21 Fast cheap and healthy snacks for you and your kids

I'm going to start off by saying that we've always been horrible when it comes to organizing meals other than dinner. We used to have our morning coffee/tea at 9 or 10, then maybe some cereal around 11 or 12 and then stare blankly at the cupboards and fridge around 2 or 3 when we were really hungry. This usually resulted in grabbing takeout, eating too much and then not having dinner until very late at night when the lunch food coma wore off. Not to mention that you really don't feel like doing much when you're very full so a lot of lazing around was going on.

We've drastically changed our eating habits now that Alice is with us, she's tiny and needs to eat small amounts more often since she's constantly on the go and growing. Everything needs to be healthy as well to fuel her little body and brain when she's playing hard. She also doesn't like to sit in her chair for extended periods of time and gets restless and throws her food when she gets bored.

Snacking also works a lot better for me than sitting down and eating a midday meal, snacks are faster to prepare, you can eat them on the go or while you work on things around the house and they keep my blood sugar even as I'm one of those people that gets dizzy and cranky between meals.

So here's a list of some of the things we have throughout the day between meals or as a small lunch.

1. Veggies and dip - Celery, carrots, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and cauliflower with salad dressing. Ranch dressing is our favorite, caesar is tasty as well.
2. Sliced fruit with dip - Apples, oranges, nectarines, peaches, strawberries, mangoes, etc. Try almond butter for apples and yogurt with a bit of honey for the softer fruit.
3. Dry cereal - Cheerios, Honeycomb, Vector, Captain Crunch, etc. Not the healthiest option but pretty tasty.
4. Granola - An even healthier alternative to the cereal, but costs a bit more. Eat it dry or microwave some with water or soymilk for a yummy hot cereal.
5. Yogurt and berry parfait - Vanilla yogurt + fresh berries + sprinkle of granola
6. Popcorn - Air popped or DIY in the microwave preferably. Go easy on the butter! Give it a shake of cinnamon sugar, parmesan cheese or chili powder for a bit of a kick
7. Toast - 12 grain bread with peanut butter or almond butter, add sliced banana or strawberries with a drizzle of honey
8. Pita chips - These easy to make chips are great on their own or with hummus
9. Crackers & cheese - Not the cheapest option on the list since cheese is a bit pricy but better for you than french fries
10. Mixed Nuts - Kids love to break things. Food + safe fun is a great combo. Don't feel like cracking them open and dealing with the mess? Buy a big bag of mixed dry roasted nuts or trail mix.
11. Dry soy beans - Super healthy and fairly inexpensive. We got a big jar from Costco that lasted over a month.
12. Ants on a log- Celery sticks filled with peanut butter or Cheez Whiz, use raisins or dried cranberries as the "ants"
13. Edamame and rice-We always have a bag of frozen, peeled edamame in our freezer. Fry some up in olive oil, garlic and onion, scoop them on top of your rice and give them a salt and pepper or sprinkle of parmesan
14. Smoothies-Make these any way you like! Milk or fruit juice blended with fruit and ice, both kinds are tasty, filling and good for you.
15. Nachos- Throw the chips topped with cheese into the oven for a couple minutes while you chop up some tomatoes and avocado to go on top. Garnish with sour cream or squeeze half a lime over the entire thing!
16. Quesadillas- I like to make a quick version using just 1 tortilla and whatever leftover meat, cheese and veggies are in the fridge. Bake or fry.
17. Grilled cheese with ham. We usually do this when there isn't enough deli meat left to make a sandwich, just 1 slice is enough. Grilled cheese is great with tomato soup.
18. Mini pizzas on a bagel, tortilla or whatever bread you have handy. Toast the bread, spread with a tablespoon of pasta sauce, add some pepperoni or ham, some cheese and then pop it into the oven just until the cheese melts. "Pizza toast" is still one of my favorite snacks.
19. Quick mac and cheese. Cook and drain a half package of pasta. Don't rinse it, just dump it back into the pot, add a teaspoon of margarine, a splash of milk and a handful of grated cheese. Put it back on the warm burner and stir until everything is combined, salt and pepper to taste.
20. PB and jam. A classic for a reason, it's quick, filling and tasty.
21. Sandwich rollup- Basically a sandwich made from a tortilla. PB+jam, veggie cream cheese+deli turkey, fruit cream cheese+sliced strawberries. Make it any way you like!

If you're at home, most of these should be on hand already. Planning a day out? Bring some snacks, save a LOT of cash. Don't forget to bring your own water or Iced tea.

More of a full lunch person? Combine a few of the items to make a full meal: have a fruit, veggie and cheese plate or a smoothie with your sandwich.

What kind of snacks do you rely on?

22 Great Meat-Free Meals (Dinner)

Meat is expensive so we try to do a meat-free meal for dinner once a week. We do this a lot more often in the summer when it's hot, we want to eat lighter and I don't want to use the oven or even the stove for extended periods of time. We usually go back to big, hearty, meaty meals once the cooler weather rolls around but this year we're trying to stick with a meat free day once or sometimes even twice a week. We're not fond of tofu or any other meat substitute products so we've incorporated a lot more beans into our diet to meet our iron and protein needs.

So in no particular seasonal order here's our list of  things we've had for dinner so far!

