Veggie Smoothies

I figured that I should probably post our favorite meal, and perhaps the healthiest one. We have Smoothies every other night for the last couple weeks for dinner. They are so delicious they are two-straw worthy.


Here are the basic ingredients, give or take what we have on hand:
1 Cup water
1 scoop of frozen OJ concentrate (I always have one in the freezer as the designated smoothie OJ)
1 banana
2 carrots
2-4 Cups fresh spinach
A couple leaves of Kale
1 cup or so of frozen strawberries
1 cup or so of frozen pineapple

Those ingredients are staples in the smoothies around here. I also use raspberries, blueberries, plain yogurt, squash, watermelon, basically any fruit or veggie that I see while I'm making the smoothie. If it's too sour or bitter try adding a tablespoon of powdered sugar or honey, but only add it if you absolutely MUST. Try using pineapple to sweeten it first.

We always eat outside on smoothie night, such a treat. We love it out there.

The best thing about these smoothies: They are chuck full of goodness and my son thinks it's dessert. He drinks as much as I do! We love them and this lighter dinner has helped us shed a few extra pounds. They're good for breakfast too!

Wheat Tortillas

Alright, I haven't been posting all of my new experiments in the kitchen because we've been experiencing a lot of failure lately. :) Doesn't matter though, I'm still feeling pretty determined to eat healthy.


Here is a recipe that I tried yesterday that I was very pleased with because it is 1)CHEAP 2)WAYYYYY better for you than store bought 3) EASY. I made a few adjustments after reading the comments here is my version:

WHEAT TORTILLAS

1/2 Cup flour

4.5 Cups whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup olive oil

1.5 cups boiling water

1. Put flour, salt and oil into a mixer and mix until it's crumbly looking. I used the beaters for my Bosch.


2. Switch to a dough hook and add the boiling water. Mix until the dough is consistent and not sticking to the edge of the bowl (a couple minutes).



3. Make balls and put them on a cookie sheet. Next time I'll make them a little bigger. Rolling them out this size I got 18.

4. IMPORTANT: Cover them with a damp towel (I just wet paper towels) and let them sit for at least 1 hour and up to 8 hours. Next time I'm going to try freezing a couple at this stage and see if I can pull them out and make fresh tortillas. I'll let you know how that goes.

5. Roll out a ball as thin as you can get it. The thinner the better, to me and least. Fry them on medium high heat in a frying pan, don't use oil or butter. When you see the first bubble then flip it over and let it sit on the other side for 30 seconds. Then flip it back to the original side for another 30 seconds. I didn't really time it, but it goes by fast. While you're waiting for them to cook just roll out the next one. These are supposed to cook fast.

6. Stuff with ingredients. Last night we had brown rice, beans, corn, spinach, cilantro, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. I LOVE adding cilantro, it is SO good. This morning I made scrambled eggs with onions, tomatoes, Kale, spinach, and squash and we had breakfast burritos. Both meals were excellent and pretty healthy.

This was the first time I've ever attempted tortillas so I don't have much to compare them with. I do know that pretty much every tortilla is normally made with shortening which is the WORST form of hydrogenated oil you can get (you can tell because it's a solid at room temperature). Replacing that with olive oil makes these a MUCH healthier option. Plus, other recipes add a whole cup or more of the oil and this recipe only used half, and they tasted great!

Now I just need to figure out how to make them look prettier. :)

BBQ Pork Pitas

I'm really excited about this recipe. Not because it was the most amazing thing ever, but because it's new and something we haven't had before and I have lots of ideas to make it even better.

I made my own pitas and filled them with a BBQ pork and veggies mixture.

PITAS
Here is the link I followed the recipe almost exactly, except I accidentally added 1 tablespoon of oil and used honey instead of sugar. I'll let you follow the link if you want to make your own. I plan to experiment with the yeast and oven temperature until I get them to puff up just right. They tasted fantastic, they just didn't look like pitas. I'll do a full pita post when it's mastered.


FILLING-
I've been looking for a way to use pork from our Sunday Roasts that we have every other month or so. Since meats not super healthy I like to mix in lots of veggies. This is the perfect solution!

