One [or more] Ingredient HEALTHY ice cream!

I read about this on a blog but I cannot find it so I feel bad posting this without giving it proper credit! I even checked my history & couldn't find the link! It's just too good to not post though! I had read that you can make healthy ice cream and for our wedding we received an ice cream maker- Thanks, Is & Jake! (Geoff had been wanting one for years and always talked about the one he used with his family for years). However, we have yet to use it! I haven't had time to look up good recipes and the ones it came with have tons of ingredients I rather not put in homemade ice cream. But I randomly ran into this recipe! BANANA ICE CREAM!

Ingredients

3 chopped, frozen slightly overripe bananas

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& that's it! haha! Peel and chop 3 [or more depending on how much you want to make] overripe bananas. Freeze them for an hour or two. Place them in your food processor and puree away! At first it'll just look like chopped bananas. But as you let it continue to puree, it all of a sudden becomes the consistency of ice cream! Taste it- amazing! It reminded Geoff and I of our favorite smoothie so we decided to add the following ingredients:

pureed banana :)

Additional Ingredients [optional]

approximately one tablespoon of-

-flax seed, oatmeal & peanut butter* (we had all natural crunchy on hand).

-dash of honey

Place your ice cream back into the freezer until the desired length of time and VOILA! Yummy and delicious, not to mention versatile!

Yum! Still needs more time in the freezer!

It'd be perfect for kiddos too and gives us now a different recipe for overripe bananas (other than my deliciously healthy banana bread! you can find that post here too! lol!)

Mango Salsa Tilapia & Cilantro/Lime [Brown] Rice

Our basket this morning included perfectly ripe mango's and a bushel of cilantro. Immediately, I knew I wanted to try out a mango salsa for dinner. I thought the cilantro could be used in the salsa as well as in brown rice (a la Chipotle)! We have slowly begun incorporating meat back into our diets after one year of being vegetarians (& vegan for two whole weeks, haha)! I cooked arroz con pollo last week and it was my first time cooking meat in a year. It was so weird! It almost tasted fake to us...but who can resist Puerto Rican arroz con pollo?! lol! Anyway, that recipe will probably never appear on here ;)

We decided on pairing the mango salsa with tilapia, since it's a lighter fish that isn't fishy. I searched and edited a few recipes I found and ended up with what you see below. Granted, I used a whole jalapeno and included all the seeds and our salsa was WAY too spicy, even for me!

Mango Salsa

Ingredients

Tilapia Marinade

• extra-virgin olive oil for your marinade


• 1 clove garlic, minced


• 2 teaspoons dried basil


• ground black pepper, to taste


• salt, to taste


• tilapia fillets (we made two but this recipe would yield for up to four, I noticed)

Salsa

• 1 chopped mango (let me know if you need tips on cutting one)


• 1 diced avocado


• cilantro, to taste


• juice of 1/2 lime


• 2 tablespoons orange juice


• 1 finely minced jalapeno pepper- omit the seeds to taste


• 1/4  finely minced red onion


• 1/2 red bell pepper


• 1 teaspoon dried parsley


• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Rice

• EVOO to coat bottom of your pot


• 2 garlic cloves, minced


• 1/4 onion finely minced


• cilantro, to taste


• 1/2 lime, to zest & juice

Directions

1. RICE: Begin with the rice, if you're making brown rice, since it takes a long time to cook. The same recipe can be used for white rice, and it'd cut cooking time in half BUT does not give you the whole grain that the extra time does ;). Add EVOO to your pan and preheat. Add 2 garlic cloves, 1/4 finely diced white onion and let them saute. Then add the rice and let it brown a tiny bit. Double the amount of water, in correlation with the amount of rice you used. I cooked 1.5 cups of rice so I added 3 cups of water. Lightly salt your water, as it comes to a boil. Cover and lower heat until cooked. Add lime zest and juice from 1/2 lime. Add cilantro (to taste) and fluff with fork!


2. FISH: Add the olive oil, garlic, basil, black pepper, and salt together in a resealable bag.  Put the tilapia fillets in the bag; gently shake. Marinate in refrigerator, until you're ready to use it. You can marinate ahead of time, as well. Once you're ready, you can pan-sear it until crispy on each side.


3. SALSA: Make the salsa by stirring all the ingredients in bowl. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or as long as you want, to allow the flavors to blend. I used about an hour for everything because I was making brown rice which takes forever!


4. Serve! Spoon the salsa over the tilapia & add rice to the side!

 

Cauliflower/Broccoli Mashed Potatoes

This last Saturday we received two heads of cauliflower in our Bountiful Basket. Lately, we've been receiving one and in all honesty, they've gone bad because I can't come up with creative and delicious ways to make it. I did make panko breaded cauliflower but it seemed to be a one-time serve dish that didn't hold up well for leftovers- and one head seemed too much for the two of us! So this time I was determined to use it. I remembered seeing cauliflower mashed potatoes once, and just recently I came across this super rad kids blog Super Healthy Kids, and found a similar recipe! I decided to give it a try and other than saying that they needed more salt, Geoff didn't realize it was mainly cauliflower, haha! Until he say the description under my uploaded picture! Oops!

