Crab Quiche

If you are celebrating, I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas Eve! I love this time of year

I have a recipe for you that would be a perfect Christmas morning breakfast or brunch item.

*Crab Quiche*

• 16 ounces lump crab meat
• 1 onion
• 1 red pepper
• 5 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 prepared 8-inch pie crust (I used a gluten free one)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Dice onion and red pepper. Saute in pan in olive oil until soft.
3. Add crab meat to pan.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste. Saute 2 to 3 minutes. Let cool slightly.
5. Add shredded cheese to crab mixture.
6. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and milk. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Put the crab mixture in bottom of pie crust.
8. Pour egg mixture over crab.
9. Bake for 45 minutes or until knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

*Side note – I ended up having extra egg/milk mixture, so next time, I might cut back the milk to 1/2 cup.*

My family and I loved this dish! I served it with a salad for dinner, but like I said, it would be great for a Christmas Day breakfast or brunch. If you try it, I hope you like it as much as my family did!

Have you ever made a quiche before?

Christmas Village and Peanut Butter Cookies

Hello and Merry Christmas Eve Eve! My crazy semester of college is over and I am going to use my time off to get back into blogging! First, I want to share with you a Christmas village that my mom and I made. For the past 4 or 5 years we have been making a gingerbread house, but this year we added to our old gingerbread house by making a little gingerbread village. It was so much fun to make and I love how it turned out!

Now for a recipe:

*Easiest-Ever Peanut Butter Cookies*

(from Woman’s Day magazine)

• 1 cup chunky or creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat all ingredients in a large bowl until fully incorporated.
3. Drop level teaspoonfuls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until the cookies are puffed and starting to lightly brown around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I made these for Thanksgiving and they were a big hit, so I will be making them again for Christmas Day!

In this picture, the ones on the outer edges are the peanut butter cookies. Mine kind of baked into one massive cookie (not sure what went wrong! haha) so I used cookie cutters to make them into festive shapes! Hey, it works

Coming up, I plan to post more recipes that I have either been making recently or will be making today and tomorrow for Christmas!

What has been your favorite thing to cook/bake lately?

Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie? If so, which one?

Gluten Free Vegan Apple Crisp

I recently came across a really old cookbook, Mott’s Applesauce – A Better Way to Bake, and could not wait to start baking recipes from it.  I am obsessed with plain applesauce and love eating it and using it in tons of recipes.  Clearly this cookbook was right up my alley.  We also had a ton of apples on hand, so I decided to find an apple recipe from this cookbook to make.  So, Baked Apple Crisp it was!

*Baked Apple Crisp*

Inspired by “Baked Apple Crisp” from Mott’s Applesauce – A Better Way to Bake

• 8 medium peeled, thinly sliced apples
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 4 tsp. cinnamon, divided
• 1 1/2 cups Mott’s Natural Apple Sauce
• 1 cup gluten free oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF Baking Flour
• 1/3 cup almond milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Rub 2-quart casserole dish with vegan margarine.  
2. In a large bowl, toss apple slices with sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon.  Spoon into prepared dish.  Spread applesauce evenly over apple mixture.
3. In a medium bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flour, almond milk, and the other 2 tsp. cinnamon.  Spread over apple sauce.
4. Bake 45-55 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly.  Serve and enjoy! 

This came out so delicious and my tummy liked it too  I am sure this would be delicious with fresh peaches this summer as well!!

The Hunger Games & a Recipe

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had/is having a great Spring Break!!

Over my Spring Break, I was able to read The Hunger Games and it was just amazing!  It was so very different than any other books I have read but I really enjoyed it.  I love how strong Katniss is and the cute relationship she and Peeta develop.  I won’t give away anything else but let me just say, the ending was insane!! I have the other two books in the series, Catching Fire & Mockingjay, but will probably wait until this semester is over to read those.  Have you read The Hunger Games yet?

