Vitamin C! I want to start this off by saying something really important about how essential Vitamin C is for your health, but all I can think about is this Vitamin C. Remember her? That graduation song, man. It gets me every time. Class of 2005, never forget!
Okay, real talk. Vitamin C is necessary/awesome because it
Those are just a few facts I found with the help of my old pal Google- I’m sure there are lots of other benefits, too.
We take these in the mornings along with our flu-fighting gummies (for more about our daily health routine, check out this post). They have a real Creamsicle vibe to them, with just a little bite of acidity at the end. The kids love them and always ask for more.
The dosage of Vitamin C in each gummy will depend on the strength of your Vitamin C powder and the size of your gummies. A little math can tell you how much is in each gummy after you make them. We take 2 gummies a day.
I found my Vitamin C powder at Trader Joe’s, but you should be able to find it at any health food store or online. This is the easiest way (other than whole foods) to incorporate extra Vitamin C into our diet that I have found. Though my friend just told me about something called lipsomal Vitamin C, which is supposed to be better absorbed by the body, but I haven’t done any research on that yet. So for now, we’ll continue on with the gummies. If anyone has any experience with lipsomal Vitamin C, please hit me up in the comments or email me, I’d love to know more.
Don’t they just look so bright and yummy and cheery?
P.S. Congratulations to Samantha B. on winning the Beyond Bacon giveaway!
I have the sniffles.
And my little girl has a runny nose.
We haven’t had any sickness around here all winter, so I got to thinking about what might have changed in our habits in the past few weeks. Then it hit me- we were out of gummies!
It may seem trivial, but these gummies really make a difference for us. They are part of our daily routine during cold and flu season. Each morning, we all take:
We also use essential oils at bath time (usually lavender, citrus or eucalyptus) and for evening foot rubs (we use Thieves in a carrier oil). Might be silly, but it’s part of our routine now and it’s been working!
The powerhouse ingredient in the gummies is the Elderberry Syrup, known for strengthening the immune system. You can buy it pre-made or make it yourself. I inherited some homemade syrup from my sister-in-law, so I haven’t had to make it myself yet (thanks, Steph!). The tart cherry juice helps with sleep and the gelatin strengthens the gut lining. If you don’t like the tart cherry flavor or you can’t find it, you can substitute pomegranate juice, which is full of antioxidants. The raw honey and vanilla extract are optional, but I think they enhance the flavor and make the gummies more appealing for the little ones.
One batch poured into a loaf pan makes about 70-80 gummies for me, which lasts us quite a while, especially when we have other gummies to go along with them. I’d love to pick up some of those super cute silicon molds that I keep seeing on the internet, but I haven’t pulled the trigger.. I love these robot and dinosaur ones!
I know these gummies aren’t the key to health or a 100% guarantee to not getting sick this season, but every little step toward health can help. They’re yummy and my kids take them gladly, so I think we’ll be keeping them in the rotation for a while.
What about you? How do you prevent cold and flu from coming into your home? I’d love to hear your tips!
Oh hey, 2014!
How’s week one of the new year going for everyone? We are in hibernation mode here in Ohio, which has given me lots of time to reflect on what to do with my time in the next 12 months (or rather the next 5 months, since new babies have a way of shifting your priorities).
To help me get my head on straight, I have been going through Lara Casey‘s Make It Happen series; it’s a goal-setting series that I absolutely recommend. Especially if you’re like me, AKA you have a huge desire to get your act together for the new year but have no idea where to start. I’ve got a lot of ideas swimming around in this head and Make It Happen has helped me to organize it all. So, yay, new year! And hooray for a new recipe today! Finally got off my duff and picked up my camera.
This soup was inspired by a lovely lunch I had with my friend Jillian (see how awesome she is below) at Wheat Penny here in Dayton. We sampled a little cup of their curried carrot soup to start our meal; it was grand. I love that curry powder gives such a distinct, comforting taste but doesn’t make things too spicy. For my at-home version, I used all the orange veggies we had on hand- carrots, butternut squash and sweet potato. Pumpkin would also work well; you can use what you have in any combination.
