Tag Archives: vegetarian

Coconut Chocolate Graham Bars

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Coconut Chocolate Graham Bars

Coconut Chocolate Graham Bars

I’ve been doing a lot of do it yourself cooking projects lately. I’m compiling all of them into a book which I hope to release soon. I’m always astounded at the things we buy, which could easily be made at home, without the added sugars and preservatives, so writing this book is a product of that fascination. This particular recipe is a combination of several of my diy projects, which I’ll be sharing with you all soon. Until then, you can easily buy the ingredients and make these bars in less than 20 minutes.

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Ingredients:

1.5 cups of organic sweetened shredded coconut flakes

1.5 cups of condensed milk

1/4 cup of maple sugar or sweetener of your choice

3 cups of finely ground Graham crackers

1.5 sticks of butter melted

8 oz of semi-sweet dark chocolate chopped

Directions: Pre heat the oven to 375F.  Add graham crackers, melted butter and sugar to a bowl and mix until the mixture comes together. Line a 8 x 9 inch baking dish with parchment paper and pour the graham mixture out onto it. Press the mixture evenly into the pan and bake until brown about 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Once cooled pour the condensed milk evenly over the top of the graham cracker crust, then sprinkle the chocolate, and lastly top with the coconut. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until the coconut browns, remove let cool and enjoy! These are so delicious that they probably won’t last long. This recipe makes 12 bars.

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Parmesan Green beans

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Parmesan Green beans

Hello there my fellow foodies! I feel like I’ve been neglecting you guys and my blog. I’ve been so busy with work and raising my daughter that I have barely had enough time to post all the recipes I have in my cue! This last week in particular has been trying, and I didn’t get around to posting a second recipe, so I’ll try to post 3 this week to make it up to you.

My husband is a big fan of green beans, he would eat them every day of the week if I served them. This is a super quick and delicious way to serve green beans, and we all love green beans this way! Serve these with meatloaf and you have a winning dinner!

Ingredients
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese grated
1/4 cup of Percorino cheese grated
1lb of fresh organic green beans stems removed
Sea salt an black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Directions:
Pre-heat your oven to 400F. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Place the green beans in a single layer on the cookie sheet. Drizzle the green beans with olive oil, and season with sea salt and black pepper.
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Bake for 10 minutes or until green beans are fork tender, then remove from oven top with grated cheese and bake for 1-2 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven and enjoy!
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Share your favorite green bean recipe. I could use some new ways to enjoy green beans!

Smashed Potatoes

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Smashed Potaoes

Smashed Potaoes

I love potatoes! Love them!!! Any diet that excludes potatoes isn’t a diet I’d ever be on. When my friends even mention going on a low carb diet, I tell them “good luck with that, I’ll be over here with my potatoes and apples! Not going to happen for me, but I wish you the best of luck!” I subscribe to the eat a little of everything and nothing will become a problem diet. The only thing I restrict from my diet are processed foods. If it’s not a real, whole food, then I don’t eat it. This system has worked for me all of my life, so I think I will stick to it. With that said, I love this particular recipe for potatoes, they’re the perfect combination of a fried potato and a baked potato, just delish! I used an Italian dried spice blend, but you can use any spices that you like. I also used multi-color potatoes. Purple, blue and red potatoes are great for you, they have more antioxidants than white potatoes!

Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
15-20 small organic fingerling potatoes or small Yukon gold potatoes
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of Sea salt and more to taste
1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning

Directions:
Pre heat your oven to 425F. Line a cookie sheet with foil and set aside. To a medium pot add potatoes, sea salt and enough water to cover the potatoes, bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender about 10 minutes. Drain the water from the potatoes then place them on the foil lined cookie sheet. Smash each potato with the back of a spoon, you want to expose the flesh. Season each potato with sea salt, and Italian seasoning, then drizzle olive oil over each potato.

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Place the cookie sheet in the oven, and cook until the potatoes take on a golden brown color, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately!

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Ranch Potatoes

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Ranch Potatoes

Ranch Potatoes

If you’re still on the fence about whether or not to make my Ranch seasoning, this recipe, and the one I plan to post later this week, should get you right off of that fence. There really are so many ways that you can use my ranch seasoning, and every one of them will be delicious!

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Prep time:5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
2.5 cups of Yukon gold potatoes cubed
1.5 teaspoons of my Ranch seasoning add more if you’re so inclined
5 tablespoons of olive oil
Sea salt to taste

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet, add in the potatoes and cook until all sides are brown and potatoes are Cooked through. Transfer the potatoes from the skillet to a bowl and toss with ranch seasoning and sea salt. Enjoy like this or dipped in my Ranch dip, either way, you cannot go wrong!

