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!

Papaya and Lemon Balm

papaya and lemon balm

Last year I really got hooked on fresh lemon balm, it is a great tasting herb that hides in the herb section of Lowe's, Home Depot, or any other nursery. It's disguise is it looks like mint, doesn't taste the same. Actually it really doesn't taste like lemon any more than lemon grass does, but hey it tastes great in so many dishes, who cares!
Take a ripe papaya and cut it up into bite size cubes. I use about 1 1/2 cups worth. I love the big papaya's that I can buy at the Rancho Markets and the more orange/yellow with almost spots on it the sweeter. Next I grab some lemon balm leaves, rinsed and patted dry, I would say about 2 tablespoons worth. Cut them up or just tear with your hands, I like big leaves of it with my fruit. Sprinkle lemon balm over the papaya.

add some lemon zest

Then I grate some lemon peel over the the fruit and herb mixture. It is about 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest. Now I just take it from here and eat, however, if you have a lime hanging around bored and with nothing to do, squeeze some lime juice onto the whole mix. Not too much, lime is like any party crasher, it can take over the whole event if you add too much. So go with about a teaspoon worth.
This makes a great breakfast, or even dessert if you so choose.

add lime juice if so desired and enjoy!

Short story on my luck with limes and papayas. When I was living in the dorms at University of Alaska, Fairbanks with my girlfriend Mimi, my dad used to give us fresh fruit to keep in our room for snacks. We kept it cold by sticking it out our window for a few minutes in a bag and then had to bring it in so it wouldn't freeze. However, ice cream was always perfect until break-up happened (Alaskan Spring)

 . Then it would get soupy, but that's a different story.
So we had a lime and a papaya out our window, and we were goofing off one day when we saw a friend down in the parking lot below our room. We thought it would be fun to get his attention by dropping the lime in his direction. Now in my defense may I just state we were college freshman and had not yet taken physics. That's my excuse for what happened next. We were laughing so we didn't really see the full accident, however I do remember hearing a thoop sound. Only way to describe it. We looked out the window and saw a perfect hole in his front windshield right above the steering wheel. The lime went through the glass. Okay maybe this is where I should mention I dropped it from our room which is five stories above where he was parked. Yea about that lack of physics.... Good news is it went through the windshield, which I still feel bad about. Bad news is I was aiming at him. No wait reverse that. I never can get good/bad news right.
So see limes can be real party crashers, you have to watch out for them!
Enjoy!

Pomegranate and Spinach Dish

This is a great quick recipe, only drawback is the best part is the pomegranates so  it is really best to serve when they are in season.

This is a beautiful dish but I don't have any cooked right now so I will have to find some pictures later.

You need:

Either 1 cup firm tofu or 1 pound of medium size shrimp
2 tablespoons flax oil (need this for FLAVOR!!! no substitutes please)
1/2 cup pumpkins seeds (goes great with the tofu) or 1/2 cup raw cashews (goes great with the shrimp)
3 tablespoons shallots
1/2 teaspoon garlic (minced or powder)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon either lime pepper or white pepper
1 cup fresh spinach
1 cup fresh pomegranate
1/2 cup feta cheese (again I prefer the goat's milk cheese)

Heat the flax oil on the stove in a nonstick frying pan over medium heat, cook the tofu until browned or if you are using the shrimp until the shrimp is cooked completely (firm and pink/white)
add the shallots and then add the seeds or nuts cook until lightly toasted
add the seasoning stir well, cook for about 3 minutes more so everything gathers the flavors of the seasoning.

Right before serving, put the fresh spinach on top of everything, put a lid on the pan, turn the heat off.  Let sit for 1 to 2 minutes, wanting the spinach to wilt but not get cooked and soggy.
Next grab a large plate.
Take the lid off of the pan, cover the pan with the plate, flip over so the spinach is on the bottom and the tofu or shrimp is on top.  Sprinkle the pomegranate and feta cheese on top of the whole thing.
Serve.
Makes 2 to 3 servings.  If you feel like sharing.  Personally, I don't usually feel like sharing this dish. It is so yummy.
It is beautiful too, lots of great color and textures and tastes.

What is 'Clean Eating'? And Should You Try It? | Yahoo! Health

What is 'Clean Eating'? And Should You Try It? | Yahoo! Health

This article is really informative and it backs up what I have been saying.  Cut down on the processed foods and know what you are putting into your body.
These new diets where you buy a box of pre-chewed food that has all of the nutrients, fiber, protein, carbs, calcium, minerals, etc., that you need are mainly putting chemicals in your body.  Read the ingredients, be aware of what you are eating.  If you can't pronounce it, don't put it in there.  Unless it is Quinoa, and so far no one has agreed how to pronounce it except a really great Peruvian lady in California that I met.  She calls it chicken feed, because in Peru, it was what they fed their chickens.
Plant a garden this year, go to a farmer's market, go fresh!

