hello truelove

A Naturally Sweet Holiday Treat

As you know, I’m usually all about healthy on weekdays- especially breakfast. I enjoy my daily oatmeal with chia seeds, raisins and french press coffee with milk. This week I was in the mood for something special though, And, anticipating holiday company, I whipped up some of this yummy homemade peppermint mocha creamer.

You’ll need:

• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Cup Heavy Cream
• 4 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
• 3 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Peppermint Extract

In a saucepan over medium heat whisk together milk, cream, cocoa powder and maple syrup.

Once mixture starts steaming remove from heat and add peppermint extract.

Pour through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Don’t use the measuring cup in an attempt to save a dish (it will not go well, see below).

After making one mess I managed to properly pour the rest into a glass bottle for storage.

Brew up some coffee.

And Enjoy a tasty treat!

This recipe and many more tasty homemade creamer options here. 

Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl

Between returning from vacation and working hard on hello truelove paper goods this week has been crazy! This Mediterranean Quinoa Bowl was perfect. You can make it ahead and eat healthy all week long:) I’m a bit under the weather but it feels good to at least have a healthy meal within walking (to the fridge) distance.

{Photo from Sprouted Kitchen}

Red Lentil-Cauliflower Curry

This recipe comes from one of our vegan cookbooks: Veganomicon. Seriously nothing bad for you here and it tastes great so you’ve got nothing to lose.

You’ll Need:

3 tb grapeseed or peanut oil
1 large onion chopped
1 large chili pepper (jalepeno or Serrano) minced
2 large shallots
1 (1/2 inch piece ginger, peeled and grated
1 large parsnip, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoon curry powder
.5 teaspoons turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, coriander
1.5 cups red lentils, sorted and rinsed
4 cups vegetable broth or water
1.5 -2 lbs cauliflower (one medium sized head) trimmed and sliced into small florets
2 tablespoon chipped cilantro

2 tablespoons lime juice
1.5 teaspoons salt

Do all your prep work first- the recipe is really smooth sailing after the chopping is done. Also the total time for this recipe is 1.5 to 2 hours- but the last hour or so is just the pot simmering:)

Heat the oil in a large stockpot or dutch oven. Sauté onion and shallots for 5-7 minutes. Add the ginger and chile and cook for one minute.

Add spices and stir briskly for 30 seconds.

Add in parsnips and cook for another minute.

Slowly pour in the vegetable broth and then stir in lentils.
Cover and let boil for 1 minute.

Stir and reduce heat to medium. Cover and allow to simmer for 10-12 minutes

The lentils should turn bright yellow and look mushy.

Add cauliflower, stir to coat and simmer for 20-25 minutes until tender

Remove from heat and stir in cilantro, lime juice an salt.

Allow the pot to sit for 15 minutes before serving to seal in the flavor:)

On the Menu

As you know I’ve been working hard putting the finishing touches on hello truelove cards but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been eating;) These two recipes were on the menu recently (with a few modifications) and they did not disappoint!

Poached egg over polenta with olive-herb pesto. I always go soft boiled when a recipe calls for poached. Eggs underwater at a rolling boil for 6 minutes then rinse cold and peel! So much easier than the mess I create attempting to poach. The oliver-herb pesto was awesome. And I had never made polenta before so this was fun to try!

Kale, carrot and white bean stew (I omitted the sausage due to our weeknight vegetarian attempts;) Oh so easy and cozy- perfect for the late fall chill we’ve been getting.

In the next week or so I’m hoping to plan some super healthy meals in advance so that when things start to get crazy around the holidays we’ll still get our veggies in:) What do you do to take care of yourself around this busy time of year? 

