Still Craving Fresh….and Fresh!

Tuesday night we had a court of honor at our scout meeting, with a pot luck dinner.  Each patrol is assigned a “category” of food to bring. 

Last court of honor our patrol was assigned dessert so that is what I brought.  But at dinner that night, nobody had brought salad or veggie side dishes and I ended up with almost nothing to eat!

This time I was taking no chances!

I was assigned a main dish and I was making sure it would be something I could happily eat if there was nothing else available!

So lentil  salad it was.  Now I totally expected (based on past experience when I bring healthy stuff) to have most of it left over.  But I didn’t care! 

I LOVE my lentil salad!

I planned ahead for this one, ordering an available add-on from my organic produce buying club that included a bunch of scallions and two bunches of cilantro.

Warning #1:  I was such a lousy photographer for this day!  I was too busy trying to get everything together and rushing around to get work done, food done, kids picked up, and to the ceremony on time!

Warning #2:  This is one of my “throw everything together” recipes with no measurements…it probably comes out differently each time I make it!

First I soaked a bag of lentils in water for most of the day, and then boiled them for about 15 minutes to soften them up.  I rinsed them off in cold water.Then I grabbed three (which later turned into four) scallions, a gorgeous tomato, a couple of carrots, and a handful of cilantro.  The scallion, even though fresh, was rooting already! (of course no picture of that!)  Gotta love those organics!I had FabTeen chop everything up and add it to the lentils.  Then we used red wine vinegar, some olive oil, and S&P to taste.  We placed it in the fridge for a few hours for the flavors to meld, although this lentil salad is delicious served warm as well.

Honestly it could have used a little more vinegar…but I hadn’t done a taste test towards the end and I was rushing.  I also meant to add a can of kidney beans…but that slipped by me too!

Needless to say the salad was a big hit!  Several people even asked me for the recipe!  It was soooo good! 

I absolutely love this salad and have been making a variation of it since FabTeen was born, but it has been a while since I have made it.   I think it is my new vegetarian (and vegan) Go-To potluck recipe dish though, as it is perfect for a side dish..but robust enough for a meal.

Of course that is where the pictures ended…no completed salad…no buffet picture, not even a picture of my plate!  Although at least I did manage to remember to take the more important photo of FabStepson receiving his merit badges!  (He is the not so hairy one)

Another major salad craving I have been having is for Sweet Annie’s massaged kale salad. 

Last week we had curly kale in the box and I was soooo craving it!  Sometime during the week I went to make it, and when I was washing it, I found some extra protein in my kale! After four days in the fridge they were still wiggling away!  YUCK!

I picked through, soaked in vinegar, and rinsed the kale to death after that…but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat it raw.  I was satisfied that they were gone though..so we had it sauteed for dinner that night.  But that still didn’t satisfy my kale craving.

So this week I also ordered the $5 leafy add on from the buying club, which included a big bunch of kale and an extra head of lettuce.  With all of my salad cravings lately we have had to buy extra lettuce anyway, so I may as well get it from the buying club!

Finally this week I was able to make my kale salad.  This kale salad is a veritable powerhouse of superfoods!  I feel so healthy when I have it for lunch!

The superfoods include kale, raisins, garlic, walnuts, and honey.  The only nonsuperfood in the mix is the olive oil!

I add everything into the bowl, and then massage all the ingredients together for about ten minutes to wilt the kale and make it soft.  It is a messy job!  But Oh So worth it!         We have been storing up ripened bananas in the freezer…I like to use them for the Green Monsters, but FabTeen has been wanting to make banana soft serve for a while, so he finally remembered to do it when we had time. It has been a long time since we have had this!   I had forgotten how thick, smooth, and creamy this is…so much like ice cream only totally guilt-free!  Definitely something we need to make more often.  It disappeared way too quick!

Finally, dinner was a total throw something together to use up my organic veggies sort of event.  I needed to use up some yellow squash….a bunch of fresh spinach…onions (we have several bags of those!), garlic, and a beet!

