Make these. Trust Me.

Some people are gifted in the kitchen.  They can just walk in, throw some ingredients together and whip up a delicious meal.  I have a couple of friends that are like that.

I am not one of them.

I'm a recipe girl.

Don't get me wrong... I can follow a recipe with the best of them.  But when it comes to instinctively knowing what will go well with what, I'm lost.

Thankfully, the internet and Pinterest keep me filled with plenty of instructions.  However, not all Pinterest and internet recipes are winners.

Have no fear.  These recipes are DELICIOUS!  So much so that I am chronicling them here so that I can look them up at a later date.

-  Which is exactly what I did with these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I have made these the last 2 autumns and they are always a hit.  I couldn't remember where the recipe was the other day, so I googled my own blog reference and found them.  I make them with whole wheat flour so I can pretend like that are healthy.

--Henry's daycare has a policy that for lunch you have to send at least 4 food groups.  If you don't, they can write you up and I don't know what the ultimate punishment would be.  I'm a rule follower so I have ZERO intention of finding out.

It was pretty easy when Henry was on an all breastmilk diet.  And it was still fairly simple when he ate baby food.  But now that he is 100% on people food (baby-led weaning and all that jazz), he has turned into a bit of a picky eater.

Mainly, he doesn't really eat meat or vegetables.  There's where the next 2 recipes came in:  Pumpkin Pancakes and Black Bean and Quinoa Casserole.

The pumpkin pancakes are a feeble attempt to sneak in my veggies (I count squash as a vegetable not a fruit).  Again, I use whole wheat flour to throw in some extra nutrition.  These things take FOREVER to cook.  I make a batch on the weekends and we put them in the fridge to heat up for his breakfast all week long.

The black bean casserole is so easy and pretty darn good.  In an effort to make it not too spicy for Henry, I used about 1/3 of the chili powder it called for.  And because I am lazy and hate chopping up cilantro, I used way less of that as well.  Plus I only had 1 can of enchilada sauce.  It was still a hit with Henry.

-  I have a small obsession with buffalo wings which is why this recipe for Popcorn Buffalo Bites was right up my ally.  They are pretty easy to make (although time consuming when making them popcorn size) and WAY healthier than traditional buffalo wings because they are made with chicken breasts and baked, not fried.  I have made them again, making chicken strips instead of popcorn bites (because I am lazy).

What's not healthy is the amount of bleu cheese dressing I dipped them into but we just won't talk about that.

-  Fall just wouldn't be fall without pumpkin bread, right?  My mom makes THE BEST pumpkin bread.  But I am pretty sure the 2 main ingredients are sugar and butter (read: NOT PUMPKIN).  I just can't eat very much of that, so I found this Low-Fat Pumpkin Bread recipe.  I omitted the pumpkin seeds.

My coworker brought me a piece of Starbuck's Pumpkin Bread and we had a taste test one day.  No joke, there was almost ZERO DIFFERENCE between the two.  And I doubt the Starbuck's version was only 100 calories a serving.

-  Zucchini is almost out of season, I know but while you still have some in your garden make this Zucchini Casserole.  Trust me.  I found this recipe a couple of years ago and we loved it so much we ate it about once a week for a month.

-  Even though it is still in the 80's here (and sometimes in the 90s), I am breaking out the crockpot.  Throw in the fact that I have been hankering for Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana and we have a Google search on our hands.  After looking at several different recipes, I was not at all surprised at the amount of whipping cream required.

Gross.

I like to operate under the "ignorance is bliss" camp when it comes to my food sometimes.

So my Google search got modified.  HEALTHY crock pot Zuppa Toscana.

That's how I found THIS recipe.  It is currently in my crock pot so I have no idea how it will turn out.   But I am optimistic and will keep you posted.



So there you have it!  Some relatively healthy recipes that have been a success in the Janney household as of late.  If you have any wonderful recipes, I am all ears (or eyes).  I really don't like being in a food rut.  For some reason when I don't have a plan for what to cook I can only ever think of spaghetti.  And you can only have so much spaghetti.

{Don't be fooled... He threw a lot of it on the floor}