Eat Your Greens!

This is a wonderful combination of greens, beans and rice, and there are a couple of ingredients that you can easily sub out for others if needed. The most unusual ingredient in this recipe is black garlic. I found it at Whole Foods. Before cooking, I researched and learned that it is fermented garlic. It's often found in Asian cuisine and it's rich in antioxidants! It's made by fermenting whole bulbs of garlic at high temperatures resulting in a deep black color with a slightly sweet taste similar to that of balsamic vinegar. If you already have this tasty garlic in your house, lucky you! If not, it won't be hard to find. There are on-line sources if it's not in your nearby health food store.

Eat Your Greens
Serves 4 as a Side Dish

1 C cooked rice
1 - 2 T Fustini's Extra Virgin Garlic Olive Oil
1 leek, white part only, diced
1 large leaf of red chard, vein removed and chopped
1 clove of black garlic
10 leaves of dandelion, chopped
1 C spinach
1/2 C maitake mushrooms, chopped
2 sprigs of thyme, leaves only
1/2 C cannellini beans
1/4 C kalamata olives
sliced almonds, toasted in a skillet over med. heat for 7 - 10 minutes
fresh lemon juice

Cook the rice according to the package directions so you end up with about one cup. Toast the sliced almonds. Once that's done, warm the olive oil in a saute pan. Saute the leek over medium low heat until it becomes translucent. Add the chopped chard and saute for 5 - 8 minutes. Add the black garlic and mash it as you stir it in. Add the dandelion, spinach, maitake mushrooms, thyme and continue to cook over low heat until the greens have wilted and the mushrooms have cooked down. Add the rice, beans and olives to the mixture and continue to cook until heated. Mix in the almonds and squeeze with a little fresh lemon juice.

Chocolate Cherry Cashew Bars

This recipe came to me by way of my dear friend, Mary Ann. She enjoys cooking and reading blogs, and she always sends me her best finds. This one is from the blog "Peas and Thank You" and it hit a home run in my house. It's a sweet and salty, fruity and chocolaty, crunchy and chewy taste treat.

What more could you want?

Chocolate Cherry Cashew Bars

Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook Time: 30 mins | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• Ingredients (12 bars)
• 2 T. flax seeds (or approximately 3 T. ground)
• 1/2 c. maple syrup, agave or honey (or mixture of any of the three)
• 1 t. salt
• 1 c. whole almonds, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 c. peanuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 c. cashew pieces
• 1/2 c. dried cherries
• 1/2 c. quality chocolate chips

Directions:

Prep Time: 5 min.
Cook Time: 30 min.


Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To the ground flax, add the syrupy sweetener of your choice. Mix well and set aside. In a large bowl, combine salt, almonds, peanuts, cashews and cherries. Pour flax syrup mixture over nuts and cherries and stir until evenly coated. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper. Spread the nut mixture in the baking pan evenly, from corner to corner. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, until bars are slightly browned and edges are crisp. They will be soft, but will harden upon cooling.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips in a small bowl in the microwave or over a double-boiler. Drizzle chocolate over almost cooled bars. Chocolate will be wet, but will set upon cooling.

When bars and chocolate have set, pull parchment out of pan and set bars on a flat cutting surface.
Cut bars into squares, and store in an airtight container. They stay especially crunchy if you refrigerate them.

Nutritional Info:

3.62 = weight watcher points 1/3 cups = cherries

Note: The pic is not mine.

Rustic Vegetable Soup with Almond Pesto Topping

I really like making soup. To me it's comfort and goodness in a bowl and all I need is a spoon. I made this soup and my husband had one word for it, "Delicious." It's easy to put together and with the pesto on top it has a fresh taste that's very satisfying.

Rustic Vegetable Soup with Almond Pesto Topping

2 T. olive oil
2 small onions, rough chop, 1 - 1 1/2 C.
2 carrots, rough chop, 1/2 C.
5 cloves garlic, rough chop
1 quart vegetable broth, low sodium
1 28 oz. can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, do not drain
1 cube of vegetable bouillon
1 16 oz. can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 19 oz. can of cannellini  beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz. can of butter beans, drained and rinsed
1 T. fresh Italian parsley, rough chop
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the carrots and onion in the olive oil until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and saute another minute or two. Add the rest of the ingredients, excluding the salt and pepper, and cook slowly for 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with the Almond Pesto on top. 

