Smoothies

I love smoothies. I am not a huge breakfast smoothie person, because I generally like bigger breakfasts whenever possible, but smoothies for dinner and post-workouts are great. In the summer, when it is too hot to eat but I'm hungry, a smoothie always satisfies. I used to be an avid runner. I really don't run as much as I should, but I still get out there whenever possible. I recently joined the YMCA a few blocks away, and whenever I work out, I crave smoothies.



Smoothies are really easy to make, so you may be thinking, what is the point of this post? How hard can it be to make a smoothie? R told me that posting a smoothie recipe would be dumb. I disagree. There are many variations, and some tricks. My sister went through a smoothie kick one summer, and swore the key ingredient in smoothies is yogurt. Yogurt makes the smoothie creamier and healthier (all those live cultures) than just using ice cubes and milk. I don't usually use yogurt in mine, only because I seldom have soy yogurt around, but I would if I could.



For a basic berry smoothie, it is obviously best to use fresh, in-season berries that you picked with your own little hands at a farm, but that is not always what happens. In the winter, we buy bags of mixed organic frozen berries (eek!). I never use ice cubes in smoothies. The key for me is to allow the frozen fruit to act as the ice cube so that it is not watery and gross. I throw in about a 1/2 cup of berries (not too many, I hate when seeds get stuck in my teeth), about a cup or more of soy milk, frozen peaches, or other fruit, if you have it, a frozen banana, if you have it, a pinch of cinnamon, a sweetener (agave) if you must. Sometimes I add some liquid vitamins, like immune boost or something, which generally tastes gross plain. Blend together, serve.



My FAVORITE smoothie is a protein smoothie. My trick, which is pretty obvious, is to freeze a bunch of bananas. I peel them, break them in half, stick them in a baggie and freeze them. Seriously, it is like ice cream when you mix this all together, I am not kidding.



I add half or a whole frozen banana, a tablespoon plus a little more of organic peanut butter, about a cup of soy milk. Mix it together until it is creamy. You can add more soy milk if you prefer a smoother smoothie, but sometimes I like mine thick because it really does taste like ice cream. mmm. divinity.

--J

Pancakes! Pancakes!

I love breakfast, la la love it. I have been surveying the food blogosphere recently and I came across a few blogs that were very inspiring. I stumbled upon Simply Breakfast last week and have been enamored ever since. Also, these bad mamajamas stole my heart with one glance at 101 cookbooks
In my opinion, breakfast is a two way street. You can have have a savory breakfast or a sweet breakfast dish, or you can find your culinary soulmate who just happens to like sweet dishes over savory and you favor savory so satisfying that voice that chimes in after 5 bites of a salty fritatta is easy breezy. "Honey, can I have a bite of your pancakes?" Sure thing. One bite turns into 3 or 4 and then you're stuffed! I always have been a savory person myself favoring eggs florentine, and quiche over french toast or pancakes. Sometimes I get stuck though. Take the bourbon french toast at Tiny Cup in Bed Stuy, it is delicious BUT... they have a smoked salmon and bagel platter fully equipped with capers and onions. So here I stand at the crossroads of breakfast. Ill start my stream of breakfast food posts with pancakes. PANCAKES! PANCAKES!



Here over at O.M.G FOOD, J is a vegan baby and I am just your run of the mill herbivore who eats fish, which makes me a pesca-vegetarian? Anyway, this pancake recipe is one that evokes feelings of sunny skies and warm days that kiss your cheeks. The weather outside right now is anything but that. We are stuck in NYC Blizorama 2010. There is about 6 inches on the ground already and this is just the beginning. These pancakes have orange zest in them which brightens things up. This is a vegan pancake recipe but if you wish to use eggs you can use them where it calls for egg replacer. If you do happen to use eggs, please get them from a reputable source like Flying Pigs Farm from Shushan, NY.



Let's get cookin, literally. This is a recipe for vegan orange blueberry pancakes. Bon Appetit!

Orange Blueberry Pancakes

Dry Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached flour
1/4 brown rice flour
Egg replacer (for 1 egg)
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon

Wet Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of soy milk
1 tbs of maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 navel orange for 1/4 of juice and about 1 tbs of zest
1/2 cup thawed organic wild maine blueberries (we get them at Trader Joes)


Methodology

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Sifting the flours is an ideal step but I don't have a sifter so I always omit this step. It just sounds fancy to say "sift". Ha. Next, zest your navel orange with a microplane (yes, I own one of those) and set aside the zest. Squeeze the orange in a citrus press to obtain around 1/2 cup of juice and set aside. Make sure the coconut oil has reached room temperature and is in it's liquid state. Mix all your wet ingredients together with the omission of the orange juice, zest, and blueberries. SLOWLY add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir. I say add slowly because you don't want lumps in your batter and we over at O.M.G have found this method to tickle our fancy. Once you have achieved a nice, even and non-lumpy batter add the zest, juice and the blueberries. Heat up a skillet (preferably a cast iron pan) with fat of choice; butter, light olive oil, or coconut oil works well. Coat the pan with the oil and heat the pan on a med-high heat. Let the batter sit while your pan heats up. Next, spoon in 1/2 cup of batter into the pan. You can usually get away with making 3 pancakes at a time or if you have small mouths to feed, make silver dollar size pancakes. Keep an eye on these fiesty little cakes with their seams bursting with berries, once they start to form bubbles, FLIP them. The pancakes should be a light brown color, not burnt and not undercooked. Nobody likes raw batter in the middle. Once all your batter has been transformed into magic breakfast delights, sit down and enjoy with some maple syrup to accompany them (the real stuff, please give Mrs. Butterworth a swift kick in the ass). Come to think of it, if you are reading this blog you have never owned Mrs. Butterworth, or here's to high hopes.

Granola bars

I've made both chewy and crunchy granola before, and love having it for breakfast. I wanted to make transportable bars rather than regular granola so that I can take them to work. I found this recipe at The Cutting Edge of Ordinary, but changed the recipe slightly.

Ingredients:

2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1 cup sliced almonds
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup honey
1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup chopped, dried ginger
1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins 
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Process:

--Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9x13 pan. Toss nuts, seeds and oatmeal together and bake on pan for 10 mins, stirring often, until brown.

--Transfer mixture to large bowl

--In a saucepan, add butter, honey,brown sugar, vanilla and salt and bring to a boil for 1 min. The mixture will bubble up. Mix often and remove from heat.

--Add liquid mixture to large bowl.

--Add dried fruit and mix well, combing everything.

--Transfer to greased pan and push it down so that everything sticks together. Let cook for an hour and press down again, otherwise the granola will fall apart.

--Let cool completely, then cut into bars, wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap, and enjoy!

A variation is to bake the granola for 20-30 min in a 300 degree oven. I skipped this step, fearing I would over-cook it, and the bars were great.

--J