Category: food

crockpot, delicious food, food, healthyfood, quick meals, recipe, Uncategorized, weeknight recipe

Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

Whats better than a bowl of tasty chili when it’s cold out? *crickets*

❤

So check it out, I’ll show you a step by step of the quick process to get you on your way to trying my chili. It is a slow cooker recipe that makes life EASIER. Who doesn’t like taking the extra work out of cooking!? It does not disappoint. : )

❤

Turkey Chili

So first gather the beans, tomatoes, tomato soup, spices and chopped onion

chili ingredients

Brown the ground turkey in a pan

Turkey Chili Crockpot

Layer the ground turkey, onions, tomatoes, tomato soup, beans, and spices. Then mix ingredients, cover with lid, and set crockpot for 8 hrs on low or 4 hrs on high.

turkey chli

Top with cheese, crackers, and enjoy by itself or with warm cornbread

Cornbread

Hope’s Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • 1 (10.75 ounce) cans low sodium tomato soup
  • 1 can chopped tomatoes
  • 2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained
  • 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
  • 1/2 medium yellow onion , chopped
  • 2 tablespoons chili power
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
  • salt to taste

Directions

  1. Heat oil in a skillet on medium heat. Brown turkey in the skillet and then drain.
  2. Layer ingredients in then crockpot starting with turkey, onion, beans, tomatoes, tomato soup kidney beans, black beans and onion. Season with chili powder, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and cumin.
  3. Cover, and cook 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on High.

*Note* – You can substitute ground beef or ground chicken for ground turkey or make it vegan by usually additional beans. You can also decrease the red pepper flakes and chili powder if you prefer more mild chili. This makes a medium spicy chili.

Happy cooking!

❤ Hope

 

cooking, delicious food, food, healthyfood, quick meals, workingmom

BBQ Chicken Wrap: Quick 6 Ingredient Lunch or Dinner

BBQ chicken wrap

HELLO easy BBQ chicken wrap! Whenever I have leftover chicken I am ALWAYS thinking of a quick meal to put together that keeps everyone full and happy. Try this crunchy, sweet and savory wrap. Serve warm or cold! If your looking for a quick way to make some chicken, check out Easy and Quick Oven Baked Chicken. Pair with your favorite chips or veggies! This wrap works great also with The Best Roasted Red Potatoes and Onions!

Alright lets get started on this chicken wrap!

So first, gather your ingredients.

Easy BBQ chicken wrap

Layer the chicken and cheese.

easy bbq recipe

Add the peppers and lettuce.

BBQ chicken wrap copy

Wrap all those yummy ingredients tightly.

Chicken Wrap

Cut in half and enjoy!

Easy Chicken wrap

Easy 6 Ingredient BBQ Chicken Wraps

Makes 4 Wraps

Ingredients

  • 4 Burrito sized tortillas or wraps
  • 2 cups cooked chicken – shredded or diced mixed with your favorite BBQ sauce
  • BBQ sauce to mix with the chicken ( I used about 2/3 cup, but personal preference to how much sauce you like!)
  • 1 cup cheddar cheese – chopped or shredded
  • 2 bell peppers – chopped
  • 1 cup romaine or spinach – cut into strips

Instructions:

  1. In a small bowl, mix the cooked chicken with BBQ sauce.
  2. Place ½ cup of BBQ chicken in a line on the tortilla.
  3. Top with ¼ cup cheddar cheese.
  4. Layer roughly 1/3 cup chopped bell peppers and 1/4 cup romaine or spinach on top.
  5. Roll up the wrap, cut in half and enjoy!

Note: Depending on the size of the bell peppers you might have more or less than 1/3 cup per wrap, so just equally divide the chopped bell peppers into four servings .

Happy cooking ❤ Hope

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cooking, delicious food, food, healthyfood, quick meals, workingmom

Vegetable Feta Quinoa Salad

This is one of my favorite recipes. My mom actually introduced me to quinoa and making salads with it AND I am forever grateful for this. I have made this salad with lots of combinations. Pick your favorite vegetables, about 2 cups and add it to this salad. My current favorite combination is broccoli, bell pepper, and red onion. I like to use feta but you can also use mozzarella or parmesan if desired.

First gather your salad ingredients

quinoasalad

Then combine ingredients and mix your dressing together (olive oil and spices).

quinoa salad bowl

Toss ingredients together and enjoy!