1. Macaroni and cheese (make your own cheese sauce)
2. Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce (or any sauce, Red Pepper, Alfredo, etc)
3. Veggie Stirfry
4. Bean and Cheese Burritos
5. Minestrone Soup and biscuits
6. Homemade pizza (try basil, tomatoes and mozzarella)
7. Risotto
8. Cheese, cracker and veggie and dip platter
9. A big salad and breadsticks
10. Pasta or potato salad
11. Nachos
12. Loaded baked potato
13. Layered bean dip and tortilla chips
14. Bruschetta or olive cheese bread with butter parmesan linguine
15. Mexican rice (black beans, corn, tomatoes,cheese)
16. Bean chili
17. Grilled cheese and tomato soup
18. Spring rolls and a side of steamed veggies and rice
19. Lasagna
20. Cauliflower cheese soup
21. Bean, corn, green onion and tomato quesadillas
22. Pierogies fried with green onions and served with sour cream

That's all that I could think of for now, feel free to suggest other veggie meals for us to add to our rotation!

Pizza Dough Breadsticks

So a while ago we somehow ended up with absolutely nothing that we could have for lunch. We were busy working and cleaning and hadn't planned on doing groceries until the next day. We did have food but it consisted of mostly frozen meat, cereal and a couple of apples. There was no cheese, bread, deli meat or pasta. No potatoes for a quick batch of fries. What we did have was baking supplies, a bit of butter, garlic, a teeny bit of Italian seasoning and about a tablespoon of Parmesan stuck to the bottom of the tub.

We were pretty hungry (and also busy) so I didn't take any photos of the process and as you can see we already ate a bunch of what was there on the pan! These were easy to make, not much work at all, just a bit of waiting so we had some apples with almond butter while we waited and cleaned.

Just start by mixing up a batch of pizza dough. No need to let it sit and rise before you work with it this time though. I did mine 2 different ways. Jon wanted breadsticks and I wanted garlic bread so I cut the dough into 2 pieces, I half I flattened into a pie plate, the other half I rolled into sticks. Then I covered them with a clean tea towel and let them sit to rise for about 45 minutes or so.
When the time was up I turned my oven on to 400 and made my garlic butter. I just finely chopped a large garlic clove and microwaved it in about 2 tablespoons of butter. I brushed a bit over the breadsticks and then cut some grooves into the loaf of garlic bread and poured the rest over the top. Then everything got a sprinkle of Italian seasoning, Parmesan and sea salt. I popped them into the oven for about 20 minutes, the garlic bread needed an additional 5 due to the thickness.

These were sooo good even though we didn't have anything to use for a dipping sauce. We ate all of the garlic bread right away since it was so moist and garlicky, the breadsticks went with chili that we had for dinner.

I can't wait to try making these again, I'll probably just use a half batch of dough to do the garlic bread and add some cheddar on top to make garlic cheese bread.

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes

This is an excellent and quick pancake recipe. It tastes just like the expensive Aunt Jemima Complete buttermilk pancake mix but since I'm making it myself I know it has no weird additives and it doesn't have that slightly powdery taste.

This makes 6 medium pancakes which is perfect for 2 people, or 5 medium and 3 teeny baby sized pancakes.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups flour (I used 1 cup all purpose and 1/4 cup whole wheat)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Start by making your buttermilk if you don't have any. The buttermilk has to sit for a little while so do this first, then start heating your skillet or frying pan.

Mix together the buttermilk, sugar and margarine. Beat in the egg. Add all of the rest of the dry stuff on top and mix until just combined.

Scoop onto your hot grill or frying pan. The batter is pretty thick so you might have to spread it out a bit with the spoon. I cook mine on 4/medium. You can tell when the pancake needs to be flipped when it gets all bubbly on top.
Add syrup and enjoy!
 

 

10 minute lunch - Tomato Basil Pasta

This is a really quick and fresh tasting meal that's perfect for when you're short on time, low on ingredients and it's hot outside. It's light and contains no meat. It's also a great way to use up my overabundance of basil and the single ripe tomato from my plant. My tomato plant is only producing one tiny tomato at a time while my basil has become a veritable shrub.

Chicken Pie Filling

This one is super easy and if you have any that won't fit into the pie it counts as chicken cream soup! You could also use turkey or any other meat for this if you wanted.

I'm assuming you have your pie crust ready to go or at least a frozen one waiting! If not then I guess you could just eat it as is!

Thin crust pizza

[post by Holly]
Now it's time to make your pizzas using your homemade dough (see previous post).

The crust
Start heating your oven to 400 degrees.
Take your freshly prepared or thawed dough and plop it down on a lightly floured table. Get a bit of flour on both sides, you basically want to get rid of any spots that are gooey and will stick to your fingers or the table. I have no idea how to properly spread out pizza dough so I just gently pull and pat as I spread the dough and pinch together any holes that happen to form when it gets too thin in areas.
When I have each piece nearly as big as I want them I transfer them to the pans I'm using and start pulling the edges until I've filled the whole pan and left a little ridge for the crust. The crust should be pretty thin, I can usually see the pan through mine.

I don't pre-bake my crust, I just add all toppings and bake.

Toppings
On one of my pizzas I used half a can of pizza sauce, some ranch dressing, leftover chicken breast, red onion, fresh basil from my window, some chopped tomato that went mushy and would otherwise be thrown away and mozzarella. I pretty much just use leftovers on my pizza.

The other pizza had half a can of pizza sauce, hot genoa salami, red onion, a little bit of green pepper left from stirfry, cheddar and mozzarella.You can put almost anything you want on them.

Oven time
Pop them in the preheated oven at 400* for about 15 minutes, a bit longer if you like your toppings crispy or if you've put wet toppings like tomato or pineapple on.
Slice into 8.
We usually eat 6 pieces each (too much!) and have an extra 4 for lunch another day. [btw, leftover pizza is 325* for 7 minutes]

The pictures below should fill in the blanks. If there is anything you're unsure of please leave a comment.