Lean & Green Broccoli Salad, Cauliflower Breadsticks, Spaghetti Squash Lasagna pics

Broccoli Salad for picnics!! :) 

Cauliflower Breadsticks

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

Cauliflower Rice & Soy Chicken

We had a delicious Lean & Green Dinner that the whole family enjoyed! Cauliflower Rice topped with Soy Chicken. It feels so great to eat healthy foods that aren't starchy, but also things that the kids enjoy too!!

Sunrise Chicken

I got a new crockpot recipe book for Christmas that is so fun! I love cooking in my crockpot, and I found this recipe book that has all kinds of simple recipes that use the stuff I already have in my cupboards. Nothing too fancy. I've been trying all kinds of new things that I wouldn't have even thought of making and surprisingly the family likes them too! I'll share what I made yesterday because it's seriously the EASIEST thing I've ever made in a crockpot.

Sunrise Chicken
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup of barbecue sauce
1 cup of orange juice

Dump ingredients into crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours.

I used a mesquite barbecue sauce and it made a very mild barbecue chicken that wasn't real sweet. I cut the chicken into thirds once it was cooked and served it with baked potatoes and baked sweet potatoes.

I haven't been able to fully convert all the kids to sweet potatoes yet, so I have to do a mix of normal potatoes and sweet potatoes. I just bake them all in the same dish in the oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Attempt at Healthy

Summer is so crazy busy and sometimes it just ends up that you have to do a meal that was pulled from a box. Yes, I'll admit it. We had taquitos! LOL

I was feeling a little guilty about serving my kids something out of a box, so I went and got some spinach leaves out of the fridge and wrapped one of my taquitos in it before I dipped it in salsa and sour cream. It actually was pretty tasty!

Once the kids saw me wrapping my dinner with a leaf, they ALL wanted leaves. I had to go back to the sink several times and prepare even more spinach leaves. The leaves became a real hot commodity! So, without even trying, my kids enjoyed a whole bunch of spinach for dinner. :)

More More Casserole

I'll admit, this meal is much better than it looks! THIS is More More Casserole. It's one I used to have when I was little and now I feed it to my kids. It has a bunch of stuff in it that they will eat and they really like it. :) I served it without a side because I was totally out of "side" ingredients. That's ok though. It has everything in it we need to be healthy, right? So I can still chalk it up to a full meal.

More More Casserole

1 c. spaghetti noodles, broken into 1/2" pieces

1 lb. ground beef

1 (12 oz) can whole kernel corn

1/4 c. green peppers, chopped

1 onion, chopped

3 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce

3/4 t. chili powder

1 c. mild chedder cheese, grated

Cook noodles in boiling, salted water until tender (10 min). Brown ground beef with onion and green pepper. Drain fat. Drain noodles and corn. Add all ingredients together except cheese. Stir well. Pour into casserole dish and top with cheese. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

What I did differently:

I substituted the ground beef with 3 cups of cooked red beans. I just sauteed the onions and green peppers together in a pan until they were soft and added them to the mixture.

Here is what the finished product looked like - just out of the oven. TASTY!

Cream of Chicken Rice

This is one of our favorite fall-back meals. I make it when I haven't gone shopping for awhile and need something quick. When I took it out of the oven this time, Samantha came in and started jumping up and down saying, "I love this dinner!" That's always a good sign.

Cream of Chicken Rice

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 large chicken breast, cooked and shredded

1/2 onion, chopped

2 c. milk

1 c. uncooked rice

Boil chicken for 1 hour on stove (or however you like to cook it). Shred the chicken. Mix all the ingredients together. Pour into casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Stir occasionally so the rice will cook evenly.

I sometimes add broccoli into this mix, or you can top it with buttered cracker crumbs. This is how it looks when it's done.

Our favorite way to serve this is to spoon it onto your plate while it's really hot. Then add a little butter on top and let it melt. Top with salt and pepper.

This time I also served salad with it. The salad was simply red leaf lettuce, chopped spinach leaves, chopped carrots, cucumbers, and green peppers. YUM!

Salad and Breadsticks

This was our dinner last night. Just salad and breadsticks. (click link for recipe) I didn't go all out with a main dish, but we all ended up nourished and full. Isn't that what counts? The kids ate every last drop of their dinner and then some.

I had some pizza sauce left over that I really didn't want to throw out, so hence, the breadsticks. I made the recipe I posted on here before, but this time I added rosemary into the dough mixture. WOW! They were so good! I've never used rosemary before and couldn't believe the flavor difference in the breadsticks.

This time for the salad I used red leaf lettuce and chopped spinach leaves. Then I added sliced green peppers, carrots, and cucumbers. I also boiled some eggs, cut them up, and we sprinkled those on top.

No one seemed to really miss the main dish. :)