Savory Oats

Ingredients:

• Steel cut oats

• Chicken or vegetable broth (we like to use bone broth!)

• Shallots or onion

• garlic

• Salt

• Pepper

• Turmeric

• Egg for a little extra something

And as many veggies as you’d like. A great time to clean out the fridge:

• carrots

• Zucchini

• Frozen peas/broccoli

• Mushrooms

Our favorite combo is shallot, garlic,  broccoli and peas. We use frozen broccoli and peas. They thaw out and cook right in the oatmeal!

Instructions:

Make steel-cut oats according to the package. I add a lot of broth! If you don’t have chicken or veggie broth water is fine.

• the steel-cut oats absorb a lot of water. So keep adding broth and mixing.

• add black pepper, salt and turmeric to the oats while they are cooking. Hence why they look yellow.

On the side in a frying pan:

• sauté shallots or onions until soft

• add crushed garlic

• add in all or any: carrots, zucchini, frozen peas, frozen broccoli, mushrooms etc.

• *TIP: Start cooking the harder veggies like carrots and end with the frozen stuff. Mix.

If I have roasted sweet potatoes in the fridge I’ll add that in at the very end. SOMETIMES if I get crazy I’ll add in 2 eggs and mix into the oats until it gets cooked. You can’t taste it but adds a little more protein and nutritional oomph.

After the oats are cooked:

• add in the veggies. Mix it all up. Ta-da you have a rockin’ dish.

This is a great way to use the veggies in your fridge. The steel-cut oats take a while to cook so be patient. I make a lot and the leftovers are always delicious. Can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Mushroom, Garlic and Roasted Red Pepper Cous Cous

I don’t consider myself a recipe creator. I do, however, love food and appreciate how it can fuel our bodies. The magic that happens when you mix different flavors and textures is the added bonus.

I get inspiration from things I’ve eaten, or recipes I’ve read.

Don’t be intimidated when you read below. There is a lot of different things happening (in the stove and on top) but I promise it’s easy and all comes together beautifully.

Ingredients:

1 box of plain cous cous

1 roasted red pepper cut in half

1 whole garlic head

1 container of Baby Bell Mushrooms 

1 onion chopped 

1 whole cauliflower cut into bite sized pieces  

Juice from 1 lemon 

2 tbs tahini 

1 tbs almond butter

Broth 

EVOO

Salt

Pepper

Cumin

Parsley 

IN THE OVEN:

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:

•Cut a red pepper in half - take out the insides put some olive oil on it and roast for about 20 minutes in the oven at 350.
•At the same time roast a whole garlic clove: Cut off the top of the garlic as to expose the cloves, add some olive oil on the top and wrap it in tinfoil. Cook for about 30 minutes Also at 350.
•cauliflower: roast a whole cauliflower with evoo- salt- pepper- pop in the oven with the pepper and garlic

ON STOVE TOP:

While things are cooking in the oven…

•Cook cous cous according to directions while cous cous cooks .....

•sauté onions, after slightly brown, add mushrooms - cook until mushrooms have released their juices - you really can’t overcook mushrooms

Tahini sauce: (this will go on the side or on top of the dish)

• 2 tbs tahini

• 1tbs almond butter

• Juice of 1 lemon

• Salt

• Cumin

• Some broth to bring to desired consistency

Roasted Red pepper and garlic sauce:

• After red peppers and garlic have cooked and cooled: blend the whole garlic clove (squeeze or pick out softened cloves) and roasted red pepper together. Add some broth some salt, pepper and olive oil and some cumin.

Assembly:

To the cooked cous cous add the roasted red pepper garlic sauce and the mushrooms/onions. Mix. Top off the couscous mixture with roasted cauliflower, tahini sauce and fresh parsley. Enjoy!

Roasted Carrot Hummus

This has got to be one of my favorite homemade hummuses. The roasted carrots make it SO special! The roasting of the carrots does make this hummus a bit longer to prep, but it is worth it! I used FRESH chickpeas with this recipe, but if you do not have time to cook the chickpeas or do not have fresh chickpeas on hand, 2 boxes will do just fine.

This recipe makes a good amount of hummus. You can eat it all, give some to a friend, or store it in the fridge for the week and eat it with pita chips, cucumbers, celery and carrots.. is that weird to eat carrot hummus with carrots?

You will need some kind of bender for this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 large sized carrots - roughly chopped
• EVOO for roasting carrots
• 2 tbs EVOO to put in HUMMUS while mixing
• salt (you will add salt to the carrots and then more to the hummus while mixing)
• pepper
• 1 cup raw dried chick peas (you will be cooking these, I did it in a crockpot just add water and cook for a couple hours on high) OR 2 Boxes/BPA free cans of chickpeas
•  1/4 cup tahini
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon turmeric 
• 1 garlic clove chopped
• Juice of 1/2 large lemon or 1 small lemon
• 1/2 cup-2/3 cup water - depends on how thick your hummus ends up being. Add water as needed.

Directions: 

* If using fresh chickpeas cook them according to package,

• preheat oven to 400 degrees
• place roughly chopped carrots coated with EVOO, salt and pepper in the oven for about 20 minutes or until tender. 
• While carrots are cooking squeeze your lemon, measure out your 2 tbs of EVOO, 1/2 C tahini and all of your spices (cumin, paprika, turmeric and salt). 
• Dump the chickpeas, cooked carrots and all your mise en place (aka all the food you prepped) in the blender- don't forget your garlic clove.
• Blend and slowly add in water. You will need to pause and scrape down the sides and then start to blend again.
• Your hummus is done when it is smooth and all mixed. It will be a beautiful orange color and will taste AWESOME! You can serve it in a bowl and add a bit of EVOO to the top if you wish.

ENOY! XO

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?

Mango, Lime, Chili, Sea Salt Salad

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YUM! In this mango salad you will find sweet, salty, tangy and hot flavors that all come together to make an awesome experience in your mouth! A must try for the summer.

Ingredients:

• 2 mangos
• Juice of 1 lime and some zest
• 1-2 tsp red chili pepper flakes (more or less if desired)
• Sea Salt (Pink Salt if you have)

Directions:

• Cut mango into cubes
• squeeze lime juice
• add in salt, chili pepper flakes and mix everything
• cover and let it sit in fridge for at least 20 minutes before serving

Enjoy!