Cucumber Basil Smoothie

Blender Magic.

2 handfuls of Basil leaves
1/2 large cucumber or 1 whole smallish cucumber
1 mango
1 cup green grapes
1/2 cup orange juice
Ice

Blend until smooth and add enough ice to make it the desired consistency and temperature.

Spicy Beef Pineapple Curry

I started out making Melanie's Coconut Pineapple Chicken Curry. It is delicious and I've eaten it made by Melanie herself. However, I decided to tweak a few things to fit our family's tastes and to match what I had on hand. Turns out that I changed enough of the recipe around it became something different, warranting its own recipe.

1 lb stew beef pieces
salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons curry powder
One batch of almond milk leftover puree* or 1/4 cup of nut flour
1/2 cup of flour (I used sorghum flour)
1 Tablespoon Turmeric
cayenne to taste
Coconut oil for pan frying

1 onion chopped (chop small if you have children who aren't fans)
1 green pepper chopped (same as above applies)
4-7 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon minced ginger

1 can of coconut milk
1 small package of frozen corn (optional, add whichever vegetables sound good to you)
1 small package of frozen peas (optional)
1/2 fresh pineapple, chopped (save the rest in the freezer for smoothies.)
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
2 Tblsp corn starch


Mix spices and flours in a large container. Add meat and shake to coat the pieces evenly. Brown the coated meat in coconut oil on medium high. Remove from pan. Cook onion, pepper, garlic and ginger until browned. Return meat to pan. Add remaining ingredients except cornstarch. Allow to simmer for about 20 minutes. Add some water to cornstarch and add to mixture to thicken.

Serve with brown rice.


*I make almond milk with my Vitamix. I use one cup of almonds and 4 cups of water. After it's blended, I strain the solids out to leave the milk. I then dehydrate the solids and granulate to use as a breading.

Tangy Mushrooms

1 container of fresh mushrooms, cleaned and left whole
2 cups beef or chicken stock
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 cup orange juice



Put clean mushrooms in a saucepan, add other ingredients and bring to a boil. Continue to simmer with the lid off until liquid has reduced, thickened slightly and has become tangy and slightly sweet. Fifteen to twenty minutes?

Fruit Juice Jell.o

Made this with the kids today. Delicious! I wasn't expecting it to be so good! I only had a couple small bites, since I'm off sugar right now, even natural sugar like honey.

Creole with Chicken, Sausage or Shrimp

It's "Fat Tuesday" and to celebrate, we're having Creole. I lived in Louisiana for a few years as a kid and have returned several times for vacation and Gregg and I even went to New Orleans for our honeymoon. I really love the culture there. The music, the food, the people, the architecture, the food. My favorite Creole and Cajun foods are the spicy dishes. Gregg prefers the sweet though a nice pot of red beans and rice would satisfy him BEFORE the double serving of bread pudding. (He'll skip the crawfish every time though.)

Creole is a favorite spicy dish of mine. It can be made with chicken or shrimp as well. Tonight I was just really in the mood for some andouille. Now if I could only figure out how to make bread pudding with no gluten and no sugar. Shouldn't be TOO difficult, right?



Chicken/Shrimp/Sausage Creole

1 medium onion, chopped
1 chopped green bell pepper
2 ribs of celery, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes (I used Muir Glen organic fire roasted tomatoes)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tsp thyme
Cayenne pepper to taste (I like mine spicy!)
Sea salt
Plenty of fresh ground red pepper
2 bay leaves
1 pound of boned and skinned chicken breast, cooked and chopped OR one pound of cooked shrimp, OR one pound of andouille sausage. (I like Sausage by Amy brand andouille. Just enough spice without all the nitrates.)

Sauté first 4 ingredients in hot oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Stir in tomatoes and the next 6 ingredients. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes. Remove half of the tomato mixture from the pan and process it in the blender until smooth. Add it back to pan and stir in chicken, sausage or shrimp and cook for 5-10 more minutes on medium heat. Remove and discard bay leaves. Serve over hot cooked brown rice.

