Recipes Archives - Page 82 of 113

Avocado Toast

A perfect avocado completes me. I have a mild obsession with them. If you gave me a choice between mashed avocado on a piece of toast or an ice cream sandwich, I honestly wouldn’t even think twice about it! I am more addicted to avocados than I ever was to sugar. Hmmm, ok maybe not completely true. But I have a healthier relationship with avocados. Right now is my favorite time of year, because I’ve got all my besties — tomatoes, peaches, figs, corn, basil and Reed avocados. What’s a Reed avocado? If you don’t know the answer, I already feel sorry for you that you haven’t experienced the mother of all avocados. In my humble opinion, Reeds are TOPS, at least in this country. My mother-in-law often reminisces about avocados from her native Puerto Rico and I have a student from Mexico who thinks that hers are the best. I think they’re both just feeling nostalgic, because I don’t know how you can beat a Reed.

Just look at them! They’re as big as softballs with a generous ratio of meat to pit and soooooooo creamy and rich. Sinful! But they’re not, because avocados are amazingly good for you. Perfect, untouched, non-oxidized, healthful fats, plus fiber and loads of Vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant. Avocados are an incredible food for little ones whose brains are developing. And I think they’re an awesome beauty food — so great for your skin. Also, this happens to be a drying time of year, especially for the lungs and wouldn’t you know avocados are lubricating to the lungs, as well as to the intestines. Love it.

I have so many recipes on my site which use avocados, from salads to dressings to soups to smoothies. But my favorite way to eat an avocado is on toast. The contrast between soft and buttery avocado and crunchy toast makes me swoon. Ditch your Saturday morning bagel and cream cheese and go this route on a good whole grain bread. Delicious and so much better for you! There are lots of ways I prepare avocado toast and I posted a few images here. Most of the time, I eat this for breakfast either on spelt or millet toast. But it’s also the perfect afternoon snack for you or your kids. The fat in avocados really keeps you satisfied for so much longer than a popsicle or a bags of chips. Not that you eat that, but if you did, avocado toast is a way better snack. Right now, I’m buying Reeds at the farmers market 3 for $5 and I have also seen them in Whole Foods for $2.50 each. I’ve been suckered by some markets with their $.69 avocados, and 90% of the time, they’re horrible. That feeling of slicing into an avocado that looks like it should be good and then isn’t is THE WORST!

My advice to you is buy your avocados underripe and allow them to ripen on the countertop. If you try to buy them already ripe at the store, they’ve been squeezed a thousand times and that’s why they’ll have mushy brown spots when you open them. Avocados are ripe when they give slightly to gentle pressure. I have also found that when you remove the small dark stem from the top, if the color underneath is pale yellow, it’s ready! Green means it’s underripe and brown or black means it’s going in the compost heap. Once they are ripe, you can refrigerate them until you’re ready to eat them. Keep in mind that the skin of Reed avocados stay perfectly green even when ripe, as opposed to Haas which turn dark brown/black. And now the bad news. Reed avocados are only in season from August through October so enjoy them while you can!

Are you an avocado toast fan? What’s your favorite combo?

avocado toast

There really isn’t a “recipe” for this, just a few of my favorite combinations. I like a lot of avocado on my toast, but you may choose to have less. Just go with whatever seems right to you.

Mashed or sliced avocado on toasted or grilled bread with:

~a squeeze of lime, a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of red chili flakes and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt.

~thinly sliced smoked wild salmon or lox and a squeeze of fresh lemon.

~sliced ripe tomato with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt. A drizzle of olive oil is good, too.

~a drop of shoyu or good quality soy sauce, a drizzle of toasted sesame oil and a sprinkle of sesame seeds or gomasio.

~a fried egg and a pinch of salt. A sprinkle of chopped chives is nice, too.

Slow cooker apple pie steel cut oats recipe (stovetop version, too!)

I feel like whining. Nooooo, I don’t waaaaaaant school to start tomorrow. I have to wake up so eaaaarrrrrly. Ugggh. And lunnnnnnches. Ok. I’m done. Thanks for listening.

