Salsa

Last year we had an amazing garden, and we got a TON of romas. We decided to save them all for late fall, when my friend was planning to have a salsa-making party. Let me tell you what, that was the best salsa we've ever had. Richard dreamed about it for 10 months until this fall, and we planted over 20 tomato plants in preparation. Unfortunately that didn't work out so well, but Winco was having a really good sale on romas, so we lucked out.

Our first batch made about 12 pints, and that went WAY too fast. Off I went to Winco to get more veggies, and we made a second batch. We had a slight mishap with the seasonings, but Richard was able to work his magic and make it super tasty. We brought 4 quarts to Thanksgiving, and they all disappeared. And then everyone wanted the recipe, so here it is!

This is my friend's uncle's recipe, but I'm sure he doesn't mind sharing.

12 c tomatoes
1 1/2 c white vinegar
1/2 c sugar
3 onions, chopped
4-6 chopped green peppers
3-6 chopped Anaheim peppers (or whatever you want to add for spicy)
3 T salt
1 T black pepper
1 T or more garlic powder
cilantro (optional)

Peel tomatoes by blanching in boiling water and removing skins. Simmer all ingredients for 2ish hours or until it's as thick as you want it to be. (You can also add 1/2 c dried onion toward the end of the simmering to make it thicker if you want.)

Put in jars, leave about 1/4 inch at top, water bath for 15 minutes to sterilize and seal.

Variation: Use only 1 c vinegar and add 1/4 c lime juice.

Makes about 6-8 pints.

Southwest Sweet Potato and Quinoa Casserole

This is so yummy. Sweet potatoes are SO good for you, but not everyone likes them as much as white potatoes. I'm trying to find more ways to incorporate them into meals my family enjoys without losing the flavor, and this recipe is great for that. It's also very simple. I threw it together in less than half an hour yesterday, and Richard approved. Reuben liked it too, but it was a little too spicy for Rachel.

This recipe will easily feed 4 people.

Here's what I did:
1. Shred 1 medium sweet potato.

 You can skin it if you want, but remember that a lot of the nutrients are packed into the skin, and no one's going to notice it since it's shredded anyway.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the shredded sweet potato, 1 can of drained and rinsed black beans, 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa*, and 1/2 cup of shredded cheese, along with dashes of salt, pepper, and cumin (technically it calls for 1/2 Tbsp, but that's a lot for my sensitive 3 yr old) and mix well.

 3. In a separate bowl, mix 1/2 cup salsa with 1 egg. 

 4. Pour into greased baking dish.

 Pour the salsa mixture on top,

 and top with another 1/2 cup or so of shredded cheese.










 
5. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Enjoy!

*Quinoa is fun to experiment with, but this is my absolute favorite recipe for it. It cooks just like rice, but you do need to rinse or soak it before you cook it. I usually put it in a pot of water for 15 minutes, then rins it in my mesh strainer. Then return it to the pot with a 2:1 ration of water to quinoa, bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. 1 cup uncooked yields 3 cups cooked, so for this recipe you can easily cook up 1/3 cup and do the rest of your preparation (mostly shredding) while it's cooking.

And if you end up with extra beans or quinoa from making this recipe, here's another yummy thing I made for lunch the other day.

Whole Wheat and Hot Cereal Cinnamon Buns

This is NOT my typical, easy-to-make healthy meal idea post. This is a guilty pleasure with a hint of goodness that makes you feel slightly less guilty about eating it :)

I pinned a recipe for Multi-Grain Bread that starts with hot cereal a while back, and this week decided it was time to try it. Then, lo and behold, a neighborhood party was announced, and our name fell under the "dessert" category. So...being on a limited budget this month, I had to come up with something to make using only what I have, which isn't much. Basically I can make bread. I figured I'd make zucchini bread, but the recipe I pinned for yeast zucchini bread looks like it would be more healthy than sugary :) Richard said I should make cinnamon rolls, and then later that idea evolved into making cinnamon rolls from this bread recipe. Genius!

