Happy 13th Birthday!

He is the tall kid…he’s almost as tall as me!

There [...]]]> Holla and Happy Friday! I can’t honestly believe the weekend is here already.  The kids have been home all week and the time has flown by!  My ‘baby’ also turned 13 this week.  He is officially a teenager now. {scary}.

Happy 13th Birthday!

He is the tall kid…he’s almost as tall as me!

There was some kitchen catastrophes with the sugar cookies I mentioned I was baking on my Facebook page. The first batch fell apart, the second batch burned,

Too burned to eat!

The broken cookies are underneath, looking broken.

The third batch, actually got frosted! And by batch, I mean the 3rd bunch of pans…this was all the same batch of dough.

Heart cookies for Valentines Day

These were actually clean cookies all the way around.  I used beet juice to make the frosting pink…but the problem was, they kind of tasted like beets.  With that being said, I added more pure vanilla to cover up the flavor but to my they still tasted funky…and they were on the hard side anyway so they headed into the trash after about 3 days.  Oh, well. You win some, you lose some!  Cookie fail.

There was more homemade bread, and this time I was careful not to burn the loaf of french bread.  The kids think the rolls are too big (they are 3oz a piece) so next time I think I will make them 2 1/4 oz and see how that works.  I think I’ve finally mastered rolls, which is exciting given the kitchen catastrophes involved with my dough baking.

Perfect rolls

Loving the French Bread.  It’s a huge loaf for our family though, so I might make the dough and then freeze it to have it on hand in the future.

French bread. Un-burned.

I went into the pantry the other day for my sweet potatoes and found that they had sprouted!  This is actually a good thing, because now I can plant the eyes and grow sweet potatoes at home! I am very excited about this development.  I have yet to put them in the ground and this is the first year that I’ll be planting sweet potatoes so it should be interesting.

Blooming sweet potatoes

There was more homemade pizza (this always disappears within a day or so.  I’ve learned to make 2 dough balls at the same time so one can be frozen.

Mmmmm. Homemade Pizza

I’ve gotten into wanting alfalfa sprouts recently as I read how great they are for you, but then I found out that almost 100% of the alfalfa crops here in the US are GMO.  How disappointing.  I’ve decided to grow my own organic, because I do love sprouts.  Here is one way that I was eating them and it most certainly delicious!

Homemade sandwich…with yummy sprouts

So I may or may not have mentioned in the past that my wonderful husband bought me a hydroponics set up for the house.  My tomatoes are growing like crazy.  We plan to eat them, can them, dehydrate them…the possibilities are endless.  So excited to have organic tomatoes.  They have flavor and taste the way that a tomato should versus the non-organic tomatoes at the store which are tasteless and gross…and the reason is because they are GMO so that they don’t spoil. It’s a totally aesthetic thing.  Would you like a tomato that looks pretty or one that tastes like a tomato?

The hydroponics setup

I  just love that these plants get noticeably larger every single day.

Tomato plants

We are also growing various pepper plants, basil, parsley, lettuce…My basil has also started growing!

Hydroponic basil

I am also spouting chia seeds…so exciting!

Chia Sprouts

Can you see the little sprouts on the left?  Love it! Alfalfa is definitely next.

Have you had any luck in the kitchen this week? I can’t wait until my first tomato shows up on my plants.  I love that I have outside gardens and one inside as well.  Outside will be kale, spinach, brussel spouts, asparagus, strawberries, beans, melon and watermelon.  Happy gardening!

Happy Tuesday to everyone!

It’s been another sick day at my house, 3 down and 2 to go. My husband calls it “The Mike Tyson Virus.” He says it hits fast, hard and leaves just the same. There’s been a lot of upchucking lately. I really hope this one passes me by since I [...]]]>

Happy Tuesday to everyone!

It’s been another sick day at my house, 3 down and 2 to go.  My husband calls it “The Mike Tyson Virus.”  He says it hits fast, hard and leaves just the same. There’s been a lot of upchucking lately. I really hope this one passes me by since I was sick at Christmas, then had bronchitis…all because we went out shopping the day before Christmas Eve.  Next year, we will be getting our shopping done early!

