Quick soup for dinner

November is starting to bring the beginnings of winter weather with it and there is nothing like warm soup on a cold night.  Ah but who has time to cook soup when you just get home from a long day at work and you're starving?

Ok, into the fridge.

Grab the following items

1 leek (everyone has a leek in their fridge right???)

2 good size mushrooms

1/4 cup egg whites

2 cups vegetable or chicken stock ( broth)

Slice three rings from the leek, it's about 1/8 cup

Slice the mushrooms thin

Put these into a pan with the stock, heat to boiling for 3 minutes.

Gently stir the mixture while slowly pouring in the egg whites. Cook for 5 more minutes.

Add a couple shakes of salt, pepper and 1/2 teaspoon ginger.

Serve.

Quick and easy.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

The final product

One of the joys of summer is Strawberry/Rhubarb Pie, and it is probably the only thing that will get my 20 year old daughter out of bed on a Saturday morning and drive across town just to have a piece.
Fun part about this recipe is even though it is healthier than a normal store bought pie, you would never know it!  Actually my kids like the gluten free crust better than regular flour crust.

WARNING!!!
This crust is not low calorie, it is only gluten free and low fat, or lower fat I think I should clarify.

Ingredients for crust:

Gluten Free Crust

1 8-ounce package of Philadelphia Fat Free Cream Cheese
1 cup butter
1 cup rice flour
1 cup gluten free flour mixture (this is made by taking 1/2 cup flax meal, 1/4 cup chia seeds, 1/4 almond meal and blend in the blentec until flour consistency)
Blend the cream cheese and butter, then add the flour and mix all in a mixer, roll into two balls cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, or at least three hours.
Roll crust out, using rice flour to keep from sticking.

Strawberries, Rhubarb and Blueberries

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Ingredients for filling:

2 1/2 cups fresh strawberries stemmed and sliced,
2 1/2 cups rhubarb cut into cubes
1 cup blueberries (optional)
1 cup xagave syrup
4 tablespoons minute tapioca
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

Placing the crust over the fruit

Mix the strawberries, rhubarb, blueberries, xagave, tapioca, lemon zest, cinnamon, and vanilla in a large bowl and pour into a glass pan or if you are doing a two crust pie, onto the bottom crust. Roll out the other piece of dough and place over filling. Crimp to seal edges.






Place foil around the edge of the pie crust and bake at 425 F for 15 minutes, decrease temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for an additional 40 to 50 minutes, or until the filling starts bubbling.

Baked to golden brown crust and bubbly filling

Healthy Grilled Cheese Sandwich

 I love using goat's milk Cheddar Cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches.
Take two slices of bread (I use gluten free, but you can use whatever you want)
Add butter on the outside of one slice of bread and put in a fry pan on medium heat.  Add slices of cheese onto the slice of bread, as you can see on the picture to the left this is a 6.7 ounce bar of cheese. I cut about 4 slices.  After letting the bread get toasted and the cheese begins to melt I put kale on top of the cheese and the other slice of bread, buttered.

Mushrooms grilled next to the sandwich

At the same time I am grilling the bread I take two slices of a large portobello mushroom and grill next to the sandwich in the pan.  By the time I am ready to turn the sandwich I put the cooked mushroom on top of the kale and then turn the sandwich.  Toast the other side and then serve.

Kale, mushroom grilled cheese sandwich

Grilling Season!

I love working on a grill, one of my favorite dishes is shish-kebobs and as summer vegetables become plentiful, I will show you some ideas for kebobs.  However, this time I made a quick evening meal, 20 minutes maximum prep and cooking time. You want a low flame but make sure your grill is hot before starting.  The vegetables will stick if you put them on and then heat the grill.  Water drops should dance on the bars when it is hot enough.

Grilling Time!

I have sliced red bell peppers, asparagus, fresh corn, portobello  mushrooms and small zucchini.  I brushed everything with cold pressed canola oil so nothing would stick to the grill, now this is not a basting this is a light brushing of oil.  Add too much oil and you are dealing with trying not to burn the vegetables and your eyebrows at the same time!  

