Author: Busy Mom

I'm a busy mom of 2 adorable kids! I love cooking, Finding Nemo, and face painting.

Split Pea Soup with Ham Bone (Slow Carb)

Posted on by Busy Mom

Last time I made split pea soup it was enough to last me and my husband seven years! Don’t worry, we didn’t save it for that long. It was just a huge pot of soup and after eating all the leftovers day after day we just didn’t have the desire to make anymore of it until now, which is seven years since our last batch of split pea soup.

HERE is the recipe I made seven years ago. Below is the recipe we used this time around. It was delicious! It is still a big batch, but now we have four people to divide it between instead of two 🙂

If you don’t have a ham bone to simmer, just throw in some cubed cooked ham near the end of the cooking time.

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. dry green split peas 
  • 8 cups water
  • 32 oz (4 cups) chicken broth
  • 1 ham bone (with some ham still on it) and optional extra ham pieces (I had a frozen ham bone I had saved from Easter dinner. I thawed it in the refrigerator the night before making this soup) 
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 medium yellow onions, chopped small
  • 2 large celery ribs with leaves still attached, chopped small
  • about 4 medium carrots
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. pepper
  • a pinch of dry thyme (about 1/8 or 1/4 tsp)

Instructions:

  1. Rinse the dry green split peas under cold water, in fine mesh strainer. Put the peas in a big soup pot with 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 1 hour (you can use this hour to chop the vegetables). 
  2. Remove about 4 cups of the water and discard. Add 4 cups chicken broth to the soup pot. Return to a boil.
  3. Add the ham bone, garlic, onions, celery, carrots, bay leaf, salt, pepper and thyme. Lower heat to a simmer, cover with a lid cook for about an hour or hour and a half, stirring occasionally.
  4. Remove ham bone and any large pieces of ham and place on a dish.  Blend about half of the soup in batches (make sure it’s not too hot for the blender) and return pureed soup to the soup pot (this will help give the soup a creamier consistency). 
  5. Cut any of the large ham pieces into smaller, bite-sized pieces, and add them back into the soup.
  6. Serve garnished with a bit of sour cream (or plain yogurt), some chopped parsley and/or bits of ham.

This split pea soup goes great with a French baguette!

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

**You might also like to try LENTIL SOUP and CREAMY POTATO SOUP. Both are delicious!

Donut Cake (Pumpkin Spice)

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Donut cake was on my list of recipes to try ever since my sister told me about it over a month ago. It was a fun little cake to make! Reminds me of this Crumb (Coffee) Cake we used to make pretty frequently.

We enjoyed the Donut Cake by itself the first day, and got fancy the second day by adding some vanilla ice cream and blackberries on the side.

 

Donut Cake (Pumpkin Spice)

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 C. brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (I was all out of pumpkin pie spice so just used a blend of cinnamon, ground cloves, nutmeg and powdered ginger)
  • 2 1/2 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
  • 1/2 C. milk
  • 1/4 C. pumpkin puree

Ingredients for the topping:

  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. melted coconut oil
  • 1/3 C. granulated sugar (although I think I might cut it to at least 1/4 C. next time. Maybe even 2 Tbsp.)
  • 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon
  • a pinch of nutmeg
  • a pinch of ground cloves

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and lightly grease an 8×8 inch glass baking dish with cooking spray or coconut oil.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and pumpkin spice.
  3. In a microwave-safe glass mixing bowl, combine the coconut oil and milk. Microwave for about a minute, or until the coconut oil is melted (I usually microwave the coconut oil by itself first, then add the milk and microwave a bit more so the cold milk doesn’t cause the oil to get clumpy). Stir in the pumpkin puree.
  4. Fold the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients (try not to over-mix).
  5. Pour donut cake batter into the greased baking dish and bake in preheated oven for about 18-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
  6. Remove cake from oven and let cool to room temperature. Use a clean pinky finger (your kids might want to help with this part) to poke some holes in the cake. 
  7. Mix the topping ingredients together. Spoon onto cake and even it out, making sure some of the cinnamon/sugar goodness gets into those little holes you just poked. 

Enjoy!

