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- 3 Ambrosia apples, peeled, seeded, and chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 4 Tablespoons salted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla powder
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup crushed pecans
- 4 cups oatmeal
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 cups milk (or milk substitute)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 3/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 3/4 cup honey (or coconut sugar)
- 3 eggs, beaten ( or 3 flax egg substitutes)
- 1/2 Ambrosia apple, sliced thinly
- 1/4 cup pecans, crushed
- 24-ounces Giant chicken breast
- 1 bottle Giant Own Brand
- 6 Giant Own Brand hoagie rolls
- 4 Roma tomatoes, sliced
- 3/4 -1 cup kalamata olives, slices
- 1 cup Giant Own brand feta cheese, crumbled
- 8-ounce prepared hummus
- shredded lettuce
- 1 1/2 pounds chicken breast
- 1 sesame oil
- 2 pounds frozen Asian-style veggie (Giant Own brand)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 Tablespoons arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 Tablespoon oyster sauce
- 4-5 small portabella mushroom caps
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large red onion, sliced
- 1/2 taco seasoning packet
- 10 Charras tostadas (crispy tortillas)
- 1 – 16-ounce vegetarian refried beans
- 1 cup Giant Own Brand shredded cheese
- 1 cup Giant Own Brand medium salsa
- 3/4 cup Giant Own Brand sour cream
- shredded lettuce
- 1/2 pound spicy sausage (Giant Own brand)
- 1 pound flounder (Giant Own Brand)
- 1 large yellow onion
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
- 1/2 cup green olives, sliced (Giant Own Brand)
- 1/2 pound frozen zucchini, (Giant Own Brand)
- 2 cups chicken broth (Giant Own brand)
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasonings
- 1 pound Giant Own Brand penne pasta
- 1 pound Giant Own Brand sausage
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 large yellow onion
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 bottles Giant Own Brand bottled spaghetti sauce
- 1 cup Giant Own Brand shredded parmesan
- 4 cups Giant Own Brand Italian cheese mix (divided)
Loaded Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal + Giveaway #iloveambrosia
December 3rd, 2014This is a sponsored post with Role Mommy and Ambrosia™. All opinions and recipes are my own.
Our little family can always enjoy a nice snack in the form of an apple. I peel and slice them thinly and it is an instant hit with my toddlers. Sometimes apples are just plainly the best dessert to have when craving something sweet especially if they are as sweet as Ambrosia™ apples. A beautiful red glistening shine to the apple beckons to be devoured without any additional condiments, toppings or dips. It is easily tempts with its firm and juicy flesh. Yes. I am talking about an apple.
Since moving to the Midwest and now the East Coast, I have enjoyed going to orchards and discovering the varieties of apples available to my family. God’s creation is definitely evident in the variety and it excites me to know there is always something new to try in the orchard. One of the apples I recently had the pleasure to taste and experience were Ambrosia™ apples.
Unlike most other modern varieties of apples, which were purposely cultivated by crossing two or more other varieties, Ambrosia™ , also known “Food of the gods, ” originated the old-fashioned natural way as a chance seedling in an orchard in Canada. They are grown in the Wenatchee Valley in Washington State by an agriculture family, McDougall and Sons, whose roots go back five generations on the land. These beauties are picked with high quality assurance, based on starch levels, not color, to insure premium quality. Like all U.S. grown apples, Ambrosia™ are non-GMO and are both organic and conventionally grown and available at the marketplace.
When I was trying to come up with a recipe for these beautiful apples, it was hard because all I wanted to do was just devour each whole apple in its raw form. Since I found out that these apples are naturally sweet and require less sugar when cooking or adding to recipes, I knew I had to make a recipe to eat in the mornings. These apples retain their shape when cooked so I knew I could add as many apples without them becoming too mushy.
Baked oatmeal is a recipe that has been pretty popular in my husband’s life growing up. I have just eaten oatmeal straight out of a pot, but when I had my first serving of blueberry baked oatmeal drizzled with cream, I was convinced it was the new way of eating oatmeal. Since my girls like this morning cereal quite often I created a recipe that contains fruit, oatmeal, and protein to make my recipe a complete meal for breakfast. I layered the bottom of a dish with diced apples, cinnamon, a little sugar, butter and covered with an oatmeal mixture and topped with thinly sliced apples for decoration.
Results: A crunchy topped baked apple oatmeal with a cinnamon burst of flavor. My family enjoyed this recipe immensely and thanked me for making it for them. There is nothing like hearing your family enjoying a recipe. This recipe would be perfect for Christmas morning or during this season when you have family visiting. Enjoy!
