Clementine Jicama Salad

Today for lunch I experimented with a Clementine Jicama salad. The flavors in this salad are really interesting together and I think you will really like it. 

 Clementine Jicama Salad 
½ teaspoon chopped garlic
¼ cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon ground pepper
8 clementines
1 pound jicama, peeled and cut into ¼ inch matchsticks (~ 3 cups)
1 red onion, thinly sliced
¾ cup packed cilantro
½ cup queso fresco or mild feta, crumbled
⅓ cup sunflower seeds

1. Mince and mash garlic to a paste, then whisk together with lime juice, oil, sugar, and pepper in a
large bowl.

2. Add clementines, jicama, onion, and cilantro. Toss gently.
3. Sprinkle with cheese and sunflower seeds. Serve immediately.

Yield: 8 servings - Unless you let your baby help you with the salad and she had decided it is her new most favorite food in the world. Then it will feed slightly less than that.

Her favorite part to pick out and eat are the red onions! She is her daddy's girl. - and I don't mind kissing either of them (onion breath and all)

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad

I have been wanting to make this salad since I first looked over what was spotlighted in January. I have been waiting to find a good batch of avocadoes at the store to use, and I didn't find them until today. Lucky for me, since the month is coming to an end.

This is an exceptionally easy green salad that you can throw together in a matter of minutes. I even used the pre-sectioned grapefruit that is available now and so I had this assembled in under 5 minutes.

The grapefruit is a great tart pairing with the sweet creamy avocado and the spice of the onion and the vinegar in the dressing is amazing.  If you feeling nervous about eating the red onion raw leave your slices really big so you can pick them out.

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad

2 pink or red grapefruit
1 tablespoon juice from grapefruit
4 cups romaine lettuce
1 avocado, sliced thin
¼ small red onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut skin and membrane away from grapefruit. Reserve 1 tablespoon juice from fruit. Place fruit in large
bowl.
Add lettuce, avocado, and onion to bowl. Toss gently.
Mix grapefruit juice, olive oil, vinegar, and sugar together. Drizzle over salad.
Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Oh My Darling, Clementines

Clementine peak season is from November to January, it is almost time for these Cuties to begin being gone.




This delicious recipe is just one unexpected way to use clementines in cooking. Most of us really enjoy eating them right out of our hands, but you can cook with them too.

You can put them into rice dishes, add them to pasta salads, even back with them. They work in savory recipes as much as they play so nicely with sweets. D. S. Brennan Photography's pin on Pinterest.



If you don't have any fresh clementines, you can use canned mandarin oranges - the resulting product won't be exactly the same, but it will still be very good and I am sure you'll be pleased with the results.

Introduction to the Dash Diet

Around the first of the year there was a study done by a national magazine that ranked the most popular diets in our culture. There were several categories, but the diet that seemed to come out on top for all around health and well being was the Dash Diet.  Have you heard of it? This is the second year in a row that the Dash Diet has received top honors.

So what makes me so excited about this "diet"? This diet is just the healthy eating that we have already been doing! The healthy information we have been learning from Food $ense about eating well.

We have been following My Plate and the My Plate Guidelines.  We have been adding more veggies to our meals and snacks, we have been striving to make half our grains whole grains, and we have already switched to low-fat and no fat dairy products.  We are cutting down on unhealthy fats and eating less sodium. We are being more active.  We are doing so many amazing things!

Do you want to know more about this Dash Diet? Here is a really indepth plan and here is a shorter version.

What are some changes we can make to ease ourselves into a healthy eating change?

Add a serving of vegetables at lunch one day and dinner the next, and add fruit at one meal or as a snack.

Increase your use of fat-free and low-fat milk products to three servings a day.

Limit lean meats to 6 ounces a day—3 ounces a meal, which is about the size of a deck of cards.
If you usually eat large portions of meats, cut them back over a couple of days—by half or a third at each meal.

