I absolutely *love* girl scout cookies but I’m sure if I read their ingredient list I would be less than impressed. So to avoid me needing to feel that disappointment I tried out Katie’s recipe for “Healthy” Samoas.
And they turned out amazing – you can make them as bars or in the traditional shape. I found the bars to be really easy to make and create reasonably sized cookies.
I’ve been reading an awesome book by Jo Robinson called Eating on the Wild Side that goes through a ton of vegetables and explains their history (most often how we have bred many of the nutrients out of our fresh foods). But it also covers how to prepare and store vegetables so they maintain the phytonutrients they do have.
I’ve heard a piece of advice once that said the way to enjoy something more is to just learn more about it. And that has been so true for me and cooking. I’ve always enjoyed making delicious and healthy meals for my little family but the more I read about vegetables and preparation the more fun it is to whip up interesting new dishes!
As a part of my knee rehab journey I’ve been going to physical therapy and doing Pilates at home, with the amazingly energetic Cassey Ho, and today I was actually able to run 2 miles today pain free! Yay! She has some great recipes on her site and one for pasta-less ravioli caught my eye the other day, here is my rendition of it.
This recipe is a mashup between Cassey Ho’s Squash Hashtags and this mushroom ravioli recipe
Ingredients:
Unfiltered extra virgin olive oil
2 yellow squash
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup of firm tofu, crumbled
1/2 cup diced mushrooms (I recommend shiitake)
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1/4 cup Kale
1/8 cup manchego cheese
1 cup of your favorite pasta sauce
Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Press your garlic (and let it sit after you press it for 10 minutes)
3. warm a sauté pan on the stove and add about 2 tbs of your olive oil
4. Add your Kale and let it cook for about 2 minutes
5. Add your onions, mushrooms, tofu, lemon juice & ginger and sauté until soft.
6. While that is softening use a mandoline to slice your squash into thin strips and lay them out like hashtags on a baking sheet. (You’ll have extra small pieces of squash that you can dice and save for another recipe)
7. Now add the garlic to your vegetables and mix well.
8. Place a tablespoon or so of the veggie mix onto each squash ‘hashtag’, then top that with a small sprinkling of your cheese and fold in the sides and flip over so it stays together.
9. Slide the pan into your oven and bake for 20 – 25 minutes
10. Top your delicious vegetable ravioli with your pasta sauce and enjoy!
3 Ingredient Banana Cookies (+ toppings)
(adapted from Labna Love in the Kitchen)
Ryan gave up sweets for 2014 so I’ve been trying to come up with a way for him to still get to enjoy dessert! And then I came across this recipe from Labna Love in the Kitchen and now we have something! We tried it tonight and his dried tart cherries are the perfect pairing to the oatmeal/banana base.
Ingredients:
– 1 banana
– approximately 1/2 cup ( 50 g) of rolled oats
– 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
– Your favorite toppings (dark chocolate chips, dried tart cherries, walnuts, raisins)
Directions
1. With a potato masher or a wooden spoon mash the banana into a puree, it will be lumpy.
2. Mix the mashed banana with the rolled oats. Since the size of your banana will vary just make sure that you have enough oats that the mixture is not too wet.
3. Stir in the vanilla extract
4. Set up a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place the batter by spoonfuls, crushing it slightly to give the classic round shape that regular cookies have. (My batter made about 4 cookies)
5. Preheat your oven to 355 degrees.
6. Press your toppings resting on top of the cookies with light pressure. Then transfer the pan with the cookies to the freezer for 10/15 minutes.
7. Place the baking sheet with cookies in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
8. Enjoy immediately from the oven!
Today is my first try at preparing tempeh and I am really excited with how awesome it turned out!
I can only hope to one day make it as well as The Wild Cow in Nashville but I’m really happy with how my tacos turned out.
