I found this recipe on Pinterest from The Pinning Mama...well, actually, I found the picture, and never even looked at how to make it!
    It was honestly so strait forward from their lovely photos that I never bothered to look at the recipe until today, when I wanted to be sure to pass the credit onto who deserves it! 
   So, my method and ingredients vary slightly from the original, but the results are still divine.   
   If you're a strict paleo eater and don't consume any dairy, I would wrap a piece of tin foil over the top of this to bake, then uncover for the last 5-10 minutes to give the peppers a chance to brown up a little. 

Chicken Fajita Bake

Ingredients

• 2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 Tbsp chili seasoning
• Salt & pepper
• 2 Sweet bell peppers, any colour, cut into 1 inch wide strips
• 1 Onion, sliced into 1 inch strips 
• 1 Jalepeno, diced (optional)
• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 Cup grated cheese (a Mexican or taco blend is super, but any grated cheese will do) 

Method:

1. Preheat oven (or BBQ) to 400 Degrees. Lightly grease an 8x8 baking dish and set aside
2. Cut the chicken breasts in half length-wise (so you've got 4 pieces), and place into the baking dish in a single layer
3. Drizzle the olive oil over the chicken
4. Sprinkle the chili seasoning over the chicken breasts, then add some salt & pepper if you wish
5. Top the chicken with the strips of peppers and onions (and jalepeno, if using), making sure you've got them spread out evenly
6. Top with the grated cheese, making sure to get a little cheese on everything
7. Bake for 25-35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the juices run clear
8. Serve with rice, or as we like to do, with tortilla wraps, hard tacos or lettuce wraps  

   This recipe can easily be doubled, and is so simple to make. My kids, who can sometimes be fussy about when meals change ("this is very different from a taco!" my 6 year old announced) all enjoyed this. Hazaa! So, I've made it a bunch of times since then. I've used jalapeño peppers when I had them, diced a tomato onto it when I only had one pepper, more cheese, less cheese, etc. etc. Basically, this recipe is simple, easy to sub ingredients in and out, and also makes great leftovers. I once turned the leftovers into soup! Now that was deee-lish!  :)  

   Well, tonight we have a paid preview for The Drowsy Chaperone, then opening night is Thursday! Yikerdoodles! If you live in the area, come to see it! It's funny, full of big song and dance numbers, and it is a Canadian show to boot (that can sometimes mean it might be terrible, but this gem went to Broadway and won a bunch of Tony awards!).   

   I've got no witty closing remarks....so, goodbye for now!  :)   

   Hello there. How are we today? I'm feeling cold.
   I know it's spring, but seriously, a lot of days you need to be sitting right in the sun to be warm. If you're in the shade, or in the house, you're freezing! So, although hot-chocolate cookies seem like a lovely winter treat, they really hit the spot on any cool day! 
   Made with hot-chocolate mix, chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows, these cookie honest-to-goodness taste like hot chocolate....only cold. They are super-yum. 

Hot Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups mini marshmallows
• 1 Cup butter, room temperature

• 1 Cup white sugar
• 2/3 Cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tsp vanilla
• 3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Cup of hot chocolate mix. If using packs, this is about 4-1 ounce packs. This time I used a combo of hot chocolate packs, and then I topped it off with some homemade hot chocolate mix (equals parts sugar and cocoa)-you can see the multi-coloured, multi-layered hot chocolate mix in the measuring cup pictured below
• 1 Tsp salt
• 1 Tsp baking soda
• 3/4 Tsp baking powder
• 2 Cups chocolate chips

Method:

1. Place mini mallows into the freezer. Yup, do it. :)  If you don't freeze them they just vanish in the cookies. Seriously...they just melt into nothingness.... :( 
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and get some cookie sheets ready (use parchment if your baking sheets aren't the best, the mallows can be pretty sticky once cooked and melty!). Set aside
3. Cream butter using your arm power, an electric mixer, or a stand mixer. Add the sugars and continue to cream together 
4. Beat in eggs then the vanilla until combined
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, hot chocolate mix, salt, baking soda and baking powder
6. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in small amounts until its all been incorporated
7. Fold in the chocolate chips
8. Now fold in your marshmallows from the freezer
9. Using a 2 Tbsp scoop, or just using a regular tablespoon spoon, make balls of dough, and place onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Tried to work quickly(ish) so your mallows stay as frozen as possible
10. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are just set and golden brown. The cookies will still be soft. They will continue to cook as they cool so don't bake them until they look really "done"-you'll ruin them! 
11. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan

   I bought new cookie sheets and they are the BEST! So, I didn't have to use parchment paper. 
   You can see that the cookies are still poofy and soft-looking out of the oven. This is how they should look! They will flatten and cook a little more as they cool. You can also see the many hot chocolate mixes I used for this batch!

   Well, alrighty. 
   I hope everyone has a good weekend, doing what you're doing! Today is a p.a. day for the kids, I have rehearsal tonight, then a full dress rehearsal on Sunday evening. We have a paid preview on Tuesday, then we open on Thursday! Ahhhhhh!!!!! I'm a little nervous/excited. I can't believe the show is opening next week; it feels like we just did auditions a month ago, not 5 months ago! 
   Anywho, happy weekend to all, and to all a goodnight! :)

   I thought today was Monday.....
   Turns out its Tuesday and I'm loosing touch with reality! :)  
   Adam was working all weekend, then yesterday (which was Monday, incidentally) we just got things done around the ol' homestead. 
   So, anywho, today I bring to you a simple recipe for a paleo tortilla. We do a "Taco Tuesday" night every few weeks here, and I am always happy to just pile all my taco toppings onto a mountain of salad. We were low on the leafy stuff though one day, and I thought it might be nice to have an alternative to my usual taco salad and actually have a vessel to carry my taco goodness in.
   I started searching the web for some good recipes, and they all had either cauliflower which I didn't feel like cooking, mashing and draining, or coconut milk, which I was out of, or one million eggs to make up for the crazy amount of coconut flour used (coconut flour is very absorbent!).
   Simple is my main objective in the majority of my recipes, so I just thought, "well, these will only be for me (we had regular, gluten free taco shells for the rest of the family), so I don't need to make a million of them, I'll just aim for 2-3!". And I set off on the task!
   The result was a simple, 3 ingredient tortilla that was bendy, but strong, and was totally satisfying!    

Paleo Tortilla

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 Cup water
• 2 Tbsp coconut flour
• Salt, pepper, or any other seasoning you want!

Method:

1. Whisk up the egg whites, then add the water and continue whisking until well combined
2. If you have something you can shift the coconut flour into the egg white/water mixture, then sift it in. If you don't, then simply place the coconut flour into a separate bowl, and whisk to break up any little lumps, then add it into the egg/water mix
3. Whisk together until smooth and combined
4. Put a large frying pan over medium heat, and put a little grease into the pan to warm (I've used olive oil, coconut oil, and even bacon grease)
5. Once the pan and the oil are warmed, use a 1/4 cup measure to scoop some of the tortilla batter out, and pour it into the pan
6. Pick up the pan and swirl it gently to spread the tortilla out
7. Let the first side cook for a minute or two. Gently lift up the tortilla to see the colouring and decide if it's done enough to flip over
8. Once flipped, the second side only needs a minute to finish up. Remove the tortilla from the pan, and place onto a cutting board while you finish with the rest of the batter

    That's it! I've made these a few times for a few different purposes. Once I added cinnamon to the batter, then once they were cooked I spread some almond butter in one of them, and rolled it around a banana! It was a great snack! 
   I've also added cayenne pepper to the batter, then I wrapped up diced leftover chicken, avocado, tomato, & onion. Yum!
   So, these are a blank canvas, really! Use them as you please! 
   Have a great Tuesday!   

