Perfect Chocolate Cake (recipe)

I know I've shared the surprisingly delicious vegan chocolate avocado cake recipe, but it was a denser chocolate cake, I thought I'd post my go-to recipe for a light, fluffy chocolate cake. It's 100% just the recipe from the back of a box of Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa powder. I have use this recipe for roughly a decade now, and it's awesome. The frosting recipe that accompanies it is also great.

I do change a few things slightly, but that would be like using the sodium-free baking powder since Bobble has the sodium restriction, and using sunflower oil in lieu of vegetable oil.



Don't mind the cake on a plate on a carrier. I forgot I owned the cake carrier before I frosted the cake, and when I realized it I figured it was just easier to keep it on the plate!


This cake turns out perfect every time, too!



So, if you prefer fluffier cakes and have no food restrictions, try this one out.

Hershey's "Especially Dark" Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
"ESPECIALLY DARK" CHOCOLATE FROSTING (recipe follows)

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans or line 28 to 30 muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans or fill cups about 2/3 full with batter.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes for round pans or 22 to 25 minutes for cupcakes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "ESPECIALLY DARK" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.


"ESPECIALLY DARK" CHOCOLATE FROSTING 
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter, Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated in any way for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. The recipes are both Hershey's recipes and can be found at the links above.

Perfect Pancakes Recipe

Pancakes are one of my favourite breakfast foods due to their versatility. You can pair them with a variety of fruits (incorporated into them or fresh cut on top of them), add other sorts of mix-ins (chocolate chips, anyone?), or serve them plain. Real maple syrup is always a winner in our house, but sometimes my husband likes to use plain pancakes as the outside of a sandwich, adding some eggs, cheese, and bacon or sausage between it.

Better yet? They freeze really, really well. Make extras and freeze them in a huge gallon freezer bag, and you can pull some to toast or microwave for a quick, yummy breakfast some other time! For easier storage, put pieces of wax paper between the pancakes and don't freeze them until they've cooled down completely.

Anyway you look at it, pancakes are awesome.

Yes, I accidentally let one get a bit too brown. Oops! Still tasted good, though! You can see some of them have chocolate chips mixed in, others don't. 

Problem is, for the longest time we didn't have a good recipe. We tried recipe after recipe, and we finally stumbled across a winner. Actually, we stumbled across this recipe over a year ago. We've used it multiple times since then, and it's always fabulous. The only reason I never shared it before now is because I kept forgetting to take pictures!

(I apologize in advance for the quality of food pictures on my blog. I only have a cell phone camera to work with right now. I try to make the best of it, though!)

The following recipe was found on Allrecipes.com and is for 4 servings. You can change the number of servings you want on the website and it will do all the adjustments to the ingredients for you, though. I normally double the recipe, but if I'm freezing anything I triple it.

FLUFFY PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 Milk
• 2T white vinegar
• 1c all-purpose flour
• 2T white sugar
• 1t baking powder
• 1/2t baking soda
• 1/2t salt
• 1 egg
• 2T butter, melted
• cooking spray (or whatever you prefer to grease your pan)

1) Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour" (aka: make buttermilk).

2) Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

3) Whisk egg and butter into buttermilk/soured milk.

4) Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth.

Fully mixed batter. Now is the time to mix in any extras like chocolate chips or berries!

5) Heat a large skillet over medium heat and grease. Pour 1/4c of batter onto the skillet, cooking until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip, and brown on other side.

Due to sodium restrictions Bobble has from previous medical issues, we use a sodium-free baking powder to help reduce the sodium content of the pancakes.

I like to use butter to grease my pan before cooking the pancakes, and I like to mix in chocolate chips or berries. I've also become rather fond of adding some cinnamon to the batter or very lightly sprinkling some cinnamon on them as soon as I put the batter in the pan. So yummy!

If you're in need of a pancake recipe, you should definitely give this one a try!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff is responsible for the content of this post. The recipe is the Fluffy Pancakes Recipe from AllRecipes.com. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Meatloaf with Lentils (original recipe)

I've been in search of a good meatloaf recipe for a while, and I finally gave up and made my own. It took a few times (trial and error!) to get the right ratios, but it's finally done and with pleasing results! It held together and tasted good to everyone (including the kids).

