Pepper Paints

Thursday’s Recipe …. Green Popsicles

Ginger wanted a popsicle for breakfast, a big homemade green one!

We have been slurrping down many a green smoothie lately and when there are some left overs  I fill up the popsicle molds with the extras. I know this isn’t rocket science. But it sure is tasty! This tropical flavor is by far the most requested morning smoothie and popsicle combination we make.

I fill half of  my vita-mix with spinach (packed down) add some fresh pineapple, a frozen banana and some frozen mango. Then I pour in a little bit-maybe 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of coconut milk and a little water.

These make a nice tropical treat!

Thursday’s Recipe ….. Raw Pad Thai With Kelp Noodles

Kelp noodles=heaven! Oh my, I can’t believe how good these are. Excellent texture! If you are local you can buy them at the Clintonville Community Market on Crestview.

I know every week I rave about how good my recipes are—and I am biased because I really do like to eat—but this Pad Thai is awesome!!!

For 1 package of kelp noodles

4 to 5 Tablespoons  nut butter

1 Tablespoon hot sauce

1 Tablespoon honey

1 Tablespoon tamari1 teaspoon vinegar

2 teaspoons seseme oil

1/4 cup of water

juice of 1 lime

I rinsed my kelp noodles and put them in a bowl then I  put all the above  ingredients in my vita-mix and poured it over my noodles.

Next I cut up lots of veggies and tons of cilantro. You can use any veggies you choose-I used red cabbage, scallions, pea pods, chard, shiitake mushrooms. Sprinkle a few cashews on top. Let the pad thai sit for ten or so  minutes to soften the noodles.

I have been participating in the green smoothie challenge this week.  I often drink green smoothies but not daily. I must admit I don’t really love green smoothies. But I wanted to see if I would see any benefits to drinking them daily for 2 weeks. I will let you know!

Thursday’s Recipe …. Roasted Cauliflower Soup

This soup is so yummy and so simple with only a few ingredients. I am pretty sure this is a Martha Stewart recipe but I got it from a friend.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

cut up 1 to 2 heads cauliflower into medium size pieces, toss with a few teaspoons veg oil and sprinkle of salt

roast at 450 for 20 to 30 minutes on a baking sheet

(try not to eat all the cauliflower at this point-once you roast, you’ll never go back to steamed!!!)

cut 1-2 onions and sautee in a Tablespoon or 2 of veg oil  or butter-I use oil and add a pat of butter for flavor.

add 1-2 teaspoons curry powder and roasted cauliflower

add 4-5 cups or 1 carton veg broth cook for 10 minutes

puree in blender–add more broth or water to make it as thick or this as you like.

note-My handy dandy very old vita mix is still kickin’!!

add salt and pepper to taste

I added a few pita chips on top…delicious!!!

Watermelon Slushie

This is sooooo easy and sooooo tasty.  Especially now that summer weather has finally hit central Ohio….the heat, the humidity!Uggh

My kids always seem to pick the biggest watermelons out of the bin and then I have to be strategic about when I cut them so the left over part fits back into the fridge! An easy solution-chunk it up and freeze it!

We took the frozen chunks and put them in the VITA-MIX with just enough water to slush the chunks around.

The slushies made a perfectly cool and healthy treat!

Thursdays Raw Recipe

The grocery stores around here have been having some great prices on fruit-some organic and some not. I try to buy organic whenever possible-which is about 90-95 % of the time. But there are a few things like pineapples and mango that I don’t often see here as an organic choice. But the last few weeks these have been really cheap. So I stocked up and have been making this smoothie over and over again with a few minor changes here and there.

These measurements are just guesses because when it comes to smoothies-I just dump things into my Vita-Mix.

1 to 1 1/2 cups pineapple chunks

1 to 2 mangos

1 frozen banana

a handful of ice

almond milk-enough to make it as thick or thin as you want

a handful of almonds

2 Tablespoons of chia seeds

2 Tablespoons of hemp seeds

dash of cinnamon

This tasted a lot like orange sherbet!  I almost always make green smoothies and adding spinach to this didn’t change the taste too much.   Other additions to this basic mixture that tasted good have been spinach, frozen strawberries, flax seeds and a cut up orange. You can pack tons of nutrition into these smoothies, which is a great start to the day!

If you have a raw recipe to share this week please leave a link to your raw post in the comments. Thanks!!

Thursdays Raw Recipe

I made this raw potato salad this weekend and it was really good! Definitely tastes better when it’s not ice cold and the dressing does get runny the longer it sits, but it still tasted good a few days later.

RAW POTATO SALAD

2 c diced jicama

1/4 c diced yellow pepper

1/4 c celery

1 T minced fresh rosemary

2 T minced green olives

1/4 avocado, smashed

1/2 red onion thinly sliced

fresh parsley

Now for the dressing:

2 t tahinin

1/4 t ground cumin

1 1/2 T lemon juice

2 T water

2 t parley

1/4 t nama shoyu

1/4 t agave

pinch of chili powder

and more than a pinch of salt

I blend all the dressing ingredients in my Vita-Mix. Dressing should be a little thick as it does thin out after the potato salad is all mixed up.

If you have a raw recipe to add this week, leave a comment with a link to your raw recipe post.

Thursday’s Raw Recipe

“Cheesy” Stuffed Peppers

From the book EAT SMART EAT RAW

Trying new recipes has helped me to realize that I really don’t like food that is puree’d -like baby food. I know I have texture preferences. I hate pudding, I like to chew my food.  I like the taste of this recipe, just not the texture. So next time I will only blend up part of the ingredients and leave some to stir in.

13oz of corn (I used frozen-thawed, technically not raw, so this is a better recipe for summer time!)

1 1/2 carrots

small bunch of parsley

1 T ground flax seeds

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp miso

2 T nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp red chili

2 garlic cloves

1/2 onion

4 oz orange juice

2 large peppers

I put everything except the peppers and OJ into my Vita-mix. I puree’d all and then gradually added the OJ. Only use as much juice as you need to. You want this to be thick but no lumps. Fill the peppers.

OK so I would reserve some corn and parsley, onions,  chilis and maybe some of the pepper  to chop up and mix into the puree to add some crunch to the filling.

Cheesy stuffed peppers and kale salad Mmmmm!