Farfalle Basil Marinara

This is now one of my go-to dinners!  Especially in the summer!  It's stove-top.  It's fast.  And it's delicious!  My whole family loves it!  It was served at a Power Up Seattle, and I knew I wanted to have it again at home!  And now we have it again and again :).

FARFALLE BASIL MARINARA
2 cups farfalle (bowtie) pasta*
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon garlic
1 1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons THRIVE Chopped Onions
1/2 cup THRIVE Tomato Dices
1/4 cup THRIVE Classic Tomato Sauce, dry
1/4 teaspoon THRIVE Chef's Choice Seasoning Blend
1/2 tablespoon Basil*
1/4 cup THRIVE Shredded Parmesan Cheese

Cook pasta in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes until done.  Drain and set aside.

Sweat oil and garlic together in saucepan.  Add all remaining ingredients except Parmesan and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes.

Toss pasta with sauce and Parmesan and bring back to a simmer.  Simmer another minute or so and then enjoy!

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

As written, this recipe makes about 3 servings.  But it would be very easy to double it for a larger family!  Seriously, our dinner was done in about 30 minutes from start to finish that night!  We served this dish alongside sauteed spinach, fresh strawberries, and French bread!  Yum!

And let me just say that I love the Classic Tomato Sauce!  I never would have considered buying it had it now been for trying this recipe at the Power Up.  Now I consider it a home store staple!

Happy THRIVEing!

Hiking Snacks!

Summer is coming in!  We have enjoyed several beautiful days here in Western Washington.

True, they've also been warm days -- and I'm not entirely fond of those ;).  But they have still been beautiful blue-sky days.  Great for soaking up the Vitamin D!

With this time of year come many opportunities to go hiking, back-packing, and camping!  And guess what!?!  THRIVE Life is awesome for those activities!  The foods are light-weight and so convenient!  So today I thought I'd share a couple of great hiking snack recipes using lots of THRIVE Life goodies!  These are especially great, because in addition to being light-weight, they are packed with great nutrients and protein -- the stuff to keep you going on those hikes!

MOUNTAIN MAN MIX

Mix equal parts:
THRIVE Sausage Crumbles
THRIVE Green Peas
THRIVE Sweet Corn
THRIVE Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Optional:  Sprinkle with THRIVE Chef's Choice Seasoning Blend to taste. (We opted out of the seasoning blend and it was still delicious!)

It's recommended you put all this in a bowl or container with a lid and shake, shake, shake (especially if you choose to use the seasoning blend).  

The other recipe is one I made up.  I call it Tropical Trail Mix.  Full of tropical fruits along with granola and nuts (and, of course, some chocolate!), it's a yummy little trail treat!

TROPICAL TRAIL MIX

2 cups Granola of your choice
¼ cup white chocolate chips

¼ cup milk chocolate chips

1/3 cup shredded coconut

2 ¼ cups THRIVE Mango

1 cup THRIVE Pineapple Chunks

1 cup THRIVE Banana Slices, broken

1 cup roasted salted cashews

½ cup THRIVE Passionfruit Yogurt Bites

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients until well-mixed.  Enjoy!

I'm pretty excited about these hiking snacks!  They aren't just for hiking, of course :).  They are great for snacking anytime!  A great way to get some fruits and veggies.  I just think they are phenomenal for back-packing and hiking, because they do have the ingredients to really boost energy levels and provide great nutrition while doing so!

Are you a hiker or back-packer?  Would you love having great home-made and healthy trail snacks?  I can help you with that!  Contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com or visit my website www.thrivelife.com/THRIVEingNilla!

Happy THRIVEing!

Chef Todd's Salsa... Sort Of

I had a get-together the other evening when I hosted a doTERRA Class for my sister-in-law.  (If you're interested in Essential Oils, you should totally check out her website here.)  Being the foodie that I am, I can't not serve food at an event!

So I made salsa.  One of the reasons for this was because I could "showcase" the edible uses of a couple of the Essential Oils (cilantro and lime).

The other reason was because I knew my THRIVE foods would come through for me and I could throw together a salsa in a snap!  Which was particularly awesome when that day turned out to be a harder one that I'd originally anticipated.  I needed easy like you can't imagine that day...

This salsa knocked my socks off for a couple reasons.  1.  It tasted great.  2.  My husband really liked it.  3. It was literally done in 5 minutes and was in the fridge mingling flavors.  No chopping or washing of anything (except the dishes later one).  It was amazing.  I may never make any other fresh salsa again, now that I know I can be spoiled with my THRIVE!

