Showing posts with label #foodpornthursdays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #foodpornthursdays. Show all posts

Wednesday

Cooking: Mama's Sneaky Waffles

                           

Need a good weekend waffle recipe but you feel like they are just not that healthy?  Well, I just made some of my Mama's Sneaky Waffles and the kids (and my husband!) had no idea what was in them.

Carrots!  Flaxseed!  Omega-3's!  Oh My!

Hubby is our weekend waffle maker around here and he has perfected his recipe. So, I started with his basic recipe and I changed a few things around to make them a bit...well...more Mama friendly!


1 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour*
1 cup shredded carrot or minced if you want to keep it hidden* 
2 cups of almond milk
2 Lg organic brown cage free eggs*
2 TBLSP sugar
6 TBLSP organic virgin coconut oil 
1 tsp whole ground flaxseed meal*
1 TBLSP baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

(See red index below for all items with an *) 

Start with the dry ingredients first and mix together in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl add eggs, vanilla and beat together then add carrots and oil to the wet bowl.  Slowly mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients (leaving the almond milk for last.) Once everything is mixed together continue stirring while you add in the almond milk.  The coconut oil solidifies once it gets cold so you want to blend everything together before you add in the cold milk.  Or you can avoid this all together if you let the milk and eggs come to room temp before.



Since I was putting my own spin on our weekend waffles I decided to make them a bit differently, so I turned them into "snowflakes." If you'd like to do this, the pictures below shows roughly how much batter you want to use so that they stay small and the edges are jagged.  Each one will turn out differently. These are perfect "toddler size" because they can hold them in their hands once they cool off. I've even packed the small ones in lunches. Great for pre-schoolers or kindergarteners! 

(*When I pack them for school, I leave off the butter and syrup or any other typical toppings, like yogurt, apple butter, peanut butter, etc. to avoid a big mess, and I just do them plain for lunches. The kids still love them that way!) 


  


Don't those look cute? Don't mind my waffle maker. We got it as a wedding gift and it has gotten used a million times since then. It's very well seasoned!! 

If you want to make them the regular size, but you don't want to make a mess on your counter, you want roughly this much batter (about 1/4 of a cup):



  





Index:
Flour*  If you are using regular flour use a bit more (2 cups.)  The whole wheat flour makes them thicker than regular flour, so you still might need to add a bit more liquid to thin out the batter a bit.
Shredded carrot* I have a juicer so I made carrot juice with about 3 large carrots. Then I used the carrot pulp  ("minced carrots") for the waffles. Feel free to shred the carrot with a food processor or cheese grater if you do not have a juicer.
Eggs*: I buy the organic brown cage free eggs with added Omega 3's. Do you use an egg substitute to make them vegan?  Please let me know in the comments section what you use! 
Ground flaxseed meal*  A Little Goes A long Way!! If your family is used to eating ground Flaxseed Meal in your food then feel free to add as much as you want. If you are not used to eating flaxseed meal, start with 1 tsp and work your way up. It tends to overpower the recipe if you use too much. I found that out the hard way. 




If you are going to use flaxseeds in your food make sure you get ground flaxseed or flaxseed meal. Our bodies can not digest a whole flaxseed, and it just passed it right though. So, unless you chew up each individual seed (unlikely), you are not getting all of the benefits of the flaxseed. I like Bob's Red Mill products because the prices always seem reasonable. I think I bought this at Target but I've also seen it at Sprouts.

You can sneak just about anything into your waffles. I like to keep them sweet or else they might taste funny with toppings. However, you can do savory waffles too and serve them with ranch dip or sour cream. 

Sweet add in's: Apples, carrots, bananas, peaches, pears, prunes, sweet potato, etc.

Savory add in's: Zucchini, bell peppers, squash, garlic mashed potatoes, herbs, etc. 

Along with the flax seeds you can add hemp seeds or chia seeds, you can even add small pieces of nuts like almonds, peanuts, pecans or walnuts. Go crazy and have fun!








