Gluten Free

CLASSIC PESTO

September 1, 2020 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

Since moving to Texas nearly a decade ago, I have tried growing some sort of produce nearly every summer. I’ve been semi-successful with tomatoes and peppers here and there but nothing really worth bragging about. This summer we had some local teenagers build a raised garden bed for us and I am really looking forward to how this will expand my gardening efforts. This is also the first summer I’ve ventured into growing herbs. I’m proud to say that my basil plant has been thriving! This plant has more than doubled in size in the short couple of months its been living in my backyard. The best way I could think of to honor this beautiful plant is to make pesto out of it. This recipe puts the basil front and center.

You can actually make pesto from a variety of ingredients. You essentially choose your greens, choose your nuts, and combine with the remaining typical ingredients. I love that this enables you to use what you have on hand. This past weekend, I even made a version that used the green leaves from my sweet potato plants. But let’s be honest, most people don’t have those readily available. As I continue to play around with different combinations, I may post some of my favorite pesto recipes. There is a lot to be said, though, for starting with the basics though.

Here, I’ve decided to keep things traditional – basil and pine nuts. Once you put it all together, there are lots of options for using your pesto. I love eating it on toast with hummus and a thick tomato slice. You can use pesto instead of a red sauce as your base on pizza or on pasta. I’m also a huge fan of pesto on fried eggs. I’d love to hear how you end up using this recipe so feel free to leave a comment below with the details.

Classic Pesto

Sarah Baade

Classic pesto is easy to make and a fantastic way to use up fresh basil.

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Course Condiments, Sauces

Cuisine Italian

Equipment

Food Processor

Ingredients

1/3 cup pine nuts
2 cups fresh basil, packed
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Place pine nuts in a dry sauté pan and cook over medium low heat. Stir frequently until pine nuts are lightly browned. Once toasted, immediately remove pine nuts from heat and place on a separate plate to cool. ***Watch pine nuts closely during this process as they can quickly pass from lightly toasted to burned.
Place cooled pine nuts, basil, parmesan cheese, and garlic in a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground.
Add olive oil, lemon juice and salt into the food processor and pulse until smooth.

Keyword Basil, Pesto, Pine Nuts

GREEN MAGIC SMOOTHIE

March 14, 2020 by Sarah Baade 2 Comments

I go through fazes when it comes to sweets. At times, I can resist easily and am not at all bothered by watching others indulge in front of me. Then there are times when I am completely addicted. I go on big baking kicks and have “sharing” sized bags of candy hidden in my desk drawer at work. A month ago, I was on a huge sweets kick – HUGE. I was eating skittles by the handful, a few times per day. Not good, friends. This was not good. So, I made a commitment to give up sweets for Lent this year. Not only that, I added in daily exercise – a minimum of 10 minutes but striving for 30 each day. I’m nearly half way through my 40 days without sweets and am happily back to the point where I’m not excessively tempted. My body is also happy with the changes I’ve made. I’m feeling a bit more energetic and definitely feeling more capable of keeping up with my energetic toddler. I’m always a work in progress (aren’t we all?) but I’m thankful for the changes I’ve seen so far.

One of the perks of giving up sugary treats is that naturally sweet foods, such as fruit, taste more vibrant. Smoothies are a great example of this! You can keep on track with healthy eating habits while satisfying any lingering temptations for something sweet. I’ve been a big fan of green smoothies for a long time and finally decided to create my own. A blend of both fruits and vegetables with a lightly sweet flavor. We are loving this new smoothie recipe in our house. It is also a great way of getting extra servings of fresh produce into my daughter’s diet.

Green Magic Smoothie

A blend of both fruits and vegetables with a lightly sweet flavor.

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Course Drinks

Servings 2 Smoothies

Ingredients

4 cups fresh spinach
2 kiwi, peeled
1 frozen banana
1 cup frozen broccoli
1 cup frozen pineapple
1 cup frozen peaches
1 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon agave (optional for added sweetness)
2 teaspoons ground flax seed (optional)

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth.

