Why Mess With a Good Thing

In my CSA box I got a lot of lettuce. There is nothing better than fresh, hand picked lettuce from a garden. Mmmm so good. I love salads but I'm the kind of girl who needs a little dressing on each piece of lettuce. I'm also the kind of girl who loads it up with veggies so I fill up on CLEAN REAL food. Not a bunch of cheese, spicy chicken and 10 other things at the salad bar. Don't turn your salad into 800 calorie meal and please, please stop buying ready made dressing! That's stuff is just bad for you. 9 times out of 10 if you're not buying organic it is full of high fructose corn syrup. If you are buying organic the second ingredient is sugar. Sugar on a salad? We're trying to live better and feel healthy. Here is a very versatile salad dressing recipe. I also use this in pasta salad (because we all know I hate mayo) it works well with a bean salad too. Side note: I put one tablespoon of this recipe on my salad and then top the rest of my salad  off with balsamic vinegar.

Basic Vinaigrette:
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove
2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions:
Place in blender and blend away. The longer you blend the thicker it will become. Store in an air tight container for a 5 days in fridge.

Obsess Much?

My 3 year old Carolyn is obsessed with corn. Yes, second to Dora good old corn on the cob. On one of our Whole Foods adventures she managed to get a lot of fresh corn in the cart without me noticing. We get to the check out line and I took a look at the situation in our cart and on the bottom of the cart I find too much corn on the cob for any family. "Carolyn! Did you throw all this corn in the cart?!!" she looks up at me so sweet and innocent "Oh Mommy, I just love fresh corn so much" I smiled and bought the corn. With that I bring you a corn, black bean recipe I pulled out of my hat. You can use this as a dip (would be great to bring to a party) or as a side dish. I wrapped it up in a warm tortilla with some brown rice and had as a meal. Now I think this type of recipe most people would use raw red onion as one of the add ins but I don't like raw onion so I left it out.  Double this if your using for a party. Ok, I had some great pics (from my iphone still need to get camera fixed) and I'm having some issues importing them at the moment. The colors are so pretty in the dish I really wanted to give you a visual! I'm a bit annoyed right now.

3-4 ears of fresh uncooked corn
1 cup cooked black beans
1/2 a fresh lime juice
1/2 or whole avocado, diced
1 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
a few sprigs of cilantro, chopped up

Get a large bowl
Cut the kernels off the cob (does that make sense? ) and place in bowl with black beans and diced avocado. Squeeze your lime in then add your salt, chopped cilantro, and jalapeno. Then mix it all up! That's it. Taste and add more salt to your liking.

Who Needs Take Out?

Not us that's for sure. I live in New York City and can have anything and I mean anything delivered to my doorstep within a half hours time. It's Fri night had a long week, don't feel like cooking for the fam. Sound familiar? What do you do? Open up the drawer with the all the take out menu's or go on seamless web or menu pages and try to figure out what everyone feels like eating. Now I don't know about you but every time I order take out I end up eating more than I should and feeling like crap after and saying to myself it wasn't even that good. Well not anymore! I have refrigerator full of fresh organic produce and high quality ingredients and I am going to cook up my own take out. And that's what I did this Fri. Vegetable Lo Mein. This dish came out great! Tasted way better and much healthier! Try it, your waistline will Thank you ;)

Little side note- sorry for the poor pics my camera is on the fritz! (had to use phone)
With this recipe you can use what ever veggies you like or have on hand.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb (or more) cooked whole wheat angel hair pasta (works best if it's a day old or done in am)
1 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil (if you don't have use olive oil)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 small onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 small head of broccoli, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 small head bok choy
1/2 a bunch mustard greens, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 teaspoon cornstarch and 2 teaspoon water
chopped peanuts on top!

Directions:
Heat a large frying pan or wok on md to high heat. Add sesame oil and chopped onion. Cook for 3-5 min then add your chopped garlic cook for a minute or two.  Then add the rest of your chopped veggies. Next pour in your hoisin sauce, cook for about a minute and then add your cornstarch and water mixture.
Taste for seasoning. Then throw in your cooked pasta and mix it around. If it looks a bit dry you can add a little (i mean little) more soy sauce or a little veggie broth or a splash of water. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts. That's it! Enjoy.

cut off base of bok choy

remove stem from mustard green

mix up cornstarch and water

CSA

I joined a CSA and I'm sooo excited! For those of you who don't know what CSA stands for it means Community Shared Agriculture. You pay a certain amount and you get a box of veggies once a week from Local Farms. You can also get fruit and fresh flowers. I paid 340.00 and I get 20 weeks worth of 100% organic locally grown produce! That's 17.00 a week for all organic veggies and I'm supporting local farmers in the USA.  Now... Lord only knows what the you're going to get in your box. You're definitely going to be forced to cook outside your comfort zone! But that's OK because we are living better and going to start feeling healthy! No processed food for us! Eating different vegetables is one the healthiest and best things you can do for your body. 