*Inspired by Alissa and THIS recipe.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Posted on by Busy Mom

When I was a little girl, my family took a trip to visit our grandparents. One of the days we were with them just so happened to be my birthday. I don’t remember what kind of cake I asked for, but it was probably chocolate or pink or something like that. When my grandma suggested we make a carrot cake for my birthday, I was disgusted at the thought. Carrots in cake? Who would ever do such a thing? But then Grandma started singing a song about carrots, and somehow she convinced me to give it a try. So we had carrot cake. And it became my new favorite 😀 

We have been making this delicious, moist carrot cake recipe for several years! Here is a picture of the first time my husband and I made it shortly after getting married. We didn’t have walnuts, so used almonds instead and we were short on cream cheese, so stretched the frosting quite a bit but it was still very tasty. We even made another one shortly after for him to take to a work party.

I got this recipe from a hand-written recipe book my sister gave to me when my husband and I got married. She included family favorites, recipes that were new to me, and left a few blank pages for me to fill in later. It was such a sweet gift, and was a life saver when I got married and all the sudden became the woman of our kitchen 😉 

If you need an occasion to eat cake, this cake would especially make a lovely Spring birthday cake or Easter dessert. It would also be a lovely treat on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day (or any day).

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients (12 servings):

For Carrot Cake:

  • 1 C. whole wheat flour
  • 1 C. all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 C. light olive oil or canola oil
  • 2 C. granulated sugar
  • 3 or 3 1/2 C. grated carrots (about 5 or 6 large carrots)

For Cream Cheese Frosting:

  • 6 oz cream cheese, softened (you can use a microwave to soften)
  • 4 Tbsp. butter, softened
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 2 C. powdered sugar
  • optional: food coloring to color the frosting
  • optional: a handful of walnuts, chopped
  • *Note: If you like a lot of frosting or want some extra to make extra cute designs on your cake like these carrots, you can use 8 oz cream cheese, about 5 Tbps. butter, 1 1/4 tsp. vanilla, and about 2 1/2 C. powdered sugar (or to taste). Use a little less than half of the frosting on the first layer, then a little less than the remaining half on the second layer of cake so that you’ll have some leftover.   

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and grease and flour two circular 9-inch cake pans. 
  2. Add all carrot cake ingredients except for the grated carrots into a large mixing bowl. Beat well with an electric hand mixer. Stir in the grated carrots with a spoon. 
  3. Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans, and bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool (I like to make the cake the night before we’re planning on eating it. If you do this, you can just cover the cake with a clean dish towel before going to bed and then frost in the morning when it is at room temperature).
  4. When the cake is cooled all the way to room temperature, make the frosting. In a medium mixing bowl, combine soft cream cheese, soft butter and vanilla. Beat well with electric hand mixer. Add the powdered sugar. Stir with hand mixer off (so the sugar doesn’t fly everywhere) and then beat well until the frosting is smooth.
  5. Use a rubber spatula to loosen the sides of the cake from the pans. Tip one cake upside down onto a plate or cake platter. You may need to tap the bottom of the pan to help the cake drop onto the plate. Spoon half of the cream cheese frosting onto the cake.   You can let some of the frosting drip onto the sides to make it look more decorative, or if the frosting is stiffer, you can spread the frosting onto the sides of the cake.
  6. Remove the second cake from its cake pan into the empty cake pan by tipping it upside down and tapping until it falls into the cake pan. Then tip it upside down again right on top of the first cake (which is now covered in frosting). Cover with the remaining frosting and if desired, sprinkle with chopped walnuts. You may need to gently press the walnuts into the frosting with your hand if they aren’t sticking to the surface of the frosting on their own. 

If you aren’t eating the cake within a couple hours of frosting it, it’s probably best to keep the cake refrigerated since the frosting is made with cream cheese. You can cover the cake with some plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator until ready to eat. 

Enjoy!

*Inspired by Olivia.

**If you’re loving the vegetables in cake idea, you can also try Chocolate Beetroot Cake, which is super tasty!

Baked Eggplant Parmesan (Vegetarian)

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Baked Eggplant Parmesan is so delicious and quite filling as well! In this post, I tried breaking down the steps, and hence, the 12 steps. It sounds like a lot, but just take it one by one and it shouldn’t be too hard 😉 And there are lots of pictures included to hopefully make it a little easier. Even though this recipe isn’t difficult, it does take some time. I would give yourself about 3 hours (including the hour to let the eggplant “sweat” any of its bitterness). 

