Whiteley Creek Homestead Bed and Breakfast Brainerd Minnesota

carrot apple slaw cranberries pumpkin seeds + sunnies

Here's an easy one. Orange juice-infused slaw sweetened with a touch of honey. Crunchy, chewy, a little sweet. The recipe is from a January 2006 issue of Delicious Living-a free magazine often available at health food stores.  

1/2 cup orange juice (I increased to 3/4 cup.)

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (I omitted the olive oil and subbed 1 tbsp honey.)

1 Granny Smith apple, unpeeled, cored, and shredded (I used 2 Gala apples. Any sweet, crunchy variety like Gala, Pink Lady, or Honeycrisp would be pefect.)

1 pound carrots (about 4 large), peeled and shredded (I used unpeeled carrots.)

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced (I omitted.)

3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (I omitted.)

1/2 cup dried cranberries (I used apple juice sweetened.)

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds (I used 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds + 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds.)

 freshly ground black pepper (I omitted.)

In a large bowl, whisk together orange juice and honey. Add all of the remaining ingredients and toss well to coat with slaw dressing.

 

split pea veggie soup

This split pea soup recipe comes via Rosemary, a guest who stayed at our B&B several years ago. The original name for the recipe is Green Velvet Soup... which it is. Velvety, that is. If it is pureed post cooking. However, I may have pureed one too many culinary delights that I have placed in front of Dick. He reminded me recently that he still has his teeth. So, I made Rosemary's recipe as printed, but I didn't puree it. It is honestly the most flavorful split pea soup on this planet. I am sure of it. (Note: Check out Rosemary's paintings, thought-provoking quotes, and healthy recipes on her blog. She is a gifted watercolor artist who captures life's oft missed details in a world that is so easily blurred in our busyness.)     

Split Pea Veggie Soup (aka Green Velvet Soup if pureed)

1 onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, diced

3/4 cup split peas, rinsed

2 bay leaves

6 cups water or vegetable stock* (I used 2 cups vegetable stock + 4 cups chicken broth + 1 cup water.)

3 potatoes, cubed (I subbed 2 medium sweet potatoes.)

2 medium zucchini, diced

1 medium stalk broccoli, chopped

1 bunch fresh spinach, chopped (I used a large handful of Super Greens.)

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt (I subbed 1 tsp garlic salt.)

Place onion, celery, split peas, and bay leaves in a large soup pot with water or stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. Add the potatoes, zucchini, broccoli, spinach (or Super Greens), basil, black pepper, and salt. Simmer 20 minutes. Enjoy as is, or cool then puree in batches in a blender. Super Greens is a mix of five superfood baby greens: red and green Swiss chard, tat soi, arugula, and spinach. *For an equally amazing, flavorful vegetarian version, here's how I adapted the original. For the soup's liquid, I used 32 oz Imagine Organic No-Chicken Broth, 1 cube Edward & Sons Garden Veggie Bouillon, and 3 cups water. 

 

 

sweet bees party kit

Oh, I'm in love... with these sweet bees party printables. The kit includes: 1) cupcake wrappers and toppers  

2) drink labels-I hand stamped* the word honey on a label then secured it to my honey jar with several rounds of lightweight jute. 3) garland 4) pennant straw toppers 5) envelope printed on white cardstock with coordinating stationery 6) envelope front printed on brown kraft paper/grocery bag  7) envelope back printed on brown kraft paper/grocery bag  NOTE: Click on photos to enlarge.

I chose to make honey-sweetened carrot cake cupcakes. It is a bee-themed party kit, afterall. The recipe uses almond flour, making them gluten-free, with only 2 tbsp oil and 1/4 cup honey. You can spread with frosting, but it's not necessary. They taste perfectly wonderful with a sprinkle of raw sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds. I covered the table with a chicken wire print fabric. I think it looks like a honeycomb, too. I don't remember where I purchased it since it has been lying in my fabric stash for a mere 20 years or so... waiting for the perfect project. Oh, yes. If you hold onto something long enough, you will surely find a use for it one day.    

These hand drawn sweet bees printables are available in my daughter Heather's you-make-do shop. She has created two versions... one kit with a slightly darker color suitable for printing on brown kraft paper/grocery bags to compensate for ink absorption and another kit with a slightly lighter color for printing on cardstock. The brown kraft paper/grocery bag version results in a natural, earthy-looking product.