Spicy Strawberry Mango Syrup

My daughter wanted crepes this morning. I decided I wanted something a little sweet to go in them. So I got creative.

Ingredients:

1 lb of strawberries, diced (minus what your four-year-old steals while you cut them)

1 mango, peeled and diced

Juice of one orange

3 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp black pepper

dash of sea salt

2 Tblsp corn starch (or other thickener)

Put strawberries and mango in a saucepan with just enough water to come to the same level. Bring to a boil. Add vinegar and orange juice, pepper and salt and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get too dry and stick to the pan. Stir frequently.

Continue to boil until it is reduced by about half. Combine corn starch with about a 1/2 cup of water. Stir to create a slurry and add to the pan. Stir and bring back to a boil for just a minute, until thick. Remove from heat and let cool.

It's just a little spicy on its own. You could add more or less pepper as you see fit. I also think a little bit more tanginess would be nice. I might try to add some orange zest and a little more balsamic vinegar next time.

We ate ours with some gluten-free dairy free crepes topped with coconut cream that my friend Mary introduced me to. She got the recipe from this blog.

Hannah said, "Mom, I can't lie. I'm a happy girl!"

Key Lime Smoothie

We just got a Vitamix and I've been on a blending spree ever since. We generally have a smoothie a day around here so that's nothing new but I'm much more creative with what I've been blending since this baby can handle so much more than any of our other dearly departed blenders could. We have a lot of our fruit and some of our veggies pre-washed, cut into large chunks and frozen so they're easily accessed and prepped for smoothies.

Yesterday I was brainstorming about a smoothie combo and it hit me. I love limes. I love coconut. LIGHT BULB!! The Key Lime smoothie was born.

This has a sweet taste off the bat and a slightly tart after taste which is perfect. The more fruit you have frozen before hand, the thicker and colder this will be.



1 small lime, peeled
1 whole ripe kiwi, wash well and cut off ends
1 slice of fresh pineapple (about 1 1/2 inches thick) peeled but NOT cored
1 cup of sweet green grapes
1 handful of fresh, washed spinach
2 tsp Dolomite (not necessary but adds calcium and dials down the tartness a tad)
1 can of quality coconut milk (I use organic 365/Whole Foods)
Ice

I make smoothies to taste. Add some ice and blend then taste it. Too sweet? Add more ice. Don't like the consistency? Add more ice or blend longer. Too tart? More grapes, pineapple or a piece of ripe pear will sweeten it up nicely.

Next time I promise to spice up my pictures with a little garnish. I was just overly anxious to drink this one. ENJOY!!

Refried Beans with Coconut Oil

Here is what I just did for refried beans :)

Taco Soup

olive oil or coconut oil

1/2 onion diced

4 cloves garlic,pressed

1 can fire roasted tomatoes

2 cups cooked black beans

1/2 lb browned grass-fed ground beef

2 Tblsp Frontier Mexican seasonings (or however you like to season your tacos)

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

For garnish:

shredded cheese

tortilla chips

sour cream

avocado

lime juice

cilantro

Soften onion and garlic in a skillet with some coconut or olive oil. Add this mixture,tomatoes and beans to a blender. Blend until smooth. Pour back into skillet. Add ground beef and remaining soup ingredients. Heat thoroughly.

Crush a handful of chips into a bowl and then add soup. Top with your desired garnishes. The picture show avocado, cilantro and little lime juice.

Sneaky Tomato, Chicken Broth and Lentil Soup

This is sneaky because my kids won't eat chicken broth, so I hide it. They also won't eat lentils, so I hide them as well :)

Ingredients

2 pints chicken stock / broth.

1 large jar of passata (sieved tomato, you could just use tinned tomato if you don't have passata, 2 tins would do).

2 handfulls of red lentils

Salt, Pepper, sugar and bay leaf to season.

Chuck it all in a pan and boil it up until the lentils are soft and blend it or push it through a fine sieve to hide the lentils (or don't if your kids are not fussy little swines).

That's it, possibly the easiest tomato soup ever, of course you can jazz it up a little adding cream or whatever to make it extra yummy. It's nice just plain though and the best part is that it gets my children eating broth...mwahahahaha!

