A Few Healthy and Delicious Recipes

If you've been reading, you know that I've been arming myself with knowledge the last few years about how to feed my family healthy foods on a budget. We've tried lots of new recipes, some that were healthy but not so delicious, others that were healthy but broke the grocery budget. This week I finally found the "sweet spot" on bread baking and made my most delicious sourdough loaf to date. :) Also we tried two recipes (actually three) that I'd like to share. I say actually three because there is a salad dressing included that you put on the Green and Sunny Fettuccine (which isn't actually fettuccine, more like lettuce. .  you'll see.) Making my own salad dressing has always intimidated me but it's so much easier than I realized. And you can get really creative with it!

The first recipe was a hit with my children. I found it in The Vintage Remedies For Tweens by Jessie Hawkins. Any book you can find by her is wonderful.

Strawberry Cereal Bars
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup chopped almonds
1/3 cup almond flour
2 eggs
1 cup organic butter
1 cup strawberry preserves (I used a natural sugar free fruit blend with pomegranate, acai and blackberry- you could really use whatever kind of preserves you liked)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the first four ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, beat the eggs, then pour over the dry ingredients. Chop the butter into smaller pieces and mix into the larger bowl (I melted the butter and poured it in.) Place half the mixture in a greased 8x8 pan. Bake the crust for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and spread the preserves over the top. I used more than 1 cup. Drop the remaining dough over the fruit in small clumps, covering the whole pan. Bake another 25-30 minutes until browned. When it cools, cut into bars or squares. Just like Nutri-Grain bars but way better and much healthier!

The second recipe I found in a book by Serene Allison, daughter of Nancy Campbell of Above Rubies. Her book is Rejuvenate Your Life: Recipes for Energy. It's called Green and Sunny Fettuccine with If the Sun Were Green dressing. It may sound so healthy it can't be delicious (if you think like me :)), but it really is. YUM. Just try it. You might like it!

Green and Sunny Fettuccine
1 bunch organic collards (about 8 large leaves)
Cut out stems of collards and lay flat on a cutting board with the largest leaf on the bottom of the pile. Roll into a tight sausage. Slice ultra thin with a sharp knife. You now have the base of the salad, or "green fettuccine" collard ribbons.
1 bunch parsley, chopped fine
2 handfuls of fresh mint, diced
1 avocado, sliced into small chunks
1 handful of raisins (I used dried Goji berries because I didn't have raisins- still tasty)
1 handful of raw pistachios
a few good turns of the pepper grinder
a sprinkle of Celtic salt
2 small handfuls of nutritional yeast (I don't have this so I didn't add this ingredient)
Toss and literally drench in "If The Sun Were Green" dressing:

If The Sun Were Green Dressing
1 cup extra virgin olive oil or half olive oil half flax seed oil (I did the half and half)
2 TBSP raw honey
1 bunch parsley or cilantro
4 TBSP Nama Shoyu (soy sauce)
loads of fresh cracked pepper
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 TBSP water
Blend all of the above ingredients in the blender until smooth. DELICIOUS I TELL YOU!!

We ate with some friends today who had made a similar dressing I've already tried this afternoon and it is delicious as well. I don't know the amounts of things, but the ingredients are Apple Cider Vinegar (with the "mother"), extra virgin olive oil, garlic cloves, lots of fresh basil, honey, Stevia, salt and pepper. This stuff is really really good. Don't overdo it like I did the first time on the vinegar though. A little vinegar goes a looooooong way. :)