What's for dinner?

Picture is courtesy of Skinnytaste.com

On my journey of healthy eating, I've been trying to find recipes that my family will also enjoy.  This proves to be a challenge because 2 of my family members do not like anything healthy.  I have to hide healthy stuff in their food. It makes a little extra work for me, but it's worth it.  Every once in a while I find a gem that is both fun and healthy for us.    

With that being said, here is what I'm making for dinner. I'm going to serve the mozzarella sticks as a side with salad being the main dish.  Well, it will be the main dish for me.  I have a feeling the green stuff will get kind of ignored tonight, but I have to give it a shot, right?  

If you want to make the mozzarella sticks, don't forget to also make the marinara sauce that goes with it.    

So what will be on your table tonight?  

SWEET Tea

I have been on a sweet tea kick lately. In the spirit of caffeinated, sugary goodness, here is a recipe I found from this blog: 

Ingredients:

• 6 regular tea bags
• gallon sized pitcher
• 1-2 cups sugar (if you use artificial sweetener, this is NOT sweet tea. Use the real deal!) 
• pot of water

Directions:

1. Boil a pot of water and remove from heat
2. Place 6 regular teabags in the water and steep for about an hour
3. Remove tea bags
4. Add 1-2 cups sugar to the warm tea (do this step when it's warm or the sugar will not dissolve)
5. Stir well
6. Pour warm tea into a gallon sized pitcher
7. Add room temperature tap water to the top of the pitcher
8. Refrigerate
9. Serve on ice when cold (Do not put ice in the pitcher, the sugar will never dissolve) 

*One last hint - do not over steep. That and, leaving sweet tea un-refrigerated too long makes it bitter. Bitter sweet tea - blech!

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Toast

Picture taken by Pioneer Woman

My children woke me up this morning saying, "Mama, wake up.  We're so hungry our stomachs are growling."  I usually just throw cereal in a bowl and hand it over.  But, today I felt like making something a little different.  

I had fresh baked bread I made last night, so I decided to make cinnamon toast.  Ooooh, ahhh.  I know, it sounds unimpressive, right?  But this wasn't just any cinnamon toast, this was Pioneer Woman's cinnamon toast.  Let me just say, my children are bowing at my feet and the aroma dragged my husband's sleeping butt out of bed.  If you know anything about my husband's sleep patterns, (and why wouldn't you?) not even an earthquake would wake that man.    

It tasted really good!  Now, you may try it and think it's too sweet.  But if you have a sweet tooth like mine, it's not possible for anything to be too sweet.  

You can click the link above to view the recipe on PW's site, but if you want to get straight to the point and avoid all her dialogue,  here's the recipe: 

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cook Time: 15 Minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 16 slices Bread (whole Wheat Is Great!)
• 2 sticks Salted Butter, Softened
• 1 cup Sugar (more To Taste)
• 3 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract (more To Taste)
• ⅛ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg (optional)

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Smush softened butter with a fork. Dump in sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg, if using. Stir to completely combine.

Spread on slices of bread, completely covering the surface all the way to the edges.

Place toast on a cookie sheet. Place cookies sheet into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil until golden brown and bubbling. Watch so it won’t burn!

Remove from oven and cut diagonally.  

  
Enjoy!