Whole Wheat Yam and Feta Quesadilla - A healthy lunch idea

This Quesadilla is easy and quick to prepare and tastes amazing! I knew it was going to be good before I tried it and boy was I right. This is a tasty and healthy lunch idea that can be made the night before an eaten cold or reheated.

I was in search of a quick, healthy and satisfying lunch this afternoon and came up with this Yam and Feta Quesadilla. 

First I peeled and sliced up a whole yam. 

Then I put a splash of organic olive oil into my big frying pan and cooked the sliced yams for about 5 minutes until tender. 

While the yams were cooking I spread a layer of organic cream cheese onto my wrap and ran out to the garden for a bit of green onion. Chopped then sprinkled the green onion over the cream cheese. 

Once the yams were tender I removed them from the pan and transferred them onto the wrap. 

Next I spead fresh feta onto the tops of the yams and transferred the wrap to the frying pan. 

Then I put a second wrap onto the top and squished it down slightly to spear the feta more then baked it until heated through and golden brown. 

The saltiness and creaminess of the feta with the sweetness of the yams and savoury of the onions was the perfect combination. 

I can think of a few friends who would love this one. And Asher even tried and liked it too! He ate my last slice after stealing several bites of mine :) I better go buy some more feta!!

I'll be adding this to my list of healthy lunch ideas that's for sure! I'm headed back to work in a few months after over a year of Maternity leave so I'll be looking for some healthy lunch ideas for work.  This one will be perfect. 

Heavenly Whole Wheat Apricot Ginger Scones

This fruit scone combination is seriously good! I love making scones and muffins for quick and healthy week day breakfasts and I'm looking forward to tomorrow mornings cup of coffee with one of these tasty scones to go with!

I used my go to fruit scone recipe and added in chopped dried Apricots and chopped candied ginger! Mmmmmmm! 

Whole wheat Apricot Ginger Scones Recipe

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp sea salt

10 chopped dried apricots

1/4 cup chopped candied ginger

3/4 cup of butter

1/2 cup whole milk or cream

1 large or two small eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup honey

Top with a sprinkle of organic coconut palm sugar.

Makes 12 small- medium scones

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl with chopped apricots and ginger. With a pastry blender cut in butter. 

In a small measuring cup mix together milk, egg, vanilla and honey. Pour into flour mixture and stir until the dough comes together. transfer 1/3 of the dough to floured surface (using only 1/3 of the dough makes it easier to handle). Kneed and make sure the sides are not sticky. Form ball into flat circle shape by patting to down then cut into 4 triangles. Do this 3 times with the rest of the dough. 

Place the scones onto a parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with coconut palm sugar. 

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. 

Another healthy breakfast idea to add to the list. 

Enjoy! 

Organic Apple Nachos

I finally made apple nachos! 

I had purchased this amazing organic white chocolate from bulk barn this week! 

I don't even really like white chocolate but I made a batch of raspberry scones this week and threw in some left over white chocolate I had, man were they good! 

Gord requested another batch so I decided to try these organic couvertures. I also found some organic dark chocolate chips while we were there. 

Anyways back to the nachos! 

I started with two organic apples,sliced them up and fanned them out on a plate. 

Next I melted some homemade peanut butter with a few of the white chocolate couvertures and drizzled it on top! 

The next drizzle was the organic Dark chocolate. 

Then came a sprinkle of organic coconut flakes. 

And finally a few crushed up organic pecans! 

You can too these with just about anything you like they are a quick and easy and pretty healthy treat! 

Comment below what you like to put on your apple nachos! 

Baking Soda and Vinegar - Taking it to the next level

I knew I saved the formula scoops for something! 

Asher and his friend experimented with different sized containers and how the old baking soda vinegar experiment reacts in different sizes and shapes! 

We also identified which works better; baking soda with vinegar poured in top or  Venegar with baking soda poured into it! 

It's fun as they get older to make some of these basic science experiments more complex! 

Happy Munchies Organic baby food and snacks

So I'm not a walmart shopper unless I'm looking for toys or TP but I stumbled upon these organic finger foods for babies a few weeks ago when looking for some healthier puffs for Fraser for our camping trip! 

I've gotta say I'm impressed! 

Happy Munchies Organic puffs Ingredients:

Organic brown rice flour

Organic white rice flour

Organic apple juice

Calcium carbonate

Organic spinach powder

Organic kale powder

Sodium bicarbonate

Mixed tocopherols and iron. 

Vs

Gerber Puffs

Rice Flour

Whole wheat flour

wheat starch

whole grain oat flour

sugar

dried apple puree

Tri and Dicalcium phosphate

natural blueberry vanilla flavour

mixed tocopherols

Soy and Sunflower lecithin

zinc Sulphate

Electrolytic iron

I went and purchased a few more finger food items for Fraser of this brand tonight and was very happy with the ingredients in each of their products.  I like that the puffs are gluten and sugar free (big bonus)!!

Unfortunately we have a quinoa allergy in our family so i'm holding off giving him the granola bar that they had but otherwise I would have scooped that up too!

Crackle Berry Muffins

This Recipe came from my Aunty Jane.  We lost her 6 years ago and I miss her terribly still. I grew up in awe of her baking and cooking skills. And as I got older I got a few recipes from her. I wish I'd got more! 

Here is one of the recipes she made for is kids when we came up to her farm! I remember going up to the fish farm at Easter time and she would have a big batch of these made topped with sprinkled sugar.  She always made the best baked goods and I think my love of baking comes from her.  I have modified the recipe to make it more healthy but you would never know because they still taste amazing! 

