HEIRLOOM TOMATO SALAD: FLOUR TOO COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY

As the summer nears its end, the gorgeous tomatoes of the season are ready for your table. We have in our garden San Marzano plums, Brandywines and striped romas, just to name a few. There is no better flavored tomato than one just picked from outside the back door. I was recently given a copy of Flour, Too from my friends at Stonyfield. Both companies appreciate seasonal eating, and I was able to find a delicious recipe to enjoy my tomatoes with, Heirloom Tomato Salad.

Heirloom Tomato Salad

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Course: Salad

Keyword: Tomato

Ingredients

4-6 ripe heirloom tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup crumbled feta or goat cheese
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup basil leaves shredded

Instructions

Slice tomatoes 1/2" thick and spread out on a platter.
Sprinkle tomatoes with salt, cheese and basil.
Mix vinegar and olive oil together to create a dressing. Pour over tomatoes just before serving.

Tried this recipe?Mention @emilyroachwellness or tag #erwellness!

Want your own copy of the Flour, Too cookbook? Bring the delights of this amazing Boston bakery into your kitchen. Just leave a comment with your favorite summer recipe. Contest is open until August 28th at midnight. (US residents only)

If you are ever in Boston or Cambridge, put Flour bakery on your list of must visit eateries. I was amazed to learn they sell over a thousand cookies a day. I’ve been to Flour once before and loved the relaxed neighborhood vibe of the South End location. When Stonyfield offered me a signed copy of the cookbook as a member of their Clean Plate Club team, I was so excited. Cookbooks are usually my bedtime reading of choice. If you are interested in the cookbook, you can also purchase it from Amazon. (affiliate link)

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August 23, 2013/by eroachwellness

Food, Recipes

BLACK BEAN TACO NIGHT SUCCESS (AND FAIL)

Some of you know we are trying to incorporate more meatless meals into our weekly meal plan. Meatless Monday (or really any day) appeals to me for three big reasons:

It’s eco-friendly to eat less meat
It makes me use up some of our pantry staples
It’s frugal

Last week I decided to make Black Bean Tacos as our Meatless Monday meal. I figured my husband would be happy with something made with lots of flavor, but without the meat. Turns out the black bean tacos were pretty successful all around. The kids ate theirs entirely, the toppings made dinner fun and interactive, plus I got to clear through a jar of my dried black beans. (I made mine in the pressure cooker.)

The failure part is minor, yet significant. I am still nursing and it turns out my little guy really doesn’t want me to eat any bean dishes ….any.bean.dish. I felt so bad for my little Connor, and so bummed that I won’t be making this meal again for a while. Thought I would share it here and relive its glory until it comes back into the rotation next year.

Black Bean Taco Recipe

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Course: Main Course

Keyword: Tacos

Ingredients

8 corn taco shells
1 can black bean rinsed and drained or 1 cup dried black beans cooked
Shredded cheddar cheese

Toppings

Avocado
Sour cream
Salsa
Lettuce
Tomato
Green chilies

Instructions

Stack taco shells upright in a baking dish.
Fill 1/4 way with baked black beans.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Bake in 375 degree oven for 6-8 minutes.
Top taco with desired toppings.

Tried this recipe?Mention @emilyroachwellness or tag #erwellness!

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August 12, 2013/by eroachwellness

Party, Recipes

THROW A BEACH BASH

Here is a little sneak peek into our vacation at the beach this year. Summer entertaining with good friends and neighbors is what it’s all about. The beach bash menu is easy after a day of swimming and can be served at home or at the beach.

Get the party started with a fun cocktail. I went through loads of favorites on my Beverage Board, but decided to test out a Very Berry Sangria made with prosecco. We will certainly be making this again…

The recipe is easy and needs to be prepared ahead. Once we came back from the beach I just needed to add the last two ingredients.

VERY BERRY SANGRIA

Combine 1 cup pitted and halved cherries, 1 cup blueberries, 1 cup quartered strawberries, ½ cup chopped peaches, and 1/3 cup brandy in a large pitcher; chill 2 hours. Stir in 1 cup pineapple juice and 1 (750-milliliter) bottle chilled prosecco. Garnish with fresh mint. Serves 8.

(Recipe is from Cooking Light originally.)

