Chicken Salad--hold the mayo

Love, love, love pulling together a leftover meal that doesn't feel like leftovers. This one came together beautifully and tasted even better than it looked.

Ingredients
3 Tablespoons brown rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons soy sauce (I used Tamari)
2-3 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
1 Tablespoon evaporated cane juice (sugar)
1/4 cup Wildtree Garlic Grapeseed Oil* or canola or sesame oil
leftover chicken, cut into small pieces
carrots, finely chopped
celery, finely chopped
red onion, finely chopped
mango, finely chopped
cabbage, shredded (didn't have this on hand, but it would be so good)
salad greens
peanuts, optional

*email here to order.

Directions

1. Prepare salad dressing first by combining first 5 ingredients in a jar with tight fitting lid. Shake to mix and set aside.
2. Combine remaining ingredients, except salad greens and peanuts, in large bowl. Toss to mix.
3. Give the dressing another shake and pour over salad. Toss to evenly coat.
4. Serve over salad greens topped with peanuts.
5. Enjoy!

Carrots, Cashews, and Cannellinis

I'm so grateful for the fresh carrots our local farms are providing. I put together this simple salad with them that is warming (thank you, ginger!), even though it requires no cooking.

Ingredients
4 teaspoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 teaspoons Tamari Soy Sauce
~2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger (how warm do you want it?)
juice of 1/2 lemon
sea salt to taste
2-3 medium carrots, washed and grated
1 15 oz. can Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 leaves fresh greens (I used Swiss Chard), washed and finely chopped
1 cup raw cashews

Directions

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in jar with tight fitting lid and shake it up. Taste and adjust seasonings. Shake again and set aside.
2. Combine carrots, beans, and greens in medium size bowl. Toss.
3. Test dressing again and adjust to taste.
4. Pour over salad and toss to coat.
5. Add cashews just before serving.
6. Enjoy!

Cabbage, Carrot, and Cashew Slaw

Simple slaw that is warming this time of year.
This makes about 4 servings.

Ingredients
Juice of half a lemon (5-6 teaspoons)
3 teaspoons soy sauce
6-7 teaspoons olive oil
2-3 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
sea salt to taste
1/2 head fresh cabbage, shredded
2-3 medium carrots, washed and shredded
1 cup raw cashews, coarsely chopped
handful of fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Mix first five ingredients together in a jar with tight fitting lid. Shake vigorously. Set aside.
2. Combine remaining ingredients in medium size bowl.
3. Shake dressing. Taste. Adjust seasoning as needed.
4. Shake dressing one last time before pouring over slaw.
5. Toss to coat evenly.
6. Enjoy!

Wonderful Winter Squash

Winter squash is one of the things I love about the fall. There are lots of varieties (pumpkin, butternut, delicata, acorn, spaghetti--great to use instead of pasta!) and adding them in this time of year helps keep sugar cravings from overtaking afternoon thoughts.

This recipe is super easy to throw together with leftover, cooked winter squash (whatever you've got on hand--even sweet potatoes would work) and contains a healthy dose of protein and high quality fat. Serve it with apples, and mark a fruit serving or two off your list for the day. Seems like it's perfect for an after nap/school snack or the favored munchy at Thanksgiving.

Ingredients
1/2 cup cooked winter squash
1 can (15 oz) canellini (white kidney) beans--or 2 cups fresh
1/4 cup flax seeds, ground (I use a coffee grinder)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1.5 Tablespoons coconut oil
1.5 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Put everything in the bowl of a food processor and whirl away. 
2. It it's too thick, add a little water. 
3. Taste and adjust seasonings.
4. Serve at your next fall gathering and impress everyone there OR
5. Serve to some munchkins and let them guess what's included in the ingredient list.

Ginger Mashed Winter Squash

Yum.

It's all that needs to be said about this one.

Ingredients
Winter squash (butternut, sweet dumpling, delicata, etc.--use all the same or a combination of several)
Freshly grated ginger (start with a teaspoon)
A lot of cinnamon (no idea how much I put in!)
Butter Flavored Grapeseed Oil* or Butter (start with a Tablespoon)
A drizzle of honey
Sea salt to taste

*Email here to order.
Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice squash in half lengthways and scoop out seeds.
3. Place face down on a cookie sheet with a lip. Add enough water to cover the bottom of the tray.
4. Roast until a fork inserts easily.
5. Let cool slightly and scoop out flesh.
6. Add remaining ingredients and mash together. Adjust seasoning to taste.
7. Enjoy!

