Ranch Dip for Veggies

I'm not the type of person who eats ranch dressing on salad, but I love to dip a cold, crunchy cucumber or piece of celery into it before taking a bite. I found a recipe online using sour cream and mayo, so I figured I could use Greek yogurt and olive oil mayo (one of my favorite inventions, as I, embarrassingly, LOVE mayo). I mixed one part olive oil mayo with two parts Greek yogurt, added a bunch of seasonings, and blended it up quickly with a spoon. It's super quick, and super delicious. And the best part--I don't feel guilty eating it! :)

Ingredients:

1 cup Greek yogurt

1/2 cup olive oil mayo

1 T dried chives

1 T dried dill

1 t garlic powder

1 t onion powder

1 t dried parsley

few grinds of salt

few grinds of black pepper

Savory Split-Pea Soup

And you thought pureed veggies were only for babies. This soup is scrumptious and extremely healthy, and you will want a second bowl, I promise!

I was wandering through the bulk section at Whole Foods last week, and decided to fill up a bag with French split peas. I didn't know what I would do with them, but I figured I could make something yummy and full of vitamins.

I googled split pea soup recipes, but every recipe I found would have required another trip to the store. So, I took some tips from allrecipes.com, and came up with my own recipe using ingredients from my fridge. It didn't take long at all, and we will be having leftovers tomorrow night. YUMMY! (and I'm not a huge fan of soup in general).

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups split peas (soak them in a big pot of water overnight first, so this is 1 1/2 cups SOAKED peas)

2 or 3 T olive oil

1 cup of organic celery, finely chopped

1 cup of organic red and green peppers, finely chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 cup frozen chopped spinach

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 container (four cups) of organic beef broth

1 T Herbes de Provence

A few grinds of black pepper

A few grinds of salt

Put the veggies (celery, onion, and peppers) into a food processor and pulse a few times (or chop by hand).

Drizzle olive oil into a large pot on the stove over medium/high heat, and then add chopped veggies and garlic. Saute for a few minutes, then add Herbes de Provence and stir.

***Keep toddler entertained with a few bowls, cups, spoons, and the extra peas.***

Pour beef broth into the veggie mixture and continue to stir. Add peas and spinach, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low, and cook for about an hour and a half, stirring every 10 minutes or so. After an hour, turn off the heat, and let soup sit for 30 minutes with the lid on the pot.

Pour soup into a food processor, and turn it on for about 10-15 seconds. That's it. Now enjoy with some crusty French bread. Mmmmm...

Toddler Veggie Cookies (Great For Adults, Too!)

Goldfish, puffs, melts, etc, etc, etc. These toddler snacks are getting old in our house, and I really don't feel like they have much substance. I always end up cutting up some fruit to go with them(pears and strawberries are Audrey's current faves), so I was interested in making something that would be sort of an "all-in-one" healthy, substantial snack. After our dog, Wilson, ate the remains of our last loaf of banana bread, one of Audrey's favorites, I was motivated to get started on the following:

I took the following recipe from www.sheknows.com, and made quite a few changes.

ZUCCHINI AND CARROT COOKIES
Ingredients

3/4 cup margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup shredded carrots
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon


This is the list of ingredients I used:
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 cup shredded zucchini
2/3 cup shredded carrots
2/3 cup applesauce
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
2 T cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl.
Add egg and vanilla, mixing thoroughly.
Mix in shredded zucchini, carrots, and applesauce.

Combine remaining ingredients in a separate bowl.
Add these dry ingredients to the large bowl, stirring until well combined.
Drop teaspoons of dough approximately 2 inches apart onto greased cookie sheet.
Use 2 spoons to drop the dough by teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
Bake 12 minutes.
Makes about 20 cookies.

"Homemade" Veggie Calzones

Once in a while dinnertime is upon us, and I feel like my family hasn't met their veggie goal for the day. I usually throw together a salad to go with whatever we are eating, and load it up with peppers, cucumbers, carrots, and other veggies.

Tonight I decided to do something a little more fun. I had two balls of Trader Joe's pizza dough in my fridge, and thought veggie calzones were the way to go. I rummaged through the fridge/freezer and came up with a few things to toss in (I always have tomatoes and garlic on hand, and my cheese drawer is pretty consistently stocked).

