We all scream for Ice Cream!

I give my kids a dessert every night after dinner. The dessert varies from a piece of dark chocolate, to a fruit of their choice, and sometimes ice cream. I usually buy these little sandwiches from So Delicious. I like them because they are made with coconut milk and do not contain high fructose corn syrup…but even so they have sugar and are definitely not the best.  They love any of these options and it really does help them finish their dinner when they know they get a treat afterwards. The other day while I was making some baby food, I opened the drawer of containers and saw some popsicle things Orlando had bought. I had some yummy mango on hand and I thought, hmmmm I wonder if I should make the boys some healthy popsicles for after dinner dessert.

Here’s the recipe:

Mango/Pineapple/Banana Popsicles 

  • a cup of mango
  • a cup of frozen pineapple
  • 1/2 a banana
  • about 1/4 cup of yogurt
  • ice

I blended it all in my blendtec (pressed the ice cream button…love this thing!), poured it into the popsicle container, and popped them in the freezer. The next night I told my kids they could each have ice cream after dinner if they ate well. Of course its all in the pitch with these kids. I told them it was way cooler than the little sandwiches and I had made them just for them but they would need to be earned. They could not wait! Ok so its not actually ice cream. In spanish, its often called “duro frio.”  But the point is its cold, its sweet, its fun for the kids…and calling it ice cream just makes it that much better for them. IMG_0448 IMG_0449 Needless to say the popsicles were a hit. But here’s the coolest part…they loved it so much they asked me to make more. Now when given the option between the popsicle, a piece of dark chocolate or the so delicious ice cream sandwiches…they choose the popsicle! I’ve made strawberry/banana, mango/pineapple, mango/pineapple/banana. And just recently I made mango with chia seeds. The options are endless! The whole process takes about 5 minutes to make and then leave in the freezer overnight. It was fun to make them a homemade dessert that had no sugar, no mysterious ingredients, and tastes sweet! Its definitely worth the effort!!!

Ratatouille

Friends, this is more than just a movie about a mouse who can cook. This is a delightful meal that hopefully will become a weekly staple in our home. I’m blown away by it!!! So we went back to our Annie’s box of Organics last week. At some point in November, I had cancelled my subscription. I had some issues with the box.

The cons:
1. we get berries but never enough for the size of my family so the one box of blueberries goes the first day we get the box.
2. the box can sometimes get repetitive and we get the same vegetable a couple of weeks in a row (i.e. potatoes…and we really don’t eat potatoes, so that gets annoying)
3. some of the items in the box doesn’t have to be organic so we’re paying organic prices for some veggies we really can get cheaper elsewhere (i.e. avocados)
4. we don’t get to choose what we get.

We thought we had gotten to a place where we had explored most of what the box was going to give us and really we were veggie-savvy enough to go to Whole foods, or Publix or any other market and get whatever vegetables and fruits we wanted for the week without having someone else pick it for us.

RESULTS… The variety declined. Even though we would only get one little box of berries every other week, at least we were getting a box. We’d go to Whole Foods every week and rarely can we find organic berries. At least at our store. They’re simply not available. So we’d end up not eating berries at all instead of our one little box that we all enjoy thoroughly!
And then we started falling back on the most comfortable dishes…our cabbage soup, our salmon with cauliflower and asparagus, our veggie tray…but week after week we were eating the same meals and I even found myself going back to my blog to re-discover some of our own recipes because I didn’t know what to buy at the store.

THE SOLUTION:

January 7th we went back to our box. I went online and found that in the 2 little months I had strayed they had started a new box that they call the Paleo box. (Note: we are not on a Paleo diet but what I like about the Paleo box is that it excludes potatoes, which we rarely eat and don’t care to get in our box). So that was a good solution to one of our box complaints. And I also realized I could tweek my box however I wanted. If I want to add berries, I can pay a little more for that. If I’ve gotten one veggie too many weeks in a row, I can email them and ask them to substitute it with another item for the following week. There are options, I was just not exploring them. Of course I still have to go to the store and buy certain staples that didn’t come in my box. But I just simply love having my refrigerator stocked with veggies and fruits week after week and once I have them at the house, we eat them. Whereas for the last couple of months, I was buying fruits and vegetables of course because that is the main source of our diet, but I was actually being more repetitive when I was choosing them for myself, getting less variety (meaning less sources of nutrients) and always trying to remember what we would get in the first place. I feel like I have reconnected with my greens again and it feels wonderful!