I think making breakfast, lunch and dinner during the school year is hard. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a competition on a Food Network show. Minutes to spare. Limited ingredients. Tough judges. The pressure! The fact is that I cannot wing it when school starts. To feed my family and myself real food as much as possible, I need a plan. I have one child leaving at 6:35 am, another at 7:20 am and my youngest leaves at 8:00 am. To all of you who can pull together breakfast, lunch and dinner without so much as a list, I am in awe of you. I consider myself a culinary quasi-professional and I cannot wake up on a Monday morning and open the fridge and say, “Hmmmm. What should I make today?” It stresses me out just thinking about doing that.

Every Sunday night for 18 years, I have planned my meals for the week and I shop accordingly. And every year I do one new thing to help me get a little better organized because every year my family seems to throw me a new challenge. This year I think I’m going to do a breakfast schedule so I don’t have to think so much about that meal when I’m making my list.

Monday: oatmeal or warm whole grain porridge (muesli in the warmer months)

Tuesday: breakfast quesadilla or burrito

Wednesday: pancakes or waffles (homemade, silly)

Thursday: muffins, quick breads, or French toast or maybe oatmeal again

Friday: frittata or rice bake to use up leftover cooked vegetables from the week

I will always have homemade granola in the pantry, yogurt and nut butters in the fridge, stuff to make smoothies, and fresh fruit on the counter. If one of the kids doesn’t want what I’ve made that day and chooses to make his or her own breakfast, ~~I’ll believe it when I see it~~ that would be lovely. Here’s a previous post with more breakfast ideas.

I’ve been making this slow cooker oatmeal for the last year and I couldn’t wait for it to be apple season again so I could share it with you. We all love it! Love! It tastes like you stirred apple pie filling into your oats. I like steel cut oats because they are so hearty and they take a little longer for your body to digest than rolled oats, so you get a longer-lasting energy. There’s nothing wrong with making plain and simple oats for breakfast and setting out a bunch of delicious toppings, but this is so easy and it’s ready when you come into the kitchen in the morning. Nothing else you need to do. We love it as is, but if you don’t like raisins, you can leave them out. But I encourage you to try it with the raisins because they plump up so beautifully and add a little extra sweetness to the oats. You can also add more sweetener than I do, but again, try this as is because you can always add extra sweetener later.

If you don’t have a slow cooker, I have a post in the archives for stovetop overnight steel cut oats. You bring everything up to a boil on the stovetop the night before, cover and turn off the heat. I repeat, turn off the heat. In the morning, just warm through and your oats will be perfect in a few minutes. I don’t see why you couldn’t do this with this recipe. And of course, you can do this the traditional way on the stovetop as well. Just dump everything into the pot and cook. No excuses on this one!!

I wish all of you an excellent beginning of school!

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Slow Cooker Apple Pie Steel Cut Oats

Author: Pamela

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 cup steel cut oats (use certified gluten-free oats for GF oatmeal)
4 cups water
2 apples, peeled, cored, & cut into bite size pieces
2 Tablespoons maple syrup (you can use any sweetener you want)
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of salt
¼ cup raisins

Instructions

Place the steel cut oats, water, apples, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and raisins into a slow cooker and cook on LOW heat for 5 hours. Actually, anywhere between 4 and 6 hours is fine. Most slow cookers have an automatic “WARM” setting so after it cooks, it will stay warm until you’re ready for it.
Stir well to combine before serving. I like to finish my oatmeal with a little homemade almond milk to thin it out a little. Yum!

Notes

I know it's tempting to leave the peel on the apples, but after they cook, the apples get soft and the peel stays tough. Not so fun to eat! To make this on the stovetop, see the last paragraph above.

apples cinnamon maple syrup nutmeg steel cut oats

How To Make Dairy-free Ice Cream!

Did you notice the exclamation point in the title? I need you to know how excited I am about this. !! I’ll confess right here that ice cream is probably my favorite food. That I don’t eat. Ice cream doesn’t agree with me, if I can get personal with you. But I think this is definitely for the best because it’s just not good for you. Pasteurized cow dairy + sugar + ice cold = digestive nightmare. But just because I can’t eat ice cream doesn’t mean I don’t dream about it. Yes, of course there are alternative “ice creams” made from soy or coconut. But soy milk is something I avoid (way too processed and hard to digest) and most of the coconut frozen desserts taste like coconut, which I like, but not every time mixed with every flavor. Just an FYI, you can take two cans of full-fat coconut milk, mix it with sweetener to taste plus a drop of vanilla extract and pour it into your ice cream maker and get coconut ice cream. That’s the recipe right there!