Carrot Soup for a Rainy Day

It has been a wet, cold day, and I've been home with a sick child. When given the opportunity to choose between chicken/beets/greens and carrot soup, he chose the soup (and we've never made it before). So grateful to be led down this road--it was just what we needed to nourish us both.

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa, thoroughly rinsed in a fine mesh strainer
2 cups water
1 T Garlic Grapeseed Oil* or other high heat oil
1/2 Vidalia onion, roughly chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 T ground cumin
1 T turmeric
4-5 carrots, roughly chopped
3-4 beet green stems (optional), rough chopped
handful of beet greens (or other green)
4- 6 cups stock or water (or combination of the two)
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger root, grated
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
raw pumpkin seeds (or sesame seeds or walnuts), dry roasted in a skillet
fresh, flat leaf parsley, finely chopped (cilantro would be yummy, too!)
*email here to order

Directions

1. Place rinsed quinoa and 2 cups of water in saucepan with tight fitting lid. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, and cook for 15 minutes or until water is absorbed.
2. While quinoa cooks, place oil in bottom of soup pot and turn heat to medium. Once the pot warms, add the onion followed shortly by the garlic. Saute together for 3-4 minutes on medium-low.
3. Add cumin and turmeric and coat well.
4. Add carrots, beet stems, beet greens, and stock. Turn heat to medium/medium-high until it just boils, then reduce to simmer and cook 20 minutes or so, until veggies are soft.
5. Add quinoa to soup pot followed by ginger, salt, and pepper. 
6. Use an immersion blender to blend all ingredients together to a smooth consistency. Add stock or water as necessary. Taste, adjust seasonings and blend one last time.
7. Top individual servings with parsley and toasted pumpkin seeds. Enjoy!
8. Freeze leftovers to pull out for the next rainy day.

Curry Ginger Chick Peas & Mushrooms with Tumeric Rice

I'm experimenting with a new Wildtree product in my kitchen. It's the Curried Garlic Blend, and it's pretty fantastic. I've added it in place of curry to a couple of different things, but this recipe, I have to admit, is pretty outstanding.
It helps to have fresh produce from the market to add to the experiment, too. So here's what I made up:

Ingredients
2 cups water
2 generous teaspoons ground tumeric
1 generous teaspoon sea salt
1 cup brown rice
a little high heat cooking oil (I used Grapeseed oil)
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 teaspoons Wildtree Curried Garlic Blend or curry powder
a couple of hand fulls of colored peppers (I used red and yellow)
shiitake (or other) mushrooms
1 can chick peas, drained
some chopped up cooking greens (collards, kale, chard, etc.)
2 generous teaspoons freshly grated ginger
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place water in pot with tight fitting lid and bring to a boil. Add salt and tumeric. Add rice, stir it around, return to boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer covered for 45 minutes.
2. Place oil in skillet and warm over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 2-3 minutes, then add the garlic and reduce heat to medium-low. FYI: I like to let the onion and garlic cook while chopping the remaining veggies. It makes the onions sweet.
3. When onions are really soft, add the curry seasoning and mix well.
4. Add peppers and mix to coat. Let cook 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add mushrooms, mix, let cook 5 minutes or so to soften.
6. Add chick peas and greens. Cover and let chick peas warm and greens get greener about 4 minutes.
7. Check rice (timer should have gone off by now!). Does it need more cooking time or a little water added?
8. Add grated ginger and mix one last time.
9. Serve chick peas over rice.
10. Enjoy!

Hearty, Healthy Snack

I've made these twice already, because they're so yummy. The second go round I used a heart shaped cookie cutter to make them into a Valentine treat for some friends. I think they may become a holiday favorite--whatever the holiday!

My 3 year old cannot get enough of them. "Mmm. Good Mom," he says in a very matter-of-fact tone. He's right--they're really tasty and super easy to make.

I did find that sometimes they stick together better based on how the honey is distributed, but when we had only crumbles, we put them into our morning grain (amaranth these days), and they were just as good!

Ingredients
1.5 cups raw or roasted p-nuts
1.5 cups dried cranberries
3 T sesame seeds
1/2 - 1 T freshly grated ginger
3-4 T honey

Directions

1. Place all ingredients except honey in bowl of food processor and pulse until well crumbled and incorporated together--you're not making p-nut butter, so use the pulse button.
2. Add honey and pulse until it's blended into mixture.
3. Press into cookie cutter shape of choice or into a square pan and refrigerate at least an hour.
4. Cut into bars and enjoy!