Homemade Granola

I love this recipe, and when I was teaching a children's cooking class last year, the kids in my class loved it.  Use any dried fruits, apricots, dates, craisins, raisins.  You also can use any type of nut butter, almond, peanut, soy or sunflower, I love almond myself.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons natural nut butter (almond, peanut, soy or sunflower)
4 tablespoons xagave syrup
3 tablespoons orange honey (okay use any type of honey but orange is my favorite)
2 tablespoons stevia (or use a natural raw sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups puffed rice or if you are not gluten intolerant use Kamut
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup puffed millet cereal or if you are not gluten intolerant use Grape Nuts
1/2 cup whole almonds, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup dried fruit (I love craisins personally)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. line an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper so that the paper overhangs on opposite sides (to make removing the bars easy).

In a small pan, combine nut butter, honey, xagave syrup, and vanilla. (if you use raw sugar add it here, if you use stevia do not add it now),  Heat over medium-low, stirring frequently until the raw sugar dissolves and the nut butter is evenly distributed into the mixture.

In a large bowl, combine the puffed rice or kamut, oats, puffed millet cereal, chopped almonds, flaxseed meal, sunflower seeds and dried fruit.  Pour 1/2 of the warm honey mixture over the oat mixture and use a rubber spatula to combine.  Pour the remaining honey mixture over the oat mixture and continue stirring with the spatula until the mixture is thoroughly blended.  Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and use the spatula to press the mixture firmly.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the granola bars are golden brown all over. Remove the pan from the oven and use the rubber spatula to press down on the mixture.  Let the bars cool completely in the pan, then use the overhanging parchment paper to lift them out of the pan.  On a cutting board, use a sharp knife to cut 16 squares. Wrap and keep air-tight for a week.  Granola bars can also be wrapped and stored in a plastic bag in the freezer for several months.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

I love salsa, any type, and if it has mangoes and serrano peppers that is as close to tasting Heaven.  But for the salsa that I use to top everything and any thing (okay maybe not ice cream but then I haven't tried it yet) this recipe is the bomb.  Everything tastes great with this salsa on top.  I love it adding it on top of freshly cooked green beans, carrots, corn or summer squash, grilled onions, or all of them together! Oh and you can eat chips with it too.

Here are the ingredients
1 1/2 pounds fresh tomatillos
5 fresh serrano peppers
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 1/2 ripe avocado

How to prepare
remove the husks from the tomatillos and rinse under warm water to remove the stickiness.  Broil the peppers, garlic, and fresh tomatillos in the oven on broil 1 to 2 inches from the heat, turning once, until the tomatillos are softened and slightly charred, about 7 minutes.
Peel the garlic and pull off the tops of the peppers.  Put everything in your blendtec (I love my blendtec, remind me to tell you about my funeral plans and my blendtec)
Puree everything and voila you have a great salsa!

Spinach Souffle

Everyone wants an easy, quick meal that doesn't use a lot of pots, pans, bowls, etc for preparing, cooking and serving.  Which is why KFC and McDonald's make bank, let's go out to eat instead of having to slave over a hot stove after a long day at work.  WRONG!

There are so many quick and easy dishes to make, we just need to retrain our brain and not stop for fast food.  You can make quick food at home that is so healthy for you and tastes AWESOME!

For example, yesterday after a 13 hour day with travel time and work time I was beat.  Having to make dinner was not top on my list, I wanted the path of least resistance to food.

BUT I did not go gobble down fast food and call it surrender!

I got my Blendtec out and made Spinach Souffle that was out of this world.

You will love this recipe.

Take 4 cups spinach

1 cup basil leaves fresh

1 cup fresh mushrooms

1 cup soft tofu or 1 cup plain kefir or Greek Yogurt (nonfat please)

1 cup egg whites

2 inches of leek (use the white end, not the dark green part)

1 stem of lemon grass

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon olive oil (I use flax oil)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup feta cheese separated into two 1/2 cups (I use Goat's milk feta)

6 small custard cups

Turn the oven to 375

Take all of the ingredients except 1/2 cup feta cheese and throw into the Blendtec.  Turn it on to #5 and blend thoroughly, increase speed to high or #8 and blend for 1 to 2 minutes.  You want it frothy.