But recently I saw a cashew-based ice cream at Whole Foods and a light bulb went off. Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? I use raw cashews all the time in my classes to make non-dairy substitutions for my DF friends. When you soak raw cashews and then blend them with a little water, you have the beginnings of lots of dairy-free possibilities. I even made a cheesecake with blended raw cashews that was to die for. I need to post that one day. What’s great is that raw cashews are pretty bland tasting, unlike coconut which definitely has a pronounced flavor, even when mixed with other stuff. Also, soaked, raw cashews are loaded with protein and much more digestible than pasteurized heavy cream and milk. !!

I wasn’t sure if you all would be interested in knowing how to make dairy-free ice cream since I can’t assume everyone has an ice cream maker. But after an unscientific poll on Facebook, it seemed like enough of you wanted to know. I made three different cashew-based ice creams in the last month and I thought they were all great. My kids had NO IDEA they were made from cashews. And to take it one step further (better), I sweetened two of the ice creams with dates. Dates! This is an ice cream that is cashews blended with dates. Are you freaking out right now? You should beeeeeeee!

The three flavors I made were Buttered Pecan (ok, technically not dairy-free because I used butter on the pecans, but you can use Earth Balance), Chocolate Peanut Butter, and Mint Chip. I loved them all, but let me mention that although these are more digestible and arguably more healthful than regular ice cream, I wouldn’t say they’re low-fat or low-calorie. And I’m sorry if you’re nut-free or cashew-intolerant because that’s the only way to go here. I am posting the recipes for Buttered Pecan and Mint Chip and as soon as I find the scrap paper with my notes for the chocolate version I will revise this post and let you know!

I’m just sorry that we may only have another month of warm weather and therefore not much time left for ice cream. Make the most of what’s left of summer, friends. Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

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Cashew Ice Cream

Author: Pamela

Serves: makes about 1 quart, so if you only want to make a pint, cut all ingredients in half

Ingredients

Salted Butter Pecan:
2 cups pecans
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, or use Earth's Balance to make vegan
½ teaspoon sea salt, plus 1 teaspoon for pecans
4 cups raw cashews, soaked for at least three hours or overnight and
drained
2 cups water
1 cup Grade A maple syrup (or agave, but I’m not a fan since it’s very
processed and high in fructose)
4 vanilla beans, split and scraped or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mint Chip:
4 cups raw cashews, soaked for at least three hours or overnight and drained
3 cups water
20 pitted dates
2 Tablespoons pure peppermint extract (you may want to start out with 1 Tablespoon and taste the mixture before adding the second tablespoon in case your mint extract is stronger than mine.)
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips, or more to taste

Instructions

Salted Butter Pecan:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the pecans, tossing to coat. Spread buttered pecans on baking sheet and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Bake for 6-8 minutes until toasted, but not burned. Set aside to cool.
Place cashews, water, maple syrup, vanilla and ½ teaspoon salt in a high-powered blender or food processor and process until very smooth.
Pour cashew mixture into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions. I use a Cuisinart ice cream maker.
Once the pecans are cooled, place them in a food processor and pulse to make small chunks (about the size of a chocolate chip, or smaller) or chop coarsely on a cutting board.
minutes before ice cream is finished, pour in the pecans.
Store in freezer in airtight container.
Mint Chip:
Place cashews, water, dates, salt and mint extract in a high-powered blender or food processor and process until very smooth.
Pour cashew mixture into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions.
minutes before ice cream is finished, add the chocolate chips.
Store in freezer in airtight container.

cashews dates maple syrup pecans peppermint extract vanilla

Blueberry-Banana Spelt Bread Recipe (gluten-free version too!)