I halved the recipe (which can be found in its original form here) and made it as follows:

CHEF TODD'S SALSA... SORT OF
2 cups THRIVE Tomato Dices
2 tablespoons THRIVE Green Chilies
1 tablespoon THRIVE Chopped Onions
1 tablespoon THRIVE Cilantro
1/8 teaspoon THRIVE Chef's Choice seasoning blend
1 drop doTERRA Lime Essential Oil
a smidge (try not to use a full drop -- it's potent!) doTERRA Cilantro Essential Oil
3/4 cup water

Mix all dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  Add the lime and cilantro oils to the water and stir.  Pour the oil-infused water into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir to combine.  Cover and chill at least 2 hours.  Serve with chips.

See?  I told you this was easy.

Would you love to enjoy fresh salsa made in minutes?  Contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com or visit my website at www.thrivelife.com/THRIVEingNilla to place an order for these awesome ingredients!

Happy THRIVEing!

Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

Honestly, it never would have occurred to me to try THRIVE-alizing ice cream!  However, a friend of mine said to me one day, "So I have this delicious recipe for my grandmother's homemade peach ice cream.  But it calls for raw eggs.  And that gives me the heebie jeebies.  So I was wondering if you thought the THRIVE Whole Eggs would work in the recipe?"

Well!  I thought it was a great opportunity to try something new and find out!  Plus I gave her some THRIVE Powdered Eggs to try it out on her grandmother's recipe to see how it turns out!  When she tries it, we'll see if it's comparable to her grandmother's traditional recipe :).

Meanwhile, I recalled a recipe I have had sitting in my "to try" recipe binder for a decade.  It's from a 1983 Southern Living magazine -- from back in the days when putting a recipe in a magazine that calls for raw egg yolks probably wasn't frowned upon.  Because that's what one of the ingredients is for this recipe!  But hey, I've been toting that recipe around for years, and figured this was a great time to try it out -- and avoid the heebie jeebies (and harm to my unborn) thanks to THRIVE Whole Eggs!  So, in my THRIVE-alizing of this recipe, I did change it a little bit.  But mostly kept the same :).

COOKIES AND CREAM ICE CREAM
2 tablespoons THRIVE Whole Egg Powder (+4 tablespoons water)
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
4 teaspoons THRIVE Pure Vanilla Extract Powder
1 cup (or more!) coarsely crushed Oreo cookies
2 cups (1 pint) whipping cream, whipped (cannot be whipped topping!)

In a large bowl, mix together powdered eggs and water until all egg powder is dissolved.  Add vanilla extract powder and mix until well blended and dissolved.  Stir in sweetened condensed milk.  Fold in cookies and whipped cream.  Pour into aluminum foil-lined 9x5-inch loaf pan or other 2-quart container.  Cover; freeze 6 hours or until firm.  Scoop ice cream from pan or peel off foil and slice.  Return leftovers to freezer.

This worked out so deliciously!  I will warn you, however:  it is rich.

Funny tidbit:  At the bottom of the recipe, it cautions the user to use only Grade A clean, uncracked eggs for safety purposes, of course.  I don't know if you can actually get anything other than Grade A eggs (at least form a grocery store) these days, but I take comfort in knowing I don't need to worry about that when I use THRIVE Whole Eggs!

After much discussion with my husband, we decided the raw eggs called for in the original recipe may just be for flavor and may not be vital to the recipe's success.  But even so, if there is a special purpose (beyond flavor) for the raw egg, then the THRIVE Whole Egg Powder does the trick and makes some awesomely yummy (and totally unhealthy ;)) home-made ice cream!  Our family thoroughly enjoyed it for dessert last night (and we have more to enjoy for another night!).

The hoarder in me wants to hold on to this relic of a recipe from 1983... But the "trying to clean out the clutter" part of me knows the original recipe must go ;).

And now I'm thinking of ways to make more homemade ice creams using my THRIVE!  Powdering up fruits and mixing them in will add quite a variety of flavors to a simple vanilla ice cream recipe :)!  So I've got visions of raspberry ice cream, blueberry, banana... floating in my head.  Oh the possibilities are endless -- and easily on-hand! -- with THRIVE!

I need to do a product highlight for the THRIVE Whole Egg Powder, seriously.  It is the very first THRIVE Product I purchased and I love love love it and use it in so many ways!  So be looking for that in the posts ahead!

In the meantime, contact me if you'd like to get your hands on some!  It's amazing stuff!  THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com or visit my website:  www.thrivelife.com/THRIVEingNilla

Happy THRIVEing!!!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm always looking for new ways to use the amazing THRIVE Peanut Flour.  And I'm always looking for an excuse to make cookies ;).  It's a pretty great combination!  Plus this is my 100th Blog Post at THRIVEing With Nilla!  So why not celebrate with some delicious cookies!?!