I am having trouble getting a decent photograph of it in a pan, though. Grease from the meat and having to use my old phone for these pictures certainly didn't help!

I served it with mashed potatoes and green beans, though the pictures seem to have disappeared from my camera. The last time I made it we served it with homemade potato wedges.

Meatloaf
1/3c milk
2 eggs
2t sage
2t thyme
1t pepper
1/2c dry lentils (cook before using)
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1# ground beef

Sauce
3T acv
2T brown sugar
1/2c tomato sauce/paste mixture (in lieu of ketchup)

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix spices, milk and egg in large bowl.
Cook lentils, add to egg mixture.
Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil and then add to egg mixture.
Brown beef and add to bowl with mixture.
Mix well and place in greased loaf dish and add topping (mix all ingredients for topping together, then spread across top of meat mixture).
Bake for 1 hour.
Allow to sit 10 minutes before serving.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. This recipe is an original recipe.

Thursday Tips: Canned foods

Today's tip is one of those that might be one you already know, but it is worth mentioning in case someone didn't.

Canned foods, especially those that are not able to be just poured out of the can, can sometimes stick. Some people pound on the bottom of the can to get the item to fall out, others will take a knife or spatula and help it out.

There is another way, and it's ridiculously easy.

Since I was going to use up some tomato paste, I figured I'd give an example!

Open up your can, then turn upside down and puncture two little holes in the bottom side of the can (using the can opener). This allows the pressure seal to release the contents, and voila! Can is empty!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post.

Pumpkin Chili

I'm going to come straight out and say it: I was scared to try this recipe. I dislike all squash except zucchini and yellow summer squash. The only exception is pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie. While I will eat some squash I dislike (like spaghetti squash), I certainly try to avoid it. Still, I was super intrigued by this recipe from MOMables. Also, my whole family loves squash. I made this recipe already assuming I would dislike it.

With cheese sprinkled on top

The recipe was super simple to make, especially since we had a can of organic pumpkin on hand. Normally I avoid canned items, but we do keep a few things in the pantry just in case. Normally we end up using the foods as they near the end of their shelf life because we simply don't use canned foods frequently. That's okay, though. I'd rather have them around in case we do need them then be caught unawares!

Without cheese

The recipe is really simple.

We added 1 small onion and a can of pinto beans since that's what was on hand.

To my surprise, you couldn't taste the pumpkin. I was prepared to not like the meal. I have a super sensitive palate, and can taste pretty much anything... but not the pumpkin. It actually bothered me that I knew there was pumpkin in it and yet I couldn't taste it! Another thing that bothered me is the fact I couldn't taste the ground turkey as turkey. I wasn't upset by that since I actually have a strong dislike of ground turkey. I love ground beef, but I just can't get past the flavour of ground turkey. This dish tasted like regular (as in no pumpkin, and with beef) chili. Not too shabby! I added some greek yogurt atop my chili and then topped that with some cheese. Delicious!

This meal would have been delicious with some cornbread. Next time we are definitely doing this with cornbread!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. 

Shepherd's Pie

I have been looking for a good Shepherd's Pie recipe for a while, and finally saw one that grabbed my attention. I actually was hoping to make the recipe soon when I found the recipe in my inbox! (I am signed up for Serious Eats' newsletter, and it just happened to be Shepherd's Pie that day.)

I attempted to make the recipe as it was, but I lacked russet potatoes and fresh herbs, so I had to make a few adjustments. I mostly followed the recipe, though. Oh, I also used ground lamb instead of chunks of lamb. 

I must add: It was delicious! I don't think that there was enough potato for the top, and I also found the stew to be too liquidy, so I would probably add more flour (or less broth) next time depending on how it looked.

Stew:

• 1 1/2# ground lamb
• Fresh ground black pepper
• 2T canola oil
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 4 celery stalks, chopped
• 2T flour
• 4c lamb or beef stock/broth
• 3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed (roughly 2 cups)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1t dried thyme
• 1t dried rosemary
• 1t dried oregano

Mashed Potatoes:

• 3# potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1t salt
• 4 lg. egg yolks
• 1/2c unsalted butter
• 1/2c heavy cream

*Preheat oven to 450 near the end of step 5

1) Brown the lamb meat and set aside.
*If you are using cubes of meat, dry with a paper towel, season with salt and pepper if desired, and saute in some oil over medium high heat. Let the meat brown to the pan for several minutes before stirring (stirring too soon will cause them to release water and boil instead of brown).Turn over after about 4 minutes and let brown again, then remove from heat.

