Adding greens to smoothies is, as I'm sure you've heard already, a great way to increase your consumption of those health miracle greens. I drink a green smoothie just about every morning. One version I invented is savory and uses spicy V8 juice. I like berries immensely and they make a delicious and refreshing drink. I've done a bit of experimenting with random ingredients (not a big fan of raw beets or romaine lettuce in my blender breakfast, by the way.) In my opinion, to make a tasty smoothie, you need something frozen and something with a little fat in it to make it creamy. Avocado or nuts can be good creamy ingredient for savory shakes. Banana is great for sweet ones. Until yesterday, I had never used peaches. I'm so glad a bag of the frozen beauties snuck their way into my freezer! I'm happy to share this recipe with you. However... This recipe comes with three warnings: 1) If you've never used kale in a smoothie, substitute spinach instead. Kale is very good for you, but I have to admit the first time I put it in a smoothie I likened the experience to glurping down grass clippings. Yes, glurping. No lie. Spinach is also quite healthy and it liquifies in the blender. Kale just gets littler and littler. I recommend easing into the green smoothie experience with spinach, a more blender-friendly green. 2) If you have never used protein powder before, don't start with this recipe. I mean, you can, but I'd hate for you to decide that my green smoothies have a gritty or chalky taste as a function of their greenness. I started using a protein powder about a year ago to boost my, well, protein. Duh, right? I read somewhere about balance between the macronutrients of protein, carbs and fats and decided as a nearly vegan vegetarian that I could use some more grams of protein. After trying probably half a dozen varieties, I have decided I like the unflavored Garden of Life Raw Protein powder. I prefer it because it does not have artificial sweeteners or added sugar (which means I can put it in sweet and savory smoothies), it doesn't contain dairy, it has 17 grams of protein per serving, and it is of course gluten-free. It's also loaded with other good stuff that I liken to taking a nutritional supplement. Those good points don't change the inherent nature that makes protein powder a rather distinctive and to many, unpleasant, beverage additive. I think the taste is tolerable and the health benefits trump my tastebuds. You can easily leave it out of this recipe. 3) I do not really measure my smoothie ingredients. I usually make them early in the morning. I throw ingredients at the blender and see what happens. Quantities below are estimates. Please don't get mad if it's a little off. Always adjust to your own tastes. Start with less greens if they make you nervous. Use more almond milk if you prefer a thinner beverage. Experimenting can be fun. Let me know what you came up with! Ingredients: 1 cup plain unsweetened almond milk 1 cup frozen kale 1/2 cup frozen peaches 1 medium banana 1 teaspoon of toasted flaxseeds (the ones from Trader Joe's are delicious!) 1 scoop of protein powder Pour the almond milk and kale into the blender. Pulse and blend on high until it's a liquid. Add the rest of the ingredients a little at a time, blending after each addition. Once everything is in the blender and moving, keep blending for a 90 seconds or 2 minutes (this will feel like forever, especially if you are blending in the pre-dawn hours and everyone else in your house is still sleeping.) Pour the contents into a glass. Drink it through a straw. Feel very satisfied and secretly nutritionally morally superior to people eating Corn Chex. Take a picture and post it on Facebook. I created this remarkably tasty soup in about a half an hour. Jenn describes it as rich and fitting for the season. It was also incredibly filling. You may be wondering where the greens are. After all, it is rare that I would create a soup or stew and not sneak some nutrition-boosting kale or spinach in there somewhere. Believe it or not, I was out. I know, right? Jenn was at the grocery store and would have been home with them before long, but I wanted to have dinner on the table when she got back, so I decided to forgo them this time. I'm sure the soup would have been equally delicious with a bunch of greens thrown in. The only thing I wish I'd done differently was to double the recipe so that I'd have had some leftovers! 