smoothie: probiotic berry-banana

A favorite before school breakfast, or after school snack. 

Probiotic Berry-Banana Smoothie

(makes about 4 cups)

• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 cups kefir (sweetened or unsweetened, plain or flavored, your choice)
• 1 cup non-dairy or dairy milk (I usually use hemp or almond milk)
• 1 cup organic strawberries (or mixed berries)
• optional - 2-4 pitted dates to sweeten

Combine all ingredients in a high-powered blender. Blend until smooth. Store any leftovers in the fridge, and simply shake or whisk before serving if the smoothie separates. 

smoothie: "peanut butter and jelly"

Packed with protein to fuel my kiddos through sports, playing in the yard, and homework.

"Peanut Butter and Jelly" Smoothie

(makes about 6 cups)

• 2 cups non-dairy or dairy milk (our favorite for smoothies is vanilla hemp or almond milk)
• 2 cups whole milk kefir (we like these ones from Lifeway)
• 1/2 cup nut butter (I use almond butter)
• 2 cups frozen organic mixed berries
• optional - you can add maple syrup, honey or a few pitted dates for sweetness, though this probably won't be necessary

Combine all ingredients in a high-powered blender and blend until smooth. My kids like their smoothies thick, but you may add water if you want to thin the smoothie out. Store any leftovers in the fridge and give them a shake or whisk before serving if the smoothie separates. 

easy clean eating: banana-walnut chia pudding

Whipped this up to rave reviews this week...

As one commenter said on the Facebook page, "I love chia pudding  But I think you have to like tapioca pudding to deal with the texture. Just my opinion….." and I'd totally agree. We happen to love it around here.

As you can see, I had some ripe bananas just begging to become a wholesome snack, so this go round, I decided to make the chia pudding banana-flavored… but then at the last minute I added walnuts too for some extra good fat. If you have nut allergies, you can absolutely omit the walnuts, no problem, and you can use whatever milk your family enjoys-- be it dairy, seed, soy or nut.

OK, so the preparation is super simple-- first you blend 2 cups of milk {whichever type your using} + 2 bananas + 1/2 cup walnuts {optional} + 1 Tablespoon vanilla + 1 teaspoon cinnamon {or more, to taste-- I like our cinnamon-y so I added as much as a Tablespoon} + a dash of ginger {optional, start with a scant 1/2 teaspoon and go from there til you get to desired taste}. Once this mixture is smooth...

you'll simply pour it over 2/3 cup of chia seeds, then either stir well-- or shake-- and place the bowl into the fridge overnight. In the morning you'll have a thick pudding to enjoy for a protein-packed breakfast, or a special after school snack.  

Banana-Walnut Chia Seed Pudding

{makes 6 servings}

2 cups of milk {dairy, nut, seed, or soy-- your choice}

2 bananas

1/2 cup walnuts {optional}

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon {or more, to taste}

a dash of ginger {optional}

2/3 cup chia seeds

Blend all but the chia seeds until mixture is smooth. Place chia seeds in a bowl or jar large enough to hold whole batch of pudding. Pour banana mixture over the chia seeds and stir-- or shake-- to combine. Place container in fridge overnight. 

The Full Plate Blog named to Working Mother Magazines 25 Best Websites of 2015

Pinch me! I am beyond flattered to make Working Mother Magazine's 2015 "Best of The Net", alongside 24 other {awesome, if I might say so myself} websites.

And here I was wondering if my make-ahead recipes were worth continuing to write about… I had no idea how many people my site was helping feed their family well, even on the busiest of days. Thank you to Working Mother Magazine for this award, and to all of my loyal {and super busy mom} readers for inspiring me to set aside time to write The Full Plate Blog.

first ski weekend reminds me of why I make meals ahead

The ski season is here! The native Southern Californian in me hasn't quite embraced the cold, yet this year. But I'm getting there, and recalling that this means an even bigger need for make-ahead meals.

First up-- protein-packed breakfasts at the ready {because the truth is, getting everyone out the door is always kind of nutty...}.

This first ski weekend I made a double batch of my go-to veggie frittata recipe with broccoli rabe, kale and a blend of Parmesan, mozzarella and Gouda. I also roasted colorful new potatoes ahead of time and made sure we had some Applegate chicken sausages on hand. I did this on Friday, and packed everything in my favorite freezer-friendly packaging, which also happens to be microwave safe {b/c it's aluminum}. Breakfast took about 10 minutes to get from fridge to the table, including reheating everything, so that made for a delicious, protein-packed start to the ski day… with minimal effort from yours truly. Somehow my coffee still managed to get cold. Ski weekends are a work in progress...

Other make-ahead, protein-rich breakfast recipes I recall being hits last year…. these hash brown/sausage/egg cups -- but I'll have to modify it for our now vegetarian tween. 

By request from our local supermarket, I created a gluten-free baked French Toast recipe last year, which I'll probably add back into to our winter repertoire. 

And there was the Herb-Walnut Frittata which I loved. 