   We've got a lot of ground beef....seriously, too much ground beef! we ordered food last year (in April) from a food company, and you "shop" and pick what you want, and then they deliver it in one fell-swoop! We had to emergency buy another deep freezer to accommodate the volume of meat that showed up at our house! The sales man (although super nice) had clearly not estimated properly when he told us the deep freeze we already had would be sufficient for all the meat we had coming. 
   Anywho.....all that to say we still (over a year later!) have  about 30-lbs of ground beef left! And that's with us eating at least 1-lb of it every week! 
  Needless to say, coming up with ground beef recipes that are different and worth eating was getting difficult! Then Caleb (who loves cheeseburgers!) mentioned something about this beloved food, but we had no gluten free hamburger buns, so I told him I wasn't going to make burgers. Then it hit me! I have the beef, eggs, bacon, pickles and onions I would normally add to a cheeseburger-I didn't see why making it into one huge casserole wouldn't work! Well, unless, of course, the kids wouldn't eat it because it looked like garbage....so, I included the best part of a burger-the cheese! 
   If you're strict paleo, omit the cheese, and this is still a fantastic recipe! If you eat primal (and can tolerate cheese)-then get your cheese on! Eww, that sounded way more gross than it was meant to.......
   The casserole is gluten free, full of bacon cheeseburger flavours, and the leftovers are the best! My husband loves it packed in his lunch. Thumbs up!    

Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole

Ingredients:

• Bacon, 6 or more slices (depending on how much you want!)
• 1Lb ground beef (or any ground meat could work)

• 4 eggs
• 3 Tbsp regular ground mustard (you could also use dijon to add some bite)
• 1/4 Cup diced pickles (about 2-3 pickles)
• 1 onion, diced
• 2-4 garlic cloves, crushed and diced
• 1/2 Cup shredded cheese
• 1 Jalepeno, diced (optional)

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 casserole dish, and set it aside
2. In a frying pan on medium heat, cook up the bacon (if you dice it up first, it cooks a lot faster). Once cooked, set it onto newspaper or paper towel to drain
3. In the same pan (with the bacon grease) cook up your ground beef until cooked through and no longer pink
4. While the beef is cooking, in a small bowl whisk up the eggs and mustard until well combined
5. Once the ground meat is cooked, drain if necessary, then place into the prepared casserole dish
6. Now add to the dish your cooked bacon, pickles, onion, garlic, and jalepeno (is using). Be sure to distribute these ingredients evenly, or feel free to use a spoon to stir everything up a bit
7. Now, evenly pour your egg & mustard mixture over the whole thing
8. Finish by adding the shredded cheese to the top
9. Place into the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes, until the egg has set, and the cheese on top is getting toasty at the edges. Yum! :)   

   My kids honest to goodness love this casserole! They think I'm brilliant for making such a fantastic mess of a cheeseburger! 
   Every part of it is so bacon cheeseburgery and delicious! I had wanted to add tomato too, but decided against it as I didn't want this to turn out too wet, so I added slices of it on top before I ate mine. The next time we had it I put it right on top of my salad, added tomato, avocado, and hot banana pepper rings and ate it with the salad (I like lettuce on my burgers, so I figured it would be ok)! It was really good, two thumbs up!

   Well folks, I'm signing off! I've got to get baking my usual Friday night rehearsal treats, and I want to get out and clean one of my gardens that I've been neglecting! 
   I hope everyone has a grand weekend (it's Victoria Day weekend {the early Queen's birthday celebration| here in Canada!), and I also hope that you come back here soon to see what else I've got cooked up! :)  

xo

   Anywhooo, a regular fluffernutter sandwich is fantastic, but I decided one day to spread some butter on the outside of it and fry 'er up (grilled cheese style).....oohhhhh man! Yum-o!

Fluffer Nutter Grilled Delight

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of bread (regular, gluten free, or sprouted-it matters not!)
• Peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
• Marshmallow fluff
• Butter

I obviously can't list exact amounts of the ingredients because it's a bit preference based! I also feel like you would be shocked and horrified at the amount of p.b, fluff, and butter I use.....whomp whomp  :)

Method:

1. Heat a frying pan over medium heat
2. While the pan is warming, spread peanut butter onto one piece of bread, and marshmallow fluff onto the other
3. Now put that sandwich together, and spread butter onto the outside of the bread and place into the pan to fry
4. Because fluff is so smooshy on it's own, you don't really need it to "melt", you're just looking to warm up the insides, but more importantly, to fry up the outsides. If you're heat is too low, it'll take too long for the bread to grill, and the peanut butter and mallow-fluff will come melting out, leaving a mess in your pan, and your sandwich very empty. Thumbs down. 
5. Once grilled and perfect, devour! 

