Tag Archives: recipe

Need a Quick Dip? #recipe #cheese #vegetarian

carawayI created this delicious dip while using up leftovers, but my husband absolutely adored it.

Caraway-Jalapeno Dip

  • 8 oz sour cream
  • 1 cup cheddar cheese shreds
  • 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
  • 4 diced jalapeno slices, seeds removed (I used “tamed”)

Microwave on medium heat for about two minutes, stopping a couple of times to stir.

I served this with tortilla chips, tater tots and roasted Brussels sprouts. It went well with bean dip.

This made three generous servings (your household may vary).

Need more quick fixing ideas? Check out:

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Raspberry Cranachan #recipe from Wedding Matilda blog tour

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This was my husband’s favorite new recipe of the summer. Since I became a vegetarian this summer, I’ve done a ton of fresh cooking, so that’s saying a lot. I’ve modified this recipe a tiny bit since it was on the tour, but we ate it every day for quite a while during berry season.

Raspberry Cranachan

  • 2 tbl rolled oats
  • 2 tbl coconut flakes
  • 2 tsp vanilla or whiskey
  • Honey (to taste)
  • 8 oz Cool Whip, any variety
  • 12 oz raspberries

Serves 4

Toast rolled oats and coconut on the stove in a dry pan until lightly browned, about four minutes. Fold the vanilla or whiskey into the Cool Whip. Layer just under half of the raspberries into four serving dishes, then cover with just under half of the Cool Whip mixture. Sprinkle rolled oats and coconut over the top, then repeat. Top with the last little bit of Cool Whip, one raspberry, then drizzle honey over the top. Voila! One easy but very delicious dessert.

Note:  A mix of toasted coconut/oatmeal blends fantastically into breakfast cereal for a morning pick-me-up!

My #Smoothie Journey: Making the #Vegetarian Choice #recipe #kale #cherries #coconut

IMG_0287Making the choice to replace a meal with a smoothie back in April has really helped my health in one simple way:  I stopped catching every virus that came my way. When I had time for self reflection at the end of June, I decided I wanted to take my food journey a step farther. I gave up meat at the end of that month and now I’m coming up to my one-month anniversary as a vegan-leaning vegetarian!

This has prompted some additional changes in my body. I’m still not catching crud, plus I’ve lost a bit of weight (not much, but not trying) and I’m not desperate for an extra hit of caffeine every afternoon. I’m eating SOOOO much healthier, and I’ve learned to love food and cooking again. It’s been a lot of work but also a lot of fun. My grocery store routine has expanded dramatically. My husband says he’s lost weight too. Even though he hasn’t embraced these changes, he eats what I cook a fair amount so he’s stuck with what I’m doing.

Here’s a new recipe we both like. His had sausage on top. Mine didn’t.

Cherry Kale

  • 1 bunch kale, hard stems removed and torn into bite sized pieces
  • 1 cup sweet red cherries, halved and pits removed
  • 1 handful dried coconut flakes
  • 1 tbl olive oil
  • pepper
  • African smoke seasoning (paprika, salt, garlic, basil)

Makes 3-4 servings

Add olive oil to frying pan and heat. Add kale. After it reduces slightly, add cherries and cook until warm. Make space in the pan and add coconut. Keep cooking until toasted, about one minute. Add seasonings to taste.

Serve 1/3-1/4 of recipe over one cup portion of cooked short grain brown rice, which adds a delicious chewy texture that pairs perfectly with the coconut.

 

My #Smoothie Journey – Figuring out the Fruit #Recipe

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I’ve gotten kind of repetitive in my smoothie making. Once I figured out the “perfect” smoothies for watermelon and cantaloupe, I kept on making those with side tests on a cookbook I’m reviewing. Another thing I’m trying to figure out is the balance between sweet and sour. It’s an individual thing. Yesterday I made a mango/pineapple smoothie from a recipe that I didn’t like. It was too sour for me. Of course I had played with the recipe to lower the calories and when you start substituting you can ruin an otherwise good recipe. If you have patience, it’s always a good idea to make a recipe as shown first.

This is my take on a mango/pineapple smoothie. Not too sweet and much less sour!

  • 1/2 cup frozen mango
  • 1/2 cup pineapple
  • 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 1/4 tsp almond flavoring
  • 4 ice cubes

Blend together! Makes one serving.

My #Smoothie Journey — Making It Palatable #Superfoods #Recipe

IMG_0131If you’re like me, on the quest to get some healthy products into your diet, you probably didn’t just buy whole foods, but also some of those lovely powdered superfoods that promise so much. This is the one I purchased, pictured above. I didn’t have much luck using it at first. It destroyed the drinkability of the first (perfectly good otherwise) smoothie recipe I added it to. I halved the dose of the powder and that did better, but I thought there must be some combination that can hold up to a full dose of my canister of green powder. Today, I hit upon it, and here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Green Superfood Smoothie

  • 1 scoop green superfood
  • 1 bosc pear, chopped
  • 1/2 cup cooked oatmeal (I use Snoqualmie Falls Lodge brand)
  • 1 cup cashew milk, semi-frozen
  • 3/4 tbl maple syrup

Blend until the pear is broken up.

What makes superfood powder or other green stuff tasty for you? My theory is that it is the maple syrup/oats combination that is cleaning up the powder taste. What do you think?