This soup works for a whole variety of diets and is almost impossible to mess up. It would be great with some crumbled bacon on top, or even some homemade croutons. You could kick up the spice by adding some thai red curry paste, too.
And beyond tasting good, this soup has great nutritional benefits:
A special thanks to my sweet friends Jillian and Megan for making this post happen- they came over to my house today and did all my dishes PLUS cleaned my fridge! It was amazing, and it motivated me to pull out the camera and get this post up. A clean kitchen = no excuses for this lady. Thanks, girls- you are such a blessing to me! I am ready to re-pay you in soup.
Good morning, hello, how are you?
I made you some pie.
But first, let’s talk about blogging for a minute.
Food blogging is a funny little part of my life. Most people I come in contact with in “real life” don’t even know I do it; whereas you guys only know about what gets posted here, only this little shared piece of me. Sometimes I feel like my head is bursting with ideas and all I want to do is camp out in the kitchen, test things out and share them with you. Other times, blogging is just off my radar completely. We just go about our business as a family for a while and suddenly (usually during a bang-up meal) I realize that I haven’t been blogging.
Blogging has changed a lot in the past five years. Heck, my life has changed a lot in the past five years. When I first started blogging, I did it because I really enjoyed baking and cooking and documenting what was going on in my kitchen. I had no kids, I had plenty of time. Then the blog grew a little bit and I started to put more importance on posting however-many-times a week, making sure I was hitting up social media and doing all the “right stuff” as a blogger. And I went through a period where I felt really guilty if I wasn’t keeping all of those things going. Spoiler Alert: I can not keep all that stuff going. haha
Now, I’m a mom of two, working on putting together a new house and making it a home. You better believe I have been churning out some great meals for my family that I’d love to share, but I just got out of the groove of setting up photos. Lots of good meals have gone undocumented. Sometimes I still feel guilty for not sharing all of that good stuff with you guys, but realistically, I know that you understand that I have a real life to live outside this slice of the web. So, just thanks for being awesome and going with the flow.
I’ll start talking about the pie now.
This Shepherd’s Pie wasn’t some long-thought-out plan to reduce potato consumption or GAPS-ify a classic recipe. I just had a head of cauliflower and some ground beef that needed using and this is what happened. I saw it coming out of the oven all bubbly and brown and my brain said, “Take a picture, fast, and then let’s eat this thing!”
Cauliflower is like the classic nerd-that-turns-popular story, am I right? People never really gave it much thought before, but now it is everywhere! Cauliflower pizza crusts and faux-tatoes and cauli-rice galore. Good for you, cauliflower. Enjoy your 15 minutes of vegetable fame. You and your versatility deserve it.
This is similar to a classic Shepherd’s Pie, just with the potatoes swapped for cauliflower. I did add cheese on the top, but you can leave it off if you must. If you’re on the fence, though, definitely leave it on- it’s awesome. I used extra sharp cheddar. Treat Yo’ Self.
Perfect meal for fall, you guys! Dinner on the table in about an hour. What’s not to love?
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I made a real dinner, you guys.
I actually semi-meal-planned it and put thought into it and everything (say what??). Mom/wife of the year!
It’s tough for me to get my head on straight and focus on my every day responsibilities at the moment. The new house is just crazy and it’s consuming my thoughts. I sat down to write my market/grocery list and I reeeeally had to focus, but I got it done. And I actually bought the things on my list at the market without buying any extra stuff (except a strawberry popsicle for my little helper, couldn’t resist). Although.. we did go to Trader Joe’s afterwards and we have about 0.0% self control in that place.. so mission only semi-accomplished. Oops.
We will have to do a whole run down of our Trader Joe’s favorites soon.. I could talk about it all day. Love/hate relationship.
Okay, so these are mini taco-stuffed zucchini boats. Cute, right? I made them smaller so they’d work nicely for kid portions. I actually thought about making them even smaller, but I thought the filling might fall out. After cooking them, I can say that they’d be perfect bite-sized appetizers if you cut them into 1-inch portions. I’d love to serve teeny tiny ones with some margs- GIANT margs.
