Mexican Cheeseburger

This is a very quick and easy grandkid-loving recipe my grandkids love to eat especially the college grandkids who are doing their own cooking. Included is an excellent homemade sauce recipe but full disclosure, my college grandkids, just use their own store purchased toppings like thick salsa, mayonnaise and ketchup instead of making their own sauce. If you want to lower the calories, you can use reduced fat cheese and use thick salsa instead of the sauce. You can also stack the Mexican Cheeseburgers to make a double.

The Gift of Health Bean Soup with a Kick

By Barbara Day, M.S., R.D.
For a special Christmas present this year, you can mix dry beans together and give the festive bags with the attached recipe as a gift of health. Beans are a great source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber can help to lower your cholesterol and insoluble fiber helps to prevent and treat constipation. Beans are low fat and high in protein, folate, magnesium, potassium and iron.

Salsa Chicken & Brown Rice Casserole

My husband and my grandkids absolutely love this recipe! My husband says it tastes like Mexican Bowl he gets at Chipotle, plus it’s homemade and much cheaper. He likes to put the casserole in a bowl with mashed up corn tortilla chips or on a corn tortilla. Adding more salsa, fresh leafy greens, guacamole and low-fat sour cream adds taste and an array of additional nutrients. Plus, it’s a gluten-free recipe.

Easy-to-Make Homemade Fruit Sorbets

I am always looking for ways to increase my intake of fruits and vegetables every day. When I am grandparenting, I like to make snacks for my grandchildren to eat that are full of nutrients and they love to eat. One of my grandchildren’s favorite treats are homemade fresh fruit sorbets. The difference between a sorbet and sherbet is a sorbet contains no dairy but sherbet contains some milk. The fruits I choose for them are the fruits they like to eat or what’s in season. For example, most of them love strawberries and peaches. Only a couple of grandchildren like blueberries which is my favorite fruit. These recipes are all gluten-free.

Pumpkin Chili with a Kick

It’s pumpkin time and what better to cook on a cool autumn night is Pumpkin Chili with a kick! The conventional chili spices along with pumpkin pie spice give this chili a special taste for those who love the taste of pumpkin. This pumpkin chili is high in dietary fiber, high in protein, high in iron, and high in potassium. It’s gluten-free.

Smoothies 101

It’s easy to make homemade smoothies. If you buy smoothies out, you may get a fruit mixture which is high in added sugar plus the yogurt used may also be high in sugar. You can make smoothies for breakfast, as a snack, or as a recovery drink after a long run, a century bike ride or a triathlon.

Easy Pumpkin Walnut Muffins

Here’s an easy recipe using two of my favorite foods: pumpkin & walnuts. Pumpkin is high in vitamin A and walnuts are high in omega-3 fatty acids. You can add dark chocolate chips if you must but I think these muffins are great just the way they are!

Out-the-Door Oatmeal Avocado Breakfast Cookies

This recipe contains a number of healthy ingredients which make a good tasting breakfast cookies for your family to grab as they go out the door on the way to school or work! Each cookie is high in dietary fiber and is a good source of protein.

Easy Spicy Chicken Vegetable Soup

Lots of vegetables in this easy chicken vegetable soup recipe. You can make it in a crockpot or on stovetop. Lots of antioxidants to keep you healthy. You choose. You can make it spicy or not. This recipe is gluten-free. I like to serve this with cornbread.

Chicken Spinach Enchiladas

I love this recipe because it’s a way of hiding spinach in a kid-friendly Mexican enchilada if you have a kid who won’t eat any green vegetables. The garlic & cheese overpowers the spinach but the good news is this recipe really tastes good, too. The recipe is excellent as a leftover and can be warmed up easily in the microwave. In addition, you can cut the recipe in half as well before you cook it. If you want to lower the fat and calories in this recipe you can also use fat free cream cheese. You can use canned chicken breast or you can poach your chicken which is very easy to do.