the Almighty Green Smoothie!

They seem to be all the rage with the health food crowd, and I can see why; I've been hooked for a couple of years now. Just think, the ability to get a whole bunch of fresh vitamins, minerals, and fiber in one great tasting drink!
Basic Ingredient list:
Lettuce
Kale
Spinach
Cucumber
Dandelion greens
mint
basil
parsley
Chard
Blueberries, or any fresh or frozen berry
bananas
peaches
grapefruit/oranges
avocado (one I haven't tried but will soon)
Juice
stevia sweetened tea
yogurt or kiefer
ground flax seeds
spirulina
ground chia seed
maca root powder
any powdered greens that are organic
Here are a few of my favorite green smoothy recipes, but as you can tell, the options are as endless as the imagination.

Blueberry bliss green smoothie
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
4 leaves kale, washed
4 leaves lettuce, washed
8-10 leaves dandelion greens, washed
about a 1/4 of a cucumber, peeled
1/2 cup yogurt or kiefer
1 cup of juice (blueberry or apple) or for really low sugar, brew a cup of fruity tea and sweeten with stevia (or use one that has stevia already in it)
1 teaspoon ground flax (optional)
1/4 teaspoon spirulina (optional)
blend all ingredients together

Isha's happy-it's not-quite-so-green Fruity green smoothie

1 banana
1 peach or 1/2 cup diced frozen peach
1/2 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
handful of spinach leaves, washed
2 leaves lettuce, washed
1/4 cucmber, peeled
1/2 cup yogurt or kiefer
about a cup of apple juice
1/2 teaspoon ground flax (optional)

If you have a powerful blender like a vitamix then you don't have to do a lot of pre-preparing. If you have a regular blender, chop your greens first with a knife, removing stems.

salad, the "new" fast food

My mom was a health food junkie. She decided that we would all be raw foodists when I was little, luckily my step-dad worked at a natural food store and brought home boxes of produce. California produce, mmm. Oranges and avocados by the case. So I learned to eat my vegetables and appreciate them, or go to bed hungry. Of course, when the opportunity presented itself I turned my back on eating healthy and discovered things like cheeseburgers, onion rings, soft serve ice cream, fried burritos and caffienated sodas. I wanted to be a chef and cook Italian food, or what I thought was Italian food. Lasagna, raviolis, spaghetti with cheese and cream. I bought an old cookbook from Tuscany, and was disappointed to find that it was almost only recipes for vegetables. Now I understand, the book was written before the advent of the electronic pasta maker. More recently, I have read that more than half of the people living in modern Italy suffer from Celiac's disease (the inability to digest gluten). I have had a lot of digestion problems during my life and I can pin point most of them to an over consumption of grains, especially bread. Bread, my favorite food! In Italy they serve bread with olive oil and garlic, with olives or tapenade, and the sandwiches full of preserved meats and items such as roasted red peppers or sun dried tomatos. The foods that were meant to last from when the fresh food ran out in the winter until it sprouted again in the spring, not to be the mainstays of diet year round. The modern day grocery store, while full of thousands of options of processed packaged foods that you can 'grab and go', has a silver lining, also known as the produce section. It makes up for the parts of the year when farmer's markets are closed and nothing is growing in my garden. In January in the north, we have a lot of cabbages freshly available. But, for as long as they continue to ship produce from the south, January means lemons and other citrus fruits, as well as summer veggies, are now coming into season. I had a sample of a salad at my local whole foods grocery store, the demo was for an old fashioned food processor that was hand cranked and stainless steel (very eco friendly). I can't afford that machine right now, but I have a great chef's knife and I know how to use it. If you have a food processor that slices you can save a lot of time. Take this for lunch, instead of a sandwich ;)
Super Salad
lettuce leaves
cucmber
celery
zucchini
carrots
an apple
a lemon
red bell pepper
herbs like parsley, cilantro, dandelion greens
fresh onion (red?)
celeriac
fennel bulb (is very delicious, unless you hate the flavor of fennel/anise)
Avocado
sunflower seed, almonds for protein

chop, shred or slice thinly, any or all of the above ingredients, leaving the lettuce leaves a bit larger. Un-peeled lemons are tasty cut very thinly, if you don't like the peel, then just squeeze the juice over the salad at the end. To dress my salads I usually use a little apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, and a bit of olive oil sometimes. I use an organic low-salt seasoning blend to sprinkle over top. 

yogurt dressing
1 cup of plain yogurt
pinch of salt
big pinch of dry parsley, crushed
black pepper
spoonful of lemon juice
1 or 2 cloves of fresh garlic, paste or smashed in a garlic press works, or even just chopped fine

mix together, makes a ranch style dressing
 If you need your daily bread, have a piece with your salad, or make a pita pocket of it.. with fresh veggies the options are seemingly endless.

about new home cooking

First off, I'm thinking of renaming this blog as 'new country style cooking' or maybe just 'country cooking'; I have always loved the classic comfort foods of American country style cooking, as well as cuisines from around the world, but I want to eat healthy. I was trained, un-classically, as a gourmet cook. I learned how to make a roux, and what a mirepoix is, how to use a knife, the science of the bakery, all in the french style of classic cooking and I have spend some time watching and reading of what the great chefs of modern cuisine do. Now I am trying to take from what I know how to create in the kitchen and apply that to what I have learned is the healthy (or healthier) ways to eat. I will take the time to explore food through what is seasonally available and what is regionally available. I want to see what food I can grow here in the west coast countryside, and write about the flavors I come up with. What would be a food blog without recipes?
Roasted chicken with mixed roasted vegetables

1 whole fryer chicken
1 lemon
fresh parsley
1/2 lb. mushrooms (can't wait to go get fresh ones soon!)
 carrots
 celery
 onions
2 zucchini
Annie's Shiitake sesame vinaigrette or:
1/2 C olive oil
1/4 apple cider vinegar
1/4 c soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon prepared mustard.  (whisk ingredients from olive oil through mustard for dressing)
Seasoning blend of choice, preferably low or no salt, or:
mix together
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon paprika
 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
pinches of: celery seed powder, dried thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano (crush or mix in a coffee grinder for best flavor)
Heat oven to 400
Rinse the chicken, remove gizzards. Squeeze lemon juice over and inside of chicken,  then coat chicken generously with seasoning blend from recipe, inside the cavity too, or use a low or no salt blend, and then stuff parsley sprigs and a piece of the squeezed lemon into the cavity.  Place chicken in roasting pan, if you don't have a rack then lay down a couple of pieces of celery to set the bird on. Place a whole carrot, half an onion in the pan. Cover and place in oven. Roast for 1 hour to 1 and 1/2 hours, until the legs come apart from the bird easily.

Cut veggies into large chunks and coat with dressing. roast them at 400, in a baking dish, for about half an hour. If you do potatoes, cook them closer to an hour.