This is a meal I throw together quite a bit. I’m not a big fan of pre-made pasta sauces, they’re too sweet and loaded with sodium, so I have a couple recipes to make my own. This is one of them. The recipe isn’t exact (especially the spices), I just tend to throw things in until it tastes right. I also like to go light on the pasta, and heavier on the veggies and protein. If you want more pasta, and less chicken/sauce, use a whole 1 lb box of pasta.

This is a fairly healthy meal even my son will eat. He picks at the vegetables a little, but will eat most of it and even ask for seconds.

Chicken Rotini With Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil (I used Carapelli)
• 8-10 ounces whole wheat Rotini
• 1~ 14.5 ounce can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
• 1~ 15-16 ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 small container fresh button or baby bella mushrooms-sliced
• 1 green pepper diced
• 1 small or 1/2 medium onion diced
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon (or to taste) oregano
• 1 teaspoon (or to taste) basil
• pinch of sea salt (1/4 teaspoon or to taste)
• Optional: shredded mozzarella or Parmesan to sprinkle on top

Directions:

1. Dice the chicken into bite size pieces, and add it to a saute pan heated on medium heat with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil.
2. Boil water, and add pasta to cook according to package directions.
3. When the chicken starts to brown add the vegetables (peppers, onion, mushrooms), and saute lightly until the chicken is finished cooking and the vegetables start to turn tender.
4. Add the fire roasted tomatoes, tomato sauce, garlic, oregano, basil, and salt to the chicken and vegetables, and turn down to a low simmer for 10-15 minutes.
5. Add the pasta and toss together, or serve with the sauce poured over the pasta.
6. Sprinkle with cheese.

This is a very easy dinner, and with a little pre-planning it’s usually ready in 30 minutes or less.

White chili is one of my favorite wintertime recipes! I love to throw all the ingredients in the Crock Pot and let them simmer on a cold winter day.

I like to make my own soups so I can control the sodium and quality of the ingredients. Most of the time I soak my own beans, but if I use canned beans I usually use beans that have no sodium added (I find them in the health food section of our local grocery).

Here’s my favorite recipe for white chili:

White Chili With Chicken

• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 2 chicken breasts (diced)
• 2 cups navy or great northern beans
• 2 cups cannelloni beans (white kidney beans)
• 1 small can green chilis
• 1/2 medium onion diced
• 2-3 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 Tablespoon of chili powder
• 1-2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 stalk of celery diced
• 1-2 carrots finely diced (optional)
• Celtic sea salt to taste (I don’t usually add any salt, but my husband does)

Directions:

1. Soak the beans overnight if you’re not using canned, then cook for a couple hours until tender and drain.
2. Combine the chicken broth, chicken breast, beans, celery, onions, garlic, and carrots in a large stock pot, and let simmer on medium heat for about 1/2 hour, or place in the slow cooker and let it cook all day on medium heat.
3. Add the green chilies, cumin and chili powder about 10 minutes before you’re ready to serve.

You can also add a few drops of hot sauce, like Frank’s Red Hot to the finished soup before you serve it to kick the heat up a notch or two.

Serve with corn chips instead of crackers. You can also garnish your soup with a little shredded cheese, sour cream, or some avocado slices and cilantro. Yum!

I’m a big smoothie fan! I usually have one every morning for breakfast, even in the winter. Lately I’ve been adding hemp seeds to my morning smoothie, and it gives it a wonderful creamy texture, and adds some Omega 3s, Omega 6s and other great vitamins and minerals to my day.

I did some serious soul searching, and made some serious lifestyle changes last spring, that included cutting out most things processed, and consuming a more natural diet. The smoothies fit in very well with that lifestyle. They are a wonderful way to kick start the morning, so I thought I’d share the recipe here at Home and Garden Cafe.

Berry Hemp Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons shelled hemp seed (I use Nutiva Shelled Hempseed)
• 1 Tablespoon Hemp powder ( I use Nutiva Organic Hemp Protein Powder)
  (or use one more tablespoon of hemp seed)
• 2 bananas (peeled)
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 8 ounces of water (or milk, soy milk, rice milk, almond milk etc)
• Optional: 1 Tablespoon of honey

Throw everything in the blender and blend until smooth. How easy is that? This makes 2 servings, but I gotta tell you I usually polish off two glasses myself and don’t share!

I don’t usually add the honey, but if you have a sweet tooth, the honey will make everything a little sweeter.

The hemp seeds make this smoothie rich and creamy, so I usually just use water, but you can make it even creamier by using your favorite milk.

I’ve been really hungry for pumpkin cheesecake lately, so I decided tonight I was going to make one. A friend of mine gave me a recipe for pumpkin cheesecake several years ago, but I couldn’t find it in my recipe box tonight. Not sure what I’ve done with it.

I decided to give Paula Deen’s pumpkin cheesecake recipe a try, so here is my adapted version of the recipe. I’m never good at following a recipe perfectly, I always have to make a few little changes. Plus after two trips to the grocery store in one day, I didn’t have any sour cream in the fridge (head slap).

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups graham cinnamon cracker crumbs
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:

• 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350`F. Mix the crust ingredients together, then pat them in the bottom of a Non Stick 9-Inch Springform Pan.

Beat the cream cheese to soften it up. Combine all the filling ingredients in a large bowl, until they’re all well mixed together. Pour the filling on top of the crust. Put the springform pan into a little larger baking dish, and put an inch of water in the bottom of the baking dish. Slide the whole thing in the oven and bake it for one hour.

Once the cheesecake is finished baking remove it from the oven and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes. Then cover it with plastic wrap and slide it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. I put mine in the fridge over night.

We ate some of the cheesecake in slices, but I used some to make these adorable pumpkin cheesecake pops, dipped in white chocolate. One thing led to another, and I ended up dipping the pumpkin cheesecake pops in melted orange chocolate to make little pumpkin cheesecake pumpkins (hop over and check them out I posted them at The Kid’s Birthday Fun Review).