Pesto Pasta

Walnut Pesto 

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts (or nut of choice)

1 cup chopped fresh basil

1/2 cup high-quality olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cloves of garlic, grated

Dash of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a food processor, and blend until smooth. Taste, and adjust to taste:If you think it needs more salt, add some. If you want a little more kick, you could add more garlic or more red pepper flakes. And if you want the sauce to be thinner, add more olive oil.

We like it with whole wheat spaghetti or brown rice pasta. It is also great as a vegetable dip.

Bible Apps for Children

Barcelona Multimedia has some really good apps for children. Here is a link to their website  http://www.childrenbible.org/nouwp/?app=my-first-bible-games-activities

Incredibly Easy Artisan Bread

I've just discovered this recipe and its amazing! These photos are from yesterday's batch. 

You can use white whole wheat with the same results if you keep the dough wet/sticky.

This blog has step by step directions:  http://www.simplysogood.com/2010/03/crusty-bread.html

RECIPE

3 cups flour

1 3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp instant yeast

1  1/2 cups water

Cinnamon Bread

"Healthier Cinnamon Bread"

A friend recently taught me that when working with whole wheat you need to make sure the dough is really moist. Now I frequently add extra water to the dough. As long as the dough forms a ball, it's not too wet. Wet is better than dry. This recipe works really well with WHITE whole wheat flour (available at Trader Joe's).

Ingredients

1 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk (or non-dairy milk)

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup bread flour

2 tsp yeast

Put all ingredients into the bread machine in the order given. Use the dough cycle.

After the bread machine has completed its cycle, let the dough rise for at least an additional hour. Roll out the dough and sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar (I don't usually measure, just cover the dough evenly). Roll the dough into a loaf and let rise. I like to cook it on a pizza stone. It will rise a lot more while baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

If you have any left the following day, it toasts really well!

Boys' Smoothie!

This smoothie is bright green, very easy, and the boys like it!  Now It's a pleasure to eat spinach!

INGREDIENTS

  Frozen pineapple

  Spinach

  Pineapple juice

*** Vanilla soy "ice cream" or cream of choice (you only need a little bit)

***(optional) for myself, I leave it out

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Brussels sprouts have always been one of those vegetables that seemed to me hard to prepare correctly. I found this recipe online and it is great. 

How to cook Brussels sprouts by roasting them:

Trimming

Alright, the next step in learning how to cook Brussels sprouts. Once the vegetables are washed, you want to make sure they look good! And that means a few things.

• You'll want to remove any yellow or brown leaves from your Brussels sprouts. They're wilted and won't be any good. Just keep the nice, tight, bright green sprout!

• After a while, the Brussels sprouts' stem can get kind of tough. You can trim a little bit of the stem off to get a more tender sprout. Don't take off too much though – not much more than an eighth of an inch – or the leaves will just won't hold together anymore.

Cutting

Finally, once the sprouts are clean and trimmed, you may need to cut them up a little bit. It's important that the sprouts not be too big, or it'll take too long for them to cook. And then by the time the center is cooked, the outside will be overcooked and will release that nasty sulfur smell.

It's also important that your Brussels sprout pieces all be about the same size, for just the same reasons. If some pieces are much smaller, they'll be overcooked by the time the bigger ones are done! And that's no good.

So here's what you need to do:

• Any Brussels sprout that has a diameter much bigger than an inch and a half should be cut in half.

• If you have a variety of sizes, cut the medium sprouts in half, and the bigger ones in quarters, so that all the pieces are about the same size.

And that's pretty much all you need to do! And we're ready to learn how to cook Brussels sprouts.

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.

2. Prepare the Brussels sprouts as described above. Be sure to quarter them or halve them if they're too big.

3. Toss the sprouts with a bit of oil, salt and pepper. You can also add some herbs or spices to the mix. Garlic is especially good!

   • Each sprout should be coated in oil, to keep it from drying out, but it doesn't need to be very thick at all. In fact, the thinner the better!  YOU ONLY NEED 1-2 TBSP.

4. Place the Brussels sprouts on a sheet pan in a single layer.

5. Roast the sprouts for about 30 minutes, until they're starting to get nicely browned. Stir them halfway through the cooking time.

6. Serve, and enjoy!

Salad Dressing

After trying many salad dressing recipes, here's the one my family likes best. It just happens to be the easiest one too!

This simple recipe will dress a large green salad.

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp vinegar (we like the white balsamic from Trader Joe's)

2 tbsp maple syrup ( or sweetener of choice)

Dash garlic salt

Combine all ingredients and whisk together or blend in magic bullet. For a nice variation add a few berries before blending. After dressing the salad, add fresh pepper and (more) garlic salt to taste.

Variation: blend a few raspberries with the rest of the ingredients. Add some pecans!