Recently I’ve been, as you know if you follow along on Facebook, trying to clean up the kids food, and eradicate as many poisons around the house as I can.

Starting with the cleaning supplies.  I had an epiphany that I just didn’t want to buy anymore cleaning supplies. So instead, I’m switching to this:

Taking some advice from my friends on the Fit and Clean Facebook page, I used a vinegar/water solution and added fresh orange peels to it.  It already smells amazing. I’m actually excited about using it to clean!

In my quest to cook all things without preservatives (and GMO free as possible) I stopped buying cookies at the store for the kids dessert.  Instead, I’ve started baking a couple of different items which include sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and vanilla cupcakes.  I don’t endorse a ton of sugar, but they are allowed to have dessert after dinner.

I made drop sugar cookies one day and boy, did those go fast.  Now I don’t know if they actually like my cooking or not, but I imagine they wouldn’t eat something that didn’t taste good!

Drop sugar cookies

These were so easy to make.  I was very pleased with the way they turned out (and the fact that I didn’t burn them.) Burning things has been a constant issue with me lately, not sure why. (I think I’ll blame it on the oven, lol)

The kids wanted waffles and I had just bought this awesome waffled pancake pan from Williams- Sonoma:

The whole idea behind this pan is that you pour the batter on the waffled circles, cook, flip, then push the other side down.  This equates to a waffled pancake!

Yum!

Homemade waffled pancakes with real maple syrup. You can’t beat that with a stick.

The weather here in GA has been so-so, but we grilled up a couple of chickens that we marinated overnight in Chiavetta’s Marinade…it’s a western NY kind of thing…

It was good, but not as good as our marinade!  I still think our Bare Bones Marinade is the best (of course I would say that, but I am so serious!)

Bare Bones Marinade

The chicken that was cooked up turned out awesome.  Get a load of this picture!

BBQ Chicken

We must have spring fever because a beef brisket was also marinated and smoked…but in Bare Bones Marinade.

This was the moistest, scrumptious, decadent piece of meat that I have had in a very, very long time.

I made a sandwich out of mine on one of my homemade organic rolls that I baked up (and turned out).

Brisket sandwich

I have no words to describe how good that was! No words at all. I always have something to say, lol.

Today was a really big baking day for me.  I got it in my head that I was going to bake cookies (turned into cupcakes) because we were all out of dessert, sandwich bread, and pizza dough.

My sandwich bread dough didn’t rise like I thought it would (not sure what went wrong, except I didn’t proof the yeast). For some reason, it seems to have turned out anyway, even though it does look a little funny.

Homemade Sandwich bread

Just in case, I made “backup dough”. Who does that? I do, apparently.

My “backup dough” was a French bread recipe and turned out amazing:

French Bread

Boy, was I surprised when this doubled in size while baking!

I know I mentioned cupcakes. I tried to be creative and this is what I came up with: (the frosting was homemade too…)

Swirly Cupcake

and this…

Basket Weave Cupcake

and this!

More swirly-ness

OK, just one more…

Love this one

Coming soon…my article and personal take on genetically modified organisms, agent orange, aspartame, Round-Up and of course, the company who is behind all of this sickness…MONSANTO.  (We are NOT science experiments!)

Double batch this time!

It was sooo good, I haven’t been able to stop eating [...]]]> I named this blog post “Fall Granola Recipe” because it totally reminds me of fall…cinnamon, nutmeg… but this granola recipe is so good I could live on it indefinitely.  That says something.  I don’t say that very often.

Double batch this time!

It was sooo good, I haven’t been able to stop eating it since I made it.

The “after” picture

I added Craisins after it cooled instead of raisins. They added a lot to the flavor and texture.

Fit and Clean Fall Granola Recipe

Preheat oven to 300*

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup oat bran

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

1 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup Craisins

Directions

Mix all dry ingredients together including spices in a large bowl, set aside. Simmer honey, maple syrup, water and vanilla extract just until bubbles form. Combine wet ingredients into dry ingredients.  Spread in a single layer onto a baking pan (or 2).  Bake for 30 minutes, stirring half way through cooking time.