*The making memories "rummage" upper and lowercase alphabet stamps can be purchased where scrapbooking supplies are sold. I've had my set for several years or more, so I don't remember where I purchased it-probably Joanns or Michaels. The stamps produce an old-fashioned typewriter look. The letters' magnetized backing holds securely to the stamping tool.  

 

tiger in a jar beet cake

Upon watching this beet cake video created by Matt and Julie, husband and wife duo via their Tiger in a Jar venture where they "document life through film and pictures," the simple act of  measuring flour or cracking an egg will never be the same. Artistic expression. It's a beautiful thing. 

beet cake from tiger in a jar on Vimeo. The song is "Babe" by Evenings.

The cake is deeeeeliciously light and moist with a chocolate flavor and an ever-so-slight hint of beet... only because you know they're in there. The batter rises nicely and doesn't fall in the middle post baking.

The cake's two main ingredients are beets and melted chocolate. Although the batter is red from the beets, after baking it magically turns a deep dark brown. I sprinkled the top with hazelnuts instead of powdered sugar. 

Here's the original version of the tiger in a jar beet cake:

Here's my reduced fat and sugar tweaked version:

2 cups pureed beets (The 4 beets shown in the photo above produced just the right amount.)

4 ounces semisweet chocolate (I used 1 3.5 oz bar Green & Black's Organic Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa Content.)

2 cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour, but experimentation with alternate flours will produce alternately happy results.)

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter (I used 1/2 cup homemade butter + 1/2 cup homemade raw applesauce.)

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar (I reduced it to 1 cup which I found to be perfect. The beets add their own natural sweetness.)

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

powdered sugar for dusting the cake's top (Instead, I used thinly sliced hazelnuts. Beets are earthy. Hazelnuts are earthy. A perfect pair. It also adds a wonderful crunch.)

Steam beets or simmer in a little bit ofwater until fork tender. Cool, then purée in a food processor or blender with the leftover simmering liquid. Melt chocolate in a bowl set into a larger bowl of
hot water. Whisk dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Mix in applesauce, eggs, and vanilla then add pureed beets and melted chocolate. Pour batter into a 9-inch round springform pan. Bake at 375° for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Sprinkle cooled cake with powdered sugar or hazelnuts.

 

 

 

 

homemade raw applesauce

Here's an easy one. Make your own naturally sweetened applesauce in the time it takes to open a jar of the store-bought variety. The bonus is that it's uncooked and the peels are included, so the nutrition is equivalent to eating a raw apple. I served it this morning atop buckwheat/quinoa pancakes with just a drizzle of real maple syrup. Sooooo good.

Homemade Raw Applesauce

4 apples of a sweet variety (i.e., gala, pink lady, fuji, honey crisp)

1 cup water

1 tbsp lemon juice, optional

1/4 cup raisins

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch nutmeg

Core apples, then cut into chunks. (Do not peel.) Place in a blender along with the remaining ingredients. Very quickly, it will look like applesauce. For a chunkier consistency, blend only briefly.

Did you know that there is a set of measuring spoons for when a recipe requires a  pinch, dash, or smidgen? Ace Hardware sells the set. Surprised? Nah.

 

 

green smoothie girl seminar

I first "met" Robyn Openshaw, aka Green Smoothie Girl, when I visited her blog of the same name a couple years ago. Last evening, we truly met when I attended her seminar in Orlando.

A simple trick that I learned from Robyn's smoothie demonstration is to whirl the greens and the liquid first, then add the fruit and whatever else you're tossing in (i.e., protein powder, flax, chia seeds, hemp). I had been putting the fruit in first then piling the greens on top. Because of their light weight, the blender struggled to draw the greens downward to incorporate them into the fruit. I made a green smoothie today using the new method. Easy peasy. What took so long to figure that one out? I also discovered a new favorite product at the seminar... sprouted ground flax.

