Avocado Compound Butter

Avocado CompounAvocados are and always have been my favorite fruit. And while I could eat guacamole forever, my favorite application is actually avocado butter.  It’s a compound butter that makes a fabulous finish for grilled meats, fish and especially corn on the cob. So why not up the flavor and nutrition ante by subbing out some of that cow stuff with avocado?

Choosing avocados: Avocados should be heavy in size, and relatively blemish-free. The level of maturity you seek depends on when you plan to consume them. If you need to keep them for two to three days, buy them as firm as you can. I prefer this scenario because hard fruits are less likely to have suffered bruising.

Avocado Compound Butter

Ingredients

1. 6 ounces ripe avocado meat, about 2 small specimens
2. 1 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
3. 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
4. 1 clove garlic, minced
5. 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
6. 2 teaspoons cumin, freshly toasted and ground
7. Kosher salt to taste
8. Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Peel and pit the avocados. Situate all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and process until well combined.
2. Spoon the mixture onto a sheet of parchment paper and shape into a log.                                                                                      HOME 
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Overnight Oats Prepare this morning meal the night before for a breakfast that's packed with nutrients and flavor!

In this recipe, oats soak overnight so they absorb the milk and yogurt you put them in. The result is a rich and soft breakfast treat that's easy to make and has no cooking time! This recipe is brought to you by the experts at Canyon Ranch. Ingredients

• 1/3 cup rolled oats

• 1/2 cup milk

• 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt

• 1 tsp chia seeds 

DirectionsMix ingredients together in a small mason jar or lidded glass bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, mix well and add optional toppings: fresh or dried fruit, flaked unsweetened coconut, nuts, or a drizzle of maple syrup.

NEW RECIPES

Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower

 Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower Recipe

Serves 2 | Prep Time: 10 Minutes | Cook Time: 45 Minutes
Adapted from: Bon Appetit

Ingredients:

8 oz cauliflower florets, sliced horizontally
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of salt
3 light dashes of ground black pepper
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon chopped parsley leaves

Method:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Toss the sliced cauliflower with the butter and olive oil. Season with salt and black pepper. Transfer the cauliflower to a baking sheet, in single layer, roast until almost tender about 20-30 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the grated Parmesan and chopped parsley leaves on top of the cauliflower, roast again until the cheese melts and slightly crusty, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately

Recipe: Fried Plantains In Coconut Oil

Plantains are one of those exotic foods that I recently began incorporating more into my diet – at breakfast. I love to quickly fry them in coconut oil for a healthy Paleo starchy carb!These delicious salty treats became my new favorite snack! Then one day, my friend who grew up in Colombia said those three magic words, “they’re better fried.” Yes, please!

Plantains, also known as patacones or tostones, don’t fall into the “sweet” category like their banana cousins. Plantains are starchy, like a potato or a yam, and is always cooked before eaten. But the comparisons don’t stop there!

Plantains have more vitamin C, vitamin A and potassium than bananas, which helps control heart rate and blood pressure. They are also a rich source of B-complex vitamins and contain minerals such as iron, magnesium and phosphorous.

Although delicious without any toppings, I’ve found that plantains are especially tasty when piled high with guacamole, salsa, or shredded meat.

Makes  6 servings | Prep time: 3 min | Cook time: 10 min

Ingredients

4 ripe plantains (yellow with a few black spots, but not green)

4 Tbsp coconut oil

Sea salt

Instructions

Step 1

Heat your coconut oil in a frying pan over medium heat. You’re more than welcome to use any oil you prefer, but that coconut oil just meshes beautifully with this tropical treat.

Step 2

Peel your plantain carefully. I typically take a small knife and slice from one end to the other, not letting the knife’s tip dip past the skin and pierce the plantain. After that first cut from end to end, carefully peel off the skin. Slice the plantain into 1/4 inch thick coins, at an angle.

Step 3

The oil should sizzle when the plantain hits it. Place about half of the coins (half of 1 plantain) into the pan and cook them 3-4 minutes per side, flipping with a fork.

Step 4

Remove the plantains from the pan once they’re cooked to your desired color. Some prefer a lighter touch, where the color remains vibrant and yellow. Some like to bring on a lot of dark color, because that dark color forms a nice crispy texture around the edges. Place cooked plantain coins onto a plate covered with paper towels.

Step 5

Transfer the fried plantains to a plate. Sprinkle coarse salt on top, and serve immediately. Have them for brekkie.

 by  Wendy Myers

Healthy Recipies

1. Stop Eating Soup from a Can

Canned soup gets a bad rap for being high in sodium. But few people know that the high temperatures and pressures required during processing the soup basically renders the final product nutritionless. The lengthy cooking and packaging process has does so much denaturing of the vegetables--there’s barely anything left to digest!