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The other day I stumbled upon a great recipe from Carrots ‘N Cake - Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Couscous.  This recipe inspired me to use what I had on hand, so I made it with quinoa instead of the couscous and applesauce instead of the pumpkin because I didn’t have any on hand.  I linked to her original recipe, but I will post my adaptations below.

*Apple & Cinnamon Quinoa Breakfast Bowl*

Inspired by Carrots ‘N Cake‘s Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Couscous

• 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
• 1/4 cup unsweetened appleasuce
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tbsp. ground chia seed

 This tasted SO GOOD and I love it as a change-up from oatmeal.  I might try an overnight version..we shall see

Favorite book as of late?

Do you like quinoa?

Overnight Granola with Applesauce

I made something seriously delicious yesterday.  It is probably more of a breakfast, but I had it for dinner because I love breakfast food for dinner!  I was so happy with how it came out.  I got the inspiration from Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers when she posted a recipe for Granola Overnight Oats.  Her blog is awesome and always gives me great recipe and workout inspiration!  However, I am avoiding all dairy, so I decided to try applesauce in place of the Greek yogurt, and, thankfully, it still tasted delicious!

*Overnight Granola with Applesauce*

• 1/2 cup granola (I made Clean Eating Chelsey’s Loosey Goosey Granola – SO GOOD!)
• 3/4 cup plain applesauce
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 tsp. chia seeds
• 1 banana

1. Combine all ingredients, except for banana in a dish.
2. Stir, cover, and place in fridge for a few hours or overnight.
3. When ready to eat, top with sliced banana and dig in!

Granola! (pic from cleaneatingchelsey.com)

I’m Back

Wow, I cannot believe it has been 1 month since I last posted.  However, I have been going through some digestion issues, so I really needed to take some time off and reevaluate how I was going to take care of myself.  Currently, I am eating a pescatarian (I love my fish!), dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free diet.  It took a couple of weeks to really notice a difference for me (I think my system needed a “clean out”), but these past couple of days have been great!  At first, it was really hard because I felt so limited in what I could eat, but I feel like it is actually causing me to experiment with new foods!  I thought I would put a post together of some foods that I have been loving lately:

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So glad I can still have oatmeal!!  These are delicious

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Love this stuff!  I have been making a Blueberry Pizzert almost every morning for breakfast with this.

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Shrimp is so good and my digestive system seems to love it as well!  I love cooking it with ginger which is also great for digestion.

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Salmon is SO stinkin’ good.  This is also great with ginger or just cooked up with some garlic and eaten on top of a salad.

Other stuff I have been enjoying:

• veggies (especially carrot sticks!)
• avocados
• eggs
• sweet potatoes
• almond milk
• nuts & nut butters

I really think this has been a great wake-up call for me and it is forcing me to treat my body right and feed it with wholesome, delicious foods and healthy fats!

Have you ever had any digestive issues?

What are some of your favorite foods to eat when your tummy isn’t feeling too hot?

I hope to be back with a recipe soon!

Turkey Chili

I really wasn’t into the Super Bowl AT ALL, but I wanted to be somewhat festive and make chili.  So, I found a delicious recipe from my grandmom’s old cookbook, adapted it a bit, and it turned out fabulous!

*Turkey Chili*  

(originally from Cooking Light 1988)

• 1 pound raw ground turkey
• 1 medium bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 small onion, seeded and chopped
• 1 Tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 vegetable bouillon cube
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 cup cooked pinto beans
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained
• 3 oz. tomato paste
• 1 ½ Tbsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Place turkey in a large Dutch oven over medium heat.  Cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble.  Drain turkey in a colander.
2. Add bell pepper, onion, and garlic; sauté until tender.  Add turkey to Dutch oven.  Dissolve bouillon in water; add to Dutch oven with beans and the rest of the ingredients.  Cover and bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
3. Ladle hot chili into bowls.  (We had our chili over egg noodles, which was delicious!)

Are you a fan of chili? 

Do you like avocados?  If so, how do you eat  them?  I need to start incorporating them into my diet but don’t really know how to eat them or what to eat them with.  Thanks!