lots of cookin!

after I made 3 very unhealthy Oreo Cookie Desserts, I made 3 healthy salads for my family reunion.

1. Potato Salad - Old potatoes + half and onion + Parsley fresh picked from the yard +Balsamic Vinegar + Olive Oil + Apple Cider Vinegar + Agave Nectar + mustard = Delicious! Just a bit of each of the liquids whisked with a fork & you have a healthy dressing!

2. Cucumber Salad - 4 Cukes + a bunch of grape tomatoes + half of an onion + Balsamic Vinegar + Olive Oil + Apple Cider Vinegar + Agave Nectar + mustard = Delicious! Just a bit of each of the liquids whisked with a fork & you have a healthy dressing!

3. Pasta Salad - 2 pkgs whole wheat pasta + 2 cans artichokes (quartered) + parsley picked from the yard + 3 red peppers cut into little confetti pieces + Celery cut up into small pieces + Balsamic Vinegar + Olive Oil + Apple Cider Vinegar + Agave Nectar + mustard = Delicious! Just a bit of each of the liquids whisked with a fork & you have a healthy dressing!

There ya have it. Have a go at healthy living!!! Say no to brats!

Tomatoes!

Can a person survive on tomato sandwiches? Yes! Until they learn how to freeze them. I will learn today. Google, here I come! One fun thing is putting horseradish sauce on the tasty treat instead of mayo. Healthy mayo of course! Oh the yummy possibilities! I'll post again when I start making something besides tomato sandwiches! LOL!

Jicama, Orange, Almond Salad

ingredients
3 cups julienned jicama
3 cups orange sections
1/2 cup whole natural almonds, toasted
1/2 cup julienned red bell peppers
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. chopped cilantro
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, to taste
1/4 tsp. chili powder
Lettuce leaves, as needed

preparation
Combine all ingredients except lettuce leaves in mixing bowl. Toss to mix thoroughly. To serve, line serving plates with lettuce leaves. This salad is low in saturated fat.

This recipe is from the almond board, Portfolio Eating Plan

Spaghetti Squash With Kale and Tofu

Cook spaghetti squash any way you wish, and take seeds out. Scoop out squash and put it in a pan with kale, tofu, and salt/pepper as you prefer. I looooove pepper in my spaghetti squash. I put in a bit of olive oil and some good for you butter with plant sterols. Cook this up until kale is wilted/cooked. Cover and let wilt for 5 minutes before you stir to make sure it is all cooking down. This is a great meal.

Kale Chips

Wash, dry, and cut kale into bite size pieces with no big stem. Put in a bowl & drizzle with a bit of evoo. Stir with hands to make sure each piece has olive oil on it. Put on a cookie sheet flat. Only salt a little. Too much salt makes it impossible to enjoy. Bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes or until crisp/brown edges. Take out, cool, enjoy like potato chips! If the kids could get hooked on these, my life will be dreamy!

Better than sex pad thai!

Chinese rice noodles...follow directions. Holy cow, no sat. fat & 10 g protein!!!

Bed of spring mix on bottom of plate.

Then noodles.

Then sauce...here's the recipe.

1/3 cup natural peanut butter.
1 Tsp. garlic salt
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. soy sauce, low sodium
1 tsp. sugar
1/3 cup water
Sprinkle of cayenne to taste
Sauteed tofu

Microwave sauce in microwave for one minute.

On the top, put crunchy bean sprouts. Sprinkle 5 peanuts on top of that.

OMG! So goooooood. I am in heaven!

Hot Pepper Chow Chow

1 ½ lbs. ground jalepeno peppers (or any other hot peppers)
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cups shredded kale and/or ground green tomatoes (I use a mixture of the 2.)
1 ½ cups apple cider vinegar
¾ cup sugar (I used less sugar & a bit of agave nectar)
½ cup water
1 Tbsp. canning and pickling salt
1 Tbsp. minced fresh cilantro
1 tsp. celery seed
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced

My mom's best friend made this, and it was my favorite! I can't believe I made it! Craig and I are loving it!

Backwards Baba Ganoush

I wanted to make Baba Ganoush with zucchini instead of eggplant because I heard you could. I googled the recipe. I wrongly assumed that it was a raw dish. OOPs! It turned out awful. On a dog walk, a friend told me to cook it after instead of before. I did it and it turned out super!

Here are the ingredients:

Large Zucchini
3 cloves garlic
3 tbs. lemon juice
5 tbs. olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Can of garbanzo beans

Food processor is needed to grind it all!

Grill the zucchini first unless you want to do it backwards like me. Good luck!

Back to the basics, with a twist: Quinoa Stuffed Peppers!

The previous cabbage recipe lasted a couple days, & it was good.

We need to get back to tofu & beans & greens, so I worked with those a bit to make some fun stuffed peppers!

I started with an onion. Sauteed it. Added an extremely hot pepper, seeded. I added a cup of cubed zucchini since I don't eat sugar, and hence can't eat zucchini bread. When all is soft, I added tons of kale, cut very small. When it looked like that was cooking good, I added some spinach to the mix. For taste, I added some balsamic vinegar.

While all of that was cooking, I make simple quinoa, a grain with protein.

I combined my mixture to the quinoa. I added beans and a package tofu.

I put some peppers, already soft from boiling a bit, to a square, glass pan. I stuffed them with the mixture.

Craig and I ate the mixture that didn't fit into the peppers for dinner. I will cook the peppers in the oven at 350 for an hour for dinner tomorrow. Voila! 2 meals.

Sometimes I make quinoa stuffed peppers by adding a portion of tofu, a can of beans, and 1 cup of salsa. That is a shortcut. You can put spaghetti sauce on top to bake as well. We love quinoa stuffed peppers! Play with the recipes!

so delicious egg dish!

Start by putting cubed old bread in the bottom of a basic size cake pan.

In Olive Oil, saute onions, hot peppers with no seeds, and garlic, 1-2 cloves. Spread this mix over the bread.

Strain a small jar of artichoke hearts & spread them over the bread & mix.

Sprinkle parm cheese, about 2 tbs. over mixture.

Put 4 Morningstar sausage patties crumbled over the mixture.

Mix 3 egg whites & 3 eggs & 1/2 c. skim milk together and pour over everything.

Top with a huge handful of raw spinach.

Cover with aluminum foil. Bake in 350 oven for an hour, tightly covered.

Oh my gosh!!! So tasty!

Haven't had eggs in a year, but thought I'd add them in once in a while for fun & creativity.

Sunday Dinner

Today we will feast because we were all separated for the weekend, and we are coming together again. The boys will be super hungry. I will make chicken, potatoes, cucumber salad, and watermelon for dessert.

I marinated the chicken in Italian dressing and grilled it.

Potatoes: 4 large baking potatoes, unpeeled
4 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
***bake coated potatoes in baking dish for 30-6- minutes depending on the size.

Cucumber Salad. 2 cukes, 2 tomatoes, 1/4 of a large vidalia onion cut thin, 2 tbs Italian dressing, 1 tbs hot sauce, 1/2 cup vinegar, garlic salt, pepper. Soak them a while. Delicious! I could eat the whole bowl! I probably will since I'm the only one in the family that could pretty much drink vinegar! LOL

For fun I am making hot sauce infused baked onions to put on our chicken.