Vegetables

Easy DIY Freezer Pickles

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Happy October, Friends!

I hope you’re all enjoying this beautiful fall! I’ve been so busy with group workshops, coaching and a new certification program I’m doing through the Institute of Functional Health Coaching (much more on this in another post!) that I haven’t been blogging very much the past couple of months.

Easy DIY Freezer Pickles

So I wanted to share something fun with you today. A few years ago we grew SOOOOO many cucumbers in our Tower Garden that I couldn’t eat or give away any more. So the kids and I made pickles. I’m not a canner, but a friend suggested we freeze them and it worked perfectly. They were delicious and lasted us all through the fall and winter. My husband and kids loved them and have been asking for more ever since.

We moved the Tower Garden inside and use grow lights now, which is amazing for lettuce, herbs and greens all winter, but I haven’t had homegrown cucumbers since then. This fall we’ve had an abundance of beautiful organic cukes from our CSA and we happen to have a beautiful bunch of dill growing on the Tower Garden right now too. So yesterday Juliette and I made eight quart jars of dill pickles. They’re in the refrigerator now for a couple of days and then I’ll put most of the jars in the freezer.

I can’t say I’m an expert pickle maker by any means, but if you google freezer dill pickles you will find several recipes. This is the one we used this year, with a few modifications (for us it required about double the vinegar plus an equal amount of water to cover the cucumbers for 8 jars. I also added chopped fresh garlic, black peppercorns and we used a lot of fresh dill). Adjust the seasonings according to your own tastes. You honestly cannot mess this up. If you decide to try this, make sure you leave a good inch at the top of your jar to allow for expansion as the pickles and brine freeze. And as an added precaution, I freeze mine with the lid off and then put the lids on after they’re frozen.

Next time you buy pickles, take time to read the ingredients. Most brands are full or preservatives and have artificial blue and yellow coloring, which is so irritating because it is so completely unnecessary!! (You can read a little bit about why you should avoid artificial colors here.) I like Bubbies brand (which is usually in the refrigerator section)  but I can’t always find their dill pickles here. If you’re in the same boat, it really is easy to make your own and its such a fun thing to do with your kids. My whole crew thinks its so much fun to make and eat our own pickles!

Local friends, make sure to check my website and Facebook page often for upcoming workshops and wellness events. I have a lot of fun things in the works!!

Blessings to you and yours!

Kristi

PS. I’d love to see you at any or all of my upcoming workshops!!

Be a Smart Healthy Shopper

Friday, October 13, 2017 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM

NMS Chiropractic Clinic | 2568 Waterbridge Way | Evansville, IN 47710

Join Danielle Pond (Dietician @ NMS Chiropractic) and Kristi Cirignano (Certified Health Coach) for a light healthy lunch and a fun hour of talking about how to become a smart and healthy grocery shopper & get more healthful whole foods in your life! We will talk about::

–what foods you should focus on when you’re making your grocery list or doing your shopping

–food label reading strategies including how to interpret the information on a food label and what ingredients you should absolutely avoid putting into your shopping cart or mouth

–simple ways to get more whole food nutrition into your diet

Lunch is always gluten and dairy free and we will have recipes to share! This event is free but space is limited so please RSVP to Kristi@nourished-for-life.com or via eventrite at https://smart-shopper.eventbrite.com

Raising Healthy Kids

Tuesday, October 17, 2017 from 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM

Kristi’s home | 10276 Shefield Ct. | Newburgh, IN 47630

We all want to raise healthy kids, but it’s a challenge in today’s environment! Do you struggle with:

–picky eaters?

–societal pressures on our families and kids to eat like everyone else?

–meal planning?

–finding time for cooking and feeding your family healthful whole foods when we are running all day from work or school to homework to sports and activities?

Eating nutrient dense whole foods is so, so important to our kids performance in school, sports and activities, and even more important to their long term health. But its not always easy! Join us for a light, healthy lunch and we’ll talk about overcoming picky eating, peer pressure & meal planning tips to set yourself up for success!

Lunch is always gluten and dairy free and we will have recipes to share.! This event is $10 per person. Please register via eventbrite at https://healthy-kids.eventbrite.com

Essential Oils & How They Can Benefit You

Friday, October 27, 2017 at 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

Kristi’s home | 10276 Shefield Court | Newburgh, IN 47630

Join us for a light, healthy lunch and learn the basics of essential oils …

What are they?

How do you use them?

How can they benefit you and your family?

You will get to smell and sample a variety of oils and learn how to use them in your home!

** Please note essential oils have many benefits, but they are powerful substances and it is important do your own research on any oils that you use, use caution and make sure you are using them appropriately and safely! We will share some of my favorite resources for researching oils and their uses.

