Jennifer – Discover Healthy Food

Maria’s Refried Beans

We had the distinct honor of cooking with Maria, a co-worker of Mexican descent, who is a FANTASTIC cook. The menu included chicken, pork, and cheese and jalapeno tamales, refried bean tostadas, red salsa and green salsa. Oh and sweet tamales – which Maria and Chad are preparing in the photo!

Upon arriving at her house, she already had a pot of refried beans ready to be enjoyed. And you know that we enjoyed them!

Expecting a difficult and lengthy recipe, it was great to find out that her refried beans recipe was simple and yields fantastically delicious beans. All without having to soak the beans overnight. It’s the soaking that always gets me… because I forget and then can’t cook the beans because they’re too hard. So, this recipe is fantastically easy and delicious. Yessss!

Maria’s Refried Bean Recipe (well, she doesn’t have a recipe written down, but this is what we were able to gather from our cooking with her and it works great. Not bad for a couple of gringos!):

Ingredients:

2 cups dry Peruvian beans (also known as Mayo Coba)

2 whole cloves of garlic

1.5 teaspoon salt

Water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Using crock pot, place all ingredients and cover with water, about 5″ over the top of the beans so that there is enough water for the beans to absorb and cook long enough without having to add water while cooking.
Cook on low for 8 hours. We usually start these right before going to sleep so that the beans are ready to finish the next morning.
Preheat large skillet on medium heat, add vegetable oil.
Using slotted spoon, strain and beans and add to the skillet. Don’t include the garlic.
Using potato masher, mash up the beans to a consistency that you enjoy. Add small amounts of the left over bean water to the beans if needed for thinning out.

These beans are great for leftovers, so you can double the recipe if you want to have a bunch of beans on hand for tostadas, side dishes, burritos, etc. If the bean mixture is too thick, you can add a little water to thin it out before serving.

I’ll see you a la mesa (at the table)!

Green Smoothie Cleanse

NOTE: This Green Smoothie Cleanse is not Doctor approved. This is from my personal life – just sharing in case it’s helpful for someone.

Every once in a while, I like to do a 3 day Green Smoothie Cleanse. This helps me to clean out my system and reduce the cravings for meat, sugar and bread.

Typically my green smoothies include the following:

6-8 oz greens
3 pieces of fruit/veggie
1 cup fruit juice
1 cup cold water
1 cup ice

You can totally mix up the greens and fruits/veggies as you want. But I know that sometimes it’s a little hard to come up with your own combinations so I thought I’d provide the following list of actual green smoothies I did for a Green Smoothie Cleanse:

Spinach – peach – blueberries – beet – apple juice
Spinach – cherries – carrots – orange – apple juice
Kale – beet – peach – strawberries – chia seed – lime – apple juice
Kale – flax meal – orange – grapes – cherries – pomegranate juice
Kale – banana – mango – cucumber – lime – apple juice
Kale – banana – grapes – orange – chia seed – flax meal – apple juice
Kale – banana – orange – cucumber – pomegranate juice
Spinach – beet – strawberries – banana – orange juice
Kale – cherries – blueberries – mango – chia – flax meal – apple juice
Spinach – orange – mango – banana – beet – chia – flax meal – apple juice
Collard greens – orange – chia – banana – beet – orange juice
Collard greens – beet – carrot – banana – chia seed – orange juice

Also, I allow myself to drink as many green smoothies as I want. If I’m hungry, I make one up. I take extra with me if I’m out all day. The only other thing I eat is whole fruit. Otherwise, it’s all about the green smoothie! 3 days of this and you’ll be soooo ready for a hot meal that you can chew, but you’ll feel a ton better and not hunger for all the processed crap that is in our food these days.

Hope this helps! I’ll see you at the table!

Hasselback Potatoes

We really like potatoes in our family, but these Hasselback potatoes are a big hit in our household. They look great and taste great too! This recipe is based off the Hasselback recipe from Pompier850 on Allrecipes. This recipe serves 5 (2 adults and 2 teens, 1 toddler), with some leftovers. We love leftovers around here!

Ingredients:

8 russet potatoes
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Himalayan pink salt
Black pepper
2 tablespoons grated parmesan
2 tablespoons seasoned bread crumbs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper to help with clean up later.
Wash potatoes thoroughly. You can peel the potatoes, we like the peel so leave it on.
Using two wooden spoons with the same size handles, place the potato between the spoons and then cut thin slices without cutting through to the bottom.
Drizzle 4 tablespoons of melted butter over each potato, try to get as much in between the slices as possible. It’s a messy process, but totally worth it if you get the butter down in between. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake for 30 minutes.
In a small bowl, combine parmesan and breadcrumbs. Drizzle the remaining melted butter over partially baked potatoes, then sprinkle the parmesan mixture – try to get butter and mixture between the slices again.
Finish baking for 15 minutes.

Serve on a platter, using small tongs to pick up because the slices will make it hard to move with a spoon. Hasselback potatoes go great as a side dish in a meal where you’d have a baked potato, but they look fancier so get ready to wow your humans!

I’ll see you at the table!

