Lemon, Roasted Chicken, Spicy Green beans, and mashed sweet potatoes.

I know I said I would post this recipe last night, but the little guy had other plans.  10:00 came around, and I found myself in the bed with my husband with a little dude rolling around in the covers between us doing everything he could to NOT go to sleep.  If he wasn't so cute, I would've been a little upset about not being able to get to sleep, but lucky for him, he's a cutie.

Even though last night didn't really go as planned, we did have an awesome dinner!  Here's where the recipes came from, and then, I will break down how I did it.

Lemon, Roasted Chicken: http://paleonewbie.com/lemon-herb-roasted-chicken/

Spicy Green Beans: http://divascancook.com/southern-green-beans/

First, pre-heat the oven to 425.  Then start on the green beans.  The green beans take 1 1/2 hours, so obviously, I started them first.  I made them on the stove in a big pan.  I would recommend cutting the ends off the green beans first.  This recipe moves quickly, and you don't want to be stuck trying to get the green beans ready and find out you burned the garlic or onions.

Next, add 1 tablespoon of butter to the pan.  When the butter is melted, add 1 chopped onion and 1 diced garlic clove to the pan.  

Once the garlic is browned and the onions are translucent, add the 2 cups of chicken stock then add the green beans and the red pepper flakes.  Now, here's where I made some adjustments.  I added more than 2 cups of chicken stock.  I added enough to cover the green beans.  Also, I would not add an entire teaspoon of red pepper flakes unless you really like heat.  They were VERY spicy.  I would add 1/4 tsp next time.  

Now, add the lid and let these simmer on low for 1 1/2 hours.

Now you can start on the sweet potatoes and the chicken.

The Chicken recipe says it only takes 40 minutes, but I cooked mine for about 1 1/2 hours just to be sure.  Take the chicken out of the package and rinse it.  Then, using paper towels, you need to pat it dry to make sure all of the seasoning and butter will stick to it.  Then, take 3 tbsp of soft butter (you should plan ahead and leave some butter out on the counter to make sure it's soft by dinnertime) and I mixed mine with the zest of 2 lemons, 2 big garlic cloves diced, and 2 tsp of Italian Seasoning.

Tip:  You can zest the lemons the day before and leave the zest out on the counter in a dish overnight, so it will dry out.  This makes it easy to mix in with dry herbs for rubs.

Once the butter, zest, garlic, and seasoning is mixed together, you need to take handfuls and rub it all over the chicken.  Use the excess to rub on the inside of the chicken.  Don't miss any opportunity to add flavor!

Then, cut 1 of the lemons you zested into quarters and place each piece inside the chicken along with pieces of a small onion also quartered (that means you cut it into 4 pieces).  

Put the chicken in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.  Wait for about 30 minutes and then get started on the sweet potatoes.

  First you need to peel the sweet potatoes.  I found white flesh sweet potatoes during my last trip to publix.  They don't taste any different than a regular sweet potato, they just look more like a regular potato.  

Then, you need to cut them into small pieces.  The smaller the pieces the faster they will cook.  They will be mashed in the end, so the size of pieces really don't matter.  Place them in a pan and cover them with water and place it on high.  Once it boils, turn it down, so it is still boiling, and boil them for 30 minutes.

Once, they're finished boiling, pour them into a bowl or a mixer and blend them until smooth.  Add butter and half and half or heavy cream to help them mix evenly.  You can season them if you like, but since they are already sweet, I didn't find much need for seasoning.

The Green beans and the chicken should be getting finished and ready to come out of the oven and off of the stove.  Here are the finished products.

I brush the burned garlic pieces off the chicken, cut it up and place it on a plate with the green beans and mashed sweet potatoes, and dinner is served!

Happy, Healthy Eating!

Broccoli Salad

One of my favorite salads is broccoli salad.  I don't like broccoli unless it's raw.  I know that's weird, but for some reason, that's how my taste buds like it.  This broccoli salad is full of tons of flavor!  I take it to a lot of get togethers during the summer, and it is always a crowd pleaser!

The website where I originally found the recipe is down, so I cannot post a link to it, but i have tweaked it, so it doesn't completely match the original anyways.

Ingredients:

8 slices of bacon
2-3 bunches of broccoli
1/2 cup of shredded carrots
1 cup of chopped, diced, or red onion rings
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of craisins

Dressing:

1 cup of mayonnaise
1/4 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of white vinegar

1.  Cook the bacon in a pan on the stove top until it is crispy.  Once the bacon is crispy and cooled down, chop it into bits.  Chop the broccoli florets and place them into a bowl.  Add the bacon pieces, shredded carrots, red onion, sunflower seeds, and craisins to the bowl with the broccoli.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, sugar, and vinegar together until it's creamy and combined.

