Sunday's Hash browns

I love me some hash browns. But I don't love all the butter they are traditionally cooked in. In this weeks CSA box I received some great veggies a few being 2 big zucchinis's and a small box of potatoes. I'm a bit tired of sauteed zucchini so I thought I would grate one into my hash browns. I also made some baked zucchini fries. They were a big flop! They just came out too mushy. But my hash browns mmm mmm good! I don't know why Mr Potato gets a bad rep. They have a lot of health benefits. This one goes out to all my girls who are afraid of carbs. Eating a potato is not going to make you gain weight! Chips and deep fried potatoes on the other hand might not be such a good choice. If you just stick with eating REAL FOOD you will be just fine.

Health Benefits of Potatoes:
Vitamin C
Vitamin B6
Cooper
Potassium
Magnanese
Fiber

Sunday's Hash Browns:

Ingredients:
4-5 potatoes
1/2 of a zucchini
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of earths balance spread or olive oil

Cook your potatoes in boiling water for about 10 mins. We don't want them too soft.  When cooked, drain and run under cold water. You can also put them in the fridge for awhile to cool them off a bit. Shred them with a grater in a bowl and then the zucchini. Next you want to make sure all the water is out. Wrap them up in kitchen towel and squeeze out access water. Mix in seasoning. Form into patties. Heat earth balance spread or oil in pan and add patties. Cook until brown on one side before you flip it. Cook on other side. Enjoy.

Long Overdue

I received a few request for these muffins that come from Bethenny Frankel's book Naturally Thin. She has some great baking recipes, especially for people with food allergies. These muffins are gluten free (just make sure it's organic oat flour) egg and diary free as well. I altered the recipe a bit with agave nectar instead of sugar in the raw ( i didn't have any). Promise me whatever you use it's not white sugar!! This stuff is super processed and most of the time contains bone char. Yes, they use animal bones to filter the sugar. Try to use organic sugar , evaporated cane sugar or agave nectar. Agave nectar is relatively new to the market and I've been doing some research on it and I'm not sure what to believe. People say it is a healthier alternative to refined sugar. I'm leaning towards this plus I like the taste. It's a bit sweeter than regular sugar so you only need a little bit. I also read that it's just a fad and sugar is still sugar. Agave nectar is still processed because you're not getting right from the plant.(this is true) With that, let's just try to reduce the overall amount of  simple sugars in our diet and will start living better and feeling healthy.

Chocolate Muffins:
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup raw sugar (i used a little over 1/4 cup agave nectar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract (leave out if you have a nut allergies or don't have in pantry, just add a bit more vanilla)
1 teaspoon organic canola oil (if using agave nectar you don't need this)
3/4 cup oat flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt and a dash of cinnamon
1/2 cup of vegan chocolate chips

Directions:
Heat oven to 375 and spray a mini muffin tin with non stick cooking spray. In a small bowl, combine applesauce, sugar , extracts and oil. Stir and set aside.
In a large bowl whisk oat flour, cocoa powder, baking and soda powder, salt and cinnamon.
Add wet and dry together and mix with spoon and then stir in chocolate chips.
Bake 20 min, or until tops are firm to touch.

My Su Chef! AKA Corn queen 2011

Mix it up. 

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.