Balsamic Vinegar

I have a new sister in law in love with the stuff. Guess what, you should be too! Balsamic vinegars (well vinegars in general actually) are good for your health. Balsamic vinegar has anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties, tons of antioxidants, promotes a healthy digestive system, reduces headaches, controlls blood sugar levels, is a natural appetite suppressant, and a whole bunch more things related to anti-aging, fatigue and your bones.
Some more reading: Click HERE and HERE and HERE

Here is a dressing or a dipping sauce. We used it tonight for our steamed broccoli. (some of us poured some right onto our lentil patties!)

5 cloves of roasted garlic
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tbsp dijon mustard

Puree everything and start dipping!

Sweet Potato Fries

Lots of people I know have their favorite recipe for sweet potato fries. Here is mine.

Chop up your sweet potato - 1 large one
Place in a bowl with a mixture of:
3 Tablespoons olive oil
3 teaspoons cumin
3 teaspoons coriander
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, flip each of those little guys over and bake 15 minutes more
Just know, they aren't going to be crispy, try to get them crispy and they will burn... promise!
Before








After

Oops and Jam

That last post was supposed to be in my personal blog (the one about the Christmas Tree). It took me a while to notice it had happened! Here is a simple great recipe for fruit jam to make up for it!

Lacto-fermentation is a great way to get enzymes into your body that help to break down difficult foods, like grains for your body to use. This is a delicious recipe that includes this process.

Fermented Fruit Jam
*2 cups dried fruit (this one pictured is fig and raisen, try to find unsulphured fruit)
*1/2 TBL sea salt (why yes that is alot, it is needed in the fermentation process and the flavor disappears when the jam is done)
*1/8 cup whey (can be made from yogurt by draining)
*1/8-1/4 cup raw honey
Cook the fruit in filtered water until soft. Transfer fruit to processor and blend with the rest of the ingredients. Place into a jar and keep at room temp. for 2 days (3 if if its cold!) Move it to the fridge and devour within 2 months... I don't think that will be a problem!

Soup

Look at what I saw under the 6 weirdest, scariest processed foods article...condensed soup. Although eating them in my opinion is just plain bland and gross (as is incorporating them into dishes) they are terrifying little cans of who knows what! The article focuses on the sodium aspect, it says,

"Ah, soup. It’s the food mom used to feed us when we were sick. Every child has fond memories of being nursed back to health by sipping at the warm, nutritious broth of chicken noodle soup. Of course, mom probably didn’t realize at the time that she was setting you up for a future of high blood pressure and kidney failure. Because if she fed you condensed soup from a can, she was loading your young body up with insanely high amounts of sodium.

How insanely high, you ask? Well, consider that a mere half-cup of Campbell’s Vegetable Soup contains a heart-stopping 890 mg of sodium, or roughly 37 percent of your daily recommended sodium intake. But wait, there’s more! The typical Campbell’s soup can contains one-and-a-half cups of soup, meaning that one can of soup contains more than 90 percent of your daily recommended sodium intake."

Here is the link to the original article

Next up on the recipe gifts... another soup one. Broccoli and White Bean (after I get a pic of it!)

Pot Pie

When I became a healthy eater I pretty much said goodbye to pot pies. It was a sad thing for me because I really loved those trans fat loaded frozen ones. Look at this ingredients list!! Homemade ones call for shortening, gravy, cream of such and such and so on so I never really attempted. The latest Vegetarian Times came to my mailbox with 2... yes 2 pot pie recipes. I searched online for a whole wheat pie crust and the adventure began. I made adaptions to the recipe since I didn't have some things on hand. First, here is the whole wheat crust recipe.

