Kate's Kitchen: June 2014

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

I want to share with you this delicious family favorite meal that I made the other night that was a BIG hit!!! I usually make Spaghetti casserole for our family with the left overs we have from a spaghetti supper. Now that Micah and I have been trying to follow the THM life style I decided to make our favorite casserole using spaghetti squash. Let me tell you it did not disappoint! It was just as delicious if not even better using the spaghetti squash. So here is the recipe.

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

Spaghetti sauce (mine was homemade but you can use bottled or whatever)
cooked spaghetti squash
2-4 oz melted cream cheese
Cheddar cheese
parmesan cheese
2 handfuls of french fried onions

In the bottom of a casserole dish place a cup of spaghetti sauce. Add 1/2 of a spaghetti squash. Now spread your melted cream cheese mixture over the squash. Now finish up your casserole by layering another cup of sauce, the other half of the squash and top it all off with the remaining sauce. You can grate some cheddar cheese on the top of it. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. The last 5 minutes of baking you can add your french friend onions.

Serve with some grated parmesan cheese and a caesar side salad.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Trim Healthy Mama

For the past couple of weeks I have been reading through this book, making notes, searching for recipes and putting it into practice. As of the beginning of this week hubby and I are following their Satisfying (S) and Energizing (E) meals, snacks and treats!

During this week I must confess that I do feel a lot more energetic!!! I don't feel like I need to have my 1:00 pm nap any more. I feel very full and satisfied with all the great recipes that I have found. We are finding that you need to change your mind set from foods we are use to eating and we are learning to change our taste buds as well as we start to cook with different ingredients.

For those of you following the Trim Healthy Mama life style or those of you who may want to look into it. Here is my meal plan for the next 3 weeks :) I have found that there are SOOOO many recipes out there on pinterest you shouldn't have a problem coming up with meals.

Breakfast

Brownie Batter Oatmeal

Trim Healthy Pancakes (THM)

Omelets (all different kinds)

Cottage Blueberry Porridge (THM)

Bacon egg stuffed avocados

Creamy Quinoa (THM)

Broccoli and Cheese mini omelets (great for the freezer)

Cheesy Sweet Potato Crisp with greek yogurt and berries

Steal cut oatmeal with cream and sliced berries

Crustless Asparagus Quiche (use water instead of milk)

Greek yogurt with berries

Sour dough bread with natural peanut butter

Breakfast ham cups

Lunch

Greek Salad

Asian Chicken Salad

Cottage Cheese Salad: Cottage cheese, tomato, cucumber, red onion, salt and pepper.

Chicken Club Salad (use regular mayo)

Salad in a jar

Turkey wraps – Oven roasted turkey with avocado slices, tomato slices, and cheese rolled up – with cut-up veggies on the side.

Avocado Strawberry Salad

BLT Lettuce wraps

Tuna Salad

Crustless quiche with side salad

Mediterranean Quinoa salad

Feta Avocado Chicken Salad (don't use corn)

Quinoa Pizza bites

Philly cheesesteak stuffed peppers

Zucchini pizza - cut zucchini length wise, top with pizza sauce, pepperoni, cheese and bake

Supper

Chicken crumble Casserole with squash and garlic butter green beans

Beef Kabobs

Chickens on sticks with spinach salad

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry (mushrooms, peppers, onions)

Spaghetti Squash with Meaty sauce

Pork Roast with Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes and oven roast cauliflower

Burgers with Zucchini Fries

Asian Lettuce Wraps (use beef instead of turkey)

Egg rolls in a bowl

Greek Chicken Skewers with summer Quinoa salad

Taco bowls

Grilled ginger sesame chicken salad

Coconut Curry Kabobs with Quinoa

Chicken and Broccoli with Alfredo Sauce

Spaghetti squash au gratin

Desserts/snacks and treats

Peanut butter whip

* This was a BIG hit in the house :)

Berries with whip cream

Chocolate muffin in a mug

Berry Whip

Berry treat in a jar

Chunky Cream Pops (THM book)

Peanut butter blizzard

Skinny Chocolate (THM book)

Strawberry vanilla coconut smoothie

Fat Stripping Frappa (THM book)

Good Girl Moonshine (Favorite drink)

There are so many awesome recipes out there for you to find!!! If I have learned anything it is having a plan is key to success. So here are our meals for the next 21 days :) We have been eating the THM way for 7 days now and hubby is down 5 lb :) I am thinking after changing our taste buds and enjoying all these yummy foods we will be sticking with it!!! I truly do feel more energetic :) If you are looking for a new life style I highly recommend getting the Trim Healthy Mama book and learning a new way to enjoy food and life!!! If you buy the book and need help I would be more than happy to help you out. Plus there are hundreds of recipes in their book that aren't even on this meal plan. Its worth the 35$ thats for sure.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Appschooling

We've been using iPads to teach our kids for a couple years now. We'd like to pass on what we've learned to save you some time and money!

Before you unleash technology on your kids, make sure you restrict apps that have access to the Internet. Check out our other nerdy blog on how to protect your home from the dangers of the Internet! youcanbeanerd.blogspot.com.
Apple iPads are the best for safety, ease of use, great apps, you get the apps first, and free app of the week.
Get the big iPad, not the iPad Mini! You are going to use it to watch movies and the babes need all kins of space to touch everything. We recommend getting the bigger 64GB model because you run out of space fast and that can be very frustrating. It's worth the investment! We also recommend for protection, the m-edge supershell bumper case (not sure if they have one for the iPad Air) and the zagg invisibleshield for the screen cover.
Don't let your kids run to the iPad first thing in the morning, it sets a bad tone for the day. Schedule your kids to have different times that fit them (the other kids are napping maybe) so that everyone is not always fighting over it.

And finally, here is a list of great apps that our kids use to learn and have fun doing it!