rice krispy treats

an easy dessert. all you have to substitute is canola oil or earth balance spread for butter.
and sometimes we add some creamy sunflower seed butter to the rice krispies and melt some enjoy life chocolate chips to spread on top.

chili

The dinner I had most evenings this winter was chili. It was easy and fast enough to put together that I could actually make it (and a huge pot so i didn't have to do more than pull some out of the fridge to heat up for awhile), and everyone in my family likes it.
1 or 2 pounds ground beef (depending on how much you want to make and how meaty you want it. grassfed beef is best, if you have it. i usually make mine more beany than meaty because the meat is the most expensive part of this dish.)
cans of diced tomatoes (walmart brand doesn't have the icky white bpa lining in the can. frozen chopped garden tomatoes work perfectly too)
all different kinds of dried beans that have been soaked and cooked (if you want cheaper and healthier) or cans of various types of beans (if you want faster)
organic or garden sweet peppers (because we love veggies, flavor, and color)
frozen or canned sweet corn if you want. also quinoa if you want.
garlic, onion, cumin, chili powder, and costco organic no salt seasoning
fritos (my husband will not eat chili without Fritos)

brown meat in a big pot. add seasoning while it's cooking. i like the costco seasoning, cumin, some chili powder, a whole chopped sweet onion, and a couple crushed cloves of garlic. sometimes a little salsa is great while it's cooking too.
add chopped sweet peppers if you have them.
dump in tomatoes. add tomato paste if you want it more tomatoey.
dump in beans. drain them first.
simmer until you're ready to eat.
eat it up!

cadbury eggs

Although i'm just thankful to celebrate Eeaster with Jesus, some Easter treats are pretty yummy, too. Here's the recipe I kind of used to make Cadbury eggs: http://www.food.com/recipe/cadbury-cream-eggs-20733.

The changes I made, though, are using turmeric for yellow coloring, rather than food dye. It doesn't take much, but the older the turmeric is, the less flavor it'll have. I used Enjoy Life chocolate chips since they're milk and soy free. Oh, and I used dairy and soy free Earth Balance rather than butter, and you could use Earth Balance or coconut or palm oil instead of soy shortening. The most challenging part of the process is shaping the eggs. Mine turned out more like fried eggs. Here's what I'll try next time. I'll refrigerate the frosting like the recipe says. I'll also freeze the pan I'm going to put the eggs on. It works best to wash hands between eggs since the eggs stick to me and won't roll well if I have frosting on my hands. Laying parchment paper on the pan would make them easier to peel off. Then freeze the eggs instead of refrigerating them before dipping them in chocolate.

meatloaf

Evalana's current favorite meal is meatloaf. It's healthy and we all like it, so we've been eating a lot of it. Here's how we do it:

2 lbs. grassfed beef
any veggies you have on hand and want to eat. food processor them as small as they go. we usually use spinach, sweet peppers, mushrooms, sweet onion, garlic, and carrots. it's really more of a vegetable loaf with meat, the way we do it.
add whatever you want for flavor. i use a bunch of costco's organic no salt seasoning and a little barbeque sauce.
to hold it together, i add about a 1/2 cup oat flour (oats ground up in food processor). Sometimes I throw in a handful of quinoa just for extra quinoa-ness.
mix everything.
put in 9x13 pan, stick in beef thermometer if you have one.
bake at 375 for about an hour.
mix together tomato paste and barbecue sauce. add a little brown sugar if you want. or just use ketchup if you'd rather.
spread the tomato sauce on the top for the last 10 minutes of baking.
we usually have brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes on the side.

chicken

a very simple dinner we have a lot is roasted chicken.

wash organic carrots and lay them across 9x13 pan. the carrots are my favorite, so i probably use about 12.
wash organic potatoes, cut them into quarters (or more, if they'tr bigger), sprinkle over carrots.
wash and halve or quarter mushrooms. add to pan.
cut half of yellow onion into chunks, sprinkle over potatoes.
zucchini and yellow summer squash are good too if you have them.
sprinkle costco's organic no salt seasoning.
put organic chicken on top. add poultry thermometer to thigh if you have one.
bake 375 for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.