favorite meals lately

 Although we have our standbys for meals I also love trying out new recipes and ideas. Here are a few of our favorites lately....

* "spaghetti" and meatballs - we eat whole grains but I try to keep it to a minimum as they arent very nutritionally dense and they are one of the harder things to digest. So one of my favorite and easy substitutions it spaghetti noodles for spaghetti squash noodles. Cut the spaghetti squash in half, clean out the "guts" and roast in an oven insides up rubbed with a little EVOO for about an hour at 375. I follow this recipe for meatballs and for a sauce I either make a super simple tomato sauce or use a jarred brand from Costco which is awesome because its organic and has no weird or chemical ingredients.

* zucchini cakes - this is the perfect side for just about any meal. I had a friend give me 5 giant zucchinis from her garden the other day because she has more than she could use so I came up with a way to use them other than the old stand by of sautee with salt and pepper :) I grated the zucchini, added one egg, and about 2 tablespoons of goat cheese (we love our local farms Tuscan flavor which has Italian herbs and sun dried tomatoes) if you want to switch it up you could use a different cheese or skip it all together and use your favorite spice blend. I mixed in whole wheat flour until I could form patties then cooked them on the griddle until done - totally Charlottes new favorite thing!

* yogurt, chia seeds and peaches - peaches are overflowing down here so I came up with a yummy breakfast/snack to use them up. 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt, 1 T chia seeds and 1 diced peach. Mix yogurt and chia seeds, let sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight until thickened and top with peaches - yum!!!

Hope you try one of these out and enjoy!

xoxo
Ashlea