Baby Likes Green

Me being creepy with the VMix

Jibs Says, Green is Good!

Vita mix Love

Jibs is having a hard time waiting for his juice.

Im not sure how I got along without my Vita-Mix. About five years ago, my parents bought us the Vita-Mix for our anniversary present. Since then, we have made probably hundreds of different smoothies and juices in it. Somehow the favourites have usually been green. If you dont drink green juice, it may seem gross to you but it really is good. If the green comes from either spinach or kale, it really doesn't add any flavour to the juice. It does, however, add calcium, Vitamins A and C, potassium and iron.

I generally like pear in any juice because it adds sweetness. I also get bananas that are very ripe, cut them into chunks and throw them in a ziplock freezer bag. It's easy to take out a couple handfuls of them for your juices.

Here is what we do:

Baby Loves Green Juice

1C spinach

1C kale

1 banana (frozen and cut in chunks)

1 pear

1C yogurt (plain or vanilla)

1C water, Orange juice or milk

1T honey or maple syrup

Blend all ingredients in a Vita mix or powerful blender.

Pioneer Woman's Sweet and Sour Meatballs

No not this pioneer woman.

(Photo credit and thanks go to Clara, the only one in the family with a functional camera.)

Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, has reduced me to tears more times than I would like to admit. Tears of hysterical laughter, that is. She cleverly logs her tales of farming, parenting and homeschooling with lots of pictures of their beautiful family ranch. Ree also cooks and takes tons of pictures of the food and cooking process. Her Olive Oil Cakes with Lemon and Thyme are so good. Amy brought some to one of our summer brunches and they were hard to keep out of. That reminds me, I must make those soon...today, if possible.

Jim and I went out last night for some very tasty southern BBQ. In our absence the kids ate Meatballs with Peppers and Pineapple from the blog served over rice. Easy as can be, I made it in a flash. Because it makes quite a bit of food and looks so pretty, it would be a great one to do for company.

Meatballs with Peppers and Pineapple

1¼ pound Ground Beef or turkey

½ Onion, Diced Very Finely

1 whole Egg

½ cups Breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste

½ teaspoons Crushed Red Pepper, More To Taste

¼ cups All-purpose Flour

Canola Oil, For Frying

2 whole Green Bell Peppers, Seeded And Diced Roughly

1-½ cup Pineapple Chunks

2 cups Beef Stock

2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce

½ cups Sherry Or White Wine Vinegar

⅓ cups Sugar

1 Tablespoon Cornstarch

Mix meat, egg, onion, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and crushed pepper flakes. Roll into small balls, dredge in flour and fry in two batches over med-high heat in a large skillet until brown. Set aside. (Ree suggests freezing the balls for 15mins while you make the sauce, I didn't because I didn't have room in my freezer and they still turned out fine. If you have a big/organized freezer go ahead and freeze them.)

Mix together stock, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl.

Drain any fat that is in the pan and then add green peppers and pineapple to the pan. Cook a few minutes. Add stock mixture to the pan and bubble a few minutes. Add meatballs, bubble a little more, stirring gently. Add more red pepper flakes and salt to taste.

Serve over rice.

Energy Bars for Little Hands

Most mornings I need to make Jibs a preliminary breakfast while I'm making his full breakfast. Usually he has a banana, fruit smoothie or some cheerios to chew on while his eggs and toast are cooking. Clara found a recipe for energy bars in her beloved cookbook Salad People. With a basic ingredients and a very forgiving dough, we made these lovely, filling little treats which perfectly satisfy my ever hungry boy.

One of the nice things about these bars is you can't really over mix the dough, so it's a perfect job for little hands to squish and squeeze. I used less sugar and added dried cranberries in the place of raisins. Next time I think I might add some pumpkin seeds and raisins or walnuts and dates. Protein powder is called for and easy to find at bulk food stores (I get mine at costco) but if you cannot find it or want to make them now just substitute with flour.

Diminutive Energy Bars

1C AP flour

3/4C protein powder (sub in more flour if you don't want to use protein powder)

1/2tsp salt

2C rolled oats

3/4tsp cinnamon

1/3-2/3C brown sugar

1/2C raisins (or craisins, walnuts, almonds, figs...)

1 1/2C Vanilla Yogurt (I use Astro Balkan style)

1/4 C canola oil

Preheat oven to 375*- Grease 24 muffin tins.

Combine flour, powder, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in oats, cinnamon, brown sugar and raisins (or any other additions that sound good).

In a 2C measuring cup whisk together yogurt and oil.

Stir wet ingredients into the dry and mix very well with your hands or the hands of a small one wanting to help.