With a CSA you eat what's in season. I have a big eye opener for you. Your grocery store doesn't know what's in season. You can get tomatoes in January. Do they taste good? Not so much. You get a piece of fruit or vegetable that was picked a week early and then shipped from who knows where and then.... blasted with ethylene gas to make it turn it's proper color. Doesn't sound so good anymore. huh? 

I took some pics with my iphone to show you what I got today. I think I got some mustard greens in there that I might put into Lo mein tomorrow. Stay tuned! And wish me luck!

Most Important Meal of the Day

A few days ago my BFF and I were talking about breakfast. She said she's not  really a breakfast breakfast person but by 11 am she finds herself starving. This is not good. I'm not saying you should eat just to eat. If your not hungry don't eat. But if you find yourself over eating at one meal or picking up any crappy snack just because your hungry, then you should  put a little  something in your belly before you get to this point. So today around 9:30 I made sure I ate a little something (I didn't make a smoothie today). This is what I had.

Some soy milk. I usually only drink almond milk but I grabbed the wrong thing at the super market. I try to avoid cow's milk. Dairy's not so good for you or your little one's. I don't care what the Dr's say. (i will talk about the dairy industry in great detail at some point) Kashi cereal and some blueberries. It wasn't too heavy and did the trick!

Let's talk a bit about cereal. I like Kashi because it's good, filling and the ingredients on the side of the box doesn't sound like a science project! If you're feeding your kids sugary cereals please STOP. This is the worst way to start of their day. I don't give a flying fart what they advertise on the front of the box. Coco Puffs is NOT a good source of fiber! This is a bull! Please give them real food. Fruit, toast with peanut butter (for protein). And of coarse a SMOOTHIE! Please feel free to ask me for ideas or if you have any questions about food products.

Not a Fan

I'm not a very big fan of mayonnaise. As a matter of fact I hate it! But I am a fan of sandwiches. I make my own spreads for sandwich, panini's, and wraps. You can also use it for a dip or spread it on crostini. Your options are endless here. This is what I threw together today. I just used what I had on hand but you can get creative as you want with it. By making your own spreads you are cutting out a ton of preservatives and calories. Eat real food! It's way healthier, cleaner and better for the environment.

Cannellini Bean Dip:
1 cup of cooked cannellini beans (i had some left over) or you could use a can
1 garlic clove
1 roasted red pepper ( you could use any veg you have on hand just roast it a bit first)

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse away! Make sure all the garlic is blended you don't want to bite into a chunk of raw garlic.












I then used up what I had in my fridge and made a whole wheat panini for my daughter and I. I just cooked up some pepper, onions and string beans. Spread the dip on my bread, put in my veggies and placed on panini maker. The beans in the spread give you protein and you get a serving of veggies!

Just when you think.....

Just when you think summer is here! Hot weather, fresh fruit, veggies, eating a bit lighter, trips to the beach and playground.... Oh the joys of summer! Bammm we get hit with damp,wet and cool weather. With this past weekend  feeling like a cool September day, it put me in the mood for Collard Greens. Their not in season but this is what I felt like eating.

If you're feeling adventurous and want to try a new green this week this recipe is a good place to start. It's an easy one pot meal that's sooo yummy and probably a bit different then what you usually cook. Keep this one in the volt for Football watching on Sunday's.

Ok, here are some health benefits of this big, bold and beautiful green!
-high in vitamin A,C and folate
-also contains vitamin E and calcium
-good source of fiber

Black Eyed Peas and Collard Green

Ingredients:
1 cup dry black eyed peas, soaked overnight
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 a large onion, diced
4-6 minced garlic cloves
1 bunch collard greens (sliced thin)
1 cup vegetable broth
water (add as needed)
1/2 an 8 ounce can tomato sauce
few dashes liquid smoke
few dash worcestershire sauce
crushed red pepper or some hot sauce for some spice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

soak your beans overnight then drain and rinse in morning.
heat a large pot with olive oil md to high heat, add you onion and cook till soft for about 5 minutes then add you garlic and saute a few minutes. In the meantime remove stems for collards and slice thin and add to pot and saute that for a bit. Next add tomato sauce, vegetable broth and a little water (1/2 cup) and then your beans. Add a few dashes of liquid smoke and worcestershire sauce. Then some red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to your liking. You can also put some hot sauce on it after if you like it spicy.

Bring to a boil then simmer for 45 mins. Always taste for seasoning. I serve this over brown rice and this time I added some organic tortilla chips on the side.

roll up the leaves to your greens

then slice thin

this is what liquid smoke looks like. you can find in bbq sauce isle

cooking in the pot

yum!