Natural Food Dyes

You will need a juicer for this recipe


Color and produce used:

Red- beets
Orange- carrots
Yellow- mango or yolk 
Green- spinach
Blue- red cabbage 
& baking soda*
Purple- red cabbage

Directions:

-For each color you will need to clean out your juicer each time
-I juiced about 1 cup of each fresh fruit or veggie and came up with a few tablespoons each of every color. Depending on what colors you want and how much you want, juice more or less.
-Dyes are only good for a few days so make new dye each time you need it
-Do not worry too much about the veggie flavors coming through in your food, they are very subtle and won't overpower your flavor and make it gross, promise!!
-* mix in a little bit of baking soda to change the color to blue! its magic, you will see!!
-Use your dyes for your baking recipes, enjoy!!!

Thanks for stopping by, come back soon to See the cute rainbow cake I made with my natural dyes when you check back, its coming soon!!

Teaching Everyday Nutrition to Children

A good friend of my'n and inspiration to my healthy lifestyle wrote this article I'd like to share: Living with Children while practicing calorie restriction by Shannon Vyff. 

Also, here is the book she wrote for kids with futuristic ideas about cryonics, nanotechnology, and inner planetary travels, its a fun read, even for adults! 

To purchase this book
To read a review about this book

Mini Gingerbread Houses

 As you can see I made very tiny Gingerbread Houses from real Gingerbread cookie dough. I decided that a teeny house was just going to be ridiculously cute so I set to work. Hope you like it!
For toppings use mini M&M's, coconut flakes, frosting, cake glitter, and sour patch people.

For larger houses, I built the house on a small dessert plate.

For super mini houses I used the mason jar lids covered in foil. 

I frosted the approx size of the little houses to lay it out on.

 Seen here the mini being built on the canning jar lid, already looking pretty stinking cute!

I found mini candies, sour patch people and coconut flakes to decorate, add more ideas of course to make it your own. I used basic frosting from the store and used the smallest fitting on the piping bag keeping the frosting cold as possible when not in use. 

Here is the larger of the mini Gingerbread houses.

PS If you get real create make a hanger into the roof and frost over the wire and you can turn it into an ornament.

Real Ginger and Molasses Gingerbread Cookies

Late night craving of Gingerbread ice cream sandwiches, dream come true!
Using real ginger and molasses makes these cookies so tasty and makes your home smell like the holidays. 



Ingredients:

2 cups organic flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 cup peeled and grated ginger
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cardamon (omit if you don't like the flavor)



2/3 cup organic brown sugar
2/3 cup organic sugar or honey
1/2 cup soft or melted butter
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg

Directions: (oven at 350 degrees)
1) Mix wet ingredients in one bowl with ginger and sugar as well

2) Mix dry ingredients (all except sugar, see #1)
3) Mix all ingredients together

4) Coat board with flour to roll out dough on

5) Use cookie cutters and cut out shapes you like

6) Bake at 350 degrees for soft cookies 8 minutes for hard cookies 13 minutes.
7) Let cool before decorating!
8) ENJOY!! or save in the fridge for up to 1 week!

Homemade Apple Sauce

Time to make: 1 hr Makes: 4 small bowls of sauce or approx 3-4 cups

Ingredients:
8 c. peeled and cored apples
1/2 c. brown or turbiano sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
cinnamon stick
lemon zest
1 whole lemon juiced
2 tbls butter

Directions:
1) Peel and core apples, add to pot of cold water
2) When pot starts to become full you may turn it on
3) Cook apples 30 mins or until soft
4) Add seasonings and other ingredients now and start mashing
5) Enjoy warm or cold, either way its delicious!!!

You can also can your creations if you like! Make sure to follow all directions for canning.

Perfect Crust

Ingredients for Crust:

4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 cube of real butter (cold) or solid coconut oil

2 tsp salt

1/4-1 cup of water

1) Crust is a tricky one, butter must be cold!!! Mash cold butter with pastry tool into flour and get as small a possible. Add salt.

2) Slowly mix in water until sticking, kneed together, the right consistency will be sticking without falling apart.

3) Roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thick and create 4-6 inch circles. Cut these in half and put aside.

Vegan Blackberry Galette aka "pinch purses"

Prep time: 30 mins Bake time: 40 mins
Makes 4 small pinch purses or one regular pie sized bottom and top crust

Vegan Pie Crust:
2 cups of flour
3/4 cup of coconut oil chilled
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of water
Tip: spices of nutmeg, cinnamon, and cardomom add a nice extra flavor

Filling:
4 cups of blackberries
1 cup of flour
1 cup of sugar (we used turbiano)
Prep time: 30 mins Bake time: 40 mins
Makes 4 small pinch purses or one regular pie sized bottom and top crust



Directions:
1) Mix flour and salt in a bowl with cold coconut oil and a pastry hook, break down oil into flour until resembles tiny little balls.

2) Pour in water and begin stirring in with your hands.

3) If it seems to try add tiny bits of water just until it sticks and then kneed until a nice ball shape.

4) Break into four sections if you are making purses, and into two if you are making a regular pie

5) Use rolling pin to roll out dough into circular shapes, if your working with little ones, show them how to turn it often to make a circle.

 6) Start oven at 350 degrees and begin to stir berries in separate bowl with sugar and flour, very gently

 7) After dough is rolled out, Pour 3/4 cup of berries onto flattened round dough circle

8) Pull up sides and pinch together dough at top to make a little pocket for the berries, resembling a "pinch purse" or drawsting bag.

 9) Place on baking pan with sides, just in case of spillage, and bake for about 40 mins or until crust is golden brown.
10) Individual pies without the tin are quite easy to make and to eat, so I hope you will try this recipe! You can also fill with apple pie, chicken pot pie, or even some marinara, or cheesy broccoli or even cheese and herbs.

Healthy Egg Salad

Hello and welcome to my blog! So glad to have you stop by! My name is Stacy and Egg salad sandwiches and devilled eggs were one of my favorite things to make and eat when I was a kid. I am a super protein junkie and must have figured this out around this age. I made traditionally made egg salad all my life until I got into a health kick and realized mayo is not really good for you and that the egg salad tasted like mayo, which in all reality I am not the hugest fan of its flavor either. So in my attempts to bring you lower fat and better for you egg salad and devilled eggs I will warn you its not because we are using "low fat mayo" as the replacement for goodness.
If you like what you see I'd sure appreciate you to come back soon or follow my blog! Comments and questions are gladly appreciated!

Ingredients:

6 eggs hard boiled
1/8 cup pickle juice
1/2 plain yogurt
1/2 tsp of each: paprika, salt, pepper, dill, cayenne pepper

Directions:
1) Hard boil eggs, in 1 tsp of baking soda. Let eggs cool in water and break shells away carefully.

2) Next put eggs into mixing bowl and mash with potato masher.

 3) Add in pickle juice, yogurt and spices and continue mashing all together.

 4) Taste and add more seasonings if you like, I am addicted to dill so I added more.

3) Mix seasonings and other ingrediants into yolk and mash with fork til creamy, if not creamy enough add more pickle juice to soften up.

Enjoy and come back for more soon!!

Mushroom, Cheddar and Breadcrumb Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients:

1 package of fresh white button mushrooms

1 egg

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 clove fresh garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup of cheddar cheese grated

green onion to garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to broil

Cut out stems of mushrooms and dice. Saute with garlic til slightly done, fork mash and add other ingredients.

 Stuff contents into mushrooms and garnish with green onions. Broil for 8-10 mins, or until done. Enjoy!