Posts Tagged ‘healthy holiday recipes’

Join us Thursday, December 1, 2011 from 6 to 8:30 for Healthy Holiday Foods cooking and tasting demo!

Sign Up Here.  We will be making healthy dips and rice paper wraps everyone will enjoy, even the most “health resistant”.  These are foods you can make ahead and have ready to grab and go for your holiday parties!

You can enjoy holiday treats without burdening your body with harmful ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, MSG and trans Fats.  These recipes are from our Healthy Holiday Entertaining class at Whole Foods Market in Cool Springs, Franklin, TN a few years ago.

Make these quick and easy treats, add some non-gmo corn chips, we like Xocheel from Whole Foods, some Mary’s Gone Crackers, and some Kettle Brand Chips for dipping, you can find those at Whole Foods, Kroegers and Publix.  Even the most anti-health-food person on your list won’t know you are serving them something healthy!  Always be sure to include a nice fresh veggie and fruit tray for the smart eaters!

These are not weight loss recipes, they have lots of calories but they are healthier versions of your favorite treats.  They should be considered celebration food, something you have on holidays and special occasions.  For regular daily treats use fresh fruits and smoothies!

 

Why are these better than the traditional foods?

 

• No MSG – MSG causes brain cells to die, it is responsible for many chronic conditions like migraines.

• Low Sodium – prepard foods are loaded with salt which is responsible for inflammation, aches and pains, high blood pressure to name a few.

• Low Saturated Fat (good fats) – the fats in these recipes are not from an animal source, no cholesterol or toxins related to fat that comes from animals.  Monounsaturated fats from nuts and seeds are good for you, you should have 4 servings per day.

• Made fresh by You! No risk of picking up disease or bacteria from unclean food prep workers.

• No refined sugars. The sugars in these recipes will not shut your immune system down as white, brown and raw sugar does for up to 8 hours each time you consume it.

• No harmful trans Fats or chemicals.  Trans Fats fill up cells so they can’t receive the important neurotransmitters that allow your brain to function.

• Non-GMO ingredients.  No round-up in your food.  Most repared foods like fudge, popcorn, carmel corn, even hot cocoa contain Soy, Cotton seed, Canola or Corn oils or products.  These are all genetically modified (unless stated on the package non-GMO) with the weed killer round up, need I say more?

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Friends & Food!

Christmas Carols, New Years Celebrations or Game Day

Menu

**All these recipes are in our book, Wonderfully Well

• Veggie Tray with Real Ranch Dressing or Green Goddess Dressing

• Fruit Tray with Aunt Celeste’s Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing

• Non-Gmo Corn chips, Kettle Chips and Mary’s Gone Crackers with

• Aunt Celeste’s Party Dips

• Uncle Phil’s Organic Popcorn or Sticky Popcorn (not in cookbook)

• Easy Fudge (not in cookbook)

• To Drink:  Hot Cocoa or Holiday Cocktail

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Easy Fudge

Celeste Davis

This fudge is delicious.  Why?  It is Dairy free, gluten free and has very little refined sugar (chocolate chips have sugar).  My personal experience with this recipe:  Make it a day or so ahead of time.  Let it firm up in the refrigerator, not the freezer.  If you want thick fudge, line your pan with saran wrap and then put some parchment paper on the bottom, cut to fit the pan.  That way, when you turn your pan over, it will pop right out.  Remove the paper and  cut.  This would also work well in a mold.  You can also add nuts, dried fruit or flavors like mint, cherry, almond.  Have fun!

Ingredients
10 oz bag of non-dairy semi-sweet chocolate chips (Enjoy Life! Mini chips are my favorite)
3 Tbs ORGANIC RAW Agave Nectar(must say ORGANIC RAW)
2 Tbs Tahini (sesame butter) this has a peanut butter flavor.  Don’t like that flavor?  Substitute it exactly with almond butter or more Earth Balance or real butter.
1 tsp Earth Balance margarine or real organic butter
½ cup chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds, macadamia nuts or cashews, soak or roast first (nuts are optional)
Add any other natural ingredients you may like such as dried cherries or cranberries, coconut, etc.

Instructions

Grease an 8×8 glass dish for thin fudge or a 5×9 loaf dish for thicker fudge with earth balance or real organic butter.  It also works well to line pan with wax paper to remove from pan more easily.

Over a double boiler or on a very low heat:

Melt Chocolate Chips (be careful not to splash water in chocolate)

Add Tahini, Agave Nectar and Earth Balance (or butter)

Add other ingredients:  Nuts, fruit, etc.

Blend Well

Pour into your pan
Chill, uncovered for 30 min in freezer
Remove from freezer
Tip pan upside down on cutting board (do not run water on bottom of pan)
Cut into bite sized pieces with a large knife
Store in air-tight container for up to 1 month, if using butter, keep for 1 week.

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Aunt Celeste’s Party Dips

Celeste Davis

Commercially prepared dips are full of harmful preservatives and dyes.  You can use this base for any of your favorite dips, spinach, onion, etc.

