I love beach days.

Came home just in time today to whip up these won­derful treats… paired so nicely with our salty lips! These would make the cutest little drinks for Mother’s Day. A happy and blessed early Mother’s Day to all you mom­mies out there!

Water­melon Frosty

• 2 cups frozen watermelon
• 1 large ripe banana
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 4 Tbsp lime juice (about 2 limes)
• 1/2 tsp lime zest
• 1/2 cup+ water as needed to get blender moving
• coconut water ice cubes for an extra frosty sip (optional)
• a few dashes of cayenne for a spicy sip (optional)
• shot of tequila for a fab­u­lous mar­garita (optional)

Blend. Serve in chilled glasses.

Recipe cour­tesy of Kathy Patalsky c/o The Family Kitchen. See full recipe here.

Fun beach “pics” :)

What better place for some fresh basil than mar­ried with fresh parsley and spinach in a killer pesto… other than maybe slathered on pizza! I’ve spent a good deal of time the last couple of weeks learning every­thing I could about growing an herb garden… and then planting one. I’m happy to say my res­i­dents are alive and well (thus far) — pic­tures to come. Anyway, I stum­bled upon the most fan­tastic pizza recipe by arguably the most cre­ative culi­nary genius ever. Thanks for another amazing recipe Kathy!
 
I promise this is not nearly as involved as it looks.
 
FOR THE PIZZA:

Lemon Garlic Ricotta

• 1 1/2 cups soaked and drained raw cashews (soak in salted water overnight or quick soak*)
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 cloves of raw garlic
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup water + more as needed
• 1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
• dash of pepper
• dash of cayenne
• a few dashes of ground flax seeds (optional)
• 1 TBSP nutri­tional yeast (optional but recommended)

Pesto

• (use your favorite pesto recipe or the one below)
• 1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup spinach
• 1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped with stems
• 1 cup raw wal­nuts (or a mix of raw seeds/nuts you may have on hand — pumpkin seeds and pine nuts work well too)
• 2–3 Tbsp nutri­tional yeast
• a few dashes black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• water as needed to thin out pesto during blend
• 1 small jalapeno, stem removed (optional)

This is where I cheated. Typ­i­cally I use the same dough recipe for my pizza crust as I use for my yeast rolls only I roll it out nice and thin. Instead, I bought me one of these (used to live not far from this bakery). I love the sweet nut­ti­ness of millet. Def­i­nitely need to find me a good millet crust recipe. Anyone? I’m sure Kathy’s recipe below is won­derful too.

Pizza Dough

• 1 yeast packet
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp agave syrup
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or another variety)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp hemp seeds
• 1 Tbsp ground flax seeds
• 1/3 cup vital wheat gluten — helps with the chewi­ness of the crust
• Direc­tions:

Prep: Soak cashews the night before in salted water — or at least 4 hours. *You can also do a quick soak by lightly boiling the cashews in water for 10 min­utes, dis­carding the soak water, and then repeating again for another 10 min­utes (if you’re short on time, or lazy like me).

Direc­tions:

1. Start your dough. Swirl the yeast and agave with the warm water. Let yeast sit for about 5 min­utes. In a small bowl, com­bine the flour, vital wheat gluten, salt and oil — add to yeasted water. Gently knead dough into a ball. Place in a floured mixing bowl and let it sit for a while. It will puff up and become “hap­pier” as it sits. If you need to knead a bit more to really mix the dough go for it. Place ball in mixing bowl and let sit for about 45 min­utes to 2 hours.
2. While the dough is “growing” you can get started on your pesto and cashew ricotta. I do my ricotta first. Place all ingre­di­ents in a high speed blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. You may need to add a bit of water to get the blend moving — depends how “soaked” your cashews are. Salt and spice to taste. You want a light lemony garlic flavor with a hint of spici­ness from the raw garlic and cayenne. Transfer ricotta to a bowl and place in fridge.
3. You really don’t even need to clean your blender — the bits of ricotta actu­ally blend well in the pesto. Add the pesto ingre­di­ents to the blender and puree until smooth — yet not too watery. If you end up with watery pesto, add in more nuts and/or nutri­tonal yeast. Dried spices will also thicken things up a bit. Transfer pesto to a bowl and place in fridge.
4. Prep your veg­gies by slicing shi­itakes and tomatoes.
5. Pre­heat oven to 415–425 degrees.
6. Knead dough on a floured sur­face — you can also use the hemp and flax seeds on the sur­face so that you get a nice seedy dough — with seeds along the crust and bottom. I like to drag the shaped dough in a pile of hemp seeds and a splash of olive oil. Shape dough into a pizza round and place on a lightly EVOO-greased pizza pan.
7. Add a drizzle of EVOO and a light sprinkle of herbs and/or garlic powder.
8. Add the tomato slices. I added enough to cover the whole pizza.
9. Grab your ricotta and pesto and add dol­lops of each all over the pizza — alter­nating so that the pizza looks like a pretty white and green polka dot feast. Make sure you thin out each dollop with the back of a spoon.
10. Add the lemon slices around the edges — these should be removed before eating the pizza — but they add a very nice bright essence to the pizza. Add the shi­itakes and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. I also added some fresh basil during the last minute of bake time.
11. Bake for about ten to fif­teen min­utes — depending on how thick or thin you rolled your crust. This pizza tastes amazing the next day for left­over too. Even cold! I couldn’t agree more!