Include two or more vegetarian-style, or meatless, meals each week.

All of these tips can not only help you eat healthier but can be easier on your budget. Eating well and being healthy doesn't have to cost a fortune. We can do it on the budgets and sometimes for less than what we are spending now.

Doesn't it feel good when you know something and then someone smart comes a long and confirms that you are RIGHT! all along?

Crock-Pot French Onion Soup

Easy Crock-Pot French Onion Soup 
3 large onions, sliced (~3 cups)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon pepper
4 (15 oz.) cans beef broth
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
8 slices French bread, cut 1 inch thick
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Mix onions and butter in crock-pot. Cover and cook on high 30 to 35 minutes or until onions begin to
slightly brown around edges.

 Add flour, sugar, and pepper to onions and stir well to coat onions. Stir
broth and Worcestershire sauce into onions. Cover and cook on low 7 to 9 hours (high 3 to 4 hours).

15 minutes before serving, place bread on baking sheet. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan
cheeses. Broil on high heat until cheese melts. Watch carefully to prevent burning.

15 minutes before serving, place bread on baking sheet. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan
cheeses. Broil on high heat until cheese melts. Watch carefully to prevent burning. Pour soup into
bowls and place a slice of bread on top of each bowl of soup.

Serve immediately.
Yield: 8 servings

Zucchini Chips and Caramelized Onion Dip

Today I was feeling a little snacky and so decided to whip up some chips and dip.  I made the dip first so it would have some time to let the flavors mingle together while I made the chips (which took longer than I expected. 

First I followed the Food $ense recipe for caramelized onions. I don't know if you need a recipe for this once you have done it, but I am sharing for all of us that this is a first time for. 

Sautéed and Caramelized Onions 

2 tablespoons olive oil 

8 yellow onions, thinly sliced 

Heat oil in heavy pan over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until onions reach desired degree 

of doneness (see chart), stirring occasionally. If you want caramelized onions, reduce heat and cook 

longer. 

5 minutes – translucent, wilted, strong onion flavor 

15 minutes – pale golden color, soft, onion flavor 

30+ minutes – brown color, very soft, sweet flavor 

45+ minutes – dark brown color, jam-like texture, caramelized flavor 

Use on and in anything where you desire flavor. Examples – omelets, sandwiches, burritos, pasta. 

I cooked mine for about 30 minutes, they ended up a little bit darker than here in the photo.

 After they were done cooking, I just added all the ingredients to a bowl and popped it into the fridge.


2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups diced onions

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups sour cream
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper  ( I just used regular black pepper) 
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Heat the oven to 200 degrees and line a pan with parchment paper, I happened to be out of that so I used foil. 

Slice your zucchini as thinly and uniformly as possible.  If you have a kitchen mandolin they are made just for jobs like this. But you don't need one, I used a kitchen knife and it did the job just fine. 

 Spray your cookie sheet with cooking oil and then place all your zucchini in a single layer on the tray. 

Spray the tops with cooking oil and lightly season them. You can use just salt and pepper if you would like, I have a seasoning salt mix that I used.  Let them cook in the oven for an hour and then rotate the cookie sheet, cook for another hour, but start checking for desired doneness around an hour and 45 minutes total time.

 They come out crispy and delicious and ready for dipping. (or not - they are perfect on their own too.

I really should have made more of these than I did.

Tilapia with Grapefruit and Capers - Restaurant Quality

From Eating Well here is an amazing recipe that contains not only the spotlight fruit of the month Grapefruit, but also one of the vegetables of the month Onion. 

It is so delicious, the flavors mingle well together and are a little bit unexpected. My husband absolutely loved it and kept saying, "this is just like something I would order in a restaurant".  High praise indeed! This recipe is definitely "Restaurant Quality".

