Pineapple, Banana and coconut cream smoothie

I made this last night with agave and it was the bees knees!  Original recipe here

Pineapple Banana & Coconut Cream Smoothie

1 banana (previously frozen is ideal but not essential)

1 c pineapple (I used canned in juice, but fresh would be great)

1/2 c coconut milk (canned, fresh, cream of coconut, or coconut creme concentrate)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 c ice cubes

1/4 c sugar, optional or to taste (or honey, agave, sugar, stevia, vanilla NuNaturals stevia drops to taste)

Banana Pancakes

No oils. No eggs/cholesterol. No added sugar. And it was still delish! The PB flavor doesn't really come through. They mostly just taste banana-ey. I was thinking blueberries in them would be SO yummy!

Banana Pancakes

1 banana, mashed
1 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 cup "milk"
1 1/2 cups whole wheat or other whole grain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

mix wet. mix dry. mix together until combined. Use the back of a spoon to spread in pan when cooking- batter is thicker than most, but if you spread it thin it doesn't make a super thick pancake- unless of course you like that! In which case don't spread it as thin :) I cook over medium.

Enjoy!

ps- SHAY: How is the pregnancy going? Feeling well?

ps- EVERYONE: Our veggie lovin friend Katie had her baby yesterday! Yahoo! I don't want to steal her thunder, but I did want you to know! Yay for babies!

Pina Colada Smoothie

I found this recipe on 100 days of real food.  The original post is here.

1 1/2 cups frozen pineapple chunks
1 1/3 cups coconut milk

Blend until smooth and enjoy.

I did not think ahead to have my pineapple frozen so I just threw in a big can of cut up pineapple and one small can of coconut milk and a bunch of ice to make it more of a frozen drink.  It probably could have used a little more pineapple (or, really, it just needed some really yummy fresh pineapple) and the ice watered the flavor down, so I would definitely recommend freezing the pineapple first.  However, even with all the substitutions, it was still so very yummy on a very hot afternoon.

Best Salad Ever

This is one of those "recipes" that I can't believe I haven't posted yet.  It is my. favorite. salad. ever. ever. ever.   You all have probably had something similar, but I just wanted to post it on the off chance that someone out there is missing out!

Spinach

Slivered Almonds

Sliced Strawberries

Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette

Combine these items in whatever quantity suits your fancy and try not to eat the whole bowl.  I usually eat a serving bowl size of this salad.

I'd love to find a good recipe for a dressing that's similar to this vinaigrette.  

My other favorite salad?  Nuts about Berries from Zupas.  If anyone has any idea how to duplicate that salad/dressing, I would love any tips.  It is so good!

No Refined Sugar Strawberry Freezer Jam

Hello all... this is the easiest peasiest jam on the planet.  It literally took me 11 minutes from start to finish to make 2 batches.  I made a ton of the less-sugar strawberry jam a week or so ago, but then I decided I wanted to do some with agave instead.  So this is what I did.

2 lbs. strawberries

1-1 and 1/2 cups agave

1 pkg. less sugar or no sugar pectin

3/4 cup water

Pour the agave into your blender pitcher.  I did 1 and 1/2 cups, but I think it would have still been sweet enough with just 1 cup.  Cut the greens off the top of your strawberries (no need to cut them up more) and throw them into the blender.  Heat the pectin and water in small saucepan until boiling and boil for one minute.  Pour the pectin mixture into your blender.  Pulse a few times in the blender until you have the consistency you want and all ingredients are well mixed.  Pour in containers and let sit for 24 hours or until they set.  Freeze or refrigerate or eat immediately like I did.

Man, I love my blender. :)

Raspberry Syrup

3 cups raspberries (I just put the whole bag of frozen raspberries in)
3/4 cup sugar (I used agave)
1 tsp. lemon juice

Blend.  Serve on pancakes, waffles, french toast, oatmeal, 8 grain hot cereal, homemade or plain yogurt, on cream puffs or cheesecake... ok, I'm getting carried away.  But really, it would make anything taste better.  This is the first thing I made in my Blendtec and I have put it on pretty much everything since then.  It is to die for!

Raw Banana Dessert

From the same lady who brought us the Happy Shake comes another great recipe: Her Banana Roadkill is deelish!  You just squish up two bananas between sheet of plastic wrap and form in the shape of a cookie then sprinkle honey, cinnamon, walnuts, goji berries and it was supposed to be cacao nibs, but I ran out and I'm pregnant and wanted some chocolate.  So I did regular milk chocolate chips :) freeze.  Break into pieces and eat!

Date Balls

I got this recipe from my cousin, Jamie, and I am in love!!  I made them yesterday and Jocelyn snitched 3 of them while she thought I wasn't looking.  I don't know if they are a dessert or just a snack, but they are raw (the way I made them).  I have never tried Emily's Date Balls, so I'm not sure how similar they taste.

1 cup dates
3/4 cup almonds
pinch salt
1/2 cup oats (optional, but good fiber)
Dark chocolate chips (optional)
Craisins (optional)
Dried Apricots (optional)
Cinnamon (optional)

Make sure your dates don't have pits and combine all the things you want to use in a high powered blender or food processor.  Blend until everything is in small pieces.  Feel the mixture.  If you push it together and it crumbles apart, put more dates in.  When it stays together, roll them into balls and set out on waxed paper for a while until they become less sticky.  You can also roll them in coconut, raw sugar, whatever.

