Date Paste

Posted on by Sam Boyd

A couple of people have talked about Dates and the way that I use them in my recipes.  One person in particular brought up how they do not add enough sweetness (which is their purpose in some of these recipes) and how to remedy this.  For a couple of months now, we have been utilizing a special ingredient in a couple of non-published recipes that involve date paste.  Quite simply, date paste is when you take date, add some water and heat, and then pastify in a food processor.  It is very versatile and can be used in many recipes as a brown sugar substitute.  Some examples are in a smoothie to increase the sweetness, use in pasta sauces, asian sauces, use as a topping for sweet potatoes, eat on a spoon for a ridiculous sugar fix without actual sugar, topping on a bowl of coconut milk ice cream, there are many uses.  The point is, we are trying to find a substitute for sweeteners that are made from chemicals or so highly refined that they may as well be illicit drugs.

Date Paste

Ingredients

1.  1lb of Medjool Dates, pitted and cut in half

2.  1/2 cup of water

3.  1 teaspoon of salt

Recipe

1.  Combine all ingredients into a medium pan and lid.

2.  Crank the heat to high for 3 minutes.

3.  Take the lid off and check the liquid, you want half of it to be gone.

4.  When that is the case, take off the heat and immediately pour into a food processor.  We use a ninja for this, I do not  recommend trying to do this in a blender.

5.  Blend on high till it is the consistency of spreadable fruit.

Questions?  Please email me or comment below with questions.

Yogurt – Dill Salmon w/Zucchini

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients:

1.  16 ounces of Salmon filet, its best if you cut it into 4 ounce pieces.

2.  1/2 cup greek yogurt

3.  2 tablespoons of dried dill, divided into 2-1 tablespoons

4.  1 teaspoon salt

5.  1 teaspoon lemon zest (dried or fresh, whatever)

6.  2 Zucchini cut into 1/2″ segments for easy bites

Recipe:

1.  Mix the yogurt, 1 tablespoon of dill and a grind of pepper into a bowl and let sit for a few minutes.

2.  Rinse your salmon under cold water to get the salmony smell off it.

3.  Place on a pan, skin side down, even if there is no skin, and put into an oven at 350 degrees.  This will cook for about 6 minutes.

4.  Saute your zucchini in a pan over medium heat with the lemon zest, salt and the other tablespoon of dill.  Keep this moving to prevent sticking.  You can use non-stick spray if you are into that kind of thing.  But if you keep them moving and your heat is not too hot, you should be able to prevent them from sticking.  They will be done in about 6 minutes for al-dente texture.

5.  Pull the salmon out and liberally spread the yogurt-dill mixture over it.  Do not save any, use it all, trust me its worth it.

6.  Put back in to the oven for 6-12 minutes, or until your zucchini is done.  You want the yogurt to remain whitish, if it starts to get translucent then it is breaking down into something a lot less tasty.

7.  All in all, the ideal time for the dish to be in the oven kind of depends on your oven and how you like your salmon.  Chances are, the salmon was 80% done cooking before you put the yogurt on it.  So if you were to pull it out at 6 minutes (12 total) then it may be slightly underdone for you.  The extra 6 minutes will definitely ensure that it is done.

As usual, this is divided into 4 servings, 2 for now, and 2 for lunches at work or whatever.  Salmon reheats fine, but you want to eat it within a day or two.

Chicken, Sweet Potatoes and Beets

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This recipe is a hearty awesomeness that is sweet, savory and very filling while being light on the calorie load.  Beets help lower cholesterol, reduce inflammation and have been known to increase endurance.  Sweet potatoes are ridiculously high in vitamin A and help reduce inflammation overall all as well.

Ingredients

1.  3 medium beets, cut into 1/2″ squares

2.  2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 3/4″ squares

3.  3 medium chicken breasts, about 12 ounces total.  Cook these in the oven first to save time (350-375 for about 30 minutes, they will stay fresh in the fridge for aobut 3-4 days).

4.  1 tablespoon garlic powder, roasted garlic powder or some other garlic based powder, but not garlic salt.

5.  1 teaspoon lemon zest, black pepper, salt

6.  4 tablespoons of H2O

Recipe

1.  Combine water, garlic powder, lemon zest, and black pepper in a small bowl and set aside. This is called blooming and works well for any dish that is not a soup to save time and increase the flavor of dry spice before use in a wet sauce.

2.  Saute the sweet potatoes and beets separately with a tablespoon of water each in order to keep the color.  If you don’t care about the color, saute them together, but everything will be red.