But best of all… I discovered that I love having vegetables in my home that I did not choose at the store. WHY??? Because it forces us to use that vegetable before it spoils, and therefore look for recipes around that vegetable. That has proved easier for us than choosing a recipe and buying vegetables for that recipe. With 2 kids, 1 on the way, and work…we don’t have time to sit in front of a computer and browse through random recipes. But what is easier is googling – “eggplant recipes” and finding something that fits with our lifestyle.

And that is where our Ratatouille was born!! Ratatouille is basically a baked dish of layered vegetables. Yesterday we had an eggplant sitting in the fridge from our box last week (one of the only remaining vegetables in the fridge) and I told Orlando we had to use it. He browsed some recipes and decided to make the Ratatouille. Luckily we also had Shitake mushrooms from the last box and got heirloom tomatoes in the new box…ingredients that go into ratatouille. As usual, Orlando took what he liked from different recipes and came up with this…

Here is the recipe:

1 large Onion (sliced)
1 large eggplant (skin-on and in 1/2 inch cubes)
2 or 3 large tomatoes (thinly sliced)
2 cups mushrooms (sliced)
2 or 3 zuchinni (evenly sliced in rounds)
6 cloves of garlic (chopped)
salt/pepper
olive oil
parmesan cheese
1/2 large red bell pepper (chopped)
1/2 large green bell pepper (chopped)

Instructions:
– Preheat the oven to 375
– Chop and slice the veggies
– Saute the onion, mushrooms, and bell peppers in little olive oil adding salt and pepper
Make sure to not saute for too long. We are just trying to cook them down a bit, we don’t want them caramelized. I’d say 5 min max. Then set aside in a bowl.
– Now saute the eggplant in olive oil for about 8 minutes. The eggplant tends to soak in the oil, but don’t go over-board with olive oil either. Then when the 8 minutes are up, add the fresh garlic and saute for another 2 minutes. Don’t forget to add salt and pepper while cooking!
-In a baking dish arrange just over half of the eggplant mixture
covering the bottom
-now layer the zuchinni slices on top like you are making a lasagna
-lightly oil and salt the zuchinni
-Now do the same with the tomato slices. Layer them on top of the zuchinni slices covering the top like you are making a lasagna. Add Salt and pepper to the tomatoes.
-Now layer the onion, mushroom, and pepper mixture on top of the tomatoes.
– Add a nice bit of parmesan atop the mixture
– layer remaining eggplant
– layer remaining zuchinni
– layer remaining tomatoes
– layer remaining onion mixture
– Add parmesan
– Place foil on top and bake for 45 minutes

We served this on whole wheat cous cous, but I think that quinoa or millet would be great too. The texture of the cous cous was awesome with the veggies.The cooking time on this dish is 45 minutes, which is a long time…but Orlando says that its not a labor intensive meal because there aren’t that many ingredients. I would suggest, if you are pressed for time, preparing it on a Sunday night so that you only have to put it in the oven the next day. I loved it so much I can’t wait to have it for lunch today and give it to the boys for dinner!

We hope you can enjoy it as much as we did!

Superfood Monday Smoothie

Happy Monday to all!!!!! So today is the day where the grand majority of us started our regular routines again. Kids are back in school, we are back to work and 2013 is in full effect. Orlando and I were committed to starting today with a bang. It is incredible how just a little organization and planning makes one feel so much better prepared for the day to come. For example, we made sure we went to bed early in order to get a good night’s rest, had the house clean, picked up the drycleaning, did the groceries…all those little details put us in a great mental state and that made all the difference.

As you know I’m in charge of breakfast and lunch so I wanted to power up Orlando, myself and the kids with a superfood smoothie.

We buy a superfood called PURE SYNERGY. What does it have…. almost anything healthy you can imagine from algae such as spirulina, chlorella, kelp to fruits, vegetables and herbs such as kale, collard, wheat grass, sage, rosemary… and the list goes on. It is exactly what it purports to be…SUPERFOOD! and it is a brand we trust.

So this morning I made the following recipe:

SUPERFOOD SMOOTHIE
1/2 Quart almond milk
1 tbsp of PURE SYNERGY Superfood
1 tbsp of cocoa powder
1/2 avocado
1/2 banana
4 drops of stevia

I have bought a green superfood from Whole foods also called Green Vibrance that I think is great. I know the smoothie sounded to me a bit more adventurous than most people are comfortable with but I think its totally worth trying. So I urge you to try it if you dare!!!!! Your body will thank you for it!

