Healthy Stuff

Green Jalapeño Margarita: Go Green on Cinco de Mayo

by liz · May 4, 2020

Here’s a trend I’ve been seeing lately: adding spinach to smoothies, grating zucchini into brownies and stirring pumpkin into soup and pastas. This may sound crazy, but these are all good ways to get more nutrients into our diets, which most of us need! And, they really do taste delicious…or, rather, I should say they don’t taste at all. I can’t even detect the extra veggies added to these particular dishes, so I get to eat my favorite foods with one extra, effortless serving of vegetables.

So, I soon became a spinach-smoothie convert, throwing a handful of spinach into any combination of frozen fruit, yogurt and instant breakfast mix I was blending. As May rolled around, I realized I could easily incorporate this trick into one of my favorite cocktails: the frozen margarita! Plus, I love jalapeños and drinks with a bit of spice. Adding a few fresh slices of this hot pepper + spinach gives your frozen margarita some heat, as well as a gorgeous green color. And it still tastes like that awesome beach trip to Mexico.

I give you the Green Jalapeño Margarita: your new favorite frozen summery drink.

Green Jalapeño Margarita

Ingredients for 2 servings:

3/4 cup fresh spinach leaves
1/4 cup Tequila blanco
1/4 cup orange liqueur (such as Triple Sec or Grand Marnier)
1/4 cup apple juice or orange juice
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 to 4 slices fresh jalapeño chile
10 to 12 cilantro leaves
2 cups crushed ice
Coarse salt

Directions:

PLACE spinach, Tequila, liqueur, Juicy Juice, lime juice, jalapeño slices, cilantro and ice in blender; cover. Blend until smooth.

DIP rims of glasses into water; dip into salt and shake off excess. Pour margarita mixture into glasses. Garnish each with a jalapeño slice, if desired.

Cook’s Tip: Increase amounts of jalapeño, cilantro and spinach leaves according to taste.

Green Jalapeño Margarita

Author: Food Charmer

Recipe type: Drinks

Cuisine: Mexican

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

Serves: 1

Try this healthier - and still delicious - take on a spicy, frozen margarita.

Ingredients

¾ cup fresh spinach leaves
¼ cup Tequila blanco
¼ cup orange liqueur (such as Triple Sec or Grand Marnier)
¼ cup apple juice or orange juice
¼ cup fresh lime juice
2 to 4 slices fresh jalapeño chile
10 to 12 cilantro leaves
2 slices cucumber
2 cups crushed ice
Coarse salt

Instructions

PLACE spinach, Tequila, liqueur, apple or orange juice, lime juice, jalapeño slices, cilantro, cucumber and ice in blender; cover. Blend until smooth.
DIP rims of glasses into water; dip into salt and shake off excess. Pour margarita mixture into glasses. Garnish each with a jalapeño slice, if desired.
Cook's Tip: Increase amounts of jalapeño, cilantro and spinach leaves according to taste.

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Easy Spring Pasta Recipe: Fettuccine with Peas, Leeks & Thyme

by liz · Mar 5, 2019

Fresh pasta with local, organic spring peas, leeks and thyme for an easy, impressive dinner.

Spring has sprung in California – as well as most of the country. To me that means spring vegetable season; asparagus, leeks, peas, artichoke, fennel and fresh herbs are bountiful in farmers markets. Much of this produce is available year-round, but spring is the best time to get the freshest spring vegetables, whether at your local market, grocery store or from your own garden!

And those fresh spring flavors really come through in this easy spring pasta recipe, Fettuccine with Peas, Leeks & Thyme. It’s a cinch to make and it’s packed with flavor and nutrients, plus spring is a great time to get hooked on the Mediterranean way of eating. Adding a bit of the pasta water instead of using sauce is a traditional way to make pasta dishes in Italy. This recipe is a sure way to eat more vegetables and wow your friends with your culinary savvy!

Fettuccine with Peas, Leeks & Thyme

Recipe courtesy of Buitoni.

Ingredients for 3 servings:

1 package (9 ounces) Refrigerated Fettuccine
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup sliced fresh leek
1/3 cup frozen peas
Salt and ground black pepper
2 thyme sprigs, leaves removed and stems discarded
1/4 cup (1 ounce) freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

PREPARE pasta according to package directions, reserving ½ cup cooking water. While pasta is cooking, prepare leek mixture.

HEAT oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add leek; cook, stirring frequently, until softened and golden. Stir in peas; cook for 1 minute or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper, as shown above.

ADD reserved pasta cooking water, thyme leaves and cheese; stir in gently. Toss pasta with leek mixture. Season with salt and pepper.

Wine Pairing

Italian wines can be hard to find, other than the super popular Pinot Grigio. If you can find a Soave wine, it’s a soft, fruity, clean wine with crisp lemon flavors and really complements this dish.
Grenache Blanc with its acidity and rounded flavors, or Sauvignon Blanc with its herbaceousness, would also be great wines with this pasta.

