Fresh Veggie Stack

I saw this on my friend's facebook page and HAVE to make it!

Stack tomatoes, some mozzarella cheese, basil and asparagus and drizzle with some balsamic vinaigrette. Delicious.

Oprah's Chocolate Strawberry Smoothie

I have discovered the benefit of adding green smoothies to my diet to sneak in extra fruits and
veggies. And while my kids have enjoyed them as well, sometimes they are hesitant about the green color. I found this recipe in my book. Not sure how I discovered Oprah's favorite smoothie recipe--but she gets the credit nonetheless. My kids love this one and so do I. It's healthy, refreshing, creamy, and yummy. Plus it uses chocolate milk. Yum!

Chocolate Strawberry Smoothie

2 cups chocolate milk (I do milk and 1/3 cup Nesquik)
2 medium bananas, cut up
2 cups frozen or hulled fresh strawberries

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve very cold (can add ice).


In case you're wondering what I put in my green smoothies--I feel like I've found the perfect combination.

1 banana -- a must for sweetness
1 carrot peeled & cut into chunks
1 cup spinach, rinsed
1 cup frozen or fresh fruit (pineapple, apples, berries)
1 cup orange juice

Do not try tomatoes. :)

Happy blending!!

Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Babies

I can't claim discovering this recipe or the blog. Kristi found it and shared them with me. And I love them for many reasons.

1. They are yummy.
2. They are healthy.
3. In my old age I am really enjoying the flavor of dried fruit.
4. They have chocolate.

And, you can mix things up with them. Try different nuts, add peanut butter, different dried fruits. They're fantastic. And, I get to use my food processor. I feel all granola-ish when I make them. And I feel good eating them.

Give them a go--especially if you need digestive help like some of us *me* need. :)

Cookie Dough Babies
(a.k.a. Raw Cookie Dough Balls)

Scant 2/3 cup pitted dates (80g) (I highly recommend Sunmaid dates, found in regular grocery stores near the raisins. They’re softer and easier to blend.)
handful of chocolate chips or Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips
1/4 cup cashews (30g) (or another nut, like almonds.)
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
tiny pinch of salt (can be omitted)

Blend the dates, cashews, salt, and vanilla in a food processor. (You can use a blender, but they’re much harder to blend and they can get very sticky.) You can either blend the chocolate with the other ingredients or chop it separately, then mix the pieces into the dough. Make bars, balls, or shapes of whatever size you want.

I used prunes (I need some serious help!) and they turned out really moist so I added extra nuts. Also, refrigerating them helps with the stickiness. 

Nutritional Info for the Homemade Larabar Recipes:
The homemade larabar nutritional info is based upon the girl-scout cookie larabars; however I think all the flavors are probably pretty similar. Each Larabar-sized bar (45 grams) will have around 175 calories, 8 grams healthy fat, 2 grams protein, 25 grams carbs, 5 grams fiber, and zero grams of added sugar.

Black Bean Soup

As I previously promised I am here to give y'all the oh so tasty, hearty, and healthy Black Bean Soup recipe.  I wish I had taken a picture of it b/c it looked delicious.  However, it was gobbled up way too fast, and I am a bit of a slacker in the picture taking department.

I actually made this soup last week and it's already been requested again.  Everyone loved it!  I mean absolutely everyone thoroughly enjoyed every bite of this soup.  My husband, my 1 year old, and a family friend ate this soup with gusto.  My little 1 year old (okay 16 months) was kicking her legs with each and every bite; she usually only does that with cookies, brownies, or peas.  Not only is this soup delicious, but it is really healthy.  I love when my family loves a good healthy and vegetarian recipe.  Don't you?

I made the soup as our main dish but we threw in some chips and corn tortillas for a little dipping fun as well as some fruit and we had plenty of tasty goodness.  We had enough soup to last us two days plus an extra small bowl to send home with our friend.  Overall, the soup makes a good amount, but if you have a big family and/or like a lot of leftovers I suggest doubling it.

Black Bean Soup
Slightly adapted from Our Best Bites cookbook

Ingredients:
A little bit of olive oil
1 cup diced or shredded carrots (you can use as many veggies as you want actually)
The recipe calls for 3/4 cup of diced celery but I omitted this due to my husbands anti-celery feelings
1 cup diced onion
1 Tbsp. of minced garlic
2 cans (15 oz) black beans rinsed and drained
1 can (3.5 oz) diced green chilies
4 cups beef broth (you could use water or vegetable broth if you are super vegetarian)
1 tsp salt
dash of pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1 bay leaf (I just recently took to loving the flavor bay leaves can provide, be sure to give this a shot if you've been a bay leaf skeptic like me).
2 Tbsp of lime juice
Toppings of your choice:  tortilla chips, corn tortillas, cheese (we did cheddar and mozzarella), sour cream, green onions, cilantro, etc.

Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add carrots, onion, any other veggies you desire, and garlic.  Saute the veggies until the onions are soft, or about 3 mins or so.

Add black beans, green chilies, and beef broth, and stir to mix them all together.  Add salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and bay leaf to your soup.  I simmered the soup uncovered for approximately 20 minutes, but you can go as long as 30 minutes if you'd like.  Remove the pot from the stove and remove the bay leaf b/c it has now done its job.

If you have an immersion blender you can use that here.  However, if you are ghetto like me then pour the soup contents into your blender.  Now, if you doubled your soup recipe you will need to blend this in 2 batches b/c this one pot filled my entire blender.  Place the lid on your blender but be sure to remove the stopper to allow the heat to escape somewhere.  However, with the stopper removed you could make a large mess if you start to blend it.  Therefore, hold a paper towel over the stopper opening while you are blending the soup.

Blend/puree the soup until you reach a consistency and look that is most appealing to you.  This process took me only a few minutes and I pureed my soup to a good pureed mixture with no bean chunks for me.  Finally, pour your lime juice into the blender with the pureed soup and give it a couple of pulses to mix it in well.

Lastly, enjoy this tasty soup with as many or as few toppings as you want b/c it'll taste good no matter what.

Happy Fall soup eating!

MeganRuth