Place about 1 1/2 Tbsps of the batter to each well greased muffin cup poking into place.

Bake 12 mins or until lightly brown around the edges. Do not overbake.

Store in an airtight container. I imagine they would freeze well if you wanted to freeze half for later. Though I haven't tried.

enjoy.

Whole Foods' Mexican Taco Stew

Happy New Year. December was a busy month, was it not?

For me, January seems to be my month of doing easy recipes that are delicious, quick and cheap.

Whole Foods recipes have always served me well, their Chai Cookies have become our Christmas staple. After a very kind friend gave me a Whole Foods gift card, I was inspired to check the site for new recipes and this Mexican Taco Stew is sure to be a new favourite. It takes about 10 minutes of actual hands on time and a few more to simmer, then it's done. This stew could be adapted to suit any vegetable or meat preferences. Tonight, I added green and red peppers, and a cup of frozen mixed vegetables in place of the zucchini. I only wish I had a few avocados to make guacamole and a few tortilla chips...that would finish this meal off perfectly.

PS-Check out Whole Foods budget friendly meals and Menu Plans to plan some January feasts.

PSS-I do wish my pictures were better, but our camera is in serious need of some surgery. You may have to just trust me that the food is good;)

W.F. Mexican Taco Stew

1lb Ground meat, turkey, chicken or beef

1 med onion

4 garlic cloves

2Tbsp Taco seasoning

2C Veg or chicken stock

2C Vegetables (chopped green and red pepper, zucchini)

1 can (creamed) corn

1 can black beans

1 28oz can diced tomatoes (use a smaller can if you like we love tomatoes)

1 can tomato paste (optional)

1C salsa

Cook ground meat in a large sauce pan until brown. Drain fat, set meat aside.

Add chopped onion and garlic, cooking until soft. Sprinkle taco seasoning over onion and add meat back to the pot. Stir in all the remaining ingredients and simmer 15minutes.

Top with any or all of the following: sour cream, cheddar cheese, more salsa, guacamole, tortilla chips and green onion.

Baking Season

Baking is always in season but at Christmas even the most timid baker feels daring and inspired to fill the house with sweet smells and delicious treats.

Clara is a gingerbread girl. Gramma Marion was always sneaking her gingerbread men, it was one of their many little 'secrets'.

Gingerbread cutouts are such fun to do if you have an open afternoon, a few cookie cutters and a sweet little helper. I always use Martha's recipe for Molasses Ginger Cookies.

They always turn out and the dough is lovely to work with.

{Just found this post that somehow wasn't posted in December}

Do you like Lentils?

If you ask my Mum-in-Law how to cook thriftily, she will ask you this: Do you like beans? Lucky for us, we do. My kids love them and so do we. So many things can me made with them; soups, stews even salads. Lentils are a little like beans both in their economy and ability to fill you up (without filling you out- and that's always good around Christmas). I could eat the Orangette Quiet Soup every day. The two cups of red lentils and carrots make this soup a very pretty orange colour. I like to put out a big pot of this soup for lunch with some cheese, crackers and apple slices. This recipe is perfect, in my option. We are eating it twice this week.

Sesame Beef

I was reading Grace's post about how much she loves Costco and saw her pictures of her freezer full of pretty little packages of meat and felt inspired to do the same. I bought a few very large ribeye steaks and sliced them up finely and went to December's Everyday Food mag and found this tasty little number in the 'Grocery Bag' section.

We don't eat much red meat around here but everyone loved this and the meat came out tender and saucy. Even my meat skeptic, Clara, enjoyed it and ate her whole portion. The ingredients for this are things that I always have on hand. (I think pork tenderloin would also work well here.)

Sesame Beef

3Tbsp soy sauce

2Tbsp dry sherry (I used a dry white wine)

1Tbsp sugar (honey would be good too)

3tsp rice vinegar

1/2tsp red pepper flakes

1/2tsp cornstarch

1Tbsp + 1tsp sesame oil (olive oil would work)

3/4lb boneless NY Strip steak, thinly sliced

2 red bell peppers, seeded and thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Cooked rice, for serving

thinly sliced scallions, for serving

Whisk soy, sherry, honey, vinegar, pepper flakes, sesame oil and cornstarch in a small bowl.

In a large skillet, heat 1tsp oil and brown beef strips in 2 batches over med-high heat. Max 2 minutes per batch.

Transfer to a plate, add a little more oil if you have to and add peppers. Cook peppers until tender crisp, 2mins. Add garlic, 30seconds. Stir in sauce. Cook until sauce thickens, 1min.

Stir in sesame seeds.

Serve over rice, with a sprinkle of scallions on top.