Why boil and drain pasta when you can cook it right in your sauce? In fact, everything here, the chicken, all these healthy vegetables, the creamy sauce, they all cook in one pot. And get this… 1) easy cleanup… 2) four vegetables in every serving… 3) start-to-finish : 30 minutes!
It’s vital to eat vegetables every day and this easy dinner has broccoli, carrots, peppers, and peas. There are probably more veggies than pasta in this fast and easy dinner but that’s a good thing. The creamy sauce it made with whole milk and a little flour and the result is an awesome healthy dinner that tastes much richer than it is.
My husband calls it Chicken Pot Pie Pasta because it reminds him of my chicken pot pie. I find myself looking for even faster and even healthier meals to cook and this one is going on the top of my list. To make this fast and healthy chicken veggie pasta, click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
I was too lazy to make apple pie today but I needed an apple pie fix, so I made some healthier and easier apple pie bars. My simple recipe uses an easy oil crust and two pounds of apples and bakes in an 8 by 8-inch square pan so it makes nine servings. These did not last nine days, or even four days. Somebody around here thinks it’s okay to have one with breakfast because it has… you know… fruit.
To me, Granny Smith are still the best baking apples but I also use them because they are available almost everywhere. I use extra light olive oil or non-GMO canola oil for the crust so this recipe has not butter. This time I lined the pan with parchment paper so I could lift the whole thing out and cut it into bars on a platter. You’ll never miss the butter with these easy apple bars. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Bread dough too dry? Cookie dough too heavy? You probably didn’t aerate your flour.
The two cups in this photo are exactly the same size. The left (red) one contains flour that I aerated, scooped into the cup, and leveled off with the back of a knife. The right (blue) one I did NOT aerate, just scooped it into the cup, and leveled it off with the back of a knife. Then I weighed the flour from both cups.
You can see that the flour that was aerated (red) weighs less than the NOT aerated flour (blue) and that’s because flour settles in the bag or container and if you measure it without aerating, you will probably be using too much flour. This can cause baking problems, especially if you consider that 3 cups of flour, that should weigh 13 1/2 ounces might weigh 15 3/4 ounces if not aerated before measuring. That’s exactly 1/2 cup more flour than you need!
Oh… one more thing. Aerating is not sifting. To aerate flour, you simply stir it around in the container with a spoon or spatula to incorporate some air. You can see how I aerate flour in my Quick and Easy Chocolate Cake video at the one minute mark: Click here to see it. I hope this is helpful and you have great results with all your baking. ? – Jenny Jones
I love all desserts made with apples so I try to make them as healthy as I can and still be delicious. I did it with this easy homemade apple crisp. It’s made with 100% whole grains, no butter, and not too much sugar. You can use butter if you like but you’ll be using a lot less butter than most other recipes.
There’s not much cleanup here either – basically just one bowl and a cutting board. I combine the apples in a plastic bag and you don’t even need a mixer. I use granny smith apples, which are always available, but make sure you slice them thinly so they cook up nice and soft.
Considering the ingredients (rolled oats, whole wheat pastry flour, lots of apples) I thought, “Why can’t I have this for breakfast?” If you can have oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, well that’s what’s in my apple crisp. I even put it in the breakfast category because compared to some breakfasts, like a bagel with cream cheese (no fiber/no fruit), this is a healthier choice. And more fun. Sometimes my breakfast is a hard boiled egg, toast, and apple crisp for dessert. Yum!
Oh, and you can add nuts to the topping if you like (more protein if it’s breakfast!). Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Guess what? I just found out that my video for these fall off the bone ribs is the second highest viewed ribs recipe on youtube after Gordon Ramsey. Well knock me over with a spatula! It makes me proud because I was just making my home videos for fun, never expecting them to be so popular. But that means lots of people are cooking at home and I’m glad my videos and recipes are helping. Here are my current top 5 most viewed videos.
Fall Off The Bone Ribs – 4 million views
Cabbage Rolls – 3.9 million views
Faster No Knead Bread – 2.8 million views
Easy Whole Wheat Bread – 2.8 million views
Hash Browns – 2 million views (My Hash Browns? I couldn’t believe it!)
It’s exciting to watch these numbers grow. I don’t make ribs often but when I do, I always find myself saying, “Wow, I forgot how good these are!” If you haven’t tried them yet, summer is coming! Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Potatoes are my friend – boiled, mashed, roasted, hash browned, I love them every way, and in the summer, potato salad is my favorite. I tried for years to make a good potato salad without mayo but was never happy with the result. It was always too dry and if I added more oil, it was too oily.
This time I decided to try something different. I added some of the potato cooking water to my dressing and it was better but still not good enough. Then I tried something crazy. I mashed a little bit of potato and added that to the dressing along with the water. Bingo! It was great. The potato salad was creamy, tangy, and delicious.
So now I’m sharing this recipe for creamy potato salad no mayo, just in time for summer. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
It seems that I’ve been making these crispy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies a lot lately. They keep well, there’s no white flour, they have lots of fiber, and instead of chocolate chips I’ve been using part of a 70% dark chocolate bar (the one that’s good for you), chopped up and added to the final batter. Of course the toasted nuts add a lot of extra flavor.
They are big – about 5 inches across – so we usually split a cookie for dessert. But then we split another one because… well… because I’m in charge in the kitchen and I said it was okay. Today I also made salad, salmon patties, and spaghetti with chard for dinner. Then we had half a cookie for dessert. That’s the truth. We each had half a cookie for dessert. What happened after that is… quite frankly… confidential. ? Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
This soft and sweet egg bread is easier to make than it looks. It’s fast. It’s beautiful. And it’s full of golden raisins. My simple recipe needs only one rise so it’s ready in just over two hours. You start with a simple but sweet egg bread and divide it into two. Roll each half into a 24-inch rope. Twist the ropes together like this…
Place the rope on your baking sheet and shape it onto a wreath, pinching and tucking the edges in the best you can. Here it is ready to rise…
After it rises in a warm spot and had doubled in size, it will look like this…
Now, just bake and finish. To ensure success have all your ingredients at room temperature, including the egg + yolk. Adding a cold egg will slow down the rise time. Make the powdered sugar glaze as thin or thick as you like. In the photo at the top I made a slightly thinner glaze than the one on the recipe page. Enjoy this delicious sweet holiday bread on any special occasion. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
The short answer is yes. Warm liquids, such as soup or tea do help relieve cold symptoms but chicken soup is a better choice. Here’s why:
A compound found in chicken soup (carnosine) helps the body’s immune system to fight the early stages of a cold or flu.
Soup contains anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce a cold’s miserable side effects.
The soup’s salt, steam and heat can also help thin mucus, making it easier to expel. The steam also soothes irritated passageways in your nose and throat.
Soups are also hydrating, which is particularly important when fighting off an infection. Staying hydrated is key to recovery and salty, chicken soup is packed with electrolytes that may help retain even more fluids than water or commercial electrolyte drinks.
Warm soup or other liquids can help open up sinuses, relieving congestion and shortening the time the virus is in contact with the lining of your nose. The faster you can move the mucus through you nose, the better.
Make chicken-noodle or chicken-rice soup or just sip it as a healing broth. If you would like my recipe for healthy, homemade chicken soup click here. – Jenny Jones
Why boil and drain pasta when you can cook it right in your sauce? In fact, everything here, the chicken, all these healthy vegetables, the creamy sauce, they all cook in one pot. And get this… 1) easy cleanup… 2) four vegetables in every serving… 3) start-to-finish : 30 minutes!