-Leftover Pork Roast, shredded
-1 onion
-1-2 green peppers
-1-2 zucchini
-1-2 squash
-Your favorite BBQ sauce (I found a hippie organic brand that doesn't have all the junk in it, of course it didn't taste quite as good, but that's okay, health is more important).

1. Chop all your veggies, shred your meat, and put it in a frying pan.
2. Dump in BBQ sauce until it's coated.
3. Fry until everything is warm and the veggies are at the consistency you like. We like a little crunch to ours and we fry them about 10 minutes.

4. Stuff a pita with it.

Any suggestions about what foods go good with the BBQ taste? I'm especially curious about what seasons would go well. I thought of cilantro while we were eating, but I wasn't sure. It's hard trying to figure out how to get a booming taste without adding lots of salt.

Of course, suggestions are always welcome!

Strawberry/Raspberry Fruit Leather

I am just going to say it now, this post has a very sad ending. Prepare yourselves.

Thanks to my Sis-in-law Sheena for this recipe and to the person she got the recipe from. Here is the link. I decided to add raspberries. :)

Strawberry/Raspberry Fruit Leather
3lbs Strawberries
12 oz Raspberries
2 cups of unsweetened applesauce
Juice of ½ lemon
1 Cup Sugar


1. Blend all the fruit together. I am LOVING my blender these days.

2. Add sugar and bring to a boil. Once it's boiling turn the heat down and let it simmer. Scoop off all the foam with a spoon. Let it simmer for 30-45 minutes or until it starts to thicken up like applesauce. Mine never really got that thick so I gave up and put it on the pan. :)

3. Pour on a pan lined with parchment paper. I used wax paper. It does not work well and I don't recommend it. I learned that there is a difference between the two today. Lucky me.

4. Bake at 170 for 8-10 hours. You're basically dehydrating it. I forgot about mine, went to bed and woke up at 2am and jumped out of bed because I realized that it was STILL in the oven!!!! I cooked mine for 13 hours. I also had the heat at 200 for the first 6 hours so it was even worse!!!!

Mine is ruined and all of it is in the trash. The wax paper won't really come off of the fruit leather (and it ruined my cookie sheet) and the fruit is crunchy and tart and overcooked. It took me about an hour to go back to sleep last night because I was SO upset about it. I just couldn't stop thinking about all of those BEAUTIFUL strawberries and raspberries and the last of Grandma Packer's applesauce and all the time and energy my poor oven went through. UGH! Just thinking about it is infuriating. I hate kitchen disasters.

One time I made a very beautiful, delicious, huge potato salad for a family reunion at Bear Lake. When we arrived I put it in the fridge in our condo to stay cool and then we left for a few hours to explore town. When we went back to the condo to get our food for the pot luck we couldn't find the salad. We talked to the manager and she had THROWN IT ALL AWAY thinking it belonged to the last people!!!! I reacted as any four-year-old would have and I started to cry, stomped out of the office, and sat in the car and ignored everyone for an hour. The salad had taken me ALL day to make and it was just really upsetting and I didn't care about being "good."

Usually I am a pretty even tempered, well behaved, mature adult. But there is something about tragedies in the kitchen that unleash the inner, more immature child in me. I just can't get over the wasted ingredients, RASPBERRIES for heaven's sake, and the TIME. It is just sickening.

Will I try these again? Perhaps. When the grief and pain wears off. :) Hopefully I can have a success soon to wear away the pain. But I think you should try them and give me some tips. Happy Cooking.

Granola Bars

I have been keeping out an eagle eye for good snack foods to send with my hubby to school or to take in my purse for my little guy. These seemed to be perfect. I completely stole this recipe and put it in a word document and I can't figure out which website it's from. SORRY!

Granola Bars:
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup raisins

3 T. oil (I used half Extra Virgin Olive Oil and half applesauce)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup natural smooth peanut butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 T water

1. Mix nuts, raisins, and oats in bowl.
2. Whisk other ingredients on the stove on low heat until the sugar dissolves. I know, it looks like a spatula in there...but you should really use a whisk.

3. Dump the wet stuff over the dry stuff and stir it up.

4. Press it down on a pan. I made a double batch. So if you're just making it regular I'd use a square pyrex dish. Make sure to line it with parchment paper.