3.  The beets give off more liquid than the sweet potatoes.  When they are done, they might have given off as much as 2-4 tablespoons of beet juice.  Keep this, it’s the basis of the sauce.

4.  Add the spice water to the beets and saute for about 10 minutes longer than the sweet potatoes.

5.  When plating it, put the beets in first, then the chicken then the potatoes.  Pour the liquid over all of it.

Per usual, this makes 4 servings, eat 2 now with someone you feel warmly towards, and save the others for work lunch.

Clean Veggie Lasagna

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This one is ridiculous and amazing!!

Ingredients:

1.  5 baby zucchini cu into 1/2″ slices

2.  2 spaghetti squash cooked and scraped (yields about 4 cups, which is what you need for this) and split into 2-2 cup servings.

3.  3 cups THU veggie ragout divided into 3-1 cup servings.

4.  1 teaspoon olive oil or olive oil spray (to coat the pan)

5.  12 ounces mozzarella cheese (either grated in a processor or shredded) split into 4-3 ounce servings.

6.  3 ounces grated parmesan cheese

Recipe:

1.  Evenly spread two cups of spaghetti squash noodles over the base of a well oiled or well sprayed pan.

2.  Evenly spread 3 ounces of mozzarella cheese over that.

3.  Evenly Spoon 1 cup Veggie Ragout over the top.

4.  Evenly spread 3 ounces of mozzarella cheese over that.

5.  This is tedious but worth it, spread all the zucchini flat over the cheese one layer thick, if there are some left over, eat them now.

6.  1 cup of ragout over that.

7.  3 ounces of cheese over that

8.  Spread the remaining 2 cups of spaghetti squash over the top of that.

9.  Spread the remaining 1 cup of ragout over that.

10.  Evenly smooth the remaining cheese over the top.

11.  Now liberally sprinkle all of the parmesan over the top.

12.  Bake in a 400 degree oven until the edges are bubbly and the top has a kind of golden brownish sheen to it.  This is very hard to overcook since there is a lot of water involved in all these vegetables.  The worst thing that can happen is that it is a bit wet when you cut into it.  Trust me, it is not that big of a deal.

IMPORTANT LTL NOTE!!

Look at that ingredients list, there is cheese and no meat.  That puts this into phase II.  Yay, however, you must get at least 6 servings out of this or you will be taking in too much protein.  The way I have structured this is that there should be at least 6 servings of 2.5 ounces of cheese in each serving.  If you have this in 6 servings, each one will be close to 3 cups of vegetables in each serving.  It is hardy and would work well in 9 servings as a lighter snack as well.

Let me know what you think of this recipe or any other recipe either in the comments here or on the FB  page.

Quick and Easy – Cleanse Week Soups

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Cleanse week is an amazing period of time where you begin something new, get a headache and then wind up feeling so good that you wonder why you never did this before.  It can be intimidating however, so I have come up with an equation for soup that makes it much easier to do.  The end result of this soup math is a hearty soup that feeds 4 (or 2 dinners and 2 work lunches) and is great for cleanse week.  Remember, though, you want to eat as many raw veggies as you can in order to maximize results on the cleanse week.

Step 1:  16 ounces + 2 tablespoons of vegetable broth.  Check your ingredients list for sugar, you don’t want it.

Step 2:  Three of the following in edible chunks – 1 can of diced tomatoes, 4 stalks of celery, 4 large carrots, 1 leek, 1 sweet potato, 1 turnip, 1 rutabaga, 8 brussels sprouts, 1/4 head of cabbage, 1 cup green beans, 2 medium onions,  3 parsnips, etc.

Step 3:  1 tablespoon of one of the following dry spices:  basil, thyme, coriander, cumin, oregano, marjoram, ginger, allspice, clove, fennel.

Step 4:  2 tablespoons of one of the following:  salt, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar.

Step 5: (optional) for sweetness: 5 diced pitted dates, 5 diced figs, 1 diced beet,

Recipe:

1.  Put your soup pan over medium heat and add your vegetables and 2 tablespoons vegetable broth.

2.  When the veggies begin to steam in the pan, crank the heat to medium high, add the step 3 and step 4.

3.  Move these around often to prevent burning but you will begin to notice the smell nearly immediately of something delightful.

4.  Add your vegetable broth, stir well, reduce heat to medium low and cover.

5.  You can now cook this as long as you want but it will be ready to eat in about 15-20 minutes.

Literally, any of the item above can be mixed for a decent flavor.  Some, obviously will go together better than others, so feel free to try new things.

Quick and Easy – Squash and Sausage

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Simple, easy, quick!  This recipe is going to start of a new section of quick and easy recipes.

