I wanted to post a recipe in honor of my “soul circle friends” that recently participated with me in an excellent class given by Soul Nurturer Annie Burnside.  (Comment:  This class was amazing!  We studied modern day masters from Deepak Chopra to Brian Weiss—extremely cool).  I looked for a recipe that seemed to feed my soul, yet was also in tune with the spring and upcoming summer season.  I found this salad, and I even tested it on my neighbors who loved it.  This salad is really more of a main meal.  Hearty and filling, yet inspired with the tastes of summer.

Ingredients:
2 cups dried barley, cooked*
1/4 cup olive oil
½ teaspoon ground coriander seed
2 15 1/2-ounce cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, chopped (about 1 1/3 cups)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup thinly sliced drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 cup fresh Sun Gold tomatoes, washed and halved
¼ -1/2 cup fresh basil, washed and chopped

*Other grains like farro or bulgur and others would work just as well.  I was looking for a chewy, “soul satisfying” texture.

 Directions:  Rinse barley. For easier digestion, you can soak your grains.  The method is to leave grains covered with non-chlorinated water, plus an acidic medium, for about 7-8 hours (a longer time is okay too).  The amount of acidic medium is 1 tablespoon for every 1 cup of grains.  Your best choices for an acidic medium are lemon juice or vinegar. 

Combine remaining ingredients in large bowl. Season salad to taste with salt and pepper (about ¼ teaspoon each).  (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before serving.)
Enjoy! 

I am so thankful for my wonderful neighbors, Ken and Donna, who shared this awesome spring/summer recipe with me.  It is so fun and festive, yet very easy to prepare.  You have to make sure to get your hands on the rice paper (Three Ladies is the brand Ken and Donna recommended to me, available in some grocery stores but definitely in Asian markets)*.  If you have limited time, you might also want to pick up a bottle of pre-made dipping sauce (they gave me a delicious spicy yet sweet sauce called Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce*).  I’ve also included a recipe for a home-made sauce, below, in case you cannot find a good bottled dipping sauce.

*See below for purchasing info.
**Note on picture above.  This was my very first attempt at wrapping spring rolls in rice paper.  I learned a lot on this first try, and I consulted again with my neighbors who have much more experience.  Their advice:  use less stuffing, and fold over the ends before making the final wrap around the roll.  This way, the filling does not fall out when you eat it.  Check back for some future photos as I become more proficient with these rice paper wrappers!

Thai Spring Rolls
Ingredients:
rice wrappers
½ cup bean sprouts
1/3 head green cabbage, chopped
5 green onions, chopped
¼ cup fresh herbs (cilantro, basil, or mint)

¼ cup carrots- grated or julienned
1 T lime juice
1 T soy sauce*
½ tsp fresh ginger- grated
1 cup thin noodles-pre cooked (use Chinese rice or bean thread noodles)

*use the gluten free version if you are making this recipe gluten free.
Optional:  shrimp (pre-cooked), avocado, fresh baby greens (arugula, mustard greens, etc.)

Notes:  a bag of pre-packaged coleslaw saved me some prep time for the carrots and cabbage in the recipe.

Directions:  toss all ingredients together except wrappers.  Submerge spring roll wrappers, one at a time, in hot water until pliable-about 15 seconds.  Place 2T of mix on each wrapper and wrap.  Serve with dipping sauce.

If you cannot find pre-made dipping sauce, here is a recipe for making your own.

Today at the Community School in Sun Valley, Idaho, I asked the kids “what would you rather eat?”

Option 1:  Something made from:  eggs, sugar, milk, cream and vanilla

Option 2:  Something made from:  skim milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup, molasses, acacia gum, guar gum, carob bean gum, carrageenan, xanthan gum, natural flavors (with vanilla extract)*, annatto color
*”with” vanilla?  What else is in there?  “Natural” flavors is an umbrella category for all kinds of substances, including those made from petroleum.  Did I read four kinds of gums? Anyway…

That “something” was vanilla ice cream.  Option 1 was home-made while Option 2 was a popular store-bought brand.  I then gave them a taste test.  Which option do you think won hands down?  Option 1!

 Now, you might be thinking, “I’m not going to take the time to make my own ice cream!”.  Well, I’m here to convince you that you can.  It takes about 5 minutes to assemble the ingredients and beat them up.  Your kids will probably help you, believe me.  Then you put the ingredients in an ice cream maker, and it does the rest of the work for you.  (My kids stand over the ice cream maker while it freezes).  I even found an ice cream maker –an excellent Cuisinart brand– that was nearly half off, and available through Amazon Prime (2 day free shipping).  See below.

First, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 eggs*
2/3 cup sugar
1 ¾ cups milk
2 cups cream
2 tsp. vanilla

*to serve this recipe at school, I went the very safe route and used an egg substitute product instead of eggs, since you don’t cook the mixture.  However, I make this recipe with real eggs all the time at home.  Just make sure you buy great quality and fresh eggs.

Directions:  Beat eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until thick and cream colored.  Add milk, cream and vanilla. Mix well.  Then add to your ice cream maker (you will have kept the base in the freezer overnight so that it is nice and cold), and you will have ice cream in about 20 minutes! 

 Enjoy!

It is definitely spring time, and it is that time of year when you should really make an effort to boost the “green” intake of everyone in your family.  My favorite green drink for kids is still the Green Machine that Juliette posted on her Wholesome Heart blog, but I was looking for something that might be even more of a cleansing drink during this springtime season.  (Hint:  parsley is considered a highly cleansing food).  So I looked around, and I wanted to share the top two ideas I found:

Dr. Mehmet Oz’s Green Drink Recipe (serves 3 to 4).  This recipe was share with Oprah by Dr. Mehmet Oz when she was doing her 21-day vegan cleanse.  This smoothie can be made in a juicer or a blender.

Organic produce is highly recommended.
-2 apples (cored, with skin)

-2 BIG handfuls of spinach
-1 medium cucumber
-3 ribs/sticks of chopped celery
-1/2 inch or tsp ginger root, peeled
-1 punch parsley
-juice of 1 lime
-juice of ½ lemon

The second recipe I liked was a little shorter, and I ended up modifying it a little bit (the strawberries and the touch of honey were my additions;  I had used arugula as the baby greens and it just seemed like it needed a bit of sweetness).

Detox Green Drink
Organic produce is highly recommended.

-1 bag organic baby greens (I just used a BIG handful)
-2 stalks celery
-1/2 small apple
-3-4 baby carrots
-1 small handful parsley

-water to taste
optional:  3-4 strawberries, without stems (please use organic!) and a touch of honey

 Have fun with green drinks!  If your kids see you enjoying them, they are more likely to be inspired!

Comment- May 14th.   It was 80 degrees and sunny in Sun Valley today, and I went for a REALLY long run.  Getting ready for the Sun Valley 1/2 Marathon!  Came home and craved a veggie/fruit drink, but we were low on supplies.  Added arugula to the blender (found it in our greenhouse) along with a can of mandarin oranges.  Added ice and coconut water–not bad in a pinch!  Just so you know that you don’t have to run out to the grocery store every time you want to come up with something fun to hydrate you.

Now I’m off to soak in the tub:

Here is my new go-to recipe!   We make a big batch on Monday- and use it for the rest of the week as a side dish.   Great source of starch, Vitamin A, and medium chain fatty acids.  Lots of healing power for those with leaky gut.

 Ingredients:
-3 lbs sweet potato, peeled and diced (about 4-5 large sweet potatoes)
-1 can full fat coconut milk
-1 T. minced ginger
-1 t. cinnamon
-1/2 t. Celtic salt

 Directions:
Place in a slow cooker and cook on high for 2-3 hours (remember, my slow cooker is super fast).  Use hand blender and blend until smooth. 
*I sometimes eat this as my ‘dessert’.

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day gives us all the opportunity to join thousands of people around the world in empowering each other with these skills.   Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day will include events such as tastings, classes, and events in 25 countries around the world.  In my role as an Ambassador for the Jamie Oliver Food Day, I have decided to hold a local event, a “Healthy Grocery Shopping Tour”. This event will take place in Ketchum, Idaho with the partnership and support of Idaho’s Bounty and Main Street Market.  I am so grateful for the collaboration of these two wonderful organizations and specifically the support of Karen Holzman and Lynea Newcomer.  If you would like to sign up for this event ($5 per attendee is a donation to Jamie’s foundation projects in the UK, US and Australia to support food education), please follow the link to sign up for one of the 20 spots available (you might need to move quickly to get a spot!): http://gidsy.com/activities/7569/healthy-grocery-store-tour

I have written about healthy shopping previously in the October 2009: Two ways to spend $100 at the grocery store.  The point of that article was to emphasize that if you need or want to save money on your grocery shopping bill, the best strategy and also one that optimizes the nutrition of your foods is to buy whole foods that you prepare yourself.  In other words, time to drop the frozen meals and prepared foods and get yourself into the kitchen to start cooking!.  In fact, I showed that the “healthy food” shopping trip yielded many more (for lunches/dinners, nearly twice!) servings than the “unhealthy” (prepared foods) shopping trip.  I am still very much in that camp, as you probably know.  This calendar year I have been faithfully posting easy recipes that you can prepare (often quite simply in a slow cooker or rice cooker) through the recipe blog, Delicious and Nutritious.  If you haven’t checked out that blog in a while, you’ve missed out on some great recipes including dips, salads, soups and more!  So, maybe plan a few easy family meals this week.

