Salad Saturday!
April 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Each Saturday I’ll post a free salad recipe from my new salad cookbook. It ha
s over 365 recipes, so you can either buy it now or just hang around here for the next 6 years. LOL!
BAJA CHICKEN PASTA SALAD
3/4 pound Chicken Breast
6 ounces Dried Mixed Fruit
1 cup Ring Macaroni or Orzo — Raw
1 cup Jicama — Cubed
2 Green Onions/Tops — Sliced
1/2 cup Mayonnaise Or Salad Dressing
2 tablespoons Sour Cream Or Plain Yogurt
1 teaspoon Red Chiles — Ground
1/4 teaspoon Salt
* The chicken breast should be boneless, skinless and weigh about 3/4 pounds
** You should use 1 6-oz package of diced mixed fruit.
Heat enough salted water to cover the chicken breast (1/4 tsp salt to 1 cup of water) to boiling in a 4 quart Dutch oven. Add the chicken breast. Cover and heat to boiling, reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is done, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon.
Heat the water to boiling and add the fruit and ring macaroni or orzo gradually so that the water continues to boil. Boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally, just until the ring macaroni is tender, about 6 to 8 minutes or 10 minutes for the orzo, then drain. Rinse with cold water and drain again. Cut the chicken into 1/2-inch pieces and mix with the fruit, macaroni, jicama and onions. Mix the remaining ingredients and toss with the chicken mixture. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.
Free Report on Going Organic
April 7, 2008 | 1 Comment
The ladies over at Menu Planning Central have put together an informative free report on going organic. They are letting me share it with you all. The report covers:
- What the organic label really means
- Cleaning with organic cleaners - and how to make your own
- Recommendations for organic products all around the house
To download it, just right click on this link to save to your desktop.
Salad Saturday!
April 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Each Saturday I’ll post a free salad recipe from my new salad cookbook. It has over 365 recipes, so you can either buy it now or just hang around here for the next 6 years. LOL!
Avocado with Peanut Dressing
2 avocados — ripe
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons peanuts — shelled
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
cayenne — to taste
sea salt — to taste
fresh chives — to garnish
Peel the avocados; cut out the stone and cut into cubes. Sprinkle with lemon juice and set aside. Grind the peanuts roughly with a rolling pin or in a grinder for a few seconds. Mix the peanuts and spices well. Sprinkle over the avocados with finely chopped chives.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Salad Saturday!
March 29, 2008 | 2 Comments
Each Saturday I’ll post a free salad recipe from my new salad cookbook. It has over 365 recipes, so you can either buy it now or just hang around here for the next 6 years. LOL!
Autumn Fruit Salad
2 red delicious apples
1 sliced banana
1 Granny Smith apple
2 Bartlett pears
1/2 pound red grapes
1/2 cup almond slivers — toasted
1 cup organic vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon apple cider cider
Wash and core apples and pears, peeling if desired. Cut into one inch chunks. Slice bananas 1/2″ thick. Wash grapes and cut in half. Combine fruits and almonds in salad bowl. Mix yogurt with spices and cider. Pour over fruit salad and stir to coat fruits evenly. Chill.
Salad Saturday!
March 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Each Saturday I’ll post a free salad recipe from my new salad cookbook. It has over 365 recipes, so you can either buy it now or just hang around here for the next 6 years. LOL!
Artichoke Salad
4 Each Fresh artichoke hearts
1 Tablespoon Red Wine vinegar
2 Cups Artichoke hearts, quartered
1 Teaspoon Louisiana hot sauce
1 Small garlic clove
2 Teaspoons Sea Salt
1 Teaspoon Lea & Perrins
3 Tablespoons Olive oil
1 Tablespoon Lemon juice
In a wooden salad bowl, mash garlic and salt with a strong fork. Add fresh artichoke hearts, and mash with the garlic and salt. Add olive oil, stir, add lemon juice, stir, add wine vinegar, stir, stir, add hot sauce, stir, add Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, Mix well. Put canned artichoke hearts in dressing and let marinate for 1 hour then eat as is or serve on a bed of greens.
