Category Archives: Recipes

Healthy Cookie Experiment

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Do you ever bake cookies and it is supposed to make 4 dozen, and then by the time the cookies actually get formed into balls and put in the oven there are only 2 dozen because you ate that much dough?  What? No one can relate to me?  Well, remorse inevitably follows.  But not anymore, my friends!  A while ago I wrote about substituting Great Northern Beans for butter in cookie recipes and wham-0!  A fraction of the fat (Plus extra fiber!).  I love to try stuff like that and I think I get so excited about it that my emotions take over my taste buds.  My dear ol hubby  has to bring me down to earth sometimes and say, “yeah, that’s pretty disgusting.”  But NOT THIS TRICK.  Turns out he likes it.  I’ve been doing it for a while.

Tonight I put it to the test.  I made 2 batches of cookies, one with butter, and one with beans.  Then I had these two lovely test subjects taste the dough to see if they could tell which was which.  They both passed the dough phase correctly, BUT one of them guessed the bean cookies were the REAL cookies!  Imagine that!  I swear they are tasty.  You cannot tell a difference. All the ingredients are the same; just substitute up to 3/4 cup of butter for beans.  You can’t do a full substitution because it changes the texture too much.  But 3/4 is okay.

Here’s the two doughs.

REAL  

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BEANS

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Before Baked:  Real cookies on the right and bean cookies on the left.

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After baked:  Real cookies on the right and bean cookies on the left.

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My two wonderful test subjects in action.

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Give it a try.  Fight those holiday pounds by bringing some healthy cookies to your next Christmas party. :)

You can find the recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies here.

 

Shaved Fennel Salad

Hey hey,

For years I have seen people on cooking shows make fennel salads and it all looks so fun and different, but I had never done it before.  UNTIL NOW.  I was surprised at the taste – it’s a little bit sweet, but still yummy.  It definitely added a unique flavor.  Kinda fun to try and I want to do it again with a different dressing.

Oh and don’t mind the photos- I went a little overboard with the feta cheese. :)

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Shaved Fennel Salad (original recipe from 101cookbooks.com)

  • 1 medium-large zucchini, sliced into paper thin coins
  • 2 small fennel bulbs, trimmed and shaved paper-thin
  • 2/3 cup loosely chopped fresh dill
  • 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, plus more if needed
  • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
  • fine grain sea salt
  • 4 or 5 generous handfuls arugula
  • Honey, if needed
  • 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted (I used almonds)
  • 1/3 cup  feta cheese, crumbled

Combine the zucchini, fennel and dill in a bowl and toss with the lemon juice, olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside and marinate for 20 minutes, or up to an hour.

When you are ready to serve the salad, put the arugula in a large bowl. Scoop all of the zucchini and fennel onto the arugula, and pour most of the lemon juice dressing on top of that. Toss gently but thoroughly. Taste and adjust with more of the dressing, olive oil, lemon juice, or salt if needed. If the lemons were particularly tart, you may need to counter the pucker-factor by adding a tiny drizzle of honey into the salad at this point. Let your taste buds guide you. Serve topped with pine nuts and feta.

Serves 4 to 6.

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Crockpot Applesauce

My friend has an apple tree and she asked me to come over and pick some apples.  I was thinking there might be a couple on there, but the tree was seriously drooping and there were hundreds of apples on the ground.  ”I’ve given up,” she said.   “Please just take as much as you can.”  So I went a little overboard and now we are all pretty sick of apples! :)  But I made lots of yummy things – apple crisp, apple pancakes, and tried some applesauce!  I am not a huge applesauce fan, but my kids are, and really the crockpot does all the work.

Crockpot Applesauce (original recipe from skinnytaste.com)

  • 8 medium apples (Use a combination of Golden Delicious, Honey Crisp, Fuji, Gala, etc.)
  • 1 strips of lemon peel – use a vegetable peeler
  • 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • 3 inch cinnamon stick
  • 5 tsp light brown sugar (unpacked) – or agave

Peel, core, and slice the apples.

Place them in the slow cooker. Add the cinnamon stick, lemon peel and brown sugar.

Set crock pot to low and cook for 6 hours. Stir apples occasionally, apples will slowly become a delicious applesauce.

