Cauliflower Smoothie & Pops

 



 

 

Another home run!  I have mentioned before how my son will not eat most vegetables.  Thank goodness for our Blendtec and smoothies.

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 head of cauliflower

1/2 tbs of chamomile flowers - immune boosting properties

1/2 cup water

2 red gala apples (do not peel)

1 cup vanilla yogurt

2 cinnamon sticks

2 frozen bananas

 

 

Directions: 

1. Blanch cauliflower and quickly add to cold ice water.  I read somewhere that this helps get any bugs out that might be hiding within the cauliflower.  I then juice the cauliflower in the juicer.
2. In a saucepan boil 1/2 cup water.  Once it begins to boil turn off the heat and add 1/2 tbs chamomile flowers and 2 cinnamon sticks and let steep for 4 minutes then strain.
3. Once it has cooled add this to your blender.
4. Core your apple; I keep the peel on because a majority of the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients reside in the peel.  (livestrong.com) Throw that into your blender.
5. Add remaining ingredients and choose the smoothie button.
6. I give a glass to my kids and pour the remaining amount into 6 rocket molds and place in the freezer.

YUM!  That is it.  Hope your kids enjoy!

 

 

NUTRITIONAL FACTS

 

This stark white vegetable provides allicin, an important compound that actually reduces the risk of stroke and heart disease while detoxifying the blood and liver. 

 

Cauliflower also provides potassium.  Potassium an essential mineral for maintaining normal blood pressure, heart function, and good nerve and muscle function.

 

Usually when someone mentions vitamin C you think of an orange, but did you know cauliflower is packed with it too.  Vitamin C is an antioxidant that promotes skin and brain health.





Homemade Granola

The house always smells delightful and yummy when this is cooking in the oven!  You will not be disappointed when you take a bite.

Recipe:
6 cups oats
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup butter
1-1/4 cup honey
cinnamon to your liking
I add some homemade vanilla - hmmm
3/4 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup pecan pieces (Pecans are falling everywhere in the yard.  Gotta love free!  When we don't have pecans falling in the yard I use almonds since they are less expensive.)

Directions: Combine all ingredient in a bowl and spread onto your cookie sheet.  Bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.  Half way through the time mix up the granola.  Let it cool.

Yummiest Corn Muffin Recipe

 
We had dinner at my friends house last week and she made the yummiest corn muffins I have ever eaten.  She was kind enough to share her recipe:

Sweet Corn muffins


1 c. cornmeal                               1/8 c. honey
1 c. flour                                      1 c. milk
1/4 c. sucanat                              1/4 butter or coconut oil, melted
1 Tbs. baking powder                  2 eggs                                         1/2 tsp. salt


Heat oven to 350* and prepare a 12 c. muffin pan (grease or use liners).
Combine all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together wet ingredients and then add to dry, stirring just until moistened (batter will be lumpy). Pour into muffin pan and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. ENJOY!

Butternut Squash Soup with Cinnamon

This is a wonderful soup for the cooler weather.  It has a bit of sweetness to it and the rice helps it to be quite filling. Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 1 medium to large size butternut squash
• 1-1/2 cups of vegetable broth
• 1-1/2 cups rice milk (closer to 1 if you like your soup a little thicker or you could possibly add 1/2 milk, 1/2 cream)
• 2 tbsp raw agave nectar
• 1 cup rice
• cinnamon
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Slice your squash lengthwise in half.  Put it in a pan with skin side up and add a little water to cover bottom of pan.  Place in oven at 350 for about 20 minutes or until tender. 
2. While the squash is in the oven begin your rice and cook per instructions on bag. 
3. Remove squash from oven once tender and immediately peel off skin.  Put the squash into food processor and pulse for about 30 seconds. 
4. Now put the squash into a large pot and add your milk, vegetable broth, agave, salt and pepper.  Simmer until warm. 
5. Fill your bowl with soup and add a spoonful of rice and sprinkle with cinnamon.  Yummy!

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

These muffins are so MOIST and DELICIOUS!  They are quickly devoured in my house.  You can make these in large batches and freeze some for future snacks or to go with your breakfast. 
Original recipe from http://www.justeatfood.com/

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cup water
• 1-1/2 cup old fashioned oats (not quick oats)
• 1 stick butter (not margarine)
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1/2 cup honey (I substituted with Raw Agave Nectar-lower GI)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1-1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1-1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup raisins
• Optional: Sprinkle coconut on top (Not in original recipe, but we thought it would by yummy)

Directions: Preheat oven to 325.  Boil water.  Turn off heat and add oats.  Stir in butter and let cool.  Add remaining ingredients.  Mix well.  Bake in greased or lined muffin tin for 20 minutes.

Homemade Wheat Bread

The original recipe is from King Arthur's Website.

Add to your bread machine pan:

1/4 cup oil (I use coconut)

just under 2/3 cup warm milk

 1/2 cup warm water

2 cups whole wheat flour

 1 cup all purpose flour

2 Tbs. sugar

1-1/4 Tsp. salt

1 Tbs. Wheat Gluten

2 Tsp. of instant yeast

Put your bread machine on the dough cycle.  Mine takes 1 hr 40 mins.  Once done take the dough out and form into a log shape and insert into a buttered or oiled bread pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise.  While oven is preheating I put my bread pan on the back burner to give some warmth and it usually only takes my bread about 45 - 60 minutes to rise as you see in the picture.  I cook my bread for 35 minutes on 350. 

