Yellow Lentil and Rice Stew

The Ingredients

Celery, Carrot, and Spinach Pulp (leftover from juicing)

4 cups water

1 container vegetable or chicken stock

1/4 diced onion

1 head of kale

2 cups uncooked spinach

1 cup organic basmati rice

1 cup yellow lentils

saffron

turmeric

coriander

cumin

salt

pepper

red pepper flakes

Place all ingredients into a big pot and simmer on medium heat for about 25 minutes. Top with red pepper flakes and enjoy. The rest can be frozen- great way to make sure you don't waste extra produce. 

Watermelon Cucumber Popsicles

The Ingredients

Pulp from 1/2 cucumber and twice as much watermelon and mint

agave nectar

water

Put all into a blender and mix until slushy consistency. Freeze for 4 hours and enjoy. This is a great thing to do with leftovers from juicing. Very refreshing! 

Rocket is ready for take-off... into my mouth! 

Colorful Vegetable Medley

The Ingredients

1/2 cup brussel sprouts

4 small organic sweet peppers

1/2 red onion

two carrots

4 cremini mushrooms

cumin

coriander

salt

pepper

I mixed all veggies with some extra virgin olive oil, coriander, salt, and pepper, and let bake for 20 minutes. Delicious!

Caprese Pizza

The Ingredients

my dad's amazing pizza dough

fresh mozzarella

2 roma tomatoes

1 tbsp basil

olive oil

I had two balls of pizza dough, so I knew I had to create another pizza with my dad's dough. I bought some freshly made mozzarella that I sliced up for the pizza. Then, I topped it with tomatoes and some basil that was sliced. I coated the bottom of the baking sheet with some olive oil and let bake for 10-15 minutes.

YUM!

Before

After!

Truffle Pizza

The Ingredients

one ball of my dad's amazing pizza dough

6 sliced cremini mushrooms

1/2 pound havarti cheese ends

(black) truffle oil

extra virgin olive oil

two cloves of garlic

red pepper flakes

parmesan cheese

truffle salt

pepper

parsley

First, stretch out the dough- it should be very elastic. (Note: keep it moist with a damp kitchen towel if you aren't using it right away). I used a rectangular baking pan that was lightly brushed with olive oil to prevent it from sticking or burning. 

In a small frying pan, add a few tablespoons of olive oil and medium-low heat. Then, throw in two whole garlic cloves and red pepper flakes. Let it simmer slowly so that the garlic doesn't burn, for about ten minutes. Use a brush to lightly coat the dough with the hot garlic oil. 

The next layer is the cheese. I used havarti cheese ends because 1. they are cheaper than buying the sliced havarti and 2. because it melts nicely so the appearance doesn't matter and it adds a lot of good flavor to the earthy mushrooms. Slice up the cheese and then add the sliced mushrooms. Top with some grated parmesan cheese, truffle salt, and truffle oil. I chose black truffle oil because the taste is a bit stronger. Top with black pepper and parsley. Then, bake for 10-15 minutes. 

Pre-baking

Final product! NOM.

Watermelon Cucumber Juice

The Ingredients

1/2 cucumber

twice as much watermelon

1/4 cup fresh mint

Juice it all away! Very refreshing. Keep in mind that both of these things yield a lot of juice and that cucumber has a strong flavor, so add twice as much watermelon as cucumber to keep the juice nice and sweet. 

Beet Ketchup

The Ingredients

1/2 large beet

olive oil

1/2 red onion

salt

pepper

1 cup organic ketchup

I was watching Giada last week and she had a recipe for beet ketchup, but I decided to sort of change it up a bit. Instead of roasting the beet, I diced it up (skin on) and sautéed it with some diced red onion and olive oil. I also added some salt and pepper to taste. It cooks quickly this way, and the olive oil works really nicely with it. 

In a blender, I poured in some ketchup. Then, I added the sautéed beet and onion and blended away into a thick purée. It should look like this: 

It sort of tastes like puréed pickled beets and is DELICIOUS. I served it with some thick-cut, baked steak fries with turmeric and truffle parmesan scrambled eggs. YUM! 

Orecchiette Pasta w/ Butter Sage Sauce

The Ingredients

1/2 stick of unsalted butter

1/4 cup fresh sage

2 chicken breasts

1/2 bag orecchiette pasta

2 strips of bacon

salt

pepper

First, cook the bacon strips until crispy and set aside. Save the grease- you will be using it for the next step.

In a grill pan, add the bacon grease and cook the chicken breasts on medium heat. Add some salt and pepper to taste. The grill pan will leave lovely grill marks, which adds to the presentation. Then, throw in half of the butter and let it lightly brown. Add some sage, which will crisp up and infuse the butter with some great flavor. Do this for 7-10 minutes, but move onto the following step so you can get two things done at once. Your chicken should look like this: 

Then, grab that bacon. I use kitchen shears to cut tiny pieces. While the chicken is cooking, boil some heavily salted water. Add orecchiette pasta and cook until al dente. 

