OhYaGood

Whole Food Lover + Recipe Hacker

Tuscan Tuna Salad

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Did I mention I’m doing Whole30? Probably not since it’s more like the Whole26. Don’t judge. I haven’t had the will power to stick with it because of a family Christmas celebration, Leo’s birthday and a little happy hour. I know. I’m weak but I’m glad to have still do it partially. My joints feel better, I’m not as tired and huge bonus, my clothes fit better. Who knows, maybe I’ll just stick with this way of eating giving myself a break here and there.

I’ve noticed these COLD winter months can be really hard to get excited about salads or just fresh produce in general. I have a natural desire for carbs and heavy, warm foods. Maybe that’s why I gravitate towards a salad that’s mostly protein and room temperature, like this tuna salad. This one is packed with lots of flavor and keeps me full all afternoon with 27 grams of protein. AND it’s Whole30 approved.

Tuscan Tuna Salad
 
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Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 1-2
Ingredients
  • 1 4oz can of tuna in water
  • a handful of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
  • 2 tablespoons olive tapenade, I like Trader Joes
  • 2 tablespoons capers
  • ¼ cup diced cucumber
  • ¼ cup diced sweet pepper
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • a squeeze of lemon juice
  • a dash of red wine vinegar
  • salt and pepper
  • fresh basil
Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients together and serve
  2. Garnish with fresh basil

 

Sweet Potato Rounds

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Enjoying appetizers are kind of a joke for anyone not eating cheese or bread. Typically I make a crudité platter with some hummus when I need something quick. But if I take some time, I can do something delicious like deviled eggs or meatballs which is great, unless vegetarians are present too. So here’s a little something vegan that also takes a little effort but has a tremendous pay off.

This idea came to me after seeing fried sage show up on my instagram feed. I had tried making it last year but I knew I fried those tender little leaves too long so the flavor was more like burnt sage. I had to take another stab. I’ve been wanting to do something with sweet potato rounds too so obviously the two became a perfect pair. If you didn’t have to be dairy-free, you could certainly use Neufchâtel or even mascarpone as a substitute for the cashew cream.

Sweet Potato Rounds
 
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Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: American
Serves: 24
Ingredients
  • 1-2 sweet potatoes or enough to make roughly 24, ¼" slices
  • ½ cup cashews
  • 1 cup water, ¼ reserved
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 24-30 sage leaves
  • ¼ cup oil for frying (I used avocado) and more for brushing rounds
  • sea salt
  • cracked peppercorn
Instructions
  1. To make the cashew cream from scratch, mix the cashews with ¾ cup room temperature or cool water and let soak for at least 2 hours or overnight
  2. After the cashews are softened, drain the water and rinse in a colander
  3. Add the cashews and ¼ cup water to a high speed blender or food processor and pulse until they start to cream
  4. Scrap sides as needed, this can take 3-5 minutes to get just right
  5. Preheat oven to 350° F
  6. Place slices of sweet potatoes on a oiled sheet pan
  7. Brush each round withe oil and bake for 15 minutes
  8. While they bake, heat oil at medium-high heat in a saucepan
  9. Fry about 4-5 sage leaves at a time for only 3 seconds
  10. Fish them out with a fork and cool them on a paper towel, top them with a few cracks of sea salt
  11. Assemble the rounds with a dollop of cashew cream and top with the sage
  12. Garnish with some fresh cracked peppercorn

 

 

Cranberry Apple Smoothie

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This house is SOOOO excited for Thanksgiving! We’ve been talking about what we are thankful for, donating goods and volunteering our time, and of course I’ve been cooking up a storm trying new recipes. I try really hard not to get overwhelmed with all the to-do’s this time of year by writing and planning a ton. It sounds counter-intuitive I know but just getting it out of my head and onto some paper or in my phone calms my nerves. I never considered myself a planner until I had kids and I think this is because everything else involving kids is totally unpredictable and out of your control. I mean, how many times a year can a child come down with some sickness and an entire week can be gone? I know mine excel at that in the winter.

One thing I know is having a smoothie five days a week for breakfast has really streamlined our morning routine. Gosh I sound like such a dork but it’s so true! I always have some sort of frozen fruit, juice or milk alternative on hand, some protein additions and wa-la! Breakfast is served. I thought up this recipe after realizing I only consume cranberries this time of year which needs to change. Did you know they are considered healthier than spinach?! According to WebMD they have more antioxidants which make them disease fighters. (See reference to kid sickness above.)

