Sausage, kale, & spinach pasta

-->

So this is absolutely fantastic!!! I found a recipe on Pinterest, and tweaked it to meet my taste buds (and you know you're jealous of my fine china, hehe!)! 

21 day fix approved! 1 yellow, 1 green, 1/2 red, 1/3 blue

 

Ingredients:

• 1 box whole wheat or whole grain pasta. I prefer whole grain ziti
• 1 pound lean turkey, chicken, or "clean" pork sausage (we butcher our own, so I used our pork sausage)
• ½ green container sundried tomatoes. You can find them in the produce section that are in a bag. Don't get the kind in a jar that's filled with olive oil.
• 1½ green containers kale
• 1½ green container spinach leaves
• ½ cup shredded italian blend cheese. You can either use the already shredded kind or grate your own.
• 1 tbsp whole wheat flour
• ⅓ cup organic milk 

Directions

1.     Boil your pasta according to package directions. Before draining, reserve 1 cup of the water for the sauce for later on. This is really important!

2.     In a separate skillet, sauté the tomatoes, kale, & spinach in about a tablespoon of olive oil, just until tender. Remove from skillet.

3.     Cook sausage in large skillet. Once browned, remove the sausage from skillet. I normally take a plate & cover it with about 4-6 paper towels, then dump the sausage on the paper towels. This soaks up the excess grease.

4.     Add a tablespoon or less of olive oil or EVOO to the pan the sausage was just in (if necessary), and add the flour, stirring constantly to form a roux.

5.     Stir in the milk, leftover starchy “pasta” water, and cheese. Stir until thickened slightly.

6.     Add the vegetables, sausage, and noodles, and stir to ensure everything is coated evenly.

7.     Use your green container to portion out one serving.

Whole wheat pita pizza

Whole Wheat Pita Pizza

Love eating clean, but miss your pizza nights? Now you can have the best of both worlds! This is a very easy recipe, and when made with high quality ingredients, can put a healthy spin on an old favorite. Look for products with as few ingredients as possible. If you're in the Pennsylvania area, try the whole wheat pita pockets and organic pizza sauce from Giant...super delicious! I can only find the Cacique cheese in my small town at Walmart, but it's the best brand for my taste buds.


Ingredients:
Whole wheat pitas with a pocket
Organic pizza sauce
Mozzarella cheese (avoid the already shredded kind if at all possible. There are unnecessary additives that keep the cheese shreds from sticking to one another).
Assorted toppings (veggies, etc.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Using a grater, grate desired amount of mozzarella cheese. Place pita on a baking sheet (the stone bakeware works best for me!).

Spoon out desired amount of pizza sauce and spread out, stopping approximately 1/4" to 1/2" from the edge of the pita. Add cheese on top, spreading out to just beyond the cheese to 'seal' it in.

Top with whatever veggies you'd like to add, then bake in oven for approximately 10-15 minutes, or until cheese melts to a nice bubbly-just starting to brown. Remove from oven carefully, and let cool for a minute or so, then cut and enjoy!!! The cheese may melt a little off center, but that certainly doesn't affect its taste, haha!

Pumpkin whole wheat pancakes

Pumpkin whole wheat pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground cloves

2 eggs

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

3 Tbsp applesauce or oil

1 Tbsp honey

¾ cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!)

Preheat your skillet or griddle to 350. In a larger bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients and stir together. Then add all of your wet ingredients, stirring again. Depending on how thick you like your pancakes, you may want to add more or less milk (I always add more!).

Pour desired amount of batter onto griddle, but wait to flip until there are small bubbles that form on the top. This is a thick pancake batter and it takes longer to cook through than regular pancakes due to the whole wheat and the pumpkin. Don’t flip too early! When the original top gets nice & bubbly (you can peek at the bottom to make sure it’s nice & cooked too as an indicator of when to flip), flip and cook until the bottom is nice and light brown.

Remove from griddle, and enjoy these awesome pancakes with some pure maple syrup, pumpkin butter, or apple butter!