Loaded Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes
Keywords: bake breakfast brunch vegetarian recipes on recipage vegetarian apples oats fall in-season spring winter
Ingredients (8-10 servings)
Bottom Apple Layer
Oatmeal Topping
Garnish
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Bottom Apple Layer
Place chopped apples and pecans in a large bowl and toss with melted butter. Add the cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar and mix well. Pour apple mixture into a greased 9×13 glass pan.
Oatmeal Layer
In a small bowl, mix the oatmeal, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together and set aside. In another bowl, beat the eggs and add the milk, coconut oil, and honey and mix well until combine. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix.
Pour oatmeal mixture over the apple layer and spread evenly over the apples.
Using a microplane, slice an apple into 6-8 thin slices and place on top of the oatmeal layer. add the pecans over the casserole. Bake for an hour.
Remove from oven and serve with half and half and drizzle with a bit of caramel.
Ambrosia™ apples can be found in most major supermarkets nationwide, as well as many independent stores. Most major supermarket chains carry Ambrosia™ from November through March. During the spring and summer months Ambrosia™ are often imported into the United States from Chile and New Zealand. Don’t see Ambrosia™ in your local supermarket? Ask the produce manager to stock it!
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The Gospel of John and Lumo Project #JohnOnNetflix
December 2nd, 2014
Thanksgiving has come and gone and the festivities of the season continue to approach. As we live in a society that prods us to speed every season before one has been celebrated, the urgency to live life calmly and to the fullest is one of my goals for my family. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays because it brings everyone together to celebrate the birth of Christ. It is an opportunity to sit back and leave the marketing and commercialism behind and to savor and understand this season in life.
Growing up, right before Christmas, we would watch videos and stories talking about the birth of Jesus in the manger. Not only were there songs to sing, but there were short films to depict the Biblical story of Jesus’ birth. As I think about how I want my children to grow up in this society, my husband and I make sure we talk to our girls about Jesus at all times. How about our friends and family?
Lumo Project, an educational resource to help promote biblical literacy, has been working on a project for five years that was just released December 1st on Netflix. For anyone interested in the Gospel stories, the Gospel of John is the first of the four Gospels released during this month, with Matthew, Mark, and Luke following in the near future. The Gospel of John takes the story of Jesus from John’s gospel with its own unique characteristics. For John, Jesus is the Word of God made human. John is clear that that when encounter Jesus, we encounter God. The gospel writer points to the miracles (the ‘Signs’) and teachings as evidence of Jesus’ special relationship as the divine Son of God.
This full-length feature film about the life of Jesus takes the actual Gospel text as its script, word for word, unedited. Five years in the making, this epic production has been critically acclaimed by leading religious scholars as a unique and highly authentic telling of the Jesus story. Narrated by leading British actor David Harewood (‘Homeland’, ‘Blood Diamond’, ‘Merchant of Venice’) it is based on the latest theological, historical and archaeological research. With specially constructed sets and the extraordinarily authentic villages and countryside of rural Morocco, it immerses the viewer in the world of first century Palestine.
I love the fact that this video is available for all to see and that it will be available in many languages for all people to watch and hear stories from Jesus’ incredible birth, his ministry on earth up until his painful death on the cross and then his amazing resurrection. What will you differently this season? Why not watch and listen to this Gospel in available in either the New King James version or New International Version of the Bible. As I watched the video, I was truly transported to the time when Jesus lived. The characters were well-portrayed and the soundtrack is truly powerful alongside the reading of Scripture.
Watch portions of it with your family and talk follow with the Bible and talk about how it made an impact on you. I am thankful for resources like Lumo Project for making the video available to watch on Netflix. Look for The Gospel of John and choose your version. Narrations in French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Finish, Danish, Norwegian, Brazilian and Portuguese will be released over the coming months.
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Five Quick Dinners for the Holidays
December 1st, 2014This is a sponsored post with Giant / Martin’s stores. All recipes were created in my kitchen.
Thank you for being patient after being absent over the holidays. We had a lovely time with our family and resting at home and hardly cooking and baking until yesterday. How great is that? Sometimes even cooks want a break in the kitchen. With the holidays in full swing and family coming in for a visit, who wants to spend a huge amount of time in the kitchen? I rather have everything planned and be sitting and spending time with out of town guests or even with my immediate family.
When it comes down to it, when I plan my meals for the week, I look back at popular main meals my family enjoyed and then add 1-2 nutritious sides to accompany the meals. When I created five quick dinners, I made sure I stayed within my budget. If you have been following my posts, Giant / Martin’s stores has been running Buy Theirs, Get Ours Free Challenge where the store’s own brand is compared with the brand name product. When I came to test the products, I thought the challenge was pretty great but the products met my expectations.
