Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts

1.16.2012

Clean Snacking: Roasted Red Pepper and Almond Dip

I love to snack. One of the most difficult things about eating healthily is finding something that will satisfy that after-school catharsis of an easy-to-reach for, satisfying snack. Unfortunately, normally some of my go-to snacks are chips and salsa or cheese dip, cheese quesadillas, tortillas with peanut butter (or all of the above). Fortunately, once you figure out some better stuff to put in your body, snacking can actually be a good thing as it keeps your metabolism going throughout the day.



Some easy and tasty snacks that are working for me are nuts, rice or nut crackers with almond butter, fruit smoothies, and veggies with hummus. I found a container of romain hearts this weekend, and I have really enjoyed making little lettuce boats with hummus and veggies to spice up the old hummus and veggies a bit.

This weekend I was called on to make a veggie tray for a baby shower and I made a huge batch of roasted red pepper  and almond dip so we could enjoy some ourselves at home too. This is one of my all-time favorite dips and it was a huge hit at the party. The first time I tasted it (thanks Steph) I couldn't believe it was made out of such simple, healthy ingredients. The sum of its parts so creamy and satisfying. I've been loving it this weekend on nut crackers, rice cakes, or veggies.



Roasted Red Pepper and Almond Dip
(Recipe from epicurious)

1/2 cup whole natural almonds (about 3 ounces), toasted (I chose skinless slivered almonds)

1 cup drained roasted red peppers from jar (or roast your own by broiling them in the oven until the skin is charred then removing the skin with clean towel.)
2 teaspoons red wine or sherry vinegar
1 large garlic clove, peeled (you could also roast the garlic if you don't prefer raw garlic)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil


Very finely chop almonds in processor. Add roasted peppers, vinegar, and garlic; process to coarse puree. With machine running, pour olive oil through feed tube and process until puree thickens slightly. Season dip to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to small bowl. (Dip can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before serving.)


1.12.2012

Greek Chicken, Spinach, and Quinoa Bake


When I said I would post about some recipes later this week, I hadn't planned on coming up with one on my own. Tonight, I planned on making this recipe and adding in some chicken and black beans. But on Friday night, before my sister left and before we started this, I made a dish inspired by a recipe that I literally snapped a picture of in a magazine from the rack in Publix (is that illegal?), and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. What I made was a variation on this recipe from Clean Eating Magazine for Spanakopita Casserole. If you're not restricting gluten or dairy, you should make it this week but add some shredded rotisserie chicken like I did. It was awesome.

So, a little cilantro-ed out, and still dreaming of the greek chickeny, spinachy goodness, I devised a plan. I took the basic flavor profile of the casserole, a little of this and that from the fridge, some techniques from another grain-based casserole, and voila! This comforting dish totally satisfied my craving!

Greek Chicken, Spinach, and Quinoa Bake


2 Tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup carrots, diced (I used a handful of baby carrots)
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 9 oz bag fresh spinach
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
1/2 cup feta*
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
1 tsp dried oregano
2 eggs
salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Get your quinoa going. If you have already cooked quinoa left over, use that. You could also use brown rice. Anyway, cook the quinoa according to package instructions with the mix of chicken stock and water and generous pinch of salt.

Meanwhile, sauté the onion and carrot with a pinch of salt until the vegetables are tender and translucent, adding the garlic about halfway through. Add the spinach a handful at a time so you can fit it all in the pan and cook until all the spinach is wilted. 

Transfer the vegetables to a bowl. Add the quinoa, chicken, mint, oregano, and a few cranks of black pepper to the bowl. *(If I wasn't avoiding dairy I would 100% add feta at this step.) Taste and add salt if needed. Mix in two eggs and transfer to a round or 9x9 inch baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes or until it is bubbly and beginning to brown on top. Let it cool and settle for 5-10 minutes. Serve. 



12.12.2011

Starting the Day Right

Hello Friends. If  you're not interested in reading about my breakfast habits, trust me, I understand, but you'll probably want to go ahead and move on to the next blog in your reader. However, I'd love to share with you two breakfast habits that have recently entered my routine and make me feel about a gazillion times healthier. So, if you're keen, keep reading.

Mean Green Smoothies


The first recipe hands down my favorite way to incorporate more dark leafy greens such as kale and spinach into my diet. It also helps me meet a goal of eating a vegetable with every meal and snack. Plus, they seriously taste GREAT. I recently made them for my 6th grade girls homeroom and 100% of them liked it. That is a SERIOUS endorsement.

1 banana
a cup or more of frozen fruit of your choice
juice of half a lemon
fill the rest of blender with torn kale (stems removed) or spinach
2 cups water (adjust to make it more or less thick.) (I add chia seeds to my water and let them soak for about 10 minutes before adding it to the smoothie)

Blend ingredients and enjoy!

Not Your Mama's Breakfast Cereal


This recipe is quickly giving my green smoothies a run for their money as my preferred breakfast, especially now that it is so cold! The base of this cereal is a chia seed pudding. If you haven't heard about these little miracle seeds, check them out! They have more omega-3 than salmon, more antioxidants than berries, and they are LOADED with soluble fiber (which is why they turn into a gel-like substance in liquid). The soluble fiber in them fills you up for a good long while and slows down insulin absorption. According to Aztec legend, Aztec men would carry chia seeds on long journeys and only needed a tablespoon to give them enough energy and sustenance for a whole day! Now if that's not a breakfast worthy food, I don't know what is! (You can find them at any natural foods store or in the bin section at whole foods. They are also available on amazon.com)

The night before you want to eat it, make the base:

2 tsp chia seeds
2 large spoon fulls each of: rolled oats, bran flakes, shredded coconut
1-2 cups vanilla almond or soy milk (I'm sure you could use regular milk too)

Mix the first 4 ingredients in a Tupperware or jar with a lid. Cover with at least a cup of milk. Refrigerate over night.

