Feedback Please

Dear Readers,

I go through my ups and downs like anyone else and I've gotta admit right now I'm a little bit down about this blog and I need your help. Tell me, is this blog worth it? Is it helpful? What's your favorite or most useful post? What kinds of posts would you like to see more of? Here's a few ideas that I have and tell me what you would appreciate the most, if any:

Garden tips - what to plant, when, how, etc
Healthy Whole-grain recipes
Vegetarian recipes
Food Storage/Emergency Preparedness
Canning/Preserving
Nutrition tips/ideas

Thanks in advance!

Heather

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Green Smoothie Formula

I posted a little while ago about the delicious Creamsicle Green Smoothie recipe that I found. I've been experimenting with it and I've come up with a good formula for green smoothies based off of this recipe that are wonderful! My kids love these things! Even my picky eater son gobbles them down as fast as he can. We like to put the leftovers in the freezer in cups or popsicle molds and make "ice-cream smoothies" for snacks. Soo good!

Green Smoothie Formula
1 cup water
1 cup Milk or Plain Yogurt
2-3 LARGE spoonfuls of Juice concentrate (Orange, Cranberry, Blueberry Pomegranate, Apple Cranberry, Grape, etc)
1 Large bunch of Spinach or other greens like Chard, Kale, Turnip Greens, etc (not lettuce)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Cups Frozen Fruit (strawberries, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, mango, pineapple, blackberries, etc)
1 Banana (optional but it really makes it creamier!)

Place all ingredients in blender. Blend until nice and smooth!

I made a blueberry pomegranate green smoothie this morning and it's my favorite. Here's the recipe for it:

Blueberry Pomegranate Green Smoothie
1 cup water
1 cup Plain Yogurt
2-3 LARGE spoonfuls of Blueberry Pomegranate juice concentrate
1 Large bunch of Spinach
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Cups Frozen Mix Fruit (Mango, Pineapple, strawberry, peaches)
1 Banana

Place all ingredients in blender. Blend until nice and smooth! It was so creamy and delicious.

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New Favorite Healthy Snacks

I'm a snacker. I love to snack between meals - especially after lunch. It gets to be a problem when you are trying to change your diet to cut down on sugar and chocolate and other junk food, because that's what always sounds good, right? So here's a list of some of my new favorite snacks that I've been trying to incorporate into the healthy new me (sorry that sounds a little cheesy..).

• Nuts - almonds have been my standby - just raw ones. I love em. Soooo good and very good for you. But today I discovered a new fav - roasted cashews (no salt, just roasted). Y-U-M YUM!!! The store I bought my cashews at didn't have roasted without tons of salt so I bought them raw. If you've ever eaten a raw cashew you know that they are very BLAH! So I found out how to roast them and it's very easy. Turn your oven to 350 F. Spread nuts on cookie sheet evenly (not too deep). Bake for 5 mins and then take them out and turn them around. Bake 5 mins more and again turn them. Bake 5 mins more and then they should be done. They should be golden brown and delicious. Enjoy in a stir fry or as a healthy munchy.
• Fresh fruit - always delicious. This time of year I love apples with peanut butter, oranges, bananas, and ripe pears. Note: they have to be ripe - not the way you buy them in the store. Buy them and then put them in a cool dry place for a week or two (depending on the variety) - check on them occasionally and turn them. They are so good when they are ripe, juicy and sweet - as good as a treat!
• Dried Fruit - dehydrated apples, cranberries, raisins, apricots, and pineapple are my favorites.
• Veggies - grape tomatoes, baby carrots, celery with peanut butter, snap peas, etc.
• Cheese - there's nothing like it. Mmmh. I love thin slices or cubes of pepper jack, mozzarella, mild cheddar and colby jack.
• Popcorn - not the store-bought microwaved kind. That's much too salty and buttery. Plus it's so expensive and not worth it. I think it's just as easy to make this kind in the microwave. And tastes SO much better (and much better for you!)
• Crackers - Homemade crackers (again so much better for you!) I need to post some good recipes for these cause they are soooo good! And not too hard to make, if you know how to do them. I usually make them with 100% whole grains and not much salt, but they are so good.
• Granola or Granola Bars - I need to find a good low or no sugar granola recipe so if you have one, please share. But I love granola. Update: My favorite Granola Recipe - low sugar and yummy!
• Yogurt or Smoothies - see recipe in the previous post; sweetened with fresh or frozen fruit. Yum!

