Clean Eating #134: Sweet Onion Balsamic Salad Dressing

Sweet Onion Balsamic Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 medium Vidalia Onion, diced

1/2 tsp Parsley, finely chopped

1/2 tsp Coarsely ground black pepper

a few drops of liquid Stevia to taste

Put all ingredients in a blender (I used my mini IsaBlender with great results) and blend until all ingredients are blended.

Pour over salad.

Keep tightly sealed in the refrigerator.

We eat a LOT of salads during this time of year, so this goes pretty fast.  I've kept it up to a week, but by then its gone.  You may need to leave it at room temperature long enough for the oil to settles a bit and then shake well and serve.

Verdict:  We were out of "store bought" dressing and some of the kids were hesitant to try my dressing (I dont' know why, they always gobble up my hubby's dressing!  They probably thought I put black beans in it:) but once they did, they loved it as much as I did... even the kids who don't care much for onions loved it.  In my opinion, it could use even more onions... I think I may be becoming addicted to onions...

Clean Eating #106 : Momma Bear's Kick Butt Flaming Hot Sauce

Flaming Hot Sauce Base

2 cups of peppers, diced (I used the above peppers, 3 jalapenos, 1 pablano, 4 habanero, 1 each red, yello & orange sweet mini peppers, 2 serrano peppers and one red chili pepper)

1 large carrot or four baby carrots

Juice and pulp from two oranges

1 cup of apple cider vinegar

1-2 cups of tomato sauce (depending on how "red" you want your hot sauce)

Directions:

Soak the chopped peppers in the vinegar mixture for about 20 minutes.

Throw everything together and puree in the blender until it resembles something like baby vomit.  Or grown up vomit, I guess, since babies probably aren't chugging down Habeneros.

Anyway, it looks pretty gross, so don't focus on it.  Just dump it in a sauce pan, add your tomato sauce and let it simmer for a while.  About twenty minutes or so... or however long it takes you to get this image out of your brain:

After that, it looks more like 'normal' hot sauce.  I guess the tomato sauce helps a lot.

Take the sauce and pour into pint canning jars with lids.  Boil ON A RACK in a covered pan for about 20 more minutes and viola!  You're good to go.  I put half of ours in the freezer since I didn't have proper canning seals and all that.

I made this for my uber picky, really misses his now no longer in our store "Pain is Good" hot sauce and he REALLY liked it.  I made it first without the carrots and OJ, and that was... "eh, okay" but THIS, this was THE ONE.  I did it!!!  I made "The" best hot sauce.  I can rest now.  And it only took me three tries.  That's pretty EPIC (yeah, that's a quote directly from the kids:)

This was his favorite FAVORITE Hot Sauce ever (and my hubby loved it too... it was flavorful before you noticed the HEAT, which apparently in my man's land a really good thing)... until they stopped carrying it at our store and Momma Bear took over.  Perhaps I should name mine Momma Bear's Kick Butt Hot Sauce??

Clean Eating #101: Pineapple Mango Sauce for Stir Fry or Rice

Pineapple Mango Sauce

Oh. My. Wholly. Beans.

Not even joking, this stuff is make your mouth water, make your tears overflow with happiness good.  Yeah, someday my husband is going to get his revenge for video taping him and get ME on video... we can all look forward to that day.

Ingredients (The base is the marinade from THIS recipe):

• 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
• 1/2 tsp Red Chili Pepper
• 2 tbsp Sesame Oil
• 2 tbsp melted Coconut Oil
• 4 tbsp Dark Agave Nectar
• 4 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 3 tbsp Ginger; grated
• 3 tbsp Sesame Seeds
• 1/2 fresh pineapple, diced
• 1/2 fresh Mango, diced

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat

Simmer for 20-30 minutes

Puree all ingredients in a blender

Viola!

Goes incredibly well with the Stuffed Veggies, especially the onions.  I just made myself a plate of the leftover rice from that recipe, topped it with a sliced stuffed onion and this sauce... it was HEAVENLY.

Clean Eating #82: Tangy Barbecue BBQ Sauce

Tangy, Flavorful Barbecue Sauce

We found this recipe and decided to tweak it slightly.

Ingredients
2 Tbsp Coconut oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely diced
1 (6oz) can of tomato paste
1 (29oz) can of tomato sauce
2 tsp ground mustard
1/4 cup of molasses
3 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
3 Tbsp brown sugar Xylitol
1 Tbsp Tabasco
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground red pepper

Directions
Sautee onions and garlic in coconut oil
Add tomato paste and heat
Add all other ingredients and bring to a slow boil on medium heat.
Turn to medium low and simmer until thick.
Remove and cool before use.

YUM.  YUM!!  OMG.  YUMMMMMMMY!!!