Ingredients:

1.  4 medium (about 16oz, total) sweet italian sausages (we used sweet italian turkey sausages which are nitrate free, but you can use whatever you want, the portion is the important part here, and they should be nitrate free).

2.  2 each zucchini and yellow squash

3.  1 medium onion

4.  1 tablespoon fennel seeds

5.  1 tablespoon cracked black pepper

Recipe:

1.  Put your sausages in a 400 degree oven to brown and shape-set (unless you don’t care about the shape setting and then just take them out of their casing if you want, doesn’t affect the overall taste) for about 15 minutes, turning once.

2.  Cut the onion, squash zucchini into bite size pieces, about 1″-1.5″

3.  Put into a 10″ pan with the fennel and the pepper on medium high heat and toss often, should be done in about 15 minutes.

4.  Pull the sausages and cut into 1″ sections and add to veggies and toss every 30 seconds or so for about 4 minutes or until the sausage is completely cooked through.

5.  Divide up into 4 servings, 2 for now, 2 for work.  Enjoy.

 

Total Time:  19 minutes, depending upon how prepped you are.

Black Beans and “Rice”

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients:

1.  1 cup yellow, red and orange peppers diced

2.  1 medium onion diced

3.  1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

4.  1 cup vegetable broth

5.  1 tablespoon cumin

6.  2 teaspoons each of salt, pepper, dried basil and coriander.

7.  1 head of cauliflower “riced”.  This refers to taking a head of cauliflower and grating it so that it is the size and consistency of white rice.  Not as small as doing a cauliflower pizza crust, but close.

Recipe:

1.  Saute the onions, peppers with about 2 tablespoons of the vegetable broth.

2.  When soft, add the spices and saute for about 3 minutes, it should smell pretty awesome

3.  Add the vegetable stock and black beans. Bring to a boil.

4.  Cover with a lid and turn the heat to medium low and simmer for the amount of time it takes you to grate your cauliflower.

With the cauliflower, you can do a couple of different things.  If you want a more “al dente” feel, do not cook it, the heat from your bean mixture will make it plenty hot enough.  So just put it on a plate and pour some black bean mixture over it.  If you want a softer feel, then microwave the whole cauliflower for about 4 minutes before you grate/dice it.  Once ti cools, you will notice it is a little softer.  Choice is yours.  Picture above is the more “al dente” version.

Colby-Mushroom-Spinach Fritatta

Posted on by Sam Boyd

I was informed by someone smarter than me that this is a fritatta, so I am going to go with it.

Ingredients:

1.  5 large eggs

2.  1 cup spinach

3.  1 cup mushrooms

4.  1/2 cup (4oz) grated Colby cheese

5.  2 tablespoons of skim milk

6.  2 tablespoons each of salt and pepper

Recipe:

1.  In a small saucepan on medium heat, combine the spinach and mushrooms and stir often.  They will begin to give off some liquide, which is a good thing.  Cook them for about 10 minutes in this way.

2.  Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper, and Colby cheese in a bowl.   Whisk pretty severely because you want some air in it.

3.  In a sprayed/coconut oil greased glass oven pie pan spread the mush and spinach out evenly.  Then pour the egg-cheese mix over the spinach evenly.

4.  Place into an oven that is somewhere near 325 or 350.  Cook it for about 15 minutes or so.  You will know it is done because it will look like cooked eggs.

5.  Take out, burn hand, put back, curse, take out again and put on counter.

6.  Cut into quarters, it will fridge well for a day.  We took it to work with us and it was fine.

Brussels Sprouts Awesome

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is the best damn brussels sprouts recipe that I have ever come up with.  It’s awesome.  I look at the picture and really just want to go make it again.

Ingredients:

1.  12oz shredded brussels sprouts

2.  4oz of chopped chicken or chopped turkey

3.  1/4 cup of pine nuts, untoasted is best

4.  2oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese (white is what I used)

5.  1 teaspoon of olive oil

Recipe:

1.  Fry up the lean ham and pull out of pan.

2.  Put pine nuts in pan with olive oil and cover for about 5 minutes, shaking the pan often to keep them moving.  The idea is to toast them so that you can get as much flavor out of them as possible.

3.  Add the brussels sprouts and some salt

4.  Cook the brussels sprouts until just wilty, not too much or they will get sulfurous and gross

5.  Take off heat and add the lean ham and toss

6.  Put onto two plates and top with 1oz of shredded cheddar cheese each serving.

This is designed to be a two serving dish.  Each serving will contain approximately 3 ounces of protein,  1.5 cups of vegetables.  Enjoy.