Quick Homemade Pudding Recipe
March 19, 2008 | 1 Comment
My oldest loves to cook. Being a kid, his favorite things to cook are typically desserts. 
The other day he made homemade donuts (not the kind that comes from canned biscuits either), the kind Caroline Ingalls might have made. They were the best tasting donuts I had ever eaten! (Yes, I sneaked one bite despite my wheat intolerance!)
Today he made homemade pudding and I thought I would share the recipe. I’ve been using this one for years, and it’s a slight variation of the recipe found in Whole Foods for the Whole Family. Which is an excellent cookbook by the way, it’s one of my all time favorites.
This recipe has about a million variations. You can make it gluten free, egg free, dairy free and corn free (just substitute arrowroot for the cornstarch and cook for a shorter time) in case of food allergy. You can make it plain old vanilla, carob, chocolate, coconut, fruit, lemon, rice, butterscotch, etc. And of course it’s wonderful as-is.
It’s delicious and VERY inexpensive to make. And honestly, it takes about the same amount of time to make as instant, especially if you put a kid on the job.
It has far less sugar and more actual food and nutritional value in it than instant pudding you can buy on the grocery store shelves. As a point of reference let’s take a peek at what’s inside one major name brand instant pudding:
Sugar, Modified Food Starch, Coconut, Contains Less than 2% of Artificial Flavor, Disodium Phosphate and Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate (for Thickening), Mono- and Diglycerides (Prevent Foaming), Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Artificial Color, Sodium Metabisulfite (Retains Coconut Whiteness), BHA (Preservative).
Yum! A chemical conglomeration passed off as food! Conveniently packed in plastic disposable servings!
Try this instead:
Quick Homemade Pudding
- 1 1/2 cups milk and 1/2 cup milk (this makes more sense to me than saying “2 cups milk, divided”)
- 4 Tablespoons sweetener (I use honey or Rapadura)
- 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla (use 1 teaspoon if you’re making chocolate)
1) Place sweetener and 1 1/2 cup milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan and heat on low. While you’re waiting for it to reach a simmer, mix the 1/2 cup milk with the cornstarch or arrowroot. Get the eggs ready in a small bowl too.
2) When the milk is bubbling a bit, add the cornstarch/milk mixture, and cook for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
3) Mix about 1/2 cup of the pudding mixture into the bowl with your beaten eggs and stir well, then add to the saucepan. Cook for 1 more minute, stirring constantly.
4) Remove from heat and add vanilla and other ingredients.
I think it’s tastiest cooled but you may not want to wait that long!
To make chocolate pudding, mix a scant 1/4 cup cocoa powder with a little hot water then stir in. (Remember to decrease the vanilla to one teaspoon. You can also use carob.)
For coconut, add 1//2 to 1 cup coconut flakes.
For rice pudding increase the milk by 1/4 cup and add 1 cup cooked rice to finished pudding, sprinkle nutmeg on top and add raisins if you like.
For butterscotch, add 2 Tablespoons molasses to the sweetener and stir in 2 Tablespoons butter after removing from heat.
For lemon, substitute lemon juice for vanilla and add 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind.
Add fruit like sliced bananas if you wish to the basic vanilla recipe.
Leave out the eggs if you’re allergic. Use soy milk instead of dairy if you’re allergic to that. If corn is an issue, replace the cornstarch with arrowroot and decrease cooking times. You can also use 6 Tablespoons flour instead of cornstarch.
Salad Saturday!
March 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Each Saturday I’ll post a free salad recipe from my new salad cookbook. It has over 365 recipes, so you can either buy it now or just hang around here for the next 6 years. LOL!