I finally mastered the art of making Quinoa!

Friends, learning to make that perfect Quinoa has been a long process for me. My husband is the chef. That’s just the way things are. But I have certain responsibilities in the kitchen, simply because I have to feed my children usually before he gets home. So making Quinoa has fallen square on my shoulders. Since that is the type of food that is made in larger quantities, Orlando usually uses “my” cooked Quinoa for his recipes. And its always something. Its too bland, or  too mushy, or too hard…I just hadn’t quite tweaked it. Until now!!!! I finally figured out what I had been doing wrong!!!!!!! YAY!!!!

Here is the issue…certain quinoa boxes will tell you to add 2 cups of water per cup of quinoa, others will tell you 1 1/2. Some Quinoa recipes recommend rinsing the quinoa and others don’t. I read about it and feel that you should rinse your Quinoa because it contains Saponin – and that creates a bitter taste. When you rinse it you remove that thin layer of Saponin that it has.

But if you add 2 cups of water after rinsing the Quinoa…now you’ve got yourself some mushy quinoa!!! Too much or too little water creates a huge problem for those little grains and of course, I have fallen victim to both scenarios! Until now!

So here is my perfected Quinoa recipe. 

  • 2 cups of Quinoa
  • Rinse quinoa in water and drain the water as best as you can
  • then add about 1 cup of water or chicken broth (I like broth better) per cup of Quinoa.  When I say about 1 cup its because I put in a generous cup – more than 1 cup but less than 1 1/2. But somewhere in that range.
  • Add whatever you want – carrots, zucchini, peas, garlic cloves, cinnamon stick, raisins, broccoli …any veggie you want.
  • Bring to a boil
  • Put a tight lid on and bring to a simmer for 15 minutes – and DO NOT OPEN THAT LID AGAIN!!!!! Let it cook!!!!! When it beeps, you will have a fluffy Quinoa. AT LAST!

My husband made the Fried Quinoa with kimchee recipe the other day at home and actually told me that the Quinoa was cooked perfectly! But I didn’t make enough so he asked me to make 1 more cup… I was scared my success was a one time wonder but sure enough the second batch came out as good as the first! The recipe came out so spectacular that we may actually post a take 2 round of this recipe because Orlando tried it for the first time on video with you all and now he has really perfected it. So keep your eyes peeled!

NOTE:  I couldn’t end this post without elaborating a little bit more on adding veggies to your Quinoa. It is not necessary to do so, however, I strongly believe you should never pass up the opportunity to pile on veggies to your meals.  Especially, if you are a beginner eating vegetables, or just aren’t so crazy about them…. chopping them up into little pieces and adding them to things like Quinoa makes them an insignificant part of the meal from a taste perspective…but all their fiber and nutrients and minerals are making a significant impact in your body. So, be bold. Add vegetables any where you can. Your eggs, your pizza, your quinoa….aim to have at least 1 vegetable with every meal. You won’t regret it, and you may even start liking them if you don’t already!!!!!!!!!!!! Never stop PILING ON THE GREENS!

Simple, Fast and Delicious Healthy Dinner Recipe

Once a week, usually on Mondays, but this week yesterday, Orlando calls me on his way home from work and says, I feel like eating something quick and easy tonight with little mess. This is music to my ears, because as lucky I am that Orlando cooks…the mess he leaves in the kitchen is no joke!!!!! So we have developed this simple staple that is just so easy to make and absolutely divine!

A nice piece of fish of your choosing
cauliflower mash
asparagus and leeks sauteed

VOILA!

This is really no different than a classic American meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans or something like that. And for those of you who do not eat seafood, you can replace the fish with chicken of course…

But as boring as it may sound or look, the dish has flavors that blow me away and leave me completely satisfied. And let’s quickly touch up on the health benefits of the dish:

Our dish consisted of 3 non starchy vegetables and 1 lean protein with lots of omega 3 fatty acids. The seasonings used were kosher salt (less sodium than table salt and equivalent to sea salt), pepper, marsala wine (very little used and heat evaporates most of the sugar it contains), organic unsalted butter (much healthier than margarine or any fake butter), coconut oil (good source of fat), and lemon to drizzle on top of the fish (lemon is helpful for digestion and cleansing your body).

It is so healthy and satisfying that I just had to share it! Now, for the preparation:

Yesterday Orlando opted for HOGFISH. We love to buy our fish from a little market across the street called Captain’s Tavern. They sell wonderful fresh fish and the quality is spectacular. Caveat...I have never found wild salmon there so for the days we choose wild salmon we buy at Publix or Whole Foods depending on the better deal!

