Couscous & Veggies ..

Happy Monday Everyone! especially those of us who have a long weekend :) LONG weekends are the best!!!! Its so great to not have to go to work today, and to be able to do whatever I want. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I know I have been posting less than when I started, but I realized when I started blogging it was the summertime - and guess what? I was off of work.. so of course I blogged more, but I am still going so thats good. I am thankful to have all of my readers and followers!! 

Today, I am going to tell you about a super simple, literally like 10 min, dinner :) Those are my favorite - especially when they are healthy and you can make them after work in a jiffy!! 

Since it turned to fall and is now chilly out (woo my favorite) I love to be cozy at home when it is chilly out - I have been making more grains to warm up the meals. 

This meal is couscous and veggies - I don't really have a better name for it :)

Here we go!

Ingredients

1 onion chopped

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced

1 head of broccoli,  chopped

1 cup of whole wheat couscous (you can change the amount, based on how many people you are serving)

Feta cheese or grated parm cheese 

Method

1. Cook couscous according to package directions - usually it is use 2 cups of water and 2 tbsp of olive oil, bring to a boil, once boiling, stir in couscous and remove from heat. Cover and let stand for 5 mins and fork to fluff :)

2. While the cous is cooking, heat 2 tsbp of olive oil in a skillet and add the onion to the skillet. Sautee the onion until it is tender, next, add the broccoli, sautee the broccoli until tender, and finally add the peppers and sautee until tender it should only take 6-7 minutes on medium heat.

3. Serve the couscous, top w/ the veggie and cheese of choice. You can also mix it all together, but w/ the couscous its easier to serve it first and add the veggies. 

If you want to add more veggies you can serve w/ a salad or some fresh whole grain bread. Either are great :) 

Or don't serve with anything else and its delicious and easy!! This is a light meal, but the cous makes it a little warmer for fall. BUT its great for summertime too! 

Stay tuned for butternut squash soup, stuffed cabbage, and chicken all in the CROCK POT!! After all it is the season for the crock pot (my favorite kitchen gadget)!

Enjoy your day  and healthy foods!!

Live Well xoxo

Fall Oaty Apple Cinnamon Muffins ..

AND another week begins :) Gotta love Mondays!! Not so much, but it was a gorg fall day!! The weekend was beautiful as well. I got to see so many of my friends this last weekend and many of them said they read my blog - how exciting :) Its so motivating to keep blogging when I know I have followers!!

Another thing that is great about this weather is THE CROCKPOT :) My favorite winter gadget. I will be blogging a lot of crockpot recipes coming up - since I use the thing constantly in the fall. The first one will come tomorrow :)

But first, I have this amazing apple muffin recipe. Its super nutritious and a GREAT snack. It taste delicious with a little cream cheese and a coffee at about 10:00AM - that's when my sweet tooth kicks in !!

So here we go.. Fall Oaty Apple Cinnamon Muffins..

Ingredients

1 2/3 Cup of Whole Wheat Flour (Be sure to get the 100% whole wheat - not enriched)
1/4 Cup of rolled oats
2 tsp of baking powder
1/3 cup of light brown sugar (so here's the deal w/ brown sugar - not the healthiest, but def healthier than regular white sugar and here is why -- the organic brown sugar is made from evaporated cane juice which is taken from organically grown sugar cane. It is not processed - the sugar cane is crushed/pressed to release the juice. The natural molasses is what makes it brown - so there ya have it.. natural at that :))
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs (cage-free organic)
1 cup milk
1/2 cup of peanut oil
1 tsp of vanilla extract (pure)
2 apples, cored and grated (I used granny smith and did it with Gala apples as well) (also, a very easy way to grate the apples is by using your food processor if it has a grating disk)

Once you have all of your ingredients ready - its time to get mixing..

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 and get your muffin tin ready. I made about 18 regular sized muffins w/ this recipe. I did not use muffin wrappers, I greased the muffin tin and the muffins came right out perfectly :)

2. Mix together the flour, oats, baking powder, sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl.

3. Lightly beat the eggs in a large bowl and beat in the milk and oil. When blended, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add the vanilla extract and stir gently until combined - be sure not to over mix here.

4. Finally, stir in the apples and fill your muffin pans.

5. Cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes - Here is my trick, I ALWAYS under bake so I always do the least amount of time b/c they continue cooking in the pan while they are cooling.

6. Let them cool completely before removing from the pan and there ya go - a delicious batch of muffins!!

These are yummy and amazing!! Enjoy :)

Stay tuned for the crockpot recipes coming tomorrow!!!

Live Well xxoxo