Clean Eating #132: Blueberry Struesel/Oatmeal raisin muffins by Paris

Blueberry Struesel muffins by Paris

My 13 year old Daughter, Paris (shown here in her paperclip shirt she designed:), made this recipe for the blog and they turned out tasting AWESOME!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oat bran

1 cup old fashioned oats (we used groats for part of it)

1 cup whole wheat flour or unbleached flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup dark raw agave nectar

2 egg whites

1 cup milk w/1 tsp of vinegar (to replace buttermilk) 

1/4 cup oil

1 1/2 cups blueberries, washed

*Adapted from THIS RECIPE for clean eating

                                                 start by blending the oatmeal into oatmeal flour

Now add the oat bran, Whole wheat pastry flour, cinnamon,  baking powder and soda                                                                                   in a big bowl and stir well so everything is mixed together.

                         Then mix molasses, egg (or egg substitute), buttermilk, and oil all together,

                            and finish by mixing everything together in one bowl with a hand held mixer,

    Now add the blueberry's (or raisins if you are making oatmeal raisin muffins) After mixing the other ingredients together, Unless you are making  mini muffins like me in that case you fill the cupcake cups 1/2 the way full then put the blueberry's in and THEN finish by covering the berry's (or raisins) with batter until the muffin cups are almost full and then.... top with struesel 

My mom and I put the batter into a cake decorating bag to make it easier.  It was a LOT less messy that way!

                    Oil and flour your pan (or like me use muffin cups) and scoop pour or squirt your batter into the muffin pan 

           add struesel and blueberry's 

and bake on 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes (for mini muffin pans)

And enjoy!   

Clean Eating #80: Tofu, Veggies & Rice with Spicy Orange Mango Sauce

Spicy Orange Mango Tofu & Vegetables over Rice

This dish was DELICIOUS.  I made it for my son, who is a vegetarian, and then I kept picking at it and ended up eating it all so I had to make him more!:)  I'm sure my husband and son wouldn't be interested because they are very resistant to tofu in general, but I liked it.

Ingredients:

 1/2 fresh mango, diced

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 red chili pepper, diced

small bag of frozen peas

3 medium carrots, sliced thin

1/2 package of Tempeh, diced

1-2 cups cooked brown rice

Directions:  

Puree ingredients until smooth

In a sauce pan on med-medium high, bring sauce to a boil

Add diced Tempeh & frozen/fresh veggies of choice

 Serve over rice... Viola!  I loved that the carrots retained a bit of crunchiness, but if you prefer more "cooked", you may want to start the carrots separately first.

Clean Eating #77: Easy Mexican Rice & a Cooking Class

Easy Mexican Rice & a Cooking Class

Do you love Mexican food?  Does you family love enchiladas so much that they'll eat you out of house and home in seconds?  Mine does!  This time I was smart, though, and made the side dish so it would be done BEFORE the Enchiladas:)  That way we actually had leftovers at the end of the meal.  I'm so clever.

Mexican Rice is SUPER easy... but it takes a long LONG time.  At least it did for me, using whole grain, brown rice.

Ingredients *Remember, I was making a LOT so I could send some home with each of the families, I would probably only make 1/4th of this if it were just my family)
1 bag brown rice
1 Quart bag of Salsa (I used our frozen homemade salsa)
1 small bag of frozen corn
1 quart sized bag of black beans (I used some frozen that I made last time I did a big dried bean cooking day)
handful of chopped & cooked jalapenos
1 carton/quart of vegetable or chicken broth
1 quart of water (at least, I just add water as it cooks down as needed)

Directions:
Add rice to the water and broth, bring to a boil over medium heat.
Add salsa, beans and corn, stir and cover, turn heat down to med-low and simmer.
Stir occasionally, add more water if needed.
Simmer on med-low for at least an hour until tender.

This is the meal that we had for dinner... the cooking students took home the rice and enchiladas, but I forgot to send the beans home... oops!

Cooking Class!

I also had a cooking "class" yesterday.  I teach a nutrition & fitness class for our homeschool group's co-op.  I had 7 students over yesterday to learn how to make Chicken Enchiladas with homemade sauce.  Everyone brought enough ingredients so they could take home a pan of enchiladas for their family.  I also sent home Mexican Rice for everyone as well.

It went SO fast.  We had four pans of enchiladas with homemade sauce done and out the door in an HOUR!  I was impressed.  Those kids were fast!  We had the Tomatillos and various peppers chopped, diced and ready to puree really fast.  I had two girls chopping the tomatillos, another dicing up peppers (with gloves on), a couple chopping up garlic, one chopping spinach... then while the sauce was bubbling, we had girls dicing up chicken breasts and someone else chopping Cilantro.  It made for a fun, fast dinner and everyone went home with a full meal.

