Healthy Balls Recipe!

The best part about the 28 day elimination diet thus far has been the balls. I am a fan of the nut ball. Big fan. Big. Huge.

Now, if you are like me, you are giggling at the memory of Alec Bladwin doing his "Schweddy Balls" sketch on SNL. Its become a household joke. Can you grab me a nut ball while you're in the kitchen... These gals can't wait for some Schweddy Balls... Classic.


Anyhoo. Back to the balls. These babies are the best. They are naturally sweet, and are the perfect fix for an afternoon snack. I make a batch Sunday and eat them all week long. I adapted this recipe from my whole life nutrition cookbook. Get yours here. Best $23 I have ever spent.


Nut Balls (Raw Energy Balls)
1 cup Raw Almonds
1/2 cup pitted dates
1/4 cup raisins
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
Sea salt
1/2 cup Almond Butter
Shredded unsweetened coconut


Toss the almonds into your food processor and process until they are smooth. There will still be some larger pieces -- thats okay. Add raisins, dates, cinnamon, cardamom and sea salt. Continue to blend until smooth. I had to do this part bit by bit to ensure everything got sufficiently mixed. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Add almond butter. Using a wooden spoon, thoroughly stir the almond butter into the mixture until everything is gooey and yummy. Use your hands to form the mixture into small, bite sized balls. Roll the balls in the coconut. Store in the fridge for up to a week.

Tasty Tuesday ~ Emerald City Salad

Its been really tough while doing this elimination diet to eat any food that was not prepared by my own two hands. I love to cook, and thoroughly enjoy learning new recipes and tweaking them to suit me, but life is anything but predictable, and sometimes I am unable to walk out the door at 5:30 in the morning with my Elimination Diet-friendly lunch in hand. On these days, I pop up to PCC for a bag of carrots, a head of broccoli and some dried fruit. While I know I can't partake, I always peruse the deli counter to see what tasty delights they have that day.

A few days ago, a co-worker offered my some of his "Emerald City Salad" - a PCC staple and crowd favorite. I had to turn it down because of the red bell peppers, but it got me to thinking... I could recreate the salad at home and still be on track! Its a basic salad, but packs a flavorful punch, AND offers a great base for mixing things up - I can't think of anything that wouldn't be good on this salad. I changed it up to meet Phase 2 requirements, and will continue to add more as I can incorporate more into my diet. This recipe makes a big bowl, I usually just put it in smaller tupperwares and pack it for lunches throughout my week.

Emerald City Salad

1 cup uncooked wild rice

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp salt

1/2 black pepper

1/2 bunch kale

1/2 bunch Chard

2 red chard leaves

1/2 fennel bulb, thinly sliced

1 bunch green onions

1/2 cup chopped parsley

Optional Additions

Diced red or yellow bell peppers

Diced red onion

Diced cucumber

Grape tomatoes

Sunflower seeds

Avocados

Dried cherries or cranberries

Bring 3 cups of water to boil, add rice. Bring rice to boil, cover, reduce heat to simmer and for about 60 minutes (when all the water is absorbed, remove rice from heat and let cool).

Whisk together the olive oil, lemon, garlic, salt and pepper for the dressing. Once rice has cooled, toss the dressing with the rice.

Remove stems and ribs from the green and chiffonade. Combine greens with fennel and green onion (add any other veggies at this point if you choose to do so).

Just before serving, toss greens with the rice/dressing mixture.

Enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday - Nori Rolls

Today's recipe has quickly become an Elimination Diet favorite for both my cousin and myself, and I suspect we will both continue making them for the rest of our lives. I love sushi - it is practically a food group in my eyes, and even though I have to make a few concessions on the elimination diet... no ahi, no salmon, no crab, no anything that is traditionally involved in a great sushi roll. Well, other than seaweed and rice. I love these rolls because you can pretty much put anything inside of them. I am currently rolling them with a homemade pesto garlic sauce, carrots, avocado, green onions, red cabbage, celery and cucumber. If you have the rice all cooked up, these babies are a breeze to throw together and wrap up nicely to be taken as lunch the following day. In fact, I will be enjoying a roll today for lunch.

I got this recipe from the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen blog - I love their cookbook, their blog, I'd even like to get my shit together enough to go listen to one of their seminars/classes up in Bellingham. Plus, the site is a terrific resource for anyone with food allergies. They have link to other blogs that are vegan, gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free and raw food only. Its such a fantastic resource, I whole heartedly recommend spending some time perusing their site.

Okay, on to the recipe. Please note, I made my rolls with sweet brown rice, but they can also be made with quinoa if you choose to do so. You will need nori sheets (these can be purchased at almost any grocery store, I got mine at PCC Natural Markets), sweet brown rice, and fresh veggies. You will also want to purchase a sushi rolling mat - these can also be found at the grocery or World Market has some great one for $4.00.

We'll start with the sauces:

Garlicky Pesto Sauce

1 cup pine nuts

Basil Leaves (I used 2-3 bunches)

5 garlic cloves

1/4 water

1/4 EVOO

Put all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth.

Ginger Plum Sauce

1 tbsp kuzu (found in the international foods area of grocery store)

1/2 cup water

4 plums, pitted

1 cup 100% apple juice

1 - 2 inch piece of ginger
1 tsp sea salt

Place plums, apple juice, ginger and sea salt in blender and blend until smooth. Dissolve kuzu and water in small pan (not on heat yet). Whisk blended plum concoction into the pan with the kuzu. Turn heat to medium high and let simmer for 10 - 15 minutes.

