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Easy and Delicious Veggie Pizza

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Since I’ve been pregnant, I’ve been making an effort to try and cook a little more. I don’t want to be the mom that relies on fast food. Yes, I realize it will be a while before I’ll actually be feeding my child home-cooked meals, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to get in the habit now!

And, of course, I want my child to eat healthy meals that include lots of veggies. I rarely ever at vegetables as a kid (and still struggle with it now, to be honest), but this is one quick and easy veggie recipe that I love!

Ingredients:

  • 2 (8 oz.) pkgs. crescent rolls
  • 2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened
  • 1 (1 oz.) pkg. dry Ranch-style dressing mix
  • 1 cup fresh broccoli, chopped
  • 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
  • 1 cup chopped cauliflower
  • 1 cup shredded carrots
  • 1 cup shredded Cheese

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
  2. Roll out the crescent dough onto a 9×13 baking sheet, and pinch together the edges to form the crust.
  3. Bake crust for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Once finished cooking, remove crust from oven and let cool 15 minutes without removing it from the baking sheet.
  4. In a small mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and dry Ranch dressing. Spread the mixture over the cooled crust. Sprinkle broccoli, bell pepper, cauliflower, shredded carrots, and cheddar cheese over the cream cheese layer. Chill for one hour, slice and serve.

And that’s all there is to it! I cut mine into square 20 pieces and calculated that it’s approximately 135 calories a slice. And if you want to cut calories even more, you could leave off the cheese or just use one package of crescent rolls…I just like a nice thick crust!

Have you got any simple and healthy recipes? Let me hear ‘em!

S’more Please!

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I don’t share recipes very often (mainly because I don’t cook very often) but this one was so delicious, I couldn’t resist!

Last night, I  decided to be all Betty Homemaker and make us a little after-dinner dessert. And I decided it would be s’more brownies. And, next to marrying my sweet husband, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

So here’s all the dirty details:

You’ll need 1 box of brownie mix (and the ingredients it takes to make the brownies), 1 bag of marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate pieces. See, that’s not a scary long list, is it?

1.) Make the brownies as instructed on the box. I used a 9×13 pan and baked it a little under the given time.

2.) Add a layer of marshmallows and a layer of graham crackers, then put back in the oven for about 2 minutes. Take the brownies out of the oven and add a layer of marshmallows. I used the normal sized ones and it took the whole bag to get an even cover over all the brownies. Then put on some graham crackers. I broke them up into smallish pieces and spread them out evenly. In hindsight, I wish I’d added more because the graham crackers really make it good. Then put it in the oven for a couple of minutes, just enough to let the marshmallows expand and get all ooey gooey.

3.) Add the chocolate pieces, then let it bake for an additional 2 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven again, and sprinkle your chocolate pieces on top. I used Hershey bars because I’m a s’more snob but you could use anything. It took me about 4 full sized bars to evenly cover the pan. Then I put it back in for a couple more minutes…I didn’t time it exactly, I just let it sit for the time it took me to clean up the kitchen. Then take it out and the chocolate will be all warm and melty and delicious. And you will eat the entire pan.

Just kidding. Well, maybe. You could eat the entire pan, I suppose, but you’ll get a bad tummy ache.

This was super easy to make and I will definitely be doing it again..we took it to Sunday School this morning and it was big hit!

{Sidenote for a sappy girl moment: I was SO happy that Emily picked Jef on The Bachelorette..he was my favorite from the beginning!}

How Does She Do It?

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I’ve often wondered that myself when I come across a woman who’s able to work a full time job, keep a clean house, take care of her husband & children, and still put a meal on the table every stinkin’ night.

Looking back on our first year of marriage, I have definitely slacked off on that last category. I do work full time, our house is relatively clean (thanks to a hubby that doesn’t mind pitching in to do laundry, etc.), and I manage to make sure Lucy is taken care of (she’s the closest thing we have to a baby). But when it comes to preparing nightly meals, I get a big fat fail.

