The Yahaira Salad

Tonight we savored the delectable offerings by budding chef Yahaira. She may only be 6, but she can whip up a praiseworthy salad.

Slicing away, getting better by the day 

Chef Yahaira dishing up our meal

The Yahaira Salad

1 package pre-washed organic lettuce of your choosing
1 organic tomato
1 organic gala apple
1 cucumber
1 yellow pepper
1 organic carrot
2 avocados
juice from 1 lemon

1. Place lettuce into the serving bowl
2. Cut the tomato, apple and carrot
3. Seed the yellow pepper and cut
4. Peel the cucumber and cut as well
5. Slice the avocado
6. Add the cut ingredients to the greens and sprinkle with lemon juice to taste.
7. Toss the salad and enjoy.

Vegetarian Baked Potato

Today we had a delicious baked potato for lunch. It was light, yet filling.

Baked Potato

1 potato

1 garlic minced

cilantro chopped

olive oil

plain Greek yogurt

salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400F and bake the potato until fork tender (30-40 minutes)
2. In a small bowl pour in ~1/4 cup of olive oil.
3. Add the minced garlic to the oil.
4. Chop a few sprigs of cilantro (stems and all), or use green onions or chives
5. When the potato is cool enough to handle, break open in the center and squeeze to make a crater
6. Drizzle the garlic oil mixture over the potato, top with cilantro and a dollop of Greek yogurt.
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Zucchini "Pasta" - A Raw Meal

This is what we had for dinner today:

It tastes so good and feels so good to eat healthy raw meals. I had 30 oz of a green drink for breakfast and then this yummy meal for dinner (smile). Lunch was leftover apple-celery-walnut-green bean salad for me and banana & peanut butter and green beans for the girls. Every 1st and 3rd Monday of each month is a happy day because I pick up our organic produce order, which usually is a lot of food.

Raw Zucchini "Pasta"
1 zucchini
a hand full of cherry tomatoes sliced in half
1 avocado
lemon juice
salt

1. Use a potato peeler and peel the zucchini into thin strips
2. Cut the avocado into slices, toss with lemon juice to keep from browning,
3. Combine the zucchini, avocado and tomatoes. Season with salt to taste.
4. Toss and enjoy.

Cranberry Walnut Flour-less Brownies

Cranberry-Walnut Flour-less Brownies

I was going to make the Cranberry-Almond Upside-Down Cake recipe in Whole Living December 2012, but I didn't have almonds. So naturally I used what I had. And then I started the baking process before actually reading the recipe, naturally. 

So this is my own version of that recipe. They look like brownies, and taste delicious, but I assure you there is NO chocolate in there! I think I will have to make these again some time because I devoured them.

Cranberry-Walnut Flour-less Brownies
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
12 oz. fresh cranberries, rinsed
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups walnuts
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs

1. In a food processor (or in my case a tiny coffee grinder...which I don't recommend using), process the walnuts until they are finely ground (they will be wet and like a paste).
2. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease a square baking dish.
3. In a saucepan, over medium heat, cook the cranberries and sugar until soft (a few minutes).
4. Spoon the cranberries in the baking dish and reserve some of the liquid.
5. Pour the remaining liquid into a bowl with the butter and beat until fully combined.
6. Add the eggs to the butter mixture, beating them one at a time to incorporate.
7. In another bowl mix the walnuts, baking soda and salt.
8. Combine the walnut mixture with the wet ingredients, mixing well.
9. Pour the batter over the cranberries, smooth even and bake for 35-40 minutes (or until a knife comes out clean from poking the center).

Turkey Meatball Subs

In honor of Thanksgiving we made turkey meatball subs. I wasn't compelled to make a huge roast turkey, stuffing and all the fixings for Thanksgiving. Instead we made subs (with ground turkey of course). We made them a day late since yesterday we had dinner at some friends' on a whim (which wasn't a traditional meal either, pizzas....with turkey pepperoni, turkey sausage and other yummy toppings).

I'm not big into measuring things unless I am really trying to follow a recipe (such as making bread and other flour based items). Instead I just toss stuff in that looks good and seems like an acceptable quantity.

Turkey Meatball Subs:
1 lb ground turkey
1 egg
1/2 cup torn bread for bread crumbs
1/2 onion chopped
1/4 cup parsley chopped
1 glove garlic chopped
salt and pepper
1 jar of tomato sauce
Sub rolls (homemade preferably)
Cheese (if desired)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Place the ground turkey in a large bowl
3. Add the egg, bread crumbs, onion, parsley and garlic.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix to combine.
5. Form meat mixture into small balls.
6. In a large frying pan brown the meatballs on all sides.
7. Place the meatballs on a baking sheet and cook for 5 minutes.
8. Return the meatballs the the frying pan and add the tomato sauce.
9. Cover and cook until the meatballs are fully cooked (about 10 more minutes).
10. Spoon the meatballs and sauce onto the sub rolls. If topping with cheese, do so and then place under the broiler (set on HI) for a minute or two until the cheese is melted. Enjoy!

Eggplant Parmesan

So for my first post I thought to make it an enticing one.

Eggplant parmesan, tossed salad and meat sauce (for those of you who need your meat)

Eggplant Parmesan:

1 medium eggplant

1/4 fresh basil leaves torn

1/4 yellow onion chopped

1 clove garlic chopped

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with juice

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Olive oil

Salt 

1. Cut eggplant into 1/2 inch thick slices (slicing the long way)
2. Finely chop the outer slices (the ones with most of the skin on them) and set aside
3. Sprinkle both sides of the slices with salt and layer them in a colander. Place a plate on top of the slices and weigh down.
4. Let stand for 1-2 hours then rinse and pat dry.
5. Preheat the oven to 400 F
6. Brush each side of the slices with olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet (single layer)
7. Bake until lightly browned (15 minutes or so). Remove from oven but keep the oven on.
8. Saute onion, chopped eggplant pieces in some olive oil until tender.
9. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.
10. Add the tomatoes, juices and half the basil leaves. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until thickened (10 minutes or so).
11. Season with alt and pepper to taste.
12. Combine ricotta and parmesan cheese.
13. Place 4 eggplant slices in a baking dish. Top with cheese mixture and half the tomato sauce.
14. Layer with the remaining eggplant slices. Top with the remain tomato sauce, sprinkle with mozzarella.
15. Cover and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with the fresh basil and enjoy.