Sour Cream & Onion Deviled Eggs

My MIL is the queen of stuffed eggs so I channeled her and put a twist on the traditional deviled egg. Work was having a 3-way baby shower for 3 mommas-to-be. They seemed ideal for a snack that didn’t need to be reheated, and was easy to bring, open, and serve without any assembly.

The Three Bite Rule - Sour Cream & Onion Deviled Eggs
Ingredients:
dozen eggs
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon Nutritional Yeast Flakes (optional)
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon mayo (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives + some for topping garnish

Directions:
Hard boil the eggs then let cool for at least 3 hours before pealing.
Slice in halves, pop the yolks out and into a bowl. Add in the yogurt, mustard, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast flakes, onion powder, and mayo.
The Three Bite Rule - Sour Cream & Onion Deviled Eggs
Mix well and add in the chives.
The Three Bite Rule - Sour Cream & Onion Deviled Eggs
Spoon into a ziplock bag, push to the bottom corner, and snip of the corner with scissors.
Pipe into the egg halves and sprinkle the remaining chives on top.
The Three Bite Rule - Sour Cream & Onion Deviled Eggs
Enjoy!

I liked these! The flavors were a bit subtle, but still there. The yogurt gave a little tang and I added the mayo for some creaminess. I added the nutritional yeast flakes because it kind of mimics cheese and I thought it’d help the sour cream & onion touch without dip mix or anything. I have a few more flavor options in my head. Stay tuned!

Smoky Cornbread Chex Mix

Snacks snacks snacks! October for Mr. J’s year of snacks/treats was themed: “homemade.” I tweaked a Chex Mix recipe to play more on the cornbread-smoke flavors rather than how muddy-buddy/powder-y the original recipe was. I added potato sticks, almonds, and corn chips.

The Three Bite Rule - Smokey Cornbread Chex Mix

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons corn syrup
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
4 cups Chex cereal (I used Rice Chex)
1 cup almonds
1 package potato sticks
~1 cup cornbread mix
1 cup corn chips

Directions:

Melt the butter and stir in corn syrup, sugar, and liquid smoke.
The Three Bite Rule - Smokey Cornbread Chex Mix

Mix together the cereal, almonds, and potato sticks.
The Three Bite Rule - Smokey Cornbread Chex Mix
Stir the sugary sauce into the cereal then add in the cornbread mix and the chips.
The Three Bite Rule - Smokey Cornbread Chex Mix
Pour onto wax paper to cool/dry for at least 20 minutes.
Enjoy!

This one was subtly addictive. I liked the smokiness and the chips are the perfect salty touch. It got a bit soggy a few days later so I’m not sure how to change that. Eat quickly! Next month’s theme is chewy!

Spinach Squares

I mixed up these spinach squares last weekend thinking they’d be a good thing to pack for the little one’s lunch. Thennn I also munched it for my quest for savory breakfasts. I also was reminded that my mom makes this as an appetizer…such a multi-functional food! There are so few ingredients and I liked that they weren’t so eggy that it seems like square quiche. The trick making them so good is quality cheese and is that they get baked in a butter bath.

The Three Bite Rule - Spinach Squares
The little one liked it a few times, but seemed to tire of them. That’s a trend for him: a few meals something is good, then he kind of passes on it. If we give it a break, it is all good awhile later. I’ll probably pop some into the freezer.

Ingredients:

3 tbs butter
3 eggs
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 package frozen chopped spinach, drained and squeezed well
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
optional: 1 small onion & 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.
In a 13×9 baking pan, melt the butter by putting both into the preheating oven.
In a mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer), add in the eggs, cheese, spinach, milk, flour, baking powder, and salt.
The Three Bite Rule - Spinach Squares

Stir well to combine.
Pour into the buttery baking pan.
The Three Bite Rule - Spinach Squares
Bake 30 minutes.
Let cool, slice and enjoy at room temperature or warm!

The Three Bite Rule - Spinach Squares

I used more butter but thought maybe there was a bit too much (gasp!) it pooled a bit one mine so next time I’d use 3 tbs (as suggested above). I love these! My mom’s are a bit thicker and more fluffy…mine seemed a touch dense but I still liked them! Use the good cheese…these have so few ingredients they’re worth it!

No Bake Energy Bites

I’ve been less pin-happy lately than I used to be. Pinterest can be kind of overwhelming. I did say that this year I wanted to make some pins a reality so all the stars aligned when I was thinking what to bring to my fav new mommy. Well, she’s not new to mommy-hood but I figured she needed a treat to distract her so I could take hold of babe #2 and play with the big brother. I just want to hug them forever!