In the days preceding the seminar, Robyn had spent time with Hippocrates Health Institute co-directors' Dr. Brian Clement and Dr. Anna Maria Clement in West Palm Beach. Dr. Brian, who began working under the Hippocrates Institute founder Dr. Ann Wigmore in the 1970s, was guest speaker at last evening's seminar. He shared a DVD of our body cleaning out toxins and rejuvenating itself... a truly amazing ability, as long as we don't overload our system and give it more than it can handle. It was actual footage of the cleansing process... not animation. It reminded me of a colony of bees. Each worker knows its job and diligently, tirelessly performs it with utmost precision. To watch our body toil so hard for us, why would we not want to do our part and feed it properly and give it rest? Exactly.

cranberry orange relish

It began with a cranberry orange muffin recipe in my November/December 2011 issue of Clean Eating Magazine. The muffins turned out quite good, but it was the cranberry orange relish component in the muffins that got my attention. The naturally sweet relish is perfect for a mid-morning or afternoon snack, a brown bag lunch, and a crunchy addition atop a bed of mixed leafy greens.

A sweet apple variety, an orange, and dried cranberries provide the sweetness... no other sweetener needed.

Cranberry Orange Relish

1 cup frozen cranberries

1 tbsp fresh ginger, chopped (I used 1/4 tsp ground ginger.)

1 large or 2 small oranges, peeled, segmented and chopped

1 sweet, crunchy red apple (e.g., gala, pink lady or fuji), cored and finely chopped

1/4 cup dried cranberries (I used Eden Organic's apple sweetened.)

2 tbsp walnuts, chopped

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, optional

In the bowl of a food processor, blend 1/2 cup frozen cranberries, ginger, and 1/2 large or 1 small orange until coarsely chopped. In a large mixing bowl, combine remaining 1/2 cup frozen cranberries, remaining orange, and apple. Fold in processed cranberry-orange mixture, dried cranberries, walnuts, and coconut. Refrigerate. Makes 4 cups.

 

fat flush soup

Several years ago, I read The Fat Flush Plan by Ann Louise Gittleman. I am now revisiting her insights into cleansing the liver to boost its ability to function at its highest level. Nothing weird. Just maximizing nutrients that detoxify. For example, this Fat Flush Soup from Gittleman's blog... We finished it off so quickly that I nearly had nothing left to take a photo. A more apt name for this recipe might be chili rather than soup.   

Fat Flush Soup

2 tsp. olive oil

1 ¼ lbs. (I used 1 lb.) lean ground beef, turkey or chopped chicken*

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

1 large red, orange and/or green pepper, seeded and chopped

1 large zucchini or yellow squash, chopped

8 oz. mushrooms, chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 46 oz. bottle reduced-sodium tomato or vegetable cocktail juice (I used a 32 oz. bottle of R.W. Knudsen Very Veggie Juice.)

1 can (15 oz.) pinto, garbanzo or black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (14 oz.) crushed tomatoes (I used diced.)

1 Tbs. fresh lime juice

1 Tbs. ground cumin

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper, or to taste

1/4 cup each fresh cilantro and parsley leaves, chopped (I didn't have any cilantro. I subbed 1 tbsp dried parsley for the 1/4 cup fresh.)

In a skillet coated with the olive oil, thoroughly cook beef, turkey or chicken, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; drain, if desired. In the same skillet, cook onions, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms and garlic 5 min. or until vegetables are crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in next 6 ingredients and cooked meat. Add up to 1 cup water to thin soup, if desired. Cover; bring soup just to a simmer (do not let boil). Reduce heat to medium-low. Let simmer 20 min., stirring occasionally. Stir in cilantro and parsley. Cover; let simmer 5 min. more. Garnish with shaved Parmesan cheese, if desired. Soup can be stored up to 5 days in the refrigerator or frozen. *Or for vegetarian option, omit meat and add another can of beans. Makes 10 to 12 cups.

homemade cream of tomato soup

It is a perfect tomato soup sorta day. What kind of day is that? Anytime your mind wanders to a period in your life when a happy memory is paired with a bowl of tomato soup. It may be a can of Campbell's soup or a made-from-scratch variety.

For me, it is not the tomato soup made with water that was served in my junior high school cafeteria. It is my mother's soup that she made from canned tomatoes grown in her garden and milk fresh from our cows. It is also the chunky, creamy tomato soup served only on Fridays at Westside Cafe in Brainerd (Minnesota). Dick and I would call ahead and reserve two bowls if we thought the soup might be gone before we arrived. We'd always order a grilled cheese to go along. The cafe has been closed for several years and, sadly, I neglected to ask my mother how she made hers before she died. Thus began my search for a recipe to replicate the tomato soup embedded in my memory. I have tried many recipes in my persistent quest. This recipe is it! Source: Epicurious Magazine September 1996 reprinted from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham. 

