homemade healthy fast food

We don't eat fast food very often.  It's usually a special treat, or a "well, we're already out of the house, starving, and have no food at home".  Of course you wouldn't know it by talking to Liam.  He acts like we go all the time, and will point out every "Donald's" location he sees.

I'm not really a fan of fried foods, and I try to make everyone happy with their food, so I thought I'd make some healthy versions of fast food instead.  I came up with

• baked chicken nuggets
• baked fries
• chocolate covered strawberry shake (smoothie)

I used sweet potatoes for this recipe, they're just what I had on hand.  Russet potatoes or yams could be used instead.  Whatever you prefer.

Peel the potatoes and slice them up.  I like mine like steak fries.  Bonus if you cut them like steak fries because they take the same cooking time as the chicken so you can bake them for the same time.

Once the potatoes have been cut stick them into a freezer bag and season.  This makes the seasoning distribution so much more even.

I always let the kids shake the bag.  Next time I might have to video it.  They get really into it!

Classic breading station for the chicken.  Get a bowl each for flour, beaten egg, and seasoned breadcrumbs.  Work left to right covering fresh defrosted chicken pieces one at a time in the contents of each bowl.  Try to keep your fingers out of the contents as much as possible or you'll end up with "monster hands".  Liam thinks that part is hilarious.  Place the chicken pieces on a parchment covered baking sheet when they are ready.

 Once the potatoes and chicken are prepped, bake together at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  If you want to you can broil them for 2 minutes at the end for extra crispiness.

This is one of Liam's favorite ways to have chicken.  I only make it this way occasionally.  I don't want him to get too used to the idea of "fast food style".  :)

You know how people say that a great way to get kids to eat healthy is for them to cook their own food?  Liam's hands down favorite chicken is when I give him carte blanche of my spice drawer and let him season a whole chicken breast for himself.  My little string bean will inhale the whole thing that way!  Crazy.

This meal all came about from a few days ago when we had NO groceries at home, we were doing a million errands around town, and Liam was being an angel (I know, right?).  I promised him I'd split a milkshake with him on our way home, but the closet McDonald's milkshake machine was broken.  Liam was devastated, so I told him I'd make him one at home.  He had his heart set on strawberry, and I figured that would be the easiest flavor to make healthy anyway... 

baked fries

ingredients:

• 4 medium potatoes (russets, yams, or sweet potatoes)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp oregano

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Peel potatoes and slice steak fry style
2. place potatoes slices in freezer bag with oil and seasonings. Shake well.
3. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake 30 minutes.
4. (optional) broil for 2 extra minutes for crispiness.

baked chicken nuggets

ingredients:

• 3 defrosted chicken breasts, cut into pieces
• 1 1/2 cups AP flour
• 2 eggs, well whisked
• 1 1/2 cups seasoned breadcrumbs (I like Italian seasonings)
• 2 tbsp parmesan
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• garlic, salt, pepper, basil, chili powder to taste

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Set out 3 bowls in a row.  Left to right fill with flour, whisked eggs, and breadcrumbs with seasonings and olive oil.
2. Have a parchment covered baking sheet set out in easy reach of the bowls.
3. Quickly dredge chicken in the bowl contents left to right, keeping your fingers as clean as possible.  Place finished chicken on baking sheet.
4. Bake for 30 minutes.  Outside should be golden.

chocolate covered strawberry "shake"

ingredients:

• 12 oz. strawberry Greek yogurt
• 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups frozen strawberries
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp honey (optional)

directions:

1. Place all ingredients in blender and blend!  Pour and drink. Depending on the sweetness of the strawberries, honey may or may not be utilized.

peach frozen yogurt

I love the quick easy fix for dessert.  Who doesn't? Especially when its pretty darn guilt free.  Even better, its ready in less than 30 minutes.

All you need for this frozen yogurt is a tub of vanilla Greek yogurt and a 1 pound bag of frozen peaches.  I tend to keep extras of both in stock, so I can make this any time.  Woohoo!

Stick the whole tub worth of yogurt and the whole bag of peaches into the blender and puree.  If you want to set aside several peach slices to dice and mix in later, that's fine, but I prefer my frozen yogurt smooth.

I like my frozen yogurt a bit sweet, with the tangy tartness of barely sweetened yogurt, but if you're not used to that, or you want to splurge a little go ahead and add a tablespoon of sugar now.

Pour the mixture into a prepped ice cream maker.  My model can hold up to a quart and a half, and this makes that exactly.

I only needed to churn the frozen yogurt for 15 minutes until it was crazy thick.  At that point you could eat or freeze for later.