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LarabeeUK
Domesticated Momster

Friday

The Trader Joe's Gourmet Presents: Pollo Asada Black Bean Chili w/ Farm Fresh Cilantro


Pollo Asada Chili.  Extremely simple and yummy!


So I'm not "officially" the Trader Joe's Gourmet, but I might as well be. I buy pretty much everything there and a lot of my recipes on here consist of ingredients you'll find at Trader Joe's. If you live in an area where it's too far away or you simply don't have one - GASP! - (my condolences) you can always find stuff similar elsewhere. After all, it's just food. BTW, I completely feel your pain if you like Trader Joe's but you don't have one in your area. There aren't any Trader Joe's in Hawaii and we lived there for a few years when we were first married and it was VERY hard for me to get used to not getting pretty much everything there. We also didn't have a Target. It was bad. I mean, no Target and no Trader Joe's?  You call that paradise? jk.

sorta.

So, this was dinner last night. I threw it together from stuff I had on hand and stuff that needed to be cooked so it didn't go bad and I also wanted to use some of the cilantro that had just popped up in our garden. The dish turned out to be pretty yummy which is always good when you don't follow any type of recipe so I wanted to post it here so I don't forget how to make it.

*I pretty much never follow a recipe and I usually forget what I've made so I'm trying to make a point to write recipes down so I can make it again. 

This made up the bulk of the dish. I didn't drain the cans before I added them to the sauce pan but will drain the beans next time so it's not too soupy. 


Fresh organic cilantro from our little family farm. Isn't it beautiful? And it smells AMAZING!
 There's nothing like fresh produce that you grow yourself. "Kids, run out to the farm and pick mommy some cilantro for dinner!" Awesome. 


I don't have a pic of the pollo asada. The next time I buy it I will update this post with a pic. But I bought a package of fresh, marinated pollo asada from Trader Joe's in their fresh meat/poultry section. It was a bit salty - more than we are used to anyway because I usually cook stuff from scratch and I don't add much salt at all. But it was still good. A little too hot for the kids. They didn't eat it. Good thing I had left overs from the other night of turkey, rice and veggies!  Hubby and I liked it though and plan to buy it again and throw it on the BBQ next time.

I sauteed the chicken in the pan with the juices and a bit of water added from the bag.  I browned it until the juices reduced down to a glaze on the pan. I de-glazed the pan with some water (you can also use chicken stock). I then sliced the chicken into chunks and added it and the de-glazed juices into my pot of black beans. (see below)

So far this was black beans, diced tomatoes, 1 garlic cube (see pics below), Hawaiian rock salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste and fresh cilantro from our garden torn into small bits. Next time I won't add the extra salt to the beans since the chicken was salty enough and I just saw that the black beans contain sea salt. My fault for not reading the can. 


I added in half a bag of frozen organic corn (about 1 heaping cup+)
1 pouch of frozen, precooked rice medley of brown rice, red rice and black barely* (see pic above)
Fresh cracked pepper and more fresh cilantro. 
I cooked it until it was bubbling. 
*The box of rice comes with 3 (10oz) pouches. 

I topped the dish with some shredded jack cheese and more fresh cilantro because that was all we had on hand. Next time I might add some more toppings and I will squeeze in some fresh lime for sure. Can't have enough fresh lime. Yum!

Optional Toppings:
-Sour Cream
-Diced avocado
-Diced fresh tomato
-Diced raw onion
-Fresh salsa
-Squeeze of fresh lime


I don't have a pic of the finished dish because it was time to eat. Plus it was the first evening we ate al fresco on our patio since last summer and I didn't want my dish cooling off too much while I went to get the camera. (We have a no cell phone rule at dinner time so my cell was in the house.)

If you make this let me know how you like it and what you did differently. 
Enjoy!