   So, in case you needed another crazy-delishous, totally bad for you, definitely not anything but a dessert sandwich, check out this one (pictured below).  
   What the-? Am I right? That bad boy is peanut butter, Nutella, and marshmallows turned into a sandwich, buttered and fried, then dusted with icing sugar. Mmmm, I haven't had this one in a while. I think I'll whip one up on my next treat day!  

   Alright, well, that about sums 'er up. 
   How's the spring going for everyone? Our gardens are coming up happy, although some bossy tiger lilies have taken over a portion of one of my gardens. And that's after they were completely trampled and squashed last year by our chickens who found those plants particularly comfortable and would get cozy and barge right into them, scratch at them, push them down, and turn them into a lovely sitting spot. Perhaps this is the tiger lilies revenge? They may be like the flowers in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; you know, talking and being sassy and what-not? We just saw a local High-School's production of the show this past weekend, so I was thinking of my lilies while I watched that scene! 
   Anyway, after last week of wearing tank tops and having back-sweat while driving, we go to today where the kids asked to wear hats, mitts, and scarves to school because it's so cold! Oh, Canada...so tricky. 
   Well, I should be off, many a task to complete today, and only so many hours to complete them in!  
   

   Black-Flies!!!!! They've arrived!!! That's all I have to say about that for now. Ok, I will add that 2 black flies already flew into my eyes today. Not my fav. 

   Crock-Pot!!! I just wanted to do sound so crazy again.
   I think most people feel like a crock-pot is a winter, comfort food type of thing. Falseroo. 
   I find I use it as much, if not more often, in the 3 other seasons because there is more to do out of the house! Well, even in the house, the spring comes, and you suddenly have the urge to organize your closet....which leads to organizing your room, which leads to building a new bed! I didn't build a new bed, but that sequence of events did happen to me a few years ago. We were sleeping on a hand-me-down bed from 1963. No joke. And I was sick of it and in my cleaning/organizing frenzy I started thinking, "I can build us a new bed!". I was going to too, but, long story short, I didn't. Wait? What was I talking about....? Geepers, crock-pots. So, days like the one I blabbed on about there leave you suddenly standing in the kitchen at 4:45 going, ".....oh yeah....dinner?". In that moment I usually make some eggs and cuts up some veggies and call it a meal, but I prefer to feel a little more amazing (and humble...) by having gotten a tonne of work done around the house AND having an awesome meal ready for the fam. 
   The End. 

Crock-Pot Balsamic Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
  
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  
• 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
  
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  
• Pinch o' salt
  
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
  
• 2 tablespoon honey 
  
• 4-8 chicken drumsticks (seriously, I know it's a wide range, but it really works no matter the chicken amount. It just changes how the chicken turns out oh so slightly)
  

Method:


If you are prepping this meal the night before you need it, all the power to ya! :)  You don't have to, but I'm just throwing that option out there!
 

1. Place all the ingredients into a zippered plastic bag, close it up, shake it up, and stick it in the fridge to marinate overnight
   
2. The morning of the day you need it, dump the contents of the zippered bag into the crock-pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours*

If you're getting this ready the morning of the day you plan to eat it, do this: 

1. In your crock-pot, add all the ingredients except the chicken, and stir to combine
   
2. Add chicken drumsticks to the crock pot with the sauce, and toss the chicken around a bit so it's covered in sauce 
   
3. Cook on low setting for 8-10 hours if the chicken is frozen, or 6-8 if it's thawed*
   

*You can also cook it on high for 3-4 hours if the meat is thawed, or 5-6 if it's frozen. Cooking chicken low and slow is the best however. Just a wee crock-pot tip

 

   The balsamic vinegar really breaks down the meat leaving it tender and yummy, but it also lends a tang to compliment the sweet honey. 
   I've added other spices too, like paprika (a favourite of mine), cayenne pepper, I've even swapped out the basil for rosemary, which was great. 
   So, what are your plans for this week? I think you should plan to make this :)  Just sayin'.

   Alrighty, have a great Monday!