Sunshine Juice

A few years ago I was blessed with the opportunity to intern on a wonderful organic farm specializing in fruit and raw roots nestled between the gorgeous Pacific ocean and Mount Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The owners of Josanna's Organic Farm, Steve and Janelle are wonderful farmers and fantastic human beings, I quickly fell in love with them and became part of their "farm family". Normally all the interns had specific jobs they completed each morning then were free the rest of the day to explore the Island, my job was to climb and harvest the lemon, orange, avocado and star fruit trees. Every once in a while we combined forces to dig up a root field and the first time we did this I discovered one of my favorite medicines I have come across so far, tumeric.  Tumeric is the main ingredient in most Indian curries, and I had eaten it before many times in powder form but I had no idea it was a root or that it had magical qualities. Tumeric is known to reduce inflammation, aid digestion, amongst many other things and in my case drastically reduce migraine pain. When suffering from a migraine one day, Janelle made this juice for me, which was kind of a big deal because the whole farm runs on solar power and using the juicer requires loads of wattage. It worked so well I make it frequently whenever I have a headache or feel a cold coming on (since it's loaded with anti-oxidants from the tumeric and vitamin C from the orange juice) or when I just need a bit of sunshine in my life.

Speaking of sunshine in my life, I recently have been blessed again with fresh local tumeric and of all places right here in North Carolina! Jason and Haruka Oatis grow tumeric on their farm, Edible Earthscapes, which is one of many reasons I love them to pieces.

Look at this gorgeous beast! 

 I like to juice all the ingredients separately that way I can adjust the potency of the tonic and I think it tastes better when freshly mixed.

You will need

1/2 C fresh squeezed orange juice
juice from half a lemon
About 3 tablespoons fresh tumeric juice (play with this at first) tumeric has a strong flavor and a little bit goes a long way!
and enough fizzy mineral water to fill the glass

mix the juices together, add a little more orange juice if you like it sweet then top with fizzy lifting drink, if  you get that reference you are forever on my cool list.


Then drink up and start feeling awesome!

 

Friendly Three Bean Salad

I don't think there's really a way to make bean salad look glamorous in a photo, I'm sure someone has tackled this beast of a task with grace, I have not. I have however preserved and recreated successfully this recipe I learned ages ago while on a cross country adventure with then strangers but now good friends. So when my in-laws (bless their hearts) sent me this amazing package of Cali avocados because I had mentioned I was craving them I knew I had to make this dish, and guacamole too of course!

I always make a double batch, so if you're single or don't think you can tackle this much divine bean power, half everything. 

2 cans organic kidney beans (drained & rinsed)

2 cans organic garbanzo beans (drained & rinsed)

(bonus points if you use dried beans and cook them yourself, you are so much cooler than me!) 

1 bag frozen french green beanslightly steamed

small chunks of mild cheddar, I just chop up whatever I have left in the block you want a good ratio just eyeball it
1 giant avocado cut into bite sized pieces

toss together in a large bowl and make your sauce

Sauce

1C olive oil

1/4 C lemon juice

1/4 C local organic honey, trust me on this it's just the best! 

a little salt & pepper to taste

Mix well then stir gently into the bean bowl, cover and let sit overnight.

Easy as pie and it's a great addition to the lunch box or picnic basket or in my case when I first learned this recipe, in the back of a car driving 70 through Wyoming is how it tastes best.

My happy place

There might not be loads to do in the garden during the winter months but I can certainly relax on the couch with a cup of hot coco and relish in the delight of seed catalogs and the dream of what I will plant in the spring!

Meatless Monday Healthy Potato Leek soup

I have to admit vegetarian dinners can be a bit taboo in this house, despite me being a a veg head for over a decade (I'm an omnivore now) I find it hard to please my boys without meat. My husband enjoys a high protein low carb diet and that can be a challenge when working with the plant only kingdom. However I can usually get away with it on Monday nights because we typically don't do an intense workout that day and I usually have something delicious up my sleeve.

This week I made potato leek soup, now technically this dish is not completely vegetarian because I opted to use chicken broth, mainly because I had some in the fridge I needed to use but one could easily substitute veggie broth or even lowfat milk and still keep it healthy and delicious.

Now, I love a good creamy potato leek soup that's cheesy and delicious but I promise you this version is just as good and as a bonus we leave out all the unnecessary fat (which I saved for putting loads of butter on my bread!)

