Our Favorite Gut Healthy Summer Dinner

OK – I’ll have to admit one of the reasons we’ve been able to be so successful with our gut healthy journey and change of lifestyle is there have been some amazingly delicious and super easy recipes – like our go-to grass-fed burgers (or bison) with an easy coleslaw, fermented pickles and avocado. Yum!

INGREDIENTS & DIRECTIONS

Once you’ve had this, there will be no surprise why it’s quickly become one of our favorites. There is one ‘weird’ ingredient that you may not be used to eating or cooking with is fennel. We have never had fennel prior to our gut health journey — but there are a handful of recipes that’ve called for it like this one. And it does have a distinct taste, but it tastes good! Fennel is oddly shaped and a member of the carrot family, but it is not considered a root vegetable. A few other ‘gut healthy’ pointers when buying some of your ingredients:

Yogurt – Make sure to get greek yogurt that has live cultures with at least 1 million CFUs (colony-forming units). Also, when possible look for pasture-raised cows so that you don’t have any extra hidden evils in there.

Meat – It’s crucial to purchase and eat grass-fed beef or bison, this ensures you’re not eating any additional antibiotics and getting the freshest and safest meat. We are always stocked on grass-fed beef thanks to Meatboxlocal.

Ingredients:
– (4) carrots, peeled and shredded
– (1) fennel bulb, shredded
– 3-cups of sliced red cabbage
– Juice from one whole lemon,
– 1 teaspoon of celery seed
– 1-cup of 2% plain greek yogurt
– For Serving: avocado, fermented pickles, grass-fed beef or bison burgers.

Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. Wash and prep your carrots, shred them with a cheese grater into a bowl — add your red cabbage.
2. Next, prep your fennel – wash and cut the greens off. Then shred overtop your carrots and cabbage. Next up shred half of your lemon peel and pour lemon juice over top.
3. Top with your 1-cup of greek yogurt and teaspoon of fennel seeds. Mix well, refrigerate until ready to serve!
4. Serving size is 1-cup of coleslaw, use as your base and stack burger, quarter avocado and a few pickle slices for your final meal!

Serving Size: (1 burger, 1 cup of slaw, quarter of an avocado, 3 sliced pickles) 284 calories, 31g protein, 24g carbohydrates, 9g total fat,

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And that is really it! I promise you it’ll be a go-to and it’s so easy to pull together. The coleslaw recipe would be great on it’s own as a side and a healthy alternative to bring to your next backyard bbq or family gathering. We make this at least once a week and love every bit of it – you don’t even miss the burger buns because the flavor between the coleslaw, avocado and pickles paired with the burger is just soooo good!

3 Ingredient Frozen Dog Treat Recipe

I love to make my little Moz homemade dog treats – that way we know exactly what she is eating! And although I make these easy pumpkin and peanut butter treats throughout the year – I thought finding something frozen with some other ingredients for Moz would be easy and fun to have all Summer long.

ingredients & directions

These frozen dog treats are so easy and simple because of the ingredients! Also, if you don’t have silicone molds, you can easily make smaller one off treats using cookie cutters on a plate to freeze as well – I just did that before making this batch to help celebrate Moz’s 8th birthday – it was perfect for a larger special treat in a pinch!

Ingredients:
– 2 Ripe Bananas
– Peanut Butter – not containing Xylitol
– Ground Cinnamon
– Silicone Molds

Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. Using a mini food processor, first mash up your bananas – they can still be a little chunky. Next, add in 3 large spoonfuls of peanut butter and sprinkle some cinnamon overtop.
2. Continue to mash in the food processor until it’s thick and creamy. Once it’s well mixed, pour into the molds.
3. Fill up the molds, almost to the top and place in the freezer. Freeze for a minimum of 3-hours, if not over night.
4. Push out of molds and store for those hot summer days, to treat your pup! (or yourself!)

Seriously, so easy! And they’re Moz approved — they’re not to thick that she can bite them (although it gives me a brain freeze just watching her eat them) or she can lick them as they melt away. They’re easy to store away, plus the molds were seamless for taking them out and it was no fuss at all, easy clean up and ready for the next batch.