 

Cranberry Apple Smoothie
 
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Recipe type: Smoothie
Cuisine: American
Serves: 2 cups
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup cranberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 1 small apple, preferably a sweet red variety
  • ½ cup carrot juice
  • ¼ cup orange juice
  • ¼ cup coconut milk (I used Thai Kitchen, canned)
  • 1 scoop or tablespoon collagen or protein powder of your preference
  • ½ teaspoon fresh ginger
  • 1 teaspoon hemp or chia seeds
  • 2 walnuts
  • 5 ice cubes
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients into a high speed blender and blend for a minute. Serve immediately or freeze into cube.

BLT Pizza

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This summer hasn’t left much time for kitchen exploration but it has my the motivation to try new products. Mostly to make the cooking process a little easier. I really wanted to make my own cauliflower crust for pizza but I bought a freezer full of the trader joes version instead. I’m only half kidding.

After a successful attempt at making taco pizza with the cauliflower crust, I decided to try another favorite from the infamous Happy Joes I frequented as a kid, BLT pizza. It turned out amazing!

BLT Pizza
 
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Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: American
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients
  • 1 cauliflower crust or pre-made crust of your choice
  • 2 tablespoons mayo (whole30 approved)
  • 3 slices of bacon
  • 1 cup thinly sliced romaine or iceberg lettuce
  • ¾ cup sliced cherry tomatoes
  • 3 slices of red onion
Instructions
  1. Bake crust according to package directions
  2. Render bacon in the oven for 10 minutes at 375°
  3. Spread mayo onto cooked crust
  4. Top with remaining ingredients

 

Vegan Shamrock Shake

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I have a vivid memory trying the McDonald’s Shamrock Shake for the first time. My mind was blown. My stomach, well, it wasn’t as happy. If it isn’t already clear by my blog, I have a love for all things mint so naturally I’ve tried to recreate the infamous shake more than once following recipes online. Nothing really satisfied me so I started experimenting on my own. The result is below and I am very pleased. Two thumbs up from the entire family.

Vegan Shamrock Shake
 
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Recipe type: sweets
Cuisine: American
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 2 cups almond milk (whole30 approved)
  • ½ cup coconut cream (canned)
  • 1 frozen banana
  • ½ medium avocado
  • 2 T cashew butter
  • 3 (or more for added sweetness) dates, soaked for 5 minutes in boiling water
  • 1 cup packed spinach
  • ⅛ teaspoon peppermint extract
  • 4 ice cubes
Instructions
  1. Add all ingredients to a high speed blender and blend

 

Sesame Carrot Noodles

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If you shop at Costco, you are no stranger to the ginormous 10lb bag of carrots that are available in their produce section. So often I would reach for them then think “there’s NO way we could get thru all of these” and put them back. Well, on Monday, I gave into the challenge and to my surprise, we’ve actually eaten a good portion of them. However, it was time for a new variation besides raw sticks. So I came up with this delicious “noodle” dish using my spiralizer. It tastes so much like a Japanese seaweed salad with out the jelly like texture. I’ll be honest, my kids weren’t sold but my husband and I slurped them up.

 

Sesame Carrot Noodles
 
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Recipe type: Side
Cuisine: Asian
Serves: 4-5
Ingredients
  • 7-8 large carrots or 4 cups of spiraled carrot noodles
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 1 T sesame oil
  • 1 tsp garlic, minced
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ⅛ tsp pepper
  • ¼ cup rice vinegar
  • ⅛ cup + 1 T light oil like avocado, olive or vegetable, divided
  • ⅛ cup coconut aminos
  • ½ T red onion, finely diced
  • black or white sesame seeds
Instructions
  1. Spiralize the large part (about 1½ in in circumference) of the carrots to make into noodles
  2. Toss the noodles into a large skillet over medium heat with the Tablespoon of oil for about 5 minutes or until carrots are slightly softened
  3. Whisk together remaining ingredients except for onions and seeds for the dressing and pour over noodles
  4. Garnish with red onion and sesame seeds

Celery and Grapefruit Salad

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Celery_Grapefruit_Salad_loHappy 2017! Naturally, my first post of the year is a salad. Even though I’m not a big new years resolution kind of gal, I certainly can appreciate the need to eat better after too many cookies. Seriously, I made my peppermint cookies at least a half dozen times over the course of a month. Could. Not. Stop.