Recipes found here and here. Images from linked sites<3

Quick Vegetable Quiche

I’m still having a bit of computer trouble! Thankfully, a new machine is on its way. In the meantime most of my recipe photos are trapped in our external hard drive (thanks to J!) but I wanted to share this recipe for a quick veggie quiche I whipped up last week. I love this quiche because it is tasty when you make it and the leftovers are delicious hot or cold- it lasted us all week:)

You’ll Need:

• 1 (9-inch) pie crust
• 1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 cup cooked stir-fried vegetables (you can either stir fry your own or grab a bag of frozen veggies for a quicker meal:) I used mushrooms, onions, and peppers.
• A few cherry tomatoes- if desired.
• 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 3/4 cup grated parmesan (cheddar works too!)
• 1/4 cup low fat milk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan

Ginger Tip

I just used a bit of some ginger for a recipe this week and was lamenting how I always have extra. We use ginger every so often (just after the last batch goes bad, it seems) so I figured I’d try and save this one. Guess what the secret ingredient is to make the ginger last longer? Vodka. Also the secret ingredient in the pie crust I love.

Found here. 

New Baby Meal Bag

Hello! I put together this meal bag for some friends who just had a baby so I thought I’d share:) It was inspired a bit by this post on the Kitchn and mostly by many dear friends who provided meals for us just after Owen was born. I can’t tell you what a blessing it was to have delicious meals brought right to our door when we were focusing on caring for our little guy day and night! 

Meal Baby is a free online service that does all the work of meal scheduling and info-giving for you. No perks here— just have greatly benefitted from the site;)

I made this simple/healthy/delicious meal from the hello truelove archive. I’m always trying new recipes and often forget about the yummy stuff in the archive! Here’s a shot of Owen with his new little friend, Wren (I CANNOT believe how big he is compared to her:)!

ps- An awesome free app & cute way to thank people if/when they bring you a meal! This type of registry would be great for helping out a sick friend or someone recovering from surgery. Sometimes it is the simple gestures that mean the most!

Update: Good advice on what to do for parents when baby is born!:)

Ratatouille

Another solid recipe from Martha. In fact, due to the large portion size (makes 3 quarts), this recipe just keeps on giving! I made the base recipe for dinner one night and then used the leftovers for two other dinners— quite the win as far as I’m concerned.

• 1 can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 medium yellow squash
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 large yellow onions (1 pound total), diced large
• 1 head garlic, cloves smashed and peeled
• 2 bell peppers (any color), seeded and diced large
• 2 large zucchini (1 pound total), diced large
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon fresh marjoram or oregano leaves
• 2 to 3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the tomatoes and juices on a rimmed baking sheet and use your hands to break tomatoes into 3/4-inch pieces. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil and bake until thickened, 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. I was really surprised that this simple thickener made the dish much more hearty.

In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat 4 tablespoons oil over medium. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until onions and garlic are soft, 5 minutes. Add peppers and cook, stirring, until crisp-tender, 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Add tomatoes, squash, zucchini, bay leaf, and marjoram to pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover, and cook at a gentle simmer until vegetables are tender but not mushy, 15 minutes. Season to taste with vinegar, salt, and pepper. Remove bay leaf before serving.

The original recipe mentions serving with crusty, rustic bread- which, on a busy Wednesday night, I translated into ” whole wheat toast.” It was delicious still.

Over the weekend we devoured this baked egg version.

At the beginning of the week I heated what was left with some yummy Rick Bayless enchilada sauce and enjoyed some veggie tacos with corn tortillas, cilantro and cojita cheese.

Somehow I missed this phyllo wrap option which looks good too.. next time!

Cool (and Healthy) Summer Eats

I love me some oatmeal. In summer my healthy oatmeal-eating habit gets a bit sluggish due to the heat. I had actually never heard of overnight oats before (I’ve led a sheltered food life, what can I say?) but kept seeing them on pinterest and figured I’d give them a try.

I loosey based mine on this recipe and this recipe— threw in some almond milk (tried it with water too but the oats don’t soak up the water), chia seeds, vanilla extract, ripe summer mango and a mint sprig. It reminded me of some of the guesthouse breakfasts I’ve had while traveling in southeast Asia.

This summer, we’ve also made this Chicken Dill Souvlaki.

{photo from Real Simple}

And some yummy zucchini ribbon salad.

{Photo from Gourmand in the Kitchen}

Have you tried any new, cool recipes this summer?