I found a recipe for Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls, which I figured I would be able to combine with my Multi-Grain Bread recipe to come up with something yummy. Turns out experimenting with bread is pretty easy, as long as you get the important parts right :)

Here's what I did:
1. Combine 1 1/4 c hot cereal (7-grain was suggested, but I ended up using Red River for its sheer awesomeness. I think anything that has to cook down for at least 15 minutes would work.) with 2 1/2 c boiling water, and let sit for about an hour, until all the liquid has soaked into the cereal, making a porridge.

2. Combine 1/2 c milk with 1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter in a saucepan, and heat until the butter melts.
3. Sponge up 2 1/2 tsp yeast (I found out this week that you can use rapid-rise and regular yeast interchangeably, so use whatever you have) in the milk mixture, once it's between 110-115 degrees F. Add 1/4 c honey to make the sponge so the yeast has some yummy food to make it happy. Let it sponge for about 10 minutes.

4. Combine 1 1/2 c whole wheat flour (which you may or may not have ground yourself in your Blendtec) with 1 egg and 2 egg yolks, plus 1/2 Tbsp salt. Then add this to your porridge that's been sitting, along with the sponge. Mix it all up into a wet dough.

5. Slowly add all-purpose white flour to your dough until it reaches bread dough consistency. If you are wise and are using a Kitchenaid, just keep mixing it until the dough pulls completely away from the sides. You can check its consistency by stopping and poking it from time to time. If it's sticky, keep adding the flour. I added about 3-4 c of white flour (but I wasn't really counting).

6. Once the dough is no longer sticky, dump it on the counter and knead it for about 10-15 minutes. You can check the elasticity by poking it again, and watching the dent your finger makes bounce back. When it reforms its shape after being poked, it's glutenized and you can let it rise.
7. Put your dough in a bowl with some oil, and roll it around in the bowl a bit to coat the entire ball.

Cover, and let rise for 1 1/2 - 2 hrs. It should at least double in size.

8. Once the dough has risen, roll it out onto a BIG cookie sheet so it's about 1/4 inch thick and fills the whole sheet.

Then top it with your filling: 3/4 c brown sugar combined with 3 Tbsp cinnamon.

Spread out the filling so it evenly coats the dough.

9. Roll it up! This is probably the trickiest part, but do your best. Try to keep it super tight as you go so your rolls don't fall apart as you're slicing them.

10. When you get to the end, you can seal the dough to itself by wetting the last 1/4 inch before it's rolled shut.
11. Slice your huge roll into 1/4 - 1/2 inch rolls. I'd recommend closer to 1/2 inch, but you'll get fewer rolls that way. Separate the rolls AS YOU SLICE THEM or they'll just stick back together. Pack them onto the cookie sheet so they'll rise up instead of out, and let them rise for another 1 - 1 1/2 hrs.

12. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.
13. Top with your frosting. This is what I used, but I added cinnamon to it :) (scroll down to the cream cheese frosting recipe).

Enjoy!

Simple Protein Lunch: Quinoa and Blackbean Taquito

I just got home from a 3 mile run with the kids (and as anyone will tell you, 3 miles with a stroller is like 5 miles without) and I am HUNGRY! I want some protein, but substance as well. I usually make a Peanut Butter Smoothie, but I didn't think that would cut it today.

Last night I made a Southwest Sweet Potato and Quinoa Casserole, and ended up with some leftover quinoa and black beans. In my adventurousosity yesterday, I also made some Tomato Almond Spread, which is DELICIOUS. Richard doesn't like tomatoes unless they're cooked, but he likes this spread, so that's saying something. Anyway he came home for lunch and put together some ham and cheese sandwiches topped with the paste, and it gave me an idea.

So here's what I did:
1. Toast one side of a whole wheat tortilla. Not enough that it's crispy, just so it's a little golden brown.
2. Spread Tomato Almond Paste on the toasted side of the tortilla.

3. Heat a little bit of cooked quinoa with a little bit of drained and rinsed black beans. I probably did about 1/4 c of each. You could do this in the microwave, but I already had a hot frying pan so that's what I used.

4. Spoon your protein mixture onto your pasted-up tortilla, and wrap tight into a taquito.

5. Toast each side of the taquito in the frying pan.

Enjoy!

