Homemade 8 Layer Dip

Gord invited some friends over on Saturday to our place for a BBQ so I decided to put together a 7 layer dip and ended up with an extra layer making it an 8 layer dip!  I haven't made 7 layer dip in years but I happened to have all the ingredients so it was an easy one to put together!  

I learned how to make 7 layer dip when I was a teen working at our local Grocery Store Deli.  not that it's difficult but the Taco Sauce is really what makes the Dip great in my opinion and I learned that trick there!  Basically we would take a packet of taco seasoning and mix it with sour cream to make the taco sauce for the 7 layer dips the store sold.  But for mine I just used a few scoops of my Homemade Taco Seasoning and it worked perfectly!  

If you haven't tried making your own Taco Seasoning I highly recommend it.  In our house we go through a lot of Taco Seasoning, so I found we always needed lots of packets on hand when I purchased it.  And it seemed as though we were always out!  So Gord and I started making our own and couldn't believe how EASY it was!  Plus you are in control of how much Salt and other ingredients go into it.  I just add all the spices into a Mason Jar, screw on a lid and give it a shake.  Done!  

Homemade 8 Layer Dip

Ingredients 

Organic re-fried beans

Taco sauce 

Guacamole

Sour cream 

Chopped Tomatoes

Sliced black Olives

Chives

Grated Cheese

Directions

• Spread out re-fried beans to the bottom of a dish. 
• Combine 1/2 cup sour cream with 2 TBSP Homemade Taco Seasoning to make Taco Sauce. 
• Spread Taco Sauce on top of beans. 
• Mash 1 avocado with 1 TBSP sour cream or Greek yogurt, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp Sea salt, 1/4 tsp curry powder. Mash together to make guacamole. 
• Spread guacamole onto taco sauce and top with a layer of plain sour cream. 
• Top with chopped tomatoes, sliced black olives, chives and grated cheese.
• Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Taco Sauce using Homemade Taco Seasoning and Sour Cream!

Healthy Apple Recipes for Fall

September and Apples just fit together in my world.  I've been busy making apple and pumpkin everything these last few weeks.  Trying out new recipes on the boys and seeing what they like as well as bringing back a few old recipes from last year too!  Here is a little Apple Recipe Round Up to give you some inspiration this week!  

Apples are in season right now and you can get many local varities super cheap right now! We went to the root cellar this weekend and grabbed a bunch all .99 cents per pound!  Love that!   Fraser and Asher both love eating apples whole, baked in most anything, in sauce or dehydrated!  

Here are 8 Apple Recipes already up on the blog or posted to my Facebook page, as I add more over the next while I'll add them to this post!  

Enjoy Apple Season! 


 Apple Cranberry Granola Waffles



Organic Apple Nachos



Apple Cinnamon Drop Scones



Apple Cinnamon Muffins



Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Waffles



Baked Apple Chips



Homemade Apple Sauce

Pork Apple Skewers

Battle of the Pumpkin Scones

 Well I have a guilty pleasure of going for coffee with my co-workers in the mornings that I'm in the office and last week I saw that they released the Pumpkin Scone but it looks WAY different than it used to...

 VS. 

The photo doesn't do it justice... anyways the new one is a flat square coated with white icing!  Looks pretty gross to me!  

If you have been following me for some time you will know that I love to bake and have made many healthy muffins and scones.  The Pumpkin scone is no exception.  I've been making my own version for years and this time of year always gets me into the mood for a hot cup of tea and a pumpkin scone! But after seeing this icing coated blob of a pumpkin scone at starbucks it got me wondering how my scone compares to theirs nutritionally.  

Maybe I should do a taste test too!

First let me say that the Nutritional Facts table doesn't give you the FULL STORY!  So while I'm going to do a comparison here for those who like that sort of thing, the INGREDIENTS LIST is really where the info is when your eating for a healthy lifestyle!  For example Fat isn't all equal.  I used a Recipe Calories Calculator website to do the comparison for this blog post and because I sometimes use coconut oil for the recipe I entered both versions of the recipe and the fat content in the nutrition facts went up when using coconut oil which is a very healthy fat!