Lunch is always gluten and dairy free and we will have recipes to share. This event is $10 per person. Please register via eventbrite at https://essential-oil-basics.eventbrite.com

Summer Tomato Corn Salad

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Hello friends!

One of the fun things about focusing on eating fresh fruits and vegetables is that your meals change with the seasons and what is available locally at any given time. In the summertime, the way I cook changes completely. In the winter I tend to make a lot of soups, stews, chili, crock pot meals and heavier pasta dishes. When we have an abundance of local goodness from the farm and our farmers market, I love to eat as fresh and close to the earth as possible.

I actually don’t know if you can really call most of what I do during the summer “cooking”. And this hardly even qualifies as a recipe. But its still one of our favorite summer dishes.

Summer Tomato Corn SaladWhen we make sweet corn, I always cook a few extra ears for this salad. If your corn is really fresh and tender, you don’t even have to cook it! I chop the freshest most delicious tomatoes we have (preferably a mix of sungolds, grape or cherry, and different colors of heirloom tomatoes) and then add the leftover corn (cut from the cob).

Drizzle with a good quality extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. and a generous handful of fresh basil. Summer heaven on a plate!

This salad is delicious on its own or as a side salad with an organic, pastured chicken breast.

Print Recipe

Summer Tomato Corn Salad

Calories: 235kcal

Ingredients

  • 2-3 cobs sweet corn kernels removed (please use organic, non-GMO corn)
  • Aprrox. 1 lb fresh local summer tomatoes 3 medium tomatoes or a combination of sun gold, grape, cherry and heirlooms
  • Approx. 1/4 c. Fresh basil leaves thinly sliced
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Sea salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Combine corn, tomatoes & basil in bowl. Add extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper & toss gently to combine.
  • Enjoy immediately or store, refrigerated, up to 2 days.

Make sure to check out the Upcoming Events on my website and follow me on Facebook for all of the latest news!

Have a great week! Especially those of you heading back to school this week!!!

XOXO,

Kristi

PS:  If you’re heading back to school this week and need some lunch box inspiration, check out my blog post on Real Food School Lunches in Ten Minutes a Day!

Delicious Dairy Free Pesto

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Pesto might be one of my favorite summer foods. In Liguria, Italy, the home of pesto, it is made with basil Genovese and often served with a small, dense, twisted pasta also native to Liguria called trofie. Traditionally in Pasta al Trofie, blanched red potatoes and green beans are tossed with the trofie and pesto.

Sadly, I haven’t found anyone who makes gluten free trofie, but I do so love fresh pesto! Right now while my patio pots are overflowing with fresh herbs and we have an abundance of green beans from the farm, I’m really loving making this recipe and using about a third of it as the topping for my Garlic & Herb Wild Salmon, about one third stirred into green beans prepared per these instructions from thekitchn.com and the final third we spoon over a side dish of rice. The perfect light summery dinner.

While it’s not traditional, I like to use half basil and half parsley in my pesto and I substitute walnuts for the traditional pine nuts, both for cost & availability reasons and because walnuts have so many health benefits! I increase the amount of nuts and add an extra pinch of sea salt to make up for the missing cheese, which YOU won’t miss at all, I promise.

Buon appetito!

Print Recipe

Delicious Dairy Free Pesto

Ingredients

  • 1 cup fresh basil leaves tightly packed
  • 1 cup fresh flat leaf Italian parsley leaves
  • 2 cloves fresh garlic
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt plus more to taste
  • 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper plus more to taste
  • 1/2 cup toasted walnuts
  • About 2/3 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

  • Place first 6 ingredients (everything but olive oil) into food processor and pulse until finely chopped. With the food processor still running, gradually pour in the olive oil, until the pesto reaches a smooth and thick consistency. Taste and season with additional sea salt and pepper, as needed.
    Serve over pasta, vegetables, rice or anything your heart desires!

The Skinny on Vegetable Oils & My Go-To Salad Dressings

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I hear a lot of questions about salad dressing, and with good reason. Bottled salad dressings are typically filled with highly questionable or downright harmful ingredients like highly processed GMO oils, sugar or high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors and chemical emulsifiers and preservatives.

I often dress my salad with a drizzle of flax or extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. You can find two of my favorite salads where I do just this here and here. For Mexican themed salads I love to use organic salsa or fresh homemade pico de gallo and guacamole in place of dressing.