Banana Banana Muffins

We eat a lot of bananas in our house! Occasionally, I’ll purchase an extra bunch of bananas so that we’ll have enough bananas on hand to go overripe for banana bread. This muffin recipe (adapted from Shelley Albeluhn on All Recipes) is easier than banana bread and always turns out great. Plus, I love to add extra ingredients – like nuts or dried coconut flakes – to mix it up.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
5 reallllly ripe bananas
2 eggs
1/2 cup soft butter
1 cup chopped nuts (we love walnuts or pecans)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line muffin pans with paper cups. Spray a little no-stick spray in each muffin paper.
In a large bowl, mash up the bananas with a fork. Add in sugar, eggs, butter and stir to combine.
In a larger bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix thoroughly, but with as few strokes as possible. This is where you can add your extra ingredients, like 1 cup of nuts, coconut flakes, or chocolate chips, etc.
Spoon mixture into muffin cups. Should make 2 dozen muffins.
Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool on rack.
Don’t be surprised if these are gone within a day.

I’ll see you at the table!

Recipe: Vegan Fried Rice

Versatile and abundant rice! There are more than 40,000 varieties of cultivated #rice (the grass species Oryza sativa) said to exist. But the exact figure is uncertain. Over 90,000 samples of cultivated rice and wild species are stored at the International Rice Gene Bank and these are used by researchers all over the world. (Source: riceassociation.org.uk) I want to see this rice bank!

Fried rice becomes the main dish at our dinner table. Here’s a simple recipe that is a crowd pleaser for the veggie lover and meat eaters.

Ingredients:
2 cups basmati rice, yields about 4-5 cups cooked
2 cups small broccoli florets
1 cup diced purple cabbage
1 small white or yellow onion, diced
2 cups frozen peas
2 cups carrot, diced
2 celery stalks, small dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks green onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 cup soy sauce

Directions:
1. Use a rice cooker to prepare basmati rice. Usually, I prefer day old rice, but you can use same day rice of you forget to cook ahead.
2. Using a large wok, heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil on medium-high heat.
3. Saute onion, celery, carrot for 5 minutes.
4. Add garlic, cabbage, broccoli and 1 tablespoon of sesame seed oil. Saute for 4-5 minutes or until cabbage is soft.
5. Add basmati rice and the frozen peas.
6. Add 1 tablespoon sesame seed oil, soy sauce and white pepper, toss to coat.
7. Put lid on wok, turn down heat to low and allow rice and peas to warm through about 4-5 minutes.
8. Through the entire cooking time, keep tossing the mixture as it will burn and stick to bottom of the wok.
Serve immediately with green onion for garnish. We love it with veggie dumplings on the side.

Optional sauces to add spice at the table: hoisin, mae ploy, sriracha, sambal.

I’ll see you at the table!

There are over 1 billion people who eat rice every day in the world. That's a lot of rice to be grown and harvested! — There are over 1 billion people who eat rice every day in the world. That’s a lot of rice to be grown and harvested!

Restaurant Review: Pulp – Sandy, UT

Restaurant Review: Pulp
Location: Sandy, Utah
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ of 5
Mom approved: No. No changing table in the bathroom. 😤

Overall impressions:
Food is tasty, fresh, and loads of healthy options on the menu with both vegan and meat eater choices. I am a bit of a restaurant environment snob and found that this wasn’t the best location for business breakfast meeting – too loud with all the cement and metal decor. But us hippie-yoga-Mormon types still loved the food enough that we’ll be back.

Enjoying the #decor — Enjoying the decor!

Bold Basil

Thai basil is one of my favorite fresh herbs… The aroma, the punch of flavor and layer of taste it adds to dishes is divine!

A quick way to add some flavor to your ramen is to add a handful of fresh Thai basil leaves just before serving. It’ll really add a nice layer of flavor to a generally bland dish. Add veggies, sriracha or sambal and your ramen will be rockin’!

The beautiful, bold flavor of fresh basil… A little bit of summer sunshine to add to winter recipes.

Product Review: Throat Coat Tea

Herbal tea makes all the difference during cold season. Cozy up with some mint or chamomile herbal tea and sooth your body and soul.

When you’re not feeling well and a sore throat is stinging, Throat Coat Tea by Trad Medicinals is magical! ✨☕🌱 The tea tag message: “One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.” – James Russell Lowe

Pleasure of Persimmons

I’ve heard about persimmons for years and finally bought some. Holy-amazingness-Batman! What was I so concerned about before?? I have found a new fall time favorite. You should check them out too… Don’t wait years like I did.

The first dish using persimmon is a simple green salad. I’m heading back to the store to buy more and see what else I can do with this beautiful orange fruit!

Persimmon and Beet Salad:
Ingredients:
1 roasted beet, cubed
1 persimmon, peeled and cubed
Green leaf lettuce
Spicy nut mixture
Balsamic dressing

Directions:
Layer the ingredients lettuce, beets, persimmon, nuts. Add a drizzle of dressing. Serve as side dish to any main course that you’d normally pair with a green salad. Don’t be surprised if there’s not a lot of talking at dinner.

I’ll see you at the table.

Even the persimmon harvesters can’t help but smile when they check the crop!

Recipe: Avocado Toast

I like to keep my avocado toast simple… Lightly toasted bread of your choice, 1/4 ripe avocado per slice of bread. For a little extra flavor, sprinkle Costco’s Organic No-Salt Seasoning. Couldn’t resist a bite before taking photo… I’ll see you at the table!