Wilted Swiss Chard Salad

Swiss chard finely chopped (the younger the leaves the better)
2 red onions sliced thinly and sauted in butter
4 carrots finely sliced

Place ingredients in bowl.

Sauce:
Mix 1 1/2 cups cream with
enough vinegar to make it thin (about 1/4- 1/2 cup)
Add 2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
pinch of pepper

Bring to a boil and pour over first three ingredients. The hot dressing wilts the swiss chard and it is delicious!

Mexican Quinoa Salad

1 cup sprouted beans cooked ( you can sprout your own and then cook them, or buy the bag of already sprouted beans at Costco...TruRoots is the brand)
2 cups cooked quinoa
4 diced tomatoes
2 diced avocados
2 limes juiced
3 cloves garlic minced
3 finely chopped green onions
1/2 bunch cilantro finely chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp seasoned pepper

Mix all together in a bowl and Add a little more salt and pepper to taste.

Oriental Salad

Chopped Oriental Salad

Chopped oriental cabbage
Chopped celery
Chopped green peppers
Chopped green onions
Grated carrot
Chopped cucumber


Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 Tbsp sweetner (I use agave or raw cane sugar)
3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil

Blend in blender until liquid and garlic chunks are gone.

Fruit Pizza

Made this for my oils class tonight, and it was a winner!

Crust
2 cups pecans blended in blender.
1 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg
drop of cinnamon oil
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/4 c raw cane sugar

Mix together, press into bottom of pizza pan. Bake 400 for 8-10 minutes
Cool completely

Filling
Mix 1 8 oz cream cheese with juice and zest of one lime and 2 Tbsp raw cane sugar or agave or honey. Taste to make sure it is sweet enough and not too tart. If it is too tart add a little more sweetner

Spread on cooled crust

Top with lots of pretty colorful fruits.
Tonight I used red and green grapes, strawberries, pinapple, golden kiwi

Stuffed Green Peppers

Wash 8 green bell peppers cut out top and clean out seeds in the inside
Place one Tbsp cream cheese or homemade goat cheese in bottom then add filling(see below) and sprinkle with grated mozzarella/asagio cheese.
Bake in 9X13 pan with just a bit of water in the bottom (1/4 inch)
Cover with aluminum foil
Bake on 375 for 20 minutes or until green peppers are tender.

Filling:
Saute one small to medium onion and 3 celery stalks in butter
Add:
3 grated carrots
1 crook neck yellow squash diced
1 can great northern beans (white-or any kind of bean)
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 c chopped oregano
1Tbsp Weber Smokey Mesquite powdered seasoning
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic salt
seasoned black pepper to taste.
saute until tender
Add one package of your favorite stuffing made as directions call for.

Spinach Tortillas!

Love this recipe and it can be stuffed with so much good stuff! Good thing is that it is good too!

3 cups flour (use whatever kind. I used whole wheat and oatflour)
1 Tbsp salt
Mix together in bowl
Blend in Blender:
1 1/2 cup spinach
4 Tbsp sour cream (or homemade goat cheese)
1 tsp lemon juice
Add to flour mixture
warm 1 1/2 cups milk or water with 2 Tbsp butter

Add to flour mixture

Stir until combined. It should be a little sticky, but not too sticky. You may have to

Add a little more flour or use a little less milk

Scrape dough out of bowl onto floured surface.

Kneed into ball.

Cut in half and in half and in half until you have 16 pieces

Roll into balls

Flatten and use a rolling pin to make as flat and as round as possible. This takes a little practice, but don't worry, square and odd shaped tortillas still taste just as good.

Cook in pan or on griddle until just slightly brown. Overcooking will make them hard and harder to stuff with good stuff!

We filled ours with Bacon, spinach, tomatoes, pepperoni, cheese, onions, mushrooms, sprouts and sunflower seeds mixed with flax seeds.

You could also add: olives, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers and Sweet chili sauce.
Get creative!

Crock Pot Chicken

I have to remember this one. I was looking for a Cafe Rio Chicken recipe, but I didn't have the ingredients it called for, so I came up with this delectable little dinner, and the whole family was wowed!