But making your own dressing is quick and easy if you have a well stocked pantry and spice cabinet. Just follow a basic formula of 2-3 parts oil to one part acid (any variety of vinegar or citrus juice) and then experiment with adding herbs and spices to come up with your own favorites. (Technically, a vinaigrette is 3 parts fat, one part acid.) Save your old salad dressing bottles, spice or jam jars, or I like to use and re-use these very affordable salad dressing bottles from Amazon. There are other great options on Amazon as well.

Use minimally processed and health promoting oils like flax, coconut or extra virgin olive oil. Look for cold pressed or expeller pressed, organic oils.

Avoid processed “vegetable” oils including soybean, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, peanut, canola and corn oil.

These grain or seed oils are highly processed processed and refined. Can you imagine the energy and effort it takes to extract oil out of a kernel of corn?! The oil is generally extracted from the seed or bean with high heat (which destroys any nutritional value and oxidizes the oil, turning it rancid and harmful to the human body) and toxic petroleum based solvents such as hexane, traces of which remain in the oil. Then the oil must be further chemically refined to eliminate undesirable smells, flavors and colors and make it palatable. Some of these oils go through an additional process called hydrogenation, to make them solid at room temperature and increase the shelf life. These hydrogenated oils (trans fats) are used in processed foods and sold as margarine or shortening.

Soybean, corn and canola oils are almost certainly from GMO crops (unless they are certified organic). These crops have been genetically modified to withstand exponentially higher quantities of the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup), which is an endocrine disrupter and “probable carcinogen”, according to the World Health Organization. Glyphosate kills everything except the genetically modified crop and then remains in our food.(1)(2)

We have been told by various adversory groups and the government’s own dietary recommendations to avoid saturated fats and replace them with polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) instead. As a result, between 1909 and 2009, the consumption of PUFAs increased by 300%!(3) Soybean oil consumption alone has increased 1000-fold since 1900.(4) In 1999, at the turn of the millennium, soybean oil made up an astonishing 20% of calories consumed in the United States.(5) And this has turned out to be incredibly detrimental to our health.

In his book Eat Fat, Get Thin (which I highly recommend) Mark Hyman, MD, Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, explains how this erroneous dietary advice occurred in the first place and details the studies that show diets high in PUFAs (in the form of hydrogenated oils/trans fats AND liquid vegetable oils) are among the leading causes in the epidemic of western diseases we now face including obesity, heart disease, diabetes & cancer.

One of the issues with the studies on which this dietary advice was based is that they didn’t differentiate between the two types of PUFAs–omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids fight inflammation and disease, while omega-6 fats fuel inflammatory pathways in the body.(6)

A healthful diet should include equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids. The typical American diet now contains many, many more omega-6s than omega-3s. (7) Too many omega-6 oils in our diet promotes inflammation in our bodies(8)(9). Dr. Jospeh Hibbeln, a leading researcher at the National Institutes of Health, believes that the over-consumption of omega-6 fats and the underconsumption of omega-3 fats have led to increases in:

  • cardiovascular disease
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • obesity
  • metabolic syndrome (pre-diabetes)
  • irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease
  • macular degeneration (age-related blindness)
  • rheumatoid arthritis
  • asthma
  • cancer
  • psychiatric disorders and
  • autoimmune disease (10)

Most Americans cook with these oils at home, eat them in restaurants, and they are found in almost every packaged, processed food we buy. Even commercially raised meat is high in omega-6s. Wild game and grass fed or pastured animals are high in omega 3-s, because the animals are consuming mostly grass and green plants. But since the Industrial Revolution, commercial farmers have been feeding animals grains and seeds high in omega-6s and low in omega-3s, rather than the animals’ traditional diets. This means even the meat most of us eat is high in omega-6s and very low in omega-3s.(11)

You can reduce your consumption of inflammatory omega-6 oils by changing the fats you cook with at home, avoiding processed packaged foods, avoiding fast food and being careful what you choose in restaurants and switching to meat from grass fed or pastured animals. Making your own salad dressing with healthful oils is also a good start to regaining the right balance of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids.

Making your own dressing is so easy and gives you endless flavor options with health promoting, real foods. Here are four of my go-to salad dressings, along with our favorite salad pairings. Try all of them and then experiment and come up with your own favorites!

