Beck's (Better than Manwich) Sloppy Joes

The "clean-eating" movement has been growing exponentially in recent history.  If you would like a good healthy lifestyle site, I want to direct you to Brand Fitness.  It is a blog/group that a friend of mine started.  She's a good source for clean eating recipes and healthy living in general.  She's also a good resource to point you to others if you need more direction for a healthy lifestyle.   

Another mom-blog doesn't have a specific angle to be healthy but it is something that should be considered important.  I believe in indulgences but only in moderation.  That being said, if I have the opportunity to give my family something a bit healthier, I'm going to take it. It is always better to know exactly what is going into your families food. And just like with this recipe, if it turns out to taste better than a can, even better!  So here it is, a can-free sloppy joe that will knock your families socks off!

Ingredients:

1 small onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 lb lean ground beef (I used 90/10 but if it is a lower grade, just make sure you rinse the fat off)

1 cup ketchup

2 tbsp brown spicy mustard

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp chili powder 

1 tsp cumin

a dash (or dashes!) of hot sauce

1/2 cup water

Start by  browning the beef along with the onions and peppers.  Once browned, drain any fat.  This is where it gets really difficult so pay close attention.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir.  I added several dashes of hot sauce to mine but we like things spicy in my house.  If you can't handle it, feel free to leave it out.  The water is just meant to thin out the sauce.  You may not need the entire 1/2 cup or you may need more.  Play it by ear and be flexible.  Let the mixture simmer for about 20 minutes on low and serve and enjoy!  

Serves a family of 4: 298 cal / 27 carb / 10 fat / 23 protein / 20 sugar

My husband was so excited about this dinner, he reached for the bowl
as I was taking the picture.  He just couldn't wait! It really is that good.

Easy Fruit Torte

Looking for an easy, delicious dessert to carry to your next picnic?  This fruit torte is your answer!  It is very easy to make and it will definitely leave you with a happy crowd.

Start with a basic yellow cake recipe.  Here is the general recipe I use:

Basic Yellow Cake
Cream together: 2/3 cup butter (softened), 1- 3/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1- 1/2 tsp vanilla.
Sift together: 2- 1/2 cup AP flour, 2-1/2 tsp BP, 1/2 tsp salt
You also need 1-1/4 cup milk

Over about 3 batches, slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.  After each dry bit added, add some of the milk.  Once everything is mixed together, pour batter evenly into 2 sprayed torte pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.  I turned mine 10 minutes in to make sure they cook evenly.

Once tortes are finished, remove from pans and set aside to cool.  While they are doing that, you can prep the cheesecake topping.  You aren't going to believe how easy this is.  Mix 2 cups of cold milk, 1 box of sugar-free cheesecake pudding and 8 oz of cream cheese (softened).  Blend it together until it isn't lumpy and it begins to thicken the way pudding should.

Once the cakes are fully cooled, spread the topping and add whatever fruit looked good at the market that day.  I used strawberries and blueberries to be patriotic for the holiday but this would be great with kiwi, pineapple, raspberries, or really anything.

I refrigerated until it was time to serve.  Try this and you will get rave reviews! Feel free to share any comments!

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all veterans!

Great-Great-Grandma's Cookies

I recently inherited my great-grandmas recipe collection. It is so amazing to have her handwritten recipes. She was an amazing cook and an even better baker. Since baking is not my forte, I wanted to take some instruction from her little box. This morning I was looking through the recipe box and I found one titled "Mother's spiced oat cookies." Since her mother would be my great-great-grandma, I felt I had to give it a try. Sorry but there will be no recipe attached. This one holds too much nostalgic value to share outside the family. Any Witt's are welcome to it (message me if you want) but no one else! It may seem kind of hateful to share this moment without the recipe but I couldn't help but record it. Tasting these cookies has brought so many memories back to me. Baking with her recipe makes me feel close to her. Plus it resulted in some delicious cookies!

No More Frozen Dinners!

Salisbury Steak

Salisbury steak has always been a favorite of mine but I've never made it myself. There are special diet restrictions in my house so it hasn't been something we eat often. On occasion, I would settle the urges with a Michelina's frozen meal but they have way too much sodium and not enough filling power. I decided tonight I was going be adventurous and make my own. I thought maybe it'll good or maybe it wont. I had no intention when I began to blog this recipe. But it was DELICIOUS!  There were no left overs and my husband said to definitely put it on the "repeat list."

Here is the recipe:
1 lg egg
1/4 c milk
2 tsp / 1 tsp Wildtree Onion Blend
Pinch of salt and pepper
3 tsp / 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 lb ground beef 80/20
2 Tbsp ketchup
1 pt button mushrooms (sliced)
2 Tbsp light butter

First you mix egg, milk, 2 tsp Wildtree onion blend, salt and pepper, and 3 tsp Worcestershire sauce with a whisk until its all incorporated together. When it is, fold in the meat.  Careful not to over mix it.  It'll be kind of like a meatloaf.  Form the meat into palm sized/shaped steaks.  For me, that made 5 patties.  Smash them flat because they will plump up as they cook.  Brown the steaks on a grill pan (med high) until both sides are beautiful and brown.  With the size of mine, it took about 5 min on each side. The caramelization really helps keep them juicy so make sure the pan is hot before you put them in.

While your steaks are browning, the sauce should be made in a different pan.  If you used a leaner beef, you probably could do it all in the same but I did not want the extra grease in my sauce.

In a separate, hot skillet (medium heat) saute mushrooms in the butter.  As the mushrooms begin to cook down, add the 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and 1 tsp Wildtree onion blend.  You do not need to add any salt or pepper (unless you really want it).  The seasoning will give it great flavor.  When your sauce is hot and bubbly and your steaks are brown, transfer the steaks to the sauce pan (leaving as much grease as possible out of the sauce). Cover and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.