5 chicken breasts (bones and skin- that's where the good stuff is)
place in crock pot and add

5 cloves garlic crushed
1 Tbsp chili powder
Juice of 1 big lime
salt, pepper and onion powder to taste ( I just sprinkled it all over the breasts)
1 cup water mixed with one dry packet of Chipolte Ranch dip (From Hidden Valley)

Cook on low for 3-5 hours or until chicken is done. Shred chicken, it will be fork tender, and leave in juices.

I served it on homemade tortillas, with lettuce, blackbeans, tomatoes and cilantro ranch or sour cream
Delicious!

The next day I used the leftovers in tortilla soup!

Berry Syrup

2 cups Sugar
1 cup water
Dissolve

Add 1 cup frozen berries ( I like the triple blend, but any frozen or fresh berries will do)

Bring to boil  allow to boil for 2 1/2 minutes

Remove from heat add:
1 tsp vanilla

Serve over Sunday Morning Breakfast Waffles, pancakes, german pancakes, or crepes.

Carmel Syrup

This recipe is from Our Best Bites Cook book, so they get all the credit, but I needed to post it because it is amazing on Sunday Morning Breakfast Waffles.

3/4 cup buttermilk ( i never have buttermilk, but you can always make buttermilk by adding a couple    Tbsp vinegar to regular milk, and it is a good substitute.)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter (no substitutes)
2 TBsp corn syrup
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Combine all the ingredients except the vanilla in a 4 quart sauce pan. It gets really big and foamy.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook 7-9 minutes until it is a nice carmel color.
Take off heat, add vanilla.

Enjoy!

Sunday Morning Breakfast Waffles

Here is the original recipe from Better Homes and Gardens

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 TBsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
1 3/4 cup milk
12 cup cooking oil
2 egg whites beat until stiff

Add all ingredients except the egg whites. Stir until well blended. Gently fold in egg whites, cook in waffle iron.

Here is what I did that was amazing...and healthy...at least I think.
(remember I have to triple everything, but it is a good idea to triple even if you have a  smaller family, then you can just put sheets of wax paper between them and freeze them and toast them for a quick breakfast.)


1 cups white flour
2 cups ground oats (oat flour) (I did mine in my blender)
4 TBsp ground flax
2 cup whole wheat flour
3 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
5 cups milk
2 cubes butter melted (1 cup oil)
6 egg yolks
3 TBsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla
6 egg whites beat until stiff.

add all ingredients and stir until well blended, add egg whites and gently fold into batter. Cook in waffle iron.

Eat with peaches and Carmel Syrup on top.
Or great with whipped cream and peaches and bananas and walnuts, sprinkled with a little cinnamon.
I let the kids get creative with their toppings.
I will post the Carmel Syrup recipe as well as a Berry syrup that is amazing.

Canning Pinto Beans

I am putting this link here for a quick reference.
This is the blog post that I did for canning pinto beans which are a great thing to can in the winter when the garden is not needing attention and produce canned.
You can do this whenever you are not crazy busy and it is so fast to do, and so handy to have on hand

Click here

Bubble Seed Bread

3 cups flour
(you can use white flour, whole wheat, oat flour, or a blend of all)
1 1/2 cup hot water
1/4 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix with a fork until just blended, and all flour is incorporated with the water.

2. Cover and let set for 8 hours or overnight (or longer)

When ready to bake, Preheat oven to 450 degrees
3. Put 1/4 cup of raw pumpkin seeds, raw sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and sesame seeds on the cupboard in a pile.

4. Pour dough out onto seeds.

5. Gently fold the four sides of the dough into the middle and carefully lift into greased pan, flipping it over so the side that was down on the seeds is now up in the pan.

The pan you use should be tall and have a lid that will be able to bake in the oven. I have a ceramic dutch oven type pot that has a lid, or a corning wear casserole dish with a glass lid.

Bake with lid on for 30 minutes
Take lid off and bake an additional 15 minutes for a total of 45 minutes on 450 degrees.

Apple Brie Walnut Sandwich

These are most amazing...try before you judge.

1 recipe Bubble Seed Bread sliced
1 wheel Brie cheese
1 apple sliced on mandolin
1 cup walnuts roughly chopped

1. Cut white mold off of Brie wheel
2.Layer Brie (use a thick slice) , apple and walnuts on one slice of Bubble Seed Bread
3. Top with another slice of Bubble Seed Bread
4. Grill or toast in oven until cheese is melted

Enjoy!

