Cucumber, Tomato & Goat Cheese Salad

It's health. It can be a snack or a lunch. And it's ma fave. I love simple recipes that can be tweaked to a persons liking and this recipe is one if many, so I figured I'd share it! 

Also, I consider this recipe paleo friendly. We have been practicing what I dub a "pretty much paleo" diet, where the only slight exception is some soft cheeses such as goat cheese and occasionally feta in very limited amounts.

Ingredients:
Greens -- can be kale, spinach, lettuce -- get creative
1/2 Cucumber -- I had half leftover from the night before
~1 cup Tomatoes
1 tablespoon Goat cheese or Feta
1/2 tablespoon Olive oil
Salt/ Pepper to taste

Directions:
Chop the veggies up & mix everything together-- couldn't be simpler. Also, feel free to add protein of choice, be it shredded chicken, tofu or left over grass-fed, organic hotdog from your tiny humans lunch.

Homemade Strawberry Fruit Snacks

I've been wanting to make my own fruit snacks for a while now, and finally did. I honestly don't know what took me so long-- they were incredibly easy to make & taste delicious! 

As a family, we have started a new food venture based primarily on the Paleo diet. I'm just sick of everything we buy at the grocery store containing a bunch of unnecessary additives and ingredients which were never meant to be put into, nor digested by, the human body. I could turn this into a twenty page rant about our food market and the food industry, but alas, I shall just continue to complain and interject my opinions whenever I see fit. (Let me know if you want more info about the Paleo diet and/or if you would like to hear my food tirades and I will gladly oblige.)

So the fruit snacks I usually buy have so many unnecessary ingredients it blows my mind. The fruit snacks I made have four. Fricken. Four. Ingredients.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups Strawberries (can be fresh, frozen or any other type of berry)
1/2 cup Lemon Juice (can be fresh, or from a bottle)
2 tbs Honey
1/2 cup Gelatin

Directions:
Heat lemon juice and strawberries on medium low heat until the strawberries are soft (note: frozen fruit also works in this recipe). Then puree fruit in a blender and let sit until cool (about 5 mins). Whisk in honey & gelatin, but whisk gelatin in small amounts to avoid clumping. Pour into silicone mold (silicone ice cube molds would make fun shapes) or pour into baking dish lined with parchment paper. Let setup in refrigerator for about 2 hours. Remove from mold and cut into fun shapes/squares/use your imagination. 

Pictorial process:

 

Homemade Chili

This past week the whole fam-bam has been under the weather. Guess it's just that time of year. Besides the usual sloth-like activities of laying on the couch, watching movies and complaining about how sick we all feel, I decided it would be nice for some home cooked soup. Instead of the usual chicken noodle, I decided to cook up some vegetarian chili. We are big chili lovers in this house, minus Olin-- he pretty much hates food.. all food. Seriously, most picky tiny human ever. He doesn't even like the good stuff like cake or ice cream or, and here's the kicker, bacon!? I mean really kid?.... Anyway, chili. 

Ingredients (I really never measure anything so just play around with the measurements. It's pretty hard to mess this up):

2 tbsp butter
half an onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 bag frozen green beans
1 whole bag frozen sw vegetable mix (or something with some corn, peppers, beans etc. in it)
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
2 cans diced tomatos
1 can tomato paste
either 3 tbsp better than bouillon + 2 cups of water OR 2 cups vegetable broth (I was out of broth so I used the bouillon)

Spices (to taste):
salt
pepper
onion powder
garlic powder
coriander
chili powder
paprika
cumin

Directions:
Saute diced onion in butter on medium heat in large pot for about 10 minutes. Toss in diced garlic and saute for about a minute. Add water + bouillon (or broth) then all canned stuff and frozen vegetables. Increase heat to high. Start seasoning with various spices until suitable to your taste. When it starts boiling, reduce heat to medium low, cover and let simmer for 35 minutes. Check the thickness and taste. I always add more spices at this point because some of the flavor cooks down. If you want, cook for another 15-20 minutes for a thicker chili.

Optional: Add chese. Because, in my opinion, everything is better with a little cheese.

Pictorial process:

Herb-Rubbed Salmon W/ Bell Pepper & Onion

Herb-rubbed salmon with bell pepper & onion. As made/created by Matt.