I definitely am going to try a few other flavors – keeping it simple with a couple ingredients will make other options just as easy to make and throw into the rotation. Other, easy dog friendly ingredients with berries or pumpkin can also be mixed with peanut butter or bananas as other flavor alternatives.

Now your pups can stay cool on those hot days and be happy Summer pups! ☀️

Funfetti Cake Bars – Recipe

It’s birthday week, and it wouldn’t be a birthday without some Funfetti 🎉! Funfetti is one of my favorites, I even got a Funfetti birthday cake last year – which I was able to snag just in time the bakery closed for a few months. So this year to get my Funfetti fix, I wanted to try something new and make my own Funfetti cake bars. The verdict? Amazing!

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Not only did this recipe turn out tasty, it’s also pretty easy! And my favorite kind of dessert recipe is one that is easy and delicious. I did end up having to bake it a little longer than the recipe I was inspired by to get it golden brown and not gooey in the middle.

Cake Bar Ingredients List:
– 1 pouch Sugar Cookie Mix
– 1 box White Cake Mix
– 3 Large Eggs
– 1 Cup Melted Butter (aka 2 sticks)
– 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
– Rainbow Sprinkles

Frosting Ingredients List:
– 4ish Cups of Confectionary Sugar
– 6 Teaspoons of Butter, Softened
– 2-3 Tablespoons of Almond Milk (if you use cow’s milk, use 4-5 TBSP.)
– 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray your 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Grab a large mixing bowl and add the (1) dry sugar cookie mix, (2) dry cake mix, (3) three large eggs, (4) melted butter, and (5) vanilla extract. I use a spoon to hand mix, my dough was super thick and hard to mix after awhile, it might mess up your hand blender. Mix together until ingredients are well blended with no clumps.
3. Time for some fun! Pour sprinkles over top of your mix – I did not measure – and just eye balled what looked good. *grins* Then, with a spatula or wooden spoon mix in your sprinkles to the batter – add more sprinkles as needed.
4. Pour your batter into the baking dish, as I mentioned my batter was pretty thick. Spread evenly throughout the pan.
5. Cook for 30-35 minutes (or according to your oven) the main thing is making sure the edges are golden brown and the center should not be wiggly – make sure a tooth pick comes out clean from the middle. Not clean? Add 5-minute increments and keep testing, until center is clean. Once center is clean, take out and let cool in pan.

Frosting Instructions:
1. Pour powdered sugar and almond extract into a bowl.
2. Beat butter in a mixing bowl until creamy, and add to your powdered sugar and almond extract. Now add your almond milk and mix with a hand blender. Add more powdered sugar as needed to thicken or to taste better – to be safe, only add 2-tablespoons of almond milk to start and add more as needed for a thicker consistency.
3. Once your funfetti cake bar is cool, spread frosting all over the top. Add sprinkles over top to finish this off! Serve right away or refrigerate – I opted to refrigerate, which helped the frosting set a bit more.

The edges and bottom were nice and brown with a nice crunch, and the middle of the bars were a bit softer but still cooked. The sprinkles in the cookie bars add a nice crunch and the homemade frosting is the perfect compliment to these bars. These would be a perfect party treat, when birthday parties are acceptable again!

This recipe was inspired by Together As A Family.

Valentine Reese’s Chocolate Chip Skillet – Recipe

Last Valentine’s Day we were ahead of the stay-at-home curve and enjoyed a night in making our favorite Taco Pizza and a chocolate chip skilled filled with reese’s cups! YUM! It was as good as it sounds, and I’m here to help you save your Valentine’s day with this easy and delicious sweet treat that’ll blow you and your significant other away.

Ok, let’s get into the good stuff – you only need two ingredients for an easy sweet treat for your Valentine.