This year I am trying to get an early jump on the beginning of school. I actually say that every year and I still end up in those ridiculous lines at Staples on the first day of school. My oldest daughter is going into 12th grade (I am clutching my heart right now), so you would think that I had this thing down. So not the case. Until now. I just figured out really late in the game that I need to outsource, meaning I need to delegate some of these tasks to other people. No, I don’t all of a sudden have a staff of helpers at my disposal. But I do have capable children that have waaaaaay more time on their hands than I do and they can navigate the internet like nobody’s business. Why didn’t I think of this 10 years ago?

The kids have just ordered their supplies, backpacks and lunch paraphernalia online and helped fill out a stack of forms (they all know their birthdays and where we live, right?). This has been such a huge help that I am even going to ask them to start helping with their lunches. Just don’t tell them yet. I need to figure out a way to break this to them gently!

I also thought I would start stocking the freezer with some goodies so weekday meal preparation goes a little more smoothly. I made a few delicious quick breads last week and halved each of them. One half to enjoy now and the other half is frozen for a rainy day, i.e. a future school day breakfast or lunchbox snack. I dug into my archives (have I been online long enough to have an archive?) and put a summer twist on my date-sweetened banana bread, one of my absolute favorite, wholesome quick breads. I actually made three loaves — one with whole spelt flour and two with a blend of gluten-free flours with which I have been experimenting lately. I am using more and more spelt flour instead of whole wheat, especially in sweet things. Read about why I love spelt here! And since I know so many of you wan to avoid gluten, I also made a couple of loaves with different gluten-free flours. You can always use your favorite store-bought gluten-free flour blend (my favorite is King Arthur) plus some xanthan gum, but those can be a bit pricey. Either way, it reminded me how versatile most recipes are and that I only need to change a few ingredients to make something more seasonal and/or new. All the loaves turned out amazing and the kids gobbled them up!

This weekend I’m also going to make and freeze some cookie dough, brown rice for rice bakes, fresh fruit for smoothies and chicken stock since the weather has started to get a little chilly here. How are you getting organized for the beginning of the new school year? Would love for you to share. May the force be with all of us!

5.0 from 2 reviews

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Blueberry-Banana Spelt Bread

Author: Pamela

Serves: makes 1 9 x 5-inch loaf

Ingredients

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter or unrefined coconut oil, at room temperature
½ cup maple syrup (I prefer Grade A which has a more subtle flavor)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups whole spelt flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
3 large ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (about 1 cup)*
1 cup fresh blueberries
½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9x5-inch loaf pan. Line with parchment paper, if desired.
Beat the butter with the maple syrup in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the eggs and vanilla and combine well. The mixture will look curdled and that is normal.
In a medium bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt. Add to the wet mixture and combine until just blended. Fold in the mashed bananas and most of the blueberries and nuts. Save a few bleuberries and nuts for the top of the loaf.
Pour into the prepared pan and sprinkle the reserved blueberries and nuts on top. Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan 10 minutes and then remove the bread and transfer onto a rack.

Notes

*Do not attempt this with bananas that are unripe. They are neither sweet enough nor soft enough.

Gluten-free dry mix to sub for the 2 cups of spelt flour:

½ cup sorghum flour

½ cup millet flour

½ cup sweet rice flour

¼ cup GF oat flour

3 Tablespoons potato starch

1 Tablespoon tapioca starch

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

bananas blueberries butter eggs spelt flour vanilla

Shrimp salsa recipe

We had such a fantastic visit with my family on Long Island last week. I know I’ve said this before, but I really adore East Coast summers. The energy is just so amazing. But I also love living in Southern California, close to the beach, with a farmers market close by every day of the week. I know everyone talks about the weather being the greatest thing about living in Los Angeles, but for me it’s the year-round access to phenomenal, locally grown, seasonal produce. Just had a moment of gratitude when I got back to my markets.

But I came home to more than just great peaches and tomatoes. Waiting for me in the mail were a few very thick envelopes with school registration documents: forms for PTA donations, yearbooks and class pictures, volunteer sign-up sheets, PE clothing order forms, and so on. Noooooooooo! The first day of school in our district is the Wednesday before Labor Day. Friends, I’ve got two weeks, and then the party’s o-vah!

