Creamy Summer Squash Soup

My garden is overflowing with produce right now!  I can't believe it!  We are enjoying zucchini and yellow squash like crazy.  I decided to make a quick soup for dinner tonight and it turned out so good!  My kids ate at least 2 bowls each.  Love that!  They were pounding veggies and didn't even care.  Stellar!  Hope you enjoy this soup, especially if you have zucchini and squash coming out your ears like us!

Creamy Summer Squash Soup

One large yellow squash, cubed

One large zucchini, cubed

1 onion, cut in chunks

2 cups vegetable stock

1-2 cups almond milk

1/4 cup Braggs Liquid Aminos

Combine the veggies and vegetable stock in a large pot.  Bring to boil, turn to low and cook 15 minutes or until veggies are soft.  Add almond milk and liquid aminos.  Blend well.  Flavor with a little more salt, 21 Salute or whatever sounds good to you.  We didn't add anything else to ours.  Delish!  

Ponzo Noodle Salad

We love the Forks Over Knives Cookbook at our house and look forward to trying new recipes often!  This is one we've made a few times and thought I'd share.  It's a cold salad, which is wonderful in this hot weather.  Of course, I always modify a few things, so here is their recipe, modified.  If you want the original, get the book!  I love it!  So useful!

Ponzo Noodle Salad

1 pound brown rice noodles (whole wheat work too)

2 medium carrots, cut in matchsticks

3 green onions (white and green parts), cut in thin strips

1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro 

1/2 cup Ponzo Sauce

Ponzo Sauce

Zest of 2 lemons

Zest of 2 limes

1/4 cup agave

3/4 cup Bragg's Liquid Aminos

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup rice vinegar

Whisk Ponzo Sauce ingredients together and store in refrigerator for up to 1 week.  

Cook the noodles according to package directions.  In a skillet using very little oil or using water to keep moist, cook the carrots.  Drain noodles and rinse with cold water.  In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well.  This is even better the second day!!!!!  Enjoy!!!

Protein Packed Lentils & Quinoa

I have been feeling a little sore from exercise.  I have been drinking a lot of chia and using a lot of nuts/seeds, but have been lacking the legumes and power grains.  Life is busy and I've been feeling overwhelmed with cooking much.  I threw this together for lunch.  It did take about 40 minutes to cook (the lentils, not the quinoa.  Quinoa takes about 15 minutes to cook).  It was tasty!

Protein Packed Lentils & Quinoa

1 onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, crushed and minced

2 carrots, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 cup lentils

2 cups water

1 tablespoon 21 Seasoning Salute (Trader Joes)

Combine all ingredients in a stainless steel skillet (I used my Platinum Cookware, turning the temp to medium and when it's to temperature, 60 degrees, then I turn to low and simmer 30 minutes.).  Bring the contents to a low boil, turn to low and simmer 30-45 minutes with lid on.  Serve over quinoa.

Cooked Quinoa

1 cup Quinoa

1 1/2 cups water 

(I don't like my quinoa soggy, so I like using a less water.  It is usually recommended using 2 cups water, a 2:1 ratio.  So experiment with what you like!)

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil, then turn to low heat, put on lid and let steam for 15 minutes or until quinoa is light and fluffy and not soggy.

Happy Birthday To Me Carrot Cake Muffins!

Yep, it's my birthday.  It was a WONDERFUL day! I am actually getting old enough to say, I don't have birthdays anymore, but come on, lets face it, we all really wanna have a birthday acknowledgement like when we were kids!  Birthdays rock!  Getting older rocks!  Really....it does!  My kids ask, "how does it feel to be one year older?"  I always reply, "Better than ever!!!"

Dan prepared my meals for the day.  It was relaxing and enjoyable.  However, I insisted on making my birthday cake!  My favorite cake of all time is Carrot Cake.  I found THIS amazing recipe the other day and decided to try it tonight.  This recipe is for Carrot Cake Muffins and let me just tell you, these were DIVINE!  I was in heaven!  I topped these with Coconut Cream.  What is Coconut Cream?  It's canned coconut milk put in the freezer or fridge, opened and scrape off the cream from the top.  Whip in a drop or two of stevia and spoon on top of your muffin.  It's so simple and so delicious!  These muffins are a must try!  Pretty darn healthy too!  Nice perk, eh?!  Way to go One Ingredient Chef.  I loved it, it made my day!

Laundry Soap

I have been involved with doTERRA and using their oils for over a year.  I LIVE on them!  They have had so many uses and helped our family with so many things.  If any of you have smelled the oil Purify, you will know exactly how awesome this homemade laundry soap will be!  It makes your home smell so incredibly fresh just when diffusing it!  It also purifies the air and keeps it free form all sorts of pesky little germs.  It's a refreshing and uplifting smell as well.