I put the mushrooms and corn on first, they take the longest time to cook, I sprinkle sea salt on them and close the grill lid.  Roll the corn so you grill and salt the whole ear, and turn the mushrooms after 10 minutes.

At the 10 minute mark (when you turn the mushrooms) put the rest of the vegetables on the grill.

Sprinkle lime juice on all of the vegetables and add sea salt to the remaining vegetables.  Close the lid.  

After 5 minutes turn the vegetables, sprinkle with lime juice and sea salt. At the same time make sure the mushrooms are stem side up, and cover with a slice of provolone cheese.  Close the lid.  

At the point when the cheese is melted, pull all of the vegetables off the grill and serve.

The final product!

Fresh Summer Drink

The other day it was hot so I went to fill up my water bottle and I thought of a drink my mom used to make.  She would take and juice an orange, a lemon, and a lime into a glass, fill it with water and drink it.  Well this is close, just the lazy person way.  I take a sprig of mint, slices of orange, lemon and a lime, add water and ice.   Now I just need a big straw hat, a cool evening breeze, a pan of pole beans to snap, and a front porch swing.  Oh and neighbors stopping by to share a cool drink and to just enjoy the goodness of life.

Quick lunch

I was running late the other day and needed something quick to grab and go as I headed to catch the train for work.  So I grabbed an avocado, a mango, some cilantro from my herb tree and a package of hummus and 2 slices of gluten free bread.  As you can see by the bag underneath my sandwich I just threw them in there and then at work I put them together.

This picture doesn't show the cilantro, but after putting the avocado and mango slices on the bread, I put the cilantro ( a couple of sprigs) in the middle and that was it!

I added the hummus to my sandwich but that is totally optional, you can add any sandwich spread that you normally use, actually nothing is required if the avocado is good and ripe.  Just slap them together and eat.

Quick Lunch

Strawberry Mousse

I had a craving for mousse the other day and while there is nothing more delectable for dessert, the amount of sugar and fat in a normal recipe was way off my "can have" list.  So I experimented and came up with a recipe that is healthy and yummy.
First if you are lactose intolerant or don't eat dairy products, this is made with yogurt and kefir, I will post a different recipe just for you soon.
Also, this has plain gelatin in it, just a heads up before we start.
The good news is it is sugar free (I use xagave) and low fat (I use coconut oil in the crust)

You will need for the crust:

Oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit

I use Better Body brand.

13x9 pan
2 cups ground flax seed flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup xagave
1/2 cup ground pecans (optional)
2 tablespoons cinnamon
Mix all of the ingredients and spread into the pan. Bake until light brown, about 15 minutes.  It will look like a big cookie when it is done, at this point I crumble it until it looks like graham cracker crust.  Set aside to cool.

You will need for the mousse:

13 x 9 glass pan or gelatin molds
4 cups strawberries--1 cup to be sliced set aside
2 packets of unflavored gelatin powder (Knox)
4 tablespoons water
1 1/2 cups nonfat Greek yogurt (plain or vanilla)
1 1/4 cup kefir (look for lactose free, fat free)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons tapioca flour
1 1/2 cup xagave
1 cup blueberries
Orange zest

Bloom gelatin in the 4 tablespoons water and set aside.
Heat yogurt,1/4 cup kefir, the tapioca flour and 1/2 xagave on medium heat until scalded, add bloomed gelatin.

gelatin bloom into yogurt

Put 3 cups of strawberries, vanilla and 1 cup kefir in the blentec and mix until smooth and frothy.

mousse mixture set

Mix yogurt mixture with strawberry mixture.
pour mixture into glass pan or molds, add strawberry slices and blueberries.  Set in refrigerator to set.
To serve:
put crust crumbles on plate, put mousse on top and then add orange zest on top of everything.

The final product

How to Make an Herb Planter

How to make an herb pot that grows vertical instead of horizontal. Fresh herbs are always better than the freeze-dried-sitting-on-a-shelf-forever type you can buy in the store.  You can make the planter as big or small as you like. I use a LOT of herbs and so I made a large planter.