Nori Rolls

1 cup sweet brown rice

2 1/2 cups water

pinch of sea salt

Nori sheets

Avocado, thinly sliced

Cucumber, julienned

Carrots, julienned

Red Cabbage, thinly sliced

Green onions, thinly sliced

First, bring water, rice and salt to a boil in a medium sized pot. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and let cook for 45 - 50 minutes, or until all water is gone. Set rice aside. Lay a Nori sheet out on your bamboo mat. Spread rice over the nori, leaving a a two inch portion at bottom without rice. Spread pesto sauce on rice at the top, arrange vegetables on sauce. Tightly roll the sushi up starting at the vegetable end. You can 'seal' the nori to itself with a by running a little bit of water on the edge.

I am super excited for Phase 3 and getting to add salmon to these babies. But for now, I will just have to settle for vegan Nori's. They're still delicious!

What's YOUR favorite type of sushi?

Do you have any rolls you make at home?

Tasty Tuesday - Thai Coconut Fish Sticks

In perusing the web ideas, inspiration and recipes, I recently came across The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen blog. The creators of the blog, Tom and Ali, are from the beautiful bayside town of Bellingham, WA and their primary focus is 'Healthy, Wholesome, Gluten-Free Recipes.' I am in lust with their blog. Every recipe posted is unique, healthy and sounds delicious.

They also have a cookbook and a 28 Day Elimination and Detoxification Diet. I wasn't going to purchase the book and do the detox, but after reading all the comments raving about the detox, I couldn't pass it up. So, I ordered the book this morning, and should have it just in time to make February my Detox month. More on that in a later post, but I am super excited. Follow the link to read more about the detox - it sounds amazing.

Back to this week's featured recipe! As mentioned before, I am always looking for fun, unique and tasty ways to prepare fish. I have a freezer full of salmon, halibut, ling cod and sea bass but so often the most common preparation for these fish is pan fried with butter and garlic or baked with butter and garlic. Yes, this is tasty, but it also gets old after a while. Especially when you pair it with dark leafy greens. I need some sort of flavor, and love a bit of spice.

Most of the ingredients involved in this recipe were not things I had hanging around in the cupboards, and couldn't be found at Safeway or Albertsons. Fortunately for me, the greater Seattle area is brimming with Natural Foods markets, who offer everything needed for this recipe. So after thawing the halibut and a brief trip to PCC, I was good go.

Coconut Fish Sticks
1 1/2 to 2 pounds skinless halibut, cut into sticks
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
5-6 tablespoons water
1 tsp Thai Kitchen red curry paste
1 tsp herbamare (a special herbed sea salt)
2 cups shredded unsweetend coconut
Coconut oil for cooking
Peanut Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup creamy organic peanut butter
1/2 cup water (use more if needed)
2 - 3 tablespoons lime juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp Thai Kitchenred curry paste
1 tsp herbamare

• Rinse the halibut and cut it into "stick" size pieces, set aside. Whisk rice flour, water, curry paste, and herbamare. Place fish in mixture and thoroughly coat.


• While your skillet is heating, place the fish into the rice flour/water mixture and coat evenly. Then add the shredded coconut and mix it with the fish to coat, using your hands to press the coconut into the fish sticks.


• Add abut 3 to 4 tablespoons of coconut oil to your skillet. Make sure the oil spreads out quickly. This means your pan is hot enough. Add the fish sticks, I do mine in two batches (adding more oil in between). Cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Use tongs to flip them. You may need to cook yours shorter or longer depending on the thickness of the fish. The fish sticks will continue to cook after you remove them from the pan. You can check for doneness by breaking apart the thickest stick with a fork.


• To make the peanut dipping sauce, whisk all ingredients together in a bowl. Add more water to desired consistency. Add sea salt or Herbamare to taste.

Source: www.NourishingMeals.com

Tasty Tuesday - Salmon Florentine

Each Tuesday I am trying to feature a fun, healthy recipe that I am currently cooking and loving. This week, I'm highlighting heart healthy Salmon Florentine. Wild Pacific Salmon is not only full of flavor, but also delivers a power packed punch of Omega 3's. A little known fact about salmon is that a 4 ounce piece of wild salmon provides a full days requirement of Vitamin D - which is particularly great for all of us Pacific Northwesterner's who go weeks without seeing the sun! This particular dish was easy to make, easy to clean up after and tasted divine. Enjoy!

Salmon Florentine

4 Salmon Fillets (6 oz each)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup minced red onion

2 teaspoons minced garlic

10 sundried tomatoes, chopped

2 large handfuls fresh spinach, rinsed

2 teaspoons Red Pepper flakes

1/2 cup part skim ricotta

Salt and Pepper (as needed)

Lemon Wedges (for garnish)

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Saute red onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes (or until tender). Add spinach (squeeze out any excess water), sundried tomatoes, and red pepper flakes. Cook over medium heat while stirring for 3 minutes more. Spinach should be starting to wilt. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove mixture from heat, let sit 5 minutes. Add ricotta and mix well.

Place a piece of foil in a shallow baking dish. Arrange salmon fillets on foil. Pack mixture on top of salmon fillets, then bake. Cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of your fillets. A good rule of thumb is to set the timer for 15 minutes, and then check it every 5 minutes until the fish begins to flake when cut with a fork. Bon Apetit!

Nutritional Info (1 serving): 334 calories, 14 g fat, 11 g CHO, 4 g fiber, 43 g protein.

Also, if you have any favorite recipes (specifically seafood), please share them with me! I am always looking for new recipes to add to my repertoire. Thanks!