Chilaquiles are always a hit-- and are conveniently vegetarian. Handy, since I always have to keep that in mind these days. This would be easy to whip up on a Friday and reheat it weekend mornings.

And then, of course, there's our favorite Protein Pancakes which will likely be on an every other week rotation b/c my kids love them so, and they reheat beautifully. 

For a grab-and-go option, I plan to keep these Nothin' But granola cookies on hand. 

As the ski season ramps up, my goal for the next month or so, is to test a few new recipes and get all of my favorite make-ahead breakfasts in one place, along with shopping lists, packaging recs, etc-- just like my make-ahead entree ebook-- so I have an easy go-to tool to keep my winter ski weekends organized and enjoyable (aka, sane). I'll let you know when that's available for download.

OK, so on the back end, we typically roll in from a day on the mountain pretty beat, pretty cold, and really just wanting to just relax by the fire.

Which is why it's imperative that I have a stash of made-ahead meals at the ready, so I can relax and put my feet up too. If you haven't already downloaded my ebook that walks you through a dozen freezer-friendly family meals, do it now and thank me later. It's what keeps me sane in the meal dept.

Last night, we gave a new broccoli mac and cheese recipe of mine a test-run.

Recipe testing is difficult, but someone has to do it {ha!}… that's the broccoli mac and cheese you see there made with rice noodles, with some VT farm stand maple-oat bread lathered in Kerrygold butter, and an arugula salad with maple-dijon vinaigrette that we test drove last night. And, according to our 7-year-old, those are "very special" napkin designs, created for each of us. {Um, ok? Too tired to question table setting skills...} 

So, here's to being organized and not being the family who needs to shell out $73.13 for meat lasagna at the base of the mountain!! Seriously. Want your own copy of my make-ahead meal program? Click here for the instant download.  {Yes, if you're doing the math, that makes the ebook w/ all of my secrets for successfully stocking your freezer w/ a month's worth of family meals less than 1/7 the price of one family-size meat lasagna. Crazy!} Want the scoop on what the instantly downloadable ebook includes, click here for the Q and A. 

Alrighty, I'm heading back into our kitchen these next couple of weeks to recipe test a round two of ahhmazing recipes. Here's to hoping I can get a Second Edition of freezer-friendly recipes together soon. Stay tuned! 

P.S. If there's a type of recipe you'd really like to see in the Second Edition of Stock Your Freezer in a Snap, leave a comment below. I'm right in the midst of laying out my recipe testing schedule, so if there's something you'd really like included, let's see if I can help you out.

make-ahead breakfast idea: gluten-free blueberry-almond baked french toast casserole in honor of celiac awareness month

In honor of Celiac Awareness Month, I recently adapted one of our family's favorite make-ahead brunch recipes to make it gluten-free.

Made with just a few ingredients: a loaf of gluten-free bread, 2-3 cups of blueberries, a cup of nuts {optional}, some citrus zest {optional, but adds nice flavor}, 8 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of your choice of milk {dairy, soy, coconut, almond}, cinnamon and vanilla, I love this recipe because it can be assembled before you have guests over… or baked and then tucked in the fridge for a delicious breakfast you can reheat on busy weekdays. Click here to grab the recipe for Gluten-Free Blueberry-Almond Baked French Toast Casserole that I recently shared with our local market.

When gluten is not an issue, I like making it with LaBrea's Pecan-Raisin bread, so Udi's Guten-Free Cinnamon Raisin bread was a great substitution, but it is equally good with Udi's Gluten-Free Whole Grain loaf as well.

Yes, he wanted to help...

You'll know it's cooked through when a butter knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serve with a drizzle of good maple syrup. Mmm. Perfection.

Hope your family likes this recipe as much as mine does! Click here for the recipe if you'd like to pin or bookmark it.

Baked Eggs and Sausage in Hash Brown Cups

This winter, I mastered the art of the make-ahead breakfast. Each and every week, I did a few minutes of  cooking on Friday, and reaped the rewards of leisurely mornings on Saturday and Sunday. OK, truth be told, we were hustling everyone onto the ski mountain by 8am, so the mornings weren't really relaxing per se, but knowing breakfast was taken care of {not to mention, delicious and nourishing}, made these family ski weekend mornings much more fun.

This was one of the family favs. Made with just 3 ingredients, these are a keeper. Click here for the recipe. 

First, you spray 12 muffin cups with your choice of cooking oil spray, then press thawed hash browns {that you have squeezed as much water out of as possible} into the base and up the sides of each cup. Sprinkle each has brown cup with salt & pepper. Pop the tin into a 375 oven for about 30 minutes, or until the potato cups are crisp.

You'll see that the potatoes "shrunk" a bit. That's totally fine.

Simply top each potato cup with a few slices of sausages. We like Applegate's Chicken-Apple or Chicken Maple ones.

