Recipes

Carrot and Lentil Soup with Roasted Herb Potatoes

10 large carrots (rough chopped)

1 small yellow onion (diced)

3 celery stalk (rough chopped)

1 red bell pepper chopped

1 tomato diced

8 cups of chicken stock

1 cup green lentils

5 small russet potatoes diced

2 tbsp olive oil

Italian seasoning

Salt

Pepper

Add 1 tbsp olive oil to a large stock pot and heat on medium high heat.  Add onions, celery, carrots, red bell pepper and tomato to pot and sweat the veggies for 10 min or until you begin forming a slight broth.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper to season your veggies.  Add 6 cups of chicken stock to pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and cover, allow to simmer 45 min to 1 hr.  While the soup is simmering, in a separate pot add lentils and 2 cups of chicken stock over high heat.  Once lentils are boiling reduce heat to low and simmer.  These should take about 45 minutes to simmer*.  Add diced potatoes to a mixing bowl and add 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper and italian seasoning and mix to coat the potatoes.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees and place potatoes into oven and roast them until fork tender and browned.  Once all ingredients are done cooking, blend veggie soup until smooth using a handheld blender, or blend in batches in a counter blender.  Add salt and pepper to the soup to taste.  Serve the soup in a bowl, add lentils in one scoop to soup and top with roasted potatoes, drops of sriracha and olive oil.

Homemade Breakfast Protein Shake

Nutritional information: 2 servings

• 20.7 grams of protein
• 51.3 grams of Carbohydrates
• 158.3% of daily Vitamin C
• 987 mg of Potassium
• 37% of daily Calcium
• 7.9 grams of fat
• 347 calories

1 cup 0% fat greek yogurt
1/2 cup lowfat cottage cheese
1 cup strawberries (tops removed)
1 banana (peeled)
1 cup orange juice
1 tbsp. peanut butter
1 large egg
3-4 ice cubes

Use Honey or Agave for a little added sweetness

This is a simple preparation, simply place all of the ingredients into a blender and puree until smooth.
The level of sweetness will depend very much on the ripeness and sweetness of your fruit, so if you would like a little added sweetness I recommend using honey or agave nectar, just add a little and pulse blend a little to combine.

Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients

1 lb 93% fat free ground turkey

1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs

½ medium yellow onion

½ green bell pepper

3 cloves garlic

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

Italian seasoning

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

To begin your meatballs, place your yellow onion, green bell pepper and garlic cloves into a food processor and chop until nearly pureed.  Place ground turkey into a large bowl and add your chopped veggie mixture, breadcrumbs, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of black pepper (more or less salt and pepper may be used based on personal taste) parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning.  Mix until well combined. 

At this point I usually take a small piece of the mixture and nuke it for 20 seconds to test whether or not I’ve used enough salt, meatballs can be tricky.

Place a skillet over medium heat and add olive oil.  Shape meat mixture into individual balls about 1-1 ½ inches in diameter.  Place meatballs into skillet to sear them making sure to turn them frequently and getting a good browning on all sides.  Place a lid on the skillet and place in the oven at 275 degrees for about 45 minutes.  (If you have a sauce prepared you may also cook them in the sauce during this point and fuse the flavors of your meatballs into your sauce)

Makes about 14 meatballs

Vodka Cream Tomato Sauce

Ingredient

2 oz of vodka

1 tbsp olive oil

1/3 pint of heavy whipping cream

½ medium yellow onion

½ green bell pepper

3 garlic cloves

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

2 cans tomato sauce

1 can tomato paste

Italian seasoning

Salt

Place a pot over medium heat and add olive oil.  Place onion, green bell pepper and garlic cloves into food processor and chop until nearly pureed.  Add veggie mixture to hot pot and allow them to cook until the onions have become translucent.  Add vodka and continue to cook over medium heat about 5-6 minutes or until alcohol mostly burns off.  Add both cans of tomato sauce and can of tomato paste and mix until well combined.  Quickly add heavy whipping cream and parmesan cheese (it is important to do this before the sauce becomes too hot after adding your tomato so you don’t end up with poorly melted cheese).  Add Italian seasoning and salt to taste.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes. 

(This is a great sauce to use if you plan to cook your meatballs after searing in the oven, simply place all the meatballs into the sauce and place the pot in the oven…good times!!)

Turkey Dirty Rice stuffed Acorn Squash

2 acorn squash (halved and cleaned)

1 lb of ground turkey thigh

2 tbsp of vegetarian “Beef” better than bouillon

1 small yellow onion (diced)

1 red bell pepper (diced)

3 stalks of celery (chopped)

2 tbsp Sunflower oil

Creole Seasoning

Ground white pepper

1 ½ cups wild rice

Water

Take 1 tbsp of olive oil and use to brush the flesh of each half of acorn squash.  Sprinkle creole seasoning to taste over acorn squash.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees Add 1 tbsp olive oil to large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion, red bell pepper and celery to skillet and cook until onions are translucent.  Add ground turkey and better than bouillon and cook, stirring, frequently until turkey is browned.  Season with about 1 tsp of creole seasoning and 1 tsp of white pepper.  Add wild rice to mixture along with about 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes or until rice is tender. 

Immediately after adding rice to your skillet place acorn squash halves face up in oven and roast them until your rice mixture is done.

