Balsamic Salmon and Broccoli

Today, I have a elegant, and delicious balsamic salmon dinner with a balsamic broccoli. This dish has a great blend of sweet, and tart.  The  broccoli in this dish also complements the salmon very well, and the dish also tastes good served with rice.

 Ingredients:

• 3-4 minced garlic cloves
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• salt
• pepper
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• salmon
• 1 head broccoli
• tomato basil spice
• 1 diced tomato
• 1-2 tbsp balsamic

Directions:
1) In a small sauce pan saute 2-3 clove with some oil.  When sauteed add in the white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar,  some salt and pepper, and the Dijon mustard.  Mix together and let simmer on the stove until it reduces to about half and begins to thicken.

2) Heat your oven to 450°.  Well heating take your salmon and cut into strips, then place onto a foil lined baking sheet sheet. Taking your reduced balsamic sauce spoon onto the salmon, and add some salt and pepper. Place into the heated oven for 12-14min or until it flakes with a fork. 

3) A great side for this dish is a balsamic tomato and broccoli. To begin you need to steam your broccoli so they are vibrant and almost cooked.  When ready place into an ice bath if you have extra time or place straight into a skillet that has 1-2 garlic cloves with oil sauteing. Add salt, pepper, and some tomato basil spice to the broccoli, and some balsamic.  Mix into the broccoli for a couple minutes then add the diced tomatoes before serving.

4) Serve the salmon, on top of brown rice if you wish, and put the broccoli on top of the salmon.  

-Megan

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4 Easy and Healthy Smoothies

Smoothies are delicious way to enjoy fruits, and vegetables well adding fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients.  When making these smoothies just put the ingredients in the blender and mix together until smooth.  feel free to add more or less of any ingredients, to accommodate your preferences. 

1) Berry Green Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 sliced banana
• 1/4 cup raspberries
• 1/2 cup of ice cubes
• 1/2 cup mixed greens
• 1 tsp flax seed
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2 tbsp yogurt
• 1/2 frozen mixed berries

2) Banana Peach Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 peach peeled and sliced( make sure to remove the pit)
• 1/2 banana sliced
• 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup ice 

3) Strawberry Banana Smoothie

 Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 10 strawberries
• 1 cup of yogurt
•  1/2 cup of orange juice
• 2 ice cubes

4) Ultimate Berry Smoothie

 Ingredients:

• 1 cup of vanilla yogurt
• 8 strawberries
• 8 pieces of cantaloupe                                 
• 6 pieces of pineapple
• aprox. 20 blueberries
• 1/2 cup of apple juice
• 4 ice cubes 

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Baked Tortilla Chips

These easy to make chips are great for appetizers at parties or just to have as a healthy snack. (They will also go great with the Homemade Hummus blog down below!) These chips are baked rather than fried like most store-bought potato chips and contain way less sodium. If you'd rather have a sweeter snack, add cinnamon and sugar instead of salt. 

   Ingredients:

1 packet of corn tortillas

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

Coarse Sea Salt

Directions:

1. Lightly brush one side of the tortilla with vegetable oil, then cut the tortilla into slices of four.

2. Sprinkle the salt evenly on the oiled side.

3. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

4. Enjoy your healthy snack!

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Home-Made Hummus

This homemade hummus is delicious and easy to make.  This is a great recipe for parties as you can bring it as an appetizer and tell everyone that its made from scratch.  It is also super fun as it always intrigues people to try what you brought and seems to excite guests more than if you just bought some at the store.  The recipe I'm using today is based off of Sally Schneider "A New Way To Cook" Cookbook. This recipe isn't overly time consuming, and is a great dip to serve with veggies, pita bread, or anything you'd please.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 tsp  ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 1/2 cups canned chickpeas
• 3 tbsp tahini
• 3-4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• about 1/2 cup of the chickpea juice

Toppings:

• 3-4 gloves of garlic
• chopped cilantro
• 1-2 tsp olive oil

Directions:
1) In a small skillet toast the coriander seeds on low heat, until fragrant.  Once done then crush coarsely. (You can use a spice grinder, mortar + pestle, or I found a coffee bean grinder worked well). Then toast the sesame seeds and grind together.  Once everything is ground add in the cumin, and set aside.
2)  In a small bowl mix together the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, 1 1/2 tsp of salt, cayenne, garlic cloves sliced, the ground spice mixture, and a tbsp of the chickpea juice.
3) Place the drained chickpeas into the food processor and mix adding about 1 tbsp of the liquid at a time until their is a medium-coarse puree. Once that's done pour in the reserved chickpea juice until it is a fluffy texture.
3) Taking the hummus you can top with chopped cilantro if you please.  You can also mince or press the garlic and toast in a pan with olive oil for more of a garlicky taste.  Once you have your toppings place your hummus in the refrigerator to cool, then serve and enjoy when ready.

