simple dinners

a nutritious dinner can be so simple. like last night, for example, was leftover shabbos soup, whole wheat shell noodles, and chicken pieces (served all together in one bowl). do yourself a favor and say goodbye to white flour noodles.

i have lots of chicken to spare! tonight i served chicken that was baked with whole foods' "herbes de provence" spice. it's a mix of savory, thyme, rosemary, basil, tarragon, and lavendar. i served it with "tru roots" organic sprouted rice and quinoa blend. this is an amazing product you can buy at...COSTCO! (my favorite place, lol!) i also also served costco's frozen organic foursome (corn, carrots, peas, green beans). i love costco! i hope YOUR costco has as many nice, healthy selections as mine.

disclaimer: i don't do vegetables every night - not worth the fight. i didn't mean for that to be a rhymed couplet, but it cheers me that it is. :-)

cornbread and chowder

a yummy milchig supper!

chowder (inspired by a recipe @ naturalmammas.com):

4 tbsp butter, heated

1 large onion sauteed in the butter

4 nice size garlic cloves, chopped fine, also sauteed

32oz  container imagine foods veggie broth

32oz container imagine foods butternut squash (love my imagine broths)

1 8oz can creamed corn

5 medium-large potatoes, chopped (not too small, not too big) 

let chowder softly bubble (doesn't that sound lovely?) until the potatoes are cooked. then add 2c shredded cheddar, stir stir stir! i seasoned mine with salt, pepper, and tamari. the tamari is essential! hubby and i added feta as a garnish for ours, a nice tangy touch. this is a large recipe, we feed a lot of folks in my house. scale it up or down to feed your gang.

cornbread:  (inspired by "best cornbread" from easybakingtips.com):

1c pastry flour (i used unbleached white, but i think any light grain flour would work nicely)

1c cornmeal

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4c honey 

1 egg

1/4 olive oil

1c milk

mix well and pour into a sprayed 9x13. bake until golden. i never made a milchig cornbread before and i was NOT disappointed! 

oatmeal cookies

disclaimer: one reader had tried my "luscious banana cake" and tried to duplicate it based on the recipe i posted. i usually bake in volume, and i have been scaling down my baking recipes when i post them online. but i found out - through my reader, an experienced natural cook herself - that it didn't work well. oftentimes when i make a recipe, when i double or triple it, i can use different types of sweeteners, flours, etc. this doesn't translate so well when i post the recipe as a "single" portion. so now i am going to post my recipes AS I MAKE THEM and if YOU, the reader, choose to scale it down, gezunter heit. :-)

oatmeal cookies (loosely based on a recipe from "the happy go lucky vegan"):

6c rolled oats

1c whole wheat flour

1c ground flax

1c wheat germ **

2 1/4c shredded coconut

3 tbsp cinnamon

3 large pinches sea salt

3/4c honey

3/4c brown rice syrup

3/4c agave nectar

1c olive oil

1/2c toasted sesame oil

3 tsp vanilla extract

3c natural puffed cereal (i used a puffed rice/millet combo)

** 1c of the dry mix could very nicely be substituted with carob or cocoa

roll into nice size balls and bake for about 7 mins at 350. voila! yum!

rice crispy treats

to make these treats even easier, i mixed this up right into the 9x13 pan. it's a "one bowl wonder!" lol

4c natural brown rice cereal (i used whole food's 365 brand)

1/2 c brown rice syrup

1/2 c NON-HYDROGENATED nut butter (i used peanut, but i'm thinking tahini might be nice too!)

* marshmallows optional, i used them. i have never found a "healthy" kosher marshmallow but there are some that are better than others. read labels. i just threw in enough marshmallows that everything looked "even," lol

mush it all up and flatten into an olive-oil-sprayed 9x13. stick in freezer for about 20 mins to solidify.  this recipe is quick, easy, and more nutritious than the regular version!

p.s. i tagged this as "vegan" but it is ONLY vegan if you don't use the kosher marshmallows (fish gelatin)

don't get mental ... leftover lentils

So 2 nights ago I made tofu lentil something or other and I had lots of leftover lentils. Reinventing/recycling leftovers is one way to honor G-d's food gifts. So anyway I made a saffron rice. Then in a separate saucepan I sautéed onions and the lentils in toasted sesame oil. Then I added costco's fabulous frozen organic veggie 4-some (carrots corn green beans peas). I added some shabbos chicken soup and then 1 package of chicken breasts, cut up. I served the chicken lentil veggie extravaganza over the saffron rice and it was delish!

cauliflower black bean tacos

drizzle a little olive oil into a pan and sautee your cauliflower. chop up into small pieces. add canned black beans. i used 2 cans of black beans and about 8 oz of cauliflower. adjust these ratios for your family size.

food crime: i added 2 sauce packets from a "regular" taco kit into the bean and cauli mix.

i arranged 365 brand taco shells into trays and scooped the bean mix into them, then i added nice amounts of shredded mozzarella.

serve with tomato-avocado guacamole and hot salsa and you have...a WINNER DINNER! lol

(the one thing that would have made this better? sour cream.)

snacky mama

i try to eat 6 small meals a day. i like to stick to simple, healthful things that will give me a lot of bang for my nutrition buck (not to mention my tastebuds. yummy food = very important.) here's what i ate today thusfar:


2cups of coffee with soymilk and truvia (weening my way off it, ok?)


