Tag: organic recipe

  • A New View of Healthy Eating: 4 Steps to Bake an Organic Apple Crisp with Freshly Ground Spices

    By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    After teaching a cooking class yesterday at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market, today I decided to give myself some self care time in the kitchen. I always love enjoying the aromatherapy of fresh herbs and spices, the mindfulness of chopping, and the natural aroma of desserts in my oven.  I decided to cook, for the first time since the launch of my new book, A New View of Healthy Eating, one of my very favorite desserts.

    Enjoy today’s step-by-step photos creating the Organic Apple Crisp. For your reference, the complete recipe from the book is here for you, as well.

    • Start with hand-ground spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom. The incredible mindfulness of grinding the spices, along with the distinct aromatherapy of each brings back memories of baking with my Mom and Grandmother when I was a kid.
    • Slice organic apples, like these fresh apples which grew in Wilcox, Arizona. If you live in an area where you can “pick-your-own” apples, have fun picking and then come home and enjoy preparing this apple crisp.
    • Practice your mise en place: Get all of your ingredients together for the apple crisp filling and topping, for mindful cooking.

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    • Place filling ingredients into a sauce pan and cook for about 20 minutes. Apples, spices, sweetener (local Arizona honey today), grapeseed oil, lemon and orange zest and juice. Near the end of cooking, I added a few organic raspberries to the crisp.
    • Mix the ingredients for the topping: oats, chopped nuts (walnuts today), sweetener (Arizona honey today), grapeseed oil, and the ground spices.
    • Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes.
    • Enjoy!

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    EXCERPT from A New View of Healthy Eating: Aromatic Apple Crisp with Freshly Ground Spices

    This apple crisp is one of my all-time favorites. From cooking with local organic apples to mindfully hand-grinding and enjoying the aromatherapy of freshly ground warming spices, from the aromatherapy of the apples sautéing in the spices to memories of eating pies when I was a child, this dessert (or breakfast) is outstanding. Enjoy the process of setting up your mise en place, cooking, and enjoying this dish with your family and friends.

    SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

    Topping

    • 1 cup rolled oats
    • ½ cup almonds, walnuts, or pecans, sliced
    • ¼ cup maple sugar
    • 1 tsp cinnamon, fresh ground
    • 1 tsp nutmeg, fresh ground
    • 1 tsp cardamom seeds, fresh ground
    • ½ cup grapeseed oil

    Filling

    • 8 apples, sliced
    • 3 tbsp grapeseed oil
    • 4 tbsp maple sugar
    • 1 tsp cinnamon, fresh ground
    • 1 tsp nutmeg, fresh ground
    • 1 tsp cardamom seeds, fresh ground
    • ½ tsp cloves, fresh ground
    • 1 orange, juiced and zested
    • 1 lemon, juiced and zested

    SIMPLE STEPS

    1. Prepare your mise en place.
      • Hand-grind all spices in mortar and pestle.
      • Hand-squeeze and zest the orange and lemon.
    1. Prepare topping.
    • Mix all dry ingredients for topping until well combined.
    • Pour in grapeseed oil and mix.
    1. Cook the apple crisp.
    • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
    • Place sliced apples in a large sauté pan.
    • Turn heat to medium and add remaining filling ingredients.
    • Cook until apples slightly soften; stir occasionally.
    • Pour cooked apples with sauce into 8-inch by 8-inch baking dish.
    • Top with oats topping.
    • Bake on middle oven rack for 20-30 minutes.
    1. Enjoy!

    If you are interested in more healthy dessert recipes, A New View of Healthy Eating is available now. Order today and I’ll ship tomorrow!

    Step 1: Order the Book

    Step 2: Join our e-newsletter and receive the Top 5 Recipes & Culinary Tips.

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  • A New View of Healthy Eating: Avocado Salsa Day!

    by Melanie Albert, Nutrition and food expert, author and speaker, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    Today my 89 year old Dad chose our card from “A New View of Healthy Eating, 55-Card Deck.”

     Avocado Salsa Day

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    Fortunately, we have a few organic avocados, fresh garlic, dehydrated local Arizona tomatoes in our home as a base for our avocado salsa.

    With intuitive cooking, making avocado salsa is so simple:

    Intuitive Recipe Guide

    • Squeeze ripe avocado into bowl.
    • Squeeze ¼ fresh lemon and dash of sea salt on avocado and massage the avocado.
    • Add an herb: chopped cilantro or basil.
    • Add-in your favorite veggies, such as rainbow carrots, cucumbers, green onions.
    • Mix in extras: Olives, sprouted mung beans.

    I’ll being going to the Sunseed Coop in Cape Canaveral, FL, to see what extras are available and will make my batch of avocado salsa this evening.

    Look forward to seeing photos of your creative avocado salsas on Facebook.

    Available Now: “A New View of Healthy Eating, 55-Card Deck.”

  • 9 Ways 90 Days Recipe: Raw Veggie Pasta with Cashew Basil Pesto

    By Melanie Albert, Nutrition & Food Expert, Author and Speaker, Certified Health Coach

    WOW! If you’ve been afraid of the “raw way of eating”, try this simple, beautiful, colorful, fun-to-prepare side dish. Enjoy fresh, local organic veggies with a creamy nutty pesto.