So lets do a little comparison of the current Starbucks Pumpkin Scone  to my Homemade Copycat version!

Starbucks Pumpkin Scone

Ingredients:  icing [sugar, glucose, palm oil, water, contains less than 2% of agar, citric acid, gums (xanthan, locust bean, guar), salt, vanilla extract], enriched flour [wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], pumpkin, sugar, butter [cream, lactic acid], eggs, dry cream [cream, nonfat milk solids, sodium caseinate], palm oil, molasses, pumpkin powder [pumpkin, maltodextrin, corn flour, sunflower lecithin], tapioca starch-modified, cinnamon, salt, baking powder [sodium acid pyrophosphate, corn starch, sodium bicarbonate], natural flavor, baking soda, nutmeg, ginger, acacia gum, cloves, colors [carrot concentrate, apple concentrate, hibiscus concentrates, pumpkin concentrate].

Crystal's Homemade Pumpkin Scone 

Ingredients

4 cups Whole Wheat flour
2 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1 cup Butter or Coconut oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup Honey
1/2 cup whole milk
2 large eggs

Comparison of the two.... 

Using a Recipe Calorie count website I was able to do a comparison of my recipe to the Starbucks Pumpkin Scone. I only use about half of the icing the recipe called for so I just said 1/2 cup but if you really loaded it up there would be more sugar in them.  My recipe also makes 24 Scones.  

	Starbucks Pumpkin Scone	Homemade Pumpkin Scone
Calories	450	181
Fat	21	8.6
Calories from Fat	190	78
Saturated Fat	14	5.1
Cholesterol	60	36
Sodium	390	144
Potassium	0	245
Carbohydrate	64	24.7
Dietary Fiber	2	2.9
Sugar	41	9
Protein	4	3.6

Basically you could have 2+ of my homemade scones for everyone 1 of the Starbucks scones!  But more than that the ingredients in my scones like Honey and whole wheat flour vs. Enriched flour (enriched means that it's been stripped of all nutrition and has vitamins added back into it) and refined sugars make them a much more nutritious option.

There is also 4X more sugar in the Starbucks Pumpkin Scone (41g) compared to the Homemade version (9g)!!! And most of the sugar comes from Honey not refined sugar!  And if you leave the icing off it's even better(6.5g sugar)!

  

Banana Berry Muffins

Sunday morning breakfast & Breakfasts for the week! 

Asher's Request: Banana Berry Muffins

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup butter or coconut oil

2/3 cup honey

2 eggs

2 bananas

1/3 cup Almond milk or regular milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 350°

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium-size bowl and set aside.

With a stand mixer (I use my KitchenAid mixer) beat the butter and the honey together. 

Add eggs and bananas then stir together. Then add in the almonds milk and vanilla extract. 

Add dry mixture into your wet mixture and stir until combined. 

Then stir in the blueberries. 

Bake for 25 to 28 minutes or until their golden brown and the room starts to smell delicious!

After School/Work Routine

I decided a few weeks ago that I needed to have a simple After School Routine for Asher this year.  Through the summer we have been struggling with getting him to come to the dinner table when it's time to eat because he gets so wrapped up in playing or watching a show etc.

I found a few templates on Pinterest for after school routines but none of them quite fit our needs so I decided to make my own!

My first version in the sheet protector

With our routine Asher is to come home and give me a hug and kiss first (not on the schedule but he knows).  Then I have asked that he unpack his own backpack and lunch kit.  After that is done he gets time at the kitchen counter for homework/reading or an activity if there is no school work to be done.

When dinner is ready he knows that after dinner is FREE TIME!  On nights where he has an activity like swimming or Karate the free time goes towards those activities and at 7:00pm we start the bedtime routine.

This has been great, because he now knows that the sooner he finishes dinner the more free time he gets!

The last few nights have been a lot smoother and he has been really enjoying checking off the tasks on his schedule!

