Baked Sweet Potato Slices

This is an easy snack that the kids love. Plus, they're a healthy alternative to processed foods.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

-Start by slicing your sweet potatos into 1/2" rounds. Leave the peel on as this gives it a lovely texture.

-Place the slices in one layer on baking sheets that have been coated with cooking spray.

-Brushy with a light drizzle of olive oil.

-Sprinkle with pepper, salt and garlic powder.

-Bake for 30 minutes or until slightly crisp, flipping each slice after 15 minutes.

Serve warm to ravenous children.

Visit The Grocery Cart Challenge for more recipes.

Jennifer Hoech

Menu Plan Monday

Here we are again, another week. Last week went well with the exception of the butternut squash lasagna. That is just a bad idea all together. This week, my husband is starting a "biggest loser" contest. The dinners will be low cal from now on. The breakfasts and lunches are planned for the kids.

Most of these recipes are great but I do change some of the ingredients to make them healthier. For example you can substitute whole wheat flour for white flour, brown rice for white rice, skip the butter, add more veggies, use yogurt instead of sour cream etc.

Breakfast:
Breakfast Tacos - I love this article on Breakfast Tacos from Homesick Texan.

Bagels with cream cheese

Eggs in a nest

Green smoothies

Lunch:

Tortilla wrap w/mini carrots and hummus and strawberries

Mini Pizzas on WW English muffins w/strawberries and popcorn - Huge win with this last week!

Chicken Muffins w/apples and popcorn

Egg Muffin Sandwich w/yogurt and cantelope

Dinner:

Garlic Salmon w/broccoli

Quinoa and black beans

Lentils and Spinach

Black Bean Tacos

Shrimp Kebabs
photo courtesy of Shape.com

Bake for snacks and lunch boxes:

Sweet Potato slices - not sure why, but the kiddos love to snack on these.

Lemon Poppy Seed Scones - Haven't tried these yet but I think the kids will like them.

Popcorn -Pop a huge batch, then stick in small containers to be used in lunches.


For more Menu Plan ideas check out :

Thanksgiving Visit

Better late than never.

Holy Half Shell!

There must be an R in the month because...Oysters!

My husband doesn't bring home the bacon, he brings home the oysters.

Jennifer Hoech

Tea Party

Saturday, I left to pick up the boy from soccer camp. When I got back, this is what I stumbled into. Clearly the girls talked Daddy into a tea party.



I'm very grateful for Raita obliging the girls and extremely thankful he let me take the photos.

Christmas 2009

We had a lazy family day with lots of fun, movies and food. Oh we painted the master bath too but that wasn't fun.

The best was watching the older kiddos enjoy the youngest squeals of excitement with each opened present. She would exclaim, "ooohhh! Just what I always wanted!" Very entertaining.

Santa left some press-on nails:



The afternoon held the movies for us. I was amazed at how empty the town was. Not even McDonalds was open.

After Avatar and The Princess and the Frog, we headed home and made the best French Onion Soup. So good I can't even remember what else we had.

Baby needs more diapers after the Christmas feast:


Grammy sent this Princess ensemble

Happy Thanksgiving

And 10 year Wedding Anniversary!


Suki waiting to enjoy her dinner.

I'm Your Ice Cream Man

so stop me when I'm passin' by.

Fair Food

During my dad's visit we splurged on lots of food we don't normally eat.

When the girls asked for cotton candy and they got it, they were in heaven!

Ummm Soup

My kids love soup. They will put spoon after spoonful into their mouths until their bellies are swollen.

Here is my secret weapon, the blender.


Yep, whatever soup you are making, put about 3/4ths of it into the blender before serving, then pop back into the pot. Assuming of course there are not any noodles, rice or meat in there. This little trick seems to make the soup a much more kid friendly consistency.

I love the fact that the kids have no idea that they are eating super-healthy-good-for-you food, that I can get rid of huge quantities of vegetables and that most soups are pretty effortless.



If you're interested, we had Cauliflower soup today and Monday the kids scarfed down some eggplant and tomato soup.

Olive Fingers

To all my aunts, grandmas and my mom who never gave me that fifth olive. Here is what could have been....

Pub Mix

I am sure you have at one point, bought the pub mix. That large bag of pretzels, mini toasts, rice crackers, sesame sticks etc.

It seems like there is always something that everyone fights over and then something that is always left cause they all hate it. For us, it's pretzels. There were so many picked over pretzels left that Jonah decided to see what he could do with them.


He and Raita had a contest to see who could build the tallest tower and there was even an attempt at Stonehenge.

One trilithon from Stonehenge:


Photos courtesy of Jonah.

What's for lunch?

Depends on how well behaved your kids are.

Time Out Lunch

Secret Garden

This is the garden that Jonah and I made last year. It is kind of tucked away a bit under a tree and it feels kind of hidden in parts when you're back there picking the spinach.


Last year, I was pretty down because it didn't do so well. This year, it's a totally different story!

Freya is the harvester of all things green and leafy. She has been eating the strawberries one by one. I can't wait to see her face when the sunflowers actually flower. The leaves are pretty impressive as it is but just wait a few months.

I am hoping that the weeds slow down cause I am having a hard time keeping up with them.

Today is Raita's Birthday. I made him a lemon meringue pie and a margarita. He isn't too hard to please.

He has been talking about this T-shirt he wants to make. So, I went ahead and made one for him. He is all about the stacation or staycation which ever you prefer.....

I AM FULL

We had the usual and a few new items. One being these sweet potato stuffed oranges.

Very sweet but I will totally make them again as they were delish. We also had twice baked potatoes instead of mashed. And the ever popular broccoli corn casserole instead of the green bean.

My grandma Thela always makes this jello salad that she refers to as Delicious Salad. I had to make it so that the kids wouldn't miss out! It is very similar to this recipe only she uses 1 large box of raspberry jello and sprinkles sliced almonds on top.

We drank cranberry bellinis and the kids had cranberry cider.

Suki even had a plate of Turkey and dressing. She ate it in 2 and 2.




After all that, we all sat in the hot tub for a bit. It's in the upper 70s and so nice to sit outside. Imagine doing all this baking and cooking in an 80 degree house!

Off to make the whipped cream for the pumpkin pie! I hope everyone is as full as I am.