Like I said, the size of my steaks equaled 5 steak patties.  I served mine with  oven roasted veggies and 1 steak was plenty for me.  My husband ate the rest!  The nutritional data below, courtesy of MyFitnessPal, is based on 1 steak and the veggies are not included.

I hope you all try this and enjoy it as much as we did at my house!   They were perfectly juicy and seasoned.  Enjoy!

Not Your Grandma's Banana Pudding Cake

I'm not usually one to blog recipes but some of my closest friends asked me to start posting some of my low-carb, diet-friendly recipes. So here is my first...

If your grandma cooks like mine, everything is filled with whole eggs, butter, heavy cream and 100% deliciousness. My banana pudding cake will taste like grandmas, but without all the extra fat and calories. I promise this is one you will want to keep handy. It's so easy and delicious! You will need:

1 box of sugar free yellow cake mix (I like the Pillsbury sugar free mixes)
2 ripe bananas (the riper the better)
1 cup of water
2 cups cold low fat milk
1 small box of sugar free banana cream pudding

First, break up bananas into chunks and mix with water. They don't need to be all the blended together just enough to make sure the bananas won't clump up the batter.

Next, slowly add the dry mix. Careful not to add too quickly or you will be covered in powder! Your batter will be thicker than a normal cake and that is OK. I promise it will be moist and delicious!

Once your batter is thoroughly mixed, pour into a greased 13x9 baking dish. A trick (from Paula Deen) is to drop your cake pan onto the counter a couple times to get all the bubbles out. Bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

When the cake comes out poke LOTS of holes in it with the tooth pick. There should be plenty of holes. This allows the pudding to soak up into the cake making it extra delicious.

After your holes are made, let the cake cool for only a few minutes while you whisk the pudding into the milk. Whisk until just before it starts to thicken. The pudding should still be loose enough to spread over the cake. It will set pretty quickly once it is on the warm cake.

**Optional addition is to add mini chocolate chips as a topper.  It adds a little more texture and chocolate can't make anything bad.  It is NOT included in my nutritional calculator.  

You can serve the cake warm or cool which ever you prefer. Serves 10.  I plugged the information into MyFitnessPal and here the nutritional data is here for you.  Hope you enjoy!

My Worth is in Him

Every woman knows the fun-ness that is in pinning pretty outfits, shoes, bags, hair-dos, etc... It is usually something they wish they had. I do it and I could name (though I won't for their own safety) more than five friends who do it as well. When I first joined Pinterest, it was (past tense) a tool that I used to become a better wife, a better mother, and a better person in general. However, it has begun to turn into boards of things that I want but don't have. I even have a board that is titled "things that I want." Pinterest is not bad. I still like Pinterest and will still use it. It is a great way to find inspiration and guidance in all matters of woman. But I will begin to check myself more often that I am not letting my desires for things I can't have consume me.

I have been reading Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes and I was reminded at just the right moment that what I look like and how I dress does not define who I am. "For you created me in my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalms 139:13 NIV). There isn't an abundance of direction from the Bible in reference to dressing but there is more than enough.  Timothy directs the church toward Godliness by saying, "Also [I desire] that women should adorn themselves modestly and appropriately and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with [elaborate] hair arrangement or gold or pearls or expensive clothing, but by doing good deeds (deeds in themselves good and for the good and advantage of those contacted by them), as befits women who profess reverential fear for and devotion to God" (1 Timothy 2:9-10 AMP).  Timothy is not saying that women cannot wear jewelry or pretty up dos.  He is saying it needs to be done appropriately with respect to the situation. 

The way we dress should be representation of God's work in our life.  That doesn't mean we have to wear over sized unattractive clothing.  It means that the clothing should not be the focus of our life.  Instead of spending thirty minutes every morning picking the best outfit that makes you superficially feel better about yourself, take that time to put on the armour of God.  Pray for his guidance for the day.  Clothe yourself in "strength and dignity" rather than silk and stilettos (Proverb 31:25).  

This post is more an inward reflection than for anyone else.  There may not be a single person that needs to hear this but I know God is putting this challenge on my heart so I will share for anyone that may need it.  Give him the glory and recognize that your worth is not in worldly things but in him.  I know that by giving God this part of my life, he is going to take me new places this year.  I can't wait to see where it is! 

Get off your soapbox

 

 

Yesterday a group of 6th grade girls in the classroom asked me what I would do if someone came in with a gun. It's only natural, working in a school, for that question to weigh on your mind but when confronted with the question out loud my mind went blank. I didn't know what to say. I had been trying since I heard the news not to think about it. It turns my stomach to think that kind of evil really exists in the land of the free. But the fact that kids in my home town are asking questions forces me to consider it.

When I start to think about it, as a mother, my heart breaks for those parents that lost their children. As an educator my heart breaks for those that lost their coworkers. As a child, my heart breaks for those that lost their parents. The entire situation is bad, filled with evil.

As Christians, instead of fighting political debates on school safety and gun control we should trying to show love to these people who's world was flipped upside down a week and half before Christmas. Today I actually saw a post on facebook questioning if it even happened.  Let us show them the love of Christ and encourage them to accept his unfailing love. We are to show unbelievers God's agape love. It is an unconditional love that heals a broken heart (Ps 147:3). So instead of littering Facebook and Twitter with your political soapbox rants and picture of guns over a banner of the bill of rights, spend that time sending a prayer for the families of Newtown, CT.

If today's your darkest day
And you can't escape the pain
Don't be afraid
He will never walk away
(Fireflight's "He Weeps")