Kale and White Bean Soup

Kale and White Bean Soup

I feel like I haven't shared enough vegetarian recipes with you guys, at least not as a full meal. My daughter is just beginning to appreciate veggies the way my husband and I do...thank God, I was beginning to worry she would be one of those kids who would refuse everything green. But somehow, and by the grace of god she has taken to eating veggies. While I was making this she kept reaching up to steal pieces of carrots! It made my heart leap with every bite she took! She loves this soup, and I love that she loves it, because it's nothing but veggies!

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Total time: 35-40 minutes

Ingredients:
1 bushel of organic kale, sliced thinly
1 cup of shallots, chopped
1 cup of carrots, cubed
1 cup of celery, cubed
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
3/4 cup of white wine Sauvignon Blanc
4 cups of vegetable stock
1.5 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of thyme
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil
15 oz can of Organic white beans, drained and rinsed

Directions: Heat the oil on medium heat, add garlic, shallots, celery, and carrots, cook until tender,

add in thyme and kale, sauté for 5 minutes.

Add in the wine, vegetable stock and beans, bring to a boil and cook until greens are tender about 15 minutes. Add in lemon juice,  adjust the seasoning with sea salt and black pepper, serve and enjoy

Ramen Momofuku Style and Gluten Free

D.I.Y. Ramen

Is it weird that I'm not a big fan of pasta, but that I love ramen? I'm not talking about cup o noodles here, but growing up I had my fair share of those, I'm talking about a rich and flavorful  bowl of ramen. The kind of ramen one might get at David Changs Momofuku Noodle bar in New York.  The kind of ramen people wait in line for, only I don't want to wait in line. The beginning and end of any ramen--a good one anyway--is the broth! Without the foundation of a good broth, ramen is... well just ramen in water! The best way to get a good broth without spending hours in the kitchen is to use a pressure cooker. Pressure cookers aren't as popular as crock pots, but in my opinion they should be! Other than cooking something slowly on the stove for hours, there is just no other way to get the amount of flavor you do from something cooked in a pressure cooker. You get out what you put into a pressure cooker, all the nutrients stay in the pot, they don't cook out, unlike when you cook on the stove top, or in a slow cooker---the nutrients escape out during cooking through steam.  What's better is that it takes less time to do it than both stove top cooking and crock pot cooking! I like to think that my pressure cooker provides the best of both worlds, the flavor of something cooked for hours on a stove, and the ease of non-active cooking--ie ability to throw a bunch of ingredients in a pot, leave it for an hour and come back to the finished product, lazy cooking at its best!

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
1lb of Organic chicken thighs, I used boneless, but a bone never hurt a good broth
1 large brown onion
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar
1 bushel of organic Dino Kale, chopped roughly
3 large cloves of garlic chopped
1 10oz package of Organic Rice ramen, I used Lotus Food brand it's gluten free.
1 tablespoon of olive oil or ghee
1/2 cup of fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes
7.5 cups of water

Directions: Heat the oil then add the chicken. IMPORTANT: Let it brown, do not move it, let it cook for 3-4 on one side before turning it. This browning makes a tremendous amount of difference between a broth that's good, and a broth that's great! Once brown turn over and add the onion, garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar.  Cook for another 4 minutes, then add the water. Bring to a boil, then cover and seal your pressure cooker, and let cook on medium heat for 45-50 minutes undisturbed. If you're doing this on the stove top, without a pressure cooker, bring to a boil, cover and cook for 1.5 hours checking broth levels after an hour. At the 50 minute mark, turn off the fire, and depressurize your pressure cooker according to manufacturers instructions, remove the lid, add in the kale, turn the fire back on to medium, cover and seal the pressure cooker again. Let cook for 7 minutes, depressurize the cooker again.remove the lid, turn the fire back on, add the noodles, and cook for additional 4 minutes, add red pepper flakes and fresh cilantro, turn the fire off serve and enjoy!

Charbroiled Sardines with Parsley and Thyme.

Charbroiled Sardines with Parsley and Thyme

It's not often here that I can walk up to my local Whole Foods Market fish counter and get fresh sardines. So when the opportunity to do so  occurred, I jumped at it.  I am a huge fan of small sustainable fish, like sardines, and smelt.  I'll even go out on a limb and say that I like smelt fish more than sardines, but smelt fish are even harder to come by than fresh sardines.  If you've never made fresh sardines before, then you have been missing out! They're so easy to make, and so delicious!

Prep Time: 7 minutes

Cook Time: 7-10 minutes

1 pound of fresh Sardines split down the middle

1/2 cup of parsley

1/4 cup thyme

1 clove of garlic

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Sea salt and Black pepper to taste

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 400F.  Line a bake sheet with parchment or foil. Pulse all the ingredients with the exception of the sardines in a small blender or processor. You can skip the processor and opt to chop all the herbs finely and then mix with the oil and lemon. Place the sardines on the lined bake sheet, add the herb mixture to the inside of each sardine. Season with sea salt and black pepper then place in the oven and cook for 7-10 minutes, or until sardines are cooked through and have charred on top a bit. Remove from the oven, serve and enjoy!