Since I love sheet protectors and use one for my weekly meal plan, I printed it off and slipped it into one so that he could check off his Jobs as the night goes on.  He also decided to number the jobs.  For us this works great because Asher is a very visual learner.  I'm planning on making a simple morning routine for his as well to help keep everyone on track!

I thought I'd share it here in case anyone else could use an after school routine too!  I hope this helps your family in the evenings too!

Click here to print off a copy!

It's nice to start getting organized!  I'm also working on pre planning activities for both boys during the Pre-dinner homework/activities block so that they are kept busy while I make dinner!  Stay tuned for that!

Zucchini Lasagne

I made this yummy dinner the other night knowing that my husband would scrunch his nose up about it... BUT I had to try making Zucchini Lasagna and I still had a few huge zucchini's on my counter!  

I would make a educated guess that the 21 Day fix containers for one slice would be 1 Red, 1 Green and 1 Blue (maybe more than one blue but shhh...).  There is quite a bit of cheese layered in this dish but considering there are no lasagne noodles I figure it all works out plus I love cheese :)  

Once my hubby had taken a few bites I asked him what he thought and he seemed to think it wasn't as bad as he figured it would be but suggested I peel the zucchini next time as it was a bit tough.  Later that night he actually told my cousin that is was GOOD!  So I'd say it was a WIN!  Maybe not his favorite meal but he will eat it and like it which is good enough for me. 


Zucchini Lasagna Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 Jar Grandma's Tomato Sauce (Fixate Cookbook, see Recipe Below)
• 3 medium zucchini, sliced 1/8" thick
• 15 oz ricotta
• 16 oz  mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1 large egg

Directions

In a medium Frying pan, brown meat. When cooked add in Tomato Sauce and let simmer on low. 

Meanwhile, slice zucchini into 1/8" thick slices, add lightly salt and set aside or 10 minutes. Zucchini has a lot of water when cooked, salting it takes out a lot of moisture. After 10 minutes, blot excess moisture with a paper towel.

On a  grill pan, grill zucchini on each side, until cooked, about 1-2 minutes per side. 

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a medium bowl mix ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese and egg. Stir well. Add Sea Salt and ground pepper to taste. 


In a 9x12 casserole dish, spread some sauce on the bottom and layer the zucchini to cover. Then place some of the ricotta cheese mixture, then top with the mozzarella cheese and repeat the process until all your ingredients are used up. I had enough meat and sauce for two layers so my last layer was ricotta and Mozzarella but if you have enough sauce your last layer could be sauce and mozzarella. Cover with foil. 

Bake 45 minutes covered at 375°, then uncovered 15 minutes. Let stand about 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

Grilled Zucchini

Grandma's Tomato Sauce Recipe

I made a bunch of big batches of this tomato sauce a few weeks ago and canned it to preserve and have over the winter.  So I just opened up on Jar to use for my Lasagne.  Here is the Recipe.  21 Day Fix Servings:  12 (1/2 cup each)       3 greens  1/2 tsp Prep Time: 40 min Cooking Time: 1 hr  15 min Ingredients 2 Tbsp olive oil 1 med onion, chopped 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 1 (6 oz can) tomato paste, no salt added 1/4 cup red wine 2 cans (28 oz each) whole peeled tomatoes [like San Marzano or Cento} crushed or pureed in a blender 2 Tbsp agave nectar or Honey 1 tsp sea salt 1/4  tsp ground black pepper 1 (3 oz) Parmesan (or parmigiano) cheese rind 3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh basil  Directions

1.  Heat oil in large saucepan over me-high heat
2.  Add onion; cook, stirring frequently, for 5-6 min or until onion is translucent
3.  Add garlic and tomato paste; cook, stirring constantly for 2-3 min.  Do not let tomato paste burn. 
4.  Add wine;  stirring constantly for 2-3 min. 
5.  Add tomatoes, agave, salt, and pepper.  Bring to boil,  stirring frequently.  Reduce heat to low; gently boil, stirring occasionally, for 3 min.
6.  Add cheese rind; cook, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.
7.  add basil, mix well. 

*The parmigiano rind is not totally necessary, but it is a great way to add depth to the sauce without much by way of extra calories.