Freeze in a freezer safe container with a tightly fitting lid.  I like to freeze my yogurt for about an hour after churning so its really thick.  If you wait until the next day or so to eat set the frozen yogurt container on the container for several minutes before scooping.  It will be pretty hard.

This yogurt is great for kids because its a great sweet frozen treat for hot weather and isn't full of extra sugar.

My goal is to try every fruit flavor I can think of by the end of the summer.  I'm thinking maybe cherry or raspberry next... yum!

Peach Frozen Yogurt
makes 1 1/2 quarts
20 minutes total time

Ingredients:

• 1 tub of vanilla Greek yogurt (preferably non-fat)
• 1 pound bag frozen peaches
• 1 tbsp sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Empty the full containers of yogurt and peaches (and sugar) into a blender and puree.
2. Pour mixture into a prepped ice cream maker and churn 15 minutes.
3. Eat directly or scoop into a freezer safe container with a tight lid.

cheater's pasta

This is not a recipe.  More of a good idea.  Everyone has times now and then where you need dinner fast, and you want it to be filling and look nice.

I love keeping a few frozen items from Trader Joe's around for what I've dubbed "backup meals".  I don't use them all the time because Hello high sodium content! but sometimes I'm so busy and distracted that I completely forget about making dinner until, well, dinner time.

Frozen meals are great too if you have a hastily planned date, if you want to impress someone but your cooking skills are sub-par.  I see it as a halfway point between a home cooked meal and putting a store bought cake on your plate and calling it your own.

My favorite backup meal is the "penne arrabbiata" frozen pasta from Trader Joe's.  The pasta and sauce are frozen in  bag together and all you have to do is throw them in a pan for about 7 minutes and stir occasionally.  So easy!  All I do to make the meal more well rounded and filling is add a can of drained and rinsed garbanzo beans into the pan for the last few minutes of cooking.  Done!  If you want to get really fancy and make it your own you could even go one step further and cut up some fresh basil to sprinkle over top.

That's it.  You can now fake you way through a pretty, healthy (enough), and filling meal for two in under ten minutes, and for less than $5.  How's that for date night?

roasted BBQ garbanzo beans

These BBQ garbanzos are a great easy way for kids (large and small) to eat healthy.  They don't last long here (read: less than a day always).  Jeff in particular eats them like popcorn.  I like to sprinkle a few onto soups and other dishes as yummy garnish.

This last batch in particular lasted about 2 hours.  Often when I make these, I don't even bother to plate them nicely.  I just leave them in the pan on the counter and everyone knows to just come and grab handfuls.

Besides the ease of making this dish, its a great way to eat healthy and feel good.  Garbanzo beans are a great protein happy snack.

Add all the seasonings into a freezer bag and shake.  Add in two cans of garbanzo beans (rinsed and dried) and shake again.

Pour the bag contents out onto a parchment lined lipped baking sheet.  Try to get the beans into a single layer, they won't get crispy if they're all cramped and crowded!

I like to do a quick check before I bake these to make sure they are evenly coated.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 25 minutes, pull the baking sheet out to stir and mix, then bake again for 15 minutes.  IF you like them to be EXTRA crunchy add 5 minutes on top of that.  Remove from the oven and let cool at least five minutes before you start munching!

These are best eaten fresh for the crispiness, but will keep for at least a week.  If they last that long bake them again for just a few minute to bring back the crunch.  Store leftovers in an airtight container in a dry cool place.

roasted BBQ garbanzo beans
Ingredients:

• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp BBQ sauce (pick your favorite)
• 2 15 oz. cans of garbanzo beans (I prefer low-sodium)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Add all ingredients except the garbanzo beans into a freezer bag and toss.
3. Rinse and drain the garbanzo beans and add to the bag.  Seal the bag and toss thoroughly to combine.  
4. Spread mixture thinly on a parchment lined lipped baking sheet and slide into the oven.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, then stir and bake 15 more minutes.
6. remove from the oven and allow the garbanzo beans to cool.
7. Eat warm or cooled completely.  Beans are better (crispier) when fresh. Store leftovers in an airtight container in a cool dry place.

strawberry lemonade cake

I was already planning on making a chocolate cake for Mupma's birthday, so I wanted the second cake I made to be the total opposite.  Light and fruity.  What could be better than a strawberry lemonade cake?  Sweet, tart, light, fluffy.  Total heaven.

Have I mentioned already that I'm POSITIVE there is nothing scarier in the entire world then transporting cakes?  Just imagine trying to drive somewhere with a big gift, two wiggly boys, and TWO cakes?  One of which was on a pedestal?  Completely terrifying.  Luckily Jeff is awesome.  He put one cake at his feet (with a cover over it just in case!) and held onto the pedestal cake while I drove like two miles an hour.  Or, at least it felt like it.  It was the biggest relief ever to get to my parent's house and set the cakes down.

