Pheasant Nuggets (With Homemade Fryin’ Magic)

Happy 2015, everyone!

I hope the first couple weeks of the new year have been treating you well so far. How are your resolutions coming along?

I resolved to start recycling in 2015, and there is now an impressive little pile of glass jars and bottles in the garage. Alright, that’s really not impressive at all, but I’m working toward it! Today I browsed the interwebs for recycling storage/organization ideas and read my city’s regulations, and my hopes are high. 😀 Rob has been in the building mood lately, so I’ve asked him to build a recycling station or tower of some sort. My other resolutions include reading all the books on my shelf that I’ve been meaning to, getting back into marathon shape, and going deeper with the Lord. Oh and I also resolve to find a job I enjoy and am passionate about. This year is going to kick last year’s bum!

For today’s recipe, I’m sharing a variation of one of my dad’s specialties: pan-fried pheasant. Wild game was the norm around my house growing up; we ate pheasant instead of chicken, deer and elk instead of beef. For some, these are acquired tastes. For others, delicacies. For my family (and any other hunting family), it’s just what’s for dinner.

Advertisement

4 Ingredient Milk & Cereal Bars + a review of Cheerios Protein {& a GIVEAWAY!}

Today is a joyous day here at Milk & Cereal.
Today’s post features one of my most favorite foods: CEREAL!

I’d be lying if I said that I don’t wake up every morning excited for breakfast.

I’m even oftentimes excited for breakfast already when I go to bed at night.

I’d also be lying if I said that cereal isn’t a frequent meal of mine when Rob is out of town.
There’s nothing wrong with that though, right? Right.

Homemade Parmesan & Herb Mini Croutons

Healthy eating is probably one of the most common New Year’s resolutions, right? Well, if you’ve resolved to eat healthier this year, make these croutons. They’re guaranteed to amp up your boring salads! The slight bit of cheesiness and the lovely herb notes are deliciously pleasing. I tell you what, these croutons are so good that I even eat them on their own sometimes as a snack! Plus, they’re way easy to make.

You know what else? They’re the perfect size. Maybe I’m weird, but I find it annoying when croutons are so large that they have to be stabbed with a fork, which then just causes them to crumble. No, these ones are perfectly small and “scoop-able.” Of course, if you happen to like giant croutons, you can go ahead and cut these into giant pieces. 😉

Homemade Apple Butter {reduced sugar & perfectly sweet!}

Mmmm, fall is here!!

There are so many reasons I love fall– the crisp & fresh air, the utter beauty in changing leaves, comfy flannel all the time, pumpkin everything, hearty soups, and AMPLE AMOUNTS OF APPLES!! 😀

I grew up with an apple tree in my yard, and we used up those apples in any way we could think of. Our favorites were apple sauce, apple juice, apple pie, apple crisp, and apple leather. I suppose that’s where my deep love of apples began.

Quinoa Spaghetti with Homemade Tomato Basil Sauce

Well HELLO again!

Today I’ve got two things for you wonderful readers. First, I have a delicious and healthy recipe to share with you. Second, I decided it’s about time I fill you in on the exciting news I mentioned recently. 😀

So, first things first, I made some spaghetti.
I made it with quinoa noodles.
I also made some killer homemade sauce.

Quinoa Black Bean Burgers

HELLO.

Have you forgotten about me? I hope not. I haven’t forgotten about you!
I do apologize for my absence; there’s a big, exciting venture that’s been consuming much of my spare time lately. That’s all I’ll tell you for now, but more details to come! 😀

Now, onto the food!

I’ve done it. I think I’ve finally perfected my black bean burgers, and it’s about time!

They’ve always had good flavor, but I couldn’t get the texture quite right.
Turns out, I was probably just being impatient before because cooking them longer seemed to be one of the main reasons they weren’t mushy this time.

Better-For-You Honey Oat Banana Bread

“With bread, all sorrows are less.”
– translated quote from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

It’s true; there’s just something about fresh, homemade bread that makes life more pleasant. Wouldn’t you agree?

This Better-For-You Honey Oat Banana Bread will make your life even more pleasant because of the health benefits it offers. It’s a modified version of my main go-to banana bread recipe: The butter and processed sugar have been cut in half, and I added Greek yogurt, honey, and oats.

Healthy Strawberry Banana “Ice Cream” {or Soft-Serve Frozen Yogurt}

Do you ever come across dessert recipes claiming to be healthy and then, after looking at the ingredients, find that it’s really not that healthy? It’s disappointing.

Well, this is not one of those recipes!

The first time I made it, I wasn’t even sure if it would taste good because it has so little added sweetener. There’s just one tablespoon of honey in the whole recipe, which serves two, and I didn’t know if that would be enough. But I loved it! And Rob did, too, without knowing how healthy it is.

Thai Chicken Quinoa {& Tips on Cooking Quinoa!}

Hi there!
I hope you’re excited to see a healthy recipe here today ’cause I know it’s been a while…

This may be the recipe that changed my perspective on quinoa. I mean, I’ve always been on board with quinoa because of how awesomely good for you it is, but until now, I never actually got excited about eating it. I thought that quinoa was bland and mushy, but I finally realized that quinoa is only as bland and mushy as you make it. Duh!

I’ve found that, like with rice, quinoa’s flavor can be greatly enhanced by adding more flavors in the cooking process. So I now always cook it in either chicken stock or vegetable stock, whichever I have on hand. Even substituting half or three-fourths of the cooking water for stock will help improve the taste.

Pea Pesto Pasta

Do you ever conjure up brilliant ideas while lying in bed, trying to fall asleep?
Or at least, ideas that seem brilliant at the time.

For a while, I even kept a notepad next to my bed so that I could write down those ideas.

Today’s recipe is one of those late-night ideas. You tell me whether it’s brilliant or not. 😉