Quinoa is a great source of protein. I'm not a huge fan of the flavor, but it's growing on me. I like it mixed in with other foods so it's not the dominating flavor, but you still get the texture. It's a lot of tiny balls, and when you pop them between your teeth...I don't know. It's just fun, and I like it :) Whenever I make something with quinoa, I always make too much so that I can throw it into other recipes later on without having to worry about rinsing it and cooking it first. I made 1 cup uncooked, which makes about 3 cups cooked, and each recipe usually calls for 1 cup cooked, so it will last the week at least :)

Post-Run Protein Smoothie

I know those protein powders are all the rage at fitness stores, but I'm just not interested. I prefer natural foods, and the idea of extracting part of a food just to get one benefit from it is kind of weird to me. But that's just me. If that's what you like, go ahead and keep drinking them. I've tried them several times, and they are definitely yummy :)

Here's what I love after a run. Honestly some days I go for a run just as an excuse to come home and make this smoothie before bed :) I ran my first 10k this past March, kind of last-minute and a little under-trained, and my husband met me at the finish line with a Peanut Butter Mood smoothie from Jamba Juice. I. Fell. In. Love. I've become a bit of a peanut butter addict in the past few years, and MAN was that smoothie ecstatically perfect after my 6-mile run. The drawback, of course, is that it costs over $4 at Jamba Juice. But heck, I get peanut butter, milk, and bananas for free from WIC, so why not improvise?

So here's what I do:
1. Put 1 cup of milk (doesn't matter the fat content, it all has the same amount of protein), 2 GENEROUS Tbsp of peanut butter, and 1 frozen banana into your Blendtec (because, come on, who has anything inferior?) and press "Smoothie".
Enjoy!

I actually did a comparison between the protein content of this smoothie and my dad's protein powder, and mine has a little bit more. Plus all the yumminess of peanut butter, and the health benefits of bananas :)

Salmon Taquitos

I love WIC. I don't know what we'll do when we don't have it anymore. I guess that will mean that we're wealthy enough to just buy all that food they give us, right?

One thing we get A LOT of is whole wheat whatever. I alternate between rice and tortillas, but lately I haven't been that into rice. So I've been getting more wheat tortillas than any person can eat in a month. Another thing is salmon or tuna fish, which I got a lot of when I was breastfeeding, but couldn't come up with enough amazingly tasty recipes to eat it all at that time. So during our low-budget month that's what we're working on: Making stuff out of salmon and tortillas.

Salmon quesadillas? Pretty good, but not more than once a week. Plus we're almost out of cheese.
Salmon burgers? I'm leaving that one up to Richard. Maybe on Saturday.

...

That's about as creative as I can get.

But then I had a fish taco a few weeks ago and it was SO YUMMY! so I thought I'd try salmon tacos. Looked some up on Pinterest, and found this:

Salmon Taquitos

I didn't do anything to change them, except that some of the salmon I had in the fridge had chopped spinach mixed in, and I didn't have celery on hand, so I used celery salt instead. They were SO GOOD! And the best part is, my picky child who doesn't like spicy food actually ate them!

I thought I needed to post this on my blog because one of my goals here is to have quick access to quick, easy meals to make, and this is exactly that. I put it together in less than 20 minutes, and was able to grill up some zucchini to go with it while it was baking. Also, I cut the recipe in half to make 8 taquitos, and that was perfect for our little family. Which means if I were to make the full recipe, I could freeze half. Then one day down the road I wouldn't have to cook! I'm all for that :)

The Best Green Smoothie (the one my kids drink before I get any!(=)

I've posted a few green smoothie recipes on here, and I've given this one out to people on facebook or in person in the past, but I felt like it needed to be in here in its own post because it is so awesome.

I've found the secret to a yummy green smoothie. If you don't mind the taste of spinach (like me),  you can just throw whatever you have together and it will be fine. But to get your kids to drink it without loading it up with sugar you have to mask that flavor, and the best way is with juicy flavorful fruits. Red grapes and oranges have become my secret weapon. At the same time, though, I made one yesterday and forgot the banana and tasted the spinach. So this combination, to me, is the best. It ends up making more than 32 oz of smoothie, which is enough for me to have two good-sized glasses and my kids still have as much as they want.

