PMS Smoothie, by Diane

When I feel under the weather, in any way, I always turn to food to help fix the problem. This week, I was inspired to tackle a certain monthly issue, and I came up with such an ingenious, delicious recipe I knew I had to share!

This smoothie is jam packed with ingredients aimed at easing PMS symptoms, and it is chocolate flavored because, hey, who doesn't want to drink a giant chocolate milkshake during that time of the month? So it covers the cravings issue as well :)

First, a little science behind my ingredient selections: Calcium and Magnesium are biggies for PMS symptoms, namely cramps, tenderness, and bloating. Magnesium is also good for mood symptoms. Vitamins E and B6 are great for alleviated mood symptoms as well as aches and fatigue. Anti-Inflammatories are great at reducing pain, swelling, and fatigue. Manganese is associated with reducing tension and irritability.

Now, for the ingredients: Avocado (magnesium, B6, and E), Banana (Magnesium and B6), Dates (Calcium, Magnesium, and B6), Tumeric and Cinnamon (anti-inflammatory), Almonds (Calcium, Magnesium), Kale/Chard/Spinach (Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese), Chia Seeds (Calcium, and natural energy!), Cacao (Calcium and Magnesium). Many of these foods also contain zinc and copper, two naturally occurring elements that fluctuate in bloodstream levels during PMS.

Another thing- this smoothie is dairy-free for a reason: Dairy is pro-inflammatory, meaning it promotes inflammation in the body which can lead to increased pain, fatigue, and swelling. Read: This makes symptoms worse!

So drink up, ladies, and enjoy! This smoothie is great for the week before and during your period, and will help ease your accompanying symptoms. Also, I promise you can't taste the greens in all the sweet chocolatey goodness. Hooray!!


Ingredients:

2 frozen bananas (fresh is ok too, but frozen bananas give a thick milkshake consistency)
1/2 avocado
2 tbsp sliced almonds
1/4 tsp each cinnamon and turmeric
1/2 cup greens (I used a mix of kale, chard, and spinach)
2 tbsp cacao nibs
3 tbsp vegan chocolate protein powder (my absolute favorite is vega one!)
4 dates
1 tbsp chia seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (this smoothie is very sweet on it's own!)
1/2 cup water 

Blend all and enjoy!! (I am using a nutribullet which IMO is the best blender ever- even less clean up = even less moodiness!)

Cacao Pear Juice, by Cheryl

This is another good drink from "Superfood Juices"! I had this for breakfast, but I would definitely drink it as a dessert drink or as a sweet snack rather than have it for breakfast. It was my first time juicing pears and I didn't realize that the juice would have a little thickness to it, which I thought was great for this type of drink. Also, cacao offers more magnesium than any other food. Magnesium plays an extremely important role in the body as it aids in the absorption of calcium, promotes detoxification, and helps ease symptoms of PMS and menopause. You do need to pull out the blender though in order to blend the cacao powder, almond butter, and other things so that's the only annoying thing about making this drink. I would make this again though and I think Jon will actually be excited to drink one of my juices :) Yum!

Ingredients:

4 extra-ripe pears
2 teaspoons almond butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cacao powder
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Directions:

Juice the pears. Transfer the fresh juice to the blender, add the remaining ingredients, and blend until smooth.

Acai Yam Juice, by Cheryl

I'll add a better picture when I make it again!

I recently bought the book "Superfood Juices" by Julie Morris in order to have a bunch of different juice recipes at my fingertips. This is my first recipe from the book and it was a hit! It's sweet, creamy, and milky and has great things like antioxidants from the acai powder and healthy fats from the almond butter, not too mention all of the benefits of carrots and yams (although I used a sweet potato). Just don't smell it before you drink it... I didn't think that I would be able to drink it after that, but the taste is much better than the smell! Yum!

Ingredients:

1/2 pound yam, well scrubbed (I used one sweet potato)
2 carrots
1 cup coconut water
1 tablespoon acai powder
1 tablespoon almond butter

Directions:

1) Juice the yam and carrots.