Looking for more recipes using black beans and rice?  This one also has shrimp!  Yuuuuuuum!
Hawaiian Basil Buttered Shrimp with Black Beans and Wild Rice


Coming soon to this recipe: Homegrown organic tomatoes and homegrown organic corn. 
Just waiting for them to grow. ;-)





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Domesticated Momster

Sunday

Cooking: Summertime Chicken Salad Sandwich

Chances are during the summer you probably have some cooked chicken begging to be eaten in your fridge. It might be BBQ'd, grilled, roasted. The possibilities are endless. But no matter how it's been cooked it will most likely be really good as a chicken salad sandwich.

We bought a rotisserie chicken yesterday for a BBQ with friends and I knew I had some celery in the fridge too. On a hot summer day like today a chicken salad sandwich with lots of sweet crunch just sounded yummy.

I only made enough for a small batch so I didn't use very much of anything. I always recommend making things to taste anyway. If I were going to make a large portion of this I'd probably do it like this:


  • 2 cups cooked chicken - cubed
  • 2 stalks celery - diced super small (please consider choosing organic celery.)
  • 1/4 cup cashews - chopped (I like to use the raw ones.)
  • 1 apple diced super small (please consider choosing organic apples.)
  • 1/4 cup Best Foods Mayo (or to taste)
  • pepper - to taste
  • Hawaiian Sweet Rolls


Mix all together in a bowl and scoop onto a Hawaiian Sweet Roll or your favorite bread.

Enjoy!

Summertime Chicken Salad Sandwich with cashews, celery and apples.

*No red grapes were harmed in the making of this sandwich, however, they were really yummy as a side dish.


There is nothing like fresh fruits and veggies in the good ol' summertime. Before you venture out to the farmer's markets and grocery stores with your reusable bags print out this list for your purse. It's a good one to have on hand.









Cuddle Fairy

Tuesday

Juicing with Mommy A.K.A "The Veggie Sneaker!"


I love my juicer.  Or I should say, "I LOOOOOOOOOOVE MY JUICER!!!!!" because that is how I really feel about it.

Today I made Watermelon Juice and it was a big hit. However, I didn't really mention exactly what was in it.  If I did that I knew I wouldn't get many takers. Including the big kid of the family - my husband!


This is how I made our breakfast Watermelon Juice: (Everything went in raw with skins on unless otherwise noted.)

Watermelon (Several large slices - remove rind)
2 handfuls of chopped up organic Kale*
1 1/2 small organic Zucchini
1 large organic Cucumber
1/2 organic Bell Pepper (orange)
2 large stalks of organic Celery and 2 small (with leaves still on)
4 large organic Carrots 

This made enough juice for my husband to take some to work in a large travel mug, the kids each had about 1/2 of a sippy cup worth and I had about 16+ oz over ice.  Everyone thought it was pretty yummy!  Kale* is a bit hard for us to eat raw since it's very strong in flavor so we are only using a bit of it at first to ease into it.  It's very good for you though so I try to add it into all of my juices, but if I put too much it overpowers it and no one drinks it, including me.  Trader Joe's finally has a prepackaged, washed and chopped up bag of raw organic kale so this is what I got the other day and I've been really happy with it since I can just reach in and take a handful. 




A Note On Using Organics: Since I'm not removing any skins for my juice except for the watermelon rind I like to use as much organic produce as possible to reduce the amount of pesticides and harmful chemicals we're ingesting.  
Buying Guide: When buying organic produce I tend to follow the Dirty Dozen list that was put out by EWG (Environmental Working Group) who tested each fruit and veg on the list to see which ones contain the most pesticide residue. You can print out this list and keep it in your purse or wallet so you'll always have it with you at the store or farmers market.  According to the EWG website, "You can lower your pesticide intake substantially by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated produce."  
What is the #1 most contaminated fruit on the list? Apples! 
Farmers Markets: It's important to know too that not all produce at the farmers market is organic. To be sure you are buying and paying for organic produce, you need to ask each stand before you buy. I always try to ask the farmer who owns the stand if they are there, or the manager of the stand as they are your best bet in getting an honest answer regarding the produce. 

Be sure to buy a rainbow of colors and don't forget your reusable bags!  

Happy Juicing!

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