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

½ cup unbleached flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ tsp salt
1 TBL sugar
5 TBL butter, cold and cut into a few pieces
4-5 TBL cold water
Pretty basic, mix dry cut in butter squash around and then add water, this is a good time to get your hands dirty with dough! Next time I'm putting rosemary and maybe sage in the recipe (that is what the veg. times recipe had)

The Filling
2 med. diced potatoes
2 Large carrots, chopped
1/4 cup raw soy sauce (I was nearly out so I added only 1 tsp!)
several garlic cloves
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or chili powder)
1 onion
some red pepper
1 cup each chopped veggies: broccoli, peas, corn, zucchini, green beans... whatever you have
1/4 cup unbleached flour
2 cups veggie broth
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
some beans, literally i just dumped in some black and red I had leftover in the fridge
4 oz cream cheese, I actually used what was left of (2 TBL) of my yogurt cheese
salt/pepper
{The original recipe also had 1 tsp hoisn sauce and 3 TBL red wine}

Cook potatoes and carrots in large bot of boiling water for about 10 minutes.
Saute everything starting with onions and working up to more sensitive veggies (peas and garlic) all in one giant pan. Push veggies to the side and add a little oil or butter and the flour. Stir it up to make a roux, until smooth. Stir into veggies. Add the broth, potatoes, carrots, soy sauce, spices and everything else. Remove from heat.
This crust recipe (plus a tiny extra from another pie) covered the bottom and sides of my round casserole dish and another piece ontop. Construct your pot pie and place the filling inside. Cover with crust and poke or slice for air holes. Bake for 45 minutes at 350. Let it stand for 10 minutes after that. Try not to burn your fingers sneaking bits of crust before it cools.

Bread

You may not know this about me, actually i don't really know why you would, but I really love to bake bread. I love (and also sometimes hate) new recipes and I am always looking for a decent healthy alternative to what has been sitting on my grocery store shelf for who knows how long, high fructose corn syrup or not.
My love for baking bread in countered by the tremendous trouble I have baking it. I always do something wrong and my husband always ends up taking short little crumbly sandwhichs to work. Once I forgot the yeast, seriously, the yeast. Frugality sometimes overrides the common sense part of your brain so I just mixed in with water and tried to knead it in... I did that with an egg once too.
This recipe has been pretty good to me though.
It does have white flour and butter in it but im okay with that since it has so much fiber...
The original recipe is for "2 medium loaves" so I just make one loaf and it is nice and big!

High Fiber Loaf

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 pkg yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
2 tsp salt
2 cups hot water
1/4 cup butter (room temp) (I'm working on changing this one)
2 TBL honey
1/2 cup granola
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 cup bran flakes
2 cups flour

Combine the wheat flour, yeast, and salt. Add hot water. Stir. Add butter, honey, granola, germ, and bran flakes. Keep stiring. Mix in 1/2 cup flour at a time. Knead for 8 minutes. Rise in a covered bowl for 1 hour. Press down, form and place into bread pan. Rise again about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 400. Baked for 20 minutes then reduce heat to 350 and bake 20 more minutes. Cover with foil if it is browning too fast.

Indian Fish

I'm positive that I don't have to tell you all the health benefits of fish, BUT I may still have to convince many of you to eat it. I don't particularly like fish, I don't hate it either. I have found many really great recipes that taste wonderfully and make me really enjoy fish. This recipe sounds really funky and even I, in all my funkiness nearly didn't try it. But, alas I did and it was great and several of my friends think so too (and even some self proclaimed fish haters)! So without further ado...

Indian Fish
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Fish fillets
2 TBL honey
2 TBL lemon juice
1/3 cup yogurt
1/8 cup oil
3 garlic cloves

1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 tsp dried mint

Combine in a small bowl the first 4 spices: coriander, nutmeg, chili powder and cinnamon. Add to that 1/2 tsp salt. Rub the fish with garlic cloves then with spices and oil, really in any order. Throw that onto the skillet (or the oven, your choice) and while it cooks blend up the rest of the ingredients in a food processor or blender (you can actually make the sauce up to 8 hours before you meal if you feel the need). The sauce can be adjusted (of course). I like less lemon and more garlic. After you have cooked your fish pour the sauce over it and serve it up. We always eat this meal with couscous because it soaks up the sauce too and its wonderful!