So here's the recipe:
1 1/2 c water
1 apple (doesn't really matter what kind)
1 orange (sometimes I do 1 c mandarin oranges instead)
1 (frozen) banana
1 1/2 c red grapes (I want to try it with green, but haven't yet)
2 c spinach

Fun with a Greek Theme

As you may have noticed, spinach is one of my favorite vegetables. I try to throw it in anywhere I can, much to the annoyance of my family members at times :) Lately we've just been having popcorn and green smoothies for lunch, but sometimes even that yumminess gets old. So I've been switching things up this week.

Pics to come for both of these - I've been super busy at work and haven't had much time for blogging, in case you haven't noticed. But I did manage to get a picture of the omelet so I can post at least that in the somewhat-near future :)

Let's start with today, because it was a major jackpot.

Spinach and Artichoke Greek Omelet
This is SOOO yummy! I'm eating it right now, and wow. It has the zip of the artichoke, the bite of the feta, and the fill-me-up effect that an omelet always gives me. Which works really well, because I started lunch super early today and can take my time finishing it. Without getting too in-depth about nutrition, let me just give a few plugs for this dish:
Spinach is one of the best veggies for you. Dark green, leafy veggies give most of the nutrients you're looking for in a day. Tons of iron, too.
Artichokes are kind of the same - plus they have tons of fiber! Moreso if you eat the leaves, which we're not doing in these dishes. Vitamins B, K, and C, plus folic acid! Prego ladies, eat up!
I love eggs as a protein source because they're pretty versatile, and go great with veggies and cheese :)
So anyway, here's what I did:
1. Chop stuff. I chopped olives, mushrooms, and spinach.
2. Cook stuff. Throw the above three in a pan, along with about a cup of canned artichoke hearts, and just heat everything through. Then remove from pan.
3. Omelet-ize them eggs. I did 3 eggs to account for the sheer amount of stuffing I ended up with.
4. Stuff your omelet with your first four ingredients, plus a good amount of feta cheese. What I do is cook one side of the eggs, then flip them, then add the toppings, then fold over half of the eggs, then put a lid on and steam it through to melt the cheese.
5. Enjoy!

Earlier this week I tried a Greek mini-pizza, and it was equally amazing and probably even easier than the omelet. Same ingredients, but swap out the eggs in place of a whole-wheat tortilla. This works out really well if you want to make both of these in the same week, because you'll use about half the artichokes, olives, and mushrooms for one, then you can use the rest for the other.

So here's what I did:
1. Chop the spinach. It just fits better when it's chopped.
2. Spread a tortilla with either ranch dressing, alfredo sauce, or cream cheese. I just use whatever is in the fridge, honestly.
3. Top with spinach, then artichoke hearts, mushrooms, olives, and feta cheese.
4. Broil in oven until stuff starts bubbling, the tortilla crisps up, and the cheese is kind of melting.
5. Enjoy!
Mine ended up with tons of toppings, so when I cut it up into pizza slices I ended up kind of folding them into scoops to hold everything.

Pinterestly Productive!

Sometimes you just really get caught up in pinning things on Pinterest, and then you never check out the links or do anything with them. Or am I the only one like that?

At any rate, I cleaned up my boards today and got a little bit more organized. And in the process I found some yummies to try out! I decided last-minute to head to the store so I could make some of them TODAY! Am I a crazy head or what?

So here's what we made today, and I have plans for tomorrow as well.

First off, banana chips. My picky 1 yr old doesn't like bananas (seriously, kid?), and I think it's a texture issue because he gobbles up banana chips at nursery every week. I talked to some of my friends there who like to dry bananas, and got a little jealous that I don't have a food dehydrator. But then I found a pin on Pinterest for baked banana chips, and figured I could do that. Here's my response, without having tested them on the Roobster yet. They are kind of a pain to make! Bananas are a mushy mess. You have to turn them over every half hour as they're baking, and the first two or three times they're just sticky and messy and a spatula won't work so you end up using a spoon and your fingers...ugh. But they're tasty, and the half hour between turns is nice. So we'll see how he likes them and maybe I'll make them again. I was trying to do some math in my head without knowing how much a bag of banana chips costs at Wal-mart, but I'm pretty sure they're cheaper by about $2 to make at home. And that's with my estimate of them costing $2 at Wal-mart. Bananas are cheap.