Fettuccine with Peas, Leeks & Thyme

Author: Buitoni

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Italian

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

1 package Refrigerated Fettuccine (9 oz.)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ cup sliced fresh leek
⅓ cup frozen peas
Salt and ground black pepper
2 thyme sprigs
¼ cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese (5 oz.)

Instructions

PREPARE pasta according to package directions, reserving ½ cup cooking water. While pasta is cooking, prepare leek mixture.
HEAT oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add leek; cook, stirring frequently, until softened and golden. Stir in peas; cook for 1 minute or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.
ADD reserved pasta cooking water, thyme leaves and cheese; stir in gently. Toss pasta with leek mixture. Season with salt and pepper.

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A Girl Needs Her Greens: How to Eat More Greens

by liz · Feb 27, 2019

I had joined a CSA program in my hood, and I was starting to see green. Every week I picked up two large bags full of vegetables, many of them greens of some kind. Curly mustard greens, Chicoria (dandelion greens), Mizuna (Japanese mustard greens) and stinging nettles. What’s a girl to do with all these greens?

The Purist told me the way to cook greens was to wilt them with olive oil and garlic, which was delicious. I began wilting greens at every meal. I had wilted greens on top of my fried eggs and toast, for lunch on a warm goat cheese crostini, as a side to tomato risotto for dinner. I also made salads with the greens, then went back to wilting them. It was all good, and good for me, but I needed something different.

One day we got stinging nettles. I had to handle them with gloves or plastic bags before cooking them so as not to get a red rash from the stinging hairs on the stalk. And what to do with nettles besides wilt them like greens? Then, during a weekend in Santa Barbara wine country, I had a a wild nettle flatbread with farm egg, leek cream sauce, smoked mozzarella and thyme at a local organic restaurant (Full of Life Flatbread Bakery). Pizza! With the slightly bitter/smoky twist nettles had on greens – combined with local produce and mozzerella on crispy organic pizza dough! Oh!

A new flatbread obsession took hold: I had to recreate this flatbread – over and over. A girl’s gonna need more greens.

Thank god for CSA.

Read the results of this eating-more-vegetables-in-season experiment:

Better than Green Beer: Fresh Green Smoothies for St. Patrick’s Day

by liz · Feb 26, 2019

One way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day is with (artificially) green-colored food and drinks: green beer, green eggs, green cupcakes, green milk…and the list goes on and on. This makes for some fun-colored eggs in the morning, which probably contain chemicals, and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to eat green gravy.

Instead, how about making food green by injecting green healthy foods into the dish? I definitely want to wear and eat something green on St. Patrick’s Day, so I looked around for some fresh, green-injected recipes. The most surprising one? This Piña Colada Green Smoothie above, made green by adding a cup of fresh spinach, along with other typical ingredients you find in a healthy smoothie. Chopped kale works too, and it has the most nutrients per calorie of any vegetable.

I tried it out at home ahead of time (I certainly don’t want to disappoint green beer lovers with veggie-tasting smoothies) and was most pleasantly surprised. The smoothie tasted fresh, light and fruity-coconutty just like a piña colada should. There was not even a hint of that secret healthy ingredient that turned it such a gorgeous shade of green: spinach. I used freshly squeezed orange juice, fat-free yogurt and vanilla protein powder. With all the nutrients from this as well as the banana and pineapple, I could drink this green delight for breakfast every day.

Piña Colada Green Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 scoop or packet protein powder
1/2 cup pineapple or orange juice
1/2 cup frozen pineapple cubes
1 cup fresh spinach leaves
1/4 cup vanilla fat free yogurt
1/4 banana
1 tablespoon unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup ice cubes

Directions:

PLACE protein powder, pineapple juice, pineapple, spinach, yogurt, banana, coconut and ice in blender; cover. Blend until smooth.

I also tried this Tropical Avocado Smoothie, shown above, using avocado, lime and fat free evaporated milk. Now I love avocado so much I can find a place for it at every meal of the day, but I’ve never had avocado for dessert (combined with sugar and served as a sweet). This would be interesting.

Well, I loved this smoothie even more! I couldn’t believe how rich and creamy it was, almost like ice cream, and so pretty. I didn’t know sweetened avocado was so good – and I used less sugar than called for in the recipe. In my opinion, this smoothie is just another delicious way to work more avocado into my diet.

So I’m set for fresh green drinks throughout the day tomorrow. And I even found this green-food-injected Green Eggs & Ham recipe, so I can still get my eggs “green” at breakfast.

Tropical Avocado Smoothie

Ingredients:

Pulp of 1 medium avocado
2 cans (12 fl. oz. each) Evaporated Milk, chilled
1/4 cup granulated sugar or to taste
1 teaspoon grated lime zest (optional)
Crushed ice (optional)

Directions:

PLACE avocado, evaporated milk, sugar and lime zest in blender container; cover. Blend for 30 to 45 seconds until smooth.

SERVE in tall glasses. Top with crushed ice, if desired.

NOTE: If a thinner drink is desired, blend in 1 cup ice cubes with drink ingredients.

