Finally something new

So I'm sorry I stopped posting. As many know, I'm pregnant and I pretty much stopped when I started feeling crappy. HA! Well I can't promise that I'll be better know, but I figured I would add a couple of recipes that our family has fallen in love with in the last 7 MONTHS! AH!
The first 2 recipes have been on my friend's blog Simplyhealthful.blogspot.com. It's a great blog for healthy living and so these recipes are healthier. I'm just going to copy them from her blog.

Mini loaves for the adults and mini muffins without chocolate chips for the children.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
¾ cup Oatmeal Flour
¼ cup milled Flax
1 Tablespoon Wheat Germ
1 teaspoon Baking Soda (aluminum free)
½ teaspoon Real Salt
½ cup Egg Beaters*
2 cups Mashed Bananas
½ cup Honey
¼ cup Applesauce
1 Tablespoon fresh Lemon Juice
½ teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Chocolate Chips or Carob Chips(optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Combine wet ingredients together in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Bake mini muffins at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes or until done. For large loaves bake at 325 degrees for 55 minutes or until toothpick/knife test comes out clean.

*Note: I leave out the eggs and just add a little more banana and flax seed. I have yet to notice a difference in the banana bread.
(I didn't come up with this recipe, I got it from someone that adapted it and then adapted it more myself. HA!)

Quinoa

To cook the quinoa, add one part of the grain (make sure to rinse it well before cooking) to two parts liquid in a saucepan. After the mixture is brought to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer and cover. One cup of quinoa cooked in this method usually takes 15 minutes to prepare. We have enjoyed it warm and cold with the following recipe.

Quinoa Salad

We just eyeball the amounts, if you like lots of veggies do more, and if you want more grain do fewer veggies. All veggies are cut up. This is just what we had put in and found we like, so by all means add your favorite vegetables and take out what you don’t like.

Cooked Quinoa
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Avocado
Basil or any other favorite fresh herb you have
Mung bean sprouts or Alfalfa sprouts
Juice of a Lemon (to taste)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (just enough to coat the grain)
Salt to taste

Quinoa Patties

Cooked Quinoa
Milled Flax seed
Egg
Shredded: carrots, zucchini, cucumber
Fresh cilantro and parsley
Salt and other seasonings you like

Make into patties and grill with a small amount of olive oil. We like putting avocado on the top.

(If you are wondering what Quinoa is go to this blog post and read up. It's an amazing grain and we cook with it ALL the time now.)

Taco Pasta Salad
So this one is really not all the creative, but I ended up liking it. (Sorry no picture.) I got the idea from the Eating For Life cookbook and did it my own way. I think it is a great way to make use left over taco meat or just give another option to using taco meat.
Oh and of course I didn't measure anything, so I would say eyeball it and do how much you like of everything. For example I didn't want a ton of meat, so I didn't put much in, but put a lot of veggies and pasta.

1. Make taco meat your favorite way.
2. While cooking meat, cook your pasta. I used a whole wheat penne pasta.
3. Mix the meat and pasta together then add: Black Beans, Tomatoes, Avocado, Corn, cilantro, cheese, or anything else you like with your taco. After mixing it all together, add either Ranch dressing or sour cream to LIGHTLY coat everything.

Next time I think I might try adding lettuce. This time the bowl just got too full. This also seems like it would be a great left overs for lunch the next day!