Friday, February 28, 2014

Asian-ish Dish. :)

So I call this the Asian-ish dish only because its DELICIOUS ginger content. I LOVE GINGR!! All things Ginger make me very hungry and happy.. Thus this dish and the fact that I put Ginger in just about everything..
Anyway.. I had been dreaming about making this dish for quite some time or at least something similar too it and it morphed greatly when I realized all the goodies in my fridge that needed to be used before they went bad.. HA! Also I am going on HCG again soon.. so I wanted to eat a lot of my fav foods before I couldn't have them for 40days.
Anyway.. without further ado... here is the recipe. :)

 
The Asian-ish Dish
(Yam stir fry)
 
Ingredients:
 
1/2 cup Sliced Almonds
1 Medium Yam
1 Inch finely chopped fresh Ginger
3 Cloves of Garlic finely chopped
1/2 Medium Onion
2 Small Red Bell Peppers
3/4 cup (approx.) Raw Green Beans
approx. 1/2 cup small Broccoli pieces
3Tbsp Agave
1Tsp Lemon Juice
2Tbsp Coconut Aminos (Can use Braggs if you want or Soy Sauce)
3Tsp Umeboshi Plum Vinegar
Grapeseed oil for sauté onions (other oil would be fine.. Grapeseed just lends a nice citrusy flavor)
 
1. Toast the Almonds! :) Put the sliced almonds in a pan on medium high heat.. Once the pan gets heated up you better keep those almonds moving because they will toast up pretty quick. When you start seeing some of the almonds getting a toasty brown color set them aside in a bowl or on a plate to add back into the dish later.
 
1.5 Mix together all liquid ingredients into a small bowl. (sauce for later)
 
2. Next sauté the onions in grapeseed oil. Onions are done sautéing when they start to become translucent.
 
3. Next throw in the Ginger and Garlic.. Let these sauté in with the onions just long enough until you can really smell their delicious flavors/scents erupting from the pan. :)
 
4. Next throw in all your veggies and Yams. Really Mix them in good with your onions and Ginger and Garlic and get them all rolled into that yummy taste and goodness. Then dump on your sauce, that was set aside from earlier, being sure to get it on a little bit of everything. Top it off with a lid and let the products steam for a good 10minutes. Once the Yams are nice and tender (keep your eyes on it) The dish is complete! After that just pull the lid off so some of the liquid can cook and evaporate out and that is it. :) Unless you will be putting this dish over rice or quinoa.. Then you may want the liquid. :)
 
5. Enjoy!! :)

Monday, February 10, 2014

Banana Breakfast Bars! :)

Hello everyone and good Morning.. Evening.. Afternoon.. (thought I would cover all my bases..). Today is a good day.. and on this very fine day I bring to you a very fine recipe. :)  Banana Breakfast Bars.. More like a cake really but it is quite good.. I use a lot of flax in this recipe and it lends a really nice nutty flavor to breakfast cake.. also I use ground up hazelnuts as the main source of the flour and well.. that is pretty tasty also. :)
So, this recipe came about by complete accident! One day I was going to be making breakfast for me and my co-worker.. I usually bring breakfast to work with me and I just thought why not bring some for her too. :) So, both of us have many food intolerances and if I were to list off the ones we have collectively you would probably say.. "WHAT DO YOU EAT?!?!?" oh but trust me.. we make some dangerously delicious delicacies. :) Anyway..
So I can't have grains, dairy, soy, corn, sugar, meat.. etc.. and on top of that she can't have almonds (which is my normal go to..) or eggs.. which makes all things baking that much easier.. I prefer to have my recipes with no eggs anyway so I gladly accepted the adventure to make something that both of us could enjoy. :)
I had decided to make us WAFFLES! yum! I had never done a waffle recipe that was all of the things mentioned above so I decided to go for it and see what happens.. well something definitely went wrong and batter was spurting out of my waffle stick maker all over the counter and it was just crisping onto the waffle maker.. Huge CATASTROPHE!! so.. I decided to put my brain together and think of how I could make the recipe work and not end up throwing away such delicious batter! So.. I threw it into a pan and threw in some potato starch and some coconut palm sugar and this is the recipe that I came up with that very day. :)

 
Banana Breakfast Bars
 
Ingrediets:
 
2 flax eggs (Flax egg=1Tbsp flax w/ 3Tbsp water) I usually add an extra 1/2tbsp or more of flax just cuz I love it so much. :)
1 ripened banana mashed up
1/2 cup milk of choice (I used cashew milk.. I've used coconut in the past as well[sodelicous brand])
3Tbsp Honey(Maple syrup to keep it vegan)
3Tbsp Grapeseed oil
Liberal 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Raw Hazelnuts..(I soaked all day[at least 2-4hours is best])
3Tbsp Coconut Flour
3/4 Tsp Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp Sea Salt
3/4 cup Potato Starch
1/4 cup Coconut Palm Sugar (or more to taste)
1/4-1/2 tsp Ginger pwd. (more or less depending on your liking of ginger)
3/4 tsp Cinnamon pwd.
1 (10oz) bag Chocolate Mega Chunks (Enjoy Life brand)
coconut oil, to grease pan..
 