Kielbasa and Hash with Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Kielbasa and Hash with Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I have a confession: I've never eaten corn beef and cabbage, or corn beef hash. I haven't a clue what either taste like. I see hash a lot on breakfast menu's when we go out to eat, but I have shied away from ordering it since I didn't know what corned beef was.  I've seen co-workers bring canned hash to work and eat it for lunch, let's just say that it never looked or smelled appetizing! Quite the opposite of appetizing actually. As a result canned hash has become the equivalent to canned spam in my head--an anomaly. I haven't a clue what spam is, and have yet to meet anyone who can enlighten me on what it is. Being that I am the queen of food transparency, and need to know exactly what I'm eating at all times, I  just avoid it altogether. I was discussing wanting to try to make a hash with a friend, and she suggested I try it with an alternative to corned beef. She makes her hash with ground meat or sausage and suggested I do the same. So I decided to try to make hash with kielbasa. I'm so glad I did, it's delicious! I can't believe that I waited so long to try hash.

Ingredients:

12oz of kielbasa cubed

2.5 cups of golden potatoes cubed

3/4 cup of bellpepper diced

3/4 cup of brown onion diced

1 large clove of garlic

1 teaspoon of fresh or dried thyme

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

14oz of brussle sprouts bottom stem removed, and sprout slit down the middle

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with foil and give it a spray of coconut oil or olive oil. Add brussel sprouts, season with sea salt and pepper and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil, cook for 7-10 minutes or until the brussle sprouts brown a bit, remove from oven and set aside. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 5-7 minutes, just until you are able to pierce them with a fork, they should still be very firm, drain and set aside.  Add the kielbasa to a cast iron pan and cook until brown, remove from the skillet with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the onion, garlic, and bell pepper to the skillet with the remaining oil from the Keilbasa, sauté until onion becomes translucent. Add in the potatoes and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and cook until potatoes take on some color (7-10 minutes) add in the browned kielbasa, thyme , sea salt and pepper and toss well. Serve the hash with the Brussel sprouts and enjoy! So yummy!

Do you know what spam is?

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Persian Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Persian Cucumber and Tomato Salad

My daughter has reached a turning point in eating! I have a feeling it has a lot to do with the fact that she her 2 year molars are coming in, which makes things easier to chew. But in the last few weeks we've seen a change in her mindset too. She's taken to saying "to eat is good for you?" Or insert name of food item "is good for you?" If we say yes, then she eats it! I feel like I've struck the mommy lotto because now things she wouldn't consider eating, she's now eating, all because we say it's good for her. One of the things I have been trying to get her to eat, but she never would, is cucumbers. It has been a complete over night shift! She wouldn't touch them before, but now she loves them because they're good for her. She also loves tomatoes, this Persian salad is one of my favorite salads to order when we go out for Persian food. So I thought I'd try it out on her and of course she loved it! I'm not a big fan of onions in my salads, because they tend to over power the rest of the ingredients in a salad. I don't know where I learned this tip, but soaking the onions in water before adding them to things, mellows the onions a bit. I let them sit for 5-10 minutes and drain them before adding them to my salad, the onions still have flavor, but less of a "oh my god I just ate a raw onion" bite! I prefer to use red onion, or shallots in this recipe, but brown onion works just as well.

Prep time: 5-10minutes
Cook time : none

Ingredients:
1 cup Organic  Persian Cucumber cubed
1 cup of organic cherry Tomatoes quartered or halved
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Sea salt to taste
2 tablespoons of red onion finely chopped, soaked in water for ten minutes then drained just before adding them to salad.

Directions:
Add all the ingredients to a bowl toss well and enjoy!

Lamb Lettuce Wraps with Mint Chimmichurri Sauce

Lamb Lettuce Wraps With Mint Chimichurri Sauce

One of my favorite "cook" books is The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. It is my go to book when I need inspiration for a new recipe. If you own it, then you know it's not a cookbook in the traditional sense, because it doesn't contain any recipes. It's more of a reference for exactly what it title states, flavors that work well together. Yesterday I was browsing it for an idea for what I could do with some ground lamb that I needed to make for dinner. It was a hot day here in California--go figure--so I wanted something light and cooling. I opened The Flavor Bible up and landed on Chimichurri and it hit me! Inspiration at it's best!! I decided to make lamb lettuce wraps with a mint Chimichurri! These are DELICIOUS!! My husband raved at every bite! If ground lamb isn't your thing, or you can't get it in your grocery store, try this with ground beef or chicken, the mint Chimichurri sauce will work with either.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
1 lb Lamb
9 leaves of organic Butter lettuce
1 cup of organic Green onion sliced white parts included
3 cloves of garlic minced
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 cup of fresh organic mint chopped

Ingredients for Mint Chimichurri
1/2 cup of flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup of mint
3 tablespoons oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
2 cloves of garlic
Sea salt to taste

Directions:
Place all the ingredients for the Chimmichurri in a blender or processor and blend until smooth, set aside. Heat the tablespoon of oil in a skillet, add garlic, and green onion, toss for 20-30 seconds, then add in ground meat. Season with sea salt and black pepper, and cook until meat is browned and cooked through, add in the mint and toss, remove from the fire.

