All posts by Lauren Bolanos

Appetizers

Mild Peach Salsa

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Mild Peach Salsa - Healing and Eating

I love salsa, and I love peaches, so naturally I love peach salsa. I used to buy peach salsa all the time when I was in high school. I’m a big fan of the sweet and salty if you eat them with chips, or sweet and spicy if you decide to add more peppers, which I plan on doing in the future. The mild version would be great for a party, and since this recipe makes a ton of salsa, I suggest sharing it.  But for myself, I would add in a few more jalapenos or a serrano pepper. For the healthiest option, I eat them with some cucumbers – my favorite chip alternative.

Mild Peach Salsa
 
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Ingredients
  • 5 ripe yellow peaches
  • 2 medium tomatoes
  • 1 finely diced jalapeno
  • 1 half a large red onion
  • 1 cup of cilantro chopped
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tsp of sea salt
Instructions
  1. Roughly chop tomatoes and pulse in food processor until no big chunks are left. Set aside.
  2. Then pulse peaches and onions in a food processor, a few times, so they are larger chunks, add to tomatoes.
  3. Finely dice jalapeno and remove most of seeds to keep salsa mild, add to rest of the ingredients.
  4. Add in juice of one lime and sea salt.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 8-10

This post is on Wellness Wednesday by Richly Rooted.

Desserts

Lavender Lemonade Popsicles

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Lavender Lemonade Popsicles - Healing and Eating

Happy 4th of July! I thought popsicles would be fun today, since it’s so hot. Can you see them melting, crazy fast in the background? My apartment way too hot right now to be taking pictures of frozen dessert. Since I bought a ton of  lavender that I dried awhile back,  and never got around to using, I decided lavender lemonade in a popsicle had awesome dessert potential. Or you could just drink the lemonade instead … whatever makes you happy.

Lavender Lemonade Popsicles
 
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Serves: 10 popsicles
Ingredients
  • handful of dried lavender leaves
  • 1 cup of honey (Creamy Wildflower Honey by Pacifica)
  • 2 cups of water
  • 1¼ cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
  1. Lightly simmer lavender leaves and honey in water for a couple minutes, like tea.
  2. When honey is dissolved, strain out lavender. Then refrigerate.
  3. Squeeze lemons, and set aside.
  4. When lavender simple syrup is cool, add lemon juice.
  5. Then pour into popsicle molds are freeze overnight.
  6. To thaw, run hot water over molds and gently pull them out.
Notes
freeze overnight.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4-6

Snacks

Carrot and Beet Flax Crackers

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Carrot and Beet Flax Crackers - Healing and Eating

I was looking for a way to use my juice pulp, from the beet, carrot, and cucumber juice I made, so I thought a raw flax crackers would be fun to try to make.  I’ve only used flax meal before, so using the whole flax seed, was a different but good. They came out more crispy then just the ground flax meal. I tried to ground the flax in the food processor, but that didn’t work well. For the juice, I used 4-5 beets, a half a bag of carrots and two cucumbers. I’d say that yields me about 4 cups of pulp. In the future I might add more seasoning to the crackers, but for now I’ll plan to eat it with some delicious dip.

Carrot and Beet Flax Crackers
 
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Serves: 2 sheets
Ingredients
  • 4 cups of juice pulp (carrot, beet, & cucumber)
  • 1.5 cups of golden flax seeds
  • 1 tbsp sea salt
Instructions
  1. Mix pulp and flax seeds in a bowl
  2. Line dehydrator with parchment paper, on two levels for each clean up.
  3. Spread mixture over parchment paper.
  4. Sprinkle with sea salt.
  5. Let turn dehydrator on to 105 degrees fahrenheit, and let it run until it's completely dry, preferably overnight.
  6. Then cut apart crackers with a kitchen scissors.
Notes
Feel free to experiment with spices and/or fresh herbs.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4-6

Health & Wellness

Honeymoon Part 1: Monterey

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I wanted to share with everyone some of the fun and healthy tourist stuff Shameer and I did on our honeymoon. We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway, and stopped in Santa Barbara for breakfast, then we continued on to Monterey Bay. When we were there, we went to the Aquarium, and did the Jellyfish tour.