3 medium-to-large red skinned potatoes (I hate peeling potatoes so I leave the skins on) 1 small onion 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 cup vegetable broth 1 tablespoon dried sage 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast 1 1/4 plain unsweetened almond milk Wash and cut up the potatoes in bite-sized chunks. Throw them in a medium soup pot, cover with water and boil them for 8-12 minutes, until they pierce easily with a fork. (You can also just start with cooked potatoes, or microwave them or otherwise come to make them be not raw.) Once the potatoes are tender, drain them in a colander. Use the same pot for the next steps to save yourself some dishes. While the potatoes are boiling, chop the onion. Once the potatoes are out of the pot, saute the onion in a little olive oil on medium heat for a few minutes until tender. Add the broth, sage, pepper, salt and 2/3's of the potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat. Use a stick blender to puree the contents of the pot. Alternatively, pour the contents of the pot into a blender and blend until smooth, then return it to the pot. Add the rest of the potatoes, nutritional yeast, and almond milk. Combine throroughly and heat through. Adjust seasonings to taste. Enjoy it very much and wonder what it would have tasted like if you'd have added a cup or two of frozen spinach at the very end. If you are Jenn and me, this recipe makes 2 servings. In real life, it would probably make 3 or 4, depending on if this is a starter course or the main attraction. [[Sign up for the mailing list to get the monthly newsletter and other updates, offerings, tips and more! (I never sell or share my mailing list.)] I woke up on Thanksgiving morning thinking about cornbread. That, and of course all the things I am grateful for: Wonderful supportive family, cute dog, good health, a benevolent universe and a life of abundance. And coffee. And cornbread. I had both purple corn flour and yellow cornmeal. I mused aloud on Facebook about whether the two mixed together would make green cornbread. Luckily my friend Lari Robling, food expert and author of the cookbook Endangered Recipes saw the post and suggested I do a swirly thing instead of a straight mix to avoid the possiblity of having the appearance of moldy cornbread. Genius! So, all in the name of silliness, I embarked on the creation of a marbled cornbread. I like my cornbread on the sweet side, and I remembered hearing a former colleague speak fondly of his mom's banana cornbread, so I decided to give it a try. You can remove the banana and double the sugar below if you don't want to do the banana thing. Or you can add banana and reduce the sugar based on your taste. My version was sweet but not too desserty, and was just right and appropriately festive for our small nuclear family Thanksgiving feast. Gluten-free Marbled Banana Cornbread To make this marbled in appearance, you will essentially be making two batches of cornbread batter in separate bowls then doing the swirling in the baking pan before you put it in the oven. 1/2 cup gluten-free yellow cornmeal (I used Bob's Red Mill Medium Grind Cornmeal) 1/2 cup blue or purple cornmeal or corn flour (I used Zocalo Gourmet Purple Corn Flour) 1 cup gluten-free flour blend of your choice (I used Pamela's Artisan Flour Blend) 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum 1 medium banana 2 large eggs 1 cup plain unsweetened almond milk (or you can use regular milk or a different milk substitute) 2 tablespoons butter, melted Preheat the oven to 350 and spray an 8"X8" baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Put the yellow cornmeal and blue corn flour in separate, medium-sized mixing bowls. In a third bowl, combine the gf flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and xantham gum and mix thoroughly. Add half of it to the yellow cornmeal and the other half to the blue corn flour. In yet another mixing bowl, mash the banana, add the eggs, almond milk and butter and mix well. Pour half of it into the yellow cornmeal mixture and half into the blue corn flour mixture. Combine each thoroughly. Because the batter will be pretty runny, be sure to have both batches completely mixed and ready to pour into the baking pan at the same time. Pour the yellow mixture into one half of the baking pan and the blue into the other half. To do the marbling, drag a spatula in wide stripes through the batter a couple of times until you reach your desired level of swirliness. Resist the urge to over-swirl, lest you over-mix and end up with a gray-green cornbread final product. Bake the cornbread for 30-35 minutes, until the yellow part is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Eat it warm before the rest of Thanksgiving dinner is ready. Oh, I guess you don't have to do that. I did. It was delicious and pretty and it made me very happy. [[Sign up for the mailing list to get the monthly newsletter and other updates, offerings, tips and more! (I never sell or share my mailing list.)] I love sweets. I want to be healthy. My cravings for sweets can easily get me to forget my desire to to be healthy. I have a disabled "off switch" when it comes to some foods. Okay, many foods. In a way, celiac is a blessing because it is essentially an externally imposed self-control mechanism. So, when Jenn came home with a gluteny apple pie last weekend, I wasn't tempted because I knew I couldn't have it. [Jenn knows I'm fine with the boys and her eating gluten in the house and that I try to stay away from sugary desserts anyway, so don't think it was an insensitive or inappropriate thing for her to do. I couldn't ask for a more supportive partner -- in fact, she's WAY better at reading labels than me. :-)]. I DID feel like having my own desserty item that was relatively fast, healthy and which would satisfy my sweet tooth. I also didn't want so much of whatever it was around so that