INGREDIENTS

• 2 medium red grapefruit
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1-1 1/4 pounds tilapia
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
• 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 teaspoons honey

• PREPARATION

Slice both ends off one grapefruit. With a sharp knife, remove the peel and white pith; discard. Working over a small bowl, cut the segments from their surrounding membranes. Set aside. Juice the second grapefruit into another small bowl. Drain any accumulated juice from the segments into the bowl with juice.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle both sides of fish with 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper. Add the fish to the pan and cook until browned and opaque in the middle, 3 to 5 minutes per side.

 Remove to a plate, leaving behind as much oil as possible. Tent with foil to keep warm.

Add shallot to the pan over medium-high heat; cook, stirring, until starting to brown, about 1 minute.

 Add the grapefruit juice, capers, butter, honey and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until the sauce has thickened slightly, 1 to 2 minutes more. 

Remove from the heat and stir the grapefruit segments into the sauce. Serve the fish with the sauce.

• 
  
  

  NUTRITION

  Per serving: 233 calories; 9 g fat ( 3 g sat , 4 g mono ); 64 mg cholesterol; 17 g carbohydrates; 3 g added sugars; 24 g protein; 2 g fiber; 373 mg sodium; 531 mg potassium.
  Nutrition Bonus: Vitamin C (65% daily value), Vitamin A (31% dv), Vitamin B12 (30% dv), Potassium (15% dv)
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
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Chicken Broccoli Alfredo - S.O.S Style

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

Ingredients
 1 1/2 cups fettuccine noodles, uncooked
 1 cup fresh or frozen broccoli
 1 lb boneless chicken breast,  cooked (2 breast halves)
 3 cups water
 1/3 cup SOS Mix
 1/4 cup cheese,  grated

Directions
 In a skillet, combine SOS Mix, water, Parmesan cheese and fettuccine noodles. Bring to a boil, cook until thick and noodles are almost tender. Add broccoli and cooked chicken. Heat thoroughly until noodles are
tender. Serve with additional cheese.

Yield
 5 servings

The easiest healthy eating plan I know

There is so much to know about diet - and so many different opinions on what a person should be eating. Calories, grams, vitamins, minerals, RDAs, there is so much to understand. For most of us it can be confusing and very overwhelming. How are you supposed to eat better when there is so much confusion on what to eat and what exactly your body needs.

The good news, it doesn't HAVE to be so complicated. Instead of starting out trying to work about all the little details just do this - Choose My Plate.

 Fill 1/2 your plate with fruits and vegetables - do this with every meal and snack every single day. Choose lean proteins and low-fat dairy products. Keep salt to a minimum and your physical activity to a maximum.

And that's it! 

Lunch for four... please.

It seems like all of sudden things changed around here and I went from feeding one 5 yr old lunch to having to feed four people lunch everyday.

Lunch is a hard meal for me, I am honestly not very good at it. I have spent the last few years feeding Ezra a peanut butter and jelly sandwich everyday (his favorite thing in the whole world) and then just snacking myself to 4:00pm where I would finally be starved into fixing myself something or I would snack myself silly while preparing dinner. It isn't a pretty picture it is?

Now that my husband is home during the day and the baby has decided she is much too grown up for jars of baby food, I have four people that want to be fed at lunch time.

I have been frustrated and overwhelmed by this afternoon meal and what it symbolizes for me. If I am going to make changes, I am going to have to change some of things that I do that I know are bad for me, but are actually going to be hard to change. Beginning going to the gym has actually turned out to be a little easier than lunch time.

So after some serious though and pondering on how I was going to conquer this obstacle to health. I decided I was making much Much too big of a deal about this. Ezra was pretty happy with his little sandwich everyday. I didn't need to make it any more complicated than that.  So I got out my Create a Sandwich / Wrap handout, stuck it to the side of my fridge and said to myself, "there is lunch".

I have a friend that makes the most amazing salads for lunch. I love to go over to her house and spend the day with her because she always creates us something amazing.  It turns out, she is just following the same formula available in Create a Salad.