What I started out making turned into something totally different.  I was tired and feeling like I was coming down with something, and just didn’t feel like doing anything!  FabHubs said he would take over…but he was going so ssssllllloooowwww and at the rate he was meditatively chopping the veggies, I was worried we wouldn’t be eating before  10 p.m. and I wanted to get to bed!

So I took over some of it…and then  he took over again with a little more hurry in his step!

I sliced up the  squash and added the onions and garlic that FabHubs had minced into the big bowl and tossed with some EVOO, balsamic, and S&P.  I am not a big fan of yellow squash but this made them very yummy!  I also peeled a head of garlic with some giant cloves on it…and tossed the cloves  whole into the mix so they would roast as well.  I LOVE roasted garlic cloves!

I sliced some more onions and rough cut some garlic, and had FabHubs sautee them in some coconut oil.  Then I had him add the spinach that  I had washed and separated.  Finally, I gave him a can of garbanzo beans to add to the mix. Kind of impromptu and totally thrown together…but the end result was so good and  filling too!  When I don’t have a clear source of meat-like protein for FabHubs, you never know if it will pass muster.  Usually I can make beans fit the bill in some way…so I try to add them often to our meals.

In this case it worked!  It was flavorful, healthy, and satisfying!

Plus…the lentils from Tuesday, spinach, and chickpeas were filled with much-needed iron for me…to see if I would pass the test.  I will you about that tomorrow!

I’ve Sprouted!

No silly…I am done growing myself…but look what I grew this week! Lousy picture I know…but these things are truly amazing!

I do love sprouts.  I never buy them but I enjoy them when they come on sandwiches…and I have been looking into growing my own.  I just hadn’t gotten around to it.

I had talked about it with a girlfriend and Monday night she surprised me with some seeds, a jar, and two lids of hers to try!

So I put a TBS of seeds in the wide-mouth mason jar she brought me, put a bunch of water in them, put the finer-meshed lid on top, and soaked the seeds overnight.

Tuesday morning I drained the water and set the jar in a sunny spot.

Tuesday night when I went to rinse my seeds (I am supposed to do this twice a day) this is what I found…

Can you see that?  (sorry…I only have a little point and shoot)…they were already sprouting!  I was really excited…and I couldn’t believe how excited I was over sprouting seeds.

By Wednesday morning they were shoots already!  HOLY COW!  I was so excited that I noticed that my empty Maranatha jar was the perfect size to set up another sprout garden!

I swapped lids, putting the lid with the larger holes on the already sprouted jar, and the finer meshed lid on the Maranatha jar and got some more sprouts going!  The lid won’t screw onto the Maranatha jar…only set on top so I have to hold it down when draining…but it still works!

These were my two little gardens Wednesday night!

Tonight (Friday night already) my first batch is just about ready to harvest!  I have a Girl Scout all day trip tomorrow and am packing my own dinner rather than suffer through the McDonalds I know they are going to be stopping for…so I will make a sandwich using my first crop of sprouts!

Pretty exciting wouldn’t you say?????

Sprouts are serious Superfoods!  They are powerful cancer fighters, extremely high in antioxidants and immune boosters, as well as being high in fiber, and vitamins C, E, and E.  They help the body absorb glucose, are high in protein, and even help slow down the aging process!

All that and more in something that is so cheap and so simple to grow!  And incredibly fast too!  I went from seed on Monday to plate on Saturday!

I am addicted!  I am ready to try all sorts of seeds now and need a few more jars and lids to get a good supply growing at all times.

I also thought I would share this beautiful RED pear I got in my organic produce box this week.  We only got two of them and there are five of us…so we all shared! 

       I had my half smothered drizzled in a TBS of almond butter!

Tomorrow I am off with the Girl Scouts to the Kennedy Space Center for Girl Scout day!  They have a great program prepared for us…but we have a five-hour bus ride each way and I have to be at the bus by (UGH) 4:45!!!  A.M.!!!

I am looking forward to the sites of course…but also walking around all day…and I have packed a cooker with frozen water and coconut water to drink…and packed plenty of healthy snacks…fruit, carrots, mini-peppers, Laughing Cow Cheese (FabPreTeen), Larabars (for me), Cliff bars (for FabPreteen), Stacy’s pita chips, as well as PB&J sandwiches for the FabPreteen for her dinner and an avocado wrap (with my fabulous homegrown sprouts) and organic salad for my dinner!  I am well prepared I think!