Orlando seasons it with a little salt and pepper and sazon completo and grills it on our handy little griddle. The griddle is great because he puts all the fish on there at the same time and they cook in about 7-8 minutes.

He used our basic cauliflower mash recipe – although he did do a variation this time that I thought I should share. Instead of adding milk which he normally does, he decided to use the water that the cauliflower was boiled in. The taste and texture still came out delicious but it is a much healthier alternative because you are eliminating milk and adding all the nutrients from the cauliflower that escaped into the water. I encourage you to try this variation!

And with the veggies he chopped them up and sautéed them in a pan over a little coconut oil seasoned with salt, pepper for about 8 minutes and a medium high temperature. When the bottom starts crusting he likes to deglaze the pan with a little marsala wine for 3 more minutes.

And of course as an added benefit…. since he made the fish on the griddle, he made over a pound of it and extra cauliflower mash so the kids will have a delicious dinner tonight!!!! As usual, since the veggies are the star in our meals, there was nothing left of those so I’ll have to whip up some green veggies for the kids!!!

Fearless Friday Pizza

Hello all!  Sorry I couldn’t get to last week’s Fearless Friday meal, but this pizza will more than make up for it.  We mentioned the cauliflower pizza a few months ago on the blog, and I thought this would be the perfect time to give you the recipe for a weekend treat.  This pizza has no flour at all!  The crust is mainly cauliflower and fat-free cheese.  The raw “dough” is EXTREMELY sticky, so don’t even think about doing this if you don’t have parchment paper handy.  You can buy it at any store in the same section where you find the aluminum foil.  If you do it on foil (or anything else for that matter) the pizza will stick and be inedible!!!

The first time I made this pizza I failed miserably (see sticky-problem above).  Then one day Caro told me she was in the mood for some homemade guacamole.  We searched high and low for crackers or bread to dip, but we didn’t have either at the house.  I told Caro that this may be a good time to make the crust, break it into pieces, and dip in the guacamole.

I made the crust and thought to myself, “do I dare make a guacamole pizza?”  And that is exactly what I did.  You can put any toppings you want on this crust, but the guacamole pizza was awesome.  I’ll give you the recipe for the crust and the guacamole and you decide for yourself what toppings you want.

GUACAMOLE:

  •                     3 Haas avocados (peeled and mashed)
  •                     1 lime  juiced
  •                     salt and pepper
  •                     2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  •                     2 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
  •                     1 teaspoon minced garlic
  •                     1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)
  •                      1/2 a Jalapeno (optional)

Just mash it all up together.  You can use a blender, but don’t over-blend.  We still want some chunks in there.

CRUST: 1/2 LARGE head cauliflower (or 2+ cups shredded cauliflower) 1 large egg 1 cup low-fat (skim) shredded mozzarella cheese 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon dried minced garlic (or fresh garlic) 1/2 teaspoon onion salt

TOPPINGS: The same mozzarella listed above and whatever toppings you choose (try my guacamole for God’s sakes!!!)

Directions:

1.  Shred the cauliflower into small crumbles.  You can use the food processor if you’d like, but you just want crumbles, not puree.  You want them to look like rice.  In fact, the process is called “ricing” the cauliflower.

2.  Prepare the crust:  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place parchment paper on top of a cookie sheet and spray nonstick spray on it.  In a medium bowl, mix the cauliflower crumbles with the remaining crust ingredients.  Pat the “crust” into a 9 to 12-inch round on the prepared pan.  Spray the crust lightly with nonstick spray and bake for 15 minutes (or until golden).  Remove the crust from the oven and turn the heat up to broil.  Why, you ask?  Because the crust is already cooked.  We are broiling only to melt the cheese on top of your pizza.  Remember to leave the oven door open when broiling!!!  You want to keep a close eye on it so it doesn’t burn.

3.  Prepare the pizza:  Spread the guacamole or tomato sauce on top of the baked crust, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge.  Sprinkle 1/4-1/2 cup cheese on top (plus any toppings you choose)  Broil the pizza 3 to 4 minutes, or until the the cheese is melted and bubbly.  Cut into 6 slices and serve immediately.

Cauliflower crust with Guacamole Pizza

There you have it!  This pizza is awesome and isn’t hard to make at all.  The guacamole is even easier.  Enjoy the your weekend and please give us feedback to let us know your thoughts.