Healthy Pumpkin "Ice Cream!"

Pumpkin Soy Ice Cream

- 4 parts Trader Joe's Vanilla Soy Cream

-1 to 2 parts canned pumpkin 

- pinch nutmeg

- pinch cinnamon

- walnuts (if desired)

- Mix well and enjoy or freeze for later!

PS: canned pumpkin is also great mixed into cooked oatmeal and adorned with similar toppings!

Broccoli Carrot Fruit Slaw

- TJ's shredded broccoli and carrots (approximately 1 bag)

- 1 cup garbanzo beans

- 1 tart apple chopped

- 1/2 cup salted and toasted sunflower seeds

- 1/2 cup dried cranberries

- 3 green onions chopped

- desired amount of Goddess Dressing

Harvest Grains Fruit Feta Salad

Salad

- Head Romaine lettuce chopped (or TJ Very American Salad)

- 3/4 cup cooked Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend 

- 1/3 cup raisins 

- 1/2 cup crumpled low fat feta

- 1/2 chopped Jazz or Gala apple

- 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces

Dressing

- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

-2 tablespoons olive oil

- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

- 1 tablespoon mustard

- pinch of salt

1) chopped salad ingredients and cook Grain Blend, omitting butter
2) mix dressing ingredients
3) mix salad ingredients together and top with dressing when ready to serve

Broken Arm AND a Sweet Potato Madness

Some of you may know that I broke my arm a while back. Needless to say that my summer plans changed rapidly and endless hours chilling out in Sacramento with nothing to do has been gifted to me (or something like that...)

After the Percocet haze I moped. 

After long, surprisingly fun, ten hour drive with J - Dub, I arrived in sunny San Diego.

After relaxing time with my family, friends, sunshine and sand I felt a bit of acceptance. 

After I could use my lower arm I spent countless hours aimlessly wandering the streets of Sacramento. Many streets have been explored and many iphone photographs have been taken. 

And I discovered that the album Lost Horizons by Lemon Jelly is totally amazing.

After I could move my non-weight baring, non-muscle using shoulder, I cleaned, a lot (in case you didn't know, this is my neon green super awesome cleaning outfit.)  Between working and taking full-time care of me, Pete definitely had his hands full. I walked the neighborhoods more purposefully, I played artist, and I cooked. Here is a hint of what's to come. 

Sweet Potato Fiesta - Ay!

- 1 medium cooked (baked or microwaved) sweet potato per person
- 1 ripe tomato chopped
- 1 can of black beans
- mozzarella cheese (feta might works well too)
- 1 or 2 chopped green long peppers (mix between a bell pepper and a jalapeno)
- salsa

- slice open cooked sweet potato and top with desired amount of cheese and beans. Heat in oven or microwave until cheese is melted and beans are warm. Top with desired about of salsa, fresh tomato and pepper.

And since I still had some cooked sweet potato left over...

Farmers Market Sweet Potato

- 1 medium cooked (baked or microwaved) sweet potato per person
- 1 ripe yellow heirloom tomato chopped
- 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed
- goat cheese
- chopped fresh basil
- cracked pepper
- salt

- slice open cooked sweet potato and top with desired amount of cheese and beans. Heat in oven or microwave until beans are just warm. Top with desired about of tomato and fresh basil.

I have a bunch more recipes to post once typing become more comfortable. But by then, I may be back on my bike ;-)

Quinoa Banana Bread

By the time I got around to writing down the recipe, this

was all that remained of the loaf.
Well, I guess that is not entirely true... by the time I got to taking the picture, that was all that was left. Currently, the loaf is gone. Poof, gone. And I barely shared!

This recipe was inspired by my friend Megan who creatively added millet to a loaf of banana bread she brought camping with us a few weeks back.

(In case you are wondering, yes, I did burn my shoes...)

The millet provided a nice nutty texture and made for a bit denser bread. Since I love quinoa, I decided to go out on a limb and add some to my next loaf of bread. The end result was a nutty bread, without the nuts, that was not too dense or dry and still tasted like ripe bananas :)

This recipe is similar to one I found online, with a number of my own additions and modifications of course. This made one regular sized banana bread plus 5 muffins.

- 1/2 cup of butter
- 2 eggs
- ~2 1/4 cups mashed rip banana
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup turbinado sugar, plus ~ 3 tablespoons to sprinkle on top
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 cup cooked red quinoa
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, plus some to sprinkle on top
- 1/8 teaspoon salt

- Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour 9 x 5 pan.
- Cook quinoa (follow directions on box)
- Cream butter and sugars together. Add in honey and eggs. Mix well.
- Add in the mashed banana and make sure well mixed.
- Mix all dry ingredients together, including cooked quinoa, and separate bowl and add to wet ingredients.
- Once well mixed, pour into pan and muffin tins and sprinkle with turbinado sugar and cinnamon.
- Bake for ~ 1 hr or until toothpick comes out clean.

Protein packed arugula, sweet potato salad

I think I could live on sweet potato... 

I think this salad has it all: the bitter greens go well with the nutty quinoa and sweet flavors of the potato and creamy avocado. It is really a meal it itself, colorful, well balanced and full of protein from the beans and quinoa. I wanted a salad for dinner and thought I could pull it off, let me know what you think!

Salad

- bag arugula

- large sweet potato 

- 1 cup red quinoa

- ~1 cup white beans

- 1 ripe avocado

Dressing

- lemon

- olive oil

- salt

- cracked pepper

- red wine vinegar

Cut sweet potato into 1/2 inch chunks and cook in ~2 tablespoon of olive oil until golden brown on the outside and soft on the inside. Allow to cool.

Cook quinoa according to package directions and allow to cool.
Cut avocado into bit sized pieces and rinse beans.
Arrange generous portion of arugula in salad bowl and top with sweet potato, beans, quinoa and avocado.
Mix a approximately 2 tablespoons good olive oil, 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar with 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste. (you may need to adjust the amount of dressing to the size of the salad.)
Toss dressing with salad and serve immediately.