The Best Green Beans ever!

I'm a huge fan of munching on fresh, crisp green beans, straight off the vine! We always have so many during the summer, both from our garden and from our weekly farm box. This recipe was a weekly staple in our home, and neither of us got tired of it!

Simple, quick, and delicious.

The Best Green Beans Ever
fresh green beans, washed and de-stemmed
1 Tbs butter
2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup of Dales's Steak Seasoning Sauce (low-sodium)

Partially steam your green beans. (I like to place in a baking dish with a few tablespoons of water and microwave for 2-4 minutes, depending on how many beans I have).
Melt butter in your skillet. Add in the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add in the steamed green beans and toss to coat. Pour in the Dale's and stir. Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Freezer Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

My husband and I try not to eat a lot of processed sugar. In particular that means desserts and candy. So, I'm learning how to create more healthy, homemade goodies to satisfy my cravings!

Our favorite chocolate treat is the alternative version of Reece Peanut butter cups! They are so tasty and never last long in our home! Did I mention that they are the quickest dessert to whip up for when company comes over for dinner? We have friends who prefer dark chocolate, so I modify the recipe by adding a bit more cocoa powder and a bit less nut butter. But when I make them for myself I do the opposite-more peanut butter and less cocoa powder. Oh, it's lovely when you can personalize a recipe so easily!

Recipe
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2-3/4 cup nut butter (I chose peanut)
1/4 honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

mini cupcake paper liners

Melt the coconut oil in the microwave for 30-60 seconds, until fully melted. Add in the cocoa powder, nut butter, honey, and vanilla. Whisk together until smooth and fully combined. 

Line a cookie sheet with mini cupcake paper liner. Fill each liner 3/4 of the way full with the mixture. Place cookie sheet in freezer for at least 3 hours, or overnight (try to make sure it's level or them will come out crooked!).  Allow to sit 1 minute at room temperature before eating. Store in a sealed container/ziplock in the freezer.

Trust me...you won't be able to eat just one of these! 

Blueberry Basil Lemonade

Blueberry picking is so much fun! And, although it sounds silly, I love to wash them and dry them and freeze them, knowing they will be so delicious come winter when they're out of season and I am craving some blueberries.
But, while it's still summertime, nothing beats a fresh lemonade.

Blueberry Basil Lemonade
lemonade of your choice (homemade, store bought, etc).
1/4 cup of fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup blueberries

Place 1 cup of lemonade and 1/2 cup of blueberries in the blender. Blend until blueberries are roughly pureed. Pour together with lemonade into a pitcher. Roughly chop the basil leaves and add to pitcher. Allow to refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight, for flavors to blend together.

My Vitamix came in the mail!

Lately my husband and I have enjoyed so many delicious superfoods in our smoothies, like spinach, kale, spirulina, hemp, ground flax, chia seeds and keifer. But we noticed that our smoothies became kinda chewy in our Ninja.

Don't get me wrong, we love our ninja, but decided to do some research on better blenders since we have smoothies almost daily. The results were pretty remarkable: Vitamix is the way to go!

But, those blenders are hundreds of dollars. Those videos that compared ninja vs vitamix in green smoothies, berry smoothies, frozen drinks, homemade nut butters and soups blew us away. There seemed to be no comparison to a Vitamix.
We're not really impulsive buyers but this product sold itself! For consumers like us who use their blender on average more than once per day, we wanted quality.

Lucky us, we find the Vitamix 5200: Getting Started on sale for $150 dollars off, plus free shipping from Target. Wow! We would have paid the full price, but that's am amazing deal!

So, 2 days later we have a new blender and we are living happily ever after :)

In reality, we're trying out new recipes and using the heck out of it!

Here's what I tried this morning for breakfast:
1 cup strawberries
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup pineapple
1 carrot
1 cup spinach
1/4 yogurt
Optional: 1 Tbs ground flax seed
Optional: 1 Tbs hemp hearts
Optional: 1/2 tsp spirulina
Add orange juice until desired consistency.

Dump it all in the Vitamix, gradually blend up to variable speed 10 for 30-60 seconds. And ta-da, a Green Good Morning Smoothie!

Enjoy!

Homemade Crunchy Chocolate Bar

So my husband and I have been setting more healthy eating goals, and this week we're cutting out processed sugar. The only goodies we're eating are homemade. Thankfully, I'm not a big baker so there isn't too much temptation!

But, as excited as I am about this, I'm not sure I can give up on chocolate! Just a piece or 2 at a time, every few days, ya know what I mean?! (Come on ladies, you know what I mean!)

Anyway, I had to find a healthy alternative. And ta-da, I hit a home-run! I'm pretty sure I can totally give up store-bought chocolate for this awesome recipe! Here it is, simple, easy, tasty-enjoy!