5. Bake at 300 for 30 minutes or until it starts to brown around the edges. I cooked mine for 35 and they're not crunchy, more of a chewy texture.

6. Slice and dice em' and put in personal sized baggies for a quick snack.

Notes:

- This is basically a cookie, you saw how much sugar is in these babies. Maybe I'll cut it in half next time or use honey instead.

-Next time I will use all oil, I think that's a part of the reason that mine were so cookie-like.

-Next time I will add more oats/almonds/raisins to the mixture. They are a little too gooey. After eating them today I think that that is the problem. I will post again when I make them next and let you all know how that goes. :)

Our favorite food EVER=Peanut Butter

Today I spent ALL morning in the kitchen. It was the best. My little guy was super excited about helping me so we had a ton of fun together. Our first project was homemade peanut butter. Since this is a favorite of our family I knew it was important to make sure we were getting the natural stuff.

I talked to a lot of people about how to make it and looked online and everyone basically said that you just stick peanuts in a blender and add salt and sugar to taste. I had to add a little olive oil too because my blender wasn't strong enough.

Peanut Butter:
Roasted Peanuts
sugar
salt
extra virgin olive oil

1. Start with 1 C of peanuts and 1 T. of Oil. Blend until creamy (it's okay if its still grainy, just blend until it's looking like peanut butter.

2. Keep adding peanuts, 1/2 cup at a time and blend until it's all blended in and just keep adding. If your blender gets stuck and the peanuts are too thick you can always add a little bit of oil to help it out. My goal was to add the smallest amount of oil possible since peanuts already have a lot of oil and I'm trying to get a healthier alternative to Jiff.

3. Once you added all the peanuts you want (I used about 4 Cups) then turn the blender on and let it run for a few minutes so that you can get it nice and creamy. This is also a good time to add sugar and salt if you want it. I'm guessing that I added about 1.5 teaspoons of salt and 1-2 tablespoons of sugar. Just keep tasting it and see what you think it needs for YOU.

4. Pour in jars or Tupperware and store in the refrigerator.
We love it! Zac said that he prefers it to the store bought brands by a lot. YEAH! I love to hear that!
I was SHOCKED at how easy this was. It was cost effective too. It cost me less then four dollars to make two pints.

Raspberry Crepes

My focus has always been on providing a healthy dinner for the fam, everything else I just sort of let happen. Now I have a new determination to make breakfast for them too...who knows what's next...well probably lunch.

I've been on the hunt for yummy breakfast meals and I found a great recipe for crepes here:
Link

They aren't as quick as cereal, but they also don't have as much crap and sugar in them as cereal so it's a pretty good trade off. The batter is no big deal to make because you just throw everything in the blender, but it does take a while to cook them since it's a one at a time deal.

CREPES
1 cup freshly ground white wheat flour
1/4 C powdered sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs

1. Throw everything in the blender. Blend until smooth, it doesn't take more than 30 seconds.

2. Pour about a pancake size amount onto a small pan. Then swirl the pan around so that the batter spreads out to the edges. I didn't understand this instruction at first, but you actually have to pick the pan up and move it around so that the batter spreads and the crepe becomes super thin.
3. They cook best at a heat a little less then medium (3.5 on a scale of 1-10) but this means it takes longer. Flip it when it has turned light brown (I forgot to take a picture).

4. You can add a little butter to each side and refry each side if you want them a little crispier.

5. Put any fresh fruit inside and eat like a burrito. You can sprinkle with powdered sugar or cream if you want. We used raspberries today because they were on a great sale!

They looked and tasted awesome, I'll try to remember to take pictures of the finished product next time I make them. I love these because there's a higher fruit-to-crepe ratio than you get with pancakes or waffles. This is going to become a staple in our home!

Notes:

-I doubled the batch and it made 16 large crepes, it took quite a while to cook them all! About 2 minutes per side or more. Me and Mr. T just set up some legos in the kitchen and played while we waited - I set a timer so I wouldn't forget to flip them. :)

-I'm putting them in the freezer so that I can just pull out 4 or 5 for breakfast on mornings when I'm short on time. You can just refry them to defrost so they don't get mushy.