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Homemade Yogurt

Did you know that making yogurt is REALLY easy? It also saves quite a bit of money. The other nice thing about it is that you can control the amount of sugar that you add to it (or add none at all). As one of our new year's goals, we are trying to cut out sugar as much as possible - we do give ourselves a treat once a week, but that's it. When we get a hankering for sugar, we eat a piece of fruit or make a delicious fruit smoothie with yogurt. Here's how you culture yogurt:

HOMEMADE YOGURT

Printable Recipe

*Makes about 3 Cups Yogurt

INGREDIENTS:

3 Cups Milk (1% is what I usually use, but you can use whatever you’d like)

2 Tbsp. Plain Yogurt starter (see Note Below)

*Note: Your yogurt starter can be from your previous batch of yogurt or you can buy plain yogurt in the store to use. Make sure the yogurt has active cultures. If it’s yogurt from a previous batch, make sure you it’s been less than a week since you’ve made the previous batch so that the cultures are still alive and active.

DIRECTIONS:

In heavy saucepan bring 3 cups of milk to a boil. Boil gently for about 5 mins. This kills all the bad bacteria in the milk so you can culture only the good yogurt bacteria. Don't worry if the bottom of the pans scalds a little. Just make sure that you don't scrape the bottom when you take it out of the pan or you'll have some nasty black flakey things in your yogurt and nobody likes to eat things with nasty black flakey things in it. Cool pan of milk about 5 mins or until milk is still warm, but you can touch the bottom of the pan without burning your hands.

Heat up your oven to warm just until you can feel a little heat. YOU DO NOT WANT IT VERY HOT or it will kill your yogurt bacteria and you will end up with just milk - or sour milk...

When pan of milk is cool put it in a glass quart jar and put in 2 Tbsp. of plain yogurt. Mix it really good, put the lid on and then put it in your warm oven. I usually keep my oven light on while I'm culturing the yogurt just to give it a little more warmth.

Make sure you put a sign on your oven so you don't forget and turn your oven on while your yogurt is inside…yep. Been there, done that. Culture for about 6-10 hours. The exact time will take some experimenting because it depends on how sour you like it, what temperature your oven is, and more. For me I’ve found that 6 hours is just about right. This homemade yogurt will be runnier than yogurt you buy out of the store. If you want it thicker you can pour it through cheesecloth and let it drip out some of the whey.

Recipe Source: healthyfamilycookin.blogspot.com

Note: If you drip out all the whey you are left with the curds (yes, as in little miss muffet sat on a tuffet). You can use the curds in place of cream cheese - spread on a bagel, make cheesecake, etc.

Here's a really yummy, naturally sweetened smoothie you can make with this yogurt:

Fruit Smoothie
2 C. plain yogurt
1 ripe banana
1/2-3/4 C. frozen fruit

Blend up and enjoy!

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Delicious, Delicious, Delicious Rice Salad

I read about Josey's Rice salad a while ago, but today I made it for lunch. Oh my - I'll definitely be making it again - Ssoooooo Yummmy!!! It's very filling and has simple ingredients. My kind of recipe. We're trying to eat healthier - more veggies, less sweets, more whole-grains. This kind of salad is perfect for that kind of diet because it add interesting flavor and texture to a basic grain and veggies.