    9 Ways 90 Days Veggie Pasta with Cashew Basil Pesto

    Ingredients: Veggies
    • 2-3 golden beets
    • 2-3 carrots
    • 2-3 zucchini
    • 1 sweet potato

    Ingredients: Cashew Basil Pesto
    • ½ cup fresh basil leaves
    • 4 oz raw cashews, soaked
    • 1/8 cup fresh lemon juice
    • 1 tbsp garlic, minced
    • 1/4 tsp sea salt
    • ½ cup organic extra virgin olive oil

    Simple Steps
    • Cut the veggies with a spiral slicer or mandolin.
    • Place all ingredients for the cashew basil pesto, except olive oil in the food processor.
    • Puree.
    • Add the olive oil until smooth.
    • Toss the veggies with about ½ cup of the pesto and serve.
    • Enjoy the taste, the textures and the colors!

    SHARE
    Come on over to our Facebook page, and post your raw veggie pasta creations: www.facebook.com/9Ways90Days

  • 9 Ways 90 Days Recipe: Organic Collard Greens with Reed Avocados & Lemon Cucumbers

    By Melanie Albert, Nutrition & Food Expert, Author and Speaker, Certified Health Coach

    Kale is the rage with raw salads, kale chips and smoothies. But, what about collard greens? I’m taking a Professional Plant-based Culinary Certification Course with Rouxbe, where we experimented with different ways to prepare kale. As an option, I decided to use some of the same techniques with collard greens.

    On top of that, Reed avocados were available at Whole Foods Market this week, so I decided to try one. About 90% of the avocados are grown in California and about 90% of those are Hass avocados. The Reed avocado variety generally grows later in the season, are larger and rounder than Hass avocados, have a thick skin, and contain more monounsaturated fat and thus are creamier than Hass avocados.

    Scroll down for the 9 Ways 90 Days Recipe: Organic Collard Greens with Reed Avocados & Lemon Cucumbers

    9 Ways 90 Days Recipe: Organic Collard Greens, Reed Avocados & Lemon Cucumbers
    9 Ways 90 Days Recipe: Organic Collard Greens, Reed Avocados & Lemon Cucumbers

    Organic Collard Greens with Reed Avocados & Lemon Cucumbers Recipe
    This recipe was inspired by the lemon cucumbers from this week’s farmers market in Ahwatukee Arizona, the Reed avocado and collard greens.

    Ingredients
    • 3-4 large collard greens leaves, chopped
    • 1 Reed avocado
    • 1 lemon cucumber
    • 4 small heirloom tomatoes
    • ½ red pepper
    • 3-4 green onions
    • 1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
    • 1 garlic clove, finely minced
    • Fresh lemon basil, to taste
    • Fresh lemon thyme, to taste
    • Sea salt

    Simple Steps
    • Chop all the vegetables
    • Squeeze the avocado into a bowl
    • Add collard greens, lemon juice and sea salt to the avocado
    • Massage the collard greens for about 3 minutes
    • Add the fresh garlic, lemon cucumber, red pepper, green onions and gently toss
    • Add the fresh lemon basil and lemon thyme and gently toss
    • Enjoy this delicious & refreshing salad

    Come on over to our Facebook page, and post your avocado & collard greens creations: www.facebook.com/9Ways90Days

  • 9 Ways 90 Days Recipe: Organic Lentil Soup with Greens

    by Melanie Albert, Nutrition Expert & Author, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition

    Excerpt from book, “Enjoy Food & Life. 9 Ways 90 Days Step-by-step action plan for healthy eating and living”

    This process of cooking soup gives us the foundation for making any type of bean soup. To make quick, delicious soups you will use a mix-and-match of beans, veggies and greens.

           Beans: protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals

           Any roots: Carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnip, and/or turnips

           Whole grains: Brown rice, Quinoa

           Greens: Kale, collards

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    Ingredients

    • 1 cup lentils
    • 3-4 carrots and/or sweet potatoes
    • 2-3 cloves garlic
    • 1 onion or 5-6 green onions
    • 3-4 celery stalks
    • 2 TBS organic extra virgin olive oil
    • 5” strip of kombu seaweed (Seaweed is high in minerals and improves digestibility of beans)
    • 1 cup brown rice
    • 4-5 cups water
    • 1/2 tsp cumin
    • 1 tsp black pepper
    • 1/2 bunch kale

     Simple Steps

    • Saute carrots, garlic, onions and celery with extra virgin olive oil
    • Add about 6 cups water to pot
    • Wash lentils and add to pot
    • Add brown rice
    • Add kombu to pot (to tenderize the beans)
    • Add cumin and black pepper
    • Bring to a boil
    • Skim off foam
    • Cook at moderate-low heat for about 30 minutes
    • Sprinkle chopped kale to top of soup and cook 5 more minutes

     Your Action

    Cook and enjoy a basic home-made lentil soup. Visit us on Facebook and share a photo and what you used in your soup:

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    Roots__________________

    Whole grains_____________

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