Best Sauteed Zucchini!

Now this may not fall under the category of healthy since there is butter and cream, but it sure is tasty and easy to make.  I love all vegetable, for the most part, however zucchini by itself has never made it to the top of my list. (I guess that is why everyone makes zucchini bread with it!!) I can't take any credit for this recipe but it makes the grade to pass along. 

Zucchini Cream & Cilantro Recipe (Bon Appétit  | May 2002)

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 3/4 pounds zucchini, trimmed, cut into 1/3-inch-thick rounds
4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup whipping cream

Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté 10 seconds. Add zucchini and 2 tablespoons cilantro; sauté until zucchini is crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Add cream and simmer until juices thicken slightly, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons cilantro.

Yum to butter and cream, 
Bretta

Grandpa's famous sandwich

We are still out of our house while the new floors are curing. Meals could be questionable except for the kindness and generosity of grandma and grandpa!

So this simple sandwich is famous because it is what convinced my parents, all those years ago, that they do in fact like avocados.
New to California at the time the crazy health fruit seemed pretty extreme.

Rye toast buttered, spread with ripe avocado. Simple and perfect.

Tip: if your avocado isn't ripe stick it in a brown paper bag with a banana overnight.

Creamy Cucumber Salad

Ahh the lovely cucumber...good for dipping and on greens salads! If you want to eat it plain then this is one of our household favorites! 

I rarely make the time to do this but one trick I heard was to cut the cuc's beforehand, add salt and let sit so most of the water drains out. This makes for a thicker and longer lasting creamy salad. 

Creamy Cucumber Salad (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, New Cook Book)

2 medium cucumbers (peeled or not both are wonderful)
¼ sweet onion finely chopped (I like to sauté a little first)
½ cup greek yogurt
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
6 drops liquid stevia (lemon flavor is great!)
Salt and pepper to taste




Mix onions, yogurt, vinegar and stevia well.  Add sliced cucumbers and mix well. Salt and pepper to taste. 

Banana walnut salad

 I don't miss the speed of fast food, I miss the convenience.

We are remodeling our two bedroom house to give each of our three children their own room, or berth as we're referring to them so as to invoke a cozy, nautical image rather than focus on the all too obvious miniscule size each will be.

We also just adopted a new puppy.
I'll share some puppy recipes soon!!

Needless to say it's a bit hectic around our place.

And still my family expects to eat.
EVERY day.
Have I mentioned they've been on spring break for three weeks with all this going on?
Right, so, hectic. 

The ingredients not stowed in the basement during construction led to this meal:

Banana Walnut Salad

Lettuce
Sprouts
Bananas
Walnuts, Toasted
Grape seed oil and Cabernet vinegar

Served with crockpot chicken and margarita pizza.

Not bad considering the current stage of remodeling ~ new puppy chaos we are in right now!!

For the pizza I drizzled olive oil on a Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza crust, sliced mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil and baked at 550 until the cheese started to brown.

Wonderful Crustless Quiche: Frittata

Crustless Quiche: OR Frittata!!

Let's face it, these days carbs are out and protein is in! Frittata is just like quiche but without the crust. This is nice for many reasons including you don't have to make a crust or buy a hydrogenated oil filled one from the store. Most likely you have all these ingredients right in your refrigerator. 

Frittata Recipe:
6 eggs
3/4 cup liquid, such as milk, almond milk, broth
3/4 veggie filling (such as onions, peppers, mushrooms or what ever you have on hand)
1 tablespoon parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper 
2  teaspoons butter or olive oil or grape seed oil



Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease 10 1/2 inch round pan or 9 x 9 inch baking dish and set aside. 

In a skillet over a medium heat saute vegetables until tender and onions are translucent. 

Beat eggs, milk, cooked veggies, butter, salt, and pepper until well blended. Pour mixture into baking dish and sprinkle cheese. 

Bake 20 minutes or until set. There should be no visible liquid egg when it is done. 

Nutty Breaded Salmon

Once a week or so, I face the same moral dilemma.  My family goes through about one loaf of bread a week. We buy Dave's Killer Bread, usually the Good Seed variety. And good it is! The Cadillac of sandwich breads.

But every week, as the loaf starts to dwindle, I wrestle with my conscience about the same thing:  The heels. I can't blame my family for shunning them, as I am a heel-shunner myself.  I have tried to blame my husband for the waste but there's no getting around the hypocrisy there (even when I quickly point out that I'm rubber and he's glue).