I'm thinking this might work as a business idea, if I could figure out how to price things.  I would definitely need to take all the ingredients with me though, as I learned yesterday, not everyone recognizes some of the less common ingredients I tend to use.  What do you think?  Good idea?  Would you or your kids enjoy a cooking class that resulted in a home cooked meal at the end of an hour or two?  (We were in a big rush because of some of the kids having tennis afterwards, so we had to make it quick.  I'd prefer to draw it out a little and actually get a little more instruction in there... and make it 'fun' as well).

Thoughts?

Clean Eating #73: Party food: Mini Spinach Quiches with Tomato, Feta & Swiss

Mini Spinach Quiches with Tomato, Feta & Swiss

Yummy!!  & They keep well in the fridge for quick leftovers!

Ingredients:

18 eggs (You can replace all/half of the eggs with 2 egg whites per egg)

1 bag of frozen spinach

1 large onion

1-2 containers of feta cheese

1 red bell pepper

1 tbsp oil

Optional:

1 green bell pepper

1 package of sliced mushrooms

Directions:

Sautee the veggies in a skillet with a little coconut oil.

Add cooked veggies and feta cheese to OILED baking dishes, ramekins or muffin tins

Add mixed eggs to the veggies

Bake at 375 Degrees until done.

Mini muffin tins take about 7 minutes, AuGratin Dishes took about 15-19

And the next day as leftovers:

Stick a slice of fresh tomato, some pepper & a slice of Swiss cheese. 

The broiler doesn't take long, if you have time, heat it in the oven first, then use the broiler to really heat the topping.

Clean Eating #74: Carrot Cake Muffins with Yogurt Cheese Icing

Carrot Cake Muffins with Yogurt Cheese Icing

Ingredients

(Note:  my son Jaedin made these, and he's not half as concerned with seeing messes during the process.  He did clean up afterwards, though.)

7 cups whole wheat flour 2 tablespoons and 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 3 tablespoons baking soda 1 tablespoon and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 2 teaspoons sea salt 15 eggs 2 1/2 cups agave nectar 2 1/2 cups xylitol 2 cups coconut oil

2 cups ground flax seed 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 12 cups grated carrot

	Grease and flour the bottoms  of 60 muffin cups, or mini loaf pans. Mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt; set aside.
	In a separate bowl, mix the eggs,xylitol,and agave nectar. Stir in the coconut oil, vanilla, flax seed and grated carrot; blend into the flour mixture.
	Bake in preheated oven at 350 until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 15 to 25 minutes. Remove to cool on wire racks.

You can find the recipe for yogurt cheese icing here Yogurt Cheese

And then... he went fishing.  For two hours.  It was more fun than baking.  So was my fitness date with my hubby on the biking trails along that same river!

Clean Eating #72: Hearty Vegetable Sauce for Pastas, Eggplant Parmesan, Stews & Much More!

Hearty Loaded Vegetable Sauce

I needed some pasta type sauce for a recipe I have on my plan for this month.  Since I used all of our marinara sauce in the lasagna, I needed to make more.  This stuff reezes REALLY well, so I make a LOT.

Because of the recipes I have planned, I wanted this to be REALLY chunky and loaded with lots of veggies.  I stopped by the store and bought my ingredients:
1 Inusdtrial sized can (105 oz) of Crushed Tomatoes
1 Industrial sized can (105 oz) of Diced Tomatoes
10 medium sized carrots, shredded or sliced
4 Large Zucchini, shredded or cubed
2 EACH Red, Yellow, Orange Bell Peppers
1 Super large onion diced
1 16 oz bag of frozen Spinach
2 red chili peppers
4 heads of Roasted Garlic and chopped
64 oz of Vegetable Broth
4 Tbsp Itlaian Seasoning (more or less to taste)
2 Tbsp Ground red pepper (more or less to taste)

3 Tbsp Xylitol Brown Sugar Substitute
1 Tbsp Sea Salt
Bring vegetable broth and all chopped veggies to a boil.  Boil for about 5-10 minutes, then add tomatoes.  Simmer for a few hours and have divine sauce. 

*My Man Version (My guys love mushrooms and green peppers and LOTS of onions, us girls? Not so much.  This is an easy way to alter SOME of the sauce):
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced/chopped
2 green peppers
1 small onion
Sautee in separate pan, add some of the other 'complete' sauce to this to make your alternate version.

Kid Friendly Tip:

If your kids don't like all the chunks in their sauce, you can puree this in a blender.  All but one of my kids loves all the chunks, so we just use a mini blender to smooth out the sauce for my yougnest before putting it over her pasta/quinoa/whatever!

The Verdict:  Wow.  This actually got probably the BEST reaction.  Ever.  I can't imagine a better reaction.  It was such a good reaction, it would be inappropriate to even post it on a public blog. My hubby is really really glad that I wasn't video taping him.  Seriously.  He had tears running down his face.  I'm not joking.  He was SO seriously happy.  He ate this whole big bowl of sauce with his broiled/toasted bread topped with Mozzarella (I just discovered in my last post that I've always spelled Mozzarella wrong!  Oops!:)

Seal in freezer bags when cool and freeze for later use!

