Protein Waffles

Waffle Wednesday was a thing in our household for quite sometime. I didn’t make a whole ton of waffles until last year when I was working with a personal trainer who sent me this FANTASTIC recipe! It is SOOO yummy. And I can honestly say I like them more than regular waffles.
The origin of the recipe is hard to find, but I got it on heidipowell.net. I always double it for our big Belgian waffle maker, so these are the things I do:

1 cup Cottage Cheese
1 cup Water
4 Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
4 teaspoon Olive Oil
2 2/3 cup Oats (quick or traditional)

The best part about this: THROW IT ALL IN A BLENDER! It mixes quickly and is all ready to pour.

Also, my husband and children just love to dip their waffles. Less dishes to do! Healthy meal, and OH SO YUMMY!

Sweet Potato Hash

I am one of those people who cooks the same 5 things on repeat. This recipe is one of my family FAVORITES! And I made it at least once a week for half of 2019. Of course, no two times were exactly the same (I have problems with consistency) but every way I have made it has been a hit. Once again I will list some amounts, but you can change up the proportions until it looks good.

Sometimes we eat this with rice, however if you are trying to limit carbs, this can stand on its own too.

Shopping List:
-Chicken Breast (1 or 2 for our family of 4)
-Sweet potatoes 4ish
-Apple (gala) 1/2-1
-Onion 1/2-1
-Garlic Salt
-Olive Oil
-Poultry seasoning

Start by cutting the sweet potatoes apples and onions into bite sized sizes. Coat them in a little bit of olive oil and season with garlic salt and parsley. Mix it ALL (yes, the apples too) on a sheet pan and bake in a preheated oven at 415 degrees fahrenheit for 20-ish minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender.

While those are in the oven, cut the chicken into cubes and cook in a fry pan in some olive oil and season with poultry seasoning. When they are all done, mix the chicken with the sweet potatoes, onions and apples.

Voila! Delicious sweet potato hash.

Tips:
Like I said earlier, I have done it many times, different ways. To date, these are my favorites:
-Red onions are the BEST when you have apples
-I usually use about half a gala apple to 4 sweet potatoes HOWEVER apples are really optional
-Soy sauce is not a bad addition

Zuppa Toscana

This will be the most basic recipe you’ll ever find that resembles Zuppa Toscana from Olive Garden. Does it taste just like the stuff you get there? Not exactly. But it is SO DELICIOUS! My husband even likes it better.

The part I like about this recipe is I that I can change how much kale I put in depending on how “healthy” I want to be! I personally like my soup HEAVY on the kale because this is one of the only ways I can tolerate the superfood.

Honestly, you can change the amounts of ANY of the ingredients and still get great results. I will include the amounts that I had the last time I made it.

  • Spicy Italian Sausage 1 lb
  • Onions (optional) 1/2 medium onion
  • Chicken broth 6 cups
  • Potatoes 4 medium russet cut into bitesized pieces
  • Kale 3 large stalks
  • Half-and-half or heavy cream

Directions: Brown the sausage (and onions if desired), add chicken broth and potatoes to the pot. You cook all of those in the boiling broth until the potatoes are soft. Once they are ready, add the kale and cream! You notice I have no “amount” for the half and half or cream. That is mostly because I pour it in until it looks yummy. Sometimes that’s 1/2 c, sometimes more!

The spicy sausage flavors the soup pretty well, but you can always add your favorite spices!

Extra tips:
Cutting the potatoes thinner makes it cook quicker! Which is a definite win for me, because I more often than not, don’t decide what to make for dinner until I’m HUNGRY.