Baked Pumpkin Pasta is a quick, healthy pasta dish made with pumpkin, zucchini and ricotta cheese. This simple comfort food is perfect for a weeknight dinner.
I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it again: Fall is my favorite time of year for cooking and baking. Mainly because I love pumpkin recipes! While I typically prefer to use pumpkin in baked goods, this Baked Pumpkin Pasta made for a delightful, easy and healthy weeknight dinner. …
This Healthy Banana Mango Smoothie is a thick, frosty, fruity smoothie with a protein boost from Greek yogurt. I often add ground flaxseed for additional health benefits.
Ever since I made my Diet Mixed Berry Smoothie recipe, I have been on a real smoothie kick. While I have enjoyed coming up with several different recipes, I think this Healthy Banana Mango Smoothie recipe is my favorite. When made with a perfectly frozen banana and chilled mango, this smoothie whips up to the consistency of soft serve ice cream….
Cheesy Broccoli Penne Pasta dish is made on the lighter side with a light cheddar and Parmesan sauce and fresh broccoli. A quick and healthy stove top meal, this is a great weeknight dinner!
We love cheesy pasta dishes, and generally the more cheese the better, right? In summer months we tend to gravitate to lighter meals, leaving our beloved cheesy baked pasta dishes by the wayside. They can be a bit heavy, and while I love baked pasta, I don’t always love to turn on the oven when the temperatures rise. That’s where this Cheesy Broccoli Penne Pasta dish is perfect. It has a light cheddar and Parmesan cheese sauce ~ just enough to coat the pasta and broccoli. And it’s all made on the stove top in under 30 minutes. You can’t beat that!…
Mediterranean Lentil Salad is a healthy, protein-packed, veggie-rich grain salad, mixed with a tangy balsamic vinaigrette. There are so many delicious flavors at play here, with red onions, garlic, parsley and, of course, the balsamic vinaigrette. This easy recipe is a great base recipe with lots of flexibility to customize it to your preference. You could add spinach, change up the amounts of tomatoes, onions, etc. Mediterranean Lentil Salad can also be vegan by simply omitting the feta cheese.
I really like using lentils because they are such a great source of lean protein and high fiber and iron too. Per the bag I used, there are 12 grams of protein and 14 grams of fiber…all with zero fat. I find lentils to be a great meat substitute in recipes, such as tacos. In fact, I am putting the final tweaks on a lentil taco recipe to share with you soon!
It’s my favorite time of month again…the Eating with the Alphabet Challenge hosted by Brenda from Meal Planning Magic! This month we were to showcase a recipe using a fruit, vegetable or grain that begin with the letters K or L. Lentils are the first that came to mind, and I had so much fun trying different, healthy recipes with them. If you’re a blogger, why not join us! It’s fun to come up with new, healthy recipes as well as see what other bloggers decide to make. Brenda has more information and sign up details here.
Sunbutter Waffles are whole wheat, buttermilk waffles made with sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter (or other nut butter), making them a nut-free alternative. While perfect just as-is, we also enjoy them topped with additional sunbutter, berries or maple syrup.
We have had a waffles iron for years, but for whatever reason it hasn’t been used much…well, until recently. If you’re a regular reader, you know how much my Adam loves pancakes. At least once per week, I make his favorite kind(s) of pancakes to load up the freezer and/or just to have on hand. Sometimes I would end up making a double (or triple!) batch. On my small little griddle, this exercise could take hours. A labor of love I guess. These days, with a newborn in the house, it’s a bit tricky to devote that much time to cooking or baking anything. On a whim, I decided to try my hand at waffles. Due to Adam’s peanut allergy, I opted to transform my beloved peanut butter waffles into sunbutter waffles. I was pleased to discover cooking waffles is much quicker than flipping pancakes. And Adam had 5 waffles for breakfast that day. Operation waffle was a success!
For another recipe using sunbutter, try these Cocoa Crispy Sunbutter Bars. They make a great snack!
Jalapeno Popper Pasta is a cheesy, spicy dish where comfort food meets an appetizer favorite. This grown-up mac ‘n cheese dish is filled with tasty jalapeno peppers, topped with garlic breadcrumbs and is made a little lighter too!