So until then, I will frantically try to make the most out of summer. Daily tomato-eating will continue with corn and peaches tied for second. I was thumbing through Dr. Mark Hyman’s (I’m a big fan!) “Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook,” when I noticed this recipe for Shrimp Salsa. Sounds like a party to me! It’s everything I love about summer food — fresh, light, easy and it includes tomatoes. Dr. Hyman is all about keeping blood sugar stable to avoid unnecessarily triggering an insulin flood (it’s an inflammatory, fat-storage hormone, you know.) So, many of his recipes are low in simple carbohydrates, with an emphasis on vegetables, whole grains and lean, organic, pastured meats and wild seafood. I followed Dr. Hyman’s Blood Sugar Solution Challenge last summer and I appreciate his emphasis on prevention of chronic disease and looking at food as medicine. But at the end of the day, shrimp salsa is just going to make me happy.

Eating and sharing this salsa confirmed something I have learned since I have been cooking for other people: ask three people to taste a particular recipe and you’ll get three different opinions. I shared this delicious salsa with my assistant and a friend and it was so interesting to observe how we each responded — we all loved it, but one wanted it with more heat, someone else less lime, me, of course, more salt and so on. My advice to you is that if shrimp salsa sounds good to you, be conservative with a few of the ingredients (garlic, lime, heat, cilantro), because you can always add more, and just adjust to taste. From a nutritional perspective, this is a very low calorie, low fat, low carb, high protein recipe. Shrimp are an unusually concentrated source of the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrient called astaxanthin, as well as an excellent source of the antioxidant mineral selenium. Here’s a good place to find more information about the health benefits of shrimp.

We enjoyed the salsa on the first day with tortilla chips, although Dr. Hyman suggests raw veggies. But I really loved it on the second day when I put it over rice and beans (see above image.) Perfect dinner for me. Even if your family is back to school this week (omg), there’s still plenty of summer left to enjoy!

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Shrimp Salsa

Author: Pamela, adapted from "The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook" by Mark Hyman, MD

Serves: makes about 4 cups

Ingredients

¾ pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined (I asked the fishmonger to do this)
½ small red onion, finely chopped
1 medium tomato or 1 whole plum tomato, seeded and finely chopped
½ small jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped or your favorite hot sauce to taste
1 ½ avocados, peeled, pitted and diced
½ small bunch fresh cilantro (about 1 ½ ounces), finely chopped (leaves and tender stems) – I chopped a handful.
1 clove garlic, minced (original recipe called for 3 cloves)
juice of 2 limes (original recipe called for 4 limes)
1 cup tomato sauce or tomato puree (not marinara sauce)
sea salt to taste
a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Prepare a large bowl of ice water and set aside. In a saucepan, bring about 2 quarts of water to a boil over high heat. Add the shrimp and cook until just pink, 2-3 minutes.
Drain the shrimp and transfer to the bowl of reserved ice water to stop the cooking process. Once the shrimp are cold, drain and chop them into bite-size chunks.
Add the shrimp pieces to a large nonreactive container (like glass or ceramic) along with the onion, tomato, jalapeno, avocados, cilantro, garlic, lime juice and tomato sauce/puree. Cover the container and refrigerate to marinate for at least 3 hours.
Serve as a dip with tortilla chips (not on the Blood Sugar Solution diet!) or raw crunchy vegetables. I loved it over rice and beans.

Notes

I cut the original recipe in half because it made a ton, and I also made some adjustments, specifically to the quantities of garlic and lime juice. Feel free to omit the garlic altogether and start out conservative with the lime juice since some limes are juicier than others. Try the juice of one lime to start and then you can always add more. Also, the cookbook calls for "tomato sauce," which does not mean marinara or spaghetti sauce. It's referring to cans of tomato puree with a small amount of seasoning, like this from Contadina. I didn't have that on hand so I used Pomi tomato puree. But you can also use fresh, seeded tomato that's been chopped finely or pulsed in the food processor.

Spicy honey-lemon green beans recipe

If you follow me on either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you’ve probably figured out that I am back on Long Island at my parents’ house. We picked up Daughter #1 on Saturday from her summer program in upstate NY. I was so beyond excited to see her after 6 weeks, I was afraid I was going to suffocate her when I saw her. It was great for the five of us to be together again and I couldn’t resist another visit to Stony Brook. Love that place in the summer.

