Category Archives: Tasty Tuesday

Because you have to feed them too

Spaghetti ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Tasty Tidbit: Valentine’s Day Food

While I am working on updating this website, I’ll only be posting tidbits each day (with maybe a bit more on Fridays) until the update is completed.

On Valentine’s Day, which is Sunday, I typically make spaghetti or lasagna. However if it is cold Sunday, I may make Chili. ;)

I also generally make some kind of chocolate dessert because that is our preference but a nice strawberry cake would be nice too.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Tasty Tidbit: Make as Written First

While I am working on updating this website, I’ll only be posting tidbits each day (with maybe a bit more on Fridays) until the update is completed.

The first time I make a new recipe I follow the directions as given, including the ingredients listed. There are rare occasions when I omit something or lessen something that I absolutely know we will not like but this is my general rule and I have been pleasantly surprised many times that we liked some things that had some ingredients we don’t usually like.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Tuesday Tidbit: Eating the Right Nutrients Together

Beginning Jan.4th, while I am working on updating this website, I’ll only be posting tidbits each day (with maybe a bit more on Fridays) until the update is completed.

Some diets say to eat fats with few carbs, others say to eat carbs with few fats, and others say eat protein. Trim Healthy Mama agrees with it all, so to speak. :D When we are trying to lose weight, we eat carbs with very little fats or fats with very little carbs, all anchored in a with protein.

The great thing is that we can switch between the types of meals all in one day, if we want. And actually it is beneficial to switch it up. And those wonderful non-starchy veggies are a wonderful filling part of any/all meals. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Strawberry topping ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Tuesday Tidbit: Try a New Recipe

Beginning Jan.4th, while I am working on updating this website, I’ll only be posting tidbits each day (with maybe a bit more on Fridays) until the update is completed.

It is good to try a new recipe every couple of weeks. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself with many new recipes each week because that is just tiring and a plan for failure, at least for me. ;) However a new recipe every week or so can really be refreshing.

I recently got the new Trim Healthy Mama cookbook (Trim Healthy Future) and am loving it. I went through and tabbed the recipes I’m most interested in trying sometime soon. I also plan an easy alternative that is an old faithful recipe, in case I don’t feel up to making that new recipe when I’d planned to try it.

Tuesday Tidbit: Menu Planning and Make a List

Beginning Jan.4th, while I am working on updating this website, I’ll only be posting tidbits each day (with maybe a bit more on Fridays) until the update is completed.

I start my menu making by looking at the weather forecast and making note of any days we will be busy and plan accordingly. After making my menu/list of dishes to make, I create my grocery list. Using a grocery list helps ensure that I have everything I need to make the desired dishes for the week and saves me money (because I don’t get things I don’t plan to use).

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Chicken Sausage Casserole ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Food Tidbit: Plannedovers are a Good Idea

Beginning Jan.4th, while I am working on updating this website, I’ll only be posting tidbits each day (with maybe a bit more on Fridays) until the update is completed.

Plannedovers are leftovers on purpose. Why would you make leftovers on purpose? Well there are two reasons that I do it: 1) because we love the meal and will love having it again in a day or two or for lunches or even breakfasts 2) because I can use the leftovers as a base for another meal, like a casserole. (If you are having chicken, broccoli, and a salad for dinner make extra broccoli and chicken and take out the extra part before serving; make a chicken broccoli casserole with rice or pasta within the next night or two.)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Christmas Week of Special Foods

Well, this week is Christmas and I’m making some things I’ve not made in a very long time. Christmas Eve morning we will have Breakfast Burrito Bake. This is a family favorite and so we are all looking forward to having it. Brian, Lauren, and Liam will be here early that morning and Lauren is the one that reminded me of this dish.

I used to fix Monkey Bread or Bubble Bread with it but I fixed it on Thanksgiving morning and although it was all eaten, it didn’t seem to be a favorite. Since we’ll be having that on Christmas Day at my sister’s house, I decided to make Baked Pecan Pancakes (they are in Trim Healthy Table (THT) page 338) as our sweet dish on Christmas Eve.

Tiffany will be making two apple pies, I think. One will be sugar-free and the other will be Apple Crumble Pie. Then she is also going to make the Pumpkin Trimtastic Roll. I’m so used to our sugar-free lifestyle that I forget that some of these recipes aren’t our old sugary desserts. I hope the pumpkin roll will be liked by my mom.

I’m making a turkey and dressing Wednesday. :D Our Christmas dinner this year was voted to be tacos. So, I’m making a turkey before Christmas. I’m just doing stove top dressing but we like it. :) I’ll fix something like green beans with it and call it good. I spent yesterday thawing the 16 pound bird that Sean got free from a church before Thanksgiving and decided he has had enough turkey at his house, so he gave it to us. :)

When we have had our fill of the leftovers, I’ll sub it in for chicken in some casseroles. Turkey nachos are good if you don’t mind the THM crossover. We always like creamed turkey with leftover turkey.