So I adapted a recipe I had and came up with something a little bit new -- and THRIVEalized! 

These were so yummy -- both before baking and after!  (I love cookie dough like no other...  Which is why I love love love THRIVE Whole Egg Powder!  No raw eggs, so I can eat the dough guilt-free while pregnant!!!

PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup THRIVE Shortening Powder (plus 2 tablespoons water)
2 tablespoons THRIVE Whole Egg Powder (plus 4 tablespoons water)
1 teaspoon THRIVE Pure Vanilla Powder
3/4 cup white sugar*
3/4 cup brown sugar*
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup THRIVE Peanut Flour
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour*
3/4 cup whole wheat flour*
1 cup oats*
1/2 10-ounce bag chocolate chips (or to your preference!)

Cream together butter, THRIVE Shortening powder and 2 tablespoons water.  Add sugars and cream until well-blended.  Add THRIVE Whole Egg Powder + 4 tablespoons water and THRIVE Pure Vanilla Extract Powder.  Mix until well-blended.  Add remaining ingredients except chocolate chips.  Check dough.  If it is too dry, add additional water 1 tablespoon at a time until it reaches cookie-dough consistency.  When dough is all mixed, gently stir in chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for 9 minutes.  Allow to cool on cookie sheet about 5 minutes, then move to wire rack to cool completely. 

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

I took these to my book club my book club meeting last night and received several compliments, so I am counting it a success!  The peanut flour is not strong, especially once the cookies are baked, so the peanut flavor is definitely understated, but still there.  I might play around with the recipe some more in the future and see what happens when I add a little more peanut flour ;).  Because I do love chocolate and peanut butter together!

In other fantastic news...  There are even more reasons to celebrate!  THRIVE Life just announced a hosting promotion going on between now and the end of May!!  Party hosts have a chance to receive an additional $75 in free product in addition to the regular host benefits for parties with at least $600 in sales which are held between now and May 31st!  It's a great time to host a party and earn bonus freebies, so if you've ever thought about it...  Think about it some more -- and then contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com to book your party!

Happy THRIVEing!

Broccoli and Cauliflower Bake

I definitely loved my broccoli in March!  Not that I won't love it every month ;)...  But it was March's Q-Pon item, so I was thrilled to use it in a lot of my recipes.  One recipe I tried out was the recipes that comes on the #10 can of THRIVE Broccoli:  Broccoli and Cauliflower Bake.  What's not to love about an easy, cheesy vegetable dish!?!

As you can see, we kind of dug in before I remembered to take my picture ;).

As usual, one of the things I love most about my THRIVE Life foods is that I don't have to clean and chop vegetables!  All of the veggies for this dish were a scoop, dumb, rehydrate and go deal!  (That's my absolute favorite when it comes to onions, by the way...  I can't even tell you the last time I purchased a fresh onion!)

I also love that these veggies stay usable in the can for a long time.  Usually around a year, once the can is opened (much, much longer when the can is sealed -- 25 years!).  The other day, I threw away a whole crown of fresh broccoli, because we hadn't gotten to it yet and it had molded all over.  It made me sad, and sort of annoyed.  What a waste of money!  I don't have that problem with my THRIVE Broccoli! 

So here is the recipe for the Broccoli and Cauliflower Bake as I made it (which means I just left out the cream and added 2 extra tablespoons of milk, because I don't usually have cream on hand):

BROCCOLI AND CAULIFLOWER BAKE
2 cups THRIVE Broccoli
1 cup THRIVE Cauliflower
1 tablespoon THRIVE Chopped Onions
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour*
1 cup + 2 tablespoons milk*
1 teaspoon salt*
1/2 teaspoon THRIVE Chef's Choice Seasoning (which I forgot to picture, but used!)
1 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese*

Reconstitute vegetables in a bowl by barely covering with water.  Drain excess water.  Melt butter in a saucepan, whisk in flour, and cook for 1 minute.  Whisk in milk and slowly bring to a simmer, stirring frequently.  Mix in seasoning and half of cheese.  Mix in vegetables.  Place mixture in greased 8x8 baking pan.  Top with remaining cheese and bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

Don't forget, the BIG DEAL sale begins on April 9th -- and ALL THRIVE Life goodies are on sale!  You won't want to miss out, so contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com to place your order, or you can simply go to my website and order (but the sale prices will not be visible until April 9th): http://www.thrivelife.com/thriveingnilla.