Enjoy!

Be sure to check out my updated page,  “What is clean eating?” It has been re-written and updated!

Even with that said, the items that I [...]]]> This week hasn’t actually been a great eating week for me, personally.  For someone not big on eating a ton of carbs, I’ve apparently been carbo-loading, because of the items I’ve been making homemade! Grrrr….sometimes it’s not easy and I’m sporting the weight gain to prove it.

Even with that said, the items that I cooked up this week that actually turned out (some turned out, some not so much) were really amazing.

Today we’re under a tornado warning here in Georgia.  There’s some really nasty weather out there!  I just saw a picture of a school where all of the kids were in the hallway, on their knees, facing the wall with their hands covering their heads.  Hoping my kids are ok as they’re at 3 different schools in the area and they’re not near each other.  Last week, we had the kids home from school on Friday for an “ice storm” that didn’t really happen, and this week tornado’s.  So my question is, who pissed off Mother Nature??

This week I made another batch of homemade, organic yogurt and the result was yummy parfaits.  I started with another fruit salad:

Fruit salad

added homemade yogurt, granola and some honey:

Homemade parfait

So much better then Starbucks. Healthier, too!

Mmmmmm!

I mentioned on my FaceBook page that my spinach was overgrown when I went out to see my garden.

Homegrown spinach

I picked a huge bowl, and then ate all of it in 2 days, lol

Sauteed wilted spinach

Cooked with turkey bacon, garlic, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. It was wonderful!

What made it even more wonderful then normal was the fact that I grew the spinach. It gives you a sense of satisfaction.

I also baked some rolls that resembled flat pancakes:

Flat pancake rolls

They tasted good, and the kids liked them, but they weren’t much of a sandwich roll! I’m ok with that, though, because it was my first attempt ever in making rolls! (My second attempt was successful, just in case you were wondering.)

Of course, I made some bread also, and managed to burn it because I decided multi-tasking was a good idea and didn’t hear the timer.

Burned boule

It doesn’t look terrible from the picture above,  but when you flip it…

Really burned bottom of the boule

I did manage to make up some more pizza dough for the kids lunches this week that turned out.

Let’s talk green smoothies for a minute.

Mojito green smoothie

Mojito Green Smoothie Recipe

1 package of fresh mint leaves (usually found in the produce section of a grocery store)

2 good sized handfuls of spinach

8 oz. pineapple juice

1 banana

1 bunch fresh kale

1 stalk celery

1 cup of ice (unless your banana is frozen, then you can omit the ice)

Blend until smooth.

Enjoy!

Have a great day…next post is my new granola recipe! I could live on this recipe…it is that good!!

How are you all doing? I’ve been great. I’ve been cooking quite a bit…and everything this time around has actually turned out! This is very exciting for me.

As some of you know, I’m on a quest to incorporate GMO Free foods and Organic foods into my families diet and our pantry. So [...]]]> Hello, all!

How are you all doing? I’ve been great.  I’ve been cooking quite a bit…and everything this time around has actually turned out!  This is very exciting for me.

As some of you know, I’m on a quest to incorporate GMO Free foods and Organic foods into my families diet and our pantry.  So far so good.

I made banana bread for Sean:

This is just your basic banana bread recipe: flour, sugar, vanilla, banana, baking soda. Very simple and easy, and with ingredients that can be pronounced.

I made a colorful fruit salad and there was a huge bowl full (it’s gone now.) The boys and I devoured it within 3 days.

There was cantaloupe too but that is gone also.

I tried again at the bacon and egg cups…and made some modifications and they turned out great!

They still don’t look like that wonderful picture I showed you last week but it’s probably made out of plastic or something for food pictures. (They do some weird things when taking pictures of food.)

Here is is my recipe for the bacon and egg cups:

Fit and Clean Bacon and Egg Cup Recipe

12 eggs

12 slices of turkey bacon

salt/pepper

cheese to top, or veggies (just set on top of the egg)

tin foil muffin cups.