Remove cinnamon stick and use an immersion blender to blend until smooth.


Makes 3 cups.

 

Broccoli Blitz Smoothie

Do you ever get in a green smoothie rut?  Smoothies are the main way I get my kiddos to eat green vegetables, especially leafy greens, but sometimes it gets a little monotonous to use the same ingredients every time. I looked up some recipes from Green Smoothie Girl and wanted to try one new smoothie a week.  The first one I tried is called Broccoli Blitz.  It’s from her book, “Green Smoothies Diet” book found here.  I was a little hesitant because you know broccoli’s reputation with the digestive system…haha.  BUT it actually turned out to be pretty tasty.  Tornado sees me drinking these and then begs for mine (mostly because I think he likes the cup I have with a straw and it’s fun to drink out of).  But he DRAINS it every time.  This time was no different.  It makes a huge batch, and I just kept the remainder in the fridge until the next day and we all divided it among ourselves.  Even cool Aunt Zoe got in on the action.  Everyone liked it - you can’t even really taste the broccoli.  Without further adieu  here is the recipe:

Broccoli Blitz Smoothie

  • 2 3/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup raw agave
  • 2 cups broccoli
  • spinach
  • 2 oranges
  • 2 cups pineapple
  • 2 bananas
  • 2 cups berries

Combine water, agave and broccoli and blend until smooth.  I did not have agave, but you can use sugar, or a little bit of sugar.  Next add spinach until it reaches the 6 cup line (about 2 cups of spinach), and blend.  Then add oranges, pineapple, bananas, and berries.  Blend until smooth.  Enjoy!

Zucchini Noodles – Get Your Kiddos to Eat More Veggies!

I don’t know any mom who can get her child to eat any vegetable any time.  Some are better at it than others, and mine do alright, but they still revolt when things look weird (or just because they want to).  Not too long ago, I tried a recipe that had julienned zucchini in it.  After peeling the zucchini I honestly couldn’t see it amongst all the spaghetti noodles.  I wanted to try it with the kids and see what happened.

Have you ever seen one of these before?

It’s called a Julienne Peeler.  I borrowed it from my neighbor and let me just say, it saves A TON of time in julienne-ing veggies.  It is just like a regular peeler, except it has these little teeth in it that slices things into thin strips. 

 

Piece of cake!

So I took about 4 zucchini and peeled and sliced them (I only peeled them because I wanted to disguise them from the kids).

Here’s what it looks like all sliced up.

 

 

I just cooked pasta like normal and threw the zucchini in for the last 3 minutes or so.  It softens up pretty fast.

The sad news is that I thought I had spaghetti in the pantry and I didn’t!  I had to use different pasta so it didn’t end up being as disguised as I would have liked, but the kids still ate it!  Woop Woop!!

 

Here’s another pic with spaghetti noodles so you can get the idea (from The World According to Egg Face).

It’s pretty tasty, and you really can’t tell you are eating zucchini. :)

Happy Disguising!

 

Zucchini and Asaparagus with Lime and Cotija (what a mouthful)

I have really been loving this website lately… I sometimes get in a food rut and I need some new flavors to switch it up.  I had a couple of zucchini and some leftover asparagus in my fridge so I wanted to find an exciting way to eat them.  Voila!  For the Love delivers again.  This was such a fun and easy thing to make, and everyone ate it- no leftovers!  Plus let’s face it – vegetable leftovers are blah the next day.  Here’s the recipe.

zucchini (and Asparagus, or any vegetable really) with Lime and Cotija Cheese (original recipe from For the Love of Cooking)

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 zuchinni, cut into spears
  • 1 bundle of asparagus
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • Juice of one lime
  • Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
  • Zest of one lime
  • Cotija cheese, grated

DIRECTIONS:

Cut the zucchini into spears then place into a shallow bowl. Drizzle the top with the lime juice, olive oil, sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Toss to coat evenly.

Heat a grill pan over medium high heat then coat with cooking spray. Place the zucchini into the grill pan and cook on each side for 1-2 minutes or until it has nice grill marks all over and the zucchini is tender. Place the zucchini on a serving plate then sprinkle the top with lime zest and grated cotija cheese.