You will need, 

planter pot,

landscape barrier, 

chicken wire (I have a smaller holed wire here, I recommend a lighter gauged wire) 

Garden Soil, (I recommend Miracle Gro but you can make your own too) 

Wire snips, light weight wire,

herb plants.

Cut the wire so it makes a complete cylinder in the bottom of the pot, put into the pot, tie the wire ends with the light wire, and then  put the landscape barrier into the wire cylinder. 

Soil

Fill cylinder with soil

Cut three inch squares into wire and then cut a + into the barrier so you can access the soil.

cut herb plant out of peat pot

Remove excess soil but not enough to upset the root system of the plant

Put herbs into holes in cylinder careful to not damage plant, add as many squares as you want on the sides. Then plant taller herbs in the top of the cylinder. As the plants grow they will cover the exposed wire area.

Water and keep herbs pinched so they will stay fresh and manageable.  I keep my planter in an area that gets  mid-day sunlight.

Chicken Salad and vegetarian version too

This is a great recipe because you can cheat and buy already cooked chicken pieces in the freezer aisle and throw everything together on those days you are starving and don't want to spend a lot of time preparing anything elaborate.   Heads up you want to keep reading even if you are vegetarian I will tell you how to vege tweak it too.

3 cups cooked cubed chicken (I like to take boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cook them in the crockpot on slow for 4-5 hours until totally cooked.  I put 6 breasts in with 1cup lemon juice and 2 tablespoons lemon pepper)

1 1/2 cups purple grapes cut into halves

1/4 cup fresh basil cut into pieces

2 tablespoons fresh chives cut into small pieces

1 teaspoon lemon pepper

Nonfat Greek yogurt (I add about 2/3 cups but this is up to you, how dry or sloppy do you want it, your choice) 

VEGETARIAN alternative: add 1cup chopped jicama, 1 cup chopped celery, 1/2 cup chopped cucumber, and 1/2 cup shredded carrots instead of the chicken.

I eat them on Romaine lettuce leaves but you can eat it on croissants, bread, on its own, be creative!

If you prefer you can use a low calorie mayonnaise instead of the yogurt and there is a vegan mayonnaise you can use too.

Italian mushroom

This portobello mushroom recipe has gotten rave reviews at office potlucks.
You need:
1 large portobello mushroom
2 tablespoons pesto
1 tablespoon shallots finely sliced
1 small sweet pepper red, yellow or orange, sliced
1 small tomato sliced
and either feta cheese or mozzarella cheese (or any type of your choice)

turn the oven onto broil
broil the rinsed mushroom until it is thoroughly cooked turning often so both sides are brown.
remove from oven.
spread the pesto sauce onto the mushroom
sprinkle the shallots and sweet pepper over the pesto
now at this point you can add any other vegetable topping you like on your mushroom (think pizza toppings)
I like my tomato cooked with everything else but you can leave it off until later.
cover with cheese.
Put into broiler until the cheese is melted (not long here if you like your vegetables with some crispness to them)
Now you can add fresh tomato (if you didn't do the cooked version)
And I like to add fresh avocado on top too.
Slice and serve! I find you usually can cut it into about 4 slices.

Take one portobello mushroom, cook in broiler, after done cover with pesto

slice the shallot and put on mushroom

add small sweet peppers

add tomatoes

cover with cheese 

Perfect!