Basic Dip

1 ½ cups grapeseed veganaise

1 6 oz carton plain greek,  goat yogurt or acidophilus yogurt

Mix together, see below for variations.

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“Better-Than” Onion Dip

1 recipe basic dip

Add:

¾ tsp garlic powder (not salt)

1 Tblsp Better Than Boullion

1 Tblsp onion powder

1 Tblsp parsley

6 Tblsp dried onion flakes (also called minced onion)

Mix basic dip recipe, add all ingredients except onion flakes.

Mix well.

Stir in onion flakes.

Refrigerate, best if it sits for 24 hours for flavors to blend and onion to soften.

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Spicy Hot Dip

1 recipe basic dip

Add:

1 Tblsp Better than Boullion

½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

¼ to ½ tsp white pepper or cayenne (use sparingly)

Mix well, refrigerate until serving.

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Creamy Salsa

1 recipe basic dip

¼ to ½ cup Jack’s Salsa (a pico de gallo type Salsa from Costco or Kroeger in the deli area)

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Lemon Poppy Seed Dip

Use this sweet dip for fruits and veggies, even chips.  It would be an excellent dressing for an ambrosia or fruit salad.

1 recipe basic dip

Add:

2-6 Tblsp raw agave nectar or raw honey

3 Tblsp lemon juice

zest of one lemon

2 Tblsp poppyseeds

Mix well, refrigerate until serving

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Real Ranch Dressing

Better than any bottle you will ever open!  Your family will love it.

By Celeste Davis

Make ahead, flavor is better the next day, can be kept for 3-5 days

Ingredients

1 cup Erivan, goat or greek yogurt

1 cup grape seed veganaise

1 tsp Celtic sea salt

1 tsp garlic granules or powder

1 tsp onion granules or powder

1 tsp dried parsley flakes

1 tsp dried thyme

Instructions

Blend all well.  Refrigerate.  Use as dip, dressing or sandwich spread.

Variations:

• Blue Cheese – crumble blue cheese or feta into dressing
• Dill – add 1 tsp dry dill or 1 Tbs fresh dill
• Basil Dill – add 1 Tbs fresh dill and 1 Tbs fresh basil
• Green Goddess – add 3 green onions tops and all, 1- 3 garlic cloves, 1-2 Tbs fresh dill and 3-4 fresh basil leaves and 1 tsp organic Dijon mustard.  Blend in food processor or magic bullet.  This is always a crowd pleaser.

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Green Goddess Dressing & Sandwich Spread

Celeste Davis, makes 1 ½ cups

This is my signature dressing, very popular for vegetarian sandwiches and relish trays.

1 cup grape seed veganaise

3 green onions, cut off root

3 large cloves garlic

5 leaves fresh basil or 1 tsp dried (fresh is best)

2 inches fresh dill, stem removed or 1 tsp dried (again, fresh is best)

2 Tblsp lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar

Put all in a magic bullet or food processor in the above order and blend until pureed.  May need to open jar and move food around or add a little more lemon juice or vinegar to get it moving.

Store in refrigerator for up to 1 week.

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Uncle Phil’s Organic Homemade Popcorn

Phil Davis

This was a real hit at our class.  Microwave popcorn is extremely harmful to your health, the fumes alone are known to cause lung cancer.  Make your own in minutes.  One question came up at our class:  “Is Organic Popcorn genetically modified?”  According to the popcorn board, no popcorn is genetically modified at this time.

Equipment:

Heavy Pan with a handle and a  lid

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Healthier Hot Cocoa

Celeste Davis

6 Servings

¼ cup Organic Raw Agave Nectar

¼ cup Organic Cocoa

Dash celtic sea salt

1/3 cup hot water

4 cups So Delicious Coconut Milk or other alternative milk (best if you use half coconut milk and half coconut creamer)

¾ tsp Organic Vanilla Extract

Mix agave, cocoa and salt, stir in water, warm.  Stir in milk and heat, do not boil.  Remove from heat, add vanilla.

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1 serving Hot Cocoa

1 Tblsp Raw Agave Nectar

2 Tblsp organic cocoa

Dash salt

1 cup So Delicious Coconut Milk or other alternative milk

¼ tsp organic vanilla extract

These are the recipes from our latest Whole Foods Class.  The Quinoa Stuffing and Green Bean dish are adaptations of recipes in November 2009 edition of Natural Health Magazine, chosen as favorites of Dr. Oz.  The Chocolate Pie is my own creation.  The crust did not turn out as a crust but rather a disk, so we just crumbled it into the pie filling and made a crunchy pudding that was fabulous.

Why are these better than the traditional foods?

• No MSG
• Low Sodium
• Low Saturated Fat (good fats)
• Made fresh by You!
• No refined sugars
• Gluten Free and Dairy Free (the cream gravy is made with spelt flour so there is gluten there)

Crunchy Creamy Green Bean Casserole

Celeste Davis (Dairy Free & Delicious)

Serves 6

Spray a glass 9 x 13 baking dish with Grapeseed oil.