Scoop meat into lettuce leaves, top with Chimmichurri and enjoy!

Coconut Chocolate Graham Bars

Coconut Chocolate Graham Bars

I've been doing a lot of do it yourself cooking projects lately. I'm compiling all of them into a book which I hope to release soon. I'm always astounded at the things we buy, which could easily be made at home, without the added sugars and preservatives, so writing this book is a product of that fascination. This particular recipe is a combination of several of my diy projects, which I'll be sharing with you all soon. Until then, you can easily buy the ingredients and make these bars in less than 20 minutes.




Ingredients:
1.5 cups of organic sweetened shredded coconut flakes
1.5 cups of condensed milk
1/4 cup of maple sugar or sweetener of your choice
3 cups of finely ground Graham crackers
1.5 sticks of butter melted
8 oz of semi-sweet dark chocolate chopped


Directions:
Pre heat the oven to 375F Add graham crackers, melted butter and sugar to a bowl and mix until the mixture comes together. Line a 8 x 9 inch baking dish with parchment paper and pour the graham mixture out onto it. Press the mixture evenly into the pan and bake until brown about 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Once cooled pour the condensed milk evenly over the top of the graham cracker crust, then sprinkle the chocolate, and lastly top with the coconut. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until the coconut browns, remove let cool and enjoy! These are so delicious that they probably won't last long. This recipe makes 12 bars.

Pineapple Ice Cream

Disney Inspired Pineapple Ice Cream

For my daughters birthday this year we thought it would be great to skip the big birthday bash and instead opt for giving her a birthday experience. We bought a yearly pass to Disneyland and it has been the gift that keeps on giving for all of us. Her face lights up every time we go, and that makes our hearts happy. With the exception of a few food spots in Disney, we have been underwhelmed with eating there. As a result, we always eat before going, but reserve enough of our appetite and money to buy a sweet snack. One of the great sweet snacks, besides fresh fruit, and Beignets, is pineapple whipped ice-cream! In order to get a cup you have to be willing to wait in a line equivalent to a line for waiting to get on a ride. The line is always long, at least 20-30 minutes long, but it is definitely worth the wait. My daughter is a lot like me, she loves the ice cream, but not the wait. I decided to try my hand at making my own version of Disneyland's pineapple delight. Let me tell you, this recipe has taught me a lot about enzymes and cream. My first go around with this recipe was a bitter experience. I mean that literally. The ice cream had this strongly bitter taste and I had no idea why. Aside from the bitterness the ice cream was delicious, so I set out to figure out why. It turns out that three things I did could have contributed to the bitterness. On the first test of this recipe, I created a custard, poured it into an aluminum bowl to cool, but added the pineapple immediately to the hot mixture. In my research as to why my custard turned bitter, I found that the enzymes in pineapple react with cream and create a bitter taste. Furthermore,  the enzymes in pineapple, mixed with hot cream and left to sit in aluminum can also cause a bitter result. So the second time I made this, I poured my hot custard into a tempered glass bowl, let it cool to room temperature, and then added my pineapple. The result was perfectly creamy pineapple ice cream with not an ounce of bitterness. I should say that the bitterness in the first batch did dissolve with each day the ice cream stayed in the freezer, by the 4th day it wasn't bitter at all. So in theory you could make it either way and have an bitter free experience, but who wants to wait 5 days to eat ice cream?

Ingredients:
5 egg yolks 
1 1/4 cup of maple sugar, or sweetener of your choice you may need more or less depending on which sweetener you choose. 
1/8 teaspoon of sea salt
1 cup of crushed pineapple with its juices ( note I blended fresh pineapple in my blender but you can use canned)
1.5 cup of whole milk
2 cups of heavy cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract


If you don't have an ice cream maker you'll need:
1 quart size Ziploc bag
1 one gallon Ziploc bag
2 1/2 cups of ice
1/2 cup of salt


Directions: 
In a medium bowl, beat together the yolks, and your sweetener of choice. You can beat by hand using a whisk, or use a hand mixer. Beat until thoroughly smooth and creamy. (A couple of minutes by hand.) If you're using maple syrup, or agave, the mixture comes together quite quickly. Heat the milk, cream vanilla extract and the sea salt on low heat until just before it simmers. Remove from heat, then slowly whisk 1 cup of the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture to temper it. Return the still warm cream mixture to low heat and slowly whisk in the tempered egg mixture, until well combine. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, then poor into a tempered glass bowl, or a plastic BPA free bowl. Allow to cool to room temperature, then add in crushed pineapple . You can process this in your I cream maker right away, or cover it and refrigerate it overnight to allow the flavors to meld, as I did. If you don't own an ice cream maker you can still make this,  by placing 1 cup of your cooled mixture into the 1 quart sized zip lock bag and seal it. It is very important that the cream mixture is cold when using this method, so try to let it cool for at least 3 hours before trying this method. Next pour the ice and salt into the 1 gallon ziplock bag. Place the bag with the cream mixture into the bag with ice and salt and seal. Make sure neither bag has any excess air. Now here comes the work. Shake the bag until the mixture becomes solid, at least 5-10 minutes, serve and enjoy!