We’ve had an amazing few days here — peaceful, not in a rush to do anything, no stress, beautiful. My father’s garden is bursting. I lost count of how many basil plants he has this year, perhaps around 40. I have made pesto every day so far! But the big fun has come from the new outdoor pizza oven my father had built. It was a major project when I was here in June, with each of my parents saying to me without the other hearing, “I don’t know what we were thinking.” But once the dust settled, literally, we have enjoyed the most fantastic pizzas — you know the thin kind with a little char on the crust? So darn good. Not fitting in my skinny jeans today, but so. darn. good.

Sorry this isn’t a post about making your own pizza in a wood-burning oven, but I personally don’t have one nor will I in my current house since my “yard” is a patio! Figuring most of my readers don’t own one either. Instead I wanted to share my favorite new green bean recipe. No yawning! These are great! But I know where you’re coming from. Green beans come into season in the summer and I try really hard to get excited about them, but they have to compete with tomatoes and corn. Kind of hard to do. I honestly don’t have too many exciting green bean recipes that I think to myself, “I am soooo craving those such-and-such green beans.” Until now.

I taught these honey-lemon green beans last month and I couldn’t wait to eat them after each class and any leftovers for dinner the same night! The dressing has a bit of mustard too, and a little kick from the cayenne which is always something I love paired with sweet (honey.) They are seriously addictive. One of the only cooked vegetables Mr. Picky likes is green beans, but he doesn’t care for vinaigrettes yet. Except he did love these! He’s starting to develop a taste for spicy food. Very exciting!

The recipe for the green beans and the dressing is completely straightforward and quick to make. If you are in a time crunch, just make that and forget about the shallots. Blanching and quick-pickling the shallots is definitely another step that won’t make or break the recipe, although they are scrumptious. You can certainly take care of that while the beans are cooking and while you’re setting the table or grilling some fish. But sometimes when I try and multitask too much, that’s when I forget things -like shallots pickling in apple cider vinegar that I remember when I start washing dishes.

5.0 from 1 reviews

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Spicy Honey-Lemon Green Beans

Author: Pamela, adapted from "The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen" by Peter Berley

Serves: 6

Ingredients

For the Green Beans and Shallots:
3 Tablespoons kosher salt
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
1 ½ pounds string beans, trimmed
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar, preferably raw
½ teaspoon sea salt
pinch freshly ground black pepper
For The Vinaigrette:
2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 small glove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon mild honey, preferably raw
½ teaspoon sea salt
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 Tablespoons unrefined, cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

Spread a clean kitchen towel on a baking sheet and set aside.
In a large pot, bring 3 quarts water to a boil. Add kosher salt.
Place the sliced shallots in a bowl and cover with 2 cups of the boiling water. Cover the bowl with a plate and set aside for 10-15 minutes.
Drop the beans in to the remaining boiling water and cook, uncovered, for 4 to 6 minutes, until crisp tender. Drain the beans and spread them on the cloth-lined pan.
Drain the shallots and toss them with the vinegar, the remaining ½ teaspoon salt, and pepper. Set aside.
To make the vinaigrette, combine the lemon juice, mustard, garlic, honey, salt and cayenne in a large mixing bowl. Whisk until smooth. Slowly whisk in the oil until creamy.
Drain the shallots once again and squeeze dry. Add the shallots and the string beans to the vinaigrette and toss well. Sprinkle with another pinch of sea salt or to taste.
If you have time, let it marinate for 15 minutes at room temperature before serving just to allow the flavors to permeate the beans. If you don't have time, they'll still be great.

Notes

These really aren't that spicy, perhaps a 3 on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the hottest. But you can certainly adjust the level of heat to your liking by increasing or decreasing the cayenne.

cayenne Dijon mustard green beans honey lemon juice olive oil shallots

Individual warm peach pie pots recipe

I guess this is favorites week. In my last post, I went on and on about my obsession with summer tomatoes and today I am sharing my new favorite dessert which uses my favorite fruit bar none, peaches. Smiley face. Peaches make me happy and this season has not disappointed so far. We have had the best peaches this summer and although I may not have eaten one every single day like I have tomatoes, it has been close.