Bananas are kind of the theme lately, I guess. They're great in smoothies, they're the base of most fruit salads, I love them lately in granola, and I guess you can make ice cream without sugar! At the store today strawberries were really cheap, so I bought 8 lbs. No big deal. So we decided to make strawberry banana ice cream popsicles. They were ridiculously easy to make, and the 3 yr old loves them. Reuben isn't that into cold things yet, but he liked to come over and lick mine every chance he got. I'm hoping that this will be a solution to my ice cream fix lately...I think I've had it 4 times this week, simply because my April health challenge ended and I haven't started another one so my accountability is gone. Needless to say, I've lost and then gained the same 2 lbs in the past 8 days. It was kind of depressing to find that out this morning, so I'm swearing it off again today, but I am going to try making another frozen banana treat as soon as the hubster gets home. This one is basically non-dairy, no sugar chocolate ice cream. I'm not sure how it will turn out. What I'm finding with these banana-as-sugar recipes is that they all just taste like banana. Which isn't bad, but if you're expecting ice cream it can be a little disappointing. I think it's going to be one of those transitions where you just have to learn to enjoy the flavor, which is how I came to love many of my favorite veggies, so I think it's doable. So we'll see how that goes.

Did I mention I bought a lot of strawberries today? I found a recipe for strawberry and watermelon lemonade that I think sounds AMAZING and summery, and I've been feeling the summer vibes all week, so I thought it would make a great addition to our Saturday dinner. I am anticipating nothing but refreshing deliciousness. Although the recipe does call for sugar. You gotta indulge a little bit, right?

Speaking of dinner, I'm thinking about trying this simple soup made from sweet potatoes and cauliflower. I absolutely LOVE sweet potatoes, and so does Reuben, and this will be the second dinner this week that my parents will be able to participate in according to their diet rules :) I've been trying for one a week, so two will be extra great. Especially since the first involved grilled chicken, and this one will be entirely vegetarian :)

So those are my weekend experiments. I decided not to full-out blog about each one because they are not mine and I haven't adapted them at all yet. So I'm basically just giving a shout out to the bloggers who came up with them :)

Veggie Pancakes (yummier than they sound!)

I found something intriguing on Pinterest the other day...shocker, I know.

My daughter hates green food. She used to eat spinach, and she'll have the occasional carrot, but if it's green she just KNOWS it tastes yucky. Kind of like how my 11-month-old KNOWS what candy looks like, even though he's never had any. I've spent the last several months trying to find ways to sneak veggies into my child, and some things have been more successful than others.

THIS is successful! She loves them! And they're pretty easy to make.

Here's what I did:
1. Boil a sweet potato. The way I see it, the size doesn't matter. You need about 1-2 cups of potato, and if you end up with more you can just put it in the fridge for a yummy smoothie later :)
2. Start up the food processor, and add the ingredients!

• 1-2 cups cooked sweet potato
• 1/2 cup (ish) milk

 

• 1 (small) handful spinach (if you do too much, they come out green)

 

• 1 banana

 

• 1 cup zucchini (I didn't have a fresh one on hand, so I used leftover frozen zucchini and it turned out just fine)

 

• 3 eggs

 

• 1 cup quick oats
• Dash (or two) cinnamon

 

• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2-1 Tbsp sugar

Let it all mix together until well-blended and smooth, like pancake batter.

4. Cook 'em up just like pancakes. Easy peasy! If you have more batter than you currently need, it keeps well in the fridge until the next time you want some.

I added mini chocolate chips for my 3 yr old, and she tops them with syrup. My 11-month-old eats them plain, and I enjoy them that way as well. I'm also a crazy head who tops pancakes with applesauce, and I think these would taste good that way as well :) 

Spinach Pasta

Whenever I don't know what to make for dinner it ends up being this yummy, easy, and super-quick pasta dish. There are only 4 ingredients aside from the pasta, and it's a pretty healthy pasta dish. One thing to say right away is that pasta is not as unhealthy as people tend to think. The problem comes in what type of sauce you decide to douse the complex carb IN. Pasta itself is actually pretty good for you as a necessary carb. But when you drench it in creamy cheese sauces you add so much fat that you're setting yourself up for failure in two ways: 1) The salty, cheesy flavor is addicting, convincing you to eat more and more and more, and 2) Obviously, you're going to gain unwanted weight. Which is why I love this dish: It's not a cheese sauce, and it has spinach in it!

