Zucchini Lasagna {#THM S Recipe}

I created this recipe for Zucchini Lasagna last year  when we had an over abundance of squash in the garden.  It’s my basic Lasagna recipe that my family loves and the squash worked out perfectly in it!  Using squash as the noodles is a perfect way to lower the carb count of lasagna, and it’s just as delicious (maybe even more so!).   Zucchini Lasagna is a simple and healthy meal.  Serve it with a nice green salad, it makes a complete meal!  My fellas gave it a thumbs up!  You can add any kind of squash you’d like, yellow crookneck, zucchini, pattypan, etc.  You can also slice the squash up into rounds if you prefer.  Zucchini Lasagna is a very versatile recipe.  If you don’t have the squash, it’s simple just to leave it out and make regular ol’ lasagna or try substituting another vegetable like eggplant.

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Health Benefits of Switchel

Switchel is an old Amish drink that they use to serve during haying and other strenuous activities, used to quench thirst and restore electrolytes. It’s their form of Gatorade.

There are many health benefits of switchel.  It’s especially good to be used when you have a cold or the flu and even when your sinuses are acting up, just start drinking it at the first sign of a cold. You can drink daily as a refreshing change from water or tea. It is also a good treatment for acid reflux. The ingredients are extremely healthful, so this drink is excellent for daily use and is also safe for pregnant women.

Let’s take a look at some of the key ingredients to understand WHY it’s so healthy.

Raw Honey

• Honey is soothing to the throat
• Has anti-bacterial properties
• Has anti-viral properties
• Has anti-fungal properties
• Is helpful in wound healing
• Raises blood levels of protective anti-oxidants
• Helps lower cholesterol, especially the bad LDL cholesterol

Raw Organic Apple Cider Vinegar

• It’s a natural stimulant
• It cleanses and restores nutrients to the body so that the body can heal itself
• Helps remove toxins from the body
• Supports the immune system
• Promotes healthy skin
• Helps control weight
• Improves digestion and assimilation
• Soothes tight and aching joints caused by arthritis
• Soothes sore muscles from exercise
• It regulates the metabolism
• Reduces cholesterol
• Helps regulate blood pressure
• Increases concentration and memory
• Counteracts bladder infections, because it normalizes the pH which causes the infections
• It is supposed to help balance your body’s pH.
• Helps clear the sinuses
• Contains potassium, calcium, phosphorous, sodium, sulfur, copper, iron, silicon, fluorine, vitamins C, E, A, B1, B2, B6, and beta-carotene

Black Strap Molasses

• Provides iron for energy and is great for treating anemia. It provides more iron for fewer calories than meat and is fat free. It often suggested for pregnant women to consume when they are anemic during pregnancy.
• Provides calcium for healthy bones and teeth. Helps prevent osteoporosis
• Treats constipation
• Eases joint pain caused by arthritis.
• Contains manganese, copper, iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, vitamin B6 and selenium.

Ginger

• Helps control motion sickness, nausea and morning sickness
• It’s an anti-inflammatory which helps those who suffer with arthritis
  It helps control weight
• May help by preventing the growth of cancer
• Helps boost your immune system
• Contains potassium, magnesium, copper, manganese, and vitamin B6.

As you can see, Switchel is chock full of ingredients that are good for you and promotes health. I think it’s right up there with kefir and kombucha tea for healthy drinks!

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How To Cook Lentils

I always make a BIG batch of basic lentils, at least two pounds of dried lentils, which ends up making double that after cooking. We eat these on the first day as is on bread (or for me on top of a salad).  Yummy stuff and so easy.  Be aware, that I do soak my lentils, as per “Nourishing Traditions”, also, I do cook them in the crock-pot.

So, as you can see, basic lentils are pretty easy to cook ahead of time and they do actually freeze pretty well.  This makes them really versatile and easy to freeze and use later in recipes.  For the longest time we’ve only eaten lentils in “sloppy” food recipes, such as sloppy lentils, lentil chili, and lentil spaghetti.  But, I’ve been wanting to try my hand making a more “structured” meal with them such as a loaf.