2) Pour the juice into a blender and add the remaining ingredients. Blend well into a creamy mixture.

Healthy Sesame Chicken and Veggies, by Diane

I love Asian foods, but when I try to recreate Chinese food in particular I always find that the sauces require things like corn starch to thicken them into the delicious gooey consistency that takeout always has. I don't like to use modified food starches in my dishes, which usually means that I don't try to recreate Chinese food at home. Or, if I do try and leave out the cornstarch, I wind up with a liquidy sauce that doesn't stick on the ingredients therefore rendering the meat and veggies almost flavorless.

But- a few weeks ago I made a delicious Indian dish called Gobi Makhani, and it's secret was that it used cashew flour to thicken up the sauce. I was skeptical on this at first, but lo and behold the cashew flour did the trick and it was wonderfully creamy with a hint of cashewy goodness.

So, this week I decided to use that same technique and apply it to Chinese food. I picked my favorite "bad" takeout dish, Sesame Chicken. I modified the cooking technique so that instead of breading and frying the chicken it's simply chicken breast cubed and cooked in coconut oil. I used coconut oil instead of regular oil, for added nutritional benefits, although sesame oil would have tasted good too. I also added in stir-fry veggies to add in a higher nutritional content. Finally, I added in a bit of ginger and turmeric to help with immunity and anti-inflammatory benefits (in small enough amounts that they didn't affect the overall flavor of the sauce). Black pepper was added in because it helps increase the absorption of the turmeric so that it can do it's job in the body!


The result: The sauce came out very thick but a bit too creamy to be a replica of takeout. It was, however, very good and the cashew flavor went really nicely with the other asian flavors. Next time, I may try to mix the uncooked chicken cubes with egg whites and cashew flour first, then cook as directed. This would likely give the chicken that breaded quality of takeout without being actually breaded and fried, and would thicken the sauce when mixed through as well.

This is how thick the sauce became after adding the cashew flour. Prior to this it was just loads of tamari and honey!

Recipe for the sauce is modified from: http://www.simplyscratch.com/2013/01/sesame-chicken.html


Ingredients:

1/2 cup honey
5 tablespoons tamari
1/2 to 1 teaspoon sesame oil
4 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 garlic cloves, pressed in a garlic press
1 tsp each ground turmeric and ginger
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup cashews, ground into flour (about 2 tbsp flour)
4 tbsp coconut oil
3 medium sized chicken breasts, cubed into 1 inch pieces
2 packages frozen asian stir-fry veggies, steamed (I use the steam in bag kind)

Directions:

1. Whisk the ingredients through cashews in a bowl and set aside.

2. Heat a large sauce pan on medium high heat and add in 2 tbsp coconut oil. Add in chicken and cook through. Drain and set aside.

3. In the same pan add in 2 tbsp coconut oil and the veggies, stir until heated. Add the chicken back into the pan and then add in the sauce. Stir through until heated and thickened.

Orange Gingerade, by Diane

This is my current staple juice and it is PERFECT for the summer! So simple, and very refreshing. It has amazing nutrients like vitamin C, protein, and the ginger packs a great anti-inflammatory punch! Today I followed the recipe but also added 100% papaya pear juice and it was even better!!

The recipe uses a lot of ginger so if you're a ginger newbie I would suggest cutting it in half. I love the spice that this amount of ginger brings, and it's part of the refreshment for me!

Ingredients:

1.5 cups mixed greens (I love kale, chard, and spinach)
1 inch ginger
1 extra large or 2 large naval oranges

Directions:

Layer ingredients in this order: 1/2 of the spinach, all of the ginger, then remaining spinach. This helps to ensure that all of the ginger gets juiced. Then juice the orange to rinse out any remaining greens. YUM.

Vegetable Stuffed Eggplant Rollatini, by Cheryl

What a healthy and light dish! This is a great meal to have for lunch or if you want a light dinner. I made some changes to the original recipe. The original recipe has sliced celery in the mix as the only veggie (besides the eggplant). I replaced the celery with spinach and carrots (actually carrot pulp from juicing!) and it turned out really well! I made my own tomato mix instead of using the canned diced tomatoes. I also added fresh mozzarella to vegetable mix. I'll be making this again. Yum!

