Yogurt Cucumber Salad

Yogurt has so many health benefits and I am always looking for ways to incorporate it into our diets. I use it in place of sour cream in recipes too. (Until I start making my own sour creme or Creme Fraiche). To cook the steaks I just heat up a frying pan slightly and place in pan and season with a steak seasoning that is MSG free and cook until they are done. The brussel sprouts were steamed a little and then I stir fried them in a mushed black beans and minced garlic.

Yogurt Cucumber Salad
Peel and cut cucumbers
Stir in a heaping spoonful of plain yogurt
Sprinkle with dry dill

Whole Chicken Bake and Chicken Lettuce Salad

Baked Chicken Dinner with Veggies
First what you do is buy a couple whole chickens (I didn't get any pictures of this meal) You put them in a pan to bake for an hour or more. Make sure they are covered and just season them with a little season salt or Mrs. Dash Herb Blend, I also stuffed the inside of the chickens with a handfull of peeled garlic cloves. When the chicken is about done, cook any desired fresh or frozen veggies and serve with the chicken. Then save the chicken bones and broth and garlic that was inside the chicken. (The next meal will be posted later that uses the leftover bones, etc)
To make the Chicken Lettuce Salad
With some of the leftover chicken (that is why you need to bake more than one whole chicken) top a fresh green salad with spinach, leafy lettuce, Slice purple cabbage, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers and a sprinkle of Mrs. Dash Table blend and a tiny bit of olive oil.

Lifestyle change and Tuna Salad

So this has been a long time in the planning. And I decided to not even attempt it during the holiday season. I have committed myself to going completely off of sugar again. It has been 10 years since I did that and I wasn't very good a menu planning at the time. Since then I have learned many things and continue to learn. My lifestyle goal is to be able to pretty much stay off of sugar for the rest of my life (with a taste every now and then). So in order to do this, since I LOVE to eat and create new dishes, I get to try out a lot of different things, until they are delish to me! The main reasons why I went off sugar is I was tired of being addicted to it and craving it. I am also tired of the lingering weight that hasn't gone away in many years, no matter how much I exercise. I haven't gone off just sugar, but yeast, white flour and temporally fruits (till I get my blood sugars re stabilized over the next month or so) If any of you are attempting to go off sugar, be forewarned of the strong headaches the first couple of days.

I anticipate better health, looking better and eating fresher foods as well. Since most of my foods for the next couple weeks are mostly vegetables, meats, beans and some grains. My recipes will include that. When I start eating a treat every now and then I will work on still making it as healthy as possible. So yes that means I will be sweetening with either Agave or Stevia (buy the non bitter brand from KAL) and using Carob instead of chocolate. (Since I get migraines from eating my beloved chocolate, it has to go as well) Other ingredients you might want to invest in are other flours and grains (buckwheat, spelt, Quinoa, etc) And other oils such as Safflower and Food Grade Vegetable Glycerin oil. If you don't have a certain ingredient or oil listed you can use a different one, including flours as well, you will just have a different end result. Just the initial cost of some of these ingredients is pricey, but not too bad after you get going.

So enjoy a "Fresh" outlook on eating and I hope some of you are brave enough to try some of my recipes. Some of them will be just basic veggies and meats and no special ingredients. I have many different variety of salads with protein (that is the part that makes you feel full) and will post all of them, just to give you an idea how to spice up a daily salad :0)!

Tuna Salad (This sounded so strange to me at first, but I really enjoyed it!)

Torn Curly leaf lettuce

Torn Red Cabbage

Cut Cucumbers

Tuna (from water based canned)

Lemon juice

Cut up all ingredients and layer how you want toss with a light coat of lemon juice.

Salad on a Stick

These are really easy and yummy! Ingredients are the freshest mozzarella cheese you can get, cherry or grape tomatoes, Fresh Basil leaves or Fresh Spinach leaves. First soak skewer stick in water for 1 hour. Then layer the cheese, leaf and tomato. I did two of each on each stick. Then you can either drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper or drizzle with Italian dressing. Serve. It took me about 20 minutes to fill 34 sticks. I made these as an appetizer.