Crackle Berry Muffins

Ingredients

1/3 cup coconut oil

1 1/4 cups organic cane sugar or 3/4 cup honey

1 egg

1tsp pure almond extract

1 cup full fat Greek yogurt

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt
4-8 Tbsp milk

1 cup raspberries

Directions

• Mix together Coconut Oil, Honey, egg and extract in bowl.  
• Add to the coconut oil mixture, 1 cup of greek yogurt. Set aside. 
• Mix together all dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. 
• Add Yogurt and coconut Oil mixture into the flour mixture and stir together slightly. 
• Add in Milk to the consistency you like.  It will be thick. 
• Now add in berries of your choice and stir in being careful not to over stir.  
• Top with slivered almonds or a sprinkle of organic cane sugar. 
• Bake on 375 for 22 minutes

Raspberries galore

I love this time of year!!

The berries are ripening the garden is abundant and I find myself inspired more than ever to bake nutritious food for my family with all the fresh organic produce coming out of the garden! 

We picked buckets of raspberries at the farm the other day and more this morning on my small patch! So I've got plenty and because raspberries are a berry which must be used quickly I decided to use them up with some baking! 

First up was a little raspberry rhubarb crisp! 

Then I made some whole wheat Raspberry white chocolate scones for this weeks breakfasts! 

But those were gobbled up so fast and I still had raspberries left over so I made a batch of Crackle Berry Muffins too!  (Recipe is posted)

And of course everyone has been enjoying them fresh too! 

What a mess! 

Beet chips

Delicious Beet Chips 

The boys and I visited the farm yesterday and pulled out a few beets out of the garden while we were there.

This morning I decided to make best chips with them since I haven't had beet chips since last summer! 

If you have never tried beet chips before then I highly encourage you to try them! Making your own is really easy too! 

Gord took over making them!

Using parchment paper
so they don't stick

Mandolin

About two years ago I got really into making best chips and I invested in a mandolin for slicing them nice and thin because they cook up nice and crisp but if some are thicker than the others you will find your self removing some early and keeping some in the oven to crisp up longer! Either that or you will have burned ones or undercooked ones! So having the mandolin is nice for ensuring you get more uniform thickness on all your chips! But not necessary! 

Anyways you just slice them up, toss them with a bit of olive oil and sea salt and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until they start to crisp up!

I like to use parchment paper to bake them on so that they don't stick to the pan.  Makes it easy!

Banana Pancakes

These little things are quickly becoming a Saturday a Tradition in our house!

This morning Asher asked for them and it's probably our 4th Saturday in a row making them :) 

Good thing for me these are super simple to make and only require two ingredients.

Banana Pancakes

1 banana

2 eggs

Directions: blend until smooth. Pour into hot frying pan and cook on both sides like a pancake until golden brown.





The great thing is that they cool quite quickly so they are perfect for the impatient baby begging for more!

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Fresh homemade Ricotta Cheese

Yesterday afternoon I decided to make a batch of Ricotta for my Zucchini Lasagna since I had no cottage cheese or Ricotta on hand. 

It's been quite a while since I've made it, but I wanted to make the Lasagna and was inspired to make a batch PLUS it's so EASY! 

Any time I've mentioned having made Ricotta people seem to think I'm crazy, it might sound impressive to some that I made Ricotta cheese but to be honest it's SO easy! 

And you probably have all the ingredients in your fridge! 

Fresh homemade Ricotta Cheese

Ingredients

4 cups whole milk

1 cup half and Half cream

1/2 tsp Sea Salt

5 Tbsp lemon juice (approx two fresh squeezed lemons)

Combine milk, cream and salt into a medium sized pot. Attach candy thermometer to the side. 

If you don't have a Candy thermometer, no worries just let the milk mixture come to a boil slowly, it will all work out!

Stir occasionally while heating. When the temperature reaches 190 (once boiled) remove from the heat and add in the lemon juice. This will cause the curds and the whey to separate.  Stir slightly once and then let it rest for 5 minutes to allow it to separate do not stir at this point.  

You can see how the Curds and Whey are separating 

Line a strainer using either cheese cloth, coffee filter or even a few layers of paper towel.  I've used all 3 and it works either way! 

Pour your Curds and Whey into the lined strainer and leave it to drain until the curds and Whey have completely separated and all the whey is drained away.

This is the makeshift set up I used (I couldn't find my cheese cloth): 

Two strainers lined with coffee filters.  It did the trick!

Store Bought Cost Comparison

Is it cheaper to make Ricotta at home? 

Consider this..... a small tub of Ricotta Cheese will run you about $5 contains about half of what this homemade batch will give you. 

I might have used about 1/4 of my milk which costs me $5.09 which is about $1.27 in milk, and a cup of my cream which is about a 1/3 of the container do that probably cost me another 1.25. And the lemon juice and sea salt are just a few cents. 

So for about $2.55 I made my own Ricotta cheese as opposed to paying $5 and having a bunch of extra ingredients in it.  Plus I got more Ricotta from my homemade batch than I would have with the tub at the store!

I didn't get a good picture but there were a couple unnecessary ingredients listed probably used to preserve it on the grocery store shelves.

The homemade version lasts about 3 days in the fridge but I find that it never lasts that long (because we eat it so quickly)!

What's nice is that if I come across a recipe I want to try that calls for Ricotta, I don't have to run to the store or no make it because I don't have that ingredient because I am able to make up a batch at home if needed!