3.  Pour the dressing over the broccoli mixture.  Mix the dressing and the broccoli mixture together until all the pieces are evenly coated.

Finally, enjoy the delicious salad!

  Happy, Healthy Eating!

Stuffed Zucchini Boats!

My 14 month old is notorious for not liking meat, but he surprisingly loves the meat in this dish.  It is healthy and full of flavor which I love.

Ingredients:

3-4 Zucchini
2 pints of Juliette Tomatoes
Feta Cheese
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Diced Tomatoes
1 lb of Ground Beef, Turkey, or Sausage
2 Garlic Cloves
1 medium Onion
Italian Seasoning

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Blend the tomatoes, garlic, and onion in a blender.  Add Italian seasoning as needed to enhance the flavor of the tomato sauce.  Remember, you can always add more, but you can't take any out once you've added it.

Slice the zucchini in half lengthwise.  Then, take a spoon and scoop out the inside of the zucchini to create "boats" out of the leftover shell.  Chop the part of the zucchini you scooped out.

Brown the Ground beef in a pan on the stove top.  Once it is brown, and you've drained any liquid you need drained, add the tomato mixture as well as the inside parts of the zucchini you chopped up. I cooked this mixture on the stove-top at med-high until it started to bubble.  Once it bubbled, I turned it down to about 3-4 and let it continue to cook for about 30 minutes.  The zucchini should be tender.  Taste the sauce and add seasoning as needed.  Also add some grated parmesan.

Once the mixture is complete, place the zucchini boats onto an sheet pan.  Fill them with the tomato and meat mixture.  Top them with grated parmesan and feta.

Bake the zucchini boats for 20 minutes. Then, Enjoy!!

These are delicious, and the best part is my little man loves eating these!  It's a win for everyone!  The food is delicious, and my little guy is finally eating meat and loving it!

  Happy Eating!!

Homemade Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

I make this frequently for get togethers with friends.  It is so simple to make.  I do, however, regret to inform you that I didn't take pictures throughout the entire process.

Ingredients:

8oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
8oz shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
small jar of pimentos (drained)
1/2-3/4 cup of mayonnaise

Yes, those are the only ingredients!  I also should tell you, I make this with block cheese, and I use the food processor to shred my cheese.  If you've ever shredded cheese in the food processor, you'll notice it tends to stick together.  Interestingly, the cheese you buy pre-shredded doesn't stick together.  Have you ever wondered why that is?  They use something called Cellulose that's actually powdered wood pulp.  I don't know about you, but I don't want to eat wood pulp, so I use my trusty food processor to shred my own cheese.

Once the cheese is shredded, I mix it with the drained pimentos, and 1/2 cup of mayonnaise.  I mix it all together in a bowl, and I add more mayonnaise if it seems dry.  You want to make sure you use enough mayonnaise to combine it together and make sure it's creamy, but you don't want to use too much and cause it to be too wet or for the color to become dull.

I take sandwiches, cut off the crust, and cut the bread into squares.  I make sure to put a big spoonful of this mixture onto each bread slice.  There's nothing worse than eating a sandwich with more bread than cheese mixture.

Here's a picture of what the cheese mixture looks like.

From Scratch Poppy seed Chicken Casserole

   I grew up eating this delicious Chicken Poppy Seed Casserole made with chicken, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, 1 container of sour cream, and 1 sleeve of Ritz crackers.  Since starting my food exploration and leaving behind canned foods, I have longed to find a way to make this recipe healthy and delicious.  I finally achieved my goal!

I made homemade cream of chicken soup and cream of mushroom soup.  I got the recipe for the cream of chicken soup here:   http://www.momswhothink.com/soup-recipes/homemade-cream-of-chicken-soup.html

It's so easy!

I started with these ingredients, and I created a delicious dinner!  The ingredient blocked by the sour cream is pepper.

You just boil 1/2 cup of milk, 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth, 1/2 tsp of poultry seasoning, 1/4 tsp of onion powder, 1/4 tsp of garlic powder, 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp of parsley, 1/8 tsp of black pepper, and 1/8 tsp of paprika for 2 minutes.

While that's boiling, combine 1 cup of milk and 3/4 cups of flour in another bowl and whisk them together to combine them.

After the stovetop mixture has boiled for 2 minutes, you slowly whisk in the milk and flour mixture to thicken it.

