Sourdough Waffles

This is a great base to start with. If you want plain waffles, leave as-is. If you want to add flax or chia seed, throw it in :)

1 cup all purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp granulated stevia (or 1 tbs sugar or honey)
1 cup sourdough starter
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
approx. 1 cup milk or almond milk
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

butter, maple syrup, fresh fruit, and/or your favorite toppings for serving

Preheat waffle iron. Mix dry ingredients in medium bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. If you need more or less milk to make a manageable batter, do so. It should pour easily. Grease hot waffle iron with coconut oil. Pour batter into iron and cook according to your iron's instructions. Serve hot with plenty of butter and a small drizzle of maple syrup, or with fresh fruit, or however you like them. Make it more nutritious and get some protein by serving with pastured eggs or topping with plain yogurt. Makes approximately 4-5 servings.

These freeze extremely well. They are great to have in the freezer to pull out and pop in the toaster in the morning for a quick breakfast.

Minestrone Soup

After a very long hiatus, I've decided to start blogging my food adventures again. It may not be every week but at least when I make something that stands out to me, I'll post it here. Yesterday I made minestrone soup for our community group with church. People asked for the recipe which inspired me to just post it. Enjoy! (PS, it was even better the next day!)

Minestrone Soup, serves 6 as a main dish (with some good sourdough bread on the side!)

1½ cups dried great northern beans, soaked at least 4 hours
2 Tbs olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
6 carrots, sliced or diced
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 bunch chard, leaves separated from stems and chopped 
3 garlic cloves, minced
28 oz can diced tomatoes in juice
½ tsp dried rosemary
5 cups chicken broth
5 cups water
1 oz piece of parmesan rind
 kosher salt and pepper to taste

Place soaked beans in large soup pot, cover well with water and boil until tender, about 1 hour. Drain beans and set aside. Rinse soup pot and return to stove. Add oil and heat through. Saute onion, carrots, celery and chard stems only about 10 mins or until beginning to soften. Add garlic and saute another minute. Add tomatoes with juice, rosemary, broth and water. Heat to boiling and then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until veggies are tender, about 30 mins. Add parmesan rind, chard leaves, reserved beans and salt and pepper to taste and cook another 10 minutes or until chard is soft. Mash up some of the beans on the bottom with a potato masher or immersion blender. Stir well, taste for seasoning, and serve with some crusty sourdough bread.

(You can add bacon, potatoes and/or zucchini to this soup as well. Add bacon first, then use a slotted spoon to take it out after it's crispy and reserve until the end. Add potatoes w/the carrots and onion and add zucchini with the chard leaves).

Summertime Quinoa Salad

This was a "clean out the fridge" lunch that turned out so fresh and delicious I had to post it here! Super versatile so you could add or omit as desired.

Summertime Quinoa Salad, serves 1

approx. 1/4 cup cooked quinoa (use up some leftovers)
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 small tomato, diced
1 green onion, sliced
1/2 carrot, sliced
1/2 avocado, diced
1/4 jalapeno, thinly sliced (more or less depending on heat desired)
juice of 1/2 lime
EVOO
sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper
dulse flakes
cumin
1 hard boiled egg, chopped

Toss the quinoa with the veggies. Squeeze half a lime over. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt, cracked pepper, dulse flakes and cumin to taste. Toss gently to combine. Top with chopped hard-boiled egg. Enjoy!

Baby Kale Salad

Made this baby kale salad last night and it was oh-so-delicious! Adapted from Earthbound Farm recipe. The original recipe called for golden balsamic vinegar and golden raisins but I only had the dark varieties and it still came out wonderful.

Baby Kale Salad Recipe
Dressing:
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs EVOO
1 Tbs agave syrup
1/2 Tbs white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt

Salad:
5 oz baby kale leaves
1/4 cup raisins
3 Tbs pine nuts, toasted
shaved Parmesan


Mix all dressing ingredients in blender bottle or small food processor and shake or pulse until combined. Toss salad ingredients in medium bowl, drizzle with dressing and toss well to coat.

Easy Insalata Caprese

This is my go-to snack lately. It's a fancy way of saying Italian tomato and mozzarella salad. It's low-glycemic, super easy, and delicious. The sure-fire way to make this extraordinary is to use the freshest, highest quality ingredients.

Insalata Caprese Recipe

4-5 slices fresh buffalo mozzarella
1 ripe organic tomato, sliced into 4 or 5 rounds
4-5 big basil leaves
high quality extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
fresh cracked black pepper
high quality sea salt

Layer the mozzarella slices, tomato rounds and basil. Drizzle with EVOO. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Meal Plan Week of April 1

I guess I've slacked a bit here. I wanted to post the meal plan for this week and then put up some of the recipes. Some of the meals won't have a recipe as they are pretty self-explanatory.

Sunday, April 1 - Meatloaf (cajun style for the adults and mom's recipe for the kids)
Monday - Hake (fish) with pineapple rum sauce (bottled) with green beans and rice
Tuesday - Homemade Pizza
Wednesday - dinner at church
Thursday - Gwenyth Paltrow's My Ivy Chopped Salad
Friday - Yam Fajitas
Saturday - Gwenyth Paltrow's Bean Soup with Kale
Sunday - Easter - Leg of Lamb

Chicken and Wild Rice

I had a lot of leftover shredded chicken from making chicken soup last night and I needed to make dinner tonight without going to the store today. So, I pulled together this chicken and rice casserole type dish, sans the canned cream-of-chemicals-and-who-knows-what-else-soup. Wild rice is lower glycemic than regular white rice and possibly more so than brown rice, too. This came out really tasty, but the picture not so much. Sorry!

Chicken and Wild Rice Recipe
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs EVOO
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1½ cups uncooked wild rice blend
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp dried marjoram
fresh cracked black pepper
1 (4 oz) can sliced mushrooms
4 cups cooked cubed or shredded chicken
1½ cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
½ cups dry white wine
¼ cup sour cream

Heat dutch oven over medium heat. When hot, add butter and olive oil and heat through. Add onion and saute until beginning to soften. Add garlic and saute another minute. Add rice and saute a few minutes until beginning to brown, stirring frequently. Add salt, marjoram and pepper. Add mushrooms, chicken and stock. Stir to deglaze bottom of pot. Pour in cream, stirring. Add wine and sour cream. Bring to a simmer and then cover and transfer to preheated 375°F oven. Cook one hour or until rice is tender and liquid absorbed. Serve with green salad or another green veggie of choice :)