But first, you need to plan your shopping trip…

As we get into the details of “Healthy Shopping”, I’d like to thank Heather Sullivan, Registered Dietician, for her help in framing much of the materials around the “why” and “how” of healthy shopping.  She came up with the idea of creating “themes” that you can use to plan your family meals on a daily basis, rotating recipes yet allowing your family to have some expectations of what will be served that night.  In the comments sections below, if you have any ideas or experiences in using “themes” to plan your daily/weeky dinners, we would love to hear from you!

Why plan ahead?  
         Planning ahead

o   Reduces impulse purchases at the grocery store or fast food restaurant that cost more and are less healthy

o   Reduces wasted food

o   Saves time wandering around the grocery store (focus your time on the outside of the grocery store: the produce section, bulk section, dairy refrigerator, meat counter and freezer sections offer the most value for your money and the most nutritious options)

o   Increases the number of home cooked meals your family eats.  Eating more home cooked meals has been shown to improve a family’s overall health, improve students’ academic performance and reduce the chances that children will get involved with drugs or alcohol.

How to plan ahead (10 steps)

1.      Look at what you already have in the pantry, freezer and refrigerator.  If there are any items that will soon go bad, start by planning at least one meal around those items.

2.      Stock your pantry with healthy ingredients will help you put meals together easily and quickly.  Use the bulk section! Buying items in bulk is often ½ the price of packaged items and allows you to purchase as much or as little as you want.
Here is an outline of how you can structure your shopping list.  Always think about what you have, and what you need based on recipes you are planning for the week.

3.      Look at your local grocery store flyers or website to see what’s on sale that week.

4.      Consider what’s in season.  Fruits and vegetables are cheaper when purchased in season and have more nutritional value; they’re higher in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.  Canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are a great choice when out of season.  Click here for more information about choosing fresh, frozen or canned fruits and vegetables.  Click here for information about stretching your food dollars for fruits and veggies.

Ingredients:
Brown rice, 2 cups dry (will expand when cooked)
2  T lemon juice
2 cups cilantro, chopped
1 ½ cups cooked corn (I defrost frozen corn)
1 can black beans, rinsed
1/3  of a red onion, diced
1 cup red pepper, diced
½ cup olive oil
2 T white or red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste (a dash)

Directions:
Rinse brown rice.  For easier digestion, you can soak your grains.  The method is to leave grains covered with non-chlorinated water, plus an acidic medium, for about 7-8 hours (a longer time is okay too).  The amount of acidic medium is 1 tablespoon for every 1 cup of grains.  Your best choices for an acidic medium are lemon juice or vinegar.   Then cook using the method you like.  I am a big fan of the rice cooker!*

Combine ingredients and season with additional olive oil and vinegar. Chill, then serve.

*A rice cooker ensures that your grains come out perfect every time. 

It is definitely Spring here, and I am craving lots of greens!  This recipe features kale, such a great source of nutrition.  The flavonoids and sulfur-containing compounds called glucosinolates are believed to have antioxidant properties, as are two other compounds that kale delivers, zeaxanthin and lutein, both thought to play a role in protecting the eyes.  This recipe comes right from the back of the Harvest Sensations 8oz bagged kale salad blend.  I have my friend, Eila, to thank for sharing this recipe with me.  She is the amazing founder of full plate / meals in a snap.   She is also starting a new venture, www.facebook.com/swellmom.   Be sure to check out her sites!

Ingredients:
1-2 heads curly kale (or 8 oz bagged kale)*
dash of salt
optional:  ½ cup shredded carrots
optional:  ½ cup shredded cabbage

2 T toasted sesame seeds*

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 T sesame oil
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Note:    You can also top this salad with  It Takes a Village Foods Ketchum Kale Chips (about ½ package) for texture variety!
http://www.ittakesavillagefoods.com/ketchum-kale-chips.html

* To toast the sesame seeds, roast in pan with a bit of oil or bake on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil and sprayed with Spectrum Olive Oil spray.  Watch the seeds closely as you want them to brown but not burn.

Directions: Unless using bagged kale, strip kale of stems and tear into small pieces, and soak in a bowl to get rid o any sand/dirt and spin dry.  To allow for easier digestion, drizzle the kale with olive oil and add a dash of sea salt and massage kale with your hands for a few minutes until it softens.  You can leave the olive oil and salt on the kale overnight as well, allowing the kale to further soften

Toast seeds (see above).  Toss all ingredients together and let sit for 30 minutes before serving.  This simple and delicious salad will hold for two days.  You can also serve warm as a side dish.  Enjoy!