Pesto Cashew Ricotta Pizza via kblog.lunchboxbunch.com

Soba Noo­dles & Green Beans with Tamari-Maple Tempeh

• 1 package buck­wheat soba noo­dles, cooked to al dente, drained and rinsed
• 2 c green beans, trimmed, cut into 1″ lengths and blanched (I used half yellow and half green beans)
• 1 cucumber, halved length­wise and sliced
• 1 c cherry toma­toes, halved (or vine-ripened, chopped)
• 1–2 spring onions, cut into paper thin slices
• 1 c sweet pepper, chopped (I used yellow)
• 8 oz cooked tamari-maple tempeh (*see my recipe below)
• small handful cilantro leaves
• 1/3 c roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/3 c freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 Tbs maple syrup
• 2 Tbs tamari sauce
• few shakes of crushed red chili flakes
• few shakes cayenne pepper

Direc­tions:

* Pre­pare tempeh by cut­ting in half width­wise and then into smaller rectangles/squares (aka chop it up). Sub­merse in a pot of boiling water for 10 min­utes. Drain. In a medium skillet, heat 2–3 Tbs sesame oil. Sauté tempeh in oil for 2 min­utes. Drizzle tempeh with 1–2 Tbs tamari and 1 Tbs maple syrup. Cook for 5ish more min­utes until liq­uids are caramelized adding more tamari as needed to keep them moist, stir­ring occa­sion­ally (I com­bined a Tbs+ of freshly ground peanut butter in the end with a bit more tamari and stirred it into the tempeh for about a minute). Sprinkle with 1–2 Tbs freshly squeezed lime juice. {This was all sort of an exper­i­ment but it turned out awe­some! Sorry there’s no pictures.}

Place all salad ingre­di­ents together in a large bowl, reserving a small amount of peanuts and cilantro for gar­nish (if desired). Add the cooked tempeh. Add liquid ingre­di­ents and spices, toss well, gar­nish and serve.

Recipe adapted from farm­house­table {via Heidi Swanson}.

A new go-to meal with lots of sea­sonal veg­gies. LOVE.

No better way to top off these last two won­der­fully crazy weeks than with the most ulti­mate of ulti­mate green smoothie recipes. Sorry we’ve been away so long. We had the greatest Easter and almost no pic­tures to show for it (other than a couple cour­tesy of my adorably preg­nant sister Sheena). A spe­cial thanks to my won­derful hus­band who mud­dled through his final exams and still found time to enter­tain our vis­i­tors… Grandpa, Grandmas, Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, and Fetuses. We love you and miss you all.

Now then, to be fair, this is more of an ingre­dient list than an actual recipe. Patrick and I have had this for break­fast nearly every morning for the past three years. It’s sort of become our staple. In fact, I thought about posting this for­ever and ever ago as I’d promised sev­eral indi­vid­uals a good green smoothie recipe but it’s been dif­fi­cult to try and narrow down an exact for­mula as it changes every day and, quite frankly, every season. Suf­fice it to say, it’s more of an aggre­ga­tion of the con­tents of my refrig­er­ator and/or Sat­urday farmers market food­stuffs and my par­tic­ular mood any given morning.

The Ulti­mate Green Smoothie

• water
• banana
• oats
• nuts (almond, walnut)*
• seeds (flax, chia)*
• fruit (apple, pear, mango)*
• frozen berries (straw­berry, blue­berry, mixed)*
• veg­gies (carrot, celery, cucumber)*
• greens (kale, dan­de­lion, spinach, col­lard, chard, wheat grass)*
• herbs (parsley, cilantro, mint, basil)*
• citrus (lemon, lime, grapefruit)*
• avo­cado
• Occa­sional:
• coconut
• cocoa/ cocoa nibs (good with spinach and mint)
• ginger (best with parsley and lemon)
• gogi berries
• golden berries
• vanilla
• cin­namon
• spir­ulina
• hemp

*our favorites but not all-inclusive

Direc­tions:

Buy a Vitamix ; )

Fill it with 4ish cups water. Load it with what­ever you have, enough to fill con­tainer (softer, non-fibrous foods first). Process until smooth (but still a little chunky) — avoid over-blending as nutri­ents may be lost to oxi­da­tion. Add more water to obtain the desired consistency.

This should yield about 4+ gen­erous serv­ings. We tend to save left­overs to sip on throughout the day… or bring to work and school to bemuse curious minds.

Today’s featured smoothie had a cilantro-lime flair (been on a bit of a citrus and herb kick lately). So good!

And now we all nap.

Spent the after­noon at the beach last Thursday. It’s not often that Patrick gets a day off but when he does you can be cer­tain to find us there. To make things a bit easier this year, we pur­chased a beach pass to give us access to park and drive on the beach (cut­ting out a whole 50 meters from the parking lot, and another few blocks from our house… I know, but we never pack light and have you seen how big this child is get­ting? ;) So off we went with our tent, umbrella, chairs, blan­kets, towels, toys, and beach bag full of goodies.

