Hello Dolly Squares

I think there are many different names that this recipe goes by but in my family we call them Hello Dolly squares and they are SO good, and very easy.

Ingredients:

• 1&1/2 cup Graham Cracker Crumbs
• 1/2 cup Melted Butter
• 1&1/2 cups Chopped Pecans
• 1 Package of Chocolate Chips (I used mint accidentally.)
• 1&1/2 cup Mini Marshmallows
• 1 Can Condensed Milk
• 3 Squares Bakers Chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. First, line your 13x9 pan with aluminium foil. Next add your graham crackers crumbs, and pack them in well, and evenly on the bottom, then spread out the pecan halves.

 Then layer your marshmallows, and chocolate chips.

Finally spread on the condensed milk, and bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degress.

Finally, once your squares are done in the oven, drizzle 3 squares of melted chocolate over top.

Let cool before cutting the squares and enjoy!

Yummy Breakfast Sandwiches!

The hardest part of eating healthy for me is that fact that I am completely addicted to Tim Horton's breakfast sandwiches. If I could only eat that everyday, all day, I would be perfectly fine with that. The problem is that they are 380 calories each, and 20 grams of fat. Plus the fact that if I go to Tim's I have to get an Ice Cap, and my boyfriend has to get an Ice Lemonade and a Raisin Bran Muffin.

I have tried alternatives. They do sell frozen breakfast sandwiches in store and I have tried two different brands and didn't like either, and of course I can always cook them up myself... The problem with that is I am lazy. I don't mind running/exercising for an hour or more a day but I hate cooking for myself. Finally my mother suggested I make a batch of breakfast sandwiches myself and freeze them, then microwave them one at a time when I want them. Home made food is always better then store bought, right?

I made a small batch of only 4 sandwiches the first time, here is what I used;

• 4 Large Eggs
• 4 English Muffins
• 4 Slices of light cheese
• a little bit of butter for the frying pan
• 4 pieces of paper towel

I beat up the eggs in a bowl with a bit of butter and basically made a big flat omelette. I cooked it thoroughly and cut it in four slices. While the omelette was cooking I toasted the four english muffins. I then placed a quarter of the omelette on an english muffins, and then a slice of cheese. Wrap each muffin separately with a piece of paper towel. Make sure the cheese is cooled so it doesn't stick to the paper! 

Now the paper towel was my mom's idea. When I had tried the store bought egg sandwiches they were a bit soggy after I had taken them out of the microwave! The paper towel helps prevent soggyness! 

They were good, however the next time I made them I used poached eggs instead and I liked them waaay more, I'm not a big omelette fan! I plan on trying fried eggs next! The best part is they took only 2minutes in the microwave AND they are only 260 calories! Yum!

SUPER Easy HEALTHY Vegetable soup!

I'm sure everyone knows how to make a simple Vegetable soup! This soup is GREAT if you are trying to lose weight, or trying to get your veggie servings! Vegetable soup is healthy and a great comfort food!

Here is what I use for my Vegetable soup:

3 Celery Stalks

5 Carrots

2 Onions

Half of a Cabbage

Half of a Turnip

1 Box of Vegetable Broth

Chop 'em all up! Doesn't it look delicious?

It's still steamy!

It takes about 10 minutes to chop everything up and then about 3 hours cooking it on Medium-Low, until the carrots and turnips are cooked thoroughly. Voila! Grab a bowl and store the rest for later ;) I know this is insanely easy but I hope I can inspire someone! 

My Fav. Casserole!

I don't know if this has another name, I'm sure it does, but we just call it 'casserole'. It's delicious comfort food for those cold winter days! Plus, it's pretty easy and quick to whip up. It's not the healthiest of meals but we opt for the low calorie soups, whole wheat noodles, and extra lean ground beef and then have a big salad with it.

• 1 can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
• Half a can of Tomato Soup
• 1lb ground beef (we use extra lean)
• 200g of Whole Wheat egg Noodles
• Part Skim Mozzarella Cheese
• 1 can of Sliced Mushrooms

First we cook the ground beef and mushrooms together, until the beef is well done. Then in a big post boil the noodles until cooked. Once that is all cooked, we add the beef and mushrooms to the pot with the noodles in it, along with the whole can a mushroom soup and half the can of tomato soup. Mix it well.

In a 1.5 quart glass dish, scoop in about half of the noodle and beef mixture, followed by a layer of cheese, the other half of your mixture, and finally another layer of cheese. Now you can either throw it in the oven to melt the cheese, but what we usually do is just scoop some out on a plate and put it in the microwave, it's much faster.

This makes enough for about 8 servings, at about 350 calories per serving. What's your favorite comfort food?

Pita Pizza

Pita Pizza is something we have been making in our house for awhile. It's a quick and much healthier alternative to regular pizza!

What you need is:

• 1 Whole Wheat Pita
• 1/4 cup cheese
• Sauce
• Chicken
• Mushrooms/Veggies

It's pretty simple so I will let my pictures do the talking:

As you can see, my pizza is pretty bare because I'm picky! Sometimes I add mushrooms but on this particular day we were out! My sister add onions and peppers to hers and my brother just has sauce and cheese on his. It's a diet-friendly, delicious meal, and everyone can customize their own.

