Lately I have been wondering what recipes I could make as easy snacks, because honestly snacks can be the hardest thing for me to come up with. I never remember to make any, or create new ones until it’s 3 o’clock and I’m hungry.

Surely you’ve never struggled with that? Right?

Well, Mommypotamus has a list this week about 21 healthy snack recipes, and best of all they’re grab and go. Yay! Thank you Heather!

I want to try the Sweet Coconut and Curry Granola Bars, Homemade Cherry Larabars, GAPS Berry Scones, and Lacto-Fermented Dilly  Carrot Sticks. Wow… that could take me a little, but they all sound so good.

Have a great snack-tastic weekend!

Please check each recipe before you make it – from my quick glance most were GAPS legal, but please double check.

Photo Credit – The Nourishing Gourmet

The idea of scrambled eggs made in a mini muffin tin just was so cute I had to give it a go. After all isn’t it nice to spruce up breakfast once and a while? Otherwise it just gets to boring. This type of recipe should be easy to customize any way you’d prefer.

Have fun experimenting! (you’ll find the basic recipe/ratio on at the link up top)

Sundried Tomato Scrambled Egg Bites

• 5 eggs
• 2 tbsp yogurt
• 2 tbsp onions, finely minced
• 4 sundried tomatoes, finely chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Scramble eggs, add other ingredients, and mix gently. Pour in greased mini muffin cups. Bake @ 350F for 18-20 minutes. Until lightly browned.

Makes about 16 mini muffin bites. Would also make a great snack.

What flavor combo would you want to try?

Not being able to buy mayo was hard in the beginning. I mean, really, no other recipe seems to taste like the jars on the shelf. But, once you get used to making your own the flavor is really good.

If you’re still struggling with the flavor let me know below and I can write a post on flavor troubleshooting, but back to the subject at hand…

What I really missed was the creamy texture. It seemed like silky, smooth mayo was what professional chefs made, and seriously, if they told me to hand whisk I would have probably screamed. Uh, no. I like quick and easy. But my Mom came up with the perfect solution.

Use a food processor (affiliate link).

The top of your food processors compact cover usually has a little cup with a hole in it. So all you have to do is put all the ingredients (except your oil) in the food processor and turn it on. Then fill the little cup with oil and let it slowly drizzle in, filling the cup when it’s drained to far, until all the oil is gone.

Voila! That easy. That quick. And that simple.

Have you had any aha’s in the kitchen lately?

Unfortunately my photos decided that they didn’t want to turn out great – I really need to make a lightbox to help at night. So please know that it looked and tasted great no matter what my bleh photography tells you!

I know this because if I hadn’t wanted to eat it someone was there who would.

Case and point.

Garlic, Rosemary and Sage Roasted Chicken

Serves 6-8, prep. time 2 hrs and 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken
2 tbsp dried sage
1 tsp dried rosemary
10 garlic cloves (4 cloves, diced)
1 lemon, cut lengthwise in 6 slices
1 onion (cut in big chunks)
6-7 tbsp of melted butter
1 cup of water
1 tbsp sea salt (1 tsp if using salted butter)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Mix together the sage, rosemary, 4 diced garlic cloves, salt and pepper in the butter. Rinse and pat dry your chicken (place in on a roasting rack in a pan) and gently lift the fat over the chicken breasts up and pour some of the butter mixture underneath. Use the rest of the mixture to coat the outside of the bird. Stuff the cavity with the onion, lemon, and remaining garlic.

They said to cook the chicken at 330º F for 2 hours, but we found it took a little longer (one spot didn’t get cooked so we pan finished it since everyone was hungry). Let rest for about 5 minutes before you carve and serve.

We had it with broccoli and (what else?) more butter.

The question I want to put to you today is: Should your school decide whether you’re feeding your child a healthy lunch?

Because back in February a school decided that a the lunch a 4 year old brought to school wasn’t good enough, took it away, and gave her chicken nuggets instead!

So, this isn’t just a question of will you have to answer this question but what will your answer be?

Here’s a great article about it: Step Aside Mom–School Can Feed Your Kid Better than You by Madame Agrarian.

Kudos Madame Agrarian!

Chicken Nugget Photo by Yoppy

It brings to mind White Christmas: “It’s right in between ouch… and boing.”

But it doesn’t have to be and here are some tried and true tips to help it fit in your budget.

1. Buy online – it’s pretty much always cheaper.
2. Buy on sale – sign up for newsletters, save your money so your ready, then pounce when the sale comes in.
3. Buy in bulk – buying 25 lbs (or more) at a time may seem like a lot, but it saves money and almond flour freezes great. Keep gallon freezer bags and when the box comes divide into 5-6 bags, and keep one in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. Just remember to pull out the next bag when your first is getting low.
4. Buy with friends- buying in bulk is great, but the more you buy sometimes the more price breaks you get (and you can also split any shipping charges). So call your friends when that sale comes in!

We buy our Almond Flour from Honeyville and it tends to have good prices and great sales.

photo by Elana’s Pantry

Guess what? Most of the ideas are GAPS safe! (or can be made so)

My 3 favorites are:

• Banana Ice Cream
• Pan-Fried Apple Slices
• Cobblers and Fresh Fruit Pies

Okay, I also like the idea of baked apples. Especially since baked apples can be a special breakfast along with some scrambled eggs.

I think stuffing them with crispy pecans, cinnamon and nutmeg, and a couple dollops of butter would be delicious. Do you have a favorite type of apple? Mine’s Ida Reds.

Apple Photo

But if you eat microwave popcorn yours or your child’s may not be working. The reason? Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs).

What in the world are perfluorinated compounds? I mean they’re even hard to pronounce. Well, these are some of the same chemicals that you can find in those Teflon pans you and I have already heard enough about. But PFCs can also be found in:

• Grease-resistant food packaging and paper products
• Cleaning and personal-care products
• Stain Resistant items or treatments

And these are the chemicals have been found to lower immune responses, specifically to diphtheria and tetanus, and here was the shocker:

Indeed, the levels of antibodies in the blood of some children exposed to PFCs indicated they were not protected against these diseases by age 7. quote from MSNBC Article

So, your child might not even be protected. It certainly is food for thought – whether or not your kids are vaccinated – and another reason to avoid as many chemicals as possible.

Because my question is: what else are they doing?

Popcorn Pic

click pic for credit

When I saw this recipe I knew I had to link to Heather at Mommypotamus for her Chimichurri Sauce recipe.

I’m not a fan of spicy heat in my food, in fact mild salsa tends to have to much kick for me, but the flavors paired with the spice sound so good!

Oregano, Rosemary, and Thyme are some of my favorite herbs, and don’t they remind you of a song?

~

(My Dad sings pieces of it when those herbs are mentioned.)

Anyway my favorite idea of Heather’s is putting her Chimicurri Sauce on butternut – roasted, hot butternut.

What do you think would be the best use for her Chimicurri? I’ve never used it and would love any ideas.

My other thought was Chim-Chim-Curri, but lets not go there.

Reading other blogs is so worthwhile. It can be a source of encouragement and knowledge. My favorite thing is when it’s a bit of a “what…?” Or “you’ve got to be kidding me”.

photo credit

Usually this provokes a rabbit trail for me and last Friday was a fun and disgusting informative bunny hop.

I was reading Rachel’s (from over at day2dayjoys) article, at Keeper At Home, on 12 Steps to a Healthier Life in 2012 – part 1. Well, I was reading along enjoying everything she had to say as it aligns so well with what I’m always trying to do in my life when this one piece of a sentence caught my eye.

McDonald’s chicken nuggets (which are now labeled with a warning label in California, cause cancer)

I know I only made it to step one, but seriously I didn’t know that they are labeled that way in California. It blew me away so I Googled “McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets Cancer”. Some interesting results turned up. Especially this question:

Q: What’s the difference between McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets in the US vs. the UK?

A: Silly Putty!

Fooducate Blog

Now there isn’t technically silly putty in your McNugget, but there is an anti-foaming agent called dimethylpolysiloxane in there that is also used in Silly Putty. The dimethy-stuff is also what is used in breast implants – that’s right it’s a type of silicone.

photo credit

Um…? Yuck.  I know I won’t be eating a McNugget again in my lifetime.

The World Health Organization may say it’s “inert” but I don’t think something that can be used to treat head lice – yes, head lice – should be in my “happy meal”.

Sometimes you don’t know where your bunny trail will lead you, but mine seems to have lead me to that inevitable end – no processed foods thank you very much.

For those of you that are still with me you might enjoy reading the rest of Rachel’s article it’s worth a read.

Did you have a big aha about processed foods that helped you decide not to eat them?