It will become noticeably thicker.  Once this happens, and it starts bubbling, it is finished!  I went ahead and poured it into a casserole dish.

For the cream of mushroom soup, I used a variation of this approach that I concocted myself.  I placed 3-4 tablespoons of butter in a saute pan with a package of mushrooms.  I sauteed the mushrooms in the butter until they were soft.  Once the butter had cooked out, I added 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock, 1/2 cup of milk, and 1/4 tsp of dried, ground thyme.  I let that boil for 2 minutes, and then, I added the 1 cup of milk and 3/4 cups of flour I had whisked together.  I whisked the milk and flour mixture in until it became noticeably thicker.

Once it bubbled, I took it off the stove and poured it into the casserole dish with the cream of chicken soup mixture.

I added an 8 oz container of sour cream, and I mixed all 3 items together in the casserole dish until they were completely combined.

I added some chicken breasts I boiled on the stove for 30 minutes and then chopped up.  I used 2, but I would recommend using more like 4 if you want to make sure there's chicken in every bite.

I placed panko bread crumbs on top and sprinkled some grated parmesan on top of that. This would also be a good place to throw on some poppy seeds if you want some.

I also sliced some squash and mixed it with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  I placed it into a casserole dish to go into the oven with the chicken casserole.

I baked both the casserole and the squash in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.  The casserole should be bubbly when you go to take it out.

Here's the finished product.

 It was delicious!  It had incredible flavor.  I think it could've used a bit more salt, but this was my first time making this, so I didn't want to over do it.  You can't remove salt after you've added it.  You can serve this over brown rice or add some other veggies to your plate if you'd like.  

Check back for more healthy dinner ideas and recipes.

                                                                   Happy Healthy Eating!

The Hippie Plantation is Born

For the past oh probably 4 years or so, I've been on an exploration.  Not a heart pounding, action packed exploration like Indiana Jones or anything.  Instead, I've been exploring food.  You're probably thinking that is the most boring exploration to be on, but, my friend, you would be so wrong.  There are so many cool and interesting things I've learned about food while on this journey.  I have learned so much, and I am still learning things every day.  You're probably wondering how someone ends up on a food exploration.
    I grew up in the 90's eating the same foods most kids during that time grew up eating.  We had Kraft macaroni and cheese, frozen fish sticks, Ramen noodles, Spaghettios, Frozen corn dogs, Lucky Charms etc.  I'm sure you get the picture.  Back then, parents didn't think much about the food they were feeding their kids.  You can't blame the parents, because they didn't know they needed to be worried.  My mom probably thought she was doing a great job as long as she was cooking at home, and we were all seated around the same table eating together with no tv turned on.  She was right.  Making it a priority to eat together at home around the same table was a great thing.  The only thing missing was the healthful aspect of our food.
     Fast forward to present day.  I am 28 with a 14 month old son and a 30 (about to be 31) year old husband.  It is now my turn to feed my family, but unlike my mom's day and age, a lot has come to light about the food we are preparing and feeding our families.  I feel compelled to feed my son good, healthy food, because I know there is such a thing and that all food is NOT created equal.  That's right.  An organic carrot and a regular carrot are NOT the same.  I am blessed to live in a rural place where, during spring and summer, there are plenty of farmers markets and farms bursting forth with home grown food.  I spend my time scouring these markets in search of the best, healthful food to feed my family.
     I've been getting so many questions about things I've learned and to impart the information I've found along this journey, that I decided to put it all here in the hopes that others can learn a little something as well.  I will also post recipes I actually use and show you the simple and small amount of ingredients it takes to create delicious meals.  I hope you are ready for this journey.  It isn't one you should begin lightly.  Once you know certain things about the foods you've been eating, it is really hard to go back.
     I'm sure you're wondering about the name.  My husband actually came up with it since he's decided we eat weird food like spaghetti squash.  He said if I ever wrote a cook book, I should called it The Hippie Plantation.  He's convinced that all of my friends who grow their own foods, process their own meat, care about what they're eating, etc. are hippies.  He is incorrect, but that's an argument for another day.
    I hope you enjoy this blog, and utilize it to its fullest potential.  Please don't hesitate to post questions or ask for recipes or tips for anything.  I promise you I don't know everything, but I will search and find answers for you, so you don't have to feel like you're in the dark on certain subjects.  Just remember we are all on this journey together, and in the end, we all want to lead long healthy lives which begins with what we are using to fuel our bodies.

Happy, Healthy Eating!