Grilled portabello sliders

This is inspired by the woman I waited on today that ordered a chicken popeye sub portabello for chicken. Chicken popeye is normally grilled chicken, fresh spinach, sliced tomato, and melted cheese. It sounded so good I had to try to make it healthy and delicious. So if you wanna use a roll or bread that's good too but I wanted it low calorie. I juiced all the ingredients for chicken soup ( a juicer is amazing to have) and used the pulp and juice with chicken stock garlic, thyme, rosemary, and lentils. Served it alongside this delicious mushroom. You will need pesto for this also. Homemade is about one cup basil, 1/4 olive oil, two cloves garlic, 1 1/2 tablespoons soy galaxy parmesan, and about 1/8 cup pine nuts. Blend all together while slowly adding olive oil. It is awesome in mayo, soups,and grilled chicken.


One portabello slider or regular size portabello
Two tablespoons fresh pesto
2 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp wegmans basting oil
1-2 sprigs of rosemary finely chopped
Handful of fresh spinach
DAIYA shredded mozzarella cheese. (mozzarella substitute, you cannot tell!!)
Thin sliced tomato

Start by slicing tomatoes and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper on both sides and store in fridge. Scrape dark gill from inside the portabello and discard stem. In a bowl add portabello's, worcestershire sauce,and basting oil. Rub chopped rosemary, oil, and worcestershire sauce all over mushrooms. Grill about three to four minutes on each side. Turn broiler in oven on and pre heat. Take grilled mushrooms and slather with pesto. Topp with tomatoes, then spinach, and cover with mozzarella. Place on a foiled pan and put them under broiler for about five mins. If your having bread having some pesto on the bread also would be delicious. This is a great snack or as a sandwich with soup or salad on the side. Goes great with the caeser dressing on my first post
Gluten free me!!

Some alternative things I like to buy for gluten dairy free meals

There are a few things you might want to pick up if you are gluten free and/or dairy free. These things are sort of staples for me to replace the old crap I used to eat. I will only list things that are just about identical to the real versions because I don't just eat things because they are free of gluten and dairy. It HAS to taste like the real thing or I am just not interested. So a little shopping list.....

Wegmans garlic and thyme basting oil. This could be made at home with fresh herbs and cold pressed olive oil but this stuff is super delicious and I have no time so it works for me.
It is made with grape seed oil.

Earth balance buttery spread...any kind. The yellow and red one are my favorite. This is the ULTIMATE stand in for butter. The best part about it is that there is nothing fake about it. its all natural healthy oils turned into butter and loaded with omega 3-6. which is great because i dont eat much seafood so this is a good way to get the healthy fats. It stands in exactly for butter in every way. Same measurement to regular and same taste if not better. They also make fantastic buttery sticks for baking and they work sooo good.

Any bread made by UDI'S gluten free. They make an excellent stand in for "white" bread. It's udi's multigrain sandwich bread. It's great because they use whole grain ingredients like brown rice. I am entirely against anything made from white rice..yes yes it's gluten free but like white flour is just an unhealthy filler. The brown rice products taste better anyhow. They make delicious hot dog buns and hamburger rolls also.

For morning toast however I like a crunchier more heartier bread. Glutino has a great couple of loaves. There is corn which I am also not a fan of because it's a nutritional zero, fiber bread kind which is my all time favorite, and they make an excellent flaxseed bread too.these loaves can be frozen for A LONG TIME. They definitely need to always be refrigerated as well as the above mentioned UDI'S brand breads. The reason is because gluten free pretty much means preservative and chemical free, so these things need to be refrigerated to keep for a duration. The glutino bread should never be eaten without toasting....trust me, it's not good. Toasted it is wonderful. Great for sopping up eggs and also I use them for croutons. Toast em up and voila, nice crunchy croutons that really hold their crunch long after the dressing is on.

Toffutti vegan cream cheese. This is so close to cream cheese it's crazy!! The best part is that is non hydrogenated and has a fraction of the calories, fat, and sodium. Remember it comes plain so find ways to add chives for morning bagels(again udi's makes good ones) berries, garlic, salsa, get creative. I personally use it plain to make Alfredo sauce. Recipe coming soon.

Raw agave syrup. Again another stand in that is almost exactly the same as sugar. while its not the best to go crazy with any sugar even agave, it is sugar from the tequila plant. the GREAT thing is that is a low glycemic food. This means that regular sugar spikes your blood sugar and makes it harder to lose weight,stores unneccessary calories turning them into fat, and makes you actually crave more sugar. Low glycemic means that is slowly absorbs into the blood stream without a spike to your blood sugar. This is also an acceptable sugar for diabetics. It tastes fantastic. A little carmel, a little brown sugar is what it tastes like. I haven't used "fake sugar" in a lot of years. I will not even go into what poisons they are. I have tried the naturals truvia and stevia but to be honest they taste like shit!! Bad aftertaste and just gross. Agave can be substituted for sugar in pretty much everything but, it is A LOT sweeter than sugar so you always need 2/3 less than a recipe calls for table sugar.

Larabars. These powerhouse delicious little snack bars are to die for and have literally saved my life a few times. They roughly contain around five or less ingredients and could not be more of a whole food. They are usually in the health section with all the other power bars. The best ones are apple pie, coffee chocolate, cashew cookie, peanut butter cookie, and cherry pie. They are wonderful for a small meal replacement at work, traveling and on the go. I always bring one anywhere in case I can't eat or there isn't much to order at a restaurant. Literally they have saved my life.

This is just a small portion. To be continued.............