Preheat oven to 350*

Taking a muffin pan, line each area with a tin foil baking cup.  Situate the bacon around the out edge of the muffin cup.  Crack the egg (whole egg or egg whites) and pour into the middle of the cup.  Add salt and pepper, then top with toppings of your choice, cheese and/or veggies.

Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

The kids loved these and, they keep in the fridge to reheat the following day(s) for breakfasts!

I don’t know if I mentioned my winter garden.  Right at the end of fall (it was a little late but oh, well) we planted our winter garden.  The weather is so mild in GA, (usually, this year it’s been very up and down…warm, then ice, then really cold…) Anyway, we planted cold weather seeds outside and they are finally growing!

Fresh garden spinach

My spinach looks like it needs to be harvested.

We also planted kale:

Farm fresh kale

The kale, unfortunately, isn’t doing as well as the spinach…it looks like it barely grew at all!

I had forgotten what this crop was until I saw these in the ground:

Farm fresh_____?

Thank goodness I saw these little buggers! I had totally forgotten that we planted radishes!  These are looking like they need to be harvested shortly too.

There was also some romaine lettuce:

Farm fresh romaine lettuce

This crop of lettuce could use a little bit more growing time.

The other item that I made this week was frozen yogurt.  My new ice cream machine came, I got it on sale because it was refurbished and it works like a charm.  I made the yogurt homemade, then added cocoa powder, organic sugar and vanilla:

I added this to the frozen container that fits in the ice cream maker and it turned out perfect!

Chocolate frozen yogurt

I have to admit, that only Aidan and I liked it…Sophia didn’t (I think it was too tangy for her) and Sean isn’t big on chocolate.  This is totally different flavored then ice cream.  The yogurt that I make is very tangy, and then the sugar that is added when frozen makes it a bit sweet.

Frozen yogurt

Do you remember the other day when I made homemade organic granola?  I found that this granola isn’t only great for snacking, it’s also great for breakfast with some milk.

Granola for breakfast

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday evening!  :)F

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that I’ve been talking a lot about GMO (genetically modified) Free food. It’s my new cause, and is very important.

Today’s post is not about GMO’s (that post will most likely happen this weekend), but more about how I am slowly switching to organic and [...]]]> Hello, all!

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that I’ve been talking a lot about GMO (genetically modified) Free food.  It’s my new cause, and is very important.

Today’s post is not about GMO’s (that post will most likely happen this weekend), but more about how I am slowly switching to organic and GMO Free in my pantry and refrigerator. (Of course, I will have my usual rants and raves lol.)

I am not throwing away food (who can afford to do that) but as I run out of items, I plan on replacing them with organic.  It’s more cost effective this way, I believe.  Food is so expensive no matter where you buy it; and the prices keep increasing every year.  I paid almost $6.00 a gallon for organic milk.  I find that disturbing.

Two of my new purchases this week included organic flour:

Hodgson Mill Flour

I’ve been ordering a lot of my organics from Amazon.com, I think they are competitively priced (and some times cheaper because a lot of the foods are in bulk).  This was a pack of 6 (2lb bags) for $21.00.

I also purchased organic apples:

Organic apples

as well as organic milk for the kids and yogurt…

Organic milk and yogurt

You can see that everything has the USDA Certified Organic label.

Anything with this label is supposed to be certified organic and GMO Free.  Of course, you still need to look at the ingredients to see if everything is organic.  (Nothing is easy when it comes from the government!)

I had a gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma (my favorite cooking store!!) so I decided to purchase a yogurt machine so we can make our own organic yogurt at home.

Cuisinart Yogurt Machine

To begin, you needed to measure out either 6 oz. of organic yogurt, or purchase starter cultures.  I opted for the yogurt.  Once you do this, out of each batch you hold 6 oz. back, and are able to reuse the starter indefinitely.

Oikos Organic 0% plain yogurt

(I swear there’s yogurt in the bowl…I didn’t realize that it wasn’t easily seen in the white bowl. )

Anyway, what you do is add the yogurt to 4 cups of organic milk, set the machine, and let it go.  The setting I had it at was for 6 hours, (the recommended time) and then it goes into cooling mode and stays there until you turn it off.

