Recipes – Marparmelee

Clean Breakfast Quinoa Bowl

The ways you can make this recipe are absolutely never-ending! We love variety around here so it’s a keep of a dinner idea in our house. Bonus points because the kids will eat a lot of it!

Keep it classic with garlic and onion flavors or give it an asian spin by using Chinese Five Spice seasoning + sriracha. So many things you can do! I love to use a splash of balsamic glaze on lots of roasted veggies, it’s my fav! The cool thing about this is that you should use whatever things you love, and leave out what you don’t. It’ll turn out great!

Ingredients:

Quinoa or quinoa/brown rice mix (amount will vary depending on your preference, but we use one box of quinoa/brown rice mix for two adult portions)
Vegetables of choice to roast, we like:
- sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
- onion, sliced
- carrots
- brussels sprouts
- mushrooms
Fresh Avocado
Chopped and cooked bacon, turkey bacon, or salami
Cilantro
Protein of choice, we have loved:
- pulled chicken (like from a rotisserie chicken) pulled pork, steak, shrimp, fried tofu – Or skip the meat and load up on the veggies!
Our homemade dressing (We use this for everythinggg, mix in a jar and shake! So easy to make. Taste as you add ingredients to the jar… we never measure this)
- Avocado oil or olive oil
- Apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar
- Sugar or coconut sugar
- Lemon juice
- Garlic Powder (fresh garlic is even better)
- Onion Powder
- Salt + Pepper
Goat Cheese, feta, or other soft cheese
Extras: Artichoke Dip, Queso, Hummus, etc.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat all vegetables in avocado or olive oil and seasonings of choice (sprinkle mine with salt+pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and balsamic glaze).
Place all veggies in one layer on cookie sheet. Roast for 10 minutes. Stir veggies around and roast for another 10 minutes. Cook veggies until you reach desired doneness. I usually roast for around 40 minutes.
Build your bowl. We use a shallow, but wide style bowl. Quinoa and/or rice goes in first and then put everything else on top. Top with smaller things like cilantro. Mix together if you like.
Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Over Heavenly Mashed Potatoes

Hope y’all are ready for some filling, warm, and carb-loaded Fall recipes. I’ve got more to share and this is just the first of it! We’ve been making this about once a week throughout the summer (because who doesn’t love BBQ in the summer) and it’s easy for me to make since being pregnant and SO. DANG. TIRED.

You can totally do your own spin on this recipe by switching the barbecue sauces out for your personal fav, adding different flavorings to the mashed potatoes, etc. The thing I recommend you do, if anything, is serve the pulled pork (or chicken, or beef, whateva) with the mashed potatoes and let all the delicious, sweet sauce sink into your mashed potatoes. Add any other vegetable side or salad and you’ve got a really affordable dinner that feeds at least a family of 4 for under $10!

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs Marinated Pork Tenderloin (we prefer a peppercorn marinade)
Half a bottle (or around 10 oz.) Barbecue sauce
2 TBS Olive Oil
3 TBS Apple Cider Vinegar
6 large Golden Potatoes
Half stick of Butter (or more for your personal taste)
1/4 cup Cream Cheese
Salt + Pepper

Directions:

Set slow cooker to low for 6 hours.
Put olive oil in slow cooker and add pork tenderloin.
Add barbecue and let cook. Flip the meat a few times during the cook time if you are able to.
Boil large pot of salted water.
Peel potatoes and cut them into large cubes (about 2″x2″).
Cook potatoes in boiling water for about 12 minutes. Drain potatoes.
In a large bowl, mash potatoes with butter, cream cheese, salt and pepper. Add any other ingredients you may want to flavor the potatoes with (cheese, bacon bits, chives, sour cream, extra salt + pepper, etc.).
Shred meat with two forks, it should fall apart very easily.
Serve mashed potatoes under desired amount of meat and sauce.

Hope y’all enjoy! 🙂

Caramelized Onion Meatloaf (Healthy and a New Spin on a Traditional Meatloaf!)

I roast carrots and cabbage “steaks,” but you could do anything you want, as all veggies pair well with this meatloaf. Another favorite is roasted brussels sprouts with walnuts!

I recommend allowing yourself about 2 hours before serving to get everything caramelized and roasted properly without rushing!

* Watch me (Youtube video) make this recipe HERE!