Salad Dressings

Greek Dressing

3/4 c. good quality extra virgin olive oil (I use California Olive Ranch)

1/2 c. Red wine vinegar (or Bragg’s apple cider vinegar)

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp ground mustard seed

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp good quality sea salt (I use Celtic sea salt or Redmond Real Salt)

Pour all ingredients into a glass jar or a 12 oz. dressing bottle and shake well. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Good quality extra virgin olive oil solidifies and turns cloudy in the refrigerator. This is one way you can tell whether your olive oil is pure and of good quality. In a study done a few years ago at UC Davis, the vast majority of EVOO tested was found to not actually be extra virgin or to be adulterated with lower quality processed oils. So when you’re paying for extra virgin olive oil for its health benefits, its good to confirm you actually have the good stuff! Just take it out of the refrigerator 15-20 minutes before you want to use it, or let the bottle sit in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes. Shake well and enjoy this dressing with green leaf, red leaf or romaine lettuce, topped with tomato, cucumber, red onion and black olives. Optionally add a bit of feta or goat cheese.

Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (juice from 1-2 lemons)

2 T Dijon mustard

Sea salt and pepper to taste

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Place all ingredients in a small jar or dressing bottle with a lid and shake well. Alternatively, add the first three ingredients to your Vitamix, blend, and then drizzle in the olive oil with the blender running till you have a smooth creamy emulsification. We like this dressing on spinach, kale, bok choy or other dark leafy Asian greens such as pak choy, mizuna or yukina savoy. On each salad I like to add crumbled bacon (please only use nitrate-free bacon from clean, pastured animals), sliced hard boiled egg (or feta cheese) and a handful of walnuts, pecans or sunflower seeds. The tartness of the dressing and some added fat from the bacon, egg and nuts really cuts through these sometimes slightly tough or bitter greens.

Caesar Salad

Dairy Free Creamy Caesar Dressing

*Adapted from Once Upon a Time: Recipes and Recollection from a Rover City (Jr. League of Evansville 2003)

3 cloves fresh garlic

3/4 c. mayonnaise (For the healthiest option, make you own mayo. If you use store bought, look for one with the fewest and best ingredients possible. We usually use Real Mayo which isn’t perfect but better than some other options.)

2 tsp. capers with brine

1/2 to 1 tsp. anchovy paste (we like the full tsp–the saltiness and umami from the anchovy makes up for the missing cheese in this recipe, but tailor this to your anchovy taste!)

1 T fresh lemon juice

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste (I use Celtic Sea Salt or Redmond Real Salt)

Place all ingredients in your Vitamix or a good quality blender and blend until smooth. We love to toss this dressing with chopped romain and top it with grilled chicken for a gluten and dairy free Chicken Caesar Salad. Sometimes I make crutons from gluten free bread to make my kids happy, but its just as good without.

Shallot Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/4 c. balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

l shallot, cut in half or quarters

2 T raw honey

3/4 c. extra virgin olive oil

Place first 5 ingredients in your Vitamix and blend. With blender running, slowly add olive oil and keep blending until you have a smooth emulsification.

We enjoy this dressing on mixed greens with berries or dried fruit and nuts. I also like beets and an avocado with this dressing.  Optionally add some crumbled Gorgonzola or blue cheese.

In other news … 

Shred10

I am hosting two new Shred10 accountability groups starting Monday, March 6 and Monday, April 3. You do not have to be local to join in! This ten day program will help you jump start your health and includes help with meal planning and recipes, daily private coaching from me by text or phone and plenty of encouragement and accountability to help you achieve your health and wellness goals.

If you are ready to take the next step in your health journey, contact me for more information. Life is way too short not to be your healthiest and feel your best every single day!!   

Prime Time Health

Four Wednesday evenings in March, beginning this Wednesday, March 8, I’ll be teaching a workshop series called Prime Time Health. This workshop is a wealth of information for any adults or seniors who want to take charge of your own health and learn how to feel better, sleep better, have more energy, reduce inflammation and prevent disease. If you want to live longer and better, this series is for you!

Register here or contact me for more information.

Taste the Shred

On March 16, from 6 to 7 pm, we have an event at the Newburgh Central Library called Taste the Shred. Chef Adam Edwards will be cooking up several recipes from our Shred10 guidebook for you to taste. Join us to learn more about this health changing ten-day program and see for yourself how delicious healthy can be!

Register here or contact me for more information.

Spring is in the air, friends! Its a perfect time to get outside, breath deeply and get serious about changing your health and your future!

XOXO,

Kristi

PS.  Make sure to follow Nourished for Life on Facebook for all of the latest news and even more health and wellness related information!