As I shopped for my ingredients I found it easy to primarily use to Giant’s Own Brand for my meals planned. It felt good leaving the store knowing I stayed within budget and knowing that I would have leftovers for lunches or even enough to freeze for another dinner. I made sure I focused on meals that would be family-friendly, tasty, and different than most menu plans. There was even a vegetarian meal for a night where we skipped the meat. Be sure to know that there is at least one meal that will become your family’s favorite in this mix. Make sure you pin my recipes to save for later. All the recipes are below.
Greek Chicken Hoagies
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 8 hours crock pot
Keywords: slow-cooker lunch entree sandwich Greek
Ingredients (6 servings)
Crock pot Greek Chicken
Hoagie toppings
Instructions
Crock pot Chicken
Place chicken breast in an 8 quart crock pot. Pour Greek dressing over chicken and place heat on low and cook overnight.
In the morning, shred chicken in sauce and remove from sauce.
Assembly
Spread 2 Tablespoons of hummus on one side of hoagie then add about 4-ounces of chicken in each hoagie. Place 3-4 slices of Roma tomatoes inside the hoagie. Add 2 Tablespoons of feta cheese and kalamata olives and top with some shredded lettuce.
Accompany with a cucumber salad.
Quick Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Keywords: cook saute entree lunch chicken Asian
Ingredients (6-8 servings)
Brown rice
Instructions
Heat the sesame oil in a wok or large non-stick pan. Slice chicken and cube in -inch cubes. Toss in salt and pepper and cook chicken for 10 minutes. Set aside in a bowl. Add the frozen vegetables to the pan and cook until thawed. Remove liquid from pan.
Mix the soy sauce, oyster sauce, arrowroot powder, ginger powder, garlic to create a sauce.
Add the cooked chicken to the vegetables and mix well. Add the sauce mixture to the chicken and vegetables and bring to a boil for 10 minutes until the sauce thickens.
Vegetarian Mushroom Tostadas
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Keywords: saute vegetarian vegetarian recipes on recipage beans mushrooms
Ingredients (10 tostadas)
For the Mushrooms
For Assembly
Instructions
Mushrooms
Heat a large non-stick skillet with olive oil. Slice the portabella mushrooms, lengthwise about 1/2 inch. Saute’ the onions and mushrooms for 10 minutes. Once the moisture starts expelling from mushrooms, add 1/2 taco seasoning and cook for another 10 minutes until the liquid is mostly evaporated.
Assembly
Heat the refried beans in a microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Spread 1-2 Tablespoons of beans evenly on each tostada. Sprinkle with 1-2 Tablespoons cheese. Add about 4-6 slices ( 1/4 cup) on top of the cheese. Continue by adding some salsa and sour cream and shredded lettuce. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas.
Spicy Sausage and Fish Stew
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Keywords: bake cook saute entree soup/stew sausage fish
Ingredients (serves 4 people)
Instructions
In a large and deep sauce pan, remove sausage from casing and heat over medium heat with 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Cook for 5 minutes and add the onions and minced garlic and saute’ another 5 minutes. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, green olives, zucchini, broth and spices and simmer for another 10 minutes. Meanwhile season fish fillets with salt and pepper. Place fillets over sausage stew and cover pot. Cook for 10-15 minutes. Serve 1 fillet with stew over a cup of low-carb pasta.
Cheesy Sausage Pasta Bake
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Keywords: bake cook entree turkey sausage pasta
Ingredients (8 servings)
Instructions
Remove sausage from casing. Cook sausage in a large non-stick skillet and cook for 15 minutes. Set aside and heat skillet with olive oil. Add the onions and garlic. Add the ground turkey and cook for 10 minutes. Mix in the sausage and set aside.
Boil pasta according to box directions. Drain water from pasta, and add pasta sauce, 1 cup parmesan cheese,3 cups Italian cheeses, 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning, 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon black pepper. Mix well and add the sausage and turkey into the pasta. Mix again and place in a greased 9 x13 glass pan.
Top with about a cup of the shredded Italian cheese on top of the pasta. Bake on 350 degree Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.
Divide into 8 squares and serve with a green salad.
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Mahler’s 2nd Symphony and The Philadelphia Orchestra {Review}
November 25th, 2014Disclosure: We received tickets to the night’s performance and all opinions are our own.