In the morning I like to add granola (My favorite is Nature's Path Hemp Plus) and about a 4th cup of chopped, raw walnuts. SO GOOD!



Let me know if you try either of these recipes!

8.24.2011

Homemade Peanut Butter


We go through a large container of Whole Foods freshly ground honey roasted peanutbutter a week. Seriously. When I'm craving something sweet, I grab a spoon and feel pretty good about the indulgence because I know that it's essentially the same as eating a handful of honey roasted peanuts.

I help cook with the kids at Nehemiah's Quest, the biweekly work day that Keith runs for the kids in Rosedale, and this week we decided to make homemade peanut butter for lunch. I was really surprised by how easy it was to make at home! I'm not sure how it works that there is no oil added to the Whole Foods version. We had to add a little peanut oil to get the consistency right, but other than that, I think this version tastes at least as good.


We used it to make peanut butter sandwiches with apple (we got local apples in our CSA today!) and honey. Personally I like to keep it simple and eat my peanut butter with a spoon.



HOMEMADE HONEY ROASTED PEANUT BUTTER

1 cup plain, roasted peanuts
1 cup honey roasted peanuts
1 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp peanut oil

Combine in a food processor, adding in the order listed until smooth. Adjust the amount of honey to your taste. You could also get crazy and add chocolate, try it with other nuts, etc.

Also, I need to let you know that the child pictured below is one of my favorite children on the face of this earth.


This out-of-focus picture taken by his sister really makes me happy. He LOVES Paul.

4.12.2011

A Lunch Breakthrough

I've gotten a few really great cookbooks lately. The most recent is one I pre-ordered months ago from my favorite food blogger, Heidi Swanson of 101cookbooks.com. If you don't read it, check it out, most of my all-time favorite recipes for healthy, vegetarian food come from this site. On Sunday I spent a few hours trying out some of the most intriguing recipes from Super Natural Everyday, and this one may have changed my life.

Here's the thing. Lunches are a challenge for me. I don't really like sandwiches, we don't often find ourselves with leftovers, and in order for something to make it into my bag before I rush out the door to work, it's gotta be easy. Far too often I find myself resorting to the school cafeteria out of convenience, and even if I do pack, so many things that qualify as easy don't also make the cheap and/or healthy category. Well, finally I've found something that has it all: super inexpensive, packed with protein and healthy goodness, easy, AND SO TASTY.

In the cookbook, they're called Chickpea Wraps, and I feel like you could call them Chickpea Salad Wraps, because the chickpea mixture really comes together similarly to a good chicken salad, and satisfies as similar taste. There are a lot of flavor profiles you could go with: curry, mustard, sweet--and I deviated a bit from Heidi's recipe by using cilantro in place of dill. The mix keeps, and actually gets better, for several days in the fridge. You could also experiment with wraps, pitas, and flat breads to fit your taste. I'm loving the red chili tortillas!

Here's my version:

Chickpea Salad Wraps

(for a big batch)
2 cans chickpeas rinsed and drained
1/2 red onion, roughly chopped
2/3 cup plain greek yogurt, thinned a bit with water
1 tsp cilantro/lime "pesto" (1 bunch cilantro, juice of 1 lime, 1 clove garlic, 1/2 cup olive oil, salt and red chili powder to taste blended in a food processor)
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Pulse all but 1/4 of the chickpeas and all the red onion in the food processor until roughly chopped and blended. Keep it chunky. In a bowl combine this mix with the remaining whole chickpeas. Set aside. Mix together the yogurt, cilantro "pesto", and mustard. Combine 2/3 of this yogurt mixture with the chickpeas and red onion and add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Keep the rest of the yogurt mixture as a spread for the wraps. Refrigerate until you're ready to use.

To assemble to wraps, spread the yogurt mixture on a tortilla, flat bread, or pita. Top with salad green and a generous scoop of the chickpea salad. Wrap, and you're ready to go!

Lunch will never be the same.

All the ingredients, so easy to assemble in the morning.

3.28.2010

Ensalada del Tigre .or. Clemson Coleslaw


Inspired by the delicious staple of Nicaraguan cuisine, simply called "ensalada" (which translates "salad"), I went on a search for the simple combo of cabbage, carrots, and white vinegar on my first grocery shopping trip since our return. I ended up choosing the purple head, because I have a sneaking suspicion that anything that purple must be packed with antioxidants, and well, it's pretty. When I came home and started blending, I noticed that the outcome bore a strikingly nostalgic color-combo harkening to my 4 and some years spent in the South Carolina Upstate.

This essentially non-mayo based slaw has quickly become a crunchy, tangy staple for the Davis household as well. Keith loves it, and I whipped up my second batch today. Pictured above with a veggie burger topped with buffalo mozzarella and pico de gallo, I ended up stuffing the slaw in the pita as well, and it was pretty special.

Clemson Coleslaw:
1 half head of purple cabbage, shredded
1 about 1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (I used a large handful of baby carrots and shredded them in the food processor)
1 TBSP finely chopped cilantro
1 tsp finely diced or graded jalapeño
squueze of honey
squeeze of lime juice
about 3/4 cup white vinegar
about 1/3 cup olive (or whatever you prefer) oil

Combine oil, vinegar, lime juice and honey. Toss with veggies, add a big pinch of salt and pepper to taste. It gets better (and purpler) the longer everyone has to hang out together in the fridge.