Sources:

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19539684
  2. https://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/Q&A_Glyphosate.pdf
  3. TEDxHarvardLaw — Dr. Stephan Guyenet, The American Diet
  4. Mark Hyman, MD, Eat Fat, Get Thin (2016) at p. 80
  5. Hyman at p. 117
  6. Hyman at p. 77, 118
  7. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332206002435
  8. Hyman at 79
  9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19022225
  10. Hyman at 124-24, citing Hibbeln JR, Nieminen LR, Blasbalg TL, Riggs,JA, Lands WE. Healthy intakes of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids; estimations considering worldwide diversity. Am J Clin Nutrition. 2006 Jun:83(6 Suupl.); 1483S-93S.
  11. Hyman at p. 117

Heart Healthy Roasted Beet & Arugula Salad

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I love to add a big dose of nutrition to my day by having a big green salad for lunch. We also have a green salad with our dinner nearly every single night. Usually its simple — lettuce or greens, maybe with some tomatoes. But sometimes I like to do something different and this salad is the perfect start to a special dinner. 

This is my copy cat version of Biaggi’s Honey Roasted Beet &.Arugula Salad, which is one of my favorite things to order there. (By the way, gluten free friends, Biaggi’s has a really good gluten free menu!) The avocado and goat cheese add just the right amount of healthy fats and creaminess to balance out the peppery arugula and the sweetness of the beets and crunch of the pecans rounds it out perfectly. And every single thing in it is so good for you!

Arugula

Arugula is a cruciferous vegetable in the same family as broccoli, Brussels sprouts and kale. Like all cruciferous vegetables, arugula is a nutritional powerhouse. Two cups of arugula  provides 20 percent of vitamin A, over 50 percent of vitamin K, and 8 percent of vitamin C, folate and calcium needs for the day. 

Along with other leafy greens (and beets!), arugula contains very high levels of naturally occurring nitrates (more than 250 milligrams/100 grams), which the body converts to nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is the natural blood pressure medication produced by the body’s own internal pharmacy when we eat right and exercise. Nitric oxid helps to relax and dilate your blood vessels which improves blood flow, muscle oxygenation and athletic performance and lowers blood pressure. 

Eating large amounts of cruciferous vegetables has long been associated with a lower risk of cancer, in part because they contain a sulfur-containing compound  called sulforaphane. These compounds give arugula its peppery bite and may also give it its cancer-fighting power. Researchers have found that sulforaphane can inhibit the enzyme histone deacetylase (HDAC), known to be involved in the progression of cancer cells. The ability to stop HDAC enzymes makes foods containing sulforaphane a powerful part of cancer prevention and could make them an important part of a holistic cancer treatment plan as well.  

Beets

Beets are high in fiber, vitamin C, folate and essential minerals like potassium (essential for healthy nerve and muscle function) and manganese (which is good for your bones, liver, kidneys, and pancreas). 

Like arugula, beets help improve circulation and lower blood pressure due to their naturally occurring nitrates. As discussed above, these nitrates are converted into nitric oxide–a natural vasodilator. 

Beets are also a good source of betaine, a nutrient that helps protects cells from environmental stress. It’s known to help fight inflammation, protect internal organs, improve risk factors for cardiovascular disease and enhance athletic performance.

According to Dr. Mercola, the powerful phytonutrients that give beets their deep color may also help to protect against cancer. Research has found that beetroot extract administered in drinking water reduced multi-organ tumor formations in various animal models. Beetroot extract is also being studied for use in treating human pancreatic, breast, and prostate cancer.

Roasting & peeling beets is easy. Just follow these instructions from thekitchn.com. Roast a bunch of beets at a time. They will keep in the refrigerator for a week, and you can use them for your salads for lunch or dinner throughout the week. Make sure you save your beet greens for another use. Beet greens and raw beets are also great additions to your morning green smoothie. 

Avocado

Avocados are one of my favorite foods. They are high in fiber and vitamins A, C,  K, B6, folate and choline. They have more potassium than a banana (!!) and also contain the minerals calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, manganese and selenium. They are high in heart healthy monounsaturated fat, which actually promotes weight loss. Oleic acid, the main type of fatty acid in avocados, has been shown to reduce inflammation and have beneficial effects on genes linked to cancer. Adding healthy fats like avocado, pecans and extra virgin olive oil to a salad promotes satiety, and when you feel satisfied you’re less likely to overeat or reach for a junk food snack later. 

Just reading all of this makes me want to eat this salad every single day. Nourishing your body has never tasted so good!

Dress the salad with a drizzle of good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a really good balsamic vinegar, if you have one. If you just have every day grocery store variety balsamic, that’s fine too. Make a simple balsamic reduction and keep it in the refrigerator to use all week and longer. It is delicious on salads or drizzled on roasted vegetables.

This salad is perfect for a satisfying and health promoting lunch, a light dinner or as a side or starter for a special occasion. I love it with gluten free Jovial spaghetti and Cousin Claudio’s Authentic Italian Pasta Sauce.

Blessings! 