Jellyfish - Healing and Eating

The food court at the aquarium had some healthy options. I got a vegan salad from their salad bar and a bunless grass-fed burger, then I put the burger on top of the salad. I also got my own container of water, that was packaged like a small milk carton, instead of plastic, which I thought was pretty cool.

Then on Cannery Row, located right next to the aquarium, we went to Monterey’s Tasty Olive Bar, where you can sample different olive oils and balsamic vinegars infused with herbs. We got a garlic infused olive oil for easy salad dressings and an organic olive oil that tastes like butter. There’s no dairy in it, it’s just herbs, and since I miss butter, I was crazy excited about this. You can buy their stuff online if you like. I think it would make a nice gift for a fellow foodie.

Olive Oil Tasting - Healing and Eating

When we were staying in Monterey, we stayed at a cute B&B called the Old St. Angela Inn. They were very accommodating about my dairy allergy, and made a different breakfast for me in the morning. Plus, it was walking distance to the stores and restaurants down the street.

While we were in Monterey, we drove up to Carmel Valley to taste to the organic wine from Heller Estate.

Heller Estate Tasting - Healing and Eating

Then, we stopped at the Earthbound Farms Organic Farm Stand for lunch. They were small, but they had a lot of good specialty food items, fresh produce, and plenty of outdoor seating.

Earthbound Farm Stand - Healing and Eating

To be continued …

Desserts

Almond Blackberry Panna Cotta

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Almond Blackberry Panna Cotta - Healing and Eating

I have a gigantic bag of frozen blackberries currently taking up way too much space in my freezer, so sorry for all the blackberry recipes this summer. Anyway, I’m a big fan of gelatin. I made a lot of gelatin desserts when my blog first started, but I got into a pie frame of mind for while. I wanted to revisit this technique, just kidding, pinterest made me crave dessert. This was delicious, but I had issues with the homemade almond milk separating. I read if you add more gelatin or if you let the liquid get to room temp then whisk before pouring in the bowls it helps with that issue, plus I blended in blackberries too. I can’t tell you which one worked, but they did and dessert was saved!

Almond Blackberry Panna Cotta
 
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Ingredients
  • 2¼ cups of water
  • ¼ cup of almonds
  • 3 tbsp grade b maple syrup
  • ¼ tsp sea salt
  • ½ tsp almond extract
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2¼ tsp great lakes gelatin
  • 1 cup blackberries
  • cheesecloth
Instructions
  1. Blend 2 cups of water with almonds, maple syrup, sea salt, almond and vanilla extract.
  2. Strain through cheesecloth.
  3. Mix ¼ cup of water with gelatin, then heat both mixtures over stove until you start to see steam. Don't boil.
  4. Then add back to Vitamix and blend with blackberries.
  5. (optional) Let it get to room temp and whisk before adding it to bowls. This will help stop it from separating.
  6. (optional) Strain out blackberry seeds.
  7. Refrigerate for a couple hours or rush it through the freezer for a half hour.
Notes
I prefer to refrigerate for at least three hours.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4

Condiments

Basil and Arugula Pesto

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Basil and Arugula Pesto - Healing and Eating

When I was a raw vegan, I used to buy the raw basil arugula pesto from the Santa Monica Co-op and eat it by the spoon. This was my attempt to make my own version, although it turned out a bit less creamy and a bit more garlicky, which suits me just fine since I love garlic. If I start to get sick I normally eat some chopped raw garlic with honey, but I might just make this instead, since it tasted so delicious. It will definitely make the garlic go down easy.

I love cucumbers for dipping, but this would also go great with some fresh summer tomatoes. Yummmm.

Basil and Arugula Pesto
 
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Ingredients
  • 3 cups of basil
  • ¾ cup of wild arugula
  • ½ cup of pine nuts
  • ½ cup of olive oil
  • 3 cloves of pressed garlic
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
Instructions
  1. Combine ingredients in food processor and pulse until roughly blended.
Notes
Double the pine nuts for an extra creamy pesto without the cheese.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4-6

This recipe is hosted on Paleo Magazine’s Link Party