Everything in the blender

Poor into custard cups that have been sprayed with nonstick spray. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup feta cheese onto mixture. 

before cooking

Put in the oven. Cook until the top bounces back at touch, around 20 minutes. 

cooked and fluffy

Take out of the oven.  Now souffles will come out nice and tall and then slowly sink down, so serve it hot and fluffy.

yum!

Winter Vegetables

Spring is supposedly in full bloom here, as I look out the window at the fresh fallen snow on the ground. I thought I would write down my winter vegetable recipe, because honestly warm starches sound really good right now.  So does more sleep but that's just the Monday morning coming out in me.  Right now I so want to be cuddled up in my warm blanket reading a good book, but instead I am on the train riding to work. So I am day dreaming of my vegetables. (I know! I so need a more exciting life!)
I use carrots, parsnips, turnips, yams, butternut squash and onions. (purple or yellow or white, eh that's your call)
Peel the the vegetables.
Cut everything in unique pieces, if you roll the carrot and parsnips as you cut them, they make a triangular shape.  Cut the yams, squash and turnips in rectangles, cubes or triangles.  Cut the onions in cubes, about 1/2 inch in size.  You basically want everything to be about the same size 1 to 2 inches so they cook evenly but different shapes add variety.
Place the vegetables on a cookie sheet that has a tablespoon of flax oil spread evenly on it. (don't want anything to stick!)

Torani Classic Hazelnut Syrup

Next pour an 1/8 cup of Torani Classic Hazelnut Syrup on the vegetables and then  sprinkle a teaspoon of salt on the vegetables.

Cook in the oven at 375 degrees until the vegetables are tender.  About 25 to 30 minutes.
The neat part about the different shapes is the ends will be slightly crisp and the middle will be tender.
Easy to make and taste great.   The syrup really makes it kick.
If you are trying to cut back on your sugar intake, use the SugarFree syrup or use Xagave syrup.  This is awesome stuff, I use it in everything as my sweetener.   Learn more about it at www.xagave.com/Agave, 

xagave syrup

Gluten Free Pizza!

Gluten Free Pizza
Okay this is my first video, thank you Clint!!!
You can use this pizza topping on a regular dough and it is still outstanding.

Pennies from Heaven

When we lived in Corvallis Oregon back in the late 80's early 90's there was a gentleman in our church that was a retired Naval man who had been a chef in the Navy.  He also lost an ear in the war, which I always wondered, how did a chef get wounded in battle?  But anyways he made incredible cakes, I am drooling just thinking of his culinary confection, oh to have a bite of one would be heaven.
But the recipe I have in my collection is his copper penny recipe made with carrots.  It was the one recipe of his I could actually duplicate, the cakes not so much.
Here is a variation of his pennies recipe.

  1 cup xagave syrup
2/3 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup flax oil
1 t. dry mustard
1 t. salt
1/8 t. ground ginger
2 lbs. carrot, peeled, and thinly sliced
1 cup water
3 T. freshly chopped parsley
  In a saucepan, combine the xagave syrup, vinegar, oil, dry mustard, ginger, and salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat slightly and continue to cook the mixture for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, transfer the mixture to a glass bowl or large measuring cup, and set aside. Rinse the saucepan. Then in the same saucepan, place the carrots and water, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 5-7 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Drain any remaining water from the carrots and transfer the cooked carrots to a glass bowl. Pour the syrup-vinegar mixture over the carrots, add the chopped parsley, and toss gently to combine. Allow the flavors to blend for at least 10 minutes before serving. Serve hot, at room temperature, or chill overnight for added flavor.
Serves 6
 

Orange Julius

The senses make memories so poignant and tangible. Especially when it comes to food.  Stop and think for a moment of a favorite childhood memory, how about going to the fair?  Cotton candy, corn dogs, popcorn, funnel cakes and pickles are the memories of fair food, and admit it, the greasier the food at the fair the better it tastes.  Pizza, ice cream, hamburgers, even a cold coke taste better at the fair.

Ice cream is a national favorite for childhood memories.  A friend was describing her toddler eating a "red white and blue" ice cream pop with the blue liquid  running down his belly as it melted.  I immediately could see the rocket pop in my mind and remember the great taste of the frozen concoction and how it used to turn everything on a child red and blue.   How excited my brother and I would be hearing the bells of the ice cream truck, gathering change from mom and running out with the other kids in the neighborhood to purchase the frozen manna of  a child's heaven.  Rocket pops, drumsticks, ice cream tacos, so many choices.

My favorite was the orange and vanilla bar, the cold, hard orange Popsicle outside and the creamy vanilla ice cream on the inside.  It reminded me of my favorite drink as a child, an Orange Julius.  My dad used to make them for us, on rare special occasions. Orange juice, vanilla, ice cream, sugar, he even would put an egg in it.   I never understood the egg, but I so loved those drinks.