Chicken and Rice in the Pot

Yesterday was a crock pot cooking day--dreary is how I described it to my 3 year old on the way to school. On the way home from dropping him, I got the notion to put some stuff together in the crock pot for something warm and soothing. Here's what I did:

Ingredients
1.5 cups Brown Rice (I used Jasmine) or other whole grain, rinsed
3.5 cups broth
1 t dried thyme
1/2 t crushed red pepper
1/2 t tumeric
A little cooking oil or spray
1 small red onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
2 bone-in chicken breasts, skin removed and washed
2 broccoli stalks
3-4 carrots, roughly chopped
2-3 celery stalks, roughly chopped
freshly grated ginger to taste
sea salt to taste

Directions

1. Place rinsed rice, broth, thyme, crushed red pepper, and tumeric in a pot with tight fitting lid on stove over high heat until it comes to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, drizzle a little oil on the bottom of the crock pot and turn it on (I started with it high) while chopping the onion, garlic, and peppers. Place chopped items in crock pot. 
3. Wash chicken.
4. Once rice comes to a boil, pour into crock pot on top of onions, garlic, and peppers.
5. Place chicken on top.
6. Depending on how long you've got to cook, turn heat to low (all day) or high (half a day or less) and sit back and smell the goodness!
7. About 30 minutes before you're ready to eat, add the broccoli, carrots, and celery. Return lid and keep cooking.
8. Just before serving, add freshly grated ginger, salt to taste, and stir it all together.
9. Enjoy!

Some Simple Stir Fry Suggestions

One of my favorite ways to get plenty of veggies in one meal is to throw them all in a pan with a little oil, stir them up, add some seasoning, serve over whole grain, and enjoy a healthy meal. But I've learned a few things along the way about ordering my stir fry. I think it makes a difference. That's what this list is about, but I'm still learning! Additional suggestions encouraged!

1. Lay the groundwork. I always, always, always start with onion and garlic. Nothing better. After putting my grain on to cook (brown rice, quinoa, kasha, etc.), I put a little oil in a skillet, heat on medium until it runs smoothly coating the bottom of the pan, then add chopped onion (size is not an issue here--chop how you like). After stirring it around a minute or two, I turn the heat to medium-low and proceed to mince up the garlic. Then I throw that in and stir  things up. 
2. Consider your ingredients. While the onions and garlic are simmering, I cut up my other veggies. I think order is important in stir fry, because some items should be added sooner than others or they get soggy. So I try to categorize what's going into the pan into 2 groups--need to cook a while, need to cook only a few minutes. I should probably state clearly here that I prefer my veggies a little undercooked, rather than over cooked.
1. longer cook time veggies = carrots, broccoli, kohlrabi, peppers
2. shorter cook time veggies = mushrooms, summer squash, zucchini, greens (bok choy, cabbage, spinach, swiss chard, kale, etc.), sugar snaps
3. more color = more healthy, so I try to make a rainbow in my pan
3. Choose your protein. I usually have shelled edamame in the freezer (thanks to Trader Joe's) as my main protein source, but occasionally I have leftover meat of some sort, too. In general this is when I throw it in the pan, because it only needs to be warmed through. And yes, I throw the edamame in frozen. If I've got to cook the meat, I put it in with the onions and garlic, cook until it's done, then throw in the veggies.
4. Spice it just right. We are tamari soy sauce lovers at our house, so that's the regular seasoning I use (it's also easy to open the bottle and pour a little in). Now that it's cold outside, I try to keep fresh ginger and grate a little (or a lot) alongside the soy. Sometimes I toss in some sesame seeds. I represent a line of products from Wildtree, and they have an Asian Ginger Plum Dressing that's divine in stir fry. I also sprinkle in some sea vegetables (dulse or kelp). Whatever I choose, I add it toward the end of cooking. Also, I only add a small amount. It's easy to over-do soy sauce, so I'm really minimalist when using it in the pan. More can always be added later to meet the demand of the diner.
5. Dig in. After heaping a warm grain onto my plate and topping it with a rainbow of veggies, I am always pleased with the result. It's never the same twice. It changes with the season, but always delivers healthy goodness in large dose.