Shopping List:
– Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Roll
– 9-10 Reese’s Cups/Hearts
– Case Iron Skillet
– Ice Cream, optional for serving

Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. Press half of your cookie down into the bottom of your cast iron skillet.
2. Next fill your skillet with your Reese’s hearts — you can use normal Reese’s too.
3. Use your remaining cookie dough to form a top over your Reese’s hearts and press to cookie base.
4. Ready to bake! With your oven preheated to 350 — you’re ready to pop this cookie in. Recommended recipes say to bake for 20-minutes until golden brown, we had to bake a little extra (maybe 15-20 minutes) since it hadn’t cooked all the way through. If you cut into your cookie and the dough doesn’t look cooked, pop the skillet back in and keep checking every 5-minutes pending your dough density.
5. Serve up with some ice cream, sprinkles or extra peanut butter sauce for a sweet Valentine treat!

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This cookie skillet is as delicious as it sounds and looks and is well worth the calories! It would also be delicious if you topped with some ice cream and chocolate syrup for a little extra, YUM. Just because you might be staying home this Valentine’s Day, doesn’t mean it hasn’t to be boring or simple — put a spin and make it special with this delicious dish.

From my sweet tooth to yours, enjoy!

No Bake Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Cup Recipe

Introducing the newest blog series: Baking with B! My hubby, B has been a rockstar during quarantine to find recipes that are not only easy, but dairy free and healthy-ish! His latest is also keto friendly and requires very little prep as it’s a no-bake recipe. These were a welcomed surprise and are so easy to whip together for a quick treat whether it’s just for two or a nice after dinner treat for an intimate dinner party. Check out the shopping list and super simple step-by-step instructions below, and try not to drool over these sweet treats!

Super easy shopping list and super easy to throw into a bowl, with minimum tools needed! But a few things to consider when you’re shopping; the last time we made this treat, I asked B to leave out the Stevia sweetener to see if there would be a difference, as I can taste the sweetness (and I’m not a huge fan!) – the taste difference wasn’t that drastic, so if you’re not a fan it’s worth leaving out. We also used virgin organic coconut oil, which holds a bit more of a coconut taste – again not bad in my opinion paired with chocolate, but something to note when you’re grabbing your coconut oil (i.e. organic vs. not).

Shopping List: (Makes about 6-peanut butter cups)
– 3 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil
– 1.5 Tablespoons of Cocoa Powder
– 4 Tablespoons of Creamy Organic Peanut Butter
– 3-5 drops of liquid Stevia Sweetener (optional)
– Pecans (optional)
– Cupcake Liners

Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. In a medium size mixing bowl, pour all of your ingredients together into a bowl. Using organic peanut butter is key, since you’ll want this to be a liquid base substance, so if your peanut butter is thicker you may need to melt it!
2. Once your ingredients are mixed, get your cupcake liners prepped! We filled the bottom of each of the liners with pecans – which is optional of course. Then scoop equal parts throughout for your thickness, if you have any extra top off your cups!
3. Once you batter is all poured, place peanut butter cups into the freezer. Let freeze for a few hours before serving and enjoying. Store in freezer in between snacking!

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So there you have it, a delicious, easy, dairy-free and keto friendly sweet treat! Here to help my Bee readers satisfy their sweet tooth, in new and easy ways — in case you missed it, check out this super easy and also dairy free cookie dough recipe!

Dairy Free Cookie Dough Recipe

My hubby, B get’s full credit for this recipe and it’s just too good not to share — so consider this a guest blog from my one and only (he even took the pictures!) Since quarantine has started, we’ve definitely been enjoying a few more sweets than normal, so he was on the hunt for a healthier dessert recipe that would also be dairy-free for me! So, as I mention — B get’s full credit for finding this five-ingredient recipe and grabbing all the ingredients, and when he mentioned he was making cookie dough, I definitely did not complain *grins* !
Although this is a simple recipe and only utilized 2-cups of cashews, this definitely makes a larger portion that will last nights to help satisfy that sweet treat. B also decided to get 95% dark chocolate to help with that healthy portion of this tasty treat — but you can definitely decide to put in whatever chocolate, or other goodies you may want to add into this treat.