It is now 10:30 and I am off to bed for my 3:30 a.m. wakeup call!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend my bloggy friends!

Dressing The Oats

Somehow my breakfasts just aren’t as filling and satisfying when I eat something other than oatmeal.

And I do love my oats with a little something something added to them!

This morning’s was a new experiment!

First of all…I think FabHubs must have run out of time this morning because his bowl of untouched oatmeal was sitting waiting for me when I woke up.  Then FabPreteen did not like the Fuji apple she was eating (not crunchy enough!) so she gave that to me.

So I took everybody’s breakfast leftovers and turned them into a breakfast for me…boy did I feel special!

Digging into my Winning Box Of Healthy Goodies from Oh She Glows Angela, I found these:

These are cacao nibs, raw chocolate, powerfully healthy and a SuperFood! 

If you can’t read it…(I can’t!) it says how these contain a rich supply of vitamins and minerals including beta-carotene, zinc, and magnesium, and more anti-oxidant flavanoids than blueberries, red wine, and green tea.

We had opened the package a few weeks ago and eagerly dug and and…and…and…UGH!  BITTER!  Yes…no sugar added!  But I wanted to like them!

I knew I needed to find a way to enjoy them…in something else because at this point I just cannot snack on them as is!

So the lightbulb went off when I was making my oatmeal this morning and I went and got them and added a large spoonful to my oats, along with half of FabPreteen’s leftover apple (chopped up and microwaved along with the oats when I heated them up) and of course my usual spoonful of almond butter.  The almond butter just makes the oatmeal for me!

    This was absolutely delicious!  The bitterness of the cacao nibs was totally masked by the rest of the ingredients…and not only did it add a perfect hint of chocolate to my oatmeal, it also added a fabulous crunchiness that I really enjoyed.  This will also be really good with bananas I think….chocolate…bananas…almond butter….OH YUM!

Yes…this is definitely a keeper and I am looking forward to using my nibs now!

Three Meals From The Produce Box

Because I spent so much time at my mom’s last week with visiting family, we are in serious “hurry up and eat veggies” mode around here this week!

These are the last three meals I have made…all using my organic veggies.  (Breakfast doesn’t count…it is usually oatmeal and fruit…which goes so fast it is a blur in our kitchen).

Dinner last night was a huge helping of the balsamic mushroom/shallot mixture I made last Friday to make sure my ‘shrooms didn’t go bad.  I also had a generous salad using the last of the green leaf lettuce from last week topped with carrots, cukes, cherry tomaters, and scallions.   With my peanut dressing….I love my peanut dressing!  I also rustled up a leftover half of a baked sweet potato.  I sliced that up and pan fried it in a little Pam.

 

For lunch today I had a way too old avocado….it should be green but it is actually that black thing in the picture!  I have been meaning to use it for a while but it is one of those things that needs to be used once it is made so I procrastinated until it was nearly beyond good.  Also some cilantro, lemon juice, diced scallions, and diced cherry tomaters for my own version of guacasalsa. 

Everything diced in the bowl, then mixed together.  I had this on some lavosh crackers along with a few carrots.  Again, everything but the crackers came in the box!

Oh this was so good!  FabTeen came home from school and finished off the rest so I don’t have to worry about it going bad.

I threw in a snack today….one of my all-time favorite fruits in the whole world…persimmons!  And I love the acorn-shaped Hachiya persimmons.  I had two that were ripe…and since everybody around here but FabHubs is a major persimmon fan we were each limited to half a persimmon.

Dinner tonight was “a compost pile” as grumpy old FabHubs called it….formally known as sweet potato/green bean curry which was really good.   The aromas that came out of the pot as I added the spices were unbelievable.  The recipe called for yogurt, but I did not have any left so I used Almond Milk instead which worked just fine.  Last week I tried my hand at making Veggie Broth with the scraps and cuttings from our veggie meals.  It came out fine…and I used that in the curry for the liquid as well.  