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Baked Pepper Jack Squash {#THM S Recipe}

photo credit: Dawn Gagnon via photopin cc

If you’ve ever planted summer squash, you know that it can really take off and you end up with tons upon tons of extra! I know that’s what happens to us, so I love squash recipes so I can use them up while they are plentiful. Of course, we usually give a bunch away to family and friends and even donate to our local food pantry. BTW, food pantries are a great place to get rid of your excess produce. Check with them to make sure, but I know that ours accepts donations of garden fresh produce and it makes me feel like we’re helping our neighbors in need. In fact, I really want to plant a garden just for that purpose, to raise fresh veggies for the food pantry. Anyway, this recipe makes use of one of my family’s most favorite ingredients…cheese. We usually use pepper jack for this recipe.   This makes a great Trim Healthy Mama S side dish or meatless meal.  Well, on to the recipe!

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Spicy Lentil Loaf

The other day when I cooked lentils, we had a bunch of leftovers. I didn’t want to throw them away, so we tucked them away in the freezer and I planned to experiment with them. I’ve been wanting to play around with creating a Spicy Lentil Loaf, lentils are SO cheap and they have more of the taste and texture of meat then beans. They are so versatile and are great for meatless meals that are inexpensive. In this post, I’m sharing how I made the Spicy Lentil Loaf. Which, by the way was a BIG hit with my fellas. It’s tasty, filling and CHEAP!

I’ve been wanting to try my hand making a more “structured” meal with lentils such as a Spicy Lentil Loaf. When looking around at recipes, I found a problem. Most of them mock the traditional meatloaf and have sweet toppings on them. My husband does not like sweet dinner foods. He HATES sweet meatloaf especially. So I knew I was just going to have to improvise and come up with something he did like. It took me years, but I FINALLY created a meatloaf he loves, it’s my Spicy Meatloaf recipe. So, I decided to base this Spicy Lentil Loaf recipe on that one. Instead of the topping I usually use, I used my Italian Tomato Salad Dressing on top and it was so yummy that I will start using it on my meatloaf recipe from now on! It came out MUCH better than I was expecting and everyone raved about it.
Spicy Lentil Loaf makes a really yummy meal, and it’s REALLY inexpensive. A great thing to eat on Meatless Mondays, or any day of the week. We like to serve it with Green Beans and a salad. It’s also even better the next day as sandwiches. Yum!  So, here it is!

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Essential Oil Good Girl Moonshine

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been trying to start adding more and more of the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle choices into my diet in recent weeks.  I am really loving the food and think I’ve actually lost a couple of pounds in the few weeks I’ve been trying it (our scale is broken, so I’m not sure).  I do know that I’m feeling great and enjoying some pretty great, healthy, and skinny treats.  Sugar is my downfall on most diets.  But with Trim Healthy Mama there are lots of “sweets” that are good for you, which I think will make this lifestyle easier for me than for ones in the past.  I’m still working my way through the book, so I’m still no expert.  One of the recipes I heard about very quickly when I was investigating this lifestyle was for Good Girl Moonshine.

Good Girl Moonshine is a drink made out of water, Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV), Ginger, and Stevia.  Sounded good to me, but I don’t care for ginger so I had just been using water with the ACV and stevia.   I had to find a different way to flavor it that would still be healthy and beneficial, but be better tasting–enter my doTERRA essential oils!  For months, I’ve been drinking water with citrus oils in them because the are so cleansing to the body.  They help the body melt away the stubborn petrochemicals from the body which like to attach themselves to our fat cells.  Getting those petrochemicals out of our bodies helps to shrink fat cells!  So I decided to give that a try and I discovered that the essential oils make Good Girl Moonshine go from good to FANTASTIC!  So now I’m going to share with you my recipe for Essential Oil Good Girl Moonshine!  Enjoy it, I know I sure do!