Yonanas Review

I am SO excited to tell you about this amazing little machine! 'Yonanas' turns bananas and other fruit into ICE CREAM. No, I am not kidding! It's delicious and 100% fruit, making it way healthier then regular ice cream too! Let me show you how it works:

Take a couple over-ripe bananas and stick them in the freezer until they are nice and frozen. You will want to peel them and cut them in half before freezing them!

Stick 1 banana (or two halves) in the top (shown above) and turn on your machine, using the plunger push the banana down until it comes out looking like this:

Then add your second ingredient, we use frozen strawberries or blueberries:

Then add another banana (or two halves!) and mix it all together and you get this:

It is DELICIOUS and healthy! It contains no milk either so this is definitely an amazing alternative to ice cream or other frozen treats. Everyone in our household is amazed with how good it is and I have used the machine every night since we received it! We went to the store and bought 2 bunches of bananas just to freeze them!

The machine is very easy to clean too, it all comes apart and it can be washed in soapy water or even put in the dishwasher, making cleaning a breeze. I wish we had found Yonanas sooner!

*I received product in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are 100% my own.*

JustAlmonds Review

I am not really one for 'baking'. I like to cook meals, but desserts I am just not very good at! But I received these almonds from JustAlmonds and wanted to make something with them, so I went with what I thought would be the easiest. Brownies made from cake mix!

The almond products I received!

My ingredients, brown sugar, eggs, almond meal, vanilla, cake mix.

So here is where it went down hill. I mixed everything together, adding in the almond  flour because I though it would add a little extra flavour! I went to flip it on a cooling rack and it fell apart, oops.

I covered the cracks with frosting and sprinkled it with almond flour! You can't even tell! (hahaha...)

They still tasted delicious though! The almond flour did give it just a hint of flavour that really turned the brownies up a notch and I thought the sprinkled flour on top made it look a little more decadent too!

*I received product in exchange for an honest review, all opinions stated above are 100% my own.*

Affordable, Easy, Healthy Crockpot meals!

I LOVE my crockpot, I use it at least 4 nights a week.  Before I started using the crockpot we had the same meals every night... chicken, steak, or fish made in the oven and veggies. With the crockpot I am able to do a lot more and everything turns out delicious. I find it makes supper time MUCH easier and there are so many possibilities. Plus, if you get your meat on sale you have a healthy, inexpensive meal!

We only buy chicken when it is on sale. Regular price chicken around here is about $15-$17 for 4-5 pieces of skinless, boneless chicken breast. Recently when it was on sale I bought 2 packages for around $7 each and ended up with enough chicken for 5 meals for our family or four. If you buy bone-in chicken it is much cheaper.

As for roast, which I think might be my favorite meal, we only buy it when it is on sale for around $7. Again, we don't need a huge roast since there is only 4 of us, when we buy a roast we usually eat it all for supper, so if you want left overs you might want something a little bigger! Also keep in mind that the cheaper you go with roast there is more fat you are going to have to east around.

Finally steaks, probably the easiest/cheapest thing we find, because you don't always have to wait for a sale to find a good price. I bought two decent size steaks for $2.50 each and the fed the four of us for one meal. We also buy the 'club packs' for $7-$10 there are 3 bigger sized steaks that do almost two meals.

Now that that's out of the way, I want to share some of my favorite/easiest ways to use the crockpot! Seriously these are ridiculously easy and the meat turns out good!

Chicken and Barbecue Sauce - Serves 4 people, half a breast each.

• 2 Chicken Breast
• 1/4-1/2 bottle barbecue sauce... Any kind you want! I use the 'calorie wise' stuff.
• Water - enough to almost cover the chicken.
• Tabasco Sauce if you want it a little spicier!
• Spices: Oregano, Onion Salt, Garlic Salt

That's it... There's no order really, I just put the chicken in the crockpot, add barbecue sauce and water, Tabasco sauce and spices. I usually put it in for 4-5 hours on high but if you are doing it in the morning you'll want to put it on low. 

Steak and Mushroom Soup - Serves 4 people, half a steak each.

• 2 Steaks
• Can of low fat Cream of Mushroom soup
• Oregano - if desired! I put oregano on everything.

Again, super easy, just put the steak in and add the soup and oregano. If you are doing it in the morning cook on low, or I do 4-5 hours on high. The steaks come out so tender you can cut them with your fork!

Cheesy Chicken - Serves 4 people, half a breast each.

• 2 Chicken Breast
• Can of low fat Cream of Chicken soup
• 1/2 Cup of Chicken Broth
• 4oz of low Fat cream cheese
• Salt and Pepper and oregano if you wish.

This one is DELICIOUS. The recipe actually calls for 8oz of cream cheese, but I find it's too much if I use that, plus it's less calories and I can save the rest of another night. You may want to melt the cream cheese before putting it in the crockpot because I find it doesn't melt very well otherwise. Add your chicken, soup, broth, cream cheese and then sprinkle your salt and pepper to taste, and oregano if you wish!

I have also made chicken with cans of cream of chicken or mushroom soup, or you can also buy pre-made mixes in little packets that you throw in with your meat and add water. There are also recipes for lasagna, and you don't need to cook the noodles before hand! Not to mention desserts!! Can you tell I'm a crockpot fanatic?! 

Do you have a crockpot? Please share your favorite recipe!