Plated Quinoa Salad

Vegetable Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups romaine, baby spinach, or mixed greens
  • 2 cups cooked quinoa
  • 1 bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 cup broccoli
  • ¼ cup red or white onion
  • ½ cup feta
  • 2.5 Tbsp olive oil
  • ½ tsp oregano
  • ½ tsp basil
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder

Instructions:

  1. Combine the greens with quinoa, bell pepper, broccoli, onion and feta.
  2. In a separate small dish, mix the olive oil, oregano, basil, salt and garlic powder until well combined.
  3. Toss salad with dressing and then enjoy!

Sound good? Have quinoa in a salad before or looking forward to trying it? Let me know, would love to hear from you! Comment below!

Happy cooking! ❤ Hope

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cooking, delicious food, food, motherhood, quick meals, Uncategorized, workingmom

Meal Planning Made Simple

Hey there.

I’m Hope. I love to cook DELICIOUS food and spend time crafting, exploring the outdoors, taking pictures, and enjoying time with friends and family. Check out the rest of the blog to navigate through easy and healthy recipes, along with motherhood  and parenting content.

shrimp linguinue

So, topic today is MEAL PLANNING. Ugh. I know, sounds boring.

BUT, it doesn’t have to BE and it does not have to be hard. It is a game changer with helping organize meals for the week so you don’t get in the rut of staring at the pantry or in the refrigerator, hoping something pops out.

I use a few easy tricks to plan meals and I wanted to share them with you.

Let’s get to it.

  1. Designate one day a week to consistently plan meals/grocery lists. When you get in the habit of planning meals once weekly, it becomes second nature. I usually spend 10-20 minutes planning the meals and making a grocery list on Saturday and then grocery shop on Sunday. Easy peasy.
  2. Plan 5-6 meals to make for dinners for the week and options for lunches
    • I personally prefer to have 5 weekday dinners set but not necessarily the day, depending on what we are craving that day.
    • I’ve learned to plan for what we typically eat, just so we don’t waste produce. For us, I plan on having enough for lunches and 5-6 dinners and extra frozen food in case we stay in, but we like to have flexibility if we eat with friends or family or go out to eat.
    • I usually cook a big meal on Sunday afternoon or evening, which always has left overs to start the week with. I also typically also try to make extra roasted vegetables or have vegetables ready for salads and a big pot of lentils, quinoa or pasta that can be thrown together for a quick meal or eaten as lunch.

I keep the meals varied – every week I try to include one of these types of dishes:

  1. One night I’ll make a Mexican dish – tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, nachos, or quesadillas
  2. One night I’ll make an Italian dish – vegetarian lasagna, linguine with vegetables, spaghetti, chicken parmesan, baked pasta, fetticini alfredo
  3. One night I’ll make an easy chicken dish – oven baked chicken, breaded chicken, barbeque chicken, chicken wings etc
  4. One night I’ll make a not otherwise categorized dish that are just our favorite random dishes– loaded baked potato bar, grilled salmon, salad bar, some type of sandwich (turkey burgers/ veggies burgers/ grilled cheese etc) a tasty ethnic dish (pad thai, ramen, sushi etc) or a second Mexican or Italian dish if we are craving that and I have the supplies.
  5. Homemade pizza or frozen pizza (yes, frozen pizza is a GREAT go to after a long day at work and I have NO shame admitting that! I like California pizza kitchen, Newman’s own, and also the simple truth brand of pizzas). It is also so quick to use fast rising yeast or pizza yeast and make from scratch, layer with sauce, mozzarella and your favorite toppings.
  6. During the fall and winter, I do soup usually once a week as well but not as often in the summer

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If you haven’t already, I suggest investing in a good amount of glass or microwave safe containers and locate their lids for easy food prep. It makes all the difference!

Pyrex Simply Store Glass Rectangular and Round Food Container Set (18-Piece, BPA-free)

I hope these tips come in handy. What helps you guys meal plan? Any tricks you guys use?  Note: The link above is an affiliate link to Amazon.