This time of year is tricky when it comes to seasonal produce or lack there of but one thing I seem to always have on hand is celery, my soup staple and dip boat. This salad is chalk full of the refreshing and crunchy vegetable and even includes the greens so don’t pitch ’em. You could easily use some fancy oils like hazelnut or walnut for more complex flavors but the salad is good as is and who wants to go buy an $8 bottle of oil that will likely go rancid before using it all. Practicality wins in my book!

Celery and Grapefruit Salad
 
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Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: American
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 3 celery sticks
  • ½ chopped fennel bulb
  • 1 grapefruit, peeled and sliced to your liking
  • 2 T roughly chopped celery leaves
  • 1 scallion, thinly sliced crosswise
  • 3 T hazelnuts or walnuts, roasted and chopped
  • ½ teaspoon minced garlic
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • ⅛ cup lemon juice
  • salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Roast hazelnuts or walnut at 350 F until brown (about 5 minutes) cool completely before roughly chopping
  2. Mix together grapefruit, celery, fennel, celery leaves and green onion into a medium sized bowl
  3. Whisk together minced garlic, oil and lemon juice and drizzle into the salad
  4. Toss and garnish with chopped hazelnuts and salt and pepper

 

Chicken Soup

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chicken_soup_loI worked at a public relations firm years ago that used to do recipe testing for Kitchen Aid. It was an admin job and I frequently sifted through recipes that made it through loads of testing and were winners for their cookbooks. It’s really where my obsession with cooking and recipes began. The chicken noodle soup was the first recipe I tried that came from working there. I still have the 8 1/2 x 11 white paper printout that is three hole punched and lives in a black binder. Nerd.

This recipe is similar but excludes the noodles and uses a whole chicken so the broth is good and fatty. Perfect for a chilly day or when your entire family is sick, like mine. Why hasn’t anyone came up with a homemade chicken soup delivery service. Seriously. When I’m sick, THIS is what I want.

Chicken Soup
 
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Recipe type: Soup
Cuisine: American
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 1 whole chicken 4-5 lb
  • 4 carrots, diced
  • 2 celery sticks, diced
  • 1 leek, light green sliced cross wise
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 tsp or 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp ginger, minced
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 Tablespoon salt (more or less depending on your preference)
  • fresh cracked pepper
  • 6 cups water
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients into a slow cooker and cook for 6 hours on low OR into a pressure cooker and set the manual setting to 15 minutes

 

Roasted Roots

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roasted_roots_loYou say potato, I say rutabaga. I like rutabagas. I just tried cooking them for the first time this week and I'm a fan. It's reminds me of a turnip, except better flavor. I added them to my chicken vegetable soup earlier this week (YUM!), then I just roasted them with their sweeter cousin, the carrot. I think this recipe turned out great and it's very versatile. The addition of onions is key because they get this lovely charred flavor. The crudo at Burch Steakhouse here in Minneapolis is served with a charred onion reduction and it's been stuck in my brain ever since. This recipe could be a great side dish to bring to the holiday gatherings.
Roasted Roots
 
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Recipe type: Vegetable
Cuisine: American
Serves: 4-5
Ingredients
  • 1 large rutabaga, diced about 1-inch square
  • 5 medium-sized carrots, diced similar size to the rutabaga
  • ¼ red onion, roughly sliced
  • 2 Tablespoons oil (I used avocado)
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400°
  2. Toss vegetables in oil and herbs
  3. Roast for 45 minutes or until browned edges, stirring at the halfway point

Kale Beet Salad

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kale_beet_salad_loGeez. The holidays aren’t even upon us and I’m already throwing kale onto the site. I can’t apologize. This recipe was pretty much by accident and turned out delicious so I must share it. I’ve been wanting to post a kale recipe but I’ve ESPECIALLY been wanting to make a recipe with toasted walnuts because they are the BEST complement to any salad.

Now since I can’t add two recipes with my software, below is the hemp dressing I whipped up that paired well:
HEMP VINAIGRETTE
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4 Tablespoons olive or avocado oil
1 teaspoon maple syrup (omit for Whole30)
1 teaspoon hemp seeds

Kale Beet Salad
 
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Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: American
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 3-4 beets, cooked, peeled and quartered (I used the packaged kind all ready to go)
  • ½ bunch (or about 6 leaves) of dino kale, stems removed and roughly chopped
  • 2 slices of red onion, quartered
  • ½ cup of dried apple slices, cut up
  • ½ cup of toasted walnuts, chopped, (to toast place on a baking sheet into the 400° oven for 5 minutes or slightly darkened)
Instructions
  1. Toss all the ingredients together
  2. Drizzle with the dressing and toss again with your hands, paying special attention to coat the kale