After a few good hours, we pried our pink bodies off the sand and headed home. Two showers and a bath later, we sat down to enjoy a tasty dinner of veggie burgers and asparagus.

The orig­inal recipe can be found here, at Healthy. Happy. Life. These burgers are awe­some just as they are. How­ever, I was preparing one of those clean-out-the-refrigerator meals so I made a few adjust­ments just to switch it up a bit. This was the result. Absolutely yum.

Ube Veggie Burgers

• 2 cups can­nellini white beans, cooked
• 2 cups black beans, cooked
• 1 large Ube, baked/mashed (about 2 cups)*
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 1 cup rice, cooked
• 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp+ Bragg organic sprinkle sea­soning (or your favorite seasoning)
• 1/2  tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

Burgers: avo­cado, Dijon mus­tard, whole grain buns or sprouted bread, romaine or spring mix let­tuce, onion, olive oil, pepper, fresh cilantro (optional)

*I used a medium-sized purple sweet potato (Ube) and about a cup of pre­cooked orange sweet potato.

Direc­tions:

1. Cook beans. (Rinse and pick over dried beans. Soak overnight or for at least 6 hours. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 50 — 75 mins.) May sub­sti­tute with 1 can of each black and white beans.

2. Bake Ube. (400º oven for 45+ min — I usu­ally pierce a few times with a fork and place directly on middle oven rack with a piece of foil below on lower rack to catch any drip­pings; sugars should carmelize from prick sites and knife should pierce through easily when it’s done.)

3. Reduce oven tem­per­a­ture to 375° (for baked pat­ties). Refer to orig­inal recipe for fried and/or crusted patties.

4. In the con­tainer of a food processor or blender, process together the first seven “wet” ingre­di­ents. (May need to do this in a couple batches.)

5. In a large mixing bowl, add the blended ingre­di­ents with the remaining dry ingre­di­ents. Your mix­ture will be the con­sis­tency of cookie dough; chunky, moist, and sticky. Add more flour to thicken if needed.

6. On a well-oiled cookie sheet, arrange formed pat­ties. (It’s okay if the mix­ture is sticky, just do your best.) Cook for 10ish min­utes on each side. (Makes 9+ good-sized patties.)

7. Serve on toated bun with top­pings. Enjoy!

Ube is the Fil­ipino word for a purple sweet potato. It has a rich, sweet flavor, with almost a hint of molasses and a deep, pretty, purple color. It’s often used in desserts. I’m thinking a bowl of Coconut Ube ice cream is on the menu for a Lenten breakout dessert this Sunday…
P.S. These freeze up well for quick lunches/dinners.

Addendum: {3/30/12} Sorry for no full recipe but wanted to men­tion a flavor alter­na­tive because I thought it (tonight’s dinner exper­i­ment) turned out so nice. Burgers — hydrated chick­peas, white sweet potato (my per­sonal favorite), tahini, fresh ground oat flour, cumin, paprika, oregano, crushed red pepper, salt, pepper, finely chopped fresh cilantro. Top­ping — all of the above with the addi­tion of tomato and fresh cilantro. Yum.

The Ulti­mate Raw Bar Recipe

• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/3 cup dried gogi berries
• 1/3 cup dried apricots
• 1/2 cup dried golden berries
• 1/2 cup dates
• 3÷4−1 cup dried figs
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup hemp powder
• 1/4 cup sun­flower seeds
• 1/4 cup flax seeds
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 2 tbsp cocoa nibs
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 1 tsp spirulina
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp maple syrup or honey
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1 tbsp vanilla

Direc­tions:

Soak the first 7 ingre­di­ents in a medium bowl for about an hour {add enough water to just cover everything}.

Drain, dis­card the soak water. Process in a food processor until pasty but still chunky.

Com­bine the remaining ingre­di­ents in a large bowl. Add in the con­tents of the food processor and mix it all together {hands work good for this part if you don’t mind get­ting sticky}. Press into a 2.2 Qt {middle size} glass baking dish.

Cover and chill in the fridge for 1 hour. Cut into bars.

*All of the ingre­di­ents I used were 100% Organic. I should prob­ably men­tion some­where that my family eats exclu­sively organic. It may make a dif­fer­ence in the quality of taste though it’s not necessary.

**This is a very for­giving recipe. I’ve made it sev­eral times and never the same way or with the same ingre­di­ents. I just really liked how it turned out today {par­tic­u­larly with the golden berries and figs — sort of the over­riding fla­vors}. Exper­i­ment with some or all of the ingre­di­ents (though the coconut oil is kind of nec­es­sary to hold it all together). Use what you have on hand. You really can’t go wrong.

- That being said, I DID NOT mea­sure, just sort of dumped in what looked good {this is the for­giving part} so under­stand that the direc­tions are more guide­lines than exact amounts. That’s how easy these are to make. Minus the soak and chill time, they take all of 5 min­utes to whip together!

***These never last us more than a few days. I bring them with me to work and Patrick brings them to class. I imagine they would hold up for a least a week though.

Happy munching.