It turned out kind of watery, but I plan on straining off the whey (using cheesecloth) to make it into the thickness of Greek yogurt.

Homemade yogurt in Weck jars

For dinner one night Sophia wanted ravioli so I bought some frozen (Celentano) and made that for dinner.  I couldn’t find out if this brand is GMO free on the internet, and I just realized right now that on the ingredient list, it has modified corn starch. Also, I read last night that it’s possible that xanthan gum is potentially modified also. I’m fairly certain that it’s not GMO free.  Companies are so sneaky…you almost need a chemistry degree to read the ingredients.

In the near future, I would love to get a pasta maker attachment for my Mom’s Kitchenaid stand mixer.

Pasta night

This was the ingredient list:

Grrrrr!  Moving on (we all make mistakes…learn from mine.)

I bought one of the Kashi Certified GMO Free cereals…Cinnamon Harvest and it tastes great.  The only issue I have is that it’s made by Kellogg, who is currently being boycotted by GMO Free USA.  Which I found out yesterday.  (I was on my computer a lot of the day )  I’m trying, that’s all I have to say.

Kashi GMO Free cereal

Something that I did make this week was Clean Eating Granola and it turned out fantastic, AND is preservative and GMO Free.  (It is so easy to make, and a lot cheaper then buying at the store.)

My ingredients:

Granola Ingredients

I decided to replace the Goji Berries with raisins.  Oh, and this will go great with the homemade yogurt!

Before baking

The finished product after baking:

After baking

And, it looks very nice when put into Ball Jars.  You could even give it as a gift for holidays!

Homemade Granola

Fit and Clean Clean Eating Granola Recipe (makes to large jars full)

Indgredients

4 cups regular oats

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

1/2 cup chopped slivered almonds (or nut of your choice)

1 Tablespoon of ground cinnamon

1/2 cup apple juice (I juiced my own but store bought is fine)

1/2 cup of honey

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

4 teaspoons canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cooking spray (I have a Misto sprayer that I used with the organic Canola Oil)

1/2 cup of dried fruit (raisins, apples, goji berries, etc)

Directions

Preheat oven to 300*

Mix together first 5 ingredients

In a small sauce pan, add apple juice, brown sugar, and honey. Stirring frequently, heat until sugar dissolves

Add the two mixtures together stirring to combine

Spray a large baking pan (or 2!) with cooking spray and bake at 300* for 10 minutes.

Stir every 10-15 minutes and cook until golden brown.  Mine took 1 hour, but I should have used 2 pans.  If 2 pans are used, I would say 20-25 minutes on average.

After baking stir in dried fruit.

Voila! Enjoy.

The next post will be about my hockey-puck-like bread…but I will post a picture of the loaf that actually turned out and tasted GREAT.  Recipe to come soon…

Homemade Organic Boule

Christmas Day Early Risers

The kids look exhausted and for good reason…Sophia got up at 3:30am and woke everyone up! I went upstairs and sent them all back to bed. [...]]]> Happy New Years! 2012 seemed like it flew by, and then suddenly it was 2013.  This year is going to be a great year!

Christmas Day Early Risers

The kids look exhausted and for good reason…Sophia got up at 3:30am and woke everyone up!  I went upstairs and sent them all back to bed.  At 7am they were still sleeping and we woke them up, lol.

On a side note, I can’t remember the last time I was sick. (or the last time my husband was sick). I started getting sick on Christmas Eve with a small cough.  I was a day behind my husband with this cold.  On Christmas Day, I had the chills and was coughing (barking!) like a seal.  I made it to 7pm and then completely fell asleep.  I was sick for a good 3 or 4 days…and I still have the cough.  It loosened up fairly quickly (thank goodness) but still sounds like I have a bad case of bronchitis.

For many of you who follow on my FaceBook page, I mentioned that my personal trainer certification expires in 7 days.  I’ve decided that, when I renew, I’m also going to get certified in nutrition.  Then at least I have the certification to back up my big mouth!

I didn’t do a lot of baking for the holidays this year.  I made some “Christmas Brownies”,

Christmas Brownies

almond butter cookies (just like peanut butter), chocolate chip cookies, and some break-and-bake that I got at the store that are preservative free from Immaculate Baking Company.

