Welcome!
Hi, I'm Tori! Welcome to Healthy Plate Happy Family!
I am a fun-loving, healthy-eating, wife, mom, holistic
nutrition student, aspiring yogi, SUP-enthusiast, living
and loving life on the beautiful coast of West Michigan.
Here you'll find all of the whole foods, clean-eating recipes
that I am cooking up to keep my family happy and healthy!
Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Wednesday! Here is a snapshot of everything I ate today. I feel so silly posting this, but it seems to be the most popular page on the blog so I’ll keep including it until you’re sick of seeing my 378th green smoothie concoction!
I started the morning off with a green smoothie made with spinach, fresh pineapple, and a whole kiwi.
I was hungry before my workout so I had some apple slices and 2 of the Granola Energy Bites from yesterday. They are seriously good workout fuel and super tasty!!!
Yes, I’m 36, and I play with my food 
Our dinner was so good last night that I made it again for lunch today!!!
Last night, I cooked up some lentils (this is HUGE for me since the “Sloppy Lentils” incident a few years back!) and added a little bit of homemade taco seasoning to them. I layered some leftover rice and the taco-flavored lentils. Then I topped it with lots of romaine, red onion, yellow pepper, chopped tomatoes, green olives, organic blue tortilla chips, and topped it off with guacamole and salsa.
Please do me a favor and stop buying little yellow packets of MSG flavored with salt and preserved with genetically modified corn and try making your own taco seasoning! Its so simple that I can do it with my eyes closed now.
Homemade Taco Seasoning
- 2 T chili powder
- 1 T ground cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp paprika (I use smoked paprika)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- some fresh ground pepper (and a few red pepper flakes if you like it spicy)
Mix all ingredients and store in a small jar or container. Approximately 3 Tablespoons equals one “packet” of seasoning. I tape the recipe to the inside of my spice cupboard so its super easy to mix up more any time.
For dinner, we moved Pizza Night to Wednesday this week since we have plans to go out tomorrow night. Mine was an Ezekiel Pocket Bread topped with pesto, sauteed spinach, fresh mushrooms, and artichokes, sprinkled with some crushed red pepper flakes. It was so good that I was kind of sad when it was over.
In this house, pizza is always served with a salad on the side. We are obsessed with this balsamic dressing from last week! I even gave it to the kids in a little dish to dip their cucumber slices tonight. Hailey really liked it.
Now its YOUR turn – leave me a comment with something awesome that YOU had to eat today!!!
I just started coaching a group of elementary-age girls for the Girls on the Run program at my daughter’s school. This is a little bit of a stretch for me. Although I work out on a regular basis, I wouldn’t exactly consider myself a runner – I have run one 5K in my life just to check it off of my bucket list.
Being that I love all things related to nutrition, working out, and a healthy lifestyle, I felt like it was a good fit for me and a fun way to push myself outside of my comfort zone to try something new. Plus I really like the bonding experience with Hailey as we work together towards this goal. And to keep us going, I already signed us up for The Color Run later in the summer (supposedly the happiest 5K on the planet, how fun does that sound?!?).
Today’s lesson was so much fun for me to prepare. It was all about our physical health and nutrition, so of course I wanted to provide the team with some healthy snacks. I tried to come up with some things that I use as a pre- or post- workout snack but would be kid-friendly at the same time. I also need it to be practical to transport and cost-effective for a team of 14 girls. I came up with apples and my Quick and Easy Apple Dip and these Granola Energy Bites.
I have tried different types of these energy “balls” before, usually with a combination of dates and nuts in the food processor with add-ins like coconut, cocoa powder, etc. I have always liked them but the kids never really seemed to care for them very much. So I decided to adapt one of our favorite no-bake granola bars into these little nutrient-packed bite size treats. It totally worked! I really think the addition of the oats for texture and the familiar flavor of peanut butter helped.
These are great before or after a workout since they include some high quality carbs from the oats and dates. The protein in the peanut butter, chia seeds, and flax seeds help with muscle recovery and any pre-workout hunger. If you happen to be on a long training workout, they would even be a great mid-workout snack too since they are portable and easy to eat. They are versatile based on your taste preferences or food allergies – feel free to swap in Sunflower Butter for a nut-free option or raisins instead of the chopped dates, etc.
Granola Energy Bites
Ingredients
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup ground flax seed (or a mixture of half ground flax and half chia seeds)
- scant 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (I prefer the Enjoy Life brand)
- 1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
- 1/3 cup finely chopped dates (or raisins)*
- 1/2 cup all natural (no sugar) peanut butter or almond butter
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
**Edited – after making these quite a few times now, I no longer add the chopped dates or raisins. I find that they are sweet enough for us without them, but feel free to use them if you like!
Directions
- Mix oats, flax/chia seeds, and coconut in a large bowl.
- Combine honey, nut butter, and vanilla extract in a small bowl.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix well.
- Fold in chocolate chips and chopped dates/raisins.
- Form into small balls (I used a mini ice cream scoop then packed them together) and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Happy Wednesday!