My #Smoothie Journey: Don’t wear white shorts while blending #recipe

cherrygarciasmoothieYesterday I technically had a smoothie as a snack, but I’m guessing McDonald’s smoothies don’t count in my health journey, so I decided not to count. At least I had that instead of a high calorie coffee drink like I normally would have. So, when I came home from my shopping trip I put on my new white shorts (oops) and started concocting. The results were delicious, but dribbly, so be warned! Don’t wear white while playing with frozen blueberries!

Pineapple Blueberry Delight

  • Half cup pineapple
  • One cup frozen or fresh blueberries
  • One cup mixed spinach and arugula
  • One cup almond milk ice cubes (I freeze my own in advance)
  • Half cup milk (I used cow for extra protein but could be non-dairy)
  • One tablespoon coconut oil
  • Half lime squeezed

Blend until the ice cubes are dissolved. I found I could really taste the coconut and arugula in this one. Delish!

What are you using for protein in meal replacement smoothies? I had been thinking almond milk did the trick but then I looked at the box. It’s only one gram of protein per cup, compared to nine in cow’s milk.

My #Smoothie Journey – A New Concoction #recipe

carrot smoothie 1So far, I haven’t picked up the kindergarten crud, and I’m trying to keep my smoothies extra healthy. This turned out surprisingly delicious. It was my first carrot smoothie experiment, and I was attempting to add a little staying power to the smoothie with fat and protein.

Carrot Smoothie #1

  • 10 small, chopped baby carrots
  • 1/2 chopped green apple
  • 1 clementine orange
  • 1 cup spinach
  • 1 tbl almond butter
  • 1 tbl coconut oil
  • 1 squeeze ginger pulp
  • 4 oz coconut water
  • 1/2 cup ice cubes

Blend together for 45 seconds or so. I’m finding with my new Nutri Ninja, that the individual blending cup does a fantastic job, but apples take up a lot of room, so I have to blend with 1/2 the apples first, then add the rest.

What is your favorite ingredient?

My #Smoothie Journey – Fighting back against kid crud #recipe

purple smoothieI’m starting to lose track, but I’ve been at this once-a-day smoothie meal replacement game for about a month now, and we’re on household illness number three since I began. This time it appears to be a kindergarten-sized intestinal virus, and boy, I don’t want to catch it! As it is, I was up all night tending to my poor little sufferer.

Here’s what I concocted in my new Nutri Ninja blender to fight the germs. What do you think?

The Crud Fighter Smoothie

1 handful mixed kale and spinach

1 Cup frozen mixed berries

1/2 green apple

1/2 cup pineapple

1 cup coconut water (optional pineapple flavored)

1 squeeze ginger pulp

Blend it all together and enjoy! It is a bit tart, so honey would be a good addition and also another germ fighter. On a hot day, you could also add ice. This firmly packed my Nutri Ninja single serving cup.

 

 

My #Smoothie Journey – Shopping

shopping

I had a rather expensive and scattered shopping trip to Fred Meyer yesterday. Some of my finds are in the picture above. I was in the process of fighting yet another bug and probably became overambitious, shopping for too many different recipes at once. My husband brought the bug home this time. I had 24 hours of sore throat, but I seem to have kicked it!  Did smoothie drinking do the trick? Hard to say.

Yesterday, I tried my first recipe from Marco Canora’s cookbook – a berry smoothie. Extra virgin coconut oil is my new favorite ingredient. How yummy! Today I think I’ll try the same recipe, to use up my berries, but add a scoop of one of the two green supplements I bought on sale yesterday, and see what it does to the taste.

It is undeniable that some of these smoothies are going to cost more than what I usually spend on a meal, but I think I’d rather spend my protein dollars on yogurt than meat, then splurge on fruit I was not eating before. None of the superfood add-ins are cheap either, but I’m in the experimental phase. We’ll see what I stick with. Definitely the coconut oil!

What is your favorite fruit?

Could People Magazine change my life? #Smoothie #recipe #MarcoCanora

canoraWe all have our guilty reading pleasures, and People Magazine has been mine ever since I did a “test” subscription on my son’s new iPad two or three years ago. I can’t say I’ve been excited by too many of the recipes over this time period, but the April 13, 2015 (Avril Lavigne cover) issue may just have changed my life.

In it, there is an article about Marco Canora with three of his smoothie recipes. He’s shilling a new cookbook (which I just got around to buying today) and I’m not sure how important smoothies are to his overall food world, but for some reason, the concept struck me. I’ve made all three of his recipes with variations multiple times in the past 2 1/2 weeks. I’ve dug out a couple of other cookbooks we purchased for my mother-in-law when she was fighting cancer – the Crazy Sexy books, raw food books, smoothie specific cookbooks. My mother caught the bug and bought us the Linda Westwood book Slimming Smoothies. I’m smoothie-ing every day now and just ordered a new Nutri Ninja blender that I hope can manage ice and chia seeds a bit better!

Why am I doing this? My young son and I have traded off seven colds and 1 bout of flu since October. It’s been miserable around here. My husband has only caught a couple of them, but he doesn’t need to be this drained with his very physical job. A few days after I started smoothie-ing, my son brought home the stomach crud. I didn’t catch it! Was it the smoothies? I don’t know, but adding at least another daily serving of veg and two of fruit, as the smoothies tend to have, must be doing something good for my body. Not to mention the added liquid, which I certainly need. I’m trying to replace dinner daily with my smoothie. Will I lose weight too? I need to get on the scale and start tracking.

Anyone interested in joining me on this diet exploration? I’d love to discuss recipes and cookbooks with fellow smoothie-ers!