Usually I make French toast with the heels, which is a clever way to disguise them.  Ok, actually, usually I think about making French toast, plan on making French toast, keep forgetting to make French toast, and then when I finally reach in the bag for the heels, they are moldy. 

But luckily I have found a second use for bread loaf heels, and it's even more clever than the first, if I do say so myself!

Nutty Breaded Salmon

3-4 filets of salmon, about 4-6 oz. each (I try to always keep a bag of frozen wild Alaskan salmon filets from Costco in the freezer.  They are great quality and they are individually vacuum-sealed, making salmon night so very, very accessible.)

2-3 pieces whole grain or sprouted grain bread (slightly stale loaf heels work beautifully)

1/4 cup pecans

1-2 tsp. olive oil (or a more adventurous oil? Olive is my standby)

Place filets in baking dish.  Salt and pepper them at your discretion.  Tear bread into pieces and combine nuts and bread pieces in food processor. Grind to coarse consistency.  Place mixture in a small bowl and slowly add oil while whisking with fork, adding only enough oil to barely moisten and coat mixture.  Salmon has it's own oils, not to be competed with by added ones. Only moisten the mixture so the bread crumbs don't burn!

Spoon mixture on top of fish and lightly pack down and level off with a fork.  I like to put a generous layer on top, as much as 1/2 inch thick. If it is high quality bread, it will enhance the meal and add on it's own that starchy component in a meal that is so mandatory in my family's dinners.

Bake salmon at 450 degrees until cooked to your preference, anywhere from 15-30 minutes, depending on your oven and how you like your salmon.

My New Health Obsession!

What is it you ask? Chia!! Can you say Ch-Ch-Chia? You know what I'm talking about (admit it the commercial got stuck in your head or better yet you owned one!).  No, no not the Chia Pet of old but the new health craze that seems to be all over the place. 

Now I will worn you that this might fall under the category of TMI (too much information) but my personal experience had been awesome! What do I mean by that? Since I have been eating chia seeds on a daily basis my digestion has been fantastic. Yep the best #2s ever...there is the TMI for you =)

My New Evening Ritual:

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (Greek Gods is the best!!)
1 teaspoon of raw chia seeds
3-4 drops of liquid orange stevia (my favorite kind of liquid stevia http://www.sweetleaf.com)

A icy glass of Vemma Bod-e Rest (www.energizeandenrich.com)

I wake up feeling fantastic!! Now, I do have a restless 3 year old and a 7 month old that likes to wake me up in the night, so don't confuse "feeling fantastic" with well rested....ha, ha!!

To Your Gut, 
Bretta

Apple Walnut Smoothie Pancakes

Smoothie Pancakes are far and away our go to breakfast. 

They're pancakes, (vessels on which to pour, spread, and smother sweet toppings) kids are happy. 

Children. 

My 5 year old thinks it is the funniest thing in the world to act like a baby goat when she is referred to as a kid. 

I, on the other hand, am free to stuff any vegetable, nut, mineral, or leftover I don't want to waste into the concoction. 

Everyone is a winner. 

Just like society today, everyone gets a blue ribbon just for showing up. 

But I digress. 

Often.

Here is a link for a basic recipe for smoothie pancakes, below is the version I used today. 

2 cups oats

1 handful kale

2 eggs

1 cup chopped frozen apples

2 cups raw milk

1/2 cup walnuts

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

dash of salt 

honey to top

Throw it all in a high powered blender and blend to smooth.

Cook on a hot griddle or pan with butter or coconut oil. 

Top with honey.

Simplest Cucumber Salad =)

This is a quick, easy way to get in some green stuff along with your next meal or snack! Simplest Cucumber Salad is a little spin off of caprese salad. Simple, yummy and quick....as I wish all meals could transpire. I sat down to eat this the other day after I let it sit on the counter for a few hours and boy was it delicious!! Eating room temperature vegetables can be so satisfying. We forget in our modern world that our veggies used to come right out of the garden. I can honestly say that a warm tomato and cucumber in the peak of the summer, straight from ground is unbelievable.

Simplest Cucumber Salad Recipe

4 mini cucumbers sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil 
Salt and pepper to taste (truffle salt is my fav with this....www.artisansalt.com)

Does this really require explanation? Thinly slice cucumbers, drizzle with olive oil then salt and pepper to taste. Simple, easy and tasty!!

Here are some fun facts about cucumbers:

Worlds Healthiest Foods Website: Cucumbers

I love how they crunch, 

Bretta

bretta.vemma.com