New Vegetable of The Week

We're going to try two actually. I'm really trying to be more conscious of eating the rainbow (and no, I don't mean Skittles..).

Eating a variety of vegetables gives you a whole array of vitamins and minerals that you can't get when you eat just a select few. Some people think you can avoid multi-vitamins altogether if you just really widen your palate of acceptable fruits and vegetables.

I don't know much about that, but I I'm willing to test it out.

So first up is red chard. It's high in vitamins A, K and C and it's fiber nearly cancels out the carbs (if you're into that sort of thing). I've had swiss chard, so I'm sure this will be comparable. We'll most likely have is sautéed in some form. Maybe with garlic and olive oil.

Next up are leeks. My favorite 'leek' pop culture moment is in Bridget Jones Diary when she is making her birthday dinner and Mr. Mark Darcy shows up. She's trying to make a potato and leek soup and uses blue string to hold the vegetables together. Except the blue from the string turns the soup blue and Mark Darcy says "If you ask me, there isn't enough blue food".. such a sweet character.

Anyway, I've never tried one otherwise, to my knowledge anyhow.

They looks like giant green onions to me. Like little green onions went through some Willy Wonka machine and came out bigger on the other side. Like the chard, they've got lots going for them. Besides iron, manganese, vit A, vit K and C, they're also pretty low in calories. I'm still researching what to make with them, but I probably won't opt for String Soup as Bridget Jones did.

Anyway, I'll update again after we've sampled the new green goodies and I'll share my thoughts.

Have you tried any new foods this week?

Homemade Peanut Butter

There are many recipes for homemade peanut butter on the web. You can't hardly throw an emptied peanut butter jar into cyberspace without hitting one. Plus, it's so easy to make! So I'm surprised that more people don't do it.

I'm also surprised because so many of the recipes I see call for added oil. How silly! Peanuts give off the most glorious oil which makes the best peanut butter without any added at all. Plus, it doesn't separate in the fridge either. At least, in my experience.

So I'm sharing my method. I won't even call it a recipe because really, there is one necessary ingredient and one necessary piece of equipment.

There are however, a million possibilities! Have you seen some of the combinations available on your store shelf these days? All of these can be made at home, with fresh ingredients and no added.. well anything you don't want!

So to break it down, in my experience this hasn't been all that much cheaper to make than to buy. The reason I make it is so that I can absolutely control the amount of salt, etc. that goes into it. Sometimes things aren't always listed on the label. It happens all the time.

So I stock up on raw peanuts when they're on sale (my local Sprouts carries them, I'm sure you could probably get them at any natural foods store or Trader Joes, though I haven't checked anywhere else). Then I stash them in the freezer until I'm ready for them.

A quick roast in the oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes and they're ready to go. Let them cool before continuing.

So I should have taken pictures of the stages your peanut butter will go through during your blending process. Next time I will, promise.

Homemade Peanut Butter

Peanuts (roasted, salted, honey-roasted, whatever)

Salt

optional: honey, maple syrup, whatever.. seriously, sky's the limit!

Grab your food processor. If you have a fantastic blender you can probably use that too, but I can't comment on the effectiveness of it. Pour the peanuts in and turn it on. That's it. 

Wait a minute.. not so fast. You need to be patient. Your peanuts will go through a few different stages before you get a nice and creamy peanut butter. I'll describe them the best I can here. This is important! If you stop too early, it will not spread well!

- First they will get crumbly (keep blending)

- Then they will roll up into a ball and look like dough (keep blending)

- Then it'll spread back out and sort of look gritty and grainy (keep blending) 

You will want to stop and scrape down the sides from time to time. 

This will take anywhere from 5-10 minutes. Be patient! If you stop now, it'll get hard in the fridge and won't spread. 

The next stage is where the magic happens.. it's pretty neat to watch. The peanuts will then release their oil. Their OWN oil. No need to add any. Keep blending, and watch. It'll get shiny and creamy. See the picture below. This is after blending for about 8 minutes. Ask Chris, he had to pause The Walking Dead for me to do this. It takes awhile, but it's worth the wait. Don't feel you have to babysit either. Do dishes for the millionth time that day. Make your kids' lunches for the next day. Read a book. Update Facebook or Tweet that you are making peanut butter. Whatever. 