If you are paleo or dairy-free, I still think these would be tasty without the cheese. We had some extra filling and we fried it up like a little taco burger, and it tasted great. Cheese not necessary.
These little boats are a nice way to switch things up if you like tacos, but you’re getting tired of your typical tortilla or lettuce wrap. The zucchini is basically just another vehicle for getting that taco goodness in your mouth. It’s really all about the filling, isn’t it? It takes a little extra time, but it’s not as messy as a taco if you’re feeding them to your child. This is important at my house, since my daughter has crazy-dinner-mess-face every time she eats. Girl is serious about her food.
Hopefully, I can keep up this meal-planning streak for another few days. I think you probably know how that’s going to end..
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I’m pretty much on a diet of chopped vegetable dishes. Every meal I’ve eaten in the past two weeks has either consisted solely of a) potato salad, b) green bean salad with basil, sautéed radishes, and hunks of mozzarella, c) citrusy coleslaw, or a hearty helping of one of those next to some protein that I was mostly eating just to stave off devouring a giant bowlful of one of those salads. Now that tomatoes are starting to come in? Oh boy. Watch out. Is it possible to eat all of your daily calories from tomatoes? Can I try? No? Okay, I’ll throw in some grilled corn on the cob slathered with homemade lime mayonnaise and queso añejo. And some peaches and cherries. That’s fine. God I love summer.
Gazpacho is a little difficult for me. On the one hand, it’s probably one of the best soups you can eat. On the other hand, it seems a little shameful to purée fresh, ripe, local (expensive) heirloom tomatoes. Maybe that’s because I don’t have any of my own in a garden in my back yard. I kind of feel that they’re like precious gems and to adulterate them with anything more than some coarse sea salt and a basil leaf is to somehow cheapen them. But when it’s terrible and hot and gross out, gazpacho is something to live for.
Since there’s not much to gazpacho, you must use good tomatoes. Don’t put off this recipe until the winter or something. Go out and splurge on some beautiful tomatoes. And if you have them in your garden, you are lucky and please send some to me. And as with most traditional and iconic recipes, there are a hundred versions, all hotly contested as being the one perfect one I’m sure. I don’t have too many strong opinions on what vegetables should or not should be included in gazpacho and what the levels of vinegar and oil should be. I do strongly feel, though, that using tomato juice is a no-no. I mean, you’re trying to celebrate gorgeous summer tomatoes. Why would you mix them with bottled tomato juice? Gah. But if you want to leave out the cucumber and red pepper, or add in some parsley, go for it. Topping gazpacho with a hard boiled egg is also extremely acceptable.
That’s it. That’s my gazpacho. It’s wonderful. You can certainly chill it if you need some extra cooling off, but I think room temperature allows the flavors to be their best. Unless room temperature means boiling, which it would be here if my air conditioner ever stopped working. Some garnishes you could use if you haven’t already started to dig in, are finely chopped cucumbers and red peppers, parsley, toasted almonds, and crumbled/chopped hard boiled egg.
Seriously gardeners, send me your tomatoes. I hear that you have wayyy too many to eat. Pretty sure.
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Popsicles, again?
Yes, always.
Orange popsicles, that is, since I apparently that’s my specialty. (See these creamsicles and mango yogurt pops for the proof.)
While cleaning out the fridge last week, I came upon half a papaya that needed some love (aka I didn’t have the heart to throw it out.) Usually I buy papaya strictly for juices (it’s anti-inflammatory and ya’ll know I need some of that!) but it looked past it’s juicing prime. So popsicles seemed the obvious choice in the heat of summer and because for some reason I couldn’t just cut it up and eat it like a normal person.
I could have made them straight papaya, but I love to add a bit of creaminess to my pops. I was out of any useful coconut products, so I used the cream from the top of the raw milk jar. It was a wise choice, believe you me. A little bit of lime, vanilla and honey and BAM- papaya pops comin’ at ya.