I could make a meal out of a big peach. Ok, not really. But everything else I eat afterwards just pales in comparison. I really love yellow peaches, which I find have a more intense, although more acidic flavor. The white ones are delicious, of course, and slightly more sweet but just not quite as flavorful. But trust me, I’ll eat either any day. I always buy organic peaches since conventionally grown ones are on the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list of the most highly contaminated produce. I think it’s because the pesticides are able to permeate peaches’ thin skin thereby making it difficult to remove toxins by washing. Pesticides make me nervous.

I have so many regular peach recipes, some that I’ve taught in my classes like peach pie, grilled vanilla peaches and this fabulous individual warm peach pie in a jar number I am writing about today. This month I will teach an arugula salad with farro and peaches that is my new favorite. Did you see that crazy delicious breakfast I posted on Facebook a month ago? Why aren’t we friends on Facebook? You’re missing out. I post something interesting there every single day! I digress. I used some leftovers from this recipe and put it on top of Bob’s Red Mill warm, creamy buckwheat porridge. People, I was like “shut the front door.” Best. Breakfast. Ever.

I have a dozen other peach recipes that I’m not posting here so let’s not even torture you with those. Let’s talk about these individual peach pie in a jar thingies that are the quickest, tastiest healthful dessert you can’t believe you haven’t ever made until now. I was inspired by a recipe I saw over at Roost, which is one of the prettiest blogs that mine will never look like. Sigh. Caitlin used apples, which I tried and thought turned out delish, but this peach version is crazy delish.

Too many of you have expressed intimidation about making a pie from scratch and I get it. Although for me, sometimes I just don’t have the time to prepare and bake a pie, especially if I’m entertaining and I am making a bunch of other things. Or maybe I have a craving for peach pie and I don’t want to tempt myself with an entire pie in the kitchen. I am weak, after all.

This is your answer. You make these amazing buttered, salted pecans which you then crumble up and put on the bottom of a cute glass jar, preferably with a wide opening at the top. Then you sauté some chopped peaches with a little honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and the tiniest amount of almond extract possible because like I’ve said before, almond extract makes peach and apricot desserts more peachy and apricot-y. But it has to be the teeniest amount otherwise, whoa. And then just when the peaches are warm, you spoon them on top of the pecans. I am totally serious. But see how not-at-all-bad-for-you this is?? See why I can eat this in the morning and at night? See why I was giving out small portions at my classes so there would be more for me? Weak, I tell you.

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Individual Warm Peach Pie Pots

Author: Pamela, inspired by Roost

Serves: 6-7, depending on the size of your glasses or jars. I've used half-pint and pint jars. You don't have to use jars or glasses, but it looks so pretty that way.

Ingredients

Butter Pecan Crust:
3 cups raw pecans
1 ½ Tablespoons unsalted butter or unrefined coconut oil
¾ teaspoon sea salt (this is not a misprint)
Peach Pie Filling:
8 cups chopped peaches (peeled or unpeeled), about 12 small-medium peaches
2 Tablespoons butter, ghee or unrefined coconut oil
2 Tablespoons honey (just eyeball it since it’s such a pain to measure)
⅛ teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of ground nutmeg
¼ cup almond flour (if necessary to thicken juices)

Instructions

Have ready 6 clean ½ pint or pint jars.
To make the crust, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a small sheet pan with parchment paper. Melt the butter in a small (1-2 quart) saucepan, turn off the heat and add the pecans. Toss to coat.
Pour the buttered pecans onto the sheet pan and sprinkle with ¾ teaspoon salt. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Watch closely so they don’t burn! Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
Place the cooled pecans into a food processor and pulse a couple times to form a coarse crumbly mixture. Place a couple tablespoons of “crust” into the bottom of each jar and set aside.
To make the filling, in a large bowl, toss the peaches with the honey, extract, and spices. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the peach mixture to the skillet and toss gently to heat through, 2-4 minutes.
Turn off the heat and if the mixture is very liquidy, add the almond flour to the peaches and stir to combine.
Place several spoonfuls of the peach pie mixture on top of the pecan crust and top with crème fraiche, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or whipped coconut cream. Also delicious for breakfast on warm porridge or with yogurt. Serve immediately!