As an adult I had visited the Orange Julius stands in malls and shopping plazas but it just wasn't the same as home-made.  My memory had made dad's untouchable in flavor.

Then last year I got sick and couldn't find much that I could hold down without revisiting it again at the porcelain god.  So in trying to find things that my digestive track could handle in a one way fashion, I started craving the comfort of the orange drink memory.

But the sugar and fat were out of the question, so it took tweaking.

I made a few adjustments and now for breakfast I have an Orange Julius that is good for me and matches the memory of dad's concoction.

Let me share in hopes that you will find it a great addition to your taste buds' memories.

Take 5 oranges peel and put into a blendtec.

Add 1/2 cup xagave syrup.

Add 2 1/2 cups unsweetened Almond Milk

Add 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Add 1/2 cup lactose free regular kefir unflavored or vanilla flavored.

Add 1 cup ice.

Blend into a smoothie.  

For variety add one mango or one banana or both!

Enjoy with your kids and make a memory that will last. 

Kitchen Chores

When I was young, cooking was something unknown and slightly evil, actually since 90 percent of our chore list was derived in the kitchen, that usually was a room I avoided completely.  You never knew when mom would drag you into her flurry of throwing meals together, assigning menial tasks of hard labor to unsuspecting children.  "Here, cut this onion up," mom would say, handing me a huge ball of either yellow or white, (depending on which we found along the train tracks in Texas). Just looking at the poisonous bulb would start the tears, before I even had the opportunity to dissect this foe with the dullest knife in history. On a side note the only thing that knife ever sliced to the bone and quite easily I might add, were my fingers when I was doing the chore of washing dishes with my brother (okay so we were fighting over who had to wash and who had to dry and I am not sure how it ended up cutting my fingers in the whole mess, but it still comes back to I hated the kitchen).  That lovely experience took a trip to the emergency room, some strange doctor who barely spoke English putting my fingers back onto the right places and learning to write with my right hand.  But I am getting sidetracked.   Cutting an onion was painful, however the kitchen chore that left permanent mental scars was........ cleaning the percolator.  I do not drink coffee to this date because of that stupid contraption.  My job was after mom had made coffee for dad's breakfast, I had to take the metal insides of the percolator  out to the front yard and dump the coffee grinds and the egg shells that always bred inside the kitchen sink, (laugh if you so chose, but as a kid, I knew the egg shell came first and it lived in the sink) and dump them onto my mother's flower garden. On the daily trip to the front yard, I had a special knack of getting eggshells and coffee grinds throughout the whole house, dripping bits of liquid coffee stain as I went.  After getting the coffee grinds to adhere to me in a secure fashion while outside in the safe zone also known as the front yard, I would venture back into the house where said grinds would suddenly have an aversion to my skin and jump far distances throughout the living room, hallway, dining room, bathroom, and kitchen.  The next step in this chore was to return to the kitchen and wash the metal container that somehow still had grinds residing in it.  So now I have along side the dripping bits of liquid coffee stain, wet, sticky pieces of broken coffee bean to add the the decor.  And as only a child can do in adjusting a decor, these grinds would in turn, attached to everyone's shoes, socks, bare feet and dog paws, spreading even further throughout the house.  It is amazing how far a child can spread coffee remains, even though I am still not sure I ever got any on mom's plants, and I can still hear dad screaming as he would have to brush the grinds off of his socks to put his shoes on to go to work.  Did I mention hating coffee and the mental scars?  Yep, that was one chore I never got good at no matter how diligent I was at trying to keep the grinds where they belonged.  I swore for years that the Jumping Beans you could buy in Mexico were actually coffee beans that just hadn't been broken into pieces yet.
By this point you should be wondering, why am I doing a blog that is on cooking and having fun in the kitchen?
Because somehow, after many years of trial and error for survival, (turns out knowing only how to make burritos and liver and onions does not go far in the newlywed years) I learned that the kitchen is a play ground and food can be healthy and fun.
I love to cook and I love to find ways to make dishes that are fuel for your body, that help you stay strong and healthy.  Too many people don't care what they put into their bodies, grabbing what is convenient and wrapped prettily in the marketing ploy that it is "good for you!!!"  Sorry but anything that has been sitting on your grocer's shelves, a packing truck, the distribution center warehouse, and the manufacturer's shelves for more than a month just doesn't sound yummy.
So join me in talking about food, cooking, fun and the exciting journey of me overcoming my fear of the kitchen!