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July 18, 2013/by eroachwellness

Food, Recipes

REFRESHING WATERMELON MANGO SMOOTHIE

When I think of summer I think of watermelon. Eating it as a child and spitting out the black seeds with the juice dripping down my arms. Now I enjoy it with my family, just without the seeds. In an effort to increase my fluids while nursing, and eat something healthy in the two minutes I have to make lunch, I am making lots of smoothies as the temperature heats up. My latest creation combines two favorite fruits, watermelon and mango. Plus I throw in a little chia seeds, a great super food that ups the protein level in this drink.

Watermelon Mango Smoothie

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Course: Smoothie

Ingredients

1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup water
2 cups watermelon chunks
1 teaspoon chia seeds
1 cup frozen mango
1/2 cup ice cubes

Instructions

Layer all ingredients in a blender as listed.
Blend on smoothie setting or until all frozen fruit pieces are smooth.
Enjoy immediately.

Tried this recipe?Mention @emilyroachwellness or tag #erwellness!

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June 20, 2013/by eroachwellness

Baking, Recipes

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB PIE BARS FOR SPRING

As we get closer to outdoor farmers market season, I’m excited to enjoy some fresh, local ingredients again. Two of my favorites are strawberry and rhubarb. We had a large rhubarb patch in our yard growing up and I have fond memories of my Dad bringing stalks to my Nana, who then would deliver a batch of her strawberry-rhubarb sauce. Just delicious! I found a recipe for strawberry rhubarb pie bars and decided to give them a try. Yes, these too are delicious!

I found my rhubarb at our local farm stand. It’s not local quite yet, but it tasted fresh. Look for stalks that are strong and pass on any that feel flimsy. I would have liked a few more strawberries in my pie bars, but my little helpers decided to “help” themselves as we made this in the afternoon during snack time. When the strawberries and rhubarb are local, I’ll have a hard time deciding between making these again or my Strawberry Rhubarb Galette.

This is the consistency you want for the crust and topping.

The recipe is structured like a crumble, with one crust being baked ahead of making your filling. Make the crust and topping first, get it into the oven, then start on the filling. It will help you with the timing of the dish.

STRAWBERRY RHUBARB PIE BARS FOR SPRING

Delicious strawberry rhubarb pie bars just right for when the fruits are in season in spring.

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Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 1 20

Total Time: 1 50

Course: Dessert

Keyword: Pie

Ingredients

Crust and Topping
3 cups flour I used white whole wheat, or you can use all purpose
1½ cups sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1½ cups 3 sticks unsalted butter, chilled
Fruit Filling
4 eggs
1½ cups sugar
½ cup yogurt
¼ cup milk
¾ cup flour all purpose or white whole wheat
pinch of salt
zest of ½ lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups strawberries hulled and quartered
2 cups rhubarb chopped into ½ inch slices

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan. (I use coconut oil to grease my pans.)
Make the crust/topping first. Combine flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. Pulse to distribute evenly. Add butter and pulse to create a crumbly mixture.
Save 2 cups of the crumbly mixture to use as the topping. Pour the rest into the greased baking pan. Press mixture into the bottom of the pan and bake 12-15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, then add the sugar, yogurt, milk, flour, salt, lemon zest and vanilla extract. Gently fold in the berries and rhubarb. Pour mixture evenly over the baked crust. Sprinkle the remaining topping over the top of the filling. Bake 55-65 minutes.
Cool at least one hour before cutting into bars. If it's warm, it will be more like a fruit crumble.

Tried this recipe?Mention @emilyroachwellness or tag #erwellness!

What is one of your favorite spring desserts?

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May 15, 2013/by eroachwellness

Food, Meal Planning, menu planning, Recipes

Homemade Pizza Dough With A Bread Machine

How many of you eat pizza at home at least once a week? Do you tend to make it yourself or buy it? If you are a regular reader here, you know we have pizza every Friday night on our weekly meal plan. For a long time, we made our pizzas at home using the dough from Trader Joe’s. It’s cheap and fairly easy to roll out ourselves. When I got my bread machine this year, I decided to come up with a pizza dough recipe that will make two pizzas. It’s a great way to save some money and the kids like to help out with this easy project.

Homemade Pizza Dough With A Bread Machine

Easy pizza dough recipe using a bread machine.