Once the cake has been made and cooled completely, frost the bottom layer and lay thinly sliced strawberries over the top and tightly as possible.  You want to get a good strawberry chunk in every bite.  Make sure the strawberry slices have been washed and dried thoroughly before slicing.

There is nothing better than a nice fresh strawberry!

Place the second layer of cake over the strawberry slices and finish frosting the cake.  This cake came out of the oven with fairly flat tops so I didn't need to slice off any puffy tops.  I just left them as-is.  If you want to place strawberries like this around the edges of the cake, just make sure they have been stemmed and thoroughly rinsed and dried.  Also, you might want to do this part as close to serving as possible.  You really don't want to deal with the possibility of them dripping juice down the side of the cake, or sliding around on top.  No thank you!  Also, this cake should be refrigerated as soon as you finish frosting.

I just love a nice fluffy fruity cake.  It is just such a classic look.

The worst part about there being two cakes at a party is that you feel like you need to try both of them!  I love my chocolate cake, so I needed a sliver, but I was trying out new recipes with this strawberry lemonade cake, so OF COURSE I needed a little piece of it too.  *sigh*  I suppose this is a great example of first world problems?  :)

If you saw my previous post you've already seen this photo.  I made both cakes for my Mupma's birthday party.  Because you need options when it comes to cakes.

Also, I don't believe there is a four year old alive who doesn't try to help blow out birthday candles when the chance presents itself.  Am I right?

Lemon Velvet Cake
recipe from Rock Recipes
http://www.rockrecipes.com/lemon-velvet-cake/

Print

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

55 mins

Developed from an outstanding Red Velvet Cake recipe, this lemon cake is a perfectly moist and tender crumbed cake with a lemony buttercream frosting. An ideal birthday cake for the lemon lover in your life.

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups sifted all purpose flour
• 1½ cups sifted cake flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1½ cups sugar
• ⅔ cup vegetable oil
• ⅓ cup vegetable shortening at room temperature
• 1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
• 2 tsp pure lemon extract
• 3 large eggs
• 1½ cups buttermilk
• zest of two small or one large lemons, grated and finely chopped

Instructions

1. Grease and flour 2 nine inch round cake pans and line the bottom with 2 circles of parchment paper. Sift together both flours, baking soda. baking powder, salt and sugar, Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the vegetable oil, shortening, vanilla and lemon extract. Beat well at high speed with whisk attachment until light and fluffy
3. Beat the eggs in one at a time.
4. Fold in the lemon zest.
5. Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk.
6. I always add dry ingredients in three divisions and liquid ingredients in 2 divisions. It is very important to begin and end the additions with the dry ingredients. Do not over mix the batter. As soon as it has no lumps in the batter, pour into the two prepared 9 inch cake pans.
7. Bake at 325 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Fresh Strawberry Frosting

(I kinda made this recipe up, and it worked fine, but frosted cake should be refrigerated until ready to serve, and if you want the frosting to be extra stiff add an extra 1/2 to 1 cup of powdered sugar)

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup fresh strawberried, stemmed and sliced
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar (add 1/2 to 1 cup more for firmer frosting)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Puree the strawberries.  Set aside.
2. Add butter to stand mixer and beat several minutes until white and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.
3. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar to the butter and beat until creamy.
4. Add 1 more cup of powdered sugar and beat again until creamy.  
5. Add the strawberry puree and beat.
6. Add remaining powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy.  
7. For extra thick frosting add in additional powdered sugar, otherwise, frost the cake.  

note: There will be about 2 cups leftover frosting unless you frost very thickly.  If desired add stemmed strawberries in a ring around the top edges like I did.  If you are planning on doing that, wait until the last second and make sure the strawberries are very well dried.  Otherwise strawberry juice might start dripping down the side of you cake.

chocolate chocolate cake

Okay, neither the recipe for the cake or the frosting belong to me, but they are so good together.  This is my go to chocolate cake.  The cake is dark, moist, and not overly sweet.  The frosting is fluffy, super chocolaty, easy to apply, and makes plenty extra.  I personally like to make sandwich cookies with the extra chocolate frosting spread thick between two graham crackers.  So good!  My parents used to make them with extra frosting when I was little.  Keep the extras in the fridge to help firm them up.

Last week was a milestone birthday for my Mupma.  She'd totally kill me if I said the exact age.