Notes

If you are nut-free, you can still make the peaches alone or serve them over crumbled cookies, like graham crackers or gingersnaps.

almond extract butter cinnamon honey nutmeg peaches pecans

How to make slow roasted tomatoes

Someone leaked to Mr. Picky that in one of my recent posts I was guessing that he wouldn’t be showering regularly at camp. It wasn’t a judgment on my part, just an observation from past history. However, it seems as though Mr. Picky interpreted that as a challenge. What you might not know about Mr. Picky is that he is competitive to a fault. He also loves statistics and keeps track of everything, especially when he’s first in something. But believe me, his “firsts” are not what you might expect. “Hey, Mom. Did you know I was the first one down for breakfast 8 days in a row?” Or not firsts. “Mom, guess what? Guess what, Mom? I was the second youngest at camp. By 20 days.” So I wasn’t entirely shocked when Mr. Picky said to me the other day that he’s on a showering streak. Huh? “Mom, guess what? I have showered 37 days in a row! For real. I’m not even joking.” I need to blog more about him not eating cooked vegetables.

Well, Mr. Picky had to come from somewhere. Guess what, friends? I’ve eaten a tomato in some way, shape or form every day for the last 24 days and I’m not even joking. Whereas I fear Mr. Picky is on a quest to find his way into some imaginary record book for showering, my daily tomato indulgence is for pure pleasure. Furthermore, I know my streak will come to a sad end in a few months when tomato season is over.

I have a total obsession with summer tomatoes. I always have. When I was little, I would take a salt shaker into my father’s garden and have a tomato party. First, I would pluck a nice ripe tomato off the vine. For the first bite, I always had to shake a tiny bit of salt in my mouth and then take a bite of tomato. Salt doesn’t stick to a whole tomato. After that bite, I would shake the salt on the cut part of the tomato and eat away. My mother told me a few times I even ate several green (underripe) tomatoes and made myself a bit sick to my stomach.

But I am only interested in local, summer tomatoes. Nothing else compares and I wouldn’t even waste your time on tomatoes before June or after October, and even that is pushing it. So right now, I’m in my glory and I am snatching up different varieties every week. So happy! And tomatoes are amazing for you – I just posted something on my facebook page yesterday about all their health benefits.

Something I just started making the last few years are slow roasted tomatoes in the oven. Damn! Have you ever tried these? I’m not talking about sundried tomatoes, which for some reason I don’t like. Slow roasted tomatoes are super-sweet and moist. You can cook them as long or as little as you like, but I prefer to bake them until their texture is like moist, dried apricots. So darn good and soooooooo easy! It’s barely cooking, people. And you can use them in a million ways. Delicious on an antipasto platter, with crusty bread, eggs/frittatas, sandwiches, salads, in pasta, etc. How could I forget straight-off-the-pan? Such deliciousness if you have patience to slow cook them. I figure since I waited all winter and spring for tomatoes, what’s a few hours?

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Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Author: Pamela

Ingredients

12 plum tomatoes*, halved lengthwise
2 cloves garlic, thinly slices
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
unrefined olive oil for drizzling
sea salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 275 F degrees. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper or use a 13 x 9 baking dish. If you want to make more tomatoes, use a large baking sheet.
Arrange the tomato halves, cut side up, in one layer on the prepared baking sheet.
Place a sliver of garlic on top of each tomato and scatter the thyme sprigs over. Drizzle a little oil over the tomatoes and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Bake until desired texture is reached. I like to go 3 hours. More time will result in drier tomatoes. Less time will result in juicier tomatoes. Ovens also vary, so check tomatoes periodically.
Store in the refrigerator in a covered container for up to a week. Covered in oil, the tomatoes will last a few weeks. You can also freeze them right on the sheet pan and when the tomatoes are frozen, transfer them to a covered container to freeze (ideally a freezer bag that is as small as will fit the tomatoes.)

Notes

*You can also use halved cherry or grape tomatoes and cook for less time.

garlic olive oil thyme tomatoes