This is typically the day that I post a snapshot of everything I eat for the entire day. Today was a little bit unusual since I am starting to get that dreaded might-be-getting-sick feeling. I know I say it repeatedly on here, but I truly believe that food can be a powerful tool for healing the body. Because of that, I am planning to focus on really nutrient-dense foods including fresh juice, smoothies, and soup, plus a little extra sleep over the next couple of days to hopefully be able to fight this off before it totally knocks me out.
For breakfast, I brought out the Big Guns – the juicer! The difference between juicing and blending smoothies is that juicing provides a supershot of vitamins and minerals straight to your cells without having to break down any of the fiber in the fruits or veggies through digestion. This can be very high in sugars, though, which is why I try to balance it with a good amount of vegetables too.
This juice had 3 carrots, 3 stalks of celery, 1/3 of a cucumber, 1 small clementine, and 1 apple. After I put it all through the juicer, I added a squeeze of fresh lemon. Maybe it was a placebo effect, but I swear I already started feeling better after drinking it
I really didn’t have much of an appetite all morning but knew I need something else. A smoothie seemed like a good idea.
Is it just me or is Rainbow Chard one of the prettiest vegetables around?!?
I added these three leafy beauties, 1/3 of a cucumber, 1/2 banana, 1 red pear, 1 lemon wedge, and 1/4 tsp of ground ginger to the blender with lots of water. I have been inspired to try new juice/smoothie combinations lately and this one was spot on! So good!!!
I finally started to feel a little hungry this afternoon, but a salad or sandwich didn’t really sound good. This is a snack that I learned from surfing the Paleo and Clean Eating sites. It’s like a cleaned up version of deviled eggs with avocado instead of the mayo. I actually prefer them this way now!
I mix two hard-boiled egg yolks with a wedge of avocado (about 1/8 of the whole avocado), some salt, pepper, and dried dill. Pack a spoonful of the mixture back into the egg-white halves and you have yourself a great little snack or light lunch that is packed with protein and healthy fats, and surprisingly filling.
Luckily I had soup planned for dinner tonight. You just can’t beat soup when you’re sick!
Chicken Rice Soup
Ingredients
1 cup of cooked rice
2 chicken breasts, cooked, cut into bite-size pieces
3 carrots, diced
2 ribs of celery, diced
1 onion, diced
1 leek, white and light green part, sliced into half-moon shapes
1 small zucchini, quartered lengthwise and chopped into small pieces
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 T. flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free, but wheat would work too)
4 cups organic chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
3 T. mellow white miso (optional, but adds a lot of flavor and nutrients)
Directions
I cooked the rice and chicken breast ahead of time so the soup would come together quickly. Heat 1 T. olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Saute chopped carrots, celery, onion, leek, and zucchini until tender, about 7-10 minutes. Add the minced garlic towards the end so that it doesn’t burn. Sprinkle 1 T. of flour over vegetable mixture. If using the miso paste, pour 1/2 cup of broth into a small bowl and whisk in miso. Add remaining broth, cooked rice, chopped chicken and season with salt and pepper as necessary. Bring to a low boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add miso/broth mixture at the very end to avoid over-heating and destroying the nutrients in the miso.
A note on the miso. This is something that I like to have on hand for soups, especially when we are not feeling well. Miso is made from fermented soybeans and is usually a thick paste texture with a very salty taste. You usually find it in the refrigerated section of a health food store. I always try to buy quality organic miso paste so that I know it is non-gmo since a lot of soy products are genetically modified. The benefit of using miso is that it is a probiotic, full of good bacteria, which promotes healthy intestines and strengthens the immune system. It is crucial not to overheat the miso when cooking so that you don’t destroy the healthy bacteria. Miso is also a great source of the mineral zinc, which can be helpful for increasing the immune system and fighting off cold viruses.
To go with the soup, I made grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids and big salads for the adults. When we lived in Chicago, there was a restaurant (a sports bar really!) that had The. Best. Balsamic. Dressing. EVER! This was my attempt at recreating it based off of a few different recipes.
Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ingredients
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 small clove of garlic, minced
pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper
1 tsp. honey
1/3 cup plus half of 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Directions
Add balsamic vinegar, chopped garlic, honey, salt and pepper to a blender. Blend on medium-high until garlic is pureed into the vinegar. With the blender on low-medium, remove the center cap in the lid and slowly drizzle in the olive oil. This will emulsify the dressing giving you a “creamy” balsamic texture.
We woke up to lots of new snow and a snow day for the kids this morning. Luckily, the sun was shining and it was such a great day to be outside playing.
Waist deep in snow!!
We have a pretty big hill in our front yard, which is great for sledding.
After many trips down the hill, a snowball fight with friends, and some snow angels, it was time to come inside for hot cocoa.
How do you make your hot cocoa?? Are you more of an instant packet type or do you make it from scratch? Do you jazz it up with little marshmallows or a candy cane stirrer???
For the past couple of years, I have been making hot cocoa for the kids by slightly modifying the recipe on the side of the Hershey’s cocoa powder container. There are a few simple upgrades that you can make to the recipe to make it a little healthier.
