Life can bring ME #lemons - I L-L-Love them! #Benefits

We visit with our friend Vlada Vladic of Cooking and Kids. She lives in Temecula’s Wine Country where lemon and orange trees are everywhere!  On a Friday in February, my son had the opportunity to pick some lemons from her “orchard” to take home.

We drink a lot of water in our home so having sliced lemons on hand is ideal. There’s nothing like fresh picked lemons!!

The benefits of lemons are endless. You can find many resources online that address this but to share a few of my favorites: 1) For starters, the taste alone is enough to add to water daily. Feel free to drink to your delight. 2) It serves as a diuretic. 3) High levels of Vitamin C. 4) Low in fat and cholesterol. Great as a seasoning on seafood and salads. 5) Finally, it helps prevent and perhaps even ‘cures’ many ailments such as sore throat, constipation, the common cold, nausea, heartburn; it boosts functionality of your liver and aids in the lowering of blood pressure.  Drink up!  Eat Well, Live Well.

I should mention that Vlada shared with me that her two children (ages 8, 6) pick bags of lemons and take them in a wagon to sell to the neighbors. A bag holds about 10 large lemons. The kids sell each bag of lemons for $1.50. For her, the most important part of her children selling the lemons is so that they learn how hard it is to earn money, so that they can contribute to the family (even in the smallest way) and they put aside some money for their summer trip. In addition, a small portion of what they earn is donated to whomever they wish to help. As you can imagine they don’t earn much, however, they do learn a lot while doing this.  

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Stuffed Flounder and Rice

Using: fish and prepared veggies of your choice

Ingredients:

1/4 cup EVOO

2 Garlic cloves, minced (or finely chopped)

1/4 cup diced Onions

1/2 cup shredded Carrots

1 shredded Zucchini

1/2 cup chopped Mushrooms

1/4 cup slivered Almonds 

1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

Cooked rice of your choice (Jasmine, Basmati, Long Grain or Brown)

Wild-Caught Flounder (or wild-caught fish of your choice)

2 tbsp Butter or 2 tbsp EVOO

1 tbsp Lemon juice

1/4 tsp Salt & pepper
1/2 tsp dried parsley

Directions:

1. Sauté onions and garlic in EVOO ‘til translucent, add carrots then zucchini. Add mushrooms; slivered almonds. 

2. While all is cooking, prepare your rice separately. 

3. Add bread crumbs to veggie mix and season to your taste. Remove ‘stuffing’ from pan. 

4. Season flounder with salt, pepper and lemon and gently roll the stuffing inside the fish (have toothpicks ready) and brown on medium-low heat on the stove top. 

5. If any stuffing remains, toss with rice adding a splash of lemon juice. After fish is cooked through, remove and keep warm while preparing a sauce in the hot pan with evoo or butter and seasoning of your choice. You can use white wine and lemon juice as well. Get creative – it’s fun and rewarding! Buon appetite!!

Choose, eat, and live well! =)

Cooking with Friends - Recipe: Fish, Rice, and Veggies

My son and I joined our friends on a Sunday afternoon to make a delectable and nutritious meal.

We baked flounder with olive oil, lemon, S&P and butter – topped with tomato, garlic and basil; sautéed broccolini and asparagus in olive oil, garlic, basil and oregano and parmesan cheese; and brown rice to boot.

The most enjoyable part was allowing the 3 youngest children to help – they were eager to join in the fun. A & B are both 3 and C is 6. Yes their names start with those letters!

C added butter to each fish (we had 9 cold water caught flounder); he squeezed the lemons for juice, and stirred the tomatoes. 

A & B helped by sprinkling the fish with s&p, covering them with lemon juice and olive oil, and finally topping the fish with the tomatoes. 

We covered the fish and baked for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

While the fish were baking, A & B prepared the asparagus by snapping off the ends. We sauteed the greens with 10 minutes left on the fish and finished with some brown rice.

We made a reduction using strawberries and organic evaporated cane sugar. I had more strawberries that were sliced and whipped cream to top a nice angel food cake bought from Trader Joe’s to serve for dessert. (No image available for this one because we were very excited about continuing our feast.)

All-in-all, we had a great time spending the day with friends. The kids said they enjoyed 'cooking' and are hopeful to do it again real soon. While we ate our dinner, all you could hear from A, B & C was yumm mmmm yumm as they chewed. That's a happy moment! =)

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Choose, eat, and live well! =)

Power Bites with Plant Power!

Bite Sized Power Bites


I call mine 'power' bites. It's a kid-friendly name for a nutritious snack!
Makes twelve 2-inch balls or make them smaller to double your batch without increasing your ingredients. 

Adapted from Smashed Peas and Carrots (blog/recipe)  

Disclaimer: There are other blogs/sites online that have a similar recipe. I was first inspired by my friend who made these bites for her daughter's first birthday.  

Allergens: nuts 

Ingredients are free of hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, artificial dyes, and artificial sweeteners. There is no gluten in these ingredients. Check your own labels for products already in your pantry. You can sub out and omit some of the ingredients to your liking. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup rolled oats

½ cup of natural peanut butter

1/3 cup of 100% pure maple syrup

¼ cup of flax meal (like this)

1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (like this)

4 tbl of Juice Plus+ Complete Dutch Chocolate 
3 tbl of melted coconut oil 
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Optional: 2-3 tbl dairy free/gluten free chocolate chips (like this)

Directions:
Make balls using your hands or if you have a small ice cream scoop or large melon baller then that will help shape the mixture into balls. (I doubled the recipe and made half into balls and the other half into bars.) Refrigerate up to a week or freeze until ready to use.

You can substitute anything you like in this recipe. If you want to keep this recipe dairy free, try the dutch chocolate powder recommendation above. 

Have fun with it! 

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Choose, eat, and live well! =)

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