Healthy Quesadillas

Chop up fresh spinach and sliced avocados to add to your quesadillas.

You can also try adding:
a sprinkle of ground flax seed
a sprinkle of wheat germ
chopped cooked broccoli
chopped cooked cauliflower
chopped sauteed kale
chopped fresh onion
sliced fresh leeks
a few beans
a little corn
some cooked lentils
some sauteed sliced cabbage
or some rinsed sauerkraut

Butternut Squash

Tis the season for squash! I know some of you are cringing as were my husband and kids when I told them I was cooking squash. But after preparing this smooth and mild butternut squash drenched drizzled in a butter maple syrup glaze that I made, they were all pleasantly surprised and ate it.

How do you cook it?
Well, there are a couple of ways you can cook it......
1. Roast it in the oven: Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, place it face down on a cookie sheet and bake @ 350 degrees until fork tender.
2. Steam it: Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, steam it on the stove in a pot with water and a steaming basket till fork tender.
3. My new way: Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, place it face up in crock-pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours or until fork tender.

When it's done top with butter and brown sugar....or a mixture of 2 tbsp of butter melted with about 1/4 cup of pure maple syrup and a tbsp or so of brown or white sugar.

This also makes great pureed baby food and you can also sneak it into things like mac and cheese!

Fall Oatmeal

I made this yummy fall oatmeal by adding a half cup of mashed sweet potatoes with some cinnamon. You could also use canned pumpkin with some cinnamon.

Piggy Pancakes

Got this idea from another blog and wanted to share it here. My kids were tickled piggy pink to have these. I made them from my sneaky pancake recipe and they loved them.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

With a few cooler days around here I'm getting that Fall feeling even though I haven't done nearly as much summer cooking as I had hoped. So the other day I decided to try out another version of the this eggless chocolate cake recipe. Instead of Devil's Food Cake mix, you use Spice Cake mix. Once again, I'm totally impressed.

1 box spice cake mix (I use Better Crocker)

(do not add any of the ingredients on the box.)

1 14 oz can of pumpkin or 1/2 of a 28 oz can (can NOT be pumpkin pie filling...just pure pumpkin)

Mix together and bake at 350 degrees for about 35 min. or until centers come out clean with a cake tester.

Notes: These were SO yummy that they could easily stand up to any complex pumpkin spice cake recipe. They were super moist too.

Try sprinkling with a bit of powdered sugar for presentation.

WW points (2 points per muffin) for all those keeping track.

Sneaky Chocolate Cake

Here is the other eggless cake recipe and this one is extra sneaky with a whole can of pumpkin that you can NOT taste in the cake! I'm so impressed with this recipe because of it's rich texture! It's wonderful to sneak squash into kids, bring to a party when you're on a diet, or camping when you don't have eggs!

1 box devils food cake mix

1 14 oz can pumpkin or half of a 28 oz can (can NOT be pumpkin pie filling)

Mix the above together till well blended. (it's a little dry to mix at first but keep mixing. If needed you can add a bit of water but I haven't needed to)

Bake in cake pans or as cupcakes @ 350 for approx. 35 min. or until centers are done.

Variations:

~ mix in 1/2 cup of your favorite nuts

~ mix in 1/2 cup chocolate chips

~ top with frosting

~ top with whipped cream

~ top with whipped cream and sliced strawberries

~ serve hot with vanilla ice cream

~ bake in a 9x13 with chocolate chips mixed in as a brownie

THANKS to my two friends who told me about this recipe and the one below!

High in Iron -Steamed Beets

The last of my favorite 'high in iron' foods. Beets! All I do is cut off both ends, rinse them and steam them. Once they've been steamed till tender with a fork, remove them and while they are still warm remove the skins. The skins will slip right off. You can then slice them and serve them warm with butter and salt or slice them and refrigerate them till ready to use on salads. Or puree them and add them to pancakes or chocolate cake. Beets are a great source of iron.

High in Iron -Spinach

Spinach is another super iron food. Several of my recipes on this blog include spinach and I encourage you to start cooking with it if you haven't tried it. It's so versatile in that it can substitute for lettuce but also be cooked into hearty meals. You can make salads out of it, use it on sandwiches, add it to just about every pasta dish, add it to breakfast burritos, casseroles, sautes like stir fry, and so much more....Get your iron with spinach! =0)

It comes in bags in the store already washed and fresh to use, it comes frozen in a box after it's been cooked and steamed, and you can also buy it in a bag already chopped and frozen for you. I prefer the fresh bagged type and I love the "baby spinach". Don't forget that you can steam a bunch of this and then puree it....add it to sauces, stuffings, cakes, and brownies. Adding 1/4 cup will make chocolate cakes and brownies extra moist and yummy.

Sneaky Oatmeal

Don't tell my family, but I've been sneaking wheat bran, wheat germ, and flax seed into their oatmeal. Shhhhh! When you make it from scratch just add 2 tbsp (or more) of any of the above or combination of the above to the pot of cooking oatmeal. You can add as much or as little that works for you. Just be careful not to put too much wheat bran as to cause abdominal cramping and/or diarrhea.

Sneaky Pancakes with Sweet Potatoes

Well, I finally did it! I sneaked some squash into my kid's diet! Victory! These sweet potato pancakes from Deceptively Delicious Cookbook are great! They have a cinnamon flavor that comes through. I highly recommend the book! I've been learning how to incorporate this cooking method into my cooking as well.



I did the recipe a little different since I bought sweet potatoes that were already pureed and had cinnamon added to them already. But here is the basic recipe.

1 c pancake mix (I used whole wheat flapjack mix)
1 c water
1/2 c pureed sweet potatoes
1/4 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin spice (omit if your sweet potatoes are already seasoned)

Mix together and cook them up. Serve with butter and maple syrup.