I really wasn’t sure what to bring. I ended up settling on a snack that I thought maybe everyone could enjoy. These no-bake energy bites were hopefully healthy and easy for one-handed munching while mom & dad hold a newborn and chase a 2-year-old. Originally, I pinned no-bake energy bites without a plan in mind because they seemed so easy and had flavors I love/had-on-hand. Shanpagne all Around made these and I’m so glad I tried them. They were so good! I repinned a pin and then actually made them #winning

The Three Bite Rule - No Bake Energy Bites

No-Bake Energy Bites

by Shanpagne All Around

Ingredients:

1 cup old-fashioned oats
2/3 cup coconut
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flax or wheat germ
1/2 cup chocolate chips (or mini chips would work well, not more than 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

In a flat pan over medium-low heat, lightly toast the coconut, stirring occasionally. Cook for about 3 minutes and remove from the heat.
Mix together the oats, peanut butter, flax/germ, honey, and vanilla.
The Three Bite Rule - No Bake Energy Bites
Stir in the chocolate chips and coconut.
The Three Bite Rule - No Bake Energy Bites
Refrigerate a few hours, or overnight.
Roll into balls & enjoy!
The Three Bite Rule - No Bake Energy Bites
I thought they were pretty OK to roll. I do think more chocolate chips would have made it harder to roll though. Normally I’d never measure them and I’d just dump a bunch in. This time I was glad that I didn’t over-do it. Too many would make this harder to roll.

Store in the refrigerator and keep for a week. I figured I’d label the heck outta ’em since a) I hear breast feeding means you need to know what you’re eating b) I wasn’t 100% if there was anything the big brother couldn’t have, like coconut c) they have enough to think about right now than to wonder about their snacks.

The Three Bite Rule - No Bake Energy Bites
I loved these. They’re soft and chewy like cookie dough. The toasted coconut is so good. I might add some nuts next time. These buggers are sweet from the peanut butter, chocolate chips, honey, and coconut but there’s no other sugar added. They’re such a reasonable snack I just might have to throw some together for a quickie dessert.

I had planned to use ground flax but ended up skipping a trip to the store and using wheat germ. I keep wheat germ handy when needing to keep pizza dough from sticking or when I need a subtle binder or want a healthier alternative to bread crumbs…like in meatballs or veggie burgers etc. Wheat germ has the healthiest part of the wheat with the most vitamins & minerals plus protein and fiber. It has the good stuff that gets left out when using wheat to make white bread.

Saw it. Pinned it. Made it.

Nutella Popcorn

I have some strong desire to make any flavor into a popcorn. I’ve made a few popcorns and I’m all about it right now. I like how easy of a treat it is and I love the crunch. I’ve yet to figure out how coating it doesn’t make it sogged/disintegrated but science was never my thing.

One day I had this miraculous idea that I HAD TO MAKE NUTELLA POPCORN. Had to. Right away. Good thing it takes about .5 seconds to get going.

Ingredients:

3 cups popped popcorn
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
3 tbs nutella
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper
Over medium heat stir the butter, brown sugar, and honey until butter melts. Bring to boiling over medium heat. Boil at a moderate, steady rate for a couple of minutes.
The Three Bite Rule - Neutella Popcorn
Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and baking soda (mixture will foam up).
Stir in nutella until well incorporated and salt.
The Three Bite Rule - Neutella Popcorn
Mix popcorn and nutella caramel together and spread onto a pan.
The Three Bite Rule - Neutella Popcorn
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
The Three Bite Rule - Neutella Popcorn

This was a good one, but I needed a bit more popcorn. It was a bit stick to your teeth caramelly. I made it with 2 cups (above I recommend 3 cups). I also had visions of half nutella popcorn and half coffee-ish popcorn but my ratios were off when I randomly decided to split the caramel up between pots and when I hastily dumped too much coffee into one. Man, it was crazy for a minute.

How do you pop your popcorn? Are you a bag popcorn-er? In college my wise roomie Ms. A discovered how dirt cheap popcorn kernels are. It is astounding. I saw a 4 pound bag of kernels for $3.99 (that is 52 servings of popcorn, or about 7-cents per serving). It also doesn’t go bad. It is a whole grain. It has about 30-60 calories per serving. It has a lot of fiber. Need I go on? All of this is only referring to air popped white popcorn. Not the case when you coat it in caramel and neutella, but my point is air popping. My whole fam is all about these air poppers. It gives you a lot more control over what is going on it, how much butter, oil, salt etc. You dump kernels in and put it in the micro. Easy peasy.
The Three Bite Rule - Neutella Popcorn
I brought some into the office and warned the ladies it was a bit sticker than some caramel corn. It was all gone by the end of the day so I’ll consider it successful.