Super green smoothie

In Kimberly Snyder's book, The Beauty Detox Solution, there is a recipe for The Green Glowing Smoothie. She swears that if you drink it every day it will change your life. The problem is that it calls for a head of spinach and a head of romaine lettuce along with various whole fruit. I don't know about you, but my blender will not hold all of that produce and I am not about to run out and buy a Vitamix so that I can pulverize mass amounts of greens. So, I came up with my own version that a regular size blender can handle.



Super Green Smoothie Ingredients:

1 handful of kale
1/2 banana
1/2 cup mixed berries
1 orange, peeled and sectioned
1 scoop Super Green Drink powder
2 tablespoons Metamucil (Laugh all you want, this will rock your world.)
1/4 teaspoon Magnesium ( DO NOT USE MORE THAN 1/4 TSP. It will bite you in the ass, literally.)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups coconut water
2 ice cubes


Directions:

Grab your ingredients.

Throw them into the blender and add 2 ice cubes.

Blend and enjoy! 

Crockpot Veggie Stew

I have been a vegetarian for 18 years so I don't get many meat cravings or really remember what meat tastes like. Except for two things, Burger King Whoppers and Stew. Burger King now has a veggie burger so I can "occasionally" get my fix. But I have never been able to find a good veggie stew recipe.

If you Google veggie stew you will get a plethora of fancy and exotic recipes like winter squash stew, Argentine lentil stew, mushroom barley stew and the list goes on and on.While I'm sure these stews are delicious and good for you they don't fill the void that a traditional beef stew does. So through much trial and error I have finally nailed the veggie stew. Here is my version of a childhood favorite.


Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 4 Hours
Yeld: 4-6 servings


Ingredients:
3 russet potatoes
4 carrots
3 ribs celery
1 yellow onion
1 cup of dry red wine (Drink the rest while cooking. Only kidding.;)
2 cups vegetable broth
1 heaping table spoon corn starch
2 tablespoons cold water
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried parsley
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste


Directions:

Grab your ingredients and cut your veggies into two inch pieces.

Add vegetable broth, wine, worcestershire, garlic, thyme, parsley and bay leaves into the crockpot. 

It will look like borscht, but don't you fret! The color will change as it simmers. Next add a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch into a bowl. Add the cold water and stir until dissolved. Add the mixture to the crockpot and stir well.

Add the vegetables.

Cook on low for 4 hours and let the magic happen.

Vegan Cashew Pesto Pasta

I love pesto. I love everything about pesto. I love that it is rich, fragrant, versatile and SO easy to make. While the traditional pine nut pesto has it's time and place, cashew pesto is just so decadent. So tonight, we dine like kings!

Prep time: 5 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4 cups

Ingredients:

pasta (I used gluten free spaghetti, but any will do)

Pesto sauce:

2 cups fresh basil leaves
1 cup raw, unsalted cashews
3/4 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup water
1tsp salt
1tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 cup Kalamata olives
1/4 cup Sun dried tomatoes
1/2 cup button mushrooms


Cooking directions:

Grab your ingredients..

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Next, tear the basil leaves off the stems and throw them into the food processor. Then add the cashew, garlic, salt, pepper, and cayenne in with the basil. Slowly add the olive oil and water into the food processor while pulsing.

At the last minute I decided that I wanted to add mushrooms to the sauce party. Don't judge me! So this would be a good time to sauté those mushrooms.

Add the pesto, kalamata olives and sundries tomatoes to the mushroom pan and heat through. Top your pasta with the pesto sauce and….

                                                         Voilà!

Trader Joe's Organic Tofu Veggie Burger Review

I just didn't have it in me to make an elaborate meal this evening. Plus, I was starving and I am a total bat crazy witch when I am starving. Remembering that I had bought veggie burgers from Trader Joe's was the perfect solution!

I fried it up in the skillet with a little coconut oil, sautéed some red onion, put it on a bed of lettuce, topped it off with some pepperoncinis and went to town.

The first bite was pretty impressive. It had a nice flavor and the red onion complemented it. The flavor is like The Original Gardenburger, but by the second bite the texture was starting to get to me. The outside was firm and crispy. However, the second you bite into it it crumbles into a couscous consistency that was very unappealing. And the fact that it was made out of tofu and not couscous grossed me out even more. By the fourth bite I was done and threw the rest out. If I hadn't been so damn hungry I would have chucked it in the trash after the second bite.

