Monthly Archives: December 2014

Snacks

Baked Pepperoni Chips

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baked-pepperoni-chips

Merry Christmas! These baked pepperoni chips were a hit at Christmas Eve. Plus, they are really easy to make. These chips make a fun snack food for those avoiding carbs, grains, and gluten. But they are pretty salty and spicy on their own, so be sure to serve it with some festive drinks, and don’t add any additional seasoning! Trust me, they don’t need it.

I hope everyone had a yummy holiday! I know I sure did.

Baked Pepperoni Chips
 
Author: Lauren Bolanos
Prep time: 2 minutes
Cook time: 8 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 lb sliced pepperoni
Instructions
  1. Line cookie sheet with foil.
  2. Place sliced pepperoni on cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes at 350 degrees.
  3. Let pepperoni drain on a paper towel, and the oil dry out a bit before serving.
Desserts

Mexican Wedding Cakes

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mexican-wedding-cakes

I altered a family Christmas cookie recipe to make it dairy free and gluten free. It tastes like the original, which was my goal. However, this recipe isn’t sugar free. You can easily substitute a natural sweetener, but the cookie will not taste the same. I still haven’t found a good replacement for the flavor of powdered sugar (aka confectioners sugar). Here is the original recipe to reference:

Original Recipe

Ingredients
  • 1 cup of butter
  • 3/4 cup of confectioners sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups of flour
  • 1 cup of finely chopped nuts

Directions: Cream butter, confectioners sugar and vanilla. With a spoon, blend in the flour. Add nuts; shape into 3/4 inch balls, rolling in palm of hand. Place 1/2 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets and bake in 300 degree oven 25-30 minutes or until cookies are a creamy color. Remove to rack until just warm; rol in confectioners sugar. Makes approximately 3 1/2 dozen.

Mexican Wedding Cakes
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ¾ cup powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
  • 1¼ cup arrowroot flour
  • 1 cup almond flour
  • 1 cup organic palm oil (or vegan butter)
  • 1 cup chopped hazelnuts
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, mix palm oil (or vegan butter), powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
  2. Then slowly add in almond flour and arrowroot flour.
  3. Gentle mix in finely chopped hazelnuts.
  4. (Optional) Refrigerate dough for a half hour.
  5. Roll into small balls about ¾ inches wide.
  6. Line baking sheet with parchment paper, and bake for 25 minutes at 300 degrees.
  7. (Optional) Roll them in powdered sugar when warm or sprinkle them with powdered sugar when cool.

Health & Wellness

Tips for Traveling with Whole Food Supplements

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tips-for-traveling-with-whole-food-supplementsHere are a few tips, when traveling with whole food supplements to stay healthy away from your kitchen. This holiday, I will be taking my Perfect Supplements sample pack, which I was lucky enough to get sent for free to try.

1. Include Probiotics.

In the past, I’ve used Orac-Engery Greens, which I really like mixed into smoothies or coconut water, but the probiotics found in the Orac-Energy Greens are a supplement, not a fermented whole food. That’s why I was really excited to try the fermented kale powder. There are a lot of benefits to choosing fermented food over a supplement. This includes getting a more diverse range of healthy bacteria. The fermentation process also helps predigest the food, making it more bioavailable. So you will be getting even more benefits from consuming this kale! Plus, eating fermented kale isn’t fun. I’ve actually made it once, and since kale is bitter, and fermenting food sours it, the combo of bitter and sour doesn’t taste good. If you want to consume fermented kale, I recommend sticking with the whole food powder by Perfect Supplements.

2. Get Some Seaweed.

I’ve brought sheets of nori on trips before, and the Orac-Energy Greens has a nice mix of spirulina and chlorella. I wanted to take with me on my trip some ocean greens, to combine with my fermented kale greens to make my own green powder mix. I love chlorella. I have an article about Chlorella and Pain Relief that talks about how helpful the detox benefits are for a person in chronic pain. Perfect Supplements sells a broken cell wall chlorella supplement that is organic, vegan, fairly traded, and contains no added fillers or additives.