Meat browned and set aside (in dish I later baked in)

2) Put the veggies in the pan the lamb was browned in, and stir. The veggies will release water while they cook and help remove the browned lamb from the pan. Scrape up any brown pieces from the pan with a spoon or spatula (leave in for flavour, though!). Continue to sweat the veggies for about 5 minutes.

3) Add in flour and let brown for around 2 minutes. Add in stock, then potatoes and spices. Return meat to pan and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling, lower the heat to medium and simmer for 90 minutes, covered, until the meat is tender (if cubed) or until all veggies are done. Complete step 4 while this is simmering. When done, remove bay leaves and transfer stew into baking dish.

4) Boil potatoes until fully cooked, drain, then place back in pot. Stir for a few minutes over the heat to ensure they are dry. Add egg yolks, butter, and cream, mashing/whisking until smooth.
*Do this quickly, as the potatoes will become gummy and starchy if they cool too much.

5) Smooth mashed potatoes over the stew in the baking dish. (Or use a pastry bag and a large star tip to pipe the mixture over the top. I tried. I failed miserably at this.) Make sure to create a full seal across the top with the potatoes.

6) Place pie on top of a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, and bake for 30-35 minutes (or until potatoes are browned and the filling is bubbly.) Let sit for 15 minutes, then serve hot.

I found this to be a bit more soup-y than stew-y when I made it, so I would cut back by 1/2c or 1c of stock next time, or just add more flour in step 3. It wasn't a big deal, I just drained a bit of the juice off and served. Absolutely delicious!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Recipe based off of Serious Eats' shepherd's pie recipe found here.

Broccoli Cheese Soup (from scratch)

One soup I've loved since a child is Broccoli Cheese Soup. It's always been a favourite of mine, and I was fortunate enough to discover, thanks to this recipe, that it is also one both of my children love. I stumbled across this Panera Bread copy cat recipe at Yammie's Noshery, but while I was making it discovered that I needed to tweak it to get a soup that I would like.

My biggest issue with most soup is the incredibly skimpy amount of vegetables in it. I fixed that. Below is my recipe, made multiple times and devoured by all!

Broccoli Cheese Soup
Based on this recipe from Yammie's Noshery

1/2 stick of butter (1/4c)

1/2 of a medium yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves minced garlic

1c of milk

1c of heavy cream

3c chicken stock

1/4c corn starch

1/4t nutmeg

2 bay leaves

2c chopped carrots (roughly 4 carrots)

4-6c broccoli florets (an entire bunch + some more if you desire)

3c shredded cheddar cheese

Pepper to taste

1) Sautee onions and garlic in butter over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until tender.

2) Add the milk, cream, and stock.

3) Combine corn starch with a bit of water (or a bit extra broth) and stir until fully dissolved. Add to the pot.

4) Turn heat to medium low and add in nutmeg and bay leaves, stirring until thickened.

5) Add in the vegetables and allow to simmer until tender (roughly 30 minutes).

6) Remove bay leaves and stir in cheese until fully incorporated.

7) Serve.

This will have an excellent flavour, especially if you use homemade chicken stock. There will be no need to add any salt while cooking (or after it is served), as there is plenty of sodium in the cheese, and, as I mentioned already, there is no lack of flavour.

This recipe is easy to make, and a crowd pleaser. Definitely a win in our household! I really need to remember to make bread bowls next time, though! I don't have images of the children eating the food because I was too busy stuffing my face. The leftovers go quickly, too!

This recipe claims to serve 4, and I could see it feeding 6 adults good sized servings. If you are serving with bread bowls, I'd think it could feed 8. You will easily have leftovers to get at least one more meal out of it for 4 adults, though.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from your own. This recipe is an adaptation of one found at Yammie's Noshery.

Chai Latte

I've always been a fan of chai. Growing up I loved it. Today I love it. Chai lattes in cold weather, iced chai lattes in hot (or a chai milkshake!).... chai all year round!