Almond Pesto Topping

In a food processor, pulse the almonds until chopped small. Add the basil leaves and pulse until the basil is shredded. Add the olive oil and pulse quickly just until fully incorporated. Salt and pepper to taste.

1/4 C. almonds
1/2 C. packed basil leaves
1 T. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Napa Valley Spiced Almonds

It's already the middle of December so I'm beginning to plan dinner for Christmas day. I'm also playing with ideas for appetizers and I think I'll be setting this dish out. It was two summers ago when my dear friend Meg shared this recipe with me. I posted it on my blog then and it has continued to receive a lot of attention, so I'm sharing it with you again. It's subtle, delicious and addictive!


Napa Valley Spiced Almonds

2 C almonds
2 t olive oil
1/4 t cumin
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t turmeric
1/2 t fine sea salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine the spices. Pour the olive oil over the almonds and toss to coat. Stir the spices into the almonds. Once the spices and almonds are combined and the almonds evenly coated spread them onto a sheet pan. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, checking often. Allow the almonds to cool before serving.

Dark Chocolate Almonds from Trader Joe's

As I was standing in line at Trader Joe's waiting to check out, I picked up this box of chocolate covered almonds. While reaching over to put it in the basket I questioned the impulse buy, but I have to tell you I'm so happy I brought these home. It's a great flavor combination... the roasted nuts, dark chocolate, sugar and salt are all distinctive and delicious. They're beautiful to look at and it doesn't take many to satisfy, so they stick around (there's no guilt). If you're lucky enough to have a Trader Joe's nearby, give these sweet treats a try. You won't be disappointed!

Napa Valley Spiced Almonds

Christmas dinner is on it's way to my house. I love hosting this very special dinner. In fact, my entire family looks forward to it. We enjoy having everyone over, and the fact that they all bring something for the meal makes it that much more fun.

Every year for dinner there are certain constants, but I am always on the look out for new and different recipes to change it up. One morning I made a phone call to my dear friend Meg and she was in the kitchen making spiced almonds (I was still in bed). Anyway, she had this appetizer while on vacation in Napa Valley and brought the recipe home. It sounded delicious, so I quickly jotted down the ingredients and now I'm sharing it with you.

It's good as a snack or great for when you have guests.

Napa Valley Spiced Almonds

2 C almonds
2 t olive oil
1/4 t cumin
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t turmeric
1/2 t fine sea salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine the spices. Pour the olive oil over the almonds and toss to coat. Stir the spices into the almonds. Once the spices and almonds are combined and the almonds evenly coated spread them onto a sheet pan. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, checking often. Allow the almonds to cool before serving.

Homemade Granola

I hate oatmeal. Absolutely hate the stuff. And really... in all honestly... you and I both know it's only good in baked goods, like cookies or granola, right? So I decided to come up with a recipe for granola that I could eat on occasion. Granola is always so fattening with all the added oil and it's usually too sweet for my taste. So when I set out to create this recipe, I reduced the oil and sweetener and used agave nectar instead of honey. Does this recipe meet all of the requirements it takes to be blog worthy? Hmmm... let's see. Is it easy to make? Yes. Does it come together quickly? Yes. Is it delicious? Yes, yes and yes. Is it low fat? Not so much... but oh what a treat.

Granola

3 C old-fashioned oats
1/2 C chopped unsalted almonds
1/2 C chopped unsalted walnuts
1/2 C raisins
1/4 C chopped dried apricots
1/8 C flax seeds
1/4 t salt
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 C organic raw blue agave nectar
3 T canola oil

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. In a medium bowl combine the oats, nuts, raisins, apricots, flax seeds, salt and cinnamon. Mix the oil and agave nectar together and pour over the oat mixture. Stir well to combine. Spread the mixture onto the baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, checking to make sure it doesn’t get too brown and stirring the mixture every 10 minutes. Let the granola cool completely and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.