Happy THRIVEing!

Lots of THRIVE!

The other day I used a lot of THRIVE to make dinner and dessert!  It was a lot of fun trying new things :).

Pictured above was dinner, drink, and dessert from that day -- and, being that I don't get super motivated these days until after 2 p.m., that's when I started working on all of this!  Definitely couldn't have done that much without my THRIVE!

First up:  drinks!  The truth is, we are mainly water drinkers in my household.  But every once in a while, a yummy fruity drink sounds really appealing.  So I can understand why experts recommend having some juice mixes as part of your home store.  I have used this THRIVE Simply Peach drink mix for a variety of juices as well as putting it into my smoothies.  I needed the juice for the dessert I'd decided to make, so I went ahead and made up a full batch and enjoyed some of the juice with dinner :).  Simply follow the guidelines on the #10 can (2 tablespoons THRIVE Simply Peach to 1 cup water) and oila!   You have a simple, but yummy juice.  It's a real treat for my toddler when she can have juice with dinner.  And she gulps it down fast.

What I love?  IT HAS NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS!  That's such a win, when so many powdered drinks are full of artificial colors!

Next up:  dinner!  It was one of those "what am I going to make for dinner?" days...  I mean, I had my menu list all planned out -- like I do most pay periods.  But I flat out forgot to pull meat out to thaw.  And this is one of the reasons I love my THRIVE meats.  They are ready to use, even at the last minute.  So I found a recipe on the THRIVE Life website for Chicken Broccoli Alfredo.  You can follow that link and get the original recipe.  You can even make this as a jar meal.  Here's how I did it (with what I had on hand):

CHICKEN BROCCOLI ALFREDO
1 heaping cup shell macaroni
1/2 cup THRIVE Bechamel Sauce
2 tablespoons THRIVE Sour Cream Powder
1 1/2 teaspoon THRIVE Chopped Onions
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoon Italian Seasoning*
1 teaspoon THRIVE Chef's Choice Seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons THRIVE Chicken Bouillon
1 cup THRIVE Seasoned Chicken Slices
1 cup THRIVE Broccoli
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan Cheese*

Place all ingredients except Parmesan Cheese in a saucepan with 4 1/2 cups water.  Allow to sit for 10 minutes.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes or until pasta is done, stirring occasionally.  Stir in Parmesan Cheese until melted and incorporated.

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

So the things I loved about this dish: 
1.  It was all in one pot.
2.  It was easy to throw together.
3.  I didn't have to worry about thawing meat, etc.

But I have to be honest...  I personally didn't especially like this meal.  I think it was the Italian Seasoning.  Granted, I don't have THRIVE Italian Seasoning, so maybe that makes a difference.  But I just didn't enjoy that flavor.  My toddler really didn't like it.  My husband, however, said he didn't think it was bad.  So I guess it's all in personal preference.  But I have to share my true feelings, and those are that I don't plan to make this again.

For some reason, anytime I make pasta, I feel like I need bread to go with it.  Clearly, I did not start my meal-making in time to do a yeast bread.  And even throwing together scratch biscuits seemed like a lot of effort (lazy, huh?).  But then it occurred to me I could do the next best thing!  Sort of scratch biscuits!  I grabbed my Honey Whole Wheat Mix and decided to try making biscuits with it!  A quick glance at the ingredients told me it already had shortening in the mix, along with flour and salt...  Basically I just had to add a leavening agent.  And that was simple enough with baking powder!  So here's my recipe:

HONEY WHOLE WHEAT DROP BICUITS
2 cups THRIVE Honey Whole Wheat Dough Mix
3 teaspoons baking powder*
1 1/4 cups milk*

Place the dough mix into a medium bowl and add baking powder.  Stir well to combine.  Add milk and mix.  Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 450 for 9 minutes.  (I got 9 biscuits.)

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

You can add less milk if you want to make "cut out" biscuits.  But I like the drop biscuits, because they are fast.

And finally...  What I did for dessert ;).  Which was just a random idea I had, so I ran with it.  And it's also a pretty decent snack for a toddler!  I'm calling them Strawberry Peach Jiggly Squares :).

STRAWBERRY-PEACH JIGGLY SQUARES
4 cups THRIVE Simply Peach, prepared (this is 4 cups water plus 8 tablespoons THRIVE Simply Peach drink mix)
4 packets unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup coarsely chopped THRIVE Strawberry Slices

Bring 3 cups of prepared juice to a boil.  Place one cup of prepared juice in a large bowl.  Sprinkle all 4 packets of gelatin over juice. Allow to sit for a minute.  Pour hot juice into the bowl and stir until all gelatin is dissolved.  Stir in THRIVE Strawberry Slices.  Pour into a 9x13 pan (I usually spray with cooking spray for even easier release later!).  Refrigerate until firm.  Cut into squares.

