I’m always looking for ways to make snacks healthier around these parts. I’m pretty lucky in that Emma likes fruit a LOT. And Lucy likes food. Just food. All the time. Anytime. MORE FOOD, MAMA.

But still, if I gave Emma the option of an apple or Oreos, I’m pretty sure she’d pick Oreos. Frankly, so would I, but that’s not what we’re talking about.

So when she came home from preschool with a recipe for apple burritos, I was all over it. Actually, so was she.

We FINALLY busted out the apples yesterday and gave it a shot. This is an adaptation of the actual recipe, since we are dairy-egg-peanut free, now.

Ingredients:

flour tortilla

cream cheese – we use soy cream cheese, mmmmm

cinnamon and sugar

apples – YES, I am “that mom” who over-pays for the pre-sliced apples

Step 1: warm up a tortilla for the baby to eat so that you can actually get this done in a timely manner

Step 2: warm up another tortilla and spread some cream cheese on it

Step 3: sprinkle on the cinnamon and sugar

Step 4: scatter some apples around

Step 5: roll roll roll it up

Step 6: eat

This was a total Emma-approved snack!

A D.W. approved snack [more on life with D.W. later]

A Lucy-approved snack

A Lucy-foot-approved snack

So easy, so good! I even took a bite of it, even though I’m trying not to snack every time the girls snack since Miss Lucy snacks a LOT, and Emma practically had to kick me in the shins to get it back.

You’re welcome.

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So I know I talked about going dairy free a lot right after we found out Lucy was allergic to dairy, but I talked about it so much because I was freaking out and missing cheese.

Since then, I’ve experimented with this dairy free thing a whole lot, and I’ve learned so much, and I’ve found some amazing substitutes. And I honestly don’t mind it so much.

Granted, ever since Lucy started eating our table food, I’ve been able to sneak it back into my diet here and there, and I don’t miss it as much. But I still cook with dairy free products more often than not, and I still don’t eat cheese other than a slice or two of pizza once every couple of weeks or so.

I also don’t mind not eating as much dairy, because I could tell a huge difference in how I felt when I was dairy free. And I mean that in a good way. I just felt better. But I also am a firm believer in “eating in moderation.” I can’t cut one thing completely OUT … my brain just doesn’t work well that way. But if I know I can have it here and there, it’s a lot easier to do without.

Huh, I don’t know where THAT tangent came from, but there you have it.

ANYWAY, since she got sick, Lucy has been getting “ma-ma-ba-ba” [that’s what she calls my milks] a whole lot more than usual, and her reflux came back as bad as it ever was. So I went totally dairy-free again. But I still had to feed the family and it had to be good.

And one night, I made this …

It’s bowtie pasta in a cream sauce with peas and tuna. And can I just say … YUM.

I didn’t follow a recipe, and I didn’t measure as I went along, so bear with me … and please feel free to experiment with your flavors.

step 1: cook as much bowtie pasta as you’ll eat according to directions – add in 1/2 bag frozen peas about 3-4 minutes before the pasta is done

step 2: while the pasta is cooking, whisk together 1/4 cup of almond milk with 4 tablespoons of flour in a small saucepan until it’s creamy; whisk in 1 1/4 cup more of almond milk + 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast + a couple squeezes of lemon + salt and pepper to taste [feel free to add other spices here]

step 3: heat saucepan of milk mixture over medium heat for 5-8 minutes, or until it’s creamy [whisk often and don’t boil]

step 4: drain pasta and peas, put back in pasta pot, pour in as much cream as you want [I probably only used about 3/4 of it, but I only made enough pasta to feed 2 1/2 people ;) ]

step 5: stir in tuna [I used some pre-packaged StarKist lemon pepper tuna, because I was sick and hadn’t been to the grocery store, but you could use anything - fresh tuna, fresh salmon, grilled chicken, etc.]

step 6: put some on your fork and stick it in your mouf

Since a few people have asked for it …

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups oatmeal

Directions

In a heavy saucepan bring the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk to a boil. Let boil for 1 minute and remove from heat. Then mix in peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal. Drop mixture by the teaspoonfuls onto a sheet of waxed paper and then wait impatiently until cooled and hardened.

