Sicilian-Style Roasted Vegetables with Balsamic Syrup

We had extra green beans and red bell peppers, so I decided to roast them and toss the vegetables with orange and lemon juices and then drizzling them with reduced balsamic vinegar.

Ingredients:
1 lb green beans, trimmed
1 lg red bell pepper, sliced lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick strips
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/3 c balsamic vinegar
1/4 c fresh orange juice
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp grated orange zest


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Toss green beans and bell pepper strips with oil, salt, and pepper in large bowl. Spread in single layer on baking sheet, and roast 20 to 25 minutes, or until vegetables are crisp-tender and beginning to brown, stirring occasionally.
2. Bring vinegar to a boil in small saucepan over medium-high heat. Simmer 5 to 7 minutes, or until vinegar is thick and syrupy, stirring occasionally.
3. Toss green bean mixture with orange juice, lemon juice, and orange zest in large bowl. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Transfer to serving dish, and drizzle with balsamic vinegar syrup.

Lower-fat not Lower-flavor Banana Bread

This bread is pure, unadulterated banana goodness. No One will know it is lower in fat, swear to god. Don't stress about the exact measurement; it always comes out yummy.

TIP:
1. Never use a hand mixer for banana bread because it comes out gummy; treat it like a muffin batter and mix with a wooden spoon just until the wet and dry ingredients are combined.

2. In fact, if you would like to turn these into muffins, pour the batter into greased muffin tins and bake for eighteen minutes.

Ingredients:
2-3 md bananas
1/4 c applesauce, unsweetened
1/4 c canola oil
1/2 c sugar
2 Tbsp molasses
2 c all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg(or grated fresh)
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mash bananas really, really well. Add the sugar, applesauce, oil, and molasses, and whisk briskly to incorporate.
3. Sift the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Use a wooden spoon to mix until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined.This is where you fold in your mix-ins.(chocolate chips, walnuts, or anything else your imagination can conger up.)
4. Transfer batter to prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes. the top should be lightly browned and a knife inserted in the center should come out clean.(if you are using chips then some chocolate will come out on your knife.)
5. Remove from the oven and invert onto a cooling rack; flip the bread right side up and let cool.

Coconut Rice

This is a recipe I came up with after watching a YouTube video. I watched, and I modified the recipe to make it vegan and simplify it a little bit.

No opening the pan to look at your rice, touch it or anything.

This is an amazingly good recipe.

It is quite easy to make and very tasty.


Ingredients:
1 c coconut milk
1 1/2 c water
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar
1 c long grain rice
1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro


Directions:
1
Put the first four ingredients in a pan a bring it to a boil.
2
Now add rice, bring it back to a boil, and reduce heat to low. Let steam covered for 20 min.
3
After 20 min turn off heat and let it sit for 10 min. Don't remove the lid!
4
Now fluff rice, mix in cilantro, and serve.

Almond Triple Berry Salad

This is my version of Wendy's Berry Almond Chicken Salad. Minus the chicken the dressing on this salad is better than the one Wendy's gives you with their salad it is so fresh it is amazing how good it is and good for you. this is a salad that can be used as a starter like I have it portioned here; or as a meal just make 2 salads instead of 4 and you have a light meal that is packed full of flavor.


Ingredients:
SALAD
1 pkg tender baby lettuce leaves
1/2 pt strawberries, fresh, sliced
1/2 pt blueberries, fresh
1/8 c sliced almonds toasted
DRESSING
1/3 c raspberries, fresh
1/4 c raspberry juice
3 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp splenda or equivalent of your favorite sweetener(optional)


Directions
1
split the package of lettuce, strawberries, blueberries, and almonds between 4 small bowls.
2
add all of the dressing ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. then spoon over the salads and serve.

Roasted Veggie Pizza

Roasted Veggie Pizza

    While this came out looking quite nice it seemed to be a failed experiment. mainly because the crust was not so good, and it lacked tomatoes. If i try this one again i will be making my own crust and using my homemade tomato sauce instead of the roast onion and garlic puree that was on the frozen one in the store. That is right my inspiration for this came when i was doing some grocery shopping. last night and saw a frozen version. And me in my infinite belief  in myself was like "I can make that!."
    I didn't post yesterday because i was doing my grocery shopping for the week.      And my husband had the computer room tied while he and his friend do their Bad Movie Night Pod Cast !. http://badmoviepodcast.com/.  He and Josh do this pod cast once a week and kick me out of the computer room so once a week i will not be posting unless i figure out a satisfactory solution.

This is the Grocery store version i saw.

    So anyway i digress. This recipe came into my head while shopping. I saw a vegan cheese-less pizza. so me wanting to fit that into our diet thought Hmm I can make that myself . Because the Grain Mill Of Wake Forest is closed on weekends. And I could get any good fresh ground whole wheat flour. I went to Trader Joe's and bought their whole wheat pizza dough.(no white flour no sugar and the salt is a minimal).  I had bought it before and didn't like it, but I thought it was something I did wrong. Now I know not! Because I followed the directions on the bag to the letter.
    The frozen pizza has roasted onion and garlic puree on the bottom for sauce. so I roasted a red onion and a whole head of garlic and pureed them in the Ninja. While it was yummy. It didn't replace my need for tomato sauce. So the next time I make it I will use my homemade tomato sauce. then i just roasted veggies that sounded good to me. I did eggplant, Zucchini, red pepper, and artichoke hearts. topped the pizza and baked it.
    the veggies were great and the onions on the bottom was even good. But i would prefer to add tomato next time and make my own crust.
  

Harvest Vegetable Soup

      I call this my Harvest Vegetable soup, because one of the bags of vegetables in the freezer i used was Trader Joe's Harvest Vegetable blend. It is October and all the fresh vegetables i had were in season vegetables, so the name seemed to fit.
    I try not to buy any vegetables that are over $1 a pound. This is an attempt to keep the grocery bill down.
    I love the farmers market, I go every weekend. It is the best place to get fresh Vegetables, and you can control where your food is coming from. With all the contamination we have had these last few years it is a good idea to keep track of where your food is coming from, and the best way to do that is to buy local and know your farmers. I don't like to keep fresh vegetables around for more than a week.So the simplest way to use up old vegetables is soup.

    Chop up carrots, celery, onion, cabbage, zucchini, summer squash, broccoli,  tomatoes,and use up any open bags of frozen vegetables you may have in your freezer like corn, peas, broccoli, or any mixed vegetables or stir fry blends.
    I like to add cans of black beans and diced tomatoes if i don't have fresh tomatoes to add. Acid from the tomatoes balances the flavors Makes it more of a balanced meal and the beans keep you full longer.
    For the broth i use better than bullion vegetable. one teaspoon per 8 oz of water. Mix well and add to all the fresh chopped and canned vegetables in the slow cooker. and set on low for 8 hours.
     About 2 or three hours before serving add the frozen ingredients and stir.