Again, one thing I really love about this is that there are no artificial colors!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not great at staying away from all the artificial colors.  And who doesn't love Jell-o Jigglers?  But if I can come up with something just as fun and kid-friendly without the fake stuff?  I'm totally in!

Anyway, I had a lot of fun experimenting and playing around and trying new things.  And I just really love how THRIVE Life has often come to the rescue on those days when I am not as prepared as I could be to make dinner ;)!

Happy THRIVEing!  And, as always, contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com with any questions or to place an order to help your meal-times not be a conundrum when you forget to thaw the meat ;)!!!

Arroz Con Pollo Con THRIVE (Panamanian Chicken and Rice)

Well, I've been experimenting again...  And tonight I tried Arroz con Pollo (Panamanian Chicken and Rice) using a ton of THRIVE Life ingredients!

I grew up on this dish.  It has a little special place in my heart.  And it occurred to me I could make it with my THRIVE!  And save myself lots of time by so doing.  Tonight, I had this dish simmering after 20 minutes (including my toddler's "help").  No joke.  When I make it the traditional way -- without THRIVE -- I'm in the kitchen anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour.

Here's how THRIVE Life saved me that much time:

1.  I didn't use raw chicken.  This means I didn't have to clean the chicken or disinfect the counters when I was done.  My THRIVE Chopped Chicken was ready for me to use, already cooked!
2.  I didn't have to wash or chop my vegetables.  This included celery, onion, cilantro, and bell pepper.  Saved me 5 to 10 minutes right there!
3.  I was able to skip the browning chicken step -- as well as the shredding chicken step.  This is another 5 to 10 minutes, typically.
4.  Though this didn't technically save me time in the kitchen (since I could be out of the kitchen while it was happening), it did save on how long it took to get dinner to the table:  I didn't have to boil and cook the chicken.

In fact, this was ready in about 55 minutes (but only 20 of that was hands-on -- the rest was just letting the rice cook).  When I make this dish for dinner without THRIVE, I plan for starting dinner 2 hours before I want to eat it.  And even then, sometimes it takes longer.

So here's the recipe how I made it.

ARROZ CON POLLO/PANAMANIAN CHICKEN AND RICE
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons THRIVE Chopped Onions (freeze dried)
1/3 cup THRIVE Celery
1/3 cup THRIVE Mixed Bell Peppers
1 tablespoon THRIVE Cilantro
4 tablespoons THRIVE Tomato Powder
1 teaspoon salt*
6 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup THRIVE Chopped Chicken
1/2 teaspoon oregano*
1 1/2 cups white rice*
1/3 cup THRIVE Green Peas
1/3 cup THRIVE Carrot Dices (optional)
1/2 cup sliced green olives (optional)

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add minced garlic and give a quick stir.  Toss in THRIVE Chopped Onions, THRIVE Celery, THRIVE Mixed Bell Peppers and THRIVE Cilantro.  Give everything a little stir, then add 2 1/2 cups water.  Stir in THRIVE Tomato Powder and salt.  Add additional 4 cups of water, THRIVE Chopped Chicken, white rice, THRIVE Green Peas, and THRIVE Carrot Dices.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer and allow to cook until water is absorbed and rice is done.  Stir in green olives, if desired.

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

So I'll be the first to admit this isn't exactly like the original traditional takes-a-long-time recipe.  But it's close, and it saves me so much time!  I'm excited to have found a way to make one of my favorite dishes more quickly and easily!  It means I can put it on our dinner menu more frequently :).

A couple notes:  you could add more chicken if you wanted.  We just cut back on our meat consumption a lot, so that was plenty for us.  If you do increase the chicken, you may want to increase the water a little bit too.  And, as it is often difficult to "make up" a recipe (at least for me...), I learned that I needed to increase the water (I wrote the recipe the way it needs to be, not the way I made it.  I had 1 less cup of water in mine and not all the rice got all the way cooked).  And I forgot to include my THRIVE Cilantro in the picture.  Grrr...  Oh well ;).  It's in the recipe, so that's what really counts!