You can also change things up a bit. Like you don’t need to add the extra onion and garlic. You could cook some ground beef or ground sausage to add to the marinara sauce if you want it to be a meat dish. I have one kid who doesn’t like cheese sometimes, so I didn’t put Mozzarella on some of the eggplant piles. This child chose to not even try the Eggplant Parmesan, so I ended up eating his cheese-less eggplant and it was still very tasty 🙂

Also, check the ingredients on the Panko bread crumbs. Some have better ingredients than others. For example THESE ingredients vs. THESE ingredients. And THIS one actually looks better than both of those.

Baked Eggplant Parmesan (Vegetarian)

Ingredients (makes about 15 small servings or about 7 larger servings):

  • 2 Italian eggplants, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
  • salt, as needed
  • 2-3 eggs, lightly beaten with fork (start with 2 eggs, and add another if needed)
  • 8 oz Italian seasoned Panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 (26 oz) jar Tomato Basil Marinara sauce (I used the Trader Joe’s brand)
  • about 1-2 tsp. light olive oil
  • 2 small yellow onions or 1 medium/large yellow onion, chopped
  • 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 (8 oz) pack of Mozzarella cheese, sliced (ideally, you might want to have the same number of cheese slices as eggplant slices)
  • about 1/2 C. grated Parmesan cheese
  • 16 oz Angel Hair Pasta
  • optional: chopped fresh basil, as a garnish

Instructions:

  1. Sprinkle both sides of each slice of eggplant with some salt. Arrange the slices in layers in a colander over a bowl or pot. Place a heavy bowl or plate on top of the slices to weigh them down. Let sit and sweat for about 1 hour. 
  2. Rinse eggplant off well to get the remaining salt off. Pat each slice dry with paper towels. 
  3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. and line two rimmed cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  4. Dip each slice of eggplant first in the eggs, then in the breadcrumbs. Place on parchment-lined cookie sheets in a single layer. 
  5. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, flipping the eggplant slices over after 10 minutes of baking. So bake 10 minutes. Flip them over. Bake 10 more minutes, or until lightly browned and crispy on each side. (Read step #6 for what to do during these 20 minutes). 
  6. Heat a pan to medium heat. Add olive oil. Add the onions and garlic. Saute  until onions are translucent. Remove pan from heat. 
  7. Remove the eggplant from the oven and reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F.
  8. Spread about 1 C. of the marinara sauce and a couple spoonfuls of the sauteed onion/garlic onto the bottom of a 9×13 glass baking dish. Stir the remaining sauteed onion/garlic into the rest of the marinara sauce in the jar. Place a layer of the crispy eggplant slices on top of the marinara sauce (I was able to fit rows of 3 by 5 comfortably, but this will depend on the size of your eggplant slices). 
  9. Cover each slice with a spoonful of remaining marinara sauce (from the jar). Top each slice with a slice of mozzarella cheese and a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese.
  10. Repeat with one more layer of crispy eggplant, marinara sauce, Mozzarella slice and sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. If there is any leftover marinara sauce, you can spoon it around the edges of the eggplant piles. (If there are remaining crispy eggplant slices after you’ve already done the two layers, go ahead and eat them… they’re pretty tasty!) 
  11. Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 25 minutes, or until it is hot and cheese is melted. While the Eggplant Parmesan is baking, cook up some pasta according to pasta box instructions. I loved using angel hair pasta with this recipe because it only takes a few minutes to cook and it went so well with the Baked Eggplant Parmesan. 
  12. Remove from oven and serve the Baked Eggplant Parmesan over pasta garnished with a sprinkle of chopped fresh basil, with a fresh green salad on the side. 

Even leftovers the next couple days warmed up in the microwave still tasted great!

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

** Another delicious recipe that uses Tomato Basil Marinara sauce is Spinach Lasagna (Vegetarian).

And here are some other vegetarian meals you might like: Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos, Vegetarian Pasta in a Pot with Veggies and Light Cream Sauce, and Quinoa Tabbouleh.

Steamed Carrots Side dish

Posted on by Busy Mom

For some reason I have had a lot of bad luck with steamed carrots. Until now, they had never seemed to turn out quite right when I cooked them. Thankfully, this recipe turned out great! Good enough to stick it on the blog 🙂

Carrots are a great vegetable to have on hand. They are inexpensive and they keep really well in the refrigerator for longer than most other veggies. You can eat them raw or cooked, in a smoothie or salad, as a snack or side dish. They are a versatile vegetable!