I ended up making two calzones, one with peppers and mushrooms, and one with spinach, peppers, and crushed red pepper.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup flour (to flour your work surface)

Two balls of Trader Joe's pizza dough (fresh, delicious, and only $0.99 each!)

1 cup chopped sweet peppers (I used red, yellow, and orange)

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

1/2 cup organic frozen chopped spinach

2 cups organic shredded mozzarella

1/2 cup grated parmesan

2 cans stewed tomatoes

8 fresh garlic cloves

1/4 cup olive oil

1 t crushed red pepper

I started by putting the garlic cloves and cans of stewed tomatoes in the food processor. I blended them for about 20 seconds. This sauce was used for the inside of the calzones, as well as a dipping sauce for the table.


The directions on the pizza dough say to let it stand at room temperature for 20 minutes before using.

After 20 minutes, flour your work surface, and roll out the first ball of dough. Use a spoon to spread the tomato sauce on the dough, then top with 1/2 the mozzarella cheese. Add the mushrooms and half the peppers, then fold the "pizza" in half, and pinch around the edges to form a calzone.

Do the same thing to the second one, but add the crushed red pepper to the sauce, top with cheese and the remaining veggies, and fold over and pinch into a calzone.

Brush the top of each calzone with olive oil, and top with the shredded parmesan. Place them both on an olive oil greased baking sheet and stick in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. Check to make sure the dough is cooked all the way through. Serve with a side of tomato sauce and enjoy!

Veggie Loaded Beef Stew

This was my first time experimenting with beef stew, and I have to say it turned out wonderfully! I made sure to add a LOT of veggies and used lean meat to make it extra healthy. I also added a side of homemade whole wheat biscuits, and the meal was a success. Dan gobbled up two bowls, and we'll be having leftovers tonight! :-)

Veggie Loaded Beef Stew


Ingredients:

1 package of Trader Joe's lean stew beef
2/3 cup flour
1 package of pre-chopped onions, carrots, and celery from Trader Joe's (quite inexpensive!)
1 bag of teenie tiny potatoes from TJ's (so cute!) :-)
2 cups of Wolfgang Puck Beef Stock
1 T Herbs de Provence
2 bay leaves
1 T onion powder
1 fresh head of garic, minced (I used a small food processor to make it quick and easy)
1 cup of frozen chopped spinach
1 cup of frozen peas
2 T corn starch (optional--use it if you want a thicker stew, skip it if you want a broth-like stew)
1 tspn salt
1 tspn pepper

I used my crockpot, but you could easily do this in large pot on the stove. You would just need to watch it closely and stir it occasionally over a two hour or so period of time.



Start by placing the stew meat into a large ziplock bag. Add the flour, salt, and pepper, and shake to coat. Place the coated meat into the crockpot. Next, add the potatoes (washed, but not peeled*) and the chopped carrots, celery, onion and fresh garlic. Pour the beef stock over everything and add the herbs de provence, onion powder, and bay leaves. Stir everything together, and turn the crockpot on high for 5-6 hours, or low for 8-10 hours.



About 45 minutes before it is done cooking, stir in the frozen peas and spinach. Place the lid back on the crockpot and finish cooking.


In order to make the stew thick, I mixed 2 T of corn starch with 2/3 cup of water, and poured it into the crockpot. I mixed it all together and let it sit for a few minutes. You can skip this step if you want.


Simple whole wheat biscuits from scratch:


Ingredients:

1 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 T butter, slightly melted
1/4 tsp salt
Slightly less than 1/2 cup of milk (3/8)
1/2 cup of flour for the table/cutting board


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking pan with short edges.



Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Using your hands (the fun part!), blend in the butter. Slowly pour the milk into the mixture, while blending with your hands. Place the ball of dough onto the work surface (where your other flour is), and roll it out into a small circle. Use a pizza cutter (or whatever works) to cut it into 5-6 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, flatten the ball so it is about 1/2 inch thick, and place each biscuit on a greased baking pan.

Bake for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

I served the biscuits with a little butter and strawberry preserves.




This recipe yields about 8 servings of beef stew and 6 biscuits. You can eat leftovers one night and freeze the remainder for a night you don't feel like cooking. Your freezer is your friend. Don't throw away leftovers! :)




*I don't peel potatoes ever, even when mashing them. The peels contain most of the nutrition.*