Immaculate Baking Company Cookies

Santa of course, got cookies, a brownie and carrots for his reindeer on Christmas Eve along with a glass of milk. Santa even left a message on the plate for the kids:

Santa Plate

I did cook two other things…one turned out really well and one didn’t (through no fault of mine, lol)

Let’s start with the one that actually turned out:

Cinnamon Spiced Almonds

Cinnamon Spiced Almonds Recipe

1 egg white

3 cups of plain almonds

1/2 cup of sugar

3 Tablespoons of good quality ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250*

1.  Whisk egg white until frothy (not stiff)

2.  Stir to combine sugar, cinnamon and salt

3.  Coat almonds in egg white

4.  Toss and thoroughly cover with sugar mixture

5.  Spread in a single layer on a baking pan and bake for 1 hour or until golden brown

Enjoy!

The other item that I cooked was bread.  I really, really wanted some homemade bread.  I have a bread machine that we’ve had since the 1990′s.  Well, I think it finally went “Kaput”, because the bread ended up as hard as a brick and looking very strange:

Homemade Bread

This was actually my second go around with the bread machine. I thought maybe I had used expired flour or yeast the first time, so the second time I made sure everything was fresh.  I just don’t think that the bread machine was getting up to temperature to get the bread to rise and then bake.  Bummer!  I guess I’ll have to start baking bread the old fashioned way.  That should result in some interesting pictures, lol.

Soon I will be writing a post on genetically modified foods and how I think the government is letting big corporations poison our food supply.  It should be an interesting post.  Follow me on FaceBook under Fit and Clean and I’ll be sure to let you know when that post is up.

Do you all have any New Years resolutions?  Three of mine are to buy non-GMO foods, grow an abundance of veggies this year (through normal gardening and hydroponics) and complete 60 days of Beachbody’s Insanity.

Insanity

During all of the holiday hustle and bustle, I wanted to take the time to wish you all Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings, and Merry Christmas! (You get the idea).

Moving on, this past week I made a dip that you can use with veggies, baked potatoes, chips/pretzels, etc. Of course [...]]]> Happy Wednesday!

During all of the holiday hustle and bustle, I wanted to take the time to wish you all Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings, and Merry Christmas! (You get the idea).

Moving on, this past week I made a dip that you can use with veggies, baked potatoes, chips/pretzels, etc.  Of course it is with our marinade, Bare Bones Marinade.  The kids loved it.  I love the versatility of our marinade, and that I can make so many different food items with it.  If you’re interested in purchasing it, or reading the story behind the marinade, you can visit the website here.

I then added some dip to my baked potato and it was yummy!  I hate that to make a potato taste good you have to load it with butter, and/or cheese.  Potatoes are so bland. Not my potatoes, never again!

Sophia and I made cut-out chocolate chip cookies this past weekend.  She had so much fun. (I had fun, too.) I love spending time with the kids.  We’ve gotten into the habit of playing board games or cards with them almost every night.  It’s the little things that make family time fun.

I instructed Sophia in how important flour is…

and the result was chocolate chip cut-outs.

Along with the baked potato I showed you earlier there was roast chicken and brussel sprouts.  I’ve been all about easy meals lately, with the holidays approaching.

As you all probably know, one of my favorite vegetables is brussel sprouts.  My second favorite is broccoli.  I cook a lot of each.

Brussel sprouts and broccoli can be steamed (like in the picture above) or roasted:

They’re not pretty, but they tasted really great.

Today since I was home for lunch I decided to bake up some salmon.  Salmon is surprisingly easy to bake in the oven.

Clean Eating Baked Salmon in Bare Bones Marinade

Preheat oven to 375*.

Make a foil pouch completely encasing the salmon inside.

Place on a cookie sheet, and bake on the center rack in your oven.

Bake between 12-20 minutes depending on how thick of a cut the salmon is.  Mine was thin, so I opted for 13 minutes.

I love salmon (especially smoked salmon!) but salmon done this way was absolutely mouth-watering.

Are you all prepared for the holidays?  What do you have left to do?