Oriental Chicken Dish

I am a believer of easy meals and at the same time healthy. I love to cook, honestly it is my stress reliever and creativity release. But when it comes to everyday meals, I am a lazy creature and I want it fast, easy and still healthy.
This dish requires the following and serves around 4 people:
Oven temperature at 375 fahrenheit to cook chicken you will put it on broil for the vegetables
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or one cup firm tofu cubed
1 tablespoon flax seed oil (or olive oil or grape-seed oil)
8 small sweet peppers red, orange and yellow (cut the top off, remove seeds and chop into slivers)
1/4 cup chopped onions
6 small tomatoes cut into quarter slices
1 cup drained pineapple chunks
optional 1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons Simply Asia Sweet ginger garlic seasoning

I slice the chicken into long thin strips or if you like to keep it vegetarian then cut the firm tofu into 1 inch cubes.
I put them into a baking dish and then mix with the oil. I top with the soy sauce and Simply Asia seasoning and bake at 375 until the chicken is almost done about 20 minutes of the slices are thin and the chicken is not frozen at all. Most of the pink is gone but still moist.  If using tofu you want it light brown make sure to turn so both sides are toasted. About 10-15 minutes total for the tofu.
I add the peppers, onions, tomatoes and pineapple on top of the chicken and then I put it back into the oven which I have turned on to broil and leave it on the top rack for 10 minutes more until the vegetables are cooked and slightly brown. Make sure the chicken is cooked thoroughly (no pink)
Take out and serve!
WARNING This seasoning contains wheat and so does soy sauce. If you are gluten intolerant do NOT use the soy sauce and instead of the asian seasoning, use garlic, sea salt, fresh ginger, sesame seeds, grated coconut, and unrefined sugar. (it would be about 1/2 teaspoon of each)
I would add plum sauce and Hoisin sauce instead of the soy sauce. (tablespoon of each)

Beet salad

This is a quick easy way to serve beets. This is an individual serving I make in advance for my lunch.
Ingredients:
2 fresh beets
2 tablespoons feta cheese
1 tablespoon fresh lemon balm cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon grape seed oil
1 teaspoon organic apple cider vinegar

Cut the greens of the beets and leave 2 inches on the top. Boil until the beets are tender, cool.
Peel the beets and cut into small cubes and then put into a bowl. Enjoy having pink hands at this point. I use household cleaner to get them de-pinked.
add the rest of the ingredients. I leave them in the fridge overnight (actually I put them in a container that I can take to work and then have them ready for lunch) but you can refrigerate them for at least two hours and then they are ready to enjoy.
Easy and yummy!

Healthy Apple Betty

Braeburn Apple

This makes a quick and easy breakfast or if you want to make a fancy dessert it can be dressed up for that too!

Take one apple, Fuji, Green, Pink Lady, Braeburn apples are good choices.
2 tablespoons xagave syrup
1teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 cup oats (make sure if you are gluten intolerant get gluten free oats)
1/4 cup almond milk
optional: add blueberries, raspberries, or any other berry of your choice.
I also sometimes add 1/2 teaspoon orange zest from a freshly grated orange rind. I also have found a delicious taste by adding 1-2 tablespoons of Torani Classic Carmel or Hazelnut or Raspberry Syrup (sugar-free if you can find it)

Apple with blueberries

Quarter a cored apple place in a microwaveable bowl
Mix rest of the ingredients together and then pour on top of apple

Ingredients poured over fruit

Cover with plastic wrap and cook in microwave for 3-4 minutes or until apple is cooked (confession time here, my microwave is extremely slow and it can take sometimes 5 or more minutes to cook an apple. However, my friend who lives in Chappaqua has a microwave that cooks it in a minute, so you really will have to figure out the cooking time with your own microwave.)






Pour 1-2 tablespoons soy creamer (silk is good) onto cooked apple mixture and enjoy. For those who eat dairy products, I love adding lactose free Kefir instead of the creamer on top of the cooked mixture.




To make a dessert:
double recipe, add 1/4 cup xagave syrup instead of the tablespoons, add 1/2 cup creamer to syrup, spices, oats, and almond milk before putting onto apple and cook in a oven proof shallow dish in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until apple is cooked. If you leave the dish uncovered in the conventional oven then you get a crisp topping.
I hear a lot of people say they don't like cooked fruit, but they never pass up a piece of pie or cobbler. It is a change of thought process here, this is just a different version of a cobbler/crisp. Think of it as a treat instead of a chore to eat your daily dose of fruit! Also, it isn't necessary to cook the apple until it is mush, cook it just until the oatmeal is cooked and the apple is still firm.
Or cook the oatmeal mixture and then make applesauce with a fresh apple in the blentec and put it on top of the oatmeal. You can just do so many variations of this dish, get creative and try new things!