Kristi 

Roasted Beet & Arugula Salad

Print Recipe

Heart Healthy Beet & Arugula Salad

Enjoy this amazingly delicious and health promoting salad as satisfying lunch or light dinner or as a start to a special meal!
Servings: 2 MAIN COURSE SERVINGS OR 4 SIDE SALADS
Calories: 220kcal

Ingredients

  • 2-3 cups Arugula (or mixed greens if you prefer) (or 5 oz.)
  • 1 bunch (2-3) roasted beets (Heat oven to 400. Cut off leafy tops, scrub beats & wrap in foil. Place in oven on a baking sheet to catch juices. Roast 40-50 min or until tender when pricked with a fork. Let cool then peel off the skins and dice. I roast a bunch at a time and then keep them for salads and smoothes all week)
  • 1 Avocado, diced (Cut in half, remove pit, slice through the avocado in hatch marks/squares in the peel and then use a spoon to scoop it out)
  • 1 roll Goat cheese
  • 1/2 c Pecans, finely chopped
  • Extra virgin olive oil

Balsamic Reduction

Instructions

  • Divide arugula between 2 plates for a main course or 4 plates for a starter or side salad portion.
  • Cut avocados in half around the pit, remove the pit and slice through the flesh of the avocado with a sharp knif. Use a spoon to scoop the slices out and divide evenly between the salads.
  • Slice or dice 2 beets and divide them between the salads. Add pecans and crumbled goat cheese, if using. Optionally, slice a log of soft goat cheese into 1/2 in thick slices and roll each slice in finely chopped pecans, pressing to get the pecans to adhere to the cheese. Place one slice of cheese on each salad.
  • Top your arugula or salad greens with the beets, avocado, and goat cheese rounds. Add more pecans if you like.
  • To make the balsamic reduction, pour the balsamic vinegar to a small saucepan and add the honey or coconut sugar. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the balsamic is reduced by 1/3 to 1/2. The reduction will thicken a bit as it cools.
  • Drizzle each salad with extra virgin olive oil and the balsamic reduction and enjoy!
  • Enjoy!
    This makes one large main course serving or 2 side salads. Of course, adjust quantities to your taste.  

Sources for nutritional information:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/282769.php

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/01/25/beets-health-benefits.aspx

https://authoritynutrition.com/12-proven-benefits-of-avocado/

Eggplant Lasagna Stacks

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My son LOVES eggplant and every year eagerly waits for it to be in season at the farm and start appearing at the farmers market. He loves Eggplant Parmesan, and I try to make my gluten and dairy free version for him once every season. But it is so time and labor intensive I don’t usually make it more than once. This year (after his Eggplant Parmesan) we are still enjoying an abundance of eggplant and he asked for eggplant lasagna. I couldn’t find a recipe I liked that met our dietary needs (half of us are gluten and dairy free) so I made up my own and it turned out to be a hit with the whole family.

eggplant-lasagna-stacks-collage

This sauce is one of our favorite tricks for dairy free cooking. Adding coconut milk or cream to tomato sauce makes it amazingly creamy and delicious and mimics the flavor you would get from ricotta cheese in a traditional lasagna or baked Italian dish.

I added the sausage because, well, my kids will eat just about anything with sausage in it. We use the Salt and Pepper ground pork sausage from Fischer Farms. With all meat, we focus on quality and enjoy it in moderation. Fisher Farms’ sausage is hormone and antibiotic free, from pastured pigs and completely nitrate and preservative free. And it adds amazing flavor. For me, its a good trade off for my kids enjoying eggplant, kale and all of the other goodness in this dish. If you prefer a vegetarian dish, just leave out the sausage and instead, add more kale and a few cloves of fresh chopped garlic to the caramelized onion and season generously with salt and pepper. It will still be delicious!

eggplant-lasagna-stacks

I still have fresh herbs growing in pots on my patio. I highly recommend growing your own herbs! It is so easy and such a huge help in making real food delicious, easy and affordable. Fresh herbs are too expensive in the grocery, don’t last long and I don’t always plan ahead enough to know what I’ll need. But I spend $10 to $20 on herbs in April or early May and I’m still picking from them now in early October. I love that I can just run outside and grab whatever I need, whenever I need it.

eggplant-lasagna-stacks2

I also used kale from my Tower Garden in this recipe. This is something else I cannot recommend highly enough! It makes it so easy to grow my own greens, herbs and other vegetables (all year around if you invest in grow lights!) and I can pick whatever I need, anytime. I pick kale or chard for my green smoothie almost every morning. You can’t get any easier, fresher or healthier than that!  You can learn more about the Tower Garden here, or if you are local and want to see mine you are welcome any time.

