Healthy Recipes

I can’t believe this weekend is Memorial Day. Seems like just a few weeks ago we still had snow! Time, as always, flies by. So let’s get some recipe ideas out there for the official summer season, shall we? (Please forgive some of the old photos.)   Appetizers and Snacks Roasted Red Pepper Hummus (which goes so well with the next recipe…) Fresh Summer Salad Guacamole Watermelon Nectarine Salsa with Homemade Chips - Two Ways Teddy Graham Trail Mix (Don’t forget the kids!) Garden Gazpacho with Hazelnuts Balsamic Berry and Ricotta Bruschetta   Main Dishes White Pizza topped with Fresh Greens (While not traditional cookout food, grilled pizza is amazing!) Classic New England Lobster Rolls Honey Lime Chicken Tacos with Pineapple Salsa (Just grill the chicken. Also, the pineapple salsa is great with chips!) Tortilla Wrapped Burgers Grilled Hawaiian Teriyaki Steak Wraps Woodchuck Summer Cider Blueberry BBQ Sauce on Pork Ribs, plus All Purpose Grill and Smoking Rub Grilled Sausage and Peppers on Naan Steak Wraps with Avocado Chimichurri Sauce   Sides Grilled Veggie Kabobs with Meyer Lemon Olive Oil and Fresh Rosemary Mom’s Slow Cooked Boston Baked Beans (I’ve worked years perfecting these!)   Beverages Homemade Fruit Soda & Lime Rickeys (Feel free to make these adult friendly.) The Moscow Mule   Desserts (I seem to have a lot of these.) Mixed Berry Pandowdy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars Cosmic Brownies Brownie Crisp Ice Cream Sandwiches Raspberry Rhubarb Meringue Bars Fresh Blueberry Pie (So easy!) Even Better Than Ultimate Brownies S’mores and Rice Krispie Treats   Let’s not forget Ice Cream! Find all of my ice cream recipes by clicking on this photo:

Serve oven-baked salmon with a tasty-yet-unexpected accompaniment: roasted grapes. ** This is only a summary of our content.**

The University of Colorado’s Anschutz Health and Wellness Center (AHWC) has teamed up with HEALTHY DINING, a program of the National Restaurant Association, to help Coloradans make healthier choices when they eat in restaurants. The new program is called HEALTHY DINING IN COLORADO. More than 40 restaurant companies with 300 locations are already participating in Colorado. Restaurants will offer a selection of dietitian-verified menu items for kids and adults emphasizing lean protein, vegetables, fruits, whole grains and unsaturated fats. Families can find restaurants, from fast food to upscale dining, by entering a zip code in the online search tool featured on HealthyDiningFinder.com or by downloading the free iPhone app, YumPower. Source: PR Web, May 22, 2013

Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt.Rich and creamy like ice cream – it tastes like the inside of a Reeses peanut butter cup!This frozen peanut butter dessert is exactly what I need right now. Here is some advice I wish I’d taken: If you ever get braces… And if they ever give you that permanent metal bar behind your front teeth after the braces come off… And if that metal bar ever happens to break sometime in the next eight years… Get it fixed immediately. Otherwise, you’ll be out hundreds of extra dollars and one very sore mouth.I’m unfortunately learning this the hard way: my metal bar broke two years ago and I’d initially planned to make an appointment to get it fixed, but other things took precedence. I kept putting off getting it fixed, eventually forgetting about the missing bar completely. Slowly my front teeth started to shift, and when I finally did drag myself to the orthodontist again after all those years, it was a much bigger issue than simply fixing a broken metal bar. The orthodontist gave me an Invisalign-like guard to wear 24/7 for the next two months. (It’s completely unnoticeable, but it is painful as it shifts the teeth back into place.) And when the teeth shift back? Then I will still have to pay for a new metal bar.So it’s not been a fun past few days… except for all the frozen-yogurt eating! The retainer is not unbearably painful, but it’s uncomfortable enough that frozen yogurt is very welcome. Frozen yogurt, and smoothies, Chocolate Protein Milkshakes, and oatmeal… how I miss crunchy apples, or even chocolate bars. I am going to eat them with a vengeance when this soreness subsides. Really, though, what I hate most about the retainer isn’t the discomfort; it’s the fact I don’t have free rein to snack whenever I want. I’m accustomed to grabbing something to eat every time I walk through the kitchen or while I’m cooking, but the retainer inhibits that. It’s also apparently made me a very grouchy person. I’ve sure complained a lot in this post! Time for more frozen yogurt to shut me up.Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt2 cups plain or vanilla yogurt (such as So Delicious) (440g)1 cup milk of choice (240g)about 1/2 cup peanut butter (or almond butter or allergy-friendly alternative) (100g)1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (omit if using vanilla yogurt) (6g)1/4 tsp saltpure stevia extract to taste, or 1/3 cup sugar of choiceoptional: homemade peanut butter chipsThe recipe: Blend all ingredients except optional chips (or stir very well by hand) until completely smooth. If you have an ice cream maker, transfer mixture to the machine and churn according to manufacturer’s directions. My Cuisinart took 9 minutes. Add chips if desired. Eat immediately as soft-serve, or freeze in an airtight container for a half hour if you want a firmer texture. (If you don’t have an ice cream machine: simply transfer the blended mixture to an airtight container, freeze, and stir well every half hour for 2-3 hours. The texture won’t be as creamy, but it still works.)Click for: Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt Nutrition FactsAnd to everyone who asked earlier this week about the bangs… here is a picture of me at age fourteen, with bangs and braces:             Then and now.  See? I told you I still look crazy similar to how I looked twelve years ago! I kind of miss the bangs.But definitely NOT the braces!!

We're giving away one canister of Le Palais des Thés tea, plus a package of small filters and a Tea Lover's book to four randomly-selected commenters. ** This is only a summary of our content.**

This ancient whole grain has been making a comeback! It's versatile, easy-to-make and downright delicious. ** This is only a summary of our content.**

“No, I do not weep at the world — I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife. — Nora Zeale Hurston A couple weeks ago, I got an email from Elizabeth, owner of West Marin Food & Farm Tours, inviting me to attend an all-day oyster tasting tour in Sonoma. Needless to say, I hopped on a plane immediately. A day-long tour of 3 oyster farms? Fresh oysters, local cheese and bread and wine… this is my idea of a dream day! And it was a dream day… in this series of 3 posts, I’ll share with you photos from Drake’s Bay Oyster Farm, Tomales Bay Oyster Company and Hog Island Oyster Company. We met in the morning at Blackbird Coffee Shop in Inverness. Elizabeth had coffee and pastries for us, and she told us all about the history of oyster farming in the area. Then we headed over to our first stop of the day, Drake’s Bay Oyster Farm, which is the largest oyster producer in California. I’ve met the Lunnys, owners of Drake’s Bay, before, and I’m a big fan of their oysters. I’ve written about Drake’s Bay Oysters and the struggles they have been facing to stay open. In a nutshell (or an oyster shell?), a bunch of well-meaning (but very wrong) environmentalists have decided to make it their mission to shut down Drake’s Bay Oysters. They want what they call a “humanless landscape”. It’s really stupid because oysters actually clean the ocean and they have absolutely no evidence that the oyster farming has done one iota of damage to the environment. And it’s a pity because Drake’s Bay is the LAST oyster cannery in California (we used to have a lot of canneries — John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row). It is also the only oyster hatchery in California — and apparently there’s a shortage of oyster seeds these days. Oh and did I mention that Drake’s Bay Oysters produces 40% of the oysters in California? Putting them out of business will force us to import oysters — which is ridiculous because we can grow them right here in the state. They had a hearing last week to plead their case to stay open. Here’s a picture of the Lunnys and some of their employees outside the courthouse: According to the Drake’s Bay Facebook page: “Arguments have concluded… The three-judge panel will issue their ruling in the coming weeks.” Now we just have to wait… and pray that Drake’s Bay will be able to stay open. You can read my article to learn more and visit their Facebook page to get up to speed with what’s going on. So… that’s the background… let’s get on with the tour. We learned a lot about how Drake’s Bay hatches and harvests their oysters. For example, did you know oysters are hermaphrodites? I didn’t. They actually use this stick method — they drill holes through the shells and put them on sticks. I’m pretty sure Drake’s is the only farm in California that uses this method of oyster farming. They do this so the oysters will grow separately, in singles… Instead of in clumps like this. They make more money when they sell singles because restaurants want them for oysters on the half shell. For the canned oysters (which they also sell a lot of), they harvest them in bags like these: Apparently many restaurants just buy the canned oysters and they place them in the shells, instead of going to the trouble to shuck them. They just put the shells in the dishwasher and reuse them. Our tour guide said he truly cannot taste the difference. That’s a whole lot of oyster shells! This is the assembly line where they process the oysters. Everything at Drake’s Bay looks rather dilapidated (yet pretty in an ocean-weathered kind of way). Elizabeth told us this is because they are not allowed to fix anything. They can’t even patch holes in the roof. Something about the fact that this is government land 