I did everything except the dark chocolate chips and I gotta say, it didn't need the chocolate.  I didn't roll them in anything.  I did put quite a bit of cinnamon in and they were deelish!

Pineapple Banana Sorbet

This is from the recipe section of Disease Proof Your Child.  We made it last night and it was fantastic!  On top of that... it's just fruit!  Woohoo!  I'm thinking this would make some good popsicles too.

1 frozen banana

1 (4 oz.) can of pineapple (drained), or fresh pineapple

Blend in blender until it's the texture you want and serve immediately.

PIE

You need a food processor and blender. You might be able to get away with just a blender.

PIE

Crust

1 1/2 cup of your favorite nuts (I like almonds, cashews or macadamia).
3/4 cup dates
1 tbsp of honey or agave
pinch of salt

Put in food processor until all ground up and fine. Put in pie pan,smash it all down with hands, put in freezer until next step.

Filling-

4 mango's
2/3 cup coconut oil (melted)

Put in blender until creamy. Pour filling over crust. Stick in reezer until firm. Then eat!

I made this once using fresh pineapple and strawberries instead of mango. You could do any fruit you want. Good luck and let me know how you like this.

You could also just make the filling, put it in your freezer and eat as an ice cream or put in your fridge and eat as pudding. There is so much you can do with this simple recipe:)

Get Well Green Smoothie

Hello friends! We are sick. AGAIN!!! It took me a really long time to get over being sick in Utah and I woke up this morning with a disgusting nose and sore throat! Darn it, darn it, darn it!

I totally know why this has happened though. I have been eating horribly! I am going to partially blame the pregnancy... (yes you all know so I can talk about it) because I have truly only been able to stomach VERY mild things like mashed potatoes, white breads etc. Whole grains, fruits and veggies etc. have been so hard for me to eat. But I decided today that I cannot cater to those things anymore. It is messing with my whole body and I need to get back to eating well. I will make it work! I WILL!

Thank you guys for continuing this blog and our nutritional conversations. It has been a long time since I have done any research and felt motivated to eat healthily, and our recent conversations have really helped. I am feeling more excited again and I am ready to get back on track!

I have started already in fact. I read up on green smoothies and raw foods yesterday. I have decided that we are going to start eating green smoothies frequently for breakfast. I think my goal will be 4-5 times a week for now. We'll see how it goes. Baby steps right? We started today with a smoothie of my own concoction that I am hoping will help us "get well," hence the name.

Get Well Green Smoothie

The "Meat," of one Pineapple, chopped
2 Bananas, peeled and chopped
2 Oranges, peeled but with a generous amount of pith left on (that stuff is good for you!) and chopped
1 bunch of Lacinato Kale, stems removed, chopped
8 ounces of water

Blend, chill and serve. (Warning: If you don't have a large capacity blender I would do it in batches! Also: if you are scared of the Kale I would do a bit less to start out with. We really liked it with that much in, but if you have picky eaters I would start out with a bit less until they warm up to that kind of flavor)

I was so blessed at the store today. I ended up getting my Kale organic and for only a dollar! Can you believe it? Also the pineapple was the already peeled kind in a container also on super-mega sale. I was so thrilled!

To get the boys to agree to drink a green smoothie (they are great about healthy food, but I knew the green would freak 'em out... and I was right.) We had a big exciting talk in the morning about a new drink that would make us healthy and strong like Superheroes! And it's even a crazy color! We are going to have it a lot for breakfast now and if we keep drinking them we will get so strong! Etc. Etc. I don't feel like I was lying. I absolutely believe there is a correlation to how you feel, your health and well being etc. with what you choose to eat. Don't we all? So ANYWAY- we made a big deal about it, went to the store and bought ingredients to last us for the rest of the week, and I even bought some cheap "special superhero glasses," that we will drink them out of. Then I was totally honest with them about what they were eating. They watched me make it. I wanted them to know that Kale could taste delicious. I didn't want to hide it from them. They were worried when they saw how it looked, but once they smelled it they were good to try it. Jack drank his and flexed his muscles and said he felt stronger.

So far it's sitting in my tummy pretty well. Wish me luck!

Last note: This made a LOT of smoothie. More than enough for the 4 of us.

Vegan Banana Bread

I got this recipe from The Fat Free Vegan Recipes, and we really like it at our house. She has a cool section on her site that tells you what you can use to subsitute for eggs in recipes. I think I am going to try some more substitutions soon.

(I just barely tried to find the exact recipe that I got off the website, and I can't find it, she has some other bread recipes there too that sound delicious, but this one we know and love, so I will post this one).

Vegan Banana Bread
3 bananas
2 T. lemon juice
4 oz. applesauce (if I don't have this, I just use an extra 1/2 c. of squashed bananas)
1/2 C. dark sugar
2 C. whole wheat flour
3/4 t. baking powder
3/4 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

Mix wet ingredients and in seperate bowl mix dry ingredients. Add dry ingrdients to the wet and mix well.

Bake 350* for 50 minutes.
Let cool completely.
Makes one loaf.