These muffins are freezable, packable and snackable without all the guilt of a sugar bomb! I’ve adapted the recipe from Wholesome Yum and always appreciate the excuse to use up blueberries after their prime!
Yield: 12 muffins
Ingredients:
2 ½ c. almond flour
½ cup Erythritol (or your low carb sweetener of choice or heck… sugar if you don’t care about carbs!)
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 c. butter, melted
½ c. unsweetened vanilla almond milk
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. blueberries
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Line a 12-muffin tin or use a silicone muffin tin and just spray with nonstick spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix together almond flour, sweetener, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. Once combined, add the melted butter, almond milk, eggs and vanilla extract until everything is mixed well (this will be a fairly thick batter but not quite dough).
4. Fold in the blueberries until they are well dispersed.
5. Divide evenly among the muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is golden brown and a toothpick, inserted into the middle, comes out clean.
Lasagna is comfort food at its finest but this low carb version (swap out noodles for long ribbons of zucchini!) is a pretty tasty alternative. Just take my advice and don’t stuff too many layers into your pan… Zucchini has a lot more water in it than noodles and that all comes out when baking, so give it some room so it doesn’t bubble over your baking dish.
Yield: This is a recipe for a 9x9 baking dish (4-6 servings) rather than a full 13x9. Multiply everything by 1.5 if you’re going for the bigger version!
Ingredients:
2 medium zucchinis
1 ½ c part skim ricotta
2 c shredded mozzarella (don’t use reduced fat)
¼ c grated parmesan
1 egg
1 T italian seasoning (or a combo of basil/oregano/parsley)
2 t minced garlic
1 pinch each salt + pepper
1 jar (24 oz.) marinara (I love Rao’s roasted garlic or tomato basil!)
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 425*.
2. Slice the top stem and bottom off the zucchini so they have flat edges on both sides. Using a mandolin (or very steady hand!), slice the zucchini lengthwise to create ¼-1/8″ ribbons. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, ¼ c. mozzarella, parmesan, egg, seasoning, garlic and salt/pepper.
4. Spoon a couple Tablespoons of sauce in the bottom of your baking dish and spread evenly. Add a single layer of zucchini noodles across the dish. Add a couple of heaping scoops of the ricotta mixture, followed by marinara sauce and mozzarella. Repeat this 2-3 times until your final layer is zucchini with just sauce on top.
5. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil, add any remaining shredded mozzarella to cover the top and bake, uncovered for 20 minutes. Finish with a quick broil to brown the cheese on top.
6. Let it rest and cool slightly so you can cut it without everything slipping and sliding. Enjoy!
The ultimate Christmas + Hannukah mashup for breakfast or dessert during the entire month of December… Egg Nog Challah French Toast Bake!
ingredients:
1 loaf challah
6 eggs
1 c. unsweetened vanilla almond milk (regular works here, too – if you use sweetened, just nix the sugar)
1.5 c. egg nog (regular or dairy free works)
¼ c. sugar (+ 2 Tbsp for garnish)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon (+ 1 tsp for garnish)
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp salt
instructions:
1. Cut the challah into 1″ cubes and place in a 9x13 glass baking dish (covered in nonstick spray).
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, almond milk, egg not, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, melted butter and salt until ingredients are combined.
3. Pour the liquid mixture over the bread cubes until everything is coated.
4. You can either bake now or put in the fridge, covered, for up to 12 hours.
5. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350*. Keep the casserole covered with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes until the soaked bread isn’t very wet.
6. Uncover the casserole, sprinkle the top with the remaining cinnamon and sugar and bake, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
(adapted from Philadelphia, this is a Thanksgiving staple ever since my old roommate brought it to our holiday table back in 2010! so easy, so few dishes - it’s a no brainer, even though i’m sharing this three months after turkey day.)
ingredients:
12 oz. whipped cream cheese (i like philadelphia or temptee)
1.5 cups canned pumpkin
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon (plus more for garnish)
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. ginger
1 tub (8 oz.) cool whip
1 premade graham cracker crust (i love keebler!)
instructions:
1. in a large bowl, blend together the cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. (hack: if you use whipped cream cheese, you can usually do this by hand and don’t need to break out the mixer - it took me many years to figure this out.)
2. once everything is mixed together, gently fold in half the cool whip (don’t over mix this or it’ll deflate).
3. spoon the mixture into the pie crust and spread evenly throughout.
4. gently spread the remaining cool whip on top of the pie and sprinkle with cinnamon for garnish.
these are quite possibly the easiest and quickest cookies i’ve ever made and even better - they taste just like the gems that every doubletree hotel hands out (hot and fresh!) at check in. as someone who travels far too much for work, i can’t tell you how much i appreciate getting to eat these in the comfort of my own home. enjoy!
ingredients:
1 stick salted butter, melted
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup granulated white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup rolled oats, ground
1 cup flour (all purpose white or whole wheat)
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1 cup dark or semisweet chocolate chips
¾ cup walnuts, roughly chopped
yield:
makes 18 cookies 🍪
instructions:
1. melt the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl, in the microwave (30-45 seconds).
2. stir in both sugars until smooth.
3. add vanilla and eggs and stir until smooth.
4. in a food processor, give a few pulses to the oats. leave them fairly “chunky” to add texture to the cookies.
5. add the oats, flour, baking soda and salt until the dough is formed.
6. add the chocolate chips and walnuts until combined and then place the bowl in the fridge for 30-60 minutes (or up to 2 days).
7. just before you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
8. remove the bowl from the fridge. roll dough into ~1” balls and place onto parchment-lined baking sheet.