I edited the recipe to include double the amount of cauliflower since that it how much I got from one head.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups cauliflower, washed and roughly chopped


• 2 cups potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped into small pieces


• 1 cup broccoli heads


• 1/2- 3/4 cup fat free milk or soy milk, depending on how moist you want yours


• Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Boil cauliflower & potatoes. Salt when boiling.

*Meanwhile cook your broccoli in a separate pot since they take a lot less time- make sure not to overcook or you'll lose all the nutrients! Give it a rough chop when you're done or if you prefer chunky broccoli, leave as is.

2. Drain water and place back into pot. Mix with your mixer.

3.  Add milk/soy milk & pepper.

4. Gently stir in your broccoli! & voila!

You can choose to not add broccoli if you tend to not enjoy the combination of the two!

This recipe yields about 6 servings! Great for leftovers! They taste great, just a different kind of mashed potatoes- although the smell of the cooked cauliflower will give it away! haha!

I have another head of cauliflower. Any awesome recipes out there?

Versatile Veggie Lasagna

One of Geoff's favorite meals is lasagna! I am constantly trying to come up with fun and easy ways to create the dish! This particular recipe came about from having too many ingredients one Saturday after picking up my fruit/veggie basket. It took me a few tries to get it just right but the more I make it, the more I realize you really can't go wrong with it! It's soo delicious ALL the time! & you make enough for leftovers that taste even better the next day! One time I did add too much broccoli and it completely overpowered the spinach, just fyi! Last month, we had a potluck at work and I signed up for lasagna since no one had really signed up for any entrees. Then it dawned on me that I lasagna isn't very versatile with waiting hours before being served, eek! That morning, I decided to attempt it in my crockpot. By 2pm I had the most amazing lasagna ever! & as proof, I didn't even manage a proper picture as it was devoured right away! This post is for Rainey, who has been asking me for this recipe forever! <3

Ingredients:

1 1/2 quarts spaghetti sauce (your favorite homemade or jar spaghetti sauce)

1/2 cup grated carrot

1/2 teaspoon oregano

lasagna noodles OR if you don't want to use noodles, you can use thick cuts of eggplant as your noodles!

1 (15.5 ounce) container ricotta cheese (low fat)

1 (16 ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and well drained OR fresh

1-2 eggs

1 1/2 cups thinly sliced zucchini

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

3 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Optional: 1 cup chopped broccoli & 1 eggplant

3 garlic cloves, minced

Directions:

This recipe can be made oven-baked OR in a crockpot! 

The pre-arrangement in my crockpot!

1. Mix carrots, oregano, and spaghetti sauce together.


2. Mix Ricotta, spinach, garlic, and eggs together in separate bowl.


3. Spread ½ cup spaghetti sauce in bottom of 9 x 13 inch baking dish or bottom of your crock pot


4. Layer 3 lasagna noodles, ½ remaining sauce, ½ Ricotta mixture, ½ sliced zucchini, ½ sliced mushrooms, ½ Mozzarella, and ½ Parmesan, & optional eggplant/broccoli. If cooking in crock pot, do 1/3 of each ingredient because you'll have less space.


5. Repeat layers with remaining ingredients. Make sure you end up with sauce on top! Top with remaining cheese!


6. *if you are using a crockpot, pour about 1/4 cup of water in your tomato sauce bowl/jar. Then pour your tomato juice/water all over the pile of food!


7. Bake in 350 degrees oven for about 45 minutes. OR if in Crockpot, cook on low for about 6 hours- this time varies so start checking at 5 hours. Check noodles at hour five, and push the top ones down into the liquid if they are getting too hard or are curling up.

Who woulda thought Brussels Sprouts?!

I had never ever tried Brussels Sprouts in mi vida loca. The round little miniature cabbage-looking veggies didn't appeal to me and xenophobia kicked in a bit. But there they were. About a pound of them included in my basket a couple of weeks ago. When we were brainstorming our Thanksgiving meal options I volunteered to give it a whirl. The worst that would happen is that we wouldn't like 'em! I decided to do some research and found out that they can be bitter and raw is a definite don't. However, if seasoned properly and cooked at the right temperature, my oh my. These are a definite healthy & scrumptious treat.

To quote, this was a text I received from Geoff today as he had lunch today: "I never thought I'd be saying this, but I'm dissapointed we didn't have any brussels sprouts leftover!"

Ingredients

1- 1.5 pounds Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed, yellow leaves removed, cut in half

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 cloves of garlic, minced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Place trimmed Brussels sprouts, olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper in a large resealable plastic bag. Seal tightly, and shake to coat.

3. Pour onto a baking sheet, and place on center oven rack. Roast in the preheated oven for 30 to 45 minutes, shaking pan every 5 to 7 minutes for even browning. Reduce heat when necessary to prevent burning.

4. Brussels sprouts should be darkest brown, almost black, when done. Serve immediately.

These are great as a side dish or atop pasta! I'd imagine even on a fresh salad! Enjoy! :)