Smoothies, Beyond Spinach

In the hopes of expanding my smoothies beyond spinach, I added chopped romaine lettuce to it this morning.   Despite my fears of soggy lettuce in my drink, it turned out fine.   As usual, you couldn't taste the green stuff.




Ingredients - 

1/2 cup almond milk (or juice)
1 or 2 cups of chopped lettuce (romaine or leafy or other greens)
3/4 cup strawberries
1/2 banana
sprinkling of chia seeds or ground flax

 

Fajitas, Veggie Style

Looking remarkably different from our old standby of oily beef fajitas with flour tortillas, these veggie packed veggie wraps still satisfy. 

Ingredients:

Mushrooms
Onions
Bell Peppers
Yellow Squash
and any other vegetable you might have hanging around the 'fridge (cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, eggplant, etc).

Water saute the chopped and sliced vegetables until just cooked.   Season with your favorites (pepper, garlic, onion powder)

Serve on corn tortilla or lettuce leaf.

Top with fresh vegetables (tomato, onion) and avocado and serve with no-fat added, low salt or no-salt, black beans or 'refried' pintos. 

 

Green Monster Smoothie #1

Our usual smoothie has fresh spinach in it, but these are our attempt at something different.   Everyone was nervous, but the taste was the same as the prior ones.    The greens are very mild and most of the taste is strawberries & bananas.


Ingredients, per serving:

Splash of almond milk
1/2 banana (frozen or fresh)
4 large strawberries (frozen or fresh)
1/4 - 1/3 cup frozen collard greens (or fresh)
Optional - 1 tsp flax (ground) or chia seeds
Optional - ice
Optional - splash of vanilla flavoring

Blend the fresh bananas and almond milk first, then add greens.  If using frozen bananas, blend the milk and greens first to make sure you don't end up with chunks of frozen greens.    Then add in the frozen items and finish blending. 

It even passed the 8 year old's yuck test.  

UPDATE:   Apparently, frozen greens are not ready-to-eat, so you'll need to cook these before using.    Either wash and freeze fresh greens, or cook the frozen ones and re-freeze them before using, to avoid bacterial contamination. 

Spicy Black Bean Soup

Sometimes a failure is still a success.    Lesson learned - you can't put an entire bunch of cilantro into soup and expect it not to taste more like Cilantro Soup than Bean Soup.   Thankfully, the jalapenos spoke loud enough to compete with the other flavor. 


Ingredients:

Black beans, 2 cans, drained and rinsed
Onion, 1 large, chopped
Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped
Bell Pepper, 1 large, chopped
Jalapeno, 1 large, chopped
Canned Tomatoes, 1 can low sodium or equivalent of fresh
8oz mushrooms, chopped
Cilantro, chopped, not the whole bunch. 
Pepper, to taste

Cook onions and bell pepper in a little water, on medium, until softened.   Add jalapenos, cilantro, and garlic, cook another few minutes, then add one can of black beans and one can of tomatoes.   Let the mixture cool a bit, then blend smooth. 

Meanwhile, cook mushrooms on medium in a little water or broth from the veggie mixture for about 5 minutes.  Then, add 1 can black beans and the blended soup mixture and continue to cook on low until ready to serve.

Makes about 4 servings of a main dish soup, about 8 of a side dish soup.

 

Broccoli, Tomato Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette

The first time we made this salad was for sixty, yes, sixty people.  It looked like a veggie bomb went off in the kitchen.    

This is super easy, keeps for a couple of days in the refrigerator, and tastes great to boot.  

Ingredients:

Broccoli florets
Cauliflower
Purple cabbage
Carrots
Red Onion
Yellow Bell Pepper
Cherry Tomatoes

Wash all produce and chop everything finely.  An easy shortcut is to add a bag of Broccoli Slaw to the mix.    Throw in the cherry tomatoes and toss with the dressing (below). 

Dressing:

Olive oil 1-2 TB
Rice Wine Vinegar 1 tsp
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1-3 cloves of garlic, to taste, mashed or finely diced
1/2 lemon (juice only)
1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard
Spices/Seasoning (Pepper, Garlic powder)

Mix all well and toss into the salad.  The dressing will keep for a few days and gets more flavorful as it combines.