Ingredients:
salmon
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1/2 green bell pepper - chopped
1/4 onion - chopped

Seasonings:
lemon pepper with herbs
coriander
cumin
ground ginger
salt
pepper
garlic salt
thyme
pre-mixed seafood melody of herbs

Directions: Let salmon sit on counter for 20 mins to remove chill & reducing cooking time (Matt says: 'some website said to do that'). Heat oven to 475 degrees.  Rub salmon with herbs to taste (basically, it's guestimation work here). Cover with chopped green onions. Place butter & mayonnaise in oven safe dish. Put dish in oven for 5 minutes. Take out dish, place chopped onion and bell pepper on top of melted mayo and butter. Place salmon (herb side down) on top of everything. Bake salmon for 5 minutes. Take out, then peel skin off. If skin does not easily peel off, put back in oven for 2 additional minutes. Then salt and pepper back side of salmon, flip it over and bake for 5 more minutes. Take out and enjoy melt-in-your-mouth salmon! 

Add lemon wedges for additional flavoring to the salmon and a side salad. Serve with Grenache Rose wine, which goes great with fish.

Pictorial process:

Recovering From Our Vacation

Warning: I complain a lot in this post. I didn't mean to!, but after re-reading everything, I realized I was a bit of a whiny-Wendy or cranky-Cathy or some other sort of slightly annoying name/person/alliteration.

This past week I feel like I've been in recovery mode. Our vacation was fantastic, but it wasn't exactly the reprieve from life that I though it would be. Vacations, at least our family vacations, tend to be fun-filled, exciting & activity packed-- relaxation doesn't ever seem to play much of a part. 
So, this week its been really hard to focus on, or want to do, well, anything. Blogging, work, housework, tiny humans... whatever, I just want to sleep & read books all day. I guess if you count avoiding all those things & whining about not accomplishing them as activities, then I really accomplished a lot! In short, me = bum. 
For whatever reason today I finally awoke from my post vacation slumber and became a functioning(relative term) human! Hooray! We actually have been doing quite a bit (more than sleeping & reading) this past week and I did some photo documenting to prove that, yes, I did in fact put on more than just pajamas this week... I may have even utilized my brain. 

We went to the Street of Dreams in West Linn. The houses were great, don't get me wrong, but why build huge houses, with such detail and expensive amenities, in a suburban neighborhood on tiny lots? These houses would make me die from envy, if the neighboring homes weren't like 5 feet away from them. It was still fun looking at such opulently decorated million dollar homes and pretending that one day (after you win the lottery) you could totally have this 15' X 20' closet, or two separate laundry rooms that are both bigger than your current kitchen, or even that elevator! Who even uses stairs when they're that rich anyway, right?

Olin Painted:

And we converted this little nook in our stairway, to his reading/ spy on the neighbors area.

I made this pillow case:

We had a garage sale. Note to self: garage sales are not fun. Both Matt and I have never had a garage sale and were pretty excited to sell some stuff/ make some monies... turns out you just sit a lot, haggle everything down to $1 & are left with a ton of leftovers. I don't much like craigslist, but it's way easier than this garage sale business. 

Then Matt made sushi for the first time. First batch was a little sloppy, but tasted great. Second, third, and fourth batch looked pretty & still tasted delish!

This weeks goal: be better about blogging consistently so I don't make such a hodge-podge post. Also, more doing, less complaining :)

Blueberry & Syrup Muffins + A Few Projects

Yesterday, the tiny humans demanded blueberry cupcakes. While I don't cater to their every whim, sometimes I don't mind making them a little treat. This past week I also finally painted this little shelf we wanted to use to display our "family", which consists of mostly wind-up toys we collect from our adventuring. And I even busted out (turned on) the sewing machine for my first sewing project! 

We are going on vacation this next week (P.S. : I'm taking a week hiatus!) and I haven't been buying that much food stuff so it doesn't just sit & go bad while we are away. So basically I didn't have much to work with to make these blueberry cupcakes. Also, I didn't want to make cupcakes, I wanted to make more of a muffin.
First, I was out of eggs, but had some egg replacer left over from trying to cook egg-free for Matts brother. Second, I only had white flour (left over from making play-doh), which I always try to sub out for whole wheat, so I was stuck with that precessed white stuff. Third, I had a 1/2 cup of apple sauce left in a jar in the fridge that I wanted to incorporate & I didn't want to use too much sugar, so I tried adding just the applesauce and syrup. While that gave them a yummy taste, it made them really moist and I still ended up adding a little sugar.

Blueberry & syrup muffin ingredients:
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup syrup
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 egg whites, or egg replacer
1/2 cup blueberries

Directions: Mix all ingredients, pour into greased pan, bake in 350 degree oven for 15-20 mins.