Color Salad!

Your body needs color! Lots of it to eat, so here is the best colorful, freshest, most delicious salad your glands will love you to eat!

1 bunch spinach
3 green onions chopped
strawberries
blueberries
pinapple diced
orange slices
craisins
1/4 bunch cilantro chopped

( add any colorful fruit or veggie...pomegrante, avocado, apple, pear, water chestnuts, zuccini, asparagus, tomato(all colors) ect.)

Candied nuts (see recipe below)
Mix together and add dressing (see below) and nuts just before serving

Candied Nuts
1 cup nuts (pecan, slivered almonds, walnut, or cashews work best)
Enough pure maple syrup to coat nuts (not too soggy, not too dry)
Cook in frying pan on med-low heat. Watch carefully. stir often. Once sugar has crystalized on the nuts, take off heat and let cool.
Add to salad just before serving.

Cool Lemon Dressing
1/3 cup sesame oil
2 Tblsp agave
zest and juice of one lemon
Mix together and let sit while putting salad together. Add just before serving.

Cilantro Ranch

3 tomatillos (medium cut into quarters)
2 tbsps lime juice
1 cup cilantro (fresh)
5 scallions (white and ends)
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
1/4 tsp salt (taste)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp season salt
dash of Frank's Red Hot sauce (Big or little dash--you choose!)

1. Put all ingredients in the blender and blend well.
2. Chill in fridge for at least 2 hours to let the flavors meld.

Pesto Tortillas

uncooked flour tortillas or make your own, or whole wheat tortillas

Add: Pesto sauce on bottom
Sprinkle with asagio and mozzarella cheese
Corn
Spinach
Tomatoes (or salsa)
Mushrooms

Fold in half and put in heated skillet. Cook one side them flip to warm other side.
Serve with Cilantro Ranch

Shrimp stir-fry

This one is too good not to put here.

Debole's has a jerusalem artichoke pasta that is so good, and you would never know you weren't eating white flour pasta. I used their noodles for this stir-fry, but over brown rice, spinach or quinoa it would be wonderful too.

Melt 4 Tbsp butter
Add: 4 cloves minced garlic
4 green onions chopped finely
1 cup diced fresh pinapple
1 Tbsp agave
1 bunch asparagus cut in 1 inch pieces
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper to taste
Saute 1-2 minutes until asparagus is tender crisp
Add: 1 lb shrimp (any size)
2-4 Tbsp cream
Cook until shrimp is warm
Serve over noodles, rice, spinach, or quinoa

*This would be really easy to make vegetarian, just add some mushrooms, or zucchini instead of the shrimp.

Mock Apple Pie

This is great for breakfast or dessert!

Filling:
3 apples
1 banana
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Can also add 1 drop of cinnamon essential oil- great if there is any virus going around)
Pulse in blender of chop finely with pampered chef chopper. Don't make too mushy, you still want texture to it

Place in bottom of a dish
On top of that put nuts (below)

Nuts
Chop 1-1 1/2 cup nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans work best) You can do just one nut or blend them
add 1/4 tsp salt and
Pinch of nutmeg

Easy Mexican Salad

This is a spin off of the seven layer bean dip. My friend Misty Hales introduced me to warming up 7-layer bean dip and serving it with chips for dinner. To make it a little more healthy and get some fresh stuff in there, we did this last night.

Layer a 9X13 pan in this order:
1 bottle pinto beans (or two cans of your favorite beans)
drizzle chipolte ranch (or regular ranch or just sour cream)
next layer Salsa (or chopped tomatoes)
Then cheese
Warm in oven at 350 degrees until warm and cheese is melted
While it is cooking cut up lettuce, avocado, tomatillo, cilantro

Serve with tortilla chips or make your own:
cut corn tortillas into strips with a pizza cutter.
Fry them in a little sesame oil
sprinkled them with salt and squeeze a lime onto them.

When ready to eat, put down lettuce, then bean dip then other toppings as desired.
We had leftover quinoa, so we added that too.
Definately a keeper!

Lettuce Wraps

Got living boston lettuce in our Bountiful Baskets last week and was so excited for lettuce wraps! I love them!
Here's what I did.