This is not a secret recipe by any means!! If you want to print it for your cookbook or recipe card box, just Google “chocolate oatmeal no bake cookies” and you’ll find a printable version somewhere.

I guess I could abbreviate it to “PO” because that’s what Ken was when he found out about the mistake I made. Not really … he doesn’t get upset about stuff like that. And for those wondering, it wasn’t a life-altering mistake or anything … we’re not going to lose our house or cars or anything, it just made things a little difficult in a stressful time. It’s all taken care of now, and life goes on.

When we took apart the hutch and moved it into the breakfast nook, I moved all of my cookbooks into it. But as me and my mom were moving them, I remembered a recent post I read on Organizing Junkie about donating cookbooks you don’t use. The idea was met with a little resistance among some women, but I am NOT attached to cookbooks. I have a few favorites, and I do tend to collect the old Southern church cookbooks since they have the BEST comfort food recipes, but I could easily do without a few of the other ones. In addition to my paper cookbooks, I also have a virtual cookbook on Delicious, as well – you can check it out if you want.

Anyway, I decided to try to consolidate my most-used recipes into one binder. Since this will be a binder I use often, I bought a pretty one on clearance from Target.

The first page is a print-out of my Google calendar menu plan for the current month.

Then, I have all of my recipes divided into the following sections: appetizers, beef, bread, breakfast, cakes, chicken, cookies, dessert, fish, pasta/rice, pork, salads, soups, veggies.

I used clear page protectors since cooking is messy.

Or maybe I’m the only messy cooker out there? ;)

I plan to |1| print all of my recipes that are stored online and then print them as I save them, and then |2| go through and type up the recipes from the 4×6 cards my mom made me when I moved out on my own, and then |3| go through my cookbooks and type up the recipes I want to keep so I can donate the books I don’t need anymore.

So this is potentially a HUGE project that I’m not going to finish today, but I’ve made a good dent in it.

My ultimate goal is to end up with a binder (or 2) of recipes that I actually use … so if I find a recipe, make it, and end up not liking it, it goes in the recycle bin.

Now it’s your turn … how do you organize your recipes?

1| I’ve never been really good at replying to my blog replies, because I don’t like mass replies. But then I noticed that one of my most favoritest bloggers, Secret Agent Josephine, edits a comment with her reply. So I’m totally stealing the idea from her. And now I’ll be able to reply to those of you who respond. Thanks, SAJ!

2| I think I’ve convinced Ken to let me move my work area downstairs.

me: hey, hon. when you’re in a really good mood and totally stress-free, can you read my blog post?
him: i already read it. and it does not put me in a good mood.

But I think he knows how frazzled I am every other day, because I don’t know what’s going on in our lives, so he’s willing to make ONE MORE MOVE to make me happy. Gotta love him.

Plus, I’m going to totally convince him with this picture.

See, honey! Emma likes playing on the computer, and we need one down here!

I am totally not above bribing him with his princess.

3| Speaking of pictures (how about that segue!) – are you following my Project365? Did you even know I’m doing Project365? Do you even care? Well, if you do … I’m taking/posting one picture a day for a year, and it’s been really fun so far! I’ve gotta admit, it keeps me busy and creative. Okay, I haven’t really had to be creative, yet, but I am making lists of things to take pictures of. [Ack, I know you're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition, but I don't feel like changing it.] You can either bookmark it or just click the little picture over there on the left if you want to follow along with me (and Emma). :)

4| I made cinnamon & raisin bread this morning — um, I even got up at 5:15 to go put the raisins in the machine. But it did not turn out that well. So if you have a recipe for a yummy cinnamon & raisin bread [for a bread machine] and preferably non-yeasty, please please share!!

I think that’s it for today. I may have had one more item, but I don’t like odd numbers, so it can wait for another day.

* I pronounce “ketchup” like “catch-up” … just a little play on words today

This is one of our recent nighttime favorites …

1 mug milk
3 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Heat milk in microwave 1.5 minutes or until hot (but not boiling); stir in sugar and vanilla.

As Emma would say, “num, num.”

We just got the little monkey down, and I’ve got to work, so this is all I can post tonight, but I hope this warms your tummy now that the colder months are upon [most of] us.