1/2c mixed grains, toasted sesame oil, tamari 3 oz chicken


carrot juice/fruit smoothie w/ 1/2 tbsp nut butter


cucumber sticks with hummous


apple


and then, my HAPPY NEW FOOD CREATION!!! my imagine food's portobello mushroom soup with 1/2 a tofurkey veggie dog (italian style, ¡pnina del viva!)

for "dinner" i'm having 1/2c whole grain elbows, and tofu+lentils with tamari, toasted sesame oil, curry and nutritional yeast sprinkled on. 

luscious banana cake

i got this recipe from my new favorite blog, but since i modified it, i am posting my version here. my kids went gangbusters over this all shabbos! PLUS i got rid of lots of leftover pesach bananas! yay me!

1/2c whole wheat flour
1/2c oat flour
1/2c ground flax seeds
1/2c cornmeal (this made it special!)
2 tsp baking powder (i use rumford's aluminum-free)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2c soy milk
1/4c apple juice
1/4c brown rice syrup **
4 over-ripe bananas, mashed
1/3c applesauce (i used a granny smith tart applesauce)
1/3c melted earth balance marge

throw everything into a bowl, mix mix mix, pour into a 9x13 and bake at 350 until you can stick a fork in it (about 45 mins to an hour i guess).

** i quadrupled this recipe because i had lots of leftover bananas and i was also baking for someone else. i varied the sweeteners under the circumstances. so my quadrupled version ended up with something like; 1/2c brown rice syrup, 1/4c agave nectar, 1/4c honey

OMG SO DELISH :-)

sometimes i'm a night bird. everybody is asleep. i can relax and troll the internet get some household tasks done in peace.

so what's a girl to do at 3am when she's hungry? why, invent a new and amazing snack!

i decided i wanted shirataki. you know, the uber low-cal soy noodles (love love love them). i wanted them in broth. i hunted high and low for something broth-like, but to no avail.

then i decided i would make them with some cheese and sauce! yummy, right? so i open the pantry only to find huge bottles of tomato marinada. nope, not interested in opening those. then my eyes fell upon ... the baby food jars! specifically, earth's best tomato and carrot blend! (for those of you creeped out by the idea of eating baby food, get over yourself. it's just pureed food). so i used those as "sauce."

i heated up 2 baby food jars in a saucepan and added 1 baby food jar of water. added sliced mushrooms and the package of shirataki noodles. when everything was hot, i added 2 tbsp of j & j cream cheese, and mixed it in until it became creamy. i spiced it up with salt, italian blend, garlic and onion powders.

voila! yummy, low-cal, high protein "fettucine alfredo!" (did i mention tasty? lol)

sweet potato and even sweeter salmon and veggies!

baked sweet potatoes with earth balance olive oil margarine...yum...

salmon dipped in egg and dredged in ground flax seed and oat flour. the dredge was generously spiced with curry powder. more conservatively on garlic and onion powders. :) baked.

red, yellow, and green peppers were cut up and broiled for about 5 mins, then arranged on top of the salmon. agave nectar was gently drizzled on, then sprinkled all over with salt.

can you say YUM?

shortcuts (quick fleishig supper)

tonight's repast will be the usual healthy and kosher, but simple is the magic word. i'm falling on my face with exhaustion so i took some shortcuts.

let's talk about a great product: imagine food's creamy mushroom soup. this food seriously rocks the casbah. i was going to make a creamy white sauce from scratch when this product literally jumped off the shelf into my waiting shopping cart. that's shortcut #1.

shortcut #2 was frozen veggies: heimishe brand broccoli, yellow squash, yada yada. less chopping.

i sauteed some onions in olive oil and tamari, and then dumped the whole container of thick mushroom soup in. added all the veggies, and it's happily simmering away as we speak.

oh yeah, i put in chicken. lots of leftover pesach chicken. i pulled it off the bone into strips.

the only question is, do i serve it over whole wheat noodles or rice pasta?

gumbo popcorn balls

just like gumbo, they have a little bit of everything:

one big ol' bowl of popcorn
365 chocolate bits (whole foods house brand)
chatfield's carob powder
elyon mini marshmallows (heimish brand)
365 sunflower seed kernels
flax-USA ground flax seed
*kirkland signature honey (costco house brand)
*lundberg brown rice syrup

* you could use a non-hydrogenated nut butter in place of either the honey or rice syrup, that would lend a chocolate-peanut buttery taste. if you use a nut butter, add some salt to jazz it up.

dump everything into the big ol' popcorn bowl and make sure all the ingredients are relatively "even." at the end, drizzle copious amounts of the honey and brown rice syrup all over everything until it's nice and saturated. then form into little balls - squeeze your hands together tight! make those suckers stick together! place on cookie sheets and freeze. YUMMY. tastes just like nutty chews (only healthier)!