Chicken Pot Pie

This recipe will fill your home with a cozy smell and is the perfect dish for a rainy, or cold evening. Pair with cottage cheese, and you'll have yourself an amazing meal! ~344 calories per serving!

Makes one pot pie, servings: 8

Ingredients for crusts:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. butter, softened

2 eggs

4 Tbsp. low-fat milk

1/2 cup oats

**Combine ingredients in mixer/Bosch and separate into two balls. Roll out the first ball and press crust down/shape into pie pan. Roll out and shape the other ball into a circle for the pie top. Using saran wrap, wrap both crusts and place in refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Ingredients for the filling:

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

8 oz. (1/2 lb.) bag of frozen vegetables: I like to use the frozen peas, carrots, and corn

garlic powder, black pepper, salt, dried thyme, to taste

1 cup low-fat milk

1/2 pound cooked and shredded chicken breast

up to 1/4 cup flour, adding in slowly

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. While oven is heating up, in a large pot over medium-high heat, saute diced onions and garlic in oil until onions are translucent.

3. Add chicken broth, frozen veggies, spices, and milk. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and stir. 

4. Slowly sprinkle flour into the mixture, stirring constantly, so the sauce thickens. Stop adding flour when it has reached a thick and creamy consistency. Simmer for another 5 minutes and then remove from heat. If sauce isn't thick enough, try adding a little bit more flour. 

5. Pour mixture into the crust-lined pan. Top with second crust, seal edge and cut several slits in top with a knife.

6. Bake for 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown. 

7. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Spaghetti Squash Bowls

So fresh, so colorful, and full of nutrients! This is ready to go in FIFTEEN MINUTES, and that, my dear friends, is hard to beat!

Yields: two large servings, or 4 regular servings.

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash, 3-4 pounds

2-3 Tbsp. olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 small onion, chopped

4 oz. sliced mushrooms

2 ripe tomatoes, chopped

1/2 large zucchini, or 1 medium zucchini, sliced

4 green onions, chopped

1/2 bell pepper, chopped

parmesan cheese to top

Instructions:

1. Poke deep holes in your squash and place in microwave for 5 minutes. Every 5 minutes, you'll rotate the squash until soft. Mine took exactly 15 minutes in the microwave to cook.

2. While squash is in microwave, in a large skillet, heat olive oil and garlic. Add onion and mushrooms. Soften those for about a minute and then proceed to add the other ingredients, with tomatoes very last. Saute and cook until softened and ready to go.

3. Once squash is softened in microwave, cut in half length-wise and scoop out seeds. Pour the mixture into the spaghetti squash bowl and sprinkle parmesan cheese over top! If you are serving 4, cut each bowl width wise to make 4 smaller bowls.

Enjoy while warm!

Healthier Packaged Snacks

Whole, one-ingredient foods always come first in our "snack lineup", but stuffing carrots and berries in the purse doesn't always go over so well.  Here are some other options for healthier snacks on the go when you're in a pinch. (Tap the photo for sources)

@noosayoghurt - our fave. Top with fresh fruit or 1/4 c. @naturespathorganic "Love Crunch" organic granola (made with organic cocoa, flax, and coconut)... Dark chocolate (the one that is linked here, is our favorite!)

@eatwholly guacamole minis. Clean ingredients and only 45 calories per serving. Pair with @stacys original pita chips for a good combo.

Trail mix- most grocery stores have mixes they've put together for you, and I love giving them a try! This one from @mysmithsgrocery has raw almonds, raisins, pumpkin seeds, cranberries, and peanuts

 The Laughing Cow creamy Swiss light cheese + Almond nut-thins. Yum. You've gotta try this!

 @annieshomegrown bunny grahams. Portion these out or else you'll want to eat the entire bag!

Organic raisins: Ellie eats these by the double-handful. 

@gogosqueeze: our fave. These always seem to save the day.

Pistachios: so so good. But careful! These are not the thing to give one of your littles unless they chew well on their own.

Fruit strips, fruit leathers... a diaper bag must-have.

What are your favorite healthier packaged snacks?

Baby Animal Days

Even though most of my posts involve health and wellness tips, I love being able to incorporate parts of my motherhood journey as well. When I have something fun to share, I want everyone to know about it too. This is one of those things...

Once the sunshine comes out, you've got to get up to This Is The Place Heritage Park for

B A B Y  A N I M A L  D A Y S

Snuggling baby animals, holding baby chicks in your hands, riding ponies, stopping by the ZCMI store on main street for your favorite treats, crafts for your kids, a picnic in the pavilion, a ride on the train... it's the perfect afternoon with your littles. Baby Animal Days runs through April, and if you mention "Momstrong," you'll get $2 off your ticket.

Here are some pictures from our visit yesterday.

Hope you are able to get up there soon!

xo

Go Mom Give

A night to build strength, and to give strength.

#gomomgive

Grab Tickets for the 2018 Event

Beth from Fielding Films captured the night perfectly. She turns everything into gold, and if you're looking for a videographer, she's your girl. (Go show her some love at @thefamfielding.)

This was such a dream come true for me to put an event like this together.