Here is the easiness:
1. Brown 1 lb mild Italian sausage. If you're like me, you'll have to defrost it first. The key here is to not start the pasta until the meat is partially browned, so don't jump too quickly to get your water boiling if your meat is still sitting in the microwave. Once you've got it all chopped and sizzling, then proceed to step 2.

2. Boil water for the pasta, and cook it up. This recipe works best with about 16-18 oz pasta, so adjust accordingly. I usually get Radiatore pasta, because the shape is ideal for holding the sauce, which is more runny than thick. The original recipe called for Penne, but honestly just do whatever you like and it will taste good. I wouldn't recommend Spaghetti-ish noodles, though. Hopefully you will time things perfectly so your pasta will be done by the time your sauce is. If not, just drain it and put it in a serving dish. A BIG serving dish, because you're going to have to stir the sauce in, and I always make a mess.

3. While the past and sausage are still cooking, grate up some mozzarella cheese. We didn't have any last week and used marble cheddar (or whatever it's called in America, I always forget), and it did not taste as good. Use mozzarella.

4. In case you've never cooked with ground sausage before, this is what it should look like when it's done:

Once the sausage is browned, add 3 cans of Italian-style diced tomatoes. Last time I made it I ended up with just regular tomatoes, so I added some of my trusty Italian seasoning, which worked just fine.

5. Once the tomatoes are bubbling, add 1 bag of spinach and cover. You might want to chop the spinach first, as it will spread over the pasta better that way. You'll need to stir it in eventually, but just let it wilt for a few minutes before trying that out.

6. Once the spinach is wilted and the sauce is stirred up really good, add it to the drained pasta in your serving dish. Stir that up really good, and you're ready to go!
7. Serve the pasta, then top it with the mozzarella while everything is still hot.

Voila! Easy peasy, right? My family HATES spinach. They love this.

Shameless plug for the asparagus co-starring in this dish. Asparagus is so good!! Especially when it's free! If you have easy access to it, or if you see it for less than $2/lb, steam it up and add it to any dish for some super low-calorie deliciousness!

Some info on asparagus: Asparagus is majorly alkaline, which is awesome. Most of the foods we tend to eat are acidic, and our bodies will balance our pH however it needs to. That means that if we eat a lot of acidic foods and not enough alkaline foods, the body will leech needed nutrients and substances from itself to balance the pH. This is how you can end up with deficiencies of nutrients that you're actually eating. It's also why our meals should be balanced with fruits and vegetables, most of which are alkaline. Anyway enough about that. I'll have to find a video to post later with a better explanation.
6 spears of asparagus have 20 calories. In my mind that means it's a way better diet veggie than celery, because it taste so much better but still takes more calories to eat than it contains.
It's a great source of folate, vitamin C, and potassium. Also a great antioxidant. It just plain tastes AMAZING!

Sweet Potato Smoothie

I found a recipe in my healthy foods book for a sweet potato smoothie and blew right past it the first time. And the second, and the third. Really? Sweet potatoes in a smoothie?

Don't knock it till you try it :)

The recipe itself was way too sweet for me, so I've adapted it a little and now I'm sharing it with you. Have I mentioned how amazing sweet potatoes are for your health? Oh, well let me do that first.

What I love about sweet potatoes:
Great source of beta-carotene, which can lower your risk of heart disease and cancer.
Great source of potassium and folate.
Sweet potatoes can lower cholesterol.
Great source of fiber, especially if you leave the skin on.
They just plain taste good!

Beta-carotene is better absorbed when you take in some fat with it, which can also help reduce the um, after-effects of a lot of veggie fiber. I make mashed sweet potato and smash in an avocado with it. It takes the place of butter or sour cream as an added flavor, and the fat from the fruit will help you absorb the beta-carotene and turn it into vitamin A.