Quinoa Cakes

Not sure about how to exactly pronounce the "grain of the year" Keenwa, Keynoah, or best bet is what an acquaintance from Peru calls it....chicken feed.

Quinoa

Either way I have found some great recipes for this "super grain" as the news hypes it, and any time I can find a way to change it up with my grains, I go for it.

This recipe calls for:
1 diced leek
1 finely diced stalk lemon grass (optional)
1 cup of quinoa
1 1/2 tablespoon flax seed oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cups water or vegetable broth
1/4 cup feta cheese or any other type cheese you like. (once again may I sing the praise of goat's milk crumble cheese.)
1/4 teas garlic
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teas salt
1/4 teas oregano
3 - 4 tablespoon oat flour
1 egg white
2 tablespoons grape seed oil

Creamy spinach pesto sauce from gluten free pizza post

Add the leek, lemon grass and flax seed oil into a pan, cook until leek and lemongrass are bright green and soft.

Quinoa and lemon juice

Add quinoa and stir until grain is slightly brown. Add lemon juice and water/broth.

Add water/broth

 Cover and cook until quinoa is completely cooked and water is gone.








 Add cheese, herbs, oat flour, egg white, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Quinoa Patties

 Heat grape seed oil on medium heat and then make small cakes or patties out of mixture. Cook until brown and firm. Add pesto sauce and enjoy.
Or you can eat them plain with cheese sprinkled on top.

Creamy pesto/spinach sauce 

I cook my quinoa until it has completely expanded and has almost a sticky rice texture. Otherwise I have a hard time digesting it. Yea, thanks for sharing right? You can make this with rice or any other grain, just make sure you cook it well enough that it will form cake shapes.

Eggs Florentine with a twist

I had this for breakfast today, makes a great Saturday/Sunday treat.  Now before you start questioning the amount of spinach recipes that are on this blog, hey, when you buy one of those king size pillow bags of spinach at Costco, you are going to have a lot of spinach recipes to get through!

You will need two pieces of bread
1/4 cup spinach
1 egg
1 tablespoon feta cheese
1/4 avocado
2 slices of tomato (optional)

Tried and true Toad-in-the-hole Egg dish

This is a tweaked version of the ever tried and true toad-in-the-hole recipe.  Cut a hole in the middle of a piece of bread, put in a fry pan coated with non-stick pan spray  (or ghee or butter) then add an egg into the hole, cook to the level of cooked egg you like.  I do not like my egg to move after it has been fried so I eat mine ........hmm...well done I guess. Over-hard maybe?  Definitely not sunny side up or over-easy or anything that makes me think of slime.  Anyways I digress.
So make one toad-in-the-hole, with one egg and one piece of toast.

Now after you have cooked that part of the dish, put it on a plate to the side and grab another piece of bread with a hole in the middle, put in the hot fry pan (on medium heat) and fill the hole with spinach. 

Bread with a hole

fill hole with spinach

Next put cheese on top of the spinach.  I use feta, because that is my food fetish for the moment.

cheese on the spinach

 Use whatever cheese you want, Swiss is a good one, also Monterrey Jack, or Gouda.  Put a lid on the frypan for about a minute so the cheese can start to melt.  Take lid off.





At this point I add two slivers of avocado, basically 1/8 cup.

avocado, cheese and spinach with egg

Then take the toad-in-the-hole you had previously made and put on top of bread with spinach.  Put onto plate, garnish with the rest of the avocado and optional tomato.
That's it.  and it looks great!

Spinach side of Eggs Florentine Sandwich

If you are gluten intolerant, use gluten-free bread, you also can just use egg whites if you prefer.  Once again I am going to give a shout out to goat's milk feta cheese.  Give it a try!

Finished product. YUM!