1. The first step is to grease an 8"x8" pan with coconut oil.. then whip up your flax eggs and set them aside to soak and get thickened.. (approx. 2 mins)Do the same for your banana so that the flavor can really come out. Also preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
 
2. Once they have sat, whip together the flax eggs and the banana and pour them into a high speed blender. (I believe a food processor would also work but I haven't tried it yet) Then pour all the ingredients, in the order listed, into the blender. EXCEPT the potato starch, coconut palm sugar, ginger, cinnamon, mega chunks. TIP: might work better to chop up your hazelnuts a bit before throwing them into the blender.. not necessary if you have a high power blender but you can if you want. :)
 
3. After all is blended.. will be a little rough but all worth it in the end. :) Throw into the blender and STIR.. potato starch, coconut palm sugar, ginger, cinnamon. Once the stirring is complete you may dumped it into a greased 8"x8" pan.
 
4. Last step is to dump in the bag of chocolate chips and make sure they are dispersed evenly throughout the mix. :)
 
5. NOW BAKE! :) yay! Put those bars in the oven to bake and become awesome for about 30-50 minutes. I think the first time I made them I baked them for 30 and it didn't seem to make much difference in the texture or moisture. I just like mine a bit dryer so I did 50 this time.  TIP: I like my Banana Breakfast Bars dryer so  I normally bake them the night before and leave them out all night so the excess moisture evaporated up out of them.. DDEELLIISSHH. :)
 
6. ENJOY! :)

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Sister Soup!

Sooooo.. This post is long overdue.. This soup is what I like to call sister soup. :) Most of the girls in my family got together at my oldest sisters house for a weekend around the holidays and did wreath making.. (just to show you how overdue this recipe is..) When we get together between all of us there is a lot of food intolerances.. (most of them mine.. ha!) so we must be quite creative when whipping together meals that all of us can consume.. One of the nights that I was up there it was quite cold and we were all feeling like some soup. My oldest sister Jenny is AMAZING at making soups.. she really has it down pat.. me.. not so much.. making soups is quite a challenge for me! but slowly I am learning. :) Anyway.. So me, my oldest sister Jenny and my twin sister Amber all got our heads together and started chopping and dicing and slicing and came up with quite a delicious soup.. Id say it has kind of a... Thai influence? Its quite good. :)Without further ado.. here is the recipe. :)

 
Sister Soup. :)
(I copy and pasted my sisters e-mail below.. she recorded the recipe for all us girls.. I think its time you all sample it too.. I love it!!)
 
sweet potato soup with coconut mlik and cilantro

ingredients:

- small chopped onion
- 5 cloves garlic chopped
- small piece of FRESH ginger approx. 3" chopped
- 32oz chicken broth (I would substitute veggie broth next time I make it for myself)
- 1.5  13.5oz canned coconut milk full fat (Native Forest brand)
- 4 sweet potatoes (technically yams) peeled and cubed
- cardamon approx 1/2 tsp
- corriander approx 1/4 tsp
- cloves approx 1/4 tsp
- cumin approx 1/4 tsp
- turmeric approx 1/4 tsp
- salt to taste
- FRESH cilantro approx 1/4 cup chopped fresh
- coconut oil 3-4 tbsp

directions:

in large pan (we used a dutch oven) saute onion in coconut oil until soft and translucent. add garlic and ginger saute until fragrant. add chicken broth and sweet potato (yams). cover. cook until soft. once sweet potatoes are soft remove from heat and let cool a few minutes. add coconut milk, spices, and salt to taste. sprinkle with cilantro, and enjoy!

there you go sis! have fun with your soup making! hope to see it on the blog! amber had a really good pic of it you could use!

love you! -jen
 
Yum Yum Yum! There you have it folks!! Best soup ever!! Gotta love a bit of fresh cilantro.. mmm. :) If you haven't ventured out and tried fresh spices from the store.. you should!!! SOOOO good. :) Anyway.. I hope you all are having a wonderful night.. :) I'm going to work on another recipe of mine and perfect it.. :) the next up coming recipe is Banana Chocolate breakfast cake!! :) its SOOOO amazing!! :) :) :)