Souvlaki Marinade
*I got this recipe from my sister in law, Amy 


1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 Tablespoon Oregano
1 Tablespoon Salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder 
2 teaspoons pepper


Mix ingredients all together and pour over 3 pounds of meat.  I used chunks of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  Marinate overnight.  


I did this as kabobs using the remaining marinade as a bast for zucchini, onions, green peppers, yellow peppers and tomatoes.  Served with rice!  

 Rice, zucchini, green and yellow pepper, onion, tomatoes and marinated chicken.

This was the left over veggies.  I cut them in half and then used the leftover marinade to bast them.  The zucchini got eaten up too quickly before I could take a picture.  

Eggs Benedict
*Modified  recipe from diabeticlivingonline.com
3 Tablespoons plain greek yogurt
2 teaspoons fat free milk
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
2 eggs
1 whole wheat english muffin
2 oz of thinly sliced turkey meat
2 tomato slices


In a small bowl, mix yogurt, milk and mustard.  Stir and then set aside.
Spray a medium skillet with cooking spray then fill half way full with water. Bring water to boiling then reduce heat to simmering (bubbles should begin to break the surface of the water). Break one of the eggs into a small dish.  Carefully slide egg into simmering water, holding the lip of the dish as close to the water as possible.  Repeat with the remaining egg, allowing each egg equal amount of space.
Simmer, uncovered, for 3-5 minutes or until the egg whites are completely set and yolks begin to thicken but are not hard.
Meanwhile, place muffin halves cut side up on a baking dish.  Broil 3-4 inches from the heat for 1-2 minutes or until toasted. Top muffin halves with turkey and tomato and continue broil for 1 minute more or until the toppings are heated through.  
To serve, use a slotted spoon to remove eggs from skillet. Place eggs on top of tomato slices. Spoon sauce over eggs, top with snipped fresh chives if desired.

 Every angle I tried on this just didn't seem to do it justice.  Sorry!

This is what it looked like when it was cut into.  SOOOO good!

Hawaiian Grilled Chicken
*I found this recipe on adashofthyme.com


3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cups low sodium soy sauce
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 bunch of green onions, chopped (save some for the top)
1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic (I like a little more so I upped it to 2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoons sesame oil
1 (13.5 oz) can of coconut milk


Remove any fat from chicken breasts. Mix soy sauce, brown sugar, coconut milk, sesame oil, onions, garlic and water in a bowl.  Marinate chicken for at least 4 hours (I did mine overnight).
Grill chicken on a low heat so the marinade does not burn.  I cooked it about 4 minutes on each side.  Serve with rice or noodles and top with green onions and soy sauce.
*I served this with coconut quinoa and it was perfect! When cooking your quinoa or rice, simply replace half of the water with coconut milk.
*I also reserved 2 cups of the marinade BEFORE I put it on top of the chicken.  I then added 1 1/2 to 2 Tablespoons of corn starch to thicken it to make a sauce.  I used this to drizzle over the grilled chicken and quinoa. 
*I also served this like a kabob.  The recipe didn't call for it but I wanted to squeeze some veggies in there.  I used leftover zucchini, yellow squash and onion. SOOOO good!

 Before hopping on the grill!

 Cooked up and on top of coconut quinoa!

 Close up so you can see the sauce!  It was fantastically delicious!

Garlic and Brown Sugar Chicken

*I modified this recipe from Food.com

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 medium yellow onion, diced

4 Tablespoons brown sugar

3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Lightly grease baking dish.

In a small saute pan, saute garlic onion and oil until tender.

Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar.

Place chicken in greased baking dish and cover with the brown sugar and garlic mix. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake uncovered for 15-30 minutes.  (I only did one chicken breast and it only took 15 minutes).

After done cooking, I put the chicken on a plate and poured the remaining sauce over top of it. This came out incredibly moist and full of flavor. 

Mango and Banana Green Smoothie
1 ripe mango, peeled and seeded
1/2 banana
1 handful (about 1 1/2 cups) baby spinach
1 Tablespoon flax seed meal
1/2 cup Silk pure coconut milk
1/4-1/2 cup water (depending upon how thin you want it)
8 ice cubes


Put all ingredients in blender and blend for 30-45 seconds.  The first time I made this with a whole banana and it was just too much...the consistency was not to my liking. 
Other ways you can make this is to add some raspberries, blueberries, strawberries or pineapple.  The key is the spinach (cuz it gets you the vitamins and nutrients you need without having to taste the spinach). If you haven't tried a green smoothie before just TRUST ME that you CANNOT taste the spinach and JUST DO IT!!!  

 All blended up!

 Kid Tested!

 Kid APPROVED!!!

I started drinking it before I took a picture.  :)  It was great!

Brittany's Tabouli


1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 1/4 cups water
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
4 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 medium yellow onion
2-3 Tablespoons minced garlic
1 1/2 cups spinach, chopped
1 cup baby peas
feta cheese crumbles (optional)
salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil


In a medium pan, bring water to boil and quinoa to a boil.  Turn down to medium to low heat, cover and cook for 16-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
While the quinoa is cooking, dice tomato, cucumber, onion and spinach.  When quinoa is done cooking, pour into serving dish and add lemon juice.  In the same pan used to cook quinoa, add extra virgin olive oil.  When that is hot, add onion and cook for 2 minutes.  Then add spinach and peas to pan and stir.  At this point, I put in 3 tablespoons of water and covered (just to make sure the peas had a hot bath to sit in and heat up).  But you don't have to do that if you don't want to.  When liquids have cooked out and it is heated through, add to quinoa.  Stir together. 
Place 1 cup quinoa mix on plate.  Top with tomatoes and cucumber.  You don't have to use feta cheese, though I highly recommend it.  I then drizzled a very small amount of extra virgin olive oil on top.  Sprinkled with salt and pepper.  


Serves 4-5

Ratatouille
*I got this recipe from Smittenkitchen.com
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 cup tomato puree
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil, divided
1 small eggplant
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1 long red pepper
Few sprigs fresh thyme
salt and pepper
softened goat cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
Pour tomato puree in oval baking dish (I only had square so that's what I used). Dropped the garlic cloves and onion into puree. Stir in 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Season the sauce generously with salt and pepper. Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash.  Trim the ends off the red pepper and cut out the core, leaving the red pepper intact like a tube.  Slice the vegetables into thin slices (approximately 1/16 inch). Arrange the cut vegetables concentrically on top of the tomato mixture starting with the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping vegetables so a small part is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a few handfuls leftover that do not fit.  
Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the vegetables and season generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs by running your fingertips down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the vegetables.
Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper that has been cut to fit the inside of the dish.  (THIS is the hardest part of this dish). Bake for approximately 45-55 minutes until the vegetables have released their liquids and are clearly cooked but still hold their structure. They should not be brown around the edges and you should see the tomato sauce bubbling up around them. 
The original recipe suggests serving with a little softened goat cheese, but I think it is really good by itself!

 So pretty!

 Cutting this parchment paper to the correct size was the hardest part of this dish.

I used the extra sauce I had and it was a little too much. 

But it tasted really good!