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!

No-Cook Peanut Butter Balls

I made these for a Superbowl treat yesterday and they came out better than expected! You could make these with any sort of nut butter or alternative (sunflower seed butter, for example) and if you use a raw nut butter they would be a great raw food treat! My kids loved these and they don't normally eat sunflower seeds.

Peanut Butter Ball Recipe (adapted from Dr Sears' Nutbutter Balls), makes about 15 one inch balls

½ cup raw cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup unsweetened peanut butter (or alternative of your choice)
½ cup raw sesame seeds
½ cup raw sunflower seeds (hulled)
½ cup rolled oats (old fashioned style, not instant)
¼ cup ground flax
scant ¼ cup raw agave nectar or raw honey
finely shredded unsweetened coconut

Mix all ingredients except coconut in a medium bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine thoroughly. It will get pretty stiff so really put some muscle into it! Put some shredded coconut into a small bowl. Form approximate one inch balls with the peanut butter mixture and roll in the coconut to coat. Depending on the coarseness of your coconut, you may need to pulse it in a food processor a few times to make smaller bits that adhere to the balls better. Enjoy immediately or place in an airtight container and store in refrigerator.

Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes with Goat Cheese

This is adapted from a Door To Door Organics recipe. I used it as part of a dinner along with the Quinoa Egg Veggie bake. I really love the flavors of the eggplant and tomatoes and it makes a great vegetarian and low-glycemic appetizer or side.

Roasted Eggplant with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese Recipe
1 eggplant, sliced about ½" thick (could slice the short or long way, it's up to you)
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
EVOO
sea salt and cracked black pepper
goat cheese for topping

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Pour a couple tablespoons of EVOO on a large rimmed baking sheet. Toss tomatoes thoroughly in the oil and spread out evenly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brush both sides of eggplant slices with EVOO and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. If you have room on the same baking sheet as the tomatoes, lay eggplant in single layer on it, otherwise use a separate baking sheet. Roast about 10 mins, flip eggplant slices and continue roasting another 10 mins or until eggplant is tender and tomatoes are caramelized. Remove from oven, arrange eggplant on serving dish, top with tomatoes and their juices, and sprinkle crumbled goat cheese over the top. Enjoy!

Week 48

I have to say I have no idea what happened to weeks 45 and 46. Forty-seven was last week and we were visiting family in California for the entire week, hence no posting here. Somehow I lost two weeks in the mix. But that's not too bad for blogging for a whole year, right?

And this week is an easy one for me: there are no original recipes in the line-up. But all these sound fabulous pretty much as they are!

Pork Roast (from Epicurious.com, I'm using a boneless pork tip roast instead of the fancy tied loin), served with roasted winter squash

Braised Short Ribs (from Smittenkitchen.com)

Coconut Flour Blueberry Muffins (from Cheeseslave.com)

Beef Stuffed Acorn Squash (From AllRecipes.com) with this Russian dressing (from Food.com, make half a batch)
This was really really good! The only thing I did differently from the recipe was to add one finely diced carrot and one finely diced celery stalk to the beef mixture.

Homemade Chewy Granola Bars

Seriously, what can't you do with sourdough starter? Yes, sourdough starter went into this recipe for granola bars. The recipe I started with is found on Wild Yeast Blog. I took the recipe there and basically just used some different fruit and nuts to suit my taste and also what I had on hand. This is so super flexible - you could change out the fruits and nuts and seeds for whatever you like or have on hand. If you don't have sourdough starter to use up, I'm guessing you could use flour and water to make up the same weight (so instead of the 200g sourdough starter you would use 100g water and 100g flour). However, I don't know if the rising capabilities of the starter are necessary or not. So, if anyone does attempt this with just flour and water, be sure to comment and let me know how the bars come out.

Ingredients:
200g sourdough starter (100% hydration), straight from fridge
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped (pitted) dates
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup coconut oil (solid)
2 Tbs chia seeds
1/4 tsp salt

Super easy method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8x8" baking dish with parchment paper (letting some hang over the edges for easy removal) and grease the paper.

2. Mix everything together in medium bowl with clean hands to make sure ingredients are well incorporated.

3. Press mixture into prepared baking sheet and bake at 350F for about half hour or until golden brown on top.

4. Let cool a few mins in pan, then pull out and cut into bars or squares.

Pressed into pan

Nicely browned

Stacked full of goodness :)