Here’s my take on Skinnytaste’s Cheeseburger Casserole - it’s delicious, filling, comforting and tastes just like a deconstructed cheeseburger. You’ll see there are no beautiful “after” photos of the casserole displayed on my plate because… despite all those adjectives I previously described, it’s not the prettiest dish. I’m fine with that, though!
2. Boil your pasta until it’s al dente, following the instructions on the box. Drain and set aside once complete.
3. While the pasta is cooking, brown the onion in a large skillet with a little olive oil.
4. After ~10 minutes, add the ground beef, garlic, ketchup, mustard, salt and pepper. Cook until the meat is browned throughout.
5. Once the meat is completely browned, add the crushed tomatoes and cooked pasta. Stir everything together in the skillet and let simmer for a few minutes.
6. While simmering, spray a 9x13 casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Add the contents of the skillet and spread them evenly across the dish.
7. Sprinkle the top of the meat and pasta mixture with the shredded cheese and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until cheese is fully melted.
8. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the top of the dish with sesame seeds (just like a hamburger bun!) and chopped pickles.
It’s always fun to put a healthy spin on comfort food and sometimes there’s nothing more comforting than Chinese takeout! I love spiralizing veggies, but hadn’t tried ricing them yet, so I decided to experiment with cauliflower “rice” by transforming it into chicken fried “rice”!
It ended up coming together super quickly, tasted great as leftovers and most of the ingredients were things I regularly have on hand. The only thing I splurged on was buying sesame oil because I thought it’d add some more depth of flavor (I was right).
Ingredients (this serves 2-3 but is easily to double!)
2 c. chopped chicken (1-2 chicken breasts | you can poach or bake your own - I chose to use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store’s prepared food section and chopped it myself)
2.5 c. riced cauliflower (you can chop and put raw in the food processor but I’m lazy and bought pre-riced)
2 eggs
½ c. shredded carrots (again - you can shred your own, I was lazy)
½ c. frozen peas
1 T minced garlic (or 2 cloves)
1 t ginger (I used ground but you can use fresh if you want to grate)
2 T sesame oil (any vegetable oil would be fine)
2 T soy sauce (I used low sodium)
optional: 2 T chopped scallion + 2 t sesame seeds) + bean sprouts + mushrooms
now that you’re done with the collecting, let’s move onto the doing!
Instructions
1. Put 1 T sesame oil into a wok or large pan, over medium high heat and add the riced cauliflower. Add garlic and ginger and stir until mixed and warmed, appx. 2-3 minutes.
2. Form a well in the center of the pan and add remaining sesame oil to the center. Crack the eggs into the well and stir to scramble.
3. Once scrambled, toss with cauliflower rice and add chicken, shredded carrots, peas and scallions.
4. Stir everything together to mix and drizzle soy sauce over entire pan. Let cook together for another 2 minutes or so and then portion out into bowls.
Well hello, there! It’s been a minute. (Or FIVE YEARS AND ONE DAY) since I posted my last recipe on here.
In that time, I’ve started and finished grad school, gotten two new jobs, bought a condo, traveled to 19 states… you know, nothing big. Amidst the last five years, I had kind of fallen out of love with cooking, but lately, I’ve fallen back in love.
My schedule is nuts and my time at home is limited, so I’ve found that the time I’m home and get to create and meal plan in my kitchen is relaxing and fun. I’ve made protein bars, cooked my first meatloaf and tried to recreate some of my Nona’s favorite recipes. As I discover keepers that I know I’ll want to make again, I keep too many tabs open on my phone or copy and paste everything into a messy email draft. Enough of that! One of my favorite parts of this blog was always treating it as a virtual recipe box to save and share my favorite recipes.
So here I am again, in 2018, ready to share a recipe with you. Hopefully it’ll become a fairly regular occurrence! Let’s see if I remember how to do this…
I made these sheet pan barbecue turkey meatballs as an adaptation from the Lean Green Bean. I added a little more onion, used turkey, etc. but they came out delicious and I’m eating them all week for lunch with roasted sweet potatoes!
Details: Sheet Pan Barbecue Turkey Meatballs
Servings | 4
Time | 25 minutes prep + 25 minutes baking
Ingredients
1 lb. lean ground turkey (I used Plainville Farms Organic)
1 medium vidalia onion
1 egg (don’t be fooled by the two eggs pictured above…)
1 T minced garlic (or 2 cloves)
½ c. panko bread crumbs
2 T + ¼ C barbecue sauce (I used Full Circle Organic tangy)
salt + pepper (a pinch or two each)
1 T extra virgin olive oil
now that you’re done with the collecting, let’s move onto the doing!
Instructions
1. Dice the onion (ugly cry thanks to said onion) and then sautee in a pan with a little olive oil, over medium heat. I love the flavor of caramelized onions, so I let these go for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once cooked to your desired texture, remove from heat and let cool.
2. While the onions are cooling, preheat oven to 450* and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine ground turkey, cooled onions, egg, bread crumbs, 2T barbecue sauce, salt and pepper. Mix with your hands until everything is evenly distributed, but don’t overwork.
4. The mixture will be fairly loose, so work as well as you can to create ~10-12 large meatballs (mine were nowhere near perfect circles).
5. Drizzle half of the remaining barbecue sauce over these before you place in the oven for 12 minutes.
6. Remove after 12 minutes, flip the meatballs over, drizzle with the remaining barbecue sauce and return to the 450* oven for 10 minutes.
7. Remove, let cool slightly and enjoy!
PS - sorry my triumphant return involves such a non-photogenic recipe!
i'm elizabeth, a 20-something connecticut girl with a passion for hockey, hugs and healthy living. i love sharing my current obsessions, healthy spins on recipes and what motivates me. welcome to the blog - have a look around!