The original shakie

This smoothie/shake is a delicious treat when you are craving sweets and or chocolate. I think we probably have on every other day. It's incredibly filling as well which makes this great for morning or a kind of late night snack if your hungry. In the morning if I have one I like to add a scoop of nature's way alive! Whole food energizer. It's a protein dietary supplement.it provides vitamins, minerals, protein, fruits, vegetables, green foods, herbs, enzymes, amino acids, bioflavonoids,efa's, and nucleic acids.it's a really really tasty supplement and I use the vanilla one. I usually get it at wegmans for a very reasonable price.it's like taking a whole food vitamin with the added benefits of non- GMO(genetically modified)soy protein. Either way its damn delicious.

1 banana
1/8 cup enjoy life mini choc chips
Two heaping tablespoons of crunchy almond butter
1-1 1/2 cups of either chocolate or vanilla almond milk
Around a cup of ice

Toss everything in blender and set on smoothie or icy drink setting and blend for about a min or two. It is great for curing the sweet tooth during period time ladies!!! Enjoy

Blueberry pie smoothie

This smoothie is incredible. Packed full of nutrients and tastes like it's not. It's a very simple recipe and is a great morning smoothie.

1 cup vanilla almond milk
1/4 cup rolled oats. (I have the gluten free kind)
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
3-4 ice cubes
1/4 cup of (new)almond milk blueberry yogurt
dash of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

Combine oats and almond milk and let sit in fridge for five minutes in fridge. In the blender combine blueberries, ice, spice, and the yogurt. After five mins add the oats and almond milk. Blend very very well. This smoothie really tastes like pie!! I suppose you could use any berry really. Cherry pie, apple, blackberries, etc. I think the apple one would be amazing. You can also always omit the yogurt. It will still taste really great!

Greens!!!

Greens look tricky and I have never attempted them before. However, I have tried a few now and some of the ones I had are delicious. My task? To make great tasting greens without meat to go alongside meat at dinnertime without the extra calories and fat that meat adds to greens.kale is an excellent greeto start with. They are not bitter and kale is one of the top twenty super foods low fat, no cholesterol and powerful anti-oxidant properties.It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Protein, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Folate, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese. So mumbo jumbo aside it's really great for you to eat no matter how you prepare it. To keep it nutritionally sound without adding a lot of crap this recipe was delicious and is all whole foods and natural spices. Eatng foods like This not only help to maintain weight or lose weight these foods will make your skin look great too.

Sweet and savory kale

1 tbsp wegmans basting oil
1/2 medium onion chopped fine
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp Dijon mustard(all natural)
1/2 tbsp agave syrup, you can use sugar at 1 tbsp
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 lb kale(wegmans sells one lb bags of already chopped kale.lasts a long time in the fridge)
1/3 cup blueberries
Sprinkling of plain slivered or chopped almonds
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil on med high heat. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until onion softens(about five mins) stirring often. Stir in mustard, agave, cider vinegar, and organic vegetable broth. Bring to a boil on high heat. Add kale, cover and cookm for five mins stirring often. Add blueberries and continue cooking on medium high heat, again stirring often. The liquid will reduce by about half and berries will get plump in about ten mins. Remove from heat and sprinkle with almonds.

This was so good and really any berry will do I believe so mix it up and experiment. It was so good I would eat it everyday!! Last nights dinner was these kale greens , side of red quinoa recipe and a small piece of grilled organic chicken. I used a teaspoon of dinosaur barbecues garlic chipotle sauce and surprisingly it went well with the greens and quinoa. It was so tasty I ate seconds and thirds. Dinosaur sauces are all natural, and gluten free. You can eat
a lot of these things as they are low in calories, low fat, and nutrition at it best!!

Natures dinner hour

Okay so last night I got to do something I have never done. I cooked an entire meal using whole foods and natural seasonings. Although it seemed daunting, it was soooooo worth it. It was delicious!!! I recently just started making my dogs homemade food upon discovering how DISGUSTING commercial dog food is. The recipes are quite easy and it helps my one dog who seems to have a food allergy to grains!! Hilarious now neither one of us can have wheat! so as not to start this without LOTS of research, I read a book. It's called pet food nation. I didn't know whether to vomit or cry afterwards. So gross what we were feeding them. It's really all commercial food unless it is holistic and very hard to find. In Syracuse you can get holistic food at dog daze in north Syracuse. Great great products and helpful knowledgeable staff. Anyhow when I started to make their food it was very easy, fun, and very natural.so the reason I bring this up is because it gave me a lot of ideas regarding how veggies go together with one another without needing a lot of spices to taste good.these dogs eat this food like they have never seen food before. Inhaling it literally. So now without fear I will be chopping, pureeing, steaming and grating veggies all day. Last night this was the menu.

Ancient red quinoa

1 tbsp wegmans garlic and thyme basting oil.
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups organic vegetable broth
2 pressed large garlic cloves
Pinch red pepper flakes
Pinch of horseradish root seasoning I picked up at hafners
(dried horseradish root,dried onion,dried chives,dehydrated lem juice)
2tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
Tiny pinch of salt/. (1/8 tsp)
Whole fresh scallion finely chopped
Dash of fresh lemon juice

Start by heating up the tbsp of basting oil and then add the uncooked quinoa and stir constantly over med heat for about five mins to toast the quinoa. Stir in both and cover and simmer on low for about fifteen minutes or until quinoa is tender. No need to drain. Just add cooked quinoa to a bowl with parsley, thyme, garlic, red pepper, horseradish seasoning,salt, and scallions. Toss together and squeeze half a lemon over top and serve.

If you didn't know quinoa pronounced key-noa is a nutritional powerhouse. It is a wheat free grain and contains the most protein of any grain. It is considered an ancient grain and is well tolerated by most everyone. I do use the quinoa (plain) of course in my homemade dog foods well. Since it also contains a good amount of lysine, it is a complete protein. There are a million ways to make quinoa so happy cooking!!