BLACK BETTY SMOOTHIE - DAIRY FREE/VEGAN FRIENDLY

Smoothies are a great way to start of your day full of fiber and nutrition that can otherwise be challenging to get on a daily basis. I called this one Black Betty because of its rock and roll, rise and shine, pedal to the metal abilities to get your day started!!!

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 Cup MANGO (frozen or fresh) - for its fiber, potassium and vitamin A which is great for your hair!
1 Cup Berries* (frozen or fresh) - for their natural antioxidants
1 Cup Coconut Water - for electrolytes that boost the minerals your body needs to function
1 TSP Spirulina (optional) - to expel toxins, is high in protein, vitamin Band other nutrients.
2 Cup Kale - Nutrient dense food (Vitamins A, K, C, B6, Magnesium, Copper, Manganese, Potassium and Calcium)
Half a Cucumber - anti-inflammatory that plays an important role in brain health.
Half a Lemon - for digestion and vitamin C
1/4 Cup Fresh Mint for digestion

DIRECTIONS:

Place everything in a blender and go!
 

* I used blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberry frozen mix

I hope you enjoyed this recipe as much as I do. If you have any comments please leave them below and I'll be happy to answer them as soon as I can! Happy cooking!!!

MY EPIC LASAGNA RECIPE!!!!

I feel like before we get into this recipe I have to give some inspiration credit to my friend John Fazio who told me about his eggplant parmigano -pasta less and gluten free lasagna. On its own his dish sounds pretty epic but I am a big meat and pasta lover so I put my own twist on his dish to create this awesomeness!!! It is a bit of a lengthy process so make sure to start way a head of time or the day before and than once prepared its about an hour to bake and serve! Okay here we go!

So there is five parts to this recipe - 1st make your meat sauce, 2nd Bake your eggplant, 3rd Make your ricotta and spinach layer, 4th assemble lasagna and 5th bake it to its full glory. Lets start with the ingredient breakdown and ideally your shopping list :)

INGREDIENTS - Meat Sauce

2 TBSP - Olive Oil
1 large - Spanish Onion (diced)
2 Cloves - Garlic (finely chopped)
1 Lbs - Ground Beef
150 Grams - Pancetta (diced into squares)
1400 Ml - Strained Tomato Puree
1 TBSP - Basil
1 TBSP - Oregano
1 TSP - Chili Flakes (optial)

INGREDIENTS - Eggplant

3 Eggplants (Wash, cut off both top and bottom and slice into hockey pucks about pinkie finger size widths)
4 TBSP - Salt

INGREDIENTS - Ricotta and Spinach Layer

1 Cup Frozen Spinach (leave out to defrost)
1 Cup Ricotta
Salt and Pepper

INGREDIENTS - Lasagna Assembly

1 Box - Lasagna Pasta (I used no name brand that didn't require pre-cooking)
2 Cups Mozzarella (I used two kinds, one soft one that I grated and added to the parmigano below and one harder one that was already cut in slices)
1 Cup Parmigano (grated)

 

DIRECTIONS - Meat Sauce

Put diced pancetta into deep pot. Bring to medium heat

Cook the pancetta for 5 minutes until golden brown. If you have a lot of bits stuck to the bottom, add a little water to deglaze.

Add diced onion and sweat it for 3 minutes.

Add in the garlic and sweat for 2 more minutes

Add dried oregano, dried basil, and chili flakes (or to your taste)

Stir all ingredients together and cook for 3 minutes

Season ground beef with salt and pepper and cover the bottom of the pan to get a nice sear on the meet. Salt and pepper the other side. Cook for 3 minutes on medium to high heat to get it seared.

Once you have seared the meat, flip to the sear the other sides. At this point you can start to break up the meat. You can break it into larger pieces or smaller pieces depending on your preference. Try to mix and onion mixture and meat while you do this.

Once the meat is browned, but not cooked through, (3-7 more minutes depending on how much ground beef) pour in the bottles of strained tomatoes.

Stir in the strained tomatoes so that the meat is evenly distributed and lower heat to a low-simmer temperature. Leave uncovered or slightly uncovered and simmer for 1-2 hours (or more if you want it very thick), stirring every 15 minutes or so.

*You can start the eggplant now return to the sauce later)

After cooking the sauce down, taste to see if you need more seasoning. There should be enough salt from the pancetta and the seasoned meat, but season to taste.

DIRECTIONS - Eggplant

Toss eggplant pucks in salt and let sit/drain for 30 min (eggplants have a lot of water inside them so the salt will pull it out and help soak it up

* You can start the ricotta and spinach spread at this point while you wait and return to the eggplant

Preheat oven at 375 degrees. Bake Eggplant on parchment paper for 20min or until they start to go golden (dont let them burn)

DIRECTIONS - Ricotta and Spinach

Mix together the defrosted (unfrozen) spinach, ricotta salt and pepper in a bowl.