Meat filling:
4 chicken legs
(they were our own chickens, and they were huge legs, so probably 6-8 small legs or whatever part of the chicken you have. I am just always looking to use the legs, thighs and wings since they aren't my family's favorite and we seldom eat fried chicken) I baked them in our bottled chicken stock covered on 300 for 4 hours. pulled all the meat off and added the following:

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil or 1T dried basil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1 large jalapeno chili, chopped fine
1 teaspoon garlic chili sauce or
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seed oil
2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

Veggie filling:

Finely chopped Cucumber
Grated carrots
chopped celery
chopped zuccini
chopped green onion
chopped roasted peanuts

Boston Leaf Lettuce or Butter crunch lettuce

Take leaf place small amount of meat filling, and then a lot of the veggie filling rollup and enjoy!

{Squash Stir-Fry}

While I have posted many recipes with squash, my family doesn't really LOVE squash. I have been on a quest to find a way to feed squash to my family without them complaining about it. I think I finally found a good one, I have to put it down before I forget.

Saute
2 cloves garlic
1 onion finely chopped
1 squash peeled, seeded and diced
1tsp sesame seed oil
1-2Tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp garlic chili paste
1/2 tsp dulse
1/2 tsp oregano
Saute until squash is tender then add
broccoli cut into bite sized pieces (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 grated carrots
2 stalks celery finely chopped
saute until broccoli is tender

Serve over quinoa. with popped pumpkin seeds on top.

Southwest Eggrolls

These are the best and totally loaded with good stuff for the kids. They don't even know the loads of good stuff they are getting.

2 cans black beans drained
1 large tomatoe diced
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 jalepeno pepper chopped finely (you could use anaheim,green or red pepper)
1 clove garlic minced (you can use more garlic if you don't have the pepper)
1 avocado diced small
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
4 large mushrooms diced
1 cup cooked rice (or I use 1 cup quinoa)
Juice from 1 fresh lemon (you could use bottled, or lime)

You could add corn, that is really good also, but don't add as much rice, or only one can of beans so that the filling matches up with one package of egg roll wrappers.

Add all this to a bowl, stir, and then put two heaping spoonfuls in each eggroll wrapper. Fry in oil, or bake in the oven on 500degrees.

{Cabbage Soup}

Brown 1 lb of hamburger or sausage
Add
1 diced onion
cook until onion is tender
Add
1/2 - 1 tsp garlic salt
2 large tomatoes diced
(or one bottle of tomatoes)
1 head of cabbage chopped
Cook until cabbage is just tender crisp. Don't get the cabbage soggy, that's no good. Keep it kinda crisp.


*This is really easy to make meatless, you could just add chopped mushrooms, eggplant, zuccini, carrots or potatoes instead of the meat.

Seriously The BEST Eggplant EVER!

I started this recipe blog because I love food that tastes good. I don't find it worth my bother to eat food that doesn't taste good. In my quest to get my family to eat better, I have come across a lot, and I mean A LOT of recipes that sound good, but in reality, don't taste good. This is the first time I have ever tried Eggplant, and I LOVE it. So I share it with you. Seriously, even my picky eaters ate this without any complaints, and then took seconds.

Eggplant Parmesan

Bread Crumb coating
1 1/2 cups Pepperidge Farms Herbed Stuffing- mashed to crumbs
1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 cup parmesan cheese grated

Cut Eggplant in 1/2 inch slices. Salt
Dip in :
Beaten egg
then Dip in
Bread Crumb Coating

Fry in oil

They were crispy, and I wanted to keep them that way, so I placed them in a serving dish and put the marinara sauce in a seperate bowl, so that when it was time to serve them, we dished up our eggplant and then put the sauce on.
Seriously so good!

Here is my Marinara Sauce recipe

Saute 1 finely chopped onion in 2 Tbsp butter(or olive oil)
1 jar of bottled tomatoes put through the blender
( I like a few chunks, but do what your family will eat)
1 tsp basil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
1 4 oz can tomato paste
stir and let simmer for at least 20 minutes. Longer is better

If I have it I also add sliced mushrooms, zucchini, chopped Kale, sliced olives, grated carrots, and/or chopped bell peppers to the saute before adding the tomatoes.