This is when you'll want to add your salt and any other add in's you're using (unless we're talking chunks like pretzels or raisins). So drizzle in your honey and sprinkle in your salt. Taste, taste, taste. You don't want it too salty, but not salty enough and it'll be too bland. Once it's to your liking, store it in a jar (perfect use for any cleaned recycled salsa jars, or spaghetti sauce jars) and stick it in the fridge. I'm not sure how this works kept on the shelf, though I have read that it keeps fine. 

So once you've gotten this down, then you can really get creative. So I had about a cup of peanuts left last night and I decided to throw them in the processor (I didn't even clean it out after removing the first batch). To that I added roasted almonds, unsalted sunflower seeds, chia seeds and hulled hemp seed. Repeat the whole process, it'll be chunky and gritty and ball up and then spread out and release those oils and get nice and lovely. 

You can add raisins, vanilla, cinnamon, nuts, pretzels, really anything you like with peanut butter. I blended a little of the 'enriched' peanut butter with banana for sort of a whipped peanut butter. Totally creamy and yummy. 

I hope you'll try to make your own sometime. 

Betcha Didn't Know..

Another blog I read did a post like this and I thought it was pretty interesting so I figured it might be a fun sort of ice-breaker.

Smoothies: I don't 'drink' them, I typically eat them soup-style in a bowl, topped with granola and nuts and whatnot. I love it. Another blogger started me on this, and she calls them SIAB (smoothie in a bowl). It kind of stuck and I love the contrast of textures, so it's how I roll now. When I drink a smoothie with no toppings, it feels like something is missing.

Spiders: I am ridiculously afraid of them, and I will literally have a physical freezing response when I see one that is in or near my house. I am fine seeing tarantulas in the wild (on hikes, etc) but other than that, it's pretty embarrassing. Just yesterday there was an epic battle between me and a wolf spider in the driveway. I am horrified to admit that it took me a good few minutes to get up the courage to squash that sucker. But I won. In the end.

Saved By The Bell: I used to be able to tell what episode it was going to be just by the first 15 seconds after the theme song. Phew. Felt good to get that off my chest. On the other hand, how about AC Slaters mullet huh? And if you're too young to know what that is, humor me and don't make me feel old.

I don't play any instruments: I really regret not getting more involved with band when I was young. It's on my bucket list too. I really want to learn to play guitar.


So, there you go. Four things that you may not have known about me.

Today I tried CrossFit for the first time. Have you heard of this? I've wanted to try it for a while now. In fact, I bought a Groupon for it at the beginning of January. I'm a little intimidated by the idea of it, so it took me about a month to get up the guts to go try it. I think I might be hooked. I'll let you know tomorrow, if I can type without aching that is. It was pretty intense! Luckily, it was just 30 minutes today. Since I've been doing hour long cardio and strength training at my gym, I think I held up pretty well. I only cried a little bit and didn't puke once. Haha.

It got me thinking about protein. After a workout like that, it's important to get protein in combination with quality carbs and fat. I am having a hard time getting in the protein in a vegetarian way without carb-loading. It reminded me that when we decided to cut out meat, we decided we'd also continue to look for a more sustainable source for our meat. Truthfully, I do feel like I struggle a bit. I eat hemp, and whey, and a bit of dairy, and all sorts of other incomplete proteins. Egg whites make up the most of my diet though, which isn't easy as we're still working on a reliable local source that can keep up with our egg consumption. So I think for now, we'll choose high quality fish and continue searching for meat from a local ranch.

All in all it's a very conflicting situation. My conscious won't allow me to mindlessly consume meat anymore. As much as I LOVE meat and seafood, I'm not even tempted to buy if it's just from a regular grocer. Even if it has a "grass fed" "pastured" label, because the USDA has such half-assed standards for that. However, I recognize that my fitness goals might need more protein than I can easily get in. I am busy, and I have 3 kids and having to create complete proteins or eat enough quinoa, buckwheat and hemp is not that easy. While I wish that I could effortlessly be a vegan with a super low carbon footprint, I just don't think that is realistic for me. So, onward we go as we try to navigate this.


Tell me something about you that many people may not know!

Breakfast.. Farro with Sautéed Apple and Greek Yogurt

Today I'm sharing my breakfast from this morning. It's a good example of why keeping some extra cooked grains, etc. can really help put together a healthy, unique and delicious breakfast with just a few minutes of prep.