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Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 50

Total Time: 1

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: -8

Author: Emily

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 3/4 bread flour I also sub in some white whole wheat
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons active yeast

Instructions

Add all ingredients into a bread machine in the order listed above.
Set machine to pizza dough. (Mine takes about 50 minutes.)
Dough will be ready to use when the machine cycle is complete.
Makes two pizza pies.

Tried this recipe?Mention @emilyroachwellness or tag #erwellness!

Do you have a pizza night in your family?

I’m sharing this over at The 36th Avenue.

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May 13, 2013/5 Comments/by eroachwellness

Cooking, Food, healthy living, Kids, Recipes, smoothie

Green Smoothies Your Kids Will Love to Drink

Green Smoothie Recipes Your Kids will Love

I pulled together our list of green smoothies your kids will love. My kid’s favorite snack lately is a smoothie, always with a dose of greens. My two year old runs into the kitchen saying “moothie” until I make him one. Smoothies are a great way to sneak additional vegetables and fruits into your kids diet, and your own if needed. We usually make one large smoothie and split it up between the three of us in the afternoon. Both kids like the green smoothies and I’ll share today some super simple recipes that are kid-approved.

The good news is both kids drink green smoothies. The bad news is they often want them before I get dinner on the table so I find it can affect how much they eat when we sit at the table. I’m slowly trying to find a balance between offering them healthy vegetable-filled snacks and not take away from eating vegetables on the plate. The fiber isn’t lost when you make a smoothie, but I do think it’s important for kids to continue to experience the different textures of cooked or raw vegetables on their dinner plate.

We are using the Blendtec blender that I received as part of a Stonyfield yogurt campaign. The blender really is amazing and I think I’ll always have one of these high speed blenders from now on. We are using the Wildside Blendtec Blender.

Green Smoothie ingredients

There are a few key ingredients I use when I make smoothies for us:

Spinach
Coconut Milk
Yogurt
Frozen Fruit
Bananas
Oranges
Melon
Chia seeds (optional)

I generally never add any sweetener (like honey or agave) as I don’t want to give the kids a taste of a sweeter option. If something tastes too “green” I can soften the taste with the addition of more citrus or an apple. Yes, there is still sugar in the fruit but there are also a ton of vitamins that are beneficial.

Wondering how we serve our smoothies? I use our pint size mason jars and these glass smoothie straws (only one has broken in 3 years of using glass straws with the little kids). JJ loves his blue one and Madison has pink! If we are on the go, I also serve the smoothie in our favorite reusable squeeze pouch.

Here are just a few of our favorite recipes. Combine in the order listed and blend well.

If you want ALL of my smoothie recipes in one handy printable recipe book, click here. All recipes are kid-approved!

Green Monkey Smoothie

Green Smoothies Your Kids Will Love

*where it says water, you can sub in coconut milk to make it creamy, almond, oat, cashew or your favorite type of milk.

Mango Monkey

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 cups spinach

1 banana

1 cup frozen mango

Alligator Surprise

1/2 cup water

1/2 a medium avocado scooped out (we make this to use up leftover avocado)

2 cups spinach

2 cups frozen pineapple

Green Queen

1/2 cup of water

2 tablespoons of flaxseeds (or chia seeds)

2 clementines, peeled

1 banana

2 cups spinach

1/2 cup frozen pineapple chunks

Berries and Spinach smoothie

The Blue One

(which really comes out more purple than blue)

1/2 cup water

1 cup yogurt (we use our homemade yogurt)

1 cup spinach

2 cups frozen berries

Head over here for one more bonus green smoothie: Coconut Kale Smoothie!

If the kids are not into anything green, you can also try my Paleo Pumpkin Pie Smoothie recipe. Happy blending! I hope these green smoothies your kids will love helps make getting more vegetables into them a lot easier for you.

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May 3, 2013/11 Comments/by eroachwellness

chocolate, Food, kitchen tools, Recipes, summer, yogurt

Easy Chocolate Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt

We are big peanut butter fans in our house. We go through tons of it on sandwiches, on bananas, in smoothies or on apples. I’m also a big fan of chocolate so I decided to combine the two and create a Chocolate Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt recipe. I was given some greek yogurt samples from Stonyfield and peanut butter samples from Peanut Butter & Co. Both are yummy on their own, but even better together.

Frozen Yogurt Ingredients

I had my little helper’s with me to make our first frozen yogurt, ever. The ice cream maker had been put away for the winter but now it’s going to stay handy for the warm summer months. The Cuisinart ice cream maker we use is actually 43% off from Amazon right now.