Next time you have half a papaya sitting alone in your fridge, this recipe can be your go-to. I assume that probably won’t happen to most of you, but a girl can dream.. someone out there thinks my blog is useful and actually makes my recipes, right? haha
Really, though- I love you guys. Thanks for reading my crazy popsicle posts and sticking around Oven Love for all these years. You’re the bees.
Can we all agree that popsicles are having a moment?
Maybe it’s the summer heat + all the gorgeous Pinterest inspiration, but I’ve had popsicles on the brain. When I saw a bag of ripe mangos in the Kroger dollar produce bin, my brain immediately said, “Popsicles. Probably with a yogurt swirl. Let’s do this.”
And here we are with mango swirl popsicles. Thank you, internal grocery store monologue.
Not much work to be done for these bad boys. Puree your mango with some lime juice, swirl with vanilla yogurt and freeze. Then try to forget they’re in the freezer for a few hours so you’re surprised when you remember you have popsicles waiting for you. I love knowing there’s a little treatsie in the freezer with my name on it, don’t you?
If you are a popsicle lover, check out my orange creamsicles and raspberry ice pops as well. Make them all, throw a popsicle party and then invite me to it, pleaseandthankyou.
Also, you should definitely eat any extra mango yogurt with a spoon. You’re welcome.
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Is that too much already? I needed to get it out of my system.
This is my very first duck dish, you guys. First time I’ve made it and possibly first time I’ve eaten it. We got some wild duck breasts from a friend (thanks, Joe!) and they sat in my freezer for awhile.. just waiting until I was brave enough to cook them. And then they sat in the fridge thawing for awhile.. as I tried to decide what in the world to do with them. #firstworldproblems
Which brings us to skewers. When you don’t know what to do with something, just put it on a stick. (New life motto in progress).
Any brainiac would tell you to put these on the grill, but I am a lazy person (we have a charcoal grill, haha) so I did them in the oven along with some squash that didn’t make the photo. While they were quickly cooking, I made the apricot dipping sauce on the stove. The original plan was actually to put halved apricots on the skewers like I saw in this beautiful post, but I waited too long and the apricots got a bit soft, so I went with sauce instead. Just a little change of plans.
Honestly, I was a little nervous about how the duck would turn out. The breasts had the fat removed, so all of the typical duck cooking advice did not apply and I was afraid it would be dry and bland. The meat ended up being quite flavorful- even the kids were eating off sticks like little cave people. It was kind of a giant mess, but very entertaining at the time. I think next time I would actually baste the skewers with the sauce when they come out of the oven to help the duck retain some moisture- so definitely try that out the next time you’re skewering some duck. It won’t cut down on the mess, but I think it would take the dish up a notch.
These random freezer-clean-out meals have been stretching my culinary comfort zone. It’s been fun, but kind of exhausting mentally. I’m ready to start fresh.
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Last week, I shared my favorite summer chicken recipes. Today, I’m back with 16 ways to use the humble sweet potato. (I’m actually not eating sweet potatoes right now, but for some reason, I am still craving them and hoarding sweet potato recipes like it’s the end of the internet. It’s only a little heartbreaking to look at those gorgeous photos. Some day..)
Lots of great options here- fries, chips, soup, stuffed potatoes, and BROWNIES. Get to pinning!
Row 1: Thai Sweet Potato Stacks, Sweet Potato Almond Butter Muffins, Slow Cooker Beer Pulled Pork-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes, Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Cherry Salsa
Row 2: Sweet Potato Breakfast Biscuits, Brown Butter Sweet Potato Doughnuts, Paleo Sweet Potato Brownies, Garlic Butter Sweet Potato Fries with Creamy Feta Dip
Row 3: Roasted Grape, Goat Cheese and Honey-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes, Sweet Potato and Pineapple Salad, Black Bean, Sweet Potato and Red Quinoa Soup, Sweet Potato Pulled Pork Sliders
Row 4: Homemade BBQ Sweet Potato Chips, Baked Sweet Potato Falafel, Sweet Potato Coconut Curry Soup, Loaded Black Bean Sweet Potato Boats
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