-Megan

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Cheesecake Bars

These bars have a soft textured bottom of graham crackers, and a nice creamy and sweet top layer. I used the recipe from food network, and to help make it a  little healthier I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese. Some recommendations I have for this recipe, is to make sure your butter and cream cheese are at room temperature because it helps to get the right consistency for the cheesecake. When making the crust a good idea my mom had was to use a spatula to flatten and spread out the graham crackers.  By doing this it was way less of a mess compared to using a fork and it helped to make sure everything was flat and even. Also another helpful tip is that 1 cup of crushed graham crackers is about 7-8 individual graham crackers.  This cheesecake overall was super fun and delicious to make, and I definitely recommend trying it out.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of finely ground graham crackers
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 sticks of melted butter
• 24 oz of 1/3 less fat softened cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 sour cream
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Directions:
1)  Preheat your oven to 350°F  and get a 9*12in baking dish out.
2) For the crust mix together the crushed graham crackers, melted butter, and 1/4 cup sugar.  Put into the baking dish and flatten out.  Place into the heated oven for about 10min then remove and let cool.
3) Well the crust is cooling beat together the cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar together in a mixing bowl. 
4) Once mixed together beat in the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla until combined thoroughly. 
5) Take the cream cheese mixture and pour over top the cooled crust, put back into the oven for 30-35min so the edges are stiff but the center is still loose.  
6)Take out the bars  when done and let cool completely, then chill until they set. 

-Megan

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3 Ingredient Valentines Day Treats

With Valentines day Coming up We decided to come up with some fun festive recipes to make during this fun holiday.  These are super fun and a great to share, give to  a loved one, or just enjoy yourself.

Peanut Butter Heart Cookies: Simple and Easy these 3 ingredient cookies are super delicious and can easily be made for this holiday by baking into heart shaped cookies using a cookie cutter, or a spritz cookie maker.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup sugar

Directions:
Mix together the ingredients in a bowl until they are combined.  The shape your dough into hearts using cookie cutters then place onto a non-stick backing sheet.  Put the cookies into the oven for 12min on 350°F.  Take out when done, and you can make about 3 1/2 dozen depending on your size.

Raspberry Nice Cream: This is a fun healthier version of ice cream, and is super festive with its pink color.  You can even serve in a cute dish and share with your favorite loved ones on this special day.


Ingredients:

• 3 sliced frozen bananas
• 1/2 cup raspberries frozen
• 1-2 tbsp water

Directions:
Taking your frozen fruits place into a food processor and add in the water. Mix together until you get a soft consistency.  You can eat it from here if you'd like your ice cream softer, or you can place back into the freezer for 1hr or more so you can scoop it out like the store bought containers.  When ready to eat place into a cute dish and top with some raspberries, or other toppings you please.

Strawberry Shortcake: This is a super easy and light dessert that you can share with your special someone. It only takes 3 ingredients and less than 5 minutes to make!

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of angel food cake
• 3/4 cup of cool whip
• cut up strawberries

Directions:

Simply spread a thick layer of cool whip onto a slice of cake and add strawberries. Then, place another slice on top and repeat. You can add as many layers as you want, I used two!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries: A super easy and classic treat for loved ones or simply a dish to pass. Chocolate covered strawberries take little time and are literally mouthwatering! Also you can get as creative as you want when decorating them, the sky's the limit.

Ingredients:

• 10-15 full strawberries
• 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips/chocolate 
• Anything else needed to decorate (sprinkles, drizzled white chocolate, chopped nuts, etc)

Directions:

First, rinse the strawberries and chop off the tops. Then you can either melt the chocolate on the stove or in the microwave for 1 to 11/2 minutes. Dip the strawberries into the warm chocolate and let them cool on parchment paper. Once finished feel free to decorate. The most efficient way of drizzling white chocolate is putting the melted chocolate in a plastic bag and snipping a corner off. Enjoy!

-Megan & Jessie

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Homemade Soft Pretzels

Yesterday was the SuperBowl and I decided to make some homemade pretzels for an appetizer. These were a huge hit, everyone at the party loved them. These chewy and tasty snacks were gone before the first touchdown! They take approximately 2 hours to make, but they're defiantly worth it :)

Ingredients:

*1 package of yeast

*1 tablespoon of sugar

*2 cups of lukewarm water

*4 cups of flour

*1 tablespoon of salt

*1 egg

*1 tablespoon of water

*coarse sea salt

Directions:

1. Stir sugar, yeast, and water together and let sit until the mixture appears foamy (about 5 minutes, should look like below.)

2. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt, then stir the yeast mixture into the flour.

3. Knead the dough, then place it back in a covered bowl and let it rise.

4. Roll dough out evenly and cut about 12'' long pieces.

5. Form the dough pieces into a pretzel shape and line on a greased pan.

                  

6. Then brush melted butter onto the dough and sprinkle a fair amount of salt.
7. Finally, cook for about 10 minutes at 450 degrees F.
8. Enjoy your finished pretzels!

    

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Home-made whole wheat Waffles

Today i'm here to share with you a delicious recipe for whole wheat waffles from scratch.  These are great because you can know exactly whats going into your waffle instead of buying the batter from a box.  These were super fun to make and you can top them with syrup, or use apples and honey which tastes great as well.  Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 7/8 cup almond milk
• 1/8 cup unsweetened applesauce (used instead of oil)
• 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• dash of salt

Directions:

1. Pre-heat your waffle iron

2. In a mixing bowl whisk together the egg, milk, applesauce, honey, cinnamon, and baking soda.

3. Once mixed together add in the flour, baking powder,  and salt then whisk again until smooth.  At this point you should have a batter with a thicker consistency but is still liquid.

4. Taking your batter, spray your waffle iron with non-stick spray then pour your batter on the iron.  Wait until the waffle is cooked thoroughly then place on a plate.  Keep making the waffles until the batter is gone (it should make about 3 waffles).  Top with your favorite toppings and enjoy!

-Megan

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