I’ve been experimenting with goat cheese for myself and my other dairy free family members. The proteins in goat cheese are much easier to digest than cow’s milk and much less inflammatory. So it is a good, more healthful alternative for some with dairy intolerance. Its totally optional here, but I sprinkled just a bit of goat cheese on half of our pan. We love it either way.

Find time to make these Eggplant Lasagna Stacks and enjoy with a big green salad!

And please comment below and let me know if you try it. I’d love to hear what you think!

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Eggplant Lasagna Stacks (Gluten & Dairy Free, Paleo)

My take on eggplant lasagna is gluten and dairy free but so full of flavor and nutrition you won't miss the noodles or the cheese! (vegan/vegetarian option)    
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time1 hour

Ingredients

  • 1 c. full fat canned coconut milk
  • 1 25 oz jar pasta sauce 2-1/2 cups (I used Aldi's organic brand)
  • 3-4 medium sized fresh eggplant choose eggplant that are firm and smooth with bright shiny skin
  • 2-3 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 lb ground sausage
  • 1 onion diced
  • 5-6 kale leaves or spinach or chard
  • 20-25 Fresh basil leaves
  • Goat cheese optional

Instructions

  • Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
  • Trim the top stem end off of your eggplant and cut into 1/4" slices with a mandolin or sharp knife. (I recommend a good mandolin for this, as it makes it so much quicker and easier and ensures your slices are the same thickness. I have this OXO Mandolin and love it! You will need 44-48 slices. In my casserole dish, I can fit 11-12 "stacks" with 4 slices of eggplant in each stack.) Rub the eggplant slices with olive oil, lay them in a single layer on baking sheets and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast eggplant for about 5 minutes and then remove from oven.
  • While eggplant is roasting, combine coconut milk and pasta sauce in a small saucepan and warm it over low heat.
  • Combine onion and sausage in a skillet and cook over medium high heat until the sausage is browned and the onion is caramelized. While its cooking, chop the kale. Slice the leaves into thin ribbons and then cut up the ribbons into small bits. Add the kale to the sausage and onion mixture and stir until the kale is wilted. Remove from heat.
  • Spread a very thin layer (about 1/2 cup) of sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 pan or a comparable size casserole dish (I use a 2 qt. Pampered Chef stoneware casserole dish and can fit 11-12 stacks, depending on the size of my eggplants).
  • Choose 11-12 of the largest eggplant slices and lay them in a single layer in on top of the sauce. (You want to start with the largest slices and with each layer, use the next largest so that you end up with the smallest slices on top of your stacks.)
  • Divide the sausage mixture into four parts and use one quarter of the mixture for each layer. Place a spoonful of the sausage mixture in the center of each eggplant slice. Tear 5-6 basil leaves into pieces and sprinkle on top of the eggplant and sausage mixture. Pour 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sauce over each stack. The stacks will not be completely covered with sauce.
  • Repeat this layering two more times: Top each stack with another slice of eggplant (using the largest slices of eggplant first) then top with the sausage mixture, torn basil leaves and 1/2 c. of sauce. Reserve 5-6 basil leaves to add as a garnish, just before serving.
  • After the fourth and final layer of eggplant, spoon the remaining sauce over the stacks. Then top with the last portion of the sausage mixture, spooning some on top of each stack.
  • Top with crumbled goat cheese, if desired.
  • Cover the casserole dish with foil and bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Alternatively the dish can be refrigerated at this point and put back in the over before you're ready to serve.
  • Stack the remaining basil leaves and slice them into a thin julienne. When your Eggplant Lasagna Stacks are done, sprinkle them with fresh basil just before serving.
  • Enjoy!!

Notes

For a vegan/vegetarian option, simply omit the sausage and instead, to the caramelized onion add 12-15 leaves finely chopped kale, 3 cloves minced garlic and salt and pepper. Layer as instructed above.

Garlicky Roasted Sweet Potatoes

by

One of our favorite places is our local CSA, Seton Harvest, otherwise known as “the farm”. Of course we get amazing, locally grown, chemical free produce, usually harvested the day we pick it up. But its more than that. Going to the farm to pick up our weekly share, we get to escape our normal routine and stresses and breathe in the fresh country air; visit with friends; pet the dogs; feed the chickens; pick strawberries, fresh herbs, arugula, sungold tomatoes or whatever is in season and available for u-pick; hunt for caterpillars; chase butterflies; climb piles of mulch and make mazes out of bales of hale (yes that was us, sorry Joe and Julie!)