I met Georgia Anderson, owner of knowhowmom.com, back in the fall. We organized a women's hike together and taught mini lessons at the top of Ensign Peak. I don't think it was by any coincidence that I met her that day. She's one of those people who you meet once, and feel like you've known forever. To know her, is to love her. The two of us stayed in touch a little bit and were later approached by Go Jane Give, an incredible organization that encourages women to use their talents to raise money for a cause. After talking with them, we decided we wanted to team up on a project, and create an event that would use our talents to strengthen the community while raising money for a local charity.

After seeing the surprising statistics of the prevalence of postpartum depression in Utah, we knew this was something that needed more attention, and was also a cause near and dear to all women. We chose to raise money for Utah Maternal Mental Health Collaborative, a nonprofit here in Utah who is actively helping women with postpartum depression. It was the perfect fit for our event, as it was scheduled on International Women's Day.

Six months (and blood, sweat, and tears) later, over 200 women ages 12 and up, gathered together in The Garden Place at This Is The Place Heritage Park. We exercised together, listened to speakers (and keynote speaker @kellyejensen), laughed, talked, cried, had an incredible raffle (with ~30 sponsors and over $4,000 worth of products to give away), ate delicious food, and left feeling inspired and strong. 

It was an evening we'll never forget.

Thank you so much to everyone who came, and for those who missed it... I'm praying we get to do it again next year.

Also a huge thanks to Lizzyography for photographing this night. Please look her up and give her a follow at @lizzyography.  She's a wizard. And also, the kindest and most down-to-earth human you'll ever meet. ;) Thanks, Lizzy!!

True Made Foods

I'm a sauce girl. Things just taste better with a sauce, am I right!? The problem is, most sauces out there are loaded with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and other unnecessary ingredients. This is why I've fallen in love with True Made Foods. 

Their Ketchup, BBQ Sauce, and Veracha Hot Sauce not only taste amazing, but they are infused with vegetables and clean ingredients. I was a little hesitant at first, but after we tried them all, we told them we'd be loyal customers.

The best part...they were all #husbandapproved. :)

Let's start with their ketchup.

If there's one thing I'll be buying from them from here on out, it's this. Let's compare it to regular ketchup you'd get from the store... say Kroger brand, for example. In one Tbsp. of Kroger brand ketchup, you'll find 4 grams of sugar, and 20 calories, wit high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup at the top of the ingredients list.

And then comes the ketchup from True Foods Inc. It cuts all those numbers in half. 2 grams of sugar and 10 calories per Tbsp. Instead of corn syrup, they've added spinach, carrots, and butternut squash. It's Paleo friendly, and tastes just like ketchup should taste.  Please tell me you'll use it on this burger this summer... it's our absolute favorite. 

The Veracha Sauce was the perfect amount of "hot" for me. I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to "spicy", but I like having a little bit of added kick. This did the trick for me, without coming on too strong.

And lastly, the BBQ sauce with these fries... that's gonna be a combo on repeat this summer for sure! It was comparable to my other favorite BBQ sauce: Stubbs Original. We loved it. Can't wait to incorporate it into more meals soon.

I'm so glad I was able to try these products and share them with you. If you love them as much as I do, be sure to show my friends some love at @truefoodsinc. and save a spot in your fridge for their sauce!

Vecino's Bike Imports

A bike for you AND your kids. When Vecino's Bike Imports reached out to me to ask if I'd like to test out one of their bikes, I didn't hesitate for a second! I love to bike, but without a way to take Ellie during the day, I haven't been doing it as often. I miss it terribly! As soon as the bike was delivered, we were out adventuring and picnic-ing, of course. If only I could've bottled up her "weeeeeee"-s down every hill... I'll treasure that memory forever. She'd go to the garage, pound on the door, and say "bike! bike!!" Ohhhhh man, we're going to have to start saving our pennies, because it was hard to give this back after we had it for a few days. If this is something in your budget, it's worth looking into.

My three favorite features about the bike:

1. I loved being able to see Ellie in front of me. I could talk and interact with her, watch her every move, and hear her excited screams when we'd go fast.

2. I loved the interior for safety and practicality reasons. The whole inside of the cubby is leather or plastic, and for us, crackers and popsicle juice was gone in a jiffy. As a mom, I appreciate anything that cleans up well. #messychildproblems 

I also loved the rain cover. It comes down and clips into place so easily. It started lightly raining on one of our rides, and Ellie was perfectly warm and dry inside. It folds back so nicely, without getting in the way. Loved that feature!

I also loved that the double seats have adjustable four-point harnesses. Safety first! I also love that you are able to store pretty much anything you need to in that cubby! I felt like we could've gone grocery shopping in that thing, and packed everything in. Huge storage space!

3. The bike has gears to make hills easier, a bell to ring, a brake to set when you decide to park, and a lock that is located under the seat so you can be sure nobody takes off with it when you're not around. The design was sleek and easy to use.

Hope you get to take one home soon!

#RIDEON

Resistance Bands

I have some resistance bands I really like, and I love incorporating them into my workouts each week. You'd be surprised at how much harder they'll make you work! And to get five for this price!? You can't beat it! I thought I'd share the love and give you the link below. Enjoy!

BUY HERE

In this video, I am using the "light band." Check out my Instagram @momstrongutah for more at-home workouts using these bands!