Sprouting!

First Step to sprouting is to choose what you are sprouting. I have here once jar with lentils and one with a mixture of alfalfa, red clover, broccoli and radish. You soak them overnight or 8 to 12 hours. Then drain and rinse.

Second Step.

The lady that taught us said to rotate the jar to spread seeds around and leave it tipped slightly for full drainage. I found that using a bowl works great. Place in a dark corner in kitchen.

Third Step. Is to rinse the seeds every morning and night and smaller seeds can have more rinsings. Small seed are ready in only 2 days! Rinse and put into a sealed bag or container. If you don't like the hulls, you can soak in a bowl of water and they will float to the top. They keep as well as a fresh cut vegetable. They keep about 7-10 days.

This is one of our favorite ways to eat it. I put my sprouts on whole wheat bread. But the whole wheat is too much fiber for young systems, so I use white bread for babies and toddlers.

We have sprouted Quinoa grain,the mixture and mung beans( tastes like baby peas) All sprouts flavoring changes from day to day, so try them out and you might like them better on day 2 or day 6.

Basic supplies are a wide mouth mason jar with a mesh lid (can be bought at health food store) I bought my online for about $5 or little less each. Or you can use an nylon with rubber band on top to hold it on.

So I have totally fallen in love with sprouting. I get to grown an easy indoor garden this way. I just found out how easy it is and I had all the supplies already! There are several different ways to do it, but I found that this is the simplest. The benefits of sprouting are huge! Th e proteins and starches change once it has sprouted and it has a ton of natural enzymes and vitamin C! Any Bean and seed/grain can be sprouted. It is important to use pure seeds, never use garden seeds (they are coated with poisons to prevent rot and animals/insects from eating them once planted).

I make very small amounts in a jar. The following amounts are to Fill an entire jar.

Amount Time to Harvest Sprout length

Alfalfa, 2 Tbsp 3-6 Days 1-2 inches

Clover, Radish, Broccoli- (all about the same as above)

Lentil- 1/2 cup 2-4 Days Length of the seed

Mung- 1/2 cup 2-5 Days 1/2 to 3 inches

Oats- 2/3 cup (Soak only 30-60mins)1-3 Days Length of seed

Rye- 2/3 cup 2-3 Days Length of seed

Soybeans, 1/2 cup 2-6 Days Length of seed

Garbanzo

Sunflower 2/3 cup (soak 1-4 hrs) 1-5 Days 1/4 inch

Wheat 2/3 cup 2-3 Days Length of seed

She also did green pumpkin seeds and others. I just look up a certain seed or bean and look to see how long it needs to be sprouted. Lots of good information on sprouting on the Internet.

The following are creative ways of using sprouts;

Green Salads, Potato Salads, Wraps, Stir Fry, Rice dishes, Saute with Onion, Sushi, Chili (Sprout kidney beans for one day first), Stew, other soups, Blend into a shake, Mix with cream cheese and eat as a dip, Mix into pancake or waffle(wheat sprouts), In omelets or scrambled eggs. And I am going to add sprouted pumpkin seeds, quinoa and sprouted sunflower seeds to homemade bread. These are just a few ways to add more nutrition into your diets.

Lentil Sprout Stir Fry-(This was yummy)

Cook Sprouted lentils with chopped onion, celery and a little soy sauce. Enjoy!

Fresh Spinach and lettuce from the garden!

