Healthy Spicy Hummus & Colorful Slaw. My Way!

Joseph's Flax Oat Bran & Whole Wheat Pita Bread filled with purple & orange slaw, hummus, alfalfa sprouts, and a a few shakes of Rice Vinegar over the top of the heap. YUM!

Colorful Slaw Recipe: 1 purple cabbage shredded, 5-6 carrots, grated; 1 package of broccoli slaw. Mix well. Put in the fridge and eat throughout the week!



HUMMUS RECIPE

What I use:

• 1 can of organic garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
  
• 5-6 garlic cloves, minced
  
• Sprinkle of Cayenne Pepper
• Sprinkle of Ground Cumin
• Few shakes of Hot Sauce
• 1 small tomato
• few large dollops of natural peanut butter
  
• few squeezes of lemon
• 1 green or red jalapeno pepper
• Sprinkle of fresh ground peppercorn
• Broccolli florets (sprinkle florets in food processor)
• freshly ground peppercorn
  
• water
• Directions: Mix all in a food processor. Mix well and to the consistency you like.
  

Chocolate Banana Flax Cherry Bread Muffins

This original recipe came from Banana Bread recipes, titled Healthy Banana Nut Bread Muffins. I've since tweaked the recipe. If you are trying to limit white refined sugar and white flour from your diet like I am (both are so unhealthy!), choose to substitute white sugar with Sucanat or Rapunzel and white flour with white whole wheat flour or experiment with the many bean or rice flours available. Click here to learn more about white whole wheat flour.

Health Risks of Processed White Sugar & White Flour

Yields: 12 muffins and 1 thin loaf
INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup all-purpose flour (replace with King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour)
* 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Garbanzo Bean Flour
* 3/4 cup Sucanat (instead of refined white sugar)
* 1 tsp Bob's Red Mill Non-Aluminum Baking Powder
* 1 tsp Bob's Red Mill Aluminum-Free Baking Soda
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* 2 egg whites
* 4 mashed bananas
* 1/4 cup Natural Applesauce
* chopped walnuts, optional
* 5 oz marischino cherries, halved, optional
* sprinkle of Hodgson Mill Milled Flax Seed
* semi-sweet chocolate chips, optional


DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or line with paper muffin liners.
Grease 9X5 loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar substitute, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg whites, mashed banana, applesauce, cherries, chocolate chips. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until just blended. Fill prepared muffin cups 3/4 full. I put the remaining batter in a loaf pan. It wasn't as thick (rise) as normal because there wasn't a lot left over. I decided to throw the walnuts and some halved cherries on top of the loaf before putting into the oven. And extra chocolate chips on top of the muffins.

3. Bake for 18-20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top springs back when lightly touched. Allow muffins to cool in the pan over a wire rack for a little while before tapping them out of the pan. Allow the pan to cool before taking the loaf out.

Sweet & Sour Pork Stir Fry. YUM!

*In this dish, I used a Sweet & Sour seasoning mix. It was delish but next time I'll replace the seasoning mix with Annie's Naturals Marinades. Annie's Naturals feature so many yummy looking marinades great to use on meats or to use as sauce in a stir fry. And yes, there really is an Annie! She is based in Vermont, my home state.

Sugar, anti-caking agents, and harmful food additives are found in many seasoning mixes--so it's up to you to limit your consumption of these.

Below is the recipe I'll experiment with next time.

Serves 3
Ingredients:

• 2 thick pork loin chops boneless, cut up in large cubes
• Annie's Naturals Sesame Orange Marinade
  
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 orange pepper, sliced
• 1 can Pineapple Chunks, drained
• EVCO (extra virgin coconut oil)
• Raw sesame seeds (handful)
  
• Rice Sticks

What i will do:

1) Marinate pork cubes for 30 minutes in Annie's Naturals Sesame Orange Marinade.

2) Add Rice Sticks to hot water and let sit for 10 minutes. Drain rice sticks.

2) In wok, heat oil. Remove pork from marinade and stir-fry until done; remove from wok.

3) Stir fry veggies, add raw sesame seeds; return pork to wok. Add splash of marinade. Add rice sticks. Blend until warm. Add pineapple chunks.

Ginger Broccoli. Healthy Side Dish.

Ginger Broccoli
3 miracle foods together in one dish..
broccoli, ginger, and almond slices!

Ingredients:

• broccoli florets
• EVCO (extra virgin coconut oil)
  
• garlic cloves, minced
• fresh grated ginger root
• handful of almond slices
  

DIRECTIONS

1. In a wok, add coconut oil, garlic and ginger, until fragrant. Toss in the broccoli and almond slices. Cook until broccoli is crisp-tender.

Light & Delicious! Garlic Lemon Salmon

Garlic Lemon Salmon
*Salmon is rich in omega-3 essential fatty acids!*

REMINDER: Thaw salmon fillets in fridge 24 hours prior!

Ingredients:

• 5-6 cloves garlic, minced in food chopper
  
• 2 salmon fillets (Ocean Eclipse Wild Caught), thawed
  
• Butter
• Lemon Juice
  
• 1 Squash, sliced
  
• 1 Green Pepper, sliced
  
• Extra Virgin Coconut Oil(EVCO)
• 5-6 Scallions

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425.
• Mince garlic. In skillet, throw in dollop of butter with minced garlic. Brown garlic. Add few squirts of lemon juice. Mix. Turn off heat.
  
• Put thawed salmon fillets in skillet to coat with garlic mixture.
• Put salmon fillets in greased (use non-stick cooking spray) baking dish. Top with scallions. Bake for 14 minutes or until done.
• Place squash and green pepper in greased baking dish with few dollops of EVCO, sea salt & pepper. Put in oven with salmon. Turn 1/2 way through cooking time. Veggies should be done when salmon is done.

Simple Crockpot Spicy Black Beans & Rice

It's never too late to incorporate beans into your daily diet!
Beans are a super food filled with antioxidants plus a healthy variety of nutrients.

Health Benefits of Black Beans

Here's one of my fave recipes to make a spicy bean dish.

Spicy Black Beans

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound (8 0z) dried black beans
• 4 oz can chopped Jalapeno peppers
• 14.5 oz can Chili Ready Tomatoes
• dribble of Cayenne Hot Sauce
• 1 Onion
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 2 Cans Beef Broth
• Lundberg Long Grain Brown Rice
  

How to Make:

• Rinse and sort dried beans. Soak beans for 8 hours.
  
• Rinse beans again, discard water.
  
• Put beans in crockpot and cover with fresh water plus a few extra inches of water.
  
• Cook on LOW in crock for 10-11 hours or until beans are almost cooked.
• Add Jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic cloves, and hot sauce and cook on HIGH for 1 1/2 hours longer, or until beans are tender.
• Cook Lundberg rice. I like to make 8-10 servings of rice at a time. Which is=2 cups of rice PLUS 4 cups of Beef Broth. Read directions on package. This rice takes atleast 50 minutes.

Pineapple Zucchini Bread. Moist & Delish!

Pineapple Zucchini Bread

Original recipe from Light & Tasty June/July 2007 magazine

Yields: One bundt pan or one loaf pan

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup Jarrow Formulas Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
• 1/3 cup Applesauce
  
• 2 egg whites
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup shredded zucchini
• 1/2 can crushed pineapple, drained
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat with a mixer-> the sugar, applesauce, coconut oil, egg whites, egg, and vanilla until well blended. Gradually beat into sugar mixture->flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda. Stir in the zucchini, pineapple, and walnuts.
• Transfer mixture to bundt pan.
  
• Bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
  
• Let cool completely before taking out of the bundt pan.