I picked up some farro at the store the other night, inspired by family who also grabbed some. I had never tried it but really, it's one of the most ancient grains you can get. It's a type of wheat that apparently goes back to around 7700 B.C. but has only really gained popularity as sort of a trendy grain in the last couple years. So I was curious and I'm always excited to try a new food to add some variety.

It reminds me of barley in flavor and texture, and actually I think it looks like barley too. It's got lots of protein and fiber, making it a great choice for a complex carbohydrate when you get tired of rice or quinoa. I used the farro last night along with a veggie stir fry, and I made sure to cook a little extra to have in the fridge. It cooks up like pasta. 1 cup of farro to 3 cups of water, boil gently for about 15 minutes (or until the texture is what you like), drain and serve!

Inspired by this breakfast I had once last month, I decided to recreate it using farro.

(So I had already dug in when I snapped this, it was too good to wait!)

I'm not too good at recipes, since I tend to just add a pinch of this and a pinch of that, without thinking about it. I'm really a "to taste" sort of person when I cook. But I'll give you the basic idea. 

Farro with Sautéed Apple and Greek Yogurt

Serves 1 (but can definitely be multiplied for a crowd, super easy!)

1/4 cup cooked farro (I used this brand)

1 small chopped apple (something you like, but remember some get mushy when cooked)

1/2 tsp coconut oil (optional)

2 tbls milk or dairy-free milk (I used coconut-almond milk)

cinnamon

dash vanilla

sweetener (optional, I went without since I used the honey on top, apples are pretty sweet)

1/4 cup greek yogurt (I used plain Greek Gods brand)

1/2 tbls honey

Optional toppings: walnuts, pecans, bananas, etc

In a small pre-heated skillet, add the coconut oil and let it heat up. Add the chopped apple and cinnamon (I like a lot!) and stir it around and let it heat up. Stir in the cooked farro and cook for about a minute. Slowly add the milk, letting it soak in like you would a risotto. Continue adding until it seems to not soak in anymore (this took me about 5 minutes). You could completely skip the milk by the way, it would be totally yummy without. I loved the flavor it added though. 

Anyway, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Top with yogurt and drizzle with honey. 

Seriously one of the best breakfasts I've had in awhile, and you all know that I love my breakfasts! I specifically love a chance to incorporate a healthy grain besides oatmeal. I love oatmeal, but it helps to change things up sometimes, keeps it fresh and makes it easier to keep making healthy choices! 

I paired this with some egg whites cooked with peppers and kale for a nice balanced breakfast. 

Let me know if you try it! 

Planning a "Real Food" Birthday

Amelia turns 3 next month. I'm having some anxiety about this. The old me is sitting on one shoulder saying "Just give in to the easier party with the bakery-purchased cake I normally purchase".. and the new me is saying "you can make a cake from scratch and she'll be thrilled with it as long as she has some friends to share it with"..

Birthdays have kind of gotten out of hand in our family. I won't lie and say it's not my fault either. Desire to keep up with the other families and not let my kids down really plays a big part (all in my head, of course). Luckily, Grace has gotten to the age where she's got fairly grand ideas but on a smaller scale (last year she took two close friends to Build-a-Bear and then out to lunch). Still not the least expensive birthday but certainly easy to do.

Then of course there is the family celebrations. Sometimes multiplied by two since we have family we can't celebrate with on the day of. All in all though, very overkill. It's hard not to though when you consider it's the birth of your baby that you want to celebrate! As a mom, those are the most important days in my life! I want to shout it from the rooftops and behave as though I'm the only mom who has ever had this great accomplishment. Lately though, all the goody bags and donuts and cupcakes and small toys that get broken or lost (with a ton of tears on the side) plus 3 or 4 school birthdays a month between the two older kids and I'm just disillusioned by it all.

Getting the girls on board with the 'less is more' concept is hard and it's my own fault. After all, they wouldn't know was 'more' was like if we hadn't been going overboard since birth. For the record, Chris has always been against the overkill.