Next, crack a medium egg in each cup. I say medium because if you try to fit a large or jumbo sized egg it'll probably overflow the muffin cup… not a big deal, but it's kind of messy. I mean, if you can avoid trying to catch slimy egg whites as they roll off the muffin tin all over your counter, you might as well…

Then the muffin tin goes back into the oven for about 10-15 minutes for soft-set eggs and 16-18 minutes for hard-set eggs. Gently run a butter knife around each egg cup to remove it from the tin, and serve them warm.

I typically made them hard-set because then they became a breakfast you could pick up with your hands. And when you're 7, that is wildly exciting.

maintaining swell: a detox-friendly recipe for an Herb-Walnut Frittata + this one happens to be St. Patrick's Day friendly as well!

While there's a sense of accomplishment {in addition to looser jeans} when you finish Mark Hyman MD's 10-day detox, for me, I knew I was going to have to expand my repertoire of delicious recipes that stuck to similar parameters {sugar, dairy and gluten-free} in order to continue to feel good {and lose a few more of the lbs that had crept on in my 40s}. I still start most every day with one of the protein-packed smoothies from his book. That's been an easy habit to adopt, that keeps me feeling energetic all morning long.  

{BTW, if you're just joining me, and have no idea what this detox is that I am talking about, you might like to read the back story here. And if you're on Facebook, you can join my adventure in getting back to "swell" here.} 

Alright, so I am a few weeks out now, and I've realized I am a better mom...and wife...and friend if I continue to integrate a few of the other detox principles into my every day life. The pic above was snapped by one of my kids. Despite looking like I am death-gripping the wheel, I'm not stressed. This is my norm. I spend most of my afternoons/evenings driving to and fro, right up until dinnertime.

Which is why this pic my little one snapped of me a few weekends ago is also key. I need to make time to get outside. Daily.

That was one of the tenets of the 10 Day Detox, but when your normal walking route looks like this {pretty, but that's a 4" tick slab of ice, people}, sometimes it's hard to rally.

So, what's a girl to do when winter just will not melt away?

Yak Tracks. Don't laugh. They work.

I also need to just take some time to relax. Each and every day. If I can take one of the detox baths, great. But if there's no tub, or my family needs me, then I need to unplug and recharge my own batteries.

And then there are the meals. I loved that each of the meals in the 10-day detox was chosen for me, and that each one was delicious… that made it easy to follow. There's some comfort in knowing exactly what to eat and when. But after I was done with the detox, and had cycled through the rest of the recipes in subsequent weeks, my mind started to wander. I'm not really one to follow recipes per se, but I read cooking magazines like some read romance novels.

Since wrapping up the detox, I've started looking at recipes differently. Some I zero in on right away and am thrilled I can add them to my repertoire. Others I know I'll have to tinker with until I get a new version perfect for the way I want to eat. Recently, I flipped through a cookbook on a friend's counter and saw a recipe for an Herb-Walnut Frittata that looked delicious and pretty post-detox-friendly. But I knew I could tinker with it a bit and make it even better. So, I did so and recently shared the new iteration with a family-owned market in our town.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I am a fan of anything that can be made ahead. And if a recipe can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner, even better! For this recipe, I made a thick "pesto" of various herbs, greens and nuts, and I warmed the pesto to gently toast the nuts.

Then, using the same food processor, I whisked the eggs, poured them over the pesto...

gave it a whisk...

and popped it in the oven to bake.

Voila!

The first evening I made it, we enjoyed it warm for dinner.

The next morning, I served it warm for breakfast, with some Applegate Farms chicken sausages on the side.

And a few days later, I was thrilled to find some leftover, which I had room temp for lunch. If you'd like to see a few of the original recipes that inspired me here's one, here's another and here's another. My version bumps up the good fat, omits dairy, and makes enough so a family of four has plenty of leftovers!

Herb-Walnut Frittata
{makes 8 servings}

1 cup raw walnuts
4 cloves garlic
2 cups fresh cilantro
2 cups fresh parsley
2 cups chard, spinach or kale
1 bunch scallions, white and light green parts
salt and pepper, to taste
2 Tablespoons grapeseed, olive or walnut oil
8 eggs, whisked

Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor, combine the walnuts, garlic, cilantro, parsley, leafy greens, scallions. Pulse until a thick pesto is formed. Add salt & pepper {to taste}. Add the oil to a 10" oven-proof skillet. Saute the pesto until the nuts become fragrant. Turn the burner off and whisk in the eggs. Transfer the skillet to the preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the center of the frittata is set. {It will spring back when touched.} Frittata may be served warm, room temp, or cold. Any leftover frittata will keep, in the fridge, for 3-4 days. 

I know this recipe might have caught some of your eyes because it's so perfect for St. Patrick's Day. Looking for other green food ideas? I've got you covered! Click here to go to my Pinterest board where I've gathered a few of my favorites for my family. Enjoy!

Note: The above links will take you to Amazon. When you click, it takes you to their website, and anything you purchase there will help support swellmom and the full plate blog. Thanks in advance for the support.