Easy Coconut Curry

I was feeling like coconut curry this evening. I have never attempted cooking Thai food before so I took to the inter webs to find a recipe. 90% of the recipes that I found were super complicated and had a million ingredients, but after searching high and low I found an easy little gem on Detoxinista.

I whipped up the recipe and it was SUPER bland. But with a few tweaks it was restaurant worthy. Here is what I came up with:


Ingredients:

1 cup rice, rinsed (You don't know where it's been.)
assorted vegetables, chopped


Curry Sauce:

1 teaspoon coconut oil
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 bay leaf
3-4 fresh basil leaves
1 (13.5oz ) can light coconut milk
1 tablespoon tamari
1 teaspoon sambal



Directions:

Let's do this thing! Rise your dirty rice and prepare as directed on the package.

While the rice is cooking it's time to start chopping. Any veggies will do. Go wild!!! 

Now let's build our curry sauce. Sauté the garlic and onion in coconut oil for about 5 minutes or until browned. 

Add in the sweet nectar of the Gods, coconut milk.

Time to throw in the curry powder, turmeric, bay leaf, tamari and sambal. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 5 minutes. Add your vegetables, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. 

Finally stir in the fresh basil and dish up! Add some siracha and you are ready to eat up. 

ENJOY!

Santa Fe Salad with Cilantro-Lime-Peanut Vinaigrette

Day one of cooking and I am already craving the Cheesecake Factory. The Southwest chicken salad (sans the chicken and cheese) to be exact. So what's a girl to do? Google it! I got this vinaigrette recipe from gimme some OVEN and with a few tweaks it turned out incredible. Now if I can just talk my husband into being tonights dishwasher…..

Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 (Except if you are my husband and I because we ate the whole thing.)

Ingredients:

1 head of romaine lettuce
1 (15oz) can black beans, rinsed
1 (15oz) can whole kernel corn, rinsed
1 cup fresh cilantro, stems off
1 green pepper
1 jalapeño, seeds removed
2 cups shredded cabbage
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

Cilantro-Lime-Peanut Vinaigrette Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, stems off
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 cloves garlic peeled and smashed
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. lime juice
1tsp. lime zest
1tsp sesame oil

Method:

To make the vinaigrette, mix all of the ingredients except olive oil in the food processor. Then slowly add olive oil to the mixture while pulsing until smooth. Shown here by my lovely suez chef Alice.

* I found this recipe to be super thick so I added 3/4 a cup of water into the food processor while pulsing. Also, I would only add half of the sesame oil next time. It was a bit strong. Nothing a little tabasco couldn't fix.

To prepare salad, wash and dry the lettuce, then cut into bite size pieces. Mix in chopped cilantro, corn, beans, cabbage, jalapeño, green pepper and red onion. Fold in the vinaigrette and top with tortilla strips.  

¡Olé!

I'm going to regret this!

Every year like millions of other well intentioned people I  make a New Year's resolution and every year I fail, until last year. Last year instead of "losing 25 lbs" I decided to ask myself: What have a always wanted to do? and then waited for the answer to come and listened. Bad idea. My inner self came back with start a nonprofit and run a half marathon.

Well I don't know if was the fear of letting my inner self down or my stubbornness, but the formula worked. Last year I did just that, start a nonprofit and run a half marathon. If it ain't broke don't fix it! This year I did the same thing. My inner self came back with climb Mt. Rainier and eat in for a year. CRAP!

I shouldn't have watched Food, Inc. or Fresh and I definitely shouldn't have read The Beauty Detox Solution because that is the only way my subconscious mind came up with cooking every meal for a year. But since I got the calling this stay-at-home mom will forgo being weighted on, cooked for, and cleaned up after for one year with a few exceptions.

1. I will still be going out with friends and my husband for wine and coffee. I might not be partaking in the eating portion of going out, but come on! I am only human and as a human I need human interaction!

2. We have a few gift cards to some of our favorite restaurants that we will be using sporadically throughout the year. I mean, it would be rude not to use them.

3. Cooking while on vacation is unrealistic and against everything vacation stands for. Therefore I will commit going to a grocery store and buying whole organic food for breakfast and lunch, but dinner is a free-for-all.



So here we go…. I realize that I should have started on January 1st, but my husband reminded me that it is an "unwritten rule" that New Years resolutions always begin on the Monday after New Year's. And being a total procrastinator I will have to agree with him.