a healthy homecoming

A couple of weeks ago my mom spent some time in a hospital that was a distance from her home.  Both she and my dad have had health issues and hospitalizations recently that has inspired a healthier diet not only for them but also for some of the rest of the family.  When it looked like she was going to be going home later that day, and because of the long ride, my daughter Nikole, went ahead and stopped and got some groceries and had a healthy supper waiting for us when we got home.  She prepared a healthy version of stir fry that used a peanut sauce to replace the soy sauce that we usually use.  She also had a couple of soups on the stove that could be warmed up over the next couple days to provide more healthy meals without a lot of fuss as my folks recuperated at home.  Nikole has shared the recipes so I can post them as well.  I did not get any pictures of our supper that evening but it was great and the peanut sauce added a nice flavor to the vegetables and chicken.  No one missed the higher sodium soy sauce.  Although generally more spicy she left the heat out of the peanut sauce in deference to those who like less heat and it was great.

The two soups were full of healthy vegetables and very flavorful.  A serving of each made it home with me and so I was able to catch a photo of those before eating them.  Both were really good.  Our family did not grow up eating lemon in anything that was not a dessert so I was curious about how the lemon would be in the lemon chicken orzo soup and it was wonderful.


We also didn't grow up eating stuffed peppers so that was a fun soup as well.  In my opinion all of these recipes are keepers.

The recipe for Lemon Chicken Orzo soup is here.

The recipe for Stuffed Pepper Soup is here.

The recipe for Healthier Stir Fry with Thai Peanut Sauce is here.

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Stuffed Pepper Soup

mother's day and a supper meeting

This past weekend was mother's day and we had lunch in town to celebrate with my mom.  Then a couple days later on Tuesday it was my turn to serve for a group that I belong to.  We meet once a month, 10 months of the year.  We are a small group, usually only nine or ten people and we take turns providing a meal.  This year I made an old favorite for my meeting lunch.  I have had this recipe for over 30 years.  It is sweet and sour meatballs and it is served over rice.  I have made the meatballs before and placed them in a slow cooker and cooked the rice separately.  Usually I place the rice on a large platter and top it with the meatballs but this time I borrowed my mom's new slow cooker which is shaped like a cake plan which allowed me to place the cooked rice in the bottom of the heated slow cooker and top it with the cooked meatballs/sauce and keep it warm until it is time to eat.  These meatballs are pretty easy.  The meatballs are formed and then baked in the oven and when cooked through are added to the sauce which is cooked on top of the stove in a saucepan.  The meatballs and sauce are then baked in the oven or cooked in the slow cooker to marry the flavors.  This recipe is here,

I found a colorful salad on facebook and served it along with the meatballs.  I decided to try it first on the weekend as a practice run before my meeting.  The salad is a cabbage slaw with an Asian dressing and dry roasted peanuts.  The recipe post is here.

For dessert I decided to make an assortment of homemade candy bars.  On facebook I came across this recipe for a homemade Twix bar.  I knew that there were other recipes for homemade candy bars that I had pinned previously and I decided to make homemade Payday and the homemade Butterfinger to make a trio of sweets.  I made them on the weekend and served them for both events.  The homemade twix candy bar cookies can be found here.  The recipe for the homemade butterfinger candy bars can be found here.

The recipe for the homemade payday bars is here.