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplants
1 diced onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups spinach
Carrot pulp from 5 carrots (or just a few diced carrots)
1 can diced tomatoes (or your own tomato mix)
1/3 cup parsley, chopped
fresh mozzarella
olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Cut the two ends off the eggplant and slice lengthwise into ¼ inch slices. Salt the slices to help remove excess moisture and any bitterness from the eggplants and place in a colander. Set aside for about 15 minutes.

2) In a medium pan over medium heat, heat 5 tablespoons of oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots and cook for about 3 minutes or until the onion begins to turn translucent. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Add the tomatoes and parsley and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3) Rinse the salt off the eggplant with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Preheat the grill to medium or heat a grill pan on the stove top over medium-high heat. Make sure it's hot before beginning. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush both sides of each slice of eggplant with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill on both sides until you have nice grill marks and the eggplant is pliable, about 1-2 minutes on each side.

4) Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Spread an even layer of the vegetable filling onto the eggplant slices leaving a little space around the edges (1 heaping tablespoon of the filling on each slice). Place some mozzarella in and on the mixture. Starting at the short end, roll up slices and place seam side down in a baking dish. Top with remaining vegetable mixture and bake uncovered for 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let it rest for a few minutes. Enjoy!

Blueberry Zucchini Bread, by Cheryl

I'm really not sure how I found this recipe... it was just a few days ago and I just can't remember. It's not often that I will cook blueberries and zucchini in the same dish (or never actually) so I must have come across it on pinterest or something (but it's from allrecipes.com). Anyways, this is a breakfast bread or a dessert as it is very sweet. It's very tasty... it's just not that good for you, which I didn't realize until I kept dumping in all of the sugar that the recipe required. It reminded me of the scrumptious blueberry muffins that my mom used to make for us. If you heat the bread and then put some light butter on a slice it's heavenly! Yum!

Ingredients:

3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil (I did 1/2 cup applesauce and 1/2 cup oil)
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups white sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries (I would add more if you have them)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a bread loaf pan.

2) In a large bowl beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to pan.

3) Bake 50 minutes in preheated oven (mine took 1 hour). Cool 20 minutes in pan, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Melanzane Sott'olio (Marinated Eggplant), by Cheryl

This is a staple of Neapolitan cuisine. Melanzane Sott'olio literally means "eggplant under oil", which is exactly what it is! It is marinated eggplant that sits in a jar for two to three weeks soaking up the flavors around it. My neighbors would often bring us jars of these to keep in the house for a couple of weeks in order to snack on later. Other friends would bring their finished product to our house as an appetizer before dinner or as a snack for parties. Since we always had this in our house from other people I never actually made it myself, though I do have my friend's recipe. I found my stack of recipes from her, translated it, and made this a few weeks ago. We just opened it last weekend and it was so good! Just like Italy :)

Ingredients (measurements are converted from grams):

2 large eggplant, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/2 cup salt
2 cups white wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
4 cups olive oil (or less depending on how big the jar is)
5 cloves garlic
red pepper flakes, or halved hot pepper - crushed
1 quart glass jar with lid

Directions:

1) Peel and slice the eggplant into strips. Place layer of eggplant strips in large colander and sprinkle with a portion of salt. Repeat process until colander is full and all eggplant has been salted. Cover the eggplant with a weighted plate for 2-3 hours - this helps to remove the bitter juices.

2) Combine vinegar and water in a pot and bring to a boil for two minutes. Add some of the eggplant to water and blanch for two minutes. Remove eggplant with strainer, place in a colander, and let cool. Continue this process until all eggplants have been blanched.

3) Take a sterile jar and sprinkle garlic, oregano, and hot pepper on layer on cooled eggplant. Repeat layering until 1 inch from the top of the jar. Add enough oil to cover the eggplant. Store for 2-3 weeks.

4) Make sure to use clean utensils when retrieving mixture. Add oil to keep vegetables covered as necessary.