Anyway, so as we head into what I call "birthday season" (Amelia in March, Chris in April,  Grace in May and Cate in June) it makes me realize what a season of gluttony it is. When you factor in Halloween, Christmas, Valentines' Day, and Easter the treats just don't stop. It's not even special anymore. Maybe it shouldn't be, because then you think of food as being the reason for these special occasions, but the focus should NOT be on food. It should be on that persons birthday, or spending time with family. Unfortunately in our society, food always seems to come hand in hand.

So for now my game plan is to bake our cakes, etc at home and do real food for any birthday celebrations. Grace is in love with the idea of cake pops, but we discussed making them at home from scratch instead of mixes. I think it'll be a great way for all of us to learn how to make these celebrations more special, without feeling like their sacrificing.

I think heading into it my main goal is to keep them fun and focused on the reason for the celebrations in the first place.

Stay tuned for more birthday posts as we come closer to planning.

Crunchy Coconut Buckwheat Granola

I love granola. I mean, really love it. I love fruity smoothies poured in a bowl and topped with granola (I eat it like soup, haha). Yogurt topped with granola. Granola by the handful. Whatever. I love homemade granola the best though, because then I control what is in it. Store-bought granola, in my opinion, falls into two categories: Tons of fat/sugar and no fat or sugar which equals no taste. It's not secret that I'd always prefer the tons of fat/sugar version because this is where the flavor is.

However, making it yourself gives you that control and then you get the best of both worlds! All in the palm of your hands. Don't you love it when you get control of the situation?

The recipe I'm sharing is not mine. I *do* have a recipe that I've used in the past, but I found this one while spending way too much time on casually browsing Pinterest. Since I love (and I mean LUV) coconut I knew I needed to make it. Two Peas and Their Pod has some awesome recipes. Really decadent stuff. This is the first time I've made anything from there and I will absolutely be doing a few more as well, if this granola is any indication of the quality. Their recipe  was pretty darned perfect (and their photography makes mine look like Amelia took the pictures). Except that I have this new buckwheat and I was dying to make granola with it. Raw buckwheat groats are actually edible. They have sort of a 'Grape Nuts' sort of flavor and texture that I really love! In granola though? Over the top!

Here is the recipe with the changes I made to it:

2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup buckwheat groats (I used Bob's Red Mill brand)
3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (Original recipe called for sweetened but I love unsweetened)
2/3 cup slivered almonds
2 tbls ground flax
1/4 cup wheat germ2 tablespoons Trader Joes Maple Sugar (This recipe only has 2 grams of sugar per serving, the amounts can absolutely be increased if you would rather have a sweeter end result)1 teaspoon cinnamon1/4 teaspoon salt3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted1/2 cup local orange blossom honey1 teaspoon vanilla extract1/4 teaspoon coconut extract 


1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Combine sugar, cinnamon, coconut oil, applesauce and honey in a sauce pan and heat just until combined and sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and then add in the extracts. Set aside for a moment. 

Combine remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl and pour the wet mixture over the dry. Stir well to combine. 

Pour the granola mixture out onto a large cookie sheet covered with either parchment or a silicone baking mat. 

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes (this is the length of time and cooking temp Alton Brown uses for his recipe and I find this works the best to get an evenly toasted granola without any burnt pieces).

Let cool and store in an air-tight container.



This one is pretty nutrient dense and isn't lower in fat or calories than your store bought counterparts. However, it's MUCH lower in sugar and all that fat and calories are from REAL foods.

Also, one of the things I absolutely love about granola is it's pretty forgiving! I've substituted puffed rice or crispy rice cereal to cut back on some of the calories. However, I found that in this case, I'd rather have a smaller serving than give up too much of the oats. The crispy and puffed cereals both add something to the texture though and if you enjoy those cereals you definitely can incorporate them.

Also, you can add different nuts, seeds and other mix-ins. I have made gingerbread granola, maple granola, pumpkin spice granola and vanilla bean granola. Plus, you can add fruits (though I suggest adding them after). Alternately, you can go absolutely PLAIN and just use oats for a seriously basic granola that you can then add to other recipes (like granola bars and cookies, etc). So you can really get creative here based on your tastes.

Whatever you do, enjoy!

Chewy granola bars

As promised I've got some recipes to share. Plus some fantastic photography.