Consensus:

Tornado ate some and ate the cheese off the rest.  The Wild One refused at first but agreed to take one bite.  No worries, I ate his leftovers.  The Mr. and I ate the rest and ohhh boy was it delicious!

Grilled Veggie and Smoked Fontina Pizza

First of all, a quick shout out to all my friends and family in New York.  Luckily they are all safe.  Have you seen the footage of Hurricane Sandy?  Here’s the World Trade Center site.  I was just there a few months ago!

My heart goes out to everyone there!

***

I love finding and trying new flavor combinations.  This new one did not disappoint.  It’s a veggie pizza without sauce!  I was a little skeptical but it ended up being yummy and fun.  The boys of course took off ALL the vegetables, but I figure if I make this enough times they are bound to at least eat a tomato or two.

Here’s the recipe.

Grilled Veggie and Smoked Fontina Pizza (original recipe from For the Love of Cooking)

  • 2 baby bell pepper, or 1 large bell pepper sliced
  • 10 spears of asparagus, ends removed and sliced in half
  • 1 zucchini, cut diagonally into coins
  • 1 red onion cut into wedges
  • 4 tsp of olive oil (divided)
  • Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
  • 1 batch of pizza dough (I made two)
  • Smoked fontina cheese, shredded
  • Handful of grape tomatoes
  • Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

Preheat the grill to high heat (I just used a regular frying pan). Drizzle the bell pepper, zucchini, red onion, and asparagus spears with a little olive oil then season with a bit of sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste; mix until evenly coated. Place on the grill rack; grill 8 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile, place the dough onto the baking sheet. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top of the dough then season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Place into the oven and cook for 5 minutes.

 

Remove the veggies from the grill. Remove the dough from the oven.

Sprinkle with cheese then place the veggies on top along with a handful of grape tomatoes.  Season again with sea salt, freshly cracked pepper, and crushed red pepper, to taste, if desired.

Place into the oven and bake for 13-15 minutes or until the dough is golden brown and the cheese has melted. Slice and serve. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

New Favorite: Black Bean and Vegetable Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Woah, folks, have you ever had a poblano pepper?  I hadn’t.  I went to the store to get some, and looked and looked, but couldn’t find them.  I finally spotted something that looked just like them, but it said, “pasilla peppers.”  Luckily, I had my iPhone so I quickly looked it up and sure enough, they are the same thing.  Here in Utah where everyone is a gringo, the checkout lady said, “These are called Prascilla (Pruh-SILL-uh) peppers, right?”  And I said, “Close enough,” and laughed to myself.  But I grew up on the border of Mexico, so I am used to the gringos trying to pronounce things correctly.  Pretty funny.

So…This was a little bit time consuming, but TOTALLY worth it!  You have to broil the peppers until the skin turns black, and then let it sit for a few minutes before you peel  the skin off.  I totally didn’t know what I was doing, and it turned out great.  So have no fear!  Be adventurous!

 

(The pepper is under there somewhere, I promise!)

Black Bean and Vegetable Stuffed Poblano Peppers (original recipe from For the Love of Cooking)

  • 3 poblano peppers
  • 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 cup of cotija cheese (I’d never had this before either, and it really made a difference in the flavor.  Definitely use it!)
  • 1/ cup of orange and yellow bell pepper, diced
  • 1/2 small sweet yellow onion, diced
  • 1 cup of frozen sweet yellow corn, thawed
  • 3 tbsp cilantro, chopped
  • 1 zucchini, diced
  • 1 large handful of grape tomatoes, sliced
  • Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
  • 1/2 tsp of cumin
  • Dash of oregano

Clean the poblano peppers and carefully slit them down the center (be careful not to go all the way through the pepper). Gently remove the seeds from the inside of the pepper. Line a baking sheet with tin foil then place the pepper on top.

While they are broiling, make the black bean mixture.  Combine the black beans, bell pepper, onion, cilantro, zucchini, corn, tomatoes, all but 2 tbsp of cotija cheese, oregano, cumin, sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a glass Pyrex dish with olive oil cooking spray. Place the roasted peppers in the dish. Carefully stuff each pepper with the black bean mixture. Top each pepper with the remaining cheese.