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs ground beef (if you like more “meaty” of a meatloaf, use 2 lbs)
1 sweet onion, sliced as thinly as possible
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 TBS butter or olive oil
1 TBS tomato paste
2 TBS Worcestershire sauce (to taste)
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tsps yellow mustard
Salt and pepper
1 tsp all-spice seasoning or any blend of your favorites (I used Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute)
1 TBS balsamic glaze
1 egg (2 if you like your meatloaf to be more firm and held together)
1/4 cup italian breadcrumbs

Directions:

Start by caramelizing your onions. Add butter and/or oil to your pan, turn on medium-low. Add sliced onions. Add a pinch of salt, give a quick stir to coat the onions, and leave it alone for a bit. I usually take about 30-45 minutes to do this, stirring a few times to turn the onions over.
Make sauce mix that will go on top of the meatloaf, as well as inside. In a bowl, mix tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, yellow mustard, pinch of salt, pinch of pepper, all-spice or seasoning blend, balsamic glaze. Set aside.
In a large bowl, scramble your egg. Add breadcrumbs. Whisk together. Add ground beef and mix until combined by hand. Don’t overmix!
Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Ensure your meat is cooked in the center and let it rest for about 15 minutes.
Roast whatever veggies you want on the side or serve with a salad.
Enjoy!

Easy Blueberry Scones That Won’t Disappoint

If you love scones that are on the sweet side, verging on muffin territory, you will love my new blueberry scone recipe. Easy easy easy to make and you probably have everything on hand!

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1 tbs baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 stick (½ cup) cold butter, cut into cubes
1 egg
½ cup whole milk
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen, towel dried
A couple tablespoons Turbinado or raw sugar, for topping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Using a stand mixer (my preference) or a hand mixer, stir dry ingredients together slowly. Add butter cubes. Mixture should turn into a crumbly type of mix. Add the milk, then the egg. The batter will be thick. Add the blueberries and gently fold into batter.
Flour your work surface. I like to use a piece of parchment paper with light flour on top. Make sure you flour your hands! Put dough on the work surface and press dough down. You can make your scones as rustic/free form as you like, but I prefer to make a large rectangle, about 1.5 inches thick. I cut the rectangle into 4 quadrants and then into triangles from there.
Place on a cookie sheet, top with your desired amount of raw sugar, and bake for 20 minutes.

Hope you enjoy!

Compound Butter 3 Ways

View my YouTube tutorial of these recipes here! 🙂

What you’ll need:

I used 5 sticks of butter and divided them into three to create 3 different kinds of compound butter for Thanksgiving. These make an amazing gift to bring along to the holidays. The sweet flavors can be used on rolls, biscuits, toast, cinnamon rolls, and so much more. Savory compound butter is amazing on a nice crusty bread, served as an appetizer with crackers, or used to flavor meat. Keep on Reading!

Slow Cooker Apple Cider Chex Mix

A couple things to note about this recipe!

You can really make it your own by adding whatever dry ingredients and/or candy you want. Some suggestions: bagel chips, almonds or other nuts, raisins, Reese’s Pieces, butterscotch chips, cheez-its, etc.
The seasoning measurements below provide a pretty light flavor. If you like extreme flavor, be sure to ramp it up!

Watch me make this recipe in my vlog, here! 🙂

Ingredients:

10 cups of dry ingredients, I used:

3 cups rice cereal squares
3 cups corn cereal squares
1 cup dry roasted peanuts
3 cups pretzels

½ cup apple cider

½ cup butter

½ cup coconut oil

⅓ cup worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp garlic powder

½ Tbsp onion powder

2 tsp salt

Directions:

Turn your slow cooker on high.

Add all your dry ingredients, butter, and coconut oil.

Stir to cover all the pieces.

Add seasonings and all other ingredients.

Stir again to ensure all pieces have been covered.

Cook in slow cooker for 3 hours, stirring at least once or twice during that time.

Spread the mixture out on parchment paper or baking sheet.

Heat oven to 350° F. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

Pour all of the chex mix in a gallon size ziploc and add your candy.

Shake and enjoy! 🙂

Moist Pumpkin Loaf (The Only Pumpkin Bread Recipe You Need)

Pumpkin bread is universally loved, right? I’m pretty sure people who don’t typically like pumpkin things still like pumpkin bread. So let’s skip the argument about baking this and just get to it!

Low+Slow Onion Candy (AKA Caramelized Onion)

It’s what I like to call Onion Candy, but others may call them Caramelized Onions. It resembles nothing like the sweet onion it came from. It’s been slowly and lowly cooked in butter and balsamic glaze.

I’m standing over my kitchen sink with a 10″ frying pan in my left hand and a spoon in my right hand. Well, at least 60 seconds ago I was. I realized what I was doing and decided to take a second to collect my thoughts before SLAPPIN’ MY MAMA. Keep on Reading!

Cast-Iron Bread Pudding with Spiced Rum Glaze

As a non-bread pudding eater myself, I urge you to try this recipe! You won’t regret it. In honor of the cool weather and my Dad’s birthday over the Labor Day weekend, I give you this hearty and sweet brunch dish. Keep on Reading!