Raspberry Sauce/Filling

Yesterday I had some extra kiddos coming over early in the morning.  One of them is only 8 months old, so he wasn't going to be caring too much about pancakes for breakfast...  But the other is 4, and then my toddler is almost 2.  So I figured I'd make a "special" breakfast.  Particularly because my husband likes to tease me about my cast iron pancake puff pan (the as seen on TV! one) that I have used only a very few times, yet continue to move around with me from home to home.  Well, here's the thing:  my dad got it for me many years ago, because he thought I would like it.  I'm kind of a sentimental person, so I hold on to things like that.  Plus, it is super cute!  And I just know my kiddos will appreciate the fun of having pancake puffs in the years ahead. 

But I decided it was a good time to make pancake puffs, since I'd have an older kid over at breakfast time.  And then I started thinking about how much fun it would be to actually fill the puffs (the pan comes with gadgets to help you add pizazz!  And one of those gadgets is a syringe type thing) with something yummy!  And I thought of my THRIVE Raspberries, and the recipe on the #10 can of THRIVE Raspberries for Raspberry Sauce.  So I decided to give it a try!

I will confess straight up that this did not go entirely as I hoped.  I was playing around with the recipe on kind-of short notice.  I decided to cut back on the water in the original recipe to hopefully make a thicker sauce which would do the trick.  Well, it really didn't quite.  It wasn't gel-like enough.  Which means I have learned I need to do some more research.  However, it was still a really fun experience, and the sauce just soaked into the pancake puffs and still made them delicious anyway!  So I'm still posting this and then I will hone the technique and post again when I've had 100% success!

I started out by making my pancake puffs with my THRIVE 10-Grain Pancake Mix (which was just pancake mix and water).  We love this stuff!  I also made up a few regular pancakes with the batter, since it wasn't vital that I have puffs ;). 

While making the pancakes, I started the Raspberry filling.  Here is the way I did it (which was basically cut the original recipe in half, except I significantly decreased the water):

RASPBERRY SAUCE/FILLING
1 cups THRIVE Raspberries
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons white sugar*
1/2 tablespoon honey*
1/2 teaspoon THRIVE Pure Vanilla Powder
1/8 teaspoon salt*
3/4 teaspoon lemon juice

Boil all ingredients in a saucepan until slightly thickened and syrupy (only I was trying to get it very thick, so I boiled longer).  Place sauce in a strainer over a bowl and push through, leaving only the seeds in the strainer.  Discard seeds.  Cover and refrigerate sauce before serving over desserts.  (Well, I actually used mine right away, which probably didn't help the lack of thickness!  Also, I didn't spend a lot of time on the straining.  I got a lot of sauce out for injecting into the puffs, but left the rest in the strainer with the seeds, and then spread it on my pancakes -- still yummy!)

I tried to get a close-up of the puffs so you could see the filling/sauce squeezing out a bit ;).

Dinner and Dessert -- With THRIVE Help!

I love THRIVE Life foods.  For a number of reasons.  But I don't use them exclusively.  And that's just because I have a lot of the ingredients on hand already, which I didn't purchase through THRIVE Life.  Or they are items not available through THRIVE Life.

But when I do have those THRIVE goodies on hand to help me out...  It's just awesome!  Because I am often able to shave 5 or 10 minutes off my meal prep, simply by not having to chop onions or clean and chop celery, etc.

Yesterday, I was making dinner for my family as well as taking some to a friend who recently had surgery.  And THRIVE Life helped me out!  Here are all the THRIVE Life Ingredients I used in yesterdays dinner (and dessert!):

For dinner, I made Salisbury Steaks, mashed potatoes, and purchased a pre-made chopped salad kit (just for something a little different).  Dessert was chocolate chip cookies. 

(sorry for the sideways picture!)






I love these chocolate chip cookies!  I have made them before using THRIVE Butter Powder as well, but this time, since I am running low on the butter powder (need to get that on order!), I used regular butter.  You can find the recipe here. 

I love that THRIVE Whole Egg Powder allows me to eat raw cookie dough guilt-free when I'm pregnant ;).

The THRIVE Chopped Onions saved me some time for the Salisbury Steaks, and the THRIVE Potato Beads saved me a ton of time!  I didn't have to wash, peel, chop, or boil potatoes!  I just brought water and milk to a boil with some butter and a couple other seasonings and added in my THRIVE Potato Beads, and voila!  Side dish was done!  And I love that!

Don't get me wrong:  I am excited about all the things I can prep ahead of time using so much of my THRIVE Life ingredients.  But even on the days when I'm just using a few of the awesome THRIVE ingredients to cut some corners and save myself some time and effort, I'm grateful to have my home store of delicious THRIVE Life foods!