I served it over brown rice along with toppers….raw cashews and raisins.   Not only was this delicious and filling….but it used up two of my sweet potatoes (I have at least five to go I think!) and a whole mess of green beans!

Looks good, doesn’t it?

And I just can’t resist throwing in breakfast this morning since I have the pictures anyway.  Yes it was my usual, oatmeal made in the micro with almond milk, water, bananas (I love them cooked) and a spoonful of almond butter with some cinnamon sprinkled on top.  

But I added a treat to this morning’s espresso.  I frothed up a little bit of Silk Milk soy eggnog and added it to my espresso…for good measure I sprinkled cinnamon on top of this too…not my favorite but it is a superfood so I went for it.   My own version of Starbucks.

I feel I am making a dent in the packed fridge!

And I have a victory…FabHubs is taking leftover “compost pile” for lunch tomorrow.

A Healthy Cooking Frenzy Part Two

I knew I wanted dinner to be meatless.   LOL…when I was serving it, FabHubs kept asking where the rest of dinner was.  He ate it but didn’t go back for seconds.  When we have meat dishes he will usually finish up ALL of the meat….seconds and thirds…whatever it takes!  Remember…he is gifted  with one of those metabolisms…he could eat a whole cake and it wouldn’t show!

We had gotten a lot of interesting veggies in our last two produce boxes and I had a lot I needed to use up.  So I decided to make a giant balsamic veggie roast and throw in whatever I had, or could fit!

I put in:

Sliced mushrooms, some halved cherry tomatoes, chunked up carrots, chunked up onion, a whole bunch of garlic cloves (Oh Yeah!), half of my little sugar pumpkin, two absolutely GORG purple potatoes, broccoli, and  I think that was it!

Look at this potato!

And remember this pumpkin I meant to use up last week but didn’t?

Well FabTeen chunked it all up and it looked like this!

  Aren’t those colors just GORGEOUS!

And then we decided to dress it with balsamic and olive oil.  I put about 1/8 cup of balsamic, and then topped it off with 1/8 cup of olive oil.

We tossed all the veggies into a huge bowl and then dumped the dressing onto it so it wouldn’t all pool in the bottom of the pan.  We stirred  and stirred until the veggies were well-coated (this was some of my directing part!  Remember, I wasn’t cooking tonight!)

And into the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes.  This was the result:

Boy…look how much color gets cooked out of them! 

Then the Indian spice rice….Oooohhhh this was fantastic!  Normally I find recipes I like and then adapt to whatever I have, but for a rare change I actually followed this one!  It came from Enlightened Cook and I know I will be back to her site!  We did use Basmati rice instead of brown…although I do love brown rice.  I know I will buying brown Basmati when I run out of what we have on hand now.

FabTeen did this one all by himself…I only found and printed the recipe, he did the work! 

This has all sorts of very healthy spices in it, including SuperFoods  cinnamon and turmeric, as well as raisins.   It also  has caramelized onions and raw cashews.  I probably could have eaten the whole bowl!  Guess what I am having for dinner tonight!

My dinner plate:

Finally, to finish off the little sugar pumpkin, we decided to roast it.  I wanted to make savory, but we found this recipe for sweet and I was outvoted!

For us it didn’t come out great…it needs some tweaking.  Next time I would lower the temp from 400 to 350, especially since we had thin  wedges.  The sugar sauce was overdone, and the pumpkin was a little underdone…but we ate it nonetheless.  More superfoods in the pumpkin and all of the spices.  I did do a little squirt of canned whipped cream I have had in the fridge for a while, since before embarking on my whole food path but after Weight Watchers.  It really made a difference in the palatability of the pumpkin  wedges.

Our version:

Mixing  the spices  and melted butter:

Adding it to the pumpkin wedges (sorry, a little blurry):

Our roasted pumpkin wedges:

My dessert plate: 

I can’t believe I have gotten so excited about veggies!  What is this world coming to!!!

A Healthy Cooking Frenzy

Sunday lots of cooking went on in my house….and luckily for a change I didn’t do any of it!