Hope you enjoy!

No Dairy Chocolate Pudding

I know my presentation doesn't look good, but this pudding is delicious. The recipe is from

Nutrition 101: Choose Life

Avocados are what give this pudding the creamy texture in place of mucus forming cream and milk found in traditional puddings.  Plus, it has a healthy brain power fat.

Ingredients:

2 small ripe avocados

1/2 to 3/4 cup Agave Nectar, raw honey or Grade B maple syrup (I have used honey and Agave and both were good)

1/4 cup carob powder (I have only used Hershey's Cocoa)

2 Tbs. coconut milk or rice milk (I have used with both)

1 Tbs. 100% pure vanilla extract

pinch of sea salt

pinch of cinnamon

Place all ingredients in blender or food processor and blend until smooth.  It says to chill, but my kids usually want to eat right away. 

Enjoy, we do!

Pumpkins

Some pumpkins from our garden.  We are going to roast the seeds for granola bars and roast the pumpkins, puree them to bake pumpkin bread.

First step, scrub the outside of the pumpkins.

Next, cut the pumpkin in half and use a spoon to scrape out the fibers and seeds.

\Wash the seeds and set aside. 

Then take the pumpkin halves and cut them into smaller pieces. Fill a pan with water just to cover the bottom of the pan then lay your pieces in skin up.   Cover your pan with foil and roast in the oven at 325 degrees until tender. Mine took about 45 minutes.

Once tender take them out and remove the skin (best to do this while they are still hot).

I then put ours in a food processor, but you could do this step in a blender, and puree until smooth

.

For the pumpkin seeds, preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a pan, add the seeds to the water, about 4 cups of water to every cup of seeds.  You could add salt to yours I chose not to since these will be added to my granola bars recipe found at  http://theischysfishys.blogspot.com/2011/07/few-favorite-finds.html .  Bring to a boil then let simmer for about 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and drain.  Spread some olive oil on your cookie sheet and spread your seeds onto the pan.  When browned to your liking remove from oven and enjoy.

Our two pumpkins made 9 cups of puree and two cups of seeds.

For pumpkin bread I use a recipe from Allrecipes.com submitted by Cheryl Riccioli.  It makes three loaves.

Ingredients:

3 cups canned pumpkin puree

1-1/2 cup vegetable oil or coconut oil

4 cups white sugar

6 eggs

4-3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

1-1/2 tsp salt

1-1/2 tsp cinnamon

1-1/2 tsp nutmeg

1-1/2 tsp ground cloves (I leave this out)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease pans.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, sugar, and eggs.  Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; stir the pumpkin mixture until well blended.  Divide that battter evenly between the prepared pans.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed.

I like to spread cream cheese on top. Yum!  But you might want to try peanut butter on it too.

Chicken Parmesan

Wish I would of taken a picture of dinner tonight.  It was so yummy, thanks to www.goodcheapeats.com for a great recipe.  I tweaked it some to what we had on hand and it turned out great.  The kids were saying, "I could eat all the chicken, you can make this every night."

Original recipe

1 cup buttermilk (I substituted with Dannon All Natural Plain Yogurt)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used three and split them in half.  They just come so huge.)
1-1/2 cups whole wheat bread crumbs (I used the heels of our homemade white bread from http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-sandwich-bread-recipe
I substituted 1 cup All Purpose Flour and 2 cups Bread Flour for 3 cups of the King Arthur Flour.) 
1/2 tsp salt, oregano, basil (I used 1-1/2 tsp Italian seasoning)
Parmesan cheese (I used Sargento Mexican blend cheese)

Preheat oven to 375.  Line pan with parchment paper.  In shallow dish, combine yogurt and garlic powder, and black pepper.  Rinse chicken breasts and allow to marinade in yogurt mixture.  Meanwhile, combine bread crumbs and other seasoning.  Dip breasts in the bread mixture and lay in pan.  Bake 20-25 mins.  A few mins before sprinkle with cheese.

I served with mashed potatoes and broccoli.

A Few Favorite Finds

We have now been on the Feingold Diet for 2 weeks.  I wanted to share some of the homemade recipes that have been a hit in my home. 

Granola Bar Recipe
http://www.joyfulabode.com/2008/04/11/homemade-granola-bar-recipe-no-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-these-bars/

•2 cups oats
•3/4 cup wheat germ (I did coconut)
•3/4 cup sunflower seeds
•1 cup peanuts, crushed (I have tried with both peanuts and walnuts)
•2/3 cup brown sugar
•1/2 cup honey
•4 Tbsp butter
•2 tsp vanilla extract
•1/2 tsp Kosher salt
•approximately 8 oz. dried fruit (we can't have many dried fruits at this point so I added 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds)

White Sandwich Bread
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-sandwich-bread-recipe

I substituted 1 cup All Purpose Flour and 2 cups Bread Flour for 3 cups of the King Arthur Flour.

Homemade Flour Tortillas

With having to go all natural in our diet I needed to find a flour tortilla recipe that I could use butter instead of lard.

I found the following recipe online:

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
just under 1/2 cup warm water

Mix the salt and flour.  Melt butter in microwave and add to water.  Pour butter/water mixture into flour and stir. Once cool enough to touch knead for 10 minutes.  Cover and let rest 10 minutes.  Split dough in half then split those halves in half.  Make twelve balls and let rest another 10 minutes.  Roll out balls to make each tortilla then cook.  Recipe yields 12 tortillas.