I decided to make homemade laundry soap using this incredible oil.  I did some searching and found several recipes out there on Pinterest and blogs.  I decided to take the basic idea of many of these recipes and do my own thing.  Just a few little notes about this laundry soap.  It is powder.  I found THIS great website with some useful info and using most of the same ingredients for liquid laundry detergent if you'd prefer to use it instead.  I like the easiness of the powder and have a top loader washing machine so it works for me.

A note about essential oils: I use purify, but the first time I made this recipe I used a combination of lavender, melaleuca (tea tree oil), and orange oil.  It was an awesome combination too!  I have a friend who uses just orange oil because it's cheaper and she loves the smell.  So, as you can see the possibilities for "flavoring" your laundry soap are endless!

 Above are the ingredients I use. All of these ingredients, except the oil, I purchased at my local Smiths Marketplace.

1 large Box Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

1 large box Baking Soda

1 large box Borax

2-3 bars Kirk's Castile Soap

20-30 drops purify (more if you so desire)

 Finely grate the Castile Soap

Combine the soap a cup or two at a time along with a cup or two of the Washing Soda and the essential oils.  Process until smooth.

You may need to repeat this process one more time, depending on the size of your food processor. (don't worry about using your kitchen tools for this, it cleans well, ha ha!)

I don't need to process all the borax and soda, I just pour the remaining ingredients in the bucket and mix really well with my hands.

I double my recipe for my large family and this should last me a few months at least.  

This takes me about 10 minutes, tops!  It's so incredibly easy and leaves my laundry smelling wonderful!

Carob "Magic Shell"

Greetings Fellow Healthy Buddies!

Jen asked me to contribute to the blog and so HERE I AM and here it comes!

Little background on me:

My name's Christina

I've been slowly (but surely) changing the way I eat (working my way to 100% plant based)

and I enjoy seeing what yummy delish-is-nuss I can create for my 

little family of 6!

Last summer I came across the holy grail of Summer treats!

FROZEN BANANAS ON A STICK!

WHAAAAA???

Who woulda thunk?  But they are truly divine.

This summer I wanted to step it up a bit! 

I am a HUGE fan of chocolate.

HUGE fan....

Did I mention....I'm a fan???

Well, chocolate is not very kind to my tummy, so a 

perfect alternative is CAROB!!

I have been eating carob all my life.  For EVERY birthday (and I DO mean EVERY) I have had a carob cake.  It's the texas sheet cake recipe, only made with carob!  Love it!   I already know and love carob so I though I'd experiment with making carob covered frozen bananas!  I tried it and it was LOVE at first bite!

Here's the simple recipe!

1/4 c coconut oil

1/4 c powered sugar

(I am going to be experimenting more with honey/agave to see if the results are satisfactory!)

1/4 c carob powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine the coconut oil, powdered sugar and carob in a small saucepan over low/med heat.

Stir until coconut oil is all melted and the carob and powdered sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.  Take a FROZEN banana and dip down in the sauce.  Work quickly as it will start to set up fast!  Once set up, put back in the freezer for about 15 - 20 minutes.  

If you can wait, if not, just eat right then!  The banana will be slightly soft due to the heat of the sauce. If you're like me, I just couldn't wait, and the banana was inhaled in a matter of 4 big bites!  Boy was is GOOD!!!  You can be creative and roll in some chopped nuts before it sets up completely.  I loved it with just the carob though!  

We've got ALL summer to fix (and EAT) these bad boys and I can hardly wait!

YUMMMMMM!!!!

White Bean, Millet, Walnut Taco 'Meat'

We eat a lot of beans, as you know, and I don't know about you, but we need variety.  Kinda like my old chicken days...I ate chicken every day and that gets pretty darn old if I didn't have a billion ways to serve it.  I'm so glad those days are over, to be honest with you.  I love that there are so many various plant foods to choose from!  Tonight I was in a hurry to make dinner and didn't have any beans previously made like I normally do, so I pulled a can of white beans out of our food storage and put some millet on to cook and let the creative juices flow.  Ha!  Actually it isn't so creative, just a little spin on what I normally make but the flavor turned out great!

White Bean, Millet, Walnut Taco 'Meat'

1 large onion, chopped

1 cup walnuts, chopped

1 can white beans (about 2 cups)

1 1/2 cups cooked millet

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons garlic powder (or 2 garlic cloves, crushed)

1 teaspoon cumin

coconut oil (2 teaspoons, optional)

Saute onion in oil or water for about 5 minutes.  Add walnuts for 2 minutes.  Add beans, millet and spices.  Add a little water if needed.  Cook on medium low heat until heated through.  Serve in a lettuce, or chard leaf or on corn tortillas!