Ok, here's what you'll need

4 potatoes of choice chopped into tiny 1/4 inch squares (I used 2 white sweet potatoes and 2 red skinned potatoes because they cook down into creamy starchy deliciousness)

1 giant leek or a couple small ones ends removed slice down the middle wash and then slice into small strips

1/4 onion diced

5-6 carrots washed and sliced into bite sized pieces

3-4 stalks of celery washed and sliced into bite sized pieces

a couple cloves of garlic

a little bit of butter and olive oil

4 C chicken broth

and about a teaspoon of each dried herb

orageno
red pepper flakes
salt
pepper
thyme
sage
parsley
1-2 bay leaves

Your cutting board should look something like this  (as a side note if you live in a warmer climate most of these veggies should be available to you right now locally!)

In a big pot melt on low-medium a heavy tablespoon of butter, when melted place all veggies in the pot and stir around for a bit. When the bottom of the pan looks dry (butter all soaked up) add a swirl of olive oil and let veggies cook and stir occasionally. This part is important it takes a little while but let the veggies cook slowly after about 10 minutes stir in the garlic and herbs.

When the veggies are softish not crunchy but not mushy yet stir in the chicken broth (or broth of choice), switch the heat to low add a lid and let this pot of deliciouness simmer as long as you can wait! I paired this with whole wheat spinach and red pepper bread with a tad of butter.

Bon Appetit!

SUNday Harvest!

Sunflower seeds!

DIY Instant Oatmeal

I'm all about some comfort food for breakfast, however having the time to whip it up on a weekday usually escapes me. I've tried oatmeal in the crock pot but it never quite works for me and cleaning the pot after is nearly impossible. Thumbing through cook books yesterday I saw a recipe for instant oatmeal. For some reason it just never occurred to me that you could make your own instant oatmeal! I thought it was made in a factory by unicorns or something! I stopped buying it years ago because I couldn't justify the extra ingredients and loads of little wax coated bags, it just seemed like so much waste! There are many ingredients you could add such as nuts and dried fruit, but I'll just give the basic recipe and you can let your imagination run wild, or in my case I'll just hand over the creative bit to the unicorns.  

6 C organic oats
1/4-1/2C brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1teaspoon salt

               Bake oats on a cookie sheet @ 375 degrees for 20 minutes, pull out and let cool.

 

Grind 4 cups of oats, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a food processor until smooth

                                                         
                                                           It will look a little like this

 

Mix the oats and oat mixture into a mason jar and whatever toppings you want and boom instant oatmeal!

Mix 1/2C instant oatmeal and 1.5 cups boiling water in a bowl cover for 5 minutes and you have Sunday morning breakfast any day of the week! 

 

Chicken Pot Pie (with shortcuts!)

I have been seriously craving chicken pot pie for at least a month now and with the cooler weather of fall setting in this comfort food down home dish really hits the spot. After reading the ingredients list of the "good pot pie" at Whole Foods, which included enriched flour and questionable gmo ingredients, I knew I was destined to make my own.

 For being a member of the humble casserole  family, when done right this soul nourishing meal has a high maintenance diva side. In order for it to taste right and for the veggies to keep their integrity each component needs to be cooked separately before whisked away into a oven safe dish and left only to do it's thing. I've been making a crock pot half chicken every week so figuring out another thing to do with the bits of dark meat is a blessing, so that took care of the chicken part.

I used a mix of light and dark meat so it wasn't gamey tasting, around 2 cups of chicken. I pulled it off the bone cold, chopped it up and set aside. A chicken breast would work as well, chop it up into bite sized pieces season with pepper, garlic and cook in the oven (bonus points for using the same dish you will be making the casserole in, plus less dishes!) at  375 for about 30 minutes.

Coming up is the hardest part, and I promise it's easy :)

Make a Rue
A rue consists of equal parts flour and fat. For my pot pie in a deep 8x8 baking dish I used 1/2C butter and 1/2 C flour. Let fat melt completely then stir in flour bits at a time. When it's nice and thick and you're terrified it's going to burn start adding bits of chicken broth (or cream if you're a traditionalist) I like to use chicken broth because it's less fatty and I had the best broth on hand from my crock pot chicken. I used about 2 cups total just keep adding as it thickens, also a little Parmesan cheese goes a long way! Once that's done all you have to do is construct using the shortcut methods!

Mix chicken, rue and about a cup of frozen organic mixed veggies (I like the pea, carrot, corn blend) and place evenly in the casserole dish. Then lay a thawed out prepared crust, the Wholsome whole wheat pie crusts from the frozen department from Whole Foods have 6 ingredients and everything's organic. Don't get me wrong I love me some home made lovealicious crust, but it's just not always practical!

Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes, then dance a jig and eat pot pie!!