My big kids have practically grown up at the farm and it makes me so happy to see my youngest experiencing her first year running around the farm and loving it just as much as the rest of us do. Perhaps most of all, I LOVE that my kids know who grows their food and where it comes from (not just the supermarket!) and that they love things like eggplant and eagerly ask Farmer Joe when it will be in season and that they love to pick greens like arugula and sorrell and eat them on the drive home.

Garlicky Roasted Sweet Potatoes

One of our favorite places is our local CSA, Seton Harvest, otherwise known as “the farm”. Of course we get amazing, locally grown, chemical free produce, usually harvested the day we pick it up. But its more than that. Going to the farm to pick up our weekly share, we get to escape our normal routine and stresses and breathe in the fresh country air; visit with friends; pet the dogs; feed the chickens; pick strawberries, fresh herbs, arugula, sungold tomatoes or whatever is in season and available for u-pick; hunt for caterpillars; chase butterflies; climb piles of mulch and make mazes out of bales of hale (yes that was us, sorry Joe and Julie!)

My big kids have practically grown up at the farm and it makes me so happy to see my youngest experiencing her first year running around the farm and loving it just as much as the rest of us do. Perhaps most of all, I LOVE that my kids know who grows their food and where it comes from (not just the supermarket!) and that they love things like eggplant and eagerly ask Farmer Joe when it will be in season and that they love to pick greens like arugula and sorell and eat them on the drive home.

One of our favorite events at the farm is the annual sweet potato harvest, when we enjoy a beautiful fall evening of fellowship and digging sweet potatoes. Sadly, kid schedules haven’t allowed us to participate the last couple of years, so these pictures are a few years old, but we have been enjoying the labors of our fellow shareholders this week. When was the last time you dug up a sweet potato and then took it home and roasted it with fresh garlic (also fresh from the farm)? If you haven’t been so lucky, put it on your bucket list and find a time and place to experience this!

Even if you can’t harvest your own sweet potatoes, you can still make these sweet potatoes! This recipe is very loosely based on a recipe I found in Victoria magazine many years ago. I can’t tell you what issue or who the original author was but I do know it was a Thanksgiving recipe and it had crispy sage leaves on top. We’ve kept it simple, just sweet potatoes and fresh garlic, maybe a pinch of sea salt at the end if you think you need it. That’s it. And they are so good.

Garlicky Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Whether you need a new sweet potato recipe for your Thanksgiving dinner or just a nutrient dense side dish for the next time you grill  — these will hit the spot. In a pinch, you can make them without the marinating time, but that is truly the secret to this recipe. Skip it and you will have perfectly fine roasted sweet potatoes. Plan ahead a bit and you will be rewarded with amazingly delicious, crispy potatoes infused with garlicky goodness.

One quick equipment note:  I highly recommend a good mandoline for this recipe and any others involving sliced vegetables. It makes quick work of the sweet potatoes here, and ensures that they are all the same thickness so they cook evenly and at the same speed. I have this OXO Mandoline and love it!

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Garlicky Roasted Sweet Potatoes

These sweet potatoes are marinated in garlic and extra virgin olive oil and roasted to crispy golden perfection. So simple and yet so delicious!
Prep Time2 hours 15 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Total Time2 hours 45 minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Peel and slice the sweet potatoes into 1/4 inch thick slices. Use a mandoline to make this much easier and ensure your slices will be the same size and cook evenly.
  • Mince the garlic.
  • Put the sliced potatoes and garlic in a gallon size zip lock freezer bag. Add the olive oil. Zip the bag and then turn and massage the bag until the garlic and olive oil is distributed well. You want every slice of potato to be well coated, with some oil accumulating in the bottom of the bag. Lay the bag on one side and let it sit on the counter for at least 2 hours or in the refrigerator up to 24 hours. Turn the bag over a few times. This allows the olive oil to become infused with garlic flavor and gives the potatoes plenty of time to marinate in the garlic infused olive oil. The longer they marinate, the more flavor you will have.  
  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
  • Remove the potato slices from the bag and lay evenly in a single layer on 2 or 3 baking sheets. The slices can overlap a bit, but you don't want to pile them up or the potatoes will steam, rather than roast, and will be mushy not crispy. 
  • Roast for about 30 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom of your oven part way through. At 20 minutes, start checking the potatoes. There is a very fine line between crispy potatoes and burnt potatoes. We like ours just this side of burnt. So it may seem a bit fussy, but I check them, remove any slices that are dark enough, and then put the pans back into the oven, checking every 2-3 minutes and repeating this procedure until they are all done perfectly. If you prefer not to fuss over your potatoes this much, just take them out when the first few are browned but not yet burned and the others are just beginning to turn golden brown around the edges or on the underside when you flip one over. They will be delicious either way!