Josey’s Rice Salade

Printable Recipe

*Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups cooked and chilled brown rice (about 1 cup uncooked brown rice, cooked and chilled)
1 cup corn kernels (canned or frozen, unthawed)
1/4 cup black olives, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced thinly
2 green onions, sliced thinly or 1/4 cup red onion, diced
3 boiled eggs, peeled and sliced
5 small tomatoes, chopped or 1-1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
5 leaves of romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

French Dressing
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Combine French dressing ingredients in a large salad bowl. Stir in chilled rice, corn, celery, onions and egg slices. Refrigerate until serving (best chilled for at least an hour). Serve salad on a bed of romaine lettuce and sprinkle tomatoes on top.

Recipe Source: Adapted from homeschooling.net

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Creamsicle Green Smoothie

So I've made a few changes for the new year. First, our family is doing a 12 week health and fitness challenge where each week we add a new challenge. Last week was the first week and the challenge was no sugar. Along with that we exercise 30 mins/day, read scriptures, no eating after 7:30, No "soda" (or other personal challenge - for me it's chocolate). We add up the points every week and keep track of our progress. Last week was hard because I was coming off of a holiday where I ate a LOT of sweets! But surprisingly I made it the whole week without sugar. We are given 1 free day a week so you can eat a dessert once a week and not lose any points. I've really felt a lot better since I've been doing this. More energy. More patience even. It's been a really good thing.

This week I've been successful at not eating treats and the new goal for the week is to keep a food journal - keeping track of all the foods you eat every day.

So I've been trying to find new healthy recipes. I've had this one in my collection for a while, but today is the first time I tried it and wow! It's really good! It satisfies the sweet tooth without sugar and even has some healthy vitamins in it. Enjoy!!

Creamsicle Green Smoothie
Adapted from Simple, Healthy, Tasty

1 cup water

1 cup milk

3 LARGE spoonfuls of Orange juice concentrate

1 Large handful of Spinach

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 Cups Frozen Peaches

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.

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Favorite Pressure Cooker Recipes

My sister asked me what some of my favorite pressure cooker recipes are. She just got one of these Cuisinart electric pressure cookers. You can buy them at Costco for like $70! They are wonderful!
Here's a few of my favorite recipes to make it my pressure cooker:

Chef Brad Pressure cooker Meals in Minutes - this is an excellent formula for pasta meals cooked in the pressure cooker that literally take minutes of preparation and come out delicious every time! There's so much you can do with this recipe. Try changing the meat to be ground turkey, italian sausage, ground beef, chicken, etc or try vegetarian. Try changing the spices. Try changing the grain - red or white quinoa, cooked kamut or teff. Add different vegetables or sauces. This is a wonderful recipe that really shows off the electric pressure cooker. Note: these do not work in other pressure cookers as the food on the bottom will burn. In the cuisnart it cooks up perfect.

"Cafe Rio" Black Beans - This recipe is soooo good! I make these and have a wonderful vegetarian dinner served as a taco salad or bean burritoes. Yum.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes - I used the recipe in Chef Brad's pressure cooker cookbook. And it is so yummy!

Sweet Brown Rice Breakfast - This is really yummy! I tried this for the first time and Chef Brad's house and it is really good. Love it!

Here's a few of my favorites. Besides these I love to use it to cook chicken, grains and beans. Beans are done so fast without soaking and they turn out excellent!

For more pressure cooker recipes see my pressure cooker recipe page. Or follow my pressure cooker board on pinterest.

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My New Favorite Biscuit Recipe

It's actually not mine, but I love these Buttermilk Biscuits. I've made them dozens of times since I found the recipe. No they're not all that healthy. I've done some experimenting with flour and such to see if I could get them healthier, but in my opinion they are still best with white flour. Biscuits are one of those things that whole-grain flour changes the taste quite a bit. Thank You to the Homesick Texan where this recipe came from!

Better double this recipe - these things go fast! My sister makes them the best - big and fluffy...yum yum!!

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