Spice, zest, tart, and sweet — the perfect bite. And with good salmon, it is truly perfection. This sriracha salmon recipe is from Gwyneth Paltrow and is a must make. Although I have had the cookbook for years, I had never made the salmon until this week. And in six days, I made it twice. OOPS. But so good. Make it, trust me.
Ingredients:
A new year and a new dedication to eating green! I love having homemade salad dressing in the fridge as an easy snack, and this recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow is one that I make frequently — so delicious and easy. A must make and a must eat!
Ingredients:
The only difficult part of this recipe is buying all 0f the ingredients for it.
THIS DRESSING IS SO GOOD THAT I WANT TO DRINK IT LIKE A SMOOTHIE OR SLURP IT LIKE A SOUP. If you like carrots and ginger, then you must make this dressing STAT. It takes a whole whopping five minutes and requires little work (just some obscure ingredients), so make it, and thank me later.
Ingredients
I always crave sweets right after Halloween, but instead of grabbing a Snickers (which are so delicious), I decided to make nut butter chocolate truffles with no sugar. They turned out absolutely delicious and I highly recommend making them. SO GOOD. Plus, once you make them, you put them in your freezer so you can have a stash for a long time!
TRUFFLES! Healthy ones!
Last week, I had a Mexican themed dinner and made the most delicious corn quinoa salad! It was cheese-less, oil-less, but full of flavor, spunk, color, and taste. You must make it — even if you don’t like quinoa or corn, make it! (I served it along with a green salad, kale-chicken enchiladas, and salsa….yum!)
When I cook, I am a mess. But then I clean up. And hello tequila in the background. You must serve tequila when eating Mexican food.
This summer, we have gone to lots of local Oregon farms to pick our own fruit. The best trip was to the raspberry farm, when we came home with 9 pounds. I wanted to make a raspberry crisp but couldn’t find a recipe anywhere, so I improvised and made my own! It was so good that I made not one, not two, but THREE! This recipe is low sugar, tart, but oh-so-good.
First, you pick.
Toosh is officially my picking partner. She never wants to leave.
OK, this is the easiest recipe EVER, but it is so good that I have been re-creating it (or some variation) for the past several weeks. Lunch, snack, dinner, WHATEVER…. I have even eaten it for breakfast! What is it? Basically, roasted veggie with pine nuts, goat cheese, olive oil and salt. I know, glamorous and sophisticated recipe, right?
So green, so good.
I love crock pots and how you set it and forget it. So this past weekend, when I was able to think straight and could organize a meal 8 hours before dinner time, I found a recipe for a healthy Chicken Tikka Masala from Well and Good. It was super easy, delicious, and healthy.
The dinner.
Inspired by What’s Gaby Cooking, I have been making a raw brussels sprout kale salad weekly. Basically, it is shaved brussels sprouts, finely chopped kale, and a variety of nut and fruit to give it some JAZZ.
What would I do without KALE?
Almond and peanut free! Sugar free! Gluten free! Baking free! SOLD. And even better — they taste divine.
Finished product.
This past week, I made the most delicious and healthy banana chips. These are both satisfying and sweet with no sugar whatsoever (other than the banana itself). The only issue is that we ate them so fast that now I need to make more!
Scrumptious banana chip!
My new favorite green salad dressing — better than green goddess as it has no dairy or mayo. A must try! Super easy and delicious. A great way to start the new year — fresh and green.
Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
* 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
* 1 cup fresh parsley leaves
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 1 tablespoon white vinegar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* juice of 1/4 a lemon
Directions:
Green leaves!!!
I love chocolate cookies, but even more, I love ginger cookies. So when I stumbled upon ginger-molasses-healthy cookies on goop, I knew I had to make them. Shockingly, I followed every single ingredient and step, but they miserably failed (turned into liquid and melted all together). So, the next day, I altered the recipe, and now they are perfection. Sweet, chewy, not not overly sugar-y, spicy, and peppery. NOTE: You must refrigerate the cookies for at least 12 hours, so you have to think ahead in terms of timing.
End result: spicy perfection. I am giving myself a high five because the second time around, they were absolutely perfect.
As I mentioned last week, my new favorite cookbook is “Run Fast Eat Slow” by Olympian Shalane Flanagan — I literally can’t get enough of it. My most recent obsession is the “Superhero muffins,” as I have made four batches in the past two weeks (no joke). They are moist, filling, sweet, delicious, and healthy. And refined-sugar and gluten free. And they make you feel like a superhero.
Run Fast. Eat Slow. (Not Run Slow, Eat Fast). Basically, all you need in life is a stick of butter and some veggies.
The other morning when I was at my good friend’s house, she had just pulled banana bread out of the oven (how she makes banana bread while dealing with two kids on a school morning amazes me to no end!). She offered a piece, and although I had already eaten breakfast, I couldn’t say no. And HOLY crap, this was the best banana bread ever. Thankfully, she sent me the recipe and here it is!
This is how I bake….6:30 am on a Sunday morning, in my pajamas, totally disheveled, with my little baking partner (my 4 year old), and flour all over myself. But at least I am wearing FEATHERS undies. (I promise you this photo was not staged — Ken took a photo of me because he said it looked ridiculous with the hand print).
Ingredients:
With a flat of blueberries in our house from our local CSA, I went on a hunt to find the best blueberry pie recipe. That said, searching “best blueberry pie” on the internet does not necessarily lead to the best blueberry pie, especially when I add words such as “low sugar” or “healthy.” So instead, I went the old fashioned route and asked a friend for a recipe. Needless to say, this much more experienced baker (read ‘older’) instantly emailed me her go-to-blueberry crisp recipe. So I made it (but of course, with some minor adjustments) and IT IS SO DELICIOUS.
The result.
Ingredients for Crumb Crust and Topping:
Inspired by the Flower Crown Gathering and the scrumptious appetizers served, I re-made the basil vinaigrette. It is delicious, healthy, and GREEN!
Ingredients:
Hi all-
Sorry about the hiatus. I had the below post scheduled for Friday, but it didn’t seem right to post anything given all of the craziness going on.
Particularly coming from a mixed-race marriage/family, I wish I had something intelligent / insightful / constructive to say. But all I feel is sadness and helplessness. It feels like we are in a bad movie right now, and my fear is it’s only going to get worse.
The only thing I know I can do is to hug my kids and talk to them about race and everything that is going on. And to pray for all of the families and friends directly affected.
——————————-
Last month, while spending a weekend with dear friends, I was served (lucky me) the most scrumptious broccoli I have ever eaten in my life. I didn’t care that there was anything else being served, the broccoli was TO-DIE-FOR. It was a grilled broccoli recipe from Barefoot Contessa. Here it is.
A green forest
Last week, we ventured to a nearby farm to harvest raspberries and cherries. Not only was it a family fun activity, but we also brought home pounds and pounds of fresh fruit. We made (although the term “we” actually doesn’t include “me”) cherry cobbler and cherry pie. I made raspberry chia jam with no refined sugar. Take a look!
My raspberry picker.
If you have a free 15 minutes, then you need to make these cookies. Doesn’t matter if you are running to the next appointment / pick up / drop off / or work, if you have the time, then you must make these. DELICIOUSNESS TO THE MAX TIMES INFINITY. (Sorry for the limited amount of pictures — my iphone was in the Apple Store #FML due to a cracked screen, so I did what I could do….and I needed you to have this recipe for the long weekend, so sorry!)
This is the end result. It tastes better than it looks. And the smell is divine, too.
Once again, I find myself wanting to cook everything from a Gwyneth Paltrow cookbook — she gets me every single time (#Slay). My most recent recipe is Chocolate Cinnamon Overnight Oats — and in a span of four days, I have made it twice — simple, easy, healthy, and oh-so-good.
Yup, you read it correctly, say WHAAATTTT? Black Bean Flourless Brownies? Black beans in a brownie????? With or without rice? Just joking (about the rice), and yessers, I am serious about the black beans in the brownies. I was intrigued by the recipe from A Clean Bake, so I made the recipe, found myself interested in how weird they were, and then realized I had eaten more than my share #oops. So here is the recipe: (Note, when I made it, I must have been overly tired because I literally doubled the amount of black beans #gassy and forgot baking powder and salt…. I think that is what happens when I try to rush/bake between kid activities and my tutoring gig. Mind you, even though I forgot all that and put way too many beans in, everything was delicious!)
My obsession with Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Matrix Cookbook continues. I can’t speak highly enough about it and EVERYONE must get it for their kitchen STAT. It makes meal-planning easy, and spices up our family dinner repertoire. My most recent find (there seems to be a new one every week!) is the thai cabbage slaw — DELISH what what!!!
My mother is one of those people that always knows the bohemian cool, beautifully crafted, hip food products, way before anyone else. I am not saying she is a New Yorker fashionista (she is not), but she is very much in the know with all things West Coast cool and East Coast significant. When she visited us two weeks ago for Ken’s 40th birthday party, she gifted me a cookbook (she has more than 300 cookbooks at home — no joke) which is sooooooooo cool that I can’t stop reading it! Mark Bittman was a New York Times food columnist who created a book with a matrix of possibilities. It is unbelievable — everyone must have it for their kitchen! It also makes a perfect hostess gift for a friend. Take a look!
Kitchen matrix. How clever, imaginative, and smart.
Since it is the year of dumplings here at the Josie Girl Blog, here is another recipe for another scrumptious dumpling from Kenny Lao’s dumpling book. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
