Blueberry Buckle

I love a good summer fruit recipe. Actually, I love most any fruit recipe...this recipe is from a little cookbook called "Baking with Spelt" by Barb Waldron. It calls for spelt flour (great if you are allergic to wheat, but it is not gluten free). I'm sure you could make it with whole wheat flour and get the same yummy result. I usually use frozen blueberries and there is no need to thaw and drain - I just use them straight from the freezer.

I added a sliced nectarine on top of the fresh blueberries this time and it was delicious!

Broccoli Salad

I bought a lot of broccoli on sale last week. I noticed yesterday that it was still sitting in the crisper drawer, staring back at me. There was too much to just steam and eat plain (obviously I am the only one in my household who eats broccoli...), so I knew I had to take drastic measures. This called for some...broccoli salad!! I made up my recipe as I went along, using ingredients I had sitting around.

Brown Rice Pudding

When I was growing up, my mom used to make German Milchreis (white rice pudding) a lot and we would spread it out thinly over large plates and sprinkle it (heavily) with cinnamon sugar, and it was super yummy! (Also I used a fork to make rows the entire length of the plate and pretended it was a farm and I was going to plant it with seeds. And then I ate it. Good times!)

Teriyaki Chicken and Brown Rice

Cook some brown rice

The Best Crock Pot Turkey Chili

This is one of my favorite recipes to have for Sunday brunch with my family - it makes a lot and I always have yummy leftovers for lunches. It is also easy to make while I'm at work since it cooks for 8 hours. It makes the beans super soft, which is great because there are few things worse than crunchy beans (besides gory movies and the dentist). You can keep all the ingredients on hand -- ground turkey in the freezer and almost everything else in cans -- so another easy meal to whip up with minimal effort.

You can find the original recipe here. (I always omit the onion and no one notices, but I suppose most people would add it so I left it in...) Makes 9 servings - 260 calories each (303 grams). Serve with your favorite toppings -- cheese, cornbread, tortilla chips, etc.

3 Ingredient Creamy Pineapple Dessert

I saw this dessert on Pinterest here and thought it was too good to be true (not really, I just thought it looked easy and yummy!).

Can you guess the three ingredients? Hint 1: one is in the title; Hint 2: see next picture.

Black Bean Brownies

Sometimes I enjoy making weird things and feeding them to unsuspecting bystanders (aka family at our 4th of July barbeque). This is a prime example. They look and taste like fudgy brownies for the most part, and I doubt anyone knew they were eating beans...even my darling (super-picky eater) husband.

Easy Baked Salmon Fillets

This weekend I found some gorgeous Wild Caught Alaskan King Salmon Fillets on manager's special at Fred Meyer. I am slowly starting to get into eating more fish, since I previously have not eaten much seafood and didn't really like it. I usually go for the white fish (cod, sole, etc.), but I know salmon is very healthy and has lots of good Omega 3s and essential fatty acids, so I gave it another try. I found a super easy recipe from foodnetwork.com and cooked it up last night for dinner.

Crock Pot Pork Country-Style Ribs

Mmm, so meaty!

Sometimes you just need a super-simple dinner that is ready when you get home and is warm and fills you up. That said, I am not usually much of a dinner-maker. My husband and I have cereal (or oatmeal for me) several nights a week. We both get up early (4:30 and 5 am), so we try to go to bed by 8:30 or 9 pm. I usually get home from work around 5:30 pm, so that doesn't leave a lot of time for preparing and eating a meal before bedtime. So, we eat easy-to-fix things. I sometimes make a pasta casserole or homemade pizza ahead of time, and then we have leftovers for a few lunches. But generally, we go for fast and easy on the weeknights- which this recipe is! It cooks all day while I'm at work.

No Bake Cookie Protein Bars

Breakfast today!

Yes, these have butter and sugar in them. Don't kill me yet. And yes, they are the best protein bars I have ever had to date. My own ingenious mixture of everyone's favorite no-bake cookie recipe and a healthy protein bar recipe. And they have 14 grams of protein per serving!

Breakfast of Champions

After I got home from hot yoga this morning, we had a power breakfast! Jeff made the egg scramble and I added the strawberries and yogurt because I was very hungry.

Egg Scramble

Egg Scramble = 4 eggs, a splash of milk, 4 ounces of taco-seasoned ground meat, and 1/4 cup of Mexican cheese sprinkled on at the end. Sooo good!

Strawberries and Yogurt

Let me know if you can't figure out the recipe for this one...