Ratatouille Egg Bake

I absolutely love our CSA.  We got fresh eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash this week.  There is only one thing that comes to mind when hearing those ingredients... Ratatouille!! I love ratatouille!  It reminds me so much of Paris, even though we never had it while we were there.  Maybe it's from the movie.  I made ratatouille for the first time after watching the movie with the cute little mouse and it was so delicious! Nick didn't really care that much for it because he was still hungry afterwards.  So this time, I added an egg and served with homemade focaccia bread.  It was very filling and healthy and delicious.  I love the addition of the egg.  It really adds a lot.  Enjoy!

Ratatouille Egg Bake
Serves: 3

Ingredients:
1 eggplant, cubed
1 zuchini, cubed
1 yellow squash, cubed
1 red pepper, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
3 eggs

Directions:
Chop eggplant and toss with a tablespoon of salt.  Let drain for 30 minutes. Rinse well, squeezing out excess water.  Pat dry and set aside
Meanwhile, add oil to a large skillet and place over medium heat.  Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally.  Add eggplant, zucchini, squash, oregano and salt and pepper.  Cover skillet and cook to soften vegetables, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and 1/4 cup of basil.  Cover and simmer until tomatoes are softened and flavors are concentrated.  
Make nests in the ratatouille and crack an egg into each nest.  Cover pot and cook eggs to desired doneness, 2-5 minutes.  Enjoy!

Chicken Stuffed Avocado Salad

This a perfect meal on a hot summers day.  It's filling, fast, and healthy and you don't have to heat the house! It's a super easy meal and looks really fancy too. 

Chicken Stuffed Avocado Salad

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1 avocado, pealed, cored, and sliced in half

1 chicken breast, seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

2 tablespoons salsa (make your own fresh salsa here)

1 tsp. cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Salad fixings such as lettuce, red pepper, corn, tomato and red onions. 

Directions:

Shred the grilled chicken and mix with yogurt and salsa and add cumin and salt and pepper to taste. Mix until well blended.  Top each avocado half with the chicken and serve over the salad fixings of your choice.  Enjoy!! 

Fresh Salsa

Our garden literally has millions of tomatoes.  That is not even an exaggeration... maybe a little.  I love having great organic fresh tomatoes always on hand though.  And there is nothing better than fresh salsa to make with all those tomatoes.  This is the second big vat of salsa we've made in 2 weeks.  You can eat it on anything! Chicken, tortilla chips, salads... even ice cream... if you're daring.  When I'm making this, I really don't measure or pay attention, but here are estimates of what I put into the salsa.  Just taste and adjust according to your liking.  Enjoy!

Salsa
Makes: 2 cups? (I really don't know... it goes too fast.)

Ingredients:
5 medium sized tomatoes, diced small
1 small red onion, diced small
1 small jalapeno pepper, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 lime, zested and juiced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp sea salt

Directions:
Once you finely chop all of your ingredients, add them to a large mixing bowl and stir.  You can seed some of the tomatoes for a less juicy salsa, but I like the seeds and extra liquid.  Serve with chips... or however you like your salsa! :)

Gluten Free Monster Cookies

This is by far my favorite cookie recipe.  My aunt makes these for our road trips back home and we have them devoured by hour 4.  We pretend they are healthy and eat them at breakfast because they have oats in them.  Beware, once you make these, you won't be able to stop eating them!  Since they are my favorite cookie, I decided to try and make them gluten free by subbing regular flour (original recipe calls for 2 cups of regular flour) for oat flour.  I just took a bunch of gluten free oats and blended them up in our awesome Ninja blender for 20 seconds.  Then measured out 2 1/2 cups.  They were really sticky with only 2 cups, so I added another half.  They turned out really delicious! You didn't even miss the flour.  By far the best gluten free cookie I've ever had.  They were still moist and delicious by day 2 as well.  They didn't turn into hard bricks like most gluten free cookies.  Not sure if they will make it to day 3 though... meaning they will be gone.  Highly recommend this recipe.  It's awesome and I'll make them this way from now on! :)

Gluten Free Monster Cookies
Makes: 48 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter    

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups oat flour (I just grind up gluten free oats in a blender until powdery)

1 cup oats

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips

1/2 cup M&Ms

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, oats, baking soda and salt.  Set aside. 

In another large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, peanut butter, vanilla and eggs. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until blended. Add in the chocolate chips and mix until everything comes together. 

Blob by the tablespoonful onto a baking sheet and flatten.  Add M&M's to the top of the cookie and bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and place on cooling rack.  Enjoy!

Lucky Charms Treats

I contemplated what to make for work for St. Patrick's Day all weekend.  Was thinking about brownies with green frosting, then green cookies, then green m&m cookies... then I got lazy I just wanted something easy and fast... and then I turned to these.  Of course, they aren't healthy by any means, but they are also going to work so I won't sit and eat the whole pan.  They actually taste less sweet than regular rice krispy bars. But they are still delicious and an easy treat to make!  Enjoy!

Lucky Charms Treats

Makes: 60 small bars

Ingredients:

10 cups Lucky Charms

50 large marshmallows

5 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Melt the butter over low heat in a large saucepan.  Add the marshmallows and melt over low as well, stirring often.  Remove from heat and toss in Lucky Charms.  Gently stir to cover the cereal with the melted marshmallow.  Pour into 2 sprayed 9x9 cake pans and spread evenly.  I like to butter the bottom of a glass and use that to spread over the pan.  I also used a sheet cake pan instead of 2 square pans.  :)

Homemade Nutella Stuffed French Toast

When Nick and I went on our honeymoon, we fell in love with Nutella.  Not that we've never had it before, but there is something about European Nutella that doesn't even compare with American Nutella.  Sorry guys... perhaps it's the artificial flavoring?

Anyway, I had a pack of hazelnuts on hand and thought I'd take a stab at my own Nutella. And what better way to serve it than stuffed between two pieces of french toast!! (I didn't have all the ingredients for pound cake... that's the best way to eat Nutella)

These french toasts turned out delicious!  You don't even need syrup... but you are certainly allowed to have syrup on these.  We had breakfast for dinner when I made these and skipped dessert because the whole dinner is one big dessert!  Enjoy!

Nutella Stuffed French Toast:

Serves: 4 (with Nutella left over)

Ingredients:

For the Nutella:

1 cup of hazelnuts

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2-3 tablespoons milk of your choice (I used almond/coconut milk)

2-3 tablespoons of sweetener of your choice... give or take (I used unrefined powdered sugar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Place hazelnuts on baking sheet and place in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.  Check often to avoid those suckers from burning... cause they burn fast!

Remove from oven and let cool just enough to handle.  When able to handle, remove skins from the nut and place the nuts in a blender or food processor.  Blend until the nuts form a nice paste, add the cocoa powder, milk and sweetener and blend until combined.  Taste and add sweetener to your liking.

Ingredients: 

For the French Toast:

3/4 cup of homemade Nutella

8 slices of bread (here is a good homemade bread recipe)

4 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

splash of milk (I used almond/coconut milk)

coconut oil for pan

Directions:

Preheat oven to it's lowest setting.

In a pie plate or dish, mix together the eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and milk.

Spread Nutella over both slices of bread and sandwich them, to make a Nutella sandwich.  Dip into the egg mixture and flip, covering both sides.

In an oiled skillet over medium low heat, add the french toast sandwich.  Cook for about 3 minutes, until golden brown and flip.  Repeat with remaining sandwiches.  Store finished sandwiches in a preheated oven to keep warm. 

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy!

Honey Nut Clusters

I'm always looking for healthy and filling snacks and being pregnant, I look for high protein snacks too.  We had these nut clusters at Christmas from Costco and they were delicious and kept us full for hours.  Since we always have nuts and honey on hand, I thought I'd make these myself.  They actually turned out really delicious and I made pretty generous servings.  Each serving has only 150 calories, tons of good fats, and 5 grams of protein!

I absolutely love finding new gluten free snacks that aren't vegetables (Now I do love my vegetables, but it's all about variety).  You can make these with basically any nut you have in the house, just make sure your nut to honey ratio is 2 cups to 4 tablespoons. Also, if you plan on making these ofter, Trader Joe's has a great organic nut section.  Also, the bulk section of Whole Foods or any health food store is usually pretty cheap too. Enjoy!

Honey Nut Clusters
Servings: 12 (very generous portions)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
3 tablespoons raw honey
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.

In a small ramekin or mixing bowl, add honey and maple syrup (may need to heat if your honey is raw and thick), stir to combine.  In a large mixing bowl, add your nuts and pour the honey mixture over them.  Stir to combine and lay out on a parchment lined baking sheet.  I used a cookie sheet and it worked fine, but to make it more uniform, use an 8x8 baking dish.  Do not forget the parchment paper, it's your best friend for this project.

Place in 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until nuts start to brown.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Cover and let sit for a few hours to over night to harden.  If you can't wait, it'll be just fine if you grab a bite.

Cut into bite sized pieces and enjoy! Note: My pieces were fairly large because they crumbled as small pieces.  I think this is because I used the baking sheet and they weren't as thick.  But really, who are we kidding... we are going to eat the same amount regardless.  This just allows less trips back to the bowl!

Store in an airtight container.