Also, make sure you add the rest of that butter into the cooking chicken. Put the chicken on the pasta and top with the bacon. Drizzle with the butter sage sauce and enjoy! 

Final product! 

Homemade Nut Dip

The Ingredients

honey nut (Turkish mix of pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, and peanuts)

brown rice syrup

almond milk

Put all ingredients into a blender and mix away. Super delicious with celery. 

Fruit Strips

The Ingredients

apple, beet, and ginger juice pulp

maple syrup

water

sunflower oil (I think it's better than canola oil)

Having a juicer is awesome. It is teaching me to be less wasteful. Instead of just throwing random scraps away, I will now say "I bet I can put that into a juice", and magic happens. I had leftover pulp from a juice I made, and thought I would get creative and make a kind of crunchy, chewy candy. Great success!!!!

All I did was add the pulp into a saucepan with some water and maple syrup (to taste). I just reduced it down a bit and let it simmer to really let any little bit of juice left develop. Then, I spread some sunflower oil onto parchment paper. I spread the fruit mixture on top and threw it in the oven on very low heat- 200 degrees, for about 7 hours. 

It looked like this:



Then, I broke it into pieces and it looked like this:

Yummy, yummy treat. 

I can't get over how I used such few ingredients and wasted basically nothing! It is so much healthier than buying store-bought snacks and really delicious. (And vegan!)

Veggie Patties

The Ingredients

celery, spinach, radish tops, and kale pulp

1/2 white onion

4 potatoes

3/4 cup of water

3/4 cup of flour

1 egg

salt

pepper

cayenne

cumin

coriander

olive oil

I made a delicious juice with these veggies this morning and thought that with all the lovely greens I could absolutely reuse the pulp for a new recipe. I was right! 

The leftover were just enough to fill up a small bowl. Here, you can see them in a rather large mixing bowl to commence the veggie patty process. I put this aside and worked on the binder to hold it all together.

Peel 4 potatoes and cut into medium-sized chunks (larger than dicing them- into 8ths). Then, shop 1/2 white onion. Put the ingredients into a food processor. Add some salt to taste, then the water. Mix away! 

The mixture should look like this:

Add the mixture to the green pulp in the mixing bowl. Then, add the flour, egg, and the spices to taste. Mix thoroughly. It should look a little bit like pancake batter. 

All together now!

Lightly coat a  pan with olive oil. Cook for a few minutes and flip over to do the same thing with the other side. I used a 1/2 cup to scoop out the batter, and it made about 10 larger patties. 

They should look like this:

Cooking away

SO GOOD. 

This could easily be made into a vegan patty by using an egg substitute. 

Monster sandwich: two veggie patties, radishes, baby spinach, and baba ganoush on wheat slims. 

Apple Beet Ginger Juice

I HAVE A JUICER. 

The Ingredients

1 apple

1/2 red beet

1 ginger root

What do you get when you put all these together? 

This beauty right here:

Gazpacho

The Ingredients

tomatoes

extra virgin olive oil

1/2 onion

1 clove of garlic

cilantro

hot pepper

adobo

water

All I did was put all of this in a blender. Presto! 

The finished product. A delicious summer treat.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

The Ingredients

4 fresh grape leaves

1 cup basmati rice

2 lemons

1/2 container ground beef

1/2 onion

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pine nuts)

parsley

dill

olive oil

I had fresh grape leaves. Yup, grape leaves. And I had no idea what to do with them. I have eaten stuffed grape leaves a ton of times, but was worried about attacking them myself. The trick is to boil them a bit in salt water after removing the stem. Then, shock them in ice water. If they aren't boiled, they will be tough and hard to cut through. Once cooked and cooled, set these aside. You will get to them soon enough! 

Next, boil the rice in some salt water. Make sure the rice is not 100% cooked- it will continue to cook later on.

For the filling, coat a pan with olive oil. Chop the onion and lightly sautée for a few minutes. Then, add the ground meat, and cook until the meat is brown. Add the chopped walnuts, a little salt and pepper to taste, chopped parsley, and dill. Take one of the lemons you have and zest it up! This brings out some great flavor. Save the lemon! You will use this (and more) soon. 

Sautéeing awesome

Then, add the rice to the mixture.

It should look like this- good meat to rice ratio.

You can then start filling your grape leaves. Make sure you fold them tightly. 

Stuff it up!

Then, line the bottom of a pot with the grape leaves. Squeeze the two lemons to coat the bottom of the pot. Cover the pot. (They can also be steamed if you so wish). 

Enjoy! They will be very lemony if eaten right after they are cooked. If you don't want them to be as lemony, add less lemon and refrigerate for a few hours before eating. 

Organic Garden

When I got back from my time away this summer, I knew I needed to get some produce. Lucky for me, my boyfriend's parents have an organic garden. 

Check out my lovely findings below:

green beans

English cucumber

tomatoes

grape leaves, green onions, parsley, cilantro, rosemary, basil, thyme, mint, and dill

labeled and ready for freezing