FabHubs traditionally has cooked weekend breakfasts and for those he goes all out!  Bacon, sausage, waffles, eggs, grits, pancakes, english muffins, omelets, homemade biscuits and sausage gravy…you name it, he would make it.  Is it any wonder I had weight issues????

To his credit, he is at least open to trying a healthier way of eating…and this morning asked if he could make me us whole wheat pancakes.  And I said YES (even though I am not a huge fan of pancakes) and I asked him to add bananas and superfood walnuts to them.

And so that is what he did and what we had!  With no smoked meat in sight either!  I had one and a half pancakes, and a cup of my yummy daily espresso.  I also had a small sugar seckel pear while I  waited for my brekkie….I hadn’t eaten much protein the night before and I was starving!

A little while after that, I made everyone a Green Monster!  So far everybody is a fan around here except the FabPreteen…who was at her dad’s this weekend..and who is the president of the “Judge A Food By Its Cover” club.  Yes…she completely judges everything’s taste by how it looks and is the most difficult eater I have in my house….in a sea of difficult eaters (with FabStepSon and FabHubs being next, in that order). 

Now…no pictures of breakfast….but I was good about the pictures the rest of the day and boy do I have some gorgeous meals to show you!

After working  for a while, (yes…catching up with work  on a Sunday…one of the other sides of self-employment) I realized I still hadn’t had enough food at breakfast and I was hungry! 

I  made myself a snack of tomatoes, carrots, and tzatziki I had made for dinner the other night.  It was good, but didn’t hold me over.

So I pulled out the juicer and made everybody and myself a glass of my usual healthy yumminess….carrot/apple/beet/ginger.  Again…everybody loves it except for the FabPreteen, although FabHubs complains that it is not cold enough for him and I won’t let him stick it in the fridge to chill down (you have to drink it right away or it loses a lot of its vitamins and health benefits!).

After juicing, the real cooking began! 

FabHubs decided to re-create the English Muffin recipe for my camping website, in pictures.  I will be loading that up today and will come back here and make the link live for the recipe as many of you asked me for it.

FabTeen decided he was going to make some healthy cookies!  AND….he told me this weekend that he would start doing more of the cooking for dinner.  Since we have switched our way of eating our cook (FabHubs) has gone on cooking strike!  He will eat it but he won’t cook all those funny things I bring home now! 

So, all I had to do was pretty play director last night and the food appeared!

Starting with the cookies.  These are a recipe from my kids’ dad’s side of the family called “Special Cookies.”  They are a really rich and yummy chocolate chip cookie.   What?  What do you mean there is one missing???

FabTeen decided to doctor up the cookies and make them healthy by substituting ground flax meal for the egg and for the 1/3 cup of shortening.  shortening.   By far, he is the one who has taken the most to this healthy way of life! There was still 1/3 cup of butter left in the recipe and we decided that next time we sub flax meal for that too and see how it turns out.  We also used semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies and I would like to check out a healthier alternative for those as well, or at least organic.

The recipe ended up making 33 cookies at 2 Weight Watchers points each and lots of added health benefit from the flax meal.  Flax seed, should be ground to get the most benefit from it.  I remember my ex-MIL making us Red River cereal and adding extra flax seeds…which would come out looking the same as how they went in!  Now I have been researching and I see why!  Our bodies do not break down the husk, so you need to grind it before using…and you need to store it in the fridge so the nutrients and oils do not break down.

Flax is very high in dietary fiber, which helps to relieve constipation (but make sure you drink your water with it!), high in vitamins E and B, and is the richest source of Omega-3 fatty acid, you know, the one they tell you to eat salmon and other fish to get in order to help prevent heart disease.  Flax meal is also high in lignans, which are antioxidants, and can help reduce your cholesterol.   This little seed sure is a power house!  I put a tablespoon in our daily Green Monsters to make sure we get some…but this sure is another painless way!

If you want to read more on the mighty flax seed,  this dietary fiber site has some great information.

Boy these were GOOD!

Now on to dinner…yes!  We made the cookies before we did the dinner!  And sampled too :)

I will put dinner in a Part 2 as this is getting long!