My children want what I have, of course, and who could blame them when it's something as delicious as chai? Since I discovered Oregon Chai concentrate, I've been a happier mama. I emailed them to inquire about ingredients in their "spices". When I was pregnant, I took care to avoid fennel and anise. Neither Tazo chai concentrate nor Oregon chai concentrate listed the ingredients of their spices. I prefer the taste of Oregon chai by far, so when they emailed me back to tell me they do NOT have fennel or anise in their concentrate, I was ecstatic. 

They continued their email with:
"I would like to mention that we have recently introduced a line of chai tea bags, two of which DO contain ground anise seed, so you will want to avoid those for now. (These would be The Original and Energia.) The only one of the tea bags which does not contain ground anise seed is the caffeine-free Dreamscape. "

Good information to have! So, excitedly, I found their caffeine-free chai concentrate at the local grocery, and indulged in my favourite drink(s). I've continued to purchase the caffeine-free chai concentrate, as I'm still nursing Squiggle and she doesn't need the caffeine! That, and Bobble wants to share the drink, and he doesn't need that, either.


Long intro for a simple "recipe", but it's not really a recipe today so much as a suggestion for a lovely drink you can share with your children, caffeine-free.

If you're curious, no. I was not contacted by Oregon Chai to post for them, and I am not being compensated for this post. I just seriously love this product!

Chai Latte

• Oregon Chai Concentrate (Caffeine-free) 
• Milk of your choice (If you want a milk alternative, Oat milk is fabulous with this as it is a naturally sweet milk) 
• Whipped cream (you can make your own easily, or find a natural whipped cream like Cabot at Trader Joe's) 
• Cinamon

1 - Pour equal parts of chai concentrate and milk in a cup (you might want a little less concentrate if you are adding whipped cream... I always taste this cold before heating up to make sure I like the ratio).

2 - Heat small cup (for a child) for 30 seconds (will make nice and warm for them, but not hot), or 1-2 minutes for a large mug or to make hot.

3 - Add whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. 

Broccoli Cheese Soup (from scratch)

Broccoli cheese soup has always been one of my favourite dishes, but I had never tried to make it until the recently. I had been searching for a good recipe, and finally found one close to what I wanted. A few alterations later and voila! Broccoli cheese soup!

The majority of the time spent on this dish is the prep time. If you prep your veggies before hand, this is a super easy meal.

This meal is not one I would consider to be "low sodium", but it is low enough to where Bobble could still eat it without worry of nearing his daily allowance. It is definitely low sodium compared to store-bought broccoli cheese soup (campbells has 1,640mg sodium in one cup, but the can is 1.25 cups, so that can has 2,050mg of sodium) or restaurant soup (AppleBees has 1,490 mg of sodium in one cup)!

All sodium content will vary depending on the brand and amount of ingredients used, but the two main sodium-laden ingredients would be chicken broth/stock that is store bought, and the cheddar cheese. Noah Brothers makes an organic chicken broth (low sodium) that is 140mg per cup, though I'd recommend just making your own with leftover chicken bones and not adding any salt.

Assuming you used store-bought broth/stock, the recipe will be approximately 3,035mg sodium for the entire dish. Assuming you eat this as the meal itself, without any other dishes, you should be able to feed 6 people from this recipe.

This dish comes out to about 500 mg of sodium per person if you feed 6. Again, this can vary. Please check your labels if sodium is a concern for you!

I also want to add that the whole family enjoyed the meal. Not only did the kids happily eat it, but hubby actually said this was the best broccoli cheese soup he'd ever had. He then instructed me to write down exactly what I did so I don't lose the recipe. Now if only everything I made evoked that sort of response!

