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!
One of my favorite neighborhood go-to’s is Le Botaniste. It is perfect for days when you want to be uber healthy and are looking for a quiet place to eat and relax. Le Botaniste was concepted by the creative force behind Le Pain Quotidien (more here) and serves healthy, organic, vegan, and gluten-free meals. Although I have been over two dozen times, I always get the SAME thing — I make my own bowl.
This meal is a rainbow.
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.
Thanks to Instagram, I saw a recipe for a peanut butter pretzel truffle from Minimalist Baker and knew I had to make it. The recipe is simple, easy, and a huge win.
How good does this look?
Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup pitted medjool dates, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes then drained
* 1/2 cup salted natural peanut butter
* 3/4 cup raw almonds
* 1/2 cup mini pretzels
* 1.25 cup chocolate chips
* 1 tsp coconut oil
Directions:
Before and after dipped. I DIP YOU DIP WE DIP
* Place almonds in the food processor and process until you reach the consistency of a meal.
* Then add in pretzels and soaked dates in the food processor and process until small bits remain and/or it forms into a ball.
* Next, add the peanut butter and mix until well combined. You don”t have to do this in a food processor, and can really just mix it in with a spoon.
* Once you have a dough that’s easy to form into balls, scoop out 1 Tablespoon amounts and roll/carefully form into balls. Set on parchment paper and place in freezer to chill.
* In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and add the coconut oil (which helps thin out the chocolate).
* Remove truffles from freezer and, one at a time, dip them into the melted chocolate. Transfer back onto parchment paper and place in to the freezer.
* Store them in the freezer until you eat them (or else they will melt — they will still be delicious, but they will melt).
They will not last long, mainly because you will want to eat them right away.
Happy weekend! Spring here we are, thank goodness!
Happy Friday! Before I post an indulging (yet delicious) food item, I want everyone to read the article written by our good friend, Sasha Blair-Goldensohn. Eight years ago, Sasha was hit by a tree in Central Park, and is wheelchair bound. His op-ed in the NYTimes from Wednesday is an eye opener, so please do so. I also highly recommend watching the video that accompanies it. Thanks in advance for reading it.
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I am constantly on the search for a “healthy” dessert. While I am well aware of the effects of sugar …..I still love nibbling on something sweet at the end of my meals. Call it an addiction, or a vice, but it is a habit that I can’t stop. So these raw chocolate energy bars are perfect. Raw chocolate, sweet, nutty, gooey, and great.
Romantic rawmantic, yes, handcrafted with love.
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.
I love dessert. Almost as much as I love my family. But I don’t like to eat too much sugar because I get jittery, emotional, and always have a sugar crash. So, when I don’t have time to bake my own health(ier) dessert, than I go to my local stores to purchase healthy-ish desserts. Here they are:
Yes, they are packaged food and store bought. But I like to think that they are healthier than a snickers bar, and made with higher quality ingredients in a more thoughtful process. But yes, you are so right, it is always HEALTHIER and better to make your own food at home, where you know exactly what is going into the food. But, YOLO (you only live once), so sometimes it is nice to just grab and go.
Yes, I am obsessed with running. And food. And food that goes with running….so here are some new “tools” that I use for running (but not just FOR runners!).
Three new loves.
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.
My mother is multi-talented. In addition to being a great chef, she is also a flamenco dancer, champion knitter, embroider, biker, and nia participant. In the kitchen, she is known to experiment, and loves to buy random kitchen gadgets to try different cooking techniques. She owns a dehydrator, a Vitamix (who doesn’t?), more pots and pans than imaginable, and…..an air fryer…..yes, an air fryer. What *is* an air fryer? An air fryer fries your food without the grease and fat. Last night, we opened it and made potato chips (seemed like an easy recipe to try without too many steps or ingredients!)
A BIIIIIG machine…not NYC apartment friendly, but good for Oregon where there is a lot of space!
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!!!
I am a devout nut-butter eater and like devouring nut butters in ANY form. So when I came across this Salted Almond Butter Freezer Fudge recipe, I instantly ran to the kitchen to make it. I love love them, and I so shared them with a fellow friend / parent from Cruzzie’s school. Later that day, I received three text messages from three other moms, requesting the recipe (friend #1 shared with friends #2-4). They are loved by all! Enjoy!