I am posting this recipe in honor of the amazing people at The Hunger Coalition of Blaine County, Idaho.  I had the honor to spend a few hours with the leaders of this amazing organization recently, and I wanted to offer everyone a simple dish that we could enjoy together.  I have been working on recipes with spinach, that amazing powerhouse green vegetable so appropriately associated with Spring. I originally tested this recipe for my kids, but my husband took over and ate almost the entire batch. So I figured this dish would be a great and easy appetizer to please a crowd.  Enjoy! 

Note—I adapted this recipe from a cookbook and significantly reduced the amount of fat. It is still a very heavy dish, however! Make it on a day when you’ve been particularly active.

Combine in a slow cooker:
-1 10oz package of Cascadian Farms frozen spinach
-1/2 jar salsa (your favorite brand)
-4 oz cream cheese
-1/2 cup half and half

Cook on high for 2 hours. When it is done cooking, remove slow cooker lid and sprinkle ½ bag (about 4oz) of Mexican blend cheese. Replace lid until cheese is melted. Use as a dip with your favorite veggies (celery, carrots, etc.) and healthy chips!

 Here is the original recipe:

Notes:  “(My kids) love making it – it’s a great way to get them tasting and exploring beyond their comfort zone and a neat hands-on math lesson.  This is a very forgiving recipe. You can add/change vegetables, replace the yogurt and ricotta with cottage cheese that’s blended until smooth, add shredded chicken, modify the spices, use fresh tomatoes, change the cheese, etc. I hope you and your kids enjoy it!”

 Enchilada Bake
1/4 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, diced
1 can stewed tomatoes, diced (no salt/seasonings added)
1 can kidney beans, drained
2 T mild chili powder
2 t cumin
1/2 C plain, nonfat yogurt
1/2 C low-fat ricotta cheese
Nonstick cooking spray
9 corn tortillas, halved
4 oz part-skim mozzarella cheese, grated

Directions:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In one bowl combine onion, garlic, tomatoes, kidney beans, chili powder and cumin. In another bowl combine yogurt and ricotta. Spray a 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and lay 6 tortilla halves on the bottom. Top them with 1/3 of the cheese mixture, 1/3 of the bean mixture, and 1 oz of the mozzarella, then arrange 6 more halves and repeat the layering process. When you have all 3 layers complete, add the remaining grated mozzarella to the top (you may want to add a little more). Bake for 30 minutes. Serves 6.

From Kathryn:  Here is how I modified the recipe to work in the slow cooker.

Of course used the Nurture’s Recipe Framework for a Slow Cooker to keep me organized. 

Prepare slow cooker to avoid the food sticking to the edges:

-1 T olive oil rubbed around the edges of the slow cooker

Layer the following in a slow cooker, using halved corn tortillas to separate layers.  It takes about 3 small tortillas, halved, to cover a layer in my slow cooker;  you use more corn tortillas as you make the layers.  I used 9 tortillas total, as I made 3 layers.

Protein
-1 15 oz can of beans*, thoroughly rinsed

Vegetables
-I will be honest here and let you know that my kids are not fans of onions and garlic, so we omitted them
-1 jar of salsa (but there are onions in this—ha!)
-1 bunch cilantro, washed and chopped

Seasonings

-1 teaspoon each of cumin and chili powder

Liquid
-1 large container of cottage cheese (this gave us more liquid than using the ricotta/yogurt blend Stephanie uses).  Besides, we were out of ricotta and yogurt!

We cooked in slow cooker* on high for about 4 hours.  Once it was cooked, we topped with shredded cheese.  Yum!

*For purchasing information, please see below.

Need to buy some items to make this recipe? We’ve search the web and selected some great options for you (value, free shipping, and no tax!) that you can purchase through the links below. Thanks to Amazon Associates, when you purchase through one of the Amazon product icons, the Healthy Kids site gets a little kickback from Amazon. You don’t pay more; in fact, you will likely get a better deal than what you might find in stores. Our relationship with Amazon helps to offset the cost of running this website. If we end up making a profit– especially since our time is volunteer–we donate it to Nurture, a non-profit that helps low-income families improve nutrition and health. Thank you!
Need to buy some items to make this recipe? We’ve search the web and selected some great options for you (value, free shipping, and no tax!) that you can purchase through the links below. Thanks to Amazon Associates, when you purchase through one of the Amazon product icons, the Healthy Kids site gets a little kickback from Amazon. You don’t pay more; in fact, you will likely get a better deal than what you might find in stores. Our relationship with Amazon helps to offset the cost of running this website. If we end up making a profit– especially since our time is volunteer–we donate it to Nurture, a non-profit that helps low-income families improve nutrition and health. Thank you!