Start with some milk (your preference, we use non-dairy almond milk), either traditional cocoa powder or raw cacao powder, maple syrup or Stevia, and pure vanilla extract.
Cacao is the original source of chocolate and cocoa. It is processed very carefully at low temperatures so that it retains the vitamins and minerals and contains more antioxidant flavonoids than red wine, green tea and blueberries
In a small pan, mix 4 tsp. cocoa powder, 3T. maple syrup, and 1 T. water. Whisk over medium heat until it is bubbling, being careful not to scorch it.
If want an all natural zero-calorie sweetener, you can swap out the maple syrup for Stevia, which comes from a plant native to South America. It does have a unique taste but I don’t mind it in small doses. (swap out the maple syrup and water for 2 packets of Stevia and 2 T. of water).
When I am making hot cocoa for other kids though, I use the maple syrup for a sweet taste that they are more familiar with.
Add in 2 cups of milk and stir to combine. Gently heat milk to desired temperature but do not boil. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Enjoy all of the beautiful snow this weekend! Stay warm and stay safe!
Happy Wednesday! This is the one day during the week where I post pictures and details of everything I ate for the day in hopes of inspiring you to try something new
I have been a bit stressed lately over some big changes coming up around here, so I wasn’t really all that hungry this morning. I waited until mid-morning and then decided to make one of my favorite comfort meal breakfasts. This is a slice of toasted Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Bread, topped with smashed avocado, slices of red onion, tomatoes, and an egg (over-medium in olive oil). I had half of a grapefruit on the side. I love it when comfort food can be nourishing and healthy too!!
After breakfast and before picking Jake up from school, I managed to squeeze in 3 segments (30 minutes) of this dvd – it is one of my absolute favorites!! It’s easy to follow and a little challenging with some high intensity plyometric bursts. It is structured in 10 minute increments so I can mix them up or just do as many as I have time for. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of it!!!!
I am trying to mix it up a bit on What-I-Ate-Wednesdays but I can guarantee you’ll see this meal again. I am obsessed with this chickpea (“mock tuna”) salad and make it at least every other week.
Chickpea “Mock Tuna” Salad
(note: this salad is based on the flavors of traditional tuna salad but doesn’t actually taste like tuna fish)
1 can garbanzo beans/chickpeas, rinsed and patted dry
2 T. mayonnaise (I prefer the clean ingredients in soy-free Vegenaise, found at the health food store)
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp dried dill
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 rib celery, chopped
2 T. red onion, chopped
Rinse and drain canned chickpeas and pat dry with a paper towel. Place in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the “S” blade. Pulse a few times. Add in lemon juice, mayonnaise, salt, dill, celery and red onion. Pulse a few more times to mix. Don’t over process the mix or you will just end up with mush. Hand mix with a spoon if necessary. Adjust seasonings to taste.
Sometimes I have it on toasted Ezekiel bread, but since I had that for breakfast, I wrapped it up in red leaf lettuce wraps and had it with some kiwi and grapes. Served this way, with fruit, it’s a staple lunch for me in the summer time.
I played Uno with Jake most of the afternoon until he requested a snack of leftover “chocolate pudding” – if you follow me on Instagram, you know that this chocolate avocado “pudding” was a huge hit with the kids last night!!! I was happy to oblige
Later in the afternoon, I knew I had a long math homework date with Hailey and wanted to bake up a little treat for her to have as a special after school snack (that isn’t encouraging emotional eating, is it??? at least it was packed with healthy fats, fiber and antioxidants!!!) These are the Almond Joy Bars from Peas and Thank You (minus the artificial flavor extracts and I subbed in organic coconut sugar which I’m able to get at our Meijer). Needless to say, the temptation was just too much and I ended up having one too. Straight out of the oven, warm and gooey – they were dreamy!!!! And I can only imagine how awesome they would be topped with some vanilla (coconut milk) ice cream!!!
Dinner was one of Jake’s favorites – spaghetti and meatballs. I don’t care for the overly full feeling I get from having pasta for dinner so the if I have the time, I bake a spaghetti squash for me instead of the regular noodles. I was a little disappointed the first time that I had spaghetti squash because I actually expected it to taste like pasta – HA! It definitely doesn’t but it has grown on me…..a little…..this was topped with sauteed mushrooms and a couple of the meatballs. We had a simple green salad on the side with one of my favorite homemade vinaigrette dressings (recipe to come!)
I have lots of recipes coming at you soon – two healthy snack “dips”, my go-to salad dressing, butternut squash apple & curry soup, and overnight crockpot steel cut oats just to name a few. Since I can count on my fingers how many of you are reading this little blog, please feel free to leave comments on my posts!!!! I’d love to hear from you – what recipes you’ve tried, if it turned out good/bad, any questions about foods or ingredients I’m using, or perhaps what you’d like to see on here. And thanks for reading
That wraps it up for this Wednesday!
Happy New Year! And welcome to Healthy Plate, Happy Family!
I am looking forward to a year filled with new opportunities. I’m thrilled to be here blogging and to have you here reading.
Let’s make 2013 fabulous!!!