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Linking With: Brag About It | Tuesday Link Party | No. 10, The Scoop Link Party, Titus 2 Tuesday–Linky Party #57, Tuesdays with a Twist, Tuesday Link Up Party, Tuesday To Do #118, You’re Gonna Love It – Week 60, Tasty Tuesday, Titus 2sday Link-Up Party!, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday; 06/25/13, Teach Me Tuesdays | Homemaking Link-Up #100, Living Green Tuesdays Link-UP #46, Trim Healthy Tuesday

Spicy Pickled Green Beans

We love spicy things around here and we LOVE pickled green beans, so I decided to try my hand at making some spicy pickled green beans.  These turned out really yummy, but a bit on a the mild side–so if you like HOT pickles, just add a few more jalapenos.  My family really loves these Spicy Pickled Green Beans and can’t wait each year when garden fresh green beans are plentiful.  Often times, I’ll be busy canning a batch of these at least once a week–sometimes even more often than that.  Spicy Pickled Green Beans are really easy to make.  They don’t require a pressure canner, just a water bath canner.  I can them while green beans are plentiful and then we have them all year long to enjoy (if I can keep my kids out of them!)

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Dilled Cabbage Salad {THM Light S Recipe}

Well, I’ve gone and done it!  I’ve jumped on the Trim Healthy Mama bandwagon.  I’ve been hearing such good things about Trim Healthy Mama, that I had to check it out.  I’m still in the process of reading the book, and I’ll write a review of it when I finally get it done.  But for now, I’m just plugging along with it.  It’s a REALLY long book with lots of information to get through.  From what I’ve read so far, the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle can very easily work with whole/real/traditional food choices, which makes it nice because I don’t have to add anything that I don’t feel right about eating.  Anyway, I am just absolutely LOVING this book and the recipes that I’ve tried so far have been delish.  While I love the recipes, I want to be sure and modify my family’s favorite recipes to fit into the THM lifestyle.  I’ve been trying to make my lunches THM friendly this week and yesterday I created a new Dilled Cabbage Salad that I really loved!  It mixes two of my favorite things–THM AND doTERRA essential oils!  WOOT for me!  The recipe below uses the Dill Essential Oil that can be found in the Summer Splash kit that contains Dill, Basil, Spearmint, and Tangerine essential oils. If you don’t have dill essential oil, you can always use fresh or dried dill. We are BIG cabbage eaters around here because it’s so inexpensive and I find it much more filling than lettuce.  I served this with a skinless, boneless chicken breast that I cooked on the George Foreman grill.  It was a very filling and satisfying meal and oh so healthy!  So watch for updates each week for how I’m doing with the THM diet.  Now on to the recipe!

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Linking With: Wow Me Wednesday #102, Wow Us Wednesdays #123, Cast Party Wednesday #96, Inspire Me Wednesday {Issue 33}, Whimsy Wednesdays 68, Rock ‘N Share #46, Wonderful Food Wednesday- #42, Show & Share Wednesday #42, Wow Us Wednesday, Down Home Blog Hop~Number 42, WFMW, Real Food Wednesday 6/19/2013, Homemaking Link-Up!, ‘Encourage One Another’ Link-Up #91, Allergy-Free Wednesdays, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Ninety-Three, Wise Woman Linkup!, Trim Healthy Tuesday