Try this instead: Make soup with raw organic vegtables in the blender, instead. The blades of a blender (especially a Vitamix) move so quickly they heat the soup. You can have a piping hot, one-dish meal ready in less time than it takes to find the can opener! Here’s one of my favorites:

Fire Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Serves 2

• 2 large organic tomatoes, halved
• 4 fire-roasted red peppers
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 4 leaves fresh basil
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds

Blend tomatoes, red peppers, coconut milk, fresh basil and garlic powder in a hi-speed blender. If using a Vitamix, blend until hot (about 5-6 minutes). Top with pepitas, fresh basil, and a splash of coconut cream, if desired.

2. Stop Wrapping Your Tacos in GMOs

Those corn shell tortillas you’ve been wrapped around your tacos aren’t just fried and high in rancid vegetable fats, they’re also made with genetically modified corn. Today, corn crops are sprayed with more pesticide than ever before. These monstrously toxic chemicals don’t just kill weeds around the crop—they actually kill the nutritional density of the soil as well, zapping the nutrition from the corn used in most processed products.

Try this instead: Swapping in organic lettuce for taco shells is a great way to boost your leafy green intake. They’re even easier to prepare than taco shells—simply wash and top with your favorite fillings like sweet potatoes, black beans, and avocados in this 100% vegan dish. Give this a shot…

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Lettuce Wraps

• 1 sweet potato
• 1/3 cup coconut cream
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon liquid coconut oil
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans
• 1/4 cup purple onions, finely chopped
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 12 romaine lettuce leaves
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pierce the sweet potato and place it in the oven, baking for 25-30 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Remove, cool, peel, and dice.

Prepare the chili cream sauce by stirring together coconut cream, lime juice, chili powder, and a pinch of salt. Mix together. Set aside.

In a bowl, mix together diced sweet potatoes, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, black beans, onions, avocado, tomato, and cilantro. Salt and pepper lightly.

Spread coconut cream on romaine leaves. Top with sweet potato and black bean mixture. Enjoy taco-style!

3. Avoid Cardboard Pizza Like the Plague

Consider a box of frozen pizza, emblazoned with bright red words “Ready in Less Than 15 Minutes!” The truth is, once you buy it and bring it home, you still have to preheat the oven for 10 minutes. You have to hunt down a pair of scissors. You have to peel a shrinkwrapped mummy bag from the top of the pizza, spilling cheese shreds all over the countertop and onto the floor.

The whole prep process takes at least 15 minutes--and you haven’t even gotten to the part where you cook the pizza yet!! Once you do cook it, you get a tasteless hunk of crust topped with a thin, soggy sauce and “cheese like” shreds.

Let’s be honest. It’s not amazing. Worse yet, premade pizza crust too often tastes like the box is came in. High in inflammatory vegetable oil and chemically induced ingredients, these pizzas have no business in your body.

Even the “veggie” versions of frozen pizza are have such miniscule toppings, you’d be hard-pressed to get a single serving in for a whole pizza (which would cost you a whole day’s worth of calories!) Not worth it.

Try this instead: Swap out that cardboard crust for a plant-based crust, and suddenly the nutritional factor skyrockets--so does the flavor! It’s easy to make pizza crusts from cauliflower or sweet potatoes, but this simple plantain crust may be the best pizza you’ve ever eaten.

Plantain Pizza

Serves 2

• 1 green plantain
• ¼ cup almond flour
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups baby tomatoes, halved
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup fresh basil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a hi-speed blender, puree plantain, almond flour, egg, baking powder, sea salt, and 1 tablespoon of vinegar together until smooth and creamy. Pour this mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Spread out with a spatula until the mixture is an even ½” thick.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or just until the crust turns a light golden brown. Remove and cool slightly.

In a large bowl, toss together the remaining olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, apple cider vinegar, and basil. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve tomato mixture on top of warm pizza slices. Enjoy!

4. Bring Back Your Passion for Pasta

High in carbs and generally full of gluten, pasta has gotten a bad rap for its low nutritional content. Made with refined white flour, pasta seems filling when you first eat it, but can actually kick off uncontrollable cravings, which contribute to increased appetite and weight gain.

Even the gluten-free pastas aren’t as healthy as they seem. Gluten-free products are typically more adulterated and significantly higher in modified vegetable fats that their “normal” equivalents. To make up for the lack of gluten in the original recipes, manufacturers add extra sugar, heart-clogging oils, and potentially irritating additives like hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose or GMO-originated cornstarch. None of these ingredients are known to offer any added health benefit, and in fact, many are linked to detrimental health concerns.