Beans

1 lb frozen green beans

8 oz. Baby bella mushrooms, clean & broken into pieces

2-3 Tblsp Grapeseed Oil

1 Tblsp minced garlic

White Pepper to taste

2 Tblsp White Spelt Flour

½ cup unsweetened So Delicious Coconut milk (refrigerated section, not canned)

Topping

1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds

½ cup cooked quinoa

½ tsp Onion powder

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1. In a skillet put 1 Tblsp Grapeseed oil & sauté garlic for 1 minute, add mushroom pieces and sauté for 5 minutes, salt and pepper with white pepper to taste.
2. Add green beans to skillet (if the skillet is dry add a splash of Grapeseed oil, stir beans into mushroom and garlic and cook for 1 minute.
3. Put mushroom/bean mixture in the glass baking dish.  Do not rinse the skillet or scrape out the  pan, you are going to use the pan drippings.
4. In the skillet add 1 Tblsp Grapeseed Oil and 2 Tblsp of spelt flour, whisk together over medium high heat until well blended.
5. Slowly add coconut milk, stirring constantly until all the milk is used and the mixture is creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes, it will make a creamy gravy like consistency.
6. Pour coconut milk sauce over the bean/mushroom mixture and stir gently to coat.
7. FOOD PROCESSOR:  Put S blade in, add pumpkin seeds, onion and garlic powder and 1-2 tsp Grapeseed oil, pulse quickly about 10 times, Add ½ cup cooked quinoa and pulse 1-2 times until well blended.
8. Sprinkle pumpkin seed/quinoa on top of green bean mixture.
9. Bake at 450 for about 10-15 minutes until quinoa is crunchy and sauce is bubbly.

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Kale, Quinoa & Pomegranate Stuffing

Celeste Davis, serves 12

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F, Spray 9×13 glass dish with Grapeseed oil.

½ lb Kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped in FP with S blade

6 cloves (2-3 Tblsp) minced garlic

½ cup water

1 tsp better than boullion vegetable base

Celtic sea salt & white pepper to taste

1 ½ cups pecans

1 cup finely chopped sweet onion

1 Tblsp fresh sage (1 tsp dry)

1 Tblsp fresh thyme (1 tsp dry)

2 cups cooked Quinoa

1 Tblsp earth balance, melted

1 egg, lightly beaten

2/4 cup apple or grape juice

½ cup fresh pomegranate seeds

1. Cook Quinoa according to package directions and put in glass bowl.
2. Chop onion in FP w/ S blade, pulse for fine but coarse chop.
3. Saute onion and 1 Tblsp garlic, add sage & thyme and sauté until onion is golden and caramelized, 3-4 minutes, put in bowl w/ Quinoa, stir.
4. In same pan, Saute kale & 1 Tblsp garlic in 2 Tblsp Grapeseed oil 1-2 min.
5. Add water & better than boullion
6. Cover and cook on medium high for 3 minutes.
7. Uncover and cook until liquid is evaporated, watch and stir.  Season w/ salt & pepper, set aside.
8. Put cooled Kale in FP w/ S blade.  Add pecans and pulse until pecans are coarse chop but still chunky.
9. Add Kale/pecan to Quinoa/onion
10. Mix earth balance, egg & apple juice, pour over Quinoa mixture and stir well.
11. Cover and bake 30 minutes. Garnish with pomegranate seeds.

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Gluten Free/Dairy Free Choconut Pie

(10 min prep, 5 min cooking, 2 hours in refrigerator)
Celeste Davis

1. Make pie crust
2. Make filling
3. Refrigerate

Filling
In a medium glass dish mix with a whisk until smooth and well blended:
6 Tbs organic Corn Starch
½ cup organic unsweetened powdered Dutch Cocoa
Whisk until it makes a smooth paste:
4 Tbs filtered water
Whisk in until smooth:
½ cup Raw  Agave Nectar
2-4 Tbs Raw organic Tahini (to taste)
2 Tsp organic real Vanilla
1/8 – ¼ tsp Celtic Sea Salt
In a medium sauce pan heat until warm:
2 cups of SO Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk

1 cup of So Delicious Coconut Cream
· Slowly stir Chocolate mixture into milk with a whisk
· Stir constantly over medium heat until mixture bubbles and thickens
· Pour into finished pie shell
· Cover top with waxed paper, refrigerate

To Serve:
Remove waxed paper, Cover top of pie with Real or Soy Whip Cream, chocolate shavings and some flaked coconut
Enjoy!

Chocolate Macaroon Pie Crust (5 minutes prep, 20 min. baking)
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living
This is a pre-baked crust, can be made up to 2 days in advance, refrigerate and cover w/ plastic wrap
Ingredients:
2 oz organic semi-sweet chocolate, melted in oven, stove top or over water (not microwave)
2 Tbs Earth Balance
2 Tblsp Raw Agave Nectar
1 ½ cups unsweetened organic shredded coconut
pinch of salt
· Melt chocolate, combine all, mixing with hands, pat into greased pie plate
· Bake at 350, about 20 minutes, until firm but not dark. Cool and fill w/ chocolate pie filling.