Place in the oven and bake uncovered for 20-30 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked and the cheese is melted.

Serve with guacamole and sour cream or salsa. Enjoy.

Consensus:

Smashing hit all around, except the kids just had some leftover chicken and didn’t get to try it.  Maybe next time!

Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls in 20 Minutes

Fellas,

These rolls went so fast I didn’t even have time to snap a picture!  Aw man!  But here’s a pic of some yummy rolls…just imagine this came out of my oven tonight.

This is my very beautiful Aunt Shelly (with her hubby who I used to think was Clark Kent. haha).

She is amazing in many ways, not the least of which she birthed eight children.  Eight!  And also her people come from miles around to sample her cooking.  It’s pretty tasty stuff. I’ve had lots of hilarious memories with these guys when our families got together, and I miss her.  But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel because I feel we’re almost hanging out when I am making her dinner rolls.  She has the best rolls recipe ever and it literally takes 25 minutes to make before you put it in the oven.  Including rising time!  Truly a dream come true, especially if you are really last minute, like me, and realize as you cooking a big pot of soup that rolls would be a nice addition.  Boom. Done and done.

Here it is:

Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

  • 3 TBS Yeast
  • 1/2 Cup Sugar
  • 1 3/4 Cup Warm Water
  • 5 1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
  • 1/2 Cup Butter
  • 3/4 Tbs Salt
  • 2 Eggs

Directions:

Mix yeast, sugar, and water.  Let sit for 10 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients.  Knead for a minute or two.  Form into rolls.  Let sit for 5-10 minutes.

Bake 10 minutes.  They will rise a lot when they are cooking.

Voila!  Enjoy!

Recipe: Green Goddess Grilled Cheese

My sis-in-law showed me this recipe from Pinterest and I had to have it in my stomach ASAP.  And I made it twice in a week. haha!  It’s really yummy, fast, and easy.  We had some homemade bread to use up, so it was extra tasty!  Plus, the pesto makes a lot, so leftovers are easy to do in a few days.  If you are in a time crunch, but still want something yummy and healthy, give this a try.

Green Goddess Grilled Cheese (original recipe from tastespotting.com)

 

Ingredients for 1 Sandwich

  • 2 slices bread (we used a white bread, but one filled with lots of different whole grains and seeds would be *awesome*)
  • 2-3 tablespoons Green Goddess Herb Pesto (recipe below)
  • 2 slices mild white melty cheese like mozzarella
  • handful fresh baby spinach
  • ¼ avocado, sliced
  • 2 tablespoons goat cheese, crumbled
  • olive oil (and butter if you’re so inclined)

Directions

Spread about 1 tablespoon of Green Goddess Herb Pesto onto each slice of bread (2 tablespoons total, but if you’re sensitive, go light, the pesto is STRONG).

On one slice of bread, add 1 slice of cheese, sliced avocado, crumbled goat cheese, spinach, second slice of cheese, then top it with second slice of bread. Press together gently.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan over medium low heat. (If you want to use butter, add it to the oil and let it melt). Add the sandwich to the oil and cook until bread is golden brown. Press down on the sandwich lightly, then flip the sandwich over and cook until second side is golden brown.

Green Goddess Herb Pesto

Ingredients

  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 (or 2 if you’re ballsy) anchovy fillet (in oil) – I actually left these out and it was still very tasty.
  • ½ small shallot, chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • handful chopped fresh Italian parsley
  • handful chopped kale
  • 2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
  • 1 tablespoon chopped chives
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Pulse garlic, anchovy, and shallot in food processor until chopped. With the food processor running, add lemon juice, parsley, kale, tarragon and chives. Very slowly drizzle in olive oil until kale and herbs get sufficiently chopped and everything is the consistency of a pesto. You may need more or less of the olive oil depending on how big a “handful” of herbs is to you. You can also turn off the food processor and push herbs down the side of the bowl with a spatula every once in a while.

Season to taste with salt and pepper (You probably won’t need too much salt if you used 2 anchovies).

Consensus:

SOOOOO Delicious!  The flavor combination is unreal.  It was definitely very tasty, and the boys ate it!  I mean, The Wild One peeled some spinach off, but he ate the rest so I was happy!