Date Balls

For the past couple of weeks I have been looking for kid friendly nut free snack ideas. My oldest son will be starting kindergarten in the fall. All my favourite recipes included peanut butter or nuts. So here is one of the recipes I found that was healthy, easy to make, did not contain nuts and my kids would actually eat.
















Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds (or sunflower seeds)
• 1/4 cup oats
• 1/4 cup craisins
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 cup pitted dates 

Directions:

• Add seeds and oats to food processor and process until it's a crumb like texture.
• Add craisins, raisins, and dates to food processor
• Process until mixture starts to form a ball. 
• You may need to add a couple more dates until mixture starts to clump together
• Take ball out of processor and start forming bite size date balls. 
• Makes approximately 12-15 date balls. 
• Store in airtight container in refrigerator 

I have seen these rolled in hemp seeds or coco powder but for some reason my kids won't eat it that way. These are a great snack for kid or adult lunches. If you have any easy nut free snack ideas please let me know. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Jamie Oliver's Mediterranean Roast Chicken Pasta

This meal looks a lot more complicated than it actually is. My kids thoroughly enjoyed it. Both my boys asked for seconds, even my very picky 5 year old. It is a great way to get your kids or spouse to eat their vegetables. I added zucchini to the roasting pan as well to get some extra vegetables and because my zucchini plant is bursting. 

The great thing about this meal is that there was leftovers for my husbands lunch. 

Ingredients:

Tomatoes from my garden

• 1 3-4lb whole chicken
• 1 lemon
• 5 tomatoes or a couple tomatoes on the vine
• a handful of fresh basil
• a handful of fresh thyme
• a couple lovage leaves (optional)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• pasta noodles (your choice)
• a pinch of salt 
• a pinch of pepper
• a splash of water
• 4-5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• Parmesan

Basil and thyme from my herbal garden. I added lovage later.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degress
2. Add handful of basil, thyme and loveage in pestle and mortar along with salt and pepper. 
3. Grind until it becomes a nice paste. 
4. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to paste to make a fragrant marinade. 
5. Rub marinade all over whole chicken. 
6. Place chicken as well as tomatoes and garlic in roasting pan. 
7. Rub marinade over the vegetables in the roasting pan. 
8. Poke lemon and place in chicken.
9. Take chicken out of roasting pan, place rack in roasting pan and put chicken on top of the rack.
10. Add splash of water to roasting pan. 
11. Cook in oven for an hour and 20 minutes. 
12. Once out of oven use baster to remove liquid from pan and put the juice back on chicken. 
13. Place chicken on different pan and put back on in oven for 2-3 minutes. 
14. Cover tomatoes with 4-5 tomatoes and put in oven for 2-3 minutes. 
15. Boil water. Cook pasta noodles. Save some of the pasta water for sauce. 
16. Take chicken and tomatoes out of oven. 
17. Add noodles and a splash of pasta water to tomatoes and mix thoroughly. 
18. Add parmesan to noodles. 
19. Slice chicken and place on top of noodles. 
20. Enjoy your meal!

One of my favourite people to watch on youtube is Jamie Oliver. I love his Food tube channel as well as his Family Food tube channel where there is a wide variety of family friendly recipes. Here is the link where Jamie Oliver makes this recipe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFAArCV952M

Thanks so much for checking out my blog and I hope you enjoyed!

My Go To Bread Recipe

I make my own bread but I cheat a little. I'm not hardcore enough to make my bread from scratch. If someone wants to teach me I'm willing to learn. This recipe is quick and easy. I make it about 4-5 times a week. I have the recipe memorized. There's just something nice about having fresh homemade bread.

I make the dough in my bread machine then I put the dough in a loaf pan. Once it's risen in the loaf pan for 30 minutes I put it in the oven for 30 minutes.

I just love the way it looks. It looks like I've spent hours baking bread. It doesn't have that odd shape you get from baking it in the bread machine.











Ingredients:

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons coconut sugar (brown sugar works fine as well)
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast or instant active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup hemp seeds

Directions: 

• Place ingredients listed above into bread machine
• Set machine to dough setting on machine and wait an hour and a half
• Take out dough and place in parchment lined loaf pan
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Allow to rise until oven is heated
• Bake for 30 minutes 
• Enjoy! or let your kids enjoy!

I got this recipe from http://passionatepennypincher.com/2015/09/the-best-bread-machine-dough-recipe/   but I tweaked it a little and made it my own.

I always hated my name.

How to begin... There are literally thousands of articles on how to write your first blog, who knew? To begin I will answer 3 questions:

1.) Job?

I am a maid (not a very good one), a chef, a taxi driver, a nurse, and a whole host of other things. I am a stay at home mom. 

2.) Passions?

I am passionate about a lot of things. Cooking. Gardening. Books. Photography. Zero waste lifestyle. Laughter. Sarcasm. 

3.) Why a blog?

In my mind, I thought I would love to share to the recipes I love and recipes that didn't work for me. Essentially though I think the reason I have started a blog is to keep what's left of my sanity. Being a mom is the most difficult and rewarding job I have ever done. I realized I needed to find something that is life giving. I needed something in my life other than watching Netflix in the evenings. I needed to find something that would give me joy and hopefully a blog will help with that.