healthy

Crab Cakes

Josie Girl 2 Comments

One of my absolute favorite entrees is crab cakes. I am a crab cake snob and only like the best of the best crab cakes. Cheap crab cakes taste oily and fishy, some are too spicy, and others are either too bready or greasy. So, when my mom made crab cakes from scratch and they were healthy, delicious, and oh-so-perfect, I fell in love. Not a fast process but SO delicious. These crab cakes are crisp on the outside and rich on the inside — perfection.

The recipe is from Mother’s Cookbook, which is a cookbook from a restaurant (Mother’s Bistro) in Portland. If you are on the lookout for a good, ‘ol American homestyle cookbook, this one is solid, reliable, and approachable.

Ingredients:

dry ingredients

A snapshot of the dry ingredients used for the crab cakes.

* 1/2 pound of cod fillets

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Raw Apple Balls

Josie Girl 7 Comments

Sometimes, I fail. Today is an example of having good intentions and thinking that I could make an awesome recipe, and instead… it flopped. I am sharing this with you in hopes that maybe someone can fix this recipe and make it edible? All the components are tasty and I am still eating my concoction, but it just isn’t right. I need HELP! (Comments/suggestions appreciated!)

apple

Apple.

In any case, for some reason, I am eating double the amount NOW versus when I was pregnant. I guess it is true that nursing a baby burns a lot of calories, but DAMN ladies, I am literally hungry ALL THE TIME! No matter how much I eat, I still want more…

I was craving a snack that is (1) itty bitty in size (2) sweet (3) healthy (4) easy to make (if you make it correctly).  My raw apple balls actually became raw apple mousse. The mousse *is* delicious…but it’s not the raw apple balls the recipe promised to be. The dough was just too sticky which made it impossible to form balls. I SWEAR IT IS DELICIOUS no matter what the form is, but they are not an easy snacks to eat. I want little balls of goodness!

Ingredients:

Ingredients

Apples, walnuts, dates, almonds, and cinnamon are always on hand in our kitchen. Thank goodness I didn't go to the store just to get these ingredients and then fail!

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Favorite Snacks

Josie Girl 2 Comments

Thanks to everyone for all of the support and comments from Wednesday’s post.  Yes, I am now a mother again, but the blog must go on!

I am a snacker and a picker and therefore like to pick and eat at food ALL the time. Besides the obvious snacks (fruit), here are my top five favorite snacks to eat throughout the day.

1. Yum Nuts

I used to not like cashews, that is until I had Yum Nuts, and now I am in love. Yum Nuts are sold at Whole Foods or other grocery stores around the country, and come as seasoned cashews or almonds. The cashews come in five different flavors: chocolate, touch of honey,  toasted coconut, sea salt, and cajun. There are three different almond flavors; dark chocolate, cinnamon, and ginger orange.

cashews

A great on-the-go pick me up snack!

I cannot begin to tell you how delicious these nuts are. They are just the right amount of sweetness (for us sweet addicts) but have the protein and fat in them to fill you up quickly. They are flavored, but ever so slightly — nothing too intense or overbearing, just a hint and taste of the extra goodness. These nuts are so delicious that I have begun to hoard them (shocker)….You can also buy them online in variety packs and bulk

2. Blue Diamond Salt and Vinegar Almonds

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Cauliflower-Broccoli Mash

Josie Girl 8 Comments

This past weekend, I was gabbing on the phone with my sister-in-law and she asked me what she should do with all this cauliflower she had at home. She, like my parents, are members of a co-op where they receive a weekly basket of organic and local produce. (I am so jealous — wish I could do it here in NYC.  But because I am on the west coast all summer and very few programs do partial shares, I do not do it. If anyone knows of a CSA – Community Supported Agriculture – in NYC that offers partial seasons, let me know! I am definitely interested). In any case, when you participate in programs with baskets of vegetables, you never know what you are getting. So, this past week, my brother’s family had a huge load of cauliflower to deal with.

white and green

White and green!!!

I knew exactly what Katie and her family should make…Cauliflower-Broccoli mash! I used to make it all the time, but for some reason, it has been years since I last made it. So I was excited to make it again this week! And yes….for some reason, all my recipes (1) end up green (2) are mashed (3) require a vitamix…not sure what that is all about….

Ingredients:

Ingredients

Simple list of ingredients that are usually always in the fridge/cupboard.

* Cauliflower

* Broccoli

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Green Smoothie

Josie Girl 8 Comments

I am hungry all the time now. Or should I say that Baby Girl Natori is starving (does that sound better)? In any case, every hour on the hour, I end up in the kitchen looking through the fridge in search of something that is “filling”, “nutritious”, “appetizing”, and “appealing”, which seems very difficult, as all I really want is a big fat piece of toast with nutella spread on it.

So, my new favorite mid-morning or afternoon snack is a green smoothie. Not only is it delicious and healthy, but it keeps me full for 2-3 hours — which is unbelievable. The smoothie requires minimal ingredients, little time and effort, and is BRIGHT green.  It’s an awesome snack.

Ingredients:

* Several handfuls of fresh spinach

* 1/2 to 1 full banana

* 1/2 cup of almond milk

* 1 tablespoon of almond butter

Ingredients

Seems like everything I cook with these days uses almond milk, almond butter, some type of green and some type of fruit. But trust me, this recipe is DA BOMB (and yes, I just said that).

Directions:

* Put all the ingredients in the vitamix/blender.

Magic Bullet

I didn't have access to my vitamix to make this drink, but I did use the "Magic Bullet." Mixed a smaller quantity of ingredients, but it was just as effective and smooth.

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Lemon-Mint Pasta with Bacon

Josie Girl 11 Comments

Ken is guest-writing today.  Call it my “Welcome to Third Trimester” free pass.  And I don’t love pasta… Without further ado..  Here’s Ken…

_____________________

As the JG has discussed, we recently went on her “babymoon” to Antigua, where she posted on the trip and the food. One food/drink element that she didn’t include was a refreshing rehydration drink we concocted and proceeded to have about 10 of a day: seltzer water with crushed mint and a splash of cranberry juice.  Given her pregnancy and the heat, I was militant about her staying hydrated.  And the drinks we discovered were our go-to for three days straight.

We have been enjoying these drinks since we got back to New York, but as with all herbs, a fresh batch of mint is about 10X what you can actually casually use before it goes bad (pet peeve).  In an attempt to use up the rest of our fresh mint, we threw together a super-easy and quick dish: Lemon-Mint Pasta with Bacon.

The ingredients:

* 1 lb. pasta – We used organic whole wheat spaghetti. Not a huge fan of the whole wheat thing, but the JG is uber-healthy.  And she doesn’t love pasta. So we used whole wheat pasta, something we could both equally, slightly complain about.  Definition: “marital compromise”.

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