While Mike and I were pretty sure we would enjoy Jalapeno Popper Pasta, because I mean really…between the cheese and garlic breadcrumbs and a nice kick from the jalapenos…it’s a safe assumption, right? Well, this is how it typically goes down when I want to photograph our dinner for the blog. I load up a plate for photos and head over to my photo spot. I tell Mike to go ahead and start without me, but he always says he wants to wait. (He might sneak a bite or two). Photos take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes depending on various factors, and then we eat! These photos didn’t take long, maybe 5 minutes. I went to the table, and Mike had already finished. He just smiled and went to load up for seconds. It’s that good!
If you’re lucky enough to have a garden full of jalapenos, this Jalapeno Popper Pasta is a delicious, new and different way to use them up.
The past few months, I have been able to knock out several recipes from my bucket list with this challenge, and each of these recipes have become household staples. Gotta love a 3 year old who can’t get enough of roasted chickpeas (we go through 1 can every 1 to 2 days!)
Thank you I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! for sponsoring this post. Visit www.icantbelieveitsnotbutter.com for more information about Breakfast After Dark.
We love breakfast for dinner (or “brinner” as it’s often called), whether it’s waffles, pancakes, egg scrambles or frittatas. This Easy Vegetable Frittata is a frequent “go-to” dinner because it’s quick, easy, and we can easily use up whatever vegetables or cheeses we have on hand. Mike can make it too, which is another plus!
In this frittata, for the veggies, I used sliced red pepper, chopped broccoli florets, chopped red onion, and some garlic, and I used cheddar for the cheese. It was such a delicious combination and so colorful! I paired my frittata with a mixed green side salad, because that’s generally what I have with any dinner. Mike skipped the salad and enjoyed his with a beer ~ it is dinner after all!
With Mother’s Day just a few days away, this frittata would be an excellent dish to enjoy at your celebratory breakfast/brunch or for a breakfast for dinner. Tomorrow I will be sharing another great brunch recipe…and it’s even easier to make!
For more tips about making this delicious frittata, check out the Breakfast After Dark Episode “Fabulous Frittata with Lisa Vanderpump“
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
Today I am being featured over at Momma’s Meals where I’m being featured as part of Tammi’s Featured Fridays series! Every Friday, Tammi gets to know her fellow bloggers and makes one of their recipes to share with her family and then with her readers.
I thought it would be fun to make something from Tammi’s site to share with you, and her Individual Deep Dish Pizzas were perfect! Incidentally I had been looking at an Everyday Food recipe for little deep dish pizzas made in a muffin tin, so these Mini Deep-Dish Pizzas that I’m sharing with you is sort of a combination of the two recipes.
Sources: Everyday Food,September, 2010 and Momma’s Meals
I am excited to share this recipe with you. Easy Ravioli Lasagna has become one of our favorite weeknight dinners! It has the delicious flavor of lasagna yet is made with only 5 main ingredients and takes 10 minutes to prepare ~ perfect these days when I find myself juggling a newborn and a busy 3 year old at dinnertime. This lasagna can also be made ahead (like before leaving for work or, in my case, before the kids wake up) so it’s ready to just pop in the oven at dinner.
From the original recipe, I increased the sauce, added some red pepper flakes, and actually reduced the cheese (surprising for a cheese-lover like myself, but it was way too much and took away from the overall dish). This Easy Ravioli Lasagna is made with spinach, but I think sautéed mushrooms and garlic would also be delicious. We have made this several times, and it’s always a crowd-pleaser. Speaking of crowds, this recipe can easily be doubled to fit a 13″x9″ lasagna pan and you’ll have enough to serve a crowd or have lots of leftovers for lunches. It reheats beautifully!
Slightly adapted from All You, March 2009
Healthy Chocolate Coconut Truffles have the delicious flavors of dark chocolate and coconut…all coming in around 60 calories and without any added sugar of fat. They are made using only 3 main ingredients (plus an optional ingredient which helps to deepen and intensify the chocolate flavor). Even better – they take only minutes to make. Intrigued? I certainly was when I first found the recipe but it took me over 9 months to make them. I am kicking myself that it took so long…they are so amazingly good!
Thankfully, it is time again for the second installment of the Eating the Alphabet Challenge, hosted by Brenda of Meal Planning Magic. Participating in this challenge was the extra push I needed to make these truffles. This month we’re featuring healthy recipes using fruits, vegetables, grains or legumes that start with letters C or D. Since Healthy Chocolate Coconut Truffles feature both coconut and dates, I’ve got both letters covered this month.