I’m still considering making cinnamon rolls at some point over the next week and a half. I know my family here would really like them and so would I. I just don’t want to commit to making them by Christmas day. :D

Actually, our family Christmas dinner is taco bar. We are going to have a variety of meats to choose from: salsa chicken, taco seasoned ground beef, and shredded pork. It should be a good variety. Of course we’ll have lots of chips and cheese available. :D

For breakfast Mom makes a hashbrown, egg, and cheese casserole. She’s talked about making some bacon and maybe some sausage with onions to add to it. We’re going to pick up some donuts too. So with the monkey/bubble bread (and Mom’s keiffle, which is small little nut rolls) we’ll have plenty for Christmas morning breakfast. :)

Then on Saturday, instead of our weekly pizza, I’m fixing LASAGNA!!! I absolutely love lasagna! We haven’t had it in years, so I’m looking forward to it. :D

Well, that our week of special meals. What meals do you do special around Christmas?

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Chili ~ LifeofJoy.me

A Menu for the Week

Well, this week we’d planned to go see lights in Yukon but it was very cold, so we decided it was best not to go. Thankfully I’d planned Trim Train Italian Soup for one day this week. Since it makes a large pot of soup, I chose to make this that night. It fed the four of us and left enough for another complete meal.

I’ve also planned to make minestrone. We’ll have that tonight for dinner. I’ll make with it with seasoned boneless skinless chicken breast, ground up in the food processor. Consequently it will be low fat, so I will include some brown rice elbow macaroni in place of the ditalini but it has lots of veggies, so it will be yummy.

It snowed most of the day on Sunday. It was gorgeous!!! I hear it’s supposed to snow today too. So I’ll be glad for the minestrone soup tonight. :) I gave Michael his choice of soup Sunday. He quickly chose Chili. (I substitute Gentle Sweet and a bit of molasses for the brown sugar.) :) He also asked that it be a double batch. Thankfully I keep the ingredients for chili on hand since it is one of his favorite meals.

Of course, we generally have pizza on Friday or Saturday night. That only left a few meals for the week. We haven’t had tacos in a while and I was wanting them, so they made it on the menu and we had it last night. Yum! I used a low carb tortilla.

The remaining items on our menu for the week are Split Pea Soup and Spaghetti. We’ll use Dreamfields angel hair pasta for the spaghetti.

So this is the menu for the week:

I don’t think anyone needs a recipe for tacos but I intend to put up my latest pizza recipe sometime soon.

I hope this menu helps you create your weekly menu. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Special Candy Treats

Several years ago I tried Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark candies and absolutely loved them. They became my Christmas candy favorite. When I started eating sugar free, I was afraid I wouldn’t ever eat them “legally” again. ;)

Then I found Carolyn’s Peppermint Bark recipe on her blog, All Day I Dream About Food. Tiffany makes them for me every year. I bought a thin square candy mold that is close to the size of Ghirardelli candies. Unfortunately this year I cannot find the thin one so I have to put up with the thicker smaller square ones. ;)Not the best picture but Tiffany just made these for me.

They do take a few special ingredients like cocoa butter, sugar-free peppermint candies, and sugar-free dark chocolate.

I hope you’ll enjoy them, as much as I do.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Homemade Artisan Bread

This bread is compatible with the THM way of eating and is an E fuel. We make this yummy bread is using mostly whole wheat flour and it sits for anywhere from 7-24 hours.

We got this recipe from Christine of the Frugal Fit Mom youtube channel. You can check it out and watch how she makes it. Just be sure to use the whole wheat option and let it sit for at least 7 hours.

We make a double batch because our dutch oven is larger than the one Christine uses. Ours is a 6 quart dutch oven.

Start with dissolving the yeast in the warm water.

Meanwhile measure out the flour vital wheat gluten and salt.

Flours ~ Lifeofjoy.me Then add the yeasty water to the flour and combine.

Let it rise for 7-24 hours.

You place the dutch oven in the oven while it preheats to 450º. Remove the heated pot with hot pads, spray the inside with oil, add the dough, replace the lid, and put it back in the oven.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the lid and bake for another 15 minutes.

We cut our huge loaf in half and then slice each half.

Homemade Artisan Bread

Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 cups warm water
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 to 1 1/2 cups white all purpose flour
  • 4 1/2 to 5 cups whole wheat flour (or white whole wheat)
  • 2 Tablespoons vital wheat gluten

Instructions

  1. Dissolve yeast in water.
  2. Combine dry ingredients.
  3. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine adding only as much of the whole wheat flour as is needed to have a loose/wet dough.
  4. Cover and let rise 7-24 hours on the counter.
  5. Preheat oven to 450º with pot in it.
  6. Spray pot with oil.
  7. Add dough. Put on lid and put in oven.
  8. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.
https://lifeofjoy.me/homemade-artisan-bread/

I hope you enjoy this bread as much as we do. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº