Lady Bird Cafe

We had a WONDERFUL Easter this year…close to being on the top of my best Easter celebrations list. We started off the morning, by of course, opening Easter baskets…some of the greatest joys of parenthood is seeing those perfect little faces light up over the littlest thingsWe then decked ourselves out in brand new attire and made our way down to church. What a service! So powerful, so moving, and so emotional. Thank you Lord!

We then headed home, made some lunch, and decorated Easter eggs. Yep, nothing like last minute, huh? And finally, we wrapped up our evening with a potluck dinner with some really great friends. Delicious food, hilarious egg hunts, face painting, and really cool jelly bean bracelets!

But I have a little secret…in my household, no Easter is complete without chocolate. But, there was no room for Hershey bars in our most healthy and wholesome Easter baskets this year (Ok fine, they weren’t completely healthy, each of the kids got about 5 tootsie rolls!)

So, these were last year’s chocolates:

Very cute & super yummy…but not as “healthy” as these 100% homemade peanut butter cups:

I got the original recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie (btw, LOVE this blog)

Although my first attempt was very good, it didn’t completely suit my taste buds. I made the first batch with solid chocolate into some egg shapes using a deviled egg tray. They were huge and way too chocolately…is that even possible? Yes, it is…especially when you use straight cocoa powder to make it. One bite of those eggs and you were in a chocolate induced hangover

So then I made the same chocolate eggs with HALF the cocoa, and waa-lah…a small piece of perfection. The chocolate wasn’t as thick, it was actually pretty runny, but it worked out great for the PB cups.

Here’s what I did based on the recipe from from Chocolate Covered Katie:

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

4 tbsp. coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup agave 

Combine coconut oil and agave, mix well. Add in cocoa powder and stir until you have a nice chocolate sauce. You can pour into a mold as is, or make some fancy PB cups!

To make the cups, I poured a teeny tiny amount of chocolate at the bottom of the mold. I then let it set in the freezer for about 5 minutes. I then mixed about 1 cup of natural peanut butter with 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. Did you know you can buy sugar free powdered sugar?? I didn’t use it, but it is possible! Anyway, mix them both up. It will be a sticky, gooey mess but so worth it for a creamy center. I put the PB mixture in the fridge to harden up a bit. I then rolled tiny balls of PB and pressed them into the mold on top of the chocolate. Then poured a little bit more chocolate to fill the mold to the top. Back in the freezer and moments later, I can guarantee you they will be gone!

Creamy dark chocolate, creamy peanut butter center…

Please try, you WILL NOT be disappointed!

My family is quickly approaching the 2 month anniversary of clean eating! Woo hoo! It’s getting easier, I’m hoping meal planning will be second nature pretty soon. I’m learning that we aren’t necessarily eating “different” than everyone else, we are just adjusting ingredients here and there to eat more natural foods. I’ve been experimenting in the kitchen more, which is always fun…except when you ruin an entire dish! It’s happened more than once
A few people have asked me what I make for dinner, so I have decided to post my dinner menu from last week. Some have pictures, others don’t, but all have a link to the recipe I used, because I’m not that creative on my own

Monday:

Paleo Pizza- THIS WAS GOOD! Try it, whether you eat clean or not!

Recipe from Deliciously Organic. I used a can of diced tomatoes rather than crushed because we like our tomatoes chunkyI also had a little trouble with the crust, it was a little mushy in the middle, I think it’s because the seeds and the bell pepper had too much moisture. The recipe recommends using dehydrated seeds (I didn’t) and also suggests dehydrating the entire crust over night, which I didn’t do either. Next time, right? Because I will definitely be making this again!

Tuesday:

Roasted Whole Chicken & Roasted Zucchini Boats

               

The chicken recipe comes from The Gracious Pantry, my go-to website for all of this clean eating stuffThe chicken came out moist and full of flavor, yay!

And this zucchini, YYYYUUUMMMM! I love zucchini anyways, but this one tops it all! Just let me warn you…you don’t need all the olive oil stated in the recipe, it was too much! I originally snagged this recipe from Pinterest, here’s the link to the actual recipe; Zucchini Boats

Wednesday:

Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken

No picture for this one…you know why

This was another great dish that I will surely be making again!

This one comes from Skinny Taste, another one of my favorite websites. We didn’t eat it over white rice, because, well…”clean eaters” don’t do that. Haha, I spooned some of the mixture into my Trader Joes “natural” tortillas for my husband and the kids. And for me, I just ate it like soup. Delicious!

Thursday:

Chicken & Broccoli Noodle Casserole

Another good one from Skinny Taste!

This was our carb meal for the week. Of course, I had to use organic whole wheat noodles and I omitted the bread crumbs as well, and it was very satisfying!

 

Friday:

Tuna Salad

No recipe here, you all know how to make tuna salad…right? Use clean, organic mayo, a little mustard, some onion, some tomato, a little lettuce, a side of baby carrots, and waa-laa…a perfectly healthy, EASY Friday night meal!

Saturday:

Barbecued Chicken & Steamed Broccoli

Another quick and easy meal- a bottle of TJ’s natural barbeque sauce smothered on top of chicken breasts and grilled to perfection by none other than the grill master, my husband. Perfect chicken, every time. Steam the  broccoli and serve.

Sunday:  

We have bible study on Sunday evenings where we have a potluck dinner each week. I brought the veggies, a yummy broccoli salad. We’ve had plenty of broccoli this week, I received quite a bit from my basket co-op earlier in the week. This is actually a Paula Deen Recipe that I transformed into HEALTHY! Her son would be proud!

So what did I do? No bacon, sorry…it’s not lean protein. No raisins, just because I don’t like them and they really don’t have a lot of nutritional value. 1 cup of mayo, really? How about 1/4 cup of clean mayo…much better. No sugar. And, I added 2 Tbsp. of red wine vinegar, love the taste of that stuff! The only thing I would do differently is make a tad more dressing. I pretty much doubled the veggies, but didn’t add enough dressing, according to hubby. So, I must take his advice!

I hope you try a few new recipes, we sure enjoyed them!