Sweet and Spicy Chili Sauce

This sauce is great for Asian dishes.


1 Onion, minced
1 cup crushed tomatoes or tomato puree (I used home jarred tomatoes and crushed them)
2-4 tablespoons Crushed Red Chili Pepper, to taste
Sesame Oil
Splash of Rice Vinegar
Sugar or Sucunat to taste (1-3 tablespoons)
Fish Sauce to taste


Saute the onion in the sesame oil in a small saucepan until the onion has gotten crispy but not blackened.  Add the tomato sauce and the chili pepper and bring to a boil.  Add the rice vinegar, sweetener, and fish sauce.  Reduce heat and simmer the sauce for 5-10 minutes until it has thickened.  Remove from heat and let the sauce cool, then blend using a blender or an immersion blender.  Sauce should be served cold or at room temperature.

Avocado Pesto with Dandelion Greens & Pasta

What do you do when your home city is struck by a senseless act of violence?
Try a new recipe and get back to blogging, of course.

At some point I'll use a real camera, but for now
food pics from the phone will have to do!

This one's inspired by Chef Chloe's recipe, but I made some tweaks.  Soooooo Good!  This is some of the creamiest, richest pesto I've ever tried.




2 Avocados
1 bunch fresh Basil
1/2 cup pecans (mine were roasted an salted, but raw ones would have worked fine)
2 fresh lemons
1/2c (plus enough for to saute the greens) olive oil
1 bunch dandelion greens
1 handful grated salty cheese, like parmesan or asiago (optional if you are going vegan)
1/2-3/4 lb of pasta (I used gluten free pasta, but any kind would work)


Boil the pasta in sea-salted water.

Meanwhile, cut open the avocados and mash them up.  Cut open one of the lemons and squeeze all the juice into the avocados.  Blend in the olive oil, basil, pecans, salt and pepper with a food processor or immersion blender.

Saute the dandelion greens in olive oil.  Dandelion gets really bitter, even when cooked, unless you use something to take away the acidity.   The other juiced lemon, salt, pepper, and handful of cheese will help cut the bitterness.

Drain the pasta, add the greens, and toss with the rich and delicious pesto.  Fab!

Flourless Brownies

They're really good.

Inspired by my recent post about cutting down on junk food by making your own, these brownies are YUMMY.  They do not have the consistency of regular brownies, but are a low sugar, healthy alternative to packaged cookies and are also a great way to use your extra summer zucchini!  Inspired from a recipe from Fast Paleo.






1 cup almond butter or peanut butter
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini, packed tight
1/3 cup raw honey
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1-3 tsp 5 spice powder
6 oz of high quality dark chocolate, 70% or higher, cut into chunks
oil for greasing a pan (I used coconut oil)


Preheat Oven to 350.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

Grease a pan and pour mixture in.

Bake 25-35 minutes or until fork or toothpick comes out clean.

Asparagus with Lemon Butter Sauce

Pastured Butter and Fresh Lemon
bring out the best of the Asparagus

Asparagus is in season!

This recipe is excellent.  Even my non-asparagus loving husband asked for seconds.

To get all of the benefits of the healthy fats, choose grass-fed butter and grass-fed cheese.








1 bunch fresh, organic Asparagus
1 lemon
2-3 tablespoons pastured butter (I use Kerrygold or Kate's)
sea salt
black pepper
1/4 cup grated or finely shredded Parmesan Cheese




1)Melt the butter over low to medium heat.  As the butter melts, cut the lemon into small chunks.  Remove the seeds, squeeze the juice from the lemon wedges into the pan and then put the whole wedge in.  Salt and Pepper to taste.  Let the lemon wedges sizzle and soften for 2-5 minutes.


2)Trim the bottoms off the asparagus and put the asparagus into the sizzling lemon butter sauce.  Toss the asparagus to coat in the sauce and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until asparagus are tender, 5-7 minutes.


3)Plate asparagus and sprinkle with cheese.


Enjoy!