I am not one of those people who can just whip up something off the top of their head using ingredients they already have on hand. I need to follow a pretty strict recipe for anything more complex than spaghetti. So when I’m done working at the end of the day, thinking about planning a meal and going to the store to get ingredients, makes my head want to explode. Luckily, I have a husband that is in no way picky and doesn’t mind having a bag of steamed veggies for dinner. But I always feel bad that I’m not providing a ‘real’ meal..and thinking down the line to when we have kids, I know I want to be able to sit at the table and have family dinners every night of the week. That was always a tradition in my parents house, and it’s something that I cherish today. I loved that 1-2 hours we spent around the dinner table every night, discussing each others’ lives and world news, etc.

So, last week I did some research on meal planning tools and came across some interesting options. The one that appealed most to me was a website called HowDoesSheDoIt.com.


It’s a site that allows you access to a bunch of recipes (uploaded by other members) and you can essentially choose what recipes you like and add them to your Favorites folder. You can also upload any of your own recipes as well, and you can choose to share them with other members or keep them private. Then you can start planning your daily meals. It allows you to plan breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. So if you have a bagel and cream cheese every morning, you can add a “recipe” for a bagel and cream cheese and then add that to your Favorites folder so that you can use that for your breakfast meal. {Sidenote: recipes like that one, where it might just be a single food or something that is specific to me, I chose to keep private so that no other members are confused by it when they’re searching for other things} And once you have every meal that you want planned, you can print out a grocery list of everything you’ll need. It’s pretty awesome! And the best part? It’s 100% free! Here’s a little tutorial video which explains it much better than I can:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjBo-_097pE&feature=youtu.be]

For now, I started out by planning just dinners, as I always eat lunch at work and Jordan usually makes himself a sandwich. I planned for two weeks worth of dinners, and we went grocery shopping last week. Tonight will be the first official night of the plan, and I must say it feels pretty good to already know what I’m going to make and know that I have everything I need at home. I’m really hoping this works out well for us!

Do you guys plan your meals out in advance or do you just go with whatever you’re feeling on any given day? Do you have a different website or tool that you use? I’m open to suggestions!

{Sidenote: I was not paid to advertise this website. I just enjoyed using it and wanted to share it with all of you!}

Fiesta!

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In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I decided to make a little mexican feast tonight. Olé! But because Jordan is trying to cut back on carbs, I didn’t want to do tacos or quesadillas or fajitas. So, I tried my hand at a mexican casserole, and it turned out to be pretty delicious!

I got the recipe from one of my favorite resources, AllRecipes.com. My only changes were that I left out the black olives (we’re not big fans), and I didn’t use as much sour cream as the recipe called for. Jordan has this weird thing about food with a creamy texture..whipped cream, sour cream, cream cheese. He hates all of them. So I just did a light layer of sour cream and he didn’t even notice..hee hee, I’m a cooking ninja!

And I also tried a recipe for mexican wedding cake cookies (also from AllRecipes.com). My mother-in-law makes them, and they are killer good! Mine weren’t quite up to par, but they weren’t bad for a first try. They tasted really good but they were a smidge dry. Ya win some, ya lose some. But I will not be defeated. Mexican wedding cake cookie: I will master you!

I also mixed up a little fruit punch concoction..equal parts Hawaiian Punch, ginger ale, and mango orange juice. Delish! And I finished up setting the table with…what else, our Fiestaware!

And I guess our party was pretty rockin’ because we even had a couple neighbors stop by.

Neighbors of the four-legged variety, that is. These guys live two houses down from us and when Lucy is in the backyard, they wiggle their pudgy little bodies under their fence and ours to get to her.

We love them like their our very own fur-babies. We don’t know their names, but we  call the white one Meatball and the little one Pudgy-poo.

*Sigh* Isn’t he adorable? Oh…I guess the puppy is cute too… :)

It absolutely cracks me up when they try to chase our long-legged Lucy. They don’t come even close to keeping up with her, but she loves it! Ignore the fact that it looks like she’s trying to perform a roundhouse kick in that picture.

All in all, we had a great time celebrating Cinco de Mayo and playing with the dogs. In the words of Ricky Martin, we’re just “livin’ la vida loca!”