Cocktail Sauce

One cup chili sauce or ketchup (or if you have a DH who is so inclined, a cup of homemade ketchup)

1/2 cup horseradish (grind your own in the food processor and keep it in the fridge with a little white vinegar--enough to make a paste, and don't worry, it will discolor a bit)

2 T lemon juice

2 T worchestershire sauce

S&P, and tobacso to taste

Voila!

That easy. So much better than anything you can buy in the store!

It's better if you let it sit for an hour or two.

Homemade Ketchup

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  The Best Ketchup ever...of course doesn't have a "real" recipe.

  From Adam Nafziger:

  28 lbs of tomatoes, halved or quartered (I used roma and cut off the top stem)

  2 small onions, chopped

  1 red bell pepper, chopped

  4 cloves garlic, chopped

  A little water to coat the bottom of the kettle and make you feel good

  Cook the above until all the veggies are completely soft and mushy, about an hour or so.

  Run the mixture through a sieve to removed stems, seeds and skin.

  Put the veggie mixture back in a largish kettle and add:

  1/4 - 1/3 cup pickling spices, tied up in a cheesecloth bag

  1 generous cup of sugar (depends on how sweet and ripe your tomatoes were ... super fresh ripe ones won't need as much, any sweetener of choice would do the job. If you use apple juice or something similar, it will take longer to cook down, but will work just fine)

  3 cups cider vinegar

  1 or 2 palmfuls of salt

  Bring to a boil and cook. And cook. And cook. It may take 12 hours or more. This summer the cooking on mine went for two days, but not continuously; I stopped overnight. So, cook it down until it looks like ketchup. (One website says you can do this in a crockpot ... I'm skeptical).

  When ketchup has reached desired consistency, remove spice bag, adjust seasonings (some people add cayenne or white pepper or even mustard, apparently) and can it hot.

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Creamy Celery Chicken

1/2 meat from a boiled chicken, cut into bite sized pieces

1 cup dry brown rice, prepared as the Fluffiest Brown Rice Ever

1 can of Coconut Milk

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 to 1 Tblsp celery salt

sea salt to taste

3-4 stalks of celery, finely chopped

coconut oil for saute

Saute celery in coconut oil, until soft. Add remaining ingredients. Heat thoroughly. I didn't have any celery when I made this but I think celery and mushrooms would be great additions. It was an excellent taste without the celery so if you aren't a fan of the texture, feel free to leave it out.

I served this with Apple Raisin Carrots

Faux Frosty (No Sugar Chocolate Shake)

It's been years since the kids or I have had a Wendy's Frosty but I will say, these are NOT what I remember them tasting like. They were definitely much sweeter. The kids, however, SWEAR they taste just like a Frosty and I'm not about to burst their little bubbles. They are a decent substitute though. I have no desire to ever taste the corn syrup laden shake again. (Milk, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Cream, Whey, Nonfat Dry Milk, Cocoa (processed with alkali), Guar Gum, Mono and Diglycerides, Cellulose Gum, Carrageenan, Calcium Sulfate, Disodium Phosphate, Artificial and Natural Flavoring, and Vitamin A Palmitate to be exact.) It's much more fun when the kids and I come up with concoctions like this at home and with healthier ingredients.



3 ripe bananas (not overly ripe)
1 can of quality coconut milk (I use organic 365/Whole Foods brand)
2 tsp Dolomite (adds calcium but not necessary for the taste)
3-4 heaping Tbsp of cocoa powder (or more to taste)
Ice

Add all of the ingredients to the blender and fill to the top with ice. Blend until smooth and fill up with ice again and another time if necessary until the blender is nearly full of blended smoothie upon finishing.

You can use a milk/cream combination instead of coconut milk if desired. We just prefer coconut milk so that our dairy allergic family members can share, plus it's a much healthier fat and tastes awesome! (Though not coconutty at ALL for those wondering.)

The perfect treat for the upcoming warm seasons! We're ready when you are, mother nature!