Antipasto Salad
16 oz. pkg fresh/frozen cheese tortellini
4 ounces chopped salami
4 ounces provolone cheese, cut into — 2 x 1/4″ strips
11 oz. can corn — drained
9 oz. package frozen spinach, thawed — squeezed to drain
6 oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts — drained/chopped
6 ounce can pitted ripe olives — drained/sliced
1 1/2 cups prepared creamy Italian salad dressing
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 ounce jar diced pimiento, drained — if desired
Cook tortellini to desired doneness as directed on package; drain, rinse with cold water. In very large bowl, combine tortellini, salami, provolone cheese, corn, spinach, artichoke hearts and 1 cup of the olives. In small bowl, combine salad dressing, mustard and 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese; blend well.
Pour dressing over salad; toss gently. Top with remaining olives and Parmesan cheese. Cover; refrigerate 1 - 2 hours to blend flavors. Just before serving, garnish with pimiento.
Natural Moms Podcast #76
March 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment
This week on the show, Monica Salazar of Familia Libre again joins us to talk about fridge free living with a 
pot-in-pot.
Pot in pot is a refrigeration system that works with simple physics. Building a pot-in-pot is inexpensive and easy. It can be used to store food as well as medicine. Using a pot-in-pot saves money on utilities, so it is ideal for families who are on a tight budget as well as anyone who wants to be more self reliant.
I
t also provides a learning opportunity for kids, who will ask questions about how the pot-in-pot works. Similar to the human body, the pot-in-pot cools by a process of evaporation. When the water inbetween the two pots evaporates, it cools down the inner pot where the food is kept.
It’s important to use unglazed pots. Your pot-in-pot can be large or small. More important is how large the gap is where the sand is (evaporation area) and make sure you keep the sand wet. Keeping the pot-in-pot in a dry location where there is a breeze is also a good idea.
More information:
Mohammed Bah Abba revolutionising lives in Nigeria with pot-in-pot
Pot-in-pot was used in ancient times by the Egyptians and Abba has brought it back into popularity among his fellow Nigerians. This simple technology is producing some pretty incredible results in their lives.
Thanks to Monica for the pot-in-pot pictures and instructions (in Spanish)
You can listen to the interview at the natural moms talk radio site or download the mp3 link here.
Salad Saturday!
March 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Each Saturday I’ll post a free salad recipe from my new salad cookbook. It has over 365 recipes, so you can either buy it now or just hang around here for the next 6 years. LOL!
Apple Cider Salad
2 packages gelatin powder — unflavored
2 cups apple cider
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups apples — diced
1/4 cup black walnuts — chopped
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
cooking oil
lettuce leaves — for decoration
1. Put 1/2 cup cold water into a small bowl. Sprinkle two envelopes (2 tablespoons) of
unflavored gelatin on water. Let stand 5-10 minutes to soften.
2. Heat 2 cups apple cider until very hot; add salt. Remove from heat and immediately add
softened gelatin. Stir until gelatin is completely dissolved. Have a 1 quart mold lightly greased with cooking oil. Do not use olive oil. Spoon about 1/2 cup of gelatin mixture into mold and place in refrigerator.
3. Chill remaining mixture until slightly thicker than consistency of unbeaten egg white. Just before large bowl of gelatin is desired consistency, dice apples and chop walnuts and parsley. Add this to the gelatin and place into the mold which already has thin bottom layer of gelatin. Chill until set.
4. Unmold onto serving plate which has been decorated with lettuce leaves; curly endive is a good choice.
Salad Saturday!
March 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Each Saturday I’ll post a free salad recipe from my new salad cookbook. It has over 365 recipes, so you can either buy it now or just hang around here for the next 6 years. LOL!
ANOTHER BEAN SALAD
1/2 cup Rapadura or Sucanat
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1 cup Cider Vinegar
16 ounces Green beans, can — drained
16 ounces Yellow beans, can — drained
16 ounces Lima beans, can — drained
16 ounces Garbanzo beans, can — drained
16 ounces Red kidney beans — drained
1 each Green pepper — slivered
4 each Celery — sliced
3 each Onions, medium — sliced thin
Combine sugar, salt and vinegar in pan, bring to boil for 1 min. Cool. Toss all other ingredients together and pour the vinegar mixture over them. Marinate for 24 hrs in refrigerator, stirring occasionally.