Enjoy this simple citrus salad when you want something fresh and light and a little sweet tart.

The weather was beautiful the other day (sadly, it's cold again ) and it left me wanting to make something really fresh for dinner.  I was completely uninspired other than I knew we would have BLT sandwiches for dinner.  But I had no idea what to serve with them.

I walked aimlessly around the grocery store with my 4 year old and nothing inspired me.  Then we made a third trip back to the  produce section, when I thought of citrus salad. 

My husband's family makes a citrus salad every year on Christmas morning and it is my favorite part of Christmas brunch.  

Our whole family loves this simple and delicious salad.  When we had eaten all of it at dinner the other night, my oldest wanted more so he made his own fruit salad.  

​Use as many grapefruit, oranges, and bananas as you like to get your favorite blend of flavors.  For this salad I used 2  grapefruit, 2 oranges, and 2 bananas.

Ingredients:
2  grapefruits
2 oranges
2 bananas
1/2 of a 6 oz. jar of maraschino cherries including the syrup

1.  Cut grapefruit and oranges in half crosswise, then flip the halves inside out and pull out the cut segments.

2.  Slice bananas and toss fruit in a bowl.  Keep as much citrus juice as possible in the fruit salad for flavor.  

3.  Add maraschino cherries and cherry syrup and toss, checking the flavor.  If you want it sweeter add more cherry syrup.  

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Enjoy this delicious raspberry chia seed energy packed smoothie for a mid morning pick me up or an energy boost anytime of day.  

I don't know if it is the grey clouds and rainy weather that we have been experiencing for what seems like weeks and weeks or what, but when my four year old asked for a snack this morning, smoothies came to mind.  I felt like we needed a pick me up.  I raided the fridge, freezer, and pantry to see what I could come up with and made these delicious raspberry chia smoothies.  

I had a couple of peaches in the fridge that needed to be used up, so I started with two peaches (frozen would work well too).  Then added about a cup of frozen raspberries and about 1/3 of a 20 oz. can of pineapple tidbits and some juice from the can.  I then remembered I had chia seeds in the pantry and added about a T. for the added nutrition benefits.  
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If you don't know much about chia seeds and the powerhouse of nutrition that they contain, you should read up on it.  It is amazing how beneficial these tiny seeds are to our health.

Raspberry Chia Morning Energy Smoothie

2 peaches (fresh or frozen)
1 C. frozen raspberries
1/3 of a 20 oz. can pineapple tidbits with juice (or just use a smaller can)
1 T. chia seeds 

Blend everything in a blender until smooth.  I did not soak the chia seeds first, but you can to let them absorb more water if you like.  There are ratios for soaking chia seeds in the link above.  

​These amounts will make one large or two small smoothies.  

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Enjoy this simple and delicious side dish of coconut oil roasted sweet potatoes.

This is one of the simplest potato dishes you can make (with just three ingredients) and healthiest with two of those ingredients being sweet potatoes and coconut oil.  Of course you can use olive oil or another favorite oil, but I love the flavor of coconut oil with sweet potatoes.  They are rich and salty sweet with fresh ground coarse salt.  I'm kind of a salt addict, but try it with a specialty salt like fresh ground pink himalayan and you'll see what I mean.  Pure salty sweet deliciousness.  

I will admit my kids eat pretty much everything we eat so they aren't the world's pickiest diners, but they do love sweet potatoes and they always clean there plates when we have roasted sweet potatoes.  So I would call this a kid friendly, healthy dish that can be prepared quickly.  

Ingredients:

4 to 5 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 to 3 spoonfuls of coconut oil
Fresh ground coarse salt to taste

Put all ingredients into a baking pan.  I use a 9 X 13 pan.  
Bake at 425 degrees F for about 30 minutes.  You can stir about halfway through cooking to mix things up a bit.  

I salt before cooking, and usually add a little more later.  Salt as much or as little as you like.

Enjoy!

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Your family will love this simple slow cooker chicken and stuffing with sweet potatoes.  

​I know I have been posting a LOT of slow cooker recipes lately, but that's because I have been using my slow cooker a LOOOOOOT.  I am taking a class which meets in the evening and came up with this recipe one day when I wanted to have dinner ready for the family while I was away at class.  

​So the verdict is...slow cooker chicken and stuffing with sweet potatoes is AMAZING!!!!  The chicken stays moist with the homemade gravy, sweet potatoes, and stuffing.  This is probably my absolute favorite slow cooker recipe.  The flavors come together in a mouthwatering meld of deliciousness all from the simplicity of your slow cooker.  And the aroma!  Your family will beg for dinnertime once they catch a whiff of this.  

Serve with green beans for some color and a balanced home cooked meal.  

Ingredients:
3 to 4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (partially frozen works too)
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
1 1/4 cup chicken broth
Herb seasoning
4 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 of a 14 oz. bag of Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix
1 cup water and 1/4 cup cooking sherry or 1 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter, melted

​1.  Place chicken in a large slow cooker.  

2.  To make the gravy (sauce), melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a skillet over medium heat.  Add 2 Tbsp. flour, mix in.  Then stir in 1 1/4 cups chicken broth.  Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.  (pictured below)

3.  Pour the sauce over the chicken.  Then sprinkle generously with herb seasoning.  (I use a nice herb salt seasoning from my in-laws.)  

4.  Top with cubed sweet potatoes.  Then mix stuffing mix with water, cooking sherry, and 1/4 cup melted butter.  Spoon the stuffing over the sweet potatoes.  

​5.  Cover and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours or until potatoes are tender and chicken is cooked through.

Will generously serve 6 or more.  We always  have some leftover for lunch the next day, which makes the best leftover lunch.  I break up the chicken breasts when serving since they are usually so big anyway and none of us would finish a whole chicken breast on our own.  If you need more for your family, just put more chicken breasts in.  

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Since this Dr. Seuss birthday celebration costume post has been getting pinned on Pinterest like crazy for the past couple of weeks, I thought I would update it with a few more details.  This post is from 4 years ago.  Hard to believe my little GACK is now 8 years old and we still have this costume in the dress-up bin, although the antlers don't look like this anymore.

My son's preschool celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday today by dressing up as their favorite characters.  He was so excited.  He decided he wanted to be a Gack from "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish".  We went to the store and he helped pick out the supplies.  My very creative husband managed to create the headpiece out of sturdy floral wire and wrapped it with extra fabric.  He used red duct tape on the ends to secure the fabric to the wire.  The fabric is a short fur type of fabric that I found at Jo Ann's.  The rings on the antler headpiece are cut from thin sheets of colored foam pages that kids use for crafting.  The GACK shirt is really simple to make.  I just stitched up the sides and cut out a neck hole.  Then I cut red felt letters out and sewed them on by hand.