (We were in a big rush because of some of the kids having tennis afterwards, so we had to make it quick.  I'd prefer to draw it out a little and actually get a little more instruction in there... and make it 'fun' as well).

Thoughts?

Clean Eating #71: Guest Post for Butternut Squash Casserole

Butternut Squash Casserole

**Guest Post by my 14 year old son, Jaedin, whom I called from town last night saying, "I need a post using squash, look something up and make it clean..."

Ingredients

1 butternut squash

1/2 cup agave nectar/or xilotol

1 1/2 cups milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

3 eggs

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted


Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Put butternut squash on a cutting board. Cut in half,peel,scoop out seeds,and cube. 

 Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add squash and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and mash.

In a 9x13 inch casserole dish combine mashed butternut squash, agave nectar, milk, vanilla extract, salt, flour, eggs and 1/4 cup melted coconut oil. 

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until set,(half of the casserole was already gone before I had a chance to photograph the end product).

What I'd Do differently Next Time:  I'd probably use a little less Agave Nectar because this was pretty sweet.  Although my sisters thought it was dessert and loved me for making it, so maybe I'd just make it the same way.  Mom says that maybe we could add a crunchy topping or something, but I thought it was delicious.  Any ideas for a good dish to eat this with?  Because I just made this and it wasn't a real meal.

Clean Eating #62: "Breaded" Fish Sticks & Fries

Clean Fish Sticks & Fries

Fries:

You can use any kind of potatoes.  We prefer Sweet Potatoes, but I was out, so we used regular potatoes.

• Slice potatoes lengthwise into "fry" shapes.  I always cut mine short for less baking time.
• Put in a bowl and drizzle with oil
• Sprinkle seasonings (today I used garlic pepper and a little paprika & my hubby went nuts over them)
• Spread one layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 425

Then start on the fish:

Fish Sticks

• 5 Tilapia Filets
• 1/3rd Cup Oat Bran
• 1 TBSP Seasoning of choice (I used Tone's Citrus Grill NO MSG Seasoning)
• 1 cup of Nabisco Shredded Wheat or Shredded Wheat & Bran
• 2 eggs

Blend the dry ingredients in a blender until finely ground
Crack eggs in bowl.
Slice/Cut Tilapia down the center, lengthwise

Dip in eggs

coat with ground cereal

place on oiled pan

Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes until fish flakes apart.  Hopefully at this point, your fries are ready as well!

Dinner:


VERDICT:  These were gobbled up FAST, even my youngest who generally doesn't care for fish was eating these without even noticing that she ate nearly half the fish I cooked!  No one even asked for dip/tartar sauce, which is unusual for them.  I'd say these were definitely a hit.  Although I still prefer my fish plain, the crunch and the kid friendly finger food means I will definitely try this again and again!

Clean Eating #49: Super Quick & Easy Green Beans w/Olive Oil & Almonds

Green Beans w/Olive Oil & Almonds

A great side dish!  We had ours with Chicken "Fingers" (Who thought of that phrase anyway?  Eeew!) and oven fries.  Oven fries that Sasquatch made.

He made them WAY too spicy so he wouldn't have to share.  We let him sit there with the whole pan, tears streaming down his face, sniffling, saying, "MMMMmmm... Spicy.  Good."  I think we might need to stop calling him Sasquatch.  It appears to be affecting his speech patterns.

The beans are super simple... a good thing when they're a side dish to the pain in the butt chicken fingers... you know what?  I'm not calling them that anymore.  "Breaded" chicken strips.  Because those were annoying.  Maybe they were just annoying to me because I don't LIKE chicken strips.  I don't like my meat 'breaded' in any form, but I made these for my kids, because they're weir... er, I mean, they like breaded things.

Ingredients:
Green beans (I used frozen, and I generally always buy 'full' beans, but my hubby always buys cut.  They aren't nearly as pretty, but hey, they're beans.)
Chopped/Sliced/Slivered almonds.  (I used blanched only because that's all I had, I would normally use slivered)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I start cooking the beans like I normally do, then when they're half way done, I drizzle some olive oil over them (just a little) and add the almonds.  Yummy!!

And that night, when I was cooking dinner, I heard something on the porch.  Do you know what it was?  That's RIGHT!  A horse was eating out of our trash can.  That doesn't happen just any day!

Do you know how freaky it is to open your door in the dark and have huge HORSES staring at you?  Its pretty freaking strange.  I about dropped my camera!  Yeah, I'm an official blogger.  My first thought was, "I wonder what out there making all that racket.  Where's my camera?"  I'm just glad it wasn't a skunk.

Clean Eating #29: Cherry Tomato Popping Garlic Spinach Pasta

Exquisite Garlic Tomato Pasta Sauce

Okay, so we couldn't decide what to call this.  It was something I read in an article in Prevention magazine, and there weren't any measurements or anything, just a few ingredients.  This is what we used:

Ingredients:
1/2 - 3/4ths cup of EVOO
3 cloves of garlic
3-4 small Spanish onions, diced
handful of baby leaf spinach chopped
3/4 - 1 cup of cherry/grape tomatoes sliced in half
Italian seasoning to taste

Garlic pepper seasoning to taste
Parsley
Grated Parmesan or Asiago Cheese for topping if desired

Getting a hug from my gargantuan son "Squatch" because I'm just that awesome:)

Directions:
Heat oil in skillet on medium to medium low
Sautee Onions and Garlic until they begin to carmelize
Add in sesasonings, baby spinach and tomatoes
Cook until the tomatoes are tender
Add a little extra EVOO if you want, serve on top of whole wheat pasta.

Paris had hers in one of our new fancy bowls:)

What I'd Do Differently Next time?

Turn on the video camera when my hubby takes his first bite..  My husband's reaction to good food is freaking AWESOME.  Its so good to be REALLY appreciated!

Also, I will definitely experiment with throwing in some extra veggies and maybe some cooked beans... but for right now, my husband AND my two youngest girls devoured it, even my picky little Bean... so I think we're good.

I'm telling you, my husband reeeeaaaalllllly loves his food, even after he realized I was videotaping!

It definitely has a sweet and spicy taste to it, and leaving the tomatoes 'in tact' really gave it a neat texture and taste.  Thumbs Up!