Ingredients:
-1/4 cup cocoa powder
-1/4 cup coconut oil
-3 Tablespoons of agave nectar
-1-2 Tablespoons of quinoa

Directions:
Heat up a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add quinoa and toast for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently (will start to swell and brown slightly).
Melt the coconut oil.
Add the agave and mix with the coconut oil.
Add the cocoa powder and mix, mix, mix.
Place in chocolate mold, or on wax paper, or in a ziplock, whatever works best for you! (I took a rectangle plastic lid, lined it with wax paper, and used that as a mold.)
Sprinkle with the toasted quinoa.
Place in freezer to harden. Store in freezer.

Happy, healthy eating!

*Note, this was slightly bitter to me. Since I prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate, I will try to add a teaspoon of cane sugar to my next batch. 

Grandma's Banana Bread

Growing up, I always remember my grandmother baking. She made some amazing desserts, especially the homemade authentic Italian ones! But now that she's older, she has difficulty baking and spending too much time in the kitchen. She's been saving her ripe bananas in the freezer for me, knowing that when I make banana bread, I'll use her bananas and share some bread too!

Although this isn't her recipe, it is one she approves of. (At least, she eats the entire loaf that I bake for her, which I assume means that she likes it!) We like it too, since it doesn't usually last long in our house!

I like to double the recipe: I bake a large chocolate chip loaf for us and share the 3 smaller ones with my family!

Banana Bread - Makes 1 large loaf (9x5x3") or 3 small loaves (5 3/4x3 1/4")
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large ones)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil (I like to use 1/2 cup nonsweetened applesauce and 1/4 cup oil)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
nonstick cooking spray
optional: chocolate chips

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
-Whisk together mashed bananas, sugar, eggs and oil in mixer until smooth, about 1 minute.
-Gradually add dry ingredients and mix until combined (1 minute). Scrape sides or bowl and mix once more (10 seconds).
-Spray pans with nonstick cooking spray, then lightly coat with flour (to absorb any globs in the corners). Pour batter into pans and smooth tops.
-Bake 60-70 minutes for large pan, or 40-50 for small pans. Bake until the tester/toothpick come clean out of the center.
-Cool in the pan for 15 minutes on a wire rack. Use a knife to remove bread from sides of pan, then let the bread cool directly on the wire rack.

Now grab yourself a glass of milk and enjoy!

Fat Crust Pizza

So, I've made some great dishes lately and need to share them with you!

This past week I made my homemade fat crust pizza! Bubbly dough with a garlic crust, chunky tomato and herb sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese, bell peppers, olives, tomatoes, and of course pepperoni! (This is seriously the best homemade pizza ever!)

Here's the recipe for the crust (from Six Sisters' Stuff). 

Pizza Recipe:

(Makes 1 large, thick pizza, or 2 smaller pizzas)

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour

3 Tablespoons sugar

3 1/2 teaspoons fast rising yeast

3/4 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cups very warm water (120 to 130 degrees F)

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Seasonings as desired (garlic, oregano, basil, marjoram, etc)

Toppings: onions, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic, olives, etc...

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  

-In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt.  Gradually add water and oil to mixture.  Blend at low speed until moistened, then beat for 2 minutes at medium speed until dough pulls away from sides of the bowl.  

-On a lightly floured surface, knead until dough is smooth and elastic.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest in a warm place for 15 minutes.  

-Press out dough onto 1 (or 2) pizza pans.  I like to roll the ends to make nice thick crust, as if it were a bread stick. Poke the dough randomly with a fork.  Let rise again in a warm place for 10-15 minutes.  

-Brush crusts lightly with oil and bake them for 5 minutes.  

-Remove from oven and top as desired.  Brush crusts with olive oil and seasoning (I like to make a paste of olive oil with garlic salt to imitate breadstick crusts). Bake for 4-5 more minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

I also decided to experiment with my own pizza sauce. I just threw a few ingredients together based on some previous recipes and remembering my mother's homemade spaghetti sauce recipe!

Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe:

(Makes sauce for 1 or 2 pizzas)

Ingredients:

1 (10.34 oz) can of diced tomatoes with juice

1 (8 oz) can of tomato paste

1 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning
    (OR 3/4 teaspoon oregano, 3/4 teaspoon basil, 1/4 teaspoon thyme)

2-4 cloves of fresh garlic

   

Directions:

Combine all ingredients into a sauce pan. Allow to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. 

OR combine all ingredients in your vitamix at variable speed 7 for 30-60 seconds. 

Note: You can always double this recipe and freeze half for next time! Also, we use this to dip our crust/bread sticks in!