Perhaps if Joseph gets too sick of sandwiches we will mix it up and alternate sandwich day and salad day.

Here is how easy it is though;

1. Start with your outside - choose a wrap, tortilla or slices of bread.  You could even choose a pita or a piece of naan bread. 
2. Choose a protein - Think outside the box here, you don't need to just have "lunch meat". Peanut butter, humus, scrambled eggs, cooked dried bean, refried beans or cheese. 
3. Choose a filling - lettuce, tomato are typical, but what about peppers, avocado, sliced fruits. Pretty much an fruit or vegetable can be used her depending on what you chose as a protein. Here are some wild sandwich ideas. 
4. Dressing (this one is Very optional) - mustard, mayonnaise, ranch, any type of salad dressing, what about hummus for a double protein punch. 

The steps make it super easy, you only have to make 4 total choices and you are set with a healthy and quick lunch.  One of the best parts is that is doesn't require anything you don't already have, because you are "cooking" with what you do have on hand.  Don't have an apple to slice on your sandwich, try a pear... better yet be wildly adventurous and try an orange - or Grapefruit! 

Nutrition Education Works!

 WASHINGTON, December 5, 2013 -- The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today released a study providing clear evidence that well-designed nutrition education programs can lead to healthier food choices by participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).


That means programs like Food $ense are really helping people.

Create a .... Potato Soup

We have a leftover holiday ham here at our house. So I was thinking what should I make for dinner that could include ham. Ham and something.......

I also have had potatoes on my mind. They are one of the spotlight vegetables here at Food $ense for the month of January. And we just went grocery shopping, so I have a nice big bag.

Potatoes are great for us budget conscious meal planners. They are relatively inexpensive and can be served lots and lots of ways.  

One of my kids favorite lunches at school is Potato Soup. So tonight I decided to try and create a Potato soup recipe using my Food $ense skills.  I got out my Create a Soup handout and read over the instructions. I knew I needed to somehow make it creamy, but I wasn't sure how do that without adding cream to the soup, my mom always made hers with heavy cream - delicious, but not very budget friendly and certainly not good for us.  Plus, I had just been grocery shopping and wasn't wanting to head back to the store for that missing ingredient.

I read over the instructions...  vegetables, protein, starch, broth or base, this is where I was stumped a little. It just said "milk", but I really wanted the soup to be creamy, like a chowder. Yum!!

Then inspiration struck me up the side of the head. S.O.S. mix! I was out of it, and would have to make some, but I had all the ingredients and it would cost me much less than going to the store for something and it would be fast as can bed.

So I got out the powdered milk, cornstarch, bullion, and onion ( I decided not to add Italian seasoning to this batch, because I wasn't planning on Italian seasoned potato soup). I measured it out and mixed it up before my husband was done washing the potatoes.

The part of dinner that took the longest was all the chopping, I chopped potatoes, celery and onion.

 Then I put the potatoes into the water in just enough water to cook them thoroughly. About halfway through the cooking time ( I planned on about 20 minutes or so) I added the celery and the onion.  I mixed up the S.O.S. mix in a separate container with cold water. I used half of the water that the ratio in the recipe calls for, because I already had a lot of water that the potatoes were cooking in.

When the potatoes tested done, I slowly added the S.O.S. mix while stirring the entire time (so I wouldn't get giant cooked clumps). As soon as the mix was added, I added the ham to heat thoroughly.

 It turned out so delicious! Ezra, my 5 yr old, was super disappointed that it wasn't Tomato soup, but he tried it after the boys were digging into theirs and he sounded pretty surprised when he declared, "Mom, this is actually pretty good".  It was good, creamy and comforting and delicious - all without a trip to the store.

 And just for creative kicks, you can sprinkle the top with cheese and it is amazing good while adding that extra kick of calcium. Yeah, calcium, that is what I tell myself when I am topping things with cheese.

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