DIRECTIONS - Assembly

First add in some meat sauce to the bottom of the lasagna dish then add in your uncooked lasagna pasta stripes. They can over lap a little. (the water/juice of the sauce will cook the pasta dont worry)

You can add another layer of sauce followed by a layer of eggplant followed by ricotta and a mix of the grated mozzarella and parmigano mixture. Start you next layer with pasta stripes again. Keep doing this for three layers (or as many as you can) until the dish is full!

On the final layer add more sauce and the pre-sliced mozzarella pack along with more grated parmigano.

Cover and keep in the fridge until you are ready to cook.

When you are ready to cook preheat oven to 375 and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour. You can test to see if the pasta is cooked by slicing in the middle of the dish and seeing if its cooked.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe as much as I do. If you have any comments please leave them below and Ill be happy to answer them as soon as I can! Happy cooking!!!

CURRIED BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP - VEGAN , VEGETARIAN

My boyfriends mom made this soup for me recently and I was instantly in love. It is so flavourful and delicious. I am a big fan of Indian food and curry so if you are too you should try this curried butternut square soup. There is a little bit of apple in it so it tastes a little sweet and is great if you have a kids. Oh, did I also mention its vegan/vegetarian friendly? That's right!!! There is no dairy so its great if you are on a diet and looking for a meal that will warm you up as well as fill you up guilt free.

INGREDIENT

4 TBSP of Butter (or vegan substitute)
1 Large Yellow Onion Chopped finely
5 TSP of Curry Powder
1 Butternut Squash (around 3lbs) peeled, seeded and cubed
2 Apples peeled, seeded and cubed
3 Cups of Chicken Broth
1 Cup of Apple Juice
Sun Flower seeds and Pine nuts (to garnish)

MATERIALS:

Blender of Food Processor

DIRECTIONS:

Melt the butter in a big soup pot. Add in the onions and curry powder mix together all the ingredients and let simmer, lid on, on low heat for about 25min.

Once the onions are soft and translucent add in the butternut squash and apple followed by the chicken broth. Mix the ingredients around and bring to a boil. Once boiling reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook until the butternut squash becomes tender. About 30 minutes

Once the butternut squash is tender transfer in parts to the blender or food processor and blend to puree consistency and transfer back to the pot. (Sometimes draining out the chicken stock before you put it in the food processor can help, however don't forget to add the chicken stock back into the pot afterwards.) 

Add in the apple juice and stir. Salt and Pepper to taste (I think it only needs a bit of pepper)

You can continue to let it simmer with the lid off if you think its to watery and let some of the water evaporate but stir every once and awhile.

You can toast the pine nuts and sunflower seed and add them as garnish before you serve!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! I would love to hear from you and your thoughts on the taste. Please feel free to leave a comment below :)

SOFT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

1½ Cups or 6OZ of Melted Butter
2 Cups and 2 TBSP of All Purpose Flour
½ Cup of Cane Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar Lightly Packed
2 TSP Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
1 TSP Baking Soda
½ TSP of Salt
1½ Cups of Chocolate Chips

DIRECTIONS:

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and mix it with a whisk.

In another bowl mix the sugar and cooled melted butter with a hand mixer till it becomes creamy then add in the eggs and vanilla extract and continue to mix for a minute or until it is just combined. Do not over mix

Slowly add in the previously combined dry ingredients bit by bit about 1 cup at a time until there are no flour lumps left.

Next fold in the chocolate chips.

Refrigerate for 45 min to an hour

Preheat the Oven to 325 degrees

Line a baking tray with parchment paper

Roll 1/4 cup scoops of cookie dough into balls and push them into the parchment paper leaving space for them to spread out.

Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 10-12 minutes, rotating the tray half way though. Every oven is different so I would recommend starting with one or two cookies till you get the time and consistency desired.

Did you enjoy this recipe?? If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comment section below! I would love to hear from you!

BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH PANCETTA & ONIONS - GLUTEN FREE

This is a super easy recipe to whip up. There may be only three ingredients but this dish has so much flavor. Even my friends who don't like Brussels Sprouts enjoy this recipe. I ate this one night as a main but it can easily be a side dish. Also its gluten free and doesn't have any carbs so YAY for that!

INGREDIENTS:

Brussels Sprouts
Pancetta - about 150g cubed
Medium Onion - chopped

DIRECTIONS:

Clean the Brussels Sprouts, cut off the bottom and cut in half.

Steam the brussels sprouts until they turn bright green about 5 minutes.

While you steam the brussels sprouts throw the cubed pancetta and chopped onion into a pan and cook on medium heat. The pancetta will release its own oil which will cook the onion down and caramelize them. Make sure to stir periodically so that they do not burn.

When the brussel sprouts turn bright green add them to the pancetta and onion. I like to move everything over and put the brussel sprouts face down and pile the bacon and onion on top. This will let the brussel sprout get a little crispy from the pancetta oil. Leave it to cook for 2 minutes before stirring. After that let it continue to cook and stir every couple minutes until the onion fully cooks down. Now its ready to eat.

You do not need to add salt because the pancetta is salty.

Easy right!? If you liked this recipe or have any comment please feel free to leave them in the comments section below. I love hearing from you guys and hope you enjoyed this recipe!