Carrots Galore: Two Carrot Soups & a Carrot Side Dish

by liz · Jan 3, 2019

After I’d been a member of my local farm share – Silverlake Farms – for several weeks I realized I needed more carrot recipes. These were the most beautiful vibrant carrots I’d ever seen. I’d been eating them raw or in salads, along with the gorgeous radishes I also received each week.

I scoured the internet and asked my cooking friends, but didn’t come up with anything that unusual. Turns out carrots are best in the forms you already know: carrot soup – puréed of course – glazed carrots or as part of a base (as in soups, roasts or mirepoix).

I tried various interesting-sounding dishes I concocted myself, like mirepoix chilaquiles (better than it sounds!) and as an accompaniment in braised cabbage.

I ended up making two soups – the Purist’s form (my friend who knows the right way to cook any food) and one blended with tomato. I also dreamed up a glazed carrot dish with honey and blue cheese. All were supremely delightful.

The first soup was the Purist’s. He believes you don’t need to add any sugar, no seasoning besides salt, pepper and ginger nor any chicken broth nor cream.

And it would only work if you had the correct 2-speed Waring Pro blender and homemade vegetable stock made from organic veggies, preferably purchased at a local farmers’ market. So yes, I bought the blender, but I changed the recipe.

I brought my loot over to my friend and fellow foodie’s apartment, the Comedienne. We sautéed the carrots with shallots, onions and ginger, then added sherry, basil, mint and sage stuffed inside a leek (stuffing a hollow leek with herbs was the best idea the Purist had) and let it simmer. We did add chicken stock and cream and then threw it all in the blender. It was divine.

Another cold night, I took inspiration from Au Bon Pain and tried my hand at a tomato-based soup with puréed carrots. This time I sautéed the carrots with garlic and onion (and ginger, a nod to the Purist), added store-bought organic tomato soup, vegetable and chicken stock plus a tiny bit of cream. This soup was satisfying and rustic. I ate the whole pot that night with a crisp green salad.

And finally, tired of soup, I tried a glazed carrot recipe. I sautéed the carrots in olive and grapeseed oil over high heat, adding a dash of white wine and some garlic – ginger too! – and coarse sea salt. I lowered the heat and cooked it all down a bit, then added some honey and finished it with crumbled sharp blue cheese. Honey goes very well with both carrots and blue cheese, so why not put them all together?

This was definitely the best thing I’ve ever done with carrots.

Read the results of this eating-more-vegetables-in-season experiment:

Vegetables In Season: New Year Resolution

by liz · Jan 1, 2019

I believe in buying locally. I believe in small farms feeding America. I try to eat as many vegetables as possible at every meal because it’s virtually impossible to get in the number of servings recommended for your daily diet, the number needed for fighting off cancer cells not to mention helping regulate various bodily processes more efficiently and keeping you as young as possible. Vegetables = the new fountain of youth.

Eating vegetables in season is just smart, because that’s what you’ll find at your local farmers markets. So when I got an email from my newly-sprouted local neighborhood farm with an offer to join their new Community Supported Agriculutre (CSA) program, I promptly signed up for 10 weeks of fresh, locally-grown winter LA vegetables.

The first Friday pick-up got me a bunch of carrots, celery, arugula, dandelion, spinach, romaine lettuce, fresh garlic, radishes, mizuna (lovely mild mustard eaten raw), red onion and cilantro. The next week I got carrots, red onion, cauliflower, radishes, turnips, broccoli, tat soi, fresh shallots, romaine, arugula, izuna. After that it was celery, broccoli, carrots, radishes, fresh garlic, mizuna, red romaine lettuce, green romaine lettuce, italian parsley, baby bok choy, arugula, green curly mustard… You get the picture. It was a LOT of vegetables.

This CSA share was the best value in Los Angeles, but it was really going to challenge my recipe repertoire.

Read the yummy results of this eating-more-vegetables-in-season experiment:

Late Summer Fruit Tart with Yogurt & Nuts

by liz · Jun 14, 2018

I know the first the day of Autumn has officially come and gone, but the weather around here hasn’t gotten the message. It’s still unseasonably hot and sticky, and the garden is still producing summer vegetables like crazy.

I’ve been craving a fresh and simple breakfast lately, and dreaming of fruit tarts. Berries have one of the highest concentrations of vitamins and anti-oxidants of all the fruits; strawberries, along with almonds, are even featured on the clean-eating detox diet that I love!

And making the crust with crushed nuts only ramps up the nutrition as well as making it gluten-free. You can use any nut you like — almonds, cashews and hazelnuts are my favorite. Delicious and healthy, you can indulge in this delicious fruit tart and still call it breakfast.

Extra thanks to the lovely and talented Toki Lee for helping with a summer fruit tart photoshoot!

Check out this Greek Yogurt Fruit Tart recipe by Sally’s Baking Addiction for a delicious fruit tart recipe with Greek yogurt and a nut crust. I love how simple and pretty it is — you’ll be addicted too!