So the garden is starting to produce and some of the first things are lettuce and spinach. Spinach is really great for the body! It is packed with Vitamin K, A and Folate. It has 13 different flavonoids that work as antioxidants and anti-cancer agents. The list goes on and on. In the garden you can plant it 3 weeks after the initial planting to have continues fresh spinach and lettuce. If cut every day we found ours lasted about 2 months. Here are some pointers on what you can do with spinach.
The is a fun fast recipe that our family made up to eat last summer;
Spinach Topped Bread
Take a piece of bread, toasted (Opt)
Layer non-fat cream cheese on toast
Top with handful of either just spinach, and or lettuce.
Then you can either put a little Italian on top of the cream cheese or on top of the spinach. There are such fun Italian dressings available now, so you can have a little different flavored every day! Here is a recipe for homemade one;
Creamy Italian Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise, 1 Tbsp. corn oil or salad oil, 1 Tbsp. water, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 2 Tbsp. Wine vinegar, 1 Tbsp. Lemon juice, 1/2 tsp oregano leaves, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 garlic clove (Crushed), (OPT) grated Parmesan cheese. Combine and mix well, chill. Makes 1 1/3 cups.

* And a common way to eat spinach is put a little water in the bottom of a pan stuff it full of spinach, cover and cook until desired softness.

Green Slime Sublime
1 (12oz) Can of pineapple juice, 2 frozen bananas, 4 cups fresh spinach, 1/2 carton of silken tofu. Blend then add 1 can of water, blend again.
This make a tasty smoothie or freeze for Popsicles. You will be surprised how refreshing this tastes!

Spinach Mushroom Salad
2 bunches fresh spinach, washed, dry and crisped in fridge
1 small head iceberg lettuce ( or fresh garden lettuce)
1 purple onion, sliced in rings
3/4 Lb fresh sliced mushrooms
3/4 Lb grated Swiss cheese
1/2 Lb cooked, crumbled bacon
Tear spinach and lettuce. Toss lightly with remaining ingredients. Just before serving, toss with dressing.
Dressing; 3/4 Tbsp poppy seeds, 3/4 Tbsp grated onion, 1/3 cup white vinegar, 3/4 tsp salt, 3/4 cup oil, 1/3 mustard, 1/3 cup sugar.

Potato Salad Dressing

Whenever I make potato salad, I end up creating a new dressing for it...mainly because I don't remember what I did last time. This time it turned out really well.

Ingredients
(The amounts are estimated since they vary depending on how much potato salad you have and how much dressing you like on it.)
1/2c Miracle Whip
1T dijon mustard
1tsp dried rosemary
1/2tsp dried marjoram
1T dried parsley, but fresh would be awesome
1T vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
water to get the desired consistency (I would have used milk, but we didn't have any)

Mix it all together. Toss with potato salad. Or macaroni salad might be good.

Does anyone know a mayonnaise/miracle whip free dressing? More picnic friendly.

Salads Over Looked

Something that we like at our house is salad. I know it already sounds boring. But you can make salads fun, unique and tasty and have salad 2 or 3 times in a row! So here are some ideas to jazz them up! When we say add we are assuming you already have lettuce or a bag of greens.
Taco Salad- Add black beans, avocados, tomatoes, crushed corn chips, cheese and bell peppers. For dressing you can just use salsa and sour cream.
Asian Salad- Add sugar snap peas, radishes, carrots, thos crunchy asian noodles and zucchini. For salad dressing you can use a low sodium soy sauce.
Caesar Salad- Add croutons, (you can make your own whole wheat croutons with whole wheat bread if you have it!) chicken, broccoli, tomatoes and cauliflower. ( I know Caesar salad doesn't normally call for these veggies but by adding them in you get more veggies and more flavor!)For dressing use a non fat any brand Caesar dressing.
Chef Salad- You can basically add whatever you want. Ham, bacon, eggs, cucumbers, celery, mushrooms and whatever dressing you want!
Summer Salad- Add cut strawberries, almond slivers, mushrooms, peas and cheese. For dressing use any brand non fat poppy seed dressing.

Here are just two more tips for salad.
Raw spinach is great in salad and is really good for you.
There are bags of Broccoli Slaw near the bags of salad- if you add this to any salad it doesn't really taste like broccoli but also another great way to add more veggies without it really tasting bad!