Zoodles & Homemade Pesto

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I had my sister in law over this weekend visiting from NYC. She mentioned homemade pesto and how you can pretty much make it from anything green! She also said I should give a shout out to Bitter Sweet Sara. I put the untraditional pesto to the test and it was good! Above are my zoodles and homemade pesto. 

Making the zoodles are easy! The hard part for me was getting the right proportions of greens to nuts to cheese to oil. I did a little investigation and took a poll online, and the proportions below seem to work great! 

• 2 cups greens, 1/3 cups nuts, 1/2 cup grated hard cheese, and 1/2 cup oil
• this blog also talks about pesto and ratios

I used basil, arugula, baby kale, cilantro and parsley. Stems and all! I also used EVOO, walnuts and parmesan cheese. I might have gone a little green crazy....

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What do you put in your pesto? What do you put your pesto on?

Whole Wheat Couscous with Cherries & Arugula.

Incase you didn't see the recipe that I posted on Instagram and Facebook I thought I would share with you an easy and yummy couscous salad I made recently.  I made a few changes like taking out the cheese and adding more EVOO at the end. 

I love arugula. It is my staple green along with spinach and kale. Arugula salads are the best. Mix it with some EVOO, lemon juice, fresh parm cheese and pine nuts and you are good to go. I made this for lunch today:

• arugula
• hard boiled egg
• apples
• cucumbers
• avocado
• evoo - balsamic - lemon juice - turmeric - pepper

Enjoy!

Raw Red Salad with EVOO and Apple Cider Vinegar Dressing

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I recently got a spiralzier and love it! Do you have one? Amamzing right?! This is the one I have.

I think spiralized fruits and veggies are so much more fun to eat and can make any dish look fancy. I am totally on a spiralizing kick right now (I actually have spiralized sweet potatoes in the oven right now with some salt and EVOO). 

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Zucchini pasta! Just adeded EVOO, garlic, and tomatoe sauce.  

This past weekend we celebrated the Camera Mans birthday! We had both of our families over for a late lunch/early dinner. Both my mom and mother in law came over a little early to help me cook, I could not have done it without them.

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Of course this is a carvel ice cream cake.  

We made burgers, orzo salad, shrimp in a spicy garlic sauce, a plate of fresh veggies and my raw red salad.  If you are ever in the mood for something deep red, full of nutrients and just beautiful, then this is your salad. 

Its crunchy, light, and so fresh. 

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Ingredients: 

• 1/2 purple cabbage 
• 1 large apple
• 1 raw red beet
• 1 raw golden beet
• 2 medium sized carrots  
• evoo
• apple cider vinegar  

Dressing: (this makes 1 cup, you can reduce it if you want. Add as much or as little to the salad. I like a lot of dressing with this salad)

• 3⁄4 cup Olive Oil
• 1⁄4 cup Apple cider vinegar
• add salt to taste

Directions: 

For the salad all of the vegetables/fruit should either be put through a food processor or a Spiralizer, OR very thinly cut by hand. The point of the salad is for it to be cut up thin making it fun easy to eat. 

The dressing is very simple and gives the salad the bite it needs. You could add a dab of honey to the dressing but I think the beets, carrots and apples give the salad the sweetness it needs. 

enjoy! 

XO

Sweet Potato, Baby Kale and Lentil Soup. Seriously AMAZING!

This soup is SO special. Yes I love vegetables but this soup is so special not because of the wonderful veggies but rather because of the seasoning. It is VERY flavorful and intense, in a good way. This could go down in history as one of my favorite (non pureed) soups. My friend gave me this recipe from Pinterest and I switched it around a tad to make it my own.

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Ingredients:

• 3 medium sized sweet potatoes peeled and cubed 
• 2 cups baby kale (you can use more if you would like!)
• 1 cup brown lentils
• 2 tomatoes (vine ripe if possible) chopped
• 1 medium size onion diced
• 1 1/2 TBS Turmeric
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander 
• 1/3 tsp cayenne pepper or more if you  like heat!
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbs fresh ground ginger
• 1 tsp salt (more to taste if you would like)
• Pepper to taste (adding pepper increases the bio availability of turmeric- helping your body absorb more of the nutrients!) 
• 6 cups vegetable broth 
• 1 cup water

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Directions: 

• Heat the largest pot you have for 40 seconds over medium heat, then add about 2 tbs of EVOO or any other oil you prefer. Warm up oil for another 20 seconds then add in chopped onions and stir for 3 minutes.
• Add in all the spices including the ginger. Stir for another 2 minutes.
• Add in tomatoes and lentils. Stir for a minute then finally add in your sweet potato, 6 cups broth, and 1 cup water.
• Bring pot to a boil, cover and reduce to low, letting cook for about 30 minute. 
• After about 30 minutes add in your baby kale and let it cook for another 10 minutes.

Comment below and let me know how it goes! Did you make any changes to the recipe?

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** If I am going to be eating/ serving all the soup right away I add in all the Kale while cooking (like the recipe says). BUT if I know that I will be reheating it and eating it for the next couple of days then I only add in some kale, and right before I heat up the soup to eat the next day I will add in more fresh baby kale! ALSO, if you do not have kale feel free to use baby spinach, or regular Kale just cut up small.

Turmeric Milk Recipe

As weird as turmeric milk sounds, it is actually quite delicious! I was reading some blogs and came across turmeric milk and knew I had to try it. I just finished my first half cup and I loved it! I do not think I could drink a whole cup, not just yet. This is a soothing drink that I think would be best to drink at night. 

Why turmeric? Read up on the many benefits of turmeric: here and here.  And check out my awesome turmeric dinner recipe here!

Turmeric milk is made of any kind of milk- usually coconut or almond milk- and then a small amount of turmeric and pepper. The pepper is added because pepper and turmeric go well together and help absorption. Some people like to add in ginger, I still  have not tried that.

I made my own homemade coconut milk:

• 1/4-1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1/2-1 cup HOT water, not boiling.
• Put in blender on high and blend for 2 minutes.

I doubled my cheese cloths and drained the milk right into a pot. Squeeze all the liquid out. There will be some coconut flesh in the cloth. I just tossed mine. I started with a 1/4 cup of coconut flakes and 1/2 water. I may up it next time if I feel adventurous.

NOTE* If you do not want to/do not have time to make your own homemade milk you can of course buy almond or coconut milk in a carton. I have used almond milk in a carton for my turmeric tea, and it was delicious.

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After the "milk" is made and in a pot, put fire on medium heat and add in 1/2 tsp of turmeric, some black pepper, and fresh ginger. If you do not have fresh ginger powdered is fine. If you need some sweetness add a medjool date to the mix and let it melt a little. Mix around and take the pot off the fire just before it starts to boil. Do not let it boil. Strain (optional), pour in a cup and enjoy!

You can be creative with what you add to your tea. I have added cinnamon and pumpkin spice to my tea. This was amazing, like a little treat! (image above) Just remember the base of the tea is the milk, turmeric and pepper. From there you can add whatever spices and sweeteners you wish!

This is a super helpful blog post about all the different kinds of "milks" and their nutritional value. 

I will be drinking this maybe once a week before bed. It is soothing, tasty, AND good for you! Have you ever tried turmeric milk? How do you make it?