Pizza Casserole

I remember one of the greatest most helpful things people did for me when on bedrest and after having the twins was dinners. It really helped me out and made things a little easier on me. One of my kiddos favorite dishes brought over from my older sister was Pizza Casserole. It is easy to make and can be also done as a freezer meal. I had an idea how she made it but called her up to get more specifics. I also was going to make it with rice noodles (bonus she said she has made it that way too and turned out well). With rice noodles you want to be certain not to over cook them. I make mine until they are just about done since it will still go into the oven to finish off. If you like more of saucy pizza you can increase the pizza sauce amount.

We enjoyed this casserole for lunch with a side salad. I used the leftovers today for school lunch. I love that my kiddos are not picky about having certain food being hot or cold! I am sharing how I made the recipe below.

Pizza Casserole

Ingredients

• 16oz bag of rice noodles or Brown Rice and Quinoa Pasta ( I get mine from Trader Joe’s)
• 2-2.5lbs of ground turkey ( can also use beef)
• Pepperoni
• 2- 15oz cans of pizza sauce ( I use this brand)
• Goat Gouda Cheese- or Raw Milk Cheese (I shred myself and get from Trader Joe’s)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Basil
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Garlic powder

Oil a 9×13 pan and set aside. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

* next time I will double the meat and sauce and split into 2 dishes using the same amount of rice noodles. I personally like more meat sauce compared to the noddles.

Grab your meat and noodles.

Cook your pasta until just done. I cooked for approx. 7 minutes.  Drain and rinse.

As the pasta was cooking, I also cooked the ground turkey. Add a little avocado oil to the pan and add the turkey. I sprinkled in the seasonings. You can also use Italian seasoning, but I didn’t have any on hand. Sorry I didn’t measure, just eye balled it.

Once the meat is done cooking add in the pizza sauce to the cooked meat.

Grease the pan and add some sauce mix to the bottom. Then layer noodles, meat mixture, pepperoni, and cheese. Repeat layers. 

Bake in oven at 350 degrees uncovered for 30 minutes. 

Remove from oven and let cool. Dish out onto plates and serve! I served mine also with a side salad.

Kiddos took the leftovers today in their lunchbots for school lunch. Served with strawberries and broccoli slaw. 

Enjoy a great twist on making pizza. Yum!

*I did edit this post 4/2017 to make changes to double the meat and sauce in recipe as I stated above!

Saturday Hike and Menu Planning

One thing I absolutely enjoy about where I live is hiking. Seriously could hike for hours.  Saturday mornings, when time permits, I enjoy going on an early morning hike. It is even better when my friend(s) can join me. Love the fresh air, beautiful views, and great conversations! So this morning I was able to enjoy almost 5 miles of hiking with a great friend. So beautiful watching the sunrise over the mountains.

 

Today also calls for some menu planning and food prep for the week. As you can see my fridge is pretty much bare. I finished up the eggs and veggies and made omelets this morning for breakfast. So typically this is what my fridge looks like before I menu prep. One great thing about menu planning is you go through all the food you bought. My freezer is usually empty because most of my groceries I buy are fresh. I do keep frozen organic green beans for emergency veggies. I also buy my almond flour in bulk and freeze them until I need them. The rest is just ice packs. I am looking forward to the day when I can go buy myself a nice large double door refrigerator with the freezer on the bottom because this refrigerator isn’t large enough and gets crammed full after I meal prep for the week.

 

So my menu is prepared in my excel document and listed up on my menu board in the kitchen. The list is put into Wunderlist for me (or should I say Rob) to go grocery shopping!  Now to clean up the kitchen from lunch and get to preparing meals for the week. My older girls will be in charge of preparing what is needed for snacks this week along with giving instructions to their brother on where he can help them out. Love getting them all involved, plus it helps me speed along the process. So my music will be jamming and we will be dancing as we make our way around the kitchen!

Keep it simple…Keep it clean. Enjoy the food you eat!

Makings of Taco night

We love tacos and they make great leftovers also. The nice things about tacos if you can play with it how you see fit. We like to do tacos almost once a week. It is an easy meal to throw together. Some of our favorites are chicken tacos, turkey tacos, pork tacos, or even beef tacos. They can be great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You can serve them on lettuce, in paleo friendly tortilla, plantain chips, or even on sweet potatoes.

If grass-fed beef is not on sale, then I will pick up organic ground turkey at my Costco which goes for about $4.99/lb here. Otherwise we will get a pork shoulder/butt and make shredded pork and can use some of that meat during the week for pork tacos. From time to time we will do chicken tacos, but not often. Just not something my kiddos are huge fans of. They would rather have grilled chicken or chicken and bone broth gravy.

For the beef and turkey tacos we season them the same. Try making your own seasoning, it is simple and better than buying the packets.

Ingredients:

1. 2 lbs of meat
2. 1 tsp oregano
3. 1 tsp thyme
4. sea salt or Himalayan salt
5. ground cracked pepper
6. 2 tbsp cumin
7. 2 tbsp chili powder
8. cayenne pepper – dash
9. paprika – couple dashes
10. onion – optional

Heat pan add a little avocado oil or coconut oil and chopped onion if using. While I brown the meat I had 1 tsp oregano and 1 tsp thyme and cracked pepper. Once the meat is cooked I leave the juices in the pan and add in the remaining ingredients and bring it to a slight simmer for a few minutes to allow seasoning to mix in. If you don’t have enough meat juices then you can add in a little bit of water.

Now incorporate how you want to serve it.