I'm not sure I should call these bars granola bars since I didn't make them using granola. Oh well, what I should call them is seriously tasty. I've been on the hunt for some time now for a bar snack I could send the girls to school with that they love. I've been done with buying the processed ones (even though so-called 'healthier versions') so we've been making due with extra fruit and veggie snacks. The girls come home starved those days though, and I knew I needed to get back to the drawing board.

The problem is that I needed them to fit the following criteria:

- They needed to be chewy
- They needed to NOT be made with a ton of sugar or any seriously refined sugar
- They needed to actually *stick* in the form of a bar (which seemed to hard to find without using a lot of sugar, which violated my second criteria
- The girls needed to love them.
- No peanuts or nuts (although that one I could easily get around by using sunflower seed butter)

So I have made several batches. Some Grace ate in the form of granola. Some no one wanted to eat. Some were hard as a rock and some were so nutritionally dense (and not in a good way) that I didn't want anyone eating them.

So enter Chocolate Covered Katie. Oh, haven't you met? She's this amazing food blogger who pretty much takes every little fun treat and flips it around to include healthy ingredients. Because life is so much more fun when you get dessert. She's done everything from Copycat recipes (reeses and oreos anyone?) to perfect little individual cakes. Obviously desserts are still desserts and should be consumed once in a while and not every day, but with these recipes you can indulge without twelve million ingredients that you can't even pronounce. The reeses? I can vouch that they genuinely taste like the famous ones. Even my kids will tell you. Anyway, I'm getting off point. Her 'copycat' for the Quaker bars is pretty much the first bar recipe that actually worked. Met all the criteria, and I'm pretty excited for trying out different varieties in the future and adding other fun things like flax and chia.

Copycat Recipe- Quaker-style chewy granola bars - courtesy of my favorite dessert blogger. Seriously, she rocks.

Sorry for my horrible picture. Looks good though right? Sorry, this one's mine. 

So as usual, I'm going to share the link to the original, but what I'm posting is how I made them. Check out her site for other substitution information, as well as a 'no bake' and gluten free options. Did I mention how awesome she is?

Quaker-Style Chewy Granola Bars

• 1 cup rolled oats 
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup brown rice crispies (I used sprouts version. Ingredients list: whole brown rice)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp oat flour (I'm assuming you could mix this up with things like almond or coconut meal or other flours)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp coconut oil 
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tbls coconut sugar (or other sweetener of choice)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp applesauce (banana would probably work as well, or pumpkin!)
• Ideas for the add-ins: mini chocolate chips, chopped raisins or other dried fruit, shredded coconut, chopped walnuts, etc.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all dry ingredients and mix very well. (If you don’t have oat flour: simply grind rolled oats in a food processor to make oat flour. Be sure to measure the correct amount of flour for the recipe after grinding, not before.) In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Stir wet into dry and use another sheet of parchment (or wax) paper to squish evenly-coated mixture into a parchment-lined 7×5 pan (or double the recipe for a 9×13). Squish very, very hard, with a can or something heavy. Bake 18 minutes, then squish very hard again. Cool in the fridge for at least ten minutes before cutting into bars. (I just let them cool on the counter though it was hard to be patient)

*My notes* - I used mini Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate chips and finely shredded coconut as my mix-ins. 1/4 cup each. I felt like I could taste each of these items just fine with these measurements. I doubled the recipe and used a 9x13 plus a SECOND 9x13 to use for pressing down. I LITERALLY stood on top of it. I think, in all honesty, this is probably where I ran into issues with granola bars in the past, not pressing the mixture down enough. I might consider cutting back a wee bit more on the sugar next time, and upping the applesauce a tiny bit. Plus, I'll probably play around with adding flax and wheat germ and a few other healthier mix ins. For now though, we're all enjoying these.  

But with doubling the recipe, I got 20 bars, comparable in size to the Quaker brand version. I individually wrapped these and stuck them in the freezer. I'll stick them in their bags for lunches or snacks. I don't send them this type of stuff everyday. However, at our school snacks must be fairly portable since the kids eat them outside before recess. 

So enjoy! If you make them, please share what you mixed in and how you liked them!

Here is how they stack up:
This version has: 124 calories, 5 grams of fat, 6 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein, and 2 grams of fiber

Quaker version has: 100 calories, 3 grams of fat, 7 grams of sugar, 1 gram of protein and 1 gram of fiber. (Plus they have all the following as well)