Broccoli Cheese Soup
adapted from this recipe from Yammie's Noshery

Ingredients:

1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup of milk

1 cup of heavy cream

3 cups chicken stock

1/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 bay leaves

2 large carrots, chopped

2 heads of broccoli

3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. On medium heat, cook the butter, garlic, and onion until they become tender.
2. Add milk, heavy cream, and chicken stock.
3. Mix the flour with a little bit of chicken stock (or water) until there are no clumps, and add in to the mixture on the stove.
4. Add in nutmeg and bay leaves. Continue cooking over medium-low heat until mixture thickens 
   
5. Add carrots and broccoli to the mixture and allow to simmer until tender. 
   
6. Remove bay leaves from pot and add in cheese, stirring until fully incorporated.
7. Add pepper to taste.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Thursday Tip: Cheesy Pasta (LS)

Bobble loves macaroni and cheese (or any pasta and cheese), but with his sodium restriction that gets tricky. Have you ever looked at the sodium content on cheeses? It's pretty high, considering. In an attempt to give him noodles and cheese, I turned to goat cheese. Not all goat cheese is low in sodium, and any of the herbed goat cheeses will be higher automatically. I did find 2 brands, Specially Selected (Aldi) and Silver Goat (Trader Joe's), that only have 40mg of sodium per serving, and that serving is plenty to cover a normal serving of noodles.

Simply cut the serving of chevre into the fresh made pasta and stir. Being such a soft cheese, it melts super easily. Voila! Cheesy noodles! It may not be super pretty, but it is super tasty.

Below is my (overly large because I'm sharing) serving of leftover pasta with a serving size of chevre on top. I just heat it up and stir when it's leftovers. Easy-peasy, the kids love it, and it is very low sodium!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from your own. Post may contain affiliate links.

Braised Barley and Vegetables (LS)

I had never made barley in my life before trying this recipe, so this was definitely an experiment for my family. In fact, I don't recall ever EATING barley in my life. I'm sure I've had it in a soup or something, but I'd never really had it to where I remembered it. I had no idea what it would be like, or how well I would make it. Still, it sounded tasty, looked simple, and easily could be a low sodium dish.

I don't have a kitchen scale, so I just eye-balled it. I also had no idea how much 8 ounces of cut rutabaga and 8 ounces of cut potatoes would look like. In fact, I'm most certain that I didn't have the "correct" amounts of them in there. This dish claiming to serve 4 people should fit in my 3QT pan, so I had a rough idea. The pan was to the brim, so I definitely went with the larger pan the second time around.

The meal turned out well. Inexpensive, easy prep (just chopping a few things), super easy to make, and hubby even said, "...this isn't what I expected. It's DELICIOUS, just not what I expected!" before I even had one bite.

It was delicious, actually. Very delicious. I was surprised, as there wasn't really any spice in it to flavour it, but it was a good flavour. It would be good with cut up mushrooms in there, too. If you like mushrooms, that is. It was so delicious, actually, that both children LOVED it!

Pre-cooked Bacon (optional!)

This is a FABULOUS cold-weather meal.It would be great accompanying a variety of meats, though the second time around I put in 4 slices of (finely crumbled, cooked) bacon. I used the Aldi uncured bacon brand "Simply Truth", which has 65mg/slice. This is the lowest sodium bacon I have found anywhere. There was no salt added to the veggie stock since I make my own, so the overall sodium for this entire dish was roughly 300mg, 560mg with the added bacon. Keep in mind that the sodium content will be altered by using store-bought stock, and by how much of particular vegetables you add. I googled the nutritional information for each veggie I used to get a rough idea of the sodium content they added. 

* NOTES *

• I only had a 2 cup pyrex cup, so I guesstimated the additional 1/2 cup of water, covered with plastic wrap (and a rubberband to secure it), and left over night in the fridge
• Lacking a kitchen scale, I added half of a rutabaga and only 2 (red) potatoes. I also added 3 ribs of celery and 3 carrots.
• I sprinkled in a tiny bit of some pink Himalayan sea salt and ground some fresh pepper into the pan (it was a peppercorn medley and not just black pepper), brought it to a boil, then set the stove to 3 for a simmer.
• I seriously had no idea how to tell if barley was done, so I just set the timer and hoped for the best. Worked out great. Timer went off, turned off the burner and moved the pan from the heat (like I do for other things that need to lose their liquid or absorb/thicken).
• I expected this, originally, to feed all 4 of us with a bit left over for someone for lunch since youngest isn't going to eat a full serving.... we have enough for ALL Of us to have left overs, and then even one or two more servings after that.It goes a long way!
• For extra flavour, you can soak your barley in stock instead (all the water the barley is with gets dumped into the dish anyway)

This is another recipe out of my Russian, German & Polish Food & Cookingcookbook.

