The Easiest Tomato Salsa

Many people say they had the best college roommates.  But I am being honest when I tell you that I actually had the best college roommates.  I lived with truly incredible girls!  Inspiring, kind, smart, funny, and always making me look at the world in new ways.  

In fact, we just started a group chat a few months ago that we all contribute to every few days, and it is so great!  We live all over the country now, so it is nice to have a way to communicate with them. 

I only contributed a handful of physical things to our college apartment, including the star lights that hung around the living room, the cloud tissue paper that we put on the ceiling in the kitchen, and the fluffy white lovesac, so my most valuable contributions were usually took the form of food.  

I made a whole lot of challah and focaccia bread, and this super easy salsa.  This salsa recipe is actually not exactly the same as the one I used back in the day, but it is just as tasty.  In this recipe, I swapped in regular onion for green onions, however, they both work, so feel free to use green onions instead, if you like.  

This is also the salsa that I had the misfortune to blend up in the blender without the lid one time.  Don't be like me.  It is a mess.  Put the lid on your food processor/blender, and enjoy!

Easy Tomato Salsa:

1 can of diced tomatoes

1/4 -1/3 cup cilantro

2 or 3 thin slices of yellow onion, diced

1/4 tsp garlic powder (adjust to taste)

1/2 tsp salt (adjust to taste)

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor until just chunky.  Enjoy with chips, or tacos! 

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Sugar-Free Date Granola Bars

A month or two ago, a friend of ours commented to Adam that she reads my blog regularly, but would like more healthy snack and breakfast posts. 

It thought about this for days, and couldn't think of any healthy snacks at all.  Then, fortuitously, we started our no-sugar challenge, and suddenly, I had to come up with a lot of no-sugar snacks.  

I have been wanting to try dates out for a long time, but was a little afraid of cooking with them.  These granola bars were a terrific snack, portable, and great for old and young alike (Fox loved them!).  

They honestly didn't even need a sweetener, because the dates were so sweet on their own (maybe that was the no-sugar talking... I am not sure).  

Also, feel free to sub in or out different nuts or seeds, I just used all the varieties I had on hand, because I love granola bars to be full of nuts and seeds.  

I would love to hear if there is anything you would like more of here.  I will listen, and do my best to create more of what you like reading/watching/looking at best  Let me know if you have suggestions, whether that be recipe, lifestyle, fashion or video.  

Have a great Wednesday!  

Sugar-Free Date Granola Bars: 

1 cup pitted deglet dates
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup peanut butter, melted in the microwave (feel free to use another nut butter, or seed butter, but they probably won't be quite as flavorful)
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups oats
1/4 cup almonds, chopped
2 Tbs pumpkin seeds
1 Tbs raw millet
1 Tbs flax seeds
1 Tbs sesame seeds

Preheat your oven to 375°F. Prepare an 8"x8" pan by greasing it well.

In a mini food processor or blender, combine the dates and water, and blend until they somewhat smooth (you will probalby still have a few chunks, but they should be very small chunks).  Put the date paste in a medium bowl and combine it with the melted peanut butter and vanilla.

In a large bowl, combine oats, chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds, millet, flax and sesame seeds and stir to combine.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir until they are all combined.

Pour the granola bar batter into the prepared pan, and press it down firmly with a rubber spatula.  Bake for 15 minutes, then remove and cut into bars, but leave them in the pan.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes, then remove the bars from the pan.

You can refrigerate or freeze these bars.  They are a perfect breakfast or snack.  Enjoy!

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Beet and Berry Smoothie

A few weeks ago, Adam was out of town, and I had all these vegetables that needed to be used up.  Cooking vegetables for a toddler is always a gamble, so I ended up throwing them into a smoothie.

It was delicious, creamy, and bright pink and, unsurprisingly, the toddler fell in love.  So much so that he has been asking for a smoothie every other day since then (although his pronunciation is "smoomie," which makes my mama heart melt).  I keep throwing veggies in it, and he keeps drinking it.  It is a win-win!

A few notes about the ingredients:

-Use really sweet fruits.  The vegetables are not sweet enough to make this a legit sweet smoothie, so sweet fruit is essential.  I often like to throw in a clementine or three into the smoothie instead of an orange, because they tend to be sweeter.

- Zucchini makes the smoothie creamy without adding sugar (I learned this thanks to an insta-friend). You could add a banana instead, or an avocado with good results, I imagine.

- Cut the vegetables into pieces no longer than an inch in length, and blend for a long time.  I typically blend them in my blendtec for 60-80 seconds to ensure a creamy texture and no chunks.

- Adding a raw beet to the mix makes the shake SUPER pink.  I love that, because it makes it much more appetizing to eat.  I have recently recovered from a super dislike of all things smoothie (as of two or so years), so I am still a little wary of green smoothies.  Adding a beet means I can add spinach or other greens, all while enjoying a nice, pink smoothie.