3. Include some Protein.

I know protein is a sensitive and controversial topic for a lot of people. So I’m going to give your some options. If you’re vegan take a high quality protein powder. When I was vegan I used Opti-Cleanse GHI by Xymogen. It tastes awful, but was recommended to me by an Integrative Doctor after blood work. It doesn’t contain, gluten, corn, yeast, soy, animal or dairy products, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners or preservatives. Judging by taste, I’m not sure there are natural sweeteners either, but the supplements used are of a really high quality. For my paleo people, you can take some Collagen Hydrolysate or Gelatin from Great Lakes, or you can take some grass-fed Desiccated Liver from Perfect Supplements. Or take both with you for even more health benefits.

Have a safe and healthy trip! 🙂

Natural Living

DIY Olive Oil Lip Balm

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diy-olive-oil-lip-balm

This olive oil lip balm was extremely easy to make, and only uses two ingredients – olive oil, and beeswax. You can add essential oils to this recipe if you like, but I wanted to keep this recipe as basic as possible. I love olive oil bath and beauty products. Maybe my Italian background is showing, but for me, olive oil reminds me of high-end health-oriented spa products. This recipe make a little bit more than one tube, and can easily be multiplied to make lovely little gifts for friends and family. I bought the beeswax pastilles from Mountain Rose Herbs and I used California Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I like this brand because it’s made it California and is certified extra virgin olive oil by the California Olive Oil Council. This insures that  will be exactly what it claims to be: 100% pure extra virgin olive oil.

DIY Olive Oil Lip Balm
 
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Serves: 1 lip balm
Ingredients
  • 1 tsp beeswax
  • 1½ tsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
  1. Place a heat-resistant glass pyrex measuring cup in a pot with a couple inches of water. Put on heat at a low setting so you start to see steam.
  2. Add beeswax and olive oil to measuring cup, and mix with a popsicle stick or bamboo skewer until they are both melted.
  3. Pour mixture carefully into a lip balm container.
  4. It should cool very quickly, but to be on the safe side, wait five minutes before using.

Soups

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

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roasted-red-pepper-tomato-soup

This vegan roasted red pepper and tomato soup tastes just like Campbell’s Tomato Soup. I made it extra thick so it could easily double as a tomato sauce. If you like your soups thinner, just add some stock or bone broth. After easily roasting my own tomatoes and then pureeing them in the Vitamix, I will never buy canned tomato puree again. Most cans of tomato puree have a BPA liner, and since tomatoes are acidic, there is a high risk of the BPA leaching into the food. I do use tomato paste in many of my recipes, but I purchase the expensive kind stored in a small glass jar.

I roasted my own garlic and red bell peppers as well. Now that I know how easy it is to roast red bell peppers, and then peel the skin, I can make it for myself instead of buying it from the store. It would taste great in an antipasta salad and hummus.

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
 
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Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 6 red bell peppers
  • 12 roma tomatoes
  • 4 heads of garlic
  • 3 large fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ sea salt
  • 1 cup kosher salt
  • 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • a pinch of fresh ground pepper
Instructions
  1. Pour 1 cup of kosher salt into a baking dish, chop off heads of garlic and nestle into salt.
  2. Pour 1 tbsp of olive oil over each head, and then add rosemary to dish, then cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for an hour and five minutes or until golden brown.
  3. Halve tomatoes and roast at 350 on greased baking sheet for an hour.
  4. Halve red bell peppers and scoop out seeds, then roast at 350 on greased baking sheet for an hour.
  5. Once garlic, red bell pepper, and tomatoes are roasted, take them out of the oven and let them cool enough to handle.
  6. Then gently peel skins off red bell peppers.
  7. Then blend in batches, red bell peppers, tomatoes, 2 large leaves of fresh basil and roasted garlic.
  8. Transfer to a large pot, and heat and mix for five minutes. Stir constantly or it will splatter.
  9. Garnish with some finely chopped basil and fresh ground pepper