Braised Barley and Vegetables 
Serves 4
Ingredients

• 1 cup pearl or barley
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 2 carrots, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 8 ounces rutabaga or turnip, cut into 3/4" cubes
• 8 ounces potatoes, cut into 3/4" cubes
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• celery leaves, to garnish

Instructions:
1) Put the barley in a measuring cup and add water to reach the 2 1/2 cup mark. Let soak in a cool place for at least 4 hours or, preferably, overnight. (Below is when I first put it in to soak that morning, and when I took it out to use that afternoon)

2) Heat the oil in a large pan and saute the onion for 5 minutes. Add the sliced celery and carrots and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the onion is starting to brown.

3) Add the barley and its soaking liquid to the pan. Then add the rutabaga or turnip, potato and stock to the barley. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and cover the pan.

4) Simmer for 40 minutes, or until most of the stock has been absorbed and the barley is tender. Stir occasionally towards the end of cooking to prevent the barley from sticking to the base of the pan. Serve, garnished with celery leaves.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from your own. Post contains affiliate links.

How to make Spaghetti Squash

 
How to make a spaghetti squash:

1) Wash squash off!
(You should wash all fruits and veggies off before cutting into them, as the knife will bring bacteria from the outside of the veggie into the flesh. This is especially important if you're eating the fruit or veggie raw, and one of the reasons Cantaloupe can be such a big cause of illness like e. coli.)

2) Slice squash in half long-ways and scoop out the seeds.

3) Place squash in a wax-paper lined dish, cut-side down, and bake for about 45 minutes at 350F, or until inside is tender enough for a fork to easily slice through to the peel.

4) When cooled, take a fork and scrape/rake the inside of the squash. This will release the squash in long strands, much like spaghetti.

Voila! You've made a spaghetti squash!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Lifestyle Changes

Many of you saw that Bobble was admitted to a local Children's Hospital last month. First, I'd like to thank you all for understanding my lack of posts during this time. I had a couple each week scheduled through most of October, but when we ended up in Children's, the continuation of blogging halted and no new posts got scheduled.

 

Thankfully, Bobble is home and doing well now. What had happened, in the most basic way of describing it, were his kidneys were acting up. He was retaining all his fluid instead of peeing, and the poor child gained 8 pounds of water weight. That's an awful lot of weight for a 3 year old to gain. He was admitted at 46lbs. He was 38lbs a few days after discharge.

8 Days before admittance to Children's

We are very thankful that everything seems to be going well, and they said this could easily have been a fluke and will never happen again. We still need to monitor him for a while, testing urine for protein and watching his weight for subtle gaining that might not be visible right away.

Day after coming home from Children's

What this also means is that we must limit his sodium. I'm going to be sharing some of our recipes that are low sodium as we make them or try them out, and also what brands I find (of various foods) that contain the lowest amount of sodium. We've found that watching sodium is much harder than watching something like sugar, artificial ingredients, etc. Thankfully, we rarely eat processed foods in our house, and we don't really eat fast food (though the occasional Chipotle stop does happen, I have trouble calling Chipotle fast food). The dietician said we should be fine, then. Still, I'm having a hard time adjusting his meals to keep it below 1500mg/day because he is on a strong dose of steroids to send this (Nephrotic Syndrome) into remission and get everything functioning well on its own. This means he wants to eat. ALL. DAY. LONG.

Thank you all for your kind words while he was in the hospital, and for understanding in the lull in blogging. I hope you will continue to follow us on our clean eating journey (now gone low-sodium!), and I welcome any tips you have, including brand suggestions for foods!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Crock Pot Lamb Roast & Sauce (original recipe)

The other day I saw a whole lamb roast marked down for quick sale (due to date) at the local grocery. We had them cut it and wrap it into 3 separate roasts for us, each weighing a bit over 2.5 lbs. The mark down price brought it out to be roughly $3.25/lb, and that's not bad at all! Of course, we can't eat that much considering we are a family of 4, and only two of us eat any decent-sized serving, so we froze two and made one that night.

We paired the lamb with this delicious veggie pilaf, and it was a great combo! The kids both ate well, and Bobble even begged for more lamb and dressing.

Sadly, I didn't think to take a picture when it was in the crock pot, or even on a full plate of food. I grabbed a dish after the meal was over, set it up for a picture, and then put it away. We were stuffed!

