Author: Christine

Baked Potatoes, Broccoli, & Mushrooms

Bake Potatoes at 400° for about an 60-90 minutes depending on size
Cook Broccoli Florets
Water Sauté Mushrooms

I scrub my potatoes and just put them on a cookie sheet because I like when they are a bit dry, they can be wrapped in foil also. Serve with Cashew Sour Cream, salt and pepper.

I grew up cooking Broccoli in boiling water and I’ve tried a few other methods but to me they don’t work as well. There are a few tricks to it though, first you need enough water for two pounds I use 4 quarts of water in a 6 qt pot. Bring the water to a rolling hard boil. Dump in broccoli, stir once, wait a two minutes, stir again if it all looks hot remove and strain of water. You should have nice crisp bright green broccoli.

Trim bottoms of Mushrooms, or remove stems, dump in skillet, water sauté with a little salt and pepper till soft. Use a medium heat.

Green Smoothie

14 oz unsweetened vanilla almond milk
10 oz greens, I use power blend from costco, or baby spinach.
1 banana
1 mandarin orange
150 grams frozen blueberries
75 grams frozen peach
75 grams frozen strawberries
1/2 tsp. almond extract

This makes two 20oz smoothies. The trick I’ve learned for getting a good blend on a green smoothie it to put the milk and greens in blend that and then add the rest. Also you really have to have a high quality blender. I know people are successful with the Blendtec, Vitamix, and the Ninja.

The other thing I do to make this easy is use a scale to measure things. Zero the scale add the milk, zero the scale add the greens, blend. Move it back to the scale add the banana and orange, zero the scale, you get the idea.

Italian Salad

SONY DSC

This is a family favorite, and we can pack in a remarkable amount of salad. The “bowl”  is my Grandmothers dishpan.

Here it is
2 bags of Romaine Lettuce heads from Costco (yes 12 of those heads of lettuce)= 5 1/2 lbs.
1 lg purple onion sliced super fine with a mandolin and thing quartered
1 lb of carrots julienned
6 on the vineroma tomatoes  sliced thin
3 orange/yellow bell peppers sliced thin
Italian style vinegar dressing
1-2 cans small olives

I usually put the lettuce in the dishpan first, add the cheese and dressing, then dump the other stuff in and toss. The children will add croutons to there bowls.

This is one of the very few recipes in which I still put cheese and it’s a three cheese blend of parmesan, romano and asiago.

Taco Salad

Shredded Lettuce
Diced Tomato
Chopped Bell pepper
Sliced Cucumber
Sliced Olives
Low-Sodium Kidney Beans
Diced Avocado
Taco Rice
Baked Corn Tortilla Chips

Put all that together according to preference, serve with creamy salsa, or avocado ranch, or guacamole, or nothing.

Porridge

Ingredients:
2 cup steel cut oats
5 ½ cups water
½ tsp. Cinnamon
½ tsp. Nutmeg
½ tsp. Salt
¼ cup Maple Syrup (real stuff)
2 Tbsp. Vanilla

Use a Heavy Non stick Skillet 6 quart size for this recipe. First thing when you get up put the skillet on the stove on high, run the water so it gets hot, put in the oats, when the tap water is hot add the water, put in the rest of the stuff, by the time you’re done it should be boiling. Put on the lid and turn it down to medium, set the timer for 15 minutes. Go do whatever it is you need to do in the morning to get ready for whatever it is you do in the day. When the timer goes of go back to the kitchen turn down the stove to a 2 stir the porridge for a minute or so until it stops sticking and the boil slows down. Put the lid back on and reset the timer for 20 more minutes. Walk away and resume doing your morning stuff. When the time goes off again it’s done. This makes approximately 42 oz. of porridge.

Mix in Nuts, Fruit (dried or otherwise) etc. per texture and taste preference; I like 1 Tbsp of pecans and 1 Tbsp Craisins.

I have a can of cinnamon, nutmeg and salt that is premixed and ready to go into this recipe it really helps when I’m making it at 6 am.

For one person 1/3 cup oats, 1 cup water, ¼ tsp of seasoning mix, 1 Tbsp, maple syrup, 1 tsp vanilla, bring to a boil in none stick covered pot, turn down to lowest setting for 35 minutes, stir about half way through. 1 qt pan.

A friend of mine did some experimenting and discovered the magic to keeping the oats from boiling over is the nutmeg. I suppose if you got all technical it probably breaks the tension on the starchy water bubbles or something. Not sure what chemistry magic is at work but the end result is both delicious and easy.

Baked Tortilla Chips

Use Pizza cutter to cut corn tortillas into wedges, I use the Mission Brand Extra Thin ones.
Arrange in single layer on cookie sheets and bake in oven at 370° for 15 minutes, if using both oven racks switch half way through.

Time adjustments may be needed depending on the oven/cookie sheet, or type of tortilla.

This also works well with the tortilla bowl bakers, or you can bake them whole and flat to be used for toastadas.