Anyway, now on to the smoothie!

Here's what I did:
1. Boil a sweet potato. You'll need about 1 cup of cooked sweet potato, which is about 1/4 of an average sweet potato.
2. Put stuff in the blender:
2 c of your choice of liquid. I use water, but you could use any kind of fruit juice or milk if you want. The recipe calls for apple juice, but when I made it that way it was super sweet, way too sweet for me. So you gauge your own sweet tooth and decide on your liquid.
1 c cooked sweet potato
4-5 pitted dates
1 frozen banana
dash cinammon

3. Blend and enjoy!

I like this because it has a great sugar fix from a very sweet natural source. It's not incredibly filling, though. Not as much as the green smoothies I usually make, at least. But it's a great healthy juice to give to your kids (and yourself!) along with a healthy lunch.

Green Juice

I hope I haven't come across as this perfect mom who only feeds her kids healthy things, because that is definitely not the case. Rachel is a sugar-holic who gets sugary drinks and graham crackers nearly every day and candy whenever she can find it. I am trying to make sure she has a fruit and a vegetable for lunch, and one or both for dinner. This has become more difficult lately, as she has "discovered" that green food tastes nasty. I got her to choke down one bite of asparagus the other day, and she LOVES carrots dipped in ranch, but she won't touch spinach anymore. Meanwhile, Reuben has fallen in love with my spinach smoothies, and prefers them to his regular baby food.


All this has come together at a time when my mom has started ordering baskets of produce each Saturday, and challenging me to make sure it all gets eaten. Basically, we have a LOT of fruit and veggies in the house, and I hate throwing them away. Enter new lunch routine: What's-In-The-Fridge Green Juice.

The rules are simple. Look through the fridge, and the fruit bowl on the counter, and find any fruit that looks like it's not going to get eaten, either because it's on its way out, or it's something no one will eat (green apples, brown bananas, a plethora of oranges, fruit that is more work than it's worth...). Throw it in the blender, along with a heap of spinach and some ice, and let 'er rip! Voila: Green Juice. Rachel hates green food, but LOVES green juice.


Today's recipe went like this:
1. 2/3 apple that someone changed their mind about
2. 1 1/2 c grapes that were hidden under the celery and forgotten about (aka starting to wrinkle but still edible if you could get past that)
3. 1 banana that was more brown than yellow (the browner it is, the sweeter, btw)
4. 1/3 bag of spinach that was a day or two away from being old

Summer Squash

I. Love. Squash.

Last summer we planted two plants each of zucchini and summer squash. We had the stuff out our ears, but it was wonderful. Because of our bounty, we came up with lots of different ways to cook both squashes, all of which are yummy. Basically I got a knack for coming up with new ways on the spot, and I guess it stuck with me.

This week my mom got a bountiful basket, so instead of making the usual for lunch I'm trying to use up all the fruits and veggies she got. She got two summer squashes and about 10 green apples, so I thought I'd experiment with those. I like apples, but not green ones. But I love cooking with green apples, so hopefully they'll all get used up soon.

So here's what I did for lunch today:
1. Dice up 1 summer squash and 1 green apple.

2. Drain 1 and rinse can of black-eyed peas (I sure love me some black-eyed peas). ALWAYS drain and rinse your canned beans!

3. Combine in frying pan with some olive oil and heat everything through.

4. Add a little bit of red wine vinegar (I used the pomegranate infused kind my dad bought...I might have to make that a staple at my house) and let everything cook down for about 5 minutes.

Done. That's seriously it. You could make things more complicated by adding spices, but that's up to you.

Like I said, I just made this up today, so I'm not sure the best way to eat it. It's really yummy just by itself, but I think it could also be a good topper for pasta or rice. I ate it today in lettuce wraps and it was fabulous. I think it would go well in a salad, and it would take away the need for a dressing, which I always love. Why eat extra oil and fat? But what I really want to try is stuffing peppers with this combo. I've never had stuffed peppers, but they're on my list of things to try. Oh! Or in potato skins!

My favorite thing about this meal was how filling it was. I was worried I would crave something crunchy afterwards, but the beans filled me right up so that wasn't an issue at all.