Ingredients (this is an adaptation of Bev Cooks’ Tempeh Tacos):
(makes 6 tacos)
1 (8 oz) package of tempeh, crumbled
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup of red onion, diced
1/2 cup bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup sweet corn kernels
1 1/2 tbs taco seasoning (I used this recipe and saved the left overs)
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 lime
To make the tacos:
1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high.
2. Add the red onions and sauté until they start to soften (about 3 minutes) then add the garlic, bell peppers and corn. Next, add the tempeh crumbles, taco seasoning and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add couple of big spritzes of lime juice.
3. Warm your corn tortillas, line with lettuce and top with the tempeh mixture
4. Serve with a side of rice and your favorite beer
It has been colder than normal here and Mr. Ryan ended up coming down with the flu. The healing power of soup to the rescue!
This is an adaptation of a recipe a friend made for us from Serious Eats. Since we are on the vegetarian track this was a great way to still enjoy this hearty winter soup!
Ingredients:
– 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into medium dice (Check out Simply Eats for the best way to dice this thing – it took me 40 minutes!)
– 1 medium yellow onion, cut into medium dice
– 2 cans of white beans (I used Cannellini)
– 2 tablespoons olive oil
– Salt and pepper to taste
– 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (I like to use Better than Bouillon)
– 1/4 teaspoon (heaping) ground cumin
– 1/4 teaspoon (heaping) ground coriander
– 1 teaspoon (heaping) fresh grated ginger (or powdered) — this was an excellent suggestion from my friend
– 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
Instructions:
1. Put your oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the squash and onion on a large baking sheet in a single layer. Then, drizzle with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat and roast until the chicken is cooked through and squash is tender, about 30 – 35 minutes.
2. Combine the squash, onions, and vegetable broth in a medium pot. Add the cumin, coriander and ginger and bring to a simmer. With a potato masher or wooden spoon, mash up the soup (you want it to still be somewhat chunky). Now, add the lemon juice. Add the beans, then season to taste with salt, pepper, and/or lemon juice.
3. Serve it up!
I love making pizza from scratch and I recently found a new crust recipe that is just fabulous!
We’ve given up meat for 2014, and this is a great vegetarian pizza! It’s the fresh mozzarella and the unlikely ingredients of corn and broccoli that make it so awesome!
Napoli Style Pizza Dough (adapted from Grandbaby Cakes)
Dough Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon yeast
1/4 cup water heated up to 110 to 115 degrees
3/4 cup lukewarm water
1- 1 1/2 tablespoons of quality olive oil to coat the bowl
Dough Directions
1. Heat 1/4 cup of water to a temperature between 110 – 115 degrees
2. Add the yeast and sugar to the water and let sit for 5 minutes, until it looks good and foamy
3. While the yeast is getting foamy, add the all-purpose flour and salt to a medium sized bowl and combine the dry mixture with a whisk.
4. Next, add the 3/4 cup warm water and yeasty sugar water and stir to make sure everything is mixed together.
5. Do a little kneading and form a ball.
6. Take a large bowl and coat with quality olive oil. Add the dough to the bowl, cover with a kitchen towel, and let rise in a warm place. I typically set my oven to 170 degrees and let it rise in there for an hour to an hour and a half.
Ok now that you have your pizza dough ready let’s get your topping ingredients together:
Pizza Ingredients:
Basil Pesto
1/3 cup sweet corn kernels
1/2 red pepper chopped
sliced mushrooms
1 head of broccoli florets cut into small pieces
fresh mozzarella sliced
sweet onion minced
2 or 3 shredded leaves of kale
Pizza Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees with your pizza stone in the oven
2. Roll out your pizza dough, lay it on the heated pizza stone and poke lots of little holes on it with fork
3. Pre-bake your dough for about 8 minutes, once it comes out of the oven bring the temperature down to 375
4. Spread on the pesto evenly with a spoon
5. Add your sliced fresh mozzarella
6. layer on your toppings
7. Bake your pizza for about 15 minutes
8. Enjoy!
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