Notes

You can portion out the fruit and veggies ahead of time and place them in a bag in the freezer. When you’re ready to make your smoothie, empty the contents of the bag into your blender and add the almond milk

Keyword Green Magic Smoothie, Green Smoothie, Smoothie, Smoothie Recipe

Love this recipe? You might also enjoy this Pomegranate Blueberry Smoothie.

ROASTED VEGETABLE BISQUE

December 9, 2018 by Sarah Baade 2 Comments

Lately I’ve been realizing just how busy my weekdays are. A typical day means I’m up at 5:45am to get ready and help our daughter get ready for the day. After working a full day at the office, I pick our daughter up from school then head home. We have just a little time to play before needing to get dinner going. Soon after dinner, we put our daughter to bed and then I rush out the door to get a workout in. Around 8:00pm I am finally able to relax and catch up with my husband on how our day was. I know my schedule isn’t all that unusual, lots of families have a similar (or crazier) routine. To be honest, I also have TONS of help from my husband, he is my ultimate teammate in life! However, reflecting on my schedule has emphasized the importance of easy meals in our household. I do prefer to cook homemade meals but I definitely have days when those chicken nuggets in the freezer are all I can muster. On the days when I am cooking, I try to fix healthy meals and expose my daughter to a variety of foods and flavors (with an emphasis on vegetables).

My daughter has been really eager to help in the kitchen lately which provides an opportunity to share a wider variety of foods with her. She might not end up eating what we fix (she is only two years old, after all, and I’m realistic) but the exposure is still there. If she sees us prepping and eating healthy foods, those options won’t be strange to her as she gets older. This bisque recipe is actually a perfect one for her to help with. I chop vegetables and then let her put them into a bowl, season them and pour them out onto a sheet pan for roasting. We have also been finding ways to incorporate other lessons into our cooking routines. “How many eggs did we put in the bowl?” “What colors do you see on the pan?” Not to mention she is learning how to follow directions. All of this learning is happening while helping to get dinner on the table. This is what we call a Win-Win situation, my friends!

Tips:

You can absolutely roast these vegetables the night before you plan to serve the bisque and then blend everything together when you’re ready to eat it. Store those veggies in a sealed container in the fridge. However, since the vegetables will be cold rather than hot from the oven, you might need to pour the blended bisque into a pot and warm it over the stovetop or in a crockpot before serving it.
If you’re making this for a bigger crowd, double the ingredients. You can still roast all the vegetables at the same time but it won’t all fit in the blender at once. Blend what you can then pour it into a large pot and repeat this until everything is in the pot. Stir it all together with a large spoon or whisk until fully incorporated.

ROASTED VEGETABLE BISQUE

The perfect dish to warm you up on a cold evening.

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Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

1 cup Raw cashews
1 large head Cauliflower, cut into florets
4 cloves Garlic, unpeeled
2 Medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
1 Medium yellow onion, sliced
2 Large red bell peppers, seeded and cut into large pieces
Olive oil for drizzling
Salt & pepper to taste
3 Tablespoons Red miso paste
1/2 teaspoon Ground cumin
1 Tablespoon Sriracha
2 cups Vegetable broth (more if you want to thin the bisque out a bit)
Croutons & chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F. Place cashews in a bowl of water and let soak. While cashews are soaking, put cauliflower, garlic and carrots in a large bowl. Drizzle bowl of vegetables with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix until evenly coated then spread evenly on a sheet pan. Place onion and peppers in the bowl used for vegetables then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix until evenly coated then spread evenly on a second sheet pan. Place both sheet pans in the oven and roast vegetables 20-30 minutes or until they are tender and edges start to brown. Note that the onion and peppers are likely to be done earlier than the other vegetables.
Drain and rinse cashews then place them in a high-powered blender. Peel roasted garlic cloves add them to the blender along with all of the vegetables. Add miso, cumin, sriracha and vegetable broth to blender. Blend on high until smooth and creamy. Garnish with croutons and parsley.