I am excited everyone because I have convinced my husband, Ryan, to do a guest post! We attended an awesome performance of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony the first of November and needless to say, it was such a spectacular performance. After a hard long work week, having a drink and listening to a piece, dear to my husband, seemed ideal. Every time we take the train into the city, we learn something new: we always need MORE time and at least a snack before we head into the city. As I said, we learn something new all the time.
Thanks Ryan for sharing your love for this performance.
Deep down, I’m a Baroque man at heart. I love the music of Carissimi, Schütz, Charpentier, Buxtehude, Corelli, and of course, J. S. Bach. By all accounts, an early symphonist should be my favorite, too…Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, or Mendelssohn. Or, if a Romantic, a retro-Romantic like Brahms. But no…in reality, my favorite symphonist is a Romantic Romantic—Mahler. My love affair with Mahler began with a formative experience as a child, singing in the Palatine Children’s Chorus north of Chicago, when we joined the Chicago Symphony Children’s Chorus and Symphony to perform Mahler’s 8th Symphony at Ravinia. It was a spectacular musical performance, and to this day I remember entrances from that work. It’s my go-to for self-indulgent over-the-top Romanticism.
As a graduate student, I took a class on Romantic symphonies which spent a significant amount of time discussing Mahler’s works. Here, I fell in love with Mahler’s 3rd Symphony. To this day, my favorite symphony movement of all time is Mvt. 5 from Mahler’s 3rd Symphony. Then there’s Mahler’s 2nd Symphony which I performed as a chorister when I finished my master’s degree at the University of Oklahoma. It was my last concert there, and I have special memories not only of the music (I can still sing much of it by memory) but also of rehearsals and the concert which my dad was able to attend.
But up until a couple of years ago—I was never able to attend a performance of either of these works simply as an audience member. And I promised myself the first time I could attend a live performance of these works by some good performers, I would! The first opportunity came during our last year in Michigan, spring of 2012. The Grand Rapids Symphony and Chorus was performing Mahler’s 8 and I all but begged Noelle to come with me. Friends were willing to watch Julianne for us that night so we could go to the DeVos Hall for the performance. I sat and soaked it all up…one down, two to go.
Late this fall, I found out that the Philadelphia Symphony was performing Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, and despite a busy week, and despite Noelle and I not having had a date night in a while, and despite Noelle probably not envisioning a 2-hour Mahler symphony as the epitome of a great date night—I asked her if we could get a babysitter to attend the performance. She agreed, we took the train in to the city, and made a night of it. And what a performance! It was pre-ceded by an excellent lecture by Dr. Julian Onderdonk, a colleague from West Chester University. The performance itself was grand and passionate. The strings played with pathos, the principal oboist was sublime, and Westminster College Symphony Chorus sang with incredible sensitivity. It was a special night…both musical and because it knocked off another of my “live Mahler performances” from my bucket list. Two down, one to go…Mahler 3, where are you?
Have you been to Verizon Hall before? What is your favorite performance of all time?
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Thanksgiving with Whole Foods Market {Giveaway}
November 18th, 2014
We have a week left and then Thanksgiving will be upon us. As the holidays start rolling by, I continue to miss the opportunity of having family over for dinner, but I think each year it helps us focus even more on what to be thankful for. As everyone is busy putting Christmas decorations, (ALREADY!), we are working daily to keep a balanced schedule for our family. One of the things we decided this year is to keep Thanksgiving simple and to share the joy of the holidays with another family with no relatives in the area. We really look forward to it and what better way to do it than to share a spread?
When I started thinking of cooking and prepping food for this holiday, I was already thinking of choosing a turkey from a local farm. The next thing on my list was just choosing the RIGHT one! With so many choices I was growing a little overwhelmed with my choices and then found out that Whole Foods has a whole list of turkey options that made is a simpler choice. When I chatted with the folks at Whole Foods Devon, I was told that all their turkeys would be coming from Koch Turkey Farm, a local third-generation family farm and that they will be offering a variety of free-range turkeys. How exciting, because, all I was interested in was buying a turkey from a local place anyway!
Another great fact is that their organic turkeys are the cheapest around, coming in at $3.99 / lb. What a steal!
Does everyone know about the different types of turkeys available this season? I for sure had only recently heard of heritage turkeys but it baffled me knowing the options I had available to me. Check out the variety:
Are you convinced yet? Sounds like it is a perfect deal and there is sure to be a turkey for those with specific interests. Go online and order your turkey now and be surprised!
Not sure you are going to do a turkey this year? Well, I am on the fence as well. I might just hold off until family comes into town in December, (SO EXCITED!) and stick to making pies and ordering from Whole Foods. How about entering a nice giveaway?