Pictorial process:

Here is the little shelf I finally painted. Before, our "family" of wind up toys was hidden, sitting on our book shelf. Now they are on full display. I ALWAYS try to use what we have on hand for projects, even if it means slight improvisation (see: blueberry muffins). I had this almost full can of spray paint left over from a previous project that we will prob. never use again, so I used it to paint the wooden shelf. Well, it says 'special purpose', 'for metals'. Pssh, whatever, I used it on the wood and it worked just fine!

This was my first sewing project with my new (hand-me-down-from-my-mother-in-law) sewing machine. I made a flag banner-- at least I'm pretty sure that's what it's called. It is pretty messy, but it was a good project for fiddling around with the new machine and making something easy & whimsy.

Now we're off to Leavenworth, Washington for another family adventure! Hope you all have a good weekend & week!

3 Day Juice Fast

I've both succeeded and failed at juice fasts in the past, but every time I do one I feel great afterwards. This time I'm doin' a short 3 day juice fast just to get my body/ energy levels in tip-top shape. I am however, drinking a protein smoothie(like the one in my previous post) to give me a much needed boost of energy throughout the day and I DO plan on drinking wine tomorrow evening (girls night woot!). 
Maaaaybe this is really more of a 'liquid' fast, but even so, I know it will make me feel good and even with the glass of wine (probably two) that I may have this weekend, I still consider it a fast. 
I made enough juice to last three days because, while it really isn't that time consuming to make it every day, when you wake up with two kids it becomes difficult to take the time to prep, make, and clean up after juicing. Also, these mason jars keep the juice fresh and delicious for at least three days. The juice may stay fresh longer, but I've only experimented with three days. If the juice is left in a non air-tight container, the nutrients in the juice break down and the juice doesn't taste as good.
I made four types of juice: one for breakfast, lunch, a snack and dinner. 


Breakfast juice (this is my fave): apples, carrots, romaine lettuce, & strawberries.


Lunch juice: red bell pepper, peaches, apple, carrots, & strawberries.


Snack juice: oranges, apples, & strawberries.. yumm!


Dinner juice: cucumber, romaine lettuce, apple, carrots

If your skeptical about juicing, good, you should be. A fast, just like any other diet, is something that should be researched, understood and one should only partake in a fast for the right reasons. I have talked to my doctor about juice fasts and fasting in general, and only after getting his consent & advice, did I decide to do one.
Personally I love the benefits of fasting and how I feel during and after any kind of fast, but to each his own. :)

Yummy Lunch Smoothie

This delish green smoothie was my lunch today. It's a VERY simple, healthy and easy recipe. 

Normally I use my (vita-mix) to completely blend (pulverize) the ingredients in my smoothies, but when I'm feelin' a little lazy and don't want to clean all the parts of the vita-mix, I just use my handy-dandy Magic Bullet. The texture isn't necessarily the same-- the vita-mix just blends things so well and makes smoothies, well, really smooth-- but either way the drink turns out pretty darn delicious. This smoothie is packed with protein and gives me a great mid-day boost.

Ingredients (Amounts should and will change based on the amount of smoothie you want to make. Mine only yielded about a cup and a half):

1/2 cup Almond milk

2 tablespoon peanut butter

1 tablespoon honey

1 cup spinach

1/2 a container greek yogurt

1 small frozen banana

Directions: Blend all ingredients in mixer. Consume. 

Vita-mix (optional):

 Pictorial process:

Easy-peasy pistachio pudding

When I don't have that much time... or money... or desire to cook and I need a dish to take to a friends barbecue or family gathering, I usually make this SUPER easy and delicious pudding. And that's just what I did for my friends birthday/ housewarming party this past weekend. My grandma brought this to thanksgiving every year when I was little and I always loved it! I really do love to cook and bake, but sometimes I just want to whip something easy up and with this recipe you literally just combine the ingredients together-- no waiting, baking, frying or basically anything-ing.


What you need:


2 packages pistachio pudding
1 can fruit cocktail
2-3 cups marshmallows
2 cups milk
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1-2 cups whipped cream (optional)


** to make slightly healthier (this is a liberal use of the word) use almond milk and freshly chopped fruit


Directions:


Combine dry pudding and milk. Beat for about 1 min. Drain fruit cocktail then add to pudding. Add marshmallows. Add whipped cream. Add chopped walnuts. Mix! The end! So easy!


Pictorial directions:


What you need (minus walnuts and whipped cream):

Combined pic:

Enjoy!