Prep-Time:
3-4 hours

Shopping List:
– 2-cups of Whole Cashews
– 95% Dark Chocolate Bar
– 3 tbsp. Agave
– 2 tbsp. Coconut oil
– 1/4 cup of Almond Flour

Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. First, boil 3-4 cups of water. Once the water comes to a boil, pour over your cashews in a glass bowl. Let your cashews soak in the water for 3-4 hours.
2. Once the cashew’s have soaked, drain the water from the cashews. Add your cashews, almond flour, coconut oil and agave into a food processor and blend well.
3. The blended mixture should appear creamy and well blended.
4. On a cutting board, break up your chocolate bar into smaller chunks
5. Scrape your cashew base into a bowl and then add your chocolate bar chunks and mix together, then refrigerate before serving!

This was such a yummy treat and definitely felt guilt-free when enjoying. After having it this first round, it would be fun to play around with adding in some other types of chocolate or goodies like sprinkles or m&ms for a little extra color and crunch! I am not a huge lover of super dark chocolate, but mixed in with this, it was definitely a good balance of tart and sweet with the cookie dough.

Taco Pizza Recipe

We recently had the brilliant idea of making our own at home taco pizza — and let me tell you, it was seriously that, brilliant AND delicious. Normally we make BBQ or Buffalo Chicken Pizza’s but were inspired to make one of our favorite dishes into another dinner favorite, in pizza form. The recipe it quite simple and therefore the perfect amount of taco without going completely overboard with toppings. So when we were prepping our menu for our fancy Cinco De Mayo fiesta, this was the perfect and simple addition to make at home for a fun night in!
This will quickly become a fun way to switch up your Taco Tuesday, Friday night pizza or splurge your upcoming Cinco De Mayo party at home!

Shopping List:
– Pizza Crust
– Mild Ortega Taco Sauce
– 1-pound of ground beef
– Taco seasoning packet
– Shredded Cheese
– 2.25oz Sliced Black Olives
– Tomato to slice into pieces
– Optional: Green Onion
– Sour Cream for serving

Step-by-Step Directions:
1. First up, cook your ground beef! Once fully cooked, add your taco seasoning in and set-aside while you prep the rest.

2. With your pizza crust on a pizza pan, pour your Ortega Taco Sauce on as your sauce, and spread around crust with a spoon for nice coverage.

3. Now spoon and spread your ground beef to cover the top of the pizza! Add your black olive slices and tomato slices on next.

4. Finally, sprinkle your cheese (shred a brick or use a pre-shredded bag) we like to use a mix orange and white cheddar for some added color. And garnish with green onion, if you have it (we didn’t have it this time).

5. Cook in the oven based on the crust directions until crust is looking golden and cheese is melted! Slice up and enjoy!

B likes to serve this with sour cream, it is a nice touch for this delicious pizza — I only have a few bites with sour cream, because that is one dairy item that definitely does not agree with me! But it is a nice flavor accent of cool with the taco flavors on the pizza. Again, we kept this recipe simple because it’s definitely easy to over to do it with your taco toppings — and it’s simply perfect!

We also like to make B’s simple homemade guacamole paired with our favorite go-to Tostitos lime chips.  To finish off our fancy fiesta night, serve up with a Corona and lime or this super easy and delicious strawberry margarita made with prosecco instead of tequila! This has quickly become a treat that we like to make for date night and a recipe we first tried out for Valentine’s Day when we were planning our date night in. I think the next taco inspired pizza recipe we play around with will be a breakfast taco pizza – omg yum! Like I mentioned, we love everything tacos. And will be sharing our full fancy fiesta Cinco De Mayo night next!

Prosecco Margarita Recipe

Cinco De Mayo celebrations will be a little different this year — although we don’t typically celebrate this day normally like most anyway, May 5th is special to us for another reason, it’s the anniversary of our first date! So looking ahead at this year, I thought it would be fun to create a fun and fancy fiesta to celebrate with some of our favorite Mexican dishes we make at home! But, before we get to the decor and our favorite Taco Pizza recipe, we needed to make sure we had a festive beverage for our fiesta first!
This fresh margarita inspired recipe is easy, delicious and in my opinion a no brainer since it’s topped with Prosecco instead of Tequila.  I had my one night of Tequila fun, and don’t ever need to enjoy it ever again *grins* — you have had one of those nights too, right?