 

 

As always, happy cooking! ❤ Hope Look me up on instagram and facebook —-> nonstopmomlife

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cooking, delicious food, food, Uncategorized

Easy Seasoned Quinoa

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Fluffy, tasty and versatile quinoa at your service. It can be part of a main dish, served as a delicious side, on salad, in wraps, in stuffed peppers or lots of other ways! It not only tastes great, it is so nutritious. Quinoa is a healthy carbohydrate AND complete protein which provides all your amino acids and keeps you full! Read on, get your quinoa ON.

quinoASEASONED

Full recipe below  > > > > > >

Easy Seasoned Quinoa

Ingredients

  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1/2 tsp basil
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions:

  1. Rinse quinoa in a strainer.
  2. Combine 1 cup quinoa with 2 cups water in a medium saucepan
  3. Cover and bring to boil, then reduce to simmer for about 15-20 minutes until all water is absorbed, stirring every 4-5 minutes to prevent quinoa from sticking to bottom of pan.
  4. After water is absorbed, remove from heat and keep covered for another 5 minutes.
  5. Add olive oil, oregano, basil, and salt.
  6. Fluff, serve and enjoy!

Note: If you would like to make plain quinoa for a specific recipe, follow steps 1-4 only 🙂

Happy Cooking! Let me know what you think. Plan to make it soon?

❤ Hope

Look me up on Facebook and instagram @ nonstopmomlife

 

 

 

cooking, delicious food, food, Uncategorized

Tasty Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

You know that brisket type pulled pork that makes your mouth instantly water. That’s what we have here. A delicious pulled pork that you can have on sandwiches, on salad, with nachos, in a wrap or whatever your heart and appetite desires.

finishedporkoncuttingboard

First get those ingredients ready

ingredientspic

One onion chopped, spices, minced garlic, and orange (or apple) juice

seasonedpork

Of course the pork, the shoulder is the best piece for pulled pork. I usually use two 2-2.5 lb cuts.

crockpotimage

Layer ingredients in crock pot with onions, garlic, and orange juice on the bottom.

crockpot

Cover, let it cook about 8 hrs and then shred and enjoy!

finishedpulledpork

Serve with your favorite sauce for an extra kick of tang, sweet, or smokey flavor!

BBQbottlespics

 

Tasty Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Ingredients:

  • 4-5 lbs pork shoulder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 2 tbsp paprika
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 2 ½ tsp minced garlic or 5 garlic cloves minced
  • ¼ cup apple or orange juice

Instructions:

  1. Trim large pieces of fat off of pork pieces
  2. Add minced garlic, orange (or apple) juice, and chopped onion to a crock pot.
  3. Mix all spices together besides garlic.
  4. Pat the spices on the pork, top and bottom, and then place pieces on top of the onion mixture in crock pot
  5. Cook on low for at least 8 hrs. Remove from crock pot to a cutting board or plate and shred with a fork. If desired, feel free add your favorite barbequece sauce!

Note: You can discard the remaining liquid after cooking or strain remaining liquid discarding the onions and fat, then add back to pork! I typically use about 1 cup of strained liquid for extra flavor and moisture 🙂

Happy Cooking!

❤ Hope

Look me up on Facebook and instagram @ nonstopmomlife

 

cooking, food, motherhood, quick meals, Uncategorized

Easy and Quick Oven Baked Chicken

DSCF2295

It is SO nice to have cooked chicken breast for a quick meal with sides, on salad, for a sandwich, to use in another recipe, for tacos, quesadillas, with pasta, in a wrap, or another way. I could go for a while : ) . This chicken is not only fast to make, it is delicious with lots of flavor from seasonings and is versatile.

What you’ll need

Chicken breast, spices (I used oregano, basil, garlic powder, paprika, sea salt, and black pepper), and olive oil

DSCF2266 (1)

First get those spices measured and mixed up

spiceswhitefont

Coat the chicken with olive oil and then seasoning. Then pop on a parchment lined sheet and bake!

rawseasonedchx

Bake until internal temp is 165 degrees.

cookedchx

Pair with sides and dinner is ready!  It is that easy and great! Read on for details ❤

platedchickenpic

FULL RECIPE BELOW   < < < < < < <

Easy and Quick Oven Baked Chicken

Ingredients

  • 3-4 Chicken breasts
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • ½ tsp basil
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp pepper
  • ¼ tsp paprika
  • 2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

Instructions;

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
  2. Mix spices together in small dish
  3. Apply olive oil to chicken breast, then add spices, coating top and bottom evenly
  4. Place seasoned chicken breasts on a parchment paper lined baking sheet
  5. Cook for 21 – 27 minutes, with small pieces of chicken cooking faster and larger pieces taking longer. I use a digital meat thermometer to make sure the chicken is 165 before I allow it cool.
  6. Pair with your favorite sides.

Note: If I know I am making this chicken for dinner, I sometimes double this recipe so I have extra for cooking with and leftovers later in the week for other quick meals.

Happy cooking!

❤ Hope

Look me up on instagram at Nonstopmomlife