Italian Tomato Salad Dressing

I’ve been dieting for several months now. I’ve changed my diet where I am eating about 2/3 vegetarian with at least 75% of that raw. I generally have a meat/cooked meal for dinner. This has really allowed me to finally start losing the weight I’ve been stubbornly holding on to for a number of years. All was going fine on my diet until I started looking for a healthier alternative to commercial salad dressing. I decided to make my own to avoid soybean oil, MSG, and high fructose corn syrup. It was a simple recipe with just a few ingredients, but HEAVY in olive oil. Now I’m not one of those “avoid fat at all cost” sort of person, I eat lots of healthy fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, and butter. But fats do contain a high level of calories and when trying to lose weight, calorie count is important. So I’ve been eating my salads (2-3 per day) with this salad dressing. I stopped losing weight. I figured I had reached a plateau. Well the other day, I finally punched in the ingredients into a recipe calorie calculator and discovered that per the serving I was using (5-6 tbsp on a HUGE salad) gave me an extra calorie intake of 285 calories! Yikes…that was just on the salad dressing and multiply that by at least 2 times per day!

So since discovering that, I’ve been using commercially bottled dressing, but I wanted to have something better and more healthy. Yet, not with such a high calorie count. I love French and Catalina dressings so I thought I’d try to make something tomato based this time around. Also, I didn’t want to go to the grocery store to buy anything, so I used what I had on hand. Let me tell you, at first I thought I had just made a mess….I had just added the first 6 ingredients and it tasted awful to me (I had yet to add any seasonings). But I really hated to have wasted food, so I kept playing with the recipe by adding seasonings to taste. After just adding the salt and pepper, my taste testers and I started grinning. The taste improved so much that we had hope…lol. After adding all the seasonings to taste, I had a salad dressing that even my 2 picky boys would eat! Yay!! They thought it tasted more Italian than French and were asking if they could make pizza with it…lol! I do think it would taste wonderful to use as a dipping sauce.

So after I got the ingredients worked out, it was taste test approved, I wanted to find out if this salad dressing was actually lighter in calories than my original recipe that I had been using. Here’s what I found out:

Using a serving size of 2 Tbsp (this is for a regular sized “dinner” side salad) this recipe contains only 47 calories, 4 carbs, 4 fat, and 1 protein. So if I were to use my normal amount (5-6 tbsp) on my huge meal sized salads then I would only be adding 141 calories to my meal. That was MUCH better.

So without further ado, here is the recipe that promises to become our family staple.

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Linking With: 92nd Wildcrafting Wednesday, Wonderful Food Wednesday- #41, Show & Share Wednesday #41, Rock ‘N Share Wednesday #45, Whimsy Wednesdays 67, Wow Us Wednesday, Wow Me Wednesday #101, Wow Us Wednesday #122, Down Home Blog Hop~Number 41, Cast Party Wednesday #95, Inspire Me Wednesday {Issue 32}, Fluster’s Creative Muster – Party #24, {wow me} wednesday #107, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #76, Show & Share #96, WFMW: Act of Parental Brilliance, Homemaking Link-Up!, Real Food Wednesday 6/12/2013, ‘Encourage One Another’ Wednesday Link-Up #90, Allergy Free Wednesdays, Wise Woman Linkup

Slim & Sassy Mock Frosty | A Healthy Version of a Wendy’s Frosty

I’ve been seeing a recipe for a healthy version of a Wendy’s Frosty all over the place for  the last few weeks.  It’s on Pinterest, Facebook, and multiple blogs.  My family and I have a weakness for them, so I knew I would have to give it a try.  Well I started looking at the recipe and got this wild hair that I should try it with some of doTERRA’s Slim & Sassy Vanilla Trim Shake.  I thought that would really add a nice vanilla-ness to the mock Frosty, plus have the added benefit of helping to control hunger between meals.  I figured if it turned out well, that it would make a really good, filling, and healthy breakfast.  I’m not a breakfast eater–never have been.  But, I do love a good smoothie or shake in the morning, AND if it tasted as yummy as a Wendy’s Frosty, then I’m all for that!  So I mixed it up as a dessert the other night after dinner and it was a BIG family pleaser!  I doubled this recipe and there was enough for everyone to have 1 cup full, plus enough to put in the freezer for later.  To say that this recipe was a hit is an understatement!

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