Try This Instead: Spiralizers make it easy to turn vegetables into raw, whole food pasta noodles. Zucchini is commonly used to make ‘zoodles’, but dozens of vegetables make delicious options for no-pasta noodles! Apples, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, beets, cucumbers, cabbages, even kohlrabi make delicious veggie ‘pasta’ for all your favorite sauces.

Sweet Curry Noodles

Serves 2

• 1 large zucchini
• 1/2 small navel orange, peeled
• 1 cup of orange cherry tomatoes
• 2-3 tablespoons tahini
• 6 leaves fresh basil
• 1/4 tablespoons turmeric
• 1/2 tablespoon curry powder
• Pinch of cumin
• Fresh sea salt to taste
• 1 avocado, peeled and diced
• 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts (or sliced almonds)

Directions: 
Cut zucchini into noodles with a spiralizer. Place orange, cherry tomatoes, tahini, 3 leaves fresh basil, turmeric, curry powder, and cumin in a hi-speed blender. Blend until pureed. Pour over noodles. Salt to taste. Top with avocado and peanuts, if desired. Enjoy!

5. Think Outside the Bun

Take a look at the ingredient list for “fresh” bread once served at Subway and you’d discover the chemical azodicarbonamide—a controversial chemical used in the manufacturing of yoga mats and shoe soles. The food chain has since removed azodicarbonamide from their bread recipe, but this sort of concern is all too common.

At the end of the day, food companies have the bottom line in mind—not your health. Their products aren’t just high in carbs and gut-irritating gluten, they’re also made with unnecessary chemicals and potentially dangerous additives.

Try this instead: Cut the carbs (and chemicals) completely and swap in a delicious bun made by mother nature, instead! Tender slices of organic sweet potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and eggplant make a perfect swap for slider buns. Portobello mushrooms are the perfect size for patties. Or go bunless and serve your favorite burgers on beds of marinated kale salad or crispy romaine. You’ll boost both the flavor and health benefits at the same time!

Sweet Potato Burgers

Serves 2

• 1 large sweet potato
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 pound grassfed ground beef or bison
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh-ground pepper
• 4 tablespoons coconut cream
• 1/2 teaspoon Braggs aminos
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 2 cups arugula

Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slice your sweet potato into eight 1/2 inch slices (don't worry about peeling it first). Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tablespoons coconut oil. Salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes, or just until the sweet potato slices can be easily pierced with a fork. Remove and cool. In a large bowl, mix together ground beef, salt, and pepper. Form into 2 1/2-3" sliders. Fry in a bit of coconut oil or grill until desired doneness is achieved.

In a small bowl, whisk together coconut cream and Braggs. To assemble burgers, spoon the coconut cream sauce on top of a sweet potato slice. Top with tomato, arugula, and a cooked burger. Finish it all off with a second sweet potato slice. Serve and enjoy!

Source:    fatburningmealclub.com

Chocolate Souffle

Ingredients:

3 tbs butter

2 tbs  Cocoa Powder

160 grams bitter sweet chocolate

1/2 tsp of Vanilla Powder

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites

4 tbsps sugar

Pinch salt

Pinch cream of tartar

 Instructions:

 Heat the oven to 177oC (350 ËšF)

• Grease one large or two small ramekins with butter.

• Coat the ramekins with Cocoa Powder, tap to remove the excess.

•  In a large bowl, simmer water; melt the chocolate and the remaining of the butter.

• Stir occasionally to gain a smooth texture. Set aside and add Vanilla Powder.

•   Add the yolks and mix until smooth In a bowl, whisk egg whites, sugar, salt and 
•  cream of tartar until firm, but not  dry .
• 
  
•    Gently fold the egg white mixture into the chocolate
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•  Add into the ramekins with a spoon . Bake until the soufflé are puffed .
• 
  
•  Baking Time for large soufflé is 45 minutes for, and 20 minutes for two small soufflés
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•  Serve immediately with custard sauce .

Cheese Garlic Toast

Brown toast:   slices of bread 8-10Garlic: 20 tsp fine chopped garlic Cheddar cheese: 120 gmCelery: Peppercorns: as per tasteMozzarella cheese: required

1. A loaf of brown bread sliced.   2. Mix the garlic and celery with the butter and stir briskly till the butter becomes fluffy and light.   3. Spread the garlic butter on the bread slices.   4. Top with grated cheese.   5.Place the bread on a cookie sheet or wired rack and keep in the pre heated oven at 180 degrees C/356 degrees F.   6. Bake for 6 to 7 mins till the cheese melts and the sides of the bread turn light golden.   7. Remove  toasts. Serve cheese garlic toast topped with some black pepper ,oregano along with a cheesy dip or tomato ketchup .