Remove acorn squash from oven and fill each squash liberally with dirty rice until overflowing.  Additionally pour any remaining liquid from your skillet into the squash.  Cover each squash half and dirty rice with aluminum foil and place back in the oven at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes.  

Remove and serve. 

Baked (not fried) Falafel with Curry Rice and Cilantro Dressing

Falafel

2 cans drained garbanzo beans

1 yellow onion roughly chopped

½ bunch cilantro chopped

7 garlic cloves

2 tsp cumin

3 tsp coriander

2 tsp chili powder

Salt

pepper

Cilantro Dressing

                1 ½ bunches cilantro

                2 tbsp olive oil

                Juice of 1 lemon

                1 tsp cumin        

                Salt

Hummus

                2 cans drained garbanzo beans

                3 tsp cumin

                2 tsp garlic powder

                Juice from 1 lemon

                2 tbsp olive oil

                Tahini

                Salt

Curry Rice

                2 cups basmati rice dry

                3 tsp curry powder         

                Salt

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees, to make the falafel, combine all ingredients except the garbanzo beans in food processor and pulse until finely chopped add the garbanzo beans and puree until well combined and the falafel is the consistency of a thick paste, salt to taste.  Form the falafel into patties and and grease a baking sheet with olive oil.  Place patties in oven for 15 minutes or until well browned and flip, cook for another 10 minutes until both sides are browned.

To make your hummus add the ingredients listed into the food processor and puree until smooth, salt to taste.  If it is too thick water may be added to thin or additional lemon juice.

Use the same process for the cilantro dressing and simply add the ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth add salt to taste or additional olive oil if the dressing is too thick.

Cook the rice according to the cooking instruction of your rice and simply add the curry powder and salt to the water prior to boiling.

Pictured we have these items served with pita wedges and a lightly dressed salad with sliced tomatoes.  

Spicy Kale and Lentil Soup

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 medium yellow onion diced
1 red bell pepper diced
3 stalks celery chopped
3 carrots diced
1 tbsp. chopped garlic...
1 bunch Kale-stems removed and chopped
1 1/2 cups green lentils
8 cups water
Dash Franks Red hot
2 tsp Creole Seasoning
Salt
Black pepper

Heat olive oil over medium heat in large stock pot until just before smoking,
Add yellow onion, red bell pepper, celery, carrots, garlic and creole seasoning and sautee until all the veggies are sweatin up a storm, about 7-10 minutes. Add water and Franks Red Hot and bring to a boil. Add lentils and reduce to a simmer, add kale and cover cooking on low for about an hour or until lentils are buttery soft. Season with Salt and Black pepper to taste.

This makes enough for about 8 servings and each serving is a nutritional punch.

290 calories per serving
1040 mg of potassium
21 g of protein
109% Vitamin A
92% Vitamin C
And only 3 g of fat

Tofu and Mushroom Fried Rice

1 Block of Extra firm tofu (pressed, dried and diced)
2 cups of basmati rice (dry)
4 medium carrots (diced)
1 medium yellow onion (diced)
1 cup of diced mushrooms
5 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. chopped ginger
4 tbsp. soy sauce
Miso Marinade
Sriracha

This recipe works best with rice that is day old and cold!

***special note about tofu***DO NOT simply take tofu from its package and attempt to cook with it, the reason many people are put off by tofu is that they have it prepared directly from the package.  It needs to be pressed and dried first, there are many techniques to accomplish this...google it, it's worth it!

Rinse your dry basmati rice and cook according to instructions and place in refrigerator to cool ahead of time.  Add sesame oil to skillet over medium heat.  Add onions and carrots to skillet and saute 5-7 minutes or until tender.  Add tofu pieces to skillet and brown for 8-10 minutes stirring frequently.  Add mushrooms and ginger and cook until mushrooms are tender.  Add rice (after cooking it should be about 4 cups) to skillet and soy sauce.  Stir mixture until well-combined.  Let mixture cook an additional 3-4 minutes to impart the fried flavor to the rice.  Serve with miso marinade and sriracha to taste.

Makes 5 servings

483 calories
14g of protein

Black Bean and Mushroom Soup Recipe

1 medium yellow onion diced
10 cloves of garlic minced
3 cans organic black beans
1 large container white cap mushrooms 
1 large container baby portabello mushrooms
4 sprigs fresh thyme stripped
2 tsp rosemary
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
4 cups of water
4 tsp better than bouillon vegetable base

Add 2 tbsp olive oil to stock pot and heat over medium heat.  Add onion and half of minced garlic and sauté for 5-7 minutes.  Remove stems from mushrooms and discard and quarter the caps.  Add half of your white cap and half of the bellos to your stock pot and cook until tender.   Add thyme, rosemary and a little salt to taste.   Add all three cans of black beans to soup.  Then add water snd vegetable base.   Stir soup and brong to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low and cook 20 minutes stirring frequently.  

In a seperate skillet begin heating remaining 2 tbsp of oil over medium heat.  Add remaining garlic and mushrooms to skillet.   Add salt and rosemary to taste and sauté until garlic and shrooms are tender.  

Once soup has spent enough time cooking begin transfering soup in batches to blender and puree until smooth.  Add soup back to stock pot and continue on medium low heat.  Add balsamic vinegar, salt and black pepper to taste.  

Nutritional information

Makes 6-8 servings
396 calories per serving
18 g of protein
1375 mg of potassium

Serve with warm sourdough bread as a perfect pairing!!!