Toppings are endless, but here are a few of my favorites:

1. Salsa
2. Guacamole
3. Mango
4. Romain lettuce with broccoli slaw
5. Sweet Potato
6. Plantain chips – nacho style
7. Tortilla using Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour (Review coming soon)
8. Tessemae’s Southwestern Ranch for dressing instead of using a taco sauce.
   

   

   

   

   

Keep it simple…Keep it clean and wholesome!

From our taco style to yours…Cheers

School Lunch & Eggplant Dip

It is motivation Monday.  Today I hit the mat with some friends at 5:30am this morning to do some Hot Yoga. What a great way to start the morning. If you haven’t tried it before, you really should. A great way to focus on yourself, reduce stress, and tone the body.  I refueled myself with a great breakfast with my kiddos this morning before they were off to school.

Lunch today my daughter made for those that go to school. They enjoyed leftover hotdogs from yesterday’s dinner. Salad of romaine lettuce with some broccoli slaw (broccoli and carrots). The broccoli slaw we get a Trader Joes. It is great to mix into lettuce.  I
also like using it in my zoodles. Topped the salad with a few raisins. She cut up some strawberries and added a pickle. Healthy lunch that is simple and easy to put together.

I finally got around to making smokey eggplant dip. One of my favorite dips to make for raw veggies. My kiddos enjoy it too. When I first made it, I just told them to try it. Sometimes if they know what it is made with they won’t even want to taste it. They approved, and then I explained how I made it. Allowing your kiddos to cook with you in the kitchen is also an added bonus because they will typically eat what they make!  Yesterday we grilled up the eggplant, peeled it, and put it in the food processor.  I used a recipe from Thug Kitchen. You can find their Smokey Eggplant Dip here. The language can be profound, but it is all in good nature. The recipe is to die for though,so go check it out and give it a try! The only substitution I made was I changed out the olive oil for avocado oil since I didn’t have any on hand. Still turned out amazing. Have it on hand around the house or take it to a party.  Dip in and enjoy!

 

Friday Leftovers

School lunch today calls for Friday leftovers! Friday is the day we usually clean out the rest of fridge to prepare for next weeks meals. Nice thing about menu planning is you usually only buy what you need. So by Friday my fridge is looking bare.

Today’s school lunch for the kiddos included a lot more veggies. You will see I packed celery, pickles, sweet peppers, and a mixed green salad.  I topped the salad with goat gouda and Wholly Guacamole. Seriously love the individual cups of Wholly Guacamole! The are also great for school snacks along with plantain chips.  Fruit today was oranges, and then we finished up the taco meat from yesterday.

Refreshing and delicious as my kiddos would say. Remember to keep it simple…Keep it clean!

T…T…for Taco Thursday

Thursday calls for Taco day. Super easy throw together meal, and makes great leftovers! Today also calls for meal planning and meal prep for this weekend. I will be sharing my meal plan for the coming week tomorrow.

Lunch today is taco salad. I like to pick up grass-fed beef only when it is on sale. When grass-fed beef is on sale at my local grocery store it usually is sold out fast. I usually hit the grocery store at least twice a week. I will pick up the beef one day, and usually by the second trip it is gone.  At the second trip I will then ask for a rain check. This way I can stock up at a later date again at the sale price. The sale prices can range anywhere from $3.99-$5.99 a pound. Win…Win…

I also make my own taco season. Ground up the meat. Then today I added in cumin, chili powder, paprika, and oregano. I let it cool before I put it in their lunches. Lunch today included sliced up strawberries, romain lettuce with sweet peppers, and goat gouda cheese. The taco meat is in a side dish.  When they get to school they will dump the taco meat on top of their salad giving them more room to mix it in. A great satisfying meal! I also love hearing my kiddos say how they can’t wait to have their lunch. Tacos is by far one of the favorites!

Keep it clean…Keep it simple…Enjoy!

Wednesday Feel Good Lunch

Happy Hump Day. With traveling over the weekend, I did not get much prep work in for meals this week. Being committed is what it is all about. Like second nature now; just every day life. This morning called for firing up the grill at 6am to make chicken for lunches today. Thanks to the hubs for the chicken this morning it was delicious!

Our lunches today included oranges and green beans seasoned with pepper and himalayan salt. Chicken was seasoned and grilled up. I don’t have containers to seal the franks red hot so I divided the chicken into 2 cups and added the sauces on the bottom for dipping. This way it prevents the sauce from getting on the other food. Yes my kiddos like Franks Red Hot! Keep it simple and healthy.

Enjoy!

Tuesday School Lunch

Happy Tuesday! Another day in paradise in my household. Kiddos out the door, I got a my workout in thanks to a great friend, and my younger kiddos are enjoying the pool today.

Today’s school lunch started off with some organic kiolbassa and scrambled eggs. Added a pickle and some broccoli slaw topped with apples. Then added a side of Go Raw sprouted pumpkin seeds.  They are my favorite to snack on or top on salad! My kiddos will either eat these plain for the will top them on their broccoli slaw during lunch. Enjoy a wholesome lunch, I know my kiddos will!

School Lunch

It’s Monday and back to getting things done. After a great weekend on the soccer fields with my girls and family, it is time to hit the ground running. So without further ado, here is today’s lunch!

These silicone cupcake holders make throwing this lunch together much easier. Especially if your kiddos like their food to be separated! Can I just say I love Trader Joes.  I was spoiled back in Iowa when I only had a quick 5 minute trip. Now it is almost 30 minutes to get their. So I go every 2 weeks instead.

The kiddos enjoyed broccoli slaw (Trader Joes), plantain chips (Trader Joes), go raw sprouted pumpkin seeds (Costco), grilled organic chicken breast (Costco), strawberries, and a dark chocolate honey mint (Trader Joes).

Happy Eating! Remember to keep it clean and simple. Gobble up.