Homemade Ranch Yogurt dip and salad dressing

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Ranch yogurt dressing/dip

Ranch yogurt dressing/dip

So now that you’ve made my Dry Ranch Seasoning mix, it’s time to have some fun with ways to use it. The uses for my ranch seasoning are nearly endless, but this yogurt dip/salad dressing is a really easy way. This single dip is responsible for my daughters newfound love of carrots! She loves dipping carrots in this. Frankly she likes the ranch dip more than the carrots, but as a mom you pick your battles. Luckily this is a win-win for both of us, since this dip has no added oil and is made from yogurt and herbs, there really isn’t any thing wrong with her love for it. Most ranch dressings contain mayonnaise as a base. Organic Greek yogurt is great for this if your main use for it is as a dip for veggies and chicken wings. I prefer Bulgarian yogurt, it’s more tart than Greek and not as thick, it’s the perfect texture for both a salad dressing and a dip, but go with a yogurt that you love. It’s important to pick one that you love, because this is the base of your salad dressing or dip and you want the base to taste good.

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Ingredients:
1/2 cups of Organic Greek or Bulgarian yogurt
3 tablespoons of butter milk (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of my Dry Ranch Seasoning, or the fresh ingredients below:

If you have fresh herbs you can skip my ranch seasoning and use the below:
1 tablespoons organic parsley chopped finely
1/2 teaspoons of organic dill weed chopped finely
1 clove garlic grated
1.5 teaspoons of onion powder
sea salt to taste
pink peppercorns ground ( you can sub black pepper) to taste

Add the ingredients to a mason jar or glass bowl and mix well.
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Cover the bowl and refrigerate to allow the flavors to meld for at least 30 minutes. Serve with veggie sticks, over salad, or with my recipe of Lime and red pepper flake wings. You really can’t go wrong! I have a few upcoming recipes that I’ve made using the dry ranch mix, stay tuned!

Sautéed Kale with Mushrooms

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Sautéed Kale with Mushrooms

 

One of the great things about Kale is that it’s so versatile! You can dress kale up with almost any flavor and still end up with a soul satisfying side dish. I love pairing greens of any kind with mushrooms! Mushrooms give the greens a great counter texture, and let’s face it, mushrooms make everything fantastic!

 

Ingredients

3 cups of Lancinto kale chopped finely

2 cloves of garlic

2 cups of sliced mushrooms

1 Tablespoon of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon of butter

Sea salt to taste

 

Heat olive oil and butter in a skillet. Add garlic and mushrooms and sauté until mushrooms take on some color(10 minutes) add in kale and sauté until greens wilt, add in soy sauce and cook for another 5-7 minutes or until greens are tender. Season with sea salt if necessary, serve and enjoy!

 

 

Wine Braised Kale

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Wine Braised Kale

Braised Kale

Thank goodness that the Holidays are over. I feel like I’ve been on a fast moving train for the last 2 months! I don’t know about you, but I love being home and settled into my routine. The Holidays always take me out of routine.  It’s nice to get out of routine, but it’s heaven to get back into routine also. While I’ve been away from you, I’ve been indulging in comfort foods, like stews in wine sauces! I love adding wine to sauces and stews. A wine sauce always makes me want to lick the plate clean! This recipe for Kale is so extremely yummy that if you’re not a Kale lover, you may just become a kale lover overnight! Kale gets a bad rap, I think it’s because most people don’t know how to cook it. People always pull me aside in the grocery store and ask me how I cook it. They whisper the question as if my responding answer will contain the secrets of the earth! Maybe for them it does. If you are not eating kale because you haven’t a clue how to make it, I hope that this recipe changes that!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10-12 minutes

Ingredients:

1 bunch of Lancinto Kale washed and chopped finely

1/4 cup of shallots or brown onion finely chopped

1/4 cup or more of a good white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)

1 large clove of garlic sliced thinly

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil

Directions:

Heat olive oil add garlic and shallots and  cook until you can smell the garlic, (20 seconds), add in kale, and sauté until wilted. Add in white wine, sea salt, and pepper, bring to a simmer and lower the heat. Cook covered for 5-7 minutes. It’s done when Kale is tender.