CROCK POT LAMB ROAST

• 1 lamb roast
• 1 onion (chopped)

Sauce (all ingredients are to taste, not measured):

• Juice from lamb*
• Red wine vinegar
• Heavy Cream
• Lemon
• Parsley
• Sage
• rosemary
• thyme
• Salt
• onions from roast

*Leave enough juice to use with pilaf if desired

Instructions:

Spread onions across bottom of crock pot.
Brown lamb roast on stove and then place on top of onions.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

When roast is done, remove from crock pot and set aside.
Take onions from crock pot, some juice, and other ingredients listed for the sauce, and put together in a bowl. None of it was measured, but there was roughly 2T of cream and approximately 2t of lemon. Just add to taste.
Blend with immersion blender.

Slice lamb and serve with sauce.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not reimbursed for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Baked Veggie and Grains Pilaf

This is a nutritious side dish that will go with any meat. We paired it with a yummy lamb roast, but it would be delicious accompanying anything. You can also add different veggies into the mixture like eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and more.

 

Rice and Veggie Pilaf
Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon Butter (or oil)
1 Onion, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped (or 4 smaller ribs)
1 chopped bell pepper (red, yellow, or orange)
1 ear of corn (cut kernels off)
4 small to medium sized carrots (chopped)
1 medium zucchini (chopped)
3/4 cup millet
3/4 cup quinoa
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups stock of choice (use veggie stock to make vegetarian)

** Use oil instead of butter and veggie stock to make the dish vegan

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Heat butter or oil in a skillet over medium heat; cook and stir vegetables in the hot oil until softened, about 10 minutes.
3. Mix veggie mixture, millet, quinoa, stock, and salt together and put into an 8x8-inch casserole dish; pour in stock. Cover dish with aluminum foil.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until grains are tender and have absorbed all the liquid, about 30 minutes.

We made this to accompany a lamb roast, so we did the stock part a bit differently. We had 2c of chicken stock that needed to be used, so we used those 2 cups, 1/2c of the juice from the lamb roast, and then pulled a 1/2c of frozen chicken stock from our freezer.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not reimbursed for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Recipe was an adaptation of this recipe. Post contains affiliate links.

MOMables Ingredient Substitution List

MOMables has numerous recipes for all sorts of dietary preferences and restrictions. My family has been trying out a lot of the gluten free recipes, but we don't have any sort of restrictions in our diet. If we did, it is nice to know MOMables has resources like their Ingredient Substitution List available.

Even if you don't have any food allergies to worry about, this list is super helpful. Surely you've encountered the problem of not having enough (or any) of an ingredient for something you wanted to (or already started to) make.

Did you know that it's not always a cup for cup substitution when using wheat-alternative flours? We didn't... until we tried making something and used a full cup of coconut flour in place of all-purpose flour. WOW was that dry!

MOMables has 12 options for an egg substitute. TWELVE!

I highly recommend checking out this list, and bookmarking or pinning it while you're at it! It's a great thing to have on hand!

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was provided with a trial to MOMables in exchange for a review. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

MOMables Chicken, Bacon, Slaw salad (GF)

After making a delicious whole roasted chicken to accompany my MOMables Zucchini Au Gratin, I had a good deal of chicken left over. Probably about half of the chicken, actually. I found another recipe that called for leftover chicken and it sounded great, so I went for it.

Chicken, Bacon, Slaw Salad! It looked great, but I knew the kids wouldn't eat a salad. Not that they wouldn't like the ingredients, more like it would turn into confetti. I decided to make it into wraps (gluten-free wraps, at that!) and see how it worked.

We threw the stuff together for the chicken salad, left the bacon in strips, and assembled the wraps. I sliced sections of one of them (already held together with toothpicks) for the kiddos. I removed Squiggle's toothpick before serving it to her, though.

Another MOMables win!

This was not a free recipe, but you can find many good recipes on the MOMables pinterest page.

Bobble and Squiggle ate all the chicken, bacon, and some of the wrap. The slaw, as predicted, was tossed around more than consumed.

Hubby and I both enjoyed our wraps, and we definitely plan to make it again! We added a bit of shredded cheddar to the wraps. Avocado would have been great, too.

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial to MOMables in exchange for reviews. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.