"Frankenmuffins"

As I've mentioned before, I'm always looking for new yummy ways to get vegetables into myself and my toddler!  I recently came across this recipe for "Frankenmuffins" in a Family Fun magazine my friend Lea gave me.  I knew I wanted to try it out (even if it isn't quite Halloween-time yet ;)), and THRIVE gave me the incentive to do so one day when I realized I had all the ingredients necessary -- thanks to THRIVE Chopped Spinach!  So I tweaked the original recipe a bit, as the original called for fresh baby spinach, and I figured I wouldn't need as much spinach while using my THRIVE.  Below is the recipe as I made them.

FRANKENMUFFINS
1 cup white flour*
1 cup whole wheat flour*
3/4 cup sugar*
2 teaspoons baking powder*
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt*
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup milk*
3 cups THRIVE Chopped Spinach, rehydrated
1 large ripe banana
2 teaspoons THRIVE Pure Vanilla Powder

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 16 muffin cups with cooking spray.  In a large bowl, combine first 7 ingredients and stir with a mix until well combined.

In a blender, add the oil, milk, and spinach.  Puree until smooth.  Add banana and vanilla and blend until all is well combined.  Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until completely mixed (I used my stand mixer).

Fill each prepared muffin well two-thirds full.  Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes (mine took 17).

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

I seriously cannot say enough good things about these muffins!  They are delicious!  And they freeze amazingly well.  We will be making another batch of them tomorrow, because we ran out!  My toddler and I love to eat them as a snack, but I think they could even be used as breakfast.  And I just love that I'm getting extra veggies into both of us in a delicious way!  And I really love using my THRIVE Spinach in this recipe.  It's so super-easy to just scoop my spinach into the blender and add the liquids and blend!

Granola

The other day, I saw my THRIVE Honey Crystals sitting amongst my home store, and I thought to myself, "I need to make some granola!"  And so I did :).  This is seriously a delicious granola recipe.  I pretty much kept snagging handfuls while it was supposed to be cooling.  I also enjoyed some as cereal this morning before my ultrasound.  Delicious!

I followed this recipe, generally.  But I made a few changes.  I will post my recipe below as I made it (with alterations).

HOME-MADE GRANOLA
4 cups oats*
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup sliced almonds
3/4 teaspoon salt*
1/4 cup brown sugar*
1/2 cup THRIVE Butter Powder
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon THRIVE Pure Vanilla Extract Powder
3/4 cup THRIVE Honey Crystals
2/3 cup water

In a large bowl, combine first 3 ingredients.  Set aside.  Preheat oven to 350.

In a small saucepan, add remaining ingredients and stir.  Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer 2 to 3 minutes or until honey mixture is thickened.

Pour honey mixture over dry ingredients and stir until well combined.  Pour onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned, removing to stir 2 to 3 times during cooking for even browning.  Allow to cool completely.

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life.

Seriously, this stuff is awesome.  I made it once before for a THRIVE brunch party and did a yogurt parfait bar.  The granola was phenomenal on the THRIVE yogurts!  But it is also great as a cereal or as a snack by itself!

Cooking with the Q-Pon: Instant Pinto Beans: Taco Soup

Well, after a crazy week (plus) of not living in our own home...  We're back!  Which means I can get my THRIVE on a bit more again :)!

And, being that today was Wednesday, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to start cooking with October's Q-Pon item: THRIVE Instant Pinto Beans!!  I made a version of this soup by Chef Todd.  I used the recipe as my guide and changed it up a bit to suit what I had on hand!  Here's how I made it:

TACO SOUP
3/4 pound ground beef*
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup THRIVE Chopped Onions
1 1/2 cup THRIVE Instant Pinto Beans
1/2 cup THRIVE Sweet Corn
1 1/2 cups diced tomatoes* (I used ones I'd diced and frozen from our garden, but a can would work too)
4-ounce can diced green chilies*
8-ounce can tomato sauce*
2 tablespoons THRIVE Seasonings: Cilantro
2 beef bouillon cubes*
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
7 cups water

Optional toppings:
tortilla chips
sour cream (I used THRIVE Sour Cream Powder!)
shredded cheese*

Brown beef.  Add garlic and saute about 30 seconds.  Add all remaining ingredients (not including toppings).  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 to 20 minutes. 

Add desired toppings.  Enjoy!

*Denotes other ingredients available through THRIVE Life!

I thought this was tasty!  A perfect dinner for a chilly, rainy Pacific Northwest evening!

Sausage Pizza

Home-made pizza is a hit at our house.  But, because it's a great way for my family to get a lot of vegetables, I pretty much always make a vegetarian pizza.