Shopping List:
– Bottle of Prosecco – Freixenet is my go-to
– 2 cups of Fresh Strawberries
– 1/4 cup of Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
– 1/2 cup of Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice (about 2-3 limes depending on size)
– 1.5 – .75 Oz. Agave Nectar
– 1 cup of Ice (2 for 4-servings)Step-by-Step Directions:
1. Make sure to wash your fresh fruit well, I ended up slicing my strawberries in half since we had some big ones.
2. Place all your ingredients into a blender. If you want to make a double batch, add two cups of ice — also I used about half as much agave nectar than the recipe I found because I know it’s sweet. Blend well until completely mixed.
3. Get ready to serve! Pour the fruit mix into goblets or cocktail glasses about 2/3rds full and then top off with your bubbles — pour slowly, the Prosecco will bubble quickly with your marg mix. Top off your glass gradually!
4. Slice the center of your strawberry and garnish on the rim of your glass, get ready to cheers and sip away!
This recipe was sooo easy and will be delicious to sip on this summer! Not to mention I love my new Monique Lhuillier Gabrielle Etched Champagne Coupes, they’re give a little bohemian chic vibe for our fancy fiesta and these bubbly margaritas. My next blog is going to be sharing our new go-to make at home Taco Pizza Recipe that will be the perfect taco fix for your at home Cinco De Mayo party — plus I’ll be sharing my fancy fiesta decor!

 

Easy Bundt Cake Recipe

With my new found love of bundt cakes, I wanted to try making my own to see if I was able to make anything as good as the Whole Foods ones! The other factor I was dealing with was finding a recipe that didn’t call for heavy cream or lots of ingredients, especially since we’re trying to limit our grocery trips!

Since I only had mini-bundt cake pan, I altered the bake time to accommodate for the smaller pans, but also included the bake time if you have a full-sized pan. I also modified this recipe to incorporate almond milk.

Bundt Cake Ingredients:
– Cooking Spray / Crisco
– 1.5 cups of stick butter (3-stick)
– 2 cups of sugar
– 4 large eggs
– 1 TBSP. vanilla extract
– 3 cups of flour
– 6 TBSP. cornstarch
– 1.5 TSP. kosher salt
– 1/2 cup of almond milk

Glaze Ingredients:
– 1.5 cups of powdered sugar
– 4-5 TBSP. almond milk
– 1/2 TSP. vanilla extract
– 1/8 TSP. kosher salt

Cake Step-by-Step:
1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 and grease your bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, with a hand mixer beat softened butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy.
3. Add your eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg is added – with your last egg, add your vanilla extract in and mix well.
4. Next in another bowl whisk you dry ingredients: flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.

5. Now take half of your dry ingredients and mix with your first bowl of wet ingredients – beating well until combined. Pour in 3-tablespoons of your almond milk and milk until fully incorporated, then add remaining dry ingredients and rest of the milk depending on consistency.
6. One your batter is ready, it’s time to bake! Pour your batter into greased pans – do not fill your batter up to the top and about half way up, smoothing the top with a spatula. I knew better, but still filled up my first batch to the top – see my #fail below, although it did make for a yummy scraps!

7. For mini bundt pans, cook for 20-minutes and make sure your toothpick comes out clean – I was able to get 10-mini cakes, if I hadn’t over filled we probably would’ve had a dozen mini cakes. If you’re baking in a full-size pan, back for 55-minutes.
8. Let cakes cool in pan and invert cake pan onto a plate or cooling rack.

Glaze Step-by-Step:
1. Whisk together your powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Since I used almond milk, I gradually added the milk to make sure the consistency was good.
2. Pour of cake and serve!

The cake batter reminds me a lot like my mom’s Christmas cookie dough! It’s sooo yummy, and I definitely licked the bowl and batters clean. Once I filled the tins in about half way, they cooked perfectly at 20-minutes and came out relatively easy with the cooling guides. I love the little personal-sized bundt cakes for a post-dinner or breakfast snack — just add some sprinkles on top and you’ve got a sweet little treat!

 

Recipe inspired by Maria’s Kitchen