Homemade Granola Bars with Cranberries & Walnuts

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Homemade Granola Fruit and Nut Bars

I don’t know about you, but around this time of the year, I start to scale back on my weekday cooking in order to prepare my refrigerator for all of the things I am making for Thanksgiving. This year my self imposed scale back has nothing to do with needing room for my thanksgiving dishes, instead I’m scaling back in preparation for not being home. We are joining millions of travelers this year, we are going to visit my in-laws in Nevada for Thanksgiving. Since we’ll be in the car for more than 3 hours, I decided to prepare some healthy snacks for us to munch on during the drive. This granola bar fits the bill perfectly. It has nuts, 3 kinds of fruit, and no refined sugar!

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
3/4 cup of maple syrup
2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter plus more for oiling the baking dish
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/3 cups chopped nuts I used walnuts
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup of dried fruit, I used a mixture of sour cherries, cranberries, and raisins
1/3 cup creamy almond or peanut butter
1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup of Coconut flakes unsweetened  for topping (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small saucepan, heat 1/4 cup of the maple syrup and the 2 tablespoons of coconut oil over low. Cook, stirring, until the oil melts. In a large bowl, combine oats, nuts, and pinch of salt. Drizzle maple mixture over oat mixture and stir to combine. Spread mixture evenly on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Place the oats in large bowl, add dried fruit and mix well. 

Lightly butter an 8-inch square baking dish. 

In saucepan, combine remaining 1/2 cup of maple syrup, almond butter, and honey over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a boil. Drizzle over oat mixture and stir until combined; transfer  mixture to buttered baking dish. With a spatula, firmly press granola into dish. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour, then cut into bars or squares.





What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

Since I’ll be visiting family next week, I am not sure I will have time to post. My daughter is turning 2 on Thanksgiving day, so when we return I’ll be focused on celebrating this major milestone with her. Happy cooking, and a very Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Corn Griddle Cakes with Turkey Sausage

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Corn Griddle Cakes with Turkey Sausage

Do you ever have breakfast for dinner? I don’t mean a bowl of cereal, I mean one of those Sunday morning, bacon, and eggs, with a side of cinnamon french toast kind of breakfast dinners! Aren’t those the best? There is just something about eating breakfast foods at night that makes them all the more tasty! Cue these corn cakes! They have everything your love about breakfast mixed up in one fluffy delicious cake! Top them with warm maple syrup, and you get the picture!

Ingredients:
7 ounces of breakfast sausage, I used turkey sausage, casings removed
1.5 cups of fresh or frozen, thawed, corn kernels
1 cup of yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon of maple syrup, or sweetener of your choice
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1 1/4 cup of butter milk, (can substitute plain yogurt, or add 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to 1 1/4 cup of milk and let sit at least 10 minutes before adding it to the recipe)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup of green onions, can use brown onion as substitute.
Butter or ghee for cooking cakes.

Directions:

  • Cook sausage in a skillet over medium heat, breaking up into small pieces, until browned and cooked through, about 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer sausage to a small bowl. Add corn to same skillet and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until browned, 5–6 minutes. Transfer corn to bowl with sausage and let cool. Wipe skillet clean and reserve.
  • Whisk cornmeal and the rest of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Whisk buttermilk, maple syrup and eggs together, and add to the dry ingredients, whisk until just combined. Fold in sausage, corn, and scallions.

     

  • Heat 1 Tbsp.  butter in a skillet; working in batches and adding butter as needed between batches, add batter to pan by tablespoonfuls. Cook until cakes are crisp and golden brown, 2–3 minutes. Turn cakes over and cook until browned, 1–2 minutes longer. Transfer cakes to paper towels to drain. Serve warm drizzled maple syrup yum!!!!

    What’s your favorite breakfast for dinner meal?

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Indian Spiced Cabbage

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Indian Spiced Cabbage
 

I love cabbage! I wish more people shared my love for it. I say that because, it’s rarely on menu at restaurant’s, and when I go to a friends house for dinner, it’s rarely served. I don’t quite understand that, because it’s one of the most soul fulfilling veggies I know, in the same league as collard greens, and kale. I would happily eat it any day of the week! This is one of my favorite ways to prepare and eat cabbage! If you’ve ever been to an Indian restaurant then you’ve probably had this. It’s so quick to make at home that it’s almost an afterthought!

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
1 small head do cabbage, chopped finely
1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon of ground turmeric
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Sea salt to taste

Directions:
In a cast iron skillet heat the oil along with the mustard seeds and turmeric, when the seeds begin to pop add in the the cabbage, cook for 10 minutes, allowing the cabbage to breakdown a bit. Add salt, toss, turn off fire, cover for 5 minutes, serve and enjoy!

What is your favorite cabbage recipe?
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