Breakfast Ice Cream

1 cup soaked almonds
1/4 c flax seeds
Blend in blender until fine powder
Then Add:
2 frozen bananas
1 cup frozen berries
1/2 avocado
1/2 apple
Blend until smooth, You may need to add a little water to get it the consistancy you want it. We like it thick so you can eat it with a spoon.
If it is not as sweet as you want it (sometimes the berries are more sour than other times) You can add:
1-3 Tbsp Agave

This is also really good if you add whatever fruit you have left over. Pinapple, kiwi, cherry, apricot, peach....get creative.



Almond Milk
Blend the almonds until fine, and add just water until it is as thick as you want it. Thinner=milk, thicker=cream

Root Bake

You can do this with whatever roots you have on hand, but tonight I....

Layered
Sweet Potatoes cut in 1/2 inch rounds
Potatoes cut in 1/2 inch rounds.
Onion cut in thin slices
Shredded cabbage (about 1/4th of a head)
Sprinkled with salt, pepper and dulse
Add about 1/2 inch water in the bottom cover and bake 1 hour
We ate the popped pumpkin seeds on top!

At first the kids were leary, then they tasted it and loved the pumpkins seeds with the sweet potatoes, and Annalee insisted on feeding herself.

I also had the last of our potatoes from our garden and they were starting to sprout. I peeled them all, boiled them, made them into mashed potatoes, stuck them in gallon ziplock bags and froze them to use later.

Squash Soup

One squash cut off skin and chunk
Boil in water with about five peeled potatoes and an onion that is chopped up.
When everything is tender, and most of the water has boiled off, puree.
Add thyme, salt and pepper and two minced garlic cloves.

So good when you eat Popped Pumpkin Seeds on top!

Popped Pumpkin seeds

Popped Pumpkin Seeds
Place 2-4 Tblsp sesame oil in bottom of skillet that has a lid.
when it is hot, throw in 2 cup pumpkin seeds (the hulled ones)
Add 1 Tbsp salt
When they have popped, add 1 cup chopped red onion let saute
Just before serving add 1 clove minced garlic.


These are so good to eat on top of squash soup.

Sopapillas

I made sopapillas the other day, but since we are not using white flour or white sugar, I used oatmeal instead. They were so good...

Sopapillas

2 cups of oatmeal cooked in 3 cups water
It should be a thick gruel consistancy
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
4 tblsps butter (or coconut oil)
2 cups oatmeal blended to powder

Mix everything together, it should be dough like spread oat flour Or oil on surface roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness. cut in scone shapes and let rise.

fry in coconut oil
Sprinkle with honey and cinnamon

"Chocolate Breakfast Pudding"

Chocolate Breakfast Pudding

Soak 1 cup Prunes or dehydrated pears in a bowl of water overnight.
Place in blender in the morning, puree.
Add :
1 Cup Sunflower seeds
1/2 cup almonds
3 apples peeled and cored
1 tsp cinnamon (or more if you desire)

slice bananas, kiwi, pinapple, strawberries, pears, or apples to place on top for Decoration.

If you make the puree really thick, you can form it like a cake and decorate with fruit for a birthday cake!

So good!

{Baked Zucchini sticks with Sweet onion Dip}

Got the recipe here

What you need:

3-4 medium zucchinis, cut in sticks.

egg beaten

Panko crumbs*

Italian seasoning

Parmesan cheese

onions

butter or oil

mustard

mayonnaise

first: sprinkle zucchini with salt and let sit to "sweat"

Second:cut onions in thin slices and place in frying pan with 1/2 cube butter. Only set the heat to med-low. let cook until a nice carmel color stirring every once in a while.

Third: when onions are done, make dip.

Place the following in a small food processor or blender:
all of the caramelized onions

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon prepared mustard
Process until fairly smooth.

When processed, place in bowl and and one cup of mayo.

Fourth: Dry off zucchini sticks, dip in beaten egg, and then bread crumb mixture:

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese(or romano, or asagio)

1 tablespoon Pizza Seasoning or mixed Italian herbs

{I used garlic salt, parsley, and no salt seasoning from Costco}

*I Didn't have Panko crumbs so I used crushed crackers, but have in the past just used my whole wheat bread, pulsed in food processor or blender, poured on a baking sheet and toasted in the oven.

What I thought:

It was a bit of work, Definately will make my kids do the breading next time, it took a while. But they were really good!