I am going to use this for eggplant parmesan, wrapped stuff chicken breasts, pasta as well as a dipping sauce for bread, apparently... and whatever else I can find.  It was definitely a big hit.

Clean Eating #71: Guest Post for Butternut Squash Casserole

Butternut Squash Casserole

**Guest Post by my 14 year old son, Jaedin, whom I called from town last night saying, "I need a post using squash, look something up and make it clean..."

Ingredients

1 butternut squash

1/2 cup agave nectar/or xilotol

1 1/2 cups milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

3 eggs

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted


Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Put butternut squash on a cutting board. Cut in half,peel,scoop out seeds,and cube. 

 Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add squash and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and mash.

In a 9x13 inch casserole dish combine mashed butternut squash, agave nectar, milk, vanilla extract, salt, flour, eggs and 1/4 cup melted coconut oil. 

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until set,(half of the casserole was already gone before I had a chance to photograph the end product).

What I'd Do differently Next Time:  I'd probably use a little less Agave Nectar because this was pretty sweet.  Although my sisters thought it was dessert and loved me for making it, so maybe I'd just make it the same way.  Mom says that maybe we could add a crunchy topping or something, but I thought it was delicious.  Any ideas for a good dish to eat this with?  Because I just made this and it wasn't a real meal.

Clean Eating #70: Vegetarian CHEAP Vegetable Broth Recipe

Inexpensive Homemade Vegetable Broth!

Did anyone ever notice how EXPENSIVE Vegetable Broth is?  I paid $2.98 for the less expensive brand at the store the other day and just about choked.

I came home and read about how to make my own, and when we made lasagna the other day, I took all the eggplant, carrot, bell peppers and zucchini scraps and made my own broth.  Which made it basically FREE, because I hadn't been using those scraps at all anyway (for anything other than compost).

All I did was take the scraps and boil them on Med-High heat for about an hour (or maybe two... I really didn't pay attention, I had so much other cooking stuff going on, I just checked it an added water occasionally!)

Then I used my handy dandy Seive and drained all the broth... Viola!  Vegetable Broth!

I'll stick it in a freezer bag and have it handy for next time!
Free is better than $2.98.  Free is better than $1.00.  FREE IS AWESOME.

I don't know why I didn't think of doing it before.  I make my own chicken stock... oh well, a lesson learned is a lesson learned!  I will be making my own stock EVERY prep day, because we have been using a LOT of borth/stock in our dishes.  This will be healthier and I'll KNOW exactly what is (or isn't) in it!

And yes, I realize that a lot of you probably already DO this, but it was a revelation to me, so I'm sharing just in case!

Clean Eating #68: Fruitful Water, Natural homemade flavored water

Natural Flavored Water

• Do you get tired of paying $1.00+ for a small little bottle of flavored water?
• Do you ever get tired of drinking 'plain' water? 
• Are you trying to avoid sodas and caffeinated drinks?
• Did you know that you're supposed to drink one ounce per pound of body weight?  (I tell you, I get REALLY tired of drinking 155 ounces of water a day!)

 Our Solution?

We went to Garden Ridge and bought a 2+ gallon drink dispenser.

 We brought it home and filled it with water, ice and three sliced oranges... Viola!  Fresh, slightly flavored water.  And everyone is drinking more water, because its right there, and we all feel like we're getting something extra special!

Other Ideas:

• Cut up Fresh Ginger
• Lemons & Limes
• Cucumber
• Dragon Fruit Slices
• Fresh Mint (crush slightly before adding to the water) or Stevia Leaves
• Sliced Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Freeze some cut up fruits in your ice cube trays to add a fun visual effect
• Freeze some juiced fruit in ice cube trays for an extra little burst of flavor

What do you use?  Any other suggestions to share?  My kids and I are LOVING the 'flavored water' and we've saved some money on those 'treats' of Sobe Water!!

Clean Eating #67: Vegetarian, Gluten Free Zucchinie Tomato Quinoa Casserole

Zucchini Tomato Quinoa Casserole

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Red Quinoa

1/2 cup regular Quinoa

2-3 cups of water

1 Zucchini Sliced

1 Tomato Diced

Pepper/Ground Red Pepper to taste

Parmesan &/Feta Cheese to Taste

*Optional Marinara Sauce

Directions:

Prepare the Quinoa according to the directions on the box

Sautee the Zucchini on medium heat for about 5-8 minutes

Add the tomatoes to the skillet of Zucchini continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes until the zucchini  tomatoes are softened.

Mix together with quinoa, add a little extra marinara if you want, sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese & serve.

What I did with the leftovers:  I took the leftovers, added about 1/4th cup of marinara sauce and reheated it in the oven with a sprinkle of Mozzerella cheese and we had it for dinner.  My husband works out in the evenings after work, so this was a perfect after workout high protein meal!

You can also just have the Zucchini & tomatoes as a side dish that goes great with broiled Tilapia!