A Great New Cookbook to Share!

The Real Food movement is in full swing and I’m excited to be a part of it, both as a blogger and an ‘all in’ participant. Along my journey, I’ve found several resources, authors, bloggers and organizations that I love and respect and trust.  One of those is Lisa Leake’s 100 Days of Real Food blog.

I am honored to have been selected as a cookbook ambassador for Lisa’s newly released cookbook: “100 Days of Real Food: How We did it, What We Learned and 100 Easy, Wholesome Recipes Your Family Will Love”.  Below is my review and a free recipe from the new cookbook to share with you.

Lisa Leake is a mom who, along with her family, made a pledge to go 100 days without eating processed foods after an “ah-ha” moment when she realized that the foods she was feeding her family were not truly healthy or nutritious. She started a blog, 100 Days of Real Food (see above link), about their journey and along the way she shared experiences, planning strategies, helpful hints, and recipes.  And she shared how her family's health improved (more details in the book pg. 13)! The success of her blog, especially the recipes, led to the release of this cookbook…. which is more than just a compilation of recipes.   

This cookbook is fantastic resource beyond needing to find a new recipe for tomorrow night’s dinner.  Need new ideas for packing healthy lunches? Want to serve a cleaned-up and healthy version of macaroni and cheese? Need some help on planning or shopping for these Real Food meals? There are all of those and more in this book.  Here are my top 5 favorite things I like about this cookbook:

1.    School lunch ideas that have passed the taste test by her kids, including a Lunch-Box Packing chart to make packing lunches a breeze.

2.    A snack and appetizer section that includes a healthy version of the ever-so-popular onion dip.

3.    All the recipes in her new cookbook Do Not call for any white flour (or refined grains), sugar (or refined sweeteners), anything from a package with more than 5 ingredients, or odd or hard-to-find ingredients. That supports my platform of Clean Eating!

4.   Over 25 simple dinner ideas – ‘simple’ being the key word here and simple without being processed. Who doesn’t like simple? That means less stress and more time to spend with your family.  Plus the recipes are listed by dietary needs: gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, freezer friendly.

5.   A resource section defining real food, how to shop for it and how to get your family on board. Includes budget tips and meal plans. 

Here are a few photos of what’s inside. 

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Veggie Corn Chowder

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Cinnamon Raisin Quick Bread packed for lunch

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 Don’t you wish you already had a copy?  It’s easy to do… just order yours here. 

And while you’re waiting for your copy to arrive, here is a recipe to get you started:

Maybe this cookbook will motivate you and your family to take the 100 Days of Real Food pledge, too. Eating clean and healthy doesn’t mean you have to give up flavor or favorites.  Lisa has found a way to incorporate all of those things.  Make 100 Days of Real Food Cookbook a regular part of your family’s meals and know you’ve taken another step to help your family “grow in wellness”.

Happy Cooking!

Those 'Funny Looking' Tomatoes

Summer brings us so many wonderful flavors from the gardens and fields. Peaches, plums, cantaloupe and watermelon fill the farmer’s markets and produce aisles along with tomatoes (which are technically a fruit, but are treated like a vegetable).

Most stores are piled high with your typical genetically-created, hybrid tomato that has been altered to look pretty, resist disease, have a thicker skin to survive long transport times and last longer in the store and in your kitchen.   There’s one problem with that long list of traits – flavor.  Hybrid tomatoes aren’t completely tasteless, but they leave a lot to be desired in the flavor department. Many people don’t like tomatoes and much of that has to do with the tasteless, mealy-like quality of your typical grocery store tomato (that was me, until I ‘upgraded’ my tomatoes).

Are you looking for a tomato upgrade?

Well, now’s the time to try something new.

Of all the wonderful ‘fruits’ of summer, one of the most delicious is the heirloom tomato. 

“A tomato is considered to be an heirloom when the seed has been saved and grown at least 50 years or more and has been passed down from generation to generation.” (veggiegardner.com)

You have probably seen this not-so-pretty tomato in the produce section of your grocery store in a range of colors from green to yellow to orange and red and some with stripes or color variations.  They are misshapen, and some have crevices, but as it is said, “don’t judge a book by its cover”.  Heirloom tomatoes are full of flavor and depending on the color you select, the flavor can vary, one variety even having a lemony taste and nearly all have less acid than hybrids.  (To learn more about the color-flavor connection, visit Tomato Headquarters.)

Try them on your sandwiches, in salads, on pizza or diced and tossed with pasta, basil, olive oil  and cheese. What’s my favorite way to eat heirlooms? I make a twist on the traditional Italian Caprese… I call it the “California Caprese”.  It combines the delicious flavor of an heirloom with the creamy goodness of avocado, fresh buffalo mozzarella and pesto. 

Here’s the easy recipe:

California Caprese

1 heirloom tomato, sliced

1 round of fresh buffalo mozzarella, sliced

1 avocado, peeled and sliced

pesto (homemade or premade)

Simply layer the ingredients in any way that looks good to you.  Sprinkle with a little sea salt and fresh ground pepper and it’s ready to eat.  Enjoy!

New Favorite Grocery Store Find

I’m a green smoothie (and green juice) kind of girl and I like to change the way I go ‘green’ from time to time.  Typically my smoothies get their green from spinach and kale, but from time to time I’ve been known to buy a bunch of collard greens and throw those in, too.  Then, there are days when I’m overdue for a grocery store run so there are no fresh greens on hand.  I usually improvise, but that might no longer be necessary as I’ve found a new favorite item at the grocery store.

You’ll find it in the frozen vegetable section… it’s Earthbound Farm’s Organic Collard Greens.  The bag is full of small pieces of collard greens, frozen in a way that they don’t clump up.  The re-sealable bag makes it easy to grab a handful to add to your smoothies, especially on those mornings when you realize you’re out of fresh kale or spinach. You could easily cook them up to add to hot quinoa or pasta.

Collard Greens are full of goodness! They are a cruciferous vegetable that is high in vitamins A, C, K and minerals like iron, calcium, selenium, manganese and zinc. (Because of its high vitamin K and membership in the cruciferous vegetable family, eat sparingly if you have a thyroid disorder or take blood thinners.)  Add this leafy green to your smoothies, cook and add to eggs or add chopped fresh collards to a salad. Collards help lower cholesterol, fend-off disease, aid in digestion and reduce inflammation overall.  However you enjoy it, know it’s giving you a boost of nutrition in a quick and easy way.

Here’s a quick summer smoothie recipe to get you started:

Add to blender:

 10 oz. Almond Milk

1 cup organic strawberries

½ cup organic raspberries

protein powder

2 TBSP flax seeds

1 cup frozen collard greens

3-4 ice cubes

Blend until well combined.  Enjoy!

Afternoon Treat

©shutterstock.com

There are some days when I am not really quite hungry, but want a ‘little something’ to make my taste buds smile. Sometimes it is as easy as biting into a juicy, green apple and other times a handful of frozen raspberries does the trick.  But when those don’t sound appealing, I whip up this frothy concoction and it hits the spot.

I call it Almond Ice Milk and it’s really not much more complicated than it sounds.  It’s a healthy treat that is satisfying to a sweet tooth, too.  The cinnamon helps stabilize your blood sugar and, combined with the vanilla, it tastes like a dessert. Here’s how easy it is: 

12 ounces homemade or minimally processed plain almond milk

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 drops of vanilla stevia (I use Sweet Leaf brand)

3 ice cubes

Put all items in the blender and blend until you no longer hear the ice bouncing around.  Then pour into a large glass and drink slowly, savoring the flavors. 

Enjoy your afternoon treat!