Salsa Fresca

This is a recipe from my recipe book that I am working on. It is in the preliminary stages now - figuring out all the exact amounts, picture taking, etc. so I'm not sure when I'll be finished, but I'll keep y'all posted! I was very surprised when I tasted this salsa the first time I made it. It is so simple and yet ssooo delicious!

Ingredients:

- 1 pint grape tomatoes (or equivalent of other kind)

- 1 stalk celery

-1 Tbsp green onions, optional

- 1/4 c cilantro

- juice of 1/2 lime or more if it's not very juicy.

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in food processor and pulse until all is well combined but still a little chunky. Or if you prefer, you can blend it more.

2. Serve with fresh raw veggies - I like cucumber, celery, and romaine lettuce.

You can also add 1/2 of an avocado to this if you would like to make it a little hardier.

Note: If you don't have a blender or food processor, you can just dice everything and make a pico de gallo type salsa.

Berry Datorade

Happy New Year everyone!

This is the first time I've added berries to my datorade and it is sooo good! Tastes like fruity candy! YUMMY!

Ingredients:

- 20 medjool dates (+/-) depending on how many calories you need. Or the equivalent of other type of dates

- Mixed berries, fresh or frozen, to taste. (I probably used about 3/4 - 1 c)

Directions:

1. Blend dates with about 1 qt. water until smooth.

2. Add berries and blend again until smooth.

3. Enjoy! :)

Banana Carob Fruit Dip

Ingredients:

- 6 bananas

- 1/4 cup raw carob powder*

- 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

- Fruit of choice for dipping

Directions:

- Blend bananas, carob powder, and cinnamon in blender or food processor until smooth

- Pour into bowl and place in center of large plate.

- Chop fruit of choice and arrange around outside of plate.

*This is where I get my raw carob powder - http://www.amazon.com/Really-Raw-Carob-Powder-16-Ounce/dp/B001691P6C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323231702&sr=8-1

Note: I think the dip would be even better if you added a few dates to it, but I happen to be out at the moment. :)

Smoothie of the Moment

...so I tend to get stuck on things, food wise, for a few months or so and right now I'm stuck on a simple banana blueberry smoothie! Enjoy! (notice I couldn't wait to drink it after I took the picture (; )

Ingredients:

- 10 or more bananas

- 1 c fresh or frozen blueberries

- enough water to reach desired consistency

- <3

Directions:

1. Blend all until smooth!

Cucumber Al Fredo

Ingredients:

Noodles: 3 - 4 cucumbers

Sauce:

- 1/2 small avocado

- 4 - 5 stalks celery

- 1/2 cucumber

- 6 cherry tomatoes

- juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions:

1. Make noodles out of cucumber using a spiral slicer or a vegetable peeler. You can use the center where the seeds are for toppings.

2. Blend all sauce ingredients until smooth.

3. Pour sauce over noodles and top with veggies of choice.

I like to put my cuke noodles on top of some chopped romaine. I topped mine with cherry tomatoes, the centers of the cucumber, and fresh corn.

Here is a picture after it is all mixed up. You still can't see the sauce very well because it is the same color as the cucumber and lettuce, but it's very nice and creamy and salty from the celery. Hopefully I will get a new camera soon. My old one is broken so I'm using my computer.

:)

Simple Sauce

I made this the other day when I didn't have much in the house and didn't have much money either. :) Turned out to be DEE-licious!

Ingredients:

- 1 large tomato

- 1 small avocado (or less)

- Juice of 1 lemon

Directions:

1. Blend all in blender until smooth or keep a little chunky.

This sauce can be used as a base to add other things to like peppers, herbs, sun dried tomatoes, etc.

Can be a dip, dressing, zucchini noodle sauce, or soup base.

Homegrown salsa

Ingredients:

- 4 lg tomatoes, preferably homegrown or local since it's tomato season!!
- 2 ears of corn, cut off the cob
- 1 ripe (red) jalapeno or more for HOTT. If you can only find green ones you can use that, or set some green ones on your
window sill until they start turning red.
- 1/8 large yellow onion*
- 1 clove garlic*
- juice of 3 small limes
- herbs of choice. For classic salsa I like just using cilantro. This time I didn't have any on hand so I picked some dill and garlic chives from my garden and that worked really well.

Directions:

1. Dice tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, and garlic.
2. Mince herbs.
3. Through everything together in a bowl and mix with lime juice.

Another option is to blend some or all of this, depending on how you like your salsa.

This is good right away, but gets even better if you let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.

*the 80/10/10 diet does not recommend eating onions and garlic. If you don't use these foods, you can leave them out completely or use a milder version like green onions and/or garlic chives.