Watermelon Salad

August 1, 2018 by Sarah Baade 3 Comments

I keep wondering if I’m getting wimpier with age or if this summer really has been excruciatingly hot. I’m leaning toward the latter but the honest answer is that it’s probably both. I’ve been thinking back on all those summers I spent working at YMCA camps (shout out to Camp Wood and Camp Cosby!) and wondering how I survived living in little cabins with no air conditioning. I’m confident that I survived by being preoccupied with lots of fun activities and friends. I mean, who has time to think about the heat when you’re guiding a group of kids through a mud hike?! Still, we’ve been hitting triple digit temperatures on a daily basis with not much relief in sight. I give a lot of credit to all the summer camp staffers out there who have pushed through this heat to give kids the best week(s) they could imagine.

When it’s this hot outside, I have no interest in turning on the oven. Simple fresh ingredients are the way to go and summer provides such delicious seasonal produce! Naturally, I had to use this to my advantage. My daughter has been on a watermelon kick lately so I opted to use that as my base. I’m all about use what you’ve already got at home when possible. With just five ingredients, the hardest part of this salad will simply be cutting the watermelon. Other than that, this is as easy as a recipe can get. Enjoy!

Tips:

Although more expensive, you can certainly buy pre-cut watermelon to make this recipe even easier to make.
You can certainly toss the salad together a day ahead. Just be sure to cover and store in the refrigerator and don’t add the salad dressing until you are ready to serve it.

Watermelon Salad

Salad:

8 cups watermelon, cut into bite sized pieces

2 cups blueberries

½ cup feta cheese, crumbled or cubed

1 Tablespoon fresh mint, chopped

Dressing:

1 cup blueberries

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

Directions:

In a large bowl, toss together all of the salad ingredients. In a blender, liquefy the dressing ingredients. Drizzle dressing over individual servings of salad, as desired.

Portobello Lettuce Wraps

June 11, 2018 by Sarah Baade Leave a Comment

Last month was full of traveling. My husband, daughter and I flew out to Oregon to visit family for a few days. Then I flew to Seattle, WA for a work training. The following week we drove to Kansas to visit more family. I am incredibly thankful for these opportunities but it also completely wore us out. I can’t help but think the exhaustion is partly due to a shift in diet. Whenever I travel I end up eating more junk food than I normally would – certainly more than I should. I’m not alone in this habit, right?!?

Now that I’m back home I’m craving healthy food. I always find the easiest way to eat healthy is to cook at home. When I’m coming up with recipes I typically start with what type of dish I want to make and then figure out the details and ingredients. However, this particular recipe started with the sauce. I actually tried it out on some peeled carrots and it tasted pretty great (give it a try if you need an easy salad) but it wasn’t quite what I wanted as a final product. After some brainstorming, I came up with these lettuce wraps. This is such an easy dish to make, it might just make it onto my regular dinner menu rotation.

Tips:

You can easily make the sauce the night before and then refrigerate it until you are ready to use it.
The easiest way to crumble the tofu is to do it by hand. Alternatively, you could put the tofu in a bowl and break it apart with a fork.

Portobello Lettuce Wraps

Serves 4

½ cup balsamic vinegar

½ cup + 1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons ginger, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons peanut butter

½ teaspoon salt

16oz firm tofu,

4 medium Portobello mushrooms, rinsed, stemmed & chopped

2/3 cup water chestnuts, chopped

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

2 heads of bib or butter lettuce

Optional additions: rice, crushed peanuts, sliced green onion.

Directions:

In a small saucepan, over low heat, whisk together balsamic vinegar, ½ cup olive oil, ginger, peanut butter and salt until ingredients are fully combined. Remove from heat.

Press tofu with a paper towel to absorb moisture. In a large pan, heat remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Crumble tofu into pan and sauté until it starts to brown. Stir in mushrooms and continue to sauté until mushrooms are tender. Reduce heat to low, stir in water chestnuts, crushed red pepper and sauce.

Spoon rice and mushroom filling into lettuce leaves and garnish with peanuts and green onions.

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