Pumpkin pie oatmeal

Ingredients:

• 1 cup old-fashion oats
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 banana, mashed up
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp. stevia/agave (or to taste)
• 2 tsp. maca powder (optional)

1.) Combine milk and oats the night before and store in the refrigerator.

2.) In the morning, microwave oats enough to warm them but they shouldn't need cooking due to the long milk bath. Add all other ingredients to warmed oats.

3.) Mix and enjoy!

Mini-Review
I love pumpkin! And I love oatmeal! So this was super yummy and really convenient if made ahead of time. I usually double the recipe which makes enough oatmeal to last me three to four servings. I think a little more sweetness and pumpkin pie spice would have been perfect!

Quinoa egg bake

Ingredients:
(this recipe makes 8 servings)

• 0.5 cup uncooked quinoa
• 8 eggs
• 1.25 cups milk
• 1 tbs. minced garlic
• 1 tsp. chopped thyme (0.5 tsp if using fresh thyme)
• 0.5 tsp. salt
• 0.5 tsp. pepper
• 2 cups packed baby spinach, roughly chopped
• 1 cup shredded Romano or Parmesan cheese
• cooking spray

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray.  Wash quinoa and drain well and in a large bowl, whisk together quinoa, eggs, milk, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper.

2.) Stir in spinach then pour into baking dish.  Cover tightly with foil and shake dish so quinoa settles on bottom of dish.

3.) Bake until just set, about 45 minutes.  Remove cover and sprinkle with cheese.  Return to oven and bake uncovered until cheese is golden brown, about 10 - 15 minutes.

4.) Cool about 15 minutes then slice and serve.

Mini-Review
This was really good and even the boyfriend liked it!  Couple of things I would change next time:

• I would soak the quinoa in water for about an hour or two before making this dish.  The quinoa was actually cooked perfectly, but I like my quinoa on the softer side so this is only a preference.
• Before baking, I would use a spoon or fork to gently stir quinoa mixture around in the baking dish.  This should allow the quinoa to settle in a more even thickness on the bottom of the pan and disburse the seasonings more evenly.  Because I used dried thyme, it floated to the top and kind of massed together in the center of the dish so when you ate a slice of the quinoa bake, the pointed end of the slice had lots of herb flavoring, but not so much as you worked your way to the outside of the slice.

I'll definitely be making this again and probably add different kinds of veggies.

Food porn!

Baked pumpkin oatmeal

Primal egg "cupcakes"

Super easy and super quick!

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• half an onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 4 or 5 cups of spinach
• half a pound of ground meat, cooked
• tbs. of fresh herbs (I used oregano)
• butter/oil for greasing

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat pan on medium heat and add oil to pan.  Saute onions and garlic until almost well done.  Add in cooked meat and spinach.  Cook till spinach is wilted.

2. Let spinach mixture cool a bit.  In a mixing bowl, add all eggs and lightly scramble.  Add a spoonful of the spinach mixture into the eggs and stir.  Add another spoonful and mix.  When eggs are tempered, add rest of spinach mixture to the eggs and mix completely.  Pour into muffin pan.

3.)  Bake 20 - 30 minutes or until eggs are set.  Let the eggs cool in the pan for a good 15 - 20 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.  Store in an airtight container and enjoy as a snack or meal.

Attack of the GREEN MONSTER!

It's the attack of the Green Monster... and it is delicious!

Don't let the green slime-color fool you!

In the blog/health world, a Green Monster is a shake made with spinach. Yup, spinach! The recipes and ingredients differ from person to person, but one of the main components has to be spinach.

I made it for the first time the other day and LOVED IT! So what's in mine:

1 cup soy milk
1 frozen banana
1.5 cups of spinach
0.5 cups blueberries
1 tbs. flaxseeds

You can't even taste the spinach and the shake tasted like some frosty banana dessert!