The recipe, which uses canned diced tomatoes, states to pour the soup through a strainer before serving to remove the tomato chunks. Why?! That's just a waste of good tomatoes. The first photo shows the soup with tomato chunks. It was good, but not quite there. The second photo is after I whirled it in a blender... tomato chunks and all. Perfectly yummy! The third photo below shows a combination of the two that I made by blending half of it then added it back into the chunky portion. The result was exactly like the Westside Cafe version! Whether you choose the pureed version or the pureed/chunky combo, you will never open a red can of Campbell's tomato soup again. I am sure of it.

Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup

 Makes 12 cups (8 - 1 ½ cup servings).

5 tbsp butter (I used 2 tbsp.)

½ cup chopped onion

4 tbsp flour (I used 2 tbsp because pureeing it in a blender thickens it.)

4 cups milk (I used whole milk.)

½ bay leaf (I used 1 whole bay leaf.)

1 ½ tsp sugar

1 ½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda* (I used 1 tsp because I doubled the amount of tomatoes.)

3 6 cups fresh or canned tomatoes (I used 2 – 28 oz cans diced tomatoes plus the juice.)

Melt the butter in a soup pot. Add the onion and cook until the onion is soft and translucent but not browned. Sprinkle the flour over the butter mixture and continue to stir and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. (Because I reduced the butter, the flour will burn if you cook it that long. I just mix the flour into the butter and call it good.) While stirring, slowly pour in the milk. Add the bay leaf, sugar, and salt and continue to cook and stir until slightly thickened. (You’ll only see a slight thickening action because I reduced the amount of flour, so I heated it only hot enough for serving. Do not simmer or boil.) Stir the baking soda into the tomatoes. It will fizz. Add the tomatoes to the milk and bring it back up to serving temperature. Remove from heat and put through a strainer. (I say, "Why strain it? And toss out the tomato chunks? Why?!" For a smooth/chunky combo, allow to cool then puree half of the soup adding it back into the remaining chunky soup in the pot. If you want a smooth consistency without chunks, puree entire mixture, including tomato chunks, in a blender. For average blender container sizes, you'll need to do this in stages.) *Adding baking soda to tomatoes neutralizes their acidity to keep the milk from curdling.

 

 

granola alton brown

After I shared a facebook link to my Alton Brown shepherd's pie blog post yesterday, my niece Sheree expressed her love of this Food Network star's recipes, as well. She had most recently made his granola for Christmas gifts. That's all it took. I was off to the kitchen. That quick. It happens. The smell of the buttery, nutty, sweet mixture wafting from the oven into the far corners of each room in our house. Oh, the love. Keep your recipes coming, Alton.

1) I chose to use Bob's Red Mill Old Country Style Muesli instead of oatmeal because... well, the ingredients speak for themselves: rolled oats, wheat, rye, triticale, and barley along with raisins, sunflower seeds, almonds, and walnuts. To avoid drying out the raisins and dates, I removed them from the muesli prior to baking 2) Dry ingredients (oatmeal or muesli, additional walnuts and almonds, and brown sugar) are mixed together. 3) Maple syrup, butter, and salt are combined with grain, seed, and nut mixture. 4) Dried fruit and coconut is stirred in post baking.

Granola Alton Brown

Makes 6 servings.

3 cups rolled oats (I used 1 cup rolled oats and 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Old Country Style Muesli with the raisins and dates removed and set aside to be added after baking granola.)

1 cup slivered almonds (I used sliced almonds.)

1 cup cashews (I used chopped walnuts.)

¼ cup + 2 tbsp dark brown sugar (I used ¼ cup.)

¾ cup shredded sweetened coconut (I used ¼ cup shredded unsweetened coconut + ½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes and added it post baking.)

¼ cup + 2 tbsp maple syrup (I used ¼ cup.)

¼ cup oil (I used butter.)

¾ tsp sea salt

1 cup raisins (I placed the muesli’s raisins and dates in a 1-cup measuring cup then filled it level with additional raisins.)

Preheat oven to 250°. In a large bowl, combine oats or muesli, nuts, brown sugar, and coconut. (I added coconut post baking instead.) In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil (or butter), and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto a sheet pan. (I lined it with natural parchment paper.) Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Add raisins (and coconut if it wasn’t added prebaking) and mix until evenly distributed.