Beet and Berry Smoothie

serves 3-4

2-3 small carrots, tops and bottoms chopped off, cut into 1" pieces

2 oranges (or 3 clementines), peeled and seeded

1 small beet, peeled, tops and bottoms chopped off and quartered

2" long piece of zucchini, tops and bottoms chopped off

1 cup or two large handfuls of fresh spinach leaves

2 cups frozen mixed berries

2-3 cups whole milk (or nut milk, if you like)

Put carrots, oranges, beets, berries, and the zucchini in the bottom of the blender, top with spinach leaves, then pour milk over the whole thing. Blend for 60-80 seconds. Works best in a really powerful blender (I have a Blendtec).

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Sugar-Free Cinnamon Popcorn

We are aaaaalmost done with our sugar-free month!  Hurrah! It has been a great exercise in self-control, but I am SO ready to be able to eat ice cream again.  I wanted to share another more tasty sugar-free recipe that I created.

Of course you could just eat chips instead, but I thought this was a nice way to feel like you are eating something sweet without actually eating something sweet. Cinnamon is a tricky way of telling your tastebuds that there is sugar in something without actually adding sugar.

Sugar-Free Cinnamon Popcorn:

6-8 cups of popped popcorn (I use this method to pop mine)

1-2 Tbs melted butter

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp high-quality cinnamon (I used Frontier Co-Op)

In a large bowl, combine your popcorn, and carefully drizzle the butter over the top, and toss with a fork.  Add the salt, and toss again, then sprinkle the cinnamon on top.

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Cinnamon Muffins with Cinnamon Honey-Butter

This post is in collaboration with Frontier Co-op and Mambo Sprouts

A few days ago,  I awoke to a noisy and bright electrical storm.  These types of storms typically happen a few times a year here in Texas.  I think they are awe inspiring, but am kind of afraid of them, because of the potential for flooding, fires, etc.  

The lack of control I feel over the elements is a little unnerving to me (I don't like swimming open water because of this, either).  I am not a super control freak and can handle letting someone else take control for a little while, but I do like taking the reins back on my house and my life, and especially my kitchen. 

I have mega control in my kitchen.  It is my domain, and Adam almost always asks before eating anything in the kitchen (sometimes I feel kinda bad about this, but mostly it is helpful, so he doesn't eat a crucial ingredient to dinner, which is why he usually asks first).  

Eating well has been a major priority for us for quite a few years now.  We hardly ever have snacks around, because I try to provide 3 balanced meals a day, instead.  Part of our food reformation has included eating way more vegetables (thanks CSA share!), more seasonal fruit, and trying to buy organic as often as possible.  

Another place where I am learning to buy higher quality is in the spice and extract department.  In the past, I tended to buy whatever was the cheapest, but often you end up with cheap quality, and your food is typically less flavorful for it (or your food tastes like dust because your spices are old).    

These Frontier Co-Op spices are organic, GMO free, and incredibly flavorful.  I have used all of the spices in the photo below and was impressed by how good they were. They just added a lot to every recipe that I put them in (which has been a bunch, because these spices totally fit with my cooking).    

Check out Mambo Sprouts for more high quality food recommendations and recipes, and Frontier Co-Op for high quality spices and bulk foods!  

You can get $1.00 off your next Frontier Co-Op spice purchase with this coupon. 

Cinnamon Muffins with Cinnamon Honey-Butter 

adapted from William-Sonoma and Recipes to Nourish

Muffins: 

makes 12 muffins

7 Tbs butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Frontier Co-Op Organic Vietnamese Cinnamon

scant 1/2 cup milk (just under a half cup)

1 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp Frontier Co-Op Organic vanilla extract

Cinnamon Honey Butter: 

makes about 1/2 cup

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of Frontier Co-Op Organic Vietnamese Cinnamon (optional)

To make the muffins, combine the soft butter and sugar in a stand mixer and mix until fluffy and smooth.  Add the egg, and mix some more.

In a medium bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix to combine.

In a measuring cup, pour the milk out, and then pour a little lemon juice over the top and let it stand for 2 minutes, until the milk has curdled.

Add the half of the dry ingredient mixture to the stand mixer, and then add half of the lemon/milk mixture and the vanilla. Stir, then add the rest of the lemon/milk mixture and the dry ingredients.

Preheat your oven to 350°F.  Grease a standard size muffin tin, and spoon out even amounts into each muffin well, until you have filled them all.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.  Remove them from the oven, wait about 5 long minutes, then carefully remove the muffins with a knife, to a cooling rack.

Wait another 5 minutes or so, or enjoy immediately.  Preferably with cinnamon honey-butter.

To make the honey-butter, combine butter, honey, vanilla and cinnamon in a stand mixer and beat until fluffy.  Feel free to leave out the cinnamon if you want a more versatile honey-butter. 

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