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!