Sunny-Side-Up and Greens over Flatbread

Inspired by my most recent post about eggs, here's an easy recipe inspired by one I found in whole living magazine. (Thanks, Martha Stewart!)  Collards can be bitter, but the lemon juice cuts through the bitterness and instead makes this recipe zesty and delish.

2 medium sized whole wheat pita or flat bread
4 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 cups thinly sliced greens.  I used collards, but kale or chard would also work.
1/2 an onion, sliced
a handful of chives
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt, pepper, and other seasonings to taste.  I used sage, thyme, basil, and red pepper.
4 farm-fresh, pastured eggs


Heat the oven to 425.  Line a baking pan with parchment paper.  Brush both sides of pita with olive oil.  Mix greens, onion, and chives in a bowl.  Add the remaining olive oil, the lemon juice, and the seasoning to the bowl of greens.  Toss them all in the bowl until evenly coated.  Mound the mixture onto the pita and bake for 5 minutes.  Then, pull the pan out of the oven, crack the eggs over the greens, and bake until the eggs are set, about 6-7 minutes.

Healthy Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Store bought and fast-food created Chicken Nuggets are some of the worst perpetrators of horrible food additives. I confess that I nearly gagged when I read about the ingredients in a mickey-d's nugget in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Besides most chicken nuggets being made with ingredients that are distinctly not food, they are fried in industrial vegetable oil.  The oil itself is bad enough, but the high temperatures and re-frying of a fry machine actually change the oil's chemical makeup and give it carcinogenic properties.

These nuggets are made with sesame oil and chicken thighs. To keep all of the health benefits of the oil, make sure that you never heat the oil above it's smoking point.  In this case, the oil needs to stay heating at medium heat.  Chicken thighs have natural fat in them, which make these nuggets juicy and rich.  For more on healthy fats, check out this blog post.

I had mind with a salad and
 local honey as dipping sauce.

Healthy Homemade Chicken Nuggets
1 pound chicken thighs: farm raised, pastured chicken is best (organically raised would be the next best choice)
2 pastured eggs
1/4 cup white flour (to make GF, use GF flour instead)
1/2 cup spelt flour (to make GF, use GF flour instead)
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
seasoning to taste (I used sea salt, black pepper, and oregano)
Unrefined Sesame Oil for cooking


Lay the chicken thighs flat and pound them with a meat tenderizer.  Cut the chicken thighs into bite-size pieces.  There is no need to remove the fat, unless you see a piece that is particularly large.

Mix the flours, flaxseed, and seasoning in a large bowl.  Crack the eggs into a separate bowl, and stir them with a fork.  Pour the sesame oil into your frying pan and heat the pan on medium heat.

Once the pan is hot, dip the pieces of chicken into the egg, and then coat in the flour mixture.  Place in the hot pan and cook until the sides of the chicken are completely white and the top is starting to cook.  Flip nuggets once and finish cooking the last side.  Nuggets can be stored in a warm oven.

Chocolate Oat Apricot Nut Bars

Adapted from a recipe from Whole Living Magazine.  These bars are REALLY YUMMY.

Fruit, nuts, chocolate, coconut, oats and salt.
What could be better?

2 c dried apricots
1/2 c raw pecans halves
1/4 c unsweetened coconut + more for sprinkling
1/4 c quick oats (If you need this recipe to be gluten free, choose GF oats)
sea salt
1 1/2 oz melted dark chocolate (80% or more cocoa content)


Preheat the oven to 350 and break the pecan halves into pieces.  Pour the oats and the coconut onto a cookie sheet and then pour the pecan halves on top.  Bake for 5-6 minutes until toasted and aromatic.  Be careful not to burn.  When done, take out of the oven and cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, put the apricots in a food processor with a dash of the salt.  Pulse until sticky and ground. Cool the toasted stuff and then mix into the apricots until well blended.

Line a pan with parchment paper and then press the mixture into the pan until flat.  (In my household, thinner bars are more popular, so I use a large pan.)

Drizzle the chocolate over the bars and then sprinkle with coconut.  Refrigerate for 15 minutes or until firm.  Remove and slice into bars.  I store these in an airtight container in the fridge.