there was built in portion control. Thus this recipe, which is sort of a cross between a baked apple and an apple crisp. I decided it was healthy because the total volume of relatively unhealthy ingredients (butter. sugar, gf flour) is pretty small. If you double the recipe and eat all of it, you will probably slide out of the healthy range. Everything in moderation, right? This recipe is for one apple that you can share with someone else or not (I didn't!). Easy Healthy Baked Apple 1 apple, cut in half with seeds removed (I used a grapefruit spoon and it worked great) 1 tablespoon melted butter 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 tablespoon gf flour of your choice (I used Namaste brand gf flour blend) 2 tablespoons of gluten-free oats Your favorite apple pie-ish seasoning of your choice: nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, cardamom (if in doubt, use a couple of shakes of cinnamon. You can sprinkle a little more on top after baking if you want.) Handful of raisins, optional Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a medium bowl and mix in all of the ingredients. Spoon it on top of your apple halves. Put the halves on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for 35-40 minutes until the crisp is crispy and apple is tender. Eat them warm! You can always top with vanilla yogurt or ice cream or whipped cream if you want, but they are good all on their own. Feel virtuous! Enjoy a fresh, warm gluten-free tasty treat! Be very happy. :-) [[Sign up for the mailing list to get the monthly newsletter and other updates, offerings, tips and more! (I never sell or share my mailing list.)] [Join my final webinar installment: October 29th 8 pm Eastern time, when we'll talk about eating out safely, getting ready for Thanksgiving and the secret to happiness: http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=E950DE85854738 October 22 replay featuring office parties, unsupportive family, and more ideas for food: http://www.anymeeting.com/clairebakerok/EC52DD858648 September 22nd replay featuring the basics for who should go gluten-free and how to shop for gluten-free foods, stay safe in your own kitchen and eat out. http://www.anymeeting.com/WebConference/RecordingDefault.aspx?c_psrid=EC50DF898547] In my gluten-free webinar series, we have been discussing getting ready for the holidays. One technique to guarantee that you have gluten-free food to eat at parties is to host it yourself or take some excellent dishes to the party at someone else's house. I created a You Tube video featuring three great party foods: Peanut Chili Dip, Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms, and Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates. Peanut Chili Dip Peanut Chili Dip has been a favorite of ours for a long time. I modified our family favorite to be gluten free. 1/3 cup peanut butter 3 T. water 1 T. Gluten-free tamari 1 T. honey 2 cloves minced garlic 1 T. chili powder Dash of cayenne Mix all the ingredients together. At first it looks like it won't mix together well, but don't worry and keep stirring. Before long it will get a creamy consistency. Serve with baby carrots. You can eat it right away, or chill it for a few hours and let the flavors mingle. Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms You definitely CAN make stuffed mushrooms with your favorite gluten-free bread crumbs, but these quinoa-stuffed babies combine an interesting texture with superior nutrition. 24-32 mushrooms, depending on size 1 cup cooked quinoa 1 T. olive oil 1 clove chopped garlic 3 T. chopped kale 1 T. chopped pecans 1 T. Herbs de Provence (or basil or parsley or whatever you are in the mood for) 3 T. cream cheese 2 T. pecorino romano cheese or parmesan cheees 3-4 drops of gluten-free liquid smoke Preheat oven to 350. Prepare the quinoa according to the package instructions. Brush/wash the mushrooms and remove stems. Saute the garlic, kale, pecans and herbs in olive oil until the kale softens, about 5 minutes. Combine with quinoa, cheeses and liquid smoke in a bowl, stirring until well combined. Stuff the mushroom caps with the quinoa cheese mixture. Arrange on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes until lightly browned. Delicious warm or served room temperature. Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates This is hardly a recipe. It's more of a reminder that you can create easy party food with two ingredients. 24 dates enough peanut butter to fill the dates Depending on the size of your dates, you may want to pit them and stuff the peanut butter inside. For the ones I did for the video, I cut the dates in half, removed the pits, and filled the date "boats" with peanut butter. They were a little sticky, but delicious. I know there are people out there who roll peanut butter stuffed dates in powdered sugar, and the guy at the health food store also recommended using Nutella. And in keeping with the bacon wrapping theme of my October 15, 2012 webinar, I've also seen bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with peanut butter and chocolate on-line. Experiment and have fun! |
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