Today, however, we find ourselves not in our house and still in our friends' house.  Which meant I was cooking dinner for 4 (plus a toddler).  So I made two pizzas!  One vegetarian and one sausage!  I'd been wanting to try out the THRIVE Sausage Crumbles on a pizza for some time now, and tonight presented the perfect opportunity!

I made my standard pizza dough as follows (this recipe makes one pizza crust):

2 1/2 to 3 cups flour* (tonight I used all white, but usually I do 1 cup white, 1 cup wheat)
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon yeast*
1/4 teaspoon salt*
1 teaspoon sugar*
1 cup water

Combine two cups flour (for me this is one cup each) plus next 5 ingredients.  Add remaining flour a little at a time until it is not sticky, but still a little tacky.  Knead until it becomes smooth and supple.  Grease a large bowl, place dough in bowl and turn to coat.  Cover with damp towel and place in a warm place to rise 30 minutes to 1 hour (depending on how much time you have).

While the dough is raising, get the toppings ready:

1 cup THRIVE Sausage Crumbles
1/4 cup THRIVE Chopped Onion
3/4 cup chopped bell peppers*
1/2 of an 8 ounce can tomato sauce*
THRIVE Seasonings Basil
THRIVE Seasonings Oregano
1 to 2 cups mozzarella cheese*

Rehydrate THRIVE Sausage Crumbles and THRIVE Chopped Onion in water 5 to 6 minutes.  Drain.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

When the dough is ready, press it out onto a pan of your choice.  Spread with tomato sauce.  Sprinkle sauce with THRIVE Seasonings Basil and THRIVE Seasonings Oregano.  Then top with bell peppers and THRIVE Sausage Crumbles and THRIVE Chopped Onion mixture.  Sprinkle all with mozzarella cheese and bake 20 minutes or until dough is cooked and cheese is melted.

*Denotes ingredients also available through THRIVE.

I was definitely pleased with how the pizza turned out!  And even happier that I didn't have to mess around with raw sausage OR chop up onion in order to enjoy this pizza!

If you'd like to give these THRIVE Sausage Crumbles a try, contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com!  I'm definitely loving them!  And don't forget:  the THRIVE Seasonings are only available through your consultant!

Make-Ahead Monday: Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies

Once-a-month cooking is very popular these days among many moms...  It's a great way to prepare a bunch of meals, freeze them, and then have them ready for preparing and eating with little to no effort on the day of! 

So I got to thinking:  what if THRIVE could help women in this way too!  But instead of freezing the meals, the THRIVE ingredients can be stored in jars!  Then, on a particularly busy day, you pull out a jar -- and just add water!

Super time-saver!

Thanks to the new THRIVE Vanilla Extract Powder, I was able to "make ahead" a batch of butterscotch oatmeal cookies!  Then, when I had to take something for a potluck baby shower, I grabbed my mix, added some water, and baked!  Super simple -- and they came out tasty too!

So here's how I did it:

BUTTERSCOTCH OATMEAL COOKIES
2/3 cup all-purpose flour*
1/2 teaspoon baking soda*
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon*
1/4 teaspoon salt*
1/2 cup THRIVE Butter Powder
1 tablespoon THRIVE Whole Egg Powder (equivalent to 1 egg)
1/2 teaspoon THRIVE Vanilla Extract Powder
1/3 cup packed brown sugar*
1/3 cup granulated sugar*
3/4 cup butterscotch chips*
1 1/2 cups quick oats*

Using a funnel, layer ingredients in a quart-size mason jar. (I put the chips on top). You may have to jostle the jar a bit to make everything fit.

To make the cookies: Pour contents of jar into mixing bowl with about 1/3 cup water. Mix well. Add extra water a teaspoon at a time if the dough looks too dry, blending well after each addition, until cookie dough consistency is reached. Drop by spoonfuls on greased baking sheet.  Bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on pan for 1 minute then move to wire rack to finish cooling.

*Denotes ingredients also available through THRIVE.

These have passed the toddler test, the 5-year-old test, and the adult test ;).

Now, if you seal these properly and use an oxygen absorber, they can wait on the shelf for you for about 3 months.  If you don't (as I didn't), I would recommend you use it within 3 to 4 weeks of preparing the jar.  

I was really glad to have had these waiting for me to use yesterday evening.  Church was over at 4, but we got home after 4:30.  I had a family to feed (including nieces) and had to figure out what to make to take to the baby shower potluck.  These were definitely a nice treat -- one less thing for me to worry about :)!  And a great quick-fix solution!

THRIVE Vanilla Extract Powder is only available through consultants, so if you want to be able to make some "make ahead" cookies and have the ingredients that will help you, contact me at THRIVEingNilla@gmail.com!

Happy THRIVEing!