I wanted to make the cake a bit fancier for her birthday and I had plenty of extra frosting, so after frosting the cake I put some in a piping bag and piped the edges, then lined it with chocolate chips.  I still have about 2 ups of frosting left so I foresee some graham cracker sandwiches in my near future.  :)

I ordered a small silicone alphabet mold a while ago from amazon (I heart amazon!) and used it to make the "Happy Birthday" and the hearts.  It set pretty quickly, but just to be safe, I made the letters ahead of time.  This was the first time I'd used the mold, so next time I know I need to tap it more after I've poured the chocolate in to try and get rid of the dreaded air bubbles.

Liam LOVES his Mupma.  He kept jumping into her lap all evening, and helped blow out the candles.  Ignore the candle covered cake for the moment, that's all for the next post.

Liam immediately pulled the blown out candles out of the cake and insisted that everyone needed to eat the frosting off of them.  "Because that's what you do!"

Someone was pretty excited to officially get his own piece of chocolate cake.  He ate the whole piece (inhaled actually) and ran around like crazy the rest of the evening with a chocolate fu manchu.


Chocolate Cake
recipe by Betty Crocker
prep: 20 min
bake: 35 min
cool: 1 hr
12 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups AP flour
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 2 large eggs

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease bottom and sides of two 9 inch pans.
2. In large bowl, beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl.  Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.  Pour equally into pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pan 10 minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks for 1 hour.  Frost.

note: the cake puffs up, so you might want to trim the tops off.  For this cake I only trimmed the top off the top layer, just because I wanted the top to be flat for the birthday message.  It's really up to you.

My Favorite Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

recipe by Cooking Classy

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, at room temperature (I like to use 1 cup unsalted and 1/2 cup salted)
• 3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder*
• 3 - 4 Tbsp heavy cream or half-&-half
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

• In a the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with whisk attachment (paddle attachment works too. Whichever you use just pay attention the the shade of the butter), whip butter on moderately high speed until very pale and fluffy (nearly white in color), about 6 - 8 minutes, occasionally scraping down sides of the bowl. Sift in cocoa powder then add in powdered sugar, 3 Tbsp heavy cream and vanilla and mix on low speed until combine, scrapping down the sides of the bowl as needed and adding up to 1 tbsp additional cream to thin if desired. Increase mixer to medium-high speed and whip mixture until pale and very fluffy about 4 - 5 minutes, occasionally scraping down sides of the bowl.
• Note that similar to whipped cream the frosting will lose some of its "fluff" after a few hours, it will still taste the same it just loses some of the air that was whipped into it (similar to whipped cream how it loses it's stabilization after a few hours). It is best to prepare and use within a few hours for best (fluffiest) results.
• Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

honeydew popsicles

I love Food Network.  It's the only show I miss after we cancelled our cable.  Luckily for me I have a subscription to Food Network magazine.  Yay!  Most of the recipes are pretty normal, but every once in a while I see one that I think is SO weird it can't possible taste good.  And so of course I have to try it out for myself.

I found a recipe in my most recent issue for several fruit sauces to top cheesecake.  Most of them looked pretty innocuous, but one for a honeydew-avocado sauce stood out.  The ingredients were few and the directions were speedy and straightforward.  I even had both a small honeydew and an avocado sitting out that I didn't know what to do with.  What had I got to loose?

I made the sauce easily just out of curiosity (I didn't have any cheesecake, but I thought I could maybe freeze the sauce until I made one).  It was a hot day, and the sauce seemed thick, sweet and juicy.  I immediately thought POPSICLES!  I was able to make 10 popsicles out of the sauce, and Liam loves them!  He keeps asking for more every day.  We have a strict one popsicle a day rule at our house, so he's got enough for a few more days.  I tried to take a photo of him smiling while eating one (he really likes them, I swear!) but between him being a bit of a serious kid and him eating his popsicle very seriously, I couldn't get the photo I wanted.

Why do I call these "honeydew popsicles" and leave the avocado out of the title?  Well, partially because you can't taste the avocado in them (speaking as a person who HATES them) they just help the popsicles become thicker and creamier, and partially because I don't want the title to scare people away from a good thing.  Try them.  You'll thank me!  And Food Network Magazine.



Honeydew-Acocado Popsicles
(recipe by Food Network magazine, frozen by me)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cubed honeydew melon
• 1 small avocado (peeled and pitted)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• juice of 1 lime

Directions:

1. Puree all ingredients together until smooth.If sauce is still lumpy, strain through a fine-mesh sieve with a ladle.  Pour into popsicle molds and freeze at least 2 hours.  

note: makes about 10 popsicles depending on the size of your molds.  Recipe makes 1 3/4 cups