The Editors at Food52.com /* > /*--> Whether you’re hosting pool parties or sleepovers this summer, you’ll need snacks that can be made by the double or triple batch. These six recipes scale up to handle lots of eager hands and appeal to a wide range of ages. Test out your favorites now so you’re prepared for the biggest summer party of all: Fourth of July. Recipe: Sara's Granola Bars These homemade granola bars are chewy and rich; a jumble of nuts, cereal, seeds and dried fruit barely held together with almond butter and honey (no baking involved!). The little bit of salt really sets these bars apart. These are great to have around as a wholesome dessert or energizing snack. Photo by Kyle Orosz Recipe: 10 Minute Parmesan and Mustard Pinwheels This is a great, simple hors d'oeuvre to throw together for last-minute snacking. With puff pastry stocked in the freezer and always at-the-ready mustard and Parmesan, these are as quick to roll up, slice and bake as they are to eat. Photo by James Ransom Recipe: Spicy Shrimp We love Sriracha's heat, which is warm, lasting and assertive without being overbearing. This recipe combines the hot sauce with a few everyday ingredients -- olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, sugar and cilantro -- to create a sublime marinade for shrimp. The oil and sugar give the marinade some viscosity so it doesn't just season the shrimp but clings to it. But it's the sugar that makes this dish -- on the grill, the sugar caramelizes, giving the shrimp a lacquered feel, and its sweetness balances the kick of the Sriracha. Photo by James Ransom Recipe: White Bean Dip with Fresh Herbs The perfect celebration of fresh herbs, this dip is wonderful with crostini, pita, radish slices, or even wrapped up in kale or romaine leaves. Serve with an extra drizzle of nice, fruity olive oil. Photo by Karen Mordechai Recipe: Tea Egg Salad Cracked eggs soak in smoky Lapsang Souchong tea overnight before folding in the dressing ingredients. Serve on crackers, or in celery-stick “boats” for a snack that resists soggy just-out-of-the-pool fingers. Recipe: Chevre Devils The thyme-spiked chevre and crackly-spiced pecans are perfect foils for sticky sweet Medjool dates. They’re "thirsty-making" and therefore ideal for days when cool, refreshing drinks are close by. We liked ours packed with goat cheese, and advise doubling the filling amounts (if you're chevre devils like us). You might also want to go scant on the 1/4 cup of agave, to avoid runoff and concentrate the spice. What are your favorite poolside snacks? Share your comments below!

Get our your hoes and your gardening gloves and start planting!.... continue reading

Corny voiceover voice: Do you consider yourself a smoothie lover? Me: "Yes, yes, yes!" You too? Smoothie cheers to that! And since I literally wrote the book on smoothie-making, I want to share with you what I think are the ten things every smoothie lover should have in their kitchen. So hop in your kitchen and give your smoothie tools, ingredients and goodies a good look to see how many of these ten items on my list you already have, which ones you want to add soon and which ones will be on your "smoothie kitchen dream list." ..Everyone needs a smoothie kitchen... This is a summary, images and full post available on HHL website!