When you add the cocoa powder, stir it in gently so it doesn’t blow up in your face.

Easy Chocolate Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt

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Course: Dessert

Keyword: Frozen Yogurt

Ingredients

2 cups Stonyfield Greek Yogurt Plain
1/2 cup Peanut Butter & Co Smooth Operator Peanut Butter
1/2 cup 1% milk
1 can 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sifted cocoa powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips optional

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips into a large bowl using a hand mixer.
Add to ice cream maker machine. Churn for 25 minutes.
Add chocolate chips and churn for 2 additional minutes or until well blended.
Enjoy!

Tried this recipe?Mention @emilyroachwellness or tag #erwellness!

What’s your favorite way to enjoy Peanut Butter?

Disclosure: I am a Stonyfield Clean Plate Club Ambassador and was offered yogurt and peanut butter to help facilitate this project. All opinions shared here are my own. I’m sharing this post with Melt in Your Mouth Monday.

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April 30, 2013/8 Comments/by eroachwellness

blogging, Boston, Cooking, Food, Recipes, smoothie

A Smoothie Throw-down at Whole Foods

Ever since we received a Blendtec blender, smoothies have become a regular part of our day. Sometimes it becomes a meal replacement on busy days, other times it’s the perfect snack in the afternoon to hold us over till dinner. The kids get to pick their color and we go from there.

Everyone started artfully arranging their ingredients. I just went straight to the blender.

Last week I attended a “Smoothie Summit” at Whole Foods Fresh Pond in Cambridge. A group of local Boston bloggers got together to share and test out some smoothie recipes. The results were amazing!

My drink of choice is one called the Green Machine. I love the balance in flavors I get when I blend spinach with fruits. When I have a smoothie without spinach, I often find it too sweet now.

A Smoothie Throw-down at Whole Foods

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Course: Smoothie

Ingredients

1/2 cup guava juice
1 cup Stonyfield Greek Yogurt
2 bananas
1 navel orange peel and cut into quarters
1 apple cut into quarters but not peeled
2 cups spinach
1 cup frozen mango

Instructions

Add everything into a blender in the order above.
Blend on smoothie setting until desired consistency.
Serve immediately.

Tried this recipe?Mention @emilyroachwellness or tag #erwellness!

As our group of bloggers recipes come online, I’ll share them here as well. Thank you Whole Foods for hosting us, it was a wonderful experience to test out some healthy recipes. There were a lot of new ingredients tossed into those smoothies that may find their way into my kitchen too.

Leah’s Spring Egg Cream Smoothie Recipe

I had a great time hanging out with Lori from Groovy Green Livin, Sharon from ViolaCay, Julia from It’s Not Like a Cat, Sharon from umommy and KidNosh, Jessica from Don’t Mind the Mess, Isra The Frugalette, Niri of Mommy Niri, Leah from Oh Baby Boston, and Jean The Shopping Queen.

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April 8, 2013/7 Comments/by eroachwellness

Baking, Cookies, Food, Holidays, Recipes, valentine's day

Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies

If you are stuck inside during a blizzard, you must make cookies. Not only is it a fun activity to keep the kids busy, but it makes the whole house smell delicious. In honor of Valentine’s Day, I made these red and white Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies. They are easy to make, delicious, and a nice departure from your everyday chocolate chip cookie.

CRANBERRY WHITE CHOCOLATE COOKIES

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Course: Dessert

Keyword: Cookies

Ingredients

1 stick of butter softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour or white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
Beat the butter and sugar together in a mix until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time until combined. Add vanilla and milk.
Slowly add the flour mixture on a low speed setting. Mix until just combined.
Fold in cranberries and white chocolate chips.
Drop large spoonfuls of cookie dough onto parchment or silpat lined cookie sheets.
Bake 13-15 minutes. Let rest two minutes on cookie sheet, then transfer to cooling racks.
(I bake two racks at a time and use my convection oven setting. Halfway through I switch the trays so they bake evenly.)

Tried this recipe?Mention @emilyroachwellness or tag #erwellness!

Adapted from Table for Two.

Shared with Melt in Your Mouth Monday.

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February 13, 2013/3 Comments/by eroachwellness

Watermelon Mango Smoothie

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