Steamed Carrots Side Dish

Ingredients (makes about 4-5 servings):

  • 5 medium/large carrots, washed, peeled, and sliced
  • 1 C. water
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. butter (I used salted butter)

Instructions:

  1. Combine sliced carrots, the 1 cup of water, salt and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. 
  2. Once boiling, lower heat to low or medium/low. Place a fitting lid on top and let simmer 10-15 minutes, or until carrots are at your desired tenderness. 
  3. Drain the water out, and toss carrots with the 1 Tbsp. of butter. 

We enjoyed these carrots with mashed potatoes, baked salmon and French green beans. 

As other side dish options, you might also enjoy  Broccoli Salad, Baked Yams, and Seasoned Mushrooms.

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

Leprechaun Treats on St. Patrick’s Day

Posted on by Busy Mom

Does your family do anything to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Dress in green? Eat green food? Get visited by a sneaky leprechaun? Make an Irish dinner? Do an Irish jig? Search for four-leaf clovers and rainbows?

In elementary school, I used to love wearing my green stirrup pants each St. Patrick’s Day. In fact, I think I wore them about everyday, but felt especially great wearing them on St. Patrick’s Day 😀

Leprechaun Treats on St. Patrick’s Day

Last St. Patrick’s Day we found a poem, written out on Post-it Notes, left by a leprechaun. Usually the leprechauns that visit our house leave surprises while everyone is sleeping, but this year our leprechaun was running a little late and visited our house while I was picking the kids up from school. When we got home, my kids read the poem and used the clues to find a pot of gold!

Read top row first, from left to right 🙂

They found the pot of gold in one of the kitchen cabinets:

The “gold” was actually simple doughnuts (the kind you might get at a grocery store bakery, with just a bit of sugar sprinkled on them) with Ferrero Rocher golden-wrapped chocolate in the middle of the doughnut. What a treat! There was a doughnut and chocolate for each person in our family. The kids ate their golden doughnuts as an after-school snack and then enjoyed blowing bubbles outside (Thank you, Mr. Leprechaun, for the bubbles in the green containers!).

Later, after dinner, we ended the day with green Choco Mint Chip ice cream.

Have a happy St. Patrick’s day!

*If you aren’t planning on making the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner, but would like to at least have some green-colored foods to serve on St. Patty’s Day, here are a few ideas:

 

Chocolate Covered Dates with Almonds

Posted on by Busy Mom

My husband visited Switzerland recently and of course stocked up on delicious gourmet chocolates (which sadly are all gone now). Some of the chocolates he brought home that were surprisingly really good were chocolate covered dates with almonds in the middle. As a kid, dates were one of those things that I never wanted to try. They are sticky, wrinkley, super sweet, don’t have a good crunch.  However, as an adult, I’ve started really liking Medjool dates, especially covered in chocolate and with a crunchy almond in the middle.

Chocolate Covered Dates with Almonds

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave (about 20 seconds at a time, and stir in between cooking times so they don’t burn).  
  2. Remove stem from dates (if there is any). Slice the dates open length-wise (hot dog style) and remove the pit.  
  3. Stuff about two almonds in the middle of the date, where the pit used to be. Pinch the edges closed.  
  4. Dip the stuffed dates in the melted chocolate. Place on a clean plate or parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
  5. Sprinkle with shredded coconut if desired (this does add a prettiness to these chocolate covered dates). 
  6. Let cool until the chocolate is hardened (you can put them in the refrigerator to speed up the process).

Enjoy! And go find someone you want to go on a date with and give them some of these dates, wrapped in a pretty package, and ask them out on a date 😉

Refried Beans in the Slow Cooker

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Have you ever tried making your own refried beans? I usually cook them over the stove-top when I have an at-home-all-day sort of day, but throwing everything into the slow cooker in the morning sure makes it easier to get errands done throughout the day 🙂 These beans turned out so creamy. I didn’t use jalapeno this time since we didn’t have one, but I do recommend adding a jalapeno pepper to the recipe for added flavor.

It is so nice having a batch of healthy, creamy refried beans in your fridge. You can use them for so many different quick meals like burritos, nachos, quesadillas, bean dip, with rice, etc. You can even freeze the beans for later use.

Nachos topped with slow cooked refried beans, cheese, avocado and salsa

 

Refried Beans in the Slow Cooker

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. dry pinto beans
  • water to soak the beans plus 6 cups water for cooking
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • 5 cloves garlic, quartered
  • 1 tsp. salt, plus more to taste if desired
  • 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
  • optional: 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

Instructions:

  1. Soak the dry beans in a big pot with cold water about 3 or 4 inches over the beans. Cover with lid and let soak overnight. 
  2. In the morning, rinse and drain the beans and put them in a slow cooker. Pour 6 Cups of water into the slow cooker. Add chopped onion, garlic and jalapeno and the salt, pepper and cumin. Give it a quick stir.
  3. Cover the slow cooker with its lid (don’t lock the lid though). Cook on high for 7-8 hours.
  4. Remove about 2 cups of bean water from the slow cooker (save it in case you want to thin out the beans after they are mashed).
  5. Mash the beans with a potato masher. You may add in a little more bean water if the mashed beans are too thick and a little more salt if desired. 

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

Pesto Sauce with Basil and Walnuts

Posted on by Busy Mom

Water and lemon juice are the magic ingredients I’ve been missing in my homemade pesto sauce all this time! Seriously, I was wondering why my pesto always turns out so thick and clumpy, but never thought to add water or lemon juice. They sure made a big difference though Today my pesto was much easier to mix into the pasta.

Making Pesto Sauce in a food processor

Pesto Sauce with Basil and Walnuts

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 C. packed fresh basil
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 heaping Tbsp. walnuts
  • 3 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese
  • 1-1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp. salt, plus more if needed (I ended up using 1/8 tsp. more)
  • 3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil (or until desired consistency)
  • 3 Tbsp. water (or until desired consistency)

Instructions:

  1. Combine fresh basil, garlic, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice and salt in a food processor. Pulse/chop a few times until all the basil, garlic and walnuts are chopped into pretty small bits. 
  2. Slowly pour in olive oil (preferably while the food processor is going). Then slowly add the water, again, while the food processor is on. You should get a nice thick, pour-able pesto sauce. 
  3. Transfer the pesto to a dish, and feel free to add a little more salt, lemon juice, Parmesan or oil as desired. I sometimes like stirring in a little extra oil at the end.

Homemade peso sauce on shell pasta

Pesto Sauce with Pasta and Tomatoes

This pesto is great as a pasta sauce, chicken sauce or a sandwich spread (like in this GRILLED CHEESE PESTO SANDWICH)

*Inspired by THIS recipe.

Onigiri (Japanese Rice Ball)

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My son recently started learning Japanese in school. One day he got to make and eat Onigiri at school, and it has become one of our go-to dinners/lunches because it’s really quick to throw together and my family enjoys it. Sometimes we really simplify this recipe, like literally only use rice and seaweed. Or mix in some sesame seeds with the rice before wrapping the seaweed around it. You can get creative with the presentation too. Here is a picture of my daughter’s plate 🙂

I like to  use hot rice that is still steaming, and put about 2 spoonfuls on the seaweed in different sections, and roll it up kind of like sushi. This helps the dry seaweed soften and have a chewier texture.

Also, the way my son taught me to make onigiri is to get our hands wet with water, and sprinkle salt on them, and then mold the rice into a ball shape. We did this the first time we made it and it got pretty messy. But I noticed the rice usually stuck together pretty well on it’s own, so now we just use a spoon to scoop the rice directly onto the strips of seaweed.

Onigiri (Japanese Rice Ball)

Ingredients:

Instructions:

  1. Cook rice according to package instructions (if we are cooking 1 C. dry rice (nice amount for a family of four), I usually add about 1/2 tsp. salt to it).
  2. Use clean kitchen scissors to cut the strips of seaweed. We usually make the strips about 2 or 2 1/4 inches wide.
  3. If you want to stir some sesame seeds or a little more salt into the rice, do that now. Then place some rice and an optional filling ingredient like salmon or a slice of avocado on a strip of seaweed and roll it up like sushi or wrap the seaweed all around the rice/filling.

Goes great with fresh fruit on the side, like mango! 

*Inspired by my son and THIS recipe.