Honey Fruit Salad

If you are looking for the world's easiest side dish to take to summer barbeques, look no further!  My grandmother used to slice up strawberries and toss them with honey for a simple side or dessert.  This weekend I had some berries staring at me from the fridge and I remembered her way of dressing up fresh fruit.

Honey Fruit Salad

Ingredients:
1 tsp melted honey
1 cup summer fruit (mixed berries, strawberries, peaches)

Combine honey and fruit.  Serve.

Make-Ahead Breakfast Ideas

I am always looking for recipes that can be made ahead (or at least part of them can).  My family enjoys a hot breakfast in the morning, and I enjoy the nutritional advantage over boxed breakfast cereal (in fact, I can't remember the last time we ate cereal for breakfast as a family).  Here's how I do breakfast ahead of time:

1) Freezer Breakfast Burritos
For each burrito, I use 1-2 slices of cooked bacon, 2 scrambled eggs, shredded colby jack cheese (probably 1/4- 1/2 cup), and 1 flour tortilla (or use your own healthier homemade Soaked Tortillas). 

Directions:

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Lay out bacon on cookie sheet.  Layer eggs and cheese on top of bacon (as if you were laying them inside a tortilla).  Freeze about 15-30 minutes.  Place frozen bacon mixture in the middle of tortilla.  Roll up.  Wrap well in aluminum foil.  Label and freeze.  When ready to eat, bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes.  Unwrap and enjoy a hot breakfast burrito! 

2) Mix up dry components the night before. 
I make a German Apple Pancake on Christmas morning.  The night before, I mix up all the dry ingredients in a tupperware container.  I even slice up the apples and put lemon juice on them, and store in the fridge.  I set my skillet on the stove and put my stand mixer on the counter (I use it to whip up the eggs).  Then in the morning I only need a few minutes for prep time, and I can enjoy a relaxing Christmas morning with my family!  The same thing goes for biscuits, pancakes, waffles, and muffins- you can easily mix up the dry ingredients the night before...

3) If you follow a Nourishing Traditions style diet, you should be soaking your grains.  I've found soaked pancakes and oatmeal to be the easiest.  For soaked oatmeal, just mix your oats, acid medium (1 Tbsp whey, lemon juice, or vinegar) and water in the pot you'll be cooking them, cover with a clean cloth, and leave on the stove overnight.  In the morning, cook as usual.

4) Make a double batch of waffles or muffins and freeze them.  They are best reheated in the oven or toaster oven.  The microwave tends to make them mushy.

These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins can be frozen and reheated in the oven.

5) Breakfast Strata- Most strata recipes need to be assembled the night before and baked in the morning.  My favorite recipe is adapted from Cooking Light's Goat Cheese, Artichoke, and Smoked Ham Strata. I make it with whole milk and eggs, double the ham, and use feta instead of goat cheese. 

How do you make breakfast ahead of time?

Linked to Tasty Tuesday.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

This is a quick meal for a busy night.  It is on the table in 45 minutes or less.  Most of that time is in the oven, so you have time to get out plates, fill drinking cups, and cut up some fruit or veggies to go on the side.  If you are really pressed for time in the evenings, you can make the dough earlier in the day and refrigerate it, covered, until you're ready to bake it.  Keep some cooked chicken in your freezer and you can whip this up in no time!  I never measure the toppings. I just keep adding stuff until it looks right (although I did measure them tonight to give you an idea of how much you need). 

For crust:

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1 1/2 cups bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon sea salt

cornmeal (optional)

Toppings:

3/4 cup BBQ sauce

1 1/2 cups cooked, chopped chicken

1 cup tightly packed fresh spinach leaves

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water.  Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. 

2.  Stir in flours, salt, and oil.  Knead until smooth.  Let rest for 5 minutes.  Clean off your countertop.  Put some foil on your pizza pan and dust it with cornmeal or olive oil.

3.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface (your clean countertop works great) and pat or roll into a round.  Transfer crust